From claims about sharia law to warnings on renewable energy, US president's address was highly critical of Britain. But do his arguments stand up?Donald Trump used a 55-minute incendiary speech to the UN on Tuesday to attack London's mayor, Sadiq Khan, the state of the city and the UK's record on oil production and climate change.Critics said the US president was using his international platform to spread racist lies and environmental myths about the UK for political gain. Continue reading...
Having exhausted a failed policy of appeasement, the US president may at last be ready to put pressure on MoscowThe judgment of a man who fails to distinguish between aggressor and victim when describing the Russia-Ukraine war is not worthy of respect. Unfortunately, when that man is the US president, hisopinion cannot be ignored.Earlier this year, Donald Trump asserted that Vladimir Putin had all the cards" and urged Volodymyr Zelenskyy to make peace in terms that resembled surrender. This week, Mr Trump declared that Kyiv might achieve total victory, liberating all territory currently under Russian occupation.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...
Brendan Carr, head of the Federal Communications Commission, is fulfilling the authoritarian's dream' he once decriedWho's the comedian? Brendan Carr, the Federal Communications Commission chairperson, pressured the Disney company to indefinitely suspend Jimmy Kimmel, the late-night talkshow host on ABC, for a remark he made about the right wing's attempts to shape perceptions about the murderer of the far-right political operative Charlie Kirk. (Kimmel is now back on the air). It was the opening riff of Carr's stand-up routine.Carr's choice of venue to issue his threat - a hard-right podcast - indicated the kind of media of which he approves. His pressure against Kimmel is no isolated gesture, but the execution of a calculated plan he himself helped hatch to eradicate critical political speech. But Carr's exploitation of the death of Charlie Kirk to serve as the trigger for Trump's repression only succeeded in turning Jimmy Kimmel into a free speech symbol ahead of his return to television on Tuesday. Continue reading...
Less than a week after his state visit, the president launched a surprise attack on the UK - and sent a clear signal about US powerTrying to pin down the real Donald Trump is a mug's game. Doubtless, some will have persuaded themselves that the real Trump was the one we saw in Windsor a week ago, fawning over the royals, treating Keir Starmer with respect, and claiming that Britain and the United States were two notes in the same chord. Well, maybe.Perhaps the more plausible version was actually the one who went to the United Nations this week. This Trump went not to fawn but to boast and trash, whingeing about everything from the UN's supposed failure to back his claims to have ended seven un-endable" wars, to its refusal to award him a renovation building contract - I said at the time that I would do it for $500m, rebuilding everything, it would be beautiful" - for its New York headquarters complex.Martin Kettle 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...
Former captain says exponential' investment has made this the best prepared European team in competition's historyIt started with some stern words. The US trounced Europe 19-9 at Whistling Straits four years ago. Paul McGinley found himself under scrutiny as part of a European Ryder Cup committee that also includes Damon Buffini, Richard Scudamore and Ian Ritchie.The narrative was that this was a tired European team and there were no players coming through the ranks to change things against young, dynamic Americans who have figured out how to win Ryder Cups," McGinley recalls. Continue reading...
Conservative youth group chapters will counter woke indoctrination', says Ryan WaltersThe state superintendent in Oklahoma announced plans to put Turning Point USA chapters in every high school in the state, saying it would counter radical leftist teachers' unions" and their woke indoctrination".After far-right activist Charlie Kirk was killed on a college campus earlier this month, requests to start chapters of his conservative youth group, Turning Point, at colleges and high schools have surged, the organization has said. Continue reading...
At least four people were reportedly shot at a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Dallas, Texas on Wednesday. The FBI said it was investigating the shooting as an act of 'targeted violence' and that bullet casings found near the shooter's body 'contained messages that were anti-Ice in nature'. The Department of Homeland Security said no federal agents were wounded and the only confirmed victims have been detainees
Allegations against Hud are latest sign of administration's plans to transform enforcement of US civil rights lawsFor 57 years, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (Hud) has used a landmark civil rights law to bring lawsuits against discriminatory lenders, landlords and realtors, with the goal of fighting residential segregation.That work has largely ground to a halt since Donald Trump returned to the White House, two attorneys in the department's anti-discrimination division said in interviews, as well as a whistleblower report sent to Congress and a lawsuit filed this week. Continue reading...
by Robert Tait, Laure Boulinier, Yuji Shimada and Sar on (#7092H)
Donald Trump repeatedly made false and misleading claims during his address to the United Nations general assembly on Tuesday, from his insistence he had 'ended seven wars' to a statement that European countries were 'going to hell' for their immigration policies. The Guardian reporter Robert Tait analyses these statements and outlines the actual facts
This was Trump unfiltered and unleashed - as he has been since the start of his second term, with no restraint and no need for even the mildest nicetiesFor almost an hour on Tuesday, Donald Trump stood at the podium of the UN general assembly, where presidents, kings and statesmen have delivered some of the most important and moving speeches in modern history. But Trump delivered a long and humiliating rant, filled with personal grievances and attacks on the UN, European leaders, migration policies and clean energy.Trump set a low bar with his often rambling and incoherent campaign speeches, but it was still an embarrassing performance for the US president on the global stage. In his past appearances before the general assembly, Trump generally stuck to his prepared remarks and did not hector US allies sitting in the audience. But this was Trump unfiltered and unleashed - as he has been since the start of his second term, with no domestic or international restraint on his power and no need for even the mildest diplomatic niceties.Mohamad Bazzi is director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, and a journalism professor, at New York University Continue reading...
There is a huge gap between investment and revenue from LLMs. Investors wrongly assume everyone will be a winnerBy the end of this year, the tech industry will have invested about $717bon over three years into large language model (LLM) AI and the infrastructure needed to support it. While estimates for next year vary, it is possible that industry will invest a comparable amount. This suggests that the industry is receiving more capital than has been invested in the rest of the tech industry since the modern era began in 1956, the year the justice department's consent decree with AT&T gave birth to Silicon Valley.In a technology investing career that now spans 43 years, I have never seen a phenomenon remotely like large language model AI. Big Tech, journalists, politicians, CEOs and investors are all convinced that AI is an inevitable Next Big Thing that will change everything in our economy and society for the better. Continue reading...
Area along Guadalupe River will not reopen but another part that wasn't damaged will resume welcoming campersThe owners of Camp Mystic say they plan to partially reopen next summer the all-girls camp where 27 campers and counselors were killed during catastrophic floods that swept through the Texas Hill Country in July.The area of the camp along the Guadalupe River that was destroyed by the floodwaters will not reopen next year, the owners said in a letter to Camp Mystic families, some of whom have criticized the nearly century-old camp over its safety measures and preparedness in wake of the tragedy. But another part of the camp that wasn't damaged will resume welcoming campers. Continue reading...
President's attendance could lead to Brookline levels of excitement at an event that is invariably febrileBAAAH-BA-BAAH! It had just gone nine in the morning when the speakers started blasting out Village People's YMCA at Bethpage. Scottie Scheffler, the world No 1 had arrived on the putting green and everyone was whooping and hollering at him. Scheffler bumped fists with one of his coaches, wrapped another up in a hug and, BAH-BA-BADA-BADA-BAH!, walked on up and across the bridge to the practice ground where there was a crowd of 500 or so people waiting.They started chanting. YEW-ESS-AY! YEW-ESS-AY!" Scheffler's a big man. By the time he made it on to the range he seemed to have swelled twice the size. Continue reading...
In my 15 years of incarceration, I've seen women's bodily needs disregarded constantly. One solution could grant us back some dignityThis story was published in partnership with Prison Journalism Project, a national non-profit organization that trains incarcerated writers in journalism and publishes their work. Sign up for PJP's newsletter, follow them on Instagram and Bluesky, or connect with them on LinkedIn.It truly is a man's world, even in a women's prison. Continue reading...
Driver called police after seeing that delivery order to motel room included zip ties, hatchet, bleach and trash bagsA driver for an delivery service recently helped police in west-central Texas foil a hostage situation after reporting that he had delivered zip ties, a hatchet and other suspicious items to a motel room as part of an order, according to authorities and media accounts.In a news release published on social media, police from the city of Sweetwater said they had been called to a local motel on Monday morning by a delivery service worker who became suspicious over certain items that he delivered to a room there at the behest of a platform customer. Continue reading...
A physical home of one's own has proven to be essential for US club soccer, both for culture and for revenueIt was in a moment of crisis, just after the turn of the century, that those running American club soccer appear to have realised that they were not in the business of sports, but in the business of real estate. Today, the nation's successful clubs and leagues (which can merely mean the ones that didn't collapse and fold), tend to have something in common: A home stadium that they control. By building or owning the place where the soccer is played, the franchisees or operator-owners, and by extension the leagues themselves, found a way to grow the sport in the US in a more sustainable, stable manner.It's a dynamic that has long since taken root in MLS, where 23 of the league's 30 teams play in soccer-specifc stadiums. But, with the World Cup on the horizon, a real legacy within US soccer is already being built in the shape of striking, sensibly sized soccer venues for smaller teams, including many in the lower divisions. Continue reading...
Elias has long defended high-profile Democrats and election law, resisting Trump's crackdown on his opponentsMarc Elias, a prominent Democratic election attorney, has not shied away from standing up to the Trump administration, and has been targeted for retribution this year multiple times as a result.He's one of scores of lawyers the Trump administration has named in executive actions, joining a list that includes big law firms and attorneys who worked for people Trump considers his opponents. Continue reading...
The hardened Ryder Cup veteran we will see at Bethpage this week was a little more slipshod in his youth. Particularly at a crucial moment in 2012Has it really been 13 years since rosy-cheeked Rory McIlroy caused teammates, coaches, and a continent's worth of fans to hyperventilate by coming within a hairsbreadth of missing his tee time for a crucial singles match?The scene at the 2012 Ryder Cup, recall, looked like something out of The Blues Brothers, except there weren't any nuns or Nazis around. Having barreled down Illinois highways at upwards of 100mph, its siren blaring, an unmarked cop car came screeching into the parking lot of the Medinah Golf Club, skirted the camera crews huddled to record McIlroy's frenzied arrival, and deposited him just steps away from the locker room.Timothy M Gay, an American writer and historian, is the author Rory Land: The Up-and-Down World of Golf's Global Icon, now available from Regalo Press/Simon & Schuster-UK. Continue reading...
TV host and comedian says 'it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man ... I don't think there's anything funny about it' Continue reading...
Press secretary speculates the escalator stopped on purpose to humiliate president, but UN says safety function may have been inadvertently triggered'Donald Trump appeared to laugh it off Tuesday when an escalator and a teleprompter both malfunctioned during his United Nations visit - but for US officials it was no laughing matter.The White House said an investigation had been launched into whether the moving stairway was stopped on purpose to humiliate the US president, who later bashed the global body in his speech to the UN general assembly in New York. Continue reading...
The host's monologue noted that the suspension of his late night programme had ignited a national debate over free speechJimmy Kimmel returned to air on Tuesday night, calling government threats to silence comedians anti American", as he broke his silence about the suspension from ABC which ignited a national debate over free speech and outcry over the bullying tactics of the Trump administration.This show is not important" Kimmel said during his first monologue since Disney, which owns ABC, suspended his late-night show from the network last week under pressure from Trump officials over his comments on the shooting of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this." Continue reading...
Bronze statue by an anonymous creator shows the two men frolicking and holding hands with a foot kicked back in joyThere's a new statue on the east end of the National Mall for Washington DC residents and tourists to enjoy. The bronze statue shows two men frolicking, grinning wide and holding hands, each with a foot joyously kicked back.We celebrate the long-lasting bond between President Donald J. Trump and his closest friend,' Jeffrey Epstein," a plaque at the bottom of the spray-painted bronze installation reads. A permit from the National Park Service will allow the statue to stay on the National Mall grounds through 8pm on Sunday. Continue reading...
Trump shows support for Kyiv, attacks allies over immigration and denounces the UN on its 80th birthday. Key US politics stories from 23 September at a glanceDonald Trump has said he believes Ukraine can regain all the land that it has lost since the 2022 Russian invasion in one of the strongest statements of support he has given Kyiv.Writing on Truth Social after meeting Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the UN on Tuesday, the US president said Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form". Continue reading...
Footage contrasts from Trump officials' account that officer was seriously injured' by immigrant who was fatally shotPolice body camera footage released on Tuesday shows a federal immigration agent who fatally shot a Mexican immigrant describing his own injuries during a vehicle pursuit as nothing major", a contrast from the Trump administration's characterization of events in suburban Chicago earlier this month.The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said the officer was seriously injured" by Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, who allegedly tried to evade arrest after agents pulled over his car in Franklin Park. Nearly three hours of video and audio clips obtained by the Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request shed new light on the shooting that has escalated tensions amid a federal immigration crackdown in the country's third-largest city. Continue reading...
Oregon state police say remains of Oak Grove Jane Doe' have been recovered after nearly 80 yearsThe dismembered body parts of an unknown Oregon woman found along the Willamette River in April 1946 are thought to be the remains of Oak Grove Jane Doe, Oregon state police said on Monday.The remains of a woman had been wrapped in multiple burlap sacks before being dropped into the river, and over the years, several parts or clothing would be found along the shores. Authorities said Oak Grove Jane Doe was a petite white woman between the ages of 30 and 50. She is Oregon's oldest unidentified victim. Continue reading...
Aakash Singh's elevation to high-ranking post given criminal charges four years ago is unusual, experts sayA top official at the Department of Justice (DoJ) who is directing aggressive prosecutions of minor crimes in Washington DC pleaded guilty to driving under the influence four years ago, the Guardian has found. His subsequent elevation to a high-ranking post is unusual in light of that arrest, experts said.Aakash Singh, 33, became an associate deputy attorney general this year and has been instructing attorneys to prioritize charges against protesters and people committing misdemeanors, even allegedly advising them to call new grand juries if they fail to get felony indictments. Continue reading...
Routh represented himself in trial over botched attempt on Trump's life at West Palm Beach golf courseThe man accused of trying to assassinate Donald Trump on his West Palm Beach golf course two months before Trump clinched his second presidency in the 2024 White House election has been found guilty by a jury in Fort Pierce, Florida.Ryan Routh - who now faces up to life in prison at a later sentencing hearing - reportedly tried to use a pen to stab himself in the neck as the guilty verdict was read in court. Officers quickly swarmed him and dragged him out of the courthouse. Continue reading...
Bodies of Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko found by rescue crews after storm that likely killed them in split second'Lightning strikes in Colorado earlier this month killed two elk hunters who were caught in a storm, authorities concluded this week.Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko, both 25, had been hunting in the Rio Grande national forest in southern Colorado the week of 11 September when they stopped making contact. After extensive search-and-rescue operations, crews came upon their bodies a week later. Continue reading...
Rex Heuermann is charged with killing and dismembering seven women on Long IslandAccused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann will face a single trial for all seven alleged killings, a judge in Long Island, New York, ruled on Tuesday.Heuermann's trial, which had originally been scheduled for August, was delayed after he was charged with two new alleged killings in the case - and after his defense lawyers' decision to again challenge the admissibility of advanced nuclear DNA evidence. Continue reading...
Luke Donald can trumpet his side playing for love and glory while the hosts duck questions over their $500,000 eachThe merchandise tent is always a decent place to start when assessing the commercial vulgarity associated with modern-day Ryder Cups. At Bethpage, they are flogging 24-carat gold coins - 100 were available on Tuesday morning, presumably still are now - with Keegan Bradley's signature attached. The price? $7,500 (5,500). There must be an assumption Ryder Cup fans leave their senses at the gates.Money. The one subject the American Ryder Cup team would rather is not discussed this week and the theme Europe are more than happy to promote. As soon as it was confirmed the United States would be paid $500,000 a head to play at Bethpage - $300,000 must be given to charity, the rest is a stipend - half of Luke Donald's team talk was written. Europe play for their cause, their tour, their big picture. The US? Now quite easily portrayed as over obsessed with dollar signs. Twelve players, $2.4m, zero caveats. Continue reading...
Trump officials froze California university's federal grant funds in August over allegations of civil rights violationsA federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore $500m in federal grant funding that it froze at the University of California, Los Angeles.US district judge Rita Lin in San Francisco granted a preliminary injunction on Monday, saying the government probably violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires specific procedures and explanations for federal funding cuts. Instead, the government informed UCLA in generalized form letters that multiple grants from various agencies were being suspended but offered no specific details. Continue reading...
Yes, the Democratic congresswoman is flawed - but she's a fighter. Let's not write her off as too young or too femaleQuiz time, and the category is American gerontocracy. Here goes: how many sitting Democratic members of Congress have died in office since November 2022? The answer is a mind-boggling eight. While Republicans aren't dropping dead at the same rate, they're arguably clinging to power for longer than is dignified. Last year, a Texas journalist discovered Kay Granger, a high-ranking octogenarian Republican congresswoman, had stopped coming to work because she was in a senior living facility, suffering from dementia issues". And while he is not in a facility yet, Donald Trump's nonsensical ramblings, including a recent weird and completely fictitious story about his uncle knowing the Unabomber, suggest he may be suffering some sort of issue with his mental acuity.I'm not trying to be ageist here (the older I get, the more worried I become about ageism). I'm simply setting the scene. Behold: the US is ruled by out-of-touch elites who would rather die at their desks than cede power to fresh blood. Meanwhile, many Americans are frustrated with the status quo and desperate for change. You can see this in the excitement around Zohran Mamdani, the incoming Democratic mayor of New York City - unless the billionaire class can pull off an upset. You can also see it in a recent poll that found more than half of likely Democratic voters prefer socialism-aligned politicians such as Bernie Sanders (who, to be fair, is 84), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) and Mamdani to establishment figures like Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer. Continue reading...
We want to hear from people of color about how they feel that immigration agents can continue to stop people in Los Angeles based on race, language, job or locationOn 8 September, the supreme court's conservative majority temporarily lifted restrictions on roving" immigration patrols across the Los Angeles area after a lower court found that federal agents were indiscriminately targeting people on the basis of race, language, employment or location.Immigration advocates warned that the court has effectively legalized racial profiling" and opened the door to a broader unraveling of civil rights protections nationwide. Continue reading...
Officials say tiger unexpectedly bit and shook Ryan Easley in front of wife, child and onlookers at Growler PinesThe tiger handler who was fatally mauled by one of his charges in Oklahoma recently was killed as horrified onlookers - including his wife and daughter - watched during the end of a big cat show, local officials said Monday.Ryan Easley, 37, was dead when deputies arrived on Saturday at the Growler Pines Tiger Preserve near Hugo, not far from the Texas border, just minutes after dispatchers received an emergency call, said the Choctaw county sheriff, Terry Park. Continue reading...
Suspect accused of firing into KXTV lobby left notes citing politics and Trump allies, court docs showA man accused of shooting up an ABC affiliate station in Sacramento, California, on Friday may have been motivated by the network's suspension of talkshow host Jimmy Kimmel, prosecutors say.There's circumstantial evidence" that Anibal Hernandez Santana, 64, had a political motive behind" the shooting, Sacramento county district attorney Thien Ho said. There are some indications here that the motive behind the shooting of the ABC news station was political in kind," Ho remarked. Continue reading...
by Lok Darjee in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on (#70817)
Harrisburg hosts one of the largest clusters of Bhutanese refugees in the US. Families are unsettled as Trump's policies divide their communityIt was 2022, and the Nepali flea market in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, buzzed with life -handmade hats and colorful flags hung outside the homes of families just yards from the market, who had built new lives after being expelled from Bhutan. Elderly men sat in circles, smoking cigars and playing folk songs, unwilling to let the past slip away.In the early 1990s, Bhutan expelled more than 100,000 Nepali-speaking Bhutanese people during a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Most fled to refugee camps in eastern Nepal, where many remained for nearly two decades. Beginning in 2007, about 85,000 were resettled across the US through a program coordinated by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and the US government. Today, central Pennsylvania is home to several thousand Bhutanese refugees, with Harrisburg and nearby towns hosting one of the largest clusters in the country. That concentration carries political weight: Pennsylvania is a swing state, and Trump won it in 2024 by a slight margin. Continue reading...
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