US news | The Guardian

After the Musk-Zuckerberg challenge, the billionaire brawl-fest has inexplicably ramped up this weekThe tech bros are brawlingOh no, it's escalating. I thought the cage match news would be the end of it. I thought we'd all spend a few minutes laughing about Elon Musk challenging Mark Zuckerberg to a cage fight and then swiftly move on. After all, the odds of this cage match actually happening are almost nil: Musk has a history of making wild promises and not following through. He also has a history of asking people who would almost certainly slaughter him in a fight to get into fights. Remember when he challenged Vladimir Putin to single combat? The stakes, he announced grandly at the time, were Ukraine. Continue reading...

A look back on the year since the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade with the Dobbs decision, and the advocates who aren't giving upWhile the supreme court's decision to overturn Roe v Wade sent shockwaves around the country, many activists, physicians and advocacy groups closely engaged in the fight over abortion in the US were not surprised.Since Roe's establishment of the federal right to abortion in 1973, anti-abortion advocates and conservative lawmakers have been chipping away at it. Restrictions on abortion increased over the last decade, and by the mid-2010s, seven states had just one abortion clinic left. In Mississippi, where the Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization case that ultimately ended Roe originated, the state's one clinic did not provide abortions beyond 16 weeks of pregnancy, meaning many people already had to travel to find care. Continue reading...

The insurrection won't stop the war: Prigozhin shares Putin's aims in Ukraine. But a distracted Russia is good for the world

Supreme court's overturning of Roe v Wade sparked a slew of state-level restrictions but anti-abortion stance has proved a vote-loserIn the months since the supreme court voted to overturn Roe v Wade last year, the effects of the court's decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization have become clear. Over a dozen states across the country have passed legislation limiting or outright banning access to abortions, severely restricting reproductive rights for millions of people and threatening to imprison abortion providers.But as Republicans have pushed through these bills, voters have also taken every opportunity to rebuke them in elections - leading to defeats in midterms and emerging as one of the GOP's largest vulnerabilities. Continue reading...

The patchwork of federal, state and company protections remains hard to navigate a year after the Dobbs decisionThe supreme court's decision to overturn federal abortion protections last year sent shock waves throughout the US. Suddenly, an individual choice that was once legally sanctioned was at risk of becoming the subject of criminal investigations in many states across the country.As public attention turned to such prosecutions, major tech companies faced questions over the ways they collect and store users' data amid concerns it could be used in abortion-related investigations. In August 2022, Facebook came under scrutiny after it was revealed law enforcement in Nebraska was prosecuting a mother and daughter for seeking and aiding an unlawful abortion in a case that was partly based on Facebook messages. Continue reading...

Even if there are fewer home buyers and prices have been falling slightly, they're still much higher than pre-pandemic and for many, more unaffordable than everAfter an intense two-year buying frenzy during the pandemic, the once-hot US housing market has started to cool.The US Federal Reserve set interest rates to its highest level in over a decade, and mortgage rates are sitting well above 6% for a 30-year fixed rate. The effect on the housing market has already started to show: the National Association of Realtors reports existing home sales in May were down 20% compared with a year earlier. And the median home sales price in May was $419,103, according to real estate company Redfin, a 3.1% drop compared to last year. Continue reading...

Unionized workers at delivery service partner in California fight company's intent to terminate contractAmazon is embroiled in a fight with workers at one of its delivery service partners in what union activists say is part of a longstanding anti-union drive by the retail giant which is now facing scrutiny in the US Senate for its anti-labor rights practices.At Battle Tested Strategies, an Amazon delivery service partner in Palmdale, California, workers are currently fighting Amazon's intent to terminate the delivery service partner's contract on Saturday. Continue reading...

Emmanuel Macron's government is at least doing the bare minimum to avert the planetary crisis - and putting the UK to shameWhile we remain transfixed by a handful of needy egotists in Westminster and the crises they manufacture, across the Channel a revolution is happening. It's a quiet, sober, thoughtful revolution, but a revolution nonetheless. France is seeking to turn itself into an ecological civilisation.Like every government, the French administration should be going further and faster to address the greatest predicament humankind has faced: the gathering collapse of Earth systems. But you can measure the seriousness of the government's plan by its institutional commitment. France now has a ministry for ecological transition. By the end of next year, the nation's 25,000 most senior civil servants will have been trained in the principles behind this transition. By the next presidential election, in 2027, every public sector worker will have had this training, tailored to their sector. Think about that: 5.6 million people will be taught about the biodiversity crisis, the climate crisis and the natural resources crisis - how these phenomena relate to the public services they supply and how public sector workers can use this knowledge to change the way they work. Continue reading...

Joseph James O'Connor, 24, pleaded guilty to cybercrime charges last month for hijacking famous accounts in a bitcoin scamA British man who took part in schemes to hack the Twitter accounts of celebrities, including Joe Biden and Elon Musk, was sentenced to five years in prison, the US attorney's office announced on Friday.Joseph James O'Connor, 24, pleaded guilty to cybercrime charges last month, nearly three years after he and others in his hacking group hijacked more than 130 Twitter accounts as part of a Bitcoin scam, including those of Apple, Uber, Kanye West, Bill Gates and Barack Obama. He also pleaded guilty to stealing $794,000 in virtual currency from a New York cryptocurrency company. Continue reading...

You are in an excellent position to push back on stereotypes, says Sisonke Msimang. Racism isn't just offensive to people of colour, it's offensive period

Raymond Mattia, 58, shot dead in remote corner of Tohono O'odham Nation in southern Arizona last monthFederal US officials have released body camera footage that shows border patrol agents were concerned that a tribal member they fatally shot last month may have been carrying a handgun during an encounter in a remote corner of the Tohono O'odham Nation in southern Arizona.The man, Raymond Mattia, 58, died shortly after the shooting the night of 18 May outside a home in the reservation's Menagers Dam community near the US-Mexico border. Continue reading...

President announces executive order to boost access to contraception as Republicans call for national restrictionsJoe Biden on Friday put reproductive rights squarely in the middle of his 2024 re-election campaign as the US president hosted a rally based around defending abortion rights, notched three high-profile endorsements from groups dedicated to the issue, and announced an executive order aimed at boosting access to contraception.The moves came in stark contrast to the Republican field of candidates, many of whom were attending the Faith & Freedom Coalition annual conference in Washington DC. Continue reading...

America's national pastime briefly heads to the UK, with St Louis facing the Chicago Cubs in front of an unusual audienceOne novel import to the playing fields of England has suffered an intellectual setback this week: the concept of Test cricket as an exercise in fun, joy and innovation. Now here comes another alien.This weekend America's national pastime stages a brief incursion onto these shores to see if it might be fertile ground for expansion. Forget Bazball for a moment, here comes baseball. Continue reading...

Former vice-president calls for federal 15-week minimum' ban in contrast to Trump who suggested issue cost party votesSpeaking one year since the US supreme court removed the federal right to abortion, Mike Pence said candidates for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination should stand firm on the electorally unpopular issue and take a hard line on bringing in national limits.For me, for our campaign, we're going to stand where we've always stood, and that is without apology for the right to life," the former congressman, Indiana governor and vice-president to Donald Trump told Politico. Continue reading...

Four companies and eight individuals charged with shipping enough precursor chemicals into US to kill 25m Americans'The US justice department has filed criminal charges against four Chinese chemical manufacturing companies and eight individuals over allegations they illegally trafficked the chemicals used to make fentanyl, a highly addictive painkiller that has fueled the opioid crisis in the United States.It is the first time the United States has charged Chinese companies for trafficking fentanyl precursor chemicals inside the United States, rather than shipping them to Mexico, the origin of most of the fentanyl found in the country. Continue reading...

Biden hails proud union workers' for speedy reopening after stretch of I-95 collapsed following tanker fire earlier in JunePennsylvania's road to hell" reopened on Friday less than two weeks after a tanker fire caused traffic misery for millions.Joe Biden praised engineers, laborers and many other proud union workers" for fulfilling his promise to move heaven and earth" to reopen a busy stretch of the I-95 east coast interstate artery that had been closed since it collapsed in the incident earlier this month. Continue reading...

Indiana chapter of Moms for Liberty - non-profit condemned as extremist' by anti-hate watchdog - used quote from 1935 rallyAn Indiana chapter of Moms for Liberty, a non-profit that advocates for parental rights" in education and was recently labeled as extremist" by an anti-hate watchdog, is apologizing and condemning Adolf Hitler after using a quotation attributed to the Nazi leader in its inaugural newsletter.The group's Hamilton County chapter on Thursday posted a revised version of its newly launched newsletter, The Parent Brigade, on Facebook after it had previously shared a version that featured the Hitler quote on its front cover. Continue reading...

It seems only a matter of time before we reverse this national act of self-harm. Especially if we learn from Nigel FarageLet Nigel Farage be our inspiration, let John Redwood be our role model. Not the way they would want, revered as the founding fathers of Brexit, toasted on this day every year as the men who led us to glorious independence from the hated empire of Brussels. Of course not that. On the contrary, 23 June 2016 is a milestone in our national story that evokes sadness and regret rather than celebration.We don't need to rehearse on this seventh anniversary all the ways in which Brexit has disappointed even those who voted for it. Farage and Redwood, along with Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Jacob Rees-Mogg and the rest, promised increased prosperity, cheaper food, flourishing trade and a flush NHS. They said we'd be free of all that tedious European red tape and would take back control of our borders, encouraging anyone agitated by immigration to believe that fewer people would come in. There would be no downside, only upsides. As David Davis pledged soon after the vote, our exit deal would deliver the exact same benefits" as EU membership.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Many states have passed restrictions, and inequalities along racial and economic lines have widened - but there is hopeThe day the constitutional right to abortion ended in the US, Americans faced an unusual moment of regression. The current generation now has fewer constitutional rights than their parents and their grandparents.What has happened since then has been almost unfathomable. Continue reading...

The budget committee hearing looked into alleged misinformation from big oil that covered up massive' risks of the climate crisisThe Senate budget committee held a hearing on Wednesday morning to scrutinize the role of oil- and gas-linked dark money" in delaying climate action - and tearing through local and federal budgets.The hearing was led by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, who has held 10 climate crisis-focused hearings since he took the helm of the budget committee this past February. Continue reading...

What happens when the chill of our seas turns to a soupy stew? Fragile ecosystems will be destroyed and food sources for wildlife will disappearLast weekend, at the very easternmost edge of England, tens of thousands of people of all ages gathered at a beach festival in Lowestoft to celebrate the sea joyously. To dance to trance music and listen to Linton Kwesi Johnson recite his poetry, and to hear marine scientists explain to seven-year-olds exactly why the sea smells the way it does. It was an idyllic scene. From dusk to dawn and back again, everyone was drawn to the vast and glorious element that connects us to the rest of the world.But then, amid the revelry, a solemn procession appeared. Two dozen festivalgoers carried a series of blown-up photographs into the sea. They were portraits by the artist Gideon Mendel of people, many of them from the global south, standing amid the floods that had overturned their lives. Suddenly, in the face of their fates, the sea seemed not so benign after all. It was a reminder that sea levels are rising around the world; and that here in the UK we face our own potential disaster - the drastic sudden warming of the sea off Britain and Ireland. Continue reading...

The French teenager has been hailed as the best NBA prospect since LeBron James. Let's hope he can pursue his goals at his own paceVictor Wembanyama's rookie hazing tipped off before this week's NBA draft. After origamiing his 7ft 4in frame (some say he's taller) onto a flight from Paris to Newark, he folded himself again for a subway ride to the Bronx to throw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium, missing well outside of home plate. (Zut alors.) All the while a frothing New York press mob gawked at him like he was something that had slipped out from under PT Barnum's tent.But by Thursday Wembanyama was standing tall again in a green kimono suit after the San Antonio Spurs tapped him with the night's first pick. It's a status that comes with significant expectation, and the pressure on Wembanyama - the surest prospect since LeBron James, it's been said - was immense; the King himself has called the Frenchman an alien," one dwarfed only in the NBA by Washington's Boban Marjanovi. Continue reading...

Regulations on deep sea submersibles are sparse', but the OceanGate submersible was not for joyrides' one of the company's founders, Guillermo Sohnlein, has said after the deaths of five people attempting to dive to the wreck of the Titanic.Their submersible was found in pieces after a catastrophic implosion' killed everyone aboard, the US Coast Guard confirmed on Thursday

Concord Fund, linked to Federalist Society co-chair Leonard Leo, a lavish supporter of Republican Attorneys General AssociationAn influential group of 28 Republican attorneys general has benefited mightily from at least $9.5m since 2020 from the dark-money Concord Fund, public records reveal.The Concord Fund, the top donor in 2022 and the two prior years to the Republican Attorneys General Association (Raga), boasts strong links to Federalist Society co-chairman Leonard Leo. Leo helped Donald Trump pick three conservative supreme court justices and now helps spearhead a dark money network that has secured $1.6bn from a single donor. Continue reading...

Driverless cars are becoming a nuisance for the department as they appear to obstruct fire engines and block roads in emergenciesAmid a rush to get more robotaxis on the roads of California's largest cities, the fire chief in San Francisco has warned the vehicles are not ready for primetime", citing multiple recent incidents of the vehicles obstructing fire engines and blocking roads during emergencies.Driverless cars have become a growing nuisance for San Francisco's residents and officials alike. Of particular concern for police and firefighters is the unwelcome appearance of robotaxis at the scene of an emergency that hinders their work. Continue reading...

More than 3,500 employees to take part in nationwide strike, led by company's Seattle RoasteryMore than 150 Starbucks stores and 3,500 workers will be on strike next week across the US, the union representing the coffee chain's baristas said on Friday, after it claimed the company had banned gay Pride month decorations at its cafes.Starbucks Workers United union said earlier this month the company took down LGBTQ+ Pride decorations and flags at several stores, while some workers took to social media to report the same. Continue reading...

Passengers aboard the sub lost on a dive to the Titanic became characters in a tragic drama. The rest of us were spectatorsFinally, we know. The discovery of debris on the seafloor - confirming that the missing OceanGate Titan submersible probably disintegrated in an instantaneous implosion on the same day that it disappeared - brings to a bleak end the mystery that has horrified and mesmerised people across the globe.The plight of the five passengers - the British adventurer Hamish Harding, the businessman Shahzada Dawood and his teenage son Suleman, the French veteran explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet and OceanGate's CEO, Stockton Rush - has dominated front pages everywhere and spurred an international response that involved four countries and may have cost millions of dollars.Bryony Clarke is an assistant letters editor at the GuardianDo 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...

It's an irresistible dystopian image, though one that seems as likely to come to pass as big tech regulating itselfCan anything make Mark Zuckerberg feel anything, unless it physically involves Mark Zuckerberg himself, perhaps being kicked in the head by choice? Or is emotion the Meta boss's phantom limb, twitching semi-regularly as a reminder of what he hacked off back in his Harvard dorm room all those years ago, as he began the long journey toward behavioural-modification, misinformation-spreading and selling the lives of billions of users to advertisers?Please: try to picture him feeling something. Conjure Zuckerberg's face as he scrolls through content he is unwilling to remove from any of his platforms, the sort of horrors that could destroy the sanity of a sweatshopped Kenyan moderator inside of six weeks, but which merely have Zuck reaching ice-bloodedly for a free speech argument. Try to imagine his reaction to whistleblower testimony before some parliament or other about Facebook's ruinous impacts on young people, while wondering inside why he ever even toyed with getting into politics, given that all politicians are merely junior personnel. Continue reading...

Complaints that people care more about rich explorers than for immigrants lost at sea miss the markThere's only one story this week and that is the story of news outlets struggling to keep the relish out of their coverage of the missing submersible. In the US, as in the UK, it feels like the only story in town. It also concerns a tiny number of rich individuals whose plight, when shared by those further down the pecking order, excites nothing like the same interest. As placement of the story swings wildly between titles, newsrooms appear in meltdown over how much of the public appetite in the stricken sub to indulge. Continue reading...

In her final piece before going on maternity leave, Poppy Noor writes about witnessing the decimation of women's rights while on the road as a reproductive rights reporterI was six weeks and two days gone when I found out I was pregnant. I had just gotten back from covering the US midterms in such a sickeningly frantic way that I hadn't had time to think about the changes going on in my body, but the signs were there: a creeping nausea that felt like seasickness, breasts as sore as swollen pimples, sheer exhaustion that willed me into bed for three days upon my return.I had reasoned this was a normal response to a week spent shuttling across hundreds of miles, working 21-hour days on the abortion beat in the fury of election season. Continue reading...

Data showed 58% would vote to re-enter bloc, while more respondents trust the European Commission over the UK government than vice versa. Plus, the 1,572 US politicians who have helped ban abortionGood morning.Seven years after the Brexit referendum, the proportion of Britons who want to rejoin the EU has climbed to its highest level since 2016, according to a survey.What else did the survey find? Europeans are a lot less likely to think other countries would follow Britain's example, the survey found. Asked whether they would vote to remain in the EU or leave in a Brexit-style referendum, 62% of respondents in France and 63% in Italy, which are traditionally among the least enthusiastic EU member states, said they would vote to stay.Why is the EU flag in the news? Ministers in the UK have been accused of criminalising the flying of the European Union flag on government buildings in England after London's City Hall was told it could be prosecuted for displaying it on the anniversary of the Brexit referendum.What has the White House said? The White House said the loved ones of the five men had endured a harrowing ordeal" over the past week. Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives on the Titan," it said in a statement. They have been through a harrowing ordeal over the past few days, and we are keeping them in our thoughts and prayers."Was the sound of the implosion heard? The US navy has said it detected an anomaly" that was probably the Titan's fatal implosion, soon after the submersible went missing, while the film director, James Cameron, claims his sources in the deep-sea exploration industry also detected a loud bang". Continue reading...

Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss faced harassment after Trump and Giuliani spread false claims about themTwo Atlanta election workers who were the subject of an outlandish conspiracy theory amplified by Donald Trump were formally cleared of all wrongdoing by the Georgia state election board this week.Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea ArShaye Shaye" Moss were at the center of one of the most persistent lies spread by Donald Trump and allies after the 2020 election. Using selectively edited video footage, Trump and Rudy Giuliani claimed that Freeman and Moss removed ballots from suitcases underneath tables after counting had ended on election night and counted them. Georgia election officials immediately debunked the claim, saying security footage showed that counting had not ended for the evening when Freeman and Moss removed the ballots from secure ballot transport boxes. Continue reading...

The country's view of the EU referendum could prove very relevant at the next election. Labour should take heedWe are often told, including not least by Labour politicians, that the debate about Brexit is over. While it is suggested that there is scope for softening some of the harder edges of Boris Johnson's Brexit deal, the prospect of rejoining the single market or the customs union, let alone reopening the debate about EU membership, are said to be firmly off the agenda.Nevertheless, seven years on from the referendum that paved the way for withdrawal, it seems that voters at least are having second thoughts.John Curtice is professor of politics at Strathclyde University, and senior research fellow at the National Centre for Social Research and The UK in a Changing Europe Continue reading...

The supreme court's decision has created a two-tiered class of US citizenship: one for men and one for women. It is a generational tragedyThat it has only been a year since the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade and ended the federal right to an abortion feels absurd, almost impossible. How horribly and dramatically our country has changed since then. In a span of just 12 months, thousands of lives have been permanently changed - dreams dashed, intentions scuttled, childhoods abruptly ended, talents and potential suppressed, health risked, and the self-determination of pregnant women snatched from them by a body of unelected jurists who believe that their own sentiments are more important than those women's dignity.The decision unleashed atrocities and morbid perversions of medical ethics that have rapidly become routine. Women experiencing miscarriages now wait around in emergency rooms and parking lots, unable to receive treatment until they sicken to the point where sufficiently brutal health outcomes (life-ending or life-altering, depending on the state) become a certainty. Other women, and no small number of girls, now gestate and give birth to infants conceived by their rapists - their coaches, abusive boyfriends, acquaintances, priests, fathers. Still others are forced into torturously monstrous exercises in medical futility, their bodies commandeered and used by the state to birth babies without lungs or heads.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Foundation for Government Accountability, backed by Richard Uihlein, exerting influence in Ohio, Missouri, South Dakota and ArkansasA Florida group primarily funded by an Illinois billionaire is driving the recent attacks on direct democracy in states such as Ohio, Missouri, South Dakota and Arkansas.The Foundation for Government Accountability, a Florida-based group affiliated with the alliance of conservative thinktanks called the State Policy Network, has played a key role in recent efforts to raise the threshold for passing citizen ballot initiatives from a simple majority to a supermajority, and to make it harder to place measures on the ballot in the first place.This article was produced in partnership with Documented, an investigative watchdog and journalism project. Brendan Fischer is deputy executive director with Documented Continue reading...

The turmoil of the last six months appears to be at an end as the USMNT prepare to host the next World Cup. But there are still a few questions to resolveHere's the USMNT story so far in 2023. The second interim coach of the year is going for his second trophy of the year, even though the team has a new permanent coach, who is the former permanent coach.This new-old head coach, Gregg Berhalter, who was hired-rehired on 16 June, will not be in charge of the US's first Concacaf Gold Cup game - against Jamaica in Chicago on Saturday - because he is busy Thinking Deep Thoughts. Continue reading...

No matter how much they may squirm, the link between austerity and Britain's pandemic outcomes is undeniableDavid Cameron's government feels so long ago. Seven years of almost constant Tory turmoil, upheaval in all the other parties, huge strikes and economic crises, the war in Ukraine and the pandemic catastrophe: together, they make Cameron's calm resignation statement outside 10 Downing Street in 2016, and his jaunty humming afterwards, seem like something from another, less frightening era.In some ways, the worse things get in this country, the better it is for Cameron's reputation. Even the most damaging acts of his six-year tenure - from calling the Brexit referendum to imposing austerity to the military intervention in Libya - are steadily disappearing behind the subsequent disasters under Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. The social liberalism of Cameron's premiership can be overstated: he only overcame Tory opposition to same-sex marriage with Labour support. But his liberalism seems more of an achievement now that his party has reverted to being reactionary.Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Every child - and every stressed-out parent - deserves a holiday, even if we have to endure the hell of the travel cotThe people who design travel cots belong in prison. I'm generally in favour of restorative justice and rehabilitation, but for this I'll make an exception.We are luckier than most, in that the baby will sleep on the hard bit of plywood that's supposed to pass for a mattress, but he does need a few pats on the bum to settle, and unless you are Stretch Armstrong (a contemporary reference there for you, kids) this is all but impossible. Likewise, lowering the baby (or in our case, large toddler) into the cot, which if you're a woman of average height involves squatting over one of the corners and hoping you don't bash your crotch on it so that your swearing wakes them up, something which definitely hasn't happened to me - ever. Basically, they are designed for babies who are heavy sleepers, and tall men.Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist and author Continue reading...

The movie director and submersible maker James Cameron said he wished he had sounded the alarm earlier about the submersible, Titan, that imploded on an expedition to the Titanic wreckage, and that he found the hull design risky. 'I thought it was a horrible idea. I wish I'd spoken up, but I assumed somebody was smarter than me,' he said. The cause of Titan's implosion has not been determined, but Cameron presumes critics were correct in warning that a carbon fibre and titanium hull would enable microscopic water ingress, leading to progressive failure over time

The survivor of the Stonewall riots and mother to countless trans women has built a refuge for her community in the south: I make joy here'I'm still fucking here."Miss Major Griffin-Gracy is sitting in her living room in Little Rock, Arkansas, on a recent morning, laughing about the enemies she's defeated and outlived in her more than five decades fighting for the liberation of transgender people. Continue reading...

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is accused of passing drugs to someone on the day of on-set fatal shootingThe weapons supervisor charged with involuntary manslaughter over the shooting death of a cinematographer on the set of the Alec Baldwin film Rust has been charged with evidence tampering for allegedly passing drugs to someone else on the day of the shooting.Hannah Gutierrez-Reed did transfer narcotics to another person with the intent to prevent the apprehension, prosecution or conviction of herself", the special prosecutors appointed in the case said in a court filing in Santa Fe county, New Mexico. They gave no further details. Continue reading...

When asked about the human rights and democratic issues in India, Joe Biden said he and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi had spoken about democratic values and were 'straightforward with each other.'Modi said he was surprised by the critique, adding 'there is absolutely no space for discrimination.'Thousands of Indian Americans and other guests had gathered on the White House South Lawn to greet Modi on Thursday morning, ahead of the private meeting between the two heads of state. At the same time, dozens of demonstrators descended near the White House gates in protest against the visit.Human rights advocates have criticised Modi and his party, the BJP, for fueling the rise of violence associated with Hindu nationalism and discriminating against India's Muslim minority

The Titan submersible imploded not far from the Titanic and all five passengers onboard have died, rear admiral John Mauger of the US Coast Guard has confirmed, offering his condolences to the explorers' families.Two 'debris fields' were discovered by Coast Guard crews beneath the surface of the Atlantic and five different major pieces of debris including the nose cone and almost all of the pressure chamber.Coast Guard experts said the implosion was not connected to reports of unidentified 'banging' noises picked up on Tuesday night and Wednesday by sonar buoys deployed by Canadian military aircraft

India's prime minister has a notorious and extensive record of human rights abuses', said a statement from lawmakersNarendra Modi's state visit to the US has prompted condemnation and protest from Muslim leaders, lawmakers and other allies.US house representatives Rashida Tlaib, Representative Ilhan Omar, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush and Kweisi Mfume are among those who have said they will boycott the Indian prime minister's address to Congress on Thursday in light of the violence and repression of the media and religious minorities like Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and Dalits carried out under his rightwing nationalist government. Continue reading...