The fashion designer celebrated at the V&A had an extraordinary talent for reinvention and even those who knew her struggled to convey her essenceThe Chanel exhibition at the V&A, which opened last week to cries of ecstasy from the fashion crowd, is full of extraordinary clothes; the jewellery and darling little trouser suits had even me weak at the knees. But the designer herself is more of an absence than a presence. Staring at a photograph from 1928, in which she's dressed in full hunting gear and sharing a joke with Winston Churchill and several beagles, I wondered again who she really was. Coco Chanel grew up poor; as a child, she spoke in patois. By the time of this picture, however, she was having an affair with the Duke of Westminster, the richest man in Britain. The capacity of human beings to reinvent themselves never ceases to fascinate me.Back at home to write my review, I searched for her essence on my bookshelves. But even those who knew her struggle to convey the inner Chanel (the outer Chanel was easy, as long as you had an eye for boucle and buttonholes). If she was magnetic, she was also a void - or perhaps I mean a mirror. Continue reading...
Any system of government that pits a vengeful crook against a fading old-timer is not working wellUS president Joe Biden has many reasons to be grateful he is not a member of Britain's ruling Conservatives, but one in particular stands out. When a Tory prime minister is polling badly, looking jaded and in danger of becoming a liability or a joke, they don't mess about.It doesn't matter whether it's Boris Johnson, Liz Truss or even Margaret Thatcher of sainted memory. Party chiefs put their heads together, have a quiet word. And the erstwhile leader, once lauded by all, is out. Done. Dumped. Deposed. Deposited on Downing Street's rubbish heap of history. Continue reading...
We support older people financially, but we deprive them of respect at our perilAgeism is perhaps the most paradoxical prejudice: we are, barring accident, discriminating against ourselves. Members of the persecuting in-group are through the course of their lives gently conveyor-belted into the persecuted out-group, which is, when you think about it, a very strange state of affairs. If the rich inevitably became poor at a certain life stage, you might expect society to fill with vigorous socialists. But ageism persists. Why?The best explanation perhaps is that it comes down to a sort of mass delusion on the part of the young. John Steinbeck wrote of America's temporarily embarrassed millionaires", the poor who resist measures to hand them money because they believe one day they will be rich. When it comes to ageing, the fallacy runs in the other direction: the lucky believe their luck will never end. One day that will be us struggling with newfangled technology," the young say, as a joke, not really thinking it will be. I'll need that Zimmer frame one day," they say, thinking they won't. Continue reading...
Former US president makes comment in interview with NBC after being told Putin approved of his stance on Russia invasionDonald Trump enjoyed hearing that he had drawn praise from the Russian leader Vladimir Putin, the former US president and frontrunner for the 2024 Republican White House nomination has said.Told during a recorded interview with the new NBC Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker that Putin had fawned over his stance on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Trump replied: I like that he said that. Because that means what I'm saying is right." Continue reading...
Descendants of enslaved people lost a bid to limit development on an island they inhabit, ensuring the encroachment of mainlandersIn a small, wood-paneled courtroom in rural south-east Georgia, with painted portraits of McIntosh county's current and past white judges on the walls, three county commissioners dismissed a colleague's plea. At stake was the size of structures built on Sapelo Island, which is home to the last intact Gullah Geechee community in the United States. Roger Lotson, the sole Black commissioner on the otherwise all-white panel, had asked the commission to do what the residents of the remote sea island had been asking for years: maintain limits on the size of homes there to dissuade developers and non-descendants from encroaching on their land. On Tuesday night, for the third time in two weeks, Sapelo residents and their supporters packed the courtroom to make their voices heard. Three white commissioners ignored them.By a 3-2 vote, the McIntosh county commission approved a zoning ordinance change that will allow homes on the island to be as large as 3,000 square feet - double the size of the current limit, and far larger than the small homes and trailers in which most of the descendants live. The measure may open the floodgates to wealthy prospective land-buyers looking to build vacation homes on the mostly-uninhabited island. Unlike St Simons Island and Hilton Head, where the culturally Indigenous Gullah Geechee are all but forgotten amid a tourist haven of pristine golf courses and private beachfronts, Sapelo Island has so far avoided the contemporary explosion of development that has displaced Gullah communities. Black Sapelo residents, whose formerly enslaved ancestors started taking control of the land they toiled upon when Sapelo was abandoned after the US civil war, worry that Tuesday's vote may turn their island into a muted version of nearby island destinations, where mainlanders have run roughshod over the quiet, rural lifestyles that descendants had enjoyed for centuries. Continue reading...
Researchers in Poland have developed tests that can detect if a woman has taken mifepristone. It's a chilling developmentHave you ever come across a scientific study and immediately thought to yourself: why? What was the point of this work exactly? Why were resources and brainpower devoted to figuring this particular thing out? Continue reading...
As deadly disasters increase in frequency and magnitude, so does the emotional weight for those who recover the bodiesWalking through the ruins of Lahaina day after day, in between the rubble of destroyed homes and ash-covered streets, Eric Darling would try to remember his motto.Everybody comes home," the retired California firefighter would tell himself. Including me." Continue reading...
Horns blare in support of strikers outside the carmakers' plant in Wayne, Michigan, as union members attack corporate greed'Under blue skies in Wayne, Michigan, a half-hour outside Detroit, the mood was festive but defiant as hundreds of autoworkers settled in for the first weekend of picketing at the entrances to Ford's Michigan Assembly Plant.Ford's workers were among the first to go out in a series of targeted strikes that marked the beginning of the largest industrial action taken by US car workers in over a decade. Continue reading...
The Vermont senator Bernie Sanders said US motor workers were 'fighting against corporate greed' as he spoke in support of the biggest automotive industry strike in decades. Speaking to members of the United Auto Workers union at a rally in Detroit, Michigan, Sanders said it was reasonable for employees at the largest US auto companies - Ford, Stellantis and General Motors - to get a 'fair share of the record-breaking profits'. A disagreement over a new contract led to about 130,000 workers taking to the picket lines shortly after midnight on Thursday
My own recovery from the hopeless' stage of this condition shows we must never give up on patientsThe leaking of NHS documents last week describing how patients with longstanding eating disorders could be offered palliative care under new guidelines in the east of England was shocking but not unexpected. The very fact that these severe and enduring eating disorder (Seed) treatment pathways exist at all is scandalous.A running joke among service users is that the Seed treatment pathway is where you go when services have given up on you. Outpatient services seemingly don't know how to treat these patients other than to manage terminal decline. But inpatient services don't, either - the fact that palliative options are even on the table shows that.Dorothy Dunn is a freelance journalistDo 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...
Jack Smith asked judge Tanya Chutkan to restrict ex-president's statements in federal election subversion trialThe US special counsel prosecuting Donald Trump for election subversion has asked a judge to impose limited restrictions" on the former president's public statements, citing his frequent inflammatory attacks" on the court, prospective witnesses and citizens of Washington DC.In a filing on Friday, federal prosecutors requested that judge Tanya Chutkan issue a narrow" gag order that would prohibit Trump from making statements regarding the identity, testimony, or credibility of prospective witnesses" and about any party, witness, attorney, court personnel, or potential jurors that are disparaging and inflammatory, or intimidating". Continue reading...
Police chief confirmed number of missing had also dropped from 41 to 31 and that 74 of the deceased had been identifiedThe number of confirmed fatalities from the Maui wildfires is at least 97 people, a lower death toll than what officials had previously announced, Hawaii governor Josh Green said in an interview on CNN on Friday.State leaders said last month that at least 115 people had died in the 8 August blaze but on Friday said new testing showed they were counting multiple DNA samples from some of the victims. John Pelltier, the Maui police chief, said in a press conference that the number of missing people had also dropped from 41 to 31. And so far, 74 of the deceased have been positively identified. Continue reading...
Senator kicks off United Auto Workers' largest strike against US's big three carmakers amid record company profitsUS car workers striking against the nation's three biggest automakers are waging ... a fight against the outrageous level of corporate greed" seen across the country, Bernie Sanders said on Friday.The liberal US senator's remarks came on Friday afternoon during a rally with the United Auto Workers in Detroit, Michigan, kicking off the first day of the union's Stand Up" strikes against General Motors, Stellantis and Ford. Continue reading...
Protesters in Seattle joined Indian diplomats and the police commission in demanding accountabilityOutrage grew on Friday over a Seattle police officer's remark that the life of a young woman killed by a speeding patrol car had limited value". Diplomats from India are asking for an investigation following the death of the Indian graduate student, as people in Seattle protested against the officer's callous jokes caught on body-camera video.The footage released this week contains audio of Officer Daniel Auderer, vice-president of the Seattle police officers guild, joking with the rank-and-file police union's president after a different officer's speeding police car slammed into Jaahnavi Kandula at a crosswalk on 23 January. Continue reading...
Auto workers in the US have launched a historic series of strikes after their union failed to reach an agreement with the country's three largest vehicle manufacturers.The disagreement over a new contract saw workers at Ford, Stellantis and GM plants called out from the shop floor to the picket lines shortly after midnight on Friday, kicking off the most ambitious industrial labor action in decades for about 130,000 workers.Workers are pushing for at least a 40% wage increase over four years in a new contract; an end to two-tier wage systems in which new hires are paid significantly less for doing the same work; an increase to benefits for retirees and return of a defined pension
Critics say the assault, which killed 183 people during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, could have been stoppedThe Pentagon's Central Command has ordered interviews of roughly two dozen more service members who were at the Kabul airport when suicide bombers attacked during US forces' chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal, as criticism persists that the deadly assault could have been stopped.The interviews - ordered by Erik Kurilla, a general and head of US Central Command - were triggered in part by assertions by at least one service member injured in the blast who said he was never interviewed about it and that he might have been able to stop the attackers. Continue reading...
Ellis, one of 18 Trump associates charged in Georgia election subversion case, says she simply can't support him' againJenna Ellis - the Donald Trump lawyer who like the former president faces criminal charges regarding attempted election subversion in his defeat by Joe Biden in 2020 - says she will not vote for him in the future because he is a malignant narcissist" who cannot admit mistakes.I simply can't support him for elected office again," Ellis said. Why I have chosen to distance is because of that frankly malignant narcissistic tendency to simply say that he's never done anything wrong." Continue reading...
Storm Daniel hits central Greece, Russian shelling in Bakhmut, an Israeli army raid in the West Bank and a muddy Burning Man festival: the most striking images this week Continue reading...
This blog has closed. Read more on this story hereA New York state appeals court judge put the civil fraud trial involving the New York attorney general's office and Donald Trump and his company on temporary hold after a last-minute legal challenge by the former president's legal team.Justice David Friedman, a judge on the state's intermediate appellate court, ordered a potential postponement of the non-jury trial, which had been scheduled to start on 2 October. The judge granted an interim stay of the trial and ordered the full appeals court to consider the lawsuit on an expedited basis.We are confident in our case and will be ready for trial. Continue reading...
Key questions answered after UAW workers at Ford, Stellantis and General Motors walked off the jobIndustrial action billed as the biggest auto strike in generations" got under way late on Thursday night for 150,000 US autoworkers, with employees at Ford, Stellantis and General Motors walking off the job at 11.59pm after contract negotiations failed to reach a deal.It's the latest in a series of strikes called or threatened by workers in industries including shipping and logistics, TV and movie production and hotel and leisure. Given its scale, the strike could deal a significant blow to the US economy as well as the auto industry.General Motors CEO Mary Barra made $29m in 2022 - 362 times the median wage of $80,034 at the company.Ford CEO Jim Farley made $21m in 2022 - 281 times the median worker of $74,691.Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares made $24.8m in 2022 - 365 times the average worker's $67,789 wage. Continue reading...
Pilot Eugene Peltola Jr, 57, the husband of Mary Peltola, a US representative from Alaska, was the only person on boardEugene Peltola Jr, the husband of Alaska Democratic congresswoman Mary Peltola, was returning from a remote hunting camp carrying moose meat when the plane he was flying crashed, killing him, authorities said.Peltola Jr, 57, was the only person aboard the small plane when it crashed late on Tuesday. Two hunters who were at the camp in western Alaska at the time provided medical care, authorities have said. Continue reading...
United Auto Workers union unable to agree deal with Ford, GM and Stellantis, who have seen profits and executive pay soarJoe Biden on Friday spoke out in support of auto workers as they launched a historic series of strikes after their union failed to reach an agreement with the US's three largest vehicle manufacturers.No one wants a strike, but I respect workers' rights to use their options under the collective bargaining system, and [I] understand their frustrations," the US president said in a brief, unscheduled appearance at the White House. Continue reading...
Far-right conspiracy theorist spending tens of thousands on high-end restaurants while failing to pay damages from legal verdictThe rightwing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is continuing to live the high life while refusing to pay a cent of the $1.5bn damages he owes families of victims of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting he called a hoax.Court documents show that the disgraced host of the far-right conspiracy theory and hoax news website Infowars is spending tens of thousands of dollars a month on expenses" including high-end restaurants and groceries, while payments to the families are frozen following his declaration of bankruptcy last year. Continue reading...
The US president said on Friday that no one wanted the United Auto Workers' union to strike in its labour dispute with the big three US carmakers - but workers should get a share of the profits those companies are making.Biden told reporters at the White House that he understood the workers' frustration, adding: 'Record corporate profits ... should be shared by record contracts for the UAW'
Moving low-income, Black people into better' neighborhoods splits up communities and does not solve povertyFor 20 or so years, the architects of public housing have clung tightly to what became conventional wisdom in the field: move residents of low-income neighborhoods out of public housing and into economically resourced neighborhoods.As the theory goes, middle-class and wealthy communities with high-quality schools, healthcare and public facilities could work wonders" on the residents of low-income and mostly Black neighborhoods. This idea - which advocates call mixed-income housing" and includes Section 8, among other programs - depends on the idea that people with low incomes, especially those who are Black, are somehow culturally deficient. They need to be immersed in better" neighborhoods so they are no longer exposed to food deserts, street violence and a lack of employment opportunities. Continue reading...
Keir Starmer insists there's no case for rejoining. But his migration plan and other desperate Tory fixes merely seek to repair the damageIt was only an aside. Keir Starmer wasn't planning to talk about Brexit, but a subject almost as perilous for his party: migration. Still, Good Morning Britain wanted to know if his plan to strike a deal with the European Union in order to stop the small boats crossing the Channel meant he was weakening his stance on EU withdrawal. There's no case for going back to the EU," he said, no case for going into the single market or customs union, and no freedom of movement."Those words were hardly a shock. Starmer has said similar things before, though sometimes adding the gentle qualification that he could see no political case" for rejoining the EU, a formulation that hints that while restored membership might be desirable, it's not feasible. The balder declaration he deployed on Thursday insists that there's not even an argument to be made in principle for British re-entry.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist. He will host a Guardian Live event with Gordon Brown on Tuesday 26 September at 7pm BST. The event will be live in London and livestreamed - book tickets here Continue reading...
Diego Stolz died after being beaten by two middle school classmates at campus in southern California in 2019The family of a 13-year-old boy who died after being beaten by two middle school classmates at their campus in southern California has secured a $27m settlement in what the plaintiffs' attorneys are calling the largest bullying-related settlement in the history of US litigation.Felipe and Juana Salcedo received the settlement from the Moreno Valley unified school district over the September 2019 death of Diego Stolz. Continue reading...
The sentence was created to make sense of the world, but some things are beyond logic. Forget what you learned at school, let the words outTreat yourself. Instead of reading the rest of this article, first go and write down something that's bothering you ...... I'm now assuming you've done just that, and have come back to this, the next sentence. My theory is that writing is great for dealing with bothers. We often hear of the talking cure - I'm up for that. I've often talked about the doing cure. It's saved me many times. I think with huge fondness of the gentle way in which colleagues at the BBC quietly nudged me into doable tasks after my son Eddie died. Many people in my situation at that time are not so lucky. Long stretches of nothingness can be tough, straight after a big loss.Michael Rosen is a writer and broadcaster. His book Getting Better: Life Lessons on Going Under, Getting Over It, And Getting Through It is published by Ebury Press Continue reading...
Progressive Tiffany Caban says Eric Adams' hostile comments on migrants have real possibility' of inciting violenceA prominent New York progressive is warning that mayor Eric Adams's hostile comments about the rising number of migrants in the city are dangerous" and risk inciting violence against the new arrivals and other immigrants.Tiffany Caban, aiming for re-election to the city council this November and long endorsed by leading leftwing figures, including US senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, attacked as irresponsible" the mayor's remarks last week that the sharp increase in migration to New York would destroy" the city. Continue reading...
Seven years ago, I fought my school for the right to wear the hair I was born with. Now I work as an ambassador for changeThis autumn I'm about to start my final year of university. All being well, I'll graduate soon with a BSc in management, and I'll do so wearing my hair however I choose. That's not something I thought I would be able say a few years ago. But now, I'm proud to have got my education back on track after years of fighting for the right to go to school while wearing my natural hair.My battle began when I was 14, in 2016, when teachers first starting telling me my afro hair was too big". I was sent home, several times, and with my family behind me I decided to fight the school's decision, supported by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). We eventually received a settlement, and in 2022 the EHRC issued groundbreaking new guidance to schools in the hope that no child would be discriminated against for having hair that's associated with their race or ethnicity. Continue reading...
Plus, Drew Barrymore and Ashton Kutcher vie for title of this news cycle's most awful, and Angela Rippon soothes the spiritIt can be hard to remember sometimes that Donald Trump and Joe Biden are approximately the same age - Biden is 80 to Trump's 77 - so that if one is too old to lead the free world, categorically the other is, too. Even among sensible observers, however, this is not how the age conversation shakes out. On Sunday night, Biden arrived for a state visit to Vietnam, kicking off a tour of Asia, and on Monday the New York Times splashed with a headline that played on the idea of the president as a doddery old man: It is evening, isn't it?' An 80-year-old president's whirlwind trip". Continue reading...
US news organizations have turned Biden's age into a scandal and continue to cover Trump as an entertaining side showChristiane Amanpour has reported all over the world, so she recognizes a democracy on the brink when she sees one.Last week, as she celebrated her 40 years at CNN, she issued a challenge to her fellow journalists in the US by describing how she would cover US politics as a foreign correspondent.News organizations have turned Biden's age (granted, a legitimate concern) into the equivalent of a scandal. In story after story, headline after headline, they emphasize not his administration's accomplishments, but the fact that he's 80. A New York Times headline during his recent diplomatic mission to Asia epitomized this, turning the president's joke about jet lag into an impression of a doddering fool: It is evening, isn't it?' An 80-Year-Old President's Whirlwind Trip." Ian Millhiser of Vox nailed the problem: I worry the Biden is old' coverage is starting to take on the same character as the 2016 But Her Emails coverage - find something that is genuinely suboptimal about the Democratic candidate and dwell on it endlessly to balance' coverage of the criminal in charge of the GOP."The evidence-free Biden impeachment efforts in the House of Representatives are presented to news consumers without sufficient context. In the first round of headlines last week, most news outlets simply reported what speaker Kevin McCarthy was doing as if it were completely legitimate - the result of his likely high crimes and misdemeanors. The Washington Post presented it seriously: Kevin McCarthy directs House committees to open formal Biden impeachment inquiries," adding in a credulous line: The inquiry will center on whether President Biden benefited from his son's business dealings ... " No hint of what is really happening here. In this case, the New York Times was a welcome exception: McCarthy, Facing an Ouster and a Shutdown, Orders an Impeachment Inquiry." That's more like it.Trump continues to be covered mostly as an entertaining side show - his mug shot! His latest insults! - not a perilous threat to democracy, despite four indictments and 91 charges against him, and despite his own clear statements that his re-election would bring extreme anti-democratic results; he would replace public servants with the cronies who'll do his bidding. We will look back on this and wish more people had understood that Biden is our bulwark of democratic freedoms and the alternative is worse than most Americans can imagine," commented Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of Strongmen, and an expert in authoritarian regimes. Continue reading...
Mount Dora decided to affiliate to popular national initiative but group of state representatives branded it deceptive and coercive'A central Florida city is moving forward with plans to join the popular national Safe Place initiative protecting LGBTQ+ people and others, despite opposition from Republicans who consider it a deceptive and coercive" political mandate.Councilors in Mount Dora, a historic and eclectic small city famous for its antiques stores, art galleries and festivals, voted last month to affiliate with Safe Place, which seeks to give victims of hate crimes or bias a temporary shelter if they feel threatened. Continue reading...
Frustrated residents of rural county seek answers over officials' involvement in alleged election conspiracyThe Coffee county, Georgia, board of elections held its first meeting Tuesday after being mentioned more than 50 times in Fulton county's indictment of Donald Trump and 18 others for allegedly participating in a criminal conspiracy to change the outcome of the 2020 election. Local residents, still frustrated over a lack of accountability for officials who may have known about the conspiracy, pressured the reluctant board for an independent investigation.The small, rural county 200 miles south-east of Atlanta made its way into the indictment - and global headlines - because Trump allegedly sent associates there to copy software and other digital information from the state's elections system in early 2021. Marilyn Marks, executive director of the Coalition for Good Governance, called it the largest voting systems breach in US history". Continue reading...
Deadline expires with sides still far apart on union's contract priorities. Plus, Hunter Biden indicted on federal charges Don't already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.Auto workers have launched a series of strikes after their union failed to reach agreement with the US's three largest manufacturers over a new contract, kicking off the most ambitious industrial labor action in decades.How many workers are employed at the first plants on strike? Strikes kicked off at midnight at three plants of a combined 12,700 workers (a General Motors plant in Wentzville, Missouri, a Stellantis plant in Toledo, Ohio, and a Ford assembly plant in Wayne, Michigan).What do workers demand? Among the demands are a 40% pay increase, an end to tiers - where some workers are paid at lower wage scales than others - and the restoration of concessions from previous contracts such as medical benefits for retirees, more paid time off and rights for workers affected by plant closures.How much is the strike fund? The UAW has a $825m strike fund that is set to compensate workers $500 a week while out on strike, and could support all of its members for about three months.How long could he face in prison if convicted? Up to 25 years. Biden faces up to 10 years in prison on each of two counts of making false statements to a Delaware gun dealer who sold him the gun, and five for possessing it as someone with drug addiction. Continue reading...
Bad mother' behaviour seems to include anything that even hints at maternal ambivalence or a desire for more freedomIt's hard enough being a working mother of young children, especially one in the process of getting divorced, without being smeared in the press as a bad mum. That's what's been happening to the actor Sophie Turner since her split from her pop singer husband, Joe Jonas, with various reports appearing on celebrity gossip websites casting aspersions on her parenting. Apparently she likes to party, he likes to stay at home", he's been in dad mode" caring for his own children pretty much all of the time" (Turner has been filming in the UK), and, in deciding to divorce, is taking the best course of action for his girls".The misogynistic undercurrents of these reports are clear: Turner is an irresponsible, absent mother who has had the audacity to make childcare arrangements with her partner in order to work, and worse, attend a wrap party where cocktails - cocktails! - were freely available. Meanwhile, Jonas is a present, loving father who is going above and beyond for his children, and is choosing to divorce their mother, it is implied, for their own welfare. Continue reading...
Celia Nabor oversaw early voting in Maricopa county in 2022 - then an online horde of election deniers decided to hunt her downThis article was published in partnership with Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the US.They started searching for her in late January. Continue reading...
The American official has been chased by angry fans during her career but she has no regrets over a career that has taken her across the globeAs a teenage referee, Tori Penso knew her job would involve running. Yet taking charge of a heated game played between 16-year-old boys, she never thought running would actually mean sprinting to her car to escape three men enraged by her performance. Penso, though, can run fast. She made it to her car, locked the doors, fled from her pursuers, and then burst into tears.I said that I don't want to do this," Penso, now 37, says. I don't need people chasing me. I can do something else." Continue reading...
The Jets' championship window is narrow. They need to make an aggressive move after Aaron Rodgers's season ended with an achilles injuryHow do you put the pieces back together on a season that disintegrated in four plays?The New York Jets are still coming to terms with Aaron Rodgers's achilles tear and its short- and long-term impact. The solution for now: They'll turn to Zach Wilson. I want to make it very clear, Zach's our quarterback," Jets head coach Robert Saleh said after it was confirmed Rodgers will miss the rest of the season.Jacoby Brissett, Washington CommandersJameis Winston, New Orleans SaintsSam Darnold, San Francisco 49ersCase Keenum, Houston TexansAndy Dalton, Carolina Panthers Continue reading...
In a rare moment of insight, the broadcaster articulated an undeniable truth: in the UK, the vastly wealthy hold the powerIt was one of the abiding mysteries of public life. How did Piers Morgan rise so far? I see him as a buffoon, a bully, a windbag. Yet, despite scandals that would have killed most people's careers, he rose like a methane bubble in a slurry lagoon, occupying some of the most prestigious and lucrative positions in the media. This week, reflecting on the life and abuses of the plutocrat Mohamed Al Fayed, Private Eye magazine produced an explanation. It came from Morgan himself, writing about Fayed in 1999. I've always made it a strict rule in life to ingratiate myself with three categories of people: newspaper owners, potential newspaper owners and billionaires. And since Mohamed Al Fayed is a billionaire and would love to own a newspaper, sucking up to him seems an extremely sensible move."The strategy is not unusual. But voicing it is. Morgan expressed the unspoken rule of public life out loud. If you want to get ahead, grovel to billionaires, especially those who own the media. The obvious coda to the rule is: because they are the people with real power". Continue reading...
The Ukrainian president is expected to visit the White House and Capitol Hill during the UN general assembly meetingThe Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is expected at the White House and on Capitol Hill next week as he visits the US during the United Nations general assembly.Zelenskiy's trip comes as Congress is debating President Joe Biden's request to provide as much as $24bn in military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine as it fights the Russian invasion. Continue reading...
Jason Brown, 48, linked to neo-Nazi group, charged with criminal mischief after police said hate banners were hung in OrlandoFlorida authorities have arrested a man after he allegedly hung extremist hate symbols including swastikas over a bridge.On Wednesday, the Florida department of law enforcement (FDLE) announced that 48-year-old Jason Brown of Cape Canaveral was arrested for allegedly hanging swastikas and other antisemitic banners along the Daryl Carter Parkway overpass in Orlando and charged him with criminal mischief. Continue reading...
State senate moves to oust nonpartisan elections administrator Meagan Wolfe, who became lightning rod for conspiracy theoriesWisconsin's top elections official suffered another blow on Thursday when the Republican-controlled state senate voted to fire her by a party line vote of 22 to 11. Meagan Wolfe's status as elections administrator will now likely be determined in court.Legal experts and the Wisconsin attorney general have disputed the move by Republican senators to remove Wolfe, a respected and accomplished non-partisan leader. Her removal would affect the administration of elections in 2024 and illustrates the increasingly wide reach of election deniers and rightwing conspiracy theorists in Wisconsin politics. Continue reading...
Former House speaker says people shouldn't underestimate vice-president and that she will work to get Biden and Harris re-electedNancy Pelosi seemed to offer a less-than-ringing endorsement when asked if Kamala Harris was the best running mate for Joe Biden next year, saying: He thinks so, and that's what matters."But the former US House speaker also had praise for the vice-president, telling CNN: And, by the way, she's very politically astute. I don't think people give her enough credit. She's ... consistent with the president's values and the rest." Continue reading...
US president says he is not focused on impeachment' but believes inquiry is linked to Republican desire to achieve federal shutdownJoe Biden said Republicans launched an impeachment inquiry against him because they want to shut down the government".Biden was speaking at a campaign event in McLean, Virginia, on Wednesday, a day after the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, conceded to pressure from the right of his party and announced the inquiry. Continue reading...
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