The former New York City mayor was spotted with a razor in hand at a dinner table this week. He’s not the first person to brush up in public, but some simple etiquette advice can help avoid upsetting onlookersName: Public grooming.Age: Pre-human. Continue reading...
Officers’ groups say 84-year-old Sundiata Acoli, convicted of murder of New Jersey state trooper, poses no threat to public safetyA coalition of current and retired Black police officers is calling for the release on parole of Sundiata Acoli, a former Black Panther member who has been incarcerated for 48 years for the 1973 murder of a New Jersey state trooper.Four Black law enforcement groups have joined forces to press the case for Acoli’s parole almost half a century after he was arrested. In an amicus brief filed with the New Jersey supreme court, they call his continued imprisonment “an affront to racial justice” and accuse the parole board of violating the law by repeatedly refusing to set the prisoner free. Continue reading...
Online communities are not just used for propaganda but are valuable fundraising tools and crucial to recruitmentThe Taliban took over Afghanistan in two weeks, ending 20 years of fighting with western troops and the Afghan national army. Many factors, such as a problematic peace deal, a lack of political will among the former Kabul administration to fight the Taliban and rampant corruption contributed to the group’s rapid advance and the fall of Kabul – but notable among them was a successful modern media strategy.Prior to 2001 the Taliban banned the use of the internet, dismantled state-run television stations, ordered citizens to stop watching TV altogether and banned music. But after they had been ousted by international forces, the group rapidly expanded its online presence, starting in 2003 with a new insurgency. They launched a new radio station called Voice of Sharia, which had its own website, Al Emarah. Despite numerous attempts to block and remove it, Al Emarah has remained the official website of the Taliban. The site primarily contains battlefield news and videos, as well as the Taliban’s official statements. In the aftermath of their defeat, the Taliban focused their efforts on reviving the group online, “a virtual emirate”, as one scholar called it. Continue reading...
President called upon to extend 31 August deadline to complete evacuations from AfghanistanGood morning.Joe Biden is facing growing pressure, both home and abroad, as the evacuations in Afghanistan and the pandemic come together in a perfect storm. Continue reading...
As a congressman, I have introduced new legislation to transform America’s workweek. It’s time to embrace this changeThe future of work is rapidly changing. Today, millions of Americans are enjoying flexible work because of the pandemic – and when it finally ends, they will want more, not less, freedom. These workers are ready for a new normal, and that’s exactly what a 32-hour workweek can provide.Pilot programs run by governments and businesses in countries such as Iceland, New Zealand, Spain and Japan have experimented with a four-day workweek and reported very promising results. According to pilot studies, workers reported anywhere from a 25% to 40% increase in productivity, as well as an improved work/life balance, less need to take sick days, more time to spend with family and children, less money spent on childcare, and a more flexible working schedule which leads to better morale. This is a global paradigm shift that will bring into question everything we thought we knew about the workplace. Continue reading...
School boards are used to local grievances. But amid fury over mask mandates, members face an unprecedented onslaughtRina Gallien doesn’t consider herself political, but when the 41-year-old mother of four heard that parents who oppose mask mandates in schools were organizing to attend the 12 August meeting of the St Tammany Parish School Board in Slidell, Louisiana, she took time off work to attend.“I didn’t want them to think that they are the only people who care about their kids,” said Gallien, who has three children still in school and strongly supports the mask mandate reinstated by the state’s governor amid soaring Covid-19 cases in early August. “I care about my kids too, and I want them to come home safe.” Continue reading...
The owner of a cabin which became surrounded by flames near Kyburz, California, managed to escape the Caldor fire after shooting the first part of this footage. The fire has burned more than 40,500 hectares (100,000 acres) in the north of the state since it started on 14 August, and more than 12,000 in just two days.
As the rescheduled Tokyo Paralympics kick off, here’s a look at 10 athletes from Team USA worth keeping an eye onRelated: David Brown: the world’s fastest blind athlete and the man who runs alongside him Continue reading...
Many of us are gloating at the US retreat, but there is dread in our hearts. We can’t forget how the Taliban brought their fight to our mosques and schoolsNot too long ago, Pakistan and Afghanistan were called Af-Pak: two countries joined at the hip, doomed to live and die together. You didn’t get to choose your neighbours, we were told. Geography, we were taught, was our destiny.There was a lot of talk about geostrategic significance – which was the Pakistan military’s way of saying there were great advantages to be derived from our unfortunate neighbours. Continue reading...
Some British media have been mocking New Zealand for going into Covid lockdown over one case, but it’s hard to find downsides to the approachPhysician, heal thyself. This phrase has been in my thoughts ever since global media outlets, most of them British, started mocking New Zealand’s Covid elimination strategy last week.I’m a proud British passport holder, and spent some of my best years in London, but not once during this pandemic have I ever wished to be anywhere except New Zealand. That holds true even though we’re now back in lockdown while the British freely enjoy what passes for a summer there. Continue reading...
In major speech delivered in Singapore, US vice president says America stands with its allies in the Indo Pacific in the face of threats from ChinaUS vice president Kamala Harris has delivered a sharp rebuke to China for its incursions in the South China Sea, warning its actions there amount to “coercion” and “intimidation” and affirming that the US will support its allies in the region against Beijing’s advances.“We know that Beijing continues to coerce, to intimidate and to make claims to the vast majority of the South China Sea,” she said in a major foreign policy speech Tuesday in Singapore in which she laid out the Biden administration’s vision for the Indo-Pacific. “Beijing’s actions continue to undermine the rules-based order and threaten the sovereignty of nations.” Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Albany, New York on (#5NP3H)
Democrat submits resignation and will end his term at 11.59pm, making Kathy Hochul the state’s first female governorAndrew Cuomo defended his record over a decade as governor of New York and portrayed himself as the victim of a “political firecracker on an explosive topic” on Monday, as he prepared for a midnight power transfer that will make Lt Gov Kathy Hochul the state’s first female governor.Cuomo, a Democrat, was set to end his term at 11.59pm, just under two weeks after he announced he would resign rather than face an impeachment battle over sexual harassment allegations which he denies. Continue reading...
Fruman, who helped Giuliani try to uncover dirt on Joe Biden, to change plea in court hearing scheduled for WednesdayA man who helped Rudy Giuliani try to unearth damaging information about President Joe Biden in Ukraine is expected to plead guilty in a case alleging illegal campaign contributions to US politicians, according to a court filing.Igor Fruman was charged in 2019 with arranging hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to Republicans and political action committees while trying to get Americans interested in investigating Biden’s son in Ukraine. Continue reading...
Reforms to be implemented six years after Guardian investigation found Kern county to be America’s deadliest for police killingsCalifornia’s justice department has announced a court-enforced reform settlement with the Bakersfield police department, following a years-long state civil rights inquiry initiated after a 2015 Guardian investigation found that police in the state’s Kern county were the deadliest in America.The settlement, known as a stipulated judgment or “consent decree”, was announced on Monday by the California attorney general, Rob Bonta, more than four years after the department commenced its investigation, and requires the police department to revise and reform its policies, overseen by an independent monitor. Continue reading...
SB1 would tighten restrictions on mail voting and prohibit 24-hour and drive-through voting – both which offered Covid protectionsTexas Republicans brought back their voting bill Monday with no changes as some Democrats returned to the Capitol for the first time since ending their holdout, making it clear that the bill is on track to become law after their 38-day walkout.Dozens of people showed up to testify before lawmakers to seize their last chance for public input on the the bill that will tighten voting rules in ways the GOP says will ensure election integrity and that Democrats say amounts to voter suppression for disabled people and minorities. Continue reading...
President Biden urged Americans to come forward to receive the Pfizer vaccine after it received FDA approval. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is trying to finish its licensing process for the drug as soon as Monday.The president spoke directly to Americans who have said they would wait to get vaccinated until one of the vaccines received full FDA approval. 'It has now happened,' Biden said. 'The moment you’ve been waiting for is here. It’s time for you to go get your vaccination – and get it today'
Lack of planning and coordination has left the west scrambling to do the right thingAt the weekend, in advance of Tuesday’s crisis meeting of G7 leaders, Boris Johnson tweeted that it was vital for the international community to work together to “ensure safe evacuations, prevent a humanitarian crisis and support the Afghan people to secure the gains of the last 20 years”. Had this exhortation been made at June’s G7 summit in Cornwall – when America’s intention to pull out of Afghanistan at reckless speed was already known – it would have been a little more impressive and meaningful.Delivered belatedly against a backdrop of lethal chaos and confusion at Kabul airport, the prime minister’s words serve only to underline how little planning and coordination took place when both were urgently required. As a result of Joe Biden’s precipitate haste to get the withdrawal over and done with, and the negligent response of allies such as Britain, a humanitarian crisis is already in train. For tens of thousands of justifiably terrified Afghanis, the evacuation process is a dangerous lottery that represents a betrayal of the trust they placed in the west. The “gains of the last 20 years”, such as greater freedoms for women and girls, will now be subject to the internal politics of the Taliban, as it decides which face it wishes to present to the world. Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Rochester, Minnesota on (#5NP14)
Vovkovinskiy, who was 7ft 8.33in, died of heart disease on Friday in Rochester, MinnesotaIgor Vovkovinskiy, the tallest man in the US, has died in Minnesota. He was 38.His family said the Ukrainian-born Vovkovinskiy died of heart disease on Friday at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. His mother, Svetlana Vovkovinska, an ICU nurse at Mayo, posted about his death on Facebook. Continue reading...
Photographs published by Gizmodo appear to show sections of the partially constructed wall torn apart by monsoon rainsWhen Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign in 2015 by saying “Nobody builds walls better than me”, it was to say the least a questionable claim.Trump insisted the “great wall” he planned for the southern US border, to keep out unwanted migrants, would be “impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful”. Continue reading...
The flooding in rural areas on Saturday took out roads, cellphone towers and telephone lines, leaving families uncertain about whether loved ones survived. Many of the missing live in neighborhoods where the water rose fastest, Humphreys county sheriff Chris Davis said.At the White House in Washington, Joe Biden said he expressed his 'deepest condolences for the sudden and tragic loss of life through this flash flood'
The 30-year-old enters the Tokyo Paralympic Games as America’s biggest hope for gold in the wheelchair tennis singlesSports by nature to many, can be seen as simply a game, mere entertainment at that. To some, it’s a wonderful activity to maintain or improve physical health. To others, it’s the adrenaline rush they gain from competition, the thrill of victory or the potential financial reward that awaits them. Yet, for countless people and athletes with disabilities, having sports present in their lives has proven to be life-altering, game-changing if you will, to the point beyond explanation. Dr Ludwig Guttmann, the founder of the Paralympic Games, once said, “Paraplegia is not the end of the way. It is the beginning of a new life.”Dana Mathewson, the highest ranked male or female American wheelchair tennis player in the world, embodies that statement to the utmost, as she gears up to represent Team USA in singles and doubles at the Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan this month for the second time in her career. A pro on the ITF/Uniqlo Wheelchair Tennis Tour for over a decade, the American has stood firm as the top-standing woman from the US for the majority of that period. Her status has only heightened, as she currently ranks a career-high No 9 in singles and No 7 in doubles, and has thrived in one of the fastest growing wheelchair sports across the world that is predominantly dominated by international players, where she is currently the only American woman ranked in the top 25 singles rankings. Continue reading...
A protest on Sunday in Portland, Oregon culminated in a gunfight, when antifascist demonstrators returned fire at a man who shot at them with a handgun in a downtown street.Portland police bureau confirmed that a man had been arrested over the shooting, which came after a day of protest descended into running clashes involving hundreds of protesters and counter-protesters
Civil rights leader and Jacqueline Jackson admitted to a Chicago hospital on SaturdayThe Rev Jesse Jackson and his wife, Jacqueline Jackson, remained under doctors’ observation at a Chicago hospital on Monday and were “responding positively to treatments” for Covid-19, their son said.Related: Jesse Jackson: 'The gated community does not protect you from the pandemic' Continue reading...
Agency issues message after misinformation about ivermectin, a medicine used to deworm livestock, spreads on social mediaAhead of full US authorisation of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had a simple message for Americans contemplating using ivermectin, a medicine used to deworm livestock, instead of getting a Covid shot.Related: FDA gives full approval to Pfizer vaccine for Covid-19 Continue reading...
A 1978 law tried to remedy adoption practices created to forcibly assimilate Native children. Now conservative lawyers are arguing that the law constitutes ‘reverse racism’George Armstrong Custer of the Seventh Cavalry was infamous during the nineteenth-century Indian wars for riding into the enemy camp, holding Native women, children and elders hostage at gunpoint, and forcing the surrender of the tribe. He systematically attacked and captured civilians to crush Indigenous resistance, which is partly how he defeated the Cheyenne at the Battle of Washita River in 1868. Cheyenne, Lakota and Arapaho warriors later killed Custer as he fled after trying the same hostage-taking ploy at the Battle of Greasy Grass in 1876.Attacking noncombatants, especially children, to enable the conquest of land by destroying the family, and therefore Indigenous nations, wasn’t unique to Custer or the US military. Continue reading...
Authorities in rural northern counties spread misinformation and launched aircraft surveillance in response to false rumors about antifa ‘infiltrators’, according to records obtained by the GuardianOn 1 June 2020, a law enforcement official in the small northern California city of Redding sent screenshots of two social media posts to her staff, asking them to investigate.One was an Instagram story. “BE AWARE … I have heard, from a reliable source, that ANTIFA buses with close to 200 people (domestic terrorists) are planning to infiltrate Redding and possibly cause distraction and destruction,” it read. Continue reading...
While the CEO of Nabisco’s parent company is paid nearly $17m a year, plants are closing, jobs outsourced to Mexico, and older workers are unable to retire on weakened pension benefitsThe pandemic drove many people to the cookie jar and helped Nabisco, maker of Oreos, Chips Ahoy!, Fig Newtons and other sweet treats weather the worst of the outbreak. But as the company’s profits continue to recover, workers at its US plants are striking over the outsourcing of jobs to Mexico and concessions demanded by their employer in new union contract negotiations.On 10 August, about 200 workers in Portland, Oregon, represented by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) went on strike. Union workers in Aurora, Colorado, began their strike on 12 August, followed by those in Richmond, Virginia, on 16 August and Chicago, Illinois on 19 August. Continue reading...
At school in New York, any whiff of competition is firmly avoided. Not so at my six-year-olds’ summer tennis campThere’s a game I play with my children that we never tire of, in which I share details – outlandish, unimaginable – of how things were in the olden days, when I was their age. Most of their favourites are safety related: no bike helmets, no car seats, no grownup in attendance when we walked to the shops. A few of them are monetary (the halfpenny sweet; 10p from the tooth fairy). Occasionally, it’s a food thing – milk floats; the horror of being denied a second dinner if we didn’t like the first – and of course, there’s a whole chapter on tech and rotary phones. There’s also a category of experience I don’t share with my children because, like smoking, they would simply find it too shocking. One of these is PE.Suburban schools in the US still lean heavily into competitive sports, but that is not the case in New York. At my children’s elementary school, it is hard to imagine an event like sports day taking place, in which unsporty children are made to compete and come last in front of the entire school. (There is an annual fun run, organised for fundraising purposes, at which kids trip over their own feet while running in different directions and, like something from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, nobody actually wins). They might play dodgeball in the gym, but the kids themselves don’t pick teams, avoiding the spectacle of the same one being picked last every week. The “ugh” sound, from the team that ended up with them by default, is a memory from childhood that never quite fades. Continue reading...
Former South Carolina governor talks about his memoir that links his decision to lessons learned from an extramarital affair in 2009 and his attempt to cover it upMark Sanford is not the first Republican to turn against former US president Donald Trump and pay a political price. But he is unique in publishing a memoir that links his decision to lessons learned from an extramarital affair and his attempt to cover it up.Sanford was the governor of South Carolina when, in 2009, he flew to Argentina to be with a woman who was not his wife but told his staff he was hiking the Appalachian Trail. The falsehood was rapidly exposed, made lurid headlines and ended his 20-year marriage. Continue reading...
The evacuation of thousands of Americans and their Afghan allies from Kabul would have been 'hard and painful no matter when it started or when we began', Joe Biden said on Sunday, amid fierce criticism of his administration’s handling of the US withdrawal.
Running street battle ends in gunfight after ‘Summer of love’ protest in a parking lot of a former Kmart storeA rightwing protest in Portland on Sunday has culminated in a gunfight, when antifascist demonstrators returned fire at a man who shot at them with a handgun in a downtown street.The firefight took place in the heart of downtown Portland, soon after 6pm. As antifascists followed a man at a distance who they were trying to eject from the area, he took cover behind an electrical substation box, produced a handgun and opened fire. He fired at least two shots before an antifascist returned fire with their own handgun. At least seven shots were fired. Continue reading...
From Sudan to Iraq to Afghanistan, self-righteous US and UK policies have more to do with power than peopleIn August 1998, two weeks after a little-known terror outfit called al-Qaida announced itself to the world with bomb attacks on the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the US president, Bill Clinton, retaliated with missile strikes against a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan. Central Khartoum was rocked in the middle of the night by the impact of a dozen Tomahawk missiles, which destroyed the plant, killing a night watchman and wounding 11 others. The US claimed that the factory – which was the largest provider of medicines in a country under sanctions – was secretly producing nerve agents on behalf of al-Qaida, but it didn’t take long for American officials to admit that the “evidence … was not as solid as first portrayed”.The attack, in other words, was simply an act of retaliation against a random target, without any connection to the crime purportedly being avenged. I was a university student in Khartoum at the time. I can remember the confusion the day after the explosions, then visiting the shattered site of the factory with other students. What was suddenly clear to us then, standing in front of the ruins in a sleepy city that had supposedly become the centre of Islamic terrorism overnight, was the real logic of the “war on terror”: our lives were fodder for the production of bold headlines in American newspapers, saluting the strength, swift action and resolve of western leaders. We, on the sharp end of it all, would never be the protagonists. Those were the policy and opinion makers far, far away, for whom our experience was merely the resolution of an argument about themselves. The operation was chillingly, but appropriately, called Infinite Reach. Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Placerville, California on (#5NMX1)
Zero containment of wildfire, one of about a dozen big blazes in drought-stricken state that have destroyed hundreds of homesA wildfire burning for a week in northern California continued to grow out of control on Sunday, as one of about a dozen big blazes in the drought-stricken state that have destroyed hundreds of homes and forced thousands of people to evacuate.Related: Burned paws, hungry bears: the race to help animals injured in wildfires Continue reading...
Severe weather cut short New York's star-studded Homecoming concert in Central Park, with Barry Manilow's set being interrupted by an announcement requesting concert goers leave the venue amid the threat of lightning.Designed to celebrate the city's recovery from coronavirus, the concert was headlined by Bruce Springsteen and also featured Paul Simon, Jennifer Hudson, LL Cool J and Andrea Bocelli
The former UK prime minister says the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan means 'our friends are now anxious and those people opposed to us feel heartened by it'.
Show was cut short, an hour and a half early, before Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon and Patti Smith could hit the stageIt started out well enough.In the heart of New York City, on Central Park’s Great Lawn, the weather was overcast leading up to We Love NYC: The Homecoming Concert, a genre-spanning spectacle produced by the city itself, in partnership with legendary music executive Clive Davis and Live Nation. Continue reading...
