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State attorneys general say their deputies were turned away and criticized the White House for politicizing' fraud issuesThree Democratic state attorneys general said their deputies were turned away from a roundtable hosted by JD Vance on Tuesday, sowing confusion about what the White House has billed as a bipartisan crackdown on fraud.After attorneys general - including New York's Letitia James, California's Rob Bonta and New Jersey's Jennifer Davenport - declined a last-minute invitation to participate in the event alongside their Republican counterparts, they said representatives from their offices travelled to Washington to attend , but were shut out. Continue reading...

Former president says disclosure of recordings tied to classified files inquiry would violate his privacyJoe Biden, the former president, has filed a lawsuit to try to prevent the justice department (DoJ) from releasing transcripts and audio of interviews that exposed his frequent memory lapses and helped derail his 2024 re-election campaign.The decade-old conversations with the author of his biography ended up in the hands of Robert Hur, the special counsel who was appointed to look into allegations Biden improperly handled classified documents. Continue reading...

After a glitzy roster reveal event in New York, the US begin their World Cup journey in the suburbs of Atlanta

US supreme court ruling could eliminate two majority-Black districts and entrench Republican control from Congress to county school boardsAlabama has long been considered the birthplace of the voting rights movement in America.During a peaceful voting rights demonstration in 1965, an Alabama state trooper shot and killed church deacon Jimmie Lee Jackson. In response, about 600 marchers set out from Selma, across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, toward the state capitol building in Montgomery to demand the right to vote. What met them on the other side - state troopers on horseback, billy clubs, teargas and a sheriff's posse - was broadcast that evening on national television. Continue reading...

We would like to hear from people who have been affected by the rule changeForeigners seeking to adjust their immigration status in the US to secure green cards will have to do so from outside the country via the state department, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said on Friday.The new rule marks the latest significant move by the Trump administration on immigration policy as the green card process had been unchanged for more than 60 years. Continue reading...

Paxton's win, despite his history of scandals, signals the president's enduring grip over the state. Plus, one sex educator on why she doesn't define sex at all Don't already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.Ken Paxton, the scandal-ridden Texas attorney general who was backed by Donald Trump, beat the incumbent, John Cornyn, in the Republican primary runoff for senator, signaling how much sway the president still has in the deep red state.And Paxton's new opponent? As a Democrat, Talarico faces long odds in Texas, but he has built a groundswell of popularity through his message of peace and populism. Ahead of the primary, Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez, a former Democratic candidate for the Senate and a partner at Ascend Strategy Labs, a social justice consulting firm in Austin, said: If Ken Paxton becomes the candidate, Talarico has a shot."How much has funding declined? The WFP's funding was cut last year by a third, with the US, the largest donor by far, decreasing its contribution by more than half.How does the US-Israel war on Iran affect famine? Most directly, it drives up food prices, mostly because of transport costs, but some aid routes have also been blocked. Continue reading...

Impunity breeds popular cynicism, and cynicism undergirds autocracyAs his mentor Roy Cohn counseled, Donald Trump never admits wrongdoing or apologizes. But he occasionally evinces something resembling a qualm. In October, considering renewing claims against the government for $230m in compensation for federal investigations against him, he reflected on his own appointees deciding on the payout and him signing off on it. It sort of looks bad, I'm suing myself, right?" he said. So, I don't know."That month, when he demolished the White House East Wing to build his ballroom, he made it sort of look good by vowing that the now $400m project would be privately funded. It went without saying that the donors would expect gratitude in the form of government contracts or favorable regulatory rulings. Continue reading...

The Bananas started as baseball's most eccentric attraction. Now they are building something that increasingly resembles a traveling entertainment universe of their ownThe Savannah Bananas brand has, arguably, become bigger than the Savannah Bananas themselves. What would seem to be a crucial component of the Bananas experience - the actual team - is increasingly absent from games featuring the showboating version of baseball that the Bananas themselves popularized. By all accounts, however, fans don't care.When the Guardian last examined the Bananas in 2023, the organization had only just abandoned its amateur roots in collegiate summer baseball to focus strictly on bananaball", a funhouse-mirror reflection of baseball that focuses on trick plays, player antics and crowd engagement. At the time, bananaball was restricted to two teams - the Bananas and their forever foes, the Party Animals - who seemed prepared to follow a well-trodden path to long-term, if moderate success. Continue reading...

The 1994 World Cup transformed the domestic game in the US. MLS will hope a similar change can give the league a much-needed joltIn the thinking of the people who put them on, mega-events can never just be their own thing. They must leave a legacy, or, if possible, a Legacy. Remake the landscape; alter the course of history; change the whole world, if that isn't too much to ask.Most World Cups don't really leave much of one, once the dust has settled. Or if they do, it's a legacy of white elephant stadiums that burden the host nation for many years. The last World Cup in the United States, played in 1994, really did leave something tangible and positive behind: Major League Soccer, the creation of which was a condition for hosting the tournament.Leander Schaerlaeckens is the author of The Long Game: U.S. Men's Soccer and Its Savage, Four-Decade Journey to the Top, or Thereabouts, which is out now. He teaches at Marist University. Continue reading...

The Park Slope Food Coop boycott vote follows tensions and rifts among members and larger communityMembers of a storied food co-operative in Brooklyn have voted to boycott about a dozen products from Israel and Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine - capping years of contentious debate over a conflict half a world away that has threatened to rip apart a landmark institution for liberal New Yorkers.The Park Slope Food Coop vote, which took place Tuesday night during a three-hour virtual meeting attended by about 7,000 of the co-operative's 17,000 members, follows months of dueling campaigning that one local rabbi opposed to the boycott described as a proxy war". The boycott is supposed to impact some brands of tahini, peppers and persimmons as well as other products. Sixty-seven percent of participants voted in favor of the boycott. Continue reading...

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Nearly 200 people killed in Trump administration's deadly campaign as strikes draw widespread condemnationThe US military launched another strike Tuesday on a vessel suspected of transporting drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing one man and leaving two survivors.Video posted on social media by US Southern Command shows a boat speeding through water before exploding into flames. Southern Command said it immediately notified the US Coast Guard to activate the Search and Rescue system for the survivors". Continue reading...

Christian Menefee wins 18th district race after Republican gerrymandering carved up Green's reliably Democratic seatChristian Menefee, a freshman Democratic US representative, beat veteran congressman Al Green on Tuesday in a fierce runoff that was the product of Republican gerrymandering.Last year, the Republican-dominated Texas legislature unveiled a congressional map designed to flip seats in the GOP's favor. Donald Trump had urged the state's lawmakers to safeguard the party's congressional majority. Continue reading...

Race had wide implications for Trump's strength heading into midterms, where Paxton will face Democratic candidate James TalaricoKen Paxton, the Donald Trump-backed Texas attorney general, triumphed over incumbent John Cornyn in the Republican primary runoff for senator. His victory signals that even a scandal-plagued candidate can win over the deep red state with the support of the president.After a public service career lasting more than four decades and 18 consecutive campaign wins, tonight we've come up short in this primary runoff," Cornyn said shortly after the race was called. I've always supported the GOP ticket. I intend to do so again this general election." Continue reading...

According to the fire department, incident occurred when a tank containing white liquor, a chemical solution, ruptured

President says federal government must retain regulatory authority as concerns grow over addictive' platformsDonald Trump wrote in a social media post on Tuesday it was critically important" that the federal government retain control over the multibillion-dollar prediction market industry, as he cast a critical eye on state attempts to impose new restrictions.The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) should retain exclusive authority" over prediction markets, Trump said. Continue reading...

Despite attack that killed four Iranian soldiers, Tehran has not pulled out of talks that were continuing under the joint mediation of Pakistan and Qatar- key US politics stories from Tuesday 26 May at a glanceA proposed peace agreement between Iran and the US seemed to remain on the table on Tuesday despite US bombing Iranian targets.The Iranian foreign ministry denounced the US attack - aimed at missile launchers and efforts to lay fresh mines in the strait of Hormuz - as an act of bad faith" and a definitive violation of the ceasefire" and said it would not leave aggression unanswered. But it did not pull out of the talks that were continuing under the joint mediation of Pakistan and Qatar. Continue reading...

The venue is expected to host a mixed martial arts fight on 14 June to also mark the US's 250th anniversary

Attorney, speechwriter and confidante of King was involved in some of US civil rights movement's key momentsClarence B Jones, a former speechwriter and confidant of Martin Luther King Jr who helped pen his famous I have a dream" speech, has died. He was 95.Jones died on Friday at a senior living community in the San Francisco Bay Area suburb of Cupertino, according to a statement released by family members, who were at his side. Continue reading...

Bid to remake maps and reduce Democratic voters in Jim Clyburn's district before midterms fails in state senateRepublican lawmakers in South Carolina have defied Donald Trump and rejected a breakneck bid to redraw the state's congressional districts ahead of November's US midterm elections.In a 26-18 vote, state senators rejected mid-decade redistricting in a special session of the legislature, ending hope in Washington to split up congressman Jim Clyburn's district and add to the list of gerrymandered gains for Republicans. Continue reading...

Lawmakers cite studies linking weedkiller to Parkinson's as pressure mounts for a wider US banVermont is the first US state to ban the weedkilling pesticide paraquat, backed by lawmakers who cited concerns about research showing the chemical substantially increases the risk of the incurable brain ailment known as Parkinson's disease.Phil Scott, the governor, signed the legislation on Tuesday. The new law takes effect on 1 November, though it contains a provision allowing state regulators to issue special permits for paraquat use on fruit-producing tree orchards, berries and other small fruit" crops up until 31 December 2030. Continue reading...

From the Robinsons to Folarin Balogun, a player-by-player guide to the United States' squad of 26 for the World Cup

While the event's movers and shakers are rich and smart, they don't come across as caring deeply about sportI woke up in Las Vegas on Monday to an avalanche of messages from people across elite sport asking about the Enhanced Games. Some wanted to know what it was really like. Most, though, wanted to dance on its grave.So much for the organisers' promises that we would witness multiple world records. So much for their ridiculous claim to be the Super Bowl of athletics, swimming and weightlifting!" Hubris meet nemesis. Continue reading...

US president, who turns 80 next month, frequently casts himself as fit but recent photos have added to questions about his health

US health secretary gets nip from one of two serpents he grabbed at home of fellow Trump official Dr OzRobert F Kennedy Jr, the health secretary, on Tuesday added to his lengthening catalog of bizarre wild animal encounters by posting to social media a video of himself in Florida wrestling with two snakes.Kennedy, who has previously admitted dumping the carcass of a bear cub in New York's Central Park, and is also alleged to have cut the penis of a road-kill raccoon, is seen grabbing the pair of serpents with his bare hands. Continue reading...

OPM releases draft NDA designed for federal agencies to use with new and existing employees

17-year-old Frenchman Moise Kouame becomes youngest male to win a grand slam singles match since 2009, as Aryna Sabalenka sails through in straight setsKouame holds for 6-6 in the first; he and Cilic will now play a first-set tiebreaker, and I'd not be at all surprised if the 17-year-old took it. I'm almost tempted to post one of my school reports from the same age just to make clear how ridiculous what he's doing is.On Chatrier, Sabalenka and Bouzas Maneiro are ready to start. Can the world no 1 win a major on a non-hard surface? I'm sure the answer is yes, but equally, I'm not sure it'll be this one, this year. Continue reading...

Kentucky conservative says I haven't made a final decision about which office to seek, if I run'Thomas Massie is planning his comeback.The conservative Kentucky congressman filed to run again for the US House of Representatives in 2028, less than a week after losing to Donald Trump's hand-picked challenger Ed Gallrein 55-45 in a bruising primary. Continue reading...

Police responded to reports of gunfire at store in town of Scottsbluff and found that a dog triggered the shotgun blastPolice responding to reports of a shotgun blast at a convenience store sounds like the opening of countless American crime movies, but when cops in Nebraska responded to a recent such call they found an unusual culprit: a dog.Local TV station KNOP News 2 reported that police in the town of Scottsbluff were called out to a local store recently after reports of a blast involving a shotgun. Continue reading...

Trump's mass deportation campaign is accelerating the climate crisis. Plus, US students on why they booed their pro-AI graduation speakers

Republicans may be seeking a new line of attack against Gavin Newsom, who has emerged as an early frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nominationThe next US presidential election is more than two years away but conservative media has wasted no time attacking expected Democratic contenders. In recent months, they've turned their attention to Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California's governor.In early April, the progressive writer and researcher Kyle Tharp noted that conservative media and influencers were aggressively resurfacing" old footage of Newsom, a 51-year-old documentary film-maker who has been married to Gavin Newsom for nearly 18 years. The clips, Tharp said, included rambling, word-salad answers that seem tailor-made to provoke conservative outrage" and made their way from social media to television and radio, leading to a sudden surge in interest in Google search. Continue reading...

Runoff between John Cornyn and Ken Paxton features ads and legal disputes targeting Texas MuslimsIn the bitter and expensive US Senate runoff between John Cornyn, the incumbent, and Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, the state's Muslim community has been a frequent target for campaign ads and legal challenges.Both candidates have tried to portray the other as either too soft on the supposed threat of Islam or insufficiently aggressive toward Muslim institutions. Continue reading...

Rule prevents many immigrant truckers from renewing driver's license - even if they've driven legally for years

Carruthers' court case was fraught with problems. A second execution attempt would be the kind of cruelty no decent society should countenanceOn 21 May, Tony Carruthers had an experience that few others have had. He was taken to the execution chamber, where the state of Tennessee began the process of putting him to death, but it failed to finish what it started.Carruthers was not killed and he lived to tell about it. He became the ninth person to survive a failed execution in the last 80 years.Austin Sarat, associate dean of the faculty and William Nelson Cromwell professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College, is the author of Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America's Death Penalty Continue reading...

As always, the kids will be the stars of this year's community. But they will be aided by their families, friends, teachers and coachesThe cult of the great man, common in the US given our love of glorifying the individual, has lately reached depressing extremes. Elon Musk, fancying himself a modern Midas, wrought massive chaos on the federal government last year with his band of Doge hacks. Donald Trump, meanwhile, has instituted an unofficial cult of personality in DC, and recently posted - then deleted - an image of himself as a Christ-like figure. Less malevolently, we tend to think of great scientists, authors, and philosophers as working in splendid isolation, assuming that their accomplishments are a function of their solitude and individual gifts.When some people witness the crowning moment of the Scripps National Spelling Bee - the champion, standing alone, hoisting the trophy as the confetti falls - they may understandably assume that competitive spelling works the same way. But, as with so much in life, success in competitive spelling is a function of community - an important lesson for us all to remember in an age of atomization, AI alienation, and Trumpist individualism. Continue reading...

Scandal-plagued Ken Paxton has won Trump's backing - can he defeat John Cornyn in a high-stakes primary runoff?Ken Paxton, the state attorney general, takes on four-term incumbent John Cornyn on Tuesday in the ugliest primary election of the year. The winner of the Republican Senate runoff in Texas will contest November's general election against Democrat James Talarico.Paxton and Cornyn have spent months coveting the most valuable endorsement in Republican politics: Donald Trump. Last week, scandal-plagued Paxton got it, with the US president describing him as a true Maga warrior". Continue reading...

Some say project Iran is a disaster, but as a get-out-of-jail-free card it's a winner. He did say he was smart, didn't he?How far would you go for your son? For Donald Trump, the answer is simply: The Bahamas? That is way too far! Why can't you just get married on the golf course we buried your mother in? Or better still, the one I'm being carted to the second I get off the reinforced toilet I'm typing this on." And so it was that the president cordially flaked on the latest marriage of his large adult son Don Jr, which took place somewhere in the Bahamas last weekend. If the world felt somehow different to you on Sunday morning, you were right. We now live in a post-troth society.In other ways, though, the world would have felt quite samey. Those whose notional protest placard reads IRAN DEAL WHEN?" remain fobbed off round the clock by a US administration that is always close", looking at a pretty solid thing on the table" and debating specific language in the initial document". The Iranian government, meanwhile, is laying mines in the strait of Hormuz, expressing resolute" support for Hezbollah and saying gnomically trolling things like how the two sides are both very close and very far". The president loves to imply that deals are always like this, once again confusing commercial Floridian real estate with the fanatical remnants of a dysfunctional regime in whose interest it is to play him.Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Trump campaign accelerating climate crisis as officials move migrants to detention jails and deport them from USUS immigration enforcement flights are producing hundreds of thousands of metric tonnes of climate-damaging carbon emissions as officials shuttle unprecedented numbers of people to detention centers far from home and deport them to countries across the world.Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign has spurred at least an 80% increase in such flights year over year, accelerating the climate crisis by emitting massive amounts of carbon dioxide, according to data analysis shared exclusively with the Guardian. Continue reading...

The former Manchester City manager is always interested in fresh challenges. Taking on another continent could be tempting as he embarks on a new chapterWhere do you go after Lionel Messi, Major League Soccer? ?This is not just a question MLS will ponder, but one soccer in general has been thinking about for some time. It has led to a desperate trend of labelling every promising youngster the next Messi', but such was (and remarkably still is) the Argentinian's quality, that there may not be another player at his level for decades. There may never be one. Continue reading...

Donald Trump says deal will be great and meaningful, or there will be no deal at all' in online post - key US politics stories from Monday 25 May at a glanceIran has poured cold water on suggestions that a deal with the US is imminent, pointing to the confusion in US positions and Israeli interference as reasons why an agreement is proving difficult to secure.Speaking at the weekly foreign ministry press briefing, Esmail Baghaei, the spokesperson for Iran's negotiating team, also said future management of the strait of Hormuz was a matter for Oman and Iran to agree on, and that it was not tolls that were being proposed but fees for navigational services". Continue reading...

Tehran says contradictory statements' from US and Israeli interference hindering negotiations

US officials credit overnight cooling and monitoring for stabilising tank after leak fears triggered mass evacuationFirefighters contending with an overheating tank of hazardous chemicals in southern California said they had eliminated the threat of the tank exploding in an overnight operation, Orange county fire officials said on Monday.The damaged chemical tank in southern California had cracked over the weekend, which authorities were hopeful would relieve pressure and reduce the risk of an explosion. Continue reading...