Category Archives: US News

Trump election investigation: Georgia grand jury witnesses called early as prosecutors ‘moving faster’ than expected – live

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Former Georgia Lt Gov Geoff Duncan and journalist George Chidi to testify on Monday; court publishes then removes docket of charges against Trump

Twice impeached and now arrested and indicted three times. Donald Trump faces serious criminal charges in New York, Florida and Washington over a hush-money scheme during the 2016 election, his alleged mishandling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

As Trump prepares for those cases to go to trial, the former president is simultaneously reeling from a verdict that found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation toward writer E Jean Carroll. A New York jury awarded Carroll, who accused Trump of assaulting her in 1996, $5m in damages.

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Girl, 13, gives birth after she was raped and denied abortion in Mississippi

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The nearest abortion clinic – in Chicago – was too far away and too expensive for her mother to provide her with the procedure

A 13-year-old girl in Mississippi gave birth to a boy after she was raped as well as impregnated by a stranger – and then was unable to get an abortion, according to a Time magazine report published on Monday.

The mother of the girl, who uses the pseudonym Ashley in the report, was looking to get an abortion for her daughter but was told the closest abortion provider was in Chicago – a drive of more than nine hours from their home in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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Threads app usage plummets despite initial promise as refuge from Twitter

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Social media app, launched in the wake of Twitter chaos, recorded 576,000 active users in August, down 79% from 2.3 million in July

The daily usage of Threads, Meta’s answer to Twitter, continues to slump after a strong start in its first weeks of existence.

Engagement with the social media app is down 79% from a high of 2.3m active users in early July to 576,000 as of 7 August, according to Similarweb, a digital intelligence platform.

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Former Mississippi officers plead guilty to state charges for torturing Black men

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Group of six white Mississippi police officers had tortured two Black men for an hour and a half during a house raid

In late January, a group of six white Mississippi police officers raided a house in Rankin county, a suburb outside of Jackson, and tortured two Black men for an hour and a half. The following month, the justice department opened a civil rights investigation into the Rankin county sheriff’s department, and since then, the officers have either resigned or been fired. Activists have also called for the resignation of Rankin county sheriff Bryan Bailey.

On Monday, the former officers pleaded guilty to state charges of obstruction of justice and conspiracy from the assault of Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker. The former sheriff’s deputies Brett McAlpin, Hunter Elward, Christian Dedmon, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke, along with Joshua Hartfield, a former police officer in nearby Richland, had already pleaded guilty to federal charges on 3 August.

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Hunter Biden lawyers say collapsed plea deal on gun charge remains valid

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Response to federal prosecutors’ move to render plea deal moot comes days after appointment of David Weiss to special counsel

Lawyers for Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden who has been under a years-long federal investigation over failing to pay taxes and, separately, illegally possessing a gun, said that part of the plea deal which unexpectedly fell apart in July remains “valid and binding”, in a Sunday court filing.

Federal prosecutors, led by US attorney David Weiss, had on Friday asked the court to cancel its request that the two sides reach a renewed agreement on the deal “since there is no longer a plea agreement or diversion agreement for the Court to consider”.

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Election-interference charges loom for Trump as docket posted then removed

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Georgia court appears to publish then take down key document, while ex-president lashes out against perceived persecutors

The indictment of Donald Trump over his attempted election subversion in Georgia loomed closer on Monday amid an apparent false alarm about charges being filed and a series of angry statements from the former president punctuating a day of prosecution presentations in court.

At about midday, a two-page docket report posted to the Fulton county court website indicated charges against Trump including racketeering, conspiracy and false statements. The appearance of the report set off a flurry of news media activity, but then the document vanished.

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UK should embrace foreign students or lose them to rival countries, warns Ucas chief

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Many institutions have become increasingly reliant on higher fees from international students to help cover costs

Britain should warmly welcome international students joining universities across the country or risk losing out to the US, Canada and Australia, the higher education admissions chief has said.

The intervention came amid concerns that domestic students hoping to begin undergraduate courses this autumn could lose out to international applicants. Some courses in clearing in the run-up to A-level results day this week are available only to overseas students.

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House explosion in Pennsylvania kills five and destroys three structures

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Three people taken to hospital – one in critical condition – as authorities investigate cause of explosion in community of Plum

Five people were found dead after a house explosion in western Pennsylvania destroyed three structures and damaged at least a dozen others, authorities said on Sunday.

The police chief of the community of Plum, Lanny Conley, said the bodies of four adults and one adolescent were recovered after the blast shortly before 10.30am on Saturday.

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Hawaii fires: questions arise over response as death toll rises to 93 – as it happened

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Search for victims continues as more than 2,200 structures damaged or destroyed and more than 2,100 acres scorched

As search and rescue crews continue to uncover the scale of the massive and devastating toll in the historic town of Lahaina, anger is building among residents over various aspects of the government response, from warnings during the inferno to aid distribution afterwards. Residents have asked why emergency sirens didn’t warn Lahaina residents in time to evacuate.

Officials have said there wasn’t time to adequately alert the city before the wind-driven firestorm tore through homes and businesses. Along with the lack of warnings, residents are questioning why plans weren’t in place to ensure a quick and effective response for victims still grappling with the ongoing issues caused by the fire, including contaminated water, widespread power outages, and a lack of response programming and infrastructure that could help streamline aid brought in from the outside.

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Boy, 13, survives after falling 100ft from Grand Canyon’s north rim

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Wyatt Kauffman slipped on a cliff and fell after ‘moving out of the way so other people could take a picture’

A 13-year-old North Dakota boy has survived falling 100ft from a ledge at the Grand Canyon’s north rim during a family trip.

Emergency crews needed two hours to rescue Wyatt Kauffman after he slipped on a cliff Tuesday and plunged nearly 100 ft (30 meters) at the Bright Angel Point trail, authorities said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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‘Stressed beyond her limits’: co-owner of Kansas newspaper dies after police raid

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Police served a search warrant to the Marion County Record’s Joan Meyer, 98, after the paper’s investigation into local restaurateur

The co-owner of a small Kansas newspaper whose offices and staff were raided by local police officers conducting a leak investigation has died after the situation left her “stressed beyond her limits”, according to the publication.

Joan Meyer, 98, collapsed on Saturday afternoon and died at her home a day after she tearfully watched officers who showed up at her home with a search warrant cart away her computer as well as an internet router, reported the Marion County Record, which she co-owned. After officers also photographed the bank statements of her son, Record publisher Eric Meyer, and left her house in mess, Meyer had been unable to eat or sleep, her newspaper said.

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Virginia police chase involving stolen ambulance results in a dozen crashes

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Darell T Caldwell of Maryland was finally apprehended after the multi-highway chase and vehicular theft spree injured five

A Maryland man stole an ambulance and left a wake of more than a dozen hit-and-run crashes in Virginia this weekend before being arrested in Washington DC, authorities said.

Virginia state police said there were no reports of serious injuries in Saturday’s crashes on portions of Interstate 66, Interstate 395 and the George Washington Memorial Parkway.

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Taiwan vice-president says ‘don’t be afraid’ to fight authoritarianism in New York speech

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William Lai issues global appeal during US stopover after China denounces him as a ‘troublemaker’

Taiwan’s vice-president has urged the world to stand up against the “increased threat from authoritarianism” and reiterated a willingness to talk to China, in a speech made in New York during a brief US stopover condemned by Beijing.

William Lai, a frontrunner to be Taiwan’s next president at elections in January, said in New York on Sunday: “If Taiwan is safe, the world is safe, if the Taiwan Strait is peaceful, then the world is peaceful,” according to a read out from Taiwan’s presidential office.

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Hawaii wildfires: deadliest US blaze in a century kills at least 93 people

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Governor says death toll in Lahaina is expected to rise after ‘worst natural disaster that Hawaii ever faced’

At least 93 people have died in the fire that consumed the historic town of Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui, and officials warned that the effort to find and identify the dead was still in its early stages.

Meanwhile, anger at the government response to the deadliest wildfire in recent US history is mounting. Residents have raised questions over various aspects of the government response, from warnings during the inferno to aid distribution in the days since.

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Georgia DA summons former lawmaker and journalist in Trump election inquiry

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Fani Willis’s office will have former lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan and journalist George Chidi testify before a grand jury

The office of the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, has issued summonses to former Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan and journalist George Chidi to testify before a grand jury on Tuesday regarding Donald Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in that state.

The announcement of the summonses confirmed previous reporting by the Guardian that Willis’s office in Atlanta on Tuesday would present evidence to a grand jury weighing charges against the former president. Prosecutors could ask the grand jury to hand up charges on Tuesday as well, having completed an internal review of evidence in the case weeks ago.

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Woman dies after falling off mountain in Wyoming’s Grand Teton national park

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Rangers say Joy Cho fell off Teewinot mountain before dawn on Friday during a hike and seven companions rescued

A woman has died after falling off a mountain during a hike in Wyoming’s Grand Teton national park.

According to a National Park Service press release reviewed by CNN, Joy Cho of Simi Valley, California, fell off the west side of Teewinot mountain before dawn on Friday.

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Marjorie Taylor Greene’s campaign manager to pay $25k over Ohio train derailment scam

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Isaiah Wartman and two others ordered to pay restitution over role in fraudulent fund claiming to help East Palestine victims

The manager of the 2020 campaign that launched the far-right politician Marjorie Taylor Greene to Congress has been ordered to pay $25,000 for his role in a charity scam aimed at capitalizing on the East Palestine train crash.

Isaiah Wartman and his business partner Luke Mahoney must each pay $22,000 in restitution as well as $3,000 in investigative costs and fees as part of a settlement with the Ohio attorney general’s office, which prosecuted the case. Meanwhile, the settlement calls for a co-founder of the fake charity, Michael Peppel, to pay a $25,000 civil penalty and be banned from starting, running or soliciting for any charitable organization in the state.

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Peru announces air security pact with US in bid to stop drug planes

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Deal revives agreement from 20 years ago and will allow intelligence and training support for Peru’s air force

Peru announced an air security agreement with the US on Saturday in what the government described as a push to stop planes belonging to drug gangs from entering the South American country’s airspace.

The deal revives a bilateral security cooperation pact with the US from 20 years ago, according to a government statement, and will permit new intelligence and training support to flow to Peru’s air force.

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Hawaii fires: fresh blaze prompts renewed evacuations as Maui death toll rises

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At least 80 people killed in deadliest disaster in the state’s history, as questions asked about the local warning system

The death toll from the Maui wildfires in Hawaii has risen to 80 as search teams comb through the smouldering ruins of Lahaina and a new fire triggered the evacuation of another community on Friday night.

The Maui police department said the new fire was burning in Kaanapali in West Maui, to the north-east of the area that burned earlier this week.

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Hawaii fires: rescuers comb through debris in Lahaina as death roll rises to 80 – as it happened

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At least 1,000 people reported missing following fires, as a new fire burns in Kaanapali in West Maui

Hawaii resident Ella Tacderan spoke to the Guardian about her experience of the devastation in Maui where her family home once stood.

“A nightmare” scene, Tacderan said:

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