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USA: 6 ‘Soldiers of Christ’ members are in custody after a woman’s body was found in a car trunk

DULUTH, Ga. (AP) — Five adults and a 15-year-old self-described as “Soldiers of Christ” religious group members were in custody Thursday on murder charges after a woman’s body was found in the trunk of a car parked outside a popular spa in Atlanta’s suburbs.

Investigators said that someone reported the discovery Tuesday night outside of a Korean spa and sauna in Duluth. Authorities said the killing does not appear to be connected to the spa.

USA: Wisconsin Senate votes to override Evers’ 400-year veto and his gutting of tax increase

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republicans who control the Wisconsin Senate voted Thursday to override three of Gov. Tony Evers’ vetoes, including one that attempted to enshrine school funding increases for 400 years.

Republicans had the necessary two-thirds majority to override the vetoes in the Senate and did so in a series of 22-11 votes along party lines, but they don’t have enough votes in the Assembly. Vetoes must be overridden in both chambers in order to undo them.

USA: Hunter Biden is indicted on federal firearm-purchasing charges after plea deal fails

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hunter Biden was indicted Thursday on federal firearms charges, the latest step in a long-running investigation into the president’s son that puts the case on track toward a possible high-stakes trial as the 2024 election looms.

Biden is accused of lying about his drug use when he bought a firearm in October 2018, a period when he has acknowledged struggling with addiction to crack cocaine, according to the indictment filed in federal court in Delaware by a special counsel overseeing the case.

USA: Jury clears 3 men in the last trial tied to the plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer

(AP) --- A jury acquitted three men Friday in the last trial connected to a plan to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a scheme that was portrayed as an example of homegrown terrorism on the eve of the 2020 presidential election.

William Null, twin brother Michael Null and Eric Molitor were found not guilty of providing support for a terrorist act and a weapon charge. They were the last of 14 men to face charges in state or federal court. Nine were convicted and now five have been cleared.

USA: Wisconsin impeachment review panel includes former GOP speaker, conservative justice

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — One of the former Wisconsin Supreme Court justices tapped to investigate impeaching newly elected Justice Janet Protasiewicz for taking Democratic Party money accepted donations from the state Republican Party when he was on the court.

The former justice, Republican David Prosser, gave $500 to the conservative candidate who lost to Protasiewicz, did not recuse from cases involving a law he helped pass as a lawmaker and was investigated after a physical altercation with a liberal justice.

Secret records: Government says Marine’s adoption of Afghan orphan seen as abduction, must be undone: USA

(AP) --- The U.S. government has warned a Virginia judge that allowing an American Marine to keep an Afghan war orphan risks violating international law and could be viewed around the world as “endorsing an act of international child abduction,” according to secret court records reviewed by The Associated Press.

US could advance SpaceX license as soon as October after rocket exploded in April

WASHINGTON, Sept 13 (Reuters) - The acting head of the Federal Aviation Administration said on Wednesday the agency could advance a launch license as early as next month for the SpaceX Starship rocket after a prior one exploded following a test launch in April.

"We're working well with them and have been in good discussions. Teams are working together and I think we're optimistic sometime next month," acting FAA Administrator Polly Trottenberg told reporters on the sidelines of a conference.

USA: Utah GOP Sen. Mitt Romney won’t seek reelection in 2024, marking end to decadeslong political career

Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney said Wednesday that he will not run for reelection, ending a storied two-decade political career that included the 2012 Republican GOP nomination for president and a term as Massachusetts governor.

Romney, 76, said the country’s many challenges call for a younger generation of leaders. He said the U.S. would be better served if the two front-runners for their parties’ 2024 presidential nominations — Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican former President Donald Trump — stepped aside. Biden is 80 and Trump is 77.

New US sanctions target workarounds that let Russia get Western tech for war

(AP) --- The United States said Thursday that it was sanctioning more than 150 businesses and people from Russia to Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Georgia to try to crack down on evasion and deny the Kremlin access to technology, money and financial channels that fuel President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

The sanctions package is one of the biggest by the State and Treasury departments and is the latest to target people and companies in countries, notably NATO member Turkey, that sell Western technology to Russia that could be used to bolster its war effort.

USA: Trump won’t be tried with Powell and Chesebro next month in Georgia election case

ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia judge ruled Thursday that former President Donald Trump and 16 others will be tried separately from two defendants who are set to go to trial next month in the case accusing them of participating in an illegal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

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