Category Archives: US News

Master of the Game review: Henry Kissinger as hero, villain … and neither

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Martin Indyk’s well-woven biography is sympathetic to the preacher of realpolitik condemned by many as a war criminal

As secretary of state, Henry Kissinger nursed the 1973 Arab-Israeli war to a close. The disengagement agreements between Egypt and Israel ultimately yielded a peace treaty. The Syrian border remains tensely quiet. Unlike Vietnam, in the Middle East Kissinger’s handiwork holds.

The Sunni Arab world has gradually come to terms with the existence of the Jewish state. Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan have diplomatic ties with Jerusalem. Relations with Saudi Arabia are possible.

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Donald Trump chops with Atlanta Braves fans before World Series game

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Only months after calling for a boycott of Major League Baseball, former US president Donald Trump did the tomahawk chop with Atlanta Braves fans at Game 4 of the World Series on Saturday night.

Trump stood beside his wife, Melania, as he chopped away with fans before the game between the Atlanta Braves and Houston Astros from a private suite.

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Alec Baldwin breaks silence on Rust shooting: ‘She was my friend’

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Actor tells reporter ‘this is a one-in-a-trillion episode’, in first remarks since fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins on film set

In his first public comments since accidentally fatally shooting the cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of a film, Rust, in New Mexico earlier this month, Alec Baldwin said on Saturday: “She was my friend.”

The actor spoke to BackGrid, a “global celebrity news agency”, in Vermont, where he was photographed having lunch with his wife.

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G20 leaders to endorse Biden proposal for global minimum corporate tax

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Leaders of the world’s 20 biggest economies will endorse a US proposal for a global minimum corporate tax of 15%, draft conclusions of the two-day G20 summit in Rome showed on Saturday.

The G20 plans to have the rules in force in 2023.

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‘A deliberate, orchestrated campaign’: the real story behind Trump’s attempted coup

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A startling memo, a surreal Oval Office encounter – just some of the twists in the unfolding story of Trump’s bid to cling to power, which critics say was no less than an attempted coup

On 4 January, the conservative lawyer John Eastman was summoned to the Oval Office to meet Donald Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence. Within 48 hours, Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election would formally be certified by Congress, sealing Trump’s fate and removing him from the White House.

The atmosphere in the room was tense. The then US president was “fired up” to make what amounted to a last-ditch effort to overturn the election results and snatch a second term in office in the most powerful job on Earth.

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Prince Andrew asks US judge to dismiss lawsuit alleging sexual abuse

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Duke of York says Virginia Giuffre, who accused him of forcing her to have sex when she was 17, failed to state claim warranting relief

Prince Andrew has asked a US judge to dismiss Virginia Giuffre’s civil lawsuit accusing him of sexually abusing her when she was 17.

In a filing with the US district court in Manhattan on Friday, the Duke of York said the case should be dismissed because Giuffre failed to state a claim warranting relief.

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Guantánamo prisoner details torture for first time: ‘I thought I was going to die’

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Al-Qaida courier, who could be freed next year despite 26-year sentence, tells court of interrogators’ horrific treatment

For the first time, a Guantánamo Bay prisoner who went through the brutal US government interrogation program after the 9/11 attacks has described it openly in court, saying he was left terrified and hallucinating from techniques that the CIA long sought to keep secret.

Majid Khan, a former resident of the Baltimore suburbs who became an al-Qaida courier, told jurors considering his sentence for war crimes that he was subjected to days of painful abuse in the clandestine CIA facilities known as “black sites” as interrogators pressed him for information.

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Covid bioweapon claims ‘scientifically invalid’, US intelligence reports

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ODNI reject bioweapons claims but says origins of virus may never be known, barring dramatic breakthrough in Chinese cooperation

Allegations that the Covid-19 virus was designed as a bioweapon – a theory aired by some senior Republicans – are based on “scientifically invalid claims” whose proponents “are suspected of spreading disinformation”, the US intelligence agencies have reported.

Most of the 17 US agencies also agree that the virus had not been genetically engineered, while observing it is becoming increasingly difficult to detect signs of such tampering. However, the intelligence community is still divided on the question of whether the virus was spread by animal-to-human transmission or as the result of a lab accident, concluding that that may never be known barring a dramatic breakthrough in Chinese cooperation.

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US FDA approves Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use in children ages 5-11

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On Tuesday, CDC advisers will make more detailed recommendations on which children should get vaccinated

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday paved the way for children ages five to 11 to get Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine.

After the FDA cleared kid-size doses – a third of the amount given to teens and adults – for emergency use, up to 28 million more American children could be eligible for vaccinations as early as next week.

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Biden’s agenda remains unrealized as Democrats fail to close deal again

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Pelosi forced to postpone infrastructure vote on Thursday ahead of Biden’s meeting with world leaders in Rome

Joe Biden’s nearly $3tn domestic agenda remains unrealized after an 11th-hour push to rally Democrats around a pared-down package that he framed as historic, failed to close the deal in time for his meeting with world leaders in Rome at the G20 summit.

But after a dramatic Thursday of bold promises and dashed hopes, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, was forced to postpone a vote on a $1tn infrastructure bill for a second time in a month, as progressives demanded more assurances that a compromise $1.75tn social policy plan would also pass.

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Biden admits to Macron the US was ‘clumsy’ in Aukus submarine deal

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American president moves to repair relationship after France was blindsided by security pact

Joe Biden has moved to repair his damaged personal and political relationship with Emmanuel Macron by acknowledging that the announcement of a security and technology pact that blindsided France was a “clumsy” episode handled with a lack of grace.

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Biden heads to Cop26 as climate agenda hangs in balance | First Thing

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President faces hurdles in reasserting US credibility at the summit. Plus, Texas stand-your-ground laws thrown into spotlight

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Good morning.

Joe Biden is heading to Glasgow for the critical Cop26 global summit, where he will fight to reassert the United States’s credibility after Donald Trump’s presidency, as his spending and climate bill remains unsigned into law.

Phasing out fossil fuels from the grid

Making oil and gas producers pay to emit methane

Introducing a CO2 tax

What are stand-your-ground laws? The controversial laws oppose the idea that faced with danger, you should retreat, and offer provision for homeowners to use deadly force to justifiably defend themselves.

When were these laws introduced? The first law in the US was enacted in Florida in 2005, after lobbying from the National Rifle Association. Opponents say they result in unnecessary deaths and are often a pretext for racism.

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Capitol attack panel faces pivotal moment as Trump allies stonewall

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Questions about Trump’s role in 6 January may go unanswered unless House investigators can secure a breakthrough to obtain documents and testimony

The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack is confronting a pivotal moment as resistance from top Trump administration aides threatens to undermine their efforts to uncover the extent of the former president’s involvement in the 6 January insurrection.

The select committee remains in the evidence-gathering phase of the investigation that now encompasses at least five different lines of inquiry from whether Donald Trump abused the presidency to reinstall himself in office or coordinated with far-right rally organizers.

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Zayn Malik denies hitting Yolanda Hadid, grandmother of his child

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Singer admits ‘harsh words’ but adamantly denies domestic violence in argument with mother of partner Gigi Hadid

Zayn Malik has denied hitting Yolanda Hadid, the mother of his partner Gigi Hadid and grandmother of their child, in a domestic argument.

The pop singer and former member of boyband One Direction issued a statement, saying: “I adamantly deny striking Yolanda Hadid and for the sake of my daughter I decline to give any further details and I hope that Yolanda will reconsider her false allegations and move towards healing these family issues in private.” TMZ had reported the alleged attack earlier this week.

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Global activists gather at Rome G20 to demand tougher action on China

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Beijing must not be let off hook over human rights abuses in return for climate cooperation, say legislators

Legislators from around the world have gathered on the fringes of the G20 summit in Rome to protest against the presence of the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, and urge leaders not to let China off the hook over human rights abuses in return for Beijing’s cooperation on the climate crisis.

Many of those at the Rome counter-meeting have been banned from travelling to China as punishment for campaigning against Chinese repression in Xinjiang.

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Biden releases new $1.75tn framework for Democrats’ reconciliation package – live

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Joe Biden rallied House Democrats behind a proposed $1.75tn framework deal that he said could win the support of every Democrat in the Senate and prove to the world that American democracy can deliver.

“I am back here to tell you that we have a framework that will get 50 votes in the United States Senate,” he told House Democrats during a morning caucus meeting, according to a source familiar.

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Specter of problematic crown prince looms over Biden’s Saudi Arabia policy

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The president has snubbed Mohammed bin Salman, but the ruler recently labelled a ‘psychopath’ is a problem that won’t go away

When Joe Biden was recently asked whether gas prices would come down soon, the US president offered a cryptic explanation of how his strained relations with Saudi Arabia were at least partly to blame for the price at the pump.

Gas prices were high because oil-rich nations in the Middle East were not increasing the supply of oil. That was happening, Biden suggested, in retaliation for his personal decision to not speak with – nor acknowledge – Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as his counterpart.

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National paid family and medical leave reportedly cut from US reconciliation package – live

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Here’s where the day stands so far:

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Rust shooting: officials say single bullet likely caused injury and death after Alec Baldwin fired gun on set

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Officers say Alec Baldwin is ‘active part’ of investigation but have yet to determine if they’ll bring charges against the actor or others

Officials confirmed on Wednesday that live bullets, including the round it is believed killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza, were found on the set of the movie Rust last week after actor Alec Baldwin fired a gun during a rehearsal – but no decisions have been made yet about any criminal charges.

“We believe that we have, in our possession, the firearm that was fired by Mr Baldwin. This is the firearm we believe discharged the bullet,” said Santa Fe’s county sheriff, Adan Mendoza, said at a press conference on Wednesday.

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Single bullet likely caused death after Alec Baldwin fired gun on set, police say – video

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Live bullets, including the round it is believed killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza, were found on the set of the movie Rust last week after Alec Baldwin fired a gun as part of the action, officials said on Wednesday.

Santa Fe county sheriff Adan Mendoza said police believed they had the firearm and the spent shell casing from the bullet involved. No decisions have been made yet about any criminal charges relating to last week’s tragedy on set in New Mexico

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