Category Archives: US News

White House ‘struggles to draw crowds’ to Trump’s Fourth of July show

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Trump is set to mark Independence Day by delivering a speech about patriotism on the steps of the Lincoln memorial

White House aides have reportedly struggled to draw crowds to Donald Trump’s Fourth of July celebrations, with service chiefs for the Army, Navy, Air Force or Marine Corps set to skip the planned display of military might.

Despite facing accusations that he is politicizing an important holiday, emulating displays in authoritarian countries and wasting taxpayers’ money, Trump is set to mark Independence Day by delivering a speech about patriotism on the steps of the Lincoln memorial.

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Trump’s Independence Day parade in Washington DC – in pictures

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Donald Trump is overseeing Fourth of July celebrations with a speech about patriotism and a show of military might that critics say is politicising an important holiday and wasting taxpayers’ money. The president has dismissed concerns about the event, which will take place in front of the Lincoln Memorial and feature fireworks, a flyover by Air Force One and a display of tanks

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Is a new generation taking over the Democratic party? – podcast

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Kamala Harris was the big winner of the first round of Democratic party debates in the US. This week, her poll numbers surged and so did donations to her campaign. But as Lauren Gambino in Washington notes, it was bad news for the frontrunners as Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders faltered. Also today: Daniel Boffey on the new cast of characters taking over the EU’s top jobs

The race for the Democratic party’s presidential nomination is intensifying after two rounds of televised debates in which the candidates squared up to each other on major issues and their past records. The big winner was the California senator Kamala Harris, who denounced the record of the frontrunner, Joe Biden, on race.

The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino joins Anushka Asthana to look across the diverse field of potential presidential nominees and the debates that highlighted the generational and ideological divides in the party.

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Homeland security chief orders inquiry into US border patrol Facebook group – live

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Kevin McAleenan called report that officers allegedly belong to a secret group where they have made abusive statements ‘disturbing’

Hello everyone! This is Julia Carrie Wong picking up the politics blog in San Francisco, where the holiday weekend hasn’t started yet.

A federal judge in Ohio has issued a preliminary injunction preventing Ohio’s six-week abortion ban from going into effect as scheduled, next week.

Here’s a summary of where things stand:

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‘Happy hunting!’ Immigration agents swapped cheery messages about raids, records reveal

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In 2017, agents made plans to apprehend more than 8,000 people and described the work as ‘fun’

US immigration officials planning countrywide raids targeting thousands of undocumented immigrants wrote cheerful messages about the potential arrests, wishing one another “Happy hunting!”, jokingly calling the initiative “Operation Super Epic Mega”, and saying the work was “fun”, records show.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) documents released Wednesday show how officials at the agency prepared for a set of coordinated raids in 2017 that aimed to detain more than 8,000 people for deportation. The agency officially called it “Operation Mega” and officials boasted in the documents that it would be the “largest operation of its kind in the history of ICE, targeting all aliens who are present in the United States in violation of the [law]”. Some documents also suggested field offices might have had specific arrest quotas.

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Outcry after reports Brazil plans to investigate Glenn Greenwald

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Federal police reportedly asked money laundering unit to investigate the ‘financial activities’ of the US journalist

Brazil’s Bar Association, journalists and opposition lawmakers have reacted with outrage to reports that the country’s federal police plan to investigate the bank accounts of an American journalist who published leaked conversations between prosecutors and the graft-busting judge who is now Jair Bolsonaro’s justice minister.

The rightwing site the Antagonist (O Antagonista) reported on Tuesday that federal police had asked a money-laundering unit at Brazil’s finance ministry to investigate the “financial activities” of Glenn Greenwald.

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Trump to claim US is environmental leader in spite of ripping up protections

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Exclusive: On Monday president will likely tout America’s clean air and water, even though he’s rescinded rules to cut pollution

Donald Trump plans to go on the offensive against criticism of his industry-friendly rollbacks of environment protections in a speech on Monday, according to three sources familiar with the plans.

Trump will tout America’s clean air and water, although his administration has advanced many efforts that experts say have undercut the country’s environmental record.

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House lawmakers sue Trump administration for president’s tax returns

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Ways and means committee’s lawsuit is latest salvo in clash between Democrats and president

A House committee sued the Trump administration in federal court Tuesday for access to Donald Trump’s tax returns, setting up a legal showdown over the records.

The House ways and means committee said it needed the documents for an investigation into tax law compliance by the president, among other things. It asked the court to order the administration to turn over the documents.

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San Francisco-area shopping mall shooting leaves several injured – reports

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Police say at least four victims were being taken to medical facilities after the shooting at San Bruno’s Tanforan Mall

Two people were shot and two others hurt on Tuesday when at least one gunman opened fire at a mall in the San Francisco suburb of San Bruno before apparently fleeing on a nearby train, police said.

Two people were taken to San Francisco general hospital in stable condition with gunshot wounds to their lower bodies, the San Bruno police chief, Ed Barberini, told reporters at a late-afternoon news conference. A hospital spokesperson told the Associated Press the victims were both boys, with one in critical and one in serious condition.

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Uber co-founder buys record-breaking LA mansion for $72.5m as drivers fight for wages

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Los Angeles sees a spike in the homelessness population while homes the size of football fields are selling for more than $100m

Two massive luxury real estate deals in Los Angeles have shone a harsh light on the wealth gap in a region where tens of thousands of people live on the streets while mansions the size of football fields sell for more than $100m.

On Monday, Variety reported that the Uber co-founder Garrett Camp and his partner Eliza Nguyen have purchased a Beverly Hills mansion for a record-breaking $72.5m, in what is believed to be the largest-ever sale of a home in the neighborhood.

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Texas migrant detention facilities ‘dangerously overcrowded’ – US government report

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Report from government’s own auditors includes images of children and adults penned into rooms

New images of children and adults in “dangerously” overcrowded US border patrol facilities in Texas have been released as part of a report from government auditors.

The congressional House oversight committee announced on Tuesday it will hold a hearing next week on the treatment of migrants held in detention facilities at the southern border after a series of reports of poor treatment.

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In praise of shame: how Trump and Johnson show we need it more than ever

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It has become associated with online mobs and prudishness, but shame can be a powerful tool to change our culture and hold governments and corporations to account

“First holiday snap!” read the faux-cheery caption on the picture Laura Muldoon posted, featuring a bunch of young men on a plane, one flipping the V sign and another giving the finger to the camera.

Muldoon, who was flying on Ryanair with her girlfriend to Spain for a wedding, tweeted that she had just been called a “miserable bitch”, a “dyke” and a “lesbo” after complaining about rowdy behaviour from fellow passengers. The picture went viral and was picked up by newspapers. Before long, some of the alleged perpetrators had been identified publicly, their social media feeds combed for incriminating details, their mothers tracked down for comment – named and shamed, along with the airline whose staff Muldoon accused of failing to intervene sufficiently.

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Enforcement of food and drug safety regulations nosedives under Trump

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Number of ‘warning letters’ sent by FDA has fallen by 33% compared with the most recent equivalent period under Obama

The US regulator of food and drug safety has seen steep declines in several markers of enforcement under the Trump administration, according to a new analysis in the journal Science.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sends “warning letters” for tainted food, improperly advertised dietary supplements or even violations of human subjects’ protections in clinical trials.

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Donald Trump threatens new tariffs on $4bn of EU products

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Whisky, cheese and olives among items that could be hit in row over aircraft subsidies

Donald Trump has threatened fresh tariffs on $4bn (£3,2bn) of European products including cheese, scotch whisky and olives, ratcheting up pressure on the EU in a long-running row over aircraft subsidies.

The US trade representative’s office released a list of 89 additional items – including olives, Italian and Dutch cheese, Scotch whisky, Irish whiskey, pasta, coffee and ham – that could face tariffs. These join products worth $21bn that were announced as potential targets for tariffs in April, which included roquefort cheese, wine, champagne, olive oil and seafood such as oysters. The latest list also includes a number of copper products and other metals.

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‘There’s no way to stop this’: Oakland braces for the arrival of tech firm Square

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Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has signed a deal to move his payments company to Oakland – which activists say will only exacerbate an already brutal housing crisis

Photographs by Jason Henry

The knocks on Maria Espinoza’s front door became a nightly occurrence.

If the 60-year-old Oakland woman wasn’t home, her frightened partner would turn off the lights and TV and remain silent. On evenings Espinoza did answer the door, her new landlord would be outside with the same question: When are you moving out?

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Ocasio-Cortez describes ‘horrifying’ conditions at border detention center – live

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Congresswoman, who endured ‘sexually threatening’ social media posts from CBP officers, says women had been told to drink out of toilets

MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki ponders whether post-debate, Kamala Harris is starting to cobble together the same Dem coalition that propelled upstart Barack Obama to victory over establishment candidate Hillary Clinton in 2008.

Per @DavidChalian just now, CNN's new poll has the black vote breaking like this post-debate:

Biden 36%
Harris 24%
Warren 12%
Sanders 9%
Buttigieg 0%

Morning Consult's overnight poll immediately after the debate also showed Harris spiking with white liberals. White liberals + African Americans was a winning combination for Obama in '08. Harris may now have traction with both.

The Associated Press has this dispatch Monday from the Clint Texas Border Patrol station, where AOC will visit today on her tour of migrant detention facilities:

For almost two weeks, a 12-year-old migrant girl said she and her 6-year-old sister were held inside a Border Patrol station in Texas where they slept on the floor and some children were locked away when they cried for their parents.

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Trump nepotism attacked after ‘out-of-her-depth’ Ivanka given key summit role

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Donald Trump has been accused of taking nepotism to alarming new depths after giving his daughter, Ivanka, a prominent role in meetings with the G20 and Kim Jong-un.

Related: #Unwantedivanka: awkward moment at G20 prompts slew of Trump parodies

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New York leads way as Pride marches mark 50 years since Stonewall – as it happened

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That’s all for today – thanks for reading, everyone. Here’s what happened:

And, before we close down for the evening, a quick look at festivities in Seattle, which also hosted a Pride parade today.

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Taylor Swift laments ‘worst case’ sale of back catalogue to mogul Scooter Braun

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  • Braun’s Ithaca Holdings acquires Big Machine Label Group
  • Singer on Tumblr: sale worse than ‘worst nightmares’

Taylor Swift on Sunday lamented the sale of her catalogue to the manager and mogul Scooter Braun, writing in a scathing Tumblr post that she was sad and grossed out that her music now belongs to a man she accuses of subjecting her to years of incessant and manipulative bullying.

Related: Pop super-manager Scooter Braun: 'I was not going to let Justin Bieber die'

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