Category Archives: US News

Republican Kinzinger: I should have voted to impeach Trump over Ukraine

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Member of House January 6 committee admits regret that he voted against former president’s first impeachment

One of two Republicans on the House January 6 committee has said he regrets his vote against the first impeachment of Donald Trump, for withholding military aid to Ukraine in an attempt to obtain dirt on rivals including Joe Biden.

In tweets posted on Friday, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continued, with cities besieged and bombarded, Adam Kinzinger said: “I want to be honest, in Congress I have only a few votes that in hinds[igh]t, I regret. My biggest regret was voting against the first impeachment of Donald Trump.

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Camel kills two men after escaping Tennessee petting zoo

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Sheriff’s deputies destroyed the animal after finding ‘two unconscious victims’ and ‘a camel still on the loose

A camel killed two men after escaping a petting zoo in Tennessee, a county sheriff said.

Officials from the Obion county sheriff’s office said the fatal incident unfolded around 5.44pm on Thursday, when they “received a call of a loose camel near Shirley Farms on South Bluff Road in Obion … attacking people”.

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‘Don’t Say Gay’: Disney clashes with DeSantis over Florida bill

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Entertainment giant suspends political donations as CEO apologises for silence and governor hits back with ‘communist’ barb

The Walt Disney Company is suspending political donations in Florida after its chief executive suffered huge blowback for not using the company’s vast influence in the state to try to quash a Republican bill that would stop teachers instructing early grades on LGBTQ+ issues.

The bill has sparked a spat between the tourism giant and the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, who accused the company of being friendly with communist China.

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US and allies set to revoke normal trade relations with Russia over Ukraine war, says Biden – as it happened

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Bates only took one question before he was interrupted by the pilot asking passengers to take their seats. Shortly thereafter the feed your live-blogger was using to follow the mid-flight briefing cut out.

Asked to elaborate on what consequences Russia could face if it used chemical weapons against Ukraine, Bates deferred to the president’s remarks and said the “meaning was unmistakable”.

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YouTube blocks Russian state-funded media channels globally

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The Google-owned platform said the invasion of Ukraine fell under its violent events policy and violating material would be removed

YouTube announced on Friday that it had begun blocking access globally to channels associated with Russian state-funded media, citing a policy barring content that denies, minimizes or trivializes well-documented violent events.

The video platform had previously blocked the channels, specifically those of Russia Today and Sputnik, across Europe.

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Tinder now offers criminal background checks, but there’s a big problem

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Experts say that, while intended to increase safety, the tool lacks nuance and risks amplifying biases in the criminal justice system

As of this week, Tinder users will be able to run criminal background checks on their potential dates. The feature – launched in partnership with Garbo, a background check provider that aims to make public safety information more accessible – is intended to make Tinder users feel safer.

But experts who specialize in sexual violence and surveillance have said the move is misguided, and risks amplifying the biases inherent in the criminal justice system.

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Legendary Nashville store Ernest Tubb Record Shop to close

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The oft-photographed country music institution, which has been in Nashville since 1947, will close in the spring

The downtown Nashville, Tennessee, record store that was opened by Opry legend Ernest Tubb in 1947 and has been a landmark in country music for decades will close as the building is being put up for sale.

The owners of the Ernest Tubb Record Shop said in a statement on Friday they were heartbroken that the store, which has been in its current location on Broadway since 1951, will close in the spring. The building and store is owned by the Honky Tonk Circus, LLC, and the David McCormick Company, Inc.

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Ammunition company owner’s run for state education board sparks outcry

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Jordan Mollenhour is backed by Tennessee’s Republican governor despite his company having supplied ammo to mass shooters

The owner of a US company that has sold ammunition online to numerous mass shooters has prompted outcry as he pursues a permanent position on Tennessee’s education board.

Jordan Mollenhour, who was backed by the state’s Republican governor, was confirmed by the state’s Republican-led senate on Thursday morning by 26-6. He is the owner of Lucky Gunners, an online Knoxville-based ammunition company that he co-founded in 2009.

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Judge blocks Donald Trump’s effort to countersue rape accuser E Jean Carroll

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New York judge accuses ex-president of ‘bad faith’ in tactics that would have further delayed defamation lawsuit

Donald Trump cannot countersue the US writer E Jean Carroll, who says he raped her in the mid-1990s, a federal judge ruled on Friday. The former president had argued that her defamation lawsuit against him violated a New York state law intended to protect free speech.

US district judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan said a ruling for the one-term Republican would needlessly cause further delays for Carroll’s lawsuit, which began in November 2019.

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Russia makes claims of US-backed biological weapon plot at UN

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Fears claims of plot to use birds to spread disease could be pretext for biological attack by Russia itself

Russia has accused Ukraine and the US at the UN security council of a plot to use migratory birds and bats to spread pathogens, raising alarm among other council members that the accusations could be intended to provide cover for future Russian use of biological weapons.

The Russian permanent representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, delivered a lengthy account of the alleged biological weapons plot, and said the birds, bats and insects supposedly intended to spread disease would cross Ukraine’s western border.

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Trump thought US troops were in Ukraine in 2017, ex-ambassador says in book

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Marie Yovanovitch, who was fired by Trump in 2019, reveals details of then president’s Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian counterpart

At an Oval Office meeting with the then Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, in 2017, Donald Trump asked his national security adviser if US troops were in Donbas, territory claimed by Russian-backed separatists, which Vladimir Putin last month used as pretext for a full and bloody invasion.

Describing the meeting in a new book, the then US ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, writes: “An affirmative answer to that question would have meant that the United States was in a shooting war with Russia.”

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Iran nuclear talks on hold over last-minute Russian demands

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Moscow is insisting that Washington pledge not to sanction trade between it and Tehran over Ukraine

Talks on the revival of the Iran nuclear deal have become a casualty of the war in Ukraine after an indefinite pause was announced over last-minute Russian demands.

An agreement on the nuclear deal to bring the US and Iran back into compliance would have led to a swathe of US sanctions on Iran being lifted, including Iranian crude oil exports and petrochemicals, in return for limits on Tehran’s nuclear activity.

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Emilio Delgado, Sesame Street actor for 45 years, dies aged 81

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Delgado, who played fix-it shop owner Luis on beloved children’s show, was a rare Latino face on US TV

Actor and singer Emilio Delgado, the warm and familiar presence in children’s lives for 45 years as fix-it shop owner Luis on Sesame Street, has died.

His wife, Carol Delgado, said he died from the blood cancer multiple myeloma at their home in New York. He was 81.

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Actor Jussie Smollett sentenced to 150 days in jail for lying to police about fake hate crime

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Empire actor was found guilty in December in the attack that he orchestrated and must also serve 30 months of probation

Actor Jussie Smollett has been sentenced to 30 months of probation, including 150 days of jail time, and ordered to pay restitution for his conviction of lying to police about a racist and homophobic attack that he orchestrated himself.

Smollett, who is Black and gay, reported to police that two men wearing ski masks beat him, and hurled racial and homophobic slurs at him on a dark Chicago street and ran off. The 39 year old was also ordered to pay $120,000 in restitution to the city of Chicago and fined $25,000 by Judge James Linn of Cook county circuit court.

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Sacklers confronted by opioid crisis victims and families at virtual hearing

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Roughly two dozen gave statements at bankruptcy court hearing attended by Richard, Theresa and David Sackler

A virtual hearing on Thursday in US bankruptcy court gave survivors of opioid dependency and people who lost loved ones to the crisis what they have long desired – an official chance to confront members of the family behind Purdue Pharma, the US creator of the powerful but highly addictive prescription painkiller OxyContin.

They blamed the billionaire Sackler family members for helping spur the epidemic that ultimately has cost about half a million American lives, through aggressive marketing of Purdue’s signature narcotic and for failing to take responsibility for their role.

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‘Serious escalation’: US believes North Korea testing intercontinental missile

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Pyongyang launches were to test parts of intercontinental ballistic missile and not satellite surveillance system, US concludes

The US believes North Korea is testing a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in what the Biden administration called a “serious escalation” that would trigger more sanctions.

Pyongyang conducted two recent missile launches which it said were ultimately intended for putting satellites into space. After scrutinising them, however, US intelligence has assessed that the real intention was to test parts of the new ICBM.

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US census produced huge undercount of Latino population in 2020

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Census also undercounted Black and Native Americans, while overcounting non-Hispanic white people and Asian Americans

The 2020 US census undercounted America’s Latino population at more than three times the rate of the 2010 census, according to a report released on Thursday by the US Census Bureau.

The census also undercounted the nation’s Black and Native American residents, while overcounting non-Hispanic white people and Asian Americans.

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Idaho bill that criminalizes medical trans youth treatments passes house

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Bill aims to make gender-affirming care a felony and punishable by life in prison for anyone who helps a child travel out of state

Idaho’s house of representatives has passed a bill that would criminalize gender-affirming medical procedures for transgender youth and make it a felony punishable by life imprisonment for anyone who helps a child travel across state lines to gender-affirming healthcare.

The bill, approved on Tuesday, targets medical measures that include vasectomy, hysterectomy, mastectomy, puberty-blocking medication and supraphysiological doses of testosterone or estrogen.

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US conducting ‘legal review’ of possible Russian war crimes in Ukraine – as it happened

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Maya Yang reports:

North Carolina Republican congressman Madison Cawthorn has been charged with driving with a revoked license for the second time.

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Tennis star Coco Gauff attacks Florida law that marginalizes LGBTQ+ people

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  • World No 19 says bill will halt important conversations
  • Law restricts instruction on sexual orientation

Tennis star Coco Gauff has voiced her opposition to a bill in her home state of Florida that would prohibit classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity for many young students.

“I’m against it,” Gauff told reporters on Wednesday in California, where she is preparing for the Indian Wells tournament. “I think these conversations are important, and for me, who has friends in the LGBTQ+ community, I couldn’t imagine not being able to talk about your identity. I feel that’s something that is normal.”

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