United News of Bangladesh

A Texas sheriff's deputy was killed and a police officer wounded during a gunfire exchange while serving felony warrants at a rural home near Canton late Tuesday. The officers were outside when shots were fired from inside, prompting them to return fire, according to Van Zandt County Sheriff Kevin Bridger. The suspect was later found dead inside from a gunshot wound. Deputies were assisting Canton police in serving warrants for aggravated assault and aggravated assault on a peace officer. The wounded Canton officer, shot in the right arm, underwent surgery and remains in stable condition at a hospital, police confirmed. Authorities have withheld the names of the deputy, the officer, and the suspect. The Texas Rangers are investigating the incident, which occurred near Canton, a city of 5,000 located 60 miles (100 kilometers) southeast of Dallas.

US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance are set to announce a $25 million programme on Tuesday to encourage the public to report suspected fraud in the federal government, as the administration steps up efforts to prevent the misuse of government funds and programmes. Under the Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program, known as WHIP, anyone who submits a tip through fraud.gov that leads to a fraud conviction or significant federal enforcement action will be eligible for a reward of up to $30,000, the White House said. The programme will be administered by the Justice Department. Trump has launched an aggressive campaign to eliminate fraud across the federal government. In March, he established a task force to address the issue and placed Vance in charge. The two are scheduled to announce the fund during a joint appearance in the Oval Office later Tuesday. “Every day, President Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud is zeroing in on the rampant abuse of taxpayer dollars and giving Americans the accountability they deserve. This administration has zero tolerance for individuals who steal from Americans,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said. During the event, Trump is also expected to present a $10,000 cheque to Nick Shirley, a right-wing influencer who posted a video last year alleging that members of Minnesota’s Somali community were operating fake childcare centres to obtain federal subsidies. The video drew attention from the Trump administration and conservative activists, although inspectors said the centres were operating as expected. Investigations, searches and arrests followed. In July, Fahima Mahamud pleaded guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States after submitting inflated reimbursement claims for meals allegedly served to children at her childcare centre, according to the Justice Department. The White House said Mahamud had been featured in Shirley’s video.

US President Donald Trump announced Thursday that the Pentagon will no longer livestream the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan following widespread bipartisan backlash. Trump posted on social media that while a public execution might serve as a "strong deterrent", many well-meaning people preferred not to watch him die. He noted that victims' immediate families may view the December 3 execution in person if they choose. The reversal follows sharp criticism from Democrats and Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, Catholic Church leaders, and Vice President JD Vance, who said he would not watch it. Opponents warned that broadcasting the event could fuel radicalization and promote a "culture of death". Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had earlier confirmed the livestream plan for Hasan, a former Army major and psychiatrist who killed soldiers during a November 5, 2009 shooting at Fort Hood to stop their deployment to Afghanistan. Hasan, paralyzed after being shot by police, uses a wheelchair. This will mark the first US military firing squad execution since World War II, and the first military execution of any kind since 1961.

Former US Vice President Kamala Harris has expanded her late-October campaign schedule to support Democratic candidates in several states ahead of the midterm elections, as she weighs whether to make another bid for the White House in 2028. Harris’s campaign tour, running from Oct 21 to Oct 30, will now include New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Mississippi, along with a virtual event in Florida. She had previously announced campaign stops in Georgia and Nevada, according to a schedule shared by her office with The Associated Press. Harris has repeatedly said in recent interviews that her priority is helping Democrats win the November elections. However, she has not ruled out another presidential run after losing the 2024 election to Donald Trump. Her campaign appearances will focus on Democratic candidates for governor and the US Senate, including several who could make history if elected. Harris will begin the tour in Nevada on Oct 21, campaigning with Aaron Ford, the state's first Black attorney general, who is seeking to become its first Black governor. She will also meet members of the Culinary Workers Union. On Oct 22, Harris will visit Mississippi to campaign with Scott Colom, who could become the state's first Black US senator since the Reconstruction era following the Civil War. Colom is seeking to unseat Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith and has recently gained greater attention from national Democrats. Harris will travel to New Hampshire on Oct 24 to campaign with Senate nominee Chris Pappas and participate in a discussion on reproductive healthcare and abortion rights. As vice president, she was a leading advocate for abortion rights in the Biden administration, particularly during the 2022 midterm elections. On Oct 26, she will campaign with Wisconsin gubernatorial nominee David Crowley before beginning a three-day visit to Georgia on Oct 28. In Georgia, Harris will campaign with Senator Jon Ossoff, participate in voter protection events and address the Fulton County Democratic Party's annual gala in Atlanta on Oct 30. While in Georgia, she will also headline a virtual organising event with Florida Senate nominee Angie Nixon, who could become her state's first Black US senator. Nixon, a state lawmaker who identifies as a democratic socialist, has support from progressive activists who criticised Harris as too moderate during the 2024 campaign. The expanded schedule follows Harris's earlier campaign appearances, fundraisers and voter mobilisation efforts, including events organised with the Democratic National Committee. Most recently, she visited Michigan to campaign for Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, another progressive Democrat, and speak at an NAACP event. The tour will take Harris to several states that feature prominently in the Democratic Party's early presidential nominating calendar for 2028, even as she maintains that her immediate focus is on the midterm elections.

US President Donald Trump has announced plans for “massive” oil, gas and mineral exploration in Greenland, but it remains unclear which projects he was referring to, as the Arctic territory faces major obstacles to commercial resource extraction. In a Truth Social post on Wednesday, Trump described Greenland as “our new and beautiful Greenland”. However, the self-governing territory belongs to the Kingdom of Denmark and is not part of the United States. Greenland has significant deposits of rare earth minerals and potential offshore oil and gas reserves. But harsh weather, limited infrastructure, difficult geology and Arctic ice have hindered exploration and commercial extraction for decades. Trump’s announcement came less than a month after he signed an agreement with Danish and Greenlandic leaders to strengthen Arctic and North Atlantic security. The deal allows for an expanded US military presence but does not grant Washington special rights to explore Greenland’s natural resources. The United States is seeking to reduce its dependence on China, which dominates global supplies of rare earth minerals used in electronics, batteries and renewable energy technologies. Trump also highlighted Greenland’s strategic importance for US and European defence. The island hosts the Pituffik Space Base, where roughly 200 US personnel support missile warning, missile defence and space surveillance operations for the United States and NATO. Last month, Trump said Washington would begin developing a larger military presence in Greenland, including two major military bases.

A federal judge on Tuesday extended an order blocking the Trump administration from banning reporters for three news outlets from the White House, as the extraordinary case pitting the president against the media makes its way through the legal system. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ruled that CNN, MS NOW and Politico are likely to succeed on their constitutional free speech and due process claims. "Still," he added, "no one should interpret the Court's decision to suggest that President Trump's concerns about accuracy and fairness in the media's reporting are unfounded, or that the government is powerless when its true aim is to protect national security when classified information is unlawfully disclosed." Kelly, who was nominated to the bench by Republican President Donald Trump, previously ordered the White House to restore the reporters' "hard pass" press credentials while he weighed their claims. With that temporary order due to expire on Tuesday, the judge issued a preliminary injunction that preserves the status quo while the case is pending.

US Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle has resigned from her post amid allegations of improper and potentially illegal conduct, vowing to vigorously defend herself against what she described as false accusations. The Trump administration had asked Guilfoyle to step down following mounting criticism over alleged misconduct before and during her tenure in Athens, the White House said on Tuesday. Guilfoyle addressed the allegations in a post on X, saying she intended to defend her name, reputation and integrity. “These allegations are false, and I intend to vigorously defend my name, my reputation, and my integrity,” she wrote. She said she had spent her professional life fighting for justice and defending American values, adding that she would not allow what she called false accusations to define her decades of public service. President Donald Trump told reporters that Guilfoyle had been doing a good job but that the administration was dissatisfied with reports about her conduct. “She was doing a good job, but we didn’t like what we were reading,” Trump said. Utah Senator John Curtis welcomed the decision to seek her resignation, describing it as an example of leadership and stressing that public service was a public trust and political connections should not shield anyone from accountability. Guilfoyle, who was previously engaged to Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., has faced allegations reported by The Wall Street Journal, including threatening a host-country official, accepting improper gifts and services, and offering to use her influence within the administration in exchange for payment of a substantial credit card bill. Her lawyers have denied wrongdoing. In a statement issued late Sunday, they said money she sought from a Trump donor was payment for previously unpaid public appearances and speaking engagements that predated her nomination as ambassador. They also rejected allegations of impropriety involving her use of private aircraft, saying she had sought and obtained State Department guidance before each trip and complied with the department’s travel regulations. The State Department has declined to comment on a possible investigation by its inspector general.

The US Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday to hear a lawsuit seeking public records from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the government cost-cutting initiative associated with billionaire Elon Musk. The case, brought by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), seeks access to records related to DOGE’s activities during the early days of President Donald Trump’s second term. The Trump administration had asked the Supreme Court to take up the case, marking the second time the high court has intervened in the legal dispute. CREW argues that DOGE is a federal agency and should therefore be subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which allows the public to request government records. The administration, however, maintains that DOGE is a presidential advisory body and is exempt from the law’s disclosure requirements. A federal district judge ruled in favour of CREW and ordered the government to expedite processing of the group’s records request. An appeals court panel also sided with the watchdog. The administration argued that the appeals court had failed to follow the Supreme Court’s earlier guidance on the separation of powers and had interfered with the confidentiality and independence of presidential advisers. “Subjecting advisory bodies to intrusive discovery triggers the very concerns that Congress sought to avoid by excluding presidential advisory bodies from FOIA’s reach,” Justice Department lawyers wrote in court filings. The administration also challenged the appeals court’s decision allowing CREW to seek a sworn deposition from DOGE acting administrator Amy Gleason. CREW maintains that the appeals court complied with the Supreme Court’s previous instructions and that the public has a right to know how DOGE helped the administration pursue a sweeping overhaul of federal government operations in 2025. The group’s lawyers argued that public records, including statements by Trump, showed that DOGE exercised substantial independent authority across the federal government. In a statement on Tuesday, CREW attorney Nikhel Sus said lower courts had consistently supported the group’s right to obtain records that could help establish whether DOGE exercised authority that would bring it under FOIA. “We will continue to pursue transparency for the American people, who deserve to know the details of the Trump Administration’s efforts to unilaterally remake the federal government,” Sus said.

Katie Zacharia, the new White House press secretary, faced reporters for the first time on Tuesday for a very brief turn at the lectern, taking a handful of questions before abruptly wrapping it up. Zacharia, a conservative commentator who most recently worked for President Donald Trump’s social media company, was named to the job on Friday, succeeding Karoline Leavitt, who left in August and is taking a job with Fox News Channel. Zacharia told reporters her goal is to “amplify” what Trump is doing and that the president is “his own best spokesperson.” She quickly proved that Tuesday, appearing for only 14 minutes and taking questions from just three outlets before telling reporters they could go ask the president their questions on the South Lawn of the White House as he prepared to leave for a campaign trip. “In fact, I am going to end it because President Trump is heading out to Marine One for our historic trip to Alaska, and we can ask him all of the questions out there," she said. Before taking the questions, Zacharia read slowly from an opening statement that began with a focus on Trump’s recent campaign rallies ahead of the midterm elections and his policies on energy, tariffs, immigration and more since he returned to office. In naming Zacharia, who has a law degree from Pepperdine University, Trump described her as “a loyal and brilliant supporter, right from the beginning.” She briefly worked as a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security earlier this year and has been a commentator for Fox News and Newsmax. She told reporters that she viewed her role as press secretary to be no different than the way she advocated for Trump while outside the government. “I get to do what I was doing on the outside already, which was hoping to amplify, multiply and expand upon President Trump’s incredible agenda for the American people,” she said. She also thanked Trump and said, “I have wanted to work for him for a very long time.” She took her first question from Breitbart News, the right-wing outlet which has become more influential in the Trump era, and committed to keeping the “new media” rotation created under her predecessor to bring additional media outlets into news briefings and the White House press pool. But Zacharia did make some big news: she said that Trump had asked for the resignation of Kimberly Guilfoyle, the U.S. ambassador to Greece, after a series of reports alleging she has engaged in improper and possibly illegal conduct before and during her tenure in Athens. “She has been a wonderful asset to the team and we wish her well,” Zacharia said.

US President Donald Trump’s reported deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to import Russian diesel has drawn criticism from both Republicans and Democrats, with lawmakers warning that the move could help finance Russia’s war against Ukraine and undermine US interests. Trump announced the deal last week, saying it would help ease soaring fuel prices for Americans ahead of the crucial midterm elections. Critics have questioned the agreement’s legality under existing US laws and warned that it could bring Washington closer to Moscow at the expense of Ukraine. The controversy has revived concerns over Trump’s approach to Putin and a series of instances in which critics say the US president has aligned himself with the Russian leader. “All roads lead to Putin,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared during Trump’s first term, pointing to what she viewed as his close ties with the Russian president. William Taylor, a former US ambassador to Ukraine and now a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said the agreement could have serious consequences for both Ukraine and the United States. “The harm to the Ukrainians is real,” Taylor said in an interview on Monday. “And the cost to us, the United States, is high.” The criticism comes as Trump faces growing political pressure at home. A new AP-NORC poll found that most Americans believe he is using the presidency for personal financial gain in ways they consider unethical or illegal, and that he is more focused on accumulating wealth than helping ordinary people. Meanwhile, Trump is preparing to travel to Alaska on Tuesday to campaign for a Republican incumbent senator, underscoring growing concerns within the party about retaining control of Congress in the upcoming midterm elections.