Category Archives: US News

‘There are people in tents writing dissertations’: UK reaches for scale of US campus protests

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Pro-Palestine protesters hope encampments at universities will contribute to an ‘international student revolt’

Students across Britain have said they hope pro-Palestine protests will reach the same scale as those seen on US campuses as they call for universities to divest from companies supplying arms to Israel.

Protests have spread across university campuses in Sheffield, Bristol and Leeds, after a crackdown in the US on protests, which led to mass arrests of students and staff.

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‘I was happy they still stand beside us’: Palestinians in Rafah on US campus protests

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Word of the demonstrations that have spread across the west has cheered some in Gaza’s southernmost city

In the tented camps and crowded streets of Rafah, the pro-Palestinian campus protests in the US have been followed closely.

“We hear a lot of news about students’ demonstrations in American universities … When I saw that, I was very happy that there are still those who stand beside us and in support of us,” said Nevin Abu Shahma, 39, who fled to Rafah from northern Gaza early in the war.

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Frank Stella, influential American artist, dies aged 87

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His constantly evolving works have been hailed as landmarks of the minimalist and post-painterly abstraction art movements

Frank Stella, a painter, sculptor and printmaker whose constantly evolving works are hailed as landmarks of the minimalist and post-painterly abstraction art movements, died on Saturday at his home in Manhattan. He was 87.

Gallery owner Jeffrey Deitch, who spoke with Stella’s family, confirmed his death to the Associated Press. Stella’s wife, Harriet McGurk, told the New York Times that he died of lymphoma.

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Dick Rutan, co-pilot of historic round-the-world flight, dies aged 85

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Rutan, known for smooth flying style, survived having to eject twice from planes and being stranded at north pole

Burt Rutan was alarmed to see that the plane he had designed was so loaded with fuel that the wingtips dragged along the ground as it taxied down the runway. He grabbed the radio to warn the pilot, his older brother Dick Rutan. But Dick never heard the message.

Nine days and three minutes later, Dick, along with co-pilot Jeana Yeager, completed one of the greatest milestones in aviation history: the first round-the-world flight with no stops or refueling.

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Student protesters interrupt University of Michigan commencement

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With some demonstrating in solidarity with Gaza and others with Israel, students waved flags and chanted slogans

Students demonstrating in solidarity with Gaza waved Palestinian flags and keffiyehs and chanted anti-war slogans during the University of Michigan’s commencement ceremony on Saturday.

Videos on social media showed students donning their graduation gowns as they appeared to chant: “Israel bombs, UMich pays!” and “How many kids have you killed today?” One photo showed a plane appearing to carry a sky banner over the university with the message: “Divest from Israel now! Free Palestine!”

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Warren Buffett backs Apple after firm sells millions of shares in iPhone maker

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Berkshire Hathaway CEO stressed relationship at annual meeting attracting Apple CEO Tim Cook, Bill Gates and Bill Murray

The billionaire investment tycoon Warren Buffett has stressed his empire will remain a key investor in Apple after it sold billions of dollars’ worth of shares in the iPhone maker.

Thousands of shareholders in Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett’s sprawling conglomerate, have flocked to Omaha, Nebraska, for the firm’s annual meeting – dubbed Woodstock for Capitalists – this weekend.

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Will the US campus protests harm Biden – and benefit Trump?

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Rightwing media have seized on campus protests to portray the president as weak. Will it have an impact in November?

At the height of the tensions on US campuses this week, with Republicans gleefully seizing on student unrest as an election issue that could propel Donald Trump back into the White House, Joe Biden tried to steer a middle path.

Weighing the democratic right to peaceful protest and the political necessity to stem disruption, Biden declared that “order must prevail”.

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Zebra on the run in Washington state for six days finally captured

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Shug the pinstriped pony, who hoofed it as her trailer stopped on a highway, was eventually found horsing around

A zebra that escaped from her owner in Washington state and went on the run for nearly six days has finally been rescued.

In a statement released on Friday, the regional animal services of King county (Raskc) announced that the zebra – whose name is Shug – was captured near North Bend after roaming in the foothills of the Cascades for the better part of a week.

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Sabrina Carpenter: how the Espresso singer became a piping hot pop prospect

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She’s set to depose Taylor Swift from No 1 and has the most-streamed song in the world this week – the culmination of a decade of slow-burn success

Capped with one of the most brilliantly nonsensical chorus lines in pop history – “That’s that me, espresso” – Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso is the most streamed song in the world this week, deposed Taylor Swift as the UK’s No 1 single yesterday and is shaping up to be the critics’ pick for the song you won’t be able to escape this summer.

Since its release in mid-April, this irresistible shot of nu-disco has been steadily climbing the charts to become one of the only tracks holding its own against the tidal wave of songs from Taylor Swift’s double-disc The Tortured Poets Department. Carpenter was recently released from Swift’s Eras tour juggernaut, having supported the superstar on her dates in Latin America, Australia and Singapore. Anointed by Swift as a “sweet angel princess”, she is now rising through the ranks to become pop royalty in her own right.

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University of Mississippi: ‘abhorrent’ counter-protesters condemned

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Largely white, male group taunts pro-Palestinian protesters on campus and one man makes racist gesture towards Black woman

Dozens of students at the University of Mississippi gathered this week to protest against Israel’s war in Gaza and to call for the state’s flagship university to be transparent in its potential dealings with Israel.

There were hundreds of counter-protesters, in contrast to the few dozen pro-Palestinian protesters. The scene evoked memories of the resistance to the civil rights struggle in the US south six decades earlier.

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Star Wars’ Mark Hamill hails ‘Joe-B-Wan Kenobi’ after White House meeting

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Actor brings force of Hollywood to trumpet Biden’s legislative record in briefing that both delighted and bemused journalists

“You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.” But enough about Washington. The Star Wars actor Mark Hamill, who once saw off gangsters at a fictional spaceport, came to the US capital on Friday for a meeting with Joe Biden.

Quite why he was in the Oval Office, and what was talked about, remained something of a mystery. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away Biden was riding high in the opinion polls but now, perhaps, he is in need of added star power.

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Hope Hicks: Trump was worried about WSJ article’s effect on Melania – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. For the latest on Donald Trump’s hush-money trial, read our coverage here.

Judge Juan Merchan was referring to a claim Donald Trump made while addressing the media yesterday outside of court.

Speaking to reporters after court adjourned for the day on Thursday, the former president said:

I’m not allowed to testify. I’m under a gag order. I guess, right?

I’m not allowed to testify, because this judge, who’s totally conflicted, has me under an unconstitutional gag order.

I want to stress Mr Trump that you have an absolute right to testify at trial.

That is a constitutional right that will not be denied or abnegated in any way ... It is a fundamental right that cannot be infringed upon ... the order prohibiting extra-judicial statements does not prevent you from testifying in any way.

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Hope Hicks tells hush-money jury of Trump’s control over 2016 campaign

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Ex-president’s former communications director says Access Hollywood tape ‘was a crisis’ for his campaign

Hope Hicks, Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign press secretary, broke into tears on Friday while testifying in the ex-president’s New York criminal hush-money trial, hours after she described his complete control over the campaign.

Hicks, who cut a skittish figure in Judge Juan Merchan’s courtroom, is a key prosecution witness. She described Trump campaign staffers’ panic when a recording emerged in which Trump bragged about groping women. “This was a crisis” for his presidential bid, she said, describing the sentiment among the campaign staff.

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Congressman Henry Cuellar in court accused of receiving $600,000 in bribes

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Texas Democrat says he and his also accused wife are innocent amid claims they took money from Azerbaijan and Mexican bank

The US justice department on Friday accused the Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, of accepting about $600,000 in bribes in exchange for influencing policy in favor of Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank.

The Cuellars had made their first appearance before a federal magistrate judge in Houston by the afternoon, but it was not clear how they pleaded. Earlier, the congressman, who has represented a swath of Texas’s border with Mexico in the US House since 2005, issued a statement denying unspecified “allegations” against him.

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Gas stoves increase nitrogen dioxide exposure above WHO standards – study

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Science Advances report also finds people of color and low-income residents in US disproportionately affected

Using a gas stove increases nitrogen dioxide exposure to levels that exceed public health recommendations, a new study shows. The report, published Friday in Science Advances, found that people of color and low-income residents in the US were disproportionately affected.

Indoor gas and propane appliances raise average concentrations of the harmful pollutant, also known as NO2, to 75% of the World Health Organization’s standard for indoor and outdoor exposure.

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NYPD issues arrest figures amid ‘outside agitator’ claim at Columbia Gaza protest

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New York police say about 29% of those detained ‘not affiliated’ with university as more are arrested at NYU and New School

New York’s police department has declared that approximately 29% of the people it arrested at pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University were “not affiliated” with the institution, as the city’s mayor continues to face scrutiny over his claims that the hardline police response was due to the actions of “outside agitators”.

The NYPD also said 60% of arrestees at City College of New York (CCNY) on Tuesday night were unaffiliated with the college, though a CCNY spokesperson confirmed to the Guardian that these arrest figures applied to protesters both on and off the college’s grounds.

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Israelis voice sadness and defiance over Gaza protests on US campuses

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People in Jerusalem express little sympathy with anti-war demonstrators, with some accusing them of hatred for Israel

At the Jerusalem theatre on Thursday night, concertgoers and staff expressed a mixture of anger, sadness and defiance as weeks of pro-Palestinian protests across dozens of US college campuses reached a tumultuous climax 6,000 miles away.

The noisy demonstrations have been closely followed in Israel, reported by major media and discussed by prominent public figures.

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Experts dismiss Kristi Noem’s ‘dubious’ claim to have met Kim Jong-un

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South Dakota governor says she met North Korean dictator in same book in which she describes killing her dog

The South Dakota governor, Republican vice-presidential hopeful and self-confessed dog-killer Kristi Noem’s bizarre claim in a new book to have met the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has been dismissed by experts as “dubious” and not “conceivable”.

The Dakota Scout first reported Noem’s claim, which is in her forthcoming book, No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong With Politics and How We Move America Forward.

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US confirms Russian forces deployed to same Niger airbase as American troops

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Russians in separate compound and do not have access to US forces or equipment, says defence secretary

The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, has confirmed Russian security forces have been deployed to the same airbase as American troops in the Nigerien capital, Niamey.

It remains unclear when the Russian troops, who have been in Niger for weeks, were deployed to Airbase 101, which is next to Diori Hamani international airport in Niamey. It is also unclear how many troops are on the ground.

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Experts condemn US tobacco firm’s sponsorship of doctor training as ‘grotesque’

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Philip Morris International has supported non-smoking programmes around the world ‘to advance its own interests’, say health professionals

The tobacco company Philip Morris has sponsored courses for doctors in multiple countries, in what critics have called a “grotesque” strategy.

Medical education programmes on quitting smoking and harm reduction in South Africa, the Middle East and the US have been supported by Philip Morris International (PMI) or its regional subsidiaries, according to advertising material seen by the Guardian.

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