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What happened to Lorraine Blondina Bird will shock you
Lorraine Blondina Bird was a woman who lived her life like a flame—bright, stylish, impossible to ignore. Born in East Los Angeles, she clawed her way into success, becoming one of Redondo Beach’s most respected Realtors. She wore silk scarves, kept her nails manicured, and drove a silver Mercedes with a vanity plate that announced her presence: LBBIRD1. She gave her children the kind of life she had never known—ski trips, fine dining, a college education. She was proof that ambition could rewrite destiny. But in the end, Lorraine’s story did not close with champagne and sunsets. It ended in the Mojave Desert, her body curled inside a pile of graffiti-splashed boulders, stripped nearly bare,… |
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Why AI firm is taking on Trump administration
A row is simmering between the United States government and Anthropic, one of the tech companies that develops artificial intelligence (AI) tools for defence and civilian uses. According to recent reports, Anthropic’s Claude software was used in a US military operation, which resulted in the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro in January this year. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has given the company until Friday to loosen its rules about how its AI tools can be used by the Pentagon, or risk losing its government contract, The Associated Press and Reuters news agencies reported on Tuesday, quoting unnamed sources. But Anthropic is refusing to back down over safeguards which … |
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Iran Prepares for US Attack as It Rejects Negotiations
Iran is not dancing toward the negotiating table out of fear; it is bracing for war while refusing to yield. Reports that Tehran is preparing for a possible U.S.–Israeli missile assault, even as it dismisses offers to talk, underscore a new kind of tension: fear without capitulation. That is not weakness, and it is not readiness in the traditional sense. It is a regime calculating its own survival amid an increasingly hostile international environment. This moment looks nothing like the hope-tinged diplomacy of past nuclear talks. Then, there were back channels, envoys meeting in hotel suites, whispered negotiations and, at times, fragile progress. Now the language is public posturing, threa… |
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Trump to raise US global tariff to 15 percent after Supreme Court ruling
United States President Donald Trump has doubled down on his new global tariffs, raising them from 10 percent to 15 percent, days after the Supreme Court struck down his sweeping levies on imports. The move on Saturday came as businesses and governments around the world sought repayment for the estimated $133bn that Washington has already collected. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump announced the raise “effective immediately” and said the move was based on a review of the “ridiculous, poorly written and extraordinarily anti-American decision” issued by the Supreme Court on Friday. By a six-to-three vote, the court had ruled that it was unconstitutional for Trump to unilaterally s… |
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Trump and US officials targeted by accused shooter
WASHINGTON — Federal authorities are investigating what they describe as a targeted attack near the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner after a man opened fire Saturday evening outside the secured perimeter of the event, prompting a rapid response from Secret Service agents and other law enforcement. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday that investigators believe the suspect intended to target President Donald Trump and members of his administration who were attending the annual dinner, one of Washington’s highest-profile political gatherings. According to Blanche, the suspect traveled from California to Washington, D.C., by train, passing through Chicago along the way… |
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Stock markets surge as Trump calls off strikes on Iran
Stock markets have surged following US President Donald Trump’s announcement that he called off planned strikes against Iran and a peace deal with Tehran is imminent. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P500 index finished nearly 1.8 percent higher on Thursday, ending a three-day streak of losses for the biggest single-day gain since April. The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.5 percent, while the older, blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average gained about 1.9 percent. The rally continued in the Asia Pacific on Friday, with markets in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Australia racking up gains. South Korea’s Kospi, the best-performing major index this year, surged more than 8 percent in… |
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Trump says if Iran does not open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours he would destroy their power plants
On Saturday night, Trump warned Iran in a Truth Social post that the United States will attack Iran's power reactors if the Strait of Hormuz stays blocked. "The United States of America will hit and destroy their various power plants, starting with the biggest one first!" Trump warned in the post if Iran does not fully open the Strait of Hormuz without threat within 48 hours from now. The Strait of Hormuz is an important trading route that carries around 20% of the world's oil. Oil prices have skyrocketed worldwide as a result of Iranian strikes on ships in the region, which has effectively cut off maritime activity in the area. The Trump administration has made yet another effort to rein do… |
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What Delay Looks Like When You are Absorbing the Cost
Halenews Editorial Delay is often described as prudence. From a distance, waiting can look reasonable, even wise. But distance matters. When you live close to the edge, delay is not neutral time—it is pressure. For families already stretched thin, rising energy prices are not a debate about markets; they are a calculation about heat. Flooding is not an environmental statistic; it is a ruined home. Healthcare access is not a policy disagreement; it is a postponed diagnosis that becomes irreversible. Those most affected by delay rarely appear in policy discussions except as data points. Their lives are summarized, averaged, and footnoted. Meanwhile, decisions are postponed to avoid political r… |
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The Epstein Files and the Machinery of Forgetting
Editorial The first instinct of power, when threatened, is not denial but delay. Delay until outrage exhausts itself, until headlines thin, until the public grows bored or distracted or numb. The newly unsealed Jeffrey Epstein-related documents land in public view with the weight of something both familiar and unfinished, a reminder not merely of a disgraced financier and the crimes that orbited him, but of how expertly the machinery of forgetting has been engineered. These files do not arrive as a revelation in the cinematic sense. There is no single smoking gun, no neat moral closure. Instead, they arrive like sediment, layer upon layer of testimony, allegation, recollection, and evasion. … |
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China with its axis of authoritarians is only growing stronger under Trump
As Donald Trump prepares to depart for China to meet Xi Jinping, it is a moment for America’s traditional allies to reflect on a sobering fact: the balance of power is rapidly shifting against the United States. Since becoming president, Trump’s actions have fractured America’s alliance system just as Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin have consolidated theirs. As if to underscore this, the Russian president will likely arrive in Beijing days after Trump. His will be a red carpet welcome. Donald Trump’s will be far more exposing – and we all know why. Instead of a mighty demonstration of American firepower, his Iran war has exposed huge vulnerabilities. And less discussed but no less consequentia… |
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Pilot says he woke up in downtown Denver hotel to find bat in his room and bite on his foot
The alleged bat encounter now makes it difficult for the pilot to sleep in hotels, his attorney says Removed from bookmarks A commercial pilot is suing a downtown Denver hotel after a bat allegedly sunk its teeth into his foot, leaving him with a bite he claims cost him more than $100,000 in medical bills. The alleged August 2025 incident happened while the pilot was staying on the 22nd floor of the Sheraton Denver Hotel Downtown. The pilot, who has not been publicly identified because he fears professional repercussions, alleges he was awakened in the middle of the night by bats flying through his room, CBS Colorado reports. “[He] was sleeping and he woke up to a commotion, and he woke up a… |
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A Big Win For A Lonely Woman
Human Interest Opinion / Perspective For forty years, a stoneware crock sat on a porch in New York, a silent sentry against the biting winters and the humid, heavy summers of the Northeast. It was, for all intents and purposes, a piece of lawn debris. It held no flowers; it served no function. To the woman who lived behind the screen door, it was simply "there"—a familiar shape in a life that had slowly become a series of familiar, quiet shapes. When her birthday approached, she looked at the heavy salt-glazed vessel and allowed herself a modest, almost apologetic hope: perhaps it was worth a hundred dollars. A hundred dollars for a birthday treat, or perhaps a utility bill, or just the smal… |
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A Child Can Be Saved Now If Her Parents Can Afford the Cure
The number came before the explanation. It sat there, stark and unblinking, a figure so large it did not feel like money anymore but something abstract, like distance or time—millions, arranged neatly in digits, as if that made it reasonable. The doctor spoke afterward, carefully, almost gently, about breakthroughs, about possibility, about a future that would not have existed even a decade ago. There was no cruelty in his voice. That was the worst part. It meant the system no longer needed cruelty to do its work. The child sat in the corner, small and restless, tapping the edge of a chair, unaware that the conversation had already begun to close around her like a narrowing corridor. A cure … |
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The World Cup plan is merely a proposal and not an obligation
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has called the plan to sell ownership in the World Cup a proposal but said it is "not an obligation," following a significant criticism from several football authorities. FIFA this week said it planned to create a $20 billion subsidiary to run the World Cup and other events, and would sell up to 20% of the subsidiary to outside investors. The proposal was heavily criticized by the sport’s regional confederations, which said they were surprised by FIFA’s plan to incorporate commercial investors in the sport. The commercial side of the game has to grow." "It is a natural growth of the game," Mr Infantino said. “It’s part of a democratic process—a consultation pr… |
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Trump and JD Vance vilify lawless Supreme Court justices over tariff ruling
United States President Donald Trump and his vice president, JD Vance, have launched personal attacks on the justices of the US Supreme Court and their families, after the country’s top court struck down trade tariffs imposed by the White House. In a 45-minute address to reporters at the White House, the US president heaped criticism on the six justices who ruled against his signature tariff policy in the 6-3 decision by the court on Friday, including Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, whom Trump appointed to the court during his first term. “I think it’s an embarrassment to their families, you wanna know the truth, the two of them,” Trump said, referring to Justices Gorsuch and Barrett. “I… |
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The Quiet Bravery of the Thai Cave Rescue
In the summer of 2018, while the internet argued itself into exhaustion over everything else, twelve boys and their coach disappeared underground. They were members of the Wild Boars soccer team, ages eleven to sixteen, swallowed by rising floodwaters inside Tham Luang cave. The cave flooded fast, as it always does in monsoon season. What didn’t flood was panic—at least not in the way we’ve come to expect. The world remembers the headlines. What it forgets is the texture of the response. This was not a story driven by billionaires, brand logos, or performative outrage. It was a story powered by farmers diverting irrigation channels, monks opening temples as staging grounds, doctors calculati… |
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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… |
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Gemini 3 Flash frontier intelligence built for speed
Gemini 3.5 Flash delivers intelligence that rivals large flagship models on multiple dimensions, at the speeds you have come to expect from the Flash series. It’s our strongest agentic and coding model yet, outperforming Gemini 3.1 Pro on challenging coding and agentic benchmarks like Terminal-Bench 2.1 (76.2%), GDPval-AA (1656 Elo) and MCP Atlas (83.6%), and leading in multimodal understanding (84.2% on CharXiv Reasoning). When looking at output tokens per second, it is 4 times faster than other frontier models. Gemini 3.5 Flash is the latest model with frontier intelligence built for speed that helps everyone learn, build, and plan anything — faster. Google is releasing Gemini 3 Flash, a f… |
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The Lost Promise of MSN News
There was a time when MSN felt like a gateway to the world. It offered curated access to reporting, a sense of connection to serious journalism, and the promise that a portal could simplify the chaos of the internet. For many readers, MSN was the homepage that greeted them each morning—a digital front page that seemed to carry authority. But that promise has been abandoned. What remains today is a hollowed-out shell of journalism, a site that has traded substance for tricks, rewrites, and endless clickbait. The decline of MSN is not just a story about one portal—it is a warning about what happens when corporate media prioritizes ad impressions over trust. The Mechanics of Decline The tactics… |