Category Archives: US News

Santa Fe monument to controversial frontiersman Kit Carson vandalized

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Mayor denounces ‘cowardly act’ targeting US soldier involved in death of hundreds of Native Americans in 19th century

Police in New Mexico’s capital city are investigating the partial destruction of a public monument to a 19th-century frontiersman and US soldier who had a leading role in the death of hundreds of Native Americans during Anglo-American settlement of the American West.

The monument to Christopher “Kit” Carson has been encircled by a plywood barrier for its own protection since 2020, when Santa Fe was swept by the movement to remove depictions of historical figures who mistreated Native Americans amid a national reckoning over racial injustice.

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Virginia library at risk after rightwing push to defund it over LGBTQ+ books

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Samuels Library set to close on 1 October after far-right community members claimed LGBTQ+ books were pornographic

A public county library in Virginia is at risk of shutting down after a group of far-right community members launched a campaign to defund it on accusations it held “pornographic books” though in fact the works usually just explore LGBTQ+ themes.

Samuels Library in Front Royal’s Warren county is set to close on 1 October as public funding has been withheld by the Warren county board of supervisors since July, cutting off crucial financial support.

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US labor movement celebrates new regulation to counter union-busting

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NLRB framework means companies committing illegal acts during unionization efforts will be forced to bargain immediately

America’s resurgent labor movement has won a useful victory with a decision by the National Labor Relations Board that will make unionization easier at firms that break the law while resisting organizing campaigns.

The new framework means companies that are found to have committed illegal acts during unionization-election efforts will be forced to immediately bargain with the union rather than just have to run the election again – which is what happened previously.

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Biden student-debt plan hailed as ‘big step forward’ for millions of borrowers

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Advocates say proposals that cut debt to zero for some borrowers and reduce monthly interest payments are good news

Joe Biden’s new student-loan plan is an important and large step forward on student debt forgiveness in the US even after a previous debt reduction program was controversially struck down by the supreme court, advocates say.

When the justices ruled against Biden’s plan to forgive up to $20,000 in federal student loans per borrower in June, 40 million debt-burdened Americans were left with questions – especially as monthly payments would resume in October after being paused for over three years because of the Covid pandemic.

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New York plan to monitor Labor Day parties with drones prompts outcry

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Police accused of playing ‘fast and loose’ with New Yorkers’ rights to due process and to freely hold peaceful gatherings

New York City police plan to monitor large gatherings and noise complaints over Labor Day weekend with surveillance drones, officials have announced, prompting outcry from privacy advocates.

Police said Thursday that the remote-controlled aircrafts would be deployed to keep tabs on large gatherings, including private events, as New Yorkers prepared to celebrate the weekend heading into Monday’s holiday.

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‘Astonishingly cruel’: Alabama seeks to test execution method on death row ‘guinea pig’

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Nine months after Kenneth Smith’s botched lethal injection, state attorney general has asked for approval to kill him with nitrogen

Kenneth Smith is one of two living Americans who can describe what it is like to survive an execution, having endured an aborted lethal injection last November during which he was subjected to excruciating pain tantamount, his lawyers claim, to torture.

Nine months later Smith has been singled out for another undesirable distinction. If the state of Alabama has its way, he will become the test dummy for an execution method that has never before been used in judicial killings and which veterinarians consider unacceptable as a form of euthanasia for animals – death by nitrogen gas.

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Ukrainian counteroffensive has made ‘notable’ progress in south over past three days, US says

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White House spokesman John Kirby also said reports quoting anonymous US officials criticising Ukrainian effort were ‘not helpful’

Ukraine has made “notable progress” in its southern offensive over the past 72 hours, a top US security official has said, as Kyiv said its troops had broken through Russia’s first line of defences in several places.

In Washington, White House national security council spokesman John Kirby said the US had “noted over the last 72 hours or so some notable progress by Ukrainian armed forces ... in that southern line of advance coming out of the Zaporizhzhia area”.

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Two Proud Boys members get lengthy prison terms for Capitol attack

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Dominic Pezzola sentenced to 10 years while Ethan Nordean received an 18-year sentence for roles in 2021 insurrection

Two members of the far-right Proud Boys militia group who took part in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol with the intention of keeping Donald Trump in the White House were sentenced to lengthy prison terms on Friday.

Ethan Nordean, described by prosecutors as a leader of the extremist group, received an 18-year sentence for crimes that included seditious conspiracy, committed when thousands of Trump supporters overran the Capitol building.

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Biden to award Medal of Honor to army pilot who rescued soldiers in Vietnam

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President to recognize Larry Taylor, who risked his life rescue a reconnaissance team that was about to be overrun by the enemy

The White House says Joe Biden will award the Medal of Honor to a Vietnam war-era US army pilot who risked his life to rescue a reconnaissance team that was about to be overrun by the enemy.

The president will recognize Larry Taylor of Signal Mountain, Tennessee, at a ceremony on 5 September. The Medal of Honor is the American military’s highest decoration given to service members who go above and beyond the call of duty, often risking their lives through selfless acts of valor.

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Proud Boys member receives 10-year prison sentence for US Capitol attack – as it happened

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Dominic Pezzola’s sentence is less than 20-year term prosecutors proposed while Ethan Nordean will also be sentenced. This blog is now closed

We’re expecting Joe Biden to soon speak about the government’s August employment report that came out a few hours ago, which shows employment growth remaining steady in the world’s largest economy, despite the sting of high interest rates, as the Guardian’s Lauren Aratani reports:

The US jobs market is holding steady as interest rates sit at a 22-year high, with US employers adding 187,000 jobs in August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

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Ohio: video released of pregnant Black woman shot dead by police

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Ta’Kiya Young, 21, pronounced dead shortly after Blendon township shooting, in which unborn daughter did not survive

Authorities in Ohio on Friday released police body-camera video showing the fatal police shooting of Ta’Kiya Young, a young Black woman who was pregnant. Young’s family had seen the video, the family’s lawyer said.

The footage showed Young slowly accelerating toward an officer in her path as he yelled for her to stop before firing the single bullet that ended her life.

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Biden hails strength of economy as US adds 187,000 jobs in August

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Number of new jobs matches July’s total, reflecting resilience of labor market even with high interest rates

The US jobs market is holding steady as interest rates sit at a 22-year high, with US employers adding 187,000 jobs in August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The number of new jobs added in August is the same as the number of new jobs in July, showing that the labor market, down to levels seen before the pandemic, is resilient even with high interest rates.

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New York City and state fight over foie gras ban

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Mayor Eric Adams pushes for ban but animal rights activists say Governor Kathy Hochul is ‘in the pocket’ of the industry

Ducks are back on New York’s political minds, close to four years after the city under former mayor Bill de Blasio signed a bill banning the sale and serving of foie gras in New York City, part of what he and his successor, Mayor Eric Adams, portrayed as an animal rights issue.

“The days of foie gras are gone and foie-gotten in New York City,” Adams tweeted in 2019 after the law was passed.

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Canada warning over US travel comes at ‘concerning time’, LGBTQ+ groups say

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Canadian advocacy groups alarmed by anti-LGBTQ+ laws in America and say legislation is having an impact across the border

Canadian LGBTQ+ rights and civil liberties organizations are speaking out about the rise in hostile laws and hate crimes in the United States.

The development comes after the Canadian government earlier this week warned LGBTQ+ Canadian citizens about the risks of visiting the US due to a growing wave of anti-LGBTQ+ local laws.

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Germany says it ended training of Saudi border forces after abuses reported

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Statement comes amid concern about allegations Saudi forces have killed hundreds of migrants

Germany ended a training programme for Saudi border forces, who have been implicated in the mass killing of migrants at the country’s border with Yemen, after it was alerted to reports of “possible massive human rights violations”, the German interior ministry has said.

In a statement to the Guardian, the ministry said training undertaken by the federal police service for the Saudi border force had been “discontinued after reports of possible massive human rights violations became known and, as a precaution, are no longer included in the current training programme [for Saudi security forces]”.

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US pro-Israel groups in bitter feud over Netanyahu’s far-right government

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Hardline Aipac – condemned for unquestioning support of PM – calls liberal rival J Street ‘grave threat’ to Israel’s security

A public feud has broken out between the US’s leading pro-Israel lobby groups over who represents the true interests of the Jewish state in Washington under the most rightwing government in its history.

The hardline American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) has called its smaller and more liberal rival, J Street, a “grave threat” to Israel’s security and accused it of endorsing the country’s “most virulent critics” in Congress.

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Texas law aims to punish prosecutors who refuse to pursue abortion cases

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New law says prosecutors who adopt policy of refusing to go after people for violating abortion bans constitutes ‘official misconduct’

After the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade last year, district attorneys from major counties in Texas vowed not to vigorously prosecute people under the state’s anti-abortion laws.

Now, Texas has a plan to punish them if they don’t fall in line.

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Former Proud Boys leaders sentenced to 17 and 15 years for US Capitol attack

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Joseph Biggs, who played leading role on January 6, gets 17 years in prison and former chapter leader Zachary Rehl 15 years

Two former leaders of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group have each been sentenced to more than a decade in prison for spearheading an attack on the US Capitol to try to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 presidential election.

The 17-year prison term for Joseph Biggs, a Proud Boys organizer, and 15-year sentence for Zachary Rehl, a leader of the group, were the second and third longest sentences handed down yet over the 6 January 2021 attack.

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Roman emperor statue seized from Cleveland museum in looting investigation

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Warrant issued in investigation into smuggling of antiquities looted from Turkey and trafficked through US

A headless bronze statue believed to depict the Roman emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius has been seized from the Cleveland Museum of Art by New York authorities investigating antiquities looted from Turkey.

A warrant signed by a judge in Manhattan on 14 August ordered the seizure of the statue, which the museum acquired in 1986 and had been a highlight of its collection of ancient Roman art.

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Weather tracker: Hurricane Idalia leaves trail of damage in Florida

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Category 3 storm causes extensive flooding in south-east US, while heavy rain and winds also hit France and Italy

Hurricane Idalia struck northern Florida on Wednesday, bringing damaging winds and torrential rain. It made landfall near Keaton Beach on Florida’s Big Bend during the morning as a high-end category 3 hurricane, bringing sustained winds speeds near 125mph (200km/h) and a storm surge of 16ft along Florida’s north-west coastline.

Due to very warm sea surface temperatures, the storm strengthened rapidly over the Gulf of Mexico to category 4 status, before weakening to category 3 as it made landfall. It brought extensive flooding as it passed through and damaged power lines, leaving thousands without electricity.

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