Minority leader, 82, says he will focus isolationist movement in my own party' - particularly over support for UkraineMitch McConnell will spend the rest of his time in the US Senate fighting" isolationists in his own Republican party, the longtime GOP leader said on Monday.I'm particularly involved in actually fighting back against the isolationist movement in my own party," McConnell told WHAS, a radio station in his state, Kentucky. Continue reading...
Anti-vaxxer third-party candidate rails against president for involvement in supreme court case on social mediaAfter Donald Trump said that he loved how Robert F Kennedy Jr was running for president, the independent candidate called Joe Biden a much worse threat to democracy" than Trump, citing the Biden White House's involvement in a US supreme court case focused on social media.A noted anti-vaxxer who has peddled conspiracy theories, Kennedy currently faces an uphill task to get on enough state ballots, though on Monday his campaign said his name would appear on the ballot in the crucial state of North Carolina. Continue reading...
Airline faces delay in receiving new planes as Boeing struggles with production due to manufacturing problemsUnited Airlines is asking its pilots to take time off in May because of delays in receiving new planes that the airline ordered from Boeing, which is struggling with production due to manufacturing problems.A United spokesperson said Monday that the offer is voluntary. Continue reading...
For all her declarations of being authentically country, Cowboy Carter arrives on the back of booming business for the genre and is all about the star, not the roots music supposedly at the project's heartOn the first track of Beyonce's new album, she seems to state the impetus behind the project: They used to say I spoke too country / Then the rejection came, said I wasn't country 'nough." That rejection was an unnamed experience in which she has said she did not feel welcomed", assumed to be her performance of her song Daddy Lessons with the Chicks at the 2016 Country Music awards. It prompted a racist backlash from parts of the country establishment, as well as outrage at Beyonce giving a platform to the Chicks, who had been in exile from the industry since singer Natalie Maines criticised George W Bush's handling of the Iraq war in 2002.Cowboy Carter is Beyonce's 27-track response. On the album's cover, she is on a horse, holding an American flag, draped in US flag apparel, with her long blond tresses flowing and a cowboy hat atop her head. In the few details she has shared about the album, she said she did a deeper dive into the history of country music and studied our rich musical archive". As she became the first Black female artist to have a US country No 1 and top the Billboard Hot 100 with a country song and debate over her place in the genre reigned, no greater a country luminary than Dolly Parton lent her support. Later it was revealed that she and outlaw legend Willie Nelson were to feature on the album, cementing its country bona fides. Continue reading...
The conservative obsession with purity and control is being achieved by increasingly punitive meansThe US supreme court justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas cited the Comstock Act, named after the 19th-century anti-vice campaigner Anthony Comstock, in last week's case about access to the abortion pill mifepristone. If you don't know who Anthony Comstock was or what his law did, that might not have alarmed you. But it should have.The Comstock Law has come up a lot lately, and it's part of the Republican war on sex, and to put it that way might sound overly dramatic. But there is such a war, and parts of it - against sex education, against access to birth control, against the healthcare provider Planned Parenthood and of course against abortion - have long been out in the open along with a war against the rights of women and on the rights and very existence of queer and trans people.Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. She is the author of Orwell's Roses and co-editor with Thelma Young Lutunatabua of the climate anthology Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility Continue reading...
Of course there's extra material as well as the usual gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. But is it enough to make America believe again?Donald Trump's Bible costs $59.99, which puts it at the more expensive end of the King James editions, but it does have extra content: it's called the God Bless the USA Bible, and includes a copy of the US constitution, the Bill of Rights and handwritten lyrics to the chorus of God Bless the USA, by Lee Greenwood. If you thought that chorus was God bless the USA", you're getting it mixed up with Born in the USA", idiot; Greenwood's lyrics have a load of other stuff about freedom, death and defence, which obviously makes them the ideal anthem to scripture.Trump has always said the Bible is his favourite book, on one occasion going on to name his favourite bit, an eye for an eye", elaborating if you look at what's happening to our country ... how people are taking advantage of us, and how they scoff at us and laugh at us. And they laugh at our face, and they're taking our jobs, they're taking our money, they're taking the health of our country. And we have to be firm and have to be very strong." Continue reading...
Voters will also potentially enshrine two state amendments that some say could have a negative impact on elections administrationVoters in Wisconsin cast their ballots today in an election that will test voter enthusiasm for Joe Biden and Donald Trump - and potentially enshrine two amendments in the state constitution impacting election administration across the state.The president and former president are already the presumptive nominees and will almost certainly face off in the general election in November, and it seems that the threat of prosecution, general unpopularity and advanced age can't stop them. Continue reading...
Heather Bowers was suffering from cancer and wanted to eat her favorite meal from Mama Kwans - Kevin Cherry made it happenKevin Cherry didn't want recognition for dropping everything he was doing and driving a half-dozen hours across state lines to fulfil a person's dying wish.But he got it anyway after loved ones of a West Virginia woman who received one last act of kindness in her final hours publicly expressed their eternal gratitude to Cherry, a North Carolina restaurant owner whose benevolence has vaulted him to internet virality. Continue reading...
Players such as Ben Simmons and Markelle Fultz have been accused of suffering from the yips. But every player has to confront fear at some pointPhiladelphia 76ers basketball fans know one sentence above all else: Trust the process. It was used often when the team was struggling in the 2010s as the team appeared to tank for the sake of high draft picks and long-term team building. But two of the franchise's ensuing No 1 selections - Ben Simmons and Markel Fultz, both of whom are no longer on the team, despite being dubbed saviors - seemed to lose sight of the maxim when it came to their own on-court games. Both players came into the NBA with sky-high potential. But they both came under unwelcome scrutiny: Fultz for a hitch in his shooting technique, and Simmons for a reluctance to shoot at all. The pair were inevitably accused of succumbing to the the dreaded yips."Throughout the history of pro sports, there have been many high profile cases of players losing the ability to conduct the most basic of on-field tasks. In baseball, New York Yankees second baseman Chuck Knoblauch somehow could not throw to first base. Similarly, catcher Mackey Sasser found himself unable to send the ball from home plate to the pitcher, double clutching his throws, as if he was thinking too much about the task. Pitcher Rick Ankiel, who lost his ability to pitch and later became an outfielder, said of his issues, Throwing the baseball, it felt like my wrist wouldn't work. I couldn't feel the ball." Continue reading...
The league has bared its teeth on teams in breach of profit and sustainability rules. But the current enforcement has solidified the disparity between clubsThis Premier League season will be remembered for many things: as the season when the Kop lost its Klopp, as the season of Well done boys, good process", as a time in which the agent of chaos", whether named Darwin or Jeremy or Kaoru or Kai, offered a brief and sparkling reprieve from the monotonous precision of the relentlessly rehearsed modern game. Mostly, though, it will be remembered as the season of teeth.By near-universal consensus, the points deductions imposed on Everton and Nottingham Forest, as well as the ongoing investigation into Leicester City's finances (not to mention the 115 charges still pending against Manchester City), prove at long last that the Premier League's profitability and sustainability rules have teeth" - or unexpected teeth", as one commentator put it. The Super League fiasco and the ongoing failure of the Premier League to secure an equitable deal for the distribution of media revenue down the football pyramid, meanwhile, have highlighted the need for a regulator that has real teeth" - a need that the recently introduced football governance bill, many believe, may help address. The age of the soccer regulators is upon us, and suddenly their fangs are everywhere. Not since the days when Luis Suarez was feasting on the arms and shoulders of his opponents has there been quite so much attention paid in English football to matters of dentition. Continue reading...
World No 1 and Masters favourite may lack the aura of Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson but will be the man to beat at AugustaBefore the 2006 Masters the British golfmedia reacted with incredulity as,buried in the report of a car being shot at in Augusta, sat the identity of the driver. Tom Lehman, the USRyderCup captain and former Open champion, was unharmed despite Troy Smith unleashing a bullet at his Cadillac. Smith was later jailed for five years. Lehman missed the cut - no wonder - in his finalMasters appearance. He was presumably in no rush to return to that particular corner of Georgia.It is hardly underplaying the seriousness of this incident to point out that, finally, there was something stimulating about Tom Lehman. He had reached the summit of golf - including the world rankings - without creating ripples. This was the era of peak Tiger Woods; most others in golf, major winners included, were simply extras. A bullet hole in a car door somehow gaveLehman fresh eminence. Continue reading...
Move bars Trump from lashing out at family members of attorneys and court personnel in case tied to hush-money paymentsThe judge overseeing Donald Trump's forthcoming criminal trial in New York expanded an existing gag order on Monday, preventing the former president from making inflammatory comments about the judge's family members, after they became the target of Trump's personal attacks.The new protective order continues to allow Trump to rail against the judge and the Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, who charged Trump last year with falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal before the 2016 election. Continue reading...
Former president was found liable in February for fraudulently inflating his net worth to secure better loan and insurance termsDonald Trump posted a $175m bond in his New York civil fraud case on Monday, averting asset seizures by state authorities that could have hobbled the former US president's business empire.Trump, to face Joe Biden in the November US election, was found liable on 16 February for fraudulently inflating his net worth by billions of dollars to secure better loan and insurance terms. Continue reading...
Shares in Trump Media dropped by 21.5% as auditor discloses substantial doubt' over company's ability to continue operatingThe value of Donald Trump's stake in Truth Social fell by more than $1bn on Monday after the social media company revealed it lost $58.2m last year and an auditor disclosed substantial doubt" over its ability to continue operating.Shares in Trump Media & Technology Group, the owner of Truth Social, dropped 21.5% as investors scrutinized the fundamentals of its business. Continue reading...
Chunk of famed route crumbled into sea causing another closure, and conditions are expected to only worsen with climate crisisA long stretch of California's famed Highway 1 is closed yet again after a large chunk of the scenic route lining the central coast in Big Sur crumbled into the sea on Saturday. The slide, which occurred just south of the Rocky Creek Bridge, is the latest challenge along the winding roadway, which is facing surges in both popularity and peril.Caught between rising tides and crumbling cliff sides, conditions are becoming more extreme as the climate crisis exacerbates the issues. No one has been injured this week, according to officials - but the risks of travelling this road are only going to grow. Continue reading...
Independent says he also qualifies in Utah, Hawaii, Nevada, and New Hampshire - only Utah has confirmed his place on ballot so farRobert F Kennedy Jr, the independent candidate for the US presidency, said on Monday he has qualified for the ballot in North Carolina - which will be a key state in the November election battle between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.We have the field teams, volunteers, legal teams, paid circulators, supporters and strategists ready to get the job done," said Kennedy's campaign press secretary, Stefanie Spear. Continue reading...
Court gave voters a chance to enshrine abortion in state constitution, but also paved way for six-week ban within 30 daysFlorida residents will get the chance to vote on a ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, the Florida state supreme court ruled on Monday, teeing up a dramatic electoral showdown over abortion access in a state that has become a haven for women fleeing southern abortion bans.The decision is a victory for abortion rights activists - but one that was significantly tempered by a second decision also issued on Monday, in which the state supreme court ruled to uphold Florida's 15-week abortion ban. That decision paves the way for a separate six-week abortion ban - passed in 2023 but on hold pending the outcome of the case over the 15-week ban - to take effect. Continue reading...
Former White House adviser and white nationalist Stephen Miller plans to reinterpret civil rights laws should Trump return to powerThe anti-immigration extremist, white nationalist and former Trump White House adviser Stephen Miller is helping drive a plan to tackle supposed anti-white racism" if Donald Trump returns to power next year, Axios reported.Longtime aides and allies ... have been laying legal groundwork with a flurry of lawsuits and legal complaints - some of which have been successful," Axios said on Monday. Continue reading...
by Sam Levin and Joey Scott in Los Angeles on (#6KRVR)
Revealed: Savannah Graziano, 15, shot by sheriff's deputies in 2022 while unarmed and following instructions to move toward themNewly released law enforcement footage captures the moment California police fatally shot an unarmed 15-year-old girl who was a reported kidnapping victim.On 27 September 2022, San Bernardino county sheriff's deputies were searching for Savannah Graziano, who was feared abducted by her father Anthony Graziano after he had fatally shot her mother the day before. Continue reading...
Newly released law enforcement footage captures the moment California police fatally shot an unarmed 15-year-old girl who was a reported kidnapping victim. On 27 September 2022, San Bernardino county sheriff's deputies fired at Savannah Graziano on a side of a freeway after she exited the vehicle that her father, her suspected abductor, had been driving. Sheriff's officials initially claimed it was unclear whether Savannah was shot by deputies or her father and alleged deputies didn't realize it was her when she got out of the car. Officials have repeatedly refused to release footage Continue reading...
Disbarred attorney already serving life sentence without parole in South Carolina prison for killing his wife and sonFor maybe the last time, the convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh - in a prison jumpsuit instead of the suit he used to wear - shuffled into a courtroom on Monday in South Carolina and received a prison sentence.This time, it was for 40 years in federal court for financial crimes. Continue reading...
Alternate shipping channel will be created north-east of the main artery, near the bridge itself, according to city officialsAuthorities are preparing to create a temporary alternate channel near Baltimore's collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge to allow commercially essential vessels" to enter the city's port.The deadly crumpling of the bridge after it was struck by a giant container ship last week created wreckage that has been blocking a crucial shipping lane into the port. Concerns have loomed about the disaster's widespread toll on the local and national economy. Continue reading...
A surprise set of results has given Turkey's main opposition party a major boost and enhanced the prospects of democratic renewalLess than a year ago, Turkey's main opposition parties were in a slough of despond. Defying their predictions, the country's authoritarian leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoan, comfortably won a third term in presidential elections held last spring. At the same time, his Justice and Development party (AKP) emerged more powerful from a parliamentary poll, despite the economy tanking and dissatisfaction at the government's response to the worst earthquake for decades. Years of clientelism, culture wars and overwhelming media dominance appeared to have rendered Mr Erdoan's strongman politics all but unassailable at national level.Small wonder then, that a spectacular and unanticipated turnaround at Sunday's local elections prompted wild celebrations into the early hours. In Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, the incumbent mayor, Ekrem Imamolu, trounced Mr Erdoan's candidate. Mr Imamolu's Republican People's party (CHP) also pulled off a clean sweep of other major cities, winning by a landslide in the capital, Ankara, and easily in Izmir. More suprisingly, the CHP managed to chalk up some victories in the conservative towns and villages that make up MrErdoan's electoral heartland in Anatolia, and near the Black Sea. Gains in those regions for the Islamic farright New Welfare party (YRP), at the AKP'sexpense, added to the president's misery. Continue reading...
Section of highway crumbled during major storm on Saturday, leaving nearly 2,000 travelers stranded during Easter weekendA famous California highway remained closed on Monday after a portion of the road collapsed, leaving nearly 2,000 travelers stranded during Easter weekend.A section of California's Highway 1 - which winds along the state's cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean - crumbled during a major storm on Saturday, the Associated Press reported. Continue reading...
At the 2006 World Cup, the England team's wives and girlfriends could drink, shop and pose all they liked. Eighteen years on, fun seems to be in short supplyIt raises all kinds of sad questions to hear that the England footballers' wives and girlfriends are heading to Euro 24 with 100,000 worth of private security. The whole point of the Wags was that they occupied a timeless place, untouched by current affairs or the pace of change. They never had to justify themselves with good works or decorum. Not even the gristliest, dungaree-clad feminist (me, let's say) minded their self-fashioning as pure adornments for their celebrated menfolk. They could have careers of their own, or not have careers; drink WKD or drink kale juice; they could have been poets or they could have been fools. In the modern business of perpetual censure, they were (as the management consultants would put it) outside scope.And perhaps they still are, and the German government is overreacting in its perception of a terrorist threat from Islamic State Khorasan Province, the IS offshoot thought to be behind the Moscow attack last month. But the caution is probably warranted. Nothing is sacred to a terrorist, and the random sanctity of a Wag - the vanishingly rare social agreement to just enjoy the sight of them living their best lives - must be like a red rag to a bull, when you're a misogynist death cult. Continue reading...
Republican touts important innovations' to Ukraine package and suggests vote on bill could be imminent in Congress after recessThe US House speaker, Mike Johnson, has raised expectations that a vote on funding for Ukraine could be imminent in the chamber, even at the risk of the Republican losing his leadership position.Johnson touted important innovations" to a possible Ukraine package during an interview on Fox News's Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy, and he suggested a vote on a standalone bill could come soon after Congress returns from Easter recess on 9 April. Continue reading...
by Associated Press and Guardian staff on (#6KRH2)
Allen Beachem, 33, killed after argument with suspect who fled the scene, police sayOne man was killed and five other people were wounded during a shooting inside a restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee, on Sunday afternoon, as many in the city celebrated Easter, police said.The shooting at about 3pm in Nashville's Salemtown neighborhood began within minutes of the male suspect's arrival at the restaurant with a woman, authorities said. Continue reading...
Biden administration decision not to veto UN resolution does not signal major shift in foreign policyAny sense that a US abstention on a UN ceasefire resolution signalled a radically different approach to the Gaza war by the Biden administration lasted only four days.The UN security council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, a hostage release and large-scale delivery of food aid, was passed last Monday. By Friday, the Washington Post was reporting on the latest consignment of billions of dollars worth of US bombs and planes for Israel. Continue reading...
After two-week operation that resulted in scores of casualties, Israel says it has withdrawn from area. Plus: Japan's royal family join Instagram Don't already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.With much of Gaza City's al-Shifa hospital in ruins, Israeli forces say they have withdrawn from the area after a two-week operation.Six months later, how are Israelis feeling about the Israel-Hamas war? Tens of thousands of people across Israel joined the families of hostages at the weekend to protest and call for the removal of Benjamin Netanyahu, labelling the Israeli prime minister as an obstacle in a deal to bring home those held captive.What is the future of the Gaza Strip? Experts and people in the territory fear that Gaza is facing deepening anarchy as the last remnants of civil order break down, leaving a vacuum increasingly filled by armed gangs, clans, powerful families and criminals. Continue reading...
She's been described as the conscience of the supreme court'. That's why it pains me to write thisForget Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It is Sonia Sotomayor who is the greatest liberal to sit on the Supreme Court in my adult lifetime. The first Latina to hold the position of justice, she has blazed a relentlessly progressive trail on the highest bench in the land.Whether it was her lone dissent in a North Carolina voting rights case in 2016 (the court's conclusion... is a fiction"); her ingenious referencing of Ta-Nehisi Coates, James Baldwin, and W.E.B DuBois in another 2016 dissent over unreasonable searches and seizures; or her withering observation at the Dobbs oral argument in 2021 (Will this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the Constitution and its reading are just political acts?"), Sotomayor has stood head and shoulders above both her liberal and conservative colleagues on the bench for the past fifteen years.Mehdi Hasan is the CEO and editor-in-chief of Zeteo. Continue reading...
Christina Bobb, who was part of Trump-backed fake elector scheme, tapped to run unit by Republican National CommitteeAs Donald Trump's presidential campaign has cemented its hold on the Republican National Committee (RNC), alarms are being raised about the organisation's tapping of the fervent election denialist Christina Bobb to run an election integrity" unit.Bobb is a former Trump lawyer and ex-reporter for the far-right One America News Network, who gained prominence after Trump's 2020 loss for promoting bogus fraud charges in Arizona, Wisconsin and elsewhere, and was part of Trump-backed efforts to substitute fake electors for ones that Joe Biden won in some states. Continue reading...
Wisconsin coalition of low-wage workers and immigrants push back in anger against president's handling of Gaza warIn Wisconsin, a campaign by anti-war voters to abandon Joe Biden during the Democratic primary has found an ally in the labor movement - but not from its traditional leaders.Instead, the Listen to Wisconsin campaign, an effort inspired by the Michigan campaign to reject Biden during the primary over his military support for Israel, has earned the support of rank-and-file trade unionists and a statewide coalition of low-wage workers and immigrants angry about the president's handling of the war. Continue reading...
Ex-president's decision to sell Bibles branded with his name is risky business', says Warnock, pastor of historic Atlanta churchDonald Trump's decision to sell Bibles branded under his name is risky business", Democratic US senator Raphael Warnock said Sunday, as the former president stands accused of having few moral scruples in four separate criminal indictments pending against him.The Bible does not need Donald Trump's endorsement," Warnock, the pastor of Atlanta's historic Ebenezer Baptist church, said to CNN's State of the Union on Sunday. Speaking on Easter, one of Christianity's holiest celebration, Warnock added: It's a risky bet because the folks who buy those Bibles might actually open them up, where it says things like thou shalt not lie, thou shalt not bear false witness, where it warns about wolves dressed up in sheep's clothing. Continue reading...
Ideally, I want Lydia Tar's wardrobe or to look like a liberated 1930s heiress. But I need to be realisticAs winter (black elastic-waisted trousers, four motheaten jumpers) gives way to spring (khaki trousers, two jumpers), the harsh April light forces me to confront the truth: I'm in aesthetic freefall. In search of a solution that isn't capitulating to the miracle" trousers that stalk me around the internet, I came across this bold statement on the website Refinery 29: Just three words stand between you and figuring out personal style," . What are they? Move to Iona"? Vast lottery win"? Lydia Tar's wardrobe"? (You'd need the former for the latter; I couldn't even afford her pencils.)Actually, the three-word method", devised by stylist Allison Bornstein, involves thinking up, yes, three words to describe your style. Then you can ask yourself if you feel like you embody (ideally) all three of your words" when you get dressed and interrogate whether it aligns with one of your words" when you are considering buying something. Continue reading...
In a tradition dating back to the 1870s, New Yorkers dressed up in creative and whimsical Easter finery on Sunday to take part in the annual Easter parade and bonnet festival in Manhattan, with St Patrick's Cathedral among the best vantage points Continue reading...
The Dutch legalisation spared her further misery. We don't take euthanasia lightly; we're just grateful to have the optionMy mother, Jannet, was 90 years old when she ended her life by means of euthanasia. For years she had been suffering from numerous serious and painful conditions that made her life miserable. She always worried about her health and was terrified of what the future undeniably held in store for her: more pain, more dependence on others, more suffering, more desperation.On 20 June 2022 at 2pm she was visited by a doctor and a nurse. They had a last conversation with her, during which the doctor asked her if euthanasia was still what she wanted. My mother said yes. She had already decided that she would take the drink herself instead of being injected. She didn't want to mentally burden the doctor more than necessary.Renate van der Zee is a Dutch writer and journalistDo 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...
After rainy California season, NWS warned of risk of storms from Missouri to Illinois, with some potentially producing large hailThunderstorms and tornadoes are expected to sweep eastward across the US in the coming days after a rainy season in California.According to the storm prediction center at the National Weather Service (NWS), severe weather is expected to spread from the southern plains and into the mid-Atlantic and Gulf coast states over the next three days. The warnings applied to about 50 million Americans to kick off what are traditionally the three months that are typically the most active in terms of tornadoes in the US each year. Continue reading...
From Mohamed Salah's crucial intervention to officiating howlers, we hand out honors (and dishonors) from the top-flight weekendWhat do you get when you pair two of the best teams in the Premier League, both of whom usually play melodic, pass-and-move football? A 0-0 dud. Manchester City v Arsenal was not the Easter barnburner that was promised. Instead, we were treated to a scrappy game lacking real quality. When the independent regulator finally descends on English football, the first point of order should be barring managers at big clubs from starting four center-backs. Continue reading...
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