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The guerrilla movement that rules Gaza may be aiming to push Israel to negotiate, or positioning itself for leadership of the West Bank. Either way, there's no knowing if it will succeedHamas's attack on Israel this weekend bore an uncanny resemblance to the 1973 Yom Kippur war, which took place exactly 50 years ago this week. In both cases, careful Arab military preparation was able to catch by complete surprise a complacent Israeli government and military intelligence. Now, like then, a devastating assault was delivered on an unsuspecting morning of a Jewish holiday (Shemini Atzeret, following the festival of Sukkot).The obvious difference is that the Yom Kippur war was launched by two substantively armed and trained militaries. Egypt and Syria, backed by the Soviet Union, attempted to recapture territories in Sinai and the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel in 1967. It was conventional warfare, in which thousands of soldiers died. Hamas, on the other hand, is a guerrilla movement which since 2007 has ruled over Gaza, a strip of land between the Mediterranean sea and Israel where 2 million people live under siege in an open air prison". Hamas militants crossed the border and were able to temporarily take over military installations and towns and villages, as the Israeli military appeared helpless. Continue reading...

Saying farewell at home was the right thing to do for a dog who hated the vet. Goodbye, sweet gent, and thank you for politely putting up with us for so longIn the end, I made the call. My husband cancelled the dog food delivery and dug the hole. I could hear him hitting buried bricks and swearing. The chickens watched, clucking comments.I wouldn't say I knew it was the right time to put Oscar down, more that it didn't feel wrong. Getting into bed made him yelp and, once in, he struggled to settle. He started whimpering at night with pain, bad dreams, or both. He ate voraciously but flinched when touched; a tennis ball could make him momentarily skittish but he was withdrawn and rarely seemed fully relaxed, this dog who had spent a lifetime lolling in the softest possible places.Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnistDo you have an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...

Republicans reveled in the idea of Robert F Kennedy Jr weakening Biden with a Democratic bid, but the conspiracy theorist could steal supporters from the right wingFor months, Republicans have been reveling in Robert F Kennedy Jr's presidential bid.Running in the Democratic primary against Joe Biden, the hope has been that Kennedy could weaken the president ahead of a presumed Biden-Trump match-up in 2024. Continue reading...

US Senate is eyeing a bill that would allow banks to do business with cannabis companies - now, if only they would vote on itImagine that you run a perfectly legal business but are unable to open a simple checking account at a national bank. Believe it or not, that's the case right now for anyone licensed to sell cannabis in the US. Given the size of the cannabis industry, it's pretty shocking. But it may be about to change.In the US, 38 states have legalized marijuana for medical use and 23 of them have legalized it for recreational purposes, including three territories and the District of Columbia. An additional eight states have decriminalized its use. Both red and blue states with legalized marijuana laws have collected $15bn in tax revenue between 2014 and 2022, with $3.77bn in tax revenue attributed to 2022 alone. Continue reading...

The GOP was once feared for its ability to unite and win - but Kevin McCarthy's demise shows a party deeply dividedThey are fresh-faced, suited and booted, the National Mall behind them and the world at their feet. Congressmen Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy and Paul Ryan smile out from the cover of Young Guns, their co-authored 2010 book about the next generation of conservatives. This isn't your grandfather's Republican party," said publicity material at the time.Thirteen years later, the trio is neither young nor the future. Cantor (the leader") became Republican leader in the House of Representatives but lost his seat to a nascent rightwing populism. Ryan (the thinker") became speaker but retired early to escape a toxic political relationship with President Donald Trump. And this week McCarthy (the strategist") was ousted by some of the extremists he helped elect to Congress but could not tame. Continue reading...

After years of guilt about her extra pounds, Alexandra Heminsley welcomes research into so-called fat but fit' middle-aged womenOoh, you are a strong one, aren't you?" Words addressed to me this summer during a trial session with a potential new trainer. Words I was reminded of this week when it was revealed that 27% of women in the UK aged 40-50 are categorised as having metabolically healthy obesity" (MHO). Or, as is more commonly said, they're fat but fit".When I read the research, made public last week by Professor Matthias Bluher at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Hamburg, I saw something of myself in it. Instead of the usual gnawing anxiety I experience when I get anywhere near the word fat", I felt something like relief. And I'm sure I'm not alone. At last, some evidence that carrying some extra weight is not synonymous with being lazy, weak or inactive - as is so often the assumption of many, among them both trainers and doctors. Continue reading...

Politicians like Bob Menendez might not be proud of the accusations they face, but there's an attitude of that's what we do in New Jersey'In Jersey, anything's legal as long as you don't get caught," croons Bob Dylan in the Traveling Wilburys' song, Tweeter and the Monkey Man. As a Native New Jerseyan, I think, How dare you say that? But, it's absolutely true," said Derek Arnold, a senior instructor at Villanova University who researches political scandals.New Jersey senator Bob Menendez was federally indicted for bribery last month by the US attorney's office, southern district of New York, which alleges he received gold bars, cash and a luxury convertible in exchange for political favors to three local businessmen. He pleaded not guilty to all charges. Continue reading...

Lessons from history show that technological change doesn't affect employment in the way some people believeWe need to talk about economic change - how fast it's happening and what it looks like when it does. Everyone says technology means economic change is accelerating, and that when the robots arrive the result is current, largely older, workers losing their jobs.That kind of change can happen, especially if driven by more than technology. The speed, and geographical concentration, of the decline in coalmining saw many lose their jobs and struggle to find new ones. But thinking all change looks like that can be a poor guide to today's world. If anything, economic change is slowing down rather than speeding up. The rate at which some parts of the economy grow and others shrink has actually fallen to a nine-decade low - the turbulent 1980s are a long time ago. Continue reading...

Trial of philanthropic crypto poster boy Sam Bankman-Fried exposes the flaws in a philosophy that negates the need for social changeFew people think of finance as an ethical career choice," William MacAskill observes. But they should. By making as much money as we can and donating to the best causes," he argues, we can each save hundreds of lives."MacAskill is an Oxford philosopher and one of the founders of effective altruism", or EA, a movement that seeks to persuade people both to donate a large share of their income to charity - MacAskill says he lives on 26,000 a year, giving away the rest of his professorial income - and to ensure that donations are used in the most effective way. Continue reading...

The ousting by extremists of House speaker Kevin McCarthy is a sign of the GOP's willingness to test the limits of US democracyMore than 11 years ago, before Donald Trump emerged from the primordial ooze of the far-right fever swamp, before the aborted January 6 insurrection and before the latest spasm of Republican extremism felled House speaker Kevin McCarthy, two renowned political scientists, Thomas Mann, and Norman Ornstein, put their finger on the essence of increasingly dysfunctional US politics: the Republican party. Mann and Ornstein argued that the Grand Old Party (GOP) had become an insurgent outlier" that was ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition".Eleven years later, the enfant terrible of American politics has somehow got unimaginably worse. The GOP today is less a political party and more an inchoate mass of cultural grievances, conspiracy theories and lowest common denominator political slogans. Trump, for all his toxicity, is a symptom of the GOP's decades-long descent into madness. Legislating is not seen as a tool for bettering the plight of the American people but rather an opportunity to troll Democrats and play to the perceived slights of the party's rank-and-file supporters. Continue reading...

The Russian dictator believes himself to be above international law but there are many ways to make him pay for his war crimesIt has been a good week for Vladimir Putin. On Thursday, a Russian missile hit a cafe in eastern Ukraine, killing more than 50 people, including a six-year-old boy. On Monday, the Russian-leaning Robert Fico was elected prime minister of Slovakia, pledging to cut military supplies to Ukraine. In America, Republicans and Democrats are having fisticuffs over funding for Ukraine, a previously bipartisan issue becoming ever more polarised. Meanwhile, the EU admits it can't match US levels of support.With every atrocity that goes unpunished, Russia's aim of furthering an age of utter impunity, where dictators can slaughter civilians and wipe out whole nations as they please, comes closer. And as Ukraine's allies crack and dither, Russian arms production is ramping up to unprecedented levels, churning out more drones and missiles. Putin thinks that if he can keep this up until November 2024, and Donald Trump wins the US election, he's victorious.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...

Monica Lewinsky, Rebecca Loos and others have no hope of fading into obscurity, even decades laterIs slut-shaming having a retro-moment? Or is it rather that, for the slut-shamed, it never really goes away? Monica Lewinsky, the self-declared patient zero of losing my reputation online", has been in conversation with the Washington Post columnist, Taylor Lorenz, author of a new book about the internet, Extremely Online.Elsewhere, the new Netflix docuseries Beckham, deals with reports of David Beckham's alleged infidelity circa 2003. While the documentary doesn't mention names, it led to the dragging back into the spotlight of Rebecca Loos, his former PA.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...

Activists in the state are dealt a blow as Gavin Newsom says the state's laws already offer civil rights protectionsCalifornia activists against caste discrimination faced a defeat on Saturday as Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed the bill that would add caste to a list of protected categories under the state's existing anti-discrimination laws.In a statement, Newsom called the bill unnecessary", explaining that California already prohibits discrimination based on sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, and other characteristics, and state law specifies that these civil rights protections shall be liberally construed". Continue reading...

Gavin Newsom vetoes measure, saying state must set up thorough guidelines for treatment before he is willing to signCalifornia will have to put more work into decriminalizing hallucinogens before Governor Gavin Newsom will sign a bill, said a statement from the governor on Saturday, announcing that the bill had been vetoed.The rejected law, which was anticipated to take effect in 2025, would have done away with criminal penalties for people possessing natural psychedelics for personal use. It also would have required the state to form a group to study and make recommendations about the drugs' therapeutic use. Continue reading...

Kaylee Timonet was stripped of student government title and denied scholarship support after video surfaced of her at partyA high school senior in Louisiana was stripped of her student government president title and scholarship opportunities after a video circulating on social media showed the 17-year-old girl dancing with friends at a party last week.Kaylee Timonet, a senior at Walker high school, was seen dancing at a private homecoming afterparty on 30 September, behind a friend who was twerking. Earlier this week, the school principal said he would revoke her leadership role and assistance in scholarship applications. Continue reading...

Legal woes that would destroy most candidates have become a defining feature of his campaign - and some say it might workThe blue suit, white shirt, red tie and American flag pin looked familiar. So did the TV cameras following every move and reporters hanging on every word. So did the wild hand gestures as he unleashed a torrent of incendiary rhetoric about the elites supposedly out to get him.But this was not Donald Trump at one of his rollicking campaign rallies in middle America. This was the former US president standing outside a New York courtroom, with uniformed officers looking on, during a civil fraud trial accusing him of grossly inflating the value of his businesses. Continue reading...

Suspect in Boulder attack was previously deemed to be mentally incompetent to stand trial and suffering from schizophreniaA Colorado man accused of murdering 10 people in a shooting rampage at a Boulder supermarket in 2021, then diagnosed as schizophrenic and declared mentally unfit for prosecution months later, is competent to stand trial, a judge ruled on Friday.Boulder county district judge Ingrid Bakke agreed with state psychiatric experts and prosecutors that Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa has made enough progress through treatment to render him capable of understanding the criminal proceedings against him and meaningfully assisting in his own defense. Continue reading...

While some may be taking them for medically valid reasons, the trend is worrying eating disorder experts and signaling a cultural shift away from body positivityFor a while it was a secret that only the A-listers were in on. Now, however, Ozempic - the diabetes drug that is being used off-label as an appetite suppressant - is everywhere. Ads for the medication are ubiquitous on US TV screens, videos of people documenting their Ozempic use are all over TikTok, and people like Elon Musk are loudly singing its praises. So many people are now popping Ozempic, Wegovy and other appetite-suppressing medications, that the effect is reportedly being felt in grocery aisles across America. Continue reading...

Activists and Democrats condemn rapprochement - aimed at heading off China - with autocratic, sociopathic government'Joe Biden is facing accusations of betraying a pre-election promise to re-evaluate ties with Saudi Arabia over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in favour of pursuing a rapprochement with the kingdom aimed at repelling a challenge from China to US primacy in the Middle East.The charge, from human rights campaigners and some Democrats, follows the fifth anniversary of Khashoggi's death at the hands of Saudi regime agents and comes amid mounting criticism of a proposed new defence treaty between Washington and Riyadh that could result in Saudi Arabia granting official recognition to Israel. Continue reading...

GardaWorld has been investigated for safety violations and was also hired by Florida to assist in that state's migrant removal programThe mayor of Chicago is at loggerheads with fellow progressives and his own Democratic state governor over the city's choice of a vexed company to erect controversial tents for asylum seekers during the bitter midwest winter - as wider tensions rise on the left at the local and national level over migration policy chaos.While the city's mayor, Brandon Johnson, and the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, are divided over how to house thousands of migrant families currently sleeping inside and outside Chicago police stations, the two are united in fury at lack of emergency funding coming from Joe Biden's White House.This article was amended on 7 October 2023. It originally stated that GardaWorld was the same company that bussed migrants to Texas when in fact it was not. Continue reading...

The president decried Trump's migration approach but a series of recent steps, critics say, are barely different from his predecessorAs a candidate in the 2020 election, Joe Biden assailed Donald Trump over what he cast as his rival's ineffective and un-American approach to immigration - one that undermined the nation's long history of welcoming those seeking refuge in the United States.Now as president, facing a migrant crisis that is straining resources at the border and feeding into major US cities, Biden has taken a series of steps that critics on his left say are hardly distinguishable from his predecessor. Continue reading...

Progressives call on party to seize the moment in the fight against rightwing extremismDemocrats in disarray" has been an oft-repeated joke in Washington in recent years, a tongue-in-cheek reference to the tensions that repeatedly flared up between the progressives and the centrists of Joe Biden's party. But on Tuesday, House Democrats presented a united front as their Republican counterparts turned against each other and ultimately ousted one of their own in a historic defeat.The entire House Democratic caucus voted unanimously to remove the Republican Kevin McCarthy as speaker on Tuesday, joining eight mostly hard-right lawmakers in supporting a motion to vacate the chair. Refusing to intervene in a mess of Republicans' own making, Democrats looked on as McCarthy was unseated, making him the first House speaker in US history to be removed from office. Continue reading...

The WGA not only proved the power of strikes - it laid the first brick in a wall that every other union in the US must rush to help buildThe writers won. I know that sounds jarring. It's more common to hear something like, the writers are arguing among themselves over some unimaginably trivial point of grammar". But right now, the writers won. The 148-day-long Writers Guild of America strike is over. Now, the hard part begins.The new WGA contract, which will almost certainly be formally ratified by members this month, was won at fantastic expense by thousands of screenwriters who went five months without work in order to hold the line. (I am a Writers Guild member myself, but we journalists were not on strike.) In July, when the strike was 10 weeks old, an anonymous studio executive infamously told the industry publication Deadline: The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses." And indeed, that came to pass.Hamilton Nolan is a writer on labor and politics, based in New York City Continue reading...

As the Cricket World Cup gets underway in India, with matches played at the enormous Narendra Modi Stadium, we look at some of the planet's largest venues Continue reading...

Prosecutors have depicted a malicious financial mastermind, but his defense says he's just a wayward boy genius. Which will jurors believe?A single question has dominated the first week of Sam Bankman-Fried's fraud trial: which version of this tech bro do you believe?Prosecutors have cast Bankman-Fried - the 31-year-old founder of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX - as the mastermind of a $10bn fraud, among the largest and most nefarious in American history. They say he selfishly squandered the money of customers who put their trust in FTX. He lavished the cash on ritzy properties, ill-gotten influence, glamorous travel, and the highest-profile ads, all while concealing a hidden mountain of debt, they allege. Continue reading...

The climate's changing and so is the terminology Continue reading...

FBI alleges former sergeant Joseph Daniel Schmidt tried to set up a meeting with Chinese consulate in TurkeyA former US army intelligence officer has been charged with attempting to provide classified defence information to the Chinese security services during the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic - including some listed in a Microsoft Word document titled Important Information to Share with Chinese Government".Authorities on Friday arrested former sergeant Joseph Daniel Schmidt, 29, at San Francisco international airport as he arrived from Hong Kong, where he had been living since March 2020, the Justice Department said. A federal grand jury in Seattle returned an indictment on Wednesday charging him with retention and attempted delivery of national defence information. Continue reading...

Gary Wang says Bankman-Fried had neutral demeanor' when told crypto exchange had lost billions days before collapseSam Bankman-Fried was not surprised to discover a huge $8bn shortfall in the days before the collapse of FTX, his now bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, according to testimony from his former business partner.The testimony came from Gary Wang, the co-founder of FTX, during his second day on the witness stand in Bankman-Fried's fraud trial. Bankman-Fried is facing seven counts of conspiracy and fraud over the dramatic collapse of FTX and its associated hedge fund, Alameda Research. Continue reading...

We take a look at the best images from Antwerp as the returning Simone Biles takes gold for her sixth all-around world title and becomes the most decorated gymnast of all time

Kennedy is set next week to transform his Democratic presidential run into an independent campaignRobert F Kennedy Jr, the attorney, conspiracy theorist and political gadfly set to next week transform his run for the Democratic presidential nomination into an independent campaign, was announced on Friday as a speaker at an event staged by the hard-right Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC.Robert F Kennedy Jr has a unique voice in advocating for the defunding of the weaponised bureaucracy and ensuring the constitutional right of medical freedom," said the CPAC chair, Matt Schlapp. Continue reading...

Trial to resume on Tuesday but court stays judge's order to immediately break up Trump's businesses in New York stateDonald Trump's New York fraud trial will continue next week after an appeals court rejected the former president's latest bid to halt proceedings.Lawyers for Trump had argued that the court should wait for an appeal on a pre-trial ruling before moving forward. The trial started on Monday. Continue reading...

In an interview on CNN the former senator and secretary of state also called the ex-president an authoritarian populist'Supporters of Donald Trump may need to be deprogrammed" as if they were cult members, Hillary Clinton said.Sadly, so many of those extremists ... take their marching orders from Donald Trump, who has no credibility left by any measure," the former first lady, senator, secretary of state and Democratic nominee for president told CNN. Continue reading...

Newly released police body camera footage shows officers arresting Duane 'Keffe D' Davis for the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur off the Las Vegas strip. Davis was walking near his home in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson on 29 September when Las Vegas police officers approached at dawn and called out to him as he was on the other side of the street. His reaction suggests he knew why he was being arrested.

This live blog is now closed. You can read our latest full report on the speakership race here:

Shawn Fain says General Motors has made key concession on battery manufacture and does not announce additional strikesThe United Auto Workers has claimed its strike against the big three US automakers is working, as it announced General Motors had made concessions during talks.As the strike strike enters its fourth week, the UAW trailed breaking developments" at the negotiating table before a briefing on Friday afternoon. Continue reading...

The US president is helping to build Donald Trump's southern border wall. What is he thinking?The question sounds ludicrous, but how else would you characterize Biden's latest pronouncement to build 20 new miles of Trump's border wall along the southern border? This is like throwing red meat to Trump's base, who will chomp and salivate over what they will portray as an admission of defeat by the Democrats on securing the border.And why wouldn't they? Back when he was campaigning for president, Joe Biden promised not another foot" of Trump's border wall would be built. He halted construction of the wall on his first day in office with a proclamation stating that building a massive wall that spans the entire southern border is not a serious policy solution. It is a waste of money that diverts attention from genuine threats to our homeland security." Continue reading...

Manuel Tortuguita' Paez Teran was shot and killed in January while protesting construction of police training centerNo criminal charges will be brought against state patrol troopers in Georgia who shot and killed an environmental protester at the site of a huge new public safety training center for law enforcement and others in the Atlanta area, known as Cop City".The district attorney pro tempore made the announcement on Friday, almost nine months after Manuel Paez Teran, nicknamed Tortuguita, 26, was killed in January during protests against the development. Continue reading...

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said US measures to pressure Maduro's government contribute to exodus of people from that countryLeft-wing congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the US was contributing to the destabilisation that drives migration" with measures such as sanctions on Venezuela and Thursday's decision to resume deportation flights to the South American country.She also demanded that Joe Biden reverse his recent decision to expedite border wall construction. Continue reading...

The Great Lawn will be closed for months after 30,000 people gathered for a Global Citizen concert. Park stewards tell the Guardian their concerns went unheededLast month the Fugees reunited on the Great Lawn in Central Park, with Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and Pras thrilling a select group of drenched fans. It was the culmination of a free concert that also featured megastars like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and BTS's Jungkook.But organizers hadn't booked the most prominent guest on the schedule: tropical storm Ophelia. The storm threatened torrential rain, but Global Citizen, the non-profit hosting the event, announced that the festival would go on. As roughly 30,000 guests crowded on to the park grass in the downpour, what was supposed to be a celebration of the environment quickly turned into a disaster for one the world's most famous public lands. Continue reading...

The City of Music has become unaffordable for musicians - and a magnet for partiers. Streaming services have only made things harderIn June 2016, Tiffany Gassette looked for a place to park her RV. She ended up in Lyles, Tennessee, an hour from Nashville. For the next six months, she and her three-year-old daughter, Calliope - named after the Greek muse of epic poetry and heroic song - lived off a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. For 20 miles, there was nothing but a Walmart.Tiffany had never lived in an RV before. When winter came, the temperature dropped. The regulator on her propane tank froze. The space heaters blew out her breakers. One day, after she dropped Calliope off at daycare, she went into Nashville to busk. When she got home, her dog couldn't see her. The cold weather had triggered her acute glaucoma. It was the loneliest, saddest time of her life. What right do I have to be here with this child?" she asked herself. This is no life." Continue reading...

Ohio congressman is one of two leading candidates alongside Steve Scalise in race to fill role after Kevin McCarthy's oustingDonald Trump is officially backing the brash, longtime loyalist and founding member of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, the Ohio congressman Jim Jordan, to succeed Kevin McCarthy as House speaker when voting takes place next week.Congressman Jim Jordan has been a STAR long before making his very successful journey to Washington, DC, representing Ohio's 4th Congressional District," Trump wrote on his Truth Social social media platform, with his some of his signature inflammatory flourishes, early on Friday. Continue reading...

Member of Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort allegedly passed on submarine details to former Australian PMs and journalists. Plus, US influencers fear bedbug infestation from Paris fashion weekGood morning.Donald Trump allegedly discussed potentially sensitive information about US nuclear submarines with an Australian billionaire, Anthony Pratt, three months after leaving office, according to a new report.When did the conversation happen? ABC said Trump spoke to Pratt at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in April 2021.Did Pratt share the information? Pratt then allegedly shared the information about submarines within minutes", shocking a Trump employee who heard him. Pratt, the ABC report alleged, went on to share the information with at least 45 people, including his own employees, journalists, foreign and Australian officials and three former Australian prime ministers".What does Mohammad win? She will be awarded a gold medal, a diploma and 11m Swedish krona.Why is Iran in the news again? Iranian opposition figures have demanded the release of complete CCTV footage of an incident in which a 16-year-old girl, now in a coma, collapsed after allegedly encountering hijab police on the Tehran metro. Armita Geravand is still in hospital after the incident on Sunday. Continue reading...

There are hundreds of Congresspeople representing millions of Americans - yet undemocratic rules give people like Matt Gaetz outsized swayIt's simple math: when the score reads 210 to 8, the side with the much tinier number should lose.Yet that's not how it works in the US House of Representatives.David Daley is the author of Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn't Count and Unrigged: How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy. He is a senior fellow at FairVote Continue reading...

Gerontocracy, corruption, laziness - we need to ask more of US legislators, starting with making their job feel like workWhile those who follow politics closely are busy parsing what the ouster of Kevin McCarthy as House speaker might mean for Congress, those who don't - meaning the bulk of the American people - could be forgiven for tuning much of the drama of the last few weeks out. Ordinary Americans have little faith in Congress as it stands: as substantively or strategically consequential as they might be, the battles between members of our most reviled class, politicians, seem to most like juvenile squabbles.Here's a detail that might incense them further. For generations, members of the US Senate have carved and scrawled their names into their desks. This rite, the stuff of summer camp and grade school, is, to the peculiar mind of a US senator, something more profound - yet another tradition, as though they needed another, signifying their membership in an august and noble fraternity. Continue reading...

Two trials - and Michael Lewis's new book on Sam Bankman-Fried - cast light on the everlasting nexus of power and greedThe New York fraud trial of Sam Bankman-Fried kicked off this week. The 31-year-old former crypto billionaire faces two substantive counts of wire fraud, for acts allegedly perpetrated against the customers of FTX, the crypto-futures exchange he founded, and five related counts of conspiracy. If convicted on all charges, he faces up to 110 years in prison.As fate would have it, his case is being heard a few buildings away from where one Donald J Trump sits on trial for fraud. Like the 45th president - DJT, if you will - SBF has a tough row to hoe. Continue reading...