Newark's Ras Baraka says court fight against Geo Group will go on despite being jailed and charged with trespassingSpeaking out after his arrest on Tuesday, the Newark mayor Ras Baraka said his city would continue its fight in court against the company that runs an immigration detention facility in New Jersey.I know there are some protests that other people are planning, and if I feel obligated to be there, I will," Baraka told the Rev Al Sharpton on MSNBC Saturday afternoon. This doesn't stop the city's contention with the Geo Group, and we're going to continue in court with them." Continue reading...
Ramona Sarsgaard, 18, given ticket for criminal trespassing after Wednesday's actions against Israel's war in GazaThe daughter of actors Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard was among those arrested at the latest Columbia University protests, marking the latest development in the anti-war demonstrations that also led to the temporary suspension of student journalists.On Friday, the New York Post reported that 18-year-old Ramona Sarsgaard, a Columbia freshman, was arrested during Wednesday's campus protests where students demonstrated against Israel's deadly war in Gaza. Continue reading...
State attorney general said company secretly tracked users' movements, searches, voiceprints and facial geometryGoogle has agreed to pay $1.375bn in a settlement in principle reached with the state of Texas over allegations the company violated users' data privacy, the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, said on Friday.The agreement settles two lawsuits that covered three products for allegedly violating Texas consumer protection laws. Continue reading...
Meteorologists at television news stations serving Georgia and North Carolina reported feeling the tremorsA 4.1-magnitude earthquake in Tennessee woke up families and rattled homes as far away as Atlanta as it spread tremors across portions of the southern US on Saturday morning. No injuries or major damage were immediately reported.The website for the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the earthquake originated shortly after 9am EDT about 12 miles (20km) from Greenback, Tennessee, which is about 30 miles (48km) south of Knoxville. Continue reading...
Robert Hadden, sentenced to 20 years in prison for sexual abuse, kept practicing even as allegations piled upIt was a shocking scandal involving the betrayal of one of the most sacred bonds in medicine, as one of New York's top doctors abused hundreds of women under his care.Now, after a fresh settlement agreement last week from Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian hospital, the compensation for the crimes of Robert Hadden has approached almost a billion dollars and raised further questions as to how he was able to carry out his crimes for so long. Continue reading...
As universities begin to push back on Trump's policies, those in Republican-led states face multiple threatsDays after the University of Michigan president, Santa Ono, announced that he was leaving his post to lead the University of Florida, his name was quietly removed on Wednesday from a letter signed by more than 600 university presidents denouncing the Trump administration's unprecedented government overreach and political interference" with academic institutions.As Ono is set to become the highest-paid public university president in the country, in a state that has often been at the forefront of the rightwing battle against higher education, the reversal, first reported on by Talking Points Memo, underscored the challenges of standing up against the government's sweeping attacks on education in solidly red states. Continue reading...
Another memo told academies to ignore race, ethnicity or sex' in admissions but athleticism could be consideredMilitary leaders and commanders at the Pentagon were ordered on Friday to go through their libraries and review all books that were related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), in the US military's latest anti-DEI move.Leaders were ordered to promptly identify" materials that promote divisive concepts and gender ideology [that] are incompatible with the department's core mission", according to a memo sent to leaders that was seen by the Associated Press. The department gave leaders until 21 May to remove the books. Continue reading...
I volunteered at a Maine detention center for 10 years. Then the Trump administration cut its programs - because we made space for women like AshleyEvery Monday for over a decade, I left my home on Peaks Island, Maine, boarded a ferry to town then drove inland to the Maine correctional center to lead a creative writing class for incarcerated women.After a 30-minute drive, I park my car, walk to the facility, leave my cellphone and keys with the front desk guard, walk through a metal detector and several sets of sliding doors until I reach the women's unit. My classroom is a tiny space, bare bones, with plastic chairs, cinderblock walls and fluorescent lights. Continue reading...
San Francisco district judge says Congress did not authorize large-scale staffing cuts and restructuring of agenciesDonald Trump's administration must temporarily halt its sweeping government overhaul because Congress did not authorize it to carry out large-scale staffing cuts and the restructuring of agencies, a federal judge in California said on Friday.US district judge Susan Illston in San Francisco sided with a group of unions, non-profits and local governments in blocking large-scale mass layoffs known as reductions in force" for 14 days. Continue reading...
White House communications have adopted a Trumpian air that's either completely malevolent or completely brilliant'There was a disturbance in the Force. Donald Trump celebrated Star Wars Day" this week with an AI-generated image of himself as a muscle-bound warrior holding a red lightsaber in front of two US flags and eagles.It seemed like a bit of fun but appeared on the White House's official X account with a dark political message: Happy May the 4th to all, including the Radical Left Lunatics who are fighting so hard to bring Sith Lords, Murderers, Drug Lords, Dangerous Prisoners, & well known MS-13 Gang Members, back into our Galaxy. You're not the Rebellion - you're the Empire. May the 4th be with you." Continue reading...
Startling allegations that the Base's leader is a Russian spy lead to suggestions that the Kremlin is playing the long game'A former Pentagon contractor works with secretive sections of US special forces, then ups and moves to Russia. He gets married, radicalizes and starts popping up on Telegram channels as the leader of a neo-Nazi terrorist group recruiting Americans.Soon, allegations swirl that he is a Russian spy. Continue reading...
The specifics of the administration's economic masterplan - from strollers to movies to China - change by the dayDecades of economic orthodoxy failed millions of Americans, according to Donald Trump, who marched back into the White House promising to shred the status quo. But the specifics of his alternative - exactly how his administration claims it will make America great again - change by the day.The US president declared this week to be a key milestone of his second term, as he unveiled his first major trade deal since returning to office following accelerated talks with the UK. Continue reading...
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This blog has now closed. Read the latest hereLarge institutional investors have massively increased their holdings of Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) in recent months according to SEC filings, with many enlarging their positions by hundreds of millions of dollars.The revelations raise further questions about big business's desire to curry favor with Donald Trump and his administration via the enterprises he has maintained or commenced. TMTG runs the Truth Social social media platform - on which the US president himself posts almost daily - as well as financial services and a film and TV streaming service.Donald Trump's refusal to divest from his publicly traded company has predictably prompted huge investments from wealthy special interests that could use a favor from the president.Institutional Wall Street investors and even a foreign company with business before the administration have effectively offered a form of tribute by bulk purchasing shares in DJT on the open market, which helps juice the value of Trump's own shares. Continue reading...
Presidential adviser Stephen Miller announces potential move, which US has made only four times in historyThe Trump administration is considering suspending the writ of habeas corpus, the legal right to challenge one's detention, Stephen Miller, a top White House adviser, said on Friday.The constitution is clear, and that of course is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus could be suspended in time of invasion. So that's an option we're actively looking at. A lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not," Miller said to a group of reporters at the White House. Continue reading...
Exasperated by turmoil dogging defense secretary, the White House will block his new choice, sources say - key US politics stories from 9 May 2025 at a glanceExasperated by the turmoil that has dogged Pete Hegseth's office in recent weeks, the White House will block the US defense secretary's choice of chief of staff and select a candidate of its own, according to two people familiar with the matter.Hegseth had suggested giving the chief of staff position to Marine Col Ricky Buria after the first person in the role, Joe Kasper, left last month in the wake of a contentious leak investigation that brought the ouster of three other senior aides. But the White House has made clear to Hegseth that Buria will not be elevated. Continue reading...
Mayor's wife accuses government of targeting her husband as video shows him being placed in handcuffs by officialsThe mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, was arrested for alleged trespass at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention center in New Jersey on Friday and released after several hours.Baraka was released shortly after 8pm and, after stepping out of an SUV with flashing emergency lights, told waiting supporters: The reality is this: I didn't do anything wrong." Continue reading...
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Exclusive: Jay Bratt, who led Mar-a-Lago case, first special prosecutor known to be summoned after Trump vows revengeThe former special counsel prosecutor Jay Bratt is scheduled to appear before the Republican-led House judiciary committee next week as it attempts to find instances of politicization in the federal criminal cases brought against Donald Trump, according to three people familiar with the matter.The deposition of Bratt, who led the criminal case over Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents as a top deputy to the former special counsel Jack Smith, has been scheduled for 10am ET next Wednesday, according to a notice reviewed by the Guardian. Continue reading...
by Maya Yang and Noa Yachot in New York and agencies on (#6X5XA)
PhD student arrested in March for political speech released on Friday after federal judge's rulingRumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts University student arrested in March for her political speech, has been released from the Louisiana detention center where she was being held in what she and her lawyers had argued was a breach of her constitutional rights.A federal judge on Friday morning had ordered Ozturk's return to Vermont, where she was briefly held after being grabbed on the street by masked immigration agents near Boston, for hearings. But the judge decided not to wait for her physical transportation and she appeared remotely from Louisiana at the hearing in Burlington on Friday. Continue reading...
by Lois Beckett in Los Angeles and agency on (#6X5X6)
Brothers granted hearing that could lead to freedom but attorneys withdraw bid to remove prosecutors from caseAfter months of legal battles, Erik and Lyle Menendez, who were convicted of killing their parents in 1989, will finally get a resentencing hearing in Los Angeles court next week, giving the brothers a new chance at freedom.LA county superior court judge Michael Jesic ruled on Friday that the resentencing hearing can take place, starting next Tuesday. Continue reading...
Teal Health offers alternative to pap smear tests that need to be undertaken at a doctor's office, slated for June rolloutThe US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first at-home test for cervical cancer screening, its maker Teal Health said on Friday, offering an alternative to smear tests that need to be undertaken at a doctor's office.Pap smear tests have significantly reduced cancer incidence from when they were first introduced 80 years ago. But they can be uncomfortable and inconvenient owing to the requirement for an in-clinic exam. Continue reading...
by Edward Helmore in New York and agency on (#6X60B)
Kaja Sokola says disgraced movie mogul forced her to touch his genitals in Manhattan apartment when she was 16A former model has told a New York court that the disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulted her when she was 16, calling it the most horrifying thing I ever experienced".Kaja Sokola told jurors at Weinstein's retrial that he put his hand inside her underwear and made her touch his genitals at his Manhattan apartment in 2002 when she was 16. Continue reading...
Landmark legislation follows local uproar over a Guardian investigation into a major non-profit's high pricesIndiana's governor, Mike Braun, has signed a landmark bill that would strip charity hospitals of their non-profit status if they continue to charge high prices.The legislation, the first of its kind in the United States, followed uproar across the state after a Guardian series in October that investigated how one major Indiana non-profit hospital system bought up its competition, then hiked its prices, leaving businesses and patients struggling to pay their medical costs. Continue reading...
Souter was a New Hampshire Republican who became a darling of liberals during his nearly 20 years on the benchRetired supreme court Justice David H Souter, the ascetic bachelor and New Hampshire Republican who became a darling of liberals during his nearly 20 years on the bench, has died. He was 85.Souter died on Thursday at his home in New Hampshire, the court said in a statement Friday. John Roberts, the chief justice, said Souter, who retired from the court in 2009, brought uncommon wisdom and kindness to a lifetime of public service". Continue reading...
Already vulnerable from the pandemic and gentrification, Chinatown's immigrant-run businesses now face a trade warOn a balmy afternoon last month, Amy Tran unboxed a delivery at Yue Wa Market, a small grocery and herbal medicine shop in Los Angeles's Chinatown that she opened 17 years ago.The package contained two dozen units of Shou Wu Chih, a Chinese herbal concoction known to rebuild kidney function and promote hair health. The shipment arrived two weeks after the US implemented new tariffs on Chinese imports, so her distributor charged her $115, a $35 markup from her previous order. Continue reading...
Clint Curtis, who once claimed to build vote-flipping software, will now lead elections in a conservative countyClint Curtis is a familiar face among election skeptics in the United States. The Florida-based lawyer and former computer programmer has said he once developed a software that could change votes. He opposes the use of voting machines and highlights his connection to proponents of election conspiracy theories, including Mike Lindell and Steve Bannon.Soon he is slated to start overseeing elections in Shasta county, California, a conservative region of 180,000 people in the state's far north where Republicans vastly outnumber Democrats. Continue reading...
Grace Marsceau promised to pack A Million Lives event. Authors arrived to empty rooms, unpaid bills and no decorIn the days leading up to the A Million Lives book festival, things already seemed amiss. Grace Marsceau, the event organizer, messaged an attending author that the DJ was in the hospital and the company had no replacement. She owed the hotel six figures" because the room block hadn't sold out, according to messages.Oh my gosh that's awful!" author Sarah Zane responded. The excuses seemed unusual, but as a veteran of book events, Zane expected to deal with some mismanagement. Continue reading...
SEC filing revelations raise questions about big business's desire to curry favor with Trump and his administrationLarge institutional investors have massively increased their holdings of Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) in recent months according to SEC filings, with many enlarging their positions by hundreds of millions of dollars.The revelations raise further questions about big business's desire to curry favor with Donald Trump and his administration via the enterprises he has maintained or commenced. TMTG runs the Truth Social social media platform - on which the US president himself posts almost daily - as well as financial services and a film and TV streaming service. Continue reading...
Pope says evil will not prevail' as he addresses worshippers. Plus, the man who walked the length of the UK with a donkeyGood morning.Robert Francis Prevost, the first US cleric to lead the Roman Catholic church, has said evil will not prevail" as he addressed a crowd of 100,000 pilgrims and tourists in his first speech as Pope Leo XIV from the central balcony of St Peter's Basilica.Why choose the name Leo? That Prevost has decided to become Leo XIV will make Catholics think of the previous Leo - Leo XIII - and his 1891 encyclical or teaching document, Rerum Novarum, which outlined workers' rights to a fair wage, safe working conditions and the rights of workers to belong to trade unions.What does it mean for LGBTQ+ Catholics? After years of sympathetic and inclusive comments from Pope Francis, LGBTQ+ Catholics expressed concern on Thursday about hostile remarks Pope Leo XIV made more than a decade ago in which he condemned the homosexual lifestyle" and redefinition of marriage" as at odds with the gospel".Who said they wouldn't back Martin? Thom Tillis, the Republican North Carolina senator, said he would not support his nomination - and Martin also lacked allies at the justice department.Why was he unpopular? He was seen as too aggressive with his threats to prosecute Trump's political adversaries, including Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader. Republican senators were concerned about the risk of a Democratic appointee to act similarly in the future.Where does Pirro stand? She is a diehard Trump ally whose false claim that the 2020 election was rigged by Dominion Voting Systems was used against Fox in court. Fox settled in the defamation case and acknowledged her statements were false. Continue reading...
The coach is stepping away from a role in which he won five championships with the Spurs. He will be hard to replace, on and off the courtRaise a glass to Gregg Popovich, the gruff teddy bear who lifted the San Antonio Spurs into the NBA's elite. After three decades on the Spurs' sideline, he is stepping back from coaching to become the team's president of basketball operations. It's a back-to-the-future move for the 76-year-old: he was the Spurs' general manager for eight years before he became the team's coach. (I'm no longer the coach, I'm El Jefe," Popovich jokingly declared this week before unveiling a T-shirt with that Spanish title.) Altogether, Pop won five NBA championships from 1999 through 2014, a run that puts him among the greatest coaches in league history. But when it came to being the NBA's unflinching statesman, he was in a league all by himself.Popovich wasn't just the NBA's backbone. He was, perhaps, the most fearless truth teller in all of sport. Certainly no one was bolder when it came to taking on Donald Trump - whom Popovich has described as a soulless coward," a pathological liar" and a deranged idiot". Popovich told beat reporters he was sick to my stomach" after Trump's 2016 presidential election win, a tipping point he likened to the fall of Rome. He slammed Steve Bannon's appointment as chief White House strategist as a fear-mongering exercise. During the Spurs' 2017 media day, Popovich launched into a 21-minute condemnation of Trump and the Maga movement after the president attacked NFL players and Nascar's Bubba Wallace for their national anthem protests. Our country is an embarrassment to the world," Popovich said. This is an individual that when people held arms during games, [he thought] that they were doing it to [dis]honor the flag. That's delusional. But it's what we have to live with." Continue reading...
Previous negative remarks by Pope Leo XIV about homosexual lifestyle' at odds with papacy of Pope FrancisAfter years of sympathetic and inclusive comments from Pope Francis, LGBTQ+ Catholics expressed concern on Thursday about hostile remarks made more than a decade ago by Father Robert Prevost, the new Pope Leo XIV, in which he condemned what he called the homosexual lifestyle" and the redefinition of marriage" as at odds with the Gospel".In a 2012 address to the world synod of bishops, the man who now leads the church said that Western mass media is extraordinarily effective in fostering within the general public enormous sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel - for example abortion, homosexual lifestyle, euthanasia". Continue reading...
American faithful celebrated the announcement of Cardinal Robert Prevost as Pope Leo XIV, the first pontiff from the United States. The Chicago native is also a Peruvian citizen and lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary and then as an archbishop
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This blog is now closed. You can read our latest story hereThe winners and losers of Trump's first tariff war strongly suggest that bankruptcies and farm consolidation could surge during his second term, with major corporations best placed to benefit from his polices at the expense of independent farmers.New analysis by the non-profit research advocacy group Food and Water Watch (FWW), shared exclusively with the Guardian, shows that Trump's first-term tariffs were particularly devastating for farmers in the Maga rural heartlands. Continue reading...
Buoyed by supreme court ruling, Pentagon will remove as many as 1,000 service members. Key US politics stories from Thursday 8 May at a glanceNo More Trans @ DoD," Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, posted after the supreme court allowed the Trump administration's ousting of transgender troops to go forward. As of Thursday, the orders have been issued to identify and involuntarily force trans people out of service.Department officials have said it is difficult to determine exactly how many transgender service members there are, but medical records will show those who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, show symptoms or are being treated. Those troops would then be forced out. Continue reading...
Pentagon will give other trans service members 30 days to self-identify while it enforces recently approved banThe Pentagon is removing the 1,000 members of the military who openly identify as trans, and giving those who have yet to openly-identify as transgender 30 days to remove themselves, according to a new directive issued Thursday.The memo is fueled by Tuesday's supreme court decision allowing the Trump administration to enforce a ban on trans military members. The defense department has said it will follow up by going through medical records to identify others who haven't come forward. Continue reading...
Residents - Catholic and non-Catholic - celebrate a moment of joy' as native son Robert Prevost becomes new pontiffAs white smoke billowed from the Vatican in Rome, yellow papal flags whipped in the crisp Lake Michigan breeze in front of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy on Chicago's North Side.Screams of Habemus Papam!" echoed throughout the cafeteria at the Catholic school on Thursday afternoon, when news broke that Chicago's Robert Prevost had become Pope Leo XIV. Continue reading...
Vice-president says US will seek to de-escalate but cannot force either nuclear power to lay down their arms'JD Vance has said that the US will not intervene in the conflict between Pakistan and India, calling fighting between the two nuclear powers fundamentally none of our business".The remarks came during an interview with Fox News, where the US vice-president said that the US would seek to de-escalate the conflict but could force neither side to lay down their arms". Continue reading...
President's announcement receives favorable political reaction but experts warn much remains unresolvedThere was plenty of congratulatory backslapping in the Oval Office as Donald Trump unveiled his major" trade deal with the United Kingdom on Thursday, but many of the details of that agreement have been left to later discussions.Trump's rush to claim a win for his controversial tariffs policy left many grasping just what to call this: a deal, an agreement, a framework? Observers predict that the coming negotiations could take months. Continue reading...
New pope will be known as Leo XIV and is the first leader of the Catholic church from the US. After two days of discussions, white smoke billowed out of the chimney in the Vatican to signal a new pope had been chosen
Graham Parsons criticizes military institution in NYT essay for failing to provide an adequate education'A West Point philosophy professor has announced his resignation after 13 years on the faculty, citing the academy's rapid shift away from its core educational principles under the Trump administration in an essay for the New York Times.Graham Parsons, a professor of philosophy at the US Military Academy at West Point, criticized the institution for failing to provide an adequate education for the cadets" under the new administration. Continue reading...
Measure passes nearly along party lines, with all Democrats opposed and almost every Republican voting in favorRepublicans in the House of Representatives on Thursday approved legislation to codify Donald Trump's policy of renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America".The measure was sponsored by rightwing Georgia lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene and passed nearly along party lines, with all Democrats opposed and almost every Republican, with the exception of vulnerable Nebraska representative Don Bacon, voting in favor. Continue reading...
Vermont senator's joint initiative aims to recruit and train those seeking public office, especially young peopleBernie Sanders is partnering with the group Run for Something to help support a new generation of progressive candidates interested in seeking public office.Questions about the future of Sanders' leftwing movement have followed his cross-country Fighting Oligarchy tour, where at each stop the Vermont senator encourages supporters to get involved and run for office. The initiative builds on those calls, Politico first reported, by teaming up with organizations that recruit and train candidates running for office, with an emphasis on young people. Continue reading...
Lawyers say they're still in dark' about government's efforts to free the man who was wrongly deported to El SalvadorThe Trump administration is invoking the state secrets privilege " in an apparent attempt to avoid answering a judge's questions about its erroneous deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador.US district judge Paula Xinis disclosed the government's position in a two-page order on Wednesday. She set a Monday deadline for attorneys to file briefs on the issue and how it could affect Abrego Garcia's case. Xinis also scheduled a 16 May hearing in Greenbelt, Maryland, to address the matter. Continue reading...
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