Rapidly rising water overwhelmed dams and forced the evacuation of about 10,000 people in central Michigan, where flooding struck communities along rain-swollen waterways and the governor said downtown could be 'under approximately nine feet of water' by Wednesday
Continue reading...Category Archives: US News
Florida scientist says she was fired for refusing to change Covid-19 data ‘to support reopen plan’
Dr Rebekah Jones says she was fired from Department of Health by the governor after protesting order to censor information
The scientist in charge of Florida’s Covid-19 database was fired on the same day as the state opened up for business.
As sunbathers returned to beaches, and restaurants, movie theaters, gyms and hair salons in almost every county were permitted to open their doors on Monday, the Governor Ron DeSantis’s administration fired Dr Rebekah Jones from the Florida department of health.
Continue reading...New York enlists ‘army’ of contact tracers to beat coronavirus – but will it work?
Both city and state aim to recruit thousands to trace contacts of those diagnosed with coronavirus as part of plans to reopen
New York faces enormous challenges in its attempts to implement one of the largest contact tracing schemes in the US, as the city prepares to reopen after nearly two months of coronavirus lockdown.
The New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, has said the state is recruiting an “army of people to trace each person who tested positive” for an “unprecedented, nation-leading contact tracing programme”. The New York city mayor, Bill de Blasio, announced a new test and trace corps, which he said would “lead the way in creating testing and tracing on a level we’ve never seen before in this city or this country”.
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: Greece to restart tourism from 15 June
Country plans to allow international flights from 1 July; Spain makes face coverings compulsory; global cases hit 4.9m
- EU virus response chief: ‘Europe should brace itself for second wave’
- Trump lashes out at China, blaming it for ‘mass worldwide killing’
- Brazil’s deadliest day as Trump calls US cases a ‘badge of honour’
- US coronavirus updates – live
- Coronavirus latest: at a glance
Here is more on US president Donald Trump calling for an in-person G7 meeting.
Donald Trump has said he may seek to revive a face-to-face meeting of Group of Seven leaders near Washington, after earlier canceling the gathering due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Related: Trump considers an in-person G7 meeting despite coronavirus pandemic
Continue reading...Matt Lauer lashes out at Ronan Farrow in wake of New York Times critique
Former Today show host accuses Farrow of shoddy journalism in his Catch and Kill book as journalist responds that Lauer is ‘just wrong’
Matt Lauer has accused Ronan Farrow of shoddy and biased journalism in his book Catch and Kill, which included a rape accusation against the former Today show host that Lauer claims is false.
Farrow, a Pulitzer Prize-winning staff writer at the New Yorker, said Lauer “is just wrong”.
Continue reading...Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas ends security agreement with Israel and US
Declaration follows the creation of a new Israeli government which is officially contemplating annexation of some areas of the West Bank
The Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, has declared an end to security cooperation with the Israel and the United States, citing the imminent threat of Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank.
“The Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO] and the state of Palestine are absolved, as of today, of all the agreements and understandings with the American and Israeli governments and of all the commitments based on these understandings and agreements, including the security ones,” Abbas said in his speech.
Continue reading...Trump is taking hydroxychloroquine, White House confirms
- ‘The president said himself he’s taking it. That’s a given fact’
- FDA has approved drug for malaria but not against Covid-19
Donald Trump on Tuesday further touted his apparent taking of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as protection against coronavirus despite federal regulators warning of the potentially serious, even fatal, dangers.
As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the US continued to rise and the death toll crept inexorably towards a landmark 100,000, the highest in the world, Trump spent public appearances repeatedly talking about a dubious treatment and an economic comeback.
Continue reading...Roe v Wade plaintiff admits abortion rights reversal ‘was all an act’ in new film
Norma McCorvey, known as Jane Roe, reveals she was paid by evangelical Christian groups to take anti-abortion stance
Norma McCorvey, most notable for being the plaintiff known as Jane Roe in the 1973 landmark supreme court case Roe v Wade that led to abortion becoming legal in the United States, made a stunning admission just before her death in 2017, it has emerged.
“This is my deathbed confession,” she explained.
Continue reading...‘An individual decision’: Trump defends taking unproved coronavirus drug hydroxychloroquine – video
The US president has defended his use of the anti-malaria drug, dismissing a study indicating it was not an effective coronavirus treatment as a 'Trump enemy statement'. He also attacked Nancy Pelosi after she publicly expressed concern, claiming she had 'mental problems'
- Trump is taking hydroxychloroquine, White House confirms
- Coronavirus – latest updates
- See all our coronavirus coverage
Gregory Tyree Boyce: Twilight actor dies at age 30
Boyce, who played Tyler Crowley in the 2008 film, and his girlfriend Natalie Adenike Adepoju were found dead in Las Vegas
Gregory Tyree Boyce, an actor in the film Twilight, and his girlfriend Natalie Adenike Adepoju were found dead last week in Las Vegas, authorities said on Tuesday.
Clark county coroner John Fudenberg said foul play was not suspected in the 13 May deaths of Boyce, 30, and Adepoju, 27.
Continue reading...President calls negative hydroxychloroquine study ‘a Trump enemy statement’ – as it happened
- Trump falsely claims hydroxychloroquine ‘doesn’t harm you’
- Vice-president says he is not taking anti-malaria drug
- Trump says he’s taking hydroxychloroquine despite FDA warnings
- Strikes erupt as US essential workers demand protection amid pandemic
- Coronavirus – latest global updates
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Patrick Wintour and Julian Borger report:
Member states have backed a resolution strongly supportive of the World Health Organization, after Donald Trump issued a fresh broadside against the UN body, giving it 30 days to make unspecified reforms or lose out on US funding.
Related: Member states back WHO after renewed Donald Trump attack
Continue reading...Covid-19’s unlikely victim: new emojis
The pandemic has forced the Unicode Consortium to delay new emojis in 2021 – but remixes of existing ones could be on their way
Covid-19 has taken so much from us, but now it’s come for our emojis too.
Related: Coronavirus US live: Trump claims to take hydroxychloroquine and threatens to withdraw US from WHO
Continue reading...Millions of US farm animals to be culled by suffocation, drowning and shooting
Closure of meat plants due to coronavirus means ‘depopulation’ of hens and pigs with methods experts say are inhumane, despite unprecedented demand at food banks
More than 10 million hens are estimated to have been culled due to Covid-19 related slaughterhouse shutdowns. The majority will have been smothered by a water-based foam, similar to fire-fighting foam, a method that animal welfare groups are calling “inhumane”.
The pork industry has warned that more than 10 million pigs could be culled by September for the same reason. The techniques used to cull pigs include gassing, shooting, anaesthetic overdose, or “blunt force trauma”.
Continue reading...‘If it was me, they would do it’: Trump reacts to dismissed ‘Obamagate’ investigation – video
After US attorney general William Barr dismissed the possibility of investigating 'Obamagate', president Donald Trump responded 'If it was me, they would do it'. The president has called 'Obamagate': "The biggest political crime in American history, by far!" However Trump has failed to detail his exact accusations
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: Barcelona beaches to reopen for sunbathers
WHO chief promises review of global response; Afghanistan sees biggest one-day rise in new infections; Italy records lowest deaths since March
- Trump says he’s taking hydroxychloroquine despite FDA warnings
- China puts city of Shulan under Wuhan-style lockdown after fresh cases
- UK coronavirus updates - live
- US coronavirus updates - live
- Coronavirus latest: at a glance
Twenty one more people have died from Covid-19 in the Netherlands, the lowest number reported on a Tuesday since March, taking the total death toll in the country to 5,715.
According to the latest update from the Dutch national institute for public health and the environment (RIVM), a further 108 people tested positive for the virus, the lowest number of new daily infections recorded since 10 March. So far, 44,249 confirmed cases have been reported.
The number of people who have fallen ill due to the novel coronavirus in the Netherlands has been decreasing since the end of March. This is apparent from the decrease in the number of newly reported patients, hospital admissions, ICU admissions and deaths per day.
The number of people who visit their GP because of symptoms that are consistent with the coronavirus is still decreasing. This is evident from figures provided by the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (Nivel).
The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus across Africa has passed 86,000, the regional office of the World Health Organization has said.
Unlike in Europe, a widespread outbreak seems yet to happen in Africa, a continent of 1.3 billion people. There had been fears that its comparatively limited healthcare infrastructure would be overrun by patients with Covid-19.
Over 86,000 confirmed #COVID19 cases on the African continent - with more than 33,000 recoveries & 2,700 deaths. View country figures & more with the WHO African Region COVID-19 Dashboard: https://t.co/V0fkK8dYTg pic.twitter.com/t8kU48MI7R
Continue reading...Police fail in attempt to tase Ahmaud Arbery during 2017 incident – video
Police attempted to use a Taser on Ahmaud Arbery, the slain Georgia jogger, after questioning why he was sitting alone in his car in a park one morning in November 2017, according to records and a police video obtained by the Guardian.
The video comes to light as law enforcement in the area faces scrutiny after Arbery was shot dead by two white men while out for a run in February. Police did not initially arrest Gregory and Travis McMichael, who chased down and killed the unarmed Arbery, and a prosecutor assigned to the case wrote a lengthy memo explaining why the killing was legally justified.
In a joint statement to the Guardian, lawyers working for the Arbery family described the video as a clear depiction of 'a situation where Ahmaud was harassed by Glynn county police officers'.
Continue reading...Police tried to tase Ahmaud Arbery in 2017 incident, video shows
- Officers questioned why Arbery was sitting alone in his car in a park one morning in November 2017
- Family lawyers say video shows Ahmaud ‘harassed by police’
Police attempted to use a Taser on Ahmaud Arbery, the slain Georgia jogger, after questioning why he was sitting alone in his car in a park one morning in November 2017, according to records and a police video obtained by the Guardian.
Related: Ahmaud Arbery: new focus on district attorney’s flawed prosecutions of black women
Continue reading...Trump says he’s taking hydroxychloroquine against Covid-19 despite FDA warnings
President says he’s been taking drug for ‘a couple of weeks’ but FDA has issued repeated warning about the dangers of the drug
Donald Trump has told reporters at the White House that for “a couple weeks” he has been taking a malaria drug as a defense against Covid-19 – despite warnings from his administration that it is dangerous.
Trump said he was taking hydroxychloroquine – a drug approved to treat malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis – in response to the coronavirus threat.
Continue reading...Coronavirus: Trump claims he takes hydroxychloroquine despite FDA warnings – video
Donald Trump claimed he has been taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent Covid-19, despite no compelling evidence that the drug is effective against the coronavirus.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned against using hydroxychloroquine or a related compound, chloroquine, for treating or preventing Covid-19 unless under medical supervision in a hospital or as part of a clinical trial
- Trump claims to have been taking hydroxychloroquine despite FDA warnings – live
- Lockdown protests may have spread virus, cellphone data suggests
- Coronavirus – latest global updates
Ronan Farrow: master #MeToo reporter hit by surprise New York Times takedown
Pulitzer-winning New Yorker journalist rejects claims from paper’s Ben Smith that work exhibits ‘shakiness at its foundations’
Ronan Farrow is no stranger to the rough and tumble of investigative journalism. His exposés on sexual abuse that helped to inspire the #MeToo movement have led to him to being trailed by private detectives employed by his most famous target – Harvey Weinstein – and to accusations from his former employer, NBC News, that he told “outright lies”.
Related: Shredded Trump documents and spy games: Ronan Farrow's biggest scoops
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