Category Archives: US News

Trump threatens tariffs on countries that ‘discriminate’ against US tech

Posted on by

Levies and restrictions could hit UK’s digital services tax and EU states such as France, Italy and Spain

Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs and export restrictions on countries whose taxes, legislation and regulations target US big tech companies such as Google, Meta, Amazon and Apple.

In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, the US president said: “Digital taxes, legislation, rules or regulations are all designed to harm, or discriminate against, American technology.”

Continue reading...

France has ‘no lessons to take’ from US on tackling antisemitism, says minister

Posted on by

Comments come after US ambassador accused government of failing to do enough to stem hate crimes against Jews

Cabinet ministers and Jewish groups have said France has “no lessons to take” from the US on tackling antisemitism, as Washington’s ambassador to Paris was summoned after accusing the government of failing to do enough to stem hate crimes against Jews.

Charles Kushner, who is Jewish, was ordered to report to the foreign ministry on Monday after he wrote a letter to Emmanuel Macron criticising a “lack of sufficient action” by the government to confront the “dramatic rise” in antisemitism in France.

Continue reading...

Trump says he hopes to meet Kim Jong-un and raises prospect of US taking over some South Korean land

Posted on by

South Korean president Lee Jae Myung uses Oval Office meeting to encourage Trump to engage with North Korean leader

Donald Trump has said he wants to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, possibly this year, in an attempt to revive the failed nuclear diplomacy of his first term as US president.

“I’d like to have a meeting. I look forward to meeting with Kim Jong-un in the appropriate future,” Trump said during an occasionally awkward meeting at the Oval Office with South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae Myung, in which he raised the prospect of taking ownership of South Korean land that hosts a US military base.

Continue reading...

Lil Nas X charged with four felonies after allegedly attacking police in Los Angeles

Posted on by

Police say musician charged at them when they confronted him for walking naked down an LA street last week

Lil Nas X was charged on Monday with four felonies after police say he charged at them when they confronted him for walking naked down a Los Angeles street last week.

Prosecutors charged the musician, whose legal name is Montero Lamar Hill, with three counts of battery with injury on a police officer and one felony count of resisting an executive officer, the district attorney’s office said. He was initially booked on suspicion of misdemeanor obstructing an officer on Friday.

Continue reading...

Wildfires in California and Oregon destroy homes and prompt thousands of evacuations

Posted on by

Pickett fire chars Napa wine country while predicted thunderstorms add to danger of Oregon’s Flat fire

Wildfires raging in northern California wine country and central Oregon have destroyed multiple homes and threatened thousands more as hot, dry weather created challenges for firefighters battles the blazes.

Ten structures – including four homes – have been destroyed in Oregon’s Deschutes County as of Monday, where a wildfire dubbed the Flat fire continues to burn.

Continue reading...

Musk’s AI startup sues OpenAI and Apple over anticompetitive conduct

Posted on by

Lawsuit accuses companies of ‘conspiracy to monopolize markets for smartphones and generative AI chatbots’

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI is suing OpenAI and Apple over allegations that they are engaging in anticompetitive conduct. The lawsuit, filed in a Texas court on Monday, accuses the companies of “a conspiracy to monopolize the markets for smartphones and generative AI chatbots”.

Musk had earlier this month threatened to sue Apple and OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, after claiming that Apple was “making it impossible” for any other AI companies to reach the top spot on its app store. Musk’s xAI makes the Grok chatbot, which has struggled to become as prominent as ChatGPT.

Continue reading...

Mexican drug lord ‘El Mayo’ pleads guilty to racketeering in New York

Posted on by

Ismael Zambada was co-founder of Sinaloa cartel led by Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, now imprisoned in US

The Mexican drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel, pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges as well as running a criminal enterprise on Monday, more than a year since he was arrested in Texas after what has been described as a kidnapping.

“I recognize the great harm illegal drugs have done to the people in the United States and Mexico,” the 77-year-old Zambada said in court through a Spanish-language interpreter. “I apologize for all of it, and I take responsibility for my actions.”

Continue reading...

Kneecap cancel all US tour dates over clash with court hearing in London

Posted on by

Band member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh faces terrorism charge in UK for alleged display of Hezbollah flag mid-performance

The Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap have cancelled their scheduled US tour dates in October, citing the proximity to a court hearing in London involving band member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh’s alleged mid-performance display of a Hezbollah flag.

Ó hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was charged with a terrorism offence in the UK in May after being accused of displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah during a concert in London last November.

Continue reading...

First human case of flesh-eating screwworm parasite confirmed in US

Posted on by

HHS told Reuters patient had returned from El Salvador but beef industry said person had traveled from Guatemala

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Sunday reported the first human case in the US of travel-associated New World screwworm, a flesh-eating parasite, from an outbreak-affected country.

The case, investigated by the Maryland department of health and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was confirmed by the CDC as New World screwworm on 4 August – and involved a patient who returned from travel to El Salvador, an HHS spokesperson, Andrew G Nixon, said in an email to Reuters.

Continue reading...

Trump ‘manufactured crisis’ to justify plan to send national guard to Chicago, leading Democrat says

Posted on by

Pentagon official confirms plan as House minority leader Jeffries says president is ‘playing’ with Americans’ lives

Planning is underway to send national guard troops to Chicago, an official at the Pentagon confirmed to ABC News on Sunday.

“We won’t speculate on further operations. The Department is a planning organization and is continuously working with other agency partners on plans to protect federal assets and personnel,” a Department of Defense official said, according to ABC.

Continue reading...

France summons US ambassador Charles Kushner over antisemitism allegations

Posted on by

Kushner says in letter to Macron he’s concerned over ‘rise of antisemitism’ and ‘lack of sufficient action’ to confront it

France summoned the American ambassador Charles Kushner after he wrote a letter to President Emmanuel Macron alleging France had failed to do enough to stem antisemitic violence, a French foreign ministry spokesperson said on Sunday.

Kushner, who is Jewish and whose son is married to US President Donald Trump’s daughter, published the open letter in the Wall Street Journal amid deep divides between France and the US and Israel.

Continue reading...

Wildfires in California and Oregon grow, prompting evacuations and warnings

Posted on by

Firefighters battle blazes amid dry, hot weather as fires in Napa county and Deschutes and Jefferson counties spread

Wildfires in California wine country and central Oregon grew overnight, prompting hundreds of evacuations as firefighters worked on Sunday to try to contain the blazes amid dry, hot weather.

The Pickett Fire in Napa county had grown to more than 10 sq miles (26 sq km) and was 11% contained as of early Sunday, according to the California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection.

Continue reading...

Jerry Adler, actor in The Sopranos and The Good Wife, dies aged 96

Posted on by

Adler was involved behind the scenes of storied Broadway productions before finding acting success in his 60s

Jerry Adler, who spent decades behind the scenes of storied Broadway productions before pivoting to acting in his 60s, has died aged 96.

Adler died on Saturday, according to a brief family announcement confirmed by the Riverside Memorial Chapel in New York. Adler “passed peacefully in his sleep”, Paradigm Talent Agency’s Sarah Shulman said on behalf of his family. No immediate cause was given.

Continue reading...

Russia says Europe’s leaders don’t want peace in Ukraine as Vance says US will keep trying

Posted on by

Russian foreign minister praises Trump’s effort and got defensive when asked if Putin was ‘stringing along’ Trump

Russia accused western European leaders on Sunday of not wanting peace in Ukraine, as Moscow’s most senior diplomat praised efforts by Donald Trump to end the war, while Vice-President JD Vance said the US would “keep on trying” to broker talks in the absence of a deal.

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, made the comments during a sometimes contentious interview on NBC on Sunday morning, during which he denied his country had bombed civilian targets in Ukraine.

Continue reading...

Zohran Mamdani leads in fundraising for New York City mayoral contest

Posted on by

The Democratic nominee far outpaces former governor Andrew Cuomo and embattled incumbent Eric Adams

Zohran Mamdani pulled in almost double the funds of his nearest rivals for New York City mayor between early July and mid-August, as the candidates prepare for the crucial post Labor Day push to the November poll.

New York’s City’s campaign finance board said on Saturday that the democratic socialist, who won the Democratic party nomination in June against former state governor Andrew Cuomo, raised $1,051,200, with an average donation of $121 recorded equally from donors in and outside the state.

Continue reading...

Bus carrying junior high football team crashes in Pennsylvania, sending 21 people to hospital

Posted on by

Bus overturned about 20 miles north of Pittsburgh while carrying players from Aliquippa junior high school

A bus carrying a junior high football team to a game crashed on Saturday north of Pittsburgh, sending 21 of the 28 people onboard to the hospital, officials said.

Twenty-five Aliquippa junior high students and three adults were headed to a game in nearby Gibsonia. The crash occurred in Economy Borough, about 20 miles north of Pittsburgh.

Continue reading...

Marjorie Taylor Greene joins Bernie Sanders in urging US to end Gaza famine

Posted on by

Breaking from most of her peers in Congress, far-right Georgia Republican has also described crisis as a genocide

Amid mostly silence in Congress, some US lawmakers on opposite sides of the political spectrum spoke out Saturday over a UN-backed report warning of famine in parts of Gaza.

“Let’s be clear: President Trump has the power to end the starvation of the Palestinian people,” Vermont’s politically independent senator Bernie Sanders posted on X. “Instead he is doing nothing while watching this famine unfold. Enough is enough. No more American taxpayer dollars to Nethanyahu’s [sic] war machine.”

Continue reading...

US immigration officials intend to deport Kilmar Ábrego García to Uganda

Posted on by

Salvadorian refused offer of deportation to Costa Rica before he was released to await trial on human smuggling charges

US immigration officials said they intend to deport Kilmar Ábrego García to Uganda, after he declined an offer to be deported to Costa Rica in exchange for remaining in jail and pleading guilty to human smuggling charges, according to a Saturday court filing.

The Costa Rica offer came late on Thursday, after it was clear that the Salvadorian national would probably be released from a Tennessee jail the following day.

Continue reading...

Judge blocks White House from defunding 34 municipalities over ‘sanctuary’ policies

Posted on by

Cities that limit cooperation with immigration authorities had sued Trump administration over funding freeze

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from cutting off federal funding to 34 “sanctuary cities” and counties that limit cooperation with federal immigration law enforcement, significantly expanding a previous order.

The order, issued on Friday by the San Francisco-based US district judge William Orrick, adds Los Angeles and Chicago, as well as Boston, Baltimore, Denver and Albuquerque, to cities that the administration is barred from denying funding.

Continue reading...

Texas prepares for final approval of Republican map as senator threatens to filibuster

Posted on by

Carol Alvarado posted on social media: ‘Republicans think they can walk all over us. Today I’m going to kick back’

The Texas legislature preliminarily approved a redrawn congressional map on Friday that gives Republicans a chance to pick up as many as five congressional seats, fulfilling a brazen political request from Donald Trump to shore up the GOP’s standing before next year’s midterm elections.

The tentative map adoption passed in an 18-11 party-line vote.

Continue reading...