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American billionaires and investment firms now control teams across Europe. Their stewardship varies wildly in qualityIt might have taken the USA generations to take soccer seriously as a sport, but the country's reach across the English and European game continues to grow, particularly when it comes to club ownership. Indeed, American entrepreneurs, moguls and general wealth-hoarders are now commonplace in boardrooms across world soccer.No fewer than nine Premier League clubs are majority owned by Americans - and that's without even mentioning clubs lower down the pyramid such as Birmingham City and Wrexham (although Canada could claim that one too). Across continental Europe, too, there is a current of American ownership gathering pace - Serie A has proved particularly attractive recently. Continue reading...

Speaking at the National Press Club, Lt Gen Stephen Sklenka, the deputy commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, said it was 'too far down the path' to factor Aukus submarines into its future planning in relation to the Taiwan Strait. 'At least from the military perspective, there is no expectation of anybody participating in any conflict with us, because those decisions are national sovereign decisions. The United States can't - we don't dictate that to other countries,' Sklenka said. Asked if the Aukus submarines would be 'too late', Sklenka replied: 'Not if he [Xi Jinping] doesn't fight in 2027.' He added that he doesn't see conflict in the Taiwan Strait as 'inevitable'Subscribe to Guardian Australia on YouTube Continue reading...

I took to the red carpet alongside other activists to highlight sexual violence. Now women of colour need a bigger place in the movementThe 77th Cannes film festival reaches its climax on Saturday when all eyes will be on the Croisette, as the winners of the prestigious Palme d'Or are announced. Hollywood greats such as Meryl Streep, Jane Fonda and Greta Gerwig have been in town, but this year, I found myself on the red carpet, hand in hand with some of the most courageous women in the business.Behind the facade of movie-star glamour and fashionable edge, there are burning issues that have been agitating the grande famille du cinema in France for years - but have been kept out of sight. The Cannes festival, as a symbol of the French film establishment, can no longer shy away from them.Rokhaya Diallo is a Guardian Europe 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...

May or October were seen as obvious options, but Sunak's party has plunged into a short campaign without a planIf the prime minister's announcement of a snap election had been an event in a scripted drama, we might accuse the director of laying it on a little thick. The rain might be justified as pathetic fallacy, but having Things Can Only Get Better blasting on a tinny speaker was a bit over the top.At least the police finally managed to prevent the song from being played any further. They must have been no less caught off guard than the country - including Tory activists and politicians.Henry Hill is deputy editor of ConservativeHome Continue reading...

Obliterated homes, splintered trees and crumpled cars were seen in the path of the twister about 25 miles from GreenfieldFive people died and at least 35 were hurt as powerful tornadoes ripped through Iowa Tuesday, with one carving a path of destruction through the town of Greenfield, officials said.The Iowa department of public safety said Wednesday that four people had been killed in the Greenfield area. Officials did not release the names of those killed in the storm because they were still notifying relatives. Continue reading...

Workplace killings in 2023 revealed hazardous working conditions of migrant farmworkers in Half Moon BayThe owners of two mushroom farms in northern California where a disgruntled employee shot and killed seven people last year will pay a total of more than $450,000 in back wages and damages to 62 employees.In an announcement released on Monday following an extensive investigation, the US labor department said the payment is an element of administrative settlements reached by the department's wage and hour division with California Terra Garden and Concord Farms. Continue reading...

U-turn by ex-president's most enduring rival during Republican primaries provokes swift backlashNikki Haley, who emerged as Donald Trump's most enduring rival and trenchant critic during the Republican primary elections, has said she intends to vote for the former US president in November.Haley was speaking at the Hudson Institute thinktank in Washington on Wednesday, her first public appearance since dropping out of the race in March. She was asked whether Joe Biden or Trump would do a better job on national security issues. Continue reading...

Appeal to Heaven' flag, used by Trump supporters on January 6, reportedly appeared at supreme court justice's summer homeAnother type of provocative flag that was flown during the breach of the US Capitol by extremist supporters of Donald Trump on 6 January 2021 was reportedly flown outside a summer residence of US supreme court justice Samuel Alito - following a similar, prior incident outside his main residence.Last summer, the Appeal to Heaven" flag, which originates from the Revolutionary war and has in recent years become a symbol of far-right Christian extremism, was flown outside Alito's summer home in Long Beach Island, New Jersey, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Jake Sullivan appears critical of decision by Spain, Ireland and Norway to formally recognise Palestinian state next weekThe US is concerned about Israel's growing diplomatic isolation among countries that have traditionally supported it, Joe Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Wednesday.Sullivan's remarks, at a White House briefing, followed the announcement by Ireland, Spain and Norway that they will next week formally recognise a Palestinian state. They also came amid efforts by the Biden administration and Congress to coordinate a response to a decision by the international criminal court (ICC) to seek an arrest warrant for Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over Israeli actions in Gaza. Continue reading...

Ex-president recasts FBI's standard policy statement limiting use of deadly force into claim Biden officials were locked and loaded'On social media and in a Tuesday fundraising email, Donald Trump raised an alarming concern. The Department of Justice, he said, was ready to kill him.The wild distortion came against the backdrop of Trump's hush-money trial in New York and amid fears of rising political violence around the coming presidential election, predominantly from the far right. The comments cement an inverted picture Trump and his allies have painted, in which a patriotic Trump is pitted against anti-democratic deep-state foes. Continue reading...

The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said a two-state solution for Palestine would come through talks and not unilateral recognition, after Ireland, Spain and Norway said they would recognise a Palestinian state. Speaking to reporters at a press conference, Sullivan said: 'We believe the only way we are going to achieve a two-state solution is through direct negotiations'

City will also overhaul police force and create memorial for victims of shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers

The PM has gone for the bad choice because he knows things will get even worse. It's an admission his leadership has failedThe circumstances were excruciating. One of the great rituals in any prime minister's career - the one when they put it all on the line by calling an election - was instead drenched in rain and almost drowned out by horrible, hostile noise from Whitehall protesters. Rishi Sunak battled on, just about retaining his dignity, and one felt for him in his torment. Yet it was a nasty, low moment in British politics.Never forget this, however. There is only one reason why a British prime minister would call a general election earlier than they have to, as Sunak did today. That is because they know better than anyone else that things are going to get worse later.Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The pretext of counter-terrorism as a reason to investigate Americans started with red squads', Huac and J Edgar HooverOn Monday, 13 May, the Israeli historian and professor Ilan Pappe landed in Detroit, Michigan. Upon his arrival, agents from the US Department of Homeland Security detained and interrogated him for two hours. According to Pappe, DHS asked him whether he was a Hamas supporter, whether he believed Israel was committing genocide and what his solution" to the Middle East conflict was. Agents also reportedly asked him to identify his Arab and Muslim friends in America".During his interrogation, DHS agents held a long phone conversation, which Pappe speculated may have been with Israeli officials. Pappe was eventually admitted to the US, but only after DHS copied the entire contents of his cellphone. (Initially, Pappe reported he had been interrogated by the FBI; he has since clarified that it was agents of the DHS.)Chip Gibbons is the policy director of Defending Rights & Dissent. A journalist and researcher focusing on the US national security state, Gibbons is currently working on The Imperial Bureau, forthcoming from Verso Books; based heavily on archival research and documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, it tells the history of FBI political surveillance and explores the role of domestic surveillance in the making of the US national security state Continue reading...

The prime minister has run out of road and is left defending a thin legacy against the prospect of regime changeWhen Britain last held a general election, the country was still a member of the European Union, there had been no pandemic and the Conservatives had already been in power for nearly a decade. That now feels like a long time ago, but not because of any sense of progress or accomplishments by the government. Quite the opposite.Fear of taking punishment for years of accumulated disappointment is the reason why Rishi Sunak has postponed the dissolution of parliament until now. The prime minister's decision to set a date - the election will be on 4 July - is driven not by confidence in a record to celebrate, but by a recognition that procrastination had become untenable. The Conservative party, exhausted and riven by factional feuding, has become ungovernable, leaving the country feeling ungoverned. Continue reading...

Reparations and compensation bills, conceived in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, must now pass the state assemblyCalifornia lawmakers are moving forward with a set of proposals meant to compensate Black residents for the state's history of racism and discrimination against African Americans.Under the legislation passed by the state senate this week, California would create an agency to help Black families research their family lineage as well as a fund for reparations programs and compensation for Black families whose property the government unjustly seized through eminent domain. Continue reading...

The US house speaker, Mike Johnson, has said the US should 'punish the ICC and put Karim Khan back in his place' after the ICC chief prosecutor put out a request for arrest warrants for Israel's leaders over the way its army has conducted its war in Gaza. Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Johnson said: 'If the ICC is allowed to threaten Israel's leaders, we know that America will be next,' adding: 'We have some very aggressive legislation that we're going to push as quickly as possible. It will impose sanctions'

Officials say disgruntled employee shot five coworkers at Delaware County LinenTwo people are dead and three others are injured following a workplace shooting in Chester, Pennsylvania.The incident occurred at around 8.30am on Wednesday at Delaware County Linen, a family-owned linen business located approximately 30 minutes away from Philadelphia. Continue reading...

Asking friends of all persuasions to define what a populist is brought up a surprising sense of unityI was on the radio discussing the attempt on the life of the Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico. Mr Fico, we kept saying, was a populist. This much we knew. But I thought it prudent to check the definition of populism. The Chambers dictionary has a populist as: A person who believes in the right and ability of the common people to play a major part in government." This feels disappointingly broad to me, if only insomuch as you can't imagine a politician saying the opposite - that they didn't believe in the right and ability of the common people to govern themselves. Google, its dictionary provided by Oxford Languages which is responsible for the Oxford English Dictionary, isn't much more help. A political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups." This too is surely standard stuff from politicians of all stripes.There must be something better than this, surely? It's too important to be a case of knowing it when you see it or, as one of my daughters might put it, just a vibe". I thought I better check if my confusion is - as is generally the case - down to my considerable intellectual limitations. I asked a third year politics student of my acquaintance what her definition would be. How should I know?" she said. I pressed on, contacting the most left-wing intellectual I know, and also the most right-wing. And a couple of avowed centrists too. They're all well-known, but I'll not name them because I really don't want to be in the middle of any public spat that may arise. Continue reading...

Latest staff departures include communications director Raj Shah as House speaker struggles to retain leadership positionThe Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, is reeling from a sudden staff exodus as he struggles to keep his position and the GOP's tiny majority in the run-up to November's elections.In the latest in a spate of resignations, Johnson's well-connected communications director, Raj Shah, a former White House deputy press secretary under Donald Trump, has confirmed he is leaving, Axios reported. He is expected to depart by the end of the summer. Continue reading...

Officials gave all-clear after examining package with two vials, a Korean Bible and ice packs at Washington DC headquartersThe headquarters of the Republican National Committee in Washington DC was placed under lockdown on Wednesday morning reportedly after vials of blood were sent to the building.Eyewitnesses reported several hazmat trucks - equipped to deal with hazardous materials - outside the building, which is near the US Capitol, around 8am. Continue reading...

Installment repayment programs like Affirm, Karna and Afterpay are getting more oversight amid sharp rise in useThe US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will apply some credit card consumer protection rules to buy now, pay later (BNPL) lenders, the agency said on Wednesday, in an effort to impose more oversight on the fast-growing sector.BNPL providers such as Affirm, Klarna and Afterpay partner with retailers to finance customer purchases, which shoppers repay in installments. The sector has become a major source of credit, but lacks a federal oversight framework. Continue reading...

Spanish PM says possibility of two-state solution should not be destroyed by force. Plus, Russia begins nuclear weapons drills

The deaths, the atrocities - all were predicted. Those who ignored all the warnings should be held responsible tooAs the international criminal court's prosecutor, Karim Khan, officially seeks arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders, a question must be asked of the politicians and media outlets that legitimised Israel's western-backed destruction of Gaza, which is one of the great crimes of our age: what were you thinking?The arrest warrant requests detail, firstly, how three Hamas leaders should be held criminally responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity including extermination, murder and hostage-taking. Their guilt is incontrovertible, and no cause justifies such depraved crimes against civilians.Owen Jones 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...

From first crush to first love, from the closet to coming out and from loss to connection. For the last 25 years, retired schoolteacher Arden Eversmeyer travelled from Houston across the US to record hundreds of oral 'herstories' from a rapidly disappearing population. Old Lesbians honours Arden's legacy by animating the resilient, joyful voices she preserved in the Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project - a powerful reminder of the strength, resilience and unwavering spirit of these remarkable women Continue reading...

In what a professor calls an intellectual embarrassment', the school is requiring students to complete a bizarre trainingLike many other campuses around the world, New York University has seen its students protest the university's ties to weapon manufacturers and other institutions that are profiting off the slaughter in Gaza or enabling it. Like many other campuses, NYU has been doing its best to curtail these protests and punish the students involved.Unlike many other campuses, however, punishments include being told to watch The Simpsons and write what the NYU law professor Liam Murphy recently described in an open letter to leadership as coerced confessions of wrongdoing". Continue reading...

Joshua Gutierrez was hired after his predecessor, Pete Arredondo, was fired following his inaction to the shooting at Robb elementary schoolThe chief of police for Uvalde schools has resigned, a year after he replaced the previous chief who held the role during the 2022 school shooting in the Texas city.Joshua Gutierrez, former police chief of Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (UCISD), was hired in November 2022 as interim police chief before officially being named to the job in March 2023. His predecessor, Pete Arredondo, was fired following his inaction to the shooting at Robb elementary school on 24 May 2022. Continue reading...

State becomes 25th to restrict or ban care for transgender children as LGBTQ+ rights groups consider legal challengeThe governor of South Carolina, Henry McMaster, on Tuesday signed into law a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors.When the ink dried, South Carolina became the 25th state to restrict or ban such care for minors. The governor announced the signing on social media and said he would hold a ceremonial bill signing next week. Continue reading...

UK regulators fine bank 61.6m over 2022 trader blunder that prompted flash crash in European stocksCitigroup has been fined 61.6m by financial regulators after its internal systems failed to prevent a fat-fingered banker causing a flash crash by erroneously placing more than 1bn of orders.The trader had intended to sell equities to the value of $58m (46m) on 2 May 2022. However, the banker made an inputting error while entering the transaction into Citigroup's order management system, so a giant equities basket of $444bn was created - and $1.4bn was then sold into the market. Continue reading...

The Bay Area has always been a hotbed for women's soccer talent. Its newest team have had a rocky start but believe they are built on solid foundationsSitting in front of the media earlier this month, every statement from Bay FC's players sounded like a plea.We can't wait to give [fans] the results they deserve," says the team's No 10, Deyna Castellanos. Continue reading...

Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and John Roberts love women's autonomy if it avoids awkward conflict-of-interest questionsAt the start of her rallies, Phyllis Schlafly, the woman who defeated the equal rights amendment, always thanked her husband, Fred, for letting her out of the house.Ah, those were the days.Judith Levine is a Brooklyn journalist and essayist, a contributing writer to the Intercept, and the author of five books Continue reading...

The economy is doing well - far better than under Trump - but Democrats must ask voters if they want a sociopathic infant with fascist tendenciesThe new Harris poll, conducted for The Guardian is troubling, not only because it shows Americans are still pessimistic about the economy but also because - with election day just five and a half months away - so many Americans believe the economy is bad when in fact it's damn good.In the Harris poll, 55% think the economy is shrinking and 56% believe the US is in a recession. In fact, the economy is growing.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His newest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

The closer Ivanka Trump is to her father, the closer Donald Trump is to the White House. And lately, the former first daughter seems to be testing the political watersForget polls or statistical modelling - if you want to know what is going to happen in the US elections, may I suggest consulting the Ivank-a-MeterTM? Much complex analysis has gone into the development of my proprietary prediction tool, but the premise is this: the closer Ivanka Trump is to her father, the closer Donald Trump is to the White House.Both Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, always seem to know which way the wind is blowing: the pair made out like bandits when they were unelected members of the Trump administration. Then, when it felt like the grift may be up, the Saudis gave Kushner billions to invest. Over the last couple of years, Jared has been managing those billions while Ivanka has been walking her extremely white dog, Winter, on the beach and going surfing. Both of them seem to have made sure that there are frequent quotes in the press from people familiar with their thinking", insisting that the pair don't want anything to do with politics ever again. Continue reading...

As San Diego becomes the busiest arrivals sector along the US-Mexico border, organizers warn the election's immigration focus will bring more instabilityJacqueline Arellano is driving up and down the 15 freeway in southern San Diego county on a recent morning in mid-April, boxes of donated clothing and safety gloves in her trunk.She stops in a Home Depot parking lot and hands a man the spare stroller she grabbed from her house. He'd mentioned to her earlier that day how tiring it was to move around the city with his toddler in his arms. Continue reading...

In Peach county, where Trump narrowly won in 2020, voters say they're struggling with rising prices ahead of the presidential election

The Dallas forward, who joined his hometown team in a deadline trade after five years with the moribund Hornets, has been an unlikely playoff hero. Could a first NBA finals appearance be next?I was in a restaurant with my wife when I found out," PJ Washington tells me. We were just happy and screaming." This is surely not the typical NBA player's recounting of the moment he finds out he's been traded. But the Dallas Mavericks forward isn't on the typical NBA player's trajectory. Five years after he was drafted in the first round by the longtime cellar-dwelling Charlotte Hornets, Washington got a call at the trade deadline in February that was life-changing: he was headed home to Texas.We sat down with Washington ahead of the Mavericks' opening game against the red-hot Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night in the Western Conference finals, a best-of-seven-games battle for a place in the NBA's championship round. The 25-year-old Washington is actually a Dallas native, who says he grew up going to Mavericks games as a kid all the time" and watching present-day coach Jason Kidd run the point alongside Dirk Nowitzki. Looking back on those formative years on Tuesday morning, shortly before boarding a plane to Minneapolis, Washington acknowledges that circuitously finding his way back to DFW - especially on a team with championship potential - is immensely fortunate. It's a full-circle moment," he tells the Guardian. Being able to come back home, play for the home team. Not a lot of guys get that opportunity." Continue reading...

Of course social media IS terrible and there are a lot of people who should be banned from it ESPECIALLY cartoonists please ban me please

After 20 months of relative peace, the homes and lives my charity has been helping rebuild are on the frontline once moreThe Russian offensive on the Kharkiv region this month has, after 20 months of relative peace, again placed many of the villages where my charity works, repairing homes destroyed by bombs, at the forefront of the war.I began volunteering in Kharkiv two years ago, having dropped out of my master's degree in Russian literature and set up the charity to support Ukrainians. After the region's liberation in September 2022, hundreds of thousands of people had started to return to Kharkiv city and the wider region from other parts of Ukraine, and countries that had taken them in as refugees. The villages where I work were reawakening, the craters that lined the streets had been filled, shops were reopening, electricity was back on. People's return was mostly driven by a desire to be at home.Ada Wordsworth is the co-founder of KHARPP, a grassroots project repairing homes in eastern UkraineDo 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...

Special election replaces speaker who was first ever voted out of the job, with election for next full term to take place in NovemberVince Fong, backed by Donald Trump, has won a special election to finish the term of the former US House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, who also lent his endorsement.Fong, a California state assembly member, defeated fellow Republican and Tulare county sheriff Mike Boudreaux in the 20th congressional district, in the Central Valley farm belt. Continue reading...

Fulton county district attorney overseeing election case against ex-president wins with nearly 90% percent of the voteFani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney overseeing Georgia's expansive criminal case against Donald Trump and his allies for attempting to overturn the 2020 election, has won her Democratic primary bid for re-election with nearly 90% of the vote.Willis and Judge Scott McAfee - who won his primary election on Tuesday - are central figures in the prosecution against the former president and associates in his orbit accused of conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Continue reading...

Republicans seek help from secretary of state after prosecutor Karim Khan requests arrest warrant for Israeli PM NetanyahuThe Biden administration is willing to work with Congress to potentially impose sanctions against international criminal court officials over the prosecutor's request for arrest warrants for Israeli leaders over the Gaza war, Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, said on Tuesday.At a Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing, Republican Lindsey Graham told Blinken he wanted to see renewed US sanctions on the court in response to the move announced by ICC prosecutor Karim Khan on Monday. Continue reading...

On Tuesday, both sides finished their questioning of the final witness. The testimony part of the trial is officially over.On Tuesday, more than a month after former president Donald Trump's criminal hush-money trial began, both sides wrapped up their questioning of the final witness. The testimony part of the trial is officially over. Continue reading...

Lawsuit says state law punishing undocumented immigrants with prison terms of up to two years is unconstitutionalThe US Department of Justice sued Oklahoma on Tuesday over a state law that seeks to impose criminal penalties on those living in the state illegally.The lawsuit in federal court in Oklahoma City challenges an Oklahoma law that makes it a state crime - punishable by up to two years in prison - to live in the state without legal immigration status. Similar laws passed in Texas and Iowa are already facing challenges from the justice department. Oklahoma is among several GOP states jockeying to push deeper into immigration enforcement as both Republicans and Democrats seize on the issue. Other bills targeting undocumented immigrants have been passed this year in Florida, Georgia and Tennessee. Continue reading...

Former New York mayor one of 12 defendants charged with illegally trying to keep Trump in power after 2020 election defeatRudy Giuliani denied charges of illegally trying to keep Donald Trump in power after his 2020 election defeat as he was arraigned to appear before a court in Arizona along with 10 other defendants on Tuesday.Giuliani's not guilty plea to nine felony charges came days after he was served an indictment as he left a party to celebrate his 80th birthday last Friday. Continue reading...