Category: Australasia

President Donald Trump is doubling down on his feud with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Trump said the Italian leader “begged” him to take a picture together during this week’s Group of Seven summit in France, which prompted Meloni to post a social media video blasting his claim as “completely made up.” Now, Trump has hit out at Meloni again, this time in an interview with NBC News’ Gabe Gutierrez.
“She was a big fan. But I don't want her as a fan because she was not there — along with the NATO group — having to do with the Strait,” Trump said later on Friday, referencing the Strait of Hormuz.
The feud began after Trump claimed Meloni wanted to take a picture with him “so badly,” adding, “I wouldn't have taken it, but I felt sorry for her,” according to La7 TV, an Italian news channel. The remarks enraged Meloni, who lashed out at the president in a brief social media video on Friday morning.
She captioned the video: “Neither I nor Italy ever beg.”
President Donald T..

Trump signs Iran deal during visit to VersaillesIran's supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei has accused Donald Trump of making a deal with Tehran out of “desperation”, as he confirmed his approval of the long-awaited plan.
The supreme leader said he authorised the agreement despite holding a different view, after receiving assurances from president Masoud Pezeshkian and other senior officials that Iran's rights and the interests of the “Resistance Front” would be safeguarded.
Khamenei, who has not been seen since he was injured in the US-Israeli attacks on 28 February, added that future face-to-face negotiations with the United States would not mean accepting “the enemy's position”.
The US military earlier confirmed it had lifted its blockade on Iranian ports near the Strait of Hormuz, as officials claim millions of barrels are once again flowing through the vital waterway.
The navy will “remain in the general area” to ensure the agreement with Iran is “adhered to, obeyed a..

Members of a Colorado homeowners’ association were left fuming after receiving violations for brown grass — as city officials urged people to conserve water amidst a historic drought.
Colorado declared a state-wide drought emergency on June 4 due to record-low snowpack and persistent, extremely warm temperatures across the state.
Despite the declaration, members of the Rock Creek Homeowners Association, which covers a neighborhood in Superior, about 20 miles northwest of Denver, say they’ve received notice from the HOA after parts of their lawn turned brown amidst the drought.
“This is not a neglect issue,” HOA member James Shima, who received a courtesy notice about his lawn, told 9 News. “This is basically attempting to preserve water.”
The notice Shima received, dated June 11, notes the violation category as “landscape maintenance.” Under the violation observed section, it lists: “Please address the brown turf/dirt areas of the yard.”
A Colorado homeowners’ association has give..

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 500 points Wednesday — erasing early gains after new Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh held his first policy meeting and played his cards close to the vest afterward.
The broader S&P 500 also dipped 1.2 percent in the worst showing for a new chair on “Fed day,” with the losses mounting as Warsh spoke to reporters following the latest two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee,CNBC reported.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell even more and was down 1.4 percent.
The declines, which pushed the Dow 1 percent lower, came after the Fed kept its key interest rate unchanged and nearly half of its policymakers said they could support a rate hike later this year, according to The Associated Press.
“He is absolutely telling you that he plans on delivering on price stability,” DoubleLine Capital CEO Jeffrey Gundlach said of Warsh on CNBC. “That means…we’re not going to have such easy money policy as everybody thought maybe Chairman Warsh would..

A lightning strike sparked a fire at the University of South Florida College of Marine Science Laboratory last month, destroying decades of research and tens of millions of dollars in equipment, university officials said.
The fire, which spread rapidly across the building’s wooden roof, has forced more than 150 researchers, staff members and students to relocate their programs and seek temporary laboratory spaces to continue their work, FOX 13 Tampa Bay reported.
The recovery effort faces significant challenges due to the methods used to extinguish the fire. Firefighters used salt water to battle the flames, which ruined nearly all the advanced equipment inside the facility, including specialized sonar data vehicles used for ocean mapping.
Although some staff managed to rescue their data, many face the loss of irreplaceable specimens.
Steven Murawski, a professor at the college, told FOX 13 Tampa Bay that he salvaged most of his personal research, which is now being kept in cold stor..

Several groups have sued President Donald Trump’s administration over its plans to install a sculpture garden in a Washington, D.C., national park.
The complaint, filed Monday by the National Parks Conservation Association and other groups, centers on the National Garden of American Heroes. The sculpture garden is expected to feature 250 life-sized statues of famous Americans, including former presidents, sports stars and renowned inventors.
The Trump administration plans to install the statues near the National Mall in West Potomac Park, which is home to several Washington landmarks, including the Jefferson Memorial and the Korean War Veterans Memorial. But the new lawsuit alleges the plan is “unlawful,” and asks a judge to block construction until the agencies “comply with their legal obligations.”
“Congress has made clear that the National Mall is a ‘substantially completed work of civic art’—not a personal sandbox for each President to renovate however he likes. To that end, Congr..

Boxer Floyd Mayweather faces two felony charges in Las Vegas over allegations that he wrote a bad check to purchase a watch from a luxury resale store.
Mayweather was scheduled for an initial appearance Monday in Las Vegas Justice Court. He was not physically present for the hearing, but an attorney represented him on his behalf, according to the Clark County District Attorney's office. His case is scheduled for a hearing in September.
Mayweather, 49, was charged in April with theft as well as drawing and passing a check without sufficient funds with the intent to defraud, according to court records.
Prosecutors in Clark County allege that in December 2024, Mayweather wrote a $200,000 check through Wells Fargo Bank to Las Vegas designer resale store Gold and Beyond, despite having insufficient funds in his account, according to the criminal complaint.
Mayweather's attorney and representatives did not immediately return requests for comment.
The felony charges come as Maywe..

President Donald Trump’s support among rural Americans has plunged since he took office, a new poll has found, a stark change within a demographic that once strongly supported the Republican.
Trump’s approval rating among these voters stood at 50 percent in early June, down from 60 percent in February of last year, according to the Reuters/Ipsos poll with a three percent margin of error.
A nearly equal share of rural Americans, 48 percent, said they disapprove of the president, while 31 percent of rural respondents said they approve of Trump’s handling of the economy and cost of living issues.
“We’re ​in bigger water fights with AI, we’re all paying more for groceries and we’re all paying more for gas,” Brian Rauch, 42, of rural Stevensville, Montana, told Reuters. “My day to day ⁠is negatively impacted and I haven’t seen these other benefits.”
Trump is estimated to have won rural voters by about 40 points in 2024, but a variety of administration moves have complicated rural life sinc..

Vice President JD Vance has finally come clean on his controversial “childless cat ladies” comment — as he prepares for a potential White House run in 2028.
In his new memoir, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, Vance admits that the insult he lobbed on Tucker Carlson's since-canceled Fox News show was an “error,” NBC News reported Monday.
“One of the dumbest things I ever said came when I argued that ‘childless cat ladies’ across the Democrat Party were running our country into the ground,” Vance writes in the book, due out Tuesday. “It was a boneheaded comment, intentionally (and successfully) provocative rather than illuminating.”
Vance was riding high on the success of his bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy and running to represent Ohio in the U.S. Senate when he made the rude remark in 2021.
Vance disparaged Democrats as “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country..

Trump Announces Peace Deal And Immediate Opening Of Strait Of HormuzDonald Trump has said the peace deal with Iran is now “complete” as he announced the immediate opening of the Strait of Hormuz.
The US president wrote on Truth Social: “The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all! I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade.”
He added: “Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!”
The US and Iran will hold an official signing ceremony on Friday in Switzerland, Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif said on social media early on Monday.
The agreement was struck despite an Israeli strike on Lebanon on Sunday that drew criticism from both Iran and Trump.
Earlier today, the chief foreign correspondent for Fox News claimed the US told him he lashed out at the Israeli prime minister over the strikes on Beirut.
H..