Category Archives: US News

Democrats are angry over media coverage of Biden. Is it a distraction?

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Fury at the New York Times followed frustration at the justice system. Critics say the president’s supporters are aiming at the wrong targets

When an opinion poll in the New York Times found that a majority of Joe Biden’s voters believe he is too old to be an effective US president, the call to action was swift. But it was not aimed at Joe Biden.

“Amplifying flawed presidential polls, refusing to report on [Donald] Trump’s cognitive issues, the NYT is biased for Trump,” was a sample response on social media. “If you have a subscription to NYT, cancel it.”

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Zyn nicotine pouches are the latest US culture-war front – but are they any good?

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Tucker Carlson is among those railing against attempts to investigate Zyn’s health effects. I thought I’d try it – never again

It began when Chuck Schumer, the Democratic senator, issued a call for Zyn to be regulated.

The nicotine-flavored pouches had become something of a favorite among rightwing influencers and pundits, and backers including Tucker Carlson and others have variously claimed that Zyn can increase testosterone and turn a user into an “unstoppable force”.

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Major US corporations threaten to return labor to ‘law of the jungle’

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Trader Joe’s and SpaceX are among businesses challenging the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board

Upset by the surge in union drives, several of the best-known corporations in the US are seeking to cripple the country’s top labor watchdog, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), by having it declared unconstitutional. Some labor experts warn that if those efforts succeed, US labor relations might return to “the law of the jungle”.

In recent weeks, Elon Musk’s SpaceX as well as Amazon, Starbucks and Trader Joe’s have filed legal papers that advance novel arguments aimed at hobbling and perhaps shutting down the NLRB – the federal agency that enforces labor rights and oversees unionization efforts. Those companies are eager to thwart the NLRB after it accused Amazon, Starbucks and Trader Joe’s of breaking the law in battling against unionization and accused SpaceX of illegally firing eight workers for criticizing Musk.

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The downwinders: New Mexicans sickened by atomic bomb testing fight for compensation

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New film First We Bombed New Mexico sheds light on effects of Oppenheimer’s nuclear project and locals’ battle for justice

Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández watched Oppenheimer – a top contender at Sunday’s Academy Awards and Christopher Nolan’s treatment on the physicist who guided testing of the first atomic bomb at Los Alamos, New Mexico – months ago.

And soon after the scene where Cillian Murphy, as J Robert Oppenheimer, peered through safety goggles in a fortified shed at the huge mushroom cloud, the New Mexico Democrat realized “the untold story” lay on the cutting room floor.

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Journalist says Katie Britt’s story about child sex abuse ‘out-and-out lie’

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Jonathan Katz accuses Britt of being ‘dishonest’ in State of the Union rebuttal with story about Karla Jacinto Romero

Doubts have been cast on the accuracy of a story about horrific child sex abuse told by the Republican senator Katie Britt in her widely ridiculed speech delivered in rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address.

The journalist and author Jonathan Katz has accused Britt of being “fundamentally dishonest” for invoking the case of a woman who had been sex-trafficked at age 12 and raped multiple times to illustrate the supposed failure of the Biden administration’s border control policies.

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United’s emergency landing in LA marks airline’s fourth safety incident this week

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United flight 821 from San Francisco to Mexico City landed at Los Angeles international airport after crew reported hydraulics issue

United Airlines’ bad week for safety issues continued on Friday afternoon when a plane was forced to make an emergency diversion due to an issue with its hydraulic system.

United flight 821 from San Francisco to Mexico City made an emergency landing at Los Angeles international airport after the crew reported a hydraulics issue, the Federal Aviation Authority said.

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‘Young and handsome’: Biden kicks off $30m ad blitz with spot addressing age

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Coinciding with multistate tour, 60-second ad shows president joking about age and stressing ‘strongest economy in the world’

Joe Biden’s campaign kicked off a $30m TV and digital ad blitz in key swing states on Saturday with an ad in which the president directly addresses concerns about his age.

Set to run for six weeks on stations including Black- and Hispanic-owned outlets, and released shortly after his fiery State of the Union address, the 60-second spot does not shy away from what many voters say is growing concern with the president’s age. The ad, titled For You, opens with Biden in light-hearted form. “Look, I’m not a young guy. That’s no secret,” the 81-year old president says. “But I understand how to get things done for the American people.”

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The US could be facing a 2008-style financial crisis. Why does Sunak want to copy it?

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The PM’s admiration for Washington’s economic model may backfire amid looming US banking and stock market disasters

One of the consistent themes of the Conservative economic narrative is an admiration for the US and its ability to grow quickly. The way it has bounced back from the pandemic and how it has ridden out the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine should serve as a blueprint.

A neoliberal Conservative analysis puts the emphasis on tech, innovation and a myth-like entrepreneurial spirit that the UK would do well to emulate. What it ignores is the way the US economy zips ahead on fantastical stock market valuations and off-balance-sheet accounting reminiscent of the years before the 2008 financial crisis. And how both these habits could bite back in a big way, much as they did in 2008, and pretty soon.

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Power line pole at fault in biggest wildfire in Texas history, report says

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Investigation by forest service into Smokehouse Creek fire says decayed Xcel Energy pole ‘had broken off at ground level’

The biggest wildfire in Texas state history, which killed two people and scorched more than 1m acres, was caused by a power line pole that had decayed at the base, an investigation has concluded.

The finding comes from a Texas A&M forest service investigation into the Smokehouse Creek fire, which blazed through the state’s Panhandle region and into neighbouring Oklahoma after breaking out near the small town of Stinnett on 26 February.

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‘Nothing redeemable in him’: Robert De Niro says he would never play Donald Trump

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The actor also implored voters in the US to choose Biden in the upcoming presidential election

He’s played mobsters, murderers, vigilantes and psychopaths. But the one person Robert De Niro said was too irredeemable to play? Donald Trump.

The outspoken Hollywood actor spoke about why he would not want Trump to become president again during an appearance on the Real Time With Bill Maher chatshow, in which he urged voters to vote for Joe Biden.

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Atlanta Police Foundation ignored records requests about role in Cop City, lawsuit claims

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University of Georgia filed complaint on behalf of news outlet and transparency research organization, saying queries unanswered

A law clinic at the University of Georgia has sued the Atlanta Police Foundation, after the non-profit organization repeatedly ignored records requests from journalists and researchers about its role in backing the controversial police-training center opponents have dubbed Cop City.

The complaint, filed on behalf of the digital news outlet Atlanta Community Press Collective and the Chicago-based digital transparency research organization Lucy Parsons Labs, details how numerous queries to the foundation under Georgia’s Open Records Act have not been answered.

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Biden criticises Trump’s Mar-a-Lago meeting with Orbán

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US president told supporters Hungary’s premier was looking for dictatorship

Joe Biden has criticised his election rival Donald Trump for meeting Viktor Orbán, saying the Hungarian premier was “looking for dictatorship”.

Orbán travelled to Florida on Friday to meet his “good friend” Trump. Orbán has frequently expressed hope for the Republican’s return to power.

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Helicopter patrolling US-Mexico border crashes killing three

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Chopper in federal government’s border security mission went down near Rio Grande City, leaving two national guard soldiers and a border patrol agent dead

A helicopter flying over the US-Mexico border in Texas has crashed, killing two national guard soldiers and a border patrol agent, the US military has said.

Another soldier on board was injured.

The UH-72 Lakota helicopter was assigned to the federal government’s border security mission when it went down near Rio Grande City on Friday, the joint taskforce north said. The cause was under investigation.

The crash happened mid-afternoon while the helicopter was conducting aviation operations, according to the taskforce’s statement.

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US government avoids shutdown after Senate approves $460bn in spending

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Vote gets lawmakers about halfway home in wrapping up their appropriations work for the 2024 budget year

The US government has narrowly avoided a partial shutdown after senators approved a $460bn package of spending bills before a midnight deadline that would have shuttered many key federal agencies.

The Senate approved the six funding bills, which passed the House on Wednesday in a bipartisan vote of 339-85, on Friday evening, a vote that gets lawmakers about halfway home in wrapping up their appropriations work for the 2024 budget year.

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Officials investigating 2.5-mile long oil sheen off southern California coast

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Unified command was formed to look in to the origin of the sheen, which did not seem to be expanding since it was first detected

Authorities in southern California are investigating a 2.5-mile (4km) long oil sheen that emerged off the coast of Huntington Beach on Thursday evening.

The sheen doesn’t appear to be a crude oil spill – it could be the result of natural seepage – and federal and state teams have deployed to the area to determine the source.

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Three men charged with murder in deaths of US couple who disappeared in Caribbean

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Ralph Hendry, 66, and Kathleen Brandel, 77, had been cruising the eastern Caribbean when their catamaran was hijacked

Three men who had escaped from prison have been charged with capital murder in connection with the deaths of an American couple who disappeared in the Caribbean in February after their catamaran was hijacked.

The Royal Grenada Police Force announced Friday that Trevon Robertson, 23; Atiba Stanislaus, 25; and Ron Mitchell, 30, were re-arrested on two counts of capital murder in the slayings of Ralph Hendry and Kathleen Brandel.

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US not hiding aliens or UFO technology from the public, Pentagon says

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Defense department releases report calling deluge of reports and claims about government reverse-engineering tech ‘inaccurate’

The US is not secretly hiding alien technology or extraterrestrial beings from the public, according to a defense department report.

On Friday, the Pentagon published the findings of an investigation conducted by the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), a government office established in 2022 to detect and, as necessary, mitigate threats including “anomalous, unidentified space, airborne, submerged and transmedium objects”.

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RNC elects Trump’s daughter-in-law as co-chair, marking his expanding party influence – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. For more on Lara Trump’s RNC appointment, you can read our full story:

Rightwing commentators have lambasted the Alabama senator who Republicans chose to deliver the rebuttal to Joe Biden’s State of the Union address.

Katie Britt delivered the Republican response from what appeared to be her kitchen.

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Drowning deaths at US-Mexico border up 3,200% since Trump raised wall height – report

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Thirty-three people attempting to cross the border into San Diego died in the Pacific Ocean from 2020 to 2023, study shows

Thirty-three people attempting to cross the US border drowned in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego after the Trump administration nearly doubled the height of the walls along the southern border, a staggering increase from previous years.

The number of drownings rose by 3,200% from 2020 to 2023, compared to 2016 to 2019, when just one person drowned, according to a study published this week. By 2019 the Trump administration had elevated the barriers around San Diego from 17ft to 30ft.

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‘He paved a cocaine superhighway’: ex-Honduran president convicted in New York trafficking trial

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Juan Orlando Hernández, 55, once a US ally in the ‘war on drugs’, found guilty on three counts and faces 40 years in prison

The former president of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernández has been convicted of cocaine trafficking, securing a place in infamy for the one-time US ally in the war on drugs.

Hernández is the first former head of state to be found guilty of drug trafficking in the United States since Panamanian strongman Gen Manuel Noriega was convicted in 1992.

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