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Justices' 4-4 ruling leaves intact lower court's decision that blocked establishment of Oklahoma schoolThe US supreme court on Thursday blocked an attempt led by two Catholic dioceses to establish in Oklahoma the nation's first taxpayer-funded religious charter school in a major case involving religious rights in American education that challenged the constitutional separation of church and state.The 4-4 ruling left intact a lower court's decision that blocked the establishment of St Isidore of Seville Catholic virtual school. The lower court found that the proposed school would violate the US constitution's first amendment limits on government involvement in religion. Continue reading...

Police said a suspect was in custody after the shooting near the Capital Jewish Museum

What happened, who were the victims, who was arrested and what has been the reaction?Two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington - a young couple on the verge of becoming engaged - were fatally shot on Wednesday evening at about 9.15pm while leaving an event at a Jewish museum.The suspect yelled Free, free Palestine" after he was arrested, police said. Continue reading...

When future generations read about Gaza with horror and wonder how we allowed a livestreamed genocide to happen, what will you say?Now, when Israel is executing a final solution" in Gaza, when it is far too late for dissent to make any difference, the tide is slowly starting to turn. Now that Gaza is flattened, turned into mass graves and rubble, people who have kept quiet for the past 19 months are slowly starting to speak up. Now that Israel and the US are not even trying to pretend that they aren't intent on emptying Gaza and the West Bank of Palestinians, of taking control" of all of the land, some criticism has started to trickle in.Over in the UK, they've pulled out the e" word. After 19 months of genocidal violence and almost three months of a starvation campaign the UK has decided to describe the situation as egregious. The UK, along with France and Canada have threatened - and I'm sure Israel's leaders are quaking in their boots over this - that there might be a concrete" response if the mass killing and starvation continues. Continue reading...

Maine Coalition for Palestine to join Veterans for Peace, as well as college and university students on shorter strikesA group of Maine residents were set to begin a 40-day hunger strike on Thursday, joining a national wave of similar actions protesting Israel's blockade of Gaza and the skyrocketing levels of hunger in the territory.The Maine Coalition for Palestine announced this week that 25 people would strike to draw attention to the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Continue reading...

The two victims of the Washington shooting, the engaged couple Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum when the suspect approached a group of four people and opened fire. The suspect, identified as Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago, was seen pacing outside the museum before the shooting. He walked into the museum after and was detained by event security. Social media footage shows the suspect shouting: 'Free, free Palestine' after being arrested

Politicians took to social media to express shock and sorrow over killings of staffers outside Jewish museum in DCDonald Trump, Republicans and Democrats have condemned antisemitism in the shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC on Wednesday night.These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!" Trump wrote on social media in response to the shooting. Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!" Continue reading...

Tax relief contained within One Big Beautiful Bill Act would expire when president leaves office - what happens then?Congressional Republicans passed a massive spending bill on Thursday morning that, for some taxpayers, may deliver the golden age" Donald Trump has promised - but only while he is president.The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed narrowly with 215-214 votes, is centered on permanently extending tax cuts enacted during Trump's first term, while also creating new deductions to make good on his campaign promise of providing relief to the working class and families. Continue reading...

From DDG to Tory Lanez, a male celebrity is accused of abuse - and his supporters reverse the roles of victim and offenderThere's a new formula for punishing women who speak out about abuse by high-profile figures, and it usually goes like this: woman alleges abuse, woman seeks recourse through the justice system, woman's accusation is made public - and then a tidal wave of fans of her abuser come together to help deny the abuse, attack her credibility and reverse the roles of victim and offender.If this sounds familiar it's because Darvo - the deny, attack, reversevictim and offender" method of manipulating abuse victims - has existed for forever. But social media has given it a whole new dimension, and powerful people now have an army of rabid fans ready to do that work for them. Continue reading...

The world's richest person has placed his mission to Mars in a low-income county near the US-Mexico border. As a small cluster of voters connected to SpaceX decide to incorporate their own Starbase city', Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone meet environmental opponents, space enthusiasts and residents who decry the gentrification Musk's expansion has brought Continue reading...

Police say suspect, named as Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, is in custody. Plus, Trump hectors South African president with false claims of white genocide'

Johnathan Buma, who was arrested in March and is out on bail, claims in new interview that efforts to target Musk were intense'A former FBI counterintelligence agent turned whistleblower has claimed he tried to gain access to Elon Musk in 2022 to warn the billionaire that he was the target of a covert Russian campaign seeking to infiltrate his inner circle, possibly to gain access to sensitive information.Johnathan Buma, who was arrested by the FBI earlier this year on a misdemeanor charge of disclosing confidential information, said in an interview that he tried - but ultimately failed - to gain access to Musk to personally brief and inoculate" him against outreach from the Kremlin". Continue reading...

The 26-year-old has been good rather than great in his first season with his new team, and he's playing in an unforgiving environmentIf you only tuned into the biggest headlines about him, you might be convinced that Juan Soto's first quarter of a season with the New York Mets has been a complete flop.Last December, the Mets guaranteed Soto $765m on a 15-year contract, the most lucrative deal in professional sports history. In the early going of his time with the Mets, Soto has been the subject of a handful of viral stories, ranging from the mundane to the bizarre. None of them have been positive. Last Sunday, Soto did not hustle out of the box on a ground ball up the middle, and his casual trot to first base cost him a chance at an infield hit, in the eighth inning of a tied game against the crosstown rival Yankees. The very next night, Soto jogged out of the box on a fly ball at Fenway Park that he thought was a home run. It was not, and another news cycle about Soto's effort followed. I think I've been hustling pretty hard," he told reporters. Continue reading...

Some lawyers of more than 600 abuse claimants trying to block approval of current agreement of chapter 11 caseSome attorneys involved in the bankrupt New Orleans Catholic archdiocese's federal financial reorganization say they have reached terms on an agreement to settle decades' worth of clergy molestation claims, but lawyers representing a sizeable share out of more than 600 abuse claimants contend the proposed deal falls short by about $100m - and they're hoping they have the votes to block its approval.Both developments came on Wednesday amid a struggle to resolve a tortuous chapter 11 case that has cost the church more than $45m in legal and other professional costs. The case theoretically could get dismissed at a hearing toward the end of June if the presiding judge, Meredith Grabill, determines she is unsatisfied with its progress. Continue reading...

How we deal with bereavement has changed enormously over the years. But not all the old traditions should be forgottenMany years ago, as part of a school homework project, I asked my grandparents what the most significant social change had been during their lifetime. Two of them answered child mortality". I was surprised. Weren't there other, more significant experiences in long lives that had stretched from the first and second world wars to the 1980s?But now that I am older and have experienced bereavement, I understand their replies. Both grandparents had sisters who died of diphtheria. And my grandfather's younger brother died of sepsis, meaning his parents had buried two of their four children before the age of three. Their childhoods had been profoundly shaped by loss. Child mortality was, at that time, horrifyingly common, and from their earliest years many people spent a great deal of their lives coping with the emotional fallout of grief, which shaped their lives into older age.Molly Conisbee is a social historian, visiting research fellow at the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath, and author of No Ordinary Deaths Continue reading...

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Two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC were shot and killed near a Jewish museum. Metropolitan police chief Pamela Smith said a preliminary investigation showed both victims were exiting an event at the museum when the attack took place. The suspect is in custody.

The PM has little choice. Unless he brings the fractured nations together, none can move forward, and neither can heA house divided against itself cannot stand, warned Abraham Lincoln. The United States' later descent into civil war over slavery would prove Lincoln right. But is 21st-century Britain now also becoming, in its different way, an unsustainably divided house too? And have Britain's economic divisions become so intractable that the UK state can no longer manage them? More than at any time in the postwar era, the answer to both questions looks increasingly like yes.History shows that Britain's capacity for pragmatic resilience in the face of internal and external threat is not to be underestimated. Wednesday's partial climbdown on winter fuel payments was an example of that instinct for self-preservation at work. Yet the U-turn will not have restored the public's lost trust in the ability of government to solve their problems.Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Footage released by Durango police department shows officer Shane Garrison approaching Irwin, named after the 'Crocodile hunter' Steve Irwin, in a narrow corridor between a fence and home. Once the officer has the kangaroo in his arms, another can be heard saying 'we have the kangaroo detained.'

Corruption and greed have eroded morality in public life. Powerful people who do what is right are in short supplyCourage is seeking the truth and speaking it," Jean Jaures, the French philosopher and Socialist party leader, told a group of high school students in 1903. It is not yielding to the law of the triumphant lie as it passes, and not echoing, with our soul, our mouth and our hands, mindless applause and fanatical jeering."When the first world war reared its ugly, pointless head, Jaures refused to give in to mindless fanaticism and attempted to coordinate a Franco-German general strike to stop the rush to war. In 1914, he paid for those efforts with his life when a 29-year-old French nationalist shot him twice in the back.Alexander Hurst is a Guardian Europe columnist Continue reading...

Republicans have been deeply divided over the bill which would extend Trump's 2017 tax cuts by tightening eligibility for food and health programsThe Republican-controlled House of Representatives will attempt to pass President Donald Trump's massive tax and spending bill in the pre-dawn hours of Thursday, following weeks of intra-party divisions of how deeply to cut spending.The bill cleared an important procedural hurdle in the House on Wednesday evening, when a gatekeeper committee approved the measure and set up a floor vote for passage to occur within hours. Shortly before midnight in Washington, the full House reconvened to consider Trump's so-called big, beautiful bill", opening the floor for debate and a series of procedural votes. Continue reading...

The South African president insists the meeting went very well' despite Trump publicly berating him. Key US politics stories from Wednesday 21 May 2025South African president Cyril Ramaphosa refused to take the bait when Donald Trump falsely accused his nation of committing white genocide, in what his spokesperson dismissed as an orchestrated show for the cameras".Ramaphosa remained composed and suggested the two leaders talk about it very calmly" as Trump ambushed him with a video making the untrue allegations that white Afrikaners in South Africa were victims of genocide. Continue reading...

United flight to LA forced to turn back over concern found written on lavatory mirror' as Hawaiian flight also delayedTwo planes traveling between Honolulu and southern California were diverted due to safety concerns, one for a bomb threat, another for a security concern" found written on a bathroom mirror.United flight 1169 left Daniel K Inouye international airport at 9.40pm on Tuesday night, headed for Los Angeles international airport. Data from FlightAware shows the airplane reversing course east of Hawaii, and headed back to Honolulu. Continue reading...

Like a Bond villain startling guests with noxious gas, the president pushed his 'white genocide' delusion to Cyril RamaphosaWe knew he was a bore and boor. Now we have learned that Donald Trump is an honorary Boer.When he turned his attention to South Africa on Wednesday, it may come as no surprise that the US president - who has been sued for discriminating against Black apartment seekers, called for the death penalty for the Central Park Five, pushed the false claim that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, referred to Haiti and African nations as shithole countries", and blamed an air crash on DEI - was rooting for the whites. Continue reading...

Detained Columbia University graduate and Palestinian activist forced to meet month-old baby from behind glassMahmoud Khalil, the detained Columbia University graduate and Palestinian activist, was not allowed to hold his newborn son after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officials refused to allow a contact visit between him and his family, his lawyers said on Wednesday.Instead, Khalil, 30, was forced to meet his month-old baby for the first time behind glass, after his wife, Noor Abdalla, traveled from New York to the Louisiana detention facility where he has been detained since March, his legal team said. Continue reading...

This time, the most notorious roo-peat offender is caught after leaping into the arms of a big farm boy' officerThe most notorious roo-peat offender in Durango, Colorado, was once again seen hopping through town. Irwin, a pet kangaroo, first jumped through Durango as a baby in October 2024. On Monday, he showed that his escapist tendencies have followed him from the pouch to adolescence.Irwin (named after Steve Irwin) was first caught in October when officers lured him with a large bag, banking on its similarity to a kangaroo pouch. But, when it came to catching a more grown-up Irwin, local police officers had to come up with a different kanga-ruse, a new form of hop pursuit. Continue reading...

US president intoned death, death, death' as he waved articles purporting to show violence against white minorityIt was an ambush crafted straight from a reality-TV playbook. The Oval Office meeting with South Africa's president, Cyril Ramaphosa, started with exchanges of pleasantries, before Donald Trump said turn the lights down" and a video was played to support his false claims that white South African farmers are being murdered for their race.Ramaphosa came prepared with champion white South African golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, whom the golf-mad Trump referred to as friends", as well as South Africa's richest person, Johann Rupert. Continue reading...

Condo owners and renters may see larger jump as insurance firm pursues overall 30% rate increase for policies in stateCondo owners and renters could see a larger jump in insurance costs as State Farm General pursues an overall 30% rate increase for homeowners policies in California.This comes just a week after the company was granted a 17% emergency interim hike, down from the nearly 22% increase it originally requested, following a ruling approved by insurance commissioner, Ricardo Lara. Continue reading...

South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa was ambushed with footage that US president Donald Trump falsely said showed evidence of white genocide during a visit to the White House. Ramaphosa pushed back in a tense and testy Oval Room encounter

Senior Cecilia Culver criticized the university's ties to Israel and called for donations to be withheldA graduation speech at George Washington University has resulted in the graduate being banned from the campus after she used the platform to criticize the university's ties to Israel and express support for Palestinians.During Saturday's commencement for the Columbian College of Arts & Sciences, part of GWU in Washington, DC, graduating senior Cecilia Culver delivered remarks to the graduating class of nearly 750. Continue reading...

Cyril Ramaphosa responds to hectoring stunt in Oval Office and egregious claim of white genocide by suggesting calm

Officials apparently deported eight people to South Sudan, despite most of them being from other countries

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Plane offer set off a firestorm of bipartisan criticism of Trump and raised questions about Qatar's motives

Trump officials seek to dismiss Biden-era consent decrees reached after deaths of George Floyd and Breonna TaylorThe justice department moved on Wednesday to cancel a settlement with Minneapolis that called for an overhaul of its police department following the murder of George Floyd, as well as a similar agreement with Louisville, Kentucky, after the death of Breonna Taylor, saying it does not want to pursue the cases.The move shows how the civil rights division of the justice department is changing rapidly under Donald Trump, dismantling Biden-era work and investigating diversity programs. It also comes amid pressure on the right to recast Floyd's murder, undermine diversity efforts and define liberal-run cities like Minneapolis as crime-ridden. Continue reading...

A Guardian investigation finds insurer quietly paid facilities that helped it gain Medicare enrollees and reduce hospitalizations. Whistleblowers allege harm to residents

We'd like to hear from UnitedHealth or nursing home workers and their experience with the company's ISNP programThe Guardian has reported on allegations from current and former UnitedHealth employees that their company endangered patient safety in an attempt to cut hospitalization expenses and crossed legal lines to enroll residents in UnitedHealth's Medicare Advantage institutional special needs plans (ISNPs). UnitedHealth/Optum has denied these allegations.We would like to hear from nursing home employees and operators about their experience working with UnitedHealth's Medicare Advantage ISNP program. Continue reading...

Ex-New York governor and current NYC mayoral candidate accused of mishandling nursing homes during pandemic

Retailer warns sales will slip for all of 2025 as customers pull back spending amid fears over tariffs and economySales at Target fell more than expected in the first quarter, and the retailer warned they will slip for all of 2025 year as its customers, worried over the impact of tariffs and the economy, pull back on spending.Target also said that customer boycotts have also done some damage during the latest quarter. The company scaled back many diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in January after they came under attack by conservative activists and the White House. Target's retreat created another backlash, with more customers angered by the retailer's reduction of LGBTQ+-themed merchandise for Pride month in June of 2023. Continue reading...

A government study shows clear benefits to the flexibility of telework. Companies ignore these findings at their own riskWhen the pandemic hit in early 2020, organizations pivoted overnight to remote and hybrid models to survive. Nearly five years later, Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, Dell and Goldman Sachs have enforced five-day-in-office mandates, while US federal agencies imposed on-site requirements for more than 400,000 employees.These actions rely on outdated assumptions about productivity, culture and resilience, according to authoritative federal government data. A May 2025 report from the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO), Telework: Private Sector Stakeholder and Expert Views, shows that telework offers clear advantages when leaders embrace strategic culture-building, robust performance tracking and available regulatory guidance. Companies ignoring these insights risk talent attrition, rising costs and reduced agility in an era that demands adaptability.Gleb Tsipursky, PhD, is the CEO of the future-of-work consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts Continue reading...

Connolly had served in Congress since 2009 and had announced in 2024 that he was battling esophageal cancer

As Claire Shipman spoke students voiced displeasure that green card holder Mahmoud Khalil remains in Ice custodyA graduation ceremony at Columbia University in New York City on Tuesday was filled with boos and chants of Free Mahmoud" as students voiced their displeasure that Mahmoud Khalil remains in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention in Louisiana and was unable to join the rest of the class of 2025 in graduating.The university's acting president, Claire Shipman, was heckled as she introduced the ceremony. I know that many of you feel some amount of frustration with me, and I know you feel it with the administration," Shipman said, inciting another chorus of boos. And I know that we have a strong, strong tradition of free speech at this university. And I am always open to feedback, which I am getting right now." Continue reading...

Condemnation alone won't change Israel's trajectory. For that, concrete action on sanctions and Palestinian statehood is required