By Laura Davison and Saleha Mohsin U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin The amount of the average U.S. tax refund increased 1.3 percent last week compared to a year earlier but the combined value of those checks and the number of people receiving the payments continued to drop. The IRS released its data Thursday that compares […] Read more
Thirteen French citizens accused of fighting for the Islamic State group are to be tried in Iraq rather than face charges back home in France. Iraqi President Barham Saleh said the 13 were handed over by Syrian Kurdish forces last month. French President Emmanuel Macron declined to comment, saying it was a sovereign matter […] Read more
Labour wants a choice between “a credible Leave option” and Remain – with a public vote on the PM’s deal if it passes. By Greg Heffer Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer has told Sky News a second EU referendum should be a “basic choice” between a “credible Leave option and Remain” – but voters should not […] Read more
Vatican treasurer, the third most senior Catholic in the world, convicted on five charges in Australian court case Cardinal George Pell, once the third most powerful man in the Vatican and Australia’s most senior Catholic, has been found guilty of child sexual abuse after a trial in Melbourne. A jury delivered the unanimous verdict on […] Read more
Redesignation makes Indiana Dunes the US’s newest national park, ending a fight for recognition lasting 103 years By: Antonia Wilson Wild and rugged – though the link to Spielberg’s similarly-named action hero ends there – Indiana Dunes has been designated America’s newest national park, marking the end of a 103-year-long effort instigated by the US National […] Read more
By: Tim Duy Even if inflation rises or growth perks up, the central bank seems willing to hold back. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has the Fed leaning dovish. The Federal Reserve hasn’t yet given up on its estimate of the longer-run rate of unemployment that is consistent with stable inflation. That estimate, combined with the […] Read more
Aaron Campbell is facing a life sentence The identity of the teenage boy who raped and murdered six-year-old Alesha MacPhail has been revealed. The judge who presided over the trial has lifted a ban on naming 16-year-old Aaron Campbell. Media outlets, including the BBC, made a case for reversing the court order which had protected […] Read more
A ninth MP has quit Britain’s opposition Labour party in protest over its handling of the anti-semitism row and Jeremy Corbyn’s lurch to the ‘hard-left’. Ian Austin, MP for Dudley in the West Midlands, told party members in a series of text messages on Friday that he felt “ashamed of the Labour Party under Jeremy […] Read more
Forensic and security officials stand next to the wreckage of a bus after a suicide bomber rammed a car into the bus carrying Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel on Thursday, in Lethpora in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, February 15, 2019 By Hamid Shalizi and Rupam Jain in Kabul Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Pakistani […] Read more
Martina Navratilova joined Athlete Ally as an ambassador in 2014 The Grand Slam winner says allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sport is “insane” and “cheating”. Tennis legend Martina Navratilova has been sacked as an ambassador for a group campaigning for LGBT sportspeople over “transphobic” comments. She wrote in The Sunday Times that it […] Read more
