Category Archives: US News

Fugitive Taliban leader lived short walk from US base, book reveals

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Exclusive: account exposes failures of US intelligence, which put $10m bounty on Mullah Omar

The Taliban’s elusive one-eyed leader Mullah Omar lived within walking distance of US bases in Afghanistan for years, and American troops once even searched the house where he was hiding but failed to find a secret room built for him, a new biography claims.

The account exposes an embarrassing failure of US intelligence, which put a $10m bounty on Omar’s head after the 9/11 attacks in the US. Officials repeatedly suggested that, like the al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, he was hiding in Pakistan and died there.

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30 injured after severe turbulence tosses passengers on US flight

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Passengers describe ‘blood all over’ Istanbul-New York plane, and attendant broke leg

Severe turbulence tossed terrified passengers and crew around a Turkish Airlines plane cabin as it passed over the US on Saturday, with 30 people suffering bumps, bruises, cuts and a broken leg before the flight landed safely in New York, officials said.

Dozens of ambulances lined up in front of a terminal to quickly treat the injured coming off the flight that left Istanbul for the 10-hour trip.

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Trump’s legacy: conservative judges who will interpret US law for decades

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Senate Republicans have confirmed 89 Trump-nominated judges to serve at all levels of the federal court system

Many Americans watching the turmoil in US institutions and political norms are yearning for the day when Donald Trump is no longer president. But whether he leaves after 2020 or 2024, Trump has built a legacy in one vital area that can be expected to stand for decades, long after his Twitter feed has fallen silent, analysts across the political spectrum agree.

That legacy comprises the 89 judges, and rapidly counting, that Trump has nominated, and Senate Republicans have confirmed, to serve at all levels of the federal court system. They are taking up posts from the district courts (53 Trump nominees confirmed out of 677 total) to the appellate courts (34 out of 179) to the US supreme court (two out of nine). Put together they form a kind of conservative judicial revolution that could impact all aspects of American life.

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‘A lot at stake’: indigenous and minorities sidelined on climate change fight

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The two groups are affected the most by environmental degradation and pollution, but they often feel left out of the movement

Bernadette Demientieff, a representative for the indigenous Gwich’in nation, finds Washington DC anxiety-inducing, especially compared to the wide open spaces and tall mountains of Alaska.

She makes frequent trips to the US capital to fight oil drilling in what she considers sacred caribou calving grounds in the Arctic. But Demientieff is an outsider in the nation’s capital, where her concerns have fallen on deaf ears with the Trump administration. She’s also a bit of an outsider to the national environmental movement, too.

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Elizabeth Warren is right – we must break up Facebook, Google and Amazon | Robert Reich

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The titans of the new Gilded Age must be busted and the idea has bipartisan support. It’s time big tech was brought to heel

The presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren announced on Friday she wants to bust up giants like Facebook, Google and Amazon.

America’s first Gilded Age began in the late 19th century with a raft of innovations – railroads, steel production, oil extraction – but culminated in mammoth trusts run by “robber barons” like JP Morgan, John D Rockefeller, and William H “the public be damned” Vanderbilt.

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Joe Biden tops 2020 Iowa Democratic presidential poll ahead of Sanders

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Des Moines Register poll puts former vice-president on 27% of likely Democratic caucus-goers, Sanders on 25%

The former US vice-president Joe Biden has topped a poll of Iowa voters on Saturday that also showed Senator Bernie Sanders gaining momentum against him in the number two spot.

Biden, who has not announced whether he is running in the 2020 election, is the first choice for president of likely Iowa Democratic caucus-goers with 27% in the Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll. Sanders, 77, got 25%.

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Trump attacks ‘Wacky Nut Job’ Ann Coulter over border wall criticism

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  • President insults hard-right commentator and former ally
  • Official: budget to include request for more wall money

Donald Trump will be making a significant request for border wall funds and seeking money to stand up his “Space Force” as a new branch of the military in the White House budget being released next week, an administration official said on Saturday.

Related: SXSW: Warren tells tech audience plan to break up giants is 'like baseball'

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‘I hear it in my sleep’: CVS to update hold music that ‘haunted’ psychiatrist

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Pharmacy chain says plans were under way to change telephone system before doctor’s open letter sparked national debate

The US pharmacy giant CVS has said it will update the jingle it plays to telephone customers placed on hold, a tune which was the subject of a viral open letter from a Boston child psychiatrist who said it haunted him “day and night” and to an extent that was “not healthy”.

“I know,” Dr Steven Schlozman wrote. “I’m a doctor.”

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California family furious after hospital uses video call to tell grandfather he’s dying

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  • Ernest Quintana dies of chronic lung disease, aged 78
  • Hospital defends ‘tele-visit’ with doctor on rolling screen

Ernest Quintana’s family knew he was dying of chronic lung disease when he was taken by ambulance to a hospital, unable to breathe. But they were devastated when a robot machine rolled into his room in the intensive care unit that night and a doctor told the 78-year-old patient by video call he would likely die within days.

“If you’re coming to tell us normal news, that’s fine, but if you’re coming to tell us there’s no lung left and we want to put you on a morphine drip until you die, it should be done by a human being and not a machine,” his daughter Catherine Quintana said.

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Serena Williams backs US women’s soccer team’s discrimination case

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Tennis champion describes pay discrepancy between male and female squads as ‘ludicrous’

Serena Williams and other prominent past and present American tennis players have expressed their support for a lawsuit filed by the US women’s national soccer team against their federation alleging gender discrimination in wages and conditions.

All 28 members of the US squad were named as plaintiffs in a federal court in Los Angeles on Friday, International Women’s Day.

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‘Was that disruptive?’: congressman blasts Trump official with air-horn in committee hearing – video

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Joe Cunningham intervened in a House committee hearing on the environmental impact of seismic air-gun testing. The Democrat reached for the 120-decibel device after the official claimed the practice, used to locate underwater oil deposits, would have no effect on marine animals. Cunningham said seismic air guns were 16,000 times louder than his air-horn

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Trump’s private talks with Putin may contain clues to his Russia romance

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Democrats say Trump’s attempts to conceal his conversations with the Russian leader raise questions about his motivations

Since Donald Trump was sworn in as president he has met his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, five times. The details of their conversations remain unknown to the public, and in most cases even to senior administration officials.

Related: Trump inauguration took money from shell companies tied to foreigners

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Bill Shine: ex-Fox News executive resigns as top Trump aide – live

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Donald Trump will host the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, at the White House on 19 March, press secretary Sarah Sanders just announced.

The pair will discuss “how to build a more prosperous, secure and democratic Western Hemisphere,” according to the White House statement, as well as “opportunities for defense cooperation, pro-growth trade policies, combatting transnational crime and restoring democracy in Venezuela”.

"President Donald J. Trump will welcome President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil to the White House on Tuesday, March 19, 2019" pic.twitter.com/YIIwZc4axH

Senator Kamala Harris, a leading Democratic presidential candidate, weighed in on Paul Manafort’s controversial 47 month sentence while campaigning in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina today.

“We are looking at further evidence in America’s judicial system of absolute unfairness,” Harris said in video captured by CNN. “People who commit white collar crimes – they should be prepared to bring their tooth brush and spend as much time behind bars as anybody else.”

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris responds to Manafort sentencing: "Absolute unfairness" in the judicial system https://t.co/nMyXQjVbke pic.twitter.com/f2BpAB4ksz

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Chelsea Manning jailed for refusing to testify to grand jury in WikiLeaks case

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  • Judge Claude Hilton orders Manning to jail after brief hearing
  • Manning says she objects to secrecy of grand jury process

The former US army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning has been jailed for refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks.

Related: ‘I spent seven years fighting to survive’: Chelsea Manning on whistleblowing and WikiLeaks

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Simpsons producers withdraw Michael Jackson episode

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Child abuse allegations in Leaving Neverland prompt cartoon’s makers to act

An episode of The Simpsons featuring Michael Jackson’s voice has been pulled by its producers after a powerful documentary accused the star of sexually abusing two men when they were children.

The HBO documentary Leaving Neverland, which was shown on Channel 4 this week, featured James Safechuck and Wade Robson who claimed they were sexually abused by Jackson.

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China warns US of ‘all necessary measures’ to protect Huawei

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Foreign minister suggests recent actions against Chinese firms are ‘deliberate political suppression’

China’s foreign minister has said Beijing will “take all necessary measures” to defend the rights and interests of Chinese companies such as Huawei, which is locked in an escalating legal dispute with the US.

Beijing’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, said in response to a question about the company suing the US: “It is not difficult to see that the recent actions against specific Chinese enterprises and individuals are not just judicial cases, but deliberate political suppression.

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North Korea must give up all nuclear weapons before any sanctions relief, says US

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US position hardens after Hanoi summit collapse, warning that any launches at missile sites would violate Kim Jong-un’s promise

The US is demanding North Korea destroys all its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons before receiving any sanctions relief, as positions harden on both sides in the aftermath of last week’s failed Hanoi summit.

The US clarified its demands after satellite images showed the North Koreans had completely rebuilt a space launch site they had partially dismantled after the first summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un in June last year.

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Bernie Sanders reignites enthusiasm on 2020 campaign trail

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Progressive firebrand focused on signature message of economic populism, social justice and sweeping change at Iowa rally

The enthusiastic support that fueled Bernie Sanders’ insurgent bid for the Democratic nomination in 2016 does not appear to have waned heading into the 2020 race.

The Vermont senator officially got back on the campaign trail Thursday, beginning a trip across Iowa with a large, boisterous rally in Council Bluffs – a small city at the westernmost end of the key caucus state, just across the border from Omaha, Nebraska.

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Paul Manafort: Trump’s ex-campaign chief sentenced to 47 months

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Paul Manafort, the former chairman of Donald Trump’s campaign, has been jailed for nearly four years for bank and tax fraud uncovered during the special counsel investigation into Russian election interference.

Wearing a green prison jumpsuit, Manafort sat still in a wheelchair and betrayed little emotion as the US district judge TS Ellis of the eastern district of Virginia pronounced the sentence, which will be partially offset by nine months already served.

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