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Trump has signalled that he wants two weeks to decide whether or not to strike Iran - key US politics stories from 19 JuneWill he or won't he? That's the question manyare asking regarding whether Donald Trump will join Israel's attacks on Iran and take out one of its most difficult targets: the Fordow nuclear enrichment site.But another question has arisen. Can he? Continue reading...

Baseball team says Ice agents were denied permission to access parking lots but agency claims agents were never there'The Los Angeles Dodgers said on Thursday they denied US immigration enforcement agents access to the parking lot at Dodger Stadium earlier in the day.This morning, ICE agents came to Dodger Stadium and requested permission to access the parking lots," the baseball team said in a post on X. Continue reading...

States argued US transportation secretary lacks authority to impose conditions on funding appropriated by CongressA federal judge on Thursday blocked Donald Trump's administration from forcing 20 Democratic-led states to cooperate with immigration enforcement in order to receive billions of dollars in transportation grant funding.Chief US District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, granted the states' request for an injunction barring the Department of Transportation's policy, saying the states were likely to succeed on the merits of some or all of their claims. Continue reading...

Messi hit a trademark free-kick for the winning goal in the second half as Miami topped the Portuguese giants in Atlanta. Read our minute-by-minute report4 min: Messi involved again, this time latching on to a bouncing ball in midfield, slotting a through ball for Suarez that has just a bit too much on it, allowing Ramos to gather it easily.2 min: A chance! Already! Lionel Messi finds a spot in the right half-space, and lofts a perfect diagonal ball over the backline to Luis Suarez. Suarez's attempt is saved, and he is later called offside. An early statement from Miami. Continue reading...

President denies report in Wall Street Journal and says newspaper has no idea' of his plans for Israel and Iran

Federal prosecutors reverse course in case of Jose Manuel Mojica, who came forward to Guardian to say he was brutally attacked by agentsFederal prosecutors in California have moved to dismiss charges against a Los Angeles protester accused of assaulting border patrol agents, a major victory for the demonstrator who said he himself was brutally attacked by law enforcement.US attorney Bill Essayli, a Donald Trump appointee, filed a motion on Wednesday to dismiss a complaint against Jose Manuel Mojica, a 30-year-old Los Angeles resident who was present at one of the first major protests of immigration raids in southern California this month. Mojica, a father of four born in LA, came forward last week to the Guardian, which published footage of his arrest by a group of officers. Continue reading...

Election officials told to give 72 hours' notice before visiting immigration facilities, with some sites completely off limitsThe US Department of Homeland Security is now requiring lawmakers to provide 72 hours of notice before visiting detention centers, according to new guidance.The guidance comes after a slew of tense visits from Democratic lawmakers to detention centers amid Donald Trump's crackdowns in immigrant communities across the country. Many Democratic lawmakers in recent weeks have either been turned away, arrested or manhandled by law enforcement officers at the facilities, leading to public condemnation towards Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (Ice) handling of such visits. Continue reading...

Emmanuel Mwamba and Fiona Mulaisho respond to an editorial on US aid cuts to Zambia and huge sums taken out of the country by multinationalsYour editorial (The Guardian view on Zambia's Trumpian predicament: US aid cuts are dwarfed by a far bigger heist, 10 January) highlights research by Prof Andrew Fischer, and the exploitation of Zambia's commodity resources via illicit financial schemes. Many Zambians have raised the issue of this looting for years, but have met coordinated resistance. Consequently, Zambia's treasury loses billions of dollars in revenue. These losses are driven by well-known multinationals working in concert with certain insiders closeto the Zambian state.Your editorial also says: The US decision to cut $50m a year in aid to Zambia ... is dreadful, and the reason given, corruption, rings hollow." Alas, I disagree and wish to place this in context. Continue reading...

Messaging request for holiday marking Black emancipation comes as Trump administration wages anti-DEI campaignThe office of the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, requested a passive approach to Juneteenth messaging," according to an exclusive Rolling Stone report citing a Pentagon email.This messaging request for Juneteenth, a federal holiday commemorating when enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, learned they were free, was transmitted by the Pentagon's office of the chief of public affairs. This office said it was not poised to publish web content related to Juneteenth, Rolling Stone said. Continue reading...

The mayor - a community organizer at the time of the 1992 LA uprising - has won praise for her response to Trump's immigration raids, the latest flashpoint in her termIn the mid-1990s, Karen Bass was in the streets of Los Angeles, protesting alongside Latino activists against new laws that targeted undocumented immigrants and were expected to land more young men of color in prison.These days, Bass is monitoring the status of protests against US immigration agents from a helicopter, as the Democratic mayor of Los Angeles. Continue reading...

Embedded in their communities, educators are becoming the biggest advocates and resource distributors for studentsOne morning earlier this month, Melanie woke up to the news that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) had detained more than 40 migrant workers at a garment factory, as part of a series of raids across Los Angeles. Her high school, located downtown, is not too far away from where the arrests took place. She didn't want to go to school - but still drove there to complete her final exams.

Candlelight vigil honoring Melissa Hortman and husband at state capitol was attended by Tim Walz and couple's sonHundreds gathered at the Minnesota capitol on Wednesday night to honor the state Democratic representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, who were killed at their home on Saturday night in what authorities have described as a political assassination".Some mourners reportedly brought flowers to place in front of this memorial, while others held candles. Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor, grew teary at the vigil, and consoled attenders, as a brass band from the Minnesota Orchestra performed, according to the Associated Press. Continue reading...

Five months after the president closed the border, many who planned to enter US legally don't know where to turnDonald Trump's crackdown on immigration upended lives on inauguration day when he abruptly closed the border for many who were just on the Mexican side of the border planning to cross into the US legally. Five months on, some hold on to hope, others are giving up.A family from El Salvador seeking asylum was left stranded at the border within sight of Texas only three days into the second Trump administration. A grandfather, his daughter, his niece, her husband and two of his grandchildren had done things the right way", by requesting one of the highly limited appointments with US Border Patrol, from the Mexican side using the Biden-era mobile phone app called CBPOne. But on January 20, Trump signed an executive order cancelling all scheduled appointments, including theirs on 23 January at noon. Continue reading...

Witch trials, Radio Free Europe and Green Day were all fair game for middle- and high-school competitors, who got their hands dirty for the sake of learning a full history -thorns and allIt only took 10 minutes for the trio of eighth-grade girls to recount the life story of Carol Ruckdeschel, the alligator-wrestling environmental activist sometimes called the Jane Goodall of sea turtles".Inside the student union at the University of Maryland, about a 20-minute drive from Washington DC, and armed with papier-mache reptiles, they embarked on a performance that included a litany of costume changes and a pony-tailed rendition of the late president Jimmy Carter, an ally of the 83-year-old Ruckdeschel's work. Continue reading...

Food poisoning outbreak has killed three and resulted in one pregnancy loss across 13 states over past yearA listeria food poisoning outbreak that has killed three people and led to one pregnancy loss is linked to newly recalled heat-and-eat chicken fettuccine Alfredo products sold at Kroger and Walmart stores, federal health officials said late on Tuesday.The outbreak, which includes at least 17 people in 13 states, began last July, officials said. At least 16 people have been hospitalized.32.8oz trays of Marketside Grilled Chicken Alfredo with Fettuccine Tender Pasta with Creamy Alfredo Sauce, White Meat Chicken and Shaved Parmesan Cheese with best-by dates of 27 June or earlier.12.3oz trays of Marketside Grilled Chicken Alfredo with Fettuccine Tender Pasta with Creamy Alfredo Sauce, White Meat Chicken, Broccoli and Shaved Parmesan Cheese with best-by dates of 26 June or earlier.12.5oz trays of Home Chef Heat & Eat Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo with Pasta, Grilled White Meat Chicken and Parmesan Cheese, with best-by dates of 19 June or earlier. Continue reading...

With World Cup 2026 on the horizon, the team has been reluctant to weigh in publicly as one of their pillars is politicizedLos Angeles will be in the spotlight during the 2026 World Cup. It's where the US men's national team will begin their World Cup campaign, and it's where they'll wrap up the group stage. It's a city in the news lately due to the Trump administration's deployment of Ice and the national guard, but it's also a metro area synonymous with diversity. This US men's national team, more than ever, reflects that diversity.It's not that there's a record or anything of how many minorities have been on the national team before, but I feel like this has been the most diverse generation of national team," said center back Chris Richards, who is poised to be a leader along the backline for the US next year. Continue reading...

Mike Lee knows better than to turn tragedy into disinformation. But outrageousness has become the name of the gameNational tragedy used to bring national unity. If only momentarily, partisanship was put aside, and people of all political persuasions came together.No more. The nation received a startling reminder of that sad fact on Sunday when Republican senator Mike Lee went online to share his reaction to the weekend's horrible shooting of two Minnesota state lawmakers and their spouses.Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College, is the author or editor of more than 100 books, including Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America's Death Penalty Continue reading...

Antwon Wilson was with his two children at a Fort Lauderdale beach when he saw them in distress in the waterA Florida dad has lost his life after helping save his daughter from drowning in the ocean on Father's Day.That was the tragic story coming out of Fort Lauderdale on Sunday, when 33-year-old Antwon Wilson died while his daughter and another adult were hospitalized, according to authorities. Continue reading...

Brad Lander was manhandled and marched out of the courthouse after trying to shield a man from arrest - but, he tells the Guardian, he's not backing downAs New York city comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander was hauled away by masked Ice agents on Tuesday, all he could think about was whether there was anything more he could do for the man he was trying to help, an immigrant New Yorker named Edgardo.Both men ended up detained, but unlike Edgardo's, Lander's ordeal was over after a few hours. By the time New York governor Katy Hochul marched him out of the courthouse - after proclaiming, of his arrest: This is bullshit" - videos and photos of the officers manhandling him had gone viral. The arrest of yet another elected official prompted widespread condemnation of another sign of the US's steady slide into authoritarianism. A host of New York politicians, along with a swelling crowd of angry New Yorkers, awaited Lander outside the courthouse in downtown Manhattan. (Andrew Cuomo, the former governor and mayoral race frontrunner, was a notable absence, though he did condemn the arrest.) Continue reading...

Friends and family of Moises Sotelo disappointed and disgusted' after respected industry fixture detained outside churchIn the early morning hours of 12 June, Moises Sotelo woke up to go to work in the rolling hills of Oregon's Willamette Valley wine country, a place he has called home for decades.But this morning was not business as usual. A car tailed Sotelo as soon as he left his driveway, according to an account from his coworker. Trucks surrounded him just outside of St Michael's Episcopal church, where he was detained by federal immigration agents. By the end of the day, Sotelo was in an Ice detention facility. Continue reading...

Efficiency' cuts across offices have left teams understaffed, firefighters underpaid and uninsured, and without adequate equipmentSummer temperatures are rising and the US is bracing for another hot, dry and hectic wildfire season. But with the promise of extreme conditions in the months to come, federal fire crews are also growing concerned that a series of changes brought on by the Trump administration have left them underprepared.Severe cuts to budgets and staff have hamstrung the agencies that manage roughly 640m acres of the nation's public lands, leaving significant gaps in a workforce that supports wildfire mitigation and suppression. The administration's crackdown on climate science and the dismantling of departments that provided world-class research and weather forecasting, may also undermine early warning systems, slowing response and strategic planning. Continue reading...

Experts say free speech under attack in ways not seen since Nixon - and critics of president's agenda are being targetedA cornerstone of the Maga movement during the Biden administration was to accuse a mixture of the so-called woke left" and the justice department of forcing America into the grips of a free speech crisis.Common complaints were that nobody can say anything any more" without being canceled or arrested for extremism. In the same breath, Maga broadly described the January 6 insurrection, which killed a police officer, as peaceful, accusing the Democrats of a communist conspiracy. Continue reading...

Depending on who you ask, between four and six million people showed up - and according to one theory, this could be a turning pointThe scale of last weekend's No Kings" protests is now becoming clearer, with one estimate suggesting that Saturday was among the biggest ever single-day protests in US history.Working out exactly where the protest ranks compared to similar recent events has been a project of G Elliott Morris, a data journalist who runs the Substack Strength in Numbers, calculated turnout between four million and six million, which would be 1.2-1.8% of the US population. This could exceed the previous record in recent history, when between 3.3 million and 5.6 million people showed up at the 2017 Women's March to rally against Trump's misogynistic rhetoric. Continue reading...

Israeli defence minister acknowledges goal of war is to attack symbols of the regime'. Plus, only two years left to meet 1.5C warming targetGood morning.Israel's defence minister has said he ordered increased attacks on government targets in Iran to undermine the regime", while an Iranian missile evaded Israeli air defences to hit a hospital in the country's south.How is Israel's military strategy shifting? When Israel launched its first strikes, Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered a strategic operation targeting Iran's nuclear programme, although the Israeli prime minister has made no secret of his hopes that the government in Tehran would fall. After the initial focus on military and nuclear sites, Israel recently attacked targets with no links to the nuclear project, but which Katz described as symbols of the regime", including the state broadcaster.What is the latest on the conflict? Israel attacked Iran's Arak heavy-water reactor early on Thursday, Iranian state television reported. In Israel, Soroka hospital in Beersheba was hit by a ballistic missile, Israeli officials said, after Iran launched its latest wave of retaliatory airstrikes. Read our live blog here. Continue reading...

The Skrmetti decision upholding Tennessee's ban on transition-related healthcare for minors deprives children and batters the 14th amendmentBy now, it is a ritual: every June, Americans endure several weeks of agonizing suspense, as we wait to hear how the supreme court will erode our freedoms, attack our dignity, undermine self-government and empower those who enrich themselves at our expense. The court, controlled by career politicians in robes who were hand-selected for their loyalty to the rightwing and their willingness to be wildly intellectually dishonest in pursuit of Republican policy objectives, has ended the right to abortion, desiccated the Voting Rights Act, made state gun regulations nearly impossible and declared the president functionally immune to criminal law. Many of us waited, with a mixture and terror and disgust, to see what cruelties the court would deliver for us in 2025.The justices decided to start by attacking vulnerable children. In a 6-3 split, the court's conservatives ruled on Wednesday that Tennessee's law banning transition-related healthcare for minors can remain in effect. The law prohibits hormone therapies and surgeries only for their use in treating gender dysphoria; cisgender minors retain access to these drugs. The statute is on its face sex-specific and designed to mandate certain forms of gender conformity: the care that it bans, it bans on the basis of a patient's sex. This is in straightforward violation of the 14th amendment's equal protection clause, which has long been interpreted to ban facially sex-discriminatory laws and those that encourage sex-role stereotyping. The court decided to ignore this precedent and the plain intent of Tennessee's statute, and in the process it both imposed a cruel and needless deprivation on trans children and their families, and also substantially weakened constitutional guarantees of equal protection of the sexes.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

A senator handcuffed, people snatched in public, military deployed - Trump's slide towards autocracy has come quicker than critics fearedIt reads like a checklist of milestones on the road to autocracy.A succession of opposition politicians, including Alex Padilla, a US senator, are handcuffed and arrested by heavy-handed law enforcement for little more than questioning authority or voicing dissent. Continue reading...

No one doubts the malignity of the Iranian government, but if we forget the tragedies of interventions past, we'll make the same mistakesOn the eve of the 1991 Gulf war, a TV reporter asked the US commander Norman Schwarzkopf if he would topple Iraq's Saddam Hussein. Stormin' Norman replied with a memorable succinctness: Easy say. Hard do."Schwarzkopf knew what he was talking about. The general was a lifelong student of the Middle East region - he spent some of his childhood years in Tehran - and of military history. Indeed his successful ground-war strategy for Saddam's defeat in Kuwait was consciously modelled on the flanking tactics used to such devastating effect by the Carthaginian commander Hannibal to defeat the Romans at Cannae in 216BC.Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

If Europe was not so in hock to Washington, it would sanction Israel over Gaza and condemn its unilateral attack on IranThe rupture in the transatlantic relationship has left European leaders struggling to know how to think, let alone act, with any autonomy. Europe most urgently needs a mind of its own on the Middle East.Tragically, EU governments were just beginning to turn the page after a year and a half of complicity with the Israeli government's war crimes in Gaza. Donald Trump's obscene plans for a Gaza riviera" and humanitarian" initiatives that breach humanitarian principles were creating distance with the US, and European governments were starting to craft their own course.Nathalie Tocci is a Guardian Europe columnist Continue reading...

This blog has now closed. Follow our Middle East live blog hereRussian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov warned on Wednesday that direct US military assistance to Israel could radically destabilise the situation in the Middle East, where an air war between Israel and Iran has raged for six days.In separate comments, the head of Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service, Sergei Naryshkin, was quoted as saying that the situation between Israel and Iran was now critical. Continue reading...

Juventus players and staff were involved in an awkward encounter at the White House when Trump asked the team players and managers if women could make it into their team. In response, Juventus general manager Damien Comolli highlighted the strength of their women's team

Possibility of US intervention is exposing sharp divisions in president Donald Trump's base - key US politics stories from 18 JuneThe possibility of US intervention in the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran is exposing sharp divisions in president Donald Trump's base, with some of his supporters urging the president against involvement in a new Middle East war.Trump says he remains undecided about the US getting directly involved, which if sanctioned would be a sharp departure from his usual caution about foreign entanglements. Continue reading...

Senate backs Trump's nominee to lead Customs and Border Protection despite accusation by former officialThe US Senate on Wednesday confirmed Rodney Scott as commissioner of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), despite a former top official accusing him of orchestrating a cover-up" over the death of a man detained while trying to enter the country from Mexico.Scott was confirmed on a party-line vote, with 51 Republicans in favor and 46 Democrats opposed, along with three absences. Continue reading...

Midwest set to experience temperatures in the 90s (30s celsius) and east coast also to be affectedSummer will make a dramatic entrance in the US this week with a heat dome that will bring stifling temperatures and uncomfortable humidity to millions.The heat will be particularly worrisome this weekend across wide stretches of Nebraska, Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa, where forecasters are warning of extreme temperature impacts. Continue reading...

Yassine Bounou saved a late penalty and Trent Alexander-Arnold made a slow start on his Real Madrid debutThe teams have huddled together, the managers have shaken hands, everyone on the field is already sweating ....let's do this.Reader Jason has a word: Continue reading...

Diplomats to look for indications of hostility towards citizens, culture or founding principles of United States'Foreign students will be required to unlock their social media profiles to allow US diplomats to review their online activity before receiving educational and exchange visas, the state department has announced. Those who fail to do so will be suspected of hiding that activity from US officials.The new guidance, unveiled by the state department on Wednesday, directs US diplomats to conduct an online presence review to look for any indications of hostility toward the citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles of the United States". Continue reading...

Defense secretary had contentious hearing in which he sparred with Democratic senators over various issuesThe US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, suggested on Wednesday that he would not obey a federal court ruling against the deployments of national guard troops and US marines to Los Angeles, the latest example of the Trump administration's willingness to ignore judges it disagrees with.The comments before the Senate armed services committee come as Donald Trump faces dozen of lawsuits over his policies, which his administration has responded to by avoiding compliance with orders it dislikes. In response, Democrats have claimed that Trump is sending the country into a constitutional crisis. Continue reading...

Department of Veterans Affairs says the changes come in response to a Trump executive order defending women'The Department of Veterans Affairs has imposed new guidelines on VA hospitals nationwide that remove language that explicitly prohibited doctors from discriminating against patients based on their political beliefs or marital status.The new rules, obtained by the Guardian, also apply to psychologists, dentists and a host of other occupations. They have already gone into effect in at least some VA medical centers. Continue reading...

The handmade posters of immigrants have become a symbol of quiet resistance. Their creators reveal the story behind the projectMissing son." Missing father." Missing grandmother."The words are written in bright red letters at the top of posters hanging on lampposts and storefronts around Los Angeles. At first glance, they appear to be from worried relatives seeking help from neighbors. Continue reading...