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Mark Richards says a parent complained to New Orleans' St Francis Xavier school after reading his late husband's obituaryA longtime music teacher at a Catholic school in the New Orleans area recently lost his job when it was revealed to an evidently disgruntled" parent that he was another man's widower, igniting a scandal within an archdiocese that has otherwise largely been occupied with trying to reorganize its finances in federal bankruptcy court after its clergymen spent decades sexually molesting children.In an email to community members at the archdiocese-run school from which he was dismissed, Mark Richards explained that he had been fired because a parent notified officials about an obituary for his husband, who died of a heart attack in September 2023. Continue reading...

Every action matters now. Every effort small or large counts. And moving, movement is the essential key to dispelling despairIn this authoritarian and suffocating climate where being an American feels like a curse, where just breathing here feels like complicity with genocide, psychotic imperialism, misogyny and endless racism, it is hard to move, let alone imagine what one can do to transform this horror to good.Every day people are kidnapped by masked men in unmarked cars, taken to hidden sites and left in deplorable conditions; starving people in Gaza are slaughtered as they clamor for a bag of flour; public officials and leaders humiliated and murdered; the T erased from LGBT; brain-dead women forced to give birth; the glib language of hate and cruelty and easy thoughtless threats of world war, assassination, and dehumanization circling like invisible poison. What feels most perilous is the steady evaporation of the boundaries of what seemed impossible only a few weeks ago. Morality, compassion, care - slashed and burned.V (formerly Eve Ensler) is a playwright and activist and the founder of V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls Continue reading...

RFK Jr has direct control, but Senate testimony in May that someone else is running the agency has created confusionWho is in charge at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)? The answer is more complicated than it may seem.With no confirmed or acting CDC director, Robert F Kennedy Jr has direct control over the agency, allowing him to sign off - or not - on vaccine recommendations, according to legal experts. Continue reading...

Democrats have been receptive to the Tuesday Group' but the Republicans who control Congress are looking the other wayThe Tuesday Group was feeling something familiar as its members milled around a bank of elevators in the bustling basement of a Senate office building: rejection.They had often been told no over the past months - when the government moved to fire them with Donald Trump's blessing, when judges rejected challenges to that decision and when the lawmakers who they have taken to tracking down on Capitol Hill once a week when Congress is in session would turn a deaf ear to their pleas. Continue reading...

Pro-choice Alaskan was one of the few Republicans to vote to convict Trump at president's second impeachment trialLisa Murkowski is Alaska's four-term senator, first appointed in 2002 by Frank Murkowski, her father and the state's governor. An avowed moderate Republican, she entertains the possibility of caucusing with the Democrats if the Senate emerges deadlocked from next year's midterms. Her relationship with Donald Trump is fraught.In 2016, she voted for the former Ohio governor John Kasich. In Far From Home, her first book, she writes: One of my simple rules ... has been to withhold my vote from any candidate of bad character, regardless of the politics."Far From Home is published in the US by Penguin Random House Continue reading...

Like Putin, Israel's prime minister sees continuing destruction as an opportunity to boost support and outflank his enemiesThe war is over! Except it's not, not by a long chalk. The verbally agreed Iran-Israel ceasefire could be ripped to shreds at any moment. An aggressive theocratic regime still holds power in Tehran. The same is true of Jerusalem. In Washington, a president whose stupidity is matched only by his vanity prattles about making peace, but the angry old men in charge have learned nothing. Meanwhile, hundreds of civilians lie dead, thousands are wounded and millions have been terrorised.The war is over! Except only the naive believe that Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister and prime warmonger, is done fighting. Even if Donald Trump is right and Iran's nuclear facilities have been obliterated" (severely damaged" appears more accurate), its nuclear knowhow and elusive stockpile of enriched uranium have not. At the first sign, real or imagined, of rebuilding, Netanyahu and his cronies will surely attack again. Trump called them off last week. But this is a man who can change his mind three times before he's even had breakfast.Simon Tisdall is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The key procedural hurdle was cleared hours after the debate opened - key US politics stories from 28 JuneAfter a scramble in the Senate, Republicans voted on Saturday to advance Trump's signature big, beautiful" bill, with a 51-49 vote.Republicans had been divided over the controversial bill, with some rejecting the proposal to cut welfare programmes in order to cover tax breaks, and others demanding deeper cuts. Continue reading...

Experts say trend of agents detaining people while masking and wearing plainclothes increases riskPolice in southern California arrested a man suspected of posing as a federal immigration officer this week, the latest in a series of such arrests, as masked, plainclothes immigration agents are deployed nationwide to meet the Trump administration's mass deportation targets.The man, Fernando Diaz, was arrested by Huntington Park police after officers said they found a loaded gun and official-looking documents with Department of Homeland Security headings in his SUV, according to NBC Los Angeles. Officers were impounding his vehicle for parking in a handicapped zone when Diaz asked to retrieve items inside, the police said. Among the items seen by officers in the car were multiple copies of passports not registered under the individual's name", NBC reports. Continue reading...

Felipe Orduna-Torres and Armando Gonzales-Garcia abandoned locked truckload of people in summer heat with no AC in 2022Two men face spending the rest of their lives in prison after a federal judge sentenced them on Friday for their roles in the deaths of 53 people - including six children - who were found dead in an abandoned tractor-trailer in Texas in 2022.A federal jury in Texas had found the two men, Felipe Orduna-Torres and Armando Gonzales-Garcia, guilty of various charges at the conclusion of a trial in March. Federal judge Orlando Garcia sentenced Torres to life in prison and Ortega to 83 years of incarceration, essentially a life sentence. Continue reading...

Governor Tim Walz eulogizes Melissa Hortman, killed with husband, as most consequential speaker' in state's history

Woman's injuries were not life-threatening, and officials were unable to find the likely young sand tiger sharkA 20-year-old woman was likely bitten by a juvenile shark while waist-deep in the surf at a suburban New York beach, according to state officials.The unidentified woman suffered minor lacerations to her left leg and foot after being bitten Wednesday at Jones Beach state park on Long Island. She was treated for injuries that were not life-threatening, according to a release from state parks officials. Continue reading...

Meta CEO reportedly to offer pay packages worth up to $100m, a gambit OpenAI's Sam Altman calls crazy'Mark Zuckerberg reportedly spent months putting together a list of the top AI engineers and researchers across the globe, preparing to offer potential recruits lucrative compensation packages in Meta's attempt to poach AI talent from key competitors.Silicon Valley has been talking for weeks about the Meta CEO's quest to attract top AI talent, including by offering pay packages worth up to $100m. Continue reading...

As Trump urges more deportations, veterans are seeing their parents, children and even themselves detainedThe son of an American citizen and military veteran - but who has no citizenship to any country - was deported from the US to Jamaica in late May.Jermaine Thomas's deportation, recently reported on by the Austin Chronicle, is one of a growing number of immigration cases involving military service members' relatives or even veterans themselves who have been ensnared in the Trump administration's mass deportation program. Continue reading...

Trump critic represents swing district that includes Omaha, prompting optimism that Democrats could take vacated seatRepublican congressman and vocal Donald Trump critic Don Bacon is reportedly not going to seek re-election during the midterm races in 2026.The conservative politician represents a swing district in Nebraska that includes Omaha, and word of his plans prompted Democratic figures to signal optimism that they could take the seat as the party tries to regain a House majority it has not had since 2023. Continue reading...

Road to Majority conference attendees expressed skepticism and begrudging respect for the Muslim democratic socialistHe is the democratic socialist who has been described as a gift to the Republican party.Zohran Mamdani's stunning showing in the Democratic primary election for mayor of New York this week was seen by some as perfect fodder to whip up a new red scare". Donald Trump called him a 100% Communist Lunatic", writing on social media: We've had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting a little ridiculous." Continue reading...

Antoine Massey was one of 10 inmates who broke out of jail six weeks ago; only one still remains at largeLouisiana authorities on Friday captured one of the 10 men who escaped from a New Orleans jail six weeks earlier - and who police say released videos on social media while still on the run.Antoine Massey, 33, was taken into custody at a residence in New Orleans about 2 miles (3km) from the jail, said the New Orleans police department superintendent, Anne Kirkpatrick. That left one of the 10 escapees still at large. Continue reading...

The state boasts cozy venues featuring buffalo mounts, barbecue and bras on the wall - but the mark of a great bar is always the peopleIt's been over two decades now, but as I remember it: the floor was sticky with peanut shells and beer.I could feel a crunch underfoot amid the din of garbled conversation as my young, righteous girlfriends and I made our way to a wobbly table at the Haufbrau in Bozeman, Montana. Continue reading...

True or not, people find it all too easy to believe that a humorous picture of the vice-president could get you barred from the USI have a very important public service announcement to make. Do not, under any circumstances whatsoever, make fun of Vice-President JD Vance by sharing one of the millions of unflattering memes dedicated to him. Don't you dare chuckle at the images of him looking like the lollipop kid" in Shrek (the resemblance is uncanny) or a chicken nugget. And, whatever you do, do not share the meme that you can find here, where he looks like a big bald baby. You risk hurting the poor man's feelings and, also, you might get kicked out of the country. Continue reading...

The Democratic socialist's victory in the New York City primary elections shows support for Palestine is not a liabilityIn a tremendous upset of politics as usual, Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old brown, Muslim, Democratic socialist who had little name recognition in February beat the poster boy of the Democratic party establishment, Andrew Cuomo, by a plurality of votes in the first round of the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City.What makes this win even more remarkable is that Mamdani has refused to back down from his vocal support for Palestinian liberation, a position that has long been a death knell for candidates within a party whose establishment is unabashedly pro-Israel. Continue reading...

Forty-one-year-old has stayed away from politics, but says political path would be an easy one' if he chose to pursue itEric Trump has hinted that he or another of the Trump family could run for president when his father's second term in the White House comes to an end.Eric, who is co-executive vice-president of the Trump Organization, said, the road to the White House would be an easy one" if he decided to follow in his father's footsteps. Continue reading...

Trump's Iran strike knocked everything else out of the news, including the Minnesota shootings - and it was little surpriseYou furnish the pictures. I'll furnish the war," was the storied response of the newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst to Frederic Remington after the illustrator was sent to Cuba to cover an insurrection and cabled back to the boss that there was little going on.Much has changed since that famous (if true) exchange of the late 19th century, in the heyday of sensationalism known as yellow journalism.Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...

New York's financial elite compare the city to crime-riddled Gotham after democratic socialist bests Cuomo in Democratic mayoral primaryWhen Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old self-described socialist, won New York's mayoral Democratic nomination last week over a seasoned but scandal-scarred veteran, the city's financial elite had a meltdown.This was the start of hot commie summer" in the city, New York hedgevfund billionaire Daniel Loeb posted to X. John Catsimatidis, billionaire CEO of grocery chain Gristedes and friend of Donald Trump, warned on Fox Business: If the city of New York is going socialist, I will definitely close, or sell, or move." Continue reading...

Critics warn cuts to Snap program would throw millions of Americans - such as Jade and her daughter Janai - back into food insecurityJade Johnson has a word to describe the experience of going hungry in one of the world's richest countries. Humbling."The last time she endured the misery of skipping meals was about 18 months ago. She was working two jobs as a home health aide and in childcare, but after paying the rent and bills she still didn't have enough to feed herself and her young daughter Janai. Continue reading...

Yassamin Ansari, an Arizona representative, explains how her background shapes her perspective on US foreign policyArizona congresswoman Yassamin Ansari brings an unusually personal perspective to the US's fraught relationship with Iran. The daughter of two Iranian parents who fled their homeland - her father as a student in the 1970s who couldn't return after the 1979 revolution, her mother as a 17-year-old in 1981 escaping the new regime's restrictions on women - Ansari grew up immersed in the complexities of US-Iran relations.This deep familiarity with both Iranian domestic politics and the tangled history between Washington and Tehran has given the Democratic freshman a distinctive edge in debates over military strikes, sanctions and diplomatic engagement. Continue reading...

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...

That outburst of exasperation at the White House felt very human. Perhaps other politicians should cautiously take note

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...

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...

Justice department had been pressuring James Ryan to step down as part of agreement to settle civil rights inquiry

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...

Ruling to limit nationwide injunctions could see president's order to ban birthright citizenship partially implemented

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...

President assails direct and blatant attack on our country', accusing Canada of imposing unfair technology taxes on US

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...

Case challenged how members of an obscure but vital healthcare committee are appointed

Perceived readiness of US to employ force instead of negotiations could have knock-on effects around the world