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Stewart Rhodes and Enrique Tarrio were convicted – but experts worry what role the groups may or not play in the future path of violent extremismThe recent convictions of the Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio has raised questions about the future of both extremist groups and what role they may or not play in the future path of violent extremism in the US.Researchers who monitor American far-right organizations said the Oath Keepers have in effect been decimated, with only a handful of chapters remaining, while the Proud Boys are ramping up efforts to protest at LGBTQ events and taking cues from larger national conservative conversations about hostility to transgender rights. Continue reading...

Texas alone has suffered 17 mass shootings this year and now lawmakers propose ‘battlefield trauma care’ facilities in schoolsHB 1147, a bill pending in the Texas house of representatives, is strikingly graphic. It proposes that schools across the state should provide “bleeding control stations” equipped with “tourniquets approved for use in battlefield trauma care by the armed forces of the United States”.Under the terms of the bill, the bleeding stations would deal with “traumatic injury involving blood loss” – in other words, casualties from a mass shooting. School staff would be trained to use the equipment, in turn passing on such battlefield skills to pupils in third grade upwards. Continue reading...

The ex-president gaslights and diminishes his victims, and was given a platform by CNN. We can ensure he isn’t elected againSince the beginning of the trial between E Jean Carroll and Donald Trump, I have been seriously triggered. I am not alone. I am hearing from women all across America and the world. Sleepless nights, unbearable anxiety, shortness of breath, unexplained rage, depression. Survivors have a kind of collective nervous system, a central body where our stories and trauma live in a timeless and interwoven continuum. When one of us goes on public trial, it is all of us on trial, our histories charged, our past memories made frighteningly present. We are what I would call “sister-triggered”.Triggers are cues that signal potential threats around us. As survivors, we are constantly on alert as we swim in these volatile misogynist waters, knowing a wave can come any minute to swallow us whole, or at the very least remind us that although we may have one-off victories we are still swimming in their rigged and violent sea. And this is particularly true each time a sister survivor bravely goes on trial, willingly stands up and publicly tells the truth, sheds her anonymity for the greater good, faces an onslaught of hate, and inevitably has her privacy, being and body reinvaded. Continue reading...

Shania Muhammad earned bachelor of arts degree from Langston University in Oklahoma and plans career in public speakingAmong the millions who are celebrating having received their university diplomas in the US this spring is a 15-year-old girl from Oklahoma, one of the youngest ever American college graduates.Shania Muhammad graduated from Oklahoma’s Langston University with a bachelor of arts degree as well as a 4.0 grade-point average that was the highest in her class, according to a recent report from the local news media outlet KOCO-TV. She said she plans to pursue a career in public speaking and publish a book about her experience in school titled Read, Write, Listen: 13 in College. Continue reading...

Gabriella Gonzalez, 26, was shot in the head in a parking lot by Harold Thompson, 22, shortly after she ‘shrugs off’ his chokeholdA 26-year-old woman from Texas was shot and killed by her boyfriend after getting an abortion in another state, Dallas police said.He was jailed on a murder charge as of Friday. Continue reading...

Title 42 carried no legal consequences, but now migrants will face being barred from entering the US for five yearsThe US late on Thursday ended pandemic-era restrictions at the US-Mexico border that blocked many migrants from their right to claim asylum in the US – but immediately replaced the so-called Title 42 restrictions with sweeping new policies designed to deter or even physically prevent people from crossing the border without permission.In an increasingly hard line from the Biden administration, the secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas, said on Thursday evening that 24,000 border patrol agents and officers had been sent to the border to enforce US laws, adding: “The border is not open. Continue reading...

Chris Sununu said the audience’s conduct ‘doesn’t shine a positive light’ on the state, which will hold the first Republican primaryThe governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu, said it was “embarrassing” that Republican voters from his state laughed and applauded when Donald Trump mocked E Jean Carroll during a CNN town hall this week.Sununu may yet have to court such voters in a presidential run of his own. Continue reading...

Walkout lasting more than a week has thrown statehouse into disarray and jeopardized Democrats’ legislative agendaOregon Republicans boycotted the statehouse for a ninth day on Thursday, denying lawmakers the quorum necessary to pass legislation, in a protest that could derail hundreds of bills, including proposals on gun control and abortion rights.While Democrats control the capital in the Pacific north-west state, Republicans have leveraged rules requiring two-thirds of lawmakers be present to pass legislation, which means Democrats need a certain number of Republicans to be there too. Continue reading...

Investigators trying to determine cause for teen’s death, which occurred in a Florida shelter on WednesdayAn unaccompanied 17-year-old migrant from Honduras died in a shelter in Florida on Wednesday, according to authorities.Investigators on Friday were still trying to determine a cause for the teen’s death, which came as the US lifted immigration restrictions stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic. Continue reading...

Officials stress hardline approach as American Civil Liberties Union files lawsuit, saying new rules close off safe routes for people seeking asylumIn El Paso, the Texas city this home to one of the major crossing points from Mexico, the Associated Press reports on how the city’s faith leaders are navigating an influx of migrants that’s expected to grow in the days to come.Here’s more from their story:As changing policies, rampant misinformation and exasperated, fearful crowds converge in this desert city, faith leaders are striving to provide shelter and uplift.Along with prayers, they are counseling migrants about the daunting challenges that await them on U.S. soil, with enormous backlogs in asylum hearings and the Biden administration’s newly announced measures that many consider stricter than the existing ones known as Title 42. Continue reading...

Daniel Penny, a former marine who surrendered to police in New York, could face up to 15 years in prison if found guiltyThe man who killed Jordan Neely after putting him in a chokehold while on a subway in New York City has been charged with second-degree manslaughter, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said on Friday.Daniel Penny, 24, could face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty under the charge. Penny surrendered himself to New York police on Friday morning. Continue reading...

Samantha Miller, 34, died in South Carolina after rental car driven by Jamie Lee Komoroski hit golf cart she and husband were inThe mother of a South Carolina bride killed by an allegedly drunk motorist just moments after her wedding has lashed out at the accused driver, saying she made “a conscious choice” that turned deadly.“It wasn’t an accident,” Lisa Miller said to Fox News of the 28 April crash that killed her daughter, Samantha Miller, and led to the arrest of Jamie Lee Komoroski. Continue reading...

Being found liable for sexual abuse hasn’t weakened the Republican’s grip on his party, while the polls are getting bleaker for BidenWe may come to remember this period as the interlude: the inter-Trump years. After the sigh of relief heard around the world when Donald Trump was defeated in November 2020, a grim realisation should be dawning: the threat of a Trump return to the White House is growing.His first task is to win the Republican party’s presidential nomination, but that hurdle is shrinking daily. Trump’s grip on his party remains firm, with none of his putative rivals coming close. Of course, the first round of primary voting is months away and much could change, but the shape of the race is already clear – and Trump is dominant. Witness the reaction to an event that would once have been terminal for any politician: this week’s civil court verdict that he had sexually abused the magazine writer E Jean Carroll in a New York department store in the 1990s, and then defamed her by branding her a liar.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnistJoin Jonathan Freedland and Marina Hyde for a Guardian Live event in London on Thursday 1 June. Book in-person or livestream tickets here Continue reading...

Magnitude 5.5 quake strikes in Sierra Nevada but only minor damage immediately reportedEarthquakes have rattled a large area of northern California this week, including a strong aftershock shake early on Friday. Only minor damage was immediately reported.A magnitude 5.5 quake centered in the Sierra Nevada’s Lake Almanor resort region struck at 4.19pm on Thursday and a magnitude 5.2 aftershock occurred at 3.18am on Friday, according to the US Geological Survey. Continue reading...

Daniel Penny, 24, faces second-degree manslaughter charges that could carry up to 15 years in jail, according to Manhattan DA’s officeA man who kept a chokehold around the neck of an agitated fellow passenger on a New York City subway, leading to the other rider’s death, turned himself in to authorities on Friday morning on a manslaughter charge that could send him to prison for 15 years.Daniel Penny, 24, surrendered to the authorities to be arrested and charged with second-degree manslaughter. Continue reading...

Many people hoping to cross into the US expected at border with Mexico as Biden administration officially ends use of Title 42

As the US’s pandemic migration restrictions ended on Thursday, the hopes of those waiting at the border faded“My plan is to give up,” Fernando Jesús Manzano, 32, from the state of Falcón, Venezuela, said dejectedly as he gazed at the hundreds of fellow migrants waiting to turn themselves in to US migration authorities as Thursday turned into Friday and a new policy era at the US-Mexico border.Manzano arrived at “Door 42”, a gate along the border barrier in El Paso, west Texas, shortly before the expiration of Title 42, a Trump-era rule implemented during the coronavirus pandemic that allowed the US to turn away migrants at its border with Mexico without allowing them to exercise their right to seek asylum. Continue reading...

Entrepreneur alleged to have duped Hewlett-Packard into overpaying for software firm in $11bn dealThe tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch has been extradited to the US to face criminal fraud charges, where a court has ordered him to pay a $100m (£79m) bond and called in 24-hour armed guards to ensure he does not flee the country.Lynch, a billionaire founder once lauded as Britain’s answer to Bill Gates, is facing allegations that he duped the US firm Hewlett-Packard into overpaying when it struck an $11bn deal for his software firm Autonomy in 2011. He denies any wrongdoing. Continue reading...

Mass shootings can be contagious, one inspiring another – but do news coverage and social media contribute to the death toll?News coverage of high-profile mass shootings on American cable news has adopted near clockwork patterns: first comes shock and the scramble for information, followed by calls from communities and legislators for new gun restrictions, then reporting and speculation about the motives of the shooter (“Is evil or mental illness to blame?”). The remainder of the time is spent toggling between analysis of why the US sees these shootings so regularly, how the shooter got their gun and which signs of violence could have been noticed earlier.Rinse and repeat. Continue reading...

‘Border is not open,’ warns secretary of homeland security after thousands of migrants cross on to US soil, hoping to be processed before midnight. Plus, five ways AI will change work• Don’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.The US has ended Covid-19 border restrictions that blocked many migrants at the border with Mexico, immediately replacing the Title 42 restrictions with sweeping new asylum rules meant to deter illegal crossings.What is Title 42? In March 2020, under Donald Trump, the CDC issued an order limiting migration into the US, saying it was necessary to reduce the spread of Covid. The order made use of little-used laws dating back more than a century that authorized border officials to immediately remove migrants, including people seeking asylum, overriding their normal rights. Migrant and human rights advocates condemned Title 42 as a ploy to stop immigration. The Biden administration said it wanted to end Title 42 – but in fact tightened restrictions further.What’s next for migrants to the US? Starting on 12 May, asylum seekers will be allowed to request asylum again at the border and will be interviewed by immigration officers. Those who are found to have a “credible fear” of being persecuted in their home countries can stay in the US and go through the immigration court system until a final determination is made. That can take years.What else has happened since? Writer E Jean Carroll is considering suing Donald Trump for defamation again after the former US president made disparaging remarks about her during a televised CNN town hall a day after he was found liable in a civil case for sexually assaulting her.What has CNN said about the town hall? Addressing staff anger over the decision to host the New Hampshire event, Licht saluted what he called a “masterful performance” by Collins, who attempted to cope with Trump’s lies and abusive comments in front of a raucous Republican audience. On an internal call, Licht reportedly told staffers: “You do not have to like the former president’s answers, but you can’t say that we didn’t get them. Kaitlan pressed him again and again and made news … Made a lot of news, [and] that is our job.” Continue reading...

Elizabeth Holmes’ bizarre New York Times interview kicks off the comedown from royal festivitiesIt is not a bank holiday in the US but for those of us who observed the coronation on Saturday, Monday is still very much a day of recovery, not least because in our time zones it all started before dawn. Like the British reluctance to watch US commentary for football matches, no one’s first choice for the coronation was the American networks. Savannah Guthrie in London for NBC News wore a lace-effect top that – nothing like a royal event to flush out one’s most unacceptable opinions – I thought was frankly inappropriate, and the NBC correspondents ran around with huge grins (also inappropriate). Needs must, however, and as it became clear that the BBC, tugging its forelock practically out by the roots, was going to skimp on shots of Prince Harry, it was necessary to switch channels. Continue reading...

Ask the public: do you want more jobs and higher wages, or huge companies making fatter profits by raising prices?The economic goal should be more jobs at higher wages. Right?Yet the Federal Reserve, corporate economists and the Republican party have turned the goal upside down – into fewer jobs and lower wages. Otherwise, they say, we’ll face more inflation.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is 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 new 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...

Durham, North Carolina, is one of the US’s fastest-growing cities. As house prices boom, can the city prevent the displacement of lower-income residents?

The young New Yorker, who lived with severe mental illness, was known to hospitals, police and social services. Why did the city fail him?Ten years before he was killed on the New York subway, Jordan Neely had a stable routine.Every morning, he would walk across the Washington Bridge connecting the Bronx to Upper Manhattan. In his red Michael Jackson jacket, he was easy to see coming. When he got to the corner store near 181st Street, he’d meet Jony Espinal, a local resident who befriended Neely after recognizing him from online videos. Continue reading...

National Labor Relations Board details slew of complaints and rulings against coffee chain waging fierce anti-union campaignSenator Bernie Sanders accused Starbucks of running “the most aggressive and illegal union-busting campaign in the modern history of our country” when the coffee chain’s founder and former CEO, Howard Schultz, testified in front of a Senate committee in March.The latest figures from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) show just how aggressive that campaign has become as the board has continued issuing complaints and rulings against Starbucks’ response to unionization efforts. Continue reading...

Even where the technicalities of the apparent malfeasance are different, the Republican spirit is the sameWhen news broke on Tuesday afternoon that the justice department was indicting George Santos – the disgraced Republican Long Island congressman whose election to the House of Representatives in 2022 was enabled by a series of lies about his background and elaborate, inventive frauds – it was at first hard to think of just what he was being indicted for. George Santos, after all, is alleged to have been so prolifically criminal in his 34 years that one imagines law enforcement would have a hard time narrowing things down.Would Santos be charged over the fake pet charity he seems to have invented, collecting money for things like surgery for the beloved dog of a veteran, which was never turned over to the animal’s owner? Or would he face charges stemming from his lies about his professional background, like the claim he made during his most recent congressional campaign, wholly false, that he used to work for Goldman Sachs, or his bizarre story, also a fabrication, about having been a college volleyball star?Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

As a child, Mike Africa Jr was a regular at 6221 Osage Avenue in Philadelphia. As the property’s new owner, he’s fulfiling his great-aunt’s dying wishThe last time Mike Africa Jr stepped across the threshold of 6221 Osage Avenue in Philadelphia was almost four decades ago, when he was six years old and went bouncing into the house to greet friends and extended family, eager to play.This time, it was not so easy. On a recent afternoon, he gingerly unlocked the front door using keys he had just acquired and cautiously pushed it open. Continue reading...

Few saw Tennessee as fertile ground for an MLS club but the team has built a loyal fanbase by focusing on authenticityIan Ayre, Nashville SC’s CEO, had never given much thought to working in the US, let alone Tennessee. In fact, after his 2017 departure from the same role at Liverpool, he wasn’t really thinking about soccer very much at all: a decade at his boyhood club had proved as grueling as it was exhilarating. A visit to Nashville and a meeting with the club’s owners changed his mind. Back then, the club was a concept rather than a reality. For Ayre, it was a chance he knew he had to take. “How often,” he asked himself, “do you get a chance to work with a blank canvas?”In December 2017, MLS confirmed Nashville would be awarded an expansion team, who would join the league in 2020 (Ayre joined the team in May 2018). The club’s birth would have seemed almost fanciful a decade prior. But the ambition, and investment, spearheaded by owner John Ingram, an avuncular local industrialist was crucial. Continue reading...

As the US lifts Covid-era immigration restrictions, thousands of migrants have gathered at its Mexican border. Known as Title 42, the policy has blocked those fleeing political and economic crises from the right to claim asylum in the US since the start of the pandemic. It lifted at midnight on Thursday. 'It's going to be chaotic for a while,' said US president Joe Biden earlier this week

Secretary of homeland security warns ‘the border is not open’ after thousands of migrants had crossed onto US soil, hoping to be processed before midnightThe US has ended Covid-19 border restrictions that blocked many migrants at the border with Mexico, immediately replacing the so-called Title 42 restrictions with sweeping new asylum rules meant to deter illegal crossings.Secretary of homeland security Alejandro N. Mayorkas said on Thursday evening that 24,000 border patrol agents and officers had been sent to the border to enforce US laws, adding “the border is not open”. Continue reading...

Border officials expect increase of people trying to cross into US as measure ostensibly to curb Covid-19 lapsesAs the US was set to lift tough restrictions at the US-Mexico border, known as Title 42, on Thursday night, migrants raced to enter the US before pandemic-related asylum limitations are lifted in a shift that threatens to put a historic strain on the nation’s beleaguered immigration system.The major policy shift comes as tens of thousands are stuck in harsh conditions in northern Mexico or risk life and liberty to enter America unlawfully, straining local communities and intensifying political divisions. Continue reading...

High-level meeting in Vienna was ‘candid’, says White House, amid signs tensions could be easingThe White House national security adviser met with China’s top diplomat in Vienna as both sides recognised the need to move beyond the spy balloon incident that caused a rupture in relations between the superpowers, a senior US official has said.The meeting between Jake Sullivan and Wang Yi was not publicised by Washington or Beijing ahead of the talks on Wednesday and Thursday in the Austrian capital. The White House described the wide-ranging discussions, in which the two leaders spent more than eight hours together, as “candid” and “constructive”. Continue reading...

New York congressman was subject of a criminal charge for using two stolen checks to buy items worth $1,350 at a store in NiteroiA day after New York representative George Santos pleaded not guilty to charges in the US, he signed an agreement Thursday with public prosecutors in Brazil to avoid prosecution for forging two stolen checks in 2008.“What would have been the start of a case was ended today,” Santos’ lawyer in Brazil, Jonymar Vasconcelos, told the Associated Press in a text message. “As such, my client is no longer the subject of any case in Brazil.” Continue reading...

The disparaging comments came just a day after the ex-president was found liable for sexually abusing the writerWriter E Jean Carroll is considering suing Donald Trump for defamation again after the former US president made disparaging remarks about her during a televised CNN town hall just a day after he was found liable in a civil case for sexually assaulting her.“Everything’s on the table, obviously, and we have to give serious consideration to it,” Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan told the New York Times about the prospect of a defamation lawsuit. “We have to weigh the various pros and cons and we’ll come to a decision in the next day or so, probably.” Continue reading...

The US homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, has warned people gathered at the US-Mexico border against crossing over in a White House press briefing on Thursday. His speech came as the deadline for the Title 42 immigration order was set to expire. Title 42 was a tough immigration regulation ostensibly intended to mitigate the spread of Covid-19. Addressing reporters he said: 'People who cross our border unlawfully and without a legal basis to remain will be promptly processed and removed.'His statement came as hundreds of people crowded around US border entry points. Mayorkas added that immigration authorities expect 'to see large numbers of encounters' and 'are already seeing high numbers of encounters in certain sectors'

Gay and bisexual men in monogamous relationships can donate without abstaining from sex under updated FDA guidelinesGay and bisexual men in monogamous relationships can give blood in the US without abstaining from sex under updated federal health guidelines that focus on donors’ behavior, not their sexual orientation.The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines finalized on Thursday ease decades-old restrictions designed to protect the blood supply from HIV. Continue reading...

Senate majority leader speaks after Tommy Tuberville of Alabama appeared to defend white nationalists in US militaryThe Democratic US Senate leader, Chuck Schumer, condemned as “utterly revolting” remarks in which the Alabama Republican Tommy Tuberville appeared to defend white nationalists in the US military.In an interview with the Alabama station WBHM, published on Monday, Tuberville was asked: “Do you believe they should allow white nationalists in the military?” Continue reading...

The arcane rule that allows officials to expel migrants at US land borders is due to expire at midnight – what happens now?This week marks the end of a coronavirus-related restriction on claiming asylum that has allowed the US to quickly expel migrants at US-Mexico border since 2020.The rule is known as Title 42, part of an arcane public health law that allows curbs on migration aimed at protecting Americans from disease. Continue reading...

Nina Jankowicz, head of short-lived DHS board, alleges Fox News hosts spread lies about her work and compromised her safetyThe former head of a disinformation group created by the US Department of Homeland Security has sued Fox News for defamation, saying its attacks threatened her safety.In the lawsuit filed on Wednesday, Nina Jankowicz alleged that multiple Fox News hosts spread lies about her work, fueling an internet campaign against her that ultimately led to her resignation and the disbandment of the group. Continue reading...

Chris Licht boasts that network ‘made a lot of news’ in call to angry staff but CNN reporter laments Trump’s ‘firehose of disinformation’CNN bosses have defended their decision to host a primetime town hall with Donald Trump, after triggering widespread outrage by allowing the former president to spout lies and disinformation on subjects from sexual assault to his attempt to overturn the 2020 election.Addressing staff anger over the decision to host the New Hampshire event, the CNN chief executive, Chris Licht, saluted what he called a “masterful performance” by Kaitlan Collins, the anchor who attempted to cope with Trump’s lies and abusive comments in front of a raucous Republican audience. Continue reading...

Recall includes about 2.2m of the Peloton Bikes Model PL01, sold from January 2018 though May 2023 for about $1,400Peloton is recalling more than 2m of its exercise bikes because the bike’s seat post assembly can break during use, posing fall and injury hazards.Shares of Peloton Interactive fell more than 7% in Thursday morning trading. The company’s shares have fallen 39% over the past 12 months, and are about 95% off their highs in late 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading...

The country could finally tear off the straitjacket it has worn for years. But its president is a tiger caught by the tail – what will he do if he loses?This weekend, my country will choose. If the unlikely unity coalition of opposition parties beats the goliath that is President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey will be able to tear off the straitjacket that it has worn for years. If the regime wins, however, we will be mourning a country that once was, that could have been.This is a clash between the forces of autocracy and democracy, between cruelty and basic morals. There is a real chance that Erdoğan will lose because six opposition parties have formed a united coalition, led by the secularist Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. Not since the huge anti-government Gezi park protests in 2013 have the people of Turkey put their eternal conflicts to the side like this in order to take on Erdoğan’s palace, which effectively runs everything from the economy to the judiciary. Continue reading...

While the bar for boy birds is high, the bar for boy humans seems pretty low – as seen in a trend on TikTok where men are praised by women for doing … very littleA few nights ago I watched the Netflix nature documentary Dancing with the Birds, about, you guessed it, Abraham Lincoln. Just kidding, it’s about dancing birds! This is why I get the big bucks.While watching the cute profiles of various bird species that all incorporate dance into their mating schemes, I cleverly noticed a running theme. In each case, when it came to the effort of courting and relationships, it was exclusively the male birds that had to put in the work. Continue reading...