Eagles score 10 tries against Kenya while Portuguese have slightly harder time against Hong Kong in DubaiThe USA and Portugal have the inside running on qualification for the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France after bonus-point wins in the first matches of the final qualifying tournament, in Dubai on Sunday.The US beat Kenya 68-14 and Portugal defeated Hong Kong 42-14 at the Sevens Stadium in the first round-robin games. Continue reading...
Melody Jennings of Clean Elections USA teamed up with True the Vote for project that echos Trump’s false claims about 2020A far-right group run by a Christian pastor has sparked a legal firestorm by spearheading a drive to aggressively monitor drop-box voting for fraud in Arizona and other states, in an echo of Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election results were rigged.Melody Jennings, who runs Clean Elections USA, has teamed up with the conservative group True the Vote, which has a track record for making debunked charges of voting fraud. Together they are promoting a project to hunt for alleged drop-box fraud, which Jennings boasted in multiple interviews on Steve Bannon’s podcast War Room and the MG Show, a conspiratorial QAnon program. Continue reading...
The prize keeps getting bigger because no one can overcome the long odds – 1 in 292.2m – to snag itA record Powerball jackpot grew to an even larger $1.9bn (£1.67bn) after no one won the lottery drawing on Saturday night.The numbers for the drawing were: white balls 28, 45, 53, 56, 69 and red Powerball 20. The next chance for someone to get lucky will be Monday night. Continue reading...
Envoys quietly start to prepare groundwork for aggressive field operation, putting Trump at center of attention ahead of midtermsDonald Trump is expected to announce a third White House campaign before the end of November as envoys have quietly started to prepare the groundwork for an aggressive field operation, according to people familiar with the matter, thrusting him into the center of attention ahead of Tuesday’s midterms.The plans for a potential 2024 campaign have started to accelerate in recent weeks, with the former president and his advisers signalling that an announcement is imminent and aiming to capitalize on his position as the clear frontrunner to seize the GOP nomination. Continue reading...
It’s all too easy to make fun of Gwyneth Paltrow’s ‘wellness’ empire. But what the hell: I’m going inI’m conscious that the Goop holiday gift guide – and particularly the notorious “Ridiculous but Awesome” section – has become so knowing, so tongue-in-cheek, that to parse it is to play into Gwyneth Paltrow’s gold-painted hands. The whole thing is plainly workshopped to death at Goop’s oatmeal leather and blond wood Santa Monica headquarters to create the precision-tooled blend of outrage and aspiration that gets GP column inches. Despite that, moth to the open flame of a Dome Outdoor Oven ($2,149), I cannot resist.Capitulating to the Goop master plan has consolations. There are some vintage picks: the $28,500 perv ottoman (sorry, “tufted boudoir chaise” with stirrups and restraints) and the €15,900 preppers’ bunker (for those “who lead modern, self-providing lives”) catch my eye, inevitably. So does the fetishy $239 beribboned baguette bag for carrying your Tesco French stick (or, indeed, the $210 lamp made from a real baguette from the 2020 gift guide). Then $3,900 of seemingly Goop-inspired minibar snacks (pistachio milk, seeded honey and sea moss), to “accompany” the $299 joint rolling machine is pleasingly on-brand.Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
The key state is seeing record early voting – but some say restrictions are disproportionately affecting certain groupsJust six days before the midterm election, Madison Cook, an eager first-time Georgia voter and a college student at school in Mississippi, awaited the arrival of her requested absentee ballot. She continued to follow up with her county election officials. But nearly one month after her application was processed, it appeared to be lost in the mail.“Here’s a great example of a voter who is falling through the cracks,” said Vasu Abhiraman, deputy policy and advocacy director at ACLU of Georgia, who received an email seeking help for Cook. “If she doesn’t get her ballot, she has almost no hope of voting.” Continue reading...
by Tom Dart at Minute Maid Park, Houston on (#65H5Y)
The Houston Astros manager has long been seen as a tragicomic figure due to his inability to win the Fall Classic. That time has now passedTurns out you can have a smile as wide as a Texan freeway even with a toothpick doing somersaults in your mouth.For much of his long and distinguished managerial career, Dusty Baker has chomped minty sticks as a healthier alternative to chewing tobacco, taken teams to the postseason, and not won the World Series. You can scratch that last part now. Continue reading...
Democrat Cisco Aguilar is challenging Republican Jim Marchant, who pledged to ‘fix’ country and secure Trump victory in 2024The man who could save free and fair elections in Nevada was rushing to finish his breakfast. No one seemed to notice him.It was this anonymity that belied the weight on the shoulders of Cisco Aguilar, a 45-year-old cherub-faced lawyer who is running to be Nevada’s top election official. Aguilar, a Democrat, is in the final stretch of the secretary of state race against Jim Marchant, a former Nevada lawmaker who has been one of the most prominent leaders of a movement to question the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election. Continue reading...
It’s rude to end a relationship in radio silence, but it provides insight into a company’s culture and how it treats its employeesWe knew it was coming. The practice of “ghosting” has taken a 180-degree turn. Up until recently, many job candidates in this very tight labor market thought nothing of accepting interviews – even job offers – and then ghosting the company that recruited them by simply not showing up. Now, new data from jobs platform Glassdoor finds that a growing number of employers are doing the same.According to Glassdoor’s chief economist, job seekers have increasingly reported being ghosted by employers since the pandemic began. “The share of interview reviews mentioning ghosting has almost doubled (+98%) since Feb ’20,” he wrote in a Twitter post. “In January 2019, roughly 1.25% of interview reviews mentioned ghosting and that percentage has increased over the past two and half years to more than twice that amount.” Continue reading...
Congressmen were far ruder to Federal Reserve boss Janet Yellen than men in the post… but not if they had daughtersMost people probably understand that sexism exists in workplaces, with real consequences for those who experience it today and rise to leadership positions tomorrow. However, proving it – let alone accurately measuring it – can be hard.Which is why everyone should read a great, if depressing, research paper that investigates sexism among politicians. Why is it great? Well, first of all there’s the simply brilliant title: “Yellin’ at Yellen: Gender Bias in the Federal Reserve Congressional Hearings”. Second, the researchers developed a simple but powerful way of measuring discrimination that you might have guessed given the great title – they compare how specific congressmen behaved towards Janet Yellen (the first female chair of the Fed from 2014 to 2018) and her male predecessors/successor when they came to give testimony at the US equivalents of our select committees. Continue reading...
US Democrats and leftwing parties around the world have failed to come up with a compelling narrative to counter the lies and distortions of extremistsUnless polls, pundits and precedents are wildly wrong, Democrats will crash and burn in this week’s US midterm elections. Given the problems he inherited, Joe Biden’s presidency was always likely to end in tears. Expected Republican gains on Tuesday herald a descent into bareknuckle political fisticuffs and legislative gridlock before the 2024 White House race.The Democrats appear odds-on to lose control of the House of Representatives. They could possibly cling on in the Senate but that, too, looks increasingly uncertain. Biden has had less than two years to implement his policies. Now his domestic agenda may be stymied at every turn. Internal party recriminations have already begun. Continue reading...
Nearly half of Americans fear their country will erupt within the next decade. Ahead of the midterm elections this week, three experts analyse the depth of the crisisAmerican political scientist and author of How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them (Viking) Continue reading...
Fugitive Quashon Burton apprehended at Florida vacation park by federal agent who was on holiday at the timeOn the run from charges that he scammed his way into nearly $150,000 worth of coronavirus relief loans, Quashon Burton went on vacation last month to Disney World’s Animal Kingdom theme park, where he crossed paths with another most unfortunate tourist for him.That tourist was a federal agent who had been investigating Burton’s case, before going on vacation and taking time out of his Florida holiday to help catch him, according to authorities handling the bizarre circumstances surrounding the arrest. Continue reading...
Part Trump rally, part religious service, and much conspiracy theory thrown in – on the eve of the midterms, Ed Pilkington visits the ReAwaken America tour“There is a man by the name of Donald,” the voice on the recording says. “God said, ‘You have been determined through your prayers to influence this nation … I will open that door that you prayed about, and when it comes time for the election you will be elected.”Three thousand people are packed into an overflowing auditorium, many with arms raised and eyes closed in prayer. The recording to which they are listening is from April 2013 and of Kim Clement, a late South African preacher, as he prophesies the first coming of Donald Trump. Continue reading...
by David Smith in Latrobe, Pennsylvania on (#65GW0)
Ex-president strikes familiar notes at Pennsylvania rally as he swipes at potential rival ‘Ron DeSanctimonious’ and effectively kicks off another run for White HouseA Boeing 757 plane halted on the runway with “Trump” emblazoned on the side in giant gold letters. Loudspeakers boomed Elvis Presley’s Dixie, Village People’s YMCA and Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA. Donald Trump descended stairs to rapturous cheers and whistles from thousands of supporters.Officially, the former US president was rallying at a regional airport to support Republicans candidates in Tuesday’s midterm elections. Unofficially, he was already accelerating down the runway of a 2024 campaign for the White House. Continue reading...
Fading veterans have given way to promising and dynamic youngsters but there are problems at centre-forward and centre-backThis article is part of the Guardian’s World Cup 2022 Experts’ Network, a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 32 countries who qualified. theguardian.com is running previews from two countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 20 November. Continue reading...
The odds-on favourite took off in the showpiece race on a day Charlie Appleby’s Rebel’s Romance won the Turf race under James DoyleThat was a decisive win for Goodnight Olive, who set off as the 9-5 favourite.BREEDERS’ CUP FILLY & MARE SPRINT RESULT: Continue reading...
Video shows Robert Walczykowski wrapping hand around neck of 24-year-old and accusing him of stealing neighbor’s bikeA white Milwaukee man has pleaded not guilty to a criminal charge filed against him after video captured him with his hand around the neck of a Black man with special needs in a case many are calling an example of racial profiling.Robert Walczykowski, 62, recently pleaded not guilty to a disorderly conduct misdemeanor charge after video went viral of him wrapping his hand around the neck of 24-year-old Trevon Burks, who is Black and has a disability. Continue reading...
The big social media platforms don’t reflect back our views so much as form them‘I didn’t do it to make more money. I did it to try to help humanity.” Elon Musk in his own words on buying Twitter. He follows in the footsteps of fellow multibillionaire Mark Zuckerberg, who in 2017 published a “manifesto” for Facebook, setting out how he wanted it to help save humanity from itself.Delusions of grandeur in wildly rich men aren’t unusual, so it’s tempting to scoff, then move on. But they are right to claim that their ownership of huge social media platforms confers significant power – in their heads, to do good, but, for the rest of us, to create harms spanning mental health to child safety to health misinformation. Zuckerberg’s manifesto didn’t stop Facebook helping stoke violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar or in the Tigray conflict in Ethiopia. Continue reading...
by Ramon Antonio Vargas in New Orleans on (#65GJA)
Audit details potential irregularities in which nearly $400,000 of church congregants’ funds were allegedly misusedA Catholic priest who led one of New Orleans’ best-known inner-city churches until being accused of sexually molesting a child has been reported to federal authorities for possible financial crimes after an audit found he spent nearly $400,000 of his congregants’ money in questionable ways.John Asare-Dankwah ran the St Peter Claver church in New Orleans’ historic Treme neighborhood from 2014 until early 2021, when a lawsuit alleging that he raped a boy on an out-of-state overnight trip years earlier prompted church officials to indefinitely suspend him from his role. Continue reading...
Hospitals urge Americans to be up to date with vaccinations but 5m fewer flu vaccines administered to US adults than last yearHospitalizations from the flu are the highest they have been in a decade as experts warn that other Covid variants and respiratory illnesses are on the rise.Flu-related cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are all at a ten-year high, reported the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday, with adults over the age of 65 and young children most affected. Continue reading...
What remains of Ukraine’s fragile democracy may not survive, regardless of the final outcome of this bloody warWar and democracy have always been more comfortable bedfellows than they should be. Our own history makes that perfectly clear.During the second world war, the US sent Japanese Americans to internment camps. During Vietnam, the FBI surveilled and attacked anti-war and civil rights movements. And the “war on terror” led to a massive assault on civil liberties, especially of Muslim and Arab communities.Phyllis Bennis is the director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies Continue reading...
The latest polls are a sobering reminder that some women will vote in ways that threaten their bodily autonomy if it helps bolster their statusThere are only a few days left until the US midterm elections and, if a new poll is to be believed, white women might help contribute to a red wave. The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that white suburban women have “significantly shifted” their support from Democrats to Republicans amid “rising concerns over the economy and inflation”. The Journal found that white suburban women “now favor Republicans for Congress by 15 percentage points, moving 27 percentage points away from Democrats since the Journal‘s August poll”. Continue reading...
Kyrie Irving’s suspension is new low for one of the most talented players of his generation, a fast-falling star now likely to be remembered as a purveyor of offensive misinformationThe apology materialized close to midnight but by then it was too late. Kyrie Irving had been suspended by his NBA team after a week of widespread consternation but no contrition following his Twitter post amplifying an antisemitic film.The Brooklyn Nets excluded the point guard for at least five games on Thursday and said he is “currently unfit to be associated” with the franchise. It is a new low for one of the most talented players of his generation, a fast-falling star now likely to be remembered more as a purveyor of offensive online misinformation than for his on-court brilliance. Continue reading...
Up for re-election as secretary of state herself, Jocelyn Benson expects more electoral interference in the looming midtermsJocelyn Benson can still rattle off all the important dates.There was 17 November 2020, when two canvassers in Michigan’s Wayne county nearly refused to certify the election results. There was 23 November, when the state board almost did the same thing. There was 5 December, when dozens of armed protesters gathered outside her home as she put up Christmas decorations with her family. And there was 6 January, when an armed mob laid siege to the US Capitol. Continue reading...
More Americans have been working two or more jobs over the past few decades, census data showsMillions of Americans are currently working two or more jobs in order to make ends meet, as global inflation and corporations jacking up prices have sent prices of food, gas, housing, health insurance and other necessities soaring in the past year.Cashe Lewis, 31, of Denver, Colorado works two jobs and is currently trying to find a third job to cover the recent $200 monthly rent increase to her apartment. She works days as a barista at Starbucks, but claims it’s been difficult to get enough hours even with taking extra shifts whenever she can due to scheduling cuts as part of the crackdown on union organizing by management. Continue reading...
If the Americans are to avoid missing the finals for the first time since 1995, Bryce Campbell’s team must beat Kenya, Hong Kong and Portugal on successive weekendsBryce Campbell is not keen to linger on the defeat by Chile which sent the US Eagles to the Rugby World Cup Final Qualification Tournament which starts in Dubai on Sunday. Naturally, the Indianapolis-born centre would rather focus on Kenya, Hong Kong and Portugal, who the US must beat if they are not to miss a World Cup for the first time since 1995.No American really wants to think too much about the loss to Chile in July, other than as a very harsh lesson indeed. Continue reading...
The midterms include key elections to the state’s highest court as the judicial system becomes increasingly politicizedIn Ohio, a highly partisan fight over three state supreme court seats could determine the political direction of the court on a slew of important issues – particularly abortion.With the US supreme court increasingly handing issues such as voting rights, abortion, gun rights and gerrymandering back to the states, state supreme court races are becoming more important than ever. Continue reading...
Decades of bailouts have convinced some that the Fed will always come to the rescue – but this only papers over the fundamental flaws of the US economyWith the Federal Reserve leading the world’s central banks in a tightening cycle of interest rate rises, the likes of which we haven’t seen since 2006, commentators across the political spectrum are noting the fondness of the Fed chair, Jerome “Jay” Powell, for his legendary predecessor, Paul Volcker. On the left, the comparison is fearful; on the center and on the right, it’s one of admiration. But circumstances don’t really support the comparison.On taking office in October 1979, Volcker declared “the standard of living of the average American has to decline” as a consequence of the war against the chronic inflation of the 1970s. He quickly set to work making that happen by driving interest rates up towards 20% and creating the deepest US recession since the 1930s. Continue reading...
History shows that the president’s party typically loses seats in midterm, and Democrats seem likely to follow that patternWith just a few days left before polls close in America’s crucial midterm elections, Republicans appear better positioned than ever to regain control of the House of Representatives and potentially the Senate as well.History shows that the president’s party typically loses seats in midterm elections, and despite some optimistic signs over the summer, Democrats now seem likely to follow that pattern on 8 November. Continue reading...
As the key swing state heads into the midterms, Republicans have launched a coordinated effort to pack the process of overseeing electionsChristopher Thomas spent 36 years as director of Michigan’s elections, overseeing the laborious but uncontentious running of presidential vote counts.Then came 2020. Within hours of the polls closing in the presidential race, roving bands of Donald Trump’s supporters were moving from table to table at one of Detroit’s principal counting centres, flinging around accusations of vote rigging as they challenged and intimidated poll workers in the key swing state. Continue reading...
The US House speaker rallied grassroots activists, telling them ‘democracy is on the ballot’ in the 2022 midterm electionsThe US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has rallied grassroots activists, saying the upcoming midterm elections are a fight for democracy, in her first public appearance since the brutal attack on her husband.“People say to me: ‘What can I do to make you feel better?’ I say: ‘Vote!’” Pelosi told those on the video call on Friday. Continue reading...
The ex-president sought more time to produce responsive records and cooperate with the committee’s Capitol attack investigationDonald Trump responded to the House January 6 select committee’s subpoena deadline for documents with a letter that sought more time to produce responsive records and cooperate with the investigation into the Capitol attack, according to a source familiar with the matter and a statement from the panel.The details of the former president’s requests were not clear. But the select committee, appearing to grant Trump an extension, informed Trump’s lawyers that he must produce documents next week and that he the summons for his appearance under oath remains in place. Continue reading...
The woman, who was swimming in the waters off Del Mar, received stitches and is recoveringA shark attacked a woman on Friday in the Pacific waters north of San Diego, officials said.The woman was treated at a hospital for puncture and laceration wounds to her upper right thigh, according to Jon Edelbrock, lifeguard chief for the city of Del Mar. She received stitches and is recovering. Continue reading...
The drawing will be held on Saturday night for the prize, which hasn’t been won in three monthsStrong sales boosted a Powerball jackpot to an estimated $1.6bn on Friday, making it the largest lottery prize in history.A drawing will be held on Saturday night for the Powerball prize, which hasn’t been won in more than three months. That string of 39 consecutive drawings without a winner is a reflection of the tough odds of winning a jackpot, at 1 in 292.2m. Continue reading...
Podcast host had amplified debunked claim about furries spread by Republican politiciansJoe Rogan has acknowledged spreading misinformation after he suggested that elementary schools were installing litter boxes for students who “identify” as furries.The sensationalist urban legend was rooted in the right’s continued attacks on trans and gender non-conforming youth. Continue reading...
Most candidates from the GOP in these midterm elections refuse democracy’s most basic tenet: accepting the voters’ verdictAs in all the best horror movies, at first glance everything looks normal. It’s a classic scene of the American autumn: campaign rallies outside community centres, battle buses emblazoned with candidates’ smiling faces, kids wearing badges and holding up signs, while TV screens fill with debates, punditry and an endless loop of focus-grouped ads. Even the predicted outcome of Tuesday’s US midterm elections fits a template as familiar as falling leaves. Most experts agree that the Democrats will take a hit, losing control of at least one or perhaps both chambers of Congress, because they are the incumbent party – and incumbent parties almost always suffer in midterm – and because times are unusually tough. Inflation, interest rates, petrol prices, fear of crime: they’re all up. Couple that with a president set to turn 80 this month whose approval ratings have often plumbed the depths, and all the elements are in place for the Democrats to take a midterm beating, losing ground even in states they once counted as solidly their own.But look closer and you see something else. Because next week’s results will decide more than just whether the red team or the blue team takes control of the House of Representatives and the Senate, on which hangs Joe Biden’s ability to get things done. Next week’s elections will also help determine whether, and for how much longer, the US will remain a genuine democracy.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist. Listen to his Politics Weekly America podcast here Continue reading...
by Chris Stein in Washington and agencies on (#65FHE)
TV host who launched Republican’s career on her daytime talkshow had previously said election was up to PennsylvaniansOprah Winfrey sprang a November surprise for Democrats in the midterm elections as the US TV host endorsed their candidate John Fetterman in Pennsylvania’s hotly contested Senate race, snubbing his Republican rival Mehmet Oz whom she originally made famous on her daytime talkshow.Until now, Winfrey had said she would leave the election to Pennsylvanians, but on Thursday evening she changed that position in an online discussion on voting in next Tuesday’s election. Continue reading...
The danger of a quick slide into all-out nuclear war between Russia and the US is less, but in other ways the risk we face is more alarmingAnyone who hoped that Vladimir Putin would declare victory in Ukraine and withdraw his failing troops must now admit that no such outcome is realistic. In a revealing quote during a meeting last week with about a hundred academics from 40 countries, Putin rejected it.Fyodor Lukyanov, a highly respected thinktank editor who was the meeting’s moderator, had the courage to ask the Russian president if he would retreat like the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev did in the 1962 Cuban crisis. “Certainly not,” Putin replied. To general laughter, according to the Kremlin transcript, he went on: “I cannot imagine myself in the role of Khrushchev. No way.” Continue reading...
Charlie Hills’ runner is a cracking bet on ITV Racing’s 10-hour marathon including all the action from the big Keeneland cardThe European runners look a cut above their locally trained rivals in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland on Saturday and Charlie Hills’s Pogo (7.10) is an interesting bet at around 16-1 to come home in front.He is most familiar as a seven-furlong performer but that is often an ideal profile for the Mile winner on a typically sharp American turf course. Pogo also likes to race up with the pace, should get a good position from stall one, and his form behind Kinross – a 4-1 chance for this – in August suggests he should not be four times the price of Ralph Beckett’s gelding, who is drawn in the parking lot in stall 13. Continue reading...
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