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Former vice president and longtime Republican Dick Cheney has said he will vote for Kamala Harris in this year’s US election.

The 83-year-old issued a statement announcing he will be backing the Democratic candidate because her Republican rival Donald Trump can “never be trusted with power again”.

Mr Cheney has been an outspoken critic of Mr Trump, most notably during his daughter Liz Cheney’s unsuccessful campaign to hold on to her Wyoming seat in Congress in 2022.

Ms Cheney, who said she would be voting for Ms Harris on Wednesday, was the first to announce her father’s endorsement when she spoke to Mark Leibovich from The Atlantic magazine in an onstage interview at The Texas Tribune Festival in Austin on Friday.

“Wow,” Mr Leibovich replied as the audience cheered.

In a statement issued later, Mr Cheney said that “in our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump”.

“He can never be trusted with power again,” he adds.

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“As citizens, we each have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution. That is why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.”

Asked for comment after Ms Cheney announced her father’s voting intention, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said: “Who is Liz Cheney?”

The campaign confirmed Mr Cheung was being sarcastic by also pointing to a comment Ms Cheney posted online four years ago in which she called Ms Harris a “radical liberal”.

Mr Cheney, who served as vice president under Republican President George W Bush from 2001 to 2009, has made few if any public appearances over the past year or more.

He has dealt with heart issues since his 40s and underwent a heart transplant in 2012.

Liz and Dick Cheney in Wyoming in 2022. Pic: AP
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Liz and Dick Cheney in Wyoming in 2022. Pic: AP

His statement on Friday was similar to a 2022 campaign ad for his daughter as she sought a fourth term as Wyoming’s lone congressperson.

In reference to the 6 January Capitol riots in 2021, he called Mr Trump a “coward” for trying to “steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him”.

The ad did little good for his daughter in a deep-red state that once held the Cheney family dear but is now thoroughly in Mr Trump’s corner.

Mr Cheney has been friends with Democrats over the years, but never supported one for president.

Both Cheneys backed Mr Trump during his successful 2016 presidential bid.

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However, their support for him waned with Ms Cheney criticising Mr Trump’s foreign policy decisions while he was in office.

She later criticised him over the 6 January Capitol riots.

Meanwhile, while in office, Mr Trump had criticised the “endless wars” in Afghanistan and Iraq launched when Mr Cheney was vice president.

If either Cheney supported Mr Trump in 2020, they were quiet about it.

Several other top Republicans have also come out in support of Ms Harris ahead of this year’s election while some, including Senator Mitt Romney and former vice president Mike Pence, say they will not be voting for Mr Trump.

Of them, only Mr Romney, who is not seeking re-election, is still in office.

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Girl, 13, arrested after teenager shot dead in Los Angeles

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Girl, 13, arrested after teenager shot dead in Los Angeles

A 13-year-old girl has been arrested following the fatal shooting a 16-year-old boy in Los Angeles County, California, police have said.

Officers responded on Sunday about 5pm to a report of a shooting in the city of Pomona.

They found a teenage boy suffering from a gunshot wound.

He was pronounced dead at the scene after firefighters arrived.

A motive for the crime is as yet unknown, police said.

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Pomona Police Department said in a statement: “Due to the nature of the incident, investigators from the Pomona Police Department’s Major Crimes Unit responded to the scene and initiated an extensive investigation.

“During the course of their investigation, they identified a 13-year-old female as the possible perpetrator. She was taken into custody and transported to Juvenile Hall.”

The victim’s and the suspect’s identities have not been revealed.

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Charges against Donald Trump in Georgia election interference case dismissed

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Russia 'making concessions' and Ukraine 'happy' with peace deal talks, says Trump

Charges against Donald Trump and others in an election interference case in the US state of Georgia have been dismissed.

Pete Skandalakis, the prosecutor who recently took over the case, said in court papers on Wednesday that he has decided to take no further action.

It was unlikely the legal action against the US president could have progressed while he was still in office, but the 14 others – including Mr Trump’s personal lawyer, the former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, and ex-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows – had still faced charges.

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Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani was among those charged. File pic: AP/Ted Shaffrey
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Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani was among those charged. File pic: AP/Ted Shaffrey

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis announced the charges in 2023. Pic: AP
Image:
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis announced the charges in 2023. Pic: AP

The case was dismissed in full by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee after Mr Skandalakis submitted his decision.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had alleged a wide-ranging conspiracy to illegally overturn Mr Trump’s narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the key swing state in the 2020 presidential election.

Charges against Mr Trump centred around a phone call he made to Georgia’s top election official, secretary of state Brad Raffensperger.

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Mr Trump told his fellow Republican: “I just want to find 11,780 votes”, recordings of the conversation showed.

Mr Trump and 18 co-defendants were initially accused.

Four of the accused made plea deals with prosecutors, while the others, including Mr Trump, Mr Giuliani and Mr Meadows, pleaded not guilty.

A police mugshot taken of Donald Trump after he was booked on 13 election fraud charges in Georgia. Pic: Reuters
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A police mugshot taken of Donald Trump after he was booked on 13 election fraud charges in Georgia. Pic: Reuters

An angry-looking Mr Trump was pictured as he was booked on the charges at the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, and copies of the mugshot generated sales of more than $7m (£5.3m) in a matter of days, his campaign said.

In a 22-page memo explaining his decision, Mr Skandalakis noted the entire case is “without precedent,” and pointed in part to the challenges of trying a case against a sitting president.

Mr Skandalakis wrote: “In my professional opinion, the citizens of Georgia are not served by pursuing this case in full for another five to ten years”.

He said he was ending the case “to serve the interests of justice and promote judicial finality” and his decision is “not guided by a desire to advance an agenda but is based on my beliefs and understanding of the law”.

Mr Trump’s lawyer in the case, Steve Sadow, welcomed the end of what he called a “political persecution” of the US president.

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“This case should never have been brought. A fair and impartial prosecutor has put an end to this lawfare,” he said.

Ms Willis, who brought the case in August 2023, was disqualified from prosecuting it last December.

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An appeals court in the state capital, Atlanta, ruled that a romantic relationship she had with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she chose to lead the case, created “a significant appearance of impropriety.”

Defence lawyers claimed the district attorney profited from the case when Wade used his earnings to pay for holidays the pair took.

She appealed the verdict, but lost her case in September, despite Mr Wade having quit his role.

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Russia ‘making concessions’ and Ukraine ‘happy’ with peace deal talks, says Trump

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Russia 'making concessions' and Ukraine 'happy' with peace deal talks, says Trump

Donald Trump has claimed Russia is “making concessions” in talks to end the Ukraine war – and that Kyiv is “happy” with how talks are progressing.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One as he flew out to his Florida estate for Thanksgiving, Mr Trump said “we’re making progress” on a deal and said he would be willing to meet with both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy once they are close to an agreement.

He also said his previously announced deadline of Thursday, which is Thanksgiving, was no longer in place – and that the White House’s initial 28-point peace plan, which sparked such concern in Kyiv, “was just a map”.

Asked if Ukraine had been asked to hand over too much territory, Mr Trump suggested that “over the next couple of months [that] might be gotten by Russia anyway”.

Moscow’s concessions are a promise to stop fighting, “and they don’t take any more land”, he said.

“The deadline for me is when it’s over,” he added. “And I think everybody’s tired of fighting at this moment.”

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Before boarding the plane, Mr Trump had claimed only a few “points of disagreement” remain between the two sides.

Mr Trump’s negotiator Steve Witkoff will be meeting with Mr Putin in Moscow next week, the president said, while American army secretary Daniel Driscoll is due to travel to Kyiv for talks this week.

The chief of Ukraine’s presidential staff, Andriy Yermak, wrote: “Ukraine has never been and will never be an obstacle to peace. We are grateful to the US for all its support.

“The meeting between the presidents will be thoroughly and promptly prepared on our part.”

Zelenskyy warns against ‘behind our back’ deal

Yesterday, a virtual “coalition of the willing” meeting that featured Ukraine’s allies took place, which was attended by US secretary of state Marco Rubio.

In a speech, Mr Zelenskyy told attendees: “We firmly believe security decisions about Ukraine must include Ukraine, security decisions about Europe must include Europe.

“Because when something is decided behind the back of a country or its people, there is always a high risk it simply won’t work.”

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What is Russia saying about the latest peace talks?

A joint statement from coalition leaders Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, and Friedrich Merz said they had agreed with Mr Rubio “to accelerate joint work” with the US on the planning of security guarantees for Ukraine.

But a Ukrainian diplomat has warned major sticking points remain in the peace deal being thrashed out – primarily the prospect of territorial concessions.

A warning from the Kremlin

Meanwhile, Moscow has stressed that it will not allow any agreement to stray too far from its own objectives.

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov warned any amended peace plan must reflect the understanding reached between Mr Trump and Mr Putin over the summer.

“If the spirit and letter of Anchorage is erased in terms of the key understandings we have established then, of course, it will be a fundamentally different situation,” he said, referring to the two leaders’ meeting in Alaska.

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As negotiations continue, so have Russian attacks, with Kyiv hit by a barrage of missiles and hundreds of drones early yesterday morning.

Seven people were killed with power and heating systems disrupted, as residents sheltered underground.

Meanwhile, three people died and homes were damaged after Ukraine launched an attack on southern Russia.

‘A critical juncture’

French President Emmanuel Macron has said peace efforts are gathering momentum, but “are clearly at a critical juncture”.

And during the annual White House turkey pardon ahead of Thanksgiving, Mr Trump told reporters: “I think we’re getting close to a deal. We’ll find out.

“I thought that would have been an easier one, but I think we’re making progress.”

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