President hijacks straightforward ceremony with nonsensical grammatical inquiries

Strikes on Bemani damaged key water reservoir for 20,000 people living in area amid a historic drought in the country

Military strikes that damaged two water storage facilities in southern Iran may constitute a war crime, military and legal experts say, after reviewing media reports and visual evidence of a 10 June strike on Bemani, a small district about 2 miles from the strait of Hormuz.

It’s unclear if the strikes deliberately targeted the district’s water tanks, or if they unintentionally destroyed a key reservoir for about 20,000 people living nearby. But if the tanks were the target, then the legal question becomes critical, Brian Finucane, a former state department lawyer, said. “It’s either a military objective or it’s a civilian object: attacking one is lawful, attacking the other is a war crime,” Finucane said.

The announcement comes almost a week after the U.S. government sanctioned Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel

Plan comes after major New York Times report alleges files became source of crisis within Trump administration

Democrats on the House oversight committee, led by Representative Robert Garcia, plan to call on JD Vance to testify on the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files following a major report on Wednesday from the New York Times, which described how the Epstein files became the source of an internal crisis within Trump’s administration.

Garcia will call on the committee chair, James Comer, to summon the vice-president to speak, according to a post from Max Cohen, a reporter with Punchbowl News. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether Vance would agree to appear.

Government urged to reconsider proposal for 1,100 Afghans, currently stranded in Qatar, who worked with US forces

Dozens of US lawmakers urged the Trump administration on Thursday to roll back any plans to ship to unsafe third countries Afghan nationals who worked with US forces during the war in their homeland.

In a letter seen by Reuters, more than 80 House of Representatives members, including at least three Republicans as well as Democrats, appealed to secretary of state, Marco Rubio, to reconsider plans for 1,100 Afghans who have been stranded in Qatar awaiting relocation.

The plaques feature ‘little concern for decorum or accuracy,’ one historian said

Tulsi Gabbard initially said she would leave June 30 but bumped up the date to June 19 after speaking with Bill Pulte and Donald Trump, according to a report

Live webcam footage from atop the Washington Monument shows a highly visible ‘8’, while the others appears fainter

US federal authorities are investigating what appears to be a massive etching of “8647” into the grass of the National Mall.

Live webcam footage from atop the Washington Monument as of Thursday afternoon shows the markings, with a highly visible “8,” along with less visible “6”, “4” and “7”.

US president urges congressional Republicans to use budget reconciliation procedure to enact his priorities

Donald Trump has demanded that congressional Republicans get to work on a party-line measure that would ensure defense spending reaches its highest level in decades and also make a likely fruitless attempt to impose a host of new restrictions on voters nationwide.

In a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, the president said he was “calling on Republicans in Congress to IMMEDIATELY advance and pass the forthcoming $350 Billion Reconciliation Bill”, which would also include the Save America Act, a rightwing makeover of elections that his allies in Congress have sought to pass for months, without success.

Congressional Republicans, unenthusiastic about Pulte’s elevation to DNI, were unable to extend FISA legislation without Democratic votes

US president had faced widespread criticism of his decision to install a controversial ally, Bill Pulte

Donald Trump has nominated Jay Clayton, former head of the top US markets watchdog, to be the country’s leading intelligence official.

The US president faced widespread criticism of his decision to install a controversial ally, Bill Pulte, as acting director of national intelligence while searching for a permanent candidate.

The president has privately expressed anger over the shrinking stockpile and the White House sit-down is probably ‘going to be ugly,’ according to NBC News

Unless a judge steps in, Trump’s birthday bash will be one for the history books for all the wrong reasons, lawsuit says

The law is set to expire on Friday at midnight

The event is set to begin at 8 pm on June 14

Senate Majority Leader John Thune could well end up the loser of Trump’s war with Democrats over Bill Pulte simply because House Speaker Mike Johnson is closer to the president, writes John Bowden

Vance Boelter changes plea in murders of Melissa and Mark Hortman as prosecutors agree not to pursue death penalty

The man charged in the political assassinations of the top Democrat in the Minnesota house and her husband, as well as the non-fatal shootings of a state senator and his wife, pleaded guilty in federal court on Thursday after prosecutors said they would not seek the death penalty.

Vance Boelter was charged with murdering Melissa Hortman, the Minnesota house speaker, and her husband, Mark Hortman, and with shooting state senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman. Boelter came to their doors in the early hours of 14 June 2025, disguised as a police officer and driving a fake squad car.

Inmate managed to flee Texas detention center in March, sparking 24-hour manhunt involving multiple agencies

Justice Department insists the fund is ‘not moving forward’ but officials are reportedly telling allies another story

The fast-tracked ICE training program began as the Trump administration pushed to hire 10,000 new agents to expedite the deportation of tens of thousands of people — but officials have since scrapped the program