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☆ An inside look at the Supreme Court and 3 key justices
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-03 | by ( Zachary B. Wolf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —The US Supreme Court holds immense power over Americans’ lives but is incredibly tight-lipped about how it reaches decisions. Do they care about the perception that the Supreme Court is out of step with the country? How do you think that proposal is going over at the Supreme Court? WOLF: If Trump wins, do you expect any justices would retire? BISKUPIC: If Trump wins, the leading candidates for retirement would be Justices Clarence Thomas (age 76) and Alito (age 74).

Persons: ’, Joe Biden, Joan Biskupic, You’ve, Amy Coney Barrett, Samuel Alito, John Roberts, I’m, Barrett, Alito, WOLF, SCOTUS, Justice Barrett, Trump, Roberts, Donald Trump, Trumpism, Biden, Kamala Harris, Clarence Thomas, Harris, Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia, Ginsburg, Scalia, They’re Organizations: CNN, Supreme, Trump Locations: Idaho, Trump

☆ AP review of Venezuela opposition-provided vote tallies casts doubt on government’s election results
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-03 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Protesters demonstrate against the National Election Council certification of President Nicolas Maduro's reelection in Caracas, Venezuela, on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. The AP processed almost 24,000 images of tally sheets, representing the results from 79% of voting machines. National Electoral Council President Elvis Amoroso attributed the delay in updating results to "massive attacks" on the "technological infrastructure." The AP could not independently verify the authenticity of the 24,532 tally sheets provided by the opposition. The tally sheets, known in Spanish as "actas," are lengthy printouts that resemble shopping receipts.

Persons: Nicolas Maduro's, Venezuela's, Nicolás Maduro, Edmundo González, Maduro, Gonzalez, Elvis Amoroso, María Corina Machado, Machado, Biden, González, Edmundo González Urrutia, Antony Blinken, Vyacheslav Volodin, —, Cynthia Arnson, Caryslia Rodríguez, Jorge Rodriguez Organizations: National, AP, Electoral Council, Electoral, Wilson, United Socialist Party of Locations: Caracas, Venezuela, U.S, United States, Venezuela's, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Russian, Washington, United Socialist Party of Venezuela

The demonstrations – a regular occurrence – were notable for taking place despite urgent security warnings as Israel braces for a possible strike from Iran. Videos showed protestors waving Israeli flags and holding up signs with images of the Israeli hostages. Of that number, 111 hostages were taken during the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, which killed over 1,200 people. “The head of the Mossad did not say that there was a deal ready and that it should be accepted. “While Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed to the deal outline, Hamas has been trying to introduce dozens of changes that, de facto, nullify the outline,” the statement said.

Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu, Ismail Haniyeh, “ We’re, ”, “, ‘, Netanyahu’s, Yair Lapid, Netanyahu, Gil Cohen, David Barnea, Shin Bet, banged, CNN’s Eugenia Yosef, Larry Organizations: CNN, Hamas, IDF, Minister’s Office, Gaza’s Ministry of Health, United Nations, Israeli Prime, Magen, Getty, ” Locations: Israel, Gaza, Iran, Tehran, Tel Aviv, AFP

☆ 3 reasons to worry about July’s weak jobs report — and 1 reason not to panic
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-03 | by ( Bryan Mena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The Federal Reserve now has egg on its face after it kept interest rates near a quarter-century high earlier this week. By now, there’s ample evidence that the job market, a key driver of the US economy, has lost steam. Here are three reasons to be worried about July’s shockingly weak jobs report — and one silver lining. Consumer demand itself also hasn’t weakened just yet, despite the highest interest rates in more than two decades. Generally, the Fed makes its decision congruent with what’s going on with inflation or the job market.

Persons: , July’s, ’, ”, Claudia Sahm, Sahm, Elizabeth Crofoot, Alicia Wallace, Jerome Powell, ” Crofoot, ” Michael Gapen, Matt Egan, weren’t, ” Truist’s Keith Lerner, they’ll, hasn’t, ” Chris Rupkey, Alan Blinder, Paul Krugman Organizations: New, New York CNN, Federal Reserve, Fed, Bloomberg, Bank of America, Dow, Nasdaq, Wall, Investors, Labor, Citigroup, JPMorgan Locations: New York, decelerate, American

“TikTok knowingly and repeatedly violated kids’ privacy, threatening the safety of millions of children across the country,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a release. In 2019, the government sued Musical.ly, the company that later became TikTok, for alleged COPPA violations. There are 170 million American TikTok users. In 2020, Trump signed an executive order that would ban TikTok, which was struck down in court. In March, Trump said he no longer intended to ban TikTok if re-elected.

Persons: ByteDance, TikTok, “ TikTok, Lina Khan, Musical.ly, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, Trump Organizations: U.S . Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission, TikTok, CNBC, FTC, COPPA, Central, Central District of, U.S Locations: U.S, Central District, Central District of California, American

☆ Gershkovich advocates for Russian dissidents in first comments after arriving in the U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-02 | by ( Aurora Almendral | Aurora Almendral Is A London-Based Editor With Nbc News Digital. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich chose to advocate for dissidents languishing in Russian prisons, in his first public comments on U.S. soil after he was freed as part of a prisoner exchange. “I just spent a month in prison in Yekaterinburg where basically everyone I was sat with is a political prisoner,” he added. Seven Russian citizens, including four who worked with the late opposition figure, Alexey Navalny, were among the the 24 people freed in Thursday’s major multinational prisoner exchange. On the dissidents he’d met behind bars Gershkovich said no one knew them publicly, but they had various political beliefs. President Joe Biden called the deal a “feat of diplomacy and friendship.” It was cut among seven nations, involving 24 people, including five Germans and seven Russian citizens held in Russia, and eight Russians imprisoned in the U.S., Germany, Slovenia, Norway and Poland.

Persons: Evan Gershkovich, “, ” Gershkovich, Andrew Roth, ”, Alexey Navalny, he’d, Gershkovich, “ They’re, Paul Whelan, Joe Biden, Alsu Kurmasheva, Vladimir Kara, Murza, Biden, Whelan, ” “, ” Whelan, Putin, “ I’m Organizations: Guardian, Base Andrews, AP, Getty, Marine Locations: Russian, Maryland, Yekaterinburg, Russia, U.S, Germany, Slovenia, Norway, Poland, Turkey, United States

☆ Defense secretary abruptly revokes plea deal with alleged 9/11 mastermind KSM, co-conspirators
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-02 | by ( Oren Liebermann | Evan Perez | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin abruptly revoked a plea deal for the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks and his co-conspirators, and he relieved the overseer in charge after years of effort to reach an agreement to bring the cases to a close. Prosecutors in the case had been discussing the possibility of a plea deal for more than two years, which would have avoided a lengthy trial complicated by questions over the admissibility of evidence obtained during torture. The US had said it would seek the death penalty for Mohammed. US criminal courts for decades have dealt with high profile terror trials, including with death sentences, which Holder had authorized. “They were dealt a bad hand by political hacks and ideologues who lost faith in our justice system.

Persons: Lloyd Austin, Austin, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Bin ‘ Attash, Hawsawi –, Susan Escallier, ” Austin, Mohammed, ”, Brett Eagleson, Democratic Sen, Richard Blumenthal, ” Sen, Lindsey Graham, “, George W, Bush, Eric Holder, Barack Obama’s, Holder, ” Holder, Daniel Pearl, ideologues, CNN’s Manu Raju, Morgan Rimmer Organizations: CNN —, Pentagon, Prosecutors, Democratic, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, CNN, South Carolina Republican, Wall Street Journal Locations: Guantanamo, Pearl, Richard Blumenthal of, Manhattan, Pakistan

☆ To Lam Confirmed as Vietnam’s Top Leader Until at Least 2026
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-02 | by ( Damien Cave | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President To Lam of Vietnam, best known for implementing a sweeping anticorruption drive, will become the country’s next Communist Party general secretary, the government’s Politburo announced on Saturday. General secretary is the top job in Vietnam’s political system of collective leadership, and Mr. Lam was named to the post temporarily in July, after the death of Nguyen Phu Trong, who had been general secretary since 2011. The appointment gives Mr. Lam the chance to consolidate his position within the party before it holds its congress in 2026 to select the country’s top leaders for the following five years. “He might be the starting horse in the race for 2026, but he has to go through a particular process,” said Carl Thayer, a Vietnam expert and emeritus professor of politics at the University of New South Wales, Canberra, Australia. He added: “There is a lot of space in there for people to oppose him.”

Persons: Lam, Nguyen Phu Trong, “, ”, Carl Thayer Organizations: Communist Party, government’s, University of New Locations: Vietnam, University of New South Wales, Canberra, Australia

☆ U.S. Sues TikTok Over Child Privacy Violations
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-02 | by ( David Mccabe | Sapna Maheshwari | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Justice Department sued TikTok on Friday, accusing it of illegally collecting children’s data and escalating a long-running battle between the U.S. government and the Chinese-owned app. TikTok broke the law by gathering personal information from users under the age of 13 without their parents’ permission, according to the government’s complaint. The company knowingly allowed children under the age of 13 to create and use TikTok accounts, the government said, and frequently failed to honor parents’ requests to delete their children’s accounts. The lawsuit, which was filed in a federal court in Southern California, said those practices violated both the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, a law that restricts the online tracking of children, and a 2019 agreement between TikTok and the government in which the company pledged to notify parents before collecting children’s data and remove videos from users under 13 years old. The suit, which also names TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, asks for the court to fine the companies over the violations.

Persons: TikTok Organizations: Justice Department, U.S Locations: Southern California, TikTok

☆ Violence erupts as Nigerians protest hunger across the nation
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-01 | by ( Nimi Princewill | Stephanie Busari | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The state’s police spokesman Wasiu Abiodun told CNN in a statement that operatives arrested 11 armed “hoodlums” who set fire to a government building after looting it. Activist and lawyer Deji Adeyanju told CNN Thursday that there were counter-demonstrations by pro-government protesters who arrived in buses accompanied by a security vehicle. “In the northern part of Nigeria, the largest part of our country … the primary cause of hunger is insecurity. He added that Nigerians were also pained watching their leaders live in luxury while they struggled to make ends meet. Analysts told CNN at the time it was “hypocrisy” for the government to spend on luxuries while impoverished citizens suffer hardship.

Persons: Bosun Tijani, Wasiu Abiodun, hoodlums ”, Abiodun, Benson Ibeabuchi, Deji Adeyanju, Josephine Adeh, ”, …, We’ll, ” Dele, “ unifies, Bola Tinubu, Tinubu, Mohammed Idris, “, ” Farotimi, Sulaimon Organizations: CNN, Innovation, Communications, Bloomberg, Getty, Kaduna Police Command, Nigeria ’, Channels Television, ”, “, Nigeria’s Locations: Nigeria, Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Kano, Abuja, Niger, Ikeja, Lagos, Kaduna, AFP

☆ Organic and regular dark chocolate contaminated by lead and cadmium, study finds
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-31 | by ( Sandee Lamotte | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

As natural elements in the Earth’s crust, lead, cadmium and other heavy metals are in the soil in which crops are grown and thus can’t be avoided. The research team examined only pure dark chocolate products as they contain the highest amount of cacao, the raw, unprocessed part of the cacao bean. Gabi Musat/500px/Getty Images/FileLead and cadmium found, but no arsenicThe new study analyzed 72 consumer cocoa products for levels of lead, cadmium and arsenic. He authored a July study which analyzed 155 samples of chocolate and found higher levels of cadmium but little lead in dark chocolates. However, for healthy adults, Godebo’s risk analysis found little to worry about choosing to indulge in 1 ounce of dark chocolate now and again.

Persons: can’t, ”, Jane Houlihan, Houlihan, Gabi Musat, ’ ”, Danielle Fugere, ” Fugere, “, Leigh Frame, Tewodros Godebo, Godebo Organizations: CNN, Nutrition, Food and Drug Administration, National Confectioners Association, Consumer Labs, FDA, Integrative Medicine, Health, George Washington University, Tulane University School of Public Health, Tropical Medicine, Environmental Protection Agency, World Health Organization, “, WHO Locations: Washington ,, New Orleans

☆ Venezuelan Election Denounced by International Monitoring Group
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-31 | by ( Frances Robles | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The only independent observer monitoring the polls in Venezuela said that Sunday’s vote for president did not meet international standards and was undemocratic, raising more questions about the legitimacy of the results. The mission, led by the Carter Center, a pro-democracy organization, said late Tuesday that the election violated Venezuela’s own laws and the government’s failure to release a vote count was a “serious breach of electoral principles.’’The group joined the United States and many other countries that have said Venezuela’s election was marred by irregularities. At least 16 people have been killed in protests that erupted after election officials declared the country’s autocratic leader, President Nicolás Maduro, the winner. The condemnation by the Carter Center, which was the lone independent election monitor the government allowed into Venezuela ahead of the vote, came hours after opposition leaders announced updated election results showing Mr. Maduro received less than a third of votes cast.

Persons: Nicolás Maduro, Maduro Organizations: Carter, United Locations: Venezuela, United States

☆ Biden Administration Begins Paying Farmers Who Faced Discrimination
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-31 | by ( Alan Rappeport | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Biden administration said on Wednesday that it had started disbursing $2 billion to thousands of farmers who have faced discrimination, after years of delays and legal battles thwarted the federal government’s efforts to compensate them. The payouts come nearly two years after the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 created a fund to help farmers of any ethnicity who experienced discrimination from the federal government when applying for loans or trying to repay their debts. The slow rollout of the program became a political problem for President Biden this year, with Black farmers accusing him of failing to live up to his promises to help them. “For too long, many farmers and ranchers experienced discrimination in farm loan programs and have not had the same access to federal resources and support,” Mr. Biden said in a statement on Wednesday. Today that promise has become a reality.”The Agriculture Department is making payments to 43,000 farmers across all 50 states, with Mississippi and Alabama having the most recipients.

Persons: Biden, ” Mr, “ Organizations: Agriculture Department Locations: Mississippi, Alabama

☆ Delta hires powerful lawyer David Boies’ firm to seek compensation from CrowdStrike and Microsoft for its outage
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-30 | by ( Chris Isidore | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

And now it wants Microsoft and the cybersecurity firm that caused the problem to compensate it for at least some of its losses. Delta has hired high-profile attorney David Boies’ law firm to seek damages from cyber security firm CrowdStrike and Microsoft for the massive service issues it suffered last week following a badly flawed software update caused problems in a key computer program. The hiring of the firm of Boies Schiller Flexner, first reported by CNBC, was confirmed to CNN by a person familiar with the decision. Delta’s costs could total between $325 million to $475 million, according to a note published Tuesday by Savanthi Syth, airline analyst for Raymond James. Boies and his firm won $290 million in 2023 from JPMorgan Chase for Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse victims.

Persons: Delta, David Boies, Boies Schiller, Savanthi Syth, Raymond James . Delta, ”, CrowdStrike, Patrick T, Fallon, Boies, JPMorgan Chase, Jeffrey Epstein’s, Elizabeth Holmes, Boeis, Harvey Weinstein, Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein's, Peter Foley, Al Gore, Brown Organizations: New, New York CNN — Delta Air Lines, Microsoft, CNBC, CNN, Delta Air Lines, Los Angeles International Airport, Getty, Endeavor Air, Delta, JPMorgan, Theranos, Bloomberg Locations: New York, AFP, Perry v

☆ Sde Teiman: Lawmakers breach Israeli detention base protesting abuse probe
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-29 | by ( Rob Picheta | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Far-right lawmakers and protesters breached the perimeter of a controversial Israeli detention facility for Palestinians on Monday, after the Israeli military confirmed it was investigating soldiers over the alleged abuse of a prisoner. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for immediate calm at Sde Teiman and condemned the break-in at the base in a statement on Monday. Last month, Halevi said the military had launched a probe into allegations of mistreatment at Sde Teiman, as well as at Anatot and Ofer. As part of CNN’s investigation into Sde Teiman, three Israeli whistleblowers said that Palestinian detainees at the base were constantly blindfolded and held under extreme physical restraint. The account tallied with details of a letter authored by a doctor working at Sde Teiman published by Ha’aretz in April.

Persons: Zvi, Herzi Halevi, Yair Lapid, ”, Isaac Herzog, Teiman, Bezalel Smotrich, Benjamin Netanyahu, Netanyahu, Israel’s, Sde, Ofer, Halevi, Sde Teiman, Ha’aretz Organizations: CNN, Israel Defense Forces, Military Police, Investigation, General Staff, Zionism, West Bank, IDF Locations: Gaza, Israel, ”

Port-au-Prince, Haiti CNN —Security forces protecting Haiti’s leader provided covering fire as he left a hospital in Port-au-Prince after an interview with CNN, in a stark illustration of the violence that continues to plague the gang-ravaged nation. Conille initially proceeded with the interview and did not remark on the gunfire — which is not an unusual thing to hear in Port-au-Prince. No one was injured and the prime minister was safely returned to his office. In May, Conille was appointed prime minister during the government’s transition period, with the aim to eventually lead Haiti to new elections. Conille had previously briefly served as prime minister from 2011 to 2012 during the presidency of Michel Martelly.

Persons: Garry Conille, MSS Force “, Conille, Ariel Henry, –, Michel Martelly Organizations: Haiti CNN — Security, CNN, Haitian National Police, Multinational Security, MSS Force, General Hospital, Haitian Police, Kenyan, Haitian Locations: Prince, Haiti, Port, Conille, Kenyan, Kenya, combatting

☆ Inside the Supreme Court’s compromise on Idaho’s abortion ban
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-29 | by ( Joan Biskupic | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

Instead, a series of negotiations led to an eventual compromise decision limiting the Idaho law and temporarily forestalling further limits on abortion access from the high court. This exclusive series on the Supreme Court is based on CNN sources inside and outside the court with knowledge of the deliberations. The Idaho law had exemptions only to prevent death of the pregnant woman and in instances of rape or incest. It issued formal guidance saying the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which requires stabilizing treatment regardless of a patient’s ability to pay, would preempt any state abortion ban in situations when an emergency termination was needed. Idaho lost in an initial proceeding in a US district court, as a judge issued a temporary injunction against the abortion ban.

Persons: Roe, Wade, Biden, John Roberts, SCOTUS, Elizabeth Prelogar, Idaho’s, Amy Coney Barrett, ”, Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, Barrett, “ improvidently, ” Barrett, Kavanaugh, ’, Elena Kagan, ‘, – Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Alito, Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor, Kagan, Jackson, Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson, “, ” Alito, ” Jackson Organizations: CNN, Supreme, Republican, Democratic, Labor, Justice Department, Idaho, United, Jackson, Health Locations: Idaho, EMTALA . Idaho, SCOTUS Idaho, Sacramento, Dobbs v, Moyle v, United States

☆ Takeaways From Venezuela’s Marred Election
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-29 | by ( Anatoly Kurmanaev | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Nicolas Maduro was declared the winner in a presidential vote on Sunday that was marred by irregularities. Officials at some polling places refused to release paper tallies of the electronic vote count, and there were widespread reports of fraud and voter intimidation. Here are initial takeaways from Venezuela’s election. The results announced by the government-controlled electoral council varied wildly — by up to 30 percentage points — from most public polls and from the opposition’s sample of results obtained directly from voting centers. And there were many reports of major irregularities and problems at those voting centers.

Persons: Nicolas Maduro, Maduro, Edmundo González

☆ Justice Dept. Defends TikTok Law That Forces App’s Sale or Ban
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-27 | by ( David Mccabe | Sapna Maheshwari | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Justice Department argued in a court filing on Friday that TikTok should be required to sell its American operations to resolve national security concerns about its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. In the government’s first detailed response to TikTok’s lawsuit challenging a new U.S. law that could ban the social media app, the Justice Department said measures that TikTok previously offered to address those security concerns — including walling off U.S. user data domestically — were insufficient. The Chinese government could still collect sensitive data on Americans or spread propaganda, the agency argued, and it has incentive to misuse the app because of larger geopolitical goals. And while TikTok argued in its suit that the law violated the First Amendment rights of its 170 million U.S. users, the Justice Department contended that those users were free to turn to other social media sites if TikTok was banned or sold. Under the law, any challenges must begin in that court.

Persons: walling, TikTok Organizations: Justice Department, Department, U.S ., Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit Locations: United States, China

☆ Government to pay former FBI officials $2 million in settlements over release of anti-Trump texts
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-26 | by ( Tierney Sneed | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Ex-FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page reached settlements with the Justice Department that will see the government paying out a total of $2 million in their lawsuits over the department’s 2018 release of their text messages. Former agent Strzok will get $1.2 million and Page, who was an FBI lawyer, will get $800,000, according to settlement agreements obtained by CNN. The Justice Department declined to comment on the matter. Page, who had also briefly served on Mueller’s team, resigned from her role as a lawyer for the FBI after the messages were discovered. The release of the messages became political fodder for Donald Trump to oppose the Russia investigation during his presidency.

Persons: CNN —, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Strzok, Page, Donald Trump, ” Page, Robert Mueller’s, Trump, Pete, ”, Aitan Goelman, “, ” Goelman Organizations: CNN, Justice Department, FBI Locations: Russia

☆ UK: Assisted dying bill introduced in House of Lords
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-26 | by ( Rob Picheta | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

London CNN —An emotional, accelerating campaign to allow assisted dying for terminally ill adults in Britain has reached parliament, with activists hoping the country will become one of few to legalize the process. Opponents of legalization have argued that those small figures represent a limited appetite for assisted dying in the UK, but there are other pressures at play too. But some among the country’s lawmakers, who will ultimately decide the fate of the assisted dying law, say there is more to consider. For Starmer, the assisted dying bill has the potential to disrupt those intentions. But legalizing assisted dying wasn’t in Labour’s manifesto or in its King’s Speech, limiting the opportunities for it to ever reach MPs.

Persons: Bill, “ I’ve, ” Charlie Falconer, ”, Ellie Ball, Alistair Thompson, Falconer, Esther Rantzen, Wiktor, Rantzen, ” Rantzen, Paola Marra, “, Rachael Maskell, ” Maskell, Marieke Vervoort, CNN “ I’ve, Keir Starmer, –, wouldn’t, wasn’t, ” Falconer Organizations: London CNN, Labour, CNN, Publishing, BBC, Health, Social Care, Labour Party Locations: Britain, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, United Kingdom, Oregon, England, Wales, Westminster, Dignitas

☆ U.K.’s Policy on Israel, Long Aligned With America’s, Veers Away
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-25 | by ( Mark Landler | Stephen Castle | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For 10 months, Britain’s Conservative government had moved almost in lock step with the United States in its response to Israel’s war in Gaza. Now, under its new Labour government, Britain is edging away from its closest ally on the conflict. By the end of this week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to drop the previous government’s objections to the International Criminal Court prosecutor’s pursuit of an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, two people briefed on the government’s deliberations said. Taken together, these steps show a government that is willing to pile more pressure on Mr. Netanyahu for Israel’s harsh military response in Gaza. It also shows that Mr. Starmer, a former human rights lawyer, is paying more heed to international legal institutions than the United States.

Persons: Keir Starmer, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, Netanyahu, Starmer Organizations: Conservative, Labour, International, United Nations ’, UNRWA Locations: United States, Gaza, Britain, Israel

☆ Takeaways from latest GDP report showing US economy is making history
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-25 | by ( Bryan Mena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Separate data on spending shows that American shoppers are still shopping. That measure strengthened in the second quarter, rising to a 2.9% rate compared to 2.6% seen earlier this year. Generally, one risk that comes with an economy that’s expanding robustly is that price pressures can either get stuck or heat up. Businesses are still spending, but less on thisBusinesses invested much more in the second quarter than in the first three months of the year. The measure for that — known as “nonresidential fixed investment” — rose to a 5.2% rate in the second quarter, up from 4.4% in the first quarter.

Persons: That’s, pare, ”, Jamie Cox, ” Scott Helfstein, ” Oren Klachkin Organizations: Washington CNN, Gross, Commerce Department, Federal Reserve, PCE, Harris Financial Group, “, Nationwide

More than 150 people were killed in southwestern Ethiopia on Monday after a landslide flattened several houses in a village following days of heavy rain, and neighbors who rushed to dig out those buried under the mud were hit with a second landslide about an hour later. The first landslide struck the village in the Geze district between 8:30 and 9 a.m. on Monday, said Habtamu Fetena, who heads the local government’s emergency response. Nearly 300 people from two neighboring villages ran to the area to help and began digging through the mud by hand. Then about an hour later, without warning, more mud slid down the hillside above the village, and killed many of those trying to help their neighbors.

Persons: Habtamu Fetena Locations: Ethiopia, Geze

The government’s repeated failure to address what it knew quickly fed suspicions that the silence itself was evidence of a conspiracy. In the wake of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, we are seeing that happen again. Neither the public nor Congress learned much more when Kimberly Cheatle, the director of the Secret Service at the time of the shooting, appeared before a congressional committee on Monday. Ms. Cheatle acknowledged that the shooting at the Trump rally ranked as the agency’s “most significant operational failure” in decades. But there was outrage from both Democrats and Republicans at her repeated refusal to answer specific questions about the security failures that contributed to it.

Persons: John F, Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr, Donald Trump, Kimberly Cheatle, Cheatle Organizations: Service, Department of Homeland Security, Trump, Republicans

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