Category Archives: US News

Coronavirus live news: Germany set to lift land border checks; Italian PM questioned on decision not to lock down earlier

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Deaths in Delhi could be twice as high as reported; German health minister warns nation against ‘carefree’ attitude

The front page of Saturday’s UK edition of The Guardian.

Guardian front page, Saturday 13 June 2020: Johnson 'stoking fear and division' over protests pic.twitter.com/YX3eiFZb7A

Requiring the wearing of masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus in areas at the epicenter of the global pandemic may have prevented tens of thousands of infections, a new study suggests.

Mask-wearing is even more important for preventing the virus’ spread than social distancing and stay-at-home orders, researchers said in the study published in PNAS: The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.

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Man accused of ambushing officers killed in California police shootout

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  • Authorities say Mason James Lira killed after manhunt
  • Incident follows another ambush attack on police farther north

A man suspected of ambushing and shooting a California sheriff’s deputy was killed on Thursday after a shootout with police, authorities said.

Three officers suffered non-life-threatening injuries on Thursday afternoon, a day after the alleged ambush in Paso Robles.

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City of Hamilton in New Zealand removes statue of British naval captain

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City council says memorial to Captain John Hamilton comes down after Māori elder calls him a ‘murderer’ and threatens to remove by force

A statue of a British naval captain has been removed by the city council in Hamilton, New Zealand after a local Māori elder threatened to take it down by force.

The statue of Captain John Hamilton, after whom the city in the central North Island is named, was gifted to the city by a local company in 2013.

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Joining Trump church photo op ‘a mistake’, says Gen Mark Milley – video

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Gen Mark Milley has said it was a mistake to have been present at Donald Trump's photo op in front  of a church in Washington. 'I should not have been there,' he said in a pre-recorded video commencement address to the National Defense University.

Milley and the defense secretary, Mark Esper, were widely criticised for participating in the photo-op during George Floyd protests in Washington, with many former defence officials saying the two were helping Trump’s efforts to politicise the military

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Stock markets tumble as another 1.5m Americans file for unemployment

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Dow Jones loses more than 1,800 points while S&P down 5% after US coronavirus infections hit 2m

Stock markets tumbled in the US and Europe on Thursday amid growing fears over the long-term economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The sell off started after the US labor department announced another 1.5 million people had filed for unemployment benefits and the number of coronavirus infections passed 2m even as states across the US continued to relax their quarantine measures.

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Biden predicts military will intervene if Trump refuses to accept election loss

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  • Biden says biggest fear is Trump will ‘try to steal the election’
  • Democratic challenger leads president in opinion polls

Joe Biden has predicted the military will escort Donald Trump from the White House should the president lose November’s election but refuse to leave office.

Biden, speaking to the Daily Show’s Trevor Noah, said that his single greatest concern is that the president will “try to steal this election”.

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Coronavirus live news: pandemic accelerating across Africa; over 2 million cases in US

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Shortage of test kits ‘leading to virus spread in Africa’; Mexico confirms record daily infections; Brazil deaths near 40,000

Another 1.5 million people in the US filed for unemployment benefits last week even as states continued to relax their coronavirus quarantine measures, writes Dominic Rushe and Amanda Holpuch in New York.

In just 12 weeks more than 44 million claims have been made for benefits as people lost their jobs. Rehiring appears to have started. Last week the labor department said the unemployment rate had dipped in May to 13.3% from 14.7% in April – although officials said difficulty collecting data meant the figure was probably 3% higher.

Related: 1.5 million Americans file for unemployment as states relax restrictions

Nearly three-quarters of new cases of coronavirus are coming from 10 countries, mostly concentrated in the Americas and south Asia, the director general of the World Health Organization has said.

Speaking at the UN health agency’s member state briefing on Thursday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the global situation was deteriorating, even as Europe appeared to be over the worst of the outbreak.

More than 7 million cases of Covid-19 have now been reported, and more than 408,000 deaths.

Although the situation in Europe is improving, at the global level, it is getting worse. More than 100,000 new cases have been reported each day for the most part of the past two weeks.

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George Floyd protests: officer bailed as protesters topple Confederate statue in Virginia – live

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Officer involved in George Floyd killing freed on bail, as statue of Confederate president toppled in Richmond, Virginia

This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.

Trump’s most recent tweet that the National Guard troops who patrolled Washington amid the George Floyd protests “could hardly believe how easy it was” is at odds with recent reports about the troops.

The first days of June, a calamitous period for the Trump presidency, have been a debacle for the National Guard.

There has been a torrent of criticism from Congress, senior retired military officers and Guard members themselves since more than 5,000 Guard troops — from the District of Columbia and a dozen states — were rushed to the streets of the capital to help in the crackdown on mostly peaceful protesters and occasional looters after the killing of George Floyd in police custody. The D.C. Guard has halted recruiting efforts, and at least four National Guard troops have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Donald Trump is up and tweeting, and is straight on the attack against “Antifa”.

Our great National Guard Troops who took care of the area around the White House could hardly believe how easy it was. “A walk in the park”, one said. The protesters, agitators, anarchists (ANTIFA), and others, were handled VERY easily by the Guard, D.C. Police, & S.S. GREAT JOB!

Domestic Terrorists have taken over Seattle, run by Radical Left Democrats, of course. LAW & ORDER!

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Donald Trump to hold rally in Oklahoma, first since coronavirus pandemic began

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President announces rally in Tulsa, city with a history of deadly racial violence, even as Covid-19 cases continue to rise

Donald Trump will hold a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, next Friday – his first since since states began shutting down in response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed more than 110,000 lives in the US.

Related: Trump would 'not even consider' renaming bases with Confederate links

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Global protests throw spotlight on alleged police abuses in West Papua

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The Black Lives Matter actions have given renewed impetus to the campaign against injustices in the Indonesian province

Student Eden Armando Bebari, 19, was allegedly shot and killed by Indonesian security forces while fishing in his home town in West Papua in April.

Indonesian media described Bebari as a member of an armed criminal group, a claim denied by his parents. Many residents in Papua, the eastern-most province of Indonesia, now fish and tend crops to ease food shortages brought about by coronavirus lockdowns.

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What black America means to Europe

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Many have attempted to claim that ‘things are better here’ for black people than in the US. This ignores both Europe’s colonial past and its own racist present. By Gary Younge

In September 1963, in Llansteffan, Wales, a stained-glass artist named John Petts was listening to the radio when he heard the news that four black girls had been murdered in a bombing while at Sunday school at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

The news moved Petts, who was white and British, deeply. “Naturally, as a father, I was horrified by the death of the children,” said Petts, in a recording archived by London’s Imperial War Museum. “As a craftsman in a meticulous craft, I was horrified by the smashing of all those [stained-glass] windows. And I thought to myself, my word, what can we do about this?”

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Trump to hold first rally in months in Tulsa, a city with history of deadly racial violence – live

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Hallie Golden reports for The Guardian:

Governor Jay Inslee of Washington has ordered a new investigation into the death of Manuel Ellis, an African American man who died more than three months ago in police custody, following questions over the independence of the investigation.

Related: Washington governor orders new investigation into police custody death

Lane was released after posting bond. His bail was set for $1m.

Lane was one of the officers — including Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng — who stopped George Floyd while responding to a call about the alleged use of a counterfeit $20 bill.

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Washington governor orders new investigation into police custody death

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  • Manuel Ellis, an African American, died three months ago
  • Inslee says investigation will be ‘free of conflicts of interest’

Governor Jay Inslee of Washington has ordered a new investigation into the death of Manuel Ellis, an African American man who died more than three months ago in police custody, following questions over the independence of the investigation.

The move comes one day after a lawyer for the Ellis family released footage from the night of his death, which shows him screaming, “I can’t breathe sir. I can’t breathe,” followed by what sounds like an officer saying, “Shut the fuck up.”

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Trump would ‘not even consider’ renaming bases with Confederate links

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President contradicts defense secretary who said he was open to discussing new names for military bases named after Confederates

Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would “not even consider” renaming US military bases that are named after Confederate military leaders, even though the Pentagon has indicated it is open to the idea.

The statement from the US president came amid widespread anti-racism protests that have convulsed the country and were triggered by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month.

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DoJ push to dismiss Michael Flynn case a ‘gross abuse of power’, ex-judge finds

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  • John Gleeson condemns department’s ‘highly irregular conduct’
  • Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to FBI but then withdrew plea

A former federal judge appointed to review the justice department’s motion to dismiss criminal charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn has found that the government’s request should be denied because there is “clear evidence of a gross abuse of prosecutorial power”.

Related: George Floyd's brother testifies before House: 'I'm here to get justice' – live

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‘Stop the pain’: Philonise Floyd testifies at House hearing on police brutality – video

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Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd, described the pain of watching the video of his brother's murder - which showed a police officer kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes - during his opening remarks at a House judiciary committee hearing on police brutality. 'I can’t tell you the kind of pain you feel when you watch something like that,' he said: 'When you watch your big brother, who you’ve looked up to your whole life, die. Die begging for your mom'

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Giving birth at home during Covid-19: ‘Black mothers were already scared’ – video

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Mekiya Hodges, who is African American and works as a social worker, says that pregnant women of colour often aren’t listened to by doctors. She had a traumatic experience giving birth to her previous children in hospital and, along with the additional risk of coronavirus, decided to have her daughter, Jordan, at home with the help of Natalie Watson, co-founder of Steel City Midwives. Mekiya, 25, lives in a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, an area that has a high death rate for new black mothers. Nationally, black women in 2018 were two and half times more likely than white women to die due to complications related to pregnancy or childbirth


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Anger at huge shareholder payout as US chain Kohl’s cancels $150m in orders

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Retailer paid $109m in dividends just weeks after cancelling clothing orders, leaving suppliers in Bangladesh facing financial crisis

Kohl’s, one of the US’s largest clothing retailers, cancelled millions of dollars worth of existing orders from Bangladeshi and Korean garment factories just weeks before paying out $109m (£85m) in dividends to shareholders, the Guardian can reveal.

The company cancelled orders of clothing worth approximately $100m from Korea and $50m from Bangaldeshi factories after the Covid-19 pandemic struck, and refused petitions from suppliers asking for the option to renegotiate payments. 

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‘Are you immune?’ The new class system that could shape the Covid-19 world

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Experts suspect – but there is no proof – that antibodies will confer immunity. The implications could be wide-ranging

Scrolling through Airbnbs in Brooklyn, one listing stands out. “IMMUNE HOST,” claims the heading in caps. Among photos of rooftop sunsets and interiors, lies something else unexpected – a picture of a positive antibody test.

Related: Is it safe to protest during a pandemic? Experts answer our questions

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After 15 stunning days of anti-racist protests … what happens next?

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Can the phenomenal response to the police killing of George Floyd be channeled to secure lasting political change?

The New Yorker writer Jelani Cobb captured best the sense of wonder at what is happening on the streets of America. He posted a tweet from Mitt Romney, the Republican senator from Utah, which showed the former presidential candidate marching alongside demonstrators under the banner Black Lives Matter.

“Ladies and gentleman,” Cobb remarked. “This is what you call uncharted territory.”

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