Category Archives: US News

Kamala Harris campaign raises $310m in July as presidential race is transformed

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Vice-president’s fundraising haul dwarfed Trump’s $138.7m with polls indicating a tight contest in battleground states

Kamala Harris’s campaign said on Friday it raised $310m in July, the latest dramatic illustration of a US presidential race polls show has transformed from an apparent romp to victory by Donald Trump into a neck-and-neck race in battleground states, though Trump retains a narrow lead.

Harris doubled Trump’s July fundraising haul of $138.7m, which in any normal year would be an impressive result, boosted by the assassination attempt he survived in Pennsylvania and by the Republican convention in Milwaukee.

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Weak US jobs growth for July sparks Wall Street sell-off

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US economy added 114,000 jobs in July in significant dip from June while unemployment increased to highest level since October 2021

The US labor market cooled significantly last month as unemployment unexpectedly rose, sparking fears of a slowdown across the world’s largest economy.

American employers added 114,000 jobs in July – short of the 180,000 additions expected by economists, and a marked decrease from the 179,000 added in June.

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Flu vaccine will curb bird flu risk for US farm workers, CDC deputy director says

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US launches major vaccination campaign in a bid to prevent healthcare strain and potential mutations of H5N1 virus

In the face of serious concerns over the spreading bird flu virus in US agriculture, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is pushing a major flu vaccination campaign among farm workers in a bid to prevent healthcare strain and combat potential mutations from the highly pathogenic bird virus.

Part of the campaign will seek to combat disinformation about vaccines, which has hampered previous efforts.

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Evan Gershkovich’s most tireless advocate to secure his release: his mother

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Ella Milman pressed world leaders and researched the scheme that would eventually lead to the release of her son

Much has been made of the public diplomacy behind the largest prisoner swap between Russia and the US since the cold war, with officials from at least seven countries spending years making calls and holding secret meetings in far-flung capitals.

But since Evan Gershkovich, the formerly imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter, and others stepped off the plane in Maryland on Thursday, new details have emerged about the role of a crucial player in that effort: his mother.

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Kremlin admits Vadim Krasikov is a Russian state assassin

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Spokesperson hints killer exchanged in prisoner swap was linked to Putin’s personal guard

The Kremlin has admitted that Vadim Krasikov, the assassin freed by Germany in a historic prisoner swap on Thursday, is a serving officer of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB), essentially an acknowledgment that his 2019 murder of a Chechen exile in Berlin was a state-ordered hit.

It also hinted that he was linked to Vladimir Putin’s personal guard.

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Fear of US recession rattles global markets as tech shares fall

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Europe’s main indices all decline and Japanese equities suffer worst day since 2020 while gold hits fresh record

Stock markets in Europe, Asia and New York tumbled on Friday as fears of a US economic slump grew and technology shares were hit by underwhelming earnings.

Concerns that the US could be sliding towards a recession spurred a global sell-off, which accelerated after a poor employment report on Friday showed that the US jobs market was cooling fast, pushing up the unemployment rate.

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Is this the end of Project 2025? – podcast

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This week, Paul Dans, the leader of the controversial Project 2025, resigned and signalled in a company email that work on it was ‘winding down’. The project had become a manifesto of rightwing policies that would serve as a guide for the next Republican president. However, there is a significant stumbling block: Donald Trump wants nothing to do with it.

Joan E Greve and Rachel Leingang discuss whether this marks the beginning of the end of Project 2025

Archive: CNN, PBS Newshour, CSPAN, Tik Tok: heathergtv

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Evan Gershkovich release: Biden and Harris greet Americans freed after prisoner swap

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Emotional scenes at Andrews air force base as Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva step onto American soil

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris met the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and two other freed American prisoners just hours after Washington and Moscow completed their largest prisoner exchange since the cold war.

On a muggy evening at Andrews air force base near Washington DC, Gershkovich and the other freed prisoners, the ex-marine Paul Whelan and the journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, touched down on US soil and shortly later disembarked a Bombardier jet from Turkey. They were met by their families and the US president and vice-president.

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Venezuela election: US recognises opposition candidate Edmundo González as winner

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Antony Blinken says there is ‘overwhelming evidence’ González beat Maduro in last weekend’s presidential poll

The US has recognised Edmundo González as the winner of Venezuela’s disputed election, claiming there is “overwhelming” evidence of Nicolás Maduro’s defeat, as anti-government protesters prepared to return to the streets to demand political change.

Maduro, under whose 11-year presidency Venezuela has taken an increasingly authoritarian tack and been plunged into economic chaos, has claimed victory in last Sunday’s vote, despite a mounting body of evidence suggesting he lost.

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Alabama jailer pleads guilty in death of prisoner who froze to death in cell

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Joshua Jones reportedly admits that ‘collectively we did it. We killed him’ after Tony Mitchell died of hypothermia

A former corrections officer at an Alabama jail has pleaded guilty in the case of a mentally ill man who died of hypothermia after being held naked in a concrete cell for two weeks.

The officer, Joshua Conner Jones, entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors over the treatment of two prisoners at the Walker county jail.

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JD Vance attacked AOC for ‘sociopathic attitude’ towards children and family

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Trump running mate made remarks to Catholic group in 2021, the same year he criticized ‘childless cat ladies’

In remarks to a Catholic group, JD Vance attacked Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for having “a sociopathic attitude” about families and children.

“One of the politicians that I criticised is AOC,” said Vance in 2021, while campaigning for the US Senate seat in Ohio he would win the following year.

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Sick sea lions stranded on California coast as experts fear algae poisoning

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At least 23 sea lions with suspected domoic acid poisoning rescued from Santa Barbara and Ventura beaches

Sea lions are stranding themselves on a long stretch of the California coast in what experts say could be a sign of widespread poisoning by a harmful algae bloom this summer.

The Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute (Cimwi) said that since 26 July, it had been inundated by daily reports of sick sea lions along the shoreline in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

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‘Day of great joy’: Wall Street Journal’s crusade to free Gershkovich succeeds

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Newspaper mounted a high-profile campaign to stress reporter’s innocence and ensure he was not forgotten

The reporter Evan Gershkovich’s release from a Russian prison on Thursday was celebrated across US and global media but perhaps most happily by journalists at his own paper, the Wall Street Journal in New York.

In an email to staff after news of Gershkovich’s release as part of a large-scale prisoner swap, Emma Tucker, the Journal editor-in-chief, said: “A few moments ago, Evan walked free from a Russian plane. He will shortly be on a flight back to the US.

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Don Lemon sues Elon Musk and X over terminated talkshow deal

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Ex-CNN anchor alleges fraud and breach of contract after X Corp owner abruptly ended video series partnership

The former CNN anchor Don Lemon has sued Elon Musk and X over a cancelled deal with the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

His filing in California superior court in San Francisco includes claims of fraud, negligent misrepresentation, misappropriation of Lemon’s name and likeness and breach of express contract.

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Biden says ‘welcome home’ as Americans land in the US – as it happened

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As part of the deal, according to the Turkish presidency, Belarus has released German citizen Rico Krieger.

Krieger was sentenced to death but granted a pardon this week by the country’s autocratic leader, Alexander Lukashenko.

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One person killed and national guard deployed as Colorado battles wildfires

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Governor says national guard will support first responders as state becomes latest in west to battle several major fires

One person has died and at least five homes were destroyed as Colorado becomes the latest western state to battle several major wildfires.

The Boulder county sheriff, Curtis Johnson, reported the death was discovered in one of the five homes burned by the Stone Canyon fire near the town of Lyon, but did not provide further details. The fire has burned more than 1,500 acres (607 hectares) and was reported 20% contained on Wednesday evening.

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Russia frees Evan Gershkovich and others in biggest prisoner swap since cold war

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Several foreigners and Russian political prisoners released as Germany frees hitman Vadim Krasikov as part of deal

The largest prisoner swap between Russia and the US since the cold war has taken place, as 16 people were freed from Russian custody including the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. Several other foreign citizens held in Russia and numerous Russian political prisoners were also freed.

The exchange took place at Ankara airport on Thursday in a complicated operation in which planes arrived from and departed to multiple countries.

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Witness to Titan sub disaster tells of rescue effort: ‘We lived in false hope’

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Rory Golden was aboard support ship when submersible imploded in June 2023, killing all five passengers

Rory Golden, who was onboard the support ship for the Titan submersible that imploded in June 2023 while diving toward the wreck of the Titanic, has spoken about the fear and atmosphere of false hope among the crew during the doomed rescue effort.

“We had this image in our heads of them being down there, running out of oxygen in the freezing cold, getting terribly frightened and scared,” Golden told BBC News.

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US pays $2bn to Black and minority farmers after years of discrimination

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Payouts are ‘an acknowledgement’ of US’s long history of refusing to process loans from Black farmers, USDA says

The Biden administration has doled out more than $2bn in direct payments for Black and other minority farmers discriminated against by the US Department of Agriculture, the president announced Wednesday.

More than 23,000 farmers were approved for payments ranging from $10,000 to $500,000, according to the USDA. Another 20,000 who planned to start a farm but did not receive a USDA loan received between $3,500 and $6,000.

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Russia prisoner swap involving US journalist Evan Gershkovich under way

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Gershkovich and ex-marine Paul Whelan have been freed and are en route to a destination outside Russia, say reports

A major prisoner exchange between Russia and the west is under way involving the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been freed from a Russian prison, Bloomberg has reported, citing people familiar with the situation.

Sources with knowledge of the planned exchange confirmed to the Guardian that a major swap would take place on Thursday in a location outside Russia. They declined to make further details public until after the swap had taken place owing to sensitivity of the matter.

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