Also in this week's MLS weekend wrap, Messi saves Miami again, and the Columbus Crew simply can't hold a lead

It is 45 years since the Women's Professional Basketball League played its final game. But it laid the foundation for the stars of today

Non-appearance of Pam Bondi and remarks from Todd Blanche suggest full accounting may never be revealedIn the days since Pam Bondi's exit from Donald Trump's justice department, Jeffrey Epstein survivors and transparency advocates have been confronted by mixed messaging, prompting questions about whether a full accounting of his crimes would ever be revealed.Legal veterans told the Guardian that authorities' decisions - such as Bondi's failure to appear for a congressional subpoena about her handling of Epstein investigative files - portend poorly for accountability. Moreover, her replacement's comments about the status of Epstein investigations has been perceived by some as an effort to acknowledge prior missteps without presenting definitive solutions. Continue reading...

Jennifer Andrea Porras, now 53, says they were sexually abused by the union leader as a teenA version of this story was published in Spanish in La Opinion.When Jennifer Andrea Porras, a non-binary, Indigiqueer, Coahuiltecan artist and cultural worker from the San Francisco Bay Area, first found out about the New York Times investigation detailing allegations by multiple women of sexual abuse by civil rights icon Cesar Chavez, they were not surprised. The news confirmed their own experience with the co-founder of the United Farm Workers (UFW) union. Continue reading...

Luria, who lost her seat to a Republican after standing up to Trump, has secured key endorsements in Virginia raceElaine Luria - once a member of the congressional committee that investigated the January 6 attack on the US Capitol - says she is confident that the wind is on our back" as she seeks a House comeback and her fellow Democrats aim to retake the chamber's majority in the fall's midterm elections.In a recent interview with the Guardian, the military veteran attributed that confidence to grave concern" in and beyond her Virginia district with how Donald Trump's second presidential administration began with implementing brutal cuts to the federal government. Among a host of other decisions, she noted that Trump went on to start war in Iran, which has sent gasoline prices soaring - with the cost of other goods or services expected to increase too. Continue reading...

The Lakers star would have been expecting to play a supporting role as he burrows into his 40s. But injuries means he has assumed a familiar roleLeBron James must be so sick of this. If he wanted to experience being the best player on an otherwise thin team, he could simply remember the Cleveland Cavaliers' run to the NBA finals in 2007. Or the 2015 NBA finals when his best teammates, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, suffered injuries. Or the 2018 season, which convinced SNL to make a spoof of James' support staff. I'm 53 years old," one of LeBron's teammates" says in the clip. I have seven kids, and two of them are also on the Cavs." It's 2026, James is a Los Angeles Laker, his two best teammates are hurt, and one of his kids actually is on the team.How on earth did we get here, again? James is 41. The story of his season was his labored yet successful pivot into the Lakers' third option, behind Luka Doni (who was having one of the best stretches of his career before tweaking his hamstring in a humiliating loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder) and Austin Reaves (who strained his oblique in the same game). Both men are in their primes. James, on the other hand, has been plagued with what some observers may call old guy injuries: he missed the start of the season due to sciatica; he's sat out a couple games since thanks to arthritis in his left foot. So how - how - is it that Doni and Reaves were the ones felled by injuries and James is the iron man? Aren't the rules that athletes in their 20s get to enjoy energy and health, while those in their 40s have to retire and become mediocre pundits? Continue reading...

Commentators have said that the US president's clownishness and lack of ideology somehow make him less dangerous. They're wrongOver the past few weeks, a random kaleidoscope of images has been flashing through my head. Some are characters from movies not seen since childhood. Others are snippets from literature or iconic art. What joins them all is an exaggerated, almost kitschy evil.These images seem to be standing in for the real carnage my brain is trying to process: the bodies pulled from the rubble in Gaza, a school full of young pupils blown apart in Iran. The more than 1 million people in southern Lebanon expelled en masse from their homes. (Alex in the film of A Clockwork Orange appears, eyes clamped open as liquid is dripped into them, unable to blink away what is scorching his vision.)Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, a long supporter of Trump, says president's feud with the pope is a distraction'A Republican lawmaker has condemned what he refers to as Donald Trump's holy war" against Pope Leo XIV.Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, a long supporter of Trump and the ultraconservative Maga movement, condemned the president's attacks on the pope during a Fox News interview on Saturday. Continue reading...

Former US president and New York mayor read to a group of children and led a sing-along at a Bronx childcare centerBarack Obama met with Zohran Mamdani for the first time on Saturday at a childcare center where the former Democratic US president and mayor of New York City read to preschoolers and led a sing-along.The meeting comes as Mamdani, a democratic socialist who marked his 100th day in office just over a week earlier, is also trying to build a working relationship with Donald Trump - Obama's Republican presidential successor. Continue reading...

Chris Wright says I don't know' when asked about lower cost of gas as average price soars to $4 a gallon in USChris Wright, the Trump administration's energy secretary, acknowledged Sunday that it might not be until 2027 before US gas prices come back under $3 a gallon.Asked by Jake Tapper, the CNN State of the Union host, when he thought it's realistic for Americans to expect the gas will go back to under $3 a gallon", Wright replied: I don't know. That could happen later this year. That might not happen until next year." Continue reading...

After deadly 2023 fires, recent storms and ICE raids, Lahaina residents are determined to rebuild the town for their communityIn March, Hawaii was hit with two back-to-back storms, bringing the worst flooding it's seen in 20 years. In Lahaina, Maui, muddy flood waters turned streets into rivers and carved new paths through the barren landscape, breaking open roads and flooding houses. In their wake, sinkholes appeared, engulfing cars.This is nearly three years after the deadliest wildfires in US history ravaged Lahaina, destroying more than 2,000 structures and killing more than 100 people. Hundreds of affected households are still in temporary housing. Poverty, unemployment and housing instability, rife before the fires, have only worsened. Continue reading...

About 422 indie bookshops opened in 2025, up 31%, defying predictions of retail consolidationFor years now, we have heard that Amazon and the big chains are crushing small businesses, but independent bookstores are suddenly making a comeback.About 422 new indie bookshops opened in 2025, according to the American Booksellers Association, a 31% rise from 2024. Countless independent restaurants, coffee shops, fitness centers, movie theaters, clothing stores and other small businesses also continue to thrive even in this era of ever-bigger retailers, fast-casual restaurants and massive e-commerce platforms. Continue reading...

No deaths reported after latest round of severe weather in the region as officials brace residents for long recoveryA trail of damaged homes and buildings dotted a wide swath of the US on Saturday after a burst of destructive winds and reported tornadoes tore off roofs, uprooted trees and rendered rural roads impassable with debris.No deaths were reported after Friday's storms, which barreled through the upper midwest and delivered the latest round of severe weather to batter the region. Officials braced residents for a long recovery in some rural communities. Continue reading...

Kirk Moore, who was shot while disarming the attacker, received the honor at Pauls Valley high school on FridayStudents at an Oklahoma high school crowned their principal prom king after he charged, disarmed and was shot by an armed intruder at their campus.Kirk Moore, the Pauls Valley high school principal, received the honor on Friday night after his students voted to honor him for having defended them. Continue reading...

A Maine lawsuit has suddenly become the most significant anti-corruption battle inside America's legal systemSlush funds of anonymous unregulated money are now the dominant institutions in American politics, converting our elections into auctions - and transforming the legislative process into a donor bidding war.In the last election, Pacs and Super Pacs spent more money to buy federal elections than all candidate campaigns combined. One in every $5 flowing through a Super Pac came from organizations that do not disclose their donors. In all, $2bn of independent" spending was dark money, meaning the public cannot see who is buying elections - even though politicians know exactly who they owe once they are in office.David Sirota is a Guardian US columnist and an award-winning investigative journalist. He is an editor at large at Jacobin, and the founder of the Lever. He served as Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign speechwriter Continue reading...

Trump appears to have crossed a line with his Christian supporters. Will it come back to bite him in the midterms?Donald Trump's depiction of himself as Jesus Christ and recent spat with Pope Leo XIV could come back to bite him and the Republican party in the midterm elections, according to experts, with some newly aggrieved Christian groups set to play an outsized role in key races across the US.The president's Trump-as-the-Messiah Truth Social post sparked immediate criticism among some Christians, including some on the right. Trump, 79, said he thought the AI image of him administering an ethereal light to a stricken man's head as translucent figures descended from the heavens represented him as a doctor. Continue reading...

Americans having less kids plus an ageing population could be a recipe for disaster that further erodes social stabilityRemember environmentalist Paul Ehrlich's 1960s-vintage prediction about how overpopulation would deplete the Earth's resources and condemn millions to starvation? His Malthusian condemnation of humanity's voracious appetite has kept a grip on the debate over the future of the planet, even scaring the young out of having children.Ehrlich was wrong. Yet as we have come around to the thought that overpopulation won't kill us all, we are being walloped by another demographic emergency: we are not having too many kids, we are having too few. This problem is real. Continue reading...

Pugilistic presence has laid waste to civil rights decision - her take-no-prisoners approach has alarmed legal experts but earned president's plauditsWhen Donald Trump abruptly fired Pam Bondi earlier this month, he made it clear that an unmistakable priority for the justice department would be using the nation's top law enforcement agency to seek retribution against his political rivals.For months, Trump pressured Bondi to move ahead with prosecutions against James Comey, Letitia James, Adam Schiff and other rivals, even publicly venting his frustration with Bondi in October. The justice department eventually did secure indictments against Comey and James, but the cases later collapsed. Trump fired Bondi on 2 April, reportedly because he was angered by the department's lack of progress in prosecuting enemies. Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, has since said Trump has the right" to direct investigations at the justice department. Continue reading...

After months of investigation, the singer was arrested on Thursday in a shocking case that has gripped Los AngelesThe tragic case of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, the teenager found dead in the trunk of a Tesla belonging to the alt-pop singer D4vd, has gripped Los Angeles for more than half a year.The death of the missing middle schooler, and the nature of her ties to the up-and-coming musician, sparked extensive media coverage and speculation online. But aside from grim details released after the discovery of the 14-year-old's body in September, authorities in LA said relatively little about their investigation. Continue reading...

Purple state which recently elected a Democratic governor will now choose whether to replace existing voting maps with ones that favor DemocratsNearly three months to the day after his term as Virginia's governor ended, Republican Glenn Youngkin stood in an unshaded corner of an office parking lot to warn dozens of conservative activists that they were in the midst of the most important election" in the commonwealth's 237-year history.The question before the voters casting ballots at an early voting precinct a few yards away in the city of Leesburg ahead of Tuesday's special election was whether to temporarily set aside Virginia's congressional maps intended to advantage neither party and replace them with a new version that could allow Democrats to win all but one seat in the 11-member delegation in the November midterm elections. Continue reading...

People won't join us just because we're right. They'll join if we make them feel like they belongSettle your quarrels, come together, and understand the reality of our situation. Understand that fascism is already here, that people are already dying that could be saved, that generations more will live poor, butchered lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done, discover your humanity and your love in revolution."George Jackson wrote these prophetic words more than 50 years ago. At that time, he and his comrades were enduring unimaginable violence inside California's prisons - a microcosm of the fascism already alive in the United States.Show up, even when it's uncomfortable.Talk to people whose politics aren't perfect.Work with those still in process because they, too, have revolutionary potential.Refuse to turn on the people closest to us and focus on the real enemy. Continue reading...

Donald Trump's earlier tone of triumph with the reopening of key waterway falls flat - key US politics stories from 18 April at a glanceDonald Trump hopes of extricating himself from his war on Iran were dealt another blow on Saturday after Tehran closed the strait of Hormuz again after the president said the US would not end its blockade of Iranian ports.Earlier, Trump said in a social media post: The naval blockade will remain in full force and effect as it pertains to Iran, only, until such time as our transaction with Iran is 100% complete," adding that this process should go very quickly". Continue reading...

Law enforcement rebuffs protesters at breeding and biomedical research farm amid attempt to remove dogsA chaotic scene unfolded Saturday at a beagle breeding and biomedical research facility in Wisconsin as about 1,000 animal rights activists seeking to breach the property were rebuffed with rubber bullets and pepper spray by law enforcement.It was the latest attempt by protesters to take beagles from the Ridglan Farms facility in Blue Mounds, a small town about 25 miles (4okm) south-west of Madison. In a March raid, activists removed 13 dogs from the facility. The Dane county sheriff's office has since referred charges for burglary and trespassing, among others, to the local district attorney's office against 62 people related to that incident. Continue reading...

Georgia senator says Americans will pay for Trump's Iran war, and family's corruption, with child and health care cutsAt a campaign rally in Augusta, Georgia, on Saturday, the Democratic senator Jon Ossoff mocked Donald Trump's rosy predictions on Iran and tore into what he called the unprecedented corruption of the president's family.While Ossoff is running for re-election in November, he trained most of his fire on the president, and the vice-president, amid mounting speculation that the Democrat could launch a bid for his party's nomination for the presidency in 2028. Continue reading...

Soldiers were participating in land navigation training' when bear injured them in a defensive attack'Two US army soldiers have been injured after encountering a brown bear in a mountainous training area in Anchorage, Alaska, the military said on Friday.The incident happened on Thursday as the soldiers were participating in a land navigation training event" in Arctic valley, part of the joint base Elmendorf-Richardson's training area. Continue reading...

Agency director threatens to sue Atlantic for report citing allegations from two dozen current and former colleaguesThe FBI director, Kash Patel, is denying allegations detailed in a new report that he drinks to excess and has been unreachable at times during his tenure in office.Patel threatened to sue the Atlantic over the story published on Friday, which detailed his alleged heavy drinking and how members of his security detail have on multiple occasions had difficulty waking him. Continue reading...

State investigated claims of bear attacks on cars, unconvincingly backed up by video of person in bear suitWhen it comes to the California department of insurance, don't poke the bear.That is the lesson three individuals in Los Angeles learned recently when they were sentenced to jail time for an insurance fraud scheme in which they staged attacks on high-end vehicles by having a person dress up in a bear costume - then pretending that person was an actual bear. Continue reading...

President signed executive order directing FDA to expedite review of psychedelic drugs including ibogaineDonald Trump on Saturday announced reforms intended to speed up access to medical research and treatment based on psychedelic drugs.The president signed an executive order directing the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to expedite review of drugs such as ibogaine, a drug that US military veteran groups have said can help treat post-traumatic stress disorder. Continue reading...

Dianna Russini, who was photographed with Patriots coach Mike Vrabel, climbed on to Jeep to pull out man and dogA day after resigning from the Athletic amid an internal investigation into photos of her and New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel, the NFL reporter Dianna Russini rescued an older man and a dog from an overturned car in New Jersey.Russini's actions in the aftermath of a car crash on Wednesday in Wyckoff, New Jersey, were confirmed by a source with direct knowledge of the matter. Page Six on Friday first reported on the wreck and Russini's intervention, 10 days after the celebrity news outlet exclusively published the photos of Russini and Vrabel. Continue reading...

So-called Dreamers - undocumented immigrants who arrived as children - were allowed to stay in US under Obama-era programFrom January through September 2025, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported 174 people that were renewing their protections from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) program, the head of the agency has said in a letter reviewed by the Guardian.The letter, written by ICE's acting director, Todd Lyons, and sent to the Illinois congressional representative Delia Ramirez, also confirmed that a total of 270 Daca recipients were arrested during that same timeframe, or over the first nine months of Donald Trump's second presidency. Continue reading...

The pub crawl's organizer is accused of pocketing donations but residents and businesses have long had misgivingsOn what started as an otherwise uneventful spring day in New York City, thousands of residents last week received what they felt was an early Christmas present.Stefan Pildes, organizer of SantaCon in New York City, was arrested on Wednesday morning for allegedly using hundreds of thousands from event-based charitable donations on his personal expenses, such as luxe vacations and extravagant meals", Manhattan federal prosecutors said. Continue reading...

Construction was stopped after suit challenged president's authority to raze East Wing without congressional approvalThe Trump administration can continue building a $400m White House ballroom at the site of the former East Wing, a US appeals court ruled on Friday.The three-judge panel of the US court of appeals for Washington DC granted the administration a stay of an order days earlier that had aimed to halt most aboveground construction. That earlier order had resulted from a lawsuit filed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which challenged whether Donald Trump had the authority to raze the East Wing and construct the ballroom without congressional approval. Continue reading...

Manhattan church led by Norman Vincent Peale was known for opposing presidency of JFK - and Catholics in generalDonald Trump's attacks this week on Pope Leo, for his criticism of the US attack on Iran and the US president's decision to post an image of himself as Jesus Christ on social media, make a good deal more sense considering Trump attended services as a young man at the Protestant Marble Collegiate church in Manhattan, which was led at the time by an anti-Catholic pastor.That church's pastor in Trump's youth, Norman Vincent Peale, who would later officiate at Trump's first wedding, is best-known today as the author of the Christian self-help book The Power of Positive Thinking, but when Trump was 14, Peale made national headlines as the leader of a group of Protestant churchmen who loudly objected to the presidential candidacy of John F Kennedy, on the grounds that he was a Catholic. Continue reading...

Nicholas Enrich was an eyewitness to the dismantling of the US foreign aid organization by the Trump administration

The US attack on Iran has made the need for renewable energy inarguable. Environmentalists are now being seen for the pragmatists that they areDonald Trump has done more to accelerate the energy transition than anyone else alive. Fossil fuel companies bankrolled his presidential campaign to stop the transition in its tracks. But when you back a volatile narcissist, unable to concentrate for more than a few minutes at a time, you shouldn't expect to control the outcome.It's not that the fossils are suffering yet. As prices have soared since Trump and Netanyahu attacked Iran, oil executives have been selling shares at gobsmacking prices: the CEO of Chevron, for example, has cashed $104m so far this year. Vladimir Putin has also received a massive boost to his Ukraine invasion budget. As promised, Trump has gutted clean energy rules and programmes, green alternatives and environmental science. A fortnight ago, he stated, with the usual quantum of evidence (zero): The environmentalists, I mean, they are terrorists ... I call them environmental terrorists."George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

About 26 million people are under tornado watches from Wisconsin to Oklahoma, according to one reportA stretch of the midwestern states is at risk of severe weather, forecasters warned on Friday, as tornadoes battered towns across the central US region, leaving behind debris and destroyed property.According to the National Weather Service, severe thunderstorms may be seen in north-west Oklahoma through western Missouri during Friday afternoon and evening. Continue reading...

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Iran's parliamentary speaker warned it would will shut the strait again if the US blockade continues, which Trump said would remain in place until the conflict was fully concluded - key US politics stories from 17 April at a glanceIran's foreign minister has said that the strait of Hormuz is now fully open to commercial vessels, reinforcing hopes for an eventual end to the war in the Middle East and sending oil prices tumbling.In a barrage of social media posts, Donald Trump claimed on Friday that Iran had agreed never to close the strategic waterway again, hailing A GREAT AND BRILLIANT DAY FOR THE WORLD!" Continue reading...

Charles Adair's relatives urge video to be made public after Kansas officer charged with second-degree murderRelatives of a man whom investigators determined died after a Kansas sheriff's deputy shoved his knee into the cuffed man's back for a minute and 26 seconds have filed a federal lawsuit.Attorneys for the family of Charles Adair renewed their demand on Friday that video of what happened be released publicly in announcing the wrongful death lawsuit. Continue reading...

Jordan Acker, who pushed legal action against protesters, is running for re-election in race reflecting tensions on IsraelThe University of Michigan regent Jordan Acker, who helped lead the university's crackdown on pro-Palestinian students, appears to have made obscene sexual comments about a Democratic party strategist in a group chat, messages provided to the Guardian reveal. The Slack messages, attributed to Acker, also include lewd comments about a female U-M student and a picture of her with her friends.The messages were shared with the Guardian just days before a heated primary convention election for two open U-M board of regents seats. The board is the university's governing body, and the usually low-profile race is especially tense this year as pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian candidates compete for seats. The race has become a local flashpoint in the broader battle over criticism of Israel on campuses. Continue reading...

Petition started by workers gained more than 7,300 signatures after CEO said flags would be removedA San Francisco-based coffee chain that sparked backlash with a policy to remove Pride flags from their stores has reversed its decision over a week later.I made a mistake and I am sincerely sorry," said Mahesh Sadarangani, the chief executive of Philz Coffee, in a statement on Friday. The Pride flag is a symbol of safety and belonging for people who don't always find that in the world, and that is not something I want to take away from anyone who walks into a Philz." Continue reading...