AOC v MTG: House hearing dissolves into chaos over Republican’s insult

Squabble started when Marjorie Taylor Greene insulted House member, spurring Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to demand apology

The two most famous sets of initials in US politics clashed in a chaotic House hearing on Thursday, as the progressive star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or AOC, objected fiercely to an attack on another Democrat by the far-right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, or MTG.

The oversight committee hearing concerned Republican attempts to hold the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, in contempt, for refusing to release tapes of interviews between Joe Biden and the special counsel Robert Hur.

Continue reading...

Biden and Trump are betting on debates to help magnify the other’s weaknesses

Trump will look to again cast Biden as greatly diminished while Biden will aim to remind voters why they rejected Trump in 2020

It’s game on for a pair of presidential debates between two unpopular candidates most Americans wish weren’t running for the nation’s highest office.

In a ratatat social media exchange on Wednesday, Joe Biden and Donald Trump agreed to participate in two debates on 27 June, hosted by CNN, and on 10 September, hosted by ABC.

Continue reading...

Upside-down US flag reportedly hung outside Samuel Alito’s home days after Capitol attack

Incident casts doubt on supreme court justice’s impartiality in upcoming cases as inverted flag is associated with Trump’s stolen election claims

An upside-down American flag was reportedly spotted flying outside the home of the conservative US supreme court justice Samuel Alito during the closing days of the 2020 election.

The inverted flag is a symbol that has become associated with the former president Donald Trump’s false claims that Joe Biden stole the election.

Continue reading...

Have I Got News for You to launch in the US in autumn

Adaptation of hit comedy quiz will begin airing on CNN on Saturday nights to coincide with presidential election

Arch, ironic and understated, Have I Got News for You is the quintessential British comedy quiz, but its creators are hoping a US version of the show can translate its particular brand of political humour across the Atlantic.

A US adaptation of the show will be broadcast by CNN in the autumn, to coincide with the presidential election. It will hit screens on Saturday nights – part of a double-bill with Bill Maher’s Real Time.

Continue reading...

Severe storms kill at least four in Houston and shatter windows in high-rise buildings

Fast-moving thunderstorms strike in Texas for second time this month, knocking out power to more than 900,000 homes

Fast-moving thunderstorms pummeled south-eastern Texas for the second time this month, killing at least four people, blowing out windows in high-rise buildings, downing trees and knocking out power to more than 900,000 homes and businesses in the Houston area.

Officials urged residents to keep off roads following Thursday’s storms, as many were impassable and traffic lights were out. The storm system moved through swiftly, but flood watches and warnings remained on Friday for Houston and areas to the east.

Continue reading...

‘Magic David called’: David Copperfield repeatedly contacted Jeffrey Epstein

Phone messages and meetings suggest a friendship between Copperfield and the disgraced financier. His lawyers deny it

The message pads appear a little faded, but the handwriting on the spiral-bound notebooks is clear enough.

Staff at Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion in Florida’s Palm Beach used the pads to jot down the names of the people who had called the financier, and between 2004 and 2005, one well-known person appeared to be calling persistently.

Continue reading...

Texas governor pardons man who killed Black Lives Matter protester in 2020

Greg Abbott on Thursday pardoned Daniel Perry, who has been serving a 25-year sentence since 2023 murder conviction

Governor Greg Abbott of Texas issued a full pardon on Thursday to a former US army sergeant convicted of murder for fatally shooting an armed demonstrator in 2020 during nationwide protests against police violence and racial injustice.

Abbott announced the pardon just minutes after the Texas board of pardons and paroles disclosed it had made a unanimous recommendation that Daniel Perry be pardoned and have his firearms rights restored. Perry has been held in state prison on a 25-year sentence since his conviction in 2023.

Continue reading...

Morehouse College faculty votes to give Biden honorary doctorate in split vote

Vote to confer was a 50-38 decision as students and alumni protest at Biden being commencement speaker over handling of Gaza war

Morehouse College faculty voted on Thursday to confer an honorary doctorate on Joe Biden during its upcoming graduation ceremony on Sunday, for which he plans to deliver the commencement address.

The vote to confer the honorary doctorate was a 50-38 decision, with about a dozen faculty members abstaining ahead of the planned visit, which has prompted protests from some students, faculty and alumni over the president’s handling of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Continue reading...

Biden asserts executive privilege to block release of special counsel interviews

House Republicans seek recordings of classified documents case interviews, in what Democrats call a ‘purely political’ move

Joe Biden asserted executive privilege to stop House Republicans obtaining recordings of his interviews with Robert Hur, the special counsel who investigated Biden’s retention of classified information after his time as a senator and as vice-president to Barack Obama.

In a letter reported by the New York Times and other outlets on Thursday, the White House counsel, Edward Siskel, told the Republican chairs of the House judiciary and oversight committees: “The absence of a legitimate need for the audio recordings lays bare your likely goal – to chop them up, distort them and use them for partisan political purposes.

Continue reading...

US museum curator held in Turkey over spider and scorpion samples is freed

American Museum of Natural History says Dr Lorenzo Prendini was working on research project and ‘has arrived safely home’

A curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York who was detained in Istanbul on Monday while allegedly attempting to smuggle spider and scorpion samples out of Turkey has been released.

In statement on Thursday, a spokesperson for the museum said Dr Lorenzo Prendini, curator of arachnida and myriapoda, had arrived back in New York.

Continue reading...

Michael Cohen tells trial he once thought Stormy Daniels was extorting Trump over her story – as it happened

This live blog is now closed. You can read our latest reporting below:

Judge Juan Merchan is on the bench and the court is in session.

Donald Trump has arrived in the courtroom for day 18 of his criminal trial.

Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican representative

Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican congresswoman

Eric Trump

Boris Epshteyn, a longtime Trump aide

Continue reading...

University president in California on leave after agreeing to campus protesters’ demands

Mike Lee told students that Sonoma State would become first US university to refuse to work with Israeli academic institutions

A public university in California has placed its president on leave for “insubordination” after he agreed to student demands for an academic boycott of Israel.

Mike Lee was suspended from Sonoma State University following an announcement on Tuesday that the liberal arts college north of San Francisco had agreed with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) to become the first US university to refuse to work with Israeli academic institutions.

Continue reading...

US completes installation of floating pier to deliver aid to Gaza

Aid agencies poised to receive supplies and distribute to territory where people face imminent starvation

The US military has said the installation of a floating pier for the delivery of humanitarian aid off Gaza has been completed, with officials ready to begin ferrying supplies into the territory, where much of the population faces imminent starvation owing to the continuing Israel-Hamas war.

Ordered two months ago by the president, Joe Biden, the US military transported the system overnight from the Israeli port of Ashdod, about 20 miles north of Gaza.

Continue reading...

Painting by surrealist painter Leonora Carrington fetches $28m at auction

Late British painter’s Les Distractions de Dagobert, ‘the apotheosis of Carrington’s oeuvre’, was inspired by Hieronymus Bosch

The auction record for British surrealist Leonora Carrington was smashed at Sotheby’s in New York on Wednesday night, marking a new high point for the artist, who lived in Mexico for most of her life and was until her death in 2011 one of the last surviving participants of the surrealist movement of the 1930s.

Carrington’s 1945 painting Les Distractions de Dagobert was auctioned for $28m with fees, soaring over a presale estimate of $12m-$18m after 10 minutes of bidding. The sum fetched is nine times Carrington’s previous auction record of $3.2m.

Continue reading...

‘Good chance’ we’ll leave US if Trump acquitted, Stormy Daniels husband says

Barrett Blade says wife, who testified in hush-money trial, ‘wants to move past this’ but admits ‘I don’t see people fighting for her’

The husband of Stormy Daniels said there is a “good chance” that the couple will leave the US if Donald Trump is acquitted in his criminal trial over paying hush-money payments to the adult film star.

“I think if it’s not guilty, we got to decide what to do. Good chance we’ll probably vacate this country,” Barrett Blade told CNN host Erin Burnett on Tuesday.

Continue reading...

Biden should have pardoned Trump on federal charges, Mitt Romney says

Republican senator tells MSNBC that ‘frankly, the country doesn’t want to have to go through prosecuting a former president’

Joe Biden should have pardoned Donald Trump on all federal criminal charges the moment they were announced, the Utah senator and former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said.

“Had I been President Biden,” Romney said, “when the justice department brought out indictments, I would have immediately pardoned him. I’d have pardoned President Trump.”

Continue reading...

BTK serial killer investigation: new clue unlocks missing 16-year-old girl’s name

After receiving a word puzzle, Oklahoma police say they’re closer to identifying another victim of murderer Dennis Rader

A newly re-examined word puzzle sent to a Kansas City TV station in 2004 could strengthen leads in a cold-case investigation into the disappearance of a 16-year-old girl in Oklahoma and link it to the convicted serial killer Dennis Rader, nicknamed BTK for “bind, torture, kill”.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Osage county sheriff Eddie Virden said he had received a package from a woman in April containing a crossword puzzle Rader allegedly used to taunt investigators.

Continue reading...

US interior department staffer is first Jewish Biden appointee to resign over war in Gaza

Lily Greenberg Call, special assistant to chief of staff, accused the president of using Jewish people to justify US policy in the conflict

An interior department staffer on Wednesday became the first Jewish political appointee to publicly resign in protest of US support for Israel’s war in Gaza.

Lily Greenberg Call, a special assistant to the chief of staff in the interior department, accused Joe Biden of using Jewish people to justify US policy in the conflict.

Continue reading...

Biden campaign accuses Trump of ‘playing games with debates’ – as it happened

This live blog is now closed. You can read more on the US presidential debates here:

In a letter to Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, top Donald Trump advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said the former president had accepted their invitation to participate in two debates, while demanding further face offs between the two candidates.

“Today is a good day for America’s voters, now that Joe Biden has FINALLY accepted President Trump’s debate challenge. President Trump and our campaign have been requesting this for months with a consistent message: ANY TIME! ANYWHERE! ANY PLACE!” Wiles and LaCivita write.

We believe there should be more than just two opportunities for the American people to hear more from the candidates themselves. With the soaring inflation of Bidenomics costing America’s hardworking families at the grocery store and at the gas pump, with our border being totally overrun, with chaos at home, chaos across the world, chaos on our college campuses, we should have one debate per month.

Therefore, we propose a debate in June, a debate in July, a debate in August, and a debate in September, in addition to the Vice Presidential debate. Additional dates will allow voters to have maximum exposure to the records and future visions of each candidate.

Crooked Joe Biden is the WORST debater I have ever faced - He can’t put two sentences together! Crooked is also the WORST President in the history of the United States, by far. It’s time for a debate so that he can explain to the American People his highly destructive Open Border Policy, new and ridiculous EV Mandates, the allowance of Crushing Inflation, High Taxes, and his really WEAK Foreign Policy, which is allowing the World to “Catch on Fire.” I am Ready and Willing to Debate Crooked Joe at the two proposed times in June and September. I would strongly recommend more than two debates and, for excitement purposes, a very large venue, although Biden is supposedly afraid of crowds - That’s only because he doesn’t get them. Just tell me when, I’ll be there. “Let’s get ready to Rumble!!!”

Continue reading...

Hearing delayed for US woman accused of killing husband before writing book on grief

Kouri Richins, 33, charged in Utah with murder over death of Eric Richins, who prosecutors say was fatally poisoned with fentanyl

A Utah judge on Wednesday postponed a hearing to determine if prosecutors have enough evidence to proceed to trial in the case of a woman charged with fatally poisoning her husband before she published a children’s book about coping with grief.

Judge Richard Mrazik delayed the hearing until 18-20 June after prosecutors said they would need three days to present their evidence against Kouri Richins, whose lawyer says she is innocent.

Continue reading...