Category Archives: US News

How a Trump-backed ‘QAnon whack job’ won with Democratic ‘collusion’

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Republican Dan Cox won nomination for Maryland governor, but current governor says that was thanks to Democrats promoting extremist opponents they think will be easier prey

Dan Cox, an extremist pro-Trump Republican, won his party’s nomination for governor in Maryland last week thanks to “collusion between Trump and the national Democrats”, the current Republican governor said.

“I don’t think there’s any chance that [Cox] can win,” Larry Hogan added, speaking to CNN’s State of the Union.

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Chinese military has become more aggressive and dangerous, says US chief of staff

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As Washington seeks to shore up alliances in the Pacific, Gen Mark Milley says Beijing’s attempts to expand its influence are ‘not benign’

The Chinese military has become significantly more aggressive and dangerous over the past five years, the United States’ top military officer said during a trip to the Indo-Pacific that included a stop in Indonesia.

Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said on Sunday that the number of intercepts by Chinese aircraft and ships in the Pacific region with US and other partner forces had increased significantly over that time, and the number of unsafe interactions has risen by similar proportions.

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Oak fire remains uncontained as Al Gore warns ‘civilization at stake’

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Blaze exploded on Friday and quickly grew to 11,900 acres in size as Gavin Newsom declares state of emergency for Yosemite area

The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, declared a state of emergency for an area close to Yosemite national park, mobilizing thousands to tackle a wildfire that exploded on Friday, grew to more than 15,600 acres and on Sunday remained entirely uncontained.

Discussing the ferocity and fast-growing nature of the blaze, the former vice-president Al Gore, long a campaigner for action on the climate crisis, warned: “The survival of our civilization is at stake.”

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Cheney and Kinzinger tee up possible January 6 subpoena for Ginni Thomas

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Republicans on House committee suggest wife of supreme court justice Clarence Thomas could be compelled to testify

The House January 6 committee could subpoena Ginni Thomas, the wife of the supreme court justice Clarence Thomas, if she will not testify voluntarily about her involvement in Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

The news, from panel member Liz Cheney, came two days after Trump’s former strategist, Steve Bannon, was convicted of criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with the committee. He faces time in jail.

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North-eastern US braces for record-breaking heat

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One heat-related death reported in New York while authorities in Philadelphia extend health emergency declaration

Residents in the north-east US braced for potentially record-breaking temperatures on Sunday as a near-week-long hot spell continued, prompting officials to warn of dangerous heat.

At least one heat-related death, in New York, was reported. Around the region, athletic events were shortened or postponed and cities opened cooling centers and even turned to buses to offer relief from the heat.

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Biden ‘doing just fine’ after testing positive for Covid, White House says

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Ashish Jha, coronavirus response coordinator, and physician Kevin O’Connor say president contracted BA.5 variant

Joe Biden is “feeling well” and “doing just fine” after testing positive for Covid, the White House coronavirus response coordinator said.

Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation, Ashish Jha said: “So it is the BA.5 variant, which is about 80% of infections. But thank goodness, our vaccines and therapeutics work well against it, which is why I think the president’s doing well.

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Pete Buttigieg urges Republicans to back same-sex marriage bill

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Senate Democrats hope at least 10 Republicans will support Respect for Marriage Act after 157 in House voted against it

The US transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, has delivered an emotional appeal for Republicans to support a law protecting same-sex marriage as it heads for the Senate.

Democrats who control Congress aim to protect same-sex marriage amid uncertainty over which privacy based rights the conservative-dominated supreme court might target next, having overturned the right to abortion last month.

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Josh Hawley, senator who ran from Capitol mob, mocked by home paper

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Kansas City Star editorial excoriates Republican as ‘laughingstock’ as memes based on January 6 video proliferate

Josh Hawley, the Missouri senator shown running from the mob he incited on January 6, is “a laughingstock” who should be afraid of what the Capitol attack committee might disclose next, a leading newspaper in his home state said.

Hawley was widely criticised for raising a fist to protesters outside Congress on 6 January 2021, then after the mob sent by Donald Trump failed to stop certification of Joe Biden’s election win, voting to object to results anyway.

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Critical elements of leading Alzheimer’s study possibly fraudulent

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The highly influential paper, first published in 2006, has helped guide billions of dollars in US federal research into the disease

Critical elements of one of the most cited pieces of Alzheimer’s disease research in the last two decades may have been purposely manipulated, according to a report in Science.

Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia globally, according to the World Health Organization. The highly influential paper, which was published in Nature in 2006, has helped guide billions of dollars in US federal government research into Alzheimer’s, according to Science.

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Trump and Pence duel in Arizona in fight for Republican future

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Former president and his one-time wingman appear at rival events – and it’s all to play for as the US midterms approach

Eddie Palazuelos drove 200 miles and lined up for five hours under the baking sun to to see Donald Trump at a campaign event for candidates he is backing in the forthcoming Arizona Republican primaries.

It’s the fifth Trump rally the 27-year-old has attended since the former president lost the White House in 2020 – because Palazuelos vehemently believes the election was stolen. Any judge or lawmaker who concludes otherwise is “willfully ignorant”, he said, referring to the dozens of lawsuits and recounts nationwide which ruled out fraud.

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Renton shooting: one dead and five injured in Seattle suburb

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Police say initial investigation suggests dispute outside of large gathering that led to gunfire, possibly by more than one suspect

One person was confirmed dead and five others were treated for gunshot wounds after multiple shots were fired in the Seattle suburb of Renton, Washington, police said.

The Renton police department tweeted that officers were called before 1am Saturday and found multiple victims, five of whom were treated for injuries. Police confirmed one fatality in the shooting.

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Vince McMahon retiring from WWE amid sexual misconduct inquiry

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Reports earlier this month said McMahon agreed to pay $12m to suppress allegations of sexual misconduct and infidelity

The World Wrestling Entertainment impresario Vince McMahon has said he is retiring. The announcement comes amid an investigation into alleged misconduct.

In a brief statement issued by WWE, McMahon said he is retiring as the company’s chair and CEO. He remains its majority shareholder.

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Inside the remote California county where the far right took over: ‘Civility went out the window’

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In Shasta county the pandemic intensified political divisions, and many officials quit or were pushed out amid bitter tensions

At some point in the last two years, Janine Carroll started avoiding certain grocery stores in her hometown of Redding, California. The retired grandmother could hear the taunts people made to those like her who chose to wear a face mask to fend off Covid-19. “You never know anymore what the atmosphere is going to be when you walk into any given place,” she said.

Masks are just one symbol of the divisions gripping Shasta county, a remote, heavily forested region in far northern California that has long considered itself an outlier in a deep Blue state.

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Boston’s new hero: woman who jumped from burning subway car into river

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The anonymous woman jumped into the water, swam to shore, and carried on with her day. How Bostonian!

Boston Red Sox legend David Ortiz will be inducted into the baseball hall of fame this weekend. Aside from the three World Series he helped bring to the city, among the memories this is likely to stir up among fans is the rousing speech Big Papi gave shortly after the Boston Marathon bombing. “This is our fucking city!” he shouted at Fenway Park.

Many locals had a similar reaction to the heroics of another Boston figure on Thursday morning when an MBTA train heading into the neighboring city of Somerville caught on fire.

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Google fires software engineer who claims AI chatbot is sentient

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Company said Blake Lemoine violated Google policies and that his claims were ‘wholly unfounded’

Google has dismissed a senior software engineer who claimed the company’s artificial intelligence chatbot LaMDA was a self-aware person.

Google, which placed software engineer Blake Lemoine on leave last month, said he had violated company policies and that it found his claims on LaMDA (language model for dialogue applications) to be “wholly unfounded”.

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Uvalde school district officials cut off paid leave for embattled police chief

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A meeting to decide the fate of Pete Arredondo has been delayed and his leave is now unpaid, suggesting a dismissal is imminent

School district officials in Uvalde, Texas, have cut off payments to their police force’s embattled chief, who had been on administrative leave from his job but is still being compensated.

The decision on Friday comes amid scrutiny and criticism of how police handled the deadly attack at Robb elementary, where a gunman killed 21 people nearly two months ago.

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Steve Bannon convicted of contempt of Congress for defying Capitol attack subpoena

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Jury finds former Trump adviser guilty on two counts of criminal contempt for refusing to appear before House committee

Steve Bannon, the former top strategist to Donald Trump, was convicted on Friday in his contempt of Congress trial - a victory for the House January 6 select committee that referred him for prosecution as it continues to investigate the former president’s role in the Capitol attack.

The jury in federal court took less than three hours to return its verdict and found Bannon guilty on two contempt charges stemming from his refusal to comply last year with a subpoena in the congressional investigation seeking documents and testimony.

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Mexico gives Tesla a dedicated lane at the border to speed up crossing into the US

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The exclusive lane, at the remote checkpoint just north of Laredo, Texas, will be for suppliers only, not Tesla owners

Tesla has reportedly gained an exclusive lane at a remote US-Mexico border crossing after Elon Musk recently struck a deal with the “pro-business” state of Nuevo León.

The electric car company’s suppliers traveling from Mexico into Texas can use a dedicated lane to speed up their crossing at the Colombia Solidarity site, Bloomberg reported, a less popular checkpoint just north of Laredo. Tesla relies on at least six suppliers in Nuevo León, which borders the US for about 10 miles and is closer to the car company’s new headquarters in Austin. The lane is for suppliers only, not Tesla owners.

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California governor signs gun control law modeled after Texas anti-abortion measure

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Law allows people to sue anyone who distributes illegal assault weapons, parts used to build weapons or .50 caliber rifles

California punched back Friday against two recent landmark US supreme court decisions as the state’s governor signed a controversial, first-in-the-nation gun control law patterned after a Texas anti-abortion law.

The action by Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, comes one month after conservative justices overturned women’s constitutional right to abortions and undermined gun control laws in states including California.

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Houston investigated for slow response to Black and Hispanic residents who call 311

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City allegedly addresses illegal dumping complaints by people of color more slowly than those from white residents

Houston’s city government is under federal investigation after accusations that it responds to calls from Black and Hispanic residents about illegal dumping more slowly than if the complaints are from white residents, US justice department officials announced Friday.

The investigation into whether the Texas metropolis’ so-called quality of life officials are illegally discriminating against residents based on their race or national origin was prompted by a complaint filed earlier this year by the nonprofit Lone Star Legal Aid clinic, authorities added.

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