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Some 32% of respondents said US should support Israel', down from 41% who said the US should back Israel in an October poll

Republican Markwayne Mullin accused of acting like a 12-year-old' by Teamsters leader Sean O'Brien during Senate confrontationThe Republican senator Markwayne Mullin claimed that by offering to fight a union leader at a congressional hearing, he was merely representing Oklahoma values".Told by the Fox News host Sean Hannity any other response" to Sean O'Brien of the Teamsters would have been a little gutless", Mullin said: I would agree. I mean, wouldn't people want me to do that? Continue reading...

The devastation caused by the hurricane offers a opportunity to put right the effects of decades of poor urban planning and social and political conflictOn 25 October, Hurricane Otis, one of the strongest - if not the strongest - storms to hit Mexican harbours, devastated the beach city of Acapulco, leaving an official death toll of at least 48, with dozens more reported missing.The degree of destruction of the city is unparalleled with that caused by other natural disasters in Mexico. At the moment, the future of Acapulco - once a playground for the international elite and now a place diminished by poor urban planning, corruption and violence - is an open question. Continue reading...

Documents submitted to US court in case over allegations founder duped HP into overpaying for software firmHewlett-Packard disputed with its auditors whether $5bn (4bn) of a writedown in value of the software firm Autonomy could be blamed on fraud allegedly engineered by the tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, according to documents filed to a US court.Lynch, a billionaire founder once lauded as the UK's answer to Bill Gates, was extradited to the US in May to face criminal fraud charges over allegations that he duped HP into overpaying when it struck an $11bn deal for Autonomy in 2011. Continue reading...

Tim Burchett calls former speaker pathetic' after Capitol confrontation witnessed by NPR reporter Claudia GrisalesA US radio reporter witnessed a remarkable altercation at the US Capitol on Tuesday, between Tim Burchett of Tennessee and Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican speaker eight rightwingers including Burchett ejected from the role last month.Claudia Grisales, of NPR, said: Have NEVER seen this on Capitol Hill: while talking to Tim Burchett after the GOP conference meeting, former speaker McCarthy walked by with his detail and McCarthy shoved Burchett. Burchett lunged towards me. I thought it was a joke, it was not. And a chase ensued." Continue reading...

President says comment from predecessor at New Hampshire rally echoes language you heard in Nazi Germany in the 30s'Joe Biden has attacked Donald Trump for using the word vermin" to refer to his political enemies, saying it echoed the language of Nazi Germany.At a recent rally in New Hampshire, Trump repeated his false claim that fraud cost him the 2020 presidential election and told the crowd he would root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections". Continue reading...

Christian nationalist House speaker bemoans misunderstanding' of one of US's founding principlesThe speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, has delivered his verdict on the separation of church and state: it is a misnomer".The second-in-line to the presidency informed Americans on Tuesday that their time-honored conception of one of the founding principles of the country was a misunderstanding". Speaking to CNBC's Squawk Box, he tried to turn the conventional wisdom about the founders' intentions on its head and claimed what they really wanted was to stop government interfering with religion, not the other way around. Continue reading...

Sherman school district votes unanimously to reinstate Max Hightower, 17, to production of Oklahoma! and issue apologyA Texas school district has apologized and reversed a decision that ousted a transgender student from a part in the musical Oklahoma!The school board in Sherman voted unanimously on Monday to reinstate the original show and cast after a meeting in which dozens criticized them and spoke in support the 17-year-old transgender boy who had lost his role in the production because of a new policy. Continue reading...

After initial concern when fire engulfed Los Angeles interstate, residents set their alarms and got to work ... earlyWhen the news broke that a weekend fire had damaged a mile of one of the most heavily trafficked freeways in Los Angeles, the reaction across much of the country was alarm.Los Angeles is a city defined by its car culture, and officials estimated that 300,000 cars a day had traveled along the now shut-down stretch of Interstate 10. How would Los Angeles function, for an unknown amount of time, without a key piece of its highway? Continue reading...

Anti-government activist fell foul of court after not attending hearings in relation to $52.5m defamation ruling against himA judge in Idaho has issued a $250,000 arrest warrant for Ammon Bundy, the anti-government activist, after he repeatedly failed to show up in court.The 48-year-old son of the controversial Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, and organiser of a takeover of an Oregon wildlife reserve that left one of his supporters dead, fell foul of the court after not attending hearings in relation to a $52.5m defamation ruling against him and his political organisation. Continue reading...

When the texts came through, I wish they had not. Children of friends killed; my own young relatives traumatisedOver the past week, I attempted to reach out to my family and friends in Gaza, but my calls went unanswered. A few days ago, they finally contacted me, and I only wish they hadn't.From the mouths of babes comes truth, so the saying goes. In Khan Younis refugee camp, Shahd, my four-year-old niece, asked my sister-in-law: Mom, is it painful to die? What is less painful, to die from a rocket or a tank shell?" Continue reading...

World Health Organization extremely worried' for health workers and patients. Plus, rare stamp sells for record-setting $2m

An unholy coming together of F1 and golf was purely about entertainment in a city that loves a showLas Vegas loves a show, so in the week that Formula One descends on the city an unholy mash-up of golf and F1 was sport as entertainment writ large and with the emphasis on entertainment.The streaming platform Netflix staged an unlikely tournament - So, we have the F1 series and the golf series, right? Well how about we put the two together in our first ever live sport broadcast" is perhaps how the pitch went - at the golf course at the Wynn casino overlooking the curcuit where the Las Vegas Grand Prix will be held on Saturday. Continue reading...

Hayes will leave Chelsea at the end of the WSL season to take the USWNT job, leaving her just four games to prepare before the 2024 OlympicsThe only hesitation anyone at US Soccer could've had over the hiring of Emma Hayes to coach the women's national team would be the timing.Hayes will remain at Chelsea through the end of the club season. Then she'll have only four games in charge before the 2024 Olympics. Continue reading...

Sports leagues across the world are in thrall to the gambling industrial complex. Punishing individual players keeps our eyes off the bigger fixNewcastle United officials were quick to declare their dismay after star signing Sandro Tonali was handed a 10-month ban from competitive football last month for breaching Italian betting regulations. It was a massive shock, a massive surprise," Magpies sporting director Dan Ashworth told the BBC. Dealing with it was new to all of us. It came from nowhere."Tonali's ban relates to infractions committed during his time playing in Italy; it's not yet clear whether he had also begun betting on games in England after making his high-profile summer move to the Premier League. But to claim that any of this came from nowhere" is surely a reach. Soccer across Europe is saturated with gambling now - and increasingly it's the norm in US sports too, as more states move to legalize a practice that was until fairly recently prohibited. Continue reading...

The LA crowd favorite reflects on his journey from rural Arkansas to sharing top billing with LeBron James and Anthony Davis in the NBA's glitziest market and featuring on Team USAGo win the ball game, AR! Go win the ball game!" LeBron James is shouting in Austin Reaves' ear as he speaks to a reporter for a walk-off interview. It is just moments after the Lakers' scintillating overtime win against the Clippers on their shared home turf in Los Angeles, marking their first win against their Crypto.com Arena co-tenants in a dozen tries. Reaves, of course, didn't single-handedly secure the victory. It was a true team effort, led by James himself setting the record for most points ever (35) by a player in their 21st season.But James is emphasizing the conclusion to which everyone in the organization (and many more in the NBA at large) have already arrived: Reaves is - as he bellowed after sinking a half-court buzzer-beater against the Golden State Warriors during last year's playoffs - him. Continue reading...

Of the many cases against the presidential hopeful, a civil trial that threatens his image as a tycoon is likely to hit him hardestWe have been here before countless times: prematurely anticipating the end of Donald Trump on the basis of actions or implications that, for anyone else, would have proven fatal long ago. Quick recap: the former president is facing four separate criminal cases, involving 91 felony counts, in four separate states; plus a civil fraud case currently being heard in Manhattan; plus a second defamation suit brought by the writer E Jean Carroll, whom earlier this year Trump was found guilty of sexually assaulting and defaming and ordered to pay $5m. Plus a clutch of broken gag orders and the resultant fines.The question in all of these cases is less whether Trump will be found guilty than whether there is any outcome whatsoever that would be capable of preventing him from standing for president next year, or - the more depressing calculation, in some ways - of damaging his chances, if not. Trump voters have, historically, proven even more resistant than the rest of us to changing their minds when the evidence changes. And Trump himself has an almost preternatural gift for turning the most unpromising situations to his advantage. Even so, there may, within the detail of these extremely wide-ranging cases, be some aspects that are more harmful to Trump than others.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Whether acting as tributes to her accomplishments or signalling dissent concerning an increasingly conservative court, the Notorious RBG's neckpieces always made a powerful statement, says a new book Continue reading...

Now, a country can be aligned with the US on security while cosying up to Russia on energy and China on tradeAs the leaders of the world's two superpowers, the US and China, hold a summit meeting in San Francisco, many observers hark back to grand bipolar simplicities. A new cold war! The west versus the rest! Democracy versus autocracy! Let's woo the global south! But the great Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt warned us always to beware of the terribles simplificateurs, the frightful simplifiers. The beginning of wisdom is to understand that we now live in a world fragmented between multiple great and middle powers who do not divide simply into two camps.The results of an ambitious round of global polling, released today, help us to understand this new world disorder. Conducted for the European Council on Foreign Relations and an Oxford University research project on Europe in a Changing World that I co-direct, this is the second time we have surveyed what we call in shorthand the Citrus countries: China, India, Turkey, Russia and the United States. This autumn we added to them five other major non-European countries - Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, South Africa, Brazil and South Korea - as well as covering 11 European countries. Continue reading...

The surprise resurrection of the man who gave us Brexit could be good news for a political scene in need of compromiseIt is quite incredible really. David Cameron is back. The former prime minister who gambled with the future of his country by calling the Brexit referendum because he wanted to resolve a dispute within his own party is now entrusted with representing British interests on the world stage.As a European, it is impossible not to laugh: I did, for several minutes, when news broke of his resurrection. But in spite of the staggering irony of it all, this could actually be good news from the perspective of the UK's allies in Europe and beyond. Politics is the art of the possible, and every appointment should be weighed against its alternatives. Bearing in mind some of the candidates that Rishi Sunak could have chosen to replace James Cleverly at the Foreign Office, this appointment is good news.Helene von Bismarck is a Hamburg-based historian specialising in UK-German relations Continue reading...

Speakers from Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer to Republican House speaker Mike Johnson greeted crowdsTens of thousands of Israel supporters gathered in Washington DC on Tuesday to show support for its war against Hamas, declare their opposition to a ceasefire and decry a global rise in antisemitism.Massed ranks of demonstrators bearing placards and draped in Israeli flags gathered in the capital's National Mall amid ultra-tight security and under clear blue skies in an event designed, at least partially, as a riposte to large recent US rallies demanding an immediate halt to Israel's military offensive. Continue reading...

Officials announced ceremony honoring the Buffalo Soldiers, 19 of whom were executed, to atone for Jim Crow-era racismThe US army is overturning the convictions of 110 Black soldiers - 19 of whom were executed - for a mutiny at a Houston military camp a century ago, an effort to atone for imposing harsh punishments linked to Jim Crow-era racism.US army officials announced the historic reversal Monday during a ceremony posthumously honoring the regiment known as the Buffalo Soldiers, who had been sent to Houston in 1917, during the first world war, to guard a military training facility. Clashes arose between the regiment and white police officers and civilians and 19 people were killed. Continue reading...

More than 500 appointees and staff members criticized Biden's unwavering support for Israel in letter demanding ceasefireThe Biden administration is increasingly seeking ways to restrain the Israeli military in an effort to slow the civilian toll and limit the risk of a wider conflict, while it faces a rising level of internal dissent over its Middle East policy.In a letter presented to Biden and his cabinet on Tuesday, more than 500 political appointees and staff members from about 40 agencies across the administration criticised the extent of the president's support for Israel in its war in Gaza. Continue reading...

The blog is now closed, but read about the House vote here:

Democrats and mainstream Republicans join forces with vote of 336 to 95 to advance stopgap spending packageThe House on Tuesday approved a novel plan to prevent a government shutdown, with the recently installed Republican House speaker Mike Johnson relying on Democratic votes as the far-right flank of his caucus dissented.A coalition of nearly every Democratic representative and more mainstream Republicans joined forces to advance the stopgap spending package by a vote of 336 to 95, easily clearing the two-thirds threshold needed for passage under an expedited process. Ninety-three Republicans and two Democrats opposed the bill, which would fund the federal government into early 2024. Continue reading...

David DePape, accused of attacking Nancy Pelosi's husband in a home invasion last year, testified for an hour on TuesdayDavid DePape, the man accused of attacking the husband of Nancy Pelosi with a hammer last year, told a federal jury how his fringe political beliefs brought him to the Pelosis' home to interrogate the former house speaker.In emotional testimony that lasted for more than an hour, DePape offered detailed insight into his motivations that evening in October, which he described as part of a bigger plan to end corruption in the United States. Continue reading...

Oleksandr Dubinsky accused of spreading disinformation about Ukrainian interference in US politics while in pay of Russian intelligenceUkrainian authorities have arrested a controversial MP who was at the heart of efforts by Rudy Giuliani to dig up compromising material about Joe Biden, and placed him in pre-trial detention.Oleksandr Dubinsky, 42, is accused of collusion with Russia and of spreading fake" information about Ukraine's political and military leadership, in particular related to his claims about supposed Ukrainian interference in US political processes. Continue reading...

Setback for challengers who say Trump should be barred from presidential run under insurrection' clause of 14th amendmentDonald Trump can appear on the ballot for the Republican primary in Michigan, a state judge ruled on Tuesday, a setback to challengers who argue he is constitutionally disqualified from being president because of his actions on 6 January 2021.The lawsuit is one of several that left-leaning groups have filed across the country arguing that section 3 of the 14th amendment bars Trump from holding office. The provision says anyone who takes an oath to the United States and then engages in insurrection" or rebellion" against the nation cannot hold office unless Congress votes by two-thirds majority to allow them. The measure was adopted after the civil war and has not been tested. Continue reading...

Sam Miele admitted to charge in relation to impersonating a senior aide to then House speaker Keven McCarthyA former fundraiser for the New York Republican congressman George Santos pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a federal charge of wire fraud, which could put him behind bars for more than two years.Sam Miele admitted to a single count of wire fraud relating to impersonating a senior aide to the then House speaker Kevin McCarthy. The ruse was part of a fundraising scheme conducted in 2021 to raise money for Santos's bid for a seat in the US House of Representatives. Continue reading...

Request follows publication of confidential video recordings' of statements by Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell and Ken ChesebroFulton county prosecutors have asked the judge overseeing the 2020 election subversion case against Donald Trump and his co-defendants in Georgia to immediately impose an emergency" protective order over the discovery materials to prevent potential future leaks of evidence.The request came after several media outlets published details of videotaped statements that former Trump lawyers Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro gave as part of plea deals to avoid being tried as racketeering co-defendants with the former president. Continue reading...

Five vehicles were involved in the crash and 15 people were injured, and officials said the cause was not immediately knownA charter bus carrying students from a high school was rear-ended by a semi-truck on an Ohio highway on Tuesday morning, leaving three people dead and 15 others injured, according to an emergency official.Five vehicles were involved in the crash, including a Pioneer Trails charter bus that was transporting students from the Tuscarawas Valley local school district in eastern Ohio, said Sean Grady, Licking county's emergency management agency director. There were a total of 57 people onboard, he said. Continue reading...

Ex-president says truly beautiful' Maryanne Trump Barry, who died on Monday at 86, was made to suffer in those years from 2016'Donald Trump paid tribute on Tuesday to his sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, after her death at the age of 86, saluting her beauty and intellect but also complaining about what he called her merciless" treatment by US news media after he became president in 2016.Barry retired from the federal bench in 2019 after investigations of Trump family tax affairs seemed to implicate her in avoidance schemes. Continue reading...

Stamp's upside down Curtiss JN-4 airplane was printed in error so its production was stopped, making the stamp incredibly valuableTalk about a stamp of approval.A New York man bought a rare postage stamp at an auction Wednesday for the record-setting price of $2m. Continue reading...

Senator bangs gavel and calms tensions after Markwayne Mullin asked Teamsters' Sean O'Brien if he wanted to 'finish it here'An Oklahoma senator and a union boss squared off in a congressional hearing on Tuesday, each daring the other to stand your butt up" and fight in an exchange the chair of the Senate labor committee, Bernie Sanders, struggled to contain.Sit down!" Sanders shouted at Markwayne Mullin, the Republican on the dais beside him. You're a United States senator!" Continue reading...

Spain's caretaker prime minister has cut a controversial deal to stay in power. It is in the country's interest that it succeedsIn recent political memory, few spectacles have been as surprising as the sight of David Cameron striding back into Downing Street to become Britain's new foreign secretary. But Mr Cameron's Lazarus-style comeback may yet be put in the shade by the career resurrection of the exiled Catalan separatist Carles Puigdemont.Following Spain's inconclusive snap election in the summer, Mr Puigdemont's Together for Catalonia party has unexpectedly found itself occupying a kingmaker role as the caretaker prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, seeks enough votes to stay in power. The price of its support is an amnesty deal which could benefit Mr Puigdemont and hundreds of other activists facing criminal charges related to his failed independence campaign. Continue reading...

Jason Donner accuses Fox News of firing him after he said inaccurate reporting of Capitol attack would get us all killed'Fox News is being sued by a former Capitol Hill reporter who accuses the network of discriminating and retaliating against him because he refused to appease Donald Trump and the former president's supporters by propagating lies about the stolen" 2020 election.Jason Donner, who worked for Fox News for 12 years as a Capitol Hill reporter and producer, accuses the network of firing him because he spoke out against the coverage of Trump's stolen election lie and the storming of the Capitol building on 6 January 2021. He was the victim of a wider purge of the newsroom, the lawsuit claims, designed to hold up the network's ratings by playing along with election denial. Continue reading...

Louisiana congressman Clay Higgins asks judge to show leniency to Ryan Nichols, charged with assaulting police at US CapitolSeeking leniency for a January 6 rioter charged with assaulting police, the Louisiana Republican congressman Clay Higgins - a former law enforcement officer himself - saluted the man's good character, faith and core principles".In video taken during the attack on Congress on 6 January 2021, the rioter was seen to say: It's going to be violent and yes, if you are asking, Is Ryan Nichols going to bring violence? Yes, Ryan Nichols is going to bring violence.'" Continue reading...

ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl reports blunt advice from former president to use debunked claim in US Senate raceAs Herschel Walker faced defeat by his Democratic opponent Raphael Warnock in a high-stakes US Senate election in Georgia last year, Donald Trump advised the Republican candidate: Just call him a child abuser."At first, Walker did not take the former president's advice, letting go his sole debate with Warnock - a church pastor - without raising the slur. Continue reading...

Participants in Northwestern University prison education program will graduate despite having to work through Covid-19 pandemicStudents of Northwestern University who have completed their coursework while serving time in prison are preparing to graduate on Wednesday and become the first such pupils to receive bachelor's degrees from the highly regarded college, according to academic officials.The class graduating from the Northwestern Prison Education Program (NPEP) is one of four cohorts with 20 incarcerated students. Four hundred incarcerated people applied for the program during the latest application cycle, with only 70 getting interviewed. Continue reading...

President reportedly called David Axelrod a prick' for criticising his re-election effortsAfter it was reported that Joe Biden has called David Axelrod a prick" for criticising his re-election efforts, the former Barack Obama adviser kicked back, saying the president should get out or get going" in his campaign, most likely against Donald Trump.Politico reported the president's prick" remark about Axelrod, sourcing it to a person who has heard Biden use the word ... in private". Continue reading...

Officials have hired an exterminator to kill the city's most notorious residents by gassing their burrowsNew York City has long been known for its rat population - but there's been a dramatic surge in recent years. According to a recent estimate, there are now as many as 3 million rats in New York City, an increase of nearly 1 million over the last decade. They've benefited from the food waste left by Covid-era outdoor diners as well as recent cuts to the city's sanitation department, creating the perfect storm" for a ratsplosion, says Julie Menin, a city councilmember representing Manhattan's Upper East Side. Her office has been inundated" with rat complaints: We were literally hearing from parents about rats running across their children's feet as they're walking them to school."Now Menin says her district has an answer: gassing them. Amid the post-Covid rat spike, Menin's staff researched solutions and learned that Boston and San Diego had started fumigating rats using carbon monoxide. So Menin's office located an exterminator in New York that utilizes the technique, a veteran exterminator named Matt Deodato, and it's really made a big difference". Could this be the way to finally rid New York City of its most notorious residents? Continue reading...

We are living amid death and devastation. What good is sending in aid if the killing resumes afterwards?Living in Gaza, we wake up feeling grateful every morning to have survived for one more day. For more than 30 days, we have lived surrounded by death, devastation and desperation. To say that the situation is exceptional does not begin to describe the reality of nonstop Israeli bombardments, huge missile strikes from air, land, and sea, and the collective struggle to stay alive. Nowhere in the Gaza Strip is safe. More than 11,000 people have been killed - over 4,500 of them children.When I hear the phrase humanitarian pause", it sounds like a farce. How can it be that when we are in the worst imaginable crisis, some leaders call for a pause and not a ceasefire?Ibrahim Muhtadi is an architect, designer and business developer Continue reading...

Platform posted loss of $50m in 2022, with net sales of just $1.4m, and lost $23m in first half of this year, with net sales of $2.3mDonald Trump's social media platform Truth Social has lost $73m since its launch in early 2022, a securities filing revealed on Monday, and is struggling to find additional funds.The ex-president had announced the launch of his social media app in October 2021, saying it would stand up to big tech" companies such as Twitter and Facebook that previously barred him. Continue reading...

My grandma has sewn every costume and baked every birthday cake. Now, I can give her my timeIt's Monday morning, and I should be at work. Instead I'm in a draper's shop on the high street in Hythe, Kent, helping my 86-year-old grandma buy elastic. Elastic bands?" the assistant asks. No, knicker elastic," Grandma says firmly. She tuts. Mine's getting all worn out."Ten minutes later we leave with the elastic in a paper bag, along with some shoulder pads, which Grandma intends to sew into a jacket. She will do this with the same ease she exhibits when replacing her knicker elastic. There's no question of her buying new ones, as I would. Nearly lunchtime," Grandma says (it's 10.30am). I've made a lovely quiche."Ellie Keel is a writer and theatre producer, and the founder director of the Women's Prize for Playwriting Continue reading...

Biden can revive ailing poll numbers by reminding voters Trump was a threat to social security and cut taxes for the wealthyJoe Biden should sharpen his economic message by acknowledging voters' pain and drawing a more direct contrast with Donald Trump to revive his ailing poll numbers, according to research presented to the White House and seen by the Guardian.Surveys by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), a grassroots organisation aligned with Senator Elizabeth Warren, found that voters trust Republicans over Democrats to handle the economy - but there are ways to close the gap by highlighting Trump's past mistakes and threat to social security. Continue reading...

After his triumph in Libya I can't wait to see what Mr Failed State achieves as foreign secretary. Sorry, that's unfair - Lord Failed StateWho's that walking up Downing Street? Why, it's the man who ghosted Britain! In some ways the sight of David Cameron back in SW1 was always a possibility. Behavioural science tells us these guys often return to the scene of their crimes - either to retrieve a trophy, or to show police the various burial sites in the hope of receiving a slightly more lenient sentence. In this case, from the history books.But let's be real: the only acceptable excuse Cameron would have for being in the Downing Street area is that he has been sent back in time to terminate his past self before the moment he accidentally sets the UK on the course of permacrisis politics, in which it is still agonisingly and destructively trapped. Unfortunately, the Cameron unit has made the wrong calculations - again - and emerged through the space-time tear seven and a half years too late. He is now foreign secretary, and after his full-spectrum triumph in Libya it will certainly be interesting to see what Mr Failed State achieves in that role. Sorry, that's unfair - Lord Failed State.Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...