Category Archives: US News

Read Kamala Harris’s full statement: ‘My intention is to earn and win this nomination’

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Vice-president posts statement thanking the president for his leadership and endorsement

Joe Biden announced he would not stay in the 2024 presidential race, throwing his supporting behind his vice-president, Kamala Harris.

In his letter, Biden called Harris an “extraordinary partner” and said choosing her to serve as vice-president was “the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year.”

On behalf of the American people, I thank Joe Biden for his extraordinary leadership as President of the United States and for his decades of service to our country. His remarkable legacy of accomplishment is unmatched in modern American history, surpassing the legacy of many Presidents who have served two terms in office.

It is a profound honor to serve as his Vice President, and I am deeply grateful to the President, Dr. Biden, and the entire Biden family. I first came to know President Biden through his son Beau. We were friends from our days working together as Attorneys General of our home states. As we worked together, Beau would tell me stories about his Dad. The kind of father—and the kind of man—he was. And the qualities Beau revered in his father are the same qualities, the same values, I have seen every single day in Joe’s leadership as President: His honesty and integrity. His big heart and commitment to his faith and his family. And his love of our country and the American people.

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Starmer praises Biden’s ‘remarkable’ career after US election withdrawal

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Prime minister among UK political leaders to celebrate US president’s achievements and character

Sir Keir Starmer says he respects Joe Biden’s decision to pull out of the US presidential election, describing the 81-year-old’s political career as “remarkable”.

The UK prime minister said: “I respect President Biden’s decision and I look forward to us working together during the remainder of his presidency.

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Biden’s selfless decision to drop out sets stage for an entirely different election

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The president will be remembered for steering the US to recovery and giving his party a chance to beat Trump again

Legend has it that when King George III heard that George Washington, the first US president, had decided to retire after his second term, he remarked: “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”

Joe Biden, 81, holed up at a Delaware beach house with a bad cough after a Covid-19 diagnosis, ended his presidential re-election campaign on Sunday. It was a selfless decision that put the country’s interests before his own – an act of grace that many see as vividly contrasting with the narcissism of his opponent Donald Trump.

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Kamala Harris spurs meme frenzy on social media as Biden endorses her

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Vice-president is favorite to replace president as Democrats’ nominee and the prospect is inspiring creativity online

As President Joe Biden announced he would be ending his bid for re-election and endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris as his successor, social media did what social media is best known to do.

Truth to be told, social media users had been enthusiastically imagining Harris’s ascension to the top of the Democratic ticket since Biden’s disastrous debate performance at the end of June. Harris dancing. Harris laughing. Endless clips of her comments about a coconut tree.

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‘Impactful and selfless’: Democrats heap praise on Biden after he quits race

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Obama and party leaders highlight president’s lifetime of service as some begin to back Kamala Harris

Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race on Sunday after weeks of pressure from other Democrats to step down after his disastrous debate in late June.

Democratic leaders quickly heaped praise on the president for his lifetime of service.

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Trump leads Republican taunts of Biden after president drops out of 2024 race

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Former president and other Republicans say Biden is ‘not fit to serve’, with some saying he should resign immediately

Donald Trump’s vicious attack on Joe Biden and his legacy led the Republican party’s reaction to the president’s decision to withdraw from the 2024 race.

“Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for president, and is certainly not fit to serve – and never was!” Trump, the Republican nominee, said in a post to Truth Social, repeating his favored insult for the man who beat him in the 2020 election, and rehashing a familiar litany of unsubstantiated grievances.

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Israel says it intercepted missile fired by Houthis at port city of Eilat

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Houthi military says US ship in Red Sea also targeted after Israeli strikes on oil facilities and power station in Yemen

Israeli forces have said they intercepted a ballistic missile fired by Houthi militants in Yemen targeting the southern city of Eilat, in retaliation for a series of Israeli strikes on the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah.

Meanwhile, forest fires engulfed parts of northern Israel after a barrage of rocket fire from Lebanon.

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Trump attacks Biden and Harris in first rally since assassination attempt

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In first rally with running mate JD Vance, ex-president jibes at leadership chaos within Democratic party

Donald Trump launched a full-throated attack on Democratic rivals Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday as he returned to the campaign trail a week after surviving an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

In his first rally since the shocking shooting, and his first with new running mate Ohio senator JD Vance, Trump appeared on stage with the conspicuous white ear bandage he wore during the Republican national convention replaced by a smaller covering. He referred to the assassination attempt as a “horrific event” and said he stood before supporters “by the grace of God. I shouldn’t be here, but let’s face it, something very special happened.”

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Trump to hold first public campaign event since assassination attempt

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The former president and his running mate, JD Vance, will hold a joint rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Republican nominee Donald Trump will hold his first public campaign rally since a shocking assassination attempt a week ago by appearing in a crucial rust belt battleground state alongside his new running mate, Ohio senator JD Vance.

The return to the campaign trail by Trump comes after the attempted killing of the former US president at a Pennsylvania rally last Saturday when a 20-year-old gunman opened fire, injuring Trump and others and killing one rally-goer.

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Utah to use pentobarbital to execute man instead of three-drug combination

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Defense attorneys said the use of ketamine, fentanyl and potassium chloride could cause ‘excruciating suffering’

Utah officials said on Saturday that they are scrapping plans to use an untested lethal drug combination in next month’s planned execution of a man in a 1998 murder case. They will instead seek out a drug that’s been used previously in executions in numerous states.

Defense attorneys for Taberon Dave Honie, 49, had sued in state court to stop the use of the drug combination, saying it could cause the defendant “excruciating suffering”.

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Biden continues to resist Democratic calls to end re-election campaign

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Latest high-profile name to call on president to step aside is Sherrod Brown, the embattled senator from Ohio

Democrats were caught in an apparent stalemate on Saturday as a dug-in Joe Biden continued to endure high-profile calls to end his re-election campaign after a week of astonishing party moves to unseat the president in favor of a candidate many hope will be more likely to beat Donald Trump.

In the weeks since his disastrous debate performance against Trump, the 81-year-old Biden has attempted to fight off calls for him to step down from the top of the ticket amid concerns that his age and mental acuity are no longer up to the job. But a series of interviews, a press conference and speeches have done little to quell party nerves.

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Disneyland workers in Anaheim, California, vote to authorize strike

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Largest US strike so far this year could take place if negotiations, including over wages, fail next week

Members of four unions representing 14,000 workers at the Disneyland in Anaheim, California, have voted to authorize a strike amid contract negotiations.

The vote does not mean the workers will go on strike yet, but that the unions can call a strike at any point. If a strike takes place, it will be the largest strike so far in 2024.

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Gunman at Trump rally flew drone over fairgrounds earlier on day of shootings

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Latest disclosure about security lapses comes as larger picture of Thomas Matthew Crooks’ preparations emerges

Thomas Matthew Crooks, the gunman who tried to assassinate Donald Trump a week ago, was able to fly a camera-equipped drone over the fairgrounds near Butler, Pennsylvania, shortly before the former president was set to speak there, according to news reports.

The latest disclosure about security lapses that preceded the shooting comes as a more complete picture of Crooks’ preparations is emerging, though it still lacks any definitive motive for the 20-year-old’s actions that led to Trump being grazed by a bullet, the shooting death of former fire chief Corey Comperatore and the critical wounding of two rally-goers.

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Pro-Trump multimillionaire and election denier boosts funds to far-right voter-conspiracy groups

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Ex-Overstock chief Patrick Byrne using Maga-allied America Project to steer large amounts to groups pushing fringe theories

The multimillionaire and prominent election denier Patrick Byrne has been boosting his funding to the Maga-allied America Project and using it to steer six-figure checks to far-right groups that push voting conspiracies in Arizona, Michigan and elsewhere, according to tax records and voting experts.

Byrne, the former CEO of online retailer Overstock.com, said last fall that only $3m of the $30m the Florida-based project had raised at that point came from “the public”, with the rest coming from him.

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European divisions risk incoherent response to any second Trump term

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Optimists say administration would be open to persuasion while sceptics say it is beyond time to Trump-proof Europe

To be a foreign diplomat serving in the US, charged with interpreting the country’s politics so it appears predictable and explicable to your political masters in Europe, is currently no easy job.

In a week where Donald Trump purported to address the nation as a self-aware, reflective and thoughtful Christian, before reverting to type with a slew of diatribes, and where he announced a vice-presidential pick who has openly stated he does not care about the future of Ukraine one way or the other, events have moved at a pace that even the most tapped-in of ambassadors and their staff would struggle to keep up with.

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Democratic congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee dies aged 74, family says

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Jackson Lee, who was first elected to Congress almost 30 years ago, had said she was being treated for pancreatic cancer last month

US representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a strong progressive voice in the Democratic party who was outspoken on African American and women’s rights, has died, her family posted on X late on Friday.

Jackson Lee, of Texas, announced last month she had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was undergoing treatment. She was 74 and had also previously had breast cancer.

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Man accused of Nazi salute during US Capitol attack jailed for nearly five years

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Tyler Dykes, 26, who said at sentencing he is supporting Trump to be president, pleaded guilty to assault charges

A Marine who stormed the US Capitol and apparently flashed a Nazi salute in front of the building was sentenced on Friday to nearly five years in prison.

Tyler Bradley Dykes, of South Carolina, was an active-duty US marine when he grabbed a police riot shield from the hands of two police officers and used it to push his way through police lines during the attack by a mob of Donald Trump’s supporters on 6 January 2021.

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Deli meat-linked listeria outbreak kills two and sends two dozen to hospital

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Largest number of people affected were in New York, and the two who died were from Illinois and New Jersey

At least two people have died and more than two dozen were hospitalized in an outbreak of listeria food poisoning linked to meat sliced at grocery store deli counters, US federal health officials said on Friday.

At least 28 people in a dozen states have gotten sick, though the largest number, seven, were in New York, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The people who died were from Illinois and New Jersey. Samples were collected from 29 May to 5 July and so far, all of the people known to be part of the outbreak have been hospitalized.

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Republican convention featured felons despite party’s ‘law and order’ pledge

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Trump and Peter Navarro – fresh out of Florida jail – both addressed convention with Paul Manafort in attendance

The Republican party that promised in its 2024 policy platform to restore “law and order” as a “pillar” of “American civilisation” packed up and left Milwaukee on Friday after a convention featuring numerous felons.

The most prominent was the keynote speaker: Donald Trump, the former president turned nominee who in May was convicted in New York on 34 criminal charges of falsifying business records arising from hush-money payments to an adult film star.

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Pressure mounts on Biden as tally of Democrats urging withdrawal passes 30

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US president reportedly feeling ‘angry and betrayed’ as speculation swirls that announcement could be imminent

A beleaguered Joe Biden entered potentially the most decisive weekend of his 50-year political career on Friday as the growing list of Democratic members of Congress calling on him to step aside surpassed 30, with the latest being the Ohio senator Sherrod Brown.

Biden is recovering from Covid-19 in self-isolation at his home in Delaware and reportedly feeling “angry and betrayed” by allies and speculation mounted that he might be preparing to announce his withdrawal from the race.

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