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LAFC are off to a muddled start, Houston have a creative dynamo and Atlanta United are back in championship contentionPrepare your rage. Is it prepared? OK, great.Welcome back to the Guardian's MLS Power Rankings, where I have a beef with your specific team and your specific team alone. Now, as a reminder, these aren't your standard, run-of-the-mill power rankings. We're still ranking teams from worst to first. But along with the rankings, we're diving deep into a handful of teams from around the league who are doing particularly interesting things. Continue reading...

Bishop J Douglas Deshotel issued the order after Scott Peyton had resigned from his post, but the abusive priest was not censuredA Louisiana man who resigned as a Roman Catholic deacon after a priest at whose side he served sexually molested his son has been excommunicated from the church by his local diocese, a remarkably harsh punishment that his child's abuser does not appear to have faced.Scott Peyton's excommunication from the Catholic church at the hands of bishop J Douglas Deshotel comes as the latter's Lafayette diocese has asked Louisiana's supreme court to strike down a law that retroactively and temporarily eliminated filing deadlines for lawsuits demanding damages for childhood sexual abuse from years ago. Continue reading...

To defeat Trumpism, progressives must crib from FDR's book and call out economic inequality and plutocracyWe know now that government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have [its] forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hatred for me - and I welcome their hatred."President Franklin D Roosevelt - the cousin of a beloved former president and scion of two prominent New York families - was an unlikely tribune of economic populism. But amid the devastation wrought by the Great Depression, he understood that the only way to show millions of working Americans that he really had their back was to put a target on the back of his own class, economic elites. Continue reading...

Republican former New Jersey governor coy on whether he is considering 2024 ballot run with centrist No Labels groupChris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, who mounted a failed, explicitly anti-Trump challenge for the Republican presidential nomination, refused to rule out running on a third-party No Labels ticket, a step most observers rate more likely to damage Joe Biden than Donald Trump.Appearing on The Axe Files, a podcast hosted by the former Barack Obama adviser David Axelrod, Christie was asked if he was considering a No Labels run for the White House. Continue reading...

The UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, has suggested the Aukus pact and Nato alliance must get into the best possible shape to increase their chances of surviving Donald Trump's potential return to the White House. Speaking after high-level talks in Australia, Cameron was careful to avoid criticising the former US president and presumptive Republican nominee for 2024, saying it was 'up to America who they choose as their president'. The comments were in response to a question about whether the election of Trump in November would affect the Aukus agreement that was sealed with the Biden administration in March last year

Like every other US sports league, baseball pushes betting on its fans at every turn. Now its biggest star is associated with a gambling fiascoThis is Major League Baseball's worst nightmare. The face of the league, its one, true international star, who this past offseason joined one of its biggest teams on a $700m contract, is associated with allegations around an illegal sports betting operation.The story so far: the Los Angeles Dodgers fired Ippei Mizuhara, the interpreter for Shohei Ohtani, the team's two-way phenom, on Wednesday after an investigation revealed $4.5m in wire transfers sent from Ohtani's bank account to a California betting organization that is now under federal investigation. Continue reading...

The league can't continue to pretend its replacement officials are up to the usual standard as errors and controversies pile upManagers are known to talk about referees. In Major League Soccer, though, the discussion around officiating has entered a new realm. The league's regular referees are sitting at home amid a lockout that shows no sign of ending anytime soon. Games are being refereed by replacement officials drafted in from the lower levels of US soccer, Turkey, Poland, Jamaica and other leagues, and people are starting to notice.CF Montreal head coach Laurent Courtois had a long list of complaints after watching his team lose 4-3 to the Chicago Fire. Twenty-two added minutes, red card on the [Chicago] goalkeeper that isn't given, their third goal came from a corner that shouldn't have been, their first goal was offside," he reeled off. Something was taken away from my guys." Continue reading...

Kneejerk criticism of regimes in Russia, China or India may make us feel better, but there's no evidence it is making the world a safer placeThe west's derisive reporting of Vladimir Putin's election victory this week was a mark of his success. It was described as an abuse of democracy, rigged", fixed" and a sham". The other candidates were shadows, while Putin's true opponents were imprisoned, exiled or dead. According to this narrative, the 87% who voted for him were mere victims of coercion, the queues of silent protesters were the stars.Putin's vote had nothing to do with democracy. It was a rerun of his 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, a global dressing-up, a rallying of support. As he celebrated his win to an adoring crowd in Red Square on Monday, we saw Putin as the new Ivan the Terrible against a backdrop of Ivan's St Basil's cathedral. He even made an offhand quip about his murdered rival Navalny. The image was of absolute power smilingly defying the enemy. Two years ago, he was supposedly crippled by western sanctions. We don't hear that now.Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Shooting of 15-year-old beautiful soul' in California revives scrutiny on law enforcement abuse of youth with disabilitiesWhen Ryan Gainer was diagnosed with autism as a toddler, he was nonverbal, and his family all learned sign language to communicate with him. But after the southern California boy learned how to speak at around age four, he was a ball of energy" who never stopped talking, his older sister Rachel said.He loved saying hi" to neighbors and strangers alike, and as a young teen was known as the student who greeted everyone with a good morning" and a smile. Continue reading...

Skylar Meade and Nicholas Umphenour arrested 130 miles away as officials look into whether they killed two people while on the runA white supremacist prison gang member and his accomplice are in police custody after being on the run in Idaho, and investigators are looking into whether they killed two people while on the run.On Thursday, Idaho officials said that Skylar Meade, 31, and Nicholas Umphenour, 28, were arrested in Twin Falls - about 130 miles (209km) from where they escaped. Continue reading...

Video footage shows a hot air balloon hitting a power line next to a highway in Rochester, Minnesota. The balloon's basket fell to the ground from between 6 and 9 metres up, while the torn balloon remnants floated away. Two of the three people onboard were injured. Strong winds had pushed the balloon off course as the pilot tried to land in a field Continue reading...

Michele Morrow, the far-right Republican running to oversee public schools in the state, said she is facing radical extremists'A far-right Republican candidate running to oversee public schools in North Carolina decried extreme agendas that threaten our children's future", after being confronted by reporters over tweets in which she called for the executions of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.Don't let extreme agendas threaten our children's future," Michele Morrow said on social media on Thursday, posting an address in which she said she was facing the most radical extremist Democrats [that] have ever run for superintendent in the history of North Carolina". Continue reading...

Many women are cutting themselves off from great relationships because they are convinced they will not get aroused if a man can't reach something off the top shelfA few nights ago, for some reason, I got served a TikTok where (dating) actors Zendaya and Tom Holland were asked a question about their much-commented-on height difference. OK, the reason might be because I'd been scrolling TikTok for 25 minutes and earlier that day googled Zendaya's height after seeing Dune: Part Two ... but who knows.In this TikTok, Zendaya replied that her mum is taller than her dad, so tall woman/shorter man relationships were always normal to her, and she didn't even realise it was an issue until dating Tom (who also doesn't find it an issue). Continue reading...

Three Californians who can't drink dairy say they pay extra fees for alternatives at coffee chain and claim violation of civil rights lawIs charging extra for non-dairy milk an act of discrimination against people who are lactose intolerant?This is the question three Starbucks customers are raising by filing a $5m class-action lawsuit against Starbucks for making customers who do not consume dairy pay more for their lattes and Frappuccinos. Continue reading...

John Moseley of Lincoln University reinstated after review clears him of allegations he bullied Antoinette Bonnie Candia-BaileyThe president of a historically Black Missouri university has been reinstated after an independent investigation cleared him of claims that he bullied another top administrator before she killed herself this year, university leaders announced on Thursday.Lincoln University curators called Antoinette Bonnie Candia-Bailey's January death tragic in an open letter to students and alumni. They said an investigation by the law firm Lewis Rice found no evidence that John Moseley bullied her. Continue reading...

Transcript cites testimony of presidential valet - and is released by House Republicans who say they're putting it all out there'Donald Trump told his vice-president, Mike Pence, that refusing to block certification of Joe Biden's 2021 election victory at the Capitol on 6 January 2021 would be a political career killer", according to newly released testimony from a presidential valet.Mike, this is a political career killer if you do this," Trump told Pence by phone on the morning of January 6, the New York Times reported, citing a transcript of testimony to the House committee that investigated the deadly attack on Congress that unfolded later that day. Continue reading...

Retired federal judge who monitors finances of Donald Trump's business empire has been confirmed to stay in that role for three more years, judge rules

Ireland's taoiseach resigned because his political touch is weakening. But he deserves Britain's gratitudeLeo Varadkar's resignation as Fine Gael leader and Irish taoiseach was as close to a total surprise as modern politics is capable of springing. He is 45 and seems in robust health. Ireland's economy is in comparatively resilient shape. There is another year to run for the three-party coalition. And, while his political touch had seemed to desert him in the two recent referendum campaigns, Mr Varadkar had not seemed under imminent threat.In his announcement, Mr Varadkar said his reasons were personal and political, but mainly political". Absent further explanation, this implies he meant it when he said that he was no longer the best person" for the job of securing the re-election of the coalition with Fianna Fail and the Greens next March. Mr Varadkar has been grappling with healthcare and housing crises, and lost the referendums badly, feeding a slide in popularity. But it is possible the undoubted problem of burnout in modern 24/7 politics may have claimed another victim. Continue reading...

Noland Arbaugh, a 29-year-old quadriplegic who has a Neuralink brain-chip, demonstrates during a livestream how he is able to control his laptop cursor with his mind to play chess. Arbaugh received the implant in January, after the startup founded by Elon Musk was granted federal approval to test the device in humans. Following the approval from regulators, Reuters reported that US Food and Drug Administration inspectors found problems with recordkeeping and quality controls for animal experiments at the company

Former president lashes out at New York attorney general in email urging loyalists to to chip in and stop the witch-hunt'Donald Trump on Thursday again asked loyal supporters for cash to help him meet mounting legal expenses and keep the filthy hands" of the New York attorney general off Trump Tower and other properties.The appeal came as Trump faced an imminent deadline to pay a huge bond from a New York fraud trial that ended in a $454m civil judgment against him for overstating his net worth and the value of his real estate properties. If he is unable to post it, authorities could start to seize the former US president's assets. Continue reading...

Spokesperson tells rightwing congressman leading effort to impeach president over Hunter Biden claims to call it a day, pal'A White House spokesperson poured cold water on Republicans' stated intention to invite Joe Biden to testify in public in his own impeachment hearings, lamenting a sad stunt" and telling the rightwing congressman steering the effort: Call it a day, pal."James Comer of Kentucky, the Republican chair of the House oversight committee, has led attempts to impeach the president over alleged corruption involving the business dealings of his son Hunter Biden. Continue reading...

Critics say disheartening' law will do little to address issue, while DeSantis says you should not be accosted by a homeless'People who are unhoused in Florida will be banned from sleeping in parks and on sidewalks under a new law signed by Ron DeSantis, the state's Republican governor.The law, which critics have said will do little to address the issue of homelessness in Florida, will require counties to create temporary campsites" if homeless shelters reach maximum capacity. Continue reading...

Willie James Pye was convicted in 1996 for the shooting murder of his ex-girlfriend Alicia Lynn Yarbrough three years earlierGeorgia executed a man on Wednesday night, the first time the state has used the death penalty in over four years.Willie James Pye, 59, was killed by an injection of pentobarbital, a sedative, and was pronounced dead at 11.03pm at the state prison in Jackson. Continue reading...

Speaker Johnson will have to rely on Democratic votes to get the measure through the House and to the Senate in less than two daysCongressional leaders unveiled a $1.2tn spending package to fund much of the federal government on Thursday, with less than two days left to avert a partial shutdown.Leaders of both parties celebrated the policy wins they notched in the negotiations over the bill, which will fund the departments of state, defense, homeland security and others through September. Continue reading...

It's been a chaotic week in Trump's criminal trials - and much of the mayhem has been caused by key legal figures' misstepsYou're reading Guardian US's free Trump on Trial newsletter. To get the latest court developments delivered to your inbox, sign up here.Programming note: starting next week, Trump on Trial will be sent weekly on Wednesdays. Continue reading...

Israel has shown it will use these arms indiscriminately against Palestinians. Why does the west continue to supply them?Earlier this month, a doctor who had recently returned from Gaza provided shocking testimony about the scale of human suffering that Palestinians are enduring under an Israeli military onslaught that has entered its sixth month. There exist no moral arguments that can justify the continued sale of weapons to Israel by states that respect the principle of the universality of human rights.During my work as the United Nations' special rapporteur on human rights defenders, Palestinian human rights defenders have emphasized to me the importance of a ban being placed on such sales, given that Israel has demonstrated time and again that it will use such weapons indiscriminately against Palestinians.Mary Lawlor is the UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders Continue reading...

Experts first warned of rising hunger in December - yet when Israel blocked a vital US food shipment, Biden did nothingThe people of Gaza are enduring catastrophic" levels of hunger, and famine is imminent in northern Gaza as Israel continues its devastating war and siege of the Palestinian territory. That stark warning came in a report on Monday from a global authority on food security which was set up 20 years ago by UN agencies and humanitarian groups to sound the alarm on famines.While Israel bears much of the responsibility for this human-made famine, it's not alone. Joe Biden and his administration are also complicit in this unfolding catastrophe: the UN and international relief groups have been warning about the potential for widespread starvation in Gaza since December. The Biden administration could have acted then, pressuring Israel to allow more aid into the territory and enforcing an existing US law that bars weapons shipments to US allies that obstruct humanitarian aid. Continue reading...

Accusations of mismanagement go back decades, but a recent move by two board members bodes poorly for NovemberThe Fulton county elections office was calling Amanda Banwarie, again.She looked down at the number, and before even answering, Banwarie had risen from behind the plastic rec center table in Alpharetta, Georgia, to walk over to the lightly used voting machines, again, to check that everything was still working. Continue reading...

Trump and prosecutors in the classified documents case have been told to draft jury instructions that could result in ensuring acquittalThe federal judge overseeing Donald Trump's prosecution on charges of retaining classified documents appears to be entertaining his most brazen defenses that could ultimately result in ensuring the acquittal of the former president.The issue revolves around an order from the US district judge Aileen Cannon on Monday asking Trump and prosecutors in the office of the special counsel Jack Smith to draft jury instructions for two scenarios that gave extraordinary credit to Trump's defense theories. Continue reading...

There will be more money riding on the NCAA Tournament than ever before in 2024. But with higher stakes comes more pressure on the athletesMarch Madness is famously capricious, but as the tournament gets under way one prediction seems safe - there will be more money riding on it than ever before. But higher stakes carry increased risks and the threats and abuse directed at student-athletes are growing.Americans will legally wager an estimated $2.72bn on the men's and women's March Madness events this year according to the American Gaming Association, a trade group. That is only a small fraction of the likely total, with many more billions expected to be ventured through unlicensed channels such as bracket pools. Continue reading...

Can the UConn men go back to back? Are the South Carolina women unstoppable? Our writers pick the winners, sleepers and upsets in both NCAA tournament bracketsDavidson's Stephen Curry and BYU's Jimmer Fredette were the kind of electrifying guards that make the NCAA Tournament arguably the best annual American sporting event. Clark's range is comparable to those two, and her college legacy has already eclipsed theirs. Her games from here on out are appointment viewing. Gabriel Baumgaertner Continue reading...

Huge costs, mounting opposition, negligible impacts: nothing about this absurd asylum bill appears to make any senseNobody knows exactly how the first red fire ants were imported to Australia, but it happened - and now these vicious and destructive creatures are everywhere. There's a moral to this story: if you import one destructive insect, without the entire ecosystem, the consequences will be bad and you'll have to live with them.As with ants, so with policy ideas. It's now two years since the immigration deal between the UK and Rwandan governments was inked, and it was a direct rip-off of the so-called Australian Pacific solution, where asylum seekers arriving by boat would be intercepted and sent to Papua New Guinea or Nauru. That was in 2001 - the same year the ants arrived. Neither development went well.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Gaza's health crisis has its own dreadful momentum. Even if the shooting ends today and the aid trucks begin to roll, the dying will carry on for some timeGaza is already the most intense starvation catastrophe of recent decades. The death toll from hunger and disease may soon surpass the body count from bombs and bullets.The Famine Review Committee reported this week that Gaza is facing imminent famine.'The damage caused by the 1944 Dutch Hunger Winter can still be observed generations on

Measure, a win for governor but criticized by disability rights advocates, will raise $6.4bn for housing and treatment facilitiesCalifornia voters narrowly approved a measure that will dramatically restructure the state's mental health system.The Associated Press called the race two days after polls closed. Proposition 1, which was the only statewide measure on California's ballot on Super Tuesday, is key to Gavin Newsom's plan to address the homelessness crisis. Continue reading...

Three corrections officers injured after unknown accomplice of gang member Skylar Meade stages attack after hospital tripA white supremacist prison gang member in Idaho and an accomplice remained on the loose Wednesday after the accomplice staged a brazen overnight attack to free the inmate as he was being transported from a Boise hospital, police said.Police identified the man suspected of shooting two corrections officers during the ambush as Nicholas Umphenour. A warrant with a $2 m bond has been issued for his arrest on two charges of aggravated battery against law enforcement and one charge of aiding and abetting an escape, police said.

Bill signed by governor Kay Ivey and lambasted by civil rights advocates affects public schools, universities and state agenciesThe Alabama governor Kay Ivey has signed a bill into law in effect banning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs across public schools, universities and state agencies, the latest move in a wave of a Republican-led legislation that aims to restrict diversity efforts.The law, known as SB129, imposes restrictions around what it calls eight divisive concepts", including assigning fault, blame or bias" to any race, religion, gender or color, or discussions of whether slavery and racism are aligned with the founding principles of the United States". It authorizes state agencies to discipline or terminate employees or contractors who violate this act". Continue reading...

World Happiness Report reveals country dropped from 15th to 23rd place, driven in part by a decline in happiness among young peopleThe US has fallen out of the top 20 happiest countries to live in for the first time ever, according to a new report.In findings released on Wednesday, the World Happiness Report revealed that the US has slid from its 15th place last year to 23rd place this year. Continue reading...

A bill working its way through state legislature seeks to stop use of AI tech in politics - but some far-right activists are opposedWhen wrangling legislation, sometimes it's best to sound out a problem in front of you.In Georgia, it sounds like the state senator Colton Moore. But it only sounds like Colton Moore. Continue reading...

Christian Dedmon described by one victim as the sickest' of six former officers who pleaded guilty to torturing two Black menA fourth former Mississippi sheriff's deputy has been sentenced for his part in the racist torture of two Black men by a group of white officers who called themselves the Goon Squad". Christian Dedmon was sentenced on Wednesday to 40 years in federal prison, hours after Daniel Opdyke was sentenced to 17.5 years.Dedmon, 29, did not look at the victims as he apologized and said he would never forgive himself for the pain he caused. Continue reading...

Potential move could coincide with ex-president's Monday deadline to find $454m bond needed to cover civil fraud judgmentAttorneys in the New York attorney general's office have written to the state appeals court dealing with Donald Trump's punishment for business fraud to say that they should disregard the former president's claims that he cannot raise a bond to cover his massive fine.Letitia James, the attorney general, could initiate action to seize Trump assets as soon as Monday, coinciding with Trump's deadline to acquire the $454m bond demanded to cover the civil fraud judgment during his appeal process. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. For the latest on the Israel-Gaza war, you can see all of our coverage here.Since being elected speaker of the House last year, the Republican Mike Johnson has emerged as one of Donald Trump's most prominent defenders on Capitol Hill, and today is no exception - even when it comes to the former president's recent comment that Jews who vote for Democrats hate" Israel and their religion.Asked about it at a press conference, Johnson said he understands where Trump is coming from: Continue reading...

When Eva Burch learned her pregnancy was not progressing and decided to have an abortion, Burch and her husband quickly made another decision: Burch, who is a Democratic state senator in Arizona, was going to speak up about it - from the floor of the state senate.On Monday, as her voice shook and a group of women surrounded her, Burch gave a 10-minute speech about her decision and the struggle to navigate Arizona's 'coercive' maze of abortion restrictions.With her speech, she joined the ranks of women who have spoken out since the fall of Roe v Wade about their battles to get abortions even for nonviable pregnancies. Yet Burch, who was still pregnant when she spoke on the floor as well as during an interview, is the first state lawmaker to do so