by John Semley with graphics by Mona Chalabi on (#6N4MX)
Regular drug use - from caffeine to psychedelics - has become a fundamental part of modern life. A first-person Guardian US series explores America's shifting relationship with mind-altering substances
In the first of a series of special features, we look at how a sport buried by the American civil war is undergoing a revivalManhattan's skyscrapers are built on cricket fields. There was one under Pier17 at the Seaport on the East River, another beneath the North Meadow of Central Park, and a third right on 1st Avenue and East32ndSt, below the car park of NYU's Langone Medical Center.In 1844, a crowd of about 5,000 New Yorkers watched the first international match there, betweenthe USA and Canada. Cricket was the first modern team sport in America," says Chuck Ramkissoon, in Joseph O'Neill's great New York novel Netherland, a bona fide American pastime". He's right. It was, once. Continue reading...
Louisiana, with one of the US's worst maternal mortality rates, wants to make abortion medication a controlled substance'This week, Louisiana moved to expand the criminalization of abortion further than any state has since before Roe v Wade was decided. On Thursday, the state legislature passed a bill that would reclassify mifepristone and misoprostol - the two drugs used in a majority of American abortions - as dangerous controlled substances.Under both state and federal classifications, the category of controlled substances includes those medications known to cause mind-altering effects and create the potential for addictions, such as sedatives and opioids; abortion medications carry none of this potential for physical dependence, habit-forming or abuse. The move from Louisiana lawmakers runs counter to both established medical opinion and federal law. Jeff Landry, the anti-choice Republican governor, is expected to sign the bill. When he does, possession of mifepristone or misoprostol in Louisiana will come to carry large fines and up to 10 years in prison.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
Benjamin Netanyahu and his associates are already doubling down against these allegations. They must be made to answer themIsrael's international isolation, triggered by revulsion over the large-scale illegal killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, will only deepen following new, detailed and credible allegations that leading politicians and intelligence agencies conspired - with help from Donald Trump's administration - to spy on, undermine, improperly influence" and threaten the work and officials of the international criminal court (ICC).Those allegedly targeted include the court's former chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, and the present incumbent, Karim Khan, possibly still the subject of covert operations. If so, this must cease immediately. Once again, the world is confronted by dismaying evidence that the state of Israel under the destructive leadership of its rightwing prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has gone rogue. Continue reading...
The Yankees stumbled to a last-place finish at the dawn of the 90s. But a new series documents how things were even worse off the fieldChampionships, champagne and ticker-tape parades - that's the story of New York Yankees baseball, right? Not if you were on the team in 1990.During that season, the team's combustible owner, George Steinbrenner, was banned from baseball after connecting with gambler Howard Spira to discredit one of his own players, Dave Winfield. Outfielder Mel Hall brought two cougar cubs into the clubhouse and had a relationship with an underage high school student. On the field, the team was so bad that pitcher Andy Hawkins threw a no-hitter - and still lost. The Yankees stumbled to a last-place finish in the American League East. Their lowlight reel from the season gets a second look in a new documentary on Peacock in the US - Bronx Zoo 90: Crime, Chaos and Baseball. Continue reading...
Politicians capable of international leadership on Gaza can also defeat the dishonesty that says Ireland is fullThe poet Patrick Kavanagh was inspired to write sonnets about the leafy-with-love" banks of the Grand Canal near Baggot Street bridge in south-central Dublin. There was not much poetry or love on the same stretch of the canal the other day, as rain whipped a row of brightly coloured tents neatly lining the towpath, side by side.The occupants I met were mostly keeping hidden from the rain and, perhaps, from those who kick the tents and attack volunteer helpers, or the self-styled patriots" who travel the country burning down designated refugee accommodation sites, chanting that Ireland is full.Katherine Butler is the Guardian's associate editor for Europe Continue reading...
Strikers demand amnesty for grad students and workers who were arrested or faced discipline for protesting Israel-Gaza warDiscord from last month's mob attack on pro-Palestinian student activists encamped at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) flared again on Tuesday as academic workers staged a strike on campus protesting UCLA's response to the violence.Unionized academic researchers, graduate teaching assistants and post-doctoral scholars at UCLA walked off the job over what they regard as unfair labor practices in the university's handling of pro-Palestinian demonstrations in recent weeks, organizers said. Continue reading...
by Victoria Bekiempis and Abené Clayton (now); Léon on (#6N3TK)
This blog has now closed. Read our latest story hereDonald Trump is entering the courtroom. He's wearing a red tie and a suit that appears to fall somewhere between black and slate gray.Tiffany Trump is here as well as two of Trump's sons. Continue reading...
Lawyer Todd Blanche's argument for why jurors should find his client not guilty boiled down to a handful of principal linesDonald Trump's lawyer on Tuesday spent two hours focused on three key attacks against the Manhattan district attorney's case that the former president falsified business records with an intent to commit a second crime - of covering up an illegal federal campaign finance violation.Lawyer Todd Blanche presented at the end of his closing argument 10 reasons why" there was reasonable doubt in the prosecution's case and the jury should acquit Trump. It effectively came down to a handful of principal lines of argument: Continue reading...
Joshua Steinglass tells hush-money jurors that scheme to bury negative stories before 2016 election distorted democracyDonald Trump's secret plot to bury negative press ahead of the 2016 election deprived Americans of their right to choose a candidate at the ballot box, said the prosecution in its summation on Tuesday at the former president's New York hush-money trial.Joshua Steinglass's closing statement reminded jurors of a summer 2015 meeting at Trump Tower where the real estate mogul sat with then consigliere Michael Cohen and tabloid honcho David Pecker. Continue reading...
Ex-governor also criticises Biden administration for temporarily withholding weapons to discourage attack on RafahNikki Haley, the failed Republican presidential nominee, signed Israeli artillery shells with the inscription Finish Them!" on a Memorial Day visit to Israel.The former South Carolina governor's graphic display of support came on a trip to Israel's northern border with Lebanon, where she was accompanied by Danny Danon, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations and a noted hawkish member of Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party in the Knesset. Continue reading...
Former mayor repeatedly lied and deceived creditors about his finances to avoid money going to them, lawyers say in court filingA bankruptcy judge should appoint a trustee to immediately take control of Rudy Giuliani's financial affairs after the former mayor repeatedly lied and deceived creditors about his finances, lawyers for the creditors said in a Tuesday court filing.Among other things, the lawyers said Giuliani was funneling money into his businesses to avoid it going to creditors, undervalued his jewellery, and refused to disclose what several Apple and Amazon purchases were for. Giuliani filed for bankruptcy in December, shortly after a jury in Washington DC ordered him to pay $148.1m in damages to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss - two Atlanta, Georgia, election workers he spread lies about after the 2020 election. Continue reading...
Setback for special counsel Jack Smith as Aileen Cannon denies motion filed after Trump falsely claimed FBI was ready to kill himThe judge handling Donald Trump's classified documents case has rejected a request by prosecutors to impose a gag order on the former president over his false claims that FBI officers were prepared to shoot him when they raided his Mar-a-Lago estate.The ruling, by Aileen Cannon, Florida federal district judge, is the latest in a series of setbacks for Jack Smith, the special counsel who has spearheaded the prosecution into Trump's alleged mishandling of documents from his time in the White House. Continue reading...
DePape, who didn't get to speak in court in original trial on assault of Nancy's Pelosi's husband, gets no change to original sentenceThe man who was convicted of assaulting then US House speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband in 2022 was re-sentenced to 30 years in prison on Tuesday, with no change in the original sentence after the case was reopened so he could speak during his sentencing hearing, local news reported.David DePape was originally sentenced to 30 years in prison on 17 May for forcibly entering Pelosi's home in San Francisco early on 28 October 2022 and clubbing her husband, Paul, in the head with a hammer in a politically motivated attack. Continue reading...
Actor Robert De Niro was present outside the New York courthouse where Donald Trump's hush-money trial was reaching its closing stages. The 80-year-old Oscar winner is part of Joe Biden's re-election campaign and called Trump a clown' as he urged Americans to take the second chance' to vote him out once and for all' in the US elections in November
Ruddy, born in Canada, produced more than 30 movies, and was on hand for the very top and very bottomAlbert S Ruddy, a colorful, Canadian-born producer and writer who won Oscars for The Godfather and Million Dollar Baby, developed the raucous prison-sports comedy The Longest Yard and helped create the hit sitcom Hogan's Heroes, has died at age 94.Ruddy died peacefully" Saturday at the UCLA medical center, according to a spokesperson, who added that among his final words were: The game is over, but we won the game." Continue reading...
Former president transfers ownership of Cessna Citation X, worth $8.5m to $10m, to holding company tied to Mehrdad MoayediWith more than $500m in court fines on his back, Donald Trump has sold one of the two private jets he owns to a major Republican donor.According to FAA records, the former US president transferred ownership of the 1997 Cessna Citation X on 13 May. While it is unclear how much he sold the plane for, the private aviation company evoJets estimates a Citation X costs about $8.5m to $10m. Continue reading...
Joe Biden should back a UN security council resolution to end the fighting in Gaza rather than shielding Israel from criticismThe Israeli strike that killed at least 45 displaced Palestinians, many of them women and children, at a tent camp in Rafah this weekend clearly crossed JoeBiden's red line" over the need to protect civilians in the Gaza conflict. France's Emmanuel Macron did not doubt what should happen next. These operations must stop," he posted on X. There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians. I call for full respect for international law and an immediate ceasefire."Those in Israel who believe that they still need to make an appearance of deference towards US sentiments pleaded that the whole episode was a mishap" rather than a deliberate political insult. MrBiden is inclined to give Israel's forces the benefit of the doubt, and give himself wriggle room to say his line hadn't been crossed. Despite the international outcry over Sunday's deadly blast, Israel stepped up itsmilitary offensive on Tuesday, sending tanks into Rafah and leaving a score more civilians dead when it apparently struck a tented area. Continue reading...
The 19-year-old had minimal injuries' after a two-hour rescue mission in an area several fall from yearlyA teenager survived a 400ft fall off of a canyon in Washington state with only minimal injuries" according to police.A two-hour rescue operation to save the 19-year-old, involving the Mason county sheriff's office and fire department, took place on Saturday below High Steel Bridge - one of the US's tallest railroad bridges - located on the Olympic national forest nearly 100 miles outside Seattle. Continue reading...
The rule-breaking' US drink has landed in UK supermarkets. But what makes this water so special?What's in a name? Well, if you ask the makers of the viral water brand Liquid Death, the answer is about $1.4bn.Anyone with tickets to a festival this summer is likely to be struck by the canned drink with the alarming name that gen Z devotees are carrying around with them. But the trendy beverage is nowhere near as sinister as it seems. In fact, it's just water in a can. Continue reading...
by Associated Press and Guardian staff on (#6N401)
Jared Ravizza to be arraigned on charges including assault with intent to murder after six people stabbed in separate attacksA Massachusetts man will be arraigned on Tuesday on multiple charges including assault with the intent to murder after six people, among them four girls at a movie theater, were stabbed in separate attacks, officials said.Jared Ravizza, 26, of Chilmark, a town on Martha's Vineyard, was arrested on Saturday night after a police pursuit. Continue reading...
CEO Jonah Peretti pushed back on rightwing Trumpist, saying he had fundamental misunderstandings' about the businessVivek Ramaswamy, the former US Republican presidential candidate, urged BuzzFeed to cut staff and hire conservative commentators like Tucker Carlson after building a stake in the struggling online media firm.In response Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed's co-founder and CEO, claimed Ramaswamy had some fundamental misunderstandings" about its business, but offered to meet with him. Continue reading...
Roberta Kaplan has previously suggested she could file third defamation suit against ex-president for his comments on CarrollAfter Donald Trump on Monday again denied rape and defamation claims successfully brought against him by E Jean Carroll, a lawyer for the writer said all options are on the table".Carroll's lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, has previously suggested that she could file a third defamation lawsuit against the ex-president for comments he has continued making against Carroll. Continue reading...
Closure for 24 hours at San Clemente was announced after surfer reported the shark to lifeguards over the weekendA two-mile stretch of a popular southern California beach was closed for the Memorial Day holiday after a shark bumped a surfer off his board the night before, authorities said.The 24-hour closure at San Clemente was announced after the surfer came out of the water and reported the shark's aggressive behavior to lifeguards around 8pm Sunday, the Orange County Register reported. Continue reading...
Arthur Grand Technologies blames rogue employee but agrees to implement new training and justice department monitoringA tech firm from Virginia has agreed to pay more than $38,000 in penalties after posting a job advertisement that solicited exclusively white, US-born applicants, the federal government has announced.Arthur Grand Technologies drew the scrutiny of anti-discrimination officials when it went on the hiring site Indeed.com in March 2023 and published an ad aiming to fill a business analyst vacancy while limiting applicants to Only US Born Citizens [white] who are local within 60 miles from Dallas". Continue reading...
The revelation that the popstar was ill during five shows has led to many celebrating her work ethic. It's yet more evidence that our dangerous, damaging hustle culture is here to stayShould you go into work when you're sick with a contagious virus? Lady Gaga has spoken and the answer, it seems, is sure, why not?" During a recent Q&A for a HBO concert special based on her 2022 Chromatica Ball tour, the pop star was asked to reveal something she had never shared before. In response, she said that she'd performed five shows while sick with Covid. It probably would have been wise to never share that little titbit, to be honest, and it is a little disturbing to nonchalantly share it now. Still, rather than seeming troubled by this information, the crowd watching the Q&A appeared to cheer and applaud while Lady Gaga grinned.To be fair, Lady Gaga isn't a monster (though her fans are - they call themselves Little Monsters"): she made it clear that she did have a little think about the ethics of spewing infectious droplets into an enclosed space. The singer said she shared her Covid diagnosis with everyone on her team at the time and told them they didn't have to work if it made them uncomfortable. As for the concertgoers? The way that I saw it is the fans are all putting themselves in harm's way every day coming to the show," she reasoned. Continue reading...
Washington's McManus was playing for Jacksonville Jaguars, who are also being sued, when alleged incident took place last yearThe Washington Commanders said on Monday they were made aware of a lawsuit filed in civil court last week accusing the kicker Brandon McManus of sexual assault, and the Jacksonville Jaguars acknowledged they were also being sued.A Commanders spokesperson said the team was looking into the situation and had spoken with McManus's agent and the NFL office, adding: We take allegations of this nature very seriously." Continue reading...
Platforms like TikTok have helped inmates stay connected with family, share their stories online and shed light on prison abuseA proposed change to US prison rules is threatening to punish inmates for using social media or directing others to do so on their behalf, severing what some view as a vital link to the outside world.Delores Eggerson manages her son's social media accounts while he serves a life sentence in Arkansas. For almost 22 years, she's logged into his Facebook from her home in Manville, Texas, screenshotting messages from old classmates, or photos from family reunions. It's become her way of feeling connected - a part of his incarceration - and the solitary life he now has to lead. Continue reading...
Revelation comes as Spain, Norway and Ireland prepare to officially recognise Palestine on Tuesday. Plus, how our gardens and balconies can boost biodiversity
The president has weaponized the idea of Jewish safety to justify the atrocity in Gaza. I could no longer stand byUntil last week, President Biden was my boss.Last week, I resigned from my post at the United States Department of the Interior, becoming the first Jewish politically appointed administration official to publicly resign in protest - and in mourning - of President Biden's endorsement of genocide in Gaza, where more than 35,000 Palestinians have been murdered. This was an incredibly difficult decision, but one that was necessary - and one that felt even more urgent, as the president of the United States has persistently corrupted the idea of Jewish safety, weaponizing my community as a shield to dodge accountability for his role in this atrocity.Lily Greenberg Call was a special assistant to the chief of staff at the US Department of the Interior Continue reading...
The 5ft 7in point guard's career took him from Utah to New York City and a national title. But he was the last person to boast about his achievementsOn 24 March 1947, Wataru Wat" Misaka, a Japanese American walk-on with the University of Utah men's basketball team, held one of the nation's best players, Kentucky's Ralph Beard, to a single point during the NIT championship at Madison Square Garden. Thanks to that performance, Misaka's team won the tournament 49-45, cementing the 5ft 7in guard's folk hero status, both in his home state and in the Big Apple. But that wasn't even the most significant basketball accomplishment on Misaka's lengthy resume that year. Just a few months later on 1 July, after seeing the talent he displayed at the NIT, Misaka was drafted by the New York Knicks into the fledgling NBA, then known as the BAA. In the process, he broke the NBA's color barrier the same year that Jackie Robinson did so in Major League Baseball - an achievement Misaka had never strived for (there were other pro leagues in the US at the time, including the PBL, which employed players of color, such as William Dolly" King).That was never something that he aspired to," says Nancy Misaka of her father's ambitions. He never said, Oh, I want to be the first whatever.' He just enjoyed playing. He wanted to play with friends. I would say it was the team relationships that meant more to him than any kind of accomplishment." Continue reading...
The BBC's comedy chief thinks the format needs saving'. But it's the stereotypes that are dead: the sitcom itself is thrivingJust as we could most do with a laugh in the painful run-up to the election, last week the BBC's director of comedy commissioning, Jon Petrie, told a festival audience that the mainstream UK comedy scene needs a couple of Berocca and a black americano". At the BBC Comedy festival in Glasgow, he appealed for programme-makers to save" sitcoms. Mournful reports of the death of the sitcom" followed. What are we Britons supposed to laugh at now? Surely not content by ... the Americans? Or - even worse - comedy drama"?But how on earth can sitcom be dead when we live in an age of constant new content, endless streaming and easily accessible reruns of old and new material? And what does it matter what we call comedy, as long as we are getting a laugh? My kids - in their teens and early 20s - watch Derry Girls, Ghosts, Outnumbered and Friday Night Dinner on a loop, all nominally sitcoms and hardly ancient.Viv Groskop is a comedian and author of Happy High Status: How to Be Effortlessly Confident Continue reading...
EU institutions have already let people of colour down. Now the rise of the far right poses an even greater threatMy inbox is inundated with messages telling me to use my vote in the European elections because if I don't others will decide for you". My head agrees with the messages from EU politicians that I should do my bit for democracy. But for the first time, my heart isn't in it.As a European who is also brown and Muslim - and who has long wanted the EU project" to work - I am terrified at the extent of power and influence wielded, inside and outside government, by politicians who are unashamedly racist, xenophobic and Islamophobic and whose vision of Europe - whatever they may say in public - is also inherently hostile to women, Jews and gay people. And I am worried that it is going to get even worse. Continue reading...
From being branded Lai Dai Han, a derogatory term, to a lack of access to education and services, these children face a life of stigma. Our country must acknowledge their need for justiceFor more than five long decades me, my children and the hundreds of other families affected by sexual assault and rape during the Vietnam war have faced interminable suffering. It has been an impossible battle against shame and stigma, a struggle for jobs, services and survival, and a fight for rightful recognition from our government and our communities.I am a mother to three Lai Dai Han - a derogatory term that means mixed blood" in Vietnamese - children born as a result of rape committed by South Korean soldiers during the war. These children are regarded in Vietnam as rubbish, denied access to education and basic social services, hindering their ability to get a job and earn a living. Many of the Lai Dai Han have been forced to conceal their identities. Continue reading...
We're not aware of any kind of motive other than just malicious mischief, say police, of 81-year-old man who was arrestedAn 81-year-old man who investigators say terrorized a southern California neighborhood for years with a slingshot has been arrested, police said.While conducting an investigation, detectives learned that during the course of 9-10 years, dozens of citizens were being victimized by a serial slingshot shooter", the Asuza police department said in a statement. Continue reading...
In divergent messages, president pays tribute to fallen heroes, while Trump fulminates on social media against opponentsJoe Biden and Donald Trump marked the Memorial Day national holiday honoring America's war dead with jarringly divergent messages that promised to foretell the forthcoming US presidential election campaign as a contest of sharply contrasting characters.In a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, Biden paid tribute to the fallen as heroes who sacrificed themselves in the service of American democracy and ideals. Meanwhile, Trump, taking to his Truth Social site, took a very different tack - bestowing holiday wishes on those he branded human scum" and accused them of trying to destroy the country. Continue reading...
Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas saw hundreds injured and homes obliterated as storms move into Georgia and South CarolinaPowerful storms were moving into the eastern half of the US on Monday, after killing at least 21 people, injuring hundreds, obliterating homes, and leaving a path of destruction that spread across Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas over the Memorial weekend.As the weather system moved into Georgia, the Storm Prediction Center issued a severe thunderstorm watch for more than 7 million people in the state and South Carolina. Heavy rain is expected to drench parts of the East Coast, where damage from strong winds is also possible. Intense heat will also hit parts of the south. Continue reading...
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