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Healthcare in the state's prisons is known for being deathly inadequate - and the incarceration rate may keep growingLois Ratcliff says she hardly survived watching her son slowly die in one of the US south's most brutal prisons.Ratcliff's son, Farrell Sampier, was one of the at least 500 incarcerated people - most of whom were Black men over the age of 55 - who died within Louisiana's prison system in the last three years, according to a recent report by Loyola University New Orleans's college of law. And another report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that the most prison deaths between 2018 and 2022 occurred at Louisiana's infamous Angola prison. Continue reading...

Toilets, yearbooks, snakes and toilets again! Spot the fakes among these gems from the 45th and 46th presidentsDeepfakes have arrived to US elections, with a faked audio call purporting to be Joe Biden reaching voters in New Hampshire earlier this year.Artificial intelligence tools allow people to create spoofed audio easily and cheaply - so easily and cheaply that a journalist can do it! Continue reading...

Washington hopes more countries will join coalition to label and counter disinformation operations. Plus, air force serviceman sets himself alight outside Israeli embassy in DC

Pet hangouts are blissfully free from social awkwardness, aggravation and anxiety. Your pet will not text nearly there' when it is actually still faffing around looking for its keys ...The average woman with a pet now spends more time actively engaged' with her pet than she spends hanging out face-to-face with fellow humans on any given day," I read in the Atlantic. It was a dissection of the crisis in social fitness", alternatively known as why we're all destined to die alone, our faces eaten by the very pet whose company we have chosen above our own kind". Am I, a pet owner, or my pet-owning friends (of all genders) surprised? Of course not.Humans are great for certain things. Opening jars. Forensic textual analysis of single-word WhatsApps from potential romantic entanglements. Separating dark and light washing. Remembering why you hate your boss. But despite all that, pets make better low-key hangout companions. Continue reading...

Words wield immense power, and public figures such as Suella Braverman and Lee Anderson are using them cleverly to whip up their audienceGet out of our country, you fucking Muslim. Go back to Palestine. You deserve to be killed, and all your children," were the words a man hurled at me as he threw a glass bottle in my direction. He just missed me and threw his fists in the air as I hurried into Piccadilly Circus underground station. When I got home, I hugged my kids tightly. With the heartbreaking loss experienced by parents in Gaza at the front of my mind, it was difficult to hold back the tears. This disturbing incident, occurring just three weeks into the Israel-Gaza conflict, was sadly not an isolated one.Last week, Tell Mama, an organisation monitoring anti-Muslim hate, found that hate crimes against Muslims had risen by 335% since 7 October. In more than 65% of cases, women were the target of such attacks. It is therefore deeply troubling to witness public figures spout anti-Muslim rhetoric. The Conservative MP Lee Anderson may have had the whip removed, but his claims on GB News that London and its mayor, Sadiq Khan, are under the control of Islamists" will do lasting damage. Meanwhile, in a column in the Telegraph last week, the former home secretary Suella Braverman asserted that Islamists are bullying Britain into submission" and that the influence of Islamist cranks and leftwing extremists" can be found in our judiciary, our legal profession and our universities". This kind of rhetoric - which characterises pro-Palestine protesters like me as shady yet powerful Islamists" - only serves to fuel further hatred against Muslims.Tasnim Nazeer is a journalist and freelance TV reporter. She is a Universal Peace Federation ambassador for peaceDo 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...

Like millions of doting parents, I wanted to keep others abreast of my child's milestones. But the likes' weren't worth the risksSocial media is a strange place. On the one hand it can be a relentlessly toxic, dark cluster of ill intent; on the other, it can act as the glue that binds us to new communities, friends of the past and family we've almost forgotten. Nostalgia kicks in when we scroll through Instagram or Facebook and see life milestones from decades gone by. It's a gentle reminder of life's simple preciousness.That's why it makes perfect sense that, according to some estimates, 42% of parents in Britain share photos of their children online. More than 50% of those parents share these photos at least once a month. A 2018 report by the children's commissioner found that parents share about 71 photos and 29 videos of their child every year on social media. On average, by the time the child is aged 13, parents have posted 1,300 photos and videos of them to social media. Continue reading...

Far-right Hindu nationalists are giving women prominence to mobilise others, but regressive patriarchal systems are embedded in their ideologyIt all started in the family WhatsApp group. A member of my extended family posted photos and videos of fireworks with the caption a very good day" and many smiley emojis. When I asked, what are we celebrating?" she replied, the temple in Ayodhya". It quickly escalated into a heated discussion about the decision to build a Hindu temple in place of a mosque that was razed to the ground, and the rise of far-right ideology.As someone who left India 20 years ago for the UK, I am often seen as an outsider" who cannot really understand Indian politics. If I comment on the political climate I'm accused of being brainwashed by the foreign media and discriminating against India. But I see the country of my birth changing and it upsets me hugely. Continue reading...

President tamped down on his public bedroom declarations' ahead of winning the presidency, Katie Rogers writesPresident Joe Biden has joked to aides that the key to a long and lasting marriage is good sex," according to a new book about the nation's first ladies, that casts a spotlight on his 47-year romance with Jill Biden.American Woman - The Transformation of the Modern First Lady, from Hillary Clinton to Jill Biden," was authored by New York Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers and comes out this week. Continue reading...

Exit polls show election denialism has become mainstream among Republicans despite studies finding no widespread fraud in 2020More than 60% of South Carolina Republican primary voters said they don't believe Joe Biden was legitimately elected, according to exit polls, the latest data point that underscores how election denialism has become a mainstream belief in the Republican party.Eighty-seven percent of those who don't believe the US president was legitimately elected supported Donald Trump, according to a CNN exit poll of South Carolina primary voters. Just 12% supported Nikki Haley. Among those who believe Biden legitimately won in 2020, the results were nearly flipped 81% supported Haley, while 19% supported the former president. Continue reading...

City council approves year-long contract with Knightscope to rent a K5 robot to respond to door alarms at the airportAn autonomous robot is due to become the latest addition to San Antonio International Airport's security apparatus.Following a 7 to 3 vote on Thursday by the San Antonio city council, city officials approved a year-long contract with Knightscope, a California-based developer of autonomous security robots, to rent its K5 robot for $21,000. Continue reading...

Gretchen Whitmer responds to calls by some Democrats to vote uncommitted' in Michigan's primary on TuesdayGretchen Whitmer, the Michigan governor, pushed back on calls to not vote for Joe Biden over his handling of the Israel-Gaza conflict, saying on Sunday that could help Trump get re-elected.It's important not to lose sight of the fact that any vote that's not cast for Joe Biden supports a second Trump term," she said on Sunday during an interview on CNN's State of the Union. A second Trump term would be devastating. Not just on fundamental rights, not just on our democracy here at home, but also when it comes to foreign policy. This was a man who promoted a Muslim ban." Continue reading...

Series of new advertisements target Republican efforts to criminalize abortions and a war on travel' for reproductive careCalifornia's governor, Gavin Newsom, is launching a series of new advertisements in Republican states targeting Republican efforts to criminalize having an abortion and a war on travel" for reproductive care.The first advertisement by Campaign for Democracy, Newsom's political action committee (Pac), will air this week in Tennessee, where lawmakers are considering legislation that would make it illegal for anyone who helps a minor obtain an abortion without permission from their parents. Anyone found guilty of the offense could face between three and 15 years in prison. Continue reading...

The congressman, known for his critiques of Trump, has out-raised and out-spent his opponents in a closely-matched raceAdam Schiff looked like a front-runner when he first announced he was running for the US Senate more than a year ago, and he hasn't stopped looking like one since.The California congressman from Los Angeles, best known for his withering critiques of Donald Trump and the threat the former president poses to US democracy, hasn't always been able to match the charisma of his two leading Democratic rivals, Katie Porter and Barbara Lee. His continuing support for Israel's military offensive in Gaza, broadly in line with the Biden administration's, has created divisions among his constituents and opened up one of the few significant policy differences in the race. Continue reading...

Nex Benedict, 16, who said they were a target of bullying, got into an altercation with three girls in Owasso high school bathroomVigils took place across the nation on Friday and Saturday for an Oklahoma teenager who died the day after a fight in a high school bathroom in which the nonbinary student said they were a target of bullying.Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old Oklahoma student who identified as nonbinary and used they/them pronouns, got into an altercation with three girls in an Owasso high school bathroom who were picking on Benedict and some friends. The girls attacked Benedict for pouring water on them, the teen told police in a video released Friday.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 the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

CNN anchor and Daily Beast editor turned Democratic candidate discusses decision to enter politics instead of covering itTo John Avlon's knowledge, the National Republican Congressional Committee didn't feel compelled to weigh in when any of the other candidates in the Democratic primary got in the race. But they did for me. And I think that's because they're scared."The race is in New York's first congressional district, a US House seat represented by a Republican, Nick LaLota, in an area that trended towards Joe Biden in 2020 and is thus one of many Democratic targets in the state this year. Avlon announced his run on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Reading a poem about the war may seem less instructive than watching the latest bulletins. I suspect the opposite is trueRussia's war against Ukraine has never been only about territory and artillery, about politicians and putative peace deals. Of course, that is the easiest and most acceptable register in which to consider unthinkable violence: as a geopolitical problem happening at a far distance. But Russia's aggression is an event of shocking magnitude in every individual life in Ukraine, and in lives elsewhere, too. The war is not only happening on the frontline but in homes and hearts. Deaths are mourned. Lives that were once straightforward have been propelled into directions that were never sought or wanted. Ambitions have been abandoned and plans have been cast aside. The war has crept like a mist into every chink of domestic life, into the tender, tremulous matters of love and sex, into the school day where cheerful young Ukrainian kids, alongside maths and English, get lessons on never, ever touching something that might be a mine.What we don't see in the news headlines is conversations around the kitchen table - families discussing, for example, how much fuel they would need if they suddenly had to flee to Warsaw," said Uilleam Blacker, associate professor of Ukrainian and East European culture at University College London, at an event last week. To come close to the feeling and texture of war as it is lived behind the lines - and behind front doors - it is necessary to turn to the work of Ukrainian artists, writers, playwrights and filmmakers. Blacker was in conversation with Natalya Vorozhbit, one of Ukraine's most significant playwrights, and Molly Flynn, the editor of a new anthology of Ukrainian plays in English translation, which were all written in the wake of the Maidan protests a decade ago. Since then, Ukraine has seen an efflorescence of documentary theatre, often rapid and reactive, and centred on ordinary lives - work that has formed a kind of artistic parallel to Ukraine's vigorous civil society. Continue reading...

Although state is one most competitive in US, Republicans had been guaranteed control of legislature for over a decadeFor more than a decade, an anti-democratic reality has loomed over Wisconsin: elections for the state legislature don't matter.Since 2012, no matter how voters throughout one of America's most competitive states cast their ballots, Republicans have been guaranteed to hold control of the state legislature. That's because for more than a decade Republicans drew districts lines that are so distorted in their favor, they cemented their control. The dominance was underscored in 2022 when Tony Evers, a Democrat, won re-election with 51.2% of the vote. Republicans still held 65% of the seats in the 99-person state assembly. Continue reading...

Accuser fears Laurence Hecker may not live long enough to stand judgment in criminal court as lawyer argues priest is a vegetable'A 92-year-old Roman Catholic priest from New Orleans who is charged with raping a teenager after strangling him unconscious is now in and out of consciousness" himself, according to the clergyman's defense attorney, who is seeking to postpone a trial date in the case.The assistant district attorney who is leading the prosecution of Lawrence Hecker said on Friday he was ready to roll [the defendant] in on a gurney" to keep a 25 March trial date in the case. But a lawyer for Hecker's accuser said they were growing increasingly worried that the suspected serial predator's trial would be delayed - and that he may not live long enough to ever stand judgment in a criminal court. Continue reading...

Facing rising rents and rapid development, Black small-business owners are mourning the loss of community spacesThe smell of burning incense filled the room as Asha Grant, the owner of the Salt Eaters Bookshop, greeted folks who entered to attend Black Queer Speed Dating, one of many events put on in the community space.Attendees could grab name tags and enjoy a table spread filled with assorted fruits, meats and cheeses. To a visitor, the bookshop in Inglewood, California, is beautifully curated, with a memorial painting of Latasha Harlins, a Black girl who was killed by a Korean store clerk in 1991, contributing to the onset of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The Salt Eaters Bookshop also hosts a community board filled with Black-centered events and businesses, and bright colors that catch the eye. Continue reading...

Republican hopeful frames candidacy as moral imperative but defeat in home state of South Carolina raises critical questionsNikki Haley will travel to Michigan on Sunday after suffering a decisive loss in her home state of South Carolina, marking her fourth straight defeat in the Republican presidential primary. Donald Trump continued his undefeated streak with a double-digit win in South Carolina, further cementing his hold on the Republican party and raising more questions about Haley's decision to remain in the primary.As she addressed supporters at an election night party in Charleston on Saturday, Haley deftly framed her candidacy as a moral imperative for the many voters who express dissatisfaction with a potential rematch between Trump and Joe Biden in November.Trump soundly defeats HaleyKey dates for the 2024 electionWho's running for president? Continue reading...

Gathering has effectively become The Trump Show as the fringe has moved to the center of the Republican partyA digital pinball game defending the January 6 insurrection. A panel discussion called Putting Our Heads in the Gas Stove. An eager crowd watching agent provocateur Steve Bannon interview former British prime minister Liz Truss for a tiny online audience.Every year the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, conjures a theatre of the absurd beside the Potomac River. This week something else slowly came into focus: three pillars of a Republican agenda that the party believes will provide a winning formula in the 2024 elections. Continue reading...

The right to demonstrate is vital in a democracy. But protests outside my house put me at immense riskLast week, someone didn't just wish me to feel pain now. Their hope was that in the afterlife I would experience eternal suffering. Ten out of 10 for flair. Someone once sent me an email about which of my orifices they would like to pour molten metal into - it was all of them, described in glorious detail.I have a special file of restraining orders - I felt weird putting them with my other important documents. It didn't seem fitting to file them next to my sons' birth certificates. Multiple men have served time in prison for attacks or threats of attacks on me. One remains in prison today, serving a 10-year sentence for various crimes against me and others. Continue reading...

The population is fast losing patience with a leadership that they see as fanatical and corrupt, and willing to sacrifice democracy and hostagesAfter four horrible months, the Israel-Hamas war drags on, and Israel seems more isolated than ever. Mass protests against Israel on US college campuses and UK streets in the early weeks of the war gave way to South Africa's appeal to the international court of justice accusing Israel of genocide. The US, Israel's best friend, moved from quietly pushing it to begin downscaling the war and allow more humanitarian aid to Gaza, to slapping sanctions on violent West Bank settlers and pushing a UN security council resolution for a ceasefire; even Prince William called for the fighting to stop.But little of this global pressure has moved Israelis. In a mid-January survey from Tel Aviv University, more than half of Jewish Israeli respondents thought Israel was using the right amount of force, but another 43% said that it had not used enough. In a survey last week by the Israel Democracy Institute, a majority of Jewish Israelis opposed a detailed political agreement to end the war, and two-thirds opposed humanitarian aid to Gaza. This data is sobering, though mirrored by trends among the Palestinian public, during the war, where polls show high support for Hamas and for the 7Octoberattacks. Continue reading...

The heir to the throne was suspiciously close to channelling the foreign secretary in his recent statementFor an heir to the throne wanting to secure his future perhaps the first rule should be: do not associate with David Cameron. Last week the foreign secretary had to fly to the Falklands to pose with some kids who didn't know him as the former salesman for the disgraced Lex Greensill. At least, unlike his old Chinese customers, they didn't have to pay 12,000 a time.But now Prince William has signed up for a double act. If, following a Cameron smarm-offensive, he did not actually take dictation, some of the phrasing in a royal Gaza statement vetted by the Foreign Office went well beyond usual indicators of Etonian cloning.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

Challenging racism wherever it expresses itself is not the same as disparaging a place because it is too whiteA day out of Sunderland is a day wasted." So claimed Charlie Slater, council leader in the 1970s, and a man known as Mr Sunderland" to generations of Mackems.Actor and singer Cynthia Erivo is unlikely to agree. On a social media clip taken from an appearance on the Amber Ruffin show on NBC in the US, Erivo compared different British cities she had visited. Manchester, she told her American audience, is incredible because it feels like London". Sunderland, though ... You go to Sunderland and you're like, Where the fuck am I?'" The viral clip gets cut here. In the full interview, Erivo continues: I don't know where I am. This is not where I live." Continue reading...

Only regulation will stop fast food firms churning out products we are evolutionarily hardwired to find it difficult to resistThe 1970s was a confusing decade in which to be a smoker. People knew, of course, that smoking was bad for them: the evidence linking it to lung cancer had been incontrovertible since 1956. But despite government education programmes, hiked taxes and restrictions in selling to children, these warnings hadn't fully permeated the atmosphere.How could they? Daily life bathedthe brain in the idea that smoking was fine. Cigarettes were advertised in magazines, onbillboards and at sporting events; they dangled from the mouths of the suave or rebellious infilm and on TV; and a nicotine fug enveloped offices, bars and public transport. Could something that everyone was doing, and whichsuffused the culture, really be that shockingly dangerous? Continue reading...

Result called for Trump almost immediately after polls close as former South Carolina governor suffers stinging home-state loss

The Republican contender has exasperated her rival by not dropping out, but she believes not everyone in the party is enamored of Trump

This live blog is now closed. For the latest on the South Carolina primary, you can read our full story:

Unbound and unhinged, ex-president vilifies immigrants before devolving into bizarre riffs, including calling himself total genius'Donald Trump styled himself as a proud political dissident" and promised judgment day" for political opponents in an address that offered a chilling vision of a democracy in imminent peril.In classic carnival barker form, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination accused Joe Biden of weaponising the government against him with Stalinist show trials". He pledged to crack down on border security and deliver the biggest deportation in US history if he wins the 5 November election. Continue reading...

Voters resoundingly choose Donald Trump over the state's former governor Nikki Haley - see the results in fullSouth Carolina's Republican voters went to the polls on Saturday to choose a candidate for president, with two significant choices left: the state's former governor, Nikki Haley, and former president Donald Trump.Haley lost the New Hampshire primary last month by about 11 points, and polling suggested Trump would defeat his former ambassador to the United Nations by about 2-1 in her home state. Continue reading...

A TikTok video battle is now in place, with Generation Alpha firing salvoes that are met punch-for-punch by every online generation that isn't deadIt seems a plague of Sephora Tweens" have been raiding available stocks of Drunk Elephant skin treatments at the makeup shop before mature consumers can get them. Deprived, older women have declared intergenerational war.Yes. Another one. Continue reading...

Former governor Nikki Haley urged supporters to turn out in large numbers as Donald Trump declared he's coming like a freight train' in November

Voters in Saturday's Republican primary say Nikki Haley is the best person for the job - or that they're voting against Donald TrumpCindy Tripp, still recovering from a surgery she'd undergone earlier that week, convinced her husband to accompany her to Patriots Point on Friday night to watch Nikki Haley rally supporters one last time before the voters of South Carolina rendered their verdict in the Republican presidential primary.I'm not supposed to be here," Tripp said, laughing as the sun set over the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier, the backdrop for Haley's rally on the eve of the Republican primary. But I couldn't miss this because I'm so proud of her." Continue reading...

At CPAC and the Principles First summit, the would-be Trump VP and the January 6 witness were stars of their showsAt the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, Elise Stefanik made her case for a glittering prize: the Republican nomination for vice-president to Donald Trump. At the Principles First summit on Saturday, Cassidy Hutchinson received a prize of her own: a Profiles in Courage award.Stefanik, who is 39 and the No 3 Republican in the US House, received standing ovations from an audience ultra-loyal to Trump. Hutchinson, 28, received standing ovations too, as she appeared with Alyssa Farah Griffin and Sarah Matthews, fellow Trump White House staffers turned Trump critics, before an audience of anti-Trump conservatives. Continue reading...

As Trump addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland, Republican voters head to the polls in South Carolina, where he has a 30-point lead over Nikki HaleyA vote for Trump is your ticket back to freedom, it's your passport out of tyranny and it's your only escape from Joe Biden and his gang's fast track to hell," Donald Trump said.And in many ways, we're living in hell right now because the fact is, Joe Biden is a threat to democracy, really is a threat to democracy," Trump continued. Continue reading...

As Myfanwy Jones and her family cared for her father in his last days, she was struck by the beauty, the memory and the burrowing inDad keeps asking for a half-pint of cold milk. He doesn't talk of dying but of going home. And it's some consolation that the cabbage-y room in the aged care facility, with its hoseable floor, is a stone's throw from where Gran gave birth to Dad on their kitchen table.My two sisters and I have set up camp here, with knitting and books and herbal teas, and it reminds me of preparing for birth. The burrowing-in. The stopped clocks. Something huge coming. Continue reading...

Former White House Russia specialist spoke at the Principles First meeting, where she said ex-president idolises' Russian leaderDonald Trump would have lost his mind completely" at his summit with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki in 2018, the former White House Russia specialist Fiona Hill said, if the Russian president had simply admitted he did in fact interfere on Trump's behalf in the US election two years before.Trump, Hill said, refused to believe that Russia tried to tip the scales to his benefit. And if Putin had actually said to him at some point, No, Donald, I did try to interfere in the election,' I think he would have lost his mind completely. Continue reading...

Daqua Lameek Ritter was convicted of a hate crime for the murder of Dime Doe in 2019, and faces a maximum of life in prisonA South Carolina man was found guilty on Friday of killing a Black transgender woman in the nation's first federal trial over a hate crime based on gender identity.After deliberating for roughly four hours, jurors convicted Daqua Lameek Ritter of a hate crime for the murder of Dime Doe in 2019. Ritter was also found guilty of using a firearm in connection with the fatal shooting and obstructing justice. Continue reading...

Vice-president hopefuls slammed Democrats and tried to top each other with their Trumpian bona fidesOn Saturday, the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, will end with a straw poll. But given Donald Trump's lock on the Republican nomination, attendees will not be asked who they want for president. They will be asked to choose between 17 possible vice-presidential picks.On Friday, four such names were on the speakers' roster. Continue reading...

Republicans aren't content with just forcing women to give birth, they are intent on controlling all facets of reproductive healthcare, as we're seeing in AlabamaFriends, Romans, frozen extrauterine children, lend me your ears. Except for the extrauterine children, that is - they obviously don't have ears. Nor do they have fully formed brains, nervous systems or organs. Nevertheless, according to Alabama's supreme court - in a decision which has which paved the way for two wrongful death suits to proceed against a fertility clinic - frozen embryos are children" and should be treated as such. Continue reading...

The genre is making a comeback on our screens. But these days we don't expect a happy endingIf it were a romcom, it would be called Love on Trial, and it would star Ryan Reynolds as a slick attorney whose heart is melted by an earnest activist (Katherine Heigl). But it's a true story: on Valentine's Day this year a class-action lawsuit was filed in California against Match Group, the owner of Tinder, OkCupid and Hinge, by a group of users who believe that the apps are lying to us. The software isn't trying to find us our soulmates, it's trying to keep us single and searching, addicted to the microdose of dopamine secreted as we swipe.The lawsuit justly questions the right of tech firms to profit from loneliness, but there is a poignancy to the complaint, which seems to voice a deep frustration with the present state of love and relationships: with all the algorithms at my disposal, and all the hot singles in my area, why haven't I met the right person? Continue reading...