California's governor Gavy Newsom announced Thursday that he will commute all death sentences in the state to life without the possibility of parole. He said that "capital punishment is morally wrong." The state Supreme Court will have the final say in hundreds of those cases.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said Thursday, November 5, he was commuting all death sentences across the state to life imprisonment, in a move that will affect over 500 prisoners. FRANCE 24's correspondent Wassim Cornet reports.
Gavin Newsom cites state values and flaws in the legal system as he grants largest mass clemency in US history.
Law bans social media platforms from providing minors features such as autoplay that lead to compulsive use Google, Meta and TikTok sued California to block enforcement of a new state law intended to limit the risk of addicting children under 16 to social media platforms. The law, known as Assembly Bill 1709, prohibits such platforms from offering underage children “psychologically exploitative features” that could lead to compulsive use, such as providing personal recommendations and sending videos through autoplay features. It also requires the deletion of children’s accounts with those features. Continue reading...
California has historically had the largest population of death row inmates in the US.
Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat and a rumored presidential candidate, moved to commute the death sentences of 548 inmates in California for one of his last acts as governor.
California Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday said he would commute all 548 death sentences in the state to life in prison without parole, marking a major step away from capital punishment as he prepares to leave office after eight years.
Democrat’s move prevents these people from executions under future governors, after Christa Pike’s failed execution Gavin Newsom , California ’s governor, has commuted the death sentences of more than 500 people on the state’s death row on Thursday, a move that ensures they can never be executed under future administrations. The Democrat ’s mass commutation at the end of his term has converted all of the state’s death sentences to life without the possibility of parole, the largest clearing of any US death row in modern history. Continue reading...
Black in defamation lawsuit alleges California lawmaker made false statements about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein Billionaire Leon Black has filed a defamation lawsuit against California congressman Robert Garcia, accusing the lawmaker, who is the top Democrat on the House oversight committee, of making false statements about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein and the disgraced financiers’s sex trafficking crimes. The filing, filed in federal court in New York on Wednesday, comes almost two months after the House voted to hold Black in contempt of Congress over his refusal to comply with subpoenas issued by the House oversight committee as part of the panel’s investigation into Epstein. As of 5 November, the Department of Justice has not filed contempt charges against Black. Garcia’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Continue reading...
The BLVD is home to 250 enterprises, from banks, tattoo shops and restaurants to museums and a performing arts centre Passing through the Mojave desert on State Route 14, going by landscapes Hollywood uses to represent alien planets, a driver might not expect to find a walkable, tree-lined boulevard. But there are nine beautiful, leafy blocks on West Lancaster Boulevard, a piece of what used to be Highway 14. They were redeveloped as part of a mixed-use urban streetscape in the city of Lancaster, California in 2010. The BLVD, as it’s been rebranded, is home to 250 public and private enterprises, from banks, tattoo shops and restaurants to museums, a performing arts centre and a public library. City Hall is just a block south. The city invested $11.5m (£8.5m) to transform a busy thoroughfare into an inviting public space. The three lanes in the centre of the former five-lane road were replaced by a series of tree-lined ramblas – Spanish for “avenue” and “watercourse,” because dry stream beds served as streets in early cities. The redesign was planned and funded by the city of redevelopment agency. Within four years of completion, it had generated more than $270m in economic output, attracted $130m in investment, created hundreds of jobs and prompted the building or renovation of hundreds of housing units, according to the city. The revitalisation has also created more intangible benefits, residents say.. The city centre the feels like a gathering space, they said — somewhere where they can feel like part of a community. Continue reading...
Agents pinned down Erik Zepeda, a 20-year-old with disabilities, and left him with a broken wrist in latest example of ICE brutality as activity surges in California The violent ICE detention of a US citizen with disabilities as he walked to his high school has sparked outrage in California where leaders are condemning the incident as racial profiling and calling on authorities to investigate. Erik Zepeda, a 20-year-old high school student, was stopped by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers last month in the small agricultural city of Santa Maria, famed for its strawberry harvest, where 79% of residents are Latino. His wrist was broken and later required surgery. Continue reading...
Campaign focused on cost of living issues and backlash over ICE raids pays dividends for progressive Randy Villegas.
Key races in Alaska, Mississippi, Kansas and California remain uncounted.
Community college professor unseats incumbent Republican David Valdao in seat redrawn under Prop 50 Democrat Randy Villegas, a community college professor with major progressive endorsements, has won the race for California’s 22nd congressional district. He unseats the six-term, incumbent Republican congressman, David Valadao, in a district that was considered the only true toss-up across the state of California after being redrawn under Proposition 50. Valadao and Villegas are both Central Valley natives from immigrant families with working class or agricultural ties, roots that reflect many of the constituents in California’s 22nd district, which stretches from Bakersfield to just west of Fresno. Continue reading...
Democrats flip seven Senate seats in Kansas, Iowa, Texas, Maine, Ohio, North Carolina and South Carolina; ‘blue wave’ rejects Trump’s agenda Track live results from all 50 states Full report: Democrats win control of Congress in ‘blue wave’ Tell us: how do you feel about the US midterm election results? Tell us: what do you want to know about the midterm election results? Good morning and welcome to the US politics live blog. In case you fell asleep early, yesterday evening resonated as an extinction level-event for Donald Trump’s Republican Party, a worst-case scenario for the GOP that even the starkest polls might’ve underestimated. Trump, uncharacteristically gracious, accepted his party’s resounding defeat, congratulated Democrats, and told The New York Times that he was “absolutely willing to accept” the election results. That was very much in doubt after the Trump administration spent months seeking to exert greater influence over the elections process through executive orders and the courts. Deb Haaland, running in New Mexico, became the first Native American woman elected as governor. Keisha Lanca Bottoms became the first Black woman ever elected governor. Abdul El-Sayed, the victorious Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, became the first Muslim voted into the upper chamber. Several key congressional races, including contests in Colorado, Michigan, Maine, New York, California, and North Carolina, remain to be called. Continue reading...
In Kolwezi, the mining capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, local residents are suing a huge Chinese mine and the government for environmental pollution. It will be one of the most important cases the country has seen. FRANCE 24's correspondent Emmet Livingstone reports.
Democrats easily hold on to governor's office and are on track to notch up wins in key congressional races.
Last year, California voters approved a bill to temporarily redraw the state’s congressional map to make certain congressional districts more favourable to the Democrats – itself a response to a Republican-led redistricting push that began in Texas. France 24’s Wassim Cornet in Los Angeles takes a look at what impact these efforts may have had on the midterm results.
California polls have just closed, but results will take longer to come in. Why does the state take longer to count its votes? We discuss this with our guest, Guy Marzorati, political correspondent at KQED in the Bay Area.
The US Supreme Court rejected on Monday, November 3, the Trump administration’s push to force California to set aside 20,000 ballots from people the federal government claims are noncitizens, a decision that came hours before the final day of voting in the pivotal midterm elections. FRANCE 24's correspondent Wassim Cornet reports.
Democrats are hoping to seize control in the capitol and rein in the president’s power. Plus, a peacock that loves admiring itself in the mirror a little too much Good morning. Americans are heading to the polls today in US midterm elections widely seen as a referendum on Donald Trump’s second presidency and a chance for opponents to rein in his power. The party holding the White House typically loses congressional seats at midterm elections and Democrats are hoping the president’s nose-diving popularity can be exploited. Meanwhile, the US Department of Justice in California has charged six more people with alleged voter fraud crimes, an escalation of the administration’s campaign against election integrity. However, in a blow to Trump, the supreme court has ruled against attempts to force California election officials to segregate and not count ballots from people the justice department claims are non-citizens. Where have our reporters been covering the crucial midterm races? We have a dispatch from Shrai Popat in New Hampshire , where Republicans were hoping to flip a Senate seat but now worry Trump may be dragging them down, and David Smith has been in Austin , where James Talarico is making an extraordinary bid to break the Texas Democrats’ losing streak. Lauren Gambino has been in Los Angeles, casting her eye over Xavier Becerra’s California shoo-in to be governer , while Joseph Gedeon offers this analysis from Detroit of how Israel is at the heart of Haley Stevens’s extraordinary reversal to back Abdul El-Sayed’s Republican opponent in Michigan. Where can you find the Guardian’s election coverage? This explainer has everything you need to know about how winners are called, how states count ballots and Trump’s election denialism. We also have an hour-by-hour rundown of when polls close around the US, and this valuable guide to the candidates and races that will decide the elections. We will be live blogging the election and results round-the-clock. You can join
California could become the first US state to tax the net worth of billionaires Tuesday under a ballot measure that has divided liberal leaders nationally and triggered one of the most expensive ballot fights in state history as the ultra-rich scramble to figure out whether they would pay the tax or flee. Proposition 40 would impose a one-time 5% tax on the wealth of Californians whose net worth exceeds $1 billion, with most of the revenue dedicated to replacing federal funding cuts to healthcare.
Local organisations and representatives say immigration raids have spread fear and uncertainty through communities.
At least seven Bay Area cities have passed data centre moratoriums, despite the region's reputation as an AI hub.
The ruling, which comes on the eve of the midterm elections, essentially ends the Trump administration's bid to disqualify the ballots in the state.
Latest arrests come after DoJ unsuccessfully fought to force state election officials to set aside about 20,000 ballots The US Department of Justice (DoJ) in California has charged six more people with alleged voter fraud crimes, an escalation of the Trump administration’s campaign against the state’s election processes on the eve of the midterms. Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles and a close ally of the president , announced on Monday that his office was prosecuting six lawful permanent residents accused of unlawfully registering to vote and casting fraudulent ballots. The DoJ filed similar charges against 28 people across California last month and arranged for a dramatic on-camera arrest of one 72-year-old defendant, editing the footage into a DoJ promotional video. Sam Levine contributed reporting Continue reading...
Justice department had ordered state to segregate and not count 20,000 ballots from people it claims are non-citizens The supreme court on Monday ruled against the Trump administration and its attempts to force California election officials to segregate and not count ballots from people that the justice department claims are non-citizens. The ruling follows several lower courts siding with California officials, who argued the federal government was seeking to interfere in state elections. California and the Trump administration have been in a legal standoff over the past few weeks following the justice department’s claim that 20,000 non-citizens were on the state’s voter rolls. The DoJ delivered a USB drive to Los Angeles and Sacramento election officials in mid-October with the names, giving only 48 hours for officials to review the list and threatening to sue if the ballots were not sequestered until those listed could verify their citizenship. Election officials refused, leading to a series of courtroom battles. Continue reading...
The Trump administration had appealed to the Supreme Court over claims that a list of more than 20,000 ballots in California include non-US citizens.
The Trump administration has appealed to the Supreme Court over claims that a list of more than 20,000 ballots in California include non-US citizens. Multiple courts and independent analysis have rejected the claims.
California says any move to block ballots from suspected noncitizens could disenfranchise eligible voters.
It was one of US President Donald Trump's major campaign promises in 2024: putting an end to illegal crossings along the southern US border. Today, official data shows that promise has been kept: arrests for illegal crossings have plummeted by more than 93 percent since the peak of arrests under then-US President Joe Biden.
Bowen Wan was on anti-seizure medication, and chatbot provided her with a tapering schedule to reduce dosage A woman’s death from an epileptic seizure after she received dangerous advice from a chatbot has prompted her parents to sue OpenAI earlier this week. The legal action is the latest lawsuit that in which plaintiffs allege that a bot provided counsel to a user that ultimately led to their death . Continue reading...
Data scientists find that many 'likely non-citizens' identified by the Trump administration were erroneously flagged.
The monument has sparked fierce opposition from local governments fearing disruption to traffic and historic views.
Aston Villa chairman accuses ex-Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher of insulting the club, with legal action threatened.
The 9th Circuit Court calls the petition to remove 20,000 ballots from California's vote count unconstitutional.
Redistricting in California, the most populous US state, could flip control of US House from Republican to Democrat.
In today’s newsletter: Benjamin Netanyahu has been left without a majority, now it is up to the coalition to find out whether the desire for change will prove to be a defining political moment Good morning. It was described by many Israelis as the most consequential election in their country’s history. And, as the final votes were tallied, it has delivered a result that presents Israel with a significant dilemma. Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition has lost its mandate while the opposition has a clear majority: but only if the Jewish Israeli opposition bloc, led by retired general Gadi Eisenkot, is prepared to make a governing pact with Palestinian Israeli parties, which have secured a historic result. UK politics | John Healey has backed away from cutting the cost of welfare this parliament, amid dire warnings his first budget could lead to brutal spending cuts because of a £28bn shortfall in public finances. Patrick Stewart | The acclaimed British stage and screen actor renowned for both Shakespeare and sci-fi, died at his home in Los Angeles after “a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia”, his longtime spokesperson said. Environment | One of the most ambitious nature recovery projects ever undertaken in England can go ahead after campaigners announced they had raised £30m to buy an estate in Northumberland. Europe | Spain began three days of mourning on Thursday for at least 69 people who died in a high-speed rail collision , as hospitals continued to treat dozens of injured passengers and train drivers went on strike to urge more investment in railway safety. US news | The Trump administration has opened a criminal investigation in California over claims that thousands of noncitizens are registered to vote in the state, and has begun subpoenaing election officials. Continue reading...
German gamblers may finally be able to beat the house, thanks to new court rulings in the EU and in Germany. The decisions could help gambling addicts — but the legal road might be difficult.
