Homicides spike in the summer, and large gatherings with a lot of people - and alcohol thrown in - can see gun violenceGun violence is a daily reality across the US, but an emerging body of research indicates the most risky day for mass shootings in the nation is the Fourth of July, when Americans celebrate their independence from Britain.Using data from the Gun Violence Archive, James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University, found that there have been 52 mass shootings on the Fourth of July over the past decade, averaging just over five a year, and more than on any other given day. Continue reading...
The state was one of a few to secure a Democratic trifecta in 2022, and since then has passed abortion rights along with voting rights and democracy reform legislationOn 1 June, in front of a gaggle of press, Kevin Reese signed his voter registration papers - a possibility that felt remote for the more than 14 years he spent locked up inside of Minnesota correctional facilities.In prison, Reese thought constantly about what it would mean to leave. He formed a group that met weekly to talk about what it would take to get out and not only be OK, but to transcend and be able to live our dreams". The men talked about the responsibilities that awaited outside: children, parole, taxes. In 2013, Reese said, they began to focus on one concern in particular: voting, and restoring the right to vote to other formerly incarcerated Minnesotans. Continue reading...
Striking employees, who accuse the hotels of cutting staff levels and increasing workloads, want an immediate $5 hourly raiseThousands of southern California hotel workers have gone on strike over the holiday weekend, pushing for better wages in one of the most expensive metro areas in the US.About 15,000 cleaners, cooks, cloakroom attendants, front desk agents, bellmen, servers and dishwashers were picketing across Los Angeles and Orange counties. During one of the busiest tourist weekends in the region, workers are demanding wage increases amid a spiraling cost-of-living crisis in the region. Continue reading...
Baseball's pace-of-play rules have made for quicker games than in recent memory. But they'll be hard-pressed to approach the all-time record set by the Giants and Phillies in 1919No matter how many rules Major League Baseball adds to speed up play, it is safe to say that no two teams will ever be able to beat the record for the fastest nine-inning game in big-league history: 51 minutes. Not one hour and 51 minutes. Fifty-one minutes.On 28 September 1919, five days before the Cincinnati Reds met the Chicago White Sox in an infamous World Series tattered by gambling, the New York Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-1, in New York in the first game of a doubleheader - in 51 minutes. Continue reading...
My father was so upset at having a girl he refused to visit me in hospital. He later changed his mind, but such attitudes keep women uneducated and limited to housework and care dutiesMy father didn't come to the hospital when I was born. I discovered this later in life. In Kyrgyzstan, parents often wish for sons. When a girl is born first, it is no problem - a son is still likely to come. When the second child also turns out to be a girl, the family begins to worry. And to pray.They might sacrifice a ram, study eastern calendars to work out which days are good for conception. God forbid if the third child turns out to be a girl. This would now be a serious problem.Gulbarchyn Toialieva has worked for 15 years on peace building and conflict prevention and is the founder of the non-governmental organisation Zhalyn. Her foundation was established in response to the growing restrictions on the rights of young people and women Continue reading...
Amid the supreme-court rulings and the gun violence, there have been some heartening developments - and a call to actionIt's been a grim week or so in the United States, especially for those with progressive values.In Baltimore, a deadly mass shooting underscored, again, how desperately gun reform is needed, and, tragically, how unlikely it is to happen.Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...
Suspect in custody after shooting, with at least two juveniles said to be among the victimsFour people have been killed and four others injured in a shooting in Philadelphia, and a suspect has been taken into custody, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, citing local police.A spokesperson for the Philadelphia police department confirmed to Reuters by email there were multiple gunshot victims" but said no further details were immediately available. Continue reading...
Donald Felix Zampach collected over $830,000 in his mother's social security and military retirement paymentsA California man has pleaded guilty to hiding his mother's death for more than three decades while he collected her social security and military retirement payments, a scheme the US attorney said is believed to be the longest-running and largest fraud of its kind in the district.Donald Felix Zampach of Poway, about 20 miles north of San Diego, collected over $830,000 of public funds and nearly $30,000 in fraudulently opened credit cards over the course of three decades, US attorney Randy Grossman said last week. Continue reading...
Former president made comments in 2016 days before election he won, and predicted Hillary Clinton would face criminal trialThe election of a president under indictment and facing criminal trial would create an unprecedented constitutional crisis" and cripple the operations of government", Donald Trump said.But the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, who faces 71 criminal counts in state and federal cases and is expected to face more, was not speaking about himself - or speaking this year. Continue reading...
Applicants are facing the brunt of pandemic-related staffing issues and the agency flooded with a record 500,000 applications a weekSeeking a valid US passport for that 2023 trip? Buckle up, wishful traveler, for a very different journey before you venture to the airport.A much-feared backup of US passport applications has hit a wall of government bureaucracy as worldwide post-pandemic travel rebounds - with too few humans to handle the load. Continue reading...
We have dismissed the riots as trivial, just like we did in England in 2011. It's finally time to ask: why do the protesters feel so powerless?If you followed the French riots via much of the British media, you'd think the entire country was on fire, but also that the riots weren't about anything. We have a knack for making civil unrest sound completely massive yet utterly trivial, a threat to civilisation and yet, at the same time, entirely powered by TikTok. The Foreign Office never went so far as to advise against travel to France, merely noting that there were riots, and that you should stay away from rioters. But even if it had, I would just have assumed the civil servants had spent too much time listening to Radio 4.Mr Z and I have just had a few days in France. The first night in Paris, we saw nothing except some broken glass. A barmaid described in granular detail where the riots had been the night before, but it didn't sound at all like a warning, more like a tour guide disappointed that you'd missed the northern lights. On the second day, we unintentionally passed through Marseille, having missed a train going elsewhere. The superiority of French trains is so pronounced it has become unmentionable, like having a sibling who is much more intelligent than you. Don't think about it - it'll just make you sad. But seriously, the train we missed was going a distance equivalent to London to Inverness. If we'd missed that at home, we wouldn't have arrived for another four days. To get the most out of this experience, I need to miss more trains," was my take-home, and I did take it home because we also missed the train back. Anyway, Marseille: no riots, but it was daytime.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
by Gloria Oladipo in New York and agency on (#6CP4B)
Phoenix expected to hit 116F (46C) on Monday as thunderstorms also likely across US for Fourth of July holidayMillions across the US have been caught up in dangerous weather conditions over the weekend and are braced for further extreme conditions ahead of the 4 July holiday, as thunderstorms and intense heat continue to affect much of the country.As of Monday, 36m people are under excessive heat warnings in the US, particularly in the south and western areas, reported ABC News. Record high temperatures in some places will likely remain as many gear up to celebrate the Independence Day holiday on Tuesday. Continue reading...
There's value in online communities - but how do we walk the line between commiseration and doxxing?For those suspicious that their partner might be doing the dirty, there are hundreds of Do We Have The Same Boyfriend" Facebook groups across Australia and New Zealand. The premise is this: people - mostly women - can request to join to post details about the person they're dating to check if they're simultaneously dating anyone else in the group.Once inside, you can find a mix of bad dating stories (can relate), memes, and screenshots of cringeworthy dating app conversations. In the comments, things often get spicy. Across TikTok, users laugh about how the pages are more entertaining than reality TV. Continue reading...
Growing number of judges blocking laws passed by conservative politicians from taking effect on 14th-amendment groundsIn state after state, conservative lawmakers this year have banned medical treatment designed for transgender youth dealing with changes in their gender identity. Now, a growing number of federal judges are blocking those laws from taking effect.US district court judges have halted such laws in six states so far - Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee - finding that they infringe on the constitutional guarantee to equal protection under the 14th amendment to the US constitution. Continue reading...
We don't know the motive for the president's retention of files at Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster, but let's not rule out stupidityThere are many surreal revelations in Jack Smith's federal indictment of Donald Trump. There are the texts between various Trump underlings and Walt Nauta, the Trump body man who has also been indicted, showing the president directing his employees to move the boxes containing classified information back and forth to various locations around his properties in Palm Beach and Bedminster, New Jersey. There is the annoyed missive from Trump's wife Melania, trying to make sure the boxes don't crowd out room for her luggage on a private plane. There is the claim from Trump's former attorney, compelled to testify against him in an unusual arrangement, that the former president suggested, with a Grinch-like pinching gesture, that the lawyer destroy confidential documents to prevent them from being produced in a subpoena. There is a text message Nauta sent to another Trump underling, showing a box having fallen over in a storage room at Mar-a-Lago, secret documents spilling on to the floor - whoops.What there is not, conspicuously, is a motive. Over the course of more than a year following his departure from office, it appears that Trump spent considerable effort and resources in transporting the documents with him and keeping them near at hand - and that later, as the federal government began to demand the boxes back, that he then went out of his way to keep and conceal them, going to great length, sparing no expense, and ultimately breaking the law so much that he incurred himself a series of felony charges. Anyone can tell you how this behavior is typical of Trump: how it reflects his pettiness, his contempt for the law, his willingness to sacrifice and endanger others. What no one can tell you is why he did it.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
Developer of North Carolina neighborhood for homeowners 55 and older says his brand only the beginning' of a movement'The 17 June groundbreaking of a future suburban neighborhood in Gastonia, North Carolina, had all the trappings of a campaign rally. Brock Fankhauser, the real estate developer of 1776 Gastonia, waved to onlookers from the open top of a sport-utility vehicle; his wife, Nicole, was by his side, wearing a cowboy hat and matching T-shirt with the development's namesake year, referring to the American Revolution.Video footage of the event shows a crane dangling a giant US flag over the site where 43 lots are for sale. Parcels range from $17,500 to $75,000 for land, and homes cost $410,000 and up in this city 20 miles from Charlotte. A young girl rode a horse down a newly paved street flanked by American flags. She gripped the saddle with one hand; in the other, a giant flag. Her sandy blonde hair flowed in rhythm with the Stars and Stripes. Continue reading...
Congresswoman's comments come days after nation's highest court released batch of incendiary and far-reaching rulings. Plus, what's causing the shortage of sriracha?
by Stephanie Kirchgaessnerin Washington DC on (#6CNX5)
Then a professor at Notre Dame, the supreme court justice was on a board that selected Jon Balsbaugh to head the Trinity SchoolsA senior administrator of Christian private schools closely linked to People of Praise, conservative supreme court justice Amy Coney Barrett's controversial faith group, abruptly resigned from his post earlier this year following complaints that allegations of teacher misconduct had been mishandled.Jon Balsbaugh, an influential figure within the Christian education movement, was appointed president of Trinity Schools in February 2017, after being selected by a board of trustees that included Barrett, who was a professor at Notre Dame at the time. Continue reading...
City opens cooling centers to help residents fend off disrespectful' hot spell that has settled in region for past two weeksAfter service ended at the New Philippians Missionary Baptist church in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans on Sunday, the church kept its doors open for people from the neighborhood who needed a break from the heat.A heat dome of high pressure has been hovering over Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma creating dangerously hot weather for nearly two weeks. On Sunday, heat index values threatened to hit 110F in New Orleans, according to the National Weather Service. Continue reading...
Republicans failed to defend a fringe legal theory, but they are already pushing through new state election legislationThe US supreme court ruled in favor of North Carolina voting rights groups last week, which celebrated with one breath and with the next condemned the new election laws and political maps being pushed by the state's Republican-controlled legislature.We are still in a five-alarm fire here in North Carolina," said Gino Nuzzolillo, campaign manager for the state's Common Cause branch, which was one of the plaintiffs that won in the case the supreme court ruled on. Continue reading...
A New Zealand native was the surprise winner as Nascar celebrated its 75th season on a soggy Sunday evening with the Grant Park 220 through downtown Chicago, the American stock-car circuit's first ever street race Continue reading...
Light a candle, wear matching pyjamas, go to bed early. Why has tedium become an aspiration for so many young people?In sections of the internet populated by under-30s, one piece of advice has become common: romanticise your life. Take the good things you have and view them more positively - while also, at the same time, making changes to your living situation that will get you closer to the life of your dreams.On Instagram, you will find millions of posts from (mostly) young women saying how all their problems were solved by following this guidance. On TikTok, videos on the subject have more than 1.4bn views. In these clips, though, you won't find advice on how to live a life that is exciting and fulfilling, or punctuated by surprise, newness and glamour. Instead, you will find millions of young people describing an ideal life that is overwhelmingly dull, fundamentally rooted in living each day the same, and following a narrow, regimented routine.Sarah Manavis is a US writer covering technology, culture, and society
Ro Khanna of California said he will support another relief plan that Joe Biden is proposing under the Higher Education ActThe US supreme court's decision to strike down Joe Biden's student debt forgiveness plan late last week usurped the authority of Congress", Democratic House representative Ro Khanna said on Sunday.Khanna, of California, argued that if anyone thought Biden was unduly empowered by the legislation which the president used to issue the debt relief program, then the solution is Congress can repeal the ... act". Continue reading...
Former New Jersey governor speaks out after bizarre video from Florida's governor and juvenile' nicknames from the ex-presidentAn escalating feud between the two main rivals for the Republican presidential nomination is akin to a teenage food fight", another challenger, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, said on Sunday.He made the comment after the campaign of Ron DeSantis, the rightwing Florida governor who has slipped in the polls to Donald Trump, released a homophobic" video attacking the former president for his previous support of the LGBTQ+ community. Continue reading...
Yellen heads to Beijing this week in move one expert calls an attempt to put some floor' under strained economic tiesUS Treasury secretary Janet Yellen will visit Beijing this week, marking the second trip by a cabinet official to China since ties between the world's top two economies deteriorated earlier this year.Yellen is expected to discuss with her counterparts the importance for both countries to responsibly manage our relationship, communicate directly about areas of concern, and work together to address global challenges", said the Treasury Department in a statement on Sunday. Continue reading...
The majority of the extremely powerful illegal opioid entering the US is manufactured in Mexico using Chinese precursorsDrug Enforcement Administration administrator Anne Milgram has called for further cooperation from China and Mexico in the fight against the US's fentanyl crisis.In an interview with Chuck Todd, the host of NBC's Meet the Press, on Sunday, Milgram said that despite the DEA standing ready to work with anyone who will work with us", the US has not had the cooperation that we want to have" from China, adding that the Mexican government also needs to do more". Continue reading...
As the tourist season is taking off, workers walked off the job at more than 60 hotels for higher pay and better benefitsThousands of hotel workers in southern California walked off the job on Sunday, as the Fourth of July extended holiday weekend begins, demanding higher pay and better benefits in what their union is calling the largest strike in its history.Cooks, room attendants, dishwashers, servers, bellmen and front desk agents at hotels were picketing outside major hotels in Los Angeles and Orange counties just as the summer tourist season is ramping up. Continue reading...
Bus with 41 people, including 11 children who were with families, was welcomed by collective of faith and immigrants' rights groupsAnother bus carrying asylum seekers arrived in downtown Los Angeles from a Texas border city early on Saturday, the second such transport in less than three weeks.The bus, which arrived at about 12.40pm at Los Angeles's Union Station from Brownsville, Texas, held 41 people including 11 children who were with their families, according to a statement from the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles (Chirla). Continue reading...
Two adults killed and 28 wounded, about half of them children, police say as they search for more than one shooter'Two people have been killed and 28 wounded, about half of them children, in a mass shooting in Baltimore, police have said.The Baltimore police department's acting commissioner, Richard Worley, confirmed there were a total of 30 victims during a press conference at the scene on Sunday afternoon. Among the 28 injured were an estimated 14 who were under the age of 18, said Worley, noting that police were still trying to confirm victims' ages. Continue reading...
President Nayib Bukele's hardline campaign against gangs has won admirers at home and abroad. Look closer and its flaws are glaringJailing 2% of your adult citizens turns out to be a surprisingly popular move, both at home and abroad. In El Salvador, the president, Nayib Bukele, has sent almost 70,000 people to prison in an iron fist" crackdown on gangs, under a state of exception" he imposed last March and has yet to lift.Despite the suspension of basic liberties, due process and other human rights infringements, it is fast becoming a model for other nearby countries in the region. Honduras has launched a similar crackdown, after the gang-related massacre of 46 female prisoners. Other governments are considering it. In Guatemala, people have held pro-Bukele marches. Copy it, as simple as that," a mayor in Ecuador remarked of El Salvador's tactics after a bomb attack in her city. Continue reading...
Congresswoman's comments come days after nation's highest court released batch of incendiary and far-reaching rulingsThe conservative supreme court is creeping dangerously towards authoritarianism", the Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on Sunday, raising again the unlikely scenario of impeaching justices for recent actions.Her comments came just days after the nation's highest court released a batch of incendiary and far-reaching rulings striking down affirmative action in colleges, LBGTQ+ rights and Joe Biden's student loan relief program. Continue reading...
White House says US president's visit will further strengthen the close relationship between our nations'The US president, Joe Biden, is to meet the king in Windsor and Rishi Sunak in London when he visits the UK in the second week of July.Biden will make the long-expected visit as he travels to Vilnius in Lithuania for a Nato summit and then to Finland for a US-Nordic leaders conference. Continue reading...
Two people have been killed and 28 wounded in a mass shooting in Baltimore, including three who are in critical condition, police have said.The Baltimore mayor, Brandon Scott, said at the scene: 'We will not stop until we find you, and we will find you'Richard Worley, the Baltimore police department acting commissioner, confirmed during a press conference that there were a total of 30 victims. Police said they were still looking for the shooter
What's often overlooked in the treatment of mental illness is the neglect of your body, and its need to be cared for and soothedWhen a manic episode is brewing, before any thoughts get really strange, my body tells me what's just around the corner.Colours become hypersaturated and video-game like, often pulsating with intensity. Sounds are amplified, as if you've developed superhuman abilities. I'll feel a growing pressure in my head and my vision becomes very sharp; I can see a lizard in a bush 15 metres away, no worries. Continue reading...
It feels like we have no choice but to keep grinding - but the anti-work movement looks heroic in the face of burnout and climate catastropheThere is something pleasing about the story of the Italian teacher Cinzia Paolina De Lio, who was recently dismissed for being off work, in one way or another, for 20 years during her 24-year period of employment. De Lio is appealing, but probably didn't do herself any favours by reportedly telling local media: Sorry, but right now I'm at the beach."She joins the ranks of anti-work heroes, including the Spanish phantom functionary" who was claimed to have pulled a six-year sickie or the Italian hospital worker who reportedly skipped work entirely for 15 years. Those are the headlines; the stories behind them are likely to be more nuanced and probably sadder. Absenteeism is rarely an act of pure audacity or a principled philosophical stand. The individuals involved all disputed their employers' accounts. But what's interesting is how much we like hearing about them anyway. Continue reading...
Border agents promise better chance of asylum for those agreeing to go to Mexico and apply there, then strands them with no accessBorder agents are promising some Venezuelan asylum seekers a greater chance to stay in the US if they agree to first return to Mexico and make appointments to re-enter from there - or otherwise be deported - but then the migrants are flown to the Mexican interior and stranded there without any way to access the US asylum system, immigration advocates have warned.People report being pressured by American federal agents into signing up for the arrangement, called voluntary return" which involves a choice between going back across the US-Mexico border or to the countries they originally fled, with the US government employing a kind of stick and carrot approach, as they seek to deal with fewer people in the US immigration system. The stick" is being threatened with deportation and related consequences such as a five-year ban on returning to the US, unless they agree to leave - before they go through the interview that screens for a credible fear of going home. And the carrot" is asylum seekers being told they will have a better chance of being granted refuge if they try again through a specific Biden administration-approved process from another country. Continue reading...
For decades, these Los Angeles streets have played host to key events in LGBTQ+ history. But gentrification has transformed the areaWe are driving up an almost vertical hill in a hip Los Angeles neighborhood, looking for one of the birthplaces of the gay civil rights movement. At the wheel is Roland Palencia, a gay activist who has lived and organized here for decades.The Silver Lake Reservoir shines behind us, the hills around it crowded with bungalows. Silver Lake was once a Bohemian retreat, a neighborhood for artists and activists, and even, in the 40s and 50s, Communist party members. Now it's impossible to buy the tiniest shack here for less than a million dollars. Continue reading...
Florida governor launched his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential pick as Trump's main challenger but finds himself sinking in the pollsAmong the books still available in Florida despite Ron DeSantis's ongoing purge of unsuitable" material is one the Republican governor might want to peruse.Dale Carnegie's 1936 bestseller How to Win Friends and Influence People would appear to be the antithesis of DeSantis's stuttering push for his party's 2024 presidential nomination, as Donald Trump's closest challenger traverses the country turning off voters to his dull personality and extremist policies. Continue reading...
Bernie Wagenblast's voice is known to millions of passengers on the AirTrain service. Now, at 66, she's happy with a new lifeOne of the first voices millions of commuting New Yorkers hear each morning is the measured tone of former traffic reporter Bernie Wagenblast reminding them to stand away from the platform edge. Wagenblast, AKA the voice of New York", reminds AirTrain passengers at JFK or Newark that the doors are closing, and hosts a podcast about infrastructure, including episodes on Ohio's bridges and wildlife crossings in Oregon. But that neutrally pan-American male voice, honed by years of practice to impart clarity and authority but not alarm, is changing.Earlier this year, Wagenblast, 66, went on the radio to present herself publicly as a transgender woman, and has this month been participating in US Pride celebrations with gusto, including the march at Asbury Park on the Jersey shore. Wagenblast is still Bernie, but that's now derived from Bernadette, not Bernard. Continue reading...
The court is part of a gang of reactionaries clawing back rights we already won, which means we can win them backThe first thing to remember about the damage done by the US supreme court this June and the June before is that each majority decision overturns a right that we had won. We had won a measure of student debt relief thanks to the heroic efforts of debt activists since 2011. We had won reproductive rights protection 50 years ago with Roe v Wade, and we won wetlands protection with the Clean Water Act around the same time. We had implemented affirmative action, AKA a redress of centuries of institutionalized inequality, step by step, in many ways over the past 60-plus years. We had won rights for same-sex couples and queer people in a series of laws and decisions.What this means is that the right wing of the US supreme court is part of a gang of reactionaries engaging in backlash. It also means we can win these things back. It will not be easy, but difficult is not impossible. This does not mean that the decisions are not devastating, and that we should not feel the pain. The old saying don't mourn, organize" has always worked better for me as mourn, but also organize". Defeat is no reason to stop. Neither is victory a reason to stop when victory is partial or needs to be defended. You can celebrate victories, mourn defeats and keep going. Continue reading...
Alliance with PGA and DP World Tours sparked talk of an end for the startup but this elite golf element carries momentumAlmost 13 months have passed since the confirmation that a wind of change had swept through golf. In sleepy, leafy Hertfordshire, LIV Golf teed off against the backdrop of intense acrimony and serious doubts. Golf, but louder" was the chosen advertising slogan.It was golf, but jitterier. Players looked over shoulders, nosy interlopers were concerned about even being spotted in the rebel environment. Partly through concerns over the sportswashing element attached to the LIV plan and partly through the belief that the establishment, the PGA and DP World Tours, could not be overhauled, the tournament at the Centurion Club was viewed with ridicule. Continue reading...
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