Category Archives: US News

Major highway in California to shut down as US marines fire live artillery over it

Posted on by

Highway patrol announces last-minute, multihour closure due to military celebration including 155-mm artillery shells

A celebration marking the US marines’ 250th anniversary will shut down a major freeway artery through southern California on Saturday as the military plans to fire live 155mm artillery shells over the site.

The California highway patrol announced the closure at 6am Saturday, saying it would shut down an approximately 17-mile (27km) stretch of Interstate 5 for four hours near Camp Pendleton, a 125,000-acre (50,585-hectare) base in Oceanside in north-western San Diego county. The closure will remain in effect from 11am to 3pm.

Continue reading...

Vermont Republican lawmaker resigns over racist and antisemitic group chat

Posted on by

State senator Samuel Douglass, 26, and wife, Brianna, both made comments in Young Republicans Telegram group

A Vermont state lawmaker has resigned over racist and antisemitic chat messages that circulated within the Young Republican political group, another substantial consequence in a scandal that on Friday saw the New York state Young Republicans’ charter revoked.

State senator Samuel Douglass, the only elected official known to have taken part in the leaked group chat exposed by Politico, resigned Friday over his participation.

Continue reading...

Millions expected across all 50 US states to march in No Kings protests against Trump

Posted on by

Events scheduled in more than 2,700 locations, from small towns to large cities, aligning behind message that the US is sliding into authoritarianism

Americans across all 50 states will march in protests against the Trump administration on Saturday, aligning behind a message that the country is sliding into authoritarianism and there should be no kings in the US.

Millions are expected to turn out for the No Kings protests, the second iteration of a coalition that marched in June in one of the largest days of protest in US history. Events are scheduled for more than 2,700 locations, from small towns to large cities.

Continue reading...

US podcaster who helped convict ‘Queen of the Con’ disappointed at short sentence

Posted on by

Johnathan Walton, who was a victim of Marianne ‘Mair’ Smyth, had helped UK authorities track her down

A US podcaster and author who helped UK authorities convict a woman derisively known as the “Queen of the Con” of defrauding a group of Northern Irish mortgage advice customers has expressed disappointment in her being sentenced on Friday to only four years in prison.

“She scams or tries to scam everyone she meets, and she will never change,” Johnathan Walton said in a statement after Marianne “Mair” Smyth’s sentencing closed the books on a transatlantic case against her.

Continue reading...

Trump says he has commuted sentence of George Santos in federal fraud case

Posted on by

Former Republican US representative walks free after being sentenced in April to more than seven years in prison for deceiving donors and stealing identities of 11 people

Donald Trump announced on Friday he had commuted the sentence of George Santos, the disgraced former New York representative and serial fabulist who had been sentenced to more than seven years in prison after a short-lived political career marked by outlandish fabrications and fraudulent scheming.

Santos left the Federal Correctional Institution Fairton in New Jersey just hours later and was “on his way home”, his attorney Joseph Murray told Agence France-Presse by phone late on Friday.

Continue reading...

At least 15 detained after protesters and police clash outside Chicago Ice center

Posted on by

Officers reportedly tackled and dragged several people after authorities told demonstrators to stay in ‘protest zones’

At least 15 people were taken into custody outside the Broadview Ice detention center in the Chicago area after heated confrontations between Illinois state police and protesters on Friday.

Authorities had instructed demonstrators to remain in designated “protest zones”, but tensions escalated when officers moved to clear the roadway.

Continue reading...

Trump officials ask supreme court to permit national guard in Illinois

Posted on by

Justice department submits emergency filing as Trump pushes to expand use of military in Democratic-led cities

The Trump administration on Friday asked the US supreme court to permit the deployment of national guard troops to Illinois, as the president pushes to expand the domestic use of the military in a growing number of Democratic-led cities.

In an emergency filing, the justice department urged the court to overturn a lower court ruling that halted the deployment of several hundred national guard troops to the Chicago area. The district judge had raised doubts about the administration’s justification for sending troops, questioning its explanation in light of local conditions.

Continue reading...

Trump claims Maduro willing to give ‘everything’ to ease US tensions

Posted on by

President says Venezuelan counterpart ‘doesn’t want to fuck around with the United States’

Donald Trump used an expletive to threaten the Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro, on Friday, claiming that the leftist autocrat had offered major concessions to appease the US.

The US president was speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday during a meeting with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Continue reading...

US has seized survivors of attack on alleged narco-sub in Caribbean

Posted on by

In the six attacks on similar vessels launched by Trump, this is the first where any survivors have been reported

The US has seized survivors of a military strike on a suspected drug-carrying vessel in the Caribbean, the first since Donald Trump began launching deadly attacks in the region last month, according to officials in Washington.

Trump later confirmed the attack, telling reporters that the targeted vessel was a narco-submarine.

Continue reading...

Apple swoops on exclusive F1 US TV rights amid expansion into sports

Posted on by

Deal reportedly closed for $140m a year, on the heels of worldwide success of Apple-produced Brad Pitt film F1

Apple has landed US broadcast rights to Formula One in a five-year deal that would help the tech giant bolster its streaming service with one of the country’s fastest-growing sports, following the success of its Brad Pitt-starrer F1: The Movie.

The two sides did not disclose the financial details of the deal on Friday. CNBC reported it was for $140m a year, much higher than the $90m the Walt Disney-owned ESPN was paying each season for F1, which it has broadcast since 2018.

Continue reading...

Trump to pay Ice and border agents amid shutdown as other federal workers go unpaid

Posted on by

Administration reportedly promises ‘supercheck’ covering shutdown pay for law enforcement officers across DHS

The Trump administration has promised tens of thousands of federal agents carrying out his immigration crackdown that they will be paid during the government shutdown, according to emails seen by Reuters, even as other federal workers go without pay.

The pay plan was communicated to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) staff on Wednesday in separate internal emails seen by Reuters.

Continue reading...

Ex-Trump adviser John Bolton surrenders after indictment

Posted on by

Trump critic also expected to appear in court to face charges that he mishandled classified information

John Bolton, the former national security adviser to Donald Trump who has since become one of the US president’s biggest Republican critics, surrendered to authorities on Friday to face criminal charges that he mishandled classified information. He was expected to make an initial appearance in court later in the day.

The justice department filed federal charges against Bolton in federal court in Maryland on Thursday, accusing him of transmitting and retaining highly classified information under the Espionage Act.

Continue reading...

Bank shares lead global market fall amid jitters over US private credit

Posted on by

Signs of credit stress send markets in Europe and Asia down, while investors turn to safe haven assets

European stock markets fell on Friday and gold hit a record high after two US regional banks said they had been exposed to millions of dollars of bad loans and alleged fraud.

Signs of credit stress rattled markets across Europe and Asia. In London the FTSE 100 fell 0.9%, Germany’s Dax fell 1.8%, Italy’s FTSE Mib fell 1.5%, the Ibex in Spain was off 0.3% and France’s Cac 40 dropped 0.2%.

Continue reading...

US anti-vax stance to blame for continent-wide surge in measles, say experts

Posted on by

The disease was eliminated across the Americas in 2024, but urgent vaccination drives are now under way as cases rise from Mexico to Bolivia after outbreaks farther north

Governments across Latin America are stepping up efforts to vaccinate their populations against measles, as outbreaks in North America drive a 34-fold increase in the number of cases reported in the region this year.

Measles cases have surged worldwide to a 25-year high, due to low vaccine coverage and the spread of misinformation about vaccine safety. However, there is added concern in parts of Latin America over unequal access to healthcare and the worrying situation in the US, which is facing its worst measles outbreak in decades following a reversal of vaccine policy led by Donald Trump’s health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.

Continue reading...

Survivors reported after latest US attack on alleged drug boat in Caribbean

Posted on by

It is unknown whether US military rendered aid to survivors after attack on suspected ‘narcoterrorist’ vessel

The US military carried out a new strike on Thursday against a suspected drug vessel in the Caribbean, and in what is believed to be the first such case, there were survivors among the crew, a US official told Reuters.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not offer additional details about the incident, which has not been previously reported. But it raises new questions, including whether the US military rendered aid to the survivors and whether they are now in US military custody.

Continue reading...

Indiana University orders school paper to cease print edition and fires director of student media

Posted on by

Editors at the Indiana Daily Student say administration’s move to control news content amounts to censorship

Indiana University has ordered its student-run newspaper, the Indiana Daily Student (IDS), to cease printing new editions and fired the school’s director of student media, who also served as the paper’s adviser, according to multiple reports. Students at the school are criticizing these moves as censorship.

The university’s directive to halt print editions came just hours after Jim Rodenbush, the school’s director of student media, was terminated, according to a letter from IDS editors.

Continue reading...

Ex-Trump adviser John Bolton indicted on charges of mishandling classified information

Posted on by

Eighteen-count indictment handed down by federal grand jury in Maryland as US president calls former ally a ‘bad guy’

The justice department filed federal charges against John Bolton, the former national security adviser to Donald Trump who turned into one of his biggest critics, accusing him of transmitting and retaining highly classified information under the Espionage Act.

The 18-count indictment was handed up by a grand jury in federal district court in Maryland on Thursday. Bolton has been charged with sending diary entries to two unnamed individuals about his day-to-day activities when he was national security adviser, many of which contained highly classified information.

Continue reading...

Trump moves to push employers on IVF coverage and lower fertility drug costs

Posted on by

President says plans will lead to ‘many more beautiful American children’ but unclear if companies will sign up

The Trump administration announced on Thursday that it is urging US employers to create new fertility benefit options to cover in vitro fertilization (IVF) and other infertility treatments.

In an announcement from the Oval Office, Donald Trump also said his administration had cut a deal with the drug manufacturer EMD Serono to lower the cost of one of its fertility drugs and list the drug on the government website TrumpRx.

Continue reading...

Warner Bros Discovery says Israeli film boycott ‘violates our policies’

Posted on by

In response to pledge, company has claimed in a statement that its policies ‘prohibit discrimination of any kind’

Warner Bros Discovery has rebuked a pledge signed by more than 4,000 film industry figures to not work with Israeli film institutions “implicated in the genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people”, saying that such a pledge would likely violate its internal policies.

In a statement to Variety, a spokesperson said the company “is committed to fostering an inclusive and respectful environment for its employees, collaborators, and other stakeholders”.

Continue reading...

Zelenskyy to make missiles case in US as Trump plans to meet Putin in Budapest

Posted on by

US president has repeatedly hinted at supplying Kyiv with Tomahawks but some in Moscow say Kremlin sees it as negotiating gambit

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is to head to the White House on Friday for a crucial meeting with Donald Trump, hours after the US president said he planned to soon meet with Vladimir Putin in Budapest after a “very productive” call.

The possible supply of US Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine is expected to top the agenda during the Ukrainian president’s visit. Trump has repeatedly hinted in recent weeks that he may deliver Tomahawks, which would give Kyiv its longest-range weapon yet that would be capable of striking Moscow with accurate, destructive munitions.

Continue reading...