
Amid Russian Sabotage, U.K. Points Finger at Putin Over Novichok Death
The 2018 death of a British woman from exposure to a rare, military-grade nerve agent was the result of a botched assassination attempt on a former Russian spy, an official report said on Thursday.
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US student who took four chickens after breaking into slaughterhouse sentenced to 90 days in jail
Zoe Rosenberg, 23, studying at UC Berkeley, had said it was a ‘rescue’ and ‘will not apologize’ for her actionsA California student has been sentenced to 90 days in jail after breaking into a Petaluma poultry slaughterhouse and taking four chickens in an effort she called a “rescue”.Zoe Rosenberg, a 23-year-old student at the University of California, Berkeley, was convicted of felony conspiracy and three misdemeanor counts in October. On Wednesday, a judge sentenced her to 90 days – 60 of which may involve jail alternates, such as house arrest – far less than the four-and-a-half-year maximum sentence she could have faced. The judge also ordered Rosenberg to pay more than $100,000 to Petaluma Poultry, the Perdue Farms facility from which she took four chickens in 2023. Rosenberg has been ordered to report to the Sonoma county jail on 10 December. Continue reading...

Australia news live: fresh Dezi Freeman search focused on finding body or evidence, police say; Canavan hopes Joyce will ‘see the light’ and return to Nationals
Meanwhile Tasmania’s Dolphin Sands and surrounding areas remain a bushfire watch and act area. Follow today’s news liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe Victorian government’s controversial “adult time for violent crime” bill has passed parliament without amendment.The bill, which will move serious crimes committed by children as young as 14 from the children’s court to adult courts, passed at about 6pm on Thursday with the support of the Coalition.I’m pleased these laws can now be put in place as soon as possible to protect Victorians. There are no easy solutions to youth crime, and the best approach is always to stop crime before it starts. But we absolutely need serious consequences for violent youth crime to protect the community now. Continue reading...
Admiral testified Hegseth did not give 'kill them all' order, US lawmakers say
The admiral who gave the order for a second strike on an alleged drug boat briefed lawmakers about the incident, as the military confirmed another attack.

Supreme court allows Texas to use new congressional map favoring Republicans in 2026 elections – US politics live
Ruling will impact elections as soon as the March primariesUS supreme court approves redrawn Texas congressional mapsAmong the beneficiaries of Donald Trump’s pardons and commutations, there is a group that legal experts and political scientists see as some of the clearest evidence of how such actions undermine the rule of law: those who were released from prison and again arrested for different alleged crimes.During his first term, Trump issued 237 acts of clemency – including to someone who was a predatory lender and drug smuggler and to another who ran a Ponzi scheme. Since taking office again, Trump has issued more than 1,600, most for people involved in the January 6 attack on Congress. Continue reading...

Trump Trumpets Peace in Africa Amid War on Drug Boats, in Day of Dissonance
President Trump presided over a Congo-Rwanda peace deal on the same day his administration was being questioned about potential war crimes.
Trump can keep National Guard in Washington, DC, for now: Appeals court
Court grants stay on previous order giving timeline for troop withdrawal as administration considers response.

Pentagon announces it has killed four men in another boat strike in Pacific
Strike comes amid congressional turmoil over legality of US attacks on suspected drug smugglersThe Pentagon announced on Thursday that the US military had conducted another deadly strike on a boat suspected of carrying illegal narcotics, killing four men in the eastern Pacific, as questions mount over the legality of the attacks.Video of the new strike was posted on social media by the US southern command, based in Florida, with a statement saying that, at the direction of Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, “Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel in international waters operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization”. Continue reading...

US supreme court approves redrawn Texas congressional maps
Major win for Trump as majority rejects lower-court ruling that found maps had been racially gerrymanderedTexas can use a redrawn congressional map that adds as many as five Republican-friendly congressional districts, the supreme court ruled on Thursday, handing Donald Trump a major win in his push to boost Republican seats ahead of next year’s midterm elections.In an unsigned order, the 6-3 conservative majority court granted a request by Texas to lift a lower court’s ruling that struck down the state’s new map in November. The supreme court’s three liberal justices dissented. Continue reading...

Grand jury declines to re-indict Letitia James after judge dismissed first case
Decision comes less than two weeks after judge ruled similar case against New York attorney general unlawfulA grand jury declined to indict Letitia James on Thursday, according to a source familiar with the decision, a decision that came less than two weeks after a judge ruled that a similar mortgage fraud case brought by federal prosecutors against the New York attorney general was unlawful.The move by the justice department to present the case again to a grand jury was seen as a signal of its determination to prosecute James, who has been one of Donald Trump’s top political foes ever since she successfully brought a fraud lawsuit against him in New York. Continue reading...