UCLA watched the chaos unfold in the middle of the night and did nothing until it was far too lateThings had been tense at the University of California, Los Angeles, with some ugly jibes and the occasional shove exchanged between students who support Israel's war on Gaza and those who have set up encampments to call for a permanent ceasefire and the university's divestment from companies that arm and otherwise profit from Israel's occupation and military incursions in the Palestinian territories.But what happened in the middle of the night last Tuesday was no scuffle. It was not even one more of the outsized, excessively brutal raids that college administrations have invited the police to inflict on their students.Judith Levine is a Brooklyn journalist and essayist, a contributing writer to the Intercept, and the author of five books Continue reading...
National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center issued a rare high risk for central Oklahoma and southern KansasMillions of people in the central US could see powerful storms on Monday including long-track tornadoes, hurricane-force winds and baseball-sized hail, forecasters said.Much of Oklahoma and parts of Kansas are at the greatest risk of bad weather - including areas in Oklahoma, such as Sulphur and Holdenville, still recovering from a tornado that killed four people and left thousands without power last week. Continue reading...
by Sam Levine and Alice Herman in Madison, Wisconsin on (#6MKP2)
Mayor appoints Paulina Gutierrez to lead election commission, replacing Claire Woodall, in key battleground state's biggest cityMilwaukee will replace its top election official with just under six months until the presidential election, the city's mayor announced on Monday.Mayor Cavalier Johnson appointed Paulina Gutierrez to take over as executive director of the Milwaukee election commission, replacing Claire Woodall who had served as the director since July 2020. Continue reading...
Workers say tentative agreement was reached for first union contract after threats of walkout during gala, a major fashion eventWorkers at Conde Nast, the media empire behind Vogue, Vanity Fair and GQ, announced a tentative agreement has been reached for a first union contract after threatening to stage a walkout during the Met Gala on Monday evening.The Conde Nast Union, which represents about 540 editorial workers, has been bargaining for a union contract since September 2022. It is affiliated with the NewsGuild of New York. Continue reading...
Flooding in parts ofTexasafter days of heavy rain has displaced thousands of people. Around Houston there were more than 400 rescues from homes, rooftops and roads covered in murky water. Rangers used boats in waist-deep water to rescue people and pets who had not left there homes in time Continue reading...
I have trespassed in peaceful protest. I have shutdown government offices in civil disobedience. I have made the powerful uncomfortable. That's the pointIn America, the student movement has been seriously radicalized wherever police and police brutality intervened in essentially nonviolent demonstrations: occupations of administration buildings, sit-ins, et cetera." - Hannah Arendt, observing Columbia University protests in 1968.When you've been in the midst of a demonstration that devolves into chaos and violence, you find out in a hurry if you're able to put aside your own terror to still uphold the needs of the many and to maintain the discipline of your values. This has happened to me more than once. That tension has always been a reminder to me that democracy is a choice and that citizenship is a full-contact sport. Continue reading...
Donald Trump's would-be running mate has already outraged the US by shooting her own pet. This is no time to double downWhen Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor being vetted as a candidate for Donald Trump's vice-president, admitted in her memoir to having shot and killed her 14-month-old puppy, I have to admit I thought it was a play. She was just testing the waters: how much could she insult human decency without making a dent in her numbers? As the battle rages on, I'm coming to accept that the benighted wire-haired pointer did, for a short time, exist, and was executed for a real crime: chicken killing. It seems a tiny bit unfair, given the two centuries of wire-haired pointer breeding that have gone into creating exactly this fixation with upland (which is to say, non-waterfowl) bird work. But that's exactly what you'd expect a liberal to say. Next I'll be on about the death penalty.Digging in, Noem has gone on to say that not only was she right to execute her pointer, but also that Joe Biden has been remiss in pardoning Major and Commander, both German shepherds inveterately hostile to secret service agents. Commander, with a charge sheet of 24 biting incidents, should have been put down ages ago, according to Noem. He is no longer at the White House, though history doesn't relate his new address. Major, meanwhile, was sent to live with friends in Delaware after a biting incident involving a National Park employee. No excuses for that - public servants ought to be able to go about their duties bite-free - but to have a thing for guys in parks is less bad, I would contend, than having an aversive fear response to armed secret service agents when you're the dog of the US president. It's possible, of course, that both dogs have been destroyed - and gone to live with friends in Delaware" is what they say to Joe Biden when they mean gone to live on a farm". Continue reading...
School announced it will switch to smaller celebrations in its 19 colleges, almost three weeks after pro-Palestinian protests beganColumbia University has announced that it will be cancelling its university-wide commencement ceremony this month and switching to smaller celebrations in its 19 colleges, almost three weeks after pro-Palestinian protests erupted at the Ivy League institution.A university official told the Guardian that the decision to scrap a large commencement ceremony was driven in part by security concerns. Most of the events will be shifted from the main lawn of the Morningside campus, which became the center of students protests calling for the university to divest from Israel, and moved to an athletics center further north in Manhattan. Continue reading...
South Dakota governor and Trump VP hopeful refuses to back down amid scandal over animal killings and North Korea claimTuesday will see publication of No Going Back, a campaign book by the South Dakota governor, Kristi Noem, that generated unusual buzz after the Guardian revealed how Noem describes in detail the day she shot dead her dog, Cricket, which she deemed untrainable and dangerous, and an unnamed goat.The revelation sparked a political firestorm, widely held to have incinerated Noem's chances of being named running mate to Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Continue reading...
As a bloke, I have been met with disbelief and suspicion when I've applied for part-time work. Didn't I realise this was women's work?The job I was applying for was three days a week. It was a backwards step, career-wise, but the hours were attractive. By that I mean that the role's part-time nature would allow me to continue meeting my KPIs as majority parent.I could keep up with all that important driving and shouting that comprises a career as primary caregiver - the constant shuttling from school to ballet to football to dentist and, more generally, the endless forcing of kids to do things that they will really enjoy. Continue reading...
Much is at stake as Republicans and Democrats vote in the Super Tuesday primaries, and a Biden and Trump rematch loomsAs a Joe Biden v Donald Trump rematch looms, much is at stake. From the future of reproductive rights to the chances of meaningful action on climate change, from the strength of US support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, and Israel in its war with Hamas, to the fate of US democracy itself, existential issues are firmly to the fore.Here's a look at why. Continue reading...
by Ramon Antonio Vargas in New Orleans on (#6MKK8)
As high school students, Calcea Johnson and Ne'Kiya Jackson worked to find valid new proof for the 2,000-year-old theoremTwo college freshmen who, during their final year of high school, found a new way to prove Pythagoras's theorem by using trigonometry - which mathematicians for generations thought was impossible - have since uncovered multiple more such proofs, they revealed in a national interview on Sunday.We found five, and then we found a general format that could potentially produce at least five additional proofs," Calcea Johnson said on CBS's 60 Minutes, a little more than a year after she and Ne'Kiya Jackson collaborated on an accomplishment that earned them international recognition. Continue reading...
Almost entirely white group made offensive, hurtful, and unacceptable' statements with racist overtones', school saysThe conduct of at least one student at the University of Mississippi is under official investigation after white counter-protesters at a pro-Palestinian demonstration made what the school called offensive, hurtful, and unacceptable" statements with racist overtones".The university's chancellor, Glenn Boyce, said that a conduct investigation had been launched into one student and more might follow in the wake of Thursday's volatile scenes on campus. The clash occurred after a diverse group of about 30 students protesting against Israel's war in Gaza were outnumbered by almost entirely white counter-protesters at a ratio of 10 to one, according to the Mississippi Free Press. Continue reading...
Trump Steaks, Trump Vodka, and various Trump casinos have all failed - but has the ex-president finally found himself a winning product?There was a time, not so long ago, that Donald Trump did not seem to be very familiar with the Bible.When he first ran for the nomination of the very Christian Republican party, Trump was unable to name a single Bible verse. Early in his 2016 presidential campaign he referred to the eucharist as a little cracker". In a subsequent church visit, as he attempted to prove his religious credentials, he put cash in a plate that was meant to hold the communion. Continue reading...
Cosmetic procedures are on the rise among younger people; I'm barely 30. Still this is about more than just clinging to youthEveryone goes through it: a reckoning with one's own mortality in the mirror, poking at eye bags and tugging at folds of loose skin. Am I looking a bit rough? It's part of the human condition to fear ageing, but among millennials and gen Z there seems to be a heightened anxiety around growing older, coupled with an increasingly casual attitude towards getting fillers and Botox compared with previous generations.Almost half of millennial women polled by the BBC in 2019 said they believed that having a cosmetic procedure was akin to having a haircut. I can say from experience that it is not. Like many, I have fallen victim to negative anti-ageing rhetoric. After months of staring at my tired face on Zoom calls during lockdown, I felt as if my hot years were slipping through my fingers. When the world opened up, I found a doctor to restore" my hollowed out under-eyes with 1ml of filler. I was barely 28.Georgina Lawton is the author of Raceless: In Search of Family, Identity and the Truth About Where I BelongDo 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...
Bureau of Labor Statistics releases latest estimate of how much labor receives of national income, showing bleak declineWhen Jesse Motte began working at a Starbucks inside a Target store in Columbia, South Carolina, more than two years ago, $15 an hour sounded great. He was excited to start because it was the most he had ever made after working for years in the service industry.The excitement has dissipated due to his inconsistent and erratic work schedule, the rising costs of necessities and the minuscule raises he and his co-workers receive annually. His most recent annual wage increase was $0.37 an hour. Continue reading...
Far-right congresswoman has spearheaded effort to oust fellow Republican as speaker but motion to vacate widely expected to failThe House is expected to vote this week on a motion to remove Republican Mike Johnson as speaker, but the effort, spearheaded by hard-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, faces virtually no chance of success.Greene announced on Wednesday that she would move forward with forcing a vote on Johnson's removal this week, following through on a threat she first issued in late March. Greene has consistently attacked Johnson for advancing bills that have attracted widespread bipartisan support, such as the government spending proposal approved in March and the foreign aid package signed into law last month. Continue reading...
Radical honesty isn't for the faint-hearted, but it's one of the greatest joys I've ever discoveredI never used to think of myself as a liar. I always saw myself as an honest person. The only time I'd ever veer from the truth was to protect someone's feelings. But that wasn't really lying, I would tell myself, it was an act of kindness!And then I had a therapy session, where I realised that all of this was actually people-pleasing behaviour and it turned out I was a prolific liar. Not only that, but according to my therapist, by constantly hiding my true feelings to protect those I loved, I was blocking them from ever getting to know the real me and creating true intimacy.Radhika Sanghani is a writer and author. Her children's book The Girl Who Couldn't Lie is published on 9 May Continue reading...
For those who like their boxing straight up, the Mexican's win on Saturday night solidified his status as the signature fighter of this eraBoxing has changed. HBO and Showtime are gone. Once dominant fighters like Roy Jones, Bernard Hopkins, Andre Ward, and the Klitschko Brothers have left the arena. Big fights are gravitating to Saudi Arabia.In recent years, through it all, there has been one constant - Canelo Alvarez.Thomas Hauser's email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book - a memoir titled My Mother and Me - is now available in stores. In 2019, he was selected for boxing's highest honor - induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Continue reading...
At Columbia University I saw young people who feel they have no choice but to risk their futuresOn a hot day last week, the pavements outside Columbia University were heaving. About 200 protesters were gathered, making a noise that was bigger than their numbers, raising pro-Palestine chants and signs. It was a disparate crowd, diverse across ethnicities and generations. I've lived in this neighbourhood all my life," said one of them when I asked him why he was there. One smiling elderly lady walked through the crowd offering small bottles of water. A helicopter circled overhead. The police who encircled the crowd were jittery, yelling at passersby to keep moving, and raising the temperature of what was a loud but perfectly orderly and amiable crowd.Once inside the campus, I made my way to the reason for protesters, the police and the high security at the university gates: an encampment of students on a patch of lawn at the heart of campus. It had been up for about two weeks at this point, after a series of demands to university administrators, including divestment from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid", were not met. Continue reading...
Largely white, male group taunts pro-Palestinian protesters on campus and one man makes racist gesture towards Black womanDozens of students at the University of Mississippi gathered this week to protest against Israel's war in Gaza and to call for the state's flagship university to be transparent in its potential dealings with Israel.There were hundreds of counter-protesters, in contrast to the few dozen pro-Palestinian protesters. The scene evoked memories of the resistance to the civil rights struggle in the US south six decades earlier. Continue reading...
Officers in riot gear raid encampment at dawn as university warns demonstrators that failure to leave could lead to arrestPolice have dismantled the student-led Palestinian solidarity encampment at the University of Southern California.About 4am on Saturday, as many as 100 Los Angeles police officers in riot gear raided the encampment at dawn as anti-war student demonstrators slept in the tents. In a series of tweets during the raid, the university warned demonstrators to leave the area, adding that people who don't leave could be arrested". Continue reading...
Republicans accuse president of weak response, but prominent Democrats claim he has been very strong from the beginning'Some Democrats rallied to the defense of Joe Biden on Sunday as the president came under increased criticism over his response to pro-Palestinian student protests and his handling of Israel's war on Gaza.Republicans have seized on Biden's response to the protests, which have seen more than2,000 people arrested around the country, accusing him of a weak response. But prominent Democrats, including Biden re-election campaign co-chairperson Mitch Landrieu, the former mayor of New Orleans, claimed the president has been very strong about this from the beginning". Continue reading...
Democrat says country is going off track after Trump compares Biden administration to Germany's fascist secret policeThe senior congressional Democrat James Clyburn has responded to remarks made by Donald Trump at a private event on Saturday in which he compared the Biden administration with the Gestapo secret police in fascist Germany, saying it was incredible, but it's not surprising".The 83-year-old South Carolina Democrat added that Trump is given to hyperbole on every subject that he ever approaches ... The country got off track after that 1876 election and we are approaching the same kinds of elements today." Continue reading...
From Arsenal's crucial goalscorer to another rudderless performance from Tottenham, we hand out honors (and dishonors) from the top-flight weekendWe witnessed man take flight in Manchester on Saturday, when Erling Haaland rose at the back post to impale a Rodri cross into the far corner. Behold: Haaland with his finest Michael Jordan impression.Not content with His Airness moment, Haaland added another three goals in City's 5-1 win over Wolves, taking his tally in club football to 200 in five seasons. Not bad," Haaland said after the game. Continue reading...
Yolanda George, mother of Christopher Gilbert, calls on police to make arrest after incident in Louisiana in AprilThe family of a 26-year-old Louisiana man who has brain damage after a friend allegedly pushed him into a lake despite him being unable to swim is calling on authorities to deliver them justice.Christopher Gilbert's family's pleas came after he nearly drowned on 14 April while at a lakefront restaurant by Lake D'Arbonne in the northern Louisiana town of Farmerville. Continue reading...
South Dakota governor and possible Trump running mate says she made a choice between [my children] and a dangerous animal'The South Dakota governor and Republican vice-presidential hopeful Kristi Noem asked the American public to consider having to make a choice between your children or a dangerous animal", as she again defended her killing of a 14-month-old dog.I would ask everybody in the country to put themselves in that situation," Noem told CBS's Face the Nation about her decision to shoot the dog, named Cricket, after the animal ruined a pheasant hunt and killed a neighbor's chickens. Continue reading...
Joe Biden and Donald Trump are the two oldest candidates in US history. If either needs to be replaced, what next?Americans are bracing for a rare presidential rematch between the two oldest candidates in US history: the 81-year-old president Joe Biden and the 77-year-old former president Donald Trump.Concerns about their age, mental fitness and the possibility that Trump could be convicted of a felony and sentenced to jail time have raised questions about what would happen in the extraordinary event one of them dies, becomes incapacitated or abruptly withdraws. Continue reading...
The 1978 world champion and his son are frustrated by their rejected bid to launch an F1 team but are not giving up hopeThe former Formula One world champion Mario Andretti, perhaps the most successful driver in US history, is certainly at ease in the paddock for this weekend's Miami GrandPrix.The 84-year-old, who won his F1 championship in 1978 for Lotus and has also taken four IndyCar titles, victories at the Indy 500, the Daytona 500 and has been honoured as the US driver of the year in three separate decades, still revels in immersing himself in the sport and his pleasure at its burgeoning revival in his home country is palpable. Continue reading...
A flood watch remains in effect through Sunday afternoon after forecasters predict additional rainfall in Harris countyHigh waters flooded neighborhoods around Houston on Saturday following heavy rains that resulted in crews rescuing more than 400 people from homes, rooftops and roads engulfed in murky water. Others prepared to evacuate their properties.A flood watch remained in effect through Sunday afternoon after forecasters predicted additional rainfall Saturday night and the likelihood of major flooding in Harris county, the nation's third-largest county which includes Houston, and nearby areas. Continue reading...
Authorities characterized the wreck as only ... a traffic crash' rather than an intentional, politically motivated actFor the second time since January, a motorist crashed into the gates of the White House on Saturday.The driver in Saturday's case was pronounced dead at the scene after smashing a speeding car into an outer gate of the US president's home and workplace. Authorities characterized the wreck as only ... a traffic crash" rather than an intentional, politically motivated act. Continue reading...
Beware what the fitness gurus tell you: the body has its limits. Perhaps that's why orthopaedic waiting lists are so longI am preparing for an anaesthetist to sink a hypodermic needle into my back at a busy London hospital ahead of a scheduled surgery to replace my knee. Knowing this might be painful, I ask a fellow patient how he got his mind around the jab. Two spliffs of good dope worked for me," he confessed. I'm yet to try that, but this is my second left knee replacement in less than 15 years - an increasingly common story as our population ages and obesity levels cause growing strain on our joints.More than 2m hip and knee replacements have been performed in the UK since the early 2000s and waiting lists continue to grow. By 2060, demand for hip and knee joint replacement (based on data for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man) is estimated to increase by almost 40%. Continue reading...
Former England cricketer Monty Panesar is to stand for parliament, but he doesn't seem to know what his own policies areThere's an old adage that says sport and politics don't mix. It's a moot point with persuasive arguments on both sides. But in light of former England spin bowler Monty Panesar's jaw-dropping radio interview last week as George Galloway's Workers Party of Britain's prospective candidate for Ealing Southall, west London, in thenext election, perhaps a more pertinent question is whether sportspeople and politics are a propitious union.Panesar, once described as the best finger spinner in the world", was asked about the party's commitment to leave Nato, which is one of its key policies. He admitted that he didn't have a deep knowledge" of Nato but explained that his party wanted to quit the military alliance to prevent illegal immigration. Continue reading...
The protests sweeping US universities have brought intense division, but some students have treasured hope, unity, solidarity and loveSeven months ago, before Hamas stormed into Israel, killing roughly 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostage, Eleanora Ginsborg and Samar Omer had never met.But in the attack's violent aftermath, Ginsborg and Omer, students at the University of California, San Diego, forged a new friendship - and a new sense of activism-fueled purpose. A third student who already knew Omer like a sister", and requested to go by the pseudonym Hala Abdallah out of safety concerns, completed the group. Continue reading...
Depending on the expert, either Biden or Trump is likely to pull ahead, but nothing about this election - especially events - is predictableYou know what I hate?" Donald Trump asked in Freeland, Michigan, on Wednesday night. When these guys get on television, they say - pundits, you know, the great pundits that never did a thing in their whole lives - You know, we have two very unpopular candidates. We have Biden or we have Trump. These are very unpopular.'"Watched by a crowd of adoring fans in Make America Great Again (Maga) regalia, against the backdrop of a plane marked Trump" in giant gold letters, the former US president protested a little too much: I'm not unpopular!" Continue reading...
Biden's call for order after on-campus clashes and mass arrests of pro-Palestinian protesters further threatens the youth voteWhen student Lauren Brown first heard the commotion, including firecrackers, she assumed the sounds were coming from nearby frat houses. Then, at around four in the morning, she heard helicopters. Later, she awoke to news and footage of a violent attack by pro-Israeli protesters on an encampment set up to oppose the ongoing war in Gaza.It was hard to watch," said Brown, 19, a freshman at the University of California, Los Angeles, whose dorm was near the encampment. And I wondered where the police were. I saw posts from people talking about them being teargassed and maced and campus security was just watching." Continue reading...
Emerging from Covid's shadow, the city is resonating with glamour, politics and power - and the traffic jams are building up tooCall it a return to IRL (In Real Life). New Yorkers are experiencing a bracing resumption of the physical experience of living in the city, four years after the onset of the pandemic upended routines, pushed people online and left much of the population, as in so many places, wondering if normality would ever return.Uptown, police have broken up student protests on the Columbia and City University campuses condemning Israel's attack on Gaza. Downtown, a furious Donald Trump is commandeering attention from the courthouse on the edge of Chinatown, snarling up traffic as his motorcade travels to and fro. President Biden's fundraising trips to the city to fund his re-election are having a similareffect. Continue reading...
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