About 53 people were onboard bus heading to local watermelon farm to work for private company when crash occurred
Eight people were killed and dozens injured after a bus carrying migrant workers to a local farm crashed in Florida early Tuesday.
The crash happened around 6.30am in west Marion county, Florida, according to the Florida highway patrol, WCJB reported.
Continue reading...Todd Blanche seemed to be looking for a ‘gotcha’ – instead there was laughter in the viewing room and one irked judge
“Mr Trump, is Todd doing a good job?”
So shouted a pool reporter outside a Manhattan courtroom Tuesday afternoon shortly after Trump’s lead attorney, Todd Blanche, started cross examining former fixer turned prosecution witness, Michael Cohen, in his criminal hush-money trial.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed. You can read our latest reporting from court here:
Donald Trump is entering the courtroom. He was carrying papers, which he dropped on to the defense table before sitting.
Trump is joined by Florida congressman Cory Mills, North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, as well as Eric Trump and Lara Trump.
Continue reading...US secretary of state promises long-awaited $60bn Ukraine aid package will make ‘real difference on battlefield’
The US secretary of state has arrived in Kyiv delivering a message that Washington remains committed to supporting Ukraine as the country’s forces face their toughest situation on the battlefield for months.
In recent days, Russia has launched an offensive in the north-eastern Kharkiv region, forcing thousands to flee their homes, and on Tuesday hit the centre of Kharkiv, the country’s second biggest city, with airstrikes.
Continue reading...Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine says in interview that US troops ‘stayed on our soil, doing nothing while terrorists killed people’
Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, Niger’s prime minister, has blamed the US for a rupture in an important military pact between the two countries that allows US forces to station in the west African nation.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Zeine said US officials had attempted to dictate which countries Niger could align with, had failed to justify the presence of US troops in the country while “doing nothing” to counter an Islamist insurgency in the region.
Continue reading...White House levy to protect US makers from cheap imports likely to inflame trade tensions
The US president, Joe Biden, has announced a 100% tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles as part of a package of measures designed to protect US manufacturers from cheap imports.
In a move that is likely to inflame trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies, the White House said it was imposing more stringent curbs on Chinese goods worth $18bn.
Continue reading...Mission by US secretary of state comes shortly after Congress approved a long-delayed $60bn package of aid
In Kyiv, the American secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said a new weapons package is already arriving and more more is coming, Reuters reported.
“That’s going to make a difference,” he said.
Continue reading...Israeli operation means truce negotiations cannot progress, says Sheikh Mohammed, as estimated 500,000 flee after evacuation order
Talks over a ceasefire in Gaza have reached a stalemate because of Israel’s operation in Rafah, Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, has said at an economic forum in Doha.
Sheikh Mohammed, whose country has mediated heavily between Hamas and Israel in trying to bring about a truce, said Qatar will continue its role. We will hopefully be able to bring you some quotes from the Qatari prime minister shortly.
Continue reading...Musician who played sax solo on Young Americans and released a series of Grammy-winning albums dies from prostate cancer
David Sanborn, the Grammy-winning saxophonist whose expressive versatility across jazz and pop also made him a sought-after session player for tracks such as David Bowie’s Young Americans, has died aged 78.
A message on social media stated he died from “an extended battle with prostate cancer with complications. Mr Sanborn had been dealing with prostate cancer since 2018, but had been able to maintain his normal schedule of concerts until just recently. Indeed he already had concerts scheduled into 2025.”
Continue reading...Former fixer told Manhattan court on Monday that Trump had asked him to keep stories about his personal life out of the media
Donald Trump’s ex-lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen is set to continue crucial testimony on Tuesday in the former US president’s New York hush-money trial, where Trump faces charges of allegedly falsifying records of payments to a porn actor to cover an affair.
Cohen’s testimony is seen as crucial to the prosecution’s arguments that the money paid to Stormy Daniels represented an election expense, because Trump and his campaign believed news of their sexual encounter would hurt his 2016 bid for the White House.
Continue reading...Ban, to begin in about 90 days, is White House’s latest effort to apply pressure on Vladimir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine
Joe Biden has signed into law a bipartisan bill that bans the import of enriched uranium from Russia, in the latest effort by Washington to apply further pressure on Vladimir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine.
The ban on imports of the fuel for nuclear power plants begins in about 90 days, although it allows the Department of Energy (DOE) to issue waivers in case of supply concerns, up until 2028.
Continue reading...Sai Varshith Kandula from Missouri, who was carrying a Nazi flag at time of arrest, said he hoped to overthrow the US government
A Missouri man pleaded guilty on Monday to crashing a rented truck into metal barriers surrounding the White House in May 2023, admitting that he had been “fueled by the ideology of Nazi Germany” and hoped to overthrow the US government.
Sai Varshith Kandula, 20, from Chesterfield, Missouri, and also a citizen of India, pleaded guilty to a single count of damaging federal property. He faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced in August.
Continue reading...Governor, plagued by dog-killing story, unwelcome in 20% of her state after she accused tribal leaders of benefiting from cartels
Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor who was once considered one of Donald Trump’s top vice-presidential contenders, has been banned from nearly one-fifth of the state after two more tribes voted to prohibit her from their lands.
The move by the Yankton Sioux tribe and the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate tribe last week follows criticism from the governor who has – without evidence – accused tribal leaders of “personally benefiting” from drug cartels. The Oglala, Rosebud, Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Sioux tribes banished Noem earlier this year.
Continue reading...Former Trump lawyer tells trial that ex-president said, ‘Just do it. Go meet up with Allen Weisselberg and figure this whole thing out’
More people here this morning in support of Donald Trump, per poolers:
JD Vance, the Ohio senator who is being floated as a potential Republican running mate to Trump
Tommy Tuberville, the Republican senator of Alabama
Boris Epshteyn, a longtime Trump aide who was charged with conspiracy, fraud and forgery in Arizona
Jason Miller, a Trump campaign adviser
Continue reading...Rapper’s scathing song Not Like Us, from his headline-grabbing rap beef with Drake, becomes his fourth Billboard chart-topper
Kendrick Lamar has won the culture-consuming rap beef with Drake, at least as far as Billboard hits are concerned, as his diss track Not Like Us debuted at No 1 on the US Hot 100.
The scathing track, which alleges that the Canadian hit-maker is a “certified pedophile”, is Lamar’s fourth No 1 song, after a feature on Future and Metro Boomin’s Like That earlier this year, 2017’s Humble and his verse on Taylor Swift’s 2015 track Bad Blood.
Continue reading...State’s department of fish and wildlife says the brown pelicans are showing signs of malnutrition, but that the cause is still unclear
Hundreds of starving and stranded brown pelicans have turned up along the California coast in recent weeks in what wildlife advocates have described as a “crisis”.
In Newport Beach in southern California, lifeguards came upon two dozen sick pelicans on a pier last week. The Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach, the non-profit caring for the animals, said they had treated more than 100 other birds who were anemic, dehydrated and extremely underweight.
Continue reading...Harrison Mann, who resigned from Defense Intelligence Agency in November, said he kept quiet about motives out of fear
A former US military intelligence official released a letter on Monday that explained to his colleagues at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) that his November resignation was in fact due to “moral injury” stemming from US support for Israel’s war in Gaza and the harm caused to Palestinians.
Harrison Mann, an army major, would be the first known DIA official to quit over US support to Israel. A US airman fatally set himself on fire in February outside Israel’s embassy in Washington and other military personnel have protested.
Continue reading...The actor will play the lead in a stage adaptation of his Oscar-nominated journalism drama from 2005
George Clooney is set to make his Broadway debut in a stage adaptation of his 2005 journalism drama Good Night, and Good Luck.
The actor’s sophomore feature as director will be transformed into a play set to premiere in spring 2025. Clooney, who played Fred W Friendly in the original, will now take on the role of Edward R Murrow.
Continue reading...Mystery of Mary Alice Pultz finally resolved when remains of Maryland woman dug up four decades ago identified
Human remains dug up four decades ago on a Florida beach have finally been identified as those of a Maryland woman who went missing in 1968, supposedly disappearing with her then-boyfriend.
The mystery of Mary Alice Pultz was finally resolved last week when a Florida sheriff’s office said that it had identified the remains found in a shallow grave on Crescent Beach, 50 miles south of Jacksonville, in April 1985.
Continue reading...Dubliners urged to give ‘Irish welcome’ via interactive sculpture, but bad behaviour has also been on display
Rain sluiced down on a grey Dublin afternoon but the crowd clustering around the portal ignored the downpour and waved at a man cycling towards the screen on a sunny morning in Manhattan.
He gazed back, waved and wobbled before recovering his balance and vanishing down Fifth Avenue, eliciting a cheer from the sodden observers on North Earl Street.
Continue reading...