Category Archives: US News

New York attorney general asks judge to sanction Trump over ‘frivolous’ arguments

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Letitia James says Trump family is rehashing failed legal arguments in $250m civil suit over company’s business affairs

The attorney general of New York state is seeking $20,000 in sanctions against Donald Trump, his adult sons, other defendants and their lawyers, for repeating “frivolous” arguments rejected in court in a $250m civil suit over family business practices.

In a filing on Tuesday, Andrew Amer, an assistant to Letitia James, the attorney general, noted repeated rejections of arguments deemed “borderline frivolous even the first time defendants made them”.

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Cop City protesters charged with racketeering as Georgia takes hard line

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Some of 61 defendants charged also face money laundering and domestic terrorism charges for environmental protests

Dozens of activists who oppose a controversial police and fire training facility in Georgia known as Cop City have been charged with racketeering, appearing to confirm fears from civil rights groups that prosecutors are stepping up an aggressive pursuit of environmental protesters.

A total of 61 people – most not from Georgia – were indicted for violating the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act last week, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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Impeachment trial of Texas attorney general Ken Paxton begins in Austin

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Historic trial in state senate centers on allegedly corrupt relationship with real estate developer Nate Paul

The impeachment trial of the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, began on Tuesday – a rare and historic event in the state.

The ultra-conservative Paxton has a history of ethically questionable conduct that dates back to his first term in 2014, when he was fined by the Texas state securities board for violating financial laws.

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China on the agenda: 2024 candidates fret over how to deal with Beijing

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Republicans showcase range of hawkish policies designed to counter perceived threat amid diplomatic push by Biden

The United States’ tangled and increasingly fraught relationship with China is emerging centre stage in the 2024 presidential campaign in a rare case of foreign policy capturing the limelight in the race for the White House.

Half a century since a Republican president, Richard Nixon, made a historic visit to communist China to carve out a lauded strategic opening in the election year of 1972, Republican candidates vying to succeed him in the Oval Office are showcasing a range of hawkish policies designed to counter the perceived threat from Beijing.

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Gary Wright, singer of Dream Weaver and Love is Alive, dies aged 80

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Frequent collaborator of George Harrison and synthesiser pioneer was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia

Gary Wright, the singer of pop hits Dream Weaver and Love is Alive, has died aged 80.

His son Dorian confirmed the news to the Guardian. His other son Justin told TMZ his father died on Monday at home in California, and had been diagnosed with both Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia.

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Burning Man revelers begin exodus from festival after road reopens

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Organisers of the event in the Nevada desert have asked people to stagger their exits after thousands were stranded over the weekend

Burning Man attenders began their slow exodus from the campsite in the northern Nevada desert after muddy roads that left tens of thousands of partygoers stranded for days dried up enough to make travel possible.

Festival organisers said they started to let traffic flow out of the main road around 2pm local time on Monday – even as they continued to ask revelers to delay their exit to Tuesday to ease traffic. As of Monday afternoon, they said about 64,000 people remained at the festival site.

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Improving weather raises hopes of escape for trapped Burning Man attendees

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Desert begins to dry as organizers ask ‘burners’ stuck in mud to delay their exit until Tuesday to alleviate congestion

Thousands trapped at Nevada’s Burning Man festival may have a chance of escape on Monday as improving weather conditions give the Black Rock desert a chance to dry out from torrential rains that hit the festival with heavy mud.

Around 70,000 festival-goers, known as “burners”, were ordered to “shelter in place” and conserve water and food over the weekend after festival organizers said roads were impassable because of mud and not officially open.

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Thirteen-year wage dispute between NYC and Staten Island ferry workers set to end

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Ferry captains, mates and engineers appear to be reaching deal after more than a decade without a union contract with the city

One of the lengthiest wage disputes in the US is reported to be drawing to an end, as Staten Island ferry captains, mates and engineers appeared to be reaching a deal after 13 years without a union contract with New York City.

A deal between the marine engineers’ beneficial association, which represents some 150 ferry workers, that has eluded negotiators since 2010, was set be announced Monday, according to the Daily News,

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Beatles memorabilia worth an estimated £6m goes for auction

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Items include an archive from John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s 1969 peace protest and a curious birthday card sent by George Harrison

An archive of material from John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s 1969 peace protest is among the items to be sold this month at one of the most expensive Beatles auctions ever held.

Memorabilia will go under an online hammer with an upper estimated value of $8m (£6.3m). It includes a section of TV set wall that formed the backdrop to the Beatles’ breakthrough Ed Sullivan show appearance, clothes, speakers, signed contracts and a curious birthday card from George Harrison to his caretaker signed “Adolf Schinkengruber”.

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Minnesota prison resolves dispute with 100 inmates refusing to return to cells

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Facility put on lockdown after inmates refused to return to cells amid extreme high temperatures

A Minnesota prison was put on lockdown after about 100 incarcerated people refused to return to their cells on Sunday morning amid extreme temperatures.

The dispute at the Stillwater prison, Minnesota’s largest close-security institution for adult men, was resolved “peacefully” on Sunday, according to an update from Paul Schnell, commissioner of the Minnesota department of corrections.

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Twitter accused of helping Saudi Arabia commit human rights abuses

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Lawsuit says network discloses user data at request of Saudi authorities at much higher rate than for US, UK and Canada

The social media company formerly known as Twitter has been accused in a revised civil US lawsuit of helping Saudi Arabia commit grave human rights abuses against its users, including by disclosing confidential user data at the request of Saudi authorities at a much higher rate than it has for the US, UK, or Canada.

The lawsuit was brought last May against X, as Twitter is now known, by Areej al-Sadhan, the sister of a Saudi aid worker who was forcibly disappeared and then later sentenced to 20 years in jail.

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Woody Allen in Venice: #MeToo has been good for women, but cancel culture can be ‘silly’

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Director attacks ‘extremes’ of movement while promoting Coup de Chance, his 50th film, at Venice film festival, as well as addressing persistent interest in historic allegations against him

Woody Allen has voiced his support for the #MeToo movement while promoting his new film, adding that he sometimes finds cancel culture “silly”.

The director’s career has lately been mired by a recent refocusing in social media on an allegation made against him in 1993, when his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, said he had sexually assaulted her in an attic at the time of the custody battle between Allen and Dylan’s adoptive mother, Mia Farrow.

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How will the US cope next summer when it could be even hotter?

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This year’s heatwaves have been a huge challenge – and scientists predict 2024 will likely break records again

It’s been a record-breaking summer of heatwaves across large parts of the US and the world, and trying to stay cool and safe has been an unprecedented challenge.

There has been a rise in heat-related fatalities; companies and organizations have been under greater pressures to protect workers; and officials from small towns to the White House have been scrambling to respond.

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‘Rat tours’ boom in rodent-infested New York

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Rat tourism become latest must-experience trend in city besieged by infestations that affect residents’ quality of life

The Empire State Building. The Statue of Liberty. Central Park. Times Square. A horde of rats sprinting between an underground nest and a restaurant, squeaking and squealing as a group of tourists cheer them on.

New York has never lacked for attractions, but that last one on the list is one of its most unexpected.

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‘This is psychological warfare’: Starbucks workers allege anti-union firings

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The National Labor Relations Board has reinstated 28 of the more than 200 pro-union workers fired since late 2021

Alicia Flores had worked at Starbucks in Portland, Oregon, for seven years until June, when she received a voicemail from a manager – filling in for her usual boss, who was taking a leave of absence – who informed her she was being fired.

Flores is far from alone.

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First Thing: US pro-birth conference’s links to far-right eugenicists revealed

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Natal conference, to be held in Austin in December, promoted on far-right podcast circuit and set to host self-described eugenicists. Plus, the age problem neither US political party wants to talk about

Good morning and happy Labor Day!

Due to an error, Friday’s First Thing was not sent out. We apologize for the inconvenience.

What is eugenics? Broadly, eugenics is a group of beliefs and practices aimed at improving the genetic quality of a human population. It became the basis of a popular movement from the late 19th century, and led to governments around the world adopting policies such as forced sterilization of disabled and mentally ill people. The field was discredited after the second world war due to its association with racial policies in Nazi Germany, and many critics have attacked it as a pseudoscience.

What does the future look like for the center? The future of the procedure in the state is decidedly uncertain. Although Florida already bans abortion past 15 weeks of pregnancy, Ron DeSantis, the governor, signed a six-week abortion ban into law earlier this year. (It is on hold pending a review by the state’s supreme court of the 15-week ban.)

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Top Democrat says ‘powerful argument’ 14th amendment disqualifies Trump

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Tim Kaine says clause on ‘insurrection against the constitution’ could preclude ex-president from running in next year’s election

Democratic senator Tim Kaine of Virginia said that he believes there is a “powerful argument” to be made that Donald Trump can be disqualified from running in the 2024 presidential elections under the 14th amendment.

“In my view, the attack on the Capitol that day was designed for a particular purpose at a particular moment and that was to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power of as is laid out in the constitution,” he said in an interview with ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos on Sunday. “So I think there is a powerful argument to be made.”

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Officials investigate death at Burning Man as thousands stranded by floods

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Sheriff’s office offers few details but says death occurred during festival in Nevada desert, where storms turned ground to mud

Over 70,000 attendees of the annual Burning Man festival in the Black Rock desert of Nevada are stranded as the festival comes to a close on Monday due to heavy rains that have cut off access to the site.

Attendees have been ordered to shelter in place and to conserve food, water, and fuel, although no shortages have been reported. A death that occurred at the festival is currently under investigation, but no details have been released, including the identity of the deceased or the suspected cause of death.

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Native tribe to get back land 160 years after largest mass hanging in US history

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Upper Sioux Agency state park in Minnesota, where bodies of those killed after US-Dakota war are buried, to be transferred

Golden prairies and winding rivers of a Minnesota state park also hold the secret burial sites of Dakota people who died as the United States failed to fulfill treaties with Native Americans more than a century ago. Now their descendants are getting the land back.

The state is taking the rare step of transferring the park with a fraught history back to a Dakota tribe, trying to make amends for events that led to a war and the largest mass hanging in US history.

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Florida judge strikes down DeSantis-backed voting map as unconstitutional

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Circuit court judge rules proposal ‘results in the diminishment of Black voters’ ability to elect their candidate of choice’

A judge in Florida has ruled in favor of voting rights groups that filed a lawsuit against a congressional redistricting map approved by Ron DeSantis in 2022. Voting rights groups had criticized the map for diluting political power in Black communities.

In the ruling, Leon county circuit judge J Lee Marsh sent the map back to the Florida legislature to be redrawn in a way that complies with the state’s constitution.

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