Category Archives: US News

Rudy Giuliani’s son Andrew announces run for New York governor

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35-year-old, who served as special assistant in Trump’s White House, declares: ‘I’m a politician out of the womb’

Andrew Giuliani, the son of the embattled Donald Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, has announced he will run for New York governor in 2022.

The 35-year-old, who served as a special assistant in Trump’s White House and is a former contributor to the hard rightwing Newsmax television channel, made the announcement on Tuesday, declaring: “I’m a politician out of the womb.”

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Biden breaks silence on ceasefire eight days into Israel-Gaza conflict | First Thing

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Joe Biden expresses support for ceasefire between Israel and Gaza’s militant rulers Hamas. Plus, the ‘patriotic millionaires’ shaming Jeff Bezos

Good morning

Joe Biden has expressed support for a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza’s militant rulers Hamas for the first time, but stopped short of calling for an immediate halt to the eight days of Israeli airstrikes and Hamas rocket barrages.

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Ordered online, assembled at home: the deadly toll of California’s ‘ghost guns’

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Loopholes surrounding these weapons make them untraceable – and a hot commodity in many vulnerable communities

When Brian Muhammad, a program manager at a gun violence prevention group in California, asked a 16-year-old boy in 2018 how young people were getting guns, he assumed the answer would be Nevada, the neighboring state with looser gun laws.

“Who would waste time going to Nevada when you can just get them in the mail and put it together?” the Stockton teen nonchalantly replied.

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Biden’s attorney general puts domestic terror and civil rights at top of agenda

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Analysis: Merrick Garland has made a clean break with Bill Barr, making domestic terrorism his ‘top priority’ winning won praise for his moves on civil and voting rights

The new attorney general, Merrick Garland, has signaled an ambitious agenda to fight domestic terrorism in America including white supremacists and hate crimes, while bolstering civil rights and voting rights, critical areas that got short shrift from the Trump administration, say ex-federal prosecutors and members of Congress.

The shift at the Department of Justice represents one of the most stark turnarounds under Joe Biden from the Trump era. Under the previous attorney general, Bill Barr, the justice department was often seen as at Trump’s beck and call, the former president accused of treating it as virtually his own legal service.

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EU sidelined and divided as war rages again in Middle East

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Analysis: internal tensions and differences with the US have left the bloc unable to take a clear position on Israel-Palestine

If the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, wanted to symbolise the Joe Biden administration’s determination not to become embroiled in the Israel-Palestine issue, he could not have timed better his current trip to Copenhagen, Reykjavik and Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. Important discussions on the Arctic and the climate crisis may be on the agenda, but the chilly north is a distance from the tunnels, rocket fire and screams of those suffering in the latest war in the Middle East.

It may well be that in his numerous calls to key regional actors on the plane to Denmark Blinken made more progress in inching Israel, and Hamas, towards a ceasefire the US had been reluctant to demand in public.

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Joe Biden expresses support for ceasefire on call with Netanyahu – live

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White House reported the US president urged Israel ‘to make every effort to ensure the protection of innocent civilians’

Tennessee governor Bill Lee has signed an anti-transgender bathroom ball into law, in the latest attack on trans rights in a Republican-controlled state this year, the AP reports.

The bill would allow students, parents and employees to sue schools “for all psychological, emotional, and physical harm suffered” if the school allows a trans person to use a bathroom or locker room while someone else is suing it.

The Guardian’s voting rights reporter Sam Levine on the latest developments in Arizona’s election audit:

Arizona Republicans are overseeing a “grift disguised as an audit,” the chairman of the Maricopa county board of supervisors said on Monday, just before officials released a blistering letter refuting accusations the county was hiding information from auditors.

Maricopa county says Cyber Ninjas is just straight miscounting ballots https://t.co/riK3xBi6l3 pic.twitter.com/vM5Wa9XjnX

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It could take a decade to vaccinate Venezuela against Covid as pace drags

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Head of country’s academy of medicine issues warning with less than 1% of population having received a dose

Venezuela’s slow rate of vaccination for Covid-19 means it could take up to 10 years for the country to be fully vaccinated, the president of the nation’s academy of medicine said on Monday.

Venezuela, with about 30 million inhabitants, has received 1.4m vaccines from China and Russia, according to its health ministry. Authorities hope to receive enough doses for about 5 million people from the World Health Organization’s Covax system.

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US supreme court agrees to consider major rollback of abortion rights

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Court will take up Mississippi’s bid to enforce a 15-week ban on abortion, setting up a showdown

The US supreme court agreed on Monday to consider a major challenge to reproductive rights, saying it will take up Mississippi’s bid to enforce a ban on almost all abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy.

Related: ‘It would be glorious’: hopes high for Biden to nominate first Black woman to supreme court

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Bill Gates ‘left Microsoft board amid inquiry into relationship with employee’

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Board members reportedly felt his presence was inappropriate during the investigation into a romantic relationship last year

Board members at Microsoft decided in 2020 it was not appropriate for the tech giant’s co-founder, Bill Gates, to continue sitting on its board as they investigated a romantic relationship with a female employee that was deemed inappropriate, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Microsoft subsequently confirmed the investigation had taken place, and said it had provided support to the female employee concerned.

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Matt Gaetz associate pleads guilty to six counts including sex trafficking a minor

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  • Joel Greenberg strikes plea deal with federal prosecutors
  • Deal could spell trouble for Florida congressman

Joel Greenberg, a longtime associate of the Republican Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, pleaded guilty on Monday to six federal criminal counts, including sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl.

Related: ‘Naughty favours’: Matt Gaetz seeks to ridicule allegations he paid underaged girl for sex

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Joe Biden feels political ground shift as Israel-Gaza conflict rages on

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Analysis: US president may find himself increasingly isolated in his resolute defence of Israel

In his staunch defence of Israel, Joe Biden is sticking to a course set decades ago as a young senator, and has not so far given ground on the issue to the progressive wing of his party or many Jewish Democrats urging a tougher line towards Benjamin Netanyahu.

Biden has even been prepared to face isolation at the UN security council, at the potential cost of his own credibility on multilateralism and human rights. But analysts say that as the death toll rises with no sign of a ceasefire, the domestic and international pressures on the president could become impossible to ignore.

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Liz Cheney defiant over Trump as Republican civil war heats up

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Liz Cheney has become the figurehead of the conservative Never Trumpers – but the Wyoming congresswoman was for the former president in the last election.

Related: Can ‘Never Trump’ Republicans gain party control – or is it a lost cause?

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‘Naughty favours’: Matt Gaetz seeks to ridicule allegations he paid underaged girl for sex

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Embattled Republican congressman compares allegations of sexual misconduct involving a minor to congressional earmarks

The embattled Florida congressman Matt Gaetz has compared allegations of sexual misconduct involving a minor to earmarks, a congressional process by which spending measures beneficial to representatives’ districts are attached to legislation.

“I’m being falsely accused of exchanging money for naughty favors,” he said, speaking to Republicans in Ohio on Saturday.

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Half of emissions cuts will come from future tech, says John Kerry

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US climate envoy says people will not have to give up quality of life to achieve some of net zero goals

The US climate envoy, John Kerry, has said 50% of the carbon reductions needed to get to net zero will come from technologies that have not yet been invented, and said people “don’t have to give up a quality of life” in order to cut emissions.

He said Americans would “not necessarily” have to eat less meat, because of research being done into the way cattle are herded and fed in order to reduce methane emissions.

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Ignore the hype of Republicans threatening to ‘break away’ over Trump | Cas Mudde

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Anti-Trump Republicans get lots of media attention. That doesn’t mean they are relevant within the Republican party

“Over 100 Republicans, including former officials, threaten to split” from the Republican party, the New York Times declared on Tuesday. The next day the Washington Post upped the ante, headlining that the 100 Republicans were vowing “civil war”; the columnist Jennifer Rubin proclaimed the beginning of “the stampede away from the GOP”.

Sounds exciting, but what has really happened?

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Free solo … with a permit: will Yosemite’s new rules put a damper on climbing culture?

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The national park is instituting a permitting system for overnight rock climbers. Many see it as inevitable as the sport gets more popular

For years, rock climbers Graham Ottley and Keith Bouma-Gregson dreamed of scaling the 2,800ft (853 meters) pillar of granite known as the Lost Arrow Spire in Yosemite national park.

In early May the pair finally got their chance, making a climb that required spending two windy nights camped on tiny ledges with harnesses holding them to the rocks. But Ottley and Bouma-Gregson realize that soon it may not be as easy to enjoy Yosemite’s anything-goes climbing culture.

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Will Republicans back a commission to investigate the Capitol breach?

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Lawmakers faced with choice between embarrassing Trump and ignoring insurrection

House Democrats are poised to adopt legislation to create a 9/11-style commission to investigate the Capitol attack, in a move that will force Republicans to either embrace an inquiry that could embarrass Donald Trump – or turn a blind eye to a deadly insurrection.

Related: Liz Cheney: McCarthy should testify about Trump’s views on Capitol attack

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New York City Pride organisers to ban police from marching until 2025

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Event organisers say police are threatening to some in the LGBTQ+ community, while NYPD called decision ‘disheartening’

Organisers of New York City’s Pride events say they will ban police and other law enforcement personnel from marching in their annual parade until at least 2025 and will also seek to keep on-duty officers a block away from the celebration of LGBTQ+ people and history.

In a statement released on Saturday, NYC Pride urged members of law enforcement to “acknowledge their harm and to correct course moving forward”.

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North Carolina jury awards $75m to brothers wrongly convicted of 1983 murder

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Henry McCollum and Leon Brown spent decades in jail before DNA evidence cleared them of the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl

A jury in a North Carolina federal civil rights case has awarded $75m to two, intellectually disabled half-brothers who spent decades behind bars after being wrongfully convicted in the 1983 rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl.

The eight-person jury on Friday decided Henry McCollum and Leon Brown, who are both Black, should received $31m each in compensatory damages, $1m for every year spent in prison, the News & Observer reported. The jury also awarded them $13m in punitive damages.

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