Republican defeated in primary says backing Trump's conviction may have cost me my seat, but who cares?'Returning to the US Capitol after a stinging primary re-election loss, Bill Cassidy, a Republican senator of Louisiana, said he had no regrets about his momentous" vote to convict Donald Trump on 2021 impeachment charges during his first presidency.I voted to uphold the constitution. It may have cost me my seat, but who cares?" Cassidy told reporters in the Capitol. I had the privilege of voting to uphold the constitution - isn't that a great thing?" Continue reading...
President says $400m building costs to be funded by private donors, but has asked for taxpayers to cover security costsShouting over the banging and clanging sounds from heavy construction equipment, Donald Trump on Tuesday gave a group of reporters a closer look at the construction for the White House ballroom he's building on the site of the former East Wing to mount a defense of the project that has hit a speed bump in Congress.The administration has asked for $1bn from taxpayers for security additions on the White House campus, including for the ballroom. But the Senate parliamentarian ruled the proposal could not be included in a bill to fund immigrant enforcement agencies for three years, and several Republican lawmakers have balked at the price tag in an election year where voters are grappling with gasoline, grocery and other prices spurred to new heights by the Iran war and the disruption in oil supplies. Continue reading...
Chamber advances bill for first time as four Republicans join all but one of Senate's Democrats in favorThe Senate voted on Tuesday to advance a war powers resolution aimed at forcing Donald Trump to end the war in Iran unless he receives congressional authorization to continue it.Tuesday's 50-47 vote marks the first time the chamber has advanced the bill, the eighth attempt at doing so since the conflict began in February. Continue reading...
Addendum quietly slipped into widely criticized agreement creating a $1.7bn fund to compensate president's alliesThe justice department quietly added a provision barring the IRS from auditing Donald Trump's tax returns on Tuesday, amending a widely criticized agreement that creates a secretive and loosely controlled $1.776bn fund to compensate allies of the president.The addendum, signed by Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, says the government is forever barred" and precluded" from examining the tax returns of Trump, his family, company and related companies". The agreement applies to anything filed before the agreement was reached. It was posted on the justice department website on Tuesday morning, a day after the department announced creation of the fund. Continue reading...
There is no shortage of entertainers in Carlo Ancelotti's picks for this summer's tournament. They'll also need a solid base if they are to win a sixth titleIn their attacking heyday, Brazil never struggled to find a winning complement in defence. Individual attacking brilliance only comes off if others nearby are doing the hard yards; for every Ronaldinho, there is a Roque Junior.The current generation doesn't lack entertainers. Of Carlo Ancelotti's 26-man squad for the World Cup, which was announced on Monday, nine players are listed as attackers, a high number for most squads, with nine defenders left to sweat their responsibilities whenever possession changes hands. Continue reading...
US secretary of state says WHO was a little late' in identifying deadly Ebola outbreak in the DRC and UgandaUS secretary of state Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that the World Health Organization (WHO) was a little late" in identifying the deadly Ebola outbreak in the the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.On Tuesday, Rubio told reporters: The lead is obviously going to be CDC (the Centers for Disease Control) and the World Health Organization, which was a little late to identify this thing unfortunately." Continue reading...
Eight states have moved to draw new maps after supreme court ruling that severely weakened the Voting Rights ActThe NAACP on Tuesday launched a campaign urging Black athletes, their families, alumni and fans to boycott athletic programs of public universities in states that have moved to limit, weaken or erase Black voting representation".In the announcement of the Out of Bounds" campaign, the civil rights giant name-checked eight states - Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Georgia - whose flagship public athletic programs generate more than $100m in annual revenue. Each of those states has moved to draw new maps to limit Black voting representation, following the supreme court's Louisiana v Callais decision severely weakening the Voting Rights Act. Continue reading...
by Vikram Dodd Police and crime correspondent on (#75QRG)
Force says two women have come forward alleging they were victims of attacks detailed in Epstein filesSurrey police have launched a criminal investigation into allegations of child sexual abuse after two women came forward to say they were the victims of attacks in Britain detailed in the Epstein files.The force said the claims dated back to the 1980s and 1990s, with one in Surrey and allegations concerning Berkshire understood to relate to the Windsor estate. Continue reading...
Friends, family and strangers are reeling after latest mass shooting, an attack being investigated as hate crimeMaya, 13, stood just beyond the yellow police tape, watching as waves of heavily armed police officers locked down the area around the mosque. Hours before, three people had been shot and killed at the Islamic Center of San Diego: the largest mosque in the county, and an important neighborhood gathering spot and place of worship for Maya's family and many others.The seventh-grader, whose mother gave her permission to speak to the media, tapped her nails nervously against her phone. Her teeth chattered in the 70-degree California heat. The gravity of the situation was beginning to sink in in real time, as more people gathered at the scene. Continue reading...
Former first lady delivered veiled but sharp remarks on US politics during speaking tour that began in MelbourneIt was a curious question: who was going to pay $895 (US$640, 476) to see Michelle Obama speak at 12.30pm on a Tuesday in Melbourne? While she is an indisputably excellent public speaker, the ticket prices for Obama's first-ever speaking event in Australia raised a few eyebrows, ranging from the $895 platinum" package (which promised a priority seat, an exclusive" brunch, and a commemorative lanyard and tote bag") to the cheapest seats at $195 a pop.A sign that expectations may have been bigger than our wallets in a cost-of-living crisis: two weeks ago, my cheap" seat at the back was suddenly upgraded to a much better spot due to a recent change in production requirements" that was left unexplained. Another: the visibly empty patches at the front of the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads Continue reading...
Karim Khan is wrong to say he has been exonerated of sexual misconduct. The case must proceed swiftlyThe international criminal court's chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, has been on an exoneration tour, with stops including an interview with Mehdi Hasan and an appearance at the Oxford Union. Accused by a lawyer in his office of repeated sexual misconduct, which he denies, he claims that an internal review of the allegations has vindicated him but the situation is more complex than that.It has been a year since Khan took a leave of absence while the claims against him were investigated as an internal employment matter. That absence has left the ICC under the control of his deputies, with important decisions to be taken in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, and elsewhere. Yet the ICC member states, which have ultimate authority over whether Khan stays or goes, have dawdled, acting as if they had all the time in the world. And the procedure that they relied on to resolve the matter turned out to be a travesty.Kenneth Roth is a Guardian US columnist, visiting professor at Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs, and former executive director of Human Rights Watch. He is the author of Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments. Before joining Human Rights Watch, he served as a federal prosecutor in New York and Washington Continue reading...
Odai Shanah details being among the children forced to huddle in a classroom during attack at the Islamic CenterA nine-year-old boy has described witnessing Monday's deadly shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego, saying that he saw bad stuff" and huddled in closet during the attack.Odai Shanah, whose mother emigrated from war-torn Gaza and settled in southern California two decades ago, told Reuters that he heard a barrage of gunshots coming from outside the walls of the mosque complex, which also houses an Islamic day school. Continue reading...
New electoral maps are erasing Black representations. The effort takes its cues from American historyEarly this month, a single pen stroke effectively ended representative Steve Cohen's career in Congress. The man who has represented Memphis for 19 years will turn 77 later this month, but he wasn't planning on retiring. He hadn't lost any primary. The reason was that his district had been erased around him.A new electoral map, passed by the Republican-led state legislature and signed by Bill Lee, the governor, divides the ninth district three ways. Last week Tennessee Republicans silenced the Black vote here in Memphis to make Republican victories likely," Cohen said in his statement. That's succinct and accurate.Jamil Smith is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
Ruling blocks detentions at three federal courthouses except in rare cases amid protests over tacticsA federal judge in New York has banned US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from arresting immigrants in or around three federal courthouses in lower Manhattan, where vigorous confrontations have played out since the start of Donald Trump's second presidency.Under an order issued on Monday by P Kevin Castel, a US district judge, federal agents are no longer allowed to make arrests of immigrants except under exceptional circumstances at the sites where hearings are held before immigration judges. Continue reading...
As resistance to data centers grows, Musk and others are painting a rosy picture. But the US must institute protectionsAs Americans grow increasingly worried that AI will wipe out millions of jobs and create a permanent new underclass, tech billionaires are rushing to reassure us not to worry - the subtext being: please don't bring out the anti-AI pitchforks.Even Elon Musk, who recently merged SpaceX with his AI company, has joined the effort, essentially telling people don't worry, be happy" about AI. Musk wrote last month that Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the Federal government" would save everyone thrown out of work by AI.Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labor and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues Continue reading...
Tommy Carstensen oversees one of the most sophisticated archives of Epstein materials, while Tristan Lee's database allows searches of faces who appear in the filesBefore the US Department of Justice (DoJ) missed a legally mandated, December 2025 deadline to release unclassified files related to the prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein, the Denmark-based data scientist and bioinformatician Tommy Carstensen was not especially concerned with the case of the accused sex trafficker.I hadn't even watched the Netflix documentary," he said. Continue reading...
Teenage suspects died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds, say officials. Plus, why American women want to leave the US at twice the rate of men Don't already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.Authorities are investigating a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego as a hate crime.What do we know about the suspects? The mother of one of the suspects had called police about two hours prior, informing them that her son was missing along with several of her weapons and her vehicle. Police were looking for the teenager and his friend when they received a 911 call from ICSD.What is Trump claiming now? That the leaders of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia approached Washington over the chance of making a deal that would be very acceptable" to the US, and stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.... and Iran? Its foreign military spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, claimed Pakistan had shared Iran's latest proposal with the US. There were contradictory reports from Islamabad, which has acted as mediator: one source appeared pessimistic, while others said Tehran had made concessions. Continue reading...
by Ashifa Kassam European community affairs correspon on (#75QDT)
As many as 40% of women aged 15 to 44 say they want to migrate, citing better work life balance to Trump's politicsIt was in 2022, when Americans were reeling from the news that the supreme court had overturned Roe v Wade, that Jen Barnett got a firsthand glimpse of just how viable her new business could be.Days before the court ruling, she had launched a website aimed at Americans looking to move abroad. As confusion and consternation set in over what the ruling meant for US women, Barnett watched traffic to her website steadily tick upward. We had this huge spike." Continue reading...
Ben Crump says $4.85m police settlement over fatal traffic stop helps to show how truth must always come to light'No amount of money can erase" the pain that motorist Ronald Greene's death at the hands of Louisiana police inflicted on his loved ones, but a $4.85m settlement which the state has agreed to pay his family helps illustrate how the truth must always come to light", their attorney has said.Ben Crump recently expressed those sentiments in a statement that served as one of his and his clients' first public reactions to news first reported by the Guardian that mediation talks on 12 May had yielded a settlement between Louisiana authorities and Greene's family. Continue reading...
Election in Allentown pits three establishment insiders against a firefighter with a populist messageAllentown, Pennsylvania, is the kind of place the national media brings up every now and then to talk about the troubles of the working class. That's for good reason: the city is a great stand-in for America's blue-collar blues. Billy Joel even wrote a song about it. The same goes for neighboring Bethlehem, which once was home to the largest steelmaking operation in the world. That operation shuttered in 2003 and was replaced by a casino.No doubt the Lehigh valley has seen better days. But it's not all in the rear view. In fact, this week this blue-collar bastion could decide the future of the Democratic party.Dustin Guastella is a research associate at the Center for Working Class Politics and the director of operations for Teamsters Local 623 Continue reading...
Republican critic of president faces challenge from Ed Gallrein, while Georgia and Pennsylvania hold key contestsThe biggest day of primaries yet arrives Tuesday, with voters in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Alabama, Oregon and Idaho, heading to the polls to select candidates ahead of November's midterm elections.While many primaries will be resolved with little drama, some have shaped up to be among the most contentious elections of the year so far, serving as gauges of Donald Trump's control of Republicans, and the direction Democratic voters are looking to steer their party as they seek to retake control of Congress. Continue reading...
by Rachel Savage in Johannesburg and agencies on (#75QBV)
Trump has repeatedly made false claims that white Afrikaners facing genocide with costs of resettling them at $100mThe US government has said it will increase the number of white South Africans it admits as refugees this year from about 7,500 to 17,500, claiming that unforeseen developments in South Africa created an emergency refugee situation."Since starting his second term in office last year, Donald Trump has repeatedly made false claims that white Afrikaners are racially targeted and face a white genocide", which South Africa's government has furiously rebutted. Continue reading...
Democratic senators called extension indefensible gift' to Vladimir Putin as supply concerns keep Brent oil above $110 per barrelThe US has announced another 30-day extension of a sanctions waiver allowing purchases of Russian seaborne oil to aid energy-vulnerable" countries hit by the Iran war, reversing plans not to grant an extension.Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said the Treasury was issuing the 30-day general license after a previous waiver lapsed on Saturday. This will allow temporary access to Russian oil and petroleum products stranded on tankers without violating severe US sanctions on Russian oil majors, he said. Continue reading...
President says he has instructed US military to be ready for a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment's notice' - key US politics stories from Monday 18 MayDonald Trump says he has called off a planned attack on Iran at the behest of Gulf states so talks could continue.In a post to his Truth Social platform, the US president claimed that the leaders of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia had approached Washington because of the chance of reaching a deal that would be very acceptable" to the US, and preclude Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Continue reading...
Former House speaker, who had not yet weighed in, declared Connie Chan best prepared' to represent cityNancy Pelosi on Monday endorsed Connie Chan, a San Francisco supervisor, in the race to succeed her as the city's representative in Congress, calling her the candidate who stands above the rest".Pelosi, the first woman to serve as speaker of the House, will retire at the end of her term and had not yet weighed in on the contested primary for the San Francisco district she has held for nearly 40 years. But as early mail-in ballots trickle in ahead of the 2 June primary, Pelosi declared Chan the leader best prepared to carry forward the fight for San Francisco in the Congress". Continue reading...
Fuhrman, who found bloody glove at Simpson's home, charged with perjury after audio revealed use of racial slursFormer Los Angeles police detective Mark Fuhrman, who was convicted of lying during testimony at the OJ Simpson murder trial, has died.Fuhrman was one of the first two police detectives sent to investigate the 1994 killings of Simpson's ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman, in Los Angeles. He reported finding a bloody glove at Simpson's home, but his credibility came under attack during the trial as the defense raised the prospect of racial bias. Continue reading...
Fire on Santa Rosa Island in Channel Islands national park becomes state's largest this year and threatens rare plantsA wildfire that broke out on an island in the Channel Islands national park has become California's largest wildfire so far this year, burning through more than 10,000 acres, destroying historic structures and endangering rare plant communities that conservationists had struggled to reclaim.About six dozen firefighters have been deployed to control the blaze, which broke out on Friday, but their efforts have been undermined by strong winds. The fire is now at 0% containment, according to a Cal Fire incident report. Continue reading...
Teenage suspects die of self-inflicted gunshot wounds, officials say, as FBI investigates shooting as hate crimeThree people were killed in a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego, California, in what authorities said was being investigated as a hate crime.Two suspects, aged 17 and 19, were also dead from apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds, officials said. The FBI said it was looking for information from the public as it investigated the shooting. The bureau had set up a tip line. Continue reading...
Trump claims number of medications available via the discount program will increase nearly sevenfoldDonald Trump has announced a major expansion of his prescription drug website, TrumpRx, claiming the number of medications available via the discount program will increase nearly sevenfold.Experts raised questions earlier this year about the limited number of drugs listed on the site, suggesting they would appeal to a relatively small group of patients. Continue reading...
by Hosted by Kai Wright , produced by Monica Espitia on (#75Q2F)
All month, people all over the world have been nervously watching as the Hantavirus spread aboard a cruise ship called the MV Hondius. Three people from the ship died and as the virus spread to other passengers, people wondered - is this the next pandemic? It isn't. But as Guardian health correspondent Melody Schreiber tells host Kai Wright, the outbreak revealed how Trump's cuts to government funding for public health and a climate of rampant misinformation have affected our readiness for the next pandemic. Continue reading...
Fire reported in Simi Valley, north-west of LA, as mandatory evacuation orders issued for more than 20,000 residentsA fast-growing brush fire ignited on Monday morning in southern California, prompting evacuation orders for thousands of people and damaging at least one home.The Sandy fire was reported just after 10am in Simi Valley, a city in Ventura county about 30 miles north-west of Los Angeles. Continue reading...
Christian Castro charged with five counts over shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis in Trump immigration crackdownThe federal officer who shot a Venezuelan man during the Trump administration's militarized immigration crackdown in Minnesota was charged with assault on Monday.There is a nationwide warrant for the arrest of Christian Castro, 52, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot Julio Sosa-Celis on 14 January. A state investigation into the incident had been hampered by federal agencies' refusal to share information with state prosecutors. Continue reading...
About 36% of children whose parents were detained were younger than six, Brookings Institution study foundMore than 145,000 US children have likely experienced a parent being detained by immigration authorities since the start of Donald Trump's second presidency, according to a new report published by a reputed US thinkthank.The report, released Monday by the Brookings Institution, estimates that about 146,635 children who are US citizens have had a parent detained during the mass deportation campaign the Trump administration embarked on after he retook office in early January. The study further found that of those children, more than 22,000 experienced the detention of all of their co-resident parents. Continue reading...
Deal would create largest regulated US utility, serving 10 million customers as AI-driven demand for power surgesNextEra, a US energy giant, announced on Monday that it will buy Dominion Energy in a $67bn deal, creating what the companies say will be the world's largest regulated utility business.The deal comes as the appetite for energy sources has swelled with the construction of massive datacenters across the country, built largely to supply rising demand for AI. Continue reading...
Can a new trial bring justice in the case of the disgraced South Carolina lawyer whose conviction for killing his wife and son has been vacated after court clerk's misconduct?Alex Murdaugh was not in court last Wednesday when a South Carolina appeals court vacated his 2023 double-murder conviction in the latest stunning twist in a legal saga that has captivated America and the world with its southern gothic tale of murder, betrayal and financial skullduggery.Prison regulations had prevented the disgraced lawyer from watching a live stream at the high-security McCormick correctional institution. Nor were any of his relatives present, including son Buster, the only surviving member of his immediate family. Continue reading...
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