US news | The Guardian

There was no pause for pity as false narratives justifying murder took hold before the blood had driedAn old man sits amid the destruction on what's left of a wall and lets the tears stream from his eyes. He seems not to have the strength to dry them. Maybe he means never to dry them. A woman clutches her head, not knowing which way to turn. She has lost her children. There is no one near to help her find them. She won't find them. I don't know that for sure but my fears for her authorise me to say it. We are in a world emptied of good fortune, never mind God, where children aren't found and husbands and wives don't come back.I turn off the television. My wife is out with friends. Alone, at my weakest, I let my own tears flow. They are a Jew's tears but they are all I have.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

My heart is broken. But that so many white people finally saw and acknowledged our country's racism, is one of the few positives to emerge from this damaging processI'm not ashamed to say that I shed a tear when the referendum result was called.My heart is broken, and I'm profoundly disappointed and saddened. Continue reading...

Housing, workplace and some benefit reforms on the chopping block as centre-right National-led coalition forms governmentThe most common and cutting critique of Jacinda Ardern's Labour government was that it couldn't get anything done.Transport was the best cudgel for this attack. Ardern came to power promising a light rail line in Auckland that six years later nobody has started to build. Tens of millions were spent on planning a bridge across the city's harbour that ended up scrapped.Henry Cooke is a freelance journalist covering New Zealand politics Continue reading...

Leaders of the Tohono O'odham Nation say they may request congressional inquiry into Arizona state attorney's decisionNative American tribal leaders in Arizona are protesting a US attorney's decision not to prosecute federal border agents who shot dead an unarmed tribe member on their reservation in May.Raymond Mattia was killed when the agents responded to a call for help by tribal police of the Tohono O'odham Nation after they received reports of shots fired in the Menagers Dam community near the US-Mexico border. Continue reading...

At event in Iowa, governor conflates Palestinian civilians with Hamas, the terrorist group that attacked Israel a week agoRepublican presidential candidate and Florida governor Ron DeSantis has rejected accepting Palestinian refugees from Gaza to the US, speaking at a campaign rally in the US midwest on Saturday.We cannot accept people from Gaza into this country as refugees," he said. If you look how they behave ... not all of them are Hamas but they are all antisemitic, none of them believe in Israel's right to exist." Continue reading...

Director Christopher Wray cautioned police vigilance and encouraged police chiefs to continue sharing informationFBI director Christopher Wray has reiterated part of an FBI statement that the US domestic security agency does not have specific and credible intelligence indicating a threat to the United States stemming from the Hamas attacks in Israel".Speaking from prepared remarks at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in San Diego, Wray acknowledged an increase in domestic threats due to the heightened environment", calling for increased vigilance and requesting that police continue to share intelligence. Continue reading...

Growing up in the Palestinian enclave leaves the young numbed to the violence of their daily livesTwo decades ago the mother of nine-year-old Abdul Rahman Jadallah described to me how she twice lost her child. Once to a worship of death and then to death itself.Living in southern Gaza, the Palestinian boy had come to accept destruction and killing as normal, and to admire the men attacking Israel and what he saw as the heroic circumstances of their deaths. Continue reading...

The real losers of this election will be beneficiaries, low-income families, public servants and young people wanting to buy their first homeIt should have been a close vote, given last week's polls. But it seems money talks and sizeable donations to the National party, coupled with a mood for change, means we saw a very defeated Labour party on election night in New Zealand.Labour's poor showing was largely due to running a very meek and mild campaign until near the very end, and running scared of its own record in government. Chris Hipkins, the toppled prime minister, seems to have refused to run on Labour's legacy in combating Covid until the last minutes of the campaign - presumably because he did not want to be overshadowed by the legacy of his predecessor, Jacinda Ardern.Lamia Imam is a political commentator and a former Labour party staffer Continue reading...

I was held in a dark cell for two years for my journalism. The charges would help explain how the regime has avoided human rights responsibilityOn Friday, 22 September, as Washington geared up for the weekend, a storm erupted. The US attorney general released a 39-page indictment accusing Senator Bob Menendez, his wife Nadine, and three others of involvement in a bribery scheme. The charges allege that they allowed Egyptian officials to gain illegitimate access to key figures in US foreign policy. On Thursday, federal prosecutors in New York accused Menendez of conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government".Menendez is accused of using his influence as the Senate foreign relations committee chairman to favor Egypt, facilitating US military aid and advocating for issues like the Ethiopian Renaissance dam. He's also accused of pressuring officials to ignore anti-competitive practices by the firm ISEG Halal, the sole company authorized by Egypt to review American beef exporters, and of providing sensitive information about employees at the US embassy in Cairo that could endanger their lives. Continue reading...

With protests escalating and police departments on alert, assaults and harassment have been reportedJewish and Muslim Americans in cities all around the country are worried that escalating tensions between Israel and Palestine, which some are calling isolating and scary", will exacerbate hate crimes and harassment in the United States.For many Arab Americans in New York City, Bay Ridge was always a place of safety. The south Brooklyn neighborhood is 3 sq miles of Arabic bodega signs, halal grocers and a growing community of Palestinian, Yemeni, Syrian and Egyptian families. Continue reading...

The chaos in the House may have devastating outcomes for the people of Ukraine, some experts warnAs he excoriated Kevin McCarthy over his leadership of the House Republican conference last week, hard-right congressman Matt Gaetz accused the then speaker of cutting a secret side deal" with Joe Biden to provide additional funding to Ukraine amid its ongoing war against Russia.It is becoming increasingly clear who the speaker of the House already works for, and it's not the Republican conference," Gaetz, who represents a solidly Republican district in Florida, said in a floor speech at the time. Continue reading...

Israel and Gaza explode, Ukraine asks for more help and other predicaments demand US attention while Republicans quarrel among themselvesThe US's closest ally in the Middle East is reeling from what many call its 9/11" and now a humanitarian disaster looms in Gaza. Winter is approaching in Ukraine, which needs urgent supplies to maintain its counteroffensive against Russia. From China's expansive ambitions, to coups in Africa, to the climate crisis, the world is crying out for leadership.But on Capitol Hill in Washington, Republicans can't find one. Friday marked the 10th day of paralysis as the party struggles to elect a speaker of the House of Representatives to replace the ousted Kevin McCarthy. This after majority leader Steve Scalise won a closed-door vote but abandoned his run because he lacked enough support to win on the House floor. Continue reading...

I will not move. I will be killed in my house with my family,' one mother told me. Look to history and the omens are grim

I went to Kfar Aza kibbutz when it was an oasis of tranquillity. We stand with Israel as it defends itself, and hope for peaceKishinev. Babi Yar. Munich. The sites of Jewish massacres throughout history. Now there is another place that will for ever be associated with the slaughter of innocent Jews: Kfar Aza.Kibbutz Kfar Aza was home to about 800 people and was established in 1951 by Jewish refugees from Morocco and Egypt (where I was born and from which my family escaped in 1949). Like so many kibbutzim, its founders were idealists, living communally on a model with socialist foundations. Its name - literally meaning Gaza Village" - reflects its location, just over three miles from the city of Gaza.Margaret Hodge is MP for Barking and the parliamentary chair of the Jewish Labour MovementDo 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...

The peaceful, largely youthful demonstration saw marchers waving Palestinian flags and wearing keffiyehsCries of free Palestine" rang out in New York City on Friday, as thousands of protesters took to the streets to denounce Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip.Calling for an end to Israeli occupation" and for the liberation" of the Palestinian territories, protesters took up multiple blocks in a city that serves as a crossroads for religions and nationalities spanning the world. Continue reading...

Party still faces issue of how to reunite their fractious majority and prove to skeptical US public that they are capable of governingThe US House of Representatives will remain leaderless into a third week as Republicans continue to confront a familiar conundrum: how to unite their fractious majority and prove to a skeptical US public that they are a party capable of governing, not just funneling rightwing outrage and culture war rhetoric.More than a week after a cadre of discontented Republicans deposed their own speaker, Kevin McCarthy, the conference is still deeply divided over who should replace him with no one candidate seemingly able to garner enough support to end the squabbling. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed. House remains without speaker as Jordan only has a backing of 152 Republican membersGeorgia's Republican representative Austin Scott criticized certain Republicans whom he said like to go on the TV and are not necessarily negotiating for anything other than TV time."Speaking to CNN following yesterday's closed-door meetings, Scott, who is not supporting Jim Jordan, added, It makes us look like a bunch of idiots." Continue reading...

The Midway Market & Liquor in Frazier Park will get a cut for selling the winning ticket of the second-largest Powerball drawing everJanea Herrera, a clerk at a southern California convenience store, first thought it was a joke when she was told that a winning lottery ticket was sold at the store. And it wasn't just any ticket. It was the winning ticket for the $1.765bn Powerball, which someone had bought at the Midway Market & Liquor in Frazier Park, a small town north of Los Angeles.After 30 years of selling those tickets, we need a winner. I'm just happy for my customers," Nidal Khalil, the store's co-owner told the LA Times on Thursday. Khalil, 54, co-owns the shop with his brother and said they received congratulatory calls from across the state as well as from Syria, where they are from. Continue reading...

At least 22 Americans have died and 14 are missing - and officials are scrambling to determine whether the latter are still aliveAs US officials work to determine the whereabouts of 14 US citizens unaccounted for since last Saturday's deadly Hamas assault on Israel, US families of the dead or missing are describing their loss.At least 22 Americans are known to have died in last Saturday's attacks, and officials have said they are working to determine whether those missing have been killed or taken hostage. Continue reading...

Antoinette Frank, the only woman on Louisiana's death row, was convicted in the 1995 death of a fellow officer and two othersA New Orleans ex-police officer awaiting execution for the murders of a fellow officer and two other people during a 1995 restaurant robbery lost a chance at clemency Friday during a meeting of Louisiana's pardon board.Antoinette Frank's bid for a clemency hearing failed on a 2-2 vote after emotional testimony. Continue reading...

Congressman, endorsed by Trump and McCarthy, defeated surprise candidate Austin Scott, who had barely campaignedRepublicans in the US House of Representatives scrambled to find a new speaker on Friday as Congressman Jim Jordan won an internal vote but with a margin that suggests the disarray is far from over.Jordan, endorsed by former president Donald Trump and ex-speaker Kevin McCarthy, defeated a surprise candidate, Austin Scott of Georgia, who had barely campaigned. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Ashley Caswell, one of a growing number of jailed pregnant women in Etowah county, is suing officials after she was denied careIn March 2021, sheriffs in Etowah county, Alabama, arrested Ashley Caswell on accusations that she'd tested positive for methamphetamine while pregnant and was endangering" her fetus.Caswell, who was two months pregnant at the time, became one of a growing number of women imprisoned in the county in the name of protecting their unborn children". Continue reading...

Knox had been found guilty of defamation for wrongly accusing Patrick Lumumba of murdering Meredith KercherItaly's top court has ordered a retrial after Amanda Knox appealed for the dropping of the slander conviction she received for wrongly accusing a bar owner of murdering the British student Meredith Kercher.Knox, an American who, along with her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, spent four years in prison after initially being convicted of the murder, made the request on the basis of a ruling by the European court of human rights in 2019 that found that her defence rights had been violated during police questioning in 2007. Continue reading...

Former president praises Biden for standing with Israel and says Netanyahu has got to do what he's got to do' after Hamas attacksThe US must support Israel no ands, ifs or buts", the former US president George W Bush said as he advocated for tough action in response to violence by Hamas which many observers have likened to the 9/11 attacks on US soil, after which Bush led his country and much of the Middle East into 20 years of war that cost millions of lives.In an interview with the historian Mark Updegrove, reported by Axios, the 43rd president, now 77, was asked for his thoughts on the attacks that have killed more than 1,100, prompting Israeli air strikes that have killed more than 1,500 in Gaza amid expectations of a ground invasion, with more than 100 Israeli hostages taken. Continue reading...

The autoworker union president, Shawn Fain, says the stand-up' strike will intensify unless the big three car companies pony up'United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain threatened to escalate the union's strike actions on Friday as talks with the US's biggest auto manufacturers appeared to have stalled.The strike is in its fourth week and Fain has been updating members on progress and new strike actions each Friday. Fain said Ford, Stellantis and General Motors have used that timetable to hold back negotiations until late in the week. From now on, strikes can be called at any time, he said. Continue reading...

Israel was already deeply rightwing. But after this horror, even hardcore leftwingers, full of rage, will slide towards the right Continue reading...

The toppling of prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq and ensuing rule of the shah directly led to the 1979 Islamic RevolutionThe CIA has for the first time acknowledged that the 1953 coup it backed in Iran that overthrew its prime minister and cemented the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was undemocratic.The admission came in a new podcast revealing details about one of the most famed CIA operations of all times - the effort to spirit six American diplomats out of Iran under the guise of a Hollywood movie production. Continue reading...

FBI reports calls for global action' Friday, following attack by Hamas on Israel and Israel's subsequent retaliation on GazaMajor US cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington DC have stepped up security for residents, especially around Jewish and Muslim places of worship, ahead of expected protests on Friday and any threats of violence over the escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East.Leave has been canceled for police officers in several major cities, with security heightened around sites such as synagogues, schools and the Israeli embassy in Washington. Protests are expected in the Middle East and the US on Friday after Khaled Mashal, Hamas' former leader, called for a global day of anger" to send a message of rage to Zionists and to America". Continue reading...

The strike, which ran for three days, marked the largest work stoppage to date in the healthcare sectorKaiser Permanente's healthcare workers unions have reached a tentative agreement with the company, the union said in a social media post on Friday.The California-based care consortium and the union representing healthcare workers resumed negotiations on Thursday, more than a week after contract talks broke off at the start of a 72-hour strike by 75,000 nurses, medical technicians and support staff. Continue reading...

This week's events make me wonder how long I can keep stalling. Plus, Keir Starmer's Jason Bourne momentOne of my children, aged eight, is reading a novel set during the second world war; a book that was sent home from school on Monday with a message from the teacher to put it aside if it was too dark. Set in 1944 on Long Island, New York, the book touches tangentially on the Holocaust in a way that seemed to me to be done in a sensitive and age-appropriate way. Coming as it does this week, however, amid horrific images and stories emerging from Israel, it did make me think more generally about how and when we talk to our children about the very worst things. Continue reading...

There is no moral justification for killing, kidnapping and torturing innocent civilians. We must say a clear no'I am weeping with my Jewish brothers and sisters, both in Israel and around the world, as they mourn the horrific acts of terror in Israel this past weekend. The stories of civilians murdered and families kidnapped are gut-wrenching. In grief, we are wrapped in darkness, and there are no words to express the weight we feel.Yet in the public square, words abound that both compound the grief of many and have the potential to precipitate more violence. So I must rise from the silence of mourning to speak. Continue reading...

The horror unleashed by Hamas has brought tragedy to Israel and devastation to Gaza - and fear to Jews across the worldThe word pogrom was not meant to exist in Hebrew. In the new Israel, the very idea of Jews being murdered en masse, their children butchered before their eyes, was meant to have been banished to the realm of bitter memory. It was only in the eastern Europe of exile that Jews would have to flee from tormentors bent on killing them, only there that they would hide in the dark, trying to stifle their breath lest they make a betraying sound. Once they had a state of their own, where they could defend themselves at last, there would be no need to speak of pogroms, except in the history books.But it was a pogrom that came to Israel last weekend, multiple pogroms in fact, as lethal as any that cut down the Yiddish-speaking Jews of the early last century or, in repeating patterns, the centuries before. Jews still remember the Kishinev pogrom of 1903, a calamity recalled in poetry recited to this day. At Kishinev, 49 Jews were murdered. Last Saturday, at least 1,200 were put to death, many of them in ways too sadistic to be recounted in a newspaper.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...

In the US, gun violence and shared trauma is normalized for young people - which could be why many are open to firearm ownershipWhen MaryAnn Alvarado asks her students if they know how to get a gun, their response always takes her aback. Everyone raises their hand," she said.Alvarado, 36, runs Teens on Target, a program operated by YouthAlive! in Oakland, California, that trains middle- and high-schoolers to become violence prevention advocates in their own communities. For many of the teens she sees, especially those coming from underserved neighborhoods, gun violence is normalized, she explained, or they believe that stopping gun violence is impossible. Others feel like gun ownership is okay to protect their family. I've heard youth say, I feel like everybody owns a gun here,'" she said. Continue reading...

UN says order affecting 1.1 million people will spark devastating humanitarian consequences' amid likely Israeli ground assault. Plus, how criminalisation is being used to silence climate activists around the worldDon't already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.Hamas has called on Palestinians to stay in their homes after Israel issued sweeping evacuation orders for almost half of Gaza's more than 2.3 million people ahead of an expected ground offensive.What is the US doing to help Israel? The US pledged to send more arms to Israel yesterday ahead of the ground offensive. Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, pledged his country's support for Israel today, tomorrow, every day". He told the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on a visit to the region that Israel may be strong enough on your own to defend yourself but, as long as America exists, you will never, ever have to. We will always be there by your side."What are the rules of war - and how do they apply to the Israel-Gaza conflict? After the horror of Hamas's attacks on Israel and the response by the Israeli military in Gaza, there have been calls for both sides to abide by international law amid accusations of breaches. Here's an explainer on the framework of international laws that is supposed to govern war or armed conflicts. Continue reading...

The US government has taken some steps to block Chinese imports made with forced labor. Britain and the EU have done shamefully littleLast month, Chinese diplomats sent letters - really threats - to discourage attendance at an event on the sidelines of the UN general assembly spotlighting Beijing's persecution of Uyghur and other Turkic Muslims in China's Xinjiang region. The childish tactic backfired, heightening media interest, but it highlighted the lengths to which Beijing will go to cover up its repression. A recent expose on the persecution of Uyghurs should reinforce our determination to address these crimes against humanity.A four-year investigation by the Outlaw Ocean Project pulls back the curtain on the massive use of forced labor in the Chinese government-backed fishing industry. Much of the study focused on people coercively kept on China's distant-water fishing fleet, which holds workers at sea for months at a time in appalling conditions, often with lethal neglect. But the study also showed that seafood-processing facilities inside China are deploying Uyghur forced labor on a large scale.Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch, is a visiting professor at Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs Continue reading...

Allegations against Dr Derrick Todd in Boston adds to spate of cases involving US physicians reported to have violated patientsIn the weeks since his dismissal from a Boston hospital, the number of women accusing Dr Derrick Todd of sexually abusive medical exams has surpassed 80, adding to a spate of cases involving US physicians reported to have violated patients in their most vulnerable moments.At least 82 women have joined a class-action lawsuit that was filed against Todd in a Massachusetts state court Wednesday, the plaintiffs' attorney Drew Meyer told the Boston Globe. Continue reading...

The Olympics are on the horizon but US Soccer has yet to appoint a replacement for Vlatko Andonovski. The search is not a simple oneUncertainty is an uncommon feeling for the United States women's national team. The program has four World Cup titles and four Olympic gold medals to its name, each of which is a record. Until August, the US had never been ranked below No 2 in the world and never finished worse than third at a World Cup.Change arrived quickly, however. A historic exit from the 2023 World Cup in the round of 16 evoked existential questions about the program's future as other top nations surpassed it. Former head coach Vlatko Andonovski also resigned in the immediate aftermath of the tournament, leaving the US without a coach. Continue reading...

The world's agreement to protect civilians was never perfect. But that's no excuse for leaders in Russia, the US and the UK to row back from itHamas's murder of Jewish civilians in the Kfar Aza kibbutz on 7 October was without doubt a war crime", the BBC's Jeremy Bowen concluded in his report from southern Israel this week. But what, Bowen then asked, about the lives of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, who now face bombing and siege - and possibly an imminent ground war - as Israel retaliates.Bowen asked a fundamental wartime question. In response, the Israeli commander in Kfar Aza, Maj Gen Itai Veruv, gave him an impeccable and restrained reply. You fight with [your] values and you keep your values at the same time," he replied. I know we will be very aggressive and very strong, but we will keep our morals and values."Martin Kettle 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...

House unable to govern, with next steps uncertain, after Louisiana congressman fails to secure his party's supportThe Republican congressman Steve Scalise is ending his bid to become the US House speaker after failing to secure enough votes to win the gavel.I just shared with my colleagues that I'm withdrawing my name as a candidate for speaker-designee," Scalise said as he emerged from the closed-door meeting at the Capitol, where he first informed fellow Republican colleagues of his decision. Continue reading...

Congressional business at a standstill as House majority leader drops out of speaker race on Thursday