Category Archives: US News

Bill Cassidy accuses Trump of treating Congress as ‘merely an appendage’

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Out-going Louisiana senator’s rebuke over Iran war is rare instance of a Republican politician standing up to Trump

Bill Cassidy, the Republican senator from Louisiana who is being ousted from his position after Donald Trump successfully backed a challenger in May’s primary, has accused the US president of treating Congress as “merely an appendage” in his handling of the Iran war.

In an interview on Sunday with CBS News’s Face the Nation, the out-going Cassidy explained his recent face-to-face row with Trump over the president’s failure to brief Congress on the prosecution of the hostilities with Tehran. In a fleetingly rare instance of a Republican politician directly standing up to Trump, Cassidy let rip at a Capitol Hill lunch over the senator’s support for a war powers resolution that was a symbolic rebuke to the White House.

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Biden calls Trump ‘a loser’, portraying him as incompetent, corrupt and vain

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Pugnacious speech invokes Trump’s ‘vanity projects’ to makeover Washington and the ‘brazen, blatant corruption’

Joe Biden called Donald Trump “a loser” in a pugnacious speech on Saturday that invoked his presidential successor’s attempted makeover of Washington DC to portray him as incompetent, corrupt and vain.

He delivered those remarks while giving the keynote address at a gala in Hanover, Maryland, hosted by the state’s Democratic party, which is hoping to help wrest control of Congress away from Trump and his Republican allies during November’s midterm elections.

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Escalating US-Iran strikes threaten interim peace agreement

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Tehran attacks Bahrain and Kuwait amid efforts to open strait of Hormuz without Iran’s direct oversight

A new round of escalating strikes between Iran and the US has continued, further undermining the fragile interim peace agreement between the two countries, and prompting Donald Trump to threaten violence that would ensure Iran “will no longer exist”.

On Sunday, Tehran launched drone and missile attacks against Bahrain and Kuwait after new US strikes on sites in southern Iran, and threatened a “complete halt” to negotiations to end the war. Trump said that a moment might come soon when he abandoned talks and the US would “militarily finish the job”.

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Good-faith lawsuit? LDS church in fight with podcaster over Mormon name

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Church sues excommunicated member over Mormon Stories podcast but John Dehlin says name free for all to use

Trademark changes and copyright infringement disputes take many forms. Dunkin’ Donuts changed its name to Dunkin’ because Donuts did not suggest the vigorous, on-the-go attitude the coffee company wants to project.

But what happens when a church changes its name, but former adherents continue to use the original term in ways it may not like?

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Anti-ICE organizers shift focus to defend democracy from Trump assault

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Citizens in Minnesota using lessons learned from migrant crackdown to protect elections from president’s threats

When thousands of immigration agents flooded Minnesota earlier this year, a loose network of neighbors sprang into action. They fed each other. They got kids to and from school safely. They tracked the surge that tore through their communities.

After organizing, block by block, to monitor Donald Trump’s extraordinary crackdown on their state, the same neighbors are shifting their focus to a different threat. What if the US president tries to steal an election?

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Venezuelan earthquakes test Trump’s new western hemisphere policy after gutting of USAID

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Marco Rubio is scrambling to provide effective disaster response to country whose president US deposed in January

This week’s dual earthquakes in Venezuela are a test for the new era of American power in the western hemisphere, as the Trump administration scrambles to provide an effective disaster response mission to a country that it now calls an ally in Latin America, after a US special forces raid in January deposed the country’s strongman leader, Nicolás Maduro.

The US is marshalling what secretary of state Marco Rubio called a “big, fast, effective” and “whole-of-government” response as the state department sent three specialised urban search and rescue teams and pledged a $150m assistance fund that one former disaster relief expert called the largest he had seen within 24 hours of an incident.

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Shadow war: how use of proxy forces by Iran, Israel and US is driving Middle East instability

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Across region there is a push to disarm militia and reinforce state authority but the temptation to use proxies remains

As Marco Rubio ended his brief visit to the Middle East on Friday, he sought to cast in the best possible light his discussions with leaders of the Gulf states. Those leaders are deeply anxious that the deal agreed earlier this month between Iran and the US fails to address their worries about continued Iranian efforts to project power and influence throughout the region.

“They’ve shared with us some very concrete concerns,” the US secretary of state admitted, and insisted that any definitive agreement will require Tehran to not only restrict its nuclear programme but also halt its support of Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, militia in Iraq and the Houthis in Yemen.

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Four people have died from flash floods in Kentucky, governor says

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Floods caused by thunderstorms that have dumped inches of rain on Kentucky and Indiana, with more possible

Andy Beshear, the Kentucky governor, says four people have died as a result of flash floods from thunderstorms that have brought as much as 7in (18cm) of rain to the state.

Beshear confirmed the four deaths in a social media post, noting three people were from Madison county and one was from Jackson county. “Please join Britainy and me as we pray for their families during this difficult time,” Beshear said.

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Trump says he will nominate Lance Schroyer as next ICE director

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Schroyer, whom Trump calls ‘a patriot’, led deportation campaign in Oklahoma under ICE-partnered program

Donald ​Trump said on ⁠Saturday ⁠that ​he ‌will ‌nominate ‌Lance Schroyer as ‌the next director of US ​Immigration ⁠and ​Customs ​Enforcement (ICE), succeeding David Venturella, who had been performing the duties of the director.

Trump said in a Truth Social post that Schroyer “has over 29 YEARS of Law Enforcement experience in Oklahoma — A State where I WON all 77 Counties in 2016, 2020, and 2024! Lance is a former Oklahoma State Trooper, and United States Marine”.

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White House unveils new images of US ‘patriot passports’ for America’s 250th

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Democrats called plans for commemorative passport and gold coin with Trump portrait ‘more befitting a monarchy’

Donald Trump’s efforts to brand the US government with his name and image advanced on Friday when the White House unveiled new images of a passport watermarked with his portrait to mark America’s 250th anniversary.

The White House called it simply the “patriot passport”, while on Truth Social the president introduced it as “The U.S.A.’s New Passport, which says, ‘Welcome, but be good!’”

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Bahrain condemns Iranian tit-for-tat drone attack as ‘flagrant threat’

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No immediate reports of damage after Bahrain hit by ‘number of drones’ as ship in strait of Hormuz also targeted

Bahrain has said it was attacked by Iran with drones on Saturday, apparently in response to overnight US strikes on Iran. A ship in the strait of Hormuz was also attacked.

Bahrain’s foreign ministry said a “number of drones” were launched at the country, though there were no immediate reports of damage. It condemned the attack and described it as a “flagrant threat to the security of citizens and residents”.

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JD Vance claims US holds all the cards in Iran and will win ‘either way’

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Vice-president appeared on Bill Maher’s show hours before more military strikes were exchanged in strait of Hormuz

JD Vance said on Friday that the US wins “either way” regarding negotiations with Iran, pointing to what he called the destruction of its nuclear program and diminishment as a country.

“If we make the final deal, then great,” the US vice-president told HBO’s Bill Maher. “If we don’t make the final deal, their nuclear program is still destroyed. They’re still much weaker as a country, so my attitude is America wins either way.”

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‘It’s become a litmus test’: wins for Israel critics shine light on key issue for Democrats

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Candidates who believe Israel has committed genocide won big in New York – will it push the party to move their way?

Regardless of which party wins control of Congress in November, New York City voters have all but ensured that next year a vocal bloc of new House Democrats will arrive on Capitol Hill, elected, in large part, because they believe Israel has committed a genocide in Gaza.

That is an upshot of the primary elections held Tuesday in New York, where voters ousted two incumbent House Democrats and replaced a third who is retiring with progressives championed by Zohran Mamdani.

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Trump threatens 100% tariff on European countries that impose digital tax

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US president says levy would be imposed immediately and supersede pre-existing trade deals with the country

Donald Trump has threatened to place a 100% import tariff on any European country that imposes a tax on digital services from US companies.

Writing on Truth Social on Friday, the US president said that “numerous European countries” had been discussing putting a digital services tax on American companies and that “some of these countries are close to actually doing this”.

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Nigel Farage’s anti-WHO campaign moves to US with allies added to board

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Relocation of Action on World Health raises questions over why Reform UK leader is involved in a US pressure group

Nigel Farage’s campaign against the World Health Organization (WHO) is moving to the US with a new board of lobbyists, raising questions over why the Reform UK leader is involved in an American pressure group.

The Action on World Health campaign, co-founded by Farage, is relocating to the US state of Delaware as a charitable foundation and grassroots non-profit.

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Gracie the giraffe who wandered off in Texas found safe – for real this time

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Animal who went missing from private ranch for nearly two weeks had been falsely reported as found earlier in the week

The search for a giraffe who absconded from a private game ranch in rural Texas and effectively went missing for nearly two weeks was found safe on Friday just a few miles away from the homestead, according to authorities.

An aerial search ultimately pinpointed the whereabouts of Gracie “the w[a]ndering giraffe”, said Nathan Johnson, the Real county sheriff, in a Facebook post announcing the success of efforts to find the creature.

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Polygamous sect leader guilty of abuse after girls found in trailer on highway

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Self-proclaimed prophet Samuel Bateman already serving 50-year prison sentence over child sexual abuse

A polygamous sect leader already serving a 50-year federal prison sentence for orchestrating sex involving children was convicted Friday on state child abuse charges after girls were found in an unventilated trailer he was hauling through Arizona.

Someone alerted authorities about the trailer in 2022 after seeing small fingers reaching through gaps in the doors. Police stopped Samuel Bateman’s vehicle as he was driving through Flagstaff and found three girls inside, who were ages 11 to 14 at the time. The trailer was enclosed with a makeshift toilet, a sofa and camping chairs.

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Utah under historic ‘red flag’ weather warning amid dangerous wildfires

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Governor also announced state of emergency and banned personal fireworks in state until after Fourth of July

Salt Lake City’s National Weather Service declared a “particularly dangerous situation red flag warning”, the first in the service’s history, according to a social media post.

“THIS IS EXTREMELY RARE … Wind gusts of 40-50+ mph, combined with hot temperatures and extremely dry air, could cause explosive wildfire growth. Any new fire that starts could spread rapidly and become difficult to control,” said Chase Thomason, a meteorologist for KUTV, Utah’s CBS affiliate.

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US says it struck Iran targets after attack on cargo ship in the strait of Hormuz

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Strikes against military facilities were in response to drone attack a day earlier on a cargo vessel

The US has struck Iran in a tit-for-tat response to a drone strike on a cargo ship, as the ceasefire between the US and Iran that reopened the strait of Hormuz undergoes its greatest test yet.

The US strikes targeted multiple missile and drone facilities in Iran near the strait of Hormuz and on Qeshm Island on Friday in what appeared to be a limited strike meant to respond to Iran’s attack on a Singapore-flagged cargo ship without escalating the conflict.

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Gavin Newsom urges a national ‘billionaires’ tax’ while fighting one in California

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California governor calls for national tax on super-wealthy and suggests the US should own a stake in AI companies

California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, called for a national “billionaires tax” on Friday as he fights a ballot measure targeting the ultra-wealthy in his home state.

Newsom, who is expected to run for president in 2028, published his proposal the day after California officials certified a ballot proposal to levy a one-time 5% tax on residents worth more than $1bn. The proposal, called the California Billionaire Tax Act, was brought by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) and would fund the state’s healthcare, education and food assistance programs.

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