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Egypt and a few countries are doing all they can, but the wider international community must step up

One of this summer's hosts is represented by a multinational, multicultural team that embodies the American dreamOne summer night in Centerville, Ohio, in 2010, a scattered band of club cricketers gathered for their regular Wednesday practice session in Stubbs Park. One had brought a new recruit, his 19-year-old nephew Ali Khan, who had only just come over from his village in Attock, Pakistan. Khan had only ever played with a tape ball, but after his first over with a real one all the other players stopped to watch his second. Everyone," Khan remembers, was like: Wait, who's this kid? Where's he from again?'" They put him in the first team that very same weekend.Over a decade later, Khan, now 33, has just finished the second of three games against Bangladesh at the Prairie View ground in Houston, a warm-up series for the World Cup. USA were one-nil up and one win away from their first-ever series victory against a Test-playing nation, but the game was getting away from them. Bangladesh only needed 21 runs from the last 18 balls. They had four wickets left, and one of them was Shakib Al Hasan, one of the world's very best all-round cricketers, who was 30 not out off just 22 balls. Continue reading...

The officials accuse the administration of not telling the truth about Israel's obstruction of aid to Palestinians in GazaTwo more US officials have resigned over the Gaza war, saying that the Biden administration is not telling the truth about Israeli obstruction of humanitarian assistance to more than two million Palestinians trapped and starving in the tiny coastal strip.Alexander Smith, a contractor for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), said he was given a choice between resignation and dismissal after preparing a presentation on maternal and child mortality among Palestinians, which was cancelled at the last minute by USAID leadership last week. Continue reading...

Judge Juan Merchan tells jury you are the judgers of facts'. Plus, nearly 5,000 Russians under 24 thought to have died so far in Ukraine

Politicians parroted untrue rumors that Hamas had beheaded Israeli babies. When the children are Palestinian, they shrugEarlier this week, I sat down to write a piece about a campus safety officer at a public college in New York who told pro-Palestinian protesters that he supports genocide. Yes I do, I support genocide," the officer said, after a protester accused him of this at a graduation event at the College of Staten Island, part of the public City University of New York (CUNY) system, last Thursday. I support killing all you guys, how about that?"It's possible that you didn't hear about this incident: while it was covered by a few outlets, including the Associated Press, it didn't get a huge amount of press. It certainly wasn't splashed all over the front page of the New York Post the way it would have been if that guard had made the same comment about Israelis. The New York Times, which has written a lot about safety on college campuses - and published a piece on anti-Israel speeches at CUNY just a couple of days before this incident - didn't seem to deem it newsworthy. And the White House didn't chime in with a horrified statement about anti-Palestinian bias on campuses. After all, this wasn't a big deal, right? It was just a security guard saying he supports genocide. Which, it should be clear now, is essentially the same position as the US government.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

New documentary tells story of woman emotionally and physically abused by husband OJ Simpson, who was acquitted of her murderNicole Brown Simpson's sisters hope an upcoming documentary on the victim who was battered and stalked by her ex-husband OJ Simpson sheds new light on resources for domestic violence victims, they said on Wednesday.I asked Nicole all the wrong questions," Denise Brown told CBS Mornings. I said, Why? Why are you with him?' And those are the questions you don't want to ask a victim of domestic violence. You want to be supportive. You want to listen." Continue reading...

Calls, notes and witness testimony appear to fit with prosecutors' case that Trump falsified records as part of plot to influence 2016 electionAs the jury began deliberations on Wednesday, Donald Trump appeared to have little room to extricate himself from the mass of evidence presented in the weeks-long case.A recording of Trump directing hush money to be paid in cash. Handwritten notes by Trump's ex-chief financial officer about how to reimburse Cohen. A parade of witnesses who testified the Trump campaign was desperate to suppress the story of his affair with the adult film star Stormy Daniels.by violating the Federal Election and Campaign Act, which in 2016 made it a crime for any person to make contributions to a campaign in excess of $2,700 per year, or for a corporation to make a contribution of any amount to any candidate's campaign in a federal election.by causing the falsification of other business records, including bank records for the shell companies that Cohen established on false pretenses to pay the hush-money to Daniels.by violating federal tax and New York state tax law 1801(a)3 and 1802 since Cohen's reimbursement for the hush money was grossed up" to compensate him for taxes he would have to pay on the $130,000 when he recorded it as income on his tax returns. Continue reading...

Many seem ambivalent on whether the ex-president will be found guilty - and some think it will only deepen polarizationFor Josh Ellis, a refrigerator technician from southern Wisconsin, Donald Trump's trial in New York is a sideshow. He's not convinced of the prosecution's narrative, or the former president's - and the verdict will not likely affect his vote in November, anyway.Biden's running this country into the ground," said Ellis, who said the economy is his main concern. At 49, Ellis has long viewed politicians as out-of-touch on economic issues; he used to vote for Democrats, but switched in 2016 to vote for Trump, who he saw as possibly offering a change. Continue reading...

World's largest coffee chain agrees framework with Workers United as push to increase unionization continues apaceStarbucks has resumed bargaining with union leaders amid a fresh wave of organized stores after the world's largest coffee chain agreed to open talks over labor agreements.After a long, embittered campaign, the Seattle-based coffee giant jointly announced a new framework with Workers United in February to reach contracts with unionized stores. Continue reading...

DeHart Hubbard was intent on making history. That he did so while injured made his achievements even more remarkableDeHart Hubbard knew about the jinx waiting for him.Hubbard was a student at the University of Michigan and regarded as one of the best long jumpers in the world. Heading into the 1924 Paris Olympics, he was America's best hope for gold in the long jump and favored to become the first Black athlete to win an individual Olympic gold medal. Continue reading...

Blame the gig economy or just sheer laziness, but fewer of us stopping for lunch in the working day can surely only be a bad thingA long time ago, when I worked in an office, we used to take lunch quite seriously. This meant getting up from our desks, walking on our legs, and eating with another human being for the purposes of chat. Sometimes this even happened outside, or at a restaurant. It seems absurd now. Who has the time to hang out in the middle of the day or drop $20 on a sandwich when you could be sitting at your desk, staring at the internet, grazing leftovers from a plastic container from home? (Or, if you're already at home, let's be honest, taking a nap.)If this killjoy reflex is a side-effect of age - for most people, time becomes less their own as they get older - it is also, it seems, a sign of the times. Two recent pieces of research in the US indicate that, over the past four or five years, Americans have been spending less money at lunchtime - 3.3% less, according to a payments app, Square - and also moving around less in the middle of the day. Continue reading...

A change is no guarantee of success. But a wider pool of talent could help improve the game for players, fans and even the officials themselvesThe modern Premier League, in its self-mythology, is all about flow: the flow of the game (technically sophisticated, end to end", heavy on goals and improbable acts of attacking wizardry); the flow of players from country to country and club to club; the flow of managers, who have become the new football economy's ultimate mercenaries amid a murderous churn of coaching staff hirings and firings; the flow of owners, a multiplying collection of asset strippers, money launderers, nation states grasping at global status and power, and venture capitalists out to make a quick buck; the flow of supporters, as old loyalties have loosened and allegiances have become more transactional, more revisable; and the flow, above all, of money, prodigious amounts of money, without which none of the weekly somersaulting, knee-sliding, corner-flag-slapping extravaganza of the Premier League would be possible.Continuous movement is the league's mantra, both on and off the pitch. Footballs, pounds, dollars, people: all of them must be kept in a constant state of motion, ready for action whenever and wherever opportunity arises. Removal of restrictions on the circulation of labor and capital has been a key part of the English top flight's emergence as a truly international league over the past three decades. The Premier League now stands uncontested as the world's most powerful advertisement for sporting globalization, and its journey from parochial stronghold of the English game - all mud, tackling, team spirit, and British grit - to central clearing house of the world's footballing passions can be told in a single statistical pair. On the first weekend of the inaugural Premier League season, in 1992, there were only 13 foreign players among the 22 starting lineups; of the 533 players registered at the start of the 2023-24 season, 360 - more than two-thirds - were from outside the UK. Continue reading...

The 96th edition of the Scripps National Spelling Bee takes place this week in National Harbor, Maryland. Can you spell the winning words from previous years' competitions?

British footwear brand does not rule out job losses, while profits fall by 43% to 97mDr Martens has not ruled out another round of job cuts after revealing plans to slash up to 25m worth of costs to help counter weak US sales.The British footwear brand said its latest cost-cutting programme will aim to save 20m to 25m by streamlining its operations and securing better supply contracts. Bosses will also boost organisational efficiency", signalling that the company may consider job cuts across its 3,600 global workforce. Continue reading...

The National Spelling Bee, which began Tuesday and will conclude with Thursday's nationally televised championship finals, invited 245 spellers to compete for a $50,000 cash prize and orthographic immortality

The sad decline of this nearly 200-year-old institution has culminated with a decision to end the daily print editionThey could as well have felled Big Ben, drained the Serpentine or butchered the ravens in the Tower. No more daily print edition of the Evening Standard. No headlines to greet us at every tube station. No cockney cries of: Read all aba'it!" No news of what celebrity was where last night and with whom.The Evening Standard, which has announced plans to shutter its daily newspaper in favour of a digital service and weekly magazine, was truly a London institution. Its tabloid rivals, the Star and Evening News, merged in 1960 and closed in 1980, but there was always a touch of class to the Standard. For journalists told to start their careers working local", it was a golden step to a proper Fleet Street job. Londoners needed to read the Standard.Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

It's not pretty but conference calls at dawn keep us showing up. We've got novels to write, which is the only work we really want to do

New Caledonia needs a new referendum on independence, not more politics from Paris

Photos of otter 841, who gave birth to a pup last year, show her floating over holiday weekend in popular Santa Cruz surfing spotOtter 841, who shot to international fame last year for her surfboard-stealing interactions with northern California surfers and kayakers, has been spotted recently after disappearing for several months. Over Memorial day weekend, photos of the now six-year-old otter posted to social media showed her floating on her back at Steamer Lane, a popular surfing spot in Santa Cruz. She was identified by her signature blue tag attached to one of her flippers.Otter 841 began making waves last summer after Mark Woodward, a local photographer, began posting images and videos to social media of her biting and commandeering surfboards. People were captivated by her fearlessness when interacting with humans and quickly projected human motivations to her behavior. Continue reading...

President and vice-president gear up for 2024 election with Black Voters for Biden-Harris' rally at majority Black Philadelphia schoolGearing up for the 2024 election, the Biden-Harris campaign launched its Black voters initiative on Wednesday at Philadelphia's Girard College, a majority Black boarding school.Around 2pm in an auditorium filled with hundreds of Black Philly residents, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris approached the podium to applause and an audience shouting four more years". Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. You can read our full report from the rally here:

Justice tells Congress controversy over two extremist flags flown at his houses does not merit recusal from casesJustice Samuel Alito is rejecting calls to step aside from supreme court cases involving the former president Donald Trump and January 6 defendants because of the controversy over flags that flew over his homes.In letters to members of Congress on Wednesday, Alito says his wife was responsible for flying an upside-down US flag over his home in 2021 and an Appeal to Heaven" flag at his New Jersey beach house last year. Continue reading...

The defending champion had to save a match point to defeat a resurgent Naomi Osaka in three setsWe're still on serve on Court 7, Shelton and Nishikori locked at 4-4. It's Shelton looking the likelier, but if the set - and the match - come down to a point here and there, the wily veteran will fancy himself.Vondrousova is on the board, holding in the first game of set two, while Tsitsipas takes the first set of Altmaier 6-3. Continue reading...

Independent presidential candidate alleges network is colluding with Trump and Biden to exclude him from 27 June debateThe independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr filed an election complaint on Wednesday alleging CNN is colluding with Joe Biden and the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump, to exclude him from a debate the network is hosting next month.Kennedy alleges the requirements to participate in the 27 June debate were designed to ensure only Biden and Trump would qualify and Kennedy claims he is being held to a higher standard. Continue reading...

I was shocked to learn of the brazenness of Israel's intimidation effort. It is to the credit of the ICC prosecutors that it has failedI should not be surprised at the lawlessness of a government that bombs and starves Palestinian civilians in Gaza, but I was still shocked by the brazenness of Israel's efforts to subvert the international criminal court's investigation of its war crimes. As exposed by the Guardian along with the Israeli media outlets +972 and Local Call, the Israeli government over the course of nine years deployed its intelligence agencies to surveil, hack, pressure, smear and allegedly threaten senior ICC staff in an effort to derail the court's inquiries".The effort was brazen. Mysterious men visited the former chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, outside her private home and handed her an envelope of cash, which the ICC believed was likely [Israel] signalling to the prosecutor that it knew where she lived", the Guardian has reported. They allegedly threatened her and her family, saying: You should help us and let us take care of you. You don't want to be getting into things that could compromise your security or that of your family." They mounted an apparent sting operation against her husband and a smear campaign" against her. They also extensively monitored her and her staff's communications with Palestinians, according to this reporting.Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch (1993-2022), is a visiting professor at Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs Continue reading...

Barbara Balmaseda, 23, charged with five counts after FBI investigation identifies her at riot alongside Proud BoysA Republican activist with links to Florida's Republican senator, Marco Rubio, and its governor, Ron DeSantis, has been indicted on charges relating to the 6 January 2021 storming of the US Capitol in a bid to overturn Joe Biden's presidential election victory.Barbara Balmaseda, 23, has been charged with five counts of being involved in the riot, including obstructing an official proceeding, knowingly entering and remaining in a restricted building, and engaging in disorderly conduct with intent to impede a session of Congress. Continue reading...

Mother of Michael Fanone, officer attacked during US Capitol riot, targeted by unnamed person who claimed to have killed herThe home of the mother of Michael Fanone, a Washington DC police officer who nearly died in the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol, was swatted" on Tuesday night.An unnamed person who had written a manifesto seen by NBC falsely claimed they had killed Fanone's mother and would go to Fanone's old high school on Wednesday and shoot people. The manifesto listed Fanone's mother's address in Virginia. Continue reading...

Lawsuit alleges airline representative approached three Black men individually and asked them to leave without explanationThree Black men have filed a federal lawsuit against American Airlines for racial discrimination, alleging that the airline forced them to deboard a plane after a complaint that an unidentified passenger had body odor.On Wednesday, lawyers of Alvin Jackson, Emmanuel Jean Joseph and Xavier Veal filed a lawsuit in the US district court for the eastern district of New York against the airline. The lawsuit follows a flight the men took on 5 January from Phoenix, Arizona to New York, New York. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. You can read our latest pieces on the trial here:

Haley writing finish them' on an Israeli bomb is everything horrific about the US elite's morally empty foreign policyThis past Sunday night, an Israeli assault struck displaced Palestinians sheltering in tents outside of Rafah, in northern Gaza. The barrage killed at least 45 people in a hellish blaze, according to medics and witnesses, with many of the dead children charred or dismembered beyond recognition. We pulled out children who were in pieces," Mohammed Abuassa, who rushed to the scene, told the Associated Press. The fire in the camp was unreal," he said. The strike provoked another round of international outrage at Israel's actions in Gaza. (Israel says it's investigating.)Not long after, on Tuesday, former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley was all over social media for a picture taken of her during a visit to Israel. In the picture, Haley - the one Republican who had been frequently lauded for her smarts on foreign policy - is seen squatting down in front of a row of Israeli artillery shells, likely provided by the United States, with pen in hand. Finish them," she wrote on one of the shells.Moustafa Bayoumi is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Trend is especially pronounced among Black, Hispanic and Asian participants, and those who report lower socioeconomic statusGirls in the United States had their first periods earlier over the last five decades and it took longer to experience regular cycles, a new study has found.The study, published in JAMA Network Open, found the trend is especially pronounced among Black, Hispanic, Asian and mixed race participants, and among those who reported lower socioeconomic status. Continue reading...

Only once Israel and Palestine recognize each other's right to exist can they start thinking about what comes nextIsrael reacted with predictable outrage to the move last week by three European countries to formally recognize the state of Palestine. The foreign minister accused Ireland, Norway and Spain of being complicit in inciting genocide against Jews", recalled Israel's ambassadors from Dublin, Oslo and Madrid, and reprimanded their representatives in Tel Aviv.Yet only a decade ago, Israel itself was insisting on recognition - from the Palestinians. Continue reading...

Two million Texas kids could see new curriculum emphasizing Bible stories to instruct them in the American cultural experience'Texas elementary school students would get a significant dose of Bible knowledge with their reading instruction under a sweeping curriculum redesign unveiled on Wednesday.From the story of Queen Esther - who convinced her husband, the Persian king, to spare the Jews - to the depiction of Christ's last supper, the material is designed to draw connections between classroom content and religious texts. Continue reading...

Every morning, I put on some coffee and finish last night's joint. It keeps me comfortable, cuts my anxiety and boosts my appetite

The airstrike and fire in an area crowded with refugee tents that Gaza health authorities said killed at least 45 people on Sunday will not impact US military aid to Israel, the US national security council spokesperson has said.John Kirby told reporters the US was not turning a 'blind eye' to the plight of Palestinian civilians

Regular drug use - from caffeine to psychedelics - has become a fundamental part of modern life. A first-person Guardian US series explores America's shifting relationship with mind-altering substances

This is the ninth time we have been displaced. In this humanitarian zone', we can hear bombing and shooting all around us

In the first of a series of special features, we look at how a sport buried by the American civil war is undergoing a revivalManhattan's skyscrapers are built on cricket fields. There was one under Pier17 at the Seaport on the East River, another beneath the North Meadow of Central Park, and a third right on 1st Avenue and East32ndSt, below the car park of NYU's Langone Medical Center.In 1844, a crowd of about 5,000 New Yorkers watched the first international match there, betweenthe USA and Canada. Cricket was the first modern team sport in America," says Chuck Ramkissoon, in Joseph O'Neill's great New York novel Netherland, a bona fide American pastime". He's right. It was, once. Continue reading...

Investigation reveals how intelligence agencies tried to derail war crimes prosecution. Plus, closing arguments in Trump hush money' trial

Louisiana, with one of the US's worst maternal mortality rates, wants to make abortion medication a controlled substance'This week, Louisiana moved to expand the criminalization of abortion further than any state has since before Roe v Wade was decided. On Thursday, the state legislature passed a bill that would reclassify mifepristone and misoprostol - the two drugs used in a majority of American abortions - as dangerous controlled substances.Under both state and federal classifications, the category of controlled substances includes those medications known to cause mind-altering effects and create the potential for addictions, such as sedatives and opioids; abortion medications carry none of this potential for physical dependence, habit-forming or abuse. The move from Louisiana lawmakers runs counter to both established medical opinion and federal law. Jeff Landry, the anti-choice Republican governor, is expected to sign the bill. When he does, possession of mifepristone or misoprostol in Louisiana will come to carry large fines and up to 10 years in prison.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Benjamin Netanyahu and his associates are already doubling down against these allegations. They must be made to answer themIsrael's international isolation, triggered by revulsion over the large-scale illegal killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, will only deepen following new, detailed and credible allegations that leading politicians and intelligence agencies conspired - with help from Donald Trump's administration - to spy on, undermine, improperly influence" and threaten the work and officials of the international criminal court (ICC).Those allegedly targeted include the court's former chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, and the present incumbent, Karim Khan, possibly still the subject of covert operations. If so, this must cease immediately. Once again, the world is confronted by dismaying evidence that the state of Israel under the destructive leadership of its rightwing prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has gone rogue. Continue reading...

The Yankees stumbled to a last-place finish at the dawn of the 90s. But a new series documents how things were even worse off the fieldChampionships, champagne and ticker-tape parades - that's the story of New York Yankees baseball, right? Not if you were on the team in 1990.During that season, the team's combustible owner, George Steinbrenner, was banned from baseball after connecting with gambler Howard Spira to discredit one of his own players, Dave Winfield. Outfielder Mel Hall brought two cougar cubs into the clubhouse and had a relationship with an underage high school student. On the field, the team was so bad that pitcher Andy Hawkins threw a no-hitter - and still lost. The Yankees stumbled to a last-place finish in the American League East. Their lowlight reel from the season gets a second look in a new documentary on Peacock in the US - Bronx Zoo 90: Crime, Chaos and Baseball. Continue reading...

Politicians capable of international leadership on Gaza can also defeat the dishonesty that says Ireland is fullThe poet Patrick Kavanagh was inspired to write sonnets about the leafy-with-love" banks of the Grand Canal near Baggot Street bridge in south-central Dublin. There was not much poetry or love on the same stretch of the canal the other day, as rain whipped a row of brightly coloured tents neatly lining the towpath, side by side.The occupants I met were mostly keeping hidden from the rain and, perhaps, from those who kick the tents and attack volunteer helpers, or the self-styled patriots" who travel the country burning down designated refugee accommodation sites, chanting that Ireland is full.Katherine Butler is the Guardian's associate editor for Europe Continue reading...