Category Archives: US News

‘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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US inflation jumped to 40-year high of 7.9% last month

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The rise was propelled by increased prices for gas, food and housing in the sharpest spike since 1982

Propelled by surging costs for gas, food and housing, consumer inflation jumped 7.9% over the past year, the sharpest spike since 1982 and likely only a harbinger of even higher prices to come.

The increase reported Thursday by the labor department reflected the 12 months ending in February and did not include most of the oil and gas price increases that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February. Since then, average gas prices nationally have jumped about 62 cents a gallon to $4.32, according to AAA.

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US’s $13bn Ukraine aid bill passes first hurdle | First Thing

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House passes huge aid package as Volodymyr Zelenskiy accuses Russia of carrying out ‘genocide’ against Ukrainians. Plus, how pipeline groups are posing as Indigenous champions

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Good morning.

The US has moved to drastically step up its support for Ukraine, with House lawmakers passing a $13bn aid bill as Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned a Russian attack on a children’s hospital as proof that a “genocide” is being carried out.

Fighting stopped a humanitarian convoy from from reaching Mariupol, along one of seven corridors to besieged cities set up by Ukraine. Russian troops are reported to have seized parts of Mariupol.

How will the $13.6bn be spent? It will be split between military and humanitarian aid: $6.5bn to send troops and weapons to eastern Europe; $6.8bn for refugees and economic aid for allies.

When will the bill pass? Senate approval is expected within days.

Who else knew? The email exchange raises the prospect that others in the Willard, including Trump’s former attorney Rudy Giuliani and former strategist Steve Bannon, were also aware of the scheme’s unlawfulness.

How significant are the emails? The exchange weakens arguments by Eastman and the rest of the team that they believed there was no wrongdoing in Pence delaying the certification beyond 6 January.

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Higher levels of PFAS exposure may increase chance of Covid, studies say

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Four studies are first to support theory PFAS could hinder body’s ability to fight virus, but authors say more is research needed

Higher levels of exposure to toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” may increase the likelihood of Covid-19 infection, more serious symptoms and death, a group of recent studies have found.

Public health advocates and researchers have feared since the coronavirus pandemic’s onset that PFAS, which are known to be immunotoxic, could hinder the body’s ability to fight Covid-19, and the four studies represent the first bit of research supporting the theory. However, the authors caution that more research is needed.

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‘It’s not worth it’: rising gas prices force drivers to work for less than minimum wage

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Drivers already hit by low wages and poor working conditions are spending more time driving to keep their wages the same

By Tuesday afternoon, Lyft driver Elida Zabaleta had earned $100 in the five hours she spent ferrying passengers across the city of San Jose. With gas prices in California surging, she’d have to use more than half of that to cover fuel for the day, leaving her with just $45.

The rising cost of gas has made a difficult job all the more difficult, Zabaleta said, forcing her to spend more time behind the wheel to earn enough to afford living in one of the country’s most expensive cities.

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Is super-polluting Pentagon’s climate plan just ‘military-grade greenwash’?

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US military aims for net zero by 2050 but with a carbon footprint greater than some 140 countries critics say it needs radical change

The US military, an institution whose carbon footprint exceeds that of nearly 140 countries, says it wants to go green.

On 8 February, the US army released its climate strategy.

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Twitter launches privacy-protected site on dark web to bypass Russia’s block

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The Tor-friendly site follows moves by Facebook and BBC who also had their platforms restricted on state-owned media

Twitter has launched a privacy-protected version of its site to bypass surveillance and censorship after Russia restricted access to its service in the country.

Russia has blocked access to Facebook and has limited Twitter in an attempt to try to restrict the flow of information about its war in Ukraine. Both companies have said they are working on restoring access to people inside Russia even as they restrict the country’s state media from their services.

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‘Pretty awesome’: celebrity mountain lion’s walkabout excites Los Angeles residents

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P22, known as the Brad Pitt of his species, has been visiting residential neighborhoods and welcomed like a star

On Tuesday night, a quiet street in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles had a rare celebrity visitor. P22, the city’s most famous mountain lion, was spotted around 7pm on Berkeley Circle, about three and a half miles south of his home in Griffith Park. The National Park Service later confirmed his presence through a radio collar.

Residents shared photos from doorbell cameras and grainy pics from inside their homes. “Ultimately, it’s pretty awesome,” one resident told the LA Times. “The whole neighborhood’s excited.”

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Thousands protest against Brazil’s ‘death combo’ of anti-environment bills

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Demonstration against what activists call a historic assault floods capital after musician Caetano Veloso’s call for action

Thousands of demonstrators have gathered in Brazil’s capital after one of the country’s leading musicians, Caetano Veloso, called a major protest to denounce what environmentalists call a historic assault on the Brazilian environment under President Jair Bolsonaro.

The “Ato pela Terra” (Stand for the Earth) demonstration was held in Brasília to oppose what activists call a “death combo” of five environment-related bills being considered by Brazil’s congress.

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Plane carrying Trump reportedly made emergency landing after engine failure

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Incident occurred over Gulf of Mexico as former president returned to Florida from rally in New Orleans on Saturday night

A plane carrying former US president Donald Trump was reportedly forced to make an emergency landing on Saturday night after suffering engine failure over the Gulf of Mexico.

The Dassault Falcon 900 had flown about 75 miles from a New Orleans airport before turning back to the city, an unnamed source told the Reuters news agency.

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Finland reports GPS disturbances in aircraft flying over Russia’s Kaliningrad

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The interference began soon after a meeting between presidents Sauli Niinistö and Joe Biden

Aircraft flying near the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad and near Finland’s eastern border with Russia have noticed interference with their GPS signals, according to Finnish authorities.

The interference began soon after Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö met Joe Biden in Washington on Saturday to discuss deepening defense ties between Finland and Nato due to Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

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Venezuela releases two Americans in effort to improve relations amid energy crisis

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Citgo’s Gustavo Cárdenas and Jorge Fernández released Tuesday while US representatives visited Caracas over the weekend

Venezuela has released two jailed Americans as the two countries seek to improve relations amid an energy crisis caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Gustavo Cárdenas, an executive with US oil refining company Citgo was released on Tuesday night, along with Jorge Fernández, who was arrested last year on terrorism charges the White House described as “spurious”.

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Woman who ran Russia propaganda center in New York charged as foreign agent

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Elena Branson, who has both US and Russian citizenship, received thousands of dollars from Moscow to run center

A woman who ran a Russia propaganda center in New York City was charged on Tuesday for acting as an unregistered foreign agent for the Russian government.

Elena Branson, 61, who has both US and Russian citizenship, ran the Russian Center New York, which she founded in 2012, receiving thousands of dollars from the Russian government.

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First person to receive heart transplant from pig dies, says Maryland hospital

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  • David Bennett dies two months after groundbreaking surgery
  • His condition began deteriorating several days earlier

Two months after a pioneering operation, the first person to receive a heart transplant from a pig has died, the US hospital that performed the surgery announced on Wednesday.

A handyman by trade, David Bennett, 57, had undergone the experimental procedure in Baltimore, Maryland, after suffering from heart failure and being out of other options.

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‘Traumatised and terrified, with nowhere else to go’: huge numbers of people stuck at US border

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Title 42, enacted under Trump and kept in place by Biden, has led to hundreds of thousands being denied their right to asylum since the start of the pandemic

When Henry Ruiz* and Raquel Hernandez boarded a bus heading north to America with their two young children, they knew there would be no going back.

It was June 2021, and a few weeks earlier Ruiz, a 28-year-old banana farmer from central Mexico, had been abducted by a group of armed men and taken to an isolated ranch where 15 others – 13 men and two women – were being held.

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Russia-Ukraine war latest: strike on children’s hospital ‘ultimate evidence that genocide is happening’ – Zelenskiy

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Ukrainian president calls bombing in Mariupol ‘beyond atrocity’ and urges world to ‘stand united in condemning Russia for this crime’

The New York Times will have no reporters on the ground in Russia for the first time in a century after the news organisation joined those pulling out of the country.

Russian authorities made reporting from the country impossible when it recently criminalised the act of describing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “war” with those who commit the offence facing up to 15 years in prison.

As a result Russian media outlets have been forced to close, while global news organisations have pulled out their teams owing to the risk of arrest.

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