Coalition behind measure says it turned in more than double the needed signatures to get it on November ballotA proposal to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution of Arizona, a key battleground state in the upcoming US elections, has inched closer to becoming an official ballot measure.On Wednesday, Arizona for Abortion Access, the coalition behind the measure, announced that it had turned in more than 800,000 signatures - more than double the needed amount to get the measure on the ballot come November. Continue reading...
Citizens must make this presidential election about rescuing our democracy from authoritarianismThe US supreme court found this week that former presidents have presumptive immunity from prosecution for official acts". This ruling doesn't just place Donald Trump above the law. The true danger of the opinion is that it could protect precisely the kind of official acts that might destroy the American republic itself.The origin of the idea that the official acts of a president are immune from prosecution is found in a case about a fired whistleblower. In 1970, President Richard Nixon fired A Ernest Fitzgerald, an air force management analyst, in retaliation for his publicizing information about cost overruns. Fitzgerald brought a civil suit against Nixon, seeking damages for his dismissal. The supreme court sided with Nixon, granting the president absolute immunity from damages liability predicated on his official acts". Continue reading...
The president has given no indication he plans to step aside, but possible replacements are already being namedJoe Biden is reportedly weighing whether to withdraw from the presidential race following his damaging debate performance last week, in which he repeatedly tripped over his own words and failed to rebut Donald Trump's many false claims.According to the New York Times, Biden told a key ally that he knows his upcoming interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News and campaign appearances in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin will be crucial in quelling voters' concerns about his fitness for the presidency. A Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Tuesday found that Biden and Trump remain tied in the race while one-third of Democrats believe the president should drop out of the race. Continue reading...
Voters who snubbed Biden over Gaza stance could play key role at Democratic conventionAfter Joe Biden's poor debate performance and calls by some prominent Democrats to replace him, the hundreds of thousands of anti-war voters and the delegates who represent them have taken on new significance in the US presidential race.More than 700,000 voters cast ballots in the Democratic primaries for uncommitted" options after a movement started in Michigan to pressure Biden to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and stop US funding and arms to the Israeli government. Continue reading...
Another day, another disaster, and all of my own making. But this one left me with a triumphant smileI left a bag with everything in it on platform three at York station. Imagine my disappointment. I was on a direct train to London, finishing the puzzle I'd been doing on my phone as I'd boarded the train, so absorbed that I'd left half my luggage - the important half - behind. My Sunday was in tatters.I'd had such a nice day planned - a nice lunchtime train journey, after a nice morning with family and friends in York, leaving plenty of time to get home to watch the England match. But it wasn't to be. It rarely is. For this is my special power - common to many people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder - forever finding ways of turning leisure time, in this case a relaxing afternoon, into a nerve-shredding orgy of panic. Continue reading...
by Maanvi Singh at the Arizona-Mexico border on (#6NZ26)
People of various political backgrounds in the US state say they are increasingly feeling like pawns in a political gameA few hundred feet from the US-Mexico border in Nogales, Arizona, Laura Aldana chuckled at the suggestion - made by both leading presidential candidates - that the region had fallen into chaos.Where?" she asked rhetorically. She gestured toward the street outside the downtown formalwear boutique where she works. There's almost too little to do here." Continue reading...
Lawsuit says student and youth groups hurt after teacher was fired for reading My Shadow is Purple to studentsThe Southern Poverty Law Center and another group have amended a federal lawsuit against a Georgia school district to include a transgender student and a grassroots youth organization, effectively becoming the first case challenging anti-LGBTQ book bans" in the state.The move - done anonymously to protect the student - widens the case's focus from how teachers are affected by censorship laws and policies in Georgia, to how those same policies affect children. Continue reading...
Up to 25 House representatives could call for president to step aside. Plus, US expels more than 100 Chinese migrantsGood morning.Joe Biden is to meet with Democratic governors today in an attempt to stave off growing discontent over his candidacy, with a congressional Democrat calling for him to withdraw from the presidential race.Are any sitting Democrats calling on Biden to step aside? So far: only one. Lloyd Doggett, a congressman from Texas, yesterday became the first Democrat in the House of Representatives to publicly urge the president to step aside. Instead of reassuring voters, the president failed to effectively defend his many accomplishments and expose Trump's many lies." Adam Frisch, a Democratic House candidate in Colorado, echoed the call, and former presidential candidate Tim Ryan has also urged Biden to pull out.Newsom, Newsom, Newsom. Online political betting odds that Gavin Newsom, the California governor, would end up at the top of the presidential ticket this year tripled to a one-in-four chance last week, despite the relatively low chance of the president stepping aside.US and China resume cooperation on migration issues. In recent years, the US had a difficult time returning Chinese nationals who do not have the right to stay in America because China has resisted taking them back. Last year, US border officials arrested more than 37,000 Chinese nationals on the southern border, 10 times the number the year before. Continue reading...
The former Trump attorney is spending as much as $2,000 a month on the site. It's a lot of cash for someone who has filed for bankruptcyAs the ancient proverb goes, a man's Amazon purchase history is a window into his soul. And Rudy Giuliani's soul, it would seem, is crammed full of $4 polyester ties. According to court documents filed as part of bankruptcy claims proceedings, the former mayor of New York and personal attorney of Donald Trump has recently made a troubling quantity of Amazon and Apple transactions". In May alone, he spent almost $2,000 on Amazon. His purchases, which have attracted a fair amount of mirth on social media, include other ties from a brand whose tagline is Always to be a Gentlemen". He also bought a lot of dress socks, coffee and toiletries.We've all made embarrassing online purchases. Under ordinary circumstances, mocking Giuliani for buying anti-shine makeup powder and deep bronze" tanning lotion would be a low blow. But Giuliani is not a private citizen. He's a political figure who was allied with the former president and who has been vocal about American manufacturing jobs. The fact he buys cheap imported accessories online while virtue-signalling about how much he supports American jobs is worth remarking on. Continue reading...
The court's conservative justices have thrown aside the rule of law - and their own legitimacy - to serve one manThe violent attack on Congress on 6 January 2021, and all the ancillary attempts to steal the 2020 election, were a coup attempt led from the executive branch of the federal government with support from Republicans in the legislative branch. 1 July 2024 - this Thursday - was a more successful coup attempt orchestrated by six judges of the judicial branch.With fear for our democracy, I dissent," wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor in an opinion joined by justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan, after the US supreme court's conservative majority ruled that Donald Trump holds absolute immunity" for official acts" done while president. Part of what's shocking about the state of the union right now is that an entire party and the US supreme court's conservative majority have abandoned almost everything - the truth, the rule of law, their own legitimacy, their place in history and the fate of the nation - to serve one man.Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. She is the author of Orwell's Roses and co-editor with Thelma Young Lutunatabua of the climate anthology Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility Continue reading...
Paul George switching Los Angeles for Philadelphia makes the 76ers the biggest winners of free agency so far. Who were the others?The NBA's free agency period kicked off this week with a flurry. Here are highlights of some of the league's biggest moves and how they may shape the season to come.Winners: The 76ers and Paul George Continue reading...
Hailey Welch details in podcast interview how viral clip has upended her life and doesn't want it to be her image'When she went viral in a video clip showing her coining the onomatopoeia hawk tuah" to describe what intimate act reliably drives men wild in her experience, Hailey Welch thought about keeping herself hidden from the masses.Then the rumor circulated that the photogenic blonde in the video with the thick southern drawl was actually the daughter of a humiliated religious leader. The attention had caused the woman to be fired from her education job, another rumor claimed. And social media users started creating fake accounts with photos of her. Continue reading...
Investment bank Stephens hired to find suitors for business, which wants to expand overseas operationsThe high-end steakhouse chain Hawksmoor has been put up for sale in a deal that could value it at about 100m.The restaurant chain has hired the investment bank Stephens to start looking for potential suitors for the business, which is hoping to expand its overseas operation. Continue reading...
Fire crews in California are battling a wildfire in Butte County that forced about 13,000 people to evacuate in and around Oroville. The Thompson fire broke out before noon on Tuesday and grew to more than 3 sq miles by evening Continue reading...
The New Popular Front will improve ordinary people's lives - and it's an effective, economically sound alternative to the far rightThe first round of legislative elections in France produced an unprecedented surge of support for the far right. Next Sunday, 7 July, the National Rally (RN) and its allies could potentially make it to power. Not just with a relative majority, but - and there is a significant probability of this - with an outright one.Some may argue that the far right is here and we should simply get used to it. Far-right parties have won elections in recent years in other European countries, including Italy and the Netherlands. But we cannot get used to it. A far-right victory represents a major threat to our basic social contract and our liberties. We face the implementation of policies that discriminate against foreigners, migrants, women, minorities and more. Because it has no credible economic platform, the far right will revert to the only thing it knows - the exacerbation of tensions and the politics of hate.Julia Cage and Thomas Piketty are the authors of A History of Political Conflict: Elections and Social Inequalities in France, 1789-2022Do 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...
In India being a female fan of Shah Rukh Khan is not just about a love of film - it's a form of resistance against restrictive gender normsShah Rukh Khan may be an Indian cinematic legend and star of record-breaking Bollywood blockbusters but he is not someone you would expect to appear in socioeconomic studies. And yet, for almost two decades, the actor has been central to my research into the economic lives of ordinary Indian women.It started in 2006, when as a research assistant for a project with the Institute of Social Studies Trust and the Self Employed Women's Association, a trade union. My job involved surveying home-based workers - women who made incense sticks and garments at home for less than the minimum wage - in a poor area of Ahmedabad.Shrayana Bhattacharya is an economist and author Continue reading...
President blames global travel for lacklustre debate as 25 House members reportedly prepare to call for him to step downJoe Biden will meet with Democratic governors on Wednesday as the president faces increasingly concerning polls and growing calls to withdraw his candidacy, including from a congressional Democrat.Biden will talk with governors and Capitol Hill leaders this week, officials said on Tuesday, to reassure them of his competence and address escalating discontent among party leaders after last week's calamitous debate performance against Donald Trump. Continue reading...
Independent candidate says I am not a church boy' after ex-nanny tells Vanity Fair he assaulted her at his home in 1998Robert F Kennedy Jr has responded to an allegation that he sexually assaulted an employee by stating: I am not a church boy," as scrutiny grows over his long-shot run for the presidency.The independent candidate, who is seen as a threat by both the Biden and Trump campaigns, made the statement after his former babysitter told Vanity Fair that Kennedy assaulted her at his home in 1998. Continue reading...
Jim Farley says country is in love with these monster vehicles' but big cars are not sustainable in the age of EVIt is time for the US to get back in love" with smaller cars, according to the chief executive of Ford.In a wide-ranging interview at the Aspen Ideas festival, Jim Farley said the auto industry needs to focus on smaller EVs and commercial vehicles. He acknowledged that American consumers are in love with these monster vehicles" but said they need to get back in love" with small cars. Continue reading...
Peltier, 79, in poor health and sentenced to life over two deaths in South Dakota, not eligible for another hearing until 2026Leonard Peltier, the 79-year-old Indigenous activist who has spent nearly 50 years in prison for the 1975 murders of two FBI agents, has been denied parole. Many fear the ruling all but ensures that the longest-imprisoned Indigenous American will die behind bars.Peltier has maintained his innocence since he was arrested in connection with the deaths that occurred at the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota. For decades, advocates such as Coretta Scott King, Nelson Mandela, Pope Francis and James H Reynolds, the US attorney who handled the prosecution and appeal of Peltier's case, have fought for his release. Continue reading...
An alarm rang loudly and continuously in a midtown Manhattan station - and neither commuters nor workers at businesses in the station could identify itFor nearly two weeks, an alarm rang loudly and continuously inside a New York subway station.As the New York Post first reported, the mysterious bell" knelled through the stairway to a downtown 1 train platform at 50th Street in midtown Manhattan, a few blocks north of Times Square. Neither commuters nor workers at businesses located inside the station could identify the source of the incessant ringing. Continue reading...
Congressman Joe Morelle vows to act in wake of supreme court decision - but plan is highly unlikely to succeedA Democratic congressman is calling for a new constitutional amendment to reverse the supreme court's ruling granting presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution, a decision that could hamstring the federal case against Donald Trump over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.Congressman Joe Morelle, a New York Democrat, raised the idea on Monday, just hours after the supreme court issued its 6-3 decision, which fell along ideological lines. Continue reading...
Lawyers ask New York judge to delay sentencing and Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg says he is not opposedDonald Trump has asked the New York judge who presided over his recent hush-money trial to set aside his conviction as he seeks to capitalise on Monday's supreme court ruling granting him broad immunity from prosecution.In what is probably just the first real-world impact of the controversial ruling from the conservative-dominated court, which said Trump cannot be held criminally liable for many acts taken when he was president, Trump's legal team sent a letter to the trial judge, Juan Merchan, asking him to postpone the sentencing hearing, which is scheduled for 11 July, while Merchan weighs how Monday's court ruling affects the case. Continue reading...
Officials shot the animals after a coyote bit the girl, who was attending a supervised summer camp in Golden Gate ParkWildlife officers shot and killed three coyotes at the San Francisco botanical garden over the weekend after a coyote attacked a five-year-old girl.Two coyotes were shot on Saturday and one was shot on Sunday, said Patrick Foy, a spokesperson for the California department of fish and wildlife on Monday. Continue reading...
The president could have made a dignified exit from the race for the White House - but his family has apparently implored him to stay put. Now he seems determined to see things through to the bitter, messy endThe moment Joe Biden walked off the debate stage last Thursday night, the clock started ticking. There was a small window of time after the president's disastrous performance in which he could have made a dignified exit from the 2024 race. He could have called a press conference on Monday morning and said he had carefully assessed the calls made by the New York Times editorial board and high-profile pundits and political consultants urging him to step down. He could have said he had decided it was the best thing to do for the future of the US and democracy itself. Biden would have looked selfless; a man putting country before ego. The Democratic party could have gone swiftly to work, rallying behind a replacement.I am not saying this scenario would have been simple. Of course not. It would have been a mess! But not as much of a mess as the situation we find ourselves in now. The window for a dignified exit has passed. Doubts about Biden's cognitive fitness, meanwhile, are only increasing. According to a CBS News/YouGov poll, 72% of registered voters don't think Biden has the mental and cognitive health to serve as president; the same percentage don't think he should be running for president. Among Democratic registered voters, 46% don't think he should be running for president, up from 36% earlier this year. Continue reading...
White nationalists and groups were ordered to pay more than $24m for damages stemming from Unite the Right rallyFour years after deadly violence erupted during the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, a jury ordered white nationalist leaders and organizations to pay a total of more than $26m in damages to people with physical or emotional injuries from the event.Most of that money, $24m, was for punitive damages, but a judge later slashed that amount to $350,000 - to be shared by eight plaintiffs. On Monday, a federal appeals court restored more than $2m in punitive damages, finding that each of the plaintiffs should receive $350,000, instead of the $43,750 each would have received under the lower court's ruling. Continue reading...
Officials say the Indiana lawmaker had an unloaded pistol in her carry-on bag at the Washington DC airportRepublican US congresswoman Victoria Spartz has been charged with a weapons violation after she brought a gun to the Dulles international airport in Virginia on Friday, according to local authorities.Spartz, a Republican representing Indiana's fifth congressional district, was traveling to Europe for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly when she was stopped and cited for carrying a pistol in her carry-on bag, Axios reported. Continue reading...
While most politicians haven't taken the platform seriously, the Reform UK leader is an astute content creator - and is reaping the benefitsNigel Farage was born to be a TikTok star. He joined the platform in March 2022, announcing it's got to be done, it's where it's at" in a video that has been watched more than 600,000 times. He is still one of the first politicians to bother taking the platform seriously, and it is paying him vast dividends. The Guardian reported last week that Farage is outperforming all other UK parties and candidates on TikTok in terms of engagement and average views, according to data from 22 May to 17 June.Farage has been prolific in his output since his election candidacy was announced. He posted several times a day for the first two weeks of his campaign, flooding the algorithm with short, characterful videos that resonate powerfully with his fanbase. The recipe to his success is clear: he's willing to be opinionated, comical and - most compellingly in British politics - himself. Continue reading...
by Associated Press/Report for America on (#6NY5M)
New $297.9bn budget signed by Gavin Newsom, the state's governor, does not specify what programs it would aidCalifornia plans to spend up to $12m on reparations legislation under a budget signed by Gavin Newsom, marking a milestone in the state's efforts to atone for a legacy of racism and discrimination against Black Californians.The reparations funding in the $297.9bn budget the California governor signed over the weekend does not specify what programs the money would go toward. Lawmakers are not considering widespread direct payments to Black Californians this year.California's first-in-nation reparations taskforce releases final reportCalifornia's proposals to rectify past discrimination advance through senateThe forgotten history of what California stole from Black familiesThink reparations are impossible? The story of Japanese Americans proves otherwise Continue reading...
Strategist reiterates his months-long calls for party to look at staggering talent' of governors for candidateJames Carville, the strategist who has been one of the few establishment Democrats to have been warning about Joe Biden's age issue before the president's disastrous debate performance Thursday, has called on his party to deliver change" and replace the president as its nominee for November's election.In an interview Monday with the Guardian, he also said it would be in the US's best interest for Biden's Democratic presidential predecessors Barack Obama and Bill Clinton to help persuade him to half his re-election - and support an open nomination convention in Chicago in August to select a new ticket for the party. Continue reading...
The USMNT have crashed out of Copa America early. At best they have stagnated under their coach's leadership as they aim to build for 2026You can't deny they played for him, and for each other. This was no capitulation, no cowed or callow performance against one of the world's best teams.So Gregg Berhalter has not lost the locker room. But how, after this, can he not lose his job? How can anyone trust that he is the man to shape the USMNT into a team good enough to make a major impact at the 2026 World Cup? They have at best stagnated since Qatar 2022, and perhaps even regressed. Continue reading...
Joe Biden denounced the 6-3 ruling, saying it undermined the rule of law' and was a terrible disservice to the people of this nation.' Plus: proposed protections for workers in extreme heat
Ever since Biden's poor performance at debate, the California governor who's spent years seeking a national stage finds himself at the centre of oneTo paraphrase Jan Brady of the Brady Bunch, lately it's been Newsom, Newsom, Newsom" all day long.He's been at the Vatican for a climate summit, and in Alpharetta, Georgia, for a televised debate with Florida governor Ron DeSantis. He's all over the TV, actually - on Fox News and MSNBC, and in advertisements airing in Tennessee. Continue reading...
Media analysts say Sinclair, known for anchors reciting script in lockstep, promotes conservative talking pointsSinclair, one of the largest owners of US television stations, has established itself as an influential player in the conservative movement by using trusted local news channels to spread disinformation and manipulated video of Joe Biden, media analysts say.The company, which gained notoriety in 2018 for requiring local anchors across the country to read the same segment, has since created a national news show that produces stories distributed to its stations - often at the expense of local news coverage, the experts say. Continue reading...
Before she joined Donald Trump in asking Georgia state officials to find 11,780 votes' in 2020, Mitchell was the feminist flag bearer of the Equal Rights amendment in OklahomaMeet the election operators:
Janelle Monae's trousers do not represent a vagina. They represent a vulva. Have some respect!I have a stick up my arse about the difference between less" and fewer", and women in the generations below have the same about vagina" and vulva", and even though the principle is the same - why not just use the right word, instead of the wrong one? - I have never been able to see their problem. Everyone's got the gist. Why make a scene?It happened that I recently spent some hallowed time with millennials and also saw Janelle Monae, live, and this all coincided at a festival that it would be crass to mention for the 91st time - but suffice it to say, I have finally come round to their point of view. Continue reading...
Voters share their reactions, highlight limitations of format and whether event has changed their intentionsUS voters shared their reactions to Thursday's presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, highlighting limitations of the format, weak performances from both candidates and whether the event has changed their voting intentions. Continue reading...
As the party asks who is to blame for the US president's poor performance against Trump, calls grow for Biden to widen his teamWhen Joe Biden became engulfed in a plagiarism scandal during his first US presidential campaign in 1987, his adviser and friend Ted Kaufman was blunt: There's only one way to stop the sharks, and that's pull out," he said.When Biden was contemplating another run for the White House in 2015, it fell to another longtime confidant, Mike Donilon, to deliver the verdict. I caught him looking at me and gestured, What is it, Mike?" Biden later wrote in his memoir. I don't think you should do this,' he said." Continue reading...
Cyclists such as sprint world champion Marshall Major' Taylor were early stars of the sport in the US. But many felt compelled to move abroadWhen cycling first took the US by storm in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Black Americans joined in the new pastime. One Black cyclist, Marshall Major" Taylor, became a world champion in 1899. Yet American cycling installed a color line in professional racing. Opportunities became so limited that Black competitors had to take them wherever they could find them - including on the vaudeville stage and in Europe. Their story is documented in a new book, Black Cyclists: The Race for Inclusion, by Robert J Turpin, a professor of history at Lees-McRae College in North Carolina.We fall into the trap that history is linear," Turpin says. With race relations, we think about the end of the Civil War: Slavery ended, and things gradually got better and better for Black people.' My book shows what we already know: Things actually got worse for Black people in the US, especially from the 1880s through the 1920s ... It got harder for Black cyclists to compete as professionals or even win prize money in general." Continue reading...
The US were eliminated from the Copa America with a 1-0 loss to Uruguay on Monday night, a defeat that will increase pressure on US Soccer to remove coach Gregg Berhalter before a World Cup on home soil in 2026.Uruguay scored in the 66th minute when Nicolas de la Cruz swung a free-kick into the box. Matt Turner parried a header by Ronald Araujo, who jumped over defender Tim Ream, but the rebound fell to Mathias Olivera and he tapped the ball home. Continue reading...
The transcript of nearly 150 pages shows grand jury heard testimony of teenage girls' rape at his Palm Beach mansionFlorida prosecutors knew the late millionaire and financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually assaulted teenage girls two years before they cut a plea deal that has long been criticized as too lenient and a missed opportunity to imprison him a decade earlier, according to transcripts released Monday.The 2006 grand jury investigation was the first of many by law enforcement over the past two decades into Epstein's rape and sex trafficking of teenagers - and how his ties to the rich and the powerful seem to have allowed him to avoid prison or a serious jail term for more than a decade. Continue reading...
In speech from White House, president said ruling undermined the rule of law' and compared their charactersJoe Biden has issued a full-throated denunciation of the US supreme court's decision to grant his predecessor, Donald Trump, broad immunity from criminal charges of trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election, calling it a dangerous precedent" that overturned the basic principle of equality before the law.In a 5-minute speech from the White House, Biden said the 6-3 ruling undermined the rule of law" and rendered a terrible disservice to the people of this nation" because it means Trump is much less likely to be held legally accountable for inciting a mob to launch a deadly attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. Continue reading...
The US president said in remarks following the US supreme court's ruling that granted broad immunity to Donald Trump and other presidents from prosecution that it set a 'dangerous precedent'. 'I know I will respect the limits of presidential power as I have for the last three-and-a-half years, but any president, including Donald Trump, will now be free to ignore the law,' he said.
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