US news | The Guardian

Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch have both been accused of ethics violations – and John Roberts refuses to discuss the matter with CongressIt was a short letter. John Roberts, chief justice of the US supreme court, was brief in his missive to Democratic senator Dick Durbin, who chairs the Senate judiciary committee. Citing “separation of powers concerns and the importance of preserving judicial independence”, Roberts declined to appear before the committee to discuss disturbing recent revelations of ethics violations at the court.Congress is meant to exert checks on judicial power – to investigate or even impeach judges who abuse their office or interpret the law in ways that violate its spirit, and to affirm that the elected branches will hold more sway over policy than the appointed one. But the chief justice’s show of indifference to congressional oversight authority reflects a new reality: that there are now effectively no checks on the power of the court – at least none that Democrats have the political will to use – and that the justices can be assured that they will face no repercussions even if they act in flagrant violation of ethical standards. It seems that they intend to.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

On his show Carlson railed against immigration and LGBTQ+ rights and apologized for Putinist aggression. None of it is newFox News has finally broken ties with its most popular star, Tucker Carlson. His ousting has been bemoaned by some commentators, who have taken Carlson to be a rebellious anti-war populist, evading easy political characterization. But is it really so complicated to classify Carlson’s political ideology?In late February 2022, then Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson, in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, began a pro-Russia monologue urging his audience to ask themselves the question: “Why do I hate Putin so much?” The gist of Carlson’s comments about Russia’s leader is that Putin should not be regarded as an enemy. Instead, the real enemies of America are those who call white Americans racist, those who teach so-called critical race theory in schools, business elites who ship jobs abroad, and those who imposed Covid lockdowns on the United States.… It is time to turn from our quarrels and to build our White ramparts again. This alliance with foreign races means nothing but death to us. It is our turn to guard our heritage from Mongol and Persian and Moor, before we become engulfed in a limitless foreign sea. Our civilization depends on a united strength among ourselves; on strength too great for foreign enemies to challenge; on a Western Wall of race and arms which can hold back either a Genghis Khan or the infiltration of inferior blood; on an English fleet, a German air force, a French army, an American nation, standing together as guardians of our common heritage, sharing strength, dividing influence. Continue reading...

Time will tell who got the best haul of players in Kansas City from Thursday’s first round, but there were encouraging signs from Seattle, Houston and PhiladelphiaAfter months of rumor and speculation, Thursday night’s first round of the NFL draft featured less chaos than anticipated. There were few eyebrow-scorching picks and, instead, a steady stream of sensible selections.Let’s look at some of the winners from the opening night. Continue reading...

My baby is a pub regular, but sometimes I just want to be around adults – the parent v child-free divide is starker online than offThis morning I did something that I rarely do, for fear of inducing a full-body cringe the likes of which I have not experienced since, aged 10, I jumped on my dad’s back in the local swimming pool only to discover that it wasn’t him: I read one of my old columns. Written nearly a decade ago under the headline “I’ll drink to child-free pubs and cafes”, my twentysomething self grumbles about the presence of kids in adult spaces.Fast forward and I have a one-year-old who regards my local pub as an extension of his living room. I have sung him to sleep in the beer garden and breastfed him, rosé in hand, while sharing birth stories. Sometimes, I have looked up and seen an exclusion zone of empty tables around where we are sitting. Time makes hypocrites of us all.Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

In the grand tradition of his newspapers lasering in on public figures at their lowest moments, we really deserve to knowOn Page 3 of the Sun, I once saw the central i of the word “tit” asterisked out, not four inches away from a topless pair of the genuine article. So there’s always been a ludicrous coyness to Rupert Murdoch and his many works. But surely we are not really to believe that the media mogul this week ditched his highest-rating news anchor, Tucker Carlson, for referring to a woman as a “cunt” in an email? This is the take of the Wall Street Journal – proprietor: Mr R Murdoch – which explains: “Tucker Carlson’s Vulgar, Offensive Messages About Colleagues Helped Seal His Fate At Fox News”.Righto. It’s fair to say the Wall Street Journal is not alone in the quest to make sense of Murdoch’s recent behaviour. The week after he paid $787.5m to settle the lawsuit brought against Fox News by Dominion Voting Systems – Dominion’s lawyers were going to force him to take the stand – Murdoch sacked Carlson via his son Lachlan. Media outlets have been scrambling to find logical explanations for actions that arguably, to deploy a euphemism, defy logic. After all, this is a 92-year-old who only weeks ago was delighting us with news of his impending fifth marriage – a whirlwind engagement to a former dental nurse turned prison chaplain, which was hastily called off a mere fortnight later. Apparently, Murdoch had become “increasingly uncomfortable” with his fiancee’s “outspoken evangelical views”. Again: really? Continue reading...

The 2018 investigation into the then supreme court nominee claimed there was ‘no evidence’ behind claims of sexual assault. Plus, the legacy of Jerry Springer

This week there was the last ever Carpool Karaoke, more royal rumblings, and a pastry pursuitA milestone in television history this morning, as the last ever Carpool Karaoke, the hugely popular section of James Corden’s CBS Late Late Show in which he interviews music icons while driving them around, airs ahead of his final show. Put it down to lack of eye contact, novelty format, or the sheer balls of a host willing to chip in and duet with Celine Dion, but even for Corden-sceptics the feature was irresistible. The most viewed Carpool of all time was the 2016 episode starring Adele, which has been watched on YouTube by more than 260 million people. Adele is a hoot. Corden is – I can’t believe I’m saying this – delightful. It is a genuinely great piece of television. Continue reading...

Society is making strange decisions. Some in high office lose jobs and deserve to, but we also ignore others whose sins are egregiousWhat have the now former chair of the BBC, the Labour veteran Diane Abbott and the ousted chancellor Nadhim Zahawi all got in common? Indeed, what do they share with Boris Johnson, Dominic Raab and Matt Hancock?The answer is that they have all been accused of things that so upset people as to cause them to lose or risk losing their jobs. Failing to disclose having facilitated a loan, enjoying an unwise liaison, holding a contentious opinion: the misbehaviour in question varies, but all was deemed sufficiently significant to risk ruining their reputations or future careers – or at least for their organisations to be under pressure to see them depart to appease its critics. Continue reading...

Measures seek to limit third-party voter registration groups and will affect non-white voters, in latest wave of restrictionsFlorida Republicans are on the verge of passing new restrictions on groups that register voters, a move voting rights groups and experts say will make it harder for non-white Floridians to get on the rolls.The restrictions are part of a sweeping 96-page election bill the legislature is likely to send to Governor Ron DeSantis’s desk soon. The measure increases fines for third-party voter registration groups. It also shortens the amount of time the groups have to turn in any voter registration applications they collect from 14 days to 10. The bill makes it illegal for non-citizens and people convicted of certain felonies to “collect or handle” voter registration applications on behalf of third-party groups. Groups would also have to give each voter they register a receipt and be required to register themselves with the state ahead of each general election cycle. Under current law, they only have to register once and their registration remains effective indefinitely. Continue reading...

I understand the argument that our escalating climate crisis justifies direct action, but I can’t urge anyone to do things I wouldn't do myselfThere’s a fundamental principle that should apply to every conflict. Don’t urge others to do what you are not prepared to do yourself. How many wars would be fought if the presidents or prime ministers who declared them were obliged to lead their troops into battle?I can see why How to Blow Up a Pipeline, the book by Andreas Malm which has inspired a new film with the same title, has captured imaginations. It offers a lively and persuasive retelling of the history of popular protest, showing how violence and sabotage have been essential components of most large and successful transformations, many of which have been mischaracterised by modern campaigners as entirely peaceful. Continue reading...

One person was killed and five injured in the disaster, and 61 other parking structures are ‘immediately hazardous’Last Tuesday, a nearly 100-year-old four-story garage in Manhattan’s financial district caved in, killing the a building manager, Willis Moore, and injuring five others. An employee who survived the disaster told local reporters that he had witnessed long cracks in the garage’s concrete, and that Moore himself had been trying to warn the owners about the issue.The tragedy was a blaring wakeup call about the condition of New York City’s parking structures. The professional engineers who inspect garages say there may be more of them in need of immediate fixes. Continue reading...

Xi Jinping’s courting of both Moscow and Kyiv seems to be making headway – much to Washington’s chagrinXi Jinping’s phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskiy was a long time coming, but it should not have come as a surprise. Beijing is on everyone’s shortlist when it comes to prospective peacemakers in Ukraine. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, is no exception. “I know I can count on you to bring back Russia to reason and everyone back to the negotiating table,” Macron told the Chinese leader during their meeting in Beijing this month.Though Xi replied that he would call the Ukrainian president, he was in no rush. He has no illusions about the difficulty of serving as mediator in a war where Ukraine and Russia are in diametrically opposing positions. Yet China’s recent success in bringing about the normalisation of relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia may entice him to help engineer a diplomatic solution to the biggest war fought in Europe since 1945. But what would that solution look like? Continue reading...

Details emerge about shooting, in which shooter left note mentioned fatigue at ‘being rejected’ by womenThe man who stormed on to Michigan State University’s campus and shot three students to death before killing himself bought the ammunition fired during the attack only a few hours earlier, investigators announced on Thursday.Additionally, authorities said, the murderer had no personal or professional connection to the school, making his motive a mystery to them, despite his leaving a note which – among other things – complained about feeling rejected and not having sex during the last decade. Continue reading...

Advocates say it will cast welcome attention on a system mired in scandals of prisoner mistreatment and racial injusticeA United Nations human rights group is touring Los Angeles county jails on Friday, bringing international scrutiny to a detention system criticized for overcrowding, mistreatment and abuse of people with mental illnesses, and conditions described by civil rights groups as “barbaric”.A panel of experts appointed by the UN human rights council and formed after the murder of George Floyd is visiting LA as part of a two-week trip to cities across the US examining racial justice and police violence. In California, the investigators will meet with families of people killed by police and formerly incarcerated people. They will also enter the LA county jail system, the largest in the country, which is run by the LA sheriff’s department (LASD). Continue reading...

The 41% spike comes as the city closed an outreach center that stocked Narcan and allowed supervised drug useDrug-related deaths surged by 41% in San Francisco in the first quarter of this year – with one person dying of an accidental overdose every 10 hours, as the fentanyl crisis continues to ravage the US west coast.San Francisco saw 200 people die of overdoses in the past three months compared to 142 in the same months a year ago, according to reports by the city’s medical examiner. Continue reading...

Former vice-president’s proximity to the ex-president during the Capitol attack makes him a key witness in the criminal inquiryMike Pence testified before a federal grand jury on Thursday in Washington about Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, according to a source familiar with the matter, a day after an appeals court rejected a last-ditch motion to block his appearance.The former vice-president’s testimony lasted for around seven hours and took place behind closed doors, meaning the details of what he told the prosecutors hearing evidence in the case remains uncertain. Continue reading...

Vetoed by the governor but overridden by Republican legislators, the law comes amid a broader nationwide attack on trans rightsKansas enacted what may be the most sweeping transgender bathroom law in the US on Thursday after Republican lawmakers overrode the Democratic governor’s veto of the measure.The state’s governor, Laura Kelly, had blocked the bill, suggesting it was discriminatory and would hurt the state’s ability to attract businesses. But supporters had exactly the two-thirds majority they needed to pass the new law, which will take effect 1 July. Continue reading...

No decision on where Jack Teixeira should remain until trial but judge appears doubtful of arguments that he should be releasedA federal judge has delayed a decision on a detention hearing for the US air national guardsman suspected of leaking highly classified US intelligence documents.Federal prosecutors urged Judge David Hennessy to keep Jack Teixeira, 21, behind bars, arguing he could still pose a grave risk to US national security and have access to secret national defense information, during a nearly 90-minute trial on Thursday in Worcester, Massachusetts. Continue reading...

Basketball star says abilities as an athlete helped her get through ordeal and addressed arrest of journalist Evan GershkovichBrittney Griner got emotional quickly.Speaking to reporters for the first time since a nearly 10-month detainment in Russia on drug-related charges, the WNBA star had to take a moment to compose herself after being asked about her resiliency through the ordeal.Associated Press contributed to this report Continue reading...

The host synonymous with hand-to-mouth television was also a progressive political mind and groundbreaking changemakerI’ll never forget the time I went to a taping of The Jerry Springer Show with two of my closest high school pals. This was back in the 1990s, when Chicago was the center of the talkshow universe and Springer and Oprah were the hottest tickets in town. My parents, bless, wouldn’t have batted an eye if I said I was going to see the queen of daytime. But the king of sleaze? Up to now they wonder how I ever got their permission.Somewhere in my childhood bedroom, the ticket is sitting in a drawer with the actual episode title – not that the show headings stopped TV Guide from calling it “the worst show in the history of television”. Despite producers’ yeoman efforts to class up the spectacle for censors, it was the same show every day: somebody cheated, somebody didn’t know and we’re all about to find out. This one was no different – and still some of the most fun I’ve ever had. Continue reading...

One bill would ban its use in body cameras for 10 years, while the second could allow police to match images to the state driver’s license databaseIn 2020, Robert Williams was arrested for allegedly stealing thousands of dollars of watches. Detroit police had matched grainy surveillance footage of the crime to Williams’ driver’s license photo using a facial recognition service. But Williams wasn’t the robber. At the time of the robbery, he was driving home from work.Williams’ arrest was the first documented case of someone being wrongfully detained based on facial recognition technology, which is used by police departments and government agencies across the US. Continue reading...

Trump lawyer’s cross-examination focuses on early draft of advice columnist’s book and email exchanges with friend during civil trialThe advice columnist E Jean Carroll has denied that she falsely accused Donald Trump of raping her in order to sell books and for political ends.On the third day of Carroll’s civil suit against the former president for battery and defamation, Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, put it to her that she made her allegation the centrepiece of a book proposal she was trying to sell.Associated Press contributed reporting Continue reading...

Florida governor aims to enhance image before expected formal bid for Republican nominationRon DeSantis is due to spend Friday in Britain on the last leg of a world tour aimed at enhancing his foreign policy credentials before an expected run for the Republican nomination.Formally, DeSantis will meet the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, and the business secretary, Kemi Badenoch, in his role as governor of Florida, the third most populous US state. Continue reading...

Till, 14, beaten and murdered in 1955 crime that shocked America, was accused of lewd comment in Mississippi grocery storeThe white woman whose allegations resulted in the torture and murder of the Black teen Emmett Till, an unpunished killing that outraged America and fueled the civil rights movement, has died.On Thursday, the Calcasieu parish coroner’s office in Louisiana confirmed the death of Carolyn Bryant Donham, Mississippi Today reported. She was 88 and was reported to have had cancer, in hospice care. Continue reading...

Family of famed TV figure and former mayor of Cincinnati announces he died ‘peacefully’ at home in Chicago on ThursdayThe talkshow host Jerry Springer, a former mayor of Cincinnati whose work was vastly influential in daytime TV worldwide, has died. He was 79.Springer’s family said he died “peacefully” on Thursday at home in Chicago. Continue reading...

Jerome Powell appears to address inflation and Russian central bank in video broadcast on Russian state televisionThe chair of the US Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, recently held a call with Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president who is leading his country’s fight against Russian invaders.Or so Powell thought. Continue reading...

Florida governor attempting to weaken Disney’s self-governing powers after entertainment giant opposed his ‘don’t say gay’ lawDisney’s lawsuit over his attempt to seize its self-governing powers is a political stunt with no legal merit, the increasingly embattled hard-right Florida governor Ron DeSantis, told reporters on Thursday.“I don’t think the suit has merit,” the likely Republican White House hopeful said, adding: “The days of putting one company on a pedestal with no accountability are over in the state of Florida.” Continue reading...

The slow extinction of physical media is bad news for movie fans. We’re told that “everything’s streaming now”, but it’s simply not true

Regulators clear capsules for adults who face risks from C diff, bacteria that can cause nausea, cramps and diarrheaUS health officials have approved the first pill made from healthy bacteria found in human waste to fight dangerous gut infections – an easier way of performing so-called fecal transplants.The treatment from Seres Therapeutics provides a simpler, rigorously tested version of stool-based procedures that some specialists have used for more than a decade. Continue reading...

David Gianforte, who uses he/they pronouns, said they urged father Greg to stand up against ‘unjust, immoral’ legislationThe son of the Republican governor of Montana, Greg Gianforte, met his father in his office to lobby him to reject several bills that would harm transgender people in the state, the Montana Free Press reported.David Gianforte told the paper he identifies as nonbinary and uses he/they pronouns – the first time they disclosed their sexuality publicly. They told the outlet they felt an obligation to use their relationship with their father to stand up for LGBTQ+ people in the state. Continue reading...

Advice columnist is seeking damages in civil lawsuit against former president for alleged 1990s sexual assaultThe advice columnist E Jean Carroll is expected to face a tough cross-examination from Donald Trump’s lawyers on Thursday, following her searing testimony to a New York jury hearing her accusation of rape against the former president.Carroll is seeking damages in her civil lawsuit for battery after Trump allegedly sexually assaulted her in a New York department store changing room in the 1990s. Continue reading...

Decision suspends rule imposed by Republican state attorney general hours before it was due to take effectA Missouri judge on Wednesday temporarily halted enforcement of a first-of-its-kind rule that restricts access to gender-affirming healthcare for transgender children and adults, hours before it was set to take effect.The rule, introduced by Andrew Bailey, the Republican state attorney general, would place requirements on minors and adults before they are allowed to receive gender-affirming treatments such as puberty blockers or hormones. It was set to take effect on Thursday, but transgender Missourians and healthcare providers sued to stop it. Continue reading...

President keeps an eye on cable news during informal meetings with staff, report suggests, but he’s no TV addict like TrumpDonald Trump may not, in fact, have spent hours as president watching the Gorilla Channel but he did watch TV for hours at a time in a room off the Oval Office, even on January 6 as his supporters attacked Congress and the republic was shaken.Joe Biden, according to a new report, is not nearly so glued to the box – but he does have a tiny, secret TV. Continue reading...

Residents in Antioch, California, have been stunned by the investigation that has exposed nearly half the 99-officer squadFrom an early age, Shagoofa Khan felt propelled to make her community a better place. Growing up in Antioch – a small city one hour north-east of San Francisco, where the industrial landscape of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta meets the rolling pastures of Contra Costa county – the now-22-year-old activist witnessed the effects of racial and socioeconomic inequality on a daily basis.At 15, after seeing peers succumb to gang violence, she trained and worked as a teen conflict manager. Once she graduated from high school, Khan – who is the child of immigrants from Pakistan and Afghanistan – ran for local office as a school board trustee, and later became a student senator at Los Medanos Community College. Continue reading...

A wave of ‘free college’ initiatives is sweeping the country but how best to support students financially remains controversialGovernor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan announced proudly in August that 100,000 people had applied for her state’s free college program, Michigan Reconnect.The program, which covers community college tuition for Michigan residents aged 25 or older to get them to go back to school, was “a gamechanger”, Whitmer said, “not only for the people enrolled in the program, but also for their families, small businesses and the state”. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Florida governor’s team expected to be led by adviser Generra Peck and include top Republican strategistsFlorida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, is quietly assembling a senior staff for an expected 2024 presidential campaign that will be headed by his top political adviser, Generra Peck, and around seven other Republican operatives serving as top advisers, according to two people familiar with the matter.The leadership roster remains subject to change since the campaign – which could launch as soon as the start of next month – does not yet technically exist and most salaries are being paid, for the moment, through the state Republican party. Continue reading...

Advice columnist says former president ‘shattered my reputation’ and says alleged attack left her unable to enjoy romantic life. Plus, South Korean president sings American Pie at state dinner with Biden

The 21-year-old Iraqi, who lived by a smoke-choked oilfield, died of cancer before he got to address the fossil fuel giant’s shareholders. His message must be heardAli Hussein Jaloud, a 21-year-old Iraqi who lives next to one of BP’s biggest oilfields, was meant to ask a question at the company’s annual shareholder meeting today. He was going to challenge the CEO on why his company continues to poison his neighbourhood with cancer-causing pollution. But, just a few days ago, Ali died of a form of leukaemia that has been linked to chemicals released by the burning of fossil fuels. His grieving father will ask why BP did not use its vast profits to help save his life.Over the past two years, my fellow investigator Owen Pinnell and I got to know Ali while making a documentary for BBC News Arabic, Under Poisoned Skies, which revealed the deadly impact of gas flaring in southern Iraq, including at BP’s Rumaila oilfield where Ali lives, surrounded by oil company-patrolled checkpoints. We also found out that Rumaila has more gas flaring than any other oilfield in the world. Continue reading...

Our writers take a look at the best prospects coming out of college, and which teams need to get it right in the coming daysBryce Young, QB, Alabama. I’m guessing you’ve heard that Young is short. And he’s slender too: he looks more like a yoga instructor than an NFL quarterback. But Young is a pocket wizard. There have been comparisons to Patrick Mahomes’ bobbing and weaving style in the pocket, but even those fall short: Young is a more sudden manipulator than the bulkier Mahomes. He creates space when it appears there isn’t any. That’s his superpower, and why he’s separated himself from the other QBs at the top of the class. OC Continue reading...

Think of those presenters who reigned at Fox News before: Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck. There’s an endless supply of horrorIt is a truism of the US news industry that no one is bigger than the network itself, an insight that Donald Trump – binned by Rupert Murdoch last year – may still be painfully processing, and which this week became suddenly clear to Tucker Carlson.The former cable news host, who, it was announced on Monday, had “agreed to part ways” with the network, has hired an aggressive Hollywood lawyer – and in line with the preferred volume of the man generally, seems unlikely to go quietly. Even as the share price at Fox dropped in response to the news, wiping $500m (£400m) off its value in apparent flattery of Carlson, the question remains pertinent as to how much he, and those like him, matter as individuals.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The fired Fox News host has cash, fame and appeal. The Lincoln Project co-founder says Trump and DeSantis should be worriedThe most irresponsible thing you can do these days is look away from the worst-case scenario.” So says Rick Wilson. In the week Fox News fired Tucker Carlson, Wilson’s worst-case scenario is this: a successful Carlson campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.Wilson is a longtime Republican operative turned co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project and a media company, Resolute Square, for which he hosts the Enemies List podcast. Continue reading...

When I started at work I loved being mentored. But younger people seem to know more and be more confident than meWhen I started in broadcasting, I always seemed to be the youngest person in the room. I liked it this way. Yes, I was occasionally patronised a bit, and doubtless got on my elders’ nerves, in a who-does-this-kid-think-he-is kind of way. But I didn’t mind being talked down to one jot. After all, they knew a lot more than me about things and I had plenty to learn.This was in the BBC’s business news department. The best of them were only too happy to sit me down and talk me through one of the many topics I didn’t understand. I spent many hours learning at the feet of gifted correspondents such as Rory Cellan-Jones, Simon Gompertz and Jackie Hardgrave. I’ll for ever be grateful to them. They looked out for the work experience kid, professionally and socially. When I was hungover, they probably gave me Calpol. It was good to be the junior; I felt as if I was ahead of the game. Continue reading...