First Lady Melania Trump has extended a conciliatory gesture to CNN as the network remains locked in a bitter dispute with her husband.

President Donald Trump barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House last Friday, accusing the outlets of producing “fake news.”

The decision prompted Secret Service agents to confiscate journalists’ press passes, while the affected news organizations abandoned their planned coverage of Trump’s trip to the United Nations General Assembly this week.

CNN had been scheduled to send a reporter and camera crew to the UN event, but the network was removed from the White House traveling press pool on Sunday.

Despite the ban, the First Lady’s Office approved CNN’s request to cover Melania Trump in Manhattan this week, according to Betsy Klein, the network’s senior White House reporter.

“Interestingly, we do have one new data point, which is that my credential to cover an event with the First Lady, on the sidelines of the United Nations tomorrow, has been approved,” Klein said Monday.

CNN received credentials to cover an announcement Melania is expected to make Tuesday at the St. Regis hotel, a source familiar with the matter told the Daily Mail.

The announcement is connected to her “Fostering the Future Together” initiative, which the First Lady is expected to discuss several times during her visit to New York for the UN.

The First Lady’s decision to allow CNN access sharply contrasts with her husband’s treatment of the network.

“I am proud to announce that, effective immediately, I am banning Fake News CNN, MSNOW (who recently changed their name from MSNBC due to lack of viewership and credibility!), and Politico,” Trump wrote Friday as he announced the restrictions.

“Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report fiction and lies when they’re covering the President of the United States,” he added.

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The next day, reporters working for the banned outlets were refused entry when they arrived at the White House.

Secret Service agents also confiscated the press passes of some journalists.

Trump reinforced the ban Monday, arguing that his move did not amount to “an assault on the free press.”

Instead, he wrote that he was “instituting an assault on the fake news, some that has grown like cancer in our beloved United States of America.”

Following the ban, the five major US broadcast networks—Fox News, CNN, CBS, NBC and ABC—issued a joint statement. The organizations, which make up the television pool, said they would not send a camera crew to cover Trump at the UN after the White House removed CNN from the trip.

The three media outlets Trump targeted, CNN, MS NOW and Politico, announced they would combat the administration in court over the ban.

‘This morning, we notified the government that we are filing a lawsuit today to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes,’ they said in a statement released on Monday.

‘Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting,’ the statement continued.

‘Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.’

US District Judge Timothy Kelly, who Trump appointed in his first term, is presiding over the case and is on familiar legal ground.

In 2018, he ordered the White House to restore CNN journalist Jim Acosta’s credentials after his press pass was pulled following a heated clash with Trump.

A clear “disconnect” emerged early in Beau Lamarre-Condon’s brief relationship with Jesse Baird, with the two men apparently wanting very different things.

Lamarre-Condon, a senior constable with the NSW Police, told friends he believed Baird was “the one”. Baird, however, did not share those feelings, the court heard.

Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC outlined that assessment to jurors on Monday, as Lamarre-Condon’s double-murder trial began in the NSW Supreme Court.

Lamarre-Condon is accused of using his service pistol to kill Baird and Baird’s Qantas flight attendant boyfriend, Luke Davies, at Paddington in Sydney’s eastern suburbs in February 2024.

The 31-year-old has pleaded not guilty to two charges of domestic-violence-related murder, as well as aggravated break and enter.

The break-and-enter charge concerns an alleged August 2023 incident, when Lamarre-Condon is accused of entering Baird’s home six months before the killings and taking his wallet and phone.

Mr Hatfield presented Lamarre-Condon as a jealous former partner who became infatuated with Baird. Following their separation, the prosecutor said, he was “devastated” and allegedly grew increasingly fixated on him.

Jurors will hear evidence of what Mr Hatfield described as Lamarre-Condon’s “melodramatic” behaviour, including allegations that he pretended to have cancer and fabricated hospital visits.

Lamarre-Condon and Baird met in late 2022, and the police officer soon became “infatuated” and “in love”, the court was told.

Baird, by contrast, had recently ended a long-term relationship, moved to Sydney and was enjoying dating within the city’s lively gay community.

At the time, Lamarre-Condon worked in the police youth command at Sutherland in Sydney’s south and had served as a police officer for about six and a half years.

Baird grew up in Victoria before relocating to Queensland. He began working in television at 19 and appeared on Network Ten programs including Totally Wild and Studio 10.

Mr Hatfield alleged that Lamarre-Condon was jealous of Baird’s other relationships and secretly accessed his phone to track his conversations with other men.

He also allegedly erased messages from Baird’s phone and blocked several of his friends.

That pattern of alleged conduct would be “a theme throughout the trial”, Mr Hatfield told the jury.

The couple initially separated amicably in April 2023, after Baird sent Lamarre-Condon a “sympathetic” message ending their relationship.

‘After a lot of reflection, I really want to message you and tell you how I feel…,’ he wrote.

‘Something I have been nervous about since meeting you was one of us getting hurt. And despite my best efforts, it happened. Please forgive me.’

Baird wrote that part of him was ‘hoping that you’ll understand where I’m at in my life right now’. He was also ‘afraid that this would happen, getting to a point where we have to stop seeing each other’.

‘But I don’t regret a single thing because the last few months have been amazing,’ he said. ‘I hope you feel the same. I wish I was ready for a relationship because it’s not every day a guy like you comes around.’

Mr Hatfield said Lamarre-Condon gave friends various explanations for the relationship ending. One was discovering Baird had a Tinder account, another that Baird was moving to Brisbane.

From that point, the court heard, Lamarre-Condon’s jealousy intensified. He allegedly admitted to friends following Baird around the eastern suburbs, ‘bumping into’ him at gyms and supermarkets.

Lamarre-Condon allegedly used his power as a police officer to obtain CCTV of Baird on a date and watched him through the front window of his Paddington home having sex with other men.

In August 2023, he allegedly used a stolen or copied key to enter the terrace and steal Baird’s phone but also took his wallet and left a bobby pin in the front door lock to make it look like a real burglary. 

Baird had chased the intruder from his house but did not recognise his former boyfriend.

In September that year, Lamarre-Condon and Baird resumed their relationship to some degree. 

Lamarre-Condon asked Baird to holiday with him in Bali but that did not happen. Mr Hatfield said Baird saw things between the pair as mostly ‘physical’.

The final break-up came in mid-November 2023 after Baird allegedly found out Lamarre-Condon had accessed his phone and deleted messages.

Lamarre-Condon had also allegedly posted a picture of a ‘rather large floral arrangement’ to social media using the Instagram feature ‘Close Friends’.

Mr Hatfield said the picture of the flowers was captioned ‘When he’s in Melbourne but still sends you these’, at a time when Baird was in Melbourne but hadn’t sent them.

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Lamarre-Condon had allegedly ensured Baird and his close friends could not see the picture – which had been downloaded from the internet – but people Lamarre-Condon chose could.

When Baird confronted Lamarre-Condon about the post he allegedly said it was all a misunderstanding and the flowers had been a gift from his stepfather to his mother.

Mr Hatfield said Lamarre-Condon then rushed to a florist and ordered a bouquet matching the floral arrangement in the photograph and wrote a fake note to fit his story.

Baird sent Lamarre a text on November 16 which began: ‘Beau, I’m not going to get into an argument with you.’

‘I’m so exhausted,’ he wrote. ‘On top of that, I feel hurt and feel like I’m being lied to. This afternoon, I gave you the chance to tell me the truth and I don’t think you did.

‘There have been a number of examples since we met that show you behaved in a way that’s completely inappropriate. I’m not going to stand for it anymore.

‘I think it’s best if we focus on ourselves and stop seeing each other. I have thought long and hard about this, and know that it’s the right decision for me.

‘I would appreciate if you could refrain from contacting me.’

Lamarre-Condon responded, in part: ‘Jesse, I’m literally sitting here in tears, trying to piece this all together… ‘

On November 22, Lamarre-Condon allegedly persuaded a friend to let him use her Instagram account to write a message to Baird, who had blocked him. 

Mr Hatfield said that message – which ran to more than 1,600 words – was intended to blame Lamarre-Condon’s behaviour on him receiving treatment for cancer.

‘About a month ago, Beau asked me to go with him to Westmead Hospital where he was told he had cancer in his shoulder,’ it said.

‘Worst case is he has to get his arm amputated. He was then prescribed medications to prepare for chemotherapy and radiation before his cancer removal surgery.’

The message said those medications were ‘among the strongest you can be prescribed which can impact how a person reacts’.

Mr Hatfield told the jury: ‘The accused did not have cancer, nor was he being treated for cancer.’

Baird and Davies met about a month later on New Year’s Eve and a solid relationship soon developed. 

Shortly after they got together, Baird took Davies to Victoria to meet his mother and within a month or so both were posting photos with each other on Instagram.

Mr Hatfield said: ‘I’m told that’s called going Insta official.’

Lamarre-Condon became aware of this new romance and allegedly complained to friends that Baird was taking Davies to places they had been together.

Mr Hatfield said in late 2023 and early 2024 Lamarre-Condon ‘began to interfere with Jesse Baird’s life in other ways’.

He allegedly claimed to have cut Baird’s car tyres, watched his house and poured water into his new diesel ute.

According to the Crown case, Lamarre-Condon drove to Baird’s home on February 19, 2024, arriving about 6am.

He was allegedly seen at 9.10am wearing a motorcycle helmet and hi-vis clothing and carrying an Uber Eats paper bag, disguising himself as a delivery rider.

Lamarre-Condon allegedly used a copied or stolen key to enter Baird’s home armed with his .40 Glock 22, went to the kitchen and shot 26-year-old Baird twice.

Mr Hatfield said one bullet went through the right base of Baird’s neck near his shoulder and exited through his jaw. Another shot went in Baird’s right temple and exited through the left.

‘The Crown case is that this second shot was an execution-style shot and went through the floor,’ Mr Hatfield said.

The court heard 29-year-old Davies was in Baird’s bedroom and attempted to call Triple Zero. 

‘In order to prevent Davies from calling for help and exposing his crime,’ Mr Hatfield said, Lamarre-Condon shot Davies in the head through the bedroom door.

Lamarre-Condon presented himself to Bondi police station four days later. Four days after that, Davies and Baird’s bodies were found about 185km south-west of Sydney at Bungonia.

The trial continues.

A man has been charged in connection with a devastating road crash that claimed the lives of six people, including a couple and two of their children.

Christopher Cockell, 50, is scheduled to appear before Leeds Magistrates’ Court on October 28, facing six charges of causing death by dangerous driving.

Shannen Morgan and Shane Roller were killed with their daughters Rubie, nine, and Lillie, four, when the family’s Ford Focus collided with a motorcycle on the A61 on July 21, 2024.

The motorcycle riders, Christopher and Janine Barton, from Barnsley, also died in the crash.

An inquest was told that Mr Roller’s silver Ford Focus collided head-on with the BMW motorbike ridden by Mr Barton at approximately 3.50pm. The crash happened on the A61 between Staincross and Newmillerdam.

Following the tragedy, Shane’s brother Callum said on social media that he was struggling to find words to describe the loss.

“I’m absolutely heartbroken. I’m gonna miss all of you! It’s absolutely broken my heart and it’s absolutely broken both sides of the family!” he wrote.

“You all had a heart of gold and gonna miss you all like crazy! My heart goes out to Shannen’s side of the family and mine! We are all in absolute shock!”

A GoFundMe campaign launched after the collision raised more than £400,000 to support the couple’s surviving 11-year-old daughter, including help with her education, emotional wellbeing and long-term care.

Staff at Athersley North Primary School, where Rubie and Lillie were pupils, remembered the sisters as “a delight to teach”.

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In a statement, teachers Clare Storr and Kirsty Wordsworth said: “The girls were a credit to their parents, who were always incredibly supportive and who will also be greatly missed.”

Images from the aftermath showed the charred remains of a car, wreckage scattered across a grass verge and a major police response on the A61 between Wakefield and Barnsley.

West Yorkshire Police described the fatal collision as an “absolutely tragic incident” and appealed to anyone with information or dashcam footage to contact investigators.

The family’s surviving daughter has been described as “bright and resilient”, known for her “infectious smile and a kind heart”.

According to the fundraising appeal, she enjoys football and spending time outdoors, and is also a “huge Taylor Swift fan”.

The Ford Focus is believed to have caught fire after the collision. Photographs showed the vehicle’s blackened, twisted remains lying on the grass beside the road.

Fragments thought to have come from the motorcycle were also visible across the centre of the carriageway.

Superintendent Alan Travis of Wakefield District Police said at the time: ‘This is an absolutely tragic incident which has resulted in the loss of six lives.

‘Our thoughts go out to the families of those who have died who we are working with to provide support at this time.’

Ed Sheeran has been accused of “bowing to the mob” after apologising to fans over his response to an Israel-Palestine controversy that has put his tour under mounting pressure.

The 35-year-old British singer has faced intense criticism since removing rapper Macklemore from the opening line-up for his Loop tour. The decision followed pro-Palestinian remarks Macklemore made during Sheeran’s New Jersey concerts earlier this month.

Following Macklemore’s removal, Sheeran’s other opening acts — Finneas, Lukas Graham and Aaron Rowe — along with his backing band Beoga, said they would also depart the tour in support of the rapper and the Palestinian cause.

During his concert in Philadelphia on Saturday night, Sheeran used an autocue to deliver a statement in which he acknowledged that he had made “mistakes” in the way he handled the dispute.

The singer also appeared to soften his earlier pledge to keep politics out of his performances, describing the situation in Gaza as “catastrophic and unjustifiable” while condemning Hamas’s October 7 attacks as “horrific”.

Piers Morgan later shared a recording of the speech on X. Although he said he agreed with Sheeran’s assessment that the October 7 attacks were terrible and Israel’s response disproportionate, Morgan accused the singer of being pressured into speaking publicly and criticised his use of an autocue.

Sheeran told the Philadelphia audience that he had ultimately decided to continue with the tour after seeing ticket sales rise. “Everyone’s telling me to cancel and I’m feeling all of my friends and family and people I know abandon me,” he said, adding that 50,000 people at the end of the week had shown they had not abandoned him.

While the political dispute has increasingly overshadowed the tour, fans gathering outside the Philadelphia venue said they remained determined to enjoy the concert and the music.

Some supporters echoed Morgan’s criticism, with one person writing online that Sheeran’s public relations team should be dismissed and arguing that the singer should not have been forced to address the issue because of “a very small mob of loudmouths”.

Another critic said Sheeran had spent years focusing on performing and accused him of making the situation worse by appearing to give in to pressure.

However, another X user argued that reading from a teleprompter did not mean Sheeran was indifferent to the issue.

“Ed is a singer. Not a politician. Not a news anchor,” the supporter wrote, noting that he does not spend his life preparing statements about one of the world’s most politically sensitive conflicts.

The post continued that asking the singer to discuss Israel and Gaza without preparation in front of 50,000 people, after a week that had shaken his tour, was entirely different from asking him to perform one of his songs. In that context, the writer said, using an autocue suggested he was worried about choosing the wrong words rather than that he did not care.

Another supporter said Sheeran should firmly refuse to be drawn into pressure from either side, arguing that he could step away from the controversy and allow his music to speak for itself.

A further comment suggested that Sheeran was never likely to satisfy everyone, while criticising the tour’s “guest” and backing band for leaving him exposed during the dispute.

Speaking to the BBC outside the Philadelphia show, one concertgoer said there was a shared determination to spend the evening listening to music while also supporting freedom of speech.

After the concert, one fan said Sheeran had addressed both perspectives fairly and that most people would leave satisfied. Another described his statement as sincere, saying that authenticity was what audiences wanted to hear.

Although the most intense fighting has eased since a ceasefire began in October, Israel has continued to launch strikes in Gaza. The Hamas-run health ministry says at least 1,375 people have been killed since the agreement came into effect.

On September 8, 12 countries including the UK, France and Canada announced sanctions on illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, following reports of some 1,400 attacks by Israeli settlers this year.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said the measures would target ‘illegal settlements and settlement expansion’, adding that there had been ‘ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists’.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar responded by accusing Miliband of spreading an ‘outrageous lie’ and later announced counter-measures, including shutting the UK’s consulate in East Jerusalem. 

Podcasters Vogue Williams and Joanne McNally criticised Sheeran’s Instagram apology shared last week, saying ‘he’s really he’s f**ked up badly as apologies go’.

‘This is why people need publicists’, McNally said on the latest episode of the duo’s My Therapist Ghosted Me podcast.

‘Do you know how many people would have been working on that statement?’ Vogue added, before comparing the apology to when her eight-year-old son says sorry. 

‘I’m sorry you feel like this, but the the suggestion is I’ve done nothing wrong.

‘He didn’t even put that thing through ChatGPT. They’re selling out arenas in America. You’re telling me the promoter is controlling everything and you’re not. Get a grip, Edward.’

In a solemn speech at the start of Saturday’s concert, Sheeran read off the autocue as he said: ‘I have tried in my career not to be a political commentator of any kind because I want my music and shows to be about unity and not division, about humanity and not politics. 

‘But this is a humanitarian issue and I cannot hide how I feel about it anymore. What happened in Israel at Nova music festival on October 7 was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain.

‘What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate. 

‘My heart has been broken by the scale of devastation and loss of civilians’ lives, of children’s lives, and the systemic injustice we’re seeing unfold in the West Bank cannot be overlooked.’

Sheeran told the audience that he plans to ‘continue my current tour’ despite each of his openers dropping out in solidarity with Macklemore.

Macklemore made the comments at two performances at MetLife Stadium on September 4 and 5, as he introduced his 2024 protest song Hind’s Hall which condemns Israel’s military action in Gaza. 

Macklemore was removed from Sheeran’s tour after US stadium owner Robert Kraft accused him of hate speech said he was ‘only sharing selective information and ignoring the actions of Hamas’.

Kraft banned him from performing at the Gillette Stadium near Boston, which is owned by his holding company.

Sheeran struggled to hold back tears as he returned to the stage on Saturday, without his backing band and support acts.

Sheeran said he had ‘found out who his friends are’, adding: ‘I cannot hide how I feel… any more.’

In his first stage appearance since the Loop tour was plunged into turmoil, the 35-year-old father of two said he ‘never wanted to be an activist musician’ but the fierce criticism meant he has had to ‘take and make difficult decisions’.

He said: ‘I really didn’t know whether this tour would be carrying on. In these situations, you really find out who your friends are and it’s been a weird week. I just feel like it happened very quickly.

‘In the back of my mind, I saw the ticket sales for this gig and I didn’t see cancellations, I saw people buying tickets for this gig.

‘Everyone’s telling me to cancel and I’m feeling all of my friends and family and people I know abandon me.

‘I look at the end of the week and I see 50,000 people who haven’t abandoned me. People will say what they want, but I am doing this for you. I love you. I love this.’

Sheeran said his heart had been broken ‘by the scale of devastation and loss of lives’ and became emotional as he told a cheering crowd: ‘I’m so grateful you are here with me tonight.’

He apologised and became visibly emotional again at the end of the show for bringing politics to his concert – something he had vowed not to do.

Sheeran said at the end of the night: ‘The one thing that I would like to apologise for is the first bit of the show where it wasn’t about music and I had to talk.

‘I understand that people have children here and I understand that families didn’t buy a ticket to hear that first bit of the show, but that was something I felt like I needed to say.’

By the end of the show, Sheeran broke down into tears, telling fans: ‘I’m so grateful. The world is a scary place right now. America is a scary place right now. This gives hope. This gives hope.’

The crowd broke out in applause as Sheeran appeared deeply moved.

‘My shows are about this,’ he said. ‘They are about people coming together that don’t know each other, that have different beliefs. They’re about unity. They’re about love. They’re about family.’

As fans cheered, Sheeran vowed that the controversy would not stop him from performing.

‘You’re jumping around like maniacs with each other and having fun,’ he said. ‘And I will never stop doing this. I will never stop doing this. I love doing this so much.’

At one point during the concert Sheeran explained he had scrapped his usual separate ‘B stage’ setup, telling fans he was concerned about ‘what might happen if [he] stood in the middle’ of the crowd. 

‘I didn’t know if they were going to throw things at me. I didn’t know if people would be angry with me,’ he said.

The crowd also gave a standing ovation after Sheeran brought out a group of musicians, led by the fiddler Alicia Enstrom, to back him on songs including his hit Galway Girl.

He explained how he reached out to the musicians after Irish folk band Beoga, who had played with him on the previous tour dates, dropped out of the tour.

‘There are certain songs that just don’t work as well with the loop pedal and when my friends pulled out of this show, I thought: “How am I going to keep the show the same? How am I going to get musicians to come on stage with me in a week when no one wants to come on stage with me?” Sheeran said. 

‘I called a friend of mine who is an amazing person and I toured with her all last year and I said: “would you come on stage with me?” And she said “yes”,’ he added. 

‘I asked her if she had musician friends and she said yes. And they’ve had three days to learn these songs. And they agreed to come on stage knowing that the world might hate them too for coming on stage with me.’ 

In 2014, Macklemore issued an apology after wearing a disguise on stage in Seattle that many condemned as an anti-Semitic Jewish caricature.

Photographs from the concert show the rapper wearing a black wig, beard and a fake hooked nose. 

In his apology, he said he didn’t mean to offend anyone but realised the outfit could have looked like a ‘Jewish caricature’.

‘There is no worse feeling than being misunderstood, especially when people are hurt or offended… I respect all cultures and all people,’ the rapper said. 

‘I would never intentionally put down anybody for the fabric that makes them who they are. I love human beings, love originality, and… happen to love a weird outfit from time to time.’

Macklemore added that he never thought he looked Jewish. ‘Some people there thought I looked like Ringo, some Abe Lincoln. If anything, I thought I looked like Humpty Hump with a bowl cut,’ he said.