Category Archives: US News

Revealed: man force-fed in Ice custody at risk due to ‘substandard care’ says doctor

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Ajay Kumar, who is on a hunger strike while detained in El Paso, is receiving ‘abysmal’ treatment, doctor said in court documents

The life of an Indian asylum seeker on hunger strike in US detention is at risk because of the “abysmal” treatment he is receiving from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), which began force-feeding him two weeks ago, a doctor warned in court documents filed this week.

Dr Parveen Parmar, chief of the division of global emergency medicine at the University of Southern California, said in an affidavit that the 33-year-old asylum seeker, Ajay Kumar, is receiving “the worst medical care I have seen in my 10 years of practice”.

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Biden pushes back against report he told false war story – live news

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Former vice-president disputes report that war story he’s told on the campaign trail contains many falsehoods

Both Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are campaigning in South Carolina this evening.

“Donald Trump thinks that climate change is a hoax,” @BernieSanders tells this South Carolina crowd, gathered in Myrtle Beach to hear him discuss climate change. “Well, I think that Donald Trump is a hoax.” pic.twitter.com/Weq4fe4cY4

Hello from Spartanburg, South Carolina.

I’m following Joe Biden as he campaigns in SC today/tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/MRXagp5uP0

A federal judge rejected House Democrats’ effort to expedite their lawsuit to obtain Trump’s tax returns.

“It may be appropriate to expedite this matter at some point, but not now,” said Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump-appointed federal judge in DC.

Related: House lawmakers sue Trump administration for president's tax returns

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‘It’s a big deal’: Trump takes giant leap in space command launch

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President detailed operations in ceremony, including defending against Chinese and Russian anti-satellite weapons, and promised space force will soon follow

It was one small step for man, one giant leap for Trumpkind.

Donald Trump made the short journey on Thursday from the Oval Office to the White House Rose Garden, then promised to unleash an army of space warriors to infinity and beyond.

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Alabama man who served 36 years of a life sentence for stealing $50 to be freed

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Alvin Kennard was imprisoned in 1983 with a disproportionately harsh sentence under the ‘three strikes law’

A man from Alabama who was sentenced to life without parole after stealing $50.75 from a bakery in his 20s is to be released after more than three decades in prison.

Alvin Kennard, who was convicted of first degree robbery following the bakery incident, was 22 when he was first imprisoned in 1983.

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Hurricane Dorian: Florida declares state of emergency as it awaits storm’s arrival

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Puerto Rico was spared, but storm is expected to land in Florida Sunday night, potentially as a category 4 hurricane

Florida is bracing for the arrival of Hurricane Dorian with weather experts on Thursday proclaiming the state’s entire east coast at risk.

A state of emergency has been declared and Donald Trump on Thursday canceled his forthcoming trip this weekend to Poland as the storm bears down. It was announced that the vice-president, Mike Pence, will travel to the eastern European nation in the president’s stead.

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‘The misdeeds of a few’: Nigeria speaks out over $46m fraud case

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Government says it will not stand in way of justice after 77 Nigerian nationals are among 80 suspects indicted in US

Nigeria’s federal government has urged the international community not to let a minority of individuals tarnish the country’s reputation after the revelation of a high-profile financial crime investigation by the US government.

At the same time officials warned Nigerian nationals across the globe that they will not stand in the way of justice being administered on those who break the law in other countries.

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Hurricane Dorian spares Puerto Rico and heads for eastern coast of Florida

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Power outages and flooding were reported in the Virgin Islands and the Puerto Rican islands, but no damages

Hurricane Dorian caused limited damage in the northern Caribbean as it left the region and gathered strength late Wednesday, setting its sights on the US mainland as it threatened to grow into a Category 3 storm.

Puerto Rico, which had braced for the worst, seemed to be spared any heavy wind and rain, a huge relief to many on an island where blue tarps still cover some 30,000 homes nearly two years after Hurricane Maria. The island’s 3.2 million inhabitants also depend on an unstable power grid that remains prone to outages since it was destroyed by Maria.

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US opioid crisis: experts say payouts from drug makers ‘highly questionable’

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Two potential payouts from Johnson & Johnson and Purdue Pharma have provoked varied responses

Efforts to get compensation for the US opioid crisis with two multimillion-dollar drug manufacturer payouts have been met by leading activists and addiction experts with a range of responses from incredulity to cautious optimism.

On Tuesday, the wealthy Sackler family and their embattled drugmaker, Purdue Pharma, makers of two opioids that triggered the crisis, Oxycontin and MSContin, reportedly backed a proposal to resolve all opioid lawsuits against themselves and the company for more than $11bn.

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Why is China hiding its oil tankers from US trackers?

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Signs Beijing may be importing Iranian oil as Trump’s two biggest foreign policy headaches converge

In early June, a Chinese-owned supertanker abruptly went dark in the Indian Ocean, the tracking system signalling its course apparently deactivated.

It was not the first ship to vanish from the monitors. The deactivation of transponders that generate a unique ID issued to ships by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has become increasingly familiar in recent weeks to the companies that track tankers.

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US knew Indonesia intended to stop East Timorese independence ‘through terror and violence’

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Documents reveal ‘muted’ attempts to convince Indonesian officials to allow free vote to proceed

The US government knew for months that Indonesia’s military was supporting and arming militias in East Timor in the lead-up to the 1999 independence referendum but continued to push for stronger military ties, declassified documents have revealed.

The hundreds of documents provide a window into US policy on the months of terror inflicted on the Timorese and the “muted” attempts by the US to convince Indonesian officials to allow a peaceful and free vote to proceed.

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‘Let’s do it now’: Greta Thunberg crosses Atlantic and calls for urgent climate action

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  • Climate activist, 16, receives cheers as she steps off boat
  • Thunberg says: ‘Let’s not wait any longer. Let’s do it now’

Greta Thunberg arrived in New York on Wednesday, stepping on to dry land after crossing the Atlantic in a zero-carbon yacht with a passionate message to tackle global heating.

Crowds had gathered to welcome her for hours beforehand, ready to welcome Thunberg’s arrival on the unconventional solar-powered craft.

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Prince Andrew ‘knows what he’s done’, says Jeffrey Epstein accuser

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Royal has previously denied Virginia Giuffre’s accusation that she was forced to have sex with him

An accuser of the financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Tuesday addressed her accusation that she was coerced into sex with Prince Andrew, saying the royal “knows what he’s done”.

Related: Prince Andrew took a flight on Epstein private jet with Russian model

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Australian who says he invented bitcoin ordered to hand over up to $5bn

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US court orders Craig Wright to share cryptocurrency haul with the estate of American programmer David Kleiman

The Australian man who claimed to have invented cryptocurrency bitcoin has been ordered to hand over half of his alleged bitcoin holdings, reported to be worth up to $5bn.

The IT security consultant Craig Wright, 49, was sued by the estate of David Kleiman, a programmer who died in 2013, for a share of Wright’s bitcoin haul over the pair’s involvement in the inception of the cryptocurrency from 2009 to 2013.

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Opioids addiction rising in India as US drugmakers push painkillers

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As the Indian government loosens its prescription opioid laws after decades of lobbying by palliative care advocates, the cash-fed healthcare system is ripe for misuse

In the crowded waiting room of Dr Sunil Sagar’s clinic, in the working-class neighborhood of Bhagwanpur Khera, a toddler breathes from a nebulizer. The patients sit, motionless, but there is somehow tremendous noise. The clinic is a squat cement building draped in wires, a red cross on the door. Sagar sits behind a desk in a small, open room, as a squad of assistants escort patients to him.

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Ugandan student sues President Museveni for blocking him on Twitter

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Lawsuit brought by Master’s student at Harvard, who was blocked after referring to head of state as a ‘dictator’

A Ugandan student living in the US is suing President Yoweri Museveni for blocking him on Twitter after he referred to the head of state as “a dictator” and said he had to go.

In the lawsuit, Hillary Innocent Taylor Seguya, a global youth ambassador and master’s student of international relations at Harvard University, contends that by blocking him on Twitter, Museveni bars him from online conversation. It leaves him unable to see or respond to tweets on the president’s official handle, @KagutaMuseveni, used as a public forum to disseminate information relating to the activities of his public office in his official capacity and to get feedback from citizens.

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Purdue Pharma and Sacklers offer up to $12bn to settle opioid claims, report says

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  • Maker of Oxycontin accused of fueling US opioid epidemic
  • Hundreds of cities and counties have sued drug company

Purdue Pharma and members of the multi-billionaire Sackler family, who own the company that makes the prescription painkiller OxyContin, have offered to settle more than 2,000 lawsuits from US states and cities for between $10bn and $12bn, according to a media report on Tuesday.

Related: How big pharma is targeting India's booming opioid market

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Bernie Sanders releases plan to combat ‘crisis’ in journalism – live news

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In a statement about the the president’s performance at the G7 summit, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden warned of the potentially devastating effects another four years of Trump could unleash.

“Rather than looking to America for vision, agenda setting, and leadership by example, our closest democratic allies sought to manage and mitigate the damage Trump might do at this year’s G-7,” Biden said.

Taylor Swift surprised some of her fans last night by striking a political tone while accepting the MTV Video Music Award for video of the year.

The pop star encouraged those listening to sign a petition in support of the Equality Act, which would bar discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. The Democratic-controlled House passed the bill earlier this year, but it has not yet been taken up in the Senate.

Congrats to @billieeilish and @ArianaGrande for huge wins and @lizzo for an incredible performance at the #VMAs and huge thanks for joining the fight to tell politicians: #BansOffMyBody! Visit https://t.co/RD5uRCwa2y

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Jeffrey Epstein accusers to speak out at New York court hearing

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  • Judge Richard Berman to give any victims chance to speak
  • Epstein charged with sex trafficking before his suicide

Up to 30 women are expected to take a judge up on his invitation to speak at a hearing after Jeffrey Epstein killed himself while facing sex trafficking charges.

Related: Prince Andrew took a flight on Epstein private jet with Russian model

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The IMF is hurting countries it claims to help | Mark Weisbrot

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The fund browbeats poor countries into accepting neoliberal measures that exacerbate inequality and economic distress

When people think of the damage that wealthy countries – typically led by the US and its allies – cause to people in the rest of the world, they probably think of warfare. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died from the 2003 invasion, and then many more as the region became inflamed.

Related: Brexit: EU ‘would block trade deal if Britain reneged on bill’

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Trump pushes his ‘magnificent’ resort as site of next G7 summit – live news

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Hello readers, this is Kari Paul in San Francisco taking over the blog for the next few hours. Stay tuned for updates.

That’s it from me today. I’m handing the blog over to my West Coast colleague Kari Paul for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

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