From NBC News

  • USC decision to cancel Muslim valedictorian's speech further inflames tensions on campus

    LOS ANGELES — Some students at the University of Southern California said their sense of pride was dashed this week when the school canceled Muslim student Asna Tabassum's valedictorian speech out of security concerns. They said the announcement of Tabassum's selection as valedictorian this month made them feel seen and heard. “It showed me that our people have a voice on campus,” said USC student Abdullah Khlefat, who is Muslim. Another student, named Layan, who asked that her last name not be...

  • NBA player banned for life for gambling

    The NBA said it banned Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter Jr. for violating the league's gaming rules. He was accused of manipulating his own performance and tipping off bettors. NBC News' Sam Brock reports.

  • L.A. police chief says officer shortage makes it harder to respond to some calls

    Los Angeles is among cities nationwide trying to deal with shortages of police officers in their ranks. LAPD Interim Police Chief Dominic Choi says while emergency calls like crimes in progress have not been affected, non-emergency response times have grown. NBC News' Lester Holt reports.

  • Trump hit with surprise bad news at criminal trial

    President Donald Trump made history this week as the first former president to stand trial on criminal charges. But he’s not only facing 34 felony charges, he now has a new problem to contend with too. This week the prosecution asked Judge Juan Merchan to sanction Trump for posts they said violated a gag order barring Trump from publicly attacking witnesses. The judge said he would hear arguments on the subject on April 23rd. MSNBC's Brian Tyler Cohen takes a closer look at what this could mean...

  • Teacher at New England boarding school accused of preying on female students

    A veteran teacher at an upper-crust Massachusetts boarding and day school for girls has resigned amid allegations that he groomed several students for sex during the 30-plus years he taught at Miss Hall’s School. Matthew Rutledge, who is 62 and mainly taught history at the school in Pittsfield, was placed on administrative leave on March 27 and resigned days later after a former student came forward and reported him to the school administration for allegedly sexually abusing and exploiting her...

  • Biden chokes up while talking about deceased son and Trump's disparaging remarks about service members

    PITTSBURGH — President Joe Biden choked up Wednesday talking about the military service of his family members and former President Donald Trump's disparaging remarks about service members. “They asked [Trump] to go visit American gravesites. He said, 'No.' He wouldn’t do it. Because they were all 'suckers' and 'losers,'” Biden told a crowd of union workers. “I’m not making that up. The staff who were with him acknowledge it today. Suckers and losers.” He paused for a moment and added, “That man...

  • UPDATE: 2 charged in shooting that left man dead in 2023

    UPDATE (4/17/24): Two men are now charged in connection with the death of 47-year-old Ishmael Hassan Saleem in 2023. A Bibb County Sheriff’s Office news release says investigators served arrest warrants last month for 37-year-old Shaun Mills and 40-year-old Terrell Ugean Mills. Both men have yet to be extradited to the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office. Shaun Mills is currently in

  • Senior NPR editor resigns after accusing outlet of liberal bias

    An editor for National Public Radio resigned Wednesday just days after he inflamed the ongoing culture war about mainstream media with an essay about what he considers the news outlet’s liberal leanings. Uri Berliner, who was a senior business editor, wrote an essay for the right-leaning online publication The Free Press in which he said he believes NPR is losing the public’s trust. NPR, a nonprofit radio network, has an “absence of viewpoint diversity,” he wrote in the essay, which was...

  • No charges for Los Angeles officer who shot and killed teen in dressing room

    LOS ANGELES — The California Attorney General declined to file criminal charges against a Los Angeles police officer who fired a rifle at a suspect inside a clothing store in 2021, killing a 14-year-old girl in a dressing room, authorities said Wednesday. Officer William Dorsey Jones Jr. fired three times when police responded to a Burlington clothing store in the San Fernando Valley where 24-year-old Daniel Elena Lopez had brutally attacked two women on Dec. 23, 2021. Valentina Orellana Peralta...

  • How one Democrat is trying to maintain Trump country appeal: From the Politics Desk

    Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill. In today’s edition, campaign embed reports from rural Wisconsin, where Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin faces the challenge of running with Donald Trump on the ballot. Plus, chief political analyst Chuck Todd breaks down why Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is receiving interest from voters. Sign up...

  • Poor communication stymied Maui's response to deadly wildfires, mayor says in state attorney general report

    On the day wildfires destroyed much of Lahaina and killed at least 101 people, poor communications between Maui’s mayor and top state and local emergency officials stymied their realization of how serious the situation was. At one point, Maui’s top emergency management official rejected an offer of additional help from Honolulu. And evidence since gathered indicates the catastrophic fire that exploded on the afternoon of Aug. 8 ignited in the same area where a downed powerline had sparked an...

  • Russian poetry prize bans entries from transgender people

    LONDON — A Russian poetry competition has banned transgender people from submitting entries this year, in what it says is an effort to protect traditional values. The Andrei Dementyev All-Russian Poetry Prize, organized by the government of western Russia’s Tver region, accepts applications until late April from poets “regardless of citizenship, nationality, profession and place of residence.” But the competition explicitly bars “citizens who have changed their gender,” according to rules posted...