Category Archives: US News

Biden gears up for Trump rematch with age and approval front and center

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The worst-kept secret in Washington is out – but at 80, and with low approval ratings, the president faces challenges in his re-election bid

Legend has it that when the artist Benjamin West told King George III that George Washington, the first US president, had decided to resign, the king replied: “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”

Some urged Joe Biden, the 46th president, to follow suit and, at the age of 80, hand power to a new generation. Who were they kidding? The worst-kept secret in Washington is out: Biden is running for re-election next year.

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John Kerry: relying on technology to remove carbon dioxide is ‘dangerous’

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Exclusive: US climate envoy says existing measures, such as shift to renewable energy, must be deployed faster to stop global warming

Relying on technology to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is “dangerous” and a cause for “alarm”, John Kerry has warned.

The US special presidential envoy for climate said in an interview that new technologies may not prevent the world from passing “tipping points”, key temperature thresholds that, once passed, could trigger a cascade of unstoppable physical effects.

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First Republic Bank saw deposits fall by over $100bn as it scrambles to stabilize

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The bank came into focus after two regional banks collapsed in April, shaking confidence in smaller institutions

First Republic Bank’s deposits fell by over $100 bn in the first quarter and it said it was exploring options including restructuring its balance sheet, overshadowing market-beating profit and sending its shares down 21% after the bell on Monday.

The results mark the most important quarter for the troubled bank as it prepares to increase insured deposits, cut borrowings from the Federal Reserve Bank and loan balances, it said, while aiming to layoff nearly 20-25% in the second quarter.

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‘Let her speak!’: protests after Montana Republicans silence trans lawmaker

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Zooey Zephyr hasn’t been allowed to speak on house floor since taking a stand against bill that would ban gender-affirming care

Protesters gathered outside the Montana state house on Monday over Republican legislative leaders’ decision to prevent a transgender lawmaker from speaking after she told colleagues they would have “blood on their hands” if they banned gender-affirming medical care for trans youth.

Zooey Zephyr, a Montana state representative, hasn’t been allowed to speak on the state house floor since Thursday because of her remarks.

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Carlson fired on Murdoch’s orders, report says – as it happened

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As one of the top proponents of Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen, Tucker Carlson loomed large over Dominion’s lawsuit against Fox. But messages released before the case’s settlement show Carlson apparently did not think much of Trump, or necessarily believe some of the claims he was putting on air. Here’s the Guardian’s Edward Helmore with a look back at what the Dominion case revealed about Carlson:

Tucker Carlson was once seen as untouchable. Now the most popular TV host on American cable news is at the center of a firestorm threatening to engulf Fox News and also anger Donald Trump, whose conspiracy theory-laden political cause he has long championed and who his audience loves.

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Proud Boys were ready for ‘all-out war’ before January 6, prosecutors argue

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The neo-fascist group’s leader and four lieutenants are accused of seditious conspiracy to forcibly stop the transfer of power in 2021

Ready for “all-out war”, leaders of the far-right Proud Boys viewed themselves as foot soldiers for Donald Trump as he clung to power after the 2020 election, a prosecutor said on Monday at the close of a historic trial over the January 6 Capitol attack.

After more than three months of testimony, jurors began hearing closing arguments in the seditious conspiracy case accusing the former Proud Boys national chairman, Enrique Tarrio, and four lieutenants of plotting to forcibly stop the transfer of power.

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Tucker Carlson leaves Fox News in surprise announcement

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Far-right cable news host leaves with immediate effect with interim presenters replacing him

The far-right host Tucker Carlson has left Fox News, it was abruptly announced on Monday.

“Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” the network said in a statement. “We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.”

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Biden expected to announce 2024 presidential campaign on Tuesday

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Launch would come exactly four years after president announced his 2020 bid, where he warned ‘soul’ of the nation is at stake

Joe Biden is expected to announce his 2024 re-election campaign as early as Tuesday, possibly setting the stage for an extraordinary rematch with Donald Trump.

A Tuesday launch would come exactly four years after Biden announced his 2020 presidential bid, in which he warned that the “soul” of the nation was at stake after four tumultuous years under Trump.

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2023 Goldman environmental prize winners include Texas Gulf coast defender

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Diane Wilson took on Formosa Plastics and won a $50m settlement to help clean up decades worth of toxic plastic waste

Grassroots activists who took on British mining giants and a serial plastics polluter – and won – are among this year’s recipients of the world’s most prestigious environmental prize.

The environmental campaigns led by the six 2023 Goldman prize winners highlight the hurdles faced by some local activists, who are often on the frontlines confronting the toxic mix of corporate greed and systemic corruption that is fuelling the climate emergency, biodiversity collapse and increasingly forced displacement.

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Pilot who offered flights to women for medical care fired from seminary job

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Greg Williams offered transportation for women seeking out-of-state care after the supreme court’s Dobbs decision last year

About three weeks after the US supreme court last year struck down the federal right to abortion, Greg Williams, a volunteer pilot for a group that provides free flights to people who need to travel for medical care, posted a Facebook message.

“If any women need to make an unexpected trip from the south to, say, Illinois or New Mexico or Virginia for reasons that are none of my business, I can provide safe, private air transport that would get you where you need to go and back the same day at a price that will work for you,” Williams wrote, on 28 June 2022.

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UN human rights experts begin US tour focusing on racial justice and policing

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Panel established in response to George Floyd killing will visit Washington DC, Atlanta, LA, Chicago, Minneapolis and New York

A team of United Nations experts has arrived in the US on a tour that will focus on racial justice, law enforcement and policing.

On Monday, the Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in the Context of Law Enforcement, an independent panel appointed by the UN human rights council, began its two-week visit to the US.

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Republicans ‘glorify political violence’ by embracing extreme gun culture

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Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot and killed two people at an anti-racism protest, was guest of honor at Idaho Republican party fundraiser

Republicans in Idaho have been criticized for “glorifying political violence” after the party hosted Kyle Rittenhouse, the American who shot and killed two people at an anti-racism protest and injured another, as a celebrity guest at a fundraiser.

The 20-year-old was the guest of honor at a Bonneville county Republican party event, in Idaho Falls, Idaho, on 15 April, where an AR-15 style rifle signed by Rittenhouse was auctioned off as part of a fundraiser and people could buy tickets to “Trigger time”: a Rittenhouse-hosted shooting event at a gun range.

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Credit Suisse says £55bn left bank in lead-up to rescue by UBS

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Results reported for what is likely to be the last time as lender’s takeover by Swiss rival nears completion

Credit Suisse said customers pulled more than 61bn Swiss francs (£55bn) worth of assets from the bank at the start of the year, laying bare the scale of the panic that contributed to its failure and emergency takeover by its rival UBS last month.

The Swiss lender said the “significant withdrawals” were partly to blame for its poor financial performance in the first quarter, with its adjusted pre-tax loss ballooning to 1.3bn Swiss francs for the first three months of the year. That compares with a profit of 300m Swiss francs during the same period in 2022.

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Scientists discover why sea urchins are dying off from US to the Caribbean

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A research team has discovered a parasite that’s been killing off sea urchins, but there’s no method to eliminate it yet

Marine biologists at a Florida university say they have solved the mystery of a mass die-off of long-spined sea urchins from the US to the Caribbean.

The scientists blame a microscopic, single-cell parasite for the die-off, which took hold early last year. Affected Diadema antillarum urchins lose their spines and suction, then succumb to disease.

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Defence spending in western and central Europe tops last year of cold war

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Stockholm International Peace Institute’s annual report finds UK was region’s biggest spender in 2022 at $68.5bn

Defence spending in western and central Europe has surpassed that of the last year of the cold war, an annual report has found, as military expenditure across the world hit an all-time high of $2.24tn (£1.8tn) last year.

The outbreak of war in Ukraine has triggered the steepest increase in military expenditure in Europe in three decades, according to the Stockholm International Peace Institute (Sipri).

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Florida prosecutor investigates shots at couple lost while delivering groceries

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Incident in Broward county was one of a spate involving people lost, at wrong address or getting into wrong car by mistake

A Florida prosecutor on Sunday ordered an investigation into a confrontation in which a homeowner fired shots into a couple’s car after they mistakenly turned on to his property while making a late-night grocery delivery.

Police closed the case without consulting the state attorney.

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Ken Potts, survivor of sinking of USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, dies at 102

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Lou Conter, 101, is now final survivor of ship on which 1,177 were killed when Japanese attack brought US into second world war

Ken Potts, one of the last two survivors of the USS Arizona battleship, which sank during the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, has died. He was 102.

Howard Kenton Potts died on Friday at the home in Provo, Utah, that he shared with his wife of 66 years, according to Randy Stratton, whose late father, Donald Stratton, was Potts’s Arizona shipmate and friend.

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NBC Universal chief Jeff Shell out over inappropriate relationship

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Media giant parent Comcast says investigation by outside counsel led to departure of executive

The chief executive of NBC Universal, Jeff Shell, left the media giant on Sunday after acknowledging an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company, following a complaint that prompted an investigation, parent company Comcast said.

“I had an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company, which I deeply regret,” Shell said in a statement.

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Republican Graham loses cool over abortion after supreme court pill ruling

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Senator Lindsey Graham deflects questions with false claims that Democrats want a ‘barbaric’ law allowing abortions until birth

Republican frustration with the supreme court decision which on Friday blocked restrictions on a widely used abortion pill spilled into public on Sunday, as the South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham lost his cool in a television interview when challenged on his flip-flopping position.

Graham, who last September proposed a national 15-week abortion ban only a month after insisting it was an issue for states to decide, became angry on CNN’s State of the Union, deflecting questions with false claims Democrats wanted a law allowing abortions until birth.

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‘Four-time loser’ Trump might not be nominee for 2024, Republican insists

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New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu says ‘we need a candidate that can win’ even as Trump dominates national primary polls

Donald Trump is a “four-time loser” who will not necessarily be the Republican presidential nominee despite dominating primary polling, the New Hampshire governor said on Sunday.

“Donald Trump is positioning himself to be a four-time loser in 2024,” Chris Sununu said. “We need candidates that can win.”

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