For about $80 you can have a pail-full of food pouches with a 25-year shelf life to help cope with disasters of all sortsThe growing threat of climate change and the increase in unpredictable natural disasters that comes with it is leading survival-minded shoppers to a bucket of possible salvation from Costco.The big box warehouse club retailer is selling the Readywise Emergency Food Bucket" for around $80 to its US customers. Continue reading...
After Bernie Sanders and AOC threw Biden a lifeline, he turned his focus to supreme court reform and medical debtJoe Biden, who so far has defied calls to quit the presidential race from Democrats worried about his ability to beat Donald Trump, this week rolled out a catalogue of left-leaning campaign promises aimed at working-class and middle-class Americans. His renewed emphasis on core progressive priorities comes after leading Washington progressives, Senator Bernie Sanders and congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez threw their weight behind his beleaguered candidacy.The moves reframe Biden's campaign to focus on a suite of issues from US supreme court reform to ending medical debt. They come as Biden is reportedly more open to calls for him to step aside, but still has not left the race. Continue reading...
Analysts play down concerns and maintain confidence in AI boom after index's worst day since December 2022The tech-heavy Nasdaq stock index has deepened its losses after this week's interventions by US presidential candidates, but analysts played down market jitters over chipmakers, saying the artificial intelligence boom would continue to support demand.New York's Nasdaq composite index staged a brief recovery on opening on Thursday but was down more than 1% at midday eastern time, after posting its worst day since December 2022 on Wednesday. Continue reading...
Corey Comperatore, 50, was a volunteer firefighter and father who died shielding his family from shootingHundreds of people who gathered to remember the former fire chief fatally shot at a weekend rally for former president Donald Trump were urged to find unity" as the area in rural Pennsylvania sought to recover from the assassination attempt.Wednesday's public event was the first of two to memorialize and celebrate Corey Comperatore's life. The second, a visitation for friends, was planned for Thursday at Laube Hall in Freeport. Continue reading...
Sebastian Hotz, aka El Hotzo, was dropped from his radio show and provoked anger from Elon Musk after now-deleted posts on XA 28-year-old German comedian has got into trouble with Donald Trump supporters and then Elon Musk after sending a series of tweets appearing to welcome the assassination attempt on the former US president.Sebastian Hotz, who posts and performs as El Hotzo, lost his job with a public broadcaster this week for a series of tweets on X, Musk's social media platform, after Trump narrowly escaped death, saying that the attempt had been like the last bus - unfortunately, just missed". Continue reading...
Reagon used her stirring alto and lyrics to fight racism, and was a music scholar and professor emeritus of historyBernice Johnson Reagon, an American civil rights activist who used her stirring alto and lyrics to fight racism, died on Tuesday at age 81, her daughter said on Wednesday.As a scholar, singer, composer, organizer and activist, Dr Reagon spent over half a century speaking out against racism and systemic inequities in the US and globally," said daughter Toshi Reagon, who like her mother is a musician and activist, in announcing her death on Facebook. Continue reading...
South LA has the highest levels of gun violence in the county - local organizations want to address how that affects kidsOne night in April last year, Dolores Munoz was jolted awake by a barrage of bullets ricocheting off her home. The rounds crashed through her living room window and tore through the bedroom wall of her 15-year-old daughter, who was spending the night at her cousin's house.Instinctively, Munoz ran to check on her five other children who were in the home with her. Thankfully, none of them were harmed. Thank God my daughter wasn't here," Munoz, 35, said through a translator days later, as her children sat quietly in the living room. Bullet holes in the wall had recently been patched and the shattered front window had been covered up with plywood. If she was home, she could have been killed." Continue reading...
Secret Service official says it is an insult' to imply women unqualified to be agents based on genderThe US Secret Service decried as an insult" rightwing attacks on the performance of female agents during the failed assassination attempt against Donald Trump, and claims the presence of such agents and a woman as agency director are the result of diversity policies.It is an insult to the women of our agency to imply that they are unqualified based on gender," Anthony Guglielmi, the Secret Service communications chief, told NBC News. Continue reading...
The work of Justin Hardiman documents the lives of Black southern farmers, long sidelined in mainstream narrativesOn a hot afternoon in June, four people stood in the lobby of Travelers Hotel off Third Street in Clarksdale, Mississippi, each taking in the images that lined its walls. The photographs are part of Soil, an exhibition depicting Black farmers in the Mississippi Delta.The town's art and culture district, where Travelers Hotel is located, serves as a living monument to the region's history - with signs, murals and banners every few feet that immortalize famous current and former residents, such as Early Wright, the first Black disc jockey in Mississippi, and the musicians Leo Welch and Kingfish" Ingram. If Mississippi is known as the birthplace of America's music, Clarksdale is the home of the blues. Continue reading...
Toxic response to prayer from pro-Trump Harmeet Dhillon, leading figure on Republican national committeeA toxic, racist, far-right response to Harmeet Dhillon's Monday-night Sikh prayer at the Republican national convention is just one sign of the difficulties Donald Trump and Republicans have in selling a more diverse version of Trumpism to the party's base.Social media posts following Dhillon's prayer indicated that some far-right Trumpists had been polarized by the sight of a non-Christian form of religious devotion on the convention stage in Milwaukee. Continue reading...
Pressure rising once again for Biden to step aside in election race after president tested positive for Covid and cancelled events to self-isolate at his home in Delaware. Plus: the power of proprioception
I'm not one for competitive sport but if the Games added the long lunch mixed doubles I'd be in with a shoutIn a few days the Paris Olympics will begin. This should be a moment of true joy and excitement but, honestly, I'm not feeling it. This is because I find the whole sporting shebang terribly unrelatable. It's about people who can jump high, throw things a long way or run fast. I can do none of these things; I haven't run anywhere since that unfortunate incident during cross-country in 1980. The Olympics weren't always like this. From 1912 to 1948, they included cultural contests in things such as painting, music, literature and town planning. That's more inclusive but I'm still not sure I'd thrive. I'm not up to planning a whole town under competition conditions.What's needed, so that people like me can get involved, is a food aspect. I am of course aware there are already a bunch of competitions that style themselves as culinary Olympiads, but those mostly involve intense, young people in chefs whites fashioning the Wreck of the Hesperus out of pulled sugar and aspic, or a fully functioning submarine entirely out of chocolate. That's about as relatable as a bout of acrobatic gymnastics to the theme from Succession. Continue reading...
His near assassination transformed Trump's theology, giving the decidedly earthly ex-president a powerful spiritual sheenThe attempted assassination of Donald Trump has transformed the theology of Trump. He has long portrayed himself as an innocent lamb falsely accused, the target of slings and arrows to bear the suffering of believers. Now the bullet and the blood of Butler, Pennsylvania, have sanctified him for the faithful and brought forth a new gospel.Earlier this month, the Republican National Committee endorsed the party platform, a document that contained a plank pledging to create a new federal agency to defend Christian nationalism: To protect Religious Liberty, Republicans support a new Federal Task Force on Fighting Anti-Christian Bias that will investigate all forms of illegal discrimination, harassment, and persecution against Christians in America." The document casts Christians as though they are a sect still persecuted by the Romans, about to be dragged into the Colosseum to face ferocious beasts.As we move forward in Uniting our Nation after the horrific events on Saturday, this dismissal of the Lawless Indictment in Florida should be just the first step, followed quickly by the dismissal of ALL the Witch Hunts - The January 6th Hoax in Washington, D.C., the Manhattan D.A.'s Zombie Case, the New York A.G. Scam, Fake Claims about a woman I never met (a decades old photo in a line with her then husband does not count), and the Georgia Perfect" Phone Call charges. The Democrat Justice Department coordinated ALL of these Political Attacks, which are an Election Interference conspiracy against Joe Biden's Political Opponent, ME. Let us come together to END all Weaponization of our Justice System, and Make America Great Again!Sidney Blumenthal, former senior adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton, has published three books of a projected five-volume political life of Abraham Lincoln: A Self-Made Man, Wrestling With His Angel and All the Powers of Earth. He is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
When we can't make sense of a dramatic event, fake news pedlars rush to social media to fill the information gapAccusations that the assassination attempt on Saturday was staged have proliferated all over social media. Many on the left are arguing that the attack was meant to garner pity for Trump and ensure a kind of Reichstag fire" scenario so Trump could seize power unilaterally. Many of these focused on the photos of Trump in the immediate aftermath, his fist raised in defiance, as evidence that the entire event was set up to garner sympathy and show the ex-president as unbowed. Meanwhile, on the right, rumours swirled that it was an assassination attempt by President Biden - on Sunday, Alex Jones blasted out an email with a subject line that read in part: Desperate Deep State Will Try to Assassinate Trump Again".None of this is surprising - the United States has a long history of presidential assassination and assassination attempts, and a long love affair with conspiracy theories of all kinds. But the ease with which conspiracists of all political alignments have been able to assimilate Saturday's shocking, unexpected news with their preformed opinions tells us what political conspiracy theories do for people and how they operate. Continue reading...
Judge Cannon acted like part of Trump's defense team. Her dismissal of his documents case is predictable yet disturbingDonald Trump stole thousands of classified documents when he left the White House in 2021, according to prosecutors, and shoved them in unsecured areas around the tacky Florida golf club where he lives. He kept them in basements, bathrooms and ballrooms; they were often unlocked, accessible to anyone who happened to wander by, as dozens or hundreds of people do, every day, at Mar-a-Lago. Trump refused to return the documents when asked; he also lied about what he had.On at least one occasion in 2021, he was recorded showing off one of the classified documents to a visitor, apparently for the sake of his own aggrandizement. It is like highly confidential. Secret," Trump said to the man, who was not authorized to see the information. See, as president, I could have declassified it. Now, I can't, but this is still a secret." Continue reading...
Denzel Washington has been accused of inauthenticity in Gladiator II. But why is upper-class, southern English considered the norm?Whose head could I give you that would satisfy this fury?" asks Denzel Washington's crafty Macrinus in the long-awaited trailer for Ridley Scott's Gladiator II. With its medley of aquatic gladiatorial games and charging battle rhinos, a vengeful Paul Mescal, a wearied Pedro Pascal, imperial Rome's answer to Tweedledum (Joseph Quinn) and Tweedledee (Fred Hechinger), and Connie Nielsen providing an enticing link to the previous film, the trailer looks and sounds epic. So of course some viewers have come out in a fury.A chief complaint appears to be Washington's use of his natural New York accent, with one observer asking: How did Ridley Scott ... allow Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington to do a NY accent in a movie set in Ancient Rome?" Conversely, there seems to be little furore over the English accent of Quinn or Mescal's loose adoption of what appears to be (from the trailer at least) received pronunciation - despite them being equally anachronistic. As it has been pointed out in the Hollywood Reporter, when combined with criticism of the music choice (Jay-Z and Kanye West's No Church in the Wild), it starts to look rather dog whistle-y". Continue reading...
Speaking at the Republican national convention in Milwaukee, JD Vance accepted the GOP's nomination as vice-president and made a speech in which he praised Donald Trump, harkened back to his Ohio upbringing and condemned past leaders for creating a divide across the US. He also said there would be 'no more free rides' for the US's allies in terms of defence spending.
JD Vance's addressed an enamored audience that chanted his name and a ringing silence on the topic of abortionRepublicans had a new chant on Wednesday night: not just Trump! Trump!" but also JD! JD! JD!" in honor of Trump's new vice-presidential pick, Ohio senator JD Vance, who introduced himself to the country Wednesday night in a confident and personal primetime address.Also new: the professionally printed signs reading Mass Deportations Now," a reference to Trump's campaign pledge to engage in the biggest mass deportation of undocumented migrants in US history. Continue reading...
So this is what it feels like, the presidential hopeful must be telling himself, to be admired, praised and respectedReports from the first two days of the Republican national convention in Milwaukee suggest that the mood of the room isn't merely energised but giddy. Some of us know that feeling; the sense of jubilation that comes after suffering a near-death experience (or, for those who haven't, see losing then finding one's wallet) that the Republicans and their leader are at present enjoying.Two days after a failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump, delegates in Wisconsin crashed around with the hysterical relief of people whose plane just dropped 4,000ft, then discovered, after all that, they're not going to die.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Junior senator of Ohio leaned into his own background and attacked Biden in Republican national convention addressJD Vance formally accepted the Republican vice-presidential nomination on Wednesday with a deliberate, and at times divisive, pitch to re-elect Donald Trump in November.Addressing delegates in Milwaukee on the third night of the convention, Vance, the junior senator of Ohio, presented the Republican party as a champion of working-class Americans while denouncing Democrats as out of touch and ineffective. The populist-tinged rhetoric offered the latest sign of how Trump has reshaped the Republican party and rejected much of the traditional conservatism of its past. Continue reading...
by Joan E Greve and David Smith in Milwaukee and Mart on (#6P9PZ)
Tensions amid party members rise as Biden tests for positive for Covid and will be in self-isolation in DelawarePressure for Joe Biden to step aside as the Democrats' presidential pick to face Donald Trump had eased since the Republican survived an assassination attempt last weekend, but began to rise again on Wednesday.The tension rose as Biden was diagnosed with Covid and cancelled events to self-isolate at his home in Delaware. Continue reading...
NBC News reports New Jersey Democrat, 70, found guilty of 16 federal charges, has told allies he will quitThe Democratic US senator Bob Menendez is refuting early reports that he told allies he was considering resigning from Congress after being convicted on corruption charges.I can tell you that I have not resigned nor have I spoken to any so-called allies ... Seems to me that there is an effort to try to force me into a statement," Menendez told CBS News late Wednesday evening. Continue reading...
US president Joe Biden has said he would end his presidential campaign if it emerged that he had a 'medical condition'. Biden's remarks came amid growing concern about his fitness to hold office, brought into sharp focus after a sluggish debate performance against Donald Trump on CNN. Defending his candidacy, Biden said his age gave him added wisdom and he had a lot left to do, so he was 'reluctant to walk away from that'
At the Republic national convention in Milwaukee, some Trump supporters have a new way of showing their support for their favourite presidential candidate beyond a red Maga cap: wearing bandages on their ears, as Donald Trump did himself when he first appeared at the convention on Monday in his first public appearance since Saturday's assassination attempt.
The White House confirmed the US president tested positive for Covid-19 and was experiencing 'mild symptoms', saying he had a runny nose and 'general malaise'. Biden was slated to make a campaign speech at the UnidosUS annual conference as part of an effort to rally Latino voters ahead of the November election. Unidos CEO Janet Murguia told guests at the conference that Biden had sent his regrets and could not appear because of his positive test
Trump campaign sees senator's past criticisms of the ex-president as an asset with voters who once disliked TrumpDonald Trump and his campaign see his running mate, Senator JD Vance, as a way to expand Trump's voter base, according to sources familiar with the matter, intending to lean into Vance's previous criticisms of Trump to convince voters who dislike both 2024 candidates to back the former president.In the years before Vance ran for the US Senate, he repeatedly criticized Trump and his presidency in interviews where he made clear he never liked the former president and considered him cultural heroin" and in private conversations, where he suggested Trump was America's Hitler". Continue reading...
Samir Ousman al-Sheikh, 72, who oversaw notorious Adra prison, detained at LAX on immigration fraud chargesA former Syrian military official who oversaw a prison where human rights officials say torture and abuse routinely took place has been arrested in Los Angeles, court documents show.Samir Ousman al-Sheikh, 72, was taken into custody last week at Los Angeles international airport on immigration fraud charges, specifically that he denied on his US visa and citizenship applications that he had ever persecuted anyone in Syria, according to a criminal complaint filed on 9 July. Investigators are considering additional charges, the complaint shows. Continue reading...
President, who has mild symptoms, returning to Delaware to self-isolate but will continue to carry out the full duties of the office'Joe Biden has caught Covid-19 and cancelled a speaking engagement at the last minute, before he was due to address a conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday afternoon, the White House has confirmed.The US president had developed symptoms, and just before he was going to address the UnidosUS annual conference in Nevada, and after a long delay, the organization's president and chief executive, Janet Murguia, told those gathered he would not be taking the podium. Continue reading...
by Andrew Roth in Washington and agencies on (#6P9SW)
Nuclear proliferation talks halted as tensions rise over Biden and Trump's calls for increased trade restrictionsChina has suspended talks over arms control and nuclear proliferation with the US in protest against arms sales to Taiwan, the democratically governed island aligned with Washington that China claims as its own territory.The decision, announced by China's foreign ministry on Wednesday, halts the early nuclear-arms talks in a period of growing tensions between China and the US, with both US presidential candidates calling for increased trade restrictions and efforts to contain Chinese influence in east Asia. Continue reading...
Trump's messages to his followers during this election season has had a constant undercurrent of violenceMy first thought on hearing about the attempted shooting of Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday was I hope to God he's OK".I thought this for the usual reasons we human beings hope that other humans are safe from harm.They're not after me. They're after you. And I just happen to be standing in their way."Our enemies are desperate to stop us and our opponents have done everything they can to crush our spirit and to break our will. But they failed. They've only made us stronger. And 2024 is the final battle, it's going to be the big one. You put me back in the White House, their reign will be over and America will be a free nation once again."In 2016, I declared: I am your voice. Today, I add I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution."Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His newest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...
Law scholar Laurence Tribe says the conservative court majority is destroying' framework of checks and balancesLaurence Tribe, a constitutional law scholar who has advised Joe Biden as the president prepares to back dramatic reforms to the US supreme court, has criticized the court's ultraconservative justices for acting as a center of self-aggrandizement" threatening the checks and balances on which the US has historically depended.In comments to the Guardian a day after news broke of Biden's plans to endorse major changes to the country's most powerful court, the Harvard Law School professor said the justices were out of step with basic constitutional premises. The court had reached the point of assuming ultimate power over our entire legal and political system". Continue reading...
British contender is ready to enjoy himself after preparing with one of the great nights'Bob MacIntyre bowled up a day late for the Open. He was supposed to be here early on Monday for a press conference, but had to change his plans at the last minute after his victory in the Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club in North Berwick.I don't think I'll be able to get to Troon," he said thatnight. I don't think I'll be legally able to drive." Continue reading...
California Democrat and US Senate candidate calls on Joe Biden to end his campaign, stating he has serious concerns'Adam Schiff, the high-profile California Democrat and US Senate candidate, on Wednesday called on Joe Biden to end his presidential campaign, stating he had serious concerns" about the president's ability to beat Donald Trump in November.In a statement to the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles-area congressman joined almost 20 other congressional Democrats in asking the president to step aside. Biden has been one of the most consequential presidents in our nation's history", Schiff said, but it was time to pass the torch". Continue reading...
Unconfirmed report says Biden considering sweeping regulation to further restrict sales of equipment to ChinaGlobal stocks fell on Wednesday as technology shares sank after a report said the US plans tighter import controls on companies that share chipmaking technology with China.London's FTSE 100 edged 0.1% higher to 8,169.24 as data showed the inflation rate remained steady at the Bank of England's 2% target in June. That hit hopes for a central bank rate cut, though the better-than-expected data pushed the British pound above $1.30 early on Wednesday. Continue reading...
Deleted post said, unions gain nothing from endorsing the racist, misogynistic, and anti-trans politics of the far right'The Teamsters' social media account attacked its own president on Wednesday, saying unions gain nothing from endorsing the racist, misogynistic, and anti-trans politics of the far right," two days after Sean O'Brien addressed the Republican national convention in MilwaukeeO'Brien spoke at the convention on Monday night in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the first leader of the union to appear at the convention in the union's history. Continue reading...
President makes comment in convention speech, referring to remarks made by Trump in June debateWielding a potentially potent attack line in his re-election campaign against Donald Trump, Joe Biden told the NAACP: I know what a Black job is: it's the vice-president of the United States."Biden was speaking to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Las Vegas, Nevada, as the group staged its 115th national convention. Continue reading...
The parents glow with pride, while the students cringe with embarrassment. Underneath it all is the terrifying awareness of time getting a march on usI just went to a graduation ceremony. I wasn't the only one. On station platforms at every stop there were graduation groups in evidence, in the spirit of the newlyweds and their families in Larkin's Whitsun Weddings.Graduation parties are generally three in number. One is young, the other two are older. The older ones will have sore hands from clapping long and hard, as hundreds of soon-not-to-be students file on stage to receive their degrees. There are plenty to get through - in the UK, well over 1m undergraduates and postgraduates are awarded their certificates every year. Parents' eyes will hurt from all the squinting, trying to keep tabs on where loved ones are in the queue, working out when their turn will come. Continue reading...
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