US news | The Guardian

Federal judge issues order stopping ban on puberty blockers and hormones due to take effect on 1 July.A US federal judge on Friday issued an order stopping an Indiana ban on puberty blockers and hormones for transgender minors from taking effect as scheduled 1 July.Indiana’s American Civil Liberties Union sought the temporary injunction in its legal challenge of the Republican-backed law, which was enacted this spring amid a national push by politically conservative legislatures to curb LGBTQ+ rights. Continue reading...

President makes speech in Connecticut at summit marking passage of tougher gun control law last yearThe Minneapolis police force use excessive force and discriminate against marginalized groups, including Black and Native Americans and people with behavioral issues, attorney general Merrick Garland said as he announced the findings of the justice department’s investigation following George Floyd’s death.“We found that MPD … engages in a pattern or practice of using excessive force, unlawfully discriminating against Black and Native American people in enforcement activities, violating the rights of people engaged in protected speech and discriminating against people with behavioral disabilities and … when responding to them in crisis,” Garland said.The city council approved the court-enforceable agreement on Friday on an 11-0 vote, but not before several members expressed harsh criticism of the Minneapolis police department and other city leaders over the years.“The lack of political will to take responsibility for MPD is why we are in this position today,” council member Robin Wonsley said. Continue reading...

Merrick Garland announces findings of Department of Justice investigation into department after Floyd’s killing by officersThe US attorney general, Merrick Garland, on Friday announced that the 2020 murder of George Floyd was part of a “pattern or practice” of excessive force used by the department and years of unlawful discrimination against Black Americans.Garland held a press conference to reveal the findings of the two-year investigation by the Department of Justice (DoJ) into the conduct and training of the Minneapolis police department (MPD) both before and after George Floyd’s death at the hands of officers in the city in 2020. Continue reading...

Analyst who leaked studies showing US government knew the Vietnam war was un-winnable became activist and writerDaniel Ellsberg, a US government analyst who became one of the most famous whistleblowers in world politics when he leaked the Pentagon Papers, exposing US government knowledge of the futility of the Vietnam war, has died. He was 92. His death was confirmed by his family on Friday.In March, Ellsberg announced that he had inoperable pancreatic cancer. Saying he had been given three to six months to live, he said he had chosen not to undergo chemotherapy and had been assured of hospice care. Continue reading...

Jurors to debate death penalty for Robert Bowers, 50, who had admitted killing worshippers at start of trialA truck driver who expressed hatred of Jews has been convicted of barging into a Pittsburgh synagogue on the Jewish Sabbath and fatally shooting 11 congregants in an act of antisemitic terror for which he could be sentenced to die.The guilty verdict on Friday against Robert Bowers was a foregone conclusion. Bowers’s lawyers conceded at the trial’s outset that he attacked and killed worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue on 27 October 2018, in the deadliest attack on Jews in the US in American history. Continue reading...

Crypto exchange confirms failure to obtain Dutch licence and French inquiry as problems mount in US tooBinance has suffered setbacks in two European markets after it announced plans to quit the Netherlands and came under investigation by French prosecutors.The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange said it was leaving the Dutch market after it failed to obtain a licence from the country’s central bank. Continue reading...

Both men sing from the Berlusconi songsheet, denouncing charges against them as partisan attacks while we pay the priceThe three tenors of showman populism, Donald Trump, Boris Johnson and Silvio Berlusconi, reached the top through a combination of telegenic clownishness, “I alone can fix it” braggadocio and a shared strain of narcissistic nationalism – and now one faces the judgment of the courts, another has fled the judgment of his peers, while the third contemplates the judgment of the heavens.In the week Berlusconi met his maker – doubtless with a wide, permatanned smile and an inquiry as to where one might find the most winsome angels, only to be directed towards the downward escalator – Trump and Johnson respectively contemplated a charge sheet and a verdict of the earthly variety. Both are stunning documents.Jonathan Freedland 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...

Push in new contract include air conditioning in vehicles, pay increases for part-time workers and end to two-tier wagesAbout 340,000 workers at the shipping giant UPS, represented by the Teamsters, have voted to authorize a strike when their current five-year contract expires on 31 July if a new tentative agreement isn’t reached with the company by then.Voting began last week at local union halls around the US. Workers voted 97% in favor approving the strike authorization. Negotiations on the national agreement between UPS and the Teamsters began in early May 2023 and remain ongoing. Continue reading...

Former president notes tendency among Republican candidates to gloss over effects of racism, prompting pushback from bothBarack Obama has criticized two Republican presidential hopefuls, the South Carolina senator Tim Scott and the former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, over their stances on race relations in America.On a podcast interview, Obama, who became the first Black US president when he was elected in 2008, said that while presenting a hopeful message on race relations was important, “that has to be undergirded with an honest accounting of our past and our present”. Continue reading...

Homes in Perryton, 110 miles north of Amarillo, reduced to rubble and power was cut in the aftermath of the stormSearch and rescue crews will resume searching on Friday for at least one person missing in the north Texas town of Perryton after it was struck by one or more tornados that killed three people and sent up to 100 more to the hospital on Thursday evening, some in critical condition.The town remained without power the day after a huge twister inflicted damage to homes and a mobile home park. Continue reading...

Lawmakers showed up for work Thursday after compromising with Democrats on abortion and gun safety measuresEnding a walkout that held up key bills for six weeks, Republicans showed up for work in the Oregon senate on Thursday after wresting concessions from Democrats on measures covering abortion, transgender healthcare and gun rights.The lawmakers’ walkout – the longest in state history and the second-longest in the United States – came as several statehouses around the nation have become ideological battlegrounds, including in Montana and Tennessee. Continue reading...

UN bans aimed at transgressive regimes always hurt the poor and innocent, leaving rulers such as Kim Jong-un unscathedThis week, the BBC has been carrying reports from the world’s most authoritarian and impenetrable state. The headline: its people are starving. Communist North Korea is destitute, even as capitalist South Korea is one of Asia’s most prosperous nations. It starved in the 1950s, 1970s and 1990s, and was rescued by China. But the government closed the border during Covid and it has barely reopened, hampering the import of Chinese foodstuff. UN experts reckon that North Korea can this year feed barely three-quarters of its 26 million people at survival level. The BBC has spoken to people who have witnessed neighbours dying of starvation in their homes and on the streets. More than half a million perished in the 1990s famine. This could be repeated.What should Britons do about this, beyond offering distant sympathy? Hazel Smith, Korea expert at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, regularly points out that when a country is so set on xenophobic “self-sufficiency” and spends wildly on defence, it suffers massive economic distortions. Food shortage is “baked into the … system”. China’s exports to North Korea were reportedly down 81% in 2020. Shops are empty of Chinese food and beggars are everywhere.Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Effort requires organizers to collect about 70,000 signatures from Atlanta registered voters in 60 daysA broad coalition of groups in Atlanta has launched a referendum to give voters a chance to say whether they want the controversial police and fire department training center known as “Cop City” built in a forest southeast of the city.The effort requires organizers to collect about 70,000 signatures from Atlanta registered voters in 60 days. Then the question of the city canceling its agreement with the Atlanta Police Foundation to build the $90m center can be added to municipal election ballots in November. Continue reading...

Their button-up shirts and chinos have prompted mockery but experts say the far-right group is becoming increasingly violentFor years, there has been an element of the ridiculous to Patriot Front and their rallies, which can look like a sort of cosplay version of a white nationalist movement.At a Patriot Front demonstration in Washington in May, more than a hundred Patriot Front members marched along the National Mall wearing matching outfits of beige or brown chinos and blue button-up shirts. Continue reading...

Trump’s latest indictment has again forced the Republican field to defend the ex-president while running against himDonald Trump is contending with grave criminal charges for violating the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice but the immediate political damage has, jarringly, been felt most acutely not by the defendant but his other rivals for the Republican presidential nomination.The indictment of a presidential candidate once upon a time would have been a major vulnerability in a Republican primary contest. Damaging details about the illegal activity might have been seized upon as examples of unfitness for office and the legal battle seen as a distraction. Continue reading...

The New York writer who last month won a $5m jury verdict against Donald Trump is suing him again, this time for $10m. Plus: three dead in Texas tornadoGood morning.The legal woes of Donald Trump continue to grow: a federal judge has set a date for a second defamation trial brought by E Jean Carroll, who last month won a $5m jury verdict against the former president for sexual abuse and defamation.In Miami, Trump faces 37 federal criminal charges over his alleged mishandling classified documents – including 31 violations of the Espionage Act.In New York, the Manhattan district attorney has charged Trump with covering up hush-money payments to the adult film star Stormy Daniels.Trump has pleaded not guilty in both cases, and in a town hall the day after the $5m verdict, he called Carroll’s account “fake” and labeled her a “whack job”. Continue reading...

Our trial exposed a brutal system for targeting people and deporting them to Jamaica. It was worth it knowing we kept some of them safeOn a cold November afternoon in 2021, the three of us used metal lock-ons to chain ourselves together and block a quiet, private road near Gatwick airport, outside Brook House immigration removal centre, to prevent people being forcibly removed to Jamaica.We took action in solidarity with and support of people the government was trying to rip away from their children, partners and loved ones, while some were also physically resisting their deportation inside Brook House. We were arrested and charged with causing a public nuisance. We denied that and told the jury we felt we had a moral responsibility to act. The jury members appear to have empathised. They acquitted us. That speaks volumes.Griff Ferris is a researcher and campaigner; Rivka Micklethwaite is a trainee midwife; and Callum Lynch provides legal advice and information to members of the public at a human rights organisationDo 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...

Discussions with All3Media come amid plan to move away from reliance on TV advertisingITV has confirmed it is in talks to buy All3Media, which owns the production companies behind hit shows such as Fleabag, The Traitors, and Wild Isles, as it seeks to expand its studio arm.The FTSE 250 broadcaster is in talks with All3Media’s joint owners, the US media companies Warner Bros Discovery and Liberty Global, it said on Friday in a stock market announcement. Continue reading...

The Belizean-American rider is determined to make elite cycling reflect a sport that is popular with Black and Brown people on a recreational basisI started cycling seriously while living out in Colorado where I witnessed the droves of commuters on two wheels heading to work (especially on Bike to Work Day). Living in New York I’ve caught the buzz again. I recently finished my first Five Boro Bike Tour, where I cruised 44 miles through the city’s boroughs with 32,000 other cyclists. I was hooked.Two things struck me that day: the colorful display of kits, and something more interesting – the number of Black and Brown cyclists from a wide range of backgrounds. Not that the latter was a complete surprise, during my year in New York, Black and Brown cycling groups orbiting around Prospect Park have become a familiar sight. They include the Good Co Bike Club, a Black-led cycling club formed in 2020 to provide joy for riders of all backgrounds. By creating accessibility and opportunities to cycle, Good Co Bike Club has turned into a community hub for riders of color. Continue reading...

Advice book Go Home For Dinner, co-authored with daughter Charlotte Pence Bond, to be published by Simon & SchusterThe former vice-president and candidate for the Republican presidential nomination Mike Pence will release a new book in November: a compilation of “advice on how faith makes family and family makes a life”, entitled Go Home for Dinner.Simon & Schuster announced the new project, from a devoutly Christian politician famous for refusing to dine alone with any woman who is not his wife. Continue reading...

Vegemite. The Australian staple saltier than the Bonneville Flats has long been considered an acquired taste. To mark Vegemite Day, staff at the US embassy in Australia unfamiliar with the delicacy have bravely tried the black gold. The results speak for themselves Continue reading...

The ex-president is being sued for $10m by the New York writer who already was awarded $5m in an earlier trial against TrumpA federal judge has set a date for a second defamation trial brought by E Jean Carroll, the New York writer who last month won a $5m jury verdict against Donald Trump for sexual abuse and defamation.US district judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan said the civil trial, in which Carroll is seeking at least $10m in damages, will begin on 15 January 2024, “unless this case has previously been entirely disposed of”. Continue reading...

No charges filed against ex-president or Trump Organization in New York inquiry into potential golf-course tax irregularitiesMake that one less legal headache for Donald Trump.A suburban New York prosecutor said on Thursday that she has closed a multi-year investigation that focused in part on whether the twice-indicted former president or his company misled authorities to reduce taxes on properties they own. Continue reading...

Governor’s office says over 4kg of drug seized in city since May – enough to cause deadly overdoses of more than 2m peopleCalifornia law enforcement officials have seized enough fentanyl, in San Francisco alone, to cause the deadly overdoses of more than 2 million people since the beginning of May. The amount, over four kilos, was enough to kill the entire city’s population three times over, the governor’s office announced on Thursday.The seizures were made by California highway patrol (CHP) officers and are a part of Gavin Newsom’s plan to address the spread of fentanyl, blight and public safety in the city where 268 people died from accidental overdoses in the first four months of 2023, according to a report from the city’s medical examiner. All of the fentanyl was found in and around San Francisco’s historic and long-embattled Tenderloin neighborhood. Continue reading...

Catholic archdiocese gives New Orleans DA files on Lawrence Hecker, accused of raping child decades agoThe second-oldest archdiocese in the US has handed over “voluminous documents” involving a retired Roman Catholic priest – and accused serial predator – to the New Orleans district attorney’s office as prosecutors investigate an allegation that the cleric manhandled and raped a child decades earlier.The district attorney, Jason Williams, revealed the archdiocese’s provision of the documents after a federal court hearing on Thursday centering on whether those materials should be more widely released as a matter of public safety and interest. Continue reading...

Los Angeles mayor says Texas governor ‘using human beings as pawns’ amid reports migrants were not given food or drink on busGovernor Greg Abbott of Texas’s decision to bus migrants to Los Angeles this week has been decried as a “despicable stunt”, as advocates in California reported that the group was not offered food during the 23-hour trip.On Wednesday, 42 migrants, including 15 youth and three babies, arrived at Union Station in downtown LA, said Jorge-Mario Cabrera, the communications director for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights-Los Angeles (Chirla), who met the group when they arrived. The travelers he spoke to came from Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala and Haiti, and one came from China, he said, adding some told him they had been on the bus for nearly a day without any food or drink. Continue reading...

US airman charged with six counts of retention and transmission of classified documents relating to national defense, DoJ saysJack Teixeira, the 21-year-old US airman accused of leaking confidential intelligence and defense documents online has been indicted by a federal grand jury, the Department of Justice said on Thursday.Teixeira, of North Dighton, Massachusetts, has been charged with six counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information relating to national defense, the justice department said. Continue reading...

The ex-president swept into the Cuban restaurant Versailles after his arraignment this week but left without picking up anyone’s tabDonald Trump headed to Miami’s famous Cuban restaurant Versailles after his arraignment at the city’s federal courthouse on Tuesday and is said to have declared to a crowd of admirers “Food for everyone!” after walking inside.It was a promise, though, that the former US president did not keep, according to the Miami New Times, despite supporters also wishing him a happy birthday, one day early. Continue reading...

US secretary of state’s visit comes amid tense exchanges as China’s foreign minister says US should respect the ‘Taiwan issue’In a long-awaited visit, the US secretary of state is due to arrive in China this week, where he is expected to meet with senior officials in an attempt to stabilise the fraught relationship between the two superpowers.The buildup to Antony Blinken’s China visit has been marred by a series of tense exchanges. On Wednesday Qin Gang, China’s foreign minister, told Blinken in a phone call that the US should stop interfering in China’s internal affairs. Qin also said that the US should respect China’s concerns on the “Taiwan issue”. Continue reading...

ACLU attorney, 46, confirmed as lifetime judge for eastern district of New York in 50-49 Senate decision – but Manchin voted againstThe US Senate has confirmed the former American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) attorney Nusrat Jahan Choudhury as the first Muslim woman to serve as a federal judge on Thursday.Choudhury, 46, is also the first Bangladeshi American to serve in this lifetime position. She will serve as a judge on the US court for the eastern district of New York. Continue reading...

His allies have threatened colleagues and the former PM’s statement was venomous. This doesn’t feel over …There were surprises afoot on Wednesday – or privileges-committee-publication-day eve as we should call it – Nadine Dorries was planning to delay her exit from parliament in order to cause maximum embarrassment for Rishi Sunak, though she is frankly spreading her embarrassment so liberally and gaily that it’s hard to discern a target more specific than “her entire party”, or at a push “the species”. Sir Bernard Jenkin, meanwhile, had allegedly himself attended a party in December 2020, and should therefore recuse himself from a job that had already finished, according to Boris Johnson and his allies, so desperate that they were dredging up ideas that started, “first, go back in time”.On Thursday morning, however, there were no surprises. The former prime minister had lied to parliament and nobody, anywhere, dropped their marmalade. There had just been so many spoilers: Johnson’s resignation letter at the end of last week, a howling and at times hilarious rebuttal of the lying he was about to be found guilty of; the many attacks on the personal probity of Harriet Harman, committee chair; and last but not least, Johnson’s long history of lying; so ceaseless, so well-documented, that if he hadn’t been lying about the parties, you’d have wondered whether he was feeling OK. Continue reading...

The Nuggets star’s casual disregard for the aftermath of the team’s first ever NBA championship have further endeared him to fansNikola Jokić capped off a record-setting postseason when the Denver Nuggets beat the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the NBA finals on Monday night to clinch the team’s maiden championship, becoming the first player to lead the league in total points (600), rebounds (269) and assists (190) in a single postseason. The NBA’s two-time Most Valuable Player – an award he says he has “zero interest” in – added more hardware to his resume, too, capturing the NBA finals MVP trophy.He’s also managed to set the standard moving forward for the most low-key celebration by a star athlete. Continue reading...

Nathan Carman was accused last year of fraud and first-degree murder in the death of his mother, Linda CarmanNathan Carman, a 29-year-old Vermont man who was set to go on trial for the murder of his mother during a 2016 sea fishing trip off Rhode Island, has died in jail, prosecutors said in court papers on Thursday.Marshals reported that Carman died “on or about” Thursday. No cause of death was given. Vermont News First reported that Carman killed himself. Continue reading...

Sony Music Group and Universal are among 17 publishers pursuing legal challenge against companyA group of 17 music publishers have sued Twitter for more than $250m (£195m) over bulk copyright infringement, citing Elon Musk’s tweets to argue that the company has deliberately stopped enforcing the rules.In the lawsuit, filed in a US federal court in Tennessee, Musk is cited as having said copyright “goes absurdly far beyond protecting the original creator” and “overzealous” application of copyright laws “is a plague on humanity”. Continue reading...

Morgue manager Cedric Lodge and his wife Denise allegedly took ‘heads, brains, skin, bones and other human remains’The manager of the morgue at Harvard Medical School and three other people were indicted for allegedly selling human body parts stolen from the school and a morgue in Arkansas, according to a federal complaint.Cedric Lodge, 55, formerly manager of the morgue for the Anatomical Gifts Program at Harvard Medical School, in Boston, is alleged to have stolen organs and other parts of cadavers between 2018 and 2022, and with his wife, Denise Lodge, 63, to have sold the remains online.Associated Press contributed to this report Continue reading...

Cuban American mayor, 45, will be an outsider in a crowded field dominated by Donald Trump and Ron DeSantisThe mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez, has entered the race for the Republican presidential nomination.On Thursday morning, he tweeted: “My dad taught me that you get to choose your battles, and I am choosing the biggest one of my life. I’m running for president.” Continue reading...

The Partygate report could not be more damning – but his only concern is for those who still mass under his tattered flagNinety days’ suspension and a lifelong ban from a pass to enter the Palace of Westminster. This is the punishing verdict for the only prime minister ever found to have misled parliament. Naturally, Boris Johnson lashes out at the privileges committee judgment as a “final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination”, designed “to find me guilty, regardless of the facts”. All the committee’s painstakingly careful yet eye-popping evidence bounces off him, as he treats the detailed accounts of six (plus another 16) Downing Street parties, and the lies he told, with total contempt. Furious self-pity, paranoid victimhood and faith in his golden merit is true to form.This verdict should be the stake through the heart of a disgraced career. Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell already produced enough devastating evidence in the biography Johnson at 10 to prevent any conceivable resurrection of this monster, you would think. At a literary event this week, Seldon signed my copy with: “A story about the worst prime minister in (modern) history – rotten to the core.”Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Former New York mayor spoke candidly about day in 2014 he dropped Charlotte the groundhogThe former New York mayor Bill de Blasio has addressed perhaps the greatest, or possibly saddest, controversy of his time at City Hall: the day he dropped a groundhog, which subsequently died.The Democrat left office in 2021. This week, he spoke to New York magazine. Describing the interview at a coffee shop in Brooklyn, the publication said the prominent Clinton ally and former presidential aspirant, 62, “seemed far more at ease than he often did while in office”. Continue reading...

‘I have to take responsibility for what happened,’ the suspect said in a series of calls from jail to the Associated PressThe suspect in a mass shooting at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ+ nightclub last year that killed five and wounded 17 is expected to strike a plea deal to state murder and hate charges that would ensure at least a life sentence, several survivors said.Word of a possible resolution to the Club Q massacre followed a series of jailhouse calls from the suspect to the Associated Press, expressing remorse and intention to face consequences at the next scheduled hearing this month. Continue reading...

Yifen Chen says her boyfriend raped her. But when she tried to seek help, he found an unthinkable way to keep her from seeking justice

Pence avoided answering whether, if he were president, he would pardon Trump from indictment over handling of classified recordsMike Pence is “fine with Donald Trump being put in prison” which is “pretty disrespectful” given he was Trump’s vice-president, a rightwing radio host told Pence in a testy exchange.Pence was Trump’s vice-president when Trump sent a mob to the US Capitol on January 6, in an attempt to block certification of the 2020 election. Trump did little to call off the mob when it placed Pence in danger, some chanting for him to be hanged. Continue reading...

The actor and former MP, who has died aged 87, displayed courage and a sharp mind, on stage and in politicsGlenda Jackson, who has died aged 87, had a career unmatched by any of her contemporaries. From 1957 to 1992 she enjoyed huge success on stage, film (twice winning an Oscar) and television. From 1992 to 2015 she was a Labour MP, first for Hampstead and Highgate and then for the Hampstead and Kilburn constituency, becoming a notably outspoken backbencher. In 2016 she returned to acting as a magnificent King Lear at the Old Vic, London; later, on Broadway, shewon a Tony award for her performance in Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women.Born in Birkenhead, Jackson first came to prominence in 1964, in an experimental Peter Brook Theatre of Cruelty season at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (Lamda), during which she was stripped naked, bathed and dressed in a prison uniform to the words of a report on the Christine Keeler case. Jackson went on to join the RSC, playing Charlotte Corday in Brook’s production of Marat/Sade and Ophelia to David Warner’s Hamlet at Stratford. Prophetically, Penelope Gilliatt began her review in the Observer by saying that Jackson was the first Ophelia who should have played Hamlet. “She makes Ophelia,” wrote Gilliatt, “exceptional and electric, with an intelligence that harasses the court and a scornful authority full of Hamlet’s own self-distaste.” Continue reading...