David Breaux would lend an ear to people over the years, asking for their insights into what compassion meansResidents of the California university town of Davis are mourning the loss of a man they say was known for spreading compassion and love to anyone he came across.David Breaux, dubbed “Compassion Guy” by his neighbors, was stabbed to death on the morning of 27 April on the same park bench he sat on for years, lending an ear and his heart to people who would talk with him. Continue reading...
Jurors shown tape of deposition taken before case came to court in which Trump dismissed ‘the most ridiculous, disgusting story’Donald Trump has described the accusation he raped the advice columnist E Jean Carroll as “ridiculous” in a deposition played to a New York jury on Wednesday.The former president also said he could not remember when he was married to his various wives, but could find out. Asked if he had affairs while married, Trump said: “I don’t know.” Continue reading...
The center’s season should go down as a validation of The Process, a breakthrough made sweeter by the Sixers remaining undefeated through the first two rounds of the NBA playoffsFor a good chunk of the 2010s it was an open question in the NBA as to whether Joel Embiid, who was crowned the league’s Most Valuable Player this week, was even worth the bother. For a solid three years the Philadelphia 76ers tempted fate while aggressively trying to lose games just to put themselves in position to land the freshman center with the third pick in the 2014 draft, effectively reinventing the practice now known as tanking. And when the Kansas product went on to miss his first two seasons because of a bum foot, hoops purists praised the basketball gods for serving the Sixers their just deserts.All the while general manager Sam Hinkie encouraged fans to “trust the process”. But they couldn’t help but wonder if Embiid, a master troll, was winding them up by only showing flashes of his great potential. Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal were most prominent among the critics who had dismissed the seven-footer as a “Tall Man”, the bad word for the big-man scorer who forgoes his obvious size advantage close to the basket to chuck away with abandon from beyond the three-point arc. Continue reading...
The former Olympic and world champion sprinter, Tori Bowie, has died at the age of 32, her management company confirmed on Wednesday.The American won three gold medals on the global stage. Her first came as part of the USA 4x100m relay team at the 2016 Olympics. 2017 was even more successful: she added another relay gold at the world championships in London and won individual gold in the 100m. Bowie won two other Olympic medals: a silver and bronze in the 100m and 200m respectively at Rio 2016.Born and raised in Mississippi, Bowie played basketball as a girl before her talent on the track became apparent when she won state titles in the 100m, 200m and long jump.
Stephanie Scott and supervisor Mark Nichols replaced by heavily Republican township in rebuke to extremismIn a rebuke to election denialism and extremism, a small, heavily Republican township in Michigan successfully recalled a clerk who has been accused of elevating election denialism and her ally on the township board. The outgoing clerk, Stephanie Scott, and township supervisor Mark Nichols were replaced by Suzy Roberts, a retired auto industry worker and Randy Johnson, who works in the local school district, respectively.Since 2020, Adams Township and the surrounding county of Hillsdale have become an unlikely focal point in Trump allies’ fruitless search for proof of fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Scott, the local clerk, was stripped of her election administration duties by the Michigan secretary of state after refusing to turn over voting equipment for regularly scheduled maintenance. State police later initiated an investigation when part of the voting machine went missing and again when Scott was accused of sharing confidential voter data with a third party. Continue reading...
Focus of Serial podcast had 1999 murder conviction overturned but judge in March reinstated conviction on procedural groundsThe case of Adnan Syed, which inspired the hit podcast Serial, took another turn on Tuesday when a Maryland appeals court denied a request to reconsider the reinstitution of his conviction and life sentence for murder.The case involves the 1999 murder of Syed’s high school girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, who was 18 when she was found strangled and buried in a Baltimore park. Syed was 17 at the time. Continue reading...
Jury selection proceeds in federal trial of Robert Bowers, accused of killing 11 people at Tree of Life synagogue in 2018The man charged in the deadliest attack on Jewish people in US history has lost another bid to get the death penalty removed as a possible punishment.Jury selection is under way in the federal trial of Robert Bowers, who is charged with 63 criminal counts in the killings of 11 people on 27 October 2018 at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, where three congregations gathered. Continue reading...
Allred, a rare Democratic congressman in Texas, says he has ‘taken down a lot tougher guys’ than Republican senatorThe far-right Republican Texas senator Ted Cruz will be challenged for his seat next year by Colin Allred, a former NFL linebacker who launched his campaign on Wednesday with a video referencing the January 6 attack on Congress by Trump supporters Cruz called “peaceful protesters”.“I’ve taken down a lot tougher guys than Ted Cruz,” Allred said. Continue reading...
Investigation also found three franchises in four states employed a total of 305 children working more than legally permitted hoursA US department of labor investigation uncovered child labor violations at three McDonald’s locations in Kentucky, which included finding two 10-year-olds working unpaid, sometimes until 2am.The three McDonald’s franchisees cited in the investigation own a total of 62 locations across Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland and Ohio, and were found to employ 305 children working more than legally permitted hours and performing job tasks prohibited by law for their age. Continue reading...
Companies’ shares plunge in London and New York after Chegg report that ChatGPT has hit revenuesThe artificial intelligence race is already producing losers. On Tuesday, education companies trading on the London and New York stock exchanges saw hundreds of millions wiped from their valuations after Chegg, a US firm that provides online help to students for writing and maths work, said ChatGPT was affecting customer growth.The firm said it had seen a “significant spike” in students using the technology, and withdrew its profits guidance for the rest of the year, warning revenues had already been hit. It shares almost halved in value. The ripples were felt in London, where education giant Pearson’s stock closed down 15%. Continue reading...
Florida governor has ‘lavished the industry with favors and benefits while everyday Floridians suffer’, key report saysRon DeSantis, the rightwing Republican governor of Florida and a likely 2024 presidential candidate, has handed favors to his big-money donors in the insurance industry at the expense of cash-strapped residents of his state, a new report claims.The report, “How Ron DeSantis sold out Florida homeowners”, draws on contributions from the American Federation of Teachers union, the non-profit Center for Popular Democracy, the voting rights group Florida Rising and the dark money watchdog Hedge Clippers. Continue reading...
Pornhub says law that requires websites to verify users’ ages with ID raises privacy concerns and puts ‘children at risk’Blocked from one of the most popular internet pornography platforms, residents in Utah, one of the most socially US conservative states, have been searching for workarounds.MindGeek, which runs Pornhub, cut access to its content in Utah on Tuesday, in protest of a state law that requires websites to verify users’ ages with government-issued ID. Pornhub said the law was ineffective, raised privacy concerns and “put … children at risk”. Continue reading...
Yes, there are sobering risks, but also potential for huge advances. We need to agree some global rules of the gameAI tools like ChatGPT are everywhere. It is the combination of computational power and availability of data that has led to a surge in AI technology, but the reason models such as ChatGPT and Bard have made such a spectacular splash is that they have hit our own homes, with around 100 million people currently using them.This has led to a very fraught public debate. It is predicted that a quarter of all jobs will be affected one way or another by AI and some companies are holding back on recruitment to see which jobs can be automated. Fears about AI can move markets, as we saw yesterday when Pearson shares tumbled over concerns that AI would disrupt its business. And, looming above the day-to-day debate are the sometimes apocalyptic warnings about the long-term dangers of AI technologies – often from loud and arguably authoritative voices belonging to executives and researchers who developed these technologies.Ivana Bartoletti is a privacy and data protection professional, visiting cybersecurity and privacy fellow at Virginia Tech and founder of the Women Leading in AI Network Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Helena, Montana on (#6BDAC)
District court judge says it is outside his authority to overrule Republicans who silenced Democrat Zooey ZephyrZooey Zephyr, the transgender state lawmaker silenced after telling Republicans they would have blood on their hands for opposing gender-affirming healthcare for kids, was barred from returning to the Montana house floor in a Tuesday court ruling hours before the legislature wrapped up its biennial session.A district court judge, Mike Menahan, said it was outside his authority to overrule lawmakers who voted last week to exclude Zephyr from the house floor and debates. He cited the importance of preserving the separation of powers between the legislative, executive and judicial branches. Continue reading...
Trauma specialist Dr Leslie Lebowitz likely to explain advice columnist’s behaviour during and after alleged attackA clinical psychologist, Dr Leslie Lebowitz, was expected to tell a New York jury on Wednesday about the harm caused by Donald Trump’s alleged rape of the advice columnist E Jean Carroll.Lebowitz, a trauma specialist, was also called to explain aspects of Carroll’s behaviour during and after the alleged 1996 attack, including her failure to scream or call the police, that Trump’s lawyers have attempted to portray as evidence she fabricated the incident. Continue reading...
Studio profits have increased by 39% over the past 10 years – yet the average writer’s salary has gone down by 4%On Tuesday, the Writers Guild of America, or WGA, was forced to go on strike. The reason is, as always, economic. The major Hollywood studios have changed their business model from broadcast to streaming. Once we watched our favorite TV shows by satellite dish; now we watch them over the internet. It doesn’t really change the work, however.The studios are, of course, entitled to change their business model. Their goal is to maximize profits – and they’re doing a great job of it. The resulting change has increased studio profits by 39% over the past 10 years. Yet in that same time period, the average writer’s salary has gone down 4%. The pie has gotten larger, but writers’ share of that pie has significantly decreased. Ultimately, the way screenwriters are compensated for their work needs to be updated: we’re being paid according to the old business model, not the new. Continue reading...
With the queen gone, Charles faces an uphill battle to convince a struggling public this is all still worth it“King Charles III” does not roll off the tongue. Almost eight months after he became monarch, and on the eve of his coronation, it still seems difficult to utter this title in full acceptance and seriousness. But of course, it is very serious. It is bank holiday, Westminster Abbey, 1,000-years-of-history, many-millions-of-taxpayers’-money serious. Although we are reminded that this is a less lavish coronation than Elizabeth II’s, it occurs amid dire economic circumstances, of which ordinary people are bearing the brunt. They may be feeling compelled to ask: “Is it worth it?”Admittedly, the queen was a tough act to follow. There she was, a constant powdery fixture, waving and smiling when appropriate, addressing the nation from one mansion or another when required, brightly adorned in colourful, near-fluorescent hues as if to prevent us from forgetting her existence. Her head was on the money in crowned profile. We were aware of her every time we used a cash machine, this white-haired great-grandmother dutifully serving in luxury at the expense of the very note you have just extracted from said cash machine, not to mention the financial legacies of empire and colonialism. The morality of the arrangement was always dubious, but the staid undeniability of tea and the queen as two tenets of Britishness endured – sweet, mild, harmless, even while associated with some of the unresolved crimes of history.Diana Evans is the author of A House for Alice and Ordinary People Continue reading...
Single-use e-cigarettes send tonnes of valuable lithium to landfill in the UK. Why not ban them, as Australia did?Take a walk down any busy street, and you’re bound to find dozens of candy-coloured plastic cylinders littering the ground. Millions of these disposable vapes are now thrown away every month in the UK. And hidden inside each one is a lithium battery – made of a material crucial for the transition to renewables.Last month, I found myself buying an Elf Bar disposable vape on a night out. I try not to make a habit of vaping, but it feels far too easy to pick one up when they’re eyecatchingly displayed right next to the chewing gum in every corner shop. For weeks, the vape lay next to my bin. I knew I had to recycle it, but how do you actually go about doing that? I soon found myself falling down a blueberry smoke-filled rabbit hole.Emma Snaith is deputy audience editor at the Guardian. Continue reading...
The world is becoming more dangerous for journalists. On this World Press Freedom Day, there are ways to helpJodie Ginsberg remembers an important lesson from her decade as a Reuters foreign correspondent and bureau chief: there simply is no substitute for being at the scene.“The first and most important source is what journalists see in front of them – their ability to give a firsthand, eyewitness account,” says Ginsberg, now the president of Committee to Protect Journalists, the non-profit advocacy organization based in New York City. Continue reading...
Exclusive: three years after the murder, the Minnesota congresswoman talks prison abuse and her new police violence resolutionCongresswoman Ilhan Omar condemned the United States’ failure to curb police violence, saying in an interview with the Guardian that brutality against Black Americans had escalated since George Floyd’s murder.“Regardless of the heightened scrutiny and spotlight on state-sanctioned violence onto Black bodies, it still continues to happen at the same rate, if not higher,” the Democratic representative said on Tuesday. “We are not in a good place.” Continue reading...
US audiences will be sold a tale of horses battling for glory and adulation at Churchill Downs. But the actual story is far more disturbingFor a horse, winning means nothing – they don’t even understand the concept. Yet every May US horse racing sells a narrative to draw in the public. The story goes that a group of young horses are locked in gritty pursuit of Triple Crown glory. But trophies, money and adulation are all human-made abstractions. The main concern for a horse is survival.To be clear, what people think horses’ feel is not the same as what the horses themselves experience. This is what Dr Stephen Peters, a neuroscientist known for his work with both humans and horses, calls anthropomorphism: attributing human characteristics to an animal.Elizabeth Banicki worked for two decades as an exercise rider in the horse racing industry. Continue reading...
Romanticising survival distracts from the need for radical change. Strength alone can’t overcome pay gaps, gendered harassment or protect victims of violenceI’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen or heard women lauded for their strength whenever they are recognised for anything outstanding. Critics argue that there’s nothing wrong with this – after all, it is evidence of women’s hard work. However, there is no evidence, historical or otherwise, that shows women not working hard.History is a litany of hardworking, strong, audacious women whose impact was limited because their strength could only get them so far. Women aren’t working hard, being strong or audacious in a vacuum. Women continue to be strong in a world where they consistently have fewer resources, less power and less influence than men. Continue reading...
Police had launched a four-day manhunt for Francisco Oropeza, who is accused of shooting his neighbors after a noise complaintThe Texas man accused of killing five of his neighbors in the rural town of Cleveland last week was arrested Tuesday after a four-day manhunt, authorities said.Greg Capers, the San Jacinto county sheriff, said that Francisco Oropeza, 38, was arrested less than 20 miles (32km) from Cleveland. Law enforcement arrested him about an hour after someone called the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s tip line, according to Jimmy Paul, assistant special agent in charge with the FBI’s Houston division. Continue reading...
Ukraine president says Discord server leaks were ‘not beneficial’ to the reputation of the US but still values Washington’s support for KyivUkrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the White House did not advise him about the leak of highly classified US intelligence documents that received widespread attention around the world last month.“I did not receive information from the White House or the Pentagon beforehand,” Zelenskiy was quoted as saying in an interview with the Washington Post published on Tuesday. Continue reading...
Officials are bracing for the end of Title 42, which allows the US to expel non-Mexican migrants without the chance to seek asylumJoe Biden will send 1,500 troops to the US-Mexico border, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, in preparation for a possible rise in immigration when Covid-19 border restrictions lift later this month.The 90-day deployment of active-duty troops will supplement the work of the US border patrol but will not carry out law enforcement duties, said Brig Gen Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesperson, in a statement. Continue reading...
Police chief denounces ‘violent and brazen attacks’ as student, 20, and unhoused 50-year-old man killedA northern California university town is on edge after a series of “violent and brazen” attacks in which three people were stabbed within a week – two fatally.Authorities said they could not reveal whether they are searching for one or multiple suspects in the attacks, which began late last week. One of the victims who died was unhoused, and the other who died was a college student. In the most recent attack, an unhoused woman was injured after reportedly being knifed several times through her tent. Continue reading...
Democrats accuse top US court of ‘lowest ethical standards’ but Republicans say criticism of Gorsuch and Thomas is unfoundedArguing that the US supreme court has “the lowest ethical standards” of any court in the country, Senate Democrats on Tuesday demanded tighter rules on the nine justices but ran into resistance from Republicans who accused them of being bitter over recent conservative rulings.Democrats had convened a hearing of the Senate judiciary committee after a series of media reports on entanglements between two of the court’s conservative justices and parties with interests in its cases. These includes Clarence Thomas’s acceptance of luxury travel and a real estate deal from Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow, and Neil Gorsuch’s sale of a property to a law firm executive with business before the court. Both were interactions the two justices did not fully disclose. Continue reading...
Lisa Birnbach testifies that Carroll called her and described the incident in 1996, and that she told her friend ‘E Jean, he raped you’A close friend of E Jean Carroll has told a New York jury she received a distressed call from the advice columnist within minutes of Donald Trump allegedly raping her.Lisa Birnbach testified at Carroll’s civil action against the former president on Tuesday that she was feeding her children at home when Carroll called “breathless, hyperventilating, emotional” in spring 1996.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...
After initial speculation of random violence, focus shifts to alleged drug use and interpersonal feudsOne month after Cash App founder Bob Lee was found stabbed on the streets of San Francisco, his alleged killer will appear in court.Nima Momeni, a 38-year-old tech entrepreneur who reportedly knew Lee personally, will be arraigned on murder charges in San Francisco on Tuesday in a case that has riveted the tech world and sparked debate over crime in the California city. Continue reading...
Historical records indicate dozens of people may have been buried at site now in waters west of Key West, officials sayArcheologists have found the remains of a 19th-century quarantine hospital and cemetery on a submerged island in the Dry Tortugas national park, off Florida in the Gulf of Mexico.While only one grave has been identified, historical records indicate dozens of people – mostly US soldiers stationed at Fort Jefferson – may have been buried at the site now in waters west of Key West, Florida, park officials said. Continue reading...
Hemphill ‘did not pursue’ Nichols and ‘was not present for the later beating incident’, says Shelby county DA’s spokespersonThe former Memphis police officer Preston Hemphill will not be charged over the killing of Tyre Nichols, who was beaten to death by five officers in January.In a statement on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Shelby county district attorney, Steve Mulroy, said Hemphill “did not pursue Tyre Nichols and never left the initial scene” of the traffic stop which preceded the beating, but “was not present for the later beating incident”. Continue reading...
Police say Republican congressman insisted on pressing charges after Selena Jo Chambers, 41, accused over Saturday night eventA Florida woman faces two charges of battery – one a felony – after allegedly throwing a drink at the far-right Republican congressman Matt Gaetz.The Walton county sheriff reportedly said Gaetz insisted on pressing charges. Gaetz maintained he was justified in doing so, saying 41-year-old Selena Jo Chambers “cross[ed] the Rubicon beyond just words to throwing stuff”. Continue reading...
Company’s shares fall 15% after Chegg says ChatGPT is affecting subscriber numbersAlmost £1bn has been wiped off the stock market value of the digital learning company Pearson after a US rival admitted that the rise of artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT is hurting its business.Jittery investors sent Pearson’s shares down more than 15%, making it the biggest faller among London-listed companies on Tuesday, after the California-based online learning service Chegg reported a 5% drop in subscribers and pulled its full-year guidance. Continue reading...
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says the California Democratic senator should retire, amid a long absence from Congress due to ill healthThe New York progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on Monday that the California Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein should retire, amid a long absence from Congress due to ill health which has affected their party’s efforts to stock federal courts with liberal judges.Feinstein, 89, “should retire”, Ocasio-Cortez – 33 and commonly known as AOC – wrote on the social media platform Bluesky. Continue reading...
by Kalyeena Makortoff Banking correspondent on (#6BCBV)
Jamie Dimon says this phase of bank collapses is over, but ‘other cracks in the system’ could still be revealedFresh from the rescue of First Republic, the latest US regional bank to go under, JP Morgan’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, has been talking down the threat of contagion.He claims the domino effect that started with Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse and was quickly followed by Signature Bank, Credit Suisse, and now First Republic, is coming to an end. “There may be another smaller one, but this pretty much resolves them all,” Dimon told analysts on Monday. “This part of the crisis is over.” Continue reading...
Federal complaint alleges Jackie Little, who had a ‘known history of arson or suspect arson’, started fires at two mosquesUS authorities have arrested a man accused of setting fires at two Minneapolis mosques last week and charged him with arson, an act that the city’s police chief described as a “hate crime” aimed at instilling fear in the local Muslim community.A federal complaint alleged that Jackie Little, 36, entered the Masjid Omar Islamic Center on 23 April wearing a black jacket, blue jeans and a blue medical mask and lit a cardboard box on fire in the center’s second-floor bathroom. An employee reportedly chased Little out of the location. Continue reading...
With its voter ID ruse and a bid to capture the civil service, the government is emulating US Republicans’ winner-takes-all populismAny competition with a prize worth having attracts cheats. That is as true of politics as it is of sport. Whether cheats prosper depends on a combination of regulation and culture. There must be rules, enforced by independent institutions, but also an ethos of honouring the rules, policed by conscience.The introduction of mandatory voter ID for local elections in England this week is doubly insidious because it smuggles dishonourable intent in a measure purporting to strengthen the rules.Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnistRafael Behr will discuss his new book, Politics: A Survivor’s Guide, at a Guardian Live event on Monday 12 June. The event will be live in London and livestreamed. Book tickets here Continue reading...
Mohamed Khairullah, mayor of a New Jersey town, says he’s on list ‘that has targeted me because of my identity’The US Secret Service denied security clearance for Mohamed Khairullah, the longest-serving Muslim mayor in New Jersey, and prevented him from attending a White House Eid al-Fitr event on Monday afternoon marking the end of Ramadan.Khairullah, who was critical of the Trump administration’s travel ban in 2017 that restricted entry to the United States from several predominantly Muslim countries, received the call from the Secret Service while he was en route to the White House. President Joe Biden revoked that ban in 2021. Continue reading...
World Cup and Olympic champion will compete in multi-city professional event climaxing in Washington DC in AugustThe World Cup and Olympic gold-winning New Zealand winger Ruby Tui will play in the US this summer in Premier Rugby Sevens (PR7s), a multi-tournament competition in which men’s and women’s teams compete for one trophy.Announcing the move, Tui said: “I’ve been a massive fan of Premier Rugby Sevens and what they’ve done for women’s rugby since they formed in 2021 in the United States.” Continue reading...
The list of things he derided included #MeToo, fat women, gay marriage and immigrantsThe theme for this year’s Met Gala wasn’t a concept; it was a person. But the organizers’ departure from their usual theming convention wasn’t the most controversial thing about the night.The real issue is that Karl Lagerfeld, the man they’ve chosen to honor, was also notoriously fatphobic, anti-immigrant, possibly homophobic and, many would say – despite his slew of famous muses – low-key misogynistic. Continue reading...
Greg Abbott rows back on ‘inhumane’ remarks amid barrage of criticism after shooting that killed five, including a childAfter a barrage of public criticism from immigration advocates, Latino state lawmakers and Congress members, Texas’s Republican governor Greg Abbott has backtracked from controversial remarks he made referring to the victims of a recent mass murder as “illegal immigrants”.“Any loss of life is a tragedy, and our hearts go out to the families who have lost a loved one,” Renae Eze, a spokesperson for Abbott, told ABC News in a statement about those slain in a shooting in Cleveland, Texas, on Friday night. “Federal officials provided the state of Texas information on the criminal and the victims, including that they were in the country illegally. We’ve since learned that at least one of the victims may have been in the United States legally.” Continue reading...
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