The evidence points to the fact that the former commander-in-chief is likely a criminal who committed a ‘crime against democracy’
Whodunnit? He did it.
Donald Trump – businessman, celebrity president, golfer and digital trading card star – is also a likely criminal, the congressional panel investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol concluded on Monday.
Continue reading...Lamor Miller-Whitehead, the ‘bling-bling bishop’ with hip-hop connections, is accused of swindling his own parishioners
The Brooklyn pastor who made headlines when he was robbed of an estimated $1m in jewelry during a church service being broadcast online in July was arrested on federal fraud charges on Monday after he allegedly swindled parishioners.
US prosecutors in Manhattan charged that Lamor Miller-Whitehead, 44, solicited money from victims – including $90,000 from a retired parishioner – using threats or false promises of enriching them, but then pocketed the money for himself and sometimes spent it on luxury goods.
Continue reading...The incoming congressman’s biography is now being re-examined as opponent claims Santos was ‘running a scam against the voters’
A news report on Monday questioned whether the career résumé of the incoming Republican congressman George Santos – who was elected last month to serve a typically Democrat suburban district north-east of New York City – may be largely fictional.
According to an analysis by the New York Times, the biographical sketch offered by the 34-year-old, first-generation Brazilian-American, who ran as a member of a “new generation of Republican leadership” as the “full embodiment of the American dream”, may not have worked at Citigroup or Goldman Sachs, graduated from a New York college, or run a pet rescue charity, as he has claimed.
Continue reading...Elon Musk says he will honour the results of a Twitter poll asking whether the should resign as head of the social media platform
Telsa investors seem to pleased with the way that Musk’s Twitter poll is leaning towards his potential resignation, with shares up 4% in pre-market trading:
Economic data interlude:
Continue reading...Arctic airmass heading south, reaching Texas and even Florida, with some areas facing temperatures of up to 45 degrees below normal
While the UK is getting less cold this week in the run-up to Christmas, temperatures in the lower 48 states of the US will be taking a plunge. Over the course of the weekend, an Arctic airmass that was sitting over northern Canada, characterised by extremely low temperatures and strong high pressure, slid to the south across Alberta and Saskatchewan into eastern states of the Pacific north-west. Temperatures across these regions averaged about -23C at around midday on Sunday.
Through the week, this airmass will slowly spread southward across central states, with temperatures ranging from 10-30 degrees below average. Later in the week, the airmass will extend to the south, reaching Texas and even Florida, with some areas possibly reaching up to 45 degrees below normal. This cold airmass is likely to interact with an area of low pressure across the eastern half of the country towards the end of the week, threatening significant snowfall in states such as Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois.
Continue reading...Agency said it anticipates preventing a total of 6,600 from entering secure area of airports by end of year, a nearly 10% jump from 2021
The Transportation Security Administration has intercepted a record number of guns at airport safety checkpoints this year, and an overwhelming majority of them were loaded.
In a statement released late last week, TSA revealed that as of 16 December, its officers had intercepted 6,301 firearms. Out of those, 88% were loaded. The number marks an increase of more than 300 from the 5,972 firearms that were detected in 2021. About 86% of the firearms confiscated last year were loaded.
Continue reading...One passenger lost consciousness while others suffered cuts, bumps and bruises after severe turbulence on flight from Arizona to Hawaii
Eleven people were seriously injured when a flight to Hawaii was rocked by severe turbulence about 30 minutes outside Honolulu, emergency services have said.
Nine others were transported in a stable condition, the Honolulu Emergency Medical Services said in a statement.
Continue reading...Documents reveal that pathogenic agents, zoonotic bacteria and viruses, including one deemed bioterrorism risk, entered US but ‘no indication CDC has been transparent’
Animal activists are calling for the US government to stop the importation of non-human primates for laboratory use after documents from the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveal that deadly pathogenic agents, zoonotic bacteria and viruses – including one deemed to be a bioterrorism risk – entered the country with monkeys imported from Asia between 2018 and 2021.
Documents obtained by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) and seen exclusively by the Guardian, along with a case report by the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science, reveal that there have been six cases of Burkholderia pseudomallei identified in primates imported from Cambodia to the US.
Continue reading...Pavone had been investigated for placing an aborted foetus on an altar and posting a video of it online
The Vatican has defrocked the anti-abortion US priest Frank Pavone for what it said were “blasphemous communications on social media” as well as “persistent disobedience” of his bishop.
A letter to US bishops from the Vatican ambassador to the US, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, said the decision against Pavone, who heads the anti-abortion group Priests for Life, had been taken and that there was no chance for an appeal.
Continue reading...Remarks comes after fellow centrist Kyrsten Sinema announced she was leaving party and becoming an independent
The centrist Democratic senator Joe Manchin does not intend to change his party affiliation – at least for now, he said Sunday.
Manchin’s remarks on CBS’s Face the Nation came after fellow centrist senator Kyrsten Sinema sent shock waves through Congress by announcing that she was leaving the Democratic party and listing herself as an independent.
Continue reading...Dramatic statement comes one day before January 6 panel set to release outline of its investigative report on US Capitol attack
California congressman Adam Schiff said Sunday that he believes there is “sufficient evidence” to criminally charge Donald Trump in relation to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Schiff’s dramatic statement on CNN’s State of the Union came one day before the House January 6 select committee to which he belongs is poised to release an outline of its extensive investigative report on the US Capitol attack, which has been linked to nine deaths, including the suicides of traumatized law enforcement officers.
Continue reading...Heavy snow, powerful winds, and bitterly cold temperatures will potentially snarl holiday travel
A major winter storm system is expected to strike much of the US days before Christmas, potentially snarling holiday travel as motorists and air travelers contend with heavy snow, powerful winds, and bitterly cold temperatures across several regions.
This sprawling storm system coincides with the arrival of an Arctic air mass that will consume much of the country “this upcoming week”, according to the National Weather Service. Between Tuesday and Saturday, temperature highs are expected to average from 10 to 35F below normal from the north-west to the eastern two-thirds of the US.
Continue reading...Lawmakers expected to outline findings and vote to issue criminal and civil referrals on Monday
The House January 6 select committee plans at its final meeting on Monday to refer Donald Trump and top advisers to the justice department for criminal conduct connected to the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and release the executive summary of its final report.
The panel is expected to take several conclusive steps at the meeting, announced for 1pm, including outlining its investigative findings and legislative recommendations, voting to formally adopt the report, and then voting to issue criminal and civil referrals.
Continue reading...Experts and officials mourn cougar who became ‘an iconic ambassador for wildlife’ in the city
The reign of Los Angeles’s most famous mountain lion – hailed as an “ambassador for wildlife” in the city – has come to an end, after health and behavioral concerns led to P-22’s euthanization.
The cougar, who became another LA celebrity after making his home in the city a decade ago, “went to sleep” on Saturday morning, according to state wildlife officials.
Continue reading...Pair allegedly had list of 37 law enforcement agents they planned to assassinate
In the latest in an ever-growing list of criminal charges brought against January 6 rioters, a Tennessee man was arrested on Friday for allegedly plotting to kill the FBI agents who were investigating him.
With the House of Representatives committee on the insurrection preparing to deliver its final recommendations on Monday, 34-year old Edward Kelley of Maryville was charged with conspiracy, retaliating against a federal official and solicitation to commit a crime of violence, reported CNN.
Continue reading...Beverly Roberts and Mary Alston sought to trap the cats so they could be neutered
Two Alabama women were given suspended jail sentences last week after feeding stray cats and trapping them so they could be neutered, a common public health intervention to reduce stray numbers.
Beverly Roberts, 85, and Mary Alston, 61, of Wetumpka, Alabama, were sentenced to two years of unsupervised parole and a $100 fine each on Tuesday, reported the Montgomery Advertiser. The women were also given suspended 10-day jail sentences.
Continue reading...Biden administration says 1954 decision that ended atomic bomb scientist’s career was part of ‘flawed process’
The Biden administration has overturned a 1954 decision that revoked the security clearance of J Robert Oppenheimer, the scientist credited as a key architect of the atomic bomb who was caught up in the Red Scare over communism in US politics.
The US energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, wrote in a statement published on Friday that the original decision by the Atomic Energy Commission on Oppenheimer’s security clearance had been part of a “flawed process that violated the Commission’s own regulations”.
Continue reading...One video shows dozens of migrants wrapped in thin blankets as they slept on El Paso streets amid surge of arrivals in city
Images of migrants wrapped in blankets and sleeping on the streets of El Paso in freezing temperatures have raised welfare concerns as they circulated online this week amid a surge of people arriving in the west Texan city.
Over the last few days, thousands of migrants, including many hailing from Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela, huddled along the waters of the Rio Grande, while others waded across the river from El Paso’s sister city on the Mexican side of the border, Ciudad Juarez, to cross into the US.
Continue reading...October fire blackened with soot monolithic human figures, of which there are more than 900, carved centuries ago
The hillside of Rano Raraku volcano on Rapa Nui feels like a place that froze in time.
Embedded in grass and volcanic rock, almost 400 moai – the monolithic human figures carved centuries ago by this remote Pacific island’s Rapanui people – remained untouched until recently. Some are buried from the neck down, the heads seemingly observing their surroundings from the underground.
Continue reading...NFTs were priced at $99 each and depict the former US president in guises including superhero, astronaut and race car driver
Despite being widely mocked online, former US president Donald Trump’s collection of digital trading cards have sold out in less than a day, netting US$4.5m in sales.
On Wednesday, Trump alerted fans to a “major announcement” on his Truth social media platform. A day later, the 45th president of the United States revealed he was offering “limited edition cards featur[ing] amazing ART of my Life & Career”, which he promised would prove “very much like a baseball card but hopefully much more exciting”.
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