Following is a summary of breaking US domestic news.
Trump is again being sued by a writer for defamation and assault over alleged rape
Donald Trump was sued for a second time on Thursday for defamation by a writer who accused the former US president of lying by denying he raped her 27 years ago. In a complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan, former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll also accused Trump of assault during an alleged encounter at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan.
Walmart shooter scolded coworkers in ‘Death Notes’ before shooting at Virginia store
A Walmart supervisor who killed six employees at a Virginia store on Tuesday bought a handgun on the day of the shooting and left a rambling note on his cellphone, scolding other employees he believed made him mocked and betrayed. Information about the firearm purchase and the note was released Friday by the City of Chesapeake in an update on its investigation into the shooting in which 31-year-old Andre Bing opened fire on other workers before turning the gun on himself.
Musk says he will support DeSantis if Florida governor runs for president
Billionaire Elon Musk said Friday he would support Ron DeSantis in 2024 when the Florida governor, who recently rolled into a second term, runs for president. Earlier this month, DeSantis defeated Democratic opponent Charlie Crist by nearly 20 percentage points to be reelected as Florida governor, cementing himself as the Republican Party’s top rising star.
Americans celebrate Thanksgiving in the shadow of two more mass shootings
The United States celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday with traditional festivals, parades and American football on Thursday, taking a moment to celebrate in a week marred by gun violence.
The official holiday dates back to the Civil War, when President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November a day of thanksgiving and seeking healing. US schoolchildren are learning to trace the holiday back to pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620 and celebrated the fall harvest with the Wampanoag peoples. Among Native Americans, Thanksgiving is a day of somber reflection on the genocide that followed.
Elon Musk says Twitter’s ban on Trump after Capitol attack was ‘grave mistake’
Twitter’s ban on then-President Donald Trump after his supporters attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 was a “grave error” that needed to be corrected, CEO Elon Musk said Friday, though he also expressed that incitement to violence would still be banned on Twitter. “I think it’s okay that Trump doesn’t tweet. Importantly, Twitter is correcting a serious error in suspending his account despite not violating the law or the Terms of Service,” Musk said in a tweet. “The deplatting of an incumbent president has eroded public trust in Twitter for half of America.”
Biden says his administration is locked in talks to avert a railroad strike
President Joe Biden said Thursday his administration is involved in negotiations to avert a looming U.S. rail strike that could shut down supply chains across the country, but added that he has not yet addressed the matter directly. Speaking to reporters outside a fire station on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, during a Thanksgiving holiday visit, Biden declined to provide details on how the talks went, saying it was “in the middle of negotiations.”
Avian flu outbreak kills 50.54 million US birds, a record
Avian flu wiped out 50.54 million birds in the United States this year, making it the deadliest outbreak in the country’s history, data from the US Department of Agriculture showed on Thursday. The deaths of chickens, turkeys and other birds represent the worst animal health disaster in the US to date, beating the previous record of 50.5 million birds that died in a 2015 avian flu outbreak.
(With agency contributions.)