Category Archives: US News

N Scott Momaday, Pulitzer-winning Native American novelist, dies aged 89

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The Kiowa tribe member’s debut House Made of Dawn is credited as the starting point for contemporary Native American literature

N Scott Momaday, a Pulitzer prize-winning storyteller, poet, educator and folklorist whose debut novel House Made of Dawn is widely credited as the starting point for contemporary Native American literature, has died. He was 89.

Momaday died Wednesday at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, publisher HarperCollins announced. He had been in failing health.

Something like a leaf lies here within me; / it wavers almost not at all, / and there is no light to see it by / that it withers upon a black field. / If it could ascend the thousand years into my mouth, / I would make a word of it at last, / and I would speak it into the silence of the sun.

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Nikki Haley was swatted twice within days amid ‘spike’ in threats to officials

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Police responded to fake calls targeting Republican presidential candidate, along with several other high-profile politicians

Nikki Haley was targeted by a second “swatting” attempt on New Year’s Day – just two days after authorities responded to a similar call regarding Haley, according to Reuters.

This time, the call was made by someone who said Haley’s daughter had been shot and was lying in a pool of blood. The caller, who told police her name was Rose, also said she was on the phone with Haley, who was threatening to shoot herself.

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Pennsylvania case challenging ban on Medicaid abortions back in court

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Supreme court rules lower court must hear case arguing decades-old law barring coverage for procedure should be overturned

Pennsylvania’s supreme court ruled on Monday that a lower court must hear a case challenging a ban on the use of government-funded healthcare to pay for abortions, raising hopes among reproductive rights advocates for an expansion of abortion access in the state and the establishment of a constitutional right to the procedure.

The case, brought by abortion providers in the state, challenged a decades-old state law barring Medicaid from covering abortions, arguing that it should be overturned because it violates the broader rights guaranteed by the state constitution’s Equal Rights Amendment.

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Elon Musk says Neuralink has implanted first brain chip in a human

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Billionaire’s startup will study functionality of interface, which it says lets those with paralysis control devices with their thoughts

Elon Musk, Neuralink’s billionaire founder, said the first human received an implant from the brain-chip startup on Sunday and is recovering well, in a post on Twitter/X on Monday.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had given the company clearance last year to conduct its first trial to test its implant on humans.

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Middle East crisis live: US vows ‘very consequential’ response to deadly attack as reports suggest drone was misidentified

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White House spokesman says Biden mulling options as media reports suggest the drone that killed three US service people was confused with a US drone

Medical sources in the West Bank have said that the man killed by Israeli military fire in the village of Yamoun, near Jenin, was 21-year-old Tair Hamo, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz has reported.

As we reported earlier, the Israeli military carried out raids on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin overnight, as well as a nearby town and village.

If we don’t want another October 7, we need to go back home and control [Gaza]. We need to find a legal way to voluntarily emigrate [Palestinians] and impose death sentences on terrorists … I turn to you, prime minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu: this is time for brave decisions.

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Biden beware: US must fully consider response to soldiers’ deaths – or risk Iran escalation

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President is facing pressure from Republicans after numerous attacks on US bases by Iran’s proxies

The killing of three American soldiers in Jordan and the wounding of dozens more, allegedly by an Iranian-backed group, is a red line that was always likely to be crossed in what is becoming an increasingly dangerous region.

The US had up to this weekend avoided fatalities in more than 150 attacks on its military bases by Iranian proxies since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war after the 7 October attacks, but that luck could not last for ever. The question now is what lies on the far side of that red line.

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Jury selection begins in fatal shooting trial of Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay

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Karl Jordan Jr, 40, and Ronald Washington, 59, are accused of murdering the musician over a drug deal in 2002

Jury selection began Monday in the trial of the two men charged in the 2002 fatal shooting of Jam Master Jay, a member of the legendary hip-hop group Run-DMC.

The defendants, Karl Jordan Jr, 40, and Ronald Washington, 59, are accused of murdering the musician over a drug deal. Opening statements were expected in a state courthouse in Brooklyn after the jury is selected.

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‘Existential’ avian flu outbreak forces US egg farmers to kill entire flocks

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Highly contagious virus has particularly ravaged California’s Sonoma county, know as the ‘Egg Basket of the World’

Last month, Mike Weber got the news every poultry farmer fears: his chickens tested positive for avian flu.

Following government rules, Weber’s company, Sunrise Farms, had to slaughter its entire flock of egg-laying hens – 550,000 birds – to prevent the disease from infecting other farms in Sonoma county north of San Francisco.

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Woman trapped overnight in freezing cold as Tahoe gondola grinds to a halt

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Monica Laso survives ordeal on Heavenly gondola in California ski resort, where temperatures fell to 23F (-5C)

A snowboarder visiting a California resort survived freezing temperatures after accidentally getting stuck in a gondola overnight.

Monica Laso’s story, as she told it to NBC affiliate KCRA, vividly illustrated how suddenly and unexpectedly leisure trips can turn into near-death experiences.

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E Jean Carroll aims to give defamation money ‘to something Trump hates’

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Former Elle columnist tells Good Morning America: ‘If it’ll cause him pain for me to give money to certain things, that’s my intent’

E Jean Carroll intends to spend the $83m awarded to her in her defamation trial against Donald Trump on something the former president “hates”, she revealed just days after the judgment.

On Friday, the jury in Carroll’s case decided that she should receive $18.3m in compensatory damages and $65m punitive retribution in the case pitting her against Trump. Of the $18.3m, Trump was told to pay Carroll $11m to fund a reputational repair campaign and $7.3m for the emotional harm caused by statements he made against her in 2019.

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Pentagon mulls response to Jordan drone strike amid fears for Gaza ceasefire efforts

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Lloyd Austin says president ‘will not tolerate attacks on US forces’, but Qatar warns that reprisal attacks could undermine Israel hostage talks

US defense secretary Lloyd Austin has vowed to take “all necessary actions” to defend US troops after Iran-backed militants killed three US troops and wounded dozens more in a drone attack on a US base in Jordan.

“The president and I will not tolerate attacks on US forces and we will take all necessary actions to defend the US and our troops,” Austin said at the Pentagon on Monday.

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Dying man who stole Dorothy’s Wizard of Oz ruby slippers escapes jail term

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Terry Jon Martin, 76, who is living in hospice care, stole slippers from Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota in 2005

A dying thief who confessed to stealing a pair of ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in The Wizard of Oz because he wanted to pull off “one last score” was given no prison time at his sentencing hearing Monday.

Terry Jon Martin, 76, stole the slippers in 2005 from the Judy Garland Museum in the late actor’s home town of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. He gave into temptation after an old mob associate told him the shoes had to be adorned with real jewels to justify their $1m insured value, his attorney revealed in a memo to the federal court ahead of his sentencing in Duluth.

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Jordan drone strike: who are Islamic Resistance in Iraq and what is Tower 22?

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The group that claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on a US military base in Jordan is a loose coalition of Iranian-backed militias

Three US service personnel were killed and 34 wounded on Sunday after a drone hit a residential quarters at a military outpost in Jordan known as Tower 22, which lies on the border between Iraq and Syria.

It is the first time US soldiers have been killed by hostile fire since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, after an estimated 150 attacks by Iranian-based militias on American bases in Iraq and Syria since 7 October.

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Teen murder suspect who escaped from US hospital caught with handcuff key in pocket

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Shane Pryor, 17, awaiting trial over October 2020 homicide, escaped from Children’s hospital of Philadelphia last week

A teenager awaiting trial in a homicide case who escaped outside a Philadelphia hospital last week was captured on Sunday – with a handcuff key in one of his pockets, police said.

The key that Shane Pryor had on him at the time of his arrest is used to get out of restraints. But there is no evidence he ever used it, said Robert Clark of the US Marshals Service, who caught Pryor, according to the local news outlet WTXF.

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Three US service members killed in ‘despicable’ drone attack in Jordan, Biden says

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Iranian backed militia took credit for attack that injured 34 troops and killed first US soldiers in battle since start of the Gaza conflict

The spectre of a direct US-Iranian military conflict drew closer on Sunday when the US president Joe Biden announced three US servicemen have been killed and more than 34 injured following a drone attack on a US service base on the border of Jordan and Syria. Biden blamed Iranian backed militia mainly based in Iraq for the “despicable” attack and vowed revenge.

Responsibility for Saturday’s attack on Tower 22, a military outpost on the Jordanian Syrian Iraqi borders was claimed by the Iranian backed umbrella group Islamic Resistance, and the US made no attempt to disguise its belief that Iran was ultimately responsible.

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Central Park Five exoneree says police pulled him over without explanation

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NYPD body camera footage shows city council member Yusef Salaam being stopped, renewing light on police transparency bill

New York city council member Yusef Salaam, a member of the exonerated group of men known as the Central Park Five, says he was stopped and pulled over by police without being given an explanation.

The police stop in New York City on Friday casts a renewed light on a police transparency bill, called the How Many Stops Act, that city council members are set to vote on Tuesday to override mayor Eric Adams’ veto. It would require officers to publicly report on all investigative stops, including relatively low-level encounters with civilians.

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Welsh semiconductor factory ‘left in limbo’ as Westminster fails to approve US takeover

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Labour criticises government ‘dithering’, after Vishay deal last autumn to buy chip maker Newport Wafer Fab stalls, putting jobs at risk

Labour has criticised “dither and delay” from the government over a decision on a proposed takeover of the UK’s largest semiconductor facility by a US company, warning that it could lead to further job cuts at the Welsh factory.

The fate of Newport Wafer Fab in south Wales has been unclear for nearly two years since the UK government first indicated it had concerns over a 2021 takeover by the Chinese-owned Nexperia firm. The national security concerns related to the ownership of semiconductor technology by a company with links to China.

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The search for Trump’s running mate: ‘like auditions for The Apprentice’

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At issue is whether potential vice-presidents, from Elise Stefanik to Tim Scott, could assume control – and whether Trump cares

The last person who occupied the job of US vice-president ended up the target of a violent mob calling for him to be hanged. Even so, as Donald Trump closes in on the Republican nomination for 2024, there is no shortage of contenders eager to be his deputy.

It is safe to assume that Mike Pence, who was Trump’s running mate in 2016 and 2020, will not get the job this time. His refusal to comply with his boss’s demand to overturn the last election caused a permanent rift and made Pence a perceived traitor and target of the January 6 insurrectionists.

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Jury to decide fate of LA socialite for fatally striking two kids with her car

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Prosecutors allege Rebecca Grossman, 60, was speeding when she hit brothers Mark Iskander, 11, and Jakob Iskander, eight

More than three years ago, a Los Angeles socialite allegedly fatally struck two young boys as they were crossing the street. Now a jury will decide whether Rebecca Grossman is guilty of second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run driving.

This week jurors heard opening statements in the long-awaited trial of Grossman for the deaths of brothers Mark Iskander, 11, and Jacob Iskander, eight.

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Death, guns and ‘corrupt cop’ claims: saga that gripped New Orleans reaches its end

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The verdict in the manslaughter trial over the 2016 death of Saints star Will Smith brings to a close a turbulent eight years of legal wrangling

Ever since the New Orleans tow-truck company owner Cardell Hayes shot the retired local pro-football champion Will Smith to death and wounded the former athlete’s wife on a city street late on the night of 9 April 2016, people on all sides of the case have made it as complicated as possible in their fight for what they consider to be justice.

It is a case that has gripped south-eastern Louisiana – where football players are huge celebrities – and also involved dark, if unsupported, allegations of another deep south staple: police corruption. Competing theories and narratives have vied for supremacy, with almost as many different ideas of what happened as people willing to voice them.

Ramon Antonio Vargas covered the New Orleans Saints in 2013 and 2014 at the New Orleans Advocate and also covered the case of Hayes and Smith before joining the Guardian in 2022.

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