Category Archives: US News

Former baseball player dies saving family from drowning in South Carolina

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Chase Childers, 38, ‘displayed extraordinary courage’ in saving swimmers in distress, family says

A family in Dallas, Georgia, is grieving after their patriarch – a former pro baseball player turned police officer – died saving five others from drowning while they all recently vacationed, as authorities and an online page in his honor tell it.

Chase Childers, 38, “displayed extraordinary courage and selflessness … ultimately paying the highest sacrifice with his life” in front of his wife Nataley and their three children, said a GoFundMe page launched to support his family. “His bravery, kindness and love will always be remembered.”

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Scott Morrison to testify before US House panel on China

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Former Australian prime minister to appear at hearing about countering China’s ‘economic coercion against democracies’, select committee says

The former Australian prime minister Scott Morrison will testify at a US House panel hearing next week about countering China’s “economic coercion against democracies,” the committee said on Friday.

Rahm Emanuel, the former US ambassador to Japan, will also testify before the House select committee on China.

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US justice department asks to unseal grand jury transcripts in Epstein case

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Move seeks to contain controversy that has engulfed Trump administration since it announced it would not release more files from sex trafficking case

The US Department of Justice asked a federal court on Friday to unseal grand jury transcripts in Jeffrey Epstein’s case at the direction of Donald Trump amid a firestorm over the administration’s handling of records related to the wealthy financier.

The move – coming a day after a Wall Street Journal story put a spotlight on Trump’s relationship with Epstein – seeks to contain a growing controversy that has engulfed the administration since it announced that it would not be releasing more government files from Epstein’s sex trafficking case.

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Lawyer argues Call of Duty maker can’t be held responsible for actions of Texas school shooter

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Families of victims sued Activision and Meta, saying the companies bear responsibility for products used by gunman

A lawyer for the maker of the video game Call of Duty argued Friday that a judge should dismiss a lawsuit brought by families of the victims of the Robb elementary school attack in Uvalde, Texas, saying the contents of the war game are protected by the first amendment.

The families sued Call of Duty maker Activision and Meta Platforms, which owns Instagram, saying that the companies bear responsibility for products used by the teenage gunman.

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Trump sues Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch over Epstein report

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President follows through on libel threat over report that said he sent Epstein ‘bawdy’ birthday note and sketch

Donald Trump has sued Rupert Murdoch and two Wall Street Journal newspaper reporters for libel and slander over claims that he sent the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein a lewd letter and sketch of a naked woman.

Trump’s lawsuit on Friday, which also targets Dow Jones and News Corp, was filed in the southern district of Florida federal court in Miami.

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Pete Hegseth replaces first woman to lead US naval academy with Marine Corps general

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Yvette Davids, who took the role in January 2004, will be succeeded by Michael Borgschulte

The first woman to lead the US naval academy is being reassigned, with the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, moving to replace her with a Marine Corps general, defense officials confirmed on Friday.

The decision marks the first time in the nearly 180-year history of the academy that a Marine Corps officer has been nominated to take charge.

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Caracas releases 10 Americans as Venezuelans freed from El Salvador jail

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Scores of Venezuelans deported by US to El Salvador repatriated as Marco Rubio hails return of Americans

Venezuela released 10 jailed Americans on Friday in exchange for getting home scores of migrants deported by the United States to El Salvador months ago under the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

The resolution represents a diplomatic achievement for the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, helps Donald Trump in his goal of bringing home Americans jailed abroad and lands El Salvador a swap that it had proposed months ago.

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Trump administration to destroy nearly $10m of contraceptives for women overseas

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As part of president’s end to foreign aid, destruction of the long-acting contraceptives will cost US taxpayers $167,000

The Trump administration has decided to destroy $9.7m worth of contraceptives rather than send them abroad to women in need.

A state department spokesperson confirmed that the decision had been made – a move that will cost US taxpayers $167,000. The contraceptives are primarily long-acting, such as IUDs and birth control implants, and were almost certainly intended for women in Africa, according to two senior congressional aides, one of whom visited a warehouse in Belgium that housed the contraceptives. It is not clear to the aides whether the destruction has already been carried out, but said they had been told that it was set to occur by the end of July.

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Netflix uses generative AI in one of its shows for first time

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Firm says technology used in El Eternauta is chance ‘to help creators make films and series better, not just cheaper’

Netflix has used artificial intelligence in one of its TV shows for the first time, in a move the streaming company’s boss said will make films and programmes cheaper and of better quality.

Ted Sarandos, a co-chief executive of Netflix, said the Argentinian science fiction series El Eternauta (The Eternaut) is the first it has made that involved using generative AI footage.

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First tickets to Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey sell out – a year before its 2026 release

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The blockbuster adaptation of Homer’s epic has not finished filming and has no official runtime. But super fans – and scalpers – already have seats

The first tickets to Christopher Nolan’s take on Homer’s Odyssey have gone on sale – before he’s even finished filming it and a year before the film is even out, in what is likely the longest pre-sale in cinematic history.

The Odyssey, which stars Matt Damon as the cunning Odysseus as he fights his way home after the end of the Trojan war, will be released on 17 July 2026. But on Thursday, Imax released tickets to the first screenings at the 26 Imax cinemas around the world that have the staff and equipment required to project in 1570 format.

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US House passes Trump plan to cut $9bn from foreign aid, public broadcasting

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Along with Democrats, only two House Republicans voted against the cut

The US’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed president Donald Trump’s $9bn funding cut to public media and foreign aid early on Friday, sending it to the White House to be signed into law.

The chamber voted 216 to 213 in favor of the funding cut package, altered by the Senate this week to exclude cuts of about $400m in funds for the global PEPFAR HIV/Aids prevention program.

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Tens of thousands in US set to join ‘Good Trouble’ protests honoring John Lewis

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Rallies at more than 1,500 sites nationwide planned for Thursday to protest against Trump administration

Tens of thousands of people are expected to march and rally at more than 1,500 sites across all 50 US states on Thursday to protest against the Trump administration and honor the legacy of the late congressman John Lewis, an advocate for voting rights and civil disobedience.

The “Good Trouble Lives On” day of action coincides with the fifth anniversary of Lewis’s death. Lewis was a longtime congressman from Georgia who participated in iconic civil rights actions, including the march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965 when police attacked Lewis and other protesters on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

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Will Mike Waltz lead a ‘full-frontal assault’ on the UN?

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Some fear Donald Trump’s nominee for UN ambassador will damage global development in a bid to rehabilitate his image after the Signal chat scandal

When and if Donald Trump’s nominee for ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, takes up the post, many are concerned that in his pursuit of the rehabilitation of his image, global development will not be a priority.

Diplomats work for decades to be considered for the coveted position of ambassador, but in this case the role is a consolation prize for the 51-year-old former army colonel from Florida, says Richard Gowan, UN director of International Crisis Group. Gowan believes Waltz will be “very performative” as he attempts to rebuild his political brand after the scandal of reportedly adding a journalist to a Signal chat that contained sensitive information on planned military strikes in Yemen.

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First Thing: Trump calls Epstein rumors a ‘radical left’ hoax and condemns Maga ‘weaklings’

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President battles rare backlash from supporters, many of whom say he is hiding vital information. Plus, a climate expert calls for AI and crypto tax

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Good morning.

Donald Trump has turned on his Maga base, blasting his supporters as gullible “weaklings” for believing the government is holding out on crucial information about the disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

What are his supporters upset about? A key sticking point has been the government’s announcement that Epstein did not keep records of a “client list”. It’s particularly contentious because the attorney general, Pam Bondi, had previously said such a list was “sitting on my desk right now to review”, though she later claimed she was referring to other documents.

How were the findings verified? Using open-source information and through analysis by weapons experts.

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Israeli airstrike hits Sweida city in Syria as Bedouin tribes clash with Druze

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Conflict restarts in southern province as Druze groups reportedly target Bedouin villages in ‘revenge’ attacks

The Israeli military has carried out an airstrike on the outskirts of Sweida city as clashes between Bedouin tribes and Druze fighters intensified on Thursday night.

The clashes started a wave of tit-for-tat retaliatory violence earlier on in the day after Syrian government forces withdrew from Sweida.

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Trump’s $1tn for Pentagon to add huge planet-heating emissions, study shows

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Exclusive: 17% increase in military spending will add emissions equivalent to those of some entire countries

Donald Trump’s huge spending boost for the Pentagon will produce an additional 26 megatons (Mt) of planet-heating gases – on a par with the annual carbon equivalent (CO2e) emissions generated by 68 gas power plants or the entire country of Croatia, new research reveals.

The Pentagon’s 2026 budget – and climate footprint – is set to surge to $1tn thanks to the president’s One Big Beautiful Act, a 17% rise on last year.

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US authorities take custody of more than 20 kids as surrogate mothers claim couple misled them

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Children removed from California home of couple who were arrested in May and had said they ‘wanted a large family’

More than 20 children are in the custody of a California child-welfare agency while authorities investigate a Los Angeles-area couple and whether they misled surrogate mothers around the country.

Fifteen children were removed from the couple’s opulent home in Arcadia after an abuse allegation in May, and another six living elsewhere were also located, said Arcadia’s police lieutenant, Kollin Cieadlo. They range in age from two months to 13 years, with most between one and three.

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Half of New Orleans clergy abuse claims could be tossed in US bankruptcy court

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Outcome could have major effects on whether the Catholic archdiocese settles its expensive, five-year-old case

As New Orleans’s bankrupt Roman Catholic archdiocese finalizes a plan to settle 633 clergy abuse claims filed against it, the church’s investors are arguing in US bankruptcy court that about half of those survivors could have their claims thrown out.

Church officials said on Wednesday they would not necessarily seek that, though the eligibility of claims will be determined by a court-appointed examiner. If the investors’ arguments prevail, it could have major effects on whether the US’s second-oldest Catholic archdiocese settles its expensive, five-year-old bankruptcy case – or if victims of abuse by its clergy will pursue their claims individually in civil court.

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Hungary opposition figures urge Democrats to organize against autocratic takeover by Trump

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Forum speakers said Donald Trump’s second term resembles strongman Viktor Orbán’s first years in power

Democrats must organize urgently for the 2026 midterm elections and avoid a “it can’t happen here” mentality to stop Donald Trump from staging a full-scale autocratic takeover, a Hungarian opposition parliamentarian has said.

Katalin Cseh, a critic of Hungary’s strongman prime minister, Viktor Orbán, told a forum on authoritarianism that the central European country’s experience held vital lessons for Trump’s opponents in their attempts to resist his assaults on US institutions and democratic norms since his return to the White House.

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‘A family of traitors’: Trump’s Brazil tariffs ultimatum backfires on Bolsonaro

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US president’s attempt to help his rightwing ally avoid jail has sparked wave of anger and given boost to rival Lula

Silvana Marques was one of thousands of Brazilians who flocked to São Paulo’s most famous art museum one afternoon last week. But the 51-year-old teacher wasn’t there to marvel over fog-filled London landscapes at Masp’s new Monet retrospective. She had come to join a protest heaping scorn on Donald Trump.

Beneath the museum’s brutalist hulk, Marques spotted a cardboard effigy of the US president and took a picture with her phone before the Trump dummy was set on fire. “Laranjão safado,” which translates as big orange dirtbag, she wrote under her photo on Instagram. Nearby, demonstrators hoisted a red banner into the air which read: “Nice try Trump. But we’re not afraid.”

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