Category Archives: US News

Extremist politics divided this conservative California community. What will it take to turn the tide?

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Shasta county battles rising homelessness and high suicide rates, but its political agenda is focused on remaking the voting system – can the damage be undone?

This is the second of three stories on the run-up to the 2024 US presidential election in Shasta county, a region of 180,000 people in northern California that has emerged as a center of the election denial movement and hotbed for far-right politics. Read the first one here.

Tim Garman is worried about Shasta county. His community has been in the midst of a dizzying lurch to the far right, gaining national attention for its rowdy and radical politics and full-throated embrace of election conspiracy theories.

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Floridians warned ‘you are going to die’ if they don’t evacuate as Milton nears

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Thousands of evacuees clog highways as storm projected to hit Tampa Bay on Wednesday restrengthens to category 5

Florida’s western coast was making emergency preparations on Tuesday for the impact of Hurricane Milton, with thousands of evacuees clogging highways, contending with fuel shortages, and the mayor of Tampa warning residents bluntly “you are going to die” if they stayed behind.

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Milton would retain major hurricane status and “expand in size” as it approached Florida after passing the Mexican city of Mérida before swerving north towards the US.

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Mountaineers who were stranded in Himalayas describe loss of their gear

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British climber Fay Manners, who was stuck for three days, says: ‘There was a big, big, long sense of silence between us’

A British mountaineer and her American companion who were stranded in the Himalayas for three days without food have described the long silence between them after the bulk of their equipment plunged into a ravine.

Fay Manners, 37, and Michelle Dvorak, 31, had been climbing the Chaukhamba mountain in northern India, when they issued an SOS message on Thursday, with nothing further being heard from them.

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Rust armorer pleads guilty to gun charge in separate case

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Hannah Gutierrez-Reed changed her plea in exchange for a reduced sentence for carrying a gun into a bar

The weapons supervisor in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin on the set of the Western film Rust pleaded guilty Monday to a separate criminal charge of carrying a gun into a licensed liquor establishment.

Movie armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed agreed to change her plea to guilty on the charge in exchange for a reduced sentence of 18 months supervised probation.

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Trump marks 7 October anniversary and criticizes ‘weak’ Biden and Harris

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Republican nominee says attack – ‘one of the darkest days in all history’ – would not have happened if he were president

Donald Trump marked the first anniversary of the 7 October Hamas terrorist attacks, which he called “one of the darkest days in all of history”, with a commemoration for victims and hostages at his golf resort in Miami on Monday night, but swiftly turned the event into an attack on Kamala Harris.

He also repeated a previous claim that the attack on Israel would never have happened if he was still in the White House.

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Fema chief warns ‘dangerous’ Trump falsehoods hampering Helene response

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Misinformation spread by Trump, his supporters and others about the hurricane has shrouded recovery efforts

A slew of falsehoods about Hurricane Helene, including claims of funds diverted from storm survivors to migrants and even that Democrats somehow directed the hurricane itself, have hampered the response to one of the deadliest hurricanes to ever hit the US, the nation’s top emergency official has warned.

Misinformation spread by Donald Trump, his supporters and others about the hurricane has shrouded the recovery effort for communities shattered by Helene, which tore through five states causing at least 230 deaths and tens of billions of dollars of damage. Many places, such as in western North Carolina, are still without a water supply, electricity, navigable roads or vital supplies.

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Hurricane Milton intensifies to category 5 as Florida braces for ‘major impacts’

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Storm could make landfall on Wednesday as state prepares what could be biggest evacuation since 2017

Hurricane Milton has rapidly intensified into a category 5 hurricane, just two days before it is due to make landfall in Florida.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami issued the updated forecast on Monday after saying the storm had become a category 4 hurricane more quickly than initially expected.

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Salmon swim freely in Klamath River for first time in more than 100 years

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News comes after Iron Gate dam was removed to let river near California-Oregon border return to natural flow

For the first time in more than a century, salmon are swimming freely along the Klamath River and its tributaries, just days after the largest dam removal project in US history was completed.

Researchers determined that Chinook salmon began migrating on 3 October into previously inaccessible habitat above the site of the former Iron Gate dam, one of four towering dams near the California-Oregon border that were demolished as part of a national movement to let rivers return to their natural flow and to restore ecosystems for fish and other wildlife.

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Kamala Harris pays tribute to victims of 7 October attacks on first anniversary

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Vice-president commits to ‘always’ support Israel’s defense as Biden condemns ‘vicious surge in antisemitism’ in US

US politicians on both sides of the aisle issued statements marking the anniversary of the 7 October attacks, with Kamala Harris paying tribute to the victims and calling, in their honor, to “never lose sight of the dream of peace, dignity, and security for all”.

Outside the vice-presidential residence, Harris, accompanied by her husband, spoke of the nearly 1,200 people, including 46 Americans, killed in Israel one year ago.

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Biden to visit Angola as global powers vie for African influence

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US and EU are supporting infrastructure projects in Angola, which has historically been closer to Russia and China

When Joe Biden travels to Angola on Sunday, it will be the first trip to an African country of his presidency and the first to the continent by a sitting US president since Barack Obama visited Kenya and Ethiopia in 2015.

It is a marker of how Africa’s 54 countries are increasingly courted by global powers, drawn to the continent by geopolitical shifts and an abundance of minerals needed for electric cars and other battery-powered technologies.

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Trump speaks at 7 October event in Florida – as it happened

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Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are among the global leaders commemorating the anniversary of the 7 October attack in Israel today, as is Donald Trump.

At 11.45am ET, the president will hold a ceremony at the White House, where he’ll conduct a yahrzeit candle lighting alongside an unnamed rabbi. Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, will at 4pm plant a tree on the grounds of the vice-president’s residence in honor of the lives lost in the attack. Harris will also give a speech.

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Russian court sentences 72-year-old American for fighting for Ukraine

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Steven James Hubbard given six years and 10 months in prison, but family cast doubt on his reported confession

A Russian court has sentenced a 72-year-old American citizen, Stephen James Hubbard, to six years and 10 months in prison after convicting him in a closed-door trial of fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine.

Investigators said Hubbard, a native of Michigan, was paid $1,000 (£760) a month to serve in a Ukrainian territorial defence unit in the eastern city of Izyum, where he had been living since 2014.

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Weather tracker: tail end of Hurricane Kirk to bring gusts and rain to Europe

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Hurricane activity is strong in Atlantic while months of below-average rainfall in South America leads to drought

Hurricane Kirk is heading towards Europe. At its peak strength in the mid-Atlantic, Kirk reached category 4 status with maximum wind speeds of 145mph. As Kirk tracks north-east towards Europe, leaving the warm seas behind, it is expected to be downgraded to a category 1 hurricane by Monday.

Over the next few days, Kirk will undergo extratropical transition, becoming an ex-hurricane by the time it reaches Europe’s shores on Tuesday or Wednesday. Although there remains some model differences in the exact path of extratropical cyclone Kirk, it is projected to track across northern Europe with France, Belgium, the Netherlands and then northern Germany having the strongest winds and heaviest rain. Southernmost parts of the UK may experience some heavy rainfall if the system tracks ever so slightly further north.

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US cities and campuses on high alert over 7 October anniversary events

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Rallies and vigils planned across the country to mark Hamas attacks on Israel and ensuing war in Gaza

Demonstrations and memorials marking the anniversary of the 7 October attacks on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza are to take place around the US, with cities and campuses on high alert for any unrest as the threat of a full-scale war in the Middle East looms.

Dozens of rallies, marches and other events are planned on Monday in protest against the Israeli offensive, which was sparked by the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and resulted in another 250 being taken hostage. Israel’s retaliatory war has killed more than 41,000 people in the besieged territory.

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Al Pacino reveals he almost died of Covid – and delivers his verdict on the afterlife

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The 84-year-old actor speaks about contracting the virus in 2020, saying he ‘didn’t have a pulse’ and came to with six paramedics in his house

Al Pacino has revealed he almost died from Covid-19 in 2020, saying he “didn’t have a pulse” for several minutes.

In interviews with the New York Times and People magazine published on the weekend, the 84-year-old Godfather and Scarface actor detailed his experience with the virus, which he contracted in 2020 before a vaccine was available.

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Black bear with three cubs attacks man after breaking into Colorado home

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Animals crash through glass door of 74-year-old man’s home and claw at him when he tried to get them to leave

A 74-year-old Colorado man was injured after a black bear with three cubs crashed in through his sliding glass door and he was unable to get them to leave, the Colorado parks and wildlife department said.

Residents of the home were startled by a loud crash at about 8.30pm Thursday night and saw the bears coming in through the sliding door which had been left ajar.

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Still reeling from Helene, Florida braces for Hurricane Milton as it gains strength

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State official urges people to prepare for ‘largest evacuation that we have seen most likely since 2017 Hurricane Irma’

Florida has expanded its state of emergency as it braces for a major storm expect to pummel the state’s western peninsula by midweek, after Tropical Storm Milton gathered strength and was declared a category 1 hurricane on Sunday.

The impending landfall of Milton comes days after Hurricane Helene caused devastation and destruction through large swaths of Florida and other parts of the south-east of the US including North Carolina. The death toll stands at 230 people, and is expected to rise.

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Harris talks abortion rights on Call Her Daddy podcast while bashing Trump’s ‘protector’ of women claim – as it happened

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During an interview on CNN’s State of the Union, Arizona senator Mark Kelly criticized Elon Musk for supporting Donald Trump.

On Saturday, Musk joined Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and made the baseless claim that if Trump’s supporters fail to turn out, “this will be the last election”.

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Harris says federal aid for Hurricane Helene relief ‘here for the long term’

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Vice-president pledges ongoing support during second trip in four days to North Carolina disaster zone

Kamala Harris pledged ongoing federal support and praised the “heroes among us” during a swing through hurricane-hit North Carolina on Saturday, her second trip in four days to the disaster zone.

The vice-president began her visit by attending a briefing with state and local officials in Charlotte, where she thanked “those who are in the room and those who are out there right now working around the clock” in the post-Helene rescue effort.

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Trump repeats false anti-immigrant claims at Pennsylvania rally as Musk urges everyone to vote – live

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Ex-president addresses crowd in Butler less than three months after assassination attempt there on 13 July

As the Trump and Harris campaigns host events across the country today – now one month before the 5 November election – the Guardian US is averaging national and state polls to see how the two candidates are faring. We will update our averages once a week, or more if there is major news.

As the Guardian’s Sam Levine writes today:

With her highest national polling average since July, Harris is now leading in five of seven key swing states. Nationally, the Guardian’s tracker shows Harris with 49.3% of the vote, compared with 46% for Trump. The election is a month away, and already an estimated 1.4 million Americans have voted as of midday on Friday.

The race is still extremely close. The simplest path to collecting the 270 electoral votes needed to win is still the blue wall of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. While Harris leads Trump in all three according to the Guardian’s analysis (Pennsylvania by 1.2 points, Michigan by 0.1 points and Wisconsin by 2.2 points), those advantages are quite slim.

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