Friends, who were there to celebrate Day of the Dead holiday, died from apparent carbon monoxide poisoning last week, officials sayThree American tourists were found dead last week in a Mexico City Airbnb apartment they were renting after apparent carbon monoxide poisoning, Mexican authorities confirmed to Reuters on Wednesday.Friends Kandace Florence, Jordan Marshall and Courtez Hall were visiting the Mexican capital to celebrate the Day of the Dead holiday, according to US news site WAVY, based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where Florence and Marshall were from. Continue reading...
Key races in Arizona, Nevada and Georgia – which could decide the makeup of Congress – are still undecided. Here’s whyTwo days after the US midterm elections, a sense of deja vu is descending over the country. In a replay of the excruciating events in 2020, when Joe Biden’s presidential victory was declared four days after the polls closed, Americans are yet again asking themselves why they have to wait so long for election results.Later in the week, it remained elusive which main party will control both chambers of Congress. In the Senate, Republicans hold 49 seats and the Democrats 48, with two states – Arizona and Nevada – not yet called, and Georgia headed to a runoff. Continue reading...
Conspiracy theorist must pay punitive damages on top of nearly $1bn jury verdict for falsely claiming 2012 shooting was hoaxThe conspiracy theorist Alex Jones must pay $473m in punitive damages on top of a nearly $1bn verdict handed down last month for his defamatory claims about the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting, a Connecticut judge ruled on Thursday.The ruling comes a month after a jury in Waterbury, Connecticut, found Jones must pay more than a dozen relatives of Sandy Hook victims $965m in compensatory damages for falsely claiming they were actors who staged the shooting as part of a government plot to seize Americans’ guns. Continue reading...
President says he’ll announce decision in early 2023, while two-thirds of midterm voters said they wouldn’t like to see him runTo those who do not want to see the US president run for re-election, Joe Biden has a message: “Watch me.”A self-assured Biden, riding high from Democrats’ history-defying showing in this year’s midterm elections, said at a post-election press conference that he intends to seek another term, but that it was ultimately a “family decision”. Continue reading...
by David Smith in Washington and Martin Pengelly in N on (#65P0W)
Trump cautioned to wait until after crucial Senate race as candidates he endorsed were defeated in midterm electionsDonald Trump, reeling from another electoral setback, is facing pressure to delay his announcement of a new bid for the White House until after a crucial Senate race next month.Trump-endorsed candidates slumped to defeat in Tuesday’s midterm elections, leaving the former president at arguably his weakest standing in the party since the riot at the US Capitol last year. Continue reading...
Workers at the only ‘big four’ publisher to have a union authorize indefinite strike over low wages and diversityStephanie Guerdan started working in the children’s book department of HarperCollins Publishers six years ago. It was a dream job – just not a dream paycheck. The $33,500-a-year (£28,750) salary was well below a livable wage in New York City, but Guerdan didn’t ask for more. “I was terrified that I was not going to get that job if I negotiated,” they said. “Publishing is very much an industry where they tell you, ‘If you don’t want this, there are 500 people in line behind you who do.’”Publishing has for decades has been known for its low pay and overwhelmingly white staff. But workers at HarperCollins, the only member of the “big four” publishing houses to have a union, have had enough and authorized an indefinite strike. Work stopped at the downtown Manhattan offices on the sunny morning of 10 November. Employees like Guerdan, who is a shop steward at the union, spilled on to the streets to picket. Continue reading...
Biden’s approval rating stands at about 41%, yet the Democrats performed far better than many had expectedLeave the rest of the numbers aside for a moment and consider these figures. The party of the sitting president has lost seats in the US House of Representatives in all but two midterms since 1946. The average loss is 27 seats. According to one analysis, presidents with approval ratings above 50% have seen their parties lose an average of 14 seats since 1946. Presidents with approval ratings below 50% have seen their parties lose an average of 37 seats.Polls suggest Joe Biden’s current approval rating stands at about 41%. Republicans needed to take five seats to win the chamber. It remains likely that they’ll get them in the hours and days ahead. But the fact that they haven’t already – and that Democrats have a nontrivial chance of actually keeping the chamber – is highly significant. The Democrats may have had the best midterm a president’s party has experienced in 20 years – since 9/11 brought Republicans to slight, trend-bucking gains in the House and Senate in 2002. Continue reading...
Murdoch-owned media have not held back against the former president in the wake of Republicans’ disappointing midtermsOn election day, Donald Trump was clear about how his efforts to support Republican candidates should be seen.“Well, I think if they win, I should get all the credit,” Trump told News Nation. “If they lose, I should not be blamed at all.” Continue reading...
by Oliver Milman and Nina Lakhani in Sharm el-Sheikh on (#65PAF)
Democrat makes surprise appearance at climate summit as midterms forecasts predict Republicans will take the HouseNancy Pelosi has accused Republicans of treating the climate crisis like “it’s all a hoax” while at the Cop27 climate talks in Egypt, where the US delegation is attempting to remain upbeat about continued progress on dealing with global heating despite uncertainty over the midterm election results.Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives, made a surprise appearance at the climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh on Thursday. The trip may be one of Pelosi’s last as speaker, with most forecasts predicting Republicans will eke out a narrow majority in the House. Continue reading...
Extreme rightwinger trails challenger Adam Frisch by 64 votes in re-election bid almost certain to go to a recountThe Republican extremist Lauren Boebert was clinging to her US House seat by her fingertips on Thursday, as a close race with the Democrat Adam Frisch edged closer to the finish line.A recount in Colorado’s third district was a near certainty, as Boebert, a Donald Trump loyalist, trailed the businessman and former city council member by just 64 votes out of 313,428 counted, with almost 99% of precincts reporting. Continue reading...
The Friends star has spoken out about not getting pregnant in an era when her body was deemed a perfect match for social expectations of femininityJennifer Aniston has spoken for the first time about trying to get pregnant, which is significant for the kind of people who speculate about celebrities and their fertility – which in the late 90s and through the 00s was roughly everybody – because the exact cause of Aniston’s child-free life has been puzzling them for years. “It was really hard,” she told Allure magazine. “I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it. I was throwing everything at it. I would’ve given anything if someone had said to me, ‘Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favour.’ You just don’t think it. So here I am today. The ship has sailed.”The undisputed main star of Friends and, circa 2003, the highest-paid female TV actor in the world, has always been a template for the feminine ideal. I remember an American columnist in the very early years of Friends explaining her appeal thus: “She knows, and everyone knows she knows, she has great hair.” It was such a peculiar formulation that it lodged in my mind, which was fortunate, because it was the mid-90s, so it’s not on Google. The hair, not too long (attention-seeking), nor too short (feminist/independent), not too blond (conventional) or too dark (vampy), not too shiny (airhead) nor in any way dull (frigid), was the perfect, man-pleasing hair for the late 20th-century woman; but the fact that she was self-aware, hair-wise, was important too, because it was cool in those days to be a little bit feminist.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
Two deputies face suspension without pay after stopping James Hodges, 61, in Lake City last monthTwo Florida deputies faced suspension without pay after arresting a 61-year-old legally blind man who was carrying a cane they mistook for a gun.Jayme Gohde and her supervisor, Randy Harrison, were also reprimanded. Harrison will be denied raises or promotions for two years and both will be required to take remedial training about civil rights. Continue reading...
Trump unleashed a revolution that opened the door to people like DeSantis. Now the Florida governor and his supporters want to continue that revolution without its original leaderThe day after the midterm elections, the knives were out for Donald Trump. On rightwing social media, people were emotionally debating the alleged toxicity of the former president and his hand-picked nominees, while Fox News highlighted the victory of the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, emphasizing that he is “reviled by Trump”, while heralding the “dominating win” of the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis. A Fox News contributor pronounced DeSantis “the new Republican party leader”. In fact, the idea that DeSantis is the big Republican winner of the midterms – and Trump the big loser – seems to be the broad consensus in today’s media.There is, of course, at least one dissonant voice: Trump himself. Sensing that the tables are turning rapidly, he went on Fox News to warn DeSantis to stay out of the 2024 presidential election. In his typical mafioso way, Trump said, “I don’t know if he is running. I think if he runs, he could hurt himself very badly. I really believe he could hurt himself badly.”Cas Mudde is a Guardian US columnist and the Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF professor in the school of public and international affairs at the University of Georgia Continue reading...
As long as the Democrats wage war on Trump, they avoid the more important work of building a New Deal-style majorityAmerica’s midterm elections proved that the era of Donald Trump is passing. But it returns the Democrats and Republicans to the struggle for a working majority after decades of failed policies. It is a struggle that Trump’s ascendancy kicked off – but also postponed with rounds of distraction by his high jinks and obsession with his persona, even after Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.The result that shocked so many in the fall of 2016 was a popular rejection of ruling elites who shared a great deal across partisan lines. Backlash at the economic neoliberalism and endless wars of the age of Ronald Reagan – which later presidents including Democrats Bill Clinton and Barack Obama comfortably inhabited – allowed Trump a victory against mainstream Republicans and then against Hillary Clinton. It nearly allowed Bernie Sanders to break through as presidential candidate in 2016 and 2020; if Sanders failed while Trump succeeded, it was more because of Republican disorganization than because their complaints against both parties were different (though their solutions were). Continue reading...
by Oliver Laughland, Tom Silverstone, Joel Van Haren, on (#65P26)
In the vital swing state of Pennsylvania, the progressive Democrat John Fetterman defeated the TV celebrity Dr Mehmet Oz in a race that could determine the balance of power in Washington.Oliver Laughland, Tom Silverstone and Joel Van Haren followed the grassroots campaign that helped Fetterman enter the US senate and could loosen Donald Trump’s grip on the Republican party
President says ‘giant red wave didn’t happen’ as Senate still in balance and race for House control much closer than predicted. Plus, whose job is it to save the planet?
So many Americans feel bullied by the system today that they’re easy prey for TrumpismApart from specific issues and candidates that motivated voters on Tuesday, two contrasting parties continue to emerge in America – one, pro-democracy; the other, anti-democracy.The hallmarks of the anti-democracy party are its cruel nastiness and unwillingness to abide by election results. In other words: Trumpism.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley Continue reading...
by Antonio Voce, Seán Clarke and Niels de Hoog on (#65NS8)
Full live results of the Congressional midterms, seat by seat, as electors across the US vote to decide whether the Republicans or Democrats will control the House of Representatives and SenateUS midterm elections 2022 – latest live news updatesAll 435 seats in the lower chamber of the federal congress, the House of Representatives, are re-elected every two years. (There are no term limits, and incumbents are often returned, so there is substantial continuity in the membership). House seats are broadly proportional to population, so California has lots of seats but Montana only a few. Continue reading...
Diana and Jonathan Toebbe sentenced to 22 and 19 years for posing ‘great danger’ to US securityA federal judge has handed lengthy prison sentences to a US navy engineer and his wife for a plot to sell secrets about nuclear submarines to a person they thought was a representative of a foreign government, citing the “great danger” they posed to US security.The US district judge Gina Groh sentenced Jonathan Toebbe to more than 19 years and his wife, Diana Toebbe, to nearly 22 years. In August she had rejected earlier plea agreements that had called for reduced sentencing guidelines. Continue reading...
by Antonio Voce, Seán Clarke and Niels de Hoog on (#65KF6)
Full live results of the Congressional midterms, seat by seat, as electors across the US vote to decide whether the Democrats or Republicans will control the Senate and House of RepresentativesUS midterm elections 2022 – latest live news updatesAll 435 seats in the lower chamber of the federal congress, the House of Representatives, are re-elected every two years. (There are no term limits, and incumbents are often returned, so there is substantial continuity in the membership). House seats are broadly proportional to population, so California has lots of seats but Montana only a few. Continue reading...
Gregg Berhalter suppressed his preference for youthful dynamism by picking old-timer Tim Ream. Given the overall youth of the roster, adding a veteran can’t hurtGregg Berhalter has made his first big tactical move of the World Cup – a reverse Landon.Remember the shocking 2014 squad, when Jurgen Klinsmann picked Aron Jóhannsson but not Landon Donovan? For 2022, the US men’s head coach suppressed his preference for youthful dynamism by picking old-timer and apparent international has-been Tim Ream rather than a younger option. Continue reading...
America is returning to an era of divided government and two years of grinding trench warfareIt was a result that, Joe Biden said on Wednesday, gave everyone a “whew! sigh of relief” that Make America Great Again (Maga) Republicans are not taking over the government again.Biden won and Donald Trump lost in midterm elections to decide control of Congress. But just as in 2020, a collective exhalation is not enough to spell the end of political dysfunction in America. Things are about to get messy. Continue reading...
Casting so many Iranians into exile is one of the worst acts of these terrorists masquerading as leaders. But it could also be their downfallBeing an Iranian woman is a heavy birthright. It comes with knowing a true, deep, feminism, while also knowing violent oppression at the hand of the government ruling our homeland.And for millions of us, it means displacement. Continue reading...
A Republican House could still upend the trajectory of the presidency, with a decision to re-run looming in the distanceWith the next two years of his presidency on the line and Congress in the balance, Joe Biden picked up the phone on Tuesday night and began placing a series of congratulatory calls.At first, the president offered well-wishes to candidates widely expected to win their races, like Wes Moore, who soundly defeated his far-right opponent to become Maryland’s first Black governor. But soon the president was congratulating Democrats in more competitive contests, like Virginia congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, whose political fate was seen as a bellwether of Republicans’ fortunes. He ended what one prominent forecaster declared “the craziest election night I’ve ever seen” with an early morning text to Pennsylvania lieutenant governor John Fetterman, who defeated celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz in one of the most fiercely contested Senate races that had become a proxy battle between Biden and Donald Trump. Continue reading...
Biden expresses hopes that Russia might be more open to a prisoner swap to end basketball star’s ‘wrongful’ detentionJoe Biden pledged on Wednesday to secure the return of US basketball star Brittney Griner, who, it emerged earlier in the day, had been transferred last week from a detention center outside Moscow and was on her way to a Russian penal colony.“I’m telling you I’m determined to get her home and get her home safely,” the US president said on Wednesday afternoon during a press conference at the White House that focused chiefly on the results of the midterm elections. Continue reading...
Joe Biden took a cautious victory lap following the 2022 midterm election results, describing Democratic successes despite expectations of large Republican gains. 'While the press and the pundits were predicting a giant red wave – it didn’t happen,' the US president said, adding that many results in key races were still being tallied.With ballots still being counted, Democrats were hopeful about holding the Senate while Republicans felt they were on course to win the House – but by a much narrower margin than widely predicted
Pence also seems to blame anti-Trump Lincoln Project for angering former president with political ad, fueling Capitol attackShortly before the January 6 insurrection, Donald Trump warned Mike Pence he was “too honest” when he hesitated to pursue legalistic attempts to stop certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory and would make Trump’s supporters “hate his guts”, the former vice-president writes in his memoir.Pence also seems, bizarrely, to blame the anti-Trump Lincoln Project for enraging Trump with a political ad, thereby fueling the anger that incited the Capitol attack. Continue reading...
by Sam Levin and Lois Beckett in Los Angeles on (#65N23)
The margin of votes between the Democratic congresswoman and billionaire developer remains too close to callA billionaire real estate developer and a Democratic congresswoman are still locked in a tight race to become the next mayor of Los Angeles, in a record-breaking campaign where political spending topped $120m.On Wednesday morning, the margin of votes between Rick Caruso and Karen Bass was still too close to call, with the candidates virtually tied, the Associated Press reported. Continue reading...
by Presented by Jonathan Freedland, produced by Danie on (#65N7K)
Republicans will be wondering how polling got it so wrong. As John Fetterman wins that all-important Pennsylvania seat and Democrats keeps more seats in the House than expected, it is clear the former president doesn’t have the pull analysts once thought. Donald Trump faces another problem, a party rival in Florida king, Ron DeSantis.Jonathan Freedland is joined by Lauren Gambino, Tara Setmayer and David Shor to discuss the ramifications for Washington and beyond of what the votes are telling us Continue reading...
Trumpers fared badly in swing states as Biden bucked the historical trend and avoided heavy defeats in his first termUS midterm elections – latest newsAnd the loser is … Donald J Trump. The identity of the winners of America’s midterm elections was not clear the morning after the night before – even at lunchtime on Wednesday the TV anchors could not tell their audiences whether Democrats or Republicans would be in control of the House of Representatives or Senate – but there was no such ambiguity over the fate of the man who continues to loom over US politics, even two years after his removal from the White House. Trump took a beating.True to form, the former president had wanted this election to be all about him. His rallies, nominally staged to boost support for Republican candidates in whichever state he had landed in, were instead intensely focused on himself. At an outdoor event in Latrobe, Pennsylvania on Saturday night, for example, he spoke only fleetingly of the men running for governor or senator, devoting most of his two-hour speech either to relitigating the past – insisting, against all evidence, that the 2020 election was stolen from him – or hinting at a glorious future, talking up his prospects for retaking the presidency in 2024. Continue reading...
Win by longtime state representative Tony DeLuca, who died last month, triggers special election that will be held on a later dateA longtime Pennsylvania state representative was re-elected in a landslide – even though he died last month.Democrat Anthony “Tony” DeLuca, Pennsylvania’s longest-serving state representative, was the choice in more than 85% of votes cast. Continue reading...
Six fires were set in Jackson on Tuesday, the day of the midterm elections, but authorities say attacks not politically motivatedPolice in Mississippi’s capital have arrested a 23-year-old man accused of setting fire to at least six buildings – including two churches – on Tuesday near the campus of Jackson State University, a historically Black college.Though the fires were set on the same day as the midterm elections, the assistant chief of the Jackson fire department told media outlets that investigators had no immediate reason to believe the blazes were politically motivated. Continue reading...
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