Friday, January 31

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Dev Patel look-alike competition draws South Asian men and fans to San Francisco
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Dev Patel look-alike competition draws South Asian men and fans to San Francisco

After the viral sensation that was New York City’s Timothée Chalamet look-alike contest , the South Asian guys of the Bay Area also heard their siren call. On Sunday, a Dev Patel look-alike competition drew hundreds of people to San Fransisco’s Dolores Park. Many messy-haired brown men put forth their faces for judgment: singing, dancing and parading themselves in front of the massive crowd of screaming girls. Eventually, a doppelganger of the “Slumdog Millionaire” actor was anointed. San Jose resident Jaipreet Hundal, 25, took home a giant check for $50, a “Monkey Man” statue and a bouquet of flowers, organizers confirmed. “Shoutout to all the Dev Patel look-alikes,” Hundal said in a speech following his win . “If the real Dev Patel shows up, I don’t know who wou...
Delphi murders: Jury has reached a verdict  in Richard Allen’s double murder trial
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Delphi murders: Jury has reached a verdict in Richard Allen’s double murder trial

A verdict has been reached in the trial of Richard Allen , the Indiana man charged with killing two middle school girls near a popular small town trail seven years ago, NBC affiliate WTHR of Indianapolis reports. The jury’s decision on Monday came after a four-week trial in which Allen, 52, pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the Feb. 13, 2017 slayings of close friends Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14. The pair had been hanging out at Monon High Bridge Trail in Delphi, north of Indianapolis, when prosecutors said Allen used “power and fear" to force them down a hill and cut their throats. During his closing argument Thursday, Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland identified Allen as "the bridge guy" — a man seen in a Snapchat video ...
Every uncalled race left in the fight for control in Washington
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Every uncalled race left in the fight for control in Washington

Former President Donald Trump has clinched a second term in the White House, and his Republican Party has won control of the Senate. But control of the House of Representatives is still up for grabs, as is the size of the incoming Senate majority. In the fight for the House, Democrats are facing an uphill climb to net the four seats needed to flip the chamber, while Republicans only need to win a handful more competitive races to hold onto the majority. With more than a dozen House races still uncalled and many looking close, Democrats would need to hang onto all of their competitive seats and flip a few Republican-held seats to get to the 218 seats needed for the majority. With votes still being counted, here's a look at the key races that remain uncalled by the NBC News Decision De...
Trump has promised lower interest rates. That will be largely out of his control.
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Trump has promised lower interest rates. That will be largely out of his control.

WASHINGTON — As a candidate, Donald Trump promised to relieve consumers of high interest rates. As president, doing so will likely be a slow process largely outside of his control. Trump repeatedly said during the campaign that he would bring down interest rates without elaborating on how. He has suggested the president should have a say in determining rates set by the Federal Reserve and publicly berated the central bank and its chairman, Jerome Powell, for not lowering rates sooner. But while Trump has put a lot of emphasis on the Federal Reserve as a way to reduce the interest paid by consumers or businesses, the rates on mortgages and other longer-term loans are outside of any one person’s or institution’s control. Instead, those rates are largely determined by the bond market, w...
Trump has shaped the Supreme Court, but it could still hinder his agenda
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Trump has shaped the Supreme Court, but it could still hinder his agenda

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s ambitious agenda could face pushback from an institution he has done much to shape: the Supreme Court. With a 6-3 conservative majority including three Trump appointees, the court has spent the last few years buffeted by criticism from the left. But if the justices stick true to their stated jurisprudential principles, the new administration could end up on the losing side at least some of the time, legal experts say. “I think if President Trump’s executive agencies tried to stretch the law beyond the breaking point in the same kind of way that the Biden administration has done then, yes, the courts will be a check on that power,” said John Malcolm, a lawyer at the Trump-allied Heritage Foundation. Brianne Gorod, a lawyer with the left-l...
‘Litigation is a certainty’: Trump’s call to end birthright citizenship would face a mountain of opposition
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‘Litigation is a certainty’: Trump’s call to end birthright citizenship would face a mountain of opposition

WASHINGTON — When Donald Trump took office in 2017, he immediately issued a provocative executive order banning travel from Muslim-majority countries that led to chaos, confusion and a flurry of lawsuits that ended up at the Supreme Court. If he wins the election in November, he has pledged to follow a similar course on another contentious policy proposal: ending birthright citizenship. In May of last year, Trump released a campaign video renewing his call to end the long-standing constitutional right, saying he would sign an executive order on day one of his presidency that would ensure that children born to parents who do not have legal status in the U.S. will not be considered U.S. citizens. “The United States is among the only countries in the world that says even if neither p...
Price of bitcoin hits all-time high, tops $85,000 as Trump victory sinks in
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Price of bitcoin hits all-time high, tops $85,000 as Trump victory sinks in

The price of bitcoin hit an all-time high this weekend, a rally that started shortly after Donald Trump was declared the winner of the 2024 election. Major indexes showed bitcoin's price hitting more than $85,000 on Monday. That's up from $68,000 last Tuesday, Election Day in the U.S. Year to date, bitcoin has gained more than 90%, though most of those gains came in the early part of the year. From March to November, the price has been mostly confined to a range of $50,000 to $70,000. Trump's election has been heralded by some as a positive sign for the prices of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. He has promised to quash the aggressive stance taken by the current leadership of the Securities and Exchange Commission against cryptocurrency firms and products it has deemed...
Ruggable’s new washable pet bed is my dog’s favorite space in my house
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Ruggable’s new washable pet bed is my dog’s favorite space in my house

I admit it: I let my dog sleep on my bed. She loves the size and plush feel of my queen-sized mattress, but it sometimes makes it hard to get her comfortable and happy in her own dog bed . Over the years, I’ve had to rotate through a number of beds for my 6-year-old havanese and bichon frise mix, Bella, and I’ve struggled to find ones that fit her criteria. Bella’s picky: She gravitates toward fluffy, plush beds over harder, more rigid ones. But she’s also a heavy chewer, so any beds I typically buy don’t last more than a few months before I have to toss and replace them. When Ruggable first sent me its washable dog bed , which the brand launched in September, I was worried that Bella would take a while to open up to it (or worse, destroy it). I was pleasantly surprised to...
Stephen Miller expected to be named Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy
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Stephen Miller expected to be named Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name Stephen Miller as his deputy chief of staff for policy at the White House, a source with knowledge of the transition team's plans said Monday. While Trump hasn't made his choice public yet, Vice President-elect JD Vance appeared to confirm the news in a post on X as he reacted to CNN's report about Miller being chosen for the role. "This is another fantastic pick by the president. Congrats @StephenM !" Vance said. NBC News has reached out to the Trump team for comment. Trump has named campaign manager Susie Wiles as his White House chief of staff. Miller, a staunch hard-liner on immigration policy, worked in the White House during Trump's first term in office, serving both as director of speechwriting and as a senior advis...
FIFA must halt Saudi World Cup bid due to human rights issues, says Amnesty
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FIFA must halt Saudi World Cup bid due to human rights issues, says Amnesty

FIFA must halt the process to pick Saudi Arabia as hosts of the 2034 World Cup unless major human rights reforms are announced before the vote next month, Amnesty International and the Sport & Rights Alliance (SRA) have said. Votes are due to be held at the FIFA Congress next month to approve the 2030 and 2034 World Cups, though each has only a single bid. A combined bid of Morocco, Spain and Portugal is the sole bid for 2030, while Saudi Arabia is the lone bidder for 2034. Amnesty and the SRA said they had evaluated the human rights strategies proposed by the bidding countries and concluded in a new report that neither bid adequately outlined how they would meet the human rights standards required by FIFA. They said the risks were far greater in Saudi Arabia and hostin...