South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa was ambushed with footage that US president Donald Trump falsely said showed evidence of white genocide during a visit to the White House. Ramaphosa pushed back in a tense and testy Oval Room encounter
Senior Cecilia Culver criticized the university's ties to Israel and called for donations to be withheldA graduation speech at George Washington University has resulted in the graduate being banned from the campus after she used the platform to criticize the university's ties to Israel and express support for Palestinians.During Saturday's commencement for the Columbian College of Arts & Sciences, part of GWU in Washington, DC, graduating senior Cecilia Culver delivered remarks to the graduating class of nearly 750. Continue reading...
Trump officials seek to dismiss Biden-era consent decrees reached after deaths of George Floyd and Breonna TaylorThe justice department moved on Wednesday to cancel a settlement with Minneapolis that called for an overhaul of its police department following the murder of George Floyd, as well as a similar agreement with Louisville, Kentucky, after the death of Breonna Taylor, saying it does not want to pursue the cases.The move shows how the civil rights division of the justice department is changing rapidly under Donald Trump, dismantling Biden-era work and investigating diversity programs. It also comes amid pressure on the right to recast Floyd's murder, undermine diversity efforts and define liberal-run cities like Minneapolis as crime-ridden. Continue reading...
A Guardian investigation finds insurer quietly paid facilities that helped it gain Medicare enrollees and reduce hospitalizations. Whistleblowers allege harm to residents
We'd like to hear from UnitedHealth or nursing home workers and their experience with the company's ISNP programThe Guardian has reported on allegations from current and former UnitedHealth employees that their company endangered patient safety in an attempt to cut hospitalization expenses and crossed legal lines to enroll residents in UnitedHealth's Medicare Advantage institutional special needs plans (ISNPs). UnitedHealth/Optum has denied these allegations.We would like to hear from nursing home employees and operators about their experience working with UnitedHealth's Medicare Advantage ISNP program. Continue reading...
Retailer warns sales will slip for all of 2025 as customers pull back spending amid fears over tariffs and economySales at Target fell more than expected in the first quarter, and the retailer warned they will slip for all of 2025 year as its customers, worried over the impact of tariffs and the economy, pull back on spending.Target also said that customer boycotts have also done some damage during the latest quarter. The company scaled back many diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in January after they came under attack by conservative activists and the White House. Target's retreat created another backlash, with more customers angered by the retailer's reduction of LGBTQ+-themed merchandise for Pride month in June of 2023. Continue reading...
A government study shows clear benefits to the flexibility of telework. Companies ignore these findings at their own riskWhen the pandemic hit in early 2020, organizations pivoted overnight to remote and hybrid models to survive. Nearly five years later, Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, Dell and Goldman Sachs have enforced five-day-in-office mandates, while US federal agencies imposed on-site requirements for more than 400,000 employees.These actions rely on outdated assumptions about productivity, culture and resilience, according to authoritative federal government data. A May 2025 report from the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO), Telework: Private Sector Stakeholder and Expert Views, shows that telework offers clear advantages when leaders embrace strategic culture-building, robust performance tracking and available regulatory guidance. Companies ignoring these insights risk talent attrition, rising costs and reduced agility in an era that demands adaptability.Gleb Tsipursky, PhD, is the CEO of the future-of-work consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts Continue reading...
As Claire Shipman spoke students voiced displeasure that green card holder Mahmoud Khalil remains in Ice custodyA graduation ceremony at Columbia University in New York City on Tuesday was filled with boos and chants of Free Mahmoud" as students voiced their displeasure that Mahmoud Khalil remains in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention in Louisiana and was unable to join the rest of the class of 2025 in graduating.The university's acting president, Claire Shipman, was heckled as she introduced the ceremony. I know that many of you feel some amount of frustration with me, and I know you feel it with the administration," Shipman said, inciting another chorus of boos. And I know that we have a strong, strong tradition of free speech at this university. And I am always open to feedback, which I am getting right now." Continue reading...
After talks with Food and Drug Administration, company plans to resubmit vaccine application later this yearModerna said on Wednesday it had withdrawn an application seeking approval for its flu and Covid combination vaccine candidate after discussions with the US Food and Drug Administration.The company said it would resubmit the application later this year with vaccine efficacy data from a late-stage trial of its experimental seasonal influenza vaccine, which it expects to report this summer. Continue reading...
by Stephen Starr in Reynoldsburg, Ohio on (#6XEBK)
They lost their Nepalese citizenship years ago and are now living in a stateless limbo' amid Trump's deportationsAasis Subedi, a Bhutanese Nepali refugee, finds himself back in the same Nepal refugee camp he spent part of his youth, once again stateless.Last month, Subedi and two dozen community members from across the US were deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers to Bhutan, the tiny Himalayan country where they had never previously set foot. At least four, including Subedi, were immediately rejected by Bhutanese authorities and then expelled to India, where they fled to a refugee camp in Nepal. Continue reading...
Glenn Smallwood had schizoaffective disorder. Instead of a hospital, police took him to jail and strapped him to a chairTwo days before he died, a 33-year-old father and US army veteran named Glenn Smallwood Jr was talking about building a house. His younger brother, John, was remodeling a home in Lufkin, Texas, where both brothers lived, and Glenn asked whether he could help.He was so happy about the idea of working with me and turning his life around," John said. He was thinking positively about his future. I think about this memory often." Continue reading...
Ehud Olmert's statement comes as UN says Israel still blocking aid to Gaza. Plus, almost half a billion young people will be obese or overweight by 2030'
After an attack in Palm Springs, experts say the internet is only helping lone wolves find dangerous fringe theoriesExperts say an online ecosystem that allows lone actors to latch on to fringe viewpoints is bolstering violent extremism in the US, following an attack over the weekend on a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California.Investigators are combing through the writings of a 25-year-old man killed in a large explosion outside the American Reproductive Centers, an IVF facility, that was heavily damaged in what they have described as an intentional act of terrorism". The suspect in the bombing, Guy Edward Bartkus, left behind writings that appear to hold fringe theories of antinatalism" and nihilism, ideologies that oppose procreation and have a general sense of the meaninglessness of life. Continue reading...
Instead of cutting taxes on the richest Americans - who hold much of the country's debt - simply raise themOn Friday, the credit rating of the United States was downgraded. Moody's, the ratings firm, announced that the government's rising debt levels would grow further if the Trump Republican package of new tax cuts were enacted. This makes lending to the US riskier.Moody's is the third of the three major credit-rating agencies to downgrade the credit rating of the United States.They'll pay even more interest on the growing debt - to the super-rich.They'll pay higher interest rates on all other long-term debt. (As higher rates on treasury bonds waft through the economy, they raise borrowing costs on everything from mortgages to auto loans.)The debt crisis will give Republicans even more excuse to do what they're always wanting to do: slash safety nets. So many Americans could lose benefits they rely on, such as Medicaid and food stamps.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...
As the league's newest team targets a bright future, they are also keen to respect the culture and history of the Bay Area they representPurple-dyed ponytails and sequin jackets glittering in shades of black and violet. Fans are decked out in sports logos and LGBTQ rainbows while Black Box's Everybody Everybody - a queer dance club classic - booms from the speakers. Ali Wong is playfully dancing on the Jumbotron. There's no misinterpreting it: the WNBA has arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area.The Golden State Valkyries - who are owned by Golden State Warriors tech mogul Joe Lacob, and housed with their sibling franchise at Chase Center in San Francisco - were announced in 2023 (their name was confirmed in 2024) as the first WNBA expansion team since 2008. Last Friday, the team made their WNBA debut, against the Los Angeles Sparks, in front of a sellout crowd of 18,064. Continue reading...
They have been quick to brand the new pope an anti-Trump' total Marxist'. In return, he is already critiquing their worldviewIn the outer reaches of the Magasphere, it would be fair to say the advent of the first pope from the US has not been greeted with unbridled enthusiasm. Take Laura Loomer, the thirtysomething influencer and conspiracy theorist, whose verdict on Leo XIV was as instant as it was theologically uninformed: Anti-Trump, anti-Maga, pro-open Borders, and a total Marxist like Pope Francis." Also doing the rounds on X was a short summary of Leo's supposed transgressions before ascending to St Peter's chair: Trashed Trump, trashed Vance, trashed border enforcement, endorsed DREAMer-style illegal immigration, repeatedly praised and honored George Floyd, and endorsed a Democrat senator's call for more gun control."So far, so tedious. The comic-book casting of the new pope as a globalist villain in the US culture wars is traceable back to his predecessor's impact on liberal opinion a decade ago. Pope Francis's sometimes lonely championing of progressive causes, such as the rights of migrants, gave him a kind of liberal celebrity and led Time magazine to name him person of the year" in 2013. Pope Leo, born in Chicago, has been pre-emptively caricatured by much of the Maga right as a continuity pontiff who will, in effect, front up the religious wing of the Democratic party.Julian Coman is a Guardian associate editor Continue reading...
Parents are used to worrying about walking home alone and sleepovers, but games and messaging apps pose new risksWhen we look at what causes poor mental health, we often think of stress, genetics, poverty or loneliness. These are all contributing factors, but there's another, more hidden cause that isn't talked about enough: abuse, especially during childhood. I recall Chad Varah, the founder of Samaritans, reflecting that there were many things that drove people to call the charity's suicide helpline. But abuse was a prominent reason.Abuse isn't an easy subject to raise or talk about. It brings up issues of gender dynamics - a colleague studying global sexual abuse told me: The vast majority of perpetrators are men; the victims are equally boys and girls." These are hard issues to think about, harder still to discuss and difficult to address. They challenge notions of safety, trust, family and community. But if we want to make progress in addressing poor mental health, we have to start here - with the truths we'd rather avoid.Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of EdinburghDo 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...
There is an opportunity staring centre-left parties in the face - if they reject the male gaze distorting our politicsThe boys are alt-right." This seems to be the new consensus on far-right politics propagated in numerous articles and podcasts. But the media's obsessive focus on the young men allegedly fuelling the rise of the far right isn't just empirically flawed - it misses a much more significant shift in public opinion among young people. While many surveys show a large gender gap in support of far-right parties and policies, it is young women who stand out as the more politically interesting demographic, as they are turning in ever greater numbers towards the left.The idea that young people in general, and young men in particular, disproportionately support the far right has been around for a while. In a classic 2012 study, the German political scientist Kai Arzheimer characterised the typical" voter of far-right parties in Europe as male, young(ish), of moderate educational achievement and concerned about immigrants and immigration". It is frequently used to explain the rise of Donald Trump, while in Europe there has been an explosion of articles claiming that young people, particularly young men, are driving far-right support". But is the recent rise of Europe's far right truly due to the disproportionate support of young men? And are young people really becoming more rightwing?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...
Brian Murphy says deportations appear to flout court order and says if they want to turn the plane around, they can'A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to not let a group of migrants being flown to South Sudan leave the custody of US immigration authorities after saying they appeared to have been deported in violation of a court order.US district judge Brian Murphy in Boston during a hastily arranged virtual hearing said that while he was not going to order the airplane to turn around, that was an option the Department of Homeland Security could employ to comply with his order. Continue reading...
Donald Trump picks space force general to lead program to create anti-missile shield - key US politics stories from Tuesday at a glanceDonald Trump has announced that his administration will move forward with developing a multibillion-dollar missile defense system, called Golden Dome", and claimed that Canada was interesting in being part of it.Once fully constructed, the golden dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world, and even if they are launched from space," Trump said. Forever ending the missile threat to the American homeland." Continue reading...
Outlet calls story, created by freelancer working with one of the newpaper's content partner, a learning moment'Illinois' prominent Chicago Sun-Times newspaper has confirmed that a summer reading list, which included several recommendations for books that don't exist, was created using artificial intelligence by a freelancer who worked with one of their content partners.Social media posts began to circulate on Tuesday criticizing the paper for allegedly using the AI software ChatGPT to generate an article with book recommendations for the upcoming summer season called Summer reading list for 2025". As such chatbots are known to make up information, a phenomenon often referred to as AI hallucination", the article contains several fake titles attached to real authors. Continue reading...
Temecula Valley unified district ordered to pause CRT resolution as questions of constitutionality remainA small southern California school district must immediately pause its ban on critical race theory (CRT), a California appeals court ruled on Thursday morning .The 4th district court of appeals ruling put a halt to the Temecula Valley unified school district ban until its litigation is settled in the California legal system. The decision is the latest in a long-running legal battle over the CRT ban, which was first adopted as a resolution by the Temecula Valley Board of Education in December 2022 as they attempted to purge elementary school textbooks that reference gay rights icon Harvey Milk. Continue reading...
Gen Michael Guetlein of Space Force will be in charge of defense system that could cost $540bn over 20 yearsDonald Trump announced on Tuesday that his administration will move forward with developing the so-called Golden Dome" missile defense system that he envisions will protect the United States from possible foreign strikes using ground and space-based weapons.Flanked by the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, in the Oval Office, Trump also said that he wanted the project to be operational before he left office. He added that Republicans had agreed to allocate $25bn in initial funding and Canada had expressed an interest in taking part. Continue reading...
by Lauren Gambino and Associated Press on (#6XDZP)
Critics say shift will negatively affect people who are not high risk but want to be vaccinated against the diseaseThe Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Tuesday that it will limit access to seasonal Covid-19 boosters for healthy Americans under 65 without clear evidence of clinical benefit - a shift, critics say, that will make access difficult for people who are not high risk but want to be vaccinated against the disease.Top officials at the FDA outlined a new framework for approving Covid-19 vaccines, saying that the US would make the boosters available for Americans over the age of 65 and for adults and children above the age of 6 months with at least one condition that increases their risk of severe Covid-19. Continue reading...
Cuts to continue through October amid runway construction aimed at curbing delays and cancellationsThe Federal Aviation Administration has finalized an interim order to temporarily cut the number of flights coming in and out of Newark Liberty international airport as the embattled transit hub has recently experienced widespread delays and cancellations due to air traffic control operations.Beginning on Tuesday, 20 May, Newark airport's maximum hourly rate is now 28 arrivals and 28 departures, for a total of 56 hourly operations. Prior to this change, Newark typically handled more than 77 flights per hour during peak times, according to USA Today. Continue reading...
Officials say ship must be operated by specialized harbor pilot as investigation into crash that killed two continuesThe Mexican navy has said that the pilot navigating the training ship Cuauhtemoc during its Saturday night crash into the Brooklyn Bridge was New York-based.The ship must be controlled by a specialized harbor pilot from the New York government," Admiral Raymundo Pedro Morales Angeles said at a press conference. Continue reading...
Laurel Libby was punished by state house after she posted picture of transgender student athlete on social mediaThe US supreme court has restored Maine lawmaker Laurel Libby's right to vote in the state house for the time being, saying in a brief order that she cannot be censured and barred from voting despite a controversial post on social media about a transgender student athlete.The court's decision did not explain its reasoning, though two of the court's liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented. Jackson said in her scathing dissenting opinion that she did not think Libby had met the high bar required for supreme court intervention. Continue reading...
President says party has unbelievable unity' to ensure passage in House but some lawmakers remain opposedDonald Trump traveled to the Capitol on Tuesday to insist that the fractious House Republican majority set aside their differences and pass his wide-ranging bill to enact his taxation and immigration priorities.In a speech to a closed-door meeting of Republican lawmakers in Congress's lower chamber, the president pushed representatives from districts in blue states to drop their demands for a bigger State and Local Tax (Salt) deduction, and also sought to assuage moderates concerned that the legislation, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, would hobble the Medicaid health insurance program. Continue reading...
US senator Chris Van Hollen has accused the Trump administration of 'making a mockery' of the US refugee process, turning it into a system of 'global apartheid' by granting asylum status to white Afrikaners while turning away refugees from war-torn countries, including Sudan. The first group of white Afrikaners arrived in the US last week
Tim Kaine condemns secretary of state for admitting Afrikaners while cancelling refugee schemes for othersMarco Rubio, the secretary of state, has defended the Trump administration's controversial decision to admit 59 Afrikaners from South Africa as refugees after Tim Kaine, a Democratic senator from Virginia, claimed they were getting preferential treatment because they were white.Kaine, Hillary Clinton's former running mate, challenged Rubio to justify prioritising the Afrikaners while cancelling long-standing refugee programmes for other groups that have been more documented as victims of conflict or persecution. Continue reading...
Hospital plans to keep Adriana Smith on life support until August, when doctors will deliver baby via C-sectionThe fetus of a brain dead Georgia woman who is being kept alive to carry out her pregnancy is continuing to grow, the woman's mother said late Monday, days after the controversial case exploded into the national news and sparked questions about the ethics of using the state's anti-abortion law to keep a woman with no chance of recovery on life support.He has his toes, arms, limbs - everything is forming," the woman's mother, April Newkirk, told the local news station 11Alive. We're just hoping he makes it." Continue reading...
Move comes one week after Trump announced all US sanctions on Syria would be liftedThe EU has agreed to lift economic sanctions on Syria in an effort to help the war-torn country recover after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime.After the decision by EU foreign ministers on Tuesday, the EU's chief diplomat, Kaja Kallas, wrote on X: We want to help the Syrian people rebuild a new, inclusive and peaceful Syria." Continue reading...
Kinda, who played four seasons for Sporting Kansas City, died after being hospitalized with a complex medical battle'Former Sporting Kansas City midfielder Gadi Kinda died, his club Maccabi Haifa FC announced on Tuesday. He was 31.Kinda was hospitalized while going through a complex medical battle in recent weeks," Maccabi Haifa announced two weeks ago. Continue reading...
Investigators arrested Sterling Williams, who allegedly admitted he turned water off to toilet covering hole in wallA maintenance worker at New Orleans's jail has been arrested on allegations that he turned water off to a toilet covering a hole in the wall that 10 men who escaped from the facility early Friday used for their getaway.Investigators arrested 33-year-old jail maintenance worker Sterling Williams after he allegedly admitted to officials that one of the men advised him to turn the water off in the cell" before the men slipped away through the hole in the wall at the Orleans Justice Center (OJC), the Louisiana attorney general's office said in a statement. Continue reading...
US news | The Guardian