US news | The Guardian

Museum of Revolution denounced over event with Moms for Liberty, which has been labeled as an extremist, hate groupHistorians, civil rights organizations and lawmakers are denouncing the Museum of the American Revolution for hosting an upcoming event with Moms for Liberty, a controversial campaign organization that has been called an extremist group by critics.Moms for Liberty (M4L), which the anti-hate watchdog Southern Poverty Law Center labeled as an extremist, anti-government group, will hold a summit in Philadelphia this weekend featuring several Republican presidential candidates, including Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley. In a decision that has generated widespread backlash, the Museum of the American Revolution has agreed to host a welcome event for the organization on Thursday. Continue reading...

Only holdout' in area that used to house over 50 manufacturing firms to halt operations in March 2024 with over 400 jobs lostFor over 100 years, the Master Lock plant in Milwaukee manufactured locks and security products. Now, what was for years the last remaining large manufacturing holdout on the north side of Milwaukee's industrial sector, is being shut down after the company informed employees a phased shutdown will begin on 31 October 2023, with final operations halting by March 2024.The plant employed more than 1,100 employees in the 1990s but the number of employees in the plant fell to about 270 in 2003 as Master Lock began offshoring jobs to Mexico and China. Continue reading...

Twin Cities community has long battled Islamophobia, and some say attacks are a backlash to new rule allowing broadcast any timeMuslims in Minnesota have vowed not to stop answering the call to prayer, despite a series of attacks on mosques some believe to be a backlash to a new rule that permits the Adhan to be broadcast at any time of the day or night.In April, Minneapolis made history when it became the first major city in the US to allow mosques to broadcast the call to prayer using loudspeakers at any time. Before the change to a city noise ordinance, it had only been permitted to be put out between 7am to 10pm. Continue reading...

Some thought Major League Baseball games with pitch clocks might feel forced, rushed, even gimmicky. But the new rules have proven to be a rousing successThe time - emphasis on time - has come to declare that Major League Baseball has nailed its effort to speed up games. MLB people always talked about wanting to finish games in less than three hours, but they never could make it happen. Now they have.The average time of a game in the first two-plus months of the season is 2hr 40min - a span not seen since the early 1980s - much shorter than the bloated averages of 3hr 6min in 2022 and 3hr 11min in 2021. But stats are only part of the story. Continue reading...

US president lays out economic vision centered around three key pillars', giving a glimpse at a key piece of his 2024 campaignTwenty years have passed since the United States invaded Iraq, and the country has dropped substantially in priority among Washington's foreign policy concerns.At the White House and in the halls of Congress, you are much more likely to hear about China, Russia and its invasion of Ukraine, or the perennial issue of Iran than about America's relations with Baghdad. But it's worth remembering that before he became vice-president under Barack Obama, or president 12 years later, Joe Biden played a major role in getting Congress to approve America's invasion of Iraq.Biden did vastly more than just vote for the war. Yet his role in bringing about that war remains mostly unknown or misunderstood by the public. When the war was debated and then authorized by the US Congress in 2002, Democrats controlled the Senate and Biden was chair of the Senate committee on foreign relations. Biden himself had enormous influence as chair and argued strongly in favor of the 2002 resolution granting President Bush the authority to invade Iraq.I do not believe this is a rush to war," Biden said a few days before the vote. I believe it is a march to peace and security. I believe that failure to overwhelmingly support this resolution is likely to enhance the prospects that war will occur ..." Continue reading...

Joe Biden called Bidenomics" a success during a speech in Chicago, boasting about his record on promoting employment and wage growth in the US over the two and a half years since he took office.

Former president makes counterclaim, after civil trial found he sexually abused herDonald Trump has sued E Jean Carroll for defamation, alleging she falsely accused him of rape after a jury in a civil trial found that he sexually abused her.Trump's counterclaim against Carroll in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday cited Carroll's statements on the CNN cable news channel after the verdict, and comes after a jury's finding in May that he sexually abused and defamed Carroll, but the jury did not find that he raped her. Continue reading...

Salaam, who was falsely accused along with four others of raping a woman, faced two veteran politicians for Harlem seat in New YorkYusef Salaam, who as a child was part of a group of teenagers wrongly accused, convicted and imprisoned for the rape of a woman jogging in New York's Central Park, has declared victory in a Democratic primary for a city council seat in New York - giving him a very good chance of representing a Harlem district as an elected official.Salaam faced two veteran politicians, New York state assembly members Al Taylor, 65, and Inez Dickens, 73, in the race for a seat representing part of the majority-Black uptown Manhattan neighborhood. The incumbent, democratic socialist Kristin Richard Jordan, dropped out of the race in May but remained on the ballot. Continue reading...

Emergency medical providers respond to heat-related illnesses as extreme temperatures become more frequent and prolonged

Daniel Penny, 24, also pleads not guilty to criminally negligent homicide after incident on New York subwayThe man accused of fatally strangling Jordan Neely with a chokehold in a New York City subway car last month pleaded not guilty to charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in a court appearance on Wednesday to enter a plea to a grand jury indictment charging him in the killing.Daniel Penny, 24, was captured in videos recorded by bystanders choking Neely from behind for several minutes on 1 May while they rode on a train on the F line, in Manhattan. Continue reading...

As MPs examine the issue, one thing is clear: terminally ill people shouldn't have to beg for the right to die with dignityThere are limits to how much you can infer from the 540 British people who have elected to die with the help of Dignitas since it opened in 1998: it's hard to tell how many more people would make this choice if they had 10,000, which is how much it typically costs.But one figure, which came out in this week's House of Commons' assisted dying investigation, tells its own story: Britons constitute more than one in seven of the people who end their lives in this way; roughly the same proportion are French; in the majority by far are Germans, at 40%. The German government overhauled the laws on assisted dying in 2020, and the French are in the process of doing so, recognition of a fact so obvious that it is astonishing anyone should have to say it out loud: most people don't even want to go to a hospital to die, let alone travel to another country.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Grey has nothing to do with joy, optimism, passion or life. Why has the world been drained of colour?My friend once came to see me in a flat I'd just moved into. This was Lee Dixon, the former footballer and a television colleague at the time. He looked around approvingly but said: You've got to be a bit careful here. Your carpets, your sofa and your walls are all grey. You've got these big windows and outside the clouds are grey. Your hair is grey and so are your clothes. Your disposition's a bit grey sometimes, too. You're blending in. I can barely see you. You might have to put on some hi-vis."Footballers can be terribly savage like this. But I saw Lee had a point, and I've been trying to de-grey myself ever since. This is hard in the world we live in. Having chosen a new lease car, I had to select a colour. I was spoilt for choice: there were only shades of grey available, so I plumped for grey. Looking around, it then struck me that most cars are now grey. Apart from the sheer dreariness, this is surely suboptimal in terms of safety; like me in my front room that day, they're all camouflaged against the roads and, often, the sky.Adrian Chiles is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Is age really just a number? Post-pandemic, it's easy to feel like we've been robbed of precious yearsImagine someone offered you the chance to take a couple of years off your age - no catch, no need to hide your passport or cross your fingers that no one checks up on your LinkedIn claim to have graduated in 2008.You'd jump at it, wouldn't you? The people of South Korea certainly have: their government has just given its citizens the gift of youth, making them all a year or two younger overnight.Claire Cohen is a journalist and the author of BFF? The Truth About Female Friendship Continue reading...

More than 80m Americans under air quality alerts while temperatures hit triple digits in south and south-westHuge swaths of the United States continue to face extreme weather as temperatures persist into the triple digits in the south and south-west while smoke pollution is blighting the midwest.Chicago and Detroit both had the most unhealthy air in the world for several hours on Tuesday evening, CNN reported, as smoke drifts from record Canadian wildfires. More than 80 million people, largely from the midwest to the east coast, are under air quality alerts. Continue reading...

The Grand Depart will be in the Basque Country this year before crossing the Pyrenees and then heading across the Massif CentralThe Tour starts in Spain's foremost cycling heartland, with a stage through the Basque Country hills which will give many the jitters. Four stiff ascents in the final 80km with the Cote de Pike less than 10km from the line means an initial sort-out of the field; at least one favourite could lose the race here. The finish is made for Julian Alaphilippe, so France will expect a win and yellow jersey. Continue reading...

Democratic state senator will seek Delaware's sole seat in House of Representatives in 2024Sarah McBride, the highest-ranked openly transgender elected official in the US, announced she is running for the US House of Representatives this week. If elected, she will be the first openly transgender member of Congress.This campaign isn't just about making history - it's about moving forward," said McBride in a press release on Monday. To strengthen our democracy, we need effective leaders who believe in taking bold action and building bridges for lasting progress." Continue reading...

North Carolina Republicans requested justices issue ruling after dispute over electoral maps. Plus, Brittney Griner's triumphant return to the WNBA

Millions of Americans can't access a doctor or dentist or have to wait months to be seen. Let's change thatThe bad news is that the US healthcare system is broken and dysfunctional. We spend twice as much per capita as almost any other country, nearly $13,000 per year, while 85 million Americans remain uninsured or underinsured. In addition, our health outcomes are often worse. In terms of life expectancy, for example, we live far shorter lives than the people of many other industrialized nations.The system is failing ordinary Americans. On the other hand, the insurance and drug companies that dominate it have sky-high profits and their CEOs receive exorbitant compensation packages. The thousands of lobbyists those companies have on Capitol Hill are also doing very well.Bernie Sanders is a US senator and chairman of the health, education, labor and pensions committee. He represents the state of Vermont, and is the longest-serving independent in the history of Congress Continue reading...

Mohammed bin Salman said to look to repair his reputation after 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in IstanbulThe proposed merger between the Saudi-backed LIV Tour and the American PGA Tour marks the latest maneuver by Riyadh in its campaign to repair its reputation and head off the sort of blacklisting that occurred after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent advocate for democracy in the Middle East told the Guardian.This is a merger in name only. This is really about the Saudi government throwing a premium at PGA Tour that they obviously found too overwhelmingly tempting to resist," said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn). Continue reading...

The independent state legislature' theory was a terrifying threat to voting rights and never should have made it this farSuch is the dismal state of the US supreme court that it is genuinely surprising any time the court's conservative supermajority turns down an opportunity to further distort American democracy to the benefit of their partisan benefactors and enhance the prospects of enduring one-party minority rule.Moore v Harper - the case from North Carolina involving the so-called independent state legislature" (ISL) theory, the ludicrous notion that state legislatures have a free hand when it comes to election law and redistricting, unfettered by pesky state constitutions, state supreme courts or even gubernatorial vetos - was satisfyingly swatted away on Tuesday by a 6-3 majority. Continue reading...

Employees condemn workplaces that deny them rest, leaving them in pain and leading to class-action suitsWhen Zay clocked into her customer service job one recent morning, she noticed things looked different. There were no chairs in the break room. She had nowhere to sit at the table where she usually files invoices. When she reached the back of the store, there was one lonely folding chair propped against the wall. Not for employee use," read a handwritten note taped on the metal.When employees asked their boss what had happened, they learned about a new no-sitting policy. Hopefully, the business owner said, this would increase worker productivity". Continue reading...

My wife and I trust one another with our finances, but we have never opened a shared account. When it comes to a happy marriage, there is an easier way ...A few years ago I had a terrible shock: a bank statement arrived at my house with an extremely large number on it. According to this letter, I was filthy rich! I stared at the statement for a long time. Had I bought bitcoin in my sleep a decade ago? Had I cashed in that bitcoin when it was at its peak? Was I unwittingly skilled at finances?You'll be shocked to hear this, but the answer to all the above is no. The statement arrived because, well over a decade ago, I had a joint bank account with an ex who has a big corporate job, and they'd never got around to taking my name off it. (They very swiftly did when I texted them about it, however.) Continue reading...

Tentative trial date in December unlikely to hold due to complex nature of government's rules for using such secrets in court, legal experts sayFederal prosecutors in the classified documents case against Donald Trump have asked for a tentative trial date in December, but the complex nature of the US government's own rules for using such secrets in court, and expected legal challenges, could delay the trial until at least the spring of 2024.Trump was charged with retaining national defense information, including US nuclear secrets and plans for US retaliation in the event of an attack, which means his case will be tried under the rules laid out in the Classified Information Procedures Act, or Cipa. Continue reading...

While some analysts have argued that Putin's rule was never truly threatened, Putin's actions suggest he believed otherwiseDays after Russia extricated itself from its biggest domestic political crisis in decades, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin continue to deal with the reverberations. Amid the uncertainties, this much is clear: the saga has produced no winners, only losers. Belarus's president Aleksandr Lukashenko put it well, even as he drew attention to his role as peacemaker: I asked people not to make a hero out of me, neither out of me, nor out of Putin, nor out of Prigozhin."For Putin, the consequences of the turmoil are obvious. The Wagner group's unimpeded march to within 200kms (127 miles) of Moscow took Russia's military and intelligence services by surprise and exposed the Russian system writ large as utterly inept - a far cry from the image of competence and strength that Putin has cultivated assiduously since rising to the presidency in 1999. Wagner's capture of Rostov - a city of a million and the headquarters of the southern military district - and its northward march toward the capital along the M4 highway left Russia's strongman looking like a hapless bystander. That, at minimum, tarnished his image - an essential ingredient of his overweening power.Rajan Menon is the director of the grand strategy program at Defense Priorities, a professor emeritus at the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership at the City College of New York, and the co-author of Conflict in Ukraine: The Unwinding of the Post-Cold War OrderDaniel R DePetris is a fellow at Defense Priorities and a syndicated foreign affairs columnist for the Chicago Tribune and Newsweek Continue reading...

Many feared the Mercury star would struggle on court after her time in Russian prison. But she has already been named in the league's All-Star teamPrior to being detained in a Russian prison for 294 days, Brittney Griner was on top of the world.The 32-year-old was coming off one of the best WNBA seasons of her career. She was the Most Valuable Player runner-up, averaging 20.5 points and 9.5 rebounds for the Phoenix Mercury, who she led back to the WNBA finals for the first time since winning the title in 2014. Meanwhile, Griner was on her way to play for Russian club UMMC Ekaterinburg, who she had led to four EuroLeague titles since she started spending her WNBA off-seasons there in 2014. Continue reading...

Kristi Hadfield saved John Cunningham, a military veteran, in 2016 and years later, donated a kidney to his daughter, MollyA paramedic who once restarted a US military veteran's heart has now saved the life of that man's daughter.Kristi Hadfield's life-saving heroics in benefit of retired marine John Cunningham and his daughter Molly Cunningham Jones earned a heartwarming narrative feature from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this week, which went viral among social media platforms that aggregate uplifting news stories. Continue reading...

Ray Brewer, 66, of Porterville, California, was sentenced on Monday for a green energy scam that cost investors $8.75mA California man is going to prison for running a cow dung-to-green energy scheme that authorities say was a load of manure.Ray Brewer, 66, of Porterville was sentenced Monday to six years and nine months in federal prison for a years-long scam that bilked investors out of $8.75m, according to a statement from the US attorney's office. Continue reading...

Yes, Finland has nature and saunas in abundance. But more important is an attitude I've found lacking in the UKWhen I was invited to take part in a masterclass in happiness on the shores of Finnish Lakeland, a few of my friends expressed their surprise. But, Lucy, said one, you're one of the happiest people I know. What are you hoping to learn from the Finns? I suppose she had a point. I've always been one of those annoying, glass-half-full people - not the most obvious choice for a four-day trip designed to teach me why Finnish people are consistently rated the happiest in the world. But, ever the optimist, I gladly accepted.We Britons have about 60 words for happiness: blissfulness, ecstasy, pleasure, delight ... The list is as varied as it is surprising, given that we only just scraped into the top 20 happiest countries in the world this year. Finns, who have been named the happiest nation for the sixth year running, are either onnellinen or iloinen. The latter roughly translates as joyful or glad: you might be iloinen that you're heading off on holiday. Onnellinen, on the other hand, speaks to the notion of being content with your life, rather than describing a fleeting feeling.Lucy Pearson is a freelance writer, book blogger and host of The Bondi Literary salon Continue reading...

When pilgrims don the hajj attire, they discard more than their clothes. Nationality, race and socioeconomic status are tossed to the waysideMillions of men, women and children converged on Mecca this week for the hajj pilgrimage. The Saudi government says it will be the largest crowd ever for the pilgrimage.The hajj pilgrimage is, at its core, a pilgrimage towards God. This presents a paradox of sorts. If God is beyond time and space, then what is the purpose of travelling to a particular place? Is God not present now, everywhere?Our sense of the divine Presence is blunted. We need to find it focused on a particular place and, for the Muslim, that place is the Ka'ba at Mecca, which he has faced every time he prayed and to which he now journeys in pilgrimage.There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all colours, from blue-eyed blondes to black-skinned Africans. But we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and non-white.In my thirty-nine years on this earth, the Holy City of Mecca had been the first time I had ever stood before the Creator of All and felt like a complete human being. Continue reading...

Power use in the state reached a record high Tuesday and will continue to strain the grid as the heatwave moves northTexas is trapped under a heat dome" that is expected to bring more record highs and strain the power grid. As the heatwave expands through parts of Kansas, Oklahoma and all the way across the Gulf coast, tens of millions are facing excessive heat warnings.Houston, the largest city in Texas, hit a high of 100F (38C) today, and officials are expecting daily high temperatures in Austin to remain above 100F for the next several days. Continue reading...

The US will continue to target the Wagner group's revenue streams to degrade its expansion and violence,' US treasury saysThe United States has taken fresh aim at Russia's Wagner group, imposing sanctions on companies it accuses of engaging in illicit gold dealings to fund the mercenary force.In a statement on Tuesday, the US treasury department said it slapped sanctions on four companies in the United Arab Emirates, Central African Republic and Russia it accused of being connected to the Wagner Group and its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin. Continue reading...

Fans can book a stay in Ken's bedroom, enjoy a grilled meal and even go home with a pair of roller skates and a surfboardIf you've always dreamt of a life that's plastic, fantastic and pink all over, your prayers have been answered by Airbnb. Beginning in mid-July, ahead of the premiere of the Barbie movie, Barbie fans can book a stay in Ken's bedroom in Barbie's oceanside mansion in Malibu, California.Though it's technically Barbie's property, her longtime partner, Ken, is the host, according to the Airbnb listing. And he's left personal touches like a grill, pool floaties that spell his name and a barrel of workout supplements called Beefy body brine" for guests to enjoy. Continue reading...

Smoke is expected to enter New York airspace on Wednesday and Thursday, with unhealthy' levels in the state's western regionAs the wildfires in Canada continue to shroud much of the midwest in a thick haze of smoke, New Yorkers are preparing yet again for the smoke to make its way further east.On Tuesday, the New York governor, Kathy Hochul, issued a warning on social media that the smoke from Canadian wildfires is forecast to enter New York airspace on Wednesday and Thursday. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Walt Nauta remains without a Florida lawyer after the person abruptly hiked their fees just before the arraignmentDonald Trump's valet charged in the classified documents case had his arraignment on Tuesday delayed for a second time to July by a magistrate judge, after he was forced to abandon his top choice Florida lawyer over a dispute about legal fees, according to two people familiar with the matter.The valet, Walt Nauta, appeared alongside Trump when the former president pleaded not guilty to 37 criminal charges in federal district court in Miami this month but could not himself enter a plea - a necessary step to start trial preparation - because he lacked local counsel. Continue reading...

Parties are facing a six-month deadline to agree the final details of a deal, according to senator Ron Johnson investigating the dealThe proposed merger between the PGA and Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Tours in professional golf is still in enormous flux" because the parties are facing a six-month deadline to agree the final details of a deal, according to Ron Johnson, the senior Republican senator who is investigating it.The deal has rocked the world of golf and prompted concerns among some lawmakers and human rights activists that - if the deal succeeds - it could mark the first of many takeovers of sports leagues and other cultural institutions by Saudi Arabia. Continue reading...

Pregnant Workers Fairness Act provides a range of arrangements for pregnancy-related conditions including morning sicknessA new federal law that requires employers to provide accommodations to pregnant and postpartum employees took effect on Tuesday, providing protections to millions of eligible people.The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act requires that employers with more than 15 workers provide reasonable accommodations" to people who are pregnant, postpartum or have a related medical condition, NBC News reported. Continue reading...

First UN human rights investigator allowed to visit since camp was set up says men subjected to inhuman and degrading' treatmentThe US government continues to subject the 30 men held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment", the first UN human rights investigator allowed to visit the camp since it was set up 20 years ago has concluded.Fionnuala Ni Aolain was granted unprecedented access as an independent UN monitor, spending four days at Guantanamo in February and meeting a range of the 34 prisoners who were then detained. The number held has now fallen to 30, including the five prisoners accused of plotting the attacks on New York and Washington on 9/11. Continue reading...

The WikiLeaks founder faces extradition and an uncertain fate in the US. Our judges and politicians must interveneA lifesize bronze statue of him appeared in Parliament Square over the weekend but the real Julian Assange could very shortly be taken, handcuffed and protesting, from Belmarsh prison in London and flown off to a high security jail in the US.The statue, created by the Italian sculptor Davide Dormino, stood alongside two others, of Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, at a rally to remind us that Assange's extradition could now be very imminent. Manning, of course, was the former US soldier who leaked the damning information that Assange published through WikiLeaks; Edward Snowden waits in Russia to see whether all the talk of the sanctity of free speech in his country amounts to more than words.Duncan Campbell is a freelance writer who worked for the Guardian as crime correspondent and Los Angeles correspondent Continue reading...

Agencies failed to sound the alarm' and downplayed threats even as building was being stormed on 6 January, Senate report saysA new report detailing intelligence failures leading up to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol said government agencies responsible for anticipating trouble downplayed the threat even as the building was being stormed, in an attempt to stop certification of Joe Biden's election victory.The 105-page report, issued by Democrats on the Senate homeland security committee, said intelligence personnel at the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other agencies ignored warnings of violence in December 2020. Continue reading...

US justice department watchdog cites failure to assign a cellmate and problems with surveillance cameras as factors in his deathThe disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein was able to kill himself due to a combination of negligence and misconduct" by authorities at a federal jail in New York City, a US justice department watchdog concluded.Epstein hanged himself in his cell at the Metropolitan correctional center in Manhattan in August 2019, while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. Continue reading...

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York sues cleaner's employer after freezer turned off to mute annoying alarm'A cleaner at a college in New York state accidentally destroyed decades of research by turning off a freezer in order to mute annoying alarm" sounds.The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), in Troy, is suing the cleaner's employer, alleging improper training. According to a lawsuit filed in the New York supreme court in Rensselaer county earlier this month, the university is seeking more than $1m in damages, the Times Union newspaper reported. Continue reading...

Pedestrian deaths are at a 40-year high and the number of cyclists hit by cars has increased since the pandemic. The most astounding part? These are preventable tragediesLentils are a versatile legume that can be used to make a tasty stew or to incapacitate your enemy's SUV. I know this because I recently Googled How do you deflate someone's tyres?" and found a Guardian article about eco-activists deflating SUV tyres by jamming lentils into the tyre valves: Which some might see as possibly one of the most Guardian" articles ever published.For the sake of any local law enforcement readers, I would like to make clear that I didn't act on the information: I have never weaponised a lentil. I was just rage-Googling; something I am increasingly wont to do. Continue reading...