Category Archives: US News

George Floyd’s family sues Kanye West for saying he died from drug abuse

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Rapper alleged Floyd died from a fentanyl overdose on a podcast, sparking a $250m lawsuit

The mother of George Floyd’s daughter, Roxie Washington, has sued rapper Kanye West for $250m (£221m) after the artist alleged that the 46-year-old man died from drug abuse rather than being murdered by a police officer.

Last Saturday, on the Drink Champs podcast, West, who legally changed his name to Ye, alleged that Floyd died from a fentanyl overdose. In the same interview, which has since been taken down by YouTube, West also made antisemitic comments.

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Netflix reverses subscriber decline with help from Stranger Things and Dahmer

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Streaming service adds 2.4m subscribers in past three months to comfortably beat forecasts after ‘challenging’ first half of year

Netflix added 2.4m new subscribers in the last three months, more than twice what had been expected and reversing back-to-back quarters of decline, the company announced on Tuesday.

The streaming company had been expected to add 1m new subscribers over the latest quarter, which included the release of hit shows including the latest series of Stranger Things, Sandman and Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.

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Saudi Arabia sentences US citizen to 16 years over tweets critical of regime

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Move is another sign of kingdom’s aggressive crackdown on any whiff of dissent posted on social media

An American citizen has been sentenced to 16 years in prison in Saudi Arabia for tweeting critically about the Saudi regime, in another sign of the kingdom’s aggressive crackdown on any whiff of dissent posted on social media.

Saad Ibrahim Almadi, 72, a dual US-Saudi national, was arrested in November 2021 upon landing in Riyadh for what was supposed to be a two-week stay in his native country for a work and personal trip.

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French cement firm admits paying IS nearly $6m to keep Syrian plant open

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Lafarge agrees to $778m fine after pleaded guilty in US trial to conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organisation

The French cement company Lafarge pleaded guilty on Tuesday to paying millions of dollars to the Islamic State group in exchange for permission to keep open a plant in Syria, in a case the US justice department called the first of its kind. The company also agreed to penalties totalling about $778m (£688m).

Prosecutors accused Lafarge of turning a blind eye to the conduct of the militant group, making payments to it in 2013 and 2014 as IS occupied a broad swath of Syria and as some of its members were involved in torturing or beheading kidnapped westerners. The company’s actions occurred before it merged with a Swiss company Holcim, to form the world’s largest cement-making business.

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Group of over 100 migrants stranded by human smugglers on island by Puerto Rico

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Group including children and pregnant women became stranded while piled in yolas, rickety homemade boats smugglers use

US authorities are trying to rescue more than 100 migrants stranded on an uninhabited island near Puerto Rico during a human smuggling operation.

The nationality of the migrants awaiting help on Mona Island wasn’t immediately known, although officials believe the majority are Haitian, said Jeffrey Quiñones, spokesman for US Customs and Border Protection in Puerto Rico.

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Iran agrees to supply missiles as well as drones to Russia

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Defence secretary Ben Wallace flies to Washington to discuss dangerous new phase in invasion of Ukraine

Iran has deepened its commitment to supplying arms for Russia’s assault on Ukraine by agreeing to provide a batch of medium-range missiles, as well as large numbers of cheap but effective drones, according to US and Iranian security officials.

The surface-to-surface missiles are designed to supplement the severely run-down stock of Russian missiles, as part of a bid to systematically destroy Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure ahead of a brutal winter.

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More than 80% of US waterways contaminated by ‘forever chemicals’

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Analysis finds ‘widespread contamination’ in the US, with forever chemicals frequently exceeding federal and state limits

Most of America’s waterways are likely contaminated by toxic PFAS “forever chemicals”, a new study conducted by US water keepers finds.

The Waterkeeper Alliance analysis found detectable PFAS levels in 95 out of 114, or 83%, of waterways tested across 34 states and the District of Columbia, and frequently at levels that exceed federal and state limits.

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There’s lithium in them thar hills – but fears grow over US ‘white gold’ boom

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The treasured mineral is critical for electric vehicles and could help slow global heating, but locals worry about the harmful extraction near tribal land

Deep in the parched landscapes of Nevada, there is a stirring boom. The mining of lithium holds the promise of a treasured resource that can help slow disastrous global heating.

Spurred by a growing demand for battery parts essential for electric vehicles, the US’s only major lithium mine, in Silver Peak, a remote outpost situated in desert scrub and nascent Joshua trees a three-hour drive north of Las Vegas, is doubling its production.

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Fresh Russian strikes hit ‘critical infrastructure’ in Ukraine | First Thing

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Fresh attacks hit Kyiv, Kryvyi Ri, Dnipro, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv, damaging energy facility. Plus, US Secret Service charged $1,185 a night for Trump hotel stays

Good morning.

Russian forces carried out fresh airstrikes on Ukrainian energy facilities on Tuesday, causing several explosions in an area of northern Kyiv where there is a thermal power station.

What else is happening? A prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine resulted in more than 100 Ukrainian women being freed yesterday, including dozens who were captured during the Azovstal steelworks siege in Mariupol in May.

What did Bayroff say? “Their actions have made clear that they view pro-Israel, pro-peace progressive Democrats as threats – and Trumpist Republicans as allies. That worldview could not be more out of touch with the vast majority of American Jews,” he said.

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Trax Records faces lawsuit over alleged unpaid royalties and lack of payment

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Marshall Jefferson and Adonis are among more than a dozen artists suing the pioneering Chicago house label

More than a dozen artists are suing the pioneering Chicago house label Trax Records, the estate of co-founder Larry Sherman, and current owners Screamin’ Rachael Cain and Sandyee Barns, Rolling Stone reports.

The plaintiffs, among them Trax co-founder Vince Lawrence and musicians Marshall Jefferson, Adonis and Maurice Joshua – allege that the label owes them unpaid royalties and in some cases that the label never paid them anything at all, according to a copy of the lawsuit seen by the Guardian.

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‘Cold war narratives’: why Miami’s Cuban Americans remain staunch Republicans

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Republican politics centering on opposition to Cuba’s late dictator Fidel Castro continue to resonate in Florida, even as they have faded in the rest of the US

It was a rainy Tuesday morning in South Florida, and two men in their 80s were deep into conversation and cafecito at the iconic Versailles Cuban Bakery in Miami.

Born in Cuba and now retired, the pair – who would only give their first names Manuel and Juan – have lived in the area for more than 60 and 20 years, respectively. And when asked about their political stance, they shy away from the Republican label many of their neighbors proudly embrace and instead simply describe themselves as deeply anti-communist.

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Pregnant Baltimore firefighter goes into labor while rescuing crash victim

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After being involved in same wreck, Megan Warfield felt contractions start but stayed to help trapped woman

Megan Warfield, a firefighter in Baltimore county, Maryland, was nine months’ pregnant with her third child when the car she was riding in crashed and she began to experience contractions.

But she didn’t allow herself to go to the hospital and give birth until after helping free a woman trapped under another car in the wreck, actions that drew widespread praise.

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China’s plans to annex Taiwan moving ‘much faster’ under Xi, says Blinken

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Comments by US secretary of state come after Xi told Communist party Congress Taiwan is core to plans for China’s ‘rejuvenation’

China’s government is pursuing its plans to annex Taiwan on a “much faster timeline” under Xi Jinping, the US secretary of state has said, reiterating warnings of global economic disruption if Taiwan was taken over.

The comments by Antony Blinken come as China’s ruling Communist party meet for their twice-a-decade congress, the most important meeting of its political cycle. In a major speech opening the conclaves on Sunday, Xi made clear that his plans for Taiwan remain core to his plans of China’s “rejuvenation”.

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Georgia Senate contender Herschel Walker fails to show for key debate – live

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Major retailers will begin selling hearing aids over the counter without a prescription and at a much lower cost, as part of a new Biden administration rule that take effect today.

“Starting today, hearings aids are now on store shelves across the country — for thousands of dollars less than they previously cost,” the White House said in a fact sheet on Monday.

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‘Holy moly!’ drought-hit Mississippi River reveals 19th-century trading ship

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Baton Rouge resident Patrick Ford discovers sunken Brookhill trading ship as lack of rainfall creates record-low water levels

Remains of a 19th-century ship were found in Louisiana’s capital as widespread drought creates record-low water levels in the Mississippi River.

Baton Rouge resident Patrick Ford discovered the trading ship during one of his daily searches of the Mississippi riverfront for artifacts, the local news station WBRZ reported.

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Putin aide says release of Brittney Griner is not a priority for Russia

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  • Olympic champion serving nine-year sentence on drug charge
  • Biden administration says it wants to bring player home

The difficulties involved in freeing Brittney Griner from her imprisonment in Russia were brought into stark relief this weekend when a senior aide to Vladimir Putin said the issue is not a priority for the Russian president.

In August, the basketball star was given a nine-year prison sentence for bringing a small amount of cannabis oil into Russia. The 31-year-old said she uses the drug to treat pain and has lodged an appeal against her sentence.

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Steve Bannon: justice department urges six-month prison term in contempt case

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Former Trump strategist found guilty of criminal contempt of Congress for ignoring subpoena from Capitol attack committee

Steve Bannon should be sentenced to six months in prison and a $200,000 fine for “his sustained, bad-faith contempt of Congress”, the justice department said in a legal filing on Monday.

Bannon, the former Donald Trump White House strategist, was found guilty on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress in July for ignoring a subpoena from the US House committee investigating the January 6 attack.

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Fauci urges US to resume long Covid research funding efforts

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Top disease expert warns against prematurely declaring victory over pandemic in interview with the Guardian

Dr Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert, has warned against prematurely declaring victory over the pandemic, not only due to short-term needs but because long Covid represents an “insidious” public health emergency for millions of people.

In an interview with the Guardian, Fauci urged the US Congress not to be complacent and to resume funding efforts to combat the virus, including the scourge of long Covid, which remains scientifically elusive but understood to hit women and people of colour especially hard.

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Arizona governor candidate refuses to say if she will accept midterms result

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Kari Lake, who has echoed Trump’s claims the 2020 election was stolen, refuses three times to answer when pressed on CNN

The Republican gubernatorial nominee in Arizona, Kari Lake, refused to say whether she would accept the results of the election if she loses in November.

Lake, a former Phoenix-area news anchor, has made denying the 2020 election results that her preferred candidate Donald Trump lost a pillar of her campaign. She has said she wouldn’t have certified the 2020 vote that the former president lost – and which the Democratic victor Joe Biden won in Arizona by just over 10,000 votes, saying the election was “corrupt, rotten”.

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Weather tracker: deadly rainstorm hits Crete

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At least two people dead on Greek island after torrential rain. Elsewhere, cold snap grips swathe of US

At least two people have been killed and more injured after torrential rain hit the popular holiday destination of Crete on Saturday morning. Heavy, thundery rain turned streets into rivers. The worst effects were felt in the Heraklion part of the island where there was huge damage. Cars were washed into the sea while beaches were covered in all sorts of debris, with the resort of Agia Pelagia on the north coast particularly affected.

An area of low pressure moving south-eastwards from Italy brought torrential downpours and thunderstorms to the island, which continued through the afternoon and evening in places before easing. Northern and eastern parts of the island received the highest rainfall totals, with 130mm recorded in 30 minutes and about 300mm seen within three hours.

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