Prosecutors said that Kaitlin Armstrong gunned down cyclist in jealous rage because Wilson dated her boyfriend months earlierA Texas jury on Friday sentenced a woman to 90 years in prison for the May 2022 shooting death of rising professional cyclist Anna Moriah Mo" Wilson in a case that sent investigators on a 43-day international search for the killer.Jurors deliberated for just over three hours before delivering the sentence for Kaitlin Armstrong, who investigators say tracked Wilson to the apartment where she was staying and shot her three times. They took only two hours on Thursday to convict her of murder. Continue reading...
What Biden calls the the most powerful nation in the history of the world' is surprisingly bad at keeping its citizens aliveWe're the United States of America, for God's sake," Joe Biden scoffed to 60 Minutes last month after he was asked if the US was capable of funding Ukraine and Israel's wars. We're the most powerful nation ... in the history of the world. The history of the world." Continue reading...
The US president's support for Israel's PM is damaging America's reputation abroad, hurting his own chances of re-election and prolonging the suffering in Gaza
Charles Chaz' Nuttycombe, 24, is impressing analysts with his accurate forecasts of consequential state legislature electionsIn the days after Democrats won control of Virginia's state legislature, Charles Chaz" Nuttycombe was focused on the results in house of delegates districts 41 and 82, both of which you've probably never heard of.Neither of the competitive races would determine which party controlled the Virginia legislature, but it was one of a handful where votes were still being counted and the results too close to call. In the lead-up to election day, Nuttycombe, a 24-year-old senior at Virginia Tech, had predicted that the Republican candidates would win both. But his final forecast in Virginia gave Democrats a 61% chance of winning control of the house of delegates and a 71% chance of holding control in the state senate. Continue reading...
Democrat Zeneta Everhart, mother of Zaire Goodman, who was wounded in the 2022 mass shooting, won 90.8% of the voteThe single mother of a victim of the 2022 Tops Friendly Market shooting was elected to Buffalo common council this month in a major election day blowout. Democrat Zeneta Everhart won 90.8% of the vote in her home community of Masten, a predominantly Black, low-income district within Buffalo, New York.After her swearing in on 1 January 2024, she will serve as one of nine council-members on the Buffalo common council representing the nine municipal districts of the city. Continue reading...
Opponents tell judge that sediment runoff from police campus violates Clean Water Act and thus project should be haltedA federal judge has to decide whether sediment runoff from the controversial Cop City" police and fire department training center near Atlanta violates the Clean Water Act and is cause for stopping the project temporarily, after hearing both sides of the argument this week.The judge may also dismiss the underlying environmental lawsuit, as defendants have asked the court. Continue reading...
Rudy Giuliani and MyPillow's Mike Lindell are among election deniers sued for defamatory statements regarding 2020 electionGroups seeking to protect US democracy from a renewed threat of subversion in the presidential race next year wield a new weapon against Donald Trump and his accomplices: the little-used law of defamation.Trump's former lawyer Rudy Giuliani, the My Pillow CEO, Mike Lindell, and conspiracy theorist Dinesh D'Souza are among the individuals named in a spate of high-profile defamation cases targeting those who tried to overturn the 2020 election. Prominent rightwing media outlets such as Fox News and Gateway Pundit are also on the hook. Continue reading...
Dubbed city of hate' after the 1963 killing, the Texas metropolis has largely moved on but the forces that brought death to Dealey Plaza are arguably more prevalent than everThe brick walls are painted white. Dozens of cardboard boxes marked Books" are stacked like a barricade on grimy floorboards. At the south-east corner window, the boxes appear to form a sniper's perch. It was here 60 years ago on Wednesday that, by official accounts, Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots heard around the world.The assassination of John F Kennedy, the 35th US president, shone an unforgiving light on Dallas, Texas, which came to be known as the city of hate". Six decades later, the city has grown beyond recognition and come a long way in grappling with that legacy. But the forces that turned Dealey Plaza into a white hot crucible are arguably more prevalent than ever. Continue reading...
Michael Lacey, Scott Spear and John Brunst, all men in their 70s, created complicated system to try to outwit US governmentThree former owners of the website Backpage, a site mainly known as a place where sex workers advertise their services, have been convicted for federal crimes including promoting prostitution and money laundering, the US Department of Justice announced on Friday.The recently convicted trio, Michael Lacey, 75, Scott Spear, 72, and John Jed" Brunst, 71, came to own Backpage in 2010. Since then, the government says, they encouraged sex work ads by creating a system for johns", or customers, to leave reviews about the sex workers they had engaged with. Website workers and an automated system filtered out words that made it obvious that sex was being offered in exchange for money. Continue reading...
New York judge temporarily lifted gag order, opening window through which Trump could vent his unrestrained feelingsBarely an hour after a gag order prohibiting Donald Trump from commenting about court staff at his civil fraud trial in New York was temporarily lifted, he was at it again - unleashing a blitzkrieg of social media outrage at a clerk who has become the lightning rod for the former president's rage.On Thursday afternoon a New York appeals court judge, David Friedman, paused a gag order that had been placed on Trump last month. The move opened a window through which Trump could vent his unrestrained feelings. Continue reading...
US House speaker to make good on promise to far-right Republicans including Matt Gaetz and Donald TrumpHouse speaker Mike Johnson said Friday he plans to publicly release thousands of hours of footage from the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, making good on a promise he made to far-right members of his party when he was campaigning for his current job.This decision will provide millions of Americans, criminal defendants, public interest organizations and the media an ability to see for themselves what happened that day, rather than having to rely upon the interpretation of a small group of government officials," Johnson said in a statement. Continue reading...
Convicted South Carolina murderer says: I agree that I wrongly took all of that money ... I am guilty'Alex Murdaugh has pleaded guilty to stealing millions of dollars from vulnerable legal clients in schemes lasting over a decade under an agreement that all but ensures more prison time for the longtime lawyer who was convicted of killing his wife and younger son in South Carolina.Murdaugh agreed to plead guilty to 22 total counts, including money laundering, breach of trust and financial fraud, in exchange for a 27-year sentence. Judge Clifton Newman said he intends to officially accept the plea deal during a sentencing hearing set for 28 November so that victims or their families may attend. Continue reading...
Former first lady, 96, who married husband in 1946, three decades before White House victory, enters hospice care at home in GeorgiaJimmy Carter's wife Rosalynn has entered hospice treatment at home, the former first lady joining the 99-year-old ex-president in end-of-life care at the couple's Georgia residence, her family said on Friday.The news came in a brief statement released by the human rights non-profit Carter Center, on behalf of Jason Carter, the grandson of the 39th president and his 96-year-old wife. Continue reading...
Charissa Thompson, 41, tells podcast she invented conversations with NFL coaches if she failed to get quotes in timeThe Fox Sports reporter Charissa Thompson is facing a backlash after admitting to lying in her job and making up fake interviews during her sideline reporting.In an episode of Barstool Sports's Pardon My Take podcast, Thompson, 41, said she invented quotes from coaches in her NFL sideline reports for fear of losing her job. Continue reading...
Pro-ceasefire demonstrators also detained outside investment company accused of helping supply weapons to IsraelMore protests demanding a ceasefire in Gaza were under way in the US on Friday morning, with police breaking up crowds and arresting demonstrators in various locations.Such demonstrations come as recent polling shows that US public support for Israel is dropping, while the Hamas authorities in Gaza reported on Friday that more than 12,000 Palestinians, overwhelmingly civilians and mostly women and children, had now been killed since Israel declared war on Hamas in October. Continue reading...
Glass, 22, was experiencing a mental health crisis when officers responded to his call for helpSix Colorado law enforcement officers have been charged with failing to intervene during a standoff that ended with the fatal shooting of a 22-year-old man suffering a mental health crisis last year, prosecutors said on Friday.The announcement came a day after a former sergeant who had previously been charged in the killing of Christian Glass pleaded guilty to failing to intervene, a misdemeanor crime created by state lawmakers in 2020 following the killing of George Floyd. Continue reading...
Bill introduced to expel New York Republican as committee suggests federal prosecutors should bring more chargesThe embattled Republican US representative George Santos faced a fresh effort to expel him from Congress on Friday, the day after fellow lawmakers released a report that suggested federal prosecutors should bring additional criminal charges against him.The House of Representatives ethics committee chairman, Michael Guest, introduced the bill targeting the first-term lawmaker from New York, who is now known as much for being a fabulist and a criminal defendant as a politician. Continue reading...
Both those calling for a ceasefire and those opposing it are making assumptions that don't stack upKnow thine enemy - and know thine ally, too. Too many of those pushing for one outcome or another in the war between Israel and Hamas misjudge the parties involved. They make mistaken assumptions about one side or the other - or both - that lead them to draw flawed, even dangerous, conclusions. There is no monopoly on these mistaken assumptions. They can be made by those calling on western leaders to demand an immediate ceasefire - and by the very western leaders they seek to persuade.Start with those who look at the havoc wreaked in Gaza - at the many thousands killed, at the pile of rubble that was once the largest Palestinian city in the world - and decide that, whatever horrors Hamas committed on 7 October, surely it has now sustained enough of a blow; given all that Gaza has suffered, surely now Hamas will be deterred from future attacks. Such thinking fundamentally misunderstands the nature of that organisation. Because Hamas is a different kind of enemy, one that does not fit the usual theories of war. Put simply, it does not mind if its own people die.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Casey McIntyre died from cancer on 14 November, but she devised a plan to cancel the medical debt of others as a parting giftFacing death from ovarian cancer at 38, Casey McIntyre devised a plan to transform her misfortune into a blessing for strangers.The New York City book publisher arranged to use the money she had saved or raised for her treatment to buy up the medical debt of others - and then pay it off, according to a website which assisted her philanthropic effort and as of Friday had collected nearly all of her six-figure goal. Continue reading...
Mile-long stretch of I-10 was burned in a fire near downtown, shutting it down and displacing a homeless encampmentRepairs to an elevated Los Angeles freeway closed because of an arson fire are moving faster than expected and lanes are scheduled to reopen by next Tuesday, California's governor, Gavin Newsom, said on Thursday.Earlier this week officials said it could take crews between three and five weeks to shore up the mile-long stretch of Interstate 10 near downtown after a blaze last Saturday burned about 100 support columns. Continue reading...
Governor expected to sign SB4, one of the US's harshest anti-immigration laws, and SB3, allocating $1.5bn to border securityGreg Abbott, the Texas governor, is expected to sign two rightwing immigration bills, setting off a likely constitutional battle over a new law that allows state and local police to arrest anyone suspected of crossing the Texas-Mexico border without documentation.SB4, one of the harshest anti-immigration laws in US history, makes it a state crime to cross into Texas from another country without papers. Continue reading...
Finney the jack russell terrier had survived after spending more than 10 weeks by her owner when he died on a mountain hikeA faithful dog who survived after spending more than 10 weeks by her owner when he died on a mountain hike is safely back with the rest of her human loved ones - and back on the trails - the family has said.Rich Moore, 71, of Pagosa Springs, Colorado, died of hypothermia while hiking in the San Juan mountains in the south of the state in August. Continue reading...
Social media ghosts' are increasingly common - and platforms have an incentive to keep those profiles up if they drive engagementI burst into tears when my friend tagged me in another Facebook post this morning. My friend died in 2021. The bot or scammer that had taken over his account was using it to promote weight-loss pills, which felt particularly egregious considering my friend had lost weight before his sudden death; it was as if the bot had scraped his profile for the most marketable details before taking his place.This was not the first time I'd been contacted on social media from beyond the grave. Earlier this year, my best friend messaged me; that time, too, it was deeply unsettling, since the last time I'd seen him, he was smiling at me from his open casket. As terrible as these uncanny experiences were for me, what really broke my heart was thinking of how my friends' mothers were likely experiencing the same thing. Continue reading...
A selection of work by Danny Lyon from a career photographing the civil rights movement, the Chicago Outlaw Motorcycle Club, the Texas prison system, protests, and more, alongside a selection of new works that capture New Mexico's diverse landscapes, seeking to raise awareness of fires, drought, and climate change
Gun Owners of America, formed in belief NRA was too liberal', spent $3.3m lobbying against gun control and boasts 2m membersA zealous gun rights group, even more uncompromising than the once formidable National Rifle Association, is emerging as a force in US politics with a mission to oppose efforts at gun control and ease further America's already lax regulations on firearms.Last year the Gun Owners of America (GOA) spent $3.3m on lobbying, a record sum for the hardline foe of gun control that now claims over 2 million members and activists, and has previously operated in the shadows of the larger NRA. Continue reading...
World Food Programme says Gaza faces massive food gap, as IDF claims to have uncovered a Hamas tunnel shaft at the Shifa hospital complex. Plus: forever chemical' waste, and Andre 3000's debut albumGood morning.The UN World Food Programme warned yesterday that the Gaza Strip now faced a massive" food gap and widespread hunger, and nearly the entire population of the Palestinian enclave was in desperate need of food assistance.The news agency AFP is reporting that a large deployment of Israeli troops raided the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank overnight. The IDF did not immediately comment.Three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone strike on Jenin, the head of the Palestinian ambulance service told Reuters on Friday. It is unclear if this was part of the raid on the refugee camp. Continue reading...
Twenty-seven GOP members emphasized in a letter after the 7 November vote they would work to prevent its implementationOhio voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment on 7 November, guaranteeing its citizens the right to abortion access, but a group of rightwing Republican lawmakers is already trying to reverse that result.The referendum, which Ohioans passed by 57% of votes, established a constitutional right to an abortion, overriding laws passed by the Republican-dominated legislature to dramatically restrict access. In response, 27 GOP members of the Ohio general assembly signed a statement the next day arguing the abortion rights proposal failed to mention a single, specific law", and vowing to do everything in [their] power" to prevent the restrictive abortion laws on the books in Ohio from being challenged. Continue reading...
As this war continues, countries outside the global elite are questioning the legitimacy of the international orderWhen the Israeli defence minister declared on 9 October a complete siege" in which no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel" would be allowed into blockaded Gaza, and called its 2.3 million inhabitants human animals", there was not a single protest from an official in a western capital. It is easy to see Palestinians as standing alone against Israel's military onslaught. Egypt and Israel, at peace since 1980, jointly blockade Gaza. In recent years, the region's US-backed authoritarian governments such as the United Arab Emirates have been signing a series of accords to normalise relations with Israel without any gains for the Palestinians. The widespread support that Palestinians received from Arab governments five decades ago has virtually evaporated.Yet looked at on a global scale, there is overwhelming support for Palestinian self-determination, and condemnation of Israel's latest attack on Palestinians in Gaza. Currently, 139 out of 192, or 72%, of UN member states recognise Palestine, against the express wishes of the US and Israel. This constitutes almost the entirety of Asia, Latin America and Africa, along with several European countries such as Sweden. Recent additions include Mexico, which broke with decades of fealty to the US by recognising Palestine in June.Musab Younis is senior lecturer in politics and international relations at Queen Mary University of London. His is the author of On the Scale of the World: The Formation of Black Anticolonial Thought Continue reading...
The owner of X has the power to elevate the hateful speech of others and bring about enormous harmWhen you've done as many awful things as Elon Musk has, it's challenging to outdo yourself. But the billionaire entrepreneur pulled that off this week with his endorsement of a blatantly antisemitic screed.You have said the absolute truth," Musk responded to a social media post that read: Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them." Continue reading...
Judge Aileen Cannon put off setting deadline for Trump to submit notice about what classified information he intends to use at trialDonald Trump's trial on charges that he retained classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago club and obstructed justice is running about four months behind schedule after the federal judge presiding in the case in Florida declined to set a crucial filing deadline until at least next March.The US district judge Aileen Cannon put off setting a deadline for Trump to submit a notice about what classified information he intends to use at trial - currently set for May - until after a hearing next year that almost certainly precludes the pre-trial process from finishing in time. Continue reading...
Lawsuit filed against Alabama department of corrections alleges Jeremy Pelzer pushed inmates to kill Robert Earl CouncilA lawsuit has been filed against the Alabama department of corrections (ADoC) alleging a guard encouraged prisoners to murder an activist currently incarcerated at the Limestone correctional facility in Harvest, Alabama.The complaint alleges a lieutenant correctional officer encouraged other prisoners to murder Robert Earl Council, a lead organizer in the 2022 Alabama prison strikes. Even if y'all killed him, I'll make sure nothing happens to y'all," Jeremy Pelzer told Crips gang members at Limestone prison in June, according to the suit. Continue reading...
The Italian club's American owners have attempted to turned the team into a business that goes beyond soccer. Now the on-field results need to followNot even Venezia were sure what they were getting when they signed Tanner Tessmann from FC Dallas in 2021. The club's general manager at the time, Alexander Menta, described the midfielder during an interview with Grant Wahl as my big bet". He loved Tessman's size, athleticism and work ethic but those attributes alone do not make an elite soccer player. Was it like a normal purchase where it was green lights all over the board? No," said Menta. And I told him the same thing."Tessmann had made his debut for the senior US men's national team a few months earlier but would not represent them again until this September. The two-and-a-half years in between have been as winding as the canals that cut through Venice's 126 islands. Now, though, it feels like he and his club may be finding their way out to the open water of the lagoon. Continue reading...
The outspoken Australian made his debut as a television analyst this week. It's perhaps no surprise that he excels in his new roleNick Krygios, pundit? King Kyrgios: the player who's been criticized and psychoanalyzed more than anyone else on the ATP Tour today; who's become almost the dictionary definition of the divisive tennis star"; whose career has been defined as much by his battles with the media as the men's Top 10. The villain, the bad boy, the ingrate, the brat. To imagine him putting aside a decade of beef to step behind the mic and assume the honeyed role of the tennis analyst seems faintly incongruous. Yet here he is, in half-profile from his spot on the Tennis Channel set, hands in pockets, relaxed, laughing and joking with Brett Haber and Jim Courier like an old media pro. He's wearing a dark jacket and a lilac T-shirt. The match comments are delivered with fluent authority. The cadence of panel chat comes easily to him: like a good baseliner, he knows when to step in and when to stay back. His hair looks nice. It turns out Kyrgios is pretty much the same on set as he is on court: rattlingly opinionated, and endlessly entertaining. Nick Kyrgios, pundit: why not?Alone with Novak Djokovic, the Australian star is the player that every tennis fan today must have an opinion on. I'll state mine up front: I love the guy. Yes, he's sometimes obnoxious on court (no more so than many others at the top of tennis, mind you), and his digs against other players can cut deep. But whether he's cruising or crashing, the man is compulsively watchable. He has opinions, and - unlike many other players on tour today - the courage to express them. He coaches himself, which makes him an exceptionally shrewd observer of the sport. Most importantly, he has a celestial gift for hitting a small fluorescent ball around a court. Continue reading...
The Labour leader has passed another stress test, but if he wants to carry all his MPs with him, he needs to offer a compelling alternativeWhat is the Labour party for in a time of war? The left has struggled with that question for decades, but the conflict between Israel and Hamas renders it painfully acute. If Labour isn't for a ceasefire, an end to the bloodshed, then what is it for? Is it in favour of premature babies dying because hospitals can't keep their incubators running, of refugee camps being bombed, of once-teeming neighbourhoods being reduced to wastelands?Put like that, the answer may seem obvious, and in emails to many of the 56 Labour MPs who rebelled against the whip on Wednesday night to call for a ceasefire, it will have been put in much more emotive terms. The former shadow minister Rosena Allin-Khan, who rebelled, said that while 99% of the thousands who contacted her did so respectfully, she had had to involve police over one where someone threatened to come and find me if I didn't vote their way". Death threats are sadly not a new experience for Allin-Khan, or many other MPs who have suffered attempted intimidation over a shockingly wide range of issues. But her story is a reminder of just how high feelings are running and of the pressures some MPs are under, whichever way they ultimately voted.Gaby Hinsliff 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...
Demonstration by about 200 people urging Gaza ceasefire shut down commuter route and formed a human chain between carsDozens of protesters were arrested on Thursday after shutting down a portion of the San Francisco Bay Bridge as part of a demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.The protest blocked all westbound traffic on the bridge - a key commuter route into the city that sees roughly 260,000 vehicles daily - as San Francisco hosts the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum. The city has seen numerous demonstrations in response to the forum from activists decrying corporate profits, environmental abuses and the Israel-Hamas war. Continue reading...
Loay Abdelfattah Alnaji charged with involuntary manslaughter of Paul Kessler, who died from head injury at LA demonstrationA college professor was arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter and battery in connection with the death of a Jewish protester following an altercation at a protest over the Israel-Hamas war in southern California.Authorities said on Thursday that Loay Abdelfattah Alnaji, 50, personally inflicted great bodily injury" on Paul Kessler, 69, during a confrontation at a demonstration in Thousand Oaks, a suburb north-west of Los Angeles. Continue reading...
Brett Hankinson faced federal civil rights charges over excessive use of force but did not fire fatal shots in 2020 Kentucky operationA federal judge declared a mistrial on Thursday afternoon after a jury deadlocked on civil rights charges against a former Louisville police officer who fired stray bullets in the raid that left Breonna Taylor dead.Brett Hankison was charged with using excessive force that violated the rights of Breonna Taylor, her boyfriend and her nextdoor neighbors. Hankison fired 10 shots into Taylor's window and a glass door after officers came under fire during the flawed drug warrant search on 13 March 2020. Some of his shots flew into a neighboring apartment, but none of them struck anyone. Continue reading...
Damaging lawsuit filed by ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura, the singer Cassie, alleges Combs abused her for more than 10 yearsSean Combs, a hip-hop icon and the founder of Bad Boy Records, has been accused of rape and abuse in a major lawsuit filed by the singer Cassie that alleges he used his powerful network to keep her trapped in a violent relationship with him.Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, dated Combs for more than a decade. She alleges that over the course of their relationship, Combs assaulted her multiple times - viciously beating and raping her - and controlled every aspect of her life, the New York Times first reported on Thursday. She faced a cycle of abuse, violence, and sex trafficking" until their relationship ended in 2018, according to the lawsuit. Continue reading...
Kelsey Hatcher, a 32-year-old expecting baby girls, was not diagnosed with the rare anomaly uterus didelphys until last springAn Alabama woman with two uteruses is expecting baby girls in both wombs, an astounding" and rare pregnancy, according to doctors.Kelsey Hatcher, a 32-year-old mom of three was born with a rare uterine anomaly called uterus didelphys, or two uteruses. However, she was not diagnosed with the condition until last spring, when she discovered she was pregnant - in each uterus. Continue reading...
Trial judge Arthur Engoron had imposed gag order last month after the former president maligned a court clerkA New York appeals court judge on Thursday paused a gag order that barred Donald Trump from commenting on court staffers in his civil fraud trial. The trial judge had imposed the gag order last month and later fined Trump $15,000 for violations after the former president made a disparaging social media post about a court clerk.In his decision, Judge David Friedman of the state's intermediate appeals court cited constitutional concerns about restricting Trump's free speech. He issued a stay of the gag order, allowing Trump to comment freely about court staff while a longer appeals process plays out. Continue reading...
Rightwing conspiracy theorist convicted of attempted kidnapping and assault in 2022 attack on Paul PelosiDavid DePape, the rightwing conspiracy theorist who attacked Nancy Pelosi's husband in their San Francisco home, has been convicted of attempted kidnapping and assault.The federal jury's decision on Thursday comes after a dramatic trial in which Paul Pelosi testified about the traumatic" hammer attack he suffered on 28 October 2022, days before the midterm elections. DePape also took the stand in his defense, saying he had planned to interrogate the former House speaker and post footage of her online. Continue reading...
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