Category Archives: US News

Cubans study oil tanker diplomacy for signs of progress in secret talks with US

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Despite hostile rhetoric Trump let a Russian ship break his blockade – could it herald a Venezuela-style outcome?

When a sanctioned Russian oil tanker, the Anatoly Kolodkin, docked at Cuba’s Matanzas oil terminal on Tuesday, unloading 700,000 barrels of crude, it was not immediately clear why the ship had been allowed to pass through Donald Trump’s oil blockade.

In January, the US president had proclaimed on social media: “THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO!” yet last week he told reporters, “If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem with it” – and waved the Russian ship through.

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Forget euphemism, Trump is using unabashed viciousness in his language against Iran

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The Trump administration takes pleasure in deploying dysphemism to describe the killing of Iranians

On 23 March, Donald Trump said that if things didn’t go to his liking in Iran, “we just keep bombing our little hearts out”. A week later the US president told journalists on Air Force One: “You never know with Iran because we negotiate with them and then we always have to blow them up.”

On 4 March, Pete Hegseth squirmed in pleasure as he described “death and destruction from the sky all day long”. Whatever happened to the subtle art of political euphemism?

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Harvard faculty to vote on proposal to limit number of A grades in each course

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Effort to curb grade inflation, by limiting top marks to 20% of students in a course, is opposed by most students

Harvard’s faculty is set to vote next week on a faculty committee proposal to cap the number of A grades per course in an effort to curb grade inflation.

The proposal, which was first reported earlier this year by the Harvard Crimson, Harvard’s student newspaper, would cap A grades to 20% of students in a course, with an allowance for four additional As. It also would introduce a new internal “average percentile rank” system, which would rely on raw scores rather than grade point average (GPA) to determine honors and awards.

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EPA moves to designate microplastics and pharmaceuticals as contaminants in drinking water

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Proposal, a win for RFK Jr’s Maha movement, is a ‘first step’ toward tackling plastic pollution, advocates say

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed on Thursday to include microplastics and pharmaceuticals on a list of contaminants in drinking water for the first time, a step that could lead to new limits on those substances for water utilities.

Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator, said the agency was responding to Americans who have worried about plastics and pharmaceuticals in their drinking water. The gesture also aims to hand a win to health secretary Robert FKennedy Jr’s Maha movement, which for months has pressured Zeldin to further crack down on environmental contaminants.

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Artemis II astronauts share image of Earth as they pass halfway to the moon

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Moon-bound astronauts said a view of the entire Earth, complete with northern lights, was ‘the most spectacular moment’

The four Artemis astronauts have passed the halfway point between Earth and the moon on the way to their planned lunar flyby, Nasa said on Friday evening.

“We’re halfway there,” Nasa posted on social media.

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Trump claims Starmer is weak as he mocks PM and UK aircraft carriers

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Footage shows US president saying UK ‘should be our best’ ally and accusing PM of prevarication over sending ships

Footage has emerged of Donald Trump mocking Keir Starmer by claiming the prime minister said he would have to consult his team before deciding whether to send UK aircraft carriers to the Middle East.

In a new low for UK-US relations, Trump appeared to impersonate Starmer during an Easter lunch speech at the White House.

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Canadian woman held with daughter by ICE is released after nearly three weeks of detention

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Tania Warner is fitted with ankle monitor and released along with seven-year-old daughter Ayla Luca after being deemed not a flight risk

A Canadian woman and her seven-year-old daughter, who were held for nearly three weeks in a notorious detention center by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), were released on Thursday evening after posting a bond of $9,500.

Tania Warner and her daughter Ayla Luca, originally from British Columbia, are both Canadian citizens. Warner moved to the US in 2021 when she married Edward Warner, a US citizen. “Very happy to have my family home … it’s been a whirlwind day,” said Edward Warner.

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Firm backed by Trump sons tries to sell drone interceptors to Gulf states being attacked by Iran

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Drone-maker backed by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr tries to win contracts with Gulf countries protected by US

A drone-maker backed by Donald Trump’s two oldest sons is trying to sell to Gulf countries while they are under attack by Iran and dependent on the US military led by their father.

The sales drive by Florida-based Powerus – which announced a deal last month to bring aboard Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr – positions the company to potentially benefit from a war that their father began.

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Pete Hegseth allows troops to carry personal firearms on military bases

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Defense secretary signs memo letting members request permission to carry firearms on military installations

Defense secretary Pete Hegseth signed a memo on Thursday that would allow military service members to request permission to carry their personal firearms on military installations such as bases, naval yards and recruitment centers, claiming the new policy will allow soldiers and other military personnel to defend themselves in case of an attack.

While the full text of the memo has yet to be made public, it appears to loosen the current policy that allows for personnel to get permission to have their weapons on base on a case-by-case basis, and requires that they are registered with the base’s authorities and stored in a secure device.

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Top US army officer steps down after Hegseth reportedly demanded removal

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Pentagon announces Randy George retiring from role as US army chief of staff, ‘effective immediately’

Randy George, the US army’s top officer, is stepping down from his role after the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, reportedly requested that he retire immediately. The Pentagon confirmed on Thursday that George, who had been serving as the army’s 41st chief of staff, was retiring.

“General Randy A George will be retiring from his position as the 41st Chief of Staff of the Army effective immediately. The Department of War is grateful for General George’s decades of service to our nation. We wish him well in his retirement,” Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement shared on social media.

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President of Wisconsin’s largest mosque detained by US immigration agents

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Attorneys for Salah Sarsour, a Palestinian-born US green card holder, say he was targeted for criticizing Israel

The president of Wisconsin’s largest mosque was detained by federal immigration agents, drawing accusations from local officials and religious leaders that the arrest was motivated by his statements against Israel.

Salah Sarsour, a Palestinian-born legal permanent resident of the United States, was taken into custody by nearly a dozen US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Monday in Milwaukee after he left his home, according to the Islamic Society of Milwaukee.

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Trump warns Tehran ‘more to follow’ after strike destroys Iran’s largest bridge

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Eight people reported killed in attack on newly completed suspension bridge after strike splits structure in half

Donald Trump claimed responsibility for destroying Iran’s largest bridge, a day after he threatened to bomb the country “back to the stone ages” if a deal to end the five-week-long war he started was not reached.

The US president shared footage of part of the newly built 136 metre-high $400m B1 suspension bridge between Tehran and Karaj collapsing dramatically on to the causeway below amid a rising plume of black smoke.

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Uganda receives first US deportation flight under third-country agreement

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Dozen people arrive under new deal but legal challenges expected with scheme criticised as ‘dehumanising process’

A flight carrying people being deported from the US has landed in Uganda, as Donald Trump’s administration pushes on with its strategy of expelling migrants to countries they have no ties to.

The deported people would stay in the east African country as “a transition phase for potential onward transmission to other countries”, an unnamed senior Ugandan government official told Reuters.

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Arizona woman who went missing ‘without a trace’ 32 years ago found alive

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Christina Marie Plante was reported missing in May of 1994 from Star Valley when she was just 13 years old

A woman in Arizona who went missing 32 years ago, when she was just 13 years old, has been found alive, authorities said this week.

Christina Marie Plante was reported missing in May of 1994 from Star Valley, Arizona, after she “vanished without a trace from her community”, according to a statement released Wednesday by the Gila county sheriff’s office.

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‘Not up to standard’: Macron criticises Trump after comments about his marriage

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Anger in France after US president puts on French accent and mocks Macron during private lunch in Washington

Emmanuel Macron has said Donald Trump’s comments about his marriage were “neither elegant nor up to standard” after the US president put on an accent and mocked his French counterpart and his wife during a private lunch in Washington.

Arriving in South Korea on Thursday, Macron made clear his displeasure at Trump’s comments, which appeared briefly in a video on the White House YouTube channel before being removed.

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‘From high flyer to dead parrot’: former billion-dollar eco-shoe brand Allbirds sold for $39m

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Once-hyped, celebrity-backed company snapped up by American Exchange Group for fraction of former value

Allbirds, the San Francisco sustainable trainer brand once valued at more than $4bn, is being sold for just $39m (£29.6m) after global demand for its wool-based footwear failed to materialise.

American Exchange Group, the owner of a string of brands including the fashion label Ed Hardy and the accessories maker Born, is snapping up the struggling company once touted as the future of footwear.

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US lifts sanctions on Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodríguez

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US moves towards reestablishing working relations between two countries after abducting President Nicolás Maduro

The US has lifted sanctions on Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, in the latest step towards normalising relations between the two countries after US forces abducted her predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife.

The couple were taken to New York after their abduction in January to face charges of alleged drug trafficking, to which both have pleaded not guilty.

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First Thing: Trump claims Iran war is ‘nearing completion’ in address to nation

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Democrats criticize speech as doing little to answer Americans’ ‘most basic questions’. Plus, how rap lyrics were used to help sentence a man to death

Good morning.

Donald Trump declared the month-long US-Israeli war against Iran a success “nearing completion” in his prime time address to the nation on Wednesday evening – despite the conflict wreaking global economic chaos, damaging transatlantic alliances and hitting his approval ratings.

What is the significance of Trump’s comments on HEU? The apparent decision to leave it appears to conflict with his assertions that a key war aim was to ensure Iran could never make a nuclear bomb.

Follow our liveblog for the latest updates.

What has Houston said about the rocket’s deployment? Flight controllers confirmed that all four solar arrays, which will provide the spacecraft with continuous electrical power throughout its lunar journey, were deployed successfully.

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‘If he’d stayed on the golf course, we’d be in a better place’: experts on Trump’s tariffs, one year on

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Last April, the president unleashed a tidal wave of tariffs on ‘liberation day’. Analysts say the policy has failed, even by the Trump administration’s own terms

Before Donald Trump declared “liberation day” on 2 April 2025 and shocked the world by raising import tariffs on nearly every country the US did business with, he had spent almost three months causing chaos in Washington.

The wholesale slashing of government jobs under Doge (the “department of government efficiency”) and the defunding of US aid agencies had shown White House watchers that the US president was in a hurry to upset institutions he considered profligate or useless.

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Trump polled advisers about replacing Tulsi Gabbard as intelligence chief

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Exclusive: Pressure intensifies for Gabbard after president’s displeasure with Iran war testimony

Donald Trump has privately asked cabinet officials in recent weeks whether he should replace his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, venting frustration that she shielded a former deputy who undercut his rationale for war with Iran, according to two people briefed on the discussions.

It is not clear that Trump will actually fire Gabbard over the episode. Currently, there is no standout candidate to take the job, and advisers have cautioned that creating a high-profile vacancy before a successor is ready could cause unhelpful political distractions.

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