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US sports teams often leverage the threat of relocation to access taxpayers' money. But the Packers have thrived under a community driven modelJust days after the Jacksonville Jaguars' first home game of the season, team president Mark Lamping - who has long been asking the City of Jacksonville to use taxpayer money to part-fund a $2bn stadium renovation - suggested that the team may move if the city doesn't pony up the dough. In doing so, Lamping joins a well-established tradition among US pro sports teams. According to ESPN, since the early 1990s more than half of NFL franchises have shown interest in moving to Los Angeles - or at least trying to use the possibility as leverage for new stadiums or renovations." (That's just Los Angeles; some franchises have threatened, or actually moved, to other cities.) The threats can be effective: A recent poll showed that 46% of Jacksonville residents would support giving $1bn of public money for the renovation if it was the only way to keep the Jaguars in the city; that's up from a mere 6% who pledged their support if they weren't told about the threat of relocation.Despite some notable recent relocations, most teams stay put after getting what they want: Cities usually capitulate, forking over hundreds of millions of public dollars to fund renovations or build new stadiums. One example is my home city of Minneapolis, after threats to move the Vikings to, you guessed it, Los Angeles. The team subsequently got nearly $500m in public funding to build a new stadium. Continue reading...

Our plight when a rail firm cancelled our train mid-journey and sent us all to Scotland by taxi sparked a national debate - as it shouldFor the first two or so hours of its scheduled run, the Monday 16:40 direct train from London Euston to Edinburgh Waverley had been delightfully normal. The train was neither too full, too cold nor too loud. It was boring - blissfully so. There was no sign of the odyssey to come.An email arrived on our phones, its title evoking The Twilight Zone: Your train has changed." It got worse, and stranger: Your train has been cancelled." That's one of the odder announcements you can receive while rolling along on the train in question.James Nokise is a standup comedian Continue reading...

Footage of a black child being ignored echoes my own experiences as a girl - and reveals a country in denialThere is nothing like having a global spotlight suddenly shone on Ireland to make us see how some things once deemed acceptable or excusable at home are shamefully far from being either. By now, you'll probably have seen the video circulating of the lone black child in a lineup of white children at a medal ceremony for a gymnastics competition in Ireland. Each of the white children in the lineup is presented with a medal. The black child is ignored. I recognise my childhood self in her pride and eager smile as the medal moment approaches. Then the excruciating confusion and bewilderment as she waits, her expression eventually settling into one of quiet disappointment - and wounded resignation.I was an eager, enthusiastic child too, but the pervasive and insidious racism I experienced growing up in Ireland, the sense of shame and humiliation that comes with being repeatedly overlooked, disregarded, told that you are inadequate or inferior, made to feel ugly or small or worthless, or singled out or indeed overscrutinised as I so often was, guaranteed that I reined in my enthusiasm. By the time I reached my teens I had learnt to largely hide my true feelings behind a mask. I was scared to let people know how I really felt in case they disappointed or hurt me; much better to erect a frosty, cynical exterior than subject myself to the potential for more humiliation.Emma Dabiri is an Irish academic and broadcaster, and the author of What White People Can Do Next and Don't Touch My Hair. She is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

America's latest power pairing benefits both stars and is helping usher in a new audience for footballUnder the bright lights of the gridiron, Travis Kelce plays the part of a particular kind of NFL leading man - a touchdown-scoring party bro whom fans in middle America can rally around. Yet until a few weeks ago, anyone who didn't closely follow American football would struggle to recognize Kelce, even though the 33-year-old has had top billing in three of the last four Super Bowls, having featured prominently in national ad campaigns for Bud Light and Covid vaccinations and hosted Saturday Night Live this year. Indeed, NFL fans discovered how famous Kelce wasn't once he started to date Taylor Swift.The pair's involvement, hotly rumored for weeks, was seemingly confirmed last Sunday when Swift turned up at Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium for the home team's game against the Chicago Bears. If Swift's colour palette - red lips and nails to match a Kansas City jacket - didn't make her favored team clear, her seat in the stadium suite next to Kelce's mother, Donna, surely did. When Kelce scored in the third quarter, the Fox cameras cut to Swift banging on the suite glass, chest-bumping a neighbor and apparently shouting, Let's fucking go!". Patrick Mahomes, the quarterback who facilitated the touchdown, said afterwards: I knew I had to get it to Trav ... I think he wanted to get in the end zone just as much as all the Swifties wanted him to." Continue reading...

Prosecutors asked the judge to restrict Trump's ability to attack them and potential witnesses ahead of a hearing about the issueSpecial counsel prosecutors reiterated Friday to the federal judge overseeing the 2020 election interference prosecution against Donald Trump the need to impose a limited gag order against the former president to curtail his ability to attack them and potentially intimidate trial witnesses.The sharply worded, 22-page filing, submitted ahead of a hearing scheduled for 16 October in federal district court in Washington, accused Trump of continuing to make prejudicial public statements even after they had first made the request three weeks ago. Continue reading...

Senate set for 1pm ET vote after McCarthy suffers another blog when lawmakers reject short-term funding bill by 232 to 198 vote

Plus, Dan Wootton and Lawrence Fox demand a dreadful choice, and why Dannii Minogue was always on BrandIf this is the beginning of the end - and it feels risky even to say it out loud - it seems fitting that, for Donald Trump, it has come via something as dreary as a liability for fraud. After all the salacious comments, the civil liability for rape and the alleged hush money to the porn star, not to mention the 91 criminal charges across four jurisdictions, this week, the spectre of professional ruin rose for Trump in more sober form; death via a thousand documents for the man who hates details. Continue reading...

Eric Adams made unconscionable' remarks before flooding, saying shelter beds for those in need should not go to migrantsSevere, widespread flooding in New York City on Friday prompted outcry from advocates of migrants and the unhoused, whose living conditions left them vulnerable in the face of the extreme weather.The inundation - which has left huge swaths of the city swamped, closed roads and rendered several subway lines inoperable - came a day after the city's mayor, Eric Adams, said he believed migrants should be excluded from New York's right-to-shelter mandate. The mandate requires the city to provide shelter beds to anyone in need of them. Continue reading...

About 8.5 million people under flash flood warnings with 1-2in of rain an hour expected in Brooklyn and Queens

Las Vegas police have charged 60-year old Duane Keffe D' Davis with the murder of Tupac Shakur. Shakur was shot in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in 1996, but the case remained one of the great unsolved hip hop mysteries. For 27 years the family of Tupac Shakur have been waiting for justice,' said a local police officer

Scion of US political dynasty, who had been challenging Joe Biden for Democratic nomination, expected to announce on SundayRobert F Kennedy Jr is reported to be ending his challenge to Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination and run instead as an independent candidate, in a move that could upset the 2024 race for the White House.Kennedy, 69 and a scion of a famous political dynasty - a son of the former US attorney general and New York senator Robert F Kennedy, and a nephew of the former president John F Kennedy - will announce his run in Pennsylvania on 9 October, according to Mediaite. Continue reading...

Former president will gather with family on Sunday as messages from admirers inspired by him are displayed publicly in AtlantaWhen Jimmy Carter entered hospice in February, his family feared he might have only days left to live. Eight months later, the 39th US president will celebrate his 99th birthday on Sunday.The Carter Center - the Atlanta-based human rights organization that the former president founded with his wife, Rosalynn, shortly after he left the White House in 1981 - is celebrating the occasion in a unique way. More than 14,000 people have submitted birthday messages and pictures for a digital mosaic honoring Carter's life and legacy, which has recently been displayed at famous Atlanta sites such as Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Hartsfield-Jackson international airport. Continue reading...

Security turned away Joie Henney's TikTok-famous, leashed reptile Wally from Philadelphia baseball game on WednesdayWally and his companion just wanted to see the Philadelphia Phillies play baseball against the Pittsburgh Pirates like everyone else.After all, he was an emotional support animal. He wore a harness with his name on it. He enjoyed hugs. He looked imposing at just over 5ft long, but he had never bitten anyone. He helped his handler, Joseph Joie" Henney, with his years-long battle with depression. Continue reading...

Funding for federal agencies will run out on 30 September, a crisis fueled by ideological divisions among House RepublicansThe US stands just days from a full government shutdown amid political deadlock over demands from rightwing congressional Republicans for deep public spending cuts.Fuelled by bitter ideological divisions among the Republican majority in the House of Representatives, funding for federal agencies will run out at midnight on 30 September unless - against widespread expectation - Congress votes to pass a stopgap measure to extend government funding. Continue reading...

Dianne Feinstein, the oldest serving member of the US Senate and longest-serving female senator, has died aged 90. Feinstein's trailblazing career was full of firsts. She was the first female head of the San Francisco board of supervisors, first female mayor of San Francisco and the first female senator to represent California when she was elected in 1992. From there her career spanned the administrations of five US presidents over three decades. During her time in office, Feinstein distinguished herself as a vocal advocate for gun control. Joe Biden led tributes, calling Feinstein a 'pioneering American'

Torrential downpours after a week of mostly steady rainfall triggered flash flooding in New York City on Friday, disrupting subway services and turning many streets into rivers. Move to higher ground now. Act quickly to protect your life,' the National Weather Service said in an advisory posted on its website. Pictures and video footage showed the extent of the flooding and disruption to rush-hour traffic

Luke Donald's team whitewashed the holders in the morning, then snatched a couple of halves to increase their lead late in the afternoon, on a dramatic day at Marco SimoneCollin Morikawa's opening shot is a nervy one. His drive sails off towards the gallery on the right, and clanks some poor dude upside the head. His ball nestles in thick rough ... though not as thick as the rough Sepp Straka finds down the left of the hole. That was even more jittery, and won't have settled the Austrian debutant's nerves any. Meanwhile the US captain Zach Johnson is taking the barracking his team are copping from the home gallery in good spirit: Fans are the engine behind the Ryder Cup, whether here or back home," he tells Sky with a smile. The energy, the passion, makes it special."Rahm/Hatton A/S Scheffler/Burns (2)

Norwegian got crowds and his team going with brilliant early birdie and he and his Swedish partner never looked backThere were some strange sights around Marco Simone on Friday, the strangest of the lot the 50-man marching band of the Guardia di Finanza who came trampling across the course at noon. Up, down and around the fairways they went, blasting out Antonio D'Elia's Armi e Brio while the midday sun bounced around off their brass, buttons, and epaulettes. They were led by a fellow who, judging by the look in his eye and the polished silver sword at his side, wasn't going to take no for an answer even if Tommy Fleetwood was standing over a birdie putt on the 15th. You don't get that on the back nine at Muirfield.It seemed they had gone just a touch early with the triumphals, but then Fleetwood made the putt anyway, and Europe were three holes away from a four-nil sweep of the morning foursomes. So maybe they had timed it right after all. By the time the band had turned and trooped off back to the barracks there was more blues on the scoreboards around Marco Simone than in the bars on Beale Street. Continue reading...

UAW president Shawn Fain says members fed up with corporate greed' as another 7,000 workers to strike at GM and Ford plantsThe United Auto Workers union escalated its strike against the big three US automakers on Friday as the industrial action entered its third week.In a livestream update on the strike on Friday, UAW president Shawn Fain said another 7,000 workers would be joining the action. About 25,000 workers are now on strike. Continue reading...

Joe Biden salutes a pioneering American' as Hillary Clinton says I'll miss her greatly as a friend and colleague'

California governor had vowed to pick Black woman to complete veteran senator's term but hints at interim appointment'

Europe's caddies were baking at the opening ceremony and Viktor Hovland's language embarrasses SkyEurope were generally reckoned to have won" Thursday's opening ceremony, thanks to their captain Luke Donald's excellent opening address, which began in respectable Italian. That was the result of months of Duolingo lessons, but not everyone in Team Europe was entirely happy afterwards. Some caddies were heard grumbling that they had been kept in the sun throughout the one-hour ceremony - in 31C (88F) heat - while their US counterparts were given the side that was in the shade. Continue reading...

NSC spokesman John Kirby says shutdown would mean 1.3m troops will not get paid, significantly' affecting US military moraleHard-right House Republicans are holding the entire US government hostage" as a shutdown appeared all but certain and could have a significant effect" on the morale of active duty US troops, the national security council (NSC) spokesman warned early on Friday.John Kirby, the NSC spokesman, noted that 1.3m active duty military personnel will not get paid if the government shuts down, and added in an interview with ABC on Friday morning that hundreds of thousands of civilian Pentagon employees also will have to be furloughed. Continue reading...

Self-styled realists' of both parties underestimate the depth of voters' disillusionment with the status quoThis autumn, more than ever, British politics is a waiting game. Waiting for the Tory and Labour party conferences. Waiting for possibly pivotal byelections. Waiting to see if Labour's large but not wholly convincing poll lead will crumble, and whether the Tories or Lib Dems will take advantage. And above all, waiting for the general election and what sort of government comes afterwards.These are the current preoccupations of many journalists, politicians and party strategists, and of those voters who pay regular attention to politics. Yet there is also another form of waiting going on in Westminster and beyond, which is less conscious and focused but more profound. People are waiting to see if the form of politics that both main parties have been following since the mid-80s, with only a few significant interruptions, is about to be replaced by one better equipped to deal with the deep crisis in which Britain finds itself. Continue reading...

Didion Milling in Wisconsin faces fines and a trial over 2017 explosion - but should it have been punished more severely?Dallas Oosterhof worked at Didion Milling in Cambria, Wisconsin, for 25 years until May 2017, when he was working late finishing paperwork and the mill exploded due to a buildup of combustible dust. Covered in debris, he was able to crawl out with the help of light from a co-worker's cellphone.A corn processing company, Didion Milling is currently facing over $2.5m in Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha) fines related to workplace deaths and injuries, and a criminal prosecution by the US justice department. A final hearing before the trial in the criminal case is set for Friday. Continue reading...

The former Italian president was a communist who learned that utopianism does not work and the common good involves compromiseIt's not every day that you see a pope paying tribute to a former communist - but it happened this week in Rome. By the same token, it is a surprise to hear one of the church's most senior cardinals make an affectionate and generous address at the same communist's strictly secular, defiantly non-religious, funeral - at which attenders included Emmanuel Macron - but these things, no less unusually, happened this week, too.But then Giorgio Napolitano, who died a week ago aged 98 and whose funeral took place in Rome on Tuesday, was no ordinary president of Italy and no ordinary communist either. A lifelong member of the Italian Communist party until it dissolved in 1991, Napolitano was elected president in May 2006. He was also, very reluctantly, the first Italian president to be re-elected to serve a second term in 2013. Until the current president, Sergio Mattarella, overtakes him in a few days' time, he was Italy's longest serving head of state since 1945. Continue reading...

The president has a golden opportunity to prove that green jobs will bear dividends for the working classJoe Biden had to choose a side in the United Auto Workers' contract fight with the big three" American automakers, and he did. This week, he became the first US president to walk a picket line while in office when he joined strikers in Belleville, Michigan, offering enthusiastic support for their demands. Biden should be thanking the UAW for handing him a golden opportunity: to prove that the green jobs his administration is creating will be good, union jobs, too, and that climate policy will bear dividends for the working class.Republicans cosplaying solidarity have tried to exploit the strike to score cheap political points. As Republican presidential hopefuls debated this week, Donald Trump told a rally at a non-union plant in Michigan that the strike wouldn't make a damn bit of difference" because the car industry was being assassinated" by EV mandates". (Whether there were any union members or even autoworkers in the room isn't clear.) Ohio senator JD Vance has similarly blamed autoworkers' plight on the premature transition to electric vehicles" and Biden's war on American cars".Kate Aronoff is a staff writer at the New Republic and the author of Overheated: How Capitalism Broke the Planet - And How We Fight Back Continue reading...

Venmo records show members of rightwing militia paid vice-president for months after group's January 6 role was exposedOath Keepers members paid dues to the rightwing militia's then vice-president for up to almost a year after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol and months after the organization and its founder, Stewart Rhodes, were named in court filings as participants in the assault, according to publicly accessible transaction records on the payment platform Venmo.Those who made payments to an Oath Keepers leader on Venmo include an engineer whose employer provides satellite technology to US government agencies including the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Homeland Security, a former Department of Homeland Security employee whose tenure at the agency overlapped with his membership in the group, and a 2022 candidate for the Wyoming state senate. Continue reading...

Faced with stagnant approval ratings, president ups ante in his re-election campaign. Plus, the plastic-eating bacteria that could change the worldGood morning.Joe Biden dramatically raised the ante in the forthcoming US presidential election campaign yesterday with a stark and impassioned warning that American democracy was imperiled by a vengeful Donald Trump, his likely opponent next year.What did he say about Trump? Referring to Trump by name just once in his half-hour speech, Biden nevertheless set out to contrast democratic norms and traditions with conduct that appeared to characterize his predecessor. He said democracy means rule of the people, not rule of the monarchy, not rule of money, not rule of the mighty."What about the House? The House has teed up votes on four of the dozen annual spending bills that fund various agencies in hopes that would cajole enough Republicans to support a House-crafted continuing resolution that temporarily funds the government and boosts security at the US border with Mexico. It's a long shot, but McCarthy predicted a deal. Continue reading...

Unless the EU and US are tougher on Belgrade, Serbian nationalist attacks could destabilise the regionThe killing last weekend of a Kosovo police officer by a group of 30 or more heavily armed Serbian nationalist militants marks the most significant security incident in that country, and the western Balkans region, in more than a decade. The US ambassador to Pristina, Jeffrey M Hovenier, described the attack subsequently: We know it was coordinated and sophisticated ... The quantity of weapons suggests this was serious, with a plan to destabilise security in the region."Kosovo's authorities concur and are even more explicit in who they blame. Namely, Serbia's government, and its strongman president, Aleksandar Vui.Jasmin Mujanovi is a political scientist and the author of Hunger & Fury: The Crisis of Democracy in the Balkans and The Bosniaks: Nationhood after GenocideDo 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...

Joe Biden has dramatically raised the ante in the forthcoming US presidential election campaign with an impassioned warning that US democracy is being imperilled by a vengeful Donald Trump, his likely opponent next year. 'There is something dangerous happening in America,' he told an audience in Phoenix, Arizona, on Thursday. 'There is an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs of our democracy: the Maga movement.' He said he did not think all Republicans ascribed to the Maga agenda, but added: 'There is no question that today's Republican party is driven and intimidated by Maga Republican extremists'

The president has had a good run. But the Democrats must choose a younger candidate if Donald Trump is to be kept out of the White HouseDuring the two months I spent in the US this summer, I kept asking every journalist, academic and analyst I met one simple question: Who will be the next president of the United States?" The response was usually the same. First there was a distinct hesitation, then they said Well, probably Joe Biden, but ..."What followed the but" was a long list of concerns, partly about deeper trends but mainly about how old and frail the 80-year-old president looks. Often, the conversation ended with my interlocutor saying it would be better if Biden stood aside, to let a younger candidate turn the age card against the 77-year-old Donald Trump.Timothy Garton Ash 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...

Faced with stagnant approval ratings, president ups ante in what may become a central theme of his re-election campaignJoe Biden dramatically raised the ante in the forthcoming US presidential election campaign on Thursday with a stark and impassioned warning that American democracy is imperiled by a vengeful Donald Trump, his likely opponent next year.Faced by stagnant approval ratings and worries about his advanced age, the US president attempted to stir his dormant supporters and animate the undecided by spelling out the dangers he insisted a second Trump presidency would pose to the US's status as the world's leading beacon of democratic government. Continue reading...

Store owner in Shasta county who has elevated conspiracy theories about mosquitoes and vaccines gets seat on local boardEver since the far-right movement in California's Shasta county gained control of local government, they have sought to throw out voting machines in favor of hand counting and pledged to defend the second amendment using all lawful means".This week they focused their efforts on a new target: mosquitoes. Continue reading...

He may stand trial as soon as 23 October in case alleging he conspired to reverse 2020 presidential election loss in stateDonald Trump will not seek to move a criminal case alleging he conspired to reverse his 2020 presidential election loss in Georgia from state to federal court, his lawyers said on Thursday.Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and 18 others are charged with pressuring Georgia election officials to overturn his 2020 loss in the state to the current president, Joe Biden, a Democrat. Continue reading...

With no evidence and their own witnesses admitting to no firsthand knowledge of wrongdoing, GOP members tried to take a commonsense question too farThere was a commonsense question at the heart of Thursday's congressional hearing on whether to launch a formal impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden that Republicans are counting on Americans to ask themselves. Would any foreign business hire the president's son, Hunter, if it were not for his father?Out of that, Republicans on the House of Representatives oversight committee spun a vision of Biden Sr sitting atop a sprawling crime family that would be the envy of the mafia. But, as so often in modern American politics, the spectre of Donald Trump was lurking in the shadows. Continue reading...

College student must also spend three years on probation for breaking in, pouring gasoline and setting the building on fireA woman who says anxiety and nightmares led her to set fire to Wyoming's only full-service abortion clinic, setting back the facility's opening by almost a year, was sentenced to five years in prison and three years of probation on Thursday.Lorna Roxanne Green could have been sentenced to up to 20 years for burning the Wellspring Health Access facility in Casper. She pleaded guilty to a federal arson charge in July. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. For our latest reporting on the looming government shutdown, you can read our latest report:

New York Democrat gets each witness in impeachment inquiry to admit they have no firsthand evidence of a crime committedQuestioning witnesses in the first impeachment hearing staged by House Republicans, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez prompted each to say they were not presenting firsthand witness accounts" of crimes committed by Joe Biden.The New York Democrat also accused Republicans of fabricating supposed evidence of corruption involving the president and his surviving son, Hunter Biden. Continue reading...

Texas Democrat Jasmine Crockett launched a blistering attack on the impeachment hearings against President Joe Biden on Thursday, asking key Democrat witness Michael J Gerhardt how many times GOP members of the inquiry said 'if' when probing allegations against the president. Crockett said: 'Honestly, if they would continue to say "if" or "Hunter" and we were playing a drinking game, I would be drunk by now.'During a hearing of the House Oversight Committee, Crockett also accused GOP members of ignoring evidence against Donald Trump while continuing 'disturbing' efforts to impeach Biden.

Members of the GOP have been investigating the president's connections to his son's business for months to prove corruption

Christopher Steele's dossier also alleged Putin supported and directed' plan to cultivate' Trump as a presidential candidateDonald Trump is suing a former MI6 officer and the intelligence consultancy he founded, high court records in England show.The former US president, who is mired in lawsuits in his own country, is bringing a data protection claim against Orbis Business Intelligence and its founder Christopher Steele, who previously ran the secret intelligence service's Russia desk. Continue reading...