Kamala Harris and mayor London Breed make remarks in a private service as mourners pay their respects at San Francisco's city hallAt a memorial for Dianne Feinstein on Thursday, Joe Biden praised the late senator as a dear friend and a woman of deep integrity who fought to protect what was important to the US: freedom, civil liberties, security and the constitution.She was always tough, prepared, rigorous, compassionate. She always served the people of California and our nation for the right reasons," Biden said in recorded video remarks played at the memorial outside San Francisco city hall. Continue reading...
Unfortunately for the president, supporting Ukraine as long as it takes', and mostly without conditions, has reached its limitsScrambling to avoid a government shutdown, the US Congress last week refused to approve a new $6bn aid package for Ukraine. Nearly half of the Republicans in the House of Representatives also voted to strip Ukraine money from a must-pass military spending bill. The Republican revolt comes as Ukraine's counteroffensive, launched this summer, has garnered lackluster results. Russia has actually gained more territory in this calendar year than Ukraine has, despite the immense quantity of advanced weaponry that the US and Europe have supplied to Ukrainian forces.Together, these two developments mark a new phase of the war that calls for new thinking. The political support of Ukraine's largest international backer, the US, is no longer assured in the near term, let alone if Donald Trump returns to power in next year's election. Continue reading...
Lawyers say allegedly improper' behavior by president falls within outer perimeter' of duties and is protected from prosecutionLawyers for Donald Trump have urged a federal judge to dismiss the criminal case over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, advancing a sweeping interpretation of executive power that contends that former presidents are immune from prosecution for conduct related to their duties while in office.The request to throw out the indictment, handed up earlier this year by a federal grand jury in Washington, amounts to the most consequential court filing in the case to date and is almost certain to precipitate a legal battle that could end up before the US supreme court. Continue reading...
George Tyndall, 76, was awaiting trial on more than two dozen criminal counts of misconduct at University of Southern CaliforniaThe former University of Southern California campus gynecologist at the center of more than $1bn worth of university payouts stemming from sexual abuse allegations by hundreds of women was found dead inside his home Wednesday, his lawyer said.George Tyndall, 76, was awaiting trial on more than two dozen criminal counts of sexual misconduct between 2009 and 2016 at the university's student health center. He pleaded not guilty in 2019 and was free on bond ahead of a trial that had not yet been scheduled. His lawyer, Leonard Levine, confirmed his death Thursday. Continue reading...
Gary Wang, who previously pleaded guilty to his role in FTX's downfall, is testifying under a plea agreementSam Bankman-Fried's crypto fraud trial gained steam on Thursday when the co-founder of his fallen exchange, Gary Wang, took the stand as a government witness in Manhattan federal court.His testimony came as the highly anticipated trial entered its third day. Bankman-Fried faces seven counts on fraud and conspiracy charges in relation to the implosion of his crypto exchange FTX and its related hedge fund, Alameda Research. Continue reading...
Frank James pleaded guilty earlier this year to terrorism charges in April 2022 shooting in BrooklynA man who sprayed a New York City subway car with bullets during rush hour, wounding 10 people and sparking a citywide manhunt, was sentenced Thursday to life in prison.Frank James, 64, pleaded guilty earlier this year to terrorism charges in the 12 April 2022 mass shooting aboard a Manhattan-bound train. He received a life sentence on 10 counts and 10 years for an 11th count. Continue reading...
Trump's lawyers argue he has absolute immunity' from criminal prosecution for actions within outer perimeter' of his responsibilitySpeaking of the House, the Cook Political Report just got its hand on Alabama's new congressional map and, as expected, Democrats appear set to win a new seat in the state:The redrawn map came after the supreme court struck down an earlier version that included only one majority Black district, in what the justices determined was a violation of the Voting Rights Act. Continue reading...
Man who demanded to see Tony Evers returned at night with an assault rifle after posting bail, police sayA man illegally brought a loaded handgun into the Wisconsin capitol, demanding to see Governor Tony Evers, and returned at night with an assault rifle after posting bail, police said Thursday.The man, who was shirtless and had a holstered handgun, approached the governor's office on the first floor of the capitol around 2pm Wednesday, state department of administration spokesperson Tatyana Warrick said. Continue reading...
Judge issues order for ex-president after pre-trial ruling found ex-president and others created false financial statementsDonald Trump has seven days to give to a state court a list of companies that will lose their New York business licenses after a judge ruled last week that he had committed financial fraud.On Thursday, New York judge Arthur Engoron issued an order that will carry out Trump's punishment for a pre-trial ruling he made that found Trump and others within the Trump Organization created false and misleading financial statement that inflated his net worth. Continue reading...
Lawyers propose pause until mid-November in trial on charges ex-president illegally retained sensitive documents at Florida clubLawyers for Donald Trump are asking a federal judge for a second time to postpone until after the 2024 election his trial on charges that he illegally retained dozens of national defense documents at his Mar-a-Lago club and conspired to obstruct the government's repeated efforts to retrieve them.The request, made in a 12-page court filing to US district judge Aileen Cannon on Wednesday night, proposed delaying the start of the trial from May until at least mid-November - leaning into the justice department's complaint last week that Trump was trying to re-litigate" the trial date. Continue reading...
Floods, fires and record-breaking heat demand a response from politicians, as well as Pope FrancisAnother month of smashed temperature records has left scientists searching for words with which to describe what is happening. Gobsmackingly bananas" was the phrase alighted on by Zeke Hausfather of the Berkeley Earth climate data project. This was the hottest September on record, following the hottest August and the hottest July. It beat the previous September record by 0.5C, the largest jump in temperature ever seen.In the UK, where the summer was wet and many people have enjoyed unseasonably warm early autumn days, the disruption has not been anything like as destructive as elsewhere. But floods, fires and exceptionally high temperatures are becoming more and more frequent - with the overflow of Lhonak Lake in India, and the wildfires and baking heat in Tenerife among the latest emergencies. Continue reading...
Federal judges chose map that offers Black voters opportunities to elect candidates of their choice in forthcoming electionsAlabama officially has a new congressional map that will increase the power of Black voters in the state, giving them the chance to elect their preferred candidate in at least two of the state's seven congressional districts in 2024. The decision could help Democrats secure a majority in the US House next year.After the US supreme court twice rebuffed Alabama's request to block drawing an additional district, a three-judge panel chose the new map on Thursday from three proposals offered by Richard Allen, a court-appointed special master. Black voters make up about a quarter of the population in the state, but comprised a majority in just one of the state's seven congressional districts under the map Republicans adopted. Continue reading...
Montgomery county jail's population is only 600 people - and all seven deaths happened within days of entering the facility, during pre-trial detentionDays after Steven Blackshear was booked into Montgomery county jail in downtown Dayton, Ohio, in January, a nurse found him shaking, in a fetal position and vomiting. He complained of chest and leg pains and was taken for medical testing. Two days later, he was found dead in his cell, covered only in towels.The 54-year-old is one of seven people to have died in a surge of deaths at the jail since the beginning of this year. Continue reading...
Rebeca Andrade and Jessica Gadirova are in group hoping to stop US gymnast winning a sixth consecutive world crownAs one teammate, Joscelyn Roberson, was downed by a shock injury in the warm-ups and others were tense under the pressure of international competition, Simone Biles' first final back on Wednesday night gave an appropriate demonstration of the more underrated qualities that have made her so successful for so long.Biles is certainly the best gymnast in the world, but the 26-year-old's success is also driven by the mental strength that has allowed her to win so consistently and under so much pressure. When her teammates needed her, she was there. Biles' all-around total in the team final was 58.732, 1.633 points higher than the second-best performer and she closed out the night with one of her best ever floor routines. Continue reading...
Rishi Sunak's risible rhetoric about a divide between motorists and woke' spoilsports is easy to counter - but Labour shows little sign of wanting to do soFollowing hard on the prime minister's defence of the drivers who are supposedly victimised by London's Ulez extension, and Penny Mordaunt's rubbishing of 20mph speed limits in Wales (currently in force in parts of her own constituency), we now have the transport secretary, Mark Harper, denouncing sinister ... so-called 15-minute cities".This dismissal of measures that provide safer, pleasanter and more sustainable urban living is being pressed in the name of freedom": the freedom of city-dwellers to live unharassed by meddling environmentalist do-gooders; the freedom, in Sunak's words, of drivers to use their cars to do all the things that matter to them" - a liberty supposedly under threat from the anti-motorist" Labour party.Kate Soper is emeritus professor of philosophy at London Metropolitan University. Her most recent book is Post-Growth Living: For an Alternative Hedonism. Martin Ryle writes about politics and the environment. He is the author of the book Ecology and SocialismDo 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...
No charges were brought after the crash, which occurred two years before Nadine Arslanian married the now embattled US senatorThe wife and co-defendant of the indicted US senator Bob Menendez struck and killed a pedestrian in 2018, according to newly released police records.Nadine Arslanian Menendez was behind the steering wheel of a car at the center of a fatal crash which took place on 12 December 2018, the New York Times and the Record newspaper of Bergen, New Jersey, first reported. Continue reading...
Congressional Republicans were deliberately radicalized - and McCarthy, whatever he may say, played a key roleThis week, Kevin McCarthy became the first Speaker of the House of Representatives in history to be voted out of office. It was a fitting end to his speakership, one in which McCarthy had served only at the pleasure of a nihilistic bloc of far-right Republicans. It was little wonder, then, that he seemed almost jolly as he announced at a press conference that he didn't intend to run for the office again.Far more galling was the former speaker's attempt at the same event to present himself, in contrast to those who ousted him, as some sort of force for moderation and reasonableness. The truth is that McCarthy has been at the cutting edge of his party's descent into madness, encouraging its worst instincts and indulging its most destructive personalities. People sometimes say that the congressional Republican party has become ungovernable". It's more accurate to say that it has been deliberately radicalized - and that Kevin McCarthy played a key role in that process.Andrew Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States at Leiden University and the creator of America Explained, a podcast and newsletter Continue reading...
Remarks made days after former chief of staff confirmed reports about Trump's derogatory attitude to members of US militaryDonald Trump called his former chief of staff John Kelly a lowlife with a very small brain and a very big mouth" after the former marine general confirmed reports about the ex-president's derogatory attitude to members of the US armed forces.In posts to his Truth Social platform, days after Kelly spoke to CNN, Trump said his former aide was by far the dumbest of my military people ... incapable of doing a good job" as chief of staff or, before that, homeland security secretary. Continue reading...
Our rewilding camp shared a common longing: to connect with the land, and share the load of cooking, cleaning and, most of all, parentingUm, can I have some help?"We have come to a rewilding camp on Yuin country, beyond the reach of mobile networks and plumbing. My child and I aspire to be more like the camp leader, Gina Chick, the winner of the SBS reality show Alone Australia. But we have never been camping. My husband's severe dust and pollen allergies restrict family travel to hotels, so I have borrowed gear from my neighbour. I bought an esky from Big W. I am ready. Continue reading...
Data shows firearm fatalities are leading cause of accidental death in children, while poisonings have also risen in past decadeA new study by researchers at Boston Children's hospital found children's gun-related deaths have surged over the past decade, increasing by 87%.Researchers analyzed data on fatal and non-fatal shooting injuries from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) injury reporting system, finding deadly wound rates increased from nearly 14 deaths per 100,000 children in 2011 to more than 17 deaths per 100,000 in 2021. Continue reading...
Youth environmentalists take on Republican-led city commission over proposal to hasten development in fragile wetlandsDozens of teenage environmental activists in Florida are battling a city commission over its plan to loosen protections for ecologically fragile wetlands and hasten the pace of development.The group has banded together in person and on social media to oppose the proposal by politicians in Manatee county. They say the proposal places greed for construction dollars above the need to protect native flora and fauna for future generations. Continue reading...
As with Elizabeth Holmes and Billy McFarland, the story seemed too good to be true - because it wasOf all the surprising things to have come out of the build-up to the trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the now defunct FTX cryptocurrency exchange, the most surprising, perhaps, is just how thoroughly the world bought in to his rise. Bankman-Fried's guilt on multiple charges of, among other things, wire fraud, securities fraud, commodities fraud and money laundering has yet to be determined, but the presence of the 31-year-old former wunderkind in court at all, is, of course, part of a long history of feted boy geniuses falling to earth and seeming suddenly ludicrous.Bankman-Fried fit precisely into the mould beloved of tech and wealth magazines for young men in the unicorn business space. Before he cut his hair and located a suit for this week's appearance in a Manhattan federal court, he was flamboyantly scruffy, a man worth, on paper at least, billions of dollars who nonetheless wore scabby old trainers and shapeless cargo shorts. He was spectacularly rude, playing video games while conducting live television interviews and failing to turn up to appointments set months in advance. Looked at through the lens of, as Forbes magazine described Bankman-Fried in 2021, the world's richest 29-year-old," all of these tics were received as charming indicators of brilliance. Regarded through the slightly less dewy goggles of seven conspiracy and fraud counts, they appear somewhat differently.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
The Ukrainian president insisted US backing for Ukraine was not faltering, as he arrived at the European Political Community summit in Granada.Volodymyr Zelenskiy said it was a difficult election period for the US and some voices were 'very strange', but he was confident of bipartisan support in Congress
by Ruth Michaelson and Stephanie Kirchgaessner on (#6FAQS)
Former diplomat said senator's allegedly corrupt actions could have put embassy staff in the sights of Egyptian intelligenceThe lives of staff at the US embassy in Cairo may have been put in jeopardy by the indicted Democratic senator Bob Menendez's alleged sharing of sensitive personnel information with the Egyptian government, according to former senior US officials who said the charges represented a grave betrayal of trust.The New Jersey senator temporarily stepped down from his powerful position as chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee in September after he was indicted by federal prosecutors in New York on corruption charges, including allegations that he accepted cash bribes and gold bars in exchange for breaching his duties in ways that benefited the government of Egypt". Continue reading...
Joaquin Castro urged fellow House members to reject Republican calls for US military action to stem flow of fentanyl from MexicoA progressive US congressman from Texas has asked his legislative colleagues to join him in condemning some American conservatives' calls to invade Mexico - ostensibly to do battle with drug cartels there.Joaquin Castro says he intends to file a resolution in the US House as soon as Friday reaffirming the federal government's commitment to respecting the sovereignty of Mexico and condemning calls for military action without Mexico's consent and congressional authorization". Continue reading...
There's a growing sense among Americans that the Roberts court with its 6-3 hard-right supermajority is irrevocably brokenDonald Trump's rightwing appointees to the US supreme court have insisted that they're neither politicians in robes" nor partisan hacks", but many Americans strongly disagree about that, and that's a major factor behind the court's extraordinary crisis of legitimacy. With the court lurching to the right in recent years, three in four Americans say it has become too politicized", according to a recent poll, while just 49% say they have trust and confidence" in the court, a sharp decline from 80% when Bill Clinton was president.As the supreme court's new term begins this week, it should be no surprise that many Americans are questioning the court's legitimacy considering all of the following. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito have taken lavish favors from rightwing billionaires with business before the court and then failed to disclose those favors. The court's conservative majority has often served as a partisan battering ram to advance the Republican party's electoral fortunes. Mitch McConnell brazenly stole a supreme court seat from Merrick Garland to preserve the court's rightwing majority. Not stopping there, McConnell and the Republican-led Senate raced to ram through Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation even after voting had started for the 2020 election.Steven Greenhouse is an American labor and workplace journalist and writer Continue reading...
The 70-year-old progressive scholar says he's not seeking to steal Joe Biden votes, but instead trying to woo alienated non-votersIf Cornel West is worried about being a spoiler whose candidacy might let Donald Trump back into the White House by stealing votes from President Joe Biden, he isn't showing it.The 70-year-old former Harvard and Princeton professor is running as the US Green party's candidate in next year's presidential election with a message more likely, on the face of it, to appeal to disillusioned Democrats than anti-Trump Republicans. Continue reading...
In straitened times, debauchery can seem the antidote to hard reality. Celebrate a classic film that shows how it's doneI was 17. It was July and it was boiling. Sweat made a snail-like progress down my neck - but I didn't care. My swishy, three-quarter-length coat was half my personality. They would have had to surgically remove it from me. I was dressed for action. The particular action I wanted was what I had seen on a shady DVD version of Withnail & I a few months earlier. I wanted booze and drugs, and to cause outrage in provincial tearooms. In fact, I just looked like a dick, and wouldn't have known weed from oregano. Still, the film left an imprint like a branding iron.I was one of many, obviously. None more so than Toby Benjamin, whose book, Withnail & I: from Cult to Classic, charts the journey of a film that was initially a flop, gained a following among students - with their propensity to pass around VHS copies - and then assumed a granite-like position in the culture, comparable to the King James Bible or Cilla Black. It speaks to us as clearly today as it did when it was released in 1987. In straitened times, excess and debauche sometimes seem the only answer to harsh reality. What else is there to do, after all? Maybe that's why it still resonates. Continue reading...
The American has struggled to discover exactly where he fits with the Serie A giants. But competition with a US teammate may have solved the problemThe Juventus team that Weston McKennie rejoined this summer no longer contains any of his childhood heroes. When he arrived at the club for the first time, back in 2020, he was greeted by faces that used to look down from his bedroom wall.Not many people know when I was younger, when Italy won the 2006 World Cup, growing up I had a poster of them lifting the trophy in my room," said McKennie during an interview released on the club's YouTube channel last month. Seeing some of those guys personally and potentially playing with them was a surreal feeling." Continue reading...
Injuries and mistakes have already taken their toll on some teams. But there has also been plenty to delight in the first few weeks of the 2023 campaignIt's hard to believe we're almost a quarter of the way through the NFL regular season. It feels like just yesterday that there was optimism inside the New York franchises and Sean Payton was going to revive the Denver Broncos. But enough of the negativity, here are a few pleasant surprises from the first few weeks of the new season. Continue reading...
Three months after a general election, attempts to form a government have so far failed - and hostility between parties is mountingThe July general election in Spain saw a welcome collapse in support for the far-right Vox party - it was evidence, many said, that the rightward drift across Europe could be defeated. Three months on, Spain is still without a new government. The deadlock could be broken before the year's end, and for now, a new election seems unlikely. But recent scenes in parliament bode ill for whoever is running the country in the months ahead. Spanish politics today is in a state of blockage that reflects the reality of its proportional voting system and an increasingly polarised public sphere. Is it surprising that there is a growing public scepticism towards politics and a diminished interest in the news?Overall, the July election delivered a stalemate: neither of the two biggest parties won enough seats to form a majority government. The conservative People's party won the most votes and seats in the election, followed by the centre-left Spanish Socialist Workers party. But even if either joined forces with their natural allies on their right or left, they would still fall short of the 176 seats needed for a majority in the 350-seat parliament.Maria Ramirez is a journalist and deputy managing editor of elDiario.es, a news outlet in Spain Continue reading...
Gunfire from fight hit several people, including pregnant woman who was hospitalized and delivered baby who diedA shooting claimed the life of a baby that was delivered after its mother was one of several people hit by gunfire during a fight Wednesday on a downtown street in the western Massachusetts city of Holyoke, authorities said.The pregnant woman was shot in the afternoon while seated on a public bus and taken to a hospital in critical condition, the Hampden district attorney's office said. Continue reading...
Facing a likely roadblock from House Republicans, US president Joe Biden says he is worried their infighting in Congress could hurt Ukraine aid but said there was a 'majority of members of the House and Senate in both parties' that support the need for it. The president promised to deliver a speech soon to outline why the US needs to continue to support Ukraine in its war with Russia, and suggested there were 'other means' by which he could find funding but gave no further details Continue reading...
We take a look at the best images from Antwerp as USA take their seventh consecutive gold medal in the event, with help from the returning Simone Biles Continue reading...
President's latest approval brings total debt cancellation under his administration to $127bn for nearly 3.6 million peoplePresident Joe Biden has announced an additional 125,000 people have been approved for student debt relief in a total of $9bn.Biden's latest approval brings the total approved debt cancellation under his administration to $127bn for nearly 3.6 million Americans, the White House said in a statement. Continue reading...
by Victoria Bekiempis and Nick Robins-Early on (#6F9V5)
Second day of trial featured prosecutors' first witness as defense presented Bankman-Fried as math nerd' with good intentions who got in over his headOpening arguments began in Sam Bankman-Fried's fraud trial on Wednesday, with prosecutors accusing the former cryptocurrency star of building his empire on lies" and living a lavish lifestyle while defrauding his customers. Defense attorneys countered by presenting Bankman-Fried as a math nerd" with good intentions who got in over his head.The second day of the trial began with Judge Lewis Kaplan finalizing a group of 12 jurors who would hear the case, along with six alternates, and later in the afternoon featured prosecutors calling their first witness. Continue reading...
Rights groups to rally outside event, calling on corporations to cut ties with American Legislative Exchange CouncilA broad coalition of opponents to the rightwing corporate agenda of the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec) will hold a rally on Wednesday night outside a glitzy gala event to celebrate the secretive group's 50th anniversary.Environmentalists, gun reform campaigners, union leaders and voting rights activists will protest outside the $750-a-ticket event at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC, calling on corporations to cut ties with Alec - a tax-exempt group behind a slew of regressive state laws including the stand your ground gun legislation, right-to-work labor policies and so-called critical infrastructure protections that criminalize protest against fossil fuel polluters. Continue reading...
40-year-old law is in jeopardy after weeks of debate about city's obligation to protect 100,000 migrants sent from the US borderIn a late Tuesday night email, the administration of New York City's mayor, Eric Adams, asked a New York supreme court justice to allow it to ignore the state's longstanding right to shelter" law in certain circumstances.Dating back to the Depression, a provision of the New York state constitution stated that aid, care and support of the needy are public concerns". A consent decree resolving the 1981 case Callahan v Carey and various lawsuits built on that foundation. Now anyone in New York City can access guaranteed shelter with required minimum standards like 3ft between beds, access to lockers and showers, and basic toiletries. But that 40-year-old law is in jeopardy, amid a push from the city's executive. Continue reading...
Top executives are terrible at reading the room and unions are stronger when workers stick together. Now let's sign that contractThis year was supposed to have been a showbiz love fest. Disney, Warner Brothers and the boosters of the world-famous Hollywood sign had planned to celebrate their centennials, with a special thanks to the storytellers who have sparked the joy" of movies.There were so many actors, writers and other workers buzzing around the soundstages in Burbank, Studio City and Culver City that you could practically hear the hum of a $134bn TV-and-film hive.Kathleen Sharp is the author of Mr & Mrs Hollywood: Edie and Lew Wasserman and Their Entertainment Empire which has been optioned Continue reading...
He's $300m shy of the cutoff, according to the magazine, though with an estimated $2.6bn he's got plenty of pocket changeDonald Trump has dropped off the Forbes 400 ranking of the wealthiest people in the US for the second time in three years, the magazine announced on Wednesday as the former president's business fraud trial continued in New York.Donald Trump is no longer rich enough for the country's most exclusive club," Forbes said. Continue reading...
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