A new mysterious metal monolith has appeared atop a mountain in California, just a week after a similar structure captured the imagination of the world when it was discovered in the deserts of Utah – before disappearing. Amid mounting international attention of the mystery, a similar structure was reportedly found in the mountains of Romania - before it disappeared as well
by Sam Levine and Alvin Chang in New York on (#5B5Z7)
Analysis: the 2020, conducted during a pandemic, led to a change in voting habits that could have ended in disaster, but didn’tWhen America began shutting down this spring because of the Covid-19 pandemic, it transformed the already high-stakes 2020 race into a precarious high-wire balancing act. Continue reading...
US recorded more than 3,000 Covid-19 deaths for the first time yesterday and is expected to pass 14m coronavirus cases today. Plus, why Obama doesn’t approve of calls to ‘defund the police’
Many expect the president will issue a flurry of pardons in the coming weeks, even as he lets others be executedGiven that Donald Trump treats the office of the presidency like a personal branding tool, and deals with adversity like a two-bit mafioso, this moment was perhaps predictable: the president is reportedly considering pre-emptively pardoning three of his children, his son-in-law, and associates including Rudy Giuliani. He has already pardoned or commuted the sentences of several of his friends and associates, which should raise some eyebrows – why do so many people who surround this president wind up charged with a crime, in jail, or bracing themselves for criminal charges? And why is the supposedly law-and-order “pro-life” Republican party shrugging as this president excuses the criminality of his kin and his cronies while he refuses to intervene to save anyone from execution – and in fact, is using what little time he has left in office to reinstate barbaric practices like death by firing squad?Related: Dear President Trump: election officials are facing death threats on your watch | Gabriel Sterling Continue reading...
This week also features a brilliant Finnish, The Lawnmower Men and your favourite Diego Maradona moments1) Snow kayaking looks … fun. If you’re not into the racing version, why not hurtle down a mountain in a canoe at over 70km an hour with nothing more than a metal pole to direct or slow you down. If you like your kayaking on water that hasn’t been frozen, here’s Dane Jackson plunging 134ft down a waterfall in Chile.2) Sarah Fuller made college football history last week: the kicker became the first woman to play in a men’s “Power 5” conference game when she featured for Vanderbilt against Missouri. Fuller is also the goalkeeper for Vandy’s women’s soccer team, who won this year’s SEC title. Here she is practicing field goals pre-game, following in the footsteps of Carli Lloyd, who can kick a mean three-pointer. Continue reading...
Outgoing US president’s daughter interviewed by lawyers alleging 2017 inauguration committee misused donor fundsIvanka Trump was interviewed by attorneys alleging that Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration committee misused donor funds, a new court filing reveals.The document, first reported by CNN on Wednesday, shows that Ivanka Trump, the president’s oldest daughter and a senior White House adviser, was interviewed on Tuesday by attorneys from the Washington, DC, attorney general’s office. Continue reading...
Pengsoo was created for children’s television, yet it became such a sensation with adults that it was named South Korea’s person of the year. Now it’s ready to take over the globeGrowing up in the South Pole, Pengsoo was to his penguin peers what Rudolph was to Santa’s reindeers: an outcast shunned for being different. Bullies latched on to Pengsoo’s towering frame – at nearly 7ft, Pengsoo is almost twice the height of the average emperor penguin – and its large, unblinking eyes.“The other penguins didn’t play with me because I was too big,” 10-year-old Pengsoo told producers at a studio in the Korea Educational Broadcasting System (EBS) headquarters in Seoul in April 2019. Sitting in a gray room, empty save a too-small chair positioned beside a childish self-portrait, Pengsoo stared at the producers as it spoke. Pengsoo had swum to South Korea from the Antarctic “not too long ago”, it said, in the hopes of becoming the next big sensation on YouTube, which was “getting very popular” in its homeland. But the bullying there had been too much. Continue reading...
Kurt Campbell says the delay in acting on Pyongyang in previous Democratic administration ‘headed off any possibility of engagement’The incoming US administration will have to make an early decision on what approach it will take with North Korea, and not repeat the delay of the Obama era, a former US official who has advised President-elect Joe Biden has said.Kurt Campbell, the top US diplomat for east Asia under President Barack Obama and seen as a contender for a senior position under Biden, said the administration he had served in began with a “rather prolonged period of study” on how to handle Pyongyang. Continue reading...
Former US president Barack Obama has criticised Democratic political candidates for using 'snappy' slogans such as 'defund the police', arguing they could turn voters away and defeat the original objective. In an interview with Good Luck America, a political show on social media platform Snapchat, Obama said the slogans can isolate potential voters. 'You lost a big audience the minute you say it, which makes it a lot less likely that you’re actually going to get the changes you want done,' he said. 'The key is deciding, do you want to actually get something done, or do you want to feel good among the people you already agree with?'
by Jason Burke Africa correspondent and Abdalle Ahmed on (#5B5M4)
Unnamed American died alongside four Somali officers when extremists detonated a car bombA CIA officer died during a raid in Somalia last month targeting a key extremist thought to be responsible for an attack that killed an American soldier in Kenya last year, local intelligence officials have told the Guardian.The officer was deployed alongside Somali and US special forces during the operation at Gendershe, a coastal village about 30 miles south-west of Mogadishu, and died when fighters from the al-Shabaab extremist movement detonated a car bomb minutes after the raid began on 6 November, the official said. Continue reading...
Benton-Banai spent his life connecting American Indians with their spirituality and promoting sovereignty in wake of alleged police brutalityEddie Benton-Banai, who helped found the American Indian Movement partly in response to alleged police brutality against Indigenous people, has died. He was 89.He died Monday at a care center in Hayward, Wisconsin, where he had been staying for months, according to family friend Dorene Day. Day said Benton-Banai had several health issues and had been hospitalized multiple times in recent years. Continue reading...
Primarily Latino workforce has contracted Covid-19 at nearly three times the rate of other residentsCalifornia’s agricultural workers have contracted Covid-19 at nearly three times the rate of other residents in the state, a new study has found, laying bare the risks facing those who keep a $50bn industry afloat. Continue reading...
President-elect Joe Biden has warned there may be 250,000 further deaths due to Covid-19 between 'now and January'.The warning came in a virtual event on the economic impact of Covid-19, with Biden stressing the importance of remaining vigilant during the holidays.'We're likely to lose another 250,000 people dead between now and January,' Biden said. 'You hear me? Because people aren't paying attention'
Not long after a similar structure was discovered in a Utah desert, a silvery column has been found in AtascaderoA new mystery metal monolith has appeared atop a mountain in California, just a week after a similar structure captured the imagination of the world when it was discovered in the deserts of Utah – before being taken down and disappeared.The local newspaper in the small town of Atascadero, on the central California coast, reported that the silvery column had been found atop Pine mountain where dozens of local hikers made the trip to view it – and post their pictures on the internet. Continue reading...
Steve Adler is latest example of official hypocrisy as coronavirus cases surge across USAustin’s mayor, Steve Adler, went on vacation to Mexico with family in November as he urged people to stay home amid worsening coronavirus caseloads in Texas, at one point recording a video during the trip in which he told residents back home that now was “not the time to relax”.The trip, revealed on Wednesday by the Austin American-Statesman, is the latest example of a public official who has pleaded for vigilance in the face of rising cases and hospitalizations across the US seeming not to heed their own guidance. Adler, a Democrat, told the newspaper his actions did not violate his own regulations. Continue reading...
Congressional Hispanic Caucus has pushed for the president-elect to select a Latino person to lead a major federal agencyTop brass from Joe Biden’s transition team are meeting with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus as the president-elect faces growing and critical pressure from various interest groups about who he nominates to run major agencies in his incoming administration. Continue reading...
Transportation department said passengers bringing unusual animals had ‘eroded public trust in legitimate service animals’The government has decided that when it comes to air travel, only dogs can be service animals, and non-human companions used for emotional support don’t count.The transportation department issued a final rule Wednesday that aims to settle years of tension between airlines and passengers who bring their pets on board for free by saying they need them for emotional support. Continue reading...
In a press conference, a Republican election official from Georgia, Gabriel Sterling, condemned Trump for encouraging the intimidation of election workers. Here are his remarks
Heavily redacted court filing, which does not name Trump, comes as president reportedly is considering sweeping pardonsAn alleged “bribery for pardon” scheme at the White House is under investigation by the justice department, according to a court filing unsealed on Tuesday.The heavily redacted document does not name Donald Trump or other individuals and leaves many unanswered questions, but comes amid media reports that the US president is considering sweeping pardons before he leaves office next month. Continue reading...
Indictment accuses Jerry Nehl Boylan of causing deaths of 33 passengers and one crew member in Labor Day weekend boat fireThe captain of a dive boat that caught fire and sank off the California coast in 2019, killing 34 people in one of the state’s deadliest maritime disasters, was indicted on Tuesday on federal manslaughter charges, US prosecutors said.Each of the 34 seaman’s manslaughter counts returned against Jerry Nehl Boylan, 67, of Santa Barbara, carries a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years in prison if he is convicted, according to a statement from the US attorney’s office in Los Angeles. Continue reading...
Nobody has a human right to a lucrative book contract without regard for whether their opinions are sound or valuableJordan Peterson, the Canadian psychology professor and lobster-loving life coach who came to public attention after refusing to use the preferred pronouns of transgender people, has a new book coming out, and some staff at Penguin Random House Canada, were reportedly not pleased with the company’s decision to publish it. When the publisher announced that it would be bringing out Peterson’s Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life (a sequel to his 2018 bestseller 12 Rules for Life), management received dozens of complaints from staff. At a company town hall meeting, some employees were reportedly in tears as they described how Peterson had radicalized people in their lives.Predictably, the staff who complained were criticized as over-sensitive and excessively woke. The Telegraph suggested that intolerant social justice warriors were trying to censor Peterson. Commentator Maajid Nawaz said that it showed an “insidious danger facing our culture” now that “book publishers want to ban books”. Reason’s Robby Soave said that “militantly woke staffers at these places are determined to suppress viewpoints they disagree with”. I am sure Peterson himself was thrilled, believing it had proven his point about “snowflake” leftists, in addition to bringing exactly the desired advance publicity for his book. Continue reading...
What are we going to do when all our former comforts induce juddering flashbacks to lockdown?I have already started practising my small talk for Christmas. “Good, thanks. You?” I keep saying into a mirror, fully aware that in the past eight months I have more or less completely lost the ability to make conversation with humans. “What did I do with the time? Wow, the year has gone so quickly, hasn’t it?”At this point I pause meaningfully because I know I have about two minutes of material to stretch over a five-day festive period with fewer people than usual, so I really need to make it last. “Let’s see, umm … got really into jigsaws for a bit. Rearranged the spare room into an office. Learned to make this one really good curry recipe from the BBC website. Uh … got 11 solo wins and about 24 duo wins on Fortnite.” Is that good?, they’ll ask, and I’ll have to admit that no, not particularly. “It’s a game for 12-year-olds that I play compulsively,” I’ll explain. “Every day I log in and let adolescents embarrass me in an online world that allows them to dance joyously on the remains of my corpse.” Oh, they’ll say. I think there’s something – I think there’s something happening in the other room. I really ought to… Continue reading...
The likes of Grubhub and DoorDash have flourished during the pandemic but their fees are killing restaurants’ marginsIf you take a look at my smartphone, you’ll know that I like to order out. I have Grubhub, Caviar, Uber Eats and DoorDash right on my home screen. Because of Covid, I’ve rationalized my family’s increase in takeout orders as our little way of helping the local restaurants who have been suffering all year and are suffering even more now that my city is not allowing inside dining and limiting outdoor groups.But am I really helping these small businesses? Apparently, not as much as I thought. Continue reading...
The attorney general said there was no evidence of voter fraud that would overturn the election result, while the justice department has started investigating claims of ‘bribery for pardons’ at the White House
The former NFL player believes uncomfortable conversations are a way of bridging the racial divide. So he wrote a book about themWhat’s in a name? Power, says Emmanuel Acho. Before he was a standout football player turned TV commentator, he was the Nigerian kid with the biblical name that had all the kids fumbling for something else to call him. At his predominately white private suburban high school, he was “Manny.” To a mostly black gridiron cohort at the University of Texas, where he’d distinguish himself at linebacker on a college football powerhouse, he became “Acho” to differentiate him from his older brother, who had the privilege of being called by his first name, Sam – and who, like him, would go on to have a career in the NFL.In time, Acho found inside those locker room walls the kind of open and meaningful discussions about race and culture that most on the outside would rather not have. “The locker room is what our society needs to look like,” says Acho. “You have people of different races, different religions. But because you have a common goal of beating the opponent, you don’t care about everyone’s differences. What we haven’t yet realized [as a society] is our opponent is oppression. The opponent is hatred, systemic injustice.” Continue reading...
In the first quantitative study of 90 BBC journalists on the platform, we examined to whom reporters pay most attentionBritish journalism has never been held in high esteem by the public, though the BBC and other broadcasters have always been more trusted than the tabloids, and for good reason. In recent years, however, levels of trust in the BBC have fallen across the political spectrum, and particularly on the left. The Reuters Institute, shows the percentage of those identifying with the left who mostly trust the BBC dropped from 75% in 2019 to 60% in 2020.In the BBC’s annual plan last year it acknowledged that its reputation for impartiality had been weakened, and said that new editorial guidelines were being developed to try to restore trust. Alongside these new rules on impartiality, which were published in October, is new guidance on the use of social media, which has been a particular focus of recent debates around BBC bias. Continue reading...
President makes comments to Republicans at a White House reception, where video shows dozens of people crammed together without masksDonald Trump has floated the idea of running for president again in 2024 at a holiday reception at the White House on Tuesday evening.“It’s been an amazing four years,” Trump told the crowd, which included many Republican National Committee members. “We’re trying to do another four years. Otherwise, I’ll see you in four years.” Continue reading...
Australia’s allies take aim at China’s campaign of ‘disinformation’The British government has vowed to stand with Australia to “protect our key interests and values” and push back at “disinformation” amid a deepening rift in Canberra’s relationship with Beijing.The American ambassador to Australia also accused a Chinese foreign ministry official of spreading “disinformation through fabricated images and disingenuous statements” about Australia. Continue reading...
US president-elect Joe Biden has formally introduced his choices for top economic advisers. ‘Our message to everybody struggling right now is this: help is on the way,’ Biden said. Biden’s nominations would put several women in top economic roles, including Janet Yellen, who if confirmed by the Senate would be the first woman to lead the US treasury in its 231-year history. Yellen said the economic impact of the pandemic was ‘an American tragedy'
City faced widespread uproar over news that Union Station testing center would be closed for filming of She’s All That remakeLos Angeles reversed the planned closure of a downtown coronavirus testing site, after the news that the center would be closed because of a film shoot for the remake of the popular teen comedy She’s All That was met with widespread uproar. Continue reading...
San Francisco’s mayor is the latest to fall prey to the siren song of the famed Napa Valley eatery, flouting coronavirus guidelinesThe French Laundry has been awarded three stars by Michelin, showered with the loftiest food and wine awards, and deemed “the best restaurant in the world, period” by Anthony Bourdain. But Thomas Keller’s storied eatery now has a new claim to fame: it’s the place where California politicians go to break their own coronavirus guidelines.San Francisco mayor London Breed is under fire after it was revealed that she attended a birthday party at the restaurant in Napa Valley, just one night after governor Gavin Newsom did the same. Continue reading...
Gabriel Sterling tells president to soften his language or ‘someone is going to get killed’One of Georgia’s top election officials has made an impassioned plea to Donald Trump to tone down his rhetoric disputing the election results, saying the president is “inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence”.Gabriel Sterling, a Republican who oversaw the implementation of the state’s new voting system, also issued the stark warning that if Trump does not rein in his supporters then “someone is going to get hurt”. Continue reading...
Georgia's voting system implementation manager, Gabriel Sterling, has criticised President Donald Trump for not condemning threats of violence against election workers in the state. Sterling, a Republican official who oversees voting systems in Georgia, called on Trump at a news conference to 'stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence'. He warned that 'someone's going to get shot, someone's going to get killed, and it's not right'William Barr: no evidence of voter fraud that would change election outcomeBarr says no evidence of fraud that would change US election outcome – live Continue reading...
For the first time, scientists have used high-definition underwater cameras to identify a new species. The small gelatinous blob known as Duobrachium sparksae is a type of ctenophore, or comb jelly. Scientists from the US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) discovered the creature in an underwater canyon north-west of Puerto Rico in April 2015 but it has only now been described in a research paper
Alexander Mark Antonyyo Jr killed over Thanksgiving weekend in Dublin shootingA 26-year-old northern California rapper was gunned down over the Thanksgiving weekend, another in the growing list of fatal shootings in the region this year.Police in Dublin, in the San Francisco Bay Area, identified Alexander Mark Antonyyo Jr, who goes by the stage name Lil Yase, as the victim of a shooting at a Bay Area Rapid Transit (Bart) train station on Saturday. Officers located Antonyyo at a nearby hospital, where he was admitted with multiple gunshot wounds. Continue reading...
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