Emmy award-winning TV, stage and film actor also known for her role in Young Sheldon died of cancer
Valerie Mahaffey, the Emmy-award winning actor known for her roles on Northern Exposure, Desperate Housewives and Young Sheldon, died on Friday. She was 71.
Her husband, actor Joseph Kell, said in a statement to Variety: “I have lost the love of my life, and America has lost one of its most endearing actresses. She will be missed.”
Continue reading...Trump announced on Friday night that he planned to double rates on imported steel, piling more pressure on the industry
The UK’s trade secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, will meet his US counterpart next week to thrash out a timeline for exempting the UK from US steel and aluminium tariffs after Donald Trump announced he would double them.
British officials are seeking clarity on the implications of Trump’s announcement on Friday night that he planned to double the tariffs from 25% to 50% from Wedneday 4 June, piling further pressure on global steel trade.
Continue reading...Leaks and a Dateline special have complicated matters but Bryan Kohberger due to face trial – and possible execution
Bryan Kohberger, the suspect accused of killing four young University of Idaho students in 2022, is set to go to trial in August in a case that could see him sentenced to death.
He is charged with the murders of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin – who were together in the same house when someone broke in at night and stabbed them to death.
Continue reading...Collection of migrants’ DNA has increased by 5,000% in three years in a ‘massive expansion of genetic surveillance’
US immigration authorities are collecting and uploading the DNA information of migrants, including children, to a national criminal database, according to government documents released earlier this month.
The database includes the DNA of people who were either arrested or convicted of a crime, which law enforcement uses when seeking a match for DNA collected at a crime scene. However, most of the people whose DNA has been collected by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), the agency that published the documents, were not listed as having been accused of any felonies. Regardless, CBP is now creating a detailed DNA profile on migrants that will be permanently searchable by law enforcement, which amounts to a “massive expansion of genetic surveillance”, one expert said.
Continue reading...Employees say cuts and deregulation undermine department’s ability to function and will cause cost hikes
Workers at the US Department of Energy say cuts and deregulations are undermining the ability for the department to function and will result in significant energy cost hikes for consumers.
Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” will raise energy costs for American households by as much as 7% in 2035 due to the repeal of energy tax credits and could put significant investment and energy innovation at risk, according to a report by the Rhodium Group. The non-partisan think tank Energy Innovation calculated the average US household will see its utility bills rise by over $230 by 2035 as a result of cuts to renewable energy investments.
Continue reading...The crustacean, since named Calvin, had a genetic mutation that occurs in about one in 30 million lobsters
Being one in a million may sound nice, but being one in 30m recently saved an exceptionally rare, gold lobster from being cooked and served as dinner at a New England restaurant, according to those who had a hand in the animal’s reprieve.
As the manager of the Nordic Lodge Restaurant in Charlestown, Rhode Island, tells it, one of the eatery’s cooks noticed the crustacean in question buried under a bunch of other lobsters after they were delivered to the business. The lobster, since named Calvin, was in a basket ready to be cooked and presented as a meal alongside a number of his brethren when the employee pulled him out and set him aside, manager Jake Dolbey told the Guardian.
Continue reading...Time and time again over the past four months, reality has failed to match Trump’s rhetoric
“Tariffs are easy,” Donald Trump claimed in March. For his administration, and the world, they have proven anything but. Now an obscure New York court has blocked his signature trade policy, setting up a battle that looks sure to end up in the supreme court.
The plan was simple. For decades, Trump has made the case for tariffs. Now, in his second term, he would dramatically hike them on the world; raise trillions of dollars for the federal government; cut taxes for Americans; and lure manufacturers to the country’s industrial heartlands, creating millions of jobs.
Continue reading...US president presents top ally with golden key as Musk says Doge unit ‘will only grow stronger over time’
Donald Trump saw Elon Musk off from the White House on Friday, as the Tesla chief concluded his more than four months leading the so-called department of government efficiency’s disruptive foray into federal departments that achieved far fewer cost savings than expected.
Standing alongside Trump in the Oval Office, Musk, who faced a 130-day limit in his tenure as a special government employee that had ended two days prior, vowed that his departure “is not the end” of Doge.
Continue reading...Police announce allegations against Christian Anderson, 33, after body of Adan Manzano, 27, found on 5 February
Authorities investigating the apparent drugging death and robbery of a Telemundo reporter who was covering February’s Super Bowl have arrested a third suspect in the case.
On Friday, the Kenner police department in Louisiana announced the arrest of 33-year-old Christian Anderson on allegations that he had a role in the death of Adan Manzano, 27, whose body was found on 5 February in his hotel room in the city just west of New Orleans.
Continue reading...Weiner makes comment as he campaigns for New York City council seat years after sexting scandal
Anthony Weiner says politicians such as him and Donald Trump can survive scandals while qualified candidates including Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton lose elections because “women get judged much more harshly than men do”.
“I do believe that,” Weiner said Friday on ABC’s The View amid his run for a New York City council seat years after he crashed out of Congress in the wake of a sexting scandal that some argue aided Trump in clinching his first presidency in 2016.
Continue reading...Ruling reverses hold on Trump administration’s ending humanitarian parole of Venezuelan migrants and others
The US supreme court on Friday announced it would allow the Trump administration to revoke the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants living in the United States, bolstering the Republican president’s drive to step up deportations.
The court put on hold Boston-based US district judge Indira Talwani’s order halting the administration’s move to end the immigration humanitarian “parole” protections granted to 532,000 people by Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, potentially exposing many of them to rapid removal from the country, while the detailed case plays out in lower courts.
Continue reading...President took to social media to denounce Beijing in the latest development in his ongoing tariff war
Donald Trump declared that China has “totally violated its agreement” against the US on trade just two weeks after the countries reached a deal, raising fears that the trade war will continue to rattle the global economy.
“I made a FAST DEAL with China in order to save them from what I thought was going to be a very bad situation,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday morning. “Everybody was happy! That is the good news!!! The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US.”
Continue reading...CEO of Europe’s largest industrial group says he has been in direct talks with Donald Trump’s administration
Volkswagen, Europe’s largest industrial group, has said it will make a “massive” investment in the US. The group, which includes Porsche, revealed it has been in direct talks with Donald Trump’s administration as it faces damaging tariffs.
Oliver Blume, who heads the group, said the talks were “constructive” and “fair”, in an interview that suggests the company, whose market capital is £44bn, is not willing to leave tariff negotiations to Brussels alone.
Continue reading...Draft reportedly includes release of 28 hostages in first week, a 60-day ceasefire and aid for Gaza as soon as deal signed off
Israel has agreed to a US ceasefire proposal for Gaza, the White House has said, and Hamas said it was reviewing the plan although its terms did not meet the group’s demands.
As a US-backed system for distributing food in the shattered territory expanded, Israeli media reported that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had told the families of hostages held in Gaza that Israel had accepted a deal presented by US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
Continue reading...Natalie Phelps, who has stage 4 colorectal cancer, has raised the alarm over how patients in the agency’s clinical trials are facing setbacks in treatment
A 43-year-old woman and mother of two with advanced cancer says she is experiencing life-or-death delays in treatment because of the Trump administration’s cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Natalie Phelps, who has stage 4 colorectal cancer, has spoken publicly, raising the alarm about a setback in care for herself and others who are part of clinical trials run by the agency. Her story has made it into congressional hearings and spurred a spat between a Democratic senator and the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr. Behind the scenes, she and others are advocating to get her treatment started sooner.
Continue reading...Director, composer and actor appeared at event in Clarksdale attended by hundreds after community petition
Hundreds of people packed inside a local auditorium on Thursday to see the hit film Sinners, set in their community and steeped in Mississippi Delta culture.
The special screening of the blockbuster horror film included an appearance by director Ryan Coogler and was made possible by a community petition.
Continue reading...Twenty-two plaintiffs between ages seven and 25 allege government is engaging in unlawful executive overreach
Twenty two young Americans have filed a new lawsuit against the Trump administration over its anti-environment executive orders. By intentionally boosting oil and gas production and stymying carbon-free energy, federal officials are violating their constitutional rights to life and liberty, alleges the lawsuit, filed on Thursday.
The federal government is engaging in unlawful executive overreach by breaching congressional mandates to protect ecosystems and public health, argue the plaintiffs, who are between the ages of seven and 25 and hail from the heavily climate-impacted states of Montana, Hawaii, Oregon, California and Florida. They also say officials’ emissions-increasing and science-suppressing orders have violated the state-created danger doctrine, a legal principle meant to prevent government actors from inflicting injury upon their citizens.
Continue reading...The ruling says Trump exceeded authority in imposing sweeping tariffs. Plus, Elon Musk confirms government exit
Good morning.
A federal trade court has ruled Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs regime illegal, a dramatic twist that could block the president’s controversial global trade policy.
What was the ruling? Tariffs typically need to be approved by Congress but Trump has so far bypassed that requirement by claiming that the country’s trade deficits amounted to a national emergency. The court’s ruling said Trump’s tariff orders “exceed any authority granted to the president … to regulate importation by means of tariffs”.
How are markets reacting? Global markets cheered the ruling, with the US dollar rallying along with indexes in France, Germany, Japan, and futures for the US S&P 500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq indexes rising.
What’s next? The Trump administration has already filed to appeal. White House officials attacked the court, calling it “unelected”.
Continue reading...Search for family from Texas was launched in August after report came in that a boat carrying eight people had begun taking on water
Nearly a year after the US Coast Guard suspended the search for a family of four missing after the boat they were on capsized in waters off south-central Alaska, the vessel along with human remains have been found, officials said Wednesday.
The discovery came after three private Alaska companies, including one that uses sonar equipment to search underwater, offered in April to help look for the family, who are from Texas, according to a statement released by the Alaska Department of Public Safety.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: The GHF supply system faltered as civilians were forced to flee gunfire at its first distribution site, deepening the hunger crisis
Good morning. If the new system for distributing supplies in Gaza is supposed to be an adequate replacement for the major aid organisations that were previously in place, it has got off to an inauspicious start.
On Tuesday, after the first food point run by the new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation – a non-government organisation (NGO) with Israeli support that uses US-based contractors – opened in Rafah, Israeli forces stationed at the perimeter opened fire. Panicked civilians fled the scene, most without the food they came for; dozens of people were injured, and at least one died.
UK news | The housing ombudsman has warned that “simmering anger at poor housing conditions risks becoming social disquiet”, as his office records a 474% increase in complaints. Richard Blakeway said it was “neither fanciful nor alarmist” to suggest anger at housing conditions would cause an “irreparable” fracturing of trust, saying the “shock of Grenfell Tower and Awaab Ishak’s death resonate still”.
Trump tariffs | A US federal trade court has blocked Donald Trump from imposing sweeping tariffs on imports under an emergency-powers law. The ruling, which the White House is said to be appealing, would blow a hole in Trump’s strategy to use steep tariffs to wring concessions from trading partners.
Ukraine | Ukraine and Germany have agreed to future military cooperation in which Berlin will help finance long-range weapons production on Ukrainian soil. The deal came as Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russia had amassed 50,000 troops in the Sumy region bordering Russia.
UK news | Prosecutors have confirmed they have authorised 21 charges against influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate, including rape, actual bodily harm and human trafficking. The Crown Prosecution Service said that the two men would not be tried in the UK until an investigation into charges they face in Romania is concluded.
School meals | Guidance urging schools in England to serve children meat at least three times a week should be overhauled to increase the eating of vegetables, a leading charity has said. The Food Foundation found that 80% of the most commonly eaten meat dishes in schools are either processed or red meat.
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