Category Archives: US News

Middle East peace talks in doubt as Iran says it needs to ‘reassess’ after overnight strikes

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US launches attacks in retaliation for downing of US army helicopter, while White House source says deal could still be close

The future of peace talks in the Middle East has been thrown into question after Iran’s foreign ministry said it needed to “reassess” its participation, while Donald Trump said Iran would have to “pay the price” after the two countries traded fire overnight, drawing neighbouring states back into an on-and-off war that has consumed the region since late February.

The US launched strikes against Iran in the early hours of Wednesday, in retaliation for what it said was Iran’s downing of a US army helicopter near the strait of Hormuz. Iran then launched a wave of retaliatory airstrikes claiming hits on US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan.

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Japanese manga fans urge Trump to stop using characters in his online posts

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Renewed outrage at White House’s use manga and anime imagery after US president is depicted as ninja Naruto

Japanese anime and manga fans are urging Donald Trump to stop using their favourite characters in his social media posts.

About 20,000 people have signed a petition on Change.org entitled Protect Japanese Manga, protesting against the official White House X account posting videos featuring unauthorised use of imagery from the popular Dragon Ball, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Naruto series. Angry fans have also been posting on social media.

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Only one in 10 Europeans now see US as an ally, survey suggests

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Exclusive: poll across 15 countries finds ‘deep mistrust’, with majority doubting US would come to their aid in an attack

European confidence in an American “security guarantee” has hit a historic low, a survey suggests, with only one in 10 people across 15 countries seeing the US as an ally and majorities in all doubting it would come to their aid if they were attacked.

The survey, published on Wednesday by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) thinktank before critical G7 and Nato summits in France and Turkey over the coming weeks, revealed “deep European distrust in the US”, the authors said.

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US stadium and hotel workers threaten strikes ‘to make things fair’ during World Cup

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Low wages and fears of ICE crackdowns have set workers on edge of strike as thousands set to arrive during World Cup

Hospitality and food service workers in several US cities hosting World Cup games are warning of looming labor disputes and possible strikes as the largest single sport tournament in the world gets ready to kick off on 11 June.

In Los Angeles, California, cashiers, dishwashers, cooks, bartenders, concessions workers and food attendants at the SoFi stadium reached a tentative agreement on Tuesday afternoon, but the union noted it has a contractual right to walk off the job if it determines that federal immigration enforcement is threatening worker safety during the World Cup. The US’s opening match, against Paraguay, is scheduled to take place at SoFi Stadium on 12 June.

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Hard-right groups have expanded their influence across US government, report finds

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Southern Poverty Law Center releases report as US government pursues federal fraud charges against group

A new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) finds hard-right groups have increasingly expanded their influence across the US government, which is pursuing a federal fraud case into the civil rights organization.

Tuesday’s report – which identified 1,263 hate and anti-government groups in operation throughout 2025 – comes less than two months after it was indicted by the government it says the hard right has infiltrated.

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US judge finds man accused of killing woman on Charlotte train incompetent to stand trial

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Decarlos Brown Jr to stay in custody while receiving treatment for remainder of case over Iryna Zarutska’s death

The man accused of fatally stabbing Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte commuter train in August has been found incompetent to stand trial in federal court for now, the US attorney’s office for the western district of North Carolina said on Tuesday.

Decarlos Brown Jr, 35, is accused of killing Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee, on a Charlotte light rail train in a case that drew national attention after a surveillance camera video depicting the violent attack was released.

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Trump blames Iran for downing of army helicopter and says US must respond

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US president says crew members are ‘safe and uninjured’ after attack near strait of Hormuz early on Tuesday

Donald Trump has blamed Iran for downing a US army helicopter near the strait of Hormuz, warning that the US would be forced to respond to the attack.

The US army Apache helicopter gunship crashed off the coast of Oman early on Tuesday, according to US Central Command. The two crew members were later rescued in an unprecedented operation using an unmanned drone boat, the military said.

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‘Earth’s first starfleet’: Nasa reveals Artemis III crew and project’s next steps

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Luca Parmitano to pilot all-male crew of four paving way for planned first human landing on Artemis IV in 2028

Jared Isaacman, the Nasa administrator, hailed the creation of “Earth’s first starfleet” on Tuesday as he revealed the Artemis III crew and details of the next stages of the space agency’s project to return humans to the moon.

An Italian astronaut, Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency (ESA), will be the pilot of the planned two-week mission to lower Earth orbit next year that will test lunar landers from private companies Blue Origin and SpaceX.

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Florida shaken by 6.1-magnitude earthquake off coast of Cuba

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Earthquake was region’s strongest tremor in nearly 150 years and was also felt in parts of Mexico including Cancún

An earthquake on Monday off the coast of Cuba, which was that region’s strongest tremor in nearly 150 years, could be felt in Florida and parts of Mexico.

The 6.1-magnitude earthquake, which struck in the afternoon, occurred approximately 65 miles (105km) north-west of Mantua, Cuba, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). The USGS added that the earthquake had a depth of 16 miles.

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Gordon S Wood, Pulitzer-prize winning historian, dies after being struck by a car in Rhode Island

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A renowned academic, Wood was hit by a car as he was crossing a supermarket’s parking lot and later died of the injuries

Gordon S Wood, a Pulitzer prize-winning author and historian, was killed on Sunday when he was struck by a car in a supermarket parking lot in Rhode Island.

Wood, 92, won the Pulitzer in 1993 in the history category for The Radicalism of the American Revolution, a landmark tome that advanced the theory of the break with Britain being at least as much of an internal social and political transformation as a desire to be rid of colonial masters.

This story was amended on 8 June 2026 to correct the Pulitzer prize-winning book’s title to The Radicalism of the American Revolution.

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Trump nominates his ex-lawyer Todd Blanche to serve as attorney general

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Acting in the role since April, Blanche faces Senate confirmation after controversial DoJ moves

Donald Trump nominated Todd Blanche to serve permanently as attorney general on Monday, lining up his former personal lawyer to be the country’s ⁠top ⁠law ⁠enforcement officer.

The US president suggested earlier this week that Blanche, who was appointed on an acting basis in April after the president fired Pam Bondi, was set to receive the nod. “He’s a very talented guy,” Trump told a podcast.

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Israel and Iran step back from renewed conflict after Trump calls for halt

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Netanyahu acknowledges pause in fighting in TV speech but vows forceful response to future attacks

Fears of a return to a full-scale regional war in the Middle East eased on Monday as Israel and Iran said they had halted attacks on each other after an appeal from Donald Trump to “immediately stop shooting”.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, acknowledged the halt in fighting with Iran in a televised speech, but vowed to respond “with force” to future attacks.

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Two US pilots killed after plane bound to pick up former MLB star crashes

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Plane on way to pick up Yadier Molina and his family crashed in Dominican Republic, killing pilot and co-pilot

A pilot and co-pilot from the United States have died in a fiery plane crash as they attempted an emergency landing in the Dominican Republic, authorities said.

Former major league baseball all-star catcher Yadier Molina said on social media that the plane was bound for Texas to pick him up, along with family and friends.

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Will Iran give up on ceasefire talks as strait of Hormuz blockade continues?

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Chokehold on shipping route draws Houthis in Yemen back into conflict as commenters see ‘no turning back’

Iran’s reversion to large-scale military exchanges with Israel broadened the conflict that began in February not only by making the Israeli attacks on Hezbollah a direct casus belli for Iran for the first time, but also by drawing the Houthis in Yemen back into the conflict with as yet incalculable consequences.

Some in Tehran, buoyed up by past perceived military success and emboldened by the chokehold of the strait of Hormuz, would like to turn this moment into the point of no return in the conflagration with Israel. A minority would welcome the abandonment of ceasefire talks with the US, an outcome for which they have been agitating for weeks.

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Truck carrying fireworks catches fire and explodes in Tennessee

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No one injured in incident, volunteer fire department says, and it is not known how truck caught fire

Firefighters in Tennessee had to respond to an unexpectedly early Fourth of July scene after a truck caught fire on a major highway and its load of fireworks went off, triggering a spectacular display.

Video of the scene on Interstate 75 in the community of Ooltewah showed a huge cloud of sparks and rockets emerging from a trailer that the truck was hauling, as a stunned crowd watched from an overpass.

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Six people stabbed in attack at Penn Station in New York

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Suspect in custody at busy rail hub adjacent to Madison Square Garden one day before game three of NBA finals

Six people were stabbed in a Sunday night attack at New York’s Penn Station, authorities said, with Amtrak police saying a person believed to be homeless was being held in custody as a result.

The stabbings at the US’s busiest railroad hub came one day before thousands of basketball fans were expected at the third game of the NBA finals at the adjacent Madison Square Garden complex, although the events are not believed to be linked.

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Trial begins for man accused of sparking LA’s deadly Palisades fire

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Jonathan Rinderknecht is accused of starting the blaze that became Los Angeles’s deadliest and destructive wildfire

The trial of a 29-year-old charged with sparking a wildfire that went on to become the deadly Palisades inferno, the most destructive blaze in Los Angeles history, is set to begin on Monday in a case that has gripped the city as Angelenos seek answers more than a year after the deadly fire.

Jonathan Rinderknecht, an occasional Uber driver, is accused of starting a small blaze on New Year’s Day 2025, later dubbed the Lachman fire. Although the Los Angeles fire department extinguished the fire on 2 January, it reignited five days later due to high winds and tinderbox conditions after burning undetected deep in the dry hillsides.

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Arizona lake closes indefinitely to visitors after all of its fish die

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Wildlife department says drought conditions and water released from dam led to ‘major fish kill’ at San Carlos Lake

Arizona officials have indefinitely closed a popular lake to visitors after its entire population of fish died recently.

The recreation and wildlife department that maintains San Carlos Lake said in a Facebook statement on Friday that drought conditions as well as water released from a dam there “resulted in a major fish kill affecting approximately 100% of the fish population”.

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Tony awards 2026: full list of winners

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This year’s Tony awards have already seen wins for musicals Schmigadoon! and Cats: The Jellicle Ball

Kevin Adams, Chess
Jane Cox, The Rocky Horror Show
Donald Holder, Schmigadoon!
Adam Honoré, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Adam Honoré and Donald Holder (Lighting Design) and 59 Studio (Projection Design), Ragtime
Jen Schriever and Michael Arden, The Lost Boys – WINNER!

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Ex-CIA official accused of stealing $40m in gold bars reportedly created fake spy program

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David Rush, who was arrested in May, stole millions from US government through ‘special access program’, officials say

A former executive intelligence agent who is accused of stealing more than $40m in gold bars from the CIA reportedly created a fake spy program to siphon money, the latest on his fraudulent activity, the Washington Post first reported.

David Rush, who was a senior-level employee of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for 17 years, was arrested in May after FBI agents discovered Rush had taken 303 bullion bars, each about 2.2lbs, dozens of luxury watches, and more than $2m in foreign currency from his government office.

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