Senator concerned over Lt Gen Ronald P Clark's alleged role in lack of transparency' around Austin's hospitalizationThe Republican US senator Tommy Tuberville is blocking the promotion of an army general and top aide to Lloyd Austin, the US defense secretary, citing concerns about the military leader's alleged role in the lack of transparency surrounding Austin's hospitalization earlier this year.The army general in question, Lt Gen Ronald P Clark, has been nominated to become the four-star commander of all US army forces in the Pacific. But the Alabama senator and retired college football coach is holding up the promotion, according to the Washington Post. Continue reading...
We never thought we would ask ourselves these questions, but they have not left our minds for the last decadeWhen does a democracy end, and a theocracy begin? Have India, Hungary and Israel already slipped into the latter category? Is it possible that Brazil and the United States will also cross the line?We never thought we would ask ourselves these questions, but they have not left our minds for the last decade - until we were able to address them more directly in the form of a film, Apocalypse in the Tropics, which looks specifically into the relationship of the far right and Christian fundamentalism in Brazil.Petra Costa and Alessandra Orofino are the director and producer of Apocalypse in the Tropics Continue reading...
The populism championed by Meloni and her allies casts freedom and human rights not merely as dangers but as targetsRome Wasn't Built in a Day" and neither was the consensus for the neo-fascism of the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, in Italy. As the well-known activist and writer Michela Murgia warned, Do not expect fascism to knock on your door, manifesting itself." Her words highlight how the current government's fascism has been creeping in over the years, creating enemies by instilling fear and promoting a racial and religious community that excludes those it deems different.In this community, patriarchy serves as a perfect ally, providing a means of control under the guise of the Natural Order. It enforces normality" through binary choices, centering the family around the man as the primary provider while relegating the woman to the role of the object" who generates and cares.Luisa Rizzitelli is the Italy coordinator of One Billion Rising, which campaigns to end violence against women Continue reading...
Maeve's Place serves up hearty meals and provides a place where workers with disabilities can find meaning and belongingThe menu at Maeve's Place, a cozy coffee shop nestled in the Catskill mountains, is far more extensive than that of your traditional java joint. On offer are eggs any style you wish, a range of pastries and eight types of mac and cheese. The kitchen isn't the main point, though.Iva Walsh, a single mother of four who immigrated to the US from the Czech Republic in the late 1980s, opened the upstate New York establishment in 2018 to provide work opportunities for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Her roster of nine employees includes her 26-year-old daughter, after whom the business is named. Walsh's son, Daniel Hellmayer, a 41-year-old Culinary Institute of America graduate, works at the cafe as a full-time chef. Continue reading...
Washington and Beijing hoping to open new regular communication channels to avoid misunderstandingsThe United States and China have held high-level commander talks for the first time, Chinese authorities said, amid efforts to stabilise military ties and avoid misunderstandings, especially in regional hotspots such as the South China Sea.Washington hopes to open new channels of regular military communication with Beijing after ties sank to a historic low when the United States downed a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon last year. Continue reading...
A woman emerging from chemotherapy feels obliged to be filmed in a wheatfield to appease the public. What does that say about the monarchy, and us?I wonder if we will come to look back on that supposed great virtue of our age - controlling the narrative - and see it for the cornered form of submission it so often is? I felt nothing but immense pity for the cancer-stricken Princess of Wales before the release of her intimate family video yesterday, and the sheer weirdness of the resulting enterprise has only magnified the pathos of her situation. Watching the three-minute film, shot by some ad man, I wondered who could possibly feel it was anything but sad that a recovering post-chemo mother should feel that this is her best option for keeping well-wishers" at bay a little longer.A lot of people could, it seems from the feverish coverage since it dropped - meaning that convention demands I couch the notion that the existence of the video is in any way weird as my unpopular opinion". In which case, allow me to chuck in another unpopular opinion: this sort of thing appeals precisely to the grownups who when Diana died demanded that the then Queen leave off comforting her grieving 12- and 15-year-old grandsons in Scotland to come back to London - in effect to look after them instead. The selfishness and self-importance of a certain stripe of loyal subject is at best demandingly prurient and at worst grotesque. We hear a lot about the male gaze. The royalist's gaze could do with more unpicking.Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
James Earl Jones won much acclaim throughout his career for his performances on stage and screen. His sonorous tones became world famous and gave voice to legendary characters such as Star Wars' principal villain, Darth Vader, and The Lion King's Mufasa. The US actor starred in a number of films and won two Tony awards in a career that spanned more than six decades. Jones died at his home in Dutchess county, New York, aged 93
The right's Michel Barnier is now PM - and the NFP must share the blame for failing to unite behind a plausible candidateMy friend Guillaume recently hit on a perfect analogy for French politics: in a scene fromSuccession, Logan Roy's children ask him why he is putting them through so much misery, and why he won't just turn his company over to them. To which the surly CEO says: I love you, but you are not serious people."The beauty of the Fifth Republic's institutions is how flexible they are. When there is a clear majority, the system is presidential. When there's not, it's parliamentary. Except, a parliament with no clear majority requires serious people willing to do the difficult work of forming a coalition that is able to govern. And unfortunately, France's collection of leftwing parties were unable to be serious about what governing entails. Continue reading...
Polls neck and neck as the presidential candidates prepare to clash in Tuesday's ABC debate. Plus, inside the global organ tradeGood morning.At 9pm EST tonight, on a debate stage in Philadelphia, weeks of rigorous preparation and breathless analysis will be road-tested with reality, as Kamala Harris and Donald Trump go head-to-head in their first presidential debate.What do the polls say? One recent national New York Times/Siena College poll found that Trump was up one percentage point over Harris - a difference within the survey's three-percentage point margin of error.What are the debate's rules? Tuesday's event, hosted by ABC, will take place under the same rules that governed the Trump-Biden debate, with candidates' microphones being muted when it is their opponent's turn to speak.What do we know about the Israeli strikes? The Gaza civil emergency service said at least 20 tents caught fire, and missiles caused craters 30ft deep. The Israel Defense Forces said it struck significant Hamas terrorists, who were operating within a command and control centre embedded inside the humanitarian area in Khan Younis".What is the humanitarian cost of the war? Since the 7 October attack, when Hamas killed about 1,200 people and took 250 hostage, the Israeli assault on Gaza has killed more than 40,000 people, decimated infrastructure and housing, displaced at least 90% of the population, and brought widespread malnutrition and famine to the coastal strip. Continue reading...
by Lily Greenberg Call and Henry Hicks IV on (#6QM0D)
We must commit to the coalition work that might bring freedom for some of the most vulnerable among usThe two of us come together each year at the midway point between Easter and Passover to watch DreamWorks' 1998 film The Prince of Egypt. Having met in Des Moines, Iowa, as two young organizers on Vice-President Kamala Harris's 2019 presidential campaign, we quickly uncovered this overlap in childhood memory - spending our drives through pastures and cornfields singing along to the adaptation of the Exodus parable. While our introductions to the film came through different avenues - children's services at a Black Baptist church in suburban Atlanta and Passover seders in San Diego - we'd both been taught as children a common message of commitment to justice and freedom for oppressed people.It's a value that steered our door-knocking and phone-banking to beat Donald Trump in 2020. A value that forged our friendship - bonded across differences and yet, through common dreams. And it's the same message that we carry with us in this current moment, Black and Jewish, respectively, arms interlocked together in organizing on behalf of Palestinians facing genocide in Gaza for the last 11 months. Our two communities working together on behalf of Palestinian freedom could not be more critical and should not be more obvious.Lily Greenberg Call is a former special assistant to the chief of staff at the Department of the Interior. She worked on Biden's 2020 campaign and served in the administration until resigning to protest US policy in Gaza. She has appeared as a guest on MSNBC, CNN and NBC and given commentary for the Washington Post, Politico and the APHenry Hicks IV is a Washington DC-based writer and organizer. His work has appeared in Mother Jones, Teen Vogue, In These Times, the Drift, the Brooklyn Rail and elsewhere Continue reading...
Is insisting on ID really about safeguarding or just a habit we've fallen into after watching too much American TV?My friend's son, 16, sauntered into a pub at the weekend and came out with a pint. He wasn't asked for ID, which she thought was outrageous, and I thought was fair enough because he looks about 25. Actually, if pushed, I'd say he looks like a highly competent 25-year-old, with life plans, a job, maybe even a pension. If I were working at a bar, not only would I not card him, I'd most likely give him a free pint, just for bossing at life.Nevertheless, it was pretty unusual, since everyone is ID'd. My sister, who is 53, was asked for proof of her age buying those little non-alcoholic aperitivos you get in Lidl. She has always looked younger than her true age, owing to her glowing complexion and small head, but this was ridiculous. Bouncers turn detectives, trying to smoke out fake IDs, so that another friend's daughter, who had bought a fake driving licence on the dark web, got asked what gear she would typically be in on a motorway. She could have said I learned on an automatic" and been golden, but she hadn't thought it through and said I don't know - I can't drive", and she and all her friends got kicked out of the queue, fake driving licences confiscated. Which I suppose some people would call reasonable, but feels to me like an authority overreach.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
UAW Staff United says they have been shut down' for requesting same worker protections the union championsThe United Auto Workers (UAW), one of biggest trade unions in the US, has been accused of firing an organizer in retaliation for their role in an internal union, and delaying bargaining over a contract.Staff workers formed the UAW Staff United union last March. It covers UAW employees at 34 locals across New York City, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and Puerto Rico. Continue reading...
There could be a quarterback battle brewing in Atlanta while there were encouraging signs of a change in fortune for the CommandersAtlanta's decision to draft a quarterback in April after the Falcons also handed Kirk Cousins a $180m contract the previous month is a thorny one. On the basis of the veteran signalcaller's shoddy debut in a loss to the Steelers, the Falcons will be happy they drafted a potential replacement for Cousins. Clearly it is far too early to write off the veteran: the game-wrecking presence of the Steelers' future Hall of Fame edge rusher, TJ Watt, and the rust of Cousins's 10-month layoff are significant mitigating factors. But the nature of such an emphatic cratering on debut will have ownership and supporters wondering if Cousins can be the difference maker they expected. Continue reading...
Trump didn't want, much less imagine, a debate with Harris. Not so subconsciously he still thinks he's facing Joe BidenIn a debate or otherwise, hot mic or not, the issues" are of concern to Donald Trump solely to incite his politics of paranoia. Facts, too, whatever they are, are contemptible; facts aren't facts at all. They are opinions to be wielded in a contest of strength to intimidate and overwhelm the weaklings who claim there actually are independent facts. Those whose opinions prevail can triumphantly brandish them as symbols of power.In the unusual setting when Trump is awkwardly questioned outside of the protective sphere of rightwing media, he understands that his glib retailing of make-believe and outright lying will glide him past the hazard of facts. The less he cares about them, the better he will do. His lies are so frequent they become elevator music. Continue reading...
Band accuse campaign of unauthorised use of Seven Nation Army and seek significant monetary damages'The White Stripes' Jack White and Meg White have filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump for what they allege is the flagrant misappropriation" of a recording of their hit song Seven Nation Army in a campaign video.In an Instagram post on Monday, Jack White shared the first page of the lawsuit, filed in court in New York, with the caption: This machine sues fascists." Continue reading...
Representatives say Weinstein, 72, awaiting retrial on rape and sexual assault charges, is recovering after procedureThe disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was rushed from prison to a New York City hospital for emergency heart surgery after he experienced chest pains, his representatives told US media.Mr Weinstein was rushed to Bellevue Hospital last night due to several medical conditions," Weinstein representatives Craig Rothfeld and Juda Engelmayer said in a statement first reported by ABC News. Continue reading...
California's Line fire, only 3% contained, has charred more than 21,000 acres as temperatures soar into triple digitsThousands of people east of Los Angeles have been ordered to flee their homes from an out-of-control wildfire that has burned through a large area of forest.In southern California, currently in the grip of a ferocious heatwave, the so-called Line fire has burned areas around San Bernardino national forest, about 65 miles (105km) east of Los Angeles. Continue reading...
by Helen Sullivan (now); Lois Beckett ,Anna Betts and on (#6QK5Q)
Pew report says 49% of voters would choose Harris, with the same number planning to vote for Trump; justice officials remind states about voting lawsThe statement of support for Kamala Harris by a group of retired top military officials comes a day before the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, and the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, will host a congressional gold medal ceremony honoring the 13 service members killed in the chaotic 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal.Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans have tried to blame Harris for the Afghanistan pullout, including in a report by House GOP lawmakers today.Our investigation reveals the Biden-Harris administration had the information and opportunity to take necessary steps to plan for the inevitable collapse of the Afghan government. At each step of the way, however, the administration picked optics over security.Without involving the Afghan government, he and his administration negotiated a deal with the Taliban that freed 5,000 Taliban fighters and allowed them to return to the battlefield.This chaotic approach severely hindered the Biden-Harris administration's ability to execute the most orderly withdrawal possible and put our service members and our allies at risk. Continue reading...
The actor has died aged 93. His stage and screen career spanned seven decades, and he was known for his signature voice, which brought The Lion King's Mufasa and Star Wars' Darth Vader to life
Leaders Dallas Humber and Matthew Allison face 15 counts including soliciting hate crimes and support for terrorismA white supremacist group that branded itself the Terrorgram Collective drew up a list of high-profile assassination targets including at least one senator and a district court judge, according to a federal indictment unsealed on Monday.Prosecutors allege that the two leading agitators of the group incited followers on the messaging app Telegram to commit hate crimes against Black and Jewish people, immigrants and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Continue reading...
Police reject suggestion by Trump campaign and JD Vance that Haitians in Springfield are eating pets and local wildlifeProminent Republicans including the Trump campaign and JD Vance are sharing false and unsubstantiated claims that Haitian migrants in an Ohio city are eating pets and local wildlife.The salacious and often racist social media posts claim, without evidence, that migrants from Haiti to Springfield, Ohio, are stealing pets and local wildlife such as ducks and geese and are butchering them for food. Many of the posts, including one shared by the X account for the Republicans on the House judiciary committee, use images generated by artificial intelligence to show Donald Trump holding and protecting cats and ducks, casting him as a savior to the town. Ted Cruz, the Republican senator from Texas, shared a meme of two cats hugging one another that said, Please vote for Trump so Haitian immigrants don't eat us." Continue reading...
Bryan Kohberger is accused of fatally stabbing four students at a rented house in NovemberA judge in Idaho has ordered a new venue for the trial of a man charged with murdering four university students in a high-profile case two years ago, saying he believed the accused could not receive a fair trial in his courthouse.Attorneys for Bryan Kohberger had argued their client would be subjected to mob mentality", and cited alleged threats from local residents including that they'd burn the courthouse down" if he was acquitted. Continue reading...
US supreme court justice took $900 tickets from leader known for ties to rightwingers such as Steve BannonSamuel Alito, the US supreme court justice, accepted $900 concert tickets from a Catholic German aristocrat known for her unabashed conservative views and ties to rightwing activists, his latest financial disclosure form reveals.Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis reportedly gifted the tickets to Alito and his wife to allow them to attend the Regensburg castle festival, an annual summer music extravaganza hosted at her 500-room castle in Bavaria. Continue reading...
Americans' respite from dangerous storms likely to end with potential hurricane threatening Texas and LouisianaA relatively quiet respite for Americans in terms of hurricane activity appears as if it is coming to an end, with a storm forming in the Gulf of Mexico that is set to become a hurricane when it reaches the US coast on Wednesday.The storm, called tropical storm Francine, was located about 300 miles south of the mouth of the Rio Grande and is expected to move north, hitting the gulf coastline of Louisiana, as a category one or even two hurricane. Such storms have wind speeds of at least 74mph (119km/h). Continue reading...
Police identify person of interest after five people injured in shooting on interstate on SaturdayPolice in Kentucky are still searching for a gunman suspected of shooting and injuring five people on an interstate highway over the weekend, as the manhunt enters its third day on Monday.The shooting on Saturday occurred just before 6pm local time about nine miles outside London, Kentucky. Officials said that a gunman began shooting at drivers on the Interstate 75 and struck 12 vehicles, resulting in five people being wounded by gunshots. Continue reading...
Chris Sununu performs Heimlich maneuver on Christian Moreno, who recovered and went on to eat nine rollsThe New Hampshire governor, Chris Sununu, came to the aid of a contestant choking on a lobster roll at a seafood festival eating contest, using the Heimlich maneuver after the man signaled for help.The contestant, Christian Moreno, recovered and resumed eating at the competition on stage on Sunday. Continue reading...
At times we fear a future without the anchor of family. But love bombs from the many children in our life can be great defibrillators for a blown-up heartIf life had panned out the way we had imagined, Chris and I would be doting grandparents by now. People who are childless not by choice know that as much as having children changes you, so does not being able to have children when you want them.With five pregnancy losses, the last one 26 years ago, that is us. Continue reading...
Democrats say Republican chairman's report inflates Harris's role and overlooks Trump's for election purposesPartisan divisions over the chaotic 2021 pullout of western forces from Afghanistan have burst into the open ahead of Tuesday's presidential debate in Philadelphia after a Republican-led congressional report attempted to implicate Kamala Harris in the episode.A 250-page report from the House of Representatives' foreign affairs committee castigated the Biden administration for failing to anticipate the Taliban's rapid takeover and neglecting to prepare for the orderly departure of non-combatant personnel. Continue reading...
Proposed contract hailed by the union as the best it had ever negotiated and is seen as early win for new CEOBoeing and its biggest union have reached a tentative deal covering more than 32,000 workers and averting a possible strike that was set for this week.The proposed four-year contract was hailed by the union as the best it had ever negotiated. It is also an early win for new Boeing CEO, Robert Kelly" Ortberg, who is tasked with turning around the struggling planemaker. Continue reading...
by Andrew Lawrence at Flushing Meadows on (#6QK5T)
The American deserves credit for reaching his first grand slam final. But he was also aware that it may turn out to have been his best chance at a major titleIt was a picture perfect day for Taylor Fritz to win the US Open men's final. The weather was cool and still. The sunshine that streamed into Arthur Ashe Stadium stayed off the court, out of his face. But most significantly, an all-American crowd - which included pop singer namesake Taylor Swift, among other glitterati from sports and screen - was firmly at Fritz's back. It was shaping up to be an exquisite afternoon, the sort that can define a summer - or a life in Fritz's case. But then Jannik Sinner had to go ahead and spoil it.On Sunday the world No 1 made quick work of Fritz, dispatching the American in a clinical straight sets victory that lasted a little more than two hours on the way to claiming the US Open - the second grand slam title of his burgeoning career. While the Italian clambered into the stands to celebrate with his support team (Bravo, Jannik," the singer Seal cooed to him mid-hug. Forza"), Fritz sat slumped in his chair, hands on his head and ruminated about what could have been. Continue reading...
Republican officials see Trump's campaign as comparable in size to a midterm election rather than a presidentialRepublican officials are raising the alarm that Donald Trump's campaign has invested far fewer resources for its voter turnout operation in battleground states than previous presidential election races, and attempts to bridge the gap with political action committees have come too late.The Republican National Committee once envisioned an extensive field operation for the 2024 election, including having about 90 staffers in the must-win state of Pennsylvania. Continue reading...
Police say alcohol a factor as 73-year-old man arrested after accidentally driving truck into front of buildingAs many as 30 people were injured after a car crashed into an Elks Lodge restaurant in the Phoenix suburb of Apache Junction, authorities said on Sunday.Police in the Arizona city said 73-year-old Thomas Edward Kain was arrested after he got into his truck to leave the restaurant and accidentally drove into the front of the building at about 7pm Saturday. Continue reading...
Israeli airstrikes killed at least 16 in Syria while a Jordanian truck driver killed three Israeli workers at a border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan. Plus: The massive US toxic fire shrouded in secrecy
Debate could allow Harris to deliver on her oft-repeated promise: that she will prosecute the case against TrumpKamala Harris and Donald Trump will arrive in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday for their first (and potentially only) presidential debate. The event will mark the first time that Harris and Trump have ever met face to face, and it comes less than two months after Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race following his own fateful debate performance in June.The change at the top of the Democratic ticket appears to have unnerved Trump and his campaign advisers, who have struggled to land attacks against Harris. The debate will present Trump with his most significant opportunity yet to negatively define Harris in voters' minds, as polls show a neck-and-neck race in key battleground states. Continue reading...
The mainstream media is obsessed with science and boring old facts. We unhealthy eaters need to be reassured that everything is fine and a little of what you fancy still does you goodThe recent headline that a Daily croissant can take a toll on your heart in under a month" was like a dagger to mine, just as my beloved local baker had got really good at vegan ones. Not that it has to be a croissant: researchers at Oxford investigated the impact on heart health of a diet high in saturated fat for just over three weeks. It's bad, if you had any lingering doubt.This comes on the back of admittedly unsurprising, but personally devastating health stories such as the one saying that eating croissants when you are stressed reduces arterial elasticity" - a very stressful read. I also felt targeted by research on how unhealthy snacking sabotages the benefits of a healthy diet (this week a woman in a cafe asked if I was having a party" when I put in my cake order; I was not). Then there is the continued drip-feed of doom about sedentary living and poor sleep, and general angst-provoking news about environmental contaminants.Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Sources say campaign is concerned that Trump may engage in the kind of self-sabotage that turned off voters in 2020Donald Trump's campaign is most concerned going into the debate against Kamala Harris with the former president's mood, afraid that the mercurial Trump could engage in the kind of self-sabotage that turned off voters in the 2020 presidential election, according to people familiar with the situation.The campaign's internal refrain is whether they get happy Trump" or angry Trump", the people said, as they count down the days to perhaps the final presidential debate this cycle. Continue reading...
How should the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee define success? Is it strictly in terms of medals?For Team USA, the Paralympics took a parallel course to the Olympics.In the first few days, successes seemed astonishingly rare. Swimmers were taking a few silver medals, but not much gold, and it appeared that the team may have evolved from experienced" to aging." Continue reading...
Plaintiffs in lawsuit allege they were terrorized for more than 90 minutes as at least 40 vehicles encircled the busA jury trial opening in Austin, Texas, on Monday will seek to hold Trump supporters accountable for allegedly ambushing a Joe Biden-Kamala Harris campaign bus on the state's main highway in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election.Plaintiffs in the lawsuit allege they were terrorised and intimidated for more than 90 minutes as they took a bus tour canvassing for the Democratic ticket in the final days of the election. Continue reading...
Georgia senator Raphael Warnock urges Congress to pass laws to deal with this' after deadly school shooting in his stateAmericans are all sitting ducks" unless Congress passes more substantial gun control, US senator Raphael Warnock said Sunday, four days after two students and two teachers at a high school in his home state of Georgia were shot to death, allegedly by a teenager wielding a military-style rifle.Warnock's comments Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press came in direct response to statements from Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance, who had previously said the killings at Appalachee high in Winder, Georgia, demonstrated how it was a fact of life" that US schools present soft targets" to a psycho [wanting] to make headlines". Continue reading...
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