Category Archives: US News

US plan to provide 15bn cubic meters of natural gas to EU alarms climate groups

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The deal is intended to decrease reliance on Russia but will entrench reliance on fossil fuels, environmentalists say

A major deal that will see the US ramp up its supply of gas to Europe in an attempt to shift away from Russian fossil fuel imports risks “disaster” for the climate crisis, environmental groups have warned.

Under the agreement, unveiled on Friday, the US will provide an extra 15bn cubic meters of liquified natural gas (LNG) to the European Union this year. This represents about a tenth of the gas the EU now gets from Russia, which provides 40% of the bloc’s total gas supply.

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New Orleans rescinds little-known century-old ban on jazz in schools

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School board ditches policy ‘rooted in racism’ that was widely ignored in practice

The New Orleans school board has unanimously reversed a little known but century-old ban on jazz in schools in a city which played a huge role in developing jazz and where it is still played nightly at various venues.

“I’m very glad that we can rescind this policy. I want to acknowledge it. It was rooted in racism,” the Orleans parish school board president, Olin Parker, said during the meeting on Thursday night. “And I also want to acknowledge the tremendous contributions of our students and especially of our band directors, whose legacy continues from 1922 through present day.”

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Ginni Thomas texts spark ethical storm about husband’s supreme court role

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Stash of messages from Clarence Thomas’s activist wife released to January 6 committee have raised conflict-of-interest concerns

Calls have erupted for ethical conflict-of-interest rules on America’s top court after it was revealed that Ginni Thomas, wife of the supreme court justice Clarence Thomas, pressed Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The Washington Post reported that it had obtained a stash of 29 text messages between Ginni Thomas and Mark Meadows, then Trump’s top White House aide, which were exchanged in the tumultuous days after the November 2020 election. In the texts, Thomas blatantly urged Meadows to do anything he could to subvert the democratic result so as to frustrate Joe Biden’s victory and keep Trump in power.

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Revealed: US to close or scale back troubled immigration detention centers

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  • Center in Gadsden, Alabama ‘long a facility of serious concern’
  • Advocates have complained over quality of Ice medical care

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) is planning to close a troubled detention center in Alabama and will significantly scale back the number of beds contracted at three other facilities, citing concerns about conditions, according to an internal government document seen by Reuters.

According to the document, Ice will discontinue the use of the Etowah county detention center in Gadsden, Alabama, saying it had “long been a facility of serious concern, due to the quantity, severity, diversity and persistence of deficiencies identified during facility inspections”.

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EU agrees sweeping new digital rules in effort to curb big tech’s power

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Digital Markets Act seeks to prevent the likes of Google and Facebook parent company Meta from dominating digital markets

The European Union reached an agreement on landmark digital rules to rein in online “gatekeepers” such as Google and Facebook’s parent company, Meta.

EU officials agreed late on Thursday on wording for the bloc’s Digital Markets Act, part of a long-awaited overhaul of digital regulations with major implications for the global tech market. The act, which still needs other approvals, seeks to prevent the biggest of tech firms from dominating digital markets through the threat of fines or even the possibility of a company breakup.

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US congressman convicted of lying to FBI in campaign funds case

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Nebraska Republican Jeff Fortenberry found guilty in case involving illegal campaign contributions from foreign billionaire

A Nebraska congressman has been found guilty of three felonies for lying to the FBI about illegal campaign contributions from a foreign billionaire.

A federal jury in Los Angeles convicted Jeff Fortenberry, a nine-term Republican, on Thursday of concealing information and two counts of providing false statements to authorities.

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Ginni Thomas urged Trump’s chief of staff to overturn election results

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In texts to Mark Meadows, the wife of supreme court justice Clarence Thomas pushed Trump’s ‘big lie’

In the weeks following the 2020 election, the conservative activist Ginni Thomas – who is married to the supreme court justice Clarence Thomas – repeatedly implored Donald Trump’s chief of staff to help overturn the results, according to text messages obtained by the Washington Post and CBS News.

In one of 29 messages seen by the news outlets, Thomas wrote to Mark Meadows on 10 November: “Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!! … You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America’s constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.”

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Man accused of smuggling 1,700 reptiles from Mexico and Hong Kong

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Jose Manuel Perez from California allegedly smuggled reptiles, including baby crocodiles and Mexican beaded lizards, since 2016

A Southern California man is accused of smuggling more than 1,700 reptiles – including baby crocodiles and Mexican beaded lizards – into the US since 2016, authorities said Thursday.

Jose Manuel Perez, also known as “Julio Rodriguez”, was taken into custody on 25 February at the San Ysidro border crossing with Mexico.

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US charges four Russian hackers over cyber-attacks on global energy sector

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Quartet accused in two major hacking campaigns between 2012 and 2018, indictment unsealed by justice department reads

The US has unveiled criminal charges against four Russian government officials, saying they engaged in two major hacking campaigns between 2012 and 2018 that targeted the global energy sector and affected thousands of computers across 135 countries.

In one now-unsealed indictment from August 2021, the justice department said three alleged hackers from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) carried out cyber-attacks on the computer networks of oil and gas firms, nuclear power plants, and utility and power transmission companies across the world between 2012 and 2017.

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Ukraine uses facial recognition software to identify Russian soldiers killed in combat

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The defense ministry began using technology from Clearview AI which scrapes images on the web to match uploaded photos

Ukraine is using facial recognition software to help identify the bodies of Russian soldiers killed in combat and track down their families to inform them of their deaths, Ukraine’s vice-prime minister told the Reuters news service.

Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s vice-prime minister who also runs the ministry of digital transformation, told Reuters his country had been using software facial recognition provider Clearview AI to find the social media accounts of dead Russian soldiers.

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Violence in Mexico and Central America driving large waves of migration

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Biden administration will institute expedited processing – and sometimes removal – of asylum seekers to clear backlog

Waves of migration through Mexico and Central America, and people who go missing, will increase in 2022 due to high levels of violence in the region, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.

“In many countries, violence is wreaking more and more havoc, and that’s why there are more and more migrants,” ICRC representative Jordi Raich told Reuters in an interview Wednesday. “And it’s not a situation that is going to improve or slow down, not even in the years to come.“

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‘Japan’s most famous yachtsman’: 83-year-old attempts solo Pacific crossing

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Kenichi Horie became the first person to make a non-stop solo crossing of the Pacific in 1962 and has made multiple crossings

An 83-year old man is set to sail from San Francisco on Saturday and voyage alone across the Pacific Ocean to his home country, Japan.

Kenichi Horie, also known as “Japan’s most famous yachtsman”, became the first person to make a non-stop solo crossing of the Pacific in 1962. On that trip, he was still a 23-year old amateur seaman. Horie set off from Osaka and sailed across the ocean for 94 days, surviving on canned food and rice before arriving in San Francisco.

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Trump sues Hillary Clinton, alleging ‘plot’ to rig 2016 election against him

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Clinton, James Comey and others accused of orchestrating Russia conspiracy that makes Watergate ‘pale in comparison’

Donald Trump has sued Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee and other people and entities tied to the investigation of Russian election interference in 2016, claiming that in a bid to rig the election they orchestrated a conspiracy which made Watergate “pale in comparison”.

The suit came a day after the release of a letter from a prosecutor in New York who said he believed Trump was “guilty of numerous felony violations” in his business affairs, despite the district attorney in Manhattan choosing not to indict.

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House January 6 committee to consider holding two Trump aides in contempt

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Panel to meet next week after former senior White House advisers Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino refused to appear for depositions

The House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack will consider holding in criminal contempt of Congress next week two of Donald Trump’s most senior White House advisers, Dan Scavino and Peter Navarro, the panel announced on Thursday.

The move to initiate contempt proceedings against the two Trump aides amounts to a biting rebuke of their refusal to cooperate with the inquiry, as the panel deploys its most punitive measures to reaffirm the consequences of noncompliance.

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Hollywood Forever cemetery, resting place to the stars, named a historical site

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Los Angeles city council unanimously bestowed the designation to the 123-year-old site where many movie legends are buried

The Hollywood Forever cemetery, the final resting place of stars such as Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney and Burt Reynolds, is now a historic-cultural monument.

The Los Angeles city council unanimously voted this week to grant the designation to the 123-year-old cemetery, which has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1999. An architectural historian who prepared a report on the cemetery for the city found it “exemplifies significant contributions to the broad cultural, economic or social history”.

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Mitch McConnell says he will not support Ketanji Brown Jackson nomination – as it happened

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The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the new sanctions on members of the Russian Duma would punish lawmakers who have “supported the Kremlin’s violations of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

“President Putin’s war continues to inflict horror and widespread suffering on the people of Ukraine,” Blinken said in a statement.

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US expands Russian sanctions and plans to accept 100,000 Ukrainian refugees

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  • US targets more than half of members of Russia’s parliament
  • Country to step up assistance for Ukrainians fleeing war

The US has announced new sanctions on more than 400 Russians deemed to be part of the country’s elite – including more than half the members of parliament – as part of campaign to increase the price Moscow pays for the invasion of Ukraine, while stepping up assistance to Ukrainians.

The administration also announced it would accept up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, almost as many as the current cap for the total number of refugees the US accepts from around the world.

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Texas attorney general says school district’s Pride week ‘breaks state law’

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Ken Paxton called district’s Pride week ‘sex education’ and claimed without parental consent it is against law

The attorney general of Texas has declared a school district’s celebration of LGBTQ+ students “sex education” and in violation of Texas law.

For the past eight years, students in the Austin Independent school district have held a district-wide Pride week as a chance to celebrate LGBTQ+ students, staff and families in the district, according to the district’s website.

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White House tells Dr Oz and Herschel Walker to resign from fitness council

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TV doctor and former football star, appointed to sports and health body by Trump, are both Republican Senate candidates

The White House has asked two Trump-appointed members of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition to resign from their posts or be fired.

On Wednesday, the White House sent letters to Dr Mehmet Oz and former football star Herschel Walker – two Republican Senate candidates in Georgia and Pennsylvania, respectively – asking them to submit their resignations or face termination.

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US jobless claims fall to lowest level since 1969 as states float rebate checks

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Claims dropped by 28,000 for week ending 19 March as at least a dozen states consider checks to ease burden of inflation

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week fell to its lowest level in 52 years as the US job market continues to show strength in the midst of rising costs and the pandemic.

Jobless claims fell by 28,000 to 187,000 for the week ending 19 March, the lowest since September of 1969, the labor department reported on Thursday. First-time applications for jobless aid generally track the pace of layoffs.

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