Maxwell repeatedly requested a new trial after a juror on her case failed to disclose childhood sexual abuse during jury selectionGhislaine Maxwell’s bid for a new trial has been denied, the judge in her Manhattan federal court sex-trafficking case said on Friday.The daughter of the late British media baron Robert Maxwell repeatedly requested a new trial after a juror in the case failed to disclose childhood sexual abuse during jury selection. Continue reading...

Administration signals end of Title 42 immigration restrictions – ostensibly to fight Covid – but some fear electoral consequencesJoe Biden will next month end a controversial pandemic-related expulsion policy that effectively closed America’s asylum system at its border with Mexico, it was announced on Friday.The decision to lift the Title 42 public health order, which will take effect on 23 May, is seen as long overdue by immigration advocates who regard the order as inhumane. But it was seized on by Republicans and some electorally vulnerable Democrats, who warned of chaos at the border. Continue reading...

Gregg Berhalter’s exciting young side will face England, Iran and one of Wales or Scotland or Ukraine in their return to the World Cup stage following an eight-year absenceIt’s unclear when exactly the US will know the identity of their opponents in their first game, given the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, but some time in June appears most likely. Wales, who beat Austria 2-1 in a playoff semi-final on 24 March courtesy of two superb goals from Gareth Bale, will face the winners of a match between Scotland and Ukraine. Continue reading...

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention terminates Title 42 from 23 May, ending policy widely criticized as pretext to keep migrants out• Senate deal on drastically pared-down Covid aid package may be imminentUS adds 431,000 jobs as hiring spree cuts unemployment rate to 3.6%• Disney staff stage walkouts over ‘don’t say gay’ bill• Sign up to receive First Thing – our daily briefing by emailThe late supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is to be honoured by having a US navy ship named after her.The yet-to-be-built fuel tanker will join a fleet of John Lewis-class “replenishment oilers” named for historical figures in human and civil rights. The navy took delivery of the first of the fleet, a tribute to the former Democratic congressman, last summer. Continue reading...

Psaki will reportedly stay on until end of April before joining liberal cable news networkJen Psaki is reportedly preparing to quit as Joe Biden’s White House press secretary, to become a TV host with MSNBC.Axios first reported the move on Friday, citing anonymous sources “close to the matter”. Other outlets said they had confirmed the news, and reported that Psaki was expected to stay through the end of April. Continue reading...

Dominic Taddeo, 64, pleaded guilty in 1992 to killing three men in 1980s mob wars for Rochester, New York, crime familyA New York mobster who killed three people and attempted to kill two others has escaped from federal custody after recently being moved to a halfway house, according to the Bureau of Prisons.Dominic Taddeo, a hitman from a Rochester-area crime family, pleaded guilty in 1992 to racketeering charges that included the killings of three men during mob wars in the 1980s. Continue reading...

Some tasty groups have been thrown together after the draw for World Cup 2022 was made in QatarMore World Cup draw chat in this week’s Football Weekly Extra podcast. Barry claims the new Adidas ball is so amazing it may be able to go back in time.From David Hytner’s World Cup draw preview in which Gareth Southgate responds to questions about Qatar’s woeful labour rights record, its outlawing of homosexuality and its male guardianship system that denies women the right to make key decisions about their lives? Continue reading...

The ship will be part of a fleet named after important civil rights figures including John Lewis and Thurgood MarshallThe late supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is to be honoured by having a US navy ship named after her.The yet-to-be-built USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg fuel tanker will join a fleet of John Lewis-class “replenishment oilers” named for historical figures in US movements for human and civil rights. Continue reading...

Judge said Lonnie Coffman’s weaponry showed he had come to Washington ‘to do battle’An Alabama man found with a “small armory” of guns, ammunition and molotov cocktails in his pickup truck ahead of the 6 January 2021 US Capitol riot was sentenced to almost four years in prison, one of the stiffest sentences so far handed down.US district judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said the 46-month sentence reflected the seriousness of the charges against Lonnie Coffman, 72, who had pleaded guilty to possessing unregistered firearms. Continue reading...

Kushner becomes first member of Donald Trump’s family to speak to investigatorsJared Kushner testified on Thursday before the House select committee investigating the 6 January attack on the Capitol, becoming the first member of Donald Trump’s family to speak to investigators.Democrat Elaine Luria, a member of the select committee, confirmed that Kushner appeared before the panel “voluntarily”, although she would not provide details on what he said. Continue reading...

Whitney Young high school says in email to students teacher hung doll from projector string and was challenged by Black colleagueA prestigious Chicago high school that counts Michelle Obama among its alumni launched an investigation after a white teacher hung a Black doll by its neck in his classroom and was challenged by a Black colleague.In an email to students and families obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times, Joyce Kenner, principal of the Whitney Young magnet high school, wrote of the Monday incident: “Unfortunately … a teacher hung a small stuffed African American football doll by a pull-down string from a projector screen in their classroom. Continue reading...

Trans people are nearly twice as likely as lesbian and gay people to undergo interventions that range from prayers to forced rapeLast night, No 10 backed down on its plans to scrap its long-promised ban on “conversion practice” for lesbian, gay and bisexual people, but crucially it has chosen to leave trans people unprotected. As someone who underwent nearly 20 years of conversion practices, which resulted in me being hospitalised twice, I find this utterly unforgivable.Conversion practice is any intervention that seeks to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. These interventions can involve pseudo-scientific counselling sessions, being prayed over, exorcisms and even corrective rape. I put myself through years of “healing prayer” ministry, sharing some of my most intimate moments and relationships with strangers in the hope that we might “find the key” as to why I was attracted to women. I even took part in exorcisms, paying thousands of pounds in the process. I was constantly told that my prayers were unanswered because of my lack of faith, or because I wasn’t holy enough. Part of the trauma of these abusive practices is that you, the victim, are always left with the burden of being told it is your fault, that you are not healed. It nearly broke me, but I survived. Sadly, many others are not so lucky. Continue reading...

The $10bn in funds is half the amount the White House sought and slashes aid for global vaccine drivesThe US Senate is coming close to reaching agreement on a pared-down $10bn emergency aid package for Covid response, amid anger that the deal looks likely to ditch most funding for critical global vaccine efforts.Senate leaders were indicating to reporters on Friday that a deal was within reach, with a possible vote over the next week. But the package is a pale reflection of the original White House request for $22bn, cutting deep into even the most recent proposal set at $15.6bn. Continue reading...

Country posts 11th consecutive month of 400,000-plus gains, with labor force now just 174,000 below pre-pandemic levelThe US added 431,000 jobs in March as the coronavirus pandemic receded and employers went on a hiring spree in America.The gain was lower than expected but was also the 11th consecutive month of gains above 400,000, the longest such stretch of growth on record. The unemployment rate fell from 3.8% to 3.6%, its lowest level since the pandemic struck the US. Continue reading...

As the 2022 draw takes place in Doha, the Gulf state’s migrant labour force continues to face exploitationAs some of the biggest names in football gather in Doha for today’s World Cup draw, commentators will no doubt point out how much money Qatar has lavished on its preparations for the sporting mega-event.They will talk of its vast, gas‑fuelled wealth and the $500m (£380m) a week it was at one stage spending on new stadiums, transport links and infrastructure. Continue reading...

The talented Spaniard reflects on his 2017 triumph and the reasons behind his struggles at Augusta in the years that have followedOnly 54 men have won the Masters, which tells you everything about the exclusivity of that particular club. Boyhood dreams are made of a Sunday evening drive along Magnolia Lane with the Green Jacket in hand.It is testament to Sergio García’s talent level that, for many observers, the long-awaited fulfilment of his major ambitions at Augusta National in 2017 was not enough. No sooner had the Spaniard ended his major drought – at the 74th time of asking, after a famous battle with Justin Rose – than people started asking when García would become a multiple champion. He had prepared himself for the narrative. Continue reading...

The Ukraine war has revealed the double-standards of the global north’s immigration policies. Refugees from Africa, Asia and Latin America deserve the same sympathyGlobal migration policy has started to move in a more humane direction in response to the invasion of Ukraine. While many states are welcoming displaced Ukrainians, this is a far cry from how those states typically treat refugees. Activists and scholars have lamented the lack of similar response to people displaced from south Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The uneven global response to migration on display sets a chilling precedent for the displacement that is likely to come with the climate crisis.Race plays a defining role in how states think about their borders and who gets let in. In the 19th century, racial politics shaped the formation of international law – including how we understand concepts like sovereignty – and legitimized exclusionary policies whose impacts reverberate today. We can see the impact of race on the way in which refugee policy was developed. Drawing on research by T Alexander Aleinikoff, philosopher Serena Parekh explains that refugee flows were primarily east to west (rather than south to north) in the first half of the 20th century. During this period, resettlement was the standard way of helping refugees. When refugee flows from non-European countries increased (from the global south to global north), states changed their policy: instead of resettlement, voluntary repatriation was preferred.Olúfẹ́mi O Táíwò is an assistant professor of philosophy at Georgetown University and the author of Reconsidering Reparations and the forthcoming book Elite CaptureBeba Cibralic, a PhD student in philosophy at Georgetown University, has written for Foreign Policy and other publications Continue reading...

Trump, Putin, Xi – these men aren’t stupid. But they have no way of eliciting, recognizing, or assessing useful criticismIt appears that Vladimir Putin’s aides have misinformed him about the war, fearful of his reaction.On Wednesday, American officials revealed that, according to American intelligence, Putin’s strict isolation during the pandemic and willingness to publicly castigate advisers have contributed to him getting incomplete or overly optimistic reports about the progress of Russian forces. Continue reading...

Kristina Karamo is running for Michigans’s chief elections officer, and if she wins she would have considerable sway over how the presidential election is conducted in 2024Donald Trump will return to Michigan on Saturday for his first visit since November 2020 when he spent the final hours of his presidential election campaign desperately trying to hold on to the state and fend off nationwide defeat to his Democratic rival Joe Biden.This time his visit will be motivated by an attempt to forge a path to victory in the 2024 presidential election, in which he has hinted he may run again. If that is his intention, he is going about it in a very irregular fashion. Continue reading...

Republican-led Senate passes bill that could hamper growth of solar energy by removing popular financial incentiveIn one of America’s sunniest states, a Republican-led Senate recently passed a bill that could hamper the growth of solar energy by removing a popular financial incentive among consumers.Environmentalists are decrying the measure, arguing that the expansion of rooftop solar is a necessary step in the fight against the climate crisis. The bill was passed in Florida, as another extremely sunny state, California, considered a similar update to its solar policies. Continue reading...

UN atomic watchdog investigates claims Russian troops left after high doses of radiation. Plus, Trump may face court date thanks to reggae singer lawsuit.Hello and good morning.The UN atomic watchdog is investigating Ukrainian claims that Russian soldiers occupying Chernobyl nuclear power station left after receiving high doses of radiation.What is Chernobyl? The plant is the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident in 1986. Staff continue to oversee the safe storage of spent nuclear fuel and supervise the concrete-encased remains of the reactor that exploded.When did Russia take control of Chernobyl? Russian troops seized the nuclear plant soon after the 24 February invasion. There have been concerns over the past month about power cuts and fighting making staff shift rotations difficult.What claims is the UN agency likely to investigate? Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk claimed Russian troops dug trenches in the forest and were exposed to radiation. Some reports suggest soldiers are being sent to a special medical facility in Belarus after driving tanks through the “dead zone” around the nuclear plant, kicking up radioactive dust. (These claims are unverified.) Continue reading...

The Bureau of Indian Affairs’ missing and murdered unit was launched by Deb Haaland a year ago to tackle an epidemic of violence against Native people. But initial results have disappointedOne month after Ranelle Rose Bennett disappeared, agents from the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services’ newly created missing and murdered unit (MMU) arrived at her house on the Navajo Reservation.Her mother, Rose Yazzie, had initially reported the 33-year-old missing to Navajo Nation police after Bennett hadn’t shown up to her daughter’s 10th birthday party in June 2021 but said it took over a week for an officer to even file a missing report. Continue reading...

The musician sued the former president and his administration over the use of his song Electric Avenue in an ad in 2020Reggae singer Eddy Grant may succeed where the attorney general of New York state and other powerful figures have struggled – by forcing Donald Trump to answer questions under oath in a legal proceeding.Grant sued the former president and his campaign over the use of the song Electric Avenue in an ad in 2020. Continue reading...

Ex-president blocked Shealah Craighead plan and then made up to $20m from publishing images in own memoir, New York Times saysDonald Trump blocked plans by his chief White House photographer to publish a book of pictures of his time in power – then published a book of such images himself, the New York Times reported.One former White House photographer told the Times that by using Shealah Craighead’s images for his own profit – with books selling for as much as $230, Trump is reported to have made $20m – the former president had dealt her “a slap in the face”. Continue reading...

Lauren Handy claims she gained access to organ bank at university in Seattle but authorities have not disclosed source of fetusesFive sets of human fetal remains were recovered from the Washington DC home of an anti-abortion activist after a raid, the capital’s Metropolitan police department confirmed to the Guardian on Thursday.The activist, a woman named Lauren Handy, 28, is a leader of the group Progressive Anti-Abortion uprising (PAAU) and has described herself as a “Catholic anarchist” in the past. Continue reading...

Federal judge Mark Walker says state’s discrimination against Black voters warrants extraordinary oversightFlorida cannot change certain voting laws without getting preapproval from a federal court for the next decade, a federal judge ruled on Thursday, saying the state has an ongoing and extensive history of discrimination against non-white voters that warranted extraordinary oversight.US district judge Mark Walker put the state back under preclearance on Thursday as part of a 288-page ruling striking down new voting restrictions in Florida limiting the availability of drop boxes, and making it more difficult for third-party groups to register voters. “Florida has repeatedly, recently, and persistently acted to deny Black Floridians access to the franchise,” he wrote in his opinion. Continue reading...

AFL-CIO in Oregon calls for urgent divestment from fund that owns Israeli spyware company alleged to have targeted union membersWhen labour organisers passed a resolution this month calling for Oregon’s $100bn state pension fund to divest from a fund that owns NSO Group, it pointed to ways in which the Israeli company’s intrusive spyware is alleged to have been used in the past to target union members.“It may seem like a cliche, but an injury to one is an injury to all, and we strongly stand behind that,” said Ira Erbs, a part-time professor at Portland Community College and member of the Oregon chapter of the American Federation of Teachers. Continue reading...

Republican raises politically controversial idea of cutting future benefits for younger generations before they reach retirement ageFormer presidential candidate Mitt Romney has addressed the vexing question of how the US copes with its ageing population, suggesting that retirement benefits may have to be cut for younger Americans.In comments to the Senate budget committee on Wednesday, the Republican senator from Utah said that the spiraling costs of retirement programs had to be tackled to bring national debt under control. Romney raised the politically controversial idea of cutting benefits, but only for younger generations before they reach retirement age. Continue reading...

It’s no secret the court has been hostile to voting rights recently – but what has changed is the ‘velocity’ that it is acting withHello, and Happy Thursday,In the fall of 2017, I was sitting in the cramped press area at the supreme court as a lawyer named Paul Smith urged the justices to strike down the districts for the Wisconsin state assembly. They were so distorted in favor of Republicans, he argued, that they violated the US constitution. As Smith started to lay out his case, Chief Justice John Roberts cut in and laid out what he feared would happen if the supreme court were to step in and start policing electoral maps based on partisanship.Anyone who isn’t in jail or prison for a felony can vote, a three-judge panel in North Carolina ruled on Monday. The decision could affect up to 56,000 people in the state, though election officials aren’t letting people with felonies register just yet.Arizona Republicans passed a law requiring new voters to prove their citizenship to vote in a presidential election, which is probably illegal.Ohio voting rights groups are fuming after Republicans did a bait-and-switch to try again and get the state supreme court to approve gerrymandered maps.A committee of Georgia lawmakers stopped a proposal, for now, that would have expanded the Georgia bureau of investigation’s ability to investigate voter fraud, among other measures. Continue reading...

Federal Election Commission had investigated alleged misreporting of expenditure by campaign during 2016 election

Joe Biden seeks to allay fears of shortages over Russian invasion of Ukraine

Any small gains will be spun as victory by the Kremlin. The west needs to support Ukraine to defeat Russian aggressionThe past week has seen ever stronger indications that Russia has recognised it cannot achieve its aim of conquering Ukraine by military force. Suggestions tied to peace talks in Ukraine that Russia was pulling back from its attempt to encircle Kyiv tie in with the earlier declaration that its war aims were limited to conquering the eastern part of the country. And even before that, both Russia and Ukraine had stated that peace negotiations were moving into a phase of substantive discussions instead of Russia simply presenting ultimatums.Russia’s claim that it is scaling back operations around Kyiv and focusing its offensive on the east of the country is one of those rare occasions when a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defence actually aligns recognisably with the truth. The reality gap arises not in what Russia is doing, but why it is claiming it is doing it. Russia has presented this withdrawal of units from around Kyiv as some kind of concession – to “boost mutual trust” around the peace talks. But it was already clear that its offensive there had stalled, and in some case been reversed, by dogged Ukrainian resistance. The pivot to operations in the east and the rotation out of battered Russian units from Ukraine’s northern flank is a recognition by Moscow that – as many military analysts had predicted before the current conflict – it simply does not have the deployable forces it would need to conquer all of Ukraine along multiple axes of advance.Keir Giles works with the Russia and Eurasia programme of Chatham House, and is the author of Moscow Rules: What Drives Russia to Confront the West Continue reading...

Women’s and men’s squads will compete for one trophy in expansion of groundbreaking professional competitionThe first US rugby union competition to offer professional contracts to women will hold tournaments in July in San Jose, Washington DC and Austin.Premier Rugby Sevens staged a pilot tournament in Memphis, Tennessee last October. This year, as in that event, women’s and men’s squads will compete for equal pay in one-day showcases of the Olympic form of the game. Continue reading...

Our film festival has had to move online, but our film-makers have gone behind the headlines to document the reality of life for Ukrainians

Gregg Berhalter’s men have helped erase the nightmare of the failed Russia 2018 campaign. But they still look like a team in progressThe master tactician Ben Affleck had it right.“Act as if,” his stockbroker character tells a room full of callow recruits in the 2000 film Boiler Room. “Act as if you are the fucking president of this firm.” Continue reading...

Russian forces continue to bombard Chernihiv and parts of Kyiv despite announcing their withdrawal. Plus, 500 ghost flights leave the UK monthly

Wilmington residents are no stranger to early death – either from air pollution or gun violence – often found in industrial corridorsThis story is published in collaboration with Grist.For Daniel Delgado, the Fourth of July marked a turning point in 2020. It was the first holiday after Covid-19 had kept much of America locked down. In nine days, he’d be entering his twenties. He planned to spend his birthday relishing the Arizona sun with friends, but in the meantime, the holiday offered him an opportunity to be celebrated by family and friends, surrounded by love and human connection — things that had been hard to come by that year. Continue reading...

Your essential guide to Friday’s draw in Qatar, including when it is happening and how the groups will be decidedOn Friday in Doha, Qatar, at 7pm local time (5pm BST). It will be broadcast live on fifa.com, and theguardian.com/sport will have coverage as it unfolds. Continue reading...

The broadcaster’s flagship show has had a rocky recent history. The company is looking for stability rather than fireworks from its new duo in the boothThe streaming wars have come for professional football. Amazon spent the better part of 12 months backing up the Brinks trucks to try to lure anyone and everyone away from the traditional NFL broadcasters to prop up its new Thursday Night Football vehicle – ultimately landing Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit for a reported $24m per year combined.And while Amazon was expected to be the great disruptor in the broadcasting arms race, it’s at one of the traditional networks that the merry-go-round has had its most transformative effect. ESPN pinched Joe Buck and Troy Aikman from Fox, handing over a Friday night college football game for the rights to pay the duo in excess of $100m over five years to rejuvenate its flagging Monday Night Football [shudders] brand. Continue reading...

Ruling throws out Wisconsin’s redrawn electoral map, which included a new district to account for Black population growthEven for experts who closely follow the US supreme court, there was something stunning about an emergency decision from the justices on Wednesday.In an unexpected move, the court decided to throw out new districts for the state legislature in Wisconsin that had been picked by the state supreme court. But what was even more surprising was that the court’s conservative majority seemed to go out of its way to attack the Voting Rights Act, one of the most important civil rights laws designed to prevent discrimination in US elections. “Extra headspinning,” was how Michael Li, a redistricting expert at the Brennan Center for Justice, described it. “Bizarre,” observed Richard Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Irvine. David Wasserman, a redistricting expert at the non-partisan Cook Political Report, tweeted that the supreme court had entered “uncharted territory”. Continue reading...

Republican faces condemnation from House minority leader over podcast remarks but will not face immediate disciplineThe North Carolina congressman Madison Cawthorn will not face immediate disciplinary action over his claim to have been invited to orgies and to have seen Washington figures using cocaine.After meeting Cawthorn on Wednesday, the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, told reporters the comments were “unacceptable”. Continue reading...