US news | The Guardian

Is it the extra caffeine hit? The appeal of coffee shops? The array of options? Maybe it's not even about the drink itselfLast year I was queuing with my tea-loving mum at the Marks & Spencer's cafe. Did you know they've stopped using the cup and saucer?" she sighed. It's a mug now. So sad." Kitchenware isn't usually something to get emotional about, but on this day I could see her point.Before then, tea at M&S cafes had been served in a pot to pour into a delicate china teacup with its matching saucer. It was a touch of elegance on the high street, enabling nearly anyone to treat themselves to the ceremony of a raised pinky finger; a drink that felt considered, and as if it were served with care (hence, a saucer to rest your teaspoon: an additional piece of washing up, but worth it for your comfort). And now it was a mug. A mug! A functional, joyless mug that, sure, saves on energy amid rising bills, because more can fit in the dishwasher (as M&S itself reasoned), but also says that ordinary people just can't have nice things.Coco Khan is commissioning editor for Guardian B2B and a writer Continue reading...

Decision leaves families of transgender children, who had been receiving puberty blockers and hormones, scrambling for careA federal appeals court ruled Monday that Alabama can enforce a ban outlawing the use of puberty blockers and hormones to treat transgender children, the second such appellate victory for gender-affirming care restrictions that have been adopted by a growing number of Republican-led states.A three-judge panel of the 11th US circuit court of appeals vacated a judge's temporary injunction against enforcing the law. The judge has scheduled trial for 2 April on whether to permanently block the law. Continue reading...

Ordered to remove unsuitable books from their libraries, school administrators in Iowa outsourced the job to AI. So long, The Color Purple, Beloved, The Handmaid's Tale ...What do you get when you combine artificial intelligence with human stupidity? There are, unfortunately, numerous responses to that question. But in this particular case the answer can be found in Iowa's Mason City Community School District, where school administrators are using ChatGPT to help them ban books.Ahead of the new school year, school staff have been busy trying to comply with a new state law, Senate File 496, the Parental Rights and Transparency Act, requiring every book in Iowa public school libraries to be age appropriate" and devoid of descriptions or visual depictions of a sex act". Of course, nobody wants hardcore porn in school libraries, but this sweeping bill, which also restricts education about gender identity and sexual orientation, isn't trying to prevent that nonexistent problem: it's about indoctrination. Republicans don't want kids learning anything that goes against their narrow worldview so, over the past couple of years, they've gone on a censorship orgy, trying to ban everything from gender studies to psychology to African American studies. Continue reading...

Shooter had history of posting hateful content online, sheriff says, and shot Laura Ann Carleton with gun not registered to himA 27-year-old man who fatally shot a store owner in California had torn down her Pride flag and shouted homophobic slurs, officials said on Monday.Laura Ann Carleton, 66, who went by Lauri", died at the scene of the shooting on Friday outside her Mag.Pi clothing store in Cedar Glen, an unincorporated community in the mountains roughly 60 miles (100km) east of Los Angeles. Continue reading...

Tropical Storm Hilary has pummelled the US west coast with historic amounts of rain and strong winds. The storm downed trees, flooded streets and left cascades of mud and debris in its wake. Footage from California showed people trapped in a motorhome after rain triggered mudslides. Other videos circulating on social media showed cars stranded in debris and blocked highways

850 people are still missing after the devastating wildfires as president and first lady visit the town of Lahaina. Plus, why sweat is our secret superpower

Experts on Greek life offer students tips on what to wear and what to post, in a bid to smooth out the rough edges'I need more friends. Or, specifically, I need more photos on social media where I'm posing with my friends. That's what Lorie Stefanelli, a sorority recruitment consultant who trains girls on how to get into the toughest houses in the country, would recommend if I were an incoming freshman.If your whole grid is just you by yourself, it looks like you don't have any friends," she says, bluntly. Though in real life I am a boring 28-year-old woman with no plans to rush anywhere except home to my couch, I have asked Stefanelli to advise me as if I were a freshman joining a sorority. Continue reading...

Yes, Romeo the staffie has a lovely smile. But it hides such wickedness ...The note I have to leave for dog-sitters reads like a document from the previous, now deceased inhabitants of a haunted house. Never, ever off a lead - nowhere is safe"; If you see the boston terrier from next door, back away; if you see the husky from over the road, run - don't walk"; If you walk after 10pm, that is the hour of the fox, and will go hard on you unless you want to sacrifice the fox". It is embarrassing, and my preference is to have the same dog-sitter who I've known since he was 10 and doesn't need me to say all this twice. Plus, he remembers my last dog, so he knows that I'm not the problem. The dog is the problem.Last weekend, he was away, so he got his friend to fill in. I love dogs and haven't been able to spend any time with one since I left Ecuador," was her first message. Oh, lady, no: this is not that kind of dog. Among people, Romeo may exude a delightful, enthusiastic energy, and remind you of pleasant dog-related moments you have had in other lives. Around other dogs, he will remind you of the savagery that lives in even the sunniest heart; he'll remind you that life is hard and the wages of sin is death. A bit later, she sent a video. He was sniffing a flower; he looked like Ferdinand the Bull, the gentle animated giant who didn't want to fight, who only wanted to appreciate the botany. I mean, he didn't look unlike a bull in the first place - he's a bull breed - but this was different: this bull heralded peace.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The presidential candidate took his pitch to Florida, which overwhelmingly backed Trump in 2020 and DeSantis last yearIt's a little after 6.30am on a steamy Friday in South Miami. A road sweeper appears in the pre-dawn twilight and trundles noisily past a man fixing red, white and blue bunting to a hedge at the Casa Cuba restaurant.Chris Christie is up early for his campaign event, as he has been on many mornings of his ambitious presidential run. Yet this one has a different feel. It's essentially a raid on an enemy stronghold. This turf is held by Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, the two prominent Floridians in the race for the Republican nomination. Christie is aware he has to make a good impression. Continue reading...

In Sandpoint, Idaho, the maternity ward closed down. Within months, medical care for women in the rural community was hollowed out

Supreme court ruling on abortion has led to specialists leaving restrictive states, with 36% of counties maternity care desertsWhen Caslin Gilroy learned she was pregnant in May, she immediately contacted her doctor's office to book prenatal care. She'd visited the same clinic for years - including for her first pregnancy in 2020 - and thought booking an appointment would be straightforward. But Gilroy was told her doctor had no availability until August, when she would be close to 12 weeks along.Unable to get a pregnancy confirmation appointment, which ideally happens between eight and 10 weeks, Gilroy grew anxious, and even struggled to convince herself that the pregnancy was real. Continue reading...

Hilary has drenched southern California, swept people into swollen rivers, toppled trees on to homes and flooded roads. It is the first tropical storm to hit southern California in 84 years Continue reading...

New York's Nasdaq to host IPO after British government failed to persuade tech firm to list in UKThe British chip designer Arm has started the process of listing its shares on New York's Nasdaq, in one of the biggest flotations of recent years after the London Stock Exchange lost out.The company, owned by Japanese investor SoftBank, registered to list its shares late on Monday night, after months of waiting amid tricky conditions for stock market floats. Continue reading...

Veteran team leaders are often extensions of their coaches. But, until salary cap concerns intervened, the roles were often combinedWhen NBA veteran Tree Rollins got a call from his old friend Brian Hill in the summer of 1993, the wheels started to turn. Hill was the new coach of the Orlando Magic, a team that included a young Shaquille O'Neal and Penny Hardaway. Hill wanted Rollins to come in as an assistant to work with O'Neal, specifically. The 7ft 1in Rollins, who had just come off two seasons with the Houston Rockets backing up Hakeem Olajuwon, contemplated the offer and after a few weeks accepted. For Rollins, in his late 30s, it was a great chance to start the second phase of his basketball life. Little did he know, however, what it would soon turn into.I went to Orlando to be an assistant coach," Rollins tells the Guardian. I would get out and practice with the team. With the big guy, Shaquille, you couldn't stop him. But I could trick him, with my experience, and make him work harder." Continue reading...

Power is addictive - as certain world leaders insist on showing - but standing down from politics aged 62 was the smartest decision I ever madeSome years ago, at an African Union conference in Addis Ababa, I heard the then UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, say to an audience stuffed with life presidents: One of the tests of leadership is knowing when to leave the stage." All the big offenders were present - Robert Mugabe from Zimbabwe, Omar Bongo from Gabon, Teodoro Obiang from Equatorial Guinea and Yoweri Museveni from Uganda. They sat stony-faced amid much nervous foot-shuffling and laughter as the chairman, the former president of Mozambique, Joaquim Chissano (one of the few African leaders who stood down when his time was up), pointed at them and said, And we all know who Kofi was talking about, don't we?" It was an electric moment.Annan may have been talking about African presidents, but today his words might equally apply elsewhere. Is it not extraordinary that, more than 200 years after it was founded, a political system as open and allegedly sophisticated as that in the US can only offer the American electorate a choice between two elderly males - one a serial liar and the other a decent man well past his sell-by date. One can understand what drives Donald Trump (77) - a desire to stay out of prison - but why on earth should Joe Biden (80), who has held elected office since 1972, want to cling to power? And not just Biden; what of Nancy Pelosi (83), until recently House speaker, or the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell (81), both visibly fading? Or, indeed, the revered supreme court justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose refusal to recognise that her time was up arguably gifted control of the most important institution in the US to the hard right when she died in post in 2020 at the age of 87.Chris Mullin is a former Labour minister. His most recent diaries, Didn't You Use to Be Chris Mullin?, are published by Biteback Continue reading...

Can you believe it?' ex-president says in post announcing his imminent booking for his alleged role in subverting the 2020 electionFormer President Donald Trump says he will surrender to authorities in Georgia on Thursday to face charges in the case accusing him of illegally scheming to overturn his 2020 election loss.Can you believe it? I'll be going to Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday to be ARRESTED," Trump wrote on his social media network on Monday night, hours after court papers said his bond was set at $200,000. Continue reading...

Maui county mayor says 114 people confirmed dead as president and first lady visit damaged town of Lahaina

Damage from rare tropical storm is less than feared, but experts warn of further danger as it heads to Nevada and OregonVast swaths of the US south-west are reeling after Tropical Storm Hilary pummeled the region with historic amounts of rain and strong winds, even as the storm weakened on its path northward on Monday.The rare tempest left downed trees, flooded streets, and cascades of mud and debris in its wake after slamming into the US west coast on Sunday. In California, the storm had largely cleared by Monday afternoon, and officials celebrated that damage had been less severe than feared. Continue reading...

CDC must now weigh in on vaccine to fight respiratory infection in vulnerable newbornsUS regulators on Monday approved the first RSV vaccine for pregnant women so their babies will be born with protection against the scary respiratory infection.RSV is notorious for filling hospitals with wheezing babies every fall and winter. The Food and Drug Administration cleared Pfizer's maternal vaccination to guard against a severe case of RSV when babies are most vulnerable - from birth through six months of age. Continue reading...

The Bidens are accompanied by the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Deanne CriswellDonald Trump continues to hold a dominant lead over the rest of the GOP field in Iowa, the site of the nation's first presidential caucuses, with 23 points ahead of his closest competitor, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, according to a new poll.The survey by the Des Moines Register, NBC News and Mediacom of likely Republican caucus-goers, was conducted before and after Trump's latest indictment in Georgia, and shows the former president's lead over DeSantis increased after his latest charges. Continue reading...

From secret energy weapon' starting fires to a global cabal razing the town for an experiment - false theories are fast gaining groundIn the aftermath of the devastating wildfires in Maui, misinformation and conspiracy theories have spread online, underscoring the shortcomings of social media firms' enforcement policies following disasters.Conspiracy theories including that the fire was started intentionally by a secret energy weapon" and that a shadowy cabal of global elites set the blazes purposefully to clear the land for their own nefarious uses have gained popularity. Continue reading...

Tracy Marie Fiorenza, 41, allegedly made first threat in email in May and allegedly sent another in June, officials sayA Chicago woman was arrested on Monday on charges of emailing threats to shoot Donald Trump and his youngest son Barron Trump, the US attorney's office in the Illinois city said.A formal complaint was filed against Tracy Marie Fiorenza, 41, earlier this month in the US district court for the southern district of Florida. Continue reading...

Kristopher Coody pleads guilty to sexual battery over groping of Glenda Hatchett last year and sentenced to year on probationA Georgia sheriff pleaded guilty on Monday to groping TV judge Glenda Hatchett, who recalled being so stunned that she froze when the lawman grabbed and squeezed her breast at a hotel bar last year during a law enforcement conference.Bleckley county sheriff Kristopher Coody pleaded guilty in Cobb county state court to a misdemeanor charge of sexual battery and was sentenced to a year on probation, news outlets reported. He also resigned from the office he had held since 2017. Continue reading...

Storm Hilary flooded streets and downed power lines across southern California and the US south-west on Monday after unleashing record-breaking downpours overnight, but there were no deaths reported in the US and fears of widespread damage were dissipating.Hilary triggered California's first ever tropical storm warning, extending from the Mexican border to just north of Los Angeles.The storm made landfall on Sunday in Mexico, where it caused flash flooding in the Baja Peninsula that killed one person when their car was washed away

Such storms landing on California are extremely rare - but experts say they could become more common as the ocean heats upAs Storm Hilary continues to batter California and the US south-west, questions loom about what role the climate crisis played in supercharging the storm and whether there could be more like it in the future.After a year of weather extremes in California and the US west - including record-breaking winter rain and snowfall and punishing summer heatwaves - the tropical cyclone's appearance in the region remains extraordinary. Continue reading...

The ex-president's 46-point lead over the other candidates compels them to use Wednesday's prime-time slot to gain supportDonald Trump's rivals for the Republican presidential nomination reacted in mostly muted fashion to his declaration that he will skip all the party's primary debates, not just the first in Milwaukee on Wednesday.Trump's team have strategized that as the overwhelming frontrunner, the former president would gain little from appearing on stage with his many rivals. At the same time, his legal team are probably wary Trump may be tempted to wade into subject matter at the heart of proliferating legal cases against him. Continue reading...

The club's owners have invested a fortune in new players. But there's a sense the squad has been assembled without a clear blueprint

Ignore Piers Morgan. Most people aren't angry about the royal no-show - they just want to take our future king down a peg or twoA certain amount of indignation was only to be expected, post-World Cup, about the disparities in the treatment of the men's and women's games. Not to get too granular about it, because male footballers get paid so much that sometimes the world runs out of currency and has to top up their pay with panda cubs, and female footballers get paid slightly less than primary school teachers, I definitely expected at least some murmurs about fairness and equality, maybe even the spectacle of a Lioness bringing an equal pay claim to tribunal, which might not succeed but would be fun to watch.The question I was not expecting was Where was Prince William at the World Cup final?", still less to hear it endlessly examined, by news anchors, bigmouths, football pundits and politicians. Who was the angriest, between Jon Sopel, who tweeted: Happy to accept might be impossible for the PM, given other commitments. But Prince William? Why?" and Piers Morgan, who went in on: With respect, YRH [Your Royal Highness], you should have got on a plane."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...

Injury-hit squad's journey to the final indicates that far being the end of a cycle, this is just the startAfter England's Euros triumph and defeat of the USA in a friendly in October, confidence was overflowing looking towards the World Cup. The Lionesses appeared strong enough to seriously challenge for football's biggest prize.The loss of the Euros golden boot and golden ball winner Beth Mead to an ACL injury that would almost certainly end her World Cup dream was a blow, but one that could be taken; the depth was there. Then came knee injuries to the captain Leah Williamson, another ACL, and magical No 10 Fran Kirby. All that remained of England's Euros spine, with the retirement of the striker Ellen White, was the goalkeeper Mary Earps and defensive midfielder Keira Walsh. Continue reading...

Senator Bill Cassidy says he will lose to Joe Biden' as ex-president faces more than 90 pending charges

The first tropical storm to hit southern California in 84 years prompted flash-flood and tornado warnings for the region

Amid record profits, workers want to roll back concessions made to auto industry after the 2008 economic recessionFor decades, the head of the powerful United Auto Workers (UAW) union has started negotiations with the CEOs of the US's top auto executives with a ceremonial handshake. Those days are over.As UAW members become the latest American workers to consider a massive strike over their union contract, newly elected UAW president Shawn Fain chose to mark the start of the talks by shaking hands with workers instead. There's no point in having a big pomp and ceremony where we act like we're friends, and we're working together, when we're not," said Fain, while meeting with workers at a Ram truck factory in Sterling Heights, Michigan. The membership comes first. That's our job." Continue reading...

Cooperation is not only in the best interests of all countries, but is absolutely necessary for the survival of the planetClimate change is a global crisis and cannot be solved by any one country alone. If the United States, China and other industrialized countries do not come together to dramatically decrease greenhouse gas emissions, the world we leave our children and future generations will become increasingly unhealthy and uninhabitable. Tragically, the cooperation required to address this existential threat is being undermined by hawks in both the United States and China who are moving us toward a disastrous cold war.Now is the time for a radical rethinking of geopolitics to reflect the reality that international cooperation is not only in the best interests of all countries, but is absolutely necessary for the survival of the planet.Bernie Sanders is a US Senator and chairman of the health, education, labor and pensions committee Continue reading...

These criminal entanglements are not only means but ends - not a sideshow, but the heart and soul of Trump's campaignOn 16 or perhaps 17 July 2024, in Milwaukee, the Republican national convention will likely nominate as its presidential candidate a convicted criminal. When Donald Trump ascends the podium to accept the nomination for his third time he will probably have been found guilty months earlier of having staged an attempted coup to overthrow American democracy - conspiring to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election, obstruct the certification of the election results, and discount citizens' legitimate votes", in the words of special counsel Jack Smith.The US district court judge Tanya Chutkan has announced that she will set the trial date at the next hearing on Trump's case on 28 August. Smith has sought a 2 January 2024 start date for a trial to last an estimated six weeks into mid-February. Trump's attorneys have preposterously suggested a date in April 2026. If Judge Chutkan fixes the trial for any time before 1 June 2024, Trump will accept the Republican nomination after its verdict is rendered. Continue reading...

Planners say the facility will help heal the criminal justice system. But local residents see a brutal symbol of incarcerationFor nearly two centuries, New York City's Chinatown has been home to a quintessentially American story: immigrant workers and their families living shoulder-to-shoulder in low-slung tenements. Workers like Dennis Chung, the owner of Pasteur Grill and Noodles, a Vietnamese pho joint he's run at the neighborhood's western edge for 27 years - weathering disasters like 9/11, Hurricane Sandy and Covid.Now another symbol of the American condition is taking shape, directly across from Chung's shop: a vast new jail. At about 300ft, the new structure is expected to be the tallest correctional facility in the world. And Chung says it could be the thing that finally sinks his business. With the jail on top of the pandemic, it might be over," he tells me in Cantonese. Continue reading...

Noni Battiste-Kosoko died days after her 19th birthday, amid a series of deaths in Fulton county custodyNoni Battiste-Kosoko was found alone, face down and unresponsive in her cell at the Atlanta city detention center, managed by the Fulton county jail, on 11 July. Her death came just six days after her 19th birthday.The Fulton county sheriff's office announced the death a day later, saying the teen had no apparent signs of injuries". Now, her family is demanding answers from Fulton county, which has found itself embroiled in a civil investigation after a series of deaths happened in its custody. Continue reading...

The Argentinian has transformed his new team since he arrived in the US. And the effects are being felt beyond his new home in south FloridaNearly every Inter Miami match is now a home matchForty minutes was all Lionel Messi needed to truly settle into his new home. The Argentinian marked his Inter Miami debut with a free-kick winner off the bench. Every match Messi has played at DRV PNK Stadium since then has been a party, but the true measure of Messi Mania has been in the matches he has played away from south Florida. Continue reading...

With motivation and passion undimmed, senior players serve up a constant reminder of their longstanding greatnessVeronika Kudermetova is 26. Having spent 11 years as a tennis professional, scaling the top 10 in singles and doubles, she is not far from being classed as a veteran of her sport. And yet, still, last week in Cincinnati the No 14 was toppled by an opponent whose career long precedes her entire existence.In the year Kudermetova was born, 1997, Venus Williams reached her first grand slam final at the US Open. Now 43, her passion for the sport is so great that her motivation is undimmed. Williams trailed by a double break in both sets, 1-4 in the first set and 1-5 in the second, before recovering to win 6-4, 7-5 and secure her first top-20 win in four years. Continue reading...

Giving up on eternal life made me realise I had one chance to achieve something meaningful. For me, that was a submission of a different kindAre you the people who don't have blood transfusions?" was the first thing most people asked if any of us mentioned our religion. We weren't supposed to say yes", because we weren't meant to allow our faith to be defined by what we didn't do. We were supposed to emphasise the positives, such as the promise of eternal life on Earth.But the inconvenient fact was that we weren't allowed blood transfusions. Furthermore, we were known for not celebrating Christmas, Easter or birthdays, for not being allowed into school assemblies, and for knocking on people's doors to evangelise to them at weekends.Ariel Anderssen is a BDSM model and author of Playing to Lose - How a Jehovah's Witness Became a Submissive BDSM ModelDo 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...

A new report meticulously analyses the true cost of the transatlantic slave trade, showing how past and present are bound togetherDelving into a deeply unsettling chapter of history and seeking to reshape the discourse, a groundbreaking report, Reparations for Transatlantic Chattel Slavery in the Americas and the Caribbean, has calculated that Britain owes a staggering sum of 18.6tn.Other nations with a legacy of slaveholding, such as the US, Portugal, Spain and France, also stand accused of owing trillions. The total economic toll is thought to be as high as $131tn (103tn). The revelation lays bare the enduring ramifications of the transatlantic slave trade and the struggle for reparative justice on a global scale. Continue reading...

Images of the struggle for human rights and freedoms around the world this week, from a women's march for justice in Brazil to an attack on churches in Pakistan Continue reading...

This live blog has now closed, you can read more about this story hereThe White House has released a statement from president Joe Biden on the federal response to Tropical Storm Hilary.The president has said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had deployed personnel and supplies to the state, while the US Coast Guard has aircraft on standby to help in search and rescue efforts.This afternoon I spoke to California Governor Gavin Newsom about the emergency preparedness measures in place, and the initial response to Tropical Storm Hilary ... My Administration stands ready to provide additional assistance as requested. I urge people to take this storm seriously, and listen to state and local officials." Continue reading...

Will Hurd hasn't qualified for this week's Republican debate, but he's pulling no punches in his attacks on the ex-presidentOffering free advice" to his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, the former Texas congressman Will Hurd said: If Donald Trump is leading in the polls, and he's your opponent, then kissing his butt is not going to help you win."Trump is indeed leading national and key state polls by wide margins, despite facing 91 criminal charges under four separate indictments for election subversion, retention of classified documents and hush-money payments to a porn star. Continue reading...

Ex-president is said to believe counter-programming would benefit his campaign and humiliate Fox NewsDonald Trump has confirmed that he will not attend the first Republican primary debate on Wednesday, in a post on Truth Social, amid reports that he is weighing several options in an attempt to upstage the opening event in the party's nominating contest.The former president confirmed on his social media platform that he would be attending no primary debates. New CBS poll, just out, has me leading the field by legendary' numbers... I WILL THEREFORE NOT BE DOING THE DEBATES." Continue reading...

Ex-chief of staff Mark Meadows' admission could complicate the ex-president's defense in his classified documents caseThe former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told investigators he had no knowledge of Donald Trump either talking about or declassifying confidential information, it was reported on Sunday, potentially skewering the ex-president's defense in his classified documents case.Meadows' alleged admission to the special counsel Jack Smith, reported by ABC News, suggests Trump made no blanket declassification of secret papers later seized from his Mar-a-Lago resort by FBI agents, leading to 40 criminal counts against him. Continue reading...