Minimalist News

Obama Judge Orders Trump Admin To Restore Legal Status Of 985,000 Migrants Who Used CBP One App Authored by Bryan Hyde via American Greatness, A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration unlawfully pulled the plug on nearly a million asylum-seekers who were temporarily allowed to live in the U.S. thanks to the Biden-era CBP One app. Fox News reports that the app was used by then-President Joe Biden’s administration beginning in 2023 to allow migrants to schedule appointments with immigration officials with many of the migrants being paroled into the U.S. for up to two years. On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge

Johnson Caves To Thune On DHS Funding: Accepts Senate's Partial Bill That Ditches Voter ID, Leaves ICE Out In The Cold In a clear concession announced April 1, 2026, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) yielded to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and agreed to advance the Senate-passed bill funding most of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) - explicitly excluding ICE and key CBP enforcement operations - while moving long-term immigration enforcement and border security funding to the partisan reconciliation process. This is the same bill that Johnson and House R's rejected for over a week. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer quickly claimed victory: >

Trump To Declare Iran War Wind-Down As Iranian President Issues Open Letter To Americans SUMMARY * Trump to declare Iran war is winding down and others need to resolve Hormuz * Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has released an open letter to the American people, questioning whether Washington is truly putting “America First” or merely acting as a “proxy for Israel” willing to fight “to the last American soldier.” * Air defenses have been activated in Dubai, taking out 5 ballistic missiles and 35 drones launched from Iran * Iran's new Ayatollah tweets "I emphatically declare that the consistent policy of the Islamic Republic

US Firm Takes Control Of One Of The "World's Largest" Cobalt Producers An American company has secured control of one of the largest cobalt producers outside Chinese ownership, delivering a strategic boost to U.S. efforts to compete with Beijing over critical minerals, according to the Wall Street Journal. The buyer, Virtus Minerals, completed its acquisition of Congo-based Chemaf for $30 million, along with a pledge to invest roughly $720 million. The deal caps a years-long push, spanning both the Biden and Trump administrations, to ensure U.S. access to cobalt resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Chemaf’s mines can supply about 5% of

Trump's Jan. 6 Speech Not Covered By Immunity: Judge Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), President Donald Trump’s speech in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, was not an official act and is thus not covered by immunity, a federal judge said in a March 31 decision. President Donald Trump at a rally in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. Jenny Jing/The Epoch Times “President Trump has not shown that the Speech reasonably can be understood as falling within the outer perimeter of his Presidential duties,” U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled. Trump’s speech on Jan. 6, 2021, was given to a rally

Beyond Cheap Fish Oil: How A 5:1 DHA Ratio Powers Brain Health & Vision Omega-3s are an amazing family of fats that our bodies can't make efficiently on their own. Long used for general heart and inflammation support, research shows that when formulated with a heavy emphasis on DHA plus targeted eye nutrients, they can support brain structure, cognitive performance, memory, attention, and eye/retinal health.  Most people get very little DHA from their modern diet, especially with high intake of processed seed oils that compete with omega-3s. Studies suggest that boosting DHA intake with a targeted formula can support brain function in

Providence Mayor Demands Removal Of Iryna Zarutska Mural; "Does Not Reflect Our Values" Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, Leftist politicians in Providence, Rhode Island, are erasing the memory of an innocent victim to shield their failed policies on crime and immigration.  The nearly completed mural honoring Iryna Zarutska—the 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee brutally murdered on a North Carolina light rail train by a repeat offender—is being removed after pressure from Democrat leaders who called it divisive. Conservative commentator Benny Johnson broke the story, posting: “Iryna Zarustka mural in Providence, RI, is being removed following protest of it by Mayor Brett Smiley.  > Iryna Zarustka mural in Providence,

Amazon's Cloud Unit In Bahrain "Disrupted" By Iranian Strike Just one day after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatened U.S. companies across the Middle East, the Financial Times reported late Tuesday morning that an IRGC strike had damaged Amazon's cloud computing infrastructure in Bahrain.  The FT cited Bahrain's interior ministry, which said civil defense teams were "extinguishing a fire in a facility of a company as a result of the Iranian aggression." Local authorities did not identify the company, disclose the type of air-delivered munition used, and/or provide further operational details about the strike. But according to a person familiar with the incident cited by the FT reporters,

More Than Half Of Americans Believe AI Will Do More Harm Than Good: Poll Authored by Mary Prenon via The Epoch Times, About 55 percent of Americans surveyed in a 2026 Quinnipiac poll said artificial intelligence (AI) will be more harmful than helpful. The survey, released on March 30, was conducted in collaboration with the Quinnipiac University School of Computing & Engineering and the Quinnipiac University School of Business. In April 2025, only 44 percent believed AI would do more harm than good in their daily lives. In the 2026 poll, 21 percent answered that AI affects their lives a lot, while 29 percent said

Beta: A Powerful But Faulty Tool For Managing Risk Authored by Michael Lebowitz via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, When investors want to reduce risk, one commonly used tool is beta. For instance, an investor may sell higher-beta stocks and replace them with lower-beta ones to cushion against an expected market decline. Such a strategy is intuitive and widely used; however, it can be greatly flawed. We recently received a question from a client about how we use beta to manage our portfolios. Given recent volatility and declining prices, the timing could not be better to explore both the power of beta and its important constraints.   WHAT

SpaceX Files Confidentially For IPO, Setting Up Record-Breaking Offering SpaceX has confidentially filed for an IPO, potentially setting up a June listing on U.S. stock exchanges that could become the largest public offering ever. The offering could value the rocket, satellite, and AI company at more than $1.75 trillion and raise as much as $75 billion, far exceeding Saudi Aramco's 2019 IPO record. Bloomberg states that SpaceX has just submitted a draft IPO registration to the SEC for nonpublic review. That allows SEC staff to review the filing, ask questions, and require any changes before the company reveals all of its financials

Swalwell Demands FBI Not Release His Files As Epstein Hypocrisy Surfaces Authored by Luis Cornelio via Headline USA, Embattled Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., who has long demanded that President Donald Trump release the Epstein files, now faces scrutiny as the FBI prepares to release documents tied to its investigation into his alleged ties to a Chinese intelligence operative. The scrutiny comes after Swalwell demanded Monday that FBI Director Kash Patel refrain from declassifying the potentially damaging files, which could shed light on his relationship with Christine Fang, the suspected Chinese spy also known as “Fang Fang.” On X, critics highlighted what they called blatant hypocrisy, pointing to Swalwell’s prior demands that Trump release the

Odds Of SCOTUS Striking Down Trump's Birthright Citizenship EO Spike Update (1240ET): Odds are not looking good for President Trump's executive order restricting birthright citizenship, as two conservative justices now seem skeptical amid today's oral arguments.  As journalist Eric Daugherty notes on X, "SCOTUS Justice John Roberts is VERY skeptical of President Trump ending birthright citizenship, repeatedly firing back at Trump's top lawyer," noting that Roberts paid no mind when US Solicitor General John Sauer brought up the fact that China has 500 birth tourism companies that bring people to the US to have children.  "That has no impact on the legal analysis...it's a new world, it's the same Constitution," said Roberts. >

Trump May Pull Out Of 'Paper Tiger' NATO After Starmer Stiffs Strait Support In a blistering exclusive interview with The Telegraph, President Trump has declared he is "strongly considering" pulling the United States out of NATO, branding the 77-year-old alliance a "paper tiger" after European allies - including the UK under Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer - refused to join America’s military campaign against Iran or help reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Trump told the newspaper the decision was now “beyond reconsideration,” adding: “I was never swayed by Nato. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by

"Finish This Thing, Finish It Right": JPM CEO Jamie Dimon Weighs In On Iran War JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon appeared on Fox & Friends on Tuesday, covering everything from artificial intelligence to the economy to the continuing exodus from radical-left blue states. More notably, he offered his views on the U.S.-Iran war, which this week entered its fifth week and has remained at the center of the news cycle. Dimon was first asked about the energy shock from the US-Iran conflict and whether surging fuel prices would impact the American economy. "Look the markets are unpredictable and it's hard to for me to

Aluminum Supply Shock: Top Gulf Producer Halts Operations After Iran Strike, Price To Spike Over the weekend, both Emirates Global Aluminum (EGA) - the largest aluminum producers in the Gulf - and Aluminium Bahrain (ALBA) reported drone attacks damaging smelting facilities after hits on Iranian steel infrastructure last week. Neither company (at the time) confirmed whether supply will be impacted, but this morning the worst case appears to be confirmed with Reuters reporting that according to a Wednesday note by consultancy Wood Mackenzie "EGA's Al Taweelah facility in the United Arab Emirates halted operations after an Iranian missile and drone attack on Saturday damaged

The Kohn Solution For An Uncertain Fed Via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, Dario Perkins of TS Lombard wrote a piece titled “How to Respond to Oil Shocks.” His analysis draws on the Fed’s history to address how it should respond to today’s oil shock. While researching Fed transcripts from the 1990 Gulf War, he discovered a proposal by Don Kohn, senior Fed staffer, that offers a solution to the central bank’s oil shock problem: nominal GDP targeting. Kohn’s logic is straightforward and makes sense in the current environment where the Fed is contemplating monetary policy as oil prices spike, simultaneously boosting inflation and reducing economic growth. Per Kohn,

29 Killed In One Of Worst Russian Military Air Disasters Of Ukraine War Russia has suffered one of its worst aerial disasters of the Ukraine war, as an An-26 Military Transport aircraft went down in Crimea with no survivors reported. The aerial disaster happened Tuesday, with state media reporting that the aircraft slammed into a cliff during what was described as a routine flight over the Black Sea peninsula. via TASS All 29 onboard, including 23 passengers and six crew, were killed in the crash, marking one of the deadliest recent incidents involving Russian military aviation in the region. Officials say the trouble began very quickly

"No One Knows What Will Happen Now": Justice Jackson Warns Against Unbridled Free Speech Authored by Jonathan Turley, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is again warning of a growing threat to the nation. In her lone dissent in Chiles v. Salazar, Jackson observed that “to be completely frank, no one knows what will happen now.” The ominous tone stemmed from the fact that free speech had prevailed over state-imposed orthodoxy in a Colorado case. Eight justices, including her two liberal colleagues, ruled that Colorado could not prevent licensed counselors from “any practice or treatment” that “attempts or purports to change” a minor’s sexual orientation or

WTI Dips After Big Crude Inventory Build, US Production Slows Oil prices are down overnight but playing headline roulette with every word that comes out of any leaders' (or non-leaders') mouth as ceasefire chatter (now denied) has WTI riding a roller-coaster (but below $100 once again as we write). “Flows and actions matter more than words,” said Giovanni Staunovo, a commodity analyst at UBS Group AG. And while inventory data may not be the market-moving event in this new regime, it is useful to see signs of stockpiling or demand. DOE * Crude +5.45mm (+10.3mm API, +2mm exp) * Cushing +520k * Gasoline -586k

Lewis’s son Avi Lewis was elected leader of progressive New Democratic party a day before his father’s death Stephen Lewis, the Canadian diplomat, politician and human rights advocate, who spent decades tirelessly working to focus global attention on the HIV/Aids epidemic, has died of cancer. Lewis, who served as the Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, as well as the head of Ontario’s New Democratic party (NDP), was 88. Continue reading...

Critics say exemption for fossil fuels exploits White House’s ‘self-made gas crisis’, and could doom the rare Rice’s whale * Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox A US government panel on Tuesday exempted oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from the Endangered Species Act (ESA), a move which critics say could doom a rare whale species and harm other marine life. The Endangered Species Committee – which had not convened in more than three decades – voted to approve the request for the ESA exemption at the request of the

Clowns in Bolivia are upset by mandate that stops schools hosting events from which they earn a living Dozens of clowns have marched through the streets of Bolivia’s capital to protest against a government decree that limits extracurricular activities in schools, threatening their livelihoods. Wearing full face paint and their signature red noses, the clowns gathered on Monday in front of the ministry of education in La Paz to oppose a decree published in February. The new mandate says schools must comply with 200 days of lessons each year – in effect banning them from hosting the special events where the entertainers

Nearly 6,000 people forced to flee, human rights group says, as it criticises ‘abandonment’ from authorities At least 70 people have been killed and 30 injured during an attack in Haiti’s breadbasket Artibonite region, significantly more than official estimates, a human rights group has said. Police initially reported 16 dead and 10 injured, while a preliminary report from civil protection authorities suggested 17 had died and 19 were wounded. Continue reading...

Ex-TV host pledged to centre party around equity, with higher wealth taxes, green energy and tuition-free education * Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox Canada’s embattled New Democratic party (NDP) has elected the former broadcaster and self-proclaimed socialist Avi Lewis as its new leader, as it looks to rebuild following a devastating federal election last year that saw it lose official party status. A record number of members voted in the three-day NDP leadership convention, giving Lewis a first-ballot win that underscored widespread support. Lewis pledged to convert the “tremendous momentum” of the

Distressed riders who were stranded for hours say Apollo Go customer service agents offered ‘useless platitudes’ A “system malfunction” has caused several self-driving robotaxis to stall in the middle of the road in China, police have confirmed, after distressed riders were stranded for hours. Local authorities in the central Chinese city of Wuhan said they began receiving calls “one after another” on Tuesday night from riders reporting that autonomous vehicles operated by the Chinese internet company Baidu had frozen. Continue reading...

South Korea will delay the shutdown of coal-fired plants, while the Philippines also plans to boost the output of its coal-burning plants Governments across Asia are ramping up their use of coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, as they try to cover huge energy shortfalls triggered by the US-Israel war on Iran. The move has triggered warnings from climate experts who point to coal’s devastating environmental impact, and say the energy crisis should be a wake up call for governments to invest in renewables, which can offer a more stable supply that is not exposed to price shocks. Continue reading...

A rescue mission involving volunteer helicopter crew and public donations ended in joy after Molly was located and brought home A spot of furry black and white appears among the jagged rocks of New Zealand’s alpine backcountry. It is Molly the border collie, sitting near the foot of a waterfall where she had been separated from her owner one week earlier. Molly was rescued on Tuesday after an avalanche of donations from the public funded a volunteer team made up of former helicopter pilots and crew to mount a search in the wilderness. Continue reading...

The new rules are the first major change to the country’s laws governing child-rearing in more than a century Divorced couples in Japan will be able to negotiate joint custody of their children from Wednesday, in the first major change to the country’s laws governing child-rearing in more than a century. Previously, Japan’s Civil Code required couples to decide which parent would take custody of their children when they divorce. Continue reading...

Foreign ministers Ishaq Dar and Wang Yi met in Beijing as Pakistan pushes for peacemaker role * Middle East crisis – live updates Pakistan and China have released a joint five-part proposal for peace in the Middle East, after Pakistan’s foreign minister flew to Beijing on Tuesday to seek Chinese support for the country’s faltering efforts to negotiate an end to end the war. The one-day meeting between Ishaq Dar and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, came as Pakistan continues to push for the role of peacemaker between the United States and Iran, even as the war shows little sign of relenting. Continue

Opposition leader calls for the prime minister to give more details about the fuel crisis * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast ‘Might as well have told us what he was going to have for dinner’: shadow minister lambasts address to the nation The quips continue coming in thick and fast against Albanese’s address to the nation. The shadow minister for energy, Dan Tehan, tells ABC Radio: He might as well have told us what he was going to have for dinner last night. There was nothing new in it. He didn’t take the Australian people into his

Jayson Joseph Michaels allegedly planned attack on police headquarters, Parliament House and mosques * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A man accused of plotting a mass casualty terror attack targeting public buildings and places of worship believed his assault would be worse than the Bondi beach mass shootings, a court has heard. Jayson Joseph Michaels detailed his alleged plan for a violent assault on Western Australia police headquarters, WA Parliament House and mosques in a diary, the Perth magistrates court was told during a failed bid

Exclusive: Greens MLC Sue Higginson tells parliament that Corrective Services knew things ‘which made it very clear they had monitored our conversation’ * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A New South Wales parliamentarian has alleged prison officers unlawfully listened to her calls with inmates and then threatened those who had sought her help. The Greens’ justice spokesperson, Sue Higginson, alleged that her phone calls were “routinely” monitored despite it being against the law for Corrective Services officers to listen to calls between parliamentarians and prisoners. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Justice Jim Henry published data from his own court revealing recent cases took more than a year to reach committal * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A Queensland supreme court judge says serious criminal cases are taking “excruciatingly longer” to finalise due to “glacial” delays in the state’s magistrates court, where some matters are spending several years in procedural limbo. Justice Jim Henry, who is based at the supreme court in Cairns, published data from his own court revealing that of 31 recent criminal cases

PM’s deadline to establish the biggest gun buyback in 30 years passes with half of the nation’s governments refusing to join * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The federal government has accused state and territory leaders who refuse to sign up to its proposed national gun buyback scheme of “standing in the way” of efforts to get dangerous weapons off Australian streets. Anthony Albanese’s end of March deadline to establish the biggest gun buyback in 30 years has now passed, with half of the nation’s governments

Party, which has neo-Nazi roots, will hold ‘important ministerial posts within immigration’ if four-party coalition wins in September The Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, has said that he will allow the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD) into government for the first time – and give its members key ministerial posts – if his coalition wins the next general election. Despite becoming Sweden’s second biggest political party after the Social Democrats in the last election, SD currently plays only a supporting role in the minority-run coalition. Continue reading...

PM to focus on European defence and economic partnership for ‘dangerous world’, in pivot away from US * UK politics live – latest updates The UK will seek an even deeper partnership with the EU because of the instability wreaked by Donald Trump’s war with Iran, Keir Starmer has said, adding that the moment called for a more ambitious deal with Brussels to strengthen trade and defence. His comments came as the US president again said he was considering pulling the US out of Nato, which he described as a “paper tiger”. Trump has frequently lambasted the UK and European nations for

Cannabis policy still divisive two years in, with SPD hailing it while CDU minister says it is risk to young people’s health It was a landmark piece of legislation passed by Germany’s previous, centre-left-led government: a measure that legalised the personal recreational use of cannabis for over-18s despite warnings from critics it would cause a steep rise in the drug’s use, including by teenagers, and boost criminal gangs. Two years on, controversy over the move has still not been stubbed out, with critics and proponents at odds over its impact on consumption, youth welfare and organised crime. Continue reading...

First fatal incident this year occurred hours after £16.2m ‘stop the boats’ deal agreed between Britain and France * Europe live – latest updates * UK politics live – latest updates Two people have died and another is missing after trying to cross the Channel from France to the UK on Wednesday morning. It is the first fatal incident in the Channel this year. The deaths occurred just hours after an interim £16.2m “stop the boats” deal was agreed between the UK and France which will be in place until May. Negotiations will continue for a longer-term deal to replace the previous

Fifty-eight other people found alive during rescue involving inflatable craft in early hours of Wednesday The bodies of 19 people have been recovered from an inflatable boat south of the island of Lampedusa by the Italian coastguard, a spokesperson told AFP. Fifty-eight other people, including five children, were found alive during the rescue in the early hours of Wednesday and transported to Lampedusa by the coastguard, according to Roberto D’Arrigo. Continue reading...

In his letter to the American people, Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian laid out the longstanding, historical grievances behind Tehran’s distrust of Washington * Israel hits Iran with waves of attacks and says it killed top Hezbollah commander * Trump says he is ‘absolutely’ considering withdrawing US from Nato Houthi forces in Yemen have claimed responsibility for a missile attack on southern Israel this morning, saying it was a joint operation with Iran and Hezbollah. In a statement, the Houthi movement said it carried out its third missile attack in the conflict “in conjunction with Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon”. Continue reading...

War shows little sign of easing despite Donald Trump claiming Iranian leadership ‘just asked’ for ceasefire * Middle East crisis – live updates Israel unleashed two waves of attacks on Tehran and said it had killed a senior Hezbollah commander on Wednesday with little sign of the war easing up despite Donald Trump repeating a claim that Iran’s leadership was seeking a ceasefire. The US president, writing on social media, said that Iran’s president had “just asked” for a ceasefire and that American troops would be “out of Iran pretty quickly” as he sought to extricate the US from the war. He

Ministers accused of being too fearful of offending Emirates to help Britons detained for sharing images of war * Middle East crisis live – latest updates The families of UK citizens held in the United Arab Emirates over allegations that they shared images of the conflict with Iran have voiced frustration at the British government’s failure to help. Several British citizens are among more than 100 foreign nationals who have been detained under draconian Emirate rules that outlaw publishing or sharing material that could “disturb public security”. Continue reading...

US president’s claim that conflict is nearing end prompts 15% drop in Brent crude and stock market climb in Asia * Business live – latest updates Oil prices tumbled and stock markets have rallied across the world after Donald Trump said the war in Iran would end in “two to three weeks”. Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil, fell as low as $98.35 a barrel on Wednesday, down more than 15% on the previous day and its lowest level in a week. It later recovered some ground, ending the day at $102. Continue reading...

Campaigners call verdict on Ben Jamal and Chris Nineham ‘grotesque’ and part of attempt to ‘undermine civil liberties’ Two prominent leaders in the Palestine solidarity movement in Britain have been found guilty of breaching protest conditions, in what campaigners called a “grotesque” and “shocking” decision. Ben Jamal, 62, the director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), and Chris Nineham, 63, vice-chair of the Stop the War Coalition, were accused of failing to comply with conditions imposed on a protest on 18 January 2025. They were subsequently charged with public order offences. Continue reading...

At least 77 people killed in anti-corruption youth uprising in September, which began over a brief social media ban Nepal’s former prime minister KP Sharma Oli was arrested early on Saturday morning over his alleged role in the deaths of dozens of people who took part in the gen Z protest that toppled his government last year. Police detained the three-time former prime minister at his residence in the capital Kathmandu, and also arrested his former home affairs minister Ramesh Lekhak. Continue reading...

Balendra Shah, 35, is a symbol of change in country whose government was toppled last year in youth-led uprising Nepal’s rapper turned politician Balendra Shah, who is about to be sworn in as prime minister, has issued his first post-election message in the form of a rap urging unity. Hours before the release he swore an oath as a newly elected lawmaker, and he is due to become the Himalayan republic’s new prime minister on Friday. Continue reading...

Marco Rubio welcomes release of Dennis Coyle, who was detained in January last year for violating unspecified laws Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities have released the American academic Dennis Coyle after holding him for over a year, with the foreign ministry saying the release came on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. A statement from the ministry said the academic researcher had been released in Kabul on Tuesday, following an appeal from his family and after Afghanistan’s supreme court “considered his previous imprisonment sufficient”. Continue reading...

From a shop owner in India to a community worker in New South Wales, rising fuel prices are forcing people to ration oil usage * Middle East crisis – live updates Alagesan, 35, needs liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to run his roadside drink and snack shop in Coimbatore, India, but with the fuel shortage since the US-Israel attacks on Iran, he worries his business could fold. “I am far away from the Middle East, but my life is affected,” he said. “The gas cylinder is not available because of the war. I don’t know what to do.” Continue reading...

At least 400 killed in Pakistan’s strike on drug rehab centre, Taliban say, with families searching unmarked mass graves Sohrab Faqiri spent Eid, the Muslim festival to mark the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, looking for the grave of his brother, killed in a massive Pakistan airstrike on Kabul this week. Pakistan’s bombardment campaign, on what it says is terrorist and military infrastructure in neighbouring Afghanistan, appeared to have gone catastrophically wrong. A rehabilitation centre for drug addicts was hit on Monday night, according to the United Nations and the Afghan authorities. The UN’s preliminary death toll is 143 people,

British Medical Association leaders say PM’s threat to cut 1,000 new roles makes next week’s strike action more likely Resident doctors have accused Keir Starmer of damaging the prospects of a deal to end their pay and jobs dispute by threatening to cut 1,000 new jobs for medics in the NHS. The claim from the British Medical Association leaders came just before the Thursday deadline given by the prime minister for the union to accept the government’s final offer. Continue reading...

Discussion on how to ease impact from Iran war coincides with Food and Drink Federation almost tripling forecast Food inflation could hit 9% in the UK this year even if the strait of Hormuz opens within the next few weeks, figures suggest, as the Iran war pushes up energy prices. The Food and Drink Federation (FDF), which represents 12,000 food and drink manufacturers, has predicted prices will rise by “at least” 9% by the end of 2026, almost tripling a forecast of 3.2% that was made before the Middle East conflict. Continue reading...

Crown Prosecution Service confirms support on inquiries after arrests on suspicion of misconduct in public office Police are receiving advice from prosecutors as part of their inquiries into Peter Mandelson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s links to Jeffrey Epstein. The former duke of York and the former UK ambassador to the US were both arrested in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office over their connections with the late financier. They have since been released under investigation. Continue reading...

Michael O’Leary says UK’s reliance on Kuwait for jet fuel supply amid Iran war exposes it to possible shortages The UK is the most vulnerable country in Europe to potential jet fuel shortages as the Iran war throttles supplies from the Gulf, the boss of Ryanair has said. Michael O’Leary, the chief executive of the budget airline, said Britain would be the most exposed to jet fuel shortages because it relies on Kuwait for about 25% of its supply. Continue reading...

Six teenage girls arrested after hundreds of young people gather in Clapham in ‘swarming the streets’ trend Police have urged parents to “take responsibility” after scenes of widespread disorder in Clapham, south-west London, on Saturday and Tuesday. Officers said the incidents were caused by a TikTok trend for swarming the streets. Six teenage girls have been arrested so far, and the Metropolitan police said there would be more arrests in the coming days as officers reviewed CCTV and body worn camera footage of the disorder. It urged parents not to allow their children to take part in similar events over the Easter

Follow latest updates as four astronauts scheduled to set off at 6.24pm ET on a 10-day, 685,000-mile journey with millions watching * Crowds gather for glimpse of historic Nasa moon mission There’s potentially alarming news from AccuWeather about a solar flare, which the forecasting service says could affect the Artemis mission. While not an official Nasa source for weather and climate information or predictions, AccuWeather has been monitoring launch day conditions, and is reporting them on its own blog. An X1.5 solar flare that occurred early on March 30 produced an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection that is now entering into the Earth’s atmosphere.

Chuck Schumer notes that ‘Senate Democrats never wavered’ on negotiations to fund Department of Homeland Security without funding ICE * Republican leaders agree to advance funding deal to end DHS shutdown * Sign up for the Breaking News US email We’re starting to get pictures from outside the US supreme court ahead of oral arguments in Trump v Barbara, which will decide if the administration’s attempts to restrict birthright citizenship are unconstitutional. Donald Trump has just arrived, and plans to listen to arguments at the court – the first time a sitting president has attended arguments. Continue reading...

Measure that would fund homeland security but exclude money for ICE could conclude lengthy funding lapse An end to the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may be in sight, after Congress’s Republican leaders on Wednesday agreed to advance legislation that would fund most of the agency’s operations, with the exception of those involved in immigration enforcement. The pact may conclude the longest such funding lapse in US history, which last month caused security lines to stretch for hours at some airports as employees of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), a subagency of DHS, quit their jobs or called

Four states have now signed such legislation as Trump’s Save Act languishes in Senate with little chance of passage The governors of Florida and Mississippi signed legislation on Wednesday to require documented proof of citizenship to register to vote and to begin a process that will eventually unenroll voters who have not provided citizenship documentation. Four states have now passed proof-of-citizenship laws for voting this year, after South Dakota and Utah’s governors each signed proof of citizenship bills into law in March. Continue reading...

Most Americans support the rule that anyone born in the US is a US citizen, and a majority of supreme court justices are skeptical of Trump’s efforts to restrict it It was a surreal morning at the US supreme court. For more than two hours, the nation’s highest court considered arguments over whether Donald Trump – via an executive order – could tear down an idea that has been fundamental to the story and trajectory of the United States: that almost anyone born on US soil is an US citizen. Continue reading...

The BBC defended on Wednesday its handling of a DJ sacked years after he was the subject of a police investigation into allegations of sexual offences against a teenage boy. The controversy surrounding former radio host Scott Mills, 53, is the latest involving a high-profile presenter to roil the publicly funded broadcaster. London’s Metropolitan Police said this week that it questioned Mills in 2018 over allegations of “serious sexual offences” against a boy under the age of 16. The case was...

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed that Iran’s leader wanted a ceasefire, in a social media post that Tehran called “false and baseless”. Trump claimed that “Iran’s New Regime President” was seeking a ceasefire, which he said would happen only once the Strait of Hormuz was “open, free, clear”. It was not immediately clear who Trump was referring to in Iran, which still has the same president. The US president, who is scheduled to address the nation later in the day, had earlier said...

The United States attacked Iran without consulting its European allies. President Donald Trump assumed the operation would be a quick win, over before anyone had to take a position. Instead, Washington answered a question Western governments had long avoided. After years of pushing Nato towards confrontation with China, would the transatlantic alliance fight a war it had not chosen together? The answer was no. Iran and Taiwan are different cases. One sits on Europe’s wider periphery and carries...

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed on Wednesday to design a road map for critical minerals supply as they seek to deepen cooperation in the sector amid China’s dominance of global rare earths. The two leaders also affirmed that Japan and France will maintain close communication in support of efforts to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East and establish a high-level dialogue on artificial intelligence, Takaichi said at a joint press appearance...

The risks of environmental calamity in the Strait of Hormuz are mounting with each passing week of the Iran conflict, conservationists have warned, as giant tankers filled with fuel are trapped in a small area and Iran continues to fire missiles and drones at Gulf oil assets. The potential for catastrophe in the waterway was sharpened on Monday when a Kuwaiti crude tanker was set ablaze at Dubai Port in an Iranian attack that damaged its hull, sparking warnings of a possible oil spill. The...

Lawmakers in the United States have urged the administration of US President Donald Trump to take action against China’s alleged sanctioned oil imports by blacklisting port operators and blocking complex settlement networks. Despite Washington’s temporary easing of sanctions on Russian and Iranian oil to relieve price pressures from the US-Israeli war in Iran, the “House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party” has released a 41-page...

US President Donald Trump said attacks on Iran could stop within two or three weeks even without an agreement, leaving a question mark over the reopening of the vital Strait of Hormuz. “We’ll be leaving very soon,” US President Donald Trump told reporters in the White House on Tuesday. “Iran doesn’t have to make a deal.” The president was scheduled to address the nation and “provide an important update on Iran” at 9pm New York time on Wednesday (9am on Thursday in Hong Kong). Brent crude held...

At a petrol station in the Washington suburbs, drivers confronted the harsh domestic repercussions of the war on Iran, as spiking fuel prices hit household budgets hard. Jeanne Williams, 83, had just driven 160km from Richmond, Virginia, where she was visiting her elder sister. “That is horrible,” she said, stunned by the prices visible on the Liberty petrol station’s LED board. “I’m not angry. I’m just bewildered, confused, unhappy,” she said. “Because we didn’t ask for the war.” On Tuesday,...

Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz has thrown the global economic system into turmoil, yet Israel, which launched attacks on Tehran alongside the United States, has emerged as a rare exception. Since Israel and its US ally started the Middle East war on February 28, economies from Asia to Europe and the US have come under pressure from surging oil and natural gas prices that have driven up fuel and electricity costs. Israel, however, has remained largely insulated from the shock. Central...

Amid ongoing talks between the Trump administration and Cuban leaders, Sandro Castro, the controversial grandson of Fidel Castro, told a major US television news network that most Cubans on the island want to embrace capitalism and that the country’s hand-picked president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, has done a poor job. His statements to CNN’s Havana correspondent, Patrick Oppmann, echoed earlier calls by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for a change of leadership in Havana, and seem to suggest that...

Pakistan is hoping that its role in building a diplomatic off-ramp from the US-Israel war on Iran will enable it to become a key actor in the Middle East after the conflict ends, analysts say. If Islamabad can deliver without being sucked into the maelstrom, it can capitalise on its position as peacemaker by signing defence deals with Gulf monarchies and attracting investment from them to strengthen its weak economy. This will help finance Pakistan’s military expansion for its envisioned new...

China and Pakistan unveiled a joint five-point plan on Tuesday to restore peace in the Persian Gulf after five weeks of US-Israeli bombardment of Iran. China, Pakistan five-point initiative for restoring peace in the Middle East by scmp

Why didn’t China develop its own scientific and industrial revolutions when it made so many discoveries and advances over millennia? That is often called “Needham’s question”, named after the historian of Chinese science and tech Joseph Needham. Why didn’t China develop capitalism during the Song dynasty when it was so close to achieving a breakthrough with trade, commerce, currency and semi-industrialisation, and an emerging merchant class? The Hungarian-French sinologist Etienne Balazs, among...

A ⁠Russian An-26 ⁠military transport plane ⁠crashed into a cliff in Crimea, killing 29 people on board, due to a possible technical malfunction, Russia’s defence ministry said early on Wednesday, according to news agencies. Tass news agency, quoting the ministry, said communication with the aircraft was lost at about 6pm local time on Tuesday on a planned flight over Crimea. The peninsula, covered in sweeping mountains leading down to the coast of the Black Sea, was annexed by Russia from...

Global oil supplies are expected to be hit twice as hard this month as in March, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday, underlining the urgent need to resolve the conflict ‌over Iran that US President Donald Trump said could end soon. While Trump signalled he could wind down the war within weeks even without a deal, he also scaled up threats to pull the United States out of the Nato defence alliance if European states did not help stop Iran blocking the Strait of Hormuz. “I was never...

Almost three years ago, New York City joined governments across the country in banning TikTok from its phones over security concerns about the Chinese social media site. On Tuesday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a bona fide social media star, took to the app to announce a reversal: “TikTok, we’re back.” The city will now allow agencies to start posting again on the short-form social media site as long as departments follow a set of security precautions, according to a memo from city cybersecurity...

As with any conflict, the war in Iran has driven people to choose sides and adopt partisan positions. This includes the view that, despite the acts of aggression by the US and Israel, the Islamic Republic somehow “deserves” the attacks due to years of regional instability caused by its Axis of Resistance. This is not to suggest that the Iranian regime has always been a victim. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ transgressions through the Quds Force have been well documented. But let’s be...

A US judge blocked Donald Trump on Tuesday from proceeding with construction of a US$400 million ballroom on the site of the White House’s demolished East Wing, halting for now one of the Republican president’s most visible efforts to reshape the seat of American power. US District Judge Richard ‌Leon granted a request for a preliminary injunction by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a non-profit organisation that brought a lawsuit alleging Trump exceeded his authority when he razed...

Iran has the “necessary will” to end the war with the US and Israel, President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Tuesday, stressing that Tehran was seeking guarantees the conflict would not flare up again. The comment by the head of state – which boosted markets in the US – came after a day of heavy strikes on Iran and followed a tough warning from the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Guards threatened to retaliate against leading US tech firms such as Google, Meta and Apple from...

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday that they would target leading US technology firms like Apple, Google and Meta if more Iranian leaders were killed in “targeted assassinations”. “These companies, starting from 8pm Tehran time on Wednesday, April 1, should expect the destruction of their relevant units in exchange for every assassination in Iran,” the Guards said in a statement listing the names of 18 companies it alleged were complicit in the killing of officials. “We advise the...

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled against a law banning “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ+ kids in Colorado, one of about two dozen states that ban the discredited practice. An 8-1 High Court majority sided with a Christian counsellor who argues the law banning talk therapy violates the First Amendment. The justices agreed that the law raises free speech concerns and sent it back to a lower court to decide if it meets a legal standard that few laws pass. Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the...

King Charles III will visit the United States in late April, Buckingham Palace said on Tuesday, despite some calls for the trip to be cancelled or delayed amid the Iran war. Confirmation of the monarch’s first state visit to the US comes at a rocky time for the so-called US-UK “special relationship”, with US President Donald Trump repeatedly criticising Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s reticence over the US-Israel war against Tehran. The trip by the king and Queen Camilla would “celebrate the...

President ⁠Donald Trump on Tuesday urged countries that did not help in the US-Israeli strikes on Iran to buy American oil and go to ‌the Strait of Hormuz and “just TAKE it”. Trump singled out Britain and France as unhelpful in the month-long war that has roiled global markets, driven up energy prices and seen Iran effectively close oil ⁠tanker traffic through the Strait. “All of those countries that can’t ‌get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom, which ‌refused...

As global energy supplies are put under strain by Iranian disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, state-owned Chinese oil giant PetroChina has said its overall operations remain stable because most of its imports do not pass through the strait. However, the company’s investment operations in the Middle East had been “impacted to varying degrees”, as crude oil and natural gas imported through the strait accounted for about 10 per cent of its total operating volume, PetroChina...

A woman was bitten by a wolf in a shopping centre in the German city of Hamburg, the city’s deputy mayor said Tuesday, in the first such attack in modern times. The wolf entered the complex in the northern city’s Altona area on Monday evening after being repeatedly spotted in different parts of Hamburg over several days, Katharina Fegebank told journalists. The incident is the first of its kind since the species began returning to Germany almost 30 years ago, according to the Federal Agency for...

Geopolitical competition has long been understood in territorial terms. Power was measured by control over land, resources and populations. Rivalry was expressed through military confrontation, alliance formation and the defence of borders. As economic interdependence deepened in the 20th century, globalisation was seen as an arena within which states competed, but not itself the object of competition. That assumption no longer holds. Increasingly, the infrastructure of globalisation is becoming...

China’s military mouthpiece accused Japan of “dangerously expanding” its defence industry – in capacity, technology and international engagement – and said it had “crossed the red line”. In a rare full-page report on Monday, PLA Daily claimed Japan possessed an “astonishing” stockpile of nuclear materials and that it had the technology to produce nuclear weapons. It said 44.4 tonnes of plutonium had already been separated by the end of 2024 – enough to make about 5,500 nuclear warheads. The...

European governments breathed a sigh of relief in October when the US and China sealed a fragile trade truce that paused more sweeping Chinese rare earth restrictions and papered over a Sino-Dutch row over chipmaker Nexperia. Now, however, the European Union is being urged to come up with a battle plan should the ceasefire fail or expire. A spike in superpower tensions could expose the EU to Chinese export controls, potentially pulverising its military support for Ukraine, its own efforts to...

Emmanuel Macron touched down in Tokyo on Tuesday with a packed agenda and a receptive audience in a Japanese government anxious about a choked oil route and looking for support amid its diplomatic falling-out with Beijing. The French president’s three-day visit, before he heads to South Korea later in the week, comes as Japan looks to Europe for solidarity amid a crisis in the Strait of Hormuz that has sent oil prices soaring. The backdrop to Macron’s meetings with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae...

Gulf allies of the United States, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are urging President Donald Trump to continue prosecuting the war against Iran, arguing that Tehran has not been weakened enough by the month-long US-led bombing campaign, according to US, Gulf and Israeli officials. After private grumbling at the start of the war that they were not given adequate advance notice of the US-Israeli attack and complaining the US had ignored their warnings that the war would have...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US may need to reassess its relationship with Nato after the Iran war is finished, calling the military alliance’s alleged lack of support during the Middle East conflict “very disappointing”. Rubio assailed Nato members for denying access to military bases, following prior criticism from US President Donald Trump that partners in the security bloc are “cowards” and that the alliance is a “paper tiger”. “The president and our country will have to...

Iran is pushing the Houthis to prepare for a renewed campaign against Red Sea shipping, contingent upon any further escalation by the US in its war on the Islamic Republic, according to European officials familiar with the matter. Leaders of the Yemen-based Houthis, a militant group backed by Iran, are weighing options for more aggressive action after launching ballistic missiles at Israel, the people said, asking not to be named discussing sensitive matters. There are divisions within the...

Pop megastar Taylor Swift was sued by ⁠a Las Vegas ⁠performer on Monday who said ⁠Swift’s latest hit album The Life of a Showgirl violates her trademark rights. Maren Wade said in the complaint that marketing for Swift’s album threatened to “drown out” her long-running Confessions of a Showgirl stage show and ‌asked the court to block Swift from creating confusion with her album title. Representatives for Swift and her label Universal Music Group, also a defendant, did not immediately respond to...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced confidence on Monday that Iran’s Islamic republic would eventually fall, though he again said that was not the objective of the US-Israeli war on the country. “I think this regime will collapse internally. But at the moment, right now, what we’re doing is just degrading their military capacity, degrading their missile capacity, degrading their nuclear capacity and also weakening them from the inside,” Netanyahu told conservative US broadcaster...

Nasa began the countdown on Monday for humanity’s first launch to the moon in 53 years. The 32-storey Space Launch System rocket is poised to blast-off on Wednesday evening with four astronauts. After a day in orbit around Earth, the Orion capsule will propel the astronauts to the moon and back. There are no stops – just a quick U-turn around the moon. The nearly 10-day flight will end with a splashdown in the Pacific. Managers said the rocket is doing well following the latest round of repairs....

As tensions simmer along the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier – fuelled by disputes over the contested Durand Line, recurring cross-border strikes and the persistent threat of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) fighters operating from Afghan soil – a subtle but consequential geopolitical shift is under way. India is quietly but steadily stepping up its engagement with the Taliban. The urgency of this recalibration was underscored on March 16, when Pakistani military forces carried out one of the...

A man who crashed his pickup truck into a Detroit-area synagogue earlier in March was carrying out an attack inspired by the Iran-backed group Hezbollah and had sought to inflict as much damage as possible, the FBI said on Monday. Ayman Ghazali made a video before the attack at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, saying he wanted to “kill as many of them as I possibly can”, said Jennifer Runyan, head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Detroit, who announced new information more...

The US ⁠military is upgrading White House facilities for the new East Wing, the administration said on Monday, after US President Donald Trump said the ballroom would be built atop a “massive” fortified complex. “The military is making some upgrades ‌to their facilities here at the White House and I’m not privy to provide any more details on that,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said at a press briefing. Leavitt’s comments followed Trump’s own update on the US$400 million White House...

The United States has formally reopened its embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, after the restoration of full diplomatic relations with the South American country following the Trump administration’s removal of then-president Nicolas Maduro in early January. The State Department announced on Monday that it had resumed normal operations at the embassy in Caracas – which had been in need of significant repair, including remediation from mould – after a seven-year closure that began during US President...

Two Chinese container ships sailed through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday on their second attempt to leave the Gulf after turning back on Friday, ship-tracking data showed. The critical waterway has effectively been shut since the US-Israeli war with Iran began on February 28. The vessels ‌sailed in close formation out of the strait and into open waters, data on the MarineTraffic platform showed. “Both vessels successfully crossed on a second attempt today, marking the first container vessels to...

Israel’s parliament on Monday passed a law approving the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis. The bill’s passage marked a major victory for Israel’s far-right, which has pushed hard for the measure. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to the chamber to vote yes in person. The law makes the death penalty – by hanging – the default punishment for West Bank Palestinians convicted for nationalistic killings. The law also gives Israeli courts the authority to impose...

The Pentagon has flouted a court order blocking it from enforcing a policy limiting news reporters’ access to the Defence Department’s headquarters, a lawyer for The New York Times asserted on Monday in urging a federal judge to compel the government’s compliance with the 10-day-old order. US District Judge Paul Friedman did not immediately rule from the bench after hearing a second round of arguments from lawyers for the newspaper and the Trump administration. The New York Times claims Pentagon...

A French court on Monday issued an arrest warrant and a one-year prison sentence against the Chinese captain of a suspected Russian “shadow fleet” tanker over failing to comply with orders to stop his ship. Chen Zhangjie, 39, was sentenced in absentia after the French navy boarded the Boracay tanker in September before releasing the vessel and its crew days later, in what Russian leader Vladimir Putin condemned as “piracy”. The court in the western city of Brest also ordered Chen to pay a...

French authorities are investigating a suspected link to Iran after thwarting a bomb attack outside a Bank of America building in Paris at the weekend, the interior minister said on Monday. The authorities suspect a link to Iran due to similarities to other recent attempted attacks in Europe which a pro-Iran group claimed responsibility for, French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said. On Saturday morning, Paris police officers spotted two suspects carrying a shopping bag near the Bank of...

The world is bracing for an aluminium supply shock after two major Middle Eastern smelters were damaged in Iranian attacks over the weekend, a disruption likely to push more production to China in the near term and potentially for years to come, analysts said. Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), a leading regional producer, reported “significant damage” at its Abu Dhabi site following strikes by Iranian missiles and drones, while Aluminium Bahrain said it was assessing the extent of damage at its...

The justices grappled with questions about domiciles and foundlings, avoided policy debates and mused about the sweep of possible rulings.

President Trump’s presence in the court puts him face to face with justices whom he has tried to bully and intimidate.

A new study found that an end to universal birthright citizenship would disproportionately affect babies born to Asian parents.

Any decision by Iran to keep fighting would complicate President Trump’s stated goal of trying to end the war within weeks.

The war in Iran has exposed the need to mount a defense against foreign influence campaigns, officials and experts say.

With seeds, supplements and gadgets (but little expert guidance), Americans of all stripes are seeking wellness through what they eat.

An initial public offering of Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite company would most likely be a generational wealth event and one of the largest offerings ever.

In 1999, a 13-year-old girl was found dead in the Bronx. Then the trail went cold for 20 years, until an ingenious ploy by detectives produced a vital clue to her killer.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said she would oppose U.S. military aid to Israel, including for defensive systems.

“Look at that gas pump,” a new ad from a liberal group says. It is targeting Representative Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin over his support for the war effort.

Representative Julia Letlow of Louisiana, running to challenge Senator Bill Cassidy, is facing conservative blowback over remarks from 2020.

In all, 93 of the 460 academic programs at the university will be closed or paused. No students were majoring in 55 of the programs that are ending.

OpenAI, Anthropic, Waymo and other artificial intelligence companies hauled in $297 billion in funding in the first three months of the year.

Conducting research is hard; confirming the results is, too. And artificial intelligence isn’t yet ready to help, a major new study finds.

The E Street Band opened its Land of Hope and Dreams tour on Tuesday night, where the musician asked the crowd to choose “unity over division and peace over war.”

Trump wants to take away a fundamental American promise.

Higher oil prices and limited supply will accelerate a turn toward cleaner technologies, especially in Asia and Europe.

Also, NASA prepares to launch the first crewed moon mission in 50 years. Here’s the latest at the end of Wednesday.

Court papers show that Brian Cole Jr.’s lawyers might seek to blame a former Capitol Police officer whose name first surfaced in a right-wing media account and whom the F.B.I. briefly investigated.

The baby was struck by a stray bullet on Wednesday afternoon in the Williamsburg neighborhood, the police said.

U.S. prosecutors charged that Zhan Petrosyants, known as Johnny, submitted millions of dollars in false health care claims. He and his twin brother are close associates of Mr. Adams.

The director, Luanne James, was fired at a board meeting for the Rutherford County Library System on Monday after she refused to move certain books to the adult section.