Category Archives: US News

Democrats seize on Trump’s ‘horrible city’ remark about Milwaukee for ads

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Wisconsin city will host Republican national convention next month, a key swing state Biden won in 2020

US Democrats have seized on Donald Trump’s dismissal of Milwaukee as “a horrible city” by trumpeting the unflattering description on advertising hoardings – a month before the city in the swing state of Wisconsin hosts the Republican national convention, where the former president is set to be the party’s presidential nominee this November.

Trump reportedly made the comment in a meeting with congressional Republicans in Washington on Thursday, his first return to Capitol Hill since extremist supporters broke into Congress on 6 January 2021, to try to stop Joe Biden’s victory over him.

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Heatwave expected to spread to 250m Americans in midwest and north-east

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Scorching temperatures have already swept south-east where Florida is now grappling with severe flooding

The scorching heatwave that has swept the US south-east in recent weeks will soon spread to the country’s midwest and north-east regions, affecting nearly 250 million Americans.

Temperatures are stuck at 90F (32C) or above for at least the next week in much of the US, the National Weather Service (NWS) predicted. The NWS defines a heatwave as a period of temperatures exceeding 90F for two or more days, and this one could last until 26 June.

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Elon Musk’s $45bn Tesla pay package not a done deal, say legal experts

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Although shareholders have backed chief executive’s remuneration deal, doubts remain over whether he will be able to access share-based package

Tesla’s battle to reinstate Elon Musk’s $45bn (£35bn) pay package is far from over, according to legal experts, despite shareholders backing the chief executive’s remuneration deal.

Investors in the electric carmaker re-ratified the pay deal on Thursday after it had been struck down by a judge in the US state of Delaware. The company’s chair, Robin Deynholm has already pledged to “put it back in front of the court”.

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Colorado was built on stolen tribal land worth $1.7tn, report finds

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Report published by Native American-led non-profit identifies 10 tribal nations tied to land and how it was taken

A report published this week by a Native American-led non-profit examines in detail the dispossession of $1.7tn worth of Indigenous homelands in Colorado by the state and the US – and the more than $546m the state has reaped in mineral extraction from them.

The report, shared first with the Associated Press, identifies 10 tribal nations that have “aboriginal title, congressional title and treaty title to lands within Colorado” and details the ways the land was legally and illegally taken. It determined that many of the transactions were in direct violation of treaty rights or in some cases lacked title for a legal transfer.

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US bank Wells Fargo fires employees for ‘simulating’ being at their keyboards

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Workers were sacked after review found they were ‘creating impression of active work’, says filing

The US bank Wells Fargo has fired more than a dozen workers for alleged “simulation of keyboard activity”, in an apparent attempt to fool their employer into thinking they were working.

The employees were “discharged after review of allegations involving simulation of keyboard activity creating impression of active work”, according to a filing with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

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Hamas official says nobody knows how many hostages are still alive | First Thing

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Hamas spokesperson says Israeli tanks have advanced on Rafah. Plus: Scotland’s burgeoning seaweed industry

Good morning.

With the safe return of the hostages crucial to any deal for a ceasefire, a senior Hamas official has said that “no one has an idea” how many of the 120 remaining hostages in Gaza are alive.

What is happening in Gaza? Israeli tanks advanced into the western part of Rafah on Thursday as the city came under intense helicopter, drone and artillery fire in what residents described as one of the worst bombardments of the area so far.

Are displaced Palestinians receiving aid? The UN’s relief agency for Palestinians, the largest aid organisation operating in Gaza, has accused Israeli authorities of frequently preventing it from delivering aid.

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Top CDC officials warns US needs ‘more tests’ in face of bird flu fears

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Agency principal deputy director wants more testing of farm workers who work in proximity to affected animals

There is not enough testing for bird flu among people and animals in the US, says Dr Nirav Shah, principal deputy director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – but he is wary of pushing the issue and damaging fragile trust among farm workers and owners.

“We would like to be doing more tests,” Shah said. “We’d like to be testing particularly not just symptomatic workers, but anyone on a farm who is exposed.”

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Massachusetts allows transport of marijuana to Martha’s Vineyard in a first

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Regulation had barred moving cannabis over state waters which risked running afoul of federal laws

Cannabis regulators in Massachusetts have issued an administrative order that will allow marijuana to be transported to the state’s famous islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket for the first time.

The order came amid reports Martha’s Vineyard was about to run out of pot, with one dispensary temporarily closing in May and the other saying it would close by September without further supplies.

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Weather tracker: State of emergency in Florida as heavy rain causes flooding

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Emergency services conduct at least 40 rescues and schools, courts and railways closed in some counties

Significant amounts of rain in the past two days have led the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, to declare a state of emergency for the counties of Broward, Collier, Lee, Miami-Dade and Sarasota, while the mayors of Miami-Dade, Miami and Fort Lauderdale also declared a state of emergency.

This has resulted in a number of closures for public schools, courts and Dania Beach’s city hall, where there were at least 40 rescues by emergency services. Rail routes across Miami and the surrounding area were also suspended. The flooding occurred after more than 380mm (15in) of rain fell on several southern Florida cities in just two days.

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Dozens of hikers report illness on trips to waterfalls by Arizona’s Grand Canyon

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People camping on Havasupai reservation say they vomited and had fever as health officers look into source of outbreak

Dozens of hikers say they fell ill during trips to a popular Arizona tourist destination that features towering blue-green waterfalls deep in a gorge neighboring Grand Canyon national park.

Madelyn Melchiors, a 32-year-old veterinarian from Kingman, Arizona, said she was vomiting severely Monday evening and had a fever that endured for days after camping on the Havasupai reservation.

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ACLU hails supreme court’s mifepristone decision: ‘This fight is far from over’ – live

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The supreme court decision marks a victory for reproductive rights activists across the country

The Massachusetts Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren hailed the supreme court’s decision to uphold mifepristone access, calling the challenge to reject it “meritless from the start”.

Warren, an outspoken reproductive rights activist, wrote on X:

This challenge to mifepristone was meritless from the start. Abortion medication is safe and effective. Make no mistake: Donald Trump and Republican politicians will not stop marching us toward a nationwide abortion ban. We must protect reproductive freedom everywhere.

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Native American tribe wins right to hunt gray whales off Washington coast

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Makah people, whose right to hunt whales is noted in treaty, granted waiver by US government to kill two or three a year

After facing decades of legal and bureaucratic hurdles, the Makah Tribe in Washington has won approval from the US to resume whale hunting for the first time in 25 years.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) Fisheries announced on Wednesday that it would grant the tribe a waiver, allowing the Makah “a limited subsistence and ceremonial hunt” under an 1855 treaty. The Makah will be permitted to hunt up to 25 eastern North Pacific gray whales over 10 years.

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US woman faces up to 30 years in prison over bong water: ‘It’s just so wrong’

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Minnesota police charge Jessica Beske, 43, after traces of methamphetamine found in drug paraphernalia in her car

A woman who was pulled over by Minnesota police officers faces up to 30 years in prison after a bong containing water that tested positive for methamphetamine was discovered in her car, despite Minnesota decriminalizing drug paraphernalia last year.

The case shows how some are still affected by harsher laws from the “war on drugs” era.

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‘Pervasive failings’: Phoenix police kill civilians without justification, US says

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Sweeping report says officers in Arizona city routinely violate rights of Black, Hispanic and Native American people

The Phoenix police department routinely discriminates against people of color and kills civilians without justification, the US Department of Justice announced in an investigative report on Thursday.

The government found a “pattern or practice” of the police department using excessive force and violating the civil rights of Black, Hispanic and Native American people. In a first finding of its kind against any US police department, the justice department also concluded that Phoenix police unlawfully detain unhoused people and dispose of their belongings. The justice department further uncovered police discrimination against people with behavioral health disabilities when officers are dispatched to help with people in crisis, and found that police had violated the rights of people engaged in protected speech.

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Trump serenaded by Republicans on first visit to Capitol since January 6

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Lawmakers sing Happy Birthday to ex-president, 78 on Friday, who reportedly called convention host Milwaukee ‘horrible’

Donald Trump went to the US Capitol to rally congressional Republicans in his first visit since 6 January 2021, when his supporters descended on the building in an effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election result in Trump’s favour.

A packed room full of House Republicans sang Happy Birthday to Trump, who turns 78 on Friday.

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Harry Dunn’s family say US ‘obstructing’ inquest into his death

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Relatives of motorcyclist killed in 2019 are looking forward to ‘working with next government’ on public inquiry

The parents of Harry Dunn, a teenage motorcyclist killed in a road collision, have accused the US of “obstructing” their son’s inquest, as they said they were looking forward to working with the next Westminster government to establish a public inquiry.

No representative of the US embassy nor the driver responsible, Anne Sacoolas, attended the four-day inquest, which concluded on Thursday, prompting the Dunn family’s spokesperson, Radd Seiger, to say Washington’s position was that “lives of UK citizens like Harry ultimately do not matter”.

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Jailed journalist Evan Gershkovich to soon stand trial, Russian prosecutor indicates

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Wall Street Journal reporter faces ‘false and baseless charge’ and ‘sham trial’, say paper’s publisher and editor in chief

Russian authorities have indicated that the jailed American reporter Evan Gershkovich will soon stand trial in Ekaterinburg more than a year after his arrest on espionage charges that he, his employer, and the White House have decried as politically motivated.

Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, has been held in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison since last March in the highest-profile arrest of an American journalist in Russia since the cold war.

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Arizona man allegedly sold firearms to undercover FBI agent to ‘incite race war’

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Indictment says Mark Adams Prieto recruited people at gun show to help carry out mass shooting targeting minorities

A firearms dealer in Arizona sold weapons to an undercover federal agent he believed would help him carry out his plan for a mass shooting targeting minorities, an attack that he hoped would “incite a race war”, according to a federal grand jury indictment.

Mark Adams Prieto was indicted Tuesday by the grand jury in Arizona on charges of firearms trafficking, transferring a firearm for use in a hate crime, and possession of an unregistered firearm.

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University of Miami president tapped for chancellor role at UCLA

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Dr Julio Frenk to succeed Gene Block amid scrutiny of university’s handling of pro-Palestinian protests

The president of the University of Miami was chosen Wednesday to become the next chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles, where the retiring incumbent has faced widespread scrutiny over his handling of pro-Palestinian campus protests.

Dr Julio Frenk, a Mexico City-born global public health researcher, was selected by regents of the University of California system at a meeting on the UCLA campus, where there was a swarm of security officers.

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Immigration rights groups sue Biden administration over asylum directive

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Advocates say president’s order restricting asylum claims differs little from Trump move blocked by courts

A coalition of immigrant advocacy groups sued the Biden administration on Wednesday over President Joe Biden’s recent directive that in effect halts asylum claims at the southern border, saying it differs little from a similar move during the Trump administration that was blocked by the courts.

The lawsuit – filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and others on behalf of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and Raices – is the first test of the legality of Biden’s sweeping crackdown on the border, which came after months of internal White House deliberations and is designed in part to deflect political attacks against the president on his handling of immigration.

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