Category Archives: US News

Islamic State claims responsibility for killing of two Israeli police officers

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Police say two terrorists were shot dead after they began firing at police in city of Hadera, as Israel hosts envoys from four Arab states

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for an attack in which two Israeli police were killed in the northern city of Hadera on Sunday. The claim was made in a statement posted on its Telegram account.

Police said that “two terrorists arrived at Herbert Samuel Street in Hadera, and began shooting at a police force there,” resulting in two deaths.

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Former Catholic bishop admits covering up sexual abuse allegations

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Howard Hubbard made admission during a deposition last year as part of a response to dozens of claims filed in New York

The former bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of Albany, New York, has acknowledged covering up allegations of sexual abuse against children by priests in part to avoid scandal and protect the reputation of the diocese.

Howard Hubbard made the admission during a deposition taken last year as part of a response to dozens of claims filed under New York state’s Child Victims Act. A judge ordered the deposition released on Friday.

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Hillsong is facing catastrophe but the Houstons will be loath to give up control

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Analysis: the global church, founded almost 40 years ago in north-west Sydney, has little choice but to launch an independent inquiry

Judgment Day has come for Hillsong – but not in the way its pastors promised.

To recap a damning week for the church, its founder and global senior pastor, Brian Houston, has resigned after an internal investigation found he had breached the church’s code of conduct twice over the past decade by behaving inappropriately towards two women.

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Iran will never acquire nuclear weapons, US promises Israel

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Antony Blnken seeks to reassure Israel and Gulf allies ahead of possible renewal of nuclear deal

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has sought to reassure Israel and its Gulf allies that Iran will never acquire atomic weapons, ahead of the possible renewal of the nuclear deal with Tehran.

“When it comes to the most important element, we see eye to eye,” Blinken said at a news conference on Sunday with Israel’s foreign minister, Yair Lapid. “We are both committed, both determined, that Iran will never acquire a nuclear weapon.”

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Daughter of David Haines to confront his alleged Islamic State kidnapper in US trial

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Bethany Haines says she will plead with El Shafee Elsheikh to reveal where remains of her father and other western hostages lie

The daughter of a British man murdered by Islamic State will demand to know the whereabouts of his remains when one of his alleged kidnappers goes on trial in the US this week.

Bethany Haines, 24, will fly from her home in Perthshire, Scotland, to Virginia to confront El Shafee Elsheikh in person, nearly eight years after her father, David Haines, was killed.

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Chris Wallace: working at Fox News became ‘unsustainable’ after election

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Journalist’s new show begins on archrival CNN’s streaming service after nearly 20 years with the right-leaning cable channel

Chris Wallace has said working at Fox News became “increasingly unsustainable” before he jumped ship to CNN last December after almost 20 years with the right-leaning cable channel.

His departure dealt a blow to Fox’s news operation at a time when its opinion side had become preeminent. The veteran journalist’s new show begins on archrival CNN’s streaming service this week and the 74-year-old spoke to the New York Times.

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Taylor Hawkins: drugs found in body of Foo Fighters drummer

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Toxicology test indicated presence of 10 substances including marijuana, antidepressants and opioids

The Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins had at least 10 substances in his body when he died suddenly in Bogotá, according to a preliminary toxicology test carried out by Colombian authorities.

The 50-year-old musician was found dead in his hotel room on Friday afternoon, hours before the band was due to perform at Colombia’s Estéreo Picnic festival as part of its South American tour. The Grammy award-winning group had then been due to headline one of Brazil’s biggest music festivals on Sunday night.

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UK distances itself from Biden saying Putin ‘cannot remain in power’

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Nadhim Zahawi said it was for the Russian people to decide Vladimir Putin’s future

A UK cabinet minister distanced the government from Joe Biden’s call that Russia’s Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power” amid criticism that the comment could bolster the Kremlin.

Though no government figure has been overtly critical of the comments – unlike the French president, Emmanuel Macron – Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, said it was “for the Russian people to decide how they are governed” after the unscripted remark from Biden at a speech in Poland on Saturday, which the White House later said was not a call for regime change.

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Martha Wainwright: ‘Forget rock excess, life on the road was a juggling act for me’

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The Canadian-American singer-songwriter on why she needed to tell a different story in her candid autobiography

The rock autobiography is typically a male genre, telling tales of excess so competitive that readers could be forgiven for wishing Keith Richards, Neil Young, Roger Daltrey, et al, would break the monotony by taking up wood whittling.

But now comes Martha Wainwright, whose autobiography, published this week, is a female-gaze account of what it takes to juggle relationships, familial and domestic circumstances with life under the stage lights.

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US congressman Jeff Fortenberry resigns after conviction for lying to FBI

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Nebraska Republican Jeff Fortenberry stepped down after concerted pressure from both Washington and his own state

The Nebraska congressman Jeff Fortenberry has resigned from office after a California jury convicted him of lying to federal authorities about an illegal campaign donation from a foreign national.

In a letter to the House on Saturday, nine-term Republican Fortenberry said he was resigning from Congress, effective 31 March.

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Biden to announce tax on billionaires in 2023 budget plan – report

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President’s ‘tax on richest 700 Americans’ may face opposition from conservative Democrats

Joe Biden is set to announce a tax aimed at US billionaires as part of his 2023 budget plans on Monday in a move that will likely delight many progressives in his party but could meet opposition from conservative Democrats who have already stymied his domestic agenda.

The Washington Post, citing five sources and an internal administration document, said the “billionaire minimum income tax” plan would establish a 20% minimum tax rate on all American households worth more than $100m.

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Cardi B beats lawsuit over alleged defamation during parking feud

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Judge dismisses plaintiffs’ claim over tweeted video, saying insults by rapper’s sister did not qualify as defamation

The rapper Cardi B has beaten a lawsuit filed against her by three beachgoers who claimed they had been defamed during an altercation over parking.

A lawsuit filed in New York last year alleged that the singer’s sister, Hennessy Carolina, and Carolina’s girlfriend, Michelle Diaz, had blocked the plaintiffs in.

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Biden summons history in sweeping call for renewed alliance of democracies

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President seeks to re-establish US as a leader in global affairs after years of Trump-led disengagement

In a speech in Poland on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Joe Biden indicated his intent to re-position the US as a leader in global affairs after four years of disengagement during the Trump administration.

It is not a task many thought Biden would so firmly take on when he took office in 2021. Initially, Biden focused on healing domestic wounds following four chaotic years of the Trump administration and the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Vladimir Putin ‘cannot remain in power’ Joe Biden says in Warsaw speech

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US president casts Ukraine war as continuation of long struggle for democracy against Russian brute force

Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power”, US president Joe Biden said in Warsaw on Saturday in a speech addressing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

However, a White House official said soon after the speech that Biden was not calling for regime change in Russia.

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‘Smartest one gets to the top’: Trump again praises Putin at Georgia rally

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Ex-president also had warm words for Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un at event as primary races heat up before midterms elections

Donald Trump chose a rally in Georgia on Saturday night once again to praise Vladimir Putin, calling the Russian president “smart” even as he said the invasion of Ukraine amounted to a “big mistake”.

The Republican former president also had warm words for China’s president Xi Jinping and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and referred to such leaders collectively by saying: “The smartest one gets to the top.”

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Muslim Americans sue over US border officers’ ‘invasive’ questions on religion

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Trio file lawsuit against homeland security department, alleging questions about faith were in violation of constitutional rights

Three Muslim Americans filed a lawsuit this week alleging that US border officers questioned them about their religious beliefs in violation of their constitutional rights when they returned from international travel.

The men involved in the lawsuit claim that US border officers at land crossings and international airports peppered them with questions about whether they were Muslim and attended a mosque and how often they prayed.

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Mayor orders New York’s homeless camps dismantled ‘within two weeks’

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Eric Adams says officials will place people in ‘healthy living conditions with wraparound services’ as debate swirls

New York mayor Eric Adams has ordered that every homeless encampment in the city should be taken down within two weeks, arguing that the situation is not only dangerous to those living there but to the city itself.

“We’re going to rid the encampments off our street and we’re going to place people in healthy living conditions with wraparound services,” Adams said Friday, though he provided few details on exactly how that extra provision would be provided for them.

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House January 6 panel members weigh seeking cooperation from Ginni Thomas

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Wife of supreme court justice Clarence Thomas sent texts to Trump’s chief of staff urging overturning of 2020 election result

Members of the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack are weighing whether to demand that Ginni Thomas, the wife of the supreme court justice Clarence Thomas, cooperate with the inquiry, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

A move to request cooperation from Ginni Thomas, who was revealed to have pushed in text messages to Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows to overturn the results of the 2020 election, would mark one of the most aggressive steps taken by the panel.

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Russia’s invasion crystallises divide between west and rest of world

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Ukraine crisis is uniting democracies in Europe and Pacific but complicating relationships with China, India and Gulf states

“Decide who you are with” Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the European council, pointing to a choice that is becoming increasingly hard to avoid, as the sheer violence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine crystallises the division of the world into two camps.

The camp that stands with Russians is becoming easier to define with every passing day of the war. The colour-coded scoreboard at the UN general assembly in recent weeks, recording the votes on resolutions deploring the attack and calling for a ceasefire, could not have been clearer.

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Iditarod sledders punished for sheltering dogs during winter storm

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Race marshal says trio’s decision to bring dogs inside ‘affected the competition for racers’ as Peta condemns Alaska race

A fierce winter storm in the last stretch of this year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog, which ultimately forced six mushers to quit the same day, now has seen three mushers punished for sheltering their dogs instead of leaving them outside in the harsh conditions.

Mille Porsild of Denmark, Michelle Phillips of Canada and Riley Dyche of Fairbanks were penalized for taking dogs inside shelter cabins to ride out the storm with winds so strong, they whipped up white-out conditions, the Anchorage Daily News reported Friday.

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