The proposal to create the nation’s first religious charter school paid for by taxpayer funds could move the line between church and state in education.
With two G.O.P. senators opposed, Pete Hegseth, President Trump’s pick for defense secretary, can afford to lose only one more. If he is confirmed, it is likely to be by the smallest margin for that post in modern times.
Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News host and veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has generated controversy since the beginning of the nomination process.
President Donald Trump has revoked security protection for former top US health official Anthony Fauci, who has faced death threats since leading the country's Covid-19 response.
"You can't have a security detail for the rest of your life because you work for government," Trump told reporters, when asked about the decision on Friday. "It's very standard."
This week, Trump also revoked security protections for his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, his former National Security Adviser John Bolton and former envoy Brian Hook, who all faced threats from Iran.
Dr Fauci has now hired his own private security team that he will pay for himself, US media report.
Asked whether he felt responsible for the officials' safety, Trump said on Friday: "They all made a lot of money. They can hire their own security too."
Dr Fauci was previously protected by federal marshals, and then a private security company, which was paid for by the government, according to the New York Times.
One of Dr Fauci's most vocal Republican critics, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, had called for his security to be revoked.
He wrote in a post on X on Thursday that he had "sent supporting information to end the 24 hr a day limo and security detail for Fauci".
"I wish him nothing but peace but he needs to pay for his own limos," he said.
Trump has also revoked the security clearances of 51 intelligence officials who had claimed that Hunter Biden's laptop had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation."
Under US protocol, former presidents and their spouses are granted security protection for life. But protection for other US officials is decided based on the threat assessment from the intelligence community.
As the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr Fauci faced death threats during and after the coronavirus pandemic, as well as criticism from Republicans over mask mandates and other Covid restrictions.
He led the institute for 40 years, including during Trump's first term. Trump had also awarded presidential commendations to Dr Fauci who served on the Operation Warp Speed task force during the pandemic.
Before leaving office, then-President Joe Biden issued a preemptive pardon for Dr Fauci.
The doctor told US media that he "truly appreciated" Biden for taking action, adding that the possibility of prosecution had created "immeasurable and intolerable distress" on his family.
"Let me be perfectly clear, I have committed no crime and there are no possible grounds for any allegation or threat of criminal investigation or prosecution of me," he said.
Vanya Gaberova, Katrin Ivanova and Tihomir Ivanchev, all from London, deny a charge of conspiracy to spy
A Bulgarian woman charged with being part of a Russian spy cell operating in the UK has denied knowing that information she gathered would be sent to Russia.
Katrin Ivanova, 33, is accused of spying for Russia in a series of elaborate operations in the UK and Europe.
She allegedly targeted a US military base in Germany and secretly filmed two investigative journalists regarded as enemies of the Russian state.
Jurors have heard there was a risk the journalists could be kidnaped or assassinated.
Giving evidence for the first time, Ms Ivanova denied being a spy.
She accepted following people targeted by the operations, and travelling around Europe, but said she did not know the true purpose of the activity.
She said she believed one operation targeting the investigative journalist Christo Grozev was itself a form of journalism and would reveal to the public that he was corrupt.
"The plan was to try and expose Mr Grozev," she said.
However, no information was ever published and "nothing actually happened", she said.
She said her then-partner Biser Dzhambazov – whom she told the jury she had trusted with her life – asked her to take part in surveillance operations.
"He has been my partner for over 10 years. Why would he do something that's going to hurt me," she said.
The operations were to help Dzhambazov's friend Orlin Roussev, who assisted the couple financially after they first moved to the UK in 2012, Ms Ivanova told the court.
The couple first met Roussev at East Croydon station in 2012, and went for dinner with him at a "posh" restaurant near the Thames, she said.
"I was very impressed with him," she said. "He was someone I always wanted to be. He was a typical hero immigrant story."
Both Dzhambazov and Roussev have already admitted conspiracy to spy for Russia.
Ms Ivanova wiped away tears in the witness box as she described learning how her partner was arrested in bed with the other alleged female spy in this trial, Vanya Gaberova, 30.
Jurors have heard that Dzhambazov and Ms Gaberova were in bed together when the police arrived to arrest them in February 2023.
She said Dzhambazov told her he had a brain tumour and went abroad for treatment. She now believes that was a lie so he could live a "parallel life" with Ms Gaberova.
Dylan Thomas murdered his best friend in a "brutal and senseless" attack on Christmas Eve
The heir to a pie company fortune has been sentenced to life in prison for the "barbaric and cruel" murder of his best friend on Christmas Eve in the house they shared.
Dylan Thomas stabbed William Bush, 23, on 24 December 2023, a total of 37 times with a large kitchen knife and a flick knife.
Thomas, 24, who admitted manslaughter but denied murder, had looked up details of the anatomy of the neck in the hours before the attack in Llandaff, Cardiff.
Thomas is the grandson of Sir Stanley Thomas, who made his fortune with his brother in the south Wales-based family firm Peter's Pies, and who was present in court for the sentencing.
Thomas will serve a minimum term of 19 years before he eligible to be considered for release.
It took jurors three hours to find him guilty of murder in November.
On Friday, Thomas appeared before the court by video link from Ashworth Hospital in Liverpool, where he is being treated for schizophrenia and psychosis.
He sat emotionless, speaking only to confirm he could hear the judge.
Judge Karen Steyn described the murder as a "sustained and ferocious knife attack" on "a young man who had been a firm and loyal friend".
"He was a compassionate, loving, witty and vibrant young man," she said.
"He had a bright future ahead of him."
She said Mr Bush was "senselessly murdered" depriving him of "many, many decades of a happy and fulfilling life".
She added the sentence was "not intended as a measure of the value of Will's life", adding that was "beyond measure".
Speaking in court, Mr Bush's sister Catrin said her brother's life was taken "in the most barbaric and cruel way".
"Will was such a loyal, funny and caring person, he lit up every room he walked into with his cheeky grin," she said.
"My family have been left with a massive hole which will ever be filled."
John Bush, William's father, added their lives had been changed in "a profound and fundamental way".
"Christmas will not be a time of celebration for our family for many years," he said.
Elle Jeffreys, William's girlfriend, told the court she had "lost a future we had both planned and prepared for".
She said he was a big supporter of Arsenal football club and was fit and active, playing golf for his home county of Powys and running the Cardiff Half Marathon with her in 2023.
"Will was the love of my life and meant everything to me," she said.
"He would light up any room he walked in to.
"Life will never be the same without Will."
Family photo
William Bush was described by his family as a "a loyal, funny, caring and trusting person"
During the trial, the prosecution told Cardiff Crown Court that Thomas was in a "downward spiral" but in control of his actions at the time of the killing.
He had been arrested weeks earlier for trying to scale the fence at Buckingham Palace and had been released on police bail.
On the morning of the attack, Thomas was driven to Llandaff by his grandmother, Sharon Burton, insisting he wanted to walk his dog, Bruce.
Mrs Burton described him as becoming "more and more agitated" during the journey.
When she parked outside the property, Thomas went in, got the knives, went to Mr Bush's bedroom and stabbed him repeatedly.
The prosecution said passers-by "heard screams of horror" from the house.
Thomas banged on his grandmother's car window and she found Mr Bush on the patio outside.
Thomas murdered Mr Bush at the house in Llandaff, Cardiff, that they lived in together
Thomas called 999 for an ambulance after the attack, claiming his friend had "gone mental" and stabbed him.
But the prosecution told the trial it was "a planned attack" by Thomas on Mr Bush and he "deliberately armed himself with knives and attacked him from behind".
The court was given expert opinion that Thomas had been psychotic for months before the killing.
Jurors heard that he told police officers he was Jesus after his arrest for the killing and offered one police officer a "job with God".
William Bush's sister Catrin previously described Thomas as an "evil, manipulative liar"
Judge Steyn said: "It must have been particularly terrifying and horrifying for Mr Bush to be attacked in his home, indeed, in his own bedroom by one of his closest friends. He could be heard to scream and cry, and he plainly struggled to fend off your brutal assault."
Orlando Pownall, defending Thomas, offered no personal mitigation on behalf of his client but said there was not a "significant degree of planning or premeditation".
He said Thomas regretted not seeking psychiatric help, adding "opportunities were missed" by people around him before the attack.
Following the sentencing, Chris Evans of the Crown Prosecution Service said the "frenzied attack" was a "shocking" level of violence.
He added Thomas's actions on the lead up to the murder "demonstrated he was thinking clearly and gave an indication of his intention".
Det Con Joanne Harris of South Wales Police added Mr Bush was "killed by someone he regarded as his friend having done nothing to warrant the brutal violence inflicted upon him".
The Thomas family company was launched as Thomas Pies in the 1950s, selling sausage rolls, pies and pasties around the south Wales valleys.
In the 1970s it became Peter's Pies, and is now known as Peter's Food, based in Bedwas in Caerphilly county.
The late Stan Thomas passed on the company to his sons Stan junior - Dylan Thomas's grandfather - and Peter, the former chairman of Cardiff RFC rugby club, who died in 2023. They sold the company in 1988.
Vanya Gaberova, Katrin Ivanova and Tihomir Ivanchev, all from London, deny a charge of conspiracy to spy
A Bulgarian woman charged with being part of a Russian spy cell operating in the UK has denied knowing that information she gathered would be sent to Russia.
Katrin Ivanova, 33, is accused of spying for Russia in a series of elaborate operations in the UK and Europe.
She allegedly targeted a US military base in Germany and secretly filmed two investigative journalists regarded as enemies of the Russian state.
Jurors have heard there was a risk the journalists could be kidnaped or assassinated.
Giving evidence for the first time, Ms Ivanova denied being a spy.
She accepted following people targeted by the operations, and travelling around Europe, but said she did not know the true purpose of the activity.
She said she believed one operation targeting the investigative journalist Christo Grozev was itself a form of journalism and would reveal to the public that he was corrupt.
"The plan was to try and expose Mr Grozev," she said.
However, no information was ever published and "nothing actually happened", she said.
She said her then-partner Biser Dzhambazov – whom she told the jury she had trusted with her life – asked her to take part in surveillance operations.
"He has been my partner for over 10 years. Why would he do something that's going to hurt me," she said.
The operations were to help Dzhambazov's friend Orlin Roussev, who assisted the couple financially after they first moved to the UK in 2012, Ms Ivanova told the court.
The couple first met Roussev at East Croydon station in 2012, and went for dinner with him at a "posh" restaurant near the Thames, she said.
"I was very impressed with him," she said. "He was someone I always wanted to be. He was a typical hero immigrant story."
Both Dzhambazov and Roussev have already admitted conspiracy to spy for Russia.
Ms Ivanova wiped away tears in the witness box as she described learning how her partner was arrested in bed with the other alleged female spy in this trial, Vanya Gaberova, 30.
Jurors have heard that Dzhambazov and Ms Gaberova were in bed together when the police arrived to arrest them in February 2023.
She said Dzhambazov told her he had a brain tumour and went abroad for treatment. She now believes that was a lie so he could live a "parallel life" with Ms Gaberova.
The protest seemed much larger than the last such demonstration two weeks ago
Tens of thousands of people throughout Slovakia are demonstrating against the government of Prime Minister Robert Fico, defying his warnings that provocateurs linked to the liberal opposition would use the protests to bring about a coup.
Rallies are being held in some 25 Slovak towns and cities, the latest in a series of protests against his populist-nationalist coalition.
Protesters are angry at what they say is Fico undermining the country's institutions, culture and position in the EU and Nato, especially his increasing attacks on Ukraine and rapprochement with Moscow.
Fico says he is pursuing a "sovereign" Slovak foreign policy aimed at "all four cardinal points of the compass".
EPA
Robert Fico accuses the opposition of plotting a coup
He denies opposition claims he wants to take Slovakia out of the EU and Nato, saying his country's membership in both institutions was not in question.
The Dennik N website estimated that some 100,000 people across Slovakia attended the protests, with at least 40,000 in the capital alone.
Some 10,000 were reported to have taken to the streets of Banska Bystrica, a city of 75,000.
On Thursday, 15,000 demonstrated in Slovakia's second city, Kosice, to avoid a clash with a separate event being held there this evening.
There were no reports of violence or disorder, contrary to Fico's warnings this week that provocateurs would encourage demonstrators to attack public buildings, causing a police reaction leading to bigger protests.
Earlier on Friday Fico told reporters police would shortly begin deporting several foreign "instructors" he claimed were in Slovakia to help the opposition try to topple his government.
On Wednesday he called a meeting of the government's security council, saying the intelligence services had concrete proof that a group of foreign provocateurs who were involved in the recent protests in Georgia and in 2014 in Ukraine were active in Slovakia.
Slovakia's domestic intelligence service, the SIS, has confirmed the claims, but has given few details. The opposition has little faith in the SIS, as it is run by the son of an MP in Fico's Smer party.
Fico said a "large-scale" cyber attack that hit the country's health insurer on Friday was a textbook model "of how to liquidate a disobedient government which has unorthodox views on certain things" - a reference to his opposition to arming Ukraine and his efforts to mend relations with Moscow.
He said such activities were being carried out "by representatives of the opposition, NGOs organised from abroad, foreign instructors and the media."
Dennik N later reported the incident was actually a phishing attempt, not a cyber attack, and not particularly large in scale.
Slovak officials have claimed a previous cyber attack against the country's land registry could have come from Ukraine. Kyiv has flatly denied the accusation.
Kimberlee Singler was detained in west London on 30 December 2023
A judge has rejected a US mother's challenge to extradition over accusations she murdered two of her children in Colorado and "fled" to London.
Kimberlee Singler's nine-year-old daughter Elianna and seven-year-old son Aden were found dead on 19 December, 2023 in Colorado Springs.
Prosecutors acting on behalf of US officials said Ms Singler, 36, "fled" the US and was arrested in west London 11 days later.
District Judge John Zani told Westminster Magistrates' Court he rejected Ms Singler's challenge against extradition and said the case now passed to the home secretary to decide whether the 36-year-old should be sent back to the US.
Warning: This report contains descriptions of violence against children
In his ruling Judge Zani said he was not convinced that the defendant's rights, particularly her concerns about prison conditions and a possible life sentence without parole, would be infringed on by extradition.
"I am of the firm opinion that the defendant's extradition to the United States of America to face criminal prosecution complies with all of her Convention Rights within the meaning of the Human Rights Act 1998," Judge Zani said.
Ms Singler's legal team has said she intends to appeal against the judge's decision.
Previously, the court heard in September that Ms Singler's alleged crimes were "committed against the backdrop of acrimonious court proceedings" relating to the custody of her children with her ex-husband Kevin Wentz.
Prosecutor Joel Smith said on 19 December 2023 the Colorado Springs Police Department responded to a 911 call reporting a burglary at a Colorado residence at 00:29 local time (06:29 GMT).
When officers arrived at the defendant's address, they found two dead children and a "blood-stained handgun" which was discovered on the floor of the bedroom.
Mr Smith said DNA tests were carried out on the gun and a knife which revealed the presence of mixed profiles matching the children and Ms Singler.
A third child, who has not been named, was found with a serious injury to her neck. She was taken to hospital and survived.
Mr Smith said Ms Singler blamed her husband for the attack, but it was found he had been driving a "GPS-tracked truck" in Denver, giving what the prosecutor described as a "complete and verifiable alibi".
Seven-year-old Aden Wentz and his nine-year-old sister Elianna (Ellie) were found dead at a home in Colorado before Christmas 2023
In the days that followed, the third child was moved into foster care and, on Christmas Day, she told her foster carer that Ms Singler had been responsible for the attack and had asked her to lie to police, Mr Smith said.
The prosecutor said the girl was interviewed by police on 26 December, during which time she recounted how the attack had unfolded after the defendant guided all three children into their bedroom.
The police investigation then led to a warrant being issued by Fourth Judicial District Court in El Paso County, Colorado, for Ms Singler's arrest.
Mr Smith said Ms Singler was arrested in the Chelsea area of west London on 30 December.
It is not for the court in London to carry out a criminal trial. However, at the same hearing in September, Ms Singler's defence barrister Edward Fitzgerald told the court she "denies she is responsible for the death of her two young children and the attempted murder of her third child".
On President Trump’s first day in office, he pulled out of the Paris Agreement, a pact among nearly all nations to fight climate change. Reporting from Davos, Switzerland, David Gelles, a climate journalist for The New York Times, explains what this decision means for the rest of the world.
Arthur Blessitt in 2009 with the cross he carried when he started his trek from Los Angeles to New York on Christmas Day 1969. He went on to carry a smaller version of the cross all over the world.
The health insurer named Tim Noel, a longtime employee of its parent company, for the job. The previous chief executive, Brian Thompson, was killed in Manhattan.
António Guterres has voiced alarm over the M23 rebel group’s advance towards eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo’s largest city in a renewed insurgency that has displaced more than 178,000 people in the past two weeks.
In a statement though his spokesperson, the United Nations secretary general said M23’s advance had had a devastating toll on the civilian population and heightened the risk of a broader regional war.
“The secretary general calls on the M23 to immediately cease its offensive,” the statement said.
M23 has been advancing rapidly in eastern DRC in the past few weeks, surrounding Goma as it battles the Congolese army and tries to seize the city, the provincial capital of North Kivu province.
Earlier this month, the rebels captured Minova, Katale and Masisi towns. On Tuesday, the rebels took control of Minova town, a vital trade hub for Goma that is about 30 miles from the city. And two days later, it captured Sake town, about 15 miles from Goma.
The advance has caused panic in eastern DRC, with bombs being heard going off in Goma’s distant outskirts and hundreds of wounded civilians brought in to the main hospital from the area of the fighting on Thursday.
Thousands of displaced people reached the outskirts of Goma as they fled the rebel advance.
Congolese helicopter gunships swooped low over the plains to fire volleys of rockets and troops trucked towards the frontline to halt the rebels. Trucks loaded with soldiers and pulling cannons passed by followed by an old spluttering Soviet tank.
Many Sake residents fled the M23 advance. Thousands of people escaped the fighting by boat on Wednesday, making their way north across Lake Kivu and spilling out of packed wooden boats in Goma, some with bundles of their belongings strapped around their foreheads.
Neema Matondo said she had fled Sake during the night, when the first explosions started to go off. She recounted seeing people around her torn to pieces and killed. “We escaped, but unfortunately” others did not, Matondo told the Associated Press.
Mariam Nasibu, who fled Sake with her three children, was in tears – one of her children lost a leg, blown off in the relentless shelling. “As I continued to flee, another bomb fell in front of me, hitting my child,” she said.
Decades-long fighting among regional armies and rebels in DRC has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with about 6 million people killed since 1998 and more than 7 million displaced internally.
M23, which is made up of Tutsis who left the Congolese army more than 10 years ago, is one of more than a hundred armed groups fighting against Congolese forces in the mineral-rich eastern DRC. The group has more than 8,000 fighters, according to the UN.
It controls Rubaya, a key coltan-mining region that brings it $800,000 (£644,800) monthly in taxes for production and trade of the mineral, the UN says.
DRC, the US and the UN accuse neighbouring Rwanda of backing M23. Rwanda’s government had long denied the claim, but last year said it had troops and missile systems in eastern DRC to safeguard its security, pointing to a buildup of Congolese forces near the border.
In July, UN experts said in a report that 3,000 to 4,000 Rwandan government forces operated with M23 in eastern DRC. The Rwandan forces’ “de facto control and direction over M23 operations also renders Rwanda liable for the actions of M23,” the experts said.
M23 took over Goma for more than a week in 2012 but withdrew after international donors stopped aid to Rwanda.
Guterres called on parties involved in the conflict to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the DRC and “put an end to all forms of support to armed groups, whether Congolese or foreign”.
Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press contributed to this report
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