Category Archives: US News

Biden tells UN ‘we cannot grow weary’ in Ukraine’s defence in valedictory speech

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US president assumes mantle of elder statesman, defending his foreign policy record and urging Gaza deal

Joe Biden has sought to defend his foreign policy achievements on the world stage with an address to the United Nations general assembly against a backdrop of three brutal, intractable wars that have stymied world diplomats seeking an end to the bloodshed.

Addressing the assembly hall in New York on Tuesday, Biden took on the mantle of elder statesman as he alternated between a message of hope and a full-throated defense of his record on foreign policy.

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US-UK airstrikes have not seriously hurt Houthis’ capability, says Yemeni leader

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Yemen government vice-chair fears strikes intended to end shipping chaos are instead helping Houthis rally support

US-UK airstrikes in Yemen designed to end the Houthi disruption of commercial shipping have not seriously degraded the group’s military capability, the vice-chair of the UN-recognised government in Yemen has said.

Aidarous al-Zubaidi told the Guardian in an interview he feared the Houthis were using the strikes to rally support behind their cause by portraying the west as the aggressor in Yemen.

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Pennsylvania crucial to White House hopes, Trump says at campaign rally

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Ex-president gives meandering address in swing state and paints dark vision of America under Democratic rule

Donald Trump returned to Pennsylvania, telling his rally attendees that their state was critical to his ability to win back the White House and encouraging them to turn out to vote, though he also called early voting “stupid stuff”.

“If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole thing,” Trump said, soon after taking the stage more than 45 minutes later than scheduled. “It’s very simple.”

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Tennessee man testifies that he and another man killed rapper Young Dolph

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Cornelius Smith said he and Justin Johnson shot Young Dolph after brother of rival rapper Yo Gotti put a hit on him

A Memphis man testified on Monday that he and a second person shot and killed rapper Young Dolph after Big Jook, the brother of rapper Yo Gotti, put a hit on him.

Cornelius Smith identified himself and Justin Johnson as the two people seen on a 17 November 2021, surveillance video exiting a white Mercedes outside a Memphis, Tennessee, cookie store about 30 seconds after Young Dolph entered the store and then opening fire in broad daylight.

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Kerry gives scathing rating on climate action: ‘Is there a letter underneath Z?’

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Former secretary of state accuses oil and gas companies of ‘business as usual’ at major climate summit in New York

Countries are ignoring commitments they made less than a year ago to shift away from fossil fuels and to provide aid to those most vulnerable to the climate crisis, a host of leading figures have admitted during a gloomy start to a major climate summit in New York.

Al Gore, the former US vice-president, and John Kerry, the former US secretary of state and climate envoy, have led the condemnation of the largest greenhouse gas emitters, led by China and the US, for failing to follow a UN pact signed in Dubai by nearly 200 countries in December to “transition away” from oil, coal and gas.

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FBI confirms US murders declined in 2023, contrary to Republican claims

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Murder dropped by more than 11% in largest single-year decline in decades while rape and other crimes also fell

Murder dropped by more than 11% from 2022 to 2023, the largest single-year decline in two decades, according to FBI data released on Monday.

Meanwhile, the broader category of violent crime nationwide decreased about 3%, said the data, which is audited and confirms earlier reporting from unaudited statistics.

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Telegram’s Pavel Durov announces new crackdown on illegal content after arrest

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Platform with millions of subscribers discloses a more proactive approach to reporting infringers to authorities

Telegram founder and chief executive Pavel Durov said Monday that the messaging platform had removed more “problematic content” and would take a more proactive approach to complying with government requests. The announcement comes weeks after his arrest in France on charges of failing to act against criminals using the app.

Telegram’s search feature “has been abused by people who violated our terms of service to sell illegal goods”, Durov told the 13 million subscribers of his personal messaging channel.

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Elon Musk to present Atlantic Council global citizen award to Giorgia Meloni

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Choice of recipient and presenter causes anger at council as Italy’s far-right PM renews links with Trump allies

Elon Musk is to present Giorgia Meloni with the Atlantic Council’s global citizen award in New York, as Italy’s far-right prime minister resurrects links with allies of Donald Trump before the US presidential elections.

Meloni will receive the prize during a gala dinner on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in recognition of her “groundbreaking role as Italy’s first female prime minister, her strong support of the European Union and the transatlantic alliance, and her 2024 chairmanship of the Group of Seven”.

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Trump tells supporters at campaign rally ‘if we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole thing’ – as it happened

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Kamala Harris has seen a surge in favorability among voters and is increasingly viewed as the candidate most likely to bring change, a NBC News poll released on Sunday found.

Among registered voters nationwide, the vice-president is ahead by five percentage points, with 49% support against Donald Trump’s 44%. She is also seen as the candidate more likely to bring “change”, a potentially significant finding given that other surveys have found many Americans believe the country is on the wrong track. Among respondents, 47% say Harris represents change, while 38% say the same of Trump.

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‘Octomom’ Natalie Suleman, mother of 14, welcomes her first grandchild

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Suleman, who made headlines for giving birth to the first surviving octuplets, announces granddaughter’s birth

Natalie (formerly Nadya) Suleman – the so-called “Octomom” – has added yet another young addition to her already impressively large family. The mom of 14 announced Sunday on her Instagram that she is now a grandmother to a baby girl.

Suleman, 49, accompanied the announcement with a photo of an infant’s tiny foot behind a pink baby blanket.

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California’s Gavin Newsom signs law banning all plastic bags at grocery stores

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State had already banned thin plastic shopping bags, but new measure bans all plastic bags starting in 2026

“Paper or plastic” will no longer be a choice at grocery store checkout lines in California under a new law signed on Sunday by the governor, Gavin Newsom, that bans all plastic shopping bags.

California had already banned thin plastic shopping bags at supermarkets and other stores, but shoppers could purchase bags made with a thicker plastic that purportedly made them reusable and recyclable.

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US Congress agrees to funding deal to avert shutdown in blow to Trump

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Mike Johnson announces compromise after decoupling government funding from Trump-backed citizenship bill

US congressional leaders have agreed to a short-term funding deal in a move that averts a damaging pre-election government shutdown and also amounts to a snub for Donald Trump.

The prospect of a shutdown at the expiration of the current government funding on 30 September had been looming after Republicans insisted on tying future funding to legislation that would require voters to show proof of US citizenship – known as the Save Act and backed by Trump but opposed by Democrats.

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Alabama police search for suspect in Birmingham shooting that killed four

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Seventeen people injured in shooting outside nightclub after being caught in crossfire, police say

A manhunt in Alabama for a suspect in the shooting outside a nightclub that killed four people and wounded 17 on Saturday night entered its second full day on Monday.

The shooting in Birmingham was at least the 24th mass murder in the US so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The archive defines a mass murder as one in which four victims are killed or wounded.

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Trump golf club suspect left note saying he intended to kill ex-president – DoJ

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Suspect also maintained a list of dates and venues where Trump was to appear, justice department says

The man accused in the apparent assassination attempt of Donald Trump at a golf course in Florida left behind a note saying that he intended to kill the former president and maintained in his car a handwritten list of dates and venues where the Republican White House nominee was to appear, the justice department said on Monday.

The new allegations were included in a detention memo filed ahead of a hearing on Monday at which the justice department was expected to argue that 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh should remain locked up while the case is pending.

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Harris calls out Trump again for ‘looking for an excuse’ to avoid a second debate

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Democratic nominee says she accepted an invitation from CNN to debate Republican rival, who said it was ‘too late’

Kamala Harris laid down another challenge to Republican rival Donald Trump to meet her for a second debate before November’s presidential election, telling supporters in New York that her opponent “seems to be looking for an excuse” to avoid a second confrontation.

On Saturday, the vice-president and Democratic nominee said she had accepted an invitation from CNN to debate the former president, but Trump said it was already “too late”.

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Trump says he won’t run for president again in 2028 if he loses in November

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Republican nominee says in interview that he ‘doesn’t see that at all’ and he hasn’t made deals with Musk or RFK Jr

Donald Trump said in an interview released on Sunday that he did not think he would run for president again in 2028 if he loses this year’s race for the White House.

In an interview on the Full Measure television show with Sharyl Attkisson, the former US president – who ran in 2016 and 2020 – was asked whether he saw himself running yet again in four years time.

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‘This isn’t the real Oprah’: Trump lashes out at talkshow host over Harris support

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Ex-president attacks influential entertainment figure after Winfrey hosts livestreamed interview with vice-president

Just over a week ago, it was the pop superstar Taylor Swift. Now Donald Trump is taking aim at Oprah Winfrey over her support of Kamala Harris.

Whether or not attacking some of the most popular and powerful entertainment figures in US history will prove a solid campaign strategy is yet to be proven, but the former president has not held back.

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Gretchen Whitmer calls Trump ‘deranged’ after comments on abortion

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Michigan governor responds to ex-president saying women will no longer be thinking about abortion if he wins election

Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, called Donald Trump “just deranged” on Sunday after he said women would no longer be thinking about abortion if he is elected as president in November.

“This guy just doesn’t understand what the average woman is confronting in her life in this country, and how could he? He’s not lived a normal life,” Whitmer said in an interview on CNN’s State of the Union.

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Lindsey Graham calls reports of Mark Robinson’s ‘black Nazi’ posts ‘beyond unnerving’

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Senator does not call for Robinson to drop out of governor race and says he ‘deserves a chance to defend himself’

The senior Senate Republican Lindsey Graham has said reports that the North Carolina Republican candidate for governor, Mark Robinson, calling himself a “black NAZI!” in posts on the porn forum Nude Africa a decade ago are “beyond unnerving” and should see him end his political career if proven true.

“If they’re true, he’s unfit to serve for office,” the long-serving South Carolina senator said Sunday. “If they’re not true, he has the best lawsuit in the history of the country for libel.”

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Manhunt under way after four killed and 17 injured in Alabama shooting

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Police say multiple victims were caught in crossfire in nightlife area of Five Points South in Birmingham

A major manhunt is under way in Birmingham, Alabama, for those responsible for a shooting at a nightclub late on Saturday night in which four people have died and 17 were wounded.

The violence is just the latest shocking incident that highlights the epidemic of gun violence and killings that continues to plague the US and yet prompts little to no political action.

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