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Title 42, which cites the pandemic, is behind nearly 2m expulsions since March 2020Pandemic-era restrictions on people seeking asylum on the southern border must continue, a judge ruled Friday in an order blocking the Biden administration’s plan to lift them early next week.The ruling is just the latest instance of a court derailing the president’s proposed immigration policies along the US border with Mexico. Continue reading...

Wife of supreme court justice Clarence Thomas emailed six days after election already called for Joe BidenGinni Thomas, the wife of the US supreme court justice Clarence Thomas, pressed Republicans in Arizona to overturn Joe Biden’s victory there in 2020, the Washington Post reported.Repeating Donald Trump’s lie that the vote had been marred by fraud, Thomas wrote: “Please stand strong in the face of political and media pressure. Please reflect on the awesome authority granted to you by our constitution. And then please take action to ensure that a clean slate of electors is chosen for our state.” Continue reading...

A Manhattan judge had fined the ex-president for not complying with a subpoena related to the investigation of his businessesDonald Trump has paid $110,000 in fines after being held in contempt of court for being slow to respond to a civil subpoena issued by the attorney general of New York state.The news on one front in the former president’s many legal battles came shortly after a big development on another, the news that Trump’s former US attorney general, William Barr, is in discussions about testifying in front of the House committee investigating the deadly Capitol attack. Continue reading...

The violent scenes at the US Capitol last year led to the PGA taking its major tournament away from former president’s Bedminster course and awarding it to Southern HillsThe horrors associated with a violent mob rampaging around the US Capitol last year meant a subsequent decision relating to a golf tournament barely registered. Donald Trump’s Bedminster golf course had been announced as the 2022 US PGA Championship’s host venue in 2014. With Trump caught in the middle of the Capitol storm, the PGA of America changed its plan, and Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma was the beneficiary at short notice.“We find ourselves in a political situation not of our making,” said Seth Waugh, the PGA of America’s chief executive. “We’re fiduciaries for our members, for the game, for our mission and for our brand. And how do we best protect that? Our feeling was given the tragic events that we could no longer hold it at Bedminster. Continue reading...

Civil rights and community leaders gathered the night before to plead with the nation to confront and stop racist violenceThe first of 10 funerals for the 10 Black people killed in a Buffalo supermarket was held on Friday following an impassioned gathering of Black civil rights and community leaders at a church the night before where speakers pleaded with the nation to confront and stop racist violence.Set against accused shooter Peyton Gendron’s silence in court earlier on Thursday, the community and relatives of Andre Mackneil, Geraldine Talley and Ruth Whitfield gave voice to the grief and anger coursing through East Buffalo. Continue reading...

The US has accused Russia of holding the world’s food supply hostage during the Ukraine crisis, amid growing fears of famine in developing countries. Speaking at a UN security council meeting on Thursday, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, demanded Russia lift its blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and enable the flow of food and fertiliser around the world

Unnamed team member reportedly got into dispute with South Korean citizen outside hotel where Biden is expected to stayJoe Biden’s visit to South Korea and Japan has got off to a bad start with two Secret Service agents set to be sent home after one was accused of drunkenly assaulting a South Korean the day before the president arrived in Seoul, officials said.Earlier reports said a member of his advance security detail was arrested for allegedly assaulting a South Korean citizen in Seoul. Continue reading...

Handing over the WikiLeaks founder to the US will benefit those around the world who want to evade scrutinyIn the course of the next few days, Priti Patel will make the most important ruling on free speech made by any home secretary in recent memory. She must resolve whether to comply with a US request to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges.The consequences for Assange will be profound. Once in the US he will almost certainly be sent to a maximum-security prison for the rest of his life. He will die in jail.Peter Oborne is a journalist and author. His latest book, Fate of Abraham: Why the West is Wrong about Islam, is available now Continue reading...

Isaiah Lee, 23, pleads not guilty over stabbing that took place in December, months before incident during Chappelle’s standup setA man charged in an on-stage attack of comedian Dave Chappelle has now also been charged with the attempted murder of a roommate months earlier, authorities said on Thursday.Isaiah Lee, 23, has pleaded not guilty in the December stabbing that occurred during a fight at a Los Angeles transitional living facility, the LA county district attorney’s office said. Continue reading...

Christian Secor, 23, was a UCLA student at the time who had founded a far-right conservative student group, authorities sayA California man who stormed the US Capitol, opened the doors to other rioters and sat in the Senate chair of Mike Pence pleaded guilty to a federal charge on Thursday.Christian Secor, 23, of Costa Mesa, entered the plea in a Washington court to obstructing an official proceeding. Continue reading...

When an unaccountable billionaire starts putting himself out in the world as a Public Policy Thinker, alarm bells should ringJeff Bezos is getting nervous. You can tell because he’s going on Twitter more, the universal activity of those who are channeling their restlessness in an unhealthy way. This should make the rest of us nervous, too. This is a big, flashing warning sign that America’s richest union-buster is about to throw himself more forcefully into politics – an inevitability that could have many bad outcomes, but only one good one.For the past week, the centi-billionaire Amazon founder has been firing off tweets not about his typical, anodyne interests – improved penis-shaped rocket design, luxury head wax – but rather about his policy opinions. Though Bezos (or whichever PR drone drafts his tweets) writes with the bloodlessness of a man who has attended too many management consulting meetings, it is easy to imagine the seething anger that must have been present in order to prompt him to produce them in the first place. On May 13, he criticized one of Joe Biden’s economic pronouncements, tweeting that “Raising corp taxes is fine to discuss. Taming inflation is critical to discuss. Mushing them together is just misdirection.” Continue reading...

For the US right, Orbán’s Hungary – unconstrained by an independent media, democratic institutions or racial diversity – isn’t a cautionary tale, but an aspirationLong a safe space where conservatives could say what they really thought, this year the Conservative Political Action Conference (Cpac) is hosting an event in Budapest, its first ever on the European continent. Attendees will be treated to panels about “western civilization under attack” and be addressed by American conservative luminaries including the former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and media figures like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens. That Hungary has become an authoritarian state whose leader, Viktor Orbán, has deconstructed Hungarian democracy and become a close ally of Vladimir Putin doesn’t seem to faze anyone involved. In fact, it’s the whole point.The embrace of Orbán as a role model by many on the right seems at first glance puzzling. After all, conservatives are not known for welcoming lessons from Europeans on how America ought to be run. But it becomes more explicable when you realize that for years, Orbán has been playing out the fantasies of Cpac’s attendees, unconstrained by the independent institutions, impartial media and racial diversity which American conservatives see as their foils at home. Where Orbán has gone, American conservatives want to follow. And increasingly, they are doing so.Andrew Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States at Leiden University and the host of the podcast America Explained Continue reading...

Antony Blinken demanded that Russia lift its blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and suggested the Kremlin was using food as a weapon

Elizabeth shrugged, a final flourish in the Wagatha Christie trial, and why my son will go to the school discoI have just got back from a gorgeous weekend in Bath, after doing a book event with proper writers Marian Keyes and Nina Stibbe at the literary festival. I was high as a kite on my return. Because sure, I love to talk about books and writing, meet amazing authors and fellow bookworms, and revel in the cornucopia of delights offered by reading temples such as Toppings bookshop and Mr B’s Emporium. But do you know what I really, really love? A hotel. An hotel, if you’re a bit of a twunt, but either way – a place where you can go and eat, drink, sleep between clean sheets, shower in an immaculate bathroom, breakfast from a variety of increasingly decadent choices (fruit-toast-cereal-full-English-attenuated-as-best-suits-you-and-any-hangover’s-requirements) and repeat without having to do anything at all for yourself. One 24-hour span on your own in a hotel is equivalent to one week’s holiday en famille. The restorative bang for your buck ratio is unsurpassed. At least until a friend remarked that this was because “staying at a hotel is the equivalent of having a wife”. And this irrefutable truth unrestored me immediately and absolutely. Continue reading...

A documentary follows the paths of eight people who served decades of their life sentences behind bars, only to be released with no resourcesImagine being one of the more than 200,000 people in America sentenced to life in prison. And then, after decades behind bars, laws are changed, your sentence is shortened, and the parole board approves of your release. You become tasked with reentering society, finding stable housing, employment and a healthy social life.These are things that everyone seeks, formerly incarcerated or not. But for people who’ve spent time behind bars, and more specifically the people who were serving life sentences – the lifers – these challenges can be insurmountable. Continue reading...

We’d like to hear from readers in the US who have experienced problems from the supply chain crisisWe’d like to hear from people in the US who have been affected by shortages of baby formula.Baby formula shortages began during the pandemic, but they have been exacerbated by the closure of the Abbott plant in Michigan due to a federal investigation which began after four babies taking the formula developed bacterial infections and two died. Continue reading...

Doug Mastriano promoted Trump’s voter fraud myth – if he becomes governor, could he block a result he doesn’t like?As Donald Trump tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election, there were few officials more willing to help than Doug Mastriano, then a little-known Pennsylvania state senator.Mastriano, a retired army colonel first elected in 2019, regularly communicated with Trump in the weeks after the election. He helped arrange a pseudo-hearing weeks after election day in which the Trump campaign presented baseless claims of fraud. Mastriano helped facilitate a plan to appoint a fake set of electors in Pennsylvania for Trump after Joe Biden won the state by more than 80,000 votes. He embraced and promoted a fringe, anti-democratic legal theory that state legislatures can override the results of an election and appoint its own electors. He was also at the US capitol on January 6, and helped bus supporters there. He pushed an unofficial review of election equipment that prompted the state to decertify election machines in a county. He has been subpoenaed by the January 6 committee. He supported efforts to decertify the election, which is legally impossible. Continue reading...

Push for petition that would mandate safety protections, limit workloads, set wage standards, and extend worker retention rulesSonia Molina Sanchez, worked as housekeeper at the celebrity hotspot hotel Chateau Marmont for 10 years. She will never forget the night she was sexually harassed by a guest.“I knocked on a guest’s door and went inside, and as soon as I went inside something didn’t feel right,” said Molina Sanchez. “The guest was lying in bed as if he was about to go to sleep. I turned around and looked at him, and when I looked at him he was staring at me while masturbating. I felt violated, really disturbed, and just completely in shock.” Continue reading...

This year’s NBA playoffs have served as a reminder of how much the provocative power forward sets the tone for the Warriors by being such a pain in the ass to play againstLate in Game 5 of the Western Conference semi-finals between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Golden State Warriors, the Grizzlies’ home crowd sure tried their damnedest to provoke the NBA’s No 1 pest. Some 18,000 fans twirled towels at the Warriors bench – and chanted along as the PA played Whoop That Trick, a local anthem. Given the deafening roar inside FedEx Forum, with the home team leading by 46, you’d be forgiven for thinking the Warriors were downcast. But in the middle of this madness Draymond Green was firmly in his element: bobbing to the beat, waving a towel and really whooping it up.There’s been much debate about who’s the best remaining player in the NBA playoffs. But there is no doubt about who’s most exasperating. For the past decade the Warriors’ diminutive power forward has been a 6ft 6in thorn in the side of all who oppose him. In Wednesday night’s Western Conference finals opener against the Dallas Mavericks, Green was back to his familiar shenanigans – flexing on the floor after a tough finish at the rim, sprinting crosscourt to block a corner three, lobbying the refs and otherwise being irritating in the Warriors’ 112-87 victory at home. Green’s official contribution – 10 points, nine rebounds, three assists, two steals and that chef’s kiss closeout block on the Mavericks’ Dorian Finney-Smith – barely captures just what a pain in the ass he is to play against. If anything, these playoffs have served as a reminder of how much the 32-year-old former Michigan State standout sets the tone for the Warriors by being such a massive migraine. Continue reading...

Michael German, who infiltrated white supremacist groups in the 1990s, says the FBI continues to underplay the scope of the threatThe Federal Bureau of Investigation is failing to address the rising scourge of white supremacist violence despite stark warnings that such attacks pose the greatest domestic terrorism threat in the US, a leading authority on law enforcement has told the Guardian.Michael German, a former FBI special agent who infiltrated white supremacist groups in the 1990s, said the bureau continues to underplay the scope of the threat. As a result, communities targeted by white supremacists and far-right militia groups – such as the largely African American neighborhood of Buffalo, New York, where 10 people were killed by a suspected racist gunman this week – are left fatally exposed. Continue reading...

Hungarian leader also tells Republicans at Budapest conference that shows like Tucker Carlson’s should be broadcast ‘24/7’The Hungarian leader, Viktor Orbán, has told a conference of US conservatives that the path to power required having their own media outlets, calling for shows like Tucker Carlson’s to be broadcast “24/7”.Orbán, recently elected to a fourth term, laid out a 12-point blueprint to achieving and consolidating power to a special meeting of the US Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), under the slogan of “God, Homeland, Family”, held in Budapest. Continue reading...

Emails reveal the ‘extent’ which Carlson was willing to turn on Biden’s son since the 2020 election, Washington Post saysAs Tucker Carlson asked Hunter Biden for help getting his son into an elite Washington university in 2014, the Fox News host’s wife, Susie, reportedly wrote in an email: “Tucker and I have the greatest respect and admiration for you. Always!”Since the 2020 election, however, Carlson has fueled rightwing attacks on Joe Biden’s son, particularly over business affairs in which he allegedly benefited from his father’s position. Continue reading...

Bluntly worded intervention comes as tensions rise over plans by Liz Truss to nullify parts of the protocolThe US House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has warned that unilateral UK legislation affecting the Northern Ireland protocol could endanger British prospects for a free trade deal with the US.Pelosi’s bluntly worded intervention came two days after the UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, confirmed that the government was planning to table legislation that would nullify parts of the protocol by exempting some goods moving between Great Britain and Ireland from EU customs checks. Continue reading...

Wic voucher requirements are being waived to allow holders to purchase any brand of infant formula as it becomes availableThe Senate approved a bill Thursday aimed at easing the baby formula shortage for families participating in a government assistance program that accounts for about half of all formula purchased in the US.The House passed the bill the day before, so it now goes to Joe Biden to be signed into law. Continue reading...

The price is a record high for the state and follows a record high average price nationwide at nearly $4.59 a gallonThe average price of gas in California has surpassed $6 a gallon for the first time ever as fuel costs across the US reach record highs.Drivers in the Golden state are paying more for a gallon of fuel than anywhere else in the country at an average of $6.06, an all-time high for California and the US, according to AAA. The national average is nearly $4.59 a gallon, also a record, increasing 10 cents since Monday. Meanwhile, in some rural regions of California prices are even higher – fuel costs more than $7 a gallon in Mono county in the state’s east. Continue reading...

Democratic congresswoman confirms engagement to Roberts, whom she met as a student at Boston UniversityCongresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took a break between visiting Amazon union workers and endorsing progressive candidates to get engaged to her longtime partner Riley Roberts.Ocasio-Cortez, 32, confirmed to Insider on Thursday that she and Roberts, who met while both were at Boston University, got engaged last month while visiting her parents’ home town in Puerto Rico. Continue reading...

Bill bans abortion at conception and if signed into law it would allow citizens to sue anyone who ‘aids or abets’ a patientOklahoma’s Republican-led legislature passed the nation’s strictest abortion ban on Thursday. The bill, if signed into law, would allows citizens to sue anyone, anywhere who “aids or abets” a patient in terminating a pregnancy.The bill bans abortion from conception, even before an egg implants in the uterus, and would go into effect immediately if signed by Republican governor, Kevin Stitt. Abortion providers expect he will do so before the coming week. Continue reading...

The revelation resurrects a line of inquiry into the involvement of House Republicans in the insurrectionThe House select committee investigating the Capitol attack revealed on Thursday that it had evidence to suggest certain “reconnaissance tours” took place in the days before 6 January, potentially providing some rioters with a layout of the complex.The panel said in a letter requesting cooperation from Georgia Republican congressman Barry Loudermilk that he gave a tour the day before the Capitol attack. The startling disclosure resurrects a contentious line of inquiry that connects House Republicans to the insurrection. Continue reading...

Billy McFarland ‘put together a team’ to generate income, likely for the $26m he was ordered to pay investors backThe lead organizer of the infamous failed 2017 Fyre festival will immediately begin new ventures in the entertainment industry after being released early from federal prison on Wednesday, according to his attorney.Billy McFarland, 30, “has put together a team of professionals to brainstorm and come up with ideas in entertainment and other avenues to generate income”, ostensibly to pay back the $26m he was ordered to reimburse his Fyre festival investors after pleading guilty to defrauding them, said his lawyer, Jason Russo. Continue reading...

Biden to sign mix of military and economic aid for Ukraine and its allies after 86-11 vote in Senate on ThursdayThe Senate overwhelmingly approved a $40bn infusion of military and economic aid for Ukraine and its allies on Thursday as both parties rallied behind America’s latest, and quite possibly not last, financial salvo against Russia’s invasion.The 86-11 vote gave final congressional approval to the package, three weeks after Joe Biden requested a smaller $33bn version and after a lone Republican opponent delayed Senate passage for a week. Every voting Democrat and all but 11 Republicans – including many of the chamber’s supporters of Donald Trump’s isolationist agenda – backed the measure. Continue reading...

Dispatcher could lose her job after Tops employee says dispatcher took on a nasty tone and asked her why she was whisperingA 911 dispatcher has been placed on administrative leave and will probably be fired after allegedly hanging up on a Tops supermarket employee during Saturday’s shooting rampage in Buffalo, New York, where a white supremacist allegedly killed 10 people.Latisha Rogers, an assistant office manager at the Tops supermarket, said she called 911 and whispered quietly into the phone about the shooter, who was already in the store. Continue reading...

Fiona Hill, a former national security council official, said Russian leader grew frustrated with Trump: ‘Putin doesn’t like to do that’Vladimir Putin “had to keep explaining things” to Donald Trump when Trump was US president, the former White House aide Fiona Hill said.“Putin doesn’t like to do that,” Hill told the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Continue reading...

Government aims to speed production after closure of Abbott plant, as experts urge parents not to concoct own alternativesJoe Biden has invoked the Defense Production Act to address the shortage of infant formula by speeding production and authorizing flights to import it from abroad, as experts warned desperate parents not to concoct their own “home brew” alternatives.The safety-related closure of the nation’s largest formula manufacturing plant has seen a nationwide squeeze on supply. The Defense Production Act order requires suppliers of formula manufacturers to fulfill orders from those companies before other customers, in an effort to eliminate production bottlenecks. Continue reading...

Payton Gendron, 18, accused of killing 10 Black people at supermarket, not required to speak at brief court hearingThe man accused of killing 10 Black people in a racist attack at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, at the weekend was called a coward by a loved one of one of the victims when he made a fresh appearance in court on Thursday.Payton Gendron, 18, who is white, was not required to speak – his court-appointed lawyer had already entered a plea of not guilty to one count of first-degree murder – but it was the first time families of the victims who had come to the courthouse came face to face with him. Continue reading...

Former president makes slip when speaking at his presidential library in Dallas on WednesdaySigmund Freud was unavailable for comment, but George W Bush saying Iraq instead of Ukraine when condemning “a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion” certainly suggests he still has a lot on his unconscious mind.The former president jokingly attributed the slip to his 75 years, but there has always been a faulty connection between his brain and his tongue. There are whole books full of “Bushisms”, like his boast that people “misunderestimated” him, and how much he felt for single mothers “working hard to put food on your family”. Continue reading...

Workers at the coffee chain have filed petitions for union elections at more than 250 stores, but chief Howard Schultz publicly opposes the movementStarbucks has fired over 20 union leaders around the US over the past several months as union organizing campaigns have spread across the country, the Guardian can reveal.The news comes as Starbucks workers have filed petitions for union elections at more than 250 stores, spanning 35 states in the US. Starbucks’ chief executive, Howard Schultz, has led a campaign against the union movement calling it “some outside force that’s going to dictate or disrupt who we are and what we do”. Continue reading...

Nina Jankowicz, the board’s director, resigns and says attacks and threats will not stop her from speaking out on disinformationThe Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has paused a new government board’s work on disinformation and accepted the resignation of its leader, capping weeks of argument about free speech rights in the US and a frenzy of conspiracy theories.Former disinformation governance board director Nina Jankowicz told the Associated Press hours after resigning on Wednesday that a wave of attacks and violent threats she has fielded since the board’s launch will not stop her from speaking out about disinformation campaigns pulsing through the social media feeds of Americans. Continue reading...

A place in Saturday’s Champions League final vindicates bold decisions taken by the Brazil-born US international and her dadThe journey of the striker Catarina Macario from the Brazilian city of São Luís to a first Champions League final with the seven-times winners Lyon has been long but not surprising to those familiar with her remarkable backstory.Macario is used to making bold decisions to further her steady and goal-laden rise. Her family swapped São Luís for Brasília for her mother’s job as a surgeon when she was seven and, when Macario was 12 and no longer allowed to play with boys, her father decided to split the family. He, Macario and her brother Steve moved to San Diego in the US so she could play while her mother supported the family from afar. Continue reading...

Non-Americans – whose interests don’t necessarily align with the interests of the US – assert growing influence over American politicsIn 2017, Donald Trump repeatedly claimed without evidence that between 3 million and 5 million unauthorized immigrants had voted for Hillary Clinton. In the last few weeks, Trump has resurrected his lie during campaign rallies for Republican primary candidates he has endorsed – whipping up fears of “open borders and horrible elections”, and calling for stricter voter ID laws and proof of citizenship at the ballot box.Trump endorsees and wannabes are amplifying this lie. JD Vance, the Trump-backed winner of last week’s Ohio Republican senate primary, claimed that President Biden’s immigration policy has resulted in “more Democrat voters pouring into this country”.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

Brad Raffensperger, who resisted Trump’s call to ‘find’ extra votes in 2020, is seeking re-election against Jody Hice, who toes the ex-president’s lineHello and Happy Thursday,On Tuesday, Georgia voters will cast their ballots in what I believe is the most important primary election this year: the Republican primary for secretary of state. This morning, we published a story from reporting I did earlier this month about the race between incumbent Brad Raffensperger, the Republican who became nationally known for refusing to overturn the election results, and his Trump-backed challenger and big lie peddler, Congressman Jody Hice. Continue reading...