by Robert Mackey, Shrai Popat, Lucy Campbell and Tom on (#6ZAET)
Gavin Newsom announces plans to ask voters to approve new congressional maps in response to a redistricting plan by Texas. This blog is now closed.Melania Trump has demanded that Hunter Biden retract comments linking her to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and has threatened to sue if he does not.Biden, the son of the former president Joe Biden, alleged in an interview this month that Epstein introduced the first lady to Donald Trump. Continue reading...
Donald Trump gives talks 75% chance of success while European leaders worry about concessions to Moscow - key US politics stories from Thursday 14 AugustDonald Trump has insisted he won't let Vladimir Putin mess around" with him at their high-stakes summit over Ukraine and is giving the talks a 75% chance of success.Amid concerns from European leaders that the Russian president will cajole Trump into imposing a settlement on Ukraine, the US president told reporters on the eve of Friday's talks in Alaska: I am president, and he's not going to mess around with me. Continue reading...
Education department found to have violated law when it threatened to cut funds from institutions that backed DEIA federal judge on Thursday struck down two Trump administration actions aimed at eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs at the nation's schools and universities.In her ruling, US district judge Stephanie Gallagher in Maryland found that the education department violated the law when it threatened to cut federal funding from educational institutions that continued with DEI initiatives. Continue reading...
Gregory Rodriguez convicted of more than 60 charges of abusing women in his custody over nearly a decadeA former California correctional officer convicted of dozens of sexual abuse charges at a women's prison was sentenced to 224 years in prison on Thursday.Gregory Rodriguez, 57, worked as a guard at the Central California women's facility (CCWF), the state's largest women's prison, and was found guilty in January of over 60 charges of abusing nine women in his custody, including rape and battery.Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organizations. 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...
US president told Norway's finance minister he wants the Nobel peace prize, according to the Norwegian pressDonald Trump cold-called Norway's finance minister last month to ask about a nomination for the Nobel peace prize, Norwegian press reported on Thursday.The Norwegian outlet Dagens Naeringsliv, citing unnamed sources, reported: Out of the blue, while finance minister Jens Stoltenberg was walking down the street in Oslo, Donald Trump called ... He wanted the Nobel prize - and to discuss tariffs." Continue reading...
Donald Trump is concocting a drama in DC because he would like us to really stop talking about the Epstein filesThe most violent day in the history of Washington DC, leaving aside the War of 1812, was 6 January 2021, and the instigator was Donald J Trump, who this week has endeavored to seize control of the nation's capital, after reports that a former employee of the department of government efficiency" (Doge) was assaulted in the city.In a sense the new event echoes the old; both are illegitimate power grabs made on the basis of lies. In 2021 it was a lie about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election; in the summer of 2025 it's lies about crime levels. Reliable sources - including the Biden Department of Justice in January - have noted that violent crime there is at a 30-year low. Five people died as a result of that 2021 attack on Congress, and dozens of law enforcement officers were injured, some gravely, by the mob Trump incited. On his first day in office in 2025 he pardoned 1,500 of the convicted criminals who stormed the capital, some of whom went on to commit more crimes.Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. She is the author of Orwell's Roses and co-editor with Thelma Young Lutunatabua of the climate anthology Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility Continue reading...
Micherre Fox, 31, found the 2.30-carat gem at Crater of Diamonds state park after a month-long huntA New York woman has found a 2.30-carat colorless diamond in an Arkansas state park and repurposed it as her engagement ring.Micherre Fox, 31, of Manhattan, New York, went on a month-long hunt in July to the state's Crater of Diamonds state park to search for gems and came up lucky on the last day, according to Arkansas state parks. Continue reading...
Phones can't go down into a canyon or around a mesa, but radio does,' Richard Grey of Arizona's KGHR saysSince Republicans last month slashed over $1bn in funds designated for public broadcasting, non-commercial TV and radio stations around the country have been reeling.The cuts led the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the nearly 60-year-old organization that has long supported local TV and radio stations across the US, to shut down operations entirely, leaving more than 1,500 local stations nationwide without a critical source of income. Continue reading...
House Democrat Robert Garcia presses USDA head Brooke Rollins on how administration is protecting AmericansAs federal firefighters grapple with strained resources in an intense year of fire activity, Democratic lawmakers are demanding answers from the Trump administration about how severe cuts to staffing and budgets at the US Forest Service may have hamstrung wildfire preparation and response.Leaders at the agency and the US Department of Agriculture, which oversees it, have repeatedly assured the public and Congress that they were fully prepared for the critical fire season that's already well under way. Continue reading...
Health secretary claimed that study, showing safety of aluminum ingredients in vaccines to be safe, was flawedAn influential US medical journal is rejecting a call from the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F Kennedy Jr, to retract a large Danish study that found that aluminum ingredients in vaccines do not increase health risks for children, the journal's editor told Reuters.Kennedy has long promoted doubts about vaccines' safety and efficacy, and as health secretary has upended the federal government's process for recommending immunization. A recent media report said he has been considering whether to initiate a review of shots that contain aluminum, which he says are linked to autoimmune diseases and allergies. Continue reading...
by David Hammer of WWL Louisiana in New Orleans on (#6ZAGZ)
Claimants can accept or reject Catholic archdiocese's plan to settle in two-month period before November hearingA two-month voting period for clergy abuse survivors and other creditors in the New Orleans Catholic archdiocese's bankruptcy to accept or reject the church's plan to settle has started after a federal bankruptcy judge recently approved the plan.It has also opened a window of time when supporters and opponents of the plan can actively solicit votes. Two-thirds of the voting claimants must approve the plan for the church to end its expensive and contentious five-year-long bankruptcy. Judge Meredith Grabill has stated that if the plan is not approved, she will dismiss the archdiocese's bankruptcy, and the church could end up having to defend itself against claims individually in state courts. Continue reading...
They need a new generation of leaders with fresh faces and bold ideas, unbought by corporate Super Pacs and billionaire donorsIf the Democratic party wants to win back power in 2028, then look no further than the 2026 election cycle as the most important moment to focus on.It is not three years from now when working class voters will decide, like they did in November, whether they still believe the Democratic party isn't fighting for their interests - it's the next 12 months. And to make it abundantly clear, it is not going to be the same 257 Democrats that are in Congress today that will deliver Democrats their majority. That's why a robust, active, and exciting Democratic primary process in districts across the country is a necessary prerequisite to Democrats winning in 2026, let alone 2028.Alexandra Rojas is the executive director of Justice Democrats Continue reading...
A violent event in 1992 prompted a response - not from the president, but Congress - with similarly dystopian languageDonald Trump's takeover of Washington DC's police department and decision to deploy the national guard was sparked by the assault of a former Doge staffer who nicknamed himself Big Balls". Thirty-three years ago, a fatal attack on a congressional staffer also provoked an effort by the federal government to impose law and order on the nation's capital - but in that case, it came from Capitol Hill.On Monday, Trump said he was taking a historic action to rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor and worse. This is liberation day in DC and we're going to take our capital back."Frederic J Frommer, a writer and sports and politics historian, has written for the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Atlantic, History.com and other national publications Continue reading...
The rumble, the explosions and the deaths: they are so frequent that they seem normal. It's a fight to protect our homes, our cities and the psycheDay 1,254 of the invasion; 31 July 2025, Kyiv, 4.30am. The air-raid alarm started again just a moment ago. I wake up from the roar and rumble of rockets. It's a sound that makes you want to flee in primeval terror.Time slows down. I roll over on the bed, embrace my girlfriend Dasha, make another half-turn and we drop down softly to the floor. I am not thinking or reflecting, I'm guided by instinct - move away from the windows, position our silhouettes as low as possible. I cover Dasha with my body. All she has time to ask for is: The doggie? Where's the dog?" From under the bed, we can hear the rustling of our old chihuahua's paws.Oleksandr Mykhed is the author of The Language of War and a member of PEN Ukraine. Translated by Maryna Gibson Continue reading...
A 10,000-seat arena for a school in Georgia with fewer than 2,000 students raises questions about America's sporting and educational prioritiesWhen the television cameras pan around the US's newest sporting temple to show the cavernous stands, elegant brick exterior, VIP suites and massive video board, viewers might believe they are looking at a professional venue.Yet the occupants of Phillip Beard Stadium, the Buford Wolves, are not a professioanl team or even a college one. They are high-schoolers. In the exorbitant world of high school football, Buford's $62m, 10,000-capacity arena is not the biggest or most expensive taxpayer-funded student stadium in the US. But it may be the most luxurious. Continue reading...
In an open letter, writers denounced abrupt scrapping of a Harvard Educational Review issue dedicated to PalestineMore than 115 education scholars have condemned the cancellation of an entire issue of an academic journal dedicated to Palestine by a Harvard University publisher as censorship".In an open letter published on Thursday, the scholars denounced the abrupt scrapping of a special issue of the Harvard Educational Review - which was first revealed by the Guardian in July - as an attempt to silence the academic examination of the genocide, starvation and dehumanisation of Palestinian people by the state of Israel and its allies." Continue reading...
Residents torn between excitement over high-profile visit and trepidation over what US-Russian leaders might agreeIt is set to be one of the last good summer weekends in Anchorage, Alaska - the peak of the salmon run and the middle of berry season - and residents hope that Friday's summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin isn't going to ruin it for them.I'm looking forward to taking my boat out on the water at Prince William Sound - that's my plan," said Andy Moderow, who works at a conservation nonprofit in Anchorage. Continue reading...
Sean Dunn charged with assaulting federal officer over incident in Washington, which could result in a year in jailA man accused of throwing a sandwich at a US Customs and Border Protection agent in Washington DC has been charged with assaulting a federal officer - a felony that could result in up to a year in jail and significant fines.Captured in a now viral video, the man authorities have identified as Sean Charles Dunn, 37, could be seen yelling Fascists!" and Shame!" at a group of officers as they patrolled the district on Sunday night. Continue reading...
President's crackdown in DC widens as he seeks greater power over authorities - key US politics stories from 13 August 2025After deploying the national guard to the streets of the American capital, Donald Trump is now eyeing longer-term powers over authorities, saying on Wednesday that he is seeking to extend his temporary powers over Washington DC's police department.Trump earlier this week invoked a never-before-used clause of the law that sets out the federal district's governance structure to take temporary control of the police department, but will need Congress's permission to extend it beyond the 30 days allowed under the statute. Continue reading...
Vladimir Putin will face 'very severe consequences' if he does not agree a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine at his summit with Donald Trump in Alaska, the US president said on Wednesday. Speaking after a call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders, including Britain's Keir Starmer, Trump also suggested he would push for a second summit if his meeting with Putin goes well - this time including his Ukrainian counterpart. Continue reading...
Move further unwinds initiative to crack down on anti-competitive practices in agriculture, drugs and laborDonald Trump on Wednesday revoked a 2021 executive order on promoting competition in the US economy issued by Joe Biden, the White House said.The move by the Republican US president further unwinds a signature initiative by his predecessor, a Democrat, to crack down on anti-competitive practices in sectors from agriculture to drugs and labor. Continue reading...
Officials say temporary barriers helped Juneau avoid hundreds of flooded homes from Mendenhall Glacier meltNewly installed river barriers held back record levels of flooding and prevented widespread damage in Alaska's capital city on Wednesday, after an ice dam at the nearby Mendenhall Glacier released a huge surge of rainwater and snowmelt, officials said.Water pooled on several streets and in some yards in Juneau after the Mendenhall River crested earlier in the day, and high water was expected to persist for hours. But many residents in the flood zone had evacuated before peak water levels, and there were no damage reports similar to the past two summers, when about 300 homes were flooded. Continue reading...
Inspector general report comes as department has lost thousands of core' healthcare workers under TrumpThe US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is experiencing severe" staff shortages at all its hospitals, with the number of shortages increasing by 50% this fiscal year, according to a new report from the agency's independent watchdog.The report, released on Tuesday, came a day after the Guardian revealed the department had lost thousands of healthcare professionals deemed core" to the system under Donald Trump, without which, the agency said, mission-critical work cannot be completed". Continue reading...
The president turns the annual DC arts celebration into another monument to himself, handpicking honourees and hogging the spotlightThere is a connection, hard to explain logically but easy to feel, between achievement in public life and progress in the arts," are among the words inscribed in marble at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. The age of Elizabeth was the age of Shakespeare, it says.The age of Donald Trump is the age of Trump's ego. Trump the president, commander-in-chief and master builder. Trump the supremo of the upcoming Olympics, football World Cup and America's 250th birthday. Trump whose self-aggrandisement is the size of a planet: on Wednesday not even the Kennedy Center's cavernous Hall of Nations could contain it. Continue reading...
The vet's diagnosis of it could be a stomach bug or lymphoma' was not exactly reassuring but, admittedly, the patient was wagging his tailSpeaking on a panel with me, a paediatric anaesthetist says that every time she takes a patient into theatre, she says to the parent, I will take good care of your child". Somehow, just imagining this solemn promise makes me tearful although I don't even know that a variation of these words is headed my way.For the past week, our cavoodle Odie has been vomiting. The vet's diagnosis of it could be a stomach bug or lymphoma" is not exactly reassuring but, admittedly, the patient is wagging its tail. Continue reading...
Some experts tee up public comment on EPA report calling fossil fuel concerns overblown, as others fast-track reviewVeteran climate scientists are organizing a coordinated public comment to a US Department of Energy (DOE) report that cast doubt on the scientific consensus on the climate crisis.The report, published late last month, claimed concerns about planet-warming fossil fuels are overblown, sparking widespread concern from scientists who said it was full of climate misinformation; it was an attempt to support a proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to undo the endangerment finding", which forms the legal basis of virtually all US climate regulations. Continue reading...
President, set to honor Sylvester Stallone and Kiss, says he was 98%' involved in selections and turned down plenty'Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he will host the Kennedy Center honors this year and said he had been heavily involved in choosing who to nominate, rejecting people he thought were too liberal.The US president named actor Sylvester Stallone, singer Gloria Gaynor, the rock band Kiss, country music star George Strait and actor and singer Michael Crawford among the first batch of Kennedy Center honors nominees since he took over as the Washington-based arts center's chairman upon returning to the White House this year. Continue reading...
The DC takeover is, first and foremost, an attempt to deflect from the Epstein case. But that's not all that's going onIn a dangerous new escalation of his authoritarian rule, Donald Trump has placed the police of Washington DC under federal control and announced that he will deploy the national guard to the country's capital. According to the president, crime in the city is out of control" - no matter that crime numbers are down significantly, including for violent crimes. But, of course, this power grab is not really about facts, it is about distraction and perception, and a chance to reconnect and refocus his base.Like all the other outrageous things Trump has been doing in the last weeks, the DC takeover is, first and foremost, an attempt to deflect from the Jeffrey Epstein case. As previously demonstrated by his demand to rename the NFL team to the (racist) Washington Redskins, his attacks on the Wall Street Journal, or his calls to prosecute former president Barack Obama (Barack Hussein Obama. Have you heard of him?") that he will do anything to get the Epstein case out of the political and public debate.Cas Mudde is the Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF professor of international affairs at the University of Georgia, and author of The Far Right Today Continue reading...
Commission approves limited season despite calls of cruelty over use of bows and arrows, food traps and dogsWildlife groups have condemned a decision by regulators in Florida to allow the hunting of black bears for the first time in a decade, and to permit barbaric" practices including the use of bait traps, archery and dog packs.The unanimous vote by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) on Wednesday to approve a limited hunting season in December followed a presentation from staff insisting that a rising bear population and increasing encounters with humans warranted a reduction in numbers. Continue reading...
President's comments come as White House takes credit for dozens of arrests as part of campaign to fight crime crisis' city's leaders say doesn't exist
District judge said the grant funding suspensions violated an earlier June preliminary injunctionA US judge on Tuesday ordered Donald Trump's administration to restore a part of the federal grant funding that it recently suspended for the University of California, Los Angeles.US district judge Rita Lin in San Francisco ruled that the grant funding suspensions violated an earlier June preliminary injunction where she ordered the National Science Foundation to restore dozens of grants that it had terminated at the University of California. Continue reading...
About 800 national guard troops will be deployed in the nation's capital because, according to the president: our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs'A key chapter in the fascist playbook has always been to convince the public that it is living in such a state of mortal danger and unbridled chaos that the only chance of survival is to cede individual rights to the determined will of the Dear Leader. That's why fascist leaders have constantly demanded that their populations venerate all violence performed in the service of the state and revere the apparatuses of state violence, such as police forces and the military. In this scenario, state violence is not only necessary for the nation's survival. State violence is understood as even beautiful, something the public can and must believe in.Buying into state violence this way produces something historian Robert Paxton has called a mobilizing passion". In his book The Anatomy of Fascism, Paxton described how the beauty of violence and the efficacy of will" is produced and then mobilized by fascists by creating a sense of overwhelming crisis beyond the reach of traditional solutions". In other words, there's always a grave, existential threat lurking around every corner, and only fascist violence can restore order to a lawless world. To the fascist, as Umberto Eco once put it, life is a permanent war".Moustafa Bayoumi is the author of the award-winning books How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America and This Muslim American Life: Dispatches from the War on Terror. He is professor of English at Brooklyn College, City University of New York Continue reading...
Under Joseph Humire, the thinktank tracked alleged crimes by the Venezuelan gang in the US. A non-profit found multiple false entriesA senior official appointed to the defense department led a thinktank that promoted fake news about the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang, according to InSight Crime, a non-profit analyzing organized crime.Joseph Humire was appointed this summer to be the head of policy focusing on the western hemisphere within the office of the under secretary of defense for policy. He was previously the executive director of a conservative thinktank focused on global security. Humire's appointment comes as the Trump administration is ramping up its aggressive strategy against organized crime in Latin America and the Venezuelan government, which it accuses of working with TdA. Continue reading...
After IceBlock's launch in April, Kristi Noem attacked developer Joshua Aaron and his wife was fired from the DoJ. The attention has only led to more raids being reportedFor many undocumented immigrants living in the US, the constant threat of Ice raids has turned their homes into prisons. Leaving the house to go to work, school, buy groceries or the doctor's office all carry unthinkable risks.It's a problem that Joshua Aaron wanted to tackle. A former indie musician (he played bass in 2000s buzz band The Rosenbergs and later fronted his own group Stealing Heather) turned app entrepreneur, he set about making an app that could spot Ice and alert people, the same way drivers let other drivers know about traffic stops on Waze. Continue reading...
A majority of Americans - 53% - for the first time view even moderate drinking as harmful, Gallup poll showsAlcohol consumption among adults in the US is at the lowest level on record, as most Americans, for the first time, view even moderate drinking as harmful, a new survey has found.Pollster Gallup's latest Consumption Habits survey, conducted annually, showed that about 54% of Americans reported drinking alcohol, compared with 58% in 2024 and 62% in 2023. Continue reading...
Reproductive health giant's ability to treat patients at risk due to Republicans' plans to cut Medicaid reimbursementsPlanned Parenthood clinics treated people who rely on Medicaid at more than 1.5m visits in 2024, new research published on Wednesday shows. But the reproductive health giant's ability to treat those patients is now in jeopardy due to Republicans' efforts to defund" Planned Parenthood by kicking it out of Medicaid.Donald Trump's tax and spending package, passed in July, bans Planned Parenthood from receiving reimbursements from Medicaid, the US government's insurance program for low-income people. After Planned Parenthood sued over the ban, a judge temporarily stopped it from taking effect. Continue reading...
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