Category Archives: US News

Professor resigns after outrage over false claims of Native American roots

Posted on by

Andrea Smith, an ethnic studies scholar at a California university, had faced decades of criticism for claiming Cherokee heritage

An ethnic studies professor at the University of California, Riverside, will resign next year following more than a decade of outrage over accusations that she falsely claimed Indigenous American heritage.

Andrea Smith, once a heralded scholar of Native American studies, faced criticism since at least 2008 for claiming she was Cherokee but had remained employed at the southern California university. Last year, 13 of her colleagues at UC Riverside alleged that she made fraudulent claims to Indigenous American identity and violated academic integrity.

Continue reading...

Trump vows to appeal after judge sets March 2024 trial date – live

Posted on by

Experts say trial dates typically not subject to appeal as Mark Meadows attempts to move his case to federal court

Attorneys for Donald Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows are today arguing in Georgia that his trial in the election subversion case should be moved to federal court from the state level, where Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis originally brought the charges.

The hearing was scheduled to start at 10 am, but attendees are not permitted to carry electronic devices while in the building, and so we are unlikely to know what’s happening in the courtroom.

If Meadows is able to punt his case to federal court, it could benefit him when it comes time to choose a jury, experts said. The jury pool for a federal case would be composed of residents from across northern Georgia, which is more politically conservative than Fulton County and a potentially friendlier audience for the former Trump official and Republican congressman.

Continue reading...

‘Joe the Plumber’, who challenged Obama on taxes in 2008, dies aged 49

Posted on by

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, famous for arguing with Barack Obama on the campaign trail, died of pancreatic cancer

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, who shot to brief fame during the 2008 US presidential election as “Joe the Plumber”, has died aged 49. Cause of death was pancreatic cancer, his wife, Katie Wurzelbacher, told news outlets.

Fifteen years ago, Wurzelbacher became famous after arguing with the then Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, on the campaign trail in Toledo, Ohio. Wurzelbacher asked Obama if he would pay more taxes if the Democrat won. Obama, then a US senator from Illinois, conceded that he might.

Continue reading...

State attorney says DeSantis fired her because she was ‘prosecuting their cops’

Posted on by

Prosecutor Monique Worrell says law enforcement agencies in central Florida were ‘all working against me’

An elected Democratic prosecutor whose removal Ron DeSantis boasted about during the first Republican presidential debate said the hard-right Florida governor and his allies ousted her because she was “prosecuting their cops”.

Law enforcement agencies in central Florida were “all working against me”, Monique Worrell told the Daily Beast, “because I was prosecuting their cops, the ones who used to do things and get away with them”.

Continue reading...

‘He was dripping with sweat’: Kroger worker dies in hot work conditions in Memphis

Posted on by

The union representing workers at the grocery chain had asked the company to allow more breaks and cooler working conditions

A Kroger distribution center employee has died on the job in Memphis amid hot working conditions, adding to a national debate in the US over the risk to workers during heatwaves.

The worker was identified as Tony Rufus, members from his union announced.

Continue reading...

Mark Meadows testifies in bid to move Georgia election case to federal court

Posted on by

Trump’s White House chief of staff argues he acted in capacity as federal officer and that case should be moved to federal court

Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff under Donald Trump, has testified for nearly three hours in a hearing to move his Georgia election interference case from state to federal court on Monday.

Meadows was charged alongside Trump and 17 other defendants for conspiring to subvert the 2020 election in a Georgia superior court. He faces two felony charges, including racketeering and solicitation of a violation of oath by a public officer.

Continue reading...

Carlsen and Niemann settle dispute over cheating claims that rocked chess

Posted on by
  • US player had filed lawsuit against former world champion
  • Parties agree to move forward after series of allegations

A dispute that caused scandal in the world of elite chess appears to have been settled after the players involved said they have moved on from their rift.

Hans Niemann, a rising star in the chess world, filed a $100m lawsuit against Magnus Carlsen, the website chess.com and chess streamer Hikaru Nakamura after allegations he had cheated.

Continue reading...

Texas carves out narrow exception to abortion ban in new Republican strategy

Posted on by

Law allows for termination if patient’s water breaks too early or in cases of ectopic pregnancy, but critics say it is not enough

A Texas law about to take effect on Friday carves out exceptions to the state’s abortion ban.

In June, the Republican governor, Greg Abbott, quietly signed HB 3058, allowing doctors to provide abortion care when a patient’s water breaks too early for the fetus to survive, or when a patient is suffering from an ectopic pregnancy.

Continue reading...

Biden says white supremacy has no place in US after Florida killings | First Thing

Posted on by

A white man shot and killed two men and one woman, all of whom were Black, before shooting himself. Plus, exposing Andrew Tate

Good morning.

Joe Biden said yesterday that “white supremacy has no place in America” after three people were killed in a racist shooting in Florida and it emerged that the gunman had been turned away from a historically Black college or university (HBCU) campus moments before opening fire at a discount store.

Who were the victims? TK Waters, the sheriff of Jacksonville, on Sunday afternoon named the victims, saying that the gunman was caught on video shooting Angela Michelle Carr, 52, in her car outside the Dollar General. The gunman then entered the store where he shot 19-year-old Anolt Joseph “AJ” Laguerre Jr and Jerrald De’Shaun Gallion, 29.

How are the community of Jacksonville coping? The shooting has traumatized a historically Black neighborhood in Jacksonville. “Our hearts are broken,” the Rev Willie Barnes told about 100 congregants Sunday morning. “If any of you are like me, I’m fighting trying to not be angry.”

What did Yolanda Renee King, 15, the only grandchild of the civil rights leader, say? She said that if she could talk to her grandfather today, she would apologise. “I would say I’m sorry we still have to be here to rededicate ourselves to finishing your work and ultimately realizing your dream. Today, racism is still with us. Poverty is still with us. And now, gun violence has come for places of worship, our schools and our shopping centers.”

What else happened 60 years ago at the Lincoln Memorial? Martin Luther King changed America that day. But there was more to the day than just his “I have a dream” speech. There was music too.

Continue reading...

Florida shooting: ‘White supremacy has no place in US,’ Biden says after killings

Posted on by

A white man shot and killed two men and one woman – all three victims were Black – before fatally shooting himself yesterday

Joe Biden declared on Sunday that “white supremacy has no place in America” after three people were killed in a racist shooting in Florida and it emerged that the gunman had been turned away from a historically Black college or university (HBCU) campus moments before opening fire at a discount store.

Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, on Sunday called the gunman in the attack a “hateful lunatic” and said “we will not allow HBCUs to be targeted”.

Continue reading...

‘Racism is still with us’: celebration of King’s 1963 speech shadowed by racist attack

Posted on by

Martin Luther King’s family decried the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act, the overturning of Roe and gun violence in the US

On the eve of the 60th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s legendary I Have a Dream speech, his son and granddaughter have decried continuing racial violence and hatred in the US, lamenting that the civil rights leader’s call for equality and justice has yet to be fulfilled.

Speaking a day after a vast crowd gathered in the nation’s capital in an echo of the 28 August 1963 march on Washington at which King made his famous remarks, his eldest son, Martin Luther King III, warned of a resurgence of hate crimes. Violence against minorities was “unconscionable” and “unacceptable”, he said.

Continue reading...

Trump legal team claims trial dates ‘by design’ clash with election campaign

Posted on by

Alina Habba said trials’ schedules would cause them to overlap and clash with voting, preventing the ex-president from campaigning

Donald Trump’s legal spokesperson has predicted that forthcoming early trial dates in the former president’s four criminal cases will not hold, and that his multiple cases could clash with the final stages of the 2024 presidential election campaign and voting.

Alina Habba told the Fox News Sunday show that prosecutors’ plans for fast turnarounds in Trump’s two federal criminal cases and the state indictments in New York and Georgia amounted to “unrealistic theatrics”. She said that each of the trials would last from four to six weeks, raising the threat of overlapping schedules.

Continue reading...

US military identifies Marine Corps pilot killed in San Diego combat jet crash

Posted on by

Maj Andrew Mettler – known as ‘Simple Jack’ – was a native of Georgia and a leader of the Fighting Bengals squadron

The US military has identified the Marine Corps pilot who was killed on Thursday when his combat jet crashed near a San Diego base during a training flight.

Maj Andrew Mettler was piloting an F/A-18D Hornet when it went down at 11.54pm on Thursday near Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, the Second Marine Aircraft Wing said in a statement from its headquarters in Cherry Point, North Carolina. He was the only person on board.

Continue reading...

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband criticises US-Iran prisoners release deal

Posted on by

Two US residents, one of whom is on death row, are being unfairly excluded, says Richard Ratcliffe

Two US residents, one in fear of execution, are being unfairly excluded from an imminent deal between US-Iran to release prisoners, the husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has claimed.

Richard Ratcliffe, whose wife was freed after five years in a Tehran prison
in 2022, said there was no legal reason why the two residents were not included in a deal to release five US citizens in return for the unfreezing of $6bn (£4.8bn) of Iranian assets in South Korea. It is also expected that four Iranians will be released from US jails.

Continue reading...

How 19th-century pineapple plantations turned Maui into a tinderbox

Posted on by

Land privatization and water depletion set the stage for the Lahaina fire 150 years ago. Now, land companies may benefit even more

In the late 18th century, when the Hawaiian Kingdom became a sovereign state, Lahaina carried such an abundance of water that early explorers reportedly anointed it “Venice of the Pacific”. A glut of natural wetlands nourished breadfruit trees, extensive taro terraces and fishponds that sustained wildlife and generations of Native Hawaiian families.

But more than a century and a half of plantation agriculture, driven by American and European colonists, have depleted Lahaina’s streams and turned biodiverse food forests into tinderboxes. Today, Hawaii spends $3bn a year importing up to 90% of its food. This altered ecology, experts say, gave rise to the 8 August blaze that decimated the historic west Maui town and killed more than 111 people.

Continue reading...

Three US marines killed in aircraft crash in Australia during training exercise

Posted on by

The Osprey aircraft crashed in the Northern Territory’s Tiwi Islands on Sunday morning

Three United States marines have been killed and at least five more injured after a defence aircraft crashed over the Tiwi Islands off the Northern Territory coast during a training drill.

The US Marine Corp said the MV-22B Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft was carrying 23 American personnel when it crashed during a routine training exercise about 9.30am local time on Sunday on the remote Melville Island, 80km north of Darwin. It was reportedly on its way to the Tiwi Islands when the crash occurred.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Florida shooting: gunman left messages of hate before killing three Black people

Posted on by

FBI opens civil rights investigation as Jacksonville sheriff names shooter and says suspect had no criminal history

The FBI on Sunday was investigating the shooting that killed three people inside a store in Jacksonville, Florida, the previous day, which officials said was racially motivated, as community leaders expressed horror.

A white man, armed with a high-powered rifle and a handgun and wearing a tactical vest and mask, entered the discount Dollar General store just before 2pm on Saturday and shot and killed two men and one woman, before fatally shooting himself. All three victims were Black.

Continue reading...

US state department declassifies more documents about Pinochet’s 1973 coup

Posted on by

Papers reveal how Richard Nixon was briefed on impending military takeover in Chile that ushered in 17-year dictatorship

Two more US Department of State documents relating to Augusto Pinochet’s coup d’état in Chile have been declassified, revealing how President Richard Nixon was briefed on the impending military takeover.

The president’s daily brief from 11 September 1973, the morning of the US-backed military coup, informed Nixon that Chilean military officers were “determined to restore political and economic order”, but “may still lack an effectively coordinated plan that would capitalize on the widespread civilian opposition”.

Continue reading...

Bare power lines and ‘obsolete’ poles were possible cause of Hawaii fires

Posted on by

Hawaiian Electric Co wires were seen uncovered as company’s own documents call its wooden poles a ‘serious public hazard’

In the first moments of the Maui fires, when high winds brought down power poles, slapping electrified wires to the dry grass below, there was a reason the flames erupted all at once in long, neat rows – those wires were bare, uninsulated metal that could spark on contact.

Videos and images analyzed by the Associated Press confirmed those wires were among miles of line that Hawaiian Electric Co left naked to the weather and often-thick foliage, despite a recent push by utilities in other wildfire- and hurricane-prone areas to cover up their lines or bury them.

Continue reading...

Bob Barker, longtime Price is Right host and animal rights activist, dies aged 99

Posted on by

Television personality had iconic career spanning 50 years in which he garnered 19 Daytime Emmy awards

Bob Barker, the longtime television host of The Price Is Right, has died at the age of 99.

“It is with profound sadness that we announce that the World’s Greatest MC who ever lived, Bob Barker, has left us,” Barker’s publicist Roger Neal said in a statement.

Continue reading...