Category Archives: US News

Ukraine war to slow growth and drive up poverty in Asia, World Bank warns

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Conflict adds strain to developing economies in east Asia and Pacific already struggling with Covid and inflation

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has further dampened the economic prospects for developing countries in east Asia and the Pacific, meaning lower economic growth and higher poverty in the region this year, the World Bank has warned.

The Ukraine factor came on top of the existing risks that the region – home to 2.1 billion people and stretching from China to Papua New Guinea – has been facing in recent years. They included the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the financial tightening in the US, and the pandemic resurgence amid China’s zero-Covid policies.

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Yellowstone national park offers an annual pass – that won’t work until 2172

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A $1,500 donation will buy an Inheritance Pass, valid for entry in 2172, part of a fundraising effort to celebrate the park’s 150th year

Yellowstone national park is offering an annual pass valid for entry in 2172 in exchange for a $1,500 donation, part of a fundraising efforts in honor of the park’s 150th birthday.

The park hopes that the tickets, dubbed “The Inheritance Passes”, will be used by the donor’s descendants. Yellowstone Forever, the park’s fundraising arm, will use the money to support park projects such as trail improvements, education, native fish conservation and scientific studies.

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Ever Forward ship still stuck in Chesapeake Bay after three weeks

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Officials opt for new approach to moving sister vessel of Ever Given, which blocked Suez canal for a week

A cargo ship has been stuck in the Chesapeake Bay for more than three weeks, and after two unsuccessful attempts to free it, officials are pivoting to a new approach.

On Monday, the US coast guard announced that containers would be removed from the Ever Forward to lighten the load before another try.

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Two more Republicans back Ketanji Brown Jackson for supreme court

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Nomination advances in Senate after judiciary committee vote splits along party lines

Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney on Monday brought to three the number of Republican senators to say they would vote in favor of supporting Ketanji Brown Jackson as Joe Biden’s nominee to the US supreme court.

Murkowski of Alaska put out a statement on Monday evening saying: “After multiple in-depth conversations with Judge Jackson and deliberative review of her record and recent hearings, I will support her historic nomination to be an Associate Justice on the US supreme court.”

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IS terrorists who kidnapped James Foley ignored efforts to negotiate, court hears

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Foley’s brother and mother testify at Virginia court trial of El Shafee Elsheikh, accused of kidnap and murder of US journalist

The Islamic State terrorists who kidnapped American journalist James Foley never made serious attempts to negotiate a ransom before brutally executing him, family members have told a court.

Foley’s brother and mother took the witness stand at US district court in Alexandria at the terror trial of El Shafee Elsheikh, a Briton accused of playing a leading role in a hostage-taking scheme that resulted in the deaths of Foley and three other Americans – Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller.

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Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmation vote is ‘making history’, says senator – as it happened

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The Senate judiciary committee meets today, beginning a week expected to conclude with the confirmation of the first black female supreme court justice

Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina, is an unsurprising no on Ketanji Brown Jackson. The conservative senator has been vocally against Jackson - he flounced out of her confirmation hearing after wrongly accusing her of having called George W Bush and the former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld “war criminals”.

Following the devastating reports coming out of the Kyiv region, which was retaken by Ukrainian forces last week, Joe Biden is calling for a war crimes trial against Vladimir Putin, the Associated Press is reporting.

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Suspect arrested in Sacramento shooting that left six dead

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Police say they have received more than 100 videos or photos from the scene and have executed three search warrants

Police in the California state capital have made an arrest in connection with Sunday’s mass shooting that left six people dead and at least a dozen others injured. In the hours after the bloodshed, police say they have received more than 100 videos or photos from the scene and executed search warrants on three homes.

They identified a 26-year-old man as one of the individuals arrested in connection to the shooting, in a press release. He has been charged with assault and illegal firearm possession offenses.

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Biden calls for Putin to face war crimes trial over civilian killings in Ukraine

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Western leaders prepare fresh round of sanctions against Moscow amid outrage over reports of killings in town of Bucha, near Kyiv

Joe Biden has called for Vladimir Putin to be tried for war crimes as western leaders prepared a fresh round of economic sanctions against Moscow amid mounting global outrage over claims of civilian killings by Russian soldiers in Ukraine.

The US president was responding to harrowing images broadcast around the world after the discovery over the weekend of a mass grave and bodies in civilian clothes, some with their hands bound, in the town of Bucha, near Kyiv.

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112m-year-old dinosaur tracks damaged in Utah by construction machinery

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Damage evaluated as minor, but fractures to the rims of several prints cannot be repaired at the Mill Canyon track site

They survived intact for 112m years through scorching summer heat and freezing winters at Utah’s Mill Canyon. But several of the world’s most important and historic dinosaur footprints were damaged beyond repair earlier this year when a construction crew arrived to build a new boardwalk for tourists.

The extent of the harm to the footprints – and those of an ancient crocodile crossing in the canyon near Moab – was detailed in a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) report into the January incident published last week.

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Grammy awards 2022: Olivia Rodrigo wins big and Ukraine’s Zelenskiy makes cameo

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The specter of Oscars chaos loomed over the music awards – a mega-concert which included a message of hope from the Ukrainian president

Teenage pop phenom Olivia Rodrigo and R&B duo Silk Sonic dominated the major categories, and Jon Batiste won album of the year at the 64th annual Grammys – a three-and-a-half-hour mega concert that mostly steered clear of politics or the pandemic, save for a virtual message from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and an emotional tribute to victims of the Russian invasion.

A week after one of the most chaotic Oscars in recent memory – during which Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on stage – the Grammys seemed to revel in its technical proficiency and lack of controversy. “We’re gonna be listening to some music, we’re gonna be dancing, we’re gonna be singing, we’re gonna be keeping people’s names out of our mouths,” said host Trevor Noah in his opening monologue, acknowledging the elephant in the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

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Republican governor blasts Trump as ‘crazy’ during Washington roast

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Chris Sununu of New Hampshire makes remarks at event noted for tradition of roasting politicians with cutting comedy speeches

A Republican governor has blasted Donald Trump as “fucking crazy” and said if he was ever committed to a mental institution “he ain’t getting out”.

Chris Sununu of New Hampshire delivered the remarks at Saturday’s Gridiron Club dinner in Washington DC, an event noted for its tradition of roasting politicians with satirical and often cutting comedy speeches.

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Blinken: growing evidence of Russian atrocities in Ukraine a ‘punch to the gut’

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Secretary of state promises US will join allies in documenting atrocities and hold perpetrators accountable

Growing evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine are “a punch to the gut”, the US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Sunday, promising that America would join its allies in documenting the atrocities to hold the perpetrators accountable.

A retreat of Russian forces around Kyiv has revealed evidence of atrocities against civilians as Ukrainian troops and journalists have moved back into a broad swathe of suburbs and towns around the capital.

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Hillary Clinton urges Democrats to ‘do a better job’ of telling voters of successes

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Former New York senator and secretary of state believes Democrats are holding themselves back by constant introspection

Hillary Clinton has called on Democrats “to do a better job” of selling themselves to America’s voters to avoid humiliation in this year’s midterm elections where Republicans are widely expected to perform strongly and likely grab control of Congress.

The former Democratic presidential candidate was speaking frankly on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, saying she thought last summer’s chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan was harmful to Joe Biden. The US president’s approval ratings have slumped in recent weeks to the lowest level since he took office.

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Sacramento shooting: police hunt at least two suspects after six shot dead

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Police in California ask for help in identifying those responsible for gunfire that broke out after ‘large fight’

Police in Sacramento, California, are hunting for at least two suspects after six people were killed and 10 others injured during a shooting in the city’s downtown early Sunday morning.

Kathy Lester, chief of the Sacramento police department, said at a news conference that police were patrolling the area at about 2am after hearing gunfire. When they arrived at the scene, she said, they found a crowd gathered on the street and six people dead.

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Biden’s record defense budget draws progressive ire over spending priorities

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President’s $813bn proposal is a 4% increase for the Pentagon which already spends more than the next 11 countries combined

When Joe Biden released his annual budget proposal last week, one number in particular jumped out to progressives: $813bn. That is how much Biden is calling to spend on national defense in the US in the coming fiscal year. If approved, that number would represent the largest defense budget that America has ever seen.

US presidents’ budget proposals are generally considered to be reflections of their policy priorities rather than realistic estimates of final spending allocations. If Biden’s call for a 4% increase in defense spending was meant to signal his policy priorities, progressives wasted no time in telling the president that his priorities are backwards.

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Disturbing claims of torture and sexual abuse at trial of New York ‘cult’ leader

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Larry Ray accused of psychological abuse at the prestigious Sarah Lawrence college, in trial that echoes Nxivm case

New York is accustomed to high-profile trials, the details picked over like canapés at a cocktail party.

But the trial of Lawrence “Larry” Ray, on federal charges of sex trafficking, extortion and conspiracy has caused revulsion and horror, and raised troubling questions that go far beyond criminal justice.

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Zelenskiy vows to investigate and prosecute all Russian ‘crimes’ in Ukraine – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. Read the latest live developments in the Russia-Ukraine war here.

Russian chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky has said Russia’s position on Crimea and Donbas remains unchanged and that peace talks had not progressed enough for a leaders’ meeting.

Medinsky’s comments appear to be a rebuttal of earlier reports suggesting Moscow had “verbally” agreed to key Ukrainian proposals.

A Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia told media on Saturday that Russia had “given an official answer to all positions, which is that they accept the (Ukrainian) position, except for the issue of Crimea (which was annexed by Russia in 2014).”

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Biden rebuffed as US relations with Saudi Arabia and UAE hit new low

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Analysis: As oil prices – and diplomatic tensions – rise, two of the biggest US allies are questioning the basis of their relationship

As Joe Biden moved to open US strategic oil reserves, his two biggest oil-producing allies have kept their tanks firmly shut. The UAE and Saudi Arabia continue to rebuff the US president as he attempts to counter soaring oil prices prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And both countries have been unusually frank about their refusal to step in.

The five-week-old war is bringing tensions to a head in several parts of the world, but perhaps nowhere is a regional order more under strain than the Middle East, where two of America’s biggest allies are now seriously questioning the foundations of their relationship.

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Republican Senate hopeful overstated academic achievements for years

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Herschel Walker, frontrunner for party nomination in Georgia, claimed to have graduated in top 1% – but never actually graduated

A Republican Senate candidate in Georgia said for years that he graduated in the top 1% of his university’s class – but actually never graduated college at all.

Herschel Walker, a former pro football player who is running as a Republican in Georgia’s US Senateprimary, has publicly stated multiple times that he graduated in the top 1% of his class at University of Georgia despite never completing his degree.

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Georgia senate passes bill limiting discussion of race in schools

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‘We must teach that America is good’ says top Republican of bill banning teaching that US is ‘fundamentally racist’

The Georgia senate passed a bill on Friday that would limit discussions of race in kindergarten through 12th grade classrooms.

House Bill 1084, the “Protect Students First Act”, was approved by the Georgia senate. The measure requires local school boards and administrators to ban discrimination on the “basis of race” by limiting how race can be discussed in classrooms.

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