Category Archives: US News

US pipeline protester’s obstruction conviction overturned by appeals court

Posted on by

New trial for Mylene Vialard after Minnesota judges find ‘pervasive’ prosecutorial misconduct in Line 3 protest case

The controversial felony conviction of a peaceful climate activist has been overturned by an appeals court due to “pervasive” prosecutorial misconduct.

Mylene Vialard, 56, was found guilty of felony obstruction in 2023 for her role in trying to halt construction of a fossil-fuel pipeline through Indigenous territory in Minnesota, in a trial beset by irregularities.

Continue reading...

Trump tells Zelenskyy ceasefire not needed for Russia-Ukraine peace deal

Posted on by

President reverses ceasefire position but says US will give Ukraine security help and expresses hope for trilateral talks

Donald Trump has ruled out a ceasefire in Ukraine as Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his European allies visited the White House to push for US-backed security guarantees as part of any long-term peace deal.

The US president, who only last week warned Russia of “very severe consequences” if Vladimir Putin failed to agree to a halt the fighting, made clear on Monday he had reversed his position.

Continue reading...

Zelenskyy’s European ‘bodyguards’: which leaders joined Trump talks in Washington?

Posted on by

Presidents, PMs and heads of Nato and European Commission accompany Ukraine’s leader at White House

European leaders gathered in Washington on Monday for Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting with Donald Trump in the Oval Office, in a show of support for the Ukrainian president. Their presence came amid expectations that Trump would try to bully Zelenskyy into accepting a pro-Russia “peace plan” that would include Kyiv handing territory to Moscow. The Europeans have been described as Zelenskyy’s “bodyguards”, with memories fresh of the mauling he received in February during his last Oval Office visit. So, who are they?

Continue reading...

‘Ketamine queen’ accused of selling Matthew Perry fatal dose to plead guilty

Posted on by

Jasveen Sangha, fifth and last defendant charged in Friends star’s overdose to strike plea agreement with prosecutors

A woman known as the “ketamine queen”, charged with selling Matthew Perry the drug that killed him, agreed to plead guilty on Monday.

Jasveen Sangha becomes the fifth and final defendant charged in the overdose death of the Friends star to strike a plea agreement with federal prosecutors. Having initially pleaded not guilty, her change of plea means she’ll avoid a trial that had been planned for August.

Continue reading...

US private prison healthcare industry grows despite alleged medical neglect

Posted on by

The Guardian examined two private-equity backed companies that have been accused of failing to protect inmates from risk of harm, and even preventable death

Early one morning this spring, staff at a Santa Barbara county jail heard screams coming from one of the cells. A 57-year-old inmate was moaning and hyperventilating. She said her “guts are all twisted up”.

Rather than sending her to the ER, medical staff chalked her pain up to opioid withdrawal, since they had taken a prescription opioid away upon her arrival days before, a grand jury investigation later found. They placed the inmate – referred to as CF in the grand jury’s report – on mental health observation and gave her Tylenol. Even as the cell floor became covered in vomit, staff ignored her requests to go to the hospital. The documentation that should have been filled out to explain why her request was not honored was never completed.

Continue reading...

Zelenskyy accuses Russia of ‘cynical’ attacks before Washington talks

Posted on by

Ukrainian president says latest strikes have killed at least 10 people and intended to ‘humiliate diplomatic efforts’

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of trying to humiliate Ukraine and Europe by “deliberately killing civilians” before talks with Donald Trump in the White House to be attended by Ukraine’s president and a group of European leaders.

Zelenskyy described the latest strikes by Moscow on four Ukrainian cities as “demonstrative and cynical”. At least seven people were killed in a drone attack on Kharkiv, including a small girl, while three were killed in another bombing in Zaporizhzhia, he said.

Continue reading...

Washington DC restaurants suffer sharp drop in diners since Trump crackdown

Posted on by

Eating out drops by up to 31% amid federal takeover of policing that Democrats call ‘stunt’ to distract from Epstein

The number of people eating at restaurants in Washington DC has plummeted since Donald Trump deployed federal troops to the city, according to data, as the president’s purported crackdown on crime continues.

Research by Open Table found that restaurant attendance was down every day last week compared with 2024, with the number of diners dipping by 31% on Wednesday, two days after Trump ordered the national guard to patrol Washington.

Continue reading...

Hurricane Erin knocks out power lines in Puerto Rico before heading north

Posted on by

Most of more than 147,000 customers affected reconnected by Monday as category 4 storm not forecast to make landfall

Hurricane Erin’s outer bands pelted the US territory of Puerto Rico with heavy rains and tropical-storm winds during the day on Sunday, knocking out power to tens of thousands of customers, according to officials.

At one point, more than 147,000 utility customers were without power in Puerto Rico, according to Luma Energy, a private company that oversees the transmission and distribution of power on the island. By 5.30am on Monday, 96.3% of customers had electric service, with most who were affected by outages being concentrated in the Caguas, Mayagüez and San Juan regions, Luma said on X.

Guardian staff contributed reporting

Continue reading...

Trump’s move to sanitize US history gets little support with national park visitors

Posted on by

Exclusive: Public comments show that a crackdown on signs ‘disparaging’ Americans is not popular

As part of his administration’s war on “woke”, Donald Trump has asked the American public to report anything “negative” about Americans in US national parks. But the public has largely refused to support a world view without inconvenient historical facts, comments submitted from national parks and seen by the Guardian show.

Notices have been erected at every National Park Service (NPS) site, which spans 433 national parks, monuments and battlefields, following an order from May entitled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History”, issued by Trump’s department of the interior (DOI). The president had demanded a crackdown on any material that “inappropriately disparages Americans”.

Continue reading...

Soho House members’ club to go private in $2.7bn deal as Ashton Kutcher joins board

Posted on by

MCR Hotels to lead new equity investors in members’ club chain after four years on New York stock exchange

The members’ club chain Soho House has agreed a $2.7bn (£2bn) deal to take it private after a tricky four years listed on the New York stock exchange.

New York-based MCR Hotels will lead new equity investors in the chain of clubs as part of a deal that will involve it ditching its stock market listing.

Continue reading...

Rubio says both Russia and Ukraine ‘have to make concessions’ for peace deal

Posted on by

US secretary of state says talks between Putin and Trump had ‘made progress’ but ‘big areas of disagreement’ remain

In a combative series of interviews on Sunday, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said that “both sides are going to have to make concessions” for there to be a peaceful resolution to the war that erupted when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

“You can’t have a peace agreement unless both sides make concessions – that’s a fact,” the Trump administration’s top diplomat said Sunday on ABC’s This Week. “That’s true in virtually any negotiation. If not, it’s just called surrender. And neither side is going to surrender. So both sides are going to have to make concessions.”

Continue reading...

Hurricane Erin weakens to category 3 as storm lashes Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands

Posted on by

First Atlantic hurricane of 2025 diminishes but tropical storm warnings issued for Turks and Caicos

Hurricane Erin was downgraded to a category 3 hurricane early Sunday as its outer bands continued to lash the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico with heavy rains and tropical-storm force winds.

While Erin’s maximum winds diminished, the storm’s overall size grew and forecasters issued tropical storm warnings for the Turks and Caicos Islands and a watch for the south-east Bahamas.

Continue reading...

Keir Starmer hopes to exploit curious relationship with Trump in Ukraine talks

Posted on by

PM has positioned himself as someone who can get along with US president while stressing Europe’s red lines

Asked behind the scenes at June’s G7 summit if he could explain why Donald Trump seemed to like him so much, Keir Starmer admitted he did not really know. Whatever the reason, when it comes to Ukraine, the UK prime minister is once again hoping to exploit this somewhat curious relationship.

As soon as it was announced that a string of European leaders planned to join Volodymyr Zelenskyy to back the Ukrainian president in crucial talks with Trump at the White House on Monday, it was obvious Starmer would be joining them.

Continue reading...

Three people killed and eight wounded in Brooklyn lounge shooting, police say

Posted on by

The 11 victims ranged in ages from 27 to 61 after multiple gunmen opened fire inside Taste of the City in Crown Heights

Three people were killed and eight others wounded when multiple gunmen opened fire inside a crowded Brooklyn hookah lounge and restaurant early Sunday morning, according to authorities.

Police officers responded to reports of a shooting inside the Taste of the City lounge in Crown Heights just before 3.30am, New York police department (NYPD) commissioner, Jessica Tisch, said at a press briefing later Sunday.

Continue reading...

‘Stunning survival story’: Police rescue California man trapped behind waterfall for two days

Posted on by

Ryan Wardwell was rappelling down Seven Teacups falls when ‘extreme hydraulics’ trapped him behind a cascade

A California man who recently became trapped behind a waterfall for two days while climbing was dramatically rescued by police utilizing a helicopter.

Ryan Wardwell, 46, of Long Beach, went to waterfalls known as the Seven Teacups on 10 August with plans to rappel down, the sheriff’s office of Tulare country said in a social media post. But the “extreme hydraulics” of the waterfalls pushed Wardwell off his rappelling lines and trapped him behind a cascade of the Kern river, according to the sheriff’s office.

Continue reading...

Trump hiked tariffs on US imports. Now he’s looking at exports – sparking fears of ‘dangerous precedent’

Posted on by

Experts warn of destabilized trading relations after White House strikes deal with Nvidia to take a 15% cut of certain AI chip sales to Chinese companies

Apple CEO Tim Cook visited the White House bearing an unusual gift. “This box was made in California,” Cook reassured his audience in the Oval Office this month, as he took off the lid.

Inside was a glass plaque, engraved for its recipient, and a slab for the plaque to sit on. “The base was made in Utah, and is 24-karat gold,” said Cook.

Continue reading...

Three states to deploy hundreds of national guard troops to Washington DC

Posted on by

South Carolina and Ohio join West Virginia in pledging troops, fueling protests that national guard should not be used for ‘a political policing mission’

Three states have moved to deploy hundreds of members of their national guard to the nation’s capital as part of the Trump administration’s effort to overhaul policing in Washington through a federal crackdown.

West Virginia said it was deploying 300 to 400 guard troops, while South Carolina pledged 200 and Ohio said it would send 150 in the coming days.

The moves announced on Saturday came as protesters pushed back on federal law enforcement and national guard troops fanning out in the heavily Democratic city following Donald Trump’s executive order federalizing local police forces and activating about 800 District of Columbia national guard members.

Continue reading...

ESPN drops Spike Lee’s docuseries on Colin Kaepernick, network and filmmaker say

Posted on by

Multi-part series on ex-NFL player who protested racial injustice will not continue over ‘creative differences’

Director Spike Lee’s multi-part documentary series for ESPN Films about former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who sparked a national debate when he protested racial injustice nearly a decade ago, will not be released, the filmmaker and ESPN said.

“ESPN, Colin Kaepernick and Spike Lee have collectively decided to no longer proceed with this project as a result of certain creative differences,” ESPN said in a statement to Reuters on Saturday. “Despite not reaching finality, we appreciate all the hard work and collaboration that went into this film.”

Continue reading...

Putin demands full control of Donetsk and Luhansk as condition for ending Ukraine war – live

Posted on by

Putin told Trump he would halt further advances and freeze Ukrainian frontline where Russian forces occupy significant areas, sources say

For those who feared the summit on Ukraine might resemble Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Adolf Hitler in 1938, the reality was worse.

The Guardian’s David Smith has this politics sketch from Anchorage:

Today, following a conversation with President Trump, we further coordinated positions with European leaders. The positions are clear. A real peace must be achieved, one that will be lasting, not just another pause between Russian invasions.

Killings must stop as soon as possible, the fire must cease both on the battlefield and in the sky, as well as against our port infrastructure. All Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians must be released, and the children abducted by Russia must be returned. Thousands of our people remain in captivity – they all must be brought home. Pressure on Russia must be maintained while the aggression and occupation continue.

Continue reading...

Novelist Greg Iles, ‘master of southern US gothic crime-writing’, dies aged 65

Posted on by

Author of Natchez Burning trilogy had battled blood cancer for decades, according to his literary agent

Greg Iles, the Mississippi author of the Natchez Burning trilogy and other works, has died. He was 65.

Iles died on Friday after a decades-long battle with the blood cancer multiple myeloma, his literary agent, Dan Conaway, posted on Saturday on Facebook.

Continue reading...