The Tory chairman’s £5m tax ‘error’ shows how the other half lives it up, and the murkiness of politics run by and for the super-rich“Let me tell you about the very rich,” F Scott Fitzgerald once wrote. “They are different from you and me … Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are.” For that reason they will always be an awkward fit in the world of democratic politics.The past few days have provided ample reminders of what happens when the very rich take control. The stench emanating from this government reprises John Major’s last days of “sleaze”. But the sums of money back then look paltry compared to the extraordinary finances of the multimillionaires who now fill the Tory benches.Polly Toynbee 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...
I have started giving away my books – sometimes even putting them in with the recycling. Why keep a novel that could delight someone else?I used to have, or rather hoard, a lot of books. Still do, I think, at least by the standards of the average home, but I’m doing my best to get rid. In the last couple of years I have given away hundreds. If the thought of this fills you with horror, then maybe look away from this next part, where I confess that sometimes I even put them in the recycling. Only the really objectionable ones, that I feel I am saving the reader from by taking them out of circulation.The big book purge began when I decided to go through the shelves and discard any book I was vaguely embarrassed to have in the house, for reasons of quality, subject matter, politics or author (look at your shelves and you probably have your own equivalents). Since then, I’ve been jettisoning them every few months with no regrets. Only twice have I have needed to look something up in a book I’ve thrown away, and rebought a cheap secondhand copy. Continue reading...
A California dance hall worker, who disarmed a shooter who had killed at least 10 people at another nearby ballroom just minutes before, has described the harrowing encounter. In an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America on Monday, Brandon Tsay, a coder who was working in the lobby of the Lai Lai Ballroom and Studio in Alhambra, described how he fought with Huu Can Tran for about a minute and a half before he was able to wrestle away the gun
Democratic congressman and ex-marine faces potential three-way race with newly declared independent and a Republican next yearThe Democratic congressman Ruben Gallego of Arizona announced on Monday that he will run for the Senate, teeing up a potential battle against incumbent Senator Kyrsten Sinema next year.Gallego, a marine combat veteran who has served in the House of Representatives since 2015, made the widely expected announcement in a campaign video that was filmed in his Phoenix area congressional district. Continue reading...
Peyton Hillis discharged after saving his children in a swimming accident in FloridaA former NFL player who almost died while rescuing his children from drowning after a swimming accident in Florida recently has been released from the hospital.The staff of Baptist hospital in Pensacola, Florida, had discharged Peyton Hillis – the ex-member of the Cleveland Browns – late last week, according to social media updates from his girlfriend, Angela Cole, and sister, Hayley Davis. Continue reading...
Thousands of people across the US took to the streets on the 50th anniversary of Roe v Wade, the supreme court decision that made abortion a constitutional right in 1973, to protest against the decision last year to strike it down. Protesters gathered at more that 200 Women's March events in 46 states.The vice-president, Kamala Harris, spoke at an event commemorating the landmark ruling, at which she said abortion rights across the US were under threat. Abortion has been banned or severely restricted in 14 states, since the conservative-leaning supreme court decided to overturn Roe v Wade
Motive for attack remains unclear as police identify gunman who killed at least 10 people at LA-area dance studioThe suspect in a deadly mass shooting at a southern California dance studio on Saturday night died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Sunday morning.The motive for the attack, which left 10 people dead and at least 10 injured, is still under investigation, law enforcement officials said at a press briefing on Sunday evening. Continue reading...
The discussion about Biden’s re-election conflates five different questions. Let’s look at them one by oneReports that justice department investigators on Friday seized more than a half-dozen documents, some of them classified, from President Biden’s residence in Wilmington, Delaware – including documents from his time as a senator and others from his time as vice-president – have shaken Washington, worrying some Democrats about Biden’s viability as a candidate in 2024.The imminent departure of Ron Klain, Biden’s chief of staff, is also being read as a sign that Biden and his administration are turning a corner – reviving questions about whether the 80-year-old president should run again.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley Continue reading...
Three victims tell Guardian about their ordeal as nearly 300 sue LA county over decades of sexual abuse by officersMaisha was 16 years old when the officer inside Los Angeles juvenile hall began to take interest in her. At first, she said, he was friendly, and she would run errands for him, including delivering paperwork to his office; then, when no one else was around, he started grabbing her.She tried to avoid being alone with him, but the groping and sexual assault escalated, she said, adding that he once assaulted her when she went to pick up her inhaler. Continue reading...
Suspected gunman who killed at least 10 people at California dance studio found dead. Plus, lab-grown meat set for takeoff in the USGood morning.The suspect in a deadly mass shooting at a southern California dance studio on Saturday night died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Sunday morning. Ten people were killed and at least 10 others were taken to hospital after a gunman opened fire in a ballroom dance studio in a city close to Los Angeles.Who were the victims? The coroner’s office is “still in the process of identifying” the victims who were killed, the Los Angeles county sheriff, Robert Luna, said on Sunday. The ages of the victims appear to be in their 50s, 60s and “maybe even some beyond there”, Luna said.Do we know anything about the gun used? Two weapons have been identified so far, including a handgun with a high capacity magazine. The weapon recovered from the Alhambra location where the shooter was disarmed was described as a semiautomatic assault pistol with a high-capacity magazine attached, Luna said. He said it initially appeared that weapon would be illegal under California law.Why is Germany hesitating? There are many reasons, each individually understandable but which cumulatively underestimate the larger reality of Russian aggression. The worries include American caution, German history, reluctance to be Europe’s military leader, divisions in German public opinion, coalition government unity, a new defence minister and, above all, future relations with Russia.What else is happening? Here’s what we know on day 334 of the invasion. Continue reading...
The investigation looks at if Trump and his allies committed a crime in their efforts to overturn the 2020 electionA court hearing on Tuesday will mark one of the most significant developments in a Georgia investigation examining whether Donald Trump and allies committed a crime in their efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Here’s all you need to know about that hearing and what to expect next.What exactly is happening on Tuesday? Continue reading...
Progressives and ‘America first’ Republicans in Congress both want to re-examine US military budget – but for vastly different reasonsProgressives have recently found themselves in an unfamiliar position: in agreement with members of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus.Some of the latter caucus’s members have recently called for re-examining the amount of money spent by the US military, echoing demands that progressives have issued for years. Although progressives are clear-eyed about their ideological differences with “America first” Republicans on foreign policy, they encourage a renewed debate over the Pentagon’s budget. Continue reading...
Give them credit: America’s Team consistently find interesting ways to come up short in the postseason as their Super Bowl drought continuesFor the second straight year, the Dallas Cowboys’ season ended at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers after a botched final play. In 2022, Dak Prescott futilely ran out the clock rather than try a Hail Mary. This time around, their attempt to reach their first NFC Championship Game since 1995 ended in a blown trick play during which they couldn’t even get a lateral off. The 49ers beat the Cowboys 19-12 and there are already calls for Dallas head coach Mike McCarthy’s job.Would firing McCarthy be an overreaction? Possibly. However, this was Dallas’s seventh straight loss in the divisional round (and that’s before we get to the defeats in the wildcard round) and Cowboys fans have legitimate reasons to believe that the most valuable franchise in sports has established itself as a perennial underachiever. While McCarthy isn’t responsible for the vast majority of those playoff losses, he hasn’t exactly turned the ship around either. Continue reading...
The world’s super-rich have amassed so much wealth since the pandemic that even a Tory minister can see something is amissYou may have forgotten by now, but there was a brief moment during the pandemic when hopes were raised for a new “roaring 20s”. The Yale sociology professor Nicholas Christakis predicted that as in the 1920s, after the 1918 Spanish flu, society would embrace indulgence, with a rise in “sexual licentiousness” as well as a “reverse of religiosity”. We were poised to emerge from lockdown randy and flush. We certainly weren’t supposed to plunge, as we have in Britain, right into political crises and strikes, have three prime ministers in as many months, and sit at home too skint to turn on the heating or socialise.But a roaring 20s is actually happening, just not for most of us. According to Oxfam’s annual inequality report, released to coincide with the World Economic Forum meetings in Davos, the richest 1% of people have captured nearly twice as much new wealth as the rest of the world combined since the pandemic. Their fortune soared by $26tn, increasing their share of new wealth from 50% to two-thirds. Continue reading...
During a decade on the continent, Uber has often cut drivers’ pay and added little value to local economies. Governments should admit it is not economic progress but imperial exploitationThis year will mark a decade of Uber’s operations in Africa. The ride-hailing service entered Johannesburg in August 2013 – one of its earliest forays outside the US – and now operates in dozens of cities across eight African countries.But if Uber plans to celebrate this milestone, it will do so under a cloud of controversy. Many of the ruthless practices highlighted in last year’s explosive leak, dubbed the Uber files, were honed in African markets in particular. The documents revealed how Uber forced its way into economies while sometimes ignoring local laws. Uber spokespeople have since claimed that the company culture has changed under new leadership. Continue reading...
by Abené Clayton in Monterey Park, California on (#6839W)
Violence hits LA-area community, ending first in-person celebration since pandemic beganAs the sun settled on Sunday evening, the only reminders of lunar new year revelry were a few houses adorned with bright red and gold paper lanterns. Inside the Hong Kong grocery store, just a five-minute walk from what the Los Angeles county sheriff described as perhaps “one of the most heinous cases” in the county’s history, an uptempo remix of Auld Lang Syne played to mark the holiday.Nearly 12 hours earlier, 10 people were killed and at least 10 others hospitalized after a gunman opened fire in a ballroom dance studio in Monterey Park, a small majority-Asian American city near Los Angeles. Continue reading...
The suspect in a shooting that killed 10 people at a ballroom dance studio in Monterey Park, California, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The shooter was identified as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran. The motive for the attack is still under investigation.
At least 10 were killed at a Los Angeles-area dance hall, with the motive for the attack still unclearAt least 10 people have been killed in a shooting at a dance hall on Saturday night in a city close to Los Angeles, on the eve of the lunar new year.Here’s what we know, and what we still don’t know, about the deadliest US mass shooting in recent months. Continue reading...
by Abené Clayton in Monterey Park and Nina Lakhani on (#682Q5)
Deceased include five men and five women as police identify suspect as 72-year-old man who died of self-inflicted gunshotTen people were killed and at least 10 others hospitalized after a gunman opened fire in a ballroom dance studio on Saturday night in a city close to Los Angeles.The mass shooting, one of California’s worst in recent memory, happened hours after a lunar new year festival that attracted tens of thousands of revelers in Monterey Park, a majority-Asian American city. Continue reading...
More than 200 events in 46 states protest supreme court decision that struck down the federal right to an abortion in USIt’s 4.30pm in Washington DC. We’re closing this blog now, but you can read the Guardian’s story on the women’s march and reproductive rights issue today, here.Here’s where things stand:Although smaller compared to previous years, this year’s Women’s March still saw thousands take to the streets. Many showed up with creative signs in passionate protest for reproductive freedoms.Rachel O’Leary Carmona, the executive director of the Women’s March, addressed crowds in Madison, Wisconsin, which has been chosen by march organizers as this year’s rallying base. “We will not be distracted by the drama in DC. Instead we are sending a clear message to elected leaders and to our base – we are going to where the fight is, and that is at the state level,” organizers said.President Joe Biden urged Congress on Sunday to pass legislation that codifies reproductive rights offered by Roe. “Let me be clear: a woman’s right to choose is non-negotiable. I haven’t stopped fighting to protect women’s reproductive rights – and I never will. Now, it’s time for Congress to pass legislation codifying the protections of Roe,” he said.In Washington DC, organizers from the Black-led abolitionist group Harriet’s Wildest Dreams drowned out the sound of counter-protesters, chanting “Hey hey, ho ho, these racist bitches have got to go.” Speaking to the Guardian, 18-year old protestor Raven Hidalgo said, “It’s unfair men are taking away our rights over our own bodies.”In her address at Tallahassee, Florida, vice-president Kamala Harris reaffirmed the fight for reproductive rights across the country and announced a presidential memorandum issued by Biden. “Today, we are fighting back. I am pleased to announce that President Biden has issued a presidential memorandum. Members of our cabinet and our administration are now directed to identify barriers to access and recommend actions to make sure that doctors can legally prescribe, doctors can dispense and women can secure safe and effective medication,” she said.A small counter-protest of less than a dozen people stood outside Freedom Plaza steps in DC at noon today, chanting racist and sexist chants about slavery as thousands descended upon DC to march on the 50th anniversary of Roe being signed into law, half a year after the constitutional right was dismantled. Jessica Nowell, 19, from the anti-abortion group Students For Life, told the Guardian that she was upset by the counter-protest which she did not believe reflected the movement. “I don’t believe with the pro-choicers but this behavior is disgusting and it’s not the gospel. God loves us all,” she said. Continue reading...
Protesters mark 50 years since landmark decision that protected abortion rights nationwideThousands of protesters gathered across the United States to protest the end of the federal right to abortion – marching on the the 50th anniversary of the Roe v Wade supreme court decision that made abortion a constitutional right in 1973, but which was struck down last year.At more than 200 Women’s March events in 46 states, demonstrators condemned the court’s decision, which leaves it up to individual states to decide whether to protect, ban or restrict abortion rights. Since last year’s startling decision from the conservative-dominated bench, abortion has been banned or severely restricted in 14 states, after the ruling on 24 June. Continue reading...
Zients had worked at the White House before as the top official for coordinating the US response to the Covid-19 pandemicJoe Biden will name as his new chief of staff Jeff Zients, a former top official for coordinating the US response to the coronavirus pandemic, after it had emerged on Saturday that the US president’s current chief, Ron Klain, plans to step down, according to US media reports.Zients departed his pandemic-related White House role last April, but had been back since fall, assisting Klain ahead of and after November’s midterm elections, and will now take over the top job, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. Continue reading...
Former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein questions authenticity of infamous 2001 photograph during interview from Florida prisonGhislaine Maxwell has questioned the authenticity of a photograph that came to symbolise Virginia Giuffre’s sexual abuse allegations against Prince Andrew, amid reports the Duke of York is considering overturning his settlement.In a video interview from prison, Maxwell who appears in the infamous 2001 photograph alongside the then 17-year-old Giuffre as Andrew holds her semi-bare waist, said: “I don’t believe it’s real for a second.” Continue reading...
by Joanna Walters in New York and agencies on (#682MK)
New search turns up six more items from tenures as vice-president and in the SenateA new search of President Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware by the US justice department found six more items, including documents with classification markings, a lawyer for the president said in a statement Saturday night.Some of the classified documents and “surrounding materials” dated from Biden’s tenure in the Senate, where he represented Delaware from 1973 to 2009, according to his lawyer, Bob Bauer. Other documents were from his tenure as vice-president in the Obama administration, from 2009 through 2017, Bauer said. Continue reading...
At least 10 people have died in a shooting in Monterey Park. The incident happened after lunar new year celebrations that attracted thousands in the city, which is home to a large Asian population and is about 10 miles (16km) from downtown Los Angeles. Rescuers rushed those injured in the shooting to nearby hospitals as police closed off the area. Authorities have not stated a motive for the shooting as they continue to search for the suspected gunman
Work-life balance is a critical benefit, and offering it can be a powerful recruiting tool and unexpected cost saverLast week Microsoft Corporation joined a growing number of companies around the country by announcing that it was now offering an unlimited paid time off (PTO) plan to its employees.“How, when, and where we do our jobs has dramatically changed,” a company HR executive explained in a memo. “And as we’ve transformed, modernizing our vacation policy to a more flexible model was a natural next step.” Continue reading...
Until last year, Roe made it more possible for women’s lives to be determined by their choices, not merely by their bodiesIf the supreme court hadn’t overturned it last June, undoing a longstanding precedent and inflicting untold harm to women’s well-being and dignity, Sunday 22 January would have been the fiftieth anniversary of Roe v Wade.Over those 50 years, Roe changed American life dramatically. Abortion became a routine part of life, a resource people planned their lives around having. In contrast to its political controversy, abortion in the Roe era was – as it is now – aggressively common. Approximately one in four American women will have an abortion at some point in the course of their reproductive lives.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
by Hilary Beaumont in Fuller Acres, California, with on (#682QJ)
A town in the oil industry’s shadow grapples with health fears as the state fails to limit companies’ use of fresh waterTowering refineries and rusty pumpjacks greet visitors driving along the highways of Kern county, California. Oil wells sit in the middle of fields of grapevines and almond trees. The air is heavy with dust and the scent of petroleum.The energy fields here are some of the most productive in the US, generating billions of barrels of oil annually and more than two-thirds of the state’s natural gas. And in a drought-stricken state, they’re also some of the thirstiest, consuming vast quantities of fresh water to extract stubborn oil. Continue reading...
Biden’s immigration promises fall short as some of Trump’s policies remain in place – here’s what’s similar and what’s differentUnder Donald Trump, Americans were confronted with a near-constant onslaught of racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy, especially regarding the US-Mexico border, as the same man who led chants about building a wall there won the 2016 presidential election and took control of the Oval Office for the next four years.Vulnerable migrants were mounting “an invasion”, Trump said. The United States’ asylum system – a key commitment to its humanitarian values – was “ridiculous” and “insane”. Immigrants of color made headlines for supposedly coming here from “shithole” countries, and Mexican immigrants were called drug dealers, criminals and rapists. Continue reading...
As the US adjusts to an increasingly non-religious population, thousands of churches are closing each year – probably accelerated by CovidChurches are closing at rapid numbers in the US, researchers say, as congregations dwindle across the country and a younger generation of Americans abandon Christianity altogether – even as faith continues to dominate American politics.As the US adjusts to an increasingly non-religious population, thousands of churches are closing each year in the country – a figure that experts believe may have accelerated since the Covid-19 pandemic. Continue reading...
Five leaders of the far-right group on trial for their role in the January 6 attack have tried to turn attention to the ex-presidentWhile federal prosecutors are casting the Capitol insurrection trial of five far-right Proud Boys leaders as an attempt to bring participants of an attack on US democracy to account, the members of the group are using the proceedings to ask one question even some of their opponents on the political left agree is valid.Why have prosecutors so far only focused their energy on the supporters of Donald Trump who are accused of a coordinated invasion of the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the congressional certification of his defeat to Joe Biden in the previous year’s presidential election? Is it because they regard the former Republican president himself – who urged his supporters to “fight like hell” that deadly day – as too formidable and them as easier targets? Continue reading...
‘Nobody even knows who this guy is,’ critics say, but he was still awarded with House panel assignments – showing the party ‘stands for nothing’“He didn’t just steal from a service dog. He didn’t just steal from a dying service dog. He stole from a disabled homeless veteran’s dying service dog. Oh my God. You evil and stupid!”That was how Leslie Jones, guest host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, summed up just one of this week’s revelations about George Santos, a US congressman whose shameless fabulism has stunned Washington, a capital that thought it had smelt every flavour of mendacity from politicians. Continue reading...
Governor proposes legislation to ban mask requirements and outlaw ‘discrimination based on vaccine status’Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis has announced a proposal to permanently ban Covid mandates in the state.In a press release issued earlier this week, DeSantis said that he has proposed legislation to “make permanent Covid freedoms in Florida”, adding that the “strong pro-freedom, anti-mandate action will permanently protect Floridians from losing their jobs due to Covid vaccine mandates, protects parents’ rights, and institutes additional protections that prevent discrimination based on Covid vaccine status”. Continue reading...
New York Times reports Klain to announce departure in coming weeks, following two grueling years since president took officeRon Klain, Joe Biden’s chief of staff, is reportedly set to step down from his position, in what will be the biggest change to the US president’s inner circle of advisors since he took office two years ago.Klain will announce his departure in the coming weeks, according to the New York Times, after telling colleagues that he is ready to move on following a grueling period of successes and frustrations that stretch back to Biden’s successful 2020 election campaign. Continue reading...
People who live alone spend almost twice as much per person as those in couples, research has revealedSome claim that the first day in the third week of January is the most depressing one in the calendar. This year, Blue Monday arrived with added cruelty – for those of us who happen to be single, at least. A financial services firm chose just that miserable moment to reveal how much more expensive it is to live on your own than in a couple.If you’re currently alone, and the post-holiday slump already has you feeling down about it, you may want to look away now. According to the brokers Hargreaves Lansdown, the cost of living premium for being single comes in at an average £860 a month, factoring in typical expenses from rent and energy bills to groceries, wifi and TV subscriptions. Continue reading...
The reality show in which mothers and sons live together and start flirting is weirdly kinky but also oddly naturalIf you’re a woman of a certain age, struggling in the housing crisis, you could always check into Milf Manor. It’s a new US reality show in which women and their sons live in a house together and then all the ladies and all the guys flirt with each other (Milf stands for Mum I’d Love to Fuck, in case you didn’t know). In the search for a new hit, Milf Manor’s producers have gone back to the oldest human drive on the planet, the mother of them all: the original dyad between a baby and their primary caregiver. Maternal love, filial love, carnal love and erotic love blend together in a mutually jealous, weirdly kinky, televised Freudian melange. It’s natural, it’s normal, it’s common, it’s fine! After all, Sophocles wrote Oedipus Rex 400 years before the birth of Christ. Once you pass 40, you become invisible to men in their 30s while every 20-year-old on the planet notices you, including waiters, security guards, interns and other women’s sons. I can explain it in one word: perimenopause. When wise Mother Nature realises your ship is sailing, she starts wafting out your erotic pheromones at double strength like novelty cocktails during happy hour at the last-chance saloon and you attract those virile young males who are biologically best able to “pollinate the flower”. Milf Manor is airing on the cable network TLC, which also happens to stand for Tender Loving Care. As the guys queueing to visit Milf Manor know, that’s exactly what you get when you come to Mummy. Continue reading...
There’s a real problem when the same people cling to power for decades and refuse to make room for new bloodIt was inevitable that someone was going to ask that most cliched of questions and, voilà, they did. Shortly after Jacinda Ardern’s shock resignation as New Zealand prime minister this week, the BBC tweeted out a story about Ardern balancing motherhood with politics, with a headline asking if women can really have it all. After being accused of “staggering sexism”, the BBC deleted the headline and apologised. Continue reading...
Asked by a reporter if he supported Poland's call to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, the US president told a reporter: 'Ukraine is going to get all the help they need'. An adviser to the Ukrainian president has since said slow decision-making over whether to send the tanks to the country is costing lives. Baltic countries including Latvia have told Germany to send the tanks 'now' after perceived heel-dragging by Berlin
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