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John Kirby says Biden’s warning about threat of a nuclear attack from Russia were not based on specific new informationThe US military’s top spokesperson tamped down concerns of an imminent nuclear threat from Russia, days after Joe Biden warned of a potential nuclear “Armageddon”.Speaking at a Democratic fundraiser this week, Biden talked bluntly about the threat of a nuclear attack from Russia. “We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis,” the president said. He added that Russian leader Vladimir Putin was “not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons because his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming” after invading Ukraine earlier this year. Continue reading...

The musician’s latest controversies remind us who he’s been this whole time: a guy who will do anything to be relevantTucker Carlson went to great lengths to remix Kanye West for his large conservative audience on Thursday night, calling him “an artist”, describing his erratic tweetstorms as “freeform social media posts”, and introducing him as a “Christian evangelist”. If you hadn’t been watching Fox News for the past 20 years, you’d never suspect this was the same network and time slot on which Bill O’Reilly once dismissed West as “the dopey little rapper”.But the network’s view on West, who now goes by Ye, has shifted markedly in the six years since the rapper-fashionista has made a hard right turn towards conservative libertarianism. Carlson was warming his viewers up to West as a lead-in to an exclusive, two-part one-on-one interview, shot at West’s Yeezy fashion brand headquarters in Los Angeles. Continue reading...

You can’t blame any young woman who would rather bake vegan muffins or live in a tree. But where does that leave the rest of us?The #girlboss has lost her lustre. A recent survey of nine- to 18-year-old girls reported that they rank “being a leader” the lowest priority in a list of 17 attributes for future work. Girls, the report concludes, were “nearly three times as likely to prioritise being healthy and safe” – you would hope – and “twice as likely to prioritise being respected than being a leader”. I like that: weren’t the two traditionally considered complementary? I suppose the farce-tragedy of the Borisiad has estranged concepts of leadership and respect so comprehensively that the two can’t be in the same country as each other, let alone the same gold-wallpapered room.Apart from being governed by a man who needed to be penned in with a puppy gate, what has turned young women off leadership? There’s the perennial “you can’t be what you can’t see” issue: women remain dramatically underrepresented as CEOs and on boards, and Covid bulletproofed the glass ceiling. A survey quoted by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic in his cathartically titled book Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? found that 92% of Americans couldn’t name a female leader in tech, and a quarter of the remaining 8% offered “Alexa” or “Siri”. The Rekyjavik index, measuring attitudes towards women in leadership in G7 countries, hasn’t improved since 2019, with the most recent report concluding “deeply rooted views on female leadership are hard to shift”. Plus, the UN says we are still 257 years away from gender pay parity (by which time, on current reckoning, the few survivors of any sex living in a burnt-out Greggs will have more pressing matters to worry about than what Paul from Accounts is making: he’ll be making rat stew like everyone else).Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Now Boris Johnson’s gone, all but the most hardened of leavers have been forced to see through those rosy visions of life outside the EULast week, having whiled away two joyous days at the Tories’ conference in Birmingham, I spent a long afternoon an hour’s drive away, in the cathedral city of Worcester. The plan was to sample the mood of the kind of place once considered to hold the key to British elections: remember “Worcester woman”, the swing-voting stereotype talked up in the New Labour years? But I was also there to gather more evidence of how much the UK’s current woes are affecting the kind of average-to-affluent places that might once have weathered any economic storm.Not entirely surprisingly, people said they were worried and scared. Some talked about grownup children suddenly terrified that a mortgage is beyond their reach; others described a new and unsettling habit of using sparing amounts of gas and electricity. The autumn’s increasingly awful mood music – from talk of cancelled local Christmas markets to the possibility of three-hour power cuts – informed just about every conversation I had.John Harris is a Guardian columnist. To listen to his podcast Politics Weekly UK, search “Politics Weekly UK” on Apple, Spotify, Acast or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday Continue reading...

I mispronounce the letters, the young lad has to put me right‘Why isn’t Daddy picking me up?’ my son asked his mum. I had dropped him off, so he was confused. Once, last week, she had told him: ‘We’ll be right here at home time,’ to dissuade him from feeling too homesick. Unbeknown to us, he’d taken this literally and believes whichever one of us delivers him in the morning stands stock-still in the playground for six hours until home time.I guess my son is growing up so fast, I sometimes forget he’s still a child, an effect only worsened by the arrival of his sister. When we set off for the maternity ward, he was a dewy-skinned babe. On our return, eyes recalibrated to a newborn scale, we might as well have faced a middle-aged man, with back problems and forklift-driving certification. Continue reading...

The longest-tenured US senator joins a growing chorus of conservative lawmakers opposed to such a restrictionThe longest-tenured Republican in the US Senate has pledged to vote against a national ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy which a prominent fellow party member and chamber colleague proposed last month, joining a growing chorus of conservative lawmakers opposed to that idea.Chuck Grassley, who’s been one of Iowa’s senators since 1980 and is seeking an eighth term in his seat during November’s midterms, expressed his opposition to such a ban during a televised debate Thursday night with his Democratic challenger Mike Franken. Continue reading...

Rightwing governor known for aggressive, culture-war brand of populism gives softer demeanor after storm, destroying opponents’ hopes of toppling himIf such a thing can be said following a devastating hurricane that took the lives of more than 100 people, caused tens of billions of dollars in damage, and changed the face of south-west Florida forever, Ron DeSantis has had a good storm.The rightwing Republican governor has become a near ever-present face on national television during the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, largely steering clear of the political controversies that have plagued him in recent weeks as he sought to bring a calm and reassuring face to a fast-moving tragedy. Continue reading...

In a little publicized initiative, the Biden administration is seeking to tackle the ‘junk fees’ hitting Americans when they can’t afford itThey are one of the banes of modern life: “junk fees”. And they are paid for a vast list of things from terminating cellphone contracts early, to checking baggage on an airplane and getting an overdraft on a bank account. What’s worse, is many of these fees are hard to find, or hidden until it’s time to pay, and they impact poor people the most.But Joe Biden – in a little publicized initiative – is seeking to tackle these hidden costs and has made eliminating, or at least drastically reducing them, one of the key planks of his economic plans. Continue reading...

Testimony from government’s first witness showed militia group’s leader had planned resistance well before election results were outIt was just two days after the presidential election that his preferred candidate Donald Trump lost, and Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes fired off a text to members of his extremist group.“We aren’t getting through this without a civil war,” the text read. Continue reading...

James Brennand confronted the 17 year old who was in a car that had evaded him a day earlier and began shooting when the car drove offA Texas police force has fired an officer who shot and wounded a teenager sitting in his car eating a hamburger.The San Antonio police department fired James Brennand after he shot Erik Cantu, 17, on 2 October in a fast-food restaurant parking lot, the agency’s training commander, Alyssa Campos, said in a video statement released Wednesday. Continue reading...

The coffee giant will be required to reinstate Hannah Whitbeck’s job and to hold a meeting reasserting that the company broke the lawStarbucks illegally fired an employee at one of the coffee giant’s shops in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for engaging in union activism, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled Friday.The decision requires Starbucks to offer the worker reinstatement with back pay and to hold a meeting with employees, management, government representatives and the union to clarify workers’ rights and reassert the board’s finding that the company broke the law. Continue reading...

The facility, named for the late retired general Richard Cavazos, will become the first to honor a Latino service memberThe US army’s first Latino four-star general is set to become the namesake of the country’s largest active-duty armored military base, replacing the Confederate leader after whom the facility was originally named.In a recent memo to top military brass at the Pentagon, US defense secretary Lloyd Austin said officials had until 1 January 2024 to implement a recommendation to change the name of Texas’s Fort Hood to Fort Cavazos, honoring the late retired general Richard Cavazos. Continue reading...

The Republican candidate for a Georgia US Senate seat has insisted that he does not know the woman’s identityHerschel Walker, the Republican candidate for a Georgia US Senate seat, has maintained he does not know the identity of a woman who claims that in 2009 she terminated a pregnancy that was the result of her and Walker’s relationship.But on Friday, the woman at the center of a political storm that threatens to undo the former Dallas Cowboys running back’s campaign told the New York Times that Walker urged her to terminate a second pregnancy two years later and that their relationship ended when she declined. Continue reading...

Greg Gutfeld’s creepy rant is just the latest example of the US right’s obsession with sexKids these days, eh? They’re all “deliberately ugly-fying themselves”. That’s according to Fox News host Greg Gutfeld, anyway. The 58-year-old recently went on a weird tirade about how college students aren’t adhering to his beauty standards. “You see them on TikTok, they’re out of shape, asexual,” Gutfeld said on Thursday, during a conversation about college loans. “They’re rejecting the truth in beauty, they all look like rejects from a loony bin.” Continue reading...

Subject of Netflix drama known as the ‘SoHo grifter’ must refrain from posting on social mediaAnna Sorokin, the convicted con artist who masqueraded as a German heiress and swindled wealthy New Yorkers, has been released from jail but must steer clear of social media, her attorney has confirmed.The 31-year-old, who also went by the name Anna Delvey and is the subject of Netflix’s Inventing Anna, has been held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since March 2021. Continue reading...

The uprising against Tehran’s vile regime could fail like those in Hong Kong, Belarus, Egypt and Syria – but this time something feels differentIn Hong Kong in 2019-20, millions took to the streets to oppose the repressive actions of an authoritarian regime. But ultimately their voices were silenced, their leaders jailed and China stripped away their democratic rights – as western leaders looked on, wringing their hands.In Belarus, nationwide protests erupted when a cruel dictator stole the 2020 election. The UN said hundreds of people were abused, tortured, raped. But the dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, propped up by his loathsome buddy in Moscow, remains truculently in power. Continue reading...

The 1951 refugee convention should be upheld by Russia’s neighbours as people refusing to fight in Ukraine seek safetyRussian software architect “AA” was one of 17,000 people who fled Russia for Finland last weekend. This was before Finland closed its border with Russia, which was the last direct route from Russia to the European Union. AA told Finnish journalists that Russia was establishing “call-up centres or contact points” on the other side of the border, preventing people from leaving and funnelling them into the armed forces. Apparently, no authority on either side of the borders between Russia and the EU is now interested in the fate of ordinary Russians who refuse to fight in the criminal invasion of Ukraine.Other EU countries bordering Russia have also recently closed their eastern borders and suspended Russian tourist visas. Certain countries have explicitly said that they will not recognise Russians fleeing conscription as refugees, with Estonian foreign minister Urmas Reinsalu telling Reuters in September: “A refusal to fulfil one’s civic duty in Russia or a desire to do so does not constitute sufficient grounds for being granted asylum in another country”.Nicole Stybnarova is a lecturer in public international law and refugee law at the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of OxfordDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

Preparing to face Italy in the Eagles’ opener, the Saracens pair say the women’s game is ready to take a big step forward“I was teaching at school on Wednesday and then flying to a World Cup on Thursday. It’s definitely a bit surreal, but it’s a very fortunate position and I’m going to take any opportunity I get.”Lotte Clapp has seen a few things in her time. An international winger, she has won 10 England caps and captained Saracens to three domestic titles. But life can still take unexpected turns. Continue reading...

Georgia in focus: A Democratic challenger who raised $10.8m is facing an uphill battle against the Maga congresswomanIn cowboy hat and square-toed boots, Marcus Flowers steps on to another porch, knocks on another front door and introduces himself as the Democrat trying to unseat Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. But Chip Freeman will take some persuading. He usually votes Republican and admires Greene’s “backbone”.“She puts her foot down and stands on a situation,” says Freeman, 51, a self-employed delivery man and handyman in suburban Rome, Georgia. “Not backbone because she’s accomplished anything but backbone because she’ll stand up face to face with people.” Continue reading...

After 40 years out of the spotlight, the game is hot gossip again, thanks to a major beef between two grandmastersI have a shocking admission to make. I am a chess cheat. Or at least world champion Magnus Carlsen would brand me a chess cheat. Occasionally, in online games where I have been testing out particular openings, I have used a chess engine (a dedicated computer program) to look for the best moves to try to get an understanding of positions.Strictly speaking, that is cheating and if the chess platforms on which I play found out, I would be banned. But they never have, because after the first 15 or so moves I abandon the engine and just play on my wits, usually making the litany of blunders for which my chess is noted. Any suspicions anti-cheating systems have about my perfect play up to move 15 are allayed by my decidedly imperfect play over the next 30 or 40. I am a cheat who has got away with it.Stephen Moss is author of The Rookie: An Odyssey through Chess (and Life)Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

The recent conviction of a prolific killer sheds light on the need for protections for a vulnerable populationAs Hollyn Williams and Lindsey Roan cleaned out their mother’s apartment, things just didn’t add up.Williams had found their mother, Martha Williams, dead on the floor of her luxury senior living apartment in Plano, Texas, just north of Dallas in March 2018. Police and medical examiners decided she had died of natural causes. Continue reading...

The president, beset by low poll ratings, has been focusing on fundraising, while his predecessor swoops in for campaign rallies, whether Republican candidates like it or notRaucous music will be played, bellicose speeches will be given and big lies will be told. Donald Trump will hold his 20th and 21st campaign rallies of the year in Nevada and Arizona this weekend, urging voters to support Republican candidates in the midterm elections.Joe Biden will be relaxing at home in Delaware. Continue reading...

Michael Fanone recounts meeting with South Carolina Republican senator in book to be published next weekRepublican senator and Trump ally Lindsey Graham told a police officer badly beaten during the Capitol attack that law enforcement should have shot rioting Trump supporters in the head, according to a new book.“You guys should have shot them all in the head,” the now ex-cop, Michael Fanone, says the South Carolina Republican told him at a meeting in May 2021, four months after the deadly attack on Congress. Continue reading...

Congressman John Curtis of Utah laments lack of women in state legislatures drafting laws – ‘if you’re a woman, it stinks’Despite his party’s staunch opposition to terminating pregnancies, Congressman John Curtis, a Utah Republican, has raised eyebrows after saying at a debate this week that he wished women could decide whether abortion should be legal.“I wish, as a man, I didn’t have to make this decision,” John Curtis said, referring to how the state legislatures which are now empowered to decide the legality of abortion are dominated by men. “I wish women could make this decision.” Continue reading...

Robert Hadden, a former gynecologist, was accused in 2016 of sexually abusing female patients for over two decadesTwo New York hospitals have agreed to pay more than $165m to 147 former patients who have accused a former gynecologist of sexual abuse and misconduct.Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian announced the agreement Friday. Last year, the two hospitals reached a settlement to establish a $71m compensation fund with 79 former patients. Continue reading...

A man with a large kitchen knife said he wanted to take a picture with showgirls but then started stabbing people, a witness saidAn attacker with a large kitchen knife killed two people and wounded six others in stabbings along the Las Vegas Strip before he was arrested on Thursday, police said.Three people were hospitalized in critical condition and another three were in stable condition, according to Las Vegas police, who said they began receiving 911 calls about the stabbings around 11.40am across the street from the Wynn casino and hotel. Continue reading...

This rip-roaring spectacle delivered a celebratory atmosphere in a vibrant reprise of England captivating an entire nationUnder an almost full moon, England poured a few more golden rays of sunshine. As homecomings go, this ticked most boxes: a celebratory atmosphere; the national stadium near enough full; the palpable sense of occasion as the tube station funnelled its public down on to Olympic Way. Then there was the rip-roaring spectacle delivered inside and the invigorating sense that, while the Lionesses’ summer heroics were its springboard, there is still no telling exactly where they will land.The answer may be known by 20 August, when the World Cup’s two best teams will square off at Stadium Australia. It is hardly outrageous to suggest we were watching them here. England and USA served up a sometimes alarmingly open, consistently full-throttle affair that simultaneously meant nothing and everything. Even if no prizes were on offer, there in plain sight was the proof that England’s sights should be limitless: that, in delivering only their third win in 19 iterations of this fixture, they have set down a marker at a time of seemingly inexorable momentum. Continue reading...

As litigation continues, abortions up to 22 weeks of pregnancy remain legal in stateThe American Civil Liberties Union and other abortion rights groups have won a ruling from a lower court in Ohio that has indefinitely blocked the state’s ban on terminating pregnancies after six weeks.In a statement released on Friday, the ACLU announced that Judge Christian Jenkins of the Hamilton county court of common pleas said that it would grant abortion providers’ and advocates’ request for a preliminary injunction against Ohio’s senate bill 23 (SB 23), a law that prohibits abortions starting at roughly a month and a half of pregnancy. Continue reading...

Merced officers suspect Alberto Salgado helped destroy evidence in the abduction and killings of four members of the Singh familyThe younger brother of a man suspected in the kidnapping and killings of an eight-month-old baby, her parents and an uncle, was arrested on suspicion he helped his brother destroy evidence, authorities said on Friday.Alberto Salgado, 41, was arrested late Thursday and accused of criminal conspiracy, accessory and destroying evidence, the Merced county sheriff’s office said. He is booked in the Merced county jail – the same place where Jesus Salgado, 48, is being held on kidnapping and murder charges. It was not clear whether either brother had a lawyer who could speak on their behalf. Continue reading...

Nebraska senator, to take top post at University of Florida, is latest GOP legislator to leave Capitol Hill after voting to impeach in 2021Another Republican who stood up to Donald Trump is on his way out of Congress, with the news that the Nebraska senator Ben Sasse is set to become president of the University of Florida.Of the 10 House Republicans and seven senators who voted to convict Trump at his second impeachment trial, for inciting the January 6 Capitol attack, only two congressmen and four senators are on course to return after the midterm elections. Continue reading...

US president made most outspoken remark on threat of wartime nuclear weapons when speaking at a fundraiser on ThursdayThe White House has said that Joe Biden’s warning of “Armageddon” if Russia uses a nuclear weapon in Ukraine was not based on any new intelligence suggesting such nuclear use is imminent.The US president issued his warning at a private fundraising event in New York on Thursday evening, in his most outspoken remarks yet on the threat of wartime nuclear weapons being used for the first time since 1945. Continue reading...

‘We have not seen any reason to adjust our own nuclear posture,’ says press secretary

The former US president is trying to exclude a specific set of seized documents from an inquiry into his handling of government recordsDonald Trump is seeking to withhold from the justice department two folders marked as containing correspondence with the National Archives and signing sheets that the FBI seized from his Mar-a-Lago resort, according to court filings in the special master review of the confiscated documents.The former US president’s privilege assertions over the folders, which appear to have direct relevance to the criminal investigation into whether he retained national defense information and obstructed justice, are significant as they represent an effort to exclude the items from the inquiry and keep them confidential. Continue reading...

District says activities have been halted ‘for a period of time’ amid investigation of response to May massacreThe school district in Uvalde, Texas, suspended its entire police force on Friday, five months after a shooting in which 19 children and two teachers were killed, the district said in a statement.The moved followed a wave of outrage over the hiring of a former Texas state trooper who was part of the hesitant law enforcement response during the May shooting at Robb elementary school. Continue reading...

Agents killed Manuel González Morán, 33, who was detained in El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday after first using stun gun on himUS federal agents say a Mexican man they shot dead at a border patrol station in Texas this week advanced on them while wielding an “edged weapon” – reported to have been a pair of scissors.Border patrol agents shot Manuel González Morán, 33, in El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday. They had detained him for allegedly re-entering the US without permission. He died after being taken to hospital.The Associated Press contributed reporting Continue reading...

CDC researchers found that Black and Hispanic communities saw the sharpest increase in firearm deaths in the USUS firearm homicides and suicides jumped to their highest rates in three decades from 2020 to 2021, according to a report by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The CDC reported that gun-related homicides and suicides both climbed by more than 8% in 2021. Firearms caused 47,286 homicide and suicide deaths, after 43,675 in 2020. Continue reading...

Eric Adams says he expects to spend at least $1bn by end of fiscal year on crisis as Texas governor continues to send migrantsThe mayor of New York, Eric Adams, on Friday declared a state of emergency, amid an influx of migrants sent to the city by the Republican governor of Texas.Speaking to reporters at city hall, Adams said he expected to spend at least $1bn by the end of the fiscal year in effort to address the problem. Continue reading...

For older activists like me, the uprising has reopened old scars and breathed new life into our long struggle for freedomWomen, life, freedom. These words have become the rallying cry for protest that has erupted in the wake of the murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iran’s feared morality police. They are shaking the Iranian regime to its core.Unlike past movements, this uprising cuts across generations and social classes. For young Iranian women, Amini’s death ignited an explosion of pent-up fury at the regime’s suppression of women’s rights. For older activists like me, it has reopened the scars from previous uprisings and breathed new life into the decades-long struggle for freedom.Nasrin Parvaz is a women’s rights activist and torture survivor from Iran. Her books include A Prison Memoir: One Woman’s Struggle in Iran, and the novel The Secret Letters from X to ADo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at guardian.letters@theguardian.com Continue reading...

New rules include measure to exclude China from using semiconductor chips made anywhere in world with US toolsThe Biden administration on Friday published a sweeping set of export controls, including a measure to cut China off from certain semiconductor chips made anywhere in the world with US tools, vastly expanding its reach in its attempt to slow Beijing’s technological and military advances.The rules, some of which go into effect immediately, build on restrictions sent in letters earlier this year to top toolmakers KLA Corp, Lam Research Corp and Applied Materials Inc, in effect requiring them to halt shipments of equipment to wholly Chinese-owned factories producing advanced logic chips. Continue reading...

Global film greats flocked to the festival because of its dedication to the art – and because they know great pictures are nothing without great picturehousesI remember the shock when Alfred Hitchcock died. For film fans in Edinburgh, Scotland and further afield, Thursday was a similar body blow. The city’s great cultural cinema, Filmhouse, and its august Edinburgh international film festival have both ceased trading.Martin Scorsese, Maggie Cheung, the Coen Brothers, Andrei Tarkovsky, Lynne Ramsay, Leslie Caron, Steve Martin, Bill Forsyth, Derek Jarman, Thelma Schoonmaker, Michael Powell and many others went to Filmhouse like moths to a flame, seeking what I sought when I first went in 1984: a place to come out as movie lover. An exhilaration, and a harbour in which to shelter and from which to sail. Continue reading...

The Georgia senate candidate has garnered support from Donald Trump to Lindsey GrahamRepublicans and anti-abortion groups across the country have been flocking to Herschel Walker’s defense despite accusations that the Republican candidate for Georgia’s senate paid for a woman’s abortion in 2009.After the accusation from an alleged ex-girlfriend was first reported in the Daily Beast, some of the country’s most influential Republicans have been either echoing Walker’s denial of the abortion or remaining in deafening silence, in turn revealing a clear hypocrisy towards the issue of abortion rights. Continue reading...

The sham referendums serve only to highlight that many once pro-Russian Ukrainians are turning their backs on MoscowVladimir Putin has convinced himself that “reunification” of south-east Ukraine and Russia is a historic inevitability – so obvious that it will warrant just a paragraph in the heroic textbook he’s writing in his head. But the recent announcement by the Kremlin that the vast majority of the residents of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts voted to break away and join Russia is the product of an absurd fantasy. This is obvious to the region’s war-scattered residents and even to myself, who spent the past six years working on humanitarian and development projects in Sievierodonetsk, the temporary capital of Luhansk oblast.This is because this easternmost corner of Ukraine has always been where questions of its national identity and cultural entanglement with Russia are most laid bare.Brian Milakovsky has worked in Ukraine and Russia on ecological, humanitarian and development issues since 2009. He and his family fled Ukraine after the invasion. They now reside in LatviaComments on this piece are premoderated to ensure discussion remains on topics raised by the writer. Please be aware there may be a short delay in comments appearing on the site. Continue reading...

Little Miss Hot Mess responds to Florida Republican senator after he used footage of her reading to childrenA drag queen called the Florida senator Marco Rubio a bigot, after the Republican included her in a campaign ad in which he attacked “the radical left”.Lil Miss Hot Mess, who performs in Los Angeles, responded to Rubio in a video after he used footage of her reading to children during Drag Queen Story Hour, a children’s program that started in 2015. Continue reading...

Republican Senate candidates Mehmet Oz, JD Vance and Herschel Walker likely to receive majority of Trump’s assistanceDonald Trump is expected to launch dozens of television ads to boost Republicans in key races across the country, with the former US president asserting his political influence as the campaigns head into the final stretch of the midterm elections, according to sources familiar with the matter.The spots – funded through a newly and specially created political action committee christened Maga Inc, an abbreviation for the Make America Great Again slogan – are anticipated to come in several waves of messaging over the coming weeks, the sources said. Continue reading...

A new Netflix documentary explores how the late NBA star helped provide some comfort for a team and country in turmoilIn the first decade of the 21st-century, America endured turmoil on multiple fronts. Following the devastating tragedy of 9/11, the nation would also find itself in the midst of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while a financial crisis at home nearly destroyed the housing market.The vulnerability even trickled down to the US men’s basketball team, a seemingly invincible force during the Dream Team days of Magic, Jordan, Barkley, and Bird. But the NBA star-packed squad would lose its allure following collapses at the 2002 Fiba World Championships, where the Americans lost to Yugoslavia in the quarter-finals, and the debacle at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, where they went home with bronze. Continue reading...

State’s corrections department says things are ‘under control’ after labor strike began in September over conditions, but images and interviews say otherwiseLast Friday, five days after Alabama prisoners launched a statewide labor strike, Republican governor Kay Ivey stood on the steps of the governor’s mansion and assured reporters that the head of the state’s beleaguered corrections department had things “well under control”.But images and interviews from inside the state’s prisons show a system in disarray, with deteriorating conditions, pervasive violence, multiple deaths and little oversight from staff. Continue reading...