Category Archives: US News

Newt Gingrich: Democrats are trying to ‘brainwash the entire next generation’

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The 77-year-old Republican former House speaker says Trump will ‘remain a dominant figure for a fairly long period of time’

Some blame Donald Trump. Others blame social media. And those with longer memories blame Newt Gingrich for carving up America into blue states and red states racked by mutual fear, suspicion and alienation.

As speaker of the House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999, the Republican arguably did more anyone else to sow the seeds of division in Washington. “Newt Gingrich turned partisan battles into bloodsport, wrecked Congress, and paved the way for Trump’s rise,” reflected the Atlantic magazine in 2018.

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Render unto Rome – contrite tourists return pilfered relics

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Whether compelled by guilt or superstition, more and more tourists are returning items they lifted from Italian cultural sites

Some of the repentant sinners may be compelled by guilt, others by superstition.

But Italian museum curators and archeological officers have observed a trend of tourists who, having pilfered artefacts from cultural sites, return them, years later, with a heartfelt letter of confession.

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How Joe Biden’s cold war experience will shape his approach to Russia

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President-elect’s formative years of going toe-to-toe with the USSR on arms control hint at how he may deal with Putin

It was 1988, near the end of the cold war, when then-senator Joe Biden made yet another visit to the Soviet Union for talks on arms control. By that time, he felt comfortable enough in Moscow to bring a guest into the room: his teenage son.

“Would you mind my son, Hunter Biden, sitting in and listening? The gentleman is interested in international affairs and diplomacy,” he said, according to Victor Prokofiev, the Soviet foreign ministry interpreter at the meeting.

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House Republicans join with Democrats to override Trump’s veto of defence bill

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If, as expected, the Senate follows suit later this week, it will be Congress’s first such rebuke of his presidency

Donald Trump suffered fresh humiliation on Monday when more than a hundred Republicans joined Democrats in the House of Representatives to override his veto of a $741bn defence bill.

If, as expected, the Senate follows suit later this week, it will be Congress’s first such rebuke of his presidency, which has only three weeks left to run.

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Andre Hill: white officer involved in fatal shooting fired amid investigation

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Authorities call killing ‘a tragedy’ after Hill, 47, was shot while holding a cellphone and then denied aid

A white Ohio police officer was fired Monday after bodycam footage showed him fatally shooting Andre Hill, a Black man who was holding a cellphone, then refusing to aid him for several minutes.

Columbus police officer Adam Coy was fired hours after a hearing. His firing was announced in a statement from Ned Pettus Jr, the director of Columbus public safety.

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Nashville explosion: investigators work to find motive behind Christmas blast

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  • Anthony Warner, 63, died in Friday explosion he set off
  • Hundreds of tips and leads given to police and agencies

Federal authorities are working to piece together the motive behind the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville that severely damaged dozens of downtown buildings and injured three people.

Related: Nashville blast: officials identify Anthony Warner as the bomber

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Covid vaccines and $600 payments: key provisions in the US stimulus bill

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The coronavirus relief bill has finally been signed into law by Donald Trump. Here’s a look at what’s in the 5,000-page package

Donald Trump signed the new Covid-19 stimulus package into law on Sunday night, suddenly giving into pressure from Congress after calling the legislation a “disgrace” days earlier.

Related: Dow hits record high after Trump belatedly signs Covid relief bill

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Alternative facts, witch-hunt, bigly: the Trump era in 32 words and phrases

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His rally speeches and manic Twitter feed conjured new slogans and insults or revived incendiary words

Donald Trump not only changed much about campaigning, governing and the ways of Washington, even the language of American politics has altered during the Republican’s tenure. Trump’s rollicking rally speeches and manic Twitter feed conjured new slogans and insults or revived incendiary words with long histories; his allies, opponents and chroniclers searched for new phrases to describe the indescribable. Here is a glossary of some of them from the past five years:

alternative facts

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Donald Trump signs Covid-19 relief and spending bill

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Move comes after Republicans voiced anger over the delay, which resulted in millions of Americans losing unemployment aid

Donald Trump has signed the Covid-19 relief and spending bill after days of delays, preventing a mid-pandemic government shutdown.

The announcement on Sunday night came after Republicans urged him to act following his refusal to sign the bill, a decision that meant millions of Americans lost unemployment aid.

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Nashville blast: investigators name 63-year-old man as person of interest

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Blast caused damage to dozens of buildings and hurt three people as police reportedly examine whether bomber had 5G paranoia

Authorities in Tennessee on Sunday named a 63-year-old Nashville resident as a person of interest in the Christmas morning bombing that injured three people and destroyed sections of the city’s historic downtown.

The Nashville police chief John Drake linked Anthony Quinn Warner, from the south eastern suburb of Antioch, to the explosion that took place outside a facility owned by the telecommunications company AT&T and knocked out or impaired mobile phone services in several other cities.

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Millions lose benefits as Trump refuses to sign Covid relief package

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11 million people will lose aid from expiration of unemployment programs as Trump heads to the golf course instead of signing bill

Millions of Americans battling the financial hardships of the coronavirus pandemic lost their unemployment benefits on Sunday as Donald Trump continued to refuse to sign a relief package agreed in Congress and headed instead to the golf course.

The president’s belligerence over the bipartisan Covid relief and spending bill, that would have extended the benefits and given direct cash payments to most American families, drew the ire of senior Republicans, who accused Trump of inflicting more misery on citizens.

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Girl Scouts accuse Boy Scouts of ‘damaging’ recruitment war tactics

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Lawyers say the organization is now directly competing with the Boy Scouts for female recruits and that it’s not a fair fight

The Girl Scouts are in a “highly damaging” recruitment war with the Boy Scouts after the latter opened its core services to girls, leading to marketplace confusion and some girls unwittingly joining the Boy Scouts, lawyers for the century-old Girl Scouts organization claim in court papers.

The competition, more conjecture than reality two years ago, has intensified as the Boy Scouts of America organization – which insists recruits pledge to be “trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous and kind” – has unfairly recruited girls lately, according to claims in legal briefs filed on behalf of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America.

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Democrats in Georgia’s runoff elections raise more than $200m in two months

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Races will decide which party controls the Senate and, in turn, the legislative power of President-elect Joe Biden

Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, both running for crucial US Senate seats in Georgia that will decide the fate of Joe Biden’s new administration, have raised over $100m each in just two months.

The announcement of the recent record-breaking hauls – which considerably exceed that of their Republican opponents – comes with less than two weeks to go until the runoff races are decided in special elections on 5 January.

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When every set looks like Contagion: inside Hollywood’s pandemic year

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Actors are slowly returning to work after a long shutdown caused vast economic damage: ‘How many people gave up their dreams?’

For decades, the sound stages of Hollywood have built alternate universes in the middle of Los Angeles – fictional courtrooms, hospitals, homes and offices. Today, they all resemble the set of Contagion.

Make-up artists walk around in astronaut helmets. Actors take breaks inside plastic bubbles. And healthcare professionals swab everyone’s nose to test for a deadly infection before they’re allowed inside.

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The year of Karen: how a meme changed the way Americans talked about racism

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The image of a white woman calling police on Black people put the lie to the myth of racial innocence

There was no direct connection between the “Central Park Karen” incident in New York City and the police killing of 46-year-old George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, beyond the coincidence of timing. Time in the pandemic has been elastic and confusing, and reports of the separate incidents did not emerge immediately, but the two events occurred on Monday 25 May, Memorial Day.

Related: Sisters in Hate review: tough but vital read on the rise of racist America

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Sisters in Hate review: tough but vital read on the rise of racist America

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After black women helped push Trump from office, Seyward Darby’s work on white extremists is more resonant than ever

It’s not Proust, Nietzsche or even Toni Morrison when it comes to difficult reading, but some are sure to find Seyward Darby’s book even more arduous to wade through.

Related: From A Very Stable Genius to After Trump: 2020 in US politics books

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Three shot dead after gunman opens fire at bowling alley in Rockford, Illinois

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A suspect is in custody after what authorities believe was a random attack at Don Carter Lanes, 80 miles north-west of Chicago

A gunman has opened fire inside a bowling alley in Illinois, killing three people and injuring three others in what authorities believe was a random attack.

A 37-year-old male was taken into custody after the shooting on Saturday night at Don Carter Lanes in Rockford, about 80 miles (128 kilometres) north-west of Chicago, police said in a social media post.

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Two women and three girls found dead in Arkansas home

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Authorities say the five people were all related and are treating the deaths as suspected homicides

Two women and three girls have been found dead in a home in north-west Arkansas in a suspected homicide.

Deputies responded to a call at around 5pm on Friday and found the five people dead in a home in Atkins about 65 miles (105 kilometres) north-west of Little Rock, Pope County sheriff Shane Jones said in a statement. The dead were between 8 and 50 years old and are all believed to have been related, he said.

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Ephemeral edible: gingerbread monolith appears on San Francisco hilltop, then collapses

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Christmas day sweet sighting in Corona Heights park attracted visitors who took pictures and even took a bite

Like the other monoliths that have mysteriously appeared across America and the world in the waning weeks of 2020, the one that popped up on a California hilltop on Christmas Day seemed to come out of nowhere.

Also like the others, it was tall, three-sided and it rapidly attracted crowds of curious visitors before an untimely destruction.

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