News

The world is more divided than ever, but there’s still something (nearly) everyone agrees on: The U.S. is unloved.

In a striking move that ends a nearly four-decades-old relationship between the federal government and the Episcopal Church, the denomination announced on Monday that it is terminating its partnership with the government to resettle refugees, citing moral opposition to resettling white Afrikaners from South Africa who have been classified as refugees by President Trump's administration.

The first group of white South Africans granted refugee status by Donald Trump’s administration has arrived in the US, stirring controversy in South Africa as the US president declared the Afrikaners victims of a “genocide”.

House Republicans have unveiled the cost-saving centerpiece of Trump's “big, beautiful bill,” at least $880 billion in cuts largely to Medicaid to help cover the cost of $4.5 trillion in tax breaks.

The Trump administration is attempting to wipe decades of efficiency standards off the books.

We’re gonna be so fucked. Get ready for shittier experiences with internet providers and cell companies.

Republicans are drunk with power. What a stupid fucking idea. There’s no chance of banning porn. Then they wouldn’t be able to jerk to Trans women and feel shame after.

Archived at https://archive.is/AFM2A

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced a landmark $1.375 billion settlement with Google, resolving claims that the tech giant unlawfully collected and used Texans’ sensitive personal data.

Alexander is the last living American citizen still believed to be held hostage by Hamas. The terror group is believed to also be holding the bodies of four dead American hostages, according to U.S. officials.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250512123902/https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/unsealed-files-nyc-mayors-criminal-case-shed-light-investigation-rcna205998

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250512121943/https://apnews.com/article/rumors-immigration-raids-ice-washington-dc-bec65e6fe8f6c5808b1847afabd04eb2

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250512121730/https://www.wired.com/story/cbp-rescinds-policies-on-care-of-pregnant-women-infants/

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250512121104/https://www.theguardian.com/law/2025/may/09/end-habeas-corpus-detention-trump-stephen-miller

Long before she was a Fox News host who pushed pro-Trump election conspiracy theories, Jeanine Pirro was an ambitious New York politician whose career stalled after she was recorded plotting to bug her then-husband’s boat to catch him in an affair.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250512121945/https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/09/us/rumeysa-ozturk-tufts-bail-release

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250512121811/https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2025-05-09/ice-releases-fabian-schmidt-n-h-green-card-holder-in-detention-for-2-months

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250512122630/https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/11/politics/ice-facility-democrats-arrest-newark-mayor-baraka

Harris poll for Guardian finds people reconsidering major life events such as having children or buying a home

Summary

More than two decades ago, a group of young, predominantly male internet users started congregating on an online forum called 4chan, where they circulated memes, co-ordinated pranks and orchestrated disinformation campaigns. A subset of them formed a loose collective that called itself Anonymous.

U.S. and Chinese officials said Monday they had reached a deal to roll back most of their recent tariffs and call a 90-day truce in their trade war for more talks on resolving their trade disputes.

The Trump administration has halted some regulatory matters involving Musk's companies and fired people from agencies investigating Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink.

To fellow travelers, Hannah Brehm likely looked like she was taking a belated babymoon well into her third trimester.

Gaza’s water “comes from wells with salt water unfit for consumption. They have water treatment plants, Israel should hit those plants. When the entire world says we have gone insane and this is a humanitarian disaster — we will say, it’s not an end, it’s a means.” That was the opinion of Giora Eiland, adviser to the defense minister and former head of the Israeli National Security Council, writing in Yedioth Ahronoth on October 9, 2023.⁠[1]

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250512122326/https://apnews.com/article/bureau-of-prisons-staffing-trump-hiring-freeze-justice-department-1d1d892dccaf97db2c6fb8696e69ac51

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250512122150/https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2025/05/09/barnard-suspends-wkcr-and-spectator-reporters-who-covered-butler-library-protest/

Archived at https://archive.is/SOBWw

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Saturday that federal, state and local officials are investigating the outbreak linked to foods produced by Fresh & Ready Foods LLC of San Fernando, California. The FDA says the 10 people who fell ill were in California and Nevada, and required hospitalization.

In a media briefing after a second day of talks with U.S. negotiators on Sunday, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng said trade talks with the U.S. “achieved substantial progress and reached important consensus.”

After four days that saw the worst fighting between India and Pakistan in half a century, as well as some nuclear saber-rattling, Donald Trump on Saturday declared that both countries had reached a “FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE.”

Reporting Highlights

If you had to pick just one place to take the temperature of relations between the U.S. and Canada right now, consider The Rubber Duck Museum in Point Roberts, Wash.

Trump’s tariffs are upending crop trading, delaying tractor purchases and constraining imports of chemical supplies into the United States.

In a letter obtained by NBC News, current and former National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health employees say the wide-scale reduction will lead to injuries and deaths.

In what may be the most valuable gift ever extended to the United States from a foreign government, the Trump administration is preparing to accept a super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the royal family of Qatar.

The clock started ticking on a financial time bomb this week for student loan borrowers — those in default will now be referred to debt collections.

When asked about the use of polygraph exams, DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement, "The Department of Homeland Security is a national security agency. We can, should, and will polygraph personnel."

The world's first deep-sea mining test was conducted by US company Deepsea Ventures in July 1970. A vacuum-cleaner-like machine bulldozed through the abyss and sucked up 60,000 baseball-sized lumps off the bottom of the ocean. The nodules – filled with manganese, nickel and cobalt that accumulate a few millimetres per million years – were hoped to become a resource for the nation's industrial endeavours. There remains high interest in them today, as they're replete with minerals for making batteries for electric cars and smartphones, as well as medical and military technology.

At the South Carolina department of public health, for example, more than 70 staff were laid off in March due to funding cuts.

The Trump administration must halt much of its dramatic downsizing of the federal workforce, a California judge ordered Friday.

President Donald Trump continued a firing spree at the Library of Congress on Saturday when he dismissed the top copyright official in the nation — a position traditionally overseen by the legislative branch.

A man checked out 100 books from Beachwood Library in Beachwood, Ohio, covering Jewish history, African-American history, and LGBTQ topics, and later posted social media videos showing the books with captions referencing “cleansing” libraries before burning them.

Spotify, SoundCloud and other platforms have pulled the song, but its spread underscores the challenges tech platforms face in removing content that violate their policies.

A former Pentagon contractor works with secretive sections of US special forces, then ups and moves to Russia. He gets married, radicalizes and starts popping up on Telegram channels as the leader of a neo-Nazi terrorist group recruiting Americans.

The recent arrest comes less than a year after Nathaniel Radimak was released from prison for the California road attacks, KABC-TV reported.

The trove of court records, which had been sealed, opens a window into the criminal case and shows that even as Washington officials were backing away from the prosecution, investigators in Manhattan were moving forward.

The website for USGS said the earthquake originated shortly after 9 a.m. EDT about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from Greenback, Tennessee, which is about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Knoxville.

Attorney General Ken Paxton described the settlement as sending a message to tech companies that he will not allow them to make money off of “selling away our rights and freedoms.”

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said Friday she won’t challenge Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia in next year’s midterms, delivering relief for some Republicans who worry she’s too divisive to win.

Using the Kremlin’s interpreter was “a very bad idea” that put Witkoff “at a real disadvantage,” Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, told NBC News.

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United States Customs and Border Protection plans to log every person leaving the country by vehicle by taking photos at border crossings of every passenger and matching their faces to their passports, visas, or travel documents, WIRED has learned.

Mayor’s wife accuses government of targeting her husband as video shows him being placed in handcuffs by officials

Radar screens at New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport went black again early Friday morning.

David Steiner, a former CEO of the nation’s largest waste management company who currently serves on the FedEx board of directors, is poised to take over control of the U.S. Postal Service, becoming the nation’s 76th postmaster general.

Tesla told Austin workers on its Model Y and Cybertruck lines to stay home for the week of Memorial Day, three workers told Business Insider.

The country’s vast mineral deposits include rare earths

Pakistan has launched attacks on "multiple targets" across India, according to the media wing of Pakistan's military.

“His selection isn’t just a conflict of interest — it’s an aggressive step toward handing America’s mail system over to corporate interests,” Brian Renfroe, the president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, said in a statement. “Private shippers have been waiting to get USPS out of parcel delivery for years.”

The Department of Agriculture is demanding states hand over personal data of food assistance recipients — including Social Security numbers, addresses and, in at least one state, citizenship status, according to emails shared with NPR by an official who was not allowed to speak publicly.

The Trump administration’s widespread layoffs and firings for government workers are likely unlawful, a federal judge in California tentatively said at a Friday hearing.

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has selected Rocket Lab’s medium-lift reusable Neutron for the Rocket Cargo mission...Earlier this year, the company announced that its Neutron rocket will land its payloads at sea. To facilitate this, the company is modifying an offshore barge, named “Return on Investment,” to serve as an ocean landing platform for returning missions...Rocket Lab, along with Stoke Space, will now be eligible to bid against established giants like Blue Origin, SpaceX, and United Launch Alliance.

NEWARK, N.J. (PIX11) — Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was taken into custody by homeland security at an ICE facility in New Jersey on Friday afternoon, according to Alina Habba, the Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey.

The Pentagon has ordered all military leaders and commands to pull and review all of their library books that address diversity, anti-racism or gender issues by May 21, according to a memo issued to the force on Friday.

May 9 (Reuters) - A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Friday to immediately release a Tufts University student from Turkey who has been held for over six weeks in a Louisiana immigration detention facility after she co-wrote an opinion piece criticizing her school's response to Israel's war in Gaza.