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The Vaillancourt fountain, an enormous sculpture in place since the 1970s, has been equally reviled and reveredIt was a surreal, fitting end for one of San Francisco's most divisive public artworks: the Vaillancourt fountain, an enormous concrete sculpture looming over Embarcadero Plaza since the 1970s, had burst into flames.The hulking fountain's angled arms were being dismantled in early May after the city voted to potentially replace it with an open, grassy park - a decision mourned by skateboarders like myself, who argued the city was losing an important piece of its skate culture and architectural heritage. Continue reading...

James Clyburn could now find his district dismantled after supreme court effectively gutted Voting Rights ActSouth Carolina has had exactly one Black representative in Congress since 1897: James Clyburn. A proposal to redraw the state's political map would dismantle the district he represents.The state's sixth congressional district starts on its southern border with Georgia, in the suburbs of Savannah, moving a hundred miles north to wind around the heart of Charleston, before cutting through Black belt farmland to the state capital of Columbia, another 115 miles away. Continue reading...

The FTC settled its case with Media Matters for America. But it doesn't have to win in court to achieve its goalsIs there something radically left" about being anti-Nazi? That was the question a judge put to the lawyer for the Federal Trade Commission, which has no good answer.This week, the FTC abruptly settled its case with Media Matters for America, a media watchdog the FTC had been investigating over its reports about pro-Nazi content running alongside ads on X. Those reports drove advertisers off the platform and prompted X owner Elon Musk to threaten a thermonuclear lawsuit". Continue reading...

Pilot program to reimburse patients for hemp-derived products could be undermined by ban passed by CongressThe Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently started a new pilot to reimburse patients for hemp-derived products - like CBD - but a hemp ban that Congress passed in November could derail the program.The new program will make certain Medicare and Medicaid recipients eligible for reimbursement for up to $500 worth of hemp products each year and is intended in part to evaluate whether these products could reduce their other health related costs. Continue reading...

The 2022 World Cup failed to deliver on its environmental promises. From air travel emissions to heat-related dangers, the 2026 edition will be even worseSoccer fans are increasingly watching preparations for the 2026 World Cup through their fingers. The most popular sporting event on the planet is awash in controversy, whether it's the eye-watering ticket prices, the question of Iran's participation while the president of one of the host countries threatens war crimes against it, or the role that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement may or may not play in policing the event. And yet, lost in the political pyrotechnics is a fiasco that carries as much long-term peril as any: the tournament's staggering contribution to runaway climate change.The 2026 World Cup is not only the most politically combustible tournament in modern history, but it is also on track to be the most polluting" World Cup ever, with total greenhouse gas emissions hitting nearly two times the historical average. Scientists conservatively project that the tournament will generate around 9m tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. Air travel comprises approximately 7.7m tons of this carbon budget, and more than four times that of the average for tournaments held between 2010 and 2022. The researchers note that the worst-case upper estimate for air transport is about 13.7m tons of CO2. That may sound bad, but that's just because World Cup emissions have never been worse. Continue reading...

Carmakers aim to expand into UK defence sector, exploiting spending boom by Nato countriesJaguar Land Rover and General Motors are considering an expansion into UK defence via a 900m military contract, as carmakers seek to exploit a spending boom by Nato countries racing to rearm.The manufacturers are among a group of automotive firms vying to make thousands of 4x4s for the armed forces to replace an ageing fleet of Land Rovers that have been out of production since 2016. Continue reading...

Plummeting approval ratings for these three poisonous comrades-in-arms show voters are demoralised and tiring of forever wars - the west could soon breathe againFeeling depressed about the state of the world? Worried about the future? You're not alone. Pessimism about politics is the new normal among the peoples of the west. Major conflicts in Europe and the Middle East and the harms caused by right-left extremism, stagnating economies, inequality, corruption, terrorism, racism, big tech, mass extinctions and the climate crisis make for shared nightmares.Growing numbers of people simply refuse to personally engage with current events via the news media, finding them too anxiety-inducing (so they probably won't be reading this). In a Reuters Institute survey last year, 40% of respondents in about 50 countries said they sometimes or often avoid the news altogether, a rise of 29% on 2017.Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator Continue reading...

Cassidy's bid to win nomination for third term was imperiled by his vote to convict Trump after January 6 insurrectionThe Republican senator Bill Cassidy lost his primary on Saturday, as voters in Louisiana opted instead to advance two challengers to a runoff election after an extraordinary intervention by Donald Trump to oust the incumbent.Cassidy's bid to win the Republican party's nomination for a third term in the deep-red state was imperiled by his decision to vote in favor of Trump's conviction after the January 6 insurrection. In what was widely seen as an effort to rehabilitate his standing with the president, Cassidy last year cast the deciding vote to advance vaccine skeptic Robert F Kennedy Jr's nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, flying in the face of the senator's support for immunizations and training as a physician. Continue reading...

Proposal to fund $1bn in security additions for White House campus and president's new ballroom fails to meet procedural rulesA US Senate official on Saturday removed security funding that could be used for Donald Trump's planned $400m White House ballroom from a massive spending package, Democratic lawmakers said, imperiling Republican efforts to devote taxpayer money to the contentious project.The decision by the Senate's parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, deals a blow to Trump and his administration, which has sought the money for security purposes related to the ballroom. Continue reading...

If case is settled for full amount Trump is requesting, a $10bn payment would more than double his family's net worth - key US politics stories from Saturday, 16 May at a glanceDonald Trump may agree to drop his massive $10bn lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service in exchange for the launch of a $1.7bn fund to compensate people he says were wrongfully targeted by the Biden administration, according to reports.The case is the latest example of how Trump has taken over the justice department - which typically operates at arm's length from the White House - and deployed it for his own ends. Continue reading...

Parents had sued to halt law, saying they had the right to make decisions regarding the health of their childrenA Kansas judge has temporarily blocked a law banning gender-transition treatments for minors in the state.The state district judge Carl Folsom III granted an injunction requested by the parents of two teenagers who want to continue gender-transition treatment with medicines. Folsom's decision halts the enforcement of a recently approved state law that banned such treatments. Continue reading...

Updates from the third round at Aronimink Golf Club

The Wolves probably won't win a title without big roster changes, but their postseason run made their case as one of the league's most entertaining teamsThe Minnesota Timberwolves are out of the NBA playoffs. It's a miracle it took this long. In their first-round series against the Denver Nuggets, they saw two starters and another key reserve suffer significant injuries. The Nuggets entered the series on a 12-game winning streak and were favored from the jump. After somehow winning that series in six games, finding Denver's weak points and pummeling them until they broke, the Wolves met an even more daunting opponent in the San Antonio Spurs. Though they'd have been forgiven for tiredly accepting a sweep, the Wolves swiped Game 1 on the Spurs' home floor, then a close Game 4 at home. After that, the tank finally ran empty. But even in the losses - including Friday night's in Game 6 - the Wolves found ways to frighten. They'd go down 18-3 and then tie the game by the end of the first quarter. They'd tighten a 29-point deficit to 12 entering half-time. The tenacity and spite they played with was a finite resource, but at times this postseason it was potent enough to convince me otherwise.The Wolves were not the deepest team in these playoffs, nor the most consistent. They may lie closer to the bottom of those categories than the top. After their elimination, coach Chris Finch and players alike admitted they'd failed to take the regular season seriously enough, failing to set themselves up well for the high-stakes games of April and May. (My old teachers probably shared a similar sense of disappointment in me before finals.) And yet this odd bunch regularly play some of the most soulful basketball in the NBA. Anthony Edwards can take over a game at any time, either by shooting deep threes or acrobatic layups. French albatross Rudy Gobert anchors the defense, which the team plays with astonishing vigor at its best. The best athletes are sometimes so clinical that they produce a rather emotionless watching experience, but certain passages of Timberwolves basketball inspire in me feelings of pure glee. Continue reading...

In unprecedented self-dealing maneuver, billions of taxpayer dollars could be paid to US president and his alliesThere is growing concern Donald Trump's massive $10bn lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service may soon be settled by his own administration - an unprecedented, self-dealing maneuver for a US president, in which billions of taxpayer dollars could be transferred to the president or his allies.Trump may agree to drop his lawsuit in exchange for the launch of a $1.7bn fund to compensate people he says were wrongfully targeted by the Biden administration, according to reports by ABC News and the New York Times. Continue reading...

Workers at the Long Island Rail Road, serving the eastern New York metropolitan area, walked off the job on SaturdayNorth America's largest commuter rail system was shut down on Saturday after unionized workers in the New York City area went on strike.The Long Island Rail Road that serves the city's eastern suburbs ceased operations on early Saturday morning after five unions representing about half its workforce walked off the job. Continue reading...

Republican said she hoped recent commutation of Tina Peters by governor would free up federal funding for clean drinking waterRepublican congresswoman Lauren Boebert suggested that Donald Trump blocked funds for a clean drinking water project in her state over the prosecution of election denier Tina Peters.Colorado's governor, Jared Polis, commuted Peters' nearly nine-year prison sentence on Friday, ordering her release on 1 June. The former Colorado county clerk had allowed unauthorized people to access voting records amid efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, in which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Continue reading...

The centers are diverting much-needed resources from regular people. Local resistance has the industry playing defenseBack in 2016, Marco Gutierrez, the Mexican-born founder of Latinos for Trump, issued an ominous warning to the US. My culture is a very dominant culture," he said on MSNBC. It is imposing and it's causing problems. If you don't do something about it, you're going to have taco trucks on every corner."A decade later, I regret to inform you there is not a taco truck on every corner. But I am here to issue my own ominous warning about the takeover of America: not by immigrant culture but by AI culture. To echo Gutierrez: it is imposing and it's causing problems. And if we don't do something about it, we're going to have datacenters on every corner.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

No swift end to the Iran war, uncertainty over Taiwan and only vague outlines of commercial deals ... but the US president did get to bask in the company of Xi JinpingIt was historic, to be sure, but not as anyone had predicted. First there was Donald Trump, a self-declared teetotaler, apparently drinking champagne after Xi Jinping assured him that China's great rejuvenation" could go hand in hand with Make America great again". Then there was a Chinese military band playing a rendition of the US president's signature campaign song, YMCA.Beneath giant chandeliers, blue and gold balconies and a big orange backdrop with pagoda-style roofs, Thursday's state banquet in Beijing featured characters whose presence would have been unthinkable here a decade ago: Elon Musk, the eccentric tech billionaire, Pete Hegseth, the Fox News host turned secretary of war", and of course Trump himself, a former reality TV star now leading the world's biggest superpower. Continue reading...

Congressman Thomas Massie, chastized by the US president as a lowlife', will soon face the ballot box - setting up a crucial test of Trump's political strengthAt Pee Wee's Place, a bar and restaurant in Crescent Springs, northern Kentucky, biscuits and gravy go for $6 and liver and onions for $14.75. The walls are adorned with US flags, sports memorabilia, amusement machines, a TV showing Fox News and a poster that proclaims: Let the gays get married. Let the rednecks have their guns. Let the atheists be atheists. Let the Christians be Christians. America is about FREEDOM."Sitting at the bar, John Johnson, 78, and his son Lance, 47, are discussing an upcoming election in which Thomas Massie, a maverick congressman, is aiming to prove that a Republican can defy Donald Trump and survive. I'm leaning to Massie because I like his attitude when it comes to being straight up on issues," says John, a contractor who voted for Trump in 2024. Him and Trump beat off each other every now and then, but he's a constitutionalist, he speaks his piece and he's right a lot of times." Continue reading...

If there's no proof of aliens, the president can blame the deep state. If there's proof, he's a hero. Either way, it helps his popularityThe US Department of Defense released the first batch of its UFO files last week at the direction of the president, Donald Trump, who promised to make them public based on the tremendous interest shown".Trump's right, of course. Nearly half of Americans believe aliens have visited Earth, and many believe that the government is hoarding the evidence in some shadowy laboratory or military base. This conspiracy began in 1947 at Roswell, New Mexico, when the Roswell army airfield issued a news release about the crash of a flying disc", and has never truly gone away. Continue reading...

Dr Tracy Beth Hoeg, the Food and Drug Administration's top drug regulator, says she was fired from agency after declining to resignIn a major shake-up at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), top regulators left on Friday - including Tracy Beth Hoeg, the acting drug chief, who says she was fired, and Katherine Szarama, the acting vaccines chief who has only been in the position for days. Jim Traficant, the chief of staff, has also been ousted.The FDA now has no permanent commissioner or deputy commissioner and no permanent leaders of two major centers, after the resignation of Marty Makary on Tuesday and other high-profile departures. Continue reading...

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Trump notably failed to push back on Xi Jinping's rhetoric over the future of Taiwan - key US politics stories from Friday, 15 May at a glanceDonald Trump returned to Washington DC on Friday after a much-hyped summit in China that was rich in pageantry and promises of stability, but offered little by way of tangible progress.The US president had gone into the two-day talks with China's Xi Jinping weakened by his prolonged war in Iran, and did little to change the perception that he and his nation are diminished on the global stage. Continue reading...

Proposal comes after seven states drawing water from drought-stricken river failed to come to an agreementThe US government has proposed a plan for the drought stricken Colorado River that could cut up to 40% of current supplies to Arizona, California and Nevada, as the waterway's reservoirs continue to plunge to critically low levels.A top Arizona water official shared details of the Trump administration's plan at a state meeting on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Maverick McNealy and Alex Smalley share the lead on halfway at the US PGA Championship at AroniminkScottie Scheffler's third at 10, from 44 yards, is no good. It's 20 feet shy of the flag. He can't make the par saver, and that's an immediate backwards step for the world number one and tournament favourite. Matt Fitzpatrick bogeys too, and it's a double for Justin Rose. They're -2, +1 and +2 respectively. Meanwhile on Sky, Laura Davies asks Wayne Riley what he thinks the leader will be on at the end of the day. Five under, he answers, without a beat of hesitation. In other words, good luck trying to go low, gentlemen. It's going to be another hugely entertaining day!Rose gathers himself and sends a decent wedge into 10, from 77 yards to 16 feet. He'll have a look at a damage-limiting bogey. Meanwhile Scottie's lie in the rough on the left isn't great, and he's forced to take his medicine, punching back out onto the fairway. Even the strongest hitters in the business aren't of a mind to take liberties with this rough. To think everyone was talking about bringing Aronimink to its knees with some bomb and gouge at the start of the week! A textbook study in hubris, and that's before we get around to the subjects of Rory and Bryson. Continue reading...

Order, issued without any noted dissent, is the latest twist in the nation's mid-decade redistricting competitionThe supreme court on Friday rejected Virginia's bid to restore a congressional map that would have given Democrats a chance to pick up four seats in the closely divided House of Representatives.The court's order, issued without any noted dissent, is the latest twist in the nation's mid-decade redistricting competition . It was kicked off last year by Donald Trump urging Republican-controlled states to redraw their lines and was supercharged by a recent supreme court ruling severely weakening the Voting Rights Act that opened up even more winnable seats for the Republican party. Continue reading...

The state's governor commuted Peters' sentence after a White House pressure campaign against ColoradoTina Peters, a Colorado election clerk, had her prison sentence commuted on Friday by Colorado's governor, Jared Polis, after months of pressure from Donald Trump and other conservatives.The move drew immediate rebuke from Colorado Democrats, including the US senator and former governor John Hickenlooper. Continue reading...

One of the largest pediatric hospitals in the US will pay state $10m and stop offering gender-affirming care to youthOne of the largest pediatric hospitals in the US is creating a clinic that officials say will be a place for transgender youth to detransition to the sex they were assigned at birth.The news came on Friday, when Texas children's hospital reached a settlement agreement with the state's attorney general and the US justice department over allegations that the Houston-based medical center billed Texas Medicaid to cover gender-affirming care under false diagnosis codes, among other claims. Continue reading...

In June 2025, Christian Cerna went to a protest in his neighborhood against ICE raids and allegedly punched a border patrol agent. He later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault, but denies that he ever hit the officer. Days after the protest, Christian was violently arrested in front of his family by ICE officers, who filmed the whole operation and later posted it to social media. Christian tells Carter Sherman how the experience took a "heavy toll" on him and Sam Levin reveals the reporting behind the story Continue reading...

Russian drone attacks on Kyiv, Israeli strikes in Lebanon, Trump in Beijing and a mural of Lamine Yamal - the past seven days as captured by the world's leading photojournalists Continue reading...

Leon Botstein announced his retirement on the day the results of the inquiry into his connections with Epstein were releasedBard College's board of trustees voted to end" the 51-year tenure of Leon Botstein, the school's president, last month after board members were presented with the results of an independent review of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, according to emails seen by the Guardian. Botstein framed his departure as a long-planned retirement in a statement on 1 May.The move appears to have created a rift within the liberal arts college's board of trustees. Continue reading...

New map reshapes representative Steve Cohen's majority-Black Memphis district and gives advantage to RepublicansDemocratic representative Steve Cohen of Tennessee on Friday announced that he is ending his bid for re-election, his career upended by the redistricting battles that are sweeping the country after last month's supreme court decision.Republicans in Tennessee this month enacted a new US House map that carves up Cohen's majority-Black district, reshaping it to the GOP's advantage as part of Donald Trump's strategy to hold on to a slim majority in the November midterm elections. Continue reading...

The president's meeting with Xi Jinping was superficially cordial, extending a truce borne of necessityAmerican strength back on the world stage," crowed the White House social media post: a curious remark, when the attached video showed the stars and stripes fluttering beneath a long row of Chinese flags, and People's Liberation Army soldiers marching in unison.This week's visit to Beijing offered the kind of style that Donald Trump enjoys - parading troops, a banquetand a polite if not markedly enthusiastic welcome from a strongman he called really a friend" - but little apparent substance. The public account of the encounter will be partial: Mr Trump's former adviser John Bolton has claimed that in previous conversations the US president begged Xi Jinping for help to win re-election and urged him to go ahead" with internment camps for Uyghurs in Xinjiang. But this meeting appears to have been about stabilising therelationship, not shifting it. Continue reading...

Canada's Intact Financial Corp is said to be exploring offer, as London-listed Tate & Lyle attracts US suitorShares in Hiscox surged to record highs on Friday as it became the latest UK takeover target after a flurry of overseas bids for British businesses this week.Canada's Intact Financial Corp, which provides property and casualty insurance, is said to be exploring a potential takeover of Lloyd's of London insurer Hiscox, according to a report by the Insurance Post. Continue reading...

Mississippi politicians are threatening to redraw the district of Bennie Thompson, the state's lone Democrat in CongressThe supreme court decision that effectively gutted the Voting Rights Act (VRA) was red meat to the Republican legislators of the south" the US House representative Bennie Thompson said.Conservative lawmakers in Mississippi, where Thompson is both the state's lone Black and only Democratic congressional representative, have used the opportunity to explicitly target him, threatening to redraw the second congressional district, that he represents. Continue reading...

After a much-hyped US-China summit, the leaders of the world's two biggest powers made no real breakthroughs on big issues, such as Iran, Taiwan and trade. The Guardian's senior China correspondent, Amy Hawkins, breaks down how Donald Trump and Xi Jinping focused on growing their personal rapport instead

US president has said he and Chinese leader settled a lot of different problems' but has given little detail on solutions

Pennsylvania's third district, a Democratic bastion, will see a face-off between party's traditional wing and insurgentsDemocrats have been consumed for the better part of two years by the same question: what went wrong in 2024? Next week, voters in the country's bluest district will render a verdict when they choose a candidate for the 2026 midterm elections.Nearly every faultline currently running through Democratic politics - from Gaza and healthcare to immigration enforcement and the role of corporate money in politics - is at the heart of the party's race for Pennsylvania's third district. Continue reading...

With the primary election less than three weeks away, the gubernatorial and mayoral races have taken a fiery turnSparring on the debate stage, well-timed statements addressing the slightest misstep by an opponent and countless social media jabs: election season is heating up in California's major primaries.With the primary election less than three weeks away, the gubernatorial and mayoral races have taken a fiery turn as candidates undergo last-ditch efforts to convince voters of their governance chops. Continue reading...

US president offers no news of any breakthrough on Iran. Plus, how renters' rights could be key issue in midterms

No one has more at stake than Kamala Harris - who has signaled' support for its release without saying so publiclyAfter several months of heated arguments over whether the Democratic National Committee (DNC) should release its autopsy report on the 2024 election, the dispute has neared a boiling point. With one recent media appearance after another, the DNC chair, Ken Martin, has set off fierce criticism and even derision, while offering notably illogical explanations for keeping the autopsy secret.As the controversy simmers, no one has more at stake than the party's latest standard-bearer. Kamala Harris, apparently preparing for another run, leads in polls for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination. One of the last things she needs is a widely publicized narrative from the DNC about failures of her 2024 campaign. A maxim from George Orwell applies: who controls the past controls the future" and who controls the present controls the past". Continue reading...

Mirroring of each other's attire may signal alignment - though the look wasn't a huge departure for either leaderWhen Donald Trump and Xi Jinping met for a welcome ceremony in Tiananmen Square this week with the world's gaze on them, they mirrored one another in strikingly similar suits.Both were blue, single-breasted with flap pockets. Both had two buttons with only the top one done up. Both wore red ties. Continue reading...

The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, gave the US president, Donald Trump, a tour of Beijing's walled-off Zhongnanhai compound in the concluding hours of their summit on Friday. Among the notable ancient trees Xi showed Trump was the 'Lianli Bai', two cypress trees whose trunks have grown together.A hot mic captured the leaders' remarks, in which Trump asked Xi if other foreign leaders were also received in the compound. 'Very rarely,' Xi responded. Continue reading...

The president's ultimate goal is to push the Fed - among other independent US institutions - to bend to his willJerome Powell, who stepped down this week as chair of the Federal Reserve, had his hits and misses. The Fed was late to react as prices started rising when the Covid pandemic abated, but they eventually acted forcefully and achieved the most rare of feats: a soft landing", curbing inflation without sparking a recession or damaging employment.Strangely, given the chaotic era of pandemic and tariffs that coincided with Powell's time as chair, monetary policy may not define his legacy. Powell's most lasting accomplishment will most likely be his outspoken efforts to defend the independence of the Fed from an assault by the imperial presidency of Donald Trump. Continue reading...