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Updated 2024-10-10 21:00
Royal but redundant: why the Disney prince is an endangered species
The new Little Mermaid film reinforces the sense that the Disney princesses’ significant others are doomed to non-existenceMuch has been said over the years about the Disney princesses – some are bad role models, some good, they set impossible expectations for young girls, they’re predominantly white, and so on. But what about their male counterparts? Just like the princesses have evolved as characters, so have the roles of the Disney princes; yet, we rarely hear about their cultural impact (or lack thereof).So who are the Disney princes? The latest iteration of the character is Prince Eric in the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid. Although he has more screen time than in the original, he’s arguably even more redundant this time around. The film follows the same story beats, but it overhauls Ariel from a naive and reckless figure into a mature protagonist who doesn’t fall for the first human pretty boy she lays her eyes on. The Little Mermaid wants to keep Eric, but it doesn’t want to need him. Continue reading...
US Navy video shows close encounter with Chinese warship – video
In a video released by the US Navy, the USS Chung-Hoon observes a Chinese navy ship conduct what is described as an 'unsafe' manoeuvre in the Taiwan Strait on 3 June. The Chinese navy ship moves across the path of the American destroyer, forcing the US ship to slow to avoid a collision, the US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement. The incident occurred as the US destroyer and Canadian frigate HMCS Montreal were conducting a 'freedom of navigation' transit of the strait between Taiwan and mainland China. China's military rebuked the US and Canada for 'deliberately provoking risk'
I was overwhelmed by shame when I quit grad school. Now I’m a quitting guru | Julia Keller
I thought that dropping out made me a failure, but it was the making of me as a journalist and writerFirst came the sobbing – a great gust of tears that successively overwhelmed my shirt sleeve, an entire box of tissues and an extra-large bath towel. Next came a prolonged period of sitting cross-legged on the floor and staring blankly into space while a single question – infused with equal parts sorrow and self-pity – tolled in my head: “What will become of me?” At last came the desperation-fuelled gesture I dreaded beyond all others: I quit.I was certain that dropping out of graduate school, and giving up the teaching appointment that funded it, would ruin me. Surely it would mark me as a snivelling loser, a lazy bum, a spineless coward. But I had no choice because my misery was so acute. (And I was running out of towels.)Dr Julia Keller is a journalist and the author of Quitting: A Life Strategy Continue reading...
For better or for worse: is the decline in marriage actually good for relationships? | Devorah Baum
While some countries turn marriage into a patriotic act, it might just give us a radical new way to live our livesOne of the curious things about marriage is the role it’s played in embedding commonly held views about normality. Married people are generally considered normal people. As such, they have possessed inordinate power to dictate the terms of normality in a way that single people rarely can. And yet marriage, clearly, isn’t for everyone. Plenty of people have no desire to do it. Plenty of others have done it and haven’t liked it. The stats only corroborate this. Fewer people over the years have been getting married, while the stresses and strains of lockdown in 2020 (along with the temporary closure of venues) saw divorces in England and Wales overtake weddings for the first time.Not everyone, however, is taking marriage’s declining popularity lying down. At the recent National Conservatism conference, delegates were promised a national revival founded on “faith, family and flag”. Likewise, China has just proposed a list of measures to actively encourage its young women to marry and have children (and not just one child any more: three, ideally). This is a national policy, but it’s one with global benefits: to stem the threat of economic stagnation, growing the population is supposed to ensure the continuity of a huge, and therefore cheap, labour force. In other words, unless more Chinese women have more children, we’ll all have to pay more for our merch – with matrimony here (never mind that not everyone who marries has children and not everyone who has children gets married) still framed by national governments as the gateway to maternity first of all. Other countries may well follow China’s lead. In Japan, where they’ve just recorded a seventh consecutive year of declining birthrates, and fewer couplings, the government is accused of failing to act quickly enough to mitigate the effects of a rapidly ageing population.Devorah Baum is associate professor of English literature at the University of Southampton and the author of On Marriage Continue reading...
Miami Heat’s fourth-quarter rally upsets Denver Nuggets in NBA finals Game 2
NBA finals Game 2: Miami Heat 111-108 Denver Nuggets – as it happened
Tiger Woods hails Rose Zhang as 20-year-old wins on professional debut
Hovland beats McCarthy in Memorial playoff after McIlroy falls away
US jets pursue light aircraft over Washington DC before it crashes in Virginia
The fighter jets caused a sonic boom over the US capital that sent some residents into a brief panicUS authorities scrambled fighter jets to intercept an unresponsive light aircraft that violated the airspace over the Washington DC area and later crashed into mountainous terrain in south-west Virginia, officials have said.Four people were onboard the Cessna Citation plane, according to CNN, which cited an unnamed source. Police said rescuers had found no survivors onboard the plane. Continue reading...
Chuck Todd to leave NBC’s Meet the Press after nearly 10 years
Kristen Welker, the network’s chief White House correspondent, will take over hosting duties for the political affairs showChuck Todd has announced that he will be leaving NBC’s Meet the Press after nearly 10 years.On Sunday, Todd, who has hosted the political affairs show for more than nine years, told viewers: “It’s been an amazing nearly decade-long run. I am really proud of what this team and I have built over the last decade.” Continue reading...
Migrants flown from Texas to California and left outside church were ‘lied to’
Rights group says 16 migrants were flown via private chartered plane but it’s unclear who paid for the travelA rights group has said 16 migrants had been “lied to” and deceived after being transported from Texas to California and dropped off outside a church in Sacramento.The migrants from Venezuela and Colombia entered the US through Texas, reported the Associated Press. They were flown to California from New Mexico via a private chartered plane, but it’s unclear who paid for the travel. Continue reading...
Family confirms missing resident found deceased in Iowa building collapse
Branden Colvin Sr is the first confirmed fatality in six-story apartment building that partially collapsed in Davenport last weekThe family of Branden Colvin Sr confirmed on Saturday he was found deceased at the six-story apartment building in Davenport, Iowa, that partially collapsed on Sunday, 28 May.Colvin’s 18-year-old son, Branden Colvin Jr, had been sleeping outside of the building awaiting news on his father. “I know my dad’s in there and there’s nothing I can do … wishing I could just run in there,” Colvin Jr told ABC News on Wednesday. Continue reading...
Aaron Judge crashes through door to make potential MLB catch of the year
I moved from the city to the suburbs – and I can’t believe my luck | Emma Beddington
A new study says you are more likely to become depressed living in the suburbs than in the city. For me, though, it’s living the dreamI moved to the suburbs in the spring of 2021, a classic post-lockdown move. My husband and I had been hot-desking between the bedroom and the kitchen table and we were all far too emotionally involved with the rat that frequented our bird feeder. I had wanted to move before Covid: the bed shook when buses went past, and the frequent drunken meltdowns on our conveniently located doorstep left me awkwardly squeezing past sobbing strangers to take the dog for his late-night pee, muttering: “Sorry, could I just …” I had the noise abatement team on speed dial and a throbbing vein in my eyelid.Arriving here, where semis with gardens meet the green belt, and cows graze by the big Sainsbury’, was like the switch to colour in The Wizard of Oz, combined with the moment my noise-cancelling headphones kick in: relief and wonder. We slept with the window open and every morning I listened to the birds and smelled the roses, unable to believe my luck. Two years on, I still feel that. I’m incredulous that I get to live here, surrounded by green and birds, in peace so enveloping that I can finally hear myself think (though, wow, it’s boring: “Is that the one-eyed cat?” “Should I have a biscuit?”).Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Six-year-old orphan or ‘con artist’ adult? Revisiting the strange story of Natalia Grace
Docuseries breaks new ground on mystery of true age of Ukrainian girl adopted and then abandoned by Indiana coupleIt’s been years since a central Indiana couple adopted a girl from Ukraine, became convinced that she was an adult impersonating a child, and abandoned her, setting off an international media frenzy and a legal showdown with authorities who accused them of parental neglect.But even after the recent release of a slickly produced docuseries broke new ground on the saga, the mystery surrounding Natalia Grace’s virtually unprecedented adoption case seems to remain unsolved: exactly how old was she when Michael and Kristine Barnett left her? And was it unreasonable that they did so? Continue reading...
Florida taxpayers pick up bill for Ron DeSantis’s culture war lawsuits
Governor’s Disney battle and extremist policies are met with costly lawsuits covered by ‘blank check’ from Republican legislatureSince Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis took office in 2019 and embarked on his culture wars, lawsuits from various communities whose rights have been violated have been stacking up against the far-right Republican.As DeSantis fights the lawsuits with what critics have described as a blank check from the state’s supermajority Republican legislature, the mounting legal costs have come heavily at the expense of Florida’s taxpayers. Continue reading...
Traffic cop sues city over ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ cards for NYPD friends and family
Mathew Bianchi claims superiors retaliated against him for writing tickets for people holding ‘corrupt’ courtesy cardsMathew Bianchi became a Staten Island traffic cop in 2017, two years after joining the New York police department, assigned to enforcing traffic violations and issuing tickets. In the first two years on that beat, he received stellar performance evaluations.But in November 2018 – a year into his career in the traffic unit – Bianchi issued a ticket to a civilian who held a New York City police department laminated courtesy card, an unofficial credential issued to NYPD officers based on their union affiliation that can then be distributed to family members and friends to carry with them. Continue reading...
Succession wasn’t about the Murdochs? Surely it’s how they’d like to see themselves | Catherine Bennett
Why are Rupert and co so obsessed with not being identified with the fictional Roys?It was a term of Jerry Hall’s divorce settlement from Rupert Murdoch, according to Vanity Fair, that she couldn’t “give story ideas” to the writers of Succession. Thankfully, as its sublime finale showed last week, they continued to manage without her contributions.Whatever was behind Murdoch’s Succession anxiety, it confirmed what was widely assumed: that a drama in which an elderly tyrant’s adult children compete to inherit a media empire (built on the subjugation of political leaders) held up a mirror to his own dynasty, even if, as its creator would regularly insist, it wasn’t based on them. “It’s not bullshit to say it really isn’t the Murdochs,” Jesse Armstrong told the Guardian in 2018, when Succession launched. That was four years before Hall was let go, in terms that only emphasised the gulf between Murdochian reality and a Succession script. “Jerry, sadly I’ve decided to call an end to our marriage,” went her husband’s unexpected email, according to Vanity Fair. “We have certainly had some good times, but I have much to do.” You wondered if an earlier wife, Wendy Deng, mocked for her musings on Tony Blair (“He has such good body and he has really really good legs Butt …”) wasn’t actually more fluent than her ex. Continue reading...
Europe’s lurch to the right rolls on. Only unity on the left can stop it | Simon Tisdall
Recent polls in Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey and Finland tell the story of voters swayed by fear and prejudice. Progressive parties – take note Keir Starmer – need a clear, principled agenda to turn that tideWhy does the left keep losing? It’s not a question liberals and progressives particularly want to confront, but look around. Reactionary parties of the political right and far right are once more on the rise and on the march across Europe, as shown again by last week’s lopsided election results in Spain and Italy.Each country is different, its circumstances unique. Yet a broad pattern is discernible – and it’s not difficult to trace. The banal common denominator is that parties of the European left, hard and soft, are too fractured and fractious to build winning coalitions that offer convincing alternative solutions to voters’ problems. Like Spain and Italy, recent election outcomes in Greece, Turkey and Finland suggest the dominant issues for electorates are the cost of living, energy and inflation. Other shared worries include security (foreign and domestic), migration, climate and environment, and national identity (loosely defined). Continue reading...
Fairytales have always reflected the morals of the age. It’s not a sin to rewrite them | Martha Gill
Nothing is being destroyed in adding diversity and sexual equality to old storiesShould we update classic stories with modern morals? Two film-based kerfuffles have reopened the question. Reports that the next James Bond “won’t be white” have provoked a backlash, as did the launch of Disney’s The Little Mermaid, which features a black Ariel.Negative “review bombing” of the film, which has been the target of criticism since its lead actor, Halle Bailey, was announced, caused the Internet Movie Database to make a rare intervention and change its ratings system. There is abhorrent racism on show here – about which perhaps little more needs to be said. But alongside it is a broader, longer running argument that might be worth addressing. Namely, that 21st-century mores – diversity, sexual equality, and so on – should not be shoehorned into old stories. Continue reading...
Florida school offers yearbook reprints after objections to LGBTQ+ content
Several conservative parents of students at Lyman high school complained about two pages highlighting LGBTQ+ studentsA high school in Florida will offer refunds and reprints to parents and students who argued its yearbook featured “disgusting and wrong” LGBTQ+ content.Students at Lyman high school in Seminole county received their yearbooks a few weeks ago. Several conservative parents complained. Continue reading...
The EU pays Africa’s brutal militias to lock up migrants. Britain wants to follow suit | Kenan Malik
Torture, rape and death are the results of a policy to keep desperate people away from Europe‘Please help, today one person self dead by petrol because hopeless.” Sally Hayden received the text in October 2018. The Irish Times journalist was one of the few outsiders trusted by refugees locked up in Libya. The text was about Abdulaziz, who had been forced to flee his native Somalia to escape al-Shabaab, the al-Qaida-linked Islamist group waging terror in east Africa.After a perilous journey across the desert, Abdulaziz was locked up in Triq al-Sikka, a grim prison in Tripoli, Libya. Why? Because the EU pays Libyan militias millions of euros to detain anyone deemed a possible migrant to Europe. Like many other similar prisons across Libya, Triq al-Sikka is a place of hunger, disease, beatings, rape, torture and death. Death by starvation, death by beatings, death by execution. And death by suicide. Continue reading...
Claressa Shields coasts past Maricela Cornejo to defend undisputed crown
Chris Christie just wants to ‘bludgeon’ Trump, Fox News’s Hannity complains
Sean Hannity says ex-New Jersey governor lacks ‘inspiring agenda’ as he prepares new presidential runChris Christie has promised to take the fight to Donald Trump when he launches a long-shot Republican presidential campaign next week, but he seems likely to have to do so without help from one key voice at Fox News.The former New Jersey governor just wants to “bludgeon” Trump, the primetime host and close Trump ally Sean Hannity said on Friday, adding that he did not want to give Christie any airtime. Continue reading...
Vegas Golden Knights fight back to beat Florida in Stanley Cup final opener
‘Roast and Ride’: Republican primary revs up with bikers, BBQs and a Trump-shaped hole
Aspirants including Ron DeSantis and Mike Pence rally the crowd but none mention the ex-president by name, giving the impression of a party in denialThere were hay bales and Harley-Davidsons. There was sliced pork and campaign paraphernalia. There were earnest speeches about defeating Democrats winning back the White House. But at the centre of it all was a Donald Trump-shaped hole.The Republican presidential primary for 2024 got under way in earnest on Saturday when eight contenders – minus Trump – took part in Iowa senator Joni Ernst’s “Roast and Ride”, a combination of barbecue-rally and motorcycle ride. Continue reading...
I was teaching a class on freedom of speech when Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation verdict was handed down | Daniel Joyce
We began the discussion with truth, a traditional rationale for protecting free speech, which in the end underscored Justice Besanko’s judgment
Biden signs debt ceiling bill after months-long standoff, avoiding default
Kevin McCarthy, the House speaker, secured a number of cuts on federal spending, with the borrowing limit suspended until 2025Joe Biden signed a bill on Saturday to suspend the US debt ceiling, ending a months-long standoff with the Republican House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, and averting a federal default that could have upended the world economy.Economists warned that a default could have caused the US unemployment rate to double while significantly damaging gross domestic product. Continue reading...
New Hampshire man arrested and charged with death threat to US senator
Statement by US attorney’s office says Brian Landry, 66, called office of unnamed senator saying ‘I’m a veteran sniper’A New Hampshire man was arrested and charged with threatening to kill an unnamed US senator.On Friday, the US attorney’s office for the district of New Hampshire announced that Brian Landry, 66, was charged with threatening to assault, kidnap or murder the senator, “in connection with the official’s performance of official duties”. Continue reading...
What draws US tourists to Slovenia? Surely not the ill-fated Venus de Melania | Rachel Cooke
The arson of a wooden statue of the former first lady has been seen as symbolic. My Slovenian hosts think differentlyI spent last weekend in Ljubljana, where I was talking about comics at the invitation of Slovenia’s biggest publisher of graphic novels, VigeVageKnjige, and everything about it was delightful: the tarragon ice cream (no, really), the streetlights (mounted on Ionic pillars), the buildings designed by the great Jože Plečnik. But I was also struck by the number of American tourists in this lesser-known corner of Europe. Were they here to trace their roots? Or were they perhaps fans of the Slovenian basketball player and MBA star Luka Dončić?There was, of course, a remote third possibility, which is that some were inspired by Melania Trump, who grew up in a town called Sevnica, and still has the accent to prove it. Over dinner, my hosts grimaced. They hoped fervently that this was not the case, but, since I was interested, had I seen the wooden statue of Melania, crafted by a chainsaw, that was erected outside Sevnica in 2019, only to be burned down by arsonists soon afterwards? On her mobile, my host Zala produced a picture. “She looked like a Smurf,” she told me, and she was right. The Venus de Milo this was not. The man who commissioned it, Brad Downey, a Slovenian-American artist, has since exhibited the charred remains in the US. It seems he regards them as a warning of burgeoning political tensions in Slovenia – an interpretation somewhat at odds with the one offered to me over the coffee and baklava. Continue reading...
Teacher Tasered by LAPD died from enlarged heart and cocaine use
Death of Keenan Darnell Anderson prompted outcry in January over use of force by Los Angeles policeA teacher who was repeatedly shocked with a Taser by Los Angeles police died from an enlarged heart and cocaine use, according to an autopsy report released on Friday.The 3 January death of Keenan Darnell Anderson, 31, prompted an outcry over use of force by Los Angeles police. It was one of three fatal LAPD confrontations, including two shootings, that took place days into the new year. Continue reading...
Twitter’s rightwing takeover is complete. Why are liberals still on it?
Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company has transformed it into the center of the conservative media ecosystemIt looks like they’ve finally done it. For years, the far right has repeatedly tried and failed to set up a social network of their own – one where they can spread conspiracy theories and sow hate without any of the pesky content moderation that happens on the big tech platforms.Numerous sites including MeWe, Parler, Gab, Gettr and Trump’s own Truth Social have popped up but none of them have really gained any traction. Indeed Parler, the self-described “uncancelable free-speech social platform” Kanye West tried to buy last year, shut down in April. “No reasonable person believes that a Twitter clone just for conservatives is a viable business any more,” Parler’s parent company said in a statement. Continue reading...
‘I still hate politics’: Gisele Barreto Fetterman, wife of US senator, hits out
Wife of Democratic Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman adds US political scene is ‘mean’ in interview with MSNBCGisele Barreto Fetterman, married to a former mayor and lieutenant governor who is now a US senator, regrets how “mean” the US political scene has become, saying: “I still hate politics.”The wife of the Democratic Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman was speaking to MSNBC in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday. Continue reading...
Buff billionaires are latest sign that bulk is now beautiful for male body image | Arwa Mahdawi
Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg have been busy morphing from nerds to musclemen – even action figures are piling on the beefIs it because they know a lot of people hate them? Are they worried that a revolution is coming? Are they preparing for an apocalyptic future where AI goes rogue and they have to fight robots with their bare hands? Is that why billionaires have become so obsessed with being buff? Continue reading...
Ron DeSantis thanks then attacks heckler who called him a fascist
Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate cheered by South Carolina campaign trail audienceA South Carolina heckler called Ron DeSantis a “fucking fascist” on Friday. In response, the Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate said: “Yeah, well, thank you, thank you.”Then DeSantis went on the attack. Continue reading...
Washington won’t stand for China ‘bullying’ US allies, Lloyd Austin tells summit
Defence secretary also criticises Beijing’s unwillingness to engage with US on military crisis managementThe US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has vowed that Washington will not stand for any “coercion and bullying” of its allies and partners by China, while assuring Beijing that the US remains committed to maintaining the status quo on Taiwan and would prefer dialogue over conflict.Speaking in Singapore at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s top security summit, Austin lobbied for support for Washington’s vision of a “free, open and secure Indo-Pacific within a world of rules and rights” as the best course to counter increasing Chinese assertiveness in the region. Continue reading...
‘They fought for freedom’: the nightly vigil to sanctify the January 6 rioters
On DC’s ‘Freedom Corner’, activists are convinced the January 6 attackers are political prisoners persecuted by the governmentThe clock had just struck 9pm when Jeff Sabol, a Colorado man accused of dragging a police officer down a flight of stairs at the US Capitol on January 6 and beating him, placed a call from inside Washington’s jail.Dozens of yards and several layers of concrete and razor wire away, on E Street Southeast, Tommy Tatum, a hulking Mississippian who had been present at the Capitol on January 6 but not arrested, stood with a microphone in one hand and a cellphone in the other. Continue reading...
Amazon and Google fund anti-abortion lawmakers through complex shell game
Blue-chip companies gave to Republican group funneling money to lawmakers who overturned abortion-ban veto in North CarolinaAs North Carolina’s 12-week abortion ban is due to come into effect on 1 July, an analysis from the non-profit Center for Political Accountability (CPA) shows several major corporations donated large sums to a Republican political organization which in turn funded groups working to elect anti-abortion state legislators.The Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) received donations of tens of thousands of dollars each from corporations including Comcast, Intuit, Wells Fargo, Amazon, Bank of America and Google last year, the CPA’s analysis of IRS filings shows. The contributions were made in the months after Politico published a leaked supreme court decision indicating that the court would end the right to nationwide abortion access. Continue reading...
US man eats McDonald’s three times a day for 100 days – and the weight falls off
Kevin Maginnis, 57, from Nashville says he ate half-portions of McDonald’s thrice daily and lost about 60lbs (26kg) in weightMost people might think that eating nothing but fast food from McDonald’s for more than three months would demolish a diet rather than constitute one, but that wasn’t the case for a 57-year-old man from Tennessee.Kevin Maginnis went on various media outlets this week and explained how he dropped nearly 60lbs by eating each of his three daily meals from McDonald’s for 100 days. Continue reading...
Vegas or Florida? Breaking down a most unexpected Stanley Cup final
A first-time NHL champion will be crowned when the Vegas Golden Knights meet the Florida Panthers starting on SaturdayIn mid-December, Sergei Bobrovsky’s future with the Florida Panthers was the subject of serious debate. The $10m-per-year netminder was 5-8-1 with a .884 save percentage before Christmas. Spencer Knight, who signed a contract extension worth $4.5m a year in October, looked like the natural successor, so long as Florida could convince someone to take Bob off their hands this summer. But in February, Knight entered then NHL’s player assistance program with no timeline for his return. Bobrovsky was bumped back to first string, but struggled again. When an illness sidelined him in late March, Alex Lyon, called up from the AHL, stepped in, went on a tear, and started the playoffs against Boston. Continue reading...
I love electric vehicles – and was an early adopter. But increasingly I feel duped | Rowan Atkinson
Sadly, keeping your old petrol car may be better than buying an EV. There are sound environmental reasons not to jump just yetElectric motoring is, in theory, a subject about which I should know something. My first university degree was in electrical and electronic engineering, with a subsequent master’s in control systems. Combine this, perhaps surprising, academic pathway with a lifelong passion for the motorcar, and you can see why I was drawn into an early adoption of electric vehicles. I bought my first electric hybrid 18 years ago and my first pure electric car nine years ago and (notwithstanding our poor electric charging infrastructure) have enjoyed my time with both very much. Electric vehicles may be a bit soulless, but they’re wonderful mechanisms: fast, quiet and, until recently, very cheap to run. But increasingly, I feel a little duped. When you start to drill into the facts, electric motoring doesn’t seem to be quite the environmental panacea it is claimed to be.As you may know, the government has proposed a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030. The problem with the initiative is that it seems to be based on conclusions drawn from only one part of a car’s operating life: what comes out of the exhaust pipe. Electric cars, of course, have zero exhaust emissions, which is a welcome development, particularly in respect of the air quality in city centres. But if you zoom out a bit and look at a bigger picture that includes the car’s manufacture, the situation is very different. In advance of the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow in 2021, Volvo released figures claiming that greenhouse gas emissions during production of an electric car are 70% higher than when manufacturing a petrol one. How so? The problem lies with the lithium-ion batteries fitted currently to nearly all electric vehicles: they’re absurdly heavy, many rare earth metals and huge amounts of energy are required to make them, and they only last about 10 years. It seems a perverse choice of hardware with which to lead the automobile’s fight against the climate crisis. Continue reading...
Tim Dowling: why does everyone give me a hard time when I get up early?
Foregoing my usual lie-in renders the whole household out of sync. Even the cat and dog refuse to play ballI am trying to dress myself quietly, but my wife rolls over and pulls the duvet low enough to reveal one staring eye. “What are you doing up?” she says.“I’m a businessman,” I say. Continue reading...
Joe Biden gives first Oval Office address ahead of signing debt ceiling deal – as it happened
‘We averted an economic crisis and economic collapse,’ says president in address to the nation about deal, but will not sign bill before SaturdayHere’s more on how the debt ceiling crisis will impact the US’s credit rating, from the Guardian’s Joan E Greve.The US is not yet out of the woods on a potential credit downgrade, even though Joe Biden is scheduled to sign the debt ceiling bill tonight to avert a federal default. Continue reading...
Protest over Pride month assembly at Los Angeles school turns violent
Reports of fights breaking out over a book reading about inclusive families forced police officers to separate clashing groupsA protest over a Pride month assembly at a Los Angeles elementary school reportedly broke out into fights, forcing police officers to separate groups of protesters and counter-protesters who clashed over the school’s teaching of LGBTQ+ issues.Tensions at Saticoy elementary school, part of the Los Angeles unified school district, have been rising since last month over the Pride assembly the school has planned to hold on Friday. Continue reading...
Biden praises passage of debt ceiling bill in Oval Office address ahead of signing it
President described how ‘no one got everything they wanted, but the American people got what they needed’ during brief speechJoe Biden celebrated Congress’s approval of a debt-ceiling suspension in a speech delivered from the Oval Office on Friday night, a day after the Senate passed the compromise bill brokered by the president and the Republican House speaker, Kevin McCarthy.Biden described the bill’s enactment as “essential to the progress we’ve made over the last few years” in “keeping full faith and credit of the United States of America and passing a budget that continues to grow our economy and reflects our values as a nation”. Continue reading...
US colonel retracts comments on simulated drone attack ‘thought experiment’
Colonel clarifies comments about ‘rogue AI drone’ that supposedly killed its operatorA US air force colonel “misspoke” when he said at a Royal Aeronautical Society conference last month that a drone killed its operator in a simulated test because the pilot was attempting to override its mission, according to the society.The confusion had started with the circulation of a blogpost from the society, in which it described a presentation by Col Tucker “Cinco” Hamilton, the chief of AI test and operations with the US air force and an experimental fighter test pilot, at the Future Combat Air and Space Capabilities Summit in London in May. Continue reading...
US air quality as far south as Virginia affected by Nova Scotia wildfires
National Weather Service issues air quality alert for Richmond while Maryland, Pennsylvania and other states affectedThe historically intense wildfires that battered the Nova Scotia province on the eastern coast of Canada have had a severe effect on air quality as far south as Virginia and Maryland, the US National Weather Service alerted.Four wildfires have destroyed hundreds of buildings and homes and displaced tens of thousands of people, hitting the Halifax municipality hardest. But the blazes have also sent smoke billowing over New York City, and have prompted officials from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia to report negative effects on their air quality. Continue reading...
Texas woman dies of infection linked to cosmetic surgery in Mexico
Family says Lauren Brooke Robinson, who reportedly contracted fungal meningitis, began to feel ill months after February surgeryA Texas woman has died after contracting fungal meningitis in an outbreak that has been linked to a cosmetic procedure performed in Mexico.Lauren Brooke Robinson, 29, died on Wednesday from a fungal meningitis infection after receiving cosmetic surgery in Mexico, the local TV news station KBMT reported. Continue reading...
Hold your horses! Do we really need another threat to humanity? | Fiona Katauskas
It’s starting to get crowded in here Continue reading...
Biden is America’s oldest president – but tripping over a sandbag tells us nothing | Jill Filipovic
Age, cognitive health and physical fitness are all fair concerns but the president’s tumble could have happened to anyoneIt’s a story so benign and unremarkable that it’s embarrassing it’s getting any coverage at all: man trips, falls, stands back up and walks it off. Except, of course, that the man is Joe Biden, who at 80 and seeking re-election is currently competing to be the oldest president in US history.On Thursday, Biden was at the US Air Force Academy graduation ceremony handing out the last diploma when he tripped over a black sandbag. He got back up with a hand from Secret Service agents, and walked himself back to his seat. By all accounts, he was fine.Jill Filipovic is the author of OK Boomer, Let’s Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind Continue reading...
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