US news | The Guardian

Chief executive Jamie Dimon upbeat as bank’s earnings benefit from rise in US and global interest rates

US president’s ‘homecoming’ visit has alchemised politics, diplomacy and the personal into a feelgood glow for visitor and hostsJohn F Kennedy set the template for US presidential forays to Ireland with a rapturous visit in 1963 that he called the best four days of his life.Joe Biden’s visit this week did not quite match that fervour but at times it came close, alchemising politics, diplomacy and the personal into a feelgood glow for visitor and hosts. Continue reading...

Former IT specialist, 21, arrested on Thursday is accused of intelligence leak believed to have started on Discord. Plus, are Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson actually brothers?

Micheál Martin says remarks by former DUP leader during US president’s visit ‘misplaced’Ireland’s deputy prime minister, Micheál Martin, has criticised remarks by the former Democratic Unionist party leader, Arlene Foster, who said Joe Biden “hates” the UK.Martin said Foster was “wrong”, saying her remarks about the US president were “misplaced” as Biden did not hate anyone. “I’m very surprised by that comment,” Martin told RTÉ’s This Morning on Friday. Continue reading...

The Cash App founder’s death highlights that public safety remains a contentious topic for city leaders to reckon withLast Wednesday, San Francisco woke to shocking news of the death of Bob Lee, the 43-year-old founder of the popular Cash App. Police had found Lee overnight suffering from multiple stab wounds on a sidewalk in the city’s Rincon Hill neighborhood. He was transported to a hospital, where he died.For days, law enforcement officials stayed mum on the circumstances around the case, and the San Francisco mayor, London Breed, urged residents not to jump to conclusions. Continue reading...

Florida’s new catalog of hardline legislation may not grab headlines but signals demonization of immigrants is a top priority as governor prepares for White House runA popular political souvenir in Florida currently is a range of merchandise touting the services of a nonexistent travel company named DeSantis Airlines.T-shirts, drinks glasses and car decals alike bear the motto “Bringing the border to you”, a mocking commemoration of the time last year when Ron DeSantis, the state’s Republican governor, baited a load of mostly Venezuelan asylum seekers on to two chartered planes in Texas with false promises of jobs and housing in Boston, then promptly dumped them in Martha’s Vineyard. Continue reading...

US planemaker says latest snag with troubled bestselling model is not ‘safety of flight issue’Boeing has revealed that deliveries of its bestselling 737 Max plane will be delayed, in the latest blow to the US manufacturer in its long recovery from a crisis started by the troubled model.The company said a “significant” number of 737 Max deliveries would be delayed because a supplier, Spirit AeroSystems, had made a component using a “non-standard” manufacturing process. Continue reading...

Residents of town of Dighton, Massachusetts, stunned by news of arrest of 21-year-old air national guardsman Jack Teixeira

Phoebe Waller-Bridge has received $60m from Amazon without making a new show, and it appears she’s not aloneHow hard do you have to work to earn $60m in just three years? The answer, for Phoebe Waller-Bridge, at least, is not very hard at all. In 2019 the Emmy-winning creator of the hit TV show Fleabag signed a $20m-a-year deal with Amazon Studios. Originally, she was supposed to collaborate with Donald Glover on a series based on the 2005 movie Mr and Mrs Smith, but she reportedly left the show after a few months because of clashing creative styles. No worries, Amazon said, you can work on a Tomb Raider series instead. However, the Hollywood Reporter notes, since a showrunner (the person who has overall creative authority over a show) was also being hired, it’s questionable just how much work would actually be needed by the Fleabag creator. In short: Waller-Bridge has collected $60m from Amazon over the last few years without ever making a new show.I’m not shaming Waller-Bridge, to be clear. I think this is brilliant work if you can get it. Taking away some of Jeff Bezos’s joyrides-in-space money as payment for staring into space? A+ work! And I should state for the record that Amazon Studios has rejected recent allegations that Waller-Bridge is being paid simply to exist. Apparently, she is “feeling very committed” to Tomb Raider and they expect her to be worth the money. “When she does deliver, she delivers,” the Amazon Studios head of television, Vernon Sanders, has said. Not everyone is so sure the deal was a good idea, however. One showrunner described Amazon’s behavior to the Hollywood Reporter as “star-fucking”. Continue reading...

Bill gives governor key political victory ahead of expected presidential campaignThe Republican-dominated Florida legislature on Thursday approved a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, a proposal supported by the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, as he prepares for an expected presidential run.DeSantis, a Republican, later signed the bill into law. “We are proud to support life and family in the state of Florida,” he said in a statement. Florida currently prohibits abortions after 15 weeks. Continue reading...

The 21-year-old air national guardsman was arrested in Massachusetts in connection with the leaking of Pentagon intelligence documents

Jack Teixeira, 21-year-old US air national guardsman, is believed to have led online group where classified files appeared

Firefighters rescued one employee from the fire at South Fork Dairy family farm near DimmittMore than 18,000 cows died after an explosion and fire at a family dairy farm in west Texas, marking the deadliest such barn blaze on record in the United States.Firefighters rescued one employee from the South Fork Dairy near Dimmitt on Monday as flames raced through a building and into holding pens, according to images and statements from the Castro county sheriff’s office. Continue reading...

Nima Momeni, 38, appears to work in tech industry and reportedly knew Lee who was found with stab wounds on TuesdaySan Francisco police have made an arrest in the killing of the tech executive and Cash App creator Bob Lee, who was fatally stabbed last week in a crime that sent shock waves through the city and the tech industry.Law enforcement officers made an arrest early Thursday morning in nearby Emeryville, officials confirmed at a press conference Thursday afternoon. The suspect in the case, Nima Momeni, knew Lee, officials said, and appears to work in the tech industry. Continue reading...

US president makes strong defence of democracy before the Oireachtas in Dublin and urges No 10 to work ‘closer’ with Irish governmentJoe Biden declared that Ireland and the US have a “partnership for the ages” in a highly personal address to the Irish parliament. The US president celebrated his Irish heritage and made a passionate defence of democracy in a speech to a joint sitting of the Oireachtas – both houses of parliament – in Dublin on Thursday evening.“Tá mé seo abhaile,” Biden told the chamber in Irish. “I’m at home.” He added: “I just wish I could stay longer.” Continue reading...

The attorney general, Merrick Garland, announced that the Department of Justice has apprehended Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old suspect in the recent leaks of US intelligence online. Garland said Teixeira was taken into custody by FBI agents 'in connection with an investigation into an alleged unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified national defense information'. Teixeira is currently employed by the United States Air Force National Guard. Teixeira will have an initial appearance at the US district court in Massachusetts, Garland said, thanking the FBI and the DOJ for their work on the case

Proposal would allow Daca participants to access health insurance under Medicaid and Affordable Care Act exchangesThe Biden administration is seeking to allow immigrants known as Dreamers, who were brought to the US as children by undocumented parents, greater access to health insurance through federal programs, the White House said on Thursday.The proposal would allow participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or Daca, to access to health insurance under Medicaid and Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges, it said. Continue reading...

Attorney general says DoJ will ask supreme court to review appeals court decision that preserved drug access but with limits

An appeals court has reimposed restrictions on mifepristone in a closely watched case that could have a major impact on access to medication abortionLate on Wednesday, an appellate court ruled partially in favor of anti-abortion advocates in a case challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s authorization of mifepristone, a key abortion drug.The decision by the fifth circuit court of appeals imposes restrictions on mifepristone that include lowering the use of the drug to seven weeks of pregnancy instead of the current 10-week limit, and requiring in-person doctor visits for those looking to obtain the drug. Continue reading...

US air national guardsman has been identified as prime suspect in leak of classified documentsIn photographs, Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old air national guardsman who has been identified as the prime suspect in the leak of classified intelligence documents, is slim in his dark blue air force uniform. He is youthful looking, barely older than the teenage friends seen in the online group in which the classified documents were leaked.On Thursday evening, the FBI arrested Teixeira and were searching his home. Video footage from a local television station showed him being led away in handcuffs. Continue reading...

The perception of corruption is undermining Britain. King Charles should lead by example – and get his house in order

Joshua McLemore died of malnutrition after 20 days in windowless Indiana jail cell with no medical treatment

DoJ move comes after court ruling that mifepristone can remain available for now but will be subject to significant restrictionsThe justice department says it will immediately appeal to the supreme court following an appeals court ruling that the abortion pill mifepristone can remain available in the US but will be subject to significant restrictions.Late on Wednesday, the fifth circuit court of appeals ruled partially in favour of anti-abortion advocates, imposing restrictions on mifepristone that include lowering the allowable use of the drug to seven weeks of pregnancy instead of the current 10-week limit, and requiring in-person doctor visits for those looking to obtain the drug. Continue reading...

Reinstatement by unanimous vote of local commission follows similar move for fellow Black Democrat Justin JonesThe second of two Black Democrats who were kicked out of the Republican-led house of representatives in the Tennessee legislature followed his colleague back to work at the capitol on Thursday, a week after their expulsion for participating in a gun control protest propelled them into the national spotlight.State representative Justin Pearson, a lawmaker from Memphis, was sworn in on Thursday outside the statehouse in Nashville. The day before, Shelby county commissioners had unanimously voted to reinstate him after an expulsion he, his fellow expelled lawmaker Justin Jones and others have denounced as motivated by racism. Continue reading...

A new V&A exhibition sweeps aside connotations of misogyny and scorn. Let’s hope the diva’s joyful silliness survivesWho do you think of when you hear the word diva? A trailblazing punk singer? A civil rights activist and second world war spy? A man?Well, maybe – especially if that man is Elton John: notorious tantrummer, expert celebrity feuder and wearer of fabulously ludicrous costumes, one of which – an enormous, luxuriously befeathered Louis XIV-inspired look designed for his 50th birthday party – is among the centrepieces of the V&A’s upcoming exhibition, Diva. Celebrating “the power and creativity of iconic performers”, it aims to recast the diva as a force for social change by focusing on those who have embraced, and subverted, diva-dom and “challenged the status quo” in the process, including rockstars Debbie Harry and Siouxsie Sioux, and war hero and showgirl Josephine Baker. Continue reading...

Michael Barzman sold paintings created in ‘maximum of 30 minutes’ by accomplice, justice department saysTo the admiring patrons of a special exhibition at the Orlando Museum of Art, they were among Jean-Michel Basquiat’s finest works, the angst of the troubled 1980s neo-expressionist rebel shining through the vivid colors of the compositions before them.But what the paying public was really viewing were fakes, hastily slapped on offcuts of cardboard in 30 minutes or less by an unscrupulous auctioneer and an accomplice cashing in on the late artist’s famous name. Continue reading...

The US president, Joe Biden, has said that though he is concerned about the leaking of a tranche of confidential documents from the Pentagon, there was nothing of consequence contained in them. Biden told reporters during a visit to Ireland: 'There’s nothing contemporaneous that I’m aware of that is of great consequence.'He said an investigation was under way by the intelligence services and the justice department to ascertain the source of the leaks, adding that 'they're getting close'.

Forecasts predicted more rain on Thursday as Fort Lauderdale issues a state of emergency with flooding persisting in parts of cityStorms in South Florida brought almost a foot (30cm) of rain in a matter of hours on Wednesday, causing widespread flooding, closing the Fort Lauderdale airport and turning thoroughfares into rivers.That amount of rain in a 24-hour period was a “1-in-1,000 year event”, Ana Torres-Vazquez of the National Weather Service’s Miami office told CNN. Continue reading...

White House edits transcript after US president referred to military force rather than New Zealand rugby teamThe White House has corrected a gaffe by Joe Biden that confused New Zealand’s All Blacks rugby team with the British military force known as the Black and Tans that terrorised Ireland.An official transcript of the remarks released on Thursday crossed out “Black and Tans” and inserted “All Blacks” instead. Continue reading...

Governor phones representatives, dismayed that four members of delegation have backed former president for 2024 nominationThe soft launch of Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign appears to be stuttering further after a report emerged claiming Florida’s Republican governor was calling members of the state’s congressional delegation to persuade them to stop endorsing Donald Trump.DeSantis has yet to formally declare his pursuit of his party’s 2024 nomination, but has seen an erosion in recent weeks of his formerly strong support, with Trump pulling further ahead in polling. Continue reading...

Cryptocurrency exchange collapsed last year but assets worth $7.3bn have now been retrievedThe defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX has recovered $7.3bn (£5.8bn) of customer funds and could be restarted as a going concern as soon as next year, the company’s lawyers have said.“The situation has stabilised, and the dumpster fire is out,” its attorney Andy Dietderich said during a hearing at a Delaware bankruptcy court. Continue reading...

The worst US national security breach in years could help Moscow – and prompt friction with Washington’s alliesA large batch of leaked classified US government information, including top-secret briefings, have been discovered online over the past week, with many relating to perhaps the most sensitive arena of intelligence gathering in the world today: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Continue reading...

Man known online as ‘OG’ said to have access to classified material and to regard intelligence services as repressive. Plus, why America’s most popular flower ‘never goes out of style’

Lauren Book has led the fight against the ‘near-total’ ban and the ‘dangerous consequences’ of bill that is expected to pass the state house and to be signed by Governor DeSantisLast week, Lauren Book, the top Democrat in the Florida senate – was placed in handcuffs, arrested and charged with trespassing, after refusing to leave an abortion rights demonstration near the state capitol building in Tallahassee Florida.Hours before, Republican lawmakers in the state senate advanced the legislation, which would dramatically restrict the state’s current ban on abortion from 15 weeks of pregnancy to six weeks – before many women even realize they’re pregnant. Critics say the narrow window would amount to a “near-total” ban on abortions in the state. Continue reading...

Affirmative action opponents have used racial scapegoating to reframe the national debate, exploiting middle-class fears amid a toxic obsession with meritocracyFor decades, the rightwing gadfly Ed Blum, his group Students for Fair Admissions, and his shadowy rightwing funders have been trying to end affirmative action. They have finally secured an opportunity with the Trump-stacked supreme court to accomplish their mission with a decision expected in June.In the cases before the court on Harvard’s admissions, Asian Americans have been presented as victims of affirmative action and unfair admissions processes. But Asian Americans spent decades fighting for both fair admissions and affirmative action. If that appears to be a contradiction, it’s only because the history of this struggle has largely been erased. The true story of Asian Americans in higher education complicates both Blum’s and Harvard’s claims, and should lead us toward rethinking the stakes of this debate. Continue reading...

Florida sees new deluge of legislation targeting trans rights and controlling public education as governor steps up courtship of Trump votersNo public school teacher or college professor in Florida has been more outspoken in his criticism of Governor Ron DeSantis than Don Falls. In the spring of 2022, the 62-year-old social studies high school teacher became the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the governor to block enforcement of the recently approved Stop Woke (Wrongs Against Our Kids and Employees) Act.The DeSantis-backed legislation banned the supposed teaching of critical race theory – a scholarly examination of how social conceptions of race influence laws, political movements and history – in the Sunshine state’s public schools and universities. When Falls heard that a Jacksonville law firm was drafting litigation to stop the new law from taking effect, the grandfather of five decided to raise his head above the proverbial parapet. Continue reading...

Joe Biden appeared to mix up the New Zealand rugby team, the All Blacks, with a former British paramilitary force notorious for its brutality during the second day of his Northern Ireland and Ireland tour. The US president thanked Rob Kearney, a relative who played rugby for Ireland, for the tie he was wearing and then remarked to the press: 'This was given to me by one of these guys, right here. He was a hell of a rugby player. He beat the hell out of the Black and Tans'. Biden made the remark in the Windsor Bar pub in Dundalk before heading south to Dublin where he will meet politicians on Thursday.

I’ve sculpted figures from Mary Seacole to George Orwell, but a 9.6m-strong test run of my latest image is art on a whole new scaleThe king makes a good subject. Over the months of designing and modelling his head in profile for the British coinage, I have had to examine his features with the scrutiny of a cartographer mapping a landscape.The process of modelling a bas-relief is painstaking. Commissioned by the Royal Mint, I made a model in plasticine about the size of my outstretched hand and no more than a few millimetres deep. This was then digitally scanned and reduced before dies were struck and coins started pouring into crates. When I was told a test run of 50p pieces was to be produced, I asked how many, imagining a dozen or so. “We’ll start with 9.6m,” came the reply. Continue reading...

Trump, a shrewd opportunist, has understood tendencies in American culture that most of us would prefer to ignore or denyA few years ago a former student of mine, one for whom I had particular respect, stopped me on the street and handed me a copy of The Road to Serfdom by the British-Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek.For reasons I cannot reconstruct, I had already read that book and forgotten it, except for the impression it left of being very much a product of its place and time, the London School of Economics, 1945. Since then I have learned that, fairly or not, it is read as a supporting document for the slippery-slope catastrophism that now casts the American government, insofar as it enacts policies favored by Democrats, as a sinister and quite absolute threat to individual freedom. My student told me that a reading group had formed and I was invited. He had the glow of the convert.Marilynne Robinson is an American novelist and essayist. She has received several awards including the Pulitzer prize for fiction in 2005 and the 2012 National Humanities Medal Continue reading...

Tabbed for no higher than third in the AL East by most experts, the Rays have won 12 straight and are off to baseball’s hottest start in decades. How are they doing it and how long will it last?With their 9-7 win over the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday night, the Tampa Bay Rays became just the third team to win 12 straight games to open a baseball season since the dead-ball era more than a century ago. With one more win, the Rays will tie the 1987 Milwaukee Brewers and the 1982 Atlanta Braves as the only teams to begin a season with 13 consecutive victories since the 1880s.The winning streak is the latest achievement for a team known for their modest payrolls, sparse attendance and excellent organizational development. Early adopters of the advanced analytic strategies that dominate contemporary baseball, the Rays have made the postseason for six years in a row despite playing in the same division as the famously deep-pocketed New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. Continue reading...

Vernon Jackson began Gifted Program haircuts at Noble Barber and Beauty after ‘hearing so many horror stories’ at other shopsVernon Jackson goes in to work at his barbershop in Cincinnati even on his off days. But it’s not because he wants to make as much money as possible – it’s because that’s the day he has set aside to give free haircuts to children with special needs.The kindness which Jackson offers at his Noble Barber and Beauty shop earned a profile from CBS News this week. Jackson told the network he began his Gifted Program haircuts in 2021 after “hearing so many horror stories that parents were going through with … barbers or stylists having no patience with their [children]” at other shops. Continue reading...

Memphis officials voted to reinstate Justin Pearson, the second of two lawmakers expelled from legislature by RepublicansHundreds of supporters marched Justin Pearson through Memphis to the Shelby county board of commissioners meeting on Wednesday, chanting and cheering before entering the commission chambers, where officials quickly voted 7-0 to restore him to his position.“The message for all the people in Nashville who decided to expel us: You can’t expel hope. You can’t expel justice,” Pearson said at the meeting, his voice rising as he spoke. “You can’t expel our voice. And you sure can’t expel our fight.” Continue reading...

Representatives Ro Khanna and Dean Philips tweet echoing sentiments as ailing senator has missed 60 of 82 votes taken so farSenator Dianne Feinstein, the oldest member of the upper chamber of the US Congress, said she plans on serving out her term despite growing calls for her to resign.Feinstein, 89, has not voted in Congress since February, and has been away from Capitol Hill after being hospitalized for shingles treatment in March. “I intend to return as soon as possible once my medical team advises that it’s safe for me to travel. In the meantime, I remain committed to the job and will continue to work from home in San Francisco,” she said. Continue reading...

Nanuq, a one-year-old Australian shepherd, disappeared from a family trip and went on an adventure across the Bering SeaA one-year-old Australian shepherd took an epic trek across 150 miles (241km) of frozen Bering Sea ice that included being bitten by a seal or polar bear before he was safely returned to his home in Alaska.Mandy Iworrigan, Nanuq’s owner who lives in Gambell, Alaska, and her family were visiting Savoonga, another St Lawrence Island community in the Bering strait, last month when Nanuq disappeared with their other family dog, Starlight, the Anchorage Daily News reported. Continue reading...

Kathleen Corradi is the city’s first director of rodent mitigation, tasked with rooting out the city’s infestation of verminEvery New York City mayor has waged war – and mostly lost – against one of humanity’s most cunning and enduring foe: rattus norvegicus. But has the city’s vilest enemy, better known as the common brown rat, finally met its match?Mayor Eric Adams introduced a former elementary school teacher and anti-rat activist as his new “rat czar” on Wednesday. Officially, Kathleen Corradi, the mayor’s new hire, will be known as the director of rodent mitigation. Continue reading...