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Republicans increasingly avoid doctors and vaccines, widening health gaps with Democrats, researchers sayGrowing Republican mistrust in the healthcare system has widened health disparities between liberals and conservatives, who are more likely to avoid vaccines and the medical system in general, according to a new study.Neil O'Brian, a political science professor at the University of Carolina, Chapel Hill and one of the authors of the study published in Nature Human Behaviour, said that his team saw two phases to the phenomenon. Continue reading...

Americans spend 18% of our economy on healthcare, nearly twice the average of comparable nations, for worse resultsThe Commonwealth Fund published its 2026 report card on US healthcare this week, measuring the United States against 19 other wealthy countries. It runs the most expensive system on earth, and it buys some of the worst results in the developed world. I have spent more than four decades in the medical intensive care unit at UCLA, and I do not read those numbers as statistics. I read them as the people I admit.We spend 18% of our economy on healthcare, nearly twice the average of comparable nations, and $12,649 a person, roughly 10 times what Mexico spends. For that fortune, American life expectancy peaked at 79 years, more than two years below our peers and third from the bottom of the group, above only Mexico and Turkey. Our rate of deaths that good care should have prevented is the second worst in the developed world. Only Mexico does worse. Continue reading...

Spain led the opposition to Trump's Iran war, but on the Cuba blockade, the challenge is absentFor many Europeans of my generation, Cuba was as much a progressive cause as a country.In our selectively idealistic student days (mine were in the mid-1970s), it was a plucky little country that had overthrown a corrupt regime in cahoots with the US mafia. In a popular revolution led by the charismatic Fidel Castro and iconic guerrilla leader Che Guevara, it then withstood a crippling US economic embargo to defend its independence. Hasta la victoria siempre! (Ever onwards to victory!)Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre Continue reading...

Officials say bodies of two adult women and one child found in rubble and four other people taken to hospital

Three more people remain missing and are presumed dead, after tank containing chemical mixture collapsedThe confirmed death toll in the chemical tank explosion at a Washington state paper mill rose to eight on Thursday after crews recovered the remains of six workers, officials said.Three more individuals remain missing and are presumed dead. Eight other people were injured, including a firefighter responding to the incident. Continue reading...

Shannon O'Connor, 52, was convicted of charges including child endangerment and facilitating forcible sexual assaultA judge has sentenced a San Francisco Bay Area mother to 35 years in prison after her conviction for a slew of crimes resulting from hosting drunken sex parties for young teenagers.Widely known as the Los Gatos party mom", a nickname that references her hometown, 52-year-old Shannon O'Connor was convicted of four dozen crimes in March, including child endangerment, dissuading witnesses from reporting a crime and facilitating forcible sexual assault. Her sentence was the maximum allowed under state law. Continue reading...

Trump's latest vanity project would require changing law that prohibits any living person from appearing on US currency - key US politics stories from Thursday 28 MayDonald Trump's latest vanity project: putting his own face on US currency.The White House is pushing Congress to approve a $250 bill bearing the president's portrait, the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said, which would require changing longstanding federal law that prohibits any living person from appearing on US currency. Continue reading...

Morris Day, Young MC and others balk at appearing at US's 250th anniversary events organized by administrationAt least six of the nine featured musical acts set to play in a concert series organized by the Trump administration to mark the United States' 250th anniversary have dropped out, just one day after the lineup was announced.The first to drop out, hours after Wednesday's announcement, was Morris Day, who called his scheduled participation in the summer concert series on Washington DC's National Mall a baseless rumor". Continue reading...

Ryan Fournier, 30, was charged with simple assault and threats to do bodily harmThe co-founder of the group Students for Trump was arrested on Tuesday on domestic violence charges.Washington DC's Metropolitan police department arrested Ryan Fournier, 30, and charged him with simple assault and threats to do bodily harm, Defector first reported. Continue reading...

Updates from the fifth day's play at Roland Garros

White House made lengthy post about gorilla shot dead at Cincinnati zoo after a toddler entered his enclosure in 2016

States with abortion bans are turning away from medications to a wait-and-see approach, with care falling below standardsAbortion restrictions in the US have made it more difficult to access care for miscarriages, a new study stays.The new research found that since the June 2022 Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization decision overturning Roe v Wade, pregnancy care has fractured along state lines; it's getting increasingly harder to access healthcare for miscarriages in US states with abortion restrictions. Continue reading...

Monitors estimate 17,500 people have been sent to countries they may never have visited - and where they could face further dangerJose Yugar-Cruz spent 17 months in a county jail in Muscatine, Iowa, despite never having committed a crime.Originally from Bolivia, he entered the United States legally at the Arizona border in July 2024, affirmatively approached authorities, and requested asylum. Six months later, a US immigration judge found he had been tortured in Bolivia, would probably face torture again if returned, and barred his removal to his home country. The government did not appeal. Yugar-Cruz was not released for almost a year. Instead, ICE spent months searching unsuccessfully for somewhere else to send him. He finally won his release in December 2025. Continue reading...

President makes comments after reports Iran and Oman have discussed jointly charging a toll for ships. Plus, how balcony solar' could help fight rising energy costs

We need rules for the Democratic primaries that will lift up the voices of talented DemocratsIn democracy, the rules matter. Six months before the midterms, the US supreme court's Callais decision dramatically changed the rules of US elections by gutting the Voting Rights Act and capsizing the 15th amendment.As the Maga party races to restore Jim Crow politics with voter suppression and all-white congressional delegations in the south, Democrats must act shrewdly to advance party rules of our own that promote majority rule, interracial political solidarity and the power of the voters. Continue reading...

Aiden Daniel Cuevas allegedly told undercover officer reporter needed to be taken off the board'An Alabama neo-Nazi accused of trying to start a paramilitary unit to take out high value targets" aimed to kill a journalist who once reported on him, according to law enforcement testimony obtained by the Guardian.Aiden Daniel Cuevas allegedly used coded talk" to tell an undercover officer in November 2024 that the journalist was a pawn" that needed to be taken off the board". Continue reading...

The decision to charge Raul Castro is grimly reminiscent of the run-up to Trump's military operation in Venezuela. Meanwhile, the Cuban people are suffering needlesslyThe US war machine has turned its sights on Cuba. Marco Rubio, the Cuban-American secretary of state who has long craved the fall of the island's communist government, made that clear again last week. While professing a preference for a negotiated settlement", he said the chances of a deal were not high". A couple of months ago, I saw up close the economic devastation already inflicted by decades of US siege - and, since January, by a crippling oil blockade introduced by Donald Trump.The US has now charged the country's former president Raul Castro with conspiracy to kill US nationals, four counts of murder and two counts of destruction of aircraft over the downing of two planes in 1996. The evidence points increasingly in one direction: it is all grimly reminiscent of the indictment of Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro, used to justify his kidnapping by US forces.Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Some are bright and cosy, others are starkly depressing - these images of rooms used to pump breast milk expose the sometimes grim reality of being a new mum in the US Continue reading...

US president calls on US ally to behave ... or else we'll have to blow them up' in casual aside during cabinet meetingDonald Trump has threatened to blow up" Oman if it fails to behave" in a casual aside during a cabinet meeting, as the US scrambles to reopen the strait of Hormuz.The US president made the threat after reports of talks between Iran and Oman about jointly charging a toll for ships passing through the crucial waterway, which has been all but closed since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran. Continue reading...

Military claims boat targeted in second deadly attack this week was travelling along a known smuggling routeThe US military attacked what it called a drug trafficking boat on Wednesday in the eastern Pacific, killing two men, officials said.It was the second deadly attack in as many days in the Trump administration offensive that began last September and has now left almost 200 people dead. Rights groups say the attacks could amount to extrajudicial killings. Continue reading...

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Officials said to be examining whether Carroll committed perjury in 2022 deposition tied to lawsuits against presidentThe Trump administration has opened a criminal investigation into E Jean Carroll, the writer who accused the president of sexual assault, according to news reports.Prosecutors, the New York Times and CNN reported on Wednesday, are looking into whether Carroll, 82, committed perjury in a 2022 deposition during her civil lawsuits against Trump, in which she said she did not accept outside financial support for her legal battles. Continue reading...

State's governor looks to thwart US president's plan to divert money to allies, including January 6 riotersCalifornia governor Gavin Newsom is looking to thwart Donald Trump's $1.776bn anti-weaponization fund" by imposing a 100% tax on any payout received by state residents.In May, the Department of Justice (DoJ) announced a fund to compensate alleged victims of lawfare and weaponization". It's unclear who qualifies under this category. Continue reading...

Trump claims Iran intends to wait until US midterm elections in the hope of getting better deal - key US politics stories from Wednesday, 27 MayDonald Trump has accused Iran of trying to stall on making a peace agreement by running down the clock before November's US midterm elections in the hope of getting better terms.They thought they were going to outwait me, you know, we'll out-wait him, he's got the midterms'," the US president told a meeting of his cabinet at the White House on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Two people dead and another nine missing and presumed dead after paper mill tank holding chemicals implodedThe death toll from the tank-rupture incident at a Washington state paper mill on Tuesday rose to two, with nine people still missing and presumed dead, authorities said.The Longview fire department said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon that one person who was transported to the hospital following the disaster at Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co on Tuesday morning had died. Continue reading...

In CBS interview set to air Sunday, former first lady says she was frightened' during husband's debate with TrumpJill Biden said she had been frightened" as she watched Joe Biden's faltering performance during his 2024 presidential debate, and thought her husband might have suffered a stroke.I was frightened, because I had never, ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never," the former first lady said in a 30-second clip of an interview with CBS, set to air on Sunday. Continue reading...

Anthony Odiong, 57, charged in Texas with exploiting status to pursue sex with vulnerable female congregantsA Roman Catholic priest replied we are but men" when confronted after the son of a woman to whom he was providing spiritual guidance caught the clergyman having sex with his mother, according to court testimony in Texas on Wednesday.That version of events emerged at the second day of the trial of Anthony Odiong, who has been criminally charged with illicitly abusing his status as a clergyman to pursue sex with spiritually vulnerable female congregants. Continue reading...

Markwayne Mullin, DHS secretary, said move would come in response to protests outside ICE facility in New JerseyThe Trump administration has threatened to stop processing international flights in major cities around the country as a reaction to protests against immigration enforcement.Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary, said during an interview with Fox News on Tuesday that the administration is drawing up plans" to take the action, in response to days of clashes at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in New Jersey. Continue reading...

Across California, ballots sit unopened as voters struggle to decide who to back as their chosen candidate for governor. US senior political correspondent Lauren Gambino tells Kai Wright that the race has been a head-scratcher for Democrats. Despite a huge field of candidates, the race has been mired in scandal and few have managed to cut through. What does this say about the future of the Democratic party, and does this leave an opening for Republicans in the Golden state?

The satellite visuals reveal vast burn scars after blaze tore through rare ecosystems on Santa Rosa IslandImages from a Nasa satellite showcased the devastating scars left behind by a wildfire that consumed roughly a third of Santa Rosa Island, one of the five islands that make up Channel Islands national park off the southern California coast.Taken on 20 May, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (Modis) took the false-color image of the burn area, showing swaths of blackened land. Continue reading...

Federal agents deployed chemical irritants on protesters and journalists amid detainees' hunger and labor strike

A day after ICE officials pepper-spray senator, tensions ramp up outside facility on fifth day of hunger and labor strike

Refunds came after the supreme court ruled Trump overstepped his authority in enacting sweeping tariffsUS importers are expected to receive $85bn in tariff refunds after the supreme court struck down Donald Trump's tariffs in February, according to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the agency that collects tariffs.Importers and shippers have so far been refunded $20bn, according to court documents filed on Tuesday, with about $65bn more on the way. Continue reading...

Authorities have said they are still investigating the motive of the attack on Kerry Sheron, 69, by Thomas ButlerA southern California man has died after an assault last week in front of his San Diego area home, which was well known for its extensive collection of US flags and signs supporting Donald Trump.Authorities confirmed on Monday that Kerry Sheron, a 69-year-old US army veteran, died days after he was attacked on Wednesday outside his home in Escondido. Police have arrested Thomas Butler, a 32-year-old who media outlets have identified as a navy veteran, on multiple charges including attempted murder, elder abuse and battery. Continue reading...

Some experts criticize White House approach and say not allowing Americans to return to US hurts treatment effortsThe Trump administration is building a quarantine and treatment center in Kenya for Americans affected by the Ebola outbreak, instead of bringing them home.The White House on Wednesday confirmed that the US was setting up a facility in Kenya for Americans to quarantine after Ebola exposure in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Continue reading...

Civilians including children are among the thousands to have died in this war, yet the world is paying remarkably little attentionLebanon was an afterthought when Israel and the US were bombing Iran, and remained one when they stopped. It still appears to be one even as Washington and Tehran speak of peace. The US has suggested that a deal is within reach, and Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday that a return to war was unlikely, thoughprofound differences remain evident. Tehran says that Lebanon must be part of any agreement.Yet this week, Lebanon's supposed ceasefire looks more threadbare than ever, with Israel intensifying its offensive as Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to crush" Hezbollah. Israeli strikes killed 31 people on Tuesday alone, and on Wednesday the military ordered the evacuation of the entire city of Tyre. Its troops have pushed out of the buffer zone that it established in the south, which far-right ministers want to annex. Israel may be intensifying attacks before the US reins it in, or in the hope of destabilising the talks. War allows MrNetanyahu to dodge accountability at home. Domestic demands for continued attacks on Hezbollah are also growing, given the mounting threat from its drones to soldiers in Lebanon and residents of Israel's north.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!As a football newsletter whose entire raison d'etre is sending people emails they are desperate to receive and read, Football Daily is fully behind Mauricio Pochettino. The Argentinian has taken a leaf out of our tried-and-trusted playbook by electing to use the medium of email to let assorted soccerball players around the world know whether or not they'd been selected to play for Team USA USA USA at this summer's Geopolitics World Cup. His method of communication has been criticised in some quarters due to its lack of a personal touch for those who have not made the cut, with some American hacks saying those left out were at least owed an explanatory phone call from the Argentinian. Defending himself, Pochettino pointed out that as a player, he wouldn't have wanted to converse with a manager who had just cut him from an international squad because ... well, why would you bother?This is an extract from our daily football email ... Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions. Continue reading...

The US president's backing of Maga extremists turns off the very voters Republicans need to win over in the midtermsDonald Trump gave it a minute.At 9.01pm it was confirmed that the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton - a hardliner backed by the US president - had triumphed over the incumbent John Cornyn in the state's Republican primary runoff for the US Senate. By 9.02pm, Trump had started celebrating on social media. Continue reading...

A report found that Brian O'Hara probably interfered with investigation in what mayor called a breach of trust'The Minneapolis police chief, Brian O'Hara, resigned on Tuesday after a report found that he probably interfered with an investigation into alleged sexual misconduct.O'Hara stepped down after a meeting with the Minnesota city's mayor, Jacob Frey, who earlier this month nominated him to serve a second term after his appointment in 2022 to steady a police department still in turmoil after the murder of George Floyd two years earlier. Continue reading...

Donald Trump moves quickly to unite Republicans behind the Texas attorney general as Democrats eye rare opening

Randy Hubbs died and Nicole Klein was injured after the two collided during a group jump at West Plains SkydivingA skydiver was killed and another injured after the two collided midair during a group jump in Washington state, authorities said this week.The Adams county sheriff's office said in a statement on Monday that authorities were called on Sunday evening regarding reports that two skydivers were needing medical attention". Continue reading...

State attorneys general say their deputies were turned away and criticized the White House for politicizing' fraud issuesThree Democratic state attorneys general said their deputies were turned away from a roundtable hosted by JD Vance on Tuesday, sowing confusion about what the White House has billed as a bipartisan crackdown on fraud.After attorneys general - including New York's Letitia James, California's Rob Bonta and New Jersey's Jennifer Davenport - declined a last-minute invitation to participate in the event alongside their Republican counterparts, they said representatives from their offices travelled to Washington to attend , but were shut out. Continue reading...

Former president says disclosure of recordings tied to classified files inquiry would violate his privacyJoe Biden, the former president, has filed a lawsuit to try to prevent the justice department (DoJ) from releasing transcripts and audio of interviews that exposed his frequent memory lapses and helped derail his 2024 re-election campaign.The decade-old conversations with the author of his biography ended up in the hands of Robert Hur, the special counsel who was appointed to look into allegations Biden improperly handled classified documents. Continue reading...