She later became an icon of survival, but fans loved her for the sheer energy she exudedTina Turner, the trailblazing singer who was hailed as the queen of rock’n’roll, survived so many personal and professional challenges that some of her fans might have believed that she was going to live forever.Her death last week at the age of 83 brought home the fact that she was as mortal as the rest of us, but her refusal to stay in the box that Black women are expected to occupy will remain a lasting source of inspiration. Continue reading...
Ministers trumpet their law against ‘no-platforming’ in universities, but that doesn’t stop them disinviting critics from their own conferencesNormally, I’m keen for this column to be widely read. This time, though, I hope not too widely. I’d be happy if it doesn’t catch the attention of Jacob Rees-Mogg or of government officials.I’m due to give a talk to civil servants later this year. If anyone were to trawl through my social media they might discover the occasional criticism of government policy. And I might suffer the same fate as Dan Kaszeta.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...
Help was at hand for ‘the worst routes, the least well-lit stations and the poorest, most violent neighbourhoods’‘Chivalry has returned to New York,’ proclaimed the Observer on 15 July 1979, as it descended into the lawless New York subway underworld, accompanied by the Magnificent Thirteen Subway Patrol, AKA the Red Berets. The group had formed that February, in response to a violent crime wave. From an initial 13, they now numbered nearly 100 and their mission was to make New Yorkers feel safer. ‘They are in their late teens or early 20s, most of them have some training in the martial arts and all are as streetwise as alley cats.’Working-class and from diverse ethnic backgrounds, most worked or studied during the day. Their leader was the charismatic Curtis ‘the Rock’ Sliwa, ‘a poor 23-year-old Polish-American who graduated in garbage collecting and street fighting’. Continue reading...
Default deadline pushed to 5 June as work requirements for food aid recipients reportedly emerge as final sticking pointPresident Joe Biden and top congressional Republican Kevin McCarthy held a phone conversation on Saturday evening, according to a person familiar with their plans, amid signs that a deal in the ongoing debt ceiling negotiations was close to being struck.McCarthy said earlier on Saturday that he was making “progress” in negotiations on raising the federal government’s debt ceiling, as the nation faced risk of default in little more than a week. Continue reading...
Ken Paxton drew support from Donald Trump and Ted Cruz prior to the voteTexas’ Republican-led House of Representatives impeached state attorney general Ken Paxton on Saturday on articles including bribery and abuse of public trust, a historic rebuke of a GOP official who rose to be a star of the conservative legal movement despite years of scandal and alleged crimes.Impeachment triggers Paxton’s immediate suspension from office pending the outcome of a trial in the state Senate and empowers Republican governor Greg Abbott to appoint someone else as Texas’ top lawyer in the interim. Continue reading...
Women have found a way to channel a flagrant, public up-yours to the culture of gender policing that grows more dangerous by the dayIt was a search for the perfect velour tracksuit that put me on the path to #bimbocore. Work obliges me to catch many planes and I am old enough to appreciate that if you can travel with an elasticised waist, loose cuffs and a hood – as well as a mask – then you should.Internet searches for the soft costume once beloved of early 00s femme celebrity brought me news of a retro revival that apparently started last year. Far further down in the fluffiest of fashion rabbit holes than I had ever intended to travel, I stumbled on to the aesthetic trend of bimbocore. Continue reading...
After 14 years, Polly was a part of Robert Dessaix’s family. One day after her death, the writer grapples with grief and what it is to love a dogWe are a threesome. The most wonderful thing in the world for me – the most joyful, vivifying, meaningful, precious thing in the world – is my tiny family: Peter Timms, the dog and me. We are the only family any of us has. The dog is not a child, of course, nor a mere companion, nor even our “best friend”. The dog is our dog. The dog is our anchor. We love each other, Peter and I, anchored by our dog (we’ve had four). I can see that now. It has taken me all my life to see this. And I held out my arms in front of me in utter impotence with my fingers touching to try to hold us all in.Polly died yesterday, you see. It is unbearable. I am not saying this for the sake of it: I cannot bear the acute sadness. I cannot bear the memories of yesterday before three o’clock or last week or ten years ago or 15. I cannot bear saying goodbye to Polly Timms forever. That’s the point, as it is when we kiss or wave or say goodbye to any loved being: it’s for the rest of time. Continue reading...
Republican-led state house of representatives to debate whether to impeach Ken Paxton over allegations of briberyTexas’s Republican-led house of representatives launched historic impeachment proceedings against attorney general Ken Paxton on Saturday as the scandal-plagued lawyer called on supporters to protest a vote that could lead to his ouster and Donald Trump came to his defense.The house convened on Saturday afternoon to debate whether to impeach and suspend Paxton from office over allegations of bribery, abuse of public trust and that he is unfit for office. They’re just some of the accusations that have trailed Texas’s top lawyer for most of his three terms. Continue reading...
Change in law allows teenagers to serve alcohol in restaurants and could allow children to operate heavy machinery like power sawsIowa’s Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, has signed a bill that rolls back several child labor law protections in the midwestern state, including how many hours children can work and at what type of establishments.Iowa and several other states in the US have loosened regulations on child labor in response to some businesses complaining about a workforce shortage. The moves have been met with widespread criticism by Democrats and labor groups. Continue reading...
Vice-president addresses graduating cadets at elite US military academy and warns of threats of Russian and Chinese aggressionVice-President Kamala Harris on Saturday became the first woman at West Point’s 221-year history to deliver a commencement speech.Addressing over 900 graduating cadets at the elite American military academy in West Point, New York, Harris told them that they are graduating “into an increasingly unsettled world where long-standing principles are at risk”, and cited the threats of Russian and Chinese aggression in her speech. Continue reading...
Flaws used to feed their sales but now writers are expected to be saints‘As you get older you realise that all these things – prizes, reviews, advances, readers – it’s all showbiz, and the real action starts with your obituary.”Martin Amis first started spinning in favour of his future obituarists in 2003 – at the juncture, post Yellow Dog, at which prizes, reviews, advances and readers began to turn against him. He knew how things would play out. After two decades of the literary world quiet quitting Martin Amis, there has been a sudden rehabilitation. In the past week the pages of obituary sections have exploded with a strangely pre-2003 phenomenon – a semi-tolerant fascination with Amis’s personal life, and the way it may have bled into his work, and vice versa. Continue reading...
Plans for an accompanying education centre are blocking progress, but London already has one at the nearby Imperial War MuseumThe Nazi concentration camp survivor Manfred Goldberg was 84 when David Cameron promised a British memorial to the Holocaust. “Last month I celebrated my 93rd birthday and I pray to be able to attend the opening of this important project,” he says on the government website.That day has been put still further off by a procedural hitch in plans to amend a 1900 act that forbids buildings on its proposed site, Victoria Tower Gardens, a public park just up the Thames from the Palace of Westminster. Continue reading...
State Farm also cites inflation of construction costs in statement which comes after increasing wildfires in stateThe insurance giant State Farm, America’s biggest car and home insurer by premium volume, will halt the sale of new home insurance policies in California, citing wildfire risk and inflation of construction costs.Starting on Saturday, the company will not accept insurance applications for business and personal lines property and casualty insurance. The company will still accept auto insurance applicants. Continue reading...
Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster’s body was exhumed and found to be ‘incorrupt’, a sign of holiness and later justification for sainthoodHundreds of people in the US have traveled to a monastery in a small Missouri town to view a nun’s body that seemingly has no signs of decay four years after her death.Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster was the founder of the Benedictine Sisters of Mary, Queen of the Apostles, a monastery in Gower, Missouri, about an hour outside of Kansas City. Continue reading...
Surveillance footage shared on social media shows a black bear entering a bakery's garage in Connecticut, taking a box of 60 cupcakes and eating them. Workers at Taste by Spellbound, in the town of Avon, are seen trying to scare the bear and then running away moments later, scared themselves. Police officers were called and no one was injured. There are 1,000 to 1,200 black bears living in Connecticut, the state environmental agency says, with sightings recorded last year in 158 of the state’s 169 towns and cities.
Patrick Wattigny, a former school chaplain outside New Orleans, is considering a guilty plea but could be out of prison in three yearsA Louisiana man accusing a Roman Catholic priest of molesting him as a child has spoken out against what he says is an overly lenient sentence being offered to the defendant in exchange for a guilty plea.The accuser, 24, is pressing a criminal case against Patrick Wattigny, who worked as a chaplain at the alleged victim’s high school and was charged with abuse against him in 2013. Continue reading...
Healy has a history of making problematic statements, upsetting Swift’s fans. She has the right to be silent on Healy – but her fans also have the right to judge her for itWeird coincidence alert! Taylor Swift recently released a collaboration with rapper Ice Spice on a remix of her Midnights track Karma. That’s a big deal for two reasons: 1) Ice Spice is going to be the first Black woman to feature on a Swift song; 2) Matty Healy, the frontman of the band the 1975 and the man that Swift is rumoured to be dating, laughed at some racist jokes about the Bronx rapper on a recent podcast. It’s leading a lot of people to ask: is the Swift/Ice Spice collaboration a calculated attempt at damage control? Is this a cynical PR move? Or is the convenient timing just a fluke? Continue reading...
Suwannee county sheriff seeks to capture ferocious feral feline after two people need hospital treatmentAlerts for dangerous animals on the loose are commonplace in Florida, a state that leads the nation for escapes of wild creatures ranging from bears, lions and monkeys to snakes and tigers.But a stalking “beast” currently terrifying residents of Suwannee county after sending two people to the emergency room in separate attacks turns out to be a domestic cat with attitude that has evaded capture for almost a week, officials have said. Continue reading...
Part cosplay, part athletic endeavor, it’s a diverse and encouraging community where magical merfolk lift each other with shouts of ‘Yes, fish!’Last weekend, around a community pool near Sacramento, flippers were being unpacked, glowing bubble crowns secured to wigs, and glittery eye makeup donned: the annual US meeting of mermaids was underway.Hundreds gathered for the California Mermaid Convention: a three-day celebration of the increasingly popular practice of “mermaiding”. Part cosplay, part athletic endeavor, the hobby ranges from casual dress up to certified divers who strap on “monofins” and swim together in a pool or the open ocean. Continue reading...
Campaigners take legal route after success against big tobacco and other industries led to changeAs America’s gun crisis shows no sign of abating, there is some hope for reducing the number of mass shootings and killings. The emerging wave of lawsuits against gun makers echoes previous successes against the car industry, opioid companies and big tobacco.In New York, California, Delaware and other states, new laws aim to provide ways around a near 20-year immunity provided to gun manufacturers and distributors. In Indiana, a lawsuit brought by victims of the 2021 mass shooting at a FedEx facility aims to hold a gun manufacturer accountable for the horror wrought by one of its weapons. Continue reading...
Florida governor enters the primary weakened after Twitter ‘DeSaster’ as wide field of candidates try to scrape aheadNever work with animals, children or egotistical space billionaires. There’s a lesson in there that Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida learned the hard way when he used Elon Musk’s Twitter Spaces social media platform to announce his run for US president.Thousands of listeners were greeted with long silences, odd snatches of music and the sound of Musk, would-be kingmaker of the American right, muttering that the “the servers are straining somewhat”. The glitch was soon being described as a “DeSaster”, one of the most embarrassing campaign fiascos in memory. Continue reading...
The Texas attorney general has called for his supporters to protest at the state capitol when Republicans in the House of Representatives take up historical impeachment proceedings against him. The state house has set a Saturday vote to consider impeaching Republican Ken Paxton and suspending him from office over allegations of bribery, unfitness for office and abuse of public trust. 'I want to invite my fellow citizens and friends to peacefully come let their voices be heard at the capitol tomorrow,' Paxton said at a news conference on Friday. The request echoes that of the former president Donald Trump for people to protest against his electoral defeat on 6 January 2021, when a mob violently stormed the US Capitol in Washington.
Objects from the front line bear bloodstained witness – not just to what happened, but to Ukraine’s very existenceThe violence of war, and all its horror, has a clarifying effect on what really matters in every aspect of life. In the immediate aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, those caught up in the terrifying events found that language was reduced to its most fundamental function: telling loved ones they were alive.The work of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv was, similarly, refined to its most basic essentials: safeguarding the objects. Keeping them from destruction. Making sure that they would be there to tell their stories for the next generation.Charlotte Higgins is the Guardian’s chief culture writer. She will be speaking about the future of museums at the Hay festival on Saturday 3 June Continue reading...
Much of the world views Kissinger as a war criminal – yet in the US, surrounded by powerful friends, he is feted as a celebrity intellectualHenry Kissinger turns 100 on Saturday, but his legacy has never been in worse shape. Though many commentators now speak of a “tortured and deadly legacy”, for decades Kissinger was lauded by all quarters of the political and media establishment.A teenage Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Germany, Kissinger charted an unlikely path to some of the most powerful positions on Earth. Even more strangely, as national security adviser and secretary of state under Nixon and Ford, he became something of a pop icon.Bhaskar Sunkara is the president of the Nation, the founding editor of Jacobin, and the author of The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in An Era of Extreme InequalitiesJonah Walters is a freelance writer and postdoctoral fellow at the UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics Continue reading...
Ken Paxton’s call for protesters to be ‘peacefully’ heard at the state capitol echoes similar request from Donald Trump before 6 January 2021The Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, has urged his supporters to protest at the state capitol when Republicans in the House of Representatives take up historic impeachment proceedings against him.The state House has set a Saturday vote to consider impeaching Paxton and suspending him from office over allegations of bribery, unfitness for office and abuse of public trust – just some of the accusations that have trailed him for most of his three terms. Continue reading...
Animal charged at one worker before dragging container into parking lot amid a series of human encounters with bears in ConnecticutA hungry black bear barged into the garage of a Connecticut bakery, scared several employees and helped itself to 60 cupcakes before ambling away.Workers at Taste by Spellbound in the town of Avon were loading cakes into a van for delivery on Wednesday when the bear showed up. There are 1,000 to 1,200 black bears living in Connecticut, the state environmental agency says, with sightings last year in 158 of the state’s 169 towns and cities. Continue reading...
by Martin Pengelly and Dominic Rushe in New York and on (#6BXVY)
Lawmakers on call over Memorial Day weekend as treasury secretary revises estimate of when US will run out of moneyUnless Congress raises the debt ceiling, the US will run out of money to pay its bills by 5 June, the treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, said on Friday as Democratic and Republican negotiators struggled to reach a deal.Failure to raise the debt celling could trigger a default that could wreak havoc on the economy and global markets. Yellen’s announcement gives negotiators a little more time to come to an agreement. Continue reading...
Former PM has also been in Dallas, where he met the Republican governor of Texas and Las Vegas and made a lucrative speechBoris Johnson has held discussions with Donald Trump about Ukraine during his tour of the US, in an apparent attempt to make the Ukrainian case to the sceptical former US president.Johnson met Trump “to discuss the situation in Ukraine and the vital importance of Ukrainian victory”, his spokesperson said. It is understood that they held the talks on Thursday. Continue reading...
by Chris Stein (now) and Joanna Walters (earlier) on (#6BXPS)
Temporary block on restrictions until state supreme court can review; Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy reportedly closing in on a dealA judge has blocked a South Carolina law enacted this week that bans most abortions past the six-week mark, a point at which most women are not yet aware they are pregnant, the Associated Press reports.The ruling by judge Clifton Newman is the latest complication conservative state lawmakers have faced as they move to cut off abortion access following the supreme court’s decision last year overturning Roe v Wade and allowing states to restrict the procedure entirely. Newman ordered the law put on hold until the state supreme court can review it, in a ruling that came 24 hours after the law was signed by governor Henry McMaster, the AP reports. Continue reading...
Kyle Mullen, 24, died of acute pneumonia after completing grueling ‘Hell Week’ portion of Navy Seal trainingA new US navy investigation following the death of a sailor last year has found a “near perfect storm” of issues within its elite Seal training system.In a report released earlier this week and cited by the New York Times, the navy revealed that a slew of problems including poorly organized medical structures, inadequate leadership and undetected drug use had plagued its elite Basic Underwater Demolition/Seal course, leaving many candidates injured and one dead. Continue reading...
Jessica Watkins’s prison sentence comes one day after founder of far-right group sentenced to 18 years for seditious conspiracyA member of the far-right Oath Keepers on Friday was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for her role in the deadly 6 January 2021 assault on the US Capitol by extremist supporters of Donald Trump who tried to overturn Joe Biden’s presidential election victory over the Republican.Jessica Watkins was convicted in November by a federal jury in Washington of obstruction of an official proceeding for her role in the storming of the Capitol, which saw rioters battle police, smash windows and send lawmakers running for their lives. Continue reading...
As drought beacomes the norm, creative solutions must be found to deal with a new, parched realityIn April, Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, suggested that severe drought would become “one of the central political and territorial debates of our country in the coming years”. That stark warning surely applies to southern Europe as a whole, as the prospect of another summer crisis looms, following a disastrously dry winter.An absence of melting snow from the Alps has left Italy’s Po River as shallow as during last year’s searingly hot summer. In January and February, France recorded the highest number of rain-free days since records began, and water restrictions are in place in the Pyrénées-Orientales region. About 90% of mainland Portugal is suffering from drought, judged to be severe in one-fifth of the country. In Spain, from Catalonia to Andalucía, unseasonable heat has contributed to reservoirs drying up and a disastrous drop in olive oil production. By the middle of this month, southern Spain had received barely 30% of expected rainfall. As temperatures continue to rise, and Europe warms faster than the global average, drought across vast swathes of territory is simply becoming the norm. Continue reading...
Rehan Staton became a viral media sensation on his admission, and film-maker Tyler Perry covered his tuition feesThe man who worked as a trash hauler in Maryland before earning international news headlines by gaining admission into the prestigious Harvard Law School has graduated.Rehan Staton received his juris doctorate from Harvard after walking across the stage in his cap and gown during a commencement ceremony on Thursday afternoon at the school’s campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Continue reading...
Development could raise stakes as investigation into former presidents handling of national security materials nears endFederal prosecutors have evidence Donald Trump showed classified documents to people, the Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources, as the investigation into his handling of national security materials and obstruction of justice approaches its conclusion.The development could raise the stakes for the former president as it exposes him to serious action under the Espionage Act, of wilfully communicating national security materials rather than simply retaining them, which is rarely charged. Continue reading...
Florida governor accuses media of creating ‘ridiculous poem hoax’ after complaint targeted verse recited at Biden inaugurationRon DeSantis on Friday appeared to defend a woman who got Amanda Gorman’s inauguration poem The Hill We Climb removed from a Miami school, even though she has attended events alongside white supremacist and far-right groups.The Republican Florida governor, who entered the race for his party’s 2024 presidential nomination with a botched launch on Twitter on Wednesday, said parents such as Daily Salinas were saving children from political ideology “the left [is] trying to jam in” to schools. Continue reading...
Ruling, which came just about 24 hours after the governor signed the bill, means state can revert back to a ban at about 20 weeksA judge on Friday put a temporary halt to South Carolina’s new law banning most abortions around six weeks of pregnancy until the state supreme court can review the measure.The ruling by the judge, Clifton Newman, came just about 24 hours after Governor Henry McMaster signed the bill. The decision means South Carolina reverts back to a ban at about 20 weeks after fertilization. Continue reading...
Aderrien Murry called Mississippi police after his mother was threatened by a man, and an officer seriously wounded himA Mississippi family has demanded a police officer be dismissed and charged with aggravated assault for shooting an 11-year-old boy when police responded to the child’s own domestic disturbance call at his home.Aderrien Murry, who called police at the request of his mother, was unarmed and following instructions from Indianola officer Greg Capers. Then Capers shot him in the chest early last Saturday morning, seriously wounding him, family attorney Carlos Moore said. Continue reading...
Giving money away is hard, says Lauren Sanchez, who is currently touring Europe with Bezos on his 417ft yachtOne-click on a fascinator, readers, because there’s a mega-wedding in the offing. Congratulations to Mr Jeff Bezos, Amazon kajillionaire, and Ms Lauren Sanchez, bralette-wearing philanthropist/immense force of nature. Although news of the couple’s engagement seeped out this week after Lauren was spotted wearing a diamond ring in the south of France, Jeff has yet to release a formal announcement. So let’s just draft one for him: “Ladies and gents, she said Proceed to Checkout.”Now look, you already know Jeff. World’s third-richest man. Went to space. Looks like he should be appearing above a daytime TV caption reading “I make £40 a month as a Vin Diesel escort and my fiancee loves it!” But are you fully across Lauren? I’ll be honest: we haven’t met. But from the outside looking in, my nose pressed against the glass of Google Images, I simply cannot get enough of this Nietzschean superwoman, the final form of the East German silicon-doping programme, who has missile-titted her way into my consciousness and now captivates me twice weekly with her insouciance, her outfits, and her observations on just how difficult philanthropy is to do. Seriously: no one has ever thought harder about how to help poors while mooching round a Grand Prix enclosure with some kind of You Could Never Access All My Areas lanyard dangling from her belt loop. In some ways I don’t think I’ve felt this amused by a picaresque heroine since I saw a photo of Jennifer Arcuri biting the head off a fondant-icing Boris Johnson figurine, from a Boris Johnson cake she’d had made. Yes, customers who liked Jennifer also liked Lauren. Not so much a gal-about-town as a gal-about-planet.Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnistThis June, Marina Hyde will join fellow columnists at three Guardian Live events in Leeds, Brighton and London. Readers can join these events in person and the London event will be livestreamed Continue reading...
Medical board rules Dr Caitlin Bernard can continue practicing after discussing case of 10-year-old who travelled for abortionThe Indiana state medical board has ruled that it will allow Dr Caitlin Bernard to continue practicing in Indiana after she spoke out about a 10-year-old rape victim who traveled to Indiana for abortion care due to restrictions in the girl’s own state of Ohio.The doctor will not lose her license, although the seven-person board ruled that Bernard violated patient privacy laws in discussing the 10-year-old’s case with media. Bernard was not found to have violated reporting requirements about child abuse in the case – another charge against her. Continue reading...
Program aims to preserve the properties, most of which are more than a century old, to anyone willing to preserve themTen lighthouses that for generations have stood like sentinels along America’s shorelines protecting mariners from peril and guiding them to safety are being given away at no cost or sold at auction by the federal government.The aim of the program run by the General Services Administration is to preserve the properties, most of which are more than a century old. Continue reading...
In online show, former president’s son also accidentally says father’s energy ‘makes Jeb Bush look like an Olympian’Donald Trump Jr accidentally insulted his father on Thursday night, mixing up his words while trying to condemn Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump’s closest rival for the Republican presidential nomination.“Trump has the charisma of a mortician and the energy that makes Jeb Bush look like an Olympian,” Trump Jr said on his online show, Triggered With Don Jr, on the Rumble video platform on Thursday night. Continue reading...
The proposal has residents concerned that the development company will turn Homewood Mountain into a members-only clubWith its creaky, two-seater chair lifts, ramshackle lodge buildings and awe-inspiring Lake Tahoe views, Homewood Mountain is one of the last of an old breed of rustic, family-friendly ski resorts in California’s Tahoe region.But developers have introduced a plan that some residents fear will shut down much of the public access to the mountain and turn it into a members-only luxury resort for the super-rich. Continue reading...
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