Category Archives: US News

Swipes at China as Joe Biden and Japanese PM seek united front in Asia Pacific

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In his first in-person summit since taking office, the US president hosts Yoshihide Suga as part of efforts to face down Beijing

Joe Biden has sought to present a united front with Japan’s prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, to counter an increasingly assertive China as the US president held his first face-to-face White House summit since taking office.

Biden hosted Suga for talks on Friday that offered the Democratic president a chance to work further on his pledge to revitalise US alliances that frayed under his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump.

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Far-right Oath Keepers member is first suspect to plead guilty in US Capitol riot

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Jon Ryan Schaffer gave a guilty plea in hopes of getting a lighter sentence and will be considered for a witness security program

A member of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group and heavy metal guitarist has become the first defendant to plead guilty to federal charges in connection with the insurrection at the US Capitol.

Jon Ryan Schaffer, the frontman of the band Iced Earth, has agreed on Friday to cooperate with investigators in hopes of getting a lighter sentence, and the Justice Department will consider putting Schaffer in the federal witness security program, a US district judge said.

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Judge rejects Ghislaine Maxwell’s bid to dismiss charges that she recruited girls

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  • Epstein non-prosecution deal ruled not to protect Maxwell
  • Judge agrees Maxwell can be prosecuted separately for perjury

A judge on Friday rejected Ghislaine Maxwell’s arguments to toss charges that she recruited three teenaged girls from 1994 to 1997 for her then boyfriend, Jeffrey Epstein, to sexually abuse.

A US judge in Manhattan denied claims that a non-prosecution agreement Epstein reached with federal prosecutors over a dozen years ago protects Maxwell from prosecution.

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Biden walks back refugee admissions policy after outcry and will lift cap in May

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President condemned by progressives and advocacy groups despite ending ban on arrivals from Somalia, Syria and Yemen

Facing swift blowback from fellow lawmakers and aid groups, the White House on Friday said that Joe Biden plans to lift his predecessor’s historically low cap on refugees by next month, after initially moving only to expand the eligibility criteria for resettlements.

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Adam Toledo shooting renews calls for Chicago police accountability yet again

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Hundreds have attended protests, demanding transparency and justice in a city with a long history of racist policing

Chicago has repeatedly grappled with cases of police misconduct and police-involved shootings, and the fatal shooting of 13 year-old Adam Toledo by Chicago police has renewed demands for justice and accountability yet again.

Eric Stillman, a Chicago police officer, shot and killed Adam following a foot pursuit by officers on 29 March. When the shooting happened, Adam was with Ruben Roman, 21, who has since been charged with several felonies in connection to that night including reckless discharge of a firearm and child endangerment.

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Pentagon confirms leaked photos and video of UFOs are legitimate

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US defense department says images of blinking triangular object in the sky and other UFOs were taken by navy personnel in 2019

Furthering the growing interest in unidentified flying objects, or what the US government refers to as unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), the Department of Defense confirmed on Thursday that recently leaked photos and videos of UFOs were legitimate and taken by navy personnel.

Sue Gough, a spokesperson for the Pentagon, confirmed to CNN that images and footage of a blinking triangular object in the sky, along with other UAPs that were categorized as a “sphere”, “acorn” and “metallic blimp”, were taken by navy personnel in 2019.

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The Apache war against copper mining: ‘this is an act of desecration’ — video

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Chí’chil Biłdagoteel - otherwise known as Oak Flat, Arizona – is regarded as sacred ancestral land by the Apache people. With the territory at risk of being sold for copper mining to a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, resident Wendsler Nosie has set up a protest movement from his tipi, alongside his daughter and granddaughter. With no support from the courts, Wendsler and the community are anxiously hoping the Biden administration will pause the land transfer. With religious freedom and environmental protection at risk, they await the call with further news


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Indianapolis shooting: eight killed at FedEx facility

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Multiple other people injured before suspected gunman killed himself, say police

At least eight people have been shot dead at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis and the suspected gunman has killed himself, police say.

Multiple other people were injured and went to local hospitals, a police spokesperson, Genae Cook, said at an early morning news conference on Friday.

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Chicago mayor urges calm as police release footage of Adam Toledo’s killing – video

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At a press conference before the release of footage – which appears to show a Chicago police officer fatally shooting 13-year-old Adam Toledo last month as he raises his hands to the air – the city's mayor, Lori Lightfoot, describes  the video as 'incredibly difficult to watch, particularly at the end'. She says it is understandable why residents feel an 'all-too-familiar surge of outrage and pain' but urges each resident to wait till they hear all the facts 

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US-made guns are ripping Central America apart and driving migration north | Ioan Grillo

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An iron river of illegal guns flows from the US to Mexico, Central America, and across the hemisphere

The stray bullet from the gang fight struck Katery Ramos when she was 12 years old, playing on the dirt street in the poor Planeta neighbourhood of San Pedro Sula, Honduras. “I was standing up for a moment, afterwards I fell,” she told me, sitting with her mother in a scrubby field near her home.

Related: Biden strikes international deal in bid to stop migrants reaching US border

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Simon & Schuster refuses to distribute book by officer who shot Breonna Taylor

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US publishing giant was due to distribute Jonathan Mattingly’s The Fight for Truth for rightwing outlet Post Hill Press

Simon & Schuster has said that it will not be distributing a book by one of the police officers who shot Breonna Taylor, after a small publisher whose books are distributed through S&S announced the book to widespread criticism.

The Fight for Truth: The Inside Story Behind the Breonna Taylor Tragedy is by Sgt Jonathan Mattingly, a Louisville, Kentucky, officer who shot Taylor and was wounded in the raid on her home in March last year. The book is being published by Post Hill Press, a small independent that specialises in “conservative politics” and Christian titles, and home to authors including far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer and the embattled Republican congressman Matt Gaetz.

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Indianapolis shooting: eight killed at FedEx facility, police say – video

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At least eight people have been shot and killed at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis. The suspected gunman killed himself, police have said. Multiple other people were injured and taken to local hospitals, a police spokesperson, Genae Cook, said at an early morning news conference on Friday

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Adam Toledo did not have a gun in his hand, says family lawyer – video

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Adam Toledo, a 13-year old boy shot and killed by a Chicago police officer, was not carrying a gun, his family's lawyer has said, contrary to claims made by the police department. Officials released to the public graphic body-camera footage showing an officer shooting Adam, who appeared to have his hands raised. 'Those videos speak for themselves,' said Adeena J Weiss-Ortiz, the family's lawyer. 'Adam, during his last second of life, did not have a gun in his hand'

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Video appears to show Chicago police shooting Adam Toledo, 13, as he raised his hands

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Chicago mayor urges calm in the city as body-cam footage of fatal shooting of Toledo is released for first time

Body camera video footage released for the first time on Thursday appears to show a Chicago police officer fatally shooting Adam Toledo, a 13-year-old, as he raised his hands into the air.

The footage has ignited fresh outrage in the city where Toledo was shot last month. On Thursday, Chicago’s mayor, Lori Lightfoot, stood alongside Latino community leaders and called for calm.

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‘Justice isn’t even a word to me’: Daunte Wright’s parents speak out after shooting – video

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The family of Daunte Wright expressed their grief and shock after he was shot dead by a white police officer in Minnesota last Sunday. His mother, Katie Wright, said it was impossible for her to imagine justice for her son's death. 'We're never going to be able to see our baby boy again,' she said. Wright's father, Aubrey, said: 'He was a good kid. And the way he was killed, he did not deserve that. Can you blame my son for being scared of the police?'

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Fauci spars with Republican congressman over when to lift Covid restrictions – live

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House minority leader Kevin McCarthy wished Mike Pence a speedy recovery, after the former vice-president’s office said he had a pacemaker implanted yesterday.

“Wishing my friend @Mike_Pence a swift recovery. Judy and I are thinking of you as you overcome this challenge—you are in our prayers,” McCarthy said on Twitter.

Wishing my friend @Mike_Pence a swift recovery. Judy and I are thinking of you as you overcome this challenge—you are in our prayers. https://t.co/UPt1Lwa8k0

The CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla, has said people will “likely” need a third coronavirus vaccine dose within a year, with annual revaccinations also a possibility.

“We need to see what would be the sequence, and for how often we need to do that, that remains to be seen,” Bourla told a CNBC reporter during an event with CVS Health. The CEO’s comments were released today, but they were filmed two weeks ago.

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Advocates say kids’ Instagram product would ‘put young users at great risk’

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Children’s health advocates urged Mark Zuckerberg to abandon the plan citing the negative effects of social media on children

An international coalition of children’s health advocates has called on Facebook to abandon its plans to build an Instagram product for kids, citing harm to teens from excessive use of social media.

The campaign comes after Buzzfeed broke the news in March that Facebook seeks to build an Instagram product for people under the age of 13. The company currently requires users to be 13 years or older to create an account.

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Whitest-ever paint could help cool heating Earth, study shows

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New paint reflects 98% of sunlight as well as radiating infrared heat into space, reducing need for air conditioning

The whitest-ever paint has been produced by academic researchers, with the aim of boosting the cooling of buildings and tackling the climate crisis.

The new paint reflects 98% of sunlight as well as radiating infrared heat through the atmosphere into space. In tests, it cooled surfaces by 4.5C below the ambient temperature, even in strong sunlight. The researchers said the paint could be on the market in one or two years.

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Biden hits Russia with new sanctions in response to election meddling

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Ten diplomats expelled as part of fresh package of sanctions announced by US president as Russia says retaliation ‘inevitable’

The Biden administration has announced the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats and broad sanctions against Russian officials and companies in retaliation for Moscow’s interference in elections and cyber-espionage campaigns such as the SolarWinds hack.

The sanctions, which were the Biden’s largest punitive action against the Kremlin yet, also targeted six Russian cybersecurity companies deemed to be involved in the SolarWinds hack, as well as 32 individuals and entities deemed to be involved in efforts to influence the outcome of the 2020 US presidential election.

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George Floyd killing: defense rests case after Derek Chauvin declines to testify

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Both sides will make closing arguments on Monday and the case over the death of George Floyd will then go to the jury

Derek Chauvin declined to testify in his murder trial over the killing of George Floyd as the defence wrapped up its case after just two days of testimony.

Chauvin invoked his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination as he sacrificed the chance to explain to the jury why he kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes and for his lawyers to paint a more sympathetic picture of the police officer. But he also avoided a minute interrogation of his actions and thinking by the prosecution’s cross-examination.

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