US news | The Guardian

Mukesh Ambani teams up with US private equity fund, with Walgreens expected to retain minority stakeIndian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries has teamed up with US private equity fund Apollo Global Management to make a £5bn bid for the UK’s Boots chain.The pharmacy and beauty retailer’s current owner, US group Walgreens, which has controlled Boots since 2012, is expected to keep a minority stake under the deal. Continue reading...

Man is expected to make full recovery after an alligator hiding in bushes bit him on the legA Florida man who mistook an alligator for a dog on a leash is expected to make a full recovery after being badly beaten by the 7ft-long reptile.Authorities in the state said the encounter began in the early hours of the morning after a man near a motel in North Port spotted what he thought was a dog in the bushes. Continue reading...

Democrats hope movie-length episodes will ‘really blow the roof off the House’. Plus, the brutal impact of the Salvadoran government’s crackdown on gangs

The situation is a political crisis for Joe Biden, who has invoked the Emergency Defense Production Act to ramp up suppliesA baby formula shortage sweeping the US that has trigged a political crisis for Joe Biden is continuing to distress parents, caregivers, and medical professionals as they still find the vital product difficult to obtain.Reports of the shortage troubling intensive care units for newborns, as well as creating a black market for the scarce product, are still proliferating across the US media despite a concerted effort at the highest levels of government to get a hold on the crisis. Continue reading...

The temperature in Phoenix is forecast to top 110F this week for the first time this summer, posing a danger for the unhousedA dangerous heatwave is due to scorch large swathes of Arizona for the rest of the week, triggering the first extreme heat warning of the year as temperatures in Phoenix are forecast to top 113F (45C) on three consecutive days.Day and nighttime temperatures are expected to reach 7F to 10F (4C to 6C) above normal for this time of the year, which could drive a surge in medical emergencies and deaths as people struggle to stay cool amid soaring energy prices and rising homelessness. Continue reading...

Legislation would raise age limit for buying a semi-automatic rifle and put curbs on ammunition salesThe US House of Representatives has passed a wide-ranging gun control bill in response to recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas, but the proposals have almost no chance of being approved by the Senate and becoming law.The bill would raise the age limit for buying a semi-automatic rifle and prohibit the sale of ammunition magazines with a capacity of more than 15 rounds. Continue reading...

Serious questions on gun violence mean there are few laughs as US president meets late-night TV host“Our very special guest tonight is to aviator sunglasses what Tom Cruise is to aviator sunglasses,” quipped the late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel. “I’m proud to say I voted for him dozens of times. He is the reason we all got a cavity search tonight.”This was how Kimmel introduced Joe Biden for his first in-person interview with a late-night host since taking office as US president. Continue reading...

House select committee members have drafted in a former top TV executive to choreograph the six public hearingsThe directors are hoping that the storyline will have all the elements of a TV smash hit: a King Lear figure ranting and raving as his power slips away from him, a glamorous couple struggling to rise above the fray, shady characters scheming sedition in hotel bedrooms, hordes of thugs in paramilitary gear chanting “hang him” as they march on the nation’s capitol.When the US House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection opens its hearings on Thursday evening, it will do so in prime time and with primetime production values. The seven Democrats and two Republicans – shunned by their own party – who sit on the panel are pulling out all the stops in an attempt to seize the public’s attention. Continue reading...

Trump loyalists to flood airwaves with claims inquiry lacks legitimacy, indicating their concern, pundits sayRepublican politicians are preparing a media onslaught to deflect, discredit and delegitimise Thursday’s opening hearing of the House of Representatives panel investigating the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.While major TV networks broadcast the first session live in prime time, Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News will stick with its usual show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, which has long pushed Donald Trump’s talking points. Continue reading...

The former public defender, who instituted many criminal justice reform policies, was recalled after less than three years in officeThree years after San Francisco elected Chesa Boudin to be district attorney, the city’s voters removed him from office in the middle of his first term, in an extraordinary recall of a sitting prosecutor.What went wrong for Boudin? Continue reading...

Themes of inequality, crime, and rising cost of living dominated races, but experts call turnout a stark sign of political apathyVoters in California returned mixed messages in the state’s midterm primary elections on Tuesday, casting ballots in a series of high-stakes races that were dominated by themes of inequality, crime, and the rising cost of living.Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor, cruised to an easy victory in this deep blue state, advancing to the November general election, where he will be an overwhelming favorite to win a second term. Continue reading...

Miah Cerrillo speaks before House passes gun control bill that is all but doomed in SenateAn 11-year-old survivor of the elementary school massacre in Uvalde, Texas testified before the House oversight committee on Wednesday, as lawmakers continued to try to reach a compromise on gun control legislation after a series of devastating mass shootings.The House hearing came two weeks after an 18-year-old opened fire at Robb elementary school, killing 19 children and two teachers, and three weeks after 10 people were killed at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Continue reading...

Kimberly Rubio wept as she described the harrowing events of 24 May and asked for strengthened gun laws from CongressKimberly and Felix Rubio went twice to Robb Elementary school on the morning of 24 May, first to attend an end-of-year awards ceremony for their youngest son, Julian, and then to attend one for their daughter, Lexi, who was in the fourth grade.They beamed with pride as Lexi was honored with the “good citizen” award and recognized for earning straight As. To celebrate, they promised to take her for ice cream later that night. Continue reading...

Gen John Allen gave a ‘false version of events’ about his work for Gulf state in 2020 interview, court documents allegeThe FBI has seized electronic data from John Allen, a retired four-star marine general and former leader of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan who authorities say made false statements and withheld “incriminating” documents about his role in an illegal foreign lobbying campaign on behalf of Qatar.Allen is now president of the Brookings Institution, a prominent Washington thinktank, which said on Wednesday it had placed him on administrative leave. Continue reading...

An 11-year-old survivor of the elementary school massacre in Uvalde, Texas testified before the House oversight committee on Wednesday, as lawmakers continued debate gun control legislation after a series of devastating mass shootings. Miah Cerrillo, a fourth-grader at the Uvalde school, recounted how she watched as her teacher and friends were shot and acted quickly to save herself. Miah covered herself in a friend’s blood and played dead until she was able to reach her teacher’s phone and call police.

Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr will also testify in attorney general Letitia James’ inquiry into Trump OrganizationFormer president Donald Trump will testify under oath on 15 July in New York attorney general Letitia Jame’s investigation into his business practices, according to a court filing released Wednesday.His daughter Ivanka Trump and son Donald Trump Jr will also testify. Continue reading...

FBI affidavit says suspect Nicholas Roske traveled from California ‘to kill a specific United States supreme court justice’A man has been charged with attempted murder after he was arrested near the home of Brett Kavanaugh, the US supreme court justice, on Wednesday.Nicholas Roske, 26, was armed with a tactical knife, a Glock 17 pistol, pepper spray, zip ties and a hammer, the FBI said. Continue reading...

A British journalist and Brazilian Indigenous advocate have vanished. The authorities must scale up a lacklustre responseIt is now several days since the British journalist Dom Phillips and the Brazilian Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira vanished in an extremely remote part of the Amazon. There is every reason to be seriously concerned for their welfare. They have not been seen since they embarked, early on Sunday morning, upon a short river trip. They had been threatened days before by armed men, and Mr Pereira had earlier received a written threat. Brazil is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for environmental defenders and others associated with Indigenous communities; the killings of the labour leader and environmentalist Chico Mendes and the American nun Dorothy Stang are particularly notorious, but there have been many more since. Journalists are also vulnerable.On Wednesday, police in the Javari region of Amazonas state announced that they had arrested one suspect and detained four witnesses in connection with the disappearance. Mr Phillips, a longtime Guardian contributor who has also written for the Washington Post, New York Times and Financial Times, has travelled extensively in the Amazon region to report on the crisis facing Brazil’s rainforests and its Indigenous communities and is working on a book about conserving the environment. Mr Pereira is a former government official who has spent years working to protect isolated tribes. Continue reading...

American returns to action after four months out of golf and says he will be more careful about airing strong opinionsGone is the blue-chip branding, gone is the beaming smile. A subdued, humble – or humbled – Phil Mickelson sat in front of the media for the first time since becoming embroiled in a scandal linked to the very tournament at which he has chosen to make his return. “I’ve made, said and done a lot of things that I regret,” he said. “I’m sorry for that and for the hurt that it has caused a lot of people.” He looked composed, if far from completely comfortable.Mickelson’s willingness to take the opportunity provided by the LIV Series can be readily explained – starts with “m” and rhymes with honey – but it remains curious when placed against the comments that landed him in so much trouble. When calling Saudi Arabia “scary motherfuckers” while directly referencing human rights abuses and the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, Mickelson admitted he was well aware of who he was dealing with in negotiating to play on this platform. Continue reading...

The House oversight committee has opened its hearing dubbed “the urgent need to address the gun violence epidemic,” which is likely to be a gut-wrenching look into the recent spate of mass shootings nationwide.The first witness was Zeneta Everhart, whose son Zaire Goodman was shot and injured in the racist attack at the Tops Market in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York.She described how the bullets from the AR-15- style rifle used in the shooting exploded in her son's body, leaving shrapnel wounds that she has to clean. “My son Zaire has a hole in the right side of his neck, on his back, and another on his left leg caused by an exploding bullet from an AR-15. As I clean his wounds I can feel pieces of that bullet in his back. Shrapnel will be left inside of his body for the rest of his life. Now I want you to picture that exact scenario for one of your children. This should not be your story or mine.”

Allison Fluke-Ekren, who once lived in Kansas, will be sentenced in October in case a prosecutor called a first of its kind in the USAn American woman who prosecutors say led an all-female battalion of Islamic State militants in Syria will be sentenced in October after pleading guilty in a case that a prosecutor called a first of its kind in the US.Allison Fluke-Ekren broke down sobbing after admitting in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, to conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, a charge that carries a maximum 20-year sentence. Continue reading...

I don’t have much faith that the state will protect me from violence – and I know that gun control laws have historically been used to target Black people, socialists and people who challenge the status quoThe mass murder of elementary school students in Uvalde, Texas, and a white supremacist attack on Black residents of Buffalo, New York, have reignited the American gun control debate. Both atrocities have left me feeling more broken than I thought possible. As a Black, leftwing gun owner, however, I’m also struck by a feeling of unease.I believe in many forms of gun control, but the conversation about guns on the left often lacks complexity as we scramble for a simple answer to an extremely complicated problem. I don’t have much faith that the government will protect me or other minority Americans from the kind of violence that the police ostensibly exist to combat, and I know that gun control laws have historically been used to target Black people, particularly Black socialists like myself. Continue reading...

Phil Mickelson defended his decision to play in the inaugural LIV Golf invitational, explaining that joining the Saudi-backed series was about the freedom of the playing schedule. Mickelson insisted he does not condone human rights violations but added that LIV Golf was 'going to do a lot of good for the game'. Unlike other players, including former world No 1 Dustin Johnson, Mickelson has no intention of resigning from the PGA Tour and 'doesn't believe [he] should have to'.

Saudi-backed events threaten major disruption to golf’s old order, though top players are not signing up in numbers for nowHow did this come about? Saudi Arabia’s increasing involvement in sport saw them target golf, initially via single tournaments on existing male and female tours. This quickly evolved into a lucrative series, fronted by Greg Norman but strongly opposed by the PGA and DP World Tours. This event is one of eight planned across the world in 2022 in a serious disruption plan.Who has signed up? Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Sergio García, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Martin Kaymer are the biggest names on view. The 48-man field includes amateurs and 27 of the world’s top 150 ranked players. Continue reading...

Actor and gun owner describes ‘window where real change can happen’ as he reflects on his home town of Uvalde. Plus, the Congolese student fighting for Russia

The shortage is becoming worse and worse with every single week that passes. Sometimes I cannot grasp that I have to worry about thisHow did I spend a recent afternoon? I spent it traveling to four different cities to find a canister of formula for my baby. Gone are the days of simply dashing to the local market, located a couple of miles from my house, to grab the formula. Instead, I have to carve out about six hours to find the specialty formula my daughter needs.The recent formula shortage has caused a significant crisis for me as a mother and my baby. My youngest daughter was born with severe health issues that forced her to stay in the NICU for about a month and was released home with monitors. Due to her complications, breastfeeding was an option ruled out early, and pumping halted about two months after she was born. She was placed on a specialty formula to help with her nutrient support and reflux issues. It has been a long road, and even now, a year later, we attend therapy twice a week. She is small for 13 months and weighs what most babies half her age weigh. Needing extra nutrient support has kept her on formula for longer than most of her age. The extra nutrient-based formula has been challenging to find.Blair Hayse is an author, book coach and freelance writer Continue reading...

Britain’s new visa scheme for ‘high potential individuals’ is yet another reminder that borders only exist for the poorEver hoped that one day a government body would develop a way for you to measure your self-worth and quantify your potential once and for all? Well, you’re in luck!The UK recently launched a “High Potential Individual” (HPI) visa aimed at attracting the “brightest and best” from around the world to its soggy shores. If you qualify under the scheme you are welcomed into the country for at least two years, even if you don’t have a job offer. Continue reading...

The Conservative party remade itself in the image of a leader without conscience, integrity or values. So now what?In the thinned ranks of Conservative MPs who still support Boris Johnson, few consider him a man of honour. Perhaps none. Their loyalty can’t be composed of moral inspiration or shared principle, since the prime minister believes only in his entitlement to live in Downing Street. Mostly it is fear of losing current privileges and hope of gaining new ones.Some MPs have been promised promotion; others cling to ministerial jobs that would never have been available if competence had been the recruitment criterion.Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Law enforcement officer, derided by critics as the ‘Donald Trump of LA’, did not win enough votes for re-election, early results showAlex Villanueva, the Los Angeles county sheriff embroiled in multiple scandals, appears headed for a runoff election in November as early results suggest he failed to win enough votes to secure re-election.Villanueva, who has been derided by critics as the “Donald Trump of LA”, is likely to face off with Robert Luna, the former police chief of Long Beach. Luna was endorsed by the LA Times and LA Daily News editorial boards, which argued that the embattled agency needed an outsider to take over, though Luna’s police department also faced controversies. Continue reading...

Candidates head to November rematch after neither one secures enough votes to win outright in primaryThe congresswoman Karen Bass and the billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso will head to a November rematch in their bids to become the next mayor of Los Angeles, after neither candidate secured enough votes to win outright in Tuesday’s primary.An early tally of mail-in ballots showed Caruso with 41% and Bass with 38% of the vote, meaning both candidates failed to clear the 50% threshold needed to win outright. The Associated Press called the race as a runoff late on Tuesday evening. Continue reading...

Legalized abortion in some form is widely supported, but gerrymandered districts allow politicians to push extreme measures throughOn 10 April 2019, the Ohio legislature easily passed SB 23, a bill that banned abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.It was a move that should have carried considerable political risk in Ohio, a state closely divided between Democrats and Republicans. There wasn’t widespread support for the bill – polling showed public opinion was nearly evenly split over the bill (a poll after the bill was passed showed a majority opposed it), John Kasich, a previous Republican governor, had twice vetoed the bill, saying it was unconstitutional, and it had stalled in the legislature for years. Continue reading...

The House select committee investigating the insurrection will examine several crucial stages in the lead up to the first breach of the CapitolThe House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack is scheduled to hold its inaugural hearing on Thursday and according to the running order obtained by the Guardian, the panel will track the activities of the far-right Proud Boys group before and during the insurrection.At the start of the hearing, the panel’s chairman Bennie Thompson and vice-chair Liz Cheney will make a series of opening arguments before outlining a general roadmap of how each of the six Watergate-style hearings are expected to unfold. Continue reading...

Kathleen Buhle will publish her memoir If We Break: A Memoir of Marriage, Addiction, and Healing next weekIn a new book, Hunter Biden’s first wife describes how a denial of Secret Service protection while her father-in-law was vice-president “triggered” her fear of exclusion from the Biden family, years before the breakup of her marriage amid Hunter Biden’s highly public problems with addiction and political scandal.Kathleen Buhle will publish If We Break: A Memoir of Marriage, Addiction, and Healing next week. The book has been excerpted in People magazine. The Guardian obtained a copy. Continue reading...

Gavin Newsom easily advances to November election as Karen Bass and Rick Caruso head to mayoral runoff in Los AngelesSan Francisco residents have voted to recall the district attorney, Chesa Boudin, who was elected on an agenda of criminal justice reform but faced intensifying backlash from law enforcement, conservatives and residents concerned about crime.Boudin’s removal as the city’s top prosecutor in the middle of his first term is a major blow to a growing movement across the US to elect progressive DAs dedicated to tackling mass incarceration, police brutality and racism in the legal system. Continue reading...

Thousands of children accused of witchcraft suffer ritual abuse every year – and those with albinism are the main victimsAs Africa emerges blinking into the post-pandemic sunlight, children across the continent might hope for a brighter future. Lockdowns drove a surge in violence against children – especially girls – but surely life can now start to improve.Sadly not. No sooner does Covid begin to recede than we hear news of another appalling failure to protect the rights and wellbeing of African children. It scarcely seems credible that the horror of witchcraft accusations and ritual abuse against girls and boys across the continent is emerging again in 2022. Continue reading...

Actor and gun owner describes ‘window where real change can happen’ as he reflects on his hometown of UvaldeMatthew McConaughey made an emotional plea for US lawmakers to pass gun control legislation during an appearance at the White House on Tuesday, where he urged Congress to “reach a higher ground”.The Academy Award–winning actor called for bolstering background checks for gun purchases and raising the minimum age to purchase an AR-15-style rifle from 18 to 21. Continue reading...

Five others were injured in the crash involving a passenger van from the Adult Center in Arkansas CityFive people were killed and five others injured after a large truck collided with a van belonging to a school serving disabled adults in south-east Arkansas, authorities said.The crash happened Monday afternoon on US 65 when the 15-passenger van failed to yield when crossing the highway in rural Chicot county and collided with a truck hauling cooking oil, Arkansas state police spokesman Bill Sadler said Tuesday. Continue reading...

Analysts watch to see if voters in America’s more liberal cities will address police reform, homelessness and mass incarcerationHigh-stakes primary races taking place on Tuesday in California are expected to have major consequences for police reform, incarceration and the state’s growing homelessness crisis.The most closely watched race is the mayor’s contest in Los Angeles, where voters are deciding between a tough-on-crime real estate developer, Rick Caruso, who has already poured nearly $40m of his own fortune into his primary campaign, and the former community organizer and Democratic congresswoman Karen Bass. Continue reading...

Lawyers for ex-Trump adviser request details of Capitol attack panel’s decision-making process that led to contempt rulingTop House Democrats, including speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the members of the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack, have been subpoenaed to testify in court in connection with the criminal contempt case against Donald Trump’s one-time chief strategist Steve Bannon.The subpoenas – which were accepted by the House counsel, Doug Letter, last Friday, according to a source familiar with the matter – compel the handover of documents and testimony about internal decision-making that led to Bannon’s contempt case. Continue reading...

Actor and Uvalde native Matthew McConaughey made a pitch for gun reform at the White House press briefing, sharing stories of victims and their families in hopes of swaying lawmakers skeptical of gun-control legislation. ‘We are in a window of opportunity right now that we have not been in before. A window where it seems like real change can happen,’ he said Continue reading...

Actor speaks at White House in effort to sway legislators skeptical of gun control legislation

Arnulfo Reyes gives first-hand account of shooting to ABC’s Good Morning America and calls police ‘cowards’ over response that dayArnulfo Reyes, an elementary teacher in Uvalde, Texas, was watching a movie with his students. It was two days before their summer break. When the loud bangs erupted, some of the children asked: “What is going on?”“I don’t know what’s going on,” Reyes replied. “But let’s go ahead and get under the table. Get under the table and act like you’re asleep.” Continue reading...