Final jobs report before the midterm elections also shows the US unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.2%US employers added just 29,000 jobs in September, a sharp drop from last month's gains, and unemployment rose slightly to 4.2%, a sign of a cooling labor market in the final jobs report before the midterm election.The numbers were under half of economists' expectations of just under 70,000 new jobs. Most job gains were concentrated in the healthcare industry, which added 17,000 new jobs, while the information, financial and professional industries saw losses, according to the latest data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Continue reading...
Refugees from third countries are being sent to Equatorial Guinea, where they are often sent back to the very countries they fledFor nearly a year, the Hotel Bamy in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, has been Adam's prison. He is confined alone to a hotel room, under constant watch by the security officers and soldiers of a notoriously oppressive regime who control his movements. Not long ago, they barged into his room, handcuffed and beat him, and warned him not to tell anyone. There is no cell to point to, no charges or formal sentence, and nothing on paper to document his plight.Adam, 26, has chosen not to share his real name or even his country of origin out of fear for his safety. He fled indefinite, forced military conscription in his home country after enduring abuse during his military service. Continue reading...
Death toll of medical helicopter crash is now three people as two others continue to recover from injuries, authorities sayPolice divers have found the body of a patient who went missing after a medical helicopter crashed into the Pacific Ocean off Catalina Island near Los Angeles, bringing the death toll to three while two other people were recovering from their injuries, the authorities said on Friday.Divers with the Los Angeles county sheriff's department found the victim's body Thursday in the wreckage of the helicopter after searching more than 156 sq miles (404 sq km) over 23 hours, the Coast Guard said in a statement. Continue reading...
Wilber Rafael Garces Perez remains in custody after surgery to remove bullet supporters say was stuck close to his spineThe Venezuelan delivery driver who was shot and wounded by a federal immigration agent in Texas last month had surgery on Thursday to remove the bullet that had been lodged in his back for nearly two weeks.Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, had appeared in court in a wheelchair on Wednesday, wearing a sling on his arm. He remains in custody on charges that he assaulted an officer while trying to evade arrest. Continue reading...
As LeBron James and other NBA stars wholeheartedly embrace the murk of betting and prediction markets, the San Antonio Spurs' 22-year-old cornerstone has drawn a refreshing lineIf the song from LeBron James's agonizing Polymarket ad is as stuck in your head as mine thanks to the commercial playing during every YouTube video and HBO show (all I wanted to do was rewatch The Leftovers), let Victor Wembanyama be your antidote. At the Spurs' practice on Thursday, San Antonio Express-News columnist Mike Finger asked Wembanyama if he would ever partner with a sports betting firm. It couldn't have been easier for the 22-year-old to say yes. The NBA displays ads for both FanDuel and DraftKings, in addition to hawking betting odds on its broadcasts. Until the streaming service met its end a few months ago, plenty of NBA games streamed exclusively on FanDuel Sports Network. Then there are Wembanyama's legendary peers: James is the new face of Polymarket; Kevin Durant reads FanDuel odds and invests in Kalshi; Giannis Antetokounmpo is a Kalshi shareholder.Absolutely not," Wembanyama said instead. I will never do that. Honestly, I think it's very sad to see some players promote it. Everybody does whatever they want, but without me." Continue reading...
The case of the Siders family illustrates major shortcomings among Ohio's political and administrative authoritiesIn June 2025, Jody Walker stood in front of Ohio lawmakers at a senate finance committee meeting in Columbus. As the head of South Central Ohio Job and Family Services, he was desperate for help.I have been a county director since 1999, yet I have not seen such a challenging time in the child welfare system as I do today," he said, specifically in terms of the needs of our children." Continue reading...
City on edge as police comb home of Raymond Horsch, pornographer who died last year, in grisly case involving disturbing pictures and filmA dilapidated house, burned out above the second story, may hold clues to dark tales and - potentially - the darkest of endings as the FBI and police in Philadelphia try to unpick what took place at 417 West Chew Avenue for more than three decades.Last week, homicide investigators shifted their focus from examining an archive of a million photographs and film recovered from what is known locally as the house of horrors" to excavating what is in or under the home of Raymond RC" Horsch, a career criminal, local artist, author and snuff photographer who died last year aged 82, and his son Eugene, 44. Continue reading...
by Chris Stein, Alex Clark, Andrew Witherspoon and As on (#78SDS)
These graphics explain what the Democrats would need to do to flip the Senate and House of RepresentativesA turning point in Donald Trump's second term will soon arrive. On 3 November, voters across the US will decide whether to keep the president's Republican allies in control of Congress, or return Democrats to the majority.Many indicators of voter sentiment suggest the Democrats are favored to take back control of the House of Representatives, and potentially the Senate. Winning either would be a significant victory for the party and give it the power to block Trump's legislative agenda and more aggressively investigate his administration. Continue reading...
by Presented by Jonathan Freedland with James Henson, on (#78SDT)
Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico is surprising everyone, as polls have him leading his Republican opponent, Ken Paxton, in the Republican-led state of Texas.Jonathan Freedland speaks to James Henson, founder and executive director of the Texas Politics Project, about why a blue wave in the Lone Star state would be seismic Continue reading...
Failed attempt to execute 50-year-old prompts review of state's execution practices. Plus the California woman who is allergic to coldGood morning. Tennessee's governor has suspended executions as Christa Pike's lawyer says the state's failed lethal injection execution attempt has left her in a critical condition. Bill Lee, the Republican state governor, has suspended all executions in the state until at least the end of the year and ordered an independent inquiry.Leading voices on the death penalty in the US have told the Guardian that the failed execution was such a violation of the constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment" that all judicial killings should be halted nationwide.What have Pike's lawyers said about her condition? Randy Spivey, one of her attorneys, said: We don't have a sense of her prognosis or much update on her health at the moment, but we do know that she is alive right now and receiving life-saving medical care. She is in a critical condition."What did witnesses say took place during the execution attempt? Catherine Sweeney, a reporter at the Nashville Public Radio WPLN, said: They went through two rounds, and she was still breathing at the end. She was very ragged. She lifted her head up and was looking around. At one point, she said ... there was a spot that was burning and hurting, and asked if that was normal. None of it was normal."What was Pike convicted of? She was convicted of the brutal 1995 killing of Colleen Slemmer, alongside her then boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp. Lee said he had not yet spoken to Slemmer's family after the failed execution.Why has the DNC issued a lawsuit against the administration? The Trump administration broke the law when it pushed through a last-minute change to the form overseas citizens use to register and request absentee ballots, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) said in a lawsuit filed on Thursday. Trump and Republicans are so desperate to hang on to power that they are trying to eliminate the way some American citizens abroad register to vote and request mail ballots," said Ken Martin, the chair of the DNC.Which states are leading the resistance to the Trump EPA's repeal of emissions rules? Twenty-one states, led by New York, are challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's power plant rule. The New York attorney general, Letitia James, said the federal government was showing callous disregard" for Americans' health and the environment, and future generations would pay the price. Power plants that burn fossil fuels are a major source of planet-warming pollution. Continue reading...
Israel's conduct in Gaza shows the danger of using AI in warfare. Humans must remain at the center of wartime decisionsAs tech leaders warn about the threats of artificial intelligence, most conjure up images of AI agents running amok, such as hacking systems used to run our critical infrastructure, banks or even militaries. Yet one serious danger is mentioned less frequently - the threat posed by AI - empowered lethal weapons. Fully autonomous versions of these weapons are colloquially known as killer robots.Israel's conduct in Gaza shows that, in an important respect, such AI weapon systems are already here. An algorithm has been deciding who lives and who dies. Continue reading...
What happened to Pike was gruesome. No one deserves what she went through, not even those who commit horrible crimesBotched executions are nothing new in US history. In the era when hangings were common, some condemned people were decapitated. Later, when the electric chair was in vogue, every now and again, someone would catch fire during an electrocution. And nitrogen hypoxia, the US's newest execution method, has already proven notoriously unreliable.But, of all of the ways we have tried to execute people, lethal injection has the worst track record. More than 8% of all lethal injection executions have been botched. Most of them resulted when those charged with carrying them out could not find a usable vein. Continue reading...
The rightwing media mogul has lost ground to fellow sports bros like Pat McAfee and Joe Rogan. He's hoping his new venture can recapture some groundWhen Maga media blowhard Clay Travis offered $2m to Colin Kaepernick last week to appear on the daily talkshow he hosts with former CIA analyst Buck Sexton, it represented the culmination of a years-long obsession on the right with the onetime NFL star. In Travis's telling of history, Kaepernick taking a knee during the 2016 NFL season was the event that catalyzed professional sports into the era of woke" excess from which, he claims, it has been struggling to recover ever since.But more than simply confirming the right's longstanding villainization of Kaepernick, Travis's offer was also a smarmy bid for publicity for his new media venture, Sport & State. Sport & State, which launched in August, is Travis's bid to get back to his roots as a media mogul who sold the wildly popular Outkick to Fox Sports for a rumored $100m, and reclaim some of the cultural territory lost to fellow sports bros and Magagitators like Pat McAfee, Joe Rogan, Tucker Carlson and Ben Shapiro. But if there's one thing Sport & State won't be doing, it's engaging with anyone beyond the Magaverse. There has been no response from Kaepernick since Travis made his offer" of $2m to charity in exchange for an interview, which suggests he understands that it was extended more in a spirit of trolling buffoonery than sincerity. No one associated with the left or progressive politics ever appears on Travis's shows, for the simple reason that they are designed purely for the right to talk to itself. (Some would say the same could be said of the left, although the disregard for dissenting perspectives in the Magasphere seems way more extreme.) More than it heralds a renewal of Travis's career or an injection of fresh energy into the Trumpist mediasphere, Sport & State is a case study in the stagnation that has taken hold on the right as Donald Trump stares down the barrel of defeat in November's midterm elections. Continue reading...
Henry Ford's 1926 policy held for decades before eroding into a 24/7 mindset. Here's what we can do about itIt was a Saturday. In fact, the Saturday.Almost exactly a century ago, on 25 September 1926, Henry Ford instituted a policy of weekends for his workforce. Although various labor campaigns had existed for decades to try to carve out what we now call the weekend, this was the first widespread adoption. Continue reading...
Advocacy group that pushed for the legislation says 9,000 children are married in California every yearCalifornia has outlawed child marriage, joining 17 other US states where the taboo practice is also banned.Under past state law, minors of any age could obtain a court order for marriage with the consent of their parents. Continue reading...
Christa Pike is critically ill in a Nashville hospital after surviving two attempts by Tennessee to execute her by lethal injection, her lawyers say. Pike, 50, was sentenced to death in the 1990s for a murder she committed as a teenager, with her lawyers saying she has a blood disorder that made it difficult to establish an intravenous line. Pike's lawyer Randy Spivey says Tennessee has again demonstrated it is unable to carry out an execution with 'basic human dignity'
Officials in Wyoming had called notion to host game in Grand Teton national park deeply unwelcome'Major League Baseball (MLB) leadership is no longer considering holding a game inside a national park, according to a letter commissioner Robert Manfred sent to officials in Teton county, Wyoming, on Thursday in what could be the league's biggest swing-and-a-miss off the diamond.On 26 September, the Washington Post reported that MLB had reached out to the White House about staging a one-day game at Grand Teton national park in Wyoming. Teton county describes itself as a a year-round resort community" and sits within the Jackson Hole valley. It's also a habitat for grizzly bears, osprey, bison and more. Continue reading...
New York attorney general brought in by governor after recent questions raised over university's 2024 investigationKathy Hochul, the New York governor, said on Thursday she is appointing Letitia James, the state's attorney general, as special prosecutor to investigate the alleged gang-rape at Cornell University.The young woman at the center of this case deserves to know that every fact will be examined and justice pursued," Hochul said in a statement. This action will ensure that the matter is fully and thoroughly investigated without conflict or bias, and handled independently with the rigor that this matter demands." Continue reading...
Landlords can no longer refuse pit bulls, rottweilers, dobermans or other breeds considered scary'Landlords in Washington DC will no longer be able to refuse a tenant's dog based on its breed, size or weight, nor can they impose special charges related to these factors.At least, that's what a new law that took effect on Thursday aims to achieve. Animal welfare organizations and animal shelters applauded the legislation, emphasizing the benefits of reducing barriers to pet ownership in the US capital. Continue reading...
Democratic-led coalition says gutting key protections will set US back decades and worsen climate crisisStates and cities sued the Trump administration on Thursday for repealing rules that limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas.Twenty-one states, led by New York, are challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's power plant rule. The Democratic-led coalition also includes Pennsylvania's governor, the District of Columbia, New York City, Chicago and the city and county of Denver. They argue that gutting one of the country's most significant climate protections" will set the nation back decades and worsen the climate crisis. Continue reading...
Shoppers and vendors in Aspen surprised by unusual customer as it stretched to sample stall offeringsFarmers' market shoppers might not usually pay much attention to the local resident devouring fresh bread and pastries at one of the stalls with extra gusto - but some certainly did last weekend when they realized it was a hungry bear.Onlookers on Saturday reached for their phones to take photos and videos of the bear in downtown Aspen, Colorado, after it wandered through the stalls and got up on to its hind legs to dig into the baked goods. Continue reading...
Request for Clancy, 36, to be acquitted turned down nearly a month after first trial ended with deadlocked juryThe judge in the Lindsay Clancy murder case on Thursday refused to declare her not guilty, turning down a defense motion that had argued there was not enough evidence to prove she was responsible for killing her three children.On Tuesday, Clancy's attorney Kevin Reddington tried to persuade Judge William Sullivan that prosecutors had not offered any proof that Clancy had killed her three children. Prosecutors argued there was plenty of evidence, calling Reddington's claim laughable". Continue reading...
Court will review practice of indefinite detention for undocumented immigrants living in the USThe US supreme court agreed on Thursday to take up a case challenging the Trump administration's practice of indefinite detention for undocumented immigrants living in the US and awaiting deportation proceedings.At the center of the immigration case is a dispute over Donald Trump's reinterpretation of a longstanding policy that has led to a huge surge in the number of migrants held in detention centers. Continue reading...
The former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach took 12 years to build a city filled with stadiums, skyscrapers and bespoke homes. It is a marvelWe may finally have cracked the case as to why the Pittsburgh Steelers stagnated so much over the final years of Mike Tomlin's tenure as head coach: he was focused on virtual urban planning.I'm kidding, of course. It's good when people in high-pressure jobs have creative hobbies. Count this writer (and his interior designer wife) among those who were gobsmacked on Wednesday night by Tomlin's reveal of a 12-year-long project in Minecraft, the world-building game. Tomlin had teased that during his coaching career, he took up Minecraft city-building as a way to connect with his young children. We have now seen the fruits of that labor, and they are magnificent. Look my my works, Terry Bradshaw, and despair. Continue reading...
Three-quarters of nations have rightly abolished capital punishment in law or practice, but killing by the state has surged in the USWhat is the kindest way to kill? That's the question being asked once more following Tennessee's failed attempts to execute Christa Pike for the brutal murder of a classmate, Colleen Slemmer, when she was 18. The 50-year-old was taken to a medical facility, her condition unknown, with witnesses describing her snoring loudly around 40 minutes after receiving two injections of pentobarbital on Wednesday. It is the second botched killing in months, prompting Tennessee's governor to order a halt to executions.Lethal injection was supposed to be the humane alternative to firing squads and electric chairs. They in turn were seen as an improvement on hanging, which looked much like lynching in a system disproportionately handing the death penalty to black men. The age and ill health of those executed, and the ethical refusal of most medical staff to be involved, may contribute to botched injections. But analysis of autopsy results has provided compelling evidence that suffering is inherent; injections - especially those involving paralytic drugs - have merely disguised it. What is described as safeguarding the dignity of prisoners is really about reducing the discomfort of witnesses who would otherwise see their suffering. Continue reading...
Many men rape; many men giggle encouragingly, or shrug indifferently, when their friends rape. Many men rape, and few seem to think that it's a very big dealMaybe more than anything else, sexual violence is repetitive. Men commit it in patterns: mostly against women who are close by and vulnerable, just below them on some social hierarchy: their assistant, their date, their friend, their daughter, their student, their kid's babysitter.Men rape for opportunity - because they can - and for status - because it makes them feel good. They rape to impress other men, documenting it on phones for one another's benefit. Men rape and do not always seem to register much of a difference between the sex they've had that was rape and the sex that they've had that wasn't. They rape, often, without seeming to think about it, registering their victims' unwillingness with vague contempt, if at all.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnistInformation and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organizations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html Continue reading...
by Presented by Lucy Hough with Clive Stafford Smith on (#78RXP)
A woman convicted of murdering a schoolmate 30 years ago has been taken to hospital after surviving two rounds of lethal injections in Tennessee. Christa Pike would have been the first woman to be executed in the state in 200 years. Pike, 50, has spent three decades on death row after she was convicted of the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995. A last-minute appeal to stop the lethal injection was overturned by the supreme court, but the state governor, Bill Lee, has suspended executions in Tennessee for the rest of the year. Lucy Hough speaks to the attorney and anti-capital punishment campaigner Clive Stafford Smith - watch on YouTube Continue reading...
Network was listed as primary TV pool covering Thursday's presidential activities but then was abruptly removedFor a second time in a week, the White House has unilaterally removed CNN from its assignment as the primary television pool representative covering Donald Trump.CNN was excluded on Saturday from pool duty aboard Air Force One, despite a district judge's ruling - two days earlier -overturning the White House's ban on the network and two other media organizations. Continue reading...
Witnesses in the chamber said Christa Pike was still breathing despite receiving injections intended to kill herWhen the prison warden asked Christa Pike if she had any last words, she said she was going to leave this world with love" for those on her side and also the ones angry with her.What followed was the second botched execution in Tennessee this year, after two doses of the lethal injection failed to produce the desired effect. Continue reading...
Administration says increased immigration enforcement led to fewer homicides, but they have been on the decline since Joe Biden's termOver the last year and a half, the US has seen a historic drop in homicides. Researchers and reporters are still puzzling through the complex set of reasons why - from the easing of pandemic-era stressors and the Biden administration's investments in community-based violence prevention to policing and other factors.But for the Trump administration, there's one easy explanation: increased immigration enforcement. As the midterm elections approach, the White House has been doubling down on this message, saying its crackdown against immigrants is why US crime rates are now falling. Continue reading...
The animal welfare group has revived their runway-storming tactics from the naughts, now targeting the use of woolHer walk was poised, her outfit - crop top, tailored trousers, high heels - so on point that when Josie Knowles strutted down a London Fashion Week catwalk last month she could have passed for a model. That is, had it not been for the sign the Peta protester held saying H&M: Wool is Bloody Cruel."Still, as one social media commentator put it when praising her strut: you cant tell me Peta didn't know what they were doing when they hired this diva". Continue reading...
One person remains missing after medical helicopter crashed off Catalina Island near Los Angeles, officials sayA medical helicopter crashed off Catalina Island near Los Angeles, killing two people and leaving two hospitalized, authorities said.Rescuers early on Thursday searched for a fifth person who was reported to be in the aircraft and was missing, the Los Angeles county fire department said in a social media post. Continue reading...
New ad features audio from Trump's declaration of war and Pete Hegseth saying if you kill Americans ... we will kill you'The latest in a series of pro-Trump television ads aired using taxpayer funds in the run-up to the the midterm elections is a one-minute spot that celebrates Donald Trump's decision to go to war with Iran.The ad aired during a commercial break on Fox News on Wednesday night, according video posted online by MeidasTouch, a leftwing outlet. Continue reading...
These men's actions aren't just morally loathsome; they're politically stupid. Social science may explain the phenomenonIsrael's supporters keep proving its detractors right. Over the last couple of years, Americans from across the ideological spectrum - from Bernie Sanders to Tucker Carlson - have grown increasingly enraged by the way pro-Israel billionaires restrict Americans' free speech. So, last month, along comes the New York England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, allegedly in tandem with other stadium owners, and pushes Ed Sheeran to drop Macklemore from his US tour because the rapper uttered Free Palestine" on stage. It's hard to imagine anything more likely to intensify fury towards the Aipac class.Then Benjamin Netanyahu does something equally self-defeating. Since 2018, Israel's favorability rating among Americans has dropped by an astonishing 67 points. A plurality of Democrats with views on the subject consider Israel to be a state with segregation similar to apartheid" rather than a democracy. Yet faced with an American public that increasingly rejects Israel's self-presentation as a bastion of freedom, Benjamin Netanyahu's party has pushed to ban Arab parties, undercutting claims about Israel being a democracy for its Palestinian citizens. He's undermining his own hasbara. Continue reading...
President's outlandish and extensive conspiracy theories endanger US freedoms, health and science, experts saySince the start of his second presidency, Donald Trump has often launched outlandish conspiratorial attacks on critics and foes that mock them and label their views as hoaxes, prompting scholars and legal experts to say Trump's attacks endanger US freedoms, public health and science.Trump's extensive use of conspiracy theories is the hallmark of an authoritarian leader that has weakened trust in the coming midterm elections, dangerously ignored scientific evidence, and often pushed for prosecutions of his political enemies in ways that seriously erode civil liberties, say critics. Continue reading...
ICE-watchers get creative after the killing of Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero, as Trump's immigration crackdown takes a more secretive approachMost of the time, the scene outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in the small, coastal town of Scarborough, Maine, could be confused for a nature watch in Vacationland", the slogan on state license plates.People sitting in lawn chairs under a tent. Birds chirping. The sound of the breeze moving through the trees. Continue reading...
World Cup setbacks have renewed concern over America's costly, fragmented youth system. The real test is whether the urgency survives the next news cycleA few years ago, the idea that the US soccer community at large was neglecting youth soccer was met with silence or ridicule.At a May 2022 conference call announcing a new collective bargaining agreement that effectively ended the equal pay" saga, players were asked how they would build bridges with grassroots organizers who, in a fit of anger over perceived slights, nearly restored Carlos Cordeiro to US Soccer's presidency not long after he resigned under heavy pressure. They could have offered any vague platitudes about how they valued youth and amateur soccer. They fell silent. Continue reading...
The risks of AI aren't what we think they are, as a recent security incident between China and the United States revealsAmid a barrage of news stories warning about superintelligent machines rendering humanity extinct, a CNN story describing the opposite scenario - one in which the US military's reliance on brittle chatbots almost brought the US into war with China - went mostly unnoticed by the public.The biggest international AI news of the past three weeks was Anthropic engineer Jacob Coxon's resignation. According to him, OpenAI and Anthropic are racing straight towards self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives". Coxon's description of a terminator" scenario, a machine becoming much smarter than humanity and deciding to wipe us out, captured the public, journalists' and politicians' attention, stirring waves of fear-inducing, credulous reporting, and policy actions.Timnit Gebru is executive director of Dair and author of the forthcoming book Deep Unlearning: The Radicalization of a Tech Idealist, which is available for preorders now and set to publish on 16 February.Emily M Bender is professor of linguistics at the University of Washington and co-author of The AI Con. Continue reading...
It's still early in the 2026 season but a number of teams and players have found unexpected levels of success in the last few weeksLast season ended with a Super Bowl in which neither team - the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots - had been expected to participate. Before that, we had a 44-year-old grandfather returning from a four-season layoff to give the Indianapolis Colts unexpected cheer in an otherwise miserable season, while the Chicago Bears and Jacksonville Jaguars rebounded from bad 2024 seasons to win their divisions.It's early to state which surprises will be the most fun to recall this time around, but here are four to watch as things progress. Continue reading...
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