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He has used clear messaging to redirect anger from the disenfranchised to the economic elites. That the wealthy are worried shows it's workingThe Zohran Mamdani phenomenon should not be happening, if received wisdom is a reliable predictor of events. He's the 33-year-old Muslim leftist and Queens assemblyman running for the New York mayoralty with the support of the Democratic Socialists of America, and the vitriolic campaign against him suggests his momentum has caused panic in gilded circles. His chief opponent for the Democratic nomination, Andrew Cuomo, could not scream party establishment more loudly: he's New York state's former governor - just like his father was - and a former cabinet secretary. He married into that classic Democratic royalty, the Kennedys; his endorsements include the former president Bill Clinton; and billionaires such as Mike Bloomberg are pouring millions into his Super Pac.In another age, someone like Mamdani would have been a no-hoper. What changed was the 2016 presidential campaign of the long-marginalised socialist senator Bernie Sanders, which re-energised the US left. But Donald Trump's recent victory on a more extreme platform led to predictions of a general rightwing lurch in US politics, with progressive positions scapegoated for the Democratic loss (even though Kamala Harris ran on a squarely corporate, centrist" ticket). I was scheduled to interview Mamdani on the night of the US presidential election, but his campaign asked to postpone as results started to come in suggesting a Trump victory was likely. Presumably, they wanted to reassess strategy in the coming US political winter. Continue reading...

Man got stuck near the flue of the chimney in a parks building after doors automatically locked for the nightFirefighters had to rescue a man who got stuck in the chimney of a Connecticut parks building while trying to retrieve his dog from a bathroom when the doors automatically locked for the night.Police were called Sunday morning to Rockwell Park in Bristol for a burglary complaint and were told by parks employees that someone was in the chimney. Firefighters responded to the scene and got the man out after having to remove parts of the chimney and building, causing $5,000 to $10,000 worth of damage, police said. Continue reading...

US trade commission approves deal for Omnicom to buy Interpublic, creating the world's largest advertising agencyOmnicom's $13.5bn acquisition of rival Interpublic can move forward on the condition the new company does not enter agreements with others to steer ad dollars towards or away from publishers based on political content, the US Federal Trade Commission said on Monday.The agreement with the agency would still allow individual advertisers to specify where their ads are shown, the FTC said. It would also settle potential claims from the FTC's nascent investigation into possible coordination with media watchdogs who have been accused by Elon Musk of helping orchestrate advertiser boycotts of the social media platform X. Continue reading...

Real estate company alleges that the Zillow ban' prevents rivals from competing against itThe real estate brokerage company Compass has filed a lawsuit against Zillow over its policy to ban private home listings.In a filing with the US district court for the southern district of New York, Compass claims that Zillow has sought to rely on anticompetitive tactics to protect its monopoly and revenues in violation of the antitrust laws." Continue reading...

If Iran's nuclear program was not an imminent threat, what motived the US-Israeli attack? Why now? The answer is political opportunityThe United States has bombed Iran. Donald Trump announced on Sunday that B2 bombers attacked three nuclear sites including the Fordow nuclear site, sometimes referring to as the crown jewel of Iran's nuclear program.As the world waits for Iran's response, it is worth revisiting events since 12 June, when Israel, with US support, attacked the Islamic Republic. The official reason is nuclear weapons. The real reason I contend is the elimination of the Iran-led Axis of Resistance and establishing Israel regional hegemony over the Middle East with tacit support from Arab autocrats.Nader Hashemi is associate professor of Middle East and Islamic politics and director of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Edmund A Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University

On a 200-acre site in Fayette County, Georgia, US Soccer hopes to build the best facility of its like in the worldThirty minutes away from the hustle and bustle of downtown Atlanta, the land becomes greener, the trees are taller and builders are working in the intense Georgia sun to ensure US Soccer's new National Training Center is ready for action in time for the men's World Cup next year.It is an enormous site, spanning more than 200 acres in Trilith, Fayette County, and the hope is it will be the best training facility in the world when it opens. Funding has partly come from Arthur M Blank, who owns three sports teams in Atlanta, and executives are confident everything is on schedule for the doors to open in April. Continue reading...

Polite, considerate, and brilliant to watch, Oklahoma City's team of champions helped produce one of the most absorbing postseasons in yearsThese were supposed to be the boring finals, a contest between two small-city teams with none of the media pull of Boston or New York or even Denver for that matter, featuring the (allegedly) most overrated guard in the NBA, no personalities, relentless fouling, and a Canadian MVP whose ascendancy seemed to indicate nothing more than the terminal decline of America as a stable of elite basketballing talent. Instead we were treated to the most thrilling and unpredictable finals since LeBron James came through with his famous rejection in 2016 - a bustling, punishing, seven-game exhibition of physical basketball whose outcome was genuinely unclear until the final quarter of the season. Denigrated and dismissed by a basketballing commentariat who've spent much of this season ruing the modern NBA's dearth of charisma, Oklahoma City and Indiana played as if stung by the laugh lines, launching from both ends of the court with a kind of mad, symphonic intensity.If the finals of the past few years were about punctuating a dynasty (Golden State in 2022), letting Nikola Joki be Nikola Joki (Denver in 2023), and mastering a technocratic synthesis of all the elements of the modern game (the Celtics last season), this was a victory built on turnovers, flops, dives, steals, slingshot passes, and snap threes from distance. It was grubby at times, but it was all the more beautiful for its lunging desperation. At the end of it all, the team with the best regular-season record and the best player in the league emerged victorious. In years to come this stat line alone may confer a sheen of inevitability over the season. But Oklahoma City's victory in Sunday night's decider - like these finals and the playoffs generally - was anything but predictable. Even after star guard Tyrese Haliburton, who played through the finals with a calf strain, exited the court with a ripped achilles late in the first quarter, the Pacers would not give up. Continue reading...

Progressive assemblyman may be leading the former governor in race for New York City mayor, survey findsZohran Mamdani, a Democratic candidate for mayor of New York City, has drawn level with Andrew Cuomo in the city's primary, according to a new poll, as voters brave record-breaking temperatures to cast their ballots.Mamdani, a 33-year-old New York assemblyman, may even be leading Cuomo, the 67-year-old former governor and scion of a prominent New York political family, if the poll's simulation of the system of ranked-choice voting is correct. Continue reading...

Department said message saying our hearts go out to the victims and families impacted' by strikes was offensive'The Los Angeles county sheriff's department deleted and then apologized for posting a message expressing sympathy for the victims and families impacted" by US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.The message, posted on X, Facebook and Instagram, said the sheriffs' hearts go out" to Iranian victims". A swift online backlash followed, and the department then issued an apology that referred to its own original post as offensive and inappropriate". Continue reading...

Thousands of people gathered in cities around the world at the weekend to protest against Donald Trump's decision to strike Iranian nuclear facilities. The protests came as world leaders called for de-escalation and a return to the negotiating table

Dust settles after impassioned protests but military presence unnerves California leaders - and threatens to inflame already tense situationShortly before last November's presidential election, before anyone could envision him defying his America first" political base and launching a bombing raid on Iran, Donald Trump offered a preview of how and why he would want to deploy the military on US soil.It was, the president said, to deal with the enemy within". Continue reading...

Flamengo, Botafogo, Palmeiras and Fluminense are not as rich as European clubs but they have heart and heritageThe graveyard of football is full of favourites'," warned Botafogo manager Renato Paiva in what has proven to be this summer's coldest line in sweltering United States heat. Gritty draws achieved by Palmeiras against Porto and Fluminense against Borussia Dortmund at the Club World Cup were enough to start a conversation. But the underdog heroics of Brazil's other two clubs have shaken up how we see club football across the world.For the first time since Corinthians shocked Chelsea in Yokohama in 2012, when some Brazilian fans sold their homes and vehicles to make the trip, the reigning Copa Libertadores champions have beaten the Champions League winners. Igor Jesus, who has been strongly linked to Nottingham Forest, scored the only goal of the game as Botafogo beat Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, a special setting for Brazilians given it is where they won the World Cup in 1994 and honoured the recently deceased Ayrton Senna. Continue reading...

Gunman, identified as Brian Anthony Browning, 31, may have bee suffering mental health crisis, police sayThe man who opened fire outside a Michigan church filled with worshippers before he was struck by a vehicle and then fatally shot by security staff had attended services there a couple of times in the last year and his mother is a member, police said.The gunman, identified as Brian Anthony Browning, 31, did not have any previous contacts with local police or a criminal history, but may have been suffering a mental health crisis, the Wayne police department said in a news release. Continue reading...

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He was 30 points behind former governor Andrew Cuomo just months ago, but now he's surging in the contest to lead the largest US cityZohran Mamdani trailed Andrew Cuomo, the frontrunner to be the next New York City mayor, by 30 points just a few months ago.Now, just ahead of the Democratic primary on Tuesday, the 33-year-old democratic socialist has bridged the gap with Cuomo, a politician so of the establishment that a giant bridge north of New York literally bears his last name. Continue reading...

President's dubious claims of emergency' threaten civic and political norms in authoritarian style, experts warnDonald Trump's drives to pursue his radical policies on immigration, tariffs and energy may seem at first to have little in common beyond a shared Maga political agenda.But Trump has made spurious or thinly documented claims of national emergencies" to justify harsh illegal immigrant measures, sweeping tariffs and massive energy deregulation, say legal scholars, watchdog groups and Democrats. Continue reading...

Heavily immigrant towns and cities in California resemble ghost towns as fear of Ice raids grip local residentsAt Hector's Mariscos restaurant in the heavily Latino and immigrant city of Santa Ana, California, sales of Mexican seafood have slid. Seven tables would normally be full, but diners sit at only two this Tuesday afternoon.I haven't seen it like this since Covid," manager Lorena Marin said in Spanish as cumbia music played on loudspeakers. A US citizen, Marin even texted customers she was friendly with, encouraging them to come in. Continue reading...

An estimated 3 million rats live in New York City - so members of the Rat Pack' are working to ease human-rodent relationsI am standing near a tree bed in a bustling Brooklyn park, with only a few feet of dirt separating me from a small" family of rats - that's usually around 8 of them, I'm told. I've come on this rat walk" with a few dozen New Yorkers, all milling about awkwardly, subjecting ourselves to the kind of brainless small talk heard at speed dating events. But instead of looking for love, we've come to learn more about New York's rodent population. Tonight, knowing thy enemy means we must slink among the rats.We're led by Kathleen Corradi, the city's famed rat tsar, appointed by Mayor Eric Adams in 2023, and we are united by our visceral hatred of rats. We don't want to see them scurry by on late-night walks home, or watch as they slink in and out of trash bags on the street. We especially don't want them in our homes. As one exterminator put it to famed metro reporter Joseph Mitchell back in 1944: If you get a few [rats] in your house, there are just two things you can do: you can wait for them to die, or you can burn your house down and start all over again." Continue reading...

Advocates fear Senate's version of Trump's budget bill could leave millions without healthcare and boost corporationsAdvocates are urging Senate Republicans to reject a proposal to cut billions from American healthcare to extend tax breaks that primarily benefit the wealthy and corporations.The proposal would make historic cuts to Medicaid, the public health insurance program for low-income and disabled people that covers 71 million Americans, and is the Senate version of the big beautiful bill" act, which contains most of Donald Trump's legislative agenda. Continue reading...

Like a sleep divorce, where couples sleep in separate beds, separating screens means that you both get to watch what you want on the TVRelationships are all about compromise, but there are some areas where it's simply impossible. Then it becomes about a mutually beneficial workaround instead. A poll has revealed that 55% of couples regularly argue over which TV show to watch: hot on the heels of the sleep divorce (different bedrooms) are we headed for the screen divorce (different tellies)?Don't mean to boast, but my husband and I are one step ahead of this trend - screen separated, if you will. In the Venn diagram of programmes we enjoy, the intersection is big enough to fit the words Taskmaster and The Traitors, and that's about it. He's tried to lure me into his televisual world, I've tried to tempt him into mine, but no dice. Eventually, we realised one of us was always watching through gritted teeth, while the other felt guilty. And so, just like the courageous pioneers of the sleep divorce, who made the decision to prioritise healthy rest above convention, we needed to take action. To divide and conquer. Continue reading...

Emerson Colindres reflects on traumatizing' ordeal after Ice sent him to Honduras despite having no criminal recordThe Ohio high school graduate and soccer standout who was recently deported from the US to Honduras despite having no arrest record has described being handcuffed like we're some big criminals" for the entirety of his deportation flight.To me, it was kind of more traumatizing because I haven't been to my birth country in years," Emerson Colindres, 19, who was brought from Honduras to the US by his family at age eight, said to the Cincinnati news station WCPO in an interview over the weekend. Continue reading...

The emergence of Hawk Trump dismayed some of his Maga base but students of US adventurism were unsurprisedSo the military parade that brought tanks to the streets of Washington on Donald Trump's birthday was more than just an authoritarian ego trip. It was a show of strength and statement of intent.Exactly a week later, sporting a Make America great again" (Maga) cap in the situation room, the American president ordered the biggest US military intervention in decades as more than 125 aircraft and 75 weapons - including 14 bunker-busting bombs - struck three Iranian nuclear sites. Trump called it a spectacular military success" - but it remains unclear how much damage had actually been inflicted. Continue reading...

UK foreign secretary also sidesteps questions on legality of strikes and Donald Trump's regime change' post

From bustling Free Huey rallies to private moments smoking with Angela Davis, Stephen Shames's photographs tell the revolutionary organisation's incredible story Continue reading...

Freed from Ice detention days earlier, Palestinian rights activist Mahmoud Khalil stood just outside the gates of Columbia University to renew his commitment to the cause of Palestinian freedom and opposition to both the university and the Trump administration. During a speech to the crowd, Khalil took aim at the 'shameful board of trustees at Colombia University', adding that they were 'attempting to expel 15 more students and to suspend tens of others, basically stealing their future, their degrees, their labor, merely because these students are not afraid'

The political centre sees the US and Israel's war on Iran as a crisis to be managed, while the gap between their detached rhetoric and bloody reality widensSince the war on Gaza started, the defining dynamic has been of unprecedented anger, panic and alarm from the public, swirling around an eerily placid political centre. The feeble response from mainstream liberal parties is entirely dissonant with the gravity of the moment. As the US joins Israel in attacking Iran, and the Middle East heads toward a calamitous unravelling, their inertness is more disorienting than ever. They are passengers in Israel's war, either resigned to the consequences or fundamentally unwilling to even question its wisdom. As reality screams at politicians across the west, they shuffle papers and reheat old rhetoric, all while deferring to an Israel and a White House that have long taken leave of their senses.At a time of extreme geopolitical risk the centre presents itself as the wise party in the fracas, making appeals for cool heads and diplomacy, but is entirely incapable of addressing or challenging the root cause. Some are afraid to even name it. Israel has disappeared from the account, leaving only a regrettable crisis and a menacing Iran. The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, has called for de-escalation. But he referred to the very escalation he wishes to avoid - the US's involvement - as an alleviation of the grave threat" posed by Iran, all the while building up UK forces in the Middle East.Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Trump campaigned on the promise of no more wars' but the US is now embroiled in another Middle Eastern conflict - key US politics stories from Sunday 22 JuneDuring his presidential campaign, Donald Trump campaigned on the promise of no more wars" but global events have radically changed his views.In what could be his most consequential day as president yet, Trump decided to bomb three Iranian nuclear sites on Saturday in an operation he deemed a spectacular military success". Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities, he boasted, have been completely and totally obliterated." Continue reading...

Man wrongfully deported by Ice amid Trump crackdown has pleaded not guilty to human smuggling chargesA Tennessee judge on Sunday ordered the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose mistaken deportation has become a flashpoint in Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, while he awaits a federal trial on human smuggling charges. But he is not expected to be allowed to go free.At his 13 June detention hearing, prosecutors said US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) would take Abrego Garcia into custody if he were released on the criminal charges, and he could be deported before he has a chance to stand trial. Continue reading...

Activist condemns Columbia's shameful trustees' but praises students' courage after release from Ice detentionMahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian rights activist, freed from Ice detention on Friday, returned to Columbia University on Sunday to renew his commitment to the cause of Palestinian freedom and opposition to both the university and the Trump administration.Khalil arrived back in New York on Saturday after being released from more than 100 days in detention in Louisiana by a federal judge who ruled that punishing someone over a civil immigration matter was unconstitutional and ordered his immediate release on bail. Continue reading...

Kat Cammack blames left's fearmongering after medical staff hesitated to give her drugs needed to end pregnancyA Florida Republican congresswoman is blaming fearmongering on the left for the reluctance of hospital staff to give her the drugs she needed to end an ectopic pregnancy that threatened her life.Kat Cammack went to the emergency room in May 2024 where it was estimated she was five weeks into an ectopic pregnancy, there was no heartbeat and her life was at risk. Doctors determined she needed a shot of methotrexate to help expel her pregnancy but since Florida's six week abortion ban had just taken effect medical staff were worried about losing their licenses or going to jail if they did. Continue reading...

Much could go wrong for the US and the Middle East as Trump and Netanyahu pursue the disempowerment of Iran

Vice-president declines to double down on Trump's stance that Iran's nuclear sites were totally destroyedJD Vance has said the US is not at war" with Iran - but is with its nuclear weapons program, holding out a position that the White House hopes to maintain over the coming days as the Iranian regime considers a retributive response to Saturday's US strike on three of its nuclear installations.In an interview Sunday with NBC News' Meet the Press, the US vice-president was asked if the US was now at war with Iran. Continue reading...

Gunman opened fire at CrossPointe Community church in Wayne, Michigan, but was shot by security guardA gunman opened fire during a service at a suburban Detroit church on Sunday, wounding one person before he was shot and killed by a security guard, police said.The person shot in the leg was the security guard, according to what the church's pastor told the Detroit News. No one else was hurt in part because a church member ran the attacker over with a truck, said the CrossPointe Community church pastor Bobby Kelly Jr. Continue reading...

Manager has to use Caicedo, Fernandez and Lavia wisely with Club World Cup useful exercise for next seasonEnzo Maresca sometimes gives the impression he would love nothing more than to name an entire team of midfielders. A conundrum facing Chelsea's head coach, though, is that he will struggle to find space in his starting XI for everyone next season.Chelsea are not short of options in the middle. They have the 100m buys, Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo, and the elegant, deep-lying Romeo Lavia. Yet starting them all in a midfield three is not easy if Cole Palmer plays as a No 10. Continue reading...

Marjorie Taylor Greene and Steve Bannon lead voices on right seeing airstrikes as break with America first' doctrine

Leading figures on Senate and House intelligence committees not briefed in advance in break with custom

Blasts were heard in Isfahan after the US bombed Iranian nuclear facilities. Explosions from the direction of the Isfahan nuclear site could be heard in a video posted on social media, and at least one fiery ball illuminated the night sky

Boat overturned after apparently being hit by a large swell, in a region that's a popular spot with touristsSix people have died and two others were missing after a boat capsized on Saturday on California's Lake Tahoe, local authorities have said.A 27ft-long boat overturned in the afternoon after apparently being hit by a large swell near DL Bliss state park, according to the Coast Guard. Lake Tahoe and its surrounding wilderness region is a hugely popular spot with tourists. Continue reading...

GOP officials had previously manipulated districts as well to wrest voting power from Black electorateRepublicans in Florida racially gerrymandered two key state senate districts to disenfranchise Black voters and skew results in the Tampa Bay area, a panel of judges has heard.In one district, they took a small chunk of St Petersburg heavy with minority voters and added it to an area of Tampa in a different county, and across a 10-mile waterway, leaving the remainder of its electorate artificially white", the court was told. Continue reading...