As the IOC ushers in new leadership, Donald Trump's second term is already wreaking havoc on LA 28 - and turning a global celebration into a national security crackdownWhen the International Olympic Committee first handed Los Angeles the 2028 Summer Olympics back in 2017, IOC president Thomas Bach called it a golden opportunity" for all involved. Fast forward to last month when Kirsty Coventry took the reins from Bach at the IOC. So much has changed.In January, LA was hit with deadly wildfires. That same month a different sort of natural disaster took shape as Donald Trump returned to the White House. Bach had previously praised LA for its strong foundation", but that foundation has crumbled under the weight of the wildfires, a citywide budget crisis and an erratic president whose marauding Immigration and Customs Enforcement look like they arrived straight from robbing a liquor store to instill fear across Los Angeles. Continue reading...
With their illiberal attitudes and ever more draconian use of technology to crack down on protest, it is ministers who now imperil our rightsNo one can be trusted with power. Any government will oppress its people if not constantly and inventively challenged. And the task becomes ever-more urgent as new technologies of surveillance and control are developed.The UK government is run by a former human rights lawyer. Its home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has expressed her admiration for the Suffragettes in parliament. Yet such credentials do nothing to defend us from attacks on our fundamental rights. With a huge majority, no formal constitutional checks and a ruthless, scarcely accountable governing machine, this administration is abusing its power to an even greater extent than its Conservative predecessors. Continue reading...
At a rally in Iowa, the president said he hates' lawmakers who opposed his signature bill, and looked ahead to plans to mark the 250th anniversary of AmericaDonald Trump has celebrated the passage of his signature tax and spend legislation by declaring there could be no better birthday present for America" on the eve of the 4 July holiday.The US president took a victory lap during an event in Des Moines, Iowa, that was officially billed as the start of a year-long celebration of America's 250th anniversary, in 2026. Continue reading...
by Robert Mackey, Lauren Gambino and Kira Lerner on (#6YD8A)
This blog is now closed. Read our story on the megabill hereJeffries has just passed the five-hour mark and has no intention of stopping: We still got some ground to cover."We are going to continue as Democrats to take our sweet time on behalf of the American people because the issues are too significant to ever walk away from," Jeffries said, to cheers from the Democrats in the chamber. Continue reading...
Ward Sakeik, 22, who came to US aged eight, tells of joy and a little shock' after more than four months in detentionWard Sakeik, a stateless Palestinian woman who was detained in February on the way back from her honeymoon, was released from immigration detention after more than four months of confinement.I was overfilled with joy and a little shock," she said at a press conference on Thursday. I mean, it was my first time seeing a tree in five months." Continue reading...
Madre fire, one of at least a dozen in the state, has burned more than 50,000 acres in San Luis Obispo countyA fast-growing wildfire in central California has become the largest in the state this year, surpassing the size of January's wildfires that devastated parts of Los Angeles, as the flames spread in hot, windy conditions.The Madre fire had exploded to more than 50,000 acres by Thursday morning, after breaking out in San Luis Obispo county on Wednesday afternoon and tearing through grasslands as dry. Extreme heat has raised the fire risk for large portions of the state before the Fourth of July holiday. Continue reading...
After days of debate and backroom wrangling, the measure overcame Republican objections and passed the House. Key US politics stories from 3 July 2025The US House of Representatives passed Donald Trump's sweeping tax and spending bill on Thursday, handing the president the first major legislative victory of his second term, with the bill expected to supercharge immigration enforcement and slash federal safety net programs.For decades, Republicans have argued that the US would be better off if taxes were low, and programs to help low-income Americans were harder to access. Thursday's bill will in effect make this a reality, fundamentally reordering two major social safety net programs, slashing funding and imposing new work requirements. Nonpartisan estimates say it will cost millions of people their benefits and the ripple effects, experts say, will be felt across the country, and not just by the poor. Continue reading...
The Republican fantasy of lower taxes and hard-to-access social safety net programs will now be a realityFor decades, Republicans have argued that the US would be better off if taxes were low, and programs to help low-income Americans were harder to access. With Donald Trump's marquee tax and spending bill now set to become law, the country will find out what it's like to live under that sort of system.The massive legislation that Trump plans to sign Friday will make his campaign promises a reality by extending tax cuts enacted during his first term, and creating new deductions aimed at the working-class voters who backed his re-election. Continue reading...
Court halts ruling that allowed migrants to challenge removal to countries where they could be in dangerThe supreme court has allowed the Trump administration to deport the eight men who have been held for weeks at an American military base in Djibouti to war-torn South Sudan, a country where almost none of them have ties.Most of the men are from countries including Vietnam, South Korea, Mexico, Laos, Cuba and Myanmar. Just one is from South Sudan. Continue reading...
With narrow majorities and intra-party splits, Republicans faced a battle to give Trump his bill to sign - but they did itJust a few months ago, analysts predicted that Republicans in Congress - with their narrow majorities and fractured internal dynamics - would not be able to pass Donald Trump's landmark legislation.On Thursday, the president's commanding influence over his party was apparent once again: the bill passed just in time for Trump's Fourth of July deadline. Continue reading...
The El Rancho unified school district released video that allegedly shows Ice and border patrol agents urinating in the grounds of the Salazar high school in Pico Rivera on the morning of 17 June. Campus cameras captured some of those agents urinating on the school's premises, school district leaders said Continue reading...
Dan Rather laments sad day for journalism' after company settles for $16m over 60 Minutes Kamala Harris interviewA former CBS News anchor and 60 minutes correspondent, Dan Rather, has blasted the $16m settlement between Paramount, the parent company of CBS News, and Donald Trump, calling it a sad day for journalism".It's a sad day for 60 Minutes and CBS News," Rather, a veteran journalist who was a CBS News anchor for over 20 years, told Variety in an interview published on Wednesday. I hope people will read the details of this and understand what it was. It was distortion by the president and a kneeling down and saying, yes, sir,' by billionaire corporate owners." Continue reading...
Album launch party was ending when three people in an SUV began firing on a crowd outside a nightclubFour people were killed by gunfire and 14 others hospitalized overnight after a drive-by shooting outside a private nightclub event in Chicago, police said on Thursday.At least three were in critical condition. City news outlets reported that the incident happened after a launch party for the new album by the local rap star Mello Buckzz and that her boyfriend was one of those shot. Continue reading...
Marin Cilic beats Jack Draper but there are wins for Iga Swiatek, Mirra Andreeva, Barbora Krejcikova, Jannik Sinner and Novak DjokovicNavarro isn't messing around. Twelve minutes in, the 10th seed leads 3-0, and has hit only once unforced error.Pinnington Jones, looking like the 2002 champ Lleyton Hewitt with his backwards cap and diminutive frame, has begun his match too, but it's been an inauspicious start. The Brit is broken in the opening game, to 30, after three successive errors: on the forehand, the backhand and then a double fault. Cobolli consolidates the break and it's 2-0. Continue reading...
Donald Trump's sweeping legislation boosts the wealthy, funds a border wall and risks $3tn deficit before his term endsThe US House of Representatives on Thursday passed Donald Trump's massive tax-and-spending bill after Senate Republicans on Tuesday narrowly passed it, with JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote.Here's what's in the final version of the bill, which now heads to Donald Trump's desk: Continue reading...
Trump's judicial nominee Emil Bove echoed a Mafia code of silence as Senate Republicans shielded him from scrutiny.In The Godfather, a Mafia turncoat appears before a Senate committee in order to testify as a protected witness about its operations. Frank Pentangeli, Frankie Five Angels", a capo allied with the old godfather, Vito Corleone, has had a falling out with the new one, his son Michael Corleone, who attempted to assassinate him. As Pentangeli is about to speak at the hearing, he notices his brother Vincenzo, a mafioso from Sicily, seated behind him. Michael has arranged his grim looming presence. Pentangeli is suddenly reminded of his oath of omerta, the code of silence. He recants on the spot, saying that he just told the FBI what they wanted to hear".On 25 June, Emil Bove, Donald Trump's former personal attorney, whom he had named associate deputy attorney general, and now after five months seeks to elevate as a federal judge on the US third circuit court of appeals, appeared before the Senate judiciary committee for his confirmation hearing. He faced, at least potentially, a far-ranging inquiry into his checkered career. Continue reading...
J Michael Luttig tells how disappointed' he is in his friend the chief justice for not taking a stand against the presidentJ Michael Luttig, a conservative former federal judge, has said how he is disappointed" in his friend John Roberts, the chief justice of the United States, for an unforgivable reticence" about Donald Trump.Luttig was long considered a possible supreme court nominee himself. He shepherded Clarence Thomas through his contentious supreme court confirmation hearing in 1991 and was a mentor to the Texas senator Ted Cruz. Continue reading...
Midfielder's suspension may mean shifting Fernandez and risking raw talent in quarter-final against PalmeirasMoises Caicedo was still going strong. There were 108 minutes on the clock at the Bank of America Stadium - not taking into account the lengthy weather delay - when the Chelsea midfielder won possession in Benfica's half, found Cole Palmer and surged forward.Palmer advanced towards a back-pedalling, understaffed defence. He waited for support before finding the overlapping Caicedo. Benfica, tiring with 10 men, were defeated by Caicedo's power. The 23-year-old shot, Anatoliy Trubin made a mess of his save and the ball squirmed loose to Christopher Nkunku to score the goal that sent Enzo Maresca's side into the quarter-finals of the Club World Cup. Continue reading...
American hellfire Pentecostal preacher brought down by sex scandals who tearfully begged for forgiveness on TVThe American televangelist hellfire preacher Jimmy Swaggart, who has died aged 90, fell by the wayside not once but twice with sex workers, spectacularly ending his previously successful TV ministry that screened in 140 countries and was reputed to bring in $150m a year in merchandising sales.On the first occasion, when he was filmed with a woman at a motel near his church in the suburbs of New Orleans in 1988, he prayed for forgiveness in a tearful TV address. On the second occasion three years later in California when he was caught with a woman in his car, he just told his congregation: The Lord told me it's flat out none of your business." Continue reading...
The 18-year-old says it's very difficult' to focus on Palmeiras as he knows his time with the club is coming to an endWho would have thought that two Brazilian clubs would reach the Club World Cup quarter-finals? If Fluminense beat Al-Hilal in Orlando on Friday and Palmeiras get the better of Chelsea a few hours later in Philadelphia, one of them will make it to the final. Chelsea have already been embarrassed by one Brazilian side at the tournament - they were trounced 3-1 by Flamengo a fortnight ago in the group stage - but they are still favourites to beat Palmeiras in the quarter-finals.The English side came out on top when the teams met in the final of the Club World Cup three years ago, winning 2-1 thanks to a 117th-minute penalty converted by Kai Havertz. At that point, a young prodigy known as Messinho", or little Messi, was taking his first steps in the Palmeiras academy having joined from Cruzeiro. When the teams meet again on Friday night, Estevao Willian will be the central focus. The 18-year-old is inextricably linked to both clubs, having turned professional at one before agreeing to join the other in a deal that could be worth up to 52m. Continue reading...
Details include how White House staff thought ex-president was a prick' who disrespected and mistreated BidenBarack Obama, the former US president, sounded the alarm about Joe Biden's ailing re-election bid almost a year before polling day, warning his former vice-president's staff your campaign is a mess", a new book reveals.The intervention came amid tensions between the Obama and Biden camps as they braced for a tough fight against Donald Trump. In the end, the ageing Biden withdrew from the race in favor of his vice-president, Kamala Harris, who was defeated by Trump. Continue reading...
Justices will hear Idaho and West Virginia appeals on laws barring trans girls from female public school teamsThe US supreme court announced on Thursday that it will consider a bid by West Virginia and Idaho to enforce their state laws banning transgender athletes from female sports teams at public sector schools.The decision means the court is prepared to take up another civil rights challenge to Republican-backed restrictions on transgender people. Continue reading...
Marshall Freeman promoted software and owned stake in company while working for police, violating disclosure laws, says ethics officeA top Atlanta police department (APD) official worked as a consultant for a tech company whose software is key to the city's massive surveillance system, according to an investigation from Atlanta's office of ethics.The official's activities included meeting with police departments across the country about the company's products while also investing in the company and going on to serve on the company's board. Continue reading...
Edward Kelley, a veteran pardoned by Trump, was found guilty of trying to kill officers who investigated himA US military veteran, previously pardoned by Donald Trump for his role in the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol, was sentenced to life in prison this week for plotting to attack an FBI office and assassinate other law enforcement officers.Edward Kelley, 36, was found guilty last November of trying to attack officers who investigated him over his actions at the US Capitol in Washington DC when pro-Trump supporters tried stormed the building in hopes, ultimately in vain, of stopping the certification of Joe Biden's presidential victory over Trump in the 2020 election. Continue reading...
Key rule approved at 4am after Republican holdouts agree to move forward on debate. Plus, fragments show Israeli military used US-made 500lb bomb in strike on Gaza cafe
by Stephen Starr in Lincoln Heights, Ohio on (#6YD6B)
Residents formed a safety watch after a neo-Nazi march in Lincoln Heights, but racist incidents still cause turmoilDespite its proximity to a busy highway, Lincoln Heights' rolling hills, parks and well-kept lawns are pictures of calm suburban life north of Cincinnati.Today it's home to about 3,000 mostly African American people a few miles from Kentucky and the Ohio River, which divided free northern states from the slave-owning south. In the 1920s, Lincoln Heights became one of the first self-governing Black communities north of the Mason-Dixon line. Continue reading...
by Ramon Antonio Vargas in New Orleans on (#6YD6F)
Mark Richards was fired from St Francis Xavier school after an obituary identified him as his late husband's widowerA longtime music teacher at a New Orleans-area Catholic school who was essentially fired for being listed in an obituary as another man's widower says he refused to suffer quietly because it's just time" for bullying and homophobic discrimination to stop".If I can put this out there and bring attention to it and make it easier for some other young, gay educator to stand up to it - then, yeah, I'll do that," Mark Richards told the radio show Talk Louisiana With Jim Engster on Tuesday. I have nothing to lose. Continue reading...
I was at a conference about Palestine shortly before he was killed. None of the Israelis I spoke to were willing to publicly name these horrorsIt has been less than two months since my niece Juri - a bright, giggling six-year-old - was killed in Gaza. We buried her while her sister recovered from her injuries and her father tried to walk again on shattered legs. Just a week ago, I was struck by another unbearable loss. My 16-year-old nephew Ali was killed: a drone-fired rocket tore through him and six members of our extended family while they were sitting outside the last house we had left - the only one that hadn't yet been reduced to dust.Ali was split in two. That's not a metaphor: it's literally what the rocket did to his body. A child trying to escape the stifling heat inside a home without electricity, without water, without safety. A child whose only crime was sitting on a plastic chair in a corridor with his uncles - men in their 60s - trying to breathe, trying to live, trying to find a sliver of comfort in a place where even comfort has become a threat. Continue reading...
Donna Kashanian, 64 and a community service volunteer, arrived in 1978 on a student visa and has no criminal recordKaitlynn Milne says her mother is usually always up first thing in the morning, hours before the rest of the family. She enjoys being productive in the quiet hours around sunrise. It's an especially optimal time to do yard work, when the rest of her New Orleans neighborhood still sleeps and she can count on peacefully completing chores.Gardening and rearranging the shed is how an average morning would go for Madonna Donna" Kashanian, a 64-year-old Iranian mother, wife, home cook, parent-teacher association (PTA) member and lifelong community service volunteer. Continue reading...
The American rider defies the sport's physical norms and is already a Grand Tour contender. But for now it is patience, not power, that's his defining traitMatteo Jorgenson is big. Not in the way Dexter Lawrence or Chet Holmgren are big. Not in the sense that most American athletes are considered big. But in the world of professional cycling, Matteo Jorgenson is big. In fact, cycling might be one of the only sports in which a man who stands 6ft 4in (1.93m) and weighs around 70kg (154lbs) is considered big.With broad shoulders and a wide chest that can act like a sail in the wind, Jorgenson is the kind of size that usually rules riders out of contention for Grand Tours such as the Tour de France or the Giro d'Italia. Why? Because Grand Tours are won in the mountains, and big riders don't climb. Continue reading...
The women in the case endured horrors to tell their stories. Still the jury - and Diddy's jubilant supporters - sided with their alleged abuserSean Combs, the musician variously known as Diddy", Puffy", P Diddy" and Love", made a conspicuous scene in the courtroom when the verdict was read. He put his hands into a prayer gesture and mouthed thank you" to the jurors, and pumped his fist in the air. A federal jury in New York on Wednesday had acquitted Combs on federal charges of sex trafficking women, finding him guilty only on lesser charges of transporting the male prostitutes he allegedly forced the women to have sex with across state lines. The mixed verdict was seen as a triumph for Combs, who faced the possibility of life in prison if convicted on trafficking and conspiracy charges. Outside, jubilant supporters of Combs - which have in recent weeks included the provocative rapper Kanye West - erupted into celebration. Some reportedly poured baby oil on each other and yelled: It's not Rico, it's FREAKO."Those triumphant chants were references to the organized group sex encounters that women - including two who testified as witnesses for federal prosecutors - have described as rapes. The women - two ex-partners of Combs's, the singer Cassie Ventura and another alleged victim known as Jane - told the court repeatedly over the course of an eight-week trial that they were coerced into participating in the encounters, which Combs called freak-offs", with violence, drugs, coercive financial arrangements, and threats. The encounters were filmed by Combs, and the videos were shown to the jury; in addition to the testimony of the women and the videos of what they say were their assaults, jurors were also shown security footage of a savage beating Combs inflicted on Ventura in a hotel hallway following one such party in 2016, and heard from a hotel security guard who says that Combs paid him $100,000 to destroy video evidence of his conduct. Continue reading...
With Olympic veterans sidelined and new faces stepping up, the US women's national team looked dominant again this window - but questions remain in key positionsThe US women's national team have just wrapped up another successful window in an experimental year. After beating Ireland 4-0 in back-to-back friendlies, they defeated an experienced Canada side 3-0 in Washington, bringing their 2025 record to 8-0-2 while continuing to field youthful lineups full of emerging talent.Emma Hayes' return to Audi Field came nearly one year to the day since they drew 0-0 with Costa Rica in their final tune-up before going on to win Olympic gold in Paris. Since then, the four-time world champions have turned their focus to the 2027 World Cup. Hayes has worked diligently to build the depth and cohesion needed to challenge for the title. Continue reading...
After years of drift and false starts, the US men's team is carving out identity and intensity under their new coach - just in time for a home World CupThere is something cosmically funny about all of this. Late last summer, the United States men's national team went out and hired the most qualified manager it could find. The one with the most impressive coaching resume far of anyone US Soccer had ever employed on the men's side. The most expensive, certainly. By a multiple. The man brought in to arrest the tailspin the USMNT had slowly slipped into after the 2022 World Cup. To finally unlock that elusive next level. To help a golden generation, or at least a shiny one, come good at last. To salvage something, anything, from a World Cup played mostly on home soil a year from now. Not to squander it all.And what should Mauricio Pochettino add to the US national team's brew of aptitudes and attitudes but pluck and grit? The very same underdog mentality, the ferocity and fitness, that had once taken the US from global laughingstocks to merely unembarrassing and then to internationally competitiveness. Continue reading...
Club World Cup upset may be a turning point in how football in the region is viewed by Europe's eliteSo it came to pass that the blue moon was eclipsed by the crescent and the world of football took on a slightly different hue. For the past couple of years, the Saudi Pro League had been dismissed as a destination for the old, greedy, unambitious or all three. On Tuesday, European football woke up to be faced with a new side of Saudi Arabian football as Al-Hilal celebrated a 4-3 win over Manchester City to go through to the quarter-finals of the Club World Cup.If a member of the European elite being turned over by a team that had previously been little-known on the world stage was what the competition needed then this was it. Continue reading...
Purists' attempts to police our global languages are doomed - there's joy and inspiration in new expressions from all over the worldEven your own language can have the capacity to surprise you. I recently joined a panel at a journalism conference with a reporter and a lawyer, both from Colombia. I found myself captivated by some of the words they used that aren't - or rather weren't - so common in Spain. The investigative journalist Diana Salinas referred to her craft as la filigrana, the filigree. I wouldn't have used the term in that context, and yet it struck me as perfect to describe the intricate, careful work that investigative reporting requires.Filigrana is not even considered a Latin-Americanism - it comes from Italian - but it has somehow been forgotten in everyday speech in Spain. As is often the case with Spanish in Latin America, usage and context enriches the word.Maria Ramirez is a journalist and the deputy managing editor of elDiario.es, a news outlet in Spain Continue reading...
New court documents allege physical and psychological torture at Cecot in one of first looks at conditions in prisonKilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador and detained in one of that country's most notorious prisons, was physically and psychologically tortured during the three months he spent in Salvadorian custody, according to new court documents filed Wednesday.While being held at the so-called Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot) in El Salvador, Abrego Garcia and 20 other men were forced to kneel from approximately 9:00 PM to 6:00 AM", according to the court papers filed by his lawyers in the federal district court in Maryland. Continue reading...
Chamber stalls for hours on procedural vote as the White House pressures fellow Republicans to get Trump's sweeping tax and spending bill passed. Key US politics stories from Wednesday 2 July 2025The House of Representatives was at a standstill on Wednesday as Republican leaders continued to try to rally holdouts against Donald Trump's megabill, with speaker Mike Johnson saying very positive" progress had been made toward passing it.The House stalled for hours on a procedural vote while Johnson and the White House worked to pressure a handful of Republicans to ensure they would vote to approve the sweeping tax-and-spending bill amid a razor-thin Republican majority and get it to Trump to sign in time for his self-imposed 4 July deadline. Continue reading...
Alexis McGill Johnson says nearly 200 health centers could close if US House passes sweeping tax-and-spending billPlanned Parenthood stands to lose roughly $700m in federal funding if the US House passes Republicans' massive spending-and-tax bill, the organization's CEO said on Wednesday, amounting to what abortion rights supporters and opponents alike have called a backdoor abortion ban".We are facing down the reality that nearly 200 health centers are at risk of closure. We're facing a reality of the impact on shutting down almost half of abortion-providing health centers," Alexis McGill Johnson, Planned Parenthood Federation of Americas's CEO, said in an interview Wednesday morning. It does feel existential. Not just for Planned Parenthood, but for communities that are relying on access to this care." Continue reading...
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