Category Archives: US News

US senator denounced as ‘profoundly ignorant man’ over remarks on Mexico

Posted on by

John Kennedy’s comments about Mexicans ‘eating cat food’ came as he urged the US military to enter country to ‘stop the cartels’

Mexicans “would be eating cat food out of a can and living in a tent behind an Outback” Steakhouse restaurant if it were not for their nation’s proximity to the US, and their country should be invaded because of the presence of drug cartels there, the US senator John Neely Kennedy said.

The Louisiana Republican’s racist remarks drew a strong condemnation from Mexico’s foreign affairs secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, who called Kennedy “a profoundly ignorant man”. Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, meanwhile, urged the 37 million Americans of Mexican descent – along with other Latinos in the US – “not to vote for people with this very arrogant, very offensive and very foolish mentality” in the future.

Continue reading...

Stark warning over Republicans’ ‘dehumanizing’ rhetoric on crime

Posted on by

Experts say party’s ‘tough-on-crime’ approach for 2024 could spark rise in violence and worsen US mass incarceration

Republican and rightwing rhetoric over the state of crime in the US could spark a rise in violent incidents and worsen the country’s mass incarceration problem, experts say, as “tough-on-crime” political ads and messaging seem set to play a large role in the 2024 election.

Violent crime was a huge focus for Republican candidates during the 2022 midterm elections. Republicans spent about $50m on crime ads in the two months leading up to those elections, the ads pushing a dystopian vision of cities ridden by murder, robbery and assault, and of Democratic politicians unwilling to act.

Continue reading...

CNN’s Trump debacle suggests TV media set to repeat mistakes of 2016

Posted on by

Network’s own reporters criticise decision to give ex-president platform in ‘town hall’ format that allowed him to spout freely

Donald Trump and CNN were in rare agreement: the former president’s hour of free prime-time television on Wednesday evening, dressed up as a “town hall” with Republican voters, was a triumph.

“America was served very well by what we did last night,” CNN’s chief executive, Chris Licht, told skeptical members of his own staff at the network’s daily news conference the following morning.

Continue reading...

Trump rages after sexual abuse verdict but legal woes have only just begun

Posted on by

Investigations are mounting, making it harder for the former president to spin his troubles as persecution by liberal elites

If the outcome of Donald Trump’s sexual assault trial wasn’t a foregone conclusion, his response to a jury finding he attacked the writer E Jean Carroll was all too predictable.

The former president lashed out at the judge as biased and the jurors as “from an anti-Trump area”, meaning liberal New York, after they believed Carroll’s account of the millionaire businessman attacking her in a department store changing room in the mid-1990s. The jury ordered him to pay $5m in damages for “sexual abuse” and for defaming Carroll by accusing her of “a made-up SCAM” for political ends.

Continue reading...

DeSantis secures endorsements on visit to Iowa in preparation for likely 2024 bid

Posted on by

Florida governor lands in crucial early-voting state in Republican nomination process after weeks of lagging behind Trump

Florida’s rightwing governor, Ron DeSantis, has rolled out a hefty list of endorsements from Iowa lawmakers as he visited the crucial early-voting state on Saturday in an attempt to garner support for his potential Republican presidential campaign.

The pro-DeSantis Super Pac Never Back Down announced endorsements from 37 Republican Iowa state senators and representatives, including the Iowa senate president, Amy Sinclair, and the state house majority leader, Matt Windschitl.

Continue reading...

Legal defense fund raises over $1m for accused in Jordan Neely subway death

Posted on by

Daniel Penny was charged on Friday with second-degree manslaughter in death of fellow passenger on New York subway

An online fundraiser for Daniel Penny, who placed fellow subway rider Jordan Neely in a fatal chokehold in a case that has come to symbolize fears over crime, racism and vigilantism, has raised more than $1m for his legal defense.

The fundraiser for Daniel Penny, a white former marine, who was charged on Friday with second-degree manslaughter in the death of Neely, who is Black, is on GiveSendGo. The Christian fundraising website has also hosted drives for rightwing vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse and far-right groups, including January 6 insurrectionists.

Continue reading...

Calm prevails at US-Mexico border after Title 42 migration restrictions lifted

Posted on by

Situation at the border stands in contrast to Republican fear-mongering as Biden officials establish strict new policies

The US-Mexico border saw surprising calm one full day after pandemic-era immigration restrictions known as Title 42 were lifted and replaced by new Biden administration policies intending to block unlawful crossings while establishing a legal means of entering the US, according to reports.

The seeming quiet stands in stark contrast to fear-mongering promoted by many conservatives including the Texas governor, Greg Abbott. The Republican politician accused Biden of “laying down the welcome mat to people across the entire world” and deployed “specially trained soldiers” to the border.

Continue reading...

Thirteen-year-old girl punches shark in Florida to escape attack

Posted on by

Ella Reed was bitten in the stomach, arm, knee and finger after attack from probable bull shark, but plans to return to the water

A 13-year-old girl escaped a shark attack at a Florida beach Thursday by punching the aggressive, predatory creature.

The teen, Ella Reed, told South Florida’s Local 10 News, was sitting in waist-deep water, alongside a friend, when she was struck by intense, sharp pain.

Continue reading...

Scientists criticise Nasa for scaling back mission to explore beyond Pluto

Posted on by

Anger at decision to axe the main task of the New Horizons spacecraft to probe the remote Kuiper belt

It may have reached the edge of the solar system and travelled more than 5 billion miles through space, but the New Horizons spacecraft is causing major ripples on Earth. A dispute has erupted between scientists and US space officials in the wake of Nasa’s decision to stop funding next year for the vessel’s main mission.

The move was described as “misguided and unfortunate” by Alan Stern, New Horizons’s principal investigator.

Continue reading...

Latest arrests of ‘Cop City’ protesters ‘feel like overreach’, experts say

Posted on by

Three activists protesting the planned facility were charged under a little-known Georgia law, raising first amendment concerns

Three activists have been arrested in confusing circumstances and charged under a little-known Georgia law – an apparent tightening of the state’s criminal justice system in response to a movement opposing the building of a huge police and fire department training center known as “Cop City” near Atlanta.

“Cop City” has sparked a broad-based protest movement in Atlanta and elsewhere, drawing global headlines when one environmental activist was shot and killed by police.

Continue reading...

US girl who graduated from college at 15: ‘We are the invisible Black scholars’

Posted on by

Shania Muhammad earned bachelor of arts degree from Langston University in Oklahoma and plans career in public speaking

Among the millions who are celebrating having received their university diplomas in the US this spring is a 15-year-old girl from Oklahoma, one of the youngest ever American college graduates.

Shania Muhammad graduated from Oklahoma’s Langston University with a bachelor of arts degree as well as a 4.0 grade-point average that was the highest in her class, according to a recent report from the local news media outlet KOCO-TV. She said she plans to pursue a career in public speaking and publish a book about her experience in school titled Read, Write, Listen: 13 in College.

Continue reading...

Texas man kills girlfriend after she had an abortion in Colorado

Posted on by

Gabriella Gonzalez, 26, was shot in the head in a parking lot by Harold Thompson, 22, shortly after she ‘shrugs off’ his chokehold

A 26-year-old woman from Texas was shot and killed by her boyfriend after getting an abortion in another state, Dallas police said.

He was jailed on a murder charge as of Friday.

Continue reading...

New Hampshire governor ‘embarrassed’ by crowd’s behavior at Trump town hall

Posted on by

Chris Sununu said the audience’s conduct ‘doesn’t shine a positive light’ on the state, which will hold the first Republican primary

The governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu, said it was “embarrassing” that Republican voters from his state laughed and applauded when Donald Trump mocked E Jean Carroll during a CNN town hall this week.

Sununu may yet have to court such voters in a presidential run of his own.

Continue reading...

Oregon Republican boycott threatens key bills on abortion and gun control

Posted on by

Walkout lasting more than a week has thrown statehouse into disarray and jeopardized Democrats’ legislative agenda

Oregon Republicans boycotted the statehouse for a ninth day on Thursday, denying lawmakers the quorum necessary to pass legislation, in a protest that could derail hundreds of bills, including proposals on gun control and abortion rights.

While Democrats control the capital in the Pacific north-west state, Republicans have leveraged rules requiring two-thirds of lawmakers be present to pass legislation, which means Democrats need a certain number of Republicans to be there too.

Continue reading...

Unaccompanied Honduran teen dies in US custody as Title 42 expires

Posted on by

Investigators trying to determine cause for teen’s death, which occurred in a Florida shelter on Wednesday

An unaccompanied 17-year-old migrant from Honduras died in a shelter in Florida on Wednesday, according to authorities.

Investigators on Friday were still trying to determine a cause for the teen’s death, which came as the US lifted immigration restrictions stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Continue reading...

‘The border is not open’: US immediately replaces Title 42 with strict new rules

Posted on by

Title 42 carried no legal consequences, but now migrants will face being barred from entering the US for five years

The US late on Thursday ended pandemic-era restrictions at the US-Mexico border that blocked many migrants from their right to claim asylum in the US – but immediately replaced the so-called Title 42 restrictions with sweeping new policies designed to deter or even physically prevent people from crossing the border without permission.

In an increasingly hard line from the Biden administration, the secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas, said on Thursday evening that 24,000 border patrol agents and officers had been sent to the border to enforce US laws, adding: “The border is not open.

Continue reading...

Title 42: Biden officials press on with deportation plans and warn those crossing unlawfully face tougher consequences – as it happened

Posted on by

Officials stress hardline approach as American Civil Liberties Union files lawsuit, saying new rules close off safe routes for people seeking asylum

In El Paso, the Texas city this home to one of the major crossing points from Mexico, the Associated Press reports on how the city’s faith leaders are navigating an influx of migrants that’s expected to grow in the days to come.

Here’s more from their story:

As changing policies, rampant misinformation and exasperated, fearful crowds converge in this desert city, faith leaders are striving to provide shelter and uplift.

Along with prayers, they are counseling migrants about the daunting challenges that await them on U.S. soil, with enormous backlogs in asylum hearings and the Biden administration’s newly announced measures that many consider stricter than the existing ones known as Title 42.

Continue reading...

Man charged with manslaughter over subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely in New York

Posted on by

Daniel Penny, a former marine who surrendered to police in New York, could face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty

The man who killed Jordan Neely after putting him in a chokehold while on a subway in New York City has been charged with second-degree manslaughter, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said on Friday.

Daniel Penny, 24, could face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty under the charge. Penny surrendered himself to New York police on Friday morning.

Continue reading...

Jamie Foxx released from hospital and ‘recuperating’, says daughter

Posted on by

Corinne Foxx shares update after criticising media for running ‘wild’ with rumours actor was taking a turn for the worse

Jamie Foxx is out of hospital after an unknown “medical complication”.

The Oscar-winning actor and singer’s daughter Corinne Foxx shared an update on Instagram after unsubstantiated reports that the 55-year-old’s condition had worsened.

Continue reading...

Jeremy Strong to follow Succession with a return to Broadway

Posted on by

The actor will head up an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 play An Enemy of the People once the hit HBO drama has ended

Jeremy Strong is going from a corporate boardroom on TV to a whistleblower on Broadway.

The actor who plays Kendall Roy in the HBO television series Succession has signed on to play a man who tries to expose water contamination in a Norwegian spa town in Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 play An Enemy of the People.

Continue reading...