Category Archives: US News

Ice entices new recruits with patriotism pitch and pledge of $50,000 signing bonuses

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‘Brave and heroic Americans’ campaign seeks investigators, officers and lawyers after agency gets funds from Congress

The agency responsible for carrying out Donald Trump’s mass deportations is launching a recruiting campaign to entice “brave and heroic Americans” to serve as new deportation officers, lawyers and investigators as the government gears up for a major expansion of immigration enforcement thanks to a recent infusion of money from Congress. The icing on the cake: a promise of up to $50,000 in signing bonuses.

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement campaign, which rolled out late Tuesday, recalls recruiting posters from the second world war with images of Uncle Sam and the words “AMERICA NEEDS YOU.” There also are photos of the US president and top homeland security officials with the words “DEFEND THE HOMELAND” across the images.

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Countries failing to act on UN climate pledge to triple renewables, thinktank finds

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Fossil fuel reliance likely to continue and Cop28 target of limiting global heating to below 1.5C will be missed

Most global governments have failed to act on the 2023 UN pledge to triple the world’s renewable energy capacity by the end of the decade, according to climate analysts.

The failure to act means that on current forecasts the world will fall far short of its clean energy goals, leading to a continued reliance on fossil fuels that is incompatible with the target of limiting global heating to below 1.5C.

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Brown University reaches deal with Trump administration to restore $50m in funds

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Ivy League school will commit to nondiscrimination in admissions and campus programs, and grant officials access to data

Brown University has reached an agreement with the Trump administration that will reinstate nearly $50m in research funding and close several federal investigations into the institution, university president Christina Paxson announced in a campus-wide email on Wednesday.

The settlement follows the Trump administration’s threat in April to freeze $510m in federal support to Brown. This makes Brown the third Ivy League school to reach a resolution with the federal government this month.

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White House to end US tariff exemption for all low-value overseas packages

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Under Trump order, parcels valued at or under $800 outside of international postal network to face ‘all applicable duties’

The United States is suspending a “de minimis” exemption that allowed low-value commercial shipments to be shipped to the United States without facing tariffs, the White House said on Wednesday.

Under an executive order signed by Donald Trump on Wednesday, packages valued at or under $800 sent to the US outside of the international postal network will now face “all applicable duties” starting on 29 August, the White House said.

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Sheinbaum demands return of Mexican citizens held at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

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Mexican president said citizens held at controversial Florida immigration jail ‘should be repatriated immediately’

Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has said that the country is demanding the repatriation of at least 30 of its citizens currently being held in the controversial Florida immigration detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz”.

The Mexican leader said on Wednesday that a note had been sent to US authorities “demanding that any Mexicans who might enter this detention center should be repatriated immediately”.

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President Lula hits back as Trump tariffs threaten US-Brazil trade showdown

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Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva says he won’t be cowed by Trump ahead of 50% tariffs set to hit Brazil

Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has said he does not fear getting on the wrong side of Donald Trump, as South America’s largest economy braces for the introduction of 50% tariffs.

Trump announced plans to slap Brazil with tariffs on 1 August earlier this month, partly in retaliation for a supposed political “witch-hunt” against his far-right ally Jair Bolsonaro. The former Brazilian president faces decades in jail for allegedly plotting a military coup to stop Lula from taking office after the former lost the 2022 presidential election.

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Hawaii tsunami warning downgraded and no major damage after first waves hit islands

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Powerful 8.8-magnitude earthquake off Russia triggers tsunami alerts across Pacific including for US coast and Japan

A major tsunami is not expected to strike Hawaii, a Pacific monitoring agency has said, after the first waves hit the islands after a powerful magnitude-8.8 earthquake that struck off Russia’s eastern coast.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, operated by the US National Weather Service, said in an update that “based on all available data”, a major tsunami was not expected, although it warned all coasts could remain “a hazard to swimmers and boaters”, including people near the shore.

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Elon Musk is turning US liberals off not just Tesla but electric vehicles in general

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Disgust at the CEO’s rightwing activism is casting a pall but conservatives are no more likely to buy EVs

US liberals have become so disgusted with Tesla since Elon Musk’s rightward turn that they are now not only far less likely to purchase the car brand but also less willing to buy any type of electric car, new research has found.

The popularity of Tesla among liberal-minded Americans has plummeted since Musk, Tesla’s chief executive and the world’s richest person, allied himself with Donald Trump and helped propel the president to election victory last year.

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Delta Air Lines sued over man’s use of lost iPad to record explicit videos

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A South Carolina family had forgotten the device on a trip and later found the clips uploaded to their cloud account

A Delta Air Lines employee stole a computer tablet left behind on a plane by a South Carolina child, then used it to record sexually explicit videos of himself – which saved to cloud storage and were discovered by the minor’s parents, a recent federal lawsuit alleges.

The child’s parents, Tory and Brooke Brewer, sued Delta in US district court in Charleston on 16 July, saying their family is owed damages for negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and harassment, among other causes.

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US placed on rights watchlist over health of its civil society under Trump

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International non-profit Civicus says ‘sustained attacks on civic freedoms’ put US on par with El Salvador and Kenya

A group of global civil society organizations have placed the US on a watchlist for urgent concern over the health of its civic society, alongside Turkey, Serbia, El Salvador, Indonesia and Kenya.

On Wednesday, a new report released by the non-profit Civicus placed the US on its watchlist following “sustained attacks on civic freedoms” across the country, according to the group.

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US and China poised to extend tariff truce after failing to find resolution at talks

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Trump will need to approve pause, say US representatives after negotiations end with sides failing to break deadlock on trade terms

US and Chinese negotiators have agreed in principle to push back the deadline for escalating tariffs, although America’s representatives said any extension would need Donald Trump’s approval.

Officials from both sides said after two days of talks in Stockholm that while had failed to find a resolution across the many areas of dispute they had agreed to extend a pause due to run out on 12 August.

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UCLA agrees to $6.5m settlement with Jewish students over pro-Palestinian protests

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Lawsuit alleges protesters made antisemitic threats with the ‘knowledge and acquiescence’ of university officials

The University of California, Los Angeles, will pay nearly $6.5m to settle a lawsuit by Jewish students and a professor who said the university allowed antisemitic discrimination to take place on campus during last year’s pro-Palestinian protests.

The lawsuit alleged that with the “knowledge and acquiescence” of university officials, protesters prevented Jewish students from accessing parts of campus, and made antisemitic threats. Under the settlement agreement announced on Tuesday, the university admitted it had “fallen short” and agreed to pay $2.33m to eight groups that support UCLA’s Jewish community, $320,000 to a campus initiative to fight antisemitism, and $50,000 to each plaintiff.

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What to know about the victims of the New York City skyscraper shooting

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NYPD officer Didarul Islam and Blackstone executive Wesley LePatner among the four killed in Monday’s attack

An off-duty New York police officer as well as a high-ranking real estate executive were among those killed on Monday evening during a shooting at a Manhattan high-rise building that left four victims dead and one other person seriously injured, according to officials.

The New York police department (NYPD) officer Didarul Islam, 36, who was assigned to a Bronx precinct and had been on the job for three and a half years, was off duty when the attack began.

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ChatGPT launches study mode to encourage ‘responsible’ academic use

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Tool gives guidance rather than serving up complete essays or answers, amid rising AI misuse at universities

ChatGPT is launching a “study mode” to encourage responsible academic use of the chatbot, amid rising cases of misuse of artificial intelligence tools at universities.

The feature, which can be accessed via the chatbot’s tools button, can walk users through complex subjects in a step-by-step format akin to an unfolding academic lesson.

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Texas sues New York official for refusing to take action against abortion provider

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Action tees up a state v state battle involving mailing of abortion pills that’s expected to go to US supreme court

Texas has sued a New York official for refusing to take action against an abortion provider, teeing up a state-versus-state battle that is widely expected to end up before the US supreme court.

Ken Paxton, Texas’s attorney general, has petitioned the New York state supreme court to order a county clerk to enforce a fine against Dr Margaret Carpenter, a New York doctor accused of mailing abortion pills across state lines.

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‘The war needs to end’: is the US right turning on Israel?

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Longstanding ties between US conservatives and Israel face strain as war’s toll and internal rifts reshape the right

As the Israel-Gaza war nears its two-year mark, and as images of starving people and utter devastation flood social media, cracks seem to be emerging in the American right’s typically iron-clad support for Israel.

The US continues to support Israel diplomatically and militarily, and last Thursday pulled out of peace negotiations that it accused Hamas of sabotaging. And in the US Congress, only two Republicans voted for a recent amendment that would have pulled funding for missile defense systems for Israel. One of them, Marjorie Taylor Greene, on Monday became the first Republican to call Israel’s war a “genocide”.

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Two children at Miami sailing camp killed after barge collides with their boat

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Six people pulled from water, with two other kids in critical condition, after crash sends them overboard, officials said

Two kids were killed and two more are in critical condition after a barge appears to have struck their boat and sent them overboard during a sailing camp in Miami on Monday, authorities said.

All six people on the sailing boat were pulled from the water by responders, and four kids were rushed to a nearby hospital where two were pronounced dead upon arrival, said petty officer 3rd Class Nicholas Strasburg, a spokesperson for the US Coast Guard.

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Eastern US swelters from heatwave as high temperatures affect half of country

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Heat and humidity are stretching east from the Mississippi River valley, and some areas could see heat indices of 120F

The eastern half of the US is facing a significant heatwave, with more than 185 million people under warnings due to intense and widespread heat conditions on Monday.

The south-east is likely to endure the most dangerous temperatures as the extreme heat spread across the region on Monday, spanning from the Carolinas through Florida. In these areas, heat index values (how hot it feels once humidity is accounted for) are forecast to range between 105 and 113F (40.5 to 45C).

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Trump cuts deadline for Putin to reach Ukraine peace deal to ‘10 or 12 days’

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US president expresses frustration with Putin after meeting with UK PM amid pressure on Russia for ceasefire

Donald Trump’s timeline for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine has sped up, the president said while visiting Nato ally Great Britain on Monday.

“I’m going to make a new deadline of about 10, 10 or 12 days from today,” Trump said in response to a question while sitting with the British prime minister, Keir Starmer. “There’s no reason in waiting. There’s no reason in waiting. It’s 50 days. I want to be generous, but we just don’t see any progress being made.”

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