Judge said Trump officials' push to have case dropped smacks of a bargain' over immigration enforcementA US federal judge on Wednesday dismissed the Department of Justice's corruption case against New York City's embattled mayor, Eric Adams, after weeks of scandal about the Democratic mayor bowing to pressure from the Trump administration to cooperate on immigration crackdowns while trying to get out from under the criminal charges.Despite the judge's decision, he said the Trump administration's grounds for having the case dropped smacks of a bargain". Continue reading...
by Alexandra Villarreal in San Antonio on (#6WBJV)
Texas volunteers had prepared welcome for family fleeing Taliban now stranded in Pakistan in fear of being deportedThe 24-year-old Afghan woman wants to become a surgeon - and she had set her sights on training in the US.She wants to care for other women and girls, so they don't have to be afraid to visit the doctor - so at least in one crucial aspect of their lives they won't have to endure the unwanted advances, dismissive comments and blatant disrespect that she's experienced from many of the men who have always surrounded her, first in her native Afghanistan and now in legal limbo in Pakistan. Continue reading...
Liberal judge says victory is against unprecedented attack on our democracy' after defeating Brad Schimel in the most expensive judicial election in US historySusan Crawford won the race for a seat on the Wisconsin supreme court on Tuesday, scoring a major victory for Democrats who had framed the race as a referendum on Elon Musk and Donald Trump's popularity.Crawford, a liberal judge from Dane county, defeated Brad Schimel, a former Republican attorney general and conservative judge from Waukesha county, after Musk and groups associated with the tech billionaire spent millions to boost his candidacy in what became the most expensive judicial contest in American history. Continue reading...
The Reserve Bank says they are cautious about the outlook. Caution is fine, but indolence in the face of a challenging world is notLife is like a box of chocolates," said Forrest Gump, who had clearly never looked at the label descriptions on the box. You never know what you're gonna get." And so it was for the RBA on Tuesday when they announced that it was keeping the cash rate steady at 4.1%.Not the actual decision - we all knew they were not going to cut rates. The market on Tuesday morning rated it about a 10% chance but no one was about to go bet their mortgage on it happening. No, the uncertainty was all about what was in the Reserve Bank's statement and what they think is about to come next. Continue reading...
Some seemed nonplussed and said it would make no difference, while others expressed support for Trump's planDonald Trump's liberation day" - his plan to overturn decades of US free trade policy - was getting a mixed reaction in New York on Tuesday.With Trump planning to unleash tariffs on global trading partners on Wednesday, many said the price rises economists are predicting would make no difference because they were already out of reach of pinched pocketbooks. Others said they would accept short-term price hikes for longer-term US economic well-being. Continue reading...
About 134,000 trans veterans live in the US, with many now blocked from life-saving gender-affirming careWhen Savannah Blake joined the air force at 22 years old, she was looking for stable employment and a way out of poverty. For the last few years of her service, she worked as a cyberdefense operator in the intelligence squadron. But the work, which involved overseeing computers operating drone surveillance, eventually took a toll on her mental health.If I had to watch any more of this, I was going to not be alive anymore," Blake said, who says she experienced suicidal ideations. I just felt like the bad guy. I felt evil." Continue reading...
The temporary restraining order is another setback in less than a week for Trump's immigration crackdownA federal judge in California has ordered the Trump administration to temporarily restore legal aid to tens of thousands of migrant children who are in the United States without a parent or guardian.The Republican administration on 21 March terminated a contract with the Acacia Center for Justice, which provides legal services for unaccompanied migrant children under 18 through a network of legal aid groups that subcontract with the center. Eleven subcontractor groups sued, saying that 26,000 children were at risk of losing their attorneys; Acacia is not a plaintiff. Continue reading...
Why is the moral panic only ever about younger generations? It's time we heard what confuses or worries them about usEvery generation looks at the next generation, and the one after that, with bafflement and concern. There's probably a name for this phenomenon. That's not to say we (the olds) aren't right to be more worried than ever about what they (the young) are up to. There's a lot for us to be worried about and confused about in equal measure. The TV drama Adolescence got at this. Even having had its emojis and red pills - and emojis of red pills - patiently explained to me, I remain concerned and confused. Mainly confused. It's all decidedly mysterious - and not in a good, exciting way.This intergenerational bewilderment seems only to work in one direction: down, rather than up. We flail around trying to make sense of what's going on with the young. If you are young, this is relevant to you, too, because you will soon be feeling like this about those coming up behind you. What I want to know is what, if anything, baffles the young about the old. Do they get together to express despair and confusion at the conduct of the olds? Is there stroking of chins, scratching and shaking of heads, as they ask: What's going on with elderly people today? I can hardly understand a thing they're saying. I don't know what's going to become of them, I'm sure." Continue reading...
by Ramon Antonio Vargas and David Hammer of WWL Louis on (#6WBE9)
Comments come after it was revealed judge ignored DoJ recommendations against expelling survivors from panelClergy abuse survivors who were ousted from a committee trying to negotiate a settlement resolving the New Orleans Catholic archdiocese's bankruptcy say they have lost their confidence in the judge presiding over the case.Their comments come after it was revealed that Judge Meredith Grabill ignored US justice department recommendations against expelling the survivors from the group, delivering the latest twist in the child sexual abuse scandal roiling one of America's oldest Roman Catholic dioceses. Continue reading...
It is a factually inaccurate and totally, utterly wrong to say that undocumented people are illegal' and are criminals'On 29 January, the second Trump administration held its first White House press briefing. Of the 3,500 arrests Ice has made so far since President Trump came back into office, can you just tell us the numbers?" asked a reporter in the front row. How many have a criminal record versus those who are just in the country illegally?"All of them," responded the new White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, making her debut in the briefing room, because they illegally broke our nation's laws, and, therefore, they are criminals, as far as this administration goes." She continued: I know the last administration didn't see it that way, so it's a big culture shift in our nation to view someone who breaks our immigration laws as a criminal. But that's exactly what they are."Mehdi Hasan is a broadcaster and author, and a former host on MSNBC. He is also a Guardian US columnist and the editor-in-chief of Zeteo Continue reading...
Ron Klain tells author Chris Whipple then president could not focus and obsessed about foreign leaders, ahead of debate that ended his campaignIn a new book, Joe Biden's former White House chief of staff paints a devastating picture of the then US president's mental and physical state before the debate with Donald Trump that sent his 2024 campaign into a tailspin, resulting in his relinquishing the Democratic nomination to Kamala Harris.Ron Klain served Biden from 2021 to 2023, then returned to his side last June, to run debate preparation as he had for numerous Democratic presidents before. Continue reading...
She left her job when her husband got a shot at VP - only for the couple to be met with the frostiest of receptions in Greenland at the weekendThere are a few people to blame for the fact that JD Vance, a staggeringly unlikable man with a supremely meme-able face, has been thrust into such prominence. The first is Peter Thiel: the tech billionaire who bankrolled Vance's political pivot. The second is Kevin D Roberts, head of the Heritage Foundation and mastermind of Project 2025, who has been an energetic Vance advocate.And the third is Usha Chilukuri Vance, JD's wife. While Usha kept a low profile during the Trump-Vance campaign, trailing after her other half with a smile on her face and a copy of The Iliad in her hand, JD has made her influence clear. In his memoir Hillbilly Elegy, for example, he wrote that Usha helped him navigate Yale and always encouraged me to seek opportunities that I didn't know existed". Continue reading...
As the 2026 World Cup approaches, the USMNT lack the charisma, underdog charm and striking victories of their predecessorsImagine the 1980 Miracle on Ice, but with the USA on the other side.In this scenario, the US men's hockey team aren't a scrappy band of outmatched amateurs playing for the country perceived as the good guys in the cold war. The opponents aren't an aloof, brutally effective Soviet Union team expected to steamroll their way to a gold medal just as their military were attempting to steamroll their way through Afghanistan. Continue reading...
A third of the league is tanking with a third of the season remaining, creating a lose-lose situation for the NBA, its fans and TV partners. What's the fix?The Toronto Raptors aren't new to losing. But they are new to whatever this is.After taking over as the Raptors' president of basketball operations in 2013, Masai Ujiri refused to embrace the blatant, in-your-face tanking that Sam Hinkie and the process" Philadelphia 76ers were busy popularizing during that same era, instead opting to build from the middle. I'm not sure the karma is great when you do stuff like that," Ujiri said about tanking. We're not doing that here," he later added. Continue reading...
Val Kilmer, the actor best known for his roles in Top Gun, Batman Forever and The Doors, has died at the age of 65 from pneumonia, his daughter told the New York Times. Here are some of his most famous roles in film
Democrats have appeared lame and leaderless for 72 days, but then Cory Booker stood up and did somethingWould the senator yield for a question?" asked Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.Senator Cory Booker, who on a long day's journey into night had turned himself into the fighter that many Democrats were yearning for, replied with a wry smile: Chuck Schumer, it's the only time in my life I can tell you no." Continue reading...
After a decade of conflict, loss is constant, as is fear for our children's future. But we are more than thisA decade of war in Yemen has left us in a place we never could have imagined. Our biggest worries were once exams, work and weddings. Today, we live with the weight of constant fear. You wake to the sound of explosions or the silence of grief, leave your home uncertain if you will return, look at your child and wonder what kind of future awaits.Yet life goes on. We carry our losses, our broken hearts, our grief, and we continue. Ten years of war, ten years of mourning, of learning to survive with a lump in our hearts. Continue reading...
Judge Susan Crawford's win in the supreme court race means the liberals keep a 4-3 ideological majorityThe liberal judge Susan Crawford won the race for a seat on the Wisconsin supreme court on Tuesday in a closely watched election. It is a major win for Democrats who had framed the race as a litmus test for Donald Trump's and Elon Musk's popularity.Crawford, from Dane county, defeated Brad Schimel, a former Republican attorney general and conservative judge from Waukesha county, after Musk and groups associated him spent millions to boost his candidacy in what became the most expensive judicial contest in American history. Continue reading...
Cory Booker, the Democratic senator from New Jersey, spoke on the Senate floor for more than 25 hours, the longest speech ever given in Senate history. Starting his speech on Monday evening in Washington, vowing to remain on the Senate floor as long as he was 'physically able', Booker spoke in protest at what he called the 'grave and urgent' danger that Donald Trump's presidential administration poses to democracy and the American people. In 1957, Strom Thurmond, a Republican from South Carolina, gave an anti-civil rights speech that lasted 24 hours and 18 minutes
by Chris Stein in Washington and Ashley Spencer in Da on (#6WB6G)
Randy Fine beats Josh Weil in Mike Waltz's former district, and Jimmy Patronis wins seat vacated by Matt GaetzRepublicans on Tuesday won special elections for two US House of Representatives seats in Florida vacated by Donald Trump's cabinet nominees, dashing Democratic hopes for an upset victory in the first federal special elections held since the president began his second term.But Democratic candidates Josh Weil and Gay Valimont are on track to lose the solidly red districts by much smaller margins than the more than 30 points that Democrats lost them by in November. Continue reading...
Just 100 extremely wealthy families invested $2.6bn during the election cycle that put Trump back in the White HouseBillionaires spent record amounts during the 2024 federal election, according to a new analysis from Americans for Tax Fairness, a coalition of more than 420 national, state and local organizations advocating for economic reforms.The report's findings show that during the election cycle that put Donald Trump back in the White House and seated Republican majorities in both the House and Senate, just 100 extremely wealthy families invested $2.6bn - an amount more than double what billionaire donors contributed just four years prior. Continue reading...
Oscar Arias, 84, who won Nobel peace prize in 1987, said US president was behaving like a Roman emperor'Former Costa Rican president and Nobel winner Oscar Arias said on Tuesday that the US had revoked his visa to enter the country, weeks after he criticized Donald Trump on social media saying he was behaving like a Roman emperor".Arias, 84, was president between 1986 and 1990 and again between 2006 and 2010. A self-declared pacifist, he won the 1987 Nobel peace prize for his role in brokering peace during the Central American conflicts of the 1980s. Continue reading...
Nina Jankowicz, who led DHS's disinformation unit under Biden administration, pointed to restrictions under TrumpA Capitol Hill hearing held to explore supposed government censorship under Joe Biden was based on a fiction", a leading expert on countering online disinformation told members of Congress on Tuesday.Nina Jankowicz, head of the American Sunlight Project, a pro-democracy organization, went on the offensive at a House of Representatives foreign relations subcommittee meeting held to examine the existence of an alleged censorship industrial complex", which Republicans claim was established to stifle rightwing views on social media, rather than combat foreign propaganda, as officially stated. Continue reading...
Small group of Republican lawmakers help Democrats to obstruct key procedural motion in setback for GOPAn attempt by Republican leaders to stop new parents from voting by proxy sparked a bipartisan mutiny in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, during which a small group of GOP lawmakers joined with all Democrats to obstruct a key procedural motion and paralyze the chamber.The revolt was the first legislative setback Republicans have faced since Donald Trump returned to the White House with the GOP holding a slim majority in Congress's lower chamber. It also delayed consideration of House speaker Mike Johnson's legislative agenda for the week, which included a bill to stop federal judges from issuing nationwide injunctions - as several have done for Trump's executive orders - and to require proof of citizenship to vote. Continue reading...
Data says 34% of those in US stopped purchasing breakfast staple and won't buy again until costs lower to $5 a cartonAs egg prices have reached record highs, about a third of American consumers have stopped buying them in response to the rising costs, a new study suggests.According to research from Clarify Capital, 34% of Americans have stopped purchasing eggs as prices for the breakfast staple are becoming less affordable. On average, these consumers say they won't begin buying eggs again until costs come down to $5 or less for a carton. Continue reading...
Mangione, 26, accused of carrying out premeditated assassination' of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian ThompsonFederal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against the man accused of fatally shooting the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, outside a Manhattan hotel on 4 December, the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, said on Tuesday.Bondi said in a press release that she had directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty" for Luigi Mangione, 26, because he allegedly committed a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America". The move, Bondi notes, was in an effort to carry out President Trump's agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again". Continue reading...
Andry Jose Hernandez Romero sent to an El Salvador prison after claim crown' tattoos proved he was a gang memberFor as long as anyone can remember Andry Jose Hernandez Romero was enthralled by the annual Three Kings Day celebrations for which his Venezuelan home town is famed, joining thousands of fellow Christians on the streets of Capacho to remember how the trio of wise men visited baby Jesus bearing gold, frankincense and myrrh.At age seven, Andry became a Mini King, as members of the town's youth drama group Los Mini Reyes were known. Later in life, he tattooed two crowns on his wrists to memorialise those carnival-like Epiphany commemorations and his Catholic roots. Continue reading...
The US president's attack on the Smithsonian isn't about truth. It's about erasure, and erasure is violence'Last week, Donald Trump issued another executive order, this one aimed directly at the Smithsonian Institution, and called for Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History". He contended that the Smithsonian had come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology" and that it advocates narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive". Specifically, the order targeted American history and art that focused on stories of race and racism.Being responsible for the distillation of the nation's narrative is no small thing. The Smithsonian oversees 21 museums, libraries, research centers and the National zoo. Every year millions of people visit various sites that are free to the public. The collection of museums represents the pinnacle of public history and the story America tells the world about itself. Continue reading...
Amber Ruffin skewers journalists who canceled her appearance, mocking their subservience to TrumpA comedian whose skit for White House reporters was canceled for fear of upsetting Donald Trump skewered the journalists who dropped her in a biting late-night talk show routine mocking their perceived subservience to the president.I thought when people take away your rights, erase your history and deport your friends, you're supposed to call it out. But I was wrong," Amber Ruffin said during a brief appearance Monday on NBC's Late Night With Seth Meyers. Continue reading...
Amendments pushed by Republican Jeff Landry on crime, courts and finances resoundingly defeated in voteLouisiana voters soundly rejected four constitutional amendments championed by the Republican governor, Jeff Landry, related to crime, courts and finances.Voters said no to each amendment by margins exceeding 60%, according to preliminary results the secretary of state's office released after voting concluded on Saturday evening. Continue reading...
Trump administration begins reducing Health and Human Services workforce as Kennedy plans up to 10,000 job cutsThousands of Health and Human Services (HHS) employees across the country are being dismissed on Tuesday as the Trump administration began implementing its controversial workforce reduction plan, which could ultimately remove 10,000 staff from the department through forced layoffs.The job cuts mark the first tangible impact of health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr's departmental overhaul announced last week, landing just days after Donald Trump moved to strip collective bargaining rights from workers at HHS and other federal agencies. Continue reading...
by Sam Levine in New York and Jenny Peek in Madison, on (#6WAV1)
Conservatives bid to overturn liberal majority on Wisconsin supreme court while Florida votes to replace Mike WaltzUS voters are headed to the polls on Tuesday in Wisconsin and Florida in elections that some see as a test of Donald Trump's popularity and the political clout of his billionaire ally Elon Musk.The most closely watched contest is a battle for a seat on Wisconsin's seven-member supreme court. Conservatives are trying to flip ideological control of the court, which currently has a 4-3 liberal majority. The contest, which features the liberal judge Susan Crawford facing off against the conservative Brad Schimel, will have huge consequences in the state. Continue reading...
State attorney general had said anti-conspiracy laws might be used to charge groups helping women travel for abortionsAlabama's attorney general cannot prosecute individuals and groups that help Alabama women travel to other states to obtain abortions, a federal judge ruled on Monday.US district judge Myron Thompson sided with an abortion fund and medical providers who sued Alabama's attorney general, Steve Marshall, after he suggested they could face prosecution under anti-conspiracy laws. Thompson's ruling declared that such prosecutions would violate both the first amendment and a person's right to travel. Continue reading...
by Sam Levin in Portland, Hillsboro and Medford, Oreg on (#6WAR4)
The state has one of the highest US rates of substance use disorders and ranks last for access to treatment. These initiatives are changing what rehab looks likeOregon has for years struggled with a drug crisis, reporting one of the highest rates of substance use disorders in the US and ranking last in the nation for access to treatment.The problem is systemic, rooted in decades of failure to invest in the level of behavioral health services needed for people with mental illnesses and addiction. The Pacific north-west state's significant affordable housing shortage has compounded the challenges, as people languish on the streets without care. Many drug users spiral downward until they overdose, wind up in jail or prison, or are forced into Oregon's overcrowded psychiatric system. Continue reading...
Last week, he moved to end collective bargaining rights for 1 million people. And would anyone who cared about workers hire this staff?If any workers are still holding on to the notion that Donald Trump is pro-worker or pro-union, his move last week to terminate union bargaining rights for 1 million federal workers should disabuse them of that notion. Candidate Trump often wooed workers by promising to fight for them, but ever since he returned to the White House, he has taken dozens of anti-worker and anti-union actions.In an unprecedented anti-union action last Thursday, the president moved to end collective bargaining for a million federal employees and scrap union contracts nearly that number, while attacking their unions as hostile" merely because they were doing what unions are supposed to do: battling to save the jobs of tens of thousands of union members whom Trump and Elon Musk had summarily fired. Continue reading...
So many people and organisations are capitulating to the US president, from Silicon Valley to the Democrats, legal firms and elite universities. How realistic is the prospect of Trump 3.0?Hell is empty and all the devils are in Washington DC. And, what with devils being immortal and all, it looks as if they might stay there indefinitely. Now, before I seamlessly segue from fun devil facts into talking about Donald Trump threatening to run for a third term, the current political climate compels me to make a few things clear. I recently had to submit my US green card for renewal (impeccable timing!) so I'd like to explain to any United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officers reviewing my file that the first line of this piece was just riffing on Shakespeare. I'm absolutely not comparing Trump, the greatest man to walk this Earth, to Satan. Nor am I suggesting evil people seem to live long lives.On the contrary, I am thrilled that our 78-year-old president has suggested he is looking into methods" that will allow him to serve this wonderful country longer. And it's a shame my enthusiasm isn't universally shared. I mean, to quote JD Vance (who is up there next to Shakespeare in the words department), have any Trump detractors SAID THANK YOU ONCE? Trump could be relaxing with his billions; he could be playing golf every day. Instead, the poor man only gets to play golf every few days - costing taxpayers millions of dollars - and has to spend most of his time sorting out the US. The economy doesn't just crash itself, you know? So thank you, Mr President. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Continue reading...
As claims pile up about the charity he founded, he's learning that smiling and biting your lip can be quite painful. Hear, hear, as the Windsors might sayStraight faces, please, as we try to look charitably at the toxic row engulfing Prince Harry's charity. Are you up to speed with this everyday story of giving folk? I'm in such a muddle with it all that I can't remember if I'm allowed to say that purely from my observations of her telly interviews, Sentebale chair Sophie Chandauka does seem like a right old loose cannon.But I'm getting ahead of myself, so let's do a quick recap. Sentebale is a charity to help children and young people with HIV and Aids in Lesotho and Botswana, and was set up almost two decades ago by Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, in honour of their mothers. Its current chair is Chandauka, a Zimbabwean lawyer, and something about her stewardship of the charity has provoked its entire board of trustees to judge that their relationship has broken down irretrievably. Accordingly, they have all resigned. Chandauka in turn has said that the charity was riddled with poor governance, weak executive management, abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny [and] misogynoir", and accused Prince Harry of harassment and bullying at scale".Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
by Tom Dart at Sutter Health Park, West Sacramento on (#6WANS)
The team that brought us Moneyball is in the middle of a move from Oakland to Las Vegas. Fans turned up to their home opener but this is still a club in fluxIt could have been worse for the Athletics. Before they headed west to Oakland in 1968, their characterful former owner, Charlie Finley, threatened to move them from Kansas City to a cow pasture in the tiny town of Peculiar, Missouri.Now they are in a place you might call Limbo, California - also known as the home of the Pacific Coast League's Sacramento River Cats. It's a staging post for Major League Baseball's most contentious franchise after the burning of their Bay Area bridges left them needing somewhere to play ahead of a planned relocation from Oakland to Las Vegas. Continue reading...
Can moderate Democrats, plotting their path back to power, convincingly make a populist pivot?Progressives have plenty of bad ideas that should be axed, but populism without an economic promise is a bloodless bleat.It wasn't long ago that Democratic party moderates expressed ambivalence toward the working class. In 2016, Chuck Schumer summed up the party's attitude by predicting that for every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs of Philadelphia".Dustin Guastella is a research associate at the Center for Working Class Politics and the director of operations for Teamsters Local 623. Continue reading...
In North Carolina, children affected by Hurricane Helene are putting this proven method to the testOn a winter afternoon at the old Methodist church in Swannanoa, North Carolina, a group of young children gathered around a special sandbox. The sand was silky and lavender-scented. The toys inside were carefully chosen: small sections of wooden fence, fist-sized plastic houses, tea lights with battery-operated flames, matchbox-sized police cars and construction machines.In the wake of Hurricane Helene last autumn, these objects took on new meaning in the town of 5,000 miles (8,000km) east of Asheville. The storm downed thousands of trees and knocked out power and water for weeks. Driving water, wind and mudslides swept away people, buildings and fences. Continue reading...
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