US intelligence agencies have only “low to moderate confidence” in reports last year that Russian spies were offering Taliban militants in Afghanistan bounties for killing US soldiers.
The reports in the press citing intelligence sources sparked outrage and demands from Democrats for the Trump administration to confront the Kremlin over the issue.
Continue reading...Package of sanctions could see 10 officials expelled and comes in response to cybersecurity breach of US government
The Biden administration is planning to announce sanctions on Russian officials as soon as Thursday, in a move that will target several individuals and entities, according to several people familiar on the matter.
Continue reading...Former police officer Kimberly Potter was charged with second-degree manslaughter on Wednesday after fatally shooting the 20-year-old Black motorist Daunte Wright, officials said.
The white former suburban Minneapolis police officer was arrested earlier in the day in relation to the shooting dead of Wright during a traffic stop on Sunday in Brooklyn Center, a suburb of Minneapolis.
Continue reading...CDC advisers say they need more evidence to decide if cases of unusual blood clots were linked to the Covid vaccine
Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine will remain in limbo a while longer after US health advisers told the government Wednesday that they need more evidence to decide if a handful of unusual blood clots were linked to the shot – and if so, how big the potential risk really is.
The reports are exceedingly rare – six cases out of more than 7m US inoculations with the one-dose vaccine. But the government recommended a pause in Johnson & Johnson vaccinations this week, not long after European regulators declared that such clots are a rare but possible risk with the AstraZeneca vaccine, a shot made in a similar way but not yet approved for use in the US.
Continue reading...Dr David Fowler, testifying for the defense, also said vehicle exhaust may have played a part in Floyd’s death
A leading forensic pathologist has told the Derek Chauvin trial that George Floyd was killed by his heart condition and drug use.
Dr David Fowler, testifying for the defence, also introduced the idea that vehicle exhaust may have played a part in Floyd’s death by raising the amount of carbon monoxide in his blood and affecting his heart.
Continue reading...Joe Biden has declared that it is time ‘to end America’s longest war’, announcing that nearly 10,000 US and Nato troops would return home in the run-up to the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Biden said he was the fourth US president to serve in office during the US-led fight against the Taliban. ‘I will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth,’ he said
After 20 years of liberty, female education is once again threatened by hardline Islamists
Outside a college from which their mothers were banned, the women waited for friends finishing exams they fear will be some of the last they can take. “The Americans are leaving,” said Basireh Heydari, a Herat University student. “We have terrible days ahead with the Taliban. I’m worried they won’t let me leave the house, let alone what I’m doing now.”
The Biden administration’s decision to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan by 11 September will bring an end to the US’s longest war. With Nato allies such as Germany already announcing on Wednesday that they will follow Washington’s lead and exit the country, Afghans fear an intensification of fighting between the national government and the Taliban, who were ousted by the US-led intervention two decades ago.
Continue reading...Three European countries say there is no ‘credible civilian need’ for enriching uranium to 60%
France, Germany and the UK have warned that Iran took a dangerous step towards the production of a nuclear weapon by enriching uranium to levels for which there is no “credible civilian need”.
Tehran, which claims its nuclear ambitions are limited to creating energy, announced this week it was boosting its levels of uranium enrichment to 60%, just short of weapons-grade purity. The 2015 nuclear deal only allows enrichment to a purity level of 3.67%.
Continue reading...Bernard Madoff, the one-time Wall Street titan who orchestrated one of the largest frauds in history, has died in prison aged 82.
Madoff, known as Bernie, was a former chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange, and was regarded for years as an investment sage. But unbeknown to his thousands of victims, he was running a Ponzi scheme that wiped out at least $17.5bn in savings.
Continue reading...Protesters were dispersed by police with flashbangs and gas grenades in the third night of demonstrations and unrest after the death of a black man shot by a white police officer during a traffic stop. The two officers who stopped Daunte Wright, 20, resigned two days after his death in Brooklyn Center on Sunday.
Across town, at Hennepin county courthouse, relatives of Daunte Wright and George Floyd talked about the two cases of fatal police violence. ‘The world is traumatised, watching another African American man being slain,’ said George Floyd’s brother
Continue reading...As the Biden administration enlists its neighbours in attempts to slow the flow of people, families seeking a future free from hunger and violence journey on
Groups of men, women and children stepped off small boats and on to Mexican soil without showing their documents to anyone.
Drivers quickly bundled them into taxis which sped past an immigration office to a nearby crossroad, where the travelers climbed into a vans for the next leg of their journey toward the US border.
Continue reading...As the US entered the latest phase of the fight against the pandemic, photographer Filip Wolak felt it was important to capture the unprecedented efforts that the healthcare communities put into place to help mitigate the virus’s lasting effects.
This photo project attempts to capture the largest vaccination sites across the country. Some of the sites pictured were documented in their early stages when the vaccination supply was still limited – Wolak hopes to return to them again.
The photographs were taken from a small airplane, overflying the locations at a high altitude. This point of view allowed Wolak to capture the magnitude of these efforts. In some of the cases, multiple images were combined into one, which allowed a wider reach without degradation of details
Continue reading...Skaters, dancers, hustlers, boxers … Swiss photographer Willy Spiller prowled the streets of the Big Apple from 1977 to 1985, capturing characters from all walks of life
Continue reading...Analysis: Despite warnings not enough has been done to stablise the country, the president has decided to set aside the rule ‘if you break it, you fix it’
Joe Biden has decided that 20 years is enough for America’s longest war, and has ordered the remaining troops out no matter what happens between now and September.
Biden’s withdrawal is one area of continuity with his predecessor, although unlike Donald Trump, this administration consulted the Afghans, US allies and its own agencies before announcing the decision. But both presidents were responding to a national weariness of “forever wars”.
Continue reading...Police chief had said that officer Kim Potter meant to fire her Taser but fired her service weapon by mistake, killing the 20-year-old
Kim Potter, the white Minnesota police officer who fatally shot the Black resident Daunte Wright during a traffic stop, and her chief of police, Tim Gannon, resigned on Tuesday.
Their resignations come after two nights of protests in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center over Sunday’s killing of Wright, who was unarmed when he was pulled over for a traffic violation on Sunday.
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Asked about Joe Biden’s speech tomorrow on the path forward in Afghanistan, Jen Psaki declined to provide specific details on the plan that the president will propose.
But the White House press secretary did say this: “The president has been consistent in his view that there is not a military solution to Afghanistan, that we have been there for far too long.”
White House Covid-19 task force coordinator Jeff Zeints said a “pause” in Johnson & Johnson vaccine administration would not affect national vaccine distribution, despite that some officials expected to rely on the one-shot vaccine in rural and isolated communities.
“We have enough to continue the current pace of about 3 million shots per day, 200 million shots by [Joe Biden’s] 100th day in office,” Zeints said in the White House briefing room.
He later added: “We have enough supply of Moderna and Pfizer… to head toward the Fourth of July we’ve talked about as a country.”
Six cases of blood clots and low platelet counts in women between 18 and 48 caused the CDC and FDA to recommend states pause administration of the vaccine while potential links between the vaccine and very rare syndrome are investigated. More than 6 million Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses have been administered in the US.
Officials have said there are similarities between the syndrome being investigated and those associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine in Europe and Australia. The AstraZeneca vaccine is not available in the US. Both vaccines from Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca share a vaccine technology called an “viral vector”. If a link was established, the syndrome would still be exceedingly rare, affecting less than one in one million people vaccinated.
Health authorities said it was also important to pause the administration and announce it to the public because of the treatment needed for patients who may be suffering from such clots. Standard treatment for blood clots uses heparin, a blood thinner. In this syndrome, officials said heparin could be “dangerous” and make the syndrome worse.
“When individuals, particularly younger women, come into a physician with a thrombotic phenomenon, we want to alert physicians to take a history of a recent vaccination,” said Dr Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical advisor. “That would be important.”
The White House had “no involvement” in the announcement about a “pause” in administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the US. Zeints said the administration is “ruled by science,” and would wait for health officials’ investigation.
As to whether the very rare potential side effect could increase vaccine hesitancy, particularly in rural areas where the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was expected to be deployed, Zeints and Fauci said the pause represents how seriously the FDA takes patient safety.
“Hesitancy amongst a group of people is a challenge,” said Zeints. “The FDA acting the way they did today shows they are indeed the gold standard, and I think that should reassure the American public they are very diligent.”
Flu-like side effects in the days immediately following vaccine administration are common established side effects, and would typically resolve within a few days. In all six cases, the blood clotting events occurred between six and 13 days after any of the patients received a vaccine.
Symptoms of the clotting syndrome include severe headache, shortness of breath, abdominal and leg pain. People experiencing such symptoms roughly one to three weeks after receiving the vaccine should seek medical attention. People who received the vaccine more than one month ago are at “very low” risk for complications.
Joe Biden will withdraw all the remaining US troops from Afghanistan by September 11, the 20th anniversary of the al-Qaida terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, a senior administration official has confirmed.
Related: Secretary of state Blinken hits out at China over Taiwan and Covid
Continue reading...Tehran responds as foreign minister accuses Israel of ‘bad gamble’ in targeting Natanz nuclear plant
Iran is to boost its levels of uranium enrichment to 60%, just short of weapons grade purity, in response to Israel’s attack on the Natanz nuclear facility, the country’s deputy foreign minister has announced.
Seyed Abbas Araghchi broke the news as he arrived in Vienna for the start of talks this week on how to revive the 2015 nuclear deal and bring back both the US and Iran into compliance.
Continue reading...Azaria, who is white, voiced the role of the Indian American shopkeeper from show’s inception in 1989 but stood down last year
The actor Hank Azaria has apologised “to every single Indian person” for his portrayal of Apu in The Simpsons.
Azaria, who is white, voiced the role of the Indian American shopkeeper from the show’s inception in 1989 but stood down last year amid criticism of racial stereotyping. He said he was willing to be held accountable for its “negative consequences”.
Continue reading...US president proposed a summit between the two leaders amid growing concern over Russian military buildup on Ukraine border
In a phone call with Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden has called on Russia to de-escalate tensions with Ukraine and proposed a summit between the two leaders amid growing concern over a Russian military buildup on Ukraine’s border.
The president emphasized the United States’s unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and expressed concern about Russia’s military buildup, the White House said.
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