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Updated 2024-11-28 17:15
Dianne Feinstein: oldest serving senator says she ‘hasn’t been gone’ despite absence
The 89-year-old legislator insisted she had been working when questioned by reporters on Tuesday after being gone for three monthsA bizarre exchange with reporters has raised new questions about the return of Dianne Feinstein, California’s senior senator who has been absent from Washington for months due to shingles.Jim Newell, a reporter for Slate, ran into Feinstein shortly after the 89-year-old lawmaker voted on the Senate floor on Tuesday. When he and another journalist asked Feinstein how she has been received by her colleagues since returning to Washington, Feinstein appeared to insist that she had never left. Continue reading...
Biden speaks of 'devastating' effect of debt limit failure as he cuts short Asia tour – video
The US president has decided to cancel an upcoming visit to Australia and Papua New Guinea to focus on the debt limit standoff at home. Joe Biden had been due to address the Australian parliament and was also expected to meet with other leaders of the Quad. The US president said failure on debt negotiations would spark a recession and quoted Moody's as saying 8 million Americans would lose their jobs
Victor Wembanyama: Spurs win NBA lottery for ‘once-in-a-millennium’ star
Republican who expanded Kentucky voting opportunities wins primary
Michael Adams, who defended his state’s election system from claims of fraud, goes on to face Buddy Wheatley in NovemberKentucky’s Republican secretary of state, who had earned widespread praise for increasing his state’s voter turnout during the coronavirus pandemic and for expanding opportunities to vote, won his primary on Tuesday.Michael Adams faced a primary challenge from two Republicans who align themselves with the growing faction within the GOP who believe elections are frequently rigged and stolen. Adams will now face Buddy Wheatley, a Democrat and former state representative, in November. Continue reading...
Biden cancels Australia and Papua New Guinea visit as debt limit crisis looms
President, who will still visit Japan for G7 summit, hosts new talks with congressional leadersJoe Biden has cancelled a planned visit to Australia and Papua New Guinea to focus on debt limit talks as Washington stares into the abyss of a potentially catastrophic default.Biden still plans to head to Hiroshima, Japan, on Wednesday for the Group of Seven (G7) summit with leaders from some of the world’s leading economies. But he called off what was to be the first visit by a sitting US president to Papua New Guinea and a stop in Australia, where he was to meet with other leaders of the so-called Quad. Continue reading...
California police seek assailant who severed homeless man’s hand with sword
Police have yet to arrest attacker in incident near Los Angeles, as violence against homeless residents has increased in recent yearsPolice in Riverside, California, reportedly thought the detached hand residents had reported seeing on the sidewalk was a movie prop. Then they learned that someone was being treated for a severed hand.The man in the hospital said that he had been injured by someone wielding a sword on Saturday night, officer Ryan Railsback, a spokesperson for the Riverside police, said in a statement to the Guardian. Continue reading...
January 6 rioter shot in face by police sentenced to nearly two years in prison
Matthew Black was the first rioter to breach a barricade, and later rummaged through Ted Cruz’s desk as the senator hid in a closetA Capitol rioter from Alabama who was shot in the face by police but still invaded Congress with a knife on his hip and rummaged through Ted Cruz’s desk while the Texas senator hid in a closet, was sentenced on Tuesday to nearly two years in prison.On 6 January 2021, outside the Capitol in Washington, a police officer shot Joshua Matthew Black in his left cheek with a crowd-control munition. The resulting bloody hole in his face did not stop Black from occupying the Senate with other rioters after lawmakers ran. Continue reading...
Biden reportedly cuts Asia trip short as debt ceiling talks enter crunch time – as it happened
President will return to the US on Sunday immediately following G7 to ensure Congress takes action to avoid 1 June defaultWhile Republicans in statehouses under their control are moving to restrict abortion access, the party’s current presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has remained mum about how far he would go in curbing the procedure.He was asked repeatedly last week at a town hall hosted by CNN if he would sign a nationwide abortion ban, but refused to answer. He was similarly unclear in an interview published yesterday by the Messenger. Continue reading...
US attorney for Massachusetts to step down after ethics investigation
Rachael Rollins attended a fundraiser featuring first lady Jill Biden and accepted travel paid for by an outside groupRachael Rollins, the US attorney for Massachusetts, will resign after a months-long ethics investigation by the justice department inspector general into her appearance at a political fundraiser and other issues, her attorney said on Tuesday.The federal watchdog has yet to release its report but an attorney for Rollins said she would submit a letter of resignation to Joe Biden by close of business on Friday. Continue reading...
Gavin Newsom presidential run is ‘no-brainer’, Arnold Schwarzenegger says
Actor who earned the nickname ‘governator’ based on his roles in the Terminator films ran the golden state for eight years from 2003A presidential run by the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, is a “no-brainer”, according to one of the Democrat’s predecessors, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the film star and “governator” who ran the golden state for eight years from 2003.“I think it’s a no-brainer,” Schwarzenegger told the Hollywood Reporter in an interview published on Tuesday. “Every governor from a big state wants to take that shot.” Continue reading...
ChatGPT CEO shares concern over AI being used to interfere with elections – video
The CEO of OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT, told the US Senate he is concerned about the use of artificial intelligence to interfere with election integrity. Speaking before Congress for the first time, Sam Altman suggested that the US government should consider licensing and testing requirements for development of AI models. The White House has convened top technology CEOs for a hearing to discuss the future of artificial intelligence. Industry experts, including Altman, called on lawmakers to introduce a new regulatory agency for the technology to limit its misuse, while senators throughout the hearing drew parallels between social media and generative AI, and the lessons lawmakers had learned form the government's failure to act on regulating social platforms.
Alleged attacker of congressman’s staff had history of mental illness, police say
Xuan-Kha Tran Pham, 49, had also assaulted a women earlier on same day he struck at Democrat’s Virginia office, authorities sayA man who allegedly attacked two congressional workers with a metal baseball bat had a history of mental illness and had assaulted someone else earlier in the day, authorities said.The man, identified as Xuan-Kha Tran Pham, 49, of Fairfax, Virginia, attacked the Democratic congressman Gerry Connolly’s office on Monday, shattering windows and striking two women, including an intern on her first day on the job, authorities said. Continue reading...
Is Martha Stewart’s Sports Illustrated cover a diversity breakthrough? No, it’s just window dressing | Zoe Williams
Real change would be more than the tokenism of one magazine cover. Just see Edward Enninful’s Vogue for true inclusivityMartha Stewart, at 81, this week becomes the oldest cover star ever to grace Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. With her tousled beach hair, gorgeous pixie face, professional tan and stone swimsuit, well, it would be against my principles to judge whether she looks older or younger than 81, suffice it to say that she looks incredible.She has a silken orange cape draped over her shoulders – a bold choice, I thought, since it recalls the orange-jumpsuit uniform of her prison sentence for lying to federal investigators over a share trade in 2004, but maybe that’s deliberate and ironic. Or maybe I’m the only person who remembers that. “I hope this cover inspires you to challenge yourself to try new things, no matter what stage of life you are in,” she wrote on Instagram.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
Philadelphia 76ers fire Doc Rivers after latest playoff exit
Roger Ailes’s widow says Murdochs have ‘wreaked havoc’ on Fox News
Wife of former CEO forced out over sexual harassment allegations says Rupert Murdoch lacks her husband’s ‘genius’Rupert Murdoch’s family has “wreaked havoc” on Fox News, said the widow of Roger Ailes, the network’s former chief executive, adding that the 92-year-old media baron would “never come close” to her late husband’s “genius”.Ailes died on 18 May 2017 at the age of 77. The former Republican operative built Fox News into a rightwing media giant but died less than a year after he was forced out over allegations of extensive sexual harassment. Continue reading...
Silicon Valley Bank’s former CEO tells Senate he is ‘truly sorry’ for collapse
Greg Becker tells banking committee that takeover of SVB was ‘personally and professionally devastating’The former CEO of the collapsed lender Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has said he was “truly sorry” for what he called the “devastating” collapse of the bank that triggered the worst banking crisis since 2008.Speaking at a Senate banking committee hearing on Tuesday, Greg Becker said he believed the bank was responsive to regulator concerns about managing risk and working to address issues before an “unprecedented” bank run led to its failure. Continue reading...
Are you a doctor who hates treating gay people? Come to Florida, where Ron DeSantis has legalised bigotry | Arwa Mahdawi
The sunshine state’s healthcare professionals will soon be able to deny treatment on religious or moral grounds. Thanks a bunch, governorYou know what I love about living in the US? Freedom! You can choose between multiple overpriced insurance companies to provide you with healthcare, for example. The healthcare companies, in turn, can seemingly charge you whatever they like for their services. If they want to charge you $1,500 (£1,200) for some toenail fungus cream, that is their prerogative. That’s freedom, baby.As if this wasn’t glorious enough, the healthcare system in Florida has just had a new layer of freedom added to it. On 1 July, a new law goes into effect that means a doctor can look a potential patient up and down, decide they are giving off homosexual vibes and refuse to treat them because interacting with gay people goes against their personal beliefs. The doctor will not face any repercussions for denying care and has no obligation to refer the patient elsewhere.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
Arsenal’s Folarin Balogun opts to play for United States instead of England
US driver pulled over for speeding tried to switch places with dog, police say
Motorist maneuvered inside car before getting out on the passenger side following police stop in Springfield, ColoradoA driver who was pulled over for speeding and appeared to officers to be drunk tried to switch places with his dog in an attempt to avoid arrest, police in Colorado are alleging.An officer watched the motorist maneuvering inside the car before he got out on the passenger side on Saturday night in Springfield, a town of about 1,300 people on Colorado’s Eastern Plains, police said in a Facebook post on Sunday. Continue reading...
Missouri high-schooler suspended for recording teacher using racial slur
Mary Walton told not to attend class for inappropriate use of electronic device while teacher put on administrative leaveA Missouri high school sophomore who recorded a teacher using a racial slur during class has been suspended for three days.Mary Walton, a student at Glendale high school in Springfield, said that she was told on Friday to not return to school until Wednesday because she violated school district policy on inappropriate use of electronic devices, the Springfield News-Leader reported. Continue reading...
Former UFC champion Francis Ngannou signs with PFL after contentious split
Aaron Judge denies looking for signal before hitting home run against Blue Jays
Progressive organization Justice Democrats adopts four-day work week
Exclusive: group that helped elect lawmakers like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez embraces policy popular with leftwing leadersThe progressive organization Justice Democrats has adopted a four-day working week, a policy that has received praise from leading leftwing leaders like Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.Justice Democrats, which has helped elect progressive lawmakers like Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, shifted to a four-day working week for its 20 employees starting last August on a six-month trial basis. In March, the group decided to extend the policy indefinitely after its employees reported the change allowed them to better manage the grueling nature of campaign work. Continue reading...
No one has accepted real responsibility for the East Palestine spill | Zsuzsa Gyenes
There is still a disturbing chemical odor three months later – yet we’re fighting for accountability from Norfolk Southern, the Ohio governor and the CDCWhen a Norfolk Southern train derailed – spilling over 116,000 gallons of toxic petrochemicals, much of which ignited, less than a mile from my home in East Palestine – I was terrified. I knew this would disrupt life for me, my family, and our neighbors, likely for years to come.When we were forced to evacuate, I wouldn’t have imagined that three long months later my family and I would still be displaced and living in a hotel. Nor could I have imagined that we would be fighting tooth and nail for accountability from Norfolk Southern, pushing to get Mike DeWine, the Ohio Governor, to declare a state of emergency and desperately trying to get the CDC to provide clear guidelines for testing and monitoring. Continue reading...
Republicans aren’t fixing the migrant border plight. In fact they’re making it worse | Andrew Gawthorpe
Republicans seem gleeful at the possibility of ‘chaos’ and ‘disaster’ – and their policies make the humanitarian crisis worseLast week saw the end of Title 42, the Trump-era border restriction which was technically introduced as a health measure during the coronavirus pandemic. The policy allowed the Trump and then Biden administrations to expel without due process the vast majority of people seeking asylum at the United States-Mexico border. Given that the acute phase of the pandemic has passed, the end of the policy – which has been used about 2.7m times – was inevitable.But the end of Title 42 has also reignited the political firestorm over the US immigration and refugee system. Republicans have seemed to gleefully anticipate “chaos” and “disaster” at the border after the policy is lifted. Less biased observers are also concerned that the US refugee processing system will be overwhelmed by the sheer scale of people now expected to seek asylum. The Biden administration has come under fierce criticism from the left for a tough new policy of questionable legality which requires most refugees to seek asylum from abroad using a glitchy cellphone app called CBP One.Andrew Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States at Leiden University and the creator of America Explained, a newsletter and podcast Continue reading...
The gentrification font: how a sleek typeface became a neighborhood omen
The clean, modern typeface has adorned the New Yorker, Shake Shack and even HBO’s Girls – now it might bedeck your last home
FBI accused of failures but report finds no deep-state plot against Trump | First Thing
Agency ‘failed to uphold mission of strict fidelity’, special counsel John Durham concludes in investigation launched by Bill Barr. Plus, who is Twitter’s new CEO and can she fix its problems?Good morning.Special counsel John Durham found no evidence that the US justice department and the FBI conspired in a deep-state plot to investigate Donald Trump’s ties to Russia in 2016, though the report released on Monday found that the FBI’s handling of key aspects of the case were deficient.What do we know about the Durham investigation of an investigation? In May 2019, the then US attorney general in the Trump administration, William Barr, asked federal prosecutor John Durham, the US attorney in Connecticut, to investigate an investigation: the one carried out into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election and links between Donald Trump and Moscow. Here’s what else we know.Was anyone killed? After a sleepless night in which many locals sought refuge in bomb shelters, Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, gave an update on damage. He said there were three victims in the Solomyan district, which was hit by falling rocket debris. Rescuers extinguished blazes after vehicles caught fire. Continue reading...
CCTV video shows moments leading up to Banko Brown shooting – video
Security footage from a Walgreens in San Francisco shows the moment Michael Earl-Wayne Anthony, a private security guard, killed a young transgender man accused of shoplifting. Anthony told police later in the day he acted in self-defence
Vice is going bankrupt, BuzzFeed News is dead. What does it mean? | Margaret Sullivan
When it comes to news in the digital age, which journalism model will work?In a seminal 2009 essay, Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable, the brilliant New York University professor Clay Shirky made the point that journalism as we had known it for decades was finished – and for good reason.The reason, in a mere two words: the Internet.Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...
Ja Morant, masculinity and the misguided way of the gun | Lee Escobedo
The young NBA star has been suspended after a second incident with a firearm. He did nothing illegal but he is treading a dangerous pathI will get to the messy tale of Ja Morant shortly. But first, a personal history. I grew up in South Dallas. Our house was repeatedly broken into. Drive-bys were a regular occurrence. I was jumped often, walking to and from school. Escaping that level of purgatory for the creature comforts of middle-America capitalism was no small feat. Many of my friends were involved in gangs. I never joined in – I was too scared. My pops kept me off the streets as best he could, while protecting himself and his family from the terrors outside our door. He had multiple guns. A Glock rested inside his bedside dresser. A shotgun sat on top of a stack of Maxim magazines at the top of the closet.Most people in my neighborhood had firearms: many on the left act like the only people who are pro-gun in the US are backwoods rednecks preparing for a race war. But Black and brown communities have plenty of gun rights advocates too. They aren’t members of the NRA and don’t march in Maga hats to defend gun laws after school shootings but they exist. As an adult still living in the ‘hood in Texas, albeit a gentrified one, I still keep a shotgun in my closet. Growing up in poverty is a disease that you never quite cure. I have only touched my gun once – when I moved home. I hope that remains the case. I do not take my gun out. And if I did, it wouldn’t be on Instagram Live, something Morant, a fabulously talented young NBA player, has done … twice. Continue reading...
Jeremy Strong recalls his father’s life-saving act: ‘He broke all the bones in both his legs’
David Strong jumped in front of a car barreling down a street in Boston to save his son, taking the hit himselfJeremy Strong has won Emmy and Golden Globe awards for portraying a character with an abusive father on the HBO show Succession, but he did not draw any inspiration for the role from his relationship with his real dad, who once jumped in front of a car to save him from being run over, the actor has revealed.During an appearance on CBS Sunday Morning this past weekend, Strong recounted how he was eight years old and growing up in Boston when he ended up in the path of a car barreling down the street at about 40mph. Continue reading...
Suspect named in baseball bat attack at Democratic congressman’s office
Virginia congressman Gerry Connolly condemns ‘devastating and unconscionable’ assault on two staffers
White House releases show Biden’s book royalties fell sharply last year
The Bidens’ federal tax return showed earnings of nearly $580,000 last year; Kamala Harris and her husband reported $457,000Joe Biden’s personal finances changed little between 2022 and the previous year, though his book royalties fell sharply, according to White House financial disclosure reports released on Monday.Biden earned between $2,500 and $5,000 in book royalties in 2022, down from $30,000 a year earlier. He also earned less than $3,000 in “speaking and writing engagements”, from close to $30,000 last year, the disclosures show. Continue reading...
New Mexico shooting leaves three people dead and nine injured
Two police officers were among the wounded in the shooting in Farmington, in the north-west of the stateAt least three people have been killed and multiple people injured after a shooting in Farmington, New Mexico, where police killed the suspected 18-year-old gunman, authorities said on Monday.The incident occurred around 11am in Farmington, a city of about 50,000 people in the north-west of the state adjacent to the Navajo Nation. Officers responding to several calls about a shooting found “a chaotic scene” where a man was firing at people on a residential street, said Baric Crum, the Farmington police deputy chief, during a news conference. Continue reading...
Video shows Walgreens guard killing trans organizer Banko Brown as he left store
San Francisco district attorney says shooting was ‘reasonable’ and no charges will be filed, sparking outrageSurveillance footage from a Walgreens in San Francisco shows the moment a private security guard killed a young transgender man accused of shoplifting.The footage captures the guard tackling and punching Banko Brown, 24, on 27 April before fatally shooting him as he exited the store. Continue reading...
Rudy Giuliani sued by former associate alleging sexual assault and harassment
Claim also alleges ex-mayor said he was ‘selling pardons for $2m, which he and Trump would split’A former associate of Rudy Giuliani sued the former New York mayor, presidential candidate and attorney to Donald Trump for $10m on Monday, alleging “abuses of power, wide-ranging sexual assault and harassment, wage theft and other misconduct” including “alcohol-drenched rants that included sexist, racist and antisemitic remarks”.Filed in New York state, Noelle Dunphy’s suit includes the allegation that Giuliani “often demanded oral sex while he took phone calls on speaker phone from high-profile friends and clients, including then-President Trump”. Continue reading...
FBI investigation into Trump-Russia collusion relied on shaky intelligence, says John Durham report – as it happened
Special counsel also concludes no charges should be brought against the FBIThe Guardian’s Alexandra Villarreal has more on just how Joe Biden is trying to discourage migrants, and why advocacy groups say in this area, he’s not that different from Donald Trump:Last week, the Biden administration toughened its stance against migration at the US-Mexico border through a new federal regulation that severely restricts access to asylum. This “Circumvention of Lawful Pathways” rule effectively replaces the Title 42 public health order, which Donald Trump introduced ostensibly to stem Covid-19 but has functioned increasingly as an immigration enforcement tool, allowing border officials to quickly expel migrants without the chance to request asylum in the US. Title 42 ended on 11 May. Continue reading...
Trump-Russia: what we know about the Durham investigation of an investigation
William Barr asked special counsel in 2019 to investigate the FBI investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia in 2016In May 2019, the then US attorney general in the Trump administration, William Barr, asked federal prosecutor John Durham, the US attorney in Connecticut, to investigate an investigation: the one carried out into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election and links between Donald Trump and Moscow.Durham had a background in investigating corruption on either side of the political aisle, and for attorneys general from both parties. Continue reading...
FBI accused of failures but key report finds no deep-state plot against Trump
Agency ‘failed to uphold mission of strict fidelity’, special counsel John Durham concludes in investigation launched by Bill BarrSpecial counsel John Durham found no evidence that the US justice department and the FBI conspired in a deep-state plot to investigate Donald Trump’s ties to Russia in 2016, though the report released on Monday found that the FBI’s handling of key aspects of the case were deficient.The Durham report was sharply critical of how the FBI decided to open the counterintelligence investigation into Trump, known as “Crossfire Hurricane”, accusing top officials at the bureau of relying on raw and uncorroborated information to continue the inquiry.Durham said the FBI was more cautious of allegations of foreign influence when it came to the Clinton campaign, and did not pursue evidence in two cases of foreign governments trying to gain influence with Clinton while providing defensive briefings, unlike with the Trump campaign;Durham said the FBI was overly reliant on investigative tips from Trump’s political opponents and did not rigorously analyze the information it received, which extended the investigation and led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate Trump;Durham said the FBI decided to move ahead with Crossfire Hurricane despite a lack of information from the intelligence community that corroborated the hypothesis on which it was predicated and FBI agents ignored information that exonerated key people in the case;Durham suggested that Crossfire Hurricane was “triggered” by the so-called Steele dossier, when it was in fact based on a tip from an Australian diplomat in London that a Trump campaign aide appeared to have advance knowledge about Russia releasing damaging information on Clinton. Continue reading...
‘America is broken’: FBI criticized for mass-shooting survival video
The 2020 video, which depicts a bar shooting, instructs people to flee, hide and fight in order not to be killed in an attackA newly resurfaced FBI video purportedly training Americans to give themselves their best chance of surviving a deadly mass shooting is drawing scorn across the US and abroad.In the video, released in 2020 by the US’s top law enforcement agency, actors portraying everyday Americans explain to viewers ways in which they could at least survive – or, preferably, even stop – a mass shooting once the bullets start flying. Continue reading...
Gloria Molina, groundbreaking Chicana California leader, dies aged 74
Molina was the first Latina to serve in the state assembly, the LA city council and on the city’s board of supervisorsGloria Molina, a groundbreaking Chicana leader in California state and local politics for more than 30 years, has died after a three-year struggle with cancer, her family announced. She was 74.Molina died on Sunday evening at her Mount Washington home, surrounded by her family, her daughter, Valentina Martinez, said in a statement. Continue reading...
The Guardian view on Turkey’s election results: a step towards autocracy? | Editorial
Confounding the polls, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is now on course to extend his rule into a third decadeIn the lead-up to Turkey’s presidential election on Sunday, there seemed to be good grounds to believe that voters were about to turn their back on Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s authoritarian brand of nationalism. His assumption of quasi-monarchical presidential powers in 2018 had succeeded in uniting a perennially divided opposition against him. Polls suggested a close race, but placed the president’s main rival for power, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, significantly ahead. Requiring a vote above 50% to win outright and avoid a runoff, Mr Kılıçdaroğlu’s declared aspiration was to “finish it in the first round”.That optimism has turned out to be sadly misplaced. As it transpired, it was Mr Erdoğan who almost won at the first time of asking, winning over 49% of votes to Mr Kılıçdaroğlu’s 45%. The coalition led by the president’s Justice and Development party (AKP) is also set to win a surprise majority in the Grand National Assembly. That outcome will stymie opposition attempts to restore parliamentary democracy to Turkey, irrespective of the result of the presidential runoff in a fortnight’s time. Continue reading...
Rick Perry hints at 2024 presidential bid and revives memories of debate gaffe
Republican former Texas governor, who has run twice before, once forgot name of government department he planned to abolishThe former Texas governor Rick Perry’s announcement on Sunday that he could mount a third run for the Republican presidential nomination encountered widespread mockery over a famous debate stage gaffe in which he forgot the name of a government department he said he would abolish.But Perry, 73, also ran into stormier waters, being accused of lying regarding his alleged involvement in Donald Trump’s election subversion. Continue reading...
Doyle Brunson, the ‘Godfather of Poker’, dies at age of 89
US professor breaks record for longest time living underwater
Joseph Dituri set the record on his 74th day at a lodge situated at the bottom of a 30ft-deep lagoon and plans to stay 100 daysA university professor broke a record for the longest time living underwater without depressurization this weekend at a Florida Keys lodge for scuba divers.Joseph Dituri’s 74th day residing in Jules’ Undersea Lodge, situated at the bottom of a 30ft-deep lagoon in Key Largo, wasn’t much different than his previous days there since he submerged on 1 March. Continue reading...
Erdoğan is in the lead in Turkey’s elections – and democracy is likely to be the loser | Constanze Letsch
The opposition had to face down a hostile media and the president’s entrenched power. This disappointment could further skew the second roundIt was a tense and confusing night after election polls closed in Turkey yesterday. The official result is still unclear, but a runoff between the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and his main challenger, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, looks increasingly likely. Neither seem to have reached the necessary 50% threshold to win the election outright, but Erdoğan is clearly in the lead. In a press conference in the early morning hours, Kılıçdaroğlu said he that he was confident that he would win the runoff. However, enthusiasm, both onstage and among his supporters, was muted. These were not the faces of winners.While many thought that the opposition’s campaign, centred around political reform, unity and an end to the toxic polarisation in the country, was a breath of fresh air; others have criticised Kılıçdaroğlu’s approach for targeting mostly those who already agreed with his views, for his blue-sky attitude and focus on positive soundbites on social media.Constanze Letsch is a former Turkey correspondent for the Guardian and has recently finished a PhD on urban renewal in IstanbulDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
I’m a drag queen in Tennessee. The state’s anti-drag law is silly, nasty, and wrong | Bella DuBalle
Even a Trump-appointed judge agrees that this law is probably a blatant violation of the first amendmentI am the show director at Atomic Rose, a nightclub in Memphis, Tennessee. I first discovered drag through Shakespeare. I’m a founding member of Tennessee Shakespeare Company, and I got to play some drag roles there. Growing up in the conservative south, I had learned to suppress anything considered feminine as a safety mechanism. Drag was the first time I was able to put the feminine parts of me forefront, as a source of pride and strength rather than shame or weakness. I fell in love with the art, and I’ve been doing it now for over a decade.On 2 March, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed into law two bills targeting the LGBTQ+ community. The first, SB1, outlaws all gender-affirming healthcare for minors. SB3, the “anti-drag bill,” redefines drag performers as adult cabaret artists and classifies drag as a prurient art form. “Prurient” is a legal term referring to a shameful or morbid interest in sex.Bella DuBalle is a drag artist in Tennessee Continue reading...
There is nothing un-African about being gay. Museveni’s bigotry will cost lives | Linda Mafu
As an African Aids activist and proud mother, I’ll fight Uganda’s homophobic bill, which denies my gay son’s right to existA toxic wave of homophobia is surging across east Africa. It is crashing down in Uganda, where members of parliament recently passed a bill that makes being gay a crime punishable by death and not reporting homosexuality a criminal offence. The most common refrain echoed by the anti-gay movement is that homosexuality is “un-African”.That belief is totally unfounded and ahistorical. As an African mother who has raised a gay child, it breaks my heart to hear such arguments. I know that my son and thousands of other children across Africa are both gay and fully, proudly African. Continue reading...
‘Impossible to hold him accountable’: DeSantis signs laws to ease 2024 run
Measures would let him campaign while serving as Florida governor and shield travel records from publicRon DeSantis is using the final weeks before he reportedly launches a presidential campaign to modify Florida law to allow him to run while serving as governor and reduce transparency over political spending and his travel.DeSantis is poised to sign a bill that would exempt him from Florida’s “resign-to-run” law, so that he won’t have to give up his office in order to run for president. Under existing state law, if he were to run, DeSantis would have had to submit a resignation letter before Florida’s qualifying deadline this year and step down by inauguration day in 2025. Last month, Republicans in the state legislature passed a measure that says the restriction does not apply to those running for president or vice-president. Continue reading...
First Thing: Runoff increasingly likely in Turkish elections
President Erdoğan faces serious challenge in elections that could see runoff vote against Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. Plus, why do so many generation Z Americans put on British accents?
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