Category Archives: US News

‘He is a coward’: Trump condemned for reportedly calling US war dead ‘suckers’

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Trump claims accusations, confirmed by two former DHS officials, are ‘totally false’ as Biden criticizes president

Current and former members of the military, elected officials and the Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, have reacted with outrage and sadness as former members of the Donald Trump administration confirmed key details of a bombshell report in which Trump referred to fallen soldiers as “suckers” and “losers”.

Related: Khizr Khan: 'Trump may damage American democracy permanently'

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Libyan warlord faces legal action in US for alleged war crimes

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Khalifa Haftar challenged in Virginia by relatives of military leader’s alleged victims

A $50m damages claim lodged in a court in Virginia alleges that the Libyan warlord General Khalifa Haftar, who holds US citizenship, is guilty of war crimes including starvation sieges that forced families to eat grass and tree bark to survive.

The claim against Haftar by two relatives of his alleged victims is an attempt to make him answerable somewhere for the crimes he is accused of perpetrating as head of the Libyan National Army, the major military force in the east of the country, which since 2014 has been in conflict with the Tripoli-based government in the west.

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‘It’s not the same’: How Trump and Covid devastated an Arizona border town

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Nogales residents say the city is struggling amid the pandemic and after years of Trump painting the area as a ‘war zone’

When Francis Glad was a child growing up in Nogales, Arizona, the US-Mexico border near her home was nothing like it is now. “It was more like a neighbor fence, like you have at your house,” she remembers. “It was very symbiotic. Just people coming back and forth.”

But today, a towering 30ft border wall, made of dizzying steel bollards, slices through the Nogales sister cities.

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Voter suppression: how Trump is undermining the US election – video explainer

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Americans are increasingly encountering barriers to exercising their most fundamental of democratic rights during this 2020 presidential election – the right to vote. 

The Guardian's Sam Levine looks at how voter suppression has been unfolding across the US, four key tactics being used in attempts to block votes, and how president Donald Trump is trying delegitimize November's election

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Coronavirus live news: India cases top 80,000 for second day in a row; Israel to impose partial lockdown

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India cases top 80,000 for second day in a row; Asia Pacific shares suffer heavy losses; Israel to impose partial lockdown

US president Donald Trump slammed House speaker Nancy Pelosi after the Democrat was filmed at an indoor hair salon with her face covering around her neck. Trump, a longtime critic of Pelosi, pounced on the opportunity to attack her over the incident.

“I’ll tell you what, she must have treated that beauty salon owner pretty badly. She uses the salon and the salon turned her in?” he said. “So I just put out that if she was set up, then she shouldn’t be leading the House of Representatives. I want the salon owner to lead the House of Representatives”:

A groundbreaking new comedy sketch show based on women’s sex lives during lockdown, starring Aimee Lou Wood and Miriam Margolyes, is designed to “claim the stage” for women, its co-creator, Joanna Scanlan, says.

Sex Lives, believed to be the first interactive comedy backed by the BBC’s commercial wing, BBC Studios, documents stories submitted anonymously by women and has proved a hit online.

Related: Women's sex lives in lockdown prove online comedy hit

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Coronavirus live news: no widespread vaccination until mid-2021, says WHO; cases rise across Europe

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‘We need to see how safe it is,’ WHO stresses; Cuba welcomes first plane of tourists in months; Italy reports biggest rise since 2 May

Smoking appears to increase the genetic contribution to Covid-19 infections, a small study suggested.

The new coronavirus enters the body by hijacking proteins on the surface of healthy cells, in particular a protein called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2).

Liberia’s president George Weah has sacked the country’s top health official over his handling of coronavirus testing in the impoverished West African state.

Mososka Fallah, director general of the Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL), was removed from his post for “breaches in the health and administrative protocols that guide the issuance of Covid-19 test results,” Weah’s office said in a statement.

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Trump attacks Nancy Pelosi over ‘Salongate’ – video

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US president Donald Trump slammed House speaker Nancy Pelosi after the Democrat was filmed at an indoor hair salon with her face covering around her neck. Trump, a longtime critic of Pelosi, pounced on the opportunity to attack her over the incident. “I’ll tell you what, she must have treated that beauty salon owner pretty badly. She uses the salon and the salon turned her in?” he said. “So I just put out that if she was set up, then she shouldn’t be leading the House of Representatives. I want the salon owner to lead the House of Representatives.”

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Pacific nation of Palau invites US to build a military base to counter China

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Move follows a visit by US defense secretary Mark Esper, who accused Beijing of ‘malign influence’ across the region

The western Pacific nation of Palau has urged the United States military to build bases on its territory – in the heart of a region where Washington is pushing back against growing Chinese influence.

US defense secretary Mark Esper visited the island nation last week as part of a Pacific tour, accusing Beijing of a “malign influence” and “ongoing destabilising activities” across the region.

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Joe Biden praises Jacob Blake’s resilience after meeting family – video

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Joe Biden spoke about his meeting with the family of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was gravely wounded after a white police officer shot him in the back, on his way to visiting Kenosha, Wisconsin. 'He talked about how nothing was going to defeat him,' Biden said. 'How, whether he walked again or not, he was not going to give up.'

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Biden warns Trump ‘legitimizes dark side of human nature’ in Kenosha visit

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Joe Biden said he sought common ground while Trump, he said, stoked division and was actively obstructing racial progress

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Thursday warned that Donald Trump’s behavior “legitimizes the dark side of human nature”. He made the remarks during a visit to Wisconsin, where he spoke by phone to Jacob Blake, a Black man whose shooting by a white police officer renewed nationwide protests against systemic racism.

Related: Joe Biden meets privately with Jacob Blake's family amid protests over shooting

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Daniel Prude: police officers suspended after death of Black man in spit hood

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Prude died seven days after officers in upstate New York put a hood over his head then pressed his face into the pavement

The Rochester mayor has suspended seven officers involved in the suffocation death of a Black man earlier this year.

Daniel Prude died on 30 March after he was taken off life support, seven days after the encounter with police in Rochester.

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Daughter of Daniel Prude says death was caused by ‘police brutality and racism’ – video

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The daughter of Daniel Prude, a Black man who died of asphyxiation in March after police put a ‘spit hood’ on his head and held his face into the ground, said his death was caused by racism in the police force.

‘A racist police officer saw a black man in need and decided that he just didn’t deserve to live,’ Tashyra Prude, an 18-year-old college student in Tennessee, said.

Daniel Prude died on 30 March after he was taken off life support, seven days after the encounter in Rochester.

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White US professor admits she has pretended to be Black for years

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Jessica Krug, an activist who teaches African American history, writes Medium post apologizing for false identity

A seasoned activist and professor of African American history at George Washington University has been pretending to be Black for years, despite actually being a white woman from Kansas City.

In a case eerily reminiscent to Rachel Dolezal, Jessica A Krug took financial support from cultural institutions such as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture for a book she wrote about fugitive resistance to the transatlantic slave trade. But according to a Medium post allegedly written by Krug herself, her career was rooted in a “toxic soil of lies”.

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Batman star Robert Pattinson ‘tests positive for Covid-19’

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Actor will reportedly self-isolate as Warner Bros halts UK production of The Batman

The actor Robert Pattinson has tested positive for Covid-19, according to US media reports, halting production of the film The Batman just days after it resumed following lockdown.

A spokesperson for Warner Bros, the Hollywood studio behind the film, said: “A member of The Batman production has tested positive for Covid-19, and is isolating in accordance with established protocols. Filming is temporarily paused.”

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Joe Biden to meet with Jacob Blake’s family in Kenosha – live

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The Guardian’s Kenya Evelyn reports:

Joe Biden will meet Jacob Blake’s father, Jacob Blake Sr, later today as well as other members of the family of the 29-year-old who is gravely wounded and still fighting for his health in a local hospital in Kenosha after being shot in the back by a white police officer on August 23.

Trump and his advisers are trying to walk back his comments encouraging North Carolinians to vote twice in the November elections.

The president said yesterday, “Let them send it in and let them go vote. And if the system is as good as they say it is then obviously they won’t be able to vote” in person.

Trump yesterday: “If you get the unsolicited ballots ... send it in early, and then go and vote.”

Trump in May:
“If you told a Republican to vote twice, they'd get sick at even the thought of it."pic.twitter.com/bjWMotfXrP

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Plant clues could help find decomposing bodies, scientists say

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Researchers looking at whether human remains cause changes that could be detected by drones

They can’t shout “whodunnit” but plants could offer vital clues when it comes to finding clandestine graves, researchers say.

Forensic experts in the US have begun experiments at a body farm – a facility where decay processes can be studied – to explore whether decomposing human remains leave their mark on surrounding vegetation, for example by affecting the colour of the leaves.

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Donald Trump hopes for election boost from Kosovo-Serbia talks

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White House summit irritates EU diplomats, who say deal brokered by them is near

The leaders of Kosovo and Serbia will meet at the White House on Thursday and Friday, in an encounter that some see as a push for a diplomatic win for Donald Trump to brandish during his re-election campaign.

Kosovo’s prime minister, Avdullah Hoti, will meet with the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić, in talks that Trump aides say will be primarily about economic issues between the two countries, but may pave the way to a broader deal.

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The Rock says his family had Covid-19 and urges mask use: ‘It’s the right thing to do’

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Dwayne Johnson says he, his spouse and their daughters caught the virus less than three weeks ago from ‘very close family friends’

Pro-wrestler turned Hollywood actor Dwayne Johnson, known as The Rock, said in a video message posted on social media on Wednesday that he, his wife and their two young children tested positive for Covid-19 in recent weeks and he had “a rough go”.

Related: Joe Biden to meet with Jacob Blake's family in Kenosha – live

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As election nears, Trump builds the very ‘deep state’ he railed against

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White House manipulation of US intelligence on Russian and Chinese interference may rival WMD fiasco that led to Iraq war, say experts

Two months before the presidential election, the US intelligence agencies are under increasing pressure from the Trump administration to provide only the information it wants to hear.

After installing loyalist John Ratcliffe at the pinnacle of the intelligence community, the administration is seeking to limit congressional oversight, and has removed a veteran official from a sensitive national security role in the justice department

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Trump’s tweets are felt in Ethiopia. Washington should use its power wisely | Mekonnen Firew Ayano

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Anti-democratic attitudes in America helped to scrub our election, while US-Nile geopolitics could become a powder keg

When US presidents comment on events in other countries, their remarks have impact.

When, for example, President Barack Obama congratulated the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) on an apparent landslide election victory in 2015, it signalled to some Ethiopians that the world’s most powerful country would not favour a legal challenge to the election results.

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