Category Archives: US News

Australia to gain priority access to US military equipment under Washington proposal

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Aukus requests would be handled faster than almost all applications ‘other than from Taiwan and Ukraine’

Australian requests for US military equipment would be handled faster than almost all applications “other than from Taiwan and Ukraine” under a proposal before the US Senate.

The Australian government has long viewed the complex web of US export controls as a potential barrier to the Aukus security partnership.

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Tesla beats Wall Street expectations to produce record number of vehicles

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Report comes amid concerns Elon Musk, who owns SpaceX, Neuralink and Twitter, is spread too thin

Tesla narrowly beat Wall Street expectations in the second quarter of 2023, but shares began to fall in after hours trading following an earnings call that offered shareholders little reassurance surrounding Tesla’s promised Cybertruck release and other production concerns.

Revenue for the quarter topped $24.97bn compared to analyst predictions of $24.7 bn.

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Teamsters, UPS to resume negotiations next week ahead of looming strike

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If strike were to occur, it would be the largest walkout in US history at a single private employer, costing company $170m a day

The Teamsters and delivery giant UPS look set to return to the negotiating table next week as a strike deadline of 1 August approaches for 340,000 workers represented by the union to walk off the job if a new contract agreement isn’t reached by then.

On 5 July, contract negotiations broke down between the union and UPS as both sides are still apart on issues that include better starting pay for part-time workers, wage increases for full-time workers and more full-time roles.

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Judge rejects Trump bid to move hush money case to federal court as legal challenges gather pace – as it happened

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Former Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, who Donald Trump pressured to overturn the 2020 election, has been cooperating with special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the January 6 insurrection, NBC reported.

A spokesperson for Ducey yesterday confirmed that Smith’s team had contacted the former governor. “Yes, he’s been contacted. He’s been responsive, and just as he’s done since the election, he will do the right thing,” they told CNN.

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Extreme weather: heat strains healthcare systems, says WHO; Nasa to meet climate experts – as it happened

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This blog is now closed. To read our latest news on the extreme weather gripping the world, click the links below

Here are some more images from the wires of the wildfires that swept through forestland and towns north-west of Athens for a second day. The fires forced the evacuation of more than 1,000 children close to a Greek seaside resort.

Tourists flocked to China’s scenic Flaming Mountains to experience searing high temperatures amid punishing heatwaves that have scorched much of the northern hemisphere.

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Stanford president to resign over concerns about integrity of his research

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Marc Tessier-Lavigne said he will step down because he expects continued debate about his ability to lead the university

The president of Stanford University, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, has announced he will resign after concerns about the integrity of his research.

Tessier-Lavigne announced his plans to step down on 31 August in a letter to students and staff on Wednesday.

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OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush created ‘mousetrap for billionaires’, says friend

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Karl Stanley says Rush ‘definitely knew it was going to end like this’ and that he had warned Rush the craft was dangerous

A one-time passenger of the submersible that imploded over the wreck of the Titanic last month, killing five, has reportedly said he believes OceanGate’s CEO, Stockton Rush, who died in the accident, knew that expeditions of the Titan craft would end in disaster but continued to create a “mousetrap for billionaires”.

Karl Stanley, who was interviewed by 60 Minutes Australia on Sunday, told the broadcast that he’d warned his friend that the carbon fiber and titanium craft was dangerous.

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Johnson & Johnson must pay $18.8m to cancer patient in baby powder lawsuit

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Jury rules in favor of California man who says he developed a deadly cancer from heavy exposure to talc powder since childhood

Johnson & Johnson must pay $18.8m to a California man who said he developed cancer from exposure to its baby powder, a jury decided on Tuesday, a setback for the company as it seeks to settle thousands of similar cases over its talc-based products in US bankruptcy court.

The jury ruled in favor of Emory Hernandez Valadez, who filed suit last year in California state court in Oakland against J&J, seeking monetary damages. Hernandez, 24, has said he developed mesothelioma, a deadly cancer, in the tissue around his heart as a result of heavy exposure to the company’s talc since childhood. The six-week trial was the first over talc that New Jersey-based J&J has faced in almost two years.

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Canada recruits high-skilled foreigners in US – and gets 10,000 applications

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Government launches work permit for foreign workers with H-1B visa in US and meets target number of applicants in just two days

The Canadian government is recruiting high-skilled foreigners working in the United States to move to Canada instead – and the program has been so successful that it met its target of 10,000 applicants in just two days.

Canada this week launched a special work permit for foreign workers who already have obtained an H-1B visa in the US, who number nearly 600,000 and come mostly from India and China. The program’s 10,000 quota was filled in the first two days of the week, a spokesman for Canada’s immigration minister, Sean Fraser, said on Wednesday.

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Venezuela’s ex-spy chief extradited from Spain to US to face drug charges

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Hugo Carvajal, intelligence leader under Hugo Chávez, accused of providing support to drug trafficking by rebel Farc group

Venezuela’s former intelligence chief has been extradited from Spain to the United States where he is wanted on drug trafficking charges, his lawyer and judicial sources said.

Gen Hugo Armando Carvajal, who served as intelligence chief under the former Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez, has long been sought by US Treasury officials who suspect him of providing support to drug trafficking by the now disarmed Farc guerrilla group in Colombia.

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No let-up in Phoenix as extreme temperatures persist

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Emergency-room doctor treating heatstroke victims with large amounts of ice as Arizona city enters ninth day of lows above 90F

With no immediate let-up anticipated for the scorching heat over the American south-west – where temperatures have reached more than 110F (43.3C) in the day and not dropped below 90F (32.2C) at night – a Phoenix emergency room doctor has resorted to using children’s pools and large zip-bags filled with ice to cool heatstroke victims.

Frank LoVecchio, a Phoenix-area emergency room medical toxicologist, told CBS News that he had treated three or four cases of heatstroke over the past three days using the technique, which involves covering the patient with ice until only their eyes and mouth are showing.

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Guatemalan boy dies in Mississippi poultry plant accident

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Duvan Perez, 16, dies at Mar-Jac factory in Hattiesburg amid rollback of child labor laws across several US states

A 16-year-old from Guatemala died on Friday after sustaining a workplace injury at a poultry plant in Mississippi, authorities confirm.

The child, identified as Duvan Tomas Perez, died at Mar-Jac Poultry plant in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, about two hours outside of Jackson, NBC News reported. He migrated to the US six years ago from the town of Huispache and was a middle school student.

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US Powerball players face steep odds as jackpot hits $1bn

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Wednesday’s scheduled drawing comes about nine months after California’s Edwin Castro won $2.04bn in November

Powerball players across the US are bracing for the opportunity to win what would be the seventh-highest jackpot in American lottery history on Wednesday night.

The jackpot is estimated to be about $1bn after the Powerball lottery has gone 38 consecutive drawings without a winning ticket being sold, according to the official website for the game of chance. Someone last won the Powerball on 19 April, when the top prize was nearly $253m, the jackpot – as is typical – has been growing steadily since.

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Researchers find evidence of ‘forever chemicals’ in blood of pregnant women

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At least 97% of the blood samples contained a type of PFAS known as PFOS, associated with multiple serious health problems

California researchers have found new evidence that several chemicals used in plastic production and a wide array of other industrial applications are commonly present in the blood of pregnant women, creating increased health risks for mothers and their babies.

The researchers said their findings add to a growing body of evidence showing that many chemicals people are routinely exposed to are leading to subtle but harmful changes in health. The work should be a “wake-up call” to policymakers, they said.

This story is co-published with the New Lede, a journalism project of the Environmental Working Group

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Trump says he received target letter in federal January 6 investigation

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Ex-president posts on Truth Social that he received a letter from special counsel, which could signal imminent indictment

A new indictment for Donald Trump could be imminent after the former US president announced on Tuesday morning he had received a letter from special prosecutor Jack Smith identifying him as a “target” in the justice department’s investigation into the January 6 insurrection.

Trump, who is already facing criminal charges in Florida for illegally hoarding classified documents from his presidency, and prosecution in New York for a hush-money payment to an adult movie star, said his attorneys handed him the letter as he was having dinner on Sunday night.

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Texas trooper says they were told to push children into Rio Grande and deny migrants water

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Trooper employed by Greg Abbott’s initiative expressed concern over ‘inhumane’ actions, in email reviewed by the Guardian

Texas troopers employed by Greg Abbott’s border patrol initiative were instructed to push children into the Rio Grande and deny migrants water in extreme heat, according to emails sent by a state employee.

Nicholas Wingate, a trooper-medic from the state’s department of public safety expressed concern over “inhumane” actions towards migrants in a 3 July email to supervisors and reveals other unreported incidents involving migrants, the Houston Chronicle first reported.

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Ron DeSantis says Trump January 6 charges would not be good for country

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Florida governor and presidential hopeful tells CNN he hopes his rival is not charged after Trump says he is target of DoJ inquiry

Ron DeSantis said charges against Donald Trump over his election subversion that culminated in the deadly January 6 attack on Congress would not be good for the US.

“I hope he doesn’t get charged,” the Florida governor told CNN in a much-trailed interview on Tuesday. “I don’t think it’ll be good for the country.”

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Las Vegas police issue search warrant in long-unsolved killing of Tupac Shakur

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Nevada police say warrant was executed in Henderson, Nevada, 26 years after rapper was fatally shot in 1996 aged 25

Authorities in Nevada confirmed on Tuesday that they served a search warrant this week in connection with the long-unsolved killing of the rapper Tupac Shakur nearly 30 years ago.

Shakur, one of the most prolific figures in hip-hop, was killed on the night of 7 September 1996 in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. He was 25.

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Progressive Democrats protest Israeli president’s address to US Congress

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib say they intend to boycott address due to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians

Democratic divisions over Israel were on stark display on Tuesday, as lawmakers prepared to welcome Isaac “Bougie” Herzog, the president of Israel, for an address to a joint session of Congress.

Several progressive House members, including Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, intend to boycott Herzog’s speech on Wednesday to protest against the treatment of Palestinians under the government of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Treasures lent by Israel for White House event ‘stranded at Mar-a-Lago’

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Antiquities from Israel’s national treasures collection have ended up at Trump’s Florida estate, say reports

Ancient artefacts sent from Israel to the US four years ago on a short-term basis and intended for display at a White House event have ended up at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, according to a report.

The Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Tuesday that antiquities including ancient ceramic oil lamps, part of Israel’s national treasures collection, were shipped to Washington DC with the approval of the then director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Israel Hasson, for use in a Hanukah candle-lighting event at the White House. The event took place in December 2019, when Trump was in office.

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