Category Archives: US News

Kimberly-Clark to buy Tylenol maker Kenvue in landmark $40bn merger

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Kleenex maker’s deal for troubled Johnson & Johnson spinoff comes amid lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny

Kleenex maker Kimberly-Clark said on Monday it will buy Kenvue for more than $40bn in a landmark deal for the consumer sector, as the Tylenol maker grapples with White House scrutiny and choppy demand.

Kimberly-Clark would be scooping up the former Johnson & Johnson unit after months of struggles by Kenvue that include the ouster of its CEO in July and a share slump when Donald Trump in September asserted that Tylenol use can lead to autism, a claim not backed by conclusive research.

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FBI fires top official amid Kash Patel’s outrage over reports of agency jet use

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Patel reportedly became furious after stories revealed he flew to visit girlfriend and fired official who oversees fleet

A top FBI official with 27 years standing has reportedly been fired by the bureau after its director, Kash Patel, became enraged by press stories revealing he had used a government jet to travel to see his girlfriend sing the national anthem at a wrestling match.

Steven Palmer, who had worked at the bureau since 1998, was fired as head of the FBI’s critical incident response group which is responsible for handling major security threats as well as overseeing the agency’s fleet of jets. He was the third head of the unit to be dismissed since Patel became the second Trump administration’s FBI director in February.

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No one hurt after ‘intentional’ explosion at Harvard medical campus, officials say

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Officers did not find additional devices in a sweep of building, authorities say

There was an explosion early Saturday at Harvard University’s medical school that appears to have been intentional, but no one was injured, authorities said.

Police at the Massachusetts Ivy League university said in a statement that an officer who responded to a fire alarm encountered two unidentified people and tried to stop them. But they ran from the campus’s Goldenson building before the officer got to where the alert was triggered by an explosion, police said.

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Has OpenAI really made ChatGPT better for users with mental health problems?

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Prompts indicating suicidal ideation got alarming replies, which experts say shows ‘how easy it is to break the model’

An OpenAI statement released this week claimed the company had made its popular service ChatGPT better at supporting users experiencing mental health problems like suicidal ideation or delusions, but experts tell the Guardian they need to do more to truly ensure users are protected.

The Guardian tested several prompts indicating suicidal ideation with the ChatGPT GPT-5 updated model, which is now the default, and got alarming responses from the large language model (LLM) chatbot.

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Obama criticizes Trump and Republican policy in stump speech for Abigail Spanberger

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Former US president headlines event for Democratic candidate for Virginia governor, who leads in polls

Barack Obama headlined a rally Saturday in Virginia to try to secure a victory for the state’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate, who leads in polls days before the election.

Obama moved between criticizing Donald Trump and Republican policy and rhetoric – with a bit of humor – while also explaining how Abigail Spanberger could help counter what Democrats see as the country’s downward trajectory.

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Trump threatens to go into Nigeria ‘guns-a-blazing’ over attacks on Christians

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US president says he ordered Pentagon to begin planning for action, without mentioning Muslim persecution

Donald Trump on Saturday said he had ordered the Pentagon to begin planning for potential military action in Nigeria as he stepped up his criticism that the government was failing to rein in the persecution of Christians in the west African country.

“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the USA will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” Trump posted on social media. “I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians!”

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Flights delayed across US amid air traffic controller shortages as shutdown drags on

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Nearly 50% of 30 busiest airports facing absences as staff are forced to work without pay and shutdown hits 31st day

Nearly 50% of the 30 busiest US airports faced shortages of air traffic controllers, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Friday, leading to flight delays nationwide as a federal government shutdown hit its 31st day.

The absence of controllers on Friday is by far the most widespread since the shutdown began, with one of the worst-hit regions being New York, where 80% of air traffic controllers were out, the agency said.

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JD Vance repeats comments he wants wife Usha to convert to Christianity

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US vice-president announces to 10,000 attenders of Turning Point USA that he prefers wife, who is Hindu, to be Christian

JD Vance is doubling down on comments he made about wanting his wife, Usha Vance, to convert to Christianity – remarks that drew political backlash from some quarters.

At an event with Turning Point USA at the University of Mississippi to honor the conservative group’s slain founder Charlie Kirk, an audience member questioned the US vice-president about how he sees the links between American patriotism and Christianity.

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Missing Louisiana girl, 13, rescued from box in Pennsylvania basement

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Police say Ki-Shawn Crumity, 26, met girl through Snapchat, and charged him with human trafficking and sexual assault

A 13-year-old Louisiana girl who went missing after meeting a man online was found alive in a box at his home several states away in Pennsylvania – along with evidence that she had been sexually assaulted, according to authorities.

Ki-Shawn Crumity, 26, faces charges of human trafficking, sexual assault, unlawful contact with a minor and corruption of a child after police in Pittsburgh said they arrested him on Thursday. He is one of at least three men who had been arrested as of Saturday amid an investigation involving law enforcement agencies in multiple states.

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Maine mother whose daughter died of leukemia wins $25m in wrongful death suit

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Verdict delivered in favor of Lyndsey Sutherland over death of daughter ‘Jazzy’ after doctors failed to identify condition

A civil jury in Maine has awarded $25m to a woman whose teenage daughter died from leukemia after being misdiagnosed with a condition linked to steroid-using men.

The hefty verdict delivered in favor of Lyndsey Sutherland on Thursday called for her to receive $10m for the wrongful 2021 death of 15-year-old Jasmine “Jazzy” Vincent as well as $15m for pain and suffering, said her attorney, Meryl Poulin.

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US judge blocks Trump order requiring proof of citizenship to vote

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Federal judge rules proof-of-citizenship directive an unconstitutional violation of separation of powers

Donald Trump’s request to add a documentary proof of citizenship requirement to the federal voter registration form cannot be enforced, a federal judge ruled on Friday.

US district judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington DC, sided with Democratic and civil rights groups that sued the Trump administration over his executive order to overhaul US elections.

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Trump justice department seeks 2020 election records from Georgia county

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Request to Fulton county underscores determination to revive president’s falsehoods about election he lost

The justice department on Thursday asked election officials in Fulton county, Georgia, to turn over records related to the 2020 election, a request that underscores how the administration is trying to revive one of the president’s biggest falsehoods about the election he lost five years ago.

Investigators have cleared Fulton county of malfeasance in 2020. Nonetheless, a Republican majority on the board voted to reopen the investigation last year. On the night of the 2024 presidential election, the board voted to subpoena a slew of documents. This summer, the board passed a resolution asking the justice department to intervene and help them get the documents. The subpoenas issued last year seek records related to voter lists, chain of custody forms, ballot images, security seals and ballot scanner paperwork.

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Trump administration blocked from suspending Snap benefits for millions of Americans

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One judge issued temporary restraining order while another judge ruled the government must continue to fund program that helps low-income households

Two federal judges issued back-to-back rulings on Friday in separate cases ordering the Trump administration to use contingency funds to continue paying for food stamps during the government shutdown.

A federal judge in Rhode Island on Friday afternoon blocked the Trump administration from suspending all food aid for millions of Americans, in a case brought by a group of US cities, non-profit organizations and a trade union.

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US electricity bills increased by 11% in Trump’s second term, data shows

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New analysis prompts letter to Trump from Elizabeth Warren: ‘Your administration has no answers for families hit by high energy costs’

Donald Trump promised to slash US electricity bills, but they have increased by 11% since he retook the White House, new data shows.

Democratic lawmakers highlighted the figures in a letter sent to Trump on Friday. “Your administration has no explanations for its failures and no answers for American families that are hit hard by high energy costs, and it continues to actively pursue policies to make this cost crisis worse,” reads the missive, led by Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator.

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JP Morgan warned US of $1bn in Epstein transactions possibly related to human trafficking

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Bank says it alerted US of ‘suspicious’ transactions just weeks after paedophile was found dead in New York jail cell

JP Morgan warned the US government about more than $1bn in transactions linked to Jeffrey Epstein that were possibly related to reports of human trafficking, new documents confirm.

The largest bank in the US filed a suspicious activity report (SAR) in 2019, just weeks after Epstein was found dead in a New York jail cell, about transactions linked to the paedophile financier and prominent business figures. It also flagged wire transfers made by Epstein to Russian banks.

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No high-level US representatives will go to UN climate talks, Trump officials say

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Decision to stay away from Cop30 meeting in Brazil underscores administration’s hostility to climate action

The Trump administration has confirmed that no high-level representatives will be sent by the US to upcoming UN climate talks in Brazil, underscoring the administration’s hostile stance towards action on the climate crisis.

The US has always sent delegations of various sizes to UN climate summits over the past three decades, even during periods under George W Bush and Donald Trump’s first term where there was scant desire to address the global heating crisis.

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Man trapped in flooded basement dies as New York hit by severe rain

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Officials say body of man, 39, pulled from Brooklyn basement as rainstorm closes roads and causes delays

A man’s body was pulled from a flooded New York City basement on Thursday during a rainstorm that shut down roadways and caused airport delays, authorities said.

A scuba team recovered the body of a 39-year-old man after firefighters received a call of a person trapped in a flooded basement in Brooklyn at about 4.30pm, police said. The man, whose name was not released, was pronounced dead at a hospital.

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More than half of Americans disapprove of Trump demolishing East Wing – poll

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Survey, in which one-third respondents voted for the president, found 56% disagree with move

More than half of Americans disapprove of Trump’s demolition of the White House’s East Wing and the construction of a new ballroom, according to a new poll from the Washington Post, ABC News and Ipsos.

The survey was conducted between 24 and 28 October and indicates 56% of the respondents disagree with Trump’s recent move while 28% are in favor of it. Most of the survey’s respondents were white, one-third of them voted for Donald Trump and another third for Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.

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‘Yes, we’ve been to the moon before’: Nasa rebuffs Kim Kardashian conspiracy theory

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Nasa chief Sean Duffy confirms 1969 landing was indeed real after US celebrity on TV show says ‘I think it was fake’

Nasa has rejected comments made by Kim Kardashian about the 1969 moon landing and confirmed that it did, in fact, happen.

During Thursday’s episode of The Kardashians, the Skims founder questioned whether the space mission ever took place while noting her interest in conspiracy theories.

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Trump ally Stephen Miller at heart of FBI agent purge, new book reveals

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Miller urged firings of those who had investigated president to satisfy Trump’s desire for revenge, Injustice authors write

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, was the driving force behind a purge of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents who had investigated Donald Trump, a new book reveals.

Miller trampled the independence of the FBI by demanding firings that would satisfy the US president’s desire for retribution, journalists Carol Leonnig and Aaron Davis write in Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America’s Justice Department.

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