List of All Articles with Tag 'ame'

Hunter Biden’s lawyer has given Donald Trump a cease-and-desist warning, telling him to not “incite” violence against the president’s son on social media. Abbe Lowell sent Mr Trump’s lawyers a letter which warned that his rhetoric against Hunter Biden could lead to another Paul Pelosi-style attack, saying “We are just one such social media message away from another incident.” Meanwhile, federal prosecutors investigating Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election results have questioned his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, among other witnesses to see if the former president acknowledged he had lost. Mr Kushner testified in Washington DC last month, according to a report from The New York Times, and maintained that the former president believed the election was stolen, a source briefed on the matter said. It has also emerged that other key administration figures including Alyssa Farah Griffin and Hope Hicks were also questioned. Elsewhere, special counsel Jack Smith told a federal judge there is “no basis in law or fact” for indefinitely postponing the federal trial of Mr Trump and urged the court to proceed with jury selection in December. Read More Hunter Biden lawyers tell Trump to end attacks warning they’re ‘one social message away’ from causing violence Jared Kushner and Hope Hicks have testified in front of grand jury investigating Jan 6, reports say Prosecutors say there is ‘no reason’ to delay Trump documents trial until after 2024 election Americans are widely pessimistic about democracy in the United States, an AP-NORC poll finds

The little village of Ghajar has been a sore point between Israel and Lebanon for years, split in two by the border between Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. But after a long period of calm, the dispute has begun to heat up again. Israel has been building a wall around the half of the village in Lebanese territory, triggering condemnation from the Lebanese militiant force Hezbollah, accusing Israel of moving to annex the site. A recent exchange of fire in the area raised alarm that the dispute could trigger violence. The growing tensions over Ghajar add to the jitters along the Lebanese-Israeli border, where Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah fought a destructive 34-day war in the summer of 2006. The two sides have studiously avoided outright battle ever since, despite frequent flare-ups of tension -- but each constantly says a new conflict could erupt at any time. The dispute over a small village in the green hills where Lebanon, Israel and Syria meet brings a new point of worry amid broader unrest. The West Bank has seen increased bloodshed the past week, with a major two-day offensive that Israel says targeted Palestinian militants. Within Israel, moves by the hard-right government to overhaul the judicial system have sparked large anti-government protests. “This is Lebanese land, not Israeli,” said Lebanese shepherd Ali Yassin Diab, pointing to the half of Ghajar being enclosed by the Israeli wall as he grazed his sheep and goats nearby. Members of the U.N. peacekeeping force UNIFIL watched from a distance. Yassin used to take his herds to drink at a pond there. He now has to buy water for his sheep. The village’s division is an unusual byproduct of the decades of conflict between Israel and its neighbors. Ghajar was once part of Syria but was captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war as part of Syria’s Golan Heights, which Israel occupied and later annexed, with little world recognition. In the 1980s and 1990s, Ghajar’s population expanded north into nearby Lebanese territory, held by Israel in its 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon. When Israel withdrew from Lebanon in May 2000, U.N. surveyors delineating temporary borders ruled that Ghajar’s northern part was in Lebanon, its southern part in the Golan, dividing it in two. Six years later, Israeli troops moved into the northern part of Ghajar during the Israel-Hezbollah war. They have occupied it since, preventing people from entering it from Lebanon. Under the truce that ended the 2006 fighting, Israel agreed to withdraw from Ghajar, but it wanted to clinch an arrangement to keep Hezbollah from entering the village. Most of Ghajar’s around 3,000 residents hold Israeli nationality — some of them alongside Lebanese — and they largely identify as Syrians. Last year, Israel started erecting a concrete wall around the northern part of the village. It also began encouraging Israeli tourism to the village. In apparent reply to the near finishing of the wall, Hezbollah set up two tents nearby, including one in the area of Chebaa Farms, which both Israel and Lebanon claim as its territory. It is not clear what is inside the tents. Israel filed a complaint with the United Nations, claiming the tents were several dozen meters (yards) inside of Israeli territory. Hezbollah says the tents are in Lebanese territory. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat told the AP that Israel has turned to UNIFIL and “other countries” to resolve the situation but did not identify the countries and did not immediately comment on the wall in Ghajar. On Monday, UNIFIL’s commander relayed an Israeli request to Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister and parliament speaker to remove the tent. They responded that Israel should withdraw its troops from the Lebanese part of Ghajar, according to Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech Wednesday night that Israel cordoned off Ghajar before Hezbollah set up its tents. “Over the past days, it became clear that they (Israel) have annexed it,” Nasrallah said. He added: “The land of Ghajar will not be left for Israel, and certainly not Chebaa Farms and Kfar Chouba,” another border area claimed by both countries. A female resident of Ghajar, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, said the villagers consider themselves Syrian but their main concern “is to stay in Ghajar, in this village, living in peace and security. No matter under who rules.” “There is a (border) line that was drawn by the United Nations. Why are they allowed to cross it while we as Lebanese citizens cannot?” Mohammed Rammal, the mayor of the nearby Lebanese border village of Oddeissi, said of Israel’s presence in Ghajar. Last week, an anti-tank missile was fired from Lebanon near Ghajar, with some fragments landing in Lebanon and others inside Israeli territory. Israel fired shells on the outskirts of the nearby village of Kfar Chouba. On Wednesday, an explosion elsewhere near the border slightly wounded at least three Hezbollah members. Nasrallah said the case is still under investigation. Late last month, Hezbollah said it shot down an Israel drone flying over a village in southern Lebanon. On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Joe Biden’s special envoy for energy, Amos Hochstein, during which they discussed “regional issues,” according to the Israeli prime minister’s office. Some Israeli media said Netanyahu and Hochstein, who helped last year broker a maritime border deal between Israel and Lebanon, discussed tensions along the border with Lebanon. “We continue to monitor and engage with authorities in Lebanon and Israel on the issue of Ghajar,” UNIFIL spokeswoman Kandice Ardiel said. She added that UNFIL has repeatedly called on Israel to stop its works north of the line and that Israel’s occupation of northern Ghajar violates the U.N. Security council resolution that ended the 2006 war. Israel considers Hezbollah its most serious immediate threat, estimating it has some 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel. During a tour by an Associated Press team near Ghajar this week, more patrols by U.N. peacekeepers and Lebanese army along the border were visible. Residents in nearby villages appeared defiant and going on with life as usual during the summer season, when many expatriates come to spend time with their families. In Lebanese media, many analysts say neither side wants a new war. But Lebanese political analyst Faisal Abdul-Sater warned that the situation is very dangerous as Israel and Hezbollah are on alert. “Whoever fires the first shot will bear the responsibility for the consequences,” he said. ___ AP correspondent Josef Federman contributed to this report. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide AP Week in Pictures: Europe and Africa Stock market today: Asian shares buoyed by Wall Street's winning week as inflation eases For a group of Ukrainian women, painting is a form of therapy to help them cope with loss

Lawyers for the president’s son Hunter Biden sent Donald Trump a cease-and-desist letter on Thursday, alleging that the former president’s frequent hostile comments about Mr Biden are defamatory and likely to inspire violence. “We are just one such social media message away from another incident,” the letter, obtained by Law360, claims, citing the violent attack on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband as a cautionary tale of the dangers of online rhetoric. “You should make it clear to Mr Trump – if you have not done so already – that Mr Trump’s words have caused harm in the past and threaten to do so again if he does not stop,” the letter adds. The letter points to recent examples of Mr Trump’s aggressive statements about Mr Biden, such as a March social media post allegedly implying Mr Biden should get a “death sentence” and July message claiming cocaine found in the White House “was for use by Hunter”. The letter claims such provocations could inspire one of Mr Trump’s “easy-to-trigger followers.” Donald Trump’s lawyers Joe Tacopina declined to comment when contacted by The Independent. In June, Mr Biden reached a tentative agreement with federal prosecutors to plead guilty to two misdemeanour counts of failing to pay taxes and to admit the facts of a gun charge in exchange for likely avoiding jail time. The plea still needs to be approved by a federal judge, and a hearing is scheduled for later this month. Republicans in Congress and beyond have alleged that Mr Biden is benefitting from his famous name to avoid harsher prosecution. During a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee this week with FBI Director Christopher Wray, GOP members sharply criticised the agency, alleging a political bias. “Here’s what the American people know and believe about the FBI today, sir,” Rep Wesley Hunt told Mr Wray. “If you are a Trump, you will be prosecuted. If you are a Biden, you will be protected.” “I obviously disagree with your description of the two standards,” the FBI director said in response. “In my view, at least under my watch, we have one standard. And that is we’re going to pursue the facts wherever they lead, no matter who likes it. Read More Trump news – live: Hunter Biden lawyer warns Trump over ‘inciting violence’, as Kushner testifies over Jan 6 Secret Service ends probe into mysterious bag of cocaine found in White House: ‘No fingerprints or DNA’ GOP lawmaker compares Hunter Biden to glitter: ‘You cannot get rid of him. We’re sick of it’ GOP lawmaker compares Hunter Biden to glitter: ‘You cannot get rid of him’ FBI director set to clash with Republicans on the Trump case, Hunter Biden and more Gal Luft claimed he had dirt on the Bidens – now he’s facing charges

President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Thursday allowing the Pentagon to tap an additional 3,000 military reservists to support the US mission in Europe to bolster Nato amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. The additional troops will join the estimated 100,000 US service members already on the European continent. "These authorities will enable the department to better support and sustain its enhanced presence and level of operations,” Lt Gen Douglas Sims told Military.com of the move. The current US mission in Europe, dubbed Atlantic Resolve, began in 2014, as Russia annexed Crimea and put pressure on Ukraine’s Donbas region, a prelude to its wider invasion in 2022. So far, the US has sent more than $76bn in aid to Ukraine, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, more than $46bn of which has been military-related. The additional US forces came as President Biden made a high-profile swing through Europe for Nato summit in Lithuania on Wednesday. On Thursday, speaking from Helsinki, Mr Biden reiterated US support for Nato. “There’s overwhelming support from the American people. There’s overwhelming support from the members of the Congress, both House and Senate, in both parties,” he said, though he conceded “some extreme elements” of the Republican Party feel differently. The previous day, Mr Biden voiced his awe at the “unbroken” people of Ukraine,” who had shown “incredible dignity” in the face of Russia aggression. “One country cannot be allowed to seize his neighbour territory by force,” Mr Biden said. The US visit to Europe was not without its complications. Shortly before the Nato summit, Mr Biden threw cold water on the idea of Ukraine joining the defensive organisation in the near term. “I don’t think there is unanimity in Nato about whether or not to bring Ukraine into the Nato family now, at this moment, in the middle of a war,” he told CNN last week. The president also said that Ukraine would need to make reforms in terms of “democratization” before joining the alliance. Read More Thousands of Ukraine civilians are being held in Russian prisons. Russia plans to build many more Marjorie Taylor Greene’s antics show that the 2024 election will be about America’s role in the world Pentagon says cluster munitions have arrived in Ukraine The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

The Hungarian bookseller was penalised under legislation restricting LGBT literature for under-18s.

A number of Republican-led states spent their most recent legislative sessions relaxing child labour laws — while one state is already experiencing a rise in child labour cases. A report from WFTV in Orlando published Wednesday suggests that central Florida is already seeing a spike in child labour cases that dates back to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The nature of the cases reportedly range in scope and seriousness from having children working too many hours on school days to operating heavy machinery and beyond. “From [fiscal years] 2020 until 2022, we have seen more child labor that we had seen from 2011 to 2020,” Department of Labor District Director Wildalí De Jesús told WFTV. The Covid pandemic began in 2020 and upended the labour market — causing the service economy to contract and then leaving a number of employers without adequate staff when lockdown measures were relaxed and consumption habits returned to pre-pandemic levels. Still, the data shows an alarming trend in the illegal exploitation of minors in the workforce at a time when states across the country are working to roll back child labour laws that are a longstanding legacy of the children’s rights and labour movements. Already this year, numerous GOP-led states including Missouri, Ohio, Arkansas, and Iowa have passed laws weakening child labour laws — allowing companies to hire children without work permits and making it legal for them to working longer hours in more dangerous conditions. The push to weaken child labour laws has reportedly been led by a Florida-based think tank, the Foundation for Government Accountability, which drafted the model legislation for states to use to roll back their child labour protections. The data from Florida is not entirely clear on several points, including how many of the children in question are undocumented immigrants. In her comments to WFTV, Ms De Jesús said parents are not always in a position to know the exact details of the work their children are doing and how it aligns with child labour law. “We’re seeing a trend of much younger children… because sometimes the children don’t know what they’re supposed to do or not supposed to do,” Ms De Jesús told the television station. “A lot of times parents don’t know either. They may assume that it’s safe or that [the child is] working the correct hours and that there’s no limitations, but there are.” Earlier this year, the Department of Labor reported a 68 per cent increase in the number of children illegally employed by US companies since 2018. A number of those children may be undocumented migrants. Read More Wisconsin teen dies in sawmill accident in one of 14 states looking to roll back child labour laws

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Aspartame, the artificial sweetener used in products from Coca-Cola's diet sodas to Mars' Extra chewing gum, is the

For the past two years, Ray Epps has been living a surreal nightmare, one born out of the same conspiracy theory universe that launched a riot in the halls of Congress, hundreds of criminal investigations, and a blockbuster defamation lawsuit against one of the most influential cable networks in the country. He cast his vote for Donald Trump weeks before he would end up at the centre of a conspiracy theory on that same network, one he loyally watched. Mr Epps traveled to Washington DC from Arizona to support the president while a joint session of Congress certified the results of an election he lost but refused to accept. He moved past exterior barricades as an unruly mob pushed through police and stormed the US Capitol. He never went inside, and he was never arrested, fuelling an ongoing conspiracy theory that the now 66-year-old was working with law enforcement to instigate a riot to entrap Trump supporters, part of a long-running belief among Republicans that federal authorities are using the levers of power to discriminate against them. Those claims have circulated across social media, among members of Congress – and in dozens of segments on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News platform, now the subject of a defamation lawsuit from Mr Epps. The man in the middle of the right-wing conspiracy theory surrounding January 6 has accused the far-right pundit of amplifying a “fantastical” story that has destroyed his family and his business, accusations that echo an historic $787m settlement between Fox and Dominion Voting Systems, which accused the network of spreading defamatory statements about the company in the election’s aftermath. A lawsuit filed in Delaware Superior Court on 12 July points to the mountains of allegations from that case, noting that “Fox’s role in creating and disseminating destructive conspiracy theories has already been well documented”. The complaint was signed by Brian Farnan – who served as the lead Delaware counsel for Dominion in its suit against Fox. “Defamation is defamation, so if Tucker and Fox News defamed Ray Epps, it doesn’t ultimately matter what happened with Dominion,” Michael Teter, an attorney for Mr Epps, told The Independent. “It certainly is possible for us to prove a pattern of disregard for the truth. I think it will resonate with a jury that there should be additional punitive damages associated with Fox’s behavior and conduct,” he said. “I believe that this case is ripe for punitive damages, not just because of the willfulness on the part of lying about Ray and the egregious lies but also because there’s a past conduct here of disregard for the truth.” Rodney Smolla, president of Vermont Law School who consulted for Dominion in its case against Fox, told The New York Times that when it comes to proving defamation “no case is easy” but the lawsuit from Mr Epps is “certainly, in my view, viable.” The challenge, Mr Smolla said, is for a judge to agree that the conspiracy theory is “so inherently, bizarrely improbable that only a reckless person would put it into circulation.” The lawsuit follows a cease-and-desist letter that Mr Teter sent to the network earlier this year, demanding that Carlson retract his “false and defamatory” statements about him and deliver a “formal on-air apology” for the “lies” he promoted. Fox did not respond, Mr Teter said. The extensive filings in the Dominion case documented how Fox employees “were harassed and intimidated and threatened by Fox viewers because of the lies that Fox was spreading about the company,” according to Mr Teter. “And if a company is going to feel the brunt of that, then an individual who’s singularly targeted by Fox is going to especially feel that, and so they acted with a heightened degree of malice and disregard for the consequences of their actions,” he said. The Independent has requested comment from Fox. On his Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carlson claimed there is “no rational explanation” why this “mysterious figure” who “helped stage-manage the insurrection” had not yet been charged, among more than two dozen statements collected in the lawsuit, which notes that the claims were not isolated to Carlson’s prime-time program. “Fox repeatedly published defamatory falsehoods about Epps, including by broadcasting and rebroadcasting defamatory statements by Tucker Carlson who devoted over two dozen segments to Epps and by republishing those falsehoods” across Fox platforms, according to the lawsuit. The House select committee that investigated the January 6 attack and efforts to overturn the 2020 election also dismissed the conspiracy theory surrounding Mr Epps. In his interview with committee investigators, he testified that he was not a federal agent, and that the “crazy” conspiracy theories surrounding him have torn his life apart. “It’s almost like an out of body experience like, ‘is this really happening to me?’” Mr Teter said. “They had one life that was serene and calm and happy and contented and busy and prosperous. And then within a matter of weeks or months, after lies started being told about them, all that disappeared, all of it.” Ray and his wife Robyn Epps received threatening messages, including death threats and a plastic bag with a bullet casing inside and voicemails threatening to burn their house down, according to the complaint, which includes several examples of harassing emails, letters and text messages. They were forced to sell their five-acre ranch in Arizona, out of which they ran their wedding business, according to the complaint. They moved into a 350-square-foot mobile home in Utah. “The business went with it,” Mr Teter said. “They didn’t get to sell the business separately. It just was part of the house going for the appraised value and that was it. There was no additional value of the business. So they’ve lost their business. They’ve lost their livelihood.” The lawsuit also seeks unspecified “significant” damages for the extensive emotional harm the couple has endured. The Epps’s story illustrates the depths of the conspiratorial coverage driving right-wing media – the irony of a Trump-supporting Fox News viewer turning into the star of a conspiracy theory is not lost on Mr Teter. “I think it demonstrates the extreme nature of conspiracy theories and that conspiracy theories are often born out of his political tool,” He said. “You could look at any amount of evidence existing prior to January 6 to see that Ray Epps and Robyn Epps supported Donald Trump and supported Republicans. The fact that they would turn against some of their own demonstrates that it really is about serving some other interests and other purpose.” Those claims have also been echoed by Republican members of Congress who have made Mr Epps the subject of investigative hearings. On the same day the lawsuit was filed, House Republicans grilled FBI director Christopher Wray about alleged federal agents at the scene of the attack. “I will say this notion that somehow the violence at the Capitol on January 6 was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources and agents is ludicrous and is a disservice to our brave, hardworking dedicated men and women,” Mr Wray said in his sworn testimony to the House Judiciary Committee. Carlson, in his first interview since his exit from the network in the wake of the Dominion settlement, said he doesn’t know why he was fired. The network announced that Carlson “agreed to part ways” days after Fox agreed to the settlement with the voting machine company over bogus claims that Carlson privately disputed but amplified on air. Fox also reached a $12m settlement with Abby Grossberg, a former producer for Tucker Carlson Tonight, who alleged a culture of misogyny at the network in a federal lawsuit that depicted an environment where women are routinely verbally violated “by a poisonous and entrenched patriarchy.” Speaking about her case, Ms Grossberg alleged that she was directed to find lawyers for January 6 defendants who would speak to and validate a conspiracy theory surrounding any alleged federal involvement in the attack. When none of them would, she was told to find someone else, she said. “Tucker was very set on finding an FBI person who was implanted in the crowd and spinning this conspiracy that they were ultimately the ones responsible for the Capitol attack,” she told MSNBC. An attorney told her, twice, “there is no conspiracy, get away from this stuff, this is dangerous, tell Tucker to stop,” she said. “The response was, ‘Find somebody else. Tucker is really intent on this,’” she said. Mr Teter said they are keeping the door open for potential settlement discussions, but attorneys have not had any communication from the network’s legal team after issuing the cease-and-desist letter in March. “They’ve had opportunities to reach out to us,” he told The Independent. “Maybe it takes the formality of a complaint to get those conversations started. And if they want to engage in those conversations, we are always open to them.” Ray and Robyn Epps face the prospect of a similar media circus that descended on the near-trial in the Dominion case, with media reporters and news outlets from around the US parked in front of the Delaware courthouse in Wilmington. “They’ve been scrutinized for two years. And so in some sense, having a framework and a forum that is fair and deliberate and meaningful will be much better for them than what they’ve had to experience,” Mr Teter said. “They’re open-eyed about it. They know their lives will never be the same as they were before.” Read More How conservatives turned Ray Epps into a Capitol riot scapegoat FBI director shoots down ‘ludicrous’ January 6 conspiracy theory Damning court documents reveal Rudy Giuliani knew claims about Georgia election workers were false Executives who helped create Fox News say network has become dangerous ‘disinformation machine’ Tucker Carlson doesn’t know why he was fired from Fox News Meet Jesse Watters, the Fox News host helming Tucker Carlson’s primetime slot Justice Department challenges prison sentences for Oath Keepers convicted on January 6 charges

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Dan Patrick made Mike Malone proud by calling out ESPN, LeBron James, and the Los Angeles Lakers for controlling the narrative unnecessarily.Somebody had to say it. First it was Mike Malone of the Denver Nuggets, and now it's Dan Patrick, and the vitriol is aimed at one LeBron James.Not...

Federal prosecutors investigating Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election results have questioned his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, among other witnesses to see if the former president acknowledged he had lost. Mr Kushner testified in Washington DC last month, according to a report from The New York Times, and maintained that the former president believed the election was stolen, a source briefed on the matter said. It has also emerged that other key administration figures including Alyssa Farah Griffin and Hope Hicks were also questioned. Elsewhere, special counsel Jack Smith told a federal judge there is “no basis in law or fact” for indefinitely postponing the federal trial of Mr Trump and urged the court to proceed with jury selection in December. In a new court filing, Smith wrote that one of Trump’s legal arguments "borders on frivolous" and said there’s no evidence that waiting until after the 2024 presidential election would make the process any easier. Meanwhile, recent financial disclosure forms show Melania Trump was paid as much as $155,000 by a Super PAC linked to her husband for “event planning and consulting”. Read More Ron DeSantis rules out being Trump’s running mate: ‘I’m not a number two guy’ GOP lawmaker compares Hunter Biden to glitter: ‘You cannot get rid of him. We’re sick of it’ Trump sees democracy as ‘enemy territory’ says journalist who helped bring down Nixon Everything we know about Ray Epps, the man conservatives blame for the Capitol riot