US news | The Guardian

Conservatives cooked up an absurd case because they know the Biden administration is fully able to cancel debtLast August, President Biden did something no president has done before. He announced a plan to mass cancel student debt, offering $10,000 to $20,000 of relief for borrowers who earn under $125,000 annually.The triumph of this policy was more than the sliver of debt that it potentially sliced off the second-largest type of household debt in the US. More fundamentally, Biden's policy proposal put an ideological dent in the American doctrinal belief that a creditor's right to repayment is the first-order business of any economy.Eleni Schirmer, a writer and postdoctoral fellow at the Concordia University Social Justice Centre in Montreal, is part of the Debt Collective Continue reading...

The acclaimed American actor - known for Catch-22, Little Miss Sunshine and Edward Scissorhands - has died at the age of 89. Here we look back at his long and varied career Continue reading...

Don't worry, privileged white students can still rely on their parents' money and connections to get into Harvard. Yay!Affirmative action as we know it is officially over.The US supreme court ruled this week that race can no longer be considered as a factor in university admissions. And just to be clear, affirmative action as a whole isn't cancelled - it's just the race part that the court is gutting.Tayo Bero is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Taylor Taranto found with materials to create an explosive device a few blocks away from former president's Washington DC homeA man armed with explosive materials and weapons, and wanted for crimes related to the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, was arrested late on Thursday in the Washington DC neighborhood where the former US president Barack Obama lives, law enforcement officials said.Taylor Taranto, 37, was spotted by law enforcement officials a few blocks from the former president's home and fled, though he was chased by Secret Service agents. Taranto has an open warrant on charges related to the insurrection, two law enforcement officials said. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly about an ongoing case and spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Continue reading...

Maxwell was given 20-year prison sentence for helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girlsThe US government has urged an appeals court to uphold Ghislaine Maxwell's conviction and 20-year prison sentence for helping the disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls.In a Thursday night filing with the second US circuit court of appeals in Manhattan, federal prosecutors said none of Maxwell's legal arguments about the fairness of her trial held merit.Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html. Continue reading...

The crime of infanticide provides context for tragic cases such as Paris Mayo's - but courts are becoming ever harsherLast week, 19-year-old Paris Mayo was sentenced to at least 12 years in prison for the murder of her newborn baby when she was 15. After concealing her pregnancy, Mayo delivered her baby alone, silently, in her parents' home in Ross-on-Wye while upstairs her father, who would die 10 days later, was undergoing dialysis, and her mother slept.Mayo told police the baby all of a sudden popped out" while she leaned against a windowsill downstairs. Terrified of being discovered, she crushed her baby's head and stuffed his mouth with cotton wool balls before concealing his body in a bin bag, explaining: I didn't want anyone to throw him away, I just wanted someone to deal with it."Julie Wheelwright is a historian and author of Sisters in Arms: Female Warriors from Antiquity to the New MillenniumDo 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...

Byrne worked with the late Sands on three films - Gothic, Siesta and All Things to All Men. He remembers a fierce, mysterious and much-loved man, fearless as both actor and adventurerOver the last few months, images of Julian have been recurring in my mind.A summer morning, so many years ago, filming Gothic in Berkshire. Julian, Natasha Richardson and myself lounging beneath a cedar tree. Continue reading...

Studies show that states with higher murder rates are those that vote red even as conservatives stoke fear about crimeBe it congressional campaigns or defending Donald Trump from his many legal entanglements, Republicans have kept up a consistent message to the US: Democrats can't be trusted to keep you safe.Alvin Bragg ... is going after President Trump when you have all kinds of things happening in his town that are harmful to families who live there," Ohio congressman Jim Jordan, one of Trump's top allies in Congress, said on Fox News after the Democratic Manhattan prosecutor in March indicted Trump for allegedly falsifying business records. Jordan, who chairs the House judiciary committee, appeared to be ignoring data that shows New York is one of the safest cities in the country. Continue reading...

Alliance Defending Freedom distributes hundreds of thousands of dollars to fringe groups attacking trans, gay and abortion rights. Plus, Ketanji Jackson's impassioned affirmative action dissent

Severe weather, staffing issues and record-high numbers of summer travelers strain country's airline industryAmericans may have to put their weekend celebrations on hold. Travelers in the US faced a chaotic week leading up to the Fourth of July weekend as soaring flight delays and cancellations were seen across the country.From Monday through Wednesday, at least 28,000 flights were delayed each day, and at least 1,200 were canceled, with Monday and Tuesday seeing about 2,200 cancellations each, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) forecast 29 June would be the busiest day for air travel during the summer, with 52,564 scheduled flights. By 1pm ET on Thursday, over 19,000 flights across the country had been delayed and 1,160 had been cancelled, according to FlightAware. Continue reading...

Fraudsters are being given more sophisticated ways to trick us into believing they are someone they are notThis year, I was sent a link to a video of myself, passionately explaining why I had invested into a new technology company. In the video I spoke enthusiastically about the great faith I had in the company's leadership and encouraged others to try the service out. The problem was, I had never met the company nor used its product.It looked and sounded like me, right down to the fading Mancunian accent. But it wasn't. It was an AI-generated fake used in a business pitch and designed to wow me into investing in a company. Far from impressing me, it left me concerned about the myriad ways these new tools could be used for fraudulent purposes.James Wise is a partner at the venture capital firm Balderton, and a trustee of the thinktank Demos Continue reading...

Smoke from unchecked Canada wildfires hits air quality in north-east as further south 80m American under excessive heat alertsExtreme heatwaves are continuing to spread across the country as meteorologists warn Americans to prepare for a hot and smoky summer. With the 235 out-of-control Canadian wildfires showing no signs of dying down, smoke has drifted south into the US and shrouded multiple cities including Chicago and Detroit in a thick haze.There are no signs of the relief coming for the next week or longer, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Weather Prediction Center.42% have experienced short-term injury or illness23% report complications to an existing chronic condition15% have suffered a long-term injury or a new chronic condition Continue reading...

In an interview with Reuters, the ex-president weighed in on the Ukraine-Russia war and China's spy operation in CubaDonald Trump, a longtime admirer of Vladimir Putin, said on Thursday that the Russian president has been somewhat weakened" by an aborted mutiny and that the US should use this moment to negotiate a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine.I want people to stop dying over this ridiculous war," Trump told Reuters in a telephone interview. Continue reading...

Ex-president's claims of absolute immunity and that statements were opinion were rejected; lawsuit scheduled for early next yearA federal judge on Thursday rejected Donald Trump's bid to dismiss the first of E Jean Carroll's two lawsuits accusing the former US president of defamation for denying he raped her in the mid-1990s.US district judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan found no merit in Trump's arguments that he deserved absolute presidential immunity and that many of his statements about Carroll were opinion and thus protected. Continue reading...

Farris spent decades working with Coretta Scott King - often behind the scenes - to promote her brother's legacyChristine King Farris, the last living sibling of Martin Luther King Jr, has died.Her niece, the Reverand Bernice King, tweeted that her beloved aunt" had died on Thursday. She was 95. Continue reading...

The 1,100-page document details examples of discrimination and recommends how to address the harms of chattel slaveryCalifornia's first-in-the-nation reparations taskforce released its final report with recommendations for how the state should atone for its history of racial violence and discrimination against Black residents on Thursday.This document, which could serve as a national model for how governments can attempt to right the wrongs of the past, marks the end of a nearly three-year effort that began in the wake of George Floyd's murder and the ensuing reckoning around systemic racism and anti-Blackness in the US. Continue reading...

President says he will ask education department to look into ways to maintain student diversity as race-conscious admissions endsJoe Biden slammed the US supreme court on Thursday as not a normal court" after it ruled to end race-conscious admissions at universities across the country, and he announced he will ask the Department of Education to look into ways to maintain student diversity in higher education.The court has effectively ended affirmative action in college admissions and I strongly, strongly disagree with the court's decision," the US president said in a short speech at the White House scheduled specifically for him to react to the decision. Continue reading...

The US supreme court ruled against considering race in university admissions. Here is Ketanji Brown Jackson's dissenting opinionGulf-sized race-based gaps exist with respect to the health, wealth, and well-being of American citizens. They were created in the distant past, but have indisputably been passed down to the present day through the generations. Every moment these gaps persist is a moment in which this great country falls short of actualizing one of its foundational principles - the self-evident" truth that all of us are created equal. Yet, today, the Court determines that holistic admissions programs like the one that the University of North Carolina (UNC) has operated, consistent with Grutter v Bollinger (2003), are a problem with respect to achievement of that aspiration, rather than a viable solution (as has long been evident to historians, sociologists, and policymakers alike).JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR has persuasively established that nothing in the Constitution or Title VI prohibits institutions from taking race into account to ensure the racial diversity of admits in higher education. I join her opinion without qualification. I write separately to expound upon the universal benefits of considering race in this context, in response to a suggestion that has permeated this legal action from the start. Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) has maintained, both subtly and overtly, that it is unfair for a college's admissions process to consider race as one factor in a holistic review of its applicants.This is Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's dissenting opinion from Thursday's supreme court ruling against affirmative action. It has been lightly edited to remove some footnotes and legal citations Continue reading...

Scot Peterson found not guilty of felony child neglect during the 2018 shooting at a high school in which 17 were killedA Florida sheriff's deputy was acquitted on Thursday of felony child neglect and other charges for failing to act during the 2018 Parkland school massacre, concluding the first trial in US history of a law enforcement officer for conduct during an on-campus shooting.The former Broward county deputy Scot Peterson wept as the verdicts were read. The jury had deliberated for 19 hours over four days. Continue reading...

Annual government count shows 9% increase, sharper than last year's 4%, in country's most populous countyThe unhoused population of Los Angeles has grown by 9%, with more than 75,000 people now experiencing homelessness across the county, according to data from the government's annual count, released on Thursday.The Los Angeles homeless services authority (Lahsa) report suggests that there was a sharper increase in homelessness this year compared with last year, when the agency estimated a 4% rise in the population. The agency count includes people living on the street and people in shelters. Continue reading...

The US president has condemned the supreme court's conservative justices for their decision on Thursday against race-based admissions.The justices concluded that admissions policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina violated the US constitution's equal protection clause.A reporter asked Biden if he agreed with the Congressional Black Caucus that the ruling threw into question the legitimacy of the court. The US president replied: 'This is not a normal court'

Michael Shvartsman, Gerald Shvartsman and Bruce Garelick allegedly made $22m based on tips about Trump's media groupUS prosecutors on Thursday charged three men with insider trading ahead of the proposed merger of former president Donald Trump's social media company and a shell company in late 2021.Michael Shvartsman, Gerald Shvartsman and Bruce Garelick allegedly made more than $22m trading in Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC), a so-called special purpose acquisition company, or Spac, based on tips about its planned combination with Trump Media & Technology Group. Continue reading...

Former vice-president is first Republican presidential candidate to meet with Ukrainian president during campaignFormer vice-president Mike Pence visited Ukraine this week and met with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, according to a report by NBC News.He's now the first GOP presidential candidate to meet with Zelenskiy during the campaign. Continue reading...

At a recent fundraiser he said he's not big on' abortion. It's not pro-choice activists who are out of step with the mainstream; it's Joe BidenA closed-door fundraiser for the very wealthy is a place where a lot of politicians really shine. Among their fellow elites, surrounded by people like them who like them - and are giving them money - Democrats and Republicans alike often become their truest selves. They drop the flesh-pressing affectations, the focused-group soundbites, the stiff smiles. They become something they're usually not: honest.Honest is what Biden was at a similar fundraiser in tony Chevy Chase, Maryland, this past Tuesday, when he told a crowd of his wealthy supporters that he was personally ambivalent about abortion rights. I'm a practicing Catholic. I'm not big on abortion," the president said. Nevertheless, he claimed that the compromise Roe v Wade decision on abortion got it right".Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

About 1,200 flights cancelled on Wednesday and nearly 7,000 delayed due to poor weather and staff shortagesThousands of airline passengers have faced cancelled or delayed flights amid surges in summer travel, as many worry about possible travel woes ahead of the Fourth of July holiday.About 1,200 flights were cancelled on Wednesday and nearly 7,000 delayed, according to data from FlightAware, according to Newsweek. Continue reading...

The court's ruling reflects a decades-long drive to return higher education to the control of a white privileged classOn Thursday, in a 6-3 decision, the US supreme court ruled against affirmative action in American colleges and universities. The obvious concern now is whether the ruling will significantly reduce the number of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students enrolled at elite institutions. But a more dire reality undergirds the court's decision: it reflects a decades-long drive to return higher education to white, elite control.That movement predates affirmative action by at least a century, because no entity impacts American life more than higher education. During the Reconstruction era following emancipation, Black people were allowed to advance in political and various other roles, but white powerbrokers drew a hard line at higher education. On 28 September 1870 the chancellor of the University of Mississippi, John Newton Waddel, declared: The university will continue to be, what it always has been, an institution exclusively for the education of the white race."Eddie R Cole is an associate professor of education and history at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author of The Campus Color Line: College Presidents and the Struggle for Black Freedom Continue reading...

Florida governor vows to push back against woke ideology ... we see creeping into all institutions of American life'Ron DeSantis pledged on Wednesday that he would eliminate four federal agencies if he were elected president: the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Department of Commerce, Department of Energy, and Department of Education.If Congress will work with me on doing that, we'll be able to reduce the size and scope of government," the Florida governor said in an interview with Fox News' Martha MacCallum. If Congress won't go that far, I'm going to use those agencies to push back against woke ideology and against the leftism that we see creeping into all institutions of American life." Continue reading...

Three of the train's seven cars went off the tracks following the collision in California, which critically injured the truck's driverAn Amtrak train carrying nearly 200 passengers struck a county water truck and derailed on Wednesday in Southern California, critically injuring the truck's driver, authorities said.Three of the train's seven cars went off the tracks following the collision in Moorpark, said Ventura County Fire Department captain Brian McGrath. The derailed train cars remained upright on tracks adjacent to an orchard and bare sections of land. Continue reading...

Ukrainian forces seize strategic initiative' while Russian president poses for selfies in Dagestan. Plus, are pink-haired liberals' killing New York pizza? Don't already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.Vladimir Putin greeted supporters in a rare up-close public appearance yesterday after arriving in the remote southern region of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea.What else is happening? A Russian general who previously led the invasion force in Ukraine has not been seen in public since Saturday, with US intelligence reportedly claiming he had prior knowledge of the uprising led by the Wagner chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin.What has the German chancellor said? Last weekend's mutiny has weakened Putin's authority, as it shows that the autocratic power structures have cracks in them and he is not as firmly in the saddle as he always asserts", Olaf Scholz said during a wide-ranging, hour-long interview with the German broadcaster ARD.What's going to happen now? Retrieving the debris from the submersible is a key part of the investigation to establish what went wrong. The wreckage of the Titan will assist in an investigation into the tragedy and answer questions about the craft's experimental design, safety standards and lack of certification. Industry experts have long had doubts about the design of the craft and raised questions about the safety record of OceanGate, the US company that operated the submersible. Continue reading...

The Russian leader's show of mercy towards Yevgeny Prigozhin was not a sign of weakness but a shrewd moveMuch of the western analysis of the events in Russia last weekend has concluded that Vladimir Putin displayed his weakness by allowing Yevgeny Prigozhin and other Wagner group commanders to depart peacefully for Belarus, and the rank-and-file to join the Russian army or retire to their homes. Of course, if Putin had in fact crushed the revolt by force and executed its leaders, commentators would have used this as more evidence of his brutality and ruthlessness, and perhaps also of the innate savagery and violence of the Russian national tradition.These conclusions are coloured by an understandable dislike of the Russian leader, and they do not constitute sober and objective analysis. In fact, though Putin was obviously responsible for creating the background to this mess, we should consider the possibility that at the weekend he handled things well. In his address to the nation on Saturday morning, he displayed determination and resolve. Putin made clear that he had no intention of surrendering to Prigozhin's demands, and that if he and the other Wagner leaders continued their revolt, they would be charged with treason (and, by implication, probably executed).Anatol Lieven is director of the Eurasia programme at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and author of books including Ukraine and Russia: A Fraternal Rivalry Continue reading...

National Security Council's statement comes after the Guardian reported Hollywood financier's interest in NSO group's assetsThe Biden administration has warned that any attempted takeover by an American company of Israel's NSO Group, the maker of one of the world's most sophisticated cyber-weapons, could prompt a review of whether the acquisition posed a counterintelligence threat to the US government.The statement by the National Security Council comes after the Guardian reported that Robert Simonds, a Hollywood financier best known for producing several Adam Sandler films, is exploring a possible bid to take control of NSO's assets, including Pegasus, the company's spyware. Continue reading...

Brad Raffensperger disregards report identifying vulnerabilities and claims findings are no more than conspiracy theoriesGeorgia's top election official is disregarding a recently released report that identifies serious vulnerabilities in Georgia's computerized election system, instead siding with a conflicting report and claiming that scientific findings about cybersecurity threats are no more than conspiracy theories.The Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, charged with overseeing elections, announced that despite the report's findings, he will not update software to protect against the vulnerabilities before the 2024 presidential elections. Continue reading...

My only consolation is that it feels so damn good to take them off at the end of the dayI don't mean to boast, but I've got lovely legs. They are easily my best feature. But - there's a but - while my right leg is simply perfect, and my left leg is good down to the knee, what comes below that is a proper old mess.It was more than 30 years ago, playing in goal in a cup tie at Amersham Town, that I broke my left leg. Impressive," said the radiologist of the X-rays. I spent seven months in plaster and it was a year before I could walk without a stick. Even then, I wasn't out of the woods.Adrian Chiles is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

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.