Author: admin

CNN  —  Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told lawmakers on Thursday that it will “probably” cost the Air Force less than $400 million to retrofit a luxury Qatari plane that President Donald Trump has said he is getting from the Qataris as a gift to use as the new Air Force One. Meink was grilled about the plane’s cost by Democratic Rep. Joe Courtney during a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee. “You can’t retrofit a plane that is built for another purpose for Air Force One and expect it to be a free plane,” the Connecticut congressman said,…

Alex KirklandRodrigo FaezJun 5, 2025, 06:09 PM ETReal Madrid are close to completing the signing of River Plate star Franco Mastantuono, sources have told ESPN, with the playmaker expected to arrive in August, after playing for River at the Club World Cup.Madrid will pay a €45 million fee for Mastantuono, sources said — although the structure of that payment is yet to be finalised — and the player will sign a six-year contract until 2031.Editor’s Picks2 RelatedESPN reported on Wednesday that a Madrid representative was in Buenos Aires looking to push through a deal for the Argentina international, 17, amid…

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on June 3, 2025. NYSEStocks jumped Friday after the latest nonfarm payrolls data came in better than expected, easing concern the economy faces an imminent slowdown.The Dow Jones Industrial Average popped 443.13 points, or 1.05%, to close at 42,762.87. The blue-chip index was up more than 600 points at its highs of the session. The S&P 500 also gained 1.03% — surpassing the 6,000 level for the first time since late February — and settling at 6,000.36. The Nasdaq Composite rallied 1.20%, ending at 19,529.95.The market’s move higher was…

House Republicans expressed uneasiness with the escalating feud between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk and called for cooler heads to prevail. Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas demanded Musk stop attacking Trump and said “this tit-for-tat going back and forth, isn’t helping.” While he praised Musk as “very gifted and talented,” Nehls said, “But to start making statements like that, I think, are irresponsible and certainly not healthy. So stop. You’ve lost your mind.” Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who voted against the bill last month, warned that the legislation is on “life support” and that the Senate could be…

Spain avoided a late comeback from France to win a nine-goal thriller and book their place in the Nations League final on Sunday.Seventeen-year-old superstar Lamine Yamal scored twice on the evening but France mounted a comeback after scoring three times in the final 11 minutes, led by the talents of Man City target Rayan Cherki, after trailing by 5-1 in the final moments of the game. First-half goals from Nico Williams and Mikel Merino, as rumours regarding a possible move to Arsenal for the former continue to swirl, fired Spain into a commanding lead within the first 25 minutes.Real Madrid’s…

Israel has been threatening a preemptive military strike on Iran as the Trump administration tries to negotiate a nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic.  But current and former US and Israeli officials say the Israeli bluff is becoming stale and that Trump has effectively boxed Netanyahu into towing his line as talks continue.  On one hand, current and former US officials say there is little the US can do to prevent Israel from unilaterally bombing Iran if it chooses to do so. Unlike other American partners, Israel is less dependent on American intelligence for such an operation, especially in Iran,…

Last Friday, President Donald Trump heaped praise on Elon Musk as the tech billionaire prepared to leave his unorthodox White House job.Less than a week later, their potent political alliance met a dramatic end Thursday when the men attacked each other with blistering epithets. Trump threatened to go after Musk’s business interests. Musk called for Trump’s impeachment. Here’s a look at the implosion of their relationship in their own words.The goodbye “Today it’s about a man named Elon. And he’s one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced. He stepped forward to put his very…

NEW YORK (AP) — A Columbia graduate facing deportation over his pro-Palestinian activism on campus has outlined the “irreparable harm” caused by his continued detention as a federal judge weighs his release.Mahmoud Khalil said in court filings unsealed Thursday that the “most immediate and visceral harms” he’s faced in his months detained in Louisiana relate to missing out on the birth of his first child in April. “Instead of holding my wife’s hand in the delivery room, I was crouched on a detention center floor, whispering through a crackling phone line as she labored alone,” the 30-year-old legal U.S. resident…

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Authorities announced Thursday they are investigating another social media post, the second in a week, showing a man who identifies himself as Antoine Massey, a fugitive still on the lam after escaping more than two weeks ago from a New Orleans jail. The latest Instagram post, which appears to have been published Wednesday, shows a man standing in front of a blue car who says he is “#AntoineMassey” and has the same distinctive facial tattoos. Authorities are not sure when or where the photo reportedly showing Massey was taken. But they “are treating the post as…

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Two federal agencies cannot punish Catholic employers and health care providers if they refuse for religious reasons to provide gender-affirming care to transgender patients or won’t provide health insurance coverage for such care to their workers, a federal judge ruled Thursday.The ruling from U.S. District Judge Peter Welte, the chief federal judge in North Dakota, bars the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from enforcing a health care rule it imposed in 2024 under Democratic President Joe Biden. The rule said that existing policies against sex discrimination covered discrimination based on gender identity, so that…