The US attorney general is fretting about a ‘pandemic’ of gender transitions in schools | Arwa Mahdawi

5 septembre 2026 à 08:00

Todd Blanche’s remarks are part of a totally-not-invented moral panic that stretches the limits of the imagination

Being a public school teacher in the US these days is tough. You’ve got to pay for a lot of your own supplies, deal with smartphone-addicted children, and perform gender reassignment surgeries in your lunch break.

Luckily our intrepid attorney general, Todd Blanche, is on the case. Blanche appeared on Fox News this week to decry a “pandemic” of gender transitions in schools across the US. “There’s not a parent in America, no matter where you live, that would want their school to change and call their child by a different name and not expect to be told about that. We partnered with the Department of Education recently to combat this very trend and, really, pandemic that’s happening in some school districts around the country,” Blanche said. He seemed more concerned with name changes than with surgery, but the president himself has suggested on several occasions that schools are furtively doing surgery on children. During a campaign speech in 2024, for example, Donald Trump said: “Can you imagine … your son leaves the house and you say: ‘Jimmy, I love you so much. Go have a good day in school,’ and your son comes back with a brutal operation? Can you even imagine this?”

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

NYT > U.S. News

Justice Department Sues Kansas City Schools Over Gender Policy

Par : Michael C. Bender

1 septembre 2026 à 19:19

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

The federal government has sued a public school district over gender identity and laws that ensure parents have access to their children’s records.

US news | The Guardian

Kansas has not elected a Democrat to the US Senate since 1932. Will that change in November?

Par : Chris Stein

25 août 2026 à 06:00

Adam Hamilton, a liberal megachurch pastor, is challenging incumbent Republican Senator Roger Marshall in this year’s midterm election

In one of the first ads of his campaign to represent Kansas in the US Senate, the Democrat Adam Hamilton stands grilling steaks at a barbecue and attacks his opponent, Senator Roger Marshall, a Republican, for supporting “tariffs and war”.

If history is any guide, it is Hamilton who is set to get cooked. Kansas has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932, and more than half a century has passed since one of their nominees even came close. But he and his supporters believe circumstances have conspired to end this streak – and potentially deliver Democrats control of the Senate.

US news | The Guardian

Nancy Kassebaum Baker, former US senator from Kansas, dies aged 94

Par : Associated Press

22 août 2026 à 16:40

Kassebaum Baker became the first woman elected to the US Senate without following a spouse into office

Nancy Kassebaum Baker, a Kansas governor’s daughter who became the first woman elected to the US Senate without following a spouse into office, has died. She was 94.

Kassebaum Baker died on Friday of natural causes, according to her son, Bill Kassebaum.