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Broadcaster has offered up a feast of gaffes, stupidity, and unconquerable on-air awkwardness for US viewers to enjoyThe World Cup! A tournament of frenzied emotion, spectacular goals, heroic upsets, and grand displays of athletic daring and skill. Or, if you’re watching it in the US: four weeks of shouting, relentless commercial promotion, disorienting cuts and changes of channel to make way for the college football game, and segments in which Alexi Lalas does pump-up speeches for the US team that no one in the US team will ever listen to; a global exhibition of Clint Dempsey’s ongoing quest to assemble vowels and consonants into an order that resembles words; a month-long celebration of the festival that is Landon Donovan’s personality.At a time when things are clicking on the pitch for the US men’s national team and America finally has a generation of footballers with the technical quality to challenge the world’s best, there’s been something faintly reassuring about Fox Sports’ approach to this tournament. Whereas the USMNT is now a cosmopolitan ensemble of feather-fine talents, the Fox team is the equivalent of a farmers’ league XI that hoofs it long and hopes for the best. Continue reading...

The quarterback was the 262nd and final pick in the 2022 draft. When he suddenly found himself playing against a hot Dolphins team he deliveredYou didn’t have to be at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday to feel the shock as Jimmy Garoppolo was carted off the field in the first quarter against the Miami Dolphins. The season had mostly been on an upward trajectory for the San Francisco 49ers since Garoppolo took over for an injured Trey Lance in Week 2. With Garoppolo, who already knew the playbook, under center and most of the 49ers’ endless offensive weapons healthy and productive, San Francisco were suddenly a team to reckon with. When they traded for Christian McCaffrey in October, they became a legitimate Super Bowl contender.But with Lance out for the season and Garoppolo suffering what would later be revealed to be a broken foot, the chances of victory suddenly seemed grim. The Niners defense is great, the league’s best in fact, but who was going to make sure this team scored points? Enter Brock Purdy, the Iowa State alum who the 49ers took with the last pick of the 2022 draft. Yep, Purdy is the most recent Mr Irrelevant. Continue reading...

The contest between Raphael Warnock and Trump-backed Herschel Walker will decide if Democrats maintain their majorityLast month Democrats secured control of the US Senate, keeping their fragile hold on power with 50 seats and vice president Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote. Yet winning the Georgia runoff election on Tuesday would deliver Democrats more than just a single Senate seat: it would finally give them an outright majority.The contest between Democratic senator Raphael Warnock and his scandal-plagued and Trump-backed Republican challenger, Herschel Walker, will determine whether the Democrats retain their 50-50 majority in the Senate, the narrowest possible balance of power, or whether they will expand it. Continue reading...

Exclusive: private autopsy says Kevin Desir’s death after a struggle with six deputies was a homicide, while official one said it was undeterminedA newly-obtained autopsy report has concluded that a 43-year old Florida man’s death after being violently restrained by jailers was a homicide by strangulation.On 17 January, 2021, Kevin Desir became unresponsive after a struggle with six deputies at the North Broward Bureau facility, a jail operated by the Broward county sheriff’s office (BSO) in south Florida. The jail specifically detains arrestees who have mental and physical disabilities, as well as those with mental health problems. Continue reading...

Revealed: a private autopsy report shared with the Guardian concludes Desir’s death was a homicide

This week’s African Union summit in Ivory Coast is an opportunity to work towards a holistic food security strategyMalnutrition looms large in Africa. Over a fifth of the continent’s 1.3 billion people faced hunger last year, more than twice the level of any other continent.Even before the war in Ukraine jeopardised supplies to many African countries of grain and fertiliser needed to feed their people or for growing crops, Covid-19 had disturbed food processing and supply chains, affecting world economies and provoking agricultural and food inflation. Continue reading...

Dave Joyce of Ohio, chair of the Republican Governance Group, says he will vote for Trump if he is nominee in 2024A leader of moderate Republicans in the US House repeatedly refused to condemn Donald Trump on Sunday, even after the former president, running for re-election in 2024, said the US constitution should be “terminated” to allow him to return to power.“Whoever the Republicans end up picking, I’ll fall in behind” them, Dave Joyce of Ohio told ABC’s This Week, adding that he thought Americans did not want to look back to the 2020 election, the subject of Trump’s lies about electoral fraud and demand for extra-constitutional action. Continue reading...

The US were ultimately shown to be inferior to the world’s best at this World Cup. But they have the potential to make an impression as hostsWhether the United States depart the Middle East having accomplished Gregg Berhalter’s clearly articulated goal of changing the way the world perceives American soccer is an open question.The overall result following Saturday’s defeat to the Netherlands, which laid bare just how far the Americans have to go before contending with the world’s elite, doesn’t offer a clear answer. After surpassing the tempered expectations of supporters back home by getting out of a tough group but falling short of their own lofty goals, the wholly reconstructed US team made it exactly as far as their previous two appearances at the tournament: to the last 16 and out. Continue reading...

Police say no indication shooting politically motivated as teen working for Democrat is treated for non-life threatening injuriesA teenager was shot outside a home in Georgia while campaigning for Raphael Warnock, the incumbent Democratic senator who faces a runoff against the Republican Herschel Walker on Tuesday, police said.The Savannah police department said a 42-year-old man shot at the teenager through a closed door on Thursday, striking the teen in the leg. Continue reading...

Mary O’Connor and her husband were stopped by an officer for driving a golf cart without a license plateThe police chief of Tampa, Florida, was placed on administrative leave after flashing her badge in an attempt to get out of a traffic stop, the city’s mayor said.On 12 November, Mary O’Connor and her husband were stopped by a Pinellas county sheriff’s deputy for driving a golf cart without a license plate. Body camera footage showed the officer explaining to the pair why he stopped them. Continue reading...

Agent says prospective new owner of house in Astoria shown in 1985 adventure film promises to preserve the landmarkThe listing agent for a Victorian home in Astoria, Oregon, which featured in The Goonies has said the likely new owner is a fan of the classic coming-of-age movie about friendships and treasure hunting, and promises to preserve and protect the landmark.Based on a story by Steven Spielberg and released in 1985, The Goonies features a group of friends fighting to protect their homes from an expanding country club and threats of foreclosure. They discover an old treasure map that leads them on an adventure and allows them to save their neighborhood, called Goon Docks. Continue reading...

Likely future Israeli PM, who has repeatedly praised Trump, says dinner with rapper and white nationalist ‘unacceptable and wrong’Donald Trump should be “condemning” antisemitism following his meeting with the rapper Ye and Nick Fuentes, Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.The former and likely future Israeli prime minister told NBC’s Meet the Press the former president’s recent dinner with the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, who has repeatedly made antisemitic remarks, and Fuentes, a white nationalist and Holocaust denier, was “not merely unacceptable, it’s just wrong”. Continue reading...

McCarthy seeking votes to be speaker when Republicans take over the House next year partyIn his first major interview since being elected the first Black leader in Congress, the New York Democrat Hakeem Jeffries was asked what he thought of Kevin McCarthy, the Californian now seeking the votes to be speaker when Republicans take over the House next year.“We serve in Congress together,” Jeffries said. Continue reading...

Former president must be ‘universally condemned’ for comments, says White HouseThe Biden White House rebuked Donald Trump after the former president said the US constitution should be “terminated” over his lie that the 2020 election was stolen.Andrew Bates, a White House spokesperson, said: “Attacking the constitution and all it stands for is anathema to the soul of our nation and should be universally condemned.” Continue reading...

Polls suggest narrow lead for Raphael Warnock as party brings out big guns to campaign days before electionA marathon election campaign will enter its final sprint on Tuesday when voters in Georgia decide the last seat in the US Senate – and shape the next phase of Joe Biden’s presidency.Opinion polls suggest a narrow lead for incumbent Democratic senator Raphael Warnock over his Republican challenger, former American football star Herschel Walker. Continue reading...

Washington’s first such event since 2019 pulled out all the stops to heal relations shaken by the Trump presidencyIt was the night food porn returned to the White House. In a heated tent on the south lawn, political leaders, business titans and Hollywood stars feasted on butter poached Maine lobster, American Osetra caviar, calotte of beef with shallot marmalade, triple cooked butter potatoes and artisanal cheeses.Joe Biden, a teetotaller reportedly drinking ginger ale, and French president Emmanuel Macron, wielding a flute of California brut rosé, wore tuxedos and offered toasts to their friendship. “Et laisse-moi dire, vive les États-Unis d’Amérique, vive la France, et vive l’amitié entre nos deux pays,” Macron said. Continue reading...

I don’t care if a candidate for my company’s open position has a criminal record. But I do care about something more importantMy company is hoping to hire a part-time person to implement and support some of the software applications we sell. Like most small business owners, finding someone isn’t easy in this tight labor market, despite all the recent tech industry layoffs. I can’t afford to pay what some of these people earn – or were earning – in Silicon Valley and therefore my choices are limited. So, what to do?How about hiring someone with a criminal record? Continue reading...

The deficiencies on display throughout USA’s defeat to the Dutch suggest that more work was needed before Gregg Berhalter’s squad arrived in QatarAs his players slumped to the ground after full-time at Khalifa International Stadium, their World Cup dreams in pieces, US head coach Gregg Berhalter took to the pitch brandishing his Moleskine notebook. As he moved through the throng – wrapping his arm around a weeping Tim Weah, offering words of consolation to Christian Pulisic, applauding the American fans – the notebook stayed with him, held aloft seemingly as a symbol of the task that lies ahead if the US are to progress any further than this at their home World Cup in 2026. A manager ready to get back to work at the very moment of defeat sends a strong message, but in truth the technical and tactical deficiencies on display throughout the US’s defeat to a ruthless Dutch outfit suggest that more work was needed before Berhalter’s squad touched down in Doha. What this team has most missed throughout the World Cup is basic football intelligence, the kind of smarts that the Dutch displayed in spades. Like Gio Reyna, Berhalter’s moleskine made its cameo in Qatar too late.A round of 16 exit feels like a par score for the US, and there is of course no indignity in going down to one of the world’s great footballing nations; America can feel some satisfaction in counting itself among the world’s top 16 sides; and so on. But cliches and ritual expressions of pride can’t hide that the manner of USA’s exit here was particularly disappointing. A country of America’s size, wealth, and ambition – not to mention one in which soccer is such an enduringly popular participation sport – should aspire to more at the World Cup. Continue reading...

The Fleetwood Mac singer songwriter, who died last week, is among a select group whose music is culturally indelibleMost of us have our favourite musical artists, the ones we deliberately seek out, but what about the other kind, the ones who wriggle in through the trapdoor of your mind? That, in the sweetest, strangest way, gatecrash your cultural consciousness when you’re not quite paying attention, then embed there. Forever.When news came of the death of Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie at age 79, the internet did one of its loving, sorrowful double-takes. Of course it did. There’s much to applaud about the multitalented McVie: those scuffed-velvet vocals; the chilled charisma of a woman who truly knew herself; that decades-spanning rock’n’roll sisterhood with fellow band member Stevie Nicks laying waste to the sexist fiction that two highly creative women always have to end up in a catfight. Continue reading...

Plantar fasciitis has forced him to withdraw from Hero World Challenge, but Woods is not ready to let go just yetOff-course work at Albany – a stint in the commentary booth, delivering putting lessons to amateurs and involvement in a PGA Tour player meeting – presumably does not vex Tiger Woods too much since his foundation benefits significantly from the Hero World Challenge, but looking on as others compete has never been his forte.Woods was in the field until a Monday bulletin that punctured external enthusiasm for this event. Plantar fasciitis, which developed when he returned to walking on courses rather than driving in buggies, is the latest injury to halt him. Given the scale of effort Woods, who turns 47 this month, had to apply to render the Hero World Challenge even a possibility, it was a harsh blow. Continue reading...

Tube and bus use is up, more of us are cycling - WFH is fast losing its allure for manyOur love affair with working from home, triggered during Covid lockdowns by the often cheerless embrace of Zoom, is cooling sharply. The daily commute is becoming fashionable, especially if you are young. The alternative is experienced by too many as lonely, isolating, distracting, threatening to one’s mental health, polluting of one’s home space. It’s expensive to keep warm – and you’re often the last to find out what’s going on among your colleagues.Workplaces, after all, are where you make friends and sometimes meet life partners, as well as learn all that tacit knowledge so crucial to doing your job well and so build your career. We humans are social animals and creating working lives permanently apart from others was always going against the grain. Continue reading...

The GOP flopped in the midterms but its White House hopefuls still hope to find readers – and conservative group bulk-buyersIn one of the clearest signs that the 2024 Republican presidential primary will feature rivals to Donald Trump, a host of likely candidates have released or will soon release books purporting to outline their political visions.Such books often sell poorly, but that is rarely their point. They are markers of ambition. To judge from the political bookshelves, after midterm elections in which many Trump-endorsed candidates suffered humiliating losses, the former president will not be the only declared candidate for long. Continue reading...

A decade after the Sandy Hook shooting, the Democrat believes the US is ready to embrace change around firearmsSenator Chris Murphy believes that the tide is finally turning in favor of the gun safety movement in America.Even as Murphy acknowledges that more work is needed to address gun violence, the prominent Connecticut Democrat maintains that a growing backlash to mass shootings has brought the country to the brink of a sea change – 10 years after the devastating Sandy Hook school shooting in his home state. Continue reading...

The Americans are a talented young team with a bright future, but attacking profligacy and a lack of a knockout power cost them against the NetherlandsArgentinian television is calling it La Copa de Batacazos: a World Cup of bumps, surprises and the unforeseeable. They’ve come thick and fast on this tiny Gulf peninsula over the past two weeks, with a record seven teams ranked in the top 20 of Fifa’s world rankings, including Germany, crashing out at the group stage.The United States entered Saturday night’s knockout match with the Netherlands confident they could deliver the latest plot twist in a competition where outsiders have consistently punched above their weight. Instead, their dream is over in disappointingly predictable fashion thanks to shortcomings that have become all too familiar. Continue reading...

A woman was killed and four others were injured after the Viking Polaris vessel was hit by a big wave off southern ArgentinaA US woman was killed and four other passengers injured when a massive wave struck the Viking Polaris cruise ship while it was sailing toward the port of Ushuaia in southern Argentina on an Antarctic cruise, authorities said.The 62-year-old woman was hit by broken glass when the wave broke cabin windows late Tuesday during a storm, Argentine authorities said. The ship suffered limited damage and arrived in Ushuaia, 1,926 miles (3,100km) south of Buenos Aires, the next day. Continue reading...

Officials warn lava advances could be highly variable over the coming days as flow crosses level groundHawaii’s Mauna Loa, the largest active volcano in the world, that erupted last week for the first time in nearly four decades, continued to spew lava Saturday, though the flows have slowed to a crawl.Fissure three in the volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii remains active and is feeding a lava flow advancing at an average rate of 150 feet an hour over the past 24 hours. Fissurefour is “sluggish”, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said, while fissures one and two are no longer active. Continue reading...

No surprise Russia’s military wants me for cannon fodder but why did they think I’d be home when they called?A round mid-October, almost a month after Vladimir Putin called for the partial mobilisation of Russian citizens to fight the war in Ukraine, there was a knock at the door of the Moscow flat that is registered as my official residence in the country.The family friends who reside there opened the door and were greeted by two officers from the Russian military administration, who asked them whether I was at home. They said I had not been home in more than 20 years.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

Denzel Dumfries and Frenkie De Jong excelled against a USA side for whom Christian Pulisic was a rare bright sparkAndries Noppert (GK) Was brave to deny Tim Ream three minutes into the second half and made a couple of decent first-half saves. 7/10 Continue reading...

If this is boring football then give Louis van Gaal more of it. The Netherlands’ head coach has bridled at claims he has brought a tedious team to the World Cup but they had the class, nous and killer instinct that the United States lacked to become the first country into the quarter-finals.A player named after the actor Denzel Washington – the Internazionale defender Denzel Dumfries – was the architect of the USA’s demise with two assists and a fine third goal that extinguished any chance of a comeback by Gregg Berhalter’s young side. The USA rallied strongly after finding themselves two goals down at half-time and the cheekiest of flicks from Haji Wright brought hope. Continue reading...

Critics including Ukraine say cap of $60 per barrel is still above market value and will not hurt Russia’s war coffers

The nuclear-capable B-21 Raider is set to become a key component in US’s effort to match the Asian country’s military build-upThe Pentagon unveiled its first new strategic bomber in more than 30 years on Friday, a nuclear-capable bat-wing plane that will become a central component of the US effort to counter China’s military build-up when it enters service around 2027.Almost every aspect of the B-21 Raider is classified, but in a tightly-controlled unveiling at the Air Force’s Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, currently home of Lockheed-Martin’s legendary Skunk Works, the new strategic plane was briefly shown to the public. Continue reading...

The rapper’s creations are unlikely to pass muster with adherents of modern design, even if they do ‘push the boundaries’The news that the rapper A$AP Rocky is launching a “decor studio” will be startling to believers in the high-minded principles of modern design, and its antecedents in the arts and crafts movement, especially when they see that his main idea is to add some primary-coloured mushrooms to a cactus-shaped hatstand created 50 years ago by the Italian designers Guido Drocco and Franco Mello. “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful,” said the Victorian socialist and designer William Morris, words that don’t have much traction in this case. “A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away,” said the author and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Nope, also not much use here. Rocky’s explanation is that he has long advocated for psilocybin, the psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms, so “it was only right that we made a cactus with them”. This might sound like a flimsy argument to justify what looks like a marketing gimmick. But maybe legacy objections don’t apply when, as Rocky says of himself, you’re trying to “push the boundaries of the home decor space”. Continue reading...

A tool to stop non-consensual distribution of intimate images has been successful – but there’s still the problem that collecting digital trophies is part of being a manWould you send your nudes to Facebook? Would you trust a company famous for its somewhat loose approach to data privacy with intimate photos of yourself? The answer, for a lot of people, is “hell no, are you out of your mind?” Five years ago Facebook (which is now Meta) asked Australians for their nudes in a pilot effort to develop a tool to stop the non-consensual distribution of intimate images; the response was sceptical to say the least. In a surprising twist, though, it looks like Meta’s tactics to stop revenge porn are actually working. Continue reading...

Senate hopefuls Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker’s contrasting beliefs will influence how voters turn outAs senator Raphael Warnock faces off against Republican challenger Herschel Walker in the most expensive race of the 2022 midterms, they also encounter a historic moment: it’s the first time in modern Georgia history that two Black candidates were nominated by both party’s voters to vie for a US Senate seat in the deep south state.Warnock and Walker both had experiences with poverty and Christianity during their upbringings yet their views on race and racism in society are now in stark contrast. Continue reading...

Ray J Garcia is charged with abusing at least three female prisoners from 2019 to 2021 in prison areas out of view of camerasFirst, the prison’s male warden would flatter the incarcerated women under his charge who attracted him, shower them with compliments and promise them early releases or transfers to lower-security facilities, according to authorities.Eventually, he would allegedly take them to places in his lockup that he knew weren’t watched by surveillance cameras, force sex on them and take nude photos of them. Continue reading...

Former speaker who led charge against Bill Clinton raises eyebrows with column heralding Democrat’s first-term successRepublicans must “quit underestimating” Joe Biden, the former US House speaker Newt Gingrich said, because the president is winning the fight.Writing on his own website, Gingrich said: “Conservatives’ hostility to the Biden administration on our terms tends to blind us to just how effective Biden has been on his terms. Continue reading...

Authorities announce that member of Migos, who was shot at a bowling alley last month, was ‘an innocent bystander’A suspect has been arrested and charged with murder in the killing of Takeoff, the rapper and member of Migos, at a bowling alley in Houston last month.Announcing the news on Friday, Houston police said Takeoff, who was 28 and whose birth name was Kirshnik Khari Ball, was “an innocent bystander”. Continue reading...

Biden alludes to Republican politicians, saying ‘our political leaders should be calling out and rejecting antisemitism wherever it hides’It looks like Florida’s legislature will press ahead with a plan to allow Ron DeSantis to continue serving as the state’s governor, while he pursues his expected run for the White House.An Associated Press report Friday adds credence to the idea floated by Republicans last month, and reported in this blog, to repeal Florida’s so-called “resign to run” rule. Continue reading...

For many, the lava flow is a time to pray, sing, dance and make offerings to Pele, the Hawaiian deity of volcanoes and fireFor many Hawaiians, lava flows are a time to honor, reflect.Glowing lava from the world’s largest volcano is a sight to behold, but for some, Mauna Loa’s eruption is a time to pray, make offerings and honor both the natural and spiritual worlds. Continue reading...

The US manager credits the Dutch for helping him with his soccer education as his team look to upset the odds and book a place in the World Cup quarter-finalsLouis van Gaal says he doesn’t recall the last time he faced Gregg Berhalter in a competitive match.Berhalter, whose United States team will play Van Gaal’s Netherlands on Saturday in the last 16 of the World Cup, doesn’t believe him for a second. Continue reading...

We are paying £6bn more just to eat. After years of abstract debate, the human consequences of our exit become clearer by the dayEnveloped in Westminster silence it may be, but every day and in every way Brexit is getting more real. For so long, this was an argument made through the medium of abstract nouns: “freedom”, “sovereignty”, “control”. But now reality is intruding. This week came word that Brexit added almost £6bn to Britons’ food bills over a two-year period, and that it was the households with least that were affected most. There’s a reason politicians refer to “bread-and-butter issues”: because there is nothing abstract about food and what it costs.Looking back, it was always a tell that leave campaigners sought to avoid the realm of the concrete, preferring to stick with intangible talk of “independence” or a regained mastery of our national destiny. They knew reality was a hostile environment for the Brexit project, one that would expose its folly. Remainers tried to resist, hoping not to fight on the battlefield of dreams but on the terrain of facts and figures, yet it never worked. It just made them sound boring, casting them as spoilsport bean-counters and, besides, all their numbers were themselves abstractions – projections of a hypothetical future. The forecasts of gloom could be, and were, swatted aside as “project fear”.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

As the Sussexes unveil a slick Netflix series, the Windsors are struggling with accusations of racism at a palace receptionIf ever there were a love story for the Instagram age, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s beautifully chronicled romance is the one. Here they are, in a series of pictures from their private album released to promote next week’s six-part Netflix documentary on their relationship, sitting atop a Jeep on what looks like their first holiday together. Here he is, serenading her on the guitar. Then the two of them, impossibly glamorous, spinning joyously around the dancefloor at their wedding; and her on a beach, pregnant and delightedly cradling the bump, against an almost too perfect sunset.Couple goals, luxury travel, a baby: that’s all the influencer boxes ticked. But perhaps the most telling image shows them late at night in their kitchen, just in from an official engagement. Harry has stripped off his dress jacket and is kissing Meghan, who is perched on the counter in an evening gown; it’s sexy, dishevelled and achingly intimate, at least until you ask yourself how precisely there came to be a photographer handy to capture it. Continue reading...