List of All Articles with Tag 'world'

A Rhode Island state senator was arrested in Cranston last week for allegedly keying a car with a “Biden sucks” bumper sticker, local police said in a statement. State Sen Joshua Miller, a Democrat who has served in the state senate for nearly two decades, was captured on surveillance footage allegedly keying the vehicle in the parking lot of the Garden City Center. According to the police statement, the vehicle’s passenger said he heard a scratching noise and saw Miller with his keys in his hands while walking back to their car. When police caught up with Mr Miller several hours after the incident, he denied keying the car and he believed the vehicle owner was a conservative activist who had been stalking him at the statehouse for his role in promoting gun safety legislation. Mr Miller in February sponsored a bill to ban the purchase, sale, and transfer of assault weapons in the state. “Is this maniac who yelled at me in the car next to me?” Mr Miller asked the police officer who detained him in a body camera footage released by the Cranston Police Department. Mr Miller then offered his explanation of events, telling the officer that the vehicle owner called out his name. “He was blocking my way, saying that I scratched his car, I didn’t scratch his car,” Mr Miller said. “I’m a state senator, I think he recognized me. I think he’s one of the gun nuts.” Mr Miller then told the officer that Colonel Michael Winquist was aware that he has been stalked in recent months by people opposed to his political activities. In a statement on the incident, however, the Cranston Police Department wrote that “Mr Miller never reported any threats to Colonel Winquist or any member of the Cranston Police Department.” After police officers viewed the surveillance footage, Mr Miller was arrested for vandalism/malicious injury to property and charged with a misdemeanor. When questioned again, the police statement said, Mr Miller said the vehicle owner was “daring me” to key the car. He was later arraigned and released on a $1,000 bond. He is due back in court on July 18 for a rearraignment. “Nobody is above the law, including those who make and enforce the laws,” Mr Winquist said in a statement. “The Officers who handled this investigation did so with fairness, integrity, and without preferential treatment. I would expect no less from the fine men and women of the Cranston Police Department.” The Independent has reached out to Mr Miller’s office for comment. Read More Man's death awaiting trial on charges he killed his mother at sea was not suspicious, autopsy says The Great Grift: More than $200 billion in COVID-19 aid may have been stolen, federal watchdog says LOCALIZE IT: E-cigarettes are pouring into the US despite FDA crackdown

BNP Paribas SA is entering in exclusive talks with Orange SA to take on its Orange Bank clients,

US and Canadian officials are looking into what went wrong in a commercial deep-sea adventure and whether crimes

General Mills Inc. fell the most in the S&P 500 after the food producer’s annual forecast suggested that

Bankrupt Lordstown Motors Corp. has had confidential settlement talks with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which has

Activision Blizzard Inc. will likely abandon a $69 billion takeover bid by Microsoft if the US Federal Trade

Former President Donald Trump’s legal team suffered a setback on Tuesday as a federal judge commented that his argument for moving a trial on 34 counts of falsifying business records out of state court was “far-fetched”. The comments from Judge Alvin Hellerstein were reported by NBC 4; the criminal prosecution is one of two the former president is now embroiled in as his legal entanglements continue to worsen. Mr Trump is accused in New York of falsifying business records dozens of times with the purpose of hiding a well-reported hush money scheme in which he supposedly paid his former attorney to recompense payments that the attorney, Michael Cohen, made to adult film star Stormy Daniels and other women with tales of alleged extramarital affairs with his boss. The former president has denied both the allegations of extramarital affairs as well as his own supposed role in covering them up; his ex-attorney Cohen, however, has explained his boss’s role in the scheme. Mr Trump’s attorneys had sought to see the case moved from court in New York state to a federal jurisdiction, as part of an effort to see the case dismissed on grounds that he supposedly made the payments in 2017 as part of his work as president. On Tuesday, Mr Hellerstein appeared to scoff at that argument. “It sounds a little far fetched, but that's the argument,” Mr Hellerstein reportedly said. He is set to make a final ruling on this matter within two weeks. He also added that as of yet, the Trump attorneys had provided “no reason to believe that an equal measure of justice could not be rendered by the state court”, and given no convincing evidence or arguments to support the idea that there was a “relationship to any official act of the president” and the payments. Mr Trump’s attorneys are defending him from more than 60 felony counts over two indictments; the ex-president is also accused of illegally retaining classified materials and other presidential documents at his resort at Mar-a-Lago. The ex-president continues to insist that the prosecutions are part of a political effort against him even as that argument appears to be losing traction among some establishment Republicans. Read More Biden touts his economic record in fiery speech: ‘Guess what – Bidenomics is working’ Trump’s latest defence in the classified documents case: ‘Bravado’ Chris Christie attacks Trump for diverting campaign funds to legal battles: ‘Cheapest SOB I’ve ever met’ DeSantis supporter blames Trump camp for leaking racist and antisemitic messages ‘Any Republican not named Trump’: Paul Ryan says former president is only candidate who would lose to Biden Liz Cheney lays out damning problem with US politics: ‘We’re electing idiots’

President Joe Biden touted his economic record amid continuing dissatisfaction among Americans with the state of the US economy by saying his policies have proven effective. Mr Biden delivered a fiery speech on Wednesday in Chicago where he sought to flip a term that the Wall Street Journal outlets have used against him--Bidenomics--into a plus. “I didn’t come up with the name, I really didn’t, I’m not offended by it,” he said. “I’m happy to call it Bidenomics.” The president, who is seeking re-election in 2024, said that the US economy has largely recovered from the recession caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and had sought to refute Republican economics. “Guess what? Bidenomics is working,” he said to applause. “When I took office, the pandemic was raging and the economy was reeling. Supply chains were broken. Millions of people were unemployed.” Despite low unemployment, many Americans continue to see inflation as a top priority. A survey from the Pew Research Center last week showed that 52 per cent of Democrats and 77 per cent of Republicans say inflation is still a “very big problem.” Mr Biden sought to soothe those concerns by saying he continues to prioritise lowering prices and noted how inflation is less than half of what it was one year ago. “Bringing down inflation remains one of my top priorities today,” he said. Mr Biden also mentioned the progress that his signature Inflation Reduction Act has made, such as allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. “We’ve been trying to get this done for decades and this time we finally beat big pharma for the first time,” he said. Mr Biden also touted how the law is aiding red states like West Virginia, the home of conservative Democratic Sen Joe Manchin, who has vocally criticised the Biden administration’s implementation of the law as he weighs whether to seek re-election in a staunchly Republican state. The president also touted the expansion of rural broadband, specifically naming Sen Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who opposed the measure previously. “To no one’s surprise, it’s bringing along some converts,” he said. “People strenuously opposed voting against it when we had this going on. This was going to bankrupt America.” Mr Biden’s speech is one of his first outlining his economic doctrine as he seeks to create a contrast between himself and Republican presidential candidates. “This vision is a fundamental break from the economic theory that has failed America's middle class for decades: It’s called trickle-down economics,” he said, describing the economic theory that argues that cutting taxes for the wealthiest individuals and corporations would lead to wealth spreading to the middle-class and low-income Americans. “The trickle-down approach failed the middle class. It failed America.” He also sought to show that he could accomplish what his predecessor and would-be 2024 challenger former president Donald Trump could not achieve by passing the bipartisan infrastructure law. “Remember infrastructure week? Infrastructure week became infrastructure week and week and week and it never happened,” he said, a reference to the fact that the Trump administration regularly touted “infrastructure week.” “We got infrastructure decade done right off the bat.” Mr Biden also planned to continue to shore up cash for his re-election effort and shortly after the event, headed to a fundraiser at the J.W. Marriott’s Grand Ballroom that same day. Read More What next for Biden’s billion dollar broadband expansion? Watch as Biden makes statement on economic policy in Chicago Watch as Biden makes statement on economic policy in Chicago Cambodian leader Hun Sen, a huge Facebook fan, says he is jumping ship to Telegram Paul Ryan says Trump is only Republican candidate who would lose to Biden in 2024

The Republican-controlled North Carolina General Assembly made several last-minute changes to the 12-week abortion ban it passed earlier this year in an effort to stave off a legal challenge. The state’s abortion ban, which is set to take effect on 1 July, is being challenged in court. That lawsuit, attorneys said, was the main factor behind the Republican majority’s decision to introduce an amendment to an unrelated Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) bill that effectively amends the abortion ban. ”The General Assembly is working to pass and enact, with or without the Governor’s signature, a technical and conforming bill to make changes to clarify and address most, if not all, aspects of Plaintiffs’ claims about the Act,” W Ellis Boyle, an attorney for House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate Leader Phil Berger, wrote in a legal filing on Tuesday. The amendment to the DHHS bill, House Bill 190, directly addresses a number of the concerns outlined in the lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood of the South Atlantic and a number of other organisations. For instance, the lawsuit argues that a provision of the abortion ban stating that it is illegal “after the twelfth week of a woman’s pregnancy to advise, procure, or cause a miscarriage or abortion” violates the Constitution by preventing people from legally providing information about how a person could get legal abortion care in another state. In response, the amendment to HB 190 removes the word “advise” from the text of the abortion ban. The amendment also seeks to clean up a section on the regulation of medication abortion — which is banned after 10 weeks, not 12 — by deleting language that physicians prescribing medication abortions would have to verify that a pregnancy is no more than “70 days” old. Backers of the lawsuit, who are seeking a Temporary Restraining Order to prevent the abortion ban from taking effect on 1 July, do not believe that the changes to the ban proposed amendment to HB 190 go so far as to eliminate the need for the restraining order. “If those amendments are passed, they may remedy some of the constitutional violations that Plaintiffs allege,” North Carolina attorney general Josh Stein, nominally the defendant in the suit, wrote in a court filing reported by CNN. “But unless and until the current law is repealed or significantly amended, immediate injunctive relief is necessary to avoid a due-process violation.” Mr Stein, a Democrat, has said he does not intend to defend parts of the abortion ban his office believes are unconstitutional. Mr Stein wrote that even if the amendments pass, they would still “fail to make clear that doctors in North Carolina can help their patients obtain abortions out of state.” It is not yet clear whether Gov Roy Cooper, also a Democrat, intends to sign HB 190 or not. Mr Cooper vetoed the abortion ban, but saw his veto overriden by Republican supermajorities in the legislature. The fact that North Carolina is in the position of dealing with a 12-week abortion ban at all is a surprise: when the legislative session started, the Republicans did not have the votes needed to override a veto of an abotion bill. That changed, however, when Rep Tricia Cotham — a Democrat representing a heavily Democratic seat in the Charlotte area — suddenly switched her party affiliation and gave the Republicans the final vote needed to override Mr Cooper’s veto. Read More North Carolina Republicans censure Sen Thom Tillis for backing LGBT+ rights One year after Roe v Wade fell, anti-abortion laws threaten millions. The battle for access is far from over

President Joe Biden has begun using a continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, machine to treat longstanding sleep

The global economy and inflation have so far proved surprisingly resilient to a barrage of interest-rate increases, prompting

A Russian missile attack on a pizza restaurant in the eastern city of Kramatorsk has killed at least 11 people, including three teenagers, and left more than 60 people injured. Authorities in the city have named 14-year-old twins, Yuliya and Anna Aksenchenko, as being among the dead. In a Telegram post, the city's council extended its condolences to the parents of the girls, saying that "a Russian rocket stopped the beating of the hearts of two angels". Another girl, aged 17, was also killed "We share the grief of your family and together with you we bow our heads in deep sorrow," the city council said. What happened in the attack? The Pizza RIA restaurant was popular with both locals, as well as aid workers and journalists – and was said to be crowded when it was hit on Tuesday evening. "I ran here after the explosion because I rented a cafe here.... Everything has been blown out there," said Valentyna, a 64-year-old woman who declined to give her surname. "None of the glass, windows or doors are left. All I see is destruction, fear and horror. This is the 21st century," she told Reuters. Police said around 60 people were injured in the strike, which turned the restaurant into a pile of twisted beams. Emergency services posted pictures online of rescue teams sifting through the site with cranes and other equipment. The Donetsk regional governor – the area where Kramatorsk is located – Pavlo Kyrylenko told national television that people were visible under the rubble. Their condition was unknown, he said, but "we are experienced in removing rubble". Video footage on military Telegram channels showed one man, his head bleeding, receiving first aid on the pavement. Eight people had been rescued alive from the rubble and at least three more were believed to be trapped, Veronika Bakha, the spokeswoman for the Donetsk region emergency services said. The attack also damaged 18 multi-story buildings, 65 houses, five schools, two kindergartens, a shopping center, an administrative building and a recreational building, the regional governor, Mr Kyrylenko, said. Why Kramatorsk? Russia has been keeping up an aerial assault across Ukraine for months. Kramatorsk is a major city west of the frontlines in Donetsk province, a key logistics hub. It would likely be a key objective in any Russian advance westward seeking to capture all of the region. The city has been a frequent target of Russian attacks, including a strike on the town's railway station in April 2022 that killed dozens. It was one of the worst single air strikes of the war. There were at least two strikes on apartment buildings and other civilian sites earlier this year. Officials initially blamed the strike in Kramatorsk on an S-300 missile, a surface-to-air weapon that Russia's forces have repurposed for loosely targeted strikes on cities, but the National Police later said Iskander short-range ballistic missiles were used. Russia denies targeting civilian sites in its invasion of Ukraine – which began in February 2022 – a claim rubbished by Ukrainian officials and Western allies of Kyiv. Kramatorsk's position in the Donetsk region, one of four Ukrainian provinces that Russia claimed to annex last September but does not fully control. Russia annexed the region of Crimea almost a decade ago. Ukrainian-held parts of the partially occupied provinces have been hit especially hard by Russian bombardment. The Kremlin demands that Kyiv recognize the annexations, while Kyiv has ruled out any talks with Russia until its troops pull back from all occupied territories. Kyiv recently launched a much-anticipated counteroffensive to take back occupied territory. What other strikes have there been in the last 24 hours? A second missile hit a village on the fringes of Kramatorsk on Tuesday, injuring five. A Russian missile also hit a cluster of buildings in Kremenchuk, about 230 miles west in central Ukraine, exactly a year after an attack on a shopping mall there that killed at least 20. No casualties were reported in the latest attack. On Wednesday morning, the head of the Kharkiv region said three civilians have been killed in Russian shelling. "Unfortunately, as a result of this shelling, three civilians in the village of Vovchanski Khutory were killed near their homes," governor Oleh Synehubov wrote on the Telegram messaging app. What has been the Ukrainian response? On Wednesday, Ukrainian authorities arrested Wednesday a man they accused of helping Russia direct the missile strike. The Security Service of Ukraine alleged in a message on Telegram that the man had filmed the restaurant for the Russians and informed them about its popularity. Vasyl Malyuk, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine, said in a statement: “The agent of the Russian Federation will definitely answer to the Ukrainian court. But his detention is also a signal to all other adjusters and traitors who work for the enemy. Remember – the punishment is inevitable!” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video message on Tuesday that the attacks showed that Russia "deserved only one thing as a consequence of what it has done – defeat and a tribunal". Ukraine has been pushing for a war crimes tribunal to deal with Russia's actions in Ukraine, and have been gathering evidence. Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary Cambodian leader Hun Sen, a huge Facebook fan, says he is jumping ship to Telegram Footage shows scale of destruction after Russian strike on Kramatorsk restaurant Joe Biden says Putin is ‘clearly losing the war in Iraq’