The president marked his 80th birthday and the nation’s bicentennial with a bizarre display on the White House lawn.

A B-52 Stratofortress bomber crashed shortly after takeoff at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California, the Air Force said in a brief Monday statement.

“Emergency crews immediately responded to the scene and the situation is ongoing,” the statement said.

Video of the runway revealed a large portion to be charred and smoking. It is not clear whether the pilots survived.

The Obamas have unveiled their first commissioned portrait of themselves together, which will be on display at the Obama Presidential Center Museum in Chicago.

The colorful portrait by Nigerian-born artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby shows the couple seated before a window overlooking the former first lady’s childhood home. Photos of the couple are widely featured throughout the work, seen in their outfits, the wall, furniture and other items depicted in the room with them.

In an online video, Crosby said that she and her team read all of the Obamas’ books and listened to all of their interviews while working on the portrait, allowing them to get to know the couple better.

“I wanted to make these decisions that tapped into those memories so when you saw this, it felt familiar,” she said.

The museum is scheduled to open to the public on Friday.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday claimed President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is investigating him and his wife, first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom.

“He’s coming after me because I am considering running for president. Because he hates that I’ve consistently called him out — over and over again — for his lies and deceit,” Newsom said. “Donald Trump is simply the most corrupt president in American history.”

“He has turned the levers of government into his own personal power ministries to reward cronies and to try to jail his opponents,” Newsom continued, adding that the DOJ should really be investigating Trump for “running the largest cash heist in American political history — trading foreign tariff relief for approval of his golf courses.”

“Put my name on every and any enemies list you have, but leave my wife and family out of your personal vendetta,” Newsom added.

Read more here.

ATLANTA, June 15 (Reuters) - Cape Verde pulled off a World Cup shock by holding Spain to a 0-0 draw in the opening game of Group H on Monday, where the European champions and one of the tournament favorites could find no way past the debutants and their keeper Vozinha.

Read more on the historic World Cup stunner below:

A group of Democratic senators and one Republican, as well as two Democratic House committees, sent letters Monday to the National Science Foundation asking it to reverse course on its plan to dismantle a sprawling ocean monitoring network, with House lawmakers going further and accusing the agency of acting illegally.

The Ocean Observatories Initiative is a network of more than 900 ocean sensors built at a cost of $386 million. Over the last decade it has tracked ocean circulation, marine ecosystems, climate change and extreme weather, producing data freely available to the public and informing more than 500 scientific publications. The project was slated to run another 15 to 20 years.

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President Donald Trump told reporters Monday the peace deal with Iran is “all signed” and that, once “a couple of mines” are recovered from the Strait of Hormuz, it will be completely open, likely by Friday.

Trump’s voice sounded hoarse — likely due to festivities from his 80th birthday celebration, including cage fights on the White House lawn the night before — as he spoke at the G7 during a bilateral meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.

"We got along very well with Iran, it's a different set of leaders,” Trump said. “As you know the first set is gone, the second set is gone, and we found the third set to be very smart, strong, very smart, but we ended up making a deal.”

Vice President JD Vance told ABC News the deal was digitally signed on Sunday, with a formal signing ceremony scheduled for Friday.

President Donald Trump has endorsed Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) for Georgia’s U.S. Senate seat ahead of a runoff in the state’s Republican primary Tuesday.

Collins is up against Derek Dooley, a political neophyte and former football coach, who was endorsed by outgoing Georgia Governor Brian Kemp.

Collins is also the subject of a probe by the House Ethics Committee, which said there’s “substantial reason to believe” the congressman misused congressional resources in a scandal involving Collins’ chief of staff and an intern with whom the staffer had a romantic relationship.

The winner of Tuesday’s runoff will face Sen. Jon Ossoff (D) in the general election in November.

UFC fighter Josh Hokit put his racism and misogyny on full display when he called former first lady Michelle Obama a man at the UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House.This particular conspiracy has existed in far-right circles for years as part of the "transvestigating" trend, where online sleuths try to claim that powerful female public figures were born male.

HuffPost's Brittany Wong explains the full story here.

A 23-year-old Russian diplomat, whose father is a senior Russian diplomat, has allegedly been linked to last year's arson attacks against British Prime Minister Keir Starmer following an investigation by the BBC.

Electronic evidence gathered by the news outlet suggests that a Ukrainian man convicted Monday in last year’s attacks was working under the paid direction of Evgeny Lyukshin, who corresponded using the initials EL.

“We do not know for sure if Evgeny Lyukshin is EL. Lyukshin did not respond when we contacted him setting out the evidence that he is,” the BBC reported Monday. “But he was in the fake far-right group created by Russian operatives to cause hatred in the UK, his details match EL, he is trained in information warfare, and surrounded by Putin allies.”

Among Lyukshin’s background is his study of “information warfare” as part of a program created at the direction of the Kremlin that’s taught by spies and close allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the news outlet.

Two men were found guilty on Monday of conspiring to carry out the arson attacks after being offered payment by a Russian-speaking person, the trial heard. Authorities said there was no evidence the defendants knew who they were targeting in the attacks.

President Donald Trump has landed in Évian-les-Bains and is now headed to the venue of the G7 summit.

The president was greeted by Charles Kushner, the U.S. ambassador to France, upon his arrival.

President Donald Trump has landed in Geneva, Switzerland, ahead of a G7 leaders summit in nearby France.

Trump disembarked Air Force One ahead of a planned bilateral meeting Monday on the shores of Lake Geneva. French President Emmanuel Macron is hosting the event in Evian-les-Bains, which is scheduled to conclude on Wednesday.

The G7 includes France, the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom. Also in attendance, as guests, are Brazil, Egypt, India, Kenya, South Korea, Qatar, Syria, Ukraine, and the United Arab Emirates.

Vice President JD Vance told CBS News that the White House plans to release “the full text” of the peace deal with Iran sometime this week and that a lot of the details on how the agreement will be executed still need to be hammered out.

“Sometimes with these agreements there are some diplomatic protocols, some technical things to work out, but we plan to release the full text this week,” he said.

The deal ultimately will ensure that “Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, while simultaneously opening the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.

He went on to deny some details reported by the Iranian media about the deal, including that Iran will receive $24 billion if they hit certain benchmarks. That figure is not “anywhere in the text,” he said.

In a separate interview with CNBC, he said he expects the Strait of Hormuz will open without tolls for “the long term.”

“A lot of those details will be figured out during those 60-day talks,” he said of weeks-long negotiations expected to follow the deal’s signing.

Vice President JD Vance says that the deal between the U.S. and Iran “ensures that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, while simultaneously opening the Strait of Hormuz.”The vice president shares more details about the agreement, including some of the obligations Iran will… pic.twitter.com/MaUZQWP3ZG

A Ukrainian man was found guilty on Monday of carrying out arson attacks on property connected to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in May last year on behalf of a mystery figure he knew only as "EL Money".

Over five days last ‌May, police were called to fires at a house in north London connected to Starmer, another at a property nearby where he had previously lived, and to a blaze involving a Toyota car that also once belonged to the British leader.

Roman Lavrynovych, 22, was found guilty at London's Old Bailey Court of two counts of committing arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered. He was acquitted of two counts of committing arson with intent to risk life.

Lavrynovych and Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc, 27, who was born in Ukraine, were found guilty of conspiracy to commit arson. Fellow Ukrainian Petro Pochynok, 35, was acquitted of the same charge.

They will be sentenced on Friday.

The jury was told Lavrynovych had been offered payment to carry out arson attacks by an account on Telegram, which used the name "EL Money".

EL Money contacted him in both Russian and Ukrainian. Prosecutors did not state who or what entity was believed to be behind the account.

"It is no part of your considerations to decide who 'EL Money' is and what reason he might have had to co-ordinate the actions of these defendants against these properties and this car associated with the prime minister," prosecutor Duncan Atkinson said at the start of the trial.

Helen Flanagan, head of counter-terrorism policing in London, said there was no evidence Russia was behind the attacks.

President Donald Trump said ships, “many loaded up with oil,” are starting to move out of the Strait of Hormuz following news of a peace agreement with Iran.

“They are going along the Southern ‘Highway,’ which is totally safe, secure, and pristine. There are other areas of travel, also!!!” he posted on Truth Social.

President Donald Trump praised last night’s UFC fight at the White House as “incredible” and all of the fighters as “unbelievable,” while continuing to stay silent on one victor’s vile attack on former first lady Michelle Obama while accepting his win.

“The Fighters were outstanding — Bo Nickal, Justin Gaethje, Ciryl Gane, Sean O’Malley, Josh Hokit, Mauricio Ruffy, and Diego Lopes were all unbelievable!” he said in a Truth Social post Monday.

“The White House has never looked more beautiful. The setting was unsurpassed!” Trump went on, while calling the event “one of the most exciting days in the History of our fabled White House!”

Hokit, who has a long history of making racist statements and faces allegations of domestic violence, took the microphone after his win to call the former first lady a man, repeating a right-wing conspiracy theory that he’s also flung against a Black WNBA star.

UFC President Dana White reportedly objected to Hokit’s remark about the former first lady in a text message to Time.

“I understand that the Obama’s are public figures but I’m completely against saying nasty and false things about people’s families,” he wrote.

French President Emmanuel Macron pushed back on Donald Trump's threat to impose a 100% tariff on French wine unless he removes a 3% levy on U.S. tech companies.

"This digital tax, decided by Europeans, implemented by several countries, is part of our law," Macron told French TV channel TF1, according to Reuters. "It's not the United States that decides on the Europeans' law."

Trump ordered Macron to remove the tax in an interview with The New York Post.

"All [Macron] has to do is get rid of the sales tax, and he wouldn’t have that kind of pressure," the president said.

Donald Trump has been disparaging America's allies from afar for refusing to take part in the war he launched against Iran. On Monday afternoon, he will get a chance to do so to their faces.

That’s when the president is to arrive at the Group of Seven summit, the annual forum of the world's largest democratic economies, whose other six members have been on the receiving end of Trump’s insults for not sending ships and planes to the Persian Gulf to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil tanker traffic and resolve the global energy crisis that his war created.

And while Trump is known for generating conflict even in calm times, this meeting will feature national leaders likely as irritated with Trump as he is with them for creating a mess that has made life for their citizens even more difficult than Trump has made it for Americans. Running the program, in fact, is French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been open with his criticism of Trump’s war.

Read more here:

Fox Corp. has reached a deal to acquire Roku in an agreement worth approximately $22 billion, the two companies announced on Monday.

"This is a defining moment for FOX, and a natural extension of the deliberate and focused strategy we have been executing for nearly a decade," Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch said in a statement.

President Donald Trump has demanded that Emmanuel Macron remove his country's 3% tax on U.S. tech companies, warning his French counterpart that failure to execute his directive will result in new U.S. tariffs on French wines.

"I asked him not to charge American companies, and if they do, I have no choice but to charge a 100% tariff on all Champagnes and all wines coming out of France," Trump told The New York Post in an interview published early Monday.

All Macron "has to do is get rid of the sales tax, and he wouldn’t have that kind of pressure," the president added.

Trump's comments come ahead of his arrival in Europe for the G7 summit hosted by France.

The U.S. currently levies a 15% tariff on wines imported from the European Union into the U.S.

Ensuring the Strait of Hormuz is safe from mines could delay a return to normal shipping traffic by weeks following a deal to reopen the waterway, shipping and maritime security sources say.

The operation by conventional minesweepers and state-of-the-art underwater drones could continue for 40 to 50 days before many insurance, shipping or oil companies are confident enough to sail through, according to assessments from five Western maritime security sources.

Read more at Reuters:

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