Proposal does not ban assault weapons or raise age required to buy them to 21, but if enacted it would come after years of stalemate
Joe Biden has urged US lawmakers to get a deal on gun reforms to his desk quickly as a group of senators announced a limited bipartisan framework Sunday responding to last month’s mass shootings.
The proposed deal is a modest breakthrough offering measured gun curbs while bolstering efforts to improve school safety and mental health programs.
Continue reading...Congresswoman says she’s focused on trying to preserve Democrats’ congressional majority in November’s midterms
Left-wing congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday refused to endorse Joe Biden for another run at the White House, adding to growing anxiety in Democratic circles over the president’s ability to run in and win the 2024 election.
The powerful progressive New Yorker said she could not commit to supporting Biden during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union, saying she was more focused on trying to preserve Democrats’ congressional majority in November’s midterms.
Continue reading...US sees rise in travel after ‘two years of pent-up demand’ – but issues continue to cloud the industry
On a recent Friday night Laura Waring needed to fly from Newark, New Jersey, to San Diego to help set up her healthcare information technology company’s conference, which was scheduled to start the next Monday.
But after her flight was repeatedly delayed and then canceled, Waring slept for about 45 minutes on a cot at Newark airport before she woke up cold and uncertain how she would get to California.
Continue reading...At a Tribeca film festival event, the singer discussed directing the short All Too Well as well as the difficult time she went through over control of her music
Lines of young fans stretch down Broadway. Selfies aplenty snapped in a crowded lobby. Wild cheers as anticipation built inside, followed by intermittent shrieks during an opening speech from Tribeca film festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal. A short film screening that morphed into a pop concert, complete with sing-along.
It’s safe to say this wasn’t your standard film festival event. But what else do you expect when the festival, now in its 20th year, decided to trot out the newly-minted Dr Taylor Swift to muse about film-making in honor of her music video-slash-short film aptly dubbed All Too Well: The Short Film? Released in November and directed by Swift herself, it fit like a glove into the festival as production partly took place in the actual Tribeca neighborhood in New York.
Continue reading...Run by former Republican vice-presidential candidate marks first bid since resigning as governor partway through her term in 2009
Former Alaska governor and Republican ex-vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin leads in early results from Saturday’s special primary for the state’s only US House seat in what could be a remarkable political re-emergence.
Voters in the far north-western state are whittling down the list of 48 candidates running for the position that was held for 49 years by the late US Representative Don Young.
Continue reading...Phoenix reported 114F, Las Vegas soared to 109F and Denver hit 100F, while inland areas of California reached triple digits
A dangerous heat swept across the American south-west over the weekend as potentially deadly heat set temperatures soaring to record levels in numerous major US cities in the region.
Phoenix, Las Vegas, Denver and California’s Death Valley all posted record temperatures on Saturday.
Continue reading...The journey to America, often via Nicaragua, has become more viable – and many are taking their chances at the border
One morning last spring, 22-year-old Ernesto Hernández set out from the outskirts of Havana on a rickety boat hoping to cross the Florida Straits. The plan was to leave behind a dilapidating communist-ruled island in which he saw no future, and sail into an American dream.
Nobody has heard from him, or the other six people onboard, since.
Continue reading...Marles brushes off suggestions former Coalition government was close to signing compensation deal with France; nation records at least 24 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed
Interview with minister for NDIS and government services Bill Shorten now. First question is about energy policy.
Shorten says “the real issue about power, in my opinion is for 10 years we’ve had a decade of denial and delay.”
What we are suffering from this winter in the short term is floods of coal mines, outages of a plant which is more than 50 years old, but the real long-term problem is that we haven’t made a plan for transition to renewables, now the chickens have come home to roost.
Continue reading...Ukraine war and oil company price gouging among factors contributing to surge as president mulls Riyadh rapprochement
US gasoline prices, a key driver of the highest inflation seen in the US in 40 years, hit a record $5 a gallon on Saturday. There was little to suggest they would drop anytime soon but, also on Saturday, Joe Biden said he had “not yet” decided if he will travel to Saudi Arabia, a week after opening the door to a possible trip.
Any such visit would be aimed at bolstering relations with the country at a time when Biden is trying to find ways to lower gasoline prices.
Continue reading...President visits state beset by Hermits Peak Calif Canyon fire, result of two accidental fires that merged
Joe Biden landed in New Mexico on Saturday amid anger and frustration from wildfire survivors as he visited the state to review efforts to fight its biggest blaze in recorded history – which was started by federal officials.
Driven by drought and wind, the fire has destroyed hundreds of homes in mountains north-east of Santa Fe since two controlled burns by the US Forest Service went out of control in April.
Continue reading...The march kicked off at Cadman Park Plaza, where a memorial honors Brooklynites who served in the second world war
Hundreds of people crossed the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan on Saturday, in support of March for Our Lives. It was one of dozens of rallies across the US to protest political inertia on gun control.
The New York march kicked off at Cadman Park Plaza, where a huge memorial honors Brooklynites who served in the second world war. Some marchers said they felt they were in a war, to protect themselves and their families from gun violence.
Continue reading...The March for Our Lives rallies come after mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York
Rallies for gun reform were held in Washington, New York, other US cities and around the world on Saturday, seeking to increase pressure on Congress to act following a spate of mass shootings.
In Washington, the son of an 86-year-old victim in the Buffalo supermarket shooting said: “Enough is enough. We will not go quietly into the night.”
Continue reading...A US district judge in Las Vegas said the victim’s lawyer acted in ‘bad faith’ for use of leaked and stolen confidential documents
A Nevada woman has lost her bid in a US court to force the Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo to pay millions of dollars more than $375,000 in hush money she received after claiming he raped her in Las Vegas in 2009.
A US district judge in Las Vegas, Jennifer Dorsey, kicked the case out of court on Friday to punish the woman’s attorney, Leslie Mark Stovall, for “bad-faith conduct” and the use of leaked and stolen documents detailing discussions between Ronaldo and his lawyers.
Continue reading...Alexandria Aniyah Rubio, 10, was among the 19 children killed in the 24 May shooting at Robb elementary school
Alexandria Aniyah Rubio, a victim of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, was remembered at her funeral on Saturday as opinionated like her mother and athletic like her father.
The funeral took place on the same day as nationwide protests for meaningful gun reform. Her family asked mourners to wear bright colors to the funeral at First Baptist Church in Uvalde, because Lexi loved them.
Continue reading...Climatenomics lays out how ‘supply chain disruptions’ has become a euphemism for the effects of climate change
Forget Ukraine, coronavirus, corporate greed and “supply chain issues”, when it comes to inflation the climate crisis is the real, lasting, worry, according to a new book, and one that’s only likely to get worse.
Climatenomics, by former White House reporter and director of Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) Bob Keefe, is a narrative account of how the climate crisis is fundamentally altering not just the US but global economies.
Continue reading...The actor has been coy about returning to movies after his blockbuster defamation case – but PR moves are being made
Johnny Depp can probably thank his lawyers and PR for suddenly having a shot at a dramatic public image resurrection, but the question remains whether Hollywood will soon restore him to the big screen he used to dominate.
In the wake of his dramatic win in the defamation case against his ex-wife and fellow star Amber Heard – though Heard herself also won on one count against her former husband’s agent – speculation is now rife that Depp may go back to movies, despite his own claims that he has no interest in returning to the franchise blockbusters that supplied his fortune.
Continue reading...If Merrick Garland acts on the committee’s revelations and decides to prosecute, Trump will play the victim of a deep state conspiracy
Donald Trump achieved another first in US presidential history on Thursday night. He was, in front of millions of people, accused by a congressional panel of attempting to overthrow the US government.
“January 6th was the culmination of an attempted coup,” said Bennie Thompson, chair of the House of Representative’s select committee investigating the insurrection at the US Capitol. “President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack,” added his vice-chair, Liz Cheney.
Continue reading...Wife of supreme court justice Clarence Thomas accused of ‘undermining democracy’ after Washington Post revelation
Ginni Thomas, the wife of the supreme court justice Clarence Thomas, was accused of “undermining democracy” after it emerged that she emailed 29 Republican lawmakers in Arizona in her effort to overturn Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump.
The Washington Post had previously reported that Ginni Thomas sent emails pressuring two Arizona Republicans to reject Biden’s win and choose their own electors.
Continue reading...The complaint marks the second time a bar office has taken action against the former New York mayor
Rudy Giuliani has been hit with ethics charges over baseless claims he made about the 2020 presidential election being stolen while serving as an attorney for Donald Trump.
The charges were filed on Friday by the District of Columbia office that polices attorneys for ethical misconduct.The DC office of disciplinary counsel alleges that Giuliani, who is a member of the DC bar, made baseless claims in federal court filings about the results of the 2020 presidential election in Pennsylvania. The charges were filed with the District of Columbia court of appeals board on professional responsibility.
Continue reading...Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira, missing for more than five days, had failed to show up in Atalaia do Norte at the end of a reporting trip
Hopes of finding a British journalist and a Brazilian guide faded on Friday as police announced an unsettling development in the search for the two men last seen five days ago on a remote river in Amazonia.
“Search teams found on the river, near to Atalaia do Norte, apparently human organic material,” Brazil’s federal police said in a statement.
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