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By Will Dunham WASHINGTON There has been plenty of excitement in recent decades about planets detected orbiting various

A proposal to compensate US airline passengers for delays and cancellations is announced by Joe Biden.

Two more children have been identified among the eight victims who were fatally shot in the Allen, Texas mall shooting - sisters Daniela and Sofia Mendoza. Daniela, a fourth grader, and Sofia, a second grader, were killed while at the Allen Premium Outlets with their mother, Ilda on Saturday, the Wylie Independent School District confirmed. In a letter sent to parents and students, Superintendent David Vinson said, “Words cannot express the sadness we feel as we grieve the loss of our students. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Mendoza family, the families of the victims, and all those affected by this senseless tragedy.” "Daniela and Sofia will not be forgotten. Hug your kids, and tell them you love them," Mr Vinson added according to NBC News. Both Daniela and Sofia attended Cox Elementary in Sachse, Texas. Cox Elementary School principal, Krista Wilson, called the girls “rays of sunshine”. Daniela and Sofia’s mother, Ilda, remains in critical condition according to reports. The two young girls are among the three children currently identified as victims of the mass shooting. Three-year-old James Cho was also fatally shot. The mass shooting occurred on Saturday when gunman Mauricio Garcia arrived at the Allen Premium Outlets armed with an AR-15-style rifle and ammunition. Garcia opened fire at people shopping at the outdoor mall, killing eight and injuring seven. A law enforcement officer shot Garcia dead, bringing the horrific shooting to an end. As of now, four other victims have been identified as 20-year-old Christian LaCour, 27-year-old Aishwarya Thatikonda, and Cindy and Kyu Cho - the parents of three-year-old James Cho. Mr and Ms Cho leave behind a six-year-old son who survived the shooting. As of now, six people who were injured remain under Medical City Healthcare’s care. According to CBS News, three people remain in critical condition, two patients are in fair condition and one patient is in good condition. Read More Allen mall shooting - update: Parents and three-year-old son named among eight killed by Texas outlet shooter Texas mall gunman was terminated from US Army training due to mental health concerns Texas mall shooting: All we know about the deadly outlet massacre

E. Jean Carroll's civil battery and defamation trial against Donald Trump neared a close Monday with closing arguments as her attorney told a federal jury in New York that no one is above the law, while Trump's lawyer said not to hold any negative feelings about the former president against him.

Three members of one family were killed in the attack as well as two primary school age sisters.

BEIJING (Reuters) -China's Foreign Minister Qin Gang said on Monday it is imperative to stabilise Sino-U.S. relations after a series

Lawyer Joe Tacopina is the head of the legal team representing former President Donald Trump in the civil rape trial against former Elle advice columnist E Jean Carroll. Mr Tacopina began closing argument in the trial on 8 May, stemming from Ms Carroll’s allegation that Mr Trump raped her in a New York City department store dressing room in 1995 or 1996. The attorney is also representing the ex-president in the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation into his alleged hush money payments to women claiming to have had affairs with him. A Manhattan grand jury voted earlier this year to indict Mr Trump for falsifying business records in connection to a 2016 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels for her to remain silent about a 2006 affair she claims to have had with Mr Trump, a claim he denies. Here’s what we know about the ex-president’s top lawyer: Brooklyn-born lawyer known for explosive media appearances Mr Tacopina, 56, was born in Brooklyn and has made a name for himself with explosive media appearances as he defends Mr Trump. He has also represented rapper Meek Mill and baseball player Alex Rodriguez, according to the New York Post. Mr Tacopina is the founder and managing partner of the law firm Tacopina, Seigel & DeOreo in New York. “The Law Offices of Tacopina Seigel & DeOreo has built a reputation as a law firm that tackles high-profile criminal and civil cases,” its website states. “We have proudly served our national and international clients for more than 20 years, and our distinguished attorneys have more than 70 years of combined legal experience.” Before becoming a criminal defence lawyer, Mr Tacopina was a prosecutor in Brooklyn. He was initially hired by Mr Trump in January of this year to defend him in the civil lawsuit filed by Ms Carroll. 1-800-Save-My-A** In March 2007, GQ Magazine published a piece entitled 1-800-Save-My-A**. The introduction states: “Suspected of murdering that blond girl in Aruba? Having some problems with your appointment as homeland-security chief? Made the mistake of having sex with Christie Brinkley’s husband? Call Joe Tacopina, the best-dressed, smoothest-talking, hardest-working criminal-defense attorney going, and for a mere $750 an hour, everything will be okay.” Mr Tacopina has five children with his wife Tish, The Post notes. ‘Most experienced American owner’ in Italian football In August 2021, he acquired the Italian Serie B – second-tier – football club Società Polisportiva Ars et Labor, also known as SPAL. In November of last year, Forbes wrote that he has spent “more than a decade as a top executive across four Italian soccer clubs,” and they called him the “most experienced American owner” in Italian football. What Tacopina has said about the hush money case Mr Tacopina criticised the indictment of Mr Trump, appearing on Fox News earlier this year saying that “I’ve never been more angry about a charge because today, the rule of law in the United States of America died. It’s dead. It’s dead”. Speaking about Mr Trump, he said, “he’s ready to fight. You know, he’s the toughest guy I know. He was shocked, you know, because we really weren’t — I was shocked”. Twitter user Acyn posted a clip of Mr Tacopina from 2018, in which he appears on a CNN panel discussion with Frank Bruni of The New York Times and CNN’s Laura Coates. Mr Tacopina appeared to say that alleged payments and subsequent falsification of records were an “illegal agreement”. “I mean, you know, once that net is out, once the microscope is on you, everything is fair game,” Mr Tacopina said on 14 March 2018, according to a CNN transcript. “And it’s hard to argue, ‘oh, you can’t look at this or you can’t look at that’. So, yes, if there’s an issue with that payment to Stormy Daniels being that it was made on behalf of the candidate. Okay. And it was not declared. That’s fair game. Unfortunately, if that’s the case.” “And you know, quite frankly, you know, Michael Cohen, again has made statements that would give rise to suspicion,” he added. “For any prosecutor to say that doesn’t make sense, that a lawyer took out a home equity loan with his own money, paid somebody that he didn’t even know on behalf of a client who, by the way, had the wherewithal and the money to afford $130,000. And, by the way, didn’t tell the client about the settlement agreement. It’s an illegal agreement. It’s a fraud, if that’s, in fact, the case.” “It doesn’t pass the straight-face test, and quite frankly, if that is what happened, we have a potential campaign finance issue,” he added. When reached by The Independent for comment, Mr Tacopina emphasized that twice during his 2018 appearance, he said, “if that is in fact the case”. “I was opining on a hypothetical that was posed by the host without [knowing] any of the facts. That is [why] I qualified my statements. The facts as I have now learned clearly show, that is NOT in fact the case,” he said in an email. “My mind hadn’t changed about the issue but what has changed is that I learned the facts,” he added. “My response was based on a hypothetical question … which is why I qualified my response TWICE,” he noted. The E Jean Carroll lawsuit Ms Carroll claims that Mr Trump raped her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in 1995 or 1996 and that he later defamed her in 2019 as president when he rejected her allegation. As he began cross-examining Ms Carroll on 27 April, Mr Tacopina brought up a draft of her book What Do We Need Men For? in which she writes about the episode involving the former president. “You wrote that you thought Donald Trump was trying to kill you, to poison your water,” he said. “That’s a draft. That was not published,” Ms Carroll responded. On 8 May, Mr Tacopina said during closing arguments that Ms Carroll “became a star” after she went public with her story. In a podcast interview played for the jury, Ms Carroll said she got her “revenge” on Elle following her 2019 firing because she’s now more successful after becoming an independent Substack writer. Mr Tacopina went on to claim that Ms Carroll, and witnesses Lisa Birnbach, and Carol Martin “colluded” to create fake claims about Mr Trump. The attorney said both Ms Birnbach and Ms Martin testified that they didn’t tell anyone else about the incident. He added that Ms Martin didn’t bring it up on election night in 2016. Mr Tacopina told the jury that she didn’t say “Oh, my God. He’s going to win. He raped my friend,” according to Law & Crime. The attorney went on to mock Ms Birnbach for testifying that she wasn’t thinking about the alleged rape on election night 2016. “I wasn’t thinking about it,” she said. Mr Tacopina said there’s “no way that’s truthful testimony”. Kings County prosecutor Mr Tacopina attended Bridgeport Law School, which is now called Quinnipiac University School of Law, located in North Haven, Connecticut. Before entering private practice, he was a prosecutor at the Kings County District Attorney’s Office. A rapper, a baseball star, a state senator, and a long line of New York City cops Meek Mill was sent to jail in 2008 on charges relating to gun and drug violations. The rapper was convicted in 2017 for violating his probation. Mr Tacopina was able to get him out after five months. In January, the rapper was pardoned by the outgoing governor of Pennsylvania, Democrat Tom Wolf. Mr Tacopina represented baseball star Alex Rodriguez in the appeal of his 2014 suspension after he tested positive for human growth hormones and testosterone. The attorney has also represented several New York police officers. New York Democratic state Senator Hiram Monserrate faced charges of felony assault in 2009 following allegations that he dragged his girlfriend down a hallway, but Mr Tacopina helped him get acquitted.

As the date that the US could default on its obligations grows closer, the Treasury Department must prepare for an unprecedented situation -- figuring out which bills to pay with the money it has on hand if Congress doesn't act.

Investors are watching Washington with a keen eye as President Joe Biden prepares to host House Speaker Kevin

The Canadian pop-punk rockers say the band has "brought us some of best moments of our lives".

A gunman clad in black body armour and armed with an AR-15-style assault rifle opened fire at a Texas mall on Saturday, killing eight people and injuring seven others. The suspect was identified by the Texas Department of Public Safety as 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia, a security guard and former US Army trainee. Dashcam video circulating on social media appeared to show the gunman getting out of a grey sedan just outside the entrance of the Allen Premium Outlets, a sprawling centre on the outskirts of Dallas, and immediately opening fire on passersby in the carpark. An Allen Police Department officer attending an unrelated call at the mall heard the gunfire and “neutralised” the suspect, police said. What we know about the suspect Mauricio Garcia, 33, was identified on Sunday as the gunman who killed eight innocent shoppers and mall staff members in Saturday’s horror attack. Garcia drove to the mall with several weapons and opened fire as soon as he stepped out of his vehicle. An AR-15 rifle and a handgun were reportedly found on him and in his car. Police have not released a possible motive, but investigators are looking into Garcia’s possible neo-Nazi and white supremacist beliefs. Garcia was wearing black body armour and a patch on his chest that suggested he may have harboured extremist ideologies, law enforcement sources told The Washington Post. The patch read RWDS, which stands for Right Wing Death Squad, a popular phrase among far-right extremists. Police sources told NBC News that Garcia had posted and engaged with neo-Nazi and white supremacist content online. His accounts appear to have since been taken down. Garcia also trained with the US Army but was terminated in June 2008, three months into his training without completing entry training, US Army Public Affairs Spokeswoman Heather J Hagan told The Independent. After that, he became a security guard, most recently working for an aluminum supply company. Through his work as a security guard, Garcia underwent firearms proficiency training as recently as 2018, according to the Texas Online Private Security database. The online records show that he began training in 2015 before becoming a commissioned security officer in April 2016. His licence expired in April 2020. During that time, he is listed as working for three security companies: Ruiz Protective Service, Statewide Patrol and Verified Response Security & Investigations. It is unclear why his security guard licence was suspended. It is unclear if he had any connection to the mall where he carried out Saturday’s rampage. Private security guards are vetted and are barred from gaining a license if they have convictions for crimes such as assault or sexual offenses, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. According to CBS News reporter JD Miles, Garcia was a security guard with no serious criminal record. At the time of the shooting, Garcia had reportedly been living in a motel. FBI agents raided a Dallas home where Garcia had been living with his parents for years, according to Fox News. Officers were stationed outside the address on Sunday. The suspect’s family requested a translator to speak with authorities. How the shooting unfolded The gunman arrived at the mall just after 3.30pm local time on Saturday. Video showed him exiting a grey sedan vehicle, dressed in black tactical gear and armed with an AR-15-style weapon before opening fire. Hundreds of shoppers could be seen trying to flee the scene on aerial footage after the gunman opened fire with an AR-15-style gun. Bodies of the victims, including several young children, were covered by sheets. Seven people — including the suspect — were killed at the scene, Allen Fire Chief Jonathan Boyd said at a press conference on Saturday. Nine people were transported to hospital, where two more succumbed to their injuries. Three survivors were undergoing surgery and remained in a critical condition on Saturday night, Mr Boyd said. Four others were in a stable condition. The injured included children as young as five, a Dallas area hospital told CNN. The victims As details continue to emerge about the gunman, the victims are starting to be identified. Christian LaCour, a 20-year-old security guard at the mall, was identified by family members as one of the victims of Sunday’s massacre. LaCour’s grandmother posted a tribute to her grandson on social media. “He was such a beautiful soul,” she wrote. “I was so proud of him and so glad I got to see him 2 weeks ago.” Aishwarya Thatikonda, an engineer who moved to the US from India, was also killed in the attack. Thatikonda was shopping with a friend at the mall when she was shot and killed by the gunman, a family representative told WFAA. Her friend was also shot and injured in the shooting and is currently in stable condition in hospital. Thatikonda’s family is planning to fly her body to India where she has family. Texas’ dark weekend The mall shooting marked the start of a dark weekend for Texas. In Brownsville, eight people were killed when an SUV slammed into a crowd of people outside a migrant shelter in the border city on Sunday afternoon. Horrifying footage, taken from a security camera and shared by Texas Rep Henry Cuellar, shows a group of people waiting for a bus outside the city’s Ozanam Center. The SUV then rams into the victims. Seven people died before an eighth victim succumbed to their injuries in hospital later that day. At least nine others were hospitalised. Most of the victims were Venezuelan men who had spent the night at the shelter and were boarding a bus to return to downtown Brownsville. Officials initially said that the incident appeared to be intentional and described the driver – whose identity remains unknown – as “very uncooperative”. Also on Sunday, one person was killed and two others were injured in a shooting on a DART train in Dallas, Texas, on Sunday – just a 30-minute drive from the mall massacre. Gunfire broke out on board a Green Line train near Hatcher Station when two people got into an argument on Sunday afternoon, accoding to authorities. DART police said that officers were called to reports of a shooting on the northbound train at around 4.30pm. Officers arrived on the scene to find two people – one of them a bystander – suffering from gunshot wounds. They were both transported to local hospitals where one of the victims was pronounced dead. The condition of the second victim – the bystander – is unknown. A third individual was also wounded in the shooting after being struck by shrapnel and was treated at the scene, police said. Now, DART police are searching for the suspected shooter, whose identity is unknown. Read More Texas shooting – live: Nine dead including ‘monster’ shooter in massacre at Allen mall Audio reveals moment officer made frantic request for backup moments before taking down Texas mall shooter Marjorie Taylor Greene sidesteps gun issue, blames Texas mall shooting on ‘evil forces’

Republican Senator Ted Cruz received a torrent of criticism after he tweeted his condolences after a mass shooting in Allen, Texas, killed eight people and left seven injured. On Saturday, Mr Cruz tweeted his condolences and said he would be monitoring events unfolding after 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia opened fire at Allen Premium Outlets on Saturday afternoon. “Heidi and I are praying for the families of the victims of the horrific mall shooting in Allen, Texas,” he tweeted out. “We pray also for the broader Collin County community that’s in shock from this tragedy.” In response, many pointed out how Mr Cruz ardently opposes measures to curb gun violence. David Hogg, a survivor of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, who has since become an outspoken advocate for gun control, criticised Mr Cruz. “Man if only there was something you could do to prevent these tragedies,” he tweeted in response. Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action, tweeted how Mr Cruz supported regulation of industries other than guns. “After 16 people were killed in a hot air balloon in Lockhart, Cruz authored and passed legislation improving safety rules. After mass shootings, he only offers his prayers,” she tweeted. “That’s not because laws don't work, but because there's no hot air balloon lobby funding his Senate seat.” In recent years, Mr Cruz has opposed measures to curb gun control, including last year when his fellow Senator from Texas John Cornyn engaged in bipartisan negotiations with Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Democrat-turned-Independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. The legislation ultimately passed with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell voting for it. Last week, Democratic Representative Colin Allred announced he would challenge Mr Cruz in 2024. Mr Allred criticised the lack of action after the shooting. “Eight lives tragically cut short,” he tweeted on Sunday. “As I grieve with my fellow Texans and pray for those who were injured, I won't accept that we are powerless to prevent this. It's our responsibility as lawmakers to help make our communities safer. We must take common sense steps to save lives.” Read More Allen mall shooting – live: Texas outlet worker died saving shoppers from ‘white supremacist’ gunman Hero Texas outlet worker died in mall shooting after risking life to hide customers Texas mall gunman was allegedly removed from military due to ‘mental health concerns’ Tanked Biden pick highlights escalation of dark-money forces Colin Allred, former NFL player, announces Democratic challenge to Ted Cruz in Texas Will the Supreme Court have to answer to ethics rules?