Justin Eichorn, 40, faces federal charge after allegedly trying to meet with underage girl found through sex adA Minnesota state lawmaker who is accused of trying to buy sex from an underage girl resigned from the state senate on Thursday before his colleagues were set to vote to expel him.Justin Eichorn, a Republican, was charged with a felony in federal court on Wednesday for attempted coercion and enticement of a minor after responding to online sex ads and trying to arrange a meetup with a 17-year-old. Continue reading...
Wendell Grissom, executed for fatally shooting a woman, will be one of four people put to death in US this weekOklahoma executed a man on Thursday for fatally shooting a woman during a home invasion and robbery 20 years ago.Wendell Grissom, 56, was declared dead by lethal injection at the Oklahoma state penitentiary in McAlester at 10.13am, a prison official told the Associated Press. It was Oklahoma's first execution of 2025. Continue reading...
Senate and House committee chairs warn against plan for US to relinquish command of Nato forces in EuropeRepublicans on Capitol Hill are threatening a revolt against a defence shake-up reportedly planned by the Trump administration that could see the US relinquish its command of Nato forces in Europe.The two top Republicans on the Senate and House of Representatives armed services committees, Roger Wicker and Mike Rogers, signaled their opposition in an extraordinary joint statement warning that the change would risk undermining American deterrence around the globe". Continue reading...
Johnathan Buma, who said his concerns about Rudy Giuliani were ignored, charged with disclosing classified informationA veteran FBI agent who blew the whistle on alleged political bias during Donald Trump's first presidency was arrested at New York's JFK airport moments before boarding an international flight.Johnathan Buma, a 15-year counterintelligence officer and eventual whistleblower, now faces charges of illegally disclosing classified information through a prospective tell-all book about his career. Continue reading...
Here's how to catch the college basketball's most chaotic three weeks on television and streaming, plus what to know about tip-off time, the Final Four and more Continue reading...
Political scientist Mneesha Gellman on the deportees' fates, dire prison conditions and Bukele-Trump parallelsThe Trump administration has flown 238 Venezuelans to an El Salvador prison that human rights groups say is designed to disappear people.Despite a judge's order temporarily blocking the move, the US government flew more than 200 men that it had accused of gang membership to the Terrorism Confinement Center", or Cecot - a draconian mega-prison that has become central to the promise of the Salvadorian president, Nayib Bukele, promise to rid his country of crime. Continue reading...
Gaza health officials say hundreds have been killed since Israeli bombing shattered the ceasefire. Plus, Trump and Zelenskyy share call over partial Ukraine ceasefire
Americans are struggling to reconcile Trump's campness and cruelty - but comedy has always been a tool for authoritariansEvery night on a new Broadway production of Cabaret, Adam Lambert waits to see how the audience will react to one of the show's biggest numbers, If You Could See Her. The song sees Lambert's Emcee dancing with a performer in a gorilla costume and finishes with him looking into the ape's eyes singing: If you could see her through my eyes / She wouldn't look Jewish at all."The line is supposed to represent the normalisation of bigotry, demonstrating how the Kit Kat Club, once the most immoderate, carefree cabaret club in Berlin, has amended its routines in order to placate the new Nazi patrons. The moment used to provoke gasps from audiences. But during this run, which spanned the US general election campaign and second Trump presidency, there have been many nights when the cast have heard guffaws in the crowd. Continue reading...
Every night I hurl them off the bed. Every morning they are replaced. Off, on, off, on, for ever. Serving no purpose whatsoever.Scatter cushions and bedspreads. Why? What for? If it wasn't for the waste and environmental impact, I'd make a huge pile and torch them all. You'd see the fire from the moon. Alternatively, pick them apart and make something useful out of them. I'd collect them by means of a national scatter cushion and bedspread amnesty. Post them to a facility and leave the rest to me.Let's take bedspreads first. Big, heavy, useless. Especially the one on the bed at my mum's house. I can't always summon the strength to drag it off the bed and leave it in a heap on the floor. If I do, along with leaving no floor space for anything else, this earns me a fierce bollocking. I am commanded to heave it out of the bedroom and hang it on the bannister, which creaks beneath its formidable weight. Then, when my stay is over, I have to wrangle the bedspread back on to the bed, as it is far too heavy for her to handle. I always ask what purpose it serves. I've never had an answer. Continue reading...
Have you or anyone you know encountered any problems at the border, and are you changing your planned trip to the US?Following a French scientist being denied entry to the US after immigration officers searched his phone and found messages in which he had expressed criticism of the Trump administration, we're interested in finding out more about any issues that people have experienced at the US border.Other reports at the US border include a German national, who is a permanent US resident and was detained by US border officials. A Canadian citizen was also detained by US border authorities for almost two weeks over an incomplete visa. Continue reading...
by Dave Caldwell, Stephanie Kaloi, Nicholas Levine an on (#6W23X)
Who are the players to watch? Will injuries cost Duke? Our writers pick the winners, sleepers and upsets in both NCAA Tournament bracketsPJ Haggerty, a 6ft 3in redshirt sophomore guard, is already on his third college team, Memphis, after brief stints at Tulsa and TCU. Haggerty was third in Division I in scoring this year, averaging 21.8 points per game, and he scored 83 points in three games to boost the No 5-seeded Tigers to the American Athletic Conference title. DC Continue reading...
The surprise move by California's Democratic governor is either gutsy' or insane', but each episode makes headlinesOn the latest episode of This Is Gavin Newsom, the California governor interviewed his Minnesota counterpart, the 2024 Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz. Thanks for having me," Walz said, flashing a cheeky smile. I'm kinda wondering where I fall on this list of guests."Walz was not only the first Democrat to make an appearance on Newsom's splashy new podcast, but also the first participant who had not cast doubt on the 2020 presidential election results or expressed sympathy for the mob that stormed the capitol on January 6. Continue reading...
The Celtic defender's star has risen alongside his country's soccer fortunes as they prepare for a potential Nations League clash with the USThe style and system Jesse Marsch has moulded for the Canadian men's national team is predicated on pressure; hemming in and harrying opponents until they are deprived of options. It is lovingly labelled the maplepress,' and it turns out its principles also apply to wedding planning.Alistair Johnston, one of the spiritual leaders of Marsch's rapid Canadian revolution over these past 10 months, will tie the knot this summer. When his fiancee Peyton Pesavento looked for time, she was immediately hemmed in. I only had one date that I could give her in the next two calendar years!" the Celtic defender says with a smile. Continue reading...
Artists might cancel shows, donors withdraw and audiences flee. It all plays into the hands of his authoritarian projectIn Washington, Donald Trump's takeover of the Kennedy Center - the US's imposing national centre for the performing arts - presents a bizarre, unnerving and, at times, bleakly comical spectacle. Last month, he announced himself its new chair, replaced 13 board members, and inserted a new interim president, foreign policy adviser Richard Grenell. On Monday this week, the president's motorcade disgorged him at the building - which contains an opera house, theatre, concert hall and a plethora of smaller venues off its towering, chandelier-hung foyers. By this point, his and Melania Trump's portraits, alongside those of vice-president JD Vance and his wife Usha, had been screwed to the wall beside the concert hall stage door.Trump and his new trustees - who include Usha Vance and Fox presenter Laura Ingraham - then discussed changes to the Kennedy Center Honors, founded in the 1970s to recognise the greatest figures in American cultural life. Trump called previous honorees, who have ranged from Fred Astaire to Francis Ford Coppola, radical left lunatics". Men such as singer Andrea Bocelli, who has performed at Mar-a-Lago, and Sylvester Stallone, who recently called Trump a second George Washington", were floated for future honours. With the truculence of a slighted schoolboy, Trump opined that he had never much cared for Hamilton - this, after the news that the musical has withdrawn from a 2026 run at the centre. He also complained about an infestation of mice. All this, the day before he was due to speak to Russian president Vladimir Putin to haggle over Ukraine's future. It is enough to give you a political-cultural attack of the bends.Charlotte Higgins is the Guardian's chief culture writer Continue reading...
Recent Four Nations competition, which excluded Russia, clearly got beneath the skin of hockey-loving strongmanAmid the somewhat murky details emerging from Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin's call on Tuesday - the two leaders discussed a halt on attacking energy infrastructure, then Russia immediately bombed Ukraine's energy infrastructure - one deal, at least, was clear: the US and Russia would resume playing ice hockey.Although benign enough on the face of it, the idea of organised games in the US and Russia, between players of both countries, was yet another concession to Putin from Trump. Unlike the US president's previous gifts - pre-emptively allowing Russia to keep the territory it has illegally invaded, refusing to give any security guarantees to Ukraine, and strongly hinting US sanctions would soon be lifted - this was soft power, wrapped in a pair of skate laces. Continue reading...
Britain, France and Germany are closing ranks to bolster Nato as the unreliable US president marches to his own drumAn Atlantic alliance without the United States? It sounds like a contradiction in terms - Hamlet without the prince. Yet this is the improbable, disjunctive world we now inhabit. It is the one in which our children and grandchildren will live their lives. Like it or not, the systemic shock launched by Donald Trump is our new reality. Absolutely nothing about Trump's latest phone call with Vladimir Putin on Tuesday has changed that.Europe's scramble to respond to Trump's return to power was driven initially by the urgency of maintaining support for Ukraine. Most of the focus was diplomatic: keeping US military aid and intelligence flowing, shoring up damaged channels between Washington and Kyiv, engaging quietly with both Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy to both encourage and deter, while moving very publicly to take up more of the security burden. Continue reading...
The verdict in North Dakota state court came after two days of deliberations in a trial where company Energy Transfer accused Greenpeace of defamation and orchestrating criminal behaviour to disrupt the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline. The project is located near the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's reservation. Deepa Padmanabha, Greenpeace's senior legal adviser, said Greenpeace will appeal the decision.
Administration reportedly working to fulfill a conservative dream: create buffer zone to be occupied by US troopsThe Trump administration is working on a plan to create what conservatives have long demanded: a militarized buffer zone along the southern border in New Mexico that would be occupied by active-duty US troops, empowered to detain migrants who cross into the United States unlawfully, the Washington Post reports.According to the Post, recent internal discussions have centered on deploying troops to a section of the border in New Mexico that would be turned into a kind of military installation, which would give the soldiers a legal right to detain migrants who trespass" on the elongated base. Unauthorized migrants would then be held until they can be turned over to immigration officers. Continue reading...
Relatives of deported Venezuelan migrant say he is innocent, as US Federal Reserve keeps interest rates on hold amid tariff uncertainty - key US politics stories from Wednesday at a glanceDonald Trump's White House has described the Venezuelan migrants deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador as heinous monsters" and terrorists who rape, maim and murder for sport".But relatives of Francisco Javier Garcia Casique, a 24-year-old from the city of Maracay, say he was a hairdresser, not a crook. Continue reading...
by Robert Mackey (now); Chris Stein and Martin Belam on (#6W19G)
This blog has now closed. You can read more of our US politics coverage hereDemocratic congressman Glenn Ivey told constituents at a town hall meeting in his Maryland district that Chuck Schumer, the Senate's Democratic minority leader, should step down from his position after a bitter intraparty fight over government funding last week, HuffPost reports.Ivey is the first member of Congress to say Schumer should leave his leadership position, after the leader supplied enough votes to pass a Republican-backed government funding bill through the Senate. House Democrats had near-unanimously rejected the measure, and many in the party believe Schumer, who argued the bill was better than allowing a shutdown that could be exploited by Donald Trump and Elon Musk, gave up leverage he could have used against the administration. Continue reading...
Brother of Francisco Javier Garcia Casique spotted him in a video showing scores of Venezuelan prisoners being taken to notorious El Salvador prisonDonald Trump's White House has described the Venezuelan migrants deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador as heinous monsters" and terrorists who rape, maim and murder for sport".But relatives of Francisco Javier Garcia Casique, a 24-year-old from the city of Maracay, say he was a hairdresser, not a crook. Continue reading...
Alvaro Bedoya points to interesting coincidence' that he was dismissed after criticizing Amazon's Jeff BezosA day after his abrupt firing by Donald Trump from the Federal Trade Commission, Alvaro Bedoya raised questions about the US president's relations with some of the country's richest men.Appearing at a hearing of the joint judiciary committee of the state legislature in Colorado on Wednesday, the ousted Democratic commissioner said it was an interesting coincidence" his final public statement in post had blasted Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder. Continue reading...
President Michael Drake also directs campuses to cut costs, such as delaying maintenance and reducing business travelThe University of California has imposed a system-wide hiring freeze and made additional cuts, its president said on Wednesday, as part of efforts to mitigate the expected impact of sharp cuts in federal funding under the Trump administration.In a letter to staff and students, the school's president, Michael Drake, said he had also directed all UC locations to implement cost-saving measures, such as delaying maintenance and reducing business travel, to help conserve funds. Continue reading...
Federal Bureau of Prisons told to transfer women back and provide hormone therapy treatment for gender dysphoriaA judge on Wednesday ordered the federal Bureau of Prisons (BoP) to transfer two incarcerated transgender women back to federal women's prisons after they had been sent to men's facilities after Donald Trump's executive order that truncated transgender protections.US district judge Royce Lamberth in Washington DC issued a preliminary injunction after the women were added as plaintiffs in ongoing litigation over the impact of the president's executive order on trans women in federal prisons. Continue reading...
France's research minister said the scientist was traveling to Houston for a conference when his phone was searchedFrance's research minister said a French scientist was denied entry to the US this month after immigration officers at an airport searched his phone and found messages in which he had expressed criticism of the Trump administration.I learned with concern that a French researcher" on assignment for the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) who was traveling to a conference near Houston was denied entry to the United States before being expelled", Philippe Baptiste, France's minister of higher education and research, said in a statement on Monday to Agence France-Presse published by Le Monde. This measure was apparently taken by the American authorities because the researcher's phone contained exchanges with colleagues and friends in which he expressed a personal opinion on the Trump administration's research policy," the minister added. Continue reading...
The Columbia graduate and green-card holder, held in Louisiana by immigration agents, dictated this letter to family and friendsMy name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner. I am writing to you from a detention facility in Louisiana where I wake to cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the quiet injustices under way against a great many people precluded from the protections of the law.Who has the right to have rights? It is certainly not the humans crowded into the cells here. It isn't the Senegalese man I met who has been deprived of his liberty for a year, his legal situation in limbo and his family an ocean away. It isn't the 21-year-old detainee I met who stepped foot in this country at age nine, only to be deported without so much as a hearing. Continue reading...
by Robert Tait and Chris Stein in Washington on (#6W1NA)
Press secretary says judge who weighed legality of Trump deportation order does not have that authority'The White House on Wednesday labeled the federal judge challenging the Trump administration on whether it defied his court order to halt flights deporting migrants without a hearing a Democrat activist".The press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, singled out by name at a White House press briefing federal judge James Boasberg, who weighed the legality of Donald Trump's deportation of suspected Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act, and is now evaluating the government's compliance. Continue reading...
American Federation of Teachers filed a lawsuit alleging the move by Trump administration violates federal lawA top teachers union has sued the US Department of Education after it stopped processing applications for affordable repayment plans of student loans last month and disabled the online application for the programs.The American Federation of Teachers, or AFT - one the country's largest unions, representing 1.8 million workers - filed a lawsuit alleging the sweeping action violates federal law. Continue reading...
Republican governor signs gun control bill to ban Glock switches' as part of public safety packageThe Republican governor of Alabama, Kay Ivey, signed a gun control bill on Wednesday, banning Glock switches" and other devices that turn rifles and pistols into machine guns.Ivey said: While there is a federal ban on these gun conversion devices, we needed a way to empower our own law enforcement here in Alabama to get these illegal and extremely dangerous Glock switches off our streets. Continue reading...
With France about to advise its citizens on how to survive an imminent threat', it's time to wise up to what the real essentials areIt's a fairly strong indication that your US presidency is not going well when, within three months of you taking office, one of your closest allies feels the need to issue its entire population with a manual on how to survive an imminent threat". According to French media reports, that is what the French government is planning in the form of a 20-page booklet to go out to its citizens this summer. And while it's intended for use against natural disaster or medical threat, we all know what we're really talking about here. The French government would like to remind its people that, in the event of a nuclear attack, they must remember to close the doors and windows.My dad recalls Buckinghamshire county council issuing a similar pamphlet in the 1980s, for when Russia dropped an atomic bomb on Aylesbury. My family didn't need the advice, as it happened; in the event of the collapse of civil society, my mother's Tupperware and plastic-bag reserves that filled an entire floor-to-ceiling cupboard would've pushed us to the top of any barter-based value system. Plus, for at least a week, we could have lived like kings on decades-old gravy and bolognese sauce loosened from the permafrost of the chest freezer in the garage like the body of a caveman after an ice age.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
The 163-page PTPA lawsuit contains some valid and not-so-valid criticism of the professional tours and major eventsThe Professional Tennis Players' Association came into existence on the eve of the 2020 US Open and at the height of pandemic restrictions. After an inauspicious start, the association co-founded by Novak Djokovic has spent time building its professional structures, finances and player support while trying to gain influence in the sport. The PTPA ostensibly functions as a players' union, but it is not legally recognised as such, since players are classed as independent contractors rather than employees.As the PTPA's numerous attempts to gain a seat at tennis's decision-making table have been rebuffed, often vigorously, by the leading governing bodies - the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and the four grand slam tournaments - it became increasingly likely that their acrimonious relations would lead to litigation. The PTPA's decision to initiate a lawsuit against the ATP, WTA and ITF on Tuesday, while naming the grand slams as co-conspirators, marks a dramatic intensification of its campaign for players' rights. It also comes as no great surprise. Continue reading...
For students who aren't US citizens, a new reality includes feelings of surveillance, fears of being arrested and reluctance to visit familyIt was 4am and a Columbia University master's student two months away from graduation lay awake in bed. His heart thumped so hard, his chest began to hurt. His hands got colder and colder; he was unable to speak. This had become an agonizing nightly routine for the 24-year-old from India since 8 March, when immigration officials handcuffed the Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil and took him into detention in Louisiana.What scares me the most is that I would be fast asleep at home and I would hear a bang on my door and I'd be taken away in the middle of the night by Ice and nobody will ever know what happened to me," said the student, who attended multiple protests to support Palestine around New York City. It feels as if people are getting targeted for just speaking up for their political views last year." Continue reading...
The USL president spoke to the Guardian shortly before officially announcing the league's historic voteIt's been a big few weeks for the USL. The organization that governs most of lower-division soccer in the United States made a splash by announcing its attention to start a new league at the same tier as MLS, and followed that up this week with another bombshell. The league's board, comprising owners in the two professional men's circuits (the second-division USL Championship and the third-division USL League One) voted to enact promotion and relegation within the USL ecosystem. If it comes to fruition, it will be the first time promotion and relegation will exist in the modern history of US soccer.USL president Paul McDonough spoke to the Guardian shortly before the league officially announced the vote on Wednesday morning. Questions and answers have been lightly edited for clarity. Continue reading...
Entrepreneur and actor Jasmine Mooney, who had a role in an American Pie sequel, says she was arrested at southern border and held in detention over an incomplete work visa
Zelenskyy says he will contact US president to discuss the call with Russian leader following the attack. Plus, dolphins welcome Nasa astronauts back to Earth
by Alexandra Topping and Caroline Davies on (#6W17P)
US thinktank made FoI request for Harry's visa form after California-residing royal wrote about drug use in memoir SpareHeavily redacted court documents related to Prince Harry's US visa have been released in the US, with his exact status" remaining confidential over fears he could be subjected to harassment.Judge Carl Nichols ordered the release of the documents after a freedom of information (FoI) request by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative US thinktank. The Heritage Foundation argued that the Duke of Sussex might have concealed past illegal drug use - discussed in his memoir Spare - which should have disqualified him from obtaining a US visa. Continue reading...
The Adams administration has continued to pay the hotel company of Weihong Hu, a developer accused of funneling illegal campaign donations to the mayorThe administration of New York City mayor Eric Adams is continuing to pay over $500,000 a month to a hotel developer who could potentially provide valuable testimony to prosecutors against the mayor and several of his top allies.The developer, Weihong Hu, was indicted last month for allegedly bribing a New York City non-profit CEO. The indictment charges that she gave the nonprofit executive stacks of cash and helped him purchase a $1.3m townhouse in exchange for more than $20m in city-funded contracts for her two Queens hotels and a catering company. Hu has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Continue reading...
The far-right has found in its pretend fight against antisemitism a way to divide progressives while at the same time clobbering themThe detention of Columbia university student, Mahmoud Khalil, is unequivocally chilling. Khalil, who helped lead the Gaza solidarity encampment at Columbia university last year, was targeted for his politics. His unlawful arrest by the US immigration enforcement agency comes amidst relentless smears lobbed at protesters of Israel's war on Gaza. This McCarthyite abduction of a Palestinian Green Card holder is a trial balloon, a test of what society might tolerate and a threat of more to come. And the added horror-show twist to this assault on free speech is that it is being done in the name of Jewish people under the pretence of tackling antisemitism.Such egregious claims are easily refuted. Most American Jews didn't vote for Trump and don't back his crackdowns. As Amy Spitalnik of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, one of multiple Jewish groups opposing Khalili's detention, said: The Trump administration is exploiting real concerns about antisemitism to undercut democracy." Meanwhile, it is grotesque to pretend that Team Trump, home to antisemitic conspiracy theories, Nazi salutes and Holocaust denialism, is fighting antisemitism, rather than actively reproducing it.Rachel Shabi is the author of Not the Enemy - Israel's Jews from Arab Lands and Off-White: The Truth About Antisemitism Continue reading...
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