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English is still the continent's most widely used language - and the Guardian's new digital Europe edition is a major addition to the EurosphereHow can anyone govern a country with 246 different kinds of cheese?" Charles de Gaulle, the founding president of France's Fifth Republic, is said to have asked. As it prepares for European elections next year, the European Union faces an even bigger challenge: how to run a multinational democratic community with 24 official languages. And remember that the union is gearing up for a decade of enlargement, potentially including Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia as well as six countries in the western Balkans, which would take the official language tally closer to 30. In Europe at large, there's an even greater diversity of languages - somewhere between 64 and 234, according to one expert.This matters. Politics is also theatre. Politicians are actors, as we watch them on the national and international stage". And democracy is meant to involve people deliberating with each other. What if you can't understand a word they say?Timothy Garton Ash is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Liberal group Vote Vets called out Republican Tommy Tuberville and party leaders for holding up promotions in protest of abortionA liberal group representing US military veterans took aim at Tommy Tuberville, the Alabama Republican senator holding up officer promotions in a protest over abortion, but also at party leaders who have not forced him to stand down, calling them traitors" and warning: Tight lips could sink ships."Presented in the style of a second world war propaganda film, a short ad from Vote Vets bemoans an un-American assault on our military" by a so-called American senator singlehandedly stop[ping] hundreds of military leaders from taking command". Continue reading...

When it comes to spreadable fats, there's an ocean of mayo between Europe and the US - and my wife is drowning in itSometimes it takes a random TikToker to make you realise you don't know your wife quite as well as you thought. In my case, the revelation came via an American influencer in Paris called Amanda Rollins. She went viral recently thanks to a video in which she earnestly explained that the French do this really weird thing: they put butter on sandwiches.What they do, it's like a classic sandwich: it's ham, cheese and butter. Literally, just swab it on - no mayonnaise, no mustard, just butter," she says in the video. And listen, I know you might be thinking that sounds gross. It's actually so good."Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Majority of offset projects that have sold the most carbon credits are likely to be junk'. Plus, how lucid dreams can make us fitter, more creative and less anxiousGood morning.The vast majority of the environmental projects most frequently used to offset greenhouse gas emissions appear to have fundamental failings, suggesting they cannot be relied upon to cut planet-heating emissions, according to an analysis.What did the research find? A total of 39 of the top 50 emission offset projects, or 78%, were categorised as likely to be junk or worthless because of one or more fundamental failing that undermined its promised emission cuts. Overall, $1.16bn of carbon credits have been traded so far from the projects classified by the investigation as likely junk or worthless; a further $400m of credits bought and sold were potentially junk.What did campaigners want the text to say? Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights proposed using the text of the amendment, which includes guarantees that the state cannot interfere with the right to contraception, miscarriage care and abortion up until the point of viability, a benchmark that's generally pegged to about 24 weeks of pregnancy. Continue reading...

The nickname Commanders' is unpopular with fans. Maybe a complete reboot will wash away the stench of the Dan Snyder eraIt sounds like another change is in store for Washington's NFL franchise, whose nickname has been changed twice already in the last three years. The new owners did just insist that the club won't go back to that nickname used for 87 years, however.Even though that name was a racist slur, many longtime fans want to bring it back - in part because the current nickname, Commanders, fails to resonate. The owners don't sound keen on a hybrid using parts of the old name, as in Red Hogs or Pigskins. Continue reading...

After accidentally wading into a labor dispute on a road trip, the club helped raise the visibility of workers' struggles in southern CaliforniaOn a recent leg of the high-profile, celebrity road show that is Lionel Messi in Major League Soccer, the Argentine star and his Inter Miami teammates walked into the middle of a southern California labor dispute.What followed was a show of support and solidarity that demonstrated the players' understanding of workers' rights, stemming from the prominence and importance of their own unions. Continue reading...

Chronic underfunding has led to a record exodus of teachers but the government is using populist policy as a cheap distractionShortly before schools opened for the new term in September, Unicef France issued an alert that almost 2,000 pupils were homeless, twice as many as in January 2022. The UN's warning was timely, because parts of the state education system in France are in crisis - if not entirely dysfunctional. Yet what made the headlines wasn't such urgent challenges, but a manufactured controversy over what children are accused of wearing to school.In a country where the far right is steadily gaining ground, politicians and policymakers know how to play on the fear of Islam as an easy way to mobilise public opinion and pander to populist ideas. Witness Gabriel Attal, France's education minister, who made the ban on the abaya, the long loose dress favoured by some Muslims, his top priority for the new school year. Continue reading...

From people struggling in phone boxes to pipe-smoking scooterists, Mavis CW captures a city whose inhabitants are always battling to survive and thrive Continue reading...

Media mogul has become a frothing-at-the-mouth' Trump critic, Fire and Fury author writes in new book, The FallRupert Murdoch loathes Donald Trump so much that the billionaire has not just soured on him as a presidential candidate but often wishes for his death, the author Michael Wolff writes in his eagerly awaited new book on the media mogul, The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty.According to Wolff, Murdoch, 92, has become a frothing-at-the-mouth" enemy of the 77-year-old former US president, often voicing thoughts including This would all be solved if ... " and How could he still be alive, how could he?" Continue reading...

Epps, who died suddenly Tuesday, previously was the law school dean and provostJoAnne A Epps, the acting president of Temple University, died Tuesday shortly after becoming ill on stage during a memorial service, officials said, describing her loss as a gut punch and struggling through emotion as they recalled her nearly four decades of service.Epps was attending a memorial service at the university for Charles L Blockson, a curator of a collection of African American artifacts, when she suffered what a doctor speaking at a news conference described as a sudden episode". Continue reading...

State general assembly passed a shield law in May allowing it to keep secret the suppliers of drugsSouth Carolina has obtained a drug needed to carry out lethal injections and is ready to perform the state's first execution in over 12 years, officials announced on Tuesday.The pause on executions wasn't official. The state's supply of the three drugs it used to kill inmates expired and drug companies refused to sell them any more because they could be publicly identified. Continue reading...

Lahaina's cherished banyan tree is showing the first signs of new growth after deadly wildfires torched much of Hawaii in August. Footage showed small shoots of green leaves on the tree after it was burnt and left charcoal black following the fires. Described as the 'heartbeat of Lahaina Town', the beloved tree was planted 150 years ago.

Shares close at $34.23, the second successful IPO in a week following sale of UK chip designer ArmShares in online grocery delivery business Instacart jumped 43% in its Nasdaq trading debut on Tuesday.While shares dropped back in later trading, ending the day up just over 12%, the price pop was the second successful initial public offering (IPO) in a week following the sale of British microchip designer Arm. Continue reading...

McCarthy faces uphill climb as far-right Republicans signal that even a resolution to temporarily delay a shutdown is out of reachRepublican leaders seemed to move further away from a resolution to the impending government shutdown on Tuesday.In a sign of how bad the party's split has become, a procedural vote on the short-term funding bill expected to happen today was cancelled, and an attempt to advance a Pentagon spending bill was voted down, thanks to rightwing Republicans. The vote intensifies the risk of a shutdown on 1 October and Kevin McCarthy losing his speakership. Continue reading...

Ukrainian president says all leaders who do not tolerate any aggression' would be invited to a peace summitVolodymyr Zelenskiy has told the UN general assembly that Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine and urged world leaders to attend a peace summit to help stop the invasion and future wars of aggression.Appearing in the assembly chamber in New York for the first time in person, the Ukrainian president used the opportunity to try to galvanise support for his country's plight among many countries, especially in the global south, many of whom have sought to sit on the fence in the face of the full-scale Russian invasion. Continue reading...

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Billy Chemirmir, 50, was convicted of two murders and accused of killing nearly two dozen womenA man who Texas authorities say smothered at least two dozen elderly women in a two-year killing spree, while stealing possibly millions of dollars worth of jewelry and other valuables, was himself murdered on Tuesday morning by a prison cellmate, according to the state's criminal justice department.Billy Chemirmir, 50, worked as an in-home caregiver and posed as a maintenance worker to gain access to luxury independent living communities in and around Dallas. He would gain access to the apartments of seniors then force a pillow over their face, smothering them to death before raiding the apartment of its valuables to pawn or sell online. Continue reading...

The network of ceremonial mounds join the Acropolis, Machu Picchu, the Taj Mahal, Stonehenge and the Great Wall of ChinaA network of Native American ceremonial and burial mounds in southern Ohio have been added to the list of world heritage sites of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco). The move places what the organization describes as part cathedral, part cemetery and part astronomical observatory" on the same cultural plane as the Acropolis, Machu Picchu, the Taj Mahal, Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China.The recognition of the Hopewell ceremonial earthworks was announced by Unesco's world heritage committee during a meeting in Saudi Arabia. Continue reading...

Can we really be surprised when rich and powerful men are accused of sexual abuse?There's nothing new but the details about what the Times journalists uncovered about Russell Brand in their investigative report published this weekend. We've been through this so many times, the story finally uncovered of a rich or powerful or celebrated man being accused of sexual abuse for years or decades. Russell Brand says all of his relationships were absolutely always consensual.That's the first piece of the familiar story - that they got away with it for years because one of the forms inequality takes is inequality of voice -the voice with which you say what's happened, the voice that's listened to and believed and respected, the voice that determines what happens.Rebecca Solnit's most recent books are Orwell's Roses and the climate anthology Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility, co-edited with Thelma Young Lutunatabua Continue reading...

Whatever the truth about the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the row shows that building relationships with New Delhi won't be easyCanada made waves when it recently announced an inquiry into potential foreign election interference. Its tanking relations with China have been watched closely, not least for how they reflect upon other western countries' dealings with Beijing. Russia's activities were also under scrutiny. Fewer people noticed that ministers also cited the potential role of the Indian government.The decision looks like a ripple in a millpond following Justin Trudeau's extraordinary statement that Canada is pursuing credible allegations" of a potential link between New Delhi and the murder of a Canadian national, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in British Columbia this June. Nijjar had campaigned for an independent Sikh nation - known as Khalistan - to be created from Punjab state. Indian authorities had accused him of terrorism, and issued a bounty for his arrest. Canada's spy agency had reportedly warned him of threats. Continue reading...

The US president, Joe Biden, addressed the UN general assembly on Tuesday, outlining his views on key issues from competition with China, the climate crisis, the war in Ukraine and abuses of minority groups

Oath Keeper, who has denied being federal agent provocateur, indicted on one count of disorderly conduct in restricted area

Joe Biden said Russia was seeking to 'brutalise' Ukraine 'without consequence', during a speech at the UN general assembly on Tuesday. Biden held Russia solely accountable for the conflict, saying: 'Russia alone stands in the way of peace because Russia's price for peace is Ukraine's capitulation, Ukraine's territory'

President castigates Putin regime for shredding longstanding arms control agreements' and making the world less safe'

Auto workers, writers, actors, Starbucks workers, Amazon workers, UPS drivers, flight attendants - labor isn't a special interest'. It's all of usAmerica is in the midst of the biggest surge in labor activity in a quarter-century.The United Auto Workers (UAW), the Writers Guild of America, the actors' union known as Sag-Aftra, Starbucks workers, Amazon workers, the Teamsters and UPS, flight attendants. The list goes on.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...

Department of Homeland Security's decision reversal makes Guatemalan native Andres Domingo no longer eligible for a visaOne day after this story was published by the Guardian, Andres Domingo's lawyer, Kenia Garcia, received a notification from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rescinding the substantiated conclusion from its investigation into the Guatemalan native's multiple sexual assault allegations at Krome detention center.Reviewed by the Guardian, the report's reversal means Domingo can no longer qualify for a U-visa. The U nonimmigrant status allows victims of sex crimes or any crime that leads to mental and psychological suffering or abuse to remain in the US. Continue reading...

Where you are born in the UK and the wealth of your family are the key factors that determine life outcomes, new figures revealEvery parent wants their child to reach their full potential and flourish: my mum called me Faiza because it means winner" in Arabic in the hope that success would be inevitable. It's an emotion that runs deep, and one that politicians across the spectrum are keen to tap into, for ever promising to build an aspirational" or truly meritocratic" society where any individual can make it as long as they work hard enough.Equality of opportunity is a phrase commonly used by our politicians, even for those too scared to talk about equality more generally. Yet for decades we've been moving in the wrong direction. A recent report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) found that where you are born in the UK, and the income and wealth of your family, now matter more than ever in defining life outcomes, with social mobility at its worst in more than 50 years.Faiza Shaheen is a visiting professor in practice at the London School of Economics, the Labour party parliamentary candidate for Chingford and Woodford Green, and the author of Know Your Place

The Australian politicians pushing for Assange's release represents a rare crack in the wall of bipartisan support for the sacrosanct allianceThis week, a delegation of Australian politicians will venture across the Pacific to campaign for the immediate release of Julian Assange. The group, which takes in representatives from the Nationals, Liberals, Greens and independents, will meet with their congressional counterparts and other administration officials to plead Assange's case.They go armed with a letter signed by more than 60 Australian federal representatives, warning that Assange's extradition to the United States - pursued by both Trump and Biden - would cause outcry" in Australia. Continue reading...

Former New York mayor-turned Trump attorney reportedly facing financial problems as he defends against multiple legal threatsThe New York mayor-turned-Donald Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani has been sued by his own lawyer, who seeks more than $1.3m in outstanding fees.This action simply seeks payment of an outstanding bill for legal services rendered by plaintiffs in the amount of $1,360,196.10," said a lawsuit filed in New York state supreme court on Monday by Robert J Costello, of Davidoff Hutcher & Citron. Continue reading...

The failure to free US hostages seized at the US embassy in Tehran over 40 years ago consigned one Democratic president to a single termFor all the widespread fear of a second Donald Trump presidency, the Biden White House could be forgiven for being more preoccupied by the spectre of Jimmy Carter and the baleful images of his last year in office.Carter was the last Democratic president to serve only a first term, brought low by the searing drama of the Tehran embassy siege, when Iranian revolutionaries had overrun the US diplomatic compound and held 52 American personnel captive for more than a year, heaping international humiliation on a military superpower when the cold war was still at its height. Continue reading...

Five former prisoners land in Virginia after controversial deal which involved exchange of five Iranians and unfreezing of $6bnAmericans detained for years in Iran arrived home on Tuesday, tearfully hugged their loved ones and declared Freedom!" after being let go as part of a politically risky deal that saw Joe Biden agree to the release of nearly $6bn in frozen Iranian assets.The prisoners landed at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, with clapping and cheers heard in the pre-dawn hours. Siamak Namazi, the first off the jet, paused for a moment, closed his eyes and took a deep breath before leaving the plane. Loved ones, some holding small American flags, enveloped them in hugs and exchanged greetings in English and Farsi, the main language of Iran. Continue reading...

Unnamed child probably contracted water-borne Naegleria fowleri organism while playing at splash padA child in Arkansas has died after becoming infected with a rare, brain-eating amoeba while playing at a splash pad.The child, whose name was not immediately released, appears to have contracted Naegleria fowleri from a country club splash pad in the state capital of Little Rock, Arkansas health officials and the county coroner said in a news release. Continue reading...

Several thousand dollars' worth of synthetic opioid discovered in Bronx apartment where three other young children also sickenedA package containing several thousand dollars' worth of fentanyl was discovered inside the New York City daycare center where a one-year-old child died from a toxic opioid exposure last week, authorities said.The owner of the daycare center, however, maintained she had no knowledge of the presence of the highly potent drug, which sickened three other young children, including an eight-month-old girl who tested positive for fentanyl. Continue reading...

Community gathered in Seattle to protest an officer's callous remarks after a speeding police cruiser killed the 23-year-oldSeattle police are facing outrage and investigation for its officer's reaction to the death of a young woman struck by a patrol car.A rally held on Saturday in honor of Jaahnavi Kandula, a 23-year-old student from India, brought together local Seattle residents and south Asian community members. Continue reading...

Her decision to continue her talkshow amid the writers' strike received such a backlash that she reversed it. But the holes in her apology' had already been laid bareGal Gadot must be giddy with relief. For the past few years, the Wonder Woman actor has held the No 1 spot in the category of most cringeworthy and ill-advised celebrity home video ever made. You will know the one: the star-studded rendition of John Lennon's Imagine that she posted online at the start of the pandemic to try to cheer us up. Because nothing is more uplifting than hearing a celebrity trill imagine no possessions" from their multimillion-dollar mansion while the world as you know it crumbles.Now, however, Gadot has been knocked off the top spot in the Hall of Cringe by Drew Barrymore. On Friday, the actor and producer posted a weepy Instagram video justifying her decision to resume filming The Drew Barrymore Show, even though the writers' and actors' strikes aren't over. Continue reading...

Pennsylvania senator known for wearing hoodies and shorts will now be able to do so to vote, angering rightwingersIn a spat over coverage of the relaxation of the US Senate dress code, the Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman, who will now be allowed to wear his signature hoodies and shorts in the chamber, told the data analyst Nate Silver: I dress like you predict."Silver, who rose to fame to run the polling site FiveThirtyEight.com but whose predictions for recent elections have proved controversial, had tweeted: Starting a new political party for people who don't give a shit either about how John Fetterman dresses or what Lauren Boebert does in a theatre." Continue reading...

The row over claims of ghostwriting at the Daily Mail has sparked debate about how toxic policies are pursued and narratives createdIt is a sad aspect of public life that a quick route to success and notoriety for minorities in the UK is to express the most reactionary opinions imaginable. Witness Kwasi Kwarteng randomly and needlessly blurting out slavery apologia on Piers Morgan's show, or the careers so far of Priti Patel and Suella Braverman. They will have their own views as individuals, but at the same time powerful people and institutions are aware of how useful it is to have their own prejudices mirrored, rendered acceptable, laundered perhaps by a minority voice, with the effect that it ostensibly shields them from criticism.That regrettable effect is particularly concerning when a doubt is raised as to whether the views, as presented to the public, are a true reflection of honestly held opinion or a distortion designed perhaps to further advance the toxic culture wars.Nels Abbey is an author and broadcaster. His new book, The Hip-Hop MBA: Lessons in Cut-Throat Capitalism from the Moguls of Rap, is out next yearDo 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...

The NFL hall of famer's overpowering charisma has entrenched the once ailing Colorado at the heart of sports and culture in the USBulletin board material is not something you should give Deion Sanders, whose habit of taking the scoring attempts against him and returning them with interest is what made him perhaps the best two-way player in NFL history. Now the coach at the University of Colorado, Sanders makes a spectacular show of making footstools from the legion of critics who considered him too green and too dumb for such a dynamic leadership post.But Jay Norvell couldn't hold his tongue. Before his Colorado State team faced Colorado last Saturday, Norvell attacked Sanders for wearing gold chains, sunglasses and cowboy hats in interviews - a look Norvell considered unprofessional. I sat down with ESPN [this week]," Norvell said on his weekly podcast. I took my hat off, and I took my glasses off. And I said: When I talk to grownups, I take my hat and glasses off.' That's what my mother taught me.'" Continue reading...

From the start, his Rolling Stone magazine was a bastion of white male privilegeOne of my older brothers subscribed to Rolling Stone magazine in its early years, and while I saw women and musicians of color gracing its cover from time to time, they certainly seemed like a rarity.Clapton, the Stones, Clapton, the Stones," was the way a friend of mine recently characterized the magazine covers, for decades, after its start in 1967, when co-founder Jann Wenner was calling the editorial shots at what quickly became rock'n'roll's bible. I would only add: The Beatles, the Who, and, inevitably, a bare-chested Jim Morrison.Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...

The Seattle police officer's comments are a grim reminder that US policing is about endowing the criminal legal system with authority to determine how much each of us is worthThis January, Jaahnavi Kandula, a 23-year-old graduate student from India, was tragically killed when a Seattle police officer struck her with his police SUV while responding to an emergency call. A police investigation of the incident later determined that the officer, Kevin Dave, was driving at a top speed of 74mph and was not using his siren continuously, while barreling down Seattle's streets, but only chirping" his siren at intersections. At the moment when he hit Kandula, the investigation concluded, Dave was hurtling at a speed of 63mph; Kandula was thrown approximately 138ft" by the impact. His speed, the report established, was the main reason for the collision. Kandula was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.As terrible as the wrenching loss of this young woman is, the Seattle police department has made it worse. Officer Daniel Auderer, the vice-president of the Seattle police officers' guild (the police union), was dispatched as part of his regular duties to see if Officer Dave had been impaired at the time of the incident. After completing a routine assessment of Dave at a local precinct, Auderer drove off in his police cruiser and called Mike Sloan, the union president, on the phone. Two minutes of the call, from Auderer's side only (we don't hear Sloan), were accidentally recorded by Auderer's body camera before he turned it off. Just this week, that recording has come to light. Continue reading...

City leaders largely agree the memorial should go, but there is little consensus on how to remove itPolitical leaders in Los Angeles don't mince their words about Donald Trump - they have called the former president a madman, a fascist, and a clear and present danger to the stability of the country". Yet when it comes to taking the small, symbolic step of erasing Trump's most visible presence in the City of Angels, his star on the celebrity-studded Hollywood Walk of Fame, they have been strangely reluctant to turn their words into concrete action.All indications are that the city leadership would like to see Trump's star gone - ideally before next year's presidential election. Political aides and others in and around city government say as much in background briefings and off-the-record conversations. Continue reading...

Apparently, the closed ecoystem of the workplace makes ordinary folk seem unbelievably beautiful. That's not how I remember itNew York magazine has introduced me to the concept of the office 10: the person who would be middlingly attractive in a normal scenario, but in the closed-circuit environment of the workplace is unbelievably beautiful. It's a feature of the self-contained, temporary social ecosystem" that makes you adjust your settings. Only those people exist; since you sort them accordingly, one of them must be the most beautiful person in your world.If you factor in the boredom of work and the huge proportion of it that is meaningless, the office 10 becomes its raison d'etre, the person who can propel you out of bed on the off-chance that they might go to Pret at the same time as you, or might think similarly about Liz Truss. Be real: you are probably their office 10 as well. It's a closed ecosystem, remember? Continue reading...

Siamak Namazi was held in Iran's notorious Evin prison for nearly eight years before the $6bn prisoner swap on Monday. Plus, New York City's $52bn plan to save itself from the seaGood morning.An American citizen freed in an exchange deal after being imprisoned for nearly eight years in Iran has urged the US government to launch a gamechanging global endeavour" to end the Islamic regime's longstanding practice of holding foreign nationals hostage.What did Namazi say? Over the past 44 years, the Iranian regime has mastered the nasty game of caging innocent Americans and other foreign nationals, and commercialising their freedom," he said after flying from Tehran to Doha, calling Evin prison a dystopian United Nations of hostages".What has India said? India's ministry of external affairs said it rejected statements by Trudeau and his foreign minister, adding that allegations of India's involvement in any act of violence in Canada were absurd and motivated". The ministry added: We are a democratic polity with a strong commitment to rule of law." Continue reading...

Austen Macmillan rescued his registered behavior technician, Jason Piquette, from a pool and performed chest compressionsAt first, Christina Macmillan wasn't crazy about her 12-year-old son Austen watching Stranger Things, the fictional Netflix show pitting a group of children against aliens and demons. But she's changed her mind after her son used a CPR technique that he saw on a scene from the series to save his registered behavior technician's life this past Labor Day.I was a little hesitant about him watching it," Macmillan told the Guardian, citing the show's science fiction-horror premise. But I'm definitely glad that I let him." Continue reading...

The system is failing women, with often devastating impacts on our families, mental or reproductive health. But those who have been inside can change it for the better - if we are allowedWhen I started my jail sentence in Bogota, Colombia, it was 2008 and I was 31 with a four-year-old daughter. I was imprisoned for nine years and three months. I don't tell people the reason I went to prison. Not for me, but for all the free women who face so many problems because of the time they spent in jail. My crime doesn't make me the person I am.Most women in Colombia commit crime out of a need to provide for their families. They are judged and punished without society or the justice system taking the circumstances surrounding the crime into account. Continue reading...

Keeping a statue to William Beckford on display reeks of moral failure. It belongs in a museum, alongside clear details of his crimes against humanityThe statue of the 18th-century plantation owner William Beckford, which stands in Guildhall in London, will be recontextualised rather than permanently removed, says the City of London Corporation. A plaque will be placed alongside the statue explaining its connection to the transatlantic chattel slave trade. To me - a descendant of the people he enslaved - the decision feels like a moral failure.Last year, I was involved in some of the discussions with the Ironmonger's Company and other stakeholders in the statue. It became apparent that after the decision in 2021 that the figure would remain in the Great Hall, there was not as much resistance as I would have expected. But as a Jamaican-British man and a descendant of those whom Beckford exploited and murdered, I believe that leaving the statue in a prestigious place, even with a note of explanation, is morally reprehensible. Or, in the words of my Jamaican grandparents, it is devilish". The decision, which I am sure was the culmination of serious deliberations, underplays the radical evil of slavery's racial capitalism and its continuing destructive consequences for people racialised as Black. Continue reading...

Lowriding is the Mexican-American subculture of cruising as close to the asphalt as possible. Photographer Owen Harvey went along for the ride Continue reading...