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Ruling expands religious rights of government employees in latest of decisions taking a broad view of religious libertyThe US supreme court’s conservative majority on Monday sided with a former public high-school football coach who lost his job for praying with players at the 50-yard line after games.The 6-3 ruling, with the court’s liberals in dissent, represented a victory for Christian conservative activists seeking to expand the role of prayer and religion in public schools. In its decision, the court ruled that the school district had violated the constitutional rights of the coach, Joseph Kennedy, when it suspended his employment after he refused to stop praying on the field. Continue reading...

Employee Daniel Gill, 38, apparently asked Giuliani, 78, ‘What’s up, scumbag?’ during incident in ShopRite store on Staten IslandA 38-year-old Staten Island store employee was arrested for allegedly hitting Rudy Giuliani on the back, an attack that the former New York City mayor says felt as if he had been “shot”.A surveillance video showed Giuliani standing inside a ShopRite store with a group of people he later identified as his supporters. As he was standing, 38-year-old Daniel Gill walked up from behind Giuliani, slapped his back and continued to walk, the video showed. Continue reading...

The congresswoman says Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch lied under oath to Congress about their views on RoePolitical pressure is mounting on Joe Biden to take more action to protect abortion rights across the US as firebrand New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for supreme court justices to be impeached for misleading statements about their views on Roe v Wade.Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks took aim at justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch. Both were appointed by former president Donald Trump and had signaled that they would not reverse the supreme court’s landmark 1973 decision in Roe v Wade during confirmation hearings as well as in meetings with senators. Continue reading...

Cryptic posts on 8kun ask ‘Shall we play a game once more?’ and ‘Are you ready to serve your country again?’The leader of the QAnon conspiracy theory, which captivated a wave of Donald Trump supporters and infiltrated the Republican party, began posting again over the weekend, after nearly two years of silence.“Q”, as the figurehead of the movement is known, published three cryptic posts on a message board on Friday night – the account’s first posts since December 2020. Continue reading...

In a world economy worth trillions, the funds necessary to feed the hungry are truly small. So why aren’t we doing it?So here we are. The pound has slumped and Britain has the lowest growth and highest inflation in the G7. Manufacturing output has stalled and the financial markets are advising that sterling should be treated as an “emerging market” currency. The prime minister has broken the law and the government will reportedly soon publish a bill that could break international law in our name. You can only imagine the enormous respect and influence that Boris Johnson will carry into the room when G7 leaders meet in Germany. If they don’t burst out laughing at the sight of our threadbare prime minister it will only be because of decent diplomatic manners.Yet, we’re not starving. And I mean literally starving. We’re struggling, or eating badly, but we’re not dying from hunger because there isn’t a single grain of wheat to put into a child’s distended, empty stomach. We haven’t got it easy by any means, and perhaps we can be forgiven for being so absorbed by our own cost of living crisis, which is only just beginning to bite. But when our economy rebounds, which it will undoubtedly eventually do, the poorest of our world will already be dead.Bob Geldof is chairman of the Band Aid Trust and a supporter of the Hungry for Action campaign Continue reading...

Only 25% of Americans now have confidence in the institution. Plus, shipwreck of US destroyer ‘Sammy B’ discovered

The greatest shock of all would be to wake up and find that while we were driving the kids to soccer practice and enjoying cocktails, autocracy took holdBy now the US supreme court’s overturning of Roe v Wade hardly comes as a surprise. We’ve known this was imminent since the leak, a month or so ago, of Justice Alito’s memo. And yet it still delivers a profound shock – in fact, a series of shocks. Stunned, we ask, how could this happen? as if we hadn’t known, for weeks, that it was a more or less done deal.What’s shocking is the actualization of the scary Handmaid’s Tale scenario: our growing suspicion that Margaret Atwood’s fictional dystopia – a society in which women are forced to bear children and brutally punished for disobedience – is nearer to becoming a reality than we might have imagined. What’s shocking is this proof of the court’s desire and ability to control and punish women, to deprive us of our constitutional rights. What’s shocking is the justices’ reckless disregard for the additional suffering that this ruling will cause poor women, women of color and those living in rural areas. What’s shocking is the memory of three of the current justices swearing, under oath, to preserve the precedent established by Roe v Wade. Continue reading...

Giving birth is deadly for Black women. Ending abortion is going to make it worseNow that Roe v Wade has been overturned, the legal status of abortion is back in the hands of state lawmakers. And this will have especially damaging consequences for Black women.It’s no news that being forced to carry a baby to term can be a death sentence. From ectopic pregnancies to other life-threatening complications, pregnant people in these situations are often faced with a choice between their own lives and that of their unborn baby. Continue reading...

The state has pledged to be a ‘sanctuary’, with people seeking reproductive care potentially rising from 46,000 to 1.4mHow many people to expect?It’s the question anguished reproductive care providers in California are grappling with after the US supreme court voted to overturn the federal right to abortion. Continue reading...

Pregnancy in the US is already dangerous, disproportionately so for people of color – and without abortion access for those who need it, there will likely be more deathsAfter the revocation of the constitutional right to abortion in the United States, pregnancy-related deaths will almost certainly increase – especially among people of color, experts say. They called for urgent action to protect reproductive rights and the health of patients around the country.“There are going to be more people who are forced to carry a pregnancy to term, which means that there’s going to be a greater number of people who are at risk,” said Rachel Hardeman, a reproductive health equity professor and researcher at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. “More pregnancy means more likelihood of deaths.” Continue reading...

A US navy destroyer escort has become the deepest shipwreck to be discovered, according to explorers.The USS Samuel B Roberts, known as the 'Sammy B', was identified on Wednesday broken into two pieces on a slope at a depth of 6,985m (22,916ft), or about four miles. It engaged a Japanese fleet in the largest sea battle of the second world war in the Philippines

Employees say staff shortages and low pay are causing donors to leave before giving blood, amid delays over union contractThe American Red Cross, which controls about 40% of the blood supply in the US, declared a national blood shortage in January, the worst shortage in over a decade.The Red Cross emphasized decreasing blood donations as a driving factor for shortages, citing a 10% decline in the number of people donating blood during the pandemic. The shortage has continued across the US in recent months. Continue reading...

The controversial House member from Colorado is facing a challenger from the center, complicating her hopes of a smooth sailing primary“The tip of the spear”, that’s how Lauren Boebert described herself, on a bluebird Saturday in June, to a group of her supporters at a small town Republican party barbecue. Other members of the GOP shy away from the most inflammatory issues and controversial fights, she said – but not her.Boebert’s extreme rightwing stances range from absolute opposition to gun control to questioning the effectiveness of vaccines and the outcome of the 2020 presidential elections. All are conveyed by a social media persona fine-tuned to inflame the culture wars. Continue reading...

The committee have put on hearings that feel more like a Hollywood prestige limited series than a congressional inquiryThere is a certain kind of ritual that has come to define a blockbuster congressional hearing in Washington.The star witnesses take their seats facing the dias, swamped by photographers. The committee chairman gives a solemn opening statement, followed by a statement from the ranking member of the minority party. There is some bickering over the rules for the hearing, whether it is a sham, sometimes followed by a theatrical effort to postpone the session. Eventually, the star witness gets to speak, and parries questions from the committee members, each party asking either friendly or aggressive questions, depending on the politics. The whole thing often lasts hours and can get somewhat confusing to follow. At the end of the day, newscasts are filled with highlight reels of the can’t miss moments. Continue reading...

It’s a sign of the league’s progress than it no longer relies on aging foreign stars to make its teams relevantGareth Bale needed a new home. This has been true for a while, even when he was still under contract at Real Madrid, where the Welshman became something of an unwanted figure towards the end of a nine-year spell in Spain. Los Angeles should be a more welcoming environment for Bale, not least because California boasts some of the best golf courses in the United States.The jokes write themselves about a player who once famously waved a flag that read ‘Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that order’, but there are solid reasons for Bale to be in LA. The 32-year-old is counting on Los Angeles FC to help him prepare for the 2022 World Cup, a potentially career-defining tournament for a player who has already won five Champions League titles, three La Liga titles and scored more than 100 goals for Real Madrid. Wales need Bale to be fit and firing by November (when they open their World Cup campaign against, appropriately enough, the US). There’s history to be made. Continue reading...

If Amy Coney Barrett serves to Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s age, she will be a justice until 2059. We must reform the court now, or risk it losing its legitimacy foreverWhen the US supreme court this week radically expanded the second amendment and declared most any restrictions on guns to be presumptively unconstitutional, then overturned five decades of reproductive rights and created a likely desert for abortion access all the way from Idaho to Florida, America’s grim new reality became painfully clear.An extreme conservative majority holds absolute control over the court. They will likely hold this power for multiple generations. They intend to use it to impose a far-right vision that most Americans oppose, twisting the rule of law into whatever they say it is, depending on the ideological outcome they hope to achieve. Continue reading...

Tech firms and banks, including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, add ‘critical healthcare’ packageMany US corporate giants have moved swiftly to provide support and financial assistance to employees seeking abortions in states that outlawed the procedure following the US supreme court’s decision on Friday to overturn its landmark Roe v Wade ruling.With potentially millions of women soon looking to cross state lines for the procedure, many employers have added “critical healthcare” packages to employees benefit packages. Continue reading...

Chun In-gee recovers after a shaky start to land her third major title, condemning Lexi Thompson to another painful near missKim Sei-young is going backwards at pace. A careless three-putt bogey on the par-five 11th, her third in four holes, sends the 2020 champion back to -3.The final trio respond by quickly sending away their tee shots at the downhill par-three 10th. Choi dunks into a bunker to the left. Thompson and Chun find the green, but neither are particularly close. Choi can’t get up and down. She slips back to -3. Thompson leaves her long first putt four feet short, the sort of distance that’s been so troublesome for her over the years. But she pops in a fine saver. A fuss-free two-putt par for Chun. Meanwhile all will be wary of the presence of the new US Open champion Minjee Lee, who having started cold with bogeys at 1 and 2, has since birdied 5, 9 and now 11 to move into serious contention. Continue reading...

The email from Alabama’s Mo Brooks potentially reveals what conduct by lawmakers he feared might be criminalWhen the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack revealed the evidence that showed Republican members of Congress sought preemptive presidential pardons after January 6, one of the most striking requests came from Congressman Mo Brooks.The request from Brooks to the Trump White House came in an 11 January 2021 email – obtained by the Guardian – that asked for all-purpose, preemptive pardons for lawmakers involved in objecting to the certification of Joe Biden’s election win. Continue reading...

Top Democrats again call for appointing additional justices to blunt conservative super-majority which made ruling possibleLeading Democrats on Sunday continued calling the supreme court’s legitimacy into question after it took away the nationwide right to abortion last week, and some again lobbied for appointing additional justices to the panel so as to blunt the conservative super-majority which made the controversial ruling possible.The Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren suggested to ABC’s This Week that there was urgency to do that because supreme court justice Clarence Thomas indicated within Friday’s decision to overturn the landmark Roe v Wade ruling that he’s open to reconsidering precedents guaranteeing contraception, same-sex marriage rights and consensual gay sex. Continue reading...

In New York, thousands gathered downtown to celebrate Pride and give voice to anger after decision that overturned abortion rightsProtests over a US supreme court decision that overturned abortion rights continued across the country this weekend. In New York, thousands marched to voice their anger at the ruling that came at the end of a dizzying week around not just reproductive rights but also gun carry laws and the US Capitol attack.“Not your uterus, not your choice,” many shouted as the demonstrations progressed in Washington DC., New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlanta and Austin. Continue reading...

Move prompts Maxwell’s attorney to seek to postpone her sentencing because she can’t properly prepare for the hearingGuards at the federal prison where Ghislaine Maxwell awaits her sentencing for her role in an elaborate child sexual abuse case have placed her on suicide watch, though she isn’t suicidal, according to court records.The move prompted the British socialite’s attorney to write a letter telling the judge in the case that Maxwell would seek to postpone her sentencing Tuesday because she can’t properly prepare for the hearing. Prison officials on Friday took away Maxwell’s legal papers – along with her regular clothes, toothpaste and soap – while putting her in solitary confinement and on suicide watch, said the letter from her attorney Bobby Sternheim. Continue reading...

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Legal scholar Lawrence Tribe: ‘We’re in for a long, tangled, chaotic and, in terms of human suffering, horribly costly struggle’Joe Biden on Saturday renewed his criticism of the supreme court, a day after justices handed down a historic ruling that overturned a ruling that had guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion for almost half a century.“The supreme court has made some terrible decisions,” Biden said at an event where he signed last week’s bipartisan gun control bill into law. The president said he and the first lady, Jill Biden, knew “how painful and devastating the decision is for so many Americans” and vowed that his administration would focus on how states implement the decision. Continue reading...

The question is no longer whether there will be a civil conflict in America. The question is how the sides will divide, and who will prevailThe cracks in the foundations of the United States are widening, rapidly and on several fronts. The overturning of Roe v Wade has provoked a legitimacy crisis no matter what your politics.For the right, the leaking of the draft memo last month revealed the breakdown of bipartisanship and common purpose within the institution. For the left, it demonstrated the will of dubiously selected Republican justices to overturn established rights that have somewhere near 70% to 80% political support.Stephen Marche is the author, most recently, of The Next Civil War: Dispatches from the American Future Continue reading...

Searing public testimony illustrates extreme reluctance of police chief to let his officers put a stop to the carnageRuben Ruiz, a school district police officer in Uvalde, Texas, was standing in a hallway outside the classroom where his wife taught fourth-graders a couple of days before summer break. His wife, Eva Mireles, had just called his cellphone, begging for help after an intruder had shot her and her students.Ruiz was among 18 officers who had rushed over to his wife’s school, Robb elementary, in response to reports of an active shooter. He was ready to charge in with a few of his fellow law enforcement officers, battle the 18-year-old rifleman who had invaded the campus, and hopefully save his wife and her students. Continue reading...

At least 101 members stood for elections in 2022 as threats of violence and suspension of rights loom for the communityThe supreme court’s landmark abortion ruling immediately wiped away abortion rights for millions of Americans, but tucked away in Clarence Thomas’s concurring opinion on the case was another threat: to the rights of LGBTQ+ people across the US.In his opinion, written to accompany the Roe v Wade decision, Thomas, part of the controlling cabal of rightwing justices, suggested that the court should “reconsider” the right to same-sex relationships and same-sex marriage, which was legalized nationwide in 2015. Continue reading...

Mary Miller’s remarks are greeted with cheers by crowd, though spokesman claims she meant to say ‘right to life’Illinois Republican Mary Miller told a crowd at a rally held alongside former president Donald Trump that the supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade was a “victory for white life”.“President Trump, on behalf of all the Maga patriots in America, I want to thank you for the historic victory for white life in the supreme court yesterday,” she said, drawing cheers from the crowd in Illinois. Continue reading...

Team with strong New Zealand accent beats Seawolves 30-15 on a baking day in Jersey, as US competition concludes season fiveWarming-up for the Major League Rugby championship game, Rugby New York wore t-shirts proclaiming themselves “Iron Workers”, a team identity built on the blue-collar battalions who built New York City itself.The small crowd at the Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey indicated the work ahead if MLR is to become a major player on the US stage, never mind the world, before a Rugby World Cup in 2031. But then, the city back over the Hudson wasn’t always full of skyscrapers. Someone had to put them up. Continue reading...

Arizona’s largest abortion provider feels it’s too dangerous to continue with procedures after the supreme court decision, with state laws unclearOriginally published by The 19thAfter the supreme court released its decision on Friday overturning Roe v Wade, the 1973 case that guaranteed the federal right to an abortion, Planned Parenthood of Arizona announced it would be halting all procedures at their seven clinics. Continue reading...

Lord Frost and others are reinventing a tactic used by the beaten German generals in 1918The mediocrity of Lord “Frosty” Frost isn’t ordinary. There is an epic quality to his failings. The parochialism of his nationalism and irresponsibility of his conspiracy theories have allowed one paunchy man to embody the entire collapse of modern conservatism into know-nothing paranoia.No serious person outside the ruling elite doubts that Frost and Boris Johnson’s hard Brexit heightened the misery of millions. They have raised inflation, cut the national wealth and diverted the energy of Britain’s rulers away from the economic crisis into needless disputes with our neighbours. Continue reading...

Hundreds of protesters turned out across the US after the supreme court's decision to abolish the constitutional right to abortion. Within hours of Roe v Wade being overturned, abortion was already illegal in many states, sparking angry demonstrations around the country

Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh said they would not overturn landmark abortion ruling, Susan Collins and Joe Manchin sayWhen the supreme court decided on Friday to overturn Roe v Wade, several senators who recently approved justices responsible for this decision said they felt deceived. These politicians pointed to prior statements from Trump appointees Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch; both male judges had claimed they would not overturn Roe.“I feel misled,” the Maine senator Susan Collins told the New York Times. In a lengthy meeting on 21 August 2018, the Republican reportedly grilled Kavanaugh to explain why he could be trusted not to overturn Roe. Continue reading...

US president Joe Biden on Saturday signed the most sweeping gun violence bill in decades, a bipartisan compromise that seemed unimaginable until a recent series of mass shootings, including the massacre of 19 students and two teachers at a Texas elementary school. While the new law does not include tougher restrictions long championed by Democrats, such as a ban on assault-style weapons and background checks for all gun transactions, it is the most impactful firearms violence measure produced by Congress since enactment of a long-expired assault weapons ban in 1993.

Providers reported ‘complete despair’ as patients with appointments only minutes away were turned awayOriginally published by The 19thPatients were in the lobby, waiting, the moment it became a post-Roe America. Continue reading...

Attorneys argue sentencing hearing should not hear from four accusers because their ages did not legally qualify them as victimsGhislaine Maxwell’s lawyers are fighting to keep several accusers from providing victim impact statements at her sentencing for sex trafficking on Tuesday. The British socialite’s legal team argued in court filings on Friday that four accusers’ ages meant that they were not “statutory crime victims” who would have the right to speak at sentencing.In making their arguments, Maxwell’s legal team publicly included three impact statements, which were submitted to Judge Alison Nathan in advance of sentencing; this appears to be an unusual move, as prosecutors typically file these remarks. This seemingly unusual move also means that Maxwell’s lawyers – not the victims and not those representing them – made the decision about when the victims’ words would be public. Continue reading...

As they host the world’s media in Seattle, Boeing’s leadership team must restore its reputation and its balance sheet amid an uncertain future for the industryIn a vast shed near Seattle, Boeing is ramping up production of its bestselling plane, the 737 Max. Rows of trolleys marked with team names such as “Mario Bros” and “Wildcat” wait for technicians to complete a daily dance of tools and parts. Getting the choreography right pays: production stoppages at the Renton factory can filter through to US GDP figures.Never has the value of smooth operation been more apparent to the jetmaker than in the past three years. The factory lines were stopped for more than a year following two fatal crashes of the 737 Max. In 2018 and 2019, a total of 346 people died when hardware malfunctions and badly designed software caused the planes to override pilots and plunge from the sky. Continue reading...

The three veterans have fought to get fit, but one more injury could spell the end of their glittering careersThere were nerves at Wimbledon on Friday when the draws for this year’s championship were made. Which luckless soul would land a first-round match against the woman currently ranked 1,204? That loaded fate fell to the appealingly named French player Harmony Tan, herself world No 113. At that moment, the other 126 women in the singles competition could breathe a sigh of relief that they would not after all be facing number 1,204, better known as Serena Williams.For virtually all of the 21st century, playing Serena Williams at Wimbledon has been tantamount to an on-court death sentence. The 40-year-old American has won seven singles titles (and seven doubles titles) in 20 visits. But, as recently as a month ago, there was doubt that we would ever see her on the grass at the All England Club again – or perhaps any tennis court. She left Wimbledon distraught last year after slipping and aggravating a hamstring injury in the first round. She hasn’t played a competitive singles match since. Continue reading...

Bipartisan deal ‘doesn’t do everything I want’, president says, but will toughen background checks and facilitate ‘red flag’ lawsJoe Biden on Saturday signed the most sweeping gun violence bill in decades, a bipartisan compromise that seemed unimaginable until a recent series of mass shootings, including the massacre of 19 students and two teachers at a Texas elementary school.“Lives will be saved,” the president said at the White House. Citing the families of shooting victims, the president said, “Their message to us was to do something. Well today, we did.” Continue reading...

The post-Roe US will be a nightmare of digital authoritarianism where even Googling ‘abortion pill’ could be used against youWell, it finally happened. The fact that we all expected it, that we have spent the last few weeks waiting for this to happen, didn’t blunt the shock of it. On Friday the supreme court issued a decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v Wade. Six unelected supreme court justices stripped bodily autonomy away from tens of millions of women and ended nearly 50 years of legal abortion rights in the US. Continue reading...

Utah among first states to outlaw almost all abortions, while mayor of Washington DC declares it ‘pro-choice city’Abortion was already illegal in multiple US states on Saturday, with bans introduced within hours of Roe v Wade being overturned, as cities erupted in protest at the landmark ruling.It came after the US supreme court on Friday abolished the constitutional right to abortion, more than 50 years after it was established, leaving individual states to decide. It is ultimately expected to lead to abortion bans in about half of the states. Continue reading...