Won Jang drowned in Connecticut River in July after party where alcohol was supplied by his fraternityA sorority at Dartmouth College and two members of a fraternity are facing charges related to the death of a student who drowned after attending an off-campus party this summer.Won Jang, 20, of Middletown, Delaware, had been reported missing in July after the party. State and local emergency responders searched the Connecticut River and found his body. Continue reading...
Some outlets recalibrate coverage as they navigate threats of president-elect and interests faced by corporate ownersWhen MSNBC's morning hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski announced to their viewers last week that they had paid a visit to Donald Trump at his Florida resort of Mar-a-Lago they must have suspected there would be a reaction.The married co-hosts on the liberal news network made hay for years lambasting Trump, especially in the run-up to the presidential election. Now, in the wake of his victory, they told their viewers they were seeking to reset communications with the man they had warned only a few weeks ago was set to bring fascism to America. Continue reading...
Russell Vought led the Office of Management and Budget during Trump's first term and is pushing for a workaround to install president-elect's picksEven before Donald Trump tapped Project 2025 architect Russell Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for a second time, Vought's thinktank had gotten to work in recent weeks lobbying for recess appointments - a means by which Trump could attempt to circumvent the US Senate's confirmation process.Vought, who served as director of the OMB during Trump's first term and of the thinktank he launched in 2021, is advocating for the archaic method to install Trump's nominees, including Vought himself and some of Trump's most heavily criticized picks. Continue reading...
The Strip is sprinkling its stardust on F1's ambition to break America, with drivers, fans and locals buying into a project that already has a special feelWhen Formula One threw its weight behind promoting a grand prix in Las Vegas, the sport was taking no little gamble on success and on the bigger picture of finally breaking America. With the race in its second year, hosting a potential championship decider and the streets full of enthusiastic fans, every indication is that they have backed a winner.There was an enormous risk in hosting a grand prix, especially one that required a $700m investment and involved agreements between casinos, businesses and local government to allow it to run through the heart of the Nevada city. They pulled it off last year, albeit once past the initial PR disaster of a loose water valve cover smashing into Carlos Sainz's Ferrari, prematurely ending first practice. The race that followed was one of the best of 2023, praised by drivers and fans. Continue reading...
The next time you see dystopian thirst traps, we should be thinking about how these robots are going to be used by the self-proclaimed warrior class'On a scale of one to 10, just how desperate do you think Kim Kardashian is for attention? Judging by the billionaire's weirdly sexual photoshoot with a robot, the answer may be an 11. The entrepreneur and influencer, who is a big Tesla fan, recently posed with the company's Optimus bot in a Tesla Cybercab (a self-driving taxi) for a series of photos which might be described as avant-garde if you're being polite, and dystopian thirst traps if you're not. She also posted some rather less sultry videos of her interacting with the humanoid robot. Continue reading...
A new book on the Los Angeles authors leaves no petty stone unturned as it explores their fraught friendshipJoan Didion, the original girlboss of American letters, keeps inspiring new takedowns. Critiquing Didion's racism, the writer Myriam Gurba compared her to an onion: She's very white, very crisp, and she makes people cry." An anonymous woman in a Los Angeles bar called Didion that lady from Sacramento". (Didion might have fooled the New York Times, but Angelenos know she wasn't from Los Angeles.)Eve Babitz's recent takedown of Didion might be the most extraordinary, though, because it has been issued from beyond the grave. Continue reading...
Immigrant advocates are recruiting volunteers as the president-elect vows to use the US military for deportationsAs a second Trump term looms, refugee and immigrant advocacy groups across the country are bracing for what's to come. The president-elect has vowed to utilize the US military to conduct mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, and there's no reason to believe he'll do otherwise.During his first term from 2016 to 2020, Trump made several efforts to end asylum for immigrants and refugees fleeing their home countries, instituted a highly controversial Muslim ban" and slashed the number of refugees allowed into the country to the lowest ever since Congress passed the Refugee Act in 1980. Back then, however, the Trump administration had some guardrails in judges who ruled against restrictive policies, as well as substantive legal challenges from organizations such as the ACLU, which prevented his administration from fully enacting all of his plans. Continue reading...
Vice-president's next move could involve California politics, poise a re-run for 2028 or join a thinktank among othersWhatever happened to Kamala Harris? For 107 days she was everywhere, filling TV screens and campaign rallies in her whirlwind bid for the White House. Then, with election defeat by Donald Trump, it all ended as abruptly as it began. The rest is silence.The vice-president has taken time off to go spend time with her family," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Thursday, acknowledging that Harris is holidaying in Hawaii with husband Doug Emhoff. She has worked very hard for the last four years, and her taking a couple of days to be with her family, good for her." Continue reading...
Democrats had braced for a disaster but state results show a much more nuanced picture than the party had fearedAfter watching Kamala Harris lose the White House and Republicans wrest back full control of Congress, Democrats were bracing for disaster in state legislatures. With the party defending narrow majorities in several chambers across the country, some Democrats expected that Donald Trump's victory in the presidential race would allow a red wave to sweep through state legislatures.And yet, when the dust had settled after election day, the results of state legislative elections presented a much more nuanced picture than Democrats had feared. Continue reading...
President-elect picks Fox News personalities and key loyalists as he looks to fill crucial agency and advisory rolesIn a flurry of announcements late Friday evening, Donald Trump released his picks for some of the most important agency and advisory roles in the country, further revealing his preference for Fox News personalities and those that are loyal to him. Continue reading...
Howard Lutnick and Scott Bessent, commerce and Treasury nominees respectively, are sure to ignore economist's warnings and follow Trump's leadCertain events happen during every presidential campaign. The parties crown their candidates. The candidates debate on live TV, with millions watching. Tens of millions heads to the polls. And at some point in this process, Jamie Dimon will be tipped as the next Treasury secretary.Sure enough, the veteran boss of JPMorgan Chase - Wall Street's de facto ambassador to the world - was, indeed, linked with the role this time around as the Kamala Harris and Donald Trump campaigns mulled their options in the final stretch of the 2024 presidential election. Continue reading...
Vought, who led Office of Management and Budget during Trump's first term, deeply involved in rightwing manifestoDonald Trump has chosen Russ Vought, a key architect of Project 2025, the controversial conservative plan to overhaul the government, to be director of the US Office of Management and Budget, a powerful agency that helps decide the president's policy priorities and how to pay for them.Vought, who was OMB chief during Trump's first term, would play a major role in setting budget priorities and implementing Trump's campaign promise to roll back government regulations. Continue reading...
I served in Congress,' Gaetz's page says. Trump nominated me to be US attorney general (that didn't work out).'The Florida Republican Matt Gaetz has made his first big move since withdrawing from consideration to be Donald Trump's attorney general - by starting an account on Cameo, the website that lets ordinary people pay for video messages from celebrities, dubious or otherwise.The news website Semafor first reported the move on Friday. The revelation came a day after Gaetz withdrew from the confirmation process, under fire over a House ethics committee investigation of allegations of misconduct including allegedly paying an underage girl for sex - all of which Gaetz vehemently denies. Continue reading...
Teachers can opt in, but state is offering financial incentive of $60 a student for participating school districtsThe Texas board of education voted 8-7 on Friday to approve a new Bible-based curriculum in elementary schools.The curriculum, called Bluebonnet Learning", could be implemented as soon as August 2025 and affects English and language arts teaching material for kindergarten through fifth grade public school classes. Continue reading...
ACLU obtains documents showing agency's effort to expand state's detention capacity for undocumented immigrantsUS Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officials could add 600 beds to detain unauthorized immigrants in New Jersey, according to new documents obtained by the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union on Friday.An additional 600 detainees could mark a significant increase in the number of people held in New Jersey. The Elizabeth detention center - the only facility in the state that holds detainees - can currently accommodate up to 300 detainees, the Bergen Record reported in April. There were 285 detainees in the facility as of the end of October, according to data analyzed by the Guardian from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. Continue reading...
The ICC's arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders challenge decades of impunity, testing global resolve to uphold international justiceThe arrest warrants from the international criminal court (ICC) for the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the defence minister Yoav Gallant, and the Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, represent a historic milestone in the fight for accountability over war crimes. Hamas's October massacre of 1,200 Israelis was a shocking violation of international humanitarian law, justifying prosecution. However, with many of Hamas's senior commanders killed in Israeli military strikes, courtroom justice may remain elusive.For Israel's leadership, the ICC's action ends decades of perceived impunity and challenges what critics describe as Israel's longstanding shield of immunity". There were predictable reactions: Mr Netanyahu condemned the ICC's decision as antisemitic", while Hamas praised the warrants against Israel's leaders as an important historical precedent". The ICC's jurisdiction over Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem provides the legal foundation for this bold step. Yet, the real test of these warrants lies with the ICC's 124 member states, which are legally obliged to arrest the accused and transfer them to The Hague. Failure to act would expose international law as a facade, undermining its credibility and allowing powerful nations and their allies to trample justice with impunity. Enforcing these warrants is not just a legal obligation - it is a moral imperative to uphold the principle that no leader is above the law.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
US Department of Transportation has greenlit congestion fee for raising funds for mass transit and cutting trafficThe US Department of Transportation has approved New York's plan to impose a $9 congestion charge for driving in Manhattan starting on 5 January, a move aimed at raising billions for funding better mass transit and cutting traffic jams.The congestion charge, the first of its kind in the US, was revived last week by the governor, Kathy Hochul, after she had put it on indefinite hold in June. Continue reading...
Karl Rove says in Wall Street Journal that Trump has created chaos and controversy' before he's even in officeAs Matt Gaetz, Donald Trump's first nominee for attorney general, withdrew after eight days amid allegations of sexual misconduct and more, and as Trump's new pick, Pam Bondi, faced scrutiny of her own, a leading Republican strategist rebuked the president-elect for bringing chaos" back to Washington.Inadequate vetting, impatience, disregard for qualifications and a thirst for revenge have created chaos and controversy for Mr Trump before he's even in office," said Karl Rove, once known as George W Bush's Brain", in the Wall Street Journal. Continue reading...
A strategy of starvation would always be indefensible. After this week's ICC decision, he risks turning Israel into a pariah stateThanks to Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, which once dreamed of being a light unto the nations, has taken a step closer to becoming a leper among the nations. The Israeli prime minister and the defence minister he sacked a fortnight ago, Yoav Gallant, are now wanted men, the subject of arrest warrants issued on Thursday by the international criminal court (ICC), accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. From now on, some 124 countries are effectively closed to them: if Netanyahu or Gallant set foot in any member state of the ICC - which includes Britain and most of Europe - they face the risk of arrest. The UK government has already said it will follow the law, which sounds like a commitment to detain the two men if they come here. They are to be shunned, as a matter of international law.Israeli ministers and their allies are raging against the ICC, accusing it of bias and double standards in levelling against Israel charges that it has never made against the leaders of any other western democracy. But the blame lies squarely with Netanyahu himself. Because this move, which signals a new isolation of Israel, was entirely avoidable.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
When Trump executes his sweeping agenda, 4 million children who are US citizens may have their lives upendedDonald Trump confirmed on Monday his intentions to make mass deportations a hallmark of his second term.That such measures would drastically upend the lives of the US's immigrant communities is widely understood. But sweeping anti-immigrant policies would also be detrimental to American citizens - most notably the nearly 20 million US-born children of immigrant parents. Continue reading...
by Ed Pilkington, Sam Levine and agency on (#6SDTZ)
Death of Carey Dale Grayson, 50, marks third time the US state has killed someone using controversial methodAn Alabama man convicted in the 1994 killing of a hitchhiker cursed at the prison warden and made obscene gestures shortly before he was put to death on Thursday evening in the nation's third execution using nitrogen gas - as the daughter of his victim spoke out against capital punishment.Carey Dale Grayson, 50, was executed at the William Holman correctional facility in southern Alabama. He was one of four teenagers convicted of killing Vickie DeBlieux, 37, as she hitchhiked through the state on the way to her mother's home in Louisiana. The woman was attacked, beaten and thrown off a cliff. Continue reading...
Senate will not vote on four Biden appellate court nominees to allow for other nominations to proceed more quicklyThe US Senate will not hold votes on four of Joe Biden's appellate court nominees as part of a deal with Republicans to allow for speedier consideration of other judicial nominations and bring the president within striking distance of the 234 total judicial confirmations that occurred during president-elect Donald Trump's first term.Currently, the number of judges confirmed under Biden totals 221. Republicans forced numerous procedural votes this week and late-night sessions as the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, attempted to move ahead in getting more of Biden's nominees confirmed before Congress adjourns and Republicans take control of the chamber in January. Continue reading...
by Dustin Guastella and Bhaskar Sunkara on (#6SDRW)
Union mechanic Dan Osborn's independent campaign outperformed Kamala Harris by 14 points in NebraskaDan Osborn's performance this month was a bright spot in an otherwise bleak election cycle for progressives. Although he ultimately lost, the independent US Senate candidate outperformed Kamala Harris in Nebraska by 14 percentage points while running an assertively anti-establishment, pro-union platform. His formula was simple: connect with people about their economic problems, tell them who to blame for them, and tell them what he would do about it.Now he's starting a new political action committee, Working Class Heroes Fund, to support working-class candidates, something our national politics direly needs.Dustin Guastella is a research associate at the Center for Working Class Politics and the director of operations for Teamsters Local 623Bhaskar Sunkara is the president of the Nation, founding editor of Jacobin and author of The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequalities Continue reading...
Lawmaker Mia Bonta outlines new bills package to protect reproductive rights in interview with the GuardianAs Donald Trump returns to the White House, anti-abortion groups are hoping this is their moment.With Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress and the US supreme court governed by a conservative supermajority, activists are pushing an extreme agenda, including a nationwide abortion ban, a prohibition on abortion pills, a fetal personhood" doctrine that could restrict in vitro fertilization and attacks on contraception. Continue reading...
Mace's campaign to humiliate Congress's first openly transgender member is mean-spirited and desperateSince the conversation, if you can call it that, about trans people always seems to come down to bathrooms, I am sure of one thing.I would much rather share a ladies' room or a locker room with Sarah McBride than with Nancy Mace. Continue reading...
Tom Price, who served under Trump, says he expects the administration to try to allow skinnier insurance plansFormer health secretary Dr Tom Price said he expects the incoming Trump administration to try to allow skinnier insurance plans and institute block grants for Medicaid.Such changes would leave Americans with less expensive insurance plans that cover fewer health conditions, and strike at the heart of Medicaid, a foundational safety net program that insures 69 million low-income Americans, nearly half of whom are children. Continue reading...
The international criminal court also issued arrest warrants for Israel's Yoav Gallant and Hamas's Mohammed Deif. Plus, Trump picks Bondi for attorney general after Gaetz withdraws
Fulton county DA has pledged to go ahead in prosecution of Trump but appeals court abruptly canceled oral argumentsThe Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, has pledged to drive forward in her prosecution of Donald Trump, even as he once again ascends to the presidency. But the Georgia court of appeals may have other plans.The appeals court on Monday abruptly canceled oral arguments scheduled for 5 December in Georgia v Trump et al, the racketeering case alleging that Trump and more than a dozen of his allies conspired to steal the 2020 election. The court offered no explanation, and has not replied to a request for comment. Continue reading...
The absurd Musk-Trump pact might have a silver lining: their relationship, like Trump's coalition at large, is fragileIt's deja vu all over again, again. In the wake of Donald Trump's decisive re-election, his transition team has moved to pack his cabinet and adviser positions with figures straight out of the Star Wars cantina - some of the most dangerous and bizarre sideshows from every corner of his chaotic galaxy.In the Trump Cinematic Universe, loyalty usurps qualification. That's why Pete Hegseth, a Fox News host who wants to eliminate woke" officials from the military, got tapped to oversee our national defense. And it's why Matt Gaetz was asked to helm the very Department of Justice that was investigating him for alleged sex trafficking, before his abrupt withdrawal from consideration. Continue reading...
Defense secretary pick said in 2020 that should Democrats win election the military will be forced to make a choice'Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump's pick for defense secretary, has written in a book that he could imagine a scenario in which the US armed forces would be used violently in American domestic politics.Hegseth, a former elite soldier turned rightwing Fox television personality, is Trump's choice to lead the Pentagon which controls the gigantic American military - by far the largest armed force in the world. Continue reading...
The playoff system means the strongest sides often miss out on glory. But there's no doubt about the quality of Orlando and Washington this seasonThis Saturday in Kansas City, NWSL fans will witness one of the most compelling championship matchups in recent memory. The Orlando Pride are seeking a storybook ending to a captivating year. But they must get past an ascendant 2021 champions Washington Spirit, bolstered by a new manager and a sensational rookie class.Saturday's finale sets up a rare NWSL championship meeting between the regular season's first and second-place teams. An exciting peculiarity of the American playoff system - prized by some, rued by others - is that anything can happen in the postseason. One-off upsets are always possible, and the regular season's top team isn't always crowned championship in the end. Continue reading...
Her videos offer so much more than speech therapy and a brief respite from childcare: she is part of the fabric of our livesThere's a woman in my house every day who my toddler loves almost as much as he loves me, and her name is Ms Rachel. If you don't spend much time with preschool-aged children, Ms Rachel - some people mistakenly say Miss, but the Ms is important, I feel - is probably not a name that will ring a bell. To parents and grandparents and other caregivers, however, she has become the closest thing that we have to a cult figure. You see, Ms Rachel is an angel, a goddess who has bestowed upon us her supreme gifts for entertaining and educating children. I have seen her referred to as the world's babysitter"; people jokingly offer to Venmo her cash for all the childcare" she provides in keeping toddlers occupied. And it's true that she has a unique talent when it comes to entrancing children, but the content she makes is so much more than that.Ms Rachel, whose real name is Rachel Accurso, started her Songs for Littles series of videos because she was frustrated by the lack of media resources for her son, who had a speech delay and said his first word at two years and eight months. As a public preschool music teacher with a background in music education who is married to a Broadway music director and composer, she was incredibly well placed to become the resource she knew other parents were desperately searching for. Making herself the star and donning a now-famous pair of dungarees and a pink headband, she deliberately borrowed techniques from her son's early intervention speech therapist to create her videos. As of this week, Ms Rachel has clocked up 8.6bn total views. In short, to many of us, and our kids, she has become a superstar.Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
The story of former Amazon worker Karolina Sobczak reveals much about the people who keep our society running - at huge personal costIf journalists visit Mansfield at all these days, they come for one thing: the cliches. They want the market town where 70% backed Brexit, the red wall" seat that booted out its Labour MP in 2017 for a private-school boy who called for the poor to be sterilised. They want colliery brass bands, Nigel Farage's beery grin and vox pops about stopping the boats. And they're not alone. For social scientists and thinktankers, Mansfield and its ring of former mining villages make up a petri dish of left-behind" England, of isolation and anger and impoverishment. They're part of that other England, which performs the same role in our politics as the corrections and clarifications column in a daily broadsheet, sweeping up stray mishaps and howlers so as to reassure readers that the rest is true. Yes, there are losers in the Britain of the 2020s - many, many losers - but the model works.Even as the mines closed and the factories shut, Margaret Thatcher as good as guaranteed a jobs boom was on its way. When none came, Tony Blair pledged regeneration. Just outside Mansfield, the New Labour government ploughed 38m of taxpayer money into an old coalmine to attract a buyer. After a company bought the site, the regional development agency was jubilant. It put out a press release promising the new owner would create up to 2,500 jobs - more than existed at the time when [the] colliery was operating at full capacity".In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.orgAditya Chakrabortty is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
Ryan Borgwardt pretended to drown so he could leave wife and children and flee to Europe, Green Lake authorities saidA Wisconsin man who faked his own drowning this summer so he could leave his wife and three children is living in eastern Europe and has been communicating with authorities, a sheriff said on Thursday.Ryan Borgwardt has been talking with law enforcement since 11 November after disappearing for three months, Mark Podoll, the Green Lake county sheriff, said at a news conference. Podoll later showed a video that Borgwardt had sent the sheriff's office that day. Continue reading...
Ex-Florida attorney general is longtime Trump ally and was one of his lawyers during first impeachment trialDonald Trump announced that he would nominate for attorney general Pam Bondi, the former Florida state attorney general, hours after the former representative Matt Gaetz withdrew in the face of opposition from Senate Republicans who had balked over a series of sexual misconduct allegations.The move to name Bondi reflected Trump's determination to install a loyalist as the nation's top law enforcement official and marked another instance of Trump putting his personal lawyers in the justice department. Continue reading...
Police say man, believed to be under influence of drugs, walked into ER restroom in Upland and did not come outA patient believed to be under the influence of drugs caused chaos at a California hospital when he climbed into the ceiling of an emergency room, got stuck and had to be freed by firefighters.The Latin Times reported that the unnamed man was a walk-in patient who entered San Antonio regional hospital in Upland and was last seen on surveillance footage entering a restroom. Continue reading...
Carey Dale Grayson was killed on Thursday for 1994 murder by technique that previously caused visible signs of distressAlabama carried out its third execution this year using the controversial new method of nitrogen gas, a technique that in previous state killings caused visible signs of distress.Carey Dale Grayson was put to death on Thursday evening for the 1994 murder of a hitchhiker. The prisoner had a mask strapped to his face through which nitrogen was pumped, causing fatal oxygen deprivation. Continue reading...
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