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Under Biden, immigration has stabilised, inflation has been tamed and crime is down, but his VP is forging a new way'As Joe Biden walked on the set of The View, one of America's most popular daytime television programmes, he was greeted by Hail to the Chief and a studio audience erupting in wild applause and cheers. They love you!" said the co-host Joy Behar. The US president replied wryly: It's always better when you're leaving."During the ABC show, filmed live in a New York studio where digital screens showed images from Biden's career, he claimed to be at peace" with his decision not to seek re-election in November. Yet he also insisted that he could have beaten loser" Donald Trump. And the co-host Whoopi Goldberg criticised the way Democrats forced Biden's hand: I didn't like the way it was done publicly." Continue reading...

Demi Moore's gory satire The Substance made me think about self-image, bodily autonomy - and our worrying obsession with cosmetic surgeryI was thinking about breasts as I watched The Substance. Coralie Fargeat's body-horror fable features Demi Moore as a newly 50, supposedly fading fitness star who makes a pharmaceutical Faustian pact allowing her to create a nubile 20-year-old (played by Margaret Qualley) to replace her half the time. Breasts aren't Fargeat's main focus - it's an ass more than a tit movie - but there are plenty on show. One (minor spoiler alert?) plops bloodily to the floor at a climactic moment and if that - miles from the most harrowing bit - sounds too revolting, it's not the film for you.I was thinking about breasts, because I had just read about the 64% increase in reductions in the US since 2019 (not including post-surgical reconstructions or gender-affirming top surgery). Many are on women under 30, and under-19s represent a small but fast-growing part of the market", the New York Times reported. Women, apparently, want yoga boobs" or the girlish coquette" look - a braless life.Do 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...

Minneapolis house featured in 1984 movie offers once-in-a-lifetime experience with interiors based on late music starPrince fans will have a chance to party like it's 1999 in the very Minnesota house made famous by Purple Rain as the movie celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.The white, two-story Minneapolis home looks unassuming from the outside, but it is a sign o' the times as the newest limited-time Airbnb Icons rental - properties created and run by Airbnb and designed to give guests a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Continue reading...

Cuddly White House pets have been swapped out for stories of dog killing, whale decapitating and bear pranksAnimals have always played a role in political lore in the US, whether it's a series of beloved and cuddly White House pets or Teddy Roosevelt's love of horses that helped cement his robust public image.But as the US's traumatic 2024 election has played out, amid warnings of democracy under threat, multiple attempted assassinations of Donald Trump and fears of civil unrest, it seems that the political treatment of animals in US politics has also taken a disturbing turn. Continue reading...

Special counsel prosecutors who investigated Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election set things straightThe Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion," said the Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election, AKA the Mueller Report. A Russian entity carried out a social media campaign that favored presidential candidate Donald J Trump and disparaged presidential candidate Hillary Clinton."Robert Mueller, the special counsel, did not criminally charge Trump but did not give him a clean bill of health, contrary to misleading claims made by Bill Barr, Trump's attorney general, in a 24 March 2019 letter - AKA the Barr Report.Interference: The Inside Story of Trump, Russia, and the Mueller Investigation is published in the US by HarperCollins Continue reading...

Legal wrangling remains as Blue Cross Blue Shield pledges to seek reduction, if not elimination, of jury awardThe movement to hold US medical insurers to account scored a notable legal victory recently when a Louisiana civil court jury ordered the state's most prominent health insurance company to pay up more than $400m after underpaying claims to a surgery center that often works with cancer patients.But the insurer - Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) of Louisiana - has vowed to seek to reduce, if not entirely eliminate, the jury's award to the St Charles Surgical Hospital and Center for Restorative Breast Surgery on appeal. BCBS can ask both the state's fourth circuit court of appeal as well as the Louisiana supreme court for relief. Continue reading...

Cherrypicking what has worked from decriminalisation abroad is far preferable to building more prisons for drug offendersWhat can a German do but a Briton cannot? What can a New Yorker, a Chicagoan and a San Franciscan do, but a Londoner cannot? What can Canadians, Dutch, Portuguese, Chileans, Uruguayans, Maltese all do? The answer is they can legally smoke cannabis. In California there are now courses for cannabis sommeliers. In Britain they would be thrown in jail.Half a century ago, Britons prided themselves on being in the vanguard of social progress. In such matters as health care, sexuality, abortion, crime and punishment, they considered their country ahead of the times. Now it limps nervously in the rear. Continue reading...

Democratic and Republican vice-presidential candidates will face off on 1 October in unusually critical debateThe football coach and the Yale law guy" go head-to-head in New York City on Tuesday night, as two midwesterners with very different styles and vastly diverging messages slug it out over the future of the US.Tim Walz, the Democratic governor of Minnesota, faces the Republican senator from Ohio, JD Vance, in a vice-presidential debate that promises to be unusually significant in this white-hot election year. They will joust for 90 minutes under the moderation of CBS News as they seek to give their respective running mates - Kamala Harris and Donald Trump - a leg up to the White House. Continue reading...

The struggle between liberalism and reactionary strands of thought has gnawed away at the Tories since the party's dawnConservatism, the late philosopher Roger Scruton wrote, emerged into the modern world as a kind of yes but...'" response to liberalism. Conservatives, he observed, believe, like liberals, in the importance of the free market, of private property and of individual choice. They believe also in the overriding significance of community and tradition as setting limits to the reach of individualism. Liberalism, for Scruton, made sense only in the social context that conservatism defends".The relationship between these two philosophical wellsprings of conservatism has never been comfortable. The tension between the individualism of the market and private property and the communality of custom and tradition, between promethean capitalist development and the fetters of history and culture, has always gnawed away at the heart of conservatism. Continue reading...

Ex-president speaks in Prairie du Chien flanked by anti-immigrant posters and lobs insults at Harris and BidenDonald Trump spoke on Saturday in the battleground state of Wisconsin, escalating his anti-immigrant rhetoric and taking his personal insults against Kamala Harris up a notch.Trump's speech in the small community of Prairie du Chien, where a Venezuelan in the US illegally was detained in September for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman and attacking her daughter, was unusually devoted almost entirely to undocumented immigrants. He wrongfully claimed that immigrants in the US are violent criminals, referring to them as stone-cold killers", monsters" and vile animals". Continue reading...

After earlier speech in Monroeville, Republican vice-presidential candidate vows to turn Pennsylvania red' in Newton. This blog is now closed.Tim Walz paid a visit to Ann Arbor to watch a football game between the University of Michigan and the University of Minnesota.The Democratic vice-presidential nominee was greeted at the airport by University of Michigan students, who had arrived in a bus donning a banner that read Put Me In, Coach!"I would always tell people in campaigns: If you want a democracy after the election, you have to have an autocracy before the election," Carville said. Continue reading...

Flooding and landslides strike southern Appalachians after hurricane pummeled region and wreaked havocAt least 64 people have been confirmed dead and almost 3.5 million were without power on Saturday, after strong winds and torrential rain from Hurricane Helene wreaked unprecedented havoc across large swathes of the south-eastern United States.Historic flooding continued over parts of the southern Appalachians on Saturday, as first responders worked to reach stranded communities in trying conditions while local authorities began to assess the scale of the damage and displacement. Continue reading...

One of the nation's most storied golf courses is dealing with the aftermath of Helene, the former Category 4 hurricane that made landfall in Florida on FridayOne of the nation's most storied golf courses is dealing with the aftermath of Helene, the former Category 4 hurricane that made landfall in Florida on Friday and was downgraded to a tropical depression as it continued its wrath into Georgia on Friday.Augusta National Golf Club chairman Fred Ridley said in a statement Saturday officials still are assessing how much damage was done to the iconic course, which has hosted the annual Masters Tournament since 1934. Augusta, Georgia, is located in the eastern portion of the state, along the border of South Carolina. Continue reading...

By acting with impunity and tearing up the rulebooks, warmonger leaders are setting an alarming precedentIt's a golden rule of politics that national leaders do not interfere in other countries' elections. Tell that to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who jumped into the middle of America's presidential campaign last week with both feet, wearing size 10 combat boots. The resulting, resounding thud could be heard as far away as Kyiv (which was perhaps the point).Visiting an ammunition factory in pivotal Pennsylvania, Ukraine's war-weary president told Republican nominee Donald Trump that, when it came to his appeaser's policy of cutting off arms supplies and accepting peace on Vladimir Putin's terms, he was talking out of his posterior. And Trump's oddball running mate, JD Vance, was just plain dangerous", he said.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...

Many people say they're living to 100-plus years. But research lauded with an Ig Nobel prize shows some claims are spuriousEarlier this month, an unusual prize ceremony got under way. Five Nobel laureates gathered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, not to receive further accolades themselves, but to present the Ig Nobel prizes. Now in their 34th year, these are awarded to researchers whose discoveries make people laugh, then think".One winner was Saul Justin Newman, whose research probing the quality of demographic data certainly made me laugh and think. Places with surprising clusters of individuals reaching remarkable ages, with centenarians or even supercentenarians (aged 110+) galore, attract lots of attention. Debates focus on their secrets - from Mediterranean diets to superior genetics.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...

Officials say purge violates quiet period provision' prohibiting name removals 90 days before federal electionThe US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit on Friday against Alabama and its top election official, accusing the state of illegally purging people from voter rolls too close to the November election.Federal officials said the purge violates the quiet period provision" of the National Voter Registration Act that prohibits the systemic removal of names from voter rolls 90 days before a federal election. Continue reading...

A majority of Black residents of key Michigan city don't cast a ballot, but activists and churches are trying to change thatThe largest bloc of registered voters in the city of Saginaw has yet to make a choice between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, and probably never will. A majority of Black residents of the biggest city in the most closely contested county of the battleground state of Michigan simply don't vote.To the frustration of civil rights activists and Democratic politicians struggling to secure every ballot in a state that the Harris campaign sees as crucial to victory, more than half of Saginaw city's population has long been unpersuaded that elections make much of a difference to their lives. Continue reading...

Embattled Republican lieutenant governor was expected to return to the campaign trail on SaturdayNorth Carolina's lieutenant governor, Republican Mark Robinson, received burns on Friday night while attending a truck show as he was campaigning for governor, his campaign said.Robinson was making an appearance at the Mayberry truck show in Mount Airy when he was injured, campaign spokesperson Mike Lonergan said in a statement. Continue reading...

Guilfoyle has a personal interest in tearing the Democrat down at a time when Trump's allies have warned him to lay off the attacks - but it isn't very successfulDonald Trump has hired tremendous numbers of women" in his time. Tremendous numbers! We know this not from looking at the actual data, which somewhat contradicts these claims, but because he has told us so himself. Continue reading...

Next month, New College of Florida will welcome activist and writer Steve Sailer, a proponent of scientific racism'New College of Florida (NCF) will host the extremist writer Steve Sailer, who has been described as a white supremacist" and a proponent of scientific racism", at a college-branded public event next month.New College has made headlines since January 2023, when the rightwing governor, Ron DeSantis, vowed to transform it from a university known for liberal values into a conservative institution, and installed a new board of trustees including the rightwing culture warrior Christopher Rufo. That board in turn appointed DeSantis's close ally" Richard Corcoran as the new college president, in which role he makes a $699,000 salary. Continue reading...

The vice-president and ex-president both have vowed to block US Steel from merging with Japan's NipponThe Monongahela River winds through the tight Mon Valley south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, creating a main artery in the nation's industrial heart, where the steel and coal industries have driven the region's economy and shaped political landscapes since the late 19th century.In the weeks preceding the election, the region is once again playing an outsize role in determining the nation's political future. A controversial Biden-Harris administration plan to kill Pittsburgh-based US Steel's proposed sale to Japan's Nippon Steel is viewed in part as an election-year strategy to shore up critical union support in a must-win swing state. Continue reading...

While election almost certain to be decided by swing states, pollsters explain why growth in national polls is meaningfulKamala Harris has stretched her lead over Donald Trump in the US presidential election race, the latest polling averages show, even while the two candidates appear to be running neck-and-neck in most battleground states.The Guardian's newest poll tracker, based on a range of surveys conducted across a 10-day period, shows the vice-president and Democratic nominee at 48.2%, compared with 44.4% for Trump, the Republican candidate and former president - giving Harris a 3.6-point advantage. Continue reading...

I believed things he told me that I now understand to be ... lies,' Dave Hancock says in new Rittenhouse documentaryA former spokesperson for Kyle Rittenhouse says he became disillusioned with his ex-client after learning that he had sent text messages pledging to fucking murder" shoplifters outside a pharmacy before later shooting two people to death during racial justice protests in Wisconsin in 2020.Dave Hancock made that remark about Rittenhouse - for whom he also worked as a security guard - on a Law & Crime documentary that premiered on Friday. The show explored the unsuccessful criminal prosecution of Rittenhouse, who killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Continue reading...

There is nothing wrong with mining content for data, but it has to be properly regulated and creators must be compensated

Netanyahu has his own reasons for prolonging the conflict, but many Israelis still want to see Hamas and Hezbollah neutralised

The South Siders' soul-sapping run, culminating Friday with the single-season losses record, is what happens when a disgraceful front office intersects with plain old bad luckWhen the history books are written, there will be all manner of different ways to describe the historic putridness of the 2024 Chicago White Sox. The unprecedented loss total will be one. The incomprehensibly bad performance of the team's position players will be another. The three separate losing streaks of 21, 14, and 12 games. There will be ample time for all of it. The White Sox lost their 121st game on Friday night, the most in a modern era that dates to 1901. They are also the worst team of that span by win percentage, sitting at 39-121 with two games left to play. After a scrappy home sweep of the Los Angeles Angels allowed them to avoid a 121st loss at home, the dam finally broke in a 4-1 road defeat to the playoff-bound Detroit Tigers.But maybe the most modern barometer of the White Sox catastrophe of 2024 is the media environment around the team. The club's rights-holding TV broadcasters have been at its throat all season. And as Chicago approached their milestone loss, the White Sox' own social media stopped bothering to tweet out the team's results (or they did until a late, unexpected winning streak). Their efforts turned out to be the only vaguely successful thing about the entire season: FINAL: can be found on the MLB app," one postgame post on X read. Another had this zinger: FINAL: the number of runs we scored was not greater than the number of runs they scored". Soon, there was only this: Continue reading...

Speaking in Arizona, vice-president seeks to turn one of her biggest vulnerabilities into a political strengthKamala Harris accused Donald Trump of playing political games" on immigration - his signature issue - as the vice-president sought to turn one of her biggest vulnerabilities into a political strength during a visit to the US-Mexico border on Friday.Speaking in the Arizona border town of Douglas, Harris declared the US both a sovereign nation" and a country of immigrants" and said as president, she would strengthen controls at the southern border, while working to fix our broken system of immigration". Continue reading...

This blog has closed. Read our latest story hereAppearing with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in New York on Friday, former president and Republican nominee Donald Trump said that he and Zelenskyy have a very good relationship" before going on to say: I also have a very good relationship with President Putin."I think if we win, we're going to get it resolved very quickly," Trump said, referring to Russia's war against Ukraine. Continue reading...

Ex-president complains search results unfairly favor Kamala Harris and display negative stories about himDonald Trump threatened on Friday to direct the justice department to pursue criminal charges against Google if he is elected president, claiming the company was unfairly displaying negative news articles about him but not his 2024 election opponent Kamala Harris.The complaint - the latest threat on the campaign trail from Trump to wield the power of the presidency in response to enemies real or perceived - came in an abrupt post on Truth Social. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed.

Two arrested in connection with vandalism in abandoned home owned by the son of Philadelphia Phillies co-ownerTwo people were arrested on Wednesday in connection with vandalism in an abandoned Hollywood Hills mansion owned by the son of a Philadelphia Phillies co-owner.John Powers Middleton, a film producer, owns a property that has long been left vacant and become a popular target for graffiti artists and squatters. Continue reading...

More than 50 patients and staff evacuated from Unicoi hospital in Erwin after deadly hurricane overwhelms areaMore than 50 hospital patients and staff were airlifted from the roof of the building in Tennessee on Friday afternoon in a dramatic rescue operation after flash flooding overwhelmed the area.An urgent evacuation was launched as the storm effects of Hurricane Helene were felt far and wide, with the state emergency agency and the national guard responding to the situation that quickly unfolded at Unicoi hospital in Erwin, Tennessee, about 100 miles outside Knoxville. Continue reading...

Beleaguered mayor in court as prosecutors allege Adams, 64, sought and accepted improper valuable benefits'

Former US president Donald Trump said he had a 'good relationship' with Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday ahead of his meeting with Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy, who stood alongside Trump, then intervened, saying, 'I hope you have more good relations with us,' gesturing between himself and Trump

Trump's running mate will speak at Lance Wallnau's event in campaign's latest link to extremist Christian right

Category 4 storm made landfall in Florida late on Thursday before weakening and moving through Georgia and the Carolinas Continue reading...

For those that ignored dire evacuation orders, a day of clean-up follows a night of traumatic fearThe warnings about Hurricane Helene were dire and for the residents of Taylor county on the Gulf coast of Florida they were necessary.A mandatory evacuation for Taylor county residents has been ordered," came the first message from local and state authorities. Continue reading...

There are clear reasons why women are running from Trump, but men are flocking to him - and it's vital to understand whyI hesitate to give JD Vance any ideas, but if American women were denied the vote, Donald Trump would be restored to the White House in a landslide. Similarly, if men were removed from the franchise, Kamala Harris would be swept into the Oval Office in an even bigger earthquake. As it is, the two are clashing in an election marked by a gulf so wide, the phrase gender gap" doesn't do it justice. In ways that go deeper than mere politics, and with implications for the world beyond the US, the presidential election is increasingly looking like a war between men and women.The numbers are stunning. An NBC poll this week found men favour Trump over Harris by 12 points, 52% to 40%. Among women, Harris leads Trump by 21 points: 58% to 37%. Put the two together and you have a gender chasm of 33 points. Men may not be from Mars and women may not be from Venus, but when it comes to choosing a US president, they are on different planets.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Sometimes you've got to make the most of your 15 minutes of fame

Voters in the swing state are fired up at the idea of electing the US's first Black Indian American female presidentLas Vegas's historic Westside has long been celebrated for its Black community's entrepreneurship, activism and resilience. The neighborhood became historic" when America's first racially integrated casino, the Moulin Rouge, opened in 1955, employing Black card dealers and chorus line dancers, and welcoming singers such as Sammy Davis Jr and Ella Fitzgerald to not only perform, but to dine and gamble. Today, campaign organizers for Kamala Harris hope the community will play a history-making role again in November.The 2024 presidential election could hinge on how Nevada swings. To win the key battleground state, Democrats will have to run up the score in Las Vegas to overcome deficits in rural counties and the evenly divided electorate in Reno. Continue reading...

We would like to hear about the hardest parts of making sure your kids are happy and healthyAmerica is a nation of remarkable wealth and resources. Per capita investments in education and health care are among the highest in the world. And yet across the US, millions of American children are denied the opportunity to thrive.Recent data shows sky high records of child poverty, with children of immigrants representing over 40% of kids living under the poverty line. Affordable childcare is increasingly hard to find and its cost has been outpaced by inflation. Continue reading...

Program signals possible change of strategy in the eternal war between New Yorkers and their least favorite neighborsNew York's seemingly eternal battle against its rodent population has taken a new twist after the city council greenlighted pilot schemes to deploy rat contraceptives in a new bid to curb their booming population.The Thursday-night vote means that in the next few months pilot programs will begin using ContraPest, a type of rodent birth control, that will be put in special containers aimed at encouraging the rats to ingest it. Continue reading...

On the ballot in November is a measure that will make it a state crime for migrants to cross into the US unofficiallySheriffs in four Arizona counties that sit along the border with Mexico have warned that if voters in November pass a measure to make it a state crime for migrants to cross into the US unofficially, they will have face problems enforcing the new law.Criticisms range from the law being unenforceable because of budget to it being racist", with negative comments coming from both Democrats and Republicans. Continue reading...

Judge faces lawsuit after forcing student to put on jail garments and handcuffs and enter isolated holding cellA Detroit judge who briefly detained a teenage girl who fell asleep in his courtroom during a school field trip to learn about the justice system was demoted to presiding over traffic court as he faces a federal lawsuit.Judge Kenneth King was moved to the state court's traffic division after the incident on 13 August. King was temporarily removed from the bench as he completed mandatory training following his actions. Continue reading...

Tens of thousands of titles, from dictionaries to Leonardo, are restricted across prisons - and its impact is palpableIn recent years the issue of book bans has become a major story in the US, often driven by socially conservative pressure groups, but nowhere has the impact of bans been felt more acutely than in America's enormous prison population, activists and campaigners say.Books can serve as vital connections to the outside world for incarcerated individuals, yet they are frequently censored in US prisons. Campaigners are advocating for public library catalogs to be accessible on carceral tablets. Continue reading...

Adams is bombastic, eccentric and allegedly ethically relaxed. This indictment does not come as a surpriseFor the first time in the modern history of New York City, a sitting mayor has been indicted.Eric Adams will now know the fate of Donald Trump - to be indicted and possibly convicted in a Manhattan courtroom. Damian Williams, the US attorney for the southern district, has unsealed a 57-page indictment that accused Adams of performing favors for Turkish foreign nationals after accepting more than $100,000 in international plane tickets and accommodations, as well as soliciting illegal donations from them. These donations generated public matching funds for his mayoral campaign in 2021. Continue reading...