Supreme court justice may have violated US law by not disclosing 38 vacations paid for by wealthy friends, ethics experts sayThe US supreme court justice Clarence Thomas appears to have violated US law by failing to disclose flights, yacht cruises and expensive sports tickets" bestowed by wealthy friends behind at least 38 destination vacations, ethics experts told ProPublica in its latest blockbuster report on the conservative judge and his friends.It's so obvious," Richard Painter, a White House ethics chief under George W Bush, told the nonprofit website. It all has to be reported." Continue reading...
Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager of Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, is also expected to enter a plea as wellDonald Trump and his valet pleaded not guilty on Thursday to an expanded set of charges stemming from the former president's alleged mishandling of classified documents, after special counsel Jack Smith filed a superseding indictment in the case last month.Trump's two codefendants in the case appeared in court in Ft Pierce, Florida, although the former US president himself was not in attendance as his legal team submitted a plea of not guilty.The Guardian's Hugo Lowell contributed reporting Continue reading...
Residents ask if Craig Robertson, who could barely get around' but posted threats against Biden, warranted that kind of response'A clearer picture is emerging of the 75-year-old Utah man shot dead by the FBI after they tried to serve a search warrant hours before Joe Biden arrived in the state on a re-election campaign swing.But questions are also being asked as to whether Craig Robertson was a credible threat", as the FBI claims, or as neighbors in Provo, Utah, have described to local media as a man harboring anti-government views who walked with a cane and liked to bluster and tell big stories, especially on social media. Continue reading...
Man, 44, still at large after tying sheets together and lowering himself to ground from Mount Sinai Beth Israel in ManhattanA prisoner receiving medical treatment escaped from a New York City hospital by tying sheets together, rappelling from a fifth-floor window and hailing a taxi, police said.The 44-year-old man escaped from Mount Sinai Beth Israel hospital in Manhattan shortly after 4.30pm on Wednesday and was still at large Thursday, a police spokesperson said. Continue reading...
Women should be able to swim in the sea without harassment. Marseille's anti-abuse app helps, but it shouldn't be necessaryHow often do you think about the fact that you have a body? This isn't a grand philosophical question, even though it may sound like one. I realised some years ago that I am more aware of my status as the owner of flesh and bones when I am in France.Because I grew up there, I didn't notice it straight away. It took moving to Britain and occasionally returning home to have this epiphany about my corporeal state. Again, I am not seeking to make some deep metaphysical statement here. It's just that when you're in France and you're a woman, some men like to remind you of the fact. Continue reading...
Rishi Sunak mulls whether to follow US lead in restricting funding for advanced technologiesThe British government is considering tightening rules on investment in China after the US president announced new measures aimed at limiting the dollars and expertise flowing into sensitive technologies in the country.Joe Biden signed an executive order on Wednesday that authorises the US treasury secretary to prohibit or restrict US investments in Chinese entities in three sectors: semiconductors and microelectronics; quantum information technologies; and certain artificial intelligence systems. Continue reading...
Prager University Foundation's animations cast doubt over renewable energy and liken climate activists to NazisVideos that compare climate activists to Nazis, portray solar and wind energy as environmentally ruinous and claim that current global heating is part of natural long-term cycles will be made available to young schoolchildren in Florida, after the state approved their use in its public school curriculum.Slickly-made animations by the Prager University Foundation, a conservative group that produces materials on science, history, gender and other topics widely criticized as distorting the truth, will be allowed to be shown to children in kindergarten to fifth grade after being adopted by Florida's department of education. Continue reading...
Ice Cube has joined a long list of rappers who have cuddled up with conservative pundits and politiciansScrolling through Twitter a couple of weeks ago, I came across a clip of rightwing commentator Tucker Carlson interviewing a face I never thought I'd see on his platform: Ice Cube.As in Fuck Tha Police Ice Cube.Tayo Bero is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
PragerU's cartoon videos for children downplay our country's history of slavery, racism, colonialism and police brutality. Other states may followIn July, the Florida department of education announced that it had approved the use of content by PragerU Kids for the coming school year. PragerU Kids was recently described by Time magazine as a resource for schools". But it is only a resource" because the state of Florida has deemed it so. PragerU is not an actual university. It has no accreditation. It is a conservative media company whose goal since its founding in 2009 has been to spread rightwing ideology to adults and children.And it has been incredibly successful at doing that. PragerU's latest annual report says that the company's self-described edutainment" videos racked up more than 1.2bn views in 2022, with more than 7bn since its founding. Its content has been mostly available online, particularly on Facebook and YouTube, but now it is making its way into US classrooms with the promise of fighting the so-called woke agenda". Continue reading...
Private flights pollute up to 14 times more than commercial ones - yet are taxed less. Let's change thatThe climate crisis is not in transit, it's arrived at the gate. It's in our skies, our water, and our land - with record-shattering heat waves, increasingly severe wildfires and flooding from superstorms and rising seas.We have no time for delays. Tackling this crisis and protecting frontline environmental justice communities will take all of us. And the tax-dodging ultra-wealthy need to stop fueling the problem and start supporting first-class solutions.Edward J Markey is a US senator from Massachusetts Continue reading...
Referendum shows concerns over abortion access remain a powerful force in American politicsWhen Ohio Republicans decided to rush a constitutional amendment on to the statewide ballot this year, they made a big bet.They bet that turnout would be low in an election held in the middle of the summer (it was just 8% in last year's August contest). They bet that voters in the state, which voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020, would willingly dilute their own political power, raising the threshold to pass constitutional amendments from a simple majority to 60%. And they bet that voters would embrace such an idea knowing that a constitutional amendment on the ballot this fall would protect abortion rights. Continue reading...
We want to hear from people in Maui after fires tore through the Hawaiian island overnightAt least 36 people have died in wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui, authorities said.The fires, fanned by strong winds from Hurricane Dora, destroyed businesses in the historic town of Lahaina, and left at least two dozen people injured, officials said. There have been 13 evacuations for three fires. Continue reading...
The United States have long been a team in search of a dependable goalscorer. But it appears his club team may not think he fits that billIt took less than a week for Folarin Balogun to do what no other United States player has done.In a late season clash against Angers, Balogun collected his 20th goal in Ligue 1 for Reims, where he spent the previous campaign on loan from Arsenal. Coming only five days after his mid-May announcement that he was switching international allegiance from England to the US, the goal suddenly packed historic import: it made Balogun the first American player to score 20 or more goals in one of Europe's top five leagues, an achievement the US Soccer Federation was eager to trumpet. Continue reading...
The game is growing rapidly in America. But so is an awareness from those who see it as first and foremost as a business opportunityFrom the curtains of rain at his unveiling to the flawless top-corner winner in the final minute of his debut off the bench and the video-game soccer on display in his first start in flamingo pink, Lionel Messi's beginnings in Miami have seemed providential, almost biblical. Messi is not, of course, the first aging superstar to put himself out to pasture on the gentle greens of US soccer. Pele set the precedent, and many will follow once Messi has gone. But to choose America now? In this economy? With Saudi Arabia's gushing riches within reach, and the lure of nostalgia calling him back to Barcelona? Surely that says a lot.Or perhaps it says nothing. For every charitable reading of the Messi-provided tea leaves today, an opposite and proportionately negative interpretation also seems plausible: the downpour at Messi's unveiling was proof of the idiocy of running a soccer league through the extremes of the American summer, the PlayStation skills Messi treated us to in his first MLS start was only possible thanks to Atlanta United's Commodore 64 defending, and so on. But Messi is Messi, even at 36: an argument all to himself and a divinity in any league. The arrival on these shores of a player uniquely able to shape the game to his will seems to portend the creation of a new reality for American soccer. Continue reading...
Trial of Hannah Gutierrez Reed in the 2021 shooting death of Halyna Hutchins on set of Alec Baldwin film will start in DecemberRust armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter and evidence tampering charges in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.Gutierrez Reed submitted the plea on Wednesday, having waived her right to an arraignment and preliminary hearing. New Mexico district court judge Mary Sommer has set the trial to run 6 to 15 December. Continue reading...
Homeland Security secretary urged to grant Temporary Protective Status to migrants to help alleviate strain on systemsA powerful group of labor and immigration rights organizations in New York is calling on the Biden administration to expand rights for migrants that would fast-track work permits for them and help alleviate strain on social services, as shelter systems overflow.A coalition of union and human rights advocacies has urged Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to give more people Temporary Protective Status (TPS) , a provision giving migrants the ability to live and work in the US legally for an extended period. Continue reading...
With Jacinda Ardern gone, her party's political capital has been squandered. But a turnaround is possibleIt looks like curtains for New Zealand's Labour government.The party won its best result since 1946 just three years ago, as voters rewarded Jacinda Ardern for keeping Covid-19 out and punished the opposition for its litany of scandals, giving Labour one of every two votes. Continue reading...
It was one of the longest seasons in resort's 70-year history, helped out by a colossal snowpack from an extreme weather winterAfter a historic amount of snowfall, a popular California resort is ending its second-longest ski season. The ski lifts at Mammoth Mountain, in the eastern Sierra Nevadas, have been open since early November and, up until 5 August, remained available well into summer.While it is not unusual for people to powder-surf on the Fourth of July at the resort, the sheer amount of snow the mountain saw made this season exceptional and one of the longest in the resort's 70-year history, according to NPR. Continue reading...
Agents were trying to serve warrant on Craig Deleeuw Robertson's home hours before president was expected to land in stateA Utah man accused of making threats against Joe Biden was shot and killed by FBI agents hours before the president was expected to land in the state on Wednesday, authorities said.Special agents were trying to serve a warrant on the home of Craig Deleeuw Robertson in Provo, south of Salt Lake City, when the shooting happened at 6.15am, the FBI said in a statement. Continue reading...
Trump's lawyers asked for a secure facility to be reinstalled at the same Mar-a-Lago club where he hoarded classified documentsLawyers for Donald Trump asked a federal judge on Wednesday to approve the re-establishment of an ultra-secure facility at his Mar-a-Lago club to review classified documents produced to him in discovery, an audacious request without precedent in national security cases.The request essentially would give Trump the freedom to discuss and review the same classified documents he has been charged with illegally retaining in the same location where the alleged crimes took place. Continue reading...
Social media platform delayed complying, court filing shows, prompting judge to hold Twitter in contempt and fine it $350,000The US special counsel who is investigating Donald Trump obtained a search warrant for the former president's Twitter account, and the social media platform delayed complying, a court filing on Wednesday showed.The delay in compliance prompted a federal judge to hold Twitter in contempt and fine it $350,000, the filing showed. Continue reading...
by Léonie Chao-Fong (now) and Maya Yang (earlier) on (#6DPBT)
This blog has now closed. Read our latest story hereThere has been open debate within the Democratic party over whether Senator Dianne Feinstein, 90, whose health and cognitive abilities have come into question after a two-and-a-half-month absence due to shingles and other medical complications, should resign.Questions over Feinstein's ability to effectively represent California, the most populous US state, have been a sensitive issue for Democrats going back years. As her diminishing health plays out in the public eye there is a renewed urgency to the situation. Riding out her term in absentia until retirement next year is also not a viable option, with Feinstein the tie-breaking vote on the Senate judiciary committee, which holds confirmation hearings for judicial nominees, and effectively the only person who can ensure that Joe Biden's picks for judges go through. Continue reading...
While anti-abortion activists vow to continue the fight', supporters of abortion retain hope for November electionIn a resounding victory for supporters of abortion rights, Ohio voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected Issue 1, a GOP-backed ballot measure that would have made it considerably harder to amend the state constitution.Abortion rights advocates celebrated the defeat of Issue 1, which means Ohio keeps its longstanding rule on citizen-led state constitutional amendments: a simple majority of state voters can change the constitution through a ballot measure. Continue reading...
J Michael Luttig, who advised Mike Pence not to try to overturn 2020 election, says former president has destroyed GOPA respected conservative judge who advised the former Republican vice-president Mike Pence not to attempt to overturn the 2020 election believes Donald Trump has destroyed the Republican party.American democracy simply cannot function without two equally healthy and equally strong political parties," J Michael Luttig told CNN on Wednesday. So today, in my view, there is no Republican party to counter the Democratic party in the country. Continue reading...
Monique Worrell, second Democratic prosecutor DeSantis has removed, says elected officials are being suspended by whim of the governor'Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, suspended the top prosecutor in Orlando on Wednesday, claiming dereliction of duty" on crime. In return, the prosecutor said DeSantis, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, was a weak dictator" acting undemocratically and for political reasons.Monique Worrell, the ninth judicial circuit state attorney, is the second Democratic prosecutor DeSantis has removed. Continue reading...
Bloodshed in Manipur is just the latest example of sweeping ethnic frictions. The PM must show he is the solution, not the problemIt is a hot and furious week in India's parliament. Narendra Modi, the prime minister, is accused of turning a blind eye to three months of bloodshed in some of the poorest villages of India, in the remote north-east state of Manipur. Barbaric details are surfacing: hundreds of villages destroyed, Christian churches and schools torched, and widespread sexual assault of women. About 50,000 people have fled their homes; at least 124 are dead.This week, at last, Modi is being forced by a no-confidence motion to speak about the violence. The charge against him: a brazen indifference" to the killing. Continue reading...
Body of Jimmy Hendricks, 66, from Austin, was found after he announced on Facebook plan to hike in Arches national parkA Texas man found dead while hiking in Utah was on the way to scatter his late father's ashes, according to family members.Jimmy Hendricks, 66, left his Austin home in mid-July for Nevada, where he planned to scatter the ashes on a mountain. Along the way, he made stops at Guadalupe Peak in Texas and the Grand Canyon. Continue reading...
California senator, 90, was only in hospital for an hour or two', spokesperson told the ChronicleThe California US senator Dianne Feinstein, 90, was hospitalized on Tuesday evening after suffering a fall in her home, a spokesperson said.Senator Feinstein briefly went to the hospital yesterday afternoon as a precaution after a minor fall in her home," a spokesperson said in a statement. All of her scans were clear and she returned home." Continue reading...
Attorney says allegations against Rex Heuermann not meeting standards that would compel him to provide DNA sampleA lawyer for the suspected serial killer Rex Heuermann is opposing a request for a DNA swab, arguing in court papers prosecutors failed to meet probable cause standards to compel the 59-year-old Manhattan architect to do so.As reported by the Long Island newspaper Newsday, the attorney, Danielle Coysh, said allegations against Heuermann could be read as rising to the level of a reasonable suspicion", but not as meeting standards that would compel her client to provide a DNA sample. Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Jackson, Mississippi on (#6DPF4)
Born weeks before his famous relative died, Brandon Presley often talks about growing up in a home where where money was tightA cousin of Elvis Presley is the Democratic candidate for governor in Mississippi, after winning his primary unopposed on Tuesday.The general election will be held on 7 November. The Democrat, Brandon Presley, said he would advocate for people who struggle to make ends meet. Continue reading...
We never needed gizmos and expensive tickets to enjoy great art. If Disney's Lighthouse Immersive is ailing, that's no bad thingRepetition and familiarity are everywhere in our culture. From the commercial novels advertised entirely in terms of their similarity to popular titles from the previous year or two, to endless and proliferating film franchises, the selling point of so many things now is, in effect: this is a slightly (even very) worse version of something you've seen already. The immersive art" concept offered by companies like Disney's Lighthouse Immersive is the purest form of this wearying trend, so recent news that Lighthouse has filed for bankruptcy feels like a faintly promising development.Lighthouse Immersive puts on shows in which reproductions of work by household-name artists are blown up and projected on to the walls of galleries. Music is piped into the space to curate the mood, taking the place that imagination plays in a traditional exhibition. The idea is that these magnified projections encourage an audience to appreciate the finer details of certain famous paintings. Continue reading...
Japan remain in first place but France, Australia, Spain and Colombia are all making upward movesFutoshi Ikeda's side continue to look the most in-form team in the competition. After a 3-1 win against Norway in the last 16 they progressed comfortably with their 100% win rate intact. Hinata Miyazawa starred once again and remains top scorer with five goals, equalling Homare Sawa's Golden Boot-winning total in 2011, when Japan won the World Cup. Continue reading...
Unknown winner receives third-largest prize in US history after stretch of winless lottery drawsSomeone in Florida won a $1.58bn Mega Millions jackpot on Tuesday night, ending a stretch of winless lottery draws that had stretched for nearly four months and bestowing on the unknown winner the third-largest prize in US history.A Publix grocery store in Neptune Beach sold the winning ticket, according to the Florida Lottery. Continue reading...
US workspace-sharing firm once valued at $47bn made net loss of $397m between April and JuneWeWork has warned there is substantial doubt" over whether it will be able to remain in business as the flexible workspace company scrambles for cash to survive.The New York-based firm said its status as a going concern was in doubt because of its financial losses and need for cash to stay afloat over the next year. Continue reading...
Young women struggling with debt and burnout need a better vision than getting a rich man to pay the billsA month ago, I decided to wrap up work early and have a little treat. I took myself out to a hotel bar and sat alone reading in the sun, while people socialised in twos and threes around me. Someone bought me a drink, and a little while later, a woman leaned over to me on her way out and said: Sprinkle sprinkle."She was quoting the catchphrase of the YouTuber SheraSeven, the viral sensation and self-styled financial adviser" whose advice I had inadvertently followed. The way to get wealthy men to buy you drinks, Shera says, is to go to high-end bars alone before the after-work rush. Continue reading...
To mark Thursday's launch of his new newsletter, Jonathan Wilson drops in to respond to Guardian readers' queries on the gameWhat do you think of the Wrexham experiment? Cynical self-promotion by two actors or a genuine heartwarming story? Evan, New HampshireSo far, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney seem to have done everything pretty much right. They seem to grasp what a British football club is and its part in the community and to have taken to Wrexham the town. I don't think there's any reason to believe it's about self-promotion but, equally, I'm a little uncomfortable about the idea that a football club should be there as a content provider. The test will probably come if they find themselves sitting in mid-table at Christmas - do they then do something wacky to create a better narrative for the documentary?Jonathan Wilson's new soccer newsletter for a global audience. What's more, it's free. The first edition is out tomorrow and you can sign up here. Continue reading...
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