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We are resilient in the face of worsening floods and drought, but refuse to accept more failures from world leadersAs I travelled on the train to Glasgow for Cop26 a few days ago, I felt the enormous power of my people and my ancestors around me. I am a Samoan, from one of the regions most threatened by climate breakdown, despite contributing little to emissions. I am at the climate summit to represent the voices of our communities, and of those who could not travel here due to Covid-19 and continuing vaccine apartheid. I bring with me the voices of a Pacific that refuses to give up.Time is fast running out for my islands, and we will accept no more excuses or failures from world leaders. We know they’re not doing enough – the most recent scientific report by the IPCC has shown us that. Cop26 must deliver concrete solutions urgently, and we are here to force them to act.Brianna Fruean is a Samoan climate activist, student and member of the Pacific Climate Warriors delegation at Cop26 Continue reading...

Democrats are staring down an ugly reality: the unrepresentative Senate heavily disadvantages the partyThink Democrats have it tough now, trying to keep a precarious US Senate majority in tune on a trillion-dollar-plus budget reconciliation package without a single vote to spare? Just wait. These days of 50 Democratic senators may soon look like glory days.Democrats are staring down an ugly reality in the US Senate: the historical malapportionment of the upper chamber, which awards two members to every state, even though Wyoming’s population is not only 68 times smaller than California’s but smaller than 115 counties nationwide, already places the party at a disadvantage. This edge has only become more prominent due to polarization and population patterns, and will collide next with a challenging map in 2022 and an even harder one in 2024.David Daley is the author of Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn’t Count and Unrigged: How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy Continue reading...

In 2018, Ireland finally voted to legalize terminations. Before that condoms, divorce and abortion were illegal and shamefulI am a woman in America who can bear children, and this means that there are powerful people coming for me, with detailed and strategic plans to control my body. Sounds dramatic, doesn’t it? It is dramatic, more so because it’s a straight-up fact. In 2021, state legislatures enacted more abortion restrictions than in any previous year, according to an analysis by the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy body dedicated to advancing reproductive rights. Last month’s decision by the supreme court to refuse to block a Texas law all but banning abortion signals that the court could well be on the way to overturn Roe v Wade, and soon.National legalized abortion is just one part of this. Reproductive justice advocates as far back as 1994 understood that when women don’t have access to abortion it generally means that we don’t have access to a whole host of other rights: affordable contraceptives, comprehensive sex education, pre-natal care, even screening and treatment for a variety of diseases including cancer and HIV. This is an overall form of oppression, and I know what’s happening. I also fear I know what’s coming.Maeve Higgins is a comedian and the author of Maeve in America: Essays by a Girl from Somewhere Else Continue reading...

Despite appearances, the state’s cannabis industry is in disarray as legal businesses struggle to make a profitFive years after cannabis legalization, California is awash with signs of an apparently booming industry. Californians can toke on Justin Bieber-branded joints and ash their blunts in Seth Rogen’s $95 ceramics. They can sip on THC-infused seltzers, relax inside a cannabis cafe, and get edibles delivered to their doors.But behind the flashy facade, the legal weed industry remains far from the law-abiding, prosperous sector many had hoped for. In fact, it’s a mess. Continue reading...

The Rainbow Warrior has brought us to Cop26 to speak up for the sidelined citizens of the global south. We can’t be ignored

Historic declaration at Cop26 commits countries to reducing major causes of CO2 emissions. Plus, the end of the avocadoGood morning.World leaders have agreed a deal that aims to halt and reverse global deforestation over the next decade as part of a multibillion-dollar package to tackle human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.Major producers and consumers of deforestation-linked commodities including Indonesia, China and Brazil have put their name to the deforestation deal, which aims to curtail the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.The detailed US proposals on methane gases may prove to be one of the lasting successes of Cop26 in Glasgow where Biden will announce his action plan.On Monday, Biden urged other world leaders to embark upon a shift to clean energy and vowed that the US will ‘lead by example’.What else is causing the illegal market to thrive? Business owners say high taxes, the limited availability of licenses, and expensive regulatory costs have put the legal market out of reach.How do those who are licensed to sell cannabis legally stay afloat? For now, the only way legal, state-licensed businesses say they are able to stay profitable is to keep one foot in the illegal, unlicensed market. Continue reading...

David Beckham appointed his old friend as his team’s coach. The results so far have not been promisingIt took six years for David Beckham’s Inter Miami team to make it onto a football field. It’s going to take a while longer for success to follow. Under the guidance of head coach Phil Neville, the second-year expansion team is ending the season well adrift of the MLS playoffs.After leaving the England women’s team to join his old Manchester United teammate in Miami, Neville was unable to lift a goal-shy roster into the Eastern Conference’s top seven. Six straight losses – by a combined score of 16-1 – undid a promising mid-season revival that saw only one defeat in 11. Continue reading...

Mercenaries, the army and Bashir-era business interests have seized control and will sell the country’s resources to the highest bidderLast week in Sudan, two years disappeared in a flash. Two years of working to bring Sudan in from the cold after almost three decades of isolation. Two years of trying to establish a civilian government. Two years of mourning those who had died in Sudan’s revolution to oust Omar al-Bashir. And two years of tentative hope that perhaps these deaths had not been in vain. In the end, all that mattered was that it was two years during which the military grew tired of partnering with civilians in a transitional power-sharing agreement. Last week, the army seized power in a coup that erased everything the Sudanese people had gained since Bashir’s military government was toppled in 2019.That revolution had reignited hope for democratic rule, not only in Sudan, but across the Arab world. In hindsight, its short-lived nature seems inevitable. Sudan’s uprising may have removed Bashir, but behind him sat a military and security state with deep roots and complex economic interests. When it became clear that the Sudanese people were not going to tolerate another military figurehead as a replacement for Bashir, an agreement with civilian parties resulted in a transitional power-sharing arrangement that should have paved the way for elections. Continue reading...

Opposition to requirement has led to staff shortages but not the chaos unions predicted, say analystsIn Seattle, some police detectives stepped into patrol cars over the last month for the first time in more than a decade, according to Sgt Randy Huserik, who has been with the department for 28 years.The department has been short staffed since 18 October, when the city began enforcing a mandate requiring officers to get vaccinated against Covid-19. Continue reading...

The UK has built a coalition of 100 countries committed to ending the destruction of forests by the end of the decade

Rittenhouse shot three people, killing two, during protests last year in Wisconsin after a white police officer shot Jacob BlakeThe trial of Kyle Rittenhouse began on Monday with the challenge of seating jurors who had not made up their minds about the young man who shot three people, killing two, during a violent night of protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year.Rittenhouse, now 18, faces life in prison if he is convicted of first-degree homicide. He faces two homicide counts, one of attempted homicide and two of recklessly endangering safety for firing his weapon near others. He is also charged with possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18. Continue reading...

Real estate heir was hospitalized with Covid after receiving life sentence for murder of his friend Susan BermanRobert Durst was indicted on Monday for murder in the death of his first wife, Kathie McCormack Durst, who disappeared nearly four decades ago.The multimillionaire real estate heir is currently serving a life sentence in California for the murder of Susan Berman, his friend and confidante who prosecutors say helped him cover up Kathie Durst’s killing. Continue reading...

Defense team had requested word be banned during New York trial this monthProsecutors in Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking case will be permitted to use the words “victim” and “minor” in referencing accusers during her forthcoming trial in federal court in New York, it was ruled on Monday.Judge Alison Nathan’s decision permitting the use of “victim” stemmed from a challenge by Maxwell’s defense team, which had requested that the word be barred from the trial, due to begin in Manhattan this month. Continue reading...

Dave Halls, who handed Alec Baldwin gun believed to contain live bullet, makes first public comments since Halyna Hutchins diedThe assistant director who handed Alec Baldwin a gun believed to contain a live bullet made his first comments on Monday about the movie set shooting that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins last month.Dave Halls, in a statement to the New York Post, did not address the details of the incident, which occurred during filming of the desert western Rust last month near Santa Fe in New Mexico but said he was “shocked and saddened” at the death of Hutchins. Continue reading...

Mayor says thousands of firefighters have called out sick in apparent protest, with 18 of 350 units out of serviceAbout 9,000 New York City municipal workers were put on unpaid leave for refusing to comply with a Covid-19 vaccine mandate that took effect on Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said, adding that thousands of firefighters had called out sick in apparent protest.Firehouses remained open but 18 of 350 units were out of service and “many units are understaffed”, Daniel Nigro, the fire commissioner, said. Continue reading...

Minimum-wage work, food poverty, lack of healthcare: Superstore is what you’d get if Ken Loach had directed Friends. It’s one of many series bringing harsh political realities to the massesYears and years went by when no one in a novel had a job, and almost no one in a mainstream American sitcom or dramedy had money worries. Roseanne wasn’t earning enough but ever since that show was canned in 1997, people have had cute scrapes where they lost their job or their credit card – but grinding, day-to-day poverty, unable to make ends meet or imagine a future in which you would ever be able to? That wasn’t what sitcoms were about.Instead, we’d take an office (The Office), or a police precinct (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), or a family (Modern Family), or a dojo (Cobra Kai – and yes, before you ask, I do watch a lot of telly), and some people would be richer than others, and some would make bad choices, and others would get into hilarious pickles, but one convention was always observed: nobody was struggling, or if they were, it was because they were on drugs.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Far-right senator from Missouri ridiculed for his homilies on ‘manly virtues’The effort to combat toxic masculinity in the US has led men to consume more pornography and play more video games, the Missouri senator Josh Hawley claimed in a speech to a group of Republicans.Speaking at the National Conservatism Conference in Orlando, Florida, Hawley addressed the issue of “manhood”, which he said was under attack, and called for men to return to traditional masculine roles. Continue reading...

Controversy around the trainer casts a shadow over preparations for ‘world championships of racing’ in CaliforniaThe big names over the jumps are emerging week by week and Cheltenham’s November meeting is on the horizon but the international Flat season has one final flourish to come. The pulling power of Del Mar on the Pacific coast in California – “where the surf meets the turf” – has attracted a huge European team for the 2021 Breeders’ Cup meeting later this week.More detail about running plans will arrive when the draw for stall positions takes place later on Monday, but the quarantine barn at Del Mar is currently home to 40 horses from stables in Europe. They include Dermot Weld’s Tarnawa, who will attempt to become only the third dual winner of the Turf, and Audarya from James Fanshawe’s Newmarket yard, who defends her title in the Filly & Mare Turf. Continue reading...

Barclays CEO quit after inquiry into how he described relationship with Jeffrey EpsteinJes Staley, Barclays’ chief executive for the past six years, is stepping down after City regulators shared with him and the bank preliminary findings of an investigation over how he described his links to the sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.However, Staley plans to challenge the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) over their conclusions, meaning it could take much longer before the findings are released to the public. Continue reading...

Shares dive by 13% as analysts raise doubts over cybersecurity firm’s valuationShares in the cybersecurity firm Darktrace have plummeted again after an analyst note raising doubts about its valuation and as the expiry looms of a lock-up on insiders selling their stakes.The Cambridge-based firm, which had been a star performer since floating in April and joining the FTSE 100 last week, had a share price fall of more than 13% to 698p in early trading on Monday, valuing the company at £4.8bn. Continue reading...

A Mexican highway that connects with Texas ports of entry might be an alternative to California water portsAn unusual event marking what organizers called “the start of the produce season” was recently held on the US side of an international port of entry connecting Mexico with Pharr, Texas. It was a different kind of ribbon-cutting ceremony, in front of a crowd of hundreds gathered beneath a large tent leading to the bridge connecting the United States and Mexico.Local dignitaries from both sides of the border were given a fruit or vegetable imported from Mexico and asked to cut it, which they dutifully did to the delight of the crowd. Then came the free-for-all. The crowd was given bags and told to take what they wanted from a carefully staged backdrop of every type of fruit and vegetable that comes through this region. While this quaint tradition has been a mainstay of the region for years, this year may make the event more significant, asthe United States struggles with supply chain problems in the wake of the pandemic. Continue reading...

Troubling statistics show the post-election rancor that led to the US Capitol attack on 6 January is still very much in placeAlmost a third of Republicans believe violence may be necessary to “save” the US, according to a new poll.Researchers at the Public Religion Research Institute, a nonprofit, found that 30% of Republicans agreed with the statement “Because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country”. Continue reading...

The world needs to cut 28bn tonnes of emissions, current pledges only come to 4bn. Leaders cannot shy from this reality• Ed Miliband is the shadow secretary for business, energy and industryThe defining choice facing leaders in Glasgow this week at Cop26 is whether to sugar-coat reality or be honest about the climate emergency, and demand the action that will be necessary to confront it. If we are to have any chance of preventing catastrophe, we must choose truth and candour.The most important truth is the maths. For all the millions of words spilled about this summit, not enough has been done to spell out its central task. Many leaders say we need to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, but few say out loud what that means. Continue reading...

As Cop26 gets under way in Glasgow, I can’t help but reflect on the UK government’s very un-green budget

Leaders say they hoped for more from G20 talks in Rome and chances of staying below 1.5C are fading. Plus, how to cure our addiction to trash

This is a once-in-a-generation ‘take this job and shove it’ moment – which gives workers an upper hand. Let’s demand better hours, pay and work-life balanceDespite quizzical think pieces on the motivations behind the Great Resignation, anyone who pays rent or a mortgage knows why this “labor shortage” is under way. After years of inflation and stagnant wages, the pandemic has revealed the value of labor, the worthlessness of commutes and office culture, and the importance of finding personal comfort in times of increasing precarity.In other words, we are living in what labor economist Lawrence Katz calls “a once-in-a-generation ‘take this job and shove it’ moment” – which gives workers a once-in-a-generation upper hand. Continue reading...

Former members of the Vancouver Whitecaps women’s team are demanding an investigation into Victor Montagliani’s handling of sexual misconduct allegations in CanadaFormer Vancouver Whitecaps women’s team players fear a proposed investigation by Major League Soccer into the club’s response to allegations of sexual misconduct will be a whitewash and fail to adequately address multiple instances of wrongdoing.The players, who represented Vancouver Whitecaps in the 2008 and 2011 seasons, are supported by Canada’s Professional Footballers Association (PFACan) in a call for key club executives to be fired. Continue reading...

A police narrative of people watching a man rape a woman was ‘not true’, but it still ran wild in the press – similar to a 1964 murder that prompted the ‘bystander effect’The news was horrifying, a parable of inhumanity so grim that it was destined to go viral.Two weeks ago, police said that passengers on Philadelphia’s elevated train watched a man rape a woman and did not intervene – and that some riders might have even recorded the 13 October attack with their cellphones. These onlookers did not call for help during the attack. The only person who dialed 911 was an off-duty transit worker, police alleged. Continue reading...

The New York Jets QB’s rise from obscurity to hero reminds us why, at its best, the NFL is such a compelling spectacleWhen the New York Jets needed one yard with two minutes left to secure a stunning 34-31 upset over the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, the football stayed in Mike White’s hands. It had to. White’s successful quarterback sneak was the perfect ending to a game that showcased how nothing in the NFL is certain.Two weeks ago, very few people outside of the Jets universe had even heard of White – quite frankly, I kept envisioning the former Raiders head coach. White erased any confusion over his identity with a brilliant performance, especially as far as Jets quarterbacks go. His 405 passing yards were the most by a Jets quarterback in 327 games. That dates back to the year 2000. His 37 completions (out of 45 attempts) are an NFL record for a player in his first start. White also tied Cam Newton as the only player to top 400 passing yards in his first start. Continue reading...

As Trump and allies falsely claim the vote was stolen, officials who uphold the election machinery say threats are the new normalBefore he leaves his house to walk his dog these days, Rick Barron’s 12-year-old-daughter reminds him that he needs to keep an eye out because she worries her dad could be the target of an attack.Barron, 55, is the director of voting and elections in Fulton county, which includes Atlanta and is the most populous county in Georgia. For the last year, he’s been subject to a barrage of voicemails and emails with threats, including some threatening violence and death, as Donald Trump and his allies have falsely claimed the election was stolen. Continue reading...

Psaki, who did not travel with the president to Europe, says her last contact with Biden was on TuesdayJen Psaki, Joe Biden’s White House press secretary, said on Sunday she had tested positive for Covid-19.Psaki, 42, did not travel with Biden to Rome for this week’s G20 summit. The president is also due to travel to Glasgow for the Cop26 climate talks. Biden has been accompanied in Europe by his principal deputy press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre. Continue reading...

New York senator led moves to push Franken out as Minnesota senator over allegations of sexual misconductAl Franken on Sunday ruled out mounting a primary challenge to Kirsten Gillibrand, the New York senator who four years ago led calls for his resignation as a senator from Minnesota over allegations of sexual misconduct.In a statement to Politico, Franken said: “Yes, I miss the Senate but I’m not going to run against Kirsten Gillibrand.” Continue reading...

Beijing warns against interference, as US secretary of state also urges China to meet climate responsibilitiesThe US secretary of state has clashed with his Chinese opposite number, saying the US will provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself as China warned it must end its interference on the island.Antony Blinken also urged China to live up to its responsibilities on the climate emergency, pointing out it was the largest carbon emitter. Continue reading...

Too few leaders will arrive at Cop26 bearing any mandate for serious climate action, because hardly any have tried to get oneTo be facetious about it, they only have 12 days to save the Earth. As politicians and officials from 197 countries begin just under a fortnight’s work at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow, you can sense a strange mixture of feelings: expectation, cynicism, fatalism, anger and fragile hope.It will be easy to lose track of what is at stake and who is who – although anyone feeling confused should recall the report issued in August by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and its bracing conclusion: that huge environmental changes triggered by global heating are now everywhere, and avoiding a future that will be completely catastrophic demands “immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions” in carbon emissions. The point is simple enough. But one familiar factor may well weaken the resolve of the key people at Cop26: the fact that too few politicians will arrive in Scotland bearing any mandate for serious climate action, because almost none of them have tried to get one.John Harris is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Though he crossed state lines with a semi-automatic rifle and shot three people, Rittenhouse has been treated with an alarming degree of graceIn the midst of the unrest following a police officer’s shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year, Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old boy from Illinois, shot and killed two anti-police brutality protesters and wounded a third. This week the presiding judge in Rittenhouse’s trial has decided that the men that Rittenhouse shot cannot be called “victims” during the trial.Despite purposefully crossing state lines armed with a semi-automatic rifle, Rittenhouse has been treated, before and after the act, with an alarming degree of grace. Rittenhouse’s case is about a lot more than just one armed vigilante seeking to protect the status quo at the expense of human lives: it is about an entire system that pushed him to violence.Akin Olla is a contributing opinion writer at the Guardian Continue reading...

Nassar’s victims came forward to parents, coaches, doctors, psychologists, USA Gymnastics and local police – and were dismissed as less credible than Nassar’s preposterous claims of medical justification Continue reading...

School administrations seem to endanger survivors’ access to education more often than they hold their abusers accountableAn estimated 300 students walked out of their classes last week at Skidmore College, a small, private school located on a tree-lined campus in Saratoga Springs, New York. The students gathered on the campus and began speaking into bullhorns about their experiences of sexual violence, and the various forms of hostility and indifference they received from college administrators when they reported them. According to reporting by Rachel Silberstein in the Albany Times Union, the demonstration was sparked by a controversial decision by the Skidmore administration to ban a young female student from campus after she posted about her experiences of sexual violence online.The woman’s suspension comes as Skidmore students, disillusioned with their campus reporting system, have increasingly taken to social media to anonymously disclose their experiences of sexual violence within the Skidmore community. In the posts, many of which have been gathered on an anonymous Instagram account, young women describe experiences ranging from stalking to rapes to domestic violence. Some were allegedly cornered in dorms and forced to watch their classmates masturbate; others were groped late at night, by strangers at a party or while walking on the campus quad. The accounts vary in the character and severity of the gender violence that they describe, but the students seem united in their conviction that the school administration antagonizes survivors and endangers their access to education more often than it meaningfully intervenes to protect them or to hold their abusers accountable. As one post on the anonymous Instagram account put it, describing one student’s experience of reporting through the school administration: “Little has been done, and I fear retaliation from the college.” Continue reading...