Category Archives: US News

Neo-Nazi leader sentenced to 20 years for plot to attack Maryland’s power grid

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Brandon Russell, founder of neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, was convicted of plotting to blow up Baltimore power grid

The founder of a Florida-based neo-Nazi group has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for conspiring with his girlfriend to plan an attack on Maryland’s power grid in furtherance of their shared racist beliefs.

Brandon Russell, 30, was convicted by a jury earlier this year. Prosecutors presented evidence detailing his longstanding affiliation with white supremacist causes and his recent efforts to organize “sniper attacks” on electrical substations around Baltimore.

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Secret Service request to raise river level made ‘without knowledge’ of JD Vance, his office says

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Decision to alter Ohio river flow ‘made solely by agents’, the security agency said in a statement

A spokesperson for JD Vance said he and his staff were unaware that the Secret Service decided earlier this month to ask military engineers to raise the water level of the Little Miami River ahead of a family boating trip, which took place on his birthday.

“The Secret Service often employs protective measures without the knowledge of the vice-president or his staff, as was the case last weekend,” the spokesperson said.

Do you have a tip related to this story? You can contact the Guardian via Signal on +1 646 886 8761

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Trump administration doubles reward for arrest of Venezuela’s president to $50m

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Nicolás Maduro was indicted in 2020 on federal charges of narcoterrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine

The Trump administration is doubling to $50m a reward for the arrest of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, accusing him of being one of the world’s largest narcotraffickers and working with cartels to flood the US with fentanyl-laced cocaine.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, Maduro will not escape justice and he will be held accountable for his despicable crimes,” Pam Bondi, the attorney general, said on Thursday in a video statement announcing the reward.

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Democrats condemn Texas senator over alleged FBI role in locating lawmakers

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John Cornyn claims FBI agreed to help return Democrats to state, sparking backlash amid GOP map push

Democrats harshly criticized Donald Trump and Republicans after a US senator said the FBI had agreed to assist in locating Texas Democratic lawmakers who left the state to block Republicans from enacting a gerrymandered congressional map that would likely add five more Republican seats before next year’s midterm elections.

Senator John Cornyn’s claim that the FBI would assist Republicans’ effort could not be independently confirmed. The FBI declined to comment. An administration official told NBC News this week the government did not plan on using federal agents to arrest Texas lawmakers and a federal law enforcement official told the outlet that as of Thursday morning, the agency had not assisted with trying to locate the lawmakers. None of the lawmakers have been charged with a crime.

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British man accused of trying to drown daughter-in-law in pool in Florida

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Mark Raymond Gibbon, in US on holiday, charged with attempted second-degree murder and battery

A British man has been charged by US police with the attempted murder of his daughter-in-law after allegedly trying to drown her in a swimming pool while on holiday, local authorities have said.

Mark Raymond Gibbon, 62, of Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, allegedly tried to drown the 33-year-old woman after they had an argument about his grandchildren in their rental home at the Solterra Resort in Davenport, Florida, on Sunday, the Polk county sheriff, Grady Judd, said on X.

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Former Superman actor Dean Cain reveals he’s becoming an Ice agent to support Trump’s mass deportation agenda

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The actor will be sworn in ‘ASAP’ amid the federal agency’s recruitment drive and unprecedented immigration raids that have sparked protest across the US

Former Superman actor Dean Cain has announced he has signed up to join Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), in order to support US president Donald Trump’s anti-immigration agenda.

The federal law enforcement agency has aggressively ramped up immigration raids since Trump’s return to the White House and was recently awarded $75bn in extra funding as part of his “big beautiful bill”, which includes billions for hiring an additional 10,000 Ice agents by 2029.

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United Airlines says issue that forced grounding of hundreds of US flights resolved

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Ground stops were issued nationwide including at hubs in Chicago, Denver, Houston, Newark and San Francisco

United Airlines has said a technology issue that led to the grounding of flights for a few hours and major delays across its network in the US has been resolved.

“While we expect residual delays, our team is working to restore our normal operations,” the airline said in a statement late on Wednesday.

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Eddie Palmieri, pioneering Latin jazz musician and Grammy winner, dies aged 88

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The pianist, composer and bandleader was the first Latino to win a Grammy and would win seven more over a career that spanned nearly 40 albums

Eddie Palmieri, the avant-garde musician who was one of the most innovative artists of rumba and Latin jazz, has died aged 88.

Fania Records announced Palmieri’s death Wednesday evening. Palmieri’s daughter Gabriela told the New York Times her father died earlier that day at his home in New Jersey after “an extended illness”.

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Brazil judge eases Jair Bolsonaro house arrest to allow family visits

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Ex-president can see children and grandchildren without prior court approval, but phone and video ban remains

A Brazilian supreme court judge has eased the terms of Jair Bolsonaro’s house arrest, allowing the far-right former president to receive visits from family members without prior judicial approval.

The former paratrooper turned populist has been under house arrest since Monday, when Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the measure on the grounds that Bolsonaro had allegedly violated court orders.

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Shooter in custody after five soldiers shot on Georgia military base, army says

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Parts of base had been on lockdown earlier after shooter was reported, as base says all five were moved to hospital

Five soldiers were shot and wounded on Wednesday on the Fort Stewart military base in south-east Georgia before the shooter was taken into custody.

Parts of the base had been locked down earlier on Wednesday after a shooter was reported on the sprawling army post, a spokesperson said.

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Bomb scare rattles Democrats who fled Texas amid showdown with governor

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Lawmakers had been sheltering in Illinois after denying Texas Republicans quorum for gerrymandering scheme

Texas Democrats who fled the state say they experienced a bomb threat at their Illinois hotel on Wednesday morning amid an ongoing clash with Republicans over their effort to block a new congressional map from going into place.

John Bucy III, a Democrat who represents Austin in the state legislature, confirmed the threat on X on Wednesday and said the lawmakers were evacuated. “This is what happens when Republican state leaders publicly call for us to be ‘hunted down’. Texas Democrats won’t be intimidated,” he said.

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US envoy Steve Witkoff meets Putin as Trump’s Ukraine deadline approaches

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Talks between Trump’s negotiator and Russian president lasted about three hours as US pushes for peace deal

Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff spent three hours in the Kremlin talking to Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, two days before a deadline the US president set for Russia to reach a peace deal in the Ukraine war or face fresh sanctions.

It was not immediately clear whether any agreement had been reached during the talks, which Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov described as “useful and constructive”. Ushakov said that it was only after Witkoff reported back to Trump that it would be possible to say more about the outcome of the meeting.

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US destruction of contraceptives denies 1.4m African women and girls lifesaving care, NGO says

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Incineration of $9.7m of contraceptives to lead to 174,000 unintended pregnancies and 56,000 unsafe abortions, IPPF says

A decision by the US government to incinerate more than $9.7m (£7.3m) of contraceptives is projected to result in 174,000 unintended pregnancies and 56,000 unsafe abortions in five African countries.

More than three-quarters of the contraceptives (77%) were destined for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Mali, according to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), an NGO global healthcare provider and advocate of sexual and reproductive rights.

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Shares in European drug companies hit four-month low as Trump tariffs loom

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President repeats threat to bring in levies ‘within next week or so’ in attempt to get companies to move production to US

Shares in European pharmaceutical companies have sunk to a four-month low, after Donald Trump repeated his threats to introduce tariffs on drug imports “within the next week or so”.

Europe’s Stoxx Health Care index slid by 2.8% on Wednesday, falling to its lowest level since mid-April, shortly after the US president’s initial “liberation day” tariff announcements.

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US hunter reportedly killed by buffalo during expedition in South Africa

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Asher Watkins, 52, of Texas died while tracking 1.3-ton Cape buffalo on a hunting trip in the country’s Limpopo province

An American game hunter was killed by a buffalo he was stalking during a hunting expedition in South Africa over the weekend, according to multiple reports.

Asher Watkins, 52, of Texas, died on 3 August while tracking a 1.3-ton Cape buffalo in South Africa’s Limpopo province, according to a statement from Coenraad Vermaak Safaris (CV Safaris), the company that organized the hunting trip.

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US judge blocks Trump officials from diverting disaster prevention grants

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Government prevented from using money allocated to Bric community program for other purposes

A federal judge blocked the Trump administration on Tuesday from diverting funds from a multibillion-dollar grant program designed to protect communities against natural disasters.

US district judge Richard Stearns in Boston issued a preliminary injunction preventing the government from spending money allocated to the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (Bric) program for other purposes.

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OpenAI takes on Meta and DeepSeek with free and customisable AI models

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Developer of ChatGPT says new tools will be ‘for wide benefit’, echoing announcement by Mark Zuckerberg

OpenAI is taking on Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta and Chinese rival DeepSeek by launching its own freely available artificial intelligence models.

The ChatGPT developer has announced two “open weight” large language models, which are free to download and can be customised by developers.

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Tennessee execution of man with heart device ‘result of pure cowardice’

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Byron Black, 69, put to death after legal battle in which lawyers said defibrillator would shock heart repeatedly

Tennessee has executed a man without deactivating his implanted defibrillator, despite uncertainty about whether the device would shock his heart when a lethal drug took effect.

Byron Black died at 10.43am, prison officials said. Shortly after the lethal injection started, witnesses said Black told a spiritual adviser in the room that he was hurting badly.

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Rwanda agrees to take up to 250 migrants from the US

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Deal follows deportations to South Sudan and Eswatini despite concerns about international law breaches

The Rwandan government has said it would accept up to 250 migrants from the US under a deal agreed with Washington but gave no details on who could be included.

The Trump administration’s deportation drive has included negotiating arrangements to send people to third countries, among them South Sudan and Eswatini.

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Canada wildfires: 81 million Americans under air quality alerts as blazes rage

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Hundreds of fires across Canada and parts of the US prompt alerts in 14 states from Great Lakes region to the north-east

Hundreds of wildfires continued to burn across Canada and parts of the US on Tuesday sending smoke from the blazes across the region and reducing air quality in both countries.

US air quality tanked from the Great Lakes region to the north-east, making skies hazy from Minneapolis to New York City and even prompting a ground stop at Boston’s Logan international airport due to “low visibility” on Monday. Detroit, New York City and Chicago continued to record some of the worst air quality in the world on Tuesday, according to IQAir, ranking fourth, 10th and 11th respectively.

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