US news | The Guardian

US president planned to revamp the now algae-stricken pool ahead of the holiday and America's 250th birthdayDonald Trump has acknowledged that repairs to the algae-stricken reflecting pool in Washington DC may not be completed in time for the Fourth of July, when the president plans to convene a big celebration on the National Mall to ring in the country's 250th birthday.The iconic body of water began filling with algae blooms and peeling paint after the Trump administration ordered a $14.2m renovation to turn it American flag" blue, prompting the president to claim - without providing evidence - that vandals armed with a knife had damaged it. Continue reading...

Prominent Florida real estate broker found not guilty by Miami jury of manslaughter and felony vessel homicideThe family of a teenager left with a permanent disability from a birthday party boat crash that killed another girl has reacted with dismay at the acquittal of the prominent Florida real estate broker helming the vessel.George Pino was found not guilty by a Miami jury on Monday evening of manslaughter and felony vessel homicide after the 4 September 2022 boat wreck during a celebration that he and his wife, Cecilia, were hosting for their daughter's 18th birthday, with 11 of her friends as guests. Continue reading...

Poetica Coffee in Brooklyn now faces DoJ investigation after sharing post criticizing Democrat Dan GoldmanNew York Democratic Congressman Dan Goldman has said it is sad" that a Brooklyn coffee shop banned him over his views on Israel - a move which has put the cafe under investigation by the Trump administration's justice department.Goldman represents New York's 10th congressional district and holds pro-Israel views. He made the sad" remark to CNN after Brooklyn's Poetica Coffee banned him in a viral, since-deleted social media post after a visit from him on Sunday. Continue reading...

Kent Kiehl convinced the US legal system he can find violence in prisoners' brains. His theories have been since used by defense lawyers - with grave consequences for prisoners Continue reading...

All the latest news from day 13 of the tournament

In a 6-3 opinion, the court says Louisiana prisoner cannot sue guards after he grew his hair for more than 20 yearsThe US supreme court refused on Tuesday to let a Rastafarian man sue state prison officials in Louisiana after guards held him down and shaved him bald in violation of his religious beliefs, in a landmark case.The case was brought under a federal law designed to protect incarcerated people from religious discrimination. Continue reading...

As the US tries to limit the damage from the Iran war, its vice-president has admitted he doesn't understand diplomacy. Of course not: he's been too busy churning out another memoirHas JD Vance been injecting Barron Trump's new energy drink straight into his veins? It would explain a few things, including how the man manages to juggle so much. First there's the parenting: Vance has three young kids and a baby due soon. Then there's the vice-presidenting. But despite his long to-do list, Vance still makes time for endless holidays. And he's even managed to get some writing done: the bestselling Hillbilly Elegy author recently published his second book. It's a memoir about his spiritual journey called Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith.So, should you find your way to a bookshop to buy a copy? Most book critics seem to say no. It's hard to know exactly what regular readers think because two of the biggest review platforms have restricted feedback. Amazon says reviews are limited to verified purchasers because of unusual review activity" (translation: a torrent of one-star reviews), while Amazon-owned Goodreads has suspended reviews altogether. It's a shame that Usha Vance, a voracious reader whose Goodreads account notes she just finished Communion (shortly after reading Death Comes for the Archbishop), hasn't had a chance to give hubby a five-star review. Continue reading...

Suit alleged California-based company developed technology that allowed China to surveil members of movementThe US supreme court further limited the reach of a federal law used to hold corporations liable for human rights abuses committed abroad, as it issued a ruling on Tuesday ending a lawsuit by members of the Falun Gong movement accusing Cisco Systems of facilitating religious persecution in China.The justices reversed a lower court's decision that had breathed new life into the 2011 lawsuit, which was brought under the Alien Tort Statute of 1789. The suit had alleged that Cisco knowingly developed technology that allowed China's government to surveil and persecute Falun Gong members. Continue reading...

The US health department said the enforced 42-day quarantine was necessary to protect the publicEight Americans quarantined for six weeks in Nebraska after they were exposed to a deadly hantavirus outbreak were released on Monday, including one who accused the government of holding her against her will.The US health and human services department (HHS) confirmed that it had ended the required isolation for the group, who were among dozens evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship in the Canary Islands early in May. Continue reading...

Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, the reporters behind Regime Change, were up against an administration that is very good at keeping secrets'They cracked the White House situation room, unearthing secrets from the heart of a secretive administration. But the reporters behind Regime Change, a blockbuster new book on Donald Trump's second term, ran up against a wall when reporting on one issue surrounding the 80-year-old US president: his fitness for office.His health has always been a very specific lockbox for him, going back decades," Maggie Haberman, co-author with Jonathan Swan, said in an interview. Illness freaks him out; he perceives illness as weakness, usually, and he certainly perceives any sense that he is having an issue as a projection of weakness, and his advisers are very, very attuned to that. Continue reading...

Building had been vulnerable before it collapsed in the middle of the night, killing 98 people in 2021The deadly destruction of a Florida beachfront condominium actually started weeks before it collapsed into a pile of rubble in the middle of the night, killing 98 people in 2021 - but the building had been vulnerable from the start, federal investigators found in a final report issued on Monday.The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) said in the report that two connections between garage columns and the pool deck started to fail around early June. The combination of a structure design that did not meet building codes and alterations made to it over its 40 years meant that the other parts of the pool deck weren't strong enough to withstand the extra load, leading to the type of slow-motion collapse. Continue reading...

Note reportedly said kidnappers her didn't mean to kill mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie, but she died shortly after her disappearanceA ransom note related to the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie - the mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie - said the 84-year-old had died, CNN and other news organizations are reporting, citing law enforcement sources.Some media outlets had previously reported receiving ransom notes tied to the case in the days after Guthrie's disappearance in early February from her home in the foothills just outside Tucson, Arizona.Guardian staff contributed reporting Continue reading...

The administration interrupted data streams that are key to forecasting. These systems should not be vulnerable to political whimsIn 1877, North Americans experienced an unusually mild winter - it was known as the year without a winter". It coincided with one of the strongest El Nino events ever recorded. Scientists suspect the same El Nino was a major factor in one of the worst environmental disasters in history. As much of the world was enveloped in drought, harvests collapsed in India, China, parts of Africa, and Brazil. The drought, compounded by colonial and other socioeconomic policies, led to the Great Famine", which killed between 30 and 60 million people, about 3% of the world's population at the time.What distinguishes us from the victims of 1877 is not luck but data. When I served as deputy administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, I saw modern ocean monitoring and forecasting provide the advance warnings the Victorians lacked. This lead time saves thousands of lives and billions of dollars each year. Today, we can anticipate climate shocks before they arrive.Terry Garcia is a former deputy administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Continue reading...

When Andre Robinson Jr was shot and killed in Oakland in 2020, his family was upended - how do siblings navigate the fallout from violent loss?The Robinson family once looked forward to Sundays. It was the day they would gather with dozens of their closest relatives and friends to eat, laugh and catch up. Sunday was the day that we cherished the most," said RoShanda Robinson, the oldest child in the family.But in the fall of 2020, these get-togethers abruptly stopped. A day that used to include bountiful meals and booming laughter suddenly became a painful reminder of life-changing loss. Continue reading...

We've shown that rapid, measurable progress is achievable in our cities. Here's how that can now be replicated worldwide

Democratic primary elections to test strength of party's left flank as old guard faces string of challengesNew Yorkers were voting on Tuesday in a slate of Democratic primaries poised to reveal the strength of the party's left flank and shape the battle for control of the US House of Representatives in November.Voters in Maryland and Utah will also nominate congressional candidates on Tuesday, while South Carolina holds a series of runoff elections for candidates who did not receive a majority of the vote earlier this month. Continue reading...

The symbolic power of a stagnant pond beneath Lincoln's statue has proven irresistible for the president's criticsNarcissus was cursed to fall in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. Donald Trump is finding that his effort to overhaul the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool in Washington has turned into a perverse tourist attraction and 2,028ft national metaphor.On Monday afternoon a massive algae bloom had turned the pool a green reminiscent of a plane passenger clutching a sick bag. It also stank, but that did not deter a steady flow of curious tourists snapping photos and TV crews doing eyewitness interviews about the folly of Donald Trump's $14.7m renovation. Continue reading...

Sharper, who pleaded guilty or no contest to raping women in four states, was transferred to a halfway house in MayConvicted serial rapist and former National Football League champion Darren Sharper has registered as a sex offender in his home state of Virginia, after being transferred from federal prison to a halfway house there, according to official records.With a projected 2028 release date nearing, the US Bureau of Prisons (BoP) recently confirmed that the 50-year-old Sharper had been moved on 27 May from a federal correctional institution near Elkton, Ohio, to either home confinement or a facility colloquially known as a halfway house overseen by the agency's residential re-entry management office in Baltimore.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...

Live blog: the latest news from around the tournament World Cup newsletter | Daily podcast | Get the appThe second round of group stage fixtures comes to a close on Tuesday with Croatia and Portugal in need of points to boost their chances of making the 2026 World Cup knockout rounds.Cristiano Ronaldo and Co underwhelmed in their opening fixture against the Democratic Republic of Congo, only mustering a 1-1 draw that puts pressure on Portugal to claim all three points against Uzbekistan in Houston.Complete guide to all the playersA visual guide to every stadiumStandingsGolden Boot leaders Continue reading...

The former Federal Reserve chair was a smart guy - but he had a huge blind spot. Here's what I wish I'd said to himAlan Greenspan has died at the age of 100.My students don't recognize his name, but you probably do. When he was chair of the Federal Reserve - for more than 18 years, from 11 August 1987 to 31 January 2006 - he not only ran the US (and most of the world's) economy but was also in many ways the most powerful person in the US.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now in the US and in the UK Continue reading...

AJ Dybantsa is widely expected to have his name called first on Tuesday. But which other young stars are worth keeping an eye on?AJ Dybantsa looked like a pro among college kids in his lone season at BYU, becoming just the fifth Division I player in the last 40 years to average more than 25 points per game while shooting better than 51%. Even beyond the numbers, Dybantsa's natural length and ability to create his own shot make him look more like a future All-Star than Kansas's Darryn Peterson, whose load-management habits stand in stark contrast to Dybantsa's workhorse approach. Andrew Lawrence Continue reading...

A massive blaze in Houston, Texas, sent black smoke billowing for miles across the city. About 100 firefighters were deployed to put out the flames. The cause of the fire was not immediately known Continue reading...

City hails victory after US officials sued over ordinance that limits LA's cooperation with immigration authoritiesA California court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Donald Trump's administration against Los Angeles over a city ordinance limiting its cooperation with federal immigration authorities.Fernando Olguin, a judge in the central California US district court rejected the administration's argument that the city's policy was unconstitutional. He gave the administration permission to file an amended complaint. Continue reading...

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Trump's claims that vandals' are to blame don't hold water so far - key US politics stories from Monday 22 JuneDonald Trump is claiming - without providing evidence - that the sorry state of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool weeks after a $14m renovation is the work of vandals".On Monday, Trump was adamant it was not the pool company to blame for the algae blooms and peeling paint, instead pointing to five people arrested for vandalism and five more are under investigation. Continue reading...

While warehouse fires are often extinguished in a day, the Boyle Heights blaze is on its sixth day. Here's what to knowLos Angeles firefighters are on their sixth day of battling a fire at a massive warehouse near downtown that stores frozen food.Smoke has billowed from the warehouse, which was covered in solar panels and insulated like a freezer, filling the air surrounding the roughly 500,000-sq-ft (46,450-sq-meter) facility. Continue reading...

21st Century Road to Housing Act, which aims to boost supply and stop investors buying up homes, heads to HouseSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxThe Senate on Monday passed a bipartisan measure aimed at lowering housing costs by streamlining construction and permitting, ending months of fraught negotiations on a priority for both parties ahead of November's midterm elections.The 21st Century Road to Housing Act would limit investors' ability to buy homes, waive some federal permitting rules in a bid to ease new construction, and authorize pilot programs to facilitate grants for home improvements and planning affordable housing. It passed the Senate overwhelmingly, with a vote of 85-5, and now heads to the House of Representatives. Continue reading...

President says vandals' to blame for algae blooms and peeling paint as $14m renovation to undergo further repairsThe Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool is set to be drained again after Donald Trump said on Monday - without providing proof - that five people were arrested for vandalism and five more are under investigation in connection to the algae blooms and peeling paint that appeared weeks after his ill-fated $14m renovation attempt.It's not a lot of damage, but we'll probably have to let the water out and refix it. They went in there with a knife," Trump told reporters, describing what he first said was a 290- to 300ft slit in the paint but then later amended to a 350ft slit. He also said someone had put fertilizer into the water, which caused the algae to grow. Continue reading...

Company wants to sell objects despite agreements to only display them at museums and traveling exhibitionsA plan to auction more than 100 artifacts salvaged from the wreckage of the Titanic - including personal belongings, currency, kitchen items and decor - is facing pushback from the US government, according to newly unsealed court documents.RMS Titanic Inc, the company that owns exclusive salvage rights to the famous wreck deep in the North Atlantic, wants to sell the artifacts for the first time despite previous agreements to only display them at museums and traveling exhibitions. Continue reading...

Firms including BP and 7-Eleven accused of coordinating prices to wring more money from pockets of consumers'Gas station operators including BP, Circle K, Marathon, 7-Eleven, Walmart and Albertsons were sued on Monday by California drivers who accused them of using artificial intelligence to boost prices at the pump.According to a proposed class action, the defendants violated California's main antitrust law, the Cartwright Act, by using an AI-based tool that uses data from competing gas stations to coordinate high prices and wring more money from the pockets of consumers". Continue reading...

Officials say Sarita Kimble, 62, and Delores Shelton, 83, killed in Mount Vernon as several buildings destroyedAuthorities in Illinois say that two older residents were killed and at least five other people were injured in a tornado that ripped through a rural county and destroyed several buildings on Sunday evening.The fatalities occurred in Mount Vernon, Sheriff Jeff Bullard of Jefferson county said on Monday. He identified the victims as Sarita Kimble, 62, and Delores Shelton, 83, who were inside separate structures leveled by the tornado. Continue reading...

Federal judge rules subpoenas linked to Trump's immigration operation were issued for unlawful reasons'

Other measures include Washington lifting sanctions on Tehran's oil exports and reopening the strait of HormuzIran has agreed to allow UN nuclear inspectors back into the country as part of an agreement under which Washington will lift sanctions on Tehran's oil exports and the strait of Hormuz will reopen, the US vice-president, JD Vance, has said.Long-term independent monitoring of Iran's nuclear programme, which it says is for energy purposes only, was in effect halted last summer after Israel and the US attacked the country. Tehran suspended cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in response to strikes on its nuclear facilities. Continue reading...

Appeals court had ruled Pedro Hernandez, 64, was wrongly convicted over 1979 disappearance of New York six-year-oldThe US supreme court has reinstated a murder conviction in the long winding case of Etan Patz, whose 1979 disappearance at age six from New York City garnered national headlines.In a 6-3 decision on Monday, the supreme court agreed with New York prosecutors in their request to reverse a lower court ruling that had thrown out the murder conviction of Pedro Hernandez, 64, in the Patz case. Continue reading...

American economist and long-serving head of the Federal Reserve widely praised for the US boom whose reputation was re-evaluated in the wake of the 2008 crashFor his work chairing the US Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, who has died aged 100, was regularly hailed by financiers, politicians and journalists for his handling of the economy. He was variously dubbed the Oracle, the Wizard and the Maestro.As head of the central bank of the US from 1987 to 2006, tasked with setting interest rates and supervising and regulating banks and other financial institutions, he easily ranked as one of the most powerful individuals in the world. He served under four presidents: Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, Bill Clinton - even though Greenspan was a lifelong Republican - and George W Bush. Continue reading...

Monday's news included reaction to Cape Verde's draw with Uruguay and weather warnings across the US east coastBeiranvand, by the way, holds the world record for the longest throw in a competitive match - 61.0026m - and for the longest drop-kick, 78.014m. Not bad for someone who was once sleeping rough.But let's return to Iran for a moment. Their goalie, Alireza Beiranvand - or The Wall of Persia" as he's known - had to run away from home to become a footballer, his old fella less than enchanted by the ruse and cutting up his gloves. I wonder how he feels now his boy has been player of the match at a World Cup. Continue reading...

Trump's pre-Fourth of July renovation project has endured problems with algae, peeling paint and an inflating price tagDonald Trump's rush to repaint the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, a symbol of Washington DC, has hit roadblock after roadblock as the country's 250th anniversary nears.The public has been gripped by the ill-fated $14m attempt to renovate the reflecting pool, which the US president vowed to make beautiful" in time for this summer's birthday celebrations at the capital. Continue reading...

Death of Kohen Wiley is latest in series of troubling police encounters that have outraged community membersThe recent fatal shooting of a one-year-old boy by police who were responding to a shoplifting call has ignited simmering tensions between police and Black residents in the small town of Senatobia, Mississippi.The death of Kohen Wiley is the latest in a series of troubling encounters with police that have outraged community members in recent years. It has led to protests and calls for greater police accountability in the town of 8,000, with some civil rights activists pointing to Kohen's death as another example of a Black life lost over something of nominal value. In this case, it was an allegation of stolen diapers, which the boy's family has denied. Continue reading...

Unidentified man fell into vault toilet at Camp Edison while trying to retrieve sunglasses he dropped, officials sayAn unhappy camper spent about 15 minutes submerged in sewage in the putrid tank of a California campground's vault toilet after falling in trying to retrieve sunglasses he dropped, according to officials.The latest entry into the annals of bizarre US campground mishaps took place on Saturday at Shaver Lake's Camp Edison, about 50 miles north-east of downtown Fresno. A spokesperson for the Fresno county sheriff's office said specialist rescue crews from Cal Fire were required to extricate the unidentified man from the confined tank beneath the waterless, non-flushing toilet. Continue reading...

Alberto Carvalho put on leave after news of warrants but officials have not provided details of nature of investigationThe superintendent of Los Angeles public schools has resigned five months after the FBI served search warrants at his home and the LA Unified school district headquarters.Alberto Carvalho had been put on leave after news of the federal investigation. He denied any wrongdoing earlier this year and had asked to be reinstated as head of the nation's second-largest district. Continue reading...

Original organizers, joined by new wave, are demanding the government not undo four decades of progressOn a warm evening in June, hundreds of people holding candles marched toward the Stonewall Inn in New York City, the birthplace of the US LGBTQ+ rights movement. Once they arrived, they all dropped to the ground - on the sidewalk and in the roadway - and put their backs against the pavement. The Aids rally, marking 45 years since the first reported cases, ended the way many have since the 1980s: with a die-in, dozens of bodies lying still for a long moment of silence.The Aids crisis has killed more than 700,000 Americans and an estimated 40 million people worldwide since it was first named in 1981. But the marchers at Stonewall earlier this month were not only mourning the past. They came to protest a wave of federal policy moves to restrict Medicaid, slash international funding and shrink the National Institutes of Health's research budget. The original generation of HIV and Aids activists, joined by a new wave of organizers, were there to demand that the government not undo four decades of progress with catastrophic funding cuts. Continue reading...

The major winner has rebuilt both his swing and confidence and learned to function without the approval of the massesOn the evening before he won the US Open for a second time in four years, Wyndham Clark marched up the 18th fairway at Shinnecock Hills to put the finishing touches on a third round that would leave him six shots clear of the field. He had spent the past three days patiently defanging one of the crown jewels of American golf, building the third-largest 54-hole advantage held by a US Open leader since the second world war. The title was his to lose.Yet when Clark arrived at the final green on Saturday bathed in golden-hour light, one thing was conspicuously absent: the crowd. Most of the spectators had left or were leaving and the grandstands around the green were only thinly populated. It was a remarkably muted backdrop for America's once-and-future champion golfer as he stood on the doorstep of a rare wire-to-wire US Open victory. Continue reading...

At the same time, 29% of small-business owners also report having open positions they can't fillAmid rising fuel prices and inflation across the US, confidence among small-business owners has declined in recent weeks as many continue to grapple with higher costs and economic uncertainty.According to the National Federation of Independent Business, its Small Business Optimism Index fell by 0.6 points to 95.3 in May. At the same time, 29% of small-business owners reported having open positions they could not fill - the lowest level since the Covid-19 pandemic. Continue reading...

Investment company Castlelake made bid public for shareholders to evaluate but carrier describes offer as cheap'

Voters are upset that Trump has failed to deliver on his economic promises. That's bad news for Republicans in NovemberIf any demographic group was key to Donald Trump's election victories in 2016 and 2024, it was white, blue-collar voters. But in perhaps perilous news for Republicans, Trump's support from that group has plummeted - as many white, working-class voters have grown upset about everything from increased inflation and gas prices to Trump's war against Iran. These glaring cracks in Trump's blue-collar base point to big trouble for Republicans in this November's midterm elections.In 2024, Trump won 66% of white voters without a college degree, but a new CBS News poll found that 54% of that demographic disapprove of his performance. That was up from 45% disapproval in February (before Trump began bombing Iran) and up sharply from 32% in February 2025. Continue reading...