By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday launched a civil rights probe into conditions

President Joe Biden has condemned the “hysterical” threats against LGBT+ communities across the US, following a historic surge in state-level legislation targeting LGBT+ people, particularly trans youth, and a rise in homophobic and transphobic rhetoric and abuse. His remarks alongside UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on 8 June followed the announcement of a White House strategy to protect LGBT+ rights and safety, including the launch of a LGBTQI+ Community Safety Partnership with federal law enforcement agencies, and federal support for affirming mental healthcare and LGBT+ youth in foster care and LGBT+ youth experiencing homelessness. The Biden administration also is directing the US Department of Education to address the spike in book bans and challenges to library materials that are disproportionately by and about LGBT+ people. “Our fight is far from over, because we have some hysterical and I would argue prejudiced people who are engaged in all of what you see going on around the country,” the president said in remarks from the White House. “It’s an appeal to fear and it’s an appeal that is totally, thoroughly unjustified and ugly,” he said. The president also urged Congress to pass the Equality Act, which has languished in the US Senate after its passage, twice, in the US House of Representatives. “I’m not giving up on this,” Mr Biden added. That landmark legislation would extend discrimination protections to LGBT+ people in federal civil rights law by prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation and gender identity across federally protected public accommodations and facilities, including employment, education and housing. “It’s wrong that a person can be married in the morning in the United States and be fired in the afternoon by their employer because they’re gay,” Mr Biden said. “It’s wrong that the violence and hate crimes targeting LGBTQ people is rising. It’s wrong that extreme officials are pushing hateful bills, targeting transgender children, terrifying families, and criminalising doctors,” he added. “These are our kids. These are our neighbours. It’s cruel. It’s callous.” The president was set to announce the White House plan for federal LGBT+ protections at a Pride event on Thursday afternoon, but it was postponed due to air pollution from Canadian wildfires blanketing the East Coast. Over the last several years, Republican state lawmakers have introduced hundreds of state-level bills impacting LGBT+ people, including 220 bills specifically targeting trans and nonbinary Americans and their healthcare, according to the Human Rights Campaign’s analysis. More than 75 such bills have been signed into law. At least 19 states have enacted laws or policies banning affirming healthcare for young trans people against the guidance of health providers and major medical groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics. LGBT+ communities also have reported increased threats of violence, discrimination and harassment, parallel to volatile rhetoric that has consumed right-wing media, social media platforms and debate among Republican elected officials, including in the halls of Congress, where House Republicans have advanced legislation mirroring the anti-LGBT+ bills dominating state capitols. “You’re loved, you’re heard, and this administration has your back,” Mr Biden said in his remarks, addressing LGBT+ communities. “We are not relenting one single second to make sure you’re protected.” Read More Rachel Levine on Congress bigots, Don’t Say Gay and life as Biden’s top trans official: ‘Despair doesn’t motivate change’ Biden’s troubled journey on LGBT+ rights is a ‘beautiful thing’, top US diplomat says America’s largest LGBT+ civil rights group issues ‘state of emergency’ across US

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Rishi Sunak seemingly confirmed he's a Swiftie after a woman claimed he turned up to a Taylor Swift-themed SoulCycle class in LA. The prime minister is currently on holiday with his family in California, where he's been snapped at Santa Monica Pier and Disneyland and has since been spotted at an early morning spin class. In the viral TikTok, Hannah Harmelin (@hannahharmelin) described how she had "the biggest heart attack of [her] life," when she saw security "everywhere" inside the studio. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter "So I walk into my Taylor Swift-themed 7 am SoulCycle class in Santa Monica, and there's Secret Service everywhere in the studio, they're lined up on the sidewalk, they're inside, they're in every corner," she explained. "They're like, standing there with their earpieces, and they're all serious and there's just security everywhere. "I'm like, 'What is going on?'" Harmelin thought all of the security may have been for Swift herself, after all she is currently in LA with her Eras Tour. "She's performing in LA, celebrities do this all the time," the TikToker noted. @hannahharmelin Soulcycle in LA be like #taylorswift #taylorswiftsoulcycle #LA #erastour #soulcycle #celebrities #omg #lol #fyp "So we get in, and I'm like trying to look around but trying to play it cool, and the security guard comes into the class, there's actually like three of them standing in all the corners, and they stand there like all serious the whole entire class. "And the teachers usually like turn on and off the lights, in this class she just like kept the lights off, it was very private. "And of course you've heard of like Justin Bieber coming in and singing a song and like Beyoncé and Jay-Z like riding class. "So I'm freaking out the whole time. "So the class ends, and I'm looking around trying to see where she is. "Turns out it was the prime minister of the UK - apparently he's a Swiftie." Since sharing the random encounter, Harmelin's video has received 1.2m views, 152,000 likes and thousands of comments from people who were surprised to find out Sunak appears to be a Swiftie. One person said: "Rishi Sunak is a Swiftie? What is he doing in LA" "Today I learned Rishi Sunak is a soul cycle girlie," another person wrote. Someone else added: "Meanwhile back home the UK is absolutely falling apart, nice." "What this is so random," a fourth person commented. Sunak isn't the first Swiftie prime minister, as his predecessor Liz Truss expressed her love for Swift's music. Meanwhile, the prime minister's wife Akshata Murty attended a SoulCycle spin class with US first lady Jill Biden the day after the King's coronation back in May. A Number 10 spokesman told the PA news agency they will not be providing a running commentary on the Prime Minister’s holiday. indy100 has contacted Downing Street for comment. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office has asked the District of Columbia judge overseeing the 2020 election subversion case against former president Donald Trump to schedule the twice-impeached, thrice-indicted ex-president’s trial for a four to six week period beginning on 2 January next year. In an eight-page filing authored by Senior Assistant Special Counsels Molly Gaston and Thomas Windom, the special counsel’s office said their proposed schedule would give Mr Trump and his defence team sufficient time to prepare a case and review the evidence which the government is prepared to turn over as part of the discovery process, as well as litigate any pre-trial matters such as the request for a change of venue Mr Trump has said he will call for. The prosecutors also said that a 2 January 2024 trial date would “most importantly ... vindicate the public’s strong interest in a speedy trial,” which they described as being “of particular significance” because Mr Trump is “charged with conspiring to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election, obstruct the certification of the election results, and discount citizens’ legitimate votes”. “A January 2, 2024, trial date represents an appropriately speedy trial in the public interest and in the interests of justice, while affording the defendant time to prepare his defense and raise pre-trial legal issues with the Court,” they said. At his arraignment one week ago, Mr Trump’s attorneys indicated that they would request significant delays and ask Judge Tanya Chutkan to stop the clock set under the Speedy Trial Act which sets out a 70-day period in which trials in criminal cases are required to begin. The ex-president’s legal strategy in both civil and criminal matters, dating back decades, is to cause as many delays as possible through any means possible. The three criminal cases against him have not proved an exception to this pattern, as Mr Trump is understood to believe his best chance at avoiding any negative consequences from the cases is to win next year’s presidential election. But the magistrate judge who presided over the arraignment, Moxila Upadhyaya, told Mr Trump’s counsel that Judge Chutkan intends to set a trial date after a status conference on 28 August, and gave the government a full week to propose a trial schedule. Mr Trump’s team will now have a week to respond to the department’s proposed schedule, though it’s unlikely that the ex-president’s counsel will agree with the government’s timeline. At the arraignment last week, Trump attorney John Lauro suggested that he and his co-counsel could not begin to consider any possible trial date until they’d received the evidence which the government must turn over as part of the pre-trial discovery process. “We need all that information, I think, in order to address the issue of when we would be ready, and also the extent to which we would have an idea of how long the trial would be,” he said. Mr Trump’s legal team has already prevented the discovery process from kicking off by objecting to the government’s proposed protective order on the grounds that it would violate the ex-president’s right to free speech by barring him from publicly revealing evidence while on the campaign trail. The prosecutors noted the disconnect between the arguments made at arraignment and the Trump defence team’s refusal to agree to a protective order that would allow them to begin reviewing discovery, calling the contradiction “perplexing”. They also slammed Mr Lauro’s claim that the defence is “starting with a blank slate” as “impossible” and “disingenuous,” citing Mr Trump’s awareness of and response to much of the evidence which was previously made public during the House January 6 select committee’s hearings last year and the panel’s final report. Continuing, prosecutors also pointed out that one of Mr Trump’s lawyers, Evan Corcoran, has long represented the ex-president in matters relating to his efforts to overturn his election loss. “The defendant has a greater and more detailed understanding of the evidence supporting the charges against him at the outset of this criminal case than most defendants, and is ably advised by multiple attorneys, including some who have represented him in this matter for the last year,” they said. “The Government’s proposed schedule and January 2 trial date afford the defendant many months to review the discovery in this matter, raise pre-trial legal issues, and prepare his defense. No additional time is necessary or warranted under the Speedy Trial Act and in light of the public’s strong interest in a prompt trial”. Read More Trump and one co-defendant plead not guilty in superseding Mar-a-Lago indictment Trump and Biden tied in hypothetical 2024 rematch, poll finds Trump complains world has ‘never been nastier than it is now’ as cases against him proceed Trump says Georgia DA ‘may change her mind’ about indicting him as he launches fresh attack Prosecutors seek Jan. 2 trial date for Donald Trump in his 2020 election conspiracy case Georgia DA Fani Willis tells staff to ignore Trump’s ‘derogatory and false’ attacks Trump says world has ‘never been nastier than it is now’ as cases against him proceed