US scientist who touted hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid named to pandemic prevention role

Steven J Hatfill, who promoted the drug despite scant evidence of efficacy, becomes special adviser at HHS

A proponent of using the drug hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19 despite scant evidence of its efficacy has been named to a top pandemic prevention role at the Department of Health and Human Services, the Washington Post reports.

Steven J Hatfill is a virologist who served in Donald Trump’s first administration, during which he promoted hydroxychloroquine to treat the virus in the early months of the pandemic, when vaccines and treatments were not yet available. He recently started as a special adviser in the office of the director of the administration for strategic preparedness and response, which prepares the country to respond to pandemics, as well as chemical and biological attacks.

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Trump orders reopening of Alcatraz prison for ‘most ruthless offenders’

Plan to expand and reuse long-shuttered penitentiary off San Francisco described as ‘not serious’ by Nancy Pelosi

Donald Trump has said he is directing the administration to reopen and expand Alcatraz, the notorious former prison on an island off San Francisco that has been closed for more than 60 years.

California lawmakers called the idea “absurd on its face” and part of the US president’s strategy of political distraction. Other officials pointed to the closure of the prison complex in 1963, known for its brutal conditions, due to operational expense and the high number of (unsuccessful) escape attempts.

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Three people killed after shooting in Phoenix restaurant

Five others injured while police say more than one person may have been firing a gun in Arizona restaurant

Three people are dead and five others were injured after a shooting at a restaurant in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, on Sunday night, police said, adding that there may have been more than one person firing a gun.

Police received calls reporting shots around 7.45pm at El Camaron Gigante Mariscos & Steakhouse, Officer Moroni Mendez of Glendale police department said during a briefing.

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Trump announces 100% tariffs on movies ‘produced in foreign lands’

President calls films ‘national security threat’ and claims he called on commerce department to immediately enact tariff

Donald Trump on Sunday announced on his Truth Social platform a 100% tariff on all movies “produced in Foreign Lands”, saying the US film industry was dying a “very fast death” due to the incentives that other countries were offering to draw American film-makers.

In his post, he claimed to have authorised the commerce department and the US trade representative to immediately begin instituting such a tariff.

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Marvel’s Thunderbolts* tops US box office with $76m opening

Antihero reject movie starring Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan a ‘great reset’ as Alec Baldwin’s Rust falls flat

Marvel StudiosThunderbolts* opened with $76m in domestic ticket sales, according to studio estimates on Sunday, kicking off the summer box office with a solid No 1 debut that fell shy of Marvel’s more spectacular launches.

All eyes had been on whether Thunderbolts* – a team-up of antihero rejects similar to Avengers – could restore the Walt Disney Company superhero factory to the kind of box office performance the studio once enjoyed so regularly. The results – similar to the debuts of Eternals ($71m) and Ant-Man and the Wasp ($75m) – suggested Marvel’s malaise won’t be so easy to snap out of.

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Two people and dog dead after small plane crashes into Los Angeles-area neighborhood

Officials warn people to stay clear of area in Simi Valley after two homes sustained structural damage from collision

A small plane crashed into a neighborhood in Simi Valley on Saturday afternoon, killing two people and a dog aboard the aircraft and damaging two homes, authorities said.

Fire crews responded, and police cordoned off the streets, warning people to stay clear of the area. Smoke could be seen billowing from the roof of one home in the Wood Ranch section of the community, which lies nearly 50 miles (80km) north-west of Los Angeles.

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NPR and PBS push back against Trump’s order to cut funding: ‘This could be devastating’

PBS’s Paula Kerger and NPR’s Katherine Maher say they’re looking at legal options to defend against White House

The heads of embattled US public broadcasters, National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), defended themselves against efforts by the Trump administration to cut off taxpayer funding, with both telling a Sunday political talk show they were looking at legal options.

PBS’s chief executive, Paula Kerger, told CBS News’s Face the Nation that Republican-led threats to withdraw federal funding from public broadcasters had been around for decades but are “different this time”.

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Wisconsin woman missing for more than 60 years found ‘alive and well’

Audrey Backeberg who disappeared at age 20 in 1962 was found living out of the state, county sheriff’s office says

A Wisconsin woman missing for more than 60 years has been found “alive and well”, according to authorities.

In a press statement, Wisconsin’s Sauk county sheriff’s office said that 82-year old Audrey Backeberg, who initially disappeared in July 1962 at the age of 20, had been found living out of the state. The sheriff’s office did not disclose which state Backeberg was found in.

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Trump says he ‘doesn’t rule out’ using military force to control Greenland

President has repeatedly expressed idea of expansion into autonomous territory within fellow Nato member Denmark

Donald Trump would not rule out using military force to gain control of Greenland, the world’s largest island and an autonomous territory within Denmark, a fellow Nato member with the US.

Since taking office, the US president has repeatedly expressed the idea of US expansion into Greenland, triggering widespread condemnation and unease both on the island itself and in the global diplomatic community. Greenland is seen as strategically important both for defense and as a future source of mineral wealth.

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Major delays at Newark airport as FAA cites air traffic control staffing issues

One of US’s biggest airports, in New York area, experiences 210 delays and 88 cancellations amid aviation safety fears

Flight delays continued on Sunday as a major crisis gripped one of the US’s biggest airports amid aviation safety fears.

As of Sunday morning, there were 210 delays and 88 cancellations at Newark Liberty international airport (EWR) in New Jersey, according to FlightAware. The large airport is one of the major hubs for New York city and its surrounding area.

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Trump says he doesn’t know if he needs to uphold constitutional due process

President also says he sees himself as leaving office at the end of his current term and not seeking a third one

Donald Trump said “I don’t know” when asked if he needed to uphold the US constitution when it comes to giving immigrants the right of due process as he gave a wide-ranging TV interview broadcast on Sunday.

At the same time the US president also said he saw himself as leaving office at the end of his current term and not seeking a third one – something he has not previously always been consistent on even though a third term is widely seen as unconstitutional.

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Arts agency terminates dozens of grants after Trump proposes eliminating NEA

National Endowment for the Arts notifies organizations that offers of government grants were terminated

Dozens of US arts organizations have been notified that offers of government grants have been terminated, hours after Donald Trump proposed eliminating federal agencies that support arts, humanities and learning.

The cancellation of grant offers were reported from organizations across the US, including a $25,000 offer to a playhouse in Portland, Oregon, hours before the opening of a new production, August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.

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France and EU to incentivise US-based scientists to come to Europe

Macron and von der Leyen expected to announce protections for researchers seeking to relocate amid Trump’s crackdown

France and the EU are to step up their efforts to attract US-based scientists hit by Donald Trump’s crackdown on academia, as they prepare announcements on incentives for researchers to settle in Europe.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, alongside the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, will make speeches on Monday morning at Sorbonne University in Paris, flanked by European university leaders and researchers, in which they are expected to announce potential incentives and protections for researchers seeking to relocate to Europe.

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Father of teen fatally shot by Cincinnati police allegedly kills officer with his car

Man who became distraught after viewing footage of the fatal shooting of his son crashed into officer the next day, authorities say

The distraught father of an 18-year-old shot and killed by police in Cincinnati allegedly killed a police officer with his car less than 24 hours after the death of his son.

The double killing has shocked the Ohio city amid ongoing concerns about American law enforcement’s involvement in lethal encounters with citizens.

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Biden aides discussed a cognitive test but decided against it, book reveals

Debate around Joe Biden’s mental acuity and his age was a critical issue during the run up to the 2024 election

Joe Biden’s top staff debated the possibility of the embattled Democratic president taking a cognitive test last year as he geared up for re-election but eventually decided against the idea, a new book is set to reveal.

Debate around Biden’s mental acuity and his age was an acute issue during the run up to the 2024 election, which eventually saw Biden step down from his re-election campaign in favor of his vice-president, Kamala Harris.

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US jury’s $30m verdict brings hope for Cuban exiles over confiscated land

Lawsuit brought under Helms-Burton could spur others pursuing compensation for property seized by Castro

Long before it became one of Cuba’s most popular tourist destinations in the 1990s, the small island of Cayo Coco, with its pristine beaches and powdery white sands, attracted a different kind of clientele.

Inspired by its unspoiled beauty, and his observations of shack-dwelling fishermen scratching out a meager living, Ernest Hemingway set scenes from two of his most famous books there, including the 1952 classic The Old Man and the Sea.

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Elon Musk’s company town: SpaceX employees vote to create ‘Starbase’

Residents – most of them SpaceX workers – in remote Texas community approve plan to create new city

Voters in a small patch of south Texas voted on Saturday to give Elon Musk a town to call his own, officially creating a new city called Starbase in the area where Musk’s SpaceX holds rocket launches.

A couple of hundred residents of what was previously known as Boca Chica decided to make their unincorporated neighborhoods into a town that will grant them the authority to pass city ordinances.

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Police disband pro-Palestinian camp at Swarthmore College and arrest nine activists

Some students were also temporarily suspended as other colleges respond with disciplinary action to protests

On the morning of 3 May, the Swarthmore borough police department disbanded a four-day pro-Palestinian encampment on Swarthmore College’s campus and arrested nine activists.

The demonstration calling on the college to divest from the tech company Cisco due to its ties to the Israeli government was a rare uprising in an academic year where higher-education institutions have been quick to quash them. One current and one former Swarthmore College student were among those arrested, while the rest were from outside the college community, the college’s president, Valerie Smith, said in a statement.

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Arizona governor pauses deportation for Guatemalan who gave birth days ago

‘Erika’, 24, gained public attention after lawyer said federal agents denied him access to her in a Tucson hospital

A Guatemalan immigrant who crossed the US border eight months pregnant and gave birth in Arizona has avoided fast-track deportation after intervention by the state’s governor, her lawyer and a federal official said on Saturday.

The 24-year-old woman gained public attention after lawyer Luis Campos said federal agents had denied him access to her in a Tucson hospital after she gave birth on Wednesday and told him she was set for rapid removal after entering the country illegally.

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Texas governor signs largest US school voucher law in win for conservatives

State becomes 16th to allow public funds to be used for private schools, which opponents say will benefit mostly wealthier children

The Texas governor Greg Abbott on Saturday signed a law making more than 5 million students eligible to use state funds for private schools, a watershed moment in the conservative campaign to remake public education in the US.

Texas is allocating $1bn for the first two years of the program to offer parents vouchers to pay for school. It is the 16th state to make all students eligible to receive public funds for private education.

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