Jessica Walter, star of Arrested Development, dies aged 80

The Emmy-winning actor, who also starred in Play Misty For Me and Grand Prix, died at her home in New York

Actor Jessica Walter has died at the age of 80.

Walter, best known for her Emmy-winning role as Lucille Bluth in Arrested Development, died in her sleep at her New York home.

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‘Dimming the sun’: $100m geoengineering research programme proposed

All options to fight climate crisis must be explored, says national academy, but critics fear side-effects

The US should establish a multimillion-dollar research programme on solar geoengineering, according to the country’s national science academy.

In a report it recommends funding of $100m (£73m) to $200m over five years to better understand the feasibility of interventions to dim the sun, the risk of harmful unintended consequences and how such technology could be governed in an ethical way.

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Gun reform laws eluded Biden in 2013. Could this showdown with the NRA be different?

The Sandy Hook shooting failed to convince Congress to enact more regulations. In the wake of recent shootings, calls for reform have begun

Within hours of 10 people being gunned down at the King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado on Monday – the second such bloody rampage in seven days – the calls had begun for Congress to tighten up America’s notoriously slack firearms laws.

John Hickenlooper, a Democratic US senator from Colorado who was governor of the state at the time of the Aurora cinema shooting that killed 12 people in 2012, opined that “our country has a horrific problem with gun violence. We need federal action. Now.”

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Haiti deportations soar as Biden administration deploys Trump-era health order

There have been more ‘Title 42’ expulsions in the space of a few weeks than during an entire year of Trump’s administration, report says

The Biden administration has so far deported more Haitians in a few weeks than the Trump administration did in a whole year, with the use of a highly controversial Trump-era public health order denying asylum seekers basic legal rights, according to a new report.

The report, The Invisible Wall, due to be published on Thursday by a coalition of immigrant rights groups, focuses on Title 42, part of the 1944 Public Health Service Act invoked a year ago by the Trump administration as grounds for summary expulsion of migrants because of the supposed health risk they posed during the Covid pandemic.

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‘Saddest March of our lives’: Brazilians lament Covid devastation as critics decry Bolsonaro

As country reaches 300,000 fatalities, doctors condemn ‘politics of death’ but pledge to fight on

Like so many on Brazil’s left, Pedro Carvalho was certain Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency would prove a nightmare: for human rights, for the environment and for the national health system the 41-year-old doctor cherishes and serves.

“I felt this profound sadness, just utter, personal sadness,” Carvalho remembered of the fateful moment in October 2018 that the far-right populist was confirmed as his country’s new leader.

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Virginia becomes the first southern state to end the death penalty

Ban comes after a yearslong battle by Democrats in the state, which previously had US’s second-highest number of executions

Virginia has become the 23rd US state and the first in the south to abolish the death penalty, a dramatic shift for the commonwealth which previously had the nation’s second-highest number of executions.

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Oscars ‘no Zoom’ policy proving a headache for overseas nominees

Publicists and studio executives have reportedly complained about logistics, costs and quarantine issues

The “no Zoom” policy for this year’s Oscars ceremony is proving a headache for multiple nominees who live outside the United States and who are still under pandemic restrictions, according to Hollywood publications.

Variety and Deadline Hollywood reported on Wednesday that publicists and some studio executives have complained to the film academy about logistics, costs and quarantine issues raised by the decision to bar nominees from taking part in the ceremony remotely.

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Elderly Asian woman who fought attacker donates nearly $1m from GoFundMe

Fundraiser was created to cover Xiao Zhen Xie’s medical expenses after she was punched in San Francisco

An elderly Asian woman who received nearly $1m on GoFundMe after she fought back against someone randomly attacking her is planning to donate all of the money to her community to fight racism, her family has announced.

The violent incident against Xiao Zhen Xie was one of many recent attacks against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in America. Stop AAPI Hate tracked nearly 3,800 discriminatory incidents that occured against this community from 19 March 2020 to 28 February 2021.

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Prince Harry joins US initiative to tackle fake news

Commission on Information Disorder aims to address ‘avalanche of misinformation’, says Harry

Prince Harry has added another job to the burgeoning portfolio career he has built up since relinquishing his royal duties, by joining a US initiative to tackle fake news.

The Duke of Sussex has been named as one of 15 members of the Commission on Information Disorder set up by the Aspen Institute thinktank. Announcing the move, the prince said he was keen to tackle the “avalanche of misinformation” in the digital world and argued this had become a “humanitarian issue”.

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‘It will save lives’: Joe Biden calls for gun reform after Colorado shooting – video

In his first remarks on the supermarket shooting in Boulder, Colorado, that killed 10 people on Monday, Joe Biden called on Congress to move quickly to toughen the country's gun laws, asking lawmakers to close the loopholes in the background checks system and ban assault weapon and high-capacity magazines. Biden homed in on closing what is known as the Charleston loophole – a provision in federal law that gives a gun seller discretion on whether to proceed with a sale if the FBI fails to determine within three business days if a buyer is eligible to purchase a gun

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The US has been silent on Honduras’s drug problem, but that might be about to change

Analysis: The Biden administration is expected to take a cooler approach to President Hernández than Donald Trump did

For the US, this is a painfully embarrassing fortnight to count Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández as a key ally in Central America.

On Monday he was named in a New York federal courtroom as a co-conspirator in the conviction of his associate, Geovanny Fuentes Ramirez, for smuggling tons of cocaine into the US, and receiving a $250,000 bribe from Fuentes, an alleged drug kingpin.

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Biden calls on Congress to pass assault weapons ban after Boulder shooting – live

President also urges Senate to pass bills to close background checks loopholes

Earlier, while he was touring the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute in Columbus, Biden was asked if he thinks he has the political capital to get gun control measures passed through the Senate.

“I hope so,” he said, his fingers crossed per the White House press pool report.

.@POTUS crosses his fingers as he's asked about the possibility of gun control legislation, during a tour of the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute in Columbus, Ohio. pic.twitter.com/qMZ3soPuGJ

Hours after America's second mass shooting in a week, Sen. John Kennedy downplays the gun problem by noting that "we have a lot of drunk drivers in America that kill a lot of people. We ought to try to combat that too ... the answer is not to get rid of all sober drivers." pic.twitter.com/BvqhNvuWRJ

Getting vaccinated and following public health guidelines are patriotic duties, Biden said.

“We need all Americans to keep washing their hands, stay socially distanced, wearing their masks,” he said. “Get vaccinated, when it’s your turn. It’s a patriotic responsibility.

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China threat to invade Taiwan is ‘closer than most think’, says US admiral

  • China considers recovering control of Taiwan its ‘No 1 priority’
  • Adm John Aquilino is nominated to head Indo-Pacific Command

The Chinese threat to invade Taiwan is serious and more imminent than many understand, the US admiral chosen to lead the Pentagon’s Indo-Pacific region has warned.

China considers recovering control over Taiwan its “No 1 priority”, Adm John Aquilino, nominated to become commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, told the Senate armed services committee on Tuesday.

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Boulder shooting: suspect and 10 victims named by police

Boulder police released the names of the 10 people shot and killed at a Colorado grocery store on Monday and said the victims were between 20 and 65.

Related: US gun-safety groups call for urgent action after Colorado shooting

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Tributes paid to victims in Boulder supermarket shooting

Eric Talley, a father of seven, was first officer to respond to reports of shots fired. Other victims ranged in age from 20 to 65 years old

A police officer whose father said he was looking for a less dangerous line of work was among 10 victims of a shooting at a crowded Colorado supermarket on Monday night.

Related: Boulder shooting: suspect and 10 victims named by police

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Pro-Trump lawyer says ‘no reasonable person’ would believe her election lies

Lawyers for Sidney Powell argued conspiracies she laid out constituted legally protected first amendment speech

A key member of the legal team that sought to steal the 2020 election for Donald Trump is defending herself against a billion-dollar defamation lawsuit by arguing that “no reasonable person” could have mistaken her wild claims about election fraud last November as statements of fact.

Related: Senate filibuster reform would produce 'nuclear winter', says Mitch McConnell

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Prince Harry joins $1bn Silicon Valley startup as senior executive

Duke of Sussex’s first formal role since ending royal duties involves ‘meaty role’ as chief impact officer at BetterUp

Prince Harry has been given a job by a $1bn (£730m) Silicon Valley startup which provides professional coaching, mental health advice and “immersive learning” as its chief impact officer.

The Duke of Sussex said he hoped to be able to use his own experiences using the “the power of transforming pain into purpose” to help BetterUp’s clients with “proactive coaching” for personal development, as well as achieve “an all-round better life”.

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‘I couldn’t help anybody’: customer describes escape from Colorado shooting – video

A shooting at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, has left 10 people dead, including one police officer. One witness, Sarah Moonshadow, said she and her son were at the checkout when she heard multiple gunshots. The two ducked for cover and then started running to leave the store. The shaken customer said she took shelter behind a building, but her dog was still at the grocery store

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‘She’s representing all of us’: the story behind Deb Haaland’s swearing-in dress

The skirt, a traditional Native garment, outshone everything in the Eisenhower building – and there is a story of empowerment and survival behind it

It was a dress that triggered a flood of headlines. Standing in front of Vice-President Kamala Harris with her right hand raised, Deb Haaland was sworn in last week as the secretary of the interior dressed in a long rainbow ribbon skirt adorned with a corn stalk, butterflies and stars.

Related: Making history in style: Deb Haaland wears Indigenous dress at swearing-in

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