by Associated Press in Redding, California on (#5PZMZ)
Woman, 30, arrested on suspicion of starting Fawn fire while nearly 2,000 under mandatory evacuation ordersFirefighters hope shifting winds and cooling temperatures will aid efforts to battle a wildfire in a forest in far northern California that has displaced thousands and burned at least 100 structures.Related: Fresh California wildfire prompts evacuations as forest blazes grow Continue reading...
A wildfire in northern California spread rapidly on Thursday, burning homes and prompting evacuation orders in a rural community in Shasta county. The Fawn fire in northern California started Wednesday north of Redding in Shasta county, and scorched more than 8.5 sq miles (22 sq km) of heavy timber on steep, rugged terrain amid hot, dry and gusty conditions. A woman was arrested on suspicion of starting the fire
Netflix has snapped up the author’s entire estate but could struggle to do justice to the fantastic world of his imaginationIt has been a lucrative week for the estate of Roald Dahl and an expensive one for Netflix, which purchased the Roald Dahl Story Company for a reported £500m and though neither organisation would confirm the exact sum involved, I’m sure the frobscottle corks were popped. In a statement, the streaming service said its planned adaptation of Matilda the Musical and its forthcoming animated Charlie and the Chocolate Factory series had “opened its eyes to a much more ambitious venture – the creation of a unique universe across animated and live action films and TV, publishing, games, immersive experiences, live theatre, consumer products and more”.Whew. It’s going to be Frozen all over again, isn’t it? I don’t have children, but I do have nephews and nieces and have learned through them that there is nothing you can’t embellish with Anna and Elsa. A fork? Frozened. Trainers with sparkly laces? Frozened. There are Frozen potties, Hula Hoops, bed frames, tents. There are more snowflakes on children’s toys than there are people angrily typing the word on Twitter. Surely it’s only a matter of time before we get Miss Trunchbull-branded javelins, Mr Twit beard combs or a Grandpa Joe-themed bedspread. Continue reading...
The rightwing playbook: outrage, leading to the passage of deliberately vague laws and advocacy groups diligently weaponizing those lawsAs we all know, there is nothing right-wingers love more than free speech and nothing they detest more than “cancel culture”. People should be able to say whatever they like without fear of censorship, conservatives are constantly squealing. Except, of course, if those people happen to be saying things they don’t agree with. In which case: silence them immediately and ban their books! Continue reading...
Considerable resources were dedicated to finding Petito’s body. Yet Indigenous people in Wyoming are more likely to disappear and to be killed, and their cases are barely noticedThe apparent murder of 22-year-old Gabrielle “Gabby” Petito has been a consistent part of the American news cycle since she disappeared on 11 September. Her YouTube presence and participation in the Instagram #vanlife subculture, which involves young people travelling around the country living aesthetically appealing lives in vans and converted buses, provided plenty of content for internet detectives on sites like TikTok and Reddit to consume. Her story is heart-wrenching, especially after police footage has emerged of Petito and her fiance Brian Laundrie, who is now a “person of interest” in her death, having a domestic crisis.But the story also feels eerily familiar – so familiar, in fact, that there is a term for it: “missing white woman syndrome”. White women, particularly conventionally attractive middle- or upper-class white women, tend to receive disproportionate media coverage when they go missing. Petito’s case is tragic, but the media attention it has attracted replicates a systemic pattern. Continue reading...
Transitioning isn’t always linear. My journey involved many surprising twists and turnsImagine running a race where the finish line continually relocates itself. This is the best way I can describe my transition into womanhood.I was born in Tuskegee, Alabama. I started my medical transition at the age of 29. During those years, I underwent a multitude of gender-affirming surgeries, which included a rhinoplasty, a chin, jaw and brow-bone shave along with multiple breast augmentations. Continue reading...
About 30% of California’s registered voters are Latino, and it appears they voted largely Democrat – but some say it was ‘about ensuring this state didn’t move backward’Luis Sánchez worked overtime to rescue Governor Gavin Newsom in California’s recall race. His group PowerCA Action reached more than a quarter-million voters ahead of election day, encouraging young Latino Californians to head to the polls.Related: ‘Study Newsom’s playbook’: what Democrats – and Republicans – can learn from California’s recall Continue reading...
The UN played a crucial role in defeating South African apartheid – it is time to investigate Israel’s unequal regimeThis week, world leaders have gathered in New York for the 76th session of the United Nations general assembly, struggling to prove its continued relevance in a bruised world. The major themes so far have been the climate crisis, vaccinating the world against Covid-19 and the new regime in Afghanistan – and rightly so. But there is another issue that also demands our attention, where progress could restore faith in the general assembly’s ability to act: the deepening regime of Israeli Jewish supremacy over millions of Palestinians, which has been recognised by more and more observers as a regime of apartheid. We join many global leaders in calling for the general assembly to investigate this regime, and consequently take the necessary measures of accountability to dismantle it.Last year, in response to Israel’s plans to annex further land in the occupied Palestinian territory, we were joined by tens of Arab civil society leaders and diplomats in calling for sanctions against Israel and defending the right of Palestinians to engage in legitimate resistance, including through boycott, divestment and sanctions. This is to safeguard not just the inalienable rights of the people of Palestine, particularly to self-determination, but also the sanctity of the international rule of law. Continue reading...
Despite all the analogies for this possibly terminal emergency, it is unlike anything that has come beforeWriting in 2003, the American environmentalist Bill McKibben observed that although “some small percentage” of scientists, diplomats and activists had known for 15 years that the Earth was facing a disastrous change, their knowledge had almost completely failed to alarm anyone else.It certainly alarmed McKibben: in June 1988, the scientist James Hansen testified to the US Congress that the world was warming rapidly and human behaviour was the primary cause – the first loud and unequivocal warning of the climate crisis to come – and before the next year was out, McKibben had published The End of Nature, the first book about climate change for a lay audience. But few others seemed particularly worried. “People think about ‘global warming’ in the way they think about ‘violence on television’ or ‘growing trade deficits’, as a marginal concern to them, if a concern at all,” he wrote in 2003. “Hardly anyone has fear in their guts.” Continue reading...
Divisions between progressives and moderates in Congress are threatening to scuttle a $3.5tn social spending program and a $1tn infrastructure billAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez cannot have been surprised that wearing a “Tax the Rich” dress to New York’s Met gala would trigger performative outrage from the right. But it also earned blowback from closer to home.Eric Adams, a Black police veteran who won the party’s mayoral primary by appealing to its centre, argued that “when you talk about just blanketly saying ‘tax the rich’ in this city”, it would potentially drive away firefighters, teachers and other taxpayers on whom the city depends. He advocated cutting wasteful spending instead. Continue reading...
Joe Biden meets leaders of Australia, India and Japan in latest effort to cement US leadership in AsiaUS president Joe Biden and the leaders of Australia, India and Japan highlighted their Quad group’s role in safeguarding a stable, democratic Indo-Pacific in a veiled dig at rival China.The first in-person summit of the Quad held on Friday marked Biden’s latest effort to cement US leadership in Asia in the face of a rising China. Continue reading...
Steve Stricker’s side established a commanding lead over the defending champions after day one at Whistling Straits1.19am BSTRelated: Ryder Cup: Europe left with mountain to climb as USA dominate first day12.32am BST... and with that, I’m out of here. Back in the afternoon, when Europe will desperately try to turn the tide. Thanks for reading. Nighty night! Continue reading...
Joe Biden has said there will be repercussions for border patrol agents over their harsh treatment of Haitian migrants at the southern US border between Texas and Mexico, calling it an embarrassment to the nation. Images of agents on horseback corralling migrants in Del Rio as thousands tried to enter the US drew international attention. The president said he bears ultimate responsibility for the situation
Fawn fire scorches more than 8.5 sq miles amid hot, dry and gusty conditions as smoke from forest raises air quality concernsA fresh wildfire in northern California spread rapidly on Thursday, burning homes and prompting evacuation orders in a rural community in Shasta county.Meanwhile, two big forest blazes in the heart of California’s giant sequoia country on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada continued to grow. Smoke from those fires raised air quality concerns for the southern end of the Central Valley and flowed over greater Los Angeles, darkening skies and causing mistaken reports of mountain fires. Continue reading...
Ana Navarro and Sunny Hostin were asked to leave the set and the vice-president’s interview was conducted remotelyKamala Harris’s planned in-person appearance on The View has been delayed after two of the show’s hosts tested positive for coronavirus.Moments before the vice-president was supposed to appear on Friday, it was announced that hosts Ana Navarro and Sunny Hostin had contracted Covid. Continue reading...
by Bryan Armen Graham at Whistling Straits on (#5PYV7)
The United States took a 3-1 lead in front of eager home support but thankfully cries of ‘mashed potatoes’ stayed at homeNearly 50,000 mostly star-spangled spectators descended on Kohler on Friday morning, the quiet Wisconsin hamlet of 2,100 souls along the Sheboygan River that has become the focal point of the sporting world as the United States attempts to regain the Ryder Cup on home soil.The masses arrived as early as 3.30am, an hour and a half before the gates opened, nearly all of them angling for a coveted spot on the horseshoe-shaped grandstand encircling the first tee. The cascading strains of Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline and staccato chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” that would resound throughout the Straits Course all morning long briefly came to a hush when Sergio García led off the opening foursomes match. On a chilly morning, his tee shot landed against the edge of a bunker left of the fairway to kick off the latest in a string of 2020-branded sporting events to be staged in 2021. Continue reading...
Democrat says denying rights of Haitian people to claim asylum contradicts Biden’s promises to reverse ‘Trump’s cruelty’Julián Castro, the former US presidential candidate, has become the latest prominent Democrat to attack Joe Biden for his handling of the humanitarian crisis at the southern border, lamenting his use of a contested Trump-era policy and warning that the president’s “baffling” approach could tear the Democratic coalition apart.In an interview with the Guardian, Castro said he was disappointed that the US president had remained silent about images of border patrol agents on horseback corralling Haitian migrants in Del Rio, Texas. Continue reading...
Women’s Health and Protection Act is part of strategy to push back against rush of state laws but unlikely to advance in SenateHouse Democrats voted on Friday to establish a federal right to abortion, moving swiftly to advance the measure after the supreme court declined to stop a Texas law effectively outlawing the procedure and as they await a separate ruling next year that could further erode access.The legislation, named the Women’s Health and Protection Act, is part of the party’s strategy to push back against the rush of state laws restricting abortions and to show their determination to defend reproductive rights, an issue they believe will resonate ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. Joe Biden has urged support for the measure, but Republican opposition in the Senate all but ensures the bill will not reach his desk. Continue reading...
Trump ally learned of his expulsion on the eve of the 20th anniversary of 9/11, according to PoliticoRudy Giuliani has reportedly been banned from Fox News.Related: House committee on Capitol attack subpoenas Trump’s ex-chief of staff and other top aides Continue reading...
Shelley Ross says Cuomo greeted her at a 2005 party by wrapping her in a bear hug and grabbing her buttock in front of her husbandA former executive producer at ABC has accused CNN’s star anchor Chris Cuomo of sexual harassment in an opinion piece published Friday in the aftermath of his disgraced brother’s resignation as governor of New York.Writing in the New York Times, Shelley Ross says Cuomo greeted her at a 2005 party by wrapping her in a bear hug and grabbing her buttock in front of her husband. Continue reading...
The former president’s conspiracy theories have found a sympathetic audience on the internetNo one showed up, relatively speaking, to the rally in Washington DC last weekend, an event organised in support of the 6 January “martyrs”. Riot fences went up; the national guard was on standby. The gathering, styled “Justice for J6” by organisers, was intended, they said, to draw attention to the plight of those who, after storming the Capitol building earlier this year, had been arrested but “not been charged with violence, not been accused of assaulting a police officer or destroying property”. The idea of “peacefully” tailgating on a violent insurrection is a conceptual stretch, but in any case, only about 200 demonstrators turned up. They were easily outnumbered by journalists and police.These numbers might have been more reassuring had they not been accompanied online by support from the man widely blamed for inciting them. In a statement on his website, Donald Trump – who is still banned from Twitter – referred to the 6 January rioters as “being persecuted so unfairly” for protesting at “the Rigged Presidential Election”. (The page has since been removed.) It was one of a flurry of statements made last week by the former president, now entirely unrestrained by the dignities of office, and in frank support of the people who stormed the US Capitol. “The Big Lie is the Presidential Election 2020,” he went on, before pivoting to blame the “Fake News Media” for destroying “our Country, both inside and out”. Continue reading...
Hand count of the 2.1m ballots cast in Maricopa county found that Biden actually won 360 more votes than Trump than was reportedA partisan, Republican-instigated so-called “audit” of the 2020 election result in Arizona has confirmed that Joe Biden did indeed beat Donald Trump in Maricopa county, the state’s most populous county, according to a draft report of the review.A month-long hand count of the 2.1m ballots cast in Maricopa county, which includes Phoenix, found that Biden actually won 360 more votes than Trump than was reported in the November election. Biden won Arizona’s 11 electoral votes on his way to getting more votes nationally than any presidential candidate in history during the election. Continue reading...
Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury have had 14 fights between them in the last five years. Tyson had 15 knockouts in 1985By Steven Pye for That 1980s Sports BlogYou could almost hear the sigh from boxing fans when the proposed heavyweight title fight between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury was postponed again. The hope remains that Joshua and Fury will eventually get it on and unify the division. If both win their forthcoming fights – Joshua faces Oleksandr Usyk in London on Saturday night, with Fury taking on Wilder in Las Vegas next month – then surely all paths lead (sadly) to Saudi Arabia and a multi-million pound bout to unify the division.A lot has changed in boxing in the last generation. The coronavirus pandemic has played its part but, between them, Joshua and Fury have only fought 14 times in the last five years. Mike Tyson had 15 fights in his first year as a professional, in 1985, before fighting 13 times in 1986 and clinching his first heavyweight title. Tyson had won 30 fights by the time he could legally buy a drink in the US; Joshua is 31 years old and is preparing for his 26th professional fight. Continue reading...
CDC advisory panel had only recommended boosters for elderly and some people with underlying medical conditionsThe US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has broken with advice from its own internal advisory panel to back a booster shot of the Pfizer and BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for Americans aged 65 and older, adults with underlying medical conditions and adults in high-risk working and institutional settings.The move came on Friday one day after an advisory panel to the agency did not recommend that people in high-risk jobs, such as teachers, and risky living conditions should get boosters. The panel had only recommended boosters for elderly and some people with underlying medical conditions. Continue reading...
At its height, the Del Rio encampment harbored about 14,000 migrants – but even as traffic is dwindling, the situation has deteriorated“Welcome to Texas,” says a big, green sign near the Del Rio International Bridge.Related: Haitians reportedly being released in US likely include pregnant women and families Continue reading...
National parks are a victim of their own success. They have too many tourists – and too little fundingNational parks have been called America’s best idea, and for good reason. Unlike the castles and cathedrals of Europe, they belong to everyone. They are democracy writ large, where a people otherwise fiercely devoted to capitalism say: no, not here. Here the meadow does not become a mall. Here we safeguard the beauty and sanctity of nature. Not as a potted plant or a manicured garden, but as vast, wild, largely untrammeled nature. Our original home.Mountains, canyons, glaciers, forests, rivers, bison, bears, birds and more. National parks provoke and inspire us. They give us stories, educate us, change us. “For my life to matter, for me to do the work I’m meant to do in the world,” the wildlife biologist and author Mary Beth Baptiste writes in her park-inspired memoir Altitude Adjustment, “I have to spend my days in mountains and forests like these, among people committed to their flourishing. And all they ask in return is a simple renunciation of everything I’ve ever known to be true.” Continue reading...
Mark Meadows, Steve Bannon and Dan Scavino among advisers called to testify over Capitol attack. Plus: the right to clean airGood morning.The House select committee scrutinizing the Capitol attack has subpoenaed Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows along with three of the former president’s top aides. Continue reading...
The former running back’s US senate run seems like a flight of fancy but more frivolous candidates have achieved high officeTwo weekends ago, as the new college football season dawned, Herschel Walker rendezvoused with the Fox network at the Georgia-Clemson game to discuss his heel turn from gridiron great to Georgia Republican candidate for US Senate, hitting all the familiar notes. He played the victim, (“I have the left and even the right coming at me sometimes,” he said), moaned about not recognizing his country anymore (“I see so many things I disagree with”), and vowed, “I’m going to fight” before making a case for the return of Reggie Bush’s Heisman trophy. Most delicious of all: the receiver on the other end of these underhanded bromides was none other than Clay Travis – a foundational stick-to-sports moralist. In a world where political analysis apes sports commentary and rickety old jocks seem to never run out of bombastic opinions, one could hardly imagine a more worthy kickoff for a late-career pivot into public service than a college football pregame show.To be sure the American political arena has seen its share of ex-football standouts before. Steve Largent (the hall of fame Seahawks receiver turned US representative), Alan Page (the Purple People Eater turned Minnesota supreme court associate justice) and Gerald Ford (the University of Michigan star turned president) are three of many who have straddled both worlds. The desire to see the 59-year-old Walker run dates to the early-80s, when delirious Georgia football fans waved signs that read: Walker for President. Continue reading...
Documents filed by ex-police officer raise issues about prosecution he believes supports appeal requestThe former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has filed an intent to appeal with the Minnesota state appellate court over his murder conviction for the death of George Floyd.A jury found Chauvin, who is white, guilty in April of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Floyd, a black man. The verdict was seen widely as a landmark rebuke of the disproportionate use of force by the police against black Americans. Continue reading...
The state has the highest rate of Covid in America, leaving hospitals overwhelmed and health workers burned outHealth systems in Alaska are at a breaking point, and the Republican governor, Mike Dunleavy, has activated crisis standards of care for the entire state, joining all of Idaho and part of Montana in rationing medical care.Alaska now has the highest rate of Covid in America. On Wednesday the state hit its record number of cases and hospitalizations in the entire pandemic, and the numbers continue rising as its rolling seven-day average of daily cases tops 800. Continue reading...
Gabby Petito’s case highlights the power of media attention but for Indigenous communities it also emphasizes the lack of attention given to missing and murdered Native peopleThe case of missing 22-year-old Gabby Petito came to a tragic conclusion this week when the FBI reported her body had been found in a US national park in Wyoming. And just as they had been during the frantic search for the young woman, news organizations and social media platforms across the US were buzzing with the terrible update.The saga highlighted the incredible power of media attention to showcase a missing person’s case and help it reach some type of timely resolution, no matter how dire, though the search for Petito’s killer continues. But for many in the Indigenous community, it also further emphasized the lack of attention and resources too often given to the scores of missing and murdered Native people in Wyoming and the rest of the country. Continue reading...
An arrest warrant shows unauthorized charges worth more than $1,000 were made during the time his girlfriend was missingThe boyfriend of Gabby Petito has been charged on Thursday with unauthorized use of a debit card as the search for him continued in a Florida swampland.An arrest warrant has been issued for Brian Laundrie, who was indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday for allegedly using a Capital One Bank card and someone’s personal identification number to make unauthorized withdrawals or charges worth more than $1,000 during the period in which Petito went missing. The indictment does not say who the card belonged to and the nature of the charges have not been disclosed. Continue reading...
A package of bills targeting app-based companies such as Grubhub and Doordash will also set minimum payNew York City lawmakers have passed a historic package of bills to improve labor conditions for gig economy and food delivery workers.The first of its kind legislation, which targets app-based delivery companies such as Grubhub, Uber Eats, and Doordash, will set minimum pay, allow workers to keep more of their tips, and limit how far workers can be asked to travel for deliveries. It will also guarantee workers access to bathrooms – an issue that has long plagued people in the gig economy and has been exacerbated by Covid-19 restrictions. Continue reading...
Charlie Appleby could target the Breeders’ Cup with Modern Games after the colt’s success at NewmarketCharlie Appleby sent out four Grade One winners in North America in the space of two days last weekend and could target another with Modern Games after the colt’s comfortable success in the Group Three Tattersalls Stakes at Newmarket on Thursday.Modern Games made all the running to beat Trident, the even-money favourite, two-and-a-half lengths with Harrow a length and a quarter further back in third. Continue reading...
Mark Meadows, Steve Bannon and Dan Scavino among advisers called to testify over president’s connection to 6 January eventsThe House select committee scrutinizing the Capitol attack on Thursday sent subpoenas to Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and a cadre of top Trump aides, demanding their testimony to shed light on the former president’s connection to the 6 January riot.The subpoenas and demands for depositions marked the most aggressive investigative actions the select committee has taken since it made records demands and records preservation requests that formed the groundwork of the inquiry into potential White House involvement. Continue reading...
The building is reputed – by real estate agents – to be haunted by the presence of Bathsheba Sherman, who lived there in the 1800sA purportedly haunted Rhode Island farmhouse where the spooky happenings that inspired the 2013 horror movie The Conjuring occurred hit the market on Thursday for the scary price of $1.2m.Related: The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It review – slick threequel magics up scares Continue reading...
Advocacy groups hail ‘huge victory’ as state becomes first in US to gather data on disproportionate harmCalifornia will become the first state in the US to track the violent deaths of LGBTQ+ people, a move that advocacy groups are hailing as a “huge victory” and a critical tool in understanding disproportionate rates of violence against the LGBTQ+ community.Governor Gavin Newsom, fresh off his victory in the recent recall election, signed a bill into law that will establish a three-year pilot program in as many as six counties to collect information about gender identity and sexual orientation in cases of violent deaths, which include suicides and homicides. Continue reading...
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