Minnesota Republicans took time out of their convention this past weekend to give a collective tribute to Derek Chauvin, the convicted former Minneapolis cop whose murder of George Floyd in 2020 launched nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice.

The party granted a delegate's request on Saturday that attendees stand in silence for about 10 seconds for Chauvin just days after the anniversary of him killing Floyd, who was Black, by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes.

Chauvin was sentenced to more than 22 years in prison after a jury handed down a murder conviction in the case, as well as a separate concurrent 21-year sentence for violating Floyd's civil rights. Despite the courts shutting down all appeals efforts, some Republicans have called for the ex-officer to be pardoned.

"There are a lot of people I think that believe Derek Chauvin was improperly convicted and not treated well, and those people wanted to have a moment of silence in recognition because they felt that way," Minnesota GOP chair Alex Plechash told WCCO radio on Monday.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who served as the case's lead prosecutor, called the moment of silence "an act of profound cruelty to the Floyd family and to every Minnesotan who believes in accountability under law."

In 2024, District Judge Matthew Barrett excoriated Tina Peters at her sentencing hearing, noting the disgraced former Colorado election clerk showed no remorse during her trial for having tampered with the voting machines she’d sworn to secure.

“I am convinced you would do it all over again if you could. You’re as defiant as any defendant this court has ever seen,” Barrett told her in handing down a nine-year sentence. “You are no hero. You abused your position and you’re a charlatan.”

Read more:

WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump is dropping his $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” Axios and other outlets reported Monday.

The White House did not immediately respond to requests to confirm the news.

Sen. Jon Ossoff tore into President Donald Trump and his administration’s white nationalism at an Atlanta rally on Sunday, stressing in a major moment for the Georgia Democrat’s reelection campaign that the country’s “national greatness flows not through our blood or our genes, but through our ideas.”

In a powerful speech that echoed the theme of hope Barack Obama ran on during his first presidential campaign, Ossoff told cheering supporters at the Tabernacle, “Americans are not a race. We’re a people ― united not by ethnicity, but by our shared convictions. And that is what makes us exceptional and a beacon to the world.”

Read more:

The Trump administration illegally banned transgender troops from military service, a divided panel of federal appeals court judges ruled on Monday.

The majority opinion by a panel of three judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit mostly reaffirms the March 2025 preliminary injunction of President Donald Trump’s first year executive order barring trans troops from the military.

The ruling in Talbott v. United States partially halts the ban on trans service members. While the case continues, the six trans plaintiffs currently serving in the military are protected from being expelled, though the recruitment ban on trans people enlisting in the military still remains in effect.

The Trump administration is expected to ask for a full appeals court to hear the case, which could tee up another battle at the Supreme Court. Last year the Supreme Court's conservative majority allowed the trans military ban to go into effect while litigation for a separate lawsuit, Shilling v. United States, played out.

Circuit Judge Robert Wilkins, appointed by President Barack Obama, wrote in his majority that Trump’s policy appeared to be “driven by the bare desire to harm a politically unpopular group.”

Trump appointee, Judge Justin Walker, wrote the dissent and argued that judges do not have the authority to second-guess the military’s decision to bar trans troops. Judge Judith Rogers, a President Bill Clinton nominee, joined Wilkins' opinion but also partially dissented.

An ex-press secretary for Jill Biden said the former first lady has done “more harm than good for her credibility” by exhuming memories of her husband’s disastrous 2024 debate performance and the resulting concerns for his health.

“The toothpaste is out of the tube,” Michael LaRosa said in an interview with CNN’s Paula Reid on Sunday. “So the problem for her is, as I said before, she is saying something completely different now that only invites the rest of us to ask, was she telling the truth then, or is she telling the truth now?”

Read more:

President Donald Trump said he had a "productive call" with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and claimed they had agreed no Israeli troops will go to Beirut, Lebanon's capital.

Trump's assertion on Monday comes just hours after Netanyahu ordered the Israeli military to strike Beirut's southern suburbs, raising the prospect of a further escalation of the war with Lebanon.

"I had a very productive call with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel, and there will be no Troops going to Beirut, and any Troops that are on their way, have already been turned back," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Likewise, through highly placed Representatives, I had a very good call with Hezbollah, and they agreed that all shooting will stop — That Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel."

A tranche of documents released as a result of an investigation into Peter Mandelson, the former British Ambassador to the U.S., shows the Trump administration expressed interest in receiving a uniquely monarchical gift from Prime Minister Keir Starmer: a personalized despatch box.

British politicians — and British monarchs — use the iconic red briefcases to ferry official documents back and forth. The boxes typically bear the gold crest of the reigning monarch but in President Donald Trump’s case, the king’s cypher would’ve been swapped out for Trump’s name and the presidential seal.

In an email to his colleagues last August, Olly Robbins, then the U.K. Foreign Office’s permanent undersecretary, seemed to suggest the kingly request came from someone in the Trump administration.

“Washington, as I’m sure you know, is clear that one of the gifts that would mean the most to the President would be a red dispatch box with a gold crest and lettering … with ‘President of the United States’ inscribed on it,” Robbins wrote.

“I’m not sure whether the balance is right,” he then fretted.

It’s unclear if the box was ultimately ever produced — or gifted by Starmer.

The emails were sent shortly before Trump’s second state visit to the U.K. last September.

During that visit, the king gifted Trump a hand-bound leather volume celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and the union flag that flew over Buckingham Palace on the day of the president's second inauguration.

President Donald Trump appears to have been caught unawares by Iran’s decision to suspend peace talks, telling NBC News Monday they hadn’t communicated the decision ahead of time.

“It’s an appropriate thing to say, because they’re better negotiators than they are fighters,” he told the outlet. “But they haven’t informed us of that.”

The president seemed to suggest, however, that Iran’s withdrawal doesn’t necessarily mean the ceasefire is over.

“It doesn’t mean we’re going to go and start dropping bombs all over there,” he said, adding that “we’ll keep the blockade.”

Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency said earlier Monday that Tehran would cease communicating with the U.S. in protest of Israel’s continued bombardment of Lebanon, seemingly in violation of the ceasefire.

Two films made big waves over the weekend, racking up hundreds of millions in sales thanks to the vision of two relatively unknown YouTube creators.

“Backrooms,” a horror film overseen by 20-year-old Kane Parsons, raked in $118 million in worldwide ticket sales. The film, which cost $10 million to spin out as a feature from an adaptation of a series of YouTube shorts, marked the biggest opening in A24’s history, and made Parsons the youngest filmmaker ever to open at No. 1, Deadline notes.

A24’s success aligns with that of another YouTube creator. “Obsession," the brainchild of 26-year-old Curry Barker, was produced by Focus Features for around $750,000 and has so far brought in $150 million.

Ticket sales for “Obsession” have grown every weekend since its May 15 release, the first film to do so, according to Focus, since “E.T.” way back in 1982.

The insurgent success stories stand in sharp contrast to the performance of other, would-be blockbusters of yesteryear.

An entrant in Disney’s “Star Wars” franchise, “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” saw a 70% drop in ticket sales this weekend, coming in third behind “Backrooms” and “Obsession.”

Comscore’s head of marketplace trends, Paul Dergarabedian, told Variety this doesn’t necessarily need to be a doom-and-gloom moment for old Hollywood.

“Whether or not this is ushering in a new era or a paradigm shift for the business remains to be seen, but this YouTube creator-to-big screen pathway should be viewed as complementary,” he said. “It’s a production pipeline that has not existed until now.”

LONDON, June 1 (Reuters) - The British government published on Monday a second batch of documents relating to the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington, a saga which has led to questions over Prime Minister Keir Starmer's judgment and leadership.

Starmer sacked Mandelson last year, but the prime minister's decision to hand Britain's top diplomatic post to a man with known ties to the late U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, prompted calls for Starmer to resign earlier this year.

Mandelson is under police investigation for allegedly leaking government documents to the late Epstein. He does not face allegations of sexual misconduct.

An initial tranche of documents was released in March, which showed Starmer was warned of the risks of the appointment, not just from his ties to Epstein but over Mandelson's previous resignations from government and his support for closer ties with China.

Starmer's position has weakened further since the furore over Mandelson. Last month, he faced a new challenge to his leadership after dozens of Labour lawmakers called on him to step down after defeats in local elections.

The publication of the Mandelson documents on Monday, which are likely to show messages between the Labour veteran and ministers and lawmakers, could also prove embarrassing if they criticise Starmer or comment on U.S. President Donald Trump.

Mandelson was a government minister when Starmer's Labour Party was last in power more than 15 years ago. He was sacked as U.S. ambassador when the depth of his friendship with Epstein became clear from U.S. file releases.

Starmer has said he was "wrong" to appoint Mandelson and has expressed regret but says all proper processes were followed. He has also criticised officials for failing to tell him that a security vetting body had advised against the appointment.

(Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Kate Holton and William James)

ABC talk show host Jimmy Kimmel told Variety he feels “a little bit defeated” after CBS’s abrupt cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show,” and thinks “in a lot of ways, I feel like I’m looking at my own future.”

“We’re not just dying of natural causes. We’re being poisoned,” he said of the uncertainty that late-night shows face after CBS controversially canceled Colbert’s program.

Kimmel said he doesn’t buy CBS' excuse that money was the reason, saying the network blamed “made-up numbers” for axing the program.

Kimmel said executives at ABC told him his show is profitable, yet his contract was extended in December by just one year instead of the standard of three.

Tina Peters, a former elections clerk from Colorado accused of tampering with voting machines after the 2020 presidential election, was released from prison Monday.

The AP and Colorado Public Radio both reported on her release.

Gov. Jared Polis (D) had commuted her sentence, arguing he felt it was overly harsh.

Tennis legend Serena Williams is making a comeback. The 23-time Grand Slam champion announced Monday she’ll play in the doubles competition at the HSBC Championships, held at the Queens Club in London from June 8-14.

Williams will play as a wild card entry in the grass court tournament, having previously announced her retirement from the sport in 2022.

At the time, she said in an essay for Vogue that making her “reluctant” decision was “the hardest thing that I could ever imagine.”

“I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me,” she wrote. “I’m torn: I don’t want it to be over, but at the same time I’m ready for what’s next.”

Williams’ sister, Venus, also recently un-retired, with an appearance in the 2026 Australian Open — her first appearance in the tournament since 2021.

Health officials in Brazil said they are monitoring two people for possible Ebola infection after they developed symptoms after returning from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, where outbreaks are underway.

The man in Sao Paulo tested positive for meningitis and the person in Rio tested positive for malaria. Neither diagnosis rules out the possibility that they have Ebola as well, local health authorities told Reuters.

In Italy, a man who flew back from Congo on Saturday with some Ebola symptoms tested negative for the virus in Sardinia, Italy’s health ministry said Monday, according to local reports.

Iran's Tasnim news agency said on Monday that Tehran's negotiating team is stopping exchanges of messages with the United States through mediators due to attacks on Lebanon, as diplomatic efforts to end the three-month-old Iran war continue.

The agency said Iran and the Resistance Front, which includes its Shiite allies in Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq, have set an agenda to completely block the Strait of Hormuz and activate other fronts, including the Bab El Mandeb Strait, in order to "punish" Israel and its supporters.

If the Houthis, Iran's allies in Yemen, open a new front in the conflict, one obvious target would be the Bab El Mandeb Strait off the coast of Yemen, a key shipping chokepoint and narrow passageway that controls sea traffic towards the Suez Canal.

"Violation on one front is a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts. The U.S. and Israel are responsible for the consequences of any violation," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on X on Monday, referring to Israeli operations in Lebanon.

The war launched by the U.S. and Israel on February 28 has killed thousands of people, mainly in Iran and Lebanon. It has also caused global economic pain by pushing up energy prices since Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global supply route for oil and liquefied natural gas.

"The immediate cessation of the Zionist regime's aggressive and brutal army operations in Gaza and Lebanon and the necessity of the regime’s complete withdrawal from the occupied areas in Lebanon have been emphasized by Iranian officials and negotiators, and there will be no talks until Iran and the resistance's views on this matter are met," Tasnim added.

The British government published on Monday a second batch of documents relating to the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington, a saga which has led to questions over Prime Minister Keir Starmer's judgment and leadership.

Starmer sacked Mandelson last year, but the prime minister's decision to hand Britain's top diplomatic post to a man with known ties to the late U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, prompted calls for Starmer to resign earlier this year.

Mandelson is under police investigation for allegedly leaking government documents to the late Epstein. He does not face allegations of sexual misconduct.

An initial tranche of documents was released in March, which showed Starmer was warned of the risks of the appointment, not just from his ties to Epstein but over Mandelson's previous resignations from government and his support for closer ties with China.

Starmer's position has weakened further since the furor over Mandelson. Last month, he faced a new challenge to his leadership after dozens of Labour lawmakers called on him to step down after defeats in local elections.

The publication of the Mandelson documents on Monday, which are likely to show messages between the Labour veteran and ministers and lawmakers, could also prove embarrassing if they criticize Starmer or comment on U.S. President Donald Trump.

Mandelson was a government minister when Starmer's Labour Party was last in power more than 15 years ago. He was sacked as U.S. ambassador when the depth of his friendship with Epstein became clear from U.S. file releases.

Starmer has said he was "wrong" to appoint Mandelson and has expressed regret but says all proper processes were followed. He has also criticized officials for failing to tell him that a security vetting body had advised against the appointment.

Today marks the first day of hurricane season in the Atlantic, with a below-normal storm season predicted.

A total of eight to 14 named storms, with winds of 39 mph or higher, are forecast for the six-month season, which ends Nov. 30, according to the National Weather Service.

Of those storms, three to six are predicted to become hurricanes, and one to three expected to become major hurricanes (categories 3, 4 or 5), with winds of 111 mph or higher.

“Remember, even if the Atlantic hurricane season ends up being below to near normal, it only takes one storm in your community to make it a bad hurricane season for you,” the National Hurricane Center warned. “Prepare this year like you would any other!”

Atlantic #HurricaneSeason Outlook 2026: 8-14 named storms of which 3-6 could become hurricanes, including 1-3 major hurricanes:https://t.co/qz1krFJOLV@NWSCPC #HurricaneOutlook #WeatherReadyNation pic.twitter.com/WoaN9H3zs2

Senate Democrats will do everything they can to eliminate President Donald Trump's "Anti-Weaponization Fund," Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) said Monday.

The $1.8 billion fund has already been blocked by a court and prompted Senate Republicans to consider ways to set "guardrails" on the fund, but Schumer said Democrats will accept nothing less than wholesale elimination.

"This week, Senate Democrats will launch a coordinated effort to kill the slush fund before one cent goes out the door," Schumer said in a public letter to his colleagues. "You do not fix a corrupt slush fund by promising to manage it better. You end it."

U.S. commentators Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur say they have been blocked from entering the U.K. to attend speaking events over their views on Israel.

Uygur, a left-wing, Turkish American political activist who co-hosts the popular YouTube channel The Young Turks, and Piker, who is also a left-wing commentator and influencer, said they were scheduled to speak at the SXSW London festival later this week but were denied entry.

“I’ve been banned for criticizing Israel. Are we free anymore?” Uygur posted online Sunday after he said he was barred from boarding a flight to attend the festival and also give a speech at Oxford.

“The UK has revoked my visa as well. All at the behest of Israel,” Piker, who is Uygur's nephew, responded to his post.

Britain's interior ministry confirmed to Reuters that their travel had been canceled as "their presence in the UK may not be conducive to the public good.” The statement did not mention their stance on Israel as the reason.

I’ve been banned from the UK. I tried to get on a flight to London to attend SXSW London and give a speech at Oxford. I’ve been banned for criticizing Israel. Are we free anymore? This is oppression of Western citizens by our own governments on behalf of a different country!

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Monday reiterated that the ceasefire between Iran and the U.S. also covers the fighting in Lebanon.

"Its violation on one front is a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts," Araghchi wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "The U.S. and Israel are responsible for the consequences of any violation."

Araghchi's statement comes as Israel ordered strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut in Lebanon.

Iran and the U.S. also traded strikes, raising questions about the ceasefire and a possible peace deal to end the war.

For immediate attention:The ceasefire between Iran and the US is unequivocally a ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon. Its violation on one front is a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts. The US and Israel are responsible for the consequences of any violation.

By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.