CNN report said North Carolina candidate for governor made explicit posts on website's message boardMark Robinson, North Carolina's lieutenant governor, announced a lawsuit Tuesday against CNN over its recent report alleging he made explicit racial and sexual posts on a pornography website's message board, calling the reporting reckless and defamatory.The lawsuit, filed in Wake county superior court, comes less than four weeks after a television report that led many fellow GOP elected officials and candidates, including Donald Trump, to distance themselves from Robinson's gubernatorial campaign. Robinson announced the lawsuit at a news conference in Raleigh. Continue reading...
Ruling beats back a lawsuit by a Republican election board member linked to an election denialist organizationElection certification is a mandatory duty, not discretionary, for county election officials in Georgia, a judge ruled on Tuesday, rejecting assertions made by a Republican elections official that elections board members could refuse to certify an election based on their suspicions of fraud or error.Julie Adams, a Republican member of the Fulton county board of registration and elections, brought the suit earlier this year after abstaining from a vote to certify the May primary election. The America First Policy Institute, a legal thinktank that was formed by former Donald Trump advisers in the wake of Trump's 2020 election loss to help lay legal groundwork for his potential return to office, joined the suit. Continue reading...
Bao Li and Qing Bao head to National Zoo quelling fears that diplomatic strains could threaten popular panda programThe US National Zoo's long dark panda drought seems to be coming to an end.Eleven months after the zoo in Washington DC sent its three wildly popular pandas - Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their cub Xiao Qi Ji - back to China, a new pair of bears arrived in the US. Continue reading...
One rogue nation cannot declare war on the UN itself and continue to get away with itOver the past year, Israel has launched attacks on multiple countries and occupied territories: the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran.Yet countries and territories aside, Israel has also targeted one specific organization with a series of unprecedented rhetorical and violent attacks.Israel's prime minister, while standing on stage at the UN general assembly, denounced the body as contemptible", a house of darkness" and a swamp of antisemitic bile".Israel's outgoing ambassador to the UN shredded a copy of the UN charter with a miniature paper shredder while also standing at the podium of the general assembly, and later said the UN headquarters in New York should be closed and wiped off the face of the Earth".Israel's foreign minister falsely accused the UN secretary general of not having condemned Iran's attacks on Israel, declared him persona non grata in Israel" and announced that he had banned him from entering the country".The Israeli government actively obstructed a UN-mandated commission of inquiry trying to collect evidence on the 7 October attacks.Israel's parliament is in the process of designating a longstanding UN agency, Unrwa, as a terrorist organization".The Israeli military has bombed UN schools, warehouses and refugee camps in Gaza for 12 consecutive months, and killed a record 228 UN employees in the process. By far the highest number of our personnel killed in a single conflict or natural disaster since the creation of the United Nations," to quote the UN secretary general.The Israeli military is now also attacking UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon. According to the UN, five UN Blue Helmets' serving with UNIFIL in Lebanon have been injured as Israeli forces inflicted damage on UN positions close to the Blue Line'."Mehdi Hasan is the CEO and editor-in-chief of the new media compay Zeteo Continue reading...
Jim Copenhaver, 74, and David Dutch, 57, allege 100% negligence' as they consider lawsuit for damagesTwo men who survived being shot during the attempt to assassinate Donald Trump in July at a rally in support of the former president say the US Secret Service failed them as well as the Republican White House nominee.The remarks from Jim Copenhaver, 74, and David Dutch, 57, came on Monday to NBC News in their first public interview since the shooting in Pennsylvania, which also killed one spectator and injured Trump's ear before a Secret Service sniper shot the would-be assassin dead. Continue reading...
William Jacob Parsons accused of going armed to the terror of the public' as Hurricane Helene relief workers targetedA man accused of threatening violence against Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) workers responding to Hurricane Helene in North Carolina has been arrested, according to authorities.William Jacob Parsons, 44, faces a charge of going armed to the terror of the public" after his arrest in Rutherford county, the local sheriff's office said in a news release on Monday. Continue reading...
The latest survey shows the presidential candidates are neck and neck. But a trip around my neighbourhood suggests good news for Harris and possibly for giant meteorsPolls! What are they good for? Absolutely nothing, except for driving yourself bonkers. Oh look: Donald Trump is up by two points. Wait, it looks like Kamala Harris is up by five points. Yikes, now Trump is up by one-nineteenth of a point. Now, according to a much discussed NBC News poll that came out on Sunday, Trump and Harris are neck and neck.As the US election draws closer, I have developed a severe case of poll-tigue. Can we just give the damn things a rest already? As we all know, polling is an inexact science at the best of times. More importantly, pretty much all the results of recent Trump-Harris polls have been within the margin of error. The fact that this new poll shows Harris tied with Trump (within the margin of error) while a poll in September showed that Harris was leading Trump (also within the margin of error) might signal that the Harris honeymoon is officially over, but ultimately, it's not that big a deal. You can scrutinise the numbers ad infinitum, but when it comes down to it, the truth is that nobody knows what is going to happen in November other than it's (probably) going to be very close. Polls are basically astrology for political nerds at this point. Continue reading...
The River Arts District attracted artists with cheap rents. With buildings flattened, the community fears a land grabThe arts community in Asheville, North Carolina, is piecing itself together in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.In the River Arts District, artwork was destroyed, and the buildings that once housed studios and galleries are mud-caked or crumbling. As they face the immediate challenge of survival, the community now wonders if what it once had can ever be rebuilt from the ground up. Continue reading...
The far-right activist's Manifesto briefly topped the website's chart. It is gone now, but the comments make for worrying readingIt's always tempting to self-soothe when the far right is on the march. Tommy Robinson's new book, Manifesto: Free Speech, Real Democracy, Peaceful Disobedience, briefly topped Amazon's bestseller chart last week - above Boris Johnson's memoir, but also above Richard Osman, the fastest-selling hardback fiction author in British history, and Sally Rooney. Oh well, I thought. Maybe the book itself is not that bad? Maybe he's turned over a new leaf?It is that bad: I will not read it, because I will not buy it, because the day I put 24.99 or any fraction thereof into the pocket of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon is the day I've parted company with the material world. But here's how it is described in the blurb: For decades the political class have openly planned to replace the indigenous people of Europe and in Manifesto we focus on how they are doing this in the UK."Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
It's still early in the No 1 overall pick's career but he is already showing the savvy and command of an NFL veteranOn the flight from Chicago to London for Sunday's game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Bears quarterback Caleb Williams carried the hopes of an entire fanbase - not to mention the burden of a 75-year quarterback curse unparalleled in pro football history.Evidently, Williams left any baggage on the plane. In a 35-16 domination of the Jaguars, the first overall pick in the 2024 draft completed 23 of 29 passes for 226 yards, four touchdowns, one interception, a passer rating of 124.4, a Completion Rate Over Expected of +12.5% (only Lamar Jackson was better on Sunday at +14.1%), and a Passing EPA of +14.6 (behind only Jared Goff and Jordan Love). Continue reading...
Ex-House speaker also says on Guardian podcast that she thinks Trump is a grotesque word' and rarely says his nameNancy Pelosi has admitted she still has not spoken to Joe Biden since her crucial intervention in July led to his decision to drop out of the presidential race, following a disastrously frail performance in a debate against Donald Trump.The former speaker of the House told the Guardian's Jonathan Freedland on the Politics Weekly America podcast that although she continues to regard the US president as a great friend and longtime political ally, she felt a cold political calculation was necessary after the evidence of Biden's failing mental acuity. Continue reading...
Kamala Harris spoke at a rally in Pennsylvania, warning her supporters about Donald Trump's comments, after the Republican nominee said the military or national guard should be deployed against opponents whom he called 'the enemy within' when the election takes place on 5 November. 'A second Trump term would be a huge risk for America, and dangerous. Donald Trump is increasingly unstable and unhinged,' Harris told the crowd in Erie, Pennsylvania, after playing a clip of Trump's comments
by Robert Tait in Washington DC, and Reuters on (#6RFBE)
At a Pennsylvania rally, the vice-president focused on Trump's threat to use armed forces against his adversariesKamala Harris has said a second Trump term would be a huge risk for America", in a renewed effort to paint her Republican opponent as a threat to democracy, after the former president threatened to use US armed forces against those he has branded the enemy within".At her own campaign rally in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, the US vice-president showed a montage of clips of Trump, including the former president saying those people are more dangerous - the enemy from within - than Russia." Continue reading...
by Helen Sullivan (now); with Cecilia Nowell andHayde on (#6REVH)
This blog is closed now, thanks for following along. You can read our US elections coverage here.Three polls released yesterday show the candidates locked in a close battle for the White House.A New York Times poll found that Harris is underperforming the last three Democratic candidates for the White House among Latino voters. Continue reading...
Ledbetter sued employer Goodyear in 1998 after finding out she was paid $6,500 less than lowest-paid male supervisorLilly Ledbetter, an equal pay advocate whose lawsuit against her employer inspired the Fair Pay Act of 2009, died Saturday in Alabama at age 86.Ledbetter died of respiratory failure, according to a statement from her family provided to the Alabama news organization Al.com. Continue reading...
Hundreds partake in demonstration, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, against Israeli attacks on Gaza and LebanonNew York City police arrested numerous pro-Gaza protesters outside the New York Stock Exchange on Monday after a demonstration highlighting Israel's ongoing attacks on Gaza and Lebanon.Demonstrators voiced chants such as Let Gaza live!" and Up up with liberation, down down with occupation!" and managed to get inside a security fence outside the exchange on Broad Street in downtown Manhattan. Continue reading...
Sit-down with rightwing broadcaster comes as Democrats try to reach swing voters as they continue media blitzKamala Harris will do a sit-down interview with the broadcaster Fox News on Wednesday, the news channel announced on Monday, in the most dramatic moment yet in a recent media blitz by the Democratic presidential nominee.The interview with Fox News's chief political anchor, Bret Baier, comes as Democrats have increased their presence on Fox News, part of an outreach to undecided voters and after CBS News's 60 Minutes became embroiled in a controversy when rightwing critics have said they edited an interview to make Harris appear more succinct. Continue reading...
Democrats condemn ex-president for saying armed forces should turn against enemy within' when voters go to pollsDonald Trump has provoked an angry backlash from Democrats after calling for the US armed forces to be turned against his political adversaries when voters go to the polls at next month's presidential election.In comments that added further fuel to fears of an authoritarian crackdown if he recaptures the White House, the Republican nominee said the military or national guard should be deployed against opponents that he called the enemy within" when the election takes place on 5 November. Continue reading...
Wan Yee Ng was arrested in June with a bag of 29 turtles as she prepared to paddle across Lake Wallace, affidavit saysA woman who wanted to smuggle turtles across a lake and into Canada by hiding the creatures using socks in a duffle bag has pleaded guilty to a smuggling charge.Wan Yee Ng was arrested in June in Vermont as she was about to enter an inflatable kayak with the bag of 29 eastern box turtles and paddle across Lake Wallace to the border with Canada, according to an affidavit filed in federal court. Continue reading...
Plan includes loan program and apprenticeships as worries grow that some Black voters aren't excited for Harris-WalzKamala Harris has revealed a plan to give Black men more economic opportunities, as anxiety mounts among her supporters that some in the Black community are less enthused by the Democratic presidential ticket than in recent elections, and may sit this one out - or support Donald Trump.The vice-president's plan includes forgivable business loans for Black entrepreneurs, creating more apprenticeships, and studying sickle cell and other diseases that disproportionately affect African American men. It also includes ensuring that Black men have more access to shaping a national cannabis industry and to invest in cryptocurrency. Continue reading...
Retail chain pulls Snowed In' candle after critics argue it resembles white supremacist group's hoods and robesKu Klux Klan members light torches. Now, some say, Bath & Body Works provided them candles to light, too.The retail chain recently released a candle, labeled Snowed In", that critics argued resembled the hoods and robes worn by the white supremacist group. Continue reading...
Former president calls film about his rise in real estate in 1970s and 80s a politically disgusting hatchet job'Donald Trump railed against a just released biopic about his life in a social media screed early on Monday, calling it a cheap, defamatory, and politically disgusting hatchet job" meant to thwart his presidential candidacy.The Apprentice portrays how Trump created his real estate empire under the tutelage of Roy Cohn, a notoriously cutthroat attorney and power-broker in 1970s and 1980s New York City, Intelligencer notes. Trump is played by the Marvel actor Sebastian Stan and Cohn by the Succession star Jeremy Strong. Continue reading...
by Stephen Starr in Hamtramck, Michigan on (#6RF2B)
Hamtramck, population 28,000, has new Trump campaign office weeks from election in hopes of gains in swing stateThat the Trump campaign would open an office in Hamtramck, a tiny city of around 28,000 people north of downtown Detroit, less than a month before the election, speaks to a particular curiosity of the 2024 presidential race.About 40% of Hamtramck's residents are of Middle Eastern or north African descent, 60% are believed to be Muslim Americans, and the city has an all-Muslim city council. Continue reading...
Officials say Snuga Swing was doomed to fail' and infants should never sleep in inclined seatsUS consumer safety officials announced recently they had ordered the recall of 2m Fisher-Price baby swings after they were linked to at least five infants' deaths and posed a suffocation risk.The product, the Snuga Swing, was doomed to fail" according to a commissioner with the US Product Safety Commission, which said infants should never sleep in inclined seats, such as swings, gliders and rockers. Continue reading...
Vem Miller denies local sheriff's allegation he was trying to kill Republican and says he is 100% a Trump supporter'A man arrested on gun possession charges near a Donald Trump rally in California on Saturday, spurring significant safety concerns, said that he was a major supporter of the former US president and would never harm him.Yes, I'm 100% a Trump supporter," the man, Vem Miller, told Fox News Digital in an interview. Miller, 49, denied the local sheriff's allegation that he was bringing weapons to Trump's event to kill him. Continue reading...
Hurricane Helene federal emergency workers told to evacuate Rutherford county, Washington Post reportsGovernment emergency workers in the US responding to the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene in North Carolina were relocated over the weekend amid concerns that armed militia" could pose a threat to their safety.According to an email obtained by the Washington Post, a US Forest Service official sent out a message warning that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) has advised all federal responders Rutherford County, NC, to stand down and evacuate the county immediately". Continue reading...
Shasta residents voted out an anti-establishment leader in favor of a business owner who attends the enormously popular yet controversial Bethel churchThis is the third in a series of three stories on the run-up to the 2024 US presidential election in Shasta county, a region of 180,000 people in northern California that has emerged as a center of the election denial movement and hotbed for far-right politics. Read the first and second story.For years, an extremist far-right movement has worked to transform one of California's most conservative regions. Since gaining a majority on Shasta county's governing body, they have managed to spark an exodus of government workers, attempted to do away with the voting system and fought the state over policies pertaining to Covid-19 and the second amendment. Continue reading...
The ex-president has allegedly floated hangings and televised killings, and called for the deaths of drug dealersIf Donald Trump wins the election, he is expected to pursue a spree of executions that could fast-track the cases of people on federal death row, and threaten the life of a man with a longstanding innocence claim.Advocates for people on death row fear a second Trump term could be worse than his first, which saw an unprecedented 13 federal executions. Under Trump, more people incarcerated in the federal system were put to death than under the previous 10 presidents combined, a staggering number that raised grave human rights concerns. Continue reading...
Like Netanyahu, the militant group has chosen to ignore basic truths, and prioritised its own aims over the nation it claims to defendHow can Lebanon tackle its tangled, dysfunctional relationship with Hezbollah without returning to domestic sectarian conflict? Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, who has been accused by the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court of war crimes in Gaza, claims to have the answer: the Lebanese must free" Lebanon from Hezbollah. You have an opportunity to save Lebanon," he said in a video address, before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza."Netanyahu, who dismisses the accusations of the ICC, is openly threatening to inflict the same devastating military tactics used in Gaza upon the Lebanese population. If he really wanted to help the Lebanese deal with Hezbollah, he wouldn't order his military to invade southern Lebanon and as a result breathe new life into the organisation. Netanyahu knows his history, yet he chooses to ignore it: Hezbollah was born in part to resist Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon, which began in 1982 and ended only in 2000. Give it that excuse again, and it will find a way to regroup by recruiting among a Shia community who won't accept another Israeli occupation.Bilal Y Saab, an associate fellow with Chatham House, is the head of the US-Middle East practice of Trends Research & AdvisoryDo 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 strike, which Hezbollah said was retaliation for one that killed 22 people in Beirut, is the deadliest since Israel's ground invasion of Lebanon. Plus, trees and land absorbed almost no CO2 last year
by David Smith in New York and Las Vegas on (#6RECH)
The Democratic nominee launched an intense interview campaign, with a story to tell in her quest for the presidencyThe View, America's most popular daytime talkshow, was on commercial break. Kamala Harris sat writing absence notes for students who were missing class to attend the live broadcast. Is it just today, right?" the vice-president laughed.She handed over the letters written on notepaper headed The Vice President". One said: Dear teacher, please excuse Dani from class today. She was hanging out with us. Best and thank you for being an educator. Kamala." Continue reading...
A UK school's botched plan to require a doctor's note for period pain shows we're still not trusted over our own sufferingHow's your pain threshold? For a few months now, I've been obsessively watching videos of men trying period pain simulators. The machines have wired abdominal pads that send electrical impulses controlled by a console that can replicate the ferocity of cramps on a range of one to 10. Often by five or six on the dial, men are groaning or even screaming in agony while their female partners, also hooked up to the machine, sit unfazed.Like many, many women, I am habituated to a certain level of pain. From girlhood, we go about our lives in varying levels of agony, often with the people around us knowing little of our discomfort. There are days, though, when it all becomes too much. It used to be that all you had to do was vaguely mention women's problems" to be granted some respite. Not so any more, at least in some schools.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...
Biden's approach to Israel has been disastrous, both morally and strategically - and it could cost Harris dearlyIn an appearance this week on the daytime talkshow The View, Kamala Harris was asked how her presidency would differ from Joe Biden's. There is not a thing that comes to mind," she said. The comment was seized on by the Trump campaign, who have used it in an attempt to seize upon Biden's unpopularity and blame Harris for the issues that seem to most enrage and terrify their supporters, among them high consumer prices and immigration. But the comment also rankled some members of Harris's own base: namely, the young, progressive and non-white voters who have been distraught over the suffering inflicted by Israel in its US-backed war on Gaza.If Harris can't think of any way she would differ from Biden, these voters may have some suggestions for her. The Biden approach to Israel, after all, has been disastrous on multiple fronts. It has been a moral catastrophe, with Israel's wildly disproportionate campaign of indiscriminate slaughter in Gaza leading to famine, plague and tens of thousands of deaths. It has been an electoral liability, alienating Muslim and Arab American voters in the crucial swing state of Michigan and depressing turnout among the young voters whom Democrats have long relied on and which were a crucial part of Biden's 2020 victory.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
Trump campaign wants to hit rural voters but slow internet limits the functionality of the Campaign Sidekick appDonald Trump's campaign has limited ability to know whether their ground game operation is reaching target voters in battleground states, as the software being used needs fast internet service to properly track canvassers, according to multiple people familiar with the situation.The Trump campaign this cycle is targeting so-called low propensity Trump voters, who are often in rural areas, as part of their bet that hitting those people who don't typically vote but would cast a ballot for Trump if they did, could make a difference in a close election. Continue reading...
by Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington on (#6REVM)
Doug Hamlin pleaded no contest to animal cruelty over 1979 incident in which fraternity cat was tortured and killedDouglas Hamlin, who was appointed to lead the NRA this summer in the wake of a long-running corruption scandal at the gun rights group, was involved decades ago in the sadistic killing of a fraternity house cat named BK, according to several local media reports at the time.Hamlin pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of animal cruelty brought against him and four of his fraternity brothers in 1980, when he was an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. The charge was brought against Hamlin under a local Ann Arbor ordinance. All five members of Alpha Delta Phi were later expelled from the fraternity. Continue reading...
Vance's great skill is advancement through mimicry - with Trump as his ultimate modelThe world is on fire, but in Washington DC topic A is Olivia Nuzzi. Her suspension as a writer for New York Magazine for sharing demure" nude photographs of herself and other indiscreet communications with Robert F Kennedy Jr has engendered gales of hilarity to relieve the tension of the razor-thin close campaign.Nuzzi's relationship in journalistic terms fits the supreme court's ruling on presidential immunity of the distinction between Donald Trump's private" and official" acts involving the January 6 insurrection. In the spirit of the court and The Scarlet Letter, the blond bombshell has received more punishment for sexting than the blond bomber has for attempting a coup. Continue reading...
Podcast episode talks about conviction of Ashley Benefield, who says she was defending herself from domestic violenceTwo of Ashley Benefield's fellow ballerinas have opened up about seeing her husband Douglas's angry side" in a new podcast that the creators believe could support her claims of later having shot him to death to defend herself from domestic violence at his hands.Ashley Benefield - who co-founded a ballet company in 2017 alongside her husband, Douglas Benefield - was convicted of manslaughter in July after shooting him to death in 2020 despite claiming that she was defending herself from domestic violence at his hands. Continue reading...
Attorneys for Aryasp Nejat, fired in August, argue he is one of the latest casualties' of airline's anti-union campaignA former flight attendant at Delta Airlines has filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging he was fired in retaliation for supporting a unionization effort and for speaking out after enduring sexually assaultive touching" during training.Aryasp Nejat was fired by Delta in August. In a complaint filed late last month, his attorneys argued he is one of the latest casualties" of an anti-union campaign waged by the airline. Continue reading...
Dallas were humiliated at home against the Lions, and the blame should be laid at the feet of the team's misfiring general manager/ownerLet's give this to Dallas: they always find a way to entertain.Sunday's 47-9 drubbing at the hands of the Lions may have felt more like watching The Substance than Love Is Blind, but seeing the Cowboys being beaten on their own home turf remains must-watch TV. Continue reading...
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