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Federal investigation found evidence of repeated racist harassment among Hawkins county, Tennessee, studentsA school district in Tennessee has agreed to implement reforms to its practices after a federal investigation found evidence of racist harassment, which included a Black student called racial slurs and subjected to a mock slave auction where he was sold" to his white peers.In a settlement with the Hawkins county school district in eastern Tennessee, the US Department of Justice said it had secured significant changes to school policies after it found the district was deliberately indifferent to known race-based harassment in its schools, violating the equal protection rights of Black students". Continue reading...

If it's true that more than 100 women and children died in the IDF's rescue of four hostages, Israel violated international lawThe enormous loss of Palestinian life attendant to the Israeli military's 8 June rescue of four hostages held by Hamas cries out for investigation. Hamas's abduction and detention of these four civilians was a clear war crime, but that does not exempt the Israeli military from the duty to comply with international humanitarian law in the rescue operation. The available evidence suggests that Israel fell short in several deadly respects.The Gaza health ministry, whose numbers have generally proved reliable, says that at least 274 Palestinians were killed in the operation and more than 600 wounded. The ministry does not distinguish combatants from civilians, but it reports that the dead included 64 children and 57 women, or 44% of the total. Given that many of the men who were killed in the course of the operation were in a nearby market, we must assume that a good proportion of them were civilians as well. That is a horrible civilian toll. Continue reading...

Italian PM was all smiles at start of G7 summit as she met parade of haunted-looking statesmen, most of whose days in power are numbered

Former secretary of state voices supports for Aipac-backed George Latimer in congressional raceHillary Clinton endorsed the primary challenger in representative Jamaal Bowman's vulnerable re-election race in New York.The former secretary of state and Democratic presidential candidate gave her support to George Latimer, the Westchester county executive who has received significant support from the pro-Israel lobby Aipac. Continue reading...

The point guard has kept his off-court opinions to himself and rejuvenated his career in Dallas. But he has been unable to stop the relentless Celtics so farLate in Game 3 of the NBA finals on Wednesday night, the Dallas Mavericks were on the brink. They had mostly clawed back a 21-point deficit to get within three points of the Boston Celtics. Then Luka Doni, the Mavs' superstar scorer, fouled out - the first time he'd ever done so in a playoff game.That left Kyrie Irving, the Deadpool to Doni's Wolverine, to carry the day. And when he went on to score Dallas's next four points, including an 18ft jump shot that cut the Boston lead to one, it looked as if the Mavericks might actually make this a competitive series. But it was not to be. Boston are simply too good and too tough. The result, a 106-99 Celtics victory on Dallas's home floor, puts the Mavericks in a 0-3 series hole, a margin from which no NBA team has ever come back. And it came just when Irving, who scored a game-high 35 points, had two quiet games to start the series. Continue reading...

Downpours and flooding blocked roads, floated vehicles and delayed Florida Panthers on way to Stanley Cup gamesA tropical disturbance has brought a rare flash flood emergency to much of southern Florida as residents prepared to weather more heavy rainfall on Thursday and Friday.Wednesday's downpours and subsequent flooding blocked roads, floated vehicles and delayed the Florida Panthers on their way to Stanley Cup games in Canada against the Edmonton Oilers. Continue reading...

Asset managers are hoovering up Britain's LGBTQ+ venues, with potentially disastrous consequences for the gay scene

After a humiliating 5-1 defeat to Colombia, the US bounced back with a 1-1 draw against Brazil. But that doesn't mean everything is perfect for their coachShame is still a potent emotion in US soccer. It's hard to believe the USMNT could have conjured a performance as furious and focused on Wednesday had they not been humiliated in their previous match a few days earlier and resolved to make amends. Continue reading...

A recent survey found 86% of respondents have lived in their cars and crashed on couches while they fight fireThe bathrooms in Ben McLane's barracks haven't worked for the last three years. It's just one of several embarrassing" problems with the living quarters offered by the US government to the federal fire captain's poorly paid crew. Along with having to rely on portable toilets, this season his firefighters have also had to grapple with bed bugs and rodent infestations.Issues like these are common in the dilapidated and aging facilities that federal land management agencies rent out to many of their workers across the US. It's a problem felt particularly by federal firefighters, who get by on incomes as low as $15 an hour. Continue reading...

The AI's errors can still be comical and catastrophic. Do we really want this technology to be in so many pockets?Tech watchers and nerds like me get excited by tools such as ChatGPT. They look set to improve our lives in many ways - and hopefully augment our jobs rather than replace them.But in general, the public hasn't been so enamoured of the AI revolution". Make no mistake: artificial intelligence will have a transformative effect on how we live and work - it is already being used to draft legal letters and analyse lung-cancer scans. ChatGPT was also the fastest-growing app in history after it was released. That said, four in 10 Britons haven't heard of ChatGPT, according to a recent survey by the University of Oxford, and only 9% use it weekly or more frequently.Chris Stokel-Walker is the author of How AI Ate the World, which was published last month Continue reading...

Once-critical CEOs have reasons to back a second Trump term, with plans for tax breaks and reduced worker powerChief executives of some of America's largest companies will meet privately with Donald Trump later on Thursday, and many CEOs who were once critical of his unprecedented conduct appear increasingly open to the former president's return to office, a Guardian analysis has found.The private audience with the former president will take place at the quarterly gathering of the Business Roundtable, a powerful Washington lobbying group that advocates for the interests of chief executives of big US firms. Joe Biden was also invited; his chief of staff will attend while the US president is abroad, a Business Roundtable spokesperson said. Continue reading...

Project 2025 blueprint for second Trump term envisages replacing thousands of career staff with political loyalistsAmerica's career diplomats are braced for the threat of a mass purge if Donald Trump wins the November election and for the potential flooding of the state department with loyalty-tested political appointees.Rather than leading to a seamless change of course in a rightward Trumpist direction, the diplomats' union and former ambassadors argue, such an attempted takeover would be much more likely to end in legal challenges, gridlock and chaos. Continue reading...

Wild swimming is so over, so put on your Sambas and prepare to master the fine French art of throwing one ball at anotherTrends in big cities always move at a zip, but over the past few years it seems that London has become a particularly faddy place. The en vogue trainer of the moment changes like the unpredictable weather (Adidas Gazelles and Sambas appear to have clung on for the moment, but sports shoes by typically uncool brands such as On are waiting to swoop in at any minute).Styles you thought were long since dead get resurrected overnight (we are living, hellishly, through the boho revival). Where hobbies are concerned, the winds of change breeze by so frequently that it's common to see your friends suddenly taking up activities that you would never associate with them in a million years.Lauren O'Neill is a culture writer Continue reading...

A party drilled to say if', not when' will suddenly have to change gears - and reconcile two vastly different modes of StarmerismFor anyone who has ever suffered from impostor syndrome, Rishi Sunak's election campaign is a kind of therapy. No matter how underqualified you might feel for a task, there is no prospect of exposure as brutal as that now inflicted on the prime minister.He looks shaken, but will no doubt recover his composure soon enough. Sunak will arrive at the conclusion reached by Liz Truss and Boris Johnson before him: that the only failure was of other people's loyalty and nerve. Taking responsibility for defeat is alien to the Conservative culture of automatic right to rule. It runs deep, insulating a leader's ego from evidence of their inadequacy.Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Indictment says Mark Adams Prieto recruited people at gun show to help carry out mass shooting targeting minoritiesA firearms dealer in Arizona sold weapons to an undercover federal agent he believed would help him carry out his plan for a mass shooting targeting minorities, an attack that he hoped would incite a race war", according to a federal grand jury indictment.Mark Adams Prieto was indicted Tuesday by the grand jury in Arizona on charges of firearms trafficking, transferring a firearm for use in a hate crime, and possession of an unregistered firearm. Continue reading...

Dr Julio Frenk to succeed Gene Block amid scrutiny of university's handling of pro-Palestinian protestsThe president of the University of Miami was chosen Wednesday to become the next chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles, where the retiring incumbent has faced widespread scrutiny over his handling of pro-Palestinian campus protests.Dr Julio Frenk, a Mexico City-born global public health researcher, was selected by regents of the University of California system at a meeting on the UCLA campus, where there was a swarm of security officers. Continue reading...

Advocates say president's order restricting asylum claims differs little from Trump move blocked by courtsA coalition of immigrant advocacy groups sued the Biden administration on Wednesday over President Joe Biden's recent directive that in effect halts asylum claims at the southern border, saying it differs little from a similar move during the Trump administration that was blocked by the courts.The lawsuit - filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and others on behalf of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and Raices - is the first test of the legality of Biden's sweeping crackdown on the border, which came after months of internal White House deliberations and is designed in part to deflect political attacks against the president on his handling of immigration. Continue reading...

Police look into red paint splattered with possible symbol of Palestinian resistance and banner calling director a ZionistPolice are investigating reports of vandalism after the homes of Jewish leaders and board members, including the director, of the Brooklyn Museum were splattered with red paint early Wednesday.In images circulating on social media, red paint is visibly splashed across the homes of director Anne Pasternak and several others affiliated with the Brooklyn Museum. Police said five homes - three in Manhattan and two in Brooklyn - were vandalized in the attack. Continue reading...

Sunak's interview about going without Sky TV as a child was the perfect warm-up act but Keir Starmer got a few laughs tooWell, there's good news for Sacha Baron Cohen: The Brothers Grimsby is no longer the most excruciating thing set in Grimsby. Asked to name something that might endear him to the public, the exhausted-looking prime minister basically spent a long time gibbering I like sweets." As someone famously deprived of a Sky subscription as a child, Rishi Sunak would not have been able to watch this televised leaders' event" when he was growing up. The tragedy is that Sky News is now free, so these days he'd be able to watch himself get repeatedly laughed at by the audience. (Not that that was entirely plain sailing for Keir Starmer, who seemed surprised to find his trusty my father was a toolmaker" line drawing a burst of jaded cackles too.)Anyway: Starmer v Sunak. The challenger v the gaffer. They call Rishi Sunak the gaffer because he will do you a gaffe at least three times a day. In terms of TV spectacle and drama, last week's debate between these two largely had the flavour of leafing through a wooden furniture catalogue, with each leading man occasionally outshone by his lectern. That said, I keep reading that what every single one of the British people crave is for politics to be really, really boring. In which case: sorry, Mr Bates vs the Post Office - you just lost the Bafta. Continue reading...

Orville Allen, second world war and Korean war veteran, died on 29 May and his liver was successfully transplantedOrville Allen lived a lifetime of service, and when he died at age 98 he had one last thing to give: his liver.Allen, a veteran of both second world war and the Korean war and a longtime educator in rural south-eastern Missouri, is the oldest American to ever donate an organ, transplant organizations said. He died on 29 May and his liver was successfully transplanted to a 72-year-old woman, according to Mid-America Transplant. Continue reading...

Resolution concerned attorney general's refusal to turn over audio of Biden interview in his classified-documents caseThe House voted on Wednesday to hold the attorney general, Merrick Garland, in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over audio of President Joe Biden's interview in his classified-documents case, Republicans' latest and strongest rebuke of the justice department as partisan conflict over the rule of law animates the 2024 presidential campaign.The 216-207 vote fell along party lines, with Republicans coalescing behind the contempt effort despite reservations among some of the party's more centrist members. Continue reading...

Newtown students declare time for change' more than 11 years after one of the deadliest US school shootingsStudents who survived one of the deadliest school mass shootings in US history are graduating high school on Wednesday, as many call for more action on gun control.Emotions were running high at Newtown high school in Connecticut on Wednesday, more than 11 years after a former student entered Sandy Hook elementary school in 2012 with guns and killed small children, teachers and staff in a massacre that shook the nation. Continue reading...

At Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting, delegates voted to avoid the infertility treatmentThe largest Protestant group in the US has condemned the use of in vitro fertilization, a move that is sure to inflame the already white-hot battle over IVF and reproductive rights in the aftermath of the overturning of Roe v Wade.On Wednesday, during the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting, delegates voted in favor of a resolution that urges Southern Baptists to reaffirm the unconditional value and right to life of every human being, including those in an embryonic stage, and to only utilize reproductive technologies consistent with that affirmation". Continue reading...

This live blog has now closed. For the latest US politics news, go hereThe White House has not ruled out a possible commutation for Hunter Biden after a jury found him guilty on three federal gun crimes.White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, speaking to reporters on Wednesday on Air Force One, said:As we all know, the sentencing hasn't even been scheduled yet.Of course he respects that, and we all do, and we've all talked about it ad nauseam. Continue reading...

The paper's reinvention, with the appointment of Will Lewis as publisher, is a mess - but there's still time to turn things around

Marlena Robbins believes psilocybin could help treat mental health and addiction issues among Native AmericansEven though therapy helped Marlena Robbins better understand her intergenerational trauma, she wanted to delve deeper into her healing practice. In 2019, on the recommendation of her partner, Robbins sat at her home altar with a dose of psychedelic mushrooms. Drawing upon her Dine, or Navajo, heritage, she said a prayer and asked the mushrooms for guidance. The experience changed the trajectory of her life.When I sit with [mushrooms], it's like engaging with the holy people. I see them as doctors," Robbins said. They're already writing the prescription. They're already writing the treatment plan." Continue reading...

A lie is a lie, but the president's support of his son - and of the legal system - has been moving to seeIf you didn't know better, you might think the jury that found Hunter Biden guilty this week knew precisely what they were doing. The evidence against the president's son - that he lied about his drug use on a firearms form six years ago - was overwhelming, but so too was the impression of a trivial, overegged charge. But, by finding him guilty, the jury in this area of solid Democratic support have potentially done more injury to his father's political rival than if they had found him not guilty on all counts.For those of us watching, the entire spectacle has at times been an uncomfortable exercise in flushing out biases. Like the Trump children, Hunter Biden has the demoralised air of a scion struggling to escape his father's shadow, albeit in a different style. If the Trump boys are chinless dimwits, Hunter has about him the seedy air of a second- or third-tier Hollywood actor, clamped behind aviators and accompanied seemingly everywhere by his much younger wife.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnistDo 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...

Digital art collective that now owns album sues convicted pharmaceutical executive for making copiesThe convicted pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli has been sued in New York by a digital art collective that said it paid $4.75m for a one-of-a-kind album by the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan, only to learn that the man nicknamed Pharma Bro made copies and is releasing the music to the public.Shkreli paid $2m in 2015 for the album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, and gave it up to partially satisfy a $7.4m forfeiture order after his 2017 conviction for defrauding hedge fund investors and scheming to defraud investors in a drugmaker. Continue reading...

Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa Bay experienced one-in-a-millennium record rainfall and flash floodingFlorida was hit with record-breaking rain last night, with the entire southern part of the state under a flood watch through Thursday evening.Cities like Miami and Fort Lauderdale experienced the heaviest downpour of the year yesterday between 5pm and 8pm, and almost 4in of rain fell in Sarasota in a single hour. Continue reading...

Marina Abramovi would flinch at the pain the prime minister is inflicting on himself in pursuit of his self-destructive projectFor some time now it's been obvious that Rishi Sunak really doesn't want to be prime minister any more. You can see it in his body language. Defeat hangs heavy around his shoulders. Despair etched into the lines on his face. He is desperate for it all to end. Then he can be shot of the lot of us. Kiss goodbye to us miserable ingrates and take his millions off to California.But credit where credit is due. No one can accuse Rish! of not putting the hours in. He has gone well beyond the call of duty. The efforts to ensure his self-destruction have become almost superhuman. His commitment to the cause total. He will stick at nothing until his failure is complete. All hope of recovery vanquished. In this he has almost reached the status of a performance artist. Marina Abramovi is nothing on Sunak. She would have flinched long ago. The greater the self-inflicted pain, the nobler the victory. Continue reading...

Senate Democrats are still working unanimously to move bill forward this weekThe South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, the top-ranking Republican on the Senate judiciary committee, said that he will block Democrats' attempts to pass an ethics bill to rein in the US supreme court.Graham told NBC News that he will object" to the bill on Wednesday, meaning it will not move forward on its legislative journey. Continue reading...

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said Hamas's response to the latest proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza included 'numerous changes', of which some were 'workable, and some are not'.Speaking at a news conference in Doha, Qatar, Blinken said: 'Hamas could have answered with a single word: yes. Instead, Hamas waited nearly two weeks and then proposed more changes'

The birth, not yet confirmed by park officials, holds special significance to tribe as both a blessing and warning'A rare white buffalo has been born in Yellowstone national park, with the arrival prompting local Lakota Sioux leaders to plan a special celebration, with the calf representing a sign of hope and the need to look after the planet.The white calf was reportedly spotted shortly after its birth, on Tuesday last week, by park visitor Erin Braaten, a photographer. She took several shots of the wobbly baby after spotting it amongst a herd of buffalo in the north-eastern corner of the large park, located in Wyoming and a small slice of Montana. Continue reading...

The D-day commemorations have made us all reflect on the second world war. But I hesitated to talk to my German neighbour about itI was preparing to go on the radio on the morning of the D-day commemorations when I remembered I needed to talk to a neighbour of mine about something else entirely. I don't know him well but he's a nice man, a good bit younger than me, with a young family. He's German. I'd been wondering how the D-day events were being covered in Germany, and nearly asked him about it, but then stopped myself, remembering that I've never been quite sure how - or if - to talk to Germans about the war.In 1982, when I was 15 years old, I went on a school exchange to a town called Leonberg, near Stuttgart. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't looking left and right and over my shoulder for baddies there, not at all. The teenagers and their teachers and their families were just like us, which wasn't surprising to me, but the war had been very prominent in the books and films of my cultural life, and I had questions about it. And they weren't, to be clear, along the lines of: Did your grandad bomb my nan?" Although, to be honest, I'm not quite sure what I wanted to ask, nor who to ask, or how to ask it. But I was doing a lot of wondering. Continue reading...

Critics say crime-reporting social media accounts in Washington DC promote accountability from leaders but ignore context and veer into fearmongering Continue reading...

Nathan's Famous, sponsor of event, had no stomach for Chestnut's sponsorship by plant-based meat companyAmerica's top professional eater, Joey Chestnut, has been excluded from entering New York City's annual hotdog eating competition after he signed a deal with a plant-based meat company.Chestnut, 40, the defending champion, said on X that he was gutted to learn from the media that after 19 years" he had been banned" from the competition, held every summer on Independence Day at Nathan's Famous original hotdog outlet in Coney Island. I love celebrating America with my fans all over this great country on the 4th and I have been training to defend my title," he added. Continue reading...

Sex on mushrooms has heightened my sensitivity and helped me be more present and relaxed

Republicans double down on conspiracy theories after conviction of president's son. Plus: the new forms of toxic masculinity dominating social media Don't already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.Hunter Biden was found guilty Tuesday on three felony counts relating to buying a handgun while being a user of crack cocaine. He now faces up to 25 years in prison, though such a sentence would be highly unusual given that he is a first-time offender.How has Joe Biden responded? The president has previously said he would not pardon his son if he was convicted. On Tuesday, he said: I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal." He went on to deliver a gun-safety speech just hours after the verdict.Did Hunter Biden have his family's support during the trial? Even as Joe Biden's presidential campaign and the White House attempted to distance themselves from the case, Hunter's family and close friends attended the trial en masse to show their support. The first lady, Jill Biden, was seated in the Delaware courtroom behind her stepson for the first three days of the trial until leaving to attend a D-day commemoration ceremony in France. Continue reading...

Ex-president notched minor win in classified-documents case - but is already seeing ramifications of felony conviction

Brad Willis' MurderETC helped uncover the identity of Oscar James Nedd, who was killed in South CarolinaAs the producer of a true crime podcast mainly focused on a decades-old double murder, Brad Willis has had plenty of experience with dramatic and compelling storytelling.But Willis got the chance to be the story himself this week, when a sheriff in South Carolina whose office has been reinvestigating a 1975 killing publicly credited Willis' show with helping deputies finally identify the victim. Continue reading...

New study reveals number of people potentially affected by Republican efforts to prevent non-citizen voting'Nearly one in 10 eligible voters lack easy access to documents to prove their citizenship, according to a new survey, underscoring how Republican efforts to purportedly prevent non-citizens from voting could disenfranchise millions.If asked to quickly locate a passport, birth certificate, or naturalization papers to produce proof of citizenship tomorrow, more than 21m Americans - about 9% of eligible voters - would not be able to, according to the survey, conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice, VoteRiders, Public Wise, and the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement (CDCE) at the University of Maryland. Nearly 4 million American citizens - 2% in total - lack access to any form of proof in citizenship. Continue reading...

A bar in Idaho has gone viral for launching a Heterosexual Awesomeness Month. Unfortunately, it's a familiar wheezeSpare a thought for the poor heterosexual: a wretched creature, shunned and marginalised despite living in a world built around their lifestyle choices. This oppressed majority has, finally, found an ally in the form of a bar in Idaho called Old State Saloon, which recently went viral for celebrating Heterosexual Awesomeness Month". On Mondays in June, any heterosexual male dressed like a heterosexual male will receive a free draft beer" and on Wednesdays heterosexual couples get 15% off their bill".If this exhausting joke sounds a little familiar, it's because these sorts of shenanigans happen every single Pride month. Some wag with a chip on their shoulder will decide that it's unfair that the gays get a whole month to themselves and will launch something to increase awareness of heterosexual people. In 2011, for example, a Brazilian politician tried to get the city of Sao Paulo to establish a Heterosexual Pride Day. That didn't end up passing but, in 2019, Boston held a Straight Pride Parade. A few hundred Trump supporters marched with signs bearing slogans such as Straight lives matter".Do 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...

El Paso mayor says order will save lives' but advocates express concern over heat and exploitation by criminalsThe sun blazed relentlessly on the border terrain of New Mexico, with Texas directly to the east and Mexico directly to the south, revealing inhospitable desert covered with poignant reminders of the human journey.Discarded water bottles, worn-out shoes and torn clothes scattered on Mexican soil along the towering US fence serve as silent witnesses to the passage of those who traverse this harsh land, heading north in search of a better life. Continue reading...