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Ruben Gallego has a consistent edge in polling in a contest that will help determine control of the Senate - even despite Trump's endorsement of Kari LakeThe crowd gathered in Chandler for a meet-and-greet with Ruben Gallego on a recent Saturday afternoon was an almost perfect snapshot of the voters Democrats need to win statewide in once-ruby red Arizona. There were small business owners, Latino youth activists, a retiree in a Comma La" T-shirt, a handful of veterans, disaffected Republicans, at least one California transplant and a former Trump voter.The diverse attendance was one sign of what polls, strategists, Democrats and even some Republicans acknowledge: the race for an open Senate seat is the 44-year-old Democrat's to lose, a surprising position for a progressive congressman in a purple state running against Trump-endorsed firebrand Kari Lake. Continue reading...

Journalist who published vetting document on Republican running mate was kicked off site formerly known as TwitterDonald Trump's presidential campaign worked with X to prevent information about his running mate JD Vance from being posted on the social media platform, a move that resulted in the journalist who revealed the information being kicked off the site, according to reports.The former president's team contacted X, owned by the billionaire Trump backer Elon Musk, about a 271-page document compiled by his campaign to vet Vance that was linked to by Ken Klippenstein, an independent journalist, the New York Times has reported. Continue reading...

Sickened people in stable condition, sheriff says, after emergency services report mass casualty' situationEleven children and adults were transported to a hospital on Friday night in Pennsylvania after eating and being sickened by toxic mushrooms", authorities said.Emergency medical personnel responded to a report around 9.30pm of 11 people becoming ill after ingesting the mushrooms in Peach Bottom Township, the Delta-Cardiff volunteer company station 57 said in a social media post. Continue reading...

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons put their Botoxed heads together and decreed this the ballet body' eraLadies, have you been waiting with bated breath for an association of plastic surgeons to tell you what your body should look like this season? Have you lost sleep wondering whether your waist is on trend or not? Are you worried that your hips, which don't lie, might be a little too 2005? Continue reading...

They call themselves the coconut army' and are out in droves to reach young people aged 18-29. Can they turn activism into votes?It was the height of brat summer". Kamala Harris was a femininomenon", electrifying a high-stakes presidential race that many of the country's youngest voters had been dreading: a rematch between the two oldest candidates in American history.Chartreuse-blocked memes and coconut emojis filled social media feeds. The tidal wave of young Kamalove" sparked a rush of small-dollar donations and volunteer sign-ups for her days-old campaign. For an extremely online generation of young Democrats, the vibes were so good. Continue reading...

Alex Cooper's show features no-holds-barred conversations about women, intimacy and mental health. The vice-president's visit offered a chance to connect with the TikTok generationAccording to Spotify, Alex Cooper's podcast Call Her Daddy is the second-most-listened-to podcast in the world, behind only The Joe Rogan Experience and with a very different audience. While the audience for Rogan's health advice and anti-woke politics skews heavily male, Cooper's podcast of girls' room secrets, dating stories and therapy-like disclosures is listened to by young, sex-positive women. Cooper, who turned 30 this year, invites guests such as Katy Perry, Heidi Klum and Miley Cyrus to dress down (most appear on the podcast clad in sweatsuits and baseball caps) and share intimate details of their sexual and psychological lives.Cooper's honesty is wildly popular and profitable; in 2021, she inked a $60m deal with Spotify, one of the biggest ever for a podcast at the time. In August, she signed a new deal worth more than double that, leaving Spotify for a $125m three-year offer from the US radio company SiriusXM. Continue reading...

Allie Young, 34, started the Ride to the Polls campaign in 2020 to register new voters in person and onlineIn Dine, or Navajo, culture, the horse symbolizes strength and resilience, as well as a connection to the earth. Cowboy culture is so relevant to Native communities, that horseback trail rides are used to draw awareness to issues within the community including suicide prevention, and alcohol and drug use, said Allie Young, a 34-year-old Dine grassroots organizer. This fall, Young has harnessed the trail ride to engage Dine voters for the presidential election: her group's voter-registration events will culminate with 100 Indigenous voters riding on horseback to a polling station in Arizona on election day.When one mounts a horse and is in rhythm with the horse, that reconnection happens," Young, founder of the Indigenous-led civic engagement program Protect the Sacred, told the Guardian. So when we're connected with the horse, we're then reconnected to Mother Earth and reminded of our cultural values and what we're fighting for, what we're protecting." Continue reading...

The twin blow from Milton and Helene has left the state reeling - and the act of rebuilding will be lengthy and costlyMore than just clouds were swirling when a tropical disturbance that would become Hurricane Milton formed in the south-western Gulf of Mexico, beginning its inexorable march towards a midweek strike on Florida's west coast.As its winds picked up, so did familiar feelings of anxiety and dread across a state still reeling from the impact of another monster storm, Hurricane Helene, barely a week earlier. Ultimately, the densely populated cities of Tampa and St Petersburg were spared the apocalyptic scenario some had forecast. But places elsewhere along the Gulf coast saw unprecedented levels of destruction and devastation. Continue reading...

Flooding is separate from typical US home insurance and many homeowners are not adequately coveredAs millions of US residents begin working to file insurance claims on their homes in the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, many could be denied, particularly if their homes were damaged by flooding.A quirk in the US home insurance market is that flood insurance is separate from typical home insurance, which usually covers wind damage from hurricanes but not flooding. Homeowners must purchase flood insurance separately if they want their homes protected against flooding. Continue reading...

The NFL visitors are making the most of their travels before facing the Jacksonville Jaguars in Tottenham on SundayBy Gavin Willacy for No Helmets RequiredBack in London for the first time in five years, Chicago Bears go into Sunday's clash with Jacksonville in relaxed mode. Having won three of their opening five games with a week off next weekend, they have reason to be enjoying the trip. The Bears took a holistic approach to their latest NFL International Series sojourn, spending all week in the Hertfordshire countryside. It's more minicamp than holiday, but the management were determined to ensure everyone has a life-enhancing experience in England regardless of what happens at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium against a Jaguars side far more at home in London.Playing abroad in the NFL is rather different than nipping to Europe to play a Champions League, United Rugby Championship or Super League game. The party numbers nearer 200 than two dozen, a veritable travelling circus. There is a member of football staff for almost every one of the 53 players, plus media and commercial teams. So many that they need to stay in two different hotels. Continue reading...

The assisted dying bill could alleviate the suffering of society's most vulnerable, but MPs' choice is not an easy oneFor me, the assisted dying bill being put before parliament isn't just government business. It's personal. Think of me as Schrodinger's cancer patient: simultaneously living and dying. There's nothing like the impending approach of the latter to add impetus and urgency to the former. In the two years since diagnosis, my cancer-riddled body has allowed me to engage in a surprising amount of living, from a 100-mile ultra running comeback to a two-month walk from John o'Groats to Land's End. I've found new meaning in life, and campaigning for better NHS treatment has led me to the door of No 10 Downing Street. The prime minister has said that I inspire his government's work and, even more significantly, my father is proud of me. My sister calls me her hero.But despite these two life-affirming years, only 10% of people with my disease can expect to survive for five years; ready or not, death is coming for me. Yes, in between chemo cycles and surgeries I have maintained a very good quality of life, and there have been periods in which the cancer, while incurable, almost disappeared. Nonetheless I feel myself becoming weaker, and as I approach my end it's this that dominates my thoughts. For me, death is not an abstract concept but a reality that looms large in my future.Nathaniel Dye is a teacher, musician and founder of bowelcancerbucketlist.comDo 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...

Children like me, abused under the guise of liberation', have been left out of narratives about spiritual communes - until nowIn 1978, when I was nine years old, I unexpectedly moved to India with my free-spirited mother, who had recently become a disciple of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (later known as Osho). Like others of her generation, she was swept up in the allure of Rajneesh's promises: enlightenment, freedom and belonging. Osho denounced traditional religion, offering a new path to self-liberation through cathartic meditations and therapy groups, communal living and free love. In the west, they called Osho the sex guru".Shortly after our arrival at Rajneesh's ashram, I was initiated into the community and the guru gave me a new name: Ma Prem Sarito. I felt as if I now belonged, and being in the ashram was an exhilarating adventure, a portal to a world where normal boundaries dissolved. School became a distant memory. The lush gardens and nooks and crannies of the ashram were transformed into a playground where my friends and I roamed freely, liberated from structure and rules. My mother, like many other parents, embraced Rajneesh's philosophy that children belonged not to their biological parents but to the collective. Before long, I moved into the ashram and rarely interacted with my mother. Continue reading...

Trump's team reportedly ask for extraordinary' military protections, while ally calls for armed guards to be sent to polls and Harris lands her second US Vogue cover Continue reading...

Families and their pets have been rescued by emergency services after Hurricane Milton brought widespread flooding across parts of Florida. Farm animals, such as pigs, donkeys and goats have also been helped to safety. Millions of Floridians began a long and difficult recovery after the state's second major hurricane in two weeks

Sixteen people killed by storm but state spared worst-case scenario' as accusations fly between political candidatesJoe Biden said on Friday that experts estimate that Hurricane Milton caused a staggering $50bn in damage. The US president is scheduled to travel to Florida on Sunday to visit areas where the huge storm roared across the state after making landfall late on Wednesday.Authorities were urgently assessing the aftermath of the deadly storm, which spawned tornadoes before slamming into central Florida and then tearing about 175 miles (280km) across land, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean, killing people, destroying homes and blocking streets with downed power lines, fallen trees and debris. Continue reading...

Driver and passenger arrested after search of car in Portland turns up fentanyl, methamphetamine, cash and loaded gunPolice officers in Portland, Oregon, stopped a car Tuesday night when they noticed a bag inside that said Definitely not a bag full of drugs". It, in fact, was - full of drugs: 79 blue fentanyl pills, three fake oxycodone tablets and 230g of methamphetamine, to be exact.Officers pulled over a man and a woman who were driving a stolen car near the intersection of SE 162nd Avenue and Division, according to the Portland police bureau. Inside the car, officers noticed that the Ford Taurus's ignition had been visibly tampered with - and spotted baggies of drugs. Continue reading...

Cole Bridges pleaded guilty to terrorism charges last year after communicating online with an undercover FBI employeeA US soldier was sentenced Friday to 14 years in prison for attempting to help the Islamic State murder troops.The sentencing of Cole Bridges, 24, came after his 14 June 2023 guilty plea to terrorism charges. Continue reading...

Officials call death of Patrick Weier, 46, Colorado tragedy' but police say they do not know what caused his deathThe person killed Thursday during an elevator malfunction at a former Colorado gold mine - which left 23 stranded underground - worked as a tour guide at the site, authorities said.Authorities identified 46-year-old Patrick Weier of Victor, Colorado, as the victim who died. Weier's survivors include a seven-year-old son, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed. You can read our latest story hereAs he wrapped up his remarks, Walz took a swing at Project 2025, the rightwing blueprint to remake the US government authored by people in Donald Trump's orbit.I've also, at times, said Donald Trump doesn't have a plan - concept of a plan, at times. That wasn't exactly correct. He does have a plan. It's called Project 2025," Walz said.This thing is a damn nightmare. His project 2025 would repeal the bipartisan infrastructure law, the Inflation Reduction Act - that would threaten hundreds of thousands of new manufacturing jobs, including those right here in Michigan. The ones that JD Vance said, those 650 jobs were table scraps, good-paying union jobs building America, and those are table scraps. He would establish, and every single economist said so, a national sales tax on everything from groceries to prescription drugs.And the estimates is it would cost each and every one of you $4,000 he says those tariffs that Trump will pay, or that China will pay, Trump's tariffs - you're going to pay them. That's the way it always works.Let me tell you exactly what vice-president Harris and I will do. We're going to create an American forward strategy for manufacturing, one that builds on the historic investments, bipartisan infrastructure, law, Chips act, science act, Inflation Reduction Act, creating all kinds of new opportunities, ones that empowers American workers, revitalizes manufacturing communities, leads us into an industries of the future and keep out innovating and out competing the rest of the world.We never fear the future. You build the future, and this gives us the opportunity to do it. Continue reading...

Republican nominee holds rally in Aurora, Colorado, and exploits swirl of local rumors to push anti-immigrant planDonald Trump intensified his politics of nativism and xenophobia on Friday by announcing a sweeping plan to deport Venezuelans he claimed have infected" a once-peaceful city in Colorado.The Republican presidential nominee held a campaign rally in Aurora on a stage adorned with posters displaying mugshots of people in prison-orange uniforms with descriptions including illegal immigrant gang members from Venezuela". Continue reading...

Embattled US aerospace giant also announces plans to delay first delivery of 777X commercial jetliner by a yearBoeing is cutting 17,000 jobs to align with our financial reality" as the beleaguered aerospace giant grapples with a sweeping strike and the persisting fallout from its latest safety crisis.The American firm also announced plans to delay the first delivery of its 777X commercial jetliner by a year, and braced investors for substantial" new losses in its struggling defense business. Continue reading...

Benjamin Netanyahu has humiliated Biden's America and seems to anticipate Trump's return, but what would that mean for Israel?The year since the 7 October attack has demonstrated just how densely intertwined US presidential politics is with the trajectory of events in the Middle East. Each exerts a gravitational pull on the other, often in ways that are damaging for both.Foreign policy rarely matters much in US presidential elections, but this year could be an exception. In a contest likely to be decided by small margins in a handful of states, the fallout from the conflicts in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, with a potential war with Iran looming, could have a significant impact on Kamala Harris's prospects. Continue reading...

Team reportedly asks Secret Service for dramatic array of protections, including military aircraft and vehiclesDonald Trump's team has asked for officials to provide him with a dramatic array of military protections as the presidential campaign wraps, including travel in military aircraft and vehicles, according to reports.Trump's campaign has also requested ramped-up flight restrictions around his residences and rallies, and ballistic glass pre-positioned in seven battleground states" for his team's use, the Washington Post reported, citing internal emails and sources familiar with the requests. The New York Times first reported on these requests. Continue reading...

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Trump ally and election denier declares readiness to fight it out' to ensure a Republican presidential victoryThe longtime Donald Trump ally and friend Roger Stone said Republicans should send armed guards" to the polls in November to ensure a Trump victory, according to video footage by an undercover journalist.The video, first published by Rolling Stone, shows an embittered Stone, still angry about the 2020 election and ready to fight in 2024. Stone described the former US president's legal strategy of constant litigation to purge voter rolls in swing states. Continue reading...

Only about one-third of homes in Florida's flood zones are covered by insurance. Residents say the state should provide every incentive' to obtain itMany of the million-dollar houses lining South Dundee Street in Tampa's Sunset Park Isles neighborhood appeared to be hosting one huge outdoor garage sale this week.Piles of chairs, tables, mattresses, bookshelves, chests of drawers, sofas and other household items sat unattended in the gathering dusk on Thursday evening - but these articles bore no price tags. They had been irreparably damaged by the massive storm surge that engulfed much of south Tampa in late September when Hurricane Helene barreled past the Tampa/St Petersburg metropolitan area, and their owners had stockpiled the discarded furniture for retrieval by sanitation workers. Continue reading...

Federal watchdog says FAA does not have effective system to oversee Boeing's manufacturing facilitiesA federal watchdog on Friday criticized the Federal Aviation Administration's oversight of Boeing airplane production, saying it did not have an effective system to oversee the US plane maker's individual manufacturing facilities.The transportation department's office of inspector general said in a report the FAA's current audit processes are not comprehensive enough to adequately identify key discrepancies and noncompliances within the Boeing production line" and said the FAA has not addressed longstanding weaknesses in Boeing's oversight of suppliers despite long-known risks. Continue reading...

Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz denounced Donald Trump's record on supporting US manufacturing during a campaign appearance in the battleground state of Michigan. Walz defended Detroit from the insult Trump made on Thursday, accusing him of manufacturing bullshit'.

There's a war that's killing tens of thousands, but it's not getting the attention it deserves. The reasons why are as complex as the conflict itselfRemember when we said that Black Lives Matter? We didn't mean it. That much is clear now, as the world watches a war that is killing tens of thousands, that has displaced more than 10 million and which is threatening to devour 13 million more through famine - and barely gives it a glance. Most of those are Black lives and it could not be more obvious that, to an indifferent world, they don't matter at all.Don't be too hard on yourself if you haven't yet guessed which conflict, and project of ethnic cleansing, I'm speaking of. With a few honourable exceptions, it's barely covered on TV, on the radio or in the papers. Most politicians never mention it. There are no mass demonstrations on the streets, no hashtags on social media. Instead, the war in Sudan is out of sight and out of mind - for reasons that say a little about Africa and much more about everyone else.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Lengthy profile offers little new on policy but Annie Leibovitz photo unlikely to stir up drama of previous cover

The storm has created a crisis within a crisis for families in North Carolina who need safe infant food - but some areas may not properly recover for monthsIn the days leading up to Hurricane Helene's arrival in North Carolina, Ziska Maria tried to stock up on her five-month-old son's formula in nearby stores, but none had it. We were like, okay, we'll just get it after [the storm],'" says Maria, who lives in Black Mountain with her partner, three-year-old and infant.But after the morning of 27 September, the family quickly realized they wouldn't be making grocery runs anytime soon. We didn't have water, we didn't have power, we didn't have cell reception, we didn't have internet, all the roads were blocked and we couldn't leave," says Maria. Continue reading...

Remember when the existence of natural disasters wasn't up for debate'? It seems like a long time ago nowI increasingly wonder why Elon Musk is bothering trying to establish himself on Mars, and not just because it looks like a complete dump up there. (Seriously, if you think that's beautiful, I have around a hundred thousand disused quarries I'd love to show you right here on Earth.) Watching Hurricane Milton play out on Musk's platform and elsewhere cemented the notion that the goal of being on another planet along with millions of people had already occurred. The only problem is that this whole other planet is here, sharing meatspace with what we used to call reality".Once upon a time, relatively recently in the scheme of things, a looming natural disaster would have felt like a fairly ineluctable fact. You couldn't debate" a natural disaster any more than you could disagree with gravity. There is a point, we used to say, where you really can't argue with reality. There is a point where shit gets real. But is there, any more? Certainly that point has receded much further over a still-darkening horizon than we might even have imagined back in, say, 2016, when people were warning of attempts to destroy the very notion of shared reality. In fact, it was already receding back in 2004, when a Bush administration official (widely believed to be Karl Rove) spoke disparagingly of what they called the reality-based community".Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnistA year in Westminster: John Crace, Marina Hyde and Pippa Crerar. On Tuesday 3 December, join Crace, Hyde and Crerar as they look back at a political year like no other, live at the Barbican in London and livestreamed globally. Book tickets here or at guardian.live Continue reading...

Dozens of other people received medical treatment during Deer Park's second shelter-in-place order in weeksAt least two workers at a Houston-area oil refinery were killed on Thursday after hydrogen sulfide leaked at the plant, setting off urgent warnings for nearby residents to stay indoors before authorities later determined that the public was not in danger.Nearly three dozen other people were either transported to hospitals or treated at the scene, said Ed Gonzalez, the Harris county's sheriff. Hours after the leak began, Gonzalez said the area was still unsafe for investigators to enter and that officials may not be able to get inside until Friday. Continue reading...

At Fruit Camp in Baltimore, Geo Mccandlish and Emi Lynn Holler are breaking through the old boys' club tendencies of the tattoo industry to make LGBTQ+ clients feel welcomeTattoos are everywhere nowadays - peeping out of shirtsleeves during office meetings, adorning the shoulders of neighborhood baristas. Nearly a third of Americans are tattooed, according to the Pew Research Center. And more than half of lesbian, gay or bisexual Americans are inked, according to data from the same organization.Tattoos can discreetly signal identity - for example, lesbians in the 1940s got nautical stars inked on their wrists that were cleverly concealed with wristwatches during the day and on display at night. But the tattoo industry isn't always welcoming towards the LGBTQ+ community. Continue reading...

Review concluded two men drowned due to glaring training failures after raid to seize Iranian weapons bound for HouthisTwo US Navy Seals drowned as they tried to climb aboard a ship carrying illicit Iranian-made weapons to Yemen because of glaring training failures and a lack of understanding about what to do after falling into deep, turbulent waters, according to a military investigation into the January deaths.The review concluded that the drownings of chief special warfare operator Christopher Chambers and navy special warfare operator first class Nathan Gage Ingram could have been prevented. Continue reading...

If we treated this service as vital state infrastructure, it could make a huge difference to parents - and to the economyYou can't get much for 5.50 nowadays. A takeaway coffee and a muffin, maybe; a pint and a packet of crisps, outside London. But in parts of Canada, roughly that amount can buy you a day's childcare. Or it can, at least, if you can find a nursery place.The country is now three years into a post-pandemic social experiment, offering parents heavily (and expensively) subsidised childcare for what is by envious British standards a staggeringly cheap C$10 a day. The idea is that ultimately this multibillion-dollar state programme will pretty much pay for itself, thanks to the boost in GDP expected to be provided by more parents going out to work. But arguably, its biggest insight has been treating childcare less as some kind of perk the state sadly can't afford right now and more as what Chrystia Freeland, Canada's deputy prime minister, calls social infrastructure": an essential part of the national plumbing, like commuter trains or fast broadband or any other thrusting great multibillion-pound building project we are wearily prepared to believe will ultimately be worth it.Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Advocates say multiple strategies must be used to lower prices as new drugs threaten to bankrupt health systemA new report finds some of politicians' most popular proposals are likely to only have a single-digit impact on drug prices.The report, compiled by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), examined seven different policies that ranged from capping drug prices to bringing greater transparency to the market. Of the seven, the most effective would only likely reduce drug prices by 5%. Continue reading...

Amid two hurricanes - one of which hit two swing states - conspiracy theories swirled, such as the weather being controlled to prevent Republicans from votingAlex Jones, the longtime conspiracy theorist liable for millions for defaming school shooting victims, started a broadcast this week with one of his favorite topics: weather manipulation.All right, I did a lot of research and a lot of preparation the last 30 years for what I'm going to be covering today," he said. Coming up, I'm going to do a big presentation for everybody on what's really going on with weather weapons." Continue reading...

GOP spent over $65m on ads, with Trump's most often aired ad targeting Harris for her support of gender-affirming careDonald Trump and the Republican party are pushing an agenda of division, chaos and hate" by spending tens of millions on ads attacking transgender people, advocates said, as the right wing intensifies its anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric.The GOP has spent more than $65m on ads targeting trans people, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, with the former president's most frequently aired ad targeting Kamala Harris over her support for gender-affirming care. Continue reading...

At least 10 people have died. Plus, a deadly day of Israeli strikes in Gaza and Lebanon

The veteran reporter has long worried about a lack of diversity in the league. Now he is hoping to help the next generation of Black football journalistsIn the contact sport that is the NFL news beat, Jim Trotter breaks away from the huddle. At Sports Illustrated he hooked readers with his revealing profiles of reticent stars and his insider's perspective on the league's inner workings. At ESPN and NFL Media he was an even more marked outlier, the TV watchdog who insisted on holding league power brokers to account without giving a moment's thought to lost access or favor. At The Athletic, the expectation was that Trotter would keep up the good work after joining the company in May 2023 - the same month he became the second Black journalist to ever be recognized with the equivalent of the pro football writers' lifetime achievement award.But then, four months later, a bombshell hit the sports ticker: Trotter had filed a lawsuit against the NFL. I told them before I ever took the job that there was a very real possibility I was going to sue the NFL," Trotter says. I was told that it wouldn't be a problem. But once I told them I was going to file, I was given the option of delaying the suit and continuing to cover the NFL or being taken off the beat while the case was pending. I told them the case was too important for what I was fighting for to not go forward." Ultimately, The Athletic's splashy new NFL hire was dispatched farther afield. Continue reading...

The franchise plays in one of the world's largest sports markets but has yet to win an MLS title. The former Liverpool coach could help change thingsIn hiring Jurgen Klopp as its new global head of soccer, Red Bull has pulled off the biggest off-field personnel coup in the game. The Austrian conglomerate known for its energy drinks and sports ventures succeeded in securing Klopp's services when many others, including the United States men's soccer team, had failed, leading CEO Oliver Mintzlaff to describe it as the strongest signing of Red Bull's soccer history".Klopp will officially begin his role in January 2025, but between now and then the former Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund coach may take a glance at the network of Red Bull-operated teams and notice a franchise in Major League Soccer in need of some attention. Continue reading...

Balloting would have provided a rare opportunity for the world's governments to vote on complicity in Israeli war crimesSomething unusual happened this week at the UN: the US government decided not to run for a second term on the human rights council. Taking a year off is mandatory after a country serves two three-year terms, but the Biden administration chose to bow out after a single term. That is extremely unusual. What happened?Various rationales are circulating, but one, in my view, looms large: Israel. Or more to the point, Joe Biden's refusal to suspend or condition the massive US arms sales and military aid to Israel as its military bombs and starves the Palestinian civilians of Gaza. Continue reading...

The ex-president ignited a firestorm in Aurora by amplifying a local conspiracy about Venezuelan immigrants in his debate with HarrisWhen crossing the state line from Wyoming into Colorado, drivers have recently been confronted with a giant billboard that reads: Venezuela ahead, BE PREPARED!"The xenophobic political ad - funded by Donald Trump's largest individual campaign donor - is, in part, a reaction to the more than 40,000 migrants who've arrived in the Denver metro area over the last two years, many of them Venezuelan families fleeing poverty and violence. Continue reading...

In the stretch of desert between Arizona and Mexico, Trump's unhinged discourse has pushed the Democrats to the right on border issues. Could mass deportations be achieved without harm? I went to find outIn a nondescript parking lot in Tucson, Arizona, the toxic politics of immigration are omnipresent. I am here for the launch of a Republican car rally, where 100 vehicles clad in rightwing regalia have congregated in the dry heat in this southern part of the state, about 60 miles from the border with Mexico. Trump, who launched his political career in 2015 by describing Mexican migrants as bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists," has since plunged the discourse to even lower depths. From unhinged falsehoods about the consumption of pets in Springfield, Ohio, to the brandishing of thousands of signs reading Mass Deportation Now!" at the Republican convention earlier this year, any nuanced leadership on the right has been largely superseded by a disturbing lust for cruelty.Among the drivers here is a Trump supporter named Lupe Hernandez, a Mexican American who tells me she arrived in the US with a visa in November 1963 on the day John F Kennedy was assassinated. But she has cousins, nephews and nieces who came to the US without paperwork decades ago. They are all good, hardworking people, she says. I ask how she feels about Trump's plans for mass deportation, given it could mean these members of her own family would be targeted for forced removal. She is happy about it, she says: They could be deported, but they can apply to come back." Continue reading...

Incarcerated people are barred from reading a collection of their own letters - and 10,000 other texts - in a state where hundreds remain isolated after a decade or moreIt was a Tuesday in May when Lupe's wife texted me: Lupe said he received the book but they denied it because it contained information that could disrupt the system."Texas prisons are among the most prolific banners of books in the world, with nearly 10,000 banished titles under their belt. But this was unprecedented, in no small part because the author wasn't some Pulitzer prize winner, Nobel laureate or acclaimed civil rights activist. The author was Lupe. Continue reading...

Mauricio Pochettino's first USA squad could just as conceivably been called by his predecessor. But what could be seen as underwhelming could instead be revealingMauricio Pochettino arrived in the US men's national team job with as sterling a resume as anyone to take charge of the program, and boasted in his introduction to US media that he believed the team could win the 2026 World Cup, due to be hosted at home along with Canada and Mexico.It sounded like the start of a revolution. His first squad, named last week, was anything but. Continue reading...