Category Archives: US News

Trump hints he is ready to dig in for long US-China trade war

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Tweet in support of US farmers suggests dispute with Beijing could extend well into 2020

Donald Trump has dropped the broadest possible hint that he is ready to dig in for the long term in the Washington’s trade war with China, after the latest escalation in the long-running dispute between the world’s two largest economies.

The US president said he was ready to provide support for US farmers in 2020 should they face pressure from China, as economists at Goldman Sachs said the standoff could continue until after the US presidential election in November 2020.

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‘It will not work’: experts question Venezuela sanctions as Bolton touts them

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Bolton claimed Trump’s measures will help end Maduro’s reign, but some fear they will make Venezuela’s economic meltdown worse

US national security adviser, John Bolton, has insisted Venezuela’s “tired dictator” was at “the end of his rope”, as he opened another front in the White House’s economic blitz on Nicolás Maduro by freezing all Venezuelan government assets in the United States.

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.

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Texas police apologise after officers on horseback led black man by rope

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  • Donald Neely, 43, handcuffed and led through Galveston by rope
  • Police say white officers ‘did not have any malicious intent’

A police department in Galveston, Texas, has apologized after two white officers on horseback led a black man through the city’s streets on a rope.

Related: Trump hits back at Obama for comments about racism in America

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Toni Morrison, author and Nobel laureate, dies aged 88

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In novels including Beloved and The Bluest Eye, acclaimed author dramatised African-American experience with fierce passion

Toni Morrison, who chronicled the African American experience in fiction over five decades, has died aged 88.

In a statement on Tuesday, her family and publisher Knopf confirmed that the author died in Montefiore Medical Center in New York on Monday night after a short illness.

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US states face water crisis as global heating increases strain on supplies

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New Mexico tops the list, followed by California, Arizona, Colorado and Nebraska as problem could intensify with global heating

A handful of US states – including New Mexico and California – are facing significant strains on their water supplies that will only intensify with global heating, according to new rankings.

Related: Extreme water stress affects a quarter of the world's population, say experts

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China accuses US of ‘deliberately destroying’ world order

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Trade war rhetoric ratchets up as Beijing responds to US claim of being ‘a currency manipulator’

China stepped up the trade war rhetoric on Tuesday, accusing the US of “deliberately destroying international order” with “unilateralism and protectionism”.

A day after Washington branded China a currency manipulator in a rapidly escalating trade dispute, China’s central bank said it “deeply regretted” the move by the US and said such behaviour “seriously undermined international rules” and damaged the global economy.

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Republican who blamed shootings on gay marriage urged to resign

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Ohio state representative’s screed against cannabis and liberal ‘snowflakes’ goes too far even for her own party

A Republican state representative in Ohio who blamed “homosexual marriage” and “recreational marijuana” – along with many of Donald Trump’s favourite targets – for gun massacres is facing calls from her own party to resign.

In a Facebook post, Candice Keller, who represents a conservative district near Dayton, where nine people were killed early on Sunday, mused about the causes of mass shootings including: family breakdown and same sex marriage, open borders, sportsmen who disrespect the flag and national anthem, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, a godless culture, and liberal “snowflakes”.

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What about the 30-50 feral hogs? Man’s defense of assault weapons goes viral

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A Twitter user’s loaded question has been widely mocked, but there’s actually more to it than many have assumed

As the gun control debate rages in the US in the wake of a weekend of devastating mass shootings, calls for an assault weapons ban have resurfaced. While this has led many Americans to cite their second amendment rights, one man in Arkansas has asked a simple question: “How do I kill the 30-50 feral hogs that run into my yard within 3-5 mins while my small kids play?”

It all began when Willam McNabb, who identifies as a libertarian, waded into a debate about assault weapons (high-powered rifles were reportedly used by the gunmen in both El Paso and Dayton).

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Trump freezes all Venezuelan government assets in US

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Executive order says assets may not be ‘transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn’, as tensions with President Maduro escalate

The Trump administration has frozen all Venezuelan government assets in a significant escalation of tensions with socialist leader Nicolás Maduro. It places Washington’s trade relations with the South American country on a par with Cuba, Syria, Iran and North Korea.

The ban on Americans doing business with Venezuela’s government takes effect immediately.

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8chan: far-right site linked to shootings resurfaces – and is kicked offline again

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Message board enabling hate speech, where El Paso suspect allegedly posted manifesto, struggles to find new host

After being knocked offline Sunday by the internet infrastructure company Cloudflare, the far-right message board 8chan resurfaced hours later using a new online provider.

On Monday morning, 8chan found another service to provide it online protection: Epik.com, which advertises itself as a “non-discriminatory provider” with “a proven commitment to liberty”. Cloudflare finally stopped servicing 8chan after a shooting suspect allegedly posted a white nationalist rant on the site before killing more than 20 people in El Paso.

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Trump gets it wrong on mass shootings, but Republicans deserve the blame

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Recent tragic events have, critics say, displayed once again the moral collapse of one of America’s two great parties

Presidential addresses in the wake of national tragedies are typically attempts to heal and unite. For critics of Donald Trump, it was more a case of wondering how much more damage he might do.

Standing in the diplomatic reception room at the White House after a weekend of bloodshed in America, the US president declared: “In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy.”

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North Korea fires more projectiles, says it may be ‘compelled to seek new road’

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Pyongyang says US-South Korea military drills are ‘flagrant violation’ of efforts to reach peace

North Korea has fired two unidentified projectiles into the sea from South Hwanghae province, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The launches came as Pyongyang described Washington and Seoul’s war games as a “flagrant violation” of efforts to reach peace on the Korean peninsula which reflected a lack of “political will” to improve relations.

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‘Invasion’ and ‘fake news’: El Paso manifesto echoes Trump language

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A hate-filled document believed to have been written by the gunman bears striking similarities to the words we hear from Trump

Authorities are investigating a white nationalist “manifesto” posted on the far-right message board 8chan in connection with the suspect in Saturday’s mass shooting in the Texas border city of El Paso, which left 22 people dead.

Related: Trump blames 'violent' video games as El Paso death toll rises to 22 – live

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Beto O’Rourke likens Trump’s comments to Nazi Germany – video

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Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke has likened the US to Nazi Germany, saying President Donald Trump has been stoking racial tensions. This comes after a mass shooting in El Paso left at least 20 people dead. O’Rourke, who is from El Paso and represented the district in Congress, said he believed Trump was a white nationalist

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Trump blames ‘violent’ video games as El Paso death toll rises to 21 – live

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Trump has turned his attention away from the shootings if his Twitter feed is any indication.

The president has instead been busy attacking China for harming America’s economy and repeating the (false) claim that US consumers are not covering the cost of his trade war:

....used currency manipulation to steal our businesses and factories, hurt our jobs, depress our workers’ wages and harm our farmers’ prices. Not anymore!

Another Democratic presidential candidate, Cory Booker, has dismissed Trump’s statement on the shootings this morning as woefully lacking.

The New Jersey senator specifically cited Trump’s focus on mental illness in his remarks. “Mental illness didn’t kill the people of Dayton,” Booker said. “People are too easily getting their hands on guns.”

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UK joins US in mission to protect oil tankers in Gulf

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No other European countries have signed up to US-led mission to ‘uphold international navigation’

Britain is to join a mission with the US to protect oil tankers in the Gulf from seizure by Iran, but London has said no other European countries have so far been persuaded to sign up.

The UK will supply two Royal Navy ships in the Gulf alongside two US warships while British ministers urge other countries to join in as the operation is finalised.

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Americans mourn victims of mass shootings – in pictures

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Thousands of El Paso residents went to a baseball diamond in Ponder Park to pay tribute to the victims of Saturday’s mass shooting in Texas. And less than 24 hours after a masked gunman opened fire in Dayton, Ohio, hundreds of people gathered to pay their respects to the nine people who were killed and 27 injured there

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Two mass shootings in US leave 29 dead as Trump faces barrage of criticism

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  • 20 killed in El Paso, Texas, and nine killed in Dayton, Ohio
  • US reels from killings as Trump faces criticism over immigration

Donald Trump faced a barrage of criticism on Sunday as the US reeled from a brutal mass shooting in the border city of El Paso, Texas, on Saturday, linked to white nationalism and anti-immigrant hate rhetoric.

A total of 20 people were killed in the majority Latino city, nestled in western Texas on the US-Mexico border, as federal authorities investigated a potential hate crime and local prosecutors charged a 21-year-old white man, Patrick Crusius, with murder and said they would pursue the death penalty.

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175 people killed worldwide in last eight years in white nationalist-linked attacks

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At least 16 high-profile attacks have been motivated by white nationalist conspiracy theories

In the past eight years, more than 175 people around the world have been killed in at least 16 high-profile attacks motivated, or apparently motivated, by white nationalist conspiracy theories, including the far right racist belief that nonwhite immigrants and refugees are “invaders” who pose an existential threat to the white race.

Related: Two mass shootings in US leave at least 29 dead as Trump faces criticism

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The United States reels as two mass shootings in 13 hours leave 29 dead – video report

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Two mass shootings just 13 hours apart left 20 killed in El Paso, Texas, and nine killed in Dayton, Ohio. Many more were wounded in the two incidents, which have prompted a wave of criticism against Donald Trump's handling of shootings in the US

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