Category Archives: US News

Trump floats executive order on Covid relief aid despite doubts over legality – live

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The New York prosecutors who are trying to access Donald Trump’s tax records have also subpoenaed his longtime lender, Deutsche Bank, the New York Times reports.

Manhattan district attorney Cy Vance subpoenaed the bank last year, the Times writes.

The subpoena to Deutsche Bank sought documents on various topics related to Mr Trump and his company, including any materials that might point to possible fraud, according to two people briefed on the subpoena’s contents.

Deutsche Bank complied with the subpoena. Over a period of months last year, it provided Mr Vance’s office with detailed records, including financial statements and other materials that Mr Trump had provided to the bank as he sought loans.

Facebook has removed a post from Donald Trump’s Facebook page for spreading false information about the coronavirus, a first for the company that has been harshly criticized for repeatedly allowing the president to break its content rules.

The post included video of a Trump falsely asserting that children are “almost immune from Covid-19” during an appearance on Fox News. There is evidence to suggest that children who contract Covid-19 generally experience milder symptoms than adults do. However, they are not immune, and some children have become severely ill or died from the disease.

#BREAK Facebook removes post from President Trump's page for breaking its rules on Covid-19 misinformation.

The post was a clip of his interview with Fox & Friends this morning where he made claims about children and Covid-19 immunity pic.twitter.com/tPYPAVLYY8

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Sexism casts shadow over Biden’s search for a female running mate

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Leading VP contenders have had to endure the usual criticisms men often direct at women – which has undermined a historic selection process

The final weeks of Joe Biden’s search for a running mate have had all the usual trimmings: leaks from unnamed Democratic party officials, last-minute suggestions of outsider names and a trail of vague hints from the candidate himself.

But this year is different. Biden promised to select a female running mate, setting up a historic nomination process that many prominent Democratic women say is being overshadowed by the increasingly nasty – and unmistakably sexist – debate over who he should choose.

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Coronavirus live news: global death toll passes 700,000; French government warns ‘do not lower your guard’

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US health secretary Alex Azar to visit Taiwan in veiled attack on China; Trump flounders in interview; France could lose control ‘any time’

Test results for a man suspected of being North Korea’s first coronavirus case were inconclusive, but authorities have quarantined more than 3,635 primary and secondary contacts, according to a World Health Organization official.

On 26 July, the country said it had declared a state of emergency and locked down the border city of Kaesong after a person who defected to South Korea three years ago returned across the fortified border with what state media said were symptoms of Covid-19.

France’s prime minister, Jean Castex, has said vineyards are facing “major difficulties” due to a drop in exports during the pandemic.

He tweeted that state support “must continue and intensify” to save the wine industry from collapse.

Contexte international, crise sanitaire, baisse des exportations : notre filière viticole est confrontée à d’importantes difficultés.
La mobilisation de l’État doit se poursuivre et s’intensifier.
Avec @J_Denormandie, j’échange dans le Cher avec les professionnels du secteur. pic.twitter.com/G6qIEojyMw

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Sean Hannity removes ‘gobbledygook’ Latin motto from book cover

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Change was made after a classics student pointed out that the phrase on the original cover of Live Free or Die made no sense

The Latin motto on Fox News anchor Sean Hannity’s new book has been changed after the original was described as “complete and utter gobbledygook” by a classics student.

Hannity’s Live Free or Die: America (and the World) on the Brink, which argues “now is an All Hands on Deck moment to save the Republic”, was published on Tuesday. But as Business Insider pointed out, the Latin motto it uses as a subtitle has been quietly changed from the original jacket.

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US could become ‘safe haven’ for corporate abusers, activists warn

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Campaigners fear supreme court will reinterpret centuries-old law used by foreign victims of human rights violations

US corporations could be able to commit human rights violations overseas with almost no legal sanction, effectively turning the US into a “safe haven” for corporate abusers, campaign groups fear.

Human rights activists are concerned that the US supreme court is gearing up to reinterpret a centuries-old law that has been widely used by foreign victims of slavery, trafficking and other abuses to claim redress in US courts.

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New York unveils landmark antitrust bill that makes it easier to sue tech giants

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The legislation comes as a federal panel is investigating the market power of Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google

New York state is introducing a bill that would make it easier to sue big tech companies for alleged abuses of their monopoly powers.

New York is America’s financial center and one of its most important tech hubs. If successfully passed, the law could serve as a model for future legislation across the country. It also comes as a federal committee is conducting an anti-trust investigation into tech giants amid concerns that their unmatched market power is suppressing competition.

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US announces highest-level visit to Taiwan in decades, risking China anger

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In thinly veiled comments, coronavirus taskforce chair Alex Azar praises island as ‘model of transparency and cooperation’ during pandemic

A senior US official is to lead a delegation to Taiwan in the highest-level visit since 1979 to discuss the coronavirus pandemic and to “celebrate the shared values” of the two democracies – prompting China to urge the US not to “send the wrong signals to Taiwan secessionists”.

The US health secretary, Alex Azar, said he would be the first cabinet member to visit in six years, in the most significant trip there since the US formally cut diplomatic ties decades ago to pursue relations with the Chinese Communist party. Taiwan said the visit would take place in the coming days.

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Coronavirus US: Biden tells Trump ‘step up and do your job’ over Covid-19 death toll – live

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Donald Trump refused to praise the late John Lewis, the Georgia congressman and original Freedom Rider, during his latest one-on-one interview, and also questioned the value of the pivotal Civil Rights Act of the 1960s, which Lewis fought and almost died for.

When asked how history would remember the civil rights leader, the president replied, “I don’t know. I really don’t know” and brought the point back around to himself.

Related: Trump refuses to praise late civil rights leader John Lewis

“Veep” the hit politics satire series starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus found seven seasons of success on HBO.

Louis-Dreyfus does not like the new HBO material:

God, I wish this was just a dumb show like ours. https://t.co/n3edLDiqiq

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‘They’re dying … it is what it is’: key takeaways from Trump’s shocking interview

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President floundered in conversation with Axios, claiming Covid-19 was ‘under control’ and attacking mail-in voting

Donald Trump stumbled through his second damaging interview in as many weeks, floundering in a conversation with the news website Axios over key issues he is tasked with responding to as president.

It’s been just over two weeks since the president made a series of shocking statements in a one-on-one interview with Fox News, but he packed another host of extraordinary claims into a 37-minute interview released on Monday night by Axios.

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Neil Young sues Donald Trump campaign for using his music

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Musician files lawsuit against the president for copyright infringement after Rockin’ in the Free World and Devil’s Sidewalk were played at a rally

Neil Young is suing Donald Trump’s campaign for alleged illegal usage of his music at a rally.

The musician claims that Rockin’ in the Free World and Devil’s Sidewalk were played at the president’s recent rally in Tulsa without a license. Both songs have also been used before by the campaign.

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Trump refuses to praise late civil rights leader John Lewis

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  • President unhappy that Lewis did not attend his inauguration
  • Trump questions value of Civil Rights Act: ‘How’s it worked out?’

Donald Trump refused to praise the late John Lewis, the Georgia congressman and original Freedom Rider, during his latest one-on-one interview, and also questioned the value of the pivotal Civil Rights Act of the 1960s, which Lewis fought and almost died for.

Related: Coronavirus US: Biden tells Trump 'step up and do your job' over Covid-19 death toll – live

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So Ellen DeGeneres is not as nice as we thought? She’s been saying that all along

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Staff on DeGeneres’s talkshow have denounced its ‘toxic’ environment. The host may not be to blame, but she has always been spikier than her public image

What on earth is going on with Ellen DeGeneres?
Kate, by email

Things are not well in Ellen land. Things have been worse, but let’s catch up on the current situation first.

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Witness claims to have seen Prince Andrew at club with Virginia Giuffre

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Woman has come forward claiming she recalls seeing duke at Mayfair nightclub with Giuffre

The FBI has been passed information from a witness claiming to have seen the Duke of York at a nightclub with a woman who alleges the pair had sex when she was a teenager.

The US lawyer Lisa Bloom, who is representing the victims of the royal’s former friend and convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, said Shukri Walker recalled seeing Prince Andrew at Tramp nightclub in Mayfair and had come forward to support Virginia Giuffre’s version of events.

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Trump’s stream of subconsciousness becomes a torrent in car-crash interview | John Crace

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The president’s incoherence and unchecked narcissism were given full rein for 40 long minutes in a TV evisceration

I take it all back. I regularly mock British politicians for their lies and hypocrisy, not least Boris Johnson, the UK’s Donald Trump-lite, who only last Friday had hit a new low for cronyism, corruption and nepotism with his appointments to the House of Lords.

But all this was amateur hour compared with Donald Trump’s interview with Axios’s political correspondent, Jonathan Swan, that was broadcast on HBO on Monday evening.

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Donald Trump flounders in interview over US Covid-19 death toll

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President again says he is doing ‘incredible job’ fighting pandemic and casts doubt on Jeffrey Epstein’s cause of death

Donald Trump visibly floundered in an interview when pressed on a range of issues, including the number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the US, his claims that mail-in voting is fraudulent, and his inaction over the “Russian bounty” scandal.

The US president also repeatedly cast doubt on the cause of death of Jeffrey Epstein, and said of Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite who has pleaded not guilty to participating in the sex-trafficking of girls by Epstein, that he wished her well.

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‘We’re fighting a ghost’: six months on, coronavirus victories remain fragile

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Governments are at a nebulous stage: past the initial shocks but still without a clear end in sight

Nobody is clapping any more. Six months since Covid-19 registered as an urgent threat, and one country after another spiralled into lockdown, the nightly outpourings of solidarity with essential workers have petered out.

Governments behind which people rallied earlier in the outbreak are again facing criticism and scorn. Panic at the scenarios that filled imaginations in those first weeks – of millions of imminent deaths, medical systems buckling and food supplies running scarce – has largely abated.

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‘You can’t do that’: Trump argues with reporter over Covid-19 death figures – video

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In an extraordinary clip from Axios’ Jonathan Swan's interview with Donald Trump, the president rifled through a sheaf of graphs to claim that the US has lower numbers of coronavirus than other nations.

The pair debated Trump's point that America has a lower number of deaths as a percentage of coronavirus cases, but when Swan pointed instead to the number of US Covid-19 deaths as a population percentage, Trump said: 'You can't do that' 

The full interview will be shown on HBO on 4 August 

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Rising temperatures will cause more deaths than all infectious diseases – study

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Poorer, hotter parts of the world will struggle to adapt to unbearable conditions, research finds

The growing but largely unrecognized death toll from rising global temperatures will come close to eclipsing the current number of deaths from all the infectious diseases combined if planet-heating emissions aren’t constrained, a major new study has found.

Related: Killer heat: US racial injustices will worsen as climate crisis escalates

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TikTok row: China hits out at US ‘smash and grab’ as tech dispute deepens

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Foreign affairs spokesman accuses US of hypocrisy and editorial in state-run newspaper decries choice between submission at ‘mortal combat’

The US has offered China the “choice of submission or mortal combat in the tech realm”, state media in Beijing have said, as the two rival powers manoeuvred on the thorny issue of splitting up TikTok.

The popular video-sharing app has joined Huawei to become a technology flashpoint, with Chinese officials and media rushing to defend it following Donald Trump’s threat of a US ban.

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Covid-19 treatment: Gilead Sciences urged to study drug that showed promise with cats

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Activists are calling on the pharmaceutical firm Gilead Sciences to study a drug for the treatment of Covid-19 that showed promise in curing cats of a coronavirus.

The drug, called GS-441524, is chemically related to remdesivir, an antiviral also made by Gilead, and one of the only treatments to successfully shorten the duration of Covid-19 recovery.

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