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Involvement of top prosecutor Jay Bratt in the Florida grand jury could suggest questions about Espionage Act violationsFederal prosecutors have subpoenaed multiple witnesses to testify before a previously unknown grand jury in Florida in the criminal investigation into Donald Trump’s handling of national security materials and obstruction of justice, according to people familiar with the matter.The new grand jury activity at the US district court in Miami marks the latest twist in the investigation that for months has involved a grand jury that had been taking evidence in the case in Washington but has been silent since the start of last month. Continue reading...

Susan Lorincz, who is white, charged with manslaughter in death of Ajike Owens, a Black mother of four, sheriff saysA Florida woman accused of fatally shooting her neighbor last week in the violent culmination of what the sheriff described as a 2.5-year feud was arrested late on Tuesday, the Marion county sheriff’s office said.Susan Louise Lorincz, 58, who is white, was arrested on charges of manslaughter with a firearm, culpable negligence, battery and two counts of assault in the death of Ajike Owens, a Black mother of four, Sheriff Billy Woods said in a statement. Continue reading...

Hemsworth and Elizabeth Olsen are among the MCU stars – a group of people who once lived in mortal fear of the Marvel brass – to break rank and criticise their latest filmsIt is no secret that the tide has been slowly turning against the MCU. Critically, Marvel is in a slump, receiving its three lowest-ever Rotten Tomatoes scores in the last three years. Its working practices, too, have come into question, with what feels like the entire VFX industry lining up to give it a kicking.But, no matter how bad things get, at least Marvel could console itself with the knowledge that one group of people would never dare to badmouth it. That’s right, its actors: a group of people who live in such mortal fear of the Marvel brass that they joke about literally being murdered by a sniper whenever an interviewer asks them anything even remotely spoilery. And yet, here we are. Three Marvel stars have recently broken rank to reveal that their movies sort of suck. Continue reading...

Former Microsoft executive and venture capitalist, 66, stands as rank outsider against Trump and DeSantisDoug Burgum, the Republican governor of North Dakota, has announced his candidacy for the party’s presidential nomination next year.Burgum made the announcement in the the Wall Street Journal newspaper. A campaign event is scheduled for later on Wednesday in the city of Fargo. Continue reading...

Republican who narrowly escaped harm at hands of January 6 rioters jumps into nomination raceMike Pence, who as Donald Trump’s vice-president narrowly escaped harm at the hands of the January 6 rioters, launched his run for the Republican presidential nomination next year, pitting him against his former boss.Pence filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday afternoon and released his official campaign launch video early on Wednesday. His formal launch event was planned to take place in Des Moines, Iowa, on Wednesday – his 64th birthday. Continue reading...

Disrupter Greg Norman is not the only one attached to LIV who will surely soon discover their services are no longer requiredThe playing of a Presidents Cup, for so long the Ryder Cup’s poor relation, in Saudi Arabia now has to be on the table. The deal struck between LIV Golf and one-time rivals, the PGA and DP World Tours, is all about bang for buck.The Saudis will believe they have saved face by joining forces with golf’s establishment – there will be no more potentially embarrassing litigation – but their desperate bid to earn legitimacy via sport also means this deal has to work two ways. Continue reading...

Refugees are right to protest about a plan that forces them into unsuitable accommodation. It’s more cruelty by designSuitcases and bin bags full of simple possessions strewn across a central London street have become a powerful symbol of the government’s ramping up of the hostile environment against people seeking safety in Britain.Up to 40 people who had escaped war and atrocities in countries including Eritrea, Somalia, Iran and Iraq took to the streets last week after being given a hotel sleeping area of just 2 sq metres: four in a room with two bunk beds. Continue reading...

Hospital-based violence intervention programs could soon see funds provided by Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid programJosh Hatcher remembers the date: 11 April 2021. He was picking up a friend at a Bay Area Rapid Transit station in Oakland, California, and a ride-share car was holding up traffic. He and the driver got into an argument and both men got out of the car. Hatcher’s friend warned him that the driver might have a gun and that they should go. But as he moved to get back in the car, shots rang out. Five of them hit Hatcher – a father of three – in the back, close to his heart.When he woke up in the hospital, a frontline worker named Carlos met him there. Carlos, an Oakland native who shared common ground with Hatcher, was working with the Oakland non-profit Youth Alive. Programs like Youth Alive meet survivors of gunshot or stab wounds in the hospital, and fast – when the need is greatest. It’s at this moment that survivors are at their most vulnerable. They’re recovering from wounds, questioning their safety and facing a higher risk of re-injury and perpetuation of violence through retaliation. Continue reading...

New legislation will mandate paid leave, prohibit non-compete clauses and bar captive anti-union meetings, among other measuresMinnesota’s Democratic governor and legislature has enacted one of the most pro-worker packages of legislation that any US state has passed in decades which includes paid family and medical leave, prohibits non-compete clauses, bars employers from holding anti-union captive audience meetings, and strengthens protections for meatpacking workers and Amazon warehouse employees.Minnesota’s new legislation mandates paid sick days, allows teachers’ unions to bargain over educator-to-student ratios and creates a statewide council to improve conditions for nursing home workers. Continue reading...

US National Security Council says burst dam has probably caused ‘many deaths’ as fears grow for missing people. Plus, scientists trace the origins of masturbationGood morning.About 42,000 people are at risk from flooding on both sides of the Dnipro River after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, Ukrainian officials have said, with flood waters expected to peak on Wednesday.How are the relief efforts going? Relief workers on the Ukraine-controlled right bank of the river have reported having to operate under fire. “The biggest difficulty right now is not the water. It’s the Russians on the other side of the river who are shelling us now with artillery,” said Andrew Negrych, who was coordinating relief efforts yesterday for a US charity, Global Empowerment Mission.What has Volodymyr Zelenskiy said? The Ukrainian president has used his social media channels to issue another statement about the destruction of the dam, claiming that hundreds of thousands of people have been left without access to drinking water. He said: “Russian terrorists have once again proved that they are a threat to everything living. The destruction of one of the largest water reservoirs in Ukraine is absolutely deliberate.”What’s the biggest concern? Air-quality alerts are triggered by a number of factors, including the detection of fine-particle pollution – known as “PM 2.5” – which can irritate the lungs. “We have defenses in our upper airway to trap larger particles and prevent them from getting down into the lungs. These are sort of the right size to get past those defenses,” said Dr David Hill of the American Lung Association’s national board of directors. “When those particles get down into the respiratory space, they cause the body to have an inflammatory reaction to them.” Continue reading...

Ten years on, Nick Hopkins recalls how the Guardian defied the intelligence agencies to publish revelations of mass state surveillanceThe phone call came at an unfortunate moment.It was late May 2013, early evening, during a leaving drink for a colleague in a busy bar in London. At the time, I was defence and security editor, which made me the point person for contact with the UK’s intelligence agencies. Continue reading...

The one-time UFC title challenger has gone from helping children deal with trauma to a mouthpiece for Vladimir Putin’s regimeOn 23 May 2023, Jeff Monson – a veteran mixed martial arts fighter and former UFC title challenger – arrived at the US consulate in Istanbul and officially turned his back on the land of his birth.“I renounced my US citizenship because of the politics of this country,” Monson told Russian state-owned media agency TASS after handing over his American passport at the consulate. “All my thoughts and my future are connected only with Russia. Now I am no longer an American. I am only a Russian.” Continue reading...

In today’s newsletter: As Sunak attempts to broker mini deals for business and agreement on Ukraine, he’s also trying to secure a post-Brexit spot for Britain on the global stage

The prime minister arrives in Washington with no real leverage in Europe – and therefore no real leverage with Joe BidenThe Americans know how to make a prime minister feel special. It isn’t hard. Saying “you are special” or words to that effect, usually does the trick. It helps to say it in the White House, within earshot of the British press corps.Westminster hacks and Downing Street aides, most of whom are unhealthily obsessed with US politics, love a Washington summit for the same reason that Harry Potter fans queue to visit the Warner Bros studio in Watford. Standing on the stage where the magic happens is its own reward.Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Police say a graduate, 18, was one of the dead while a 19-year-old was arrested for second-degree murderSeven people were shot, two fatally, when gunfire rang out outside a downtown theater in Virginia where a high school graduation ceremony had just ended, causing hundreds of attendees to flee in panic, weep and clutch their children, authorities and witnesses said.A 19-year-old suspect tried to escape on foot but was arrested and would be charged with two counts of second-degree murder, interim Richmond police chief Rick Edwards, said during a news conference on Tuesday night at which he confirmed the two fatalities. Continue reading...

Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie announced his presidential run in a town hall at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics in Manchester, New Hampshire. Christie joins the primary as a rank outsider but promises a campaign with a singular focus: to take the fight to Donald Trump, who Christie said was 'obsessed with the mirror, who never admits a mistake, who never admits a fault and who always finds someone else and something else to blame for whatever goes wrong, but finds every reason to take credit for anything that goes right'.

Pugilistic politician joins Republican primary with singular focus – to take the fight to Donald TrumpThe former New Jersey governor Chris Christie announced his bid for for the Republican presidential nomination at a New Hampshire town hall.In an unconventionally contrite speech, Christie said: “I can’t guarantee you success in what I’m about to do. But I guarantee you that at the end of it. You will have no doubt in your mind, who I am and what I stand for and whether I deserve it.” Continue reading...

Michael Tisius, 42, received a lethal injection for killing Leon Egley and Jason Acton at the small Randolph county jail in 2000A man who shot and killed two rural Missouri jailers nearly 23 years ago during a failed attempt to help an inmate escape was executed on Tuesday evening.Michael Tisius, 42, received a lethal injection of pentobarbital at the state prison in Bonne Terre and was pronounced dead at 6.10 pm . He was convicted of the 22 June 2000 killing of Leon Egley and Jason Acton at the small Randolph county jail. Continue reading...

Officials claim the people, mostly from Colombia and Venezuela, consented to the travel, refuting allegations from Gavin NewsomFlorida confirmed on Tuesday that it was behind two private jet flights that brought three dozen people seeking asylum from the US southern border to California amid accusations that the individuals were coerced to travel under false pretenses.The state’s division of emergency management said in a statement that the passengers all went willingly, and refuted allegations from California officials such as the governor, Gavin Newsom, who had threatened Ron DeSantis, Florida’s governor, with kidnapping charges. Continue reading...

Some higher-income residents – who already enjoy subsidies for solar – oppose paying more than low-income householdsCalifornia will soon become the first state to determine residents’ electricity fees based on their income as part of a new effort to spur households toward full electrification and bring down the state’s soaring electricity costs for low-income Californians.Electricity bills are made up of fixed costs as well as fees that vary based on the amount of electricity residents use. Last year, the state passed a law giving the California public utilities commission a 1 July 2024 deadline to determine a fixed charge for household electric bills based on people’s income. Continue reading...

Heritage Foundation, which claims duke may have lied about past drug use on application, wants US government to release recordsA federal judge has given the US government a week to decide how to respond to a rightwing thinktank that alleges Prince Harry may have lied about past drug use on his visa application.The Duke of Sussex moved to southern California with his wife, Meghan Markle, an American citizen, and their young family in 2020 after they left British royal life and embarked on new projects, including the release of his memoir, Spare in January. Continue reading...

Bad blood is bound to linger despite LIV and PGA Tour merger bringing immediate end to the legal battles between both sidesFor nearly two years, the battle for golf’s soul has raged across fairways and in courtrooms, between Middle East and west, oil money and established tradition. But on Tuesday the sport’s bitter civil war came to an abrupt end as the PGA Tour and the Saudi-backed rival LIV golf agreed to merge in a deal that was immediately condemned as a “gigantic victory for sportswashing”.The merger, which came on the same day that Real Madrid’s striker Karim Benzema was unveiled by the Saudi champions Al-Ittihad as their latest star signing, will lead to the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, PIF, pumping billions of pounds into a new commercial golf venture. But the deal is less about money and more about making a statement. There are no doubts now. Saudi Arabia is a major player in global sport. Continue reading...

Nicole Daedone of OneTaste accused, along with ex-head of sales Rachel Cherwitz, of running years-long cult-like conspiracyThe founder of OneTaste, a sexual wellness company that claims to teach “orgasmic meditation”, has been charged with running a cult-like conspiracy involving forced labor, federal prosecutors said on Tuesday.Nicole Daedone, the founder who served as chief executive until 2017, and Rachel Cherwitz, the company’s former head of sales, were accused of inducing volunteers, contractors and employees to incur debt to take courses that they claimed could heal sexual trauma and dysfunction. Continue reading...

Human Rights Campaign says emergency stems from ‘unprecedented and dangerous spike in anti-LGBTQ+ legislative assaults’LGBTQ+ Americans are facing a state of emergency as states continue targeting them with legislation, the community’s largest advocacy organization has declared.The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has issued a statement on the emergency that emerged from “an unprecedented and dangerous spike in anti-LGBTQ+ legislative assaults sweeping state houses this year”. Continue reading...

Judge says Republican fabulist has until Friday to appeal order to disclose who guaranteed $500,000 bond on fraud chargesThe Republican congressman and serial fabulist George Santos has until Friday to appeal an order to reveal the identities of three people who guaranteed his $500,000 bond on fraud charges, a New York judge said on Tuesday.A lawyer for Santos had said identification of the guarantors would imperil their “health, safety and wellbeing”, and claimed the New York congressman would rather go to prison than reveal the names. Continue reading...

Forget the talk of released tension: this deal is merely a depressing illustration that money can disrupt and distort everything in sportThe cliches have already been trotted out – a great moment for golf, a long-awaited delivery of a united front. Some would have you believe the shock announcement of peace in our time is cause for epic celebration. That the war is over, the adults in the room have won.The reality is of course entirely different. No level of spin can alter that. The willingness of the PGA Tour, especially, and DP World Tour to forsake entrenched opposition to LIV Golf contradicts so much that has been said and done over the past two years. This serves as the latest, depressing illustration that bottomless pits of money can disrupt and distort everything in sport. And not just any bottomless pit; one emanating from a kingdom guilty of human rights abuses and which is using golf – plus football, plus anything else it can lay its hands on – as a tool to make people look the other way. Sportswashing works, kids. This chapter is to the tune of several billion dollars; chump change to the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF). Continue reading...

A long-anticipated campaign seems to have begun. Kyiv desperately needs good news – but even that would come at a high priceThe current fog of war in Ukraine is in large part artificially generated: “Plans love silence,” Kyiv observed in a typically well-executed video released on social media on Sunday, showing its soldiers holding fingers to their lips. After months of speculation, and amid perceptible impatience in some foreign capitals, its long-awaited counteroffensive appears at last to be in its preliminary stages.The deputy defence minister has acknowledged that “offensive actions” have begun in some areas. They appear to be testing and – perhaps – creating Russian vulnerabilities, presumably with a view to determining where to commit key troops along the 600-mile frontline. Russia has created multiple layers of defences; US sources have suggested that those could prove less formidable than they appear. Continue reading...

Washington Post reports that European intelligence service told CIA Ukrainian military was planning attackThe Biden administration received an intelligence report that Ukraine had a plan for an attack on the Nord Stream pipelines three months before an underwater explosion disabled the natural gas link from Russia to Germany, the Washington Post has reported.A European intelligence service told the CIA that the Ukrainian military was planning an attack using a small team of divers who reported directly to the commander in chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, the paper reported. Continue reading...

AH Analytics study of 90 US cities shows 12.2% drop in first five months of 2023 – but murder rates have increased in some placesThe murder rate in numerous large US cities has undergone a “sharp and broad decline” this year, new research has found, even as the number of mass shootings around the country continues to climb.Statistics compiled by New Orleans-based AH Analytics show a 12.2% drop in murders in 90 US cities to the end of May over the same period last year, although the study notes there are places, such as Memphis and Cleveland, where the murder rate has actually increased. Continue reading...

Tech and media cheerleaders want to believe that using technology to trick a human being into going on a date with you is actually a good thingOver the last few months, there’s been a stream of stories in the media that try very hard to convince us that artificial intelligence – AI – is a wonderful new trend in dating app messaging technology. In other words, you don’t have to talk to your matches on dating apps any more – you can have one of the many new AI messaging apps do it, and the person it’s talking to never has to know that it’s not actually you flirting with them in that slightly stilted way.On Valentine’s Day, Wired ran a piece that argued so strenuously in favor of these AI Cyranos you might almost think it had a stake in the success of this enterprise. “By normalizing this behavior,” said the piece, “we can free people from writing a thousand introductory messages, giving them energy to focus on the humans on the other side.”Nancy Jo Sales is the author, most recently, of Nothing Personal: My Secret Life in the Dating App Inferno Continue reading...

The historic leaks prompted legislation: yet governments are finding new ways to monitor us. The UK’s online safety bill is one of themIt’s been 10 years since Edward Snowden holed up in a Hong Kong hotel room and exposed Britain and America’s mass surveillance operations to a group of journalists. His bombshell revelations revealed how the US and UK governments were spying on their citizens, intercepting, processing and storing their data, and sharing this information. Since then, although neither state has lost its appetite for hoovering up huge amounts of personal data, new transparency and oversight constraints, together with the growth of encrypted technology, have tilted the balance towards privacy.Snowden’s revelations sparked outrage and anger. Bulk interception was being done without a democratic mandate and with few real safeguards. When the scope of this surveillance came to light, officials claimed most of the information was not “read” and therefore its collection did not violate privacy. This was disingenuous; the data could reveal an intimate picture of someone’s life – a fact that was upheld in later legal challenges, which proved the surveillance violated privacy and human rights law.Heather Brooke is an author, investigative journalist and a member of the Royal United Services Institute panel appointed to examine government surveillance Continue reading...

Sheriff recommends charges over flights arranged by Florida governor to deport 49 South American migrants to wealthy townA Texas sheriff’s office has recommended criminal charges over flights that the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, arranged to deport 49 South American migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard, in Massachusetts, last year.In a statement on Monday, the Bexar county sheriff’s office said it had filed a criminal case with the local district attorney over the flight. The Bexar county sheriff, Javier Salazar, has previously said the migrants were “lured under false pretenses” into traveling to Martha’s Vineyard, a wealthy liberal town. Continue reading...

There should be an inspiring field of candidates to choose from. But the latest to challenge for the Democratic nomination shows the options are severely limitedRobert F Kennedy Jr likes to talk to dead people. In a recent interview, the anti-vaccine activist, who is challenging President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination, said he talks to the dearly departed daily. “They are one-way prayers for strength and wisdom,” he later clarified. “I get no strategic advice from the dead.”It doesn’t seem as if he needs it. Kennedy, who is the nephew of the former President John F Kennedy and the son of the assassinated presidential hopeful Robert F Kennedy, is doing pretty well in the land of the living. While it is incredibly unlikely that the 69-year-old will wangle his way into the White House, his long-shot presidential campaign has gained momentum. According to a recent CNN poll, 20% of Democratic voters say they support RFK to be the party’s candidate and 64% say they would consider supporting him. That is well behind Biden (who came in with 60% of supporters) but nothing to sniff at. Particularly considering that Kennedy doesn’t have many policies, just a famous last name – and a penchant for spreading conspiracy theories and referencing Anne Frank in offensive ways. Continue reading...

City council vote 11-4 to move ahead with police and firefighter training center despite significant pushbackThe Atlanta city council early on Tuesday approved funding for the construction of a proposed police and firefighter training center, rejecting the pleas of hundreds of activists who spoke for hours in fierce opposition to the project they decry as “Cop City”.Some Cop City opponents have faced unprecedented arrests during which police have accused them under a state domestic terrorism statute, prompting a legal challenge which argues that the protesters are being unduly targeted over their constitutionally protected free speech. Continue reading...

Keenan Anderson’s cousin and BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors disappointed at ‘gaslighting’ from coronerThe Los Angeles county coroner on Friday released the official autopsy of a man who died after being repeatedly Tased and restrained by Los Angeles police officers, declaring the manner of death to be “undetermined”, a conclusion that has sparked outrage from advocates and his family.Keenan Anderson died on 3 January after LAPD officers held him down while responding to a traffic accident. Anderson was repeatedly Tased, and he yelled “they’re trying to kill me” before he became unconscious. He suffered a fatal heart attack at a hospital four hours later. Continue reading...

About 16,000 people could be affected and water will reach ‘critical level’ in hours, says Kherson governor. Plus, the truth about ‘local’ food in US supermarketsGood morning.The Ukrainian government has accused Russia of blowing up the Nova Kakhovka dam on the Dnipro River, and called for people living downstream to evacuate in the face of catastrophic flooding.How big is the dam? The dam traverses Ukraine’s enormous Dnipro River, holding back a huge reservoir of water. The dam is 30 metres tall and hundreds of metres wide. It was built in 1956 as part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant. The reservoir it contains holds an estimated 18 cubic kilometres of water, about the same volume as the Great Salt Lake in Utah.How much damage will be caused? The areas most under threat of flooding are the islands along the course of the river downstream of Nova Kakhovka and much of the Russian-held left bank in southern Kherson. Earlier modelling of such a disaster suggested Kherson city would not take the brunt of the flood, but the harbour, the docklands and an island in the south of the city are likely to be inundated. It is unclear how many people would lose their homes.What did Dennis say about Trump? Though Donald Trump has condemned white supremacists and neo-Nazis, Dennis noted how proponents of both have generally supported the former president, who is widely considered the frontrunner for the 2024 White House nomination. He said he imagines his father “just rotates in his grave” in Arlington National Cemetery most times that Trump speaks. “He lies all the time – he cheats,” Dennis said of Trump. “I think that he is a guy who has none of the values that my father did.” Continue reading...

State Farm will almost entirely stop issuing new policies in California – with climate-exacerbated wildfires and bad public policy a large reason whyState Farm, the country’s largest property insurer, announced this week that it will almost entirely stop issuing new policies in California, the country’s largest property insurance market. The reasons for forgoing all that new business are entirely economic. The company cited “historic increases in construction costs outpacing inflation, rapidly growing catastrophe exposure, and a challenging reinsurance market”. Those things are owed largely to the wildfires engulfing bigger parts of the state in bigger chunks of the year.California’s woes have a lot to do with the climate crisis, which fuels the hot, dry conditions that turn wooded hills into kindling. It’s also a political failure. Housing crises in the Golden State have pushed more and more people out of densely populated areas and into the so-called wildland-urban interface – places that are cheaper to live in, and more prone to burn. Wealthy homeowners in fire-prone enclaves are also reluctant to move, keen to keep rebuilding properties that keep getting destroyed.Kate Aronoff is a staff writer at the New Republic and the author of Overheated: How Capitalism Broke the Planet – And How We Fight Back Continue reading...

Court’s new ruling makes it harder for workers to join a union, easier to break one and riskier to try to force concessionsTheir contract had expired, so the local teamsters, drivers of concrete-mixing barrel trucks for a firm called Glacier Northwest, in Washington state, decided to walk off the job. Like all strikes, the point of the work stoppage was to inflict financial consequences on a recalcitrant management side: to show the bosses that their employees were united in shared interest and mutual protection and that it would cost them less money to negotiate in good faith and agree to the workers’ demands than to continue to fight the union for less favorable, more exploitative conditions. When the teamsters began their strike, 16 of the barrel mixing trucks were full. They drove them back to the Glacier Northwest lot and left them there.But if you don’t mix concrete, it hardens, and becomes useless. If this happens in a barrel truck, sometimes that can cause damage to the truck, too. When Glacier Northwest realized that their teamster employees had gone on strike, non-union workers were able to remove the concrete over the course of five hours, averting damage to the trucks. But they lost the use of all the concrete that had been mixed in those 16 barrel trucks that day.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Selwyn Jones has discovered ways to grow around his grief after his nephew was killed by police three years ago, including co-founding a nonprofit focused on addressing racial justiceThree years ago, footage of the brutal murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis emerged online, sparking a firestorm of outrage that spread well beyond America’s borders. As protesters took to the streets to demand racial justice and an end to police brutality, George Floyd’s uncle, Selwyn Jones, was stunned.He had never expected his late nephew’s name to be chanted so swiftly by hundreds of thousands around the world who stood in solidarity with his family. Three years after Floyd’s murder, 57-year-old Jones has discovered different ways to grow around his grief, largely through the Hope929 Foundation, a nonprofit focused on addressing racial justice which he co-founded with Liz Darden, an Arkansas-based educator. Continue reading...

Ajike ‘AJ’ Owens killed after allegedly trying to retrieve iPad taken from her child, while shooter has not been arrested or chargedA Black mother of four in Florida was killed by a white neighbor who shot her through a front door as the victim attempted to retrieve an iPad taken from her child, the civil rights attorney Ben Crump has said.In a Twitter post on Monday, Crump said the death of Ajike “AJ” Owens, 35, at a housing complex in Ocala on Friday evening was an “unjust killing” and lamented that the shooter had not been arrested or charged. Continue reading...

Gender-affirming care has helped many people like me. Yet earlier this year, the state of Missouri decided that transgender kids had too many rightsAccording to a Washington Post-KFF poll, only 43% of cisgender people (a person whose gender identity aligns with their assigned sex at birth) know a transgender person, so allow me to introduce myself.My name is Chelsea Freels and I use she/her pronouns. I’m a transgender junior at Clayton high school in Missouri. I love learning about psychology, computer science, and political and queer theory. After the pandemic relinquished its grip enough to open schools, I joined and have helped lead the business and media side of Clayton high school’s first robotics team. (Go RoboHounds!)Chelsea Freels is a transgender activist and a junior at Clayton high school Continue reading...

The abuses the Guardian helped him bring to worldwide attention go on: the authorities have merely made it harder to expose them

In 1945, then OSS agent Richard Helms sent son a letter on Hitler’s stationery saying ‘there can be nothing that’s worse’ than NazismA man who was three years old when his father – an American intelligence operator – sent him a letter on a vanquished Adolf Hitler’s stationery has declared himself disgusted by US extremist groups who still admire the former Nazi ruler.“Those people have no idea – the history and foulness of that,” Dennis Helms, the son of the late Richard Helms, the CIA director from 1966 to 1973, said of the presence of neo-Nazis and antisemitism in the US. “There can be nothing that’s worse … I can’t say enough bad about that.” Continue reading...

The US pro league is a start-up scrapping for its place in the sports world. But those at the sharp end pushing for a union have met opposition from ownersOne year ago, Mark O’Keefe helped the Austin Gilgronis clinch their first Major League Rugby playoff place. The center and his teammates were elated. But just before they bussed two-and-a-half hours south-east to Houston for their final game of the regular season, their coach, Sam Harris, called a meeting.“After beating San Diego, rumors started to circulate about our season ending prematurely,” O’Keefe said. “So the lads had a pretty bad feeling.” Continue reading...

The Argentinian is considering his options after PSG. Florida’s sunshine and lifestyle may appeal but he would find a club mired in mediocrityThe boos in Lionel Messi’s farewell match as a Paris Saint-Germain player made clear just how badly the Argentinian needs a fresh start, and a new club. Out of contract this summer, Messi faces a late career crossroads with three options in front of him – an emotional return to Barcelona, a switch that could be worth $1bn to Saudi Arabia or a move to Major League Soccer. PSG fans might have grown tired of Messi, but he remains a man in-demand.As things stand, MLS would be a third choice for Messi. On Monday, his father said his son “would love to return to Barcelona”, while the hundreds of millions the Saudis are offering would tempt even someone as ludicrously wealthy as Messi. Having said that, MLS hasn’t pursued a player this aggressively since David Beckham was lured to the league back in 2007. Like Beckham, Messi is a player who would move the needle in the USA and Canada. He could kickstart a new phase of growth for MLS, and the sport in general, in the run-up to the 2026 World Cup on North American soil. Inter Miami, however, aren’t doing much for the sales pitch. Continue reading...