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Updated 2024-10-09 10:15
US looks isolated after opposing UN resolution on Gaza truce
Only 12 countries joined Washington and Israel as Jordan's motion was passed at the general assembly Israel and Hamas at war - live updatesThe US has ended up looking quite badly isolated after only 12 countries joined Washington and Israel at the UN general assembly in opposing a motion calling for a sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities.One hour after Israel had extended its offensive in Gaza, Jordan's motion was passed in New York by 120 votes to 14, with 45 countries abstaining. The outcome was remarkable for showing the limited direct support for the world's greatest superpower, with even France, Spain and the UK refusing to join the US in voting against the motion. Continue reading...
‘Trial within a trial’: Trump’s strategy on verge of imploding
The ex-president faces two trials that will set the tone for the messy ones ahead: his New York fraud trial, and an unofficial trial in the court of public opinionIn a scene that could have been pulled from a Hollywood courtroom thriller, Donald Trump was called to the witness box last week and accused of threatening a clerk of the court.The former president had already been fined for attacking the judge's clerk. Now he had done it again and the usually jocular Judge Arthur Engoron angrily threatened to lock Trump up. Why should there not be severe sanctions for this blatant, dangerous disobeyal of a clear court order?" asked Engoron. Continue reading...
Wembanyama makes tying basket in fourth to help deliver first Spurs win
The Joy of Six: outlandish crossover boxing fights | Alex Reid
Saturday's fight between Tyson Fury and former UFC champion Francis Ngannou is the latest bizarre boutPromoted as The War of the Worlds", Muhammad Ali taking on Japan's biggest pro-wrestling star Antonio Inoki was a contest that helped inspire modern mixed martial arts and ended with the world heavyweight champion in hospital. Unfortunately, the in-ring action was a total flop. Originally planned as a staged contest, Ali reportedly got cold feet beforehand about engaging in a fixed" fight and a baffling set of crossover rules were hastily cobbled together. Ali fought in boxing gloves, Inoki did not but was prohibited from grappling, throwing or kicking, unless he had one knee on the canvas. Wisely, Inoki chose to lie down, away from Ali's fists and land a series of leg kicks while the boxer tried to goad him into standing up. This lasted 15 interminable rounds. By the end Ali had blood clots in his swollen right leg, the bout was declared a draw and the crowd in Tokyo pelted the ring with rubbish while chanting money back!" There really was no winner here. Continue reading...
Please keep marching for Palestine – your protests are giving hope to the people of Gaza | Nowar Diab
Amid tragedy, the demonstrations in our name make us feel that we are heard, and our cries are not in vainAs I wake up this weekend, I will be in an unfamiliar place: sheltering with dozens of other people in a relative's home. Hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza find themselves in a similar position.My siblings and I have moved four times already since the war started three long weeks ago - first, from our home in the north of Gaza to go and stay with our grandparents because the airstrikes were too close. We had to move again after a few days because the bombing got closer still. Entire families were being wiped out every night. We were then told to move to the south. Yet when we did, we were attacked and bombed on the very road we were told to take to safety. It's fair to say that nowhere is really safe from the bombs. Not even the hospitals and schools.Nowar Diab is a student from Gaza City. She is part of the We Are Not Numbers collective, which works with young Gazans to help improve their English language skills and tell their stories to the world Continue reading...
Giorgia Meloni treasures Italy’s families – unless they include same-sex parents | Luisa Rizzitelli
The hard-right leader aims to cement traditional values by cracking down on LGBTQ+ rights. Is this really what Italians want?The family may be the cultural bedrock of Italian society, but an entirely conservative and patriarchal idea of family is what our current leaders and the country's most powerful institutions want to promote. Giorgia Meloni's words are always carefully chosen: a child needs a mum and a dad", there is only one type of family - the one formed by a man and a woman". Italy's first female prime minister, who leads a hard-right coalition, likes to invoke the slogan God, country and family"; she campaigned against what she calls the LGBT lobby", describes herself as a woman, a mother, a Christian" and opposes same-sex marriage. But her statements about parenthood are a deliberate punch in the gut to anyone whose family doesn't fit her narrow definition.Meloni rose to power with the support of some political moderates, who hoped that once in the job she would not actually challenge the gains that had been made by rights campaigners in recent years. These hopes were misguided.Luisa Rizzitelli is the Italy coordinator of One Billion Rising, which campaigns to end violence against women Continue reading...
Joe Biden and Xi Jinping meeting a step closer, says US
US president and senior aides meet with Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, after which White House says it is working towards' top-level talksThe US and China have agreed to work towards setting up a meeting between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping after the US president met with China's foreign minister on Friday.Biden has invited Xi to San Francisco in November for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit. The Chinese president has not yet confirmed he will come. Continue reading...
Adolis García’s walk-off homer draws first blood for Rangers in World Series
World Series Game 1: Arizona Diamondbacks 5-6 Texas Rangers (11 innings) – as it happened
Maine shooting: police lift shelter in place as search continues for suspected shooter - as it happened
Maine police diving team searches Androscoggin river with air support overhead
Maine shootings: ‘more and more concern’ as search for suspect goes on
Shelter in place order for the region rescinded almost 48 hours after the shooting even as ban on hunting continues onMaine authorities continued a massive manhunt on the second day of their intensive search for an army reservist accused of fatally shooting 18 people and wounding 13 at a bowling alley and a bar in the town of Lewiston.People scoured the woods and searched hundreds of acres of family-owned property. They event sent dive teams with sonar to the bottom of a local river and scrutinized a possible suicide note as they hunted for Robert Card who disappeared shortly after the massacre. Continue reading...
US appeals court tosses lawsuit over Texas migrant transportation restrictions
A three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based court found that immigration advocates lacked the legal authority to sue AbbottA US federal appeals court on Friday sided with Greg Abbott, the Texas governor, on technical grounds over a 2021 executive order that restricted transport of migrants through the state, saying a lower court should dismiss a related legal challenge.In a 2-1 split, a three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based fifth US circuit court of appeals found that immigration advocates lacked the legal authority to sue Abbott over the transportation prohibition. Continue reading...
‘It was terrifying’: Maine residents describe lockdown after shootings
With gunman still on the loose, police warned residents to shelter in place in their homes and businessesThe shootings in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday that killed 18 and wounded several others shook the country, becoming the deadliest mass shooting in the US this year.An immediate lockdown went into effect for residents of Lewiston as the shooter, who had just murdered nearly two dozen people in a bowling alley and restaurant, was - and still is - on the loose. Schools were closed and stores and businesses were shuttered. Continue reading...
Judge orders Ivanka Trump to testify in family’s civil fraud trial - as it happened
This live blog is now closed. For our latest reporting on Ivanka Trump testifying, you can read our latest report:
Colombian ex-army officer gets life in prison for killing of Haiti president Jovenel Moïse
Retired army officer German Alejandro Rivera Garcia, 45, is second of 11 suspects detained and charged in MiamiA retired Colombian army officer has been sentenced to life in prison for his role in the 2021 assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moise, which caused unprecedented turmoil in the Caribbean nation.German Alejandro Rivera Garcia, 45, is the second of 11 suspects detained and charged in Miami to be sentenced in what US prosecutors have described as a conspiracy hatched in both Haiti and Florida to hire mercenaries to kidnap or kill Moise, who was slain at his private home near the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince on 7 July 2021. Continue reading...
Maine representative reverses opposition to assault rifle bans following shooting
Democrat Jared Golden says the time has come for me to take responsibility for this failure' after shooter killed 18 people in stateUS House representative Jared Golden, of Maine's second district, has made a stunning reversal of his opposition to efforts to ban assault rifles in the wake of the mass shooting in a bowling alley and restaurant in Lewiston on Wednesday night, which killed 18.In 2022, Golden was among the few Democrats to vote against a bill in Congress that would have banned the sale of assault weapons to the American public for the first time since 2004. Joe Biden has repeatedly sought such a ban and, on Thursday, a day after the worst such massacre in his state's history, Golden joined the US president's call. Continue reading...
New House speaker Mike Johnson praised ‘18th-century values’ in speech
Louisiana congressman told audience at 2013 anti-abortion event Americans should live by 250-year-old religious and moral valuesBefore entering elected office, Mike Johnson, the new Republican speaker of the US House, praised 18th-century values" and told an audience that Americans should live by them when it came to morality and religion.In video footage of a forum hosted in 2013 by Louisiana Right to Life, an anti-abortion group, Johnson, a devout Baptist and then an attorney for rightwing groups and causes, is asked about the condition of conscience" in Europe and Canada regarding abortion policy. Continue reading...
George Santos pleads not guilty to new fraud charges
Republican accused of making tens of thousands of dollars in unauthorized charges on credit cards belonging to campaign donorsUS congressman George Santos pleaded not guilty on Friday to revised charges accusing him of several frauds, including making tens of thousands of dollars in unauthorized charges on credit cards belonging to some of his campaign donors.The New York Republican appeared at a courthouse on Long Island to enter a plea to the new allegations. He had already pleaded not guilty to other charges, first filed in May, accusing him of lying to Congress about his wealth, applying for and receiving unemployment benefits, even though he had a job, and using campaign contributions to pay for personal expenses like designer clothing. Continue reading...
The tragedy of the Israel-Palestine conflict is that it’s a clash of right v right | Jonathan Freedland
This isn't a contest of heroes and villains - but two peoples in deep pain, fated to share the same landThis is not a football match. Though the way some spectators behave, watching from afar, you could be forgiven for making that mistake. At Wednesday's game against Atletico Madrid, Celtic supporters defied a Uefa ban on political symbols by flying the Palestinian flag, expressing a long-established solidarity that has become part of the club's identity. So strong is the allegiance to their chosen side - their team - that at a home game on the afternoon of 7 October, hours after the men of Hamas had begun their massacre of civilians in southern Israel, and while the torture and murder of families in their homes was still under way, a group of Celtic fans unfurled a banner. It read: Victory to the resistance!!"The club is trying to manage the situation, but it won't be easy. Not least because this is a phenomenon that goes far beyond Celtic Park. Many millions around the world watch the Israel-Palestine conflict in the same way: as a binary contest in which you can root for only one team, and where any losses suffered by your opponent - your enemy - feel like a win.Jonathan Freedland 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...
Maine official ‘more and more concerned’ as hunt for shootings suspect continues – video
Maine's public safety department said authorities were 'continuing to do searches at the Just-In-Time bowling alley and the Schemengees bar where the shootings took place, 18 people were killed while 13 more were injured on Wednesday.In a press briefing on Friday morning, Maine's public safety commissioner, Mike Sauschuck, said it would also be 'putting divers in the water along the Androscoggin River'.Law enforcement officials have instructed Maine residents to continue sheltering in place as the hunt for the Lewiston shooting suspect, 40-year-old Robert Card, stretches across the region
Democratic congressman Dean Phillips launches primary challenge against Biden
Decision by little known Minnesota representative has led to criticism from many of his colleaguesThe little-known Democratic congressman Dean Phillips has launched a campaign to challenge sitting President Joe Biden, leaving many of his supporters and colleagues confused, if not outright upset.After weeks of speculation and behind-the-scenes manoeuvreing, Phillips finally publicly announced he's running in an interview on CBS. Continue reading...
Ron DeSantis’s claim he sent military equipment to Israel unravels
Florida governor receives pushback for falsely declaring he worked with Israel's consul general in Miami to send weaponsRon DeSantis is receiving pushback from Israeli diplomats, Florida Democrats and the White House after he falsely claimed credit for a gun-running operation to assist Israel's military operations in Gaza.The Florida governor and 2024 presidential hopeful declared on Thursday that he had worked with Israel's consul general in Miami to send military equipment, including drones, body armor and helmets. Continue reading...
Why are so many of Trump’s supposed loyalists flipping on him? | Moira Donegan
A number of Trump's lackeys and consiglieres have been swept up in criminal prosecutions. And most are falling like dominoesIt happened the way Ernest Hemingway, in The Sun Also Rises, described going bankrupt: Gradually, then suddenly." Last month in Georgia, Scott Graham Hall, an obscure bail bondsman and Trump supporter, took a plea. Hall had been indicted in Fulton county prosecutor Fani Willis's Georgia election fraud case on charges of helping Trump surrogates steal election data from voting machines in rural Coffee country. Hall bargained his felony conspiracy and racketeering charges down to misdemeanors, for which he would pay nominal fees and serve no jail time. To many of his 18 co-defendants in the Georgia case, it must have looked like an appealing deal.Hall was a small fish in the Georgia scheme, just a minor player in what Willis had charged as a sprawling conspiracy. But the bizarre excursion to Coffee county that he had agreed to testify about was central to the charges against a much bigger fish: Sidney Powell, a Trump lawyer who pursued the most bizarre and brazen of the president's post-election lies. Last week, she flipped too. Powell, who was facing multiple felonies, accepted probation and restitution fees in place of jail time - conditioned, of course, on her willingness to testify against her co-defendants. Continue reading...
‘Ha, ha, ha’: Mitt Romney laughs off Trump’s ‘total loser’ attack
Utah senator calls former president a whack job' after Trump called book much like him - boring, horrible and predictable'Confronted with Donald Trump's abuse, the Utah senator and former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said: Ha, ha, ha. He's such a whack job."Romney's view of the former president and current Republican presidential frontrunner was communicated to McKay Coppins, author of a new biography, Romney: A Reckoning, written in co-operation with its subject. Continue reading...
‘This kind of thing doesn’t happen here’: Maine community reels as search for suspect continues
Police still looking for suspected gunman who killed 18 people, with no sign of his whereabouts - or even if he is dead or aliveHomes and businesses in Lewiston and surrounding counties in Maine have closed their doors and the streets are almost devoid of people. It is an eerie and surreal scene as the hunt for the suspected gunman who killed 18 people continues with no sign of his current whereabouts - or even if he is dead or alive.A sense of dread pervades the area and comes as various shelter-in-place orders remain in effect. Law enforcement patrol in armored vehicles, helicopters and drones buzz in the sky. The Coast Guard has searched the Kennebec River. And all in pursuit of 40-year-old Robert Card, named Thursday as murder suspect in eight of the killings with a further ten charges sure to follow. Continue reading...
Rich countries should stop pushing fossil fuels on Africa – don’t we deserve a renewable future too? | Vanessa Nakate
Rather than racing to extract natural gas, those who caused the climate crisis should help Africa harness its wind and sun
‘Go pick up a Bible’: Speaker Mike Johnson defends anti-LGBTQ+ views
Republican House speaker, who has advanced extreme views as attorney and legislator, says I am a Bible-believing Christian'Questioned about comments and actions deemed by many to be homophobic, the new Republican US House speaker, Mike Johnson of Louisiana, told Fox News his worldview was: Go pick up a Bible."Speaking on Thursday, Johnson said he genuinely love[d] all people regardless of their lifestyle choices. Continue reading...
Dear Mr Speaker, what are we to do about the honourable gentlemen for Sexpest North? | Marina Hyde
Crispin Blunt has denied claims against him, but why are we always asked to think of the fallout for the PM, not the alleged victims?Another week, another arrest on suspicion of sexual assault for a member of parliament - Britain's grimmest workplace. Even the nightclub bouncer community has been arrested fewer times this year. This week it's Reigate MP Crispin Blunt, who resembles an off-brand Terence Stamp, and was interviewed by Surrey police for the second time this month over allegations of rape and possession of controlled substances. He denies the allegations.With the supremely practised efficiency of an F1 pit crew, the Conservative party is once again rolling out the suspected-scumbag protocol. Blunt has had the whip withdrawn - a piece of arcane styling that always makes it sound like the person in question has merely breached some in-group etiquette - and been told to stay away from the parliamentary estate, which is physically crumbling but otherwise increasingly feels like a fine example of a bail hostel in the gothic style.Marina Hyde 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...
Hunt for Maine shootings suspect enters second day – video report
The search for a US army reservist suspected of carrying out a mass shooting in the US state of Maine has entered its second day after officials executed search warrants in the town where he lived. Robert Card, 40, is suspected of killing 18 people and wounding 13 others in shootings at a bar and a bowling alley in Lewiston. On Thursday, police surrounded a rural home owned by Card's family in neighbouring Bowdoin for more than two hours, with an FBI agent issuing orders to 'come out with your hands up', but apparently nobody was inside
US launches airstrikes in Syria tied to Iran-backed fighters | First Thing
Airstrikes on two locations in eastern Syria signal a new willingness in Washington to engage directly in the Middle East crisis. Plus: the search continues for the Maine gunman
The music site Bandcamp is beloved and unique. I shudder at its corporate takeover | Tom Hawking
The prospect of something so valuable becoming just another strip-mined corporate wreck inspires genuine griefIt's hard to overstate how genuinely beloved the music retailer Bandcamp was by music fans before this week. The site was a place where music was valued for its ambition and artistic merit, not its commercial potential; a place where artists could sell directly to fans with minimal overhead (and, on Fridays since the beginning of the pandemic, none at all); and home to a thriving editorial department, whose contributors wrote from a place of passion and knowledge about the music they loved. The site represented some measure of hope for musicians looking to realize any sort of value for their work, given the pittance that streaming sites pay: setting aside payment processing fees, every dollar realized from a Bandcamp Friday sale represents 31,250 average Spotify streams.All that went up in flames with the news that Bandcamp's parent company - Epic Games, which only acquired Bandcamp in May this year, a sale that itself raised concerns for the site's future - was selling the company. The purchaser was something called Songtradr, which issued a statement announcing that 50% of Bandcamp employees have accepted offers to join Songtradr". (As Bandcamp editorial contributor Marc Masters noted drily, this is quite a way to say you laid off half your staff".)Tom Hawking is a Melbourne-born writer based in New York City whose work examines the intersections of politics and culture Continue reading...
Maine shooting: could red flag laws have prevented the violence?
The state does not allow police to remove guns temporarily from people whose behavior may be a riskAs the fallout deepens from the catastrophic mass shootings in Lewiston, Maine, that left at least 18 people dead and many wounded, questions are being asked about how an army reservist who had threatened violence and was kept under observation this summer for erratic behavior was allowed to be in possession of a deadly semi-automatic rifle.Robert Card, 40, remained on the run on Thursday amid a massive manhunt. He was named as the suspect in the double shooting on Wednesday evening at a bowling alley and bar in Lewiston, a town of 40,000 people. Continue reading...
Some of Trump’s closest allies have yet to be offered plea deals in Georgia case
Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman among those who may have to go to trial, people close to the matter saySome of Donald Trump's top co-defendants charged with conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia have not yet been offered plea deals since they were indicted, people close to the matter said, raising the stakes and fueling expectation that they will go to trial.The co-defendants without offers include the former US president himself, former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, and former Trump lawyers John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani, the people said - individuals who played leading roles in the alleged conspiracies. Continue reading...
Republicans have ruled Wisconsin for a decade – but a court decision could change that
Republicans' legislative majorities are virtually impenetrable thanks to district lines - but that could change if the current maps are overturnedLynn Carey, a retired nurse with a double lung transplant, has spent years trying to get Wisconsin lawmakers to improve healthcare. Carey organized voters in support of the Affordable Care Act back in 2009. Since its passage, she has pushed to get her Republican representatives in the state legislature to expand Medicaid coverage to its poorest residents.The idea has been overwhelmingly popular in Wisconsin: a 2019 poll showed 70% of voters in the state supported it. But Medicaid expansion hasn't gone anywhere - even after Democrats won back Wisconsin's governorship in 2018. Continue reading...
World Series 2023: Diamondbacks meet Rangers in matchup no one expected
The 119th World Series begins on Friday night as Arizona and Texas meet for baseball's biggest prize in a matchup that would have seemed all but impossible six weeks agoIf you wanted to place a bet in early September that the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks would be the contestants in World Series, you could have gotten fantastic odds. On 8 September, Arizona's chance to reach the postseason - not even the World Series, just the playoffs - was 46.2%, according to FanGraphs. Texas's chance was a lowly 38.6%. The D-Backs had cooled considerably after a hot start and looked to be circling the drain in the National League wildcard race. The Rangers, in a matter of days, would lose prized trade deadline acquisition Max Scherzer to the injured list with a strained shoulder, and he would not return until October. Both clubs were Fall Classic afterthoughts, expected to miss the postseason or exit early.How drastically things have changed. The Rangers and Diamondbacks will indeed play for baseball's ultimate prize after their parallel tracks took wild turns for the better in October. Both teams swept their wildcard series two games to none, then beat 100-win juggernauts in a three-game division series sweeps. Both went down three games to two in their respective league championship series, and both won their final two games on the road, to punch their World Series tickets. The Rangers dispatched their in-state rival Houston Astros; the Diamondbacks shocked the Philadelphia Phillies. And so when the World Series begins on Friday night in Arlington, Texas, the teams with a chance to win it will be a pair of underdogs who won 84 and 90 regular-season games, respectively. Continue reading...
'I ask for forgiveness': Maine lawmaker who opposed gun ban – video
After a gunman killed 18 people in Maine this week, the Democratic representative, Jared Golden, said he was changing his stance on gun legislation and would now support banning assault weapons. At a news conference in Lewiston, where the mass shooting occurred, Golden said he had previously opposed a ban on what he described as 'deadly weapons of war' out of fear for the lives of his family members. Announcing his new position, Golden said he would work with any colleague to achieve gun legislation during his time left in Congress
Ultrarunner Harvey Lewis reaches the end of Lazarus Lake’s endless backyard
Harvey Lewis, a 47-year-old Ohio ultramarathoner, won the last-man-standing Big Dog's Backyard Ultra race after running the approximate distance between San Francisco to LAThe pleasures of winning a world championship can sometimes be small, but immediate. The evidence is plain in the smile of ultrarunner Harvey Lewis at 6.59pm on Wednesday 25 October. Lewis has just won the 2023 Backyard Ultra World Championship, but what appears to be of greater immediate relief is that after 450 miles, and for the first time in 108 hours (four and a half days), Lewis will not have to run four and one sixth miles (6.7km) at the start of the next hour.Ultrarunners like Lewis compete in ultramarathons, or ultras. Any footrace longer than a traditional marathon (26.2 miles, or 42.2 km) is considered an ultra, although within that designation there exist multitudes - in New York City alone, ultras can range from pop culture-themed 28-mile events to epic journeys thousands of miles in length. Continue reading...
Are the Gulf states overtaking Las Vegas as the world’s fight capital?
As Las Vegas shifts its attention to more reputable sports frontiers, the Gulf states are ready to seize the opportunity and claim their place as the new epicenter of boxing and MMAThe glittering neon lights of Las Vegas have long symbolized the epicenter of fight sports.It is the place where an aging Muhammad Ali lost his splendor, where Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield's ear (twice), and where Floyd Mayweather showcased his decade of dominance. It is also the place where Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighters like Conor McGregor became household names. Continue reading...
Children on both sides are the silent victims of this war – why doesn’t international law protect them? | Gordon Brown
There is a growing admission that existing guidelines are inadequate, with no single body to adjudicate the gross violation of children's rightsChildren do not start wars or plan acts of terrorism, but too often they are their greatest victims, as the conflict engulfing Israel and Gaza so painfully demonstrates.This is a struggle fought out on a battlefield with no distinction between civilian and military theatres, and which is now taking place mostly in Gaza, where Hamas is embedded in towns and villages and where a million young people under 18 form nearly half the population. There are few wars in history in which children have constituted such a high proportion of the people most at risk. Continue reading...
Jean-Luc Mélenchon is a disaster for the French left – his response to the attack on Israel proves it | Alexander Hurst
He may be a gifted orator, but his rhetoric of rage and revolution is deepening divisions in France. It is time to dump himIf you want to know the deep values that drive someone, sometimes you have to look at who they admire, who they throw under the bus and who they refuse to unreservedly condemn. For the French far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon, it should by now be clear. After all, the head of the leftwing opposition alliance has been in politics for four decades, and a senator since 1986. He stood as a radical left alternative to Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen in the 2022 presidential elections and almost got through to the second round. But while Melenchon may have attracted many young voters to his campaign, he is no Bernie Sanders: his refusal to evolve from cold war-era reflexive anti-Americanism and his desire to pursue a revolutionary" brand of opposition have dragged the French left into unelectability and moral confusion.As late as 2019, long after Venezuela had ceased to be a democracy and had become, instead, Latin America's primary source of political and economic refugees, Melenchon was still publicly expressing admiration for the late Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro.Alexander Hurst is a Guardian columnist. He is a France-based writer and an adjunct lecturer at Sciences Po, the Paris Institute of Political Studies Continue reading...
If we’re forbidden from looking history in the eye during this horrific war, we’re doomed to repeat it | Gaby Hinsliff
Palestinians and Israelis are bound together in suffering. Seeking to untangle this, as the UN has, should not be seen as making excuses for HamasNever again. When the United Nations was originally founded from the ashes of the second world war, it was at least in part to give more solid meaning to those words. The first treaty it ever adopted, thanks to the efforts of a Polish Jew named Raphael Lemkin who had lost more than 40 members of his family in the Holocaust, was the convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide. From Rwanda to Srebrenica, the UN itself admits it hasn't always lived up to Lemkin's ideals. Its founding mission remains, however, to learn from history, not to repeat it. But whose history, exactly?This week Gilad Erdan, Israel's ambassador to the UN, furiously accused the organisation of becoming a stain on humanity" after its secretary general, Antonio Guterres, declared that while nothing could justify the 7 October massacre perpetrated by Hamas, the attacks did not happen in a vacuum". They had, Guterres said, followed 56 years of suffocating occupation" and vanishing hopes of a political solution to Palestinians' plight. History, in other words, matters; perhaps especially so in the Middle East, where some trace the roots of conflict back to the Bible, and every modern war unfolds in the psychological shadow of the last. Continue reading...
US strikes Iran-linked sites in Syria amid fears Israel-Hamas war could escalate
Defence secretary Lloyd Austin says strikes were in response to attacks on US troops, and warns others against action that would lead to broader regional conflict'
Josh Allen gets Buffalo Bills back on track with 24-18 win over Buccaneers
Morgan misses penalty as USA women held to draw by Colombia in friendly
Move over Messi: Why Luciano Acosto is MLS’ Most Valuable Player
In an MLS season dominated by Lionel Messi, another Argentinian midfielder is set to be named league MVPThe best player in Major League Soccer this season has been an Argentine, but not that Argentine. While 2023 will forever be remembered as the year Lionel Messi changed the American soccer landscape by joining Inter Miami, compatriot Luciano Acosta has shone brightest of all for the best team in the league.FC Cincinnati finished dead last in each of their first three seasons as an MLS franchise. Their improvement since then, however, has been dramatic. Acosta has been the central component around which Pat Noonan's Supporters' Shield-winning team revolves. His 17 goals and 10 assists are should earn the 29-year-old this year's MVP award. Continue reading...
Maine shootings: police surround farmhouse owned by suspect’s family in Bowdoin
Police say there's a chance' Robert Card is inside, while media wait across meadow with helicopters and drones flying overheadMass-shooting suspect Robert Card may be holed up in a family-owned farmhouse in Bowdoin, Maine, several miles from where he is alleged to have carried out a massacre on Wednesday evening.The FBI and Maine state police have been staking out the property since the afternoon without offering clarity on the situation. Continue reading...
First ever Florida Man Games to feature ‘evading arrest’ obstacle course
Sam Bankman-Fried testifies in his crypto fraud trial without jury present
The CEO of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX is charged with seven counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to launder moneySam Bankman-Fried did not make a scheduled appearance before the jury in his crypto fraud trial on Thursday, in a surprise decision that tamped the anticipation swirling around the high-profile case.The former FTX executive instead testified without the jury present, so that the judge overseeing the case, Lewis Kaplan, could first decide what portions of his testimony are admissible. Continue reading...
Maine suspect’s family reportedly working with law enforcement as massive manhunt under way – as it happened
At least 18 people were killed and 13 injured after a gunman opened fire in two locations in Lewiston, Maine. This blog is now closed; please read the following story for more information.
Robert E Lee statue that sparked Charlottesville riot is melted down: ‘Like his face was crying’
Brass from the statue of the Confederate general will be used for a public art installation in Virginia cityAt a foundry last weekend, with fire blazing and anti-racist activists watching, the statue of the Confederate general Robert E Lee that sparked the deadly 2017 Charlottesville white nationalist riot was cut into pieces and melted down to liquid brass.It felt like an execution," said Jalane Schmidt, co-founder of Charlottesville Black Lives Matter and a professor at the University of Virginia. Continue reading...
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