US news | The Guardian

College under federal investigation after students with Palestinian and Muslim ancestry allege hostile environment', Guardian learnsThe US government has opened an investigation into Emory University's alleged discrimination against students with Palestinian, Muslim or Arab ancestry since 7 October, the Guardian has exclusively learned.The US education department notified the Council on American Islamic Relations, Georgia, or Cair-GA, and Palestine Legal, a national organization, on Tuesday that it would be investigating claims made in an 18-page complaint filed on 5 April on behalf of students at the university in Atlanta, Georgia, under title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Continue reading...

Some say the public bragging of the formerly obscure governor of South Dakota ends her chances. But with Trump, who can say?There is a familiar moment in Republican electoral politics when an obscure politician thrust into the limelight during election season comes under intense public scrutiny and is found to be not quite as first impressions suggested. This was Sarah Palin in 2008, or Ben Carson in 2016, and the inflection point is the moment at which the supposedly promising new face shades into what Mitch McConnell once delicately referred to as the Republicans' candidate quality problem". Or, as most of us know it colloquially, the moment we realise: oh, this person is unhinged.So it was last week for Kristi Noem, the formerly obscure governor of South Dakota, propelled into the big time as a possible running mate for Donald Trump, and who at first glance appeared appalling in all the ordinary ways. The 52-year-old, who was elected to the governorship in 2018, echoes the Republican party's hardline positions on abortion, immigration and offshore drilling in ways indistinguishable from the rest of the VP field. She is telegenic, charismatic, reliably rightwing, and, according to her forthcoming memoir No Going Back: The Truth on What's Wrong With Politics and How We Move America Forward, also killed her 14-month-old puppy, Cricket.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Hundreds of law enforcement officers massed on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles after darkness fell in preparation to clear out a pro-Palestinian protest camp attacked the night before by pro-Israel supporters. Protesters at UCLA have been told to disperse or face arrest. Throughout the evening, hundreds rallied to the campus in support of the protesters

After major police raids on universities in New York and Los Angeles, students continue to demonstrate against the war in Gaza Continue reading...

Nine photojournalists from across the US tell the stories behind their most powerful shots, as pro-Palestinian protesters face police crackdownsAs protests in support of Palestine sweep university campuses across the US, student journalists from New York to Texas have documented the reality inside the encampments. They have risen to the occasion, capturing the quiet moments, the celebratory elements, the tense scenes and the violent police arrests.We asked nine photographers - who have been covering the demonstrations at Columbia, Berkeley, the University of Texas and beyond - to tell the stories behind their most powerful photos. Continue reading...

Donald Trump opened the floodgates and bigoted attacks from the right became a new normal. It's been a sorry spectacleMayoral elections can seem set apart from the main drag of politics. People vote for individuals and their records, it's not outlandish to stand as an independent, and even candidates within a party can float above it. It would be unusual, for example, to think I can't stand Rishi Sunak" (wait! That's not the unusual bit) therefore I won't vote for Andy Street". But even though they stand alone, paradoxically, you can see a huge amount about the bigger picture, globally as well as nationally, from these purportedly local ballots.Sadiq Khan has pretty unusual international name recognition for a city mayor, and the reason - no offence to him, his Hopper bus fares are good too - is that he has been the focus of racist and Islamophobic outbursts ever since Donald Trump called him a stone cold loser" when the then-US president visited London in 2019.Zoe Williams 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...

In Germany the AfD uses second-generation members to overhaul its xenophobic image - some buy into the messageLike many here in Germany, my home country, I have been following the rise of the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland obsessively, expecting it to dominate the state elections in eastern Germany this September: polls put it ahead in all three states that are set to vote. Imagine Reform UK winning the north of England by promising to target and deport refugees and immigrants. It feels threatening to people like me.I guess my alarm is no surprise, given that I come from a Vietnamese family. But I have been shocked to learn that even immigrant Germans are considering voting for the AfD. There are no numbers on this yet, but still, I cannot help but feel a personal sense of disappointment. How can people like me side with them?Khue Phm is a German journalist and writer. Her debut novel, Brothers and Ghosts, which is inspired by her Vietnamese family, has just been released Continue reading...

Arizona lawmakers have repealed the state's 160-year-old statute banning nearly all abortions. The repeal was passed by the Senate in a 16-14 vote and is expected to be quickly signed by Governor Katie Hobbs, a Democrat. Two Republican senators crossed party lines to vote in favour of repealing the ban.

At 19, Malinin is the only person in history to land a quadruple axel - a four-and-a-half-revolution jump - in competition, and he thinks he can go further. Will his incredible athleticism revive a tarnished sport?I always try to be a gamechanger or innovator," says Ilia Malinin, the American prodigy who has cut a swathe through the world of figure skating. In March in Montreal, the 19-year-old roared to his first world championship with a star-making long programme set to music from the TV show Succession. It was immediately hailed as the greatest athletic display in the sport's history.Malinin became the second person ever to land six quadruple jumps in a single programme, and the first to do it with a quadruple axel, the heart-stopping four-and-a-half-revolution jump that had never been landed in competition until he came along. Skating with verve and pace to the lumbering strings, dissonant piano chords and swaggering 808s of Nicholas Britell's crowd-pleasing score, he won the sport's biggest competition outside the Olympics with a record-shattering free-skate score more than 24 points clear of his closest rival. Continue reading...

Los Angeles mayor calls late-night attack by counter-demonstrators abhorrent' as footage shows people wielding sticks

On a day off from his criminal trial, the ex-president hit the campaign trail - and ran through his familiar litany of falsehoods and complaintsAt a remote rural airport in Michigan, an outsized plane touched down as music from Tom Cruise's film Top Gun boomed from loudspeakers. Late afternoon sunshine gleamed off five giant golden letters on the plane's side - TRUMP" - and its Rolls Royce engines. A crowd bedecked in red roared as the plane rolled to a standstill behind a blue TRUMP" lectern.A door opened and men in dark glasses and dark suits from what Donald Trump would call central casting" made their way down the stairs. Trump! Trump!" the audience chanted, raising hundreds of camera phones in eager anticipation. Great Balls of Fire, Macho Man and YMCA blared. Finally, the former and would-be future president emerged, clapping and fist pumping to the sound of whoops and cheers and Lee Greenwood's God Bless the USA. Continue reading...

Authorities described the student as a juvenile male but did not provide further identification or specifics pending an investigationWisconsin police shot and killed a student whom officials say came to a local middle school with a gun. The student never got into the school, but as a precaution the entire district was put on a lockdown late Wednesday morning.Students have since been reunited with their parents, some of whom waited up to five hours for their children to be dropped at a bus storage center in Mount Horeb, a village about 20 miles south-west of Madison, the state capital, according to WMTV 15 news. Continue reading...

So far, 2024 has been a busy year for animal escapes. From a sauntering circus elephant in Montana to huskies breaking out of a pet cafe in Shenzhen, here are five times animals went on the run

We're now closing this blog - but you can follow all the latest news and reaction from campus protests across the US in our new live blog:

Focus of rally went beyond immigration, to fear of authoritarianism, as Trump held campaign event nearbyLed by a mariachi band, hundreds of demonstrators on Wednesday morning marched across Milwaukee to the Fiserv Forum - the home of the Milwaukee Bucks and, in July, the venue of the Republican national convention.The rally, organized by the immigrant and workers' rights group Voces de la Frontera, is an annual event, but in 2024 it holds particular weight. The focus of the rally extended beyond immigration, to fear of authoritarianism under Republican candidate Donald Trump and critique of Joe Biden's handling of the US role in Israel and Gaza. Continue reading...

Democrats pick up support of two Republicans to repeal law reinstated three weeks ago, with governor expected to ratify repealArizona lawmakers have repealed the state's 160-year-old statute banning nearly all abortions.The 1864 law, which was reinstated by the state supreme court three weeks ago, has made abortion a central focus in the battleground state and galvanized Democrats seeking to enshrine abortion rights. Continue reading...

Bill to use language by International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance to define antisemitism, which critics say would chill speechThe US House of Representatives has voted to pass an antisemitism awareness bill, a controversial measure sponsored by a New York Republican amid controversy over pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses in Manhattan and across the US, as Israel's war with Hamas drags on.The bill passed 320-91 with some bipartisan support. Continue reading...

Manhattan's district attorney, Alvin Bragg, said that approximately 280 people were arrested between protests at Columbia University and Cuny. 'There were approximately 280 total arrest from these two events,' Bragg confirmed during Wednesday's press conference.New York police stormed Columbia University and City College of New York on Tuesday, evicting students from both campuses. Large-scale student protests have broken out across US universities, opposing Israel's war on Gaza and calling on their institutions to sever ties with Israeli institutions. Bragg added: 'We will look carefully at each individual case on our docket and make decisions based on the facts and the law'

State supreme court last month cleared the way for the awful' ban, but also allowed November ballot measure for abortionA six-week abortion ban went into effect on Wednesday in Florida, cutting off access to the procedure before many people know they are pregnant and leveling the south-eastern United States' last stronghold for abortion rights.The ban went into force weeks after Florida's state supreme court issued a decision clearing the way for it to take effect. Strict bans now blanket all of the American deep south, increasing the strain on the country's remaining clinics. The closest clinic for most Floridians past six weeks of pregnancy is now several states away in North Carolina, which outlaws abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy. Continue reading...

The US secretary of state has said the US continues to oppose an Israeli offensive on Rafah without a plan to protect civilians. More than a million Palestinians have taken refuge from Israel's assault in the city in southern Gaza. Speaking at the end of a lengthy trip to the Middle East, Antony Blinken also urged Hamas to accept the current offer for a ceasefire

Tensions continue after night of unrest at UCLA and Columbia, as New York mayor blames outside agitators' for escalation

Fed announces it will keep interest rates at 5.25% to 5.5% as rate of inflation remains above target of 2%The Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday that it is holding interest rates steady at 5.25% to 5.5%, their highest level in two decades, as inflation continues to dog the US economy.Though some had hoped the Fed would soon cut interest rates, which are at their highest level since 2007, the annual rate of inflation has stubbornly remained above 3%. The Fed's target rate is 2%. Continue reading...

The pandemic accelerated the shift away from notes and coins. But China and others are realising that transition has a priceOne of the idiosyncrasies of China's huge appetite for luxury goods has been the high sales of man bags - a niche item in the west. Their popularity initially reflected not just the fondness of the newly rich for conspicuous consumption, but also the practical need to carry large wodges of banknotes in a country that hadn't truly embraced credit cards. Early last decade, it was unremarkable to pay a quarter's rent or buy a car in cash.Yet even vegetable sellers in small markets, or people begging on the streets, now use QR codes. By 2020, 98% of people in a survey said they most commonly paid using smartphone apps. The advantage, for the consumer, is convenience. For the authorities it offers not only efficiency but oversight, in a country which is battling corruption and which closely surveils its citizens. Beijing has also been promoting a digital yuan" developed by its central bank. Continue reading...

Away from the back-and-forth of the campaign trail, thousands of students are taking part in pro-Palestinian encampment-style protests at more than 50 university campuses across the US

A day with some blind and partially sighted walkers has shown me how much I barely notice - and how hard it is to find the right wordsHow many shades of green are there? Whatever the answer may be, I soon ran out of words to describe them. I was walking north along the Grand Union canal, trying and failing to adequately describe what I could see, to a friend who couldn't. This was Dave Heeley, ultra-runner, who in 2008 became the first blind person to run seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. Today we were walking rather than running - which, with me guiding him, was just as well.I had guided a blind adventurer once before when I took part in the television series Pilgrimage. One of my fellow pilgrims was the remarkable Amar Latif. We were high up on the side of a deep, lush valley in eastern Serbia. I was focused on the trickiness of the path itself, but Amar kept asking me to describe the vista. I looked down that valley at the mountains in the distance and simply didn't know how or where to start. I had a bash, as there was plainly plenty of material to work with, but didn't feel I had done justice to the richness of that scene.Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Extremist's bid to remove House speaker appears certain to fail as Democratic leaders indicate they will table or kill motion

Rejection by three-judge panel fuels new uncertainty about district boundaries as state prepares for congressional electionsA new congressional map giving Louisiana a second majority-Black House district was rejected on Tuesday by a panel of three federal judges, fueling new uncertainty about district boundaries as the state prepares for fall congressional elections.The 2-1 ruling forbids the use of a map drawn up in January by the legislature after a different federal judge blocked a map from 2022. The earlier map maintained a single Black-majority district and five mostly white districts, in a state with a population that is about one-third Black. Continue reading...

The European hospital is crammed with severely injured and dying children - a military offensive here will be catastrophic

We would like to hear from students on US campuses that have seen protests

Republican senator says Noem's story of killing her 14-month-old hunting dog makes her unlikely to be Trump's running mate

The viral Glasgow event made children cry and adults seethe. Could a California tribute provide some measure of absolution?She was the sad Oompa Loompa seen around the world. Inside a bleak warehouse in Glasgow, a supposed celebration of Wonka's delectable world of chocolate left children crying and parents calling the police. Attendees paid 35 to visit a bleak warehouse with a handful of props and posters; inside, they were treated to two jellybeans each and a few poorly costumed actors. Images of the event went extremely viral, making international news and inspiring a horror film and an hour-long documentary.Two months later, I found myself walking toward another grim-looking warehouse, this time in downtown Los Angeles. I was here for Willy's Chocolate Experience LA, a tribute to the Glasgow disaster promising live entertainment, a red carpet-style photo op and a rare chance to meet the celebrity Oompa Loompa herself. Continue reading...

Dozens of anti-war protesters also arrested in New York after Columbia also calls in police. Plus, Trump fined by trial judge over gag order breaches

Violent clashes between pro-Palestinian protesters and counter-demonstrators broke out at the University of California in Los Angeles. Aerial footage shows people trying to break through barriers protecting the pro-Palestinian protest group. Administrators called in law enforcement, who surrounded the area. The 7 October attack on southern Israel by Hamas militants from Gaza, and the ensuing Israeli offensive on the Palestinian territory, have unleashed the biggest outpouring of US student activism since the antiracism protests of 2020 after the death of George Floyd. Police have arrested hundreds of students across the US, including dozens at Columbia University, where protesters barricaded a university building

We chose Yale and it chose us, but one party was betrayedOliver was arrested this morning. 13 students arrested," Ella texted me at 8.27am, No, 45."Are you awake? Should we go? I'm feeling paralyzed right now."Grey Battle studies political science at Yale University. She grew up in Birmingham, Alabama Continue reading...

The South Dakota governor's proud dog murder tells a lot about how posturing Trumpists like she and Greg Gianforte thinkAfter South Dakota's Republican governor, Kristi Noem, proudly admitted in a forthcoming memoir to marching her young puppy Cricket to a gravel pit to kill her with a shotgun, she rationalized the despicable act by arguing that Cricket had been aggressive.She also said that she used the same gravel pit to shoot a disgusting, musky, rancid" unnamed goat - but botched the job, leaving the goat to suffer unnecessarily while she rushed to her truck to get a second shell. (It's unclear why Noem, supposedly a shrewd outdoorswoman, didn't think to carry more shells on her.) Continue reading...

Eighth-grader Acie Holland from Wisconsin hailed as hero for quick thinking after he noticed driver had become unresponsiveAn eighth-grade student recently averted a tragedy when he brought a careening school bus carrying him and his fellow students to a stop after its driver fell ill from a medical emergency, according to officials who are praising the boy's actions.Acie Holland III was taking a bus ride home when he realized the woman driving had become unresponsive, his principal, Anna Young, wrote in a letter to the campus community. The bus veered into the oncoming traffic lane, prompting Acie to rush up to the driver, move her foot off the gas pedal and apply the brake. Continue reading...

Lawyers for Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, election workers suing website for defamation, made disclosure in April court filingEmployees of the far-right website Gateway Pundit, which has played a key role in spreading lies about the 2020 election, were worried contributors were not credible and expressed concerns about plagiarism, a court filing last month revealed.Lawyers for Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, two Georgia election workers suing the site for defamation, made the disclosure in a 16 April court filing seeking a court order forcing the website to turn over more internal documents. They said they had obtained text messages from Gateway Pundit's director of operations and associate editor expressing concerns that a contributor engaged in plagiarism and made claims without any sources". Continue reading...

Paul Auster, the author of 34 books including the acclaimed New York Trilogy, has died aged 77. Auster became known for his highly stylised, quirkily riddlesome postmodernist fiction in which narrators are rarely other than unreliable and the bedrock of plot is continually shifting', the novelist Joyce Carol Oates wrote in 2010 Continue reading...

League commissioner Jessica Berman talks ballooning franchise values, the merits of expansion and reducing injuriesNo soccer league in the world is experiencing a boom comparative to the NWSL in 2024. Last month, the world's first purpose-built stadium for a women's sports franchise opened in Kansas City, marking the new home of the Current. San Diego Wave broke its NWSL home opener attendance record with over 32,000 fans, while the NWSL was listed at No 5 on the World's 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2024.At the NWSL we are working to drive innovation, growth and increased investment in women's soccer," Jessica Berman, the NWSL's commissioner, tells the Guardian. I'm excited about the 2024 season and to see what else we can accomplish in the women's soccer space." Continue reading...

New York police moved on to the campus to clear out Hamilton Hall, an academic building that had been taken over as part of pro-Palestine protests. Police arrested nearly 100 people as they cleared Columbia University of demonstrators who were issued a notice to disband their encampment after negotiations failed to come to a resolution Continue reading...

The president is trailing the hard right - and forthcoming European elections could leave him a political lame duckIn the latest of his visionary speeches on the future of Europe, Emmanuel Macron called for the EU to transform itself into a military power or face death". Yet his own presidency of France may be about to enter a long twilight zone unless he can reverse his party's deepening slump in June's European parliament election.Macron's unpopularity is the main reason why his centrist pro-European Renaissance party is trailing a distant second in opinion polls behind Marine Le Pen's hard-right National Rally (RN). Le Pen's list is led by Jordan Bardella, 29, the rising star in the populist anti-immigration party. Renaissance, whose list is headed by little-known MEP Valerie Hayer, is down to 17.5% in the latest survey while the RN is on 31%. The two parties were neck-and-neck in the last European election, five years ago .Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre Continue reading...

NYPD officers move on to campus on Tuesday evening to clear out Hamilton Hall building taken over by protesters, with reports of more arrests at City College of New York

For the first time Ukraine had the right conditions to make reparations to those subjected to crimes such as rape and sexual slavery. What would it take to replicate this globally?Across the world, women and girls continue to be plagued by gross human rights violations. One that is specifically targeted at them is conflict-related sexual violence. Living in conflict, for so many people, means the possibility of being subjected to life-altering crimes such as sexual torture, rape and slavery.Now, survivors of wartime sexual violations in Ukraine are to receive reparation payments. It is a landmark case - the fastest that a country at war has created a system to fulfil the right to reparation. Why has this right not been enacted in a timely manner globally? Continue reading...

New York City police have entered Columbia University in an apparent effort to disperse pro-Palestinian protesters who seized and occupied a classroom building and have been demonstrating on the campus for two weeks. Some students were escorted off campus with their hands zip tied behind their backs. Some protesters were loaded on to law enforcement buses parked outside the university.

Images on TV show police on campus in New York after students take over Hamilton Hall building amid continuing protests

Time magazine called the ex-president's plans an imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world'Donald Trump has warned that Joe Biden and his family could face multiple criminal prosecutions once he leaves office unless the US supreme court awards Trump immunity in his own legal battles with the criminal justice system.In a sweeping interview with Time magazine, Trump painted a startling picture of his second term, from how he would wield the justice department to hinting he may let states monitor pregnant women to enforce abortion laws. Continue reading...

Police say four officers who died serving warrant over firearms possession were heroes' as investigation into shooting continuesEight law-enforcement officers were shot, four fatally, during a shootout on Monday outside a home in North Carolina while serving a warrant to someone wanted for possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. It was the deadliest attack on US law enforcement since 2016.Three of the four law-enforcement officers killed were working on a fugitive taskforce as agents with the US Marshals Service, and the fourth was a police officer who had recently been named officer of the month by his department. Continue reading...

Keith Davidson takes stand as judge fines ex-president maximum financial penalty for violating gag order - and threatens jail timeDonald Trump was confronted with the details of how the former lawyer for Stormy Daniels, the adult film actor, secured the $130,000 in hush money at the heart of his criminal trial in New York, after being found to be in criminal contempt of a gag order prohibiting attacks on witnesses.The direct examination of the lawyer, Keith Davidson, is expected to continue on Thursday when the trial resumes. Here are the key takeaways from day nine of People of the State of New York vs Donald J Trump: Continue reading...