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Former champion Emma Raducanu secured her first victory at Flushing Meadows since lifting the trophy in 2021Shibahara's double fault allows Raducanu to make it 15-all, and a forehand into the net gives Raducanu the next point. But Shibahara is finally on the board, a forehand down the line providing her some relief. Raducanu leads 5-1.Shibahara finds the net while trying to return a backhand slice and goes long moments later, allowing Raducanu to go 5-0 up. Continue reading...

The US president has an aptitude for elbowing himself into the spotlight, and next year he'll make sure he has the world's attentionWhen Donald Trump remained on stage, grinning in the sun as Chelsea lifted the Club World Cup trophy last month, it was all too easy to treat the incident as a one-off mistake. A moment that said plenty about Trump's ego, sure. But ultimately, only a moment.Nope. It's reality. Inescapable. Donald Trump will be everywhere Fifa is in the US, including at the 2026 World Cup - due to start in about 10 months, when Canada and Mexico will co-host. Continue reading...

Weaponized AI surveillance platforms threaten human rights around the world. Here's how they workIce is just around the corner," my friend said, looking up from his phone. We were writing at a coffee shop in one of the oldest neighborhoods of New York City, where schools and churches support thriving migrant communities as they have since long before the United States existed. Now the agents of this rogue federal agency - recognized for civil rights abuses like racial profiling, wrongful detention, medical neglect and inhumane detentions - were just footsteps away, shaking down our neighbors in their homes and at the park across the street.A day earlier, I had met with foreign correspondents at the United Nations to explain the AI surveillance architecture that Ice is using across the United States. The law enforcement agency uses targeting technologies which one of my past employers, Palantir Technologies, has both pioneered and proliferated - tools I was once charged with illustrating as a graphic designer and writer, yet the consequences of which I am just coming to understand. Although largely invisible, technology like Palantir's plays a major role in world events, from wars in Iran, Gaza and Ukraine to the detainment of immigrants and dissident students in the United States. But despite its ubiquity, lawmakers, technologists and the media are failing to protect people from the threat of this particular kind of weaponized AI and its consequences, partly because they haven't recognized it by name. Continue reading...

The R&B star's unlikely set during SeaWorld's viral' summer shows became a stylish lesson in how to age as a performer with dignityJust before sunset on a luminous August evening, a few boats pulled up outside a waterfront stage at SeaWorld San Diego, the controversial theme park known for its dolphin and orca shows. Two people on a jetski idled next to the boats. They were waiting for the music to begin.Everyone was here to see Ginuwine, the R&B singer famous for Pony (1996) and In Those Jeans (2003). But why was the 54-year-old master of the late-90s sex ballad headlining a show at an aquatic theme park for children? Continue reading...

Serena Williams made a a surprise appearance at the International Tennis Hall of Fame ceremony in Newport, Rhode Island, emerging from behind the stage to introduce 'former rival, former fan and forever friend' Maria Sharapova for her induction on Saturday night. 'My favourite moments were always the quiet victories,' Sharapova told the audience. 'In giving my life to tennis, tennis gave me a remarkable life.'

Graham Platner's viral X post and unusual campaign launch video are bringing attention to his effort to unseat Susan CollinsOne of Graham Platner's high school yearbooks shows him babyfaced with a buzzcut, holding a sign proclaiming, in part: Free Palestine." The image is accompanied by a superlative his classmates bestowed upon him: Most Likely To Start A Revolution."Well see!" Platner wrote on X Thursday, posting a photo of the yearbook page, in a post that's been viewed 4.5m times. Now bearded, burly and tattooed, with a sweep of dirty blond hair above a sunburnt face, Platner still believes in a free Palestine. He also thinks it'll take something revolutionary to save the US, so earlier this week, when the oysterman announced his candidacy to be the next US senator from Maine, he pulled no punches. Continue reading...

As Trump threatens funding and public trust plummets, US schools are in the fight of a lifetime. This is how they can survive - with their souls intactIt is no secret that American universities are in the fight of a lifetime. With billions of dollars in federal support on the line, their ability to fund their research activities is clearly at stake. But for the biggest targets, such as Harvard, their pockets are unfathomably deep. While cuts may be painful, no financial threat is likely to be existential. What is harder to know is whether universities can come out of their current predicament with their souls intact.The groundwork for this situation has been in the making for more than a decade. While the destruction is a bipartisan phenomenon, early warning signs appeared in cancel culture", the left's version of campus censoriousness. More recently, the right's version has been even more brazen, as seen in boorish attempts by the Trump administration and some state governors to control what is taught in university classrooms. Continue reading...

Gavin Newsom has trolled the president mercilessly online, but he's counting on his redistricting scheme to reclaim the House for Democrats - and boost his presidential ambitionsIn the opening weeks of Donald Trump's second term, Gavin Newsom wagered that peacemaking was best: a tarmac greeting for Air Force One, an Oval Office visit and a podcast slot for Maga's biggest names. But then Trump came for California, and its governor dropped the niceties.With a flood of all-caps social media posts, a counterpunching redistricting proposal and a string of lawsuits challenging the new administration, Newsom is not just taking on Trump, he's stealing his tactics: fight, fight, fight. Continue reading...

Romeo and Juliet among at least 20 coyotes in New York City as animals gradually expand eastward into citiesIn the spring this year in New York, Chris St Lawrence would finish work as a naturalist on a whale watching boat and then quickly make the 90-minute trek to Central Park to arrive in time for sunset, when a pair of coyotes often start to creep out.St Lawrence, who is also a photographer, said it's taxing to stand for four hours on a boat, keeping his eyes peeled for marine mammals, and then to remain just as alert at the park in the middle of Manhattan, looking for Romeo and Juliet, as the coyotes have become known. Continue reading...

First Letitia James, then Adam Schiff and now president has trained his ire on Lisa Cook, threatening to fire Fed governorDonald Trump and his allies have been accused of executing a pattern of lawfare" akin to those exerted by authoritarian regimes in Hungary and Russia after adopting a new strategy to target political opponents: allegations of mortgage fraud.First it was Letitia James, the New York attorney general, then it was Adam Schiff, a California senator. Now, the president is targeting Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, demanding she resign and threatening to fire her. Continue reading...

When Putin blamed the 2020 US election result on mail-in voting he bolstered a Trump obsession - just one example of the blurring of international goals and domestic grievancesIt was a language he could understand. Donald Trump had lost the 2020 US presidential election, Russia's Vladimir Putin told him last Friday, because it was rigged through mail-in voting.Three days later, the president announced that lawyers were drafting an executive order to eliminate mail-in balloting, a method used by nearly a third of Americans that has not been credibly linked to election fraud. Continue reading...

The seven-times major champion is making her 25th appearance, facing Karolina Muchova in the stadium she helped christen in 1997Venus Williams will take the court on Monday night for her record-extending 25th US Open singles appearance, the Here We Go Again meme brought to life, quite literally as enduring a part of the Flushing Meadows iconography as Arthur Ashe Stadium itself. At 45, two years removed from her last grand slam match and ranked No 610 in the world, she will face Karolina Muchova, the Czech 11th seed and 2023 French Open runner-up who has twice reached the semi-finals in New York.If the scale of the task before her is formidable, so too is the symbolism of her presence. Williams is the oldest singles competitor at America's national championships since Renee Richards 44 years ago. She made her debut here as a 17-year-old in 1997 - the same year Ashe was completed and replaced Armstrong as the tournament's main stadium - becoming the first unseeded player in the Open era to reach the final before losing to Martina Hingis. Twenty-eight years later, she returns with her place in history long since assured but her taste for the fight undiminished. Continue reading...

The Trump administration plans to deport Abrego to Uganda after a months-long saga that saw him wrongfully deported to El Salvador

Immigrant population falls by more than a million people since Donald Trump took office in January. Key US politics stories from Saturday 23 AugustThe immigrant population of the United States, which has been growing for more than 50 years, has declined by more than a million people since Donald Trump took office in January.According to a new study by the Pew Research Center, there were a record 53.3 million immigrants in the US in January, when Trump took office for the second time. By June, that number had dropped to 51.9 million. Continue reading...

Wall Street Journal says move is part of Trump administration's effort to get Putin into peace talksUS defense officials have blocked Ukraine from using US-supplied long-range missiles to strike targets inside Russia since late spring as part of a Trump administration effort to get Vladimir Putin to engage in peace talks , according to a report on Saturday.The Wall Street Journal reports that the Pentagon has blocked Ukraine from using US-made Army Tactical Missile Systems, or Atacms. Continue reading...

Pew Research Center study shows 51.9 million immigrants in US in June, down from record 53.3 million in JanuaryThe immigrant population of the United States, which has been growing for more than 50 years, has declined by more than a million people since Donald Trump took office in January and defined immigration as a threat to the nation, not one of its strengths.According to a new study by the Pew Research Center, there were a record 53.3 million immigrants in the US in January, when Trump took office for the second time. By June, that number had dropped to 51.9 million. Continue reading...

The Democratic nominee far outpaces former governor Andrew Cuomo and embattled incumbent Eric AdamsZohran Mamdani pulled in almost double the funds of his nearest rivals for New York City mayor between early July and mid-August, as the candidates prepare for the crucial post Labor Day push to the November poll.New York's City's campaign finance board said on Saturday that the democratic socialist, who won the Democratic party nomination in June against former state governor Andrew Cuomo, raised $1,051,200, with an average donation of $121 recorded equally from donors in and outside the state. Continue reading...

Bus overturned about 20 miles north of Pittsburgh while carrying players from Aliquippa junior high schoolA bus carrying a junior high football team to a game crashed on Saturday north of Pittsburgh, sending 21 of the 28 people onboard to the hospital, officials said.Twenty-five Aliquippa junior high students and three adults were headed to a game in nearby Gibsonia. The crash occurred in Economy Borough, about 20 miles north of Pittsburgh. Continue reading...

Salvadorian refused offer of deportation to Costa Rica before he was released to await trial on human smuggling chargesUS immigration officials said they intend to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda, after he declined an offer to be deported to Costa Rica in exchange for remaining in jail and pleading guilty to human smuggling charges, according to a Saturday court filing.The Costa Rica offer came late on Thursday, after it was clear that the Salvadorian national would probably be released from a Tennessee jail the following day. Continue reading...

Cities that limit cooperation with immigration authorities had sued Trump administration over funding freezeA federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from cutting off federal funding to 34 sanctuary cities" and counties that limit cooperation with federal immigration law enforcement, significantly expanding a previous order.The order, issued on Friday by the San Francisco-based US district judge William Orrick, adds Los Angeles and Chicago, as well as Boston, Baltimore, Denver and Albuquerque, to cities that the administration is barred from denying funding. Continue reading...

The effects of a rightwing campaign to remake American higher education are fueling fear and anxiety, but advocates say they have plans to fight backStudents and faculty heading back to US colleges and universities from summer break are returning to bruised institutions reeling from the Trump administration's unprecedented campaign to bend higher education to its ideological will, and are bracing for more uncertainty ahead.At the University of Utah, the Black student union has lost its funding and campus space - one of many student groups to face the brunt of Donald Trump's anti-diversity measures. Indiana's public universities have cut or merged more than 400 degree programs, about one-fifth of their academic offerings, while scores of other universities have made similar cuts as their budgets are on the line. At Harvard and Columbia, certain forms of criticism of Israel will now be punishable as antisemitism. And across the country, schools will see their international student population plummet after the administration erected a host of new barriers to students seeking to travel to the US. Continue reading...

Gavin Newsom has an incredible knack for doing the right thing in the most annoying way possibleIf this Clickhole article is to be believed (it shouldn't be), California's governor is looking to get a job in comedy.The reality is a bit less appealing: Gavin Newsom wants to be president of the U S. His office has ramped up social media attacks on Donald Trump, his policies, and, predictably, his bugnuts tweeting. I have witnessed the rise of Gavin Newsom firsthand: from his tenure as mayor of San Francisco to the governorship of my state to this deeply embarrassing photo with a future resident of Mar-a-Lago. At last, the world can finally see the Gavin Newsom I have come to vehemently tolerate - a man with a tendency to stumble into doing the right thing in the most annoying way possible.Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist Continue reading...

The United Daughters of the Confederacy set out to make slavery respectable again by promoting the lost cause'It should surprise no one that former cast members from reality shows that ran for more than 15 seasons are running out of new material. Days ago, Donald Trump, former star of NBC's The Apprentice and current US president, posted a lengthy Truth Social rant in which he (again) threatened the country's leading cultural institutions to adhere to his political ideology. The target was one he has had in his crosshairs before - the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) - which Trump called OUT OF CONTROL" in his post. Everything discussed [in NMAAHC exhibits] is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was," Trump unloaded. WOKE IS BROKE," he continued through his customary use of all caps and misplaced capitalization of common nouns. We have the HOTTEST Country in the World, and we want people to talk about it, including in our Museums."The tirade left many wondering what exactly Trump saw as the upsides of slavery, but also where they had previously heard this recycled talking point. The comment seemed to echo comments made just days prior by his fellow reality show bully Jillian Michaels, a former trainer on NBC's The Biggest Loser, the weight-loss competition show that launched alongside The Apprentice in 2004. Michaels had been making her rounds in media and public appearances, rebranding from verbally abusive fat shamer to Maga influencer.Saida Grundy is an associate professor of sociology and African American studies at Boston University, and the author of Respectable: Politics and Paradox in Making the Morehouse Man Continue reading...

Camp at Fort Bliss base on US-Mexico border described as dangerous misuse of military land and resources'Prominent Democratic lawmakers and legal advocates have called for the new immigration detention camp at Fort Bliss military base to be shut down amid accusations of lack of external oversight and concerns over access to legal services.Camp East Montana began full operation last weekend as a sprawling tent facility across acres of military land in the eastern part of El Paso, on the US-Mexico border in west Texas, amid rapid expansion plans and much controversy. Continue reading...

A new generation of Democrats is deeply unhappy with the entrenched political establishment. So they're going to try to take it overEarlier this year, Liam Elkind seized an opportunity to ask his longtime congressman, Jerry Nadler, what everyday New Yorkers like himself could do to help Democrats stand up to Donald Trump. Nadler's response, according to Elkind, was to donate to the DCCC" - the group that helps House Democrats keep their seats. Deeply unsatisfied, the 26-year-old decided to run for office against the 17-term incumbent.In Georgia, Everton Blair also sought answers from his long-serving congressman, David Scott, at a panel event earlier this year. When Blair asked him about Democrats' legislative strategy, the 80-year-old lawmaker was dismissive. I don't know who sent y'all," he said. Blair, 34, is now making a bid for Scott's seat. Continue reading...

Eddie Horne attended Dozier School for Boys in 1960s, a state-run institution known for molestation and beatingsA 75-year-old Florida man has just received his high school diploma decades after his education was derailed by severe abuse that he endured as a teenager while attending a notoriously brutal reform school.As he recounted to the local news outlets WTVT and WTSP, Eddie Horne's stroll across the graduation stage at a ceremony Thursday at St Petersburg high school in Pinellas county, Florida, fulfilled a goal that he set for himself after fighting to overcome the trauma inflicted on him beginning at age 14 at the state-run Dozier School for Boys. Continue reading...

This season of the long-running animated sitcom has aimed its ire at the cruelty and stupidity of an administration others have found hard to successfully ridiculeI'll admit it: I'm more of a Simpsons guy than a South Park guy. Nothing really against those South Park guys - I've caught plenty of episodes over its astonishing near-30-year run, and loved the 1999 big-screen movie. But while I haven't always maintained clockwork viewership of The Simpsons, either, those characters have proved durable enough to revive my interest in episodes old and new. South Park has a thinner bench by comparison, and as the show itself astutely pointed out years ago, it's difficult for a satirically minded animated sitcom to explore ground that The Simpsons hasn't covered already. South Park's political bent, too, has often seemed less varied than the warmer (but still sometimes cutting) social ribbing of Matt Groening's signature show. It's a fine line between omnidirectional satire and libertarian crankiness.And yet the 27th season of South Park has accomplished something vanishingly few of its peers, whether in animation or topical comedy, have been able to do: getting laughs taking shots at the second Trump administration. It's not that the White House is beyond reproach. Quite the opposite problem, much-documented: the Donald Trump cabal is so outsized in its stupidity and cruelty that it's hard to distend it into a funny" caricature, even a bleak one. In Trump's second term, it has only gotten bleaker; jokes that were worn out by the end of 2020 are getting retold with a nasty vengeance, and the bar for cathartic laughter has been raised considerably. Continue reading...

Wimbledon champion faces strong list of women's US Open title rivals, but the men's draw is still dominated by Sinner and AlcarazIga Swiatek has finally had a brief moment to catch her breath. Her life has been on fast-forward for the last few hectic yet rewarding weeks, emerging from the heat and humidity of the Cincinnati Open with another significant title. Fourteen hours later she was on court in New York, throwing herself into two long days of competition alongside her new partner, Casper Ruud. The stakes were low for singles players in the mixed doubles this week but every point she played meant more mental energy expended.There is still little time for Swiatek to reflect on how the summer has developed, but with the final grand slam tournament of the year starting on Sunday it is clear the past few months have become a defining moment in her career. Swiatek started the season swimming upstream, still reeling from her doping case last year. She emerged from that difficult period with the most surprising, special victory of her career, a triumph on grass, her least favourite surface, at Wimbledon, which she sealed with a merciless 6-0, 6-0 demolition of Amanda Anisimova in the final. In stark contrast to the relief she felt after previous triumphs, this victory brought her only joy. Continue reading...

The map will now be sent to governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, who is expected to quickly sign it into lawThe Texas senate has given final approval to a redrawn congressional map that gives Republicans a chance to pick up as many as five congressional seats, fulfilling a brazen political request from Donald Trump to shore up the GOP's standing before next year's midterm elections.It will now be sent to governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, who is expected to quickly sign it into law, however Democrats have vowed to challenge it in court. The Texas house of representatives approved the map on Wednesday on an 88-52 party-line vote, before the senate approved it early on Saturday. Continue reading...

California brothers convicted of their parents' murders in 1989 were both denied parole this week - here's what we knowThis week's parole hearings were the latest twist in the saga of Lyle and Erik Menendez, who have been behind bars since their arrest in 1990 for killing their parents with shotguns.At their televised trial, which was a 1990s media sensation, the brothers said the killings were an act of self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father. Continue reading...

Parole board rules against elder Menendez brother, convicted over killing parents in Los Angeles in 1989Lyle Menendez was denied parole for his role in the 1989 killings of his parents on Friday, just a day after the California parole board denied the release of his brother Erik.California governor Gavin Newsom will have the final say in whether or not the 57-year-old will be released. Continue reading...

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More than 40 passengers evaluated or treated at hospitals with injuries ranging from head trauma to broken arms and legsAt least five people, including a child, were killed after a tour bus carrying 51 people crashed in upstate New York on its way back from a trip to Niagra Falls on Friday.The passengers were initially trapped in the wreckage, according to law enforcement, and then admitted to hospitals in the region where more than 40 of them were evaluated or treated with injuries ranging from head trauma to broken arms and legs. Continue reading...

Vice-president JD Vance denies FBI investigation is politically motivated. Key US politics stories from Friday 22 AugustDonald Trump has said he did not know a raid by the FBI on the home of his former adviser turned critic, John Bolton, was planned and that he expected to be briefed by the justice department on it.I tell the group I don't want to know, but just you have to do what you have to do. I don't want to know about it," Trump said, adding I'm not a fan of John Bolton. He's a real sort of a lowlife. He's not a smart guy. But he could be very unpatriotic. I'm going to find out." Continue reading...

Hundreds of transcript pages unlikely to pacify those who want to know more of president's association with EpsteinFor weeks, Donald Trump has been on the defensive over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigative files and the extent of his own personal links to the late sex trafficker.While Trump had promised to release files related to Epstein, his justice department announced in July there would be no more disclosures, prompting uproar among conspiracy-minded Maga adherents and many other of his supporters. Continue reading...

Jon Hallford, with wife Carie, took money for cremations only to stash decaying bodies without families' knowledgeA judge on Friday rejected a plea agreement for a Colorado funeral home owner who acknowledged abusing 191 corpses, after family members described the pain and shame they've carried since learning their loved ones' bodies were left to rot.The rare decision to reject the plea agreement that called for a 20-year prison sentence followed anguished testimony from family members seeking a more severe punishment. Continue reading...

Union decries effort as illegal as department confirms it is ending its recognition of unions for some employeesThe US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has moved to strip thousands of federal health agency employees of their collective bargaining rights, according to a union that called the effort illegal.HHS officials confirmed Friday that the department is ending its recognition of unions for a number of employees and reclaiming office space and equipment that had been used for union activities. Continue reading...

Investigators are looking into what kind of gases may have played a role at Prospect Valley Dairy in KeenesburgAn apparent accident at a dairy in a rural farming community in Colorado involving exposure to gas killed six people, including a high school student, authorities said on Thursday.Investigators are looking into what kind of gases may have played a role in the deaths on Wednesday at Prospect Valley Dairy in Keenesburg, about 35 miles (55km) north-east of Denver. Crews recovered the bodies in a confined space at the dairy, the Southeast Weld fire protection district said. Continue reading...

Jeffrey Kruse ousted as head of DIA, which said US strikes had set back Tehran nuclear program only a few monthsThe US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has fired a general whose agency's initial intelligence assessment of damage to Iranian nuclear sites from US strikes angered Donald Trump, according to two people familiar with the decision and a White House official.Lt Gen Jeffrey Kruse will no longer serve as head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. Continue reading...

Ex-national security adviser and Trump critic is fifth in a list of 60 to have been investigated in the last seven monthsWhen Kash Patel, the FBI director, faced senators during his confirmation hearings on 30 January, he bristled at suggestions that his 2023 book contained an enemies list". The appendix to Government Gangsters, which included a list of names for 60 people, was simply documentation of those who had weaponized" the government, he insisted.Seven months later, that denial appears increasingly hollow. Friday's FBI search of the former national security adviser John Bolton's home and office, reportedly to find classified documents, marks the fifth investigation targeting people from Patel's book. Continue reading...