Category Archives: US News

Jim Jordan races to try to change minds of holdouts in bid for House speaker

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Rightwing speakership contender says he thinks he has 217 votes needed to win despite group who say they will not support him

The rightwing congressman Jim Jordan is seeking to shore up support for his bid to succeed Kevin McCarthy as House speaker, with plans to appear on the House floor early this week to try to sway Republican members of Congress who signaled in a secret ballot vote they will not support his bid.

Jordan, a staunch ally of Donald Trump, claimed in a brief interview with Politico he believes he will get the 217 votes required to secure the speakership in a vote he wants to happen on Tuesday.

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UAW says workers at GM battery plants will be covered by contract

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As the autoworkers’ union grapples with the big three automakers for a contract, it expands its coverage to electric vehicle workers

Workers at General Motors’ electric vehicle battery manufacturing facilities will be protected by the company’s national contract with the United Auto Workers (UAW), the union’s president, Shawn Fain, announced last week.

It’s a landmark victory in the fight for a “just transition” away from fossil fuels which prioritizes labor rights, boosting hope that workers in legacy vehicle manufacturers’ EV divisions – and across the country’s burgeoning electric vehicle sector – will have the same protections that US autoworkers have historically enjoyed.

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‘Live out loud’: US Black queer activists fight against ‘tactics of erasure’

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Queer people of color are frequently overlooked in the fight for equality, but inroads into the corridors of power are being made

On the 60th anniversary of the 1963 march on Washington this summer, a few Black queer advocates spoke passionately before the main program about the ongoing struggle for LGBTQ+ rights. As some of them got up to speak, the crowd was still noticeably small.

Hope Giselle, a speaker who is Black and trans, said she felt the event’s programming echoed the historical marginalization and erasure of Black queer activists in the civil rights movement.

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Trump-backed Republican Jeff Landry wins Louisiana governor’s race

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Rightwing attorney general holds off crowded field and will replace Democrat John Bel Edwards, who has served two terms

Attorney General Jeff Landry, a rightwing Republican backed by Donald Trump, has won the Louisiana governor’s race, holding off a crowded field of candidates.

The win is a major victory for the Republican party as they reclaim the governor’s mansion for the first time in eight years. Landry will replace current governor John Bel Edwards, who was unable to seek re-election due to consecutive term limits.

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Piper Laurie, Oscar nominee for Carrie and The Hustler, dies at 91

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The actor, who left acting in 1955 and finally returned to play mother to Sissy Spacek, died of old age, her manager said

Piper Laurie, the strong-willed, Oscar-nominated actor who performed in acclaimed roles despite at one point abandoning acting altogether in search of a “more meaningful” life, died early Saturday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 91.

Laurie died of old age, her manager, Marion Rosenberg, told the Associated Press via email, adding that she was “a superb talent and a wonderful human being”.

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Florida governor Ron DeSantis rejects idea of Palestinian refugees in US

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At event in Iowa, governor conflates Palestinian civilians with Hamas, the terrorist group that attacked Israel a week ago

Republican presidential candidate and Florida governor Ron DeSantis has rejected accepting Palestinian refugees from Gaza to the US, speaking at a campaign rally in the US midwest on Saturday.

“We cannot accept people from Gaza into this country as refugees,” he said. “If you look how they behave … not all of them are Hamas but they are all antisemitic, none of them believe in Israel’s right to exist.”

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US has seen increase in domestic threats since Hamas attacks in Israel, FBI says

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Director Christopher Wray cautioned police vigilance and encouraged police chiefs to continue sharing information

FBI director Christopher Wray has reiterated part of an FBI statement that the US domestic security agency does not have “specific and credible intelligence indicating a threat to the United States stemming from the Hamas attacks in Israel”.

Speaking from prepared remarks at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in San Diego, Wray acknowledged an increase in domestic threats due to the “heightened environment”, calling for increased vigilance and requesting that police continue to share intelligence.

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‘A gorgeous sight’: delight and wonder as US viewers watch annular solar eclipse

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Amid varying levels of cloud cover, Americans gathered and donned special glasses for rare celestial show

It was a moment that won’t happen again for 16 years – and Mother Nature obscured it in some places.

“It was supposed to be sunny in Corpus Christi today and now is clouds everywhere. Trying to see where we have to drive to,” one frustrated eclipse viewer in Texas posted on the Total Solar Eclipse 2024 Facebook page. (The title references next April’s total eclipse, which will be visible in some areas of the US.)

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Louisiana denies clemency hearings to five death row prisoners

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There was a rush to hold hearings before the anti-death penalty governor, John Bel Edwards, leaves office in January

The Louisiana state board of pardons has voted against granting clemency hearings to five Louisiana death row prisoners, effectively ending a campaign to hold hearings for 55 death row inmates before the state’s anti-death penalty governor, John Bel Edwards, steps down in January.

On Friday, the four-member panel sitting in Baton Rouge denied the hearings to four people on a split vote, and by a majority to a fifth, Winthrop Earl Eaton, who was convicted in the 1985 killing of a Louisiana pastor, on the grounds that he is unlikely to be executed because he is mentally incompetent.

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‘Moment of annularity’ sweeps across parts of US as millions watch eclipse – live updates

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‘Ring of fire’ solar eclipse to be visible in California, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and the Gulf of Mexico

The sun’s “ring of fire” is becoming visible to hundreds of thousands of more Americans as the annular eclipse sweeps across the mainland US in a south-eastern direction towards Texas.

The eclipse has passed Oregon and a sliver of northern California, and sky watchers in New Mexico are the next to experience the full effects of the moon passing in front of the sun.

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Jewish and Muslim Americans fear rise in hate crimes amid Israel-Hamas war

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With protests escalating and police departments on alert, assaults and harassment have been reported

Jewish and Muslim Americans in cities all around the country are worried that escalating tensions between Israel and Palestine, which some are calling “isolating and scary”, will exacerbate hate crimes and harassment in the United States.

For many Arab Americans in New York City, Bay Ridge was always a place of safety. The south Brooklyn neighborhood is 3 sq miles of Arabic bodega signs, halal grocers and a growing community of Palestinian, Yemeni, Syrian and Egyptian families.

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Hard-right House Republicans are against Ukraine aid – and they seem to be in charge

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The chaos in the House may have devastating outcomes for the people of Ukraine, some experts warn

As he excoriated Kevin McCarthy over his leadership of the House Republican conference last week, hard-right congressman Matt Gaetz accused the then speaker of cutting a “secret side deal” with Joe Biden to provide additional funding to Ukraine amid its ongoing war against Russia.

“It is becoming increasingly clear who the speaker of the House already works for, and it’s not the Republican conference,” Gaetz, who represents a solidly Republican district in Florida, said in a floor speech at the time.

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‘A dangerous game’: Republican chaos and indecision as crises shake the world

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Israel and Gaza explode, Ukraine asks for more help and other predicaments demand US attention while Republicans quarrel among themselves

The US’s closest ally in the Middle East is reeling from what many call its “9/11” and now a humanitarian disaster looms in Gaza. Winter is approaching in Ukraine, which needs urgent supplies to maintain its counteroffensive against Russia. From China’s expansive ambitions, to coups in Africa, to the climate crisis, the world is crying out for leadership.

But on Capitol Hill in Washington, Republicans can’t find one. Friday marked the 10th day of paralysis as the party struggles to elect a speaker of the House of Representatives to replace the ousted Kevin McCarthy. This after majority leader Steve Scalise won a closed-door vote but abandoned his run because he lacked enough support to win on the House floor.

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London police defy ban on badges linked to far right and white supremacy

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Met officers seen wearing divisive ‘thin blue line’ symbol at sensitive protests despite orders to remove them

Metropolitan police officers are openly defying orders not to wear badges appropriated by the far right and linked to white supremacy.

In July, the force’s chief, Mark Rowley, banned officers from wearing the “thin blue line” badge saying that in the US an equivalent symbol had been used by “hard-right groups”.

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‘Ring of fire’ visible in parts of US as crowds gathered to watch annular eclipse

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Annular solar eclipse passed over eight states from Oregon to Texas and partial eclipse was visible in other continental states

As the “moment of annularity” was reached, photos were snapped, crowds cheered and the sky darkened – in the areas that the annular solar eclipse could be seen, at least.

Annularity during a solar eclipse is the moment when the moon is fully in front of the sun, creating the ring of fire that is the visual highlight of today’s eclipse. It lasts for only a few minutes.

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Tens of thousands rally around the world in support of Israel and Palestinians

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Jewish and Palestinian communities take to the streets as police increase presence around schools, synagogues and mosques

Tens of thousands of protesters rallied across the Middle East and in parts of Asia, Europe and the United States in support of Palestinians and condemnation of Israel as it intensified its strikes on Gaza in retaliation for Hamas attacks a week ago.

Elsewhere, Jewish communities in the US, France and other countries held rallies on Friday in solidarity with Israel after the Hamas attack from Gaza, the deadliest killing spree against Israeli civilians in the country’s 75-year history.

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House speaker saga underscores Republican party’s dramatic evolution

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Party still faces issue of how to reunite their fractious majority and prove to skeptical US public that they are capable of governing

The US House of Representatives will remain leaderless into a second week as Republicans continue to confront a familiar conundrum: how to unite their fractious majority and prove to a skeptical US public that they are a party capable of governing, not just funneling rightwing outrage and culture war rhetoric.

More than a week after a cadre of discontented Republicans deposed their own speaker, Kevin McCarthy, the conference is still deeply divided over who should replace him with no one candidate seemingly able to garner enough support to end the squabbling.

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Dylan Mulvaney says woman-of-the-year award ‘means so much more’ after Bud Light backlash

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Attitude magazine celebrates TikTok star who collaborated with beer maker who left her high and dry after conservatives boycotted

After gaining Attitude magazine’s first-ever woman of the year award, US trans activist Dylan Mulvaney said receiving such recognition from the UK-based LGBTQ+ publication “means so much more” after a substantial transphobic backlash undermined her Bud Light advertisement.

“No matter how hard I try or what I wear, or what I say, or what surgeries I get, I will never reach an acceptable version of womanhood by those hateful people’s standards,” Mulvaney said in social media videos that showed her accepting the award this week. “But as long as I have the queer community that sees me for my truth – I’m gonna be OK.”

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Trump ally Jim Jordan emerges as next Republican House speaker nominee – as it happened

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This blog is now closed. House remains without speaker as Jordan only has a backing of 152 Republican members

Georgia’s Republican representative Austin Scott criticized certain Republicans whom he said “like to go on the TV and are not necessarily negotiating for anything other than TV time.”

Speaking to CNN following yesterday’s closed-door meetings, Scott, who is not supporting Jim Jordan, added, “It makes us look like a bunch of idiots.”

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