Australian Senate censures Indigenous member for King Charles protest
News

Australian Senate censures Indigenous member for King Charles protest

Australia s Senate on Monday censuredan Indigenous woman parliamentarian over her protest against King Charlesduring his visit to the parliament last month when she accused the British monarch of genocide. Independent senator and Indigenous activist Lidia Thorpe shouted that she did not accept Charles sovereignty over Australia moments after he delivered a speech in which he paid his respects to the traditional owners of the lands. Both the ruling Labor party and the opposition coalition supported the censure motion, which will not have any legal or constitutional consequences and is only considered as a symbolic move by lawmakers when they disagree on a member s conduct. Thorpe s protest was disruptive and she did not respect the democratic institutions, the motion said. The British mon...
Hawaii woman sent ‘alarming’ text before vanishing from L.A., family says
News

Hawaii woman sent ‘alarming’ text before vanishing from L.A., family says

The family of a 30-year-old Hawaii resident is searching for her in Los Angeles after she missed a connecting flight, sent unusual text messages and then went silent, the relatives said. Hannah Kobayashi arrived in Los Angeles on Nov. 8 en route to New York City but missed a connecting flight because a 30- to 45-minute window to get to its departure terminal may not have been enough, aunt Larie Pidgeon said in an interview. Kobayashi, of Maui, stayed in Los Angeles as she awaited an opening for a last-minute flight to New York and used the time for sightseeing, family members said. She went to The Grove shopping center in the Beverly Grove neighborhood, about 12 miles north of Los Angeles International Airport, to see a Nike marketing event on Nov. 10, they said. Kobayashi's Instagram acco...
Matt Gaetz allegedly paid an adult woman for sex in 2017, attorney says
News

Matt Gaetz allegedly paid an adult woman for sex in 2017, attorney says

Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald Trump s pick to lead the Justice Department, paid a woman for sex at a small, invitation-only party in Florida, where prostitution is illegal, in 2017 while he was a member of the House, the woman s attorney said Monday. In an interview, Joel Leppard said the woman also said she saw Gaetz having sex with her friend, who was 17 at the time, at the same invitation-only party in Orlando. Leppard said two women he represents, whom NBC News is not naming, told House Ethics Committee investigators that Gaetz paid them for sex several times and that they believe the committee s report on Gaetz should be publicly released. They want the American people to know the truth and that they are speaking the truth, he said. Within minutes of arriving at the party in Orl...
House Republican introduces measure to ban transgender women from female bathrooms in Capitol
News

House Republican introduces measure to ban transgender women from female bathrooms in Capitol

WASHINGTON Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., introduced a resolution Monday that would ban transgender women from using female bathrooms in the Capitol just weeks before Democratic Rep.-electSarah McBrideof Delaware is set to becomethe first out transgendermemberof Congress. The measurewould prohibit any lawmakers and House employees from using single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex. Asked by reporters whether her resolution was meant to target a marginalized person, Mace said, Sarah McBride doesn t get a say in this. This is a biological man trying to force himself into women s spaces, and I m not going to tolerate it, she added. McBride, who won the race for Delaware s lone House seat this month, slammed the measure Monday. This is a blatant attempt from...
Judge strikes down Wyoming’s abortion laws, saying they violate state constitution
News

Judge strikes down Wyoming’s abortion laws, saying they violate state constitution

A Wyoming judge ruled Monday that two laws restricting and banning abortion in the state violate its constitution,making the procedure legalup until fetal viability for the time being. Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens imposed an injunction on the pair of state laws in a ruling that said they ran afoul of the state constitution, which says every person has a right to personal autonomy in making medical decisions. Owens wrote that under the two statutes the Life Act and the Medication Abortion Ban the state "has enacted laws that impede the fundamental right to make health care decisions for an entire class of people, pregnant women. Owens added that the state laws created a restriction on abortion beginning at the earliest stages of development, did not differentiate between a ...
Prosecution rests, defense calls first witnesses in trial of man accused in chokehold death on NYC subway
News

Prosecution rests, defense calls first witnesses in trial of man accused in chokehold death on NYC subway

After having called more than 30 witnesses, the prosecution in themanslaughter trial of Daniel Penny, who is charged in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely, rested its case Monday. Penny, a former Marine, is also charged with criminally negligent homicide in the May 1, 2023, killing of Neely, who struggled with mental illness and homelessness. Neely had screamed threats, including about wanting to go back to jail for life, and talked about being hungry and thirsty when he boarded an uptown F train that day. Some witnesses testified that they were afraid of him. Penny put him in a chokehold that lasted about six minutes, prosecutors have said and evidence presented at trial has shown. Penny s attorneys have said he acted to protect himself and other subway riders from a seething, psychotic...
Pennsylvania Supreme Court orders election officials to stop counting ballots with date errors
News

Pennsylvania Supreme Court orders election officials to stop counting ballots with date errors

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Monday ordered election officials in the state tostop counting mail-in ballotsmarked with the wrong date or missing dates from their outer envelopes. Thecourt orderspecifies that Bucks, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties, where Republicans argue that officials have opted to count mail-in ballots with errors on their outer envelopes, must adhere to the high court's earlier rulings, which saidundated ormisdated mail-in ballotsshould not be counted. The directive is a courtroom victory for Republican Dave McCormick, who holds a narrow lead over Democratic Sen. Bob Casey in a razor-thin Senate race that isheadedto a recountthis week. Elizabeth Gregory, a spokesperson for McCormick's campaign, called the ruling "a massive setback to Casey s attempt to count i...
Nebraska Senate candidate Dan Osborn launches PAC and weighs future run
News

Nebraska Senate candidate Dan Osborn launches PAC and weighs future run

Nebraska s Dan Osborn is returning to work Tuesday as a steamfitter after his unsuccessful Senate run, but his political career isn t over. Osborn, who ran as an independent, is launching a political action committee, called the Working Class Heroes Fund, to support working-class candidates of all parties. And he isn t ruling out another run for office after his loss to GOP Sen. Deb Fischer. That is definitely something we re taking a look at, Osborn said in a phone interview Monday when he was asked whether he is considering running for the Senate again in two years. GOP Sen. Pete Ricketts won a special election this month to serve out the final two years of former Sen. Ben Sasse s term and is up for a full term in 2026. Osborn previewed a possible case against Ricketts, a wealthy former...
Biden touts his climate legacy during landmark visit to Amazon rainforest
News

Biden touts his climate legacy during landmark visit to Amazon rainforest

During a landmark visit to theAmazon rainforestSunday, PresidentJoe Bidenhighlighted his climate legacy, declaring that no one can reverse America s green transition as President-electDonald Trumps fossil-friendly policies loom large. Biden is the first sitting U.S. president to visit the world s largest tropical rainforest, which plays a vital role in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere but is under growing threat fromclimate change. During an aerial tour from his Marine One helicopter, Biden saw dried-up riverbeds, eroded shores and plumes of smoke from the Amazon s worst forest fires in two decades, which have burned millions of acres this year and greatly disrupted life for its Indigenous communities. Speaking afterward at the Museum of the Amazon in Manaus, Brazil, Biden said ...
In the race for holiday shoppers’ dollars, Amazon is setting the pace
News

In the race for holiday shoppers’ dollars, Amazon is setting the pace

Missing Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals might matter less now as retailers pepper bargain hunters with discounts for months heading into the holidays. But planning ahead to take advantage of them is getting harder, and that s largely thanks to Amazon. NBC News Holiday Price Check istracking the online prices of five gift items, each in a popular product category, to determine when the best deals hit. Already, it s clear that Amazon is often setting the pace. Not only does the e-commerce giant most frequently offer the lowest price, but when it holds a sale on a specific item, other major retailers follow suit. What s more, the flurry of discounts often occurs outside of heavily advertised sales events. It s like a race, it s a game, shopping expert Trae Bodge said. Stumbling onto a s...