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Utah's heavily Mormon population is largely opposed to all gambling, even on financial exchange platformsUtah is home to some of the strongest anti-gambling laws in the US, with vehement opposition dating back more than a century. But as prediction markets have surged - allowing users to bet on almost anything, from elections to sports to geopolitical events - the state has not escaped the nationwide boom.Its Republican leaders are fighting back, setting up a battle between one of the country's most conservative states and a rapidly growing industry that is embraced by a Republican administration in Washington - and members of the US president's own family. Continue reading...

Challenger Graham Platner may have amassed a rare kinetic energy, but the moderate conservative has served the state for almost 30 yearsFor three decades, Susan Collins has styled herself as a moderate conservative who delivers for Maine, even when it means defying Donald Trump. But as the incumbent Republican seeks a sixth term, national Democrats see her as newly vulnerable - zoning in on the state as a clear path to reclaiming the Senate.Collins, 73, will now face off against the presumptive Democratic nominee, Graham Platner, a 41-year-old marine veteran and oysterman with no national political experience and a controversial past. Despite dredged-up racist, sexist and homophobic online posts - and a now-covered-up tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol - Platner continues to amass a rare kinetic energy that has seen hundreds of Mainers flock to town halls across the state to hear his gravelly voiced excoriation of Washington. His rise ultimately forced the state's two-term governor Janet Mills to suspend her primary bid, citing dwindling financial resources. Continue reading...

The final is the most expensive ticket on resale for this summer's tournaments. But there are surprising get-in prices elsewhereIt's no surprise that the most expensive World Cup resale tickets are for the final. But the next priciest is a group game between two nations who have never reached that stage.A ticket to the Colombia v Portugal group game in Miami on 27 June is the tournament's second-most expensive seat on the resale marketplace, with a cheapest asking price of $2,254 as of 17 May, according to TicketData.com, an analysis site. Continue reading...

Four crew members are safe after incident involving aircraft during weekend air show at military base in western IdahoFour crew members are safe after two navy jets collided and crashed to the ground on Sunday at an air show at Mountain Home air force base in western Idaho, officials said.The collision involved two US navy EA-18G Growlers from the Electronic Attack Squadron 129 in Whidbey Island, Washington, said Cmdr Amelia Umayam, a spokesperson for Naval Air Forces, US Pacific Fleet. Continue reading...

Senate parliamentarian ruled a proposal to fund $1bn in security additions for the White House failed to meet procedural rules. Key US politics stories from Sunday 17 May 2026 at a glanceA US Senate official on Saturday removed security funding that could be used for Donald Trump's planned $400m White House ballroom from a massive spending package, Democratic lawmakers said, imperilling Republican efforts to devote taxpayer money to the contentious project.The decision by the Senate's parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, deals a blow to Trump and his administration, which has sought the money for security purposes related to the ballroom. Continue reading...

Aaron Rai put together one of the great closing rounds - and sunk a monster putt for the ages - to finally scatter a bunched field at Aronimink

Tim Walz, the state's governor, calls blazes unpredictable and fast-moving' as dry, windy weather fuels themMinnesota's national guard has been activated to help battle wildfires burning in the northern part of the state after the department of natural resources requested additional support.Governor Tim Walz authorized the deployment by issuing an executive order that declared a peacetime emergency. Continue reading...

White House-backed event billed as One Nation Under God' criticized for blurring lines between church and stateThousands of people streamed on to the National Mall for a daylong prayer rally on Sunday billed as a rededication of our country as One Nation Under God".Against the backdrop of the Washington Monument, worship music blared from a stage that made clear the event's Christian focus. Arched stained-glass windows, set underneath grand columns resembling a federal building, depicted the nation's founders alongside a white cross. Continue reading...

As the campaign draws to a close, we looked at what each of the teams did best this season in the English top-flightWhat enriches you is the game, not the result. The result is a piece of data," the Spanish football coach Juanma Lillo once said. The birthrate goes up. Is that enriching? No. But the process that led to that? Now that's enriching."Let that serve as the thinking behind the first annual Football Style Awards, a celebration of process over results. These awards are not about who won, though they are about pieces of data. A club data scientist friend and I have spent the last year building a new football app called futi that measures not just who's good but what they're good at, based on detailed phase of play data and models that measure how teams and players play. Continue reading...

Saturday night's fight came a decade too late to be relevant. But it also provided a spectacle MMA's most powerful organization has been lackingWhen Ronda Rousey stepped into the cage for the first time in almost a decade on Saturday night to challenge fellow mixed martial arts trailblazer Gina Carano, the fight was over before it ever really began. In a flash, Rousey had Carano locked in her signature armbar, leaving her opponent little choice but to tap. The fight lasted a mere 17 seconds.I didn't really want to hurt her," Rousey said after her win. It was beautiful martial arts, that's what I think that was. It was art." Continue reading...

US president writes vote the bum out' as congressman faces close race against Trump-endorsed RepublicanWith two days to go before the next big test of Donald Trump's iron grip over his party, the president went head-to-head on Sunday with his nemesis, Thomas Massie the Kentucky congressman who is in a fight for his political life in Tuesday's Republican primary.Over an eight-hour period starting in the early hours of Sunday, Trump took to his bully pulpit on Truth Social to taunt Massie, one of very few senior Republicans who has dared to defy him. Massie is the worst and most unreliable Republican Congressman in the history of our Country", the rant began, followed by a mid-morning exhortation to Kentucky voters to vote the bum out on Tuesday". Continue reading...

Long Island Rail Road disruptions likely to affect weekday rush hour as Kathy Hochul says I did not want a strike'The shutdown of the Long Island Rail Road, North America's largest commuter rail system, continued into a second day on Sunday after unionized workers went on strike a day earlier for the first time in three decades.The railroad, which serves New York City and its eastern suburbs, ceased operations just after midnight Friday after five unions representing about half its workforce walked off the job. Continue reading...

Buoyed by his removal of Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro, the US president is intensifying an economic stranglehold and military menaceWhile the world watched the pomp of Donald Trump's trip to Beijing, the US was turning up the pressure thousands of miles away. Its oil blockade has plunged Cuba into a humanitarian crisis, sparking nationwide blackouts that have prompted rare protests, closing schools and universities and leaving hospitals battling to treat patients. Surveillanceflightsare circling. US media reported this weekend that federal prosecutors are preparing an indictment for Raul Castro, the 94-year-old former president and brother of Fidel. MrTrump has casually observed, while bragging about the kidnapping of Venezuela's then leader NicolasMaduro in January, that Cuba is next".A military assault on Havana would be vastly more fraught for the US - even without the war on Iran - and disastrous for Cubans. Washington hopes that threats and privation will be sufficient. UN experts warn that the blockade is unlawful, puts human rights at risk and may amount to collective punishment. The government admitted on Wednesday that fuel oil had run out. Tourism has collapsed. The Canadian mining company Sherritt pulled out of a joint venture and countries have axed their contracts for Cuban doctors - a vital source of income for the island, and trained medical staff for others. Havana may hope that it can stagger on. But Mr Trump is not patient. Continue reading...

Tom Steyer has built his campaign for governor of California around affordability - he's not the only Democrat testing the party's appetite for a populist from the 1%Tom Steyer has built his campaign for governor of California around affordability - and taxing the uber-wealthy.It is perhaps an unusual message for a candidate with an estimated net worth of $2.4bn. But the hedge fund founder-turned climate activist and liberal mega-donor is pitching himself as a different kind of billionaire: one who wants people like him to pay far more in taxes. Continue reading...

China is dominating the energy transition with astonishing result, while fossil fuel fascists in the US try to turn back the clockFarewell," the flag-waving Chinese children chanted to Donald Trump as he strolled along the red carpet back to Air Force One at the end of his summit with Xi Jinping in Beijing.The US leader claimed he was leaving with a cluster of fantastic" trade deals to sell US oil, jets and soya beans to China. That has not been confirmed by his smiling host, but one thing was crystal clear from the two days of meetings: the global balance of power is shifting, from the declining petrostate in the west to the rising electrostate in the east. Continue reading...

Daniel Sikkema is accused of hiring someone to kill his husband, Brent Sikkema, amid a divorce and alleged fights over moneyIn the early morning hours of 14 January 2024, a hitman slipped into the renowned New York City gallerist Brent Sikkema's Rio de Janeiro townhouse.The alleged assassin, Alejandro Triana Prevez, grabbed a kitchen knife and traveled to Sikkema's upstairs bedroom. An altercation unfolded near the bedroom door. As Sikkema, 75, struggled for his life, Prevez stabbed him, a lawsuit filed in New York state civil court alleges. Continue reading...

The Vaillancourt fountain, an enormous sculpture in place since the 1970s, has been equally reviled and reveredIt was a surreal, fitting end for one of San Francisco's most divisive public artworks: the Vaillancourt fountain, an enormous concrete sculpture looming over Embarcadero Plaza since the 1970s, had burst into flames.The hulking fountain's angled arms were being dismantled in early May after the city voted to potentially replace it with an open, grassy park - a decision mourned by skateboarders like myself, who argued the city was losing an important piece of its skate culture and architectural heritage. Continue reading...

James Clyburn could now find his district dismantled after supreme court effectively gutted Voting Rights ActSouth Carolina has had exactly one Black representative in Congress since 1897: James Clyburn. A proposal to redraw the state's political map would dismantle the district he represents.The state's sixth congressional district starts on its southern border with Georgia, in the suburbs of Savannah, moving a hundred miles north to wind around the heart of Charleston, before cutting through Black belt farmland to the state capital of Columbia, another 115 miles away. Continue reading...

The FTC settled its case with Media Matters for America. But it doesn't have to win in court to achieve its goalsIs there something radically left" about being anti-Nazi? That was the question a judge put to the lawyer for the Federal Trade Commission, which has no good answer.This week, the FTC abruptly settled its case with Media Matters for America, a media watchdog the FTC had been investigating over its reports about pro-Nazi content running alongside ads on X. Those reports drove advertisers off the platform and prompted X owner Elon Musk to threaten a thermonuclear lawsuit". Continue reading...

Pilot program to reimburse patients for hemp-derived products could be undermined by ban passed by CongressThe Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently started a new pilot to reimburse patients for hemp-derived products - like CBD - but a hemp ban that Congress passed in November could derail the program.The new program will make certain Medicare and Medicaid recipients eligible for reimbursement for up to $500 worth of hemp products each year and is intended in part to evaluate whether these products could reduce their other health related costs. Continue reading...

The 2022 World Cup failed to deliver on its environmental promises. From air travel emissions to heat-related dangers, the 2026 edition will be even worseSoccer fans are increasingly watching preparations for the 2026 World Cup through their fingers. The most popular sporting event on the planet is awash in controversy, whether it's the eye-watering ticket prices, the question of Iran's participation while the president of one of the host countries threatens war crimes against it, or the role that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement may or may not play in policing the event. And yet, lost in the political pyrotechnics is a fiasco that carries as much long-term peril as any: the tournament's staggering contribution to runaway climate change.The 2026 World Cup is not only the most politically combustible tournament in modern history, but it is also on track to be the most polluting" World Cup ever, with total greenhouse gas emissions hitting nearly two times the historical average. Scientists conservatively project that the tournament will generate around 9m tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. Air travel comprises approximately 7.7m tons of this carbon budget, and more than four times that of the average for tournaments held between 2010 and 2022. The researchers note that the worst-case upper estimate for air transport is about 13.7m tons of CO2. That may sound bad, but that's just because World Cup emissions have never been worse. Continue reading...

Carmakers aim to expand into UK defence sector, exploiting spending boom by Nato countriesJaguar Land Rover and General Motors are considering an expansion into UK defence via a 900m military contract, as carmakers seek to exploit a spending boom by Nato countries racing to rearm.The manufacturers are among a group of automotive firms vying to make thousands of 4x4s for the armed forces to replace an ageing fleet of Land Rovers that have been out of production since 2016. Continue reading...

Plummeting approval ratings for these three poisonous comrades-in-arms show voters are demoralised and tiring of forever wars - the west could soon breathe againFeeling depressed about the state of the world? Worried about the future? You're not alone. Pessimism about politics is the new normal among the peoples of the west. Major conflicts in Europe and the Middle East and the harms caused by right-left extremism, stagnating economies, inequality, corruption, terrorism, racism, big tech, mass extinctions and the climate crisis make for shared nightmares.Growing numbers of people simply refuse to personally engage with current events via the news media, finding them too anxiety-inducing (so they probably won't be reading this). In a Reuters Institute survey last year, 40% of respondents in about 50 countries said they sometimes or often avoid the news altogether, a rise of 29% on 2017.Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator Continue reading...

Cassidy's bid to win nomination for third term was imperiled by his vote to convict Trump after January 6 insurrectionThe Republican senator Bill Cassidy lost his primary on Saturday, as voters in Louisiana opted instead to advance two challengers to a runoff election after an extraordinary intervention by Donald Trump to oust the incumbent.Cassidy's bid to win the Republican party's nomination for a third term in the deep-red state was imperiled by his decision to vote in favor of Trump's conviction after the January 6 insurrection. In what was widely seen as an effort to rehabilitate his standing with the president, Cassidy last year cast the deciding vote to advance vaccine skeptic Robert F Kennedy Jr's nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, flying in the face of the senator's support for immunizations and training as a physician. Continue reading...

Proposal to fund $1bn in security additions for White House campus and president's new ballroom fails to meet procedural rulesA US Senate official on Saturday removed security funding that could be used for Donald Trump's planned $400m White House ballroom from a massive spending package, Democratic lawmakers said, imperiling Republican efforts to devote taxpayer money to the contentious project.The decision by the Senate's parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, deals a blow to Trump and his administration, which has sought the money for security purposes related to the ballroom. Continue reading...

If case is settled for full amount Trump is requesting, a $10bn payment would more than double his family's net worth - key US politics stories from Saturday, 16 May at a glanceDonald Trump may agree to drop his massive $10bn lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service in exchange for the launch of a $1.7bn fund to compensate people he says were wrongfully targeted by the Biden administration, according to reports.The case is the latest example of how Trump has taken over the justice department - which typically operates at arm's length from the White House - and deployed it for his own ends. Continue reading...

Parents had sued to halt law, saying they had the right to make decisions regarding the health of their childrenA Kansas judge has temporarily blocked a law banning gender-transition treatments for minors in the state.The state district judge Carl Folsom III granted an injunction requested by the parents of two teenagers who want to continue gender-transition treatment with medicines. Folsom's decision halts the enforcement of a recently approved state law that banned such treatments. Continue reading...

Updates from the third round at Aronimink Golf Club

The Wolves probably won't win a title without big roster changes, but their postseason run made their case as one of the league's most entertaining teamsThe Minnesota Timberwolves are out of the NBA playoffs. It's a miracle it took this long. In their first-round series against the Denver Nuggets, they saw two starters and another key reserve suffer significant injuries. The Nuggets entered the series on a 12-game winning streak and were favored from the jump. After somehow winning that series in six games, finding Denver's weak points and pummeling them until they broke, the Wolves met an even more daunting opponent in the San Antonio Spurs. Though they'd have been forgiven for tiredly accepting a sweep, the Wolves swiped Game 1 on the Spurs' home floor, then a close Game 4 at home. After that, the tank finally ran empty. But even in the losses - including Friday night's in Game 6 - the Wolves found ways to frighten. They'd go down 18-3 and then tie the game by the end of the first quarter. They'd tighten a 29-point deficit to 12 entering half-time. The tenacity and spite they played with was a finite resource, but at times this postseason it was potent enough to convince me otherwise.The Wolves were not the deepest team in these playoffs, nor the most consistent. They may lie closer to the bottom of those categories than the top. After their elimination, coach Chris Finch and players alike admitted they'd failed to take the regular season seriously enough, failing to set themselves up well for the high-stakes games of April and May. (My old teachers probably shared a similar sense of disappointment in me before finals.) And yet this odd bunch regularly play some of the most soulful basketball in the NBA. Anthony Edwards can take over a game at any time, either by shooting deep threes or acrobatic layups. French albatross Rudy Gobert anchors the defense, which the team plays with astonishing vigor at its best. The best athletes are sometimes so clinical that they produce a rather emotionless watching experience, but certain passages of Timberwolves basketball inspire in me feelings of pure glee. Continue reading...

In unprecedented self-dealing maneuver, billions of taxpayer dollars could be paid to US president and his alliesThere is growing concern Donald Trump's massive $10bn lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service may soon be settled by his own administration - an unprecedented, self-dealing maneuver for a US president, in which billions of taxpayer dollars could be transferred to the president or his allies.Trump may agree to drop his lawsuit in exchange for the launch of a $1.7bn fund to compensate people he says were wrongfully targeted by the Biden administration, according to reports by ABC News and the New York Times. Continue reading...

Workers at the Long Island Rail Road, serving the eastern New York metropolitan area, walked off the job on SaturdayNorth America's largest commuter rail system was shut down on Saturday after unionized workers in the New York City area went on strike.The Long Island Rail Road that serves the city's eastern suburbs ceased operations on early Saturday morning after five unions representing about half its workforce walked off the job. Continue reading...

Republican said she hoped recent commutation of Tina Peters by governor would free up federal funding for clean drinking waterRepublican congresswoman Lauren Boebert suggested that Donald Trump blocked funds for a clean drinking water project in her state over the prosecution of election denier Tina Peters.Colorado's governor, Jared Polis, commuted Peters' nearly nine-year prison sentence on Friday, ordering her release on 1 June. The former Colorado county clerk had allowed unauthorized people to access voting records amid efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, in which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Continue reading...

The centers are diverting much-needed resources from regular people. Local resistance has the industry playing defenseBack in 2016, Marco Gutierrez, the Mexican-born founder of Latinos for Trump, issued an ominous warning to the US. My culture is a very dominant culture," he said on MSNBC. It is imposing and it's causing problems. If you don't do something about it, you're going to have taco trucks on every corner."A decade later, I regret to inform you there is not a taco truck on every corner. But I am here to issue my own ominous warning about the takeover of America: not by immigrant culture but by AI culture. To echo Gutierrez: it is imposing and it's causing problems. And if we don't do something about it, we're going to have datacenters on every corner.Arwa Mahdawi 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...

No swift end to the Iran war, uncertainty over Taiwan and only vague outlines of commercial deals ... but the US president did get to bask in the company of Xi JinpingIt was historic, to be sure, but not as anyone had predicted. First there was Donald Trump, a self-declared teetotaler, apparently drinking champagne after Xi Jinping assured him that China's great rejuvenation" could go hand in hand with Make America great again". Then there was a Chinese military band playing a rendition of the US president's signature campaign song, YMCA.Beneath giant chandeliers, blue and gold balconies and a big orange backdrop with pagoda-style roofs, Thursday's state banquet in Beijing featured characters whose presence would have been unthinkable here a decade ago: Elon Musk, the eccentric tech billionaire, Pete Hegseth, the Fox News host turned secretary of war", and of course Trump himself, a former reality TV star now leading the world's biggest superpower. Continue reading...

Congressman Thomas Massie, chastized by the US president as a lowlife', will soon face the ballot box - setting up a crucial test of Trump's political strengthAt Pee Wee's Place, a bar and restaurant in Crescent Springs, northern Kentucky, biscuits and gravy go for $6 and liver and onions for $14.75. The walls are adorned with US flags, sports memorabilia, amusement machines, a TV showing Fox News and a poster that proclaims: Let the gays get married. Let the rednecks have their guns. Let the atheists be atheists. Let the Christians be Christians. America is about FREEDOM."Sitting at the bar, John Johnson, 78, and his son Lance, 47, are discussing an upcoming election in which Thomas Massie, a maverick congressman, is aiming to prove that a Republican can defy Donald Trump and survive. I'm leaning to Massie because I like his attitude when it comes to being straight up on issues," says John, a contractor who voted for Trump in 2024. Him and Trump beat off each other every now and then, but he's a constitutionalist, he speaks his piece and he's right a lot of times." Continue reading...

If there's no proof of aliens, the president can blame the deep state. If there's proof, he's a hero. Either way, it helps his popularityThe US Department of Defense released the first batch of its UFO files last week at the direction of the president, Donald Trump, who promised to make them public based on the tremendous interest shown".Trump's right, of course. Nearly half of Americans believe aliens have visited Earth, and many believe that the government is hoarding the evidence in some shadowy laboratory or military base. This conspiracy began in 1947 at Roswell, New Mexico, when the Roswell army airfield issued a news release about the crash of a flying disc", and has never truly gone away. Continue reading...

Dr Tracy Beth Hoeg, the Food and Drug Administration's top drug regulator, says she was fired from agency after declining to resignIn a major shake-up at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), top regulators left on Friday - including Tracy Beth Hoeg, the acting drug chief, who says she was fired, and Katherine Szarama, the acting vaccines chief who has only been in the position for days. Jim Traficant, the chief of staff, has also been ousted.The FDA now has no permanent commissioner or deputy commissioner and no permanent leaders of two major centers, after the resignation of Marty Makary on Tuesday and other high-profile departures. Continue reading...

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Trump notably failed to push back on Xi Jinping's rhetoric over the future of Taiwan - key US politics stories from Friday, 15 May at a glanceDonald Trump returned to Washington DC on Friday after a much-hyped summit in China that was rich in pageantry and promises of stability, but offered little by way of tangible progress.The US president had gone into the two-day talks with China's Xi Jinping weakened by his prolonged war in Iran, and did little to change the perception that he and his nation are diminished on the global stage. Continue reading...

Proposal comes after seven states drawing water from drought-stricken river failed to come to an agreementThe US government has proposed a plan for the drought stricken Colorado River that could cut up to 40% of current supplies to Arizona, California and Nevada, as the waterway's reservoirs continue to plunge to critically low levels.A top Arizona water official shared details of the Trump administration's plan at a state meeting on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Maverick McNealy and Alex Smalley share the lead on halfway at the US PGA Championship at AroniminkScottie Scheffler's third at 10, from 44 yards, is no good. It's 20 feet shy of the flag. He can't make the par saver, and that's an immediate backwards step for the world number one and tournament favourite. Matt Fitzpatrick bogeys too, and it's a double for Justin Rose. They're -2, +1 and +2 respectively. Meanwhile on Sky, Laura Davies asks Wayne Riley what he thinks the leader will be on at the end of the day. Five under, he answers, without a beat of hesitation. In other words, good luck trying to go low, gentlemen. It's going to be another hugely entertaining day!Rose gathers himself and sends a decent wedge into 10, from 77 yards to 16 feet. He'll have a look at a damage-limiting bogey. Meanwhile Scottie's lie in the rough on the left isn't great, and he's forced to take his medicine, punching back out onto the fairway. Even the strongest hitters in the business aren't of a mind to take liberties with this rough. To think everyone was talking about bringing Aronimink to its knees with some bomb and gouge at the start of the week! A textbook study in hubris, and that's before we get around to the subjects of Rory and Bryson. Continue reading...