Category Archives: US News

Coronavirus live news: US records highest daily deaths since April; Obama, Bush and Clinton offer to get vaccines on TV

Posted on by

French ex-president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing has died of Covid-related complications; US suffers highest daily deaths since April; Former US presidents hope to inspire public confidence in vaccine

Hi there - this is Archie Bland picking up the global coronavirus liveblog, and beginning in Russia, where 28,145 new cases, a record high, and 554 deaths have been recorded in the last 24 hours.

Those figures compare with 25,345 new cases and 589 deaths, the latter figure also a record, the previous day.

Hundreds of thousands of masked students in South Korea, including 35 confirmed Covid-19 patients, took the highly competitive university entrance exam today despite the viral resurgence that has forced authorities to toughen social distancing rules.

About 493,430 students were taking the one-day exam at about 1,380 sites across the nation, including hospitals and other medical facilities where the 35 virus patients and hundreds of other test-takers in self-quarantine sat separately from others, according to the education ministry.

Continue reading...

Taliban denies targeting media as 50th journalist dies in Afghanistan

Posted on by

Rising violence by militants raises fears for press freedom after US troops withdraw in May

The Taliban have denied they are deliberately targeting journalists in attacks amid the surge in violence throughout Afghanistan.

The US watchdog Sigar (Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction) says Taliban violence has risen by 50% since September, with media workers saying they don’t feel safe doing their jobs.

Continue reading...

Why a giant fictional penguin could be the cure for millennial burnout

Posted on by

Pengsoo was created for children’s television, yet it became such a sensation with adults that it was named South Korea’s person of the year. Now it’s ready to take over the globe

Growing up in the South Pole, Pengsoo was to his penguin peers what Rudolph was to Santa’s reindeers: an outcast shunned for being different. Bullies latched on to Pengsoo’s towering frame – at nearly 7ft, Pengsoo is almost twice the height of the average emperor penguin – and its large, unblinking eyes.

“The other penguins didn’t play with me because I was too big,” 10-year-old Pengsoo told producers at a studio in the Korea Educational Broadcasting System (EBS) headquarters in Seoul in April 2019. Sitting in a gray room, empty save a too-small chair positioned beside a childish self-portrait, Pengsoo stared at the producers as it spoke. Pengsoo had swum to South Korea from the Antarctic “not too long ago”, it said, in the hopes of becoming the next big sensation on YouTube, which was “getting very popular” in its homeland. But the bullying there had been too much.

Continue reading...

CIA officer killed in Somali raid on suspected al-Shabaab bomb-maker

Posted on by

Unnamed American died alongside four Somali officers when extremists detonated a car bomb

A CIA officer died during a raid in Somalia last month targeting a key extremist thought to be responsible for an attack that killed an American soldier in Kenya last year, local intelligence officials have told the Guardian.

The officer was deployed alongside Somali and US special forces during the operation at Gendershe, a coastal village about 30 miles south-west of Mogadishu, and died when fighters from the al-Shabaab extremist movement detonated a car bomb minutes after the raid began on 6 November, the official said.

Continue reading...

China targeting Biden team, intelligence chief warns, amid fresh trade war measures

Posted on by

William Evanina speaks of Beijing’s influence campaign ‘on steroids’, as Congress passes bill targeting big companies such as Alibaba

A counterintelligence chief in the US has warned that Chinese agents are already targeting the personnel of President-elect Joe Biden, as well as those close to his team, as Congress unveiled more measures targeting big Chinese companies.

William Evanina, from the office of the US Director of National Intelligence, told the Aspen Institute Cyber Summit on Wednesday it was an influence campaign “on steroids”.

Continue reading...

Covid and California’s farmworkers: study lays bare disproportionate risks

Posted on by

Primarily Latino workforce has contracted Covid-19 at nearly three times the rate of other residents

California’s agricultural workers have contracted Covid-19 at nearly three times the rate of other residents in the state, a new study has found, laying bare the risks facing those who keep a $50bn industry afloat.

Continue reading...

Donald Trump releases video statement repeating baseless vote fraud claims

Posted on by
  • President claims electoral system ‘under coordinated assault’
  • Justice department found no evidence of significant fraud

Facebook and Twitter have placed warnings on a 46-minute video statement released by Donald Trump on Wednesday, in which the president repeats baseless claims of voter fraud in November’s election, which he lost to Joe Biden.

Continue reading...

New mystery metal monolith appears on a California mountaintop

Posted on by

Not long after a similar structure was discovered in a Utah desert, a silvery column has been found in Atascadero

A new mystery metal monolith has appeared atop a mountain in California, just a week after a similar structure captured the imagination of the world when it was discovered in the deserts of Utah – before being taken down and disappeared.

The local newspaper in the small town of Atascadero, on the central California coast, reported that the silvery column had been found atop Pine mountain where dozens of local hikers made the trip to view it – and post their pictures on the internet.

Continue reading...

Covid deaths at highest level since April as Biden pledges to ‘fight like hell’ for US investment – live

Posted on by

Several properties owned by the Trump Organization, and by Kushner Companies, owned by the family of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, received millions of dollars in Paycheck Protection Program loans, NBC News reports.

Data from the program were released last night after several news organizations sued the federal government to release the data from the PPP and Economist Injury Disaster Loans.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger stood by comments one of his officials made to Donald Trump yesterday, saying that the president is “inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence” by continuing to call the results of the election into question despite multiple recounts.

Gabriel Sterling, a Republican who helped to oversee the implementation of the state’s new voting system, pleaded with Trump during a press conference yesterday that the president stop his rhetoric for fear of violence.

"It's about time more people are out there speaking with truth," Brad Raffensperger says.

Also:

"Our investigators have seen no widespread fraud, either." pic.twitter.com/uLT1u4BK6E

Continue reading...

‘It can be uncomfortable’: how a New York farmhouse is facing its racist past

Posted on by

In a new exhibition, three artists reckon with the history of slavery at the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum with a range of challenging pieces

When people think of buildings in Manhattan, chances are they think big and brash, cloud-piercing skyscrapers for tourists to marvel at.

But the borough is also home to the far more modest Dyckman Farmhouse, a white clapboard home built in 1765. It’s the oldest farmhouse in the city, and just off 204th Street in Inwood, once home to Dutch farmer William Dyckman, his family and their slaves.

Continue reading...

US justice department investigates alleged ‘bribery for pardon’ scheme at White House

Posted on by

Heavily redacted court filing, which does not name Trump, comes as president reportedly is considering sweeping pardons

An alleged “bribery for pardon” scheme at the White House is under investigation by the justice department, according to a court filing unsealed on Tuesday.

The heavily redacted document does not name Donald Trump or other individuals and leaves many unanswered questions, but comes amid media reports that the US president is considering sweeping pardons before he leaves office next month.

Continue reading...

Dozens test positive for Covid after swingers convention in New Orleans

Posted on by

Forty one people test positive after ‘Naughty in N’awlins’ event which saw about 250 people congregate in mid-November

Forty-one people have tested positive for coronavirus after attending a swingers convention in New Orleans, in what officials have called a “super-spreader event”.

The gathering, called “Naughty in N’awlins” saw about 250 people congregate in the city in mid-November. It went ahead despite cases rising in Louisiana at the time.

Continue reading...

UK approves Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine for rollout next week

Posted on by

‘Historic moment’ allows mass immunisation, with 800,000 doses expected to be available next week

The UK has become the first western country to license a vaccine against Covid, opening the way for mass immunisation with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to begin next week for those most at risk.

The vaccine has been authorised for emergency use by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA), before decisions by the US and Europe. The MHRA was given power to approve the vaccine by the government under special regulations before 1 January, when it will become fully responsible for medicines authorisation in the UK after Brexit.

Continue reading...

US braces for post-Thanksgiving Covid surge as 100,000 are hospitalized

Posted on by

Hospitalizations are at twice as many as in April and July spikes, while more than 150,000 test positive nearly every day

Americans are bracing for a surge in Covid-19 cases following the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, as the number of people hospitalized hit an all-time high on Wednesday.

More than 100,000 people are hospitalized, according to data from the Covid Tracking Project, the highest number yet recorded, and nearly twice as many people as were hospitalized at the peak of earlier coronavirus waves in April and July.

Continue reading...

Donald Trump suggests 2024 presidential bid: ‘I’ll see you in four years’

Posted on by

President makes comments to Republicans at a White House reception, where video shows dozens of people crammed together without masks

Donald Trump has floated the idea of running for president again in 2024 at a holiday reception at the White House on Tuesday evening.

“It’s been an amazing four years,” Trump told the crowd, which included many Republican National Committee members. “We’re trying to do another four years. Otherwise, I’ll see you in four years.”

Continue reading...

‘Help is on the way,’ says Joe Biden as he announces new economic team – video

Posted on by

US president-elect Joe Biden has formally introduced his choices for top economic advisers. ‘Our message to everybody struggling right now is this: help is on the way,’ Biden said. Biden’s nominations would put several women in top economic roles, including Janet Yellen, who if confirmed by the Senate would be the first woman to lead the US treasury in its 231-year history.  Yellen said the economic impact of the pandemic was ‘an American tragedy'

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live news: CDC suggests first vaccines to US healthcare workers; England enters tier system

Posted on by

US hospitalisations surge; New tier system replaces lockdown; BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna file for EU approval of Covid-19 vaccine

The national accounts, released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics just now, shows that rise in seasonally adjusted chain volume measures, after a 7% fall in the June quarter.

In the US, a government panel on Tuesday formally recommended early doses of Covid-19 vaccines be given first to healthcare workers and long-term care facility residents in the US, generally seen as people who live in nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

Together, that group would represent roughly 23 million Americans, disproportionately including women, people of color and low-wage workers who makeup the healthcare labor force.

Related: CDC panel recommends giving Covid-19 vaccines to healthcare workers first

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live news: WHO says vaccines won’t prevent short-term surge; Putin orders start of mass inoculation

Posted on by

Health body says there won’t be enough doses to prevent new wave in cases in next six months; Russian president says programme should start next week

Morocco hopes to launch an ambitious vaccination campaign against the coronavirus by year-end, but its efforts have sparked suspicion and rumours in the country, hard-hit by the pandemic.

The North African kingdom is hoping to immunise 20 million adults against Covid-19 within three months, using vaccinations from China’s Sinopharm and a UK-sourced shot developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.

Boris Johnson might be persuaded to take a Covid-19 vaccination on television to show it is safe but he would not have one before those in greater need, his press secretary has said.

Johnson, 56, who spent time in intensive care earlier this year after contracting Covid-19, has hailed the UK approval of Pfizer’s vaccine as a global win and ray of hope.

I don’t think it would be something he would rule out.

But I think we also know that he wouldn’t want to take a jab that should be for someone who is extremely vulnerable, clinically vulnerable, and who should be getting it before him.

Continue reading...

‘It has to stop’: Georgia election official condemns Trump after worker’s death threat – video

Posted on by

Georgia's voting system implementation manager, Gabriel Sterling, has criticised President Donald Trump for not condemning threats of violence against election workers in the state. Sterling, a Republican official who oversees voting systems in Georgia, called on Trump at a news conference to 'stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence'. He warned that 'someone's going to get shot, someone's going to get killed, and it's not right'

William Barr: no evidence of voter fraud that would change election outcome

Barr says no evidence of fraud that would change US election outcome – live

Continue reading...

US justice department investigating ‘bribery-for-pardon’ scheme – live

Posted on by

What is it about the French Laundry?

Another California politician, San Francisco mayor London Breed, is under fire after it was revealed that she attended a birthday party at the three-star Michelin restaurant in Napa Valley – just one night after governor Gavin Newsom did the same.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to shorten its recommendation for how long individuals should quarantine after being exposed to someone with Covid-19, the AP reports.

Since the pandemic began, the CDC has recommended that individuals quarantine for 14 days after exposure. The new recommendations, which could be released later tonight, will recommend that individuals quarantine for 10 days after exposure, or seven days if they test negative for the disease.

Continue reading...