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US secretary of state to talk to foreign minister Hakan Fidan in latest stop of diplomatic tour as US nuclear-powered submarine heads through Suez canal

The college basketball season tips off on Monday across the United States. Who will stand out? Who will surprise? Our writers weigh inWho's next in women's hoops. Last year's national title game between LSU and Iowa was watched by a record 9.9m people, another sign for the surging popularity of women's basketball. The social media era has helped popularize talents like LSU's Angel Reese and Iowa's Caitlin Clark, whose play would have never made it into nightly highlight packages of years past. This increased visibility has grown several bonafide stars like Breanna Stewart, A'Ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum and Sabrina Ionescu over the past decade. I'm just looking forward to who is next. GB Continue reading...

The Chelsea coach will leave the WSL at the end of the season and is expected to take over the four-time World Cup champions. The job is far from an easy oneFew people on the Earth are as qualified as Emma Hayes to be the US women's national team coach.The Englishwoman built a juggernaut at Chelsea. She gained experience for that job by coaching and consulting in the USA, where she helped to assemble a Western New York Flash team that won the last WPS championship. She's a frequent presenter at the annual United Soccer Coaches convention, also in the US. No one has a better understanding of where US players stand in comparison to their international peers. Continue reading...

The Minnesota Vikings quarterback had five days to get to grips with his new team's offense. That didn't turn out to be a problem on SundayYou'd need to be a genius to learn a new NFL offense and its dozens of plays in five days. Luckily, Joshua Dobbs is. The quarterback's academic exploits are the stuff of legend and internet memedom. He graduated from the University of Tennessee with a perfect grade-point average and a degree in aerospace engineering, and instead of going on to a career in rocket science - which he'd have been plenty qualified for - he settled into a different life: that of the journeyman backup. Dobbs has been around the league since 2017, when the Pittsburgh Steelers made him a fourth-round pick. But the last few weeks have turned out to be his big breakthrough.Dobbs started the year with his seventh franchise in seven seasons of pro ball: the Arizona Cardinals, who are playing for little more than an early draft pick next spring. So when the Minnesota Vikings lost starter Kirk Cousins for the year with a torn achilles last week, they chatted with Arizona and swung a deal for Dobbs. That was Tuesday. On Sunday, Dobbs wasn't expecting to play but he was summoned from the bench when Jaren Hall was injured in the first quarter. He duly delivered a masterclass in being a quick study: Dobbs completed 20 of 30 passes for 158 yards and two touchdowns, and despite coughing up a few fumbles to the Atlanta Falcons, he brought the Vikings back from the abyss. Continue reading...

Despite facing multiple criminal charges, Donald Trump remains the frontrunner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. But in South Carolina, a traditionally conservative southern state, a split is opening up between Trump loyalists and more moderate Republicans who are fearful of what their party has become. The Guardian's Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone investigate Continue reading...

Amid the destruction, people are working with artists and engineers to honour their sorrow and ensure we don't forgetIn Shevchenko City Garden, in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, there is a new memorial to the children killed by invading Russians. Officially unveiled this summer by the first lady, Olena Zelenska, the bronze assemblage depicts a young boy and girl in the guise of angels, apparently embarking on a winged ascent to heaven. To my taste, it is a triumph of kitsch, whose sentimentality is out of step with the profound tragedies it commemorates. Still, when I visited, little offerings of toys had been left at the statue's base: evidence that many people disagreed, and found it a useful focus of contemplation.Ukraine's landscape of memory is in a state of flux. On one hand, history is being rapidly reassessed. While many public sculptures in the capital and other cities are sandbagged and protected from missiles, Pushkinopad, or Pushkin-fall, is the name given to the steady removal of statues of the Russian poet from Ukrainian streets and squares. Over the past century, the author of Eugene Onegin has been so thoroughly appropriated as a metonym for the Russkiy mir, or Russian political and cultural space, and so consistently instrumentalised as a marker of Russian power and influence, that he has fallen foul of new Ukrainian decolonisation laws. Pushkin Park in Kyiv, for instance, is now Ivan Bahrianyi Park, named after the 20th-century Ukrainian novelist and dissident. Continue reading...

Some will understandably be wary of these marches, but people feel so strongly about this issue for many reasonsAs the streets fill with ever-increasing numbers of pro-Palestine supporters - and with a large protest planned in central London next weekend - British politicians and commentators are coming up with new ways of describing what is happening: from hate marches", in the words of home secretary Suella Braverman, to empty displays of virtue signalling". The prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has already called next weekend's march, which coincides with Armistice Day, provocative and disrespectful". But each attempt to cast this movement as menacing is really a refusal to try to understand what is going on. The truth is that a large number of people in Britain can feel strongly about the situation in Gaza while not being obsessed" with Palestine or motivated by terrorist sympathies.Some will be wary of these marches in good faith, and understandably so. Reported antisemitic hate incidents in Britain are rising, and Hamas's 7 October atrocities have shaken a Jewish diaspora, which saw its mourning immediately eclipsed by sympathy for Gaza. Support for Palestine might seem suspect from a public that does not turn out for many other similar causes. Why does this one issue bring so many out on to the streets, when so many other injustices around the world are met with silence?Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

New poll shows Biden ahead in Wisconsin, but Trump leading in Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and MichiganDemocratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said on Sunday that the party has its work cut out for us" in response to new polling that shows President Joe Biden trailing Donald Trump in five of six swing states.The survey by the New York Times and Siena College of voters in six battleground states, was released with 365 days to go until the 2024 presidential election.Reuters contributed to this report Continue reading...

In his strongest words in the 30-day war, Vermont senator demands end to killing of innocent men, women and children'Bernie Sanders has stepped up his calls for a humanitarian pause in Gaza, demanding an immediate stop to Israeli bombing and an end to the killing of thousands of innocent men, women and children" in the enclave.In some of his strongest words in the 30-day war, the independent US senator from Vermont decried the 7 October Hamas attack inside Israel. He labelled Hamas as an awful terrorist organization" that had slaughtered 1,400 people in cold blood", reiterating his belief that Israel had the right to defend itself. Continue reading...

Turkish police fired water cannon and tear gas as a large crowd of pro-Palestine protesters attempted to storm the Incirlik airbase which houses US troops in the southern Turkish province of Adana. The demonstration was organised by the humanitarian aid agency IHH, calling for the base to be closed down following the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas. The organisation's president called on attendees not to attack the police, but said 'Our rage is huge. We cannot hold it in.' The demonstration was organised in advance of Antony Blinken's scheduled visit to Ankara where the US secretary of state is expected to meet his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, to discuss the situation in Gaza

Polls continue to show both presidential frontrunners as tied as tied can be', with third-party candidates tying for a distant thirdAmericans are one year away from a presidential election that's shaping up to be a historically unpopular rematch between the oldest ever sitting president, Joe Biden, a Democrat, and his Republican predecessor, the twice-impeached, serially indicted Donald Trump.With less than 10 weeks to go before Iowa's caucuses launch the 2024 Republican nominating contest, much can still change. As it stands, the country appears to be hurtling toward an election few Americans want - but that might be one of the most consequential in modern US history. Continue reading...

Well-worn legal playbook in recent weeks has brought former president victories in court that have buoyed and emboldened himDonald Trump has appeared at times angrily under siege as he stews over his predicament in the New York civil fraud case, according to people close to the former president, particularly furious in recent weeks with the witness testimony that could result in the end of the Trump Organization empire.The rulings from the presiding New York state supreme court justice Arthur Engoron, who found that Trump and co-defendants were liable for fraud and ordered all of Trump's adult children to testify at the ongoing trial, for instance, have taken a toll. Continue reading...

A deadly blaze in 2018 leveled the area, but now residents are dreaming of a different future in the rapidly developing communityStephen Murray drives the streets of Paradise, California, each day, navigating through roadwork and traffic as he takes in the neat dirt lots and gleaming modern farmhouses on his way to job sites.Construction is constant in the Golden state's fastest growing town. Paradise has a revamped high school, thousands of new homes, recently installed emergency alert sirens and plans for miles of freshly paved roads and underground infrastructure. Continue reading...

A reformed Palestinian Authority or a multinational force have been mooted as solutions for security in the territory, but both proposals have met resistance

After a few months of hormone replacement therapy, I thought my menopausal mood swings were under control. Did the experts really disagree?I started HRT in August and whoa, it's good stuff. I said a few weeks in that I was still very angry, but my oestrogen level has now risen to the point where I found a pile of dishes soaking" in the sink recently and instead of spitting ancestral curses at my husband, I thought: I know - I will model good kitchen practices by calmly washing these." Then I did! My anxiety has stabilised to a level where emails and calls excite only the standard mild-to-moderate dread and my brain fog has dissipated so much I even turned a column in early once - an unprecedented event. It was worth going through another coil insertion (I could explain why but I'll spare you) - the highest endorsement, as anyone who has experienced that particular jabby delight can confirm.Why am I talking about HRT again? I don't particularly want being menopausal" to be my thing - I'm more interested in why Edith, my hen, has decided to live in a tree. But things keep coming up (much like Edith) and here we are. Just this week I read a news report that HRT should not be prescribed to ease symptoms of anxiety and depression in menopausal women", according to landmark new guidelines", with experts saying there was little evidence that HRT helped to improve low mood, anxiety and mood swings".Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Puppet depicting migrant Syrian girl has walked halfway around to the world, now at border comforting refugees and asylum seekersAfter two years of walking halfway around the world searching for her mother and a new home, a 10-year-old Syrian girl made it to the US-Mexico border.She reached gate 36 of the port of entry in the border fence, where crowds of asylum seekers and refugees have crossed into the US. Continue reading...

The former president will take the stand in Manhattan on Monday - and the future of his corporate empire is at stakeYou can't con people - at least not for long," Donald Trump observed in his 1987 bestseller The Art of the Deal. You can create excitement, you can do wonderful promotion and get all kinds of press, and you can throw in a little hyperbole. But if you don't deliver the goods, people will eventually catch on."The former president spent decades trying to create excitement with wonderful levels of promotion, getting all kinds of press, and throwing in more than a little hyperbole. But did he have the goods? Continue reading...

Despite a warning from the state, board supervisors threaten to sue if Shasta county registrar uses voting machinesIn Shasta county, California, voters will decide this week on a school board race, the formation of a new fire department and a local tax. What observers in California and across the US are watching most is not what they will choose - but how their votes will be counted.In the past months, Shasta has come to play an outsize role nationally as officials in this rural region of northern California have taken center stage in the election denial movement, which proposes fixes" like the sole use of manual tallies to enhance election integrity" based on the lie that the presidency was stolen from Donald Trump. Continue reading...

I may be in denial about my computer being on the blink, but after another hot and muggy Halloween, one thing is frighteningly clearI fear the Apple Store. It's a disorienting cross between a Los Angeles hotel lobby, the place where everyone over 30 gets killed in Logan's Run and the headquarters of Hydra TM (R). The protocols for attracting a staff member seem inexplicably opaque, like the rules for bidding in an auction, or initiating a new friendship. They induce mild panic attacks and my heart flutters as groomed twentysomethings, who could be customers or staff, waft by me, geishas for Steve Jobs's ghost. Why aren't there any queues? Can I just sit in here quietly and eat the things from my bag? Is there a duty free section?In the Apple Store, I never know if a commercial transaction is taking place, or if I am just involved in a continuing discussion about my needs", a situation I admittedly find replicated in my dealings with my therapist and people generally. And there is now a raised area at the rear of the Regent Street branch in London that suggests a ziggurat. Here, ancient Aztecs tore out people's hearts to appease Quetzalcoatl, a sacrifice still less demanding than the financial one required buy a new Apple laptop. When I mentioned, to the charming young man attending me, that the shop design made me think of the death rituals of the winged serpent worshippers, he just smiled, as if I were complimenting Apple's bold aesthetics. But I will have to go to the Apple Store again. Soon.Basic Lee tour dates are here; a six-week London run begins 9 December at Leicester Square theatreDo 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...

When political solutions lose out to vengeance, in Aeschylus's words, Where will it end?'Watching the tragedy unfold in Israel and Palestine has sometimes felt like reading the Oresteia backwards. A trilogy of plays by Aeschylus, written in the fifth century BC, the Oresteia tells of the transformation of ancient Greece from a society rooted in blood and revenge into one shaped by justice.The Oresteia begins with the return home from the Trojan war of Agamemnon, the leader of the triumphant Greeks. He is brutally murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, in furious revenge for his having ritually sacrificed their daughter Iphigenia on the eve of conflict to placate the gods. Continue reading...

A female-centred workplace is a more appreciative one, Swedish research finds, but with a gender gap of 8%, nice doesn't cut it with payWe got the official data on UK earnings last week. It included the joyful reminder that last year our pay didn't keep up with rising prices, for the ninth year in the 14 years since 2010. Something we used to think almost never happened, has become painfully normal.But you all know your wages aren't going as far as they used to, so let's focus on what the data tells us is going on gender pay gap-wise. Among full-time employees it's 8%. On the positive side, that's way down from an absolutely staggering 36% in 1971, but it hasn't budged much in recent years. The remaining gap is largely about workers aged 40-plus, which is the age at which the very different impacts of having children kick in on mothers' and fathers' careers.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...

Kaoru Nakajima's lavish birthday party in Palermo follows Google's annual summer camps' that seek to convey credibility and longevitySicilians were bewildered last week to see a Japanese billionaire, Kaoru Nakajima, block booking entire sections of their city for his extended birthday party. Palermo's most deluxe hotels were completely occupied by Japanese celebrants. The seating of the grand Politeama theatre was rearranged so that his 1,400 guests could also dine and dance. The opera house, Teatro Massimo, was closed for a private performance of Don Giovanni, with Riccardo Muti conducting.These pharaonic festivities caused consternation and controversy because Sicily is all about beguiling simplicity. There's immense panache to the island, of course, but it's sometimes at the spit-and-sawdust end of the spectrum. So Sicilians perceived something profoundly inauthentic, even unfair, about thousands of jet-setters renting their city for a lavish, gargantuan party. Continue reading...

Silicon Valley tech showmen like Elon Musk and Sam Bankman-Fried can blind us with science. A little more scepticism would not go amissGreat wealth has always signified status, but today tech wealth also signifies having special futuristic insights denied the rest of us, which the Silicon Valley billionaires are all too ready to dispense and we are too ready to receive. Thus the spectacle of the British prime minister fawning over the banal utterances of the world's richest man as prophecies from an entrepreneurial god who deigns to walk among us. On the same day, a bizarre hi-tech huckster, once no less fawned over, was convicted of a $10bn fraud and faces imprisonment for up to 110 years. This bewildering world has robbed everyone from limelight-seeking political leaders to greedy investors of their senses. There has been a collective loss of our sceptical faculties.The obstacle to any such scepticism is that amid the hype, banality, self-deception and sometimes outright fraud is the truth that, on occasion, real wealth and technological breakthroughs are being created at dizzying speed. Elon Musk, interviewed in that notorious fireside chat" by Rishi Sunak after the prime minister had hosted the world's first AI safety summit at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire last week, owes the bulk of his $200bn-plus fortune to the success of his electric car producer, Tesla. It has sold more than a million Model 3 vehicles, helping to deliver the death knell to the petrol engine and with it the age of fossil fuels. Continue reading...

Frankie Dettori, Ryan Moore and William Buick all produced memorable winning ridesHere comes Cody's Wish, taking on National Treasure, who fights back right on the wire .... PHOTO!Off and running in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile! Continue reading...

Bad news for Florida governor's campaign, with favorability falling throughout 2023 and a GOP debate scheduled for WednesdayFive Republican legislators in Florida have switched their endorsements from rightwing governor Ron DeSantis to former US president Donald Trump before a key party nomination debate in Miami next week.The move is another boost to Trump - who remains dominant in the 2024 Republican race - and a blow to DeSantis, whose once highly anticipated bid for the White House has recently floundered badly. All recent polling has shown Trump with a strong lead over his rivals and DeSantis being edged out of second place by the former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. Continue reading...

Michigan Democrat is only Palestinian American in Congress and warns Biden voters will remember in 2024'Michigan Democratic congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American member of Congress, has released a video accusing Joe Biden of supporting the genocide of the Palestinian people".Tlaib has been a withering critic of Biden's staunch backing of the Israeli war against Hamas in Gaza and the White House refusal to listen to demands from some progressive Democrats to back calls for a ceasefire. Continue reading...

It's always been an unreliable process, so let's think again about how to recruit the right peopleIn the evolutionary arms race between interviewer and interviewee, I think it is inevitable that both roles will at some point be played fully by robots. AI is already helping us to filter through CVs - one day, we will be able to leave chatbots entirely to it: everywhere, in pockets of cyberspace, one large language model will be offering another a seat and asking about the last challenge it faced at work, while we humans get on with something more useful.We came one step closer to this utopia recently, when one - clearly quite brilliant - job candidate was revealed to be using AI to feed her answers during a Zoom interview. A phone app recorded the questions in real time and delivered perfect" replies, which she calmly read off the screen, thus demonstrating innovation, resourcefulness, and a healthy disrespect for the whole interview process. I hope she gets the job. Continue reading...

From Afghanistan and Ukraine to the Middle East, the US president faces the fallout from his predecessor's foreign policy blundersIs Joe jinxed? In less than three years as US president, Joe Biden has faced more than his fair share of international crises. America's withdrawal from Afghanistan blew up in his hands like a cluster bomb. Then came Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Europe's biggest war since 1945. Now, suddenly, the Middle East is in flames.It could just be bad luck. Or it could be Biden, who prides himself on foreign policy expertise, is not as good at running the world as he thinks. But there is another explanation. It's called Donald Trump. If Biden's presidency is cursed, it's by the toxic legacy of the very stable genius" who preceded him.Do 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...

Agricultural department says multiple states will be affected, forcing a brainstorm of backup plansThe tiny, half-pint cartons of milk served with millions of school lunches nationwide may soon be scarce in some cafeterias, with districts across the country scrambling to find alternatives.The problem is not a shortage of milk itself, but the cardboard cartons used to package and serve it, according to dairy industry suppliers and state officials. Continue reading...

The former South Carolina governor is rising in the polls but despite executive and foreign policy experience she has a mountain to climbOn Monday, Nikki Haley returned to the building where her political career began to formally submit the paperwork to appear on the Republican presidential primary ballot in her home state of South Carolina. Haley held up her filing for the cameras. In loopy writing she had scrawled: Let's do this!"The exclamation punctuated Haley's emergence as a viable alternative to Donald Trump. It comes nearly 20 years after Haley's election to the South Carolina statehouse, having bested a 30-year Republican incumbent in a come-from-behind victory that stunned her party and began her unlikely ascent to the governor's mansion and then to become Donald Trump's ambassador to the United Nations. Continue reading...

The Minnesota representative has angered some supporters by running against the president for the Democratic nominationFor people who know the Democratic Minnesota congressman Dean Phillips, his run for presidency is perplexing. For some of them, it's also disappointing, maybe even enraging. But they also think he's genuine in his quest to go up against Joe Biden in the Democratic primary, despite how it might affect his own political career and how it could damage Biden in one of the most consequential elections in recent US history.Phillips announced his run for the presidency in New Hampshire last week, saying it was time for the next generation to lead in a pointed reference to concerns about Biden's age. He says he is a fan of Biden's and a supporter of his policies, but he is 54, while Biden is 80. Phillips, the heir to a distilling empire who also co-owned a gelato company, is injecting his own wealth into his presidential campaign - solving any problem of raising funds. Continue reading...

Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr both testified in a trial featuring a copious paper trail, plenty of blame shifting and a gag orderThe fifth week of the New York fraud trial of Donald Trump ended smack in the middle of a family affair and with another gag order for the combative Trump team.Trump's elder sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, took the witness stand in New York this week and testified they had little knowledge about the financial statements at the center of the case. Next week, Donald Trump is expected to take the stand on Monday, followed by daughter Ivanka Trump on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Evidence suggests insurrection' clause of 14th amendment could apply but biggest challenge may be outside the courtroomWhen Scott Gessler stepped up to the lectern in a Denver courtroom on Monday, he opened with a full-throated defense of American democracy.When it comes to decide who should lead our nation, it's the people of the United States of America who should make those decisions," he said. This court should not interfere with that fundamental value - that rule of democracy." Continue reading...

Republican Carolyn Carluccio, running for supreme court, has drawn ire over apparent opposition to abortion accessPennsylvania voters will select a new member of the state's supreme court on Tuesday in a judicial election that has become the unlikely focus of Republican billionaire donors, political action committees and abortion rights advocates.Democrat Daniel McCaffery is facing off against Carolyn Carluccio, a conservative judge whose apparent opposition to abortion access has drawn the ire of Planned Parenthood and other reproductive justice groups. Continue reading...

As the relationship is tested by the Israel-Hamas war, it's clear a more flexible dynamic is needed to help secure a lasting peaceWith Gaza bombarded, with thousands dead and its infrastructure largely in ruins, is it ever acceptable for a German to criticise Israel? Almost the entire German political establishment and most of those in public life apparently think not.Since 7 October, the day Hamas fighters inflicted carnage on a music festival and on kibbutzim inside Israel, all the main parties - the three making up the government, plus the Conservative CDU opposition and even the far-right AfD - have spoken with one voice, in solidarity with Israel. It is not lost on Germans that more Jews were killed on that one day than on any single day since the defeat of the Third Reich.John Kampfner's latest book is In Search of BerlinDo 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...

Posting can turn into a privacy risk - and in a changing online landscape, it's become another parental identity markerAn old friend asked me recently why I never put my son's face online. Can you explain the not showing pics of babies thing to me?" she asked. Everyone our age seems to obscure their baby's face with emojis. I feel as if I've missed a key essay on the morality of baby pic social media publication."I don't do the emoji thing - in fact I've even stopped showing the back of his head, or any aspect of his home life, really - but I know what she means. A few years ago, sharenting, as it's been called, felt like the norm among my social circle. These days I see far fewer babies' faces on social media. Concerns about online privacy and safeguarding, as well as facial recognition and the commercial use of personal data, are far more prevalent than they were in the early days of Facebook. In fact, you could say that whether or not you share photos has become another parental identity marker, up there with breastfeeding, cloth nappies and baby-led weaning as evidence that you're doing things the right way", not like those other parents". Continue reading...

As he completes his first year in office, Iraq's prime minister writes of how the Israel-Hamas war has rekindled memories of his country's own violent past and how it is trying to rebuildFew countries have endured the suffering and conflict that Iraq has experienced over the past 50 years. The tragic events in Gaza bring back painful memories for the Iraqi people. Red lines have been crossed, with civilians enduring unimaginable suffering, and as a result there is an urgent need for critical humanitarian assistance.Here in Iraq, we stand in strong solidarity with the Palestinian people, and our country has committed to providing substantial aid, all the while working with our international partners to bring a swift end to this tragedy. Continue reading...

Abby Zwerner was hospitalized for two weeks after the January shooting and is suing school administrators for negligenceA teacher who was shot by her six-year-old student in Virginia can press forward with her $40m lawsuit against a school system over claims of negligence by school administrators, a judge ruled Friday.The surprise decision by the Newport News circuit court judge Matthew Hoffman means that Abby Zwerner could get much more than just workers' compensation for the serious injuries caused by January's classroom shooting. Continue reading...

Ridden by Tom Marquand, Big Evs got the European challenge off to an ideal start1. FIERCENESS, 2. Muth, 3. Locked.Ok, as anyone who has stuck with this must surely now be aware, the tech here at Santa Anita is in a desperate state. I'm doing what I can but it's taking five minutes to send an email. Continue reading...

Congressional progressives say proposed $14.3bn breaches 1997 Leahy act as assault on Gaza has overwhelmingly harmed civiliansLeftwing Democrats in Congress have invoked a landmark law barring assistance to security forces of governments deemed guilty of human rights abuses to challenge the Biden administration's emergency military aid program for Israel.Members of the Democratic party's progressive wing say the $14.3bn package pledged by the White House after the 7 October attack by Hamas that killed more than 1,400 Israelis breaches the Leahy Act because Israel's retaliatory assault on Gaza has overwhelmingly harmed civilians. An estimated 9,000 people have been killed in Gaza so far, among them 3,700 children, according to the Gaza health ministry, run by Hamas. Continue reading...

Arthur Engoron forbids Trump's lawyers from discussing confidential communications' between the judge and his staffThe judge overseeing Donald Trump's $250m fraud trial moved to gag Trump's lawyers from talking about confidential communications" between the judge and his staff on Friday.Judge Arthur Engoron has already fined Trump $15,000 for attacking his clerk on social media and threatened to jail the former president if the attacks continue. Continue reading...