Parole board rules against elder Menendez brother, convicted over killing parents in Los Angeles in 1989Lyle Menendez was denied parole for his role in the 1989 killings of his parents on Friday, just a day after the California parole board denied the release of his brother Erik.California governor Gavin Newsom will have the final say in whether or not the 57-year-old will be released. Continue reading...
More than 40 passengers evaluated or treated at hospitals with injuries ranging from head trauma to broken arms and legsAt least five people, including a child, were killed after a tour bus carrying 51 people crashed in upstate New York on its way back from a trip to Niagra Falls on Friday.The passengers were initially trapped in the wreckage, according to law enforcement, and then admitted to hospitals in the region where more than 40 of them were evaluated or treated with injuries ranging from head trauma to broken arms and legs. Continue reading...
Vice-president JD Vance denies FBI investigation is politically motivated. Key US politics stories from Friday 22 AugustDonald Trump has said he did not know a raid by the FBI on the home of his former adviser turned critic, John Bolton, was planned and that he expected to be briefed by the justice department on it.I tell the group I don't want to know, but just you have to do what you have to do. I don't want to know about it," Trump said, adding I'm not a fan of John Bolton. He's a real sort of a lowlife. He's not a smart guy. But he could be very unpatriotic. I'm going to find out." Continue reading...
Carol Alvarado posted on social media: Republicans think they can walk all over us. Today I'm going to kick back'The Texas legislature preliminarily approved a redrawn congressional map on Friday that gives Republicans a chance to pick up as many as five congressional seats, fulfilling a brazen political request from Donald Trump to shore up the GOP's standing before next year's midterm elections.The tentative map adoption passed in an 18-11 party-line vote. Continue reading...
Flames and a tower of smoke rose above an automotive supply company 50 miles north-east of Baton RougeAn explosion and fire Friday at an automotive supply company in southeast Louisiana sent flames into the air and a tower of thick black smoke billowing above rural communities, forcing nearby residents and an elementary school to evacuate.Officials said no injuries had been reported in the fire at Smitty's Supply just north of the town of Roseland, but that everyone living within a one-mile (1.6km) radius must evacuate. Roseland, which is home to about 1,100 people, is roughly 50 miles (80km) north-east of Baton Rouge. Continue reading...
Hundreds of transcript pages unlikely to pacify those who want to know more of president's association with EpsteinFor weeks, Donald Trump has been on the defensive over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigative files and the extent of his own personal links to the late sex trafficker.While Trump had promised to release files related to Epstein, his justice department announced in July there would be no more disclosures, prompting uproar among conspiracy-minded Maga adherents and many other of his supporters. Continue reading...
Jon Hallford, with wife Carie, took money for cremations only to stash decaying bodies without families' knowledgeA judge on Friday rejected a plea agreement for a Colorado funeral home owner who acknowledged abusing 191 corpses, after family members described the pain and shame they've carried since learning their loved ones' bodies were left to rot.The rare decision to reject the plea agreement that called for a 20-year prison sentence followed anguished testimony from family members seeking a more severe punishment. Continue reading...
Union decries effort as illegal as department confirms it is ending its recognition of unions for some employeesThe US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has moved to strip thousands of federal health agency employees of their collective bargaining rights, according to a union that called the effort illegal.HHS officials confirmed Friday that the department is ending its recognition of unions for a number of employees and reclaiming office space and equipment that had been used for union activities. Continue reading...
Unprecedented deal comes after president demanded CEO Lip-Bu Tan to resign over his ties to Chinese firmsThe US government has taken an unprecedented 10% stake in Intel under a deal with the struggling chipmaker and is planning more such moves, according to Donald Trump and the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, the latest extraordinary intervention by the White House in corporate America.Lutnick wrote on X: BIG NEWS: The United States of America now owns 10% of Intel, one of our great American technology companies. Thanks to Intel CEO @LipBuTan1 for striking a deal that's fair to Intel and fair to the American People." Continue reading...
Investigators are looking into what kind of gases may have played a role at Prospect Valley Dairy in KeenesburgAn apparent accident at a dairy in a rural farming community in Colorado involving exposure to gas killed six people, including a high school student, authorities said on Thursday.Investigators are looking into what kind of gases may have played a role in the deaths on Wednesday at Prospect Valley Dairy in Keenesburg, about 35 miles (55km) north-east of Denver. Crews recovered the bodies in a confined space at the dairy, the Southeast Weld fire protection district said. Continue reading...
Jeffrey Kruse ousted as head of DIA, which said US strikes had set back Tehran nuclear program only a few monthsThe US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has fired a general whose agency's initial intelligence assessment of damage to Iranian nuclear sites from US strikes angered Donald Trump, according to two people familiar with the decision and a White House official.Lt Gen Jeffrey Kruse will no longer serve as head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. Continue reading...
Ex-national security adviser and Trump critic is fifth in a list of 60 to have been investigated in the last seven monthsWhen Kash Patel, the FBI director, faced senators during his confirmation hearings on 30 January, he bristled at suggestions that his 2023 book contained an enemies list". The appendix to Government Gangsters, which included a list of names for 60 people, was simply documentation of those who had weaponized" the government, he insisted.Seven months later, that denial appears increasingly hollow. Friday's FBI search of the former national security adviser John Bolton's home and office, reportedly to find classified documents, marks the fifth investigation targeting people from Patel's book. Continue reading...
Abrego will return home to Maryland from Tennessee for first time after wrongful deportation to El SalvadorKilmar Abrego Garcia has been freed on Friday from criminal custody in Tennessee so he can rejoin his family in Maryland while awaiting trial on human smuggling charges, after a court ordered his release.Magistrate judge Barbara Holmes issued an order allowing the father of two to leave custody for the first time since his return to the US in June, following his wrongful deportation to El Salvador earlier this year. Continue reading...
President plots expansion of crime crackdown as Pentagon chief says troops patrolling DC streets will be armedDonald Trump has threatened to take his federal crackdown on crime and city cleanliness to New York and Chicago, as the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, ordered that national guard troops patrolling the streets of Washington DC under federal control will now be armed.The US president talked to reporters in the Oval Office and said: When ready, we will start in Chicago ... Chicago is a mess." He added that then the administration will help with New York", amid the controversial and aggressive federal efforts to control leading Democratic-voting cities, each of which has a Black mayor. Continue reading...
Russian airstrikes across Ukraine, mourning in Gaza, wildfires across Europe and a church move in Sweden: the past seven days as captured by the world's leading photojournalists
From Compton outsider to American nonpareil, she came to embody resistance to toxic norms. But her embrace of GLP-1 drugs feels like capitulation to ideals she once rejectedWhen Serena Williams was featured in a People magazine story on Thursday morning discussing her 31lb weight loss, the rollout had all the hallmarks of an advertisement draped in the thin veil of an all-caps EXCLUSIVE.Vogue's social channels amplified their own access, NBC's Today show gave her a one-on-one segment and Elle published a carefully packaged interview in which Williams declared she wanted to break the stigma around weight-loss drugs, each of them in lockstep with what appeared to be a hard 9am press embargo. This vintage Jill Smoller quadrafecta was not a spontaneous confessional; it was a coordinated media blitz pegged to the US Open, the tentpole event of American tennis, which kicks off on Sunday in earnest. Continue reading...
Group of NGOs claim deal was unconstitutional and violated the imprisoned men's human rightsA group of NGOs is challenging Eswatini's acceptance of five people deported by the US, arguing the deal was unconstitutional and violated the imprisoned men's human rights.The men from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Yemen and Cuba, who the US said were dangerous criminals, were flown to the small southern African country in July, as the Trump administration attempts to deport millions of migrants and asylum seekers. Continue reading...
by Justo Robles , and Etienne Côté-Paluck in Port-a on (#6ZG96)
People with temporary protected status face possible deportation even though their home countries - including Afghanistan and Haiti - remain unsafeMany thousands of immigrants living in the US who came from certain countries regarded as risky or dangerous are at the mercy of US judges and the Trump administration's agenda to slash their work authorization and protection from deportation.Since taking office, the Trump administration has announced the termination of temporary protected status (TPS) for citizens of seven of the 15 countries previously designated for shelter under this legal umbrella - with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) controversially citing improved conditions in some of those places. Continue reading...
A group of news execs stepped in to buy them, but across the US, 3,200 local news outlets have shuttered since 2005Wyoming saw a resurrection last week.Eight small towns across the vast rural state were reeling from the gut punch of the abrupt closures of their newspapers just a week earlier. Staff had woken up to an email from News Media Corporation (NMC) announcing the immediate closures of the printing presses. Continue reading...
Removal of crosswalk honoring 49 people killed in 2016 is latest anti-LGBTQ+ move by DeSantis administrationA rainbow crosswalk designed to honor victims of a mass shooting at a LGBTQ+ nightclub in Orlando was painted over by the Florida state government on Wednesday night.The abrupt erasure of the memorial street crossing, which honored the 49 people killed at the Pulse nightclub in 2016, was described as a scandalous act of betrayal" by one Florida state senator. Continue reading...
As Republicans tout their stewardship of public lands, Montana protesters say their park is suffering - and help is urgently neededDozens of former rangers, park volunteers, and local residents protested at the gateway to Montana's Glacier national park on Wednesday against the staff cuts and hiring freezes that have thrown many national parks into crisis, including Glacier.Current and former staffers and watchdog groups say the cuts have meant staff are not able to keep up the facilities and infrastructure. Some say the park has been left with inadequate infrastructure and too little staff to be able to respond to emergencies. Continue reading...
The president's strategy is straight out of the authoritarian playbook. Congress and the courts must put a stop to itAmericans have long glorified their constitution and the rule of law. But Donald Trump's volatile and vindictive presidency has increasingly replaced that philosophy with something very different - call it governing by shakedown."Trump has often violated federal law, and sometimes the constitution, as he has sought to throttle his targets - whether universities, law firms or America's trading partners - in the hope that they will cry uncle and agree to his demands. This style of governance would make any caudillo proud. But it should make anyone who cares about the rule of law - and avoiding authoritarian rule - very worried.Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labor and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues Continue reading...
Lyle Menendez will face parole board a day after brother Erik was denied release. Follow every key event from arrest to parole hearings 35 years laterErik Menendez was denied parole on Thursday after serving decades in prison for killing his parents. Lyle Menendez, his brother, will be next to get a chance to plead his case in front of a panel of California state parole board commissioners.Erik and Lyle Menendez were sentenced in 1996 to life in prison for killing their father, Jose Menendez, and mother, Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989. They were 18 and 21 at the time. Defense attorneys argued the brothers acted out of self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father, while prosecutors said the brothers killed their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance. Continue reading...
Figures from classified IDF database listed 8,900 named fighters as dead or probably dead in May, as overall death toll reached 53,000. Plus, John Roberts and the death of rule of law in America Don't already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.Figures from a classified Israeli military intelligence database indicate five out of six Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza have been civilians, an extreme rate of slaughter rarely matched in recent decades of warfare.How has Israel responded? The Israel Defense Forces said figures presented in the article are incorrect", without specifying which data the Israeli military disputed. It also said the numbers do not reflect the data available in the IDF's systems", without detailing which systems.What are human rights experts and legal scholars saying about Israel's actions in Gaza? Many genocide scholars, lawyers and human rights activists, including Israeli academics and campaign groups, say Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, citing the mass killing of civilians and imposed starvation.This is a developing story. Follow our updates here.Why did the judge decide to close it? In her 82-page order, published in the US district court's southern district of Florida on Friday, Williams determined the facility was causing severe and irreparable damage to the fragile Florida Everglades. Continue reading...
For centuries, Canada hasn't needed to prioritize its military. But the US transformation calls for a Finland-style approachThe second Trump administration has been worse than Canada's worst nightmare. The largest military force in the history of the world, across a largely undefended border, is suddenly under the command of a president who has called for our annexation. Canada could not be less prepared. The possibility of American aggression has been so remote, for so long, that the idea has not been seriously considered in living memory. Donald Trump has focused on economic rather than military pressure, but the new tone in Washington is finally forcing Canada to ask itself the most basic question: how do we defend ourselves?For most other countries in the world, self-defence is the key to national identity. Canada's immense good fortune has been that we haven't really needed a strong military to build our country. In the war of 1812, we were British, and the British kept us alive because we were British. There hasn't been an attack on our homeland since. Confederation, the founding of the country, was the result of a political negotiation rather than a conquest or a violent independence movement. Our military was based on a fundamental assumption about our place in the world, and the nature of the world itself. Our place in the world was to contribute to the global order. The global order shared our fundamental values. Peacekeeping was more our style than defense. Continue reading...
Vaccine-hesitant communities might benefit from free treatment centers and smaller vaccination clinicsThe measles outbreak in Texas has officially ended, but as cases continue to be detected in other parts of the US state health experts are warning of the need to prepare for outbreaks in undervaccinated communities, especially as anti-vaccine beliefs are becoming more prominent during the Trump administration.So far this year, 1,356 confirmed measles cases, largely from 32 outbreaks, have been reported across the US - compared with last year's entire total of 285 cases and 16 outbreaks. While the Texas outbreak initially drove the case counts, other US outbreaks are now contributing in increasing numbers. Continue reading...
Administration has stripped hundreds of thousands of their union contracts as White House says it is just getting startedThe Trump administration has unilaterally stripped hundreds of thousands of federal workers of their union contracts after a federal appeals court overruled an injunction which halted the plans. It is just getting started, according to the White House.An executive order issued in March sought to cancel all collective bargaining agreements for most federal employees, citing national security concerns - and remove collective bargaining rights from more than a million workers. Continue reading...
Streaming platform known for subscription-based adult content reports $1.4bn revenue and rising usageThe owner of OnlyFans was paid a record $701m (523m) in dividends last year as the subscription service best known for offering adult content positions itself for a potential multibillion-dollar sale.The payment to Leonid Radvinsky, the Ukrainian-American entrepreneur behind the streaming platform, adds to the more than $1bn in dividends he has already received from the business as he profits from connecting porn stars and celebrities more directly with their audiences. Continue reading...
As Russian drones and missiles continue to rain down death, the prospect of a Putin-Zelenskyy meeting seems unlikelyIt was night in Ukraine when President Trump met President Putin in Alaska - a night during which Russia shelled only frontline Ukrainian cities. People in Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Dnipro and even Kharkiv could sleep, but they did not. They were waiting for news from Alaska. I was also awake and watching the news feed, aware that this meeting would lead to nothing, or worse, something bad for Ukraine. But in difficult, seemingly hopeless situations, human nature is prone to desperate optimism. In the middle ages, people often hoped for a miracle, forgetting about the logic of events. So, the night of 15 August was a night of hope for a miracle, which, of course, did not happen.Unlike on the eve of the Alaska meeting, in Ukraine, there was no particular tension in the buildup to the meeting of European leaders at the White House on Monday, despite images of a hugely powerful team arriving in Washington. Ukrainians seemed to sense that this meeting had to be visually positive in order to push into the shade the Alaska meeting, which ended in nothing, if not actual failure. Continue reading...
by Coral Murphy Marcos and Dani Anguiano on (#6ZFXY)
Panel declines to grant parole to Menendez, convicted over parents' deaths, while brother Lyle faces hearing on FridayThe California board of parole hearings denied the release of Erik Menendez, on Thursday who has spent nearly 30 years in prison since he was convicted with his brother in the shooting deaths of their parents.Erik and Lyle Menendez were sentenced in 1996 to life in prison for fatally shooting their father, Jose Menendez, and mother, Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989. They were 18 and 21 at the time. While defense attorneys argued the brothers acted out of self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father, prosecutors said the brothers killed their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance. Continue reading...
by Robert Mackey, Shrai Popat, Lucy Campbell and Tom on (#6ZF7F)
This live blog is now closed. You can read more on Alligator Alcatraz' ruling hereThe government lost its bid to unseal grand jury transcripts in the sex-trafficking case against Jeffrey Epstein.Richard Berman, a federal judge in New York, said the transcripts pale in comparison to the documents the government already has on Epstein and that disclosing them could harm victims.It's kind of bizarre that we have a bunch of old, primarily white people who are out there protesting the policies that keep people safe when they've never felt danger in their entire lives. Continue reading...
Judge's order finds jail, which has attracted waves of criticism, was causing severe harm to Florida EvergladesA federal judge in Miami late on Thursday ordered the closure of the Trump administration's notorious Alligator Alcatraz" immigration jail within 60 days, and ruled that no more detainees were to be brought to the facility while it was being wound down.The shock ruling by district court judge Kathleen Williams builds on a temporary restraining order she issued two weeks ago halting further construction work at the remote tented camp, which has attracted waves of criticism for harsh conditions, abuse of detainees and denial of due process as they await deportation. Continue reading...
Court, in 5-4 split, lifts judge's order blocking $783m in cuts made by NIH to align with president's prioritiesThe Trump administration can slash hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of research funding in its push to cut federal diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, the supreme court decided on Thursday.The split court lifted a judge's order blocking $783m worth of cuts made by the National Institutes of Health to align with Donald Trump's priorities. Continue reading...
Trump administration's move includes people already admitted to the US, with vetting also to occur on social media - key US politics stories from 21 August 2025The Trump administration is reviewing the records of more than 55 million US visa holders for potential revocation or deportable violations of immigration rules, in a significant expansion of Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.The state department said that all of the foreigners who now hold valid US visas are subject to continuous vetting" for any indication that they could be ineligible for the document, including those already admitted into the country. Should such evidence come to light, the visa would be revoked and, if the visa holder were in the United States, they would be subject to deportation. Continue reading...
Retaliatory strike against gerrymandered maps in Texas now heads to voters in a special election this NovemberCalifornia governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed a sweeping redistricting proposal aimed at redrawing the state's congressional boundaries to create five new Democratic US House seats - a direct response to the gerrymandered maps Republicans in Texas are advancing at the behest of Donald Trump.The Democratic-controlled state legislature voted to advance a legislative package revising California's maps after hours of debate. With Newsom's signature, the measure now heads to voters in a special election this November. Continue reading...
by Hugo Lowell in Washington and Robert Mackey on (#6ZFTC)
President touts police takeover in rambling remarks and pledges new grass so DC parks resemble his golf coursesDonald Trump told law enforcement officials his administration will buy new grass for parks in Washington DC so they resemble his golf courses, during his visit to a US park police facility on Thursday - an event ostensibly scheduled to tout his crackdown on crime in the city.The president had indicated earlier in the day he would join police and national guard troops on something resembling a patrol, but his remarks at park police's Anacostia station was his lone stop on his excursion from the White House. Continue reading...
by George Chidi in Peachtree City, Georgia on (#6ZFTB)
Vice-president extolled One Big Beautiful Bill Act's benefits for families while Senate hopefuls tried campaign materialThe US vice-president, JD Vance, previewed in Georgia on Thursday the lines of attack candidates will use to defend the president's signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act in the midterms next year, calling it the biggest tax cut for families that this country has ever seen".Vance touted an increase in the child tax credit, the elimination of taxes on overtime and on tips in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act while speaking in a warehouse for ATLA Refrigeration in Peachtree City, Georgia. Continue reading...
Matthew Brann finds US government used a novel series of legal and personnel moves' to try to retain Alina HabbaA federal judge ruled on Thursday that Donald Trump's former lawyer, Alina Habba, has been unlawfully serving as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey.In his order disqualifying Habba from prosecuting three defendants who challenged her appointment, chief US district judge Matthew Brann wrote: The Executive branch has perpetuated Alina Habba's appointment to act as the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey through a novel series of legal and personnel moves. Continue reading...
State department says all people who hold valid US visas are subject to continuous vetting', including of social mediaThe Trump administration is reviewing the records of more than 55 million US visa holders for potential revocation or deportable violations of immigration rules, in a significant expansion of Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.In a move first reported by the Associated Press, the state department said that all of the foreigners who currently hold valid US visas are subject to continuous vetting" for any indication that they could be ineligible for the document, including those already admitted into the country. Should such evidence come to light, the visa would be revoked and, if the visa holder were in the United States, they would be subject to deportation. Continue reading...
Move comes after state refused to remove gender identity, trans and nonbinary references from sex-ed curriculumThe Trump administration has terminated a grant that provided millions of dollars for a California sex education program after the state refused to remove all references to gender identity, transgender people and nonbinary people from its curriculum.Advocates fear more states could lose more money in a burgeoning war between the Trump administration and supporters of comprehensive sex ed. Continue reading...
by Kalyeena Makortoff and Sarah Butler on (#6ZF5Y)
Group cuts profit forecasts and launches review after mistake relating to North American armAlmost 600m was wiped off the market value of WH Smith on Thursday after the retailer cut financial forecasts and launched an independent review when it discovered an accounting blunder at its North American arm.Shares plunged 42% after investors took fright at the news that profits at the division had been overstated by 30m. Continue reading...
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