Landlords can no longer refuse pit bulls, rottweilers, dobermans or other breeds considered scary'Landlords in Washington DC will no longer be able to refuse a tenant's dog based on its breed, size or weight, nor can they impose special charges related to these factors.At least, that's what a new law that took effect on Thursday aims to achieve. Animal welfare organizations and animal shelters applauded the legislation, emphasizing the benefits of reducing barriers to pet ownership in the US capital. Continue reading...
Democratic-led coalition says gutting key protections will set US back decades and worsen climate crisisStates and cities sued the Trump administration on Thursday for repealing rules that limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas.Twenty-one states, led by New York, are challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's power plant rule. The Democratic-led coalition also includes Pennsylvania's governor, the District of Columbia, New York City, Chicago and the city and county of Denver. They argue that gutting one of the country's most significant climate protections" will set the nation back decades and worsen the climate crisis. Continue reading...
Shoppers and vendors in Aspen surprised by unusual customer as it stretched to sample stall offeringsFarmers' market shoppers might not usually pay much attention to the local resident devouring fresh bread and pastries at one of the stalls with extra gusto - but some certainly did last weekend when they realized it was a hungry bear.Onlookers on Saturday reached for their phones to take photos and videos of the bear in downtown Aspen, Colorado, after it wandered through the stalls and got up on to its hind legs to dig into the baked goods. Continue reading...
Request for Clancy, 36, to be acquitted turned down nearly a month after first trial ended with deadlocked juryThe judge in the Lindsay Clancy murder case on Thursday refused to declare her not guilty, turning down a defense motion that had argued there was not enough evidence to prove she was responsible for killing her three children.On Tuesday, Clancy's attorney Kevin Reddington tried to persuade Judge William Sullivan that prosecutors had not offered any proof that Clancy had killed her three children. Prosecutors argued there was plenty of evidence, calling Reddington's claim laughable". Continue reading...
Court will review practice of indefinite detention for undocumented immigrants living in the USThe US supreme court agreed on Thursday to take up a case challenging the Trump administration's practice of indefinite detention for undocumented immigrants living in the US and awaiting deportation proceedings.At the center of the immigration case is a dispute over Donald Trump's reinterpretation of a longstanding policy that has led to a huge surge in the number of migrants held in detention centers. Continue reading...
The former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach took 12 years to build a city filled with stadiums, skyscrapers and bespoke homes. It is a marvelWe may finally have cracked the case as to why the Pittsburgh Steelers stagnated so much over the final years of Mike Tomlin's tenure as head coach: he was focused on virtual urban planning.I'm kidding, of course. It's good when people in high-pressure jobs have creative hobbies. Count this writer (and his interior designer wife) among those who were gobsmacked on Wednesday night by Tomlin's reveal of a 12-year-long project in Minecraft, the world-building game. Tomlin had teased that during his coaching career, he took up Minecraft city-building as a way to connect with his young children. We have now seen the fruits of that labor, and they are magnificent. Look my my works, Terry Bradshaw, and despair. Continue reading...
Three-quarters of nations have rightly abolished capital punishment in law or practice, but killing by the state has surged in the USWhat is the kindest way to kill? That's the question being asked once more following Tennessee's failed attempts to execute Christa Pike for the brutal murder of a classmate, Colleen Slemmer, when she was 18. The 50-year-old was taken to a medical facility, her condition unknown, with witnesses describing her snoring loudly around 40 minutes after receiving two injections of pentobarbital on Wednesday. It is the second botched killing in months, prompting Tennessee's governor to order a halt to executions.Lethal injection was supposed to be the humane alternative to firing squads and electric chairs. They in turn were seen as an improvement on hanging, which looked much like lynching in a system disproportionately handing the death penalty to black men. The age and ill health of those executed, and the ethical refusal of most medical staff to be involved, may contribute to botched injections. But analysis of autopsy results has provided compelling evidence that suffering is inherent; injections - especially those involving paralytic drugs - have merely disguised it. What is described as safeguarding the dignity of prisoners is really about reducing the discomfort of witnesses who would otherwise see their suffering. Continue reading...
Many men rape; many men giggle encouragingly, or shrug indifferently, when their friends rape. Many men rape, and few seem to think that it's a very big dealMaybe more than anything else, sexual violence is repetitive. Men commit it in patterns: mostly against women who are close by and vulnerable, just below them on some social hierarchy: their assistant, their date, their friend, their daughter, their student, their kid's babysitter.Men rape for opportunity - because they can - and for status - because it makes them feel good. They rape to impress other men, documenting it on phones for one another's benefit. Men rape and do not always seem to register much of a difference between the sex they've had that was rape and the sex that they've had that wasn't. They rape, often, without seeming to think about it, registering their victims' unwillingness with vague contempt, if at all.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnistInformation and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organizations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html Continue reading...
by Presented by Lucy Hough with Clive Stafford Smith on (#78RXP)
A woman convicted of murdering a schoolmate 30 years ago has been taken to hospital after surviving two rounds of lethal injections in Tennessee. Christa Pike would have been the first woman to be executed in the state in 200 years. Pike, 50, has spent three decades on death row after she was convicted of the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995. A last-minute appeal to stop the lethal injection was overturned by the supreme court, but the state governor, Bill Lee, has suspended executions in Tennessee for the rest of the year. Lucy Hough speaks to the attorney and anti-capital punishment campaigner Clive Stafford Smith - watch on YouTube Continue reading...
Network was listed as primary TV pool covering Thursday's presidential activities but then was abruptly removedFor a second time in a week, the White House has unilaterally removed CNN from its assignment as the primary television pool representative covering Donald Trump.CNN was excluded on Saturday from pool duty aboard Air Force One, despite a district judge's ruling - two days earlier -overturning the White House's ban on the network and two other media organizations. Continue reading...
Witnesses in the chamber said Christa Pike was still breathing despite receiving injections intended to kill herWhen the prison warden asked Christa Pike if she had any last words, she said she was going to leave this world with love" for those on her side and also the ones angry with her.What followed was the second botched execution in Tennessee this year, after two doses of the lethal injection failed to produce the desired effect. Continue reading...
Administration says increased immigration enforcement led to fewer homicides, but they have been on the decline since Joe Biden's termOver the last year and a half, the US has seen a historic drop in homicides. Researchers and reporters are still puzzling through the complex set of reasons why - from the easing of pandemic-era stressors and the Biden administration's investments in community-based violence prevention to policing and other factors.But for the Trump administration, there's one easy explanation: increased immigration enforcement. As the midterm elections approach, the White House has been doubling down on this message, saying its crackdown against immigrants is why US crime rates are now falling. Continue reading...
The animal welfare group has revived their runway-storming tactics from the naughts, now targeting the use of woolHer walk was poised, her outfit - crop top, tailored trousers, high heels - so on point that when Josie Knowles strutted down a London Fashion Week catwalk last month she could have passed for a model. That is, had it not been for the sign the Peta protester held saying H&M: Wool is Bloody Cruel."Still, as one social media commentator put it when praising her strut: you cant tell me Peta didn't know what they were doing when they hired this diva". Continue reading...
One person remains missing after medical helicopter crashed off Catalina Island near Los Angeles, officials sayA medical helicopter crashed off Catalina Island near Los Angeles, killing two people and leaving two hospitalized, authorities said.Rescuers early on Thursday searched for a fifth person who was reported to be in the aircraft and was missing, the Los Angeles county fire department said in a social media post. Continue reading...
New ad features audio from Trump's declaration of war and Pete Hegseth saying if you kill Americans ... we will kill you'The latest in a series of pro-Trump television ads aired using taxpayer funds in the run-up to the the midterm elections is a one-minute spot that celebrates Donald Trump's decision to go to war with Iran.The ad aired during a commercial break on Fox News on Wednesday night, according video posted online by MeidasTouch, a leftwing outlet. Continue reading...
These men's actions aren't just morally loathsome; they're politically stupid. Social science may explain the phenomenonIsrael's supporters keep proving its detractors right. Over the last couple of years, Americans from across the ideological spectrum - from Bernie Sanders to Tucker Carlson - have grown increasingly enraged by the way pro-Israel billionaires restrict Americans' free speech. So, last month, along comes the New York England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, allegedly in tandem with other stadium owners, and pushes Ed Sheeran to drop Macklemore from his US tour because the rapper uttered Free Palestine" on stage. It's hard to imagine anything more likely to intensify fury towards the Aipac class.Then Benjamin Netanyahu does something equally self-defeating. Since 2018, Israel's favorability rating among Americans has dropped by an astonishing 67 points. A plurality of Democrats with views on the subject consider Israel to be a state with segregation similar to apartheid" rather than a democracy. Yet faced with an American public that increasingly rejects Israel's self-presentation as a bastion of freedom, Benjamin Netanyahu's party has pushed to ban Arab parties, undercutting claims about Israel being a democracy for its Palestinian citizens. He's undermining his own hasbara. Continue reading...
President's outlandish and extensive conspiracy theories endanger US freedoms, health and science, experts saySince the start of his second presidency, Donald Trump has often launched outlandish conspiratorial attacks on critics and foes that mock them and label their views as hoaxes, prompting scholars and legal experts to say Trump's attacks endanger US freedoms, public health and science.Trump's extensive use of conspiracy theories is the hallmark of an authoritarian leader that has weakened trust in the coming midterm elections, dangerously ignored scientific evidence, and often pushed for prosecutions of his political enemies in ways that seriously erode civil liberties, say critics. Continue reading...
ICE-watchers get creative after the killing of Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero, as Trump's immigration crackdown takes a more secretive approachMost of the time, the scene outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in the small, coastal town of Scarborough, Maine, could be confused for a nature watch in Vacationland", the slogan on state license plates.People sitting in lawn chairs under a tent. Birds chirping. The sound of the breeze moving through the trees. Continue reading...
World Cup setbacks have renewed concern over America's costly, fragmented youth system. The real test is whether the urgency survives the next news cycleA few years ago, the idea that the US soccer community at large was neglecting youth soccer was met with silence or ridicule.At a May 2022 conference call announcing a new collective bargaining agreement that effectively ended the equal pay" saga, players were asked how they would build bridges with grassroots organizers who, in a fit of anger over perceived slights, nearly restored Carlos Cordeiro to US Soccer's presidency not long after he resigned under heavy pressure. They could have offered any vague platitudes about how they valued youth and amateur soccer. They fell silent. Continue reading...
The risks of AI aren't what we think they are, as a recent security incident between China and the United States revealsAmid a barrage of news stories warning about superintelligent machines rendering humanity extinct, a CNN story describing the opposite scenario - one in which the US military's reliance on brittle chatbots almost brought the US into war with China - went mostly unnoticed by the public.The biggest international AI news of the past three weeks was Anthropic engineer Jacob Coxon's resignation. According to him, OpenAI and Anthropic are racing straight towards self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives". Coxon's description of a terminator" scenario, a machine becoming much smarter than humanity and deciding to wipe us out, captured the public, journalists' and politicians' attention, stirring waves of fear-inducing, credulous reporting, and policy actions.Timnit Gebru is executive director of Dair and author of the forthcoming book Deep Unlearning: The Radicalization of a Tech Idealist, which is available for preorders now and set to publish on 16 February.Emily M Bender is professor of linguistics at the University of Washington and co-author of The AI Con. Continue reading...
It's still early in the 2026 season but a number of teams and players have found unexpected levels of success in the last few weeksLast season ended with a Super Bowl in which neither team - the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots - had been expected to participate. Before that, we had a 44-year-old grandfather returning from a four-season layoff to give the Indianapolis Colts unexpected cheer in an otherwise miserable season, while the Chicago Bears and Jacksonville Jaguars rebounded from bad 2024 seasons to win their divisions.It's early to state which surprises will be the most fun to recall this time around, but here are four to watch as things progress. Continue reading...
Ukraine, Iran, Palestine and Sudan: it has so many problems to confront and fails to do so. Seen up close, it is a study in stasis and declineUN general assembly meetings are not usually riveting occasions. But this year's encapsulated a world in flux and crisis, an international law and organisation structure that is falling apart, and a humanitarian order machine running hot. What unfolded was less a gathering for resolution and resolve than a display of showboating, frustration and fractiousness.It was a snapshot for the history books of four huge destabilising conflicts for which there seems to be no means of, or interest in, resolution - Ukraine, Iran, Palestine and Sudan. Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered an account of five years of Russian aggression: the staggering loss of life - hundreds of thousands killed on both sides - the porousness of the sanctions on Russia, the madness" of it all. Donald Trump once again threatened to annihilate" Iran if it did not make a deal, a promise that has now been made so many times its restating only reveals its hollowness. Iran's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, responded in his own speech by saying that Iran has been the victim of US terrorism and aggression, and would defend itself with the utmost strength". The sole US delegation representative in the room walked out.Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
The candidates running to replace Gavin Newsom sparred over taxes, immigration and regulating AIXavier Becerra and Steve Hilton, the candidates running to be California's next governor, clashed Wednesday over taxes, immigration and regulating artificial intelligence in a testy debate held days before voters begin receiving their ballots in the heavily Democratic state.Hilton, the former Fox News host endorsed by Donald Trump, used the hourlong matchup, hosted by CNN, to argue that Becerra, a former congressman who served as health and human services secretary during the Biden administration, was not actively campaigning and instead taking voters for granted. Continue reading...
Suspect Benny Caldera Jr held on bond as officials say they received credible' information about Austin threatA 40-year-old man was arrested early Wednesday on suspicion of plotting to attack the Texas state capitol, authorities said.The Texas department of public safety said in a statement that it received credible information about an individual planning a violent attack" for Thursday in Austin. Continue reading...
Officials investigating missing persons case find bodies in remote area of Lancaster, north of Los AngelesLaw enforcement officials are looking for additional victims after two bodies were found on Tuesday in a remote area of Lancaster, California, a small city about 70 miles north of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times reports.Authorities found the bodies in a shallow grave while they were investigating a missing persons case, according to KTLA. Outside of the sheriff's department investigating the discovery of the remains as a homicide, little is known about the two people who were found in the shallow grave. Continue reading...
Noem cites irreconcilable differences in filing that comes after husband Bryon Noem involved in tabloid scandalKristi Noem, who was fired by Donald Trump after a rumbustious stint as homeland security secretary, is divorcing her husband, Bryon Noem, after 34 years of marriage, citing irreconcilable differences".The divorce claim for settlement purposes only" was disclosed in court records filed in Hamlin county, South Dakota, the state of which Noem was previously governor. Continue reading...
Shili Chen and Shouyong Zhang, both 77, charged days before Jonathan McKinsey and wife were set for hearing in divorce caseA couple in their 70s was charged with murder on Wednesday after allegedly gunning down their son-in-law at a bustling California park.Authorities allege Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77, took turns firing at Jonathan McKinsey, who was in the middle of an acrimonious divorce from their daughter, Candice Jang. Continue reading...
A year after his explosive tenure at Doge, the SpaceX CEO is back in the Trump administration's good gracesPete Hegseth announced on Wednesday that Elon Musk will co-lead a government project to study the future of warfare, marking the SpaceX CEO's first return to government since he ran the chaotic, so-called department of government efficiency", or Doge. Musk will be joined by Palmer Luckey, CEO of the defense tech company Anduril, and Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the House.A defense department press release on the effort, called Project Meridian, described its goal as identifying the capabilities required to achieve absolute technological dominance on the next-generation battlefield". The project will run for 120 days and culminate in an unclassified public report of its recommendations. Continue reading...
No one was injured at Children's World Early Learning Center and parents will appear in court, police saidThe parents of a Detroit-area toddler who pulled a loaded pistol out of his backpack at a daycare will face charges in the case, police said on Wednesday.In a statement, police in Canton Township said the parents would make an initial court appearance on Thursday. The Wayne county prosecutor's office declined to offer details or additional comment, saying it would wait until a judge signs off on the charges. Continue reading...
Democrats block measure they say didn't go far enough - and was bundled with poison pill' voter ID rulesThe US Senate on Wednesday blocked a Republican bill restricting stock trading by members of Congress, after Democrats refused to advance a measure they said would let lawmakers keep their portfolios and was bundled with voter ID rules they called a poison pill".The 53-47 vote fell seven short of the 60 needed to open debate on the Stop Insider Trading Act, which the Republican-controlled House passed in July. Every Democrat and independent voted no, and the failure comes five weeks before the 3 November midterms. Continue reading...
Measles outbreak in the state has now reached 39 counties, with 943 confirmed cases and 176 hospitalizationsPennsylvania has reported its fifth measles-associated death of 2026 as the state's ongoing outbreak climbs to 943 confirmed cases across 39 counties.The Pennsylvania department of health said on Wednesday that an unvaccinated Lancaster county resident who tested positive for measles had died. Health officials did not release further information about the individual, citing privacy protections. Continue reading...
Senator Jim Justice of West Virginia criticizes immigration crackdown as ranchers' associations condemn ICE activityA close political ally of Donald Trump has broken from the administration's aggressive immigration enforcement agenda and recommended it step back" to evaluate what it could do better.To get better, the first thing you got to do is admit you're doing something wrong," Jim Justice, a Republican senator of West Virginia, told Politico. And in this situation, with all that's going on and all the stuff, we probably got to step back from it and say: Maybe we're doing something wrong here or there,' and then adjust to that." Continue reading...
Steve Hilton's long-shot campaign for governor is courting Golden state voters with unapologetically populist messageSteve Hilton stands almost no chance of becoming California's next governor, but that isn't stopping him from campaigning as though he was just one step away from pulling off the impossible.The former Downing Street political adviser and Fox News host refuses to be daunted by the rancid political environment for Republican candidates this year, or by opinion polls that tell him he is lagging 20 percentage points or more behind his Democratic rival, Xavier Becerra. Continue reading...
The era of writing blank checks to international bureaucracies is over,' state department spokesperson saysDonald Trump's administration has withdrawn the United States from the Council of Europe's anti-corruption monitoring body, arguing that paying to belong to the multilateral group no longer serves US interests.The US formally notified the Strasbourg-based organization on Monday that it was leaving the Group of States against Corruption, known as Greco - the latest step in a broader effort by the administration to pull back from international bodies it regards as inefficient, overreaching, or out of step with its priorities. Continue reading...
Bear known for sitting in solitude won tournament celebrating the animals' ability to eat large amounts of fishA chunky ursine called Backpack has out gobbled a challenge from an outsized female nicknamed the Dancing Queen to waltz - or rather waddle - off with the Fat Bear Week title at Alaska's Katmai national park.Backpack, a 20-year-old quiet giant known for sitting in solitude for long periods on his rock on the Brooks river, won by barely 5,000 votes in the public tournament celebrating the brown bears' ability to eat as many fish, Alaska rangers announced. Continue reading...
The US tried to forcibly assimilate the Lenape in brutal boarding schools, but a new exhibit proves their modern-day culture is vibrant and aliveDuring the 19th century, the US government funded more than 500 Indian boarding schools" aimed at forcibly assimilating Native American children into western culture. Students were taken from their families, frequently by force, and forced to cut their hair. They were stripped of their original names, and taught to feel shame regarding their heritage and customs. Run like military academies, these institutions required children to wear uniforms and subjected them to severe physical punishment, such as solitary confinement and flogging. Richard Henry Pratt, who established the first of these schools, declared that their explicit purpose was to kill the Indian, save the man".These assimilation practices persisted for decades, during which numerous children endured physical and sexual abuse. At least 1,000 children lost their lives, though the actual casualty count is believed to be significantly higher. The US government issued no formal apology for these atrocities until 2024, when former president Joe Biden described the boarding school system as one of the most horrific chapters in American history". Continue reading...
by Stephen Starr in Dearborn, Michigan on (#78QY4)
Arab communities on both sides of the border grapple with ongoing tensions as US-Canada relations continue to sourIn Dearborn, Michigan, home to the largest community of Arab Americans in the US, one industry has risen above all others in recent years: Yemeni cafes.At the forefront is Qahwah House, a powerhouse in the burgeoning Yemeni cafe world with 32 branches open across the country. Three of those are here in Dearborn, with more on the way, and they attract people from near and far. Continue reading...
Trump administration can deport immigrants to countries other than their homeland. Plus, 550lb bear returns to LA neighborhoodGood morning. The supreme court has ruled the Trump administration can resume deporting immigrants to third countries", or countries other than their homeland, without giving them any opportunity to contest their removals.The six-justice conservative majority of the high court temporarily lifted a decision by a lower court that required the administration to provide immigrants sufficient notice and the opportunity to claim fear of torture or persecution in the countries where they were being sent.What has the administration asked the supreme court to rule on about trans prisoners? The administration asked the justices to allow it to deny gender-affirming care to transgender people in federal prisons. The solicitor general, D John Sauer, wrote that gender-reassignment surgeries, hormone therapy and social accommodations such as undergarments, makeup, padding and wigs could no longer be justified."Why is the EPA union suing the administration? The union, which represents more than 8,000 workers at the Environmental Protection Agency, has filed a lawsuit against the EPA and the agency's administrator, Lee Zeldin, alleging it illegally terminated a collective bargaining agreement.Which legal battle has Trump appeared to have conceded? The president has agreed to stop fighting the disbursement of E Jean Carroll's $5m verdict in her 2023 sexual abuse and defamation civil trial against him, a procedural development as the funds had already been distributed to her.What new product has OpenAI announced? Less than 24 hours after OpenAI said it would scrap the launch of a model over safety concerns, the company debuted a whole new suite of artificial intelligence tools, including dots", agents it said were more ambitious" than ChatGPT and a whole new way to work with AI."Why is Greta Garbo making AI headlines? More than a century after her screen debut and decades after she was laid to rest, the actor has been reanimated by AI for a Swedish advert. Peter Bradshaw has given it a damning one-star review. Continue reading...
Wave nearing southern California expected to reach San Francisco Bay Area by October as it crawls toward AlaskaCommunities across California are rushing to prepare for the imminent arrival of the so-called Kelvin wave", a massive underwater band of warm water threatening to inundate swaths of the vast North American shoreline.The wave is nearing southern California and expected to reach the San Francisco Bay Area by early October, as it crawls toward Alaska. Waters could rise by a foot along the California coast, according to scientists, who have warned that this could dramatically double the 8-12in rise in sea levels already caused by climate change over the last century. Continue reading...
After switching tactics, federal agents are detaining and deporting record numbers of people from the USWhen federal agents fatally shot US citizen protesters Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis in January during the nation's largest immigration-enforcement operation ever, it marked a turning point for the second Trump administration's mass deportation campaign.Donald Trump in his second term had sparked outrage and huge protests with federal immigration officers descending en masse to one Democratic-run city after another in what some leaders called militarized invasions". Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte, New Orleans, then Minneapolis saw lines of masked and armored officers swaggering into town to conduct street arrests, ambushes of day workers waiting in Home Depot car parks for hire, and neighborhood sweeps. Adults and kids were whisked off to detention and protests met with aggressive deployment of chemical spray, teargas, fists and batons. The killings in Minneapolis were the culmination of what appeared to many to be a federal shock force increasingly out of control while being defended by federal leaders - and public opinion broadly turned against this violence. Continue reading...
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