News & Current Events

[ad_1] The Trump administration this week levied sweeping tariffs across the globe, provoking retaliation from other countries and sending the stock market tumbling. An unexpected consequence? Penguin memes. Images of the flightless birds have waddled their way across the internet this week after President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Australian territories near Antarctica that are home to many penguins but no people. One meme featured an altered photo of the explosive February White House meeting in which Trump and Vice President JD Vance publicly clashed with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine. Instead of a fiery confrontation with the wartime leader, however, Trump and Vance sit next to a black-and-white bird. One person who posted the meme wrote, "Maybe it didn't say thank you?" in a possible reference to Vance's accusation that Zelenskyy had not appropriately […]

[ad_1] File photo: US agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins (Pictur credit: AP) US agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins, who took up the charge previous month, has stirred fresh debate over the future of US President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs after her recent TV appearance. Rollins was seen dodging direct questions on whether the levies would remain in place.Speaking on CNN’s State of the Union, the agri secretary repeatedly stepsided anchor Jake Tapper’s attempts to pin down the administration’s long-term trade strategy.Tapper asked, “How long do you expect this tariff chaos is going to be going on? Thirty days? Sixty days? Ninety days?”However, rather than commit to a timeline, Rollins reiterated the administration’s stance on putting American interests first.She said that Trump’s tariff policies marked the beginning of a “new American order, the new American economic plan.”“So I think we’ll see in short […]

[ad_1] Representative image (Picture credit: AP) A US federal judge has, for the second time, ordered the Trump administration to return a Maryland man wrongly deported to El Salvador, despite warnings he would face danger there.The man, 29-year-old Kilmar Abrego Garcia, remains jailed in El Salvador’s infamous Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (Cecot), after being mistakenly sent back last month.In a sharp rebuke, US district Jjdge Paula Xinis on Sunday ruled that the government had no legal grounds to detain or deport Abrego Garcia. “They had no legal authority to arrest him, no justification to detain him, and no grounds to send him to El Salvador, let alone deliver him into one of the most dangerous prisons in the Western Hemisphere,” Xinis wrote in her order, as per news agency AP.Abrego Garcia had previously been granted protection from deportation […]

[ad_1] Representative image (Picture credit: AP) Erez Reuveni, a senior Justice Department lawyer, has been placed on paid administrative leave after a high-profile courtroom appearance where he failed to defend the government’s position in the controversial deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man wrongly sent to El Salvador. As reported by ABC News, the DOJ cited a “failure to zealously advocate” for government interests as the reason for his suspension. Reuveni appeared frustrated and unable to provide legal justification during Friday’s hearing, where Judge Paula Xinis ruled that the deportation was unlawful and ordered Abrego Garcia’s return.According to Politico, Reuveni told the court that he had urged his DOJ superiors to bring Abrego Garcia back and admitted he couldn’t explain why he was detained or labelled as an MS-13 member. The DOJ later removed his name from official filings […]

[ad_1] File photo: Suspended nurse Jennifer Melle (Picture credit: X) A senior NHS nurse on Sunday was suspended after addressing a transgender paedophile as "Mister" and later speaking publicly about the incident. Jennifer Melle, 40, was escorted from St Helier Hospital in Carshalton, Surrey, in tears following a short meeting with a manager last week, Daily Mail reported.Ms Melle, a devout Christian originally from Uganda, claims she was punished for whistleblowing, despite being subjected to racist abuse by the patient. “I am devastated to have been suspended just for whistleblowing,” she was quoted saying by The Daily Mail. “Despite being the one placed at risk, I am the one being punished. The message I have received is clear: I am expected to tolerate racism, deny biological reality and suppress my deeply held Christian beliefs.”The patient, known only as Patient X, […]

[ad_1] File photo: The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg (Picture credit: AP) A startling error by US national security adviser Mike Waltz reportedly led to The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg being mistakenly added to a top-level Signal chat discussing American strikes in Yemen. According to three unnamed sources quoted by The Guardian, the breach stemmed from a phone contact mix-up traced back to the 2024 campaign, a mishap that US President Donald Trump considered firing Waltz over.The internal White House investigation found that Goldberg’s number was saved on Waltz’s phone under a completely different contact, Brian Hughes, now spokesperson for the National Security Council.The confusion began when Hughes, in October 2024, forwarded Goldberg’s critical email about Trump’s stance on wounded US soldiers to Waltz. The message included Goldberg’s signature block, complete with his phone number. Waltz didn’t contact Goldberg, but somehow […]

[ad_1] Aussie MMA coach claims 'nightmare' US prison ordeal after visa issue (Picture credit: coachsubotic/Instagram) Australian MMA coach Renato Subotic claimed he was mistakenly detained and jailed in the United States over a visa issue, describing his experience as a “chaotic” and humiliating ordeal that saw him locked up with violent inmates and denied basic rights. Subotic, who had travelled to the US to conduct a seminar, said the incident has left him shocked at how quickly someone's freedom can be taken away.The 33-year-old, who has coached Australia’s national MMA team, was stopped at the border and taken to an isolated room where he says he was interrogated for three hours. “The officer interviewing me looked like he was looking for something wrong,” Subotic wrote on Instagram, adding that despite being cooperative and providing full details of his trip, he […]

[ad_1] Kevin Hassett defends Donald Trump White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett came out defence of President Donald Trump's trade policies, dismissing concerns about increased costs for American consumers amid the massive backlash and recession fears."So the fact is, the countries are angry and retaliating -- and, by the way, coming to the table. I got a report from the [US Trade Representative] last night that more than 50 countries have reached out to the president to begin a negotiation, but they're doing that because they understand that they bear a lot of the tariff." Further defending Trump administration policies, he added, "I don't think that you're going to see a big effect on the consumer in the US, because I do think that the reason why we have a persistent long-run trade deficit is these people have […]