Bodycam footage released by the Phoenix Police Department has shown the dramatic moment an officer smashed the sunroof of a submerged vehicle to rescue a man trapped inside.
The US man told officers that he “accidentally stepped on the gas too hard” before driving the vehicle into a pool.
The Phoenix Police Department confirmed no other passengers were inside. The man was taken to an Arizona hospital following the rescue.
CEO Shayne Coplan accuses Biden administration of targeting company over its perceived political associations.
Authorities in the United States have raided the home of the chief executive of Polymarket, a betting platform that drew widespread attention for strongly favouring Donald Trump to win the presidential election.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation executed a search warrant on CEO Shayne Coplan at his Manhattan home on Wednesday.
The New York Post, which first reported the raid, said that Coplan, 26, was roused from bed at 6am by federal agents who demanded he turn over his phone and other electronic devices.
In a post on X, Coplan accused the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden of making a “last-ditch effort to go after companies they deem to be associated with political opponents”.
“We are deeply committed to being non-partisan, and today is no different, but the incumbents should do some self-reflecting and recognise that taking a more pro-business, pro-startup approach may be what would have changed their fate this election,” Coplan said.
Coplan added that Polymarket had provided “value” to tens of millions of people during the election campaign, while “causing harm to nobody”.
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The raid drew sharp criticism from a number of prominent figures in the tech world.
“What the f**** is wrong with this administration,” Brian Armstrong, the CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, said in a post on X, using an expletive.
“This will backfire – they just made Polymarket even more powerful.”
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who is set to co-lead a Department of Government Efficiency in Trump’s incoming administration, also weighed in, writing on X: “This seems messed up”.
Founded in 2020, Polymarket allows users to place bets on upcoming events ranging from election outcomes to sport results and weather patterns.
Polymarket blocked US users in 2022 after reaching a $1.4m settlement for failing to register with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, though it is possible to get around the ban by accessing the site using a VPN.
The platform gained attention ahead of the election after giving Trump strong odds of beating Vice President Kamala Harris, despite opinion polls showing the race to be a dead heat.
Brazil’s Supreme Court has been evacuated and a man has been found dead after two explosions were heard outside the building on Wednesday evening.
The blasts hit the centre of Brazil’s capital – where the Supreme Court, parliament and presidential palace are all located.
Brasilia’s deputy governor said the explosions occurred after a man attempted to enter the court and was stopped. Police confirmed that they discovered a body outside the building, but have yet to offer further details.
The country’s solicitor general, Jorge Messias, condemned what he said was a deliberate attack and vowed a full investigation into the blasts would be launched.
“I strongly condemn the attacks against the Supreme court and the lower house,” he said in a statement posted to X.
“We must know the motivation behind the attacks, and to re-establish peace and safety as fast as possible.”
Images carried by news agencies showed the deceased man lying in an area outside the court, as officers cordoned off the area.
A police spokesperson told AFP that they could “confirm that there is a body in front of the Supreme Court”, but offered no further details.
Brasilia’s Deputy Governor Celina Leao told reporters the explosion occurred after a man approached the entrance to the court and failed to gain entry, and recommended parliament remain closed on Thursday while investigations continued.
“It could have been a lone wolf, like others we’ve seen around the world,” she told reporters, according to the AP news agency.
“We are considering it as a suicide because there was only one victim. But investigations will show if that was indeed the case.”
Earlier, the Supreme Court said in a statement that the building had been evacuated as a “precautionary measure” after explosions were heard. Justices had just finished hearing a plenary session and were quickly evacuated safely, it added.
The court is located in the Plaza de los Tres Poderes, across the square from the presidential palace. Local media reported that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had left the area shortly before the blasts.
The explosions come just a week before Chinese President Xi Jinping is due to visit the capital, following a trip to a G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro.
Last year, the plaza was the scene of mass disorder, after supporters of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro ransacked the buildings in a bid to prevent his electoral defeat by President Lula.
United States President-elect Donald Trump has announced that Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz, 42, will serve as his attorney general, a role that doubles as the country’s top prosecutor and the head of the Department of Justice.
Trump announced the nomination in a post on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, citing Gaetz’s background as a lawyer and as a member of the House Judiciary Committee.
He also indicated that Gaetz’s nomination would be part of his agenda to rout the government of perceived rivals. Trump has long accused Democrats of “weaponising” the Justice Department against him, an allegation he revisited in Wednesday’s announcement.
“Few issues in America are more important than ending the partisan Weaponization of our Justice System,” Trump wrote in his statement.
“Matt will end Weaponized Government, protect our Borders, dismantle Criminal Organizations and restore Americans’ badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department.”
A Trump loyalist, Gaetz celebrated his nomination on social media, calling it an “an honor to serve as President Trump’s Attorney General”.
Earlier in the day, the US representative also echoed the president-elect’s remarks about perceived bias in the government.
“We ought to have a full court press against this WEAPONIZED government that has been turned against our people,” Gaetz wrote.
“And if that means ABOLISHING every one of the three letter agencies, from the FBI to the ATF, I’m ready to get going!”
Gaetz’s ascent to the post, however, is by no means assured. As a nominee for a cabinet-level post, the firebrand Gaetz will have to pass what is sure to be a contentious confirmation vote in the US Senate.
Republicans will take control of the Senate in January, but many in the party view the far-right Gaetz as an unlikeable careerist.
Gaetz took a central role in splintering the Republican Party last October when he led an effort to topple former Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The ouster triggered weeks of uncertainty in the House, which struggled to elect a replacement for McCarthy.
While Gaetz portrayed himself as an anti-establishment insurgent willing to take on powerful forces within his own party, some Republicans viewed McCarthy’s ejection as a publicity stunt meant to elevate Gaetz’s profile.
One of his fellow Republicans from Florida, Representative Carlos Gimenez, even told the publication Politico that Gaetz is politically isolated even in his own home state.
“Gaetz maybe has a couple of friends in the delegation,” Gimenez said in 2023. “But I’m not one of them.”
But Gaetz’s selection as attorney general is the latest indicator of the ideas and priorities that could define Trump’s second term in office.
On the campaign trail, Trump frequently spoke of retribution against political rivals and officials who criticised him or refused his demands, including some related to his efforts to illegitimately overturn his loss in the 2020 election.
“Well, revenge does take time. I will say that,” Trump told TV host Phil McGraw in June. “And sometimes revenge can be justified, Phil. I have to be honest.”
Trump has also frequently bashed the Department of Justice for its role in pursuing two of the four criminal indictments he faced.
Led by Special Counsel Jack Smith, federal prosecutors charged Trump with crimes related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his refusal to surrender classified documents after leaving the White House in 2021.
In response, Trump has called the Department of Justice the “Department of Injustice” and accused it of trying to sabotage his re-election campaign in 2024.
“All of these FAKE POLITICAL PROSECUTIONS (PERSECUTIONS!) OF CROOKED JOE BIDEN’S POLITICAL OPPONENT MUST BE IMMEDIATELY HALTED!” he wrote on Truth Social in February.
By aiming to place Gaetz as the head of the department, critics believe Trump is signalling that personal loyalty is central to his incoming administration.
The choice of Gaetz also elevates a fellow Republican who, like Trump, has faced an investigation from the Department of Justice.
In recent years, allegations have surfaced that the Florida lawmaker offered gifts to underage girls for sex. Gaetz has firmly denied the accusations. In February 2023, the Department of Justice concluded an investigation into the matter without bringing charges.
McCarthy, meanwhile, responded to the allegations by calling Gaetz “a smart guy without morals” that “no one can stand”.
Nevertheless, the House Ethics Committee has continued its investigation into allegations that Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct and drug use.
In September, Gates said that he would no longer cooperate with the “uncomfortably nosy” committee and described the investigation as a “political payback exercise”.
EPAThe rescue workers had just left when we arrived at the scene of an Israeli air strike on a building in Aramoun, south-west of Lebanon’s capital Beirut.
It was supposed to have been cleared. They had found eight bodies – including three children and three women – and taken the many injured to hospitals; some were in a critical condition.
Then several men on a balcony in a building opposite started shouting: “A hand, a hand. We can see a hand.”
They were pointing at a balcony on the second floor, which was completely destroyed and had crumbled on to the collapsed floor below.
A young man climbed on to the mound of rubble. He reached the spot, moved some of the rubble, then held something up that could not be identified from distance.
Later, I asked him if he did find a hand. He replied: “No. It wasn’t a hand. It was a piece of bone from a head.”
The multi-storey building that was hit is located in a residential area.
We were told that most of the people there were internally displaced, mainly from the south of the country or the southern suburbs of Beirut.
They are areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence and which have been frequently targeted by Israel during its war with the Iran-backed political and military group.
Aramoun is a religiously mixed area and until Wednesday it was deemed safe because it had not been hit before.
The dawn strike came without warning.
“It was around 4 o’clock in the morning. We were asleep. We woke up because of a very strong thud. We couldn’t see anything in the beginning because of the smoke that was everywhere,” said a mother of two who lived in the building opposite.
She had sought refuge in her uncle’s house in Aramoun after Israel started bombing Beirut’s southern suburbs.
“Israel is striking everywhere. There is nowhere that is safe anymore,” she added.
EPAAnother woman in her 80s was being rushed to a car.
She had moved to Aramoun a month ago, also from Beirut’s southern suburbs.
After the strike, she left with everyone else in the building and spent two or three hours in their car on the street.
When we saw her, she was collecting some of her possessions. She told us she was very scared and was moving once more.
This time, she said, she was going to her son’s place. He is displaced as well.
When asked about any prospects of an end of hostilities soon, she replied: “The more they talk about a ceasefire, the more Israel intensifies its strikes.”
Getty ImagesThe Israeli military has not yet said who or what it targeted in Aramoun.
But the strike bore similarities to several in other parts of the country: launched without warning on residential buildings or houses hosting displaced people. The Israeli military has said many of those strikes have targeted Hezbollah infrastructure.
The attacks are causing increasing social unease within host communities, with residents voicing concern over the possibility of Israel targeting displaced people living among them or others visiting, often to deliver financial assistance.
“We all love the resistance [Hezbollah], but if someone has a son and isn’t even sure he is in Hezbollah, or someone is coming to give aid to displaced people and they are being targeted, we are paying the price,” said one man who owns house in the area that was struck and lives there with his wife and child.
He added: “The displaced came as guests and we welcome them. But if there is someone stranger here, whoever he is – it might be my own child and I’m not aware of him being in Hezbollah – and they target him, and children and women get killed, isn’t that pitiful?”
Such comments have become more common following the recent series of Israeli strikes in various parts of the country which are outside the known areas of hostilities.
But at the same time there are increasing calls in Lebanon for national unity as well as warnings that such strikes from Israel could be purposely designed to create that social unease.
Experts aren’t sure what is causing fewer overdose deaths, but they are hopeful the decline is sustainable.
Drug overdose deaths in the United States appear to continue to decline, giving experts hope that the nation is seeing sustained improvement in what remains an epidemic.
Some 97,000 people died of a drug overdose in the 12-month period that ended June 30, according to provisional data released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday. That’s down 14 percent from the estimated 113,000 for the previous 12 months.
“This is a pretty stunning and rapid reversal of drug overdose mortality numbers,” Brandon Marshall, a Brown University researcher who studies overdose trends, told The Associated Press.
Overdose death rates began steadily climbing in the 1990s because of opioid painkillers, followed by waves of deaths led by other opioids like heroin and — more recently — fentanyl. Provisional data had indicated a slight decline for 2023, and the new data suggests that the downward trend is continuing.
“This seems to be substantial and sustained,” Marshall said. “I think there’s real reason for hope here.”
It’s not clear what led to the decline, but experts proposed a combination of possible factors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, some said, addiction treatment was hard to get and people were socially isolated, leading to a meteoric rise in drug overdose deaths — and explaining in part the decline we are seeing now.
Still, overdose deaths remain well above where they were before the pandemic.
Experts also said the recent numbers could represent the result of years of efforts to increase the availability of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone, and other addiction treatments. Such efforts are likely being aided by resources made available from settlements of opioid-related lawsuits against drugmakers, wholesalers and pharmacies. Settlement funds have been rolling out to small towns and big cities across the US, and some have started spending the money on naloxone along with other measures.
In the latest CDC data, overdose death reports were down in 45 states, but there were increases in Alaska, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington.
The most dramatic decreases were seen in North Carolina and Ohio, but CDC officials warn that some jurisdictions have had lags in getting death records to federal statisticians. The CDC tried to account for incomplete death records, but the decline in some places may ultimately turn out not to be as dramatic as initial numbers suggest.
Another limitation of the provisional data is that it does not detail what is happening in different groups of people. Recent research noted that the overdose deaths in Black and Native Americans have been growing disproportionately larger.
On election night, Donald Trump repeated the phrase: “promises made, promises kept”.
Now Republicans have officially taken control of Congress, his “promises” got a whole lot easier to keep.
In Washington political parlance, it’s called “a governing trifecta”, when the president’s party also controls both chambers of Congress – the House of Representatives and the Senate.
That control is what Donald Trump’s Republican Party now has.
Single-party control was once common, but in recent decades it is more rare and has lasted for shorter periods of time. Often, the party in power loses seats when mid-term congressional elections roll around two years later.
Both Trump and Joe Biden enjoyed trifectas for their first two years in the White House, and both saw having such control is no guarantee a president can get their way.
In his first two years, Trump passed a signature tax bill – reducing corporate taxes from 35% to 21% and cutting some taxes on individuals.
But, with some members of his own party resistent to his surprise ascent to the top in 2016, he struggled with other aims.
His plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act (known as Obamacare) failed when a senator from his own party, John McCain, refused to vote for it. He also failed to pass an infrastructure bill as he had promised.
In his first two years, when the Democrats had control of the House and the Senate, Biden enjoyed succeeded in passing the American Rescue plan, the Investment and Jobs Act and the CHIPS and Science act. But he, too, had to significantly scale back his sending and investment plans – touted as the Build Back Better package – after opposition from one of his own senators.
A major impediment to total control for either party is that senate bills require a three-fifths majority, or 60 votes, to bypass the filibuster, which enables senators to delay legislation by keeping debate open-ended. That means that when a party has a simple majority in the Senate, they will need to reach across the aisle to get a bill passed.
Even with a healthy majority in the Senate this time around, Trump will not have the magic 60 seats that would allow him to overcome any opposition attempts to delay legislation.
And on Wednesday, Republicans in the Senate selected John Thune as their majority leader over Florida’s Rick Scott, the clear favourite in the Trump camp, in a sign some lawmakers may be reasserting their independence (Trump did not officially endorse Scott).
That said, a trifecta, if astutely managed, does open the way for the possibility of major legislative initiatives.
Trump’s power advantage could be key in pushing through his big promises such as the largest deportation of migrants in history; sweeping, across-the-board tariffs on foreign imports; and the rolling back of environmental protections.
Using legislation to achieve these ends will make such plans much harder to overturn in the courts – something Donald Trump was plagued by in his first term when he extensively used executive orders that were regularly and often successfully challenged.
The judicial landscape has also changed in Donald Trump’s favour.
The signature achievement of his first term was putting three conservatives on the Supreme Court – cementing a two-thirds majority for possibly decades to come.
He also put more than four dozen judges on the federal appeals courts, flipping several circuits to a more conservative bent.
The majority the Republicans have in the Senate also provides another key advantage.
Trump will be able to get his nominees for administration posts approved more easily, something he struggled with back in 2017 when internal resistance to him in the Republican Party was still a significant factor.
All this bodes for a busy and possibly turbulent next two years – and as recent history indicates, these trifectas don’t last all that long, so the incoming administration will want to get a move on.
Senator John Thune of South Dakota beat Trump’s loyalist Rick Scott to lead the Republican-controlled Senate.
Republicans in the United States Senate picked veteran John Thune to be the chamber’s new leader, as lawmakers, scrambling to prepare for President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration, rejected his camp’s favoured candidate.
Thune, who already holds a more junior leadership position, beat Texas Senator John Cornyn in a run-off vote to replace outgoing party leader Mitch McConnell. He had earlier won out against Florida’s Rick Scott, a hardline conservative and Trump loyalist.
The South Dakota senator is viewed as a well-regarded insider. His win comes on the heels of a public pressure campaign by supporters of the incoming president to pick Scott, who lost in the first round with only 13 votes.
Thune’s win in a three-way contest is a sign the Senate could retain some degree of independence from Trump next year. Scott was backed by influential outsiders like billionaire Elon Musk and conservative commentator Sean Hannity. That made the normally clubby election an early test of Senate subservience under Trump, who did not endorse a candidate.
The vote came moments after Trump met President Joe Biden for a traditional courtesy call between the incoming and outcoming occupants of the White House.
Republicans will hold at least 52 seats in the 100-seat Senate and are on track to retain their majority in the House of Representatives, where several races have yet to be called.
Thune, 63, is seen as an even-tempered institutionalist and seasoned legislator who has close relationships with many of his fellow Republicans. He has been in the Senate since 2005 and will succeed 82-year-old Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving party leader in Senate history.
“He was in some ways the natural choice of the establishment Republican Party,” said Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi, reporting from Capitol Hill. “You could look at this and say, ‘Well, look, that’s a bit of independence being asserted by the Senate.’”
Both Thune and Cornyn professed their fealty to Trump, Rattansi noted.
“So, in the end, you know, Trump has at least the stated loyalty of John Thune,” he said. “Still, there’s little rumblings. Even though the Republicans have the presidency, the Senate, and the House, the trifecta, it may not be as smooth sailing as perhaps the celebratory air of Donald Trump in Washington is suggesting.”
Some of Trump’s loudest supporters had expressed concern that Thune and Cornyn, who had both worked closely with McConnell, might lack the willingness to deliver on some of Trump’s campaign promises. Both have served for two decades and delivered major legislation and helped elect other Republicans.
“Without Rick Scott, the entire Trump reform agenda wobbly,” Trump adviser Robert F Kennedy Jr said in a post on X before the vote.
Senate Republicans resisted that pressure. The job of majority leader, they said, requires someone who has spent time building trust and support within the caucus.
“I don’t think it’s worth the president using the political capital that he has to weigh in on the race,” said Senator Markwayne Mullin, a Thune supporter.
Doctors’ charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) says at least two of its patients have been killed in Haiti after police and vigilantes attacked their ambulance in the capital Port-au-Prince.
The charity said its crews had been transporting three patients with gunshot wounds to a MSF hospital on Monday when they were stopped by authorities and forced to go instead to a public hospital.
When they arrived, officers and “members of a self-defence group” attacked the vehicle, slashing its tyres and forcing occupants out through tear-gas.
The wounded patients were then taken away from the hospital grounds where “at least two of them were executed”, the charity said.
It is unclear from MSF’s statement the condition of the third patient. But the group said its ambulance staff were also assaulted in the incident by “law enforcement officers and members of a self-defence group”.
MSF said staff were “violently attacked, insulted, tear-gassed, threatened with death” and held hostage for more than four hours before being released. The motive behind the attack is unclear.
“The act is a shocking display of violence and it seriously calls into question MSF’s ability to continue delivering essential care to the Haitian people,” said Christophe Garnier, the group’s head of mission in the country.
MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, is one of the last humanitarian non-government organisations (NGOs) still operating in Haiti, where violent chaos has gripped the capital.
Since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, armed gangs have seized power in many areas, leading to a spike in street violence in the poorest country in the Americas.
A UN Security Council briefing last month heard that criminal gangs had gained control of 85% of the capital.
More than 3,600 people have been killed in Haiti since January and more than 500,000 have had to leave their homes, according to the UN.
The UN has sent an international policing operation to Haiti, largely made up of Kenyan police. The mission is said to have secured some key sites in the capital including the national hospital, seaport and airport.
However, several US airlines suspended flights to the country this week after three planes were hit by gunfire approaching or departing the airport this week.
A new prime minister was sworn into office in Haiti earlier this week. Alix Didier Fils-Aimé said his priority was “restoring security” in the country.
Asif William Rahman was arrested by the FBI this week in Cambodia and was due to make a court appearance in Guam.
A man who worked overseas for the United States government has been charged with leaking classified information prior to Israel’s planned missile attack on Iran last month, according to media reports citing court documents.
The man, identified as Asif William Rahman, was arrested by the FBI this week in Cambodia and was due to make his first court appearance in Guam, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.
Rahman was indicted last week in US court in Virginia on two counts of disclosing national defence information under the Espionage Act, and could face a lengthy prison sentence.
The New York Times reported that Rahman was employed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), adding that the CIA did not comment on the matter.
The leaked documents were prepared by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGIA), which analyses images and information collected by US spy satellites, the newspaper reported.
The NGIA conducts work in support of secret US military operations.
The documents appeared last month on a channel of the Telegram messaging app. The documents noted that Israel was still moving military assets in place to conduct a military strike in response to Iran’s blistering ballistic missile attack on October 1.
Israel carried out a retaliatory attack on multiple sites in Iran in late October.
After the attack, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned Israel and the US of “a crushing response” for actions against Iran and its allies, according to state media.
