Upgrade from ‘suspected’ threat will mean greater surveillance of party that came second in last election

The senator insists he is in good health. But staffers past and present say they no longer recognize the man they once knew.

The nightly parade of horror stories about an American secret police proves the current system is broken beyond repair.

As federal judges rule against the Trump administration in dozens of politically charged cases, the families of at least 11 of the jurists have been targeted with threats and harassment. The intimidation campaign has strained judges and their relatives – and legal scholars fear it could have a chilling effect on the judiciary.

Many Americans might not have felt major effects from President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs – until now. That’s because a major shipping loophole expired at one minute past midnight on Friday. The de minimis exemption, as it’s known, allowed shipments of goods worth $800 or less to come into the US duty free, often more or less skipping time-consuming inspections and paperwork.

A serial pest in sperm donation groups has joined the cast of bankrupts, fraudsters and fantasists in Clive Palmer’s Trumpet of Patriots and is running in the hotly contested western Sydney seat of Lindsay. Joseph O’Connor claims in the biography posted on the party’s website that he brings “a wealth of experience in mental health and counselling” to his candidacy. But this masthead can reveal that he has also presented himself as Dane McDuff, Blake McBeth, Adam Nilsson and Jack DeBevay in Facebook groups for women and couples looking for sperm donations, among a stream of identities that mushroom each time he is banned from a group. Sperm donor groups generally do not allow members to use aliases. Multiple women have complained to the group administrators that he has engaged in creepy behaviour, sent them unwanted imagery and is using the groups for sexual gratification. The unwanted material included videos of himself on a porn site called “Chaturbate” where he uses the moniker JackPhallus. In one of his early profiles, set up under the moniker Dane McDuff in 2019, he boasted of a “super high” sperm count. “I kept knocking up all my previous girlfriends so figured I might as well come here and put it to good use,” he wrote. “Australia only pls unless you’re willing to travel, shipping sperm seems like it would reduce quality.” He set up his own sperm donation group in 2022 under the alias Adam Nilsson, after administrators of other sperm donation groups collaborated to identify all his aliases and remove him from their groups. He posted his vital details, including a photograph, offering to donate sperm as recently as September last year. One of the rules of his group is that if a man agrees to donate via artificial insemination, they cannot renege at the last moment and insist on natural insemination. “Grow some balls I know a lot of you have tiny dicks and this is the only way your micropenis having self can get laid but I don’t care, go to a brothel,” the rule states. “Anyone who whines, whinges, complains etc about anybody will be BANNED … This isn’t your soap box for you to have a cry and get sympathy because boo hoo it’s too hard.” It is not clear which of the three administrators of the group wrote the rules. But administrators of other groups have identified in O’Connor’s group numerous donors and recipients who have been banned from their groups, and claim he has rejected their offers to share evidence and collaborate to remove bad actors who put the community at risk. O’Connor denied this allegation, saying he had banned numerous individuals from the group for catfishing, and denied that he had sent unsolicited videos of himself to women in other groups. He said he had been banned from the other groups for arguing and not any other reason. “My intentions were genuine,” he said. “I was looking to help people because IVF is too expensive for many people. Majority of people, sex wasn’t involved at all.” He also shared screenshots of women who said they had become pregnant with his sperm, but asked that they not be shared in the interests of the women’s privacy. One of them went through an IVF clinic, he said. But he said he had little interest in donating any more. O’Connor’s Psychology Today profile says he has expertise in men’s issues, sex therapy and peer relationships. His candidate profile identifies housing affordability, homelessness and unemployment as the key issues in Lindsay, which encompasses the suburbs of Penrith, St Marys and Emu Plains in Sydney’s outer west. He is the latest in a colourful cast of Trumpet candidates to exhibit multiple identities. David Sarikaya, who is running in Reid, calls himself “Professor” but is a fake psychologist who bought his PhD online for $250. He also has a fraud conviction and is a former bankrupt, a feature he shares with Deakin candidate Milton Wilde. Todd Juchau, a security guard from Murrurrundi, claims to be a long-lost descendant of Charlemagne and tried to change his name by deed poll to “Prince”. Gabrial Pennicott is a reinvented conman who moved to the Gold Coast after spending three years behind bars for fraud offences in Victoria. Other interesting candidates include Michael Jessop, 70, who is facing weapons and stalking charges after police found camouflage clothing, an axe, a shovel, duct tape and a cadaver bag inside his vehicle outside Bli Bli on the Sunshine Coast. He is fighting the charges.

As his HBO series ‘The Righteous Gemstones’ comes to a triumphant end, here’s the tale of America’s karate-kicking, wisecracking king of comedy, as told by the people who know him best

An analysis of COVID mortality data by The Texas Tribune reveals the trends have flipped since the beginning of the pandemic: White Texans are the most likely to die of COVID compared to other race and ethnic groups, while the proportion of Hispanics dying of the disease has plummeted. In 2024, Hispanics made up 23% of COVID deaths in Texas, while white Texans made up 63%.

NIH has cancelled its participation in Safe to Sleep, a 30-year campaign to prevent babies from dying in their sleep

One of the biggest gaming sites around was just blown up

In his 2021 book vilifying Anthony Fauci, RFK Jr. lays out support for an alternate theory.

The U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services has doubled down on false claims the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine contains “aborted fetus debris”. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine sceptic, made the remarks after the number of measles cases in a Texas outbreak topped 660 with dozens more reported in New Mexico. Speaking live on air to reporters on News Nation’s program Wednesday, RFK Jr was asked to clarify what he meant when he said the MMR contains "a lot of aborted fetus debris." “There are populations in our country like the Mennonites in Texas, were most afflicted, and they have religious objections to the vaccination” he began, adding “because the MMR vaccine contains a lot of aborted fetus debris and DNA particles. So they don’t want to take it.”

Life got you down? Try throwing your head back and screeching like a gull. That's what Anna Brynald did. A personal loss a few years ago inspired the Danish woman to chase her dreams, no matter how silly. So she signed up for the 2025 European Championship Gull Screeching contest, and won gold. "It was so refreshing to meet so many people that just like seagulls, like me," Brynald told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal. "I like that the seagulls like fries, because I love fries, and they're just a bit misunderstood, like me. And they're cute."

Epic Games v. Apple judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers just ruled that, effective immediately, Apple is no longer allowed to collect fees on purchases made outside apps and blocks the company from restricting how developers can point users to where they can make purchases outside of apps. Apple says it will appeal the order. The ruling was issued as part of Epic Games’ ongoing legal dispute against Apple, and it’s a major victory for Epic’s arguments. Rogers also says that Apple “willfully” chose not to comply with her previous injunction from her original 2021 ruling. “That [Apple] thought this Court would tolerate such insubordination was a gross miscalculation,” Rogers says. The judge also referred the case to the US attorney to review it for possible criminal contempt proceedings.

The minute I saw that Robert Kennedy Jr., a notorious disease-loving health crank, was going to be responsible for the nation’s health—and the health of its food supply—I knew who I had to call. Deborah Blum is the woman who literally wrote the book on the history of US food regulations. In 2018, she published “The Poison Squad: One Chemist’s Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the 20th Century,” a fascinating and occasionally harrowing account of how the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906—which led to the establishment of the FDA—came to pass. Blum is an expert on poison; her 2011 book “The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York” also contends with poison, intentional and unintentional, and the law.

Real-time data aims to avoid both pitfalls by providing a timely picture of activity across the economy. Many covid-era indicators are not relevant or no longer published. Fortunately, however, global trade is thoroughly tracked. Ships set off weeks in advance of their arrival, broadcasting their position to satellites and providing a list of what they contain.

For a perfectly even creaminess, the scientists advise first mixing water with starch, then blending this starch-water with cheese, adding this all to a pan and heating it up slowly. Then, add black pepper and pasta.

CECOT is no regular prison. It is also a warning.

If you think Trump’s tariffs will bring China to its knees, I have a large wall to sell you.

Diana Teran worked for years to root out misconduct in the LA Sheriff’s Department, but now she faces charges from the state AG related to that work. Critics worry it could chill local efforts to ‘police the police.’