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Ledbetter sued employer Goodyear in 1998 after finding out she was paid $6,500 less than lowest-paid male supervisorLilly Ledbetter, an equal pay advocate whose lawsuit against her employer inspired the Fair Pay Act of 2009, died Saturday in Alabama at age 86.Ledbetter died of respiratory failure, according to a statement from her family provided to the Alabama news organization Al.com. Continue reading...

Hundreds partake in demonstration, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, against Israeli attacks on Gaza and LebanonNew York City police arrested numerous pro-Gaza protesters outside the New York Stock Exchange on Monday after a demonstration highlighting Israel's ongoing attacks on Gaza and Lebanon.Demonstrators voiced chants such as Let Gaza live!" and Up up with liberation, down down with occupation!" and managed to get inside a security fence outside the exchange on Broad Street in downtown Manhattan. Continue reading...

Sit-down with rightwing broadcaster comes as Democrats try to reach swing voters as they continue media blitzKamala Harris will do a sit-down interview with the broadcaster Fox News on Wednesday, the news channel announced on Monday, in the most dramatic moment yet in a recent media blitz by the Democratic presidential nominee.The interview with Fox News's chief political anchor, Bret Baier, comes as Democrats have increased their presence on Fox News, part of an outreach to undecided voters and after CBS News's 60 Minutes became embroiled in a controversy when rightwing critics have said they edited an interview to make Harris appear more succinct. Continue reading...

Democrats condemn ex-president for saying armed forces should turn against enemy within' when voters go to pollsDonald Trump has provoked an angry backlash from Democrats after calling for the US armed forces to be turned against his political adversaries when voters go to the polls at next month's presidential election.In comments that added further fuel to fears of an authoritarian crackdown if he recaptures the White House, the Republican nominee said the military or national guard should be deployed against opponents that he called the enemy within" when the election takes place on 5 November. Continue reading...

Wan Yee Ng was arrested in June with a bag of 29 turtles as she prepared to paddle across Lake Wallace, affidavit saysA woman who wanted to smuggle turtles across a lake and into Canada by hiding the creatures using socks in a duffle bag has pleaded guilty to a smuggling charge.Wan Yee Ng was arrested in June in Vermont as she was about to enter an inflatable kayak with the bag of 29 eastern box turtles and paddle across Lake Wallace to the border with Canada, according to an affidavit filed in federal court. Continue reading...

Plan includes loan program and apprenticeships as worries grow that some Black voters aren't excited for Harris-WalzKamala Harris has revealed a plan to give Black men more economic opportunities, as anxiety mounts among her supporters that some in the Black community are less enthused by the Democratic presidential ticket than in recent elections, and may sit this one out - or support Donald Trump.The vice-president's plan includes forgivable business loans for Black entrepreneurs, creating more apprenticeships, and studying sickle cell and other diseases that disproportionately affect African American men. It also includes ensuring that Black men have more access to shaping a national cannabis industry and to invest in cryptocurrency. Continue reading...

Retail chain pulls Snowed In' candle after critics argue it resembles white supremacist group's hoods and robesKu Klux Klan members light torches. Now, some say, Bath & Body Works provided them candles to light, too.The retail chain recently released a candle, labeled Snowed In", that critics argued resembled the hoods and robes worn by the white supremacist group. Continue reading...

Former president calls film about his rise in real estate in 1970s and 80s a politically disgusting hatchet job'Donald Trump railed against a just released biopic about his life in a social media screed early on Monday, calling it a cheap, defamatory, and politically disgusting hatchet job" meant to thwart his presidential candidacy.The Apprentice portrays how Trump created his real estate empire under the tutelage of Roy Cohn, a notoriously cutthroat attorney and power-broker in 1970s and 1980s New York City, Intelligencer notes. Trump is played by the Marvel actor Sebastian Stan and Cohn by the Succession star Jeremy Strong. Continue reading...

Hamtramck, population 28,000, has new Trump campaign office weeks from election in hopes of gains in swing stateThat the Trump campaign would open an office in Hamtramck, a tiny city of around 28,000 people north of downtown Detroit, less than a month before the election, speaks to a particular curiosity of the 2024 presidential race.About 40% of Hamtramck's residents are of Middle Eastern or north African descent, 60% are believed to be Muslim Americans, and the city has an all-Muslim city council. Continue reading...

Officials say Snuga Swing was doomed to fail' and infants should never sleep in inclined seatsUS consumer safety officials announced recently they had ordered the recall of 2m Fisher-Price baby swings after they were linked to at least five infants' deaths and posed a suffocation risk.The product, the Snuga Swing, was doomed to fail" according to a commissioner with the US Product Safety Commission, which said infants should never sleep in inclined seats, such as swings, gliders and rockers. Continue reading...

In a special mailbag edition of our newsletter, Jonathan Wilson answers your questions on Mauricio Pochettino, strikes and stashing away players

Vem Miller denies local sheriff's allegation he was trying to kill Republican and says he is 100% a Trump supporter'A man arrested on gun possession charges near a Donald Trump rally in California on Saturday, spurring significant safety concerns, said that he was a major supporter of the former US president and would never harm him.Yes, I'm 100% a Trump supporter," the man, Vem Miller, told Fox News Digital in an interview. Miller, 49, denied the local sheriff's allegation that he was bringing weapons to Trump's event to kill him. Continue reading...

Hurricane Helene federal emergency workers told to evacuate Rutherford county, Washington Post reportsGovernment emergency workers in the US responding to the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene in North Carolina were relocated over the weekend amid concerns that armed militia" could pose a threat to their safety.According to an email obtained by the Washington Post, a US Forest Service official sent out a message warning that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) has advised all federal responders Rutherford County, NC, to stand down and evacuate the county immediately". Continue reading...

Shasta residents voted out an anti-establishment leader in favor of a business owner who attends the enormously popular yet controversial Bethel churchThis is the third in a series of three stories on the run-up to the 2024 US presidential election in Shasta county, a region of 180,000 people in northern California that has emerged as a center of the election denial movement and hotbed for far-right politics. Read the first and second story.For years, an extremist far-right movement has worked to transform one of California's most conservative regions. Since gaining a majority on Shasta county's governing body, they have managed to spark an exodus of government workers, attempted to do away with the voting system and fought the state over policies pertaining to Covid-19 and the second amendment. Continue reading...

The ex-president has allegedly floated hangings and televised killings, and called for the deaths of drug dealersIf Donald Trump wins the election, he is expected to pursue a spree of executions that could fast-track the cases of people on federal death row, and threaten the life of a man with a longstanding innocence claim.Advocates for people on death row fear a second Trump term could be worse than his first, which saw an unprecedented 13 federal executions. Under Trump, more people incarcerated in the federal system were put to death than under the previous 10 presidents combined, a staggering number that raised grave human rights concerns. Continue reading...

Like Netanyahu, the militant group has chosen to ignore basic truths, and prioritised its own aims over the nation it claims to defendHow can Lebanon tackle its tangled, dysfunctional relationship with Hezbollah without returning to domestic sectarian conflict? Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, who has been accused by the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court of war crimes in Gaza, claims to have the answer: the Lebanese must free" Lebanon from Hezbollah. You have an opportunity to save Lebanon," he said in a video address, before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza."Netanyahu, who dismisses the accusations of the ICC, is openly threatening to inflict the same devastating military tactics used in Gaza upon the Lebanese population. If he really wanted to help the Lebanese deal with Hezbollah, he wouldn't order his military to invade southern Lebanon and as a result breathe new life into the organisation. Netanyahu knows his history, yet he chooses to ignore it: Hezbollah was born in part to resist Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon, which began in 1982 and ended only in 2000. Give it that excuse again, and it will find a way to regroup by recruiting among a Shia community who won't accept another Israeli occupation.Bilal Y Saab, an associate fellow with Chatham House, is the head of the US-Middle East practice of Trends Research & AdvisoryDo 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...

The strike, which Hezbollah said was retaliation for one that killed 22 people in Beirut, is the deadliest since Israel's ground invasion of Lebanon. Plus, trees and land absorbed almost no CO2 last year

The Democratic nominee launched an intense interview campaign, with a story to tell in her quest for the presidencyThe View, America's most popular daytime talkshow, was on commercial break. Kamala Harris sat writing absence notes for students who were missing class to attend the live broadcast. Is it just today, right?" the vice-president laughed.She handed over the letters written on notepaper headed The Vice President". One said: Dear teacher, please excuse Dani from class today. She was hanging out with us. Best and thank you for being an educator. Kamala." Continue reading...

A UK school's botched plan to require a doctor's note for period pain shows we're still not trusted over our own sufferingHow's your pain threshold? For a few months now, I've been obsessively watching videos of men trying period pain simulators. The machines have wired abdominal pads that send electrical impulses controlled by a console that can replicate the ferocity of cramps on a range of one to 10. Often by five or six on the dial, men are groaning or even screaming in agony while their female partners, also hooked up to the machine, sit unfazed.Like many, many women, I am habituated to a certain level of pain. From girlhood, we go about our lives in varying levels of agony, often with the people around us knowing little of our discomfort. There are days, though, when it all becomes too much. It used to be that all you had to do was vaguely mention women's problems" to be granted some respite. Not so any more, at least in some schools.Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Biden's approach to Israel has been disastrous, both morally and strategically - and it could cost Harris dearlyIn an appearance this week on the daytime talkshow The View, Kamala Harris was asked how her presidency would differ from Joe Biden's. There is not a thing that comes to mind," she said. The comment was seized on by the Trump campaign, who have used it in an attempt to seize upon Biden's unpopularity and blame Harris for the issues that seem to most enrage and terrify their supporters, among them high consumer prices and immigration. But the comment also rankled some members of Harris's own base: namely, the young, progressive and non-white voters who have been distraught over the suffering inflicted by Israel in its US-backed war on Gaza.If Harris can't think of any way she would differ from Biden, these voters may have some suggestions for her. The Biden approach to Israel, after all, has been disastrous on multiple fronts. It has been a moral catastrophe, with Israel's wildly disproportionate campaign of indiscriminate slaughter in Gaza leading to famine, plague and tens of thousands of deaths. It has been an electoral liability, alienating Muslim and Arab American voters in the crucial swing state of Michigan and depressing turnout among the young voters whom Democrats have long relied on and which were a crucial part of Biden's 2020 victory.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Trump campaign wants to hit rural voters but slow internet limits the functionality of the Campaign Sidekick appDonald Trump's campaign has limited ability to know whether their ground game operation is reaching target voters in battleground states, as the software being used needs fast internet service to properly track canvassers, according to multiple people familiar with the situation.The Trump campaign this cycle is targeting so-called low propensity Trump voters, who are often in rural areas, as part of their bet that hitting those people who don't typically vote but would cast a ballot for Trump if they did, could make a difference in a close election. Continue reading...

Doug Hamlin pleaded no contest to animal cruelty over 1979 incident in which fraternity cat was tortured and killedDouglas Hamlin, who was appointed to lead the NRA this summer in the wake of a long-running corruption scandal at the gun rights group, was involved decades ago in the sadistic killing of a fraternity house cat named BK, according to several local media reports at the time.Hamlin pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of animal cruelty brought against him and four of his fraternity brothers in 1980, when he was an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. The charge was brought against Hamlin under a local Ann Arbor ordinance. All five members of Alpha Delta Phi were later expelled from the fraternity. Continue reading...

Vance's great skill is advancement through mimicry - with Trump as his ultimate modelThe world is on fire, but in Washington DC topic A is Olivia Nuzzi. Her suspension as a writer for New York Magazine for sharing demure" nude photographs of herself and other indiscreet communications with Robert F Kennedy Jr has engendered gales of hilarity to relieve the tension of the razor-thin close campaign.Nuzzi's relationship in journalistic terms fits the supreme court's ruling on presidential immunity of the distinction between Donald Trump's private" and official" acts involving the January 6 insurrection. In the spirit of the court and The Scarlet Letter, the blond bombshell has received more punishment for sexting than the blond bomber has for attempting a coup. Continue reading...

Podcast episode talks about conviction of Ashley Benefield, who says she was defending herself from domestic violenceTwo of Ashley Benefield's fellow ballerinas have opened up about seeing her husband Douglas's angry side" in a new podcast that the creators believe could support her claims of later having shot him to death to defend herself from domestic violence at his hands.Ashley Benefield - who co-founded a ballet company in 2017 alongside her husband, Douglas Benefield - was convicted of manslaughter in July after shooting him to death in 2020 despite claiming that she was defending herself from domestic violence at his hands. Continue reading...

Attorneys for Aryasp Nejat, fired in August, argue he is one of the latest casualties' of airline's anti-union campaignA former flight attendant at Delta Airlines has filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging he was fired in retaliation for supporting a unionization effort and for speaking out after enduring sexually assaultive touching" during training.Aryasp Nejat was fired by Delta in August. In a complaint filed late last month, his attorneys argued he is one of the latest casualties" of an anti-union campaign waged by the airline. Continue reading...

Dallas were humiliated at home against the Lions, and the blame should be laid at the feet of the team's misfiring general manager/ownerLet's give this to Dallas: they always find a way to entertain.Sunday's 47-9 drubbing at the hands of the Lions may have felt more like watching The Substance than Love Is Blind, but seeing the Cowboys being beaten on their own home turf remains must-watch TV. Continue reading...

Coming to terms with my son and his partner's modern, tender and considered parenting hasn't been easy - but now I love itI was 70 when I became a grandmother for the first time in 2023. My son Marlon had a son of his own, and while I had never been the kind of mother who was desperate to become a grandmother, I was delighted.But it soon became clear I was entering uncharted waters. Very little about the way they entered into pregnancy and parenthood was the route I'd taken in my hippy-punk way. They were consciously well informed. I think I made it to two NCT classes. Lina - my son's partner - had a birth doula. I'd read the one book, The Experience of Childbirth by Sheila Kitzinger, from 1962; they'd read a raft of parenting books like Philippa Perry's recent The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read. Continue reading...

The Dutch prison population has fallen by more than 40% - and awareness of the harms of harsh sentencing could explain whyYesterday, I went to the cinema in the Dome prison in Haarlem. This monumental building - a vast, panopticon-style facility first opened in 1901 - is one of more than 20 Dutch prisons that have closed in the past decade. Some of them have ended up serving significantly more enjoyable purposes, such as this cultural hub.The Dutch have seen their prison population decrease by more than 40% over the past 20 years. At the other end of the spectrum, Britain has the highest rate of incarceration in western Europe, and is struggling with an unprecedented prisons crisis. Britain's minister of prisons, James Timpson, calls the Netherlands a source of inspiration.Renate van der Zee is a Dutch writer and journalist

Police said a man, driving in a car containing loaded firearms and holding false press and VIP passes, was intercepted at a checkpoint near the entrance to a campaign rally for Donald Trump in Coachella Valley, California, on Saturday. Riverside county sheriff Chad Bianco said the suspect was believed to be a member of a rightwing anti-government movement known as 'sovereign citizens'. Police said the firearms included a loaded handgun and a shotgun

Polls published on Sunday show Kamala Harris underperforming among Latino voters in 2024; NBC News poll shows candidates in dead heat

This blog is now closed. You can find all of the Guardian's US politics coverage hereKamala Harris and Donald Trump spent Sunday trying to shore up political support among what they perceived to be must-have voting blocs with polls showing them locked in a tight 5 November presidential race.With election day less than a month away, the Democratic vice-president attended a Black church in Greenville, North Carolina, as part of her campaign's souls to the polls" push. Her Republican opponent was in Arizona, looking for Black and Latino support as he seeks a second presidency, after a rally in California a day earlier. Continue reading...

The suspect, identified as Las Vegas resident Vem Miller, was apprehended by authorities about half-mile from entrance to Coachella rallyA man armed with guns and false press and VIP passes was apprehended by authorities at a campaign rally in California on Saturday being held by Donald Trump.The suspect, identified as Las Vegas resident Vem Miller, was intercepted by police at a checkpoint about a half-mile from an entrance to the rally in Coachella Valley, California, soon before it began, police said Sunday. Continue reading...

Presidential candidates spend Sunday trying to shore up support among must-have voting blocsKamala Harris and Donald Trump spent Sunday trying to shore up political support among what they perceived to be must-have voting blocs with polls showing them locked in a tight 5 November presidential race.With election day less than a month away, the Democratic vice-president attended a Black church in Greenville, North Carolina, as part of her campaign's souls to the polls" push. She later exalted the way communities - especially in the western part of the state - were coming together after damage from Hurricane Helene in late September, especially the way people who have the least give the most". Continue reading...

Insufficient investment and the withdrawal of subsidies and incentives are damaging a sector that is vital to the green transitionEarlier this year, a French experiment offered a startling glimpse of what progressive green policymaking can achieve. In an effort to boost demand, Emmanuel Macron's government introduced a social leasing scheme allowing less well-off commuters to payan affordable monthly rate for a new electric vehicle (EV). Within a month, demand boomed to the extent that the schemewas abruptly suspended. According to ministers, French carmakers couldn't keep up with the sudden surge of interest.This autumn, companies such as Renault and Peugeotare facing a different kind of problem. Governments across the EU have withdrawn subsidies and incentives, and are failing to provide reassuring levels of investment in charging infrastructure and grid capacity. As a consequence, EV sales are badly off the pace in the journey to 2035 zero-emission targets. According to new data from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association, August recorded the fourth consecutive monthly drop in sales. Overall, car sales are at their lowest for three years, with double-digit falls in France, Germany and Italy. Executives at Volkswagen, asymbol of Germany's industrial prowess, have declared an intention to close domestic factories for the first time in the company's history. Continue reading...

US president likely to meet Chancellor Olaf Scholz within next week during rescheduled trip, say sources in BerlinJoe Biden will visit Germany this week, government sources in Berlin said, after he cancelled a planned trip last week due to Hurricane Milton.The senior German officials who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed media reports that the US president would travel to Berlin, probably within the next week, but declined to provide further details. Planning for the visit was believed to be ongoing. Continue reading...

Gunfire erupted between two groups during homecoming events at Tennessee State University, police sayOne person was killed and nine others wounded in a shootout amid a crowd near a university in Tennessee Saturday afternoon, police said.A crowd that gathered earlier in the day for homecoming events at Tennessee State University was beginning to thin out when the gunfire erupted between two groups around 5pm, said Nashville police spokesperson Don Aaron. He said shell casings indicate that gunfire was exchanged across a street near campus between the groups.Guardian staff contributed reporting Continue reading...

Michigan governor accused of mocking communion, while she says stunt was meant to promote Biden's Chips ActMichigan governor Gretchen Whitmer has apologized for feeding a Dorito chip to a social media influencer who dropped to her knees after Roman Catholic organizations accused the Democratic politician of insulting their religion by mocking the sacrament of communion.I would never do something to denigrate someone's faith," Whitmer said in a statement that her office provided to the Michigan television news station WJBK on Friday. Continue reading...

Neck and neck in polls, both presidential candidates target bellwether Saginaw countyDonald Trump's supporters do not pitch up at his rallies expecting to hear policy speeches or even the truth. Mostly they go for the comfort of distractions from hard realities and the allure of false promises to revive the past.But some of the loudest cheers at Trump's recent rally in Saginaw, Michigan, came in response to a claim the former US president's supporters could believe, when he said election polls were swinging his way in the battleground state and that Kamala Harris's honeymoon period" was over. Continue reading...

The Argentinian's first game in charge, imperfect as it was, represented an immediate boost after a summer of setbacksPacing his technical area with puffed cheeks, pursed lips and crossed arms, there was one of the most recognizable faces in club football, the unfamiliar sight of a USA badge on his lapel.At the final whistle, his brow unfurrowed by the delight of a 2-0 win over Panama in his first game in charge of the US men's national team, Mauricio Pochettino bounded on to the field with a wide grin, glad-handing everyone in sight, with back-slaps, hugs and handshakes for all, from players to officials to a cameraman. Continue reading...

About 200,000 Americans live in the UK, and Democrats Abroad members are campaigning hard to get them to voteOn a chilly afternoon in central London, the battle for the US presidential election is being waged with no less fervour than if the campaigners were on the other side of the Atlantic.Surrounded by posters for the Democratic ticket of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, volunteers at an office organised by Democrats Abroad have been hitting the phones, calling Americans living abroad, including wavering Republicans, to urge them to register to vote. Continue reading...

Republican's lies about immigrants eating cats in Ohio leads to swell of far-right extremism in Springfield - and beyondFor Denise Williams, the 70-year-old head of Springfield's NAACP chapter, the past several weeks have been testing to say the least.Last month, flyers calling for mass deportations of immigrants were distributed by the so-called Trinity White Knights, a group associated with the Ku Klux Klan, in Black-majority neighborhoods in south Springfield. Continue reading...

Ex-first lady strategically avoids many key subjects in memoir seemingly at odds with Republican partyMelania Trump's eponymously titled memoir is a 180-page exercise in buck-passing and blame-dodging. The former US first lady blames staffers for plagiarizing Michelle Obama; repeatedly stresses her love for her husband despite professing to abhor lying liars who lie; and declares abortion a fundamental right, without pausing to consider Donald Trump's role in attacking it via the US supreme court.Melania is by no means an exhaustive read, but it does leave the reader asking why she has chosen to bare her soul just weeks before the election. Or whether Kamala Harris might more accurately channel her policy preferences than her husband, the Republican nominee yet again.Melania is published in the US by Skyhorse Continue reading...

The New York Liberty's chaotic, enigmatic, queer-coded mascot is a provocative pachyderm who has served her way to It-Girl status amid her team's chase of a first WNBA titleWhen the New York Liberty made their pre-game entrance beneath the Barclays Center ahead of the opening game of their WNBA semi-final series against the Las Vegas Aces last month, there was more spirit and swagger on display than at any New York Fashion Week event. Star point guard Sabrina Ionescu was giving quiet luxury in a sage turtleneck and camel-colored blazer. Breanna Stewart, the two-time WNBA Most Valuable Player, called to mind Charli xcx with her black sunglasses and bodacious mane spilling out of a New York or Nowhere baseball hat. But none of them commanded the makeshift catwalk quite like the 5ft 10in long-lashed elephant rocking a zebra-print coat, serving and vamping for her adoring fans with saucy hip-pops and jaunty swings of an umbrella dangling from her wrist.There are mascots and then there are mascots: those once-in-a-decade unicorns who penetrate the zeitgeist in unpredictable ways. Ellie the Elephant is no brightly colored blob tripping down a court at half-time. She is a dancing phenom - splits and worms and handstands, oh my! - as well as a physical comic genius. Her firecracker energy is synonymous with the rise of a Liberty team that has become the obsession of countless women across the city during their run to the WNBA finals, where they are on the doorstep of becoming the first New York basketball franchise to win a championship in over 50 years. Continue reading...

Both sides believe they have right on their side and use it as an excuse to perpetuate bloodshedIsrael is not invading Lebanon, it is liberating it." So proclaimed France's pre-eminent liberal philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy as Israeli tanks drove across the border and its war planes bombed villages in the south and residential districts in Beirut. Thereare moments in history," he exulted, when escalation' becomesa necessity and a virtue." For Levy, it is not just Lebanon that Israel is liberating, but much of the Middle East, too.Levy is not alone in rejoicing at Israel's spreading military offensive. For many, Israel is waging war, not merely in self-defence" but, in the words of president Isaac Herzog, to save western civilisation, to save the values of western civilisation", a claim echoed by many of its supporters. And the destruction of Gaza, of its hospitals and universities, and the killing of 40,000 people? And the 2,000 people killed in Lebanon in a fortnight, and the fifth of its population displaced? Collateral damage en route to savingcivilisation.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...