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David Zandstra, 83, has been charged with murder and kidnapping of Gretchen Harrington in Pennsylvania in 1975For nearly half of a century, police investigators in a south-eastern Pennsylvania community had struggled to figure out who had taken eight-year-old Gretchen Harrington into the woods, struck her in the head and killed her.All signs now indicate it was the Christian pastor in charge of the Bible camp to which Harrington was heading in 1975 when some of her loved ones last saw her alive, authorities alleged in a bombshell news conference this week. Continue reading...

After drawing a cartoon including antisemitic tropes, I am trying to respond in the best way I can: to apologise, to learn and to be vigilantI have been a political cartoonist my whole adult life, and I believe what I do is important. Satirical cartoons weave together humour and weird kinds of sympathetic magic to damage, and thereby try to curb the excesses of, powerful people through caricature and mockery, by means of metaphor and symbols: things signifying things other than themselves; allegories and allusions; tropes, if you like. They also require a lot of deniable ambiguity, because they undermine power by laughing at it, and power has a huge armoury of weapons with which to answer back.Nonetheless, instead of the rather pompous definition of satire as puncturing pomposity", I've always preferred the punchline of the great joke where a son comes home from work complaining to his mother about his new boss. She replies, with the wisdom of mothers: If he's so special, how come he shits and he's going to die?"Martin Rowson is a cartoonist and authorDo 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...

Israel sent items including ancient coins and ceramic oil lamps in December 2019 for Hanukkah event at White HouseDonald Trump will finally return ancient artefacts sent to the US by Israel in 2019 after the items had a lengthy stay at Mar-a-Lago.Israel sent the items to the US in December 2019 for a Hanukkah event at the White House. The artefacts were meant to be displayed for the 2019 event and then returned to Israel, but the US state department prevented their display over concerns they may have been taken from the West Bank. Continue reading...

Trump's attorney at time of 2020 presidential loss concedes claims were defamatory in response to lawsuit filed by workersA court filing by Rudy Giuliani in response to a lawsuit filed against him by two Georgia election workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea Shaye" Moss, included a concession: Giuliani admitted to making defamatory statements against the workers.The workers complained in court that Giuliani has failed to produce records of the exchange between then president Donald Trump and Giuliani, who served as Trump's attorney at the time in the wake of his 2020 presidential election loss. The election workers were cited by Giuliani and then Trump as an example of election fraud in Georgia where they were accused of manipulating ballots - despite the claims being repeatedly debunked by Georgia election officials and federal investigators. Continue reading...

After criticism including doll burning, the director said her film is an invitation for everybody to be part of the party'Barbie director Greta Gerwig has responded to the onslaught of criticism from rightwingers in the US by saying it's an invitation for everybody to be part of the party".In an interview with the New York Times, Gerwig was asked if she had anticipated the degree to which rightwing pundits are bashing the movie as being woke' and burning their Barbies". Gerwig, who co-wrote the movie as well as directing it said: Certainly, there's a lot of passion. My hope for the movie is that it's an invitation for everybody to be part of the party and let go of the things that aren't necessarily serving us as either women or men." Continue reading...

The Americans and the Netherlands were on top of the world in 2019. But both teams have had struggles since their meeting in Lyon four years agoFor nine months, players and coaches from the United States and the Netherlands have deflected questions about the impending rematch of the 2019 World Cup final. For nine months, they stressed that each team had a group stage match to play before they met, and that they would approach the tournament one game at a time.Now, the moment has arrived, and there is no getting around it: Thursday's match in Wellington is likely to decide the group winner and, with it, the pathway if the teams are to return to the final. This is the game the teams - and fans around the world - have been anticipating since the World Cup draw in October. Continue reading...

Labor is increasingly militant after years of inaction, energized by star power from the actors' and writers' strikesIt's been a fast and furious few weeks for labor. First, 3,000 workers went on strike at 150 Starbucks, then 6,000 Los Angeles hotel workers walked out, and now 11,500 Hollywood writers and 160,000 television and movie actors have gone on strike. Not only that, 340,000 UPS workers seemed ready to walk out on 1 August, and the United Auto Workers (UAW) union is threatening to strike one or more Detroit automakers later this summer.It feels like it's strike summer," said Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Labor Center. There's tremendous energy within the labor movement, and there's tremendous energy on the strike lines." Continue reading...

A Florida law barring certain foreign nationals from buying property has brought confusion, thoughts of moving and protestsEarlier this year, Fort Lauderdale resident Yulin Wu's white co-workers told her not to worry about a Florida bill that would prohibit some Chinese people and entities from acquiring real estate. She had heard about the proposed legislation on Chinese-language social media.Those colleagues called it impossible", said Wu, a 27-year-old attorney from China's Zhejiang province. They [didn't] believe this type of law can pass." Continue reading...

America's cities are often safer and more diverse. Perhaps that's why Aldean, who claims to despise big-city values, lives in one?According to the country music star Jason Aldean, you'd better not use your first amendment rights in small-town America, unless you want to be attacked by a vigilante mob. That's the message of Aldean's controversial song Try That in a Small Town, which includes the lyrics, Stomp on the flag and light it up / Yeah, you think you're tough / Well, try that in a small town / See how far you make it down the road / Around here, we take care of our own" and Full of good ol' boys / raised up right / If you're looking for a fight / Try that in a small town."Critics have pointed out that the song glorifies the kind of vigilante justice that has led to lynching and extra-judicial killings, and that the song feels like a very loosely veiled reference to Black Lives Matter protests. They also point to the conspiratorial thinking behind the line Got a gun that my granddad gave me / They say one day they're gonna round up / Well, that shit might fly in the city, good luck / Try that in a small town." Continue reading...

Anything to please Trump and disparage the successful Democratic presidentThe setting was inevitable, and the personalities predictable.On a Fox News interview (where else?) conducted by Sean Hannity (who else?), the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, floated the idea on Monday that House Republicans should move toward impeaching President Biden. Continue reading...

It often seems that people are searching harder for evidence we're defeated than that we can winStanford engineering professor and renewable energy expert Mark Z Jacobson tweeted the other day, Given that scientists who study 100% renewable energy systems are unanimous that it can be done why do we hear daily on twitter and everywhere else by those who don't study such systems that it can't be done?" A significant percentage of the general public speaks of climate change with a strange combination of confidence and defeatism: confidence in positions often based on inaccurate or outdated or maybe no information; defeatism about what we can do to make a livable future. Maybe they just get their facts from other doom evangelists, who flourish on the internet, no matter how much reputable scientists demonstrate their errors.They're surrendering in advance and inspiring others to do the same. If you announce that the outcome has already been decided and we've already lost, you strip away the motivation to participate - and of course if we do nothing we settle for the worst outcome. It often seems that people are searching harder for evidence we're defeated than that we can win. Warnings are a valuable thing, given with the sense that there's something we can do to prevent the anticipated outcome; prophesies assume the future is settled and there's nothing we can do. But the defeatists often describe a present they assert are locking in the worst outcomes.Rebecca Solnit's most recent books are Orwell's Roses and the climate anthology Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility, co-edited with Thelma Young Lutunatabua Continue reading...

Giving up alcohol for a month wasn't hard, even in the aperitif-loving capital. But it opened my eyes to one of France's simplest pleasuresI'll admit, it's much stranger to do a dry June" or a dry July" than a dry January". As a friend from London quipped to me on a recent visit to Paris, she doesn't so much expect to reach August with a summer beach bod, as a summer belly, the fruit of too many crisp beers at barbecues.In Paris, especially, it's easy to find yourself slipping from terrace to terrace in evenings that stay light until late, an apero here, a glass of wine there. It's not a city that drinks to excess - but it does perhaps drink excessively, especially with a craft beer industry worthy of pulling market share away from wine and bobo wine bars fighting back with bright and energetic natural wines scoured from across the continent.Alexander Hurst is a France-based writer and an adjunct lecturer at Sciences Po, the Paris Institute of Political Studies Continue reading...

David Grusch, a whistleblower ex-intelligence official, is among the witnesses slated to appear before House committee hearingA House of Representatives committee is set to hold an eagerly-awaited hearing on UFOs on Wednesday, which is expected to see remarkable claims regarding extraterrestrial life repeated in the most high-profile setting yet.David Grusch, a whistleblower former intelligence official who in June claimed the US has possession of intact and partially intact" alien vehicles, is among the witnesses slated to appear, and will repeat his allegations in front of a seemingly supportive line-up of congressmen and women. Continue reading...

As the passing game has grown to dominate the league, rushers have been devalued. That leaves some players feeling they've been given a raw dealThe running back market has flatlined. On Tuesday, Saquon Barkley agreed to a fresh one-year $11m contract with the New York Giants, ending any talk of a training camp holdout.Barkley is back in New York. But his signing represents a thaw around the issue of running back pay rather than a final resolution. Barkley's new deal did not include a clause that would prevent the Giants from using the franchise tag - which teams can use to keep hold of players due to become free agents - on him for next season, a provision a number of quarterbacks have included in their deals. Unless there's a wink-wink deal over a long-term contract, it's likely he will find himself in the same situation again next summer. Likewise for Jonathan Taylor, who is due a contract extension next offseason. Ditto for Nick Chubb, whose long-term contract options are also uncertain and will be 30 by the time he's due for a new deal. Continue reading...

We welcome solidarity with LGBTQ+ causes, but in the wake of the 1975's inflammatory gay kiss on stage, artists need to be more considerate in their allyshipEvery day, the realities of my queerness make me hold on tighter to the ones I love. As a mixed race first generation immigrant, whose mother moved from Malaysia to the UK in the 1960s, I get to enjoy the benefits of the land that once colonised my mother's. I can walk down the street holding the hand of my lover, and kiss their face, but if we went home to Malaysia, this love would be fined, caned or locked away. Not for me, as a foreigner to my motherland and of Chinese descent, but for my partner, a Malaysian born Malay.In Malaysia, there are no LGBTQ+ rights, with a penalty of up to 20 years in prison for sodomy; Global Trans Rights Index ranks Malaysia as the second worst country in the world for transgender rights. And a privileged white man - the lead singer of British band the 1975 - has inadvertently made this situation worse. Continue reading...

At an event in New York hosted by celebrity rabbi Shmuley Boteach, RFK Jr told the audience he was facing censorship' and character assassination'Democratic presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr has said that he should have been more careful" in making his recent false remarks about the ethnic targeting" of the Covid pandemic.At a campaign debate in New York on Tuesday night, Kennedy sought to put the accusation of antisemitism that has engulfed his campaign behind him. But he stopped short of retracting his false claim that coronavirus had been targeted to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people from the impact of the disease. Continue reading...

BB-12 had made a habit of crossing highways to visit the wealthy beach enclave, but last Thursday he was struck on the 101A young black bear that was recently spotted strolling on Malibu beaches died after he was hit by a car on the freeway, the US National Park Service (NPS) announced.The bear, known as BB-12, had successfully crossed southern California highways five times before he was fatally struck on the 101 freeway on 20 July. Continue reading...

A federal judge ruled that the military judge in former US soldier's trial failed to disclose a potential conflict of interestA US judge has vacated the military conviction of Bowe Bergdahl, a former army soldier who pleaded guilty to desertion after he left his post and was captured in Afghanistan and tortured by the Taliban.The ruling from federal district judge Reggie Walton in Washington says that military judge Jeffrey Nance, who presided over the court-martial, failed to disclose that he had applied to the executive branch for a job as an immigration judge, creating a potential conflict of interest. Continue reading...

Mustafa Hassan says comment proved to him that police and FBI knew beforehand that there would be an attempt on activist's lifeA witness to the 1965 assassination of Malcolm X has come forward to claim that a comment he overheard as police were restraining assassin Thomas Hagan outside the Audubon Ball room proved to him that the New York police department and FBI knew beforehand that there would be an attempt on the civil rights activist's life.Mustafa Hassan said he heard an officer ask of Hagan, Is he one of us?" Continue reading...

Immigrant rights groups applaud decision while justice department says it would seek to prevent ruling from taking effectA federal judge on Tuesday blocked a rule that allows immigration authorities to deny asylum to migrants who arrive at the US-Mexico border without first applying online or seeking protection in a country they passed through.But the judge delayed his ruling from taking effect immediately to give the Joe Biden White House time to appeal. Continue reading...

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Florida governor and Republican presidential hopeful cuts 38 jobs, including two senior advisersOn a day on which he emerged uninjured from an actual car crash in Tennessee, Ron DeSantis was reported to have made his most drastic attempt yet to turn round a presidential campaign seen as in danger of coming off the road itself, announcing a deep slashing of staff numbers.Politico said advisers to the Florida governor confirmed that more than a third of campaign staff were being cut, a total of 38 jobs shed across an array of departments", two senior advisers among them. Continue reading...

Prosecutors described Hadden as a predator in a white coat', saying he lured out-of-state patients to New York to abuse themA Manhattan gynecologist convicted of sexually assaulting his patients during examinations was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Tuesday.Robert A Hadden, 64, was convicted in January of abusing four patients during his tenure at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and New York-Presbyterian Hospital, two top New York hospitals. Continue reading...

House GOP seeks to end availability of mifepristone by mail and cut billions in low-income food benefits as part of budget fightA Republican-backed spending bill threatens to end national access to mail-order abortion pills and cut billions from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) that provides low-income families with food benefits.The legislation is part of a spate of appropriations bills that lawmakers will debate this month, and which Congress must reach a decision on by the end of September in order to pass a budget for the 2024 fiscal year and avoid a federal shutdown. It was already approved by a House appropriations subcommittee in May, while being condemned by Democrats and causing internal rifts among Republicans. Republicans have added several provisions to the bill that would have wide-ranging effects on reproductive rights, health policy and benefits. Continue reading...

Lorie Smith had argued that her right to free speech regarding her opposition to same-sex marriage was chilled' by Colorado's lawA Colorado woman who claimed her state's support for same-sex marriage barred her from designing wedding websites, fueling a case that last month delivered a major US supreme court blow to LGBTQ+ rights, appears to have designed at least one wedding website before it was scrubbed from her archive.The discovery, by the New Republic, followed reporting by that outlet and the Guardian which showed the request for a site for a same-sex wedding that lay at the heart of the 303 Creative v Elenis supreme court case appeared to have been a fabrication. Continue reading...

Ex-president's favorability has fallen 9 points to 66% with party supporters, while Republicans with a negative view rose to 32%Donald Trump's appeal has sunk among Republicans, a new poll has found.The former president, who faces criminal indictments in two cases and possibly a third, announced earlier this year that he is once again running for president in the 2024 election.This article was amended on 25 July 2023 to correct a typo concerning 91% of Democrats polled. Continue reading...

Dog meant to be friendlier version of banished predecessor Major involved in several incidents, one requiring hospital treatmentHe was introduced as a smaller and friendlier version of Joe Biden's dog Major, who was banished from the White House two years ago after numerous biting episodes.Now the first pooch", Commander, is in the doghouse himself after chomping down on several people, including a Secret Service agent who needed hospital treatment for their wounds. Continue reading...

Bargaining committee endorses five-year contract which includes wage increases and Martin Luther King Day as paid holidayThe Teamsters union announced on Tuesday that its leadership had reached a tentative agreement with UPS, averting a strike that was set to begin on 1 August involving 340,000 workers.The national bargaining committee unanimously endorsed the five-year tentative agreement. Continue reading...

Utah senator cites 90s comedy Dumb and Dumber to call on candidates to unite behind one challenger to avoid 2016 repeatRepublican donors must persuade failing candidates for the party's presidential nomination to drop out of the race quickly in order to stop Donald Trump winning, Senator Mitt Romney has said.Trump leads most Republican primary polling averages by 30 points or more, despite facing 71 criminal indictments, the prospect of more over his attempted election subversion, and deeply unfavorable ratings with American voters at large. Continue reading...

Police in Neptune Beach say a large amount of marijuana washed ashore' and that it had begun to degrade and rotA Florida beach was recently overtaken by a different type of weed than that of the sea: a large amount of marijuana" washed up on Neptune Beach over the weekend.The Neptune Beach police department wrote in a Facebook post that they had responded to a large amount of marijuana which washed ashore along the shoreline" on Saturday. Continue reading...

Latest aggressive intercept by Russia in region sees drone damaged, a week after jet flew dangerously close to US aircraftA Russian fighter jet flew within a few meters of a US drone over Syria and fired flares at it, striking the American aircraft and damaging it, the latest in a string of aggressive intercepts by Russia in the region.A senior air force commander said the Russians attempted on Sunday to knock the MQ-9 Reaper drone out of the sky. It came just a week after a Russian fighter jet flew dangerously close to a US surveillance aircraft carrying a crew in the region, jeopardizing the lives of the four Americans on board. Continue reading...

Florida governor and team thank well-wishers after accident while traveling to event in Chattanooga, TennesseeRon DeSantis, the right-wing governor of Florida and candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, was involved in a car crash on the campaign trail on Tuesday.In a statement to media, DeSantis's press secretary, Bryan Griffin, said: This morning, the governor was in a car accident while traveling to an event in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He and his team are uninjured. Continue reading...

Joy Alonzo accused by student of disparaging Dan Patrick in lecture on opioid crisis at Texas A&M UniversityThe Texas A&M University professor Joy Alonzo criticized the Texas lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, during a visiting lecture in March 2023 on the opioid crisis at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas.Just hours later, Alonzo learned a student accused her of disparaging Patrick during the lecture. The complaint reached her supervisors and the chancellor of Texas A&M, John Sharp, who was in communication directly with the lieutenant governor's office. Continue reading...

Government action is needed to give children affordable access to healthier foods. We can't wait another decade for changeAcross high-income countries, from Britain to Denmark to the US, cancers in people under the age of 50 are becoming more common. This is quite an unusual pattern given that, for decades, cancer was seen as an affliction of old age. In fact, the high rates of cancer in high-income countries in much older people - above the age of 80 - was a sign of humans overcoming infectious diseases to live a long life before chronic diseases such as cancer would set in.So the increase in cancer rates in younger people has come as a surprise. The numbers are stark. Data from the G20 group of industrialised countries indicates that between 1990 and 2019, cancer rates increased by 22% in the age group 25-29. Rates of cancer in the next age group, 30-34, are at the highest level ever. And given cancer screening classically isn't routine in younger age groups, these cancers tend to go undiagnosed for longer with the tumours being more aggressive. Continue reading...

Bobby Smallwood stood between gunman and maternity patients and staff when he was shot and killed on SaturdayA community in the US state of Oregon is mourning a hospital security guard who was shot to death while protecting a maternity ward from an intruder over the weekend.The slain guard, 44-year-old Bobby Smallwood, started out handling administrative and computer-related tasks when he first joined Portland's Legacy Health network last year, according to a profile of him published by the news website oregonlive.com. But staffers at the hospital network often called Smallwood to help out with security because he was 6ft, 5in tall and weighed 270lbs. Continue reading...

The Kuala Lumpur regime will be delighted that the focus is on the 1975, rather than the human rights abuses the band condemnedMatty Healy of the 1975 pop group is being condemned by critics for having a white saviour complex" and seeking to impose western" values on Malaysia. The accusation comes after he used his recent Kuala Lumpur concert to denounce the country's harsh anti-LGBTQ+ laws. But he got roars of approval from the crowd. They clearly agreed with what he said.And while some Malaysian LGBT people were critical, others were supportive. They argue that queer rights are a universal human right, not a western one, and that these rights are now supported by a sizeable minority of the Malaysian population - especially young people.Peter Tatchell is director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation and the subject of the Netflix documentary, Hating Peter Tatchell Continue reading...

As the new season approaches in Europe, Jonathan Wilson will be writing a newsletter for soccer fans in the US and beyondSoccer continues to grow in the US: the Premier League has just opened an office in New York City, Lionel Messi's MLS debut started with a splash and Europe's top clubs are selling out stadiums across America on their summer tours.As the new season approaches in Europe, Jonathan Wilson will be writing a newsletter for soccer fans in the US and beyond. Continue reading...

We already know the damage that mining can cause on land. It could be devastating to the deep seaThousands of feet below the surface of the ocean, so deep that sunlight can't penetrate, magma seeping through the Earth's crust mixes with cold saltwater and creates a chemical reaction. The resulting hydrothermal vent spews water at temperatures upwards of 500F. Surrounding the vent - and other underwater landscapes - are small knobs containing copper, cobalt and other minerals precious for renewable energy batteries.This spring, scientists embarked on a search for new underwater formations aboard the Falkor (too), a research vessel operated by the Schmidt Ocean Institute, which one of us co-founded. Zooming in on three newly discovered hydrothermal vent fields with an underwater robot, the scientists found something unexpected. Continue reading...

Let's guard against new versions of the demand that women work to be hyper-attractive while pretending it's no work at allYou may have noticed that in our era of body positivity, fat acceptance and feelgood feminism, the celebrity diet is out.In its place: celebrity skincare.Jill Filipovic is the author of the The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness Continue reading...

Some lawmakers have even classified the opioid as a weapon of terrorism' and want impose the death sentence for its distributionAs American states rush to curb the surging death toll from fentanyl, the supercharged opioid swirling through the US's illicit drug supply, they are increasingly reaching for laws and tactics reminiscent of the failed war on drugs" of the 1980s.Dozens of states have introduced tougher laws in recent months in a desperate attempt to hold back the tide of a drug claiming nearly 200 lives a day that is the leading cause of deaths among American adults under the age of 45. Continue reading...

Survey shows a small but significant share of Americans believe in use of force to attain political goals - on both the left and the rightThe June federal indictment of Donald Trump is radicalizing" support for the use of force on behalf of the former president and current presidential candidate, according to the author of a recent survey about threats to democracy.Meanwhile, on the other side of the aisle, support for violence to restore the federal right to an abortion has also increased over the last few months, researchers found, although there's little indication that any organized groups support acting on this belief. Continue reading...

League Two club's Hollywood existence has taken them to LA and they see no reason why they cannot reach Premier LeagueNorth Carolina, Los Angeles, San Diego: the three stops on the first US tour in the widening horizons of Wrexham under their Hollywood A-list owners, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.After losing 5-0 to Chelsea in front of 50,596 spectators at Kenan Memorial Stadium and beating LA Galaxy II 4-0 (10,553, Dignity Health Sports Park), Phil Parkinson's promoted League Two team face Manchester United at the Snapdragon Stadium at 7.30pm Pacific time on Tuesday (3.30am BST), about 20 miles from Mexico. Continue reading...