Since 2021, the Eastern Kentucky Remembrance Project have planted markers memorializing Black residents killed by racist violenceOn 26 October 1924, Fred Shannon, a Black man, was lynched at age 28 by a mob of nearly 200 masked residents in Wayland, Kentucky.Shannon, a local musician, was falsely accused of killing a white man over a financial dispute. While was he being held at a local jail, the mob broke in, took him out in the street and shot him at least 18 times. Continue reading...
The tortured progress of the president's tax-and-spend bill is likely to bring his supporters a big, ugly surprise - little wonder he was so keen to turn the focus to Iran and NatoDaddy's home." So said a social media post from the White House, accompanied by a video featuring the song Hey Daddy (Daddy's Home) by Usher and images of Donald Trump at the Nato summit in The Hague.The US president's fundraising allies were quick to market $35 T-shirts with his image and the word after Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary general, referred to Trump's criticism of Israel and Iran over violations of a ceasefire by quipping: And then Daddy has to sometimes use strong language to get [them to] stop." Continue reading...
This scandalous story gives lie to the claim that the biggest threat to country life comes from city dwellersPower hides by setting us against each other. This is never more true than in the countryside, where the impacts of an extreme concentration of ownership and control are blamed on those who have nothing to do with it. Rural people are endlessly instructed that they're oppressed not by the lords of the land, but by vicious and ignorant townies - the urban jackboot" as the Countryside Alliance used to call it - stamping on their traditions.Near Bridport in Dorset right now, an entire village is facing eviction, following the sale of the Bridehead Estate for about 30m. The official new owner, Bridehead Estate Ltd, is registered to the same address, with the same officers, as a company called Belport. The Telegraph reports that the estate was bought by Belport, a private equity firm, on behalf of a wealthy client last autumn", but no one knows who the client is. So far I've received no response to the questions I sent to Belport.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnistOn Tuesday 16 September, join George Monbiot, Mikaela Loach and other special guests discussing the forces driving climate denialism, live at the Barbican in London and livestreamed globally. Book tickets here or at Guardian.Live Continue reading...
Prosecutors allege more than a million Medicare recipients had their information stolen and used by the defendants for fraudulent claimsUS federal prosecutors charged 11 people on Friday in a Russia-based scheme to bilk Medicare - the American health insurance program for the elderly and disabled - out of $10.6bn through fraudulent billing for expensive medical equipment.The transnational criminal organization" orchestrated a multi-billion-dollar health care fraud and money laundering scheme" that included purchasing dozens of medical equipment companies from prior legitimate owners to perpetrate the fraud, according to the indictment dated 18 June. Continue reading...
Security footage shows agents setting off explosive device and shattering window of family home in Huntington ParkFederal agents blasted their way into a residential home in Huntington Park, California, on Friday. Security-camera video obtained by the local NBC station showed border patrol agents setting up an explosive device near the door of the house and then detonating it - causing a window to be shattered. Around a dozen armed agents in full tactical gear then charged toward the home.Jenny Ramirez, who lives in the house with her boyfriend and one-year-old and six-year-old children, told NBC through tears that it was one of the loudest explosions she heard in her life. Continue reading...
by Dara Kerr, Lucy Campbell, Marina Dunbar and Jane C on (#6Y91M)
This blog has now closed. Read our latest story hereThe Trump administration is readying a package of executive actions aimed at boosting energy supply to power the US expansion of artificial intelligence, according to four sources familiar with the planning, Reuters reports.US and China are locked in a technological arms race and with it secure an economic and military edge. The huge amount of data processing behind AI requires a rapid increase in power supplies that are straining utilities and grids in many states.The Israeli-US food distribution scheme in Gaza, Palestine, launched one month ago, is degrading Palestinians by design, forcing them to choose between starvation or risking their lives for minimal supplies.With over 500 people killed and nearly 4,000 wounded while seeking food, this scheme is slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid and must be immediately dismantled... Continue reading...
Democratic effort fails in mostly partisan vote, hours after US president says he would consider more bombingSenate Democrats failed on Friday to get a war-powers resolution passed to limit Donald Trump's ability to single-handedly escalate the war with Iran. The resolution, to direct the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran", was voted down 53-47.The vote on the resolution, introduced by the Democratic senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, split along mainly partisan lines. One Republican, Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted for it; one Democrat, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, voted against it. Continue reading...
Justices' decision set to impact Trump move to limit birthright citizenship - key US politics stories from Friday 27 June at a glanceDonald Trump has hailed a supreme court decision to limit federal judges' powers to block his orders on a nationwide basis as a monumental victory" and vowed to promptly file to proceed" with key policies - including banning birthright citizenship.The supreme court ruling on Friday, written by the conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett, did not let Trump's policy seeking a ban on birthright citizenship go into effect immediately and did not address the policy's legality. Continue reading...
Legislation will more than double current tax incentives under larger bill slated to be signed by Gavin NewsomHollywood's home state of California will more than double annual tax incentives for film and television production to $750m under a measure passed by the Democratic-led legislature on Friday.The increase from the current $330m was approved as part of a broader tax bill that is expected to be signed into law by California's governor, Gavin Newsom. Continue reading...
Donald Trump, personally, will now have the presumptive power to persecute you, and nullify your rights in defiance of the constitution, at his discretionThose of us who cover the US supreme court are faced, every June, with a peculiar challenge: whether to describe what the supreme court is doing, or what is claims that it is doing.What the supreme court says it was doing in Friday's 6-3 decision in Trump v Casa, Inc, the birthright citizenship case, is narrowing the power of federal district judges to issue nationwide injunctions, in deference to presidential authority. The case effectively ends the ability of federal judges on lower courts to issue nationwide stays of executive actions that violate the constitution, federal law, and the rights of citizens. And so what the court has actually done is dramatically expand the rights of the president - this president - to nullify constitutional provisions at will.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
Newsom expected to sign plan that avoids key safety net cuts as state forced to slash funding for third straight yearCalifornia lawmakers on Friday approved a budget that pares back a number of progressive priorities, including a landmark healthcare expansion for low-income adult immigrants without legal status, to close a $12bn deficit.It is the third year in a row the nation's most populous state has been forced to slash funding or stop some of the programs championed by Democratic leaders. This year's $321bn spending plan was negotiated by legislative leaders and the Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom. Continue reading...
Lawsuit says Honduran woman fears son is not receiving necessary medical care at detention facility in TexasA Honduran woman who sought asylum in the US is suing the Trump administration after immigration agents arrested her and her children, including her six-year-old son who was diagnosed with leukemia, at a Los Angeles immigration court.The woman, identified as Ms Z" in the lawsuit, and her nine-year-old daughter and six-year-old son have been in custody at a Texas detention facility for several weeks following their arrest. The government has placed them in expedited removal proceedings. Continue reading...
The decision to limit judicial power to curb the president caps a week of - in Trump's telling - endless winning, from the Middle East to Nato to AfricaHe strode into the White House briefing room feeling invincible. In his own telling, he had fixed the Middle East. He had made Nato pay up. He had pacified the heart of Africa. And now Napoleon Trump had once again just been crowned emperor by the US supreme court.We've had a big week," Donald Trump, orange hair shimmering, blue tie drooping below the waist, mused from a lectern anointed with the presidential seal. We've had a lot of victories this week." Continue reading...
As the supreme court upends precedent again and again, the liberal justices reveal the divisions within the legal bodyOn Friday the conservative-dominated US supreme court handed down a series of important judgments on issues ranging from the power of the judiciary to religious rights in schools. Media attention generally focused on the wording of the rulings and their impact.But the court's liberal minority of just three justices penned dissenting opinions that were similarly potent, revealing the sharp divisions on America's top legal body and also showed their deep concern at the declining health of American civic society and the authoritarian bent of the Trump presidency. Continue reading...
by Amy Hawkins in Beijing and Dominic Rushe in New Yo on (#6Y8WY)
China confirms details amid efforts to end trade war but reiterates it will continue to approve export permitsThe US has reached an agreement with China to speed up rare-earth shipments into America, officials confirmed on Friday. The news sent US stock markets to fresh highs amid news of wider efforts to end the trade wars between the US and the world's biggest economies.Donald Trump said on Thursday that the US had signed a deal with China the previous day, without providing additional details, and that there might be a separate deal coming up that would open up" India. Continue reading...
Experts call decision that found health secretary has power to convene key panel classic good news, bad news'A US supreme court decision affirming the constitutionality of Obamacare sets the stage for more politicized science in the future, health law experts said about the court's decision.The court's majority opinion in Kennedy v Braidwood Management found that an expert panel - the preventive services taskforce - convened under the Affordable Care Act is under the direct oversight of the health secretary. Continue reading...
Defense secretary said the vessel will be renamed after Oscar V Peterson to take politics out of ship naming'The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has formally announced that the US navy supply vessel named in honor of the gay rights activist Harvey Milk is to be renamed after Oscar V Peterson, a chief petty officer who received the congressional Medal of Honor for his actions in the Battle of the Coral Sea in the second world war.We are taking the politics out of ship naming," Hegseth announced on Friday on X. Continue reading...
by Ramon Antonio Vargas in New Orleans on (#6Y98C)
Federal jury awards historic damages to man who says he was sexually abused at a school run by Holy Cross orderIn a historic verdict, a federal jury in New Orleans has ordered a Catholic religious order to pay nearly $2.4m in damages to a man who reported being sexually abused by one of its members in the late 1960s.John Lousteau, 68, asserted that he was sexually abused while attending an overnight summer camp for boys at the Holy Cross school in New Orleans. He maintained that his abuser was the camp's director, Stanley Repucci, who belonged to the Holy Cross order that ran the school. Continue reading...
On traffic safety or foreign policy, I get through life by assuming the worst - and occasionally being pleasantly surprisedRules are great. I think most of us over the age of five will agree that having them is preferable to not. Perhaps there are a few stragglers out there reading this who would love to cosplay a lesser sequel of The Purge, swinging baseball bats at strangers and urinating in the street, but I would imagine you are in the minority on that. Rules are the backbone of what we have left of society. I'm not happy about where we are, but I don't make the rules. At least not yet. I just need to host a popular reality show - then my political career can really take off.A recent interaction has me reflecting on this. I was wandering over to my local coffee shop one morning, off a wide boulevard where motorists scream through intersections like the car from Ghostbusters late for a particularly aggressive haunting. A crosswalk, with accompanying yellow yield light, was recently installed to combat the minor issue of pedestrians being flattened by drivers on their way to the hair salon or texting about being late to the hair salon. The light has been mostly successful in preventing the human waffle-ironing, but it requires walkers to actually press the button to activate it. This is a step that people often dismiss, hoping and praying that the drivers out there are lucid enough to acknowledge the existence of others. Without the yellow light, we're all operating on the honor system for not killing each other. Continue reading...
Court's conservative justices said Texas law requiring online age verification didn't violate free expression. PornHub had gone dark in Texas in protest of the lawThe US supreme court ruled that a Texas law requiring that pornography websites verify the ages of their visitors was constitutional on Friday, the latest development in a global debate over how to prevent minors from accessing adult material online.HB 1181 simply requires adults to verify their age before they can access speech that is obscene to children," Clarence Thomas wrote in the court's 6-3 majority opinion. The statute advances the state's important interest in shielding children from sexually explicit content. And, it is appropriately tailored because it permits users to verify their ages through the established methods of providing government-issued identification and sharing transactional data." Elena Kagan dissented alongside the court's two other liberal justices. Continue reading...
California governor accuses network of falsely claiming he lied about a phone call with Donald TrumpThe governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has sued Fox News for defamation and demanded $787m, almost exactly the same amount Fox paid in a previous defamation case over election misinformation.In the new lawsuit, filed on Friday, Newsom accuses the Fox host Jesse Watters of falsely claiming Newsom lied about a phone call with Donald Trump, who recently ordered national guard troops into Los Angeles. Continue reading...
Nato chief Mark Rutte derided for calling US president daddy' and showering him with praise over IranHistory may record this week as the one in which Donald Trump came to Europe to discuss defence spending.Diplomats may remember it as the week in which the art of obsequiousness reached new highs and the sycophants plunged new lows. Continue reading...
The Australian Open winner is ready for another tilt at Wimbledon after her injury heartbreak in last year's tournamentBefore she won her first grand slam tournament at the Australian Open in January, Madison Keys had spent more than a year talking to a therapist about her life rather than just her tennis career. When I'd gone to see sports psychologists in the past it had been a little tunnel-focused on routines and big moments on the court," she says on a sleepy Sunday afternoon in London. So being able to talk to someone about broader life philosophies helped me get to the root of why I was feeling that way instead of just being uber-focused on decisive moments in a match."The 30-year-old American, who is ready for another tilt at Wimbledon, remembers some of the wayward suggestions that specialist sports psychiatrists would advise her to follow at crucial stages of a match. It would be, like: Make sure you look at your strings and do this specific thing and that'll just help the nerves go away.'" Continue reading...
Ex-governor failed to secure Democratic nomination this week but still plans to run on Fight and Delivery' ballot lineFormer New York governor Andrew Cuomo reportedly plans to run as an independent candidate in the New York City's mayoral race, days after finding himself bested in the Democratic primary by progressive insurgent candidate Zohran Mamdani.Several news outlets reported late on Thursday that Cuomo, 67, part of a long and powerful political dynasty in New York, would not withdraw after conceding the primary to democratic socialist newcomer Mamdani, who is now the favorite in the race and could become the city's first Muslim mayor at the general election in November. Continue reading...
A partisan split was revealed as the president claimed the Democrats leaked a draft Pentagon report on the strikes' impact. Plus, an exclusive interview with Kneecap on Palestine, protest and provocationGood morning.A delayed, behind-closed-doors intelligence briefing on the US bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities has divided senators down party lines, while Donald Trump ignited a fresh debate by claiming the Democrats had leaked a Pentagon assessment that found last weekend's strikes had limited success.What did the defense secretary say? Pete Hegseth maintained that the strikes, which Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has sought to downplay, had decimated Tehran's nuclear program - an assessment largely based on AI modeling.Democrats have labeled the bill the big, ugly betrayal". Why are they so opposed? Because it would slash Medicaid by the largest amount since its creation and cost an estimated 16 million people their insurance. The bill also cuts funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), which helps low-income Americans buy food. Continue reading...
European pharmaceutical body says it would be negative for both sides' if Brussels hits back on threatened US leviesThe European pharmaceutical industry has urged Brussels not to retaliate if Donald Trump brings in threatened tariffs on imported drugs, amid fears he could impose the levies as early as next week.The US president said last week that the sector-specific tariffs were coming very soon". There is concern in Brussels that he could impose them imminently to give himself further leverage ahead of his self-imposed 9 July deadline for trade deals with the EU and about 60 countries. Continue reading...
The Trump administration is now promoting the option once seen as a joke, but experts say the reality is complexTheir stories have emerged in new reports and on social media feeds: individuals and families, sometimes of mixed immigration status, who have lived in the United States for years and are now choosing to leave. Or, as it's sometimes called, self-deport".There was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's former deputy communications director Diego de la Vega, who lived as an undocumented New Yorker for 23 years before he and his wife left for Colombia in December, shortly after Donald Trump's election. Or the decorated army veteran, a permanent resident in the US for nearly 50 years, who left for South Korea this week after being targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice). Or newlyweds Alfredo Linares, an undocumented chef, and his wife, Raegan Klein, a US citizen, who recently moved their lives from Los Angeles to Mexico. Continue reading...
In places like Dayton, Ohio, and Indianapolis, blighted neighborhoods and economies have been transformedAt a time in life when many are winding down, Gunash Akhmedova, aged 65, fulfilled a lifelong dream of opening her first business.A member of the Ahiska, or Meskhetian, Turk community who came to the US as a refugee from western Russia in 2005, Akhmedova opened Gunash's Mediterranean Cusine two years ago on the site of a converted freight house alongside other international food vendors in a formerly industrial corner of Dayton, Ohio. Continue reading...
Democrats' actions have not matched the passions of its energized voters. You can only antagonize your base for so longWe're told that the Democratic party is at a crossroads, that leaders have lost their identity and their way. We're told that they must spend millions discovering their own Joe Rogan", or espouse deregulation, or surrender the fight for the rights of targeted minorities. The Democrats, we're told, are in a moment of soul searching, of trying to find out how they lost young men and the white working class. They're still thinking, half a decade on, of how to undo the supposed damage of the 2020 summer, when protesters opposed to the extrajudicial killings of Black civilians shouted: Defund the police." The subtext of this handwringing, which has been incessant in the media and among party insiders since the November election, is that the party must move, yet again, to the right. It is presumed that they can't attract voters otherwise.The apparent victory (still unofficial because the counting won't technically be complete until July) of a 33-year-old socialist in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary this week suggests otherwise. Zohran Mamdani, a state assemblymember from Queens, was a little-known leftwing activist whose campaign against the former governor and New York household name Andrew Cuomo was polling in the single digits. But with immense personal charisma and a talent for retail politicking, airtight message discipline centered on making life affordable, and a small army of motivated young volunteers, Mamdani defeated a political dynasty, defied conventional wisdom, and is expected to win the American left its biggest electoral victory since Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's primary coup in 2018.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
Madonna Donna' Kashanian, 64, was taken by plainclothes officers from her home in New OrleansA 64-year-old Iranian woman, who has lived in the US for 47 years, was detained by immigration agents on Sunday morning while gardening outside her home in New Orleans.According to a witness, plainclothes officers in unmarked vehicles handcuffed Madonna Donna" Kashanian and transported her to a Mississippi jail before transferring her to the South Louisiana Ice processing center in Basile, reports Nola. Continue reading...
Argentina midfielder has been Chelsea's best player at the Club World Cup, continuing a trend of recent monthsEnzo Fernandez is no stranger to the big stage. The midfielder took his chance when he broke through at the 2022 World Cup, earning a starting role for Argentina after coming off the bench to score a vital goal against Mexico in the group stage.Fernandez looked as if he had been in the team for years by the time Argentina beat France in the final. He was named young player of the tournament and inevitably became a target for several big clubs. It was not long before word was filtering out of Portugal that Chelsea and Liverpool were looking at signing the former River Plate midfielder in the January 2023 transfer window. Continue reading...
Brazil's four teams - Flamengo, Botafogo, Palmeiras and Fluminense - breezed through the group stageMany people didn't believe this would happen. It is happening," said Fluminense manager Renato Gaucho as he reflected on the performances of the Brazilian teams at the Club World Cup. With Fluminense, Palmeiras, Botafogo and Flamengo all on their way to the last 16, Renato said that Brazilian football and people should be very proud" of what their clubs have done in the US.The results in the group stage were impressive. Botafogo beat European champions Paris Saint-Germain; Flamengo won convincingly against Chelsea; and the only defeat for a Brazilian team - when Botafogo lost to Atletico Madrid - came when they had an eye on the knockout stage. In all, they played 12 games, lost one and only conceded nine goals. Continue reading...
The United States struggled in friendlies but went on to win all three of its Gold Cup group games. On Sunday against Costa Rica, they face their biggest test yet.For as much as the Gold Cup gets denigrated, it's a much tougher tournament than it might appear. The ongoing tournament is the 11th edition in the last two decades, and this year's US are just the 10th team to make it through three group matches unscathed (Panama became the 11th on Tuesday).US manager Mauricio Pochettino has to be pleased with his team's performance. After rough showings in the pre-tournament friendly matches, a 5-0 win over Trinidad and Tobago was cathartic, while a 1-0 win over Saudi Arabia and a 2-1 victory against Haiti also showed that the US are trying to make winning a habit as their manager has asked. Continue reading...
The SaberCats hooker, 20, faces New England on Saturday as a striking talent formed by South African coaching but also nine years of Texas rugbyIt's less than two years since Seth Smith became the youngest player ever in Major League Rugby and he only turned 20 this week. The hooker's birthday fell on Tuesday, during the Houston SaberCats' preparation for their first MLR Championship Game, against the New England Free Jacks in Providence, Rhode Island, on Saturday.The Free Jacks are seeking a third title in a row but in the SaberCats camp, Everybody's very positive," Smith said, contemplating the challenge for a team that had previously played three postseason games and lost them all.Martin Pengelly writes on Substack at The National Maul, on rugby in the US Continue reading...
A 'fireball' that may have been a meteor burned through the sky on Tuesday just after noon in north Georgia. Reports say the fireball could also be seen from parts of North Carolina and South Carolina.The National Weather Service did not initially recognise what it saw on its radar, said Dylan Lusk, a senior meteorologist at the service's Peachtree City station, as the fireball resembled a lightning strike on the service's global lightning mapper. The Atlanta area has had a spate of strong lightning storms over the last day, which led many to dismiss the boom as more lightning
Defense chief says US bombings degraded Iran's nuclear sites, citing AI models over leaked intel doubtsThe US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, has defended the US strikes on Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities and said that Donald Trump had decimated ... obliterated" the country's nuclear program despite initial intelligence assessments that last week's strikes had failed to destroy key enrichment facilities and they could resume operations within just months.But he and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Dan Caine, largely based that assessment on AI modeling, showing test videos of the bunker buster" bombs used in the strikes and referred questions on a battle damage assessment of Fordow to the intelligence community. Continue reading...
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