Category Archives: US News

National guard troops to be deployed in DC as trucker convoy protests loom

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US protest to follow Canadian truckers’ demonstration against pandemic restrictions

The Pentagon is expected to approve the deployment of 700 to 800 unarmed national guard troops to the nation’s capital, a US official said on Tuesday, in the face of trucker convoys that are planning protests against pandemic restrictions beginning next week.

The District of Columbia government and the US Capitol police are requesting the national guard assistance. The troops would be used largely to help control traffic and are expected to come from the district’s national guard and three states, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss aid not yet formally approved.

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Biden announces sanctions over ‘Russian invasion’ – video

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Joe Biden has announced new sanctions in retaliation for Russia recognizing two self-proclaimed republics, Donetsk and Luhansk, and sending troops there, adding to western efforts to stop what they fear is the beginning of a full-scale invasion. The measures target Russian banks and sovereign debt, among other steps. 'We have no intention of fighting Russia,' Biden said. 'We want to send an unmistakable message, though, that the United States, together with our allies, will defend every inch of Nato territory and abide by the commitments we made to NATO' 

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Supreme court rejects Trump’s request to block access to January 6 records

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House panel investigating the attack is already combing through Trump White House documents related to the insurrection

The supreme court has formally rejected Donald Trump’s request to block the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack from accessing White House records related to the events of 6 January 2021.

The court announced on Tuesday in its latest list of orders that it would not take up Trump’s appeal to a lower-court ruling allowing the select committee access to the documents.

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Dr Paul Farmer, healthcare advocate for some of world’s poorest, dies aged 62

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Farmer defied skeptics to create healthcare systems for the most vulnerable in places like Haiti, Rwanda and Peru.

Dr Paul Farmer, a physician, humanitarian and author renowned for providing healthcare to millions of impoverished people worldwide and who co-founded the global non-profit Partners in Health, has died. He was 62.

The Boston-based organization confirmed Farmer’s death on Monday, calling it “devastating” and noting he unexpectedly died in his sleep from an acute cardiac event while in Rwanda, where he had been teaching.

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Biden to speak on Russia and Ukraine amid pressure from Congress on sanctions – live

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Joe Biden will deliver a speech this afternoon on Russia’s latest maneuvers in eastern Ukraine and America’s potential responses to Vladimir Putin’s actions.

The White House has just announced that Biden will provide an update on Russia and Ukraine at 2pm ET in the East Room.

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Ahmaud Arbery’s murderers found guilty of federal hate crimes

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Jury reaches decision after several hours on charges against Greg and Travis McMichael and William ‘Roddie’ Bryan

The three men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery were found guilty of federal hate crimes on Tuesday, for violating Arbery’s civil rights and targeting him because he was Black.

A jury of eight white people, three Black people and one Hispanic person, reached its decision after several hours of deliberation on the charges against father and son Greg and Travis McMichael and neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan.

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Joke’s on them: how Democrats gave up on rural America

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It is a diverse and complicated place poorly served by stereotypes and simplistic solutions

• This essay originally appeared in the Drift

One evening a few summers ago, I walked from my house to the county fairgrounds. It was a long July day, and the sun still hung above the hills that surround the small western Colorado town where I live. People packed the bleachers of an outdoor arena to watch a rodeo.

Shortly before the bullriding began, a rodeo clown strolled to the center of the dirt field and began his night with a joke. It went something like this:

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Indigenous nations sue North Dakota over ‘sickening’ gerrymandering

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The suit charges that diluting Indigenous power violates their voting rights and will handicap tribe members who run for office

Days before a new legislative map for North Dakota was set to be introduced in the state house, leaders of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and Spirit Lake Nation sent a letter to the governor and other state lawmakers urging them to rethink the proposal.

“All citizens deserve to have their voices heard and to be treated fairly and equally under the law,” they wrote, arguing that the proposed map was illegal, diluting the strength of their communities’ voice.

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US immigration courts struggle amid understaffing and backlog of cases

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Judges, scholars and attorneys all concerned whether people due in court will receive notice before their hearings

America’s immigration courts are struggling to function at the most basic level, with judges who are already woefully understaffed and often undertrained now overwhelmed by a growing backlog of more than 1.6m cases, industry leaders have warned.

The system is so damaged that judges, scholars and attorneys all share concerns about whether immigrants due in court will even receive notice before their hearings so they know to show up and aren’t ordered deported in absentia – an urgent concern made worse by volatile immigration policies at the US-Mexico border.

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Disinformation for profit: scammers cash in on conspiracy theories

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Some accounts claiming to support the Canada trucker protests are run by con artists abroad

When Facebook removed dozens of groups dedicated to Canada’s anti-government “Freedom Convoy” protests earlier this month, it didn’t do so because of extremism or conspiracies rife within the protests. It was because the groups were being run by scam artists.

Networks of spammers and profiteers, some based as far afield as Vietnam or Romania, had set up the groups using fake or hacked Facebook accounts in an attempt to make money off of the political turmoil.

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Helicopter crashes into ocean at crowded Miami Beach, injuring two – video

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A helicopter has crashed into the water off Miami Beach, just a few feet away from swimmers in a crowded stretch popular with tourists. A video shared by police captured the chopper descending over the ocean and crashing into the water as sunbathers packed the beach and others swam. Two of the three passengers onboard were taken to a nearby hospital in stable condition, police said, adding that no one else appeared to be injured

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Fifty years on, ‘Nixon in China’ loses its sparkle in Beijing and Washington

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The trip was hailed as a diplomatic breakthrough at the time but now critics in the US question its wisdom

On a brisk winter day in February 1972, the 34-year-old American diplomat, Winston Lord, arrived in Beijing with his boss, Henry Kissinger, and president Richard Nixon. Barely an hour after they checked in to their guest house, a message came: “Chairman Mao wants to see president Nixon.”

The urgency from Mao resonated with the excitement from the American delegation. The establishment of bilateral relations offered great opportunities for both sides in facing a common enemy: the Soviet Union. For more than two decades since the Chinese communists took over the mainland, Beijing and Washington had had no official contact on this scale.

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Bernie Madoff’s sister and her husband found dead in apparent murder-suicide

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Palm Beach county sheriff says Sondra Wiener, 87, and 90-year-old husband Marvin Wiener found dead on Thursday

The sister of the Wall Street fraudster Bernie Madoff and her husband were found dead in Florida in what investigators said was an apparent murder-suicide.

The Palm Beach county sheriff’s office on Sunday identified the couple as 87-year-old Sondra Wiener of Boynton Beach and her 90-year-old husband, Marvin Wiener.

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Tim Scott, only Black Senate Republican, hints he could be Trump running mate

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South Carolinian tells Fox News ‘Everybody wants to be on President Trump’s bandwagon, without any question’

The only Black Republican in the Senate, Tim Scott of South Carolina, has indicated a willingness to be Donald Trump’s running mate should the former president mount another White House campaign.

Asked by Fox News if he would consider joining a Trump ticket in 2024, Scott said: “Everybody wants to be on President Trump’s bandwagon, without any question.”

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West has inflicted catastrophic damage on Afghanistan, says David Miliband

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‘We are not punishing the Taliban, we are making it worse for the people,’ says former UK foreign secretary

The west has inflicted catastrophic damage on Afghanistan and its own reputation by imposing a policy of starvation on the country, according to David Miliband, the former UK foreign secretary and chief executive of the International Rescue Committee.

“If we wanted to create a failed state we could not have a more effective policy mix than the one we have at the moment,” he told the Guardian.

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Bisquey business: Maine politicians bemoan China lobster deal flop

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Senator Angus King urges US trade representative to press Beijing to live up to promise to increase spending on tasty crustaceans

China has failed to live up to its promise to buy more Maine lobster under a deal that opened the door to an easing of a trade war under Donald Trump, Maine’s congressional leaders say.

Maine’s lobster industry was hurt by retaliatory Chinese tariffs in 2018 but failed to see substantial export gains after China committed to buying an additional $200bn in US goods, the delegation contends.

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Ukraine crisis: Putin and Macron agree to try to secure ceasefire in eastern Ukraine and urgent summit

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Leaders spoke on the phone for 105 minutes and outcome suggests Russia might be willing to step back from brink of invasion of Ukraine

Russian media has confirmed the deaths of two Ukrainian soldiers in the government-held part of Donetsk on Saturday, claiming the servicemen were part of a “sabotage group” planning “terrorist attacks” against gas pipelines and electrical substations in the region.

The claim comes as western leaders continue to accuse Moscow and Russian-backed rebels of spreading misinformation as pretext for a possible invasion.

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Trump’s social media app to be released in App Store on Monday: executive

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The beta version of Truth Social has been under testing since last week, with full launch date listed for 21 February

Donald Trump’s new social media venture, Truth Social, appears set to launch in Apple’s App Store on Monday, according to posts from an executive on a test version viewed by Reuters, potentially marking the return of the former president to social media on the US Presidents’ day holiday.

In a series of posts late on Friday, a verified account for the network’s chief product officer, listed as Billy B, answered questions on the app from people invited to use it during its test phase. One user asked him when the app, which has been available this week for beta testers, would be released to the public, according to screenshots viewed by Reuters.

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Trump golf courses could host events for controversial Saudi-funded league – report

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Trump Organization has held discussions with Saudi-backed body, Washington Post reports

US golf courses owned by Donald Trump could host events in a hugely controversial new league funded by Saudi Arabia, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.

Citing three anonymous sources, the newspaper said courses in Bedminster, New Jersey, and Doral, Florida, could host events after discussions between the Trump Organization and LIV Golf Investments, a body funded by the Saudis.

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