Settlement requires archbishop to write apology letter to each survivor and implement child protection reformsThe San Francisco Catholic archdiocese has agreed to pay $395m to settle more than 500 lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse by church officials, plaintiffs' attorneys said Monday.Salvatore Cordileone, the San Francisco archbishop, will have to write an apology letter to each survivor as part of the settlement. Continue reading...
Emily Barker, Nick Hutcherson and Sydney Watson killed working to contain raging fires on Utah-Colorado borderThe US Department of Interior on Monday released the names of three firefighters who were killed while working to contain wildfires along the Utah-Colorado border.Two other firefighters who were part of the specialized helicopter-deployed crew were also injured in the blaze, although authorities did not identify them. Continue reading...
Police found man, who died of a heart attack, next to his girlfriend by abandoned vehicle in wooded area of AlabamaA man recently died in Alabama from a heart attack while trying to discard his girlfriend's body after fatally strangling her, according to authorities.At the center of the unusually macabre case was Daniel Robbins, 44, and Jessica Folds, 47. Continue reading...
Arbitrator rules California State University system violated law when it dismissed Sang Hea Kil, who now plans to sueA tenured professor who was fired last year over her pro-Palestinian activism has won her job back and is suing her university over the termination.Last November, Sang Hea Kil, a justice studies professor at San Jose State University in California, became the first tenured faculty member to be dismissed from a US public university following nationwide campus protests over Israel's enduring war in Gaza. After several appeals, an arbitrator last week ruled that the California State University system had violated the law and ordered it to reinstate her. Kil had previously filed a lawsuit against CSU, which it accused of discriminatory and retaliatory attempts to silence her". Continue reading...
A natural disaster provides unforgiving clarity in a country already reeling from years of crisis and the unlawful US seizure of Nicolas MaduroThe devastation wrought by an earthquake is shaped by what happened before and after it as much as by the shock itself. The twin tremors that hit Venezuela moments apart last Wednesday were its biggest since 1900, at 7.2 and 7.5, and were shallow temblors, which often cause more destruction than deeper ones of similar magnitude. Aftershocks continued on Monday. At least 1,450 people have died, with tens of thousands reported missing and more than 3,000 injured. The UN estimates that there has been $6.7bn of damage - equivalent to 6% of the country's GDP -including key infrastructure; 38 hospitals are said to need repairs. Unicef says that 1.8 million people need aid.The toll of such disasters reflects the condition of the nation before they struck, and the state's capacity to respond. While remarkable rescues in the last few days have brought joy even after the 72-hour window judgedcrucial to saving lives had closed, the picture isnot kind to Venezuela's leaders. Continue reading...
Party's old guard abandons blue no matter what' banner to push for a more formal break with progressive wingAfter a string of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) primary victories, the loudest response from much of the Democratic establishment's old guard was not reconciliation, but escalation.Over the last few days, prominent party figures have moved away from unifying under a blue no matter who" banner to push for a more formal break with their left flank, and said the moment may have arrived for Democrats to confront their more socialist wing. Continue reading...
Move comes amid growing outbreak in Texas and after two-month halt on mandatory shotsThe US military is racing to vaccinate new recruits after a two-month halt on mandatory flu shots - but it's a temporary reprieve, as the shots will soon expire and new doses will not be available for months.Officials will need to lean on other prevention measures to contain the growing flu outbreak at Lackland air force base in San Antonio, Texas, experts say. Continue reading...
Mary Evelyn Nicole Manning-Kellione's death was among at least five reported amid floods in Tennessee and KentuckyA 39-year-old woman died in Tennessee while trying to save her son from high flood waters on Sunday morning, according to officials.The death of Mary Evelyn Nicole Manning-Kellione was among at least five reported during flooding in recent days in a region encompassing Tennessee and Kentucky. Continue reading...
Organizers of the four-day Electric Forest festival are appealing for attendees to come forward with informationA newborn baby was found dead in a portable bathroom at a Michigan dance music festival on Sunday, and organizers are now appealing for festivalgoers to come forward with information.It causes us so much pain to have to share this difficult news with you," Electric Forest festival organizers wrote online on Sunday night. Saying the organizers were heartbroken", the statement added: Michigan state police continues to investigate this tragic event, if you can assist in any way." Continue reading...
San Jose police say Sunday incident in area that has been hosting watch parties is being investigated as a homicide'One person was killed and another seriously injured on Sunday night in a shooting at a popular entertainment spot in San Jose, California, that has been hosting a World Cup fan zone" as well as screening matches, police said.There were no World Cup games being screened at the time of the shooting, with the only match of the day in the tournament finishing at about 2pm local time. Continue reading...
Modern AI systems are, in effect, a universal adviser to help people do harmful things. We'll need to harness AI for defense, tooEarlier this week, national security agencies from the Five Eyes - that's the rich, English-language-speaking countries club - jointly released a statement warning of the increasing cyber risks of AI models: in particular, their ability to autonomously hack into systems and networks. The statement was more measured than some of the breathless headlines about it, and the advice they gave is pretty much the standard advice everyone gives - albeit with newfound urgency.Internet risks are nothing new, and cyber-attacks - both large and small - have been a significant issue since long before the current crop of generative AI models.Bruce Schneier is a security technologist who teaches at the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University and University of Toronto's Munk School Continue reading...
US commerce department accuses state of environmental terrorism' and plans to evaluate its coastal agencyThe Trump administration plans to evaluate the performance of the California Coastal Commission, in the latest escalation of a dispute between the state's Democratic leaders and the federal government over energy production.Per federal law, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) is required to conduct reviews of federally approved coastal management programs, which take into consideration the extent to which the State of California has implemented and enforced the program approved by the [commerce] Secretary". Continue reading...
New York City mayor says Democratic candidates he endorsed speak to people struggling to make ends meet. Plus the best pictures from weekend Pride events across the US
Plan to limit scrutiny of polluters and shift financial risks to taxpayers is attack on democracy, advocates sayThe Trump administration is attempting to shrink public comment periods for fossil fuel leasing on federal land while shifting the financial risks of cleanup to taxpayers and allowing for more planet-warming emissions. It's part of a broader effort to dismantle public input processes and save polluting companies money, advocates say.By ignoring public comment [requirements] while propping up companies," said Alexa Dietrich, research director at the science advocacy organization Union of Concerned Scientists, they're really attacking democracy in a very clear way." Continue reading...
Muslims say anti-Islamic rhetoric making everyday life difficult - and threats and harassment not uncommonFollowing a brutal Republican primary runoff in which Islamophobia took center stage, anti-Muslim hatred continues spilling into public life in Texas.Texans say that the hate speech shared by elected officials is increasingly echoed by people in their everyday interactions, including discussions about education or interactions at a store, in a park, at university and at elementary school. In one case, students at the University of Houston were praying when a man approached them and burned a Qur'an. In other cases, people have been verbally attacked for wearing traditional garments. Continue reading...
Research shows that reducing sentences for women could save tax dollars with virtually no increase in violent crimeTwo new reports raise questions about the economic tradeoffs of incarcerating women - a prison population that has grown more than 600% in the United States since 1980.Imprisoning women costs as much as 75% more than incarcerating men, but some of those costs could be offset by halving the amount of time women spend in prison with minimal impacts to public safety, according to new reports from the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan thinktank. Continue reading...
Research suggests 41,800 premature US deaths in 2024 were attributable to road pollutionRoughly five Americans die every hour due to exposure to toxic road vehicle pollution, a new study has found.It's the latest warning showing fossil-fueled transit is a major driver of mortality. Continue reading...
The court's TPS decision is devastating for those whose countries of origin are deemed unsafe. Congress must actOn Thursday, the US supreme court authorized the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS), facilitating the largest single assault on immigrants in contemporary United States history.While the case concerned the 350,000 Haitian and 6,000 Syrian holders of this status, the decision could expose more than 1.3 million people to potential deportation to countries that the United States has recognized as unsafe.Heba Gowayed is an associate professor of sociology at Cuny Hunter College and Cuny Graduate Center and author of the book Refuge: How the State Shapes Human Potential Continue reading...
Ulric Ulroan charged on 47 criminal counts amid allegations he sexually assaulted teenage girls from 2009-2025The former mayor of a city in Alaska - who has also coached high school girls basketball and won a parent of the year award - has been criminally charged on allegations that he sexually assaulted several teenage girls over a yearslong period, according to authorities in that state.Ulric Ulroan, 48, first drew scrutiny from Alaska's bureau of investigation in January, when the agency received a tip that he had purportedly inflicted sexual abuse on a 17-year-old girl in the village of Chevak between 2009 and 2010. The tip prompted an investigation which brought forth more reports of Ulroan having sexually assaulted and/or abused various teenage girls" between 2009 and 2025 in Chevak as well as the Alaska communities of Anchorage, Mountain Village and Nome, officials said in a news release published on Friday. Continue reading...
Punchlines on president's thwarted bid to have building named after him come thick and fast at Washington DC galaOutside the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a giant tarpaulin remained in place to conceal Donald Trump's humiliation.Guests entering the national arts complex on Sunday night could not see the section of its marble facade where Trump's name was recently erased to comply with a court order. Continue reading...
The seven-time Wimbledon singles champion who evolved away' from tennis shares why she's backFor two long weeks, since her return to the courts of a professional tennis tournament at the Queen's Club, a clock was ticking in Serena Williams's mind. She had already committed to making her comeback in doubles at 44 after four years away from the sport, butdoubles only requires a player to cover half a court with the helpofa partner. The real question was whether she would dare to putherself on the line again in singles against the best tennis players in the world.Williams's decision to supercharge her comeback by taking a singles wildcard into Wimbledon, it turned out, was exactly as last minute as it appeared. She was only announced as the final wildcard for the women's singles draw on Sunday 21June, one day before the qualifying draw was made: Ihad until Monday to decide. I think it was like Sunday. I just wasn't sure up until then. Honestly, I'm still not even sure, but we'll see," Williams says, smiling, in her pretournament press conference. Continue reading...
Across the US, cities wrapped up Pride month with parades and festivals on the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall uprising, which underscored the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. This month's celebrations unfolded as Trump works to roll back trans rights and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. This year's theme for NYC Pride was For All of Us'. Attender Carlos Duarte said: It's very important for us to be here ... all together for love, peace and to show the world who we are.' Continue reading...
Forecasters expect days of high temperatures in central and eastern US before Fourth of July and World Cup festivitiesA long and dangerous heatwave will blast a large swath of the central and eastern United States for the upcoming week, the National Weather Service (NWS) said on Sunday - with temperatures rising ahead of the Fourth of July holiday and feeling even hotter because of high humidity also arriving.Already parts of the US, especially Phoenix and central Texas, and much of the south-west were experiencing temperatures of about 100F (38C) on Sunday, while the NWS warned of severe wildfire conditions developing across much of the west as new fires popped up across the region. Continue reading...
Markwayne Mullin's remarks come after controversial supreme court ruling to strip TPS from over 350,000 peopleMigrants in the US on temporary protected status should seek permanent residence or leave, Markwayne Mullin, Homeland Security secretary, said in the wake of last week's supreme court decision that stripped humanitarian protections from hundreds of thousands of immigrants.The remarks to CNN's State of the Union program comes after a decision that could allow Donald Trump's administration to deport Haitian and Syrian immigrants to home countries plagued by conflict and destitution. Continue reading...
Mayor says progressive peers who swept primaries speak to Americans coast to coast' as moderates have reservationsZohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor, said on Sunday that he and a slew of democratic socialist allies who prevailed in recent primary elections are carrying a national message" to struggling working Americans hungry for a new kind of politics coast to coast".Mamdani made that triumphant clarion call on ABC News's This Week just five days after he had seen his endorsed candidates win Democratic nominations in three races for New York congressional seats, as well as for five state legislature positions in Albany. He made no effort to disguise his delight that his clean sweep marks a dramatic shift in Democratic politics - not just in New York City, which he has led since January, but also across the US. Continue reading...
Firefighters were involved in joint response to Knowles and Gore blazes as wildfires ravage western US, fire agency saysThree firefighters were killed and two others were hurt while responding to wildfires along the Colorado-Utah border, the US Wildland Fire Service announced on Sunday.The agency, which was established in January to coordinate wildfire suppression and prevention efforts across public lands, said the firefighters were involved in a joint response to the Knowles and Gore fires on Saturday. Continue reading...
Out-going Louisiana senator's rebuke over Iran war is rare instance of a Republican politician standing up to TrumpBill Cassidy, the Republican senator from Louisiana who is being ousted from his position after Donald Trump successfully backed a challenger in May's primary, has accused the US president of treating Congress as merely an appendage" in his handling of the Iran war.In an interview on Sunday with CBS News's Face the Nation, the out-going Cassidy explained his recent face-to-face row with Trump over the president's failure to brief Congress on the prosecution of the hostilities with Tehran. In a fleetingly rare instance of a Republican politician directly standing up to Trump, Cassidy let rip at a Capitol Hill lunch over the senator's support for a war powers resolution that was a symbolic rebuke to the White House. Continue reading...
Pugnacious speech invokes Trump's vanity projects' to makeover Washington and the brazen, blatant corruption'Joe Biden called Donald Trump a loser" in a pugnacious speech on Saturday that invoked his presidential successor's attempted makeover of Washington DC to portray him as incompetent, corrupt and vain.He delivered those remarks while giving the keynote address at a gala in Hanover, Maryland, hosted by the state's Democratic party, which is hoping to help wrest control of Congress away from Trump and his Republican allies during November's midterm elections. Continue reading...
The main pillars of the founding narrative have fallen on hard times. Today, its meaning is up for grabsWriting during the carnage of the first world war, the iconoclast intellectual Randolph Bourne described the American revolutionary inheritance as a squalid marriage between the town capitalist and plantation patriarch. Glittering generalities of freedom and democracy, Bourne observed, were indelibly marked by their long captivity to the money counters and owners of human chattel.In the land lorded over by the likes of Donald Trump, leader of one of the most indecently corrupt, violently inept administrations in the country's history, the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence would seem to affirm this judgment. Our moment, defined by the mobilization of market frenzy, machineries of war, deportation deliriums and nativist passions, echoes Bourne's; it is a time of social fracture, moral failure and hegemonic collapse, with cynical reason ascendant. Continue reading...
Universities looking for a fix to relentless controversy are flocking to civility' initiatives. Critics say these efforts mask a darker projectUS college campuses have long been associated with the country's fraying social fabric. Beset by so-called cancel culture", mass protests against Israel's war on Gaza, and mounting conflicts over free speech, a notion has taken hold that colleges and universities represent a convergence of the country's broader ills.To meet what's been widely described as a polarization" crisis, a veritable industry has emerged, booming since 7 October 2023 and the protests that followed. Dozens of organizations have cropped up promising to foster civic discourse", dialogue across difference" and viewpoint diversity". Together, they make up a fast-growing ecosystem that has ballooned, by some estimates, into a $200m a year business some skeptics have billed the civility industrial complex". Continue reading...
Church sues excommunicated member over Mormon Stories podcast but John Dehlin says name free for all to useTrademark changes and copyright infringement disputes take many forms. Dunkin' Donuts changed its name to Dunkin' because Donuts did not suggest the vigorous, on-the-go attitude the coffee company wants to project.But what happens when a church changes its name, but former adherents continue to use the original term in ways it may not like? Continue reading...
For most Americans, riding a bus means abandoning expectations of basic dignity - but with an increase in ridership, that could changeIt's a grueling experience," Greyhound bus enthusiast Miles Taylor explains. You're not treated very well. Everyone is yelling at you the entire time. When the bus is late, they blame you for it, like somehow you've done something wrong. You just get screamed at for wanting to know what's going on, because no one says anything."Taylor is obsessed with public transit. I never really grew out of my little boy train phase," the 26-year-old said. He works as a scheduler for Boston's MBTA and runs a popular YouTube account documenting the bus trips he takes for fun in his spare time. Taylor traveled across the country by Greyhound twice; a Boston to Seattle route took 104 hours. But even he admits that America's bus system is far from luxurious - or even comfortable. Continue reading...
Any new tax on the rich won't raise much money unless many of the exceptions and loopholes are dealt withIn this new era of rampaging oligarchs, nothing may seem as satisfying as slapping a tax on Elon Musk's new trillion-dollar fortune. What most bothers Americans about federal taxes is that billionaires don't pay their fair share. As the race to develop artificial intelligence mints more billionaires, policymakers' temptation to directly tax their brobdingnagian wealth is becoming unbearable.The first state out of the blocks is California, where voters in November will decide whether to impose a one-time tax of 5% on fortunes worth more than $1bn. Given the ease with which plutocrats avoid paying income taxes, the case for this sort of direct tax on their stash appears unassailable. Continue reading...
by Jessica Machado in New York with photographs by Ed on (#76M5E)
Children-centered organizing is on the rise in New York as families navigate ICE in neighborhoods, the Iran war and climate crisisOn a recent Sunday morning at Judson Memorial Church in New York, seven-year-old Nova stood in the middle of the congregation and read from the children's book We Are the Builders.Raise our voices, banners and beats. Meet and march out in the streets," she told the dozens of congregants, many old enough to be her grandparents, as the summer sun poured through the stained-glass windows. Who wants to join the disrupters?" Continue reading...
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