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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...

Last week, Conservative campaigning gave a chilling indication of the depths to which they will sink to retain powerIn the psychedelic 60s stop-frame animation children's television series Trumpton, all the characters have identifying proper names - the fireman Captain Flack, the state stormtrooper Police Constable Potter, and the mysterious dungeon-dwelling economist Gideon Pencils Osborne. The mayor of Trumpton, however, was known only as The Mayor, and neither his actual name nor his political affiliations were ever revealed, though he smelt of pubs and Wormwood Scrubs and too many rightwing meetings.All over the land last week, Tory mayors dreamed of similar anonymity, hoping that if no one knew anything about them, and their campaign literature didn't reveal they belonged to the Tory party, people might at least vote for them by accident, thinking they were someone else. Oh! Andy Street was the West Midlands' Tory mayor candidate? I thought I was voting for the glamorous, and now deceased, Welsh wrestler Adrian Street. I liked it when he pulled out Jimmy Savile's hair in 1971."Stewart Lee's new live show, Stewart Lee vs the Man-Wulf, opens in London in December before a national tour

The mistakes made at one point in time have an eerie way of re-emerging as memories fadeI've been spending the last several weeks trying to find out what's really going on with the campus protests.I've met with students at Berkeley, where I teach. I've visited with faculty at Columbia University. I've spoken by phone with young people and professors at many other universities.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His newest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

Raised as we now are on social media and true crime, we need to fight the impulse to always find out moreIf you haven't yet watched Baby Reindeer, a story that begins with its star Richard Gadd's experience with a stalker, you probably have a good reason. It will not be because, for instance, nobody has recommended it, told you how extraordinary it is, or powerful, or unique, and it won't be because you haven't heard of it - its success has been startling (as I type it's at the top of Netflix's UK and US charts weeks after its release) and its themes have made headlines. It could be, as is the case with a friend of mine, that its subject matter hits too close to home, and however unsettling it is for me to watch, for them the prospect feels like it might pull a thread and unravel everything, not least the damage caused by police failures, but we'll come to that.Despite Gadd's nuanced portrayal of the woman who stalked him, and his beautifully strange story of love and trauma, some fans of the show quickly created a horrible sort of sequel when they attempted to expose the stalker on social media. Historic tweets were urgently screengrabbed, photographs posted side by side, she was quote-tweeted as if a celebrity - the character's name was trending for days. On Instagram, Gadd urged them to stop. Please don't speculate on who any of the real-life people could be. That's not the point of our show." Continue reading...

The WTA finals host revealed its commitment to women's rights by jailing a female activistIf a record of sexual apartheid is not the ideal look for a nation that must still, occasionally, placate progressives, news of an extreme example - the lengthy imprisonmentof Manahel al-Otaibi, a 29-year-old fitness instructor and women's rights activist - has at least arrived too late to tarnish Saudi Arabia's latest sporting triumph: buying up the Women's Tennis Association finals.In fact, given that country's hectic promotional schedule, there could hardly have been a more convenient time for human rights organisations to report, as they did last week, that al-Otaibi whose circumstances were for months unknown, is serving 11years in prison for the terrorist" offences of wearing indecent clothes" (ie, not an abaya) and supporting women's rights. Her sister, Fouz al-Otaibi, fled the country in 2022 to avoid similar persecution. Fouz tweeted last week: Why have my rights become terrorism, and why is the world silent?" Continue reading...

Berkshire Hathaway's billionaire CEO, 93, steels shareholders for new era at the annual meeting known as Woodstock for Capitalists'As dawn broke on Saturday, thousands had gathered outside Omaha's CHI Health Center Arena. Some arrived before 3.30am, standing for hours in the drizzle.This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity", said Larry Blivas, 70, near the front of the line. The realtor traveled from Los Angeles to see an icon", he explained. Continue reading...

The IPP scandal should not be seen in isolation. It is all part of today's politics by vilificationDavid Blunkett acknowledged last week that it was the biggest regret" of his political life. As home secretary under Tony Blair in 2001, Blunkett was the architect of the imprisonment for public protection" scheme, or IPP.Under the IPP system, offenders were given a sentence (or tariff") proportionate to the offence committed. Once that sentence was completed, the offender was not released but remained imprisoned for as long as the Parole Board deemed them a risk to society". And when finally released, they remained on licence, meaning they could be recalled to prison at any time for minor breaches of regulation, or even because, as MPs discovered, of a lack of... suitable accommodation". Continue reading...

His constantly evolving works have been hailed as landmarks of the minimalist and post-painterly abstraction art movementsFrank Stella, a painter, sculptor and printmaker whose constantly evolving works are hailed as landmarks of the minimalist and post-painterly abstraction art movements, died on Saturday at his home in Manhattan. He was 87.Gallery owner Jeffrey Deitch, who spoke with Stella's family, confirmed his death to the Associated Press. Stella's wife, Harriet McGurk, told the New York Times that he died of lymphoma. Continue reading...

Berkshire Hathaway CEO stressed relationship at annual meeting attracting Apple CEO Tim Cook, Bill Gates and Bill MurrayThe billionaire investment tycoon Warren Buffett has stressed his empire will remain a key investor in Apple after it sold billions of dollars' worth of shares in the iPhone maker.Thousands of shareholders in Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett's sprawling conglomerate, have flocked to Omaha, Nebraska, for the firm's annual meeting - dubbed Woodstock for Capitalists - this weekend. Continue reading...

Rightwing media have seized on campus protests to portray the president as weak. Will it have an impact in November?At the height of the tensions on US campuses this week, with Republicans gleefully seizing on student unrest as an election issue that could propel Donald Trump back into the White House, Joe Biden tried to steer a middle path.Weighing the democratic right to peaceful protest and the political necessity to stem disruption, Biden declared that order must prevail". Continue reading...

Shug the pinstriped pony, who hoofed it as her trailer stopped on a highway, was eventually found horsing aroundA zebra that escaped from her owner in Washington state and went on the run for nearly six days has finally been rescued.In a statement released on Friday, the regional animal services of King county (Raskc) announced that the zebra - whose name is Shug - was captured near North Bend after roaming in the foothills of the Cascades for the better part of a week. Continue reading...

All praise to a classical singer for last week's rebellion against a sea ofilluminated screensIt was after the third song in Britten's Les Illuminations that Ian Bostridge decided he'd had enough. Wheeling round to face the constellation of screen lights that dotted Birmingham's vast Symphony Hall, the tenor called the show to a halt. Could everyone please turn off their phones? It was extremely distracting.After the performance, which was two weeks ago, Bostridge was surprised to find his phone-happy audience had been perfectly within their rights. More than that: they'd actually been encouraged to video him. The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) had last year decided to drop any perceived rules' of a traditional concert" in a bid to challenge conventions" and get young people" interested. Signs in its venues now ask ticketholders to bring drinks into the auditorium. Clap whenever they like. Wear whatever makes them feel comfortable. Take photos or short snippets of film (and share them with us)." Continue reading...

Jerry and Rita Alter, now deceased, are suspected of having stolen artworks in the 80s, including Willem de Kooning's Woman-OchreThe mystery of a nondescript, middle-aged couple who hung a stolen $150m Willem de Kooning painting behind a bedroom door in their Cliff, New Mexico, home may be closer to being resolved after the FBI agreed to assist in tracking down two other paintings that had been in the couple's possession.A new twist to the story of Jerry and Rita Alter, a pair of New Mexico teachers who somehow funded a life of travel and adventure to the point that they are suspected international art thieves, emerged recently when the US's top federal law enforcement agency confirmed it was getting involved in the case. Continue reading...

As she tries to limit the fallout from her dog- and goat-killing anecdotes, factual inaccuracies in her book are coming to lightAs she entered a second consecutive weekend trying to manage fallout from revelations in her upcoming memoir that she shot her dog to death, South Dakota's governor, Kristi Noem, had conceded that she would need to correct multiple factual inaccuracies in other parts of the book.Meanwhile, a Republican fundraiser which Noem was supposed to headline had to be canceled after threats against the event staff, hotel venue and governor, according to organizers. Continue reading...

More than 1,400 people have been arrested as police dismantle campus encampments - but are the tactics used too brutal?More than 1,400 people have been arrested across the US during a week of intense police crackdowns on a sprawling campus movement of pro-Palestine student demonstrations.As Joe Biden defended students' free speech rights but warned them that dissent must never lead to disorder", colleges across the country brought law enforcement to campus to arrest dozens or even hundreds of protesters and clear away their encampments. Continue reading...

Dozens of students at the University of Mississippi gathered this week to protest against Israel's war in Gaza and 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-Palestine protesters.The counter-protesters included individuals waving US and Donald Trump flags. There were no arrests, but the actions of the counter-protesters - who shouted 'Fuck Joe Biden' and 'USA', and included a white man apparently making monkey noisesat a Black woman - have been widely condemned on social media. Police safely evacuated the pro-Palestine students.

The online world was meant to be an open system but has become dominated by huge corporations. If we are to revive it, that must endBrowsing through a history of online public messaging last week, I came across a magical photograph from 1989 or 1990. It shows the world's first web server. It was Tim Berners-Lee's NeXT workstation in Cern, the international physics research lab, where he worked at the time. On the case is a tattered sticky label, on which is scribbled, in red ink, This machine is a server DO NOT POWER IT DOWN!!"Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist, had come up with the idea for a world wide web" as a way of locating and accessing documents that were scattered all over the internet. With a small group of colleagues he envisaged, designed and implemented it in the late 1980s and eventually put the whole thing - protocols, server and browser software, HTML specification, etc. - on one of Cern's internet servers, and in doing so changed the world. Continue reading...

There are two main stumbling blocks to ridding boxing of PEDs: motivation and cost. Saudi Arabian power broker Turki Alalshikh is uniquely situated to surmount these obstaclesIt's a matter of record that I've expressed misgivings about the migration of major boxing matches to Saudi Arabia. But I recognize that the Kingdom will be a dominant force in boxing for the foreseeable future.In recent years, Saudi Arabia, through its General Entertainment Authority (GEA), has hosted an increasing number of high-profile fights. On 18 May, Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk will battle at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world. This summer, the GEA will extend its reach to fight cards in Los Angeles and London.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...

Justices say they will not reconsider contentious February ruling that said frozen embryos are considered children under state lawThe Alabama supreme court on Friday declined to reconsider a controversial ruling that said frozen embryos are considered children under a state law.Justices in a 7-2 decision without comment rejected a request to revisit the ruling that drew international attention and prompted fertility clinics to cease services earlier this year. Continue reading...

On Friday, Hicks took the witness stand to testify against her former boss

Actor brings force of Hollywood to trumpet Biden's legislative record in briefing that both delighted and bemused journalistsYou will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy." But enough about Washington. The Star Wars actor Mark Hamill, who once saw off gangsters at a fictional spaceport, came to the US capital on Friday for a meeting with Joe Biden.Quite why he was in the Oval Office, and what was talked about, remained something of a mystery. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Biden was riding high in the opinion polls but now, perhaps, he is in need of added star power. Continue reading...

Trump's ex-communications chief denies that Michael Cohen acted alone in hush-money scheme but also helps ex-presidentDonald Trump's former communications director Hope Hicks provided testimony on Friday that could be helpful both to prosecutors and the former president's defense, revealing the fallout inside the Trump campaign in the wake of the damaging Access Hollywood tape on which Trump bragged about sexual assault.Here are the key takeaways from day 11 of People of New York v Donald J Trump: Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. For the latest on Donald Trump's hush-money trial, read our coverage here.Judge Juan Merchan was referring to a claim Donald Trump made while addressing the media yesterday outside of court.Speaking to reporters after court adjourned for the day on Thursday, the former president said:I'm not allowed to testify. I'm under a gag order. I guess, right?I'm not allowed to testify, because this judge, who's totally conflicted, has me under an unconstitutional gag order.I want to stress Mr Trump that you have an absolute right to testify at trial.That is a constitutional right that will not be denied or abnegated in any way ... It is a fundamental right that cannot be infringed upon ... the order prohibiting extra-judicial statements does not prevent you from testifying in any way. Continue reading...

Ex-president's former communications director says Access Hollywood tape was a crisis' for his campaignHope Hicks, Donald Trump's 2016 campaign press secretary, broke into tears on Friday while testifying in the ex-president's New York criminal hush-money trial, hours after she described his complete control over the campaign.Hicks, who cut a skittish figure in Judge Juan Merchan's courtroom, is a key prosecution witness. She described Trump campaign staffers' panic when a recording emerged in which Trump bragged about groping women. This was a crisis" for his presidential bid, she said, describing the sentiment among the campaign staff. Continue reading...

Texas Democrat says he and his also accused wife are innocent amid claims they took money from Azerbaijan and Mexican bankThe US justice department on Friday accused the Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, of accepting about $600,000 in bribes in exchange for influencing policy in favor of Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank.The Cuellars had made their first appearance before a federal magistrate judge in Houston by the afternoon, but it was not clear how they pleaded. Earlier, the congressman, who has represented a swath of Texas's border with Mexico in the US House since 2005, issued a statement denying unspecified allegations" against him. Continue reading...

The even-keeled Michigan native, who was sacked as the Lakers' head coach on Friday, was hired for his ability to manage personalities. Once he lost his players' trust, it was only a matter ofThe date is 31 January, less than two months removed from the Los Angeles Lakers' inaugural NBA Cup championship, and the Lakers are nosediving precipitously, racking up loss after loss in late December and into January. In a competitive Western Conference, being sub-.500, even by a game or two, simply will not get the job done for a championship hopeful. And the team does have a right to be among those hopefuls, buoyed by a shockingly healthy tandem of a freshly-39-year-old LeBron James and injury-prone big man Anthony Davis, who, to this point, have missed a combined eight games and are playing at an All-NBA level. But something clearly isn't working, and time is of the essence. No one knows this better than foe of father time himself, LeBron: that night, after yet another demoralizing loss, he tweets out, simply, an hourglass. A single emoji has never loomed larger.At the time, there is frantic speculation in regards to what, or to whom, the primitive timepiece is referring. Is it James' underperforming supporting cast, with the trade deadline hovering in the immediate future? Is it the Lakers' front office, who are no doubt aware of his player option looming in the coming offseason? Is it his own NBA mortality, to which he has admitted he will likely succumb sooner rather than later, despite no significant drop-off in production? Continue reading...

New York police say about 29% of those detained not affiliated' with university as more are arrested at NYU and New SchoolNew York's police department has declared that approximately 29% of the people it arrested at pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University were not affiliated" with the institution, as the city's mayor continues to face scrutiny over his claims that the hardline police response was due to the actions of outside agitators".The NYPD also said 60% of arrestees at City College of New York (CCNY) on Tuesday night were unaffiliated with the college, though a CCNY spokesperson confirmed to the Guardian that these arrest figures applied to protesters both on and off the college's grounds. Continue reading...

The movement to press for an end to Israel's war on Gaza has now found itself overshadowed by its loudest voicesThe protesters who seized Columbia University's Hamilton Hall on Tuesday swiftly unfurled a banner down the front of the storied building with just one word: intifada.Other students among the pro-Palestinian demonstrators in the heart of the New York campus were sceptical about invoking the Arabic call for an uprising because it has been so widely used by pro-Israeli groups to discredit their cause as support for terrorism and therefore antisemitic. Continue reading...

BF Borgers agrees to $12m civil penalty and owner Benjamin Borgers agrees to pay $2mThe auditor for former president Donald Trump's Trump Media was accused of running a massive fraud" and a sham audit mill" by the US's top financial regulator on Friday.BF Borgers and its owner Benjamin Borgers, whose clients include Trump Media, were charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with a fraud that affected more than 1,500 SEC filings. Borgers has also acted for financial tech and crypto companies, SEC filings show. Continue reading...