Branch in Hadley, Massachusetts, would be the first unionized store out of more than 530 locations in the USOrganizers have begun a unionization campaign at the upscale supermarket chain Trader Joe’s after workers at a branch in Hadley, Massachusetts, announced they were forming a union and intend to file a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to hold an election.It would be the first unionized Trader Joe’s store out of more than 530 locations in the US. Workers are organizing independently, citing the similar framework of the Amazon Labor Union, which is not affiliated with traditional, established labor unions. Continue reading...

Dallas is home to several packs of coyotes, which can become unusually comfortable with neighbors – and on 3 May, one dragged a toddler off a porchEven before a two-year-old was snatched from a Dallas porch by a hungry coyote, the parents in the neighborhood knew something terrible was bound to happen.The coyotes that usually stayed in wooded areas or a nearby creekbed had been coming closer and closer. One was spotted by a doorbell camera stealing a food delivery bag off a porch. Another was seen following children on their walk to school. Another stood on an elementary school playground with a squirrel in its mouth. Continue reading...

The president says frustrated Americans ‘have a choice between two paths’ but that the GOP is not focused on fighting inflationOn a recent visit to a family farm in rural Illinois, thousands of miles away from the front lines of the grinding war in Ukraine, Joe Biden lashed out at his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, blaming him for destabalizing global food supplies and driving up the cost of groceries at home.Russia’s assault on Ukraine, Biden explained after a tour of the farm’s fields and grain bins, has dramatically reduced food exports from the warring nations that together supply more than a quarter of the world’s wheat, causing food prices to spiral. Continue reading...

The race between Henry Cuellar and Jessica Cisneros for Congress will answer a key question: is the ‘Democratic machine’ still strong or can progressives win?Two nearly identical text boxes appear on the respective campaign websites for Henry Cuellar and Jessica Cisneros, the Democrats locked in a heated primary runoff to represent south Texas in Congress.Cuellar’s text box warns voters that Cisneros “would defund the police and border patrol”, which “would make us less safe and wreck our local economy”. Cisneros, in turn, blasts Cuellar for opposing “women’s right to choose” amid a nationwide crackdown on reproductive care. Continue reading...

Panel aims to publicly outline the potentially unlawful schemes that tried to keep the former president in office despite his defeatThe House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol is expected to stage six public hearings in June on how Donald Trump and some allies broke the law as they sought to overturn the 2020 election results, according to sources familiar with the inquiry.The hearings are set to be a pivotal political moment for the country as the panel aims to publicly outline the potentially unlawful schemes that tried to keep the former president in office despite his defeat at the hands of Joe Biden. Continue reading...

City acts after egregious price-gouging emerged – such as $27.85 for a glass of Sam Adams beer at LaGuardiaWe all expect to pay a bit extra for a beer or a sandwich at the airport. But when a glass of Samuel Adams Summer Ale costs nearly $30, things really have gotten out of control.That’s why New York officials have announced a crackdown on food and drink prices at the region’s airports, where vendors can’t charge more than “street prices” – what you’d pay locally outside the airport – plus 10%. Continue reading...

Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania governor says if Mastriano wins he could wield power to choose his own slate of electors and overturn presidential election resultsJosh Shapiro, who was nominated this week as the Democrats’ candidate for governor in the electorally critical state of Pennsylvania, has accused his Republican rival of intending to override the democratic will of voters and pick his own winners in future elections.Shapiro launched his attack on Doug Mastriano in an interview on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. He called Mastriano, a far-right state senator, “dangerous and divisive” and warned that were he to become Pennsylvania’s governor he could wield power to choose his own slate of presidential electors as a means of overturning the results of the 2024 presidential election. Continue reading...

Wisconsin couple say they stabbed bear with a kitchen knife and then killed animal with a firearm after it attacked them at homeA Wisconsin couple say they killed a bear who attacked them inside their home after they spotted it eating from their bird feeder.The Taylor county sheriff’s office said the attack happened at about 11pm Friday at a home near Medford in north-central Wisconsin. The couple told authorities that the bear charged through a window after they yelled at it to go away. Continue reading...

Governor Asa Hutchinson signed near-total abortion ban bill, even though he disagreed with the lack of exceptions for incest and rapeThe Republican governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson, has admitted that an anti-abortion trigger law that he signed on to the books would lead to “heartbreaking circumstances” if Roe v Wade is overturned, in which girls as young as 11 who became pregnant through rape or incest would be forced to give birth.Hutchinson’s remarks give a revealing insight into the twisted human and political quandaries that are certain to arise should the US supreme court, as expected, destroy the constitutional right to an abortion enshrined in Roe v Wade when it issues its ruling next month. The governor told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday that in 2019 he had signed the Arkansas trigger law, Senate Bill 6, which would ban almost all abortions the instant Roe were reversed, even though he disagreed with its lack of exceptions for incest and rape. Continue reading...

Biden economic adviser says US to see more baby formula on shelves as 70,000lb of product lands in Indianapolis on SundayA top White House economic adviser on Sunday said he was hopeful there would be more baby formula on American store shelves this upcoming week, especially after a plane full of the product arrived from an airbase in Germany.

If the alleged mass murderer’s goal was to inflict terror, then the man responsible for this trauma failed miserablyLess than an hour after the city of Buffalo, New York, took a 123-second pause on Saturday to memorialize the victims of the terrorist attack that shook the city a week ago, June Bloomfield held her own moment of silence.Standing outside the Tops Market, the only grocery store in the area, where white supremacy stole the lives of 10 people, Bloomfield’s tears were obscured by sunglasses, a mask and her quiet resolve. “It’s not fear”, she said, trying to summon the words that described her feelings. “It’s … All I can say is, I’m not afraid.” Continue reading...

List includes Biden and other senior officials, but not Trump, as country says it is retaliating against what it calls hostile US actionsRussia on Saturday released a list of 963 Americans it said were banned from entering the country, a punctuation of previously announced moves against president Joe Biden and other senior US officials.The country, which has received global condemnation for its 24 February invasion of Ukraine, said it would continue to retaliate against what it called hostile US actions, Reuters reported. Continue reading...

National security adviser assures public that the US has a ‘vaccine that is relevant to treating’ virusJoe Biden said Sunday that “everybody” should be worried about the spread of monkeypox recently, and his national security adviser assured the public that the US has a “vaccine that is relevant to treating” the virus.During an official visit to South Korea, Biden told reporters, “They haven’t told me the level of exposure yet but it is something that everybody should be concerned about.” The president, who was speaking at Osan airbase, also added: “It is a concern in that if it were to spread it would be consequential.” Continue reading...

Employee Stock Ownership Plans hold over $1.6tn in assets and can make a more profitable company and a better place to workWant to attract and retain more employees? Maybe giving up a piece of the pie is the answer.The number of businesses that are giving employees a share in ownership is growing. According to the National Center of Employee Ownership in 2019 (the most recent year for which data is available), 239 new Employee Stock Ownership Plans, or ESOPs, were created, covering 46,537 participants. In total, there are approximately 6,482 ESOPs in the United States, holding total assets of more than $1.6tn, and that number is growing. Continue reading...

The alleged shooter copied the manifesto of the New Zealand mosque attacker – showing how easy it is to replace Muslim with Black or Jewish in the logic of the extreme rightOn 14 May, an 18-year-old white supremacist shot and killed 10 Black people in a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, about 200 miles away from his home, according to police. The alleged shooter scrawled a racial epithet on the barrel of his gun and live-streamed his killing spree. He (I prefer not to name him) was clearly participating in a long and horrible American tradition of murderous hatred toward Black people, and media coverage and commentary have rightly emphasized the long reach of anti-Black racism that motivated this killer.But the alleged shooter’s motivations were not only anti-Black racism. He uploaded a 180-page document shortly before carrying out his attack, and even a quick perusal will show the disgusting antisemitism that he also wallows in. Pages and pages of anti-Jewish slurs – including an excerpt from Der Giftpilz, a Nazi-era children’s book published by Julius Streicher of Der Stürmer infamy – fill the document. At one point, the killer writes, “If the Jews did not have connections to Judaism, then I believe that they would be able to live in White countries such as the USA. But because of the irreversible rabbinic teachings they must be removed from all European and White countries.”Why did you carry out the attack?To most of all show the invaders that our lands will never be their lands, our homelands are our own and that, as long as a white man still lives, they will NEVER conquer our lands and they will never replace our people.Why did you decide to carry out the attack?To show to the replacers that as long as the White man lives, our land will never be theirs and they will never be safe from us.Did/do you personally hate muslims?A muslim man or woman living in their homelands? No.Did, or do you personally hate blacks?A black man or woman living in their homelands? No.Do you consider it a terrorist attack?By the definition, then yes. It is a terrorist attack. But I believe it is a partisan action against an occupying force.Do you consider the attack an act of terrorism?By definition yes. But I believe it is a partisan action against an occupying force.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. He is a contributing opinion writer at Guardian US Continue reading...

Sherman Indian high school is among the last remnants of a brutal history that students and government are reckoning withWith other students’ eyes on her, Wicahpi Medicine’s heart raced, but as she started dancing, she felt proud to embody her Lakota heritage. The beads on her jingle dress swished and her long braids bounced as she moved quickly and lightly in her moccasins.“People think that we’re extinct – they think we don’t really exist anymore,” said the 17-year-old student, who goes by Kimmi. Dancing at Sherman Indian high school cultural week, she said she was showing “we are still here”. Continue reading...

The Georgia candidate represents a relatively rare political being: a Black, Trump-supporting Republican – and his base seems to be entirely white conservativesA sign on the town square in the Johnson county seat of Wrightsville pays homage to the county’s namesake, Herschel Vespasian Johnson, Georgia’s 41st governor. A relative rarity for his time, Johnson was one of 89 men who voted against secession in 1861 against more than 200 of their peers.But Herschel Johnson is a historical footnote here. Now, the only Herschel that most people know around here is Herschel Walker, a former football star and political novice running for US Senate. Like Johnson, Walker represents a relatively rare political being: he is a Black Republican who supports Donald Trump. Continue reading...

The Grammy-winning singer speaks to the Guardian about mass incarceration and his campaign to elect progressive prosecutorsJohn Legend, the singer-songwriter and longtime racial justice activist, has thrown his weight behind political campaigns that rarely get celebrity endorsements: progressive candidates running for district attorney.The Grammy, Oscar, Emmy and Tony winner has long been a vocal supporter of the movement to reduce mass incarceration in the US, and has backed several chief prosecutors and candidates who seek to right the wrongs of America’s racially biased criminal justice system. Continue reading...

GOP leaders seem unlikely to abandon nods to the conspiracy theory even though it was cited by the alleged perpetrator of a racist mass murderWhen a white man used a semi-automatic assault-style rifle to kill 10 people at a supermarket in a Black neighborhood of Buffalo, New York, last weekend, attention quickly turned to the likely motive.The “great replacement” theory describes a supposed elite conspiracy to change the demographics of America, replacing and disempowering white people – and their influence – with people of color, immigrants and Muslims. In recent years the lie has gone from far-right fringe to Republican party mainstream. Continue reading...

When even young women join the actor’s male tormentors, ideas of justice soon begin to unravelThe backlash to the #MeToo movement was always coming. We know this because a backlash has followed every single step forward feminists have ever made. This backlash was always going to be big, too. Not only did #MeToo threaten a status quo that props up powerful men, it threatened these men personally, and – as it seemed to some – with reckless caprice.“If somebody can be brought down by accusations like this,” a White House lawyer said shortly after Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations against Brett Kavanaugh were made public, “then you, me, every man certainly should be worried.” Continue reading...

When the Camp fire raged through the Sierra Nevada foothills, it turned an existing housing crisis into a growing emergencyAfter Julia Cheek lost all of her belongings in the Camp fire, she longed for a safe place to lay her head at night. When she finally received a check from the California utility that had caused the fire, Cheek used it to buy the only home she could afford: a 2010 Nissan Xterra.Cheek didn’t have insurance and has struggled to secure permanent housing since the fire, remaining among the growing population of unhoused residents in this northern California outpost. Continue reading...

The 15-time major champion avoided a third-round 80 but he could start thinking about how much pain he wants to take onNo sooner had the final putt dropped on day three of this US PGA Championship than it was announced Tiger Woods had withdrawn after 54 holes. The 46-year-old, making just his second tournament appearance since being involved in a serious car crash last February, looked in severe physical trouble during a third round of 79.Woods had refused to confirm he would play the final 18 holes thereafter. “Well, I’m sore,” said Woods. “I know that is for a fact. We’ll do some work and see how it goes.” Continue reading...

Trio will receive college degrees but will not be commissioned ‘as long as they remain unvaccinated’, spokesperson saysFor refusing to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, three US air force academy cadets won’t be commissioned as military officers, though they will receive college degrees, a spokesperson for the school said Saturday.Academy spokesperson Dean Miller said in a statement that the three cadets in question won’t be commissioned as air force officers “as long as they remain unvaccinated,” though they would get their bachelor’s of science degrees. The military branch had not decided yet whether to require the trio to reimburse the US for education costs in lieu of service, Miller said. Continue reading...

The singer’s commencement speech steered clear of snark, and focused on genuine life advice for the NYU graduatesNow that students at English universities are getting into an average debt of more than £45,000 each – I still recall, with horror, the news that one student had borrowed £189,700, or the equivalent of turning the heating on for a couple of weeks this winter – I wonder if they might start to expect more celebrity speakers at graduation ceremonies. You can see thousands of bands at Glastonbury for £280. It can’t cost that much to book the presenters of Loose Women, say, to do 30 minutes of life advice.In the US, there is a long tradition of famous people delivering commencement speeches, from authors to politicians to tech bosses. My favourite is the director John Waters, who can always be relied on for the good stuff. “Parents, now it’s time to talk to you. God, these kids can be brats, can’t they? Entitled little bastards,” he told one crowd of students, in 2015; in 2020, he told virtual graduates to “travel beyond the valley of the humour-impaired and over the top of sexual anarchy to a coup d’etat of crackpot capitalism”. Continue reading...

Ultra conservative Salvatore Cordileone accuses pro-choice House speaker of failing to ‘understand the grave evil she is perpetrating’The Roman Catholic archbishop in Nancy Pelosi’s home town of San Francisco has banned her from receiving communion there over her staunch support of abortion rights, which she has strengthened as supreme court justices weigh finalizing a draft ruling outlawing the termination of pregnancies in more than half the county.In a letter addressed to the US House speaker and posted on his Twitter account, ultra conservative Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone argued that Pelosi’s “position on abortion has become only more extreme over the years, especially in the last few months,” and he had decided to block her from communion after she had ignored his requests to explain her stance to him. Continue reading...

I don’t think it’s possible to overstate the depravity and horror of the former president’s 2003 invasion of IraqIt was a Freudian slip for the ages: during a speech in Dallas this week, former President George W Bush condemned the “decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq”. Whoops! “I mean of Ukraine,” he added a second later, as laughter rang out in the room. Isn’t it funny when a former president accidentally confesses to war crimes? Ha! Ha! Ha!Arwa Mahdawi’s new book, Strong Female Lead, is available for order Continue reading...

We can support those trapped in shelters or struggling with survivor’s guilt. But some emotional damage is irreparableAll four of my grandparents survived the second world war, and all four were scarcely willing to talk about it, having either survived the siege of Leningrad or come back from the frontline wounded. On the rare occasions they did, their memories would leave them devastated.The lifelong PTSD they experienced was quite possibly one of the reasons I became a psychologist. I wanted to do something to end the vicious circle of trauma, abuse, self-neglect and fear. But during my training, I could never have predicted the way I would be applying my skills a decade later.Anna Shilonosova is a documentary photographer and assistant psychologist currently based in the UKIf you know someone who might need help and support from a Ukrainian- or Russian-speaking psychologist, please let them know about these services; they are free of charge and available 24/7: https://t.me/PsihologDopomogaWarInUa_2022; www.instagram.com/psy.for.peace; https://t.me/psyhelp_Ukraine; https://sppu.com.ua/ Continue reading...

With the at-times torturous Concacaf qualifying slog now in the rear-view mirror, here’s a look at where the Americans standIt’s six months before the US men’s national team kicks off their World Cup campaign at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium in Qatar with a Group B game against Wales, Scotland or Ukraine. With the at-times torturous Concacaf qualifying slog now in the rear-view mirror, here’s a run-down of where the US stands ahead of four fixtures next month, starting with the friendly visit of Morocco to Cincinnati on 1 June. A 27-man squad for the summer fixtures was named on Friday, with call-ups for the uncapped Joe Scally, Malik Tillman and Haji Wright and a return for Cameron Carter-Vickers. Continue reading...

White supremacy is as American as apple pie, as the latest killings in Buffalo show. Biden needs to take a stand against neofascistsLast weekend, just as I finished a live performance in California of Four Questions, the Grammy award-winning jazz collaboration for which I provided spoken words, word reached me about the racist killing of 10 people as they shopped in Buffalo, New York. I try never to be surprised by evil and never paralysed by despair. Instead, my immediate reaction was “here we go again”, with the horror, the suffering and then the now familiar routine of rhetorical gestures and superficial posturing.On Tuesday, Joe Biden described white supremacy as a poison, and he is right, but – as ever – he fails to understand the gravity of his failure to make racial justice a priority; to see this cowardly white supremacy as a threat to American democracy.Cornel West is an American philosopher, author, critic, actor, civil rights activist and Dietrich Bonhoeffer professor of philosophy and Christian practice at Union Theological Seminary (NYC) Continue reading...

Residents reflect on poverty and displacement as the city remains among the most racially divided in AmericaWhen Darius Pridgen, 47, was a young boy in east Buffalo, his parents sent him to predominantly white Christian schools in the suburbs. They wanted him to have a better education and a childhood.Pridgen, now president of the city council and a senior pastor at True Bethel Baptist Church, rode multiple buses to get to the private school, entering “a whole ’nother world”, he said, adding that he didn’t recall having known any white children until then. Continue reading...

US transportation secretary says supreme court’s ruling could determine future generations’ freedomsPete Buttigieg, the US transportation secretary and the first openly gay member of a US administration, has expressed his worry that the expected overturning by the supreme court of the 1973 landmark decision which made abortion legal, may be the start of a series of eliminations of other groundbreaking rights and protections.Earlier this month a leaked document showed that five conservatives on the nine-justice supreme court had voted to reverse their predecessors’ ruling in Roe v Wade nearly 50 years ago. The provisional ruling could lead to abortion being outlawed in more than half of US states unless it is changed substantially before becoming final. Continue reading...

Georgia has obsessed the former president since losing it to Joe Biden – will his mega-Maga candidates come out on top?Greg Bump will not vote for Governor Brian Kemp because “he sold us out in the election”. Todd Allinger is backing Kemp because “what he’s done for the state of Georgia has been really positive”. Teresa Richmond likes Kemp too but will “probably” vote for his rival, David Perdue, because of Donald Trump’s endorsement.The views of Republican voters in Sugar Hill in the far northern Atlanta suburbs indicate that nothing can be taken for granted in Tuesday’s primary elections in Georgia, a state that has arguably eclipsed neighboring Florida as the most pivotal battleground in American politics. Continue reading...

Rick Caruso’s campaign is tapping into fears of rising crime and Angelenos’ frustration with the homelessness emergencyA billionaire real estate developer has spent more than $23m on his campaign to become Los Angeles’s next tough-on-crime mayor, and experts say his record-breaking investment is buying him a real chance at victory.Rick Caruso, a real estate magnate who is ranked No 261 on Forbes’ list of richest Americans, entered the crowded race to run America’s second largest city in February with single-digit support and little name recognition. Continue reading...

Title 42, which cites the pandemic, is behind nearly 2m expulsions since March 2020Pandemic-era restrictions on people seeking asylum on the southern border must continue, a judge ruled Friday in an order blocking the Biden administration’s plan to lift them early next week.The ruling is just the latest instance of a court derailing the president’s proposed immigration policies along the US border with Mexico. Continue reading...

Wife of supreme court justice Clarence Thomas emailed six days after election already called for Joe BidenGinni Thomas, the wife of the US supreme court justice Clarence Thomas, pressed Republicans in Arizona to overturn Joe Biden’s victory there in 2020, the Washington Post reported.Repeating Donald Trump’s lie that the vote had been marred by fraud, Thomas wrote: “Please stand strong in the face of political and media pressure. Please reflect on the awesome authority granted to you by our constitution. And then please take action to ensure that a clean slate of electors is chosen for our state.” Continue reading...

A Manhattan judge had fined the ex-president for not complying with a subpoena related to the investigation of his businessesDonald Trump has paid $110,000 in fines after being held in contempt of court for being slow to respond to a civil subpoena issued by the attorney general of New York state.The news on one front in the former president’s many legal battles came shortly after a big development on another, the news that Trump’s former US attorney general, William Barr, is in discussions about testifying in front of the House committee investigating the deadly Capitol attack. Continue reading...

The violent scenes at the US Capitol last year led to the PGA taking its major tournament away from former president’s Bedminster course and awarding it to Southern HillsThe horrors associated with a violent mob rampaging around the US Capitol last year meant a subsequent decision relating to a golf tournament barely registered. Donald Trump’s Bedminster golf course had been announced as the 2022 US PGA Championship’s host venue in 2014. With Trump caught in the middle of the Capitol storm, the PGA of America changed its plan, and Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma was the beneficiary at short notice.“We find ourselves in a political situation not of our making,” said Seth Waugh, the PGA of America’s chief executive. “We’re fiduciaries for our members, for the game, for our mission and for our brand. And how do we best protect that? Our feeling was given the tragic events that we could no longer hold it at Bedminster. Continue reading...

Civil rights and community leaders gathered the night before to plead with the nation to confront and stop racist violenceThe first of 10 funerals for the 10 Black people killed in a Buffalo supermarket was held on Friday following an impassioned gathering of Black civil rights and community leaders at a church the night before where speakers pleaded with the nation to confront and stop racist violence.Set against accused shooter Peyton Gendron’s silence in court earlier on Thursday, the community and relatives of Andre Mackneil, Geraldine Talley and Ruth Whitfield gave voice to the grief and anger coursing through East Buffalo. Continue reading...