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In Kingston, New York, tenants say their survival depends on the city ordering a rent reduction – something that’s never been done beforeIt’s 2pm after an overnight shift, and Amanda Treasure is lying in bed unable to sleep. She can’t stop thinking about how most of what she brings home from her full-time job as a caretaker – two $900 checks a month – goes to rent for the two-bedroom apartment with a mold problem she shares with her disabled husband, teenage son, and five pets.Treasure has lived her whole life in Kingston, New York, a quiet city about 90 miles north of Manhattan. She got her first job at 14 delivering papers, and by 16 she was paying for her first car and insurance. The skating rink and bowling alley Treasure frequented as a teen disappeared soon after the IBM factory that once employed thousands of residents closed in the early 1990s, devastating the town. “Now there’s nothing to do here, and the prices are through the roof,” Treasure says. “And I’m working my butt off, but there’s nothing to show. This world is just not what I expected being 52 years old.” Continue reading...

It is seen as a return to Trump-era border policies, although the White House says ‘that is not what is happening here’The Biden administration is considering detaining migrant families who cross into the US illegally as it prepares to end Covid-19 restrictions at the US-Mexico border, according to officials familiar with the plans. That would be a major reversal after officials in late 2021 stopped holding families in detention facilities.Department of Homeland Security officials are working through how to manage an expected increase of migrants at the border once the pandemic restrictions that have been in place since 2020 are lifted in May. Detention is one of several ideas under discussion and nothing has been finalized, the officials said. Continue reading...

No one should feel unsupported and inferior about the way they feed their childMy aggressive breast cancer diagnosis at 29 weeks pregnant came as a shock. It had major implications: I needed chemotherapy right away, with a strong possibility that my delivery would be brought forward by an induction and/or surgery.I was also given the upsetting news that – due to the toxicity of the chemotherapy – I wouldn’t be able to breastfeed. This was my first pregnancy, and although healthy (until cancer), it had an unexpected psychological toll. Breastfeeding was a milestone I looked forward to; an opportunity to hopefully step back some of the emotional distance that grew between me and the foetus in my swelling womb. Continue reading...

Proposed laws make exceptions for cases of rape or incest, but have no provisions for the life or health of the pregnant personRepublican lawmakers in Florida filed bills on Tuesday to outlaw most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, a ban that would severely undercut access to the procedure in the US south if passed by the state’s Republican-controlled state legislature.The bills, filed on the opening day of the legislature’s 2023 regular session, make exceptions for rape and incest cases but not explicitly for the life or health of the pregnant person. Continue reading...

Democratic majority leader Chuck Schumer launched a blistering attack on the chamber floor on Tuesday on Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson for his 'shameful' portrayal of January 6 footage, after Carlson made first use of security footage from the riot obtained from Kevin McCarthy, the Republican House speaker. The Fox News anchor suggested in his show that the rioters that attacked Capitol Hill on Jan 6 were 'peaceful sightseers'.Schumer told senators: 'With contempt for the facts, disregard of the risks, and knowing full well he was lying to his audience, Fox News host Tucker Carlson ran a lengthy segment arguing the January 6 Capitol attack was not a violent insurrection.'

The National Transportation Safety Board will look into five significant accidents involving the operator since December 2021Federal investigators announced on Tuesday a special investigation into rail operator Norfolk Southern following a fiery derailment on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border in February and several other accidents, including the death of a train conductor just hours earlier on Tuesday.The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it will take a broad look at the railroad’s safety culture, saying it has sent teams to look into five significant accidents involving Norfolk Southern since December 2021. Continue reading...

Actor is vying for Los Angeles district represented by Adam Schiff, who is competing for Dianne Feinstein’s US Senate postBen Savage, the star of the 1990s teen sitcom Boy Meets World, plans to run for the congressional seat in California currently held by Adam Schiff, who has joined the race to replace Dianne Feinstein.The actor is running in the Los Angeles-area district represented by Schiff, a top Democrat and former House intelligence chair. Schiff announced in January that he would seek Feinstein’s Senate seat, joining a crowded field of candidates that includes congresswomen Katie Porter and Barbara Lee. Continue reading...

Senate majority leader accuses host Tucker Carlson of ‘manipulating’ images of Capitol attack provided by House speaker Kevin McCarthy

Condemnation of ‘so-called news network’ comes after Tucker Carlson shares footage courtesy of Kevin McCarthyThe family of Brian Sicknick, the US Capitol police officer who died the day after the January 6 attack on Congress, condemned Tucker Carlson and Fox News as “unscrupulous and outright sleazy”, after the primetime host made first use of security footage from the riot bestowed by Kevin McCarthy, the Republican House speaker.A statement on Tuesday said: “The Sicknick family is outraged at the ongoing attack on our family by the unscrupulous and outright sleazy so-called news network of Fox News.” Continue reading...

Bernie Sanders had threatened to subpoena Howard Schultz if he refused to appear while workers file unfair labor practice chargesThe Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz, has agreed to testify before a Senate committee investigating the company’s intense opposition to national efforts to unionize its stores.Senator Bernie Sanders had threatened to subpoena Schultz if he refused to appear before the US Senate health, education, labor and pensions (Help) committee. Sanders said Schultz had “refused to answer any of the serious questions we have asked” for over a year. Continue reading...

Thai government rejects Peta’s claims, saying the practice of using monkeys to harvest is rarely used in industryThe meal kit provider HelloFresh has said it will no longer sell coconut milk sourced from Thailand, after campaigning by an animal rights group that accused coconut farms in the country of using monkey labour.The company confirmed to Axios that it does not tolerate “any form of animal abuse in our supply chain” and “out of an abundance of caution” will not be placing orders for coconut milk from Thailand. HelloFresh has not yet responded to the Guardian’s request for comment. Continue reading...

In New York Times interview, Randy Murdaugh says he remains unsure if his brother murdered son and wife in South CarolinaAlex Murdaugh, the disgraced South Carolina lawyer found guilty of murdering his wife and son, has long been a thief and liar – but his being a convicted killer is still a shock, his brother has said in the first interview a member of the family has given since the trial.In an interview with the New York Times, Randy Murdaugh said he remained unsure if Alex murdered his son and wife in June 2021. Randy Murdaugh added that while he respects the jury’s verdict, he has known Alex as a protective father and husband. Continue reading...

Mountain lion or cougar, who made his home in Los Angeles’s Griffith Park, was put down in December after illness and injuryTribal leaders, scientists and conservation advocates buried southern California’s most famous mountain lion Saturday in the mountains where the big cat once roamed.After making his home in the urban Griffith Park – home of the Hollywood sign – for the past decade, P-22 became a symbol for California’s endangered mountain lions and their decreasing genetic diversity. The mountain lion’s name comes from being the 22nd puma in a National Park Service study. Continue reading...

Hours of chaos as officers descended upon forest, seeking activists protesting $90m police and fire department training center“Check their shoes and look for mud!” shouted one Atlanta police department officer to another.The sun was setting against a tree line growing greener daily due to recent balmy, spring-like weather in Atlanta, but the bucolic setting of a Sunday in the sun at a free music festival abruptly became panic and chaos. Continue reading...

We demand the right to walk free from fear, but it’s important to assert that everyone has that fundamental rightOver the past month, it’s felt like every day has brought a grim reminder of the dangers faced by women on our streets and in our homes. The inquest into the murder of the Epsom college headteacher, Emma Pattison, and her daughter; the conviction of the murderer of the charity worker Elizabeth McCann; the arguments over the release of Joanna Simpson’s killer; the life sentence awaiting the boyfriend of Elinor O’Brien, who stabbed her in a “rageful and violent attack”; the conviction of the serial rapist police officer David Carrick; and the murder of 16-year-old Brianna Ghey. And it’s three years since the disappearance of Sarah Everard, murdered after being stopped on her way home by the rogue police officer Wayne Couzens (affectionately known by his colleagues as “the rapist”).Against the backdrop of these horrific headlines, I have been having more and more conversations with women about how they feel unsafe in the streets. We’ve exchanged stories of being followed and catcalled, of sharing Uber rides with each other and making sure we text when we’re home safe. We’ve lamented the increased risk of attack that trans women face, and how Black and minority ethnic women face the threat of both racism and misogyny. We’ve discussed the 800 Met police officers under investigation for domestic and sexual abuse, and what it means for women’s trust in the police – though that’s a privilege many women of colour have never had.Jinan Younis is Head of the diversity, equity and inclusion practice at the strategy firm Purpose Union, and a former assistant politics editor at gal-dem magazine. She has contributed to the books I Call Myself a Feminist and Growing up with gal-dem. She is the past winner of the Christine Jackson Young Persons AwardDo 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...

Dana Hyde, 55, was flying from Maryland to New England and suffered blunt-force injuries from violent turbulenceA former official in the Bill Clinton and Barack Obama White Houses died last Friday after the private business jet that the prominent Washington attorney was on experienced stability issues and encountered severe turbulence mid-flight.The National Transportation Safety Board has since started investigating “a reported trim issue that occurred prior to the in-flight upset” that affected the plane’s altitude control and may have caused the instability. Continue reading...

Republicans are pursuing a barrage of new restrictions related to healthcare and human rights for transgender peopleThere was a joke about the suspected Chinese spy balloon’s preferred pronouns; claims that Democrats believe there are “millions” of genders and a menacing call for “transgenderism” to be “eradicated”.From the main stage of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), far-right activists, members of Congress and the former president of the United States waged an aggressive assault on transgender rights last week, raising the issue in speeches and unrelated panel discussions, often under the guise of protecting children. Continue reading...

High mortgage debt and a broken rental system is taking its toll on a country once seen as the example for others to followGiven media coverage, one could, in late 2022, have been forgiven for thinking that little of importance was going on in Sweden besides gang violence and hand-wringing over Nato accession. But a November report in the newspaper Aftonbladet suggested that something else just as important was afoot. In Södertälje, in southern Stockholm, it was widely observed that children were eating “much more” at school on Mondays than previously. One food supplier spoke of an “avalanche-like” change.My mind went back to this evidence of increasing child poverty when, four months later, the European Commission’s latest forecasts predicted Sweden to be the worst performing of all EU economies in 2023 – a projection in line with the Swedish government’s own.Brett Christophers is a professor in the Institute for Housing and Urban Research at Sweden’s Uppsala University and author of Our Lives in Their Portfolios: Why Asset Managers Own the World Continue reading...

Qin Gang rebuked Washington over its Taiwan policy and the balloon incident, while praising Beijing’s relationship with Russia. Plus, the secret history of Merle Oberon

Florida’s rightwing governor and legislature want to gut one of the United States’ most important first amendment rulingsRon DeSantis, the Florida governor, and his cronies, not content with destroying free speech in public schools, have set for themselves a new target: destroying press freedom and every Floridian’s right to criticize public officials. Along the way, they aim to overturn the most important first amendment US supreme court decision of the 20th century.The latest bill to raise eyebrows sounds like it’s made up by the opponents of Florida Republicans to make them sound ridiculous. Unfortunately, it’s real. The proposed law, authored by state legislator Jason Brodeur, would – I kid you not – compel “bloggers” who criticize the governor, other officers of the executive branch, or members of the legislature to register with the state of Florida. Under the bill, anyone paid to write on the internet would have to file monthly reports every time they utter a government official’s name in a critical manner. If not, they’d face potentially thousands of dollars in fines.Kill off a large part of Florida’s journalist “shield bill”, which protects reporters from being forced to testify in court.Presume any news report written with anonymous sources is defamation.Roll back Florida’s anti-Slapp law, which ironically protects “little guys” like independent newspapers when they are sued by wealthy individuals for the primary purpose of bankrupting them.Weaken the “actual malice” standard from Sullivan, to make it easier for public officials to sue newspapers or critics. Continue reading...

AI could benefit society, but it could also become a monster. To guide the way, we need leadership and understandingWe’re at a Frankenstein moment.An artificial intelligence boom is taking over Silicon Valley, with high-tech firms racing to develop everything from self-driving cars to chatbots capable of writing poetry.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...

After decades on the edge, Pakistan is now fully in crisis. And a general election later this year is unlikely to bring changeLast month, Anthony Soshil went to renew his passport in Lahore at a normally sleepy bureaucratic office. He had a contact there and expected to be ushered straight to the counter. Instead, he was flung into a melee of thousands of desperate people. Fights were breaking out everywhere. Police were summoned to quell the crowds. Quickly overwhelmed, the police called the army.Last year, more than 800,000 Pakistanis left the country in search of better economic prospects abroad. With rocketing inflation and the rupee devaluing by 30% during 2022, millions of urban middle-class people have been pushed to the brink of poverty. Cataclysmic floods have ravaged the rural poor. With only enough foreign reserves to pay for less than a month of imports, the state is on its knees.Moni Mohsin is a Pakistani writer based in London and the author of The End of Innocence Continue reading...

The former US 5000m champion believes that elite sports are guilty of erasing women’s bodies, leading to unnecessary problems for competitors“If males got boobs during puberty there would be a free sports bra in every locker and we wouldn’t even be having this conversation,” says Lauren Fleshman, laughing but not joking. “When teams issue uniforms a sports bra should be part of that uniform.”Fleshman, a former professional runner and elite college athlete with multiple national titles during her time at Stanford University, is now running a race to highlight how the sports industry fail women. Continue reading...

Several groups and individuals are rallying against Bezalel Smotrich’s visit over his comments to ‘wipe out’ a Palestinian townThe Biden administration is under growing pressure to block a visit by Israel’s extremist finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, over his call to “wipe out” a Palestinian town that was the target of an attack by Jewish settlers.Smotrich’s plan to speak at an investment conference in Washington, DC next week has drawn unusually strong criticism, including accusations that he is promoting “Jewish supremacy”, from individuals and groups that are more usually ardent defenders of Israel. Continue reading...

Plans for the Israeli judicial system are an anti-democratic coup – and will be resisted

China's new foreign minister, Qin Gang, has warned that the US and China are heading towards inevitable conflict if Washington does not change its approach. In his first media appearance as foreign minister, Qin held a press conference to outline his foreign political agenda for the coming years, presenting China and its relationship with Russia as a beacon of strength and stability, and the US and its allies as a source of tension and conflict. He said the US's perception of China was 'seriously distorted', suggesting 'this leads to a complete deviation of healthy policy towards China'

Memphis guard has indulged in risky and erratic behavior. He could learn from someone who had a tougher backgroundWe all make mistakes. Last week I burned more than a thousand words celebrating the Memphis Grizzlies for taking up the NBA’s tough-guy mantle, never thinking their star player would carry the notion so far over the line.Tuesday’s regular-season series finale against the Los Angeles Lakers will mark the second game the Grizzlies won’t be able to call on their All-Star guard, Ja Morant. The truly frustrating part: he isn’t sitting out with an injury; no, Morant is unavailable because he plays too much on the internet. Continue reading...

The failure of Pete Buttigieg, the US secretary of transportion, to appear for nearly three weeks recalls the incompetence of Fema during Hurricane Katrina“Where’s Pete Buttigieg?” someone shouted at a February 15 town hall meeting in East Palestine, Ohio. “I don’t know,” Mayor Trent Conaway replied.Twelve days earlier, a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous chemicals had derailed near the town. Three days later, the company announced it was going to carry out a controlled burn of vinyl chloride that would send dangerous gasses into the air, forcing many of East Palestine’s 4,700 residents to evacuate. They returned after receiving assurances that the air and water were safe, but a strong chemical odor clung to the town, and many continued to complain of headaches, nausea, and burning throats. And so several hundred residents had crowded into a local school to demand answers. Conaway said that two weeks had passed before anyone at the White House had contacted him, and the US secretary of transportation still hadn’t materialized.Michael Massing is the author most recently of Fatal Discord: Erasmus, Luther, and the Fight for the Western Mind Continue reading...

Alexander Lukashenko put our airbases and resources at Russia’s disposal. His fall would accelerate victory for UkraineLast week, residents of Machulishchy were intrigued as soldiers and police swarmed across their small town on the edge of Minsk, the capital of Belarus.Cordons and checkpoints were hastily erected for miles around the local airbase, which has played host to Russia’s forces during its abominable war against Ukraine. Continue reading...

Last month, a blizzard caused road closures, roof collapses and trapped residents in their homesResidents of mountain towns in southern California have continued to struggle to dig out and get necessities in the aftermath of a record-setting blizzard last month that dumped so much snow that roads became impassable and roofs collapsed.Here’s a closer look at the situation: Continue reading...

Media Matters for America raised issue of Murdoch handing Jared Kushner confidential information about a Biden ad with the FECA US Federal Election Commission complaint over the collusion of Fox Newswith the Trump campaign in 2020 could be the first of many, the complainant said, amid continued fallout from dramatic court filings in Dominion Voter Systems’ $1.6bn defamation suit against the network.Media Matters for America, a liberal watchdog, filed its FEC complaint last week, over the revelation that Rupert Murdoch personally gave Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, confidential information about a Biden campaign ad. Continue reading...

James ‘Jimmy’ Chilimigras took entrance exam last year and scored 174, the highest tally in his home state, Alabama and LouisianaA 15-year-old Mississippi boy is reportedly preparing to start law school later this year and has the chance to become one of the youngest people ever to obtain a juris doctorate.James “Jimmy” Chilimigras took the law school entrance exam last year when he was just 14 and scored a 174, the highest tally in his home state, Alabama and Louisiana, according to a report from the news station WLOX, which covers his home town of Bay St Louis, Mississippi. Continue reading...

Joseph Hutchinson and Olivia Pollock, whose brother is also a January 6 defendant, had ankle monitors that were removed or alteredThe FBI is searching for a Florida woman who was supposed to stand trial on Monday on charges stemming from the January 6 Capitol attack as well as another riot defendant who has also gone missing, officials said.A federal judge in Washington issued bench warrants for the arrest of Olivia Pollock and Joseph Hutchinson III last week after the court was notified that they had tampered with or removed the ankle monitors that track their location, said Joe Boland, a supervisory special agent with the FBI’s Lakeland, Florida, office. Continue reading...

Francisco Severo Torres also attempted to open the aircraft’s emergency door and was taken into custody after the plane landedA man on a plane flying from from Los Angeles to Boston has been arrested after stabbing a flight attendant and attempting to open the aircraft’s emergency door, the justice department has announced.The Massachusetts man, Francisco Severo Torres, 33, was arrested at Boston Logan international airport after United Airlines flight 2609 landed and he was charged with interference with flight crew members and attendants and using a dangerous weapon. Continue reading...

Mark Finchem, who ran for secretary of state, was rebuked by the court for his ‘groundless’ claims of fraud in loss to Adrian FontesMark Finchem, the extremist Republican and longtime member of the Oath Keepers anti-government militia group, has been slapped with penalties for his “groundless” lawsuit seeking to overturn his loss in the election to become Arizona’s secretary of state.Maricopa county superior court judge Melissa Iyer Julian had already thrown out a lawsuit brought by Finchem in which the rightwinger claimed that electoral fraud had cost him victory when he was defeated in November’s midterm elections by Democrat Adrian Fontes. Continue reading...

Matt Rosendale of Montana says he unwittingly posed for picture: ‘I absolutely condemn and have zero tolerance for hate groups’A Republican congressman from Montana said a photo of him in front of the US Capitol with two neo-Nazis was a mistake, claiming he unwittingly posed with the men, one of whom appeared to be wearing a trench coat of a style worn by German soldiers in the second world war.Matt Rosendale told the Billings Gazette: “I absolutely condemn and have zero tolerance for hate groups, hate speech and violence. I did not take a meeting with these individuals. Continue reading...

Gavin Newsom said in a statement the state will not do business with any company that ‘puts women’s lives at risk’California will not do business with Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc, Gavin Newsom, the state’s governor, said in a tweet on Monday, days after the pharmacy chain said it will not dispense abortion pills in some Republican states.The state refuses to do business with Walgreens or “any company that cowers to the extremists and puts women’s lives at risk”, the Democrat said. Continue reading...

Governor condemns other states’ Covid responses and celebrates Florida as a ‘citadel of freedom’ in speech

Bill before Florida legislature to make online critics of governor register is ‘an embarrassment’ says former House speakerA Florida bill that would require bloggers who write about the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, to register with the state proved a step too far even for the godfather of far-right Republicanism, the former US House speaker Newt Gingrich.“The idea that bloggers criticising a politician should register with the government is insane,” Gingrich wrote on Twitter. Continue reading...

Move follows violent weekend clash at proposed construction site of Georgia police training facility in forestAtlanta police on Monday charged 23 people with state domestic terrorism charges, a day after officers detained dozens of people following a violent clash at the proposed construction site of what has been dubbed “Cop City” – a $90m police and firefighter training center in a forest near Atlanta.As a “week of action” against “Cop City” unfolds, the charges amplify alarm from activists and experts that Georgia authorities would rely on charging demonstrators with domestic terrorism as a way to suppress opposition. Continue reading...

‘Trailblazer’ fought for civil rights protections at a time when people with disabilities were treated like second-class citizensThe savvy, wheelchair-using civil rights activist Judith Heumann, who led a movement to reimagine what it means to be disabled in the US, died on Saturday at a hospital in Washington DC.Heumann had been hospitalized for a week dealing with heart issues that may have stemmed from her lifelong challenge with polio, the Associated Press reported. She was 75. Continue reading...

I filmed as activists held Purdue Pharma’s owners to account via museums and galleries. Yet the US government has utterly failed to play its partAmong the outstanding films nominated for an Academy Award this year is Argentina, 1985, about brave young lawyers and victims of Argentina’s brutal dictatorship who prosecuted the military leaders responsible for the mass torture, rape and murder of thousands of civilians. They faced down death threats, risking their lives to testify against the perpetrators in power.The film bears witness to a simple truth: a society that does not confront its crimes is condemned instead to repeat them, and to reward those who commit them.Laura Poitras is a filmmaker and journalist. Her films include All the Beauty and the Bloodshed and Citizen FourDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at guardian.letters@theguardian.com Continue reading...

Plane traveling from Maryland to North Carolina shook violently before making emergency landing in deserted airportPassengers on a bumpy Southwest flight from Maryland to North Carolina described a horrific trip that caused several travelers to vomit and left them stranded in a closed South Carolina airport overnight.On Friday, at least two people aboard a Southwest flight from Maryland became ill after the plane shook violently due to weather-related issues while landing in Raleigh, North Carolina. Continue reading...