Category Archives: US News

Biden vowed to make racial justice the heart of his agenda – is it still beating?

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The president named one of the most diverse cabinets ever but efforts to reform voting rights and other priorities are bogged down by legislative and legal obstacles

Defying the punishing August heat, the Rev Al Sharpton recently led a gathering thousands strong through the streets of the nation’s capital on the 58th anniversary of the March on Washington, when Martin Luther King Jr delivered his immortal I Have a Dream speech on that day in 1963.

Now, as then, there was an urgency to their march. In statehouses across the country, Republicans are proposing – and passing – new voter restrictions that activists say amount to the greatest erosion of voting rights since the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965, a crowning achievement of the civil rights movement.

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What’s next for American foreign policy?

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Anniversary of 9/11 and fall of Kabul trigger questions over US interventionism

The 20th anniversary of 9/11 and its fallout was always going to be a moment of deep soul searching about what has been lost and learned.

But the retrospective, until a few weeks ago, risked having a historical, even sepia, quality as the attention of political leaders moved to a more contemporary set of threats – health pandemics, climate emergencies, Big Tech and great power competition, including the rise of China. The “war on terror”, after all, looked if not won, at least drawn. It was even possible Islamist terrorism was a temporary manageable phenomenon, increasingly confined to Africa and some lethal loners in European shopping centres.

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‘This is code red’: Biden sounds alarm on climate crisis as he tours New York damage – video

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US president Joe Biden has emphasised the danger of the climate crisis after touring Hurricane Ida-impacted neighbourhoods. ‘People are beginning to realise this is much, much bigger than anyone was willing to believe,’ Biden said during a tour of Queens, New York. ‘Even the climate skeptics are seeing that this really does matter.’

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Britney Spears’ father files to shut down conservatorship that controls his daughter’s life

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Jamie Spears, conservator of the pop singer’s estate since 2008, says ‘recent events’ called the arrangement into question

Britney Spears’ father has filed an unexpected request to terminate the controversial conservatorship that has controlled the singer’s life for 13 years.

In a stunning move, Jamie Spears, who is the conservator of his daughter’s estate, said “recent events” called into question whether she still needed a court to oversee her personal affairs and finances.

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Texas abortion ‘whistleblower’ website forced offline

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Site was removed from GoDaddy before being censored by new host Epik, known for providing services to far-right groups

Troubles are mounting for a Texas website used to report violators of the state’s extreme anti-abortion legislation after the site was forced offline by two different web hosting platforms.

The site ProLifeWhistleblower.com was removed from its original web host by the provider GoDaddy on Friday before being suspended by its new host, an agency known for providing services to far-right groups.

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The US strategy to counter China in the Pacific could be a $1bn misstep | Gerard Finin and Terence Wesley-Smith

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The US is proposing big spending, but initiatives are designed to undermine China rather than address actual needs on the islands

After decades of ambivalence, the United States plans to expand its footprint in the Pacific islands region to dimensions larger than at any time since the second world war.

But the Biden administration may be on the brink of embracing a flawed foreign policy initiative spanning almost one-third of the globe.

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Texas governor Greg Abbott signs restrictive voting bill into law – live

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Statements are coming in from opponents of the new Texas voting law. Here are some edited versions of some of them:

Here’s where the day stands so far:

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Ohio judge reverses court order forcing hospital to treat Covid patient with ivermectin

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Judge cites lack of ‘convincing evidence’ that drug is effective, siding with hospital that refused to administer medication

An Ohio judge has reversed a court order that forced a local hospital to treat a Covid-19 patient with the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin.

Related: Military doctors shore up exhausted health teams in US south amid Covid surge

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US airstrikes killed at least 22,000 civilians since 9/11, analysis finds

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Figures based on reported number of US airstrikes highlight the human cost of the 20-year ‘war on terror’

US drone and airstrikes have killed at least 22,000 civilians – and perhaps as many as 48,000 – since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, according to new analysis published by the civilian harm monitoring group Airwars.

The analysis, based on the US military’s own assertion that it has conducted almost 100,000 airstrikes since 2001, represents an attempt to estimate the number of civilian deaths across the multiple conflicts that have comprised aspects of the “war on terror”.

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Egypt accused of widespread state-sanctioned killings of dissidents

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Analysis of alleged anti-terrorist shootouts reveals security forces routinely suppressing opposition, claims Human Rights Watch

Egyptian security forces engaged in an extended campaign of extrajudicial killings of detainees, routinely masked as shootouts with alleged terrorists, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch.

The report details what it alleges are a pattern of extrajudicial assassinations between 2015 and last year, a period in which the Egyptian interior ministry said publicly that 755 people were killed in alleged exchanges of fire with security forces, while naming just 141.

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Biden under pressure as NGO says flights from Afghanistan blocked

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Marina LeGree claims group of Americans and at-risk Afghans prevented from flying for a week

Joe Biden’s administration is facing mounting pressure amid reports that several hundred people, including Americans, had been prevented for a week from flying out of an airport in northern Afghanistan.

Marina LeGree, the founder and executive director of a small American NGO active in Afghanistan, said 600 to 1,300 people, including girls from her group, had been waiting near the Mazar-i-Sharif airport for as long as a week amid confusion involving the Taliban and US officials.

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DoJ vows to protect women seeking abortions in Texas after radical state ban

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Move by US attorney general Merrick Garland comes after strictest anti-abortion law in US took effect last week

US attorney general Merrick Garland announced on Monday that the federal government will take action to protect those in Texas trying to obtain an abortion in the wake of the strictest anti-abortion law in the US taking effect last week.

The US justice department said that it will not tolerate violence against anyone seeking abortion services in the state and that federal officials are exploring all options to challenge the ban on almost all terminations, with new state law also empowering the public to enforce the law in a way critics decry as promoting vigilantism.

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Hurricane Ida: nearly 350 reported oil spills investigated in Gulf – Coast Guard

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Storm wreaked havoc on offshore oil production platforms and onshore oil and gas processing plants

The US Coast Guard on Monday said it was investigating nearly 350 reports of oil spills in and along the US Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Ida.

Hurricane Ida’s 150 mile per hour winds wreaked havoc on offshore oil production platforms and onshore oil and gas processing plants. About 88% of the region’s offshore oil production remains shut and more than 100 platforms unoccupied after the storm made landfall 29 August .

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Islamism remains first-order security threat to west, says Tony Blair

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In speech marking 20 years since 9/11 attacks, former British PM warns that non-state actors may turn to bio-terrorism

The west still faces the threat of 9/11-style attacks by radical Islamist groups but this time using bio-terrorism, Tony Blair has warned.

Blair also challenges the US president, Joe Biden, by urging democratic governments not to lose confidence in using military force to defend and export their values.

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Afghanistan: Taliban claim to have taken control of Panjshir valley

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Taliban fighters pictured outside governor’s compound, but Ahmad Massoud’s rebels deny province has fallen

The Taliban have fought their way to the capital of Panjshir, the last Afghan province holding out against their rule, and seem on the brink of total victory.

The group posted pictures on social media showing Taliban fighters standing in front of the gate of the governor’s compound. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid issued a statement, saying Panjshir was under the control of Taliban fighters.

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Close to home: how US far-right terror flourished in post-9/11 focus on Islam

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The far right and white supremacists are responsible for the vast majority of extremist-related fatalities but only a fraction of counter-terrorism resources are devoted to them

The US government acted quickly after 9/11 to prevent further attacks by Islamic extremists in the US. Billions of dollars were spent on new law enforcement departments and vast powers were granted to agencies to surveil people in the US and abroad as George W Bush announced the war on terror.

But while the FBI, CIA, police and the newly created Department of Homeland Security scoured the country and the world for radicalized Muslims, an existing threat was overlooked – white supremacist extremists already in the US, whose numbers and influence have continued to grow in the last two decades.

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US officials optimistic Covid booster rollout will start on 20 September

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But they insist shots won’t be rolled out without health agencies’ authorization, leaving open possibility of delays

US officials have expressed optimism that Covid-19 booster shot delivery can start for all adults on 20 September, the goal set by President Joe Biden, as cases continue to rage across the country fueled by the highly transmissible Delta variant.

The officials insist, however, that boosters will not be rolled out without US health agencies’ authorization, leaving open the possibility of delays.

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Hurricane Ida: drone footage shows damage in Grand Isle, Louisiana – video

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Drone footage has captured the extent of destruction caused by Hurricane Ida in the barrier island town of Grand Isle in Louisiana. The US death toll from Ida has risen towards 60. In Louisiana, the confirmed storm-related death toll is nine. 

It is nearly a week since one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the US mainland made landfall in Louisiana. The White House has said the president, Joe Biden, will survey storm damage in New York City and Manville, New Jersey

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‘Cardinal Keith O’Brien was like God to me. Then he tried to seduce me’: the whistleblower’s tale

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As disgraced cardinal Theodore McCarrick faces trial in the US, an ex-priest tells of how he testified against the Scottish cardinal

As disgraced 91-year-old cardinal Theodore McCarrick stood in an American court last week, charged with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a minor, the spectre of the late Scottish cardinal, Keith O’Brien, hovered silently over proceedings. Two elderly men, who once donned scarlet robes and mitres, who reached the pinnacle of Catholic church power, stripped to civvies. McCarrick pleaded not guilty to the charges.

O’Brien, the UK’s then most senior Catholic cleric, and a vocal opponent of gay rights, resigned in 2013 after the Observer revealed details of his sexually inappropriate behaviour with priests in his diocese.

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New York mayor: Ida devastation shows need to prepare for ‘very, very worst’

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Dozens died across the north-east as the storm system passed through and the climate crisis makes extreme weather more likely

As the north-eastern US reeled from catastrophic damage caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida, politicians and city officials warned that the climate crisis will bring more such events. According to the mayor of New York City, people should prepare for the “very, very worst”.

Related: New York floods: calls for action after 11 die in basement apartments

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