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Older Americans had highest number of deaths, but younger Americans of color had highest disease ratesAlthough older Americans had the highest number of deaths in the Covid-19 pandemic, younger Americans had the highest rates compared with the overall population - especially among people of color, according to a new study.And in two groups - Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander and Native American or Alaska Native - working-age people (ages 25 to 64) had the greatest increase in mortality of any age group. Continue reading...

Women and doctors describe heart-wrenching decisions under what may be the US's strictest abortion ban in Idaho. Everything that's happening is a playbook for the rest of the country'When Jennifer Adkins and her husband were considering having a second child in Idaho, they vaguely thought how the state's near-total abortion ban could affect them. But Adkins' first pregnancy had gone so smoothly, she didn't even use an epidural when she gave birth. Her next pregnancy, she expected, would be similar.But in April 2023, 12 weeks into her second pregnancy, an ultrasound scan shattered that hope. Continue reading...

Outcry in Montgomery county as Linda Coombs' book on European colonization of Native American land reclassifiedAnti-censorship advocates have joined book publisher Penguin Random House in condemning a Texas county that reclassified an account of European settlers' colonization of Indigenous Americans as fiction.The furor in Montgomery county - near Houston - follows the decision by a citizens review panel, at the behest of rightwing activists, to place Colonization and the Wampanoag Story by Linda Coombs in the fiction section of children's libraries. Continue reading...

Four people, including a child, have been killed after a helicopter crashed into a radio tower in Houston, Texas. Authorities say the helicopter struck the radio tower just before 8pm local time to the east of the city's business district. Footage on the ground shows flames burning while emergency services attended the crash site Continue reading...

Republican Bernie Moreno is trying to shrug off responsibility for mistruths, tax bills and a casual sex profileBernie Moreno, the Republican candidate for US Senate in Ohio, came to the US from Colombia at the age of four. He has said he learned English through Ronald Reagan's speeches. That claim has been questioned, but if Moreno did learn the language that way, it seems one famous speech may not have fully sunk in.At the Republican convention in 1968, Reagan said: It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions." Continue reading...

It's sounds like an impossible dilemma for activists and organizers, but it isn't. Progressives can and must do bothThe war in Gaza is not high among most voters' concerns. But for many Arab Americans and protesters of the war, it is. As election day nears and the margins tighten - and with the critical swing state of Michigan, home to the largest Arab American community in the nation, up for grabs - these people are among the small, scattered constituencies that could determine the results. This makes their political strategies crucial to the US's - and, by extension, Palestine's - future.Some activists working to end the genocide are putting that urgent cause ahead of the other urgent cause: electing a Democrat, if only to prevent a Trump presidency. If I'm going to be a one-issue voter and that issue is genocide, I'm okay with that," a Dearborn, Michigan, woman told NPR's Code Switch.Judith Levine is a Brooklyn journalist and essayist, a contributing writer to the Intercept and the author of five books Continue reading...

In critical battlegrounds, Maga allies mounting lawsuits to lay the groundwork' to challenge election if he losesKey rightwing legal groups with ties to Donald Trump and his allies have banked millions of dollars from conservative foundations and filed multiple lawsuits challenging voting rules in swing states that are already sowing distrust of election processes and pushing dangerous conspiracy theories, election watchdogs warn.They also warn that the groups appear to be laying the groundwork for a concerted challenge to the result of November's presidential election if Trump is defeated by Kamala Harris. Continue reading...

Death of John Kinsel Sr leaves just two living code talkers - men whose communication played vital role in war effortOne of the last remaining Navajo code talkers who helped the US and its allies win the second world war died over the weekend, according to officials.The death of John Kinsel Sr, 107, on Saturday left just two living Navajo code talkers: his fellow US marines Thomas Begay and Peter MacDonald, who are both in their 90s. Continue reading...

Move follows fears over jobs and control when private equity firm CD&R entered talks to buy Opella for 16bnThe French government is to take a stake in the pharmaceutical company Sanofi's consumer healthcare division to try to quell a backlash as the US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice enters talks to buy the unit for 16bn (13.3bn).Sanofi is spinning off Opella, which makes the paracetamol brand Doliprane, the laxative Dulcolax and other over-the-counter medicines. However, the revelation of talks with CD&R earlier this month prompted concerns over French jobs and the loss of control to a foreign company. Continue reading...

The QB's injury confirmed what most of us already knew: the Browns' decision to give him $230m was the worst in NFL historyCleveland's fanbase came into Sunday's home Browns-Bengals showdown steeped in feelings. Some of them greeted their own quarterback, Deshaun Watson, with deafening boos as he ran on to the field. If there was any doubt about how many fans feels about Watson, the same crowd showered running back Nick Chubb with cheers at an even higher decibel as he made his return from a lengthy injury layoff.Watson looks like he is headed for a lengthy period on the sidelines himself: in the second quarter, he went down with what the Browns fear is a torn achilles. Probably out for the season. Possibly the end of Watson's career - the quarterback's play has declined and achilles injuries often leave players a shadow of their former selves. As Watson was carted off the field in tears, the feelings in Cleveland were on overdrive. For some, there was catharsis or a feeling that karma had been served. For others, there was legitimate sadness. After all, despite Watson's dismal performance as Cleveland's man under center, and the allegations against him as a man, you never want to see someone injured. Although maybe in this case, you do. Some of the Browns fans did: there were scattered cheers when Watson went down injured, a reaction Cleveland cornerback Greg Newsome II later described as bullshit". Continue reading...

Even as I am taught about the German credo of tolerance and compassion, the government is betraying it to pander to the far rightI live in a small, quaint old town in north-west Germany, and every day I attend four hours of German and integration lessons. I attend because I am an immigrant: I am South African, and moved to Germany three months ago, along with my German husband and our children. These classes, which will take 700 hours to complete, are a requirement of my staying here for more than a year.The course takes place at the local Volkshochschule (VHS - the people's high school"), a network of about 900 public adult education centres that offers a wide range of courses, including languages and vocational training. The schools are deeply rooted in Germany's commitment to lifelong learning and social inclusion.Bonita Dordel is a corporate communications consultant, Nelson Mandela scholar and recent migrant to GermanyDo 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...

In today's newsletter: From stacking election boards to purging voter rolls, we look at the tactics that could sway key states Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning. With two weeks to go until the US presidential election, the race could hardly be closer. But when you're next frantically obsessing over the odds, keep in mind: it may not be as simple as who most voters want to see in the Oval Office.If the attempt to subvert the 2020 election was an anti-democratic horror show, its impact was somewhat mitigated by the fact that Donald Trump seemed to be making it up as he went along. This time around, Republicans are a lot more organised in their efforts to influence the outcome - and as the Maga takeover of the GOP has rolled on over the past four years, election denialism has moved from the fringes to become a central tenet of the party.NHS | The health secretary, Wes Streeting, is to unveil plans for portable medical records giving every NHS patient all their information stored digitally in one place, despite fears over breaching privacy and creating a target for hackers. The news is part of a major consultation on the government's plans to transform the NHS from analogue to digital" over the next decade.Middle East | At least 87 people were killed or missing and 40 injured after intense Israeli airstrikes hit the north of the Gaza Strip. In Lebanon, hundreds of residents fled their homes in Beirut after what appeared to be an Israeli attack on areas linked to a Hezbollah banking system.UK news | Tributes poured in for the Olympic cycling champion Sir Chris Hoy after he revealed he had received a terminal cancer diagnosis. In an interview with the Sunday Times, Hoy, who won six golds and one silver medal for Team GB, said doctors had told him he had between two and four years to live.Prisons | Fewer women could be sent to jail under a review to be announced by ministers this week that is expected to cut sentences for thousands of criminals. The review is expected to be carried out by the former Conservative justice secretary David Gauke.Monarchy | King Charles has been heckled by an Indigenous Australian senator, who called for a treaty and accused the crown of stealing Aboriginal land, as he concluded a speech at Parliament House in Canberra. Lidia Thorpe approached the stage and shouted This is not your land. You are not my king." Continue reading...

On each side of the Atlantic, so much rests on what she says, positions she takes and who meets her approval. She is where pop meets politics nowWhen people say that music can change the world, they don't usually mean songs that capture with bright, sharp intimacy how girls feel.They mean protest songs, political songs, anthems against the Vietnam war; not the soundtracks to aching teenage summers or to eight-year-olds' dance routines in the playground. They don't, in short, mean Taylor Swift songs. But that was what Malala Yousafzai, the Nobel peace prize-winning campaigner for women's right to an education, used to sing with her friends growing up in Pakistan. Music, she posted on Instagram, after attending one of Swift's London gigs this summer, made me and my friends feel confident and free". Which is why, in Afghanistan, the Taliban bans it. Continue reading...

Kamala Harris sings with Stevie Wonder in Georgia and invokes the Good Samaritan, while Donald Trump serves fries in Pennsylvania and Elon Musk continues cash giveaway

Vice-president marks birthday with call for compassion, while rival visits McDonald's and attacks opponentsKamala Harris celebrated her 60th birthday on the campaign trail on Sunday while Donald Trump visited a McDonald's and doubled down on his dangerous rhetoric labeling Democrats as enemies from within," as both candidates tried to shore up support in key states ahead of the US presidential election.Harris rallied Black voters in Georgia on Sunday with souls to the polls" visits to two community churches. Continue reading...

This blog has now closed. You can read the latest story hereDespite a revitalization, Donald Trump wrongfully claimed Charleroi, Pennsylvania, is virtually bankrupt" with massive crime".There is one thing about her community that makes Kristin Hopkins-Calcek prouder than anything: her city is now one of the few boroughs in Pennsylvania with a growing population. Continue reading...

National guard conducting search-and-rescue missions as officials say more than 300 people rescued since SaturdayThe New Mexico national guard is conducting search and rescue missions in Roswell after record rainfall resulted in severe flooding.New Mexico state police said on Sunday that at least two people have died as a result of the flash flood, but information on the victims or the circumstances of their deaths were not immediately released. Continue reading...

The Ferrari driver stole in at the start to take the spoils, as Max Verstappen and Lando Norris tangled in a late battleMax Verstappen: Yesterday was an indication it's been a bit better already. The sprint should replicate to the main race. Winning would make life a lot easier. That's always been the aim."AC/DC's Thunderstruck is playing too loud for the telecasters. Great record. Continue reading...

Navy confirms deaths after jet crashed east of Mount Rainier earlier this week during routine training flightTwo crew members who were missing following the crash of a fighter jet in mountainous terrain in Washington during a routine training flight have been declared dead, the US navy said on Sunday.The EA-18G Growler jet from the Electronic Attack Squadron crashed east of Mount Rainier on Tuesday afternoon, according to navy officials. Search teams, including a US navy MH-60S helicopter, launched from the air station to try to find the crew and crash site. Continue reading...

Jacksonville take advantage of a porous New England defense to keep playoff hopes aliveHow the mighty have fallen. The New England Patriots, a name that once struck fear in the core of an opposition, now can only strike out as their gossamer defense allowed the struggling Jacksonville Jaguars to deliver a stunning 32-16 victory full of scorching runs from the impressive stand-in running back Tank Bigsby. He may now move up the depth chart permanently after punishing the Patriots with two touchdowns and 118 yards on the ground.Stunning not in how brilliant the quarterback Trevor Lawrence performed, though the former No 1 overall pick played well enough with one touchdown, no interceptions and 193 yards passing, but in how easy it came after the Patriots had taken the lead. Jacksonville could do as they pleased while the Patriots defense waved the white flag in a defeat that has all but ended their season at 1-6. Conversely at 2-5 the Jags' postseason chances remain paper-thin but not done just yet. Of the 163 instances of a club being 2-5 after seven games since 1990, 10 have made the playoffs. Continue reading...

Deadly accident occurred as crowds gathered for celebration of Gullah-Geechee community in Sapelo IslandAt least seven people have been killed after part of a ferry dock collapsed on Georgia's Sapelo Island, where crowds had gathered for a fall celebration by the island's tiny Gullah-Geechee community of Black descendants of enslaved people, authorities said.Eight people were taken to hospitals, at least six of them with critical injuries, and crews from the US Coast Guard, the McIntosh county fire department, the Georgia department of natural resources and others were searching the water, according to spokesperson Tyler Jones of the Georgia department of natural resources, which operates the dock. Three of them remained hospitalized, said the natural resources department's commissioner, Walter Rabon. Continue reading...

Candidates weigh how to balance disaster relief with campaigning as election boards work around damaged polling stations and misinformationIn a normal life Jon Council would be holding his last campaign fundraiser of the 2024 cycle, exhorting local small business owners in Watauga county to back his bid to become a county commissioner over a plate of spaghetti and garlic bread.But in the wake of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene, which left western North Carolina reeling from massive floods that swept away buildings, downed power lines, and left thousands of people stranded in their homes, life is anything but normal in this part of the Appalachians. Instead of wooing donors, the candidate is seeking winter feed for sheep. Continue reading...

Secretive firm that has grown to rival Goldman Sachs is revealed to reward lowliest recruits with $250,000 salarySitting down for his internship interview at Jane Street Capital in the summer of 2013, the future crypto-billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried was presented with a stack of poker chips and playing cards. But this was no ordinary game.Jane Street traders, renowned for their financial trading prowess, unveiled an evolving list of quirky rules, peppered with intriguing side bets, as they started to vet the potential recruit. Continue reading...

As a new documentary illuminates surfing's African roots, Black people revive their sacred connection to the sportOver the summer, around 150 people gathered with surfboards at Cowell Beach in Santa Cruz, California, for a paddle out. Under the midday sun, dedicated surf enthusiasts, novices and those who'd just picked up a board for the first time entered the water.The paddle out - an event where people gather in the ocean on surfboards to honour the life of a deceased person - was organised by Black Surf Santa Cruz, a nonprofit providing no-cost surf lessons to Bipoc residents intending to get them confident in the water. For the last four years, the paddle out has taken place to commemorate the death of George Floyd, A Black man who was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer in 2020, setting off global protests. The event encouraged a sense of community and served as an introduction to a sport - and a culture - that many Bipoc say they have felt estranged from. Continue reading...

Voters in a mock election at San Quentin revealed strong feelings about prison labor, wages and the presidential raceAn estimated 4 million US citizens are barred from voting because they have a felony conviction. That includes most Americans serving prison sentences.But last week at San Quentin, the 172-year-old prison in the San Francisco Bay Area, residents had a rare opportunity to weigh in on a US election where so much is on the line. Continue reading...

Are you going to spend the next three months laser-focused on your goals? Or will you, like me, be faceplanting like an anaesthetised owl?Ah, autumn. Season of mists, mellow fruitfulness, chunky knits, pumpkin spice lattes and cosiness, right? Wrong. In the words of an intense young man on TikTok, throw that shit out of the window": it's time to start your winter arc (cue ominous soundtrack of whistling wind).Actually, winter arc 2024 started on 1 October, so you are already late and I bet a lot of you don't even know what it is. Tsk. Winter arc is a muscular, social-media-promoted self-improvement strategy and it is not for wimps. For the next three months, you should be, according to another TikToker, super laser-focused on your goals, on your personal development, on your growth", with the aim of entering 2025 better, buffer and fully optimised. Continue reading...

A debate as vital as assisted dying shouldn't rely on one MP and Starmer's pledge to Esther Rantzen. Is the way to address big issues the model used in Ireland?No one really saw it coming, but here we are, in the midst of what passes for a watershed debate about assisted dying, centred on the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater's terminally ill adults (end of life) bill, and the huge moral and practical questions that swirl around it.The weekend's news has been full of the views of people who can speak loudly enough to be heard: three former directors of public prosecutions (all in favour), a former archbishop of Canterbury (ditto) and the healthcare professionals grouped into the Association for Palliative Medicine (against, because legislating to allow assisted dying risks ignoring the lack of adequately funded specialist palliative care services"). Continue reading...

Despite a revitalization, Donald Trump wrongfully claimed Charleroi is virtually bankrupt' with massive crime'There is one thing about her community that makes Kristin Hopkins-Calcek prouder than anything: her city is now one of the few boroughs in Pennsylvania with a growing population.We haven't invested in our borough for a long time," says the Charleroi council president, and now we are finally able to do that - it's because we have a need to." Continue reading...

Every time I think things can't get worse in Gaza, they do. But that is what happens when the world turns a blind eye to crueltyMy family is trapped in the Jabalia refugee camp, crammed into a space no larger than 1.4 sq km with more than 119,000 other refugees, with Israeli tanks stationed just 500m away. They are surrounded - drones constantly hovering above, snipers perched in every corner, always watching. It's worse than a nightmare, worse than dystopian fiction. My parents, my sister and her family, and my three brothers and their families haven't left their house in days, except for a few desperate, terrifying attempts to find water. One time, by sheer luck, they managed to get some. Another time, they waited in line for more than eight agonising hours, only for the water to run out before they reached the front.Every time I speak to them - every couple of days, if I'm lucky and can get through - I can hear the fear gripping their voices, their terror seeping through the phone. They are living in hell. The bombardments are relentless, the explosions shaking the ground beneath their feet. On Thursday, Israeli strikes killed 28 people, including children, at a school in Jabalia. Each time something like this happens, my family tells me, the blasts are so deafening it feels like the Earth itself is being ripped apart. It's a constant, violent assault, and they have no idea where the next strike will hit. They don't know which neighbour's house will be flattened next or if their own will crumble around them. Trapped in their home, consumed by the fear that at any moment they could be killed, their meagre reserves of food and water are dwindling. They fear this nightmare, this siege, will never end, that they'll be left to starve, bombed into oblivion, with no one coming to help.Ahmed Najar is a financial and political analyst, as well as a playwrightDo 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.

Jesus Lopez says radio post as play-by-play narrator for Las Vegas Golden Knights came after cartel threatened familyOne of the few radio broadcasters to call professional hockey games in the US in Spanish embarked on his career after fleeing death threats from a notorious drug cartel in his native Mexico, he revealed in a new interview.In a compelling conversation with the Nevada news station KSNV that was published Saturday, Jesus Lopez said the danger he endured before becoming the play-by-play narrator of Las Vegas Golden Knights games on the radio made calling the team's Stanley Cup championship in 2023 one of the most memorable moments of his life. Continue reading...

Some behaviors should be zero-tolerance offenses, but let's not make minor interpersonal differences an HR issueExcuse my ignorance, but I thought etiquette guides had gone the same way as spats and suspenders. An anachronistic relic of a bygone era. Well - and I apologize - I was wrong. Manners matter.According to a survey from the job search site Monster, almost a third of workers think that their workplace isn't a respectful environment where manners are valued. They think it's bad manners when their work colleagues don't clean up after themselves, gossip, use inappropriate language, don't respond to messages or are consistently late to meetings. Some 70% of them said they would consider leaving their jobs if their employers didn't have policies in place to enforce workplace etiquette. Continue reading...

Younger women are registering to vote at record rates - and tell pollsters that abortion rights are a crucial voting concernThe election for president ends in under a month, and voters in states across the country have begun casting early ballots. As we face what is shaping up to be the third presidential election that will come down to just tens of thousands of votes across a handful of key states, female voters, their concerns, and their judgments of the candidates will be decisive in the election.Polling shows that the gender gap, which we have seen in every presidential election since 1980, is at a record high. The gender gap, defined as the difference between the vote margin among women and the vote margin among men between Democrats and Republicans, is the key to success for Kamala Harris and other Democrats - they need to win women by more than they lose men.Celinda Lake is the president of Lake Research PartnersCate Gormley is the vice-president of Lake Research Partners Continue reading...

After a rousing start to her campaign, the Democratic candidate is flatlining in the polls, and sexism could swing the vote in Donald Trump's favourWill the unsurprising yet significant fact that Kamala Harris is a woman decisivelytip the knife-edge US election in Donald Trump's favour? Democrat jitters grow as the campaignenters its final two weeks. Polls predict a dead heat nationally. Trump is edging ahead in key battleground states. Misogyny, hidden and pernicious, may make a crucial difference.It's frankly incredible that Trump, a convicted crook, cheat and sexual predator, is still in the race - and alarming that likeable, uninspiring Harris has not already sewn it up. Each day brings more wild Trump bombast about mass deportations, enemies within" or pet-eating Haitians. His lies and threats explode like cluster bombs. He behaves like a fool.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...

George Carey is wrong to reduce the bill to a simple question of right or wrongThere is perhaps nothing more 2020s than taking a sensitive, morally fraught issue loaded with complexity and nuance, and casting it as progress and kindness versus indifference and obdurate conservatism. When even senior members of the clergy fall into this trap, it is a sign of just how much social media has collapsed public discourse into a simple question of right or wrong.The debate about assisted dying has become depressingly reductionist, but I was still taken aback when the former archbishop of Canterbury George Carey last week chose to mirror its flaws rather than adopt a more careful tone. He urged bishops in the House of Lords to back Labour MP Kim Leadbeater's private member's bill to legalise assisted dying because it is necessary, compassionate and principled", saying: The sad history of scientific exploration... is that church leaders have often shamefully resisted change. Let's not follow that trend." He implied that bishops had a duty to reflect the vast majority" of Anglicans who support legalisation.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...

With 17 days until polls open in the presidential election singers Lizzo and Usher campaigned for Kamala Harris, while Donald Trump went off script in Pennsylvania

Thousands of supporters, including Usher, rally in battleground Georgia, as campaign focuses on early votesKamala Harris highlighted the threat to women's reproductive rights and Donald Trump's apparent exhaustion at a rally Saturday in south Atlanta, continuing a full-court press for votes in Georgia as early voting breaks records here.The race continues to appear close in Georgia, with polls suggesting the Republican nominee holds a one-point lead in the state. Trump has made multiple appearances in Georgia and has a rally with Turning Point Action planned in Gwinnett county, outside Atlanta, next week. Continue reading...

Vice-president joined by Lizzo in Michigan and Usher in Atlanta, as Trump campaigns in Pennsylvania. This blog is now closed.The Undertaker said that ElectionMania" was coming up on November 5, and the people had the choice.The WWE star told viewers to choose wisely, as the nation depended on it. Donald Trump said that it should be an easy choice. Continue reading...

Leaders paint Kamala Harris as Jezebel, who is cast out - from a window, trampled by horses, and eaten by dogsAs the sky darkened on the National Mall in DC last Saturday, evangelical pastor Che Ahn addressed the thousands of worshippers gathered there and issued a decree.Trump, Ahn said, was a figure akin to the biblical King Jehu, and Kamala Harris is a type of Jezebel, and as you know, Jehu cast out Jezebel". Continue reading...

Shooting, preceded by a fight among some of the men, near Lexington early Saturday also left eight people woundedThree people were killed and eight others were wounded in central Mississippi early Saturday when at least two people fired guns at a group of several hundred people who were celebrating a high school football team's homecoming win at an outdoor trail several hours after the game had ended, authorities said.The mass shooting near the community of Lexington was preceded by a fight among some of the men at the celebration, but deputies had not yet learned what sparked the fight, said Holmes county sheriff Willie March. Continue reading...

Democracy is in the balance as Americans prepare to go to the polls You can order your own copy of this cartoon Continue reading...

Workers for plane maker have been on strike for a month, adding woe to the struggling company's many concernsBoeing workers have tentatively scheduled a vote on a proposed labor deal that could signal the end of a month-long strike, their union said on Saturday.A contract ratification vote is expected this upcoming Wednesday, 23 October, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) said in a post on X. Continue reading...