Category Archives: US News

Covid live: Israel extends travel ban over Omicron; German parliament debates healthcare vaccine mandate

Posted on by

Ten day extension to restrictions announced as Israel detects 21 cases; lawmakers debate first of two German vaccine mandate laws

Fury over the release of a video showing Downing Street staffers joking about alleged lockdown breaches in the UK are only the latest scandal to rock British prime minister Boris Johnson’s premiership.

For days, a succession of government ministers batted away questions about whether an illegal party had been held in Downing Street last December during Covid restrictions that banned gatherings of more than 30 people. But on Tuesday night that all changed: a video emerged of Downing Street staffers appearing to joke about a party alleged to have been held inside No 10 just days earlier.

Continue reading...

Staff shortages are hobbling vaccination campaigns as demand runs high

Posted on by

Most Covid doses are now dispensed at pharmacies and some are struggling to manage the workload

Officials in the US are encouraging eligible adults to get boosters amid a new surge of the Covid-19 pandemic and the discovery of the Omicron variant, but some areas are facing shortages – not of the vaccines, but of pharmacy staff to administer them.

More than two in three Covid vaccines are now given at pharmacies, the White House has said, but pharmacies are facing a double bind of increased workloads and staffing shortages and are struggling to keep up with demand for vaccination appointments.

Continue reading...

Julian Assange can be extradited to US to face espionage charges, court rules

Posted on by

Decision overturns previous ruling that Wikileaks co-founder could not be extradited due to mental health concerns

Julian Assange can be extradited to the US, the high court has ruled as it overturned a judgment earlier this year.

The decision today deals a major blow to the Wikileaks co-founder’s efforts to prevent his extradition to the US to face espionage charges, although options to appeal remain open to his legal team.

Continue reading...

Biden faces vaccine mandate pushback from own party despite support of scientists

Posted on by

Two Democratic senators push back against president’s rules for large businesses as cases continue to rise in the US

Two Democratic senators have resisted Joe Biden’s vaccine-or-test mandate for large businesses, illustrating problems the US president faces even within a faction of his own party, despite having the support of scientists and public health experts.

The US Senate on Wednesday evening voted to overturn the mandate as new cases and hospitalizations continue rising in the country.

Continue reading...

Coastal species are forming colonies on plastic trash in the ocean, study finds

Posted on by

Termed “neopelagic communities”, these colonies are thriving in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and going where the current flows

Masses of ocean plastic are providing artificial habitat for otherwise coastal species, according to a new study published in the peer-reviewed journal, Nature Communications.

The study’s authors observed floating water bottles, old toothbrushes and matted fishing nets. The possibility exists that species may be evolving to better adapt to life on plastic.

Continue reading...

Dozens killed after truck packed with people crashes in Mexico

Posted on by

At least 53 people died and many were injured after the vehicle rolled over on a highway in Chiapas

A cargo truck jammed with more than 100 people thought to be migrants from Central America has rolled over and crashed into a pedestrian bridge in southern Mexico, killing at least 53 people and injuring dozens more.

The crash on Thursday on a highway near Tuxtla Gutierrez, state capital of Chiapas, might have been triggered by the weight of the truck’s human cargo causing it to tip over on a bend, local officials said.

Continue reading...

Court rules against Trump effort to shield documents from Capitol attack panel – live

Posted on by

House speaker Nancy Pelosi said she considered it to be a point of pride that Bob Dole started his career in the lower chamber before being elected to the Senate.

Praising the former Republican senator’s “legendary service” and “inspiring resilience,” Pelosi said it was hard to think of another American more worthy of having a flag draped over his casket.

Continue reading...

Court rules Trump cannot block release of documents to Capitol attack panel

Posted on by

The former president is expected to appeal the ruling to the supreme court

Donald Trump, the former US president, suffered a major defeat on Thursday when a federal appeals court ruled against his effort to block the release of documents related to the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.

Trump is expected to appeal to the supreme court.

Continue reading...

Saudi women’s rights activist sues three ex-US intel operatives over hacking for UAE

Posted on by

Loujain al-Hathloul says actions of men on behalf of the UAE led to her iPhone being hacked and to her imprisonment and torture

Loujain al-Hathloul, the prominent Saudi women’s rights activist, has filed a lawsuit against three former US intelligence and military officers who have admitted in a US court to helping carry out hacking operations on behalf of the United Arab Emirates.

In her lawsuit, which was filed in a US district court in Oregon in conjunction with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Hathloul alleged that the actions of three men – Marc Baier, Ryan Adams, and Daniel Gericke – led to her iPhone being hacked and communication being exfiltrated by UAE security officials.

Continue reading...

‘An urgent matter’: Biden warns democracy is under threat at summit

Posted on by

President opens two-day summit with 80 world leaders as experts warn democratic rights are under assault in the US

Joe Biden has launched his virtual Summit for Democracy with a warning that democratic rights and norms are under threat around the world, including in the US.

Facing video links with 80 world leaders arrayed on two oversize electronic panels, the US president said: “This is an urgent matter on all our parts, in my view, because the data we’re seeing is largely pointing in the wrong direction.”

Continue reading...

New York’s Met museum to remove Sackler family name from its galleries

Posted on by

Art museum announces change in the wake of leading members of the family being blamed for fueling the deadly US opioids crisis

New York’s famed Metropolitan Museum of Art is going to remove the name of arguably its most controversial donor groups – the billionaire Sackler family – from its galleries.

The news comes in the wake of leading members of the US family, one of America’s richest, being blamed for fueling the deadly opioids crisis in America with the aggressive selling of the family company’s prescription narcotic painkiller, OxyContin.

Continue reading...

Germany’s foreign minister under pressure over Nord Stream 2 sanctions

Posted on by

Annalena Baerbock has sympathy with US demands, but there is considerable Social Democrat support for Russia’s pipeline

Germany’s new foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has been caught a diplomatic vice days into the job, as US puts pressure on the coalition government in Berlin to vow to block the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the event of Russia invading Ukraine.

The controversial pipeline project, which runs from Ust-Luga in Russia to Lubmin in north-east Germany, is also likely to be the first test of the new German government’s unity of approach.

Continue reading...

Hillary Clinton’s victory speech – and others that were never heard

Posted on by

The defeated 2016 candidate has read aloud what she would have said in victory – joining a cast of thwarted speechmakers

It was one of the most significant branching points in recent history – and at least one artefact of the way things might have been still exists.

On Wednesday the Today show in the US released a video of Hillary Clinton reading the speech she would have given if she had beaten Donald Trump in the 2016 election. Clinton, who is giving a course in “the power of resilience” with the online education company Masterclass, teared up as she read aloud from her speech. She said reading it entailed “facing one of my most public defeats head-on”.

Continue reading...

Ghislaine Maxwell sex-trafficking trial adjourned after attorney becomes ill

Posted on by

Judge Alison Nathan says she expects proceedings will resume on Friday

Ghislaine Maxwell’s New York sex-trafficking trial was unexpectedly adjourned early Thursday because an “ill” attorney needed medical care. “I’ve been informed there’s an attorney in the case who’s ill, and that attorney has to get care,” the judge, Alison Nathan, told jurors this morning.

Nathan’s disclosure came several moments after attorneys on the case asked to speak with her in private. It’s unclear from proceedings which attorney is ill.

Continue reading...

CDC chief says Omicron is ‘mild’ as early data comes in on US spread of variant

Posted on by

Agency is working on detailed analysis of what the new mutant form of the coronavirus might hold for the US

More than 40 people in the US have been found to be infected with the Omicron variant so far, and more than three-quarters of them had been vaccinated, the chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said. But she added nearly all of them were only mildly ill.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said the data is very limited and the agency is working on a more detailed analysis of what the new mutant form of the coronavirus might hold for the US.

Continue reading...

China says Australia, UK and US will ‘pay price’ for Winter Olympics action

Posted on by

Beijing accuses nations of using Games ‘for political manipulation’ amid diplomatic boycotts

Australia, Britain and the US will pay a price for their “mistaken acts” after deciding not to send government delegations to February’s Winter Olympics in Beijing, China’s foreign ministry has said.

The US was the first to announce a boycott, saying on Monday its government officials would not attend the February Games because of China’s human rights “atrocities”, weeks after talks aimed at easing tension between the world’s two largest economies.

Continue reading...

Can Biden’s ‘divisive’ democracy summit deliver?

Posted on by

Billed as a rallying call for human rights and liberties, the event has been lambasted by critics such as China and even invitees are critical

Much of the advance commentary about Joe Biden’s two-day Summit for Democracy has been a diplomat’s version of a Charity Ball: long discussions about the guest list and how the guests will show up, and very little about its supposedly noble purpose.

Potentially a rallying point for democracy, after the west’s crushing setback in Afghanistan, the summit has not been receiving rave advance notices even from those that have been invited.

Continue reading...

Helicopter lowers rescuer to car at top of Niagara Falls – video

Posted on by

A woman's body has been retrieved from a car that was washed close to the brink of Niagara Falls on the US-Canada border. A coast guard rescuer was lowered from a helicopter to the car and found the body. An investigation has been launched into how the car and its occupant ended up in the Niagara River.

Continue reading...

Barnaby Joyce, Australia’s deputy PM, tests positive for Covid while visiting US

Posted on by

Nationals leader is experiencing mild symptoms and will remain in isolation until further advice

Australia’s deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, has tested positive to Covid-19 while on a visit to the United States.

The government says Joyce – who was in London earlier this week and met with the British justice secretary, Dominic Raab, and the Australian high commissioner to the UK, George Brandis – will isolate in the US until it is safe for him to return to Australia.

Continue reading...

Biden’s carbon-neutral order praised for ‘aligning government power with climate goals’ – live

Posted on by

Joe Biden took a few questions from reporters this morning, as he left the White House to start his trip to Kansas City, Missouri.

Asked about his summit yesterday with Vladimir Putin, Biden said, “I was very straightforward. There were no minced words.”

Continue reading...