The US president claimed Modi had assured him of deal, but Indian officials insist no such conversation took place
India has cast doubt on claims by Donald Trump that its prime minister, Narendra Modi, had agreed to stop buying Russian oil.
On Wednesday, Trump claimed that Modi had assured him “today” that India would put an end to its purchase of Russian oil.
Continue reading...Indian-American Ashley Tellis allegedly obtained US military data and passed envelopes to Chinese officials
A prominent Indian-American academic and former US government adviser has been arrested and charged with the unlawful detention of national security information, including thousands of pages of top secret documents that were found at his home in Virginia.
Ashley Tellis, 64, who served on the national security council of the former US president George W Bush and is credited for helping to negotiate the US-India nuclear deal, was arrested and charged over the weekend.
Continue reading...Vice-president downplays messages such as ‘I love Hitler’ in chat by 24- to 35-year-olds as ‘stupid jokes’. Plus, Virginia Giuffre on her abuse at the hands of Epstein and Maxwell
Good morning.
JD Vance sought to downplay the revelation that leaders of a group called the Young Republicans exchanged hundreds of racist, sexist text messages – including one in which rape was called “epic”, and another in which someone wrote “I love Hitler” – as youthful indiscretions.
How old are the people who exchanged the messages? Mother Jones reports that public records indicate that eight of the 11 Republican operatives who took part in the offensive chat appear to range in age from 24 to 35.
What has the US said about the return of the dead hostages? Though well short of the 28 dead hostages expected by Israel, senior US advisers later said they believed Hamas was committed to finding and returning the others.
Continue reading...Exclusive poll: Inflation remains a concern despite president’s pledge to reduce prices on ‘day one’
Nine months after Donald Trump took office, promising to reduce prices on “day one”, a clear majority of Americans say their monthly costs have risen by between $100 and $749, according to an exclusive new poll conducted for the Guardian.
The president has continued to insist that there is “virtually no inflation”. “Prices are ‘WAY DOWN’ in the USA,” Trump wrote on social media in late August.
Continue reading...Mark Ford, extradited from Indiana to New Orleans jail, faces life in prison if convicted of sexual abuse charges
A man working as a Roman Catholic priest in New Orleans positioned himself as a mentor to a young disabled boy grieving two family deaths – and then exploited the proximity to abuse him for years, police allege.
Those details are contained in criminal court records generated by the arrest of Mark Francis Ford in Indiana in September as well as his subsequent transfer to New Orleans’s jail, a process which was completed late on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Treasury secretary Scott Bessent raises possibility of taking more direct stakes in companies to protect national security in wake of Beijing’s curbs on rare earths exports
The Trump administration has criticised China’s increased restrictions on rare earth exports as a threat to global supply chains, and said it would seek to tighten control over strategic sectors by taking more stakes in key companies to counter Beijing.
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent told an event on Wednesday that China’s dramatic new restrictions on rare earth minerals and magnets demonstrated the need for the US to be self-sufficient in critical materials or rely more on trusted allies.
Continue reading...Move marks escalation in Maduro pressure campaign as president says US mulling strikes on Venezuelan territory
Donald Trump said on Wednesday he had authorized the CIA to carry out covert operations in Venezuela, marking a sharp escalation in his administration’s pressure campaign against Nicolás Maduro’s government.
Trump further suggested he was considering strikes on Venezuelan territory, a dramatic step that would go beyond a series of recent lethal attacks on boats in the Caribbean, which Democrats and United Nations experts have forcefully condemned as unlawful.
Continue reading...Outside the supreme court, protesters invoked the legacy of civil rights giants with a key Voting Rights Act plank at stake
Wearing a T-shirt proclaiming “We won’t Black down”, Wanda Mosley had made the trip from Atlanta. “I had to be here because the Voting Rights Act is on life support,” the 55-year-old explained. “Today the court will synthesise the arguments and decide if they’re going to kill it – or allow it to live.”
Mosley was among a few hundred protesters who gathered in warm October sunshine outside the supreme court on Wednesday. Inside the building, whose facade was obscured by scaffolding, justices were weighing arguments in a case involving Louisiana electoral districts and section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
Continue reading...Richard Bilodeau, 63, charged with two counts of murder in 1984 death of Theresa Fusco, 16, of Long Island
Four decades after prosecutors sent the wrong men to prison for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl from Long Island, New York, DNA obtained from a discarded straw has led to the indictment of a new suspect.
A Nassau county grand jury on Tuesday indicted Richard Bilodeau, 63, of Center Moriches, on two counts of murder in the death of 16-year-old Theresa Fusco, who disappeared after leaving her part-time job at a Lynbrook roller-skating rink in November 1984. Her nude body was found weeks after the assault, buried under leaves in a wooded area near the rink.
Continue reading...US defense secretary was returning from a brief trip to Brussels, and everyone onboard was safe, Pentagon said
A plane carrying Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, on Wednesday made an unscheduled landing in the United Kingdom due to a crack in the aircraft’s windshield, the Pentagon said, adding Hegseth was safe.
“The plane landed based on standard procedures and everyone onboard, including Secretary Hegseth, is safe,” Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesperson, said in a post on X.
Continue reading...Fast-fashion retailer records 20% growth in sales and fees to $37bn but big hit is expected from US changes to import tax rules
Shein has reported a 20% rise in global revenues to $37bn (£27.7bn) but profits have fallen as the fast-fashion retailer faced increased costs, even before it felt the impact of recent changes to US tax laws.
The Singaporean parent company of the rapidly growing retailer said pre-tax profits had fallen by 13% to $1.3bn last year from $1.5bn in 2023 after an increase in selling and marketing costs, according to new accounts.
Continue reading...Home affairs minister’s 2024 decision to reject visa application for planned speaking tour on character grounds upheld
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Australia’s high court has unanimously backed the government’s 2024 decision to refuse the rightwing provocateur Candace Owens a visa to enter the country.
The full bench of the court ruled on Wednesday that the minister’s denial did not infringe an implied constitutional freedom of political communication.
Continue reading...Move will allow county board of supervisors to provide rent relief for tenants amid immigration crack down on city
Los Angeles county officials voted Tuesday to declare a state of emergency that gives them power to provide assistance for residents they say have suffered financially from ongoing federal immigration raids.
The move allows the LA county board of supervisors to provide rent relief for tenants who have fallen behind as a result of the crackdown on immigrants. A local state of emergency can also funnel state money for legal aid and other services.
Continue reading...Scientists from University of Tennessee, Knoxville, look at 37 species to identify cause of ‘rat hole’ in pavement
With a front paw outstretched and its tail at an angle, the creature that fell on to wet concrete in Chicago left quite the memento mori.
Now, researchers say they have unmasked the identity of the victim, revealing the famous “rat hole” was most probably made by a squirrel.
Continue reading...US president says ‘we will not be generous’ if leader fails to win key midterms after promising $20bn to prop up struggling economy
Donald Trump has warned he could cut financial aid to Argentina if his ally Javier Milei loses crucial legislative elections later this month.
“If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina,” the US president said as Milei visited the White House to seek the Republican’s political and economic support. “I’m with this man because his philosophy is correct. And he may win and he may not win – I think he’s going to win. And if he wins we are staying with him, and if he doesn’t win we are gone.”
Continue reading...UN has condemned US strikes on small boats it believes to be trafficking drugs as extrajudicial executions
Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the United States has struck another small boat that he accuses of carrying drugs in waters off the coast of Venezuela, killing six people aboard.
“The strike was conducted in International Waters, and six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike,” Trump said in a statement on his Truth Social social media platform. “No U.S. Forces were harmed.”
Continue reading...US president says it should take place in a ‘reasonable period of time’ amid questions over group’s status
Donald Trump has said that Hamas will be forced to disarm after questions swirled around the group’s status following the signing of a peace deal meant to bring an end to the war in Gaza.
Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, Trump said: “If they don’t disarm, we will disarm them and it will happen quickly and perhaps violently.
Continue reading...The administration’s sweeping visa cancellations extend to Mexico’s political elite, alarming allies and rivals alike
The US government has revoked the visas of at least 50 politicians and government officials in Mexico amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on drug cartels and their suspected political allies, according to two Mexican officials.
The move has sent quiet shock waves through Mexico’s political elite, who regularly travel to the US. It also marks a significant broadening of US anti-narcotics action, with the Trump administration targeting active politicians usually seen as too diplomatically sensitive.
Continue reading...Entire offices erased at health agency in Friday move before Trump administration says 700 notices were sent in error
More than a thousand employees at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) received notice that they were losing their jobs on Friday in a move that erased entire offices and was partially reversed over the weekend.
It caused “instability and whiplash”, said Debra Houry, former chief medical officer at the CDC.
Continue reading...Local pastor among victims of huge explosion in rural area where ‘everybody knows each other’
Authorities on Monday identified the 16 people killed in a devastating blast at a rural Tennessee explosives plant on 10 October, as investigators promised a painstaking process to figure out what happened by tracking down pieces of evidence that may now be miles apart.
At a news conference, Chris Davis, the sheriff of Humphreys county, said people in the tight-knit community probably at least knew relatives of the victims killed in the explosion at the plant owned by Accurate Energetic Systems. The company supplies and researches explosives for the military and is a well-known employer in the area.
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