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Kris Kristofferson, the country music legend and A Star Is Born actor, has died at the age of 88.

The singer-songwriter died peacefully at his home in Maui, Hawaii, on Saturday, family spokesperson Ebie McFarland said.

No cause of death was given but the musician had been suffering from memory loss since he was in his 70s.

Born in Brownsville, Texas, Kristofferson started his music career in the mid-1960s.

Despite being a singer himself, many of his songs were best known as performed by others, including Ray Price’s US number one hit For the Good Times and Janis Joplin’s 1971 single Me And Bobby McGee.

In the mid-1980s he joined forces with Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings to create the country supergroup The Highwaymen, releasing three albums before all four returned to their solo careers.

FILE - Kris Kristofferson poses for a portrait in Nashville, Tenn., Aug. 15, 1995. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)
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Pic: AP

Former bandmate Nelson said there was “no better songwriter alive” when talking about Kristofferson during a 2009 awards ceremony.

“Everything he writes is a standard and we’re all just going to have to live with that,” Nelson said.

Kristofferson won a Grammy Award for hit Help Me Make It Through The Night and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004.

FILE - In this Dec. 23, 1976 file photo, producer Jon Peters, from left, Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson appear at a  preview of the film, "A Star is Born," in New York. Streisand is giving an early thumbs-up to the remake of ...A Star Is Born... with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. Streisand and Kristofferson topped the 1976 version of the romantic drama about a rising performer and a fading star.  (AP Photo/Suzanne Vlamis, File)
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Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson at a preview of A Star is Born in 1976. Pic: AP

Kris Kristofferson, left, and Barbra Streisand present the award for album of the year at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 13, 2011, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)
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The pair together again at the Grammy Awards in 2011. Pic: AP

As an actor, he won the 1976 Golden Globe Award for best actor after his performance in the romantic drama A Star Is Born opposite Barbra Streisand.

The film was a remake of the 1937 original with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, and was later adapted into a musical starring Judy Garland and James Mason – and subsequently again in 2018 starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.

FILE - Members of The Highwaymen, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash appear on stage in October 1985. Kristofferson has retired after five decades. A statement from his publicist said the Country Music Hall of Famer and Grammy winner retired in 2020. His son, John, stepped in last year to oversee his father's business including his record label. The Texas-born Oxford scholar brought introspective and poetic lyrics to country music with songs like “Sunday Mornin' C
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Members of The Highwaymen, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash in 1985. Pic: AP

Kristofferson also appeared opposite Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese’s 1974 film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and alongside Wesley Snipes in Marvel’s Blade in 1998.

From caretaker to hitmaker

Before the stage and screen, Kristofferson was a boxer with US organisation Golden Gloves, he also gained a master’s degree in English at the University of Oxford, later turning down an opportunity to teach at a US military academy in New York to pursue songwriting in Nashville.

Hoping for a break into the industry, he worked as a part-time caretaker at Columbia Records’ Music Row studio.

NEW YORK, NY ... May 23: Kris Kristofferson performs during the Country Music Takes Manhattan Music Festival held in Central Park on May 23, 1993 in New York City. Credit: Joseph Marzullo/MediaPunch /IPX
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Kristofferson performs at the Country Music Takes Manhattan music festival in 1993. Pic: Joseph Marzullo/MediaPunch /IPX

In a 2006 interview, Kristofferson said he might not have had a career without Cash, who he said put him on stage for the first time.

Joplin, who he had a close relationship with, changed the lyrics to make Bobby McGee a man and cut her version just days before she died in 1970 from a drug overdose. The song became a posthumous number one hit for Joplin.

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In 1973, Kristofferson married fellow songwriter Rita Coolidge with whom he had a successful duet career, earning two Grammy Awards. They divorced in 1980.

The singer is survived by his wife Lisa, his eight children and seven grandchildren, Sky News’ US partner network NBC reported.

Tributes to country music legend

Dolly Parton led fans and fellow musicians and actors in paying tribute to Kristofferson.

She described his passing as a “great loss” and said: “I will always love you.”

Streisand paid tribute to Kristofferson in a post on social media, saying: “The first time I saw Kris performing at the Troubadour club in L.A. I knew he was something special.

“Barefoot and strumming his guitar, he seemed like the perfect choice for a script I was developing, which eventually became A Star Is Born.

“My thoughts go to Kris’ wife, Lisa who I know supported him in every way possible.”

Chief executive for the Country Music Hall of Fame Kyle Young said Kristofferson left “a resounding legacy.”

The likes of Grammy-winning singer Travis Tritt, Larry Gatlin and Wynonna Judd all paid tribute as well.

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Trump’s Iran remarks let him still play ‘good cop’ to Netanyahu’s ‘bad cop’

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Trump's Iran remarks let him still play 'good cop' to Netanyahu's 'bad cop'

Reading between the lines of President Trump’s social media posts is an art, not a science.

But whether by intention or not, there is always insight in his posts. His Truth Social words reacting to the Israeli attack on Iran are intentionally ambiguous.

When was he told by Israel that they would strike Iran? Did he give them a green light, or was it more amber?

Israel-Iran live: Missile from Iran and Yemen ‘hitting Israel’

Was his insistence, as recently as 48 hours ago, that a strike would “blow” the chances of a deal with Iran actually just a ruse to afford Israel the element of surprise? That’s what the Israelis are claiming.

Donald Trump speaks after signing a resolution on zero-emission heavy-duty trucks in the White House. Pic: Reuters
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Mr Trump said he ‘gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal’. Pic: Reuters

Clearly, President Trump does not want to give the impression that his ‘don’t strike’ advice was ignored by Netanyahu.

His social posts are filled with enough ambiguity to allow him to maintain his good cop stance alongside Netanyahu, the bad cop: “I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal. I told them, in the strongest of words, to ‘just do it’…”

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Trump’s ‘art of the deal’, whether it be in real estate or nuclear weapon negotiations, requires unpredictability and ambiguity.

Both of those, as it happens, are useful to hide ineptitude too. The line between diplomatic masterstroke and disastrous diplomacy is thin.

The president is claiming that the Israeli attacks make a deal more, not less, likely because of the pressure Iran will now be under.

Maybe, but many regional watchers are very unconvinced.

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An alternative path to negotiations for Iran would be to go fully down the North Korea route, comforted in the knowledge that China – as a big Iranian oil customer – and Russia – as a weapons customer – will be on side.

Trump may think that the pressure of bombardment will force Iran to heel. But the other pressure the Iranian supreme leader is under is the pressure of survival.

Self-preservation necessitates the Iranian response that we’re now seeing before any prospect of renewed negotiations can come.

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Iran attacks analysed

The Israelis and the Americans are calculating that Iran and its proxies are now sufficiently degraded, and so the response will be limp and containable.

They might be right in terms of conventional attacks, but asymmetrical operations are another fear – against Israeli targets or more broadly, softer Western targets in the region or beyond.

Step back from the chaos of the past 24 hours. The broader picture here is regime change.

Netanyahu said as much in his Friday speech, calling for an internal uprising. He ignored history – which suggests people tend to rally round their flag – but more than that, that foreign air strikes alone don’t work.

Look at Libya in 1986, Iraq in 1991, or Yugoslavia in 1999.

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Netanyahu wants to go further. Will he take out the supreme leader? Trump does not want another full-scale conflict in the Middle East. Of all the things he is accused of being, a hawkish warmonger he is not.

But there are plenty of politicians on Capitol Hill – on both sides of the divide – who support regime change in Iran.

I was at an event in Congress in December organised by Iranian exiled opposition leaders. I was struck by the cross-party support for regime change in one form or another.

Israel this weekend announced that its military had achieved total air superiority from western Iran to the capital Tehran. That’s remarkable.

Could Trump be persuaded to pursue regime change? Peace, eventually, through strength? His motto adapted.

We are at yet another unsettlingly tense moment for the region.

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Minnesota: US politician shot dead and another wounded – as suspect named

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Minnesota: US politician shot dead and another wounded - as suspect named

A manhunt is under way after a US politician and her husband were shot dead in their home in a “politically motivated assassination” – and another politician and his wife were also shot.

Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed at their home, Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, confirmed.

State senator John Hoffman and his wife were also shot in their home but are expected to survive. The senator, according to officials, is in a stable condition after emergency surgery.

Graphic of Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman (L) and Senator John Hoffman. Pic: Facebook / Minnesota Legislature
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Representative Melissa Hortman and Senator John Hoffman. Pic: Facebook/Minnesota Legislature

Authorities have confirmed that the suspect they are looking for is 57-year-old Vance Boelter – who, in a press conference, was described as a 6ft 1in white male, with brown hair and brown eyes.

Members of the public have been urged not to approach him as he may be armed.

The suspect was reportedly posing as a police officer, and officials said the alleged attacker escaped after an exchange of gunfire.

Both politicians are members of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

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US politician killed: Governor calls it ‘targeted political violence’

US President Donald Trump, in a statement, said: “I have been briefed on the terrible shooting that took place in Minnesota, which appears to be a targeted attack against State Lawmakers.

“Our Attorney General, Pam Bondi, and the FBI, are investigating the situation, and they will be prosecuting anyone involved to the fullest extent of the law.

“Such horrific violence will not be tolerated in the United States of America.”

John Hoffman and his wife were shot multiple times at their home. Pic: AP
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John Hoffman and his wife were shot multiple times at their home. Pic: AP

Authorities have urged residents of the Champlin and Brooklyn Park areas to stay in their homes.

In an earlier Facebook post, Mr Walz said: “I’ve been briefed this morning on an ongoing situation involving targeted shootings in Champlin and Brooklyn Park.

“The Minnesota Department of Public Safety and local law enforcement are on the scene. We will share more information soon.”

Former US president Joe Biden with Melissa Hortman. Pic: Instagram.
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Former US president Joe Biden with Melissa Hortman. Pic: Instagram/ melissahortman

At a subsequent news conference, Mr Walz said: “We must all, in Minnesota and across the country, stand against all forms of political violence.

“Those responsible for this will be held accountable.”

He has also urged those in Minnesota not to attend political rallies until the suspect is caught.

Police evacuated the Texas State Capitol and grounds in Austin ahead of an anti-Trump protest on Saturday – citing a credible threat to politicians.

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Kamala Harris and Melissa Hortman. Pic: Instagram.
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Former US vice president Kamala Harris and Melissa Hortman. Pic: Instagram/ melissahortman

Post-mortem examinations will be conducted to determine the extent of their injuries.

However, it is clear that both Ms Hortman and her spouse died from gunshot wounds, Drew Evans, superintendent of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said.

Ms Hortman, a mother of two, was first elected in 2004 – and was the top house Democratic leader in the state legislature. She also served as speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives.

Mr Hoffman, also a Democrat, was first elected in 2012 – and ran a consulting firm called Hoffman Strategic Advisors.

Hakeem Jeffries, House Democratic leader, has described the shootings as “deeply disturbing” on X, adding that “violence is never acceptable”, and that he is “praying hard” for the victims.

Former Arizona representative, Gabby Giffords, described her friend Ms Hortman as a “true public servant”, who “dedicated her life building a better, safer Minnesota”.

Nancy Pelosi, former speaker of the US House of Representatives, said she was “heartbroken” by the news.

She added: “Unfortunately, we know the tragedy of when political violence hits home very well.

“All of us must remember that it’s not only the act of violence, but also the reaction to it, that can normalise it. This climate of politically-motivated violence must end.”

In a tribute, Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin said: “Melissa, Mark, John, and Yvette – these are not just names, and this is not just politics.

“These are people. They’re longtime friends to me and Jenn and so many others in Minnesota. They have children, loved ones, neighbors, and friends.”

Mr Martin added: “Today, we recommit ourselves to fight harder for the values that Melissa and Mark embodied – building a kinder, more just, and loving world. If this murderer thinks we will be silenced, he’s wrong.”

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Trump and Putin agree Iran-Israel conflict ‘should end’ in hour-long phone call

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Trump and Putin agree Iran-Israel conflict 'should end' in hour-long phone call

US President Donald Trump has revealed details of a one-hour phone call with his Russian counterpart, in which they agreed the conflict between Israel and Iran should end.

Posting on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump added that he told Vladimir Putin that “his war [in Ukraine] should also end”.

Iran has retaliated following Israel’s attack on its nuclear sites on Friday – which killed senior army officers and nuclear scientists.

Israel-Iran latest: Follow live updates

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Iran’s retaliation analysed

The Iranian response has resulted in at least three people killed and dozens of injuries in Israel, according to medics. Iranian state TV, meanwhile, has reported that 20 children are among the 60 killed in a strike on a Tehran neighbourhood on Saturday.

Iranian missiles were seen entering Israeli airspace on Saturday evening.

Meanwhile, RAF jets and military assets are being sent to the Middle East after Tehran warned the UK and other allies their regional bases would be targeted if they helped defend Israel in the growing conflict between the two heavily armed countries.

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Tel Aviv: Buildings and cars destroyed

In his post, Mr Trump said: “President Putin called this morning to very nicely wish me a Happy Birthday, but to more importantly, talk about Iran, a country he knows very well. We talked at length.

“Much less time was spent talking about Russia/Ukraine, but that will be for next week. He is doing the planned prisoner swaps – large numbers of prisoners are being exchanged, immediately, from both sides.

“The call lasted approximately 1 hour. He feels, as do I, this war in Israel-Iran should end, to which I explained, his war should also end.”

Read more on Sky News:
Nuclear threat wasn’t the only reason Israel attacked Iran
US politician shot dead and another wounded – as suspect named

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State TV: Children among dozens killed in Iran

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said President Putin condemned Israel’s military operation in Iran and expressed concerns about the risk of escalation.

During the conversation, the Russian leader briefed President Trump on his recent talks with the leaders of Israel and Iran – reiterating Russia’s hopes to seek mutually acceptable solutions on Iran’s growing nuclear issue.

Meanwhile, the latest round of US-Iran nuclear talks scheduled for Sunday in Muscat will not take place, a senior US administration official has told Sky’s US partner network NBC News.

However, the official said the US is “not shutting the door to future discussions”.

“While there will be no meeting on Sunday, we remain committed to talks and hope the Iranians will come to the table soon,” the official said.

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