‘Fat Leonard’, fugitive contractor in US navy’s worst corruption scandal, arrested in Venezuela

Malaysian defence contractor fled before sentencing in US over bribery scheme that lasted more than a decade and involved dozens of US navy officers

A Malaysian defence contractor nicknamed “Fat Leonard” who orchestrated one of the largest bribery scandals in US military history has been arrested in Venezuela after fleeing before his sentencing, authorities say.

The international manhunt for Leonard Glenn Francis ended with his arrest by Venezuelan authorities on Tuesday morning at the Caracas airport as he was about to board an airplane for another country, the US Marshals Service said on Wednesday.

Continue reading...

Senator Joe Manchin unveils bill that would speed fossil fuel projects

The centrist Democrat believes he has votes to pass the measure, which would also power transmission for renewable energy

The US senator Joe Manchin released an energy permitting bill on Wednesday to speed fossil fuel projects and power transmission for renewable energy.

The bill is expected to be attached to a measure to temporarily fund the government that Congress must pass before 1 October. Manchin’s staff told reporters the senator believed he had the 60 votes needed to pass it.

Continue reading...

New York attorney general lawsuit accuses Trump of ‘staggering’ fraud

Letitia James’s civil suit accuses ex-president of inflating his net worth by billions in order to ‘enrich himself and cheat the system’

The attorney general of New York state has filed a civil fraud lawsuit against Donald Trump and three of his children involved in the family real-estate business, for falsely inflating his net worth by billions in order to enrich himself and secure favorable loans.

Announcing the suit in New York on Wednesday, Letitia James also said referrals had been made to federal prosecutors and the Internal Revenue Service – a move sure to anger the former US president and increase consternation among his inner circle about the depth of his legal predicament.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

Continue reading...

New York attorney general says ‘no one is above’ the law as Trump sued for fraud – as it happened

Letitia James accuses former president and his family of fraudulently inflating their net worth for financial benefits

Biden has kicked off his UN speech with strong rhetoric against Russia, pointed to the global body’s own rules to characterize Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine as illegal and reckless.

“A permanent member of the United Nations Security Council invaded his neighbor, attempted to erase a sovereign state from the map. Russia has shamelessly violated the core tenets of the United Nations Charter,” Biden said, as he accused president Vladimir Putin of causing a “brutal, needless war.”

Continue reading...

Biden denounces Putin’s nuclear threats as ‘reckless’ in UN address

Volodymyr Zelenskiy also spoke to the UN, saying Ukraine’s forces would continue their counter-offensive

Joe Biden and allied leaders have reacted angrily to Vladimir Putin’s threats to use nuclear weapons and pledged to maintain support for Ukraine’s support in the face of Russia’s partial mobilisation and planned annexation of more Ukrainian regions.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, also shrugged off Putin’s moves to escalate the war, saying his country’s forces would continue their counter-offensive, not giving Russia breathing space to mobilise and dig in on Ukrainian soil.

Continue reading...

Fed raises interest rate by 0.75 percentage points as US seeks to rein in inflation

Third outsized rate increase in a row as central bank struggles to fight runaway inflation, increasing the cost of everything

The Federal Reserve announced another sharp hike in interest rates on Wednesday as the central bank struggles to rein in runaway inflation.

The Fed raised its benchmark interest rate by 0.75 percentage points, the third such outsized rate increase in a row, bringing the Fed rate to 3%-3.25% and increasing the cost of everything from credit card debt and mortgages to company financing.

Continue reading...

Mitch McConnell called Trump ‘crazy’ after Capitol attack, new book says

Rachael Bade and Karoun Demirjian’s Unchecked reports the Senate Republican leader vowed never to speak to Trump again

The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, said Donald Trump was “crazy” and vowed never to speak to him again after the Capitol attack – then voted both to call Trump’s impeachment unconstitutional and to acquit the former president in his second Senate trial.

McConnell’s deliberations are reported in a forthcoming book, Unchecked: The Untold Story Behind Congress’s Botched Impeachments of Donald Trump, by Rachael Bade of Politico and Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post. An extract was published on Wednesday.

Continue reading...

Former Minneapolis officer sentenced to three years in George Floyd’s murder

Thomas Lane is already serving a two-and-a-half-year federal sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights

A former Minneapolis police officer who pleaded guilty to a state charge of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in the killing of George Floyd was sentenced on Wednesday to three years.

Thomas Lane is already serving a two-and-a-half-year federal sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights. In the state case, prosecutors and Lane’s attorneys agreed to a recommended sentence of three years, to be served at the same time, in a federal prison.

Continue reading...

Fox News anchor Bret Baier wanted Arizona ‘put back’ in Trump’s column, book says

News of ‘stunning’ attempt to rescind dramatic election night call contained in The Divider, by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser

Fox News anchor Bret Baier wanted the network to withdraw its famous call of Arizona for Joe Biden on election night in 2020, citing pressure from Donald Trump’s campaign and saying the swing state should be “put back in his column”, a new book says.

News of Baier’s email is contained in The Divider: Trump in the White House 2017-2021, published in the US on Tuesday.

Continue reading...

Kentucky man seeking parole says he still hears voices that led to school shooting

Michael Carneal was 14 years old in 1997 when he fired on a prayer group, killing three; his request has been delayed until Monday

A Kentucky man who killed three students and wounded five in a school shooting 25 years ago told a parole panel on Tuesday he was still hearing voices like the ones that told him to steal a pistol and shoot into a high school lobby in 1997.

The two-person panel hearing Michael Carneal’s testimony deferred a decision until Monday, when the entire state parole board could grant his parole request, defer his next parole decision or determine that he must spend the rest of his life in prison.

Continue reading...

Minnesota schemers allegedly swindle $250m in largest pandemic fraud yet

Forty-seven people have been charged in the ‘astonishing display of deceit’ over providing food for low-income children

Forty-seven people have been charged in what US authorities say is the largest case yet of pandemic fraud, accusing the defendants of a “brazen” scheme to swindle millions from a program intended for low-income children and using it to “enrich themselves”.

Those charged in the scheme are accused of creating companies that claimed to be offering food to tens of thousands of children across Minnesota, then sought reimbursement for those meals through the US Department of Agriculture’s food nutrition programs. Prosecutors say few meals were actually served, and the defendants used the money to buy luxury cars, property and jewelry. Authorities say $250m was ultimately stolen from the federal program.

Continue reading...

Writer E Jean Carroll to file new lawsuit after accusing Trump of rape

Carroll to file claim of battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress under new New York law

E Jean Carroll, the writer who accused Donald Trump of raping her more than two decades ago, plans to file a new lawsuit against the former US president.

In a letter made public on Tuesday, a lawyer for former Elle magazine columnist said she planned to sue Trump for battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress under New York state’s Adult Survivors Act.

Continue reading...

Advocates for migrants who were sent to Martha’s Vineyard sue Ron DeSantis

Suit says Venezuelans were ‘used as political pawns’ in a ‘fraudulent and discriminatory’ scheme

Attorneys representing the Venezuelan migrants and refugees allegedly duped into flying to the wealthy island of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts have filed a class-action civil rights lawsuit against the Florida governor and other state officials.

Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR), a Boston-based legal advocacy group, filed the lawsuit on Tuesday challenging what it called the “fraudulent and discriminatory” scheme to charter private planes to transport almost 50 vulnerable people, including children as young as two, from San Antonio, Texas, via Florida, to Martha’s Vineyard last week without liaising to arrange shelter and other resources.

Continue reading...

White House rejects ‘sham referendums’ in occupied Ukraine – as it happened

National security adviser makes remark while Biden will ‘rebuke Russia’ at UN summit

Joined by his fellow New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand, majority leader Chuck Schumer is continuing to call for aid to Puerto Rico at a press conference outside the Capitol.

Here’s the latest from Nexstar media:

Continue reading...

Beyond Meat chief accused of biting man’s nose in road rage confrontation

Douglas Ramsey allegedly punched a motorist and bit his nose so hard that it tore flesh, police report says

A top executive at one of America’s biggest makers of alternative meat products has been arrested for biting another man on the nose during a road rage confrontation, US media have reported.

Douglas Ramsey, 53, who is chief operating officer of Beyond Meat, allegedly punched a motorist and bit that man’s on the nose so hard that it tore his flesh, according to a police report obtained by NBC affiliate TV station KNWA.

Continue reading...

Trump legal team admits possibility that ex-president could be charged

Lawyers tell special master reviewing Mar-a-Lago case he should not have to say which documents he may have declassified

Donald Trump’s legal team has acknowledged the possibility that the former president could be indicted amid the investigation into his retention of government secrets at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Despite claiming days earlier that Trump couldn’t imagine being charged, his lawyers made the stark admission in a court filing on Monday proposing how to conduct an outside review of documents that were seized by the FBI in August.

Continue reading...

UK under pressure to increase aid to Global Fund after US pledge

Initiative to fight malaria, TB and Aids has asked for 30% increase after Covid crisis, but UK yet to announce pledge

Britain’s new government is facing the first test of its commitment to the global south as it decides whether to follow Joe Biden’s lead and pledge an extra £1.8bn to the Global Fund, the highly successful 20-year-old initiative that fights malaria, tuberculosis and Aids.

A replenishment event to cover funding for the next three years is taking place in New York, and Liz Truss’s administration has been delaying an announcement, partly owing to the death of the Queen.

Continue reading...

Major earthquake shakes Mexico on anniversary of two previous tremors | First Thing

Quake registered at 7.5 magnitude on anniversary of earlier tremors. Plus, the rise and fall of Peloton

Good morning.

A magnitude 7.5 earthquake has struck western Mexico on the anniversary of two earlier devastating tremors, killing at least one person and causing flooding on the Pacific coast.

Was anyone killed? President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Twitter that the secretary of the navy told him one person was killed in the port city of Manzanillo, Colima, when a wall at a mall collapsed.

Did the quake cause a lot of damage? Michoacán authorities said there were no immediate reports of significant damage in that state beyond some cracks in buildings in the town of Coalcomán.

What was wrong with the original trial? An assistant state attorney Becky Feldman described details that undermined the conviction including unreliable witness testimony and a potentially biased detective. Feldman said: “I understand how difficult this is, but we need to make sure we hold the correct person accountable.”

What have Lee’s family said? They haven’t responded yet, but in 2016 they said: “It remains hard to see so many run to defend someone who committed a horrible crime, who destroyed our family, who refuses to accept responsibility, when so few are willing to speak up for Hae.”

Continue reading...

Dead or alive: can bounty plan solve Miami Beach’s invasive iguana problem?

City commissioner proposes paying per reptile to ramp up efforts to curb numbers of non-native species

A city commissioner in Miami Beach is proposing a novel solution to tackle an invasion of non-native iguanas overwhelming the popular tourist city: paying a bounty for the head of each reptile brought in dead or alive.

Commissioners have agreed to look into the iguana problem and the suggestion by council member Kristen Rosen Gonzalez to offer payments to hunters, which she says would offer an incentive for locals to take an active role.

Continue reading...

Human composting: California clears the way for greener burial method

The state is the fifth to legalize the environmentally-friendly process which allows for the natural reduction of human remains to soil

California lawmakers have approved a new way of returning those who have died to the earth, after Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill allowing human composting on Sunday.

Cremation, which accounts for more than half of burials, is an energy-intensive process that emits chemicals like CO2 into the air. Through human composting, or natural organic reduction (NOR), the body is naturally broken down into soil.

Continue reading...