Police say officer who shot and killed unarmed Daunte Wright intended to fire Taser

Brooklyn Center police chief describes fatal shooting of Black man, 20, as result of ‘accidental discharge’ from handgun

Police in a Minneapolis suburb said an officer accidentally shot and killed a 20-year-old Black man on Sunday afternoon during a traffic stop, releasing graphic body-camera footage they say shows the officer intended to use a Taser not a handgun during the death of unarmed Daunte Wright.

Related: ‘They didn’t have to kill him’: anger and outrage as locals mourn Daunte Wright

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Whitmer won’t go ‘punch for punch’ with Republican who called her a witch

  • Governor and others ‘ready for burning at stake’, GOP chair said
  • Democrat laments ‘layer of misogyny’ towards female leaders

Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, will not “go punch for punch” with Republican leaders in the state who have attacked her in misogynistic terms, one going so far as to call Whitmer and two other leading Democrats “three witches” set to be “burned at the stake”.

Related: ‘Dumb son of a bitch’: Trump attacks McConnell in Republican donors speech

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Secretary of state Blinken hits out at China over Taiwan and Covid

Joe Biden’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Sunday the US is concerned about China’s aggressive actions against Taiwan and warned it would be a “serious mistake” for anyone to try to change the status quo in the western Pacific by force.

Related: Chaos Under Heaven: Trump as raging bull in a China policy shop

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Ukrainian soldier reportedly killed in artillery fire from Russia-backed troops

Attacks have intensified in recent weeks as Kremlin assembles troops along border

The Ukrainian military said a soldier was killed and another seriously wounded in artillery fire from Russia-backed separatist rebels, as hostilities rose sharply in the east of the country.

As of the reported attack on Sunday, Ukraine says 27 soldiers have been killed in the east this year, more than half the number who died in all of 2020. Attacks have intensified in recent weeks and Russia has built up troops along the Ukraine border.

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‘No community should suffer this’: Florida’s toxic breach was decades in the making

A leak at an abandoned fertilizer plant is just the latest development at a site that has polluted the area since it was built

It’s been a week since a significant leak at a long-abandoned fertilizer plant in the Tampa Bay area threatened the surrounding groundwater, soil, and local water supplies.

Last weekend, officials ordered more than 300 families living near the 676-acre Piney Point plant site in Manatee county to evacuate. The sheriff even emptied out his jail’s first floor of inmates in case a “20-foot wall of water” came rolling their way.

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Britain risks damaging reputation by keeping Julian Assange in jail, says partner

Stella Moris says continued detention of WikiLeaks founder is compromising UK’s global standing

Britain would be on stronger ground campaigning against authoritarian regimes if it pressed the Biden administration to drop its call to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges, Stella Moris, Assange’s partner, has told the Guardian.

Moris – who has two children with Assange – is trying to broaden the campaign of support for him by pointing to the global damage caused to the UK’s reputation by keeping him in jail for so long.

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Nasa preparing to attempt first controlled flight on another world

The Ingenuity helicopter, which arrived on the red planet in February, is expected to take to the skies on Wednesday

Nasa is gearing up to attempt the first controlled flight on another planet next week, with the tiny Ingenuity helicopter on Mars.

The helicopter is expected to take to the skies next week, with Wednesday being the earliest time scheduled.

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Ghislaine Maxwell: prosecutors defend new indictment as July trial looms

  • Defense complains of ‘gamesmanship’ and may seek trial delay
  • Arraignment on new charges due in New York this month

Prosecutors in the case of Ghislaine Maxwell have defended a late expansion of charges against her, saying it became necessary because a woman spoke after the Briton’s arrest about abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein in the early 2000s.

Related: Ghislaine Maxwell faces new charges, including sex trafficking of a minor

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‘Clear the Capitol’: Pence plea amid riot retold in dramatic Pentagon document

Previously undisclosed internal report reveals how officials sought to re-establish order during 6 January attack

A previously undisclosed document prepared by the Pentagon for internal use reveals dramatic new details about how authorities sought to quell the attack on the Capitol on 6 January and re-establish order – and how such help took agonising hours in coming.

Related: Why aren't we calling the Capitol attack an act of treason?

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Baby dies in ‘tragic’ shooting by three-year-old brother, Houston police say

  • Eight-month-old dies in hospital after shooting at apartment
  • Police urge gun owners to lock up firearms: ‘This is tragic event’

Police believe an infant was fatally shot on Friday by his three-year-old brother after the older boy got a hold of a gun inside a Houston apartment.

The infant was shot in his abdomen on Friday morning, said Houston assistant police chief Wendy Baimbridge.

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Ray Lambert, US army medic wounded on D-Day, dies aged 100

  • Lambert also took part in invasions of north Africa and Sicily
  • Alabama native was in first wave at Omaha Beach in 1944

Ray Lambert, a US army medic who survived multiple wounds on D-Day and was saluted by a president on the 75th anniversary of the battle, died on Friday. He was 100.

Lambert died at home in Seven Lakes, North Carolina, with his wife and daughter by his side, said neighbor and friend Dr Darrell Simpkins. The physician, who accompanied Lambert to France in June 2019, said the veteran succumbed to an aggressive form of facial cancer and congestive heart failure.

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‘Truth will prevail’: Matt Gaetz takes break from scandal to speak at Trump club

  • Congressman faces allegations over sex, drugs and nude photos
  • Women for America First also helped organise 6 January rally

The Florida congressman Matt Gaetz insisted on Friday “the truth will prevail” over allegations of sex trafficking and illegal drug use which have pitched him into the centre of a congressional scandal.

Related: Republican Matt Gaetz faces calls to resign from member of his own party

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The scandal that wasn’t: Republicans deflated as nation shrugs at Hunter Biden revelations

Trump and his allies foresaw a ticking timebomb centred on the president’s son – but it has not turned out that way

Where’s Hunter?

The rhetorical question about Joe Biden’s troubled son was posed time and again by Donald Trump during last year’s US presidential election but never caught fire in the way “Lock her up!” did against Hillary Clinton.

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How an arcane budget provision could let Democrats advance their agenda

Senate parliamentarian’s decision widens path for Democrats to enact Joe Biden’s sprawling infrastructure plan

A novel interpretation of an arcane parliamentary procedure has presented congressional Democrats with an unexpected – and tantalizing – new opportunity to advance some of their most ambitious legislative goals despite their slim majorities and fierce Republican opposition.

This week, the Senate parliamentarian determined that Democrats can employ a fast-track process known as budget reconciliation more times than previously understood, potentially allowing them to pass multiple legislative packages without any Republican support before next year’s midterm elections – if they can keep their own members in line.

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Proud Boys and other far-right groups raise millions via Christian funding site

Revealed: groups banned from other sites fundraising on GiveSendGo as data breach identifies high-dollar donors

A data breach from Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo has revealed that millions of dollars have been raised on the site for far-right causes and groups, many of whom are banned from raising funds on other platforms.

Related: How the far-right group ‘Oath Enforcers’ plans to harass political enemies

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‘Kill the bill’ and trans visibility: human rights this fortnight in pictures

A round-up of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Mexico to China

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‘These are our homes’: LA gay bars fight to stay afloat after year of shutdown

Historic queer institutions across southern California that have been safe spaces for LGBTQ+ crowds for decades are in danger of closing permanently

Four iconic Los Angeles gay bars, touting a combined history of 130 years, have permanently closed during the pandemic and many more have warned that they are on the brink of shutdown.

Related: An order of queer and trans 'nuns' in San Francisco take on an unholy year

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Marine scientists ‘alarmed’ after four gray whales found dead in San Francisco Bay

Deaths discovered over a course of nine days are ‘just the tip of the iceberg’ for the species, says expert

Four dead gray whales have washed ashore on San Francisco Bay Area beaches in the last nine days, with experts saying on Friday one had been struck by a ship. They were trying to determine how the other three had died.

“It’s alarming to respond to four dead gray whales in just over a week because it really puts into perspective the current challenges faced by this species,” says Dr Padraig Duignan, the director of pathology at the Marine Mammal Center.

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House ethics committee opens Matt Gaetz misconduct investigation – live

The FBI has arrested a man involved in the Jan.6 attack on the US Capitol, who allegedly had plans to detonate a bomb to take down the FBI, CIA, and other agencies, the Washington Post reports.

Seth Aaron Pendley was arrested Thursday, Justice Department officials said, after he allegedly sought materials for explosives from an undercover FBI agent. His plans, according to a criminal complaint, hinged on bombing the Amazon Web Services building in Ashburn, Va, in an attempt to disable Internet access in key government agencies, hinder operations, and upset “the oligarchy”.

Feds just charged Seth Aaron Pendley, 28, of Wichita Falls, with trying to blow up a data center in Virginia. Allege he tried to buy an explosive device from an undercover FBI employee in Ft. Worth, bragged to friends on Facebook he was at Jan. 6 Capitol attack @CourthouseNews pic.twitter.com/EHMk5z3QFH

The case highlights a growing concern among law enforcement and terrorism experts that the insurrection could inspire further domestic terrorist attacks, and officials praised the unidentified person who first alerted them to Pendley’s online posts.

‘We are indebted to the concerned citizen who came forward to report the defendant’s alarming online rhetoric, said Prerak Shah, the acting U.S. attorney in Dallas. “In flagging his posts to the FBI, this individual may have saved the lives of a number of tech workers’”.

As the Biden Administration scrambles to make space for the growing number of people crossing the US-Mexico border, officials announced that migrant families will now be held at hotels in Arizona, the Associated Press reports.

According to a statement from Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement will takeover several hotels in the Phoenix area along the southwest border.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — which places unaccompanied children with “sponsors,” most often parents and close relatives — has found space in convention centers, military bases and other large venues. Los Angeles County officials said Friday that its fairgrounds will be used to temporarily house up to 2,500 unaccompanied children.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican and frequent Biden critic, asked the administration to close a holding facility for unaccompanied children at the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio, citing allegations that they aren’t getting enough to eat and boys are unsupervised in showers.

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Republican Matt Gaetz faces calls to resign from member of his own party

Adam Kinzinger tweeted that congressman ‘needs to resign’ and linked to article claiming Gaetz paid $900 to accused sex trafficker

The House ethics committee on Friday announced it will open an investigation into the Republican congressman Matt Gaetz, amid a widening scandal involving allegations related to sex trafficking.

In a statement the committee said it was aware of the public allegations that Gaetz may have engaged in “sexual misconduct and/or illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift, in violation of House Rules, laws, or other standards of conduct.”

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