What a boob: Texas school district bans Virginia state flag and seal over naked breast

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Students in Lamar can no longer learn about the state of Virginia on their online research database due to the ban

Virginia’s state flag and seal, depicting the Roman goddess Virtus standing over a slain tyrant, her drooping toga exposing her left breast, has been banned from younger students in a Texas school district.

The district, Lamar consolidated independent school district, near Houston, took action against the image late last year when it removed a section about Virginia from its online learning platform used by third through fifth graders, typically encompassing ages eight to 11, sparking a row, Axios reported on Thursday.

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Trump ousts IRS chief days after appointment amid Musk-Bessent feud

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Treasury secretary Scott Bessent reportedly complained that Gary Shapley had been chosen without his knowledge

Donald Trump is replacing the acting commissioner of the US Internal Revenue Service after treasury secretary Scott Bessent reportedly complained to the president that the agency head had been appointed without his knowledge and under the instruction of Doge leader Elon Musk.

According to a report from the New York Times published on Friday, Bessent believed that the Doge head “had done an end-run around him” to get Gary Shapley installed as the interim head of the IRS, despite the fact that the IRS reports to Bessent. The report cited five anonymous sources with knowledge of the situation.

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Trump’s ‘lone ranger’: How Steve Witkoff became the de facto point man on America’s foreign policy challenges – CNN

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  1. Trump’s ‘lone ranger’: How Steve Witkoff became the de facto point man on America’s foreign policy challenges  CNN
  2. Team Trump is slouching toward Armageddon  The Hill
  3. Steve Witkoff is embarrassingly out of his depth dealing with Putin  The Telegraph
  4. Trump Friend and ‘Envoy for Everything’ Steve Witkoff Embarks on High-Wire Diplomacy  WSJ
  5. Top Trump aides rush to defend Witkoff after CNN profile on ‘lone ranger’ Mideast envoy  The Times of Israel
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Crews restore power to nearly all after island-wide blackout hit Puerto Rico – AP News

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  1. Crews restore power to nearly all after island-wide blackout hit Puerto Rico  AP News
  2. Puerto Rico faced a massive power outage. Why does this keep happening?  USA Today
  3. A look at why an island-wide blackout hit Puerto Rico and what caused it  AP News
  4. Most Power Is Restored in Puerto Rico After Islandwide Blackout  The New York Times
  5. Puerto Rico goes completely dark after another islandwide power outage  NBC News
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Trump team reveals lack of expertise – and patience – as it threatens to abandon Ukraine peace talks

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Trump said he could stop war in 24 hours, but team appears daunted by negotiation with ‘a lot of detail attached to it’

One key to a successful negotiation is always being willing to walk away from the table. But it isn’t clear whether the Trump administration has threatened to give up on a Russia-Ukraine peace deal as a negotiating tactic or simply because it lacks the concentration for a complicated negotiation – a shortcoming that has dogged the administration’s foreign policy through its first three months in office.

Standing on a tarmac in Paris, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, issued a threat that the US could simply “move on” from mediating the biggest military conflict in Europe since the second world war. That would be the latest about-face for an administration that has already taken a back seat on negotiating a peace in Gaza and retreated on implementing worldwide tariffs that shook financial markets around the globe earlier this month.

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Trump’s second state visit to UK to be disrupted by ‘even bigger’ protests

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Stop Trump coalition to dust off blimp, hoping demonstrations will surpass those during US president’s 2019 visit

Donald Trump’s second visit to the UK later this year will be disrupted by “even bigger” protests than those that coincided with his state visit in his first term, campaigners have vowed.

On Thursday Trump let slip that he expects to visit the UK in September, after Keir Starmer handed him a personal invitation from King Charles III during his visit to the White House in February.

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Italian opposition file complaint over far-right party’s use of ‘racist’ AI images

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Centre-left parties slam ‘racist, Islamophobic and xenophobic’ faked images posted on social media by League party

Opposition parties in Italy have complained to the communications watchdog about a series of AI-generated images published on social media by deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini’s far-right party, calling them “racist, Islamophobic and xenophobic”, the Guardian has learned.

The centre-left Democratic party (PD), with the Greens and Left Alliance, filed a complaint on Thursday with Agcom, the Italian communications regulatory authority, alleging the fake images used by the League contained “almost all categories of hate speech”.

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Green party candidate tries to evict Labour opponent from property

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Labour says move is hypocrisy since Greens support ban on no-fault evictions such as one served on Labour candidate and her family

A Green party council candidate is attempting to evict his Labour opponent from a house he owns using a no-fault notice, despite his party supporting a ban on exactly such kinds of eviction.

William Pedley, who is standing for the Greens in the Victoria ward of North Northamptonshire council, has served a section 21 notice on his tenant and political rival Kelly Duddridge, who has lived in the property for 10 years.

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Robbie Williams says he feels ‘panic’ when fans approach in public

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Pop star posts on Instagram about his fright and ‘discomfort’ when asked for photos and autographs

Robbie Williams has spoken of the “discomfort” and “panic” he feels when he is approached for photos and autographs by fans.

In a post on Instagram, the pop star said he was able to “mask” the reality that social interactions frighten him.

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Super spicy! Jack Black’s Minecraft song Steve’s Lava Chicken becomes shortest ever UK Top 40 hit

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At 34 seconds, the spectacularly silly song from A Minecraft Movie beats the previous record by two seconds

Actor and musician Jack Black has made UK chart history, with the shortest ever song to reach the Top 40: his novelty track Steve’s Lava Chicken is just 34 seconds long.

The spectacularly silly song reaches No 21 this week, and is taken from A Minecraft Movie, the video game spin-off film, which has earned $570m (£430m) so far at the global box office – and caused cinemas to be overrun by the game’s young and high-energy fanbase.

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