Category Archives: US News

On the edge: Massachusetts home at peril of tumbling into bay from erosion

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Multimillion-dollar home perched at edge of Cape Cod Bay in Wellfleet affected by erosion accelerated by climate crisis

The waters of Cape Cod Bay are coming for the big brown house perched on the edge of a sandy bluff high above the beach. It’s just a matter of when.

Erosion has marched right up to the concrete footings of the multimillion-dollar Massachusetts home where it overlooks the bay. Massive sliding doors that used to open onto a wide deck, complete with a hot tub, are now barricaded by thin wooden slats that prevent anyone from stepping through and falling 25ft to the beach below.

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Judge blocks Sandy Hook families’ settlement over Alex Jones bankruptcy

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Texas judge says he cannot approve deal between families who won suits over false remarks about 2012 mass shooting

A bankruptcy judge has blocked a proposed settlement between the families of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting victims who sued conspiracy theorist Alex Jones over his false remarks about the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school.

On Wednesday, judge Christopher Lopez of the US bankruptcy court for the southern district of Texas said he was unable to approve the proposed settlement between the families and Jones’s bankruptcy trustee. Lopez claimed that their efforts to divide Jones’s assets exceeded his court’s authority.

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Ten thousand Kroger-owned grocery store workers strike in Colorado

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Two-week strike begins as union for King Soopers alleges surveillance of workers and pushes to gut health benefits

Ten thousand workers at Kroger-owned King Soopers grocery stores in Colorado begin a two-week unfair labor practice strike on Thursday.

The union, United Food and Commercial Workers local 7, whose contract expired last month, voted 96% in favor of authorizing the strike.

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UN chief warns against ‘ethnic cleansing’ after Trump’s Gaza proposal

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President’s plan for US to take over Gaza Strip and move Palestinians out also rejected by allies Saudi Arabia and Jordan

Donald Trump’s proposal for a US takeover of Gaza was met with anger and blunt rejection from regional allies, delight from Israel’s far right and a warning against “ethnic cleansing” from the head of the UN.

The secretary general, António Guterres, planned to tell a UN meeting on Wednesday that “it is essential to avoid any form of ethnic cleansing” after the US president said he wanted to “own” Gaza and resettle its Palestinian residents elsewhere.

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‘Dangerous, provocative, illegal’: Arab Americans condemn Trump’s vow to ‘take over’ Gaza

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‘Arab Americans for Trump’ group rebrands itself while activists also criticize Biden and Harris’s support of Israel

Donald Trump’s remarks that the US will “take over” Gaza and resettle the Palestinian population elsewhere have drawn outrage and criticism from Palestinian and Arab Americans across the US.

A group of Arab Americans that supported Trump during the 2024 election rebranded itself following Trump’s comments on displacing Palestinians, from “Arab Americans for Trump” to “Arab Americans for Peace”.

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Emilia Pérez director criticises Karla Sofia Gascón’s ‘inexcusable’ tweets

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Oscar nominee Jacques Audiard has called the social media behaviour of the actor ‘hateful’ in a new interview

The director of Emilia Pérez, Jacques Audiard, has responded to the controversial unearthed tweets of his Oscar-nominated star Karla Sofía Gascón, branding them “hateful”.

The French film-maker, who is also nominated for the best director Oscar, has expressed disappointment over the social media behaviour of Gascón, who had shown bigoted views towards people of colour, Muslims and increased diversity at the Oscars.

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Donald Trump signals wish to hold talks with Iran over nuclear deal

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US president’s remarks will spark divisions within Iran over country’s nuclear ambitions and sanctions

Donald Trump has said he wants a “verified nuclear peace agreement” with Iran and denied he wanted to blow Iran to smithereens, describing such reports as “greatly exaggerated”.

But he said it was essential that Iran did not have a nuclear weapon, adding “we should start working on it immediately”. His remarks on his social media site, Truth Social represent the clearest sign that Trump is willing to hold talks with Iran to try to replace the nuclear deal signed in 2015, but from which Trump pulled the US out in 2018.

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Trump’s Gaza plan could amount to war crime, say experts

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Academics fear US president’s lack of reference to international law could lead to global breakdown of peace and security

Donald Trump’s proposal to permanently move millions of Palestinians out of Gaza to allow its reconstruction under US “ownership” could amount to a war crime or crime against humanity, experts in international law have said.

The experts said the US president’s framing of his plan without any reference to international law set a dangerous precedent that would encourage other world leaders to do similarly and contribute to a global breakdown of peace and security.

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‘Waterfront property’: What are Trump’s real estate interests in Palestine?

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Many of US president’s allies support settler projects, and plans to effectively colonise Gaza are an expansion on ideas from first term

Planning to “clean out” Palestinians as a real estate money-making scheme is an idea that has long united the Israeli settler movement and some of Donald Trump’s circle of US property developers.

For decades, state-backed settlers have used concrete, steel and brick to build on occupied land in Palestine in a successful effort to use town-building as a means to claim territory and permanently force Palestinians from their homeland.

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US Postal Service briefly halts packages arriving from China and Hong Kong

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Normal service resumes after initial suspension, in latest episode of growing trade war between the US and China

The US Postal Service briefly suspended incoming parcels from China and Hong Kong on Tuesday before returning to normal service on Wednesday after accusations of “unreasonable suppression” from Beijing, in the latest episode of a growing trade war between the US and China.

The initial suspension came as Donald Trump said he was not in a hurry to speak to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, despite expectations that they would hold talks after announcing tit-for-tat tariffs.

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Trump dismisses USAid direct-hire workers around the world

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Agency staffers overseas – except those deemed essential – placed on leave as diplomats’ union plans legal action

The Trump administration is placing US Agency for International Development direct-hire staffers around the world on leave, except those deemed essential.

A notice posted online on Tuesday gives the workers 30 days to return home, upending the aid agency’s six-decade mission overseas.

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Trump says US will ‘take over’ Gaza Strip in shock announcement during Netanyahu visit

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President’s plan, which is low on detail, would involve the permanent resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza to neighbouring countries

Donald Trump has vowed that the US would “take over” war ravaged Gaza and “own it”, effectively endorsing the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, in an announcement shocking even by the standards of his norm-shattering presidency.

Trump, who has previously threatened Greenland and Panama and suggested that Canada should become the 51st state, added Gaza to his expansionist agenda, claiming that it could become the “Riviera of the Middle East” and declined to rule out sending US troops to make it happen.

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US Senate confirms Trump nominee Pam Bondi as attorney general

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Bondi approved 54-46 as staunch political ally of president propelled to top perch of US law enforcement

The US Senate confirmed Pam Bondi on Tuesday as the next attorney general to steer the justice department through Donald Trump’s second term and his clear intent to turn it into an extension of his executive power, especially as a cudgel against his personal and political adversaries.

The 54 to 46 vote to confirm Bondi was largely across party lines. All Republicans voted to confirm and all but one Democratic senator, John Fetterman, voted against.

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Doge staffers enter Noaa headquarters and incite reports of cuts and threats

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Members reportedly sought access to IT systems at agency that Project 2025 has called ‘harmful to US prosperity’

Staffers with Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) reportedly entered the headquarters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) in Silver Spring, Maryland, and the Department of Commerce in Washington DC today, inciting concerns of downsizing at the agency.

“They apparently just sort of walked past security and said: ‘Get out of my way,’ and they’re looking for access for the IT systems, as they have in other agencies,” said Andrew Rosenberg, a former Noaa official who is now a fellow at the University of New Hampshire. “They will have access to the entire computer system, a lot of which is confidential information.”

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Musk intensifies government spending attack with push to cut all regulations

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Maxine Waters, Chuck Schumer and other lawmakers protest against billionaire outside US treasury

Elon Musk has proposed a “wholesale removal of regulations” in an intensification of his crusade to slash US federal government spending.

On a call aired on X, the social media platform he owns, the multibillionaire entrepreneur said regulations should be “gone” amid growing opposition to his mission as Donald Trump’s enforcer and head of a newly created “department of government efficiency” (Doge).

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El Salvador offers to hold deportees and incarcerated US citizens in its jails

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Human rights groups alarmed as Marco Rubio, US secretary of state, meets with Nayib Bukele during overseas trip

El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, has offered to accept deportees from the US of any nationality and hold them in his jails, including “dangerous American criminals”, Marco Rubio said on Monday.

The US secretary of state, who this week made his first overseas trip as the top US diplomat, visited El Salvador on Monday as part of a wider trip through Central America and the Caribbean.

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Trump says Palestinians have ‘no alternative’ but to leave Gaza

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President in effect endorses ethnic cleansing of territory before hosting meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu

Donald Trump has said Palestinians have “no alternative” but to leave Gaza due to the devastation left by Israel’s war on Hamas, in effect endorsing ethnic cleansing of the territory over the opposition of Palestinians and neighbouring countries.

Speaking as he prepared to host Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Tuesday, Trump repeated the suggestion that Gaza’s population should be relocated to Jordan and Egypt – something both countries have firmly rejected.

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Trump administration says it has begun deporting migrants to Guantánamo Bay

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Press secretary says at least two deportation flights to Cuban base of undocumented immigrants ‘under way’

The Trump administration has begun flying undocumented immigrants from the US to a military detention facility at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said on Tuesday.

Leavitt told Fox Business Network that at least two deportation flights were “under way”, but gave no further details.

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Panama court is asked to cancel Hong Kong firm’s contract to run canal ports

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Complaint by local lawyers to supreme court follows US demands to reduce China’s alleged influence on waterway

Two Panamanian lawyers have lodged a lawsuit with the country’s supreme court in an attempt to cancel a Hong Kong-based company’s concession to operate two ports at either end of the Panama canal.

Their complaint – filed a day after the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, told Panama’s president, José Raúl Mulino, to reduce China’s alleged influence on the canal – argues that the contract for the two ports is unconstitutional.

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China has reacted in kind to Trump’s tariffs, but a deal may still emerge

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Beijing will defend its core interests, but its initial response is more cautious than when Trump imposed levies in 2018

Moments after Donald Trump introduced tariffs of 10% on Chinese goods, Beijing retaliated with countermeasures.

China’s finance ministry put tariffs of 10-15% on imports of a range of US goods and its anti-trust regulator announced an investigation into Google. Several US companies were also added to China’s “unreliable entity” list, potentially restricting their ability to conduct business in the country.

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