Category Archives: US News

Coronavirus live news: record 24-rise in worldwide Covid-19 cases as Australian parliament to be postponed

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Increase of 237,743 cases globally; EU ‘no closer to agreeing rescue package’; Brazil cases pass 2m

That’s where we might leave this blog for now. You can keep up to date with global news on The Guardian website or come join me on the new Guardian live blog launching soon.

Labor MP Amanda Rishworth is also speaking with ABC. She agrees the parliament must follow medical advice, but says the cancellation of this sitting fortnight makes it difficult for the opposition to scrutinise government.

Question time is a really important forum which the opposition can ask the government questions, and every MP has a chance to raise their voice in parliament. So this is critically important that we have parliament sitting. It is a really important vehicle.

Yes, there is the Covid committee, but parliament itself is the opportunity for every MP from around the country to bring the concerns of their constituents. So it does make it more challenging [if it is not sitting].

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Protests predicted to surge globally as Covid-19 drives unrest

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New analysis finds economic shock of pandemic coupled with existing grievances makes widespread public uprisings ‘inevitable’

The economic impact of coronavirus is a “tinderbox” that will drive civil unrest and instability in developing countries in the second half of 2020, according to new analysis.

Highest risk countries facing a “perfect storm”, where protests driven by the pandemic’s economic fallout are likely to inflame existing grievances, include Nigeria, Iran, Bangladesh, Algeria and Ethiopia, the analysis said.

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Barr condemns Disney and Hollywood for ‘kowtowing’ to China

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Attorney general’s speech is part of continuing Trump administration offensive against Beijing

The US attorney general, William Barr, has assailed the Walt Disney Company and Hollywood studios, accusing them of “kowtowing” to the Chinese Communist party.

Barr’s allegations are part of a sustained diplomatic and public relations offensive by the Trump administration against Beijing, which the attorney general accused of engaging in “economic blitzkrieg – an aggressive, orchestrated, whole-of-government (indeed, whole-of-society) campaign to seize the commanding heights of the global economy and to surpass the United States as the world’s pre-eminent superpower”.

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‘So happy I have this on bodycam’: Bemused US police catch kangaroo on the run – video

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Police officers captured an unlikely suspect bouncing through a Florida neighbourhood on Thursday morning. One officer is heard saying: 'I am so happy I have this on bodycam. Bob, in your how many years have you ever seen a kangaroo?' After receiving a call about a kangaroo running loose, Fort Lauderdale police officers managed to tie a lead around the two-year-old male and place him in a squad car. The marsupial was taken to a stable where the police department keeps its horses.

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Pompeo claims private property and religious freedom are ‘foremost’ human rights

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US secretary of state seeks to refocus US human rights efforts as he launches report by government commission

Mike Pompeo has sought to redefine the US approach to human rights by giving preference to private property and religious freedom as the foremost “unalienable rights” laid down by America’s Founding Fathers.

Pompeo, launching a draft report by a Commission on Unalienable Rights he established a year ago, also claimed that a proliferation of human rights asserted by different US and international institutions had the effect of diluting those rights he viewed as the most important.

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The science should not stand in the way of schools reopening, says Kayleigh McEnany – video

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Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, has suggested that US schools should reopen regardless of what the science says. 'The president has said unmistakably that he wants schools to open,' she said. 'The science should not stand in the way of this.' Donald Trump has said school districts must offer a full schedule of classes, arguing that parents are under tremendous strain from managing their children and work at the same time


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Book by Donald Trump’s niece sells nearly 1m copies on its first day

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  • Mary Trump’s Too Much and Never Enough sold 950,000 copies
  • Legal attempts to prevent book’s publication failed

The bombshell family tell-all book by Mary Trump, the US president’s niece, sold almost a million copies by the end of its first day on sale and remains firmly at the top of Amazon’s bestseller list.

Trump’s book Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, referring to Donald Trump, was published on Tuesday and had sold 950,000 copies by the end of the first day, including pre-sales, ebooks and audio books.

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Coronavirus live news: Covid-19 was direct cause of 89% of Italy pandemic deaths; Israel faces new lockdown

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Israel reports new daily record of cases; 125 million in India under new lockdown; Beijing Winter Olympics under threat

The news that there may be a delay in re-opening pubs in Ireland has been described as a “hammer blow” by the Licensed Vintners Association, which represents pub owners, who said the future of 7,000 pubs and 50,000 jobs hung in the balance.

Ireland has paused its phased easing of lockdown and extended rules on face coverings amid a surge in Covid-19 cases. Leo Varadkar, the tánaiste (deputy prime minister), told parliament today that pubs, nightclubs and other venues will open no sooner than 10 August, and possibly later.

Covid-19 was found to be the direct cause of death among 89% of the pandemic’s victims in Italy, according to a report on Thursday by the country’s higher health institute and national statistics agency.

The study was based on the death certificates of 4,942 people who had tested positive for Covid-19 and carried out until 25 May, by which time 31,573 people were officially reported to have died of the disease.

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Coronavirus US: Covid-19 cases rise in 41 states as total number nears 3.5m – live updates

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Mary Trump’s tell-all book set a sales record for Simon & Schuster, Trump’s publisher said in a statement about the book, which was released on Tuesday.

According to Simon & Schuster, the book sold more than 950,000 copies through Tuesday, setting a new company record.

Simon & Schuster says Mary Trump’s book “sold a total of more than 950,000 copies through Tuesday, July 14, the first day the book went on sale.” It’s a company record.

Related: Mary Trump’s book: eight of its most shocking claims about the president

Despite the rising number of coronavirus cases in Georgia, the state’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, issued an executive order yesterday that voids local mask mandates.

The order encourages residents to wear masks, but it goes on to state, “Any state, county, or municipal law, order, ordinance, rule, or regulation that requires persons to wear face coverings, masks, face shields, or any other Personal Protective Equipment while in places of public accommodation or on public property are suspended.”

It is officially official. Governor Kemp does not give a damn about us. Every man and woman for himself/herself. Ignore the science and survive the best you can.

In #Savannah, we will continue to keep the faith and follow the science. Masks will continue to be available!

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US carries out second execution in a week, killing man lawyers say had dementia

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Wesley Ira Purkey spoke out against capital punishment before receiving lethal injection in Indiana

The United States on Thursday carried out its second federal execution this week, killing by lethal injection a Kansas man whose lawyers contended he had dementia and was unfit to be executed.

Wesley Ira Purkey was put to death at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana.

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US pharma company raises vaccine hopes but more trials are vital, say experts

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Promising details were released this week about Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine but it remains in the early stages of development

Hopeful news about a Covid-19 vaccine developed by US government researchers and Moderna Inc has buoyed expectations – and markets – on the potential for a preventive measure against a global pandemic that has killed more than half a million people and upended daily life.

Moderna first announced its vaccine, backed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, prompted an immune response in 45 adults in May.

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‘Nervously optimistic’: Democrats eye blue wave but 2016 memories are fresh

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Joe Biden is polling well ahead of Donald Trump, potentially putting more states in play – but complacency has been banished

Less than four months out from the November election, the Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has been consistently polling ahead of Donald Trump.

The president’s approval numbers remain underwater, and Democrats believe they can seriously compete in traditionally red states including Texas, as Trump faces sustained criticism for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the economic crisis linked to it, as well as the ongoing anti-racism protests against police brutality.

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Fauci says White House’s ‘bizarre’ attacks on him damage Trump – live

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The Twitter accounts of major public figures and corporations, including Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Apple appear to have been hacked as part of a bitcoin scam Wednesday. Twitter said it was looking into the situation.

Related: Twitter accounts of Biden, Musk and other prominent figures apparently hacked in bitcoin scam

My colleague Vivian Ho reports from San Francisco:

California recorded its largest number of coronavirus infections in a single day on Tuesday, amid efforts to halt reopening statewide.

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg leaves hospital and ‘doing well’ at home

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  • Supreme court justice, 87, treated for possible infection
  • Ginsburg had procedure to clean stent, spokeswoman says

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been released from a Baltimore hospital after being treated for a possible infection, a court spokeswoman said on Wednesday, in the latest health issue for the US supreme court’s oldest member.

Ginsburg, 87, returned home and is “doing well,” spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said in a statement. Ginsburg underwent a procedure at Johns Hopkins hospital on Tuesday to clean a bile duct stent that was inserted last August, the court said.

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Seven vessels catch fire in southern Iranian shipyard

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Incident at port of Bushehr latest in series of fires and blasts that could be part of sabotage campaign

At least seven vessels have caught fire in a southern Iranian shipyard, in the latest in a series of explosions and fires that analysts speculate could be part of a state-sponsored sabotage campaign targeting the country’s industrial, nuclear and military sites.

No casualties were reported at the port of Bushehr, the city that hosts Iran’s only nuclear power plant, but images distributed by state media showed plumes of thick smoke billowing into the air and several fire trucks at the site.

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Ghislaine Maxwell is married, prosecutors say in court

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Prosecutors say Maxwell, who has pleaded not guilty to involvement in Jeffrey Epstein crimes, has declined to identify spouse to officials

The British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who faces federal charges in Manhattan for allegedly enabling Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking of minor girls, is married, prosecutors said during a court proceeding.

Related: Oklahoma governor tests positive for coronavirus as US cases set new record – live

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The power of touch: I was hugged for the first time at 18. It meant confronting my deepest fears

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I had grown up in brutal poverty, and saw touch as a privilege for those with less traumatic backgrounds. Then a friend and mentor changed my life

Welcome to the Guardian’s Power of Touch series

It happened one day during my first year of college at Rutgers University, in my home state of New Jersey. The anti-apartheid movement was raging on my college campus, there was still a massive buzz about Jesse Jackson’s first run for president and I had instantly become woke, as we say, because of names such as Winnie and Nelson Mandela, because of the Aids and crack epidemics, and because of my adopted big sister on campus, an older student named Lisa Williamson, who would later become the famed activist and bestselling author Sister Souljah.

For sure, Lisa was one of the most incredible speakers I had ever heard. She was a fearless leader, and I became so instantly fond of her, I even called her “Ma” just like I did my own mother. And she adored me, taught me and shared with me everything that she knew and was learning, in real time.

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‘You can trust me’: Anthony Fauci pushes back against Trump attacks – video

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Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious diseases expert, has pushed back at a concerted campaign by Donald Trump and his allies to discredit his response to the coronavirus pandemic. 'I believe for the most part you can trust respected medical authorities,' Fauci told a virtual forum at Georgetown University in Washington. 'I believe I’m one of them, so I think you can trust me.' 

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Covid-19 map of the US: latest cases state by state

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With countries all over the world affected by the coronavirus pandemic, the US has emerged as a global hotspot. The Trump administration has been criticized for being slower to act than other countries. The US currently leads the world in both confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths according to Johns Hopkins University.

It’s important to point out that the actual death toll is believed to be far higher than the tally compiled from government figures.

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Ignoring effects of Covid-19 on women could cost $5tn, warns Melinda Gates

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‘We get recovery if we get equality’ philanthropist argues in new paper urging policymakers to address unpaid labour

The failure of leaders to take into account the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on women, and their roles in lessening its harm, will mean a long, slow recovery that could cost the world economy trillions of dollars, Melinda Gates has warned.

Even a four-year delay in programmes that promote gender equality, such as advancing women’s digital and financial inclusion, would wipe a potential $5tn (£4tn) from global GDP by 2030.

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