US news | The Guardian

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onNo sooner had the final putt dropped on day three of this US PGA Championship than it was announced Tiger Woods had withdrawn after 54 holes.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...

The US has accused Russia of holding the world’s food supply hostage during the Ukraine crisis, amid growing fears of famine in developing countries. Speaking at a UN security council meeting on Thursday, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, demanded Russia lift its blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and enable the flow of food and fertiliser around the world

Unnamed team member reportedly got into dispute with South Korean citizen outside hotel where Biden is expected to stayJoe Biden’s visit to South Korea and Japan has got off to a bad start with two Secret Service agents set to be sent home after one was accused of drunkenly assaulting a South Korean the day before the president arrived in Seoul, officials said.Earlier reports said a member of his advance security detail was arrested for allegedly assaulting a South Korean citizen in Seoul. Continue reading...

Handing over the WikiLeaks founder to the US will benefit those around the world who want to evade scrutinyIn the course of the next few days, Priti Patel will make the most important ruling on free speech made by any home secretary in recent memory. She must resolve whether to comply with a US request to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges.The consequences for Assange will be profound. Once in the US he will almost certainly be sent to a maximum-security prison for the rest of his life. He will die in jail.Peter Oborne is a journalist and author. His latest book, Fate of Abraham: Why the West is Wrong about Islam, is available now Continue reading...

Isaiah Lee, 23, pleads not guilty over stabbing that took place in December, months before incident during Chappelle’s standup setA man charged in an on-stage attack of comedian Dave Chappelle has now also been charged with the attempted murder of a roommate months earlier, authorities said on Thursday.Isaiah Lee, 23, has pleaded not guilty in the December stabbing that occurred during a fight at a Los Angeles transitional living facility, the LA county district attorney’s office said. Continue reading...

Christian Secor, 23, was a UCLA student at the time who had founded a far-right conservative student group, authorities sayA California man who stormed the US Capitol, opened the doors to other rioters and sat in the Senate chair of Mike Pence pleaded guilty to a federal charge on Thursday.Christian Secor, 23, of Costa Mesa, entered the plea in a Washington court to obstructing an official proceeding. Continue reading...

When an unaccountable billionaire starts putting himself out in the world as a Public Policy Thinker, alarm bells should ringJeff Bezos is getting nervous. You can tell because he’s going on Twitter more, the universal activity of those who are channeling their restlessness in an unhealthy way. This should make the rest of us nervous, too. This is a big, flashing warning sign that America’s richest union-buster is about to throw himself more forcefully into politics – an inevitability that could have many bad outcomes, but only one good one.For the past week, the centi-billionaire Amazon founder has been firing off tweets not about his typical, anodyne interests – improved penis-shaped rocket design, luxury head wax – but rather about his policy opinions. Though Bezos (or whichever PR drone drafts his tweets) writes with the bloodlessness of a man who has attended too many management consulting meetings, it is easy to imagine the seething anger that must have been present in order to prompt him to produce them in the first place. On May 13, he criticized one of Joe Biden’s economic pronouncements, tweeting that “Raising corp taxes is fine to discuss. Taming inflation is critical to discuss. Mushing them together is just misdirection.” Continue reading...

For the US right, Orbán’s Hungary – unconstrained by an independent media, democratic institutions or racial diversity – isn’t a cautionary tale, but an aspirationLong a safe space where conservatives could say what they really thought, this year the Conservative Political Action Conference (Cpac) is hosting an event in Budapest, its first ever on the European continent. Attendees will be treated to panels about “western civilization under attack” and be addressed by American conservative luminaries including the former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and media figures like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens. That Hungary has become an authoritarian state whose leader, Viktor Orbán, has deconstructed Hungarian democracy and become a close ally of Vladimir Putin doesn’t seem to faze anyone involved. In fact, it’s the whole point.The embrace of Orbán as a role model by many on the right seems at first glance puzzling. After all, conservatives are not known for welcoming lessons from Europeans on how America ought to be run. But it becomes more explicable when you realize that for years, Orbán has been playing out the fantasies of Cpac’s attendees, unconstrained by the independent institutions, impartial media and racial diversity which American conservatives see as their foils at home. Where Orbán has gone, American conservatives want to follow. And increasingly, they are doing so.Andrew Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States at Leiden University and the host of the podcast America Explained Continue reading...

Antony Blinken demanded that Russia lift its blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and suggested the Kremlin was using food as a weapon

Elizabeth shrugged, a final flourish in the Wagatha Christie trial, and why my son will go to the school discoI have just got back from a gorgeous weekend in Bath, after doing a book event with proper writers Marian Keyes and Nina Stibbe at the literary festival. I was high as a kite on my return. Because sure, I love to talk about books and writing, meet amazing authors and fellow bookworms, and revel in the cornucopia of delights offered by reading temples such as Toppings bookshop and Mr B’s Emporium. But do you know what I really, really love? A hotel. An hotel, if you’re a bit of a twunt, but either way – a place where you can go and eat, drink, sleep between clean sheets, shower in an immaculate bathroom, breakfast from a variety of increasingly decadent choices (fruit-toast-cereal-full-English-attenuated-as-best-suits-you-and-any-hangover’s-requirements) and repeat without having to do anything at all for yourself. One 24-hour span on your own in a hotel is equivalent to one week’s holiday en famille. The restorative bang for your buck ratio is unsurpassed. At least until a friend remarked that this was because “staying at a hotel is the equivalent of having a wife”. And this irrefutable truth unrestored me immediately and absolutely. Continue reading...

A documentary follows the paths of eight people who served decades of their life sentences behind bars, only to be released with no resourcesImagine being one of the more than 200,000 people in America sentenced to life in prison. And then, after decades behind bars, laws are changed, your sentence is shortened, and the parole board approves of your release. You become tasked with reentering society, finding stable housing, employment and a healthy social life.These are things that everyone seeks, formerly incarcerated or not. But for people who’ve spent time behind bars, and more specifically the people who were serving life sentences – the lifers – these challenges can be insurmountable. Continue reading...

We’d like to hear from readers in the US who have experienced problems from the supply chain crisisWe’d like to hear from people in the US who have been affected by shortages of baby formula.Baby formula shortages began during the pandemic, but they have been exacerbated by the closure of the Abbott plant in Michigan due to a federal investigation which began after four babies taking the formula developed bacterial infections and two died. Continue reading...

Doug Mastriano promoted Trump’s voter fraud myth – if he becomes governor, could he block a result he doesn’t like?As Donald Trump tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election, there were few officials more willing to help than Doug Mastriano, then a little-known Pennsylvania state senator.Mastriano, a retired army colonel first elected in 2019, regularly communicated with Trump in the weeks after the election. He helped arrange a pseudo-hearing weeks after election day in which the Trump campaign presented baseless claims of fraud. Mastriano helped facilitate a plan to appoint a fake set of electors in Pennsylvania for Trump after Joe Biden won the state by more than 80,000 votes. He embraced and promoted a fringe, anti-democratic legal theory that state legislatures can override the results of an election and appoint its own electors. He was also at the US capitol on January 6, and helped bus supporters there. He pushed an unofficial review of election equipment that prompted the state to decertify election machines in a county. He has been subpoenaed by the January 6 committee. He supported efforts to decertify the election, which is legally impossible. Continue reading...

Push for petition that would mandate safety protections, limit workloads, set wage standards, and extend worker retention rulesSonia Molina Sanchez, worked as housekeeper at the celebrity hotspot hotel Chateau Marmont for 10 years. She will never forget the night she was sexually harassed by a guest.“I knocked on a guest’s door and went inside, and as soon as I went inside something didn’t feel right,” said Molina Sanchez. “The guest was lying in bed as if he was about to go to sleep. I turned around and looked at him, and when I looked at him he was staring at me while masturbating. I felt violated, really disturbed, and just completely in shock.” Continue reading...

This year’s NBA playoffs have served as a reminder of how much the provocative power forward sets the tone for the Warriors by being such a pain in the ass to play againstLate in Game 5 of the Western Conference semi-finals between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Golden State Warriors, the Grizzlies’ home crowd sure tried their damnedest to provoke the NBA’s No 1 pest. Some 18,000 fans twirled towels at the Warriors bench – and chanted along as the PA played Whoop That Trick, a local anthem. Given the deafening roar inside FedEx Forum, with the home team leading by 46, you’d be forgiven for thinking the Warriors were downcast. But in the middle of this madness Draymond Green was firmly in his element: bobbing to the beat, waving a towel and really whooping it up.There’s been much debate about who’s the best remaining player in the NBA playoffs. But there is no doubt about who’s most exasperating. For the past decade the Warriors’ diminutive power forward has been a 6ft 6in thorn in the side of all who oppose him. In Wednesday night’s Western Conference finals opener against the Dallas Mavericks, Green was back to his familiar shenanigans – flexing on the floor after a tough finish at the rim, sprinting crosscourt to block a corner three, lobbying the refs and otherwise being irritating in the Warriors’ 112-87 victory at home. Green’s official contribution – 10 points, nine rebounds, three assists, two steals and that chef’s kiss closeout block on the Mavericks’ Dorian Finney-Smith – barely captures just what a pain in the ass he is to play against. If anything, these playoffs have served as a reminder of how much the 32-year-old former Michigan State standout sets the tone for the Warriors by being such a massive migraine. Continue reading...

Michael German, who infiltrated white supremacist groups in the 1990s, says the FBI continues to underplay the scope of the threatThe Federal Bureau of Investigation is failing to address the rising scourge of white supremacist violence despite stark warnings that such attacks pose the greatest domestic terrorism threat in the US, a leading authority on law enforcement has told the Guardian.Michael German, a former FBI special agent who infiltrated white supremacist groups in the 1990s, said the bureau continues to underplay the scope of the threat. As a result, communities targeted by white supremacists and far-right militia groups – such as the largely African American neighborhood of Buffalo, New York, where 10 people were killed by a suspected racist gunman this week – are left fatally exposed. Continue reading...

Hungarian leader also tells Republicans at Budapest conference that shows like Tucker Carlson’s should be broadcast ‘24/7’The Hungarian leader, Viktor Orbán, has told a conference of US conservatives that the path to power required having their own media outlets, calling for shows like Tucker Carlson’s to be broadcast “24/7”.Orbán, recently elected to a fourth term, laid out a 12-point blueprint to achieving and consolidating power to a special meeting of the US Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), under the slogan of “God, Homeland, Family”, held in Budapest. Continue reading...

Emails reveal the ‘extent’ which Carlson was willing to turn on Biden’s son since the 2020 election, Washington Post saysAs Tucker Carlson asked Hunter Biden for help getting his son into an elite Washington university in 2014, the Fox News host’s wife, Susie, reportedly wrote in an email: “Tucker and I have the greatest respect and admiration for you. Always!”Since the 2020 election, however, Carlson has fueled rightwing attacks on Joe Biden’s son, particularly over business affairs in which he allegedly benefited from his father’s position. Continue reading...

Bluntly worded intervention comes as tensions rise over plans by Liz Truss to nullify parts of the protocolThe US House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has warned that unilateral UK legislation affecting the Northern Ireland protocol could endanger British prospects for a free trade deal with the US.Pelosi’s bluntly worded intervention came two days after the UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, confirmed that the government was planning to table legislation that would nullify parts of the protocol by exempting some goods moving between Great Britain and Ireland from EU customs checks. Continue reading...

Wic voucher requirements are being waived to allow holders to purchase any brand of infant formula as it becomes availableThe Senate approved a bill Thursday aimed at easing the baby formula shortage for families participating in a government assistance program that accounts for about half of all formula purchased in the US.The House passed the bill the day before, so it now goes to Joe Biden to be signed into law. Continue reading...

The price is a record high for the state and follows a record high average price nationwide at nearly $4.59 a gallonThe average price of gas in California has surpassed $6 a gallon for the first time ever as fuel costs across the US reach record highs.Drivers in the Golden state are paying more for a gallon of fuel than anywhere else in the country at an average of $6.06, an all-time high for California and the US, according to AAA. The national average is nearly $4.59 a gallon, also a record, increasing 10 cents since Monday. Meanwhile, in some rural regions of California prices are even higher – fuel costs more than $7 a gallon in Mono county in the state’s east. Continue reading...