Candace Chapman Scott of Little Rock, 37, worked at a mortuary and arranged to transport remains to buyers across state linesA former mortuary worker in Arkansas has admitted to stealing parts of corpses and trying to sell them.On Thursday, the US attorney for the eastern district of Arkansas announced that 37-year-old Candace Chapman Scott of Little Rock, Arkansas, had pleaded guilty to transporting stolen body parts across state lines and conspiring to commit mail fraud. Continue reading...
Peter Bernegger has brought at least 18 lawsuits against election clerks and offices over alleged fraud - now he faces criminal chargesPeter Bernegger has spent the last three and a half years bombarding local election offices in Wisconsin with litigation and accusations of fraud. He's brought at least 18 lawsuits against election clerks and offices in state court, and on social media, he has relentlessly promoted his litigation and circulated false claims about election fraud in the swing state.His campaign has recently landed him in legal trouble - Bernegger now faces criminal charges for allegedly falsifying a subpoena in connection with a lawsuit against the state's top election office. Continue reading...
Fall in Denali national park witnessed by another climbing party who dug snow cave and tended to hurt climberA climber is dead and another seriously injured after falling about 1,000ft (305 metres) while on a steep, technical route on Mount Johnson in Alaska's Denali national park and preserve, authorities said on Friday.The fall Thursday night was witnessed by another climbing party, who reported it at about 10.45pm and descended to where the climbers had fallen. They confirmed one of the climbers had died, and dug a snow cave and tended to the hurt climber, according to a statement from the park. Continue reading...
Managing the barrage of upsetting material online is a challenge that service providers are struggling to meet, even if they tryWay back in the mid-1990s, when the web was young and the online world was buzzing with blogs, a worrying problem loomed. If you were an ISP that hosted blogs, and one of them contained material that was illegal or defamatory, you could be held legally responsible and sued into bankruptcy. Fearing that this would dramatically slow the expansion of a vital technology, two US lawmakers, Chris Cox and Ron Wyden, inserted 26 words into the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which eventually became section 230 of the Telecommunications Act of the same year. The words in question were: No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." The implications were profound: from now on you bore no liability for content published on your platform.The result was the exponential increase in user-generated content on the internet. The problem was that some of that content was vile, defamatory or downright horrible. Even if it was, though, the hosting site bore no liability for it. At times, some of that content caused public outrage to the point where it became a PR problem for the platforms hosting it and they began engaging in moderation". Continue reading...
In New York, reservation scalpers' are making $80,000 a year, but I'm banking on a neighbour's generosityThe land of restaurants is increasingly paradoxical. Every day, good ones close. Running costs are punitive and broke customers are eating at home more often. Yet still there are places where it's next to impossible to bag a table; where to have even the remotest chance of doing so requires near superhuman levels of patience and determination, as well as no other demands whatsoever on your time - including paid employment.I laughed when I read in the New Yorker's annual food issue of the reservation scalpers" who make $80,000 a year by hoarding bookings to then sell them on to the desperate-to-be-there rich. Only in Manhattan, I thought. But this didn't stop me. Just moments later, I was urging my neighbour, Sue, who is to restaurants what Harry Houdini once was to padlocks and straitjackets - just you watch her bust her way in! - to try to get us a table atX (I won't say its name, for obvious reasons). Sue is also a hoarder of reservations, with the key difference that she then shares them with (Iflatter myself) beloved friends at no extra charge. So now we're on tenterhooks, waiting and hoping - and hoping and waiting - for the hottest Sunday lunch in town. Continue reading...
The hush-money criminal trial receives less prominence in conservative media, and when Trump-friendly networks do turn to the trial, they give viewers an alternative narrativeIn one America, he cuts a diminished, humbled figure during coverage that runs from morn till night. He seems considerably older and he seems annoyed, resigned, maybe angry," said broadcaster Rachel Maddow after seeing Donald Trump up close in court. He seems like a man who is miserable to be here."But in the other America - that of Fox News, far-right podcasts and the Make America Great Again (Maga) base - the trial of the former president over a case involving a hush-money payment to an adult film performer is playing out very differently. Continue reading...
The university has said it won't give in to students' demands - but it has budged beforeRows of tents line the steps at Sproul Hall, the grand neoclassical administration building that soars up nine stories near the main entrance to the University of California, Berkeley.Thursday marked the fourth day of the Free Palestine camp, one of dozens of sit-ins that have sprung up on campuses across the US as symbols of protests for a student-led pro-Palestinian movement. Continue reading...
Tornadoes collapsed buildings and flattened homes in Nebraska and Iowa on Friday as warnings continued to be issuedTornadoes wreaked havoc Friday in the midwestern US, causing a building to collapse with dozens of people inside and destroying and damaging hundreds of homes, many around Omaha, Nebraska.As of Friday night, there were several reports of injuries but no deaths were immediately reported. Tornado warnings continued to be issued into the night in Iowa. Continue reading...
If the former president regains the White House in November, America faces a far worse dystopian future than being shown in cinemasDirector, cast and critics all agree: Civil War, the movie depicting America tearing itself to bloody bits while a cowardly, authoritarian president skulks in the White House, is not about Donald Trump. But it is, really.Likewise, the first ever criminal trial of a US president, now playing to huge audiences in New York, is ostensibly about claims that Trump fraudulently bought the silence of a former porn star called Stormy after a tacky Lake Tahoe tryst. But it isn't, really.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...
The liberal justice has been called the supreme court's conscience but we can't afford a repeat of Ruth Bader GinsburgA month ago Josh Barro (a man) at the Atlantic wrote a piece headlined Sonia Sotomayor Should Retire Now. Around the same time the Guardian's Mehdi Hasan (a man) similarly opined that for the sake of all of us, Sonia Sotomayor needs to retire from the US supreme court." The University of Colorado Boulder law professor Paul Campos (a man) also went on CNN to argue that 69-year-old Sotomayor should consider stepping down as a justice in order to give Joe Biden time to fill the seat with another liberal judge should the worst happen. And pundit Nate Silver (you guessed it ... another man) said much the same thing. Continue reading...
There's no doubt about the mental health crisis facing young people. Jonathan Haidt blames our devices - which oversimplifies the problemIn the introduction to his new book The Anxious Generation, titled Growing up on Mars", Jonathan Haidt tells a fanciful piece of science fiction about a child conscripted into a dangerous mission to the red planet that will deform the young person as they grow. The journey is undertaken without the parents' consent. The ham-fisted metaphor is that technology companies have done the same to children and teenagers by putting smartphones into their hands.Haidt, a New York University professor of ethical leadership who researches social psychology and morality, goes on to argue that smartphones ignited a wildfire of anxiety and depression in gen Z around the world, by granting them continuous access to social media, online video games, and other internet-based activities". He says there are four foundational harms in this degradation of youth: social deprivation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, and addiction. Continue reading...
With pro-Palestine students arrested and campus protests broken up, educators are increasingly rallying in supportAs student-led protests calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and divestment from Israel and its occupation of Palestinian land continue to spread across US universities, some faculty members are increasingly joining the charge - speaking up and even standing alongside their students.At Georgia's Emory University, faculty members have been arrested at pro-Palestine demonstrations - including Emil' Keme, a professor of English and Indigenous studies, and Noelle McAfee, the philosophy department chair. Continue reading...
With a new indictment this week, 36 have been criminally charged and 10 face a civil lawsuit - but seven hold officeWith the indictment announced in Arizona this week, 36 out of 84 people who signed certificates falsely alleging they were electors for Donald Trump have now been criminally charged.Kris Mayes is the third state attorney general to indict part of the slate of people who signed the false documents with plans to turn them over to Mike Pence, the US vice-president, to steal the election from Joe Biden. Attorneys general in Michigan and Nevada have also brought charges, and in Wisconsin, fake electors face a civil lawsuit.36 have been criminally indicted (one has had charges dropped)10 face a civil lawsuit14 have been subpoenaed by Congress as part of the January 6 investigationSeven have been elected to officeSeven have lost electionsFour have been appointed or nominated to positions of powerOne is currently running for federal office Continue reading...
Americans are recognizing we must do more for Palestine and are signaling dissatisfaction with the party, as they did in 2008The US is just months away from the 2024 election, and the prospect of a second Trump presidency grows each day as he evades repercussions for the expansive list of indictments he's accrued. With this reality looming, many Democratic party loyalists are panicked about the leave it blank" movement, in which hundreds of thousands of voters have marked uncommitted" on their primary ballots to protest against US support of Israel's war on Gaza.Some worry that a protest vote at the ballot box is an automatic vote for Trump. They're sure that even during times of mass dissent, harm reduction is the only moral voting strategy. They're afraid that this election will mean the end of democracy, or that the re-election of Trump will guarantee unprecedented disharmony.Camonghne Felix is an assistant professor of creative writing at The New School Continue reading...
#MeToo's real legacy may not be ending predators' impunity so much as highlighting the tenacity of that impunityUsually, rape isn't reported. When it is reported, it is often not charged. And when it is charged, it rarely leads to a conviction. These facts shape both our cultural understanding of sexual violence and women's sense of their own embodied lives, clarifying something many of us already know - that while sexual violence is technically illegal and officially abhorred, it is also tolerated in practice, with actual arrests and convictions being so rare that most sexual violence is de facto decriminalized.Only occasionally does a notable rape conviction come to pass; when it does, its very rarity highlights this dissonance, making plain the gulf between how rape is officially talked about and how it is usually treated. Now, that gulf has come to the fore again, because on Thursday one of the most high-profile rape convictions in American history was overturned.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
The law is badly lagging behind when it comes to rights for LGBTQ+ families. We need urgent root-and-branch reformThe Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act is 10 years old. In the UK, any couple can marry. Likewise, thanks to this courageous pair, any couple can now get a civil partnership. On marriage, the law has kept pace with the diversifying society it exists to regulate and protect.If you reflect on what was updated - the religious institution of marriage - and how long it had been the way it was, it hits you afresh how monumental this step forward was. Yet here we are. The equality of love has become a cliche. Young children have only known a world where every auntie and uncle they'll ever have could get married. It is meticulous and slow but ultimately, whether through parliament or the courts, the law moves forward.Freddy McConnell is a freelance journalistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
Even grandees are bracing for the very worst. But remember, such apocalyptic language around the party is nothing newThere is a morose mood in the Conservative party. It isn't just that the Tories expect to lose the next election - they fear that the coming defeat might be definitive, a result from which they never recover. One recent multilevel regression and poststratification (MRP) poll forecasts that the Tories could be reduced to fewer than 100 seats - their lowest ever haul - with Labour predicted to secure an unprecedented 250-plus seat majority. Tory grandees are consequently gloomy. The former Brexit negotiator David Frost has called it a desperate situation". Charles Moore, the former Telegraph editor and Thatcher biographer, tells me the party's condition is probably worse than I've ever seen it". Some are billing the next election as an extinction-level event". Rishi Sunak's single-minded obsession on forcing through the Rwanda scheme appears, in this light, like a desperate attempt to distract himself and his party from the approaching abyss.Some Tories may feel the party has reached its nadir as an electoral force, but such apocalyptic language is nothing new. In fact, fear of extinction is part of a long Conservative tradition. It will be interesting to be the last of the Conservatives," Lord Salisbury, one of the party's longest-serving leaders, wrote glumly in 1882, as the age of mass suffrage loomed. I foresee that will be our fate." (Almost a century and a half later, he'd be relieved to learn that his great-great-grandson is leader of the House of Lords.) In 1945, on the brink of an unprecedented landslide victory, Labour candidates spoke openly about wanting the complete extinction of the Tory party". Then, six years later, the Tories returned to power and stayed there for the next 13. In 1974, amid the broadly progressive contours of the postwar consensus, the political scientist Andrew Gamble foresaw a future in which the Conservatives could be condemned to the museum of Fantastic Zoology". And here we are. People often talk about the death of the Tory party, and it doesn't happen," Lord Moore told me.Samuel Earle is a writer based in London and the author of Tory Nation: How One Party Took Over Continue reading...
Gary Cantrell, aka Lazarus Lake or Laz, completed his first trans-continental trek in 2018. He's now attempting his second, but this time against medical adviceLazarus Lake is shifting in a straight-back chair, searching for the right spot to ease his pinched nerve. After days of steep climbs and steeper descents, the Capon Valley of West Virginia is a welcome oasis. The world is again mercifully flat, if only for a moment. Somewhere out there, the Alleghany mountains lie in wait. But Laz, the mastermind of such grueling endurance tests as the Barkley Marathons and Backyard Ultras, doesn't want to think about that now; the pizzeria is filling up with smoke.A 20-year-old scurries from the back to apologize while the man sitting next to us is still staring. He's been speechless since Laz told him he'd just walked 17 miles over Timber Ridge to get here. Under a farmer's cap pulled down to his squinty eyes, the man grins, rubs his jaw, and finally says: Come again?" Continue reading...
When even the Met police and National Trust scones are apparently peak wokerati', it's become the establishment normIs woke dead? Is it over? Has it peaked", run its course before we've even properly agreed on what this endlessly controversial but somehow never quite defined social justice movement actually was? Though American rightwingers have been hopefully pronouncing its last rites for a while now, until very recently rumours of its death seemed exaggerated in Britain.Sure, some vegan restaurants have gone bust lately, but sadly so have plenty of other restaurants in the face of a cost of living crisis. And yes, oat milk sales are down. But is that because it has been toxified by political association, or because it has fallen out of favour with the wellness lobby, or just because it's expensive? Even reports of a YouTube-fuelled anti-feminist backlash among some young men, or of young women lapping up the original (not very woke) Sex and the City series on Netflix didn't feel like much of a tipping point. But then came the paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass's landmark review on treating transgender children, which found that medical interventions have been underpinned by remarkably weak evidence" and made clear treatment should be holistic, seeking a full understanding of everything going on in children's lives.Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
Revelation in new book that possible Trump running mate killed untrainable' hunting dog prompts widespread revulsionConservative pundits have condemned the South Dakota governor and possible Trump running mate Kristi Noem, amid widespread horror over her admission in a new book that she killed both an untrainable" dog and an unruly goat during a single day in hunting season.Alyssa Farah Griffin, a Trump White House staffer turned critic, said: I'm a dog lover and I am honestly horrified by the Kristi Noem excerpt. I wish I hadn't even read it. A 14-month-old dog is still a puppy and can be trained. A large part of bad behaviour in dogs is not having proper training from humans. Continue reading...
by Apolena Rychlíková and Jakub Zelenka on (#6MCXE)
We helped bring Dominik Feri to justice. His trail should have rattled a complacent political establishmentHe was spoken of as an extraordinary talent. A rising star with a million followers on Instagram, who made politics relevant for younger generations. As recently as 2018, Politico ranked him among 28 people who would shape Europe in the years ahead.But earlier this week, Dominik Feri was sentenced to three years in prison for rape. A man once feted as the great hope of the Czech Republic, and the youngest member of parliament in the country's history is now its first politician to be jailed for sexual violence. Continue reading...
Jeremy Cooper injected McClain, 23, with ketamine after police forcibly restrained him as he walked home in Denver in 2019A former paramedic who injected Elijah McClain with ketamine avoided prison and was sentenced to probation on Friday after his homicide conviction in the Black man's death, which helped fuel the 2020 racial injustice protests.Jeremy Cooper faced up to three years in prison. He administered a dose of the sedative to McClain, 23, who had been forcibly restrained after police stopped him as he was walking home in a Denver suburb in 2019. Continue reading...
Police sound alarm after 13-month-old dies in Everett near Seattle and two other babies taken to hospital in past weekOfficials in Washington are sounding alarms after a baby died, and two others apparently also overdosed, in the past week in separate instances in which fentanyl was left unsecured inside residences.A 911 caller on Wednesday afternoon reported that a 13-month-old baby was not breathing in an apartment in Everett, a city near Seattle, the Daily Herald reported. The baby died later at a hospital, according to authorities. The Snohomish county medical examiner's office will determine the baby's official cause and manner of death, officials said. Continue reading...
Representative running for US Senate forced to attend dinner in shirtsleeves after formal clothing taken from car parked in city garageSan Francisco has earned an unwelcome national reputation for car burglaries, which Adam Schiff was reminded of the hard way: the Democratic representative had his luggage swiped from his car while it was parked in a downtown garage.With his formal clothing gone, Schiff ended up at a fundraising dinner Thursday for his US Senate campaign dressed like he was headed to a Los Angeles Dodgers game - in shirtsleeves and an insulated vest. Others who attended the event were mostly decked out in suit jackets and ties. Continue reading...
by Gloria Oladipo in New York and agency on (#6MCMN)
Minneapolis city council approves payment to Donald Williams, who tried to intervene to stop police killing in 2020The Minneapolis city council approved a $150,000 settlement to an eyewitness who tried to intervene to prevent George Floyd's murder by police in the city almost four years ago and alleges he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result.Donald Williams, 35, a mixed martial arts fighter who testified against Derek Chauvin in the former police officer's 2021 murder trial, sued the city last spring, alleging he was assaulted by police while trying to prevent Floyd's death on 25 May 2020. Continue reading...
by Maya Yang (now) and Chris Stein (earlier) on (#6MC6A)
Ex-president rails against ban on attacking key people connected to the trial; longtime Trump assistant asked whether boss distracted while signing checks. This blog is now closed.
by Léonie Chao-Fong and Guardian staff on (#6M8R4)
A jury will weigh the allegation that Trump falsified business records to cover a $130,000 payment to the adult film star Stormy Daniels. Here's what you need to know
Investigators say man concealed iPhone to record bathroom video of 14-year-old girl, who used her phone to document evidenceAn American Airlines flight attendant was indicted on Thursday after authorities said he tried to secretly record video of a 14-year-old girl using an airplane bathroom last September. Authorities also alleged that Estes Carter Thompson III had four separate videos which showed girls using lavatories on an aircraft where he worked.The 36-year-old Thompson of Charlotte, North Carolina, was indicted on one count of attempted sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of images of child sexual abuse depicting a prepubescent minor.In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453 or visit their website for more resources and to report child abuse or DM for help. For adult survivors of child abuse, help is available at ascasupport.org. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International Continue reading...
Dramatic footage shows law enforcement deploying Tasers and teargas against protesters at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Police detained 28 people on campus, the university said, after protesters began erecting a tent encampment in an attempt to emulate a symbol of vigilance employed by protesters at Columbia University and elsewhere. When officers in tactical gear began detaining people, some submitted while others pushed back. Video shows officers at least once used an electrical stun gun on a protester who was handcuffed on the ground
President drops by Sirius XM studios to speak with the shock jock as Donald Trump sat in a courtroom downtownJoe Biden sprang a surprise on the Washington press corps on Friday when he gave an interview to the radio host and shock jock Howard Stern.The president also made news. Asked if he would debate Donald Trump before the election in November, as the presumptive Republican nominee (who skipped all debates in the primary) has demanded, Biden said: I am, somewhere, I don't know when, but I am happy to debate him." Continue reading...
The US president continues to support Israel in its onslaught on Gaza. Morehouse College's most famous alumnus was anti-warMorehouse College is a special place. The only all-male historically Black college in the world, it has alumni ranging from Dr Martin Luther King Jr, the most celebrated anti-war civil rights leader in history, to Theodore Ted" Colbert III, the CEO of Boeing's defense, space and security division, a key player in supplying the weapons technologies for Israel's months-long campaign of military vengeance on Palestinians.While there is much diversity among the ranks of this brotherhood, Morehouse - also my alma mater - places a primacy on moral leadership and service, and Dr King has been a critical avatar in these efforts. There is a prominent statue of him on campus, his likeness is depicted as a silhouette on official college brochures, the chapel on campus is named in his honor. His papers are held nearby at the Robert W Woodruff Library. Considering King's anti-militarism, and the college's embrace of him as a beacon on campus, the decision to invite Joe Biden to give Morehouse's commencement speech to this year's graduating class is a moral disaster.
Bulk carrier uses deep-water channel en route to Canada marking important step in recovery efforts after last month's disasterThe first cargo ship passed through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed four weeks ago, killing a work crew and halting most maritime traffic through the city's port.The Balsa 94, a bulk carrier sailing under a Panama flag, passed through the new 35ft channel headed for Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, on Thursday. Two more commercial ships followed later, including a vehicle carrier headed to Panama. Continue reading...
Both sides are beset by those who think their words and deeds bring peace closer. Instead they instil fear and make a better future harder to attainBeware the friend who is only trying to help. Not, perhaps, as a rule for life but certainly when it comes to the Israel-Palestine conflict and the clashes that battle provokes around the world. So often those who think they're doing their bit serve only to make an already impossible situation even worse.The week began with an instructive example, when Gideon Falter, head of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, released a video clip of himself being steered away from one of London's weekly Gaza demonstrations by a police officer on the grounds that: You are quite openly Jewish, this is a pro-Palestinian march." Falter argued that he had flushed out proof that the Metropolitan police regard the marches as an unsafe environment for visibly Jewish people, even though the Met allows them to go ahead week after week. Continue reading...
Secretary of state met Xi Jinping in Beijing and warned of sanctions over China's support for Russian arms industryWashington has seen evidence of attempts by Beijing to influence and arguably interfere" in this year's US elections, the secretary of state has said during a trip to China, also warning that Chinese companies face new sanctions if they do not stop supplying material and equipment to the Russian arms industry.Antony Blinken told CNN that he had reiterated Joe Biden's message to Xi Jinping not to interfere in November's vote - a warning that reportedly received assurances from the Chinese president that he would not do so. Asked whether China was keeping to its promise, Blinken said: We have seen, generally speaking, evidence of attempts to influence, and arguably interfere, and we want to make sure that that's cut off as quickly as possible. Continue reading...
Police clashed with protesters at Ohio State University, hours after they gathered on Thursday evening. Those who refused to leave after warnings were arrested and charged with criminal trespass, said a university spokesperson, Benjamin Johnson, citing rules barring overnight events.As the death toll mounts in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis worsens, protesters at universities across the US are demanding schools cut financial ties to Israel and divest from companies they say are enabling the conflict. Some Jewish students say the demonstrations have veered into antisemitism and made them afraid to set foot on campus, partly prompting the calls for police intervention
As he entered the courthouse for the fourth day of testimony in his New York hush money trial, the former US president Donald Trump stopped to speak to reporters about his wife Melania's birthday and the temperature of the courtroom.
by Sam Levine in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania on (#6MCCN)
Luzerne county, in the battleground state Pennsylvania, has faced high-profile mistakes like discarded ballots, and turnover. Did it pass its primary season test?
by Victoria Borlando and Hannah J Davies on (#6MC9D)
As pro-Palestinian demonstrations roil campus, the station's undergraduate reporters - working 18 hour days - have become an essential news sourceThe turning point was certainly immediate, very sudden ... We received a tip at 4am that there would be a demonstration on Columbia's campus, and pretty soon after that, we went live on air."The presenter, Georgia Dillane, is describing the moment on 17 April that student radio station WKCR was thrust into the spotlight with its quick news updates from inside the university grounds. Continue reading...
The California university cancelled Asna Tabassum's speech because of security concerns'. The real reason is cowardiceWhen Asna Tabassum, a hijab-wearing Muslim, was announced as the valedictorian for the University of Southern California class of 2024, my initial reaction was the thought of my south Asian mother saying, What are you doing? Why aren't you valedictorian?" But what followed was pride.
This is not a repeat of the Covid pandemic. Yet global governments should follow the US and prepare a responseAvian flu, or H5N1, is making headlines in the United States. The past few years have seen concerning signs of it spreading across the world - whether in chickens in Britain, sea lions in Peru, or Caspian seals in Russia. This time, it is has been confirmed in American cows, and the World Health Organization has warned that the risk of it spreading to humans is of enormous concern".While it is early days, the hypothesis is that in late 2023, a single cow was infected by coming into contact with infected birds' faeces, or having infected dead birds in its feed. This began cow-to-cow transmission, and potentially even cow-to-bird transmission. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also confirmed one human case of H5N1 in a farm worker, which could either represent cow-to-human (not seen before) or bird-to-human transmission.Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh Continue reading...
The professor on his famous 13 keys' to the White House, a method for predicting election results that's been right nine times out of 10He has been called the Nostradamus of US presidential elections. Allan Lichtman has correctly predicted the result of nine of the past 10 (and even the one that got away, in 2000, he insists was stolen from Al Gore). But now he is gearing up for perhaps his greatest challenge: Joe Biden v Donald Trump II.Lichtman is a man of parts. The history professor has been teaching at American University in Washington for half a century. He is a former North American 3,000m steeplechase champion and, at 77 - the same age as Trump - aiming to compete in the next Senior Olympics. In 1981 he appeared on the TV quizshow Tic-Tac-Dough and won $110,000 in cash and prizes. Continue reading...
Both were pilloried, but that was then. Today, one has beaten a rape conviction, the other may return as presidentAccording to his representatives, former Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein is still digesting the overturning of his rape conviction by a New York court, but they did come out to say he was cautiously excited". Cautiously excited? I'm not sure these are the words I'd alight on to paint a word-picture of a rapist. You might as well say tentatively aroused". Then again, as we're about to discuss, quite a lot of guys don't particularly have to worry about what they say or do, or how they say or do it. It's only natural that Harvey should very much want to be one of them again.Speaking of word-pictures, though, how's this for a vignette of our times? When they heard the news that Weinstein's conviction had been overturned on Thursday, a whole host of reporters happened to be looking at the exact spot in the exact New York courtroom that he'd sat in when that original judgment had been handed down. This was because they were waiting for Donald Trump to sit in it for Thursday's proceedings in his hush money trial. Mr Trump, you might recall, is in such a lot of trouble that he is the presumptive Republican nominee and current bookies' favourite to win the US presidency again, though admittedly he lags behind Weinstein on the sexual assault and misconduct front, given that only 26 women have accused him of it. Ultimately, though, I guess the question is: if #MeToo went too far", what would going just far enough" have looked like? Continue reading...
Germany's complicity with Turkey's repressive regime worries me more than its doner diplomacyNazis eat doner kebabs in secret," must be one of the dumbest slogans I have seen at German protests against the far right. Yes, the popularity of the kebab in Germany has become something of a symbol of labour migration from Turkey after the second world war. And yes, Nazis get hungry, too. So what? If the consumption of ethnic-minority food was really an obstacle to the ideology of white supremacy, Germans would either be starved out by now or they wouldn't vote for Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD). Neither of these is the case: the kebab is the second most popular fast food among Germans, and according to polls, the AfD their second most popular political party.Still, for the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, it seems to be a sign of cosmopolitanism to promote kebab eating, so his team thought it a good idea to send him to Turkey with a whole skewer full of meat as part of an official visit this week, the first by a German president in 10 years. Continue reading...
New York appeals court has thrown out 2020 conviction, but disgraced movie mogul is staying jailed from separate rape conviction. Plus, scheme launched for reparations to Ukrainian sexual violence survivors
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