Category Archives: US News

Honduran transgender woman freed after a year in US detention

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Nicole García Aguilar was granted asylum in October but was held another seven months while Ice appealed

A Honduran transgender woman who was detained in a US immigration facility for seven months despite being granted asylum has been released after a legal challenge.

Nicole García Aguilar was freed from the Cibola County detention facility in New Mexico on Wednesday night, a week after lawyers filed a habeas corpus writ challenging her unjustified and prolonged detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).

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Mueller report: House issues subpoena for full unredacted version

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Jerry Nadler issues subpoena for Robert Mueller’s full report and the underlying documents ‘to make informed decisions’

The House judiciary chairman, Jerry Nadler, on Friday issued a subpoena for the full, unredacted report by special counsel Robert Mueller on Russian interference in the 2016 US election and the Trump campaign.

Related: 'No new information': Russia shrugs off Mueller report

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The key unanswered questions from the Mueller report

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Almost two-thirds of the section on Russian hacking is redacted and the special counsel refrained from deciding whether Trump committed a crime

The public release of the special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Thursday finally brought into the open key findings from the two-year investigation into Russian interference in the US election. The special counsel team found no criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Moscow but disclosed damning revelations about Donald Trump’s repeated attempts to interfere with the Russia investigation and possible obstruction of justice.

But the 448-page report includes substantial redactions – on the subject of Russian hacking, nearly two-thirds of the section is blacked out. Those redactions, as well as Mueller’s decision to punt on the question of whether Trump committed a crime, raise a series of fresh questions about the conduct of Trump and his aides.

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San Francisco destroyed by earthquake – archive, 19 April 1906

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19 April 1906: Thousands of buildings were either damaged or destroyed, and several hundred persons killed

New York, Wednesday
Early this morning a violent earthquake wrecked the business quarter of the city of San Francisco, and an appalling fire completed the devastation. All the land wires were broken, and for some hours the United States was in an agony of suspense. The absence of authentic news produced the wildest rumours. Now that communication has been partially restored the story is scarcely less alarming, for it is known that not less than 1,500 people have perished, and some estimates place the figure ultimately at more than double that number.

Related: Mark Oliver on the 100th anniversary of the San Francisco quake

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Three mountaineers killed in avalanche in Canada

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Parks service says no chance of finding David Lama, Hansjörg Auer and Jess Roskelley alive

Three of the world’s most accomplished and well known mountaineers have been killed after an avalanche in the Canadian Rockies.

The two Austrian climbers, David Lama and Hansjörg Auer, and the American Jess Roskelley, had been missing since going to attempt a climb on a remote face of Mount Howse in Alberta’s Banff national park earlier this week.

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Bill Clinton picked up Kama Sutra in gift shop, says Emily Maitlis

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BBC Newsnight presenter once spotted former US president perusing ancient erotic text

The Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis has said she once caught Bill Clinton perusing the Kama Sutra in a hotel gift shop.

The BBC presenter said she spotted the former US president with the risque reading material following a day of interviews.

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Nadler says Mueller report shows ‘disturbing evidence’ of obstruction of justice – video

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US judiciary committee chair Jerry Nadler has said the special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation report outlines 'disturbing evidence' that Donald Trump engaged in obstruction of justice. Nadler also accused US attorney general William Barr of undermining his own department in order to protect the president. He said it was 'disingenuous and misleading' of Barr to say Trump is 'clear of wrongdoing'. 

Barr is scheduled to testify before the committee on 2 May and Nadler has requested Mueller testify before the committee as well because 'we can’t believe what Barr tells us'

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Mueller’s report would have signaled the end for anyone other than Trump

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Analysis: activity discovered by Mueller was not, as Trump and his allies falsely insist, standard stuff for a political campaign

For all his bluster about being a master builder, Donald Trump really made his millions through branding. From chewy steaks to failing casinos, Trump has spent decades putting lucrative lipstick on pigs.

So when faced with a sprawling criminal investigation into how Russia worked to get him elected – and how he then repeatedly tried to obstruct the inquiry – the president devised a brutally effective public relations campaign.

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Mueller report: the key takeaways from the Trump-Russia investigation

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The special counsel found 11 instances in which Trump and his campaign’s actions may have amounted to obstruction of justice

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s highly-anticipated report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election was made public on Thursday, examining potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Moscow and whether Donald Trump obstructed justice.

The special counsel found 11 “episodes” in which Trump’s actions may have amounted to obstruction of justice, detailing several instances in which the president’s demands to interfere with the investigation were blocked by his aides.

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‘I’m having a good day’: Trump reacts after release of Mueller report – video

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The US president said on Thursday he was having a 'good day' after the release of the special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the now-closed Russia investigation. The US attorney general, William Barr, told a news conference before the report’s release that the investigation did not find Donald Trump or members of his campaign worked with Russia during the 2016 presidential election

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William Barr: bottom line is that Mueller found no collusion – video

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The US attorney general, William Barr, has said the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation did not find Donald Trump or members of his campaign worked with Russia during the 2016 presidential election. Addressing a news conference before the report’s release, Barr said there were 10 episodes involving Trump that were scrutinised for possible obstruction of justice

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Trump’s attacks on Ilhan Omar aim to stoke fears ahead of the 2020 election

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Trump and Republicans are using Omar to drive a wedge within the Democratic party and ‘foment hatred of Muslim Americans’

When Ilhan Omar became one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress in November, the American Muslim community saw her victory as a symbolic rejoinder to Donald Trump.

Omar’s remarkable journey – from a Somali refugee camp to the Minnesota state legislature and the hallways of the US Capitol – stood out among a historically diverse class of freshman lawmakers. The sight of Omar’s hijab on the House floor, made possible only by a rules change that for the first time in 181 years allowed religious headwear inside the chamber, reinforced the immediacy of her impact.

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Five key things to look for in the Mueller report

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Barr has said the report has two parts: one on Russian tampering efforts and one on alleged obstruction of justice by Trump

On Thursday, the US justice department is expected to release a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s long-awaited report on Russian election tampering and the Donald Trump campaign to the public. The attorney general, William Barr, has announced a press conference at the justice department at 9.30am to discuss it.

Related: Mueller report: redacted Trump-Russia findings to be released today – live

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British diver who helped rescue Thai cave boys gets trapped in cave

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Josh Bratchley spent more than 24 hours in a cave in Tennessee before he was rescued by expert divers

A British diver who helped save a junior football team from a cave in Thailand has himself been rescued from a flooded tunnel in the US after more than a day underground.

Josh Bratchley failed to return to the surface with the rest of a party after they emerged from a cave in Jackson County, Tennessee, at around 3pm on Tuesday.

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Justice department discussed Mueller’s findings with White House, report says – as it happened

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Democrats condemn Barr’s handling of report’s release following news it will not come until after press conference

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that House Democrats, looking into President Trump’s financial interests, have subpoenaed JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo & Co., Bank of America, Capital One Financial Corp., Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Canada and Toronto Dominion Bank.

Investigators on the House Financial Services Committee and House Intelligence Committee have focused their early efforts on Deutsche Bank, which has said it in engaged “in a productive dialogue” with the committees.

Deutsche Bank’s relationship with Mr. Trump goes back decades. Since 1998, the bank has led or participated in loans of at least $2.5 billion to companies affiliated with Mr. Trump, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

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Democrats condemn attorney general’s plan for rollout of Mueller report

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Attorney general has sought to ‘put his own spin’ on special counsel’s report, say lawmakers before report’s release

On the eve of the long-anticipated release of the report by special counsel Robert Mueller on Russian tampering in the 2016 election and alleged Trump campaign involvement, Democrats accused the attorney general, William Barr, of trying to “cherry-pick” and “put his own spin” on the conclusions of the investigation.

Representative Jerry Nadler, the chairman of the House judiciary committee, appeared with colleagues at a press conference in New York City late Wednesday to protest against Barr’s plan for rolling out a redacted version of the Mueller report.

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Trump’s new Cuba crackdown puts US at odds with Canada and Europe

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US will allow lawsuits against firms using property nationalised by the revolution, cap remittances and restrict ‘non-family’ travel

Donald Trump has taken another step towards reversing Barack Obama’s historic rapprochement with Cuba with a measure that earned swift criticism from allies in Canada and Europe.

The US announced on Wednesday that it would enable lawsuits against foreign companies that use properties nationalised by the communist government after Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution.

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2020 candidate Pete Buttigieg responds to anti-gay heckler at Iowa rally – video

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Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana and Democratic presidential candidate, was heckled by a protester at a rally in Des Moines, Iowa. The person shouted: 'Remember Sodom and Gomorrah' – a reference to two biblical cities – to which Buttigieg responded: 'The condition of my soul is in the hands of God but the Iowa caucuses are up to you'

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Dismay as Trump vetoes bill to end US support for war in Yemen

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Politicians decry Trump’s decision to continue US involvement in it as a cynical move and missed opportunity for humanitarian help

Donald Trump has vetoed a bill passed by Congress to end US military assistance in Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen.

The Senate had passed a bipartisan resolution on 13 March in a 54-to-46 vote, in a move that was largely seen as a rebuke of Trump’s alliance with the Saudi forces leading military action in Yemen. The House voted on the resolution in early April, passing it with 247 votes to 175.

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Does everyone really love Mayor Pete? His home town has some answers

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By many measures, Buttigieg’s mayoral career has been a success – but his policies have not pleased everyone and poverty and crime are still high

Jack Colwell was a young reporter with a big story. Trade union sources told him that the Studebaker car plant, the beating heart of South Bend, Indiana, was closing down with a loss of nearly 7,000 jobs that would devastate the community. On 9 December 1963, above his byline, the front page headline on the South Bend Tribune newspaper read: “Auto output to end here.”

Related: 'They call me Mayor Pete': Buttigieg launches 2020 presidential run

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