Lawsuits are piling up, but with Ron DeSantis fading, and Joe Biden losing ground, Trump’s 2024 prospects are undimmedIt is the worst of times and the best of times for Donald Trump. On Tuesday, he suffered another legal defeat. A federal jury found him liable for the sexual abuse, forcible touching, and defamation of E Jean Carroll. She was awarded $5m in damages.The 45th president, however, escaped liability for rape. He also leads Joe Biden in their latest hypothetical match-up, while Ron DeSantis fades in the rearview mirror.Lloyd Green is an attorney in New York and served in the US Department of Justice from 1990 to 1992 Continue reading...
by Martin Pengelly and Chris McGreal in New York on (#6BMCF)
Columnist tells NBC’s Today show ‘this is about getting my name back’ after jury finds ex-president sexually abused herE Jean Carroll said she was “overwhelmed with joy for the women in this country” after a jury found Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in a New York department store in 1996.“I’m overwhelmed, overwhelmed with joy and happiness and delight for the women in this country,” the writer and former Elle magazine columnist told NBC’s Today a day after the verdict in the civil trial. Continue reading...
Annual rate has fallen sharply since hitting 40-year high last June but prices are still rising at a rate over twice the Fed’s targetThe price of goods and services in the US remained stubbornly high in April, rising 4.9.% from a year ago, the labor department reported on Wednesday,The annual rate of inflation has fallen sharply since hitting a 40-year high of 9.1% last June. April’s rise nearly matched the 5% rise recorded in March. It was the 10th consecutive month the rate has declined, but prices are still rising at a rate that is more than twice the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2% a year. Continue reading...
Cheney says ‘Trump has proven he is unfit for office’ in ad focusing on ex-president’s incitement of the Capitol attackThe former House January 6 committee member Liz Cheney released an attack ad against Donald Trump in New Hampshire on the eve of his appearance there in a controversial CNN town hall.“There has never been a greater dereliction of duty by any president,” Cheney warns in the ad, which focuses on Trump’s incitement of the deadly Capitol attack on 6 January 2021. Continue reading...
Being found liable for sexual assault would normally leave your career in tatters. But the cult of Trump means nothing is out of the questionDonald Trump has boasted about grabbing women by the pussy without their consent. He has made innumerable misogynistic comments. He has been accused of sexual misconduct by at least 26 women. He has suggested that some of the women who have accused him of misconduct were too unattractive to assault. And, until this week, he has managed to get away with all of it. Trump has faced no meaningful consequences for his actions; he has given every impression of being above the law.Until this week. It may have taken decades, but the law has finally caught up with Trump. On Tuesday, a jury in New York found that the former president sexually abused the advice columnist E Jean Carroll in the changing room of a department store 27 years ago. It was a civil case, so Trump hasn’t been taken away in handcuffs, but his reputation and his wallet have suffered a blow. While the jury did not find that Trump raped Carroll, its verdict brands him a sexual predator. Carroll was awarded $5m (£4m) in total: $2.02m in compensation and damages for her battery claim and $2.98m in compensation and damages for defamation, as a result of Trump calling her a liar. Continue reading...
Reintroduced federal legislation pushes to expand Osha coverage in 24 states not currently covered by the actEvery day 343 workers die from hazardous working conditions in the US. In 2021, the latest year with data available, 5,190 workers in the US were killed on the job and an estimated 120,000 deaths were attributed to occupational diseases.Since 1970, more than 429,000 workers have been killed on the job, but only 128 of those cases have been criminally prosecuted under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (Osha). Continue reading...
Day after day, the US experiences senseless gun violence, yet lawmakers will do little to prevent the next shootingLast week, Serbia experienced two separate mass shootings that killed more than a dozen people, including children. Serbia, a nation tied for the third highest rate of gun ownership in the world, was shaken by this violence. Unlike here at home, mass shootings are not a daily occurrence.It did not take long for the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vucic, to take swift action. A mere day after these senseless shootings, Vucic announced several measures that would prevent further tragedy. The measures include a ban on new gun permits, tougher penalties for illegal weapons possession, psychological checks of gun owners and an amnesty for the surrender of illegal weapons. Continue reading...
Neely’s lynching – along with the subsequent justifications of it – have revealed just how low the bar is for justifying Black death in AmericaSince 30-year-old Jordan Neely was choked to death on a New York City subway, much has been said about his state of mind in the moments before he was killed. Witnesses reported that Neely was upset and that he said he was hungry and ready to die.Usually, none of those things would result in a violent, public death; but Jordan Neely was also Black. And his killing – along with the subsequent justifications of it – have revealed just how low the bar is for justifying Black death in America.Tayo Bero is a freelance writer Continue reading...
Death of Banko Brown, 24, sparks outrage and calls for resources for San Francisco’s unhoused queer youth: ‘My people aren’t free’Banko Brown’s messages had become increasingly desperate in recent weeks. The 24-year-old San Francisco community organizer was often shy about his struggles, but now he told loved ones he was unable to get a housing spot he’d long been pursuing, had been turned away from multiple shelters, and was forced to sleep on the train.Brown’s friends and family suspect he was severely exhausted and hungry on 27 April when a security guard at a downtown Walgreens confronted him for allegedly shoplifting – and fatally shot him. Brown, who was unarmed, had reportedly tried to take snacks from the store. Continue reading...
With US housing costs skyrocketing due to increased demand and limited stock, the dream of home ownership or an affordable rental is becoming unreachable for manyIn 2021, real estate agents started noticing something strange happening in the US housing market.In a single week, veteran realtor Sasha Davis wrote 50 offers for clients hoping to buy a home in Florida. Continue reading...
No more town halls, interviews or rallies. Coverage should be driven by clear editorial choices that serve US democracyWith 18 months to go before the next US presidential election, it’s already clear that – barring a physical collapse or two – Joe Biden will represent the Democrats and Donald Trump will carry the hopes of Republicans.This will be the first presidential election after one of the candidates, the president at the time, tried to foment a violent insurrection to overturn the last election. It will be the first election since 1912 in which a former president (in that case Theodore Roosevelt) challenges a sitting president (in that case William Howard Taft). It will be the first election in American history in which one candidate has already been impeached – twice, in fact. It will be the first election since 1800 in which one of the major candidates can reasonably be called a threat to or disloyal to the United States of America (Aaron Burr in 1800 was the first). And Burr had not yet revealed his propensity for treachery in 1800. It will be the first election in which one of the candidates has been indicted on state criminal charges (and possibly federal charges by the time of the election). Continue reading...
The verdict isn’t a total vindication, but Trump has now been held responsible for at least a fraction of his many misdeedsNo, the verdict did not amount to total vindication. But for E Jean Carroll and for the more than two dozen other women who, over many years, have accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct, it came close.Finally – finally – this oft-accused predator would be held accountable for at least some fraction of his misdeeds. Continue reading...
In today’s newsletter: What you need to know about the verdicts against the former president – and what they mean for his hopes of returning to the White House
Verdict was dire for the Republican frontrunner, but more shocking than that was how unshockable the US has becomeA mystery of Donald Trump’s US presidency was the absence of a major sex scandal. The thrice-married billionaire who boasted on Access Hollywood that women let him “grab ’em by the pussy’” seemed to commit every abuse of power except the kind that nearly brought down Bill Clinton.Trump’s effort to regain the White House, however, must confront a different reality: he is now a legally defined as a sexual predator. Continue reading...
Ukrainians are preparing for a make-or-break counteroffensive. They have a theory of victory. Do we?As you read this, thousands of young Ukrainian men and women are going through their last training drills, checking their weapons and waiting for D-day. In the big Ukrainian counteroffensive that may start any time now, some of them will be killed and many more will be wounded. None will emerge unchanged. We thought we had said goodbye to all that in 1945, but this is Europe in 2023.Nobody knows what will happen in this campaign. Nobody. But we can at least be clear what we want to happen – and firm in supporting the Ukrainians to achieve it. Decisive Ukrainian victory is now the only sure path to a lasting peace, a free Europe and ultimately a better Russia. This alone would be the new VE Day. Continue reading...
Ron Nessman was leaving a job interview at a California Applebee’s when he spotted a baby stroller hurtling towards a busy roadHaving experienced homelessness and unemployment for years, Ron Nessman was leaving a job interview at an Applebee’s restaurant in California when a baby in a stroller rolling into the path of several cars captured his attention.Nessman sprinted into the street, stopped the stroller, saved the child from harm – and landed his first job in years to cap off a story that has interrupted a US news cycle dominated by headlines about mass killings and bitter partisan politics. Continue reading...
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington says supreme court justice should resign over mega-donor gifts scandalThe conservative supreme court justice Clarence Thomas must resign, an ethics watchdog said on Tuesday, citing revelations about Thomas’s failure to declare lavish gifts and financial support from a Republican mega-donor, Harlan Crow.In an open letter to Thomas, Noah Bookbinder of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or Crew, cited a “grave crisis of institutional legitimacy currently facing the supreme court”. Continue reading...
The 89-year-old’s absence had stalled judicial appointments resulting in some party members calling for her resignationUS Senator Dianne Feinstein, 89, will return to Washington on Tuesday after a months-long absence due to illness, her spokesperson said, restoring Democrats’ 51-49 majority to full strength.The 89-year-old California Democrat announced in early March that she had been hospitalized in San Francisco and was being treated for a case of shingles. But an expected return later that month never happened. She last voted in the Senate in February and her absence has spurred calls for her to resign. Continue reading...
The New York representative, known for his innumerable falsehoods, is due to be arraigned on Wednesday for unspecified chargesFederal prosecutors in New York have charged congressman George Santos, the embattled House Republican who has been under scrutiny for months by the justice department over questions surrounding his 2022 campaign and finance activities, according to people familiar with the matter.The exact nature of the indictment – earlier reported by CNN – is unclear because it remains under seal. Continue reading...
Workers worry that any income hike will disqualify them from housing assistance in an exorbitant rental marketFor two years, Virdell Hickman managed to avoid getting a raise. In the summer of 2020, the education non-profit where she works launched a diversity, equity and inclusion initiative. Hickman, a Black woman, saw her salary bumped up. But she pleaded with her employers to not raise her pay.What should have been a cause for celebration has instead become a headache. The higher salary, which in theory should be helping Hickman better navigate these inflationary times, will come with a major catch. It will mean she no longer qualifies for housing subsidies through the federal government’s Section 8 voucher program. Continue reading...
Jury believed the advice columnist when she described how ex-president went from charming to a ‘monster’ in an instantFor a moment, E Jean Carroll appeared stricken.Not a single member of the jury looked at her as they filed back into court, verdict on her rape case against Donald Trump in hand. Continue reading...
Mauricio Garcia, who was discharged from the US army in 2008, reportedly also had Nazi tattoos on his bodyThe gunman who killed eight people and wounded seven others at a suburban Dallas shopping mall had no prior criminal record but had “neo-Nazi ideation”, authorities said on Tuesday.Investigators are still trying to determine why Mauricio Garcia opened fire on Saturday at the Allen Premium Outlets, Hank Sibley, the regional director of the Texas department of public safety, said at a news conference. Continue reading...
Jury rules that Trump sexually abused the New York writer, but did not convict him of rapeThe trial over whether or not Donald Trump raped the author E Jean Carroll gripped America as it saw the former US president accused of sex crimes in a court of law.In the end a jury ruled that Trump sexually abused the New York writer, but did not convict him of rape. Continue reading...
‘Prayers were answered’: Nante Niemi discovered safe, hiding under a log, after going missing on Saturday on Upper PeninsulaA second-grade child who went missing on Saturday while camping with his family in Michigan has been found safe, hiding under a log.Nante Niemi, eight, was found on Monday by a search team at about 1.30pm in good health, according to Michigan state police. Continue reading...
by Marisol Chávez in Brownsville, Texas on (#6BKK0)
Vigil held for eight who were killed after a car plowed into them at a bus stop in city of Brownsville, near Mexico borderA vigil in Brownsville mourning eight men killed when a car crashed into migrants waiting at a bus stop drew local residents and migrant families on Monday evening expressing a mix of grief, anger, hope and love in the shaken border city.“My son is my whole life, and that man may have taken it,” a Venezuelan mother, Marilín de los Ángeles Medero Piña, lamented, sobbing desperately into the microphone. Continue reading...
For Carroll to win civil claim for sexual battery, jury must reach a unanimous verdict based on ‘a preponderance of the evidence’The jury in Donald Trump’s rape trial began deliberating late Tuesday morning to decide if the former president sexually assaulted the advice columnist E Jean Carroll and then defamed her by denying it.For Carroll to win her civil claim for sexual battery, the jury of six men and three women must reach a unanimous verdict based on “a preponderance of the evidence”, meaning that she is more likely than not to be telling the truth, a lower standard than for a criminal trial. Their deliberations began just before noon.Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html. Continue reading...
Republican governor says bills are meant to ‘counteract’ the ‘malign influence of the Chinese Communist party’ in the stateGovernor Ron DeSantis of Florida signed a series of bills Monday that bans Chinese citizens from buying land in the state.In a recent news release, the Republican announced his signing of that bill and two others which are meant to “counteract” what he described as “the malign influence of the Chinese Communist party in the state of Florida”. Continue reading...
Fired Fox News host makes remarks in latest leaked video published by Media Matters for AmericaFox News was under attack from liberals and its former chief executive Roger Ailes would have “never put up with this shit”, Tucker Carlson told his producer in new leaked video of the fired Fox star.Describing a conversation with an unnamed female executive at the rightwing network, Carlson said: “I was like, she’s got a lot of liberals working over there. And, you know, they see this as war and we’re the main force on the other side. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Republican senator derides influencer, saying: ‘Every man who has been in a locker room recognises the type’In his new book, the Missouri Republican senator Josh Hawley derides Andrew Tate, a social media influencer and self-proclaimed “king of toxic masculinity”, for “sleeping with as many women as possible, berating them, abusing them and celebrating it all as manly, as ‘freedom’”.Criticising Tate for “fake bravado” and “endless boasting”, Hawley adds: “Every man who has been in a locker room recognises the type … those aren’t the words of a man; those are the words of a child pretending to be a man.” Continue reading...
It took me years to come round to Random Access Memories, until I connected the dots to its unlikely cousin 40 years its senior, Dark Side of the MoonFew records in the 21st century have divided a band’s fans as much as Daft Punk’s fourth studio album, Random Access Memories. While the reviews were largely positive, a significant swathe of the band’s fanbase wondered why they had swapped techno for soft rock. It took me years to come to peace with this beguiling, if confounding, album, until one day the refracted light came on and the pre-decimal penny dropped: Random Access Memories was the 21st century Dark Side of the Moon. And the 10th anniversary reissue of RAM, which arrives on 12 May (coincidentally less than two months after the 50th anniversary edition of Pink Floyd’s legendary eighth album) will help to prove it.The inflection point in my thinking was Horizon, a Japanese-edition bonus track on RAM, which is getting a full release as part of the album’s extravagant new triple-LP reissue. It is one of the least electronic songs ever to be released by a duo of electronic musicians: four a half minutes of horizontal space vibes, which stretch out on a base of acoustic guitar, soothing keyboard trills and Greg Leisz’s celestial pedal steel. The subtle shade of a drum machine aside, Horizon could pass for a long-lost Dark Side outtake. (It is no surprise that an enterprising music fan has created a mash up of Horizon with the vocal from Pink Floyd’s follow-up Wish You Were Here). Continue reading...
Kouri Richins allegedly poisoned her husband and the father of her three children, Eric, with fentanyl slipped into a drinkA Utah woman who recently published a children’s book on losing a parent has been charged with murdering her husband, the father of her three children.Kouri Richins, 33, of Kamas, Utah, a town outside Salt Lake City, allegedly poisoned her husband, Eric Richins, with a lethal dose of fentanyl slipped into a drink, according to authorities. Eric had five times the lethal dosage of fentanyl in his body when he died on 4 March 2022, investigators have said. Continue reading...
Trump’s former fixer is being sued by ex-president for allegedly spreading false information and breaching contractual obligationsDonald Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen on Monday asked a federal judge to dismiss a $500m lawsuit filed by the former president just weeks after Trump was indicted in New York over hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, contending that it was an unlawful effort to engage in witness intimidation.The motion argued the fact that Trump’s lawsuit only came when he was charged last month by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, instead of when Cohen first made the claims years before, suggested that Trump had sued him out of retribution. Cohen is expected to serve as the star witness for the prosecution at trial. Continue reading...
A dystopian-sounding new test threatens drivers with a ‘legal sleep limit’, but first we need to understand why a good night’s rest is impossible for someDo you have a strict bedtime? A sunrise-mimicking alarm clock? A vial of “sleep oil”? A white noise machine? A ban on screens past 10pm?We are, as a culture, obsessed with sleep. Not getting enough, not having the right kind; even sleeping too much. Study after study piles up to warn us that any of the above will give us cancer or dementia. And this week, a new punishment for failing to sleep well has appeared, in the form of the “sleepalyser” (not, admittedly, the official term): blood tests administered after a road accident in order to determine if you were under the “sleep limit”. Continue reading...
Texas lawmaker gave alcohol to intern, 19, and another young staffer, and had sex with intern when she was intoxicatedA Republican Texas state lawmaker who once proposed banning children from attending drag shows to supposedly shield them from being groomed for abuse has resigned after he was found to have engaged in inappopriate sexual conduct with a 19-year-old intern.Bryan Slaton, 45, resigned on Monday while facing mounting calls from the state’s Republican party and conservative groups to step down. A state house investigation last week determined that he supplied alcohol to the intern and another young staffer, had sex with the intern after she had become intoxicated, and later showed her a threatening email while saying everything would be fine if she kept quiet about the encounter.Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html. Continue reading...
Republicans are determined to link any increase in the ceiling with cuts to Biden’s signature climate legislationAmid warnings about looming fiscal catastrophe, the GOP is attempting to use Biden’s climate agenda as a bargaining chip over raising the debt ceiling – even if it could hurt Republican voters.Late last month, House Republicans narrowly passed speaker Kevin McCarthy’s proposal to raise the government’s debt ceiling in exchange for sweeping cuts to federal spending. Continue reading...
A Korean American family, a security guard and two young sisters are among those killed in Saturday attack near Dallas. Plus, how one man survived being struck by lightning
After a records request, the LAPD released the names and photos of 9,000 cops, including undercover officers in dangerous assignmentsThe Los Angeles police department has made many mistakes during its tumultuous history, but few may compete with an administrative error its own union officials are calling “a blunder that is just epic”: the inadvertent exposure of dozens of officers working undercover to investigate national security breaches, drug cartels and other dangerous criminal enterprises.The mistake arose when the city responded to a public records request by releasing the names, photographs and badge numbers of more than 9,000 officers – close to the entire force. The department assured the journalist who had fought and won a legal battle to obtain the records that “images of officers working in an undercover capacity … are not included”. Continue reading...
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