US news | The Guardian

Relatives describe grief and commitment to continue fighting for justice at school board hearingThe superintendent for the Uvalde school district in Texas retired on Monday after a school board hearing at which relatives of some of the 19 children and two teachers shot to death at one of the district’s campuses in May again demanded accountability for the botched response to the massacre.Hal Harrell, the retiring superintendent, said in a Facebook post by his wife that the decision to retire “has not been made lightly”, according to CNN. The post was no longer on Facebook as of Tuesday morning. Continue reading...

Syed, 41, who spent more than 20 years in prison, had conviction for 1999 murder of girlfriend overturned in SeptemberProsecutors in Baltimore have dismissed all charges against Adnan Syed, who was released from prison last month after the overturning of his murder conviction in the case that was at the center of the famed podcast Serial.Syed can still be retried depending on what the Baltimore state’s attorney, Marilyn Mosby, decides, according to CBS, because there is no time limit to prosecute murder cases. Continue reading...

Katmai national park, which runs Fat Bear Week, forced to discount votes after irregularities in semi-finals discoveredA contest to determine the fattest bear in southern Alaska has been rocked by scandal, after organizers said a ballot box had been “stuffed” in favor of a brown bear called Holly.Katmai national park, which runs Fat Bear Week, a knockout-style online competition that allows people to vote on which brown bears have gained the most weight between summer and fall, said it had discovered irregularities in voting over the weekend. Continue reading...

The recent disorder in Leicester echoes the ‘communalist’ politics that now dominates India thanks to the ruling BJP

Control of the Senate could hang on results in a handful of states while votes for governor and secretary of state could affect the conduct of future electionsHobbs is currently secretary of state in what used to be a Republican stronghold. Lake is a former TV news anchor who relishes sparring with the media and promoting Donald Trump’s false claim that the 2020 election was stolen. Victory for Lake – who has appeared with figures linked to QAnon on the campaign trail – would be a major boost for the former president and ominous for 2024. Continue reading...

In several states Republican candidates who dispute the 2020 election results are running for positions that would give them control over electionsThere are several races on the ballot this fall that will have profound consequences for American democracy. In several states, Republican candidates who doubt the election 2020 election results, or in some cases actively worked to overturn them, are running for positions in which they would have tremendous influence over how votes are cast and counted. If these candidates win, there is deep concern they could use their offices to spread baseless information about election fraud and try to prevent the rightful winners of elections from being seated.Here’s a look at some of the key candidates who pose a threat to US democracy: Continue reading...

Influential Democratic senator threatens to freeze weapons sales to the kingdom. Plus, Ukraine demands more western missiles

The state is only one of several where more and more people believe there is widespread voter fraud – and their efforts are gaining resourcesAlmost a year to the day after thousands of insurrectionists stormed the US Capitol, Jim Womack braved a winter storm to travel to Virginia, bound for a conference on “election integrity”.The conference aimed to teach people how to legally challenge election administration – giving a veneer of legitimacy to a mission built on conspiratorial beliefs about the 2020 election. Continue reading...

Ireichō, a sacred book of names, lists all 125,284 people of Japanese descent who were held in camps across the US and is on display at an LA museumKanji Sahara was eight when his family was uprooted from their home in Los Angeles. It was 1942 and the family, along with thousands of other people of Japanese descent, was forcibly sent to live in barracks and horse stables – and eventually, War Relocation Authority camps, where they stayed until the end of the second world war. He would later recall standing behind a fence, watching people across the street go about their day, wondering why life was normal for them but not for him.Sahara is now 88, and last month, he was among hundreds of people who visited the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles’s Little Tokyo for the installation ceremony of a new exhibit dedicated to those who suffered a similar fate. Continue reading...

England is finally protecting the beavers that could save our failing rivers – if they’re permitted to be released into the wildOn Saturday 1 October, something remarkable happened. The Eurasian beaver was officially recognised as both a “native” and a “protected” species under the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017. In England, that means it is now illegal to deliberately kill, injure, or capture the world’s second largest rodent, or disturb their dams, lodges or burrows without a licence.Essentially, the change is legislative wordplay, yet anyone with half an ear to the ground is heaving a sigh of relief. Instead of being classed as “no longer normally present” on the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, beavers are now “native”, placing them alongside the barn owl and the corncrake. Beavers in England join their Scottish cousins in the filing cabinet of animals under special protection – populations of which have been classified as European Protected Species (EPS) since 2019.Sophie Pavelle is the communications coordinator for Beaver Trust. She is also an ambassador for the Wildlife Trusts, sits on the RSPB England advisory committee and is the author of Forget Me Not: Finding the forgotten species of climate-change Britain Continue reading...

The league offers fame, glory and money. But just getting there is beyond the reach of even some of the most talented playersThe NBA is one of the most exclusive sports leagues in North America. With 30 teams and 450 players, the NBA employs about half the number of players the NHL, MLB and MLS do, and roughly one-quarter of the NFL’s total. It’s harder to get into than Studio 54 in the 1970s. In June, the league held its annual draft, welcoming in just 60 rookies. It was a sleek affair incorporating expensive suits, paparazzi and celebratory champagne, for those of-age. But those festivities were merely an endpoint to a much deeper story. To make the league requires lifelong effort and sweat-soaked sacrifice.With the league’s 76th season set to begin on 19 October, it’s important to remember just how difficult it is to develop the skills to play in even a single NBA game. We caught up with three standouts – current collegiate star Zion Cruz, former Mississippi high school stalwart Brian Adams and two-time NBA champion Earl Cureton – to find out exactly how difficult the path is at different stages of a player’s journey. Continue reading...

The Fashion Workers Act would curb abuses ranging from enforced financial dependency to sex traffickingKaja Sokola was a shy teen from Wroclaw, Poland, when she received news that changed her life: modeling agents saw her photo during an open casting call, and they wanted her to walk at a show in Warsaw.Sokola had done one or two walks in a dress or skirt, but the show was mostly underwear. She was 14. Continue reading...

In Mississippi, poverty is high and water problems blight the state. But Republicans seem adamantly against spending to help their constituentsIn his four decades as mayor of Glendora, a Mississippi Delta town surrounded by creeks, fields and not much else, Johnnie B Thomas has gotten used to bad news.He’s seen the town’s main drag grow desolate as its few businesses closed down, and the sole clinic follow suit. He’s watched storms drop trees on to houses – including his own, mortally wounding his wife. He pleaded for help as the seemingly unstoppable force that was Covid infected and killed his neighbors, a younger brother among them. Continue reading...

Jaheim McMillan, 15, was taken off life support after Gulfport police shot him in the head on Thursday at the Family Dollar shopA Black teenager in Mississippi was taken off life support days after Gulfport police shot him in the head outside a discount store, and his relatives are questioning officers’ actions.Jaheim McMillan, 15, was shot on Thursday. The Harrison county coroner, Brian Switzer, confirmed to the Sun Herald that the Gulfport High School freshman died on Saturday after he was taken off life support at USA University Hospital in Mobile, Alabama. An autopsy was scheduled for Tuesday, Switzer said. Continue reading...

The third-largest maintenance workers’ union opposed the deal, saying concerns over paid time off remained unaddressedThe US’s third-largest railroad union rejected a deal with employers Monday, renewing the possibility of a strike that could cripple the economy. Both sides will return to the bargaining table before that happens.Over half of track maintenance workers represented by the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division who voted opposed the five-year contract, which contained 24% raises and $5,000 in bonuses. Union President Tony Cardwell said the railroads didn’t do enough to address the lack of paid time off – particularly sick time – and working conditions after the major railroads eliminated nearly one-third of their jobs over the past six years. Continue reading...

Republican Jim Marchant leads coalition of top state election-official candidates determined to return Trump to White HouseThe head of a US coalition of election deniers standing for secretary of state positions in key battleground states has made the most explicit threat yet that they will use their powers, should they win in November, to subvert democracy and force a return of Donald Trump to the White House.Jim Marchant, who is running in the midterms as the Republican candidate for secretary of state in Nevada, has vowed publicly that he and his fellow coalition members will strive to make Trump president again. Speaking at a Make America Great Again rally in Minden, Nevada, on Saturday night, he repeated the lie that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from Trump. Continue reading...

Strong remarks by chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee indicate possible sea change in US policyThe congressional backlash against Saudi Arabia escalated sharply on Monday as a powerful Democratic senator threatened to freeze weapons sales and security cooperation with the kingdom after its decision to support Russia over the interests of the US.Washington’s anger with its Saudi allies has intensified since last week’s Opec+ decision to cut oil production by 2m barrels, which was seen as a slight to the Biden administration weeks ahead of critical midterm elections, and an important boost to Russia. Continue reading...

His live radio shows brought together white, Black and Latino audiences who danced to rock’n’roll at drive-in eateriesArt Laboe, the pioneering DJ credited with helping end segregation in southern California, has died. He was 97.Laboe died on Friday night after catching pneumonia, said Joanna Morones, a spokesperson for Laboe’s production company, Dart Entertainment. Continue reading...

Likely appointment of Republican Nebraska senator as president of the university sparks protests during his campus visitLess than a week after being revealed as the likely next president of the University of Florida (UF), the Republican senator Ben Sasse was met with protests when he appeared on campus in Gainesville on Monday.“Hey-hey, ho-ho, Ben Sasse has got to go,” protesters chanted, seeking to draw attention to the Nebraskan’s views on LGBTQ+ rights. Continue reading...

In leaked audio clips from October 2021, Nury Martinez can be heard making disparaging comments about a colleague’s Black sonThe president of the Los Angeles city council has stepped down after a series of bombshell audio clips captured her calling a colleague’s Black son “a little monkey”, among other racist and disparaging remarks.Nury Martinez apologized for the October 2021 remarks during a meeting over redistricting with fellow council members Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo and labor leader Ron Herrera, and stepped down as city council president on Monday. Continue reading...

Top Republican House made claim in meeting with police officers despite ex-president having urged supporters to ‘fight like hell’

The drought hit Lake Shasta coughed up a Higgins vehicle and experts are struggling to explain its presenceWaning water levels across the west – symptoms of the region’s record drought – have revealed yet another artifact.Dubbed the “Ghost Boat” by officials, the rusted carcass of a second world war Higgins boat, used to transport troops into battle and on to beaches overseas, began to emerge from the shallows in Lake Shasta last fall. Levels have sunk low enough this year to excavate the craft fully. Continue reading...

Newport officers said three devices had washed on to the beach and instructed public not to handle or move themPolice in Oregon last week warned local beachgoers about grenades that had washed on to the shore and appeared to still be able to explode.The police department in the city of Newport issued a statement on Wednesday saying three separate grenades had somehow washed on to the beach there a day earlier. Continue reading...

Christina Bobb told justice department on Friday that she signed supposedly complete list of documents at direction of another lawyer, Evan CorcoranDonald Trump’s lawyer Christina Bobb was instructed to certify to the justice department that all sensitive government documents stored at his Mar-a-Lago resort subpoenaed by a grand jury had been returned, though she had not herself conducted the search for the records.The certification of subpoena compliance appears to be at the center of a criminal investigation into obstruction of justice surrounding the former US president after the assurance was proved to be untrue when the FBI’s search of the property turned up more than 100 more documents marked classified. Continue reading...

Russian-speaking hackers claim responsibility that targeted about 14 public-facing websites, including LaGuardia and O’Hare airportsWebsites for more than a dozen US airports were temporarily brought offline by cyberattacks on Monday morning, with Russian-speaking hackers claiming responsibility for the disruption.About 14 public-facing websites for a number of sizable airports, including LaGuardia airport in New York City, were targeted and inaccessible to the public. Most have since been brought back online.Additional reporting by Kari Paul Continue reading...

Richard Gillmore stalked girls in Portland, Oregon, some of whom have spoken publicly opposing his releaseThe convicted so-called jogger rapist Richard Gillmore is scheduled to be released from prison at the end of this year.Gillmore, who will be 63 when released, used to run by the homes of young girls and women in the metropolitan area of Portland, Oregon, in order to stalk and rape them. He admitted to raping nine girls in the 1970s and 80s, but he was ultimately convicted of only one rape because of the statute of limitations on the other cases.The Associated Press contributed reporting. Continue reading...

Senator urges party to center campaign on economy, warning: ‘You can’t win elections unless you have support of working class’The Vermont senator Bernie Sanders warns that Democrats should not only focus on abortion rights ahead of the midterm elections in November.In an opinion column for the Guardian published on Monday, Sanders warned that Democrats need to embrace an agenda that addresses the economic woes facing America and supports the working class, not just one solely focused on abortion. Continue reading...

Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback – if not player – in NFL history. He has won seven Super Bowls and owns a ridiculous number of records, from most career passing touchdowns and yards to most quarterback wins. Nobody can question that he has earned his accomplishments but many, particularly on the teams he has beaten, can’t help but notice that he’s received some help from the officials.

Teenage boys, both 17, treated in hospital after being hit by gunfire from moving car outside home of Lee Zeldin in town of ShirleyNew York congressman and Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin says his family is safe after two teenagers were shot outside his Long Island home on Sunday afternoon.The boys, both 17, were walking with a third teenager on the street in Shirley, New York, where Zeldin lives when they were hit by gunfire from a moving car, local police said. Continue reading...

America has long faced structural economic crises. Democrats must win on the economy and present a pro-worker agendaAs someone who has a lifetime 100% pro-choice voting record, and is outraged by the supreme court’s horrific decision to overturn Roe v Wade, there is no question but that Democrats must continue to focus on the right of women to control their own bodies. This is a fight that most Americans want us to wage and, given the Republicans’ extremist position on the issue, makes them genuinely vulnerable.But, as we enter the final weeks of the 2022 midterm elections, I am alarmed to hear the advice that many Democratic candidates are getting from establishment consultants and directors of well-funded Super Pacs that the closing argument of Democrats should focus only on abortion. Cut the 30-second abortion ads and coast to victory. Continue reading...

City’s new facility has to find shelters for those without alternative after a 40-year beacon of refuge shuttered earlier this yearChairs and tables lined El Paso’s new Migrant Welcome Center in west Texas, where families who have crossed the US-Mexico border without immigration papers were meeting with volunteers and city employees, or making phone calls to loved ones elsewhere in the United States.Children amused themselves in a designated play area, while their parents worked out where the next steps of their journey would take them and how they would get there. Continue reading...

The Buccaneers’ victory over the Falcons featured a decision bad enough that it overshadowed everything else in the gameTom Brady is the greatest quarterback – if not player – in NFL history. He has won seven Super Bowls and owns a ridiculous number of records, from most career passing touchdowns and yards to most quarterback wins. Nobody can question that he has earned his accomplishments but many, particularly on the teams he has beaten, can’t help but notice that he’s received some help from the officials.On Sunday, the NFL world thought they saw the most egregious example yet. In the midst of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ 21-15 win over the Atlanta Falcons, referee Jerome Boger called a roughing the passer call on defensive lineman Grady Jarrett on what looked like the cleanest possible sack on Brady. If this isn’t legal, how in the world is an opposing defense expected to bring Brady down? Continue reading...

We’re told that motherhood is supposed to be your life’s work. But the 360-degree model is bad for me and for my babyFlashback to NCT, and I’m asking our course leader Alison about going to the loo: “So you say that we are not supposed to leave them unattended, ever … so how exactly do I, without putting too fine a point on it … go to the toilet?”I’m six months in now and have eventually learned that, sometimes, you need to let the baby cry so you can go to the toilet/make a cup of tea/shove a cold samosa in your mouth while you mourn your past life of nicely prepared little lunches. I used to feel guilty doing this. My husband going back to work at four months coincided with the baby suddenly needing constant entertainment, and I started to feel guilty about that too, because sometimes I would put him in the bouncer and read a book (my tight 10-minute set of politically correct nursery rhymes having fallen flat). Continue reading...

It’s called a jumper. If you’re not familiar with the concept, keep an eye out for photos of President Macron and his economy minister, Bruno Le Maire

The legal woes of investor Tom Barrack, accused of secretly lobbying for the Emirati regime, add to the image of a Trump circle beset by influence-peddling and corruption“Trump is the man,” Thomas “Tom” Barrack, a wealthy investor friend of Donald Trump’s, wrote to someone in a foreign government, in 2016, as Trump’s likelihood of being named the Republican nominee for president began to become a certainty. Barrack added, cryptically, that someone called “HH” should be ready to travel.The meaning of those words, and the intent behind them, are at the center of the latest court case to roil Trump’s circle. Prosecutors have said that the “HH” in Barrack’s email referred to His Highness Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the current leader of the United Arab Emirates, and that Barrack was trying to secretly and illegally trade his access to Trump’s ear for the graces of the Emirati government and its vast pool of investment money. Continue reading...

Meticulously crafted campaign emails and text messages, with a heavy dose of guilt-tripping, reveal their parties’ worldviews“Is your phone off, Patriot?”“Are you still a Republican?” Continue reading...

Shirley Hughes, mother of Tony Hughes, an aspiring model who was among more than a dozen men murdered, speaks outThe mother of aspiring model Tony Hughes, who was among more than a dozen men murdered by Jeffrey Dahmer, has condemned the recently released Netflix series about the serial killer who took her son’s life, saying she doesn’t understand how the television show could be made.Shirley Hughes told the Guardian on Sunday that she hadn’t seen all of Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, which focuses one of its 10 episodes on her son, who was deaf and just 31 years old at the time of his slaying in 1991. Nonetheless, she’d concluded that “it didn’t happen like that”. Continue reading...

The rapper has also drawn heavy criticism for donning a ‘white lives matter’ T-shirt during Paris fashion weekKanye West has now had both his Instagram and Twitter accounts locked after antisemitic posts over the weekend.Twitter locked his account Sunday after it removed one of West’s tweets saying he was going “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE” because it violated the service’s policies against hate speech. Continue reading...

‘I acknowledged it repeatedly,’ says Georgia gubernatorial nominee who faces Kemp rematch, but insists voter suppression is an issueDemocratic organizer Stacey Abrams on Sunday pushed back on the accusation that she refused to acknowledge Brian Kemp as the winner of Georgia’s 2018 gubernatorial election, the same politician she is once again competing with for the governor’s mansion.On Fox News Sunday, host Shannon Bream played a 2019 speech in which Abrams said “we won”, but Abrams said the clip was taken out of context. Continue reading...