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US vice president Kamala Harris called for Congress to pass an act prompted by George Floyd’s death that would limit immunity for police officers at the funeral of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols.

After being invited to the pulpit by Rev Al Sharpton, she urged the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to be passed, saying: “We should not delay, we should not be denied – it is non-negotiable.”

Quoting religious scripture, she said: “Let our memory of Tyre shine a light on the path towards peace and justice.”

Ms Harris also praised the “courage and strength” of Tyre Nichols’s family at the 29-year-old’s funeral.

“We mourn with you and the people of this country mourn with you.

“Mothers around the world when their babies are born pray to God when they hold that child that that body and that life will be safe for the rest of his life.

“Yet we have a mother and a father who mourn the life of a young man who should be here today.

“They have a grandson who now does not have a father. His brothers and sister will lose the love of growing old with their baby brother.

“When we look at this situation, this is a family who lost their son and their brother through an act of violence at the hands and the feet of people who had been charged with keeping them safe,” she said.

“When I think of the courage and the strength of this family, I think it demands that we speak truth. This violence act was not in pursuit of public safety, it was not in the interest of keeping the public safe.

“Was he not also entitled to the right to be safe?”

She earlier offered her condolences to the family of Tyre Nichols who died three days after being beaten by police.

Celebrated civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton also called for the George Floyd Act to be passed and criticised the police officers who beat Tyre Nichols.

Recalling the death of Martin Luther King in Memphis 55 years ago when he was campaigning for the rights of black workers, he asked: “In the city that they slayed the dreamer, what has happened to the dream?”

“Five black men who wouldn’t have had a job in the police department, would not ever be thought of to be in an elite squad in the city that Dr King lost his life, not far away from that balcony, you beat a brother to death.

“There’s nothing more insulting and offensive. You didn’t get on a police department by yourself, the police chief didn’t get there by herself. People had to march and go to jail and some lost their lives to open the doors for you.

“How dare you act like that sacrifice was for nothing,” he said.

The families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, who were killed by police officers in 2020, are among hundreds of mourners in the church.

Civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton is delivering the eulogy.

Photographs taken by Mr Nichols, as well as images of him as a child and doing his beloved hobby of skateboarding were shown to mourners along with a quote attributed to the 29-year-old: “My vision is to bring my viewers deep into what I am seeing through my eye and out through my lens.”

The ceremony is taking place in Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis with the church’s celebration choir singing a chorus of “we love you Tyre” as mourners entered the church.

Mr Nichols’s black coffin was draped with a white bouquet of flowers and a painting of Martin Luther King placed beside it.

Tiffany Randal, mother of 29-year-old Jalen Randle who was shot by a police officer in Houston in 2022, dedicated a song to Mr Nichols’s family, saying: “I pray that God heals your broken heart. We are fighting together.

“All the mothers all over the world need to come together and stop all of this,” she said.

Mr Nichols, 29, was aggressively punched, kicked and hit with a baton by several Memphis police officers after he was pulled over in a traffic stop on 7 January.

Five police officers have so far been charged with second-degree murder and fired while two other officers were suspended from duty.

Memphis Fire Department also fired three staff members after an investigation found Mr Nichols was left without medical attention for almost 15 minutes after the assault.

Protests have also taken place in several US cities after the footage of the attack was released.

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Donald Trump says Vladimir Putin wants to meet – and that he and Barack Obama ‘probably’ like each other

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Donald Trump says Vladimir Putin wants to meet - and that he and Barack Obama 'probably' like each other

Donald Trump says a meeting is being set up between himself and Vladimir Putin – and that he and Barack Obama “probably” like each other.

Republican US president-elect Mr Trump spoke to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Thursday, saying Russian president Mr Putin “wants to meet, and we are setting it up”.

“He has said that even publicly and we have to get that war over with. That’s a bloody mess,” Mr Trump said.

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Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday there was a “mutual desire” to set up a meeting – but added no details had been confirmed yet and that there may be progress once Mr Trump is inaugurated on 20 January.

“Moscow has repeatedly declared its openness to contacts with international leaders, including the US president, including Donald Trump,” Mr Peskov added.

“What is required is a mutual desire and political will to conduct dialogue and resolve existing problems through dialogue. We see that Mr Trump also declares his readiness to resolve problems through dialogue. We welcome this. There are still no specifics, we proceed from the mutual readiness for the meeting.”

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Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in July 2017. Pic: AP
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Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in July 2017. Pic: AP

Trump on Obama: ‘We just got along’

Mr Trump also made some lighter remarks regarding a viral exchange between himself and former Democrat President Barack Obama at Jimmy Carter’s funeral on Thursday.

The pair sat together for the late president’s service in Washington DC on Thursday, and could be seen speaking for several minutes as the remaining mourners filed in before it began.

Mr Obama was seen nodding as his successor spoke before breaking into a grin.

Asked about the exchange, Mr Trump said: “I didn’t realise how friendly it looked.

“I said, ‘boy, they look like two people that like each other’. And we probably do.

“We have a little different philosophies, right? But we probably do. I don’t know. We just got along. But I got along with just about everybody.”

The amicable exchange comes after years of criticising each other in the public eye; it was Mr Trump who spread the so-called “birther” conspiracy theory about Mr Obama in 2011, falsely asserting that he was not born in the United States.

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Insults continued for years, with Mr Obama famously dedicating much of his final White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech in 2016 to jokes at his political rival’s expense.

Mr Trump has repeatedly attacked the Obamas, saying the former president was “ineffective” and “terrible” and calling former first lady Michelle Obama “nasty” as recently as October last year.

On Kamala Harris’s campaign trail last year, Mr Obama said Mr Trump was a “78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago”, while the former first lady said that “the consequences of him ever being president again are brutally serious.”

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LA wildfires: One daughter’s haunting account of her father’s fatal decision to stay in his home

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LA wildfires: One daughter's haunting account of her father's fatal decision to stay in his home

“He was asleep in his bed, where he still is right now, as I wait on the coroner.”

The haunting words of Kimiko Nickerson stopped us in our tracks.

Her father Rodney, 82, was sure the fire wouldn’t reach his home in Altadena. He was wrong.

The inferno cut through this quiet suburb north of Los Angeles at an alarming rate, its path unpredictable.

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She said: “He just didn’t want to evacuate. He’s been living here since 1968, and he’s been in Altadena my whole life.

“Like all of us on this block, in four blocks, he didn’t think it was going to be this devastating.

“It jumped whole streets, and it hit this community, but it didn’t touch the mountainside at all.”

They’re still trying to process the apocalyptic scenes here and grieving for those who did not get out.

Kimiko said: “I have no words to explain my feelings at this point in time.

“I’m just silent and numb and just mentally trying to go through the process.”

Rodney Nickerson decided not to leave his Altadena home.
Pic: Kimiko Nickerson
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Rodney Nickerson decided not to leave his Altadena home.
Pic: Kimiko Nickerson

‘Truly apocalyptic scenes’ as flames swallow homes in LA wildfires evacuation zone

It would be impossible to exaggerate the scale of the destruction, cars burnt to a cinder, palm trees still alight, powerlines strewn across roads.

So many people have lost the roof over their head but there’s one thing Kimiko says she’ll never lose – her memories.

“Every laugh, every joke he told.

“He was a smart man. He read the LA Times from cover to cover and walked around the Rose Bowl every day.

“He was healthy, he was ambitious… but he went to sleep and died in his bed back there.”

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Donald Trump to be sentenced today over porn star hush money after Supreme Court rejects appeal

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Donald Trump to be sentenced today over porn star hush money after Supreme Court rejects appeal

The US Supreme Court has rejected a last-ditch attempt by Donald Trump to delay sentencing in the Stormy Daniels hush money case.

The president-elect was convicted on 34 counts last May in New York of falsifying business records relating to payments made to Ms Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.

Prosecutors claimed he had paid her $130,000 (£105,300) in hush money to not reveal details of what Ms Daniels said was a sexual relationship in 2006.

Mr Trump has denied any liaison with Ms Daniels or any wrongdoing.

By a majority, the Supreme Court found his sentencing would not be an insurmountable burden during the presidential transition since the presiding judge, Juan M Merchan, has indicated he will not give Mr Trump jail time, fines or probation.

Mr Trump’s attorneys argued that evidence used in the Manhattan trial violated last summer’s Supreme Court ruling giving Mr Trump broad immunity from prosecution over acts he took as president.

At the least, they said, the sentencing should be delayed while their appeals play out to avoid distracting Mr Trump during the presidential transition.

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Stormy Daniels. Pic: AP
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Stormy Daniels. Pic: AP

Mr Trump’s attorneys went to the justices after New York courts refused to postpone sentencing.

Judges in New York found that the convictions related to personal matters rather than Mr Trump’s official acts as president.

Mr Trump’s attorneys called the case politically motivated, and they said sentencing him now would be a “grave injustice” that threatens to disrupt the presidential transition as the Republican prepares to return to the White House.

Mr Trump has said he will appeal again: “I respect the court’s opinion – I think it was actually a very good opinion for us because you saw what they said, but they invited the appeal and the appeal is on the bigger issue. So, we’ll see how it works out,” he said at a dinner with Republican governors at his private club in Florida.

Because the New York case was a state, rather than federal crime, Mr Trump will not be able to pardon himself when he takes office on 20 January.

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