by Dominic Rushe in New York and Reuters on (#6G0Q9)
Sanctions imposed on Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise in US's first direct action against junta's main source of foreign revenueThe United States imposed sanctions on Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (Moge) on Tuesday, the first time it has directly targeted the entity that is Myanmar's ruling junta's main source of foreign revenue.The action, first reported by Reuters, prohibits certain financial services by Americans to the state oil and gas enterprise starting on 15 December, the treasury department said in a statement. Financial services include loans, accounts, insurance, investments and other services, according to treasury guidance. Continue reading...
Concern over Robert Card's mental health dated back to last summer after a training facility episode sparked an evaluationFive months before the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the New England state of Maine, the gunman's family alerted the local sheriff that they were becoming concerned about his deteriorating mental health while he had access to firearms, according to authorities.After the alert, the Sagadahoc county sheriff's office reached out to officials of Robert Card's army reserve unit, which assured deputies that they would speak to Card and make sure he got medical attention, Sheriff Joel Merry said. Continue reading...
Preliminary order before 2024 trial comes months after Kansans voted to protect abortion rights in state constitutionKansas cannot enforce laws that would force abortion patients to wait 24 hours for the procedure or be given anti-abortion talking points, a judge ruled on Monday.The move comes months after Kansans overwhelmingly voted to protect abortion rights in the state's constitution. Continue reading...
When Rishi Sunak granted 27 new North Sea licences this week, he wasn't thinking about the survival of the living worldCan you see it yet? The Earth systems horizon - the point at which our planetary systems tip into a new equilibrium, hostile to most lifeforms? I think we can. The sudden acceleration of environmental crises we have seen this year, coupled with the strategic uselessness of powerful governments, rushes us towards the point of no return.We're told we are living through the sixth mass extinction. But even this is a euphemism. We call such events mass extinctions because the most visible sign of the five previous catastrophes of the Phanerozoic era (since animals with hard body parts evolved) is the disappearance of fossils from the rocks. But their vanishing was a result of something even bigger. Mass extinction is a symptom of Earth systems collapse.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Poll from AAI shows increase in discrimination against Arab Americans and increase in support for Donald TrumpArab American support for Joe Biden has fallen in the wake of his response to the latest bout of violence between Israel and Hamas, a new poll from the Arab American Institute (AAI) shows. The same poll showed a sharp increase in reports of discrimination against members of the community.Following Hamas's deadly 7 October attacks, which killed 1,400 Israelis, Biden has repeatedly proclaimed the US's rock-solid and unwavering support" for Israel, which has responded by tightening its blockade and bombarding the Gaza Strip. More than 8,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to health officials in the coastal territory. Continue reading...
Quality time' has often been elusive through decades of heartbreak, illness, childrearing and work schedules. But this old familiarity of ours feels more precious than everYou look upset, how can I make you feel better?"The seriousness of the question and its sheer empathy stops me short in class. We are both teenagers in our first year studying medicine. Alone in this country, I juggle rent and meals alongside university, discovering that grit" is easier said than acquired. Not trusting myself to speak, I thank her with my eyes. Continue reading...
We met in a space within Westminster Abbey, and agreed that both religious communities must fight for safety and empathyNo matter how many times I rewrite these words, nothing feels right. There is pain, there is rage, there is grief. It feels impossible to do justice to the horror that is unfolding. My social media feeds groan with ghastly images and fraught, exasperated posting. And the bleak news from the Middle East has claimed a further casualty: the already volatile state of relations between Muslim and Jewish communities in the UK and across the globe.Each day brings more fury and tension. I fear the will to protect faith and community relations is eroding, which risks propelling higher an already sharp surge in antisemitism and Islamophobia. The rejection of this hard-fought equilibrium can leave a vacuum for extremists to clamber into, and for hate to breed. Rising tensions have been deadly. In the US, Wadea Al-Fayoume, a six-year-old Palestinian-American, was stabbed 26 times and killed by his own landlord, who shouted you Muslims must die" during the attack. Over the weekend, a mob in Russia stormed Dagestan airport searching for Jewish passengers arriving from Israel. In London, antisemitic attacks went up by 1,350% and Islamophobic offences by 140% in the first half of October.Remona Aly is a journalist and broadcaster with a focus on faith and lifestyleDo 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...
Simply opposing violence against civilians is to risk career and reputation. Where are the defenders of free speech' now?What exactly was the offence of computational biologist Michael Eisen that led to him being sacked as editor of eLife, a prestigious peer-reviewed scientific journal for biomedical and life sciences? This Jewish-American with Israeli family shared a post from satirical website the Onion, headlined Dying Gazans criticized for not using last words to condemn Hamas".The dark humour spoke to an indisputable truth: Palestinians have died due to the logic of collective guilt, as endorsed by the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, who declared It is an entire nation out there that is responsible." Eisen praised the Onion for having more courage, insight and moral clarity than the leaders of every academic institution" and also condemned Hamas. Ten days later, he was fired.Owen Jones is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
Another week, another round of VAR controversies across the Premier League. Coaches and fans are turning on in-game technology, but referees want moreThe rain was unrelenting, with the shrouded sun providing only enough light to turn the sky a slightly brighter shade of gray. The artificial turf was slick.The ball was played into the penalty area. Three players converged on the ball. In an instant, they formed a tangle of bodies on the field. Continue reading...
Seventeen alleged victims testified at grand jury hearing, where Shannon Marie O'Connor was indicted on 63 chargesA woman accused of hosting parties for her teenage son and his friends in northern California where she encouraged them to drink and sexually assault intoxicated girls was charged on Monday with more than five dozen felony and misdemeanor counts.Shannon Marie O'Connor, 49, was indicted by a grand jury in Santa Clara county on 63 charges including child endangerment for furnishing alcohol to minors and aiding and abetting sexual assault, the Mercury News reported.Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html. Continue reading...
With Skims' eye-catching erect nipple bra', you can now look more naked than you would nakedThe new bra in Kim Kardashian's lingerie range, with its daring" raised nipple detail, goes on sale on Halloween, but not, I think, because the effect she's going for is scary". The sales pitch is No matter how hot it is, you will always look cold", but I'm not sure cold" is the look she's really after, either; the word perky" has also been floated. Kim is offering you the chance to look permanently turned on, by everything. You could be ambling along with nothing on your mind but a knotty Wordle and half a to-do list, and thanks to the Skims perky bra, sprinkle random erotic charge all over everything. Would this make your day better, or worse? Hard to say, but definitely different.I resisted Kardashian discourse all the way through the butt years, as I felt that people were loading her with beliefs and agendas she hadn't necessarily signed up to. All she did was appear on the cover of Romanian Playboy in 2010, with the headline Poezia Unui Fund Bombat (the poetry of a bulging ass). I doubt she wrote the words herself, or made any great claims for the poetry of any of her body parts. She was lauded for tearing down the expectations of what a bottom was supposed to look like, then later, in the inevitable backlash, Time magazine said, Kim Kardashian's ass is nothing but an empty promise" - which I guess made sense, if you thought its promise was to smash the patriarchy. It did make me wonder what an ass delivering on a promise would have looked like. And whether, in fact, if you think too hard about the sociocultural implications of any celebrity's butt, you will end up disappointed, and maybe that's something for you to deal with on your own.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
The 2027 showpiece will not break new ground so making the US a rugby hotbed in 2031 is now an unlikely missionNothing ever stands still in international sport. In just over 13 weeks the next Six Nations championship will be kicking off and the global rugby circus is already moving on. The 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia might seem a far distant prospect in every sense but it will come charging over the hill quicker than expected.So even as Paris's hoteliers and bar owners count their profits (if anyone in Guardian accounts is reading this, we've kept all our mineral water receipts), now is the time for thinking and planning ahead. And, as ever, wondering how the World Cup experience might be improved in future, rather than simply cutting and pasting from previous brochures. Continue reading...
Steve Bannon, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Lindell, who pushed false claims about the 2020 election, face six- and seven-figure billsA trio of top Donald Trump allies who have racked up huge legal expenses to defend themselves from either criminal charges, convictions or defamation lawsuits have lost key lawyers for failing to pay six- and seven-figure bills in a sign of the huge legal problems they face.The hefty legal bills of ex-Trump advisor Steve Bannon, former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, underscore the scale of the criminal and civil charges that ensnare them. Continue reading...
Hamas reports clashes with IDF in north and south Gaza as leader of main UN agency in Palestine accuses Israel of collective punishment'. Plus, how to build a life full of joy and meaning when you're child-freeGood morning.Israeli ground forces have attacked Hamas positions and infrastructure in northern Gaza, after the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, categorically ruled out a ceasefire as a surrender".What is a human shield and how has Hamas been accused of using them? The international criminal court defines the war crime of using human shields as utilising the presence of a civilian or other protected person to render certain points, areas or military forces immune from military operations". Here's an explainer on how Israel says Hamas uses them and what Hamas says.Have war crimes been committed in Israel and Gaza and what international laws apply? The United Nations has said there is already clear evidence that war crimes may have been committed" by Hamas and the Israeli military since 7 October and that it is gathering evidence for potential prosecutions. Here's what we know.What are carbon bombs? The carbon bombs, which were first identified in an academic database by the Guardian and partners last year, are the single biggest sources of fuels that release planet-heating gas when burned. Data for Good and Eclaircies, two French non-profits, and several European media outlets have now used publicly available data to map out the companies that operate the carbon bombs and the banks that finance them. Continue reading...
The problem began with dubious or insufficient sourcing and reports being accepted as the truth, which were then exaggerated on social mediaAs if the atrocities in the Middle East over the past month weren't terrible enough, the mainstream press has managed to make matters worse.Too often, false or unconfirmed reporting circulated widely, including on some of the biggest, most prestigious platforms in the world.Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...
by Carter Sherman in Charlottesville, Virginia on (#6G0BA)
Virginia is the only southern state that hasn't restricted abortion post-Roe. Is that about to change?By the time Chasity Dunans learned about her pregnancy, she had already lost the right to end it.She had gotten her period in July, but towards the end of the month the 23-year-old mother of one started to have heartburn and wrenching stomach pains. She told herself: you're not pregnant, you're just sick. When the pain didn't stop, she gave in and saw a doctor. Continue reading...
The sport now known as artistic swimming has always been a female-only sport at the Olympics. That will change at Paris 2024It is common for an athlete's journey to the Olympics to be long, uncertain, and littered with obstacles. And yet, even within the Games' tradition of underdog tales, Bill May's story stands out. This is because May, who is now 44, spent most of his life unsure whether he would ever be eligible for the Olympics.May is a male artistic swimmer, something that has prevented him from participating on his sport's grandest stages. Since its debut at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, only women have been permitted to compete in artistic swimming (which was known as synchronized swimming' before being controversially renamed in 2017). Now, 40 years later, that restriction is loosening. Per a 2022 decision by the sport's global governing body, nations competing in artistic swimming's team event at next year's Paris Olympics can (but aren't required to) include up to two men on their eight-person squads.The artistic swimming portions of the Pan-American Games start on 31 October through to 3 November. Continue reading...
Well-known MP Sahra Wagenknecht has announced plans for a new party that could shift the fragile balance of German politicsSahra Wagenknecht is a 54-year-old politician who, until recently, was a member of the struggling leftwing party Die Linke. She is also a household name in Germany. A figure with undeniable charisma, she's a stalwart on television talkshows, where her ability to present sometimes radical opinions as though they were common sense makes for lively discussions and entertaining viewing. Now, with the launch of her own party - named after herself - Germans may soon get the chance to vote for her too. Does she stand a chance - and what does the fanfare about the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) tell us about the direction of German politics?In part, at least, people pay attention to Wagenknecht because she's long had a penchant for radical positions. When she first came of political age, even Die Linke was concerned that she was a Stalin apologist. But Wagenknecht's politics have changed with age. Her communism has been tempered by some expressions of admiration for the free market. She's also become increasingly critical of immigration, Germany's Covid-19 policies, sanctions on Russia, climate protesters and lifestyle leftists", as Wagenknecht dubs many advocates for racial and gender equality. Unsurprisingly, Die Linke hardly seems sorry to see her go: It's like with the grandmother who has cancer," Dietmar Bartsch, co-chair of the party's parliamentary committee, told Der Tagesspiegel. You know she's going to die, but you're still sad when the time comes."Peter Kuras is a writer and translator based in Berlin Continue reading...
Former assistant Graham Robinson sues for $12m in reputational harm and says actor would yell at her and make sexist remarksRobert De Niro testified Monday in New York City at a trial resulting from a former personal assistant's lawsuit accusing the actor of being an abusive boss. De Niro, who at times appeared grouchy, restrained himself from erupting at the dissection of his interactions with her before finally blurting out: This is all nonsense!"The two-time Oscar-winning actor known for his performances in blockbuster movies like The Deer Hunter" and Raging Bull" was the first witness in a trial resulting from lawsuits over the employment of Graham Chase Robinson. Robinson, who worked for De Niro between 2008 and 2019, was paid $300,000 annually before she quit as his vice-president of production and finance. Continue reading...
One of the first policy actions under the new speaker Mike Johnson is a partisan bill despite Joe Biden's request for $106bn in joint aidRepublicans in the US House of Representatives on Monday introduced a plan to provide $14.3bn in aid to Israel by cutting funding for the Internal Revenue Service, setting up a showdown with Democrats who control the Senate.In one of the first major policy actions under new House speaker Mike Johnson, House Republicans unveiled a standalone supplemental spending bill only for Israel, despite Joe Biden's request for a $106bn package that would include aid for Israel, Ukraine and border security. Continue reading...
Colorado authorities say heavily armed 20-year-old found dead at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park during closing hoursA heavily armed man killed himself rather than carrying out an apparent plan to shoot up a mountaintop amusement park in Colorado, authorities said Monday.The 20-year-old man was found dead at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park on Saturday morning before it opened to the public, apparently breaking into the park while it was closed. He was armed with an AR-style rifle, a handgun and explosives and was wearing body armor and tactical clothing, authorities said. Continue reading...
by Blake Montgomery and Victoria Bekiempis in New Yor on (#6FZHM)
Disgraced former CEO of crypto exchange FTX admits to disparaging regulators on third day of testimonySam Bankman-Fried testified in his own blockbuster crypto trial again Monday, with prosecutors grilling the one-time crypto mogul about the many discrepancies between his public and private claims about crypto-exchange FTX.Bankman-Fried appeared to have had a haircut over the weekend, just in time for prosecutors to start their cross examination and question whether his famously unkempt hair was part of a deliberate, anti-style tech genius" persona. Continue reading...
Six-week strike against three largest US carmakers appears to be coming to an end after union brokers agreementThe United Auto Workers' six-week strike against the US's three largest automakers appeared to be coming to an end on Monday as the union brokered a deal with General Motors.The agreement follows on the heels of deals with Ford and Stellantis, brokered in the past few days, effectively ending the first simultaneous strike against the three Detroit automakers. Continue reading...
First of two cases that argue Trump should be removed under civil war-era insurrection' provision of 14th amendmentA multi-pronged effort to keep Donald Trump off the 2024 presidential ballot as an insurrectionist resumes in earnest, beginning with a court case in Colorado on Monday, the first of two states that will hear legal arguments this week.Those seeking to have the former president ruled ineligible are relying on a civil war-era provision of the 14th amendment to the US constitution that states no person can hold public office if they have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof".Associated Press contributed reporting Continue reading...
by Chris Stein (now) and Maya Yang (earlier) on (#6FZEN)
The UAW reached a tentative agreement with GM earlier today, the last of the three companies targeted in the strikeMeanwhile, in Colorado, a lawyer for Donald Trump argued that efforts to remove him from the ballot rely on a faulty interpretation of the word insurrection".See his reasoning here: Continue reading...
Letter from education department presses for schools to train students and faculty in how to administer medicationThe White House is urging all schools to carry the emergency overdose reversal drug naloxone and train students and faculty on how to administer it.A letter from the US education department and the White House's national drug control policy office, first obtained by Axios, urged schools to focus on measures to prevent youth drug use and ensure that every school has naloxone and has prepared its students and faculty to use it. Continue reading...
Vacationers are increasingly looking for short-term rentals that may be haunted on online platforms like Airbnb and VRBOAdrienne Parks and her husband, Bill Bowman, moved into their New Orleans Queen Anne-style Victorian house on Halloween in 2005. But it had a long history before them. Built as a single-family home in 1884, the 5,500-sq-ft structure became a boarding house in the 20th century before falling into disrepair. In the 1980s, a couple purchased it and decided to restore the building to its original glory, ripping out sheet rock and tearing out the drop ceilings. Years later, the property found its way to Parks and Bowman.Not long after moving in, Parks took a walking tour of her neighborhood, which happened to be led by one of the home's previous owners. They made a stop at the house. Continue reading...
The 90s were a decade of carefree optimism and comically low stakes. Matthew Perry's death brings us crashing back into the nowIn 2004, the author Damian Barr published Get It Together: Surviving Your Quartlerlife Crisis. Barr would go on to write poignant and beautiful books (including the memoir Maggie and Me) but this wasn't either of those things. It was more of a fun, generational howl: how's this stuff supposed to work? How are you supposed to become an adult in these conditions? The dream of life in your 20s - flailing around not sure what to do, mooching from one dead-end job to another but still managing to afford a gigantic, lovely flat in the centre of everything, failing romantically, hilariously, while it all turns out for the best, never feeling anxious for no reason or as if you're slipping through the sieve of polite society, too small and weightless to remain in the in-crowd - well, that dream was cracking a little. As Barr put it in a radio interview, the question, essentially, was this: what if Friends, which by then was in its 10th and final season, wasn't very true to life?Definitely, the economic winds were changing: wages in the UK started to stagnate in 2003; in the US, graduate wages had been falling since 2000, and health cover cut for young employees, both graduate and not, since 2002. All of this, plus climbing student debt, was dwarfed by the 2007-2008 financial crash, after which everyone got much poorer, much faster. But the casual 90s elision between young" and carefree" was already not true by the mid-00s.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Campus police sent to university center after series of antisemitic comments were posted to online message boardA Jewish student center at Cornell University is under guard after several online threats were made against students, as the White House warns of a rise in antisemitic hate across the nation.On Sunday, campus police at the university's location in Ithaca were sent to guard Cornell's Center for Jewish Living after a series of antisemitic comments were posted to an online message board, the university's newspaper first reported. Continue reading...
The IDF's strategy within Gaza is becoming more targeted than expected, suggesting Netanyahu is responding to US pressureThe Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, declared over the weekend that Israel had embarked on the second stage" of its war against Hamas in Gaza. What did he mean - and is the Israeli government any closer to its objective of wiping out" Hamas?While the desire to destroy Hamas is still present, I believe that the goalposts have moved. A combination of American pressure and an Israeli recognition of the operational complexity of a fully fledged ground invasion has pushed the government to narrow its set of objectives, perhaps making them more achievable.Bilal Y Saab is an associate fellow with Chatham House and senior fellow and director of the Defence and Security Programme at the Middle East InstituteDo 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...
Joseph Czuba charged with murder, attempted murder and hate crime in death of Wadea Al-Fayoume and wounding of his motherA man accused of murder, attempted murder and a hate crime in an attack on a Palestinian American boy and his mother pleaded not guilty on Monday following his indictment by an Illinois grand jury.Joseph Czuba, 71, is charged in the fatal stabbing of six-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume and the wounding of his mother Hanaan Shahin on 14 October. Authorities said the victims were targeted because of their Muslim faith. Continue reading...
Eighteen people killed and 13 injured in attack in Lewiston on Wednesday, as investigators search for precise motive for shootingResidents of Lewiston return to work on Monday, the morning after coming together to mourn those lost in Maine's worst mass shooting.They gathered on Sunday evening, hugging one another, singing a rousing rendition of Amazing Grace, and seeking guidance out of these dark days from leaders who talked of hope, healing and the power of prayer. Continue reading...
With hundreds of thousands of people unhoused, government red tape prevents properties from going to housing non-profitsThe US does not have enough housing for unhoused people or for migrants. Yet each year the federal government, the nation's largest single owner of real estate, identifies dozens of empty buildings it owns that can be made available to help with the problem. Few end up housing or helping those in need.Why isn't the government tapping into this reserve to help fix some of the most pressing social issues of our time? Continue reading...
Major poll shows Trump 27 points ahead before first Republican primary vote but Haley climbs to 16% alongside Ron DeSantisDonald Trump maintained his huge lead in the crucial early voting state of Iowa in a major new poll by NBC News and the Des Moines Register but Nikki Haley is now emerging as his closest challenger.The former US president has a 27-point lead in Iowa three months before the first vote of the Republican primary as he attracted 43% support. But Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, climbed 10 points to 16%, sharing second place with Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor whose campaign has long been seen to be stalling. Continue reading...
No one should be squeamish about a state such as Qatar acting as a broker and bringing Hamas to the tableThe BBC reporter was aggressive. How could Qatar possibly play host to representatives of Hamas during the present Israel/Gaza conflict? The Qatari official patiently explained that his country had long acted as an intermediary. It organised prisoner swaps, humanitarian aid and peace initiatives. It negotiated the recent Israeli and US hostage returns. It had mediated conflicts in Afghanistan, Chad, Libya and Sudan. The BBC's challenge might have been, why were these mediations often unsuccessful? But no: the implication was that they were improper.If there is now to be a way out of the Israel/Gaza conflict, it will need intermediaries, as these wars almost always do. This year is the 50th anniversary of the Paris accords that ended the Vietnam war. It is the 30th of the Oslo accords that achieved peace, for a while, between Israel and Palestine through Norwegian auspices.Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
These hampers full of useless clutter are destined for landfill - they have nothing to do with the true spirit of the seasonHow can you tell if a husband loves his wife? In the month of October in the year of 2023, the answer seems to be: he got her a boo basket". Popularised via a TikTok hashtag with almost 400m views, a boo basket is a collection of Halloween treats stored inside an oversized hamper. There are sweets and chocolate in there, naturally, but there are also mugs, candles, teddy bears and ornaments themed around the spooky season. This is what to get your wife in a boo basket, and yes, you do want to get her a boo basket," says a creator in a video with 2m views. Girls, send this to your husband." Another video with almost 16m views is captioned: If your boyfriend hasn't made you a boo basket yet he doesn't love you."Whatever the Halloween Scrooges (boo-ges?) might say, Halloween didn't originate as a cynical, commercialised American import. Europeans have been celebrating it since the middle ages and trick or treating is itself medieval (especially if your neighbour gives you a box of raisins). It's not that we don't have a long tradition of spooky celebrations here in the UK - it's just that we once used to carve faces on turnips, but now have Marks & Spencer selling us 20 glass pumpkins. This year, Halloween spending in the UK is expected to surpass 1bn for the first time. Two decades ago, we only spent 12m. Continue reading...
The activist Elaine Brown, former chair of the party, is leading an $80m affordable housing project in West OaklandIn the early hours of 28 October 1967, the co-founder of the Black Panther Party, Huey Newton, was pulled over by police as he was driving along Seventh Street in West Oakland, California. A scuffle ensued and shots rang out, puncturing Newton's abdomen, killing a police officer, John Frey, and wounding another.All bullets found at the scene were police-issued, yet Newton was arrested as he was being treated for gunshot wounds in hospital, and sent to jail. His prosecution and 1968 trial sparked the Free Huey" protests that spread across the country, transforming the Panthers into a nationwide Black power organization demanding an end to police brutality, equality in housing and employment, and an economic revolution. Continue reading...
Records obtained by the Guardian show women in California prisons routinely report abuse, but few officers face consequences, even when there is substantial evidenceWomen incarcerated in California state prisons have filed hundreds of complaints of sexual abuse by staff since 2014. But in that time frame, only four officers have been terminated for sexual misconduct, according to data obtained by the Guardian. And only four guards have been confirmed to have faced criminal charges for their behavior.One of the guards who was prosecuted, Gregory Rodriguez, has been accused of assaulting and harassing at least 22 women at the Central California Women's Facility (CCWF). He retired while under investigation and is awaiting trial on nearly 100 charges. He has pleaded not guilty. Continue reading...
Military strikes include area near Al-Azhar University in Gaza City. Plus, Matthew Perry's troubled life and foreshadowed deathGood morning.Israeli troops backed by tanks have expanded their operations in Gaza amid reports of fierce air and artillery strikes in the enclave's north, as nearly 40 trucks entered through the territory's southern border yesterday.What do we know about the operations? Israel's self-declared second phase" of its three-week war against Hamas militants has largely been kept from public view, with forces moving under darkness and a telecommunications blackout cutting off Palestinians. Hamas said its Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades were engaged in heavy fighting ... with the invading occupation forces".What has Joe Biden said to Benjamin Netanyahu this weekend? In a call with the Israeli prime minister yesterday, Biden underscored the need to immediately and significantly increase the flow of humanitarian assistance to meet the needs of civilians in Gaza", the US said.What have the prosecutors said? The defendant has capitalized on the court's administrative stay to, among other prejudicial conduct, send an unmistakable and threatening message to a foreseeable witness in this case," they said in their brief. Unless the court lifts the administrative stay, the defendant will not stop."What did Trump say about Meadows? Prosecutors complained about Trump's post on Meadows that questioned the credibility of Meadows' testimony and suggested that anyone who testified against him under limited immunity from prosecution - such as Meadows - were weak or cowardly. Continue reading...
My late husband Rob was a heroin addict, but that does not define who he was. And nor should it for the Friends actorWhen I heard the news about Matthew Perry, there was a moment of quiet, of inner collapse, like the moment a souffle gives up on itself. I wasn't thinking about Friends, and without wanting to sound like an emotionless sociopath, it's rare for the death of a celebrity I don't know to prompt anything more in me than the sadness felt about the loss of any life.But I was thinking about his life viewed through the lens of addiction, and what he carried with him, and how it never left him. How his friends and family must have felt, having wanted the best life for him, having been caught in the maelstrom of chaos only to see his life snuffed out at the age of just 54. It is a feeling that only those who live with addiction themselves, or who love those who do, will know. Continue reading...
A country-hopping career is the worst of all worlds. Now, I view those laptop-on-the-beach snaps with knowing scepticismYou can't run away from your problems, so the old adage goes. Yet in March last year, boarding a one-way flight from London to Bogota, I gave it my best shot. I had just turned 30 and was feeling the societal pressure to settle down, like my coupled-up friends whose lives seemed to be bifurcating away from mine, and to progress in my career. But I wasn't ready.Two years earlier, I had left my office job to became a freelance writer, moved into a one-bed flat and split up with my long-term partner. Any one of these things might have been cause for celebration - each was a positive step for me - but the unexpected successive Covid lockdowns that followed rendered my new lifestyle lonely and stagnant, rather than exciting and opportunity-filled. And so, after the lost years of the pandemic, and with no dependants, I wanted to embrace the freedom I had failed to make the most of. Continue reading...
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