Florida

New College of Florida to acquire USF Sarasota-Manatee in deal that leading Democratic lawmaker says ‘reeks of grift’A liberal arts college seized by Florida’s hard-right governor, Ron DeSantis, and transformed into a model for conservative higher education is to triple in size after state Republicans engineered a hostile takeover of a rival university’s campus.New College of Florida, which is controlled by DeSantis’s hand-picked board of trustees, will acquire the Sarasota-Manatee campus of the University of South Florida (USF) next month in a deal described by a leading Florida Democrat as “a grift”. Continue reading...

Groups cite detainee maltreatment and degradation of surrounding land as reasons to close facility permanentlySign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailAn alliance of environmental groups has welcomed reports that detainees have been moved from Florida’s notorious “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration jail, but have promised to press ahead with legal action to ensure its permanent closure and the restoration of the fragile Everglades wetlands where it is located.The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement late on Tuesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and authorities in Florida “have moved illegal aliens from the soft sided facility [and] transferred them to other facilities” for their safety, citing this month’s beginning of the Atlantic hurricane season. Continue reading...

Steven Mills and Tiffany Score reached an agreement with the biological parents of their child after fertility clinic’s mix-upA Florida couple who learned they had been given the wrong embryo after their newborn, Shea, appeared to be of a different race, will retain permanent custody of the child.Steven Mills and Tiffany Score reached a custody agreement with Shea’s biological parents – identified anonymously as Patient 004 – in a court filing last week from their lawsuit against the Florida clinic allegedly responsible for the embryo snafu. Continue reading...

State’s attorney general alleges TikTok exposed children to harmful sexual content and addictive featuresFlorida became the latest state to sue TikTok on Monday after the attorney general accused the company of violating a state law that limits social media access for teenagers.In a press conference, Republican James Uthmeier said TikTok exposed children to harmful sexual content and addictive features, such as unlimited scrolling and push notifications. “It’s designed to keep kids stuck on those screens for hours,” Uthemeier said at a press conference. “Our evidence suggests that so many kids are on TikTok for upwards of six, seven, eight or more hours a day. We are going to get our kids their lives back.” Continue reading...

Robert Dillon was arrested at home in Florida despite living 300 miles away, and charges were later droppedSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailA Florida man is suing several law enforcement agencies for his arrest and prosecution for allegedly luring a child after he was wrongly identified using faulty AI facial recognition software.According to the Jacksonville Beach police department, an algorithm returned a 93% probability that Robert Dillon was the man caught on security cameras at a McDonald’s in the town attempting to persuade the unaccompanied girl, aged younger than 12, to leave with him. Continue reading...

Earthquake was region’s strongest tremor in nearly 150 years and was also felt in parts of Mexico including CancúnAn earthquake on Monday off the coast of Cuba, which was that region’s strongest tremor in nearly 150 years, could be felt in Florida and parts of Mexico.The 6.1-magnitude earthquake, which struck in the afternoon, occurred approximately 65 miles (105km) north-west of Mantua, Cuba, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). The USGS added that the earthquake had a depth of 16 miles. Continue reading...

• NASA's $4 billion Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is transporting to Florida for a scheduled launch in September. • The telescope is designed to survey 100 times more of the sky than the Hubble Space Telescope, focusing on previously unexplored regions of the Milky Way. • Scientists expect the mission to identify approximately 100,000 new planets, a massive increase over the 6,300 exoplanets discovered to date.

State sues maker of ChatGPT and CEO Sam Altman, alleging company ‘allowed a dangerous product to reach millions’Florida filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, and its CEO, Sam Altman, on Monday alleging that the company concealed serious safety risks with its chatbot. Florida is the first state in the US to sue the artificial intelligence company.The 83-page suit was brought by Florida’s attorney general, James Uthmeier, and alleges that OpenAI “aggressively marketed” ChatGPT to the public while ignoring safety warnings and possible dangers of the product. Continue reading...

US health secretary gets nip from one of two serpents he grabbed at home of fellow Trump official Dr OzHealth secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr on Tuesday added to his lengthening catalog of bizarre wild animal encounters by posting to social media a video of himself in Florida wrestling with two snakes.Kennedy, who has previously admitted dumping the carcass of a bear cub in New York’s Central Park, and is also alleged to have cut the penis of a road-kill raccoon, is seen grabbing the pair of serpents with his bare hands. Continue reading...

Move follows upsetting viral video of ray being manhandled into unmarked boat in Florida waters last yearWildlife officials in Florida will continue to allow threatened giant manta rays to be taken from the ocean, but have tightened their policies after a viral video showed a captured ray in severe distress, and a bipartisan group of politicians called for an end to the controversial practice.Members of the Florida fish and wildlife conservation commission (FWC) voted on Wednesday to adopt an amended final rule reserving the right to say when and where rays can be captured for “responsible exhibition” in the US. Continue reading...

All 11 aboard survived after the plane made an emergency landing near the BahamasSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailA military rescue crew in Florida has spoken of the “pretty miraculous” survival of all 11 people it saved from a plane crash in the Atlantic Ocean, and its own scramble to safety with five minutes of fuel left.Members of the 920th rescue wing, based at Patrick Space Force base, not far from Cape Canaveral, raced on Tuesday to reach the passengers and crew in choppy seas. They had emerged from a small Beechcraft twin-propeller aircraft that ditched into the water about 80 miles east of Melbourne on Florida’s east coast. Continue reading...

Real estate executive got an unexpected earful when she spoke of ‘living in a time of profound change’Though college graduations usually consist of a speaker giving advice to students, one recent ceremony featured students giving the speaker their opinions – loudly.The University of Central Florida’s 2026 graduating class booed as a real estate development executive spoke about how “the rise of artificial intelligence is the next Industrial Revolution” and about “living in a time of profound change”. Continue reading...

Survivors to return to ‘scene of the crime’ for shadow congressional hearing into abuses committed by EpsteinSurvivors of r Jeffrey Epstein will return to the “scene of the crime” in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday for a shadow congressional hearing into abuses committed by the late sex offender.Several members of the Democratic House oversight caucus are scheduled to join the victims and several expert witnesses at the hearing close to Epstein’s former waterfront mansion where he procured girls as young as 14 to perform sexual services for wealthy guests. Continue reading...

Federal lawsuit against OpenAI says alleged gunman had extensive conversations with chatbot over monthsThe family of one of two people killed in an April 2025 shooting at Florida State University (FSU) has filed a federal lawsuit against the ChatGPT creator, OpenAI, alleging that the suspected gunman carried out the attack “with input and information provided to him during conversations with ChatGPT over a period of months, and specifically in the days leading up to the shooting”.The lawsuit, first reported by NBC News, was filed on Sunday in Florida’s northern federal district court by Vandana Joshi, the widow of Tiru Chabba. Chabba was killed alongside the university dining director, Robert Morales, in the mass shooting on 17 April 2025 that also wounded five others. Continue reading...

Thomas Shaknovsky botched the surgery of William Bryan, 70, who died on the operating tableA Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death.In a deposition from November that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply”. Continue reading...

Men were convicted in Miami federal court for plotting to kill Jovenel Moise at his Port-au-Prince home in 2021Four south Florida men were convicted on Friday of plotting to kill Haitian president Jovenel Moise in 2021 by hiring mercenaries to assassinate him at his Port-au-Prince home, court records show.Prosecutors argued during the nine-week trial in a Miami federal court that the men assembled two dozen former Colombian soldiers and supplied them with money, guns, ammunition and tactical vests in a conspiracy to kill Moise. The 53-year-old president was shot dead in July 2021 at his private residence in the hills above Port-au-Prince, a killing that left a gaping political vacuum in the Caribbean nation and emboldened powerful gangs. Continue reading...

Musician whose real name is Bill Kahan Kapri is charged with trafficking MDMA after incident last NovemberKodak Black, the Florida-based rapper, was scheduled to appear in court in Orlando on Thursday on a felony drug charge stemming from an incident last year in which gunshots were allegedly fired near a children’s educational building.The musician, who has a long history of arrests and was sentenced to a three-year prison term on a firearms charge in 2019 before being pardoned by Donald Trump, turned himself in to the Orange county jail on Wednesday, multiple media reports said. Continue reading...

Video shows ‘looksmaxxing’ influencer shooting an apparently already dead alligator in the EvergladesA controversial social media influencer known as Clavicular is facing charges in connection with a video showing him shooting an apparently already dead alligator in the Everglades, local Florida media has reported.Clavicular, whose real name is Braden Eric Peters and is known for the practice of “looksmaxxing”, faces charges of unlawfully discharging a firearm in a public place or residential property, according to legal files obtained by television station ABC6 in South Florida. Continue reading...

Cassian Joubert was partially delivered at 25 weeks for procedure and placed back in mother’s womb before birthA Florida infant is said to have been born twice after undergoing what was an innovative, likely life-saving surgery that involved a partial delivery weeks before his mother then gave birth to him.Cassian Joubert’s remarkable story was recently first told publicly by his mother and father – Keishera and Greg Joubert – in a 1 May video published on social media by the Orlando Health Women’s Institute, which employs the surgeon that led the baby boy’s prenatal operation. Continue reading...

• Florida has become the latest state to approve a partisan gerrymandered congressional map, reflecting ongoing efforts to reshape electoral districts for political advantage. • The redistricting decision continues the national battle over gerrymandering, with states competing to structure congressional districts to favor particular political parties. • The approval demonstrates the persistent challenge of partisan gerrymandering in U.S. electoral politics and its impact on representation and competitive races.

Robert Cyr Jr, a US navy airman, had gone missing in 1944 when his seaplane crashed in the Segond channelThe remains of a US military aviator who went missing after his crew crashed during the second world war were recovered and identified through DNA analysis and his family recently laid him to rest in Florida, according to officials.US navy airman Robert Cyr Jr’s burial in Clearwater, Florida, brought to an end a decades-long saga that began on 22 January 1944, when he and eight fellow crewmates crashed while they were aboard a seaplane as it took off in the Segond channel in what is now the south Pacific’s Republic of Vanuatu. Continue reading...

Ron DeSantis approves maps that give Republicans an advantage in four more races in November’s midtermsUS politics live – latest updatesFlorida governor Ron DeSantis signed a new gerrymandered congressional district map into law Monday which gives Republicans an electoral advantage in four additional races in November’s midterm elections.“Signed, Sealed, and Delivered,” DeSantis said in a post on X, with a map of the new districts attached. Continue reading...

• Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, 81, is hospitalized at Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, for pneumonia linked to restrictive airway disease from his 9/11 response. • Spokesman Ted Goodman stated Giuliani is now breathing on his own with primary medical providers monitoring him as a precautionary measure after running toward the towers on September 11, 2001. • Goodman described Giuliani as 'the ultimate fighter' in critical but stable condition, with his family appreciating prayers and support amid ongoing recovery.

• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis proposed new congressional maps set to strip Democrats of additional House seats ahead of 2026 midterms. • In contrast, Virginia voters narrowly approved a Democratic-backed redistricting plan threatening Republican incumbents. • The coast-to-coast battles reflect volatile gerrymandering disputes shaping midterm battlegrounds.

• Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has proposed new congressional district maps designed to strip Democrats of additional House seats in the state. • The redistricting effort is part of a broader coast-to-coast battle over legislative boundaries ahead of the 2026 midterms, with competing proposals from both parties. • In Virginia, voters narrowly backed a Democratic remap that threatens several Republican incumbents, demonstrating the high stakes of redistricting.

• A POLITICO investigation reveals a well‑connected pharmaceutical company and conservative commentator Laura Loomer have sought to undermine Dr. Vinay Prasad, an ally of Senator Robert F. Kennedy Jr., over his criticism of certain drug‑pricing and regulatory practices. • The report alleges coordinated social‑media campaigns and behind‑the‑scenes lobbying efforts meant to discredit Prasad’s research and public‑health commentary. • Pharmaceutical trade groups and some patient advocates have pushed back, saying that Big Pharma naturally tries to defend its business model, but critics warn of growing corporate‑backed attempts to silence dissenting medical voices.

Sloths were set to be displayed at controversial new theme park but report revealed mammals died in warehouseProsecutors in Florida said Friday they have launched a criminal investigation into the deaths of dozens of sloths from South America that were set to be displayed at a controversial new theme park.A Florida fish and wildlife commission (FWC) report revealed last week that 31 mammals taken from rainforests in Peru and Guyana by the owners of Sloth World, a forthcoming tourist attraction in Orlando, perished in an unheated warehouse between December 2024 and February 2025. Continue reading...

Vote comes on same day the US supreme court rolls back a key provision of the Voting Rights ActThe Florida legislature approved a new congressional map intended to maximize Republicans’ advantage in the state as part of the national redistricting battle that Donald Trump launched before this year’s midterms.The vote came just two days after the governor, Ron DeSantis, unveiled his proposal and the same day the US supreme court rolled back a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. The decision could make it harder for Democrats to challenge Republican efforts to redraw congressional districts in ways that limit the influence of voters of color. Continue reading...