Players such as Mitch Marsh, Quinton de Kock and Liam Plunkett are bringing their experience to a notoriously tough marketIt was an obvious place to launch a sporting moonshot – a cricket league that can survive and thrive in America.Last week, Space Center Houston hosted a reveal of next-generation spacesuits for a lunar mission. A few days later its main hall was crowded with cricketers wearing gaudy baseball caps in the colours of their new teams as the latest attempt to bring professional cricket to the US held its domestic player draft. Continue reading...
Those at the top need to have skin in the game – and know that risky decisions they make will affect them tooExecutives at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Credit Suisse took substantial risks. SVB proactively expanded the bank’s deposits, some might say excessively. These depositors were uninsured and undiversified. And back when interest rates were low, the bank invested significantly in US government bonds, which was fine at the time. But when there were signs that interest rates were rising and creating substantial interest rate risk, managers left this portfolio unhedged and unchanged. How come SVB managers took those risks? It seemed that they lacked “skin in the game”.The risks taken by executives at Credit Suisse were of a different nature, but still substantial. By becoming involved in such companies as the now defunct Greensill and Archegos, the bank’s capital took a hit. The fines it has accrued after facing scandal after scandal have also bitten into its capital. It can be said that those involved also lacked skin in the game.Natacha Postel-Vinay is assistant professor of economic history at the London School of Economics Continue reading...
The Bronx Bombers’ cheapness will be seen by many as another sign that the franchise remains trapped in the glory days of its pastYou would think that playing for the most valuable franchise in baseball would come with all the perks, but that turns out not to be true. Apparently, signing with the New York Yankees means paying for your own wifi on team flights. Is this merely cheapness on the part of team ownership, or another example of the Yankees being trapped in the past?Let’s start with Stephanie Apstein’s bombshell (well, bombshell-ish) report for Sports Illustrated that revealed that when the Yankees take team flights on Delta, players have to pay out of their own pockets if they want to check their emails. Apstein’s research uncovered that only one other MLB team fails to provide free wifi for its players: the Cincinnati Reds. This means that in this one instance, the Yankees are actually cheaper than the Miami Marlins. Continue reading...
I’m now living full-time in my own personal sunk-cost fallacy. It’s a white-knuckle ride I really don’t need to be onLike all bad ideas, this enterprise started with me thinking: “I bet I could make this myself.” It was kimchi. Everyone really likes it: one kid likes it in a pancake, another likes it in a butter curry, a third likes it with falafel, which he calls “fusion” just to troll me. I like it when I have a hangover; Mr Z likes it on everything; my friend likes it but has rheumatoid arthritis and doesn’t live anywhere near a Korean supermarket. The logic seemed to me almost inexorable: if everyone likes this thing, I bet I could make it myself.So, newsflash everyone: your average kimchi is not vegetarian. It has a load of fish sauce in it, which yes, you can substitute with vegan fish sauce, except there is also fermented shrimp, and it really can’t be overstated how not-vegetarian that is. There is a point in the fermentation lifecycle of a shrimp that it goes beyond even crustacea – in stench and intensity, it’s basically reindeer. It’s impossible to know what to do with this information: do I assume that the shop-bought stuff is veggie, which is fair, as I cannot read the ingredients (too small, also in Korean)? Do I cut the vegetarians out of my homemade experiment, or just pretend to forget there is shrimp in it, which will take some doing, given that my hands, my face and all my clothes still smell very strongly of the controlled rotting of something that was once alive?Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Directive sidesteps Republican-controlled state legislature, which wasn’t able to pass similar legislation before recessMissouri’s Republican attorney general on Monday said he will limit access to gender-affirming care for minors, sidestepping the GOP-led state senate as it struggles to pass a law banning the practice for children completely.As hundreds of activists rallied at the state capitol to pressure lawmakers to act on the bill, Andrew Bailey announced plans to file an emergency rule. Continue reading...
President rejects legislation to overturn a labor department rule Republicans have denounced as ‘woke capitalism’Joe Biden issued the first veto of his presidency on Monday, rejecting legislation to overturn a labor department rule related to an investment strategy for Americans’ retirement plans that Republicans have derided as “woke capitalism”.“The legislation passed by the Congress would put at risk the retirement savings of individuals across the country. They couldn’t take into consideration investments that would be impacted by climate, impacted by overpaying executives,” Biden said in an Oval Office video released by the White House. “And that’s why I decided to veto it.” Continue reading...
The four were also convicted of conspiracy stemming from an insurrection at the Capitol in failed effort to keep Trump in officeFour people associated with the far-right Oath Keepers militia were convicted on Monday of conspiracy and obstruction charges stemming from the insurrection at the US Capitol in 2021 by extremist supporters of Donald Trump in a failed attempt to keep him in office, in the latest trial involving members of the antigovernment group.A Washington DC jury found Sandra Parker, of Morrow, Ohio, Laura Steele, of Thomasville, North Carolina, William Isaacs, of Kissimmee, Florida, and Connie Meggs, of Dunnellon, Florida, guilty of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and other felony charges. Continue reading...
Manhattan judge allows central accusations that banks benefitted from ties to sex trafficker to proceedA US judge has ruled that a pair of lawsuits accusing two major banks of knowingly benefitting from ties to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein can proceed, though in a narrower form than had been initially filed.The four-page ruling by Manhattan district judge Jed Rakoff granted motions by JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank to dismiss some counts against them, but permitted the central claims brought by Epstein accusers and the US Virgin Islands to proceed. Continue reading...
Lowland communities of Alpaugh and Allensworth evacuated amid warnings that floods could isolate or trap residentsAs California communities continued to grapple with the aftermath of storms last week that displaced thousands and destroyed homes and infrastructure, thousands more were ordered to evacuate on Sunday in the agricultural Central Valley.The lowland communities of Alpaugh and Allensworth were evacuated after officials warned that floods could isolate or trap residents behind impassable roadways. The towns saw recent flooding due to a levee breach, which has been temporarily patched. Residents of Allensworth, the state’s first town to be founded by Black Americans, have been working to revive the local economy after decades of racist neglect had left the area without access to clean water. Continue reading...
by Courtney E Martin, The Fuller Project on (#69ZQS)
Pandemic relief initiatives helped lift many families out of poverty and now those programs have all but disappearedLike many working mothers, the first months of the pandemic were a nightmare for Andria Kemp-Sellers. The state of California declared her husband’s job at a sugar factory essential, so he continued to go in for 12-hour shifts. She stayed at home in Vallejo, juggling raising their three children and teaching 25 four- and five-year-olds online in Oakland.“The kids were eating me out of house and home because they were bored,” Kemp-Sellers said, laughing. “Eating became an event!” Continue reading...
The US bank may need to raise more funds despite a $30bn rescue last weekShares in troubled First Republic Bank crashed more than 46% on Monday, after reports the San Francisco-based bank may need to raise more funds despite a $30bn (£24bn) rescue last week.As the growing banking crisis spread into a new week, the credit rating of the regional bank was downgraded deeper into junk status by S&P Global. The agency said that the bank, which caters to wealthy clients, probably faced “high liquidity stress with substantial outflows”. Continue reading...
Investigators arrest James Toliver Craig following evidence he arranged for a canister of potassium cyanide to be sent to his officeIn what authorities have called a “heinous, complex and calculated murder”, a dentist from the Denver area is facing accusations that he poisoned his wife and killed her so that he could make more room in his life for his mistress.James Toliver Craig, 45, of Aurora, Colorado, came under scrutiny after he drove his 43-year-old wife Angela Craig to a hospital on Wednesday night as she complained of severe headaches and dizziness, according to police. Her condition quickly worsened, and medical staff placed her on a machine meant to help her breathe before declaring her dead. Continue reading...
St Patrick's Day revellers were surprised by mysterious streaks of light in the sky on Friday night, with footage posted to social media showing the eerie sight in the Sacramento area. Astronomer Jonathan McDowell told the Associated Press he was 99.9% confident the streaks of light were from burning space debris Continue reading...
Tackling the climate emergency needs public funding, but without socialising the risk and allowing banks to privatise the profitThe world is only a few tenths of a degree away from the globally accepted goal of limiting warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. On current trends, we will shoot past the target within a decade. That’s the warning from the world’s leading scientists on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In their last report while it is still feasible to stay within 1.5C, they warn that what governments do in the next few years to limit greenhouse gas emissions will determine whether temperatures keep rising dangerously or fall back to safe levels.Billions of poor people who bear the least responsibility for the climate emergency are already being hit hard. Extreme weather events such as the flash floods in Turkey or Cyclone Freddy over southern Africa, which took hundreds of lives, are becoming more common occurrences. It is unequivocal, say the scientists, that human activity has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land. It is also human activity that can bring temperatures down. Cutting carbon pollution and fossil fuel use by nearly two-thirds by 2035 would give humanity a decent shot at the target. The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, spelled out what this means: an end to new fossil fuel exploration and rich countries exiting coal, oil and gas by 2040. The UK, which is opening coalmines and approving North Sea oil and gas licences, should take note. Continue reading...
Play was briefly interrupted in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings when fans ran on to the field during the World Baseball Classic semi-final between the USA and Cuba in Miami.
by Adam Gabbatt, Hugo Lowell, Martin Pengelly and age on (#69ZXX)
Robert J Costello, scheduled to appear before New York grand jury on Monday, likely to question Trump accuser’s credibility• Trump calls on supporters to protest as potential indictment loomsDonald Trump has cheered the news that a former adviser to Michael Cohen will testify before a Manhattan grand jury investigating the ex-president’s alleged role in a hush money payment to the adult film star Stormy Daniels.Robert J Costello, a one-time legal adviser to former Trump attorney Cohen, was scheduled to appear before the grand jury on Monday and expected to give testimony “attacking the credibility of Cohen’s statements”, the Associated Press reported. Continue reading...
Former Texas governor urged Middle Eastern leaders to convince Iran not to release hostages before 1980 electionA former Texas governor met Middle Eastern leaders in 1980 to convince Iran to delay releasing American hostages as part of a Republican effort to sabotage Jimmy Carter’s re-election campaign, according to a news report.The New York Times reported on Sunday that John Connally, who served as Texas’s Democratic governor from 1963 to 1969 and ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1980, traveled to a number of countries in the summer leading up to the 1980 election. Continue reading...
by Guardian staff and Associated Press on (#69ZYR)
Police in Florida city implement midnight-to-six ban after two fatal shootings and could do likewise next weekendTwo deadly shootings and unruly crowds which police have struggled to control during spring break prompted officials in the Florida city of Miami Beach to impose a curfew late on Sunday – and there could be a similar one next weekend.City officials said in a news release that they implemented a curfew from 11.59pm Sunday until 6am Monday, and another is likely to be put in place on Thursday through next Monday, 27 March. The curfew mainly affected South Beach, spring breakers’ most popular party spot. Continue reading...
Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz has regained his No 1 ranking, beating Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 6-2 to win the men's singles title at Indian Wells.With his third career Masters 1000 title and eighth overall, Alcaraz will regain the ATP’s top ranking, rising above Novak Djokovic, who is absent from Indian Wells and the Miami Open due to his vaccination status. This was the first time that Alcaraz has won a Masters 1000 title without dropping a set.
No 15 and No 16 seeds are winning in the NCAA tournament more than ever before and by some distance. Is it a statistical anomaly or the outcome of a broader trend?Upsets have always been a defining element of March Madness and this year has been no different. The 2023 tournament had barely tipped off when No 13 seed Furman, the smallest school in the field by enrollment making their first appearance in 43 years, sent fourth-seeded Virginia packing. By the end of opening weekend, half of the four No 1 seeds were already out. But none of this is terribly unusual in an event where fans have come to expect the unexpected.What is unusual is the teams who are springing the upsets. Continue reading...
Democrats must throw everything they have into this race – and not neglect potentially pivotal voters of colorThe Wisconsin supreme court election – which has been described as the most important election this year – takes place on 4 April, in less than three weeks, and is already the most expensive of its kind in US history. In this race, voters of color will once again be the key to electing a candidate who can safeguard our democracy.
What do we make of a nation that has made giving birth so dangerous – yet forces more and more women to do it?America is in a maternal health crisis. According to new CDC data released this week, the rate of maternal mortality – defined as deaths during pregnancy or within 42 days of giving birth – rose by 40% in 2021. At a rate of 33 deaths for every 100,000 live births, 1,205 women died of maternal causes that year. That rate was more than twice as high for Black women, whose maternal mortality rate was 70 deaths for every 100,000 live births. The latest federal compilation of data from reviews of maternal deaths suggests that 84% were preventable.Experts believe that 2021’s spike in maternal mortality can be attributed at least partly to the Covid-19 pandemic, though it’s not clear exactly how. Perhaps infection and exposure to the virus made pregnant women more vulnerable; perhaps the pandemic caused some women to delay or forgo prenatal care as hospitals strained to treat the surge of virus patients and shutdowns made all kinds of care harder and riskier to get.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
Washington’s power is suddenly threatened by a newly confident China and disquiet among leaders in the global southIt’s a useful coincidence that the 20th anniversary of George W Bush and Tony Blair’s illegal attack on Iraq falls only a matter of weeks after the anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s illegal attack on Ukraine. Neither war was authorised by the UN. Both are marked by massive destruction and huge loss of life.The Bush/Blair invasion and occupation of Iraq, and its chaotic consequences, have taken the lives of more than a million Iraqi civilians, according to one survey. US forces committed innumerable war crimes, not least the torture of captured soldiers. At the Abu Ghraib detention centre near Baghdad, US officers humiliated Iraqi prisoners in violation of the Geneva conventions. The invasion provoked widespread resistance, but US counter-insurgency tactics involved raids on villages that led to massacres of unarmed civilians. Continue reading...
The strictest abortion law in the US doesn’t allow exceptions for medical emergencies – and efforts to change it face powerful opposition from the rightMonths after the implementation of the most stringent abortion ban in the country, conservative lawmakers in Tennessee have publicly acknowledged that the state’s ban poses grave risks to the lives of women.Now a political debate over how to change the law is centered on questions that would have been considered unthinkable before last June’s reversal of Roe v Wade: like how close to death a woman must be before a doctor may legally treat her if it means terminating her pregnancy, and whether women should be forced to carry embryos with fatal anomalies to term. Continue reading...
Planned Parenthood advocates say the ‘absurd’ draft legislation regarding periods would present a ‘reductive and binary view of sex’Florida lawmakers are considering a draft law to strengthen state control over sex education that its sponsor says would ban any instruction in schools about menstrual cycles before the sixth grade.The proposal comes as Florida’s Republican-dominated legislature, backed by Governor Ron DeSantis, has already passed a raft of laws limiting discussion in schools of gender and sexuality and reducing the emphasis on diversity in public schools. Continue reading...
Manhattan district attorney expected to file criminal charges against ex-president for payment to adult film star in 2016Donald Trump is bracing for his most legally perilous week since he left the White House, with the Manhattan district attorney likely to bring criminal charges against him over his role in paying hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels, as he huddled this weekend to strategize his legal and political responses.The former US president has posted in all-caps on his Truth Social platform that he expected to be “ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK” and called for his supporters to engage in protests – an ominous echo of his tweets urging protests in the lead-up to the January 6 US Capitol attack. Continue reading...
The conspiracy theorist was ordered to pay the families of the victims damages for claims that 2012 shooting was a hoaxRightwing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones appears to be moving his money to friends and family in an attempt to avoid paying out nearly $1.5bn in damages to the families of the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, a new report reveals.Last year, Jones was ordered to pay the huge damages following his years-long claims on his digital platform Infowars that the mass shooting was a hoax staged by the government to take away guns from Americans. Continue reading...
Alvin Bragg is expected to bring an indictment against Trump this week over hush payments to adult actor Stormy Daniels in 2016The Manhattan district attorney widely expected to bring an indictment against Donald Trump this week has vowed that his staff will not be intimidated after the former US president called for his supporters to protest any action against him.Trump triggered a flurry of frantic headlines and statements from his political allies on Saturday when he posted a message on social media claiming he was set to be arrested this Tuesday on charges of hush payments to adult actor Stormy Daniels. Continue reading...
Progressive Democrat launches offensive on politicians on the left and the right who supported Trump-era deregulation of US banksPolitical fall-out in the US from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank continued on Sunday when leftwing Senator Elizabeth Warren hit the morning talk shows and repeatedly called for an independent investigation into US bank failures and strongly criticised Federal Reserve finance officials.The progressive Democrat from Massachusetts, who has positioned herself as a consumer protection advocate and trenchant critic of the US banking system, told CBS’s Face the Nation that she did not have faith in San Francisco Federal Reserve president Mary Daly or Fed chairman Jerome Powell. Continue reading...
Death of Stephen Smith, 19, was ruled a hit-and-run but case was reopened after Murdaugh’s conviction of murder of wife and sonTwo weeks after South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh was convicted in the brutal murders of his wife and son, the body of a teenager who was found dead on a country road near the murder scene six years earlier is now set to be exhumed.Sandy Smith confirmed that the remains of her son Stephen, 19 at the time of his death, will undergo a private autopsy after a GoFundMe campaign raised $43,000 to pay for exhumation. Continue reading...
Many of us have indulged in fantasies of a more enriching job in a remote location. But in reality, even wrangling baby penguins would have its problems ...Fancy looking after a Hebridean island or counting penguins in Antarctica? Both roles are on offer currently, following much hyped opportunities to run a bookshop in the Maldives, become an Austrian hermit, or a lighthouse keeper at Cape Wrath.The enthusiasm with which “dream jobs” are greeted speaks to a communal hankering to chuck it all in. We’re emerging from an existential reckoning that made life feel precarious and precious, so we want to put our hands in soil, wake with the dawn chorus, get the camper van, write that novel. My WhatsApp threads return to this regularly: let’s get a €1 Sicilian house and a few goats and live off the land (no, none of us knows one end of a goat from the other).Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Scot Hollingsworth of Daytona Beach said he heard a noise and after opening door was bitten by 9ft alligator on the thighA Florida man answering a knock at his front door was promptly bitten by a 9ft long alligator when he opened it to see who was there.Scot Hollingsworth, of Daytona Beach, told local TV station WKMG that he was watching TV with his wife when he heard a bump at the door and got up to investigate. Continue reading...
When banks like Silicon Valley Bank collapse, money floods to bigger ones like JPMorgan. Clients know they’re ‘too big to fail’Greg Becker, the former CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, sold $3.6m of SBV shares on 27 February, just days before the bank disclosed a large loss that triggered its stock slide and collapse. Over the previous two years, Becker sold nearly $30m of stock.But Becker won’t rake in the most from this mess. Jamie Dimon, chair and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the biggest Wall Street bank, will probably make much more.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is 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 new 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...
Have you had a point-of-sale device spun round after minimal service inviting you to add a tip starting at 20%? You are not aloneI’m writing this column from Las Vegas where I’m attending a conference. This morning, I went to a coffee shop in the hotel. The cost of my small coffee was $6.49 and no, I am not kidding. Welcome to Vegas.To add insult to injury, the cashier who served me the coffee – which took her about five seconds – spun the point-of-sale device around and stared me in the eye as I looked down at that screen that is all-familiar to most of us: the request for a tip. The minimum tip displayed was 20%. Or I could choose “no tip.” What do I do? C’mon, what do you think I did? I walked away sipping my $7.79 small coffee. Continue reading...
Families demand federal investigation amid reports of deplorable conditions, rampant violence and inadequate medical servicesFamilies of 14 inmates who have died in a West Virginia jail in the past year amid reports of deplorable conditions, rampant violence and inadequate medical services are demanding a federal investigation into what they say is negligence on the part of state authorities.Recently the 14th death was recorded at the Southern regional jail in Beaver, West Virginia. Herbert Doss, 48, who had been incarcerated for three months, died of causes that are not yet known. Continue reading...
New York museum is among institutions reattributing works by painters born in what is now Ukraine – to a mixed responseQuestions of attribution are constantly under review by art scholars, but rarely are they so topical or heated as institutional efforts underway in the US and in Europe to reclassify art once described as Russian as Ukrainian.In New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has quietly changed the name of an 1899 painting by the French Impressionist Edgar Degas from Russian Dancer to Dancer in Ukrainian Dress. Continue reading...
Twenty years ago a US-led coalition launched its ‘shock and awe’ attack to topple Saddam Hussein. The reverberations are still being feltOn 20 March 2003, as bombs and missiles from the US-led coalition rained on Iraqi cities in the opening “shock and awe” campaign against Saddam Hussein, the tectonic plates of the post-Second World War international order shifted permanently.For those of us who covered the run-up to the war, the invasion and the long aftermath of an occupation marked by the country’s violent sectarian fracturing, the profound consequences of that momentous day were obscured by the shock of the unfolding events. Continue reading...
It’s not just Putin or the refusal of the major powers to disarm. Unstable regimes in Israel and North Korea are also raising global nuclear tensionsLeaders of unstable nuclear-armed states do dangerous and foolish things when under stress. They miscalculate, provoke, overreach. Given the febrile state of bilateral relations, last week’s aerial military clash between Russia and the US over the Black Sea inevitably intensified fears of nuclear escalation. The incident dramatised how dangerous Vladimir Putin, cornered by his existential Ukraine blunder, truly is – and the risks he is increasingly prepared to run. But he’s not the only one.As often the case over the past year, Putin relied on American restraint. US forces could easily have gone after the offending Su-27 fighter at its Crimea base. Each time Russia’s president darkly hints at going nuclear, that once unthinkable prospect becomes a little less outlandish – and western leaders must steel their nerves. Russia’s repeated bombing of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant fits this pattern of minacious brinkmanship. Continue reading...
Former president says he expects to be arrested on Tuesday but there has been no official confirmation of the likelihood or timing of charges being broughtTop Republicans, including some of Donald Trump’s potential rivals for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination, rushed to his defence after the former president said he expected to be arrested next week.On Saturday, Trump announced he would be arrested on Tuesday in a criminal case involving hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, but there has been no official confirmation on the likelihood that charges will be brought. Continue reading...
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