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Received today — 5 May 2026 The Guardian World news

US supreme court expedites Voting Rights Act ruling so Louisiana can redraw its maps for midterms

5 May 2026 at 01:19

Ketanji Brown Jackson blasted the decision, saying the court has hastened it ruling only twice before in 25 years

The US supreme court went out of its way on Monday to help Louisiana Republicans redraw their congressional maps before this year’s midterm elections by allowing a recent ruling that gutted a key part of the Voting Rights Act to take effect ahead of schedule.

The procedural move comes less than a week after the court’s landmark decision striking down Louisiana’s congressional map and gutting section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Usually, the court waits 32 days to formally issue its judgment to the lower court. Last week, Louisiana asked the court to speed up that process, citing the urgency with which it needed to redraw its congressional maps. On Monday, the court agreed to do so.

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© Photograph: Gage Skidmore/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Gage Skidmore/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Gage Skidmore/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

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  • Trump’s World Liberty Financial venture sues crypto entrepreneur for defamation Reuters
    Suit alleges that Hong Kong-based Justin Sun engaged in a campaign to ‘torch’ the company’s reputationSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture co-founded by Donald Trump and his sons, said on Monday it had filed a defamation lawsuit in Florida state court against the Hong Kong-based crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, as a dispute escalates between the project and one of its most prominent backers.World Liberty posted a copy of its lawsuit on X in
     

Trump’s World Liberty Financial venture sues crypto entrepreneur for defamation

4 May 2026 at 23:49

Suit alleges that Hong Kong-based Justin Sun engaged in a campaign to ‘torch’ the company’s reputation

World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture co-founded by Donald Trump and his sons, said on Monday it had filed a defamation lawsuit in Florida state court against the Hong Kong-based crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, as a dispute escalates between the project and one of its most prominent backers.

World Liberty posted a copy of its lawsuit on X in which it accused Sun of launching a “public smear campaign”. It alleged that Sun had improperly transferred some of his WLFI tokens that come with voting and governance rights to crypto exchange Binance and, separately, that he had placed bets that WLFI would decline in market value, known as short selling. That was part of a coordinated effort to push the token’s market price down as public trading began in September, the lawsuit alleged.

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© Photograph: Eduardo Muñoz/Reuters

© Photograph: Eduardo Muñoz/Reuters

© Photograph: Eduardo Muñoz/Reuters

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  • Modern slavery at record levels in UK and expected to worsen, report warns Diane Taylor
    Government’s anti-slavery commissioner says traffickers are exploiting a growing pipeline of vulnerabilitySlavery in the UK is at record levels and is expected to worsen over the next decade, the government’s independent anti-slavery commissioner has warned.According to the number of referrals to the national referral mechanism, which assesses potential victims of slavery and provides support to victims, numbers have almost doubled in the last five years from 12,691 referrals in 2021 to 23,411 i
     

Modern slavery at record levels in UK and expected to worsen, report warns

4 May 2026 at 23:01

Government’s anti-slavery commissioner says traffickers are exploiting a growing pipeline of vulnerability

Slavery in the UK is at record levels and is expected to worsen over the next decade, the government’s independent anti-slavery commissioner has warned.

According to the number of referrals to the national referral mechanism, which assesses potential victims of slavery and provides support to victims, numbers have almost doubled in the last five years from 12,691 referrals in 2021 to 23,411 in 2025, the highest ever number.

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© Photograph: Anna Gowthorpe/PA

© Photograph: Anna Gowthorpe/PA

© Photograph: Anna Gowthorpe/PA

California seeks millions in penalties from State Farm over alleged claims violations after LA wildfires

4 May 2026 at 22:46

State’s top insurance regulator says insurance company violated law while handling claims from 2025 wildfires

California is seeking millions of dollars in penalties from State Farm after an investigation found the insurance company was slow to investigate and underpaid claims from the 2025 Los Angeles-area wildfires, regulators announced on Monday.

State Farm violated the law hundreds of times in a sampling of 220 cases, the state’s insurance commissioner, Ricardo Lara, said. The maximum penalty amount allowed by law would be about $4m if State Farm is found to be “willful” in violating state law. Regulators may also temporarily suspend the company’s license, effectively prohibiting the state’s largest home insurer from writing new policies for a year in California.

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© Photograph: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images

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  • Person shot by law enforcement near Washington monument, Secret Service says Dara Kerr and agencies
    The person’s condition and the circumstances surrounding the shooting were not immediately knownAn individual was shot by law enforcement officers on Monday near the Washington monument, the Secret Service said. The shooting occurred shortly after JD Vance’s motorcade passed through the area.The individual was first identified by plainclothes officers, who said he looked suspicious and was believed to be carrying a firearm, according to Matthew Quinn, the deputy director of the Secret Service. T
     

Person shot by law enforcement near Washington monument, Secret Service says

4 May 2026 at 22:29

The person’s condition and the circumstances surrounding the shooting were not immediately known

An individual was shot by law enforcement officers on Monday near the Washington monument, the Secret Service said. The shooting occurred shortly after JD Vance’s motorcade passed through the area.

The individual was first identified by plainclothes officers, who said he looked suspicious and was believed to be carrying a firearm, according to Matthew Quinn, the deputy director of the Secret Service. These officers called in support from uniformed agents. When the individual saw the uniformed agents, Quinn said he fled on foot, drew his gun and fired.

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© Photograph: Matt Kaminsky/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Matt Kaminsky/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Matt Kaminsky/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

Norwegian fish farms polluting fjords with waste likened to ‘raw sewage of millions of people’

4 May 2026 at 22:01

Exclusive: ‘Fish sludge’ in coastal waters now has nutrient levels equivalent to those in untreated effluent of country the size of Australia, report finds

Norwegian fish farms are filling fjords and other coastal waters with nutrient pollution equivalent to the raw sewage of tens of millions of people each year, a report has found.

Norway is the largest farmed salmon producer in the world, and nutrients in fish feed are excreted directly into coastal waters. Analysis from the Sunstone Institute found that Norwegian aquaculture released 75,000 tonnes of nitrogen, 13,000 tonnes of phosphorus and 360,000 tonnes of organic carbon in 2025.

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© Photograph: Thom Lang/Alamy

© Photograph: Thom Lang/Alamy

© Photograph: Thom Lang/Alamy

‘A test of our values’: Starmer to call for whole-society response to rising antisemitism

4 May 2026 at 21:30

PM will say responsibility to stand with Jewish communities lies with ‘every one of us’ at event on Tuesday

Keir Starmer will call for a whole-of-society response to rising antisemitism on Tuesday, saying that it is not enough simply to condemn the scourge, but people “must show it” through their actions too.

Before a roundtable event at Downing Street, the prime minister will call for action on all forms of antisemitism, after a knife attack against the Jewish community in Golders Green last week, a spate of serious arson attacks and the terror incident in Heaton Park in October.

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© Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

© Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

© Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Two volunteers among three dead off NSW coast after rescue boat rolls while trying to help sinking yacht

4 May 2026 at 21:18

Three people confirmed dead but four made it to shore after rescue went wrong in rough seas

Two marine rescue volunteers have died as they sought to assist a stricken yacht in a deadly rescue mission.

Three people died during the rescue effort as volunteers went to the aid of a yacht at the Ballina bar in northern New South Wales on Monday night.

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© Photograph: Dave Hunt/AAP

© Photograph: Dave Hunt/AAP

© Photograph: Dave Hunt/AAP

Received yesterday — 4 May 2026 The Guardian World news

Feminism play Liberation and first world war novel Angel Down among Pulitzer winners

4 May 2026 at 20:23

This year’s winners also include Jill Lepore’s book on the constitution and Brian Goldstone’s on housing insecurity

Pulitzer prize officials awarded the fiction award to an author with a long history in fantasy, horror and young adult novels: Daniel Kraus, cited for Angel Down, a first world war narrative that unfolds in one long sentence. Liberation, Bess Wohl’s look back at the feminist consciousness-raising groups of the 1970s, received the drama prize.

Winners announced on Monday included two books rooted in the founding of the US. Jill Lepore’s We the People: A History of the US Constitution won for history, and Amanda Vaill’s Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution was the winner for biography.

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© Photograph: Little Fang

© Photograph: Little Fang

© Photograph: Little Fang

News live: search suspended for Australian hiker missing in Canada; ‘they came to kill us,’ Jewish woman tells Bondi royal commission

5 May 2026 at 01:21

Sydney woman tells antisemitism royal commission how everyday life has changed for her and her three children. Follow today’s news live

Two marine rescue volunteers who went to help others are among those who have died in a tragic yacht accident on Monday night.

As we reported below, three people died as volunteers went to the aid of a yacht at the Ballina bar in northern New South Wales.

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© Photograph: supplied by Nova Scotia RCMP

© Photograph: supplied by Nova Scotia RCMP

© Photograph: supplied by Nova Scotia RCMP

Met Museum show at new Costume Institute puts fashion in same spotlight as Egyptian artefacts

4 May 2026 at 19:22

Costume Art pairs couture pieces with items from its collection in exploration of many kinds of human bodies

Speaking at the opening of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute spring exhibition in New York, Anna Wintour described the first Monday in May as her “favourite day of the year, and also my most terrifying one”.

This particular Monday may be more high-stakes than previous years, with Monday night’s Met Gala for the exhibition’s launch mired in controversy, owing to Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos’s sponsorship of the event. It is also the inaugural exhibition for the Costume Institute’s new home: a 12,000 sq ft space, named the Condé M Nast Galleries, that puts the museum’s fashion exhibitions in a considerably more high-profile spot, right off its Great Hall.

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© Photograph: Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Images

Dolly Parton cancels Las Vegas residency over health issues: ‘I’ve still got some healing to do’

4 May 2026 at 19:15

The 80-year-old singer will not be performing rescheduled dates in September but assured fans she is receiving treatment and ‘improving every day’

Dolly Parton has canceled her Las Vegas residency over ongoing health issues.

The 80-year-old singer had originally been scheduled to perform six shows at Caesar’s Palace last December but moved the dates to September 2026. She has now announced on social media that she won’t be able to perform as planned.

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© Photograph: Brandon Sloter/Getty Images

© Photograph: Brandon Sloter/Getty Images

© Photograph: Brandon Sloter/Getty Images

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