Category Archives: US News

First Thing: Shiri Bibas not among bodies returned from Gaza, Israel says

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Benjamin Netanyahu accuses Hamas of a ‘serious violation’ and vows it will pay. Plus, Germans share their concerns about the far right’s rise before this weekend’s election

Good morning.

Shiri Bibas is not among the four bodies returned by Hamas to Israel during Thursday’s hostage handover, Israel’s military has said, calling it a “violation of utmost severity” of the already fragile ceasefire agreement.

What impact could this have? It risks upending the precarious truce. Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would “ensure Hamas pays the full price” for the ceasefire violation.

Have the bodies of hostages been released before? No, Thursday’s release was the first time Hamas has returned the remains of dead hostages.

What did the unions state in their lawsuit? That White House efforts to purge the federal workforce violated separation-of-powers principles by undermining Congress’s authority to fund federal agencies.

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Outcry as Trump withdraws support for research that mentions ‘climate’

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US government stripping funds from domestic and overseas research amid warnings for health and public safety

The Trump administration is stripping away support for scientific research in the US and overseas that contains a word it finds particularly inconvenient: “climate.”

The US government is withdrawing grants and other support for research that even references the climate crisis, academics have said, amid Donald Trump’s blitzkrieg upon environmental regulations and clean-energy development.

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International aid groups axe thousands of jobs in wake of Trump funding freeze

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Fears that cuts will ‘decimate’ ability to react to crises as sector loses expertise and skills at every level, report finds

Some of the world’s largest aid organisations are axing thousands of jobs as a result of US president Donald Trump’s freeze on overseas aid, potentially “decimating” the sector’s ability to react to future crises.

Those that have already announced job cuts include the International Rescue Committee, Danish Refugee Council, Norwegian Refugee Council and war zone-focused Norwegian People’s Aid.

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Ex-officer is convicted in 2022 roadside shooting death of Colorado man

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Andrew Buen found guilty of homicide in death of Christian Glass, 22, who showed signs of mental health crisis at scene

A former Colorado sheriff’s deputy was convicted Thursday in the shooting death of a 22-year-old man in distress who called 911 for help after his car got stuck in a small mountain community.

Jurors found Andrew Buen guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the June 2022 death of Christian Glass, whose death drew national attention and led to changes in how officers are trained to respond to people in mental health crises under a $19m settlement with his family.

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Stop criticising Trump and sign $500bn mineral deal, US official advises Kyiv

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National security adviser says Ukraine is wrong to push back against Trump’s approach to peace talks with Russia

White House officials have told Ukraine to stop badmouthing Donald Trump and to sign a deal handing over half of the country’s mineral wealth to the US, saying a failure to do so would be unacceptable.

The US national security adviser, Mike Waltz, told Fox News that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, should “tone down” his criticism of the US and take a “hard look” at the deal. It proposes giving Washington $500bn worth of natural resources, including oil and gas.

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Critics say Trump’s executive orders to reshape the NIH ‘will kill’ Americans

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Executive orders’ impact on premier medical research agency has resulted in delayed projects and frozen funding

Academics and scientists who work with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said the Trump administration’s orders have severely disrupted work – delaying projects and casting the future of research funding and jobs into doubt as chaos in the agency reigns.

An array of orders seeks to fundamentally reshape the NIH, the world’s largest public funder of biomedical and behavioral research, in the Trump administration’s image. The agency’s work is the wellspring of scientific advancement in the US, and helped make the country a dominant force in health and science.

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‘I feel betrayed’: federal health workers fired by Trump tell of ‘nightmare’

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US workers laid off despite years of experience and stellar performance describe widespread chaos and confusion

As protesters gathered outside the headquarters of US health agencies to call attention to mass layoffs devastating the federal service in recent days, more employees at health agencies were terminated on Wednesday, including employees with years of experience and stellar performance reviews who were not probationary.

Thousands of terminated employees across the federal government are appealing the decision. Some former employees are struggling to apply for unemployment or understand when their benefits expire in the chaotic termination process.

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Americans’ confidence in air travel falls after string of plane crashes, poll shows

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Survey indicates 64% of Americans believe flying is safe, down from 71% who said so last year

Americans’ confidence in aviation has slipped following a string of plane crashes in 2025, according to a new poll.

As of this year 64% of Americans said they believe air travel is very or somewhat safe, marking a decrease from 71% of Americans who indicated so last year, said the poll, conducted by AP-NORC and released on Wednesday.

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Mitch McConnell won’t seek Senate re-election in 2026

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Republican Kentucky lawmaker formally announced his retirement in a Senate floor speech on Thursday

Senator Mitch McConnell announced he will not run for re-election next year, bringing an end to a decades-long career for a Republican leader who marshaled his party through multiple administrations with a singleminded focus on power that enraged his critics and delighted his allies.

The Associated Press broke the news of McConnell’s retirement on Thursday, which marked the Republican senator’s 83rd birthday. McConnell formally announced his retirement in a Senate floor speech on Thursday.

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Trump’s savage attack on Zelenskyy shaped by pro-Russian coterie

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‘Kremlin whisperers’ have the president’s ear and dissenters are few – but a thin skin and self-interest are also at play

Donald Trump’s tarring of Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a “dictator” who is to blame for the war with Russia, plunging Ukraine into a Darwinian struggle for its very existence, landed like a bombshell on the diplomatic landscape. But it did not come out of nowhere.

The US president has left the already badly frayed western alliance in disarray with a devastating social media attack on his Ukrainian counterpart, just hours after he had already implicitly blamed Kyiv for Russia’s invasion.

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Mexico will not stand US ‘invasion’ in fight against cartels, president says

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Claudia Sheinbaum’s warning follows Washington designating Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations

Mexico will never tolerate an “invasion” of its national sovereignty by the United States, Claudia Sheinbaum has warned after Washington designated Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations.

“This cannot be an opportunity for the US to invade our sovereignty,” the Mexican president said. “With Mexico, it is collaboration and coordination, never subordination or interventionism, and even less invasion.”

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French foreign minister makes rules-based order plea to global south over Ukraine

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Jean-Noël Barrot tells G20 to prioritise those who support the law rather than power by force

European powers have made a plea at the G20 in South Africa to countries in the global south that they show unambivalent support for the international rules-based order, including the sovereignty of Ukraine.

Writing in the Guardian, the French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said the real line of geopolitical division was not between north and south but between those who supported the international rules-based order and those who did not.

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Trump signs executive order targeting ‘benefits for illegal aliens’

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US president issues order aimed at preventing taxpayer dollars supporting illegal immigration and another designed to get rid of regulations

Donald Trump has signed an executive order aimed at ending federal benefits for people in the country illegally, his latest in a blizzard of moves to crack down on immigration.

The White House said the order seeks to end “all taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal aliens” but it was not clear which benefits will be targeted. People in the country illegally generally do not qualify except for emergency medical care. Children are entitled to a free K-12 public education regardless of immigration status under a 1982 supreme court ruling.

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Missouri man who pleaded guilty in shooting of Black teen at wrong door dies

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Andrew Lester, who is white, was charged with assault after Ralph Yarl, who survived, rang doorbell by mistake in 2023

An 86-year-old Missouri man died just days after pleading guilty to a lesser charge in the 2023 shooting of Ralph Yarl, a Black honor student who rang the white man’s doorbell by mistake, prosecutors announced on Wednesday.

Andrew Lester of Kansas City had been charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action in the shooting of the then 16-year-old, who survived and is now a freshman at Texas A&M. Before his trial was scheduled to begin, Lester had pleaded guilty on Friday to a lesser charge of second-degree assault, which carries up to seven years behind bars. He had been scheduled to be sentenced on 7 March.

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Police search for woman who escaped Panama hotel where US deportees are being held

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Zheng Lijuan fled Panama City hotel as 170 of deported migrants were transported to dense, lawless region

Police are searching for a Chinese woman who escaped from a downtown Panama City hotel where she was being held following her deportation from the US under Donald Trump’s intensified campaign against immigrants.

Zheng Lijuan was one of 299 migrants – from China, Afghanistan, Iran and other countries with which the US lacks extradition agreements – who have been flown in shackles to Panama since last Wednesday. Panamanian authorities say they believe that Zheng was aided by locals who had been “prowling” outside the Decapolis hotel in the capital city where the deportees had been held.

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Doubts raised over US travel system during 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympics

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  • US will host 2026 tournament with Canada and Mexico
  • Report raises concern about visas and infrastructure

The United States is unprepared for the burdens placed on its air travel system when the country hosts the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, according to a report released on Wednesday.

The US Travel Association, a non-profit that represents the travel industry, commissioned a report written by former government officials and industry experts. The report raises concerns about visas, creaking infrastructure and poor security technology.

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‘It’s definitely not moving’: another bear makes evacuated LA home its own

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Black bear weighing 500lb found in crawlspace in Pasadena, two weeks after Altadena man discovered unfamiliar tenant

Two 500-plus pound black bears have laid claim to homes evacuated during the destructive Eaton fire in southern California.

Last month, when Samy Arbid returned to his Altadena home, he found “Barry” – a 525lb black bear – living under the house. This week, another Californian reported a different unexpected visitor living in his house’s crawlspace in neighboring Pasadena: another 500 to 600lb bear.

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Troubled electric vehicle maker Nikola files for bankruptcy protection

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After becoming embroiled in scandal, formerly hot startup and Wall Street star had said it would likely run out of cash

Troubled electric vehicle maker Nikola has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection months after saying that it would likely run out of cash early this year.

Nikola was a hot startup and rising star on Wall Street before becoming enmeshed in scandal and its founder was convicted in 2022 for misleading investors about the Arizona company’s technology.

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US adds Mexican cartels to list of foreign terrorist organisations

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Six cartels added to list as part of Trump’s plan to ‘wage war’ on drug trafficking groups to address fentanyl crisis in US

The US has added six Mexican cartels to its list of foreign terrorist organisations (FTOs), as it calls for the “total elimination” of the criminal groups trafficking drugs to the US.

Mexico’s two biggest organised crime groups, the Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa cartels, were among those added, as were Tren de Aragua and Mara Salvatrucha, groups with ties to Venezuela and El Salvador.

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US agriculture department says it accidentally fired bird flu officials

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Agency works to rehire employees shortly after touting plan to ‘optimize workforce’ by cutting staff with help of Musk

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) said it accidentally fired several employees working on the H5N1 avian influenza, or bird flu, outbreak and is now trying to rehire them.

The about-face came after the USDA touted its plans to “optimize its workforce” by firing workers and terminating contracts, actions aided by billionaire Elon Musk’s unofficial agency, the “department of government efficiency” (Doge), NBC News reported on Tuesday.

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