US news | The Guardian

Actor brings force of Hollywood to trumpet Biden's legislative record in briefing that both delighted and bemused journalistsYou will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy." But enough about Washington. The Star Wars actor Mark Hamill, who once saw off gangsters at a fictional spaceport, came to the US capital on Friday for a meeting with Joe Biden.Quite why he was in the Oval Office, and what was talked about, remained something of a mystery. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Biden was riding high in the opinion polls but now, perhaps, he is in need of added star power. Continue reading...

Trump's ex-communications chief denies that Michael Cohen acted alone in hush-money scheme but also helps ex-presidentDonald Trump's former communications director Hope Hicks provided testimony on Friday that could be helpful both to prosecutors and the former president's defense, revealing the fallout inside the Trump campaign in the wake of the damaging Access Hollywood tape on which Trump bragged about sexual assault.Here are the key takeaways from day 11 of People of New York v Donald J Trump: Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. For the latest on Donald Trump's hush-money trial, read our coverage here.Judge Juan Merchan was referring to a claim Donald Trump made while addressing the media yesterday outside of court.Speaking to reporters after court adjourned for the day on Thursday, the former president said:I'm not allowed to testify. I'm under a gag order. I guess, right?I'm not allowed to testify, because this judge, who's totally conflicted, has me under an unconstitutional gag order.I want to stress Mr Trump that you have an absolute right to testify at trial.That is a constitutional right that will not be denied or abnegated in any way ... It is a fundamental right that cannot be infringed upon ... the order prohibiting extra-judicial statements does not prevent you from testifying in any way. Continue reading...

Ex-president's former communications director says Access Hollywood tape was a crisis' for his campaignHope Hicks, Donald Trump's 2016 campaign press secretary, broke into tears on Friday while testifying in the ex-president's New York criminal hush-money trial, hours after she described his complete control over the campaign.Hicks, who cut a skittish figure in Judge Juan Merchan's courtroom, is a key prosecution witness. She described Trump campaign staffers' panic when a recording emerged in which Trump bragged about groping women. This was a crisis" for his presidential bid, she said, describing the sentiment among the campaign staff. Continue reading...

Texas Democrat says he and his also accused wife are innocent amid claims they took money from Azerbaijan and Mexican bankThe US justice department on Friday accused the Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, of accepting about $600,000 in bribes in exchange for influencing policy in favor of Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank.The Cuellars had made their first appearance before a federal magistrate judge in Houston by the afternoon, but it was not clear how they pleaded. Earlier, the congressman, who has represented a swath of Texas's border with Mexico in the US House since 2005, issued a statement denying unspecified allegations" against him. Continue reading...

The even-keeled Michigan native, who was sacked as the Lakers' head coach on Friday, was hired for his ability to manage personalities. Once he lost his players' trust, it was only a matter ofThe date is 31 January, less than two months removed from the Los Angeles Lakers' inaugural NBA Cup championship, and the Lakers are nosediving precipitously, racking up loss after loss in late December and into January. In a competitive Western Conference, being sub-.500, even by a game or two, simply will not get the job done for a championship hopeful. And the team does have a right to be among those hopefuls, buoyed by a shockingly healthy tandem of a freshly-39-year-old LeBron James and injury-prone big man Anthony Davis, who, to this point, have missed a combined eight games and are playing at an All-NBA level. But something clearly isn't working, and time is of the essence. No one knows this better than foe of father time himself, LeBron: that night, after yet another demoralizing loss, he tweets out, simply, an hourglass. A single emoji has never loomed larger.At the time, there is frantic speculation in regards to what, or to whom, the primitive timepiece is referring. Is it James' underperforming supporting cast, with the trade deadline hovering in the immediate future? Is it the Lakers' front office, who are no doubt aware of his player option looming in the coming offseason? Is it his own NBA mortality, to which he has admitted he will likely succumb sooner rather than later, despite no significant drop-off in production? Continue reading...

New York police say about 29% of those detained not affiliated' with university as more are arrested at NYU and New SchoolNew York's police department has declared that approximately 29% of the people it arrested at pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University were not affiliated" with the institution, as the city's mayor continues to face scrutiny over his claims that the hardline police response was due to the actions of outside agitators".The NYPD also said 60% of arrestees at City College of New York (CCNY) on Tuesday night were unaffiliated with the college, though a CCNY spokesperson confirmed to the Guardian that these arrest figures applied to protesters both on and off the college's grounds. Continue reading...

The movement to press for an end to Israel's war on Gaza has now found itself overshadowed by its loudest voicesThe protesters who seized Columbia University's Hamilton Hall on Tuesday swiftly unfurled a banner down the front of the storied building with just one word: intifada.Other students among the pro-Palestinian demonstrators in the heart of the New York campus were sceptical about invoking the Arabic call for an uprising because it has been so widely used by pro-Israeli groups to discredit their cause as support for terrorism and therefore antisemitic. Continue reading...

BF Borgers agrees to $12m civil penalty and owner Benjamin Borgers agrees to pay $2mThe auditor for former president Donald Trump's Trump Media was accused of running a massive fraud" and a sham audit mill" by the US's top financial regulator on Friday.BF Borgers and its owner Benjamin Borgers, whose clients include Trump Media, were charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with a fraud that affected more than 1,500 SEC filings. Borgers has also acted for financial tech and crypto companies, SEC filings show. Continue reading...

Heather Pressdee admitted to intentionally injecting excessive doses of insulin into 22 patients across the Pittsburgh areaA former Pennsylvania nurse has been sentenced to life imprisonment after admitting she intentionally injected nearly two dozen of her patients with excessive doses of insulin, killing three of them.Heather Pressdee was sentenced on Thursday in a Butler county state courthouse near Pittsburgh, where nearly 40 of her victims' family members spoke about how her crimes upended their lives, according to a news release that prosecutors issued at the conclusion of a case that highlights how frighteningly vulnerable patients can be in healthcare settings. Continue reading...

Nine-year-old Branson Baker ran more than a mile for help after parents wounded when twister flung family's vehicle into treesA nine-year-old boy is being hailed as a hero for saving his parents' lives when an Oklahoma tornado tossed the family's truck into surrounding trees, after reportedly telling them Mom, Dad, please don't die, I will be back" before sprinting for help.The latest incident comes as at least four people in Oklahoma, including an infant, were killed and dozens injured after multiple tornadoes hit the state. Continue reading...

You can't say anything these days

New rule allows Dreamers to access healthcare coverage through Affordable Care Act marketplaces for first timeThe Biden administration on Friday finalized a rule that would expand healthcare coverage for immigrants who came to the US as children and are shielded from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as Daca.Under the new rule, recipients of the Obama-era Daca program would be newly eligible to access health care coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces for the first time. Continue reading...

I want to stress that you have an absolute right to testify at trial,' the judge said, after Trump had falsely claimed otherwiseAs the third week of Donald Trump's Manhattan trial neared its conclusion Friday, the historic proceedings have not just weighed whether hush-money payments to alleged paramours involved illegality - they are also touching on the ex-president's already tenuous relationship with reality.Trump, whose most infamous lie remains his claim that the 2020 election was stolen, has peddled untruths outside of the courtroom; meanwhile, his defense has flirted with conspiratorial approaches to evidence in this case. Continue reading...

South Dakota governor says she met North Korean dictator in same book in which she describes killing her dogThe South Dakota governor, Republican vice-presidential hopeful and self-confessed dog-killer Kristi Noem's bizarre claim in a new book to have met the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has been dismissed by experts as dubious" and not conceivable".The South Dakota Scout first reported Noem's claim, which is in her forthcoming book, No Going Back: The Truth on What's Wrong With Politics and How We Move America Forward. Continue reading...

State's fall as the last bastion of access to the procedure in the deep south means women will have to travel farther for careRose hadn't even missed her period when the thought hit her: I need to take a test."The Florida resident, who has two kids, had given birth just three months ago. She thought that she and her husband were being careful. But the pregnancy test confirmed her suspicion: she was pregnant and, she realized, didn't want to be. Continue reading...

Town of Lewiston rallied behind bowling alley owners to reopen after gunman killed eight people there in state's deadliest shootingIt's a dilemma no business owner should have to face: whether to reopen after a mass shooting.The answer didn't come easily to Justin and Samantha Juray. But when they did decide to reopen their Maine bowling alley, they didn't hold back. Continue reading...

Trump White House 2.0 would mean a vast, legally dubious roundup of up to 11 million people and pit state against stateDonald Trump is planning to unleash the biggest mass deportation of undocumented migrants in US history should he win re-election in November, involving legally questionable deployments of military and police units and the creation of vast detention camps along the southern border.Trump has laid out his vision for a record-setting deportation operation" in a series of rally speeches, newspaper articles and social media posts. He intends to move swiftly after inauguration day next January to stage mass roundups of immigrants across the country, conducting raids inside big cities where he would face certain Democratic opposition. Continue reading...

Ruben Gallego, taking on Kari Lake in key Arizona race, focuses on community events' to reach those who have slipped awayWhen one of the most celebrated Mexican boxers in history, Canelo Alvarez, steps into the ring against undefeated Mexican fighter Jaime Munguia on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, excitement will be through the roof at a campaign event just 280 miles away.That's because Democratic congressman Ruben Gallego, caught in one of the most critical US Senate races in the country against former TV anchor Kari Lake, will be holding a watch-party for the fight at JL Boxing Academy in Glendale, Arizona, complete with big screens inside, and a truck serving birria tacos and Mexican Cokes outside. Continue reading...

Bernie Sanders said this could be Biden's Vietnam'. Plus, trial over US torture in Iraq collapses after jurors fail to return verdict

In new book, retired neurosurgeon and former housing secretary emphasises extreme stance at odds even with Trump himselfIn a new book, the retired neurosurgeon, former US housing secretary and potential Trump vice-presidential pick Ben Carson calls for a national abortion ban - a posture at odds with most Americans and even Donald Trump himself.Hailing the 2022 Dobbs v Jackson US supreme court ruling that removed the federal right to abortion, Carson writes: We must not stop there ... the battle over the lives of unborn children is not yet finished. Many states have made abortion illegal because of the Dobbs decision, yet the practice continues in many more states. Continue reading...

In 1985, Columbia students occupied campus to push for divestment from South Africa. Five months later, the university cut ties to the apartheid regime after years of dragging its feetAs three former 1980s student leaders at Columbia University, we applaud the courage and conviction of Palestine solidarity student activists in the eye of the storm. Despite the recent arrest of more than 100 protesters, they insist: Disclose! Divest! We will not stop, we will not rest!"We defend their right to protest and affirm the righteousness of their demands: an end to Israel's genocidal war against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza and to the complicity of the US government and institutions in its apartheid and ethnic cleansing. The International Court of Justice's recent ruling that Israel is plausibly committing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians makes divestment a legal, not just ethical, obligation. Continue reading...

The scenes in Florida of frantic and overcrowded clinics are a grim preview of the future that pro-lifers' want for womenA Woman's Choice, an abortion clinic in Jacksonville, usually sees somewhere between 10 and 15 patients a day. But last week, they extended their hours. On Monday, they scheduled somewhere between 70 and 80 patients, according to the Washington Post. The president of one reproductive health center spoke of warning her incoming patients about the scenes they would encounter at Florida's abortion clinics. We're telling them, Hey, it's going to be busy,'" said Kelly Flynn.For some, a deadline loomed after an anxious period of trying to scrape together the funding for the care they need: one doctor recalled calling patients who had delayed their appointments - in most cases because they hadn't been able to secure enough money for the procedure yet - and reminding them that they don't have much more time. For other women, a sudden realization led to a last-minute scramble. One patient this morning told me that she had just gone for a regular doctor's appointment last week and found out she was pregnant," a clinician told the Florida news radio station WOKV.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

I have spent long stretches of my life around the racetrack. The methods for training young horses in the US means fatalities are inevitableAs Churchill Downs prepares to host the 150th Kentucky Derby on Saturday a darker anniversary looms. One year ago, 12 horses died at Churchill Downs in the days and weeks surrounding America's biggest race.As hype builds around this year's runners, those who died fall deeper into the well of memory, if they're thought of at all. Wild on Ice, a gelding born in 2020 and a Derby qualifier, was euthanized after sustaining a hind leg fracture during training leading up to last year's race. His connections expressed regret over their missed opportunity to watch him reach his full potential. A month later, Kimberley Dream, a seven-year-old war horse" was making her 61st start when she broke down in a claiming race. In the chart the final note on her short life read went wrong in upper stretch". Continue reading...

Implications of the lawsuit could extend beyond Cochise county, if local officials tried similar tactics in NovemberIn a courtroom in Phoenix, Arizona, two elected officials who allegedly tried to subvert the county's 2022 election tried to get a lawsuit against them thrown out in a case one of their defense attorneys called both silly" and scary".The Cochise county supervisors, Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd, appeared in court virtually, to defend themselves against charges of attempted election interference for their initial failure to certify the county's election results. Continue reading...

Ex-White House press secretary Jen Psaki describes telling president of anger that he spoke so much of his own dead son, BeauJoe Biden was stunned into silence when he was told families of US service members killed in Kabul in August 2021 said that when the bodies were returned and the president met grieving relatives, he spent too much time talking about the death of his own son, Beau.I paused for the president to respond," Jen Psaki, then White House press secretary, writes in a new book. Continue reading...

City Football Group's New York branch is up and running, Orlando City are floundering and Wilfried Nancy has built a continental juggernautWelcome back to the Guardian's MLS Power Rankings, where I have a beef with your specific team and your specific team alone. If you have complaints, toss em in the comments down below, but be warned: I'm better at blocking out negativity than Pedro Gallese has been at stopping shots this season.Now, as a reminder, these aren't your standard, run-of-the-mill power rankings. We're still ranking teams from worst to first. But along with the rankings, we're diving deep into a handful of teams from around the league who are doing particularly interesting things. Continue reading...

The point guard, the son of a former Knick, grew up around the team. Now he is leading their revival as they aim for a run to the NBA finalsTo fully appreciate how Jalen Brunson has redeemed the New York Knicks, who on Thursday night saw off the Philadelphia 76ers to reach the last eight of the NBA playoffs, you must understand the context and history of point guard for the team. After team owner James Dolan was handed the Knicks on a silver platter by his Cablevision-founding father in the late 1990s, the Knicks slipped into chaos and degradation. The conspicuous void at the point guard position reflected the lack of leadership on and off the court. This exacerbated the team's dysfunction, as they lacked a true floor leader to galvanize the mismatched pieces.Until Brunson's arrival, that is. The 27-year-old isn't merely turning the Knicks into a contender. He is fulfilling the dreams of generations of Knicks fans who have only known losing or forgotten what winning feels like. The son of Rick Brunson, the former Knicks third-string point guard and John Chaney protege known for a journeyman career full of hustle, defense and energy, Jalen shares his father's role-playing heart while imbued with the championship desire and failure of Rick's doomed 1999 finals squad. Little Jalen was bouncing around that last great Knicks team, attached to his father's hip at team practices, where Tom Thibodeau was an assistant coach to Jeff Van Gundy, and Leon Rose, Rick's agent, were mainstays. Continue reading...

In history, as in romance, beginnings matter - so what we do now will be crucial in shaping the futureIn these times of planetary polycrisis, we try to get our bearings by looking to the past. Are we perhaps in The New Cold War, as Robin Niblett, the former director of the foreign affairs thinktank Chatham House, proposes in a new book? Is this bringing us towards the brink of a third world war, as the historian Niall Ferguson has argued? Or, as I have found myself suggesting on occasion, is the world beginning to resemble the late 19th-century Europe of competing empires and great powers writ large?Another way of trying to put our travails into historically comprehensible shape is to label them as an age of ...", with the words that follow suggesting either a parallel with or a sharp contrast to an earlier age. So the CNN foreign affairs guru Fareed Zakaria suggests in his latest book that we are in a new Age of Revolutions, meaning that we can learn something from the French, Industrial and American revolutions. Or is it rather The Age of the Strongman, as proposed by the Financial Times foreign affairs commentator Gideon Rachman? No, it's The Age of Unpeace, says Mark Leonard, the director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, since connectivity causes conflict". Continue reading...

Ex-central banker Lady Shafik, the university's president, now faces calls to resign due to her handling of campus unrestSteering Columbia University through the choppy waters of anti-Israel student protests was never going to be easy for Minouche Shafik, a member of the UK House of Lords who took over as president of the university in New York after a period of relative calm running the London School of Economics.During her tenure as LSE director between 2017 and last year, academics largely refused to join the industrial action that dominated campuses across much of the UK. Continue reading...

Incident, which did not result in injuries, under review, while in California students and faculty condemn police crackdown at UCLA. This blog is now closed.

The New York City mayor has claimed police arrested protesters after non-student elements escalated the situationThe New York City mayor, Eric Adams, remains under pressure to divulge how many of the 282 people arrested at campus protests in Manhattan on Tuesday night were non-students after repeatedly claiming that outside agitators" were responsible for escalations that prompted an overwhelming law enforcement crackdown.Adams, a Democrat and former city police officer, was asked by local reporters on Thursday morning to give a breakdown of the arrest numbers. He repeatedly declined to provide details. Continue reading...

Government arts spokesperson Todd Stephenson's inability to name a New Zealand author for 20 minutes in an interview has rightfully raised eyebrowsPoliticians are used to being asked tough questions - and voters are, by now, used to their stalling in response. Still, you might not imagine that name a New Zealand author" could ever be one of them - especially for a New Zealand politician holding an arts portfolio.Yet that's exactly how the ACT party's arts spokesperson, Todd Stephenson, has surprised us, taking 20 minutes to name a single Kiwi author - or even a book - in an interview with Newsroom. In the quite remarkable exchange with Steve Braunias, Stephenson was blithely forthcoming about his limited experience of his portfolio: It's an area I'm wanting to learn more about."Elle Hunt is a freelance journalist and writer Continue reading...

Police arrest more than 200 students at UCLA as law enforcement clears camp at Dartmouth, arresting more than 90 studentsMore than 2,000 people have now been arrested during pro-Palestinian protests across dozens of US college campuses in recent weeks.Police arrested more than 300 pro-Palestinian demonstrators on college campuses on Wednesday night into Thursday morning, pushing the total past 2,000, according to an Associated Press tally. Continue reading...

Schools join Northwestern and Brown in arriving at agreements with students to dismantle pro-Palestinian encampmentsStudents at Rutgers University in New Jersey and the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis reached agreements with administrators on Thursday to peacefully dismantle their Gaza solidarity encampment protest.Rutgers and the University of Minnesota now join Northwestern and Brown in successfully reaching deals to peacefully end their encampment protests. Continue reading...

Keith Davidson gives colorful testimony at former president's hush-money trial about how agreements came together in 2016As Donald Trump's presidential victory became clearer and clearer on election night in 2016, an attorney who brokered hush-money payments to bury the then candidate's alleged sexual liaisons seemed shocked that his efforts had worked, texting his longtime confidant: What have we done?"So went the second day of testimony from Keith Davidson - who represented alleged Trump paramours Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal - in the ex-president's criminal trial. The friend in question was Dylan Howard, then the editor of the National Enquirer. Prosecutors allege that the tabloid veteran kept Trump's lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, apprised of damaging information about his boss.This article was amended on 2 May 2024 to correct the amount of money that Davidson said in testimony that Michael Cohen sent to Stormy Daniels. Continue reading...

Prosecutors faced their first rough day in court on Thursday - but a bit of tape might have just turned everything around for them

Jerry Boylan found guilty over 2019 incident in which Conception caught fire before dawn and sank off Santa Cruz IslandA California scuba dive boat captain has been sentenced to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence over an onboard fire that killed 34 people four years ago.The blaze was the deadliest maritime disaster in recent US history, and prompted changes to maritime regulations, congressional reform and several lawsuits. Continue reading...

UAW Local 4811, largest union of academic workers, also says it will file unfair labor charges over university use of LAPD on protestersThe largest union of academic workers, which represents more than 48,000 graduate student workers throughout the University of California system, will hold a strike authorization vote as early as next week in response to how universities have cracked down on students' Gaza protests.The use and sanction of violent force to curtail peaceful protest is an attack on free speech and the right to demand change, and the university must sit down with students, unions, and campus organizations to negotiate, rather than escalate," read an announcement of the strike vote from UAW local 4811. Continue reading...

Joshua Dean, 45, former quality auditor at Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems alleged gross misconduct by quality management'Joshua Dean, a Boeing whistleblower who warned of manufacturing defects in the plane makers 737 Max, has died after a short illness, the second Boeing whistleblower to die this year.Dean, 45, was a former quality auditor at Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems filed a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) alleging serious and gross misconduct by senior quality management of the 737 production line" at Spirit.In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

Keith Davidson, a lawyer who negotiated payments, testified in Trump's criminal trial as prosecutors ask for $4,000 more for gag order violationsKeith Davidson, a lawyer who negotiated payments on behalf of Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, testified for most of Thursday in Trump's criminal trial in Manhattan, shedding more light into how the deal came together and efforts to keep Daniels quiet as media began reporting on the deal in 2018.Here are a few key takeaways: Continue reading...

Eight-member civil jury unable to reach verdict on whether Caci conspired with US soldiers to abuse detainees in Iraqi prisonThe trial of a US military contractor accused of contributing to the abuse of detainees in Iraq two decades ago, following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, collapsed on Thursday when an eight-person civil jury in Virginia failed to return a verdict.Caci Premier Technology, a private company contracted by the US government to provide civilian interrogators at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in 2003 and 2004, had been accused of conspiring with US soldiers to physically and mentally assault those held with the intention of softening them up" for questioning. Continue reading...

Selecting a fourth Conservative prime minister in two years would make this country even more of a laughing stockThe threat facing Rishi Sunak on Friday has been clearly signalled for months. Disastrous Conservative performances in this week's local and mayoral English contests - the last significant test of the political mood before the general election - could open the window of opportunity for his party to topple his leadership. Before a single local election vote had been cast, it was clear that a minority of MPs were determined to attempt this. Mr Sunak has known for months that this is a moment of vulnerability.It is not yet clear whether the Conservatives' results are sufficiently dire to trigger a more widespread revolt. The votes have not even all been counted yet. But this will not deter the prime minister's committed opponents. Talk of MPs submitting letters to the chair of the backbench 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, demanding a confidence vote will grow predictably loud over the weekend. Whether a confidence vote will actually happen remains a question for the future. Continue reading...

Biden campaign spokesman says Trump's unwillingness to commit to election results reveals his campaign for revenge and retribution reigns supreme'Joe Biden spoke for just three minutes before wrapping up.Just after he finished, a reporter asked if the protests would make him reconsider any of his Middle East policies. Continue reading...

Kristen Clarke also tells CNN she was once arrested for expunged offense, sparking calls from rightwingers for her resignationA top US justice department official revealed Wednesday that she is a survivor of domestic abuse and was once arrested for an expunged offense, which has sparked calls for her resignation among rightwing politicians and commentators.Kristen Clarke, who leads the justice department's civil rights division, told CNN in a statement that she had been subjected to years-long abuse and domestic violence at the hands of my ex-husband" nearly 20 years ago. Continue reading...

Workers removed remnants of the Gaza encampment while pieces of plywood painted with We love you Gaza' lay aboutAt the University of California in Los Angeles on Thursday morning, staff were picking up the pieces after two nights of violence that shocked the urban campus.A loader heaved the remnants of the Gaza protest encampment that law enforcement had forcefully cleared early in the morning, into a large grey dumpster. Pieces of plywood spray-painted with We love you Gaza" and ACAB" (all cops are bastards") still lay about. Continue reading...