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Anthony Odiong was convicted of sexually abusing congregants; a chapel he helped found is distancing itselfAt the suburban New Orleans healing chapel he once helped build in his role as a Roman Catholic priest, Anthony Odiong's name had already been removed hours after he had been convicted in Texas on Friday of criminal clergy sexual assault.What remained inscribed among lists of hundreds of benefactors outside the Our Lady of Guadalupe chapel in Luling, Louisiana, were the names of two women whom Waco, Texas, prosecutors revealed were part of a broader group whom Odiong victimized before his conviction on charges of illicitly exploiting his spiritual authority as a clergyman to pursue sex with devout female parishioners. Continue reading...

There is little sign of clarity in the closing stretch of a campaign season for governor, Congress and LA mayorCalifornians are frustrated and underwhelmed heading into Tuesday's primary election, where voters will eliminate all but two candidates in the volatile race for governor, the messy battle for Los Angeles mayor and a series of congressional contests that could determine control of the US House in November.With days left before the 2 June primary, there is little sign of the clarity that typically emerges in the closing stretch of a contested California campaign season. The race to succeed term-limited Democratic governor Gavin Newsom appears to have settled into a tight three-way contest among Democrats Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer and Republican Steve Hilton, while voters in Los Angeles remain divided over whether to stand by embattled mayor Karen Bass or entertain a challenger. Continue reading...

As long as you remain angry at the city, you can ignore the candidate's lack of experience or inability to articulate actual policyI vote by mail in every election these days, as is my right as a mostly lazy natural-born American citizen. Fill in a few bubbles with black ink, chuck the thing into the nearest dropbox, and consider myself a functioning member of society for a brief moment. Now that my son is old enough to ask me coherent questions about my daily life, he was highly interested in what the hell I was doing as I marked the form. I'm voting," I said tersely, lest I divert my attention fully from the bubble-filling. Don't vote for Spencer Pratt, daddy," he responded. I hear he's a jerk." The word seems to be spreading.Every local TV station and streaming app is turgid and bloated with political ads these days. My son might be old enough to ask me who I'm voting for, but he's not old enough to understand why. That doesn't stop campaigns from serving him countless commercials pleading with him to consider (or reconsider) a certain candidate. He's now nominally aware of allegations of sexual misconduct against LA city controller Kenneth Mejia (which Mejia has denied) and the Orange County congressman Ken Calvert's run-in with a sex worker. What a joy it is to be a parent in 2026.Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist Continue reading...

With three top stadiums, Inglewood is remaking itself as a host of world-class events - and while some locals love the transformation, others feel left behindMelisa Arnold's morning walks around the neighborhood are orchestrated by the staccato beat of jackhammers and the roar of airplanes pointed to and from Los Angeles international airport. This is Inglewood, she says, and its soundscape.After retiring from her human resources and payroll job last year, Arnold, 66, walks for miles around the city she has called home since 1985. Her route takes her past the sports and entertainment hub, which includes the remodeled Kia Forum and the new Intuit Dome. She walks by SoFi Stadium, which will soon host World Cup games. Next year, the Super Bowl is scheduled to return. And in 2028, Olympic events will arrive. Continue reading...

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Three men killed in third attack this week amid Trump administration's campaign against alleged drug boatsThe US military said it had carried out another strike Friday on a boat accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing three men in the third attack this week and pushing the overall death toll above 200 people.US Southern Command announced the latest strike in the months-long campaign against alleged drug boats traversing the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific with its usual language that the vessel was engaged in narco-trafficking operations" and operated by a designated terrorist organization. It provided no evidence. Continue reading...

Order bars government from taking other further action' in the creation or operation of the fund so a case challenging it can continue - key US politics stories from Friday, 29 May at a glanceA federal judge in Virginia temporarily blocked the Trump administration from transferring any money into a secretive and loosely controlled $1.8bn fund while a legal challenge proceeds.The order from US district judge Leonie Brinkema on Friday bars the government from taking other further action" in the creation or operation of the fund while legal arguments in a case challenging the fund continue. The order is intended to ensure no funds are irreversibly disbursed from the Anti-Weaponization Fund", Brinkema wrote. Continue reading...

Discovery brings death toll from chemical tank rupture in Longview to nine, with two workers still unaccounted forCrews on Friday recovered the remains of one more victim of a massive chemical tank rupture at a paper mill in Washington state, bringing the death toll to nine people and leaving two workers still unaccounted for.Among the 11 workers presumed killed in the disaster were two brothers who worked there together, a trivia champ and an electrician who would help his farmer neighbors cut hay. Continue reading...

Executive order recognizes health department assessment as guide for federal government for childhood vaccinesAn executive order signed by Donald Trump with little fanfare on Friday could have a huge impact on the health of US children, as it instructs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to cut the number of recommended childhood vaccines almost in half.The vague language of the order, which refers to a scientific assessment that compared United States childhood immunization recommendations with those of peer nations" published in January by anti-vaccine activist Robert F Kennedy's health and human services department, does not explicitly state that the new recommendation removes vaccines against seven diseases from the schedule.hepatitis Ahepatitis BmeningitisrotavirusinfluenzaCovid-19 Continue reading...

Announcement coincides with reports of influx of federal agents to Delaney Hall, site of protests and hunger strikeTop New Jersey officials announced on Friday that the state police will be taking over policing functions from federal immigration officers outside the contentious Delaney Hall facility, as reports surface of an influx of federal agents making their way to the area.As part of the state police's takeover of public safety operations" at the site, they will establish a peaceful protected zone" for demonstrators and will have protesters move there today", according to New Jersey's governor, Mikie Sherrill, and attorney general, Jennifer Davenport. Continue reading...

Anthony Odiong was charged with exploiting his status to pursue sex with women he was giving spiritual direction toA jury in Texas has convicted a Roman Catholic priest charged with illegally exploiting his status as a clergyman to pursue sex with women to whom he was providing spiritual direction.Eight women and four men found Anthony Odiong, 57, guilty of one charge of sexual assault in the first degree and two such counts in the second degree involving two women, each of whom testified during a trial that began with jury selection on Tuesday in Waco.Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organizations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html Continue reading...

The policy memo issued last week requires many foreigners to obtain green cards through their home countriesA new policy memo issued last week by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), requiring many foreigners in the US to leave the country and obtain green cards through their home countries, has sparked confusion and fear among hundreds of thousands of visa holders and families, as well as immigration advocates and lawyers.Multiple Guardian readers, speaking anonymously out of fear, said the memo threatens to upend lives they have spent years building in the US - from careers and homes to marriages and long-term plans for stability. Continue reading...

Christian Castro charged with assault and falsely reporting a crime after video emerged of non-fatal shooting in January

Ex-attorney general tells House committee she did not lead every aspect' of effort but rather delegated to Todd Blanche

Russian strikes in Kyiv, the Ebola outbreak, Eid al-Adha in Gaza and Sinner at the French Open - the past seven days as captured by the world's leading photojournalists Continue reading...

Judge rules that Washington DC performing arts venue cannot be renamed without an act of CongressA judge on Friday ordered the removal of Donald Trump's name from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, ruling that the iconic Washington DC venue cannot be renamed without an act of Congress.US district judge Christopher Cooper in Washington directed the Trump administration to take down all physical signage bearing Trump's name and to eliminate any references to a Trump Kennedy Center" from official materials within 14 days. Continue reading...

Brandon Johnson, a progressive Democrat, applauded the pope for pushing back against Trump's policies in meetingBrandon Johnson, the Chicago mayor, cast Pope Leo XIV as a powerful global ally on social justice, migration and reparations after meeting the Chicago-born pontiff at the Vatican, saying their shared roots and priorities could help amplify efforts to protect vulnerable communities.We are incredibly elated and proud of him," Johnson told the Associated Press in an interview on Friday, a day after the meeting with the American pope in a private audience. Continue reading...

Case involving June 2025 protest is escalation in Trump officials' attack on first amendment rights, say expertsA federal jury has found three protesters, including a US military veteran of the war in Afghanistan, guilty on felony conspiracy charges on Thursday for their part in a June 2025 protest against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).Legal experts have said the Spokane, Washington, case marked a serious escalation in the Trump administration's attack on first amendment rights. The demonstrators now face potential sentences of up to six years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Continue reading...

The GOP-friendly map approved by state lawmakers now goes to Republican governor who is expected to sign it

David Rush's trial for allegedly taking 303 gold bars and $2m in foreign currency from agency was pushed to next week

The National Spelling Bee, which concluded with Thursday's nationally televised championship finals, invited 247 spellers to compete for a $52,500 cash prize and orthographic immortality

He's always looking out for Number One

Upper East Side residents fighting Maison Estelle's plan for venue with roof terrace next to nice townhouses'The New York City elite are growing irritated by a proliferation of private members' clubs from London's Mayfair opening branches on their doorsteps.Over the last year, London clubs have started popping up like unexpected guests in the US city. The entrepreneur Robin Birley, who owns 5 Hertford Street - where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle reportedly had their first date - and Oswald's in Mayfair, has opened Maxime's on New York's Upper East Side. The Grosvenor Square newcomer The Twenty Two has now opened its NYC outpost and others are swiftly following, including the Mayfair stalwart Annabel's, which plans to open a site in the downtown meatpacking district. Continue reading...

Order blocks White House from taking any further action' on settlement fund until further legal arguments heard

Group was unharmed after dangling for almost four hours on ride that malfunctioned at Pleasure Pier in GalvestonEight students were rescued unharmed after dangling for hours at the top of a rollercoaster ride that became stuck in Texas.Pictures and news footage of the incident showed a rollercoaster car stalled at the peak of a huge almost vertical drop on the Iron Shark rollercoaster overlooking the Gulf of Mexico at the Pleasure Pier in Galveston. Continue reading...

Amtrak car caught fire in Hudson River tunnel resulting in overhead wire damage, according to New Jersey TransitA fire in a rail yard train car near New York's Penn Station injured five people and disrupted service for many commuters early on Friday, authorities said.The fire resulted in train delays on the New Jersey Transit and Amtrak rail services into New York and briefly suspended Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) service, more than a week after a strike had shut down that system. Continue reading...

Republicans increasingly avoid doctors and vaccines, widening health gaps with Democrats, researchers sayGrowing Republican mistrust in the healthcare system has widened health disparities between liberals and conservatives, who are more likely to avoid vaccines and the medical system in general, according to a new study.Neil O'Brian, a political science professor at the University of Carolina, Chapel Hill and one of the authors of the study published in Nature Human Behaviour, said that his team saw two phases to the phenomenon. Continue reading...

Americans spend 18% of our economy on healthcare, nearly twice the average of comparable nations, for worse resultsThe Commonwealth Fund published its 2026 report card on US healthcare this week, measuring the United States against 19 other wealthy countries. It runs the most expensive system on earth, and it buys some of the worst results in the developed world. I have spent more than four decades in the medical intensive care unit at UCLA, and I do not read those numbers as statistics. I read them as the people I admit.We spend 18% of our economy on healthcare, nearly twice the average of comparable nations, and $12,649 a person, roughly 10 times what Mexico spends. For that fortune, American life expectancy peaked at 79 years, more than two years below our peers and third from the bottom of the group, above only Mexico and Turkey. Our rate of deaths that good care should have prevented is the second worst in the developed world. Only Mexico does worse. Continue reading...

Spain led the opposition to Trump's Iran war, but on the Cuba blockade, the challenge is absentFor many Europeans of my generation, Cuba was as much a progressive cause as a country.In our selectively idealistic student days (mine were in the mid-1970s), it was a plucky little country that had overthrown a corrupt regime in cahoots with the US mafia. In a popular revolution led by the charismatic Fidel Castro and iconic guerrilla leader Che Guevara, it then withstood a crippling US economic embargo to defend its independence. Hasta la victoria siempre! (Ever onwards to victory!)Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre Continue reading...

Officials say bodies of two adult women and one child found in rubble and four other people taken to hospital

Three more people remain missing and are presumed dead, after tank containing chemical mixture collapsedThe confirmed death toll in the chemical tank explosion at a Washington state paper mill rose to eight on Thursday after crews recovered the remains of six workers, officials said.Three more individuals remain missing and are presumed dead. Eight other people were injured, including a firefighter responding to the incident. Continue reading...

Shannon O'Connor, 52, was convicted of charges including child endangerment and facilitating forcible sexual assaultA judge has sentenced a San Francisco Bay Area mother to 35 years in prison after her conviction for a slew of crimes resulting from hosting drunken sex parties for young teenagers.Widely known as the Los Gatos party mom", a nickname that references her hometown, 52-year-old Shannon O'Connor was convicted of four dozen crimes in March, including child endangerment, dissuading witnesses from reporting a crime and facilitating forcible sexual assault. Her sentence was the maximum allowed under state law. Continue reading...

Trump's latest vanity project would require changing law that prohibits any living person from appearing on US currency - key US politics stories from Thursday 28 MayDonald Trump's latest vanity project: putting his own face on US currency.The White House is pushing Congress to approve a $250 bill bearing the president's portrait, the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said, which would require changing longstanding federal law that prohibits any living person from appearing on US currency. Continue reading...

Morris Day, Young MC and others balk at appearing at US's 250th anniversary events organized by administrationAt least six of the nine featured musical acts set to play in a concert series organized by the Trump administration to mark the United States' 250th anniversary have dropped out, just one day after the lineup was announced.The first to drop out, hours after Wednesday's announcement, was Morris Day, who called his scheduled participation in the summer concert series on Washington DC's National Mall a baseless rumor". Continue reading...

Ryan Fournier, 30, was charged with simple assault and threats to do bodily harmThe co-founder of the group Students for Trump was arrested on Tuesday on domestic violence charges.Washington DC's Metropolitan police department arrested Ryan Fournier, 30, and charged him with simple assault and threats to do bodily harm, Defector first reported. Continue reading...

Updates from the fifth day's play at Roland Garros

White House made lengthy post about gorilla shot dead at Cincinnati zoo after a toddler entered his enclosure in 2016

States with abortion bans are turning away from medications to a wait-and-see approach, with care falling below standardsAbortion restrictions in the US have made it more difficult to access care for miscarriages, a new study stays.The new research found that since the June 2022 Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization decision overturning Roe v Wade, pregnancy care has fractured along state lines; it's getting increasingly harder to access healthcare for miscarriages in US states with abortion restrictions. Continue reading...

Monitors estimate 17,500 people have been sent to countries they may never have visited - and where they could face further dangerJose Yugar-Cruz spent 17 months in a county jail in Muscatine, Iowa, despite never having committed a crime.Originally from Bolivia, he entered the United States legally at the Arizona border in July 2024, affirmatively approached authorities, and requested asylum. Six months later, a US immigration judge found he had been tortured in Bolivia, would probably face torture again if returned, and barred his removal to his home country. The government did not appeal. Yugar-Cruz was not released for almost a year. Instead, ICE spent months searching unsuccessfully for somewhere else to send him. He finally won his release in December 2025. Continue reading...

President makes comments after reports Iran and Oman have discussed jointly charging a toll for ships. Plus, how balcony solar' could help fight rising energy costs

We need rules for the Democratic primaries that will lift up the voices of talented DemocratsIn democracy, the rules matter. Six months before the midterms, the US supreme court's Callais decision dramatically changed the rules of US elections by gutting the Voting Rights Act and capsizing the 15th amendment.As the Maga party races to restore Jim Crow politics with voter suppression and all-white congressional delegations in the south, Democrats must act shrewdly to advance party rules of our own that promote majority rule, interracial political solidarity and the power of the voters. Continue reading...

Aiden Daniel Cuevas allegedly told undercover officer reporter needed to be taken off the board'An Alabama neo-Nazi accused of trying to start a paramilitary unit to take out high value targets" aimed to kill a journalist who once reported on him, according to law enforcement testimony obtained by the Guardian.Aiden Daniel Cuevas allegedly used coded talk" to tell an undercover officer in November 2024 that the journalist was a pawn" that needed to be taken off the board". Continue reading...

The decision to charge Raul Castro is grimly reminiscent of the run-up to Trump's military operation in Venezuela. Meanwhile, the Cuban people are suffering needlesslyThe US war machine has turned its sights on Cuba. Marco Rubio, the Cuban-American secretary of state who has long craved the fall of the island's communist government, made that clear again last week. While professing a preference for a negotiated settlement", he said the chances of a deal were not high". A couple of months ago, I saw up close the economic devastation already inflicted by decades of US siege - and, since January, by a crippling oil blockade introduced by Donald Trump.The US has now charged the country's former president Raul Castro with conspiracy to kill US nationals, four counts of murder and two counts of destruction of aircraft over the downing of two planes in 1996. The evidence points increasingly in one direction: it is all grimly reminiscent of the indictment of Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro, used to justify his kidnapping by US forces.Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Some are bright and cosy, others are starkly depressing - these images of rooms used to pump breast milk expose the sometimes grim reality of being a new mum in the US Continue reading...

US president calls on US ally to behave ... or else we'll have to blow them up' in casual aside during cabinet meetingDonald Trump has threatened to blow up" Oman if it fails to behave" in a casual aside during a cabinet meeting, as the US scrambles to reopen the strait of Hormuz.The US president made the threat after reports of talks between Iran and Oman about jointly charging a toll for ships passing through the crucial waterway, which has been all but closed since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran. Continue reading...