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A NATION THAT KILLS ITS OWN A NATION THAT KILLS ITS OWN

Americans kill their citizens with guns at a rate no other developed nation would accept. Long ago, we should have settled the debate and silenced opposition. Instead, it became mere background noise. Twenty-six children in one classroom, six-year-olds, were slaughtered, shot to death while hiding from a gunman. There was no battlefield, no riot, no civil war. There was only a young man with a gun in a country that had come to accept death as an inevitable risk. As a nation, many of us declared “never again,” yet Americans have consistently overlooked the lives of children in favor of guns, barroom cowboys, road rage, bloodshed, and death. This preference has fostered an environment where th…
Explosive device thrown at protest outside NYC Mayor Mamdani home Explosive device thrown at protest outside NYC Mayor Mamdani home

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has said that an “improvised explosive device” was thrown during a protest outside New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s home, with two men taken into custody. The statement on Sunday came a day after the incident outside the mayor’s residence, Gracie Mansion, where far-right, anti-Muslim demonstrators, led by activist Jake Lang, clashed with counterprotesters. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said a preliminary analysis has found that the item thrown by a man at the protest was “not a hoax device or a smoke bomb”. “It is, in fact, an improvised explosive device that could have caused serious injury or death,” she said, adding that further analysis wo…
Behind the moon for 40 minutes the greatest solitude humans have known Behind the moon for 40 minutes the greatest solitude humans have known

This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here. The crescent Earth — our oasis holding everything we cherish, now just a speck in the infinite blackness — seemed to kiss the jagged lunar surface. The moon’s thousands of scars projected themselves across the Earth as it slowly slipped out of sight. “I’m actually getting chills right now just thinking about it,” said Artemis II Cmdr. Reid Wiseman, talking to The Times while still in space Wednesday evening (Earth time). “It was just an unbelievable sight, and then it was gone.” For 40 minutes Monday, it was just them, their high-tech lifeboat and the moon. The crew members paused their rigorous scientific …
5 year old girl swept into ocean off Laguna Beach is identified and mourned 5 year old girl swept into ocean off Laguna Beach is identified and mourned

The body of a 5-year-old girl who was swept into the ocean with her family in Laguna Beach before vanishing in dangerously high surf has been recovered. The girl’s body was spotted during an aerial coastline survey about 1:30 p.m. Thursday near Christmas Cove, about a quarter of a mile away from where she was initially lost at Treasure Island Beach, the city announced in a news release. The child was later identified as Amada Mia Brown of San Bernardino, said Sgt. Lizbeth Gwisdalla of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Amada’s father, Aaron Brown, described his daughter as full of life and “a sweet little baby” in an interview with NBC. “She loved the beach and she wasn’t afraid of wate…
We Built Systems to Avoid Responsibility and Now They Are Failing Us We Built Systems to Avoid Responsibility and Now They Are Failing Us

Halenews Editorial A HaleNews feature editorial on responsibility, governance, and the cost of delay. For much of modern history, progress has been treated as a natural force—something that happens automatically as time passes, technology improves, and societies mature. This assumption is comforting, but it is also false. Progress has never been inevitable. It has always been the result of deliberate choices made under pressure, often against the interests of those who benefited from delay. What distinguishes the current moment is not the presence of crisis, but the convergence of crises that all demand the same thing: responsibility exercised before catastrophe makes it unavoidable. Climate…
The Needless Murder of Over 150 Girls in Minab Iran The Needless Murder of Over 150 Girls in Minab Iran

We remember the small rituals that made the day feel ordinary, because ordinary is what a school is supposed to be. A braid tightened with quick fingers. A scarf adjusted in a hallway mirror. The paper smell inside a notebook when you open it too fast. The soft ache of a backpack strap on a shoulder that’s still growing. We remember the way our teachers tried to make us brave about quizzes, the way we pretended not to care and then cared anyway. We remember laughter spilling down a corridor like marbles—impossible to gather once it’s loose. We walked into Shajareh Tayyebeh believing, with the stubborn faith children are allowed to have, that a classroom is a kind of sanctuary. Not holy, not …
Foreign element caused recall of 90000 bottles of child ibuprofen Foreign element caused recall of 90000 bottles of child ibuprofen

Federal regulators have ordered a nationwide recall of nearly 90,000 bottles of children’s ibuprofen after contamination was discovered in two production lots. The medicine, manufactured by Strides Pharma and distributed by Taro Pharmaceuticals, was pulled from circulation following complaints of “gel-like masses and black particles” in the liquid suspension. The Food and Drug Administration confirmed the recall earlier this month, classifying it as a Class II event—meaning the risk of serious harm is considered remote, but temporary or reversible health effects are possible. Parents are being urged to stop using the affected bottles immediately, which carry expiration dates of January 31, 2…
Kristi Noem and the politics of cruelty Kristi Noem and the politics of cruelty

Kristi Noem’s defense of the ICE agent who killed Renee Nicole Good has ignited one of the most explosive political firestorms of her career. Her remarks—branding Good a “domestic terrorist” and standing behind a podium emblazoned with a Nazi-era slogan—have drawn condemnation from lawmakers, activists, and ordinary citizens who see her as emblematic of authoritarian excess. The controversy is not a passing headline; it is a defining moment that reveals the deeper instincts of a politician who has built her career on toughness, loyalty, and spectacle, but who now finds herself accused of weaponizing cruelty into policy. The reaction to her stance has been visceral because it touches a raw ne…
Energy Department Announces two Billion for Projects Strengthening Power Grid Energy Department Announces two Billion for Projects Strengthening Power Grid

The Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a $1.9 billion funding opportunity for projects aimed at speeding up improvements to the nation’s power grid to meet rising electricity demand while bringing down costs, the department said in a March 12 statement. The money comes from the $10.5 billion authorized for a five-year grid resilience program under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. The funds were to be disbursed to states and electric utilities over five years. The money will help build more than 600 miles of new transmission lines and upgrade about 400 miles of existing lines so that they can carry more current. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the funding is i…
Jordan Jones shot dead Jordan Jones shot dead

Local police reported that a security officer at a Georgia club was shot and murdered while trying to break up a quarrel between a guy and a woman. The Acworth Police Department reported in a news statement that Jordan Alexander Jones, 28, of Lawrenceville, Ga., was shot and killed approximately 2:42 a.m. local time while trying to break up the altercation. According to the news release, when APD officers got to the site, they "found a victim with a gunshot wound." "As soon as they got there, officers started helping until Cobb County Fire and Metro EMS arrived. The APD said, "The victim was taken to Kennestone Hospital, where he later died from his injuries." The police agency stated it got…
Abortion is When the State Claims Your Body Abortion is When the State Claims Your Body

Editorial There is a particular cruelty to laws that pretend to be principled while operating as punishment. They arrive draped in solemn language—“life,” “values,” “tradition”—but what they deliver is not morality. It is power, exercised downward, toward the people least able to absorb it. When courts reinstate abortion bans, as they have again, they are not adjudicating an abstract ethical puzzle. They are making a decision about whose pain counts, whose future is disposable, and whose body the state is entitled to commandeer. Abortion is not a thought experiment. It is not a philosophy seminar. It is a medical reality that intersects with rape, poverty, disability, illness, coercion, and …
The exodus of California tech billionaires from the Golden State to Florida Gold Coast The exodus of California tech billionaires from the Golden State to Florida Gold Coast

This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here. MIAMI and PALM BEACH, Fla. — Last December, a large coterie of Silicon Valley billionaires descended upon Miami to attend Art Basel, the ritzy, contemporary art fair that marks the end of the moneyed set’s yearly social calendar. Much of the buzz surrounded the spectacle of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, among the world’s richest men, docking his 466-foot, $450-million yacht, the Dragonfly, in Biscayne Bay while he stepped ashore to view the art installations. But the chatter pivoted quickly among a contingent of a dozen California billionaires. Weeks earlier a new ballot measure — backed by the SEIU-United…
A timeline of British royal sagas and scandals down the decades A timeline of British royal sagas and scandals down the decades

Former British prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, brother of the United Kingdom’s King Charles II, was released by police on Thursday after being arrested and held for several hours on suspicion of misconduct in public office over his links to convicted late American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Mountbatten-Windsor, who turned 66 the day of his arrest, is the first British royal in more than 350 years to be arrested and held in police custody – the last one was King Charles I, who was arrested by parliamentary forces in 1647 and put on trial for high treason. His princely title was revoked last year over his links to Epstein and allegations that the two men sexually abused Virginia Giuffre …
Vance says he believes progress is being made in negotiations with Iran Vance says he believes progress is being made in negotiations with Iran

United States Vice President JD Vance has said he believes progress is being made in negotiations with Iran, despite President Donald Trump rejecting Tehran’s latest proposal as unacceptable. The comments come as diplomatic efforts continue to prevent a collapse in the fragile ceasefire between Washington and Tehran. Meanwhile, Brigadier-General Mohammad Akrami Nia says Iran’s military remains at “the highest level of readiness”, warning that “there is no room for retreat” as tensions with the US persist. Iranian officials have continued to signal they are prepared to respond to any escalation. Separately, Israel says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a “secret” visit to the United Arab…
Will Marco Rubio Last As Secretary Of State Will Marco Rubio Last As Secretary Of State

Editorial A cabinet room is not built for silence. Cameras hum, chairs shift, the choreography of agreement unfolds before anyone speaks. Praise is currency there, but it is never free. When Donald Trump turned toward Marco Rubio after the Munich speech, smiling, approving, and joking that he was doing so well he might be fired, the line landed the way these lines always do—laughter first, interpretation later. The remark lived in that peculiar space Trump has mastered, where humor is both shield and message, where admiration carries a reminder about gravity: the center must remain the center. Rubio smiled. Politicians learn that smile early, the one that acknowledges the joke while absorbin…
President Trump Fires Attorney General Pam Bondi President Trump Fires Attorney General Pam Bondi

President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi in the middle of an escalating international conflict, removing the nation’s top law enforcement authority at the exact moment legal clarity matters most. There was no transition window, no easing into change—just a sudden rupture that leaves a sharper question than the conflict itself: who is enforcing the law now, and on whose terms? A sitting president has dismissed his attorney general in the middle of an escalating international conflict. Not after resolution, not during a lull, not at the clean edge of a policy cycle—but in the thick of it, when legal clarity and institutional steadiness are not luxuries but requirements. That tim…
William Shatner from Star Trek Falls From Horse With Serious Injury William Shatner from Star Trek Falls From Horse With Serious Injury

William Shatner’s recent accident is more than a celebrity headline. At 94, the Star Trek legend fell from a horse, shattering his shoulder and requiring surgery. Days later, he appeared at the Saturn Awards, visibly fatigued but still commanding the stage, asking only for a chair as he accepted recognition for his contributions to science fiction. That moment, followed by his surgery, forces us to confront uncomfortable truths about aging, vitality, and society’s double standards. We celebrate youth for daring but chastise elders for the same courage. If a 30-year-old athlete falls from a horse, we call it grit. When Shatner does it, critics call it reckless. Yet risk is universal. Horses t…
Spielberg and Coppola and Lucas is the toxic friendship that built modern Hollywood Spielberg and Coppola and Lucas is the toxic friendship that built modern Hollywood

A new book captures how Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg went from allies to rivals, driving a filmmaking revolution in the process. By Patrick Smith Removed from bookmarks I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice George Lucas should have died. It was 1962; the 17-year-old had just crashed his yellow Autobianchi convertible into a walnut tree, in Modesto, California. The car rolled, bounced and came to rest – it was “beyond mangled, flipped upside down and twisted like a crushed Coke can against the tree”, writes Paul Fischer in his new book, The Last Kings of Hollywood: Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg and the …
Did Donald Trump suffer a serious stroke Did Donald Trump suffer a serious stroke

Opinion | Editorial A sitting president allegedly suffered a stroke in 2025, and the White House kept it secret. The claim, reported by a doctor, is explosive not because it is unprecedented but because it fits a long tradition of concealment. American democracy has always struggled with the tension between transparency and control, between the public’s right to know and the state’s instinct to protect power. If Donald Trump did suffer a stroke, and if his administration hid it, then we are not simply talking about one man’s health. We are talking about the erosion of democratic accountability itself. The presidency is not just another job. It is the most powerful office in the world, and it…
Kansas town is getting an underground nuclear reactor and splits the townspeople Kansas town is getting an underground nuclear reactor and splits the townspeople

The so-called Gravity Reactor is being proposed by a California-based start-up company from a father-daughter duo, Liz Muller and Richard Muller Removed from bookmarks A pilot project to bury a nuclear reactor one mile underneath a town in Kansas has split the opinion of local residents, with some fearing the environmental impacts while others hope it will create economic opportunities. The so-called Gravity Reactor is being proposed by Deep Fission, a California-based start-up from a father-daughter duo, Liz Muller and Richard Muller, emeritus professor of physics at University of California, and an inventor. It will be the first time a commercial nuclear reactor operates underground. The s…