Category Archives: US News

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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Biden in South Carolina for one of his first presidential election campaign appearances of 2024

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In the state that is now first on the Democratic primaries calendar, the president offers fresh assurances he would be willing to close down the US-Mexico border

Four years ago, Democrats in South Carolina – and Black Democrats in particular – effectively cleared the field for President Joe Biden’s nomination, ending what might have otherwise been a rowdy primary campaign for the right to face Donald Trump.

At a Democratic Party dinner Saturday in Columbia, SC, celebrating South Carolina’s new status as the first Democratic primary state, Biden returned to thank them for it, one week before voters head to the polls.

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Multiple crashes on Maryland bridge injure 13 and force temporary closures

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More than 40 vehicles involved in collisions on Chesapeake Bay Bridge starting at 8am, says local transportation authority

Several crashes involving more than 40 vehicles occurred on Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Maryland on Saturday, injuring 13 people and forcing temporary closures.

In several announcements on X throughout Saturday morning, the Maryland transportation authority said that all lanes had been closed following a multivehicle crash on westbound lanes and warned of major delays. According to the MDTA, its police dispatch received initial calls of the crash at 8am.

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Zebras and camels, oh my! Animals rescued after fire on Indiana highway

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A truck and trailer en route to Fort Wayne for a Shriner’s event caught fire, prompting a rescue by local law enforcement

A truck hauling zebras and camels for a series of weekend circus performances caught fire early on Saturday on a north-eastern Indiana highway, prompting a police rescue of the animals, which roamed along the freeway, some munching on grass.

The tractor-trailer caught fire at about 2am along Interstate 69 in Grant county, and a state trooper, a Grant county sheriff’s deputy and a third person rescued the five zebras, four camels and a miniature horse by leading them off the smoked-filled trailer, said Sgt Steven Glass with the Indiana state police.

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Minnesota family sues jail over son’s death in custody

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Lucas Bellamy, 40, died from a perforated bowel after repeatedly being denied medical treatment by jail staff

A Minnesota family is suing a county jail alleging their son died in prison after staff refused to provide him with medical attention.

Lucas Bellamy, 40, died in July 2022 three days after he had been arrested by the Hennepin county sheriff’s department. Bellamy’s family says that jail staff ignored their son’s desperate pleas for medical attention and signs that he was in agonizing pain.

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New Orleans man found guilty of manslaughter for 2016 killing of former NFL player

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Cardell Hayes faces up to 40 years in prison for the shooting after a traffic altercation that left Will Smith dead

A jury found a New Orleans man guilty of manslaughter after he shot and killed former NFL player Will Smith in 2016.

Cardell Hayes, 36, could face up to 40 years in prison after the guilty conviction. Hayes’ lawyers tried to argue that he shot Smith out of self-defense following a traffic accident that escalated to an altercation in April 2016. But prosecutors for the Orleans parish district attorney’s office said that Hayes had fired needlessly, according to ESPN.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Ukraine repelling three-pronged attack on Avdiivka, says UK – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our Ukraine war coverage here

A Russian team shot and killed a brother and sister from the Khotin community of the Sumy oblast this morning, the regional military administration said.

The brother and sister were living in the village of Andriivka, which is located in the 5-km border zone.

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‘Out of control’: Congresswoman sounds alarm over ‘unchecked’ gambling boom

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Andrea Salinas warns of ‘upstream problem’ in US mental health crisis and proposes tax revenue be used for treatment

America’s “unchecked” gambling boom risks exacerbating a nationwide mental health crisis, according to a congresswoman pushing for federal government support. The industry is pushing back hard.

Operators must be held “accountable” for rising addiction rates, Andrea Salinas told the Guardian, after lawmakers proposed legislation that – if approved – would provide tens of millions of dollars in funding to help those affected.

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Convicted serial killer confesses to 1980 Florida spring break murder, police say

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Police in Jacksonville draw confession from Billy Mansfield, sentenced to life in prison for five other murders decades ago

After confessing to the murder of an Ohio high schooler on her spring break outside Jacksonville, Florida, in 1980, a jailed serial killer is continuing to talk to detectives investigating other homicides whose clue trails have gone cold, according to authorities.

Billy Mansfield’s confession of the killing of 18-year-old Carol Ann Barrett of Zanesville, Ohio, means officials have now confirmed that he has committed at least six murders. He had previously been handed life sentences in five of the killings, four of which were in California and one of which was in Florida, though officials investigating Barrett’s death made clear in a statement on Thursday that those numbers could grow.

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US approves $23bn sale of F-16 war planes to Turkey

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The sale follows Turkey’s decision to ratify Sweden’s NATO membership

The Biden administration has announced its approved a $US23 billion deal to sell F-16 warplanes to Turkey, after Ankara ratified Sweden’s Nato membership, the state department said.

The state department will now notify Congress of the agreement, as well as of a separate $8.6bn sale of 40 F-35s to Greece.

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‘I knew nothing’: the Warsaw ghetto boy who found his family at 83

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A DNA test has helped Shalom Koray find relatives in the US after escaping the Holocaust in a rucksack at the age of two

In 1943, a two-year-old boy found wandering the streets of the Warsaw ghetto at the height of the Jewish uprising was smuggled out in a rucksack, probably by a police officer.

The identity of the child could not be known. There was no one to attest even to a first name. His early life would be spent hidden away in orphanages, still not safe from antisemitic persecution, and without any real understanding of what it was to have a parent.

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US planning to station nuclear weapons in UK amid threat from Russia – report

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Missiles could be placed at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk in case of potential war between Nato and Russia

The US is planning to station nuclear weapons in the UK for the first time in 15 years amid a growing threat from Russia, according to a report. Warheads three times as strong as the Hiroshima bomb would be located at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk under the proposals, the Telegraph reported.

The US previously placed nuclear missiles at RAF Lakenheath and removed them in 2008 after the cold war threat from Moscow receded. Pentagon documents seen by the newspaper reveal procurement contracts for a new facility at the airbase.

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Angry Trump fumes after $83.3m damages ruling in E Jean Carroll case

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Former president calls verdict ‘absolutely ridiculous’ and accuses Biden of directing ‘witch-hunt’ against him and Republicans

The $83.3m verdict against Donald Trump in the defamation case brought by the writer E Jean Carroll over her allegation of sexual assault was celebrated by opponents of the former president, analysed by legal experts and excoriated by the presumptive 2024 Republican White House nominee and his loyal supporters.

Trump called the verdict “absolutely ridiculous” and claimed it was part of a Joe “Biden-directed witch hunt” against “me and the Republican party”.

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Florida woman’s family sues retirement home after an 11ft-alligator killed her

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Gloria Serge, 85, died in February 2023 after the animal sprang from a retention pond and dragged her back into the water

The family of an elderly woman killed by an alligator as she walked her dog near her Florida home is suing the retirement community where she lived for wrongful death.

Gloria Serge, 85, died in February 2023 after the 11ft alligator, known to residents as Henry, sprang from a retention pond at Spanish Lakes Fairways in Fort Pierce and dragged her back into the water.

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