Fellow presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama wish Carter well, praising him as a moral force for our nation and world'Joe Biden led congratulations on Tuesday to Jimmy Carter on his 100th birthday, a milestone that makes Carter the first former US president to become a centenarian.Carter entered hospice care at his home in Plains, Georgia, 19 months ago. His grandson, Jason Carter, has said the former president is eager to cast his ballot for Kamala Harris, a fellow Democrat, in the presidential election. Continue reading...
As the Middle East spiraled towards full-scale war, the US vice-presidential debate focused largely on domestic issuesAs the Middle East spiraled towards full-scale war, the US vice presidential debate focused largely on domestic issues, like school shootings and the cost of housing, healthcare, and childcare.The CBS News debate moderators largely declined to fact-check JD Vance or Tim Walz, asking them instead to respond to each other. Continue reading...
by Moustafa Bayoumi, LaTosha Brown, Ben Davis, Lloyd on (#6R5NJ)
Walz was solid but underwhelming, while Vance nimbly reset his public imageThe first question the vice-presidential candidates were asked in their debate was, frankly speaking, bonkers: Would you support or oppose a pre-emptive strike by Israel on Iran?" The vast majority of the globe is waiting for the United States to exercise real global leadership and bring, at a bare minimum, temporary calm to the eastern Mediterranean region. But CBS apparently felt it wiser to ask the candidates whether they supported escalating the war now or escalating the war later.Moustafa Bayoumi is a Guardian US columnistBen Davis works in political data in Washington DCLloyd Green is an attorney in New York and served in the US Department of Justice from 1990 to 1992Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnistBhaskar Sunkara is the president of the Nation, founding editor of Jacobin and author of The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme InequalitiesLaTosha Brown is the co-founder of Black Voters Matter Continue reading...
Vice-presidential candidate sidesteps questions over certifying a Trump loss this fall, drawing rebuke from WalzJD Vance refused to say whether Donald Trump lost the 2020 election and continued to sidestep questions over whether he would certify a Trump loss this fall during the vice-presidential debate on Tuesday.The exchange brought out some of the sharpest attacks from Tim Walz, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate and Minnesota governor, in what was otherwise a muted and civil back-and-forth with the Ohio senator. Continue reading...
Garcia White, convicted in killings of Annette and Bernette Edwards, sixth person put to death in US in the last 11 daysA Texas man convicted of fatally stabbing twin 16-year-old girls more than three decades ago was executed on Tuesday evening.Garcia Glenn White was pronounced dead at 6.56pm CDT following a chemical injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He had been condemned for the December 1989 killings of Annette and Bernette Edwards. The bodies of the twin girls and their mother, Bonita Edwards, were found in their Houston apartment. Continue reading...
Republican nominee visits Wisconsin, pledges to solve' inflation and calls Biden and Harris grossly incompetent'Donald Trump reprised his role as a reality TV character during a rally in Waunakee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, telling voters in the key swing state that his Democratic rival Kamala Harris wouldn't have succeeded on his business competition show.Kamala, you're fired!" the ex-president said, invoking his contestant-eliminating tagline from The Apprentice after he urged voters to support him. Get out of here!" Continue reading...
Prosecutors asked permission to file public version of brief with references to testimony from Trump's closest aidesDonald Trump's lawyers made a last-ditch effort on Tuesday to limit the amount of evidence that could become public that special counsel prosecutors collected during their criminal investigation into the former US president's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.The prosecutors last week filed under seal a brief, which may be as long as 180 pages, to presiding US district judge Tanya Chutkan that defends the viability of the charges against Trump even after the US supreme court's presidential immunity ruling. Continue reading...
by Maya Yang (now); Anna Betts and Yohannes Lowe (ear on (#6R4RZ)
This live blog is now closed. For the latest on US politics, you can see full coverage here.Donald Trump is scheduled to hold a rally in Saginaw, Michigan, on Thursday at 3pm ET.In 2016, the former president narrowly won Saginaw county, which sits around 100 miles north-west of Detroit and is home to around 200,000 people. However, in 2020, Joe Biden won the county. Continue reading...
New York City mayor argues that New York Times' leaks over past year amount to prejudicing the public against himLawyers for Eric Adams, the indicted New York City mayor, asked a federal court Monday to hold an evidentiary hearing about what they claim are secrecy violations by government prosecutors.Adams' lawyers argue that the New York Times' leaks over the past year amount to prejudicing the public against the mayor. Continue reading...
President directed the military to aid Israel's defense against any future assaults as US fully supportive' of allyJoe Biden has reaffirmed US support for Israel after Iran's ballistic missile attacks, describing the barrage as defeated and ineffective" and ordering the US military to aid Israel's defense against any future assaults.The attack appears to have been defeated and ineffective, and this is a testament to Israeli military capability and the US military," the US president told reporters on Tuesday after Tehran launched an unprecedented salvo of 180 high-speed ballistic missiles. Continue reading...
Strike - first by port workers on US east coast since 1977 - threatens to shut down ports from Maine to TexasJoe Biden has urged port operators to give workers a meaningful increase" in pay after tens of thousands went on strike, prompting some of the busiest ports in the US to brace for crippling disruption.About 45,000 port workers represented by the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) began walking off the job after their contracts expired at midnight, with 36 ports along the east and Gulf coasts affected. They typically handle about half of the nation's ocean shipping. Continue reading...
Searchers using helicopters to get past washed-out bridges and hike through wilderness to reach isolated homesHurricane Helene's death toll has surpassed 150 as searchers use helicopters to get past washed-out bridges and hike through wilderness to reach isolated homes.Crews were still trudging through knee-deep muck and debris in the wake of the deadly category 4 storm that dumped more than 40tn gallons of rain on the southern US after it crashed ashore in Florida on Thursday. Continue reading...
With a ground offensive in Lebanon, and Iran firing missiles, the dangers are spiralling. A diplomatic, not military, solution is neededLimited" is a vague assurance or aspiration, not a definition. How many will be dead in Lebanon by the time Israel's limited" ground operation and accompanying strikes are over? More than a thousand have reportedly died in the last fortnight, including women and children. A million people are homeless in a country that was already struggling to function. Far from preventing further conflict, the Israeli groundoffensive only paves the way for more violence.As night fell on Tuesday, Iran fired a barrage of missiles at Israel - almost 200, according to Israeli Army Radio - which the Revolutionary Guards described as retaliation for the killing of the leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas. At least eight people died when armed gunmen opened fire at a light rail stationinJaffa.The Israeli operation appeared, at least initially, to be on a smaller scale than many had anticipated. But the impact will not be limited to the Hezbollah fighters it targets. Ordering civilians to leave does not absolve an army of its obligations to them under international law. Israel used the term limited" during its Rafah operations, yet the outcome there was no different from the devastation seen across Gaza. Limited" operations, when repeated, become something larger. Limited" operations undergo mission creep, intentionally or otherwise - and their outcome is not determined by Israel alone. Hezbollah, Iran and others are rethinking the limits that - for entirely self-interested reasons-they had previously set in striking Israel.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
The Freedom party's first ever victory is the latest in a string of far-right triumphs in Europe. Business as usual is not a credible mainstream responseThe sequence has become dismally familiar. Piling up votes in provincial and rural areas at the expense of mainstream parties, a far-right movement celebrates an outstanding election result in a European Union member state. Its leader proclaims a new era" and delightedly receives congratulations from MarineLePen, Viktor Orban and Geert Wilders. Minority ethnic groups, and Muslims in particular, feel less safe and less at home in a country where many of them were born.And repeat. A clear first-place finish for the Austrian Freedom party (FPO) in Sunday's election follows a similar performance by Ms Le Pen's Rassemblement National in the recent snap election in France. Last month, across Austria's northern border, a far-right party won a German state election for the first time since the second world war. In Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the Czech Republic, the authoritarian right either governs or wields significant influence.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
The woeful standard of wannabe leaders - KemiKaze, Jimmy Dimly, Honest Bob - proves the Tories' masochistic need to be abusedCredit where credit is due. You'd have thought the Tory party conference would be a downbeat affair. A death spiral of despair. Instead, it's as if everyone is out of their heads on acid. Blissed out in an alternative reality. Slugging back vast quantities of Kool Aid in an everlasting kiss.This being the Conservatives, you can never rule out the possibility that there are a number of delegates who still have no idea they suffered a landslide defeat in the July election. Or even that the election actually took place. The same people who haven't yet been told that Margaret Thatcher is not immortal. There's a surprising number of them. Continue reading...
One worker said Impact Plastics managers would not let employees leave, which company deniesSeveral employees at a plastics factory in eastern Tennessee were killed during Hurricane Helene or are missing, amid warnings that the storm's current death toll of more than 130 is likely to rise substantially as subsiding floodwaters allow rescuers to search through the wreckage.Impact Plastics confirmed there had been fatalities at its plant in Erwin but did not say how many people had been killed. The company said there were missing and deceased employees as well as a contractor. Continue reading...
After practicing with a fake egg, the fortysomething lesser flamingos join other same-sex animal co-parentsTwo male flamingos have joined their kind's ranks of same-sex co-parents after hatching an egg together at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.The two foster dads are both in their 40s and are lesser flamingos, a species found in sub-Saharan Africa and western India, according to the zoo. The chick is also a lesser flamingo. Continue reading...
State's governor had threatened to remove the sheriff from office after the shooting, which followed an argumentA Kentucky sheriff charged with killing a local judge in the latter man's judicial chambers resigned Monday.Shawn Stines, 43, the sherriff in Letcher county, Kentucky, allegedly shot state court judge Kevin Mullins, 54, in the local courthouse on 19 September. Continue reading...
Statue weighing 6,000lbs is expected to be brought to other cities after being on interstate from Las Vegas to RenoA 43ft (13 meters) effigy of an entirely nude Donald Trump on the interstate from Las Vegas to Reno, Nevada, has been dismissed as deplorable" and pornographic" by Republicans in the state.In a statement, the Nevada Republican party said it strongly condemns" the effigy of the former president, which hangs from a crane, weighs 6,000lbs, is made from foam and rebar, is titled Crooked and Obscene and is expected to be brought to other cities as part of a nationwide tour. Continue reading...
Every night, I make up little Rascal's bed and leave a dog chew on his pillow. What's so odd about that?In the popular imagination, writers often have rock'n'roll lifestyles. Me? Not so much. In fact, I have the world's most mundane weekday routine. Every morning, about 8.25, I wipe congealed oatmeal off my kid's face and put her in a stroller. Then I put a lead on my dog (a mutt called Rascal) and walk to daycare with them. Then I walk back home with an empty stroller and my dog.This extremely ordinary routine - or at least the second half of it - seems to puzzle people. Surprisingly often, I have had strangers stop me in the street and ask if the empty stroller is for my dog. No, it's for my small child, whom I just dropped at daycare," I will explain. They will nod along, but look as if they don't quite believe me. Oh," they might say. I thought it was for the dog." Continue reading...
New arrivals in the Ohio city have been blamed for rising costs but reports suggest responsibility lies with landlordsFor John, living in a room in a shared house without even a door for privacy was what he found himself dealing with when he first arrived in Ohio four years ago.I was afraid to tell my wife, who was still in Florida at the time," John says. When I spoke to her on the phone, I closed the video so she wouldn't see what it was like." John, who did not want to give his real name out of fear of the consequences, paid $50 a week for a room in a house that was also home to a family of Haitians and others who came and went regularly. Continue reading...
Walz takes on fellow midwesterner JD Vance ahead on popularity, but the economy remains the critical issueTim Walz has had a meteoric rise to the national political stage, advancing from state governor to Democratic running mate, bolstering Kamala Harris's presidential chances, invigorating the party's base, and re-popularizing the term weird" along the way.On Tuesday night, the avuncular Minnesota governor will face his next challenge: taking on Ohio senator JD Vance, in a much-anticipated debate in New York. Both men have long sold their experiences of growing up in rural midwest towns as proof that they represent middle America, and both were recruited to augment their parties' chances in November. Continue reading...
Every team in the postseason has flaws, which should lead to an open scrap for the World Series. We run down the 12 contenders in OctoberStrengths: Shohei Ohtani became the first player in MLB history to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a regular season (he finished with 54 home runs and 59 stolen bases) and behind him are former MVPs Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. And behind those hitters is Teoscar Hernandez, who finished sixth in the National League with 33 home runs. This is an extremely powerful lineup capable of torturing any big league pitching staff. Continue reading...
Trump, widely regarded as the sleaziest person to ever run for president, is leading or tied with Harris in crucial swing statesWith less than 40 days until election day, how can it be that Trump has taken a small lead in Arizona and Georgia - two swing states he lost to Biden in 2020? How can he be narrowly leading Harris in the swing state of North Carolina? How can he now be essentially tied with her in the other key swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin?More generally, how can Trump have chiseled away Harris's advantage from early August? How is it possible that more voters appear to view Trump favorably now than they did several months ago when he was in the race against Biden?Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His newest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...
Officials class mifepristone and misoprostol as controlled substances' - which medics say could imperil women's livesTwo common abortion pills are, as of Tuesday, classified as controlled substances" in Louisiana, due to a first-of-its-kind law that medical professionals warn will endanger the lives of women by restricting medication used to treat postpartum hemorrhage and other conditions.Louisiana, which already bans abortion, passed a law reclassifying mifepristone and misoprostol as schedule IV drugs - a designation typically reserved for drugs that carry a risk of abuse or dependence. People caught with the drugs without a valid prescription could face up to five years in prison, although pregnant women who procure it for their own use are exempted from punishment under the law. Continue reading...
The debate between the Ohio senator and Minnesota governor will be hosted by CBS News at 9pm ET on TuesdayTim Walz and JD Vance will face off Tuesday night in the first - and only - vice-presidential debate before the November election. With the campaigns currently neck-and-neck in the polls, and with voting under way in some states, it's a chance for the would-be vice-presidents to introduce themselves to a wide US audience.While VP debates don't usually tip the scales much, they could matter in a close race - and they build profiles for lower-profile politicians who will probably stay on the national scene for years to come. Continue reading...
Some Republicans question what they see as the local Saginaw party's obsessive focus on conspiracy theoriesDebra Ell opened her Trump Shoppe in a dingy Saginaw strip mall back when establishment Republicans and TV pundits were still scoffing at the man who was about to remake US politics.Ell latched on to Donald Trump as a winner not long after he declared his run for the presidency in 2015. But she understood that the key to his success in her corner of swing state Michigan was to keep a distance from the local Republican party, which Ell regarded with almost as much hostility as she did the Democrats. Continue reading...
Israel says heavy fighting' is under way as it targets Hezbollah. Plus, the Picasso in the cellarGood morning.Israeli forces crossed the border into southern Lebanon early on Tuesday morning, the first Israeli ground invasion into the country since 2006.Why is Israel launching the offensive now? It comes after two weeks of airstrikes, which killed the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday, and a series of deadly explosions to pagers and walkie-talkies that Israel hopes has weakened the agility and organization of Hezbollah. There is also little political incentive for Benjamin Netanyahu to let up, as targeting Hezbollah has given the embattled Israeli prime minister a political boost.What does the invasion mean for the stability of the region? Fears of a wider regional conflict, sparked by the Hamas attacks on 7 October, are closer than ever. The US has called for de-escalation. But, as Joe Biden prepares to leave the White House, Israel's strongest ally appears to have little leverage. Meanwhile, the reformist-led government of Hezbollah's backer Iran said it had no plans to send troops to Lebanon, but it was coming under domestic pressure from hardliners.Follow our live blog here.What are the workers pushing for? Hourly pay under the contract that expired on Monday range from $20 to the top wage of $39. The union seeks raises of 77% over the six-year contract to a top rate of $69 an hour by 2030. Continue reading...
The pair, who have had sharp words for each other at a distance, will debate in close quarters at CBS event TuesdayTim Walz and JD Vance, the US Democratic and Republican candidates for vice-president, will face off on Tuesday in what is likely to be the last debate showdown between the two parties' election tickets before polling day in exactly five weeks' time.The pair - who have had sharp words for each other at a distance - will engage in verbal combat in close quarters at a CBS-hosted event in New York, with the stakes raised by polling evidence that shows the contest between the two presidential nominees, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, poised on a knife edge. Continue reading...
Washington's first-round pick is having one of the best rookie quarterback seasons ever. And there are plenty of signs his success will continueThere are times in life when the second shall be first.In the 2023 draft, the Carolina Panthers made a major trade with the Chicago Bears to jump up and take Alabama quarterback Bryce Young with the No 1 overall pick. The Houston Texans were second, and they took Ohio State's CJ Stroud.Daniels' EPA per dropback (a reliable indicator of per-play efficiency) of 0.32 is the highest for any rookie quarterback in Weeks 1-4 since at least 2000, and Daniels leads the NFL in passing EPA overall at +50.7. That's some distance ahead of Josh Allen, who is second at +36.7.Daniels' completion rate of 82.1% is the highest for any quarterback over a four-game stretch at any point in a career (minimum 100 pass attempts) since at least 1950.The Commanders have had 23 scoring drives this season, and Daniels has just 19 incompletions. The 1973 Los Angeles Rams are the only other team in NFL history to have more scoring drives than incompletions in the first four games of a season.The 2024 Commanders have the second-highest EPA per drive through the first four games of a season in NFL history. The 2007 New England Patriots, widely regarded as the best offensive team ever, are the only team with a higher overall efficiency. Continue reading...
Though the Freedom party has won the biggest share of the vote, other parties can and should form alliances to sideline itFor the last few years the radical right Freedom party of Austria (FPO) has dominated opinion polls, outpacing historically mainstream parties such as the People's party (OVP) and Social Democratic party (SPO). After devastating floods wreaked havoc in eastern Austria in early September, it appeared that the FPO might face renewed competition from the governing OVP, which presented itself as the chief manager handling the floods, and the Green party seemed poised for a resurgence. However, the recent national elections have yielded results that even the most pessimistic observers might not have anticipated.In a historic first, the FPO under the leadership of Herbert Kickl won the national elections with 28.8% of the vote, surpassing the previous record held by his mentor Jorg Haider in 1999. This is the first time in postwar Austrian history that a party originally established by ex-Nazis, for ex-Nazis, won the national parliamentary elections. Kickl, the party's leader and a hardline ideologue with a family history tied to Nazism, pledged to become Austria's volkskanzler (people's chancellor), a term that has its roots in Nazi rhetoric. By openly advocating for what he calls remigration" - the idea of pressuring people of colour to return to their perceived homelands - he presents the new right's ideology in more palatable language. In addition, Kickl skilfully mobilised growing public discontent stemming from the management of the pandemic, as well as soaring inflation rates, to gain traction among disillusioned voters. Continue reading...
Neal Slavin's images of people grouped together - from fencers to Star Trek fans, models to Bible collectors - have been entrancing viewers for half a century Continue reading...
The rule, in effect from September 2025, will block colleges from giving preference to pupils close to alumni and donorsCalifornia became the fifth state in the US to ban universities from admitting students based on their family connections, and the second state, after Maryland, to extend the ban to private, non-profit universities.Hard work, good grades and a well-rounded background should earn you a spot in the incoming class - not the size of the check your family can write or who you're related to," Phil Ting, the Democratic state assembly member, who authored the legislation, said in a statement. Continue reading...
National Transportation Safety Board says operators could be unaware of components that may pose safety risksThe US National Transportation Safety Board on Monday said more than 40 foreign operators of Boeing 737 airplanes may be using planes with rudder components that may pose safety risks.The NTSB last week issued urgent safety recommendations about the potential for a jammed rudder control system on some Boeing 737 airplanes after a February incident involving a United flight. Continue reading...
Fulton county judge issues order that abortions must be regulated as they were before law took effect in 2022A Georgia judge on Monday struck down the state's six-week abortion ban, ruling that the ban is unconstitutional and blocking it from being enforced.In a 26-page opinion, the Fulton county superior judge Robert McBurney ruled that the state's abortion laws must revert to what they were before the six-week ban - known as the Life Act - was passed in 2019. The ban was blocked as long as Roe v Wade was the law of the land, but went into effect after the US supreme court overturned Roe in 2022. Continue reading...
Caroline Rose Giuliani decries destructive' Trump and calls relationship with father cartoonishly complicated'Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has won the endorsement of Rudy Giuliani's daughter, who declared: I've been grieving the loss of my dad to [Donald] Trump. I cannot bear to lose our country to him too."Caroline Rose Giuliani was writing in Vanity Fair, where she lamented how her father, who was once the former president's personal attorney and trusted adviser, became caught up in the destructive trail" and chaos of the Trump administration and its aftermath. Continue reading...
Biden says he will visit North Carolina after devastating storm destroys entire communities across several statesAs the south-east US continues recovery efforts after Hurricane Helene's devastation, the storm's death toll keeps climbing, with more than 120 killed across several states.Joe Biden will visit North Carolina, where the western part of the state has been devastated by flooding, on Wednesday. Continue reading...
New rules bar asylum when border is deemed overwhelmed as White House tries to show hard stance on border securityThe Biden administration said on Monday it was making asylum restrictions at the southern border even tougher, as it is increasingly eager to show voters uneasy over immigration that it is taking a hard stance on border security.The new rules, which toughen restrictions announced in June, bar people from being granted asylum when US officials deem that the southern border is overwhelmed. Continue reading...
Jaime Tran, 30, pleaded guilty in June to hate crimes with intent to kill and discharging firearm during violent crimeA California man was sentenced on Monday to 35 years in prison for shooting and wounding two Jewish men as they left synagogues in Los Angeles last year, federal prosecutors said.Jaime Tran, 30, pleaded guilty in June to two counts of hate crimes with intent to kill and two counts of discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, the US attorney's office said in a statement. Continue reading...
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