Category Archives: US News

Federal appeals court rules against Biden student debt relief program

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The Save plan – a means-tested program – was blocked from further implementation by Republican-appointed judges

A federal appeals court has sided with Republican-controlled states to deliver another setback to Joe Biden’s student loan relief plan designed to reduce monthly payments for millions of lower-income graduates and speed up debt forgiveness for some borrowers.

A unanimous, unsigned ruling issued on Friday by three Republican-appointed judges in Missouri blocked further implementation of the Saving on a Valuable Education (Save) plan – the Department of Education’s means-tested debt relief program that is being challenged by seven Republican-led states.

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Utah’s famed ‘Double Arch’ geographical feature collapses

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Park rangers suspect changing water levels and erosion to blame for the collapse of the popular tourist attraction

A large geological feature in southern Utah known as the “Double Arch”, the “Hole in the Roof” and sometimes the “Toilet Bowl” has collapsed, National Park Service officials said on Friday. No injuries were reported.

The popular arch in the Glen Canyon national recreation area fell on Thursday, and park rangers suspect changing water levels and erosion from waves in Lake Powell contributed to its demise.

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Snake hunters descend on the Everglades for the Florida Python Challenge

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More than 600 python hunters registered for the event that aims to reduce the population of the invasive species

Friday marked the start of the annual Florida Python Challenge, during which hunters head into the Everglades to track down invasive Burmese pythons in hopes of grabbing a share of $30,000 in prizes.

The annual 10-day hunt, which started more than a decade ago, promotes public awareness of issues with invasive species in Florida while engaging the public in Everglades conversation, said Sarah Funck, the wildlife impact management section leader with Florida’s fish and wildlife conservation commission.

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Illinois sheriff whose deputy killed Sonya Massey announces retirement

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Massey’s father and state’s governor had called for Jack Campbell to quit after his officer shot Massey in her home

An Illinois sheriff who hired the deputy charged in the death of Sonya Massey announced on Friday that he would retire, five weeks after the deputy fatally shot the 36-year-old Black woman in her home.

The Sangamon county sheriff, Jack Campbell, who won the office in 2018, said politics stood in the way of his effectiveness as sheriff and suggested he and his family had received death threats. Campbell, a 30-year veteran of the department, had previously said he did “not intend to step down”.

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Joe Rogan calls RFK Jr the only candidate ‘that makes sense to me’

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Podcast host calls independent candidate for president a ‘legitimate guy’ but says he is not offering endorsement

Robert F Kennedy Jr’s independent presidential campaign may be seeing poll numbers fall and funds dwindle, amid bizarre tales about brain worms and pranks with dead bears and accusations of dangerous conspiracy mongering, but he has nonetheless secured a sought-after supporter: Joe Rogan.

The popular podcaster appeared to offer his endorsement on Thursday, saying Kennedy was “the only one that makes sense to me”.

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Man charged in three 1970s California murders after DNA match

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Warren Luther Alexander, 73, was arrested for the decades-old killings of three women in southern California

A 73-year-old man has been charged in the strangulation deaths of three southern California women in 1977, after cold case detectives obtained a DNA match. Authorities said they believe there could be more victims.

Warren Luther Alexander of Diamondhead, Mississippi, made his first court appearance on Thursday but his arraignment on three counts of first-degree murder was postponed until later in August, the Ventura county district attorney’s office said. Alexander remained jailed without bail.

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‘I told them’: police body-cam reveals warning days before Trump shooting

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Local police said they told Secret Service the building the 20-year-old opened fire from needed to be secured

In the chaotic aftermath of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally last month, a local police officer told a fellow officer he had warned the Secret Service days earlier that the building where the 20-year-old gunman opened fire needed to be secured.

“I [bleep] told them they needed to post guys [bleep] over here,” the officer said in police body-camera footage released by the Butler township police department, with expletives bleeped out. “I told them that [bleeped expletive] Tuesday.”

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Biden, Harris to attend first joint event since he quit campaign race – as it happened

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This blog now closed. You can find the latest US politics coverage here.

Ahead of her and Tim Walz’s campaign in Arizona later today, Kamala Harris wrote on X:

“We are running a campaign on behalf of all Americans.

It is great to be in Arizona with governor Tim Walz.”

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Polls show Kamala Harris building lead over Trump in 2024 election

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Democratic party’s presumptive nominee 2.1 points over Trump in FiveThirtyEight’s national average

Kamala Harris continues to gain strength in the US presidential election, as polls nationally and in battleground states show her building leads or catching Donald Trump.

On Friday morning, FiveThirtyEight, a leading polling analysis site, puts Harris, the Democratic party’s presumptive nominee for president, up by 2.1 points over her Republican rival in its national average.

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Wall Street banker bonuses forecast to rise 35% this year

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Surge caused by rebound in market activity very likely to influence payouts for European outposts of banks

Bonuses for Wall Street’s investment bankers are forecast to jump as much as 35% this year – although experts have warned that payouts could be knocked by stock market volatility and an economic slowdown in the US.

Fresh predictions suggest that staff across a range of financial firms – including hedge funds, asset managers and investment banks – will see payouts rise for the first time in two years. It follows a rebound in business confidence and market activity, with companies more willing to take risks amid easing inflation that has started to translate into lower borrowing costs.

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Migrant crossings have plunged after Biden’s asylum ban. But top Democrats are asking: at what price?

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Congress members are saying asylum seekers are ‘forced to wait in danger’ as advocates try to get them legal protection

In early June, Ofelia Arrellano said a gang in Mexico City threatened to kidnap her younger son if she didn’t pay a $160 monthly fee for keeping her toy store afloat.

Arellano, 37, and her two sons gathered enough money and fled. She feared the gangs’ reach if she stayed in Mexico, so they went north, towards the US, she said.

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US landfills are major source of toxic PFAS pollution, study finds

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New research shows toxic ‘forever chemicals’ gas may escape landfills and threaten the environment

Toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” that leach from landfills into groundwater are among the major pollution sources in the US, and remain a problem for which officials have yet to find an effective solution.

Now new research has identified another route in which PFAS may escape landfills and threaten the environment at even higher levels: the air.

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Harris and Trump agree to televised debate | First Thing

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ABC confirms US presidential candidates will face off for the first time on 10 September. Plus: the return of panda diplomacy

Good morning.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will face off for the first time on 10 September in a highly anticipated televised debate on ABC, the network confirmed Thursday, as Harris continues to gain momentum, leaving the Trump campaign scrambling.

What did Trump say at the press conference? Trump attacked Harris and falsely claimed that no one was killed in the 6 January attack on the US Capitol. He grew heated over comparing crowd sizes, and claimed he wanted to do three debates. Earlier, Trump had suggested he would back out of the 10 September debate that had previously been set with Joe Biden before Biden stepped down from his re-election campaign.

What do the polls say? While Biden had been trailing Trump in key swing states, Harris has made gains, particularly after announcing the Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate. An Ipsos poll published on Thursday found Harris ahead of Trump by 42% to 37%, compared to a 22-23 July Reuters/Ipsos survey, which showed her up 37% to 34% over Trump.

How has the Trump campaign been reacting to the rise of Harris? Concerns have created fractures inside Trumpworld, with some Maga allies criticizing Trump’s political advisers who are working to paint Harris as more progressive than she is and launch “Willie Horton” attacks from the old Republican playbook that suggest she is directly responsible for crimes some migrants committed.

How many people have died from Tropical Storm Debby? At least seven people have died from the storm, which made first landfall early Monday on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Debby made a second landfall in South Carolina early on Thursday, and more flooding is expected in North and South Carolina before the storm clears those states.

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US, Qatar and Egypt call on Israel and Hamas to resume urgent ceasefire talks

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Joint statement says framework agreement is ‘on the table’ and there are no excuses ‘from any party for further delay’

The leaders of the US, Egypt and Qatar have called on Israel and Hamas to resume urgent negotiations to finalise a ceasefire and hostage release deal, saying there were no excuses “from any party for further delay”.

The three countries, which have been trying to mediate a deal, said in a joint statement the talks could take place in either Doha or Cairo on 15 August, adding that it was “time to bring immediate relief both to the longsuffering people of Gaza as well as the longsuffering hostages and their families”.

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Trump campaign struggles to lay a glove on surging Harris

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Concerns have caused fractures to appear inside Trumpworld, with some Maga allies criticizing advisers

Donald Trump’s campaign recognizes that it could lose in November if the election is decided on “vibes” and “energy”, according to people close to the former president, as Kamala Harris continues to ride waves of momentum with her newly announced running mate Tim Walz.

The concern has also started to open fractures inside Trumpworld, with some Maga allies criticizing Trump’s political advisers for running a campaign that may be too structurally deficient to stand up a ground game in swing states.

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Advocates react to Utah ban of 13 books in schools and libraries: ‘It’s a tragedy’

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Utah is first in the US to outlaw titles statewide they deem ‘indecent’ as free speech advocates worry about impact

Library associations, free speech groups and advocates are expressing outrage and concern after the state of Utah ordered 13 books to be removed from public school classrooms and libraries in accordance with a new state law that passed earlier this year.

“It’s a tragedy,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.

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Harris continues battleground campaign blitz after Trump’s rambling press conference – live

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Harris campaigns with Walz in Detroit; ABC News confirms Trump and Harris will debate on 10 September

In a new tweet on Thursday ahead of her address with workers from the United Auto Workers union in Detroit, Michigan Kamala Harris wrote:

“This campaign is not just about us versus Donald Trump. Our campaign is about fighting for the future.”

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New Orleans Catholic priest accused of raping teen in 1975 gets trial date

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Lawrence Hecker will face court on kidnapping and rape charges in September pending a final competency ruling

A doctor’s report says that Lawrence Hecker, the retired New Orleans priest who faces charges of raping a teenager after strangling him unconscious in 1975, has dementia – but it says nothing about Hecker’s competency to stand trial.

On Thursday, after seven hearings and still no definitive determination on Hecker’s competency, his trial on rape and kidnapping charges has been set for 24 September.

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Competitor at CrossFit Games in Texas dies during swimming event

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  • CrossFit CEO Don Faul ‘deeply saddened’ by death
  • Athlete who died named as Lazar Dukic from Serbia

A competitor in the CrossFit Games has died while competing in a swimming event on Thursday morning at a Texas lake.

CrossFit CEO Don Faul said during a news conference that the organization was “deeply saddened” by the death of one of their athletes, and they were working with authorities on the investigation into the death.

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Peel those apples: washing produce doesn’t remove pesticides, study finds

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Another report found pesticide levels posing ‘significant risks’ in 20% of tested fruits and vegetables

A new scientific report lends weight to consumer concerns about pesticide residues on food, presenting fresh evidence that washing fruit before eating does not remove various toxic chemicals commonly used in agriculture.

The paper, published on Wednesday in the American Chemical Society’s journal Nano Letters, comes amid ongoing debate over the extent of pesticide contamination of food, and the potential health risks associated with a steady diet that includes pesticide residues.

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