Category Archives: US News

US envoy Steve Witkoff meets Putin as Trump’s Ukraine deadline approaches

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Talks between Trump’s negotiator and Russian president lasted about three hours as US pushes for peace deal

Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff spent three hours in the Kremlin talking to Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, two days before a deadline the US president set for Russia to reach a peace deal in the Ukraine war or face fresh sanctions.

It was not immediately clear whether any agreement had been reached during the talks, which Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov described as “useful and constructive”. Ushakov said that it was only after Witkoff reported back to Trump that it would be possible to say more about the outcome of the meeting.

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US destruction of contraceptives denies 1.4m African women and girls lifesaving care, NGO says

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Incineration of $9.7m of contraceptives to lead to 174,000 unintended pregnancies and 56,000 unsafe abortions, IPPF says

A decision by the US government to incinerate more than $9.7m (£7.3m) of contraceptives is projected to result in 174,000 unintended pregnancies and 56,000 unsafe abortions in five African countries.

More than three-quarters of the contraceptives (77%) were destined for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Mali, according to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), an NGO global healthcare provider and advocate of sexual and reproductive rights.

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Shares in European drug companies hit four-month low as Trump tariffs loom

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President repeats threat to bring in levies ‘within next week or so’ in attempt to get companies to move production to US

Shares in European pharmaceutical companies have sunk to a four-month low, after Donald Trump repeated his threats to introduce tariffs on drug imports “within the next week or so”.

Europe’s Stoxx Health Care index slid by 2.8% on Wednesday, falling to its lowest level since mid-April, shortly after the US president’s initial “liberation day” tariff announcements.

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US hunter reportedly killed by buffalo during expedition in South Africa

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Asher Watkins, 52, of Texas died while tracking 1.3-ton Cape buffalo on a hunting trip in the country’s Limpopo province

An American game hunter was killed by a buffalo he was stalking during a hunting expedition in South Africa over the weekend, according to multiple reports.

Asher Watkins, 52, of Texas, died on 3 August while tracking a 1.3-ton Cape buffalo in South Africa’s Limpopo province, according to a statement from Coenraad Vermaak Safaris (CV Safaris), the company that organized the hunting trip.

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US judge blocks Trump officials from diverting disaster prevention grants

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Government prevented from using money allocated to Bric community program for other purposes

A federal judge blocked the Trump administration on Tuesday from diverting funds from a multibillion-dollar grant program designed to protect communities against natural disasters.

US district judge Richard Stearns in Boston issued a preliminary injunction preventing the government from spending money allocated to the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (Bric) program for other purposes.

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OpenAI takes on Meta and DeepSeek with free and customisable AI models

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Developer of ChatGPT says new tools will be ‘for wide benefit’, echoing announcement by Mark Zuckerberg

OpenAI is taking on Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta and Chinese rival DeepSeek by launching its own freely available artificial intelligence models.

The ChatGPT developer has announced two “open weight” large language models, which are free to download and can be customised by developers.

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Tennessee execution of man with heart device ‘result of pure cowardice’

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Byron Black, 69, put to death after legal battle in which lawyers said defibrillator would shock heart repeatedly

Tennessee has executed a man without deactivating his implanted defibrillator, despite uncertainty about whether the device would shock his heart when a lethal drug took effect.

Byron Black died at 10.43am, prison officials said. Shortly after the lethal injection started, witnesses said Black told a spiritual adviser in the room that he was hurting badly.

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Rwanda agrees to take up to 250 migrants from the US

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Deal follows deportations to South Sudan and Eswatini despite concerns about international law breaches

The Rwandan government has said it would accept up to 250 migrants from the US under a deal agreed with Washington but gave no details on who could be included.

The Trump administration’s deportation drive has included negotiating arrangements to send people to third countries, among them South Sudan and Eswatini.

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Canada wildfires: 81 million Americans under air quality alerts as blazes rage

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Hundreds of fires across Canada and parts of the US prompt alerts in 14 states from Great Lakes region to the north-east

Hundreds of wildfires continued to burn across Canada and parts of the US on Tuesday sending smoke from the blazes across the region and reducing air quality in both countries.

US air quality tanked from the Great Lakes region to the north-east, making skies hazy from Minneapolis to New York City and even prompting a ground stop at Boston’s Logan international airport due to “low visibility” on Monday. Detroit, New York City and Chicago continued to record some of the worst air quality in the world on Tuesday, according to IQAir, ranking fourth, 10th and 11th respectively.

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US steps up efforts to help Bolsonaro avoid jail over alleged coup plot

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State department condemns judge’s decision to place former Brazil president under house arrest as trial proceeds

The US has intensified its campaign to help Jair Bolsonaro avoid punishment for allegedly masterminding a failed coup, with the state department denouncing the decision to place Brazil’s former president under house arrest.

“Let Bolsonaro speak!” the department’s bureau of western hemisphere affairs tweeted on Monday night after the far-right populist was confined to his mansion in the capital, Brasília, and police seized his mobile phone.

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Two killed and six wounded in mass shooting at LA music festival afterparty

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Police arrived to shut down ‘big party’ after possibly armed person was seen going inside building in warehouse district

Two people were killed and six others were wounded in a mass shooting at a music festival afterparty in downtown Los Angeles early on Monday, officials said.

Police first responded around 11pm on Sunday evening to shut down a “big party” after officers saw a person possibly armed with a gun go inside a building in the city’s warehouse district, Los Angeles police department spokesperson Norma Eisenman told the Associated Press. That person was arrested at the scene, she said.

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Speaker Mike Johnson visits occupied West Bank to support Israeli settlers

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Palestinian foreign ministry condemns Republican visit for ‘undermining efforts to stop the war and cycle of violence’

Mike Johnson became the highest ranked US official to visit the occupied West Bank on Monday, the Republican House speaker drawing measures of praise and condemnation for his trip in support of Israeli settlements amid a worsening starvation crisis in Gaza.

The excursion followed Johnson’s arrival in Israel on Sunday on an unannounced visit with other Republican lawmakers, and his meeting with Israeli defense minister Israel Katz and foreign minister Gideon Saar.

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Canada wildfires prompt severe air quality alerts across country and US

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More than 700 active wildfires burning across Canada and about two-thirds are currently out-of-control

Billowing smoke from hundreds of out-of-control wildfires – most of which are in the Canadian Prairies – have caused severe air quality alerts across Canada and the United States.

Detroit, Michigan, and the Canadian cities of Montreal and Toronto, recorded some of the worst air quality in the world on Monday, according to a ranking by IQAir, a Swiss air quality technology company.

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Trump’s demand that India stop buying Russian oil puts Modi in tight spot

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Prime minister faces a choice between high tariffs or giving up cheap oil, putting New Delhi’s non-alignment policy under severe strain

The relationship between India and the US is facing one of its most significant challenges in decades, as the Trump administration doubles down on its demands that India stop buying Russian oil or face punitive tariffs.

The US president, Donald Trump, has refused to cut tariffs on Indian exports to the US, as he has for other countries, and on Monday said he would significantly raise them over its purchases of cheap Russian oil, which now account for one-third of its imported oil.

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Swiss president under fire after Trump call leads to US tariffs shock

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Karin Keller-Sutter accused of mishandling talks as shares dive after Switzerland hit with 39% tariff

The Swiss stock market has plunged, the cabinet has been holding emergency talks and President Karin Keller-Sutter has been accused of mishandling a vital phone call with the White House after Donald Trump hit the country with a shock 39% export tariff.

Switzerland, home to some of the world’s best-known luxury brands, was left stunned after the US president on Friday imposed one of the highest tariff rates in his global trade reset. Industry associations warned that tens of thousands of jobs were at risk.

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Israeli forces kill at least 27 at food site while minister’s al-Aqsa visit causes outrage | First Thing

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Six more people die from malnutrition, and Itamar Ben-Gvir is first minister to publicly pray at sensitive site. Plus, head of Google’s DeepMind on our AI future

Good morning.

At least 27 people were killed by Israeli forces while trying to get food and six others died from starvation or malnutrition in Gaza on Sunday, Palestinian officials said, amid a regional outcry over the visit by Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, to Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site.

Where did Ben-Gvir visit and what was the reaction? Ben-Gvir led prayers at al-Aqsa mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, provoking outrage among regional powers. The compound, which Jews call the Temple Mount, is a highly revered site – the holiest in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam. The site is under Jordanian custodianship; under a decades-old agreement, Jews are allowed to visit but not pray there.

What do the Republicans want to do? Last week, Texas Republicans released a proposed new congressional map that would give the GOP a path to pick up five seats in next year’s midterm elections, typically when the governing party loses representation in Congress.

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Trump contorting justice department into his ‘personal weapon’, experts warn

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Critics say DoJ has been ‘politicized like never before’ and the main job requirement is now ‘loyalty to Donald Trump’

As Donald Trump’s Department of Justice expands investigations of his foes and ousts dozens of lawyers and staff who worked on cases targeting himself and his allies, scholars and ex-prosecutors say the rule of law is under siege in the US as the department morphs into Trump’s “personal weapon”.

The justice department’s politicization to please Trump was underscored by an announcement on 23 July of a new “ strike force” to investigate unsubstantiated charges that ex-president Barack Obama and top officials conspired to hurt Trump’s 2016 campaign and his presidency with inquiries into Russian influence operations to help Trump win, say critics.

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Montana shooting victims named as manhunt for suspect continues

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Suspected gunman still at large and possibly armed after four people were fatally shot at a bar in Anaconda on Friday

Montana’s attorney general on Sunday released the names of the four people who were shot to death in a mass murder at a bar two days earlier.

The victims were Daniel Edwin Ballie, 59; Nancy Lauretta Kelly, 64; David Allen Leach, 70; and Tony Wayne Palm, 74. All four were residents of Anaconda, Montana, where the quadruple murder took place, a statement from the Montana attorney general, Austin Knudsen, said.

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Trump administration denies daily quota for immigration arrests

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In May reports revealed that White House officials had set goals for Ice agents to arrest 3,000 people per day

In a new court filing, attorneys for the Trump administration denied the existence of a daily quota for immigration arrests, despite reports and prior statements from White House officials about pursuing a goal of at least 3,000 deportations or deportation arrests per day.

In May, reports from both the Guardian and Axios revealed that during a meeting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) leaders on 21 May, the White House adviser Stephen Miller and the Department of Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, demanded that immigration agents seek to arrest 3,000 people per day.

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US Boeing defense workers slated to strike after rejecting latest offer

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Over 3,200 union machinists around St Louis expected to strike at midnight on Monday as they seek new contract

More than 3,200 unionized workers who assemble Boeing’s fighter jets in the St Louis area rejected Boeing’s latest offer on Sunday and will strike at midnight on Monday, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union said.

“IAM District 837 members ... deserve a contract that reflects their skill, dedication, and the critical role they play in our nation’s defense,” the union’s business representative, Tom Boelling, said.

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