FBI investigation under way as residents across US north-east report mysterious aircraft sightings for weeksA spate of mysterious drone sightings have been reported in New York and Philadelphia as the FBI continues investigating similar sightings across New Jersey over the past month.Since mid-November, local residents in several counties in New Jersey have reported seeing clusters of drones - and in recent days, additional drone sightings have been reported in parts of Pennsylvania and New York's Staten Island. Continue reading...
It helps me to think of myself as my child's support animal. It doesn't berate or problem solve. It just shows up and sits with the child through their big feelings
New York mayor embroiled in legal troubles raises concerns over his apparent ties to Republican president-electEric Adams was elected New York mayor as a centrist-sounding Democrat. A Black former cop who talked tough-on-crime but fit fairly squarely in the overwhelmingly Democratic politics of the city.But Adams was also always famed for his eccentricities and foibles - scandals over the true extent of his veganism, whether or not he might actually live in New Jersey, and some of the tall tales he would recount from his past. Continue reading...
Florida governor swiftly scheduled primaries to fill posts from Trump picks while Democratic district waited monthsFlorida governor Ron DeSantis has been accused of hypocrisy over his rush to fill Republican House seats vacated by Donald Trump's cabinet picks, as he had previously kept voters in a Democrat-held district waiting for more than nine months.Critics say his scheduling of 28 January primaries in solid Republican districts held by former congressman Matt Gaetz, who resigned during his ill-fated nomination for attorney general, and Mike Waltz, Trump's pick for national security adviser, is a hasty political move designed purely to bolster speaker Mike Johnson's fragile House majority as soon as possible. Continue reading...
The outfielder has reportedly agreed the largest contract in sports history with the Mets. It is a deal that will change baseball and the balance of power in New YorkJuan Soto agreed to a reported 15-year, $765m contract with the New York Mets on Sunday night, the largest contract in the history of professional sports by total value. But as well as the brain-frying amounts of cash involved, it also represents a shift in the dynamics of baseball.The obvious thing to say is that $765m is an obscene amount of money, which it is. But baseball salaries were obscene long before Soto's deal was agreed. The 26-year-old got $65m more than the Los Angeles Dodgers committed to Shohei Ohtani last winter, albeit over a contract that is five years longer. Soto's contract, various reports on Sunday indicated, does not include the kind of deferred payments that comprised almost all of Ohtani's pay from the Dodgers. Soto's contract is a generational haul and could upend the balance of power in an already strong National League East. Continue reading...
Biden is a lame duck, free to do what he wishes. He could start by saving a few - or a few thousand - livesPresident Joe Biden seems intent on demolishing his legacy.For months, the Democrats begged him to drop out of the presidential race. He defied them until the 11th hour. Kamala Harris lost.Judith Levine is a Brooklyn journalist and essayist, a contributing writer to the Intercept and the author of five books Continue reading...
Far from being friendly, like love', duck' and hen', the term is faux-matey with an edge of covert aggressionIt's word of the year" time, so I was hoping to offer you mine, but I appear to have only learned one new expression in 2024: zwizz de cachalot, sperm whale penis, in French-Canadian slang. It came from a TikTok of a woman explaining that the kraken legend might be attributable to sightings of cachalot zwizzes". I'm living evidence of why brain rot" triumphed as this year's Oxford University Press choice.So, instead, I have chosen a word for lexical banishment: buddy. I'll refund that back on to your card, buddy," a car rental operative said to my husband last weekend. My husband didn't notice, or mind, but I found myself stiffening into full flared nostril, Countess of Grantham outrage. How dare you, sir. My spouse is not your buddy'!" (Obviously I didn't actually say anything.) Continue reading...
I'm horrified by the assassination of Brian Thompson. I'm also horrified that we let people die without medical careAssassinations are despicable. I don't much care if the targets are politicians or mafia bosses. It's the method I despise. For those who are old enough to remember the killing of Patrice Lumumba, then JFK, then Malcolm X, then MLK, then RFK, every assassination is (I hate this word) a trigger. Assassinations are destabilizing. The shooting of Archduke Franz Ferdinand set off the first world war. Targeted violence has always been a sign - an augury - that the social order is breaking down. I would have preferred to see Osama bin Laden brought to justice so that we might have understood his methods and motives. I know that trials can be rigged, corrupted, biased, but so far the courtroom is the best place we have in which to decide between guilt and innocence - and to assign an appropriate punishment. Assassination is a death sentence without benefit of judge or jury.All of which is to say that I was deeply horrified by the assassination of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, in cold blood, in broad daylight, in front of the Hilton hotel, in Manhattan.Francine Prose is a former president of PEN American Center and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Continue reading...
New powers to force landlords to let empty shops is a good step - and there are other ways to revitalise these community spacesIf you have been reading anything about high streets recently, the chances are at least some of it included the reporting of another closure or collapse: M&S and Boots shutting stores, banks closing branches, pubs withdrawing. The list is long, and perhaps we would be less concerned if we were all confident that one ailing business would be replaced with another, more dynamic one. But for many of our high streets, that is not the case.Against that gloomy backdrop, a report published at the end of November by the House of Lords' built environment committee makes for refreshing reading, opening with evidence of an optimistic and flourishing future" for our high streets.Holly Lewis is a co-founding partner at the research, urbanism and architecture practice We Made That, and town architect for the London Borough of Hackney Continue reading...
Congressperson shares sympathy in UnitedHealthcare CEO's death but says outpouring ... has not surprised me'Progressive congressperson Ro Khanna has sympathy for murdered UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson - yet at the same time is not surprised that the killing reignited a national dialogue about inequities in the US healthcare system, he said in an interview Sunday.It was horrific," the California Democrat said on ABC This Week with respect to the slaying of Thompson, whose survivors include his widow and two sons ages 16 and 19. I mean, this is a father we're talking about - of two children, and ... there is no justification for violence. Continue reading...
The Giants have some promising players but it's hard to believe that the team's current ownership will appoint the right staff to halt fans' miseryA $1 ticket for an NFL game - or nearly any professional sporting event for that matter - sounds like a phenomenal deal. But most bargains come with a catch and Sunday's was no exception: you had to watch the New York Giants play football.Still, mere pennies to be part of the sights and sounds of an NFL game may be worth it, even if a Giants loss is predetermined. The Giants did indeed lose on Sunday, 14-11 to New Orleans, but the fine print neglected to mention the suffering that would come with watching the team's latest botch job. Continue reading...
There will be perilous days to come and the future is uncertain, but around the world we Syrians are celebratingIt happened so fast. In the evening, about 9:30pm UK time (30 minutes after midnight in Homs), I spotted the first video indicating that my home city was finally free from Bashar al-Assad and his forces. Then a friend shared a link of a man livestreaming from the New Clock Tower Square in Homs. I heard the zaghroutas of women; the chants of men: There is no for ever. There is no for ever. Long live Syria and down with Assad." People started gathering in the square, bringing the memory of the early days of the revolution in 2011, when the people of Homs were inspired by their brothers and sisters in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, but innocent civilians were massacred by the Syrian regime.Now 2011 and 2024 were meeting each other. Two dates that have left in between them mass destruction of cities, and the displacement of more than half of the Syrian population from their homes. Continue reading...
The daily insults and humiliations women are subjected to here are part of a continuum of violence. When will politicians act?What is the thing I do 360 times a year - in other words, almost every day? It's not that easy to say. I probably cook, if warming up leftovers counts. I put my kid to bed, when I'm not doing any work events that collide with bedtime. Almost every day I have the urge to pick up a book, and almost every day I fail. I do my skincare routine, if it's not one of those depressing days when I refuse to look in the mirror. I buy myself a pack of cigarettes. I call my friends. I laugh. I feel bad for not having quit smoking long ago. I take a walk.But most definitely, I'll be humiliated by a cisgender man shouting a slur at me on the bus, belittling my work, touching me without consent or making inappropriate remarks about my body - and I'll choose to keep quiet about it. Peace of mind over a demand for basic decency.Fatma Aydemir is a Berlin-based author, novelist, playwright and a Guardian Europe 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...
Fifa's approval of the Gulf state's proposals for the 2034 football tournament, despite the kingdom's appalling humanitarian record, has been slammed by campaigners
The 40-year-old defended Trump in the New York case which saw him become the first former US president convicted of felony crimesPresident-elect Donald Trump has announced that he is appointing one of his defense attorneys in the New York hush money case as counselor to the president.Alina Habba, 40, defended Trump earlier this year, also serving as his legal spokesperson. Habba has been spending time with the president-elect since the election at his Florida club Mar-a-Lago. Continue reading...
Nominee Dr Janette Nesheiwat knocked over gun in 1990, causing it to fire and fatally shoot father in the headDonald Trump's nominee for US surgeon general - Dr Janette Nesheiwat - accidentally knocked over a gun when she was 13 years old, causing it to fire and fatally shoot her father in the head.The death of Nesheiwat's father occurred in February 1990 at her family home in Umatilla, Florida, as reported on Friday by the New York Times. Continue reading...
President-elect says he will act quickly', claiming convicted Capitol rioters had been put through a very nasty system'In his first sit-down television news interview since winning a second presidency in November's election, Donald Trump renewed promises to pardon his supporters involved in the attack on the US Capitol in early 2021.He also doubled down on promises of mass deportations and tariffs in the conversation with NBC's Meet the Press host Kristen Welker - the latter of which he acknowledged could cause Americans to pay more after riding voters' complaints about higher prices back to the White House at the expense of Vice-President Kamala Harris. Continue reading...
Studio confirms death of Mensch, 62, on Friday night after crash in Homosassa, about 60 miles north of TampaThe president of Atlanta-based Tyler Perry Studios died Friday night when the small plane he was piloting crashed on Florida's Gulf Coast.The studio confirmed on Saturday that Steve Mensch, its 62-year-old president and general manager, had died. Continue reading...
Investigation launched after Black Girl Disney co-founder was given CPR at lunch hosted by BoxLunch in Los AngelesA Disney-inspired social media influencer, Dominique Brown, 34, died after suffering a medical emergency during a lunch in downtown Los Angeles hosted by the pop-culture themed retail merchandiser BoxLunch on 5 December.Brown co-founded Black Girl Disney in 2018 with her friend Mia Von in response to noticing a lack of representation of Black women among Disney influencers. Continue reading...
The president's gamble on far-right support failed. The route to stability lies in the opposite directionHaughty defiance has become Emmanuel Macron's go-to tone during a second term marred by chaos, acrimony and recrimination. During his prime-time television address to the French nation last week, following the toppling of the centre-right prime minister he appointed only three months ago, MrMacron loftily declined to take responsibility for France's worst political crisis in decades.Some people are tempted to blame me for this situation," the president acidly observed after accepting Michel Barnier's resignation. It's much more comfortable." In fact, he suggested, responsibility lay entirely with the political forces who, in delivering the first no-confidence judgment on a government since 1961, had committed an anti-republican" act of sabotage. The leftwing daily Liberation offered a pithy and apt two-word headline riposte to such presidential hauteur: Flagrant deni" (In flagrant denial").Do 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...
Police traffic officer was reportedly trying to show off on a motorcycle in Palm Springs, authorities and witnesses sayTen people were injured after a police traffic officer reportedly trying to show off on a motorcycle crashed into bystanders at a holiday parade in Palm Springs, California, according to authorities and witnesses who spoke to a local newspaper.All of the injured were taken to hospitals for treatment of injuries that were not life-threatening on Saturday night, including the officer, police said. Continue reading...
Search continues for killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO as Mayor Eric Adams says net is tightening'As the search for UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson's killer goes on, New York police late Saturday released two additional photos of the suspected shooter that appeared to be from a camera mounted inside a taxi.The first shows him outside the vehicle and the second shows him looking through the partition between the back seat and the front of the cab. In both, his face is partially obscured by a blue, medical-style mask. Continue reading...
Arab Americans are now finding themselves incorporated into US politics like never before and - ironically given his nationalism - getting a boost from TrumpWhile many appearing on stage during president-elect Donald Trump's victory speech in the early hours of 6 November were familiar faces, one man, standing next to Tiffany Trump, was not.Michael Boulos, the son of Lebanese billionaire and Trump's new senior adviser on Middle Eastern affairs, Massad Boulos, and the husband of Trump's youngest daughter, stood cautiously to the president-elect's right as America looked on. Continue reading...
The challenges ahead are truly daunting for a country torn apart by 13 years of civil war and split between rival factionsFor once, use of the word historic" is justified in describing the toppling of Bashar al-Assad's regime after more than 50 years of brutal dictatorship, 13 years of on-off civil war and a world of suffering. The people of Syria, or most of them at least, are jubilant. They should enjoy the moment. They deserve it. It recalls the celebrations that accompanied the fall of Iraq's Saddam Hussein and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi. Yet such memories carry a warning and a threat.The warning is that joy can quickly turn to tears, and liberation to renewed repression, should the sudden collapse of hated but relatively stable authoritarian structures trigger an uncontainable descent into chaos. The threat is that the ensuing political and military vacuum will be contested by self-seeking actors interested not in justice and reconciliation, but power and retribution. In Syria, revenge is a dish served hot - and it's back on the menu. Continue reading...
It's nice to be known - even as someone who's utterly predictable, cake-dependent and often unwashedWe went to the same cafe almost every day during our month-long trip to Venice. It was the same one as on my last trip, its windows stuffed full of dry-looking biscuits, slices of Barbie-pink nougat and souvenir tins with Rialto views, while pigeons milled around the door as if daring each other to enter. Inside, there was a display case of pastries, a shelf of never-touched aperitifs and an overworked coffee machine behind a high counter. It's always packed: pensioners, dog walkers, office workers, the postwoman, dithering tourists and the bravest pigeons, cruising for crumbs.I recognised the staff though obviously they didn't recognise me, what with 2.1 million tourists trudging past every year. But gradually we infiltrated the morning ecosystem and, after 10 days, the tall guy who operated the machine started saying: Normale e lungo?" when we reached the front of the coffee crush. In week three, one particularly busy morning, he caught my eye as I queued and gesticulated at our already-made coffees, waiting on the counter. Cutting through to claim them, I felt like, I don't know, George Clooney? Or at least a pigeon with recognisable markings that they don't bother kicking out. It was a special moment: the gift of a brief sense of belonging. Continue reading...
Original glamour club fell on lean times before it decided to adapt to a league that has changed beyond recognitionYou can tell MLS has been around a while because on Saturday it held a nostalgia-soaked tribute event featuring two classic clubs.The Los Angeles Galaxy and the New York Red Bulls? What is this, 2014? It seemed that way as Dejan Jovelji scored what proved to be the goal that won MLS Cup and celebrated with a wobbly Robbie: an unsteady homage to the cartwheeling Galaxy legend Robbie Keane. The Irish striker scored the decisive goal against the New England Revolution 10 years ago, the last time the Galaxy reached the final. Continue reading...
She was captured on video crossing into Mexico after disappearing for weeks. Her family keeps searching for answers as followers debate over the mysteryOn 11 November, the family of Hannah Kobayashi, a 30-year-old Hawaiian photographer, received alarming texts from her cellphone informing them she had been intercepted". A friend got a message from the phone stating: Deep Hackers wiped my identity, stole all of my funds, & have had me on a mind f**k since Friday."So far that was the last thing her family has heard from her. Kobayashi's disappearance apparently caused panic among those close to her and sparked a frantic and massive investigation from law enforcement. It has captured both American and global headlines and likely played a significant role in the tragic suicide of her father. Continue reading...
As Biden fades from the national stage, amid policy announcements and cabinet picks, it feels to many Americans like Trump is president again alreadyThe grand reopening of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris on Saturday was expected to be attended by around 50 heads of state and government. Joe Biden was not there to admire the magnificent splendour of the 850-year-old place of worship. But Donald Trump was.The role reversal neatly symbolises how power is draining from one man to the other. Biden, now a lame duck, appears to be in decline both physically and politically, fading from America's national stage and tarnishing his legacy with a pardon for his errant son. Continue reading...
by Ramon Antonio Vargas in New Orleans on (#6SSCD)
An elderly priest's guilty plea exposes the church's history of shielding predators in its midst for decadesIn the case of serial child molester and retired Catholic priest Lawrence Hecker, the cover-up failed.But it wasn't for lack of trying by a coalition of high-ranking church officials and sympathetic judges, who prioritized the predator's comfort above justice for his innumerable victims until the evidence against him was so overwhelming that - rather than stand the humiliation of a public trial - he pleaded guilty last Tuesday. Continue reading...
Judge overturned ex-governor Scott Walker's notorious law that stripped employees' collective bargaining rightsAs the labor movement braces for a second Trump term, union members and their leaders are celebrating a major victory over a controversial law that stripped public sector unions of collective bargaining rights.In response to a lawsuit alleging that a notorious law passed by the former Republican governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker in 2011 is unconstitutional, a county judge ruled on Monday that more than 60 sections of the law and several sections of a follow-up law in 2015, Act 55, are unconstitutional. Continue reading...
Fewer 18-year-olds are enrolling, especially at four-year schools. But the number of applications continues to growCollege enrollment is dropping at a concerning" rate, according to new data.Data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center shows enrollment of 18-year-old freshmen has dropped by 5% this fall semester. The data reflects enrollments reported for 1.4 million 18-year-old freshmen as of 31 October 2024. Continue reading...
Why do so many businesses fail? Of course, there's not just one reasonOf all the businesses started just 10 years ago, only one-third are still in existence. That's according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. One in five startups fail in their first year. Agriculture and forestry businesses survive the longest (but only half were in operation 10 years later), and a quarter of mining, oil and gas firms made it that far. The bottom line is that a whopping number of new businesses - about 66% - go out of business within a decade.Why do so many businesses fail? Of course, there's not just one reason. Continue reading...
Though denied, the mere fact a foreign billionaire could chuck so much money at one party might just spur rule changesElon Musk has denied he is gearing up to chuck $100m at Nigel Farage's Reform UK party, as it pushes to take on the Tories. But the very fact the question arose is a reminder of the pressing need for political funding reform on this side of the Atlantic.Musk is the living embodiment of economic power in the modern US: a multibillionaire, with spicy political views, who has bought his way into a role as Donald Trump's costcutter-in-chief. Continue reading...
While so many Americans struggle to get by, the US is spending record-breaking amounts of money on the militaryToday in America, 60% of our people live paycheck to paycheck, 85 million people are uninsured or underinsured and 21.5 million households are paying more than 50% of their income on housing. We have one of the highest rates of childhood poverty of almost any developed country on Earth, and 25% of older adults are trying to survive on $15,000 a year or less. In other words, the United States has fallen far behind other major countries in protecting the most vulnerable, and our government has failed millions of working families.But while so many Americans are struggling to get by, the United States is spending record-breaking amounts of money on the military. In the coming days, with relatively little debate, Congress will overwhelmingly pass the National Defense Authorization Act, approving close to $900bn for the Department of Defense (DoD). When spending on nuclear weapons and emergency" defense spending is included, the total will approach $1tn. We now spend more than the next nine countries combined. Continue reading...
by Deborah Mattinson and Claire Ainsley on (#6SSCH)
The Democrats had lost their connection with core voters - it could happen in the UK unless the government gives a clear message that there will be changeGiven how events unfolded, it was never going to be easy for Kamala Harris. Many Democrats are convinced her campaign saved the party from an even worse result. To be fair, it achieved some real highs: she won the debate. But she never won the argument, at least not with the voters who mattered most.The US election triggered a scary deja vu moment for those of us who had watched the 2019 general election from behind our sofas, hands over eyes. The Democrats lost votes with almost everyone, almost everywhere, but, like Labour in the red wall", most dramatically with traditional heartland voters: working class, low paid, non-graduates. And, like Labour back in 2019, that lost connection with core voters had not happened overnight. Continue reading...
Sir Keir Starmer is confronted with several stark strategic dilemmas and they won't be resolved by wishful thinkingI don't know what effect these men will have upon the enemy, but, by God, they frighten me." I thought of the Duke of Wellington's remark about his soldiers when Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of the defence staff, gave a speech last week in which he shivered the blood by describing the security outlook as more contested, more ambiguous and more dangerous" than at any time in his career. This came a couple of days after a spine-chiller from Richard Horne, the head of the National Cyber Security Centre, who warned that there is a clearly widening gap" between the UK's vulnerability to escalating cyber warfare by adversaries and the defences that are in place to protect us". Another call to put up our guard has been issued by Sir Richard Moore, the head of MI6, who raised the alarm about a staggeringly reckless campaign of Russian sabotage in Europe". In 37 years in intelligence, he has never seen the world in a more dangerous state". If you are not scared yet, have a listen to Ken McCallum, the director general of MI5, saying that his agency has had to pare back" its work on counter-terrorism to meet the growing threat from Russia, Iran and other hostile states.The cynically minded in government note that these quasi-apocalyptic alerts are being issued in the midst of a strategic defence review, which is due to report early next year, and a comprehensive spending review, which is scheduled to conclude in June. Those responsible for our security are in competition for additional resources against all the demands for more spending from the civilian side of the street. Continue reading...
With illiberal regimes advancing across the globe, youthful voters are standing up to make their voices heardIt has been a testing week for democracy across Europe and Asia. But the good news is that, by and large, countries that trust the people to decide who governs them are weathering the storm. This outcome is by no means final or certain, nor can it be in an era when authoritarian, dictatorial and illiberal regimes are advancing. It is now commonplace, indeed normal, for democratic electoral processes to be subverted, disrupted and disputed from within and by external forces using clandestine, hybrid methods. The latest upheavals also come amid signs of regression in the US, the country most closely identified with democratic rights and freedoms.A video of a young South Korean woman seizing the barrel of a soldier's rifle during scuffles outside the national assembly in Seoul last week provided one of those symbolic moments when the unending battle between right and might is captured for the world to see. The footage of Ahn Gwi-ryeong, a former TV anchor who is spokesperson for South Korea's opposition Democratic party, was watched by millions. Are you not ashamed?" she asked the soldier. Thousands of other people, many young or younger than she is, showed similar courage. They formed protective human chains around the parliament building as lawmakers gathered to vote down President Yoon Suk Yeol's unjustified and outrageous declaration of martial law. Continue reading...
by Deborah Mattinson and Claire Ainsley on (#6SS48)
Two former senior advisers to Labour analyse the clear messages from US voters' preference for Trump Don't dodge your responsibilities,' Starmer warns English councils that block new homesGiven how events unfolded, it was never going to be easy for Kamala Harris. Many Democrats are convinced her campaign saved the party from an even worse result. To be fair, it achieved some real highs: she won the debate. But she never won the argument, at least not with the voters who mattered most.The US election triggered a scary deja vu moment for those of us who had watched the 2019 UK general election from behind our sofas, hands over our eyes. The Democrats lost votes with almost everyone, almost everywhere, but, like Labour in the red wall", most dramatically with traditional heartland voters: working-class, low-paid, non-graduates. And, like Labour back in 2019, that lost connection with core voters had not happened overnight. Continue reading...
The FDA is taking steps to ban red 3, which is derived from oil, amid concerns about its health effectsA red food dye that is ubiquitous in American drinks, snacks, candies and cereals may finally be banned by the federal government after years of concern that it has adverse health impacts, particularly upon children.The federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said that it could soon act to crack down upon the additive known as red 3, derived from petroleum and used to provide a cherry-red coloring to an array of foods. Continue reading...
Svetlana Dali, 57, told investigators she had tried to travel for free at several US airports by sneaking into secure areasA woman who evaded security to be a stowaway on a New York-to-Paris flight in November claims she had previously tried to sneak into secure areas of other US airports in a bid to travel without a ticket, a prosecutor said on on Friday.Svetlana Dali, 57, told investigators that she had tried to travel for free at several domestic airports, assistant US attorney Brooke Theodora said at a bail hearing in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, as she described concerns by the government that Dali might flee while awaiting trial on a stowaway charge. Continue reading...
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