Category Archives: US News

Tech firms under pressure to safeguard user data as abortion prosecutions loom

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Private information collected and retained by companies could be weaponized to prosecute abortion seekers and providers

After the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade on Friday, calls increased for tech companies to take a stand about the use of online data to incriminate individuals seeking or providing abortion services.

Abortion and civil rights advocates have warned that there are few federal regulations on what information is collected and retained by tech firms, making it easy for law enforcement officials to access incriminating data on location, internet searches and communication history.

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Protests sweep across nation as supreme court overturns Roe v Wade – follow live

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Former president Barack Obama has condemned the supreme court’s ruling overturning Roe v Wade, calling it an attack on “the essential freedoms of millions of Americans”:

President Joe Biden is expected to address the nation:

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FDA ban on Juul e-cigarettes temporarily halted

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The company requested the hold while it appeals the sales ban which would have required it to immediately halt its business


Juul can continue to sell its electronic cigarettes, at least for now, after a federal appeals court on Friday temporarily blocked a government ban.

Juul filed an emergency motion earlier Friday, seeking the temporary hold while it appeals the sales ban.

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‘Abortion returns to the states’: US attorneys general react to Roe v Wade ruling

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Those in more progressive states assured people that abortion is still legal while Republicans framed it as a celebratory occasion

The US supreme court has ruled that the constitution does not protect the right to an abortion, opening the door for states to ban or severely restrict abortion access. In several states, abortion becomes immediately illegal, while other states have already taken steps to ban abortion.

The people who will enforce these anti-abortion laws are attorneys general, the top legal authority for each state. Within hours of the supreme court overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade decision, nearly every state’s attorney general released a statement.

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‘Outrage and action’: protesters young and old gather outside supreme court

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Pro-choice activists and lawmakers express their dismay over the court ruling and vow to keep fighting for women’s rights

The crowds gathered outside the US supreme court building in expectation of today’s decision – which resulted in a stunning reversal of federal law, the overturning of Roe v Wade and the end constitutional right to an abortion – turned quickly to anger, protest and in some cases to celebration.

Dominated with the voices of anger and dissent, young people and older ones joined together with handmade signs and chanting slogans of protest and defiance.

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Contraception, gay marriage: Clarence Thomas signals new targets for supreme court

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Rightwing justice appears to offer preview of the court’s potential future rulings after decision to remove US abortion rights

Many Americans reacted to the supreme court’s decision to reverse Roe v Wade and remove federal abortion rights in the US with shock, but many also asked a terrified question: what might be next?

The conservative justice Clarence Thomas appeared to offer a preview of the court’s potential future rulings, suggesting the rightwing-controlled court may return to the issues of contraception access and marriage equality, threatening LGBTQ rights.

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Bipartisan gun control law sent for Biden’s signature after House vote

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Fourteen Republicans vote with majority for first major gun reform legislation in nearly 30 years

The US House on Friday passed a bipartisan bill to strengthen federal gun regulations, bringing an end to decades of congressional inaction and sending the historic legislation to Joe Biden’s desk.

Passage of the bill came a day after the supreme court overturned a New York law regulating handgun ownership, a significant blow for proponents of gun reform.

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US to proceed with production of biofuels despite global food crisis

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Campaigners call to prioritise grain for human consumption over its use as a fuel

The US will press ahead with biofuels production, the deputy secretary for agriculture has said, despite increasing concerns over a global food crisis, and calls from campaigners to prioritise grain for human consumption over its use as a fuel.

Jewel Bronaugh, the deputy secretary of agriculture, said US farmers could continue to produce biofuels without harming food production. “We are keeping food security top of mind, but at the same time we also want to remain steadfast in the support and promotion of biofuel,” she told journalists in London, where she met the UK government to discuss a possible trade deal and cooperation on food issues.

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California’s largest reservoirs at critically low levels – signaling a dry summer ahead

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Images from Lake Oroville and Lake Shasta compiled by the state show ‘a shocking drop in water levels’ compared to years past

California’s two largest reservoirs are at critically low levels, signaling that the state, like much of the US west, can expect a searing, dry summer ahead.

This week, officials confirmed that Lake Oroville, the state’s second-largest reservoir, was at just 55% of its total capacity when it reached its highest level for the year last month. Meanwhile, Shasta Lake, California’s largest reservoir, was at 40% capacity last month – after the state endured its driest start to a year since the late 19th century.

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‘We didn’t sign up to die’: US transit workers sound alarm over rising violence

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Unions say trend of assaults and abuse on staff is intolerable – and crisis will worsen without federal action

Monique Rondon, a bus operator in New York City for 23 years, has been spat on and assaulted several times on the job.

Now transit workers and labor unions across America are sounding the alarm over the trend of violence, assaults, and abuse that workers in the transportation industry in the US have faced throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, a crisis they say will continue to worsen without federal action and implementation of safety protections and rules.

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‘More to come’: what the January 6 panel has revealed of Trump’s efforts to retain power

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In five hearings, the committee has shown the various paths the ex-president and his team explored to overturn the election

The January 6 select committee held its final hearing for this month on Thursday, sharing new details about Donald Trump’s efforts to pressure top justice department officials to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Across the committee’s five hearings this month, investigators have presented a meticulous account of Trump’s exhaustive efforts to cling to power after losing the election to Joe Biden. The panel has shown how Trump and his allies explored every possible avenue – from pressuring the vice-president, Mike Pence, to leaning on state election officials and justice department leaders – to promote lies about widespread election fraud.

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Senate breakthrough clears way for toughening US gun laws

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Bill’s passing hailed as ‘long overdue step’ while package falls far short of more robust restrictions Democrats sought

The US Senate has easily approved a bipartisan gun violence bill that seemed unthinkable just a month ago, clearing the way for final congressional approval of what will be lawmakers’ most far-reaching response in decades to mass shootings.

After years of GOP procedural delays that derailed Democratic efforts to curb firearms, Democrats and some Republicans decided that congressional inaction was untenable after last month’s rampages in New York and Texas. It took weeks of closed-door talks but a group of senators from both parties emerged on Thursday with a compromise embodying incremental but impactful movement to curb bloodshed that has come to regularly shock – yet no longer surprise – the nation.

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Republicans who aided coup attempt sought blanket presidential pardons

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Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Ted Cruz among those who requested to be let off after attempting to overturn election results

The Republicans Matt Gaetz and Mo Brooks sought a blanket pardon of members of Congress involved in Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden through lies about electoral fraud, the House January 6 committee revealed on Thursday.

A witness said Andy Biggs of Arizona, Louie Gohmert of Texas and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania also contacted the White House about securing pardons. The same witness, former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, said she heard Marjorie Taylor Greene, an extremist from Georgia, wanted a pardon too.

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Takeover of UK defence supplier Ultra Electronics set to be approved

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Sonar and radio comms maker expected to be sold to Cobham, owned by private equity firm Advent, in £2.6bn deal

The UK government is set to wave through a £2.6bn takeover of a British defence manufacturer in a deal that will move a US private equity investor a step closer to controlling a significant supplier of nuclear submarine equipment.

Cobham has received the green light to take over Ultra Electronics, a FTSE 250 maker of systems such as sonar and radio communications used by navies and air forces, as well as civilian aircraft. Cobham was itself controversially taken over and broken up by US private equity investor Advent over the course of 2019 and 2020.

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January 6 hearings outlined ‘inner workings of political coup in service of Trump’, panel chair says – as it happened

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Committee ends fifth hearing, with next sessions expected in July

Gun rights have been in the news for weeks following two shocking mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York — a fact that has not escaped the supreme court.

In his concurrence with the majority opinion, conservative justice Samuel Alito connects the latter shooting with the concealed weapons regulation that the court struck down. “Will a person bent on carrying out a mass shooting be stopped if he knows that it is illegal to carry a handgun outside the home? And how does the dissent account for the fact that one of the mass shootings near the top of its list took place in Buffalo? The New York law at issue in this case obviously did not stop that perpetrator,” wrote Alito, who was also the author of the draft opinion overturning abortion rights that leaked in May.

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Barr feared Trump might not have left office had DoJ not debunked fraud claims

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Former attorney general says ‘I am not sure we would have had a transition at all’ if investigation had not immediately taken place

Donald Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, thought Trump might have refused to leave office at all had the Department of Justice not immediately investigated and disproved his lies about electoral fraud in his defeat by Joe Biden.

“I am not sure we would’ve had a transition at all,” Barr said, in startling video testimony played by the January 6 committee on Thursday.

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Capitol attack panel details Trump’s pressure on DoJ to support fraud claims

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Ex-president told officials to declare election ‘corrupt’ and ‘leave the rest to me and Republican congressmen’

Donald Trump relentlessly pressured top officials at the justice department to pursue groundless claims of voter fraud in an extraordinary but ultimately unsuccessful effort to cling to power, according to testimony the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection heard on Thursday.

Three former justice department officials who served during Trump’s final weeks in office, told the committee that the then-president was “adamant” that the election was stolen despite begin told repeatedly that none of the allegations raised about the vote count were credible.

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Haiti: dozens of inmates starve to death as malnutrition crisis engulfs prisons

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Prison in Les Cayes that ran out of food two months ago reports deaths as UN urges government to tackle food and water crisis

At least eight inmates have starved to death at an overcrowded prison in Haiti that ran out of food two months ago, adding to dozens of similar deaths this year as the country’s institutions crumble.

Hunger and oppressive heat contributed to the inmates’ deaths reported this week by the prison in the south-west city of Les Cayes, Ronald Richemond, the city’s government commissioner, said on Thursday. He said the prison houses 833 inmates.

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Cruel timing for Biden as court’s gun ruling clouds breakthrough in Congress

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President ‘deeply disappointed’ by justices’ decision as bipartisan bill to strengthen gun safety appears ready to pass

When the US supreme court struck down New York state’s limits on carrying concealed handguns in public, it clouded what should have been a day celebrating a rare breakthrough on one of the most divisive issues in American politics.

No wonder president Joe Biden said he was “disappointed” by the conservative-controlled court’s decision. It was, after all, a serious setback for Biden, who recently emotionally addressed the nation in the wake of a spate of mass shootings and stressed the need to curb Americans’ easy access to powerful weapons.

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