Category Archives: US News

White professor investigated for quoting James Baldwin’s use of N-word

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Laurie Sheck, who teaches at the New School, says inquiry followed a complaint that she had discussed Baldwin’s use of the slur

The Pulitzer-nominated poet Laurie Sheck, a professor at the New School in New York City, is being investigated by the university for using the N-word during a discussion about James Baldwin’s use of the racial slur.

The investigation has been condemned by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (Fire), which is calling on the New School to drop the “misguided” case because it “warns faculty and students that good-faith engagement with difficult political, social, and academic questions will result in investigation and possible discipline”.

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Jeffrey Epstein: how will investigators find potential co-conspirators?

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The financier is dead but the investigation has continued – and it’s possible any participants may have fled into hiding

Jeffrey Epstein is dead but the investigation that snared on sex trafficking charges has continued as authorities seek to make good on their promise not to let the convicted sex offender’s apparent suicide mark an end to their quest for justice.

Given the nature of the wealthy financier’s elite international social scene, it’s possible potential co-conspirators or other participants in the alleged trafficking would have the means to flee into hiding, in the US or abroad.

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Philadelphia mayor calls for gun control action after officers injured in standoff

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Jim Kenney urged state and federal government to stand up to NRA or ‘then let us police ourselves’

The mayor of Philadelphia has joined a growing chorus of calls for America to take action on gun control after a dramatic shooting incident in which six police officers were wounded as they served a drug warrant.

The officers were injured as part of a night of drama which saw a tense standoff eventually resolved when the suspected gunman was taken into custody. It is believed he had an automatic rifle and he exchanged multiple bursts of gunfire with police which saw civilians run for cover in a densely populated part of the city.

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‘It can happen again’: America’s long history of attacks against Latinos

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Last year marked a century since another Texas massacre, part of a legacy of racist violence leading up to El Paso

“It can happen again.” That’s what Arlinda Valencia said last year, at a ceremony in Texas marking the 100th anniversary of the massacre of 15 Mexicans and Mexican-Americans by a group of white men.

Valencia’s great-grandfather was one of the 15 unarmed men and boys who were woken up in the middle of the night in Porvenir, Texas, in 1918, taken outside, and shot to death. The slaughter, which was carried out by white Texas Rangers, US soldiers, and local vigilantes, was justified by labeling the Mexican American families “bandits” and criminals.

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US commerce secretary says Hong Kong protests are an ‘internal matter’ – as it happened

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Donald Trump is linking US-China trade talks with the Hong Kong protests on Twitter, suggesting that if the China government wants to work out a deal it has to “humanely” work with the protestors.

Whereas investors and foreign leaders have blamed uncertainty around trade negotiations between the US and China is triggering economic volatility around the world, Trump has insisted that negotiations between himself and China’s Xi Jinping are going well and that Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Fed chairman that Trump nominated in 2017, is to blame.

I know President Xi of China very well. He is a great leader who very much has the respect of his people. He is also a good man in a “tough business.” I have ZERO doubt that if President Xi wants to quickly and humanely solve the Hong Kong problem, he can do it. Personal meeting?

..deferral to December. It actually helps China more than us, but will be reciprocated. Millions of jobs are being lost in China to other non-Tariffed countries. Thousands of companies are leaving. Of course China wants to make a deal. Let them work humanely with Hong Kong first!

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Philadelphia: at least six officers injured in ‘active’ shooting situation, officials say

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Police sergeant says authorities are ‘imploring shooter to surrender and avoid further injuries’

Multiple police officers have been wounded after a gunman opened fire in Philadelphia on Wednesday, during a standoff that extended into the evening.

The police sergeant Eric Gripp tweeted that at least six officers were shot in the incident in the city’s northern Nicetown neighborhood. All the officers’ injuries were considered non-life-threatening, he said, and were being treated at local hospitals.

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Dow Jones plunges 800 points as recession fears rattle markets

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  • Sharp declines come after Tuesday rally inspired by tariff delays
  • Trump urges Fed chief Powell to make further interest rate cuts

Signs of a global economic slowdown roiled the markets on Wednesday as shares dived and investors fled to bonds with such intensity that short-term yields rose above longer-term ones for the first time since the crisis of a decade ago – an inversion many market-watchers saw as a strong signal of an approaching recession.

Related: Inverted curve proves White House has won its battle with the Fed

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Republican Steve King: if not for incest and rape ‘would there be any population left?’

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  • Trump ally tries to defend absolute abortion restrictions
  • Democratic 2020 contenders call for King’s resignation

Republican congressman Steve King has tried to defend a proposal for absolutist abortion restrictions on Wednesday by saying that without rape and incest the human race might long since have disappeared.

Related: Fury as Trump ally says poem on Statue of Liberty refers to 'people from Europe'

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Hong Kong: flights resume at airport as China condemns ‘near-terrorist acts’

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Beijing steps up war of words and airport obtains injunction against protesters to prevent further disruption of flights

Flights have resumed in and out of Hong Kong airport after two days of protests by pro-democracy activists as Chinese officials condemned the disruption that paralysed the international hub as “near-terrorist acts”.

Hundreds of flights were cancelled on Tuesday after demonstrators blockaded two terminals in the latest escalation of a 10-week political crisis that has gripped the city.

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‘No one cares till someone dies’: El Paso activists long feared their city was at risk

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Organizers were aware of racist threat, saying the attacker was ‘not the first white man with guns to terrorize us’

“He’s not the first white man to come in from out of town with guns to terrorize us.”

One week after what is believed to be the deadliest attack against Latinos in recent US history, the El Paso activist Ana Tiffany Deveze sat in Casa Carmelita, a community center and collective for grassroots organizing, talking about the 21-year-old shooter who confessed to police that he’d driven 650 miles across Texas specifically to target “Mexicans”.

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Teen’s tweets from her smart fridge go viral after mother confiscates phone

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Fifteen-year-old resorts to drastic measures after mom takes action ‘so I’d pay more attention to my surroundings’

A resourceful teenager has taken the rise of increasingly powerful smart home devices to its logical conclusion – tweeting from her family’s smart fridge after her mother confiscated her phone.

The 15-year-old Ariana Grande fan known only as “Dorothy” was barred from using her phone but managed to find a number of innovative ways to reach her thousands of followers – a handheld Nintendo device, a Wii U gaming console, and finally, her family’s LG Smart Refrigerator.

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Jeffrey Epstein: two jail guards placed on leave and warden reassigned, DoJ says

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Move comes after Donald Trump calls for ‘full investigation’ into billionaire’s death

The US justice department said on Tuesday that two guards assigned to watch Jeffrey Epstein at the New York jail in which he died have been placed on leave and the warden temporarily reassigned.

The billionaire sex offender was found dead on Saturday morning, having apparently hanged himself in his cell at the Metropolitan correctional center (MCC) in lower Manhattan.

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Trump official: Statue of Liberty poem should mean ‘poor who can stand on own two feet’

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Ken Cuccinelli defends Trump’s decision to make it harder for migrants to be awarded residence if they got benefit programs

Ken Cuccinelli, the acting director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), has proposed a new interpretation of the famous welcome that appears on a placard at the Statue of Liberty.

The famous lines, taken from The New Colossus by the 19th-century New York poet Emma Lazarus, read: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

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FBI raids Jeffrey Epstein’s private Caribbean island

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Expert says financier’s death may reduce legal issues with evidence as search begins

The FBI has raided Jeffrey Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean, in a further sign the death of the financier will not halt scrutiny of his alleged sex trafficking crimes.

Mobile phone footage broadcast by NBC news showed agents arriving on Little Saint James, in the US Virgin Islands, on Monday morning.

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Barr vows Epstein inquiry will continue as new questions about jail conditions emerge

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  • Barr under pressure to explain apparent lapses in protocol
  • Attorney general: ‘Any co-conspirators should not rest easy’

William Barr, the attorney general, has criticised “serious irregularities” at the Metropolitan correctional center (MCC) in New York where the billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in an apparent suicide on Saturday. Barr also vowed to pursue the federal sex-trafficking case against Epstein and said: “Any co-conspirators should not rest easy.”

Related: Ghislaine Maxwell: the woman accused of helping Jeffrey Epstein groom girls

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McConnell warns Beijing any violent crackdown of Hong Kong protests ‘unacceptable’ – live

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Federal agents descended upon the private island of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein as part of an ongoing investigation into the late financier, the FBI announced Monday.

Epstein died of an apparent suicide on Saturday while in federal custody at New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center after being arrested on federal sex trafficking charges last month.

The New York Police Department is investigating attacks on Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn early Monday morning as a hate crime.

The hate crimes unit and local precinct are investigating the assaults, which were carried out against at least three people between the ages of 56 and 71.

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Canada murders: teenage suspects died by apparent suicide, police say

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Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky were wanted over the killing of three people and the subject of a weeks-long manhunt across Canada

Canadian police say they believe two fugitives suspected of killing an American woman and her Australian boyfriend as well as another man died in what appears to be suicides.

The Manitoba Medical Examiner completed the autopsies and confirmed on Monday that the bodies found last week were indeed 19-year-old Kam McLeod and 18-year-old Bryer Schmegelsky. Both were found in dense bush in northern Manitoba.

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Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirators ‘should not rest easy’, says William Barr – video

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The US attorney general has criticised what he described as serious irregularities at the Metropolitan correctional center in New York where the billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in an apparent suicide on Saturday. Barr also vowed to pursue the federal sex-trafficking case against Epstein

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Texas, a Republican powerhouse, could shift to Democrats as demographics change

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The Republicans have dominated the state for 30 years, but a host of retirements and a rise in Hispanic voters may mean that Texas becomes a battleground again as Democrats seek a path to power.

Sri Preston Kulkarni has just moved into his campaign headquarters, which for now could hardly be more bland: a faceless office with blinds on the windows in a tucked-away suburban Houston business park.

Not far away, though, are a Muslim community centre, a Korean market, Hindu temples, Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian and Mexican restaurants – reminders that this sprawling Texas metropolis is one of the most diverse urban areas in the nation.

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US security adviser in Britain to discuss Iran, Huawei – and Brexit

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John Bolton expected to urge tougher UK stance towards Tehran and Chinese firm

John Bolton, Donald Trump’s national security adviser, has arrived in London for talks at which he is expected to urge Britain to toughen its stance on Iran and Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei.

As the United Kingdom prepares to leave the European Union on 31 October, many diplomats expect London to become increasingly reliant on the United States.

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