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Trump says Bill Pulte is less shackled' because he has only been appointed director of national intelligence temporarily. Key US politics stories from 5 June 2026 at a glanceDonald Trump has said that he wants Bill Pulte, his new acting director of national intelligence, to cut the office, which has already been significantly scaled back during the president's second term.Trump noted that the size of the office as been way too high for way too long," and that if he cut, I wouldn't mind". Continue reading...

Handy, 81, died after being stabbed, allegedly by Michael Gledhill, whose mother was in relationship with HandyA man has been charged with murder in the stabbing of Jumanji and Top Gun: Maverick actor James Handy, who was in a relationship with the suspect's mother.Michael Gledhill, 44, was charged after police say officers found the 81-year-old Handy stabbed in the chest and unconscious outside his home in Los Angeles on Wednesday. Handy was taken to the hospital and later pronounced dead. Continue reading...

Experts warn ballot-counting could drag on in primaries for governor, LA mayor and Congress, as Trump claims rigging'The US justice department on Friday sent a federal prosecutor to observe ballot processing in Los Angeles, as Donald Trump continues to make baseless claims that California Democrats were rigging" the results to win primary elections in the nation's biggest blue state.State officials have rejected the allegations, but the delay in results immediately fueled misinformation about the integrity of California's elections, with the president, who has long fanned election-conspiracy theories, repeatedly accusing the state of cheating". Continue reading...

Case draws nationwide attention amid debate over racial tensions, as defendant is Black and slain student was whiteTestimony has been unfolding in the murder trial of a 19-year-old accused of fatally stabbing a fellow high schooler during a track meet in Texas more than a year ago.The case has drawn nationwide attention amid debate over racial tensions, as defendant Karmelo Anthony is Black and slain 17-year-old Austin Metcalf was white. Prosecutors allege Anthony stabbed Metcalf during a Frisco independent school district track meet at Kuykendall Stadium on 2 April 2025. Continue reading...

Vice-president and state department look to push far-right idea that mass migration is causing civilisational decline

Brendan Banfield convicted of killing Christine Banfield and man lured to couple's Virginia home as fall guyA Virginia man who was having an affair with the family's Brazilian au pair was sentenced on Friday to life in prison without parole for the murder of his wife and a man who was lured to the couple's home as a fall guy.Brendan Banfield, a former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) law enforcement officer, claimed he shot Joseph Ryan after he came across Ryan attacking his wife on the morning of 24 February 2023. But prosecutors said Brendan Banfield and au pair Juliana Peres Magalhaes set Ryan up in a scheme to kill Christine Banfield, a pediatric intensive care nurse. Continue reading...

After winning Game 1 of the NBA finals, the New York Knicks are one step closer to winning a championship that has eluded them for 53 years. New Yorkers are feeling elated, but the Knicks are going to have to get through 7ft4in Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs, who just might be the next face of the league. Kai Wright speaks with the Guardian's Andrew Lawrence about who exactly these teams are, and why despite all the money flowing through the sport, this is a series for the people

Acting director David Venturella rescinds Biden-era policy that required agency to report and investigate such deathsA memo issued by the acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director, David Venturella, has ordered the federal agency to cease reporting the deaths of newly released detainees, in a change that could obscure the full human cost of the Trump administration's anti-immigration mass detention policies.The move, first reported by the Washington Post, rescinds a 2021 policy implemented by the Biden administration that required ICE to report to Congress and investigate deaths of detainees that occur within 30 days of their release. Continue reading...

Attacks on police in Southampton, Russian strikes in Kyiv, the Ebola outbreak and PSG win the Champions League - the past seven days as captured by the world's leading photojournalistsWarning: this gallery contains images some readers may find distressing Continue reading...

Federal judge rules policies unlawfully barred applicants from receiving decisions on asylum, green cards and moreThe Trump administration unlawfully barred applicants from 39 travel-ban countries from receiving decisions on asylum, work permits, green cards and citizenship applications, a US federal judge ruled on Friday.The decision came on the same day that the US Senate voted to pass legislation to fund Donald Trump's controversial immigration crackdown Continue reading...

Thousands have protested in the streets of the Albanian capital, Tirana, this week against a planned luxury resort backed by Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Senate votes 52-47 to fund ICE and border patrol for three years, ending partial shutdown, with House still to vote

Claims of discrimination at UCLA and Yale show how laws meant to foster inclusion are being used for the oppositeThe Department of Justice's civil rights division was once known as the crown jewel of the agency, but under Trump it has become just another tool of this administration's politicized and racialized attacks targeting Black, Latino and other people of color. The latest examples are the sham findings of discrimination the division issued against the medical schools of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Yale University for admitting high-achieving Black and Hispanic students. The administration is cynically wielding its anti-discrimination authority to tear down civil rights advances at the cost of equal educational opportunity.In its findings, the justice department claimed the grades and test scores of Black and Hispanic admitted applicants were less competitive than those of white and Asian admits and said the schools intentionally discriminated against white and Asian applicants. But the justice department's conclusions overstate the difference in scores between applicants and ignore other applicant data completely, including student transcripts, letters of recommendations and essays. The differences among GPAs and test scores - one standard deviation or less - were too small to be legally or statistically significant and may be explained by random factors unrelated to race. Comparatively, two standard deviations is the commonly accepted threshold that federal courts and social scientists consider statistically significant in racial discrimination cases.ReNika Moore is director of the ACLU's Racial Justice Program Continue reading...

Republican states rebrand June as nuclear family month' or fidelity month' in latest attack on LGBTQ+ communitiesJune is widely marked as gay Pride month - when LGBTQ+ communities march to protest discrimination and celebrate their identities in the month that the modern US gay liberation movement was born out of the 1969 uprising at New York's Stonewall Inn - although not so much in certain Republican-led states this year.Some Republican governors have suddenly come up with alternative labels for the month, which both supporters and opponents view as counterprogramming. Continue reading...

Downing Street says it does not share state department's view, which Lib Dems condemn as flagrant interference

Protesters say Mikie Sherrill has failed to address the dire hunger and labor strike at the immigration detention centerA few dozen protesters rallied outside the New Jersey statehouse in Trenton on Monday afternoon. They carried handmade signs with messages like U made it worse" and Gov Sherrill, stop lying about Delaney Hall". One led a collective chant that summed up the rally's mood: Hey, Mikie, WTF?"The target of their ire: the governor, Mikie Sherrill. Protesters say the newly elected Democratic governor has failed to adequately address the dire situation at the Delaney Hall immigration detention center in Newark, where at least 300 detainees are on a hunger and labor strike. Continue reading...

School of the Art Institute of Chicago professor put under investigation after a student complained about a case studyA tenured art therapy professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) was suspended from teaching and placed under investigation following a student's complaint about an assigned case study that mentioned violence against Palestinians.Savneet Talwar, a faculty member with the school's art therapy and counseling program, assigned the case study in April to a class on the cultural dimensions of therapy. The assignment asked students to develop an ethical treatment plan for a hypothetical queer, Muslim woman living in the US. Continue reading...

The wing-back's advanced positioning paid off against Senegal. More impressive play at the World Cup could go far for the US's hopes and his transfer prospectsIn the sixth minute of last Sunday's friendly against Senegal, the US men's national team were midway through what became a 20-pass sequence of sustained possession. Beginning with a throw-in along the left touchline, just inside the opponent's half, the World Cup co-hosts tried to break down the visitors to no avail, eventually recirculating back to the center-backs to survey their next route.Amid all that, Sergino Dest stayed upfield to offer an outlet if a line-breaking window presented itself. Even when lined up as a nominal defender - he has logged most of his 38 international caps as a right-back or right wing-back - the 25-year-old has posed a threat with his determined dribbling and eagerness to join the attack. Continue reading...

My father joined the program when I was eight months old and retired 46 years later. He would be encouraging journalists at CBS to speak outThe end of the 60 Minutes broadcast as we know it has sickened millions of longtime viewers, colleagues, and all of us who are offended and threatened by our current administration and its cronies' assaults on the first amendment. The news of Scott Pelley's firing hits particularly hard. He spoke of risking my life and the happiness of my family because of my devotion to the broadcast".Having literally grown up with that broadcast - my father, Morley Safer, joined the program when I was eight months old and retired 46 years later - I am acutely aware of the costs of that devotion. 60 Minutes, particularly in its early days, demanded commitments of time and travel that were keenly felt at home.Sarah Safer is the daughter of Morley Safer, who was a 60 Minutes correspondent for 46 years Continue reading...

Israel and its lobby will use section 224 of the National Defense Authorization Act to bind the US to a state that has gone rogueCongress is considering legislation that would embed Israel's military deeply within the US military-industrial complex. Stunned by the cratering of public support for Israeli policies in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank and towards Iran, Israel's advocates are frantically seeking to preserve and even escalate US support for the Jewish state in ways that do not rely on defense of its policies or permit scrutiny of the manipulations involved.Politically, this means avoiding public discussion of Israeli policies in Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank or Iran and disguising the sources of massive amounts of money pouring into election races to defeat candidates raising questions about US support for Israel. The proposed legislation shows what this means bureaucratically. Continue reading...

A new book looks at how rituals, charms and curses are central to the identity of America's pastimeIt's a Chicago legend, nurtured like a hot dog with everything except ketchup. During the 1945 World Series, local bar owner William Sianis brought his pet goat, Murphy, to a game between the hometown Cubs and the Detroit Tigers. Murphy was denied entry, because he smelled. Thus began the Curse of the Billy Goat, dooming Chicago's NL entry to decades of also-ran status. As Sianis reportedly wrote team owner Philip Knight Wrigley after the Tigers won in 1945, Who smells now?" The Cubs would not win another title until 2016.Welcome to the world of magic in baseball. On the macro level, a goat can apparently change the fortunes of an entire team; on the micro level, batters engage in elaborate rituals at the plate, and no one dares to say no-hitter" until the final out. It's a narrative that goes back to baseball's 19th-century origins, and it's all chronicled in a new book out this week - The Magical Game: The Spirit and History of Baseball's Superstitions, Rituals, and Curses by author, journalist, astrologer and New York Mets fan Addy Baird. Continue reading...

Inside New York's notorious jail complex, nearly 2,000 incarcerated people watched Game 1 of the NBA finals, arguing calls, roasting celebrity fans and sharing in a rare citywide momentIt's nearly half past eight on Wednesday evening and approximately 30 men in tan uniforms drift into the common area of a housing unit deep inside the George R Vierno Center, an 850-bed jail and one of eight active facilities on New York's Rikers Island. Some hover around a folding table piled to the edges with snacks. Others make their way into the smaller rooms on the perimeter of the two-floor communal space and drag plastic chairs closer to the flat-screen televisions mounted inside. The excited chatter and nervous energy bubbles as a familiar refrain cuts through the din.Knicks in four.Pictured above: An exterior view of the Rikers Island jail complex on 3 June 2026. Pictured below: The bridge connecting Rikers Island to Queens crosses a sprawling employee parking lot before reaching the jail complex, which houses the vast majority of people held in New York City's custody. All photographs by Lauren Caulk. Continue reading...

In today's newsletter: Global powers are focused on oil markets and elections but those living through conflict in the Middle East feel abandonedGood morning. It's been another week of brinkmanship via Truth Social and ceasefires broken before they've been announced.While US president Donald Trump claims an agreement with Iran could happen soon, for those living in the Middle East it does not feel like peace is anywhere near. People have seen more bombs dropped in Lebanon this week; and the death toll continues to rise, national economies falter, and displacement abounds.UK politics | Andy Burnham has signalled he would begin transforming the broken social care system this year if he became prime minister, he has said in an interview with the Guardian, accusing Westminster of flinching away" from tackling difficult policy problems.Environment | Humanity can raise living standards, reduce inequality and keep global heating within a 2C rise, according to a sweeping vision for planetary survival.Ukraine | The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has called for face-to-face negotiations in a public letter addressed directly to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.England news | The poorest and most nature-deprived communities in England will be further left behind in their access to green spaces if proposed changes to planning laws go ahead, a report finds.UK news | Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor received private income from subletting three cottages on his Windsor Royal Lodge estate while paying a peppercorn rent" to the crown estate, a report into royal property arrangements has revealed. Continue reading...

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Workers say they deserve a greater share of the windfall and want protection from ICE and invasive data collectionWorkers at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, are voting on whether to authorize a strike one week before World Cup soccer games are slated to begin in the Los Angeles area.Unite Here Local 11's strike authorization vote comes as ongoing negotiations for a new contract with stadium operator Legends Global have stalled, with workers saying they deserve a greater share of the windfall from a packed schedule of coming mega-events that include the World Cup, the Super Bowl and the Olympics. Continue reading...

Platner says claims in New York Times article of physical misconduct and offensive remarks politically motivated'Graham Platner, a Democratic candidate for the US Senate, has rejected an explosive new report about his treatment of women, insisting that allegations of abusive behavior are politically motivated".Platner, a progressive running for election in Maine, was responding to a New York Times article published on Thursday that included an interview with a Republican operative who accused him of womanizing, physical misconduct and making troubling comments about rape. Continue reading...

Trump's plan for an anti-weaponization' fund that could issue financial settlements to people connected to the January 6 insurrection has sparked dissent in his party - key US politics stories from Thursday 4 June at a glanceSenate Republicans on Thursday narrowly scuttled an attempt by Democrats to stop Donald Trump from creating a $1.8bn fund to pay his allies, even as signs emerged that dissent over the proposal was spreading inside the US president's own party.Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer had proposed inserting language barring the payouts into Republican-backed legislation to fund Trump's mass deportation campaign through the duration of his term. Continue reading...

Legislation would also sanction key segments of Russian economy, overriding objections from Republican leadersThe House passed legislation Thursday that would aid Ukraine and sanction key segments of the Russian economy, overriding objections from Republican leaders who warned the bill would undermine negotiations designed to achieve a comparable but stronger result.The 226-195 vote is a sign of impatience with Donald Trump's approach to the war and represents the House's second major foreign policy break with Trump this week. The day before, the House, for the first time, approved a war powers resolution aimed at halting US military action against Iran. Continue reading...

Pulte, who is the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, is a staunch loyalist of the presidentDonald Trump has suggested his controversial ally Bill Pulte will investigate rigged elections" while serving as the country's top intelligence official, as the US president continues to make unfounded allegations about voting.But Pulte, whom Trump appointed as acting director of national intelligence earlier this week, will only serve in the role temporarily, the president claimed on Thursday. Continue reading...

Blanche, whom Trump plans to nominate to replace ex-attorney general, served as Bondi's deputy at DoJFormer attorney general Pam Bondi told lawmakers that Todd Blanche, the man Donald Trump has lined up to replace her, was in charge" of the US Department of Justice's controversial handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case.Appearing before the House oversight and reform committee, which is investigating the late financier and convicted sex offender, Bondi also said she was not certain of the extent" that Trump knew about the crimes of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of Epstein who is serving a 20-year sentence for sex-trafficking crimes, before they became public. Continue reading...

Announcement follows DoJ's recent findings that medical schools at UCLA and Yale illegally used race in admissionsThe US Department of Justice's civil rights division has launched investigations into 15 medical schools over allegations of potential race discrimination in their admissions processes.Thursday's announcement follows the DoJ's recent findings that the medical schools at the University of California, Los Angeles and Yale University illegally used race in their admissions. Continue reading...

US president announces plans for two new coal plants, in Alaska and West Virginia, using Defense Production ActDonald Trump is using wartime presidential authority to hand $700m to coal-fired power plants in the US, the latest move by the president to bolster what he called clean, beautiful coal", despite it being the dirtiest of fossil fuels.Today, we're taking historic action to bring down the price of energy and the cost of living for all Americans with the power of clean, beautiful coal," he said at xa press conference on Thursday. Continue reading...

Three GOP senators join Democrats as dispute over proposed payouts exposes party divisions

Justice department filed charges against Trump's former adviser in 2025 as part of onslaught against president's critics

Hair stylist Frederic Fekkai and ex-Miami Beach mayor Philip Levine accused in new testimony, lawmakers revealRepublican lawmakers have asked the Department of Justice to investigate sexual assault allegations involving two men made by Jeffrey Epstein's longtime assistant.In a transcribed closed-door interview in late May, as part of a congressional investigation into Epstein, Sarah Kellen, one of the late sex offender's former aides, told the House oversight and reform committee she was sexually and psychologically abused" by him during her employment - but also alleged she was sexually assaulted by the French celebrity hairstylist Frederic Fekkai, and by Philip Levine, the former mayor of Miami Beach, in separate incidents in the early 2000s. Continue reading...

Group calls ceasefire a roadmap to annihilate part of the Lebanese people', throwing regional peace talks into doubtHezbollah has rejected a US-brokered ceasefire plan agreed by the Lebanese and Israeli governments, throwing the future of a truce in Lebanon and regional peace negotiations into question.The group's leader, Naim Qassem, called the plan a roadmap to annihilate part of the Lebanese people" in a statement on Thursday. Continue reading...

Republican-led states growing renewable capabilities at faster rate as Texas emerges as clean-energy leaderDemocratic-led states are eroding their climate policies, as red states are scaling up their clean energy deployment.California on Friday scaled back its cap-and-invest program, offering more than $3bn in free pollution allowances to polluting companies. Earlier the same week, New York weakened its groundbreaking climate law, delaying a plan to regulate carbon from 2024 until 2028 and reducing emissions-slashing targets. Rhode Island's governor, meanwhile, is attempting to roll back aggressive clean-energy programs. Continue reading...

US president alleges there is big cheating' in elections for governor and Los Angeles mayor as results are pendingDonald Trump has alleged without evidence that Democrats are cheating in California's primaries and claimed in a late-night social media post that the US attorney's office in Los Angeles was investigating.As counting continues in the most populous state in the US, the president's unfounded remarks are likely to further alarm election observers, who have warned of the risk of escalating misinformation in the absence of a final result. Continue reading...

Justices uphold FCC authority to impose in-house penalties, rejecting AT&T and Verizon jury trial claims

Deletion of the bureau's website content is just the most recent part of a larger plan to undermine an agency that's helped people'The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau deleted at least 2,200 webpages from its website last month, a move advocates say is part of the Trump administration's latest effort to dismantle the federal consumer finance watchdog.The removed content was all published before Trump's second term, and includes press releases, consumer advisories, congressional testimonies, speeches and blog posts. Some of the material dates back to as early as 2010, when the agency was formed. Continue reading...

The former Seahawks quarterback won a championship with Seattle and was a 10-time Pro Bowler. That doesn't mean he's seen as an all-time greatWhen a quarterback makes 10 Pro Bowls, wins the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, and leads his team to one Super Bowl win and (almost) another, you'd expect his Hall of Fame discussion would be fairly uncomplicated.But in the case of one Russell Carrington Wilson, who appeared to announce his retirement on Wednesday after 14 seasons to join CBS Sports as an analyst, that discussion is multi-layered - much like Wilson's career and legacy. Continue reading...

Retail theft ring' stole goods from logistics sites in Pennsylvania, Virginia and New Jersey and sold them in New York, officials sayEight people were indicted this week in New York in connection with what prosecutors describe as a wide-ranging retail theft ring" that stole nearly $5m worth of goods - from steaks to cheeses to copper wiring and cigarettes.The Manhattan district attorney's office announced charges against the eight individuals on Wednesday, accusing them of conspiring to impersonate shipping carriers in a wide-ranging retail theft ring throughout the north-east". Continue reading...

The ceasefire has held just enough to prevent a return to all-out war, but neither side is close to achieving peaceThe US-Iran ceasefire is entering yet another round of escalation since it came into effect on 8 April. This week, there have been further strikes on Iran by the US, and Iranian retaliation on Kuwait and Bahrain, alongside Israeli escalation in Lebanon. Earlier flare-ups over the past two months were quickly contained. Both sides have tried to keep the balance between no war and no peace. But as this ceasefire drags on it risks becoming yet another Middle East stalemate, albeit one with international economic and political consequences.Four obstacles are preventing progress. The first is trust. Iran does not believe Donald Trump can deliver a deal, much less stick to one. The fear is not only that Washington will walk away again but that the goalposts will keep moving, where first nuclear limits are imposed, followed by missiles, then regional policy and finally further political concessions dressed up as security guarantees.Sanam Vakil is the director of the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House Continue reading...

Lebanese government agrees ceasefire with Israel but Israeli drone strikes continue. Plus the story of the man who launched Cuba's first independent magazineGood morning.Israel and Lebanon have agreed to implement a ceasefire to end hostilities, the Trump administration has announced - but it comes with caveats. Not only is the deal contingent on a complete cessation of fire from the Iran-aligned Hezbollah armed group, and on the evacuation of all its fighters from the area south of the Litani River, but Hezbollah has not been part of the talks.Where has Israel been targeting? William Christou in Beirut reports that three hospitals in southern Lebanon have been attacked by Israel in under a week, wounding more than 150 people and killing nine. Analysts and human rights experts have said the attacks on healthcare facilities were aimed at degrading the conditions for life in south Lebanon.What did Israel say about it? The military said it had struck Hezbollah infrastructure in the area of Tyre" and acknowledged a hospital was affected incidentally". It accused Hezbollah of taking over" one of the hospitals it struck.Is that number significant? Yes, the 90-day threshold is important because the 1973 War Powers Resolution lays down that a president must seek congressional approval to continue waging war after hostilities have continued that length of time. Trump's White House has rejected that argument, citing a temporary ceasefire that has been in place since 8 April - although it has been broken several times by the US, Israel and Iran. Continue reading...