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Treasury disclosed hack earlier this week, with Washington Post reporting targets were Office of Foreign Assets Control and Office of Financial ResearchChinese government hackers breached the US Treasury office that administers economic sanctions, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, identifying targets of a cyber-attack Treasury disclosed earlier this week.The Treasury letter earlier this week said hackers compromised third-party cybersecurity service provider BeyondTrust and accessed several employee workstations and unclassified documents. Continue reading...

One person died when a Tesla Cybertruck that was carrying fireworks caught fire and exploded outside Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel. Law enforcement officials are investigating the possible motive behind the attack. 'We're not ruling anything out yet,' said sheriff Kevin McMahill.

At least 15 people have been killed and 30 injured after 42-year-old US citizen Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a Ford pickup into a crowd of revelers on New Orleans' famous Bourbon Street on New Years Day. Witness Zion Parsons watched as the vehicle plowed into a close friend who died at the scene. 'A truck hit the corner and comes barreling through throwing people like in a movie scene, throwing people into the air,' he said.

Attacker Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a truck into a crowd, killing 15 people and injuring 35 others

Joe Biden said suspect in attack that also injured at least 30 expressed a desire to kill' in videos

Accident that also critically injured more than 20 others occurred just before midnight outside a Honolulu homeA New Year's Eve fireworks explosion in a Honolulu-area neighborhood killed at least three people and critically injured more than 20 others, authorities say.The accident occurred just before midnight outside a home, the Honolulu fire department said in a statement. Continue reading...

CEO Elon Musk says explosion that also injured seven likely to be a terrorist attack'One person died and seven more were injured on Wednesday when a Tesla truck caught fire and exploded outside Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel, authorities said.Las Vegas metropolitan police and Clark county fire department officials in Nevada said at a news conference that a person died inside the vehicle. Continue reading...

The FBI has said it is investigating the New Orleans vehicle attack as an 'act of terrorism' and identified the suspect as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar. Ten people were killed in the attack and at least 35 have been injured, including two police officers, after a pick-up truck plowed through New Orleans' French Quarter on New Year's Day

Over the holidays, this column is looking ahead at the urgent issues of 2025. Today, the expansion of the partnership between Beijing and MoscowIt is almost three years since Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin declared a friendship with no limits" - weeks before Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Since then, they have retreated from such rhetorical enthusiasm. The no limits" language was quickly dumped, probably at Beijing's behest. When Mr Putin visited in May last year, he claimed that he and his counterpart were as close as brothers". Mr Xi more coolly called the Russian president a good friend and a good neighbour". China has conspicuously not reciprocated Mr Putin's description of it as an ally.Yet the partnership continues to broaden and deepen, to western alarm, across economic, political and military fronts. The US Council on Foreign Relations recently assessed it the greatest threat to vital US national interests in sixty years". The last 12 months saw unprecedented joint military activity by Chinese and Russian forces - though the aim was probably to signal their combined might rather than pursue the interoperability that is foundational to the US-European alliance. In September, the US suggested for the first time that Beijing might be supplying direct support for the Russian war machine in Ukraine, beyond the kind of dual-use equipment it has been shipping and the essential role it plays as an export market for Russian oil. A flurry of books on the new cold war" appeared in 2024. Continue reading...

The US president, Joe Biden, said his reaction to hearing of the vehicle attack in New Orleans was 'one of anger and frustration' and that he had been briefed by the relevant security agencies about the incident. At least 10 people were killed and 35 injured after a vehicle drove into a crowd in New Orleans' tourist district in the early hours of New Year's Day, according to officials, with media reporting the driver later fired a gun

Donald Trump says he is planning to attend the funeral of the former Democratic president Jimmy Carter on Tuesday. Responding to questions by reporters at a New Year's Eve party at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, the president-elect said: 'I'll be there'

Biden briefed by FBI as Trump appears to refer to suspect as foreign national even though identity has not been confirmed

Investigators seized over 150 pipe bombs and other devices when they arrested a Virginia man on a firearms chargeFederal agents in the US found one of the largest stockpiles of homemade explosives they have ever seized when they arrested a Virginia man on a firearms charge last month, according to a court filing by federal prosecutors.Investigators seized more than 150 pipe bombs and other homemade devices when they searched the home of Brad Spafford northwest of Norfolk in December, the prosecutors said in a motion filed Monday. Continue reading...

President-elect says I'll be there' after being a fierce critic of Carter on the campaign trail ahead of November's electionDonald Trump said Tuesday that he's planning to attend the funeral of former president Jimmy Carter.Asked about it as he walked into a New Year's Eve party at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, the president-elect responded: I'll be there." Pressed on whether he'd spoken to members of Carter's family, Trump said he'd rather not say. Continue reading...

Emergency services urged people to avoid Canal and Bourbon Street in the city's French Quarter as teams attended the scene. Police said two officers were also shot by the driver of the car

I photograph people with non-western features, and pay homage to our profiles and the history in our facesSo when are you getting your nose job?" was a question 11-year-old me would often hear at my Iranian family gatherings in London. I had started saving my pocket money for the procedure when I was about seven. I would spend my evenings after school pressing down hard on the hump on my nose until the skin went red. I would push the tip up and flare my nostrils the way the YouTube video on how to make your nose smaller taught me. I would sleep with tape holding the tip of my nose up, praying for changes in the morning.It is common for people with Iranian heritage to have noses that are slightly bigger relative to the rest of their features, with a pronounced bridge and a downward droop. Different to the more commonly idealised smaller, straight or sloped and upturned western nose. With continuous exposure to western beauty standards through the media and celebrities, surgical alterations to the nose became a widespread and longstanding trend in Iranian society. Post-revolution, it became a sign of status and a way for women to align themselves with their admiration for western society and its apparent progressiveness. With time, men got in on the trend too. It has become a rite of passage, where parents will typically even gift" the procedure to their children. Continue reading...

Timothy Snyder says world's richest man is likely to exert uncomfortable influence over White HouseAllies and aides to Donald Trump should be increasingly concerned by Elon Musk's proximity to and influence on the US president-elect, the Yale historian and bestselling author Timothy Snyder said.Trump is a little guy, and Musk is a big guy when it actually comes to having money," Snyder said. And I think if you were a friend of Trump, you would be worried." Continue reading...

Will there be another pandemic, how will the world deal with social media, and is any alcohol good for you? Here's what I thinkBlink and another year goes by: but 2025 brings a chance for a fresh start, and some reflection on where we have got to and what is to come. I don't have a crystal ball and I can't fully predict what the year will bring (astrology is still not a recognised science at the University of Edinburgh, where I work), but what I can do is draw on my expertise and data signals from around the world to suggest seven topics in public health - from potential pandemics to widespread weight-loss drugs - that I believe are likely to be important in the coming months.So first with the not so cheery news: bird flu will continue its worrying prominence. Since my last column, the US has confirmed the first severe case of H5N1 in Louisiana from a patient infected with the strain circulating in birds (in contrast to the mild infections in humans linked to the strain in cattle). California has also issued a state of emergency over the growing number of humans infected with the disease and concerns it could mutate further. Given how widespread H5N1 is in birds, wild and domestic, across the world, and in dairy cows in the US, human infections will continue to be detected. The question is whether these remain isolated cases, each tied to contact with an infected animal, or whether we start to see clusters of human cases in the coming months - the latter would suggest the virus could be transmitting between humans, which would be the next major step in a pandemic scenario. Let's hope this remains a scenario and not a future reality.Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh Continue reading...

After an attack by riot police in Cairo, I returned to the US with both arms in plaster, and found there would always be a place at the table for me

I am an academic, a mother, no threat to anyone. Yet those I love have been injured and killed, and I have endured indescribable hardshipsI am a Palestinian mother with a bachelor's degree in physics and a master's degree, and I am currently a doctoral student. I work as a lecturer at Gaza's University College of Science and Technology.I married my first husband when I was 22 years old. We had two children: our son, Shihab, who is now 19, and our daughter, Maryam, who is 17. Tragically, in 2007, my husband was killed in a painful accident that I witnessed. I suffered a psychological breakdown and, after several years, married again, to my first husband's brother. I became his second wife; he already had a wife and three children: Asmaa, 16, Ali, 13, and Muhammad, 12. Together, we had four children: Zeina, now 12, Yassin, 11, Naseeba, eight, and Zain al-Din, two. Continue reading...

At least 10 people were injured and eight were hospitalised after a balloon-dropping machine pulled down a display during an event at an arcade in Peabody, Massachusetts. Video filmed at In the Game arcade by event attendee Terri Whitaker shows the moment the display came crashing down onto a crowd

Antony Vo, 32, convicted over January 6 riot, was supposed to begin nine-month prison term but instead fled to CanadaAn American man who absconded after being sentenced to prison for his role in the US Capitol riot is now seeking political asylum in Canada, as he hopes for a pardon when Donald Trump returns to the White House.Antony Vo, 32, was sentenced to nine months behind bars and ordered to report to a federal prison on 14 June 2024, but instead he fled to Canada. Continue reading...

The incident occurred in the heart of Manhattan and a man has been taken into custody, but charges are yet to be filedA man waiting for the subway in Manhattan was pushed in front of an oncoming train on Tuesday afternoon, but survived with injuries to his leg and head, according to the New York police department.The apparent attack comes less than two weeks after a woman died after being set on fire on a stationary train in New York, an act of violence that horrified the city. Continue reading...

She isn't young, and yet she remains outspoken, passionate, and alive to the world in ways that many aren'tMy friendships have mostly been with people of a similar age, but that all changed when my 85-year-old neighbour left a CD in my letterbox after hearing my young son drumming wildly in our garage. She wrapped the CD in a note written in her finest hand, explaining that she thought he might enjoy the sounds of her friend's band, The Necks.Others in our street had understandably complained about the endless noise because the sound reverberated through their walls, creeping into their quiet spaces, and ruining their days. Continue reading...

Debra Lee Miller, 26, was killed in her apartment in 1981 by James Vanest, who was shot dead by police last monthThe murder of an 18-year-old woman in Ohio 43 years ago has been solved with the help of DNA technology, authorities announced on Monday.Jason Bammann, the Mansfield police chief, said the cold case of Debra Lee Miller, a local waitress beaten to death with an oven grate in her apartment on 29 April 1981, was finally solved when DNA of a man shot dead by police was linked to the crime scene. Continue reading...

Roy Cooper's historic clemency action comes a week after Biden's resentencings shielded dozens from executionThe governor of North Carolina has granted commutations to 15 people on death row on his final day in office, changing their sentences to life without the possibility of parole.Roy Cooper, a Democrat, announced his clemency action on New Year's Eve, prompting praise from opponents of capital punishment, who have advocated for mass commutations to thwart executions. Continue reading...

Agents discovered more than 150 pipe bombs and other devices in raid on home of Brad Spafford, 36, documents sayA federal judge has granted bond to a Virginia man accused of holding extremist views and amassing what prosecutors say is the largest ever cache of homemade explosives found by the FBI. The judge stayed the order pending government appeal.Agents found the weapons, including more than 150 pipe bombs and explosive devices, during a 17 December raid on a 20-acre property in Isle of Wight county, according to court documents. Continue reading...

Eight hospitalized after attempted balloon drop at Peabody family fun center knocked over display, which fell about 12ftTen people were injured when a Lego display collapsed on to a crowd at an arcade center in Massachusetts, police said.Peabody police said the incident took place on Tuesday at the In the Game family fun center when a display was pulled down by balloons attached to it, causing it to fall". Continue reading...

We are the wealthiest nation on Earth. There is no rational reason as to why we are not the healthiest nation on EarthOver the past year, I've had the privilege of serving as chair of the US Senate committee on health, education, labor and pensions (Help). As I leave that position, let me reflect upon where I think our country should be going in healthcare, and the obstacles we face.We are the wealthiest nation on Earth. There is no rational reason as to why we are not the healthiest nation on Earth. We should be leading the world in terms of life expectancy, disease prevention, low infant and maternal mortality, quality of life and human happiness. Sadly, study after study shows just the opposite. Despite spending almost twice as much per capita on healthcare, we trail most wealthy nations in all these areas.Bernie Sanders is a US senator, and chair of the health education labor and pensions committee. He represents the state of Vermont, and is the longest-serving independent in the history of Congress Continue reading...

Nearly entire island without electricity as Luma Energy estimates it will take at least 24 hours to restore powerPuerto Rico is experiencing a widespread power outage after the power grid collapsed, affecting nearly the entire island.Nearly 1.3 million people are without power. Continue reading...

Opponents say rule could hike premiums by 40% and does not require new policies to be written at fast enough paceInsurance companies that stopped providing home coverage to hundreds of thousands of Californians in recent years as wildfires became more destructive will have to again provide policies in fire-prone areas if they want to keep doing business in the state.The new state regulation, announced on Monday, will require home insurers to offer coverage in high-risk areas, something the state has never done, the office of the California insurance commissioner, Ricardo Lara, said in a statement. Continue reading...

It took nine days to identify Debrina Kawam, 57, of Toms River, New Jersey, after she burned to death in BrooklynThe woman who was set on fire in a subway car in New York on 22 December, horrifying New Yorkers and renewing a debate over city safety, has been identified as 57-year-old Debrina Kawam, of Toms River, New Jersey.The victim's identity, released by the New York police department, came nine days after the fatal incident. Investigators had previously said they were using forensics and video surveillance to identify the victim. Continue reading...

Despite Donald Trump's endorsement, Johnson is facing criticism for his handling of the government budget battleA senior Texas Republican congressman has said that the House speaker, Mike Johnson, does not yet have the votes to be re-elected to the speakership ahead of an election to be held later this week.Representative Chip Roy told Fox Business's Varney & Co that he was undecided on supporting the Louisiana Republican, despite Donald Trump issuing a full-throated endorsement of Johnson on Monday. Continue reading...

Nearly one in four doctors say the practice of prior authorization has led to serious issues for patientsIn the wake of the killing of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, and the outpouring of frustration about insurance coverage, prior authorizations have emerged as a particular roadblock in healthcare.Prior authorization requires medical providers to get an insurer's approval before patients receive healthcare or medications. Continue reading...

After reported fatal beating of Robert Brooks, Kathy Hochul says she will not be satisfied' until system's culture shiftsNew York's governor, Kathy Hochul, announced a number of policy changes to the state's department of corrections and community supervision (DOCCS) on Monday, following the release of brutal footage showing correctional guards apparently beating a detained man to death.Hochul visited the Marcy correctional facility following the death of Robert Brooks, an imprisoned Black man who was beaten by facility correctional staff in a medical examining room. During her visit, Hochul met with prisoners to discuss the facility's conditions and announced the appointment of a new permanent superintendent for the Marcy prison. Continue reading...

Treasury department said entities tried to stoke socio-political tensions and influence' the 2024 US electionsThe United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on entities in Iran and Russia, accusing them of attempting to interfere in the US election this year.The US treasury department in a statement said the entities - a subsidiary of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps and an organization affiliated with Russia's military intelligence agency - aimed to stoke socio-political tensions and influence the US electorate during the 2024 US election". Continue reading...

Officials have faced threats and harassment campaigns since 2020. Here's where election denialism stands nowWhen the Gwinnett county board of elections held its monthly meeting on 20 November just outside of Atlanta, the county's election director, Zach Manifold, noticed something was different.For months leading up to the presidential election, there had been a steady stream of people who would come to speak at the board's meetings, many of them concerned about the potential for fraud or wrongdoing. But this time around, weeks after Donald Trump's victory both in Georgia and in the US presidential election, fewer than a half-dozen people signed up to speak during the public comment portion of the meeting. Continue reading...

Attorney wants case to be transferred to state before new prosecutor takes office as resentencing hearing nearsThe public and legal drive to free Erik and Lyle Menendez, the notorious Los Angeles brothers who murdered their parents Jose and Mary Kitty" Menendez in 1989, has taken a new political turn as they await a resentencing hearing a month into the new year.An attorney - representing 24 family members of Kitty and Jose Menendez who support the brothers' release - plans to file a petition to transfer the case from Los Angeles county to the California attorney general's office, citing a conflict of interest. Continue reading...

Op-ed highlights business interests of tech billionaire who spent $250m to elect TrumpElon Musk's mounting influence in Donald Trump's inner circle has triggered alarm from a former US military chief, who warns the tech billionaire and Trump confidant's deep ties to Beijing could compromise national security.Lt Gen Russel Honore condemned Musk's web of Chinese business interests - including $1.4bn in state bank loans and a Tesla factory subject to Beijing's stringent information-sharing laws - in a New York Times op-ed as he questioned the SpaceX chief's fitness to shape White House policy. Continue reading...

Ridah Bin Saleh al-Yazidi was held without charge for more than 20 years as prison facilitates burst of transfersA Tunisian national who had become one of Guantanamo Bay's longest-held detainees has been released from the US military compound, the Pentagon announced on Monday night.Ridah Bin Saleh al-Yazidi was transferred to his home country after being held without charge since the detention facility opened in January 2002. The 59-year-old appeared in one of the detention centre's most iconic photographs, showing detainees kneeling in the open-air compound of Camp X-Ray. Continue reading...

The government has promised to fix the housing affordability crisis. Relying on the private sector will only make things worseThis Christmas, bailiffs have been busy. Evictions in England and Wales rose by 11.2% compared with the same period last year, leaving thousands of families without a home in the coldest months. Now, new research has revealed that private landlords in England are charging such high rents that nearly two-thirds of workers are struggling to pay it.The study, commissioned by the housing charity Shelter, found that nearly 4.5 million people are falling behind on their rent or having trouble covering its rising cost. It is gloomy news for the government, which has put fixing Britain's chronic housing-affordability crisis at the heart of its agenda, but under whose watch life for private renters continues to deteriorate.Phineas Harper is a writer and curator Continue reading...

The Georgian was a campaigner for human rights, democracy and public health - and a devoted husbandIt was the spring of 2014 and I was at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Washington to interview Jimmy Carter. The former president had just published a new book on women's rights and was keen to make his case. The abuse of women and girls was, he believed, the worst human rights violation of the time and he was determined to issue a global call to action on the subject.He argued passionately and eloquently, rolling though a litany of abuses women and girls around the world face: rape and violence in war, trafficking, infanticide and, in his own country, an epidemic of sexual assault at universities. Continue reading...