Category Archives: US News

The US recovery from the pandemic lags way behind Europe – even as states reopen

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While countries such as Spain and Italy that are lifting restrictions have forced the trend of infections down, in the US cases are rising

The US may be moving to loosen social distancing restrictions around the same time as several European countries but it remains in a far different, and worse, stage of the coronavirus pandemic.

While infections and deaths from Covid-19 quickly raced to terrifying peaks in Italy and Spain, both countries have managed to arrest the increase and are now forcing the key trends downwards.

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‘Somebody was stupid’: Trump pushes Wuhan coronavirus lab claim – video

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Donald Trump has told reporters that 'something happened' when asked about the theory that the virus was released from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. 'Probably it was incompetence. Somebody was stupid,' he said during a meeting with the Texas governor, Greg Abbott. It comes after the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, claimed he had seen 'enormous evidence' that the virus had originated at the lab. No evidence has been produced. China has denied the claims.

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Bob Dylan announces first original album in eight years, Rough and Rowdy Ways

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Album news revealed with release of third song from the project, swaggering blues number False Prophet

Bob Dylan has announced his first album of original songwriting in eight years.

Rough and Rowdy Ways will be released on 19 June. It follows three albums of cover versions – Shadows in the Night (2015), Fallen Angels (2016) and triple album Triplicate (2017) – with his previous album of his own songs, Tempest, released in 2012.

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‘His head wasn’t in the world of reality’: how the plot to invade Venezuela fell apart

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Deeply flawed from the start, the audacious plan to overthrow Nicolás Maduro unravelled spectacularly

As get-rich-quick schemes go it was unusually complicated. Invade a foreign country you know little about. Abduct its president to the US. Collect a $15m bounty from the US government – and maybe an even bigger payoff from the people who then seize power.

The plan to overthrow Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and bundle him off to Florida to face drug trafficking charges seemed foolproof to a former US army staff sergeant, Jordan Goudreau, as he mapped it out in a luxury Miami apartment in late 2019. The 43-year-old Canadian-American was certain his years as a green beret in Iraq and Afghanistan had prepared him for the task.

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WHO conditionally backs Covid-19 vaccine trials that infect people – as it happened

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20m Americans lost their jobs in April; Donald Trump says virus will ‘go away without a vaccine’. This blog is now closed, follow our new blog below

We are closing this blog now, but you can stay up to date with all the latest news on our new global live blog which you can find below.

Related: Coronavirus live news: global cases approach 4 million as US unemployment hits 14.7%

New Zealand’s cabinet will meet on Monday to decide the future of the country’s tough but effective lockdown – though Kiwis have been told not to visit their mums this Mother’s Day.

Next week, Ardern’s government will plot a path back to something close to normality, meeting to decide a timetable for the removal of social and business restrictions. The prime minister has already released what level two restrictions will look like, including the re-opening of restaurants, hairdressers, gyms, cinemas and public facilities like museums and libraries.

Social restrictions could end immediately, with provisions for schools, business and personal movement more likely to be phased in.

Any decision will come too late for Kiwi mums to enjoy visits from sons and daughters not already in their household bubbles. Ardern has banned socialising outside of existing households, with few exceptions, and told Kiwis this week to “stick to the plan” ahead of Monday’s review.

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Ahmaud Arbery: former police officer and son charged in shooting of black man

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Gregory and Travis McMichael confronted Arbery with two firearms as the 25 year old was jogging in Brunswick, Georgia

A white father and son have been arrested over the death of Ahmaud Arbery, the 25-year-old black man who was shot while jogging in a Georgia neighborhood and whose case has sparked a national outcry.

In a statement released Thursday evening, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said that Gregory McMichael, 64, and Travis McMichael, 34, had been arrested and charged with murder and aggravated assault.

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US mercenary says group plotted to seize Venezuela’s presidential palace

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Airan Berry, captured by security forces, says group aimed to haul Maduro away ‘however necessary’

An American soldier of fortune captured during a botched attempt to seize Venezuela’s leader has claimed his group had plotted to raid Nicolás Maduro’s presidential palace before spiriting him away “however necessary”.

Airan Berry, 41, was one of two US mercenaries captured by Venezuelan security forces this week after what appears to have been a catastrophically executed attempt to topple Maduro by sneaking into the South American country in a pair of weather-beaten fishing boats.

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Revealed: Amazon told workers paid sick leave law doesn’t cover warehouses

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California workers say the company is pressuring sick employees to show up – and flouting a California law meant to protect them from Covid-19

Amazon workers in southern California’s industrial heartland say the company’s policies are forcing sick employees to work and that warehouses are refusing to comply with a state paid sick leave law meant to prevent Covid-19 outbreaks.

In the Inland Empire region outside Los Angeles, Amazon workers told the Guardian they fear losing their jobs if they are ill and stay home. At least four Amazon warehouses in the region have recorded Covid-19 cases.

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White House: US-China relationship one of ‘disappointment and frustration’ – video

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Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, described America’s relationship with China as 'one of disappointment and frustration' following the coronavirus outbreak. McEnany said Beijing had not shared the genetic sequence of the virus when it could have and refused access to US investigators, putting American lives at risk as the country struggles to contain the spread of Covid-19


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Venezuela leader calls for extradition of US security contractor after failed raid – video

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President Nicolás Maduro has called for the extradition of a US security contractor after an alleged incursion into the country to abduct him failed.

Luke Denman, one of two US citizens captured during the incident, said he was contracted to a private security firm run by Jordan Goudreau, in an an interview televised in Venezuela. While the US government has denied any role in the alleged raid, Maduro has called for Goudreau to be extradited to Venezuela 

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Coronavirus live news: New Zealand could allow gatherings of 100 from next week

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PM Jacinda Ardern outlines easing curbs to allow domestic travel and eating out; White House says US-China relationship one of ‘disappointment’; eurozone’s future threatened. Follow the latest updates

A gas leak at a chemical factory in southern India has killed at least nine people and led to hundreds being taken to hospital, amid warnings that the death toll could climb higher.

Styrene leaked from the Korean-owned LG Polymers plant during the early hours of Thursday morning when families in the surrounding villages were asleep, a local official in Andra Pradesh state said.

Related: Gas leak at chemical factory in India kills at least nine and hospitalises hundreds

Donald Trump has again suggested the US may need to accept the reality of more deaths in order to start reopening the economy, as governments around the world continued to ease out of lockdown restrictions.

Related: Global report: deaths are price of reopening, says Trump, as China warns risks remain

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Under Boris Johnson, Putin and Trump the world has uncanny parallels to 1945

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Russia on the offensive, Brexit Britain stands alone, and US disdain for European allies recalls its naivety with Stalin

Victory in Europe was made possible by a remarkable military collaboration between the main anti-Axis powers – the US, Russia and Britain. But the three-way relationship, between Franklin D Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill, was never easy, and it set a pattern of national rivalry, suspicion, fear and distrust that persists to this day.

A row over a top-secret message, known as SCAF-252, sent to Stalin in late March 1945 by Gen Dwight Eisenhower, the supreme allied commander, shows how fraught the relationship could be. In it, Eisenhower detailed his plans for the final defeat of Nazi Germany – but omitted to first consult or inform his British allies.

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‘It’s irresponsible’: Washington state sees sudden rise in Covid parties

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Gatherings held with the intent of catching, and overcoming, coronavirus are jeopardizing public health says state official

You can call them BYOC parties. That’s bring your own Covid-19.

Health officials in Walla Walla, Washington, are admonishing the sudden rise in so-called “Covid-19 parties” where non-infected guests mingle with those who have tested positive for the virus, ostensibly in hopes of speeding up the process of catching, and overcoming, the virus.

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Coronavirus US live: press secretary defends Trump over blocking Fauci’s testimony – as it happened

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A migrant detained at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in California has died from Covid-19, according to the ACLU.

“This is a terrible tragedy, and it was entirely predictable and preventable. For months, public health experts and corrections officials have warned that detention centers would be Petri dishes for the spread of Covid-19 — and a death trap for thousands of people in civil detention,” said Andrea Flores, the ACLU deputy director of immigration policy. “Unless ICE acts quickly to release far more people from detention, they will keep getting sick and many more will die,” she added.

Related: Coronavirus inevitable in prison-like US immigration centers, doctors say

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Venezuela: captured US mercenary claims he planned to abduct Maduro

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Luke Denman was one of two US citizens seized this week after what appears to have been a bungled bid to overthrow Maduro

An American mercenary captured after a bungled attempt to topple Nicolás Maduro has claimed he was on a mission to seize control of Venezuela’s main airport in order to abduct its leader – and he alleged that was acting under the command of Donald Trump.

Luke Denman was one of two US citizens seized by Venezuelan security forces this week after what appears to have been a catastrophically conceived bid to overthrow Maduro by sneaking into the South American country in a fleet of battered fishing boats.

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Trump reverses course and says White House coronavirus taskforce will stay

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The White House appeared to be in fresh disarray on Wednesday as Donald Trump insisted that his coronavirus taskforce would remain in place – less than 24 hours after suggesting it would be disbanded.

Related: Coronavirus US live: Pelosi attacks Trump's focus on reopening and says 'death is not an economic motivator'

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Working out in a city under quarantine – in pictures

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Over the past six weeks, New Yorkers have been exercising in unexpected ways amid the pandemic. With gyms closed and social distancing in place, how are city-dwellers staying active? Bess Adler photographed 10 unusual pandemic-inspired exercises she has come across in New York City – and this is the result

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Coronavirus live news: Trump wants to disband Covid-19 taskforce; Germany looks to reopen shops and restart amateur sport

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President says it’s time to reopen businesses as US deaths top 70,000; number of Russian cases rises by more than 10,000 for fourth consecutive day; Spain set to extend state of emergency for two more weeks

Pope Francis has urged employers to respect the dignity of workers, particularly migrants, in the face of economic difficulties brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Speaking at the end of his general audience, held from the papal library instead of St Peter’s Square because of Italy’s lockdown, he said:

It’s true that the crisis is affecting everyone but the dignity of people must always be respected.”

Baseball fans will be let back into Taiwanese stadiums this week as the government begins relaxing some controls implemented to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Taiwan has been relatively successful at controlling the virus, with 439 cases to date and six deaths, and 100 active infections, thanks to early prevention and detection efforts. The island has never gone into total lockdown, though the government has promoted social distancing and face masks.

Related: Taiwan to welcome baseball fans back into stadiums this week

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Sleazy bosses, exploited barmaids: US cinema finally discovers the left behinds

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From The Assistant to Support the Girls, American cinema is swapping feelgood escapism for gritty unsettling realism. We talk to the women spearheading this new wave

‘I wanted it to be relatable to any woman who’s ever worked in an office,” says Kitty Green of her new film The Assistant. “Everything in the film has been in the press already. But I wanted to take viewers on an emotional journey, so they could empathise with the character.”

The #MeToo saga has been examined to near exhaustion, but The Assistant manages to add something new. Rather than perpetrators or victims, it focuses on a relative bystander: a young office worker at a New York film production company. We follow this character, played by Julia Garner, through her demeaning routine: commuting in before daybreak, photocopying, printing, taking her male co-workers’ lunch orders, clearing up leftover pizza from the meeting room (as the men come in for the next meeting, she is humiliatingly caught with a crust in her mouth).

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