Category Archives: US News

1MDB: Malaysia files charges against 17 current and ex-Goldman Sachs bosses

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Bank has been under scrutiny for its role in helping to raise $6.5bn through bond offerings

Malaysia has filed criminal charges against 17 current and former directors at subsidiaries of Goldman Sachs Group in a multibillion-dollar corruption investigation at state fund 1MDB, the attorney general said on Friday.

Goldman Sachs has been under scrutiny for its role in helping to raise $6.5bn through bond offerings for 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), the subject of corruption and money-laundering investigations in at least six countries.

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Trump campaign’s Facebook ads target Latinos in Texas days after shooting

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The ads were launched just before US immigration officials raided food processing plants in Mississippi

On Monday, less than 48 hours after 22 people were killed in what is believed to be an anti-Latino domestic terror attack in El Paso, Texas, Donald Trump’s reelection campaign launched a new batch of Facebook ads referencing the grieving border city.

“¡Únete ya!” (“Join now!) the video ad declared, before displaying footage of two smiling fans holding a sign with the slogan, “LATINOS FOR TRUMP/FUND THE WALL TOUR 2019/EL PASO, TX.”

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US calls China ‘thuggish regime’ for targeting American diplomat who met Hong Kong protesters

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Anger at release of diplomat’s personal information as Hong Kong police bring back police chief who handled 2014 Occupy protests

A US official has described China as a “thuggish regime” for disclosing personal details about a US diplomat who met student leaders involved in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.

The denunciation came as the US became the latest country to issue a travel alert to the territory on Thursday, and Hong Kong’s police force brought out of retirement a senior officer who led the police response to the 2014 Occupy movement.

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Mexico cartel hangs bodies from city bridge in grisly show of force

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  • Jalisco New Generation cartel claims 19 deaths in Uruapan
  • Drug gangs believed to be fighting for control of avocado trade

The merciless dogfight between Mexican drug cartels has produced its latest macabre spectacle with the discovery of 19 mutilated corpses – nine of them hung semi-naked from a bridge – in a city to the west of the capital.

Related: 'Can't fight evil with evil': life in Mexico's most murderous town

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Trump visits intensify US divisions as calls for action on gun control grow – live

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Nancy Pelosi is leading a bipartisan congressional delegation to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, after which the group will see a migrant detention center in McAllen, Texas.

Estoy entusiasmada de viajar a Guatemala con la Presidenta de la Cámara @SpeakerPelosi y la delegación del Congreso para que escuchen y hablen directamente con el pueblo guatemalteco como lo he hecho yo. https://t.co/1mZQcJjrKp

Trump has turned his focus to the Federal Reserve, which he has repeatedly bashed for not lowering interest rates fast enough.

....John Deere, our car companies, & others, to compete on a level playing field. With substantial Fed Cuts (there is no inflation) and no quantitative tightening, the dollar will make it possible for our companies to win against any competition. We have the greatest companies...

....in the world, there is nobody even close, but unfortunately the same cannot be said about our Federal Reserve. They have called it wrong at every step of the way, and we are still winning. Can you imagine what would happen if they actually called it right?

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Surprise rise in Chinese exports boosts shares in Europe and Asia – as it happened

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A degree of calm has returned to world stock markets, after heavy selling earlier this week amid fears that the one-year trade war between the US and China was turning into a full-blown currency war. Washington branded Beijing a currency manipulator after the yuan fell sharply beyond the seven-to-one-dollar mark on Monday. This led to turmoil in financial markets – and US and UK stocks had their worst day this year.

Investors have been cheered today by better-than-expected trade data from China and the stabilisation of its currency. Wall Street has opened higher. In Europe, shares are even further ahead.

On Wall Street, stocks are up after the opening bell, mirroring gains in the UK, where the FTSE 100 index is 0.7% ahead at 7,250.

Gold pulls back after sharpest daily gain in 7 weeks but holds above $1,500 https://t.co/lnRzEbdH4z

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Trump visits El Paso after shooting and hails ‘special people’ – video

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Donald Trump visited El Paso to meet survivors and members of the emergency services after 22 people were killed in a mass shooting in the city at the weekend. 

Trump’s supporters rallied outside the hospital he visited, alongside people protesting against his visit who said his inflammatory rhetoric fuelled the shootings in the first place

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Syria safe zone plan may just be wishful thinking

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Lack of detail and strong opposition from Kurds means plan is unlikely to provide solution to region’s problems

The announcement by Turkey and the US that they will set up a safe zone in Kurdish-run north-eastern Syria allays fears of an imminent Turkish incursion into the country, but will strain Washington’s ties with a force that helped defeat Islamic State.

The announcement came as Ankara was finalising a troop buildup along its southern border, which it shares with Syrian Kurds. On Sunday, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, had threatened to invade within the next fortnight, creating a conundrum for Washington, which views both the Turks and the Kurds as allies and has increasingly struggled to keep them from conflict.

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Revealed: how Monsanto’s ‘intelligence center’ targeted journalists and activists

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Internal documents show how the company worked to discredit critics and investigated singer Neil Young

Monsanto operated a “fusion center” to monitor and discredit journalists and activists, and targeted a reporter who wrote a critical book on the company, documents reveal. The agrochemical corporation also investigated the singer Neil Young and wrote an internal memo on his social media activity and music.

The records reviewed by the Guardian show Monsanto adopted a multi-pronged strategy to target Carey Gillam, a Reuters journalist who investigated the company’s weedkiller and its links to cancer. Monsanto, now owned by the German pharmaceutical corporation Bayer, also monitored a not-for-profit food research organization through its “intelligence fusion center”, a term that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies use for operations focused on surveillance and terrorism.

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‘Blood on their hands’: the intelligence officer whose warning over white supremacy was ignored

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Daryl Johnson’s team faced an official backlash 10 years ago when it issued a briefing on rightwing extremism

Ten years ago, the Department of Homeland Security sent American law enforcement agencies an intelligence briefing warning of a rising threat of domestic rightwing extremism, including white supremacist terrorism.

The economic recession and the election of America’s first black president would create fertile ground for rightwing radicalization, the 2009 report concluded. Military veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, in particular, would be attractive targets for recruitment.

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Trump says he is concerned by ‘white supremacy and antifa’ – video

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Speaking to reporters at the White House, Donald Trump said he was 'concerned about the rise of any group of hate' and referred to white supremacists and anti-fascist activists. The US president was leaving to travel to Dayton and El Paso to meet with first responders, families and victims of the recent shootings when he said: 'Whether it’s any group or kind of hate ... I am concerned about it and I’ll do something about it'

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Puerto Rico thrown into turmoil as supreme court ousts new governor

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  • Move clears way for justice secretary Wanda Vázquez to succeed
  • Pedro Pierluisi was appointed by disgraced Ricardo Rosselló

Puerto Rico’s supreme court on Wednesday overturned the swearing-in of Pedro Pierluisi as the island’s governor less than a week ago, clearing the way for the justice secretary, Wanda Vázquez, to take up the post after weeks of turmoil. The unanimous ruling said Pierluisi must step aside immediately.

The high court’s decision, which cannot be appealed, was expected to unleash new demonstrations and deepen the tumult because many Puerto Ricans have said they do not want Vázquez as governor.

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The hot pink emoji house and the problem of Airbnb neighbors from hell

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After being reported for illegally renting out her home, one California woman took revenge with a mural, neighbors say

A California woman’s decision to plaster emojis on her outside walls, a move neighbors say came after they reported her for renting out her home on Airbnb, has made headlines around the world. But the war in Manhattan Beach, a city in southern California, sums up a wider problem for neighborhoods transformed by the tech platform: what happens if your neighbors hate it?

Neighborly disputes over Airbnb and other home-share properties are frequent, said Dan Weber, the founder of Airbnb Hell, a website that collects horror stories from hosts, renters and neighbors of Airbnb homes.

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Toni Morrison: farewell to America’s greatest writer – we all owe her so much | Chigozie Obioma

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Booker nominated author Chigozie Obioma reflects on losing a ‘literary mother’ and her encouragement for generations of black and African writers to come

It was with a heavy heart that I woke up, like many, to the news of the passing of the great African American writer Toni Morrison. As I have mourned and digested the news, my reaction has slowly gone from shock to dismay, then to a sense of inchoate peace.

Related: Toni Morrison: a life in pictures

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Deadly cliffside collapse underscores California’s climate-fueled crisis

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Tragedy in Encinitas comes as nearly 75% of state’s coastlines erode, endangering lives, homes, and infrastructure

Three women were killed last week while sunning on a beach in Encinitas, California, when the bluff above them gave way.

The sudden tragedy that befell Anne Clave; her mother, Julie Davis; and her aunt Elizabeth Cox, who had gathered at the resplendent coastline in the seaside community north of San Diego to celebrate Cox surviving cancer, made headlines around the world. But cliff erosion continues to imperil people and property around the state. California is falling into the sea piece by piece, and coastal conditions will only grow more dire with worsening climate crisis.

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Trump to visit El Paso and Dayton despite backlash from local officials

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El Paso congresswoman warns Trump is not welcome as Dayton mayor encourages protests

Donald Trump is likely to receive a cool reception, at best, when he touches down in El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday, three days after a 21-year-old gunman who invoked the language of white supremacy killed 22 people and wounded 24 more in a suburban Walmart superstore there.

The president could also face protests in Dayton, Ohio, the location of the second of two mass shootings at the weekend, where nine were killed by a man who investigators said on Tuesday explored violent ideologies.

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Canada manhunt: police find several items linked to murder suspects

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The find in northern Manitoba during search for Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmeglsky follows discovery of a rowing boat

Canadian police have found “several items directly linked” to two teenage boys suspected in the killings of an Australian man, his American girlfriend and a Canadian university lecturer.

The pair, Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, both from Port Alberni, British Columbia, have been on the run for nearly three weeks with no confirmed sightings since 22 July.

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FBI says Dayton gunman who killed nine explored ‘violent ideologies’ – live

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Venezuela’s U.N. ambassador is accusing the Trump administration of trying to start a war by sabotaging talks between president Nicholas Maduro and his opposition, as the Trump administration’s national security adviser John Bolton doubled down on his view that “Maduro has to go,” according to the Associated Press.

Addressing a summit on Venezuela’s crisis in Peru’s capital, Lima, Bolton pronounced Maduro’s “dying regime” doomed – even though a seven-month US-backed campaign has so far failed to topple Hugo Chávez’s authoritarian successor.

Bolton claimed Donald Trump’s latest moves – which will also see those who do business with Maduro’s government sanctioned – would help end “Maduro’s tyrannical reign”.

Related: 'It will not work': experts question Venezuela sanctions as Bolton touts them

Two members of Congress have sent a letter to the National Archives seeking records related to the supreme court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

“In the coming year, the supreme court will again address important matters regarding civil rights, criminal justice, and immigration,” reads the letter, authored by the New York congressman and House judiciary committee chairman Jerrold Nadler and the Georgia congressman Hank Johnson.

Related: Judicial council tosses misconduct claims against Brett Kavanaugh

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New York Times changes front-page Trump headline after backlash

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Original headline read ‘Trump urges unity vs racism’ – prompting accusations that newspaper was feeding president’s narrative

The New York Times was forced to change its front-page headline for Tuesday’s newspaper amid an intense backlash over its portrayal of Donald Trump’s statement on the twin mass shootings that left 31 people dead.

The original headline read “TRUMP URGES UNITY VS RACISM”. Many people complained that the wording fed Trump’s claims that those who criticised his persistent anti-immigrant rhetoric – some of which was parroted in the El Paso gunman’s alleged manifesto – were playing politics.

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