Rule prevents many immigrant truckers from renewing driver’s license – even if they’ve driven legally for years

Nearly 200,000 US truck drivers are at risk of losing their commercial driver’s licenses after the US Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a new rule that disqualifies many foreign-born truck drivers from getting or renewing their licenses.

Tens of thousands of immigrant drivers are stuck in a limbo after the rule took effect in March, and lawsuits challenging the rule are still being reviewed by federal courts.

The rule restricts licenses to immigrants who have specific employment authorization statuses, disqualifying those with other authorizations, including asylum seekers, refugees and those with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status.

The rule has shaken immigrant drivers who have spent years dedicated to the industry.

Trump campaign accelerating climate crisis as officials move migrants to detention jails and deport them from US

US immigration enforcement flights are producing hundreds of thousands of metric tonnes of climate-damaging carbon emissions as officials shuttle unprecedented numbers of people to detention centers far from home and deport them to countries across the world.

Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign has spurred at least an 80% increase in such flights year over year, accelerating the climate crisis by emitting massive amounts of carbon dioxide, according to data analysis shared exclusively with the Guardian.

“We’ve seen a staggering increase of all US immigration [enforcement] flights,” including “the number of flights as well as the locations that the flights are going to,” said Savitri Arvey, director of research and analysis for refugee and immigrant rights at Human Rights First (HRF), the US advocacy group.

Netanyahu’s joint war with the US began with talk of regime change in Tehran but may leave him with few strategic gains

When Donald Trump launched a pre-emptive war on Iran with Israel in February, many in the country hailed the campaign as the crowning triumph of Benjamin Netanyahu’s political and diplomatic career.

Three months on the regime is still in power in Tehran, Trump is chasing a deal that will reopen the strait of Hormuz to oil tankers, and the reported terms have provoked alarm, dismay and anger in Israel.

“Israel is completely beholden to the decisions of a capricious, hollow and desperate American president,” Nahum Barnea wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth, one of several commentators who condemned both the deal and the Israeli prime minister.

Republican congressman is on his way out Congress but is already preparing for a possible return

After losing a primary challenge to a Donald Trump-backed candidate last week, Republican Rep. Thomas Massie is already preparing for a return to politics in 2028.

The Kentucky congressman has already filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Elections Commission, which will allow him to continue fundraising for any potential campaigns before the next congressional elections.

Leaders of the California State University system, the CSU, want it to become the nation's first artificial intelligence-powered institution of its kind.

It entered into a $17 million no-bid contract with OpenAI last year to provide students, faculty and staff with a new resource: ChatGPT Edu

a version of the popular generative AI chatbot intended for use by educational institutions. The system recently renewed that contract for another $13 million a year for the next three years.

But in a recent survey, majorities of its students and faculty said they were skeptical of the benefits of AI for education, and they worry about AI's impacts on job security, creativity and the environment.

Cache of internal documents leaked to the Guardian and the ABC’s Four Corners show multinational has war-gamed ways to massively delay decarbonisation

The world’s biggest miner has halted or delayed projects to cut vast amounts of emissions and has quietly war-gamed options to push major climate investments in its Western Australian iron ore operations into the next two decades, internal documents show.

An exclusive investigation based on documents leaked to the Guardian and the ABC’s Four Corners can reveal that BHP, one of Australia’s biggest historic emitters, has dumped plans for a facility that could have significantly reduced emissions and has put on ice renewable projects designed to power its iron ore operations in the vast, resource-rich Pilbara region.

The cache of leaked internal records, dubbed the BHP files, reveals that the company was aware delayed climate action in the Pilbara would pose a “reputational risk” and that “urgent decarbonisation in line with BHP’s public commitments” effectively underpinned its “licence to operate”.

Ulf Kristersson aims to expand state-funded IVF as Sweden grapples with lowest fertility rate since records began

Sweden’s prime minister has promised to put IVF at the heart of his re-election campaign as he tries to win over female voters amid the country’s record low birthrate.

Ulf Kristersson’s government recently increased the number of state-funded IVF attempts granted to aspiring first-time parents from three to six.

Now he has said that if his party, the centre-right Moderates – whose minority-run coalition depends on the support of the far-right Sweden Democrats – hold on to power in September’s general election, they will also fund IVF for additional children.

It comes after official statistics showed this year that, despite often being cited as one of the best countries in the world to have children, Sweden’s fertility rate sank to 1.42 last year, the lowest since 1749 when records started.

Inexpensive fiber-optic drones are challenging Israel's high-tech defenses, shifting the military balance in the Middle East.

A recent video showing an explosive-laden drone striking an Israeli Iron Dome battery couldn't have been more symbolic: Israel's famous air-defense system, which cost billions of euros, looked powerless against a small aircraft that cost a few hundred euros.

While the video's authenticity has not yet been verified, experts believe it is genuine.

The footage was published about a week ago by Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based pro-Iranian militia, which Germany, the US and several Sunni Arab states have classified as a terrorist organization.

The drone strike, if genuine, would mark propaganda victory for Hezbollah and reveal a significant vulnerability in Israel's military capabilities.

Democrats are poised to finish several seats behind Republicans in 2026 in the nationwide race to redraw maps for the U.S. House.

They can catch up in 2028, but only if they overcome a series of redistricting hurdles that the GOP does not face.

That’s because Democrats, in many states, can draw partisan political lines only if they evade constraints — some self-imposed — on their ability to counterpunch.

Why did the U.S. Senate strike its tent last week and go home early? Because in spite of a June 1 deadline set by President Trump, Senate Republican leaders were not ready to restore funding for two key components of the Department of Homeland Security.

We have reached the point where the phrase "homeland security" swiftly translates to political insecurity, and that brings the legislative machinery in Congress to a halt as the midterm elections loom.

Anyone following the president's second term thus far will not be surprised that the latest DHS freeze-up concerns the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Rightwing commentator says she is hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket and claims she was misled by promoter Rocksman

None of the 15,000 ticket holders for conservative influencer Candace Owens’ cancelled Australian tour are expected to get their money back from the promoter, after it spent all its money then collapsed.

Owens herself says she is hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket and claims she was misled by the promoter, Rocksman, a company with links to the influential conservative lobby group Turning Point Australia.

Rocksman collapsed with just 21 Australian cents in its bank account and will never refund Owens, her Australian ticket holders or other creditors, according to its liquidator’s statutory report to creditors, filed with Asic and dated 3 March.

Owens is a rightwing commentator who has since had a public falling out with Donald Trump.

Andrew Weissmann argues for new law to hold political liars like US president accountable for harming democracy

Politicians must be held accountable if their lies damage democracy, according to a former US federal prosecutor and FBI general counsel who was pursued by Donald Trump.

The US must be “as creative as possible” and introduce sweeping structural reforms if it escapes its current “mess”, said Andrew Weissmann, laying out a proposal for a legislative crackdown on election deceit.

“Lying can be held to account,” argued Weissmann, a senior figure in former FBI director Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and Trump’s links to Moscow.