Barack Obama quashes divorce rumours with sweet Mother's Day post
The former president gushed over his wife Michelle on social media on Sunday. 'Happy Mother's Day to all the amazing moms and mother-figures! @MichelleObama, the girls and I are so lucky to have you in our lives. We love you.' Barack shared the heartfelt post after he and Michelle were the subject of split rumours, following her absence from multiple political events, including President Jimmy Carter's funeral in January. That same month, the former first lady also skipped President Trump's second inauguration.
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News.com.au
33 minutes ago
- News.com.au
‘Must be called out': PM under pressure after 9News reporter Lauren Tomasi shot with rubber bullet during LA protests
The Greens have called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to seek 'urgent explanation' from Donald Trump after an Australian journalist was shot by police with a rubber bullet in Los Angeles. 9News reporter Lauren Tomasi was hit while covering street protests that have broken out in LA following the arrests of dozens of people for alleged immigration violations. The moment was captured on camera with Ms Tomasi directly hit in the leg. 'You just f***in' shot the reporter!' a protester yelled at the officer before asking whether she was OK. 'Yeah, I'm good,' she replied. In a statement, Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young called on Mr Albanese to hold the US President accountable. 'US authorities shooting an Australian journalist is simply shocking,' Ms Hanson-Young said in a statement. 'It is completely unacceptable and must be called out.' Ms Hanson-Young, who is also the Greens spokeswoman for media and communication, said the Prime Minister should seek 'an urgent explanation from the US administration'. 'As Albanese is preparing for his first meeting with President Trump, the first thing he must tell the President is to stop shooting at our journalists,' Ms Hanson-Young. 'Freedom of the press is a fundamental pillar of a strong, functioning democracy.' In a statement, Channel 9 said both Ms Tomasi and their camera operator were 'safe'. 'While reporting from protests in Los Angeles, 9News reporter Lauren Tomasi was struck by a rubber bullet. Lauren and her camera operator are safe and will continue their essential work covering these events,' the media company said. 'This incident serves as a stark reminder of the inherent dangers journalists can face while reporting from the frontlines of protests, underscoring the importance of their role in providing vital information.' On X, Ms Tomasi told a follower she was 'safe and okay'. The Prime Minister's office has yet to comment on the incident. Protesters ordered to disperse Before 10pm Sunday local time, the entirety of downtown Los Angeles was declared an 'unlawful assembly' zone, with members of the public instructed to disperse. 'Downtown Los Angeles has been declared as an UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLY. You are to leave the Downtown Area immediately,' the police department posted on social media. It comes after cars were burned and protesters clashed with police, resulting in the arrests of almost 40 people involved in the riots. Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell said enforcement was 'overwhelmed' by the number of people involved in the protests. 'As far as people worried about the violence that we're seeing. The violence that we've seen is disgusting. It's escalated now, since the beginning of this incident. What we saw the first night was bad. What we've seen subsequent to that is getting worse and more violent,' Mr McDonnell said. 'Tonight we had individuals out there shooting commercial-grade fireworks at our officers. That can kill you. We have adapted our tactics to be able to have a chance to take these people into custody and to hold them accountable.' On Sunday morning, the first members of the National Guard arrived in Los Angeles after Mr Trump ordered 2,000 troops in the city after two days of violence and protests. A new statement from US Northern Command has confirmed that 500 Marines are also prepared to deploy to Los Angeles, should they be ordered to do so. California Governor Gavin Newsom has since come out demanding that Donald Trump withdraw the National Guard, accusing the President of 'inciting' more violence. 'These are the acts of a dictator, not a president,' he said. Mr Trump posted to the social media platform, Truth Social, to hit back at Mr Newsom as well as Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. 'Governor Gavin Newscum (sic) and 'Mayor' Bass should apologise to the people of Los Angeles for the absolutely horrible job they have done, and this now includes the ongoing LA riots,' he said. 'These are not protesters, they are troublemakers and insurrections.'
News.com.au
2 hours ago
- News.com.au
A-list couple show up at intimate wedding
Taylor Swift gave fans quite the surprise over the weekend, when she was spotted attending a wedding with boyfriend Travis Kelce. Several TikTok posts showed the pop star dressed in a strapless blue floral patterned dress from Markarian, which retails for $US1,995, and heels for the barn-style ceremony in Knoxville, Tennessee. Swift wore her hair loosely curled and hanging down her back. One TikToker, whose name is @Paigedoeswhatshewants on the platform, captioned her photo of the pop star, saying, 'not Taylor Swift being at my friends friends cousins wedding.' video clip of the couple, shared by @laurenelizabethduhhh, showed the singer and Kelce playfully dancing while seated next to each other at the wedding. Kelce, 35, wore a quarter-sleeved shirt and slacks. The couple attended the wedding of Kelce's cousin Tanner Corum, who tied the knot with Samantha Peck. And based on photos previously shared by Corum and Peck on social media, the family seems close with the hitmaker, 35. Peck previously shared a photo with the star in December 2023. A rep for Swift and Kelce did not immediately respond to Page Six's requests for comment. The sighting comes after Swift and Kelce were seen enjoying another date night last week in Palm Beach, Florida. According to an eyewitness who sat right beside the pair during their Wednesday outing, the two lovebirds were seemingly still on cloud 9 with their romance. 'They were a giggly couple on a date. They were just adorable!' the insider exclusively told Page Six on Friday. Swift and Kelce allegedly walked into Buccan restaurant and found a table at the back of the restaurant. 'I vaguely felt someone come in – just out of my peripheral vision, I didn't even look,' the source recalled. 'I didn't want to stare, but then I casually took time and looked over there.' The insider finished, telling Page Six the interaction with the happy pair, who've been dating for nearly two years, showed them that the relationship is 'true love.'
ABC News
2 hours ago
- ABC News
What's happening in LA? Trump's controversial immigration crackdown explained
US President Donald Trump deployed 2,000 California National Guard troops to Los Angeles streets on Saturday night. The extraordinary measure is the latest escalation in a tense immigration debate the nation has been grappling with since before the election. Here's a look at what's happening in Los Angeles and what led to the protests. In short, protests are continuing in Los Angeles for a third straight day. You might have heard them being referred to as ICE protests on social media. They began on Friday after immigration agents from ICE made dozens of arrests across the city over alleged immigration violations. On Sunday, 300 national guard troops were also deployed to guard a federal detention centre in downtown Los Angeles where those arrested were being held. ICE, which stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is a law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security. It's responsible for enforcing the country's immigration laws. It's not uncommon for ICE to arrest people it believes are in the US illegally. But this spate of arrests comes as part of the Trump administration's controversial immigration crackdown. Mr Trump has vowed to deport record numbers of illegal immigrants during his second term, and the White House has set ICE a goal to arrest at least 3,000 migrants each day. Because of that pressure, people who were legally living in the US have been caught up in ICE raids. One of the more notable cases was the arrest of 238 men accused of being Venezuelan gang members, who weren't given a day in court before they were deported to a mega-prison in El Salvador. The arrest raids were also carried out in a public manner, which Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said would "sow terror" in the community. They occurred at a hardware store, where street vendors and day labourers were swept up, a garment factory and a warehouse. "I am deeply angered by what has taken place," Cs Bass said in a statement. "These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city. "We will not stand for this." Securing the border was one of Mr Trump's key election promises. During the presidential campaign, he argued illegal immigrants were responsible for a crime wave and described people who cross illegally into the US as "animals" who are "poisoning the blood" of the nation. While he was able to point to a handful of high-profile crimes allegedly committed by illegal immigrants, there was no data publicly available to verify the claim. Data from Texas, the only state that tracks crimes by immigration status, shows considerably lower felony arrest rates among people in the US illegally, compared to legal immigrants or citizens. But a perceived crime wave isn't the only argument in favour of an immigration crackdown. The US is grappling with cost-of-living and housing crises, too, which many citizens say is only worsened by a mass influx of illegal immigrants competing for the same resources. Brenda Lee, a resident of Brooklyn, New York, told Foreign Correspondent last year she would vote for Mr Trump because of his hardline immigration policies. "There's people that are having a hard time, you know, making ends meet," she said. "The rents are so high, we have a housing crisis, we have so many issues. "So it's like, we come first because we pay taxes." Since Mr Trump returned to office this year, ICE agents have been particularly active in California, New York and Illinois, according to analysis published by Axios last week. These states are considered "blue" because they reliably vote in favour of the Democratic Party in presidential elections. California is home to the country's largest immigrant population. About 10.6 million of its residents were born overseas, which makes up 22 per cent of the nation's foreign-born population. According to the Pew Research Center, 1.8 million immigrants in California, or about 17 per cent of the total number, were undocumented in 2022. In a post on Truth Social, Mr Trump said Los Angeles had been "invaded" by "illegal aliens and criminals". It's a section of the military that can be used as reserves for the army and air force. Each state has its own unit, which answers to the relevant state governor and the president. While the national guard has assisted with crowd control in the past, Mr Trump's call to deploy the California National Guard is considered a rather historic move. That's because he did so without the governor's approval — something no president has done since 1965 when President Lyndon B Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama. California Governor Gavin Newsom has formally requested the Trump administration withdraw the troops, arguing their presence is "inflaming tensions". "Indeed, the decision to deploy the National Guard, without appropriate training or orders, risks seriously escalating the situation," his office wrote to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
