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US footballers have slowly but surely broken down barriers in Europe - gaining places in top leagues, becoming fan favorites, even winning the Champions League. Here are 10 of the bestIn the early 1990s, two phenomena coincided. US soccer players, having emerged from 40 years in the World Cup wilderness, started to find steady work in Europe. There was also this new-fangled thing called the World Wide Web, which allowed the scattered pockets of soccer supporters in the US to find each other and share information about the exploits of the latest American soccer saviors lurking somewhere in the Luxembourg fifth division or perhaps in Germany's Oberliga.Since then, US soccer players have slowly but surely broken down barriers in Europe -- gaining places in top leagues, becoming supporters' favorites, and even winning the Champions League. From Fulham to ... well, mostly Fulham, but also Borussia Dortmund, Everton, Tottenham, Rangers, Hannover and Chelsea ... it's where a handful of players have made indelible impressions. Continue reading...

The towering Spaniard won titles with Kobe Bryant and helped pave the way for today's glut of international stars. But he'll be remembered just as much for his healthy perspectivePeople are complex, multi-layered and nuanced. It's why the longstanding cliche that likens human beings to onions holds up so well. But, occasionally, an anecdote can succinctly capture the essence of a person. I found this to be the case for one such story about basketball legend Pau Gasol. Barcelona, Spain, in the year 1991: an 11-year-old Gasol, the son of a doctor mother and nurse father, and an avid NBA fan from afar, watches with the rest of the world as his hero Magic Johnson announces that he is HIV-positive - a diagnosis which, at the time, is perceived as a death sentence. In that moment, a moved Gasol makes up his mind to follow his parents into the medical profession and seek out a cure for Aids.Gasol, the eventual two-time NBA champion, six-time All Star and three-time Olympic medalist who is set to be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday night, clearly ended up on a path that led him away from professional healthcare (although he did complete a year of medical school before he was forced to choose between the two). But that glimpse into a moment from his childhood tells you everything about who Gasol is, at his core. Continue reading...

Lacking policies or ideas, today's Tories sow division and spread hopelessness in a bid to disrupt the unity of progressive votersAs Rishi Sunak transforms himself into the driver's champion and rightwingers savage net zero targets as a fascist plot of the wokerati, get ready for the thing you thought impossible: a general election even stupider than the last. Essentially, it's looking as if it will be a referendum on whether climate change exists. What better time for such a dumb question, than right when we can all see it?It won't always be expressed so simply. Sometimes it will be: Who will stand up for the humble driver of diesel cars, already squeezed in so many directions, in ways that I, not even quite a billionaire, can totally understand?" Other times it will be: What can we do about Just Stop Oil protesters, who pose an existential threat to society with their vile and undemocratic tactics?" Probably only at the Faragist fringes will people openly repudiate the goal of net zero, while the Conservative core picks more contestable battles on low-traffic neighbourhoods, oil and gas licences, heat pumps.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Democrats make demand in letter to attorney general Merrick Garland and condemn judge's blatant disregard for judicial ethics'Five House Democrats led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York wrote to the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, to demand a federal investigation of the conservative supreme court justice Clarence Thomas, over his acceptance of undeclared gifts from billionaire rightwing donors.We write to urge the Department of Justice to launch an investigation into ... Clarence Thomas for consistently failing to report significant gifts he received from Harlan Crow and other billionaires for nearly two decades in defiance of his duty under federal law," the Democrats said. Continue reading...

Three days later, Maui is mourning loss of life and land, with governor Josh Green warning there will be more fatalitiesThe loss of life from the wildfires that have ravaged Maui rose to 67 on Friday as firefighting crews continue to fight the deadliest natural disaster in Hawaii's history.Authorities confirmed 12 more fatalities as of Friday afternoon, bringing the total above the 61 confirmed deaths from a tsunami in Hilo in 1960. Continue reading...

From Venezuela, the child died at a local Illinois hospital on Thursday evening after showing signs of illnessA three-year-old girl from Venezuela being transported to Chicago from Texas by bus with other migrants died at a local Illinois hospital after showing signs of illness, the Texas department of emergency management said on Friday.Once the child presented with health concerns, the bus pulled over and security personnel on board called 9-1-1 for emergency attention," the TDEM said in a written statement. Continue reading...

Although some wish they were Continue reading...

Court filing alleges Jeffrey Ferguson, accused over death of wife Sheryl earlier this month, texted court clerk to say I just lost it'A southern California judge accused of killing his wife during an argument while drunk texted his court clerk and bailiff afterward to say he had shot her, prosecutors said Friday as they charged him with murder and sought new bail conditions.A court filing from prosecutors says Orange county superior court judge Jeffrey Ferguson texted: I just lost it. I just shot my wife. I won't be in tomorrow. I will be in custody. I'm so sorry." Continue reading...

Dinh's exit another major departure from the network since its $787.5m settlement with Dominion Voting Systems in AprilFox Corp said Friday that its chief legal officer Viet Dinh was stepping down, a high-profile exit that follows the media company's $787.5m settlement in April of a defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems over its 2020 US election coverage.Dinh, who will exit the role at the end of 2023, joined Fox in 2018 and headed its legal and compliance divisions during the months-long legal battle sparked by the network's coverage of false claims that Dominion rigged the election. Continue reading...

Lewis Kaplan says he has cause to believe defendant had tried to tamper with witnesses at least twice' since December arrestSam Bankman-Fried's bail has been revoked ahead of his October fraud trial after prosecutors accused the indicted founder of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX of tampering with witnesses.Bankman-Fried is expected to report to jail later on Friday after Judge Lewis Kaplan announced the decision at a hearing over Bankman-Fried's bail conditions in federal court in Manhattan. Bankman-Fried was taken directly into custody at the conclusion of the hearing. He was led out of the courtroom by members of the US Marshals Service. Continue reading...

Officials say evidence linked to case of Timothy Haslett could be located in river after remains of potential witness discoveredMissouri police are warning that more evidence linked to an alleged violent kidnapper could be located in the state's namesake river after the remains of a potential witness were found there last month.Authorities made the announcement after the discovery of the body of Jaynie Crosdale, 36, in July. Continue reading...

US attorney general makes announcement deepening inquiry into Joe Biden's son ahead of 2024 election

The fate of a historic landmark has certainly struck a chord: neglected and then reduced to rubble. Uncanny isn't it?Has anyone seen Adam and Carly Taylor, owners of the Crooked House on Himley Road in Staffordshire? The Taylors took ownership of the historic wonky pub just over a fortnight ago, only for it to be gutted by fire nine days later. Within 48 hours of the night-time blaze, which has sparked national outrage, the structural remains of the Crooked House were hastily reduced to rubble by a digger - without council permission. Which has also sparked national outrage. But still no public sign of the Taylors. Normally in a case such as this, you would expect to see the owners weeping on the local TV news about their loss and the cruelty of it. Yet even as the story goes international with a big write-up in the New York Times, Adam and Carly are nowhere to be seen. Perhaps they are simply too devastated to come before the TV cameras.We should note right from the get-go that the couple have not been identified as suspects - indeed, the local police show impressive commitment to modernspeak by announcing that they continue to engage" with the owners. A way of putting it that suggests the force reached out" to the pair, opened a constructive dialogue", and hope to land on the same page" in due course. We must wish them all the best with their investigation, at the same time as encouraging any Belgian or deerstalkered detectives to make their way immediately to the Dudley area to assist with inquiries. Continue reading...

Critics argue that university's preference toward legacy applicants exacerbates existing inequalities in higher educationIn the aftermath of the supreme court's decision to strike down race-conscious admissions at universities in June, progressive Democrats have turned their outrage into motivation. They are now using their fury to power an impassioned campaign against a different admissions practice that they consider unjust and outdated: legacy admissions.The century-old practice gives an advantage to the family members of universities' alumni, a group that tends to be whiter and wealthier than the general pool of college applicants. Critics argue that legacy applicants already enjoy an unfair leg up in the admissions process and that university's preference toward those students exacerbates existing inequalities in higher education. Continue reading...

Underlying longer-term weaknesses in the economy are bound up with Beijing's repressive political systemAt a Politburo meeting last month, China's leaders referred to the economic recovery this year as torturous". You won't often hear such candour coming from a Chinese Communist party institution, let alone such an elevated body. They were referring to current conditions, of course, but China's problems reveal much that is systemically out of kilter in its economic and political system.During the past few days, some of the statistics China has published have caused a stir. Consumer prices in July were lower than a year ago, suggesting it might be on the cusp of deflation, which reflects a chronic shortage of demand in the economy. And China's foreign trade in the same month showed a sharp fall in exports due to weak global demand, with a sharper decline in imports signifying weakness in demand at home. There were murky factors affecting both but the message is that something more serious is amiss in China. Continue reading...

Our country is locked in a spiral of killing and violence. We can end this narco nightmare, but the omens are not goodWednesday's assassination of a presidential candidate is the second high-profile political killing in less than a month in Ecuador. Fernando Villavicencio was killed as he left a political rally - and popular city mayor Agustin Intriago was shot dead while attending a public event only two weeks ago. During Guillermo Lasso's presidency, eight public officials or candidates for office have been killed and several have survived murder attempts.How can we understand the spiral of political violence in Ecuador? How did Ecuador go from being one of the safest countries in Latin America to being one the most violent countries in the region?Jorge Nunez is an anthropologist and currently visiting scholar at SUM, University of OsloDo 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...

Baltimore have been the baseball season's unlikeliest success story. But their ownership's taste for self-made controversy has threatened to dwarf the feelgood tenor at Camden YardsWith her Baltimore Orioles-themed Hawaiian shirt draped over her Baltimore Orioles T-shirt, Maureen Hall has been hooked on baseball since she was seven years old. The clacking sound of metal baseball spikes reminds her of the time she caught eyes with franchise legend Brooks Robinson as he jogged onto the field at Baltimore's old Memorial Stadium. The muffled sounds of AM radio remind her of the nights she tucked a transistor radio underneath her pillow so she could listen to the Orioles before falling asleep. Weekday afternoon games remind her of when she ditched the nuns at Seton High School in favor of a deli sandwich and a daytime ballgame.Standing beneath the brick buildings that tower over the right field pavilion at Camden Yards, Hall has the Orioles logo dangling from her earlobes, adorning the temples of her sunglasses and tattooed on the inner part of her left arm. She worked for 25 years as a middle school teacher, but that didn't stop her from attending every opening day and, if she was able, around 50 games per season. Since Camden Yards opened in 1992, she spends as much time in the stands as she can. Continue reading...

Her withdrawal from the Edinburgh book festival was a blow to the event, and raises questions about how best to demand changeThe Edinburgh international book festival opens on Saturday. I will be there, but it will go ahead without its headline event, one that would have seen 3,000 climate activists and readers gather to hear Greta Thunberg speak. The environmental campaigner cancelled just over a week before she was due to appear, after a piece in the Scottish online investigative journal the Ferret pointed out that the festival's main sponsor, fund manager Baillie Gifford, invests in companies connected with fossil fuels. Greenwashing efforts by the fossil fuel industry, including sponsorship of cultural events, allow them to keep the social licence to continue operating," she said in a statement.It points to a wider narrative: the story of many cultural organisations across the UK over the past decade has been an increasing reliance on sponsorship and donors - especially in England, where private funding has been touted by Tory ministers as the answer to the ideologically motivated austerity cuts of 2010 onwards, a situation that has become more acute since the depredations caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The result, though, has been problem piled upon ethical problem. Some organisations have found themselves rapidly untangling themselves from Russian money. (Tate, for example, severed ties last March with sanctioned Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, removing the former donor from an honorary position after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.) Continue reading...

Hawaii emergency management records show no indication that warning sirens were triggered before the devastating firesMaui residents who made desperate escapes from oncoming flames, some on foot, asked why Hawaii's famous emergency warning system didn't alert them as wildfires raced toward their homes.Hawaii emergency management records show no indication that warning sirens were triggered before devastating fires killed at least 55 people and wiped out a historic town, officials confirmed. Continue reading...

No team has been more affected by World Cup player absences than North Carolina. Which makes their ongoing success all the more remarkableMany of the best footballers in the world have been with their national teams at the Women's World Cup for well over a month and yet, during that time, it's been business as usual in the National Women's Soccer League, the highest level of professional women's soccer in the US and, arguably, the world. (More on that admittedly contentious claim in a moment.)The NWSL's regular season runs from March to October and, with no break incorporated into clubs' schedules to accommodate for this summer's World Cup, many of the 12 teams have been forced to compete with depleted rosters. Such hurdles make the recent success of the North Carolina Courage all the more impressive. Continue reading...

Diverse neighborhood of Jefferson Chalmers faces climate gentrification' as home prices and flood defense costs rise

The unprecedented wildfires that raged through Maui Island in Hawaii have also claimed a tree described as the 'heartbeat' of the historic Lahaina beach town. Before and after images of the 150-year-old banyan tree show it sustained significant damage in the fire, which raced through dry vegetation in the hills and into the town of 13,000 people on Tuesday evening. The ferocious blaze quickly incinerated historic wooden buildings and forced thousands of people to flee

Global heating is drying out vegetation, priming it as fuel for wildfires, say scientists. Plus, the plight of the adopted children of Bangladesh's Birangona women

Aileen Cannon, the judge assigned to the documents case, is under increasing scrutiny - reflecting Leonard Leo's impact on the US judiciaryDonald Trump must have thought all his Christmases had come at once. As federal investigators explored his alleged hoarding of sensitive documents in 2022, Aileen Cannon, a judge nominated by the former president, was assigned the case.It wasn't just that Trump had appointed Cannon, who has since made rulings which would appear to help his defense. It was that Cannon was from an emerging rightwing cadre of the judiciary - a cabal of conservative judges created by Leonard Leo, the ultimate Republican kingmaker and a close Trump ally. Continue reading...

As ash settles and search for survivors carries on, residents band together to locate loved ones and help those strandedThe former capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Lahaina is a place with a rich landscape, sacred to Kanaka Maoli or Native Hawaiians, one that long has provided a connection to their ancestors.On Thursday, the town of 9,100 lay in ruins, destroyed by the largest natural disaster to hit Hawaii since Hurricane Iniki in 1992. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Fulton county DA has evidence to charge Trump allies with computer trespass, two people briefed on the matter sayThe Fulton county district attorney investigating Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia has evidence to charge multiple allies of the former president involved in breaching voting machines in the state, according to two people briefed on the matter.The potential charges at issue are computer trespass felonies, the people said, though the final list of defendants and whether they will be brought as part of a racketeering case when prosecutors are expected to present evidence to the grand jury next week remain unclear. Continue reading...

Officials warned death toll could rise after state's largest ever natural disaster' left dozens of people injuredThe ferocious wildfires that ravaged the Hawaiian island of Maui have killed at least 55 people, officials said Thursday, warning that the death toll will likely continue to rise.The catastrophic fires, which turned neighborhoods into barren wastelands and destroyed more than a thousand structures, are likely the state's largest ever natural disaster, the governor said. Deaths are expected to surpass that of a 1960 tsunami that killed 61 people. Continue reading...

The movement born at a New York block party in 1973 is now global, an instrument for learning and a weapon for protestOn 11 August 1973, Clive Campbell (popularly known as Kool Herc), an 18-year-old DJ, hosted a party at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx. Unbeknownst to the men and women dancing the night away, they were witnessing the birth of a socioeconomic and political miracle, which came to be known as hip-hop.If you consume rap music in a fleeting manner - possibly via the gatekeepers of commercially focused entertainment conglomerates - then you may find the point above easy to scoff at. Indeed, you may consider hip-hop a problematic musical phenomenon, typified by bling, boisterousness, violent beefs, exaggerated drug tales and bikini-clad women, all set to banging beats. Continue reading...

Calls for the supreme court justice to resign grow as new details of 38 more undeclared gifts and vacations from rich donors emergeConservative US supreme court justice Clarence Thomas has been condemned for maintaining unprecedented" and shameless" links to rightwing benefactors, after ProPublica published new details of his acceptance of undeclared gifts including 38 vacations and expensive sports tickets.Pramila Jayapal, a Washington state Democrat and chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, rendered an especially damning verdict. Continue reading...

Families often have to pay thousands of dollars to help their kids reach the elite level of youth soccer. No wonder participation is dwindlingThe popular question in the wake of the US women's early exit from the World Cup is a basic one: Has the rest of the world caught up?It's a simple question with a complicated answer. A full explanation includes fraught topics such as American exceptionalism, stubborn individualism, a lack of trust in institutions, and basic litigious behavior. Continue reading...

The fire that tore across Lahaina in Maui caught many by surprise, claiming dozens of lives and burning more than 1,000 buildings. Aerial photographs reveal the extent of the damage. Continue reading...

As the world registered the hottest month of all time in July, the south-western US city of Phoenix shattered its own 1974 heatwave record, with temperatures above 110F (43C) for 31 straight daysCarlos Barria's heat-sensitive photographs from late July reveal a Phoenix where concrete on the street registers 150F (66C), outdoor workers' bodies reach 105F (41C) and homeless people swelter, surrounded by surfaces as hot as 143F (62C).Ulises, a landscape worker from Mexico, carries bags full of leaves Continue reading...

From air-purified penthouses and private jets, a wealthy anti-green lobby feigns common cause with ordinary people'. Let's expose thatIn Britain and far beyond, anti-environmentalists have a new favourite argument. No longer able to claim the climate crisis isn't happening, they have switched from denial to class warfare. They argue that green policies and innovations from electric cars to heat pumps, low emission zones to eco-taxes and levies, are all unaffordable for working-class and many middle-class people, yet are being imposed regardless by an out-of-touch elite of politicians, bureaucrats and wealthy woke capitalists".Most of the people making these arguments in the rightwing media were never previously much troubled by the financial struggles of what they now piously call ordinary people". But shamelessly shifting position is a familiar activity for the modern right. Meanwhile the cost of living crisis has given its anti-green message more force.Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Black Twitter has seized on the clash in Montgomery, cutting to the heart of the city's troubled history in a moment of catharsisWhen a Black riverboat captain was assaulted by a group of disrespectful white pontoon cruisers, the Saturday evening confrontation at Montgomery, Alabama's Riverfront Park set off a melee that would rival any heavyweight prize fight for global attention.It started after the captain had spent 45 minutes asking the cruisers to move the pontoon they had docked in the riverboat's parking space, a request that was met with swearing and obscene gestures. When one cruiser lunged at the captain with both hands and knocked him back, the skipper dug in for a fight. Seeing him outnumbered and quickly overwhelmed, Black onlookers swarmed to his defense, kicking off an epic brawl that was caught on camera from multiple angles. Continue reading...

At Utah fundraiser, US president says China's employment and workforce issues pose a risk, because when bad folks have problems, they do bad things'Joe Biden has called China a ticking time bomb in many cases" because of its economic challenges, saying the country was in trouble because of weak growth.The US president pointed to the country's high unemployment and ageing workforce, saying: China is in trouble." Continue reading...

Google-owned Waymo and General Motors-owned Cruise can now operate around the clock in San Francisco and San Mateo countyA California commission voted on Thursday to allow two self-driving car companies to begin commercially operating their vehicles in San Francisco around the clock. The vote makes San Francisco one of the first cities in the nation with commercial driverless networks operating at all times.The controversial vote drew more than 200 public commenters and went over seven hours. Continue reading...

Flames fanned by Hurricane Dora leap above buildings, leaving residents grappling with loss of life and homes

Rapidly moving fires that exploded on Tuesday night on the island of Maui have killed dozens and displaced thousands

Survivors describe devastating scene in historic Maui town, with areas burned to the ground by wildfire that has killed at least 53Witnesses have described the horror of the Maui wildfires that have killed at least 53 people and appeared to have burned much of Lahaina - the Hawaiian kingdom's original seat of power and home to King Kamehameha's palace - to the ground.Survivors spoke of a scene of devastation in Lahaina, a historic tourist spot, and recounted close calls as the flames reduced part of the town to ruins and took the lives of at least three dozen of their neighbors. Continue reading...

Filing sets aggressive timeline with 2 January 2024 trial date but ex-president's lawyers are expected to seek delayFederal prosecutors asked the judge overseeing the criminal case against Donald Trump over his efforts to subvert the 2020 election to schedule the trial for the start of January 2024, saying there was a significant public interest in expediting the prosecution.The written filing from prosecutors in the office of the special counsel Jack Smith set an aggressive timetable that Trump's lawyers are expected to seek to substantially delay, according to a person close to the former president. Continue reading...

Federal funding made available on Thursday; emergency teams searching areas impacted by fires after at least 36 people were killed

Federal prosecutors say they estimate it will take four to six weeks to present their case against former US president

US has so far given Ukraine more than $113bn in aid since Russia invaded in February 2021The White House is asking Congress for an additional $24bn in Ukraine aid and other international needs" such as countering China, including $13.1bn for defense, senior administration officials revealed on Thursday.The US has so far given Ukraine more than $113bn in aid since Russia invaded in February 2021, making it Ukraine's biggest funder in its defense against Russia. Continue reading...

Footage recorded by a charter boat crew member, Dustin Johnson, shows the moment he ran along the Lahaina pier in Hawaii's Maui island, calling for individuals to leave as wildfires raged across the tourist town. Johnson recalled running along the beach 'helping people along the way' once flames engulfed the pier. At least 36 people have died from the flames as crews continued mass evacuation efforts and search for survivors. Officials warned that the death toll could rise

Gestures from Beijing should not be mistaken for a substantive shift in position. But they should not be ignored eitherStraddles are, by their nature, uncomfortable positions to maintain. So it isn't surprising that China's attempt to hold together conflicting interests on the war in Ukraine - maintaining its no limits" partnership with Russia, without damaging its relationship with western nations and its tarnished global brand too greatly - has proved awkward.Attention increased when its special envoy for Eurasian affairs, Li Hui, joined talks in Jeddah last weekend, having avoided similar talks in Copenhagen earlier this summer. European officials described China's involvement as active" and said that it appeared constructive". The verb may be as important as the adjective: China is manoeuvring around the conflict, not fundamentally repositioning itself. Continue reading...

Supreme court justice may have violated US law by not disclosing 38 vacations paid for by wealthy friends, ethics experts sayThe US supreme court justice Clarence Thomas appears to have violated US law by failing to disclose flights, yacht cruises and expensive sports tickets" bestowed by wealthy friends behind at least 38 destination vacations, ethics experts told ProPublica in its latest blockbuster report on the conservative judge and his friends.It's so obvious," Richard Painter, a White House ethics chief under George W Bush, told the nonprofit website. It all has to be reported." Continue reading...