US news | The Guardian

Think of the images that defined our understanding of war or protest. Similar ones can tell the truth about this disasterOpen a British newspaper as a heatwave looms and you’ll likely see headlines about the unprecedented nature of the upcoming heat, the cost to lives and livelihoods, and even deaths caused by the extreme heat. But accompanying the same story you’ll also likely see images of people having fun in the sun – kids splashing in city fountains, crowded beaches, blue seas, azure skies and holiday happiness.

Celebrity chef Mario Batali was acquitted on indecent assault charges but the industry is a byword for workplace harassmentThe Spotted Pig, the 100-seat gastropub in New York’s trendy West Village, is under renovation. It was, until the restaurant closed in 2020, the site of a notorious, third-floor space dubbed “the rape room” by several employees who claimed that the private dining enclave was ground zero for sexual harassment by management.The rape room lives on as a darkly symbolic story in the city’s hospitality business. Mario Batali, the celebrity chef and investor in Spotted Pig, was a frequent visitor and also accused of criminal behavior on the third floor, including groping and kissing a woman who appeared to be unconscious in 2008. Continue reading...

Richer nations will have to share the spoils if the proposed Nations Championship is to finally get off the ground and change rugby union’s futureTheoretically this was the week when rugby entered a brave new world. It has certainly been a momentous-sounding few days courtesy of World Rugby’s historic decision to hold – for men and women respectively – the 2031 and 2033 World Cups in the USA, the tantalising possibility of a sold-out Twickenham for a women’s final in 2025 and renewed optimism about a Nations League tournament finally becoming reality.At the very least the tectonic plates of the old sport are shifting. Which sport would not relish a primetime World Cup final framed against the Manhattan skyline or access to a land of opportunity for both sexes? It is a universe away from the pie and pint amateur days when a Barbarians Easter tour to Penarth was pretty much the height of cross-border sophistication. Continue reading...

John Fetterman, a proponent of marijuana legalization and sentencing reform, is the frontrunner in his party’s primaryJohn Fetterman isn’t like most politicians, and not just because of his tattoos, his goatee, his 6ft 8in frame and his penchant for sweatsuits.What really sets the frontrunner in Pennsylvania’s Democratic Senate primary apart is his demeanor. Fetterman is a bit awkward, the opposite of the stereotypical smooth-talking politician. He tends to stumble through debates, and in personal interactions he doesn’t always hold eye contact. On the campaign trail, it sometimes looks as though he just doesn’t want to be here. And maybe that’s part of the secret to his success. Continue reading...

A roundup of the coverage of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from a march against femicide in Mexico City to an African migrant sit-in in Tunis Continue reading...

Bans Off Our Bodies marches follow the Senate’s failure to pass legislation protecting the right to an abortionWith the US supreme court apparently poised to overturn the 1973 landmark decision which made abortion legal, hundreds of thousands of people across America are planning to take to the streets to protest the looming decision.A coalition of groups such as Planned Parenthood, UltraViolet, MoveOn and the Women’s March are organizing Saturday’s demonstrations, whose rallying cry is “Bans Off Our Bodies”. More than 370 protests are planned, including in Washington DC, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Continue reading...

From the grassroots to MLR and on to the corridors of power, rugby lovers are celebrating. But they know hard work loomsFrom the US men’s and women’s national teams to the boardroom at Meta, from the grassroots of the American game up to Capitol Hill, reaction to the award of the men’s Rugby World Cup 2031 and the women’s event in 2033 was the same.Naya Tapper, a sevens Olympian and 15s Eagles wing, spoke for many: “I think it shows the growth of the sport and how far it’s come – and how far we have to go.” Continue reading...

The number of survivors – most of them migrants from Haiti – is now 38, with a death toll of 11The US Coast Guard has found an additional seven survivors from the capsizing of a vessel carrying Haitian migrants near Puerto Rico, a coastguard spokesperson said on Friday, taking the total number of survivors to 38 with the death toll remaining at 11.The vessel, which was first spotted on Thursday north of Desecheo Island, an uninhabited island in the archipelago of Puerto Rico, the US territory, was carrying mostly Haitian migrants as well as two citizens of the Dominican Republic, a spokesman said. Continue reading...

Gonzalo Lopez stabbed the driver and fled on Thursday as inmates were bussed through a rural area between Houston and DallasA convicted murderer serving a life prison sentence in Texas stabbed a transport bus driver and escaped Thursday, setting off a frantic manhunt that was ongoing more than a day later.The getaway happened as officers bussed Gonzalo Lopez, 46, and other inmates through a rural area between Houston and Dallas about 1.20pm. Lopez somehow slipped out of his shackles, used an unspecified sharp object to stab the driver in the hand and lunged for the wounded officer’s service pistol, Robert Hurst of the Texas department of criminal justice told reporters. Continue reading...

Protests have been occurring since the leak as organizations prepare for a nationwide day of marches on SaturdayPro-choice demonstrators continue to turn up outside the homes of supreme court justices, with the latest target being conservative Amy Coney Barrett, who signed on to a majority draft opinion that was leaked to reveal an intention to overturn the constitutional right to seek an abortion in the US.“The right to your own body – to do what you want with your own body – is the most personal freedom you can have,” one protester said from among a group wearing long red “handmaid” capes and white bonnets earlier this week to symbolize forced childbearing, as members of the Virginia state police watched nearby. Continue reading...

Wind-driven flames tearing through dry vegetation exacerbated by the climate crisis in California and New MexicoExtreme conditions have fueled an explosive start to what’s expected to be yet another intense season of big blazes, with months to go before wildfire threats typically peak across the west.Wildfires have charred close to 1.3m acres nationwide this year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), outpacing the 10-year average for this time of year by more than 71%. Predictions for the rest of the spring do not bode well for the west, with the drought and warmer weather brought on by the climate crisis worsening wildfire danger. Continue reading...

Billie Eilish and Megan Thee Stallion denounce likely overturning of abortion rights: ‘We will not go back – and we will not back down’Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, Megan Thee Stallion, Olivia Rodrigo and Selena Gomez joined a slew of fellow music stars and other celebrities to take out a full-page advertisement in Friday’s New York Times decrying the looming fall of nationwide abortion rights.“The supreme court is planning to overturn Roe v Wade,” read the ad, referring to the landmark 1973 ruling that in effect legalized abortion across the US. “Our power to plan our own futures and control our own bodies depends on our ability to access sexual and reproductive health care, including abortion.” Continue reading...

Before taking its decision, the select committee gamed out scenarios: what happens if Republicans defy the subpoenas?The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack made a political and legal gambit when it issued unprecedented subpoenas that compelled five Republican members of Congress to reveal inside information about Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election.The move sets into motion an extraordinary high-stakes showdown of response and counter-response for both the subpoenaed House Republicans – the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, Scott Perry, Andy Biggs and Mo Brooks – and the panel itself. Continue reading...

No one has been held to account in Israel for media deaths. That is bad for its democracyThe shooting of Al Jazeera’s Shireen Abu Aqleh – one of the Arab world’s best-known journalists – is not only a sad and devastating blow to friends and admirers, but a deadly reminder that press freedoms in the Holy Land are under attack. Abu Aqleh was among a group of journalists covering a raid by the Israel Defense Forces in the West Bank city of Jenin on Wednesday when, according to the reporters present, soldiers shot her in the head. She and her producer (who was shot in the back) were wearing vests marked with the word “press”. Her Qatar-based employer accused Israeli soldiers of shooting Abu Aqleh “in cold blood”.Israel’s response was a familiar one: claim the shooter was a Palestinian. This approach was largely abandoned when the army’s evidence was debunked. Israel now says its troops may have “accidentally” shot her. But public arguments over ballistics suggest Israel thinks guilt must be proved beyond reasonable doubt – or blame for the killing cannot be assigned. Continue reading...

The prime minister claims trouble in Northern Ireland is the EU’s fault. There’s an impolite word for thatIt’s taken a while, but I’ve finally spotted one of those “Brexit opportunities” cited in the job title of the cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg. Thanks to the UK’s departure from the European Union, the British government has gifted us with an apparently bottomless supply of industrial-strength bullshit.I use the term in the sense distilled by the eminent philosopher Harry G Frankfurt, whose bestselling treatise, On Bullshit, defined it as speech intended to persuade without regard for truth. While your basic liar cares about the truth enough to hide it, the pedlar of bullshit is unbothered whether their words are true or false, so long as the listener is persuaded. Insouciance towards the facts is the essential trait. The Brexit project was always rich in bullshit – the £350m on the side of the bus could have come straight from Frankfurt’s essay – so it’s hardly a surprise that this government of Brexiters has become a world-beating producer of the stuff.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnistHe will join a Guardian Live online event on 21 June to discuss the life of Rudolf Vrba, a young man who escaped Auschwitz and helped save over 200,000 lives. Book tickets here Continue reading...

The killing shook every Palestinian, and at her funeral we were clubbed and kicked. But we will fight for all she stood forI am writing these words having just returned from the funeral of Shireen Abu Aqleh in Jerusalem. It is hard to describe the exact emotions which every Palestinian is feeling. One thing is certain: this has been the most incredible outpouring of emotion I’ve seen in Palestine.Shireen was known to every Palestinian household. During the second intifada – a formative experience for many Palestinians – she was the face that delivered us the news. The TV screen became a window to everything going on: the F16 strikes, the Apache helicopter strikes, the tanks on the streets. And Shireen was out there, bringing the news to our homes.Jalal Abukhater is a writer from Jerusalem Continue reading...

On Wednesday, I will be put on a Home Office flight, torn from my five children. How can I tell them I’m never coming home?There are few people who never make any mistakes in life. Most of those who do something wrong admit to it, apologise and are allowed to move on. But if you’re Black and you come from Jamaica it’s a different story.I made a mistake and because of it, on Wednesday 18 May, I will be put on a Home Office deportation flight to the country of my birth and torn apart from my five British children and my family.Mark Nelson is a car mechanic and father. He has lived in the UK since 2000 and is facing deportationAs told to Diane TaylorSince the publication of this piece, the Guardian has been informed that Mark Nelson’s removal directions are being deferred Continue reading...

When I competed in 2010, I could not have imagined I’d be forced to flee a Russian invasion with my young children

President meets manufacturers to urge increased production amid shortage that weighs heavily on lower-income familiesJoe Biden has stepped up his administration’s response to a nationwide baby formula shortage that has forced parents into online groups to swap and sell to each other to keep their babies fed.The US president discussed with executives from leading manufacturers Gerber and Reckitt how they could increase production and how his administration could help, and talked with leaders from retail giants Walmart and Target about how to restock shelves and address regional disparities in access to formula, the White House said. Continue reading...

The lost mobile that could have explained it all, the jaw-dropping quotes, the battle of the outfits … the only ones benefiting from this libel case are the rubberneckersThere are battles. There are libel battles. And then there is … Wagnarok. Yesterday afternoon, several hours into her cross-examination in the high court, Rebekah Vardy returned from an emotional break in proceedings to observe from the witness box: “It’s been a very long few days.” Yeah, well. Chat shit get banged.It was Rebekah’s husband, Jamie Vardy, who first uttered that deathless adage, back in 2011 when he was playing non-league football, though weirdly he wasn’t actually making a heavily ironic comment on Britain’s libel laws. Spool forward to the present day, though, and we have to ask: which shit-chatter is getting banged in the high court? Is it defendant Coleen Rooney, against whom Rebekah chose – actually chose! – to bring this action, with Vardy’s pretrial legal costs alone estimated at £1m? Or is the shit-chatter in fact the sender of messages including “[I] would love to leak those stories”, and “I want paying for this”? Or, to put it much more iconically, is the shit-chatter … Rebekah Vardy’s account? Continue reading...

American probably faces tough summer decisions but his focus is on the FA Cup final and making this ‘a pretty successful season’Which direction is Christian Pulisic going in? For most of his career, it was a question that preoccupied opposition defenders; more recently, it is one Pulisic has perhaps begun to ask himself. Pulisic is 23 years old, a player of rare poise and skill, by common consent the greatest male footballer to come out of the United States. Back home his face is used to sell energy drinks, computer games, burritos and peanut butter chocolates. The path to stardom has been blazed and beaten with an inexorable momentum. Now he’s here, a Champions League winner at one of the biggest clubs in the world. And yet.Pulisic has started only 12 league games this season. A few days before this interview his father, Mark, went on Twitter to express – and then quickly retract – his disappointment at his son’s treatment at Chelsea. The FA Cup semi-final, the Club World Cup final, the Champions League second leg against Real Madrid: Pulisic was left on the bench each time. “The sad thing is he loves this club, teammates, and London,” Pulisic senior wrote. “Puts his heart and soul into being a pro. Onwards and upwards my boy ... big six months ahead.” Continue reading...

Officials with extensive power over election administration in at least seven counties of crucial swing state found to have promoted falsehood that 2020 election was stolen by BidenThe effort to install local election officials who promote Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen has seen particular success in the crucial swing state of Georgia, where at least eight county election officials are promoters of the falsehood, a Guardian investigation has found.The officials span the state, from suburban counties outside Atlanta to rural counties near the Tennessee and Alabama borders. All have substantial power over the administration of local, state and national elections in their counties, often with little oversight beyond scantly attended public meetings and small-town newspapers. Continue reading...

Vadim Shysimarin, a 21-year-old Russian commander of the Kantemirovskaya tank division, is charged with murdering a 62-year-old Ukrainian civilian

Conservatives and corporate media pundits want to use a Red Scare statute to arrest people demonstrating against the looming anti-abortion victoryEven as the Democrats’ feeble legislative attempt to codify federal protections for abortion rights goes down in flames, many Washington elites are directing their attention and anger towards the same target: no, not rightwing judges reaching their ideological hands into millions of people’s bodies, but instead the protesters peacefully demonstrating outside the homes of supreme court justices who are about to overturn Roe v Wade.Prominent Republican lawmakers, conservative operatives and Beltway pundits are demanding the government arrest demonstrators – and to do so, they are citing a McCarthy-era statute passed to stop people from protesting against the prosecutions of alleged communists. Ignored in the discourse is a past ruling from the supreme court effectively blessing conservative protests at the homes of abortion clinic workers. Continue reading...

In California, the state with the strongest legal protections, funds, distance and lack of information can still present barriersIn the aftermath of the leaked supreme court document fortelling the end to federal abortion protections, California geared up to fight.“California will not stand idly by”, the state’s governor and legislative leaders said in a joint statement. As in other liberal-leaning states, officials and abortion providers vowed to ramp up abortion protections and turn California into an abortion safe haven. Continue reading...

The party’s leaders came of age in a distant era and haven’t grasped that today’s Republican party belongs to the extreme rightThe population of the United States is much younger than that of most European countries, but its political establishment is much older. The 2020 presidential election was fought between 74-year-old Donald Trump and 77-year-old Joe Biden – compare that to 53-year-old Marine Le Pen and 44-year-old Emmanuel Macron in last month’s French presidential election. The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, is 71, while minority leader Mitch McConnell is 80. In the generally younger House of Representatives, the majority leader, Nancy Pelosi, is 82, making minority leader Kevin McCarthy look like a spring chicken at a mere 57. This is not just a problem for the functioning of the democratic system; it endangers the survival of it.While the majority of political leaders in the US are over 65, only a small minority of the population – 16.9% – is. This is a serious problem for the representativeness of the political system. Not only are previous generations much less diverse in terms of ethnicity and race, they have very different ideological and partisan profiles. Obviously, there is nothing new to this “rule by the elderly”, but it is increasingly threatening not just satisfaction with the democratic system but the system itself. Continue reading...

In an era of polarization, candidates posing with guns and using extreme language about opponents threatens more violenceOn 25 April, the former Missouri governor Eric Greitens, now running for US Senate, posted a video on Twitter of him and Donald Trump Jr, firing semi-automatic rifles at a range.“Striking fear in the hearts of liberals everywhere,” the former president’s son said. Continue reading...

The schedule for the 2022 season was unveiled on Thursday night and there’s no shortage of delicious matchups on offerThe NFL released its full 2022 schedule on Thursday night to add to what’s been a rollicking and unpredictable offseason. Here’s a lookahead to what should be some of the most entertaining matchups of the upcoming season. Continue reading...

Stores are running out of baby formula due to a combination of short- and long-term problems hitting the biggest brandsMany parents are hunting for infant formula because of a combination of short- and long-term problems that has hit most of the biggest US brands.Millions of babies in the US rely on formula, which is the only source of nutrition recommended for infants who are not exclusively breastfed. Continue reading...

Thirty-one people were rescued, with the effort to find more still underway as total number of those aboard remains unclearA boat loaded with suspected migrants capsized north of an uninhabited island near Puerto Rico and 11 people had been confirmed dead while 31 others were rescued Thursday, authorities said.It wasn’t immediately clear how many people were aboard the boat when it turned over, said US coast guard spokesman Ricardo Castrodad. He said a “mass rescue effort” was still underway. Continue reading...

Challenging weather hampers firefighting in New Mexico, while in California, wealthy coastal enclave goes up in flamesExtreme fire conditions are continuing to fuel a massive wildfire in northern New Mexico, making it difficult for crews to contain the largest blaze in the US, which grew to nearly 260,000 acres acres on Thursday.The continued destruction came as a smaller fire broke out in California, destroying more than 20 homes, many of them multimillion-dollar mansions, in the coastal community of Laguna Niguel. Continue reading...

Democratic and Republican Senate leaders both supported package but Paul objected to scale of spendingThe top Democrat and Republican in the US Senate joined forces in a rare moment of unity on Thursday in an attempt to pass $40bn in aid for Ukraine, only to be stymied by a single Republican lawmaker: the Kentucky libertarian Rand Paul.Faced with the prospect of an extended delay for the package that passed the House of Representatives on Tuesday, the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, and his Republican counterpart, Mitch McConnell, sought to move forward on the aid package only to be blocked by Paul, a fiscal hawk who objects to the amount of spending proposed. Continue reading...

A wildfire in southern California has destroyed more than 20 houses, many of them multimillion-dollar mansions, in the coastal community of Laguna Niguel, 50 miles south of Los Angeles.

Newspaper decries ‘egregious’ move by DoJ to obtain details of Stephanie Kirchgaessner as part of investigation into media leaksThe US justice department secretly issued a subpoena to gain access to details of the phone account of a Guardian reporter as part of an aggressive leak investigation into media stories about an official inquiry into the Trump administration’s child separation policy at the southern border.Leak investigators issued the subpoena to obtain the phone number of Stephanie Kirchgaessner, the Guardian’s investigations correspondent in Washington. The move was carried out without notifying the newspaper or its reporter, as part of an attempt to ferret out the source of media articles about a review into family separation conducted by the Department of Justice’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz. Continue reading...

Chair Bennie Thompson says panel has been ‘forced to take this step’ as Kevin McCarthy complains investigation ‘not legitimate’The House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol has issued unprecedented subpoenas to five Republican members of Congress, seeking to compel their cooperation with the inquiry into Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.The select committee empowered the chairman, Bennie Thompson, to move ahead with subpoenas to the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Mo Brooks of Alabama. Continue reading...

Governor Gavin Newsom wants $57m for organizations offering the procedure to the uninsured and for reproductive health outreachCalifornia’s governor has announced a new reproductive health spending plan, dedicating an additional $57m to prepare for an influx of people from other states seeking abortions in California.About $40m in Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget would fund grants for abortion providers offering care to low-income patients without health insurance. An additional $15m would go to help community-based organizations do sexual and reproductive health outreach and education. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Influential representatives likely to underline Biden’s commitment to defend Good Friday agreementA delegation of influential US congress representatives will fly to London within days amid growing concern in the White House about spiralling tensions over the Northern Ireland protocol, the Guardian can reveal.With the UK government poised to table legislation next week which could revoke parts of the protocol, arrangements are being made for at least half a dozen representatives from the US Congress to fly to Europe for a series of meetings in Brussels, Dublin, London and Belfast. Continue reading...

Collection to include Ken doll with vitiligo, as Mattel hopes to help children ‘understand and celebrate the importance of inclusion’In a new set of firsts for Barbie, the latest in its “most diverse and inclusive” doll line yet will include a Barbie with hearing aids and a Ken doll with vitiligo, a condition where skin loses its pigment cells.Mattel’s global head of Barbie Dolls, Lisa McKnight, said in a statement: “It’s important for kids to see themselves reflected in product and to encourage play with dolls that don’t resemble them, to help them understand and celebrate the importance of inclusion.” Continue reading...

US manufacturer forced to close Michigan plant after reports of illness and death that prompted federal investigationA major US manufacturer of baby food has said that it could take six to eight weeks for its products to reach shelves following a widespread recall, exacerbating a shortage of baby formula.Abbott Laboratories, which makes baby food and formula, shut its manufacturing facility in Sturgis, Michigan, in February following a federal investigation after it recalled three baby-formula products amid reports of infant illness, including two infants who died. Continue reading...

Jalen Randle was shot as he exited a vehicle and was being pursued because he was wanted on three felony warrants, police sayAn attorney for the family of a 29-year-old Black man who was fatally shot last month by a Houston police officer said an independent autopsy shows he was shot in the back of his neck.Jalen Randle was shot on 27 April as he exited a vehicle, police said. Police said he was being pursued because he was wanted on three felony warrants. Continue reading...