Author: Luke Martin

MARION, Kan. — A small central Kansas police department is facing a torrent of criticism for raiding a local newspaper’s office and the home of its owner and publisher, seizing computers and cellphones, and, in the publisher’s view, stressing his 98-year-old mother enough to cause her weekend death. Several press freedom watchdogs condemned the Marion Police Department’s actions as a blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution’s protection for a free press. The Marion County Record’s editor and publisher, Eric Meyer, worked with his staff Sunday to reconstruct stories, ads and other materials for its next edition Wednesday, even as he took…

Afghans who were promised a home in the United States after their country fell to the Taliban say they have waited so long for the US to process their applications that they are now being sent back to the enemy they fled. A number of Afghans who worked with the US and were told they were eligible for resettlement there have been forcibly deported back to Afghanistan from Pakistan, where they fled to await processing following the Taliban takeover in 2021, CNN can reveal. One man waiting for a US visa described being dropped at the Afghan border by Pakistani…

Ukraine’s counter-offensive against Russia is far from a failure, but the fight ahead will be long and bloody, the top U.S. general said on Tuesday, even as casualties on both sides mount and the front lines have moved only incrementally. The United States and other allies have spent months building Ukraine a “mountain of steel” of weaponry and training Ukrainian forces in combined arms techniques to help Kyiv pierce formidable Russian defenses during its counter-offensive. Asked whether the counter-offensive was a failure, at least so far, General Mark Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said: “It is far…

By David Lawder (Reuters) -U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Friday that the U.S. economy is on a path to maintain a strong labor market while reducing inflation, even if the economy cools a bit more. Yellen said in prepared remarks at a residential solar power company in New Orleans that strong household and business balance sheets will serve as a source of U.S. economic strength along with a continuing surge in U.S. factory construction. Yellen, who is making a campaign-style visit to New Orleans to tout President Joe Biden’s economic agenda, said that the U.S. economy has defied…

By Michael S. Derby and Dan Burns (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court’s striking down of President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan puts nearly half a trillion dollars of debt back on household balance sheets, a burden that combined with the end of a pandemic-era pause in payments on education loans may hasten an anticipated year-end economic slowdown. The court’s 6-3 ruling on Friday, which had been widely expected to go against Biden, comes just weeks after the White House and congressional Republicans struck a deal to lift the federal debt ceiling that included prohibiting any further extensions of the…

In a warm, overstuffed auditorium at the University of Colorado on Thursday, tribal representatives from around the Colorado River Basin had a message for their federal and state counterparts: Tribes won’t be cut out of key water talks that will decide the future of the basin. “As we develop a post-2026 plan, it’s no longer acceptable for the U.S. to meet with seven basin states separately, and then come to basin tribes, after the fact, with a post-hoc explanation or rationalization of what was discussed, or even worse, what was decided,” said Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis of the Gila River…

The search for three Americans who went missing earlier this month while sailing off the coast of Mexico has been suspended, authorities said Wednesday. The U.S. Coast Guard said that it was informed by the Mexican Navy that it had suspended its search for Kerry O’Brien, Frank O’Brien and William Gross. The Coast Guard had been assisting in the search effort. The three were last heard from on April 4 near Mazatlán, Mexico, according to the Coast Guard. They had been sailing aboard the “Ocean Bound” a 44-foot Lafitte sailboat. The sailors had left Mazatlán en route to San Diego, the…

(NewsNation) — Since the start of 2023, the U.S. Department of State has issued travel advisories for Mexico and four other countries in Central America due to crime. The State Department says Americans should reconsider travel to Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica and El Salvador, popular spring break destinations. In Mexico, 30 of the 32 states are under some kind of travel advisory for U.S. citizens due to the risk from ongoing cartel violence. Six of those states have a Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory issued. On Saturday, gunmen opened fire at a resort in Guanajuato, Mexico, killing six adults and a 7-year-old child. Officials who reported the attack did not speculate…

BAE Systems announced yesterday that it would play a key role in the AUKUS trilateral agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, in order to helpthe Australia to acquire its first nuclear-powered submarines. The three nations will deliver a trilaterally developed submarine based on the UK’s next-generation design, incorporating technology from the three nations. Australia and the United Kingdom will operate the SSN-AUKUS, their submarine of the future, which should begin construction this decade. The AUKUS agreement will further strengthen and deepen the relationship between the UK, US and Australia. “The selection of the UK’s next generation…

Nikolay Patrushev pointed out that the rearmament of the Australian fleet within the framework of the new AUKUS alliance, including the supply of nuclear submarines, military support for Taiwan and South Korea, has a long-term aim – “establishing US and NATO dominance over Eurasia from its eastern flank” MOSCOW – The stability of Asia causes Washington’s discontent and this explains why it wants to clone an equivalent of NATO in Asia to subjugate independent states, the Secretary of Russia’s Security Council Nikolay Patrushev said in an interview with the Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily. “Washington is very unhappy about stability in Asia…