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State assembly member introduced law to prohibit tax-deductible donations from being used to expel Palestinians from their landNew York’s state assembly is to consider legislation to stop registered charities from sending tens of millions of dollars a year to fund illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.State assembly member, Zohran Mamdani, has introduced the “Not on our dime!: Ending New York funding of Israeli settler violence” act to prohibit tax-deductible donations from being used to expel Palestinians from their land and other activities widely regarded as war crimes under the Geneva conventions. Continue reading...

From Rebekah Vardy trademarking ‘Wagatha Christie’ to Drake’s ‘God’s Plan’, we live in a world where absolutely anything can be monetisedHannah Gadsby, a feted, award-winning comedian, has curated an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, about Pablo Picasso’s complicated legacy, called It’s Pablo-matic. This has absolutely nothing to do with the subject at hand – which is lettuce. Rather, I am alerting you to the exhibition because it’s proof that terrible puns are now high art. Bear this in mind as I proceed to make as many terrible leaf puns as I can in the next few paragraphs.OK, lettuce get back to the point. A US company called Little Leaf Farms is trying to trademark the curvy shape of its baby crispy green leaf lettuce. Is this some kind of GM-nightmare leaf, you might be wondering? Has big lettuce deviously planted cells in order to create a super-curvy salad? I wouldn’t rule it out, but in this instance it seems the lettuce’s shape is natural and the result of a particular seed being grown in a way that results in ruffled edges. Can you trademark that? US trademark experts seem to think it’s a long shot, but possible. Continue reading...

Ammar al-Baluchi was a human experiment for interrogators learning brutal techniques. Now prosecutors have proposed a plea bargainWarning: this article contains graphic images and descriptions of tortureOn 29 April 2003, 25-year-old Ammar al-Baluchi was snatched off the streets of Karachi by Pakistani authorities and handed over to the CIA. Continue reading...

Appeals court hears case brought by anti-abortion groups calling on the FDA to suspend decades-old approval of mifepristoneThree US appeals court judges who have previously favored abortion restrictions prepared to hear oral arguments on Wednesday on the future of the major abortion drug mifepristone.The case – which has landed before judges Jennifer Walker Elrod, James Ho and Cory Wilson – essentially calls on them to rule on whether the federal government should suspend or scale back the federal Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of mifepristone in 2000, along with later actions that made the pill more widely accessible. Continue reading...

New York representative is subject of a privileged resolution, which would need two-thirds support to succeedDemocrats moved on Tuesday to expel George Santos from Congress.The New York Republican won election in November last year but his résumé has been shown to be largely made up and his campaign finances and past behaviour, some allegedly criminal, have been scrutinised in tremendous detail. Continue reading...

Three killed and six injured in shooting in Farmington as police say suspect, 18, shot dead by police, appeared to fire ‘randomly’An 18-year-old man who stalked a New Mexico neighborhood, fatally shooting three people “at random” on Monday, armed himself with at least three guns, one of which was the style of powerful rifle used during many mass shootings, officials said, renewing calls for legislation to combat gun violence.The attack, which also left six people injured, came as the US is poised to see its worst year in recent history for mass killings. Continue reading...

President had been due to address parliament next week, the first US leader in 10 years to do so, as part of Asia tour

The 89-year-old legislator insisted she had been working when questioned by reporters on Tuesday after being gone for three monthsA bizarre exchange with reporters has raised new questions about the return of Dianne Feinstein, California’s senior senator who has been absent from Washington for months due to shingles.Jim Newell, a reporter for Slate, ran into Feinstein shortly after the 89-year-old lawmaker voted on the Senate floor on Tuesday. When he and another journalist asked Feinstein how she has been received by her colleagues since returning to Washington, Feinstein appeared to insist that she had never left. Continue reading...

The US president has decided to cancel an upcoming visit to Australia and Papua New Guinea to focus on the debt limit standoff at home. Joe Biden had been due to address the Australian parliament and was also expected to meet with other leaders of the Quad. The US president said failure on debt negotiations would spark a recession and quoted Moody's as saying 8 million Americans would lose their jobs

Michael Adams, who defended his state’s election system from claims of fraud, goes on to face Buddy Wheatley in NovemberKentucky’s Republican secretary of state, who had earned widespread praise for increasing his state’s voter turnout during the coronavirus pandemic and for expanding opportunities to vote, won his primary on Tuesday.Michael Adams faced a primary challenge from two Republicans who align themselves with the growing faction within the GOP who believe elections are frequently rigged and stolen. Adams will now face Buddy Wheatley, a Democrat and former state representative, in November. Continue reading...

President, who will still visit Japan for G7 summit, hosts new talks with congressional leadersJoe Biden has cancelled a planned visit to Australia and Papua New Guinea to focus on debt limit talks as Washington stares into the abyss of a potentially catastrophic default.Biden still plans to head to Hiroshima, Japan, on Wednesday for the Group of Seven (G7) summit with leaders from some of the world’s leading economies. But he called off what was to be the first visit by a sitting US president to Papua New Guinea and a stop in Australia, where he was to meet with other leaders of the so-called Quad. Continue reading...

Police have yet to arrest attacker in incident near Los Angeles, as violence against homeless residents has increased in recent yearsPolice in Riverside, California, reportedly thought the detached hand residents had reported seeing on the sidewalk was a movie prop. Then they learned that someone was being treated for a severed hand.The man in the hospital said that he had been injured by someone wielding a sword on Saturday night, officer Ryan Railsback, a spokesperson for the Riverside police, said in a statement to the Guardian. Continue reading...

Matthew Black was the first rioter to breach a barricade, and later rummaged through Ted Cruz’s desk as the senator hid in a closetA Capitol rioter from Alabama who was shot in the face by police but still invaded Congress with a knife on his hip and rummaged through Ted Cruz’s desk while the Texas senator hid in a closet, was sentenced on Tuesday to nearly two years in prison.On 6 January 2021, outside the Capitol in Washington, a police officer shot Joshua Matthew Black in his left cheek with a crowd-control munition. The resulting bloody hole in his face did not stop Black from occupying the Senate with other rioters after lawmakers ran. Continue reading...

President will return to the US on Sunday immediately following G7 to ensure Congress takes action to avoid 1 June defaultWhile Republicans in statehouses under their control are moving to restrict abortion access, the party’s current presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has remained mum about how far he would go in curbing the procedure.He was asked repeatedly last week at a town hall hosted by CNN if he would sign a nationwide abortion ban, but refused to answer. He was similarly unclear in an interview published yesterday by the Messenger. Continue reading...

Rachael Rollins attended a fundraiser featuring first lady Jill Biden and accepted travel paid for by an outside groupRachael Rollins, the US attorney for Massachusetts, will resign after a months-long ethics investigation by the justice department inspector general into her appearance at a political fundraiser and other issues, her attorney said on Tuesday.The federal watchdog has yet to release its report but an attorney for Rollins said she would submit a letter of resignation to Joe Biden by close of business on Friday. Continue reading...

Actor who earned the nickname ‘governator’ based on his roles in the Terminator films ran the golden state for eight years from 2003A presidential run by the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, is a “no-brainer”, according to one of the Democrat’s predecessors, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the film star and “governator” who ran the golden state for eight years from 2003.“I think it’s a no-brainer,” Schwarzenegger told the Hollywood Reporter in an interview published on Tuesday. “Every governor from a big state wants to take that shot.” Continue reading...

The CEO of OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT, told the US Senate he is concerned about the use of artificial intelligence to interfere with election integrity. Speaking before Congress for the first time, Sam Altman suggested that the US government should consider licensing and testing requirements for development of AI models. The White House has convened top technology CEOs for a hearing to discuss the future of artificial intelligence. Industry experts, including Altman, called on lawmakers to introduce a new regulatory agency for the technology to limit its misuse, while senators throughout the hearing drew parallels between social media and generative AI, and the lessons lawmakers had learned form the government's failure to act on regulating social platforms.

Xuan-Kha Tran Pham, 49, had also assaulted a women earlier on same day he struck at Democrat’s Virginia office, authorities sayA man who allegedly attacked two congressional workers with a metal baseball bat had a history of mental illness and had assaulted someone else earlier in the day, authorities said.The man, identified as Xuan-Kha Tran Pham, 49, of Fairfax, Virginia, attacked the Democratic congressman Gerry Connolly’s office on Monday, shattering windows and striking two women, including an intern on her first day on the job, authorities said. Continue reading...

Real change would be more than the tokenism of one magazine cover. Just see Edward Enninful’s Vogue for true inclusivityMartha Stewart, at 81, this week becomes the oldest cover star ever to grace Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. With her tousled beach hair, gorgeous pixie face, professional tan and stone swimsuit, well, it would be against my principles to judge whether she looks older or younger than 81, suffice it to say that she looks incredible.She has a silken orange cape draped over her shoulders – a bold choice, I thought, since it recalls the orange-jumpsuit uniform of her prison sentence for lying to federal investigators over a share trade in 2004, but maybe that’s deliberate and ironic. Or maybe I’m the only person who remembers that. “I hope this cover inspires you to challenge yourself to try new things, no matter what stage of life you are in,” she wrote on Instagram.Zoe Williams 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...

Wife of former CEO forced out over sexual harassment allegations says Rupert Murdoch lacks her husband’s ‘genius’Rupert Murdoch’s family has “wreaked havoc” on Fox News, said the widow of Roger Ailes, the network’s former chief executive, adding that the 92-year-old media baron would “never come close” to her late husband’s “genius”.Ailes died on 18 May 2017 at the age of 77. The former Republican operative built Fox News into a rightwing media giant but died less than a year after he was forced out over allegations of extensive sexual harassment. Continue reading...

Greg Becker tells banking committee that takeover of SVB was ‘personally and professionally devastating’The former CEO of the collapsed lender Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has said he was “truly sorry” for what he called the “devastating” collapse of the bank that triggered the worst banking crisis since 2008.Speaking at a Senate banking committee hearing on Tuesday, Greg Becker said he believed the bank was responsive to regulator concerns about managing risk and working to address issues before an “unprecedented” bank run led to its failure. Continue reading...

The sunshine state’s healthcare professionals will soon be able to deny treatment on religious or moral grounds. Thanks a bunch, governorYou know what I love about living in the US? Freedom! You can choose between multiple overpriced insurance companies to provide you with healthcare, for example. The healthcare companies, in turn, can seemingly charge you whatever they like for their services. If they want to charge you $1,500 (£1,200) for some toenail fungus cream, that is their prerogative. That’s freedom, baby.As if this wasn’t glorious enough, the healthcare system in Florida has just had a new layer of freedom added to it. On 1 July, a new law goes into effect that means a doctor can look a potential patient up and down, decide they are giving off homosexual vibes and refuse to treat them because interacting with gay people goes against their personal beliefs. The doctor will not face any repercussions for denying care and has no obligation to refer the patient elsewhere.Do 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...

Motorist maneuvered inside car before getting out on the passenger side following police stop in Springfield, ColoradoA driver who was pulled over for speeding and appeared to officers to be drunk tried to switch places with his dog in an attempt to avoid arrest, police in Colorado are alleging.An officer watched the motorist maneuvering inside the car before he got out on the passenger side on Saturday night in Springfield, a town of about 1,300 people on Colorado’s Eastern Plains, police said in a Facebook post on Sunday. Continue reading...

Mary Walton told not to attend class for inappropriate use of electronic device while teacher put on administrative leaveA Missouri high school sophomore who recorded a teacher using a racial slur during class has been suspended for three days.Mary Walton, a student at Glendale high school in Springfield, said that she was told on Friday to not return to school until Wednesday because she violated school district policy on inappropriate use of electronic devices, the Springfield News-Leader reported. Continue reading...

Exclusive: group that helped elect lawmakers like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez embraces policy popular with leftwing leadersThe progressive organization Justice Democrats has adopted a four-day working week, a policy that has received praise from leading leftwing leaders like Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.Justice Democrats, which has helped elect progressive lawmakers like Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, shifted to a four-day working week for its 20 employees starting last August on a six-month trial basis. In March, the group decided to extend the policy indefinitely after its employees reported the change allowed them to better manage the grueling nature of campaign work. Continue reading...

There is still a disturbing chemical odor three months later – yet we’re fighting for accountability from Norfolk Southern, the Ohio governor and the CDCWhen a Norfolk Southern train derailed – spilling over 116,000 gallons of toxic petrochemicals, much of which ignited, less than a mile from my home in East Palestine – I was terrified. I knew this would disrupt life for me, my family, and our neighbors, likely for years to come.When we were forced to evacuate, I wouldn’t have imagined that three long months later my family and I would still be displaced and living in a hotel. Nor could I have imagined that we would be fighting tooth and nail for accountability from Norfolk Southern, pushing to get Mike DeWine, the Ohio Governor, to declare a state of emergency and desperately trying to get the CDC to provide clear guidelines for testing and monitoring. Continue reading...

Republicans seem gleeful at the possibility of ‘chaos’ and ‘disaster’ – and their policies make the humanitarian crisis worseLast week saw the end of Title 42, the Trump-era border restriction which was technically introduced as a health measure during the coronavirus pandemic. The policy allowed the Trump and then Biden administrations to expel without due process the vast majority of people seeking asylum at the United States-Mexico border. Given that the acute phase of the pandemic has passed, the end of the policy – which has been used about 2.7m times – was inevitable.But the end of Title 42 has also reignited the political firestorm over the US immigration and refugee system. Republicans have seemed to gleefully anticipate “chaos” and “disaster” at the border after the policy is lifted. Less biased observers are also concerned that the US refugee processing system will be overwhelmed by the sheer scale of people now expected to seek asylum. The Biden administration has come under fierce criticism from the left for a tough new policy of questionable legality which requires most refugees to seek asylum from abroad using a glitchy cellphone app called CBP One.Andrew Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States at Leiden University and the creator of America Explained, a newsletter and podcast Continue reading...

The clean, modern typeface has adorned the New Yorker, Shake Shack and even HBO’s Girls – now it might bedeck your last home

Agency ‘failed to uphold mission of strict fidelity’, special counsel John Durham concludes in investigation launched by Bill Barr. Plus, who is Twitter’s new CEO and can she fix its problems?Good morning.Special counsel John Durham found no evidence that the US justice department and the FBI conspired in a deep-state plot to investigate Donald Trump’s ties to Russia in 2016, though the report released on Monday found that the FBI’s handling of key aspects of the case were deficient.What do we know about the Durham investigation of an investigation? In May 2019, the then US attorney general in the Trump administration, William Barr, asked federal prosecutor John Durham, the US attorney in Connecticut, to investigate an investigation: the one carried out into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election and links between Donald Trump and Moscow. Here’s what else we know.Was anyone killed? After a sleepless night in which many locals sought refuge in bomb shelters, Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, gave an update on damage. He said there were three victims in the Solomyan district, which was hit by falling rocket debris. Rescuers extinguished blazes after vehicles caught fire. Continue reading...

Security footage from a Walgreens in San Francisco shows the moment Michael Earl-Wayne Anthony, a private security guard, killed a young transgender man accused of shoplifting. Anthony told police later in the day he acted in self-defence

When it comes to news in the digital age, which journalism model will work?In a seminal 2009 essay, Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable, the brilliant New York University professor Clay Shirky made the point that journalism as we had known it for decades was finished – and for good reason.The reason, in a mere two words: the Internet.Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...

The young NBA star has been suspended after a second incident with a firearm. He did nothing illegal but he is treading a dangerous pathI will get to the messy tale of Ja Morant shortly. But first, a personal history. I grew up in South Dallas. Our house was repeatedly broken into. Drive-bys were a regular occurrence. I was jumped often, walking to and from school. Escaping that level of purgatory for the creature comforts of middle-America capitalism was no small feat. Many of my friends were involved in gangs. I never joined in – I was too scared. My pops kept me off the streets as best he could, while protecting himself and his family from the terrors outside our door. He had multiple guns. A Glock rested inside his bedside dresser. A shotgun sat on top of a stack of Maxim magazines at the top of the closet.Most people in my neighborhood had firearms: many on the left act like the only people who are pro-gun in the US are backwoods rednecks preparing for a race war. But Black and brown communities have plenty of gun rights advocates too. They aren’t members of the NRA and don’t march in Maga hats to defend gun laws after school shootings but they exist. As an adult still living in the ‘hood in Texas, albeit a gentrified one, I still keep a shotgun in my closet. Growing up in poverty is a disease that you never quite cure. I have only touched my gun once – when I moved home. I hope that remains the case. I do not take my gun out. And if I did, it wouldn’t be on Instagram Live, something Morant, a fabulously talented young NBA player, has done … twice. Continue reading...

David Strong jumped in front of a car barreling down a street in Boston to save his son, taking the hit himselfJeremy Strong has won Emmy and Golden Globe awards for portraying a character with an abusive father on the HBO show Succession, but he did not draw any inspiration for the role from his relationship with his real dad, who once jumped in front of a car to save him from being run over, the actor has revealed.During an appearance on CBS Sunday Morning this past weekend, Strong recounted how he was eight years old and growing up in Boston when he ended up in the path of a car barreling down the street at about 40mph. Continue reading...

Virginia congressman Gerry Connolly condemns ‘devastating and unconscionable’ assault on two staffers

The Bidens’ federal tax return showed earnings of nearly $580,000 last year; Kamala Harris and her husband reported $457,000Joe Biden’s personal finances changed little between 2022 and the previous year, though his book royalties fell sharply, according to White House financial disclosure reports released on Monday.Biden earned between $2,500 and $5,000 in book royalties in 2022, down from $30,000 a year earlier. He also earned less than $3,000 in “speaking and writing engagements”, from close to $30,000 last year, the disclosures show. Continue reading...

Two police officers were among the wounded in the shooting in Farmington, in the north-west of the stateAt least three people have been killed and multiple people injured after a shooting in Farmington, New Mexico, where police killed the suspected 18-year-old gunman, authorities said on Monday.The incident occurred around 11am in Farmington, a city of about 50,000 people in the north-west of the state adjacent to the Navajo Nation. Officers responding to several calls about a shooting found “a chaotic scene” where a man was firing at people on a residential street, said Baric Crum, the Farmington police deputy chief, during a news conference. Continue reading...

San Francisco district attorney says shooting was ‘reasonable’ and no charges will be filed, sparking outrageSurveillance footage from a Walgreens in San Francisco shows the moment a private security guard killed a young transgender man accused of shoplifting.The footage captures the guard tackling and punching Banko Brown, 24, on 27 April before fatally shooting him as he exited the store. Continue reading...

Claim also alleges ex-mayor said he was ‘selling pardons for $2m, which he and Trump would split’A former associate of Rudy Giuliani sued the former New York mayor, presidential candidate and attorney to Donald Trump for $10m on Monday, alleging “abuses of power, wide-ranging sexual assault and harassment, wage theft and other misconduct” including “alcohol-drenched rants that included sexist, racist and antisemitic remarks”.Filed in New York state, Noelle Dunphy’s suit includes the allegation that Giuliani “often demanded oral sex while he took phone calls on speaker phone from high-profile friends and clients, including then-President Trump”. Continue reading...

Special counsel also concludes no charges should be brought against the FBIThe Guardian’s Alexandra Villarreal has more on just how Joe Biden is trying to discourage migrants, and why advocacy groups say in this area, he’s not that different from Donald Trump:Last week, the Biden administration toughened its stance against migration at the US-Mexico border through a new federal regulation that severely restricts access to asylum. This “Circumvention of Lawful Pathways” rule effectively replaces the Title 42 public health order, which Donald Trump introduced ostensibly to stem Covid-19 but has functioned increasingly as an immigration enforcement tool, allowing border officials to quickly expel migrants without the chance to request asylum in the US. Title 42 ended on 11 May. Continue reading...

William Barr asked special counsel in 2019 to investigate the FBI investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia in 2016In May 2019, the then US attorney general in the Trump administration, William Barr, asked federal prosecutor John Durham, the US attorney in Connecticut, to investigate an investigation: the one carried out into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election and links between Donald Trump and Moscow.Durham had a background in investigating corruption on either side of the political aisle, and for attorneys general from both parties. Continue reading...

Agency ‘failed to uphold mission of strict fidelity’, special counsel John Durham concludes in investigation launched by Bill BarrSpecial counsel John Durham found no evidence that the US justice department and the FBI conspired in a deep-state plot to investigate Donald Trump’s ties to Russia in 2016, though the report released on Monday found that the FBI’s handling of key aspects of the case were deficient.The Durham report was sharply critical of how the FBI decided to open the counterintelligence investigation into Trump, known as “Crossfire Hurricane”, accusing top officials at the bureau of relying on raw and uncorroborated information to continue the inquiry.Durham said the FBI was more cautious of allegations of foreign influence when it came to the Clinton campaign, and did not pursue evidence in two cases of foreign governments trying to gain influence with Clinton while providing defensive briefings, unlike with the Trump campaign;Durham said the FBI was overly reliant on investigative tips from Trump’s political opponents and did not rigorously analyze the information it received, which extended the investigation and led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate Trump;Durham said the FBI decided to move ahead with Crossfire Hurricane despite a lack of information from the intelligence community that corroborated the hypothesis on which it was predicated and FBI agents ignored information that exonerated key people in the case;Durham suggested that Crossfire Hurricane was “triggered” by the so-called Steele dossier, when it was in fact based on a tip from an Australian diplomat in London that a Trump campaign aide appeared to have advance knowledge about Russia releasing damaging information on Clinton. Continue reading...

The 2020 video, which depicts a bar shooting, instructs people to flee, hide and fight in order not to be killed in an attackA newly resurfaced FBI video purportedly training Americans to give themselves their best chance of surviving a deadly mass shooting is drawing scorn across the US and abroad.In the video, released in 2020 by the US’s top law enforcement agency, actors portraying everyday Americans explain to viewers ways in which they could at least survive – or, preferably, even stop – a mass shooting once the bullets start flying. Continue reading...

Molina was the first Latina to serve in the state assembly, the LA city council and on the city’s board of supervisorsGloria Molina, a groundbreaking Chicana leader in California state and local politics for more than 30 years, has died after a three-year struggle with cancer, her family announced. She was 74.Molina died on Sunday evening at her Mount Washington home, surrounded by her family, her daughter, Valentina Martinez, said in a statement. Continue reading...

Confounding the polls, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is now on course to extend his rule into a third decadeIn the lead-up to Turkey’s presidential election on Sunday, there seemed to be good grounds to believe that voters were about to turn their back on Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s authoritarian brand of nationalism. His assumption of quasi-monarchical presidential powers in 2018 had succeeded in uniting a perennially divided opposition against him. Polls suggested a close race, but placed the president’s main rival for power, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, significantly ahead. Requiring a vote above 50% to win outright and avoid a runoff, Mr Kılıçdaroğlu’s declared aspiration was to “finish it in the first round”.That optimism has turned out to be sadly misplaced. As it transpired, it was Mr Erdoğan who almost won at the first time of asking, winning over 49% of votes to Mr Kılıçdaroğlu’s 45%. The coalition led by the president’s Justice and Development party (AKP) is also set to win a surprise majority in the Grand National Assembly. That outcome will stymie opposition attempts to restore parliamentary democracy to Turkey, irrespective of the result of the presidential runoff in a fortnight’s time. Continue reading...