Category Archives: US News

Tens of thousands in US set to join ‘Good Trouble’ protests honoring John Lewis

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Rallies at more than 1,500 sites nationwide planned for Thursday to protest against Trump administration

Tens of thousands of people are expected to march and rally at more than 1,500 sites across all 50 US states on Thursday to protest against the Trump administration and honor the legacy of the late congressman John Lewis, an advocate for voting rights and civil disobedience.

The “Good Trouble Lives On” day of action coincides with the fifth anniversary of Lewis’s death. Lewis was a longtime congressman from Georgia who participated in iconic civil rights actions, including the march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965 when police attacked Lewis and other protesters on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

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Will Mike Waltz lead a ‘full-frontal assault’ on the UN?

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Some fear Donald Trump’s nominee for UN ambassador will damage global development in a bid to rehabilitate his image after the Signal chat scandal

When and if Donald Trump’s nominee for ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, takes up the post, many are concerned that in his pursuit of the rehabilitation of his image, global development will not be a priority.

Diplomats work for decades to be considered for the coveted position of ambassador, but in this case the role is a consolation prize for the 51-year-old former army colonel from Florida, says Richard Gowan, UN director of International Crisis Group. Gowan believes Waltz will be “very performative” as he attempts to rebuild his political brand after the scandal of reportedly adding a journalist to a Signal chat that contained sensitive information on planned military strikes in Yemen.

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First Thing: Trump calls Epstein rumors a ‘radical left’ hoax and condemns Maga ‘weaklings’

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President battles rare backlash from supporters, many of whom say he is hiding vital information. Plus, a climate expert calls for AI and crypto tax

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Good morning.

Donald Trump has turned on his Maga base, blasting his supporters as gullible “weaklings” for believing the government is holding out on crucial information about the disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

What are his supporters upset about? A key sticking point has been the government’s announcement that Epstein did not keep records of a “client list”. It’s particularly contentious because the attorney general, Pam Bondi, had previously said such a list was “sitting on my desk right now to review”, though she later claimed she was referring to other documents.

How were the findings verified? Using open-source information and through analysis by weapons experts.

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Israeli airstrike hits Sweida city in Syria as Bedouin tribes clash with Druze

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Conflict restarts in southern province as Druze groups reportedly target Bedouin villages in ‘revenge’ attacks

The Israeli military has carried out an airstrike on the outskirts of Sweida city as clashes between Bedouin tribes and Druze fighters intensified on Thursday night.

The clashes started a wave of tit-for-tat retaliatory violence earlier on in the day after Syrian government forces withdrew from Sweida.

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Trump’s $1tn for Pentagon to add huge planet-heating emissions, study shows

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Exclusive: 17% increase in military spending will add emissions equivalent to those of some entire countries

Donald Trump’s huge spending boost for the Pentagon will produce an additional 26 megatons (Mt) of planet-heating gases – on a par with the annual carbon equivalent (CO2e) emissions generated by 68 gas power plants or the entire country of Croatia, new research reveals.

The Pentagon’s 2026 budget – and climate footprint – is set to surge to $1tn thanks to the president’s One Big Beautiful Act, a 17% rise on last year.

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US authorities take custody of more than 20 kids as surrogate mothers claim couple misled them

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Children removed from California home of couple who were arrested in May and had said they ‘wanted a large family’

More than 20 children are in the custody of a California child-welfare agency while authorities investigate a Los Angeles-area couple and whether they misled surrogate mothers around the country.

Fifteen children were removed from the couple’s opulent home in Arcadia after an abuse allegation in May, and another six living elsewhere were also located, said Arcadia’s police lieutenant, Kollin Cieadlo. They range in age from two months to 13 years, with most between one and three.

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Half of New Orleans clergy abuse claims could be tossed in US bankruptcy court

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Outcome could have major effects on whether the Catholic archdiocese settles its expensive, five-year-old case

As New Orleans’s bankrupt Roman Catholic archdiocese finalizes a plan to settle 633 clergy abuse claims filed against it, the church’s investors are arguing in US bankruptcy court that about half of those survivors could have their claims thrown out.

Church officials said on Wednesday they would not necessarily seek that, though the eligibility of claims will be determined by a court-appointed examiner. If the investors’ arguments prevail, it could have major effects on whether the US’s second-oldest Catholic archdiocese settles its expensive, five-year-old bankruptcy case – or if victims of abuse by its clergy will pursue their claims individually in civil court.

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Hungary opposition figures urge Democrats to organize against autocratic takeover by Trump

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Forum speakers said Donald Trump’s second term resembles strongman Viktor Orbán’s first years in power

Democrats must organize urgently for the 2026 midterm elections and avoid a “it can’t happen here” mentality to stop Donald Trump from staging a full-scale autocratic takeover, a Hungarian opposition parliamentarian has said.

Katalin Cseh, a critic of Hungary’s strongman prime minister, Viktor Orbán, told a forum on authoritarianism that the central European country’s experience held vital lessons for Trump’s opponents in their attempts to resist his assaults on US institutions and democratic norms since his return to the White House.

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‘A family of traitors’: Trump’s Brazil tariffs ultimatum backfires on Bolsonaro

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US president’s attempt to help his rightwing ally avoid jail has sparked wave of anger and given boost to rival Lula

Silvana Marques was one of thousands of Brazilians who flocked to São Paulo’s most famous art museum one afternoon last week. But the 51-year-old teacher wasn’t there to marvel over fog-filled London landscapes at Masp’s new Monet retrospective. She had come to join a protest heaping scorn on Donald Trump.

Beneath the museum’s brutalist hulk, Marques spotted a cardboard effigy of the US president and took a picture with her phone before the Trump dummy was set on fire. “Laranjão safado,” which translates as big orange dirtbag, she wrote under her photo on Instagram. Nearby, demonstrators hoisted a red banner into the air which read: “Nice try Trump. But we’re not afraid.”

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Trump tries to move on amid Epstein files backlash as speaker calls for their release – US politics live

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President tries to downplay issue amid growing outrage from conservatives

President Donald Trump will meet with Qatar’s prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani on Wednesday to discuss negotiations over a Gaza ceasefire deal, Axios reporter Barak Ravid posted on X.

Israeli and Hamas negotiators have been taking part in the latest round of ceasefire talks in Doha since 6 July, discussing a US-backed proposal for a 60-day ceasefire that envisages a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of Gaza and discussions on ending the conflict.

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Michigan deacon thwarted attack on church by ramming truck into shooter

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When Richard Pryor saw the man firing in the parking lot, he sprang into action, buying time before guards arrived

A Michigan church deacon who had a hand in thwarting a rifle-wielding man’s attempts to shoot worshippers at a service in June by ramming the attacker with his truck says he sprang into action because waiting for first responders’ help was not feasible.

“I’m just realizing there’s no time,” Richard Pryor – who drew gunfire while protecting the congregation of CrossPointe Community church in Wayne, Michigan – said during a recent Associated Press interview in which he revisited his state of mind that day. “I didn’t have a weapon on me, in the truck or anything, so what are your options?”

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Ukraine wing of US-founded terrorist group says it was involved in killing of intelligence officer in Kyiv

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The Base, a far-right group with suspected links to Russia, said killing of Ivan Voronych was ‘only the beginning’

The Ukrainian wing of an internationally proscribed far-right terrorist organization with suspected links to Russia is claiming involvement in the brazen assassination of an intelligence officer in Kyiv.

Late last week, a masked assailant shot and killed Col Ivan Voronych of the Ukraine security service (SBU) as he walked through a Kyiv parking lot in broad daylight. Shocking footage of the assassination circulated in Ukrainian media and caused a stir among residents in the capital.

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Trump threatens to impose drug and chip tariffs as soon as 1 August

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US president talks of low tariff to give pharmaceutical firms a year or so to build, and then making it ‘very high’

Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on pharmaceutical products and semiconductors as soon as 1 August, the latest deadline for the introduction of his “reciprocal” levies on individual countries.

The US president told reporters late on Tuesday the taxes on drug imports could be announced “probably at the end of the month, and we’re going to start off with a low tariff and give the pharmaceutical companies a year or so to build, and then we’re going to make it a very high tariff”.

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Adelita Grijalva wins Arizona Democratic primary for House seat

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Grijalva beat Gen Z activist Deja Foxx in the race and will succeed her late father, Raúl Grijalva, in the role

Adelita Grijalva won the Democratic House primary in Arizona to succeed her father, beating a young social media activist in a closely watched election seen as a test of the party’s generational divide.

Raúl Grijalva, a longtime congressman in southern Arizona, died from cancer earlier this year and left a vacancy in the state’s seventh district. The younger Grijalva, a 54-year-old who served for 20 years on a Tucson school board, has been a Pima county supervisor since 2020.

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Senate Republicans advance Trump bill to cancel $9bn in approved spending

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President is looking to clawback money from public media and foreign aid programs to seemingly control US debt

Senate Republicans on Tuesday advanced Donald Trump’s request to cancel about $9bn in previously approved spending, overcoming concerns about what the rescissions could mean for impoverished people around the globe and for public radio and television stations in their home states.

JD Vance broke the tie on the procedural vote, allowing the measure to advance, 51-50.

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‘An insult’: Malaysians slam nomination of ‘alpha-male’ Nick Adams as US ambassador

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Adams’ comments about Israel have provoked particular concern in Malaysia, a staunch supporter of Palestine

Former government ministers and youth politicians in Muslim-majority Malaysia have slammed a decision to nominate right-wing influencer Nick Adams as US ambassador to the country, calling it an insult to the nation.

Donald Trump announced last week that Nick Adams, a self-proclaimed “alpha male”, had been announced as ambassador to Malaysia, praising him as a “incredible patriot”.

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Trump administration seeks to end bond hearings for immigrants without legal status

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Under new policy, such immigrants would not be able to request bond from immigration judge before deportation

The Trump administration is reportedly seeking to bar millions of immigrants who allegedly arrived in the US without legal status from receiving a bond hearing as they try to fight their deportations in court.

The new policy would apply during removal proceedings, which can take years, for millions of immigrants who entered the country from Mexico in recent decades, according to a report from the Washington Post, which reviewed documents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).

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Republicans start vote-a-rama on bill for $9bn public broadcasting and aid cuts

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GOP aiming to meet Friday deadline mandated by law for bill, known as a rescissions package, to pass Congress

Senate Republicans on Wednesday moved to pass legislation slashing up to $9bn in funds Congress had earlier approved for foreign aid programs and public broadcasting, as part of Donald Trump’s campaign of dramatic government spending cuts.

The GOP is racing to meet a Friday deadline mandated by law for the bill, known as a rescissions package, to pass Congress, otherwise the Trump administration will be forced to spend the money. The Senate advanced the measure on Tuesday evening, with JD Vance breaking a tie on a procedural vote, after three Republican senators joined with all Democrats in opposition.

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Heavy rain kills two in New Jersey as subway and roads flooded in New York

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Flash flood warnings were issued for parts of New York and Pennsylvania and an emergency was declared in New Jersey

At least two people were killed Monday evening in New Jersey amid heavy rain and flooding in that state and New York, according to authorities.

The pair died in the city of Plainfield when the car they were in was swept into Cedar Brook during flash flooding, local officials announced on Facebook.

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