Iowa: man kills two women and then himself in latest US shooting

The women were shot dead outside a church in Ames moments after Joe Biden urged Congress to ban assault weapons

A man has shot and killed two women in the parking lot of a church in Iowa and then turned the gun on himself, police said, adding three more dead to the national toll from a series of recent shootings that have rocked the United States.

The Iowa shooting took place on Thursday shortly after president Joe Biden delivered a major address on gun violence in the wake of mass shootings in Buffalo, New York; Uvalde, Texas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, in recent weeks.

Continue reading...

Trump holds Iowa rally as poll in early voting state shows strong support

Donald Trump returned to Iowa on Saturday for a campaign-style rally, on the heels of a poll showing strong support in the state which traditionally kicks off presidential elections.

Trump has not announced a second run for the White House.

Continue reading...

Where the buffalo roam: world’s longest wildlife bridge could cross the Mississippi

Conservationist aims to replace old bridge with bison preserve, benefiting environment and spotlighting Indigenous history

Between Iowa and Illinois, spanning the only stretch of the Mississippi River that flows from east to west, sits an exhausted 55-year-old cement bridge. Each day 42,000 cars drive across the ageing structure, which is slated to be torn down and replaced.

But when Chad Pregracke looks at the bridge, he has a different vision entirely – not an old overpass to be demolished, but a home for the buffalo to roam.

Continue reading...

‘He made a connection’: how did Trump manage to boost his support among rural Americans?

Despite overall defeat, Trump boosted his support in the Iowa heartland and some say sounded the death knell for the ‘country club Republican’ party there

Just a few months ago, Neil Shaffer thought Iowa was lost to Donald Trump.

“I was worried. We were in the midst of Covid and the economy wasn’t doing so good and Trump wasn’t handling the Covid interviews very well, and I was thinking this is gonna be a bloodbath,” said the farmer and chair of a county Republican party in the north-east of the state.

Continue reading...

US election roundup: Trump and Biden swing through battleground states

Both candidates to campaign in Minnesota and Wisconsin while president rails against supreme court over North Carolina ruling

The two US presidential candidates swung through northern battleground states on Friday amid signs that the coronavirus pandemic was once more threatening to overcome hospital capacity in several US regions.

Donald Trump was due to hold a succession of airport rallies in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, while Joe Biden was scheduled to have drive-in rallies in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Continue reading...

‘I’m more for Trump than I was before’: president clings to narrow lead in Iowa as Biden closes in

In a county that flipped dramatically from backing Obama to supporting Trump, there are signs of danger for the president

When Aaron Schatz surveys the wreckage of 2020, he finds himself doing surprisingly well.

Profits on his Iowa dairy farm are up thanks to coronavirus. The pandemic feels a distant threat, and Schatz has yet to wear a mask. Black Lives Matter protests are an annoyance but really someone else’s problem.

Continue reading...

‘This is unstoppable’: America’s midwest braces itself for a Covid-19 surge

Experts predict an increase in deaths across the region, made significantly worse by lawmakers who question the value of face coverings

Three months ago, the Republican governor of Missouri chose not to wear a mask in a shop, because he said he wasn’t going to let the government tell him what to do. Mike Parson visited a hardware store to celebrate its reopening after he lifted Missouri’s coronavirus lockdown over the objections of health professionals and mayors of major cities.

Parson said the worst of the pandemic was past and the economic impact of the shutdown was worse than the virus. As for masks, the governor dismissively claimed “there was a lot of information on both sides” over whether to wear one so he wasn’t going to require people to do so.

Continue reading...

Can Republican Steve King keep his seat after becoming a ‘pariah inside the party’?

Abandoned by mainstream Republicans for his racist rhetoric, the Iowa congressman finds himself in a nightmare situation

This might actually be the year Iowa Republican congressman Steve King loses re-election.

King, the conservative congressman who’s been repeatedly reprimanded by leaders in his own party for racist rhetoric and interactions with white nationalists, finds himself in a nightmare situation for an incumbent congressman.

Continue reading...

Midwesterners were already doubting Trump. Covid could seal his political fate

The genius may think we are suckers, but in Iowa we don’t ruin good corn liquor with Clorox

Drake Custer is a union man who, along with about 30 of his buddies, had an Old English “K” tattooed on their chests about 15 years ago. It stands for “Keokuk”, a deflated Mississippi River manufacturing town of 10,000 tucked into the south-east corner of Iowa that Washington and Des Moines forgot.

“We know who we are,” said Custer.

Continue reading...

Iowa Democratic party chair resigns after caucus chaos

Troy Price says he is ‘deeply sorry for what happened’ at derailed event, as results remain unclear

The chair of the Iowa Democratic party, who oversaw a chaotic caucus last week that still has not yielded final results, resigned from his position on Wednesday.

Troy Price, who has been the head of the state’s Democratic party since 2017, apologized for what had happened on caucus night.

Continue reading...

Iowa caucus remains too close to call with 100% of precincts reporting

DNC chair Tom Perez calls for ‘immediate recanvass’ of tally as Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders vie for victory

Pete Buttigieg expressed confidence over the Iowa caucus results on Thursday after days of chaotic vote tallying, even as the head of the Democratic National Party called on the state to “recanvass” the votes.

Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders have remained neck-and-neck for most of the week, and the Associated Press declared on Thursday evening that the race was still too close to call.

With 100% of precincts reporting, the pair were locked in a virtual tie. Buttigieg, leading by just 1.5 state delegate equivalents, had an advantage of about .1 percentage points.

Continue reading...

Trump responds to impeachment acquittal with rambling, vitriolic speech – as it happened

  • Trump speaks at White House for first time since acquittal
  • Report shows Iowa caucus results ‘riddled with inconsistencies’
  • Buttigieg lead over Sanders narrowing in Iowa results
  • Help us cover the critical issues of 2020. Consider making a contribution

Related: Trump unleashed: what's next for a president who feels invincible?

Both Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders have claimed victory in Iowa, even as technical delays and reporting issues have prolonged the delay in tallying the Democratic caucus votes. Sanders has touted his raw vote tally; Buttigieg holds a narrow lead in the number of state delegate equivalents he’s amassed.

Both candidates will be speaking tonight in a CNN town hall ahead of the New Hampshire primary contest next week. Deval Patrick and Amy Klobuchar will be participating as well, answering questions from supporters and network hosts.

Related: Sanders and Buttigieg nearly tied in Iowa amid new claims of counting errors

Continue reading...

US politics: Buttigieg leads in Iowa as Senate prepares to acquit Trump – live coverage

  • Buttigieg just ahead of Sanders as Iowa votes trickle in
  • Pelosi rips up copy of Trump State of the Union speech
  • Only one Republican senator likely to vote to convict Trump
  • Help us cover the critical issues of 2020. Consider making a contribution

Pete Buttigieg threw everything into winning the Iowa Democratic caucuses and – with 71% of the vote in following Monday’s results debacle – his gamble may well have paid off.

If so, the former mayor of tiny South Bend, Indiana, may look back on this moment as the peak of his political career, or the start of a long, hard slog that could take him all the way to the White House.

Hello and welcome to another big day in American politics.

It’s fair to see Donald Trump is probably having a pretty good week. Last night he got 80 minutes to make his case for a second term on primetime TV with his State of the Union address, as the Democrats continued to struggle to publish results from their first primary contest on Iowa on Monday.

Continue reading...

Sanders on Buttigieg: ‘I don’t know how anyone claims victory without results’ – video

Bernie Sanders has questioned the move by Democratic rival Pete Buttigeig to declare victory in the Iowa caucus. The voting has been marred by a technical error that has led to a delay in releasing the results

Continue reading...

Iowa Democrats apologise for caucus counting problems – video

The Democratic party in Iowa has apologised after it failed to reveal results from the Iowa caucuses. The system for reporting the votes failed to function, while a back-up telephone line also jammed, leading to no declaration of a winner despite the campaign moving on to New Hampshire

Continue reading...

Iowa caucus results: Pete Buttigieg pulls ahead as state Democrats release partial count – live

Some Iowans expressed frustration on Tuesday that the state Democratic party had bungled its moment in the national spotlight after the state Democratic party delayed releasing the results of the caucuses because of a technical glitch.

“They’re not complete, but results are in from a majority of precincts, and they show our campaign in first place,” said Pete Buttigieg, grinning widely as he addressed supporters in New Hampshire. “This is what we have been working more than a year to convince our fellow Americans: that a new and better vision can bring about a new and better day.

Continue reading...

Pete Buttigieg holds early lead in Iowa caucuses after chaos over results

Iowa Democratic party announces partial results with former South Bend mayor trailed closely by Bernie Sanders

Pete Buttigieg, the previously little-known former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, held a narrow lead in the Iowa caucuses on Tuesday night, according to a partial release of a majority of the results by the state Democratic party a day after an embarrassing organizational breakdown that marred the biggest night of the election year so far.

With 71% of the precincts reporting from all of Iowa’s 99 counties, Buttigieg held 26.8% of the state’s delegate count, trailed closely by the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders with 25.2%, the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren with 18.4% and the former vice-president Joe Biden falling well behind with 15.4%. Sanders, meanwhile, had so far earned the largest share of total votes cast.

Continue reading...

Joe Biden heckled on campaign trail in New Hampshire – video

The Democratic presidential candidate said he had had a good night in Iowa and was expecting good results from the caucus. Biden held his speech at a 'get out and vote' event, where he was suddenly heckled by at least one member of the audience who was escorted away as supporters shouted 'get out'

Continue reading...

‘Iowa, you have shocked the nation’: Democrats remain hopeful despite results chaos – video

The Democratic candidates vying to challenge Donald Trump for the US presidency in November were left in limbo and forced to make their scheduled speeches to supporters without knowing the outcome. Despite the lack of results, all candidates sought to claim a form of victory

Continue reading...