Category Archives: US News

‘Vladimir, stop!’ Trump in rare rebuke to Putin as Kyiv attack toll rises to 12

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Intervention comes as US president makes renewed push to end war, reportedly on terms favourable to Moscow

Donald Trump has issued a rare rebuke to Moscow for an air attack that killed 12 people in Kyiv, telling the Russian president in a social media post: “Vladimir, STOP!”

The US president’s remarks come as he makes a renewed push to end the Ukraine war, reportedly on terms favourable to Russia that include recognition of Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, something the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has said he cannot accept.

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David Thomas, anarchic Pere Ubu bandleader, dies aged 71

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The US musician was a major influence on post-punk and alt-rock scenes thanks to his spirited, chaotic style

David Thomas, who fronted the wild and free-thinking American rock band Pere Ubu, has died aged 71.

A statement on Pere Ubu’s Facebook page said that he died “in his home town of Brighton & Hove, with his wife and youngest step-daughter by his side. MC5 were playing on the radio.” The statement continues: “He will ultimately be returned to his [family] home, the farm in Pennsylvania, where he insisted he was to be ‘thrown in the barn’ … We’ll leave you with his own words, which sums up who he was better than we can: ‘My name is David Fucking Thomas… and I’m the lead singer of the best fucking rock and roll band in the world.’”

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Two US marines investigated over alleged rape at military base in Okinawa

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Allegations come days after Japanese authorities increased efforts to deter crimes by US servicemen on island

Two US marines based on the Japanese island of Okinawa are being investigated for alleged rape, days after local authorities stepped up efforts to deter sexual and other crimes by US service personnel.

A marine in his 20s is suspected of raping a Japanese woman in a bathroom at a US military base last month, while a second man, also a marine in his 20s, allegedly raped a woman at a base in January, according to media reports.

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Florida students lobby to keep 2018 gun control law in wake of recent shooting

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Students traumatized by Parkland and Florida university shootings urge lawmakers not to roll back restrictions

Florida students who were traumatized by the 2018 Parkland school shooting – and last week’s deadly shooting at Florida State University – are urging lawmakers in the Republican-controlled statehouse not to roll back gun restrictions they passed in the wake of the killing at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school.

Gun rights activists have been fighting to unravel the 2018 law since it was passed, including a provision that raised the state’s minimum age to buy a gun to 21. Governor Ron DeSantis and some Republican lawmakers have argued that if an 18-year-old Floridian can serve in the military, they should be able to purchase a firearm.

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New Jersey wildfire forces evacuations and reaches closed nuclear power plant

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Part of major highway closed as 3,000 people move to safety and officials say fire could become state’s largest in 20 years

A fast-moving wildfire burning in New Jersey forced thousands of people to temporarily evacuate on Tuesday, as officials warned the blaze could become the largest in the state in about 20 years.

Flames from the Jones Road wildfire in Ocean county sparked several small blazes near a decommissioned Oyster Creek nuclear power plant, state officials said.

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Trump accuses Zelenskyy of jeopardising imminent peace deal

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US president attacks Ukrainian counterpart, complaining Kyiv is unwilling to cede Crimea to Russia

Donald Trump has accused Volodymyr Zelenskyy of jeopardising what he claimed was an imminent peace deal to end the war in Ukraine, as he gave the clearest hint yet that the US would be willing to formally recognise Russia’s seizure of Crimea as part of any agreement.

The US president claimed a deal to end the war – largely negotiated between Washington and Moscow – was close, while the vice-president, JD Vance, said the agreement would include a proposal to freeze the conflict roughly along the current frontlines.

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Dominic Sessa and Antonio Banderas to lead Anthony Bourdain biopic

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The Holdovers breakout and Oscar nominee will head the cast of Tony, which will follow the food world legend in 1976

The Holdovers breakout Dominic Sessa has signed on to play Anthony Bourdain in a new biopic.

The casting had been initially rumoured last year, but the 22-year-old has now made it official, with the Oscar nominee Antonio Banderas also joining in a role that is being kept under wraps.

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Judge orders bail hearing for detained student Mohsen Mahdawi next week

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Palestinian green-card holder was arrested by US immigration authorities in Vermont on 14 April

Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian green-card holder and student at Columbia University who was detained by the Trump administration on 14 April, will have a hearing next week on his request for release on bail, a federal judge decided on Wednesday.

Judge Geoffrey W Crawford extended a temporary restraining order issued by a separate judge last week to keep Mahdawi in Vermont. Immigration authorities have sent other foreign students arrested for their pro-Palestinian views to detention centers in Louisiana and Texas, jurisdictions typically overseen by more conservative judges.

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Boeing hopes to find new buyers for up to 50 planes returned by China

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Airplane manufacturer says it is lobbying Donald Trump over ‘unfortunate’ decision to impose tariffs

Boeing will try to divert as many as 50 planes ordered by Chinese airlines to customers elsewhere after steep tariffs prompted by Donald Trump’s trade war.

The US manufacturer said it was confident it could find other buyers for the planes, but said it was lobbying Trump personally to resolve an “unfortunate situation”.

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Families of detainees in El Salvador and Venezuela decry Bukele’s prisoner swap offer

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Salvadorian president denounced as ‘tyrannical’ as he floats trading 252 prisoners with fellow authoritarian regime

The families of prisoners being held by the authoritarian governments of El Salvador and Venezuela have condemned President Nayib Bukele’s offer to swap 252 Venezuelan detainees sent to his jails by the Trump administration for the same number of political prisoners incarcerated by Nicolás Maduro’s regime.

Nelson Suárez, whose brother was among the Venezuelan immigrants sent from the US to a notorious maximum-security jail in El Salvador last month, said he was desperate for the release of his brother, from whom he has heard nothing in five weeks.

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Sharon Osbourne urges US to revoke Kneecap rappers’ visas after Israel criticism

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Irish language group uses Coachella gig to denounce Gaza attacks, saying ‘Palestinians have nowhere to go’

Sharon Osbourne has urged US authorities to revoke work visas for Kneecap after the Irish language rap group used a performance at Coachella to denounce Israeli attacks on Gaza.

The TV presenter accused the band of hate speech and supporting terrorist organisations and said it should not be allowed to perform in the US. “I urge you to join me in advocating for the revocation of Kneecap’s work visa,” she exhorted followers on X on Tuesday.

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Number of births in US increased by 1% in 2024, according to CDC data

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Small increase amounts to 3.6 million births and an increase in the women aged 40-44 giving birth

The number of births in the US increased slightly in 2024 to roughly 3.6 million, according to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The small increase of 1% in the number of births comes amid a long-term decline that began during the Great Recession, in about 2008. The provisional data was released on Wednesday.

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Steve Hilton, former David Cameron adviser, to run for California governor

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Ex-advertising executive, who hosted a Fox News show and has criticised Kamala Harris, will stand as a Republican

David Cameron’s former top adviser Steve Hilton has joined the 2026 race for California governor, running as a Republican to replace the Democrats’ Gavin Newsom, who is prevented by law from seeking a third term.

Hilton, who hosted a show on Fox News for six years, launched his campaign with the theme “Golden Again: Great Jobs, Great Homes, Great Kids”. His campaign said Hilton would be “reinforcing his commitment to positive, practical solutions instead of today’s ideology and dogma”, and that his brand of “positive populism” would focus on helping working families.

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‘National disgrace’: US lawmakers decry student detentions on visit to Ice jails

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Delegation visits jails where Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk are being held and denounce ‘authoritarian’ Trump

Congressional lawmakers denounced the treatment of Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk, the students being detained by US immigration authorities for their pro-Palestinian activism, as a “national disgrace” during a visit to the two facilities in Louisiana where each are being held.

“We stand firm with them in support of free speech,” the Louisiana congressman Troy Carter, who led the delegation, said during a press conference after the visits on Tuesday. “They are frightened, they’re concerned, they want to go home.”

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Elon Musk to pull back in Doge role starting May amid 71% dip in Tesla profits

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CEO to pare back White House work to one to two days weekly as analysts say role has caused branding crisis

The Tesla chief executive, Elon Musk, said he will start pulling back from his role at the so-called “department of government efficiency” starting in May. Musk’s remarks came as the company reported a massive dip in both profits and revenues in the first quarter of 2025 amid backlash against his role in the White House.

On an investor call, Musk said the work necessary to get the government’s “financial house in order is mostly done”.

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Gold climbs above $3,500 for first time as Wall Street rallies after slide

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Dollar also recovers after Monday’s sell-off prompted by Donald Trump’s attack on Federal Reserve chair

Gold has climbed above $3,500 an ounce for the first time while stocks on Wall Street and the dollar rose following Monday’s sell-off prompted by Donald Trump’s blistering attack on the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell.

Spot gold reached the record price of $3,500.01 (£2,620) on Tuesday, extending a rally that has pushed bullion up from $2,623 an ounce at the start of this year.

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FDA suspends milk quality-control testing program after Trump layoffs

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Effective Monday, the agency suspends its proficiency testing program for grade ‘A’ raw milk and finished products

The Food and Drug Administration is suspending a quality-control program for testing fluid milk and other dairy products due to reduced capacity in its food safety and nutrition division, according to an internal email seen by Reuters.

The suspension is another disruption to the nation’s food-safety programs after the termination and departure of 20,000 employees of the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the FDA, as part of Donald Trump’s effort to shrink the federal workforce.

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RFK Jr’s autism study collecting Americans’ private medical records

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The National Institutes of Health claims it is fulfilling RFK’s promise to find cause of autism by September

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is collecting the private medical records of many Americans from several different federal and commercial databases to give to researchers for US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s new autism study.

With this information being included in the database, the NIH is also reportedly crafting a new registry to track those with autism, per CBS News.

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Marco Rubio announces sweeping reorganisation of US state department

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Secretary of state says overhaul of department will close a number of overseas missions and reduce staff

The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has proposed a sweeping reorganisation of the US state department as part of what he called an effort to reform it amid criticism from the Trump White House over the execution of US diplomacy.

If approved, the reorganisation would cut more than 700 positions and eliminate 132 of 734 offices, according to state department officials. But those officials also stressed that the plan, which was suddenly announced on Tuesday, remained a proposal and would not lead to immediate layoffs or cuts.

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Mountainhead: first trailer for Jesse Armstrong’s topical Succession follow-up

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Billionaires, starring Steve Carell and Ramy Youssef, meet amid an international crisis in HBO’s of-the-moment satire

A summit of influential male billionaires is under way in the first teaser trailer for Mountainhead.

HBO unveiled the extended look at the first feature from the Succession creator Jesse Armstrong on Tuesday, which stars Steve Carell, Cory Michael Smith, Ramy Youssef and Jason Schwartzman as a group of billionaire friends who meet at an alpine retreat during an international crisis.

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