The Guardian · US newsKey sticking point to building beauty powerhouse was level compensation demanded by Charlotte Tilbury
The US cosmetics company Estée Lauder has ended talks with its Spanish rival Puig about a merger that would have created a fashion and beauty group worth almost $40bn (£30bn).
Estée Lauder, one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of skincare, makeup and fragrances, owns brands including Clinique, Bobbi Brown and Tom Ford Beauty.
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Mark Sweney · Fri, May 22, 2026, 6:55 AM
The Guardian · US news41-year-old died after hospitalization for severe illness
911 call: Busch was short of breath, coughing blood
Fans honor driver by donating to IVF foundation
Longtime teammates, former rivals and others around the sports world have joined the wave of condolences over the sudden death of Nascar driver Kyle Busch on Thursday.
Busch, a two-time Cup Series champion who was the winningest driver across the sport’s three series in history, died at 41 after being hospitalized earlier Thursday with a severe illness. No cause of death has been announced.
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Ella Brockway and agencies · Fri, May 22, 2026, 6:49 AM
The Guardian · US newsProsecutors may face sanctions over redactions to grand jury transcripts linked to four of ‘Broadview Six’ defendants
Federal prosecutors have decided to drop all remaining criminal charges against four people indicted in October after protesting outside a suburban Chicago immigration detention center in the latest such case to unravel for the Trump administration.
Andrew Boutros, a US attorney, made the announcement on Thursday after a meeting about redactions made by prosecutors to a set of grand jury transcripts.
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Edward Helmore and agencies · Fri, May 22, 2026, 6:19 AM
The Guardian · US newsBiologist was fired by a state agency for criticizing Charlie Kirk on social media after his shooting death
Florida officials have agreed to pay nearly half a million dollars to a biologist who was fired by a state agency for criticizing conservative political activist Charlie Kirk on social media after his shooting death.
The state’s fish and wildlife conservation commission (FWC) fired biologist Brittney Brown in September after she reposted a meme on her personal Instagram account that claimed Kirk wouldn’t care about children being shot in their classrooms. She filed a lawsuit seeking reinstatement, saying she struggled to find other work because the state agency is the regulatory body for her research specialization in bird conservation.
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Associated Press · Fri, May 22, 2026, 6:10 AM
The Guardian · CaliforniaWhat does a surge in ocean temperatures, compounded with El Niño, bode for the summer?
An enormous marine heatwave off the US west coast is ringing alarm bells among ocean and atmospheric scientists as new data shows its ecological and environmental effects are intensifying.
The unusual area of warm water has persisted since peaking in size during September 2025 and still stretches thousands of miles from the California coastline – more than halfway across the Pacific – affecting a vast triangle-shaped region of oceanic habitats from Hawaii to British Columbia and southward to Mexico.
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Eric Holthaus · Fri, May 22, 2026, 6:00 AM
The Guardian · US newsCleveland Cavaliers 93-109 New York Knicks
Hart leads with playoff-best 26 points
Knicks extend winning streak to nine games
Josh Hart scored a playoff career-high 26 points, Jalen Brunson had 19 points and 14 assists, and the New York Knicks moved halfway to their first NBA finals appearance since 1999 by beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 109-93 on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.
Mikal Bridges also scored 19 points and Karl-Anthony Towns had 18 points and 13 rebounds for the Knicks, who won their ninth straight game. It is the NBA’s longest postseason winning streak since the Boston Celtics won 10 straight on their way to the 2024 championship.
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Associated Press · Fri, May 22, 2026, 5:17 AM
The Guardian · CaliforniaThe Islamic Center of San Diego, rocked by tragedy, opens its doors again to support its congregants and welcome outsiders
Teacher’s assistant Iman Khatib was administering tests at the elementary school inside the Islamic Center of San Diego (ICSD) when she heard the bangs. She locked the classroom door, turned off the lights, silenced her phone and walkie-talkie, and crawled under a desk with her co-worker.
In the preschool classrooms nearby, three- and four-year-olds did the same – staying completely silent, hiding in corners, following the protocols they had been taught during drills. Outside, the first-grade class was at recess when the first shot rang out.
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Jennifer Chowdhury · Fri, May 22, 2026, 5:00 AM
The Guardian · US newsIn a country where their rights are being attacked from all sides, it’s time for Black college athletes to utilize their power
Six years after the nation underwent a so-called “racial reckoning”, Black America is under comprehensive assault.
The assault comes from the country’s highest elected office, where the president has, from the first day of his re-inauguration, made clear his belief that it is the white people of the world who are the true victims of racial discrimination. He has codified into policy what many non-Black Americans of all political persuasions believe quietly in public and loudly among themselves: the accomplishments and positions of Black people are the byproduct of unfair workplace diversity initiatives and not the people in question’s talent, hard work, ambition. As it limits immigration to the United States from the rest of the world, the administration earlier this week announced plans to allow entry to an additional 10,000 white South Africans as an “emergency response” to anti-white discrimination. The New York Times reported this will cost taxpayers roughly $100m.
Howard Bryant is the author of 11 books, including The Heritage: Black Athletes, A Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism and Kings and Pawns: Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson in America.
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Howard Bryant · Fri, May 22, 2026, 5:00 AM
The Guardian · US newsThe world’s richest man can’t stop posting about how Lupita Nyong’o was chosen to play an imaginary woman
It was the casting choice that launched a thousand meltdowns. The Oscar-winning actor Lupita Nyong’o was confirmed as Helen of Troy in Christopher Nolan’s film adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey, and the usual suspects immediately started squealing that the fall of western civilization was nigh.
Elon Musk, a man in possession of the world’s thinnest skin and fattest bank account, is obviously among the aggrieved. Musk started moaning about The Odyssey in January, when it was rumoured that Nyong’o had the role. Since a 12 May interview with Nolan in Time magazine made this casting official, Musk hasn’t stopped whining; he’s spent roughly a week attacking Nyong’o on X and amplifying other angry bigots. His main arguments appear to be that this is a historically inaccurate rendering of a mythological poem; Nyong’o, who was named People magazine’s “Most Beautiful Woman” in 2014, is not sufficiently beautiful; and the casting of a Black woman in a movie nobody is forcing him to watch is inextricably intertwined with a leftwing plot to undermine western society.
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
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Arwa Mahdawi · Fri, May 22, 2026, 5:00 AM
The Guardian · US newsAfter outcry over inconsistency last year, a taskforce sought to improve the league’s officiating. Now foul calls are up, and players and coaches are adjusting
The moment Rickea Jackson went down during the Chicago Sky’s game against the Minnesota Lynx is difficult to watch, even days later. Jackson, who had just brushed off physical contact right before she was hurt, was driving to the basket about halfway through the second quarter when she suddenly lurched backward and fell, pointing toward her left knee.
The Sky announced Tuesday that Jackson will miss the remainder of the 2026 season with a torn ACL, tough news to receive when she was only a handful of games into her first campaign with Chicago after an offseason trade.
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Stephanie Kaloi · Fri, May 22, 2026, 4:00 AM
The Guardian · US newsAs the outrages continue, mainstream outlets just see Trump being Trump
His social media posts are unhinged. He seems to fall asleep in meetings. He proudly proclaims he’s not thinking “even a little bit” about Americans’ personal finances in talks with Iran. And he lies constantly about the supposed success of the war with Iran he started for no good reason.
That’s just the start, of course, when it comes to Donald Trump’s disastrous second presidency. There’s the ruination of the Kennedy Center, the building of a ballroom (or bunker?) to replace the White House East Wing, and the wrecking ball that the Trump-aligned supreme court has taken to the voting rights of Black Americans. There’s the endless self-dealing and the abuse of the justice department’s intended purpose.
Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture
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Margaret Sullivan · Fri, May 22, 2026, 3:00 AM
The Guardian · US newsUS secretary of state says president would like a negotiated agreement with Havana but likelihood ‘is not high’
The US president, Donald Trump, and the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, on Thursday again raised the spectre of military intervention in Cuba, a renewed threat that takes on greater weight a day after the administration announced criminal charges against Raúl Castro, the island’s former leader.
“Other presidents have looked at this for 50, 60 years, doing something,” Trump told reporters when asked about Cuba during an event in the Oval Office. “And it looks like I’ll be the one that does it. So I would be happy to do it.”
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Associated Press · Fri, May 22, 2026, 2:29 AM
