Arizona man allegedly sold firearms to undercover FBI agent to ‘incite race war’

Indictment says Mark Adams Prieto recruited people at gun show to help carry out mass shooting targeting minorities

A firearms dealer in Arizona sold weapons to an undercover federal agent he believed would help him carry out his plan for a mass shooting targeting minorities, an attack that he hoped would “incite a race war”, according to a federal grand jury indictment.

Mark Adams Prieto was indicted Tuesday by the grand jury in Arizona on charges of firearms trafficking, transferring a firearm for use in a hate crime, and possession of an unregistered firearm.

Continue reading...

Revealed: Trump ally Kari Lake gave speech in front of Confederate flag

Video shows Arizona Senate candidate repeating election-fraud claims at event with Confederate flag behind her

The Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake addressed supporters with a Confederate flag displayed behind her during a campaign event at a Trump merchandise store in Arizona last week, where she repeated false claims about election fraud.

In footage obtained by the Guardian, Lake is seen speaking into a microphone, surrounded by a group of supporters, at the Trumped Store in Show Low, Arizona. Behind her, a Confederate battle flag and a yellow “Don’t Tread On Me” flag are affixed to the wall. Both flags are available for purchase on the website of Trumped Store, which sells an array of merchandise with the former president’s name and likeness.

Continue reading...

Phoenix turns to ice-filled body bags to treat heatstroke as US south-west bakes

Technique known as cold-water immersion adopted by Phoenix hospitals after county saw 645 heat-related deaths last year

The season’s first heatwave is already baking the south-west with triple-digit temperatures as firefighters in Phoenix – America’s hottest big city – employ new tactics in hopes of saving more lives in a county that saw 645 heat-related deaths last year.

Starting this season, the Phoenix fire department is immersing heatstroke victims in ice on the way to area hospitals. The medical technique, known as cold-water immersion, is familiar to marathon runners and military service members and has also recently been adopted by Phoenix hospitals as a go-to protocol, according to fire captain John Prato.

Continue reading...

Biden’s migrant order is recipe for chaos at US border: ‘It will only cause suffering’

With high levels of people seeking asylum, and after failed attempts to pass reforms, Biden has presented his most aggressive restrictions yet

Joe Biden on Tuesday signed an aggressive new immigration order suspending asylum rights, signalling that “securing the border” was a central tenet of his re-election bid.

At the southern US border, the policy is set to cause chaos and hardship for those seeking the protection of the United States.

Continue reading...

Rudy Giuliani pleads not guilty to charges in Arizona fake electors case

Former New York mayor one of 12 defendants charged with illegally trying to keep Trump in power after 2020 election defeat

Rudy Giuliani denied charges of illegally trying to keep Donald Trump in power after his 2020 election defeat as he was arraigned to appear before a court in Arizona along with 10 other defendants on Tuesday.

Giuliani’s not guilty plea to nine felony charges came days after he was served an indictment as he left a party to celebrate his 80th birthday last Friday.

Continue reading...

Six-month-old baby shot repeatedly during Arizona standoff with child’s father

Police were able to rescue child, who is in hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, before house caught fire with father still in it

A six-month-old baby is currently hospitalized after a man allegedly shot the infant several times during an armed home standoff in Surprise, Arizona, about 30 miles north-west of Phoenix.

At about 3am on Friday, the father of the child allegedly broke into the home where the child and mother lived, according to Surprise police. The child’s father did not live in the house, police said, adding that the man held the mother and child hostage for several hours before the mother managed to escape.

Continue reading...

Jill Biden tells Arizona graduates ‘let the world feel your thunder’

First lady shares with Mesa Community College how her high school guidance counselor told her she wasn’t college material

Jill Biden on Saturday told Arizona community college graduates to tune out the people who like to tell them what they can’t do.

The first lady shared with graduates of Mesa Community College how her high school guidance counselor told her she wasn’t college material and shouldn’t waste her time going. She didn’t listen and got her college degree.

Continue reading...

Police disband pro-Palestinian student encampments across the US

Authorities moved in overnight to clear campuses from Arizona to Massachusetts of students demanding schools cut ties to Israel

Police moved in to disband several pro-Palestinian student encampments on US campuses on Friday morning as the foment over protests against academic ties with Israel over the war in Gaza continued to roil academia.

Tent encampments at the University of Pennsylvania, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Arizona, Tucson, were all dismantled in early morning raids that saw cordons of police sweep in and clear the makeshift protest settlements. In Tucson teargas was used, and demonstrators responded by throwing bottles at officers.

Continue reading...

More than 2,000 pro-Palestinian protesters arrested across US campuses

Police arrest more than 200 students at UCLA as law enforcement clears camp at Dartmouth, arresting more than 90 students

More than 2,000 people have now been arrested during pro-Palestinian protests across dozens of US college campuses in recent weeks.

Police arrested more than 300 pro-Palestinian demonstrators on college campuses on Wednesday night into Thursday morning, pushing the total past 2,000, according to an Associated Press tally.

Continue reading...

Arizona Democrats to make final push to repeal near-total abortion ban

Democrats pick up support of two Republicans to repeal 1864 law reinstated three weeks ago as governor is expected to ratify repeal

Arizona lawmakers are poised to repeal the state’s 160-year-old statue banning nearly all abortions.

The 1864 law, which was reinstated by the state’s supreme court three weeks ago, made abortion a central focus in the battleground state and galvanized Democrats seeking to enshrine abortion rights.

Continue reading...

Mistrial in case of Arizona rancher accused of shooting migrant dead

George Kelly, 75, charged with second-degree murder over death of Mexican Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, 48, on his property last year

An Arizona judge declared a mistrial on Monday in the case of a rancher accused of fatally shooting a Mexican man on his property near the US-Mexico border.

George Kelly, 75, was charged with second-degree murder in the 30 January 2023 shooting of Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, 48, who lived just south of the border in Nogales.

Continue reading...

Arizona Republicans again block effort to repeal 1864 near-total abortion ban

After decrying state supreme court ruling on ban with no exceptions for rape or incest, lawmakers ensure its potential to take effect

After days of nationwide debate over the Arizona supreme court’s recent decision to uphold a near-total abortion ban from the 19th century, Arizona’s Republican-controlled statehouse has again quashed an effort to repeal the ban.

Republicans, who hold a one-seat majority in both the Arizona house and senate, on Wednesday shot down a procedural measure in the statehouse that would have enabled the chamber to vote on a bill to repeal the ban. Just one Republican, the representative Matt Gress, voted with the house’s 29 Democrats, but the 30-30 split was not enough to move forward.

Continue reading...

Far-right US Senate candidate tells crowd to carry guns ahead of election

Kari Lake of Arizona warned supporters of ‘intense’ election year in which Democrats will come after them ‘with everything’

Republican US Senate candidate Kari Lake has told supporters to “strap on a Glock” ahead of the 2024 elections as she struggles to gain ground against her Democratic rival in Arizona.

In a campaign speech made to a crowd in Arizona’s Mohave county on Sunday, Lake echoed Trump-like terms in calling Washington DC a “swamp” – and used a reference to carrying guns when she told people to prepare for an “intense” election year.

Continue reading...

Democrats bank on abortion in 2024 as Arizona and Florida push stakes higher

Focus on reproductive rights has yielded big wins and Democrats hope threat of more Republican bans will mobilize voters

Kamala Harris’s Friday visit to Arizona was planned before the state’s top court upheld a 160-year-old law that bans almost all abortions. But the news galvanized the vice-president’s message, one that has already yielded stunning victories for liberals since Roe v Wade fell nearly two years ago.

That message is simple: abortion bans happen when Republicans are in charge.

Continue reading...

Kamala Harris blames Donald Trump for Arizona abortion-ban debacle in speech

‘They’ve turned the clock to the 1800s’, said the US vice-president as she excoriated ex-president as ‘architect of healthcare crisis’

Kamala Harris pinned the blame for Arizona’s abortion ban squarely on Donald Trump, who she described as the “architect of this healthcare crisis” in a speech at a campaign event in Tucson on Friday.

The state was left reeling after the Arizona supreme court ruled earlier this week that a civil war-era law banning abortion in the state with almost no exceptions is now enforceable.

Continue reading...

Kamala Harris calls Trump ‘architect of healthcare crisis’ in Arizona abortion speech – as it happened

This live blog is now closed

A vote to amend Fisa’s section 702 to prohibit warrantless surveillance in the House has failed.

The amendment, introduced by Arizona Republican representative Andy Biggs, failed after the yays and nays votes tied at 212-212.

Continue reading...

Arizona’s Republican leaders block attempt to repeal abortion ban

Democrats stymied after state supreme court rules that 1864 law with no exceptions for rape or incest can go into effect

Arizona’s state Republican leadership halted an effort by Democrats on Wednesday to repeal an 1864 law banning almost all abortions, which the state supreme court this week ruled could go into effect.

The move came after Republican lawmakers in the state had denounced the court’s decision, including some who previously expressed support for the law. Donald Trump and other high-profile Republicans, such as the Senate candidate Kari Lake, had also declared their opposition to the ruling with Lake urging lawmakers to “come up with an immediate commonsense solution that Arizonans can support”.

Continue reading...

Trump says he would not sign abortion ban if elected as Republicans backpedal on reproductive rights – live

Former president says Arizona abortion ban went too far as Democrats note he appointed justices who ended Roe

The Arizona supreme court decision upended Donald Trump’s gambit on abortion, a day after the former president sought to neutralize the political issue by declining to support a national abortion ban.

Trump had hoped that his announcement on Monday would keep abortion rights mostly out of the conversation ahead of the November elections, but Tuesday’s ruling showed just how difficult it will be to do that, the Washington Post’s Dan Balz writes.

All abortion politics are national, not local. Abortion developments – new laws, new restrictions, new stories of women caught up in heart-wrenching and sometimes life-threatening decisions – are no longer confined to the geography where they take place. They are instantly part of the larger debate.

There is no safe harbor for Trump and the Republicans at this point. The abortion issue is no less complex and no less difficult for many Americans than it was while Roe was in force. But politically the winds have shifted, and done so dramatically.

Continue reading...

TSMC to make state-of-the-art chips in US after multibillion subsidy pledge

World’s most valuable chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor to set up third facility in Arizona using funding from Biden policy

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is to build its most advanced chips in Arizona after receiving a pledge of as much as $11.6bn in US government subsidy as part of Joe Biden’s efforts to attract computer chip production.

TSMC, the world’s most valuable chipmaker, says it aims to start producing the two-nanometre chips at a new factory in Phoenix, Arizona, by 2028.

Continue reading...

Kari Lake won’t contest claims she defamed Arizona election official

Republican sued by Stephen Richer, top Maricopa county official, last year after she lost her gubernatorial bid and lied about him

Kari Lake signaled on Tuesday that she will not contest claims that she lied about a top Arizona election official and defamed him, a significant legal concession from the Arizona Republican who has become one of the country’s most prominent election deniers.

Stephen Richer, the top election official in Maricopa county, sued Lake, her campaign and an aligned Pac last year after she lost her gubernatorial bid and repeatedly lied about him. Lake, who is now running for the US Senate, falsely accused him of injecting 300,000 illegal votes into machines and intentionally misprinting ballots so they would be rejected by ballot tabulators.

Continue reading...