America

    A25-year-old maths teacher has been arrested for allegedly having inappropriate sexual contact with three students. Erin McAuliffe, who taught at Rocky Mount Preparatory School in North Carolina, was reported to police by staff from the school and left her job at the beginning of May. Police officers have interviewed faculty members and said the alleged incidents were thought to have taken place off campus, involving two 17-year-old students and one 16-year-old. In a statement Rocky Mount Preparatory, which accepts students between the ages of three and 18, said staff had been “fully cooperative” with police in its handling of the matter. Ms McAuliffe has been charged with three counts of sexual activity with a student and one of indecent liberties with a minor, and is bei...

    Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have been dating for almost a year. That’s a long time in the world of royals. So it’s only natural that marriage might be on the cards for the loved-up pair (especially since Meghan is set to move into Kensington Palace this summer). Meghan Markle predictably avoided the question when asked if she had plans to marry Prince Harry [Photo: Getty] Meghan herself probably didn’t think someone would be so bold to ask her the big question outright. But an audience member at the ATX Television Festival in Austin, Texas, did just that. Meghan and her fellow Suits stars appeared on-stage to read through the original pilot script. The 35-year-old actress, who was wearing a pretty red-and-white printed dress, was teased by co-star Rick Hoffman who sugge...

    Another U.S. appeals court stomped on President Donald Trump's revised travel ban Monday, saying the administration violated federal immigration law and failed to provide a valid reason for keeping people from six mostly Muslim nations from coming to the country. The decision by a unanimous three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals helps keep the travel ban blocked and deals Trump a second big legal defeat on the policy in less than three weeks. The administration said it would seek further review at the U.S. Supreme Court, as it has already done with a ruling against the travel ban by another appeals court last month. The high court is likely to consider the cases in tandem. Attorney General Jeff Sessions insisted the new decision woul...

    Preet Bharara, a prominent former U.S. attorney ousted by President Trump, said Sunday that he reported to the Justice Department efforts by the president to cultivate some kind of relationship with him, describing phone calls from Trump that made him increasingly uncomfortable. In his first sit-down interview since his March removal, Bharara said he reported one of the phone calls to the chief of staff for Attorney General Jeff Sessions because it made him uneasy. He said he was dismissed from the important prosecutor’s job in Manhattan only 22 hours after he finally refused to take a call from the president. The recollections add a new dimension to the intensifying debate over Trump’s firing of former FBI director James B. Comey, who was removed from his job after privat...

    Donald Trump's private lawyer is planning to file a legal complaint against James Comey over the former FBI director’s release of memos to the public that detailed his conversations with the President. During a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, Mr Comey said he believed that Mr Trump had ordered him to drop a criminal investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Mr Comey had detailed this interaction in a memo, writing that the President told him: I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go. Mr Comey told the Senate committee that he felt he needed to get this information out into the public square. So I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a repor...

    The White House is discussing a possible London trip later in the week to show solidarity after Saturday’s attack, ABC News has reported. The US network’s White House correspondent suggested that President Donald Trump or another senior official could want to visit. Jon Karl said that, with James Comey, the sacked FBI director, due to testify on Thursday, the White House was making an effort to deflect. Trump speaks about London attack in Washington He continued: You're seeing that in the president's response to the London terror attacks. They're going to talk about infrastructure week this week, about reviving his plan for an infrastructure bill. And there is some discussion among the president's aides about possibly taking a trip to London at the end of the week to show ...

    US president Donald Trump just announced he will withdraw the country from the international Paris agreement on climate change. He says he wants a better deal for the US, and that the country will begin renegotiating the terms of the agreement immediately after exiting it. We will see if we can make a deal that’s fair. And if we can, that’s great. If we can’t, that’s fair, Trump said at a press conference today (June 1). The statement is a stark example of the president’s zero-sum thinking, and it’s wholly inaccurate. The reality is the US did not have to withdraw from the Paris agreement to renegotiate how it will participate. In fact, once it with withdraws, it legally cannot renegotiate the terms of its participation. It also cannot withdraw immediately. There is no leg...

    Melania Trump in Italy last week. A quiet first lady, she has reserved many of her public statements for defending her family. It is rare for Melania Trump to issue a statement of any sort. The first lady, who has sometimes seemed reluctant about her new role, prefers privacy and restraint. Yet she chose to speak up forcefully Wednesday, nearly a full day after a gruesome photo of comedian Kathy Griffin holding a prop made to resemble the bloody, decapitated head of President Trump was posted online. On Tuesday, the photo was condemned by a bipartisan chorus of politicians and pundits as soon as it went public; hours later, Griffin apologized in a video statement. The Trumps did not seem to accept the apology, with the president tweeting the next morning that his children,...

    European leaders dismissed Donald Trump’s claim that the Paris climate accord can be renegotiated after the US president announced he will pull out of the deal struck in 2015 to seek better terms. Shortly after Trump’s announcement the leaders of France, Germany and Italy released a joint statement rejecting Trump’s assertion that the climate deal can be redrafted. We deem the momentum generated in Paris in December 2015 irreversible and we firmly believe that the Paris Agreement cannot be renegotiated, since it is a vital instrument for our planet, societies and economies,” said chancellor Angela Merkel, president Emmanuel Macron and prime minister Paolo Gentiloni. The three leaders called on their allies to speed up efforts to combat climate change and a promise to do mo...

    The White House communications director has resigned only three months after being hired by President Donald Trump. Mike Dubke, an experienced Republican strategist, was hired to revamp the White House media strategy. As part of the shake-up, White House press secretary Sean Spicer will reportedly hold on to his position, but there will be fewer media briefings. The reshuffle follows reports of disarray in the White House communications team. Mr Dubke is leaving on good terms, according to Axios News, a politics website which first reported his exit.