Category Archives: US News

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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Tesla share plunge amid Trump feud wipes $152bn off Elon Musk’s company

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Car company’s shares dropped by 14.2% and its billionaire CEO’s net worth reduced by $8.73bn

Tesla’s shares dropped by about 14.2% on Thursday at market close, wiping roughly $152bn off the value of the company as a feud between Elon Musk and Donald Trump erupted into public view. The former political allies traded threats and insults through posts on their respective social media platforms throughout the afternoon as the company’s price fell.

Trump suggested on Truth Social that he could cut Musk’s government subsidies and contracts, of which both Tesla and SpaceX have been immense beneficiaries. Musk meanwhile threatened to decommission the SpaceX spacecraft that Nasa relies on for transport missions, called for Trump’s impeachment, derided the president’s signature tariffs and accused him of being affiliated with the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Musk said late Thursday evening his company will not decommission its spacecraft.

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Donald Trump to meet Xi Jinping in China after ‘very good’ call on trade

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US president says he accepted invitation in first phone conversation between leaders since January

Donald Trump said he had accepted an invitation to meet Xi Jinping in China after a phone conversation on trade was held between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies.

In a post on Truth Social, the US president said the “very good” call lasted about 90 minutes and the conversation was “almost entirely focused on trade”.

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Supreme court strikes down Mexico’s lawsuit against US gunmakers

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Lawsuit alleged that Smith & Wesson and Interstate Arms aided the illegal trafficking of firearms to drug cartels

The US supreme court on Thursday spared two American gun companies from a lawsuit by Mexico’s government accusing them of aiding illegal firearms trafficking to drug cartels and fueling gun violence on the south side of the US-Mexico border.

The justices, in a unanimous ruling, overturned a lower court’s decision that had allowed the lawsuit to proceed against the firearms maker Smith & Wesson and distributor Interstate Arms. The lower court had found that Mexico plausibly alleged that the companies aided and abetted illegal gun sales, harming its government.

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Amazon ‘testing humanoid robots to deliver packages’

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Tech firm is building ‘humanoid park’ in US to try out robots, which could ‘spring out’ of its vans

Amazon is reportedly developing software for humanoid robots that could perform the role of delivery workers and “spring out” of its vans.

The $2tn technology company is building a “humanoid park” in the US to test the robots, said the tech news site the Information, citing a person who had been involved in the project.

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Trump travel ban to ‘sow division and vilify communities’ – US politics live

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President brings in ban for visitors from 12 countries and restricts travel from a further seven

Donald Trump has ordered an investigation into Joe Biden’s actions as president, alleging top aides masked his predecessor’s “cognitive decline”.

The investigation will build on a Republican-led campaign already under way to discredit the former president and overturn some of his executive actions, including pardons and federal rules issued towards the end of his term in office.

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Trump signs proclamation to restrict foreign student visas at Harvard

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US president says it would jeopardize national security to allow university to keep hosting international students

Donald Trump signed a proclamation to restrict foreign student visas at Harvard University, the White House said on Wednesday.

The order would suspend for an initial six months the entry into the US of foreign nationals seeking to study or participate in exchange programs at Harvard. Trump declared that it would jeopardize national security to allow Harvard to continue hosting foreign students.

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US vetoes resolution for unconditional Gaza ceasefire at UN security council

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Russia, China, France and the UK all voted in favour of ‘immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire’

The United States has vetoed a United Nations security council resolution calling for an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” in Gaza while the 14 remaining countries on the council voted in favour.

The vetoed resolution also called the situation in Gaza “catastrophic”, and demanded the “immediate and unconditional lifting of all restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza and its safe and unhindered distribution at scale, including by the UN and humanitarian partners”.

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Canadian wildfires prompt air-quality alerts across five US states

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Officials in New York, New Jersey, Iowa, New Hampshire and Maine issued alerts due to smoke from fires in Canada

Smoke from wildfires in Canada is spreading across multiple states in the US including the eastern seaboard, prompting multiple states to issue air-quality alerts.

The poor air quality stretching across the US came as a result of dozens of wildfires burning across Canada as the country’s annual wildfire season roars into destructive action.

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MyPillow’s Mike Lindell faces trial and plans to testify about 2020 election lies

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The case, brought by former Dominion employee Eric Coomer, could deepen Lindell’s legal and financial troubles

A trial underway in Colorado could add to the financial problems facing the pillow salesman and prominent election denier Mike Lindell and will serve as another test of whether defamation law can be effective to fight false claims about elections.

Opening statements began Tuesday in a case brought by Eric Coomer, who formerly worked in security and voting technology strategy for voting machine company Dominion. Coomer sued Lindell and a host of others who spread unproven claims that he interfered with the 2020 election. .

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Russell Simmons sues HBO and film-makers over documentary detailing alleged sexual abuse

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Music executive claims defamation in suit seeking $20m from the film-makers and distributors of On the Record

Russell Simmons is suing HBO and the film-makers of a 2020 documentary detailing allegations against the music mogul of sexual abuse, claiming that together they defamed him and ignored his version of events.

On The Record, directed by Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick, expanded on reporting by the New York Times, the Hollywood Reporter, the Los Angeles Times and other publications on numerous allegations against Simmons. It featured the testimony of several women who claim they were sexually assaulted by Simmons in the 1980s and 90s, when he was at the height of his influence as the co-founder of Def Jam Recordings, the hip-hop label behind LL Cool J, Public Enemy, the Beastie Boys and other top acts.

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