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Plans for gloves that can deliver electric shocks underline the homeland security department's sadistic practicesOn 11 August, the Associated Press reported that the Homeland Security Agency will spend up to $20m to equip its agents with gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks to the skin of a person deemed uncooperative. The conductive distraction and de-escalation devices"- branded Glove, for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter - will be supplied by their manufacturer, Compliant Technologies, through a no-bid contract.News of the acquisition inspired the editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes to publish a cartoon of an ICE agent wearing the glove, underneath which are a branding iron, an iron maiden, a rack, and other compliance technologies. AKA, instruments of torture. Continue reading...

The Democratic and the Republican candidate each blame the other for the bungled recovery effort after storm struck regionTwo years after North Carolina suffered the worst natural disaster in its history when Hurricane Helene struck the state's western half, life in the hardest-hit areas appears back to normal. Downtowns are lively, blocked roads have been reopened and rivers are flowing below their banks.But the telltale evidence of the disaster's expensive impacts can still be seen - from for rent" signs in storefronts whose businesses never came back to debris from the storm still lurking in some waterways. And in the race for North Carolina's US Senate seat, it's almost as if the hurricane never left. Continue reading...

The WNBA has attracted grifters who care little for basketball - and whose latest stunt exposes the hollowness of their supposed concernI regret to inform you that yet another dildo has hit a WNBA court. The Chicago Sky v Golden State Valkyries game was sullied by sex toys being chucked on to the playing surface on Friday. Aren't we tired of all this yet? To paraphrase the Sky's Natasha Cloud, it takes a lot of effort to bother with such a juvenile act.This is yet another controversy for the WNBA, a league that up until a few years ago, most media observers ignored. The WNBA is full of incredibly talented players and has a rich history, but most sports fans treated all but ignored it for the majority of its 30-year existence. But when Caitlin Clark went pro, the league surged. Ratings, attendance, and interest exploded. But not all attention is good attention. Continue reading...

Joshua Aviles says he is on a nine-month Middle East deployment and learned his has father has been arrested while he was waiting for green card approvalThe father of a US sailor on board the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier deployed in the Middle East during the Iran war has been taken into federal immigration detention, the sailor said.The border patrol arrested Luis Manuel Aviles Roa, originally from Nicaragua, after conducting a vehicle stop in Key West, Florida, a spokesperson for the US homeland security department said on Sunday. Continue reading...

Investors will hope Kevin Warsh offers comfort blanket' at annual meeting of central banks amid bond market anxiety

Lillian Smart of Ruston infected with fatal Naegleria fowleri, likely after swimming in Lake Claiborne, health officials sayAn eight-year-old Louisiana girl has died after contracting a rare, typically fatal brain-eating amoeba after a swim in Lake Claiborne.Lillian Smart, of Ruston, died on Saturday, one day after celebrating her birthday, her family announced in a public Facebook post on the Love for Lillian" page. Continue reading...

US president, pushing on with Freedom 250 festivities, makes over nation's capital for Trump rally on wheels

Human-caused Hawk fire covers more than 15,000 acres as blaze approaches University of Nevada campus in RenoA fast-moving Nevada wildfire exploded to more than 15,000 acres (6,000 hectares) on Sunday, pushing from the Sierra foothills toward the center of Reno and urging nearly 90,000 residents to evacuate as flames threatened neighborhoods and reached the edge of the University of Nevada campus.The Hawk fire's GO NOW" evacuation zone had expanded to the edge of the university campus as strong, gusty winds, low humidity and dry vegetation fueled the blaze, according to Truckee Meadows Fire and Rescue in Reno. Of those urged to evacuate, 42,000 were under strict orders. An additional 45,000 people were in the evacuation warning zone, and encouraged to leave now and be prepared to stay away for several days to clear the roads for first-responders. Continue reading...

Critics include Senator Chris van Hollen, ex-aide to Obama Tommy Vietor and ex-Republican congressman Adam KinzingerDemocrats and other Donald Trump critics reacted incredulously to a New York Times report on Sunday that House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries met with Jared Kushner, the president's influential son-in-law, to discuss possible areas of collaboration.The reported meeting comes months ahead of the November midterm elections in which Democrats are favored to retake the US House, a development that would make Jeffries speaker. If they are in the majority, Democrats are expected to use their oversight power to aggressively investigate the Trump administration, including self-enrichment by the president and his family. Continue reading...

Breakdown shows Washington now prioritises its own interests over any semblance of shared economic ground

Republican senator tries to assuage concerns but does not offer details of Graham's national security experienceTim Scott defended fellow US South Carolina Republican senator Darline Graham's knowledge of national security issues ahead of their state's runoff election on Tuesday.Graham, who was appointed to fill the Senate seat held by her brother Lindsey Graham after his sudden death in July, is in a Republican primary runoff against South Carolina congressman Ralph Norman. During a debate between the two on Tuesday night, Graham struggled to answer a question about US national security interests in Taiwan and the South China Sea. Continue reading...

Relatives of woman fatally stabbed on public transit allege death was preventable and Charlotte knew of violent crime issueThe family of Iryna Zarutska is suing Charlotte and a security company one year after the Ukrainian refugee was fatally stabbed onboard a light rail train in the North Carolina city.A lawsuit filed on Friday in Charlotte's Mecklenburg county superior court alleges Zarutska's death was preventable. It also claims the city and the company that provides security for the Charlotte Area Transit System failed to put adequate protections in place despite knowing about violent crime on and around the municipal light rail line. Continue reading...

Devoted Trump aide flooded her now-disabled profile urging people to never concede' on 6 January 2021The Donald Trump aide Natalie Harp flooded a since-disabled social media account with pro-Trump posts on the day that the president's supporters attacked the US Capitol in early 2021, years before she went to work for him and developed an extraordinary close relationship with him, a new report has revealed.CNN on Saturday reported that a deactivated account which Harp had on what is now known as X was packed with fiercely pro-Trump messages on the day of the January 6 Capitol attack in Washington DC, including posts repeating his lies that the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden toward the end of his first presidency, had been stolen from by fraudsters. Continue reading...

Michael Jeffries is ruled mentally competent to stand trial after being hospitalized for months for dementia symptomsThe former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch has been ruled mentally competent to stand trial as he faces sex-trafficking charges after being hospitalized for months for dementia and Alzheimer's symptoms.Michael Jeffries, who is 82 and free on bond for now, is scheduled to be tried in late October, alongside two co-defendants: his partner Matthew Smith and staffer James Jacobson. A pretrial hearing was slated for Thursday. Continue reading...

Abbas Araghchi says country is unbowed but president Masoud Pezeshkian admits its people face many problems'Iran's foreign minister has dismissed the threat of a fresh round of US economic sanctions as a desperate" ploy, even as its president acknowledged that the Iranian people are facing many problems" amid Washington's efforts to isolate and debilitate the country's economy.Last week, Donald Trump announced a new campaign to increase the pressure on the Iranian economy, calling it the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country". The US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, is expected to announce further punitive economic measures on Iran - which he has described as the toughest sanctions in history" - on Monday. Continue reading...

Woman remains missing more than five days after police found officer she was married to dead in their homeAn arrest warrant has been issued for a mental health advocate who remained missing on Sunday, more than five days after police found the Massachusetts officer she had been married to dead in their home.Karen Solomon, 58, was last spotted in a doorbell camera video, walking down a street in a T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops early Tuesday morning, just minutes after Worcester police officers responded to a call from the home where Kurt Solomon was found dead. Continue reading...

Defense files motion to dismiss state case after federal guilty plea but prosecutors say they are prepared to litigateAfter Luigi Mangione admitted in Manhattan federal court that he killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, most experts believe that the state murder case against is highly unlikely to proceed - though some still see a slim possibility that it may yet happen.Mangione, who pleaded guilty on 14 August to two federal stalking counts, was scheduled for a New York state trial on 8 September for murder and weapons charges in the December 2024 killing. In the wake of Mangione's surprise plea, legal experts said New York's state-level double jeopardy law - which means someone cannot be tried twice for the same crime - could derail his local prosecution. Continue reading...

Even products labeled eco', green' or natural' can contain dangerous compounds including PfasCommon personal care products widely contain unlabeled toxic chemicals, results from a new peer-reviewed study suggest. The testing of more than 110 items ranging from shampoo to baby lotions found evidence of unlabeled toxic chemicals in about 85%.Many contained multiple ingredients known to be carcinogens or health hazards, and even 26% of products labeled eco", green" or natural" contained at least one dangerous compound. The products averaged more than three times as many chemicals than were listed on labels. Continue reading...

Treasury secretary Scott Bessent's attempt to calm bond markets is a sign of weakness not strengthLook, there's nothing magic about that $40tn number," the US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, told CNBC insouciantly last week, as the country's debt mountain surpassed another bleak record.Yet Bessent's decision to intervene in government bond markets in an effort to combat soaring yields belied his studied calm in TV interviews - and reignited fears the US may be on the road to a debt crisis. Continue reading...

President's speech, declassification of documents and heightened claims of noncitizen voting have experts concernedA series of moves by Donald Trump's administration to sow doubt in the integrity of US elections have intensified concern among voting experts - and sparked hope among election deniers - that it could declare a national emergency.The White House and US federal agencies have released a string of documents this summer - including disputed analyses of alleged voting by noncitzens and historical intelligence memos - stoking expectations that the US president could move to exert greater control over November's US midterm elections. Continue reading...

Michigan Senate nominee and others have re-energized one-time Democratic voters who abandoned the party under BidenTwo years ago, Zainab Bibi Ahmed thought she had turned her back on the Democrats for good. Now, she is volunteering for the party's US Senate nominee in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed.Ahmed was one of 100,000 people to vote uncommitted in the February 2024 Democratic Michigan primary, in a bid to send a message to then US president Joe Biden about his support for Israel, as people watched what Amnesty International later called a live-streamed genocide" in Gaza on their screens. Continue reading...

Weather service warns of flooding and mudslides, particularly in areas strongly affected by previous stormTropical Storm Moke is poised to slam into the south of Hawaii's islands, with forecasters predicting heavy rains and strong winds on Saturday evening, just days after the region was hit by Hurricane Lala.As with Hurricane Lala, the Big Island is expected to bear the brunt of Moke's rain and heavy winds as it passes south of a direct hit late on Saturday and into Sunday. Continue reading...

Kassebaum Baker became the first woman elected to the US Senate without following a spouse into officeNancy Kassebaum Baker, a Kansas governor's daughter who became the first woman elected to the US Senate without following a spouse into office, has died. She was 94.Kassebaum Baker died on Friday of natural causes, according to her son, Bill Kassebaum. Continue reading...

PEN America condemns lawyers using passage from thriller to bolster claim ex-FBI director intended to harm TrumpA leading US free-expression group has hit out at federal prosecutors' use of a novel written by former FBI director James Comey in their case accusing him of threatening to kill Donald Trump.Citing a novel to save an indictment that is constitutionally dubious is a desperate Hail Mary and should be rejected," said a statement posted on Friday by Mara Gassmann, legal director of PEN America, using a term for a last-second heave in American football. Continue reading...

33,124 residents still in the dark as utility company says it is working to restore power in north-west of stateThousands of residents of north-west Indiana on Saturday were headed for their 11th day without electric power after storms swept through the state, toppling trees and power lines, earlier in August.The powerless conditions have led to food lines, closed businesses, dead phones, no schools, spoiled food, dirty clothes, dry gas pumps and a multitude of other deleterious effects on life without energy. Continue reading...

Omaha police agreed to stop carrying electric shock gloves in the halls of state's largest public school districtOmaha police recently agreed to stop carrying gloves that can deliver electric shocks to students in the halls of Nebraska's largest public school district.The decision affecting most Omaha middle and high schools came after the Associated Press first revealed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)'s plan to give officers the Gloves" - or generated low output voltage emitters". The devices have also been used in recent years by some jails. Continue reading...

A Democrat's remarks have resulted in impassioned defenses of the Trump aide. The right has discovered misogynyJon Ossoff is quite the miracle worker. Perhaps the Democratic senator can't turn water into wine, but he has managed to turn whining conservatives into impassioned feminists.During a rally last Sunday, the Georgia senator delivered a takedown of Donald Trump, which included a reference to his aide Natalie Harp. He doesn't want to do the job," Ossoff said of the president. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar."Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Latest attack happened amid Islamophobic blowback against Arab and Muslim Americans running for officeNashid Shakir describes how assailants used wire cutters to break into the Westwood Islamic Community Center in the early hours of 3 August.They cut the wire and broke the window to get in. They broke into the office, too. It was total disarray," says Shakir, a board member, and member, at the community center since the 1960s. Continue reading...

New CDC data shows MMR vaccination among kindergarteners declining slightly as non-medical exemptions climb to 4.2%A week after Donald Trump made a series of misleading claims about vaccines - including that some injections look like the size of a soda bottle" - the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the latest data on national kindergarten vaccination rates.CDC communications downplayed the changes - a three-sentence announcement said, overall vaccination rates among kindergarteners remained high" - but medical experts immediately saw cause for concern in the trends. Continue reading...

A call revealing Todd Blanche's plans to crack down on mifepristone lays bare the dangerThe abortion pill is a miracle. Mifepristone, then called RU-486, was synthesized by a French lab in the 1980s; in combination with misoprostol, commonly used as ulcer medication, it cuts off the body's supply of progesterone, halts the development of a pregnancy, and incites contractions, which empty the uterus. The drug allows pregnancies to be terminated with a shocking degree of reliability and ease. Gone are the concoctions of ergot and Spanish Fly dispensed by 19th century midwives, which only sometimes worked to induce a miscarriage; gone are the backroom procedures of the pre-Roe US, when drunk, lascivious, incompetent or cruel providers wielded bent coat hangers in dirty rooms. The abortion pill is safe, effective and cheaper than ever. And since Dobbs, it's everywhere: even if you live in a state with an abortion ban, you can get the pills shipped to your house in the mail. Since Roe was overturned, there has not been a return to the terror of mass death that marked the pre-Roe era of septic abortion wards, where women routinely found themselves maimed, sickened or killed. There's exactly one reason why: because illegal abortions were largely unsafe without the pill, and they are extremely safe with it.So of course, the Trump administration and their allies on the American right are trying to get rid of it. And this month, they gained a powerful new ally when Todd Blanche, Donald Trump's former personal lawyer and an anti-abortion zealot, was confirmed as attorney general. Continue reading...

Thomas Bailey, 58, faces charge of unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling near Covington, LouisianaA US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer was jailed on Friday on allegations of breaking into a woman's apartment.Thomas Bailey, 58, faces a charge of unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling after his arrest by the sheriff's office of St Tammany parish, Louisiana, the agency said in a statement. Continue reading...

Trump transport chief's YouTube show vowed to celebrate America's story' - it's debatable whether it celebrates anything besides the Duffys themselvesIt would be fair to say that the Trump administration's celebration of the United States's 250th birthday has been unorthodox - involving, as it has, an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event at the White House, a poorly attended state fair, and a car race through Washington, before which the US president will take a lap of honor.On Tuesday, however, Donald Trump officials dropped perhaps their weirdest 250th offering yet: a six-part travel show in which the US secretary of transportation take his entire family on a startlingly self-involved, creatively funded road trip around the country. Continue reading...

As the president tries to extract the US from his Iran war quagmire, leadership in Tehran is only too happy to crush his midterm dreamsIn the aftermath of his devastating election defeat, the US president remained haunted by regrets over Iran.Months before Jimmy Carter lost the 1980 presidential election to Ronald Reagan, eight US servicemen died in a botched high-risk rescue mission that failed to secure the freedom of dozens of US hostages seized in Tehran. Continue reading...

MLS wants to build on the momentum of the World Cup. America's top domestic cup competition is an obvious place to startThe new commissioner of Major League Soccer, Larry Berg, isn't keen on the idea of promotion and relegation, but he is a fan of jeopardy. When asked the obligatory pro/rel question in his introductory press conference, Berg responded, I don't think it's appropriate for our league, but I think there are other ways to create jeopardy during the regular season, [and] again in the playoffs."He referred to this summer's World Cup, which was co-hosted by the US, and the excitement it provided, adding, Millions of people across North America experienced that passion firsthand. They fell in love with the drama, the atmosphere, the supporter culture and the emotion that makes soccer unlike anything else. In the World Cup, we all enjoyed knockout games after the group stage. I call those games of consequence or games of jeopardy." Continue reading...

Rule would require states to provide federal government with information on voters in return for delivering ballotsThe US Postal Service prepared to publish a final rule late on Friday to impose new requirements on states to provide the federal government with information on voters before the November midterm congressional elections, despite a pair of court orders that currently block the changes from taking effect.The USPS acknowledged in the text of the final rule posted online Friday, which is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register next week, that two injunctions issued by federal courts in California and Massachusetts currently bar it from moving ahead with the changes to comply with a March executive order signed by Donald Trump. Continue reading...

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President at rally in South Carolina makes comments on key strategic waterway and jokes about bombing IranDonald Trump called the strait of Hormuz an American territory" on Friday, as the US continues its military blockade of Iran's shipping and ports while Trump's administration struggles to end its war with the country.We don't even know if we won, because I view the strait of Hormuz as an American territory right now," Trump said, addressing a crowd in South Carolina. He was campaigning for senator Darline Graham, who is running to permanently fill her late brother Lindsey Graham's Senate seat. Continue reading...

A report released by thinktank Cap argues the deployment of the national guard failed to have a measurable impact on crime, despite costing billionsThe Center for American Progress (Cap) received a letter from Donald Trump's lawyer threatening a $5bn lawsuit unless the liberal research organization retracts a report criticizing the effectiveness of the president's National Guard rollout.The report released 13 July argues that the National Guard deployment in Washington DC, Memphis and Los Angeles failed to have a measurable impact on crime in these cities despite an estimated cost of $1.7bn. The report looks at the falling rate of crime in cities without a National Guard intervention and concludes that they are not statistically different from the rate of decrease in those that had the intervention, noting that violent crime began falling well before Trump took office in 2025. Continue reading...

Civilian-contracted aircraft' crashes in western Alaska killing two pilots and six passengers, officials sayA charter aircraft that crashed at a remote radar site in western Alaska on Thursday, killing all eight people onboard, was making its second runway approach in heavy fog when it lost contact, authorities said Friday.The Cessna's two pilots could not see the gravel airstrip and were flying solely by instruments when the plane crashed about midday Thursday, Clint Johnson, the National Transportation Safety Board's Alaska region chief, told a virtual news conference. Continue reading...

The dark lord - or someone dressed like him - said the technology would aid the empire in tracking rebel scum'A man dressed as Darth Vader appeared to poke fun at San Diego officials for using Flock Safety automated license plate readers at a city council meeting this week, a stunt that comes as the company faces growing backlash linked to spying concerns.The man, whose real identity remains unknown, masqueraded on Thursday as the Star Wars villain at a San Diego public safety committee meeting. Continue reading...

Chief justice signs temporary order to permit work while court considers emergency appeal from administrationThe US supreme court has allowed Donald Trump to continue construction of his controversial White House ballroom for now, temporarily pausing a lower court order that would halt much of the project.Supreme court chief justice John Roberts signed a temporary order on Friday, permitting work to continue on the planned White House addition - a top priority of the president - while the court considers an emergency appeal from Trump's administration. Continue reading...

The trial of Lindsay Clancy, a former nurse accused of murdering her three children, is wrapping up its fifth week. On Friday morning, the defense rested, and the public attention to the case is at a fever-pitch - especially on social media. Clancy, 36, does not deny that she strangled her children, but has pleaded not guilty due to lack of criminal responsibility, also known as an insanity defense. She argues that she was in the throes of postpartum psychosis, a rare and devastating condition that can go unrecognized and untreated. Host Carter Sherman speaks with Jenna Amatulli, deputy head of news for Guardian US, about how the case has renewed attention on the fundamental shortcomings in the US's maternal healthcare system, and about why Clancy's story has captivated - and polarized - so many people Continue reading...

Police department for Navajo Nation neither identified the victim nor said what type of bear had killed himIn a rare kind of attack, a bear killed a man in Crystal, New Mexico, on Thursday, local police said.The police department for the Navajo Nation said officers within its Window Rock district received a call at about 1pm that a bear had attacked a man. Continue reading...