Category Archives: US News

Trump formally renominated by Republicans as convention gets under way – live

Posted on by

During Donald Trump’s address to the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, he referred to Barack Obama and someone in the gathered ranks can be heard shouting out what sounds like: “Monkey”.

That is how it’s being initially reported. You can hear the audience laughing. Trump continues for a moment, then smirks and says: “Let’s be nice”, continues for another moment, then chuckles, points into the audience and says: “That can only happen in North Carolina.”

When President Trump mentioned Obama, someone from the crowd shouted, “Monkey!” and the president relished in it.

Disgusting.

Do you approve of this @ThomTillis? pic.twitter.com/vOxAmRJByZ

More on lawsuits facing the Trump organization – New York state Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit investigating whether Trump inflated the valuations of certain assets.

New York’s Democratic attorney general asked a court Monday to enforce subpoenas into an investigation into whether President Donald Trump and his businesses inflated assets on financial statements.

Attorney General Letitia James filed a petition in state trial court in New York City naming the Trump Organization, an umbrella group for the Republican president’s holdings, as a respondent along with other business entities. The filing also named Eric Trump and Seven Springs, a New York estate owned by the Trump family.

Continue reading...

Wildfires around San Francisco Bay Area grow to larger than Rhode Island – live

Posted on by

Northern California health officials are telling residents to stay inside, to protect themselves from the poor air quality caused by the wildfire smoke. But for many, that’s not an option.

A vulnerable, essential labor force - the more than 381,000 agriculture workers in California - already disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus pandemic keeps working as others flee and take shelter.

The smoke is thick where farm workers were laboring harvesting strawberries in the Salinas area. Thank you @PocketNihilist for sending us this video documenting the hard work in difficult conditions farm workers do so we can have food on our tables. #WeFeedYou pic.twitter.com/O6r0sVcQOO

Related: ‘An impossible choice’: farmworkers pick a paycheck over health despite smoke-filled air

The three wildfires burning around the San Francisco Bay Area have grown to a total size larger than the state of Rhode Island.

Surveying the SCU Lightning Complex -- this is now the third largest wildfire in CA history. pic.twitter.com/MKhVD8u48U

Continue reading...

TikTok suing Trump administration over executive order

Posted on by

App says in blogpost it strongly disagrees with White House position that it is a national security threat

TikTok, the fast-growing video sharing app, announced it was suing the US government on Monday over an executive order banning transactions with the Chinese company in the US.

In a blogpost, TikTok said it strongly disagreed with the White House’s position that the company was a national security threat, saying it had “taken extraordinary measures to protect the privacy and security of TikTok’s US user data”.

Continue reading...

Video appears to show black man shot in back by police in Wisconsin

Posted on by

* Some viewers may find the following footage distressing* 

Footage posted on social media appears to show police shooting at a man seven times as he leaned into a vehicle in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The man, identified by the Wisconsin governor as Jacob Blake, is in a serious condition in hospital after the shooting at about 5pm on Sunday.  Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump said Blake’s three young sons were in the car. A police officer is being investigated by the Wisconsin justice department 

Continue reading...

Oxford University Covid-19 vaccine firm says it is not in talks with Trump

Posted on by

AstraZeneca insists it has not discussed ‘emergency use authorisation’ with the US

The company manufacturing the Oxford University coronavirus vaccine has said it is not in talks with the Trump administration about fast-tracking its vaccine for emergency use ahead of November’s presidential elections.

With both Russia and China pressing ahead with inoculations involving experimental vaccines yet to pass final efficacy and safety trials, the Trump administration has become increasingly frustrated with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which the president has tried to suggest is slowing approval of a vaccine for “political reasons”.

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live news: Hong Kong man’s second Covid-19 infection gives rise to immunity concerns

Posted on by

Man cleared of virus in April but has now tested positive again; France to impose reciprocal quarantine on travellers returning from UK; ‘Very low evidence’ for plasma therapy authorised by Trump — WHO

The number of new, confirmed cases of Covid-19 in France has risen by 1,955 compared to the previous day, although the increase in new cases was less than in previous days.

The French health ministry said the number of deaths from Covid-19 had risen by 15 from the previous day to stand at 30,528 casualties, while the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases stands at 244,854.

Hi everyone, this is Jessica Murray taking over the blog for the next few hours.

Please do get in touch with any story tips or personal experiences you would like to share:

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live news: China says it has been vaccinating key workers as Trump approves plasma treatment

Posted on by

Chinese government has been administering a vaccine candidate to selected groups of key workers since July; Trump authorises plasma treatment for coronavirus amid attacks on FDA; send children to school, UK PM urges. Follow the latest updates

Australian theatres are reopening – nervously and with mandatory masks and temperature checks – Elissa Blake reports for the Guardian.

Sydney Theatre Company has announced it is ready to open the doors of the Roslyn Packer theatre and present its first show since March.

Related: Australian theatres nervously reopen with mandatory masks and temperature checks

The Chinese government has been administering a vaccine candidate to selected groups of key workers since July, a senior health official told state media yesterday.

Zheng Zhongei, head of the national health commission’s science and technology centre, told CCTV the government had authorised “emergency use” and it was in line with the law, the South China Morning Post has reported.

Continue reading...

Trump announces emergency authorization for coronavirus plasma treatment – as it happened

Posted on by

Here’s a rundown of Sunday’s events. We’ll be back tomorrow for all Monday’s news.

More a campaign-style press announcement than traditional news conference, Trump abruptly ends the proceedings after taking only three questions, including one from One America News Network.

The US president insisted today’s announcement, which comes one day after he accused “the deep state, or whoever, over at” the FDA of deliberately slowing coronavirus vaccine and therapy development, “has nothing to do with politics” despite its conspicuous timing on the eve of the Republican national convention.

Continue reading...

Danbury, Connecticut will name sewage plant after John Oliver

Posted on by
  • British-born comic abused city in recent segment on juries
  • Mayor says plant is ‘full of crap just like you, John’

Officials in Danbury, Connecticut, say they will name their sewage plant after the comedian John Oliver, in retaliation for an expletive-filled rant about the city on his HBO show.

Related: John Oliver: US is 'making a mockery of the phrase a jury of your peers'

Continue reading...

James Comey: ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon ‘in a world of trouble’

Posted on by
  • Former aide pleads not guilty to fraud charge over fundraiser
  • Ex-FBI director: ‘They could almost start a crime family’

The former FBI director James Comey has said Steve Bannon is “in a world of trouble”, after the former Trump campaign manager and White House adviser was arrested on a charge of skimming donations from a fundraising campaign for a wall on the border with Mexico.

Related: 'Conmen, grifters and criminals': why is Trump's circle so at odds with the law?

Continue reading...

California wildfires: helicopter rescues firefighters as blaze advances – video

Posted on by

Dramatic footage shows the moment a helicopter rescued two stranded firefighters from advancing wildfires in California. 'Had it not been for that helicopter, those firefighters would certainly have perished,' the Sonoma county sheriff, Mark Essick, said. Firefighters have been battling blazes that have destroyed hundreds of homes and forced tens of thousands to flee across the state since 15 August

Continue reading...

Marco and Laura could hit US coast as hurricanes, forecasters say

Posted on by
  • Louisiana in path of two tropical storms now in Gulf
  • Mississippi governor heralds ‘unprecedented times’

Tropical Storm Marco was swirling over the Gulf of Mexico early on Sunday, heading for a possible hit on the Louisiana coast as a hurricane, while Tropical Storm Laura knocked utilities out as it battered Hispaniola, following a track forecast to take it to the same part of the US coast – also as a hurricane.

Related: Could the US and Caribbean be heading for their worst hurricane season?

Continue reading...

The Libertarian party was up and coming in 2016. What happened?

Posted on by

Four years ago the party’s ticket included two former governors. This year it features fringe figures who flirt with the far right

The Libertarian party nominated two respected former state governors for president and vice-president in 2016, and enjoyed its most successful election performance ever, winning nearly 4.5m votes.

To many, it seemed that the Libertarians were a genuinely relevant third party in US politics, which is overwhelmingly dominated by Republicans and Democrats. But in 2020, the party, which advocates for small government and civil liberties, has gone in a wildly different direction.

Continue reading...

Joe Biden picks Seamus Heaney to add to his appeal

Posted on by

Presidential frontrunner quotes Irish wordsmith in his nomination acceptance speech

Joe Biden is not the first nor is he likely to be the last politician to summon political spirits with poetry, but choosing verse from The Cure at Troy, Seamus Heaney’s free translation of Sophocles’ Philoctetes, for his Democratic party nomination acceptance speech on Thursday had scholars of the poet’s work and the political class eating out of his hand.

Biden pulled out Heaney’s lines close to the end of an address that also won over conservative pundits and Fox News anchors – “an enormously effective speech”, said Chris Wallace – and left Donald Trump, for once, without response on Twitter. Biden quoted Heaney saying: “History says, Don’t hope / On this side of the grave. / But then, once in a lifetime / The longed-for tidal wave / Of justice can rise up / And hope and history rhyme.”

Continue reading...

Why do Covid fatalities remain low when infection numbers are rising?

Posted on by

While some scientists believe the virus has become less deadly, others look at the factors that suggest otherwise

Are Covid-19 death rates decreasing?
Most statistics indicate that although cases of Covid-19 are rising in many parts of Europe and the United States, the number of deaths and cases of severe complications remain relatively low. For example, patients on ventilators have dropped from 3,000 at the epidemic’s peak in Britain to 70. At the same time, the number of cases in the UK have begun to rise in many areas.

Why lies behind this trend?
Doctors are unsure exactly what is going on. Some suggest that medical interventions are more successful at treating those who suffer complications from the disease. For example, the drug dexamethasone was recently shown to improve survival rates among patients requiring ventilation. Others argue that different factors are involved. One suggestion is that Covid-19 is now becoming a disease of younger people who are less likely to die or suffer serious complications.

Continue reading...

Your data is not destined for China, assures TikTok’s UK boss

Posted on by

The controversial app’s users are ignoring geopolitical battle over its digital security, says Richard Waterworth

TikTok’s UK chief has strenuously denied the video-sharing app, which Donald Trump has threatened to ban, shares data with China.

Richard Waterworth told the Observer that the UK and European arm of TikTok was growing quickly, despite the “turbulent” geopolitical battle in which the Chinese-born app has found itself.

Continue reading...

‘Donald is cruel’: Trump’s sister recorded saying president has ‘no principles’

Posted on by

Maryanne Trump Barry, a former federal judge, made the comments to her niece Mary Trump in secretly taped conversations

Donald Trump’s older sister, a former federal judge, is heard sharply criticizing her brother in a series of recordings released Saturday, at one point saying of the president: “He has no principles.”

Maryanne Trump Barry was secretly recorded by her niece, Mary Trump, who recently released a book denouncing the president, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man. Mary Trump said Saturday she made the recordings in 2018 and 2019.

Continue reading...

Joe Biden vows to ‘listen to scientists’ on coronavirus – US politics live

Posted on by

New York governor Andrew Cuomo said the state will give voters a chance to correct missing signatures and other clerical errors so their absentee ballots can be counted in anticipation of a wave of mail-in voting for the November election.

Election officials are expecting an even bigger flood of mail-in votes in November than for the June primary, after which results were delayed for six weeks.

Cuomo said late Friday he’d sign yet temporarily tweak legislation that calls for notifying voters about such problems and provides for fixing them.

Under the version that passed the Legislature last month, the voter would have seven business days to file a form to fix the problem after a notice was mailed, in many situations.

The Associated Press has more from Portland, Oregon, where protesters against police brutality and structural racism clashed again with federal agents and law enforcement officers overnight. Such confrontations were the subject of a Trump tweet this morning, in which the president once again expressed his willingness to send in the national guard:

About 200 people marched to a police precinct station on yet another night of violence for Oregon’s largest city.

Demonstrators hurled bottles and rocks at officers and pointed lasers at them, damaging police cars and causing minor injuries for several officers, Portland police said.

Continue reading...

California wildfires: Trump declares major disaster as state braces for worsening conditions

Posted on by

Donald Trump has issued a major disaster declaration as deteriorating weather conditions threaten to spark new wildfires in California, where firefighters have been battling some of the largest wildfires on record for the past week.

Trump’s declaration will release federal assistance for the state, with governor Gavin Newsom saying it will also help people in counties affected by the fires with crisis counselling, housing and other social services.

Continue reading...

Trump-Russia investigation: former CIA chief interviewed by US attorney

Posted on by

John Brennan led the agency as it and others concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to benefit Donald Trump

The former CIA director John Brennan was interviewed on Friday by US attorney John Durham’s team, as part of its inquiry into the investigation of Russian election interference in 2016.

Related: US Senate report goes beyond Mueller to lay bare Trump campaign's Russia links

Continue reading...