Category Archives: US News

Biden abortion ad marks campaign shift to emphasize reproductive rights

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Campaign ad, titled Forced, is designed to tie Donald Trump directly to the abortion issue

The Biden re-election campaign rolled out a new campaign ad Sunday, signaling a shift in emphasis to reproductive rights that the White House hopes will carry and define Democrats through the 2024 election cycle.

The campaign ad, titled Forced, is designed to tie Donald Trump directly to the abortion issue almost 18 months after his nominees to the supreme court helped to overturn a constitutional right to abortion enshrined in Roe v Wade, which would have turned 51 this week.

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‘I’m not ready, brother’: US man to be put to death months after botched execution attempt

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Kenneth Smith, to be executed in Alabama by untested gas method, tells Guardian of nightmares from failed lethal injection

On Tuesday morning, Kenneth Smith will be moved within the Holman correctional facility in Alabama to the “death cell”, the bluntly named holding unit where condemned prisoners are placed two days before their appointed execution.

Smith knows the cell well. He knows its dimensions and the feel of the place. He knows that it sits only about 20 feet from the death chamber where, barring a last-minute reprieve, he will be escorted in handcuffs and leg irons on Thursday before being strapped to a gurney to await his fate.

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Newspapers stolen after a story about rape charges at Colorado police chief’s house

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Theft occurred on day the Ouray County Plaindealer published story about alleged sexual assault at party at police chief’s house

Nearly all the copies of a small-town Colorado newspaper were stolen from newspaper racks on the same day the Ouray County Plaindealer published a story about charges being filed over rapes alleged to have occurred at an underage drinking party at the police chief’s house while the chief was asleep, the owner and publisher said Friday.

Mike Wiggins vowed to get to the bottom of it, posting Thursday on X, formerly Twitter: “If you hoped to silence or intimidate us, you failed miserably. We’ll find out who did this. And another press run is imminent.”

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‘Tortuguita vive’: campaigners across US hail anti-Cop City activist killed by police

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Events in more than 30 cities mark ‘Day of the Forest Defender’, recognizing enduring impact of Manuel Paez Terán

At a gathering Thursday, the mother of an activist killed by police had a clear message on the first anniversary of their death: “I have news for you. Manuel is alive. Tortuguita vive!”

It was a message of celebration for the life of Manuel Paez Terán, also known as “Tortuguita”, that was being made in Atlanta and more than 30 cities across the US, a sign of the slain activist’s enduring impact on several movements, observers said.

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‘You will not replace us’: a deadly attack on a Slovakian gay bar – and its link to a fast-spreading racist ideology

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Fifteen months after two men were shot in Bratislava, evidence suggests the killer may have been helped by an unidentified US-based extremist

The October evening was warm and sunny. At about 7pm, two young men stepped out of the Tepláreň bar on Zámocká Street in the centre of Bratislava, to sit on a concrete bench and drink lemonade. Matúš, 23, had just arrived in the Slovakian capital to study Chinese. His 26-year-old friend worked in a local clothes shop and enjoyed anime, K-pop and dance.

Standing in an alcove a few metres away was Juraj Krajčík. The 19-year-old had been loitering for about half an hour, witnesses later said. Shortly after the two patrons of the Tepláreň sat down, Krajčík stepped forward, raised a .45-calibre handgun and fired several shots at them. Then he turned and ran, gun in hand.

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Big tech boom or bust? Experts see signs of strength after wave of layoffs

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Even as more job cuts await, some analysts see the beginnings of a bull market in the coming season of earnings reports

Will 2024 be a boom or a bust for big tech? By one estimate, there have been more than 7,500 layoffs in the sector since the start of the year – a dispersal of pink slips that many hoped would have ceased after the deep job cuts of 2023.

However, as the US’s big tech earnings season gets under way this week, some analysts are predicting strong numbers. This batch of quarterly financial results may show that the industry has cleared out its pandemic-era overhiring and reorganised itself around cloud computing and AI - necessitating cuts in sectors with less rosy prospects. Analysts keen on AI say we are at the start of a tech bull market.

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‘We will never go away’: anti-abortion activists meet in Washington to plan further bans

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Abortion opponents are emboldened by the fall of Roe, but many states have enacted protections after ruling

Mike Pence had a message: always vote against abortion rights – even if, he suggested, that means voting for Donald Trump.

“That’s why we have primaries. We sort ’em out at every level. But after the primary’s over, you vote pro-life,” the former Republican vice-president to Trump told a downtown Washington DC ballroom of young, diehard anti-abortion activists on Saturday. “You go get behind men and women who are going to stand for the right to life.”

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Zelenskiy slams Trump’s rhetoric on stopping the war as ‘very dangerous’

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Ukrainian leader invited Trump to Ukraine but says if he returns to White House he could make unilateral concessions to Russia

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, fears that if Donald Trump returns to the White House next year he could make unilateral concessions to Russia that override Ukraine’s interests and branded the former US president’s claims he could stop the war in 24 hours as “very dangerous”.

In an interview with the UK’s Channel 4 News, Zelenskiy said he was “stressed” that the former president “is going to make decisions on his own, without … I’m not even talking about Russia, but without both sides, without us.”

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Newburgh Four: judge orders release of man convicted in US terror sting

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James Cromitie was convicted in 2010 after FBI invented a conspiracy to attack synagogues and military planes

A man convicted in a post-9/11 terrorism sting was ordered freed from prison by a judge who criticized the FBI for relying on an “unsavory” confidential informant for an agency-invented conspiracy to blow up New York synagogues and shoot down national guard planes.

The US district judge Colleen McMahon on Friday granted James Cromitie, 58, compassionate release from prison six months after she ordered the release of his three co-defendants, known as the Newburgh Four, for similar reasons.

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Snow and storms across US as 55 reported killed in winter weather

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Cold snap continues from south to Pacific north-west, with thaw not expected until next week

The deep freeze affecting millions of people across the US is continuing this weekend, as bitterly frigid air spilled into the midwest from Canada amid high winds that could make it feel like -30F (-34C) outside in some areas.

The list of severe weather events was growing as the US struggled with the intense cold and news reports said at least 55 people across 10 states had been killed in weather-related incidents over the past week or so since the cold snap hit.

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Trump gains backing of Tim Scott as New Hampshire primary nears

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Haley needs a strong showing after Trump’s Iowa victory, but ex-president is running strong after picking up new endorsement

The New Hampshire primary campaign has entered its final days with an increasingly nasty tone as Nikki Haley and Donald Trump attacked each other amid yet more signs that Republicans are consolidating their support around the former US president as he secured a vital endorsement.

On Friday night in New Hampshire, South Carolina senator Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate and a former presidential hopeful himself, said he was throwing his weight behind Trump amid rumors that he is in the running to become Trump’s running mate.

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Gravesites from former Black cemetery discovered at Florida air force base

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Officials say search will continue after as many as 121 unmarked graves were located at MacDill air force base in Tampa

As many as 121 unmarked graves in a former Black cemetery have been discovered at a US air force base in Florida, military officials confirmed.

A nonintrusive archaeological survey performed over the past two years at the MacDill air force base in Tampa identified 58 probable graves and 63 possible graves, base officials said on Thursday, WFTS-TV reported.

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Revealed: far-right figures try to create white nationalist ‘haven’ in Kentucky

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Venture fund and real estate startup linked to far-right groups promote residential development as community for rightwingers

A venture fund and a real estate startup – both with links to far-right organizations – are promoting a residential development in rural Kentucky as a haven for fellow rightwingers.

The promoters have presented the planned development as an “aligned community” for rightwingers who want to “disappear from the cultural insanity of the broader country” and “spearhead the revival of the region”.

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US woman donates kidney to man – whose wife donates to donor’s brother

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Tale of generosity between Tony and Tracey Gonzalez from Illinois and Joely Sanders and Frank Pompa from Arizona goes viral

When Tony Gonzalez of Illinois required an organ donor to be freed from the dialysis machine keeping him alive despite his failing kidney, an Arizona woman named Joely Sanders stepped up.

Sanders’s brother, Frank Pompa, also required a new kidney after one of his had failed – and, of all people, it was Gonzalez’s wife, Tracey, who provided the crucial organ donation to free him from his dialysis machine in October.

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John Lewis review: superb first biography of a civil rights hero

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With In Search of the Beloved Community, Raymond Arsenault delivers a fitting tribute to the late Democrat from Georgia

John Lewis: In Search of the Beloved Community chronicles one man’s quest for a more perfect union. An adventure of recent times, it is made exceptional by the way the narrative intersects with current events. It is the perfect book, at the right time.

Raymond Arsenault also offers the first full-length biography of the Georgia congressman and stalwart freedom-fighter. The book illuminates Lewis’s time as a planner and participant of protests, his service in Congress and his time as an American elder statesman.

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Shangri-Las lead singer, Mary Weiss, dies aged 75

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Weiss led US girl band with run of hit songs about teenage love and tragedy, including Leader of the Pack

Mary Weiss, the lead singer of the 1960s pop group the Shangri-Las, has died at the age of 75, her record label said.

The US girl band rose to stardom with a run of hit songs about teenage love and tragedy, including Remember (Walking in the Sand) and Leader of the Pack, and was later inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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Biden says two-state solution still possible after call with Netanyahu

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US president says Israeli PM not opposed to all two-state solutions after pair talk for first time in nearly a month

Joe Biden has said the creation of an independent state for Palestinians was still possible while Benjamin Netanyahu was still in office, following a call with the Israeli prime minister on Friday.

The US president spoke to Netanyahu for the first time in nearly a month about differences over a future Palestinian state, as well as Israel’s ongoing offensive in Gaza, where the Palestinian death toll is approaching 25,000, according to local health authorities.

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‘We don’t want to be the bad guys’: anti-abortion marchers seek post-Roe stance

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On the 51st anniversary of Roe v Wade, a sparse crowd of activists brave snow on March for Life in Washington DC

While Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are planning a cascade of ads and events to coincide with the 51st anniversary of Roe v Wade, hundreds of anti-abortion activists gathered on the National Mall in Washington DC on Friday in hopes of re-energizing a movement that has repeatedly stumbled since Roe’s overturning.

Originally organized around the goal of overturning the Roe precedent that established federal abortion rights, the March for Life has seen what was once its greatest victory become a political liability. In the 18 months since Roe’s demise, abortion rights supporters have trounced anti-abortion activists in state-level ballot referendums. Yet the march’s message was largely similar to past years: speakers and attendees alike talked about the need to make abortion “unthinkable” rather than just illegal – with scant details on how to make that happen.

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Biden signs measure to avert shutdown but Ukraine aid remains frozen

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Hard-right Republicans ensure chances of more money and weapons for Kyiv hinge on immigration reform negotiations

Joe Biden signed a measure to keep the US government funded on Friday but as Washington shivered under its second major snowfall in a week, the bill did not unfreeze funding for Ukraine.

Hard-right House Republicans, led by the speaker, Mike Johnson, are ensuring the chances of more money and weapons for Kyiv in its fight with Moscow hinge on negotiations for immigration reform.

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Roger Stone should be prosecuted, says Democrat he allegedly threatened to kill

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Eric Swalwell calls for action against Trump ally apparently recorded saying congressman or colleague ‘has to die’

The California Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell has called for the rightwing activist and Trump ally Roger Stone to be prosecuted over an alleged death threat he also made against Jerry Nadler, a Democrat from New York.

Asked by Scripps News if he wanted Stone to be prosecuted, Swalwell said: “Yes, I absolutely do. I know [the] aim [of the threat] is to not just threaten and in this case take a specific action, but its aim is to silence Donald Trump’s critics.”

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