Christa Pike’s planned execution is emblematic of America’s broken death penalty system

On 30 September, the state of Tennessee plans to put Christa Pike to death. She would be the third person brought to the death chamber in the Volunteer state this year, one of which was stopped after it was botched.

She would join 17 others who have been put to death there since 1960. None of them were women.

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© Photograph: AP

© Photograph: AP

© Photograph: AP

The Trump administration wants to bar Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program from paying for gender-transition medication and surgery for transgender adolescents.

© Nathan Frandino/Reuters

In a major LGBTQ+ rights victory, the justice department cannot force the state to ban trans girls from women’s sports

A federal judge has dismissed the Trump administration’s lawsuit challenging California’s policy of allowing transgender youth to play on sports teams that match their gender, a major loss for Donald Trump and the Department of Justice (DoJ).

The justice department had been fighting for a year to force California to ban trans girls from women’s sports, with the president directly singling out one trans track and field athlete in online attacks and regularly mocking trans athletes in his speeches.

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© Photograph: Jessica Christian/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

© Photograph: Jessica Christian/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

© Photograph: Jessica Christian/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

In the first such lawsuit, the Trump administration accused the district of hiding students’ gender transition from their parents against federal law.

© Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts has emerged as a vocal defender of transgender rights as he tries to fend off a primary challenge from Representative Seth Moulton.

© Mel Musto for The New York Times

Candidates’ attacks are focused on illegal immigration, faith and stock trading.

© Meridith Kohut for The New York Times

Dolly Parton was an advocate for her L.G.B.T.Q. fans. She also understood them, a meaningful bond in places where such recognition was hard to find.

© Kendrick Brinson for The New York Times

President Trump issued an executive order barring transgender service members from the military as part of a broader attack on transgender rights.

© Allison Robbert for The New York Times

The senator’s remarks reflect a turning point in Democrats’ attacks on the president. What should we make of them?

Apparently, he likes to say her name with a French accent. “Na-tah-lee!” the president cries out, in that affected tone of faux-formality that one might use with a person they love but do not quite respect, and she comes running, her thin legs teetering on her heels.

Natalie Harp, Trump’s 35-year-old “executive assistant”, was an odd recurring character in the latest blockbuster Trump administration book, Regime Change, by the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. In the book, Harp features like a silent sentinel, ever present but eerily quiet as Trump rants and raves. It’s not exactly clear what the scope of her responsibilities is; though, as Jamelle Bouie points out, the fact that she evidently helps run the president’s social media accounts, which can sway markets and influence his foreign counterparts, makes her one of the most powerful people in the federal government.

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© Photograph: American Photo Archive/Alamy

© Photograph: American Photo Archive/Alamy

© Photograph: American Photo Archive/Alamy

The Log Cabin Republicans, which is dedicated to gay causes, says that trans rights advocates focus too much on minors.

© Michael Brochstein/Sipa, via Associated Press

Nearly a decade after I watched him defy Erdoğan at great personal cost, the ex-NBA player is using his hard-won freedom to turn transgender people into a punchline

Nine years ago, I watched Enes Kanter ask America to take him in. It was May 2017, inside the National Basketball Players Association’s offices in midtown Manhattan. Kanter had just returned from a frightening detention at Bucharest airport, where Romanian border police told him Turkey had canceled his passport. He’d just turned 25, an NBA center with a green card and no country he could safely call home.

“I’m open for adoption,” he joked from the head of a table in a nondescript conference room, addressing a dozen reporters hastily summoned by his manager. Then he turned serious: “My next move is to just become an American citizen.”

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© Photograph: Michael Reaves/Getty Images

© Photograph: Michael Reaves/Getty Images

© Photograph: Michael Reaves/Getty Images

Trump administration finalized rule to end Medicaid support for care including hormones and speech therapy

New Mexico will continue funding gender-affirming care for minors after a federal rule ending Medicaid support for such care goes into effect.

On 13 August, the Trump administration finalized a rule – set to go into effect on 13 October – that will end funding for gender-affirming care through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (Chip).

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© Photograph: Reginald Mathalone/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Reginald Mathalone/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Reginald Mathalone/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

Texas Tech is using A.I. to cut left-leaning content in its curriculum. Some say the effort to ferret out forbidden topics is a dystopian academic nightmare.

© David Kozlowski/Getty Images

The move puts the principality in the majority among nearby nations with royal families.

© Romina Amato/Reuters