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His ruthless use of the national guard to menace cities and political enemies is unprecedented. He is preparing for battle against the enemy within'Donald Trump had better hope the members of the Nobel committee are not paying attention to what's happening inside the United States. If they did take a look, they'd notice a jarring pattern. While the US president likes to play the peacemaker abroad, at home he is Trump, bringer of war.It's easy for the first fact to conceal, or divert our attention away from, the second. This week was a case in point. It began with Trump travelling to Israel, where he was hailed as a latter-day Cyrus, a mighty ruler whose name would be spoken of for millennia to come, the man who had brokered what he himself boasts is an everlasting" peace.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

Signs of credit stress send markets in Europe and Asia down, while investors turn to safe haven assetsEuropean stock markets fell on Friday and gold hit a record high after two US regional banks said they had been exposed to millions of dollars of bad loans and alleged fraud.Signs of credit stress rattled markets across Europe and Asia. In London the FTSE 100 fell 0.9%, Germany's Dax fell 1.8%, Italy's FTSE Mib fell 1.5%, the Ibex in Spain was off 0.3% and France's Cac 40 dropped 0.2%. Continue reading...

Relatives of Trinidadian man believed killed in US military strike on alleged drug boat say he was denied due processRelatives of two men from Trinidad believed to have been killed in a US military strike on a boat in the Caribbean have accused Donald Trump of killing poor people" without due process and are demanding justice.Chad Charpo" Joseph and Rishi Samaroo, from the fishing village of Las Cuevas in northern Trinidad, are thought to be among six people killed in a US airstrike on a boat allegedly transporting drugs from Venezuela. Continue reading...

Palestinian activist can speak across country at events while pushing back on Trump's attempts to deport himA federal judge has lifted travel restrictions within the US for Mahmoud Khalil, allowing the Palestinian activist to speak at rallies and other events across the country while he fights the Trump administration's efforts to deport him.Khalil, who was freed from a Louisiana immigration jail in June after being arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) amid student and activist roundups, had asked a federal magistrate judge to lift the restrictions that had limited his travel to New York, New Jersey, Washington DC, Louisiana and Michigan. Continue reading...

Overdoses have been declining nationally since August 2023, but Alaska is far behind in that progressWhenever he can, Shane Shelton offers neighbors naloxone, an overdose reversal medication, and a place to sleep out of the cold.The 54-year old's home is known as the Dog House" in Williwaw, Alaska - on the outskirts of Wasilla in Matanuska-Susitna (Mat-Su) borough. In this neighborhood, family homes with manicured lawns sit side by side with yards piled with old tires and tarps, some with makeshift walls nailed around them to hide the mess and avoid fines. People come to the Dog House to get high - and keep one another alive. Shelton said he had administered naloxone more times than he could count, and cannot get enough of it. Continue reading...

The former national security adviser is not the first person the president has retaliated against - he's gone after James Comey, Letitia James and a host of othersThe Trump administration filed charges against former national security adviser John Bolton on Thursday, the latest target of an ongoing retribution campaign aimed at Donald Trump's enemies.Bolton surrendered to authorities on Friday for the charges over mishandling classified materials. Continue reading...

Ahead of Anthony Albanese's White House visit, a price floor' and US investment in mining ventures have been flagged

The president is upset with his photo on the magazine's cover. I, too, have a bone to pick with my scalpWhy are we so obsessed with hair? Just a bunch of fibers sprouting out of your skin, yet we make a massive fuss over it. Those with it, flaunt it. News anchors, fashion models, that damned Jeremy Allen White. Boy, does he love to show off. His hair should be nominated for an Emmy, just on thickness alone. What did he do to deserve that floppy mess on top of his head? I thought this country was a meritocracy? Nope. He's obviously benefitted from a family history of thick locks.Call me greedy if you must, but I don't just want some hair - the sad remnants of a life in decline - I want a lot of hair. I want so much hair that I have to employ a live-in barber to trim me up twice a day just to keep it all from consuming my entire face. I want people in the streets screaming at the top of their lungs. Look at that hair! The guy under it isn't so bad, either!"Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist Continue reading...

Groups across climate, democracy and Palestine solidarity have been talking for months about how to band togetherWhen Donald Trump named leftwing billionaire George Soros as the next on his growing list of targets for retribution, he was also targeting the long list of progressive causes that Soros funds.Soros's Open Society Foundations (OSF) network, now run by his son Alex, is a major funder of non-profits large and small, across sectors including democracy, voting rights, climate justice, racial justice, Palestinian rights and higher education. Public documentation of the group's grant-making shows thousands of worldwide recipients receiving anywhere from small amounts to multimillion-dollar grants, and include major non-profit organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union. Continue reading...

Ex-national security adviser turned Trump critic expected to surrender to authorities FridayJohn Bolton, the former national security adviser to Donald Trump who has since become one of the US president's biggest Republican critics, was expected to surrender to the authorities on Friday and make an initial appearance in court to face criminal charges that he mishandled classified information.The justice department filed federal charges against Bolton, accusing him of transmitting and retaining highly classified information under the Espionage Act. Continue reading...

The withdrawal of Israeli troops and the establishment of an international stabilisation force are key in securing long-term peace, but the plan is dangerously vague on these issuesTwo years of death and destruction in Gaza ended once Israel and Hamas signed off on Donald Trump's 20-point peace plan. A ceasefire is in place. Humanitarian trucks have begun to roll in. Hostages and prisoners are being exchanged. Israel has begun a first-phase pullback from the territories it controls, and under Trump's plan its troops will eventually be deployed in a buffer zone along Gaza's land border.Given these developments - all part of the opening phase - dismissing the momentous changes in Gaza is to deny reality. There have already been disputes over the return of the bodies of Israeli hostages, but there are unresolved longer-term problems that could derail the ceasefire and imperil the rest of the Trump plan.Rajan Menon is a professor emeritus of international relations at the City College of New York and a senior research scholar at Columbia University's Saltzman Institute of War and Peace StudiesDo 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...

Eighteen-count indictment handed down as US president calls former ally a bad guy'. Plus, director Kathryn Bigelow on AI, Andy Warhol and nuclear Armageddon Don't already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.The justice department has filed federal charges against John Bolton, the former national security adviser to Donald Trump who became one of his biggest critics. Bolton is accused of transmitting and retaining highly classified information under the Espionage Act.What did Trump say about the charges? In response to a question about the charges, Trump told reporters on Thursday that he was not aware of them but that Bolton was a bad guy".What has Trump said? In a presidential memo, Trump said the government needed to investigate and disrupt networks, entities, and organizations that foment political violence", adding a comment that Soros was at the top of everything".What has OSF said? We have always and will continue to adhere to our rigorous compliance practices and operate within the bounds of the law while also refusing to surrender our legal and constitutional rights to free speech, association, due process, and the rule of law without challenge," an OSF spokesperson said. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Guardian analysis finds wide geographical disparities in fatalities linked to the public health crisis

Trump allies would love an excuse to step up their crackdown. Nonviolence, both disciplined and open-hearted, must define the dayThey have a Hate America' rally that's scheduled for October 18 on the National Mall," the House speaker, Mike Johnson, said on Fox News on Friday. It's all the pro-Hamas wing and, you know, the antifa people. They're all coming out."The Republican Minnesota congressman Tom Emmer said the party's terrorist wing" was holding the Hate America" rally. Democrats want to keep the government shut down to show all those people that are going to come here and express their hatred towards this country that they're fighting President Trump," said the House majority leader, Steve Scalise. The transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, embellished the story on Fox, referring to the demonstrations' paid protesters" and adding: It begs the question who's funding it." Continue reading...

Second round of protests at more than 2,500 sites are set for Saturday, including in cities where Trump has sent troopsDonald Trump has promised to crack down on dissent and sent troops into US cities. His allies are claiming antifa, the decentralized antifascist movement, is behind plans to protest. He's looking for any pretext to go after his opponents.Still, this Saturday, even in cities with troops on the ground, millions of people are expected to march against the president as part of a second No Kings" protest. The last No Kings protest in June drew several million people across more than 2,000 locations. This time, more than 2,500 cities and towns nationwide are hosting protests. Continue reading...

Only a handful of North American athletes have spoken out against Israel's assault on Gaza, a silence shaped by fear, sponsorship and the policing of speechI will not just shut up and dribble... I get to sit up here and talk about what's really important." So proclaimed LeBron James in 2018 when confronted with the question of whether athletes have the right to speak about the political and social justice questions of their time.Yet since 7 October 2023, elite athletes in North America have had startlingly little to say about what most human rights groups in the world, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, and the United Nations have characterized as Israel's genocide in Gaza (a situation currently in flux due to a mutually agreed upon ceasefire and prisoner exchange).Nathan Kalman-Lamb is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of New Brunswick. Derek Silva is Professor of Sociology and Criminology at King's University College at Western University. They are co-authors of The End of College Football: On the Human Cost of an All-American Game and co-hosts, with Johanna Mellis, of The End of Sport podcast. Continue reading...

Cody James Williams used facial recognition to call for help as his mother suffered medical emergencyAuthorities in Michigan are saying a three-year-old boy is a hero after he managed to unlock his mother's phone using her face while she experienced a severe epileptic seizure and then summoned life-saving help on a video call.Cody James Williams' actions serve as a good reminder for all parents that you should talk to your kids [about what to] do in an emergency", the Oakland county sheriff, Michael Bouchard, said at a 14 October news conference where he honored the boy by symbolically deputizing him as a junior member of his office. Continue reading...

The Vegas signing of the former Team Canada goaltender, acquitted but still suspended, exposes a sport where talk of values" masks a deeper culture of silenceOn Thursday, the Vegas Golden Knights announced that goaltender Carter Hart will join the team on a professional tryout contract. Hart was one of five former Team Canada World Junior players initially charged with sexual assault stemming from an incident in 2018, and, though acquitted earlier this year, remains suspended by the NHL until 1 December. In a statement about Hart's contract signing, the Golden Knights said that the team remains committed to the core values that have defined our organization from its inception" and that the team expects that our players will continue to meet these standards moving forward".Which sounds all well and good, but there's a difference between expecting someone to meet a standard and maintaining it - or even enforcing it. It's not surprising that Hart is back on the ice in the NHL. For one thing, he was indeed acquitted, along with the other four accused, which is technically grounds for readmittance, whether one agrees with the ruling or not. For the league, the union, and the teams, the story is - or can be - relatively simple: a player cleared by the courts is ready for a comeback. But the real reason Hart's return will strike many as unsurprising is because, well, this is just how hockey works. That is, yes, everyone can talk about values and standards and expectations, but in reality hockey is still driven by silence. Continue reading...

The US president, JD Vance and Nigel Farage seem to believe that checking facts is a form of censorship. Nonsense: speech is only free when it is anchored in truthFacts are becoming less sacred by the day in Donald Trump's US, where many of his supporters now deny the very existence of truths. To them, inconvenient evidence is by definition bias". His followers and those who fear his fist are falling into line: media, universities and that infamous regiment of tech zillionaires who stood right behind him on inauguration day. The day after Trump's election victory was certified by an electoral vote tally in Congress, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg announced that, starting with the US, the company would get rid of factcheckers and replace them with community notes similar to X".A similar hammer blow has just struck Full Fact, the exceptionally valuable UK factchecker whose word is a gold standard for honesty. Google has pulled its 1m funding. Along with the ending of sizeable donations from Meta, the charity tells me this amounts to a loss of a third of its funding.Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

From Jack Johnson to Larry Bird, American sport has grappled with the racial myth of the Great White Hope. Now the Mavericks' new phenom, 18-year-old Cooper Flagg, inherits the mantle - whether he wants it or notEvery time Jack Johnson's big Black fists smashed into a white fighter's face, he wasn't just breaking the bones of his opponents, but the spirit of White America. Blow after blow after blow. Out of this shame, a mythos was born. One after another, white fighters propped up like scarecrows. One after another, collapsing. As cultural critic Gerald Early has argued, Johnson's fights became less about sport and more about the drama of race in America, with every knockout symbolizing a direct challenge to white supremacy. For the next 100 years, across multiple sports, whites have tried to find the next champion to return them to glory. This myth-making even inspired Howard Sackler's Pulitzer-winning play The Great White Hope.In basketball, figures like Jerry West and Pistol" Pete Maravich represented Anglo excellence before the NBA's full desegregation revealed the overwhelming superiority of African-American players. By the time Larry Bird rose in the 1980s, the Great White Hope narrative had simply been repackaged for a new generation. Bird was a badass hick from Indiana. Bird was a godsend to Boston's white working class. Bird was Magic's equal. Bird was the Great White Hope disguised as the Great White Hope denier.I don't want to be seen as the Great White Hope. I just want to be a great basketball player, period. Continue reading...

Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo tried to knock each other down while Curtis Sliwa took shots at bothZohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee and current frontrunner for New York City mayor, faced off with Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor now running as an independent, and Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate, at the first New York mayoral election debate on Thursday night.Here are some key takeaways from the evening. Continue reading...

The Democratic nominee and the former governor of New York clashed repeatedly, while Sliwa criticized them bothNew York City's three mayoral candidates faced off on Thursday night in the first of two televised debates, less than three weeks before voters head to the polls.On stage were Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, former governor Andrew Cuomo - now running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani in June - and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. Mayor Eric Adams, who dropped out of the race several weeks ago, did not participate. Continue reading...

John Bolton, who served in Trump's first administration, faces charges of mishandling and transmitting classified information. Key US politics stories from Thursday 16 October at a glanceJohn Bolton, a former national security adviser in Donald Trump's first administration, has vowed to defend his lawful conduct" after a federal grand jury indicted him on charges of mishandling and transmitting classified information.The indictment, filed in Maryland, appears to ultimately have been signed off on from prosecutors in the US attorney's office despite initial reluctance to bring a case before the end of the year. Continue reading...

This blog has now closed. Read our latest politics story hereA reminder that my colleagues are covering the latest developments out of the Middle East, as Israel and Hamas continue to carry out various aspects of the US brokered ceasefire deal.This includes the news today that Israel returned the bodies of 30 Palestinians to Gaza, bringing the total number handed over to 120, according the Gaza health ministry and Nasser hospital in Khan Younis. Continue reading...

Refiled complaint, after judge tossed initial suit last month, also targets individual reporters and book publisherAfter a federal judge tossed Donald Trump's $15bn defamation lawsuit against the New York Times, book publisher Penguin Random House and two Times reporters last month, the US president filed a 40-page amended complaint on Thursday.US district court judge Steven Merryday in Florida gave Trump 28 days to refile and amend the action he threw out on 19 September. Continue reading...

Alvin Holsey just took over the US southern command late last year for a position that normally lasts three yearsAmid escalating tensions with Venezuela and US military strikes on suspected drug smugglers in the Caribbean, the US admiral who commands military forces in Latin America will step down at the end of this year, the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, announced on social media.Adm Alvin Holsey's abrupt departure comes less than a year after he took over as head of the US military's southern command, which oversees operations in Central America, South America and the Caribbean. The posting typically lasts three years. Continue reading...

President says plans will lead to many more beautiful American children' but unclear if companies will sign upThe Trump administration announced on Thursday that it is urging US employers to create new fertility benefit options to cover in vitro fertilization (IVF) and other infertility treatments.In an announcement from the Oval Office, Donald Trump also said his administration had cut a deal with the drug manufacturer EMD Serono to lower the cost of one of its fertility drugs and list the drug on the government website TrumpRx. Continue reading...

A network of former intelligence and security officers says democratic decline is accelerating under Trump's ruleThe United States is on a trajectory" toward authoritarian rule, according to a sobering new intelligence-style assessment by former US intelligence and national security officials, who warn that democratic backsliding is accelerating under the Trump administration - and may soon become entrenched without organized resistance.The report, titled Accelerating Authoritarian Dynamics: Assessment of Democratic Decline, was released on Thursday by the Steady State, a network of more than 340 former officers of the CIA, the NSA, the state department and other national security agencies. Continue reading...

Second vote on Pentagon funding also failed meaning process to begin military operations becomes a non-starter

Pritzker, a billionaire, says he plans to donate winnings from playing blackjack on Las Vegas tripThe Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, made more than $1.4m while gambling in Las Vegas last year, according to federal tax filings released by his campaign team.Pritzker, already a billionaire with a family net worth of $41.6bn, who is widely seen as a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, won the money after playing blackjack at a Las Vegas casino while on vacation with his wife and friends, according to his campaign spokesperson. Continue reading...

Meet the content creators whose videos from Portland and Chicago shape the president's distorted view of reality

Hawks want regime change. Democrats and others are right to warn against illegal and unauthorised use of forceThe drumbeat is growing louder. Covert operations are supposed to remain just that, but on Wednesday Donald Trump confirmed that he had approved secret CIA actions in Venezuela and suggested that he was considering strikes on its territory. These comments follow the administration's extrajudicial killings at sea: attacks on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean that have left at least 27 dead - a frightening new precedent denounced by UN experts as illegal. The US has already built up forces in the region, with about 6,500 troops now stationed there. No to war in the Caribbean ... No to regime change ... No to coups d'etat orchestrated by the CIA," railed Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela's dictator, after Mr Trump's remarks.The US president's repeated claim that each boat strike saves 25,000 American lives is even more preposterous than it first sounds. The fentanyl that killed 48,000 people in the US last year did not come from Venezuela; most of it is from Mexico. But MrMaduro's regime looks increasingly isolated. The US has designated Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gang as a terrorist organisation that has invaded" the US, claiming that Mr Maduro is personally responsible. It has used that posturing to justify deportations and to boast - against the evidence - that Mr Trump has cut violent crime in cities. Continue reading...

Rishi Samaroo and Chad Charpo' Joseph believed to have been on boat Trump alleged was carrying drugs to USFamily members and neighbours have identified two men from Trinidad and Tobago who are believed to be among six people killed in a US airstrike on a boat allegedly transporting drugs from Venezuela.Without providing evidence, Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the strike in international waters had killed six narcoterrorists" and claimed that intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics" and said that it was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks". Continue reading...

At the South Louisiana Ice Processing Center in Basile, detainees say they were forced into hard labor - and sexually assaulted and stalked by an assistant wardenQueer and trans immigrants at a detention facility in south Louisiana have alleged that they faced sexual harassment and abuse, medical neglect and coerced labor by staff at the facility, and that they were repeatedly ignored or faced retaliation for speaking out.In multiple legal complaints, immigrants detained at the South Louisiana Ice Processing Center (SLIPC) in Basile, Louisiana, said they were recruited into an unsanctioned work program that forced them to perform hard manual labor for as little as $1 per day. Detainees also alleged that queer people were targeted by an assistant warden who stalked, harassed and sexually assaulted them. Continue reading...

Resignation, coinciding with Hegseth's partisan speech, was over Trump flouting constitution, Doug Krugman writesA former US Marine Corps colonel and combat veteran has said that after 24 years of service he resigned from the military because of Trump", citing what he described as the US president's contempt for the constitution.Doug Krugman left his role in the military on 30 September, coinciding with the day that Donald Trump and the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, delivered controversial, partisan addresses to US military leaders brought to a special meeting in Virginia from across the world, about military priorities and the administration's agenda. Continue reading...

In addition to a new ballroom, flagpoles, gilding the Oval Office and paving over the Rose Garden, the US president proposes an archMore than two centuries have passed since France celebrated the emperor Napoleon's birthday by laying the foundation stone of the Arc de Triomphe. Now Donald Trump has imperial ambitions of his own.On Wednesday, the US president unveiled plans for a grand arch in Washington that has already been dubbed the Arc de Trump". Continue reading...

Police thought bottle contained drugs and arrested Kapil Raghu, who was then taken into custody by IceAn Arkansas man who was detained for a month by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) after authorities mistook his bottle of perfume for opium is seeking to have his visa status restored after the charges were dropped.Kapil Raghu, an Indian national married to an American woman and working towards American citizenship, was detained on 3 May after police officers in Benton, a suburb of Little Rock, pulled him over for having a non-moving traffic violation, according to his attorney, Mike Laux. Continue reading...

Suit comes after Guardian investigation found administration rolled back efforts to combat human trafficking while Trump officials deny retreatA lawsuit by a national coalition of more than 50 organizations that fight human trafficking charges that the Trump administration's bans on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts amount to unlawful censorship and undermine the US's landmark anti-trafficking law.The lawsuit alleges that two anti-DEI executive orders issued by Trump in January harm the ability of anti-trafficking groups to zealously advocate for survivors" and violate the intent of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), a quarter-century-old law designed to eradicate sexual slavery and forced labor. Continue reading...

Indian-American Ashley Tellis allegedly obtained US military data and passed envelopes to Chinese officialsA prominent Indian-American academic and former US government adviser has been arrested and charged with the unlawful detention of national security information, including thousands of pages of top secret documents that were found at his home in Virginia.Ashley Tellis, 64, who served on the national security council of the former US president George W Bush and is credited for helping to negotiate the US-India nuclear deal, was arrested and charged over the weekend. Continue reading...

The NFL's great tactician was meant to elevate North Carolina football. Instead, his rigid ways, fraying staff and tone-deafness have made the Tar Heels a cautionary taleIt used to be that there was no stronger brand in football than a Bill Belichick-coached" outfit. For most of his nearly 50 years in the pros, the phrase connoted teams that prepared for every scenario, executed directions to perfection and met all the moments in between to secure victory time and again. But since the NFL turned its back on Belichick, who stepped down to the college ranks and took the head job at North Carolina seemingly for appearances, the Belichick-coached team slogan has become less of a mark of excellence than a bright warning label for a program run amok.The concerns at this juncture, still short of midway through Belichick's freshman season, are overwhelming. The misleading record, the stark images of home fans deserting a blowout loss to Clemson before half-time, the dramatic talent deficit - those were predictable outcomes for a septuagenarian taskmaster trying his hand at coaching college kids. Belichick isn't simply out of his element. He looks for all the world to be asleep at the wheel, too. Continue reading...

Proposition 50 is part of the Democratic governor Gavin Newsom's plan to counter Texas's gerrymandered mapsCalifornia is set to vote on a new congressional map in November, part of a plan by the governor, Gavin Newsom, and state Democrats to deliver up to five new Democrat-held seats in the US Congress.The plan is a direct effort to counter a Republican-led push in Texas, which will give the GOP a five-seat advantage in the upcoming midterms. Continue reading...

The Titans' firing of Brian Callahan has kicked off the annual bloodletting. With several clubs' playoff hopes already in peril, there are toasty seats across the leagueThe Tennessee Titans' firing Brian Callahan this week signaled the unofficial start of the coaching carousel.Six weeks into the season, a league built for parity is finding there is little to go around. Nearly half (14) of the league's teams this season are two games over .500. Three others have winning records and another three (the Chiefs, Panthers and Commanders) are 3-3 with an upward trajectory. Continue reading...

Overhaul of $1bn post-9/11 program would shift funds to states that voted for Trump in 2024 electionThe Trump administration plans to shift terrorism prevention funding from Democratic-led states toward those led by Republicans, government records show, as it overhauls a $1bn program created after the 9/11 attacks.Twelve Democratic-led states are suing to block the cuts, alleging that the Trump administration is trying to punish them for not cooperating with federal immigration agents. Continue reading...

Vice-president downplays messages such as I love Hitler' in chat by 24- to 35-year-olds as stupid jokes'. Plus, Virginia Giuffre on her abuse at the hands of Epstein and Maxwell

Court has repeatedly expanded states' leeway to make voting laws that would have previously been deemed discriminatoryThe last remaining piece of the 1965 Voting Rights Act - section 2, which empowers the federal government to protect voters from racial gerrymandering meant to dilute Black political power - appears headed for an untimely end. At oral arguments in Louisiana v Callais on Wednesday, the US supreme court appeared ready to strike down section 2, effectively completing the gradual nullification of the Voting Rights Act that it has pursued for over a decade.The case stems from new congressional districting maps that were drawn in Louisiana after the 2020 census, which found both that the state was eligible for six seats in the House of Representatives and that its population was about one-third Black. The state initially drew maps that featured only one majority-Black congressional district, rejecting seven more racially fair maps; voters sued, and federal courts ordered Louisiana to comply with the Voting Rights Act by drawing new maps in which Black voters would be a majority in a second district, thereby reflecting their share of the population and giving Black Louisianans an equal opportunity to elect representatives of their choice.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

I am not celebrating the end of the war' because this was not a war - and it's not over, eitherThank you, Donald Trump. Thank you, Benjamin Netanyahu. Thank you, Jared Kushner. Let's all pause, shall we, and have a moment of appreciation for these three wise men who have finally brought peace to the Middle East. Blessed are the peacemakers!And, of course, thank you to the Israeli military which, as a US taxpayer, I have done my part to help fund. To echo Kushner: Instead of replicating the barbarism of the enemy, [Israel] chose to be exceptional." Continue reading...