Category Archives: US News

Ed the zebra captured after running loose for more than a week in Tennessee

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Ed, a pet who went viral online during his disappearance, was airlifted after he was found safe in a pasture

A runaway pet zebra that was on the loose for more than a week in Tennessee and became an internet sensation in the process was captured on Sunday, authorities said.

Ed the zebra was captured safely after being located in a pasture near a subdivision in the Christiana community in central Tennessee, the Rutherford county sheriff’s office confirmed. The sheriff’s office said aviation crews captured the zebra.

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How can Trump use the national guard on US soil?

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The US president says he’s deploying 2,000 troops to Los Angeles amid immigration protests. Here’s what to know

Donald Trump said on Saturday he’s deploying 2,000 California national guard troops to Los Angeles to respond to immigration protests, over the objections of the California governor, Gavin Newsom.

Here are some things to know about when and how the president can deploy troops on US soil.

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Nine women accuse Jared Leto of sexual impropriety in new report

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Women recount alleged behavior, including flirting with teenagers, as ‘predatory, terrifying and unacceptable’

Multiple women have accused Jared Leto of impropriety, with some calling the 53-year-old actor and musician’s behavior “predatory, terrifying and unacceptable”.

In a new report by Air Mail on Saturday, nine women have come forward to accuse Leto of engaging in inappropriate behavior over the years, including flirting with teenagers.

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Trump warns Musk of ‘very serious consequences’ if he backs Democrats

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US president says he’s ‘too busy doing other things’ to try to reconcile with erstwhile ally and campaign backer

Donald Trump warned Elon Musk on Saturday that he faces “very serious consequences” if he funds Democratic candidates following the pair’s epic public bust-up this week.

The warning, delivered in an interview with NBC News scheduled to broadcast on Sunday, follows days of feuding and threats after Musk called Republicans’ budget legislation an “abomination”.

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Harvard author Steven Pinker appears on podcast linked to scientific racism

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Psychologist and writer’s appearance on Aporia condemned for helping to normalise ‘dangerous, discredited ideas’

The Harvard psychologist and bestselling author Steven Pinker appeared on the podcast of Aporia, an outlet whose owners advocate for a revival of race science and have spoken of seeking “legitimation by association” by platforming more mainstream figures.

The appearance underlines past incidents in which Pinker has encountered criticism for his association with advocates of so-called “human biodiversity”, which other academics have called a “rebranding” of racial genetic essentialism and scientific racism.

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Kristi Noem: the made-for-TV official executing Trump’s mass deportations

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Noem has played a starring role in the second Trump administration with her goal to ‘Make America Safe Again’ – derided by critics as ‘cosplay’ with cruel consequences

Little more than a year ago, Kristi Noem’s political prospects appeared to be in freefall. The then South Dakota governor was criss-crossing the country on an ill-fated book tour, widely seen, at least initially, as an audition to be Donald Trump’s running mate. Instead, Noem found herself on the defensive – a position Trump never likes to be in – after revealing in her memoir that she had shot the family’s “untrainable” hunting dog, a 14-month old wirehair pointer named Cricket.

Even in Trumpworld, where controversy can be a form of currency, the disclosure shocked. In the weeks that followed, she faded from contention and the breathless veepstakes rumor mill moved on. By the time Trump selected JD Vance as his vice-presidential nominee, Noem’s path forward on the national stage was unclear.

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Fired US librarian of Congress details callous dismissal in new interview

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Carla Hayden, first woman and African American to serve in role, details firing by Trump administration to CBS

The first woman and African American to serve as the US librarian of Congress before Donald Trump fired her in May has not heard from the president’s administration beyond the 31-word email it sent her with word of her dismissal, she has revealed in her first interview since her ouster.

“No one has talked to me directly at all from the White House,” Carla Hayden says in an interview airing on the upcoming CBS News Sunday Morning. “I’ve received no communication directly, except for that one email.

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Neo-Nazi group ‘actively seeking to grow in US’ with planned paramilitary training event

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The Base is emerging from shadows and ramping up its ranks as White House turns blind eye to the far right

An international neo-Nazi terrorist organization is boldly continuing to build in the US and planning a new paramilitary training event without fear of local authorities or the FBI, which once dismantled it in a nationwide effort.

The Base, founded in 2018 by a former Pentagon contractor living in Russia and now suspected of Kremlin-sponsored espionage, once boasted close to 50 stateside members before the bureau made more than a dozen arrests in a years-long counter-terrorism operation.

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The Trump-Musk feud shows danger of handing the keys of power to one person

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A billionaire’s vendetta has threatened to cut off the US from the ISS and complicate national defense

After a year of effusive praise and expressions of love for each other, Elon Musk and Donald Trump exploded their political partnership in dramatic fashion this week. The highly public split included, among other highlights, the world’s richest person accusing the president of the United States of associating with a notorious sex offender. Trump said Musk had “lost his mind”.

As Musk and Trump traded insults, each on his own social network, they also issued threats with tangible consequences. Trump suggested that he could cancel all of Musk’s government contracts and subsidies – “the best way to save money”, he posted – a move that would have devastating consequences not only on the tech billionaire’s companies but also on the federal agencies that have come to depend on them. Musk responded by announcing that he would begin decommissioning the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft that Nasa relies on for transport missions, although he later reversed the decision.

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Arkansas killer and rapist caught after 13-day manhunt in mountains

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Grant Hardin, nicknamed ‘Devil in the Ozarks’, had escaped from prison after impersonating a corrections officer

A former police chief who is also a convicted killer and rapist nicknamed the “Devil in the Ozarks” was captured by law enforcement 1.5 miles north-west of the prison he escaped from following a 13-day manhunt in the mountains of northern Arkansas, authorities announced on Friday.

Grant Hardin’s identity was confirmed through fingerprinting, the Izard county sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post.

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California leaders condemn Ice raids in LA: ‘We will not stand for this’

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City mayor Karen Bass joins governor Gavin Newsom and others in denouncing arrests of at least 45 people

The Department of Homeland Security conducted raids on multiple locations across Los Angeles on Friday, clashing with the crowds of people who gathered to protest and prompting widespread criticism from California leaders.

Masked agents were recorded pulling several people out of two LA-area Home Depot stores and the clothing manufacturer Ambient Apparel’s headquarters in LA’s Fashion District. Immigration advocates said the raids also included four other locations, including a doughnut shop.

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US supreme court rules Doge can access social security data during legal challenge

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Key player in Trump’s drive to slash federal workforce keeps access to sensitive records including family court and mental health records

The US supreme court on Friday allowed members of the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) to access the sensitive records kept by the Social Security Administration while legal challenges play out.

The conservative-majority court, in an unsigned order with the three liberal justices dissenting, sided with the Trump administration in the appeal involving Doge, the team spearheaded by the billionaire Elon Musk.

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Yoga classes resume at San Diego beach as court says they are ‘protected speech’

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Instructors Steven Hubbard and Amy Baack had sued after a city ordinance restricted such activities on the beach

Yoga classes are back on at San Diego beaches this week after a federal appeals court ruled that a city ordinance restricting such activities was unconstitutional and that teaching yoga was “protected speech”.

The three-judge panel of the US ninth circuit court of appeals on Wednesday overruled a San Diego judge and decided in favor of two instructors who had sued over a law that San Diego passed in 2024 banning yoga classes of four or more people at shoreline parks and beaches.

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Trump announces US-China trade talks in London next week

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President, who had Thursday call with China’s Xi Jinping amid tariff dispute, says ‘meeting should go very well’

Senior US administration officials will meet with a Chinese delegation on Monday in London for the next round of trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing, Donald Trump said on Friday.

The meeting comes after a phone call between Trump and the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, on Thursday, which the US president described as a “very positive” conversation as the two countries attempt to break an impasse over tariffs and global supplies of rare earth minerals.

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Group stranded with Ice in Djibouti shipping container after removal from US

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Deportees and officers are ‘ill’ and face risks after flight to South Sudan was stopped by US court in late May

A group of men removed from the US to Djibouti, in east Africa, are stranded in a converted shipping container together with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers sent to supervise them after a deportation flight to South Sudan was stopped by an American court.

The eight deportees and 13 Ice staff have begun to “feel ill”, the US government said.

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‘I had 30 Lamborghinis’: Pablo Escobar’s top cocaine pilot gives first interview

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Tirso ‘TJ’ Dominguez says Escobar paid him $20m monthly to fly planeloads of coke

A man who eventually became Pablo Escobar’s go-to cocaine pilot has revealed that he first turned down an employment offer from the notorious Colombian drug lord because he was content with the $4m a month he was earning while flying for a competitor.

But, in a new podcast containing what is believed to be his first interview since authorities arrested him at his Florida mansion in 1988, Tirso “TJ” Dominguez recounted how he changed his mind about working for Escobar when the so-called Patrón – or boss – offered him a salary that was five times higher: $20m monthly.

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Trump travel ban comes as little surprise amid barrage of draconian restrictions

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President had cued up ban in January order and, despite exemptions, policy will separate families and harm people fleeing crises

Donald Trump’s first travel ban in 2017 had an immediate, explosive impact – spawning chaos at airports nationwide.

This time around, the panic and chaos was already widespread by the time the president signed his proclamation Wednesday to fully or partially restrict foreign nationals from 19 countries from entering the United States.

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Eyes on Senate Republicans as Trump and Musk feud over tax and spend bill

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Lawmakers still weighing whether to pass ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ at root of rift between US president and tech boss

As the simmering tensions between Donald Trump and his once top adviser, the billionaire Elon Musk, erupted into public view on Thursday, eyes turned to the Republican lawmakers still weighing whether to pass the president’s so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill”.

It was approved by just a single vote in the House of Representatives with no Democratic support last month, and nonpartisan analysts have found the sweeping legislation could add a whopping $2.4tn-$5tn to the $36.2tn US national debt and make deep cuts to Medicaid and food-assistance programs. Seen as an outline of Trump’s “America first” agenda, the bill would also extend tax cuts, fund beefed-up immigration enforcement and impose new work requirements for enrollees of federal safety net programs.

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‘Total discrimination’: Chinese students facing US visa ban say their lives are in limbo

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Across the US, hundreds of thousands of Chinese students are now uncertain about their academic future and some are considering moving away

Chinese students in the United States are questioning their future in the country after the state department announced last week that it would “aggressively” revoke visas for Chinese students and enhance scrutiny of future applications from China and Hong Kong.

Chinese students hoping to study at Harvard, the US’s oldest and wealthiest university, are under particular pressure after the Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it was banning the school from enrolling new foreign students. The presidential proclamation cited Harvard’s links with China as a particular cause for concern.

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Judge threatens to remove Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs from court for nodding at jury

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Music mogul warned to desist from looking and nodding at jury during sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial

The judge in the federal sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs threatened to remove the music mogul from court for looking and nodding at the jury during testimony on Thursday.

The court also heard from a woman, under the pseudonym “Jane” and who previously dated Combs, as she began testifying about their relationship and the drug-fueled sexual marathons that she said Combs orchestrated.

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