Category Archives: US News

After Hurricane Beryl’s destruction, climate scientists fear for what’s next

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Experts say devastating hurricane so early in season is ‘big wake-up call’ – and predict even more powerful storms

The poignancy was unmistakable: prognosticators at Colorado State University amended their already miserable seasonal tropical cyclone forecast on Monday precisely as Hurricane Beryl was filling Houston’s streets with floodwater and knocking out power to more than 2m homes and businesses.

“A likely harbinger of a hyperactive season” was how CSU researchers characterized Beryl, which set numerous records on the way to its Texas landfall, including the earliest category 5 hurricane, strongest ever June storm, and most powerful to strike the southern Windward Islands.

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Republicans ramp up attacks on Kamala Harris amid swirl over Biden future

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Strength of criticism suggests Trump and allies see vice-president as powerful electoral asset for Democrats

With the state of Joe Biden’s re-election campaign in turmoil, Donald Trump and his Republican allies are stepping up attacks on a familiar and, some say, possibly more threatening, political foe: his vice-president, Kamala Harris.

In the weeks since Biden’s stumbling debate performance, Republicans have intensified what many call racist and misogynistic criticism. They have questioned Harris’s competency, mocked her demeanor, and accused her of concealing concerns about the president’s health. Trump unveiled a new, derisive nickname for the vice-president, “Laffin’ Kamala”, which he tested at a campaign rally in Florida this week.

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Bitter tensions as reporters feel misled by White House over Biden health

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Press briefings become flashpoint as journalists criticise culture of denial and non-disclosure around the president

It was the moment when long-simmering media resentment at a seemingly opaque White House broke through the surface with startling intensity.

With Joe Biden’s candidacy teetering in the wake of last month’s alarming debate showing, journalists who had covered his presidency full-time for years suddenly asserted that it lacked that most basic political element: credibility.

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Meta lifts restrictions on Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts

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‘Guardrails’ that previously existed removed as Meta says voters should be able to hear from presidential nominees

Meta has removed previous restrictions on the Facebook and Instagram accounts of Donald Trump as the 2024 election nears, the company announced on Friday.

Trump was allowed to return to the social networks in 2023 with “guardrails” in place, after being banned over his online behavior during the 6 January insurrection. Those guardrails have now been removed.

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‘I’m not going anywhere’: Biden holds Michigan rally as calls to quit persist

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Hakeem Jeffries reveals ‘candid’ talks with president about 2024 future as another top Democrat urges Biden to pull out

Joe Biden delivered a defiant speech on Friday evening in the battleground state of Michigan, firmly dismissing the doubt swirling around his survival as the Democratic presidential nominee.

Biden held a rally at a high school gymnasium in Detroit as part of his visit to the critical swing state that chose Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020. He walked on stage to audience chants of “don’t you quit” and addressed the speculation head on: “I am running, and we’re gonna win,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere.”

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Alec Baldwin’s Rust shooting trial dismissed after lawyers say evidence was withheld

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New Mexico judge agrees charges should be dropped after lawyers said state ‘buried’ evidence about live ammunition

Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial came to a dramatic end on Friday, after a New Mexico judge dismissed the case against the actor and found that the state had improperly withheld evidence related to how live rounds of ammunition ended up on the film set where the cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot.

Just days after courtroom proceedings had begun, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer ruled in favor of the defense and agreed that the charges against Baldwin should be dropped, finding that the state had concealed evidence that would have been favorable to the actor. The dismissal, made with prejudice, puts an end to the involuntary manslaughter case against Baldwin.

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Alec Baldwin trial: judge mulls dismissal after claim that state withheld evidence

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Actor’s defense team at Rust film set shooting trial accuses state of concealing ammunition turned over to police

The judge in Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial is considering a motion from the defense to dismiss the case after the actor’s lawyers argued that the state improperly withheld evidence.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the Rust armorer who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter earlier this year, was initially expected take the stand at Baldwin’s trial on Friday. But the proceedings took a dramatic turn as Baldwin’s defense team accused the state of concealing evidence that would have been favorable to the actor and asked Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer to throw out the case.

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Republican senator Susan Collins says she will not vote for Trump

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Moderate conservative from Maine says she wanted Nikki Haley to win and will write her name on November ballot

US senator Susan Collins didn’t vote for her fellow Republican Donald Trump for president in 2016 or 2020 – and the third time will not be the charm.

The longtime moderate conservative from Maine told reporters on Friday that she intended to write in former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley’s name on the ballot in November. The move recalls 2016, when Collins said she wrote in then-US House speaker Paul Ryan for president over Trump, who won the White House before losing to Democratic rival Joe Biden in 2020.

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New York judge dismisses Rudy Giuliani’s bankruptcy case

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Ruling clears way for two Georgia election workers to try to recover nearly $150m Giuliani was ordered to pay them

A New York judge dismissed Rudy Giuliani’s bankruptcy case on Friday, clearing the way for two Georgia election workers to try to recover nearly $150m Giuliani was ordered to pay them for defaming them after the 2020 election.

“The court finds that cause exists to convert or dismiss the case. The record in this case reflects Mr Giuliani’s continued failure to meet his reporting obligations and provide the financial transparency required of a debtor in possession,” US bankruptcy judge Sean Lane wrote in his ruling. Lane also barred Giuliani from filing for bankruptcy again within one year.

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Teamsters boss faces backlash over ‘unconscionable’ GOP convention speech

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Sean O’Brien accused of bolstering ‘most anti-union party and president’ by senior members of his own union

Teamsters International president Sean O’Brien has been accused by senior members of the union of disgracing it by agreeing to an unprecedented appearance at next week’s Republican national convention.

O’Brien’s decision was branded “unconscionable” by John Palmer, vice-president at large at Teamsters, who accused him of lending support to the “most anti-union party and President” in a generation.

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Democratic billboards stress Trump link to rightwing Project 2025 manifesto

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Billboards will go up in seven swing states as campaign seeks to publicize manifesto and tie it to ex-president

Democrats will put up billboards in swing states that show Donald Trump and tie him to Project 2025, a conservative manifesto that could become reality if he wins in November.

The Democratic National Committee’s paid media campaign escalates liberal efforts to publicize Project 2025 and tie it to the former president after he sought to distance himself from the plan. The blueprint for a second Trump administration is led by the rightwing thinktank the Heritage Foundation and counts support from more than 100 other conservative groups.

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‘The new normal’: work from home is here to stay, US data shows

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The same percentage of employed people who worked remotely in 2023 is the same as the previous year, a survey found

Don’t call it work from home any more, just call it work. According to new data, what once seemed like a pandemic necessity has become the new norm for many Americans.

Every year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases the results of its American time use survey, which asks Americans how much time they spend doing various activities, from work to leisure.

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How Georgia state election board’s proposed rules make it easier to challenge results

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A new rule would require Fulton county to hand count paper ballots and investigate discrepancies on the spot, possible delaying tabulation

Georgia’s state board of elections has proposed changes to election policy and monitoring requirements that put Fulton county elections officials in their crosshairs and could delay and allow for partisan actors to challenge election results. .

As part of the state board’s reprimand for Fulton county double-counting some ballots in a 2020 recount – an error that did not affect the outcome of the election – Fulton county is required to hire a team of election monitors for the 2024 presidential election. The board also began a process of rule-making this week that will require county elections workers to count the paper ballots cast at each polling place by hand before turning those ballots in to be tabulated after each day of voting, and to investigate discrepancies on the spot.

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Baltimore bridge collapse survivor says those responsible should pay damages

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Julio Cervantes Suarez tells NBC he is haunted by the final moments he had with his nephew, who died in the collapse: ‘I relive it all the time’

The only construction worker to survive March’s deadly bridge collapse in Baltimore has said he is haunted by the fact that he told his nephew to go rest in his car – shortly before the relative fell, along with the vehicle, to his death and became one of six men killed in the disaster.

“If I had told him to come with me, maybe it would have been different,” Julio Cervantes Suarez told NBC News in an interview that the network exclusively aired late on Wednesday. “Maybe he would be here with us.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

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Weather tracker: Hurricane Beryl causes further havoc across Texas

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High winds and heavy rainfall have moved inland towards Houston and other cities, with at least eight reported dead

At the start of this week, Hurricane Beryl crashed on to the shore of the Texas coastline. Sweeping across the coast, Beryl brought sustained winds of 80mph to coastal settlements in Texas, creating a deadly storm surge reaching 4-7ft (1.2m to 2.1m) in places and wreaking havoc in local areas, before moving inland towards Houston and other big cities.

Heavy rainfall was also recorded across some of the upper Texas coast and eastern Texas, with locally close to 15 inches (380mm) recorded in places. At least eight people have died in Texas and Louisiana, which followed at least 10 deaths across the Caribbean.

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US steps up sanctions against Israeli settlers and ‘outposts’ in occupied West Bank

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Targeting ‘outposts’ suggests Biden administration prepared to take some action to confront blatant land grab

The US has stepped up efforts to target violent Israeli settlers, adding new individuals and organisations to a growing sanctions list and warning banks to check transactions linked to all Israeli “outposts” in the occupied West Bank.

The new sanctions cover the far-right group Lehava, already listed by the UK, and two founding members of Tsav9, a campaign group that blocked aid from reaching Gaza. The new measures also target outposts, suggesting the Biden administration is prepared to take at least some steps to confront Israel’s creeping land grab on the West Bank.

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Family of missing woman in Bahamas shielded trans identity over fears of bias

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Family of Taylor Casey, missing since 19 June, say Bahamian officials left them with ‘more questions than answers’

The family of Taylor Casey, a 42-year-old transgender woman who went missing in the Bahamas, said they initially shielded the media from her gender identity because they feared it would undermine efforts to find her.

Casey, who lives in Chicago, went missing on 19 June while on a month-long yoga retreat on Paradise Island in the Bahamas.

Her family has since worked to involve city, state and federal officials in the search for her – and said Bahamian officials left them with “more questions than answers”.

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Chinese warships spotted off Alaska coast, US Coast Guard says

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Four Chinese vessels were ‘transiting in international waters but still inside the US exclusive economic zone’

Multiple Chinese military warships were spotted off the coast of Alaska over the weekend, the US Coast Guard announced.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the US Coast Guard said that it detected three vessels approximately 124 miles (200km) north of the Amchitka Pass in the Aleutian Islands, as well as another vessel approximately 84 miles (135km) north of the Amukta Pass, a strait between the Bering Sea and the north Pacific Ocean.

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Trump leads 2024 race in new poll as some Biden aides reportedly discuss how to convince him to end campaign – live

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Pew finds that Trump has a 4 percentage point lead over Biden among registered voters nationwide

Joe Biden continues to push back against those calling for him to step aside, albeit gently.

Politico reports that the president’s aides have reached out to delegates ahead of the Democratic national convention in August, and asked questions that seem geared towards making sure they remain loyal to the president ahead of his formal re-nomination.

Fearing a floor revolt against his nomination, President Biden’s aides are telephoning individual delegates to next month’s Democratic convention to gauge their loyalty to the president, according to three delegates who received a call this week.

After a round of introductory questions confirming each delegate was still planning on going to Chicago and asking if they had served as delegate before, the Biden aide making the calls got to the point, the Democratic activists recalled to me in separate interviews.

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Keir Starmer says Joe Biden was ‘on good form’ in first bilateral meeting

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Asked about speculation over US president’s health, PM says he dealt with issues at pace and was across all detail

Keir Starmer has said Joe Biden was “on good form” and went through serious issues at pace during their first bilateral talks at the White House as he was asked about claims the US president could be senile.

The prime minister said his personal view, having spent almost an hour in private talks with Biden and attended a dinner for Nato leaders at the White House, was that he was mentally agile.

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