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Defense secretary: ‘We’re gonna try our very best to get everybody, every American citizen who wants to get out, out’

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...

Ex-president backs Mo Brooks, who is running for Senate and sympathised with man who threatened to blow up US CapitolDonald Trump staged a rally in Alabama on Saturday night, in a city that has declared a Covid emergency and in support of a congressman who both backed Trump’s attempt to overturn the election and this week sympathised with a man who threatened to blow up the US Capitol.Related: Capitol bomb claim suspect charged with weapon of mass destruction threat Continue reading...

Dying is a profitable business – yet funerals today are pretty much handled the same as they’ve been for decades“See that place?” my father always used to say when we drove by the local cemetery. “People are just dying to get in there. Ha ha!”It was funny – at least for the first 50 times I heard it. Hey, dads are allowed to tell dad jokes. But when someone does die it’s no joke to their families. Besides the grief, there’s the cost. And people have been grumbling about the costs of funerals since there have been … well … funerals. Continue reading...

Lake Charles has withstood four federally declared disasters in less than a year all while responding to the fourth wave of coronavirusAbout a foot of drywall is cut out near the floor in parts of the regional health department building in the city of Lake Charles, south-west Louisiana. The roof is leaking in one room and blue painter’s tape marks the walls that are still holding water. The agency attempts to conduct business as usual, despite missing pieces.The same can be said for people in the community, who have withstood four federally declared disasters in less than a year. Hurricane Laura – which made landfall as a Category 4 storm in August 2020 – dealt the first blow. Six weeks later, Hurricane Delta hit. A freeze this February followed by torrential rain in May destroyed more homes. Continue reading...

It’s easier than ever to carve US electoral districts to one party’s benefit – but it’s also easier to expose the practiceThe first time Kim Brace drew electoral district maps for the state of Illinois, more than 40 years ago, things moved slowly.He and his colleagues hung maps of the state on the walls in the office of the speaker of the state house of representatives. Someone would climb a ladder, moving different blocks of people into different districts while another took notes below. In the evenings, they would go to the largest bank in Springfield and use a mainframe computer to generate a daily report. Over the course of the four-month legislative session, Brace was able to draw about 10 possibilities for electoral maps. Continue reading...

Misogyny continued to run through society behind the ‘new Afghanistan’ facadeI am thinking about Farkhunda. You may have read about her six years ago and felt outrage at the Afghan men who killed her. All that represents Farkhunda now is a forlorn clenched fist emerging from a block of stone, silently aimed at the sky near the place where she was publicly tortured and murdered in 2015, a popular shrine in Kabul where pigeons circle and hawkers and beggars approach crowds of pilgrims. Her “sin” was burning pages of the Qur’an, a fake accusation aimed at her by the vendor of charms whom she had criticised.Farkhunda’s fate should also tell us that brutal corporal punishment meted out by the mob on religious grounds, especially to a woman, is not just the domain of the Taliban. More disturbingly, it should also tell us that even in the “new Afghanistan” there remained a troubling undercurrent of misogyny in some quarters of society. On that day, Afghan security forces stood by and watched as people tried to rip the young woman apart. I suspect the frustration of decades of being told to grudgingly accept women’s rights in public was unleashed on one small crumpled body. Continue reading...

Oregon pro-Trump organizers seem in disarray ahead of Sunday event but some on left still call for mayor to quitA united front against far-right groups appeared to be paying off for authorities and progressive groups in Portland, Oregon, ahead of a planned protest on Sunday.Related: Man charged in Capitol riot also engaged in rightwing street brawl Continue reading...

After huge lockdown profits from graphic content, the OnlyFans network realises that it costs to go legitWhen the paid social network OnlyFans announced on Thursday it was banning “sexually explicit” material, it was the equivalent of Playboy in its pomp deciding to publish only the articles. It’s not that some of the articles weren’t quite good, but they were obviously never the point. In the same way, while you can find plenty of stuff on OnlyFans that isn’t porn – training tips from athletes and DJs supplying “inspirational content” – everyone knows that isn’t the reason most people go to the site.All the same, OnlyFans prefers to draw a tactful veil over its adventures in the flesh trade. In the dust-dry words of its mission statement, it positions itself as a “social platform revolutionizing creator and fan connections”, which “allows [creators] to monetize their content while developing authentic relationships with their fanbase”. Or, in less corporate language, it lets your followers pay you for whatever you do. Users can set a monthly subscription, charge for individual posts or produce bespoke videos and pictures on request. Continue reading...

Larry Elder doesn’t believe in gun control or the gender pay gap. He has risen to the top of the Republican field in the recall election for governorLarry Elder is a confounding frontrunner in the Republican race to replace Gavin Newsom as California governor.Related: Grizzly Flats: the California town leveled by the Caldor fire – in pictures Continue reading...

Crowd asked to leave Central Park extravaganza that featured Springsteen and LL Cool J on the billing

Civil rights leader, who is vaccinated, being monitored along with his wife by doctors in ChicagoThe Rev Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate, and his wife have been hospitalised after testing positive for Covid-19, according to a statement.He and his wife, 77, were being treated at Northwestern memorial hospital in Chicago, said his nonprofit Rainbow/Push Coalition. Jesse Jackson, 79, is vaccinated against the virus and received his first dose in January during a publicised event as he urged others to do so as soon as possible. Continue reading...

At the Jackson Hole bankers’ summit this week, the talk will be of ending quantitative easing – and this time it will be seriousIt is credited with preventing the worst global recession since at least the second world war from turning into something far worse. But after the injection of trillions of dollars into financial markets to cushion the blow from Covid-19, the era of quantitative easing could be coming to an end.This week, attention will turn to the gathering of central bank chiefs in Jackson Hole for clues about how the US Federal Reserve plans to bring its vast QE bond-buying programme to an eventual halt after more than a year of emergency stimulus. Continue reading...

The wildfire has destroyed dozens of homes and closed down a stretch of Interstate 50 to the Nevada state lineCrews were digging in and burning out fire lines amid fears that another round of high winds on Saturday could bring renewed fury to a northern California wildfire.“We have a firefight ahead of us and the wind today is going to make it very challenging,” said Keith Wade, a spokesman with Cal Fire. Continue reading...

The ‘forever war’ has finished with a debacle. If this marks the end of American interventionism, what will take its place?A few months ago there were US bases all over Afghanistan where you could immerse yourself in Americana, buy Coke and Snickers bars from vending machines and watch live sport on TV.Now the outpost has shrunk to one side of Kabul airport, a chaotic remnant of a 20-year stay where rearguard troops are trying to salvage the last scraps of dignity and honour, seemingly tossed aside by the political leadership in Washington, by trying to extract American stragglers and Afghan allies. Those allies, once inspired by talk of democracy, women’s rights and the free press, are now faced with the awful life-and-death dilemmas of preserving evidence of their work for or with the US-led coalition, in the hope of last-minute salvation, or destroying it, in a bid to escape execution. Continue reading...

Biden’s Afghan chaos means Europe can no longer rely on him. Let’s hope a more balanced security relationship emergesThe North Atlantic measurably widened last week. The more Joe Biden tried to shift blame for the Afghan chaos, the bigger the gulf with America’s UK and European allies grew. This US president, who preaches the virtues of multilateralism yet acted on his own, has done more in a few weeks to undermine the western alliance than Donald Trump ever did with all his bluster.Related: After the chaos in Kabul, is the American century over? Continue reading...

He offers sound financial advice on not ruining his children’s lives with extreme wealthFor many people, Daniel Craig climbing out of the sea in his swimming trunks is a turn-on; for me, it’s Daniel Craig talking about financial responsibility.“Isn’t there an old adage that if you die a rich person, you’ve failed?” the Bond star told Candis magazine, adding: “I don’t want to leave great sums to the next generation.” He says that his philosophy is to get rid of his fortune before he dies. In the same week that this interview emerged, Craig topped Variety’s list of movie star salaries, reportedly earning $100m following the sale of two sequels to the highly enjoyable mystery Knives Out, which leaves a lot of giving away to do. Continue reading...

Dan Patrick refuses to apologise for false claim while Texas experiences highest hospitalisation rates since January

A digital platform that is only famous because it hosts sexually explicit content is banning ‘sexually explicit’ content Continue reading...

Some Texas Democrats dismayed their colleagues returned to make a quorum, but others hope their protest has drawn attention to voting rightsA last-ditch effort to stall Texas Republicans from passing sweeping voting legislation effectively ended on Thursday evening after enough Democrats returned to the state capitol in Austin to allow lawmakers to proceed on legislation. Continue reading...

Owning a pet is a long-term relationship, and things change. But the love enduresI left having children pretty much as late as it was biologically possible to do, and I quickly grew to recognise, if not entirely understand, a certain look – let’s say, boredom mixed with condescension topped off with wry amusement – sported by my friends, who had their children at far more sensible ages, when I would go on and on (and on) to them about the miracle-slash-insanity of raising babies. No one before me had ever noticed how crazy all this parenting stuff was, I believed, while looking uncomprehendingly at the smirks on my friends’ faces as their kids did their GCSEs. Well, I comprehend them now. Because this is how I feel when people go on and on (and on) about the new dogs that they got during lockdown.More than 3.2 million people in the UK got a pet during lockdown, and they have been especially popular among the under-35s. This is generally reported in a tone of either shock (what are those crazy kids doing, tying themselves down to a pet so early!) or scorn (silly snowflakes, they can’t handle a dog!). But I get it. I took my time about having kids, but I was precocious about dog ownership, having decided at the age of 31 that what was missing from carefree single life in Manhattan was an extremely high-maintenance terrier, who I could never leave alone in my tiny apartment because he would literally eat it. I once came home from breakfast in my local diner to find that he had eaten half my sofa, even though the sofa was 6ft long and my dog was the size of a jacket potato. And because I was so derangedly in love with him, I found this adorable, and proceeded to bring him with me everywhere. “Obviously you don’t mind,” I’d say, swanning into friends’ apartments with my yapping terrier, and they looked at me as if I’d come in with a rat I’d found on the subway. Continue reading...

The old system in Afghanistan has been overthrown, and now there is fear for what the future will bringI was on my way to the mountains of Nuristan in eastern Afghanistan when, on 8 August, the Taliban accelerated their offensive that would, a mere week later, sweep them into the presidential palace in Kabul. During the four days I spent in the mountains, the Taliban captured 10 out of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals in addition to the two they had already taken over on 6 and 7 August.This happened often without a fight, resembling the fall of districts that took place in a first wave of Taliban advances between May and July. Footage on TV channels on 11 August showed police and army vehicles leaving the northern towns of Fayzabad and Pul-i Khumri in the darkness of night, only illuminated by ghostly headlights. The Nuristanis who hosted me and followed this news on TV had come to an arrangement with the Taliban. They had only recently overtaken the last tiny islands of government control in their remote home districts of Kamdesh and Barg-e Matal, but the Nuristanis were not jubilant. They were quiet. And concerned. It looked bad for the Afghan republic. The Nuristanis and a taxi driver in Kunar began to refer to the situation as an “enqelob” – revolution – a term that I hadn’t heard Afghans use before. Continue reading...

The president’s pushing of a US-centric agenda has dismayed many but his defenders say it is ‘progressive nationalism’For Donald Trump, the former US president, beating the drum of “America first” was something of an obsession. “The future doesn’t belong to the globalists,” he once told the UN. “The future belongs to patriots.”Last year, he was rejected by voters in favour of Joe Biden, a committed internationalist who vowed: “America is back.” Yet the past week has shaken the faith of old allies and led some to question whether a strain of the “America first” mantra lives on. Continue reading...

In 1915 the president, Woodrow Wilson, screened the movie Birth of a Nation at the White House – a film that depicts Black men as brutal people who desire white women. Meanwhile white supremacist groups were writing school curriculums and news media were painting Black men as animalistic beings who attacked white women. This set the scene for a week of racial violence targeting Black Americans in 1919, during which two American cities were left in chaos. In Chicago it started with a Black man drowning after white people throw stones at him at a beach for infringing on their space. It led to a confrontation between Black and white citizens, and escalated into white mobs going into Black communities to burn down homes and kill Black people. In Washington DC it started with a minor argument that turned into rape allegations against two Black men, which prompted white mobs to attack Black people in restaurants, trolleys and in their communities. Dozens of Black people were killed during these riots, and few were held accountable. Continue reading...

Anti-Black racism in school curriculums, newspapers and film set the scene for a week of racial violence in Chicago and Washington DCHundreds of miles apart, two of the worst instances of racially motivated attacks in American history occurred within days of each other during the 1919 Red Summer. Continue reading...

Renewed safe haven means al-Qaida and others will have space, infrastructure, fighters and arms to plot a comeback

‘Extremely worrisome’ storm expected to intensify into a hurricane by Saturday, US National Hurricane Center saysNew Englanders bracing for their first hurricane in 30 years began hauling boats out of the water and taking other precautions on Friday as Tropical Storm Henri barreled toward the north-east coast.Related: Grizzly Flats: the California town leveled by the Caldor fire – in pictures Continue reading...

• Obama’s former chief of staff also served as Chicago mayor• Emanuel joins long list of ambassadors awaiting confirmationJoe Biden plans to nominate Rahm Emanuel, a former US lawmaker who served as chief of staff to President Barack Obama and as mayor of Chicago, to be ambassador to Japan, the White House said in a statement on Friday.White House officials lauded Emanuel’s experience and long years of public service in announcing the nomination. Continue reading...

Sheryl Sandberg, Charlize Theron and Diane von Furstenburg among dozens who signed open letterDozens of women’s rights advocates and high-profile figures, including the poet Amanda Gorman, are calling on the Biden administration to protect and support Afghan women and girls.In an open letter titled “Do Not Abandon Afghan Women and Girls”, Gorman, alongside the Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, actors Charlize Theron and Kate Winslet, and others, urged the administration to honor its commitment. Continue reading...

The country has been lulled into a false sense of security but the only way we’ll get through this is if we are constantly vigilantMy Kiwi friends ask, somewhat jokingly, how I’m finding my first New Zealand level 4. I answer, also somewhat jokingly, that I’m a veteran at this, having lived in London and Dublin for most of the pandemic, and had gone through several hard lockdowns.That’s why it was unfortunate, the day before New Zealand went into one, it felt like Groundhog Day to me. Continue reading...

President Joe Biden, rejecting criticism of his handling of the chaotic US pullout from Afghanistan, has warned that the operation to evacuate thousands through Kabul airport carries risks, but promised Americans in the country that 'we will get you home'.'Make no mistake, this evacuation mission is dangerous. It involves risks to our armed forces and it's being conducted under difficult circumstances. I cannot promise what the final outcome will be or that it will be without risk of loss. But as commander in chief, I can assure you that I will mobilise every resource necessary,' Biden said.The United States is desperately trying to evacuate thousands of people from Afghanistan by a 31 August deadline, although Biden said this week that US troops at Kabul airport providing security for the evacuation could stay longer if necessary. Continue reading...

Tens of thousands of foreigners and Afghans who collaborated with US and Nato forces remain stranded in Kabul, as governments grappled with an overwhelming backlog of visas and Taliban checkpoints that were preventing people safely reaching the airport. US troops and Taliban fighters have opened fire into the air to disperse crowds held up outside the airport as they attempt to escape the country

Activists say website’s change will threaten livelihoods and force those working remotely online into ‘riskier street-based sex work’American sex workers say subscription website OnlyFans’ decision to ban “sexually explicit” content will threaten their livelihoods, drive more of the industry underground, and ultimately endanger lives.Related: OnlyFans to ban adult material after pressure from payment processors Continue reading...

Incompetent, negligent, isolated, increasingly disliked – Raab may just be the perfect ambassador for ‘global Britain’Is it possible to appear muscular while making a phone call? It is certainly the look that furiously committed political man Dominic Raab seems to have gone for, in an official picture released by his department as he attempts to retcon acting like a foreign secretary while Kabul fell.The photo of oneself on the phone was a favourite of George W Bush, though I can never remember seeing one of his that didn’t feel worthy of the caption: “Look Daddy! They let me use a phone!” Still, let’s have a look at Raab’s take on the genre. Grasping his chair with one hand and surrounded by flags, he is leaning so ferociously into the call that he can only have honed his game demanding to know why hotel housekeeping had failed to make his towel into a swan that morning. “I couldn’t give a toss that you were busy, and no, a turtle was not ‘fine’! You can’t just phone in any quarter-arsed terrycloth origami and claim to be offering a five-star guest experience. I think you should consider your position. [PAUSE] I’m so sorry, Secretary Blinken. I just reflexively dialled 1.” Continue reading...

Congress members say those who aided US military are in grave danger, plus OnlyFans announces it will ban adult materialGood morning.Joe Biden is under increasing pressure to “move heaven and earth” to speed up visas for those who helped the US during the two decades of war in Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans including translators and drivers worked with American forces find themselves in limbo with an unclear timeline on when their visa applications will be processed and serious questions about their safety while they wait as protests erupt across Afghanistan. Continue reading...

Our group is named, perhaps wistfully, for the reasonably priced bottle of Italian red table wine we used to drink together in our 20sMy WhatsApp chain, started six years ago with three girlfriends, has been my lifeline during this bizarre year. OK fine, it was my lifeline pre-pandemic, too, because I am the mother of three children under five-and-a-half, which means my in-person social life has been naturally curtailed for ages. (And you may reasonably ask, can you really call it a “social life” if the vast majority of one’s non-work time involves reading Clifford for President five times in succession to a listener who insists on wearing her diaper as a hat?)But as any fellow group texter knows, our chains got an extreme hit of adrenaline during the pandemic. One study found that WhatsApp saw a 40% increase in usage, and another that 78% of consumers reported texting to be their most frequent pandemic smartphone activity. Continue reading...

Native Americans make up half of farmers eligible for USDA loan forgiveness while only a few thousand Black farmers are. But it’s likely no one will get relief soonBlack farmers throughout the south call Cornelius Blanding daily to ask when the money might come from the US Department of Agriculture. Updates aren’t coming any other way.Blanding and his staff at the Federation of Southern Cooperatives do their best to stay on top of a federal debt relief program that should have started to pay farmers in June. They field calls and answer questions with limited information from the USDA, knowing only that a small percentage of Black farmers, and an even smaller percentage of the cooperatives’ membership, are eligible. Continue reading...