Former president promotes book of correspondence with mournful claim that ‘only half’ of those included still like himQueen Elizabeth II, Diana, Princess of Wales, Richard Nixon, Oprah Winfrey, Hillary Clinton and other correspondents will be shown to have “kissed my ass”, Donald Trump said on Tuesday, promoting a forthcoming book of their letters.Letters to Trump will contain 150 missives from figures also including Kim Jong-un and Ronald Reagan. Drawn from Trump’s life before and after he ran for president, the book is due to be published next month. Continue reading...
Proposals also include financing debt forgiveness, guaranteed annual incomes for families and homes in the city for $1San Francisco lawmakers will consider a range of options on Tuesday to provide reparations to Black people for decades of racist treatment by the city government, from providing reparation tax credits to helping finance debt forgiveness for Black families.The proposals will be presented at a city meeting today, though there is no immediate timeline for action. The most prominent and controversial proposal is a “one time lump sum payment” of $5m to all eligible Black people, a number that the chair of the city’s reparations committee called “actually low when you consider the harm”. Continue reading...
Pentagon press secretary Air Force Brig Gen Pat Ryder told reporters during a press briefing that two Russian fighter jets intercepted an American drone in international airspace, dumping fuel over it and forcing the US to ground the drone. Ryder said: 'At approximately 7:03am CET, one of the Russian Su-27 aircraft struck the propeller of the MQ-9, causing US forces to have to bring the MQ-9 down in international waters'
Plans for the two countries to restore diplomatic relations are welcome, but are only a modest step forward“Perhaps the first major diplomatic example of a post-America Middle East,” wrote one analyst. He was describing Iran and Saudi Arabia’s agreement last week to resume diplomatic relations – a surprise to most observers, and something of a coup for China, which brokered it. The volatile rivalry between the two nations has been one of the great geopolitical faultlines since the Iranian revolution of 1979. Security concerns, claims to regional leadership, ethno-sectarian rivalries and other factors have all played their part. The repercussions have been profound. The tensions contributed to Iran’s all-out support for the Syrian regime, fuelled the war in Yemen, where more than 150,000 have died, and accelerated the disintegration of the state in Lebanon. Ties were cut in 2016 when Iranian protesters stormed Saudi diplomatic missions over Riyadh’s execution of a revered Shia cleric.But while last week’s announcement was welcome, it is only a beginning. Assuming the deal goes ahead – there are two months for details to be ironed out – the containment of Saudi-Iranian tensions will not necessarily lead to a deeper rapprochement, let alone end Lebanon’s woes or the complex and multifaceted conflict in Yemen. Continue reading...
Ready-to-eat packaged meals will be modified to satisfy federal nutrition regulations and will be offered to students this fallThe ready-to-eat packaged meals – known as Lunchables that are sold at grocery stores and have sustained generations of American schoolchildren are set to be served directly to students at school lunch programs beginning in the fall.But Heinz, the Pittsburgh-based company which manufactures them, first had to change their ingredients to satisfy federal nutrition regulations. Continue reading...
David Subil is accused of posing as grocery employee to steal seafood deliveries from distributor in Washington stateA crab-hungry crook in Washington state has been arrested after allegedly posing as a grocery employee to orchestrate the theft of $700,000 in crustaceans from an unsuspecting seafood distributor.Federal authorities pinched David Subil in late February after they accused him of pretending to work for Safeway grocery so he could pilfer pounds upon pounds of shellfish, according to the Seattle television news station KING. Continue reading...
by Guardian staff and the Associated Press on (#69SPV)
Jump of nearly 12% reverses previous, incomplete FBI data that appeared to show a dropThe number of US hate crimes increased again in 2021, continuing an alarming rise, according to FBI data released on Monday.A jump of nearly 12% reverses previous, incomplete FBI information that appeared to show a drop but lacked data from some of the nation’s largest cities, including New York and Los Angeles. Continue reading...
New studies confirm that having more money can improve our wellbeing. So much for the story powerful people have always tried to pushNews just in: money does buy you happiness. Duh, you might say. Anyone could have told you that; it’s hardly a Nobel-prize winning insight. Well, actually, it kinda is: in 2010, Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel prize-winning economist and psychologist, came out with the theory that there was a monetary “happiness plateau”. Once you hit an annual household income of $75,000 (£62,000), earning more money didn’t make you any happier. In 2021, the happiness researcher Matthew Killingsworth released a dissenting study, showing that happiness increased with income and there wasn’t evidence of a plateau. Now the pair have teamed up in a process known as “adversarial collaboration” and released a new study finding that they were both sort of right, but Killingsworth was more right: for most people, earning more money makes you happier.There is some nuance to this. If you are extremely unhappy, happiness apparently increases with household income up to $100,000 (£82,000), then it “abruptly” levels off: there are some problems money can’t fix. For people who are in the “middle range of emotional wellbeing”, happiness increases linearly with income. And for very happy people, happiness accelerates above $100,000. The study didn’t look at incomes above $500,000, so we don’t have any insight into whether joyriding around space is making Jeff Bezos feel truly fulfilled. Or whether Rishi Sunak’s newly heated swimming pool is warming the cockles of his heart.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
DoJ alleges pharmacy chain knowingly filled prescriptions that were ‘medically unnecessary’, including opioidsThe US government has sued Rite Aid, one of the nation’s largest pharmacy chains, for allegedly missing “red flags” when it knowingly filled unlawful drug prescriptions – including opioids and fentanyl – and ignored internal controls on its practices.In a complaint filed on Monday, the federal justice department asserted that Rite Aid “filled at least hundreds of thousands of unlawful prescriptions for controlled substances that were medically unnecessary, lacked a medically accepted indication, or were not issued in the usual course of professional practice” between 2014 and 2019. Continue reading...
President Macron is facing a titanic battle to secure his pension changes. This standoff sets the tone for future battles elsewhereIf French democracy were in a healthier state, Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform legislation would have already been scrapped by now. Broadly unpopular from the outset, his plans to raise the country’s retirement eligibility age from 62 to 64 have triggered a protest movement – historically large even by French standards – lasting nearly two months.Many in the streets view the bill as a breach of the social contract: workers in France contribute a hefty share of earnings over the course of their careers to support a relatively generous and effective retirement system. Lifting the eligibility floor amounts to a very real cut in benefits, and one that will disproportionately hurt the least well-off. If you talk to the protesters, they’ll tell you this reform is cruel and unjust. Continue reading...
President reveals he visited his Democratic predecessor, who is receiving hospice care at home in Plains, GeorgiaJimmy Carter – who entered home hospice care in February – has asked fellow Democratic president Joe Biden to eulogize him after he dies, Biden has revealed.Biden told people at a fundraiser in Rancho Santa Fe, California, on Monday that he had recently visited Carter after the 98-year-old former president’s health had “finally caught up with him”, according to multiple reports on the remarks. Continue reading...
China's foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters that the US, UK and Australia 'are walking further down the path of error and danger'. The comments were made in a press conference in response to the Aukus partners' announcement of a multibillion-dollar deal on nuclear-powered submarines. The deal, made by leaders during a meeting in San Diego, will provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines in an effort to counter the rise of China in the Indo-Pacific. The Chinese government accuse the three countries of pursuing a deal 'for the sake of their own geopolitical interests disregarding the concerns of the international communities' Continue reading...
The American Olympic champion Dick Fosbury, who revolutionised the high jump with a technique that became known as the Fosbury Flop, has died aged 76. Fosbury shot to fame in 1968, when he won high-jump gold in Mexico City after a final that lasted more than four hours. He set what was at the time a new Olympic record of 2.24 metres, a feat that ensured his technique would become the standard. His technique involved jumping backwards and arching his back over the bar, thereby reversing and ripping up decades of high jump orthodoxy.
Hall of famer Robert Parish played more NBA games than anyone in history. He says stepping away from the league was an easy decision to makeThere are few professions in which your career will almost certainly be over by the time you’re in your late 30s. Yet, in professional basketball this is the case. The game is just too fast, too physical for someone who has lost a step. It’s tough to swap the excitement and money for a more humdrum life. Some in professional sports, including Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young, have even likened retirement to “death”.So, how do NBA players decide when it’s time to go? It’s helpful to look to the man who played the most games in league history (1,611 in the regular season and 184 more in the playoffs), Boston Celtic great and four-time NBA champion, Robert Parish. If anyone knows, it’s him. Continue reading...
Bank shares slide around world amid panic caused by SVB failure as its parent company and two top executives are sued by shareholders. Plus, what’s next for Escobar’s hippos?
Biden promised no more drilling on federal lands, ‘period, period’. This week he approved the massive Willow projectThe Willow project is an act of terrorism against the climate, and the Biden administration has just approved it. This massive oil-drilling project in the wilderness of northern Alaska goes against science and the administration’s many assurances that it cares about climate and agrees that we must make a swift transition away from fossil fuel. Like the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, Joe Biden seems to think that if we do some good things for the climate we can also do some very bad things and somehow it will all even out.To make that magical thinking more obvious and to try to smooth over broad opposition, the US federal government also just coughed up some protections against drilling in the Arctic Ocean and elsewhere in the National Petroleum Reserve (and only approved three of the five drilling sites for ConocoPhillips’ invasion of this wilderness). Of course, this is like saying, “We’re going to kill your mother but we’re sending guards to protect your grandmother.” It doesn’t make your mom less dead. With climate you’re dealing with physics and math before you’re dealing with morality. All the carbon and methane emissions count, and they need to decrease rapidly in this decade. As Bill McKibben likes to say, you can’t bargain with physics.Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. Her most recent books are Recollections of My Nonexistence and Orwell’s Roses Continue reading...
The Iraq war ushered in a style of politics where truth is, at best, an inconvenienceThis month marks the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. While, tragically, there are almost too many victims to tally from this criminal act of America’s making, the notion of truth must certainly count as primary among them.We must not forget how the George W Bush administration manipulated the facts, the media and the public after the horrific attacks of 9/11, hellbent as the administration was to go to war in Iraq. By 2.40pm on 11 September 2001, mere hours after the attacks, Donald Rumsfeld, the then secretary of defense, was already sending a memo to the joint chiefs of staff to find evidence that would justify attacking the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (as well as Osama bin Laden).Moustafa Bayoumi is the author of the award-winning books How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America and This Muslim American Life: Dispatches from the War on Terror. He is a professor of English at Brooklyn College, City University of New York Continue reading...
‘An organized group of insurrectionists’ is seeking to swing a vote with big implications for voting rights, redistricting and abortionMore than $3.9m has poured into the Wisconsin supreme court election from individuals and groups involved with promoting election disinformation and attempts to overturn the 2020 election, according to an analysis of campaign spending by the Guardian.The contributions, in support of the conservative candidate Daniel Kelly, come amid a race that has broken national campaign spending records. According to a campaign finance tracker by the Brennan Center for Justice, political ad orders for the liberal county judge Janet Protasiewicz and conservative Kelly have reached at least $20m in anticipation of the 4 April general election. Continue reading...
A look at the fortified glass ceiling that casts a shadow over one of the most exclusive clubs in the worldAs billionaire flexes go, owning a major sports franchise is hard to beat. You get to prance around in the owner’s suite and host dignitaries and celebrities who gush over your prized position, all the while watching your investment sprout revenue like a magical beanstalk. Team owners cash in on television rights (ka-ching!), ticket sales (ka-ching!), licensing fees (ka-ching!) and sponsorship deals (ka-ching!).But the most profitable moment for any sports franchise owner is when their team is up for sale. That’s when other billionaires swarm in, hoping to join one of the most exclusive clubs in the world (ka-ching-a-ding-ding!). Continue reading...
The three-time Grammy winner appeared at the White House to perform his new, pro-Ukraine song – which has a cameo from ZelenskiyWearing white cowboy hat, black suit and black tie, country singer and guitar virtuoso Brad Paisley strode on stage in the East Room of the White House before a bipartisan audience.It was a Saturday night and, fittingly, he began the 40-minute set playing his hit song American Saturday Night – but with an amended lyric. “I had to change the second line because it mentioned Russia, and I don’t do that any more,” he explained.
Proposed class-action lawsuit claims bank failed to reveal how rising interest rates made it ‘particularly susceptible’ to failureSVB Financial Group and two top executives have been sued by shareholders over the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, as global stocks continued to suffer on Tuesday despite assurances from US president Joe Biden.The bank’s shareholders accuse SVB Financial Group chief executive Greg Becker and chief financial officer Daniel Beck of concealing how rising interest rates would leave its Silicon Valley Bank unit “particularly susceptible” to a bank run. Continue reading...
Joe Biden, Rishi Sunak and Anthony Albanese unveiled details of a plan to provide Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines, a major step aimed at countering China's ambitions in the Indo-Pacific. The first of the new vessels are expected to be seaworthy by the end of 2030s, with Australia receiving theirs in the early 2040s
Anthony Albanese joined US president Joe Biden and UK prime minister Rishi Sunak to announce an Aukus agreement in San Diego that 'represents the biggest single investment in Australia's defence capability in all of our history,' Albanese said. The first Australian-built nuclear-powered submarines, fitted with vertical launch systems to fire cruise missiles, are due to enter into service in the early 2040s
Senate Republican leader fell and was injured last week, and will now receive physical therapy at inpatient rehabilitation facilityMitch McConnell was released from the hospital on Monday after the Republican leader of the Senate received treatment for a concussion, and he will continue to recover in an inpatient rehabilitation facility, a spokesman said.McConnell’s office said his doctors discovered over the weekend that he had also suffered a “minor rib fracture” after he tripped and fell at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Washington on Wednesday evening. Continue reading...
Ex-president’s remarks come after his former vice-president said that history will hold Trump accountable for the violenceDonald Trump on Monday responded to Mike Pence’s contention that history will hold him accountable for the January 6 attack on Congress, saying the deadly attack was his former vice-president’s fault.“Had he sent the votes back to the legislatures, they wouldn’t have had a problem with January 6, so in many ways you can blame him for January 6,” Trump told reporters on a flight to Iowa for a campaign appearance. Continue reading...
Since Christmas the state has faced an exceptionally wet winter after being plagued far more by drought in recent yearsCalifornians are bracing for the arrival of another “atmospheric river” storm on Monday after a weekend of heavy rainfall and flooding forced thousands to evacuate, washed out roads and knocked out power.Rains are expected to ramp up on Monday night, and “impact increasingly sensitive portions of central California that were hit hard by the rainfall on Friday and early Saturday”, according to the national weather prediction center. Continue reading...
Former vice-president took aim at transportation secretary for taking maternity leave and joked about postpartum depressionThe White House rebuked the Republican former vice-president Mike Pence on Monday, for making jokes about US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, maternity leave and postpartum depression that it said were homophobic and offensive to women.“He should apologise to women and LGBTQ+ people,” said Joe Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre. Continue reading...
Split between jurors means convicted killer of October 2017 attack gets an automatic sentence of life in prison without paroleA jury said on Monday that it could not reach a unanimous decision on whether to impose the death sentence on an Islamist extremist who killed eight people using a speeding truck on a popular New York City bicycle path.Jurors told a federal judge they were unable to agree on whether Sayfullo Saipov should live or die for the October 2017 attack. Continue reading...
Oregon athlete who invented the Fosbury Flop won historic gold medal at Mexico City games in 1968The American Olympic champion Dick Fosbury, who revolutionised the high jump with a technique that became known as the Fosbury Flop, has died. He was 76.His former agent, Ray Schulte, announced the news on Instagram on Monday. Continue reading...
Given the antipathy towards Wall Street bailouts in the 2008 crisis, Biden is at pains to stress that ‘no losses’ will be borne by taxpayersWhen is a bailout not a bailout? It’s a question many people are asking after the dramatic collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the US’s decision to rescue depositors on Sunday.Joe Biden and elected and appointed officials all insist the emergency interventions to protect deposits in Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, a second bank that failed on the weekend – or, indeed, any further bank failures – won’t come at taxpayers’ expense. Continue reading...
Hundreds of migrants tried to race across the Paso del Norte bridge to El Paso after false internet post said the border was openHundreds of people near an El Paso, Texas, border crossing who tried to enter the US from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, on Sunday were met with physical barricades erected by shield-wielding authorities, according to reports on what is the latest episode to pit US immigration officials against a group of migrants.Many of the migrants, who were largely Venezuelan, had gone to the center of the Paso del Norte international bridge to determine whether a rumor that the border had been temporarily opened to them was true, the Texas Tribune reported. Many trying to flee lives in Mexico, where they cannot legally work and are often confronted by police, had hurried through toll booths on the Mexican side of the bridge and arrived at the center. Continue reading...
Whether it’s Hollywood or any other industry, too many men need reminding that women can be good at their jobs even if you don’t fancy them‘Ladies, never let anyone tell you you are past your prime,” Michelle Yeoh told a rapt audience as she accepted her Oscar on Sunday. She made history from a number of directions with the victory – the first woman from an Asian background to win best actress in 95 years, and only the second Asian lead even to be nominated. The first was Merle Oberon in 1936, and there is no better barium meal into the bowels of Hollywood racism than Oberon’s life story. but give the place a break: only 87 years later, it’s fine not to be white.On the age point, though, Yeoh was thought to be taking a wider swipe at culture as a whole, specifically referring to the CNN television anchor Don Lemon, who said last month that Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley was “past her prime”. Challenged live on air, he clarified: “A woman is in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s.” When that didn’t wash with his co-hosts, he said that it wasn’t according to him, and to Google it.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Police used genetic genealogy analysis of evidence collected after the body was found to find the alleged killers – her parentsFor more than three decades, answers surrounding the grisly death of a baby girl known to them simply as Baby Doe eluded Mississippi authorities. The infant’s body was discovered inside a garbage bag in the south-western Mississippi community of Picayune on 17 April 1992.Authorities determined that someone had smothered Baby Doe and deemed her untimely death a homicide. Picayune police started to investigate, collecting evidence – some tying the infant to neighboring Louisiana, reportedly including local newspapers – but the case went cold. Continue reading...
Girl killed sibling in family home with semi-automatic pistol but unclear if any of five adults present will face chargesIn a case that starkly illustrates the deadly consequences that the US’s permissive gun culture has on the country’s youth, a three-year-old girl accidentally shot her four-year-old sister to death in their Texas home late on Sunday, according to authorities.First responders found the slain girl while responding to an emergency call at 7.30pm about an injured minor at an apartment in suburban Houston, the local sheriff’s office said in a statement. She was there with five adults – including her mother and stepfather – when her younger sister grabbed a loaded semi-automatic pistol and shot her, first responders learned. Continue reading...
Multiverse fantasy picks up seven awards including best picture and best actress while All Quiet on the Western Front wins four. Plus, long shadow of US invasion of Iraq still looms 20 years on
If approved in full, the Willow project would mean the construction of 219 wells and hundreds of miles of pipelinesPresident Biden faces a legacy-making – or legacy-breaking – decision in arctic Alaska with the $8bn Willow project, the largest oil and gas project currently proposed on US public lands.If Biden remembers his visionary pledge – forged in the hard truth of human-caused climate change – that the US will expand into clean energy and approve no new oil drilling on federal lands, then his decision should be straightforward. Continue reading...
Line are drawn between the extremist wing and those who distance themselves from portraying the rioters as ‘sightseers’Some Republicans have rebuked efforts by Donald Trump and Fox News host Tucker Carlson to whitewash the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, underscoring a significant split in the party over attempts to downplay the events of the day.Kevin McCarthy, the speaker of the House, turned over more than 40,000 hours of security footage from the Capitol to Carlson earlier this year. This week, Carlson aired selectively edited portions of that footage, falsely claiming the rioters were “sightseers” and “not insurrectionists”. At least 1,000 people have been arrested for their role in the January 6 attack. Five people died as a result of it. Continue reading...
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