Category Archives: US News

Parents identify victims of Minneapolis school shooting: ‘Our hearts are broken’

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Fletcher Merkel, eight, and Harper Moyski, 10, died during the attack on the Annunciation Catholic school church

An eight-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl who were killed in a mass shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school have been identified by their parents.

Fletcher Merkel, eight, and Harper Moyski, 10, died during the attack on the Annunciation Catholic school church on Wednesday morning, their parents confirmed. A further 17 people, 14 of them children, were injured in the shooting.

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Civil rights groups alarmed over Quebec’s move to ban prayer in public

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Announcement follows statements from Quebec premier, who expressed frustration over public prayers in Montreal

Quebec says it will ban prayer in public, a move that civil rights groups described as an “alarming measure” that targets religious minority groups and would infringe on “basic democratic freedoms”.

The province’s secularism minister, Jean-François Roberge, said the move had been prompted by the “proliferation of street prayer” which he described as “a serious and sensitive issue” adding that the government had watched with “unease”. Roberge said the government would introduce legislation in the fall.

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Gun used in Emmett Till’s lynching is on display at museum 70 years later

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Mississippi museum announces display on anniversary of boy’s murder, a pivotal moment in civil rights movement

The gun used in the lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till is now on display for the public to see, 70 years after the killing.

The Mississippi Department of Archives and History unveiled the .45-caliber pistol and its holster during a news conference on Thursday, which is the 70th anniversary of Till’s murder.

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Backlash as White House chooses Robert F Kennedy Jr deputy to run CDC – US politics live

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Senators’ fury at developments at US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as Jim O’Neill picked to replace Susan Monarez

Nearly 1,000 “worker over billionaire” protests are being planned in all 50 states starting this weekend as part of a Labor Day week of action organized by labor unions and advocacy groups in opposition to the Trump administration’s policies.

The actions include marches and rallies in cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles, a Labor Day parade in New York City, rallies in Palmer, Alaska, Freeport, Maine, and a planned protest at the state capitol in Honolulu, Hawaii.

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Hurricane Katrina victim identified 20 years later: ‘finally where she belongs’

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Guardian US partner WWL Louisiana called in Ray Theriot, who used utility bills, driver’s licenses and property records

A woman who died at home during Hurricane Katrina in a community outside New Orleans, but who remained unidentified for nearly two decades, has finally been named before the storm’s 20th anniversary on Friday.

The woman, who was identified with the help of New Orleans’s CBS affiliate, WWL Louisiana, has been named as Dorothy Virginia Driggers Taquino, 81.

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Nearly 1,000 ‘worker over billionaire’ actions planned for Labor Day in US

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Rallies from Alaska to Hawaii will highlight cuts to wages, unions and social safety nets under Trump policies

Nearly 1,000 “worker over billionaire” protests are being planned in all 50 states starting this weekend as part of a Labor Day week of action organized by labor unions and advocacy groups in opposition to the Trump administration’s policies.

The actions include marches and rallies in cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles, a Labor Day parade in New York City, rallies in Palmer, Alaska, Freeport, Maine, and a planned protest at the state capitol in Honolulu, Hawaii.

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US soldiers could be liable for war crimes in Gaza. Will they be prosecuted?

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Human Rights Watch says US military personnel could face criminal prosecution for assisting Israel’s war in Gaza

Human rights groups and activists who protest against continued US support for Israel have focused primarily on the flow of US weapons, warning that continuing to send weapons to a state which has been documented using them in probable war crimes makes the US complicit.

However, this week, Human Rights Watch (HRW) highlighted another facet of US military support for Israel: military cooperation and intelligence sharing.

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‘Nightmare’: family in shock after Ice moves LA teen out of state without their knowledge

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Benjamin Guerrero-Cruz, 18, was initially held at a facility near LA and later transferred to an Arizona holding site

The family of 18-year-old Benjamin Guerrero-Cruz was shocked when they found out that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) had discreetly moved him out of California, according to California congresswoman Luz Rivas, who spoke with his relatives and reviewed federal detention records.

Guerrero-Cruz, who was first detained in Van Nuys neighborhood while walking his dog, was transferred late Monday from the Adelanto detention facility in San Bernardino county to a remote holding site in Arizona without any notification given to his family.

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Florida to execute man convicted of killing three people in 1992

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The killing of Curtis Windom, 59, by lethal injection will be a record 11th execution in the state this year

A man convicted of killing his girlfriend, her mother and a man he claimed owed him $2,000 is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Thursday in what would be a record 11th execution in the state of Florida this year.

Curtis Windom, 59, would become the 30th person executed this year in the US, with Florida leading the way behind a flurry of death warrants signed by the state’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis. A 12th man, David Joseph Pittman, 63, is scheduled to be put to death in Florida on 17 September.

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Rwanda accepts seven people from US as part of deportation deal

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Trump administration pushing controversial deal to send people to non-home countries including South Sudan and Eswatini

Seven people have arrived in Rwanda as part of a deal to accept deportees from the US, the Rwandan government has said.

The Trump administration has been negotiating arrangements to send people to third countries including South Sudan and Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, as part of its wider deportation drive.

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Tony Blair attends White House meeting with Trump on postwar Gaza

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Former prime minister in Washington DC on Wednesday for talks that reportedly also included Jared Kushner

The former British prime minister Tony Blair has attended a White House meeting with Donald Trump to discuss plans for postwar Gaza, the Guardian understands.

After stepping down as prime minister in 2007, Blair took on the role of Middle East envoy until 2015 and spent time in Jerusalem trying to formulate a plan for a two-state solution.

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New Orleans archbishop accused of personally hiding child abuse in lawsuit

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Lawsuit has most direct allegations of wrongdoing leveled against Aymond, who denies them, in court filing to date

A lawsuit newly filed against the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans and its top two officials alleges the city’s archbishop, Gregory Aymond, personally covered up child sexual abuse by priests and deacons – and asks a judge to reject a guarantee on his future retirement benefits as punishment.

The archdiocese responded by saying the allegations brought by the plaintiff, Argent Institutional Trust Co, are baseless.

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Fulton county election board faces $10,000 a day fine for not appointing Republicans

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Democrats voted against appointing two candidates known for election denialism and voter registration challenges

The Fulton county commission in Georgia will be fined $10,000 a day for violating a court order to appoint two Republicans associated with Trump-aligned groups pushing voter fraud conspiracies to the county’s election board.

The county charter states that commissioners “shall” appoint two Republicans and two Democrats nominated by their respective county party chairperson, for two-year terms. When commissioners rejected the nomination by Fulton county’s Republican party chair, the superior court judge David Emerson issued an order requiring the board to appoint them.

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Denmark summons US diplomat over alleged Greenland influence campaign

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Danish media reports three men with ties to Donald Trump are accused of attempting to infiltrate Greenlandic society

Denmark has summoned the US charge d’affaires for an urgent meeting over an alleged influence campaign in Greenland aimed at shaping public opinion and the future of the Arctic territory.

It comes after reports from Danish media, confirmed by the Danish foreign office, that at least three US men with ties to Donald Trump and the White House had been accused of trying to infiltrate Greenlandic society.

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Bruce Willis’ dementia diagnosis: ‘language is going’, says actor’s wife

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Emma Heming Willis recalls the actor’s ‘alarming and scary’ early symptoms and says his family has ‘learned to adapt’ as his brain ‘is failing’ amid ‘really great health overall’

Bruce Willis’s brain is “failing him” and his “language is going”, his wife, Emma Heming Willis, has revealed, more than two years since the actor was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia.

“Bruce is still very mobile. Bruce is in really great health overall, you know,” Heming Willis told Diane Sawyer in an ABC special on Tuesday. “It’s just his brain that is failing him. The language is going. We’ve learned to adapt and we have a way of communicating with him, which is just a different way.”

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Starships are meant to fly: SpaceX’s rocket finally launches after setbacks

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Test flight comes after explosive failures raised doubts over founder Elon Musk’s goals to reach Mars and moon

Third time was the charm on Tuesday for the launch of SpaceX’s Starship megarocket after the launch had been scrubbed two times in as many days. The success of this 10th flight proved the spacecraft had overcome its past failures key to the Mars rocket’s reusable design.

The stainless steel behemoth, 403ft (123 meters) tall, lifted off from the company’s Starbase in southern Texas at 6.30pm local time (2330 GMT), to loud cheers from engineering teams, a webcast showed. This mission was to be a test of the ship’s new heat shield tiles and satellite deployment abilities, among hundreds of other upgrades from past iterations.

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Cracker Barrel reverses course and will scrap new logo after intense backlash

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US restaurant chain previously said it would keep new logo despite some, including Trump and his son, criticizing it

Cracker Barrel, the 56-year-old US restaurant chain known for southern style cooking, has reversed course and will scrap the new minimalist logo it launched just days ago after intense backlash.

“We thank our guests for sharing your voices and love for Cracker Barrel. We said we would listen, and we have. Our new logo is going away and our ‘Old Timer’ will remain,” the company posted on social media, referring to the picture of the overall-clad man – known as “Uncle Herschel” – leaning against a barrel that had been its calling card for decades.

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Illinois governor hits back at Trump in Chicago national guard feud: ‘not in good shape’

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Governor Pritzker says Trump is ‘not in good shape’ as president weighs sending troops into Chicago against local wishes

The Democratic governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, has hit back at Donald Trump for commenting on his weight, saying the Republican president is himself “not in good shape” amid escalating tension over the possible deployment of the national guard on the streets of Chicago.

Trump said on Monday that Pritzker “ought to spend more time in the gym”. While successfully campaigning in 2024 for a second presidency that began in January, Trump said that the Illinois governor is “too busy eating” to lead his state.

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Oklahoma man charged after 11-year-old girl gives birth at home

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DNA test tied man to newborn in case prosecutor calls among most serious, as girl’s mother also accused

An Oklahoma man is facing charges of child sexual molestation after an 11-year-old girl in his orbit gave birth in her home, and her mother is accused of enabling abuse in a case that a local assistant district attorney called possibly “the most serious … I have ever prosecuted”.

The charges that the Muskogee county district attorney’s office filed against Dustin Walker, 34, on Monday came after a DNA test confirmed he was the father of the newborn at the center of the case, the Oklahoma news outlet KWTV reported, citing officials.

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Trump says he is firing Fed governor Lisa Cook in escalating attack on bank’s independence | First Thing

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Cook has said that Trump has no authority to remove her from the job over over allegations she committed mortgage fraud. Plus, a look at the AI-led agency advocating for ‘AI rights’

Good morning.

Donald Trump has said he is firing the Federal Reserve governor, Lisa Cook, over a claim that she committed mortgage fraud, as he intensified his attack on the central bank’s independence.

Why does Trump want Cook out? It would allow him to replace her with someone who could offer him more control over Fed policy, as his demands for lower interest rates have been ignored so far.

What else is the committee seeking? It has also issued deposition subpoenas to figures including Bill and Hillary Clinton, former FBI director James Comey and former attorneys general Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, Merrick Garland, William Barr and Jeff Sessions.

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