California firefighters battle El Dorado fire – video

Firefighters in Southern California continue to tackle one of 27 huge wildfires blazing across the state which has already burned more than 21,600 acres (8,741 hectares) of forest.

A firefighter has died while battling the El Dorado fire which has been burning in San Bernardino National Forest since 5 September.

A front of humid and rainy weather has brought some relief to western states that have suffered a historically devastating fire season

Continue reading...

Trump under fire for ‘shocking’ Covid failures as ex-adviser turns against him

Olivia Troye attacks Trump and says he called his own supporters ‘disgusting people’ he no longer had to shake hands with

The coronavirus pandemic moved to the centre of the US election again on Friday, as a former senior official on the White House taskforce turned on Donald Trump.

Related: 'He’s paying attention to people like us': Trump’s messages resonate in Wisconsin

Continue reading...

Mitch McConnell pledges Senate will vote on Ginsburg’s supreme court replacement – live

Kamala Harris, the Democratic party’s vice-presidential candidate, has paid tribute to Ginsburg, calling on the nation to fight for the late justice’s legacy.

Tonight we mourn, we honor, and we pray for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her family. But we also recommit to fight for her legacy.

Doug and I send our heartfelt prayers to Jane and James, and the entire Ginsburg family, particularly on this holy day of Rosh Hashanah. pic.twitter.com/SNyqZCznfv

With the stage set for an epic political battle over who will succeed Ginsburg, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell indicated that the vote will go ahead quickly.

Although McConnell did not give any specific timing, he implied that Trump’s nominee for the vacant position would be put to the vote before the election in November.

Related: Mitch McConnell vows US Senate will push on with Trump's pick to replace Ginsburg

Continue reading...

Trump ‘associates’ offered Assange pardon in return for emails source, court hears

WikiLeaks founder was asked to reveal source of leak damaging to Hillary Clinton, hearing told

Two political figures claiming to represent Donald Trump offered Julian Assange a “win-win” deal to avoid extradition to the US and indictment, a London court has heard.

Under the proposed deal, outlined by Assange’s barrister Jennifer Robinson, the WikiLeaks founder would be offered a pardon if he disclosed who leaked Democratic party emails to his site, in order to help clear up allegations they had been supplied by Russian hackers to help Trump’s election in 2016.

Continue reading...

More migrant women say they did not consent to surgeries at Ice center

AP review finds no evidence of mass hysterectomies but files show growing allegations of operations women did not fully understand

Sitting across from her lawyer at an immigration detention center in rural Georgia, Mileidy Cardentey Fernandez unbuttoned her jail jumpsuit to show the scars on her abdomen. There were three small, circular marks.

Related: Ice hysterectomy allegations in line with US's long and racist history of eugenics | Moira Donegan

Continue reading...

US warns Afghan women of increased risk of extremist attack

Message from the US embassy comes during long-postponed direct talks between the government and the Taliban

The United States has warned women in Afghanistan that they are at increased risk of attack by extremist groups.

The US embassy in Kabul warned on Thursday that “extremist organisations continue to plan attacks against a variety of targets […], including a heightened risk of attacks targeting female government and civilian workers, including teachers, human rights activists, office workers, and government employees.”

Continue reading...

QAnon conspiracy theory gaining ground in UK, analysis shows

Followers believe that Donald Trump is waging secret war against ritual child abusers

A conspiracy theory that Donald Trump is waging a secret war against an elite who engage in ritual child abuse is growing across UK social media, Guardian analysis has found.

The QAnon conspiracy theory is propelled by an unlikely coalition of spirituality and wellness groups, vigilante “paedophile hunter” networks, pre-existing conspiracy forums, local news pages, pro-Brexit campaigners and the far right.

Continue reading...

CDC makes U-turn on Covid testing guidelines that prompted backlash

  • Agency now says all contacts of known carrier should get tested
  • Previous advice was reportedly rewritten by Trump officials

The most prominent US agency for delivering public health advice on Friday reversed key guidelines about who should get tested for coronavirus that were published just a month ago.

Related: Trump under fire for 'shocking' Covid failures as ex-adviser turns against him

Continue reading...

‘Hail, gallant woman’: Amy Dorris praised for coming forward with Trump assault allegation

Fellow accuser E Jean Carroll leads chorus of voices supporting former model

A prominent American former magazine columnist who accused Donald Trump of raping her in the 1990s has joined a chorus of voices supporting the latest woman to accuse Trump of sexually assaulting her, Amy Dorris.

Dorris, a former model and actor, said in a Guardian interview published on Thursday that Trump had forced his tongue down her throat and groped her at the 1997 US Open.

Continue reading...

Why is Biden polling better than Clinton did?: Politics Weekly Extra podcast

This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks with the Guardian’s Washington DC bureau chief David Smith about why Joe Biden is seemingly doing better than Hillary Clinton did in the polls in 2016

This week, the question is: “Why is Biden polling better than Clinton did in 2016?” Polls don’t necessarily determine who will win an election, as anyone who lived through the 2016 election knows – Democrats especially.

However, it is noticeable that Joe Biden has had a consistent lead over Donald Trump for the last 12 months and that when polls are averaged out, he is 6.2% ahead. Around the same time in 2016, Hillary Clinton’s lead over Trump was just 1%. So, what is causing this bump in numbers for Biden?

Continue reading...

Donald Trump decries ‘crusade against US history’ as he signs ‘patriotic education’ plan – video

Donald Trump railed against what he called a 'leftwing revolution' in schools and universities teaching about slavery and colonialism, as he signed an executive order to promote 'patriotic education' in the US. Critics immediately accused the president of attempting to rewrite America's historical legacy of slavery to appeal to his core base of white voters.

'The left has warped, distorted, and defiled the American story,' Trump said at a history conference in Washington DC. 'We want our sons and daughters to know they are the citizens of the most exceptional nation in the history of the world'

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live news: Iran in grip of ‘third wave’ of pandemic; Covid-related deaths in France on the rise

New infections in Iran pass more than 3,000 a day again; deaths in France related to Covid-19 trend upwards for first time since lockdown

The US biotech company Moderna has announced that it expects to produce 20million doses of its experimental coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year, Reuters reports.

The announcement, made in a filing with US securities regulators, comes after Moderna’s chief executive, Stephane Bancel, told Reuters on Thursday that the company plans to seek emergency authorisation for the vaccine’s use in high-risk groups if it proves even just 70% effective.

Mark Rutte, the prime minister of the Netherlands, has said his government is preparing “regional” measures to combat the coronavirus outbreak, after the country registered 1,972 cases in the past 24 hours, Reuters reports.

Rutte said the Dutch situation was “worrying” after the country registered a record number of cases for the fourth consecutive day, with particular rises in major cities in the west of the country, including Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague.

At this rate, the number of infections would double every week and we absolutely cannot have that.

Continue reading...

Critics condemn Trump’s rewrite of America’s legacy of racism in DC speech

The president announced the 1776 Commission, which would teach students ‘about the miracle of American history’

Donald Trump on Thursday launched an extraordinary attack on American education at a history conference in Washington DC, downplaying America’s historic legacy of slavery and claiming children have been subjected to “decades of leftwing indoctrination”.

Speaking at what was dubbed the White House Conference on American History, the president intensified efforts to appeal to his core base of white voters with a historically revisionist speech, while blasting efforts to address systemic racism as divisive.

Continue reading...

Wildfire smoke closes Yosemite but forecast offers hope for US north-west

California governor warns about climate crisis as new wildfire evacuations ordered north-east of Los Angeles

As wildfires continued to burn across the US west coast, with smoke reaching as far as Europe, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, issued a stark warning on climate, saying: “The facts are the facts.”

Forecast rain for the Pacific north-west prompted hopes on Thursday of improved fire-fighting conditions in Washington state and Oregon, parts of which have been decimated and swathed in the world’s worst air quality.

Continue reading...

Cheer star Jerry Harris arrested on charges of child sexual abuse images

Harris admitted during interview after FBI agents raided his home that he had asked teen to send him photos and videos

Jerry Harris, the star of the Netflix documentary series Cheer, was arrested on Thursday on felony charges of production of child sexual abuse images.

The arrest comes three days after twin boys filed a lawsuit alleging he sent them sexually explicit photos of himself and cornered one of them in a bathroom and begged for oral sex.

Continue reading...

‘Steady drumbeat of misinformation’: FBI chief warns of Russian interference in US elections

  • Chris Wray says bureau has seen ‘very active efforts by Russians’
  • Efforts are primarily meant to denigrate Joe Biden

Christopher Wray, the FBI director, on Thursday warned that Russia is interfering in the 2020 US presidential elections with a steady stream of misinformation aimed at undermining Democrat Joe Biden as well as sapping Americans’ confidence in the election process.

Moscow is also attempting to undercut what it sees as an anti-Russian US establishment, Wray told the Democratic-led House of Representatives’ homeland security committee in a hearing on Capitol Hill.

Continue reading...

US accuses Hezbollah of stockpiling weapons and ammonium nitrate across Europe

State department’s Nathan Sales says group ‘represents clear and present danger to the US’ and urges Europe to take tougher line

The US has accused Hezbollah of storing caches of weapons and ammonium nitrate for use in explosives across Europe in recent years, with the alleged aim of preparing for future attacks ordered by Iran.

The allegation was made by the state department’s counterterrorism coordinator, Nathan Sales, who called on European countries to take a tougher line on the Tehran-backed Lebanese Shia political movement and militia.

Continue reading...

Wealth of US billionaires rises by nearly a third during pandemic

Report includes Jeff Bezos, whose personal fortune has risen by 65% since 18 March

The already vast fortunes of America’s 643 billionaires have soared by an average of 29% since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which has at the same time laid waste to tens of millions of jobs around the world.

The richest of the superrich have benefited by $845bn , according to a report by a US progressive thinktank, the Institute for Policy Studies.

Continue reading...

‘I feel sick, violated’: former model alleges sexual assault by Donald Trump – video

Amy Dorris alleges she was sexually assaulted by Donald Trump in 1997, when she was 24. Speaking publicly about the alleged incident for the first time, the former model claims Trump grabbed her as she came out of the bathroom of his VIP box at the US Open tennis event, forced his tongue down her throat and held her in a grip from which she could not escape. Trump's lawyers said he denied in the strongest possible terms having ever harassed, abused or behaved improperly toward Dorris

Continue reading...

Donald Trump accused of sexual assault by former model Amy Dorris

Exclusive: Amy Dorris alleges Trump forced his tongue down her throat and groped her at 1997 US Open

A former model has come forward to accuse Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her at the US Open tennis tournament more than two decades ago, in an alleged incident that left her feeling “sick” and “violated”.

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Amy Dorris alleged that Trump accosted her outside the bathroom in his VIP box at the tournament in New York on 5 September 1997.

Continue reading...