Category: Australasia

Trump says Iran wants a deal 'so badly' after US military actionThe United States and Iran have continued to trade strikes, as traffic through the Strait of Hormuz was at a near standstill on Thursday.
More airstrikes were launched against Iran early today, after Donald Trump said recent Iranian attacks on ships in the strait signalled the end of the ceasefire.
Tehran accused Washington of a strike near a nuclear power plant after the US military said it had struck dozens of sites across Iran overnight.
Iran's deputy governor of Bushehr province told state media a US projectile struck the area surrounding Iran’s Bushehr power plant, shortly after reports of explosions in the southern coastal region.
The official said several locations in Bushehr province, including the perimeter area of the nuclear facility, were hit in US attacks, without specifying when.
Iran also launched fresh strikes on Kuwait and Bahrain in response to the wave of US attacks overnight.
The latest ..

President Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday that embattled Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner was “in a bind” but added that the seriousness of the situation hinged on whether “you believe the woman” after Platner faced an accusation of sexual assault.
The president made the comments Wednesday evening as he gaggled with reporters on Air Force One as he returned to the U.S. from Ankara, Turkey, where he attended the Nato summit this week.
Trump was asked by reporters if Platner should be made to withdraw from the race after a woman he previously dated came forward with her experience of Platner coming into her home uninvited and forcing himself upon her. Her account was corroborated by contemporary remarks to friends, as well as a therapist. Platner, in a video message, denied the woman’s claims, calling them “troubling and false.”
The president also said that Maine Democrats were facing a tough situation, but appeared to suggest that there was room for people to believe Platn..

Maine oysterman Graham Platner has dropped his bid to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins after an allegation of sexual assault led to prominent Democrats abandoning his campaign.
Platner, a political novice, saw his campaign rocked when Politico reported that he had sexually assaulted an ex-girlfriend, which he vehemently denied. The revelation, however, came after several other reports of potentially troubling behavior and past history dogged Platner throughout his campaign.
Platner put out a video where he continued to deny the accusations.
“We're not doing it because of the allegations,” he said in a video posted on X. “We're doing it because of the structures that are being taken away from us by those in power.”
His exit came just days before the July 13 deadline for Democrats to remove Platner from the ballot and after a number of Democratic Senators and left-wing advocates called on him to step aside.
Maine’s seat, currently held by five-term Republican Sen. Susan ..

A homeless Texas woman has been saved days after she spent days stuck in mud and sewage at the bottom of a ravine.
The Dallas Police Department took to social media Monday to thank first responders who helped them rescue the young woman in 104-degree weather on June 28.
Shortly before 5:30 p.m., local time, that day, a young man had heard faint cries for help coming from the woods behind a nearby high school, according to authorities.
“After investigating, he discovered the cries belonged to a young woman who had been trapped in a steep ravine for days by deep mud and sewage,” Dallas police wrote on Facebook.
Robert Kober, a paramedic who responded to the call, told local outlet WFAA that the woman, who was homeless, was “extremely weak and dehydrated because she had been out in the elements for several days.”
A Texas woman has been saved days after she got stuck in mud and sewage at the bottom of a ravine (KDFW)Footage captured by local outlet KDFW showed Kober walking reporter Dav..

An ex-girlfriend has accused embattled Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner of removing condoms during sex without her consent, the latest in a string of major misconduct allegations against the Democrat.
Lyndsey Fifield, 41, who dated Platner in the Washington, D.C., area, told The Washington Post that he repeatedly removed protection when they were intimate during their relationship, which lasted from 2013 to 2015.
“He would pull condoms off,” she said in an interview with the paper. “He would do it in a sneaky way. He wouldn’t tell me.”
The campaign told the Post that Fifield’s accusation is “categorically false and politically motivated.” It also reportedly noted that Fifield, who has worked in conservative politics, supported Brett Kavanaugh when he was accused of sexual assault ahead of his nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Independent has contacted the Platner campaign for comment.
open image in galleryAn ex-girlfriend accuses Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Pl..

The daughter of Senator Mitch McConnell has deleted her X account amid widespread speculation over the former Senate majority leader’s health, following a sudden June hospitalization.
It is unclear when or why Porter McConnell, a progressive-leaning political activist who previously directed the Take On Wall Street campaign, deleted her account.
The Independent has contacted Porter McConnell for comment.
Porter McConnell is one of three daughters the senator had with his first wife, Sherrill Redmon. She frequently posted criticism of the Republican Party on the now-deactivated account, TMZ noted.
Her social media activity comes as McConnell was found unconscious on June 14 and received CPR after suffering an apparent heart attack in his Washington, D.C., home, according to emergency records obtained by a variety of news outlets.
open image in galleryPorter McConnell, the daughter of Senator Mitch McConnell, pictured hugging her father in 2008, has deleted her X account amid widesprea..

Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner released a video message Monday denying a new allegation of sexual assault from a woman he previously dated, minutes after the release of an article detailing the woman’s accusations.
Jenny Racicot, a 41-year-old Maine resident, dated Platner in 2021 and told Politico that he entered her home uninvited while heavily intoxicated and repeatedly forced himself on her. She claimed that Platner, running for a U.S. Senate seat, grabbed her and was “being really forceful” during the encounter.
Platner flatly denied the allegations in a video posted to X after canceling a number of planned campaign appearances. He called the woman’s accusations “troubling, serious, and false.”
“Any accusation of non-consensual behavior is categorically false,” said Platner, facing directly to camera.
The latest report from Politico follows a line of reporting into the Maine Senate candidate’s past that has slowly eroded his popularity and favorable image among voters ..

Dr. Debra Houry, the CDC’s former chief medical officer, said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has done “irreparable harm” since taking office.
Houry argued that Americans’ trust in public health has “decreased dramatically” in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS News’ Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan. She was one of several CDC leaders who resigned from the agency last summer over concerns about Kennedy’s leadership.
“I think the secretary has caused a lot of irreparable harm, and when you look at many of the polls out there, the trust in public health, specifically CDC, has decreased dramatically over 20 points in many polls,” Houry said.
“That's really difficult to recover from, and when states are removing links to the CDC website and following other medical organizations, I don't know how you build back that trust overnight,” she continued.
Only 50 percent of U.S. adults trust CDC recommendations, according to a survey of 2,205 people cond..

President Donald Trump went on a day-long social media spree Sunday, posting at least 105 times on Truth Social, a day after his July 4 speech was beset by weather problems.
Late on Saturday night Trump gave a partisan speech to thousands of supporters in Washington, D.C., who had been waiting more than an hour in the rain. While the speech started at 11 p.m., he had earlier warned he would wait until 2 a.m. to start if necessary.
The next day he returned to his usual Truth Social activities with a vengeance, with posts attacking his opponents, showing off photos of his father and uncle, and boasting about his accomplishments.
Throughout the day Sunday, Trump rattled off more than 100 Truth Social posts, with at least half a dozen related to attacks on a federal judge who recently ruled against his administration’s attempts to use a database of U.S. citizen’s private information to screen voter rolls.
The president posted screenshots of X posts from allies attacking Judge Sparkle Sook..

White nationalist Patriot Front gang chants ‘reclaim America’ as members march through Washington, D.C., on July 4Freedom 250 attendees have been evacuated from the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as severe weather threatens the capital’s Fourth of July celebrations.
Officials are asking everyone to “evacuate event grounds and seek temporary shelter in a nearby building,” according to a Freedom 250 spokesperson. The Secret Service also “temporarily suspended” nearby security checkpoints due to “rapidly deteriorating weather conditions,” and there’s “no estimate for when screening may resume,” spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said.
Washington could be hit with heavy winds, hail and lightning as severe storms roll through the area this evening, according to the National Weather Service. President Donald Trump had promised to deliver a “really long” speech on the National Mall this evening, followed by a massive fireworks show, but the expected storms may impact the schedule.
Earlier Sa..