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Brooklyn councilwoman Inna Vernikov was visibly shocked after being accosted by a stranger on Brighton BeachA New York City councilwoman was left shocked when in the middle of a television interview a stranger approached and kissed her on the cheek without asking for her consent.In video posted on Twitter, Inna Vernikov can be seen being interviewed on Brighton Beach in Brooklyn by Hannah Kliger of CBS New York. A man wearing a gray hat approaches Vernikov and kisses her on the cheek before walking off. Continue reading...

An man made comments about flag at Laura Ann Carlton's store in Cedar Glen and killed her before being shot and killed by policeA business owner in California was shot and killed after a dispute over a LGBTQ+ Pride flag displayed outside her store, authorities said.Officials from the San Bernardino county sheriff's office said Laura Ann Carleton, 66, was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting on Friday night. Continue reading...

Deanne Criswell says the president will visit Lahaina on Monday to meet with first responders, officials and victimsThe administrator of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, Deanne Criswell, said Joe Biden will on Monday reassure the people of Lahaina they will be in control of how they rebuild when he visits the Maui community devastated by a historically deadly wildfire.The president and the first lady, Jill Biden, will meet first responders, officials and victims, getting a first-hand look at the widespread devastation, Criswell told CNN's State of the Union. Continue reading...

Former vice-president who once voted to expel felon from Congress says American people should decideDonald Trump's former vice-president, Mike Pence, refused to say if Trump should be barred from returning to the White House if he is convicted on any of 91 criminal charges against him.I think that he's to be left to the American people," Pence told ABC's This Week, on Sunday. Let's have the former president have his day in court. Let's maintain a presumption of innocence." Continue reading...

Death stalks my garden, while everyone on social media shows off their perfect tomatoes and dazzling bloomsEverything in the garden is not rosy. It's not even green; it's yellow or brown, or yellow with brown spots. It's my third summer and it has all gone wrong. The various pollinator-friendly flower seeds I carefully planted and tended managed to produce the grand total of: one self-seeded weed. Any flowers that predated - and survived - my arrival have fallen over and are lolling on the ground. The apples all fell off the tree and are rotting in a wasp-infested heap that smells like a cider festival toilet. My sole success, a Central American vine, succumbed to some novel plague this week.Worst of all were the tomatoes: one day fine (to my ignorant eye), the next, catastrophic blight. All my precious ones," I whispered, like a character from a Jacobean tragedy whose children have been murdered, clutching putrid brown bunches to my chest. That's it for me and tomatoes: I can't go through that again. Every time I go outside, something else has died. I don't want to be overly dramatic, but my happy place now feels like a plague house (OK, fine, I do want to be overly dramatic). Continue reading...

It wasn't the World Cup result we in England wanted, but what's clear is that women's sport of all kinds is triumphingDespite the heartbreak for the Lionesses in today's final, this Fifa Women's Football World Cup has made compelling viewing. From the very first round, fans enjoyed a heady mix of thrilling, breathtaking skill, dramatic incidents and unexpected results, with record attendances and viewing figures at every stage of the tournament.But it's not just women's football that's enjoying momentous growth. Rugby, cricket and netball have seen record-breaking crowds this year, vast increases in TV viewing figures and new sponsorship deals, with our national women's sides enjoying unprecedented success on the world stage - far more so than their male counterparts.Sue Anstiss is a podcaster, film-maker and author of Game On: The Unstoppable Rise of Women's Sport Continue reading...

It's clear we're in the final chapter,' Josh Carter says of grandparents, the first couple between 1977 and 1981, in interviewJimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, are still holding hands" as they enter their final chapter" together at home in Plains, Georgia, the former US president's grandson said.It's clear we're in the final chapter," Josh Carter said of his grandparents, the first couple between 1977 and 1981, in an interview published by People magazine on Saturday. Continue reading...

Aides to Florida governor say he meant allies in Congress, not Hillary Clinton-esque deplorables' comment Trump backers claimHis presidential campaign widely seen to be listing badly, Ron DeSantis fired a broadside at supporters of Donald Trump on Saturday, calling them listless vessels".A movement can't be about the personality of one individual," DeSantis told the Florida Standard. Continue reading...

The Internal Revenue Service is woefully underfunded, and badly needs money - but Biden has made a PR blunderAsk any accountant and we'll tell you that the Internal Revenue Service is woefully underfunded. Our clients complain about the long delays for refunds, the interminable waits for getting answers and the frustrations waiting for guidance on issues that affect their businesses.But it's not just accountants that are clamoring for more IRS funding. Most taxpayers I know will admit that the IRS needs a serious upgrade. So why the big brouhaha over the $80bn approved last year to hire more auditors and upgrade the agency's pathetically outdated systems? The answer lies not in why it's so badly needed. It's in how badly it was sold to the American public. Continue reading...

Burgum, Christie, DeSantis, Haley, Pence, Ramaswamy and Scott will be present in Milwaukee on Wednesday but will anyone dent ex-president's lead?It may end up being Hamlet without the prince or, perhaps more aptly, Jaws without the shark.When Republicans gather in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Wednesday for the first debate of the presidential primary season, a milestone in any election campaign cycle, the clear frontrunner in the opinion polls will be missing. Continue reading...

Experts suggest language in section 3 of 14th amendment is actually very clearcut' and could mean disqualificationAs Donald Trump fights a mountain of criminal charges, a separate battle over his eligibility to run for president in 2024 is fast emerging.The US constitution sets out just a handful of explicit requirements someone must meet to be the president. They must be at least 35 years old, a natural-born" citizen, and a United States resident for at least 14 years. The constitution also bars someone who has served as president for two full terms from running again. Continue reading...

Trump has been engaged in a several-years-long attempt to undermine the institutions of the US government and it shows no sign of abatingTrump's attempted coup against the US continues. We are now in phase three.Phase one was his refusal to concede the loss of the 2020 election and his big lie that the election was stolen" from him, without any basis in fact.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

President Kennedy's nephew has struck an anti-establishment nerve but his anti-vax views and far-right flirtation have prompted outrageWearing a Robert Kennedy Jr campaign T-shirt, Kevin O'Keeffe found there was standing room only as the candidate, introduced as Bobby Kennedy", walked on a sunbaked stage decked with hay bales to whoops and applause.He supports freedom of speech, and he's questioned the efficacy of the vaccine, which is legitimate at this point," said O'Keeffe, 52, who works for a telecommunications company in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I like his views on foreign policy and keeping us out of the war. He cares about his fellow Americans in a way that a lot of the politicians nowadays I don't think really do." Continue reading...

Rich Men North of Richmond represents the poor but lets the wealthy off the hookThere is mean things happening in this landOh the rich man boasts and brags Continue reading...

The media mogul's new girlfriend, just like recent exes, falls within his favourite demographicDelightful photos of Rupert Murdoch and his latest girlfriend, Elena Zhukova, contribute so much to our understanding of human age-assortative mating that the couple will understand the enthusiasm for closer study of their courtship before it's too late. For a 92-year-old who recently embarked, he said, on the second half" of his life, Murdoch's romantic life looks unleisurely.An engagement to Ann Lesley Smith, for instance, was called off after two weeks, before anyone could figure out what led to this particular mate choice. Academics studying age-assortative pairing in migrating birds, such as the pied flycatcher, probably face the same sort of problem. Continue reading...

Evacuations ordered after wind-fueled blaze expands unchecked near eastern city of Spokane and shuts highwayA wind-driven wildfire in eastern Washington state has destroyed at least 185 structures, closed a major highway and left one person dead, authorities have said.The blaze began shortly after midday on Friday on the west side of Medical Lake, about 15 miles (24km) west of Spokane, and then expanded, state Department of Natural Resources spokesperson Isabelle Hoygaard said on Saturday. Continue reading...

Some analysts believe the dollar may go below US60c, bringing joy to exporters and tourists, but encouraging further interest rate rises

Irvin Cartagena sentenced after pleading guilty to providing The Wire actor with fentanyl-laced heroin, causing his deathA New York City drug dealer was sentenced on Friday to 10 years in prison for providing the actor Michael K Williams, best known for his role in the TV series The Wire, with fentanyl-laced heroin, causing his death.Irvin Cartagena, 40, of Aibonito, Puerto Rico, was sentenced by the US district judge Ronnie Abrams. Cartagena had pleaded guilty in April to conspiring to distribute drugs. Continue reading...

Lawsuit accuses website of deception as it allows travelers to book typically cheaper connecting flight and get off after first legAmerican Airlines has filed a lawsuit against Skiplagged, a travel website for cheap flights that shows hidden-city" ticketing trips.The lawsuit, which American filed this week in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, accuses Skiplagged of deception, as the website allows travelers to book a connecting flight that is typically cheaper than a non-stop flight and not flying to the route's final destination. Continue reading...

State DMV asks for reduction after autonomous Cruise vehicle collided with unspecified emergency vehicleGeneral Motors' Cruise autonomous vehicle unit has agreed to cut its fleet of San Francisco robotaxis in half as authorities investigate two recent crashes in the city.The state department of motor vehicles asked for the reduction after a Cruise vehicle without a human driver collided with an unspecified emergency vehicle on Thursday. Continue reading...

Players and bosses have held themselves to higher standards than their male counterparts. Their goal must be to maintain those valuesWomen don't owe you pretty, as the feminist saying goes. The Lionesses have proved the footballing truth of that in this World Cup, from Lauren James's sending off for stepping on Nigeria's Michelle Alozie to their tactical fouls and time-wasting in Wednesday's semi-final against Australia. They have learned the dark arts of elite football, and it has got the job done. Which is why Alex Greenwood's cynical bringing down of Sam Kerr against Australia raised barely an eyebrow in the commentary box.Their progress through the tournament, ending in England's first appearance at a World Cup final since 1966, is testament to their commitment and professionalism as well as their talent. They've got their feet dirty when it mattered, and in James's case when it didn't. Continue reading...

The historic town was beloved by visitors and locals alike, who now wonder how and when the community can be rebuiltJust over a week since wildfires ripped through the western part of the Hawaiian island of Maui and killed at least 110 people, residents, historians and international tourists are still processing the near total destruction of Lahaina.Brad Shirakawa, 68, a photojournalist and multimedia producer from San Jose, California, has been travelling to Lahaina since 2003. Continue reading...

The former president takes to his broomstick for the 2024 election You can order your own copy of this cartoon Continue reading...

I long to believe the French eat better than everyone else. And, for one morning at least, it seemed to be trueA restaurant with rooms, somewhere in the south of France. At 9am, a perfectly simple breakfast is served: coffee, croissants, apricot jam. But what's this? On a side plate, sits a rectangular slab of primrose-coloured butter, its dimensions exactly the same as those of the croissants. I'm not big on Instagram, but at this point I can't resist. Placing a sugar cube beside it for scale, I photograph the butter and post it with the ecstatic (I may mean slightly hysterical) caption: BREAKFAST IN FRANCE. THIS IS HOW TO LIVE!Some part of me longs to believe that the French still live superior gustatory lives to our own. Their melons are sweeter, their lunches longer, and no one worries about how much fat is in anything - or so I tell myself. Over supper the night before, a friend and I had talked of the inexpensive set menus we both remember from long ago family holidays, the pair of us competing to reel off the predictable but delicious courses: carrot rappee to start, confit of duck with potatoes and frisee to follow, some cheese and then chocolate mousse or creme caramel to finish. We agreed that there's lately far too much burrata abroad in la France profonde, burrata being shorthand for the way the country's restaurant menus have become blurry and fussy. But now I begin to think there may be hope. In what other country would this quantity of butter be considered an essential component of a decent breakfast? Continue reading...

Nick and Steven got a rare opportunity to move into a brand new apartment in Seattle: I didn't believe it until it happened'Driving for the first time toward his first real home in years, Nick gazes at the landscape of West Seattle from the back seat of a van. He doesn't recognize his city.It feels like a completely alien place to me," he says to his partner, Steven, sitting beside him. Like, I forgot that neighborhoods exist. I forgot that people have yards." Continue reading...

You'll approach queues and cancellations with zen-like calm after learning of the difficulties faced by yesterday's touristsIf holidays are heaven, they're also hell. Cancelled planes, endless queues, scary weather - and then you come home to the washing and, in my case, a ruthless attack by Cydalima perspectalis, AKA box-tree moth caterpillars, on your carefully tended hedges.Think of the cheese, I tell myself, inhaling a bottle of Ambre Solaire for courage as I pack. But which of us hasn't wondered, as we stand in line for a hire car, if we wouldn't have been better off staying at home? Continue reading...

Much artificial intelligence' harvests original creative work by humans. Regulators must demand transparency about training dataThere's an old saying that no one would ever eat a sausage if they knew how sausages were made. This is no doubt unfair to the meat-processing industry, for not all sausages are, as some wag famously observed, cartridges containing the sweepings of the abattoir floor". But it's a useful cautionary principle when confronted by products whose manufacturers are - how shall we put it? - coy about the details of their production processes.Enter, stage left, the tech companies currently touting their generative AI marvels - particularly those large language models (LLMs) that fluently compose plausible English sentences in response to prompts by humans. When asked how this miracle is accomplished, the standard explanations highlight the brilliance of the technology involved. Continue reading...

The biggest name in US sports broadcasting has graduated from covering gambling to promoting it in an about-face for Bob Iger and a sign of turbulent timesDisney's dim view of betting changed little in the decades since the 1940 film of Pinocchio, when the puppet visits the cursed Pleasure Island and gambling is one of the vices seducing children who turn into donkeys.As recently as 2019, the CEO, Bob Iger, declared: I don't see The Walt Disney Company, certainly in the near term, getting involved in the business of gambling, in effect, by facilitating gambling in any way." Continue reading...

The world's top chess federation is banning trans women from competing until a review is made - and the defenses are sexist assumptions and shaky scienceAs anyone who has ever played the game knows, chess pieces are deceptively heavy. Enormous hand strength and lung capacity are required to move even a tiny pawn across a board. Shifting a rook or a queen? That can exhaust a delicate lady's fingers for weeks on end. And don't get me started on the spatial intelligence and mental acuity required for chess. Even thinking about the game makes my poor little woman brain hurt. Continue reading...

Tributes pour in for those who died as majority of the more than 100 people killed in Maui wildfires have yet to be identifiedWhile the vast majority of the more than 100 people killed during the Maui wildfires last week have yet to be identified, tributes and condolences to a handful of people who have been named as relatives continue to wait to learn if their friends or family are safe. Maui officials said 111 perished in the blaze that roared through the historic town of Lahaina. Many of the victims so far are adults over the age of 65, who face two times the risk of dying in a fire than younger people, according to the US fire administration.The deadliest blaze in recent US history has raged through the island causing millions of dollars in damage and an incalculable amount of pain and trauma as Maui locals begin to parse through charred structures to find what's salvageable, and what is not. Search crews continue to scour the ruins of Lahaina and ocean waters for the dead. Here are the stories of how some of those who died in the fire lived. Continue reading...

Law allows victims of abuse by clerics to file lawsuits for damages regardless of whether deadline had otherwise lapsedA Louisiana state appeals court has upheld the constitutionality of a law temporarily suspending filing deadlines for people seeking damages over long-ago sexual abuse claims, handing a victory to survivors and a setback to the Roman Catholic diocese opposing them in the case.The ruling, from a panel of judges with Louisiana's third circuit court of appeal in Lake Charles, is the first to uphold a 2021 law in the state which opened a three-year window for victims of childhood sexual abuse to file lawsuits for damages regardless of whether the deadline to do so had otherwise lapsed. Continue reading...

As the extremist group Moms for Liberty flourishes in Clay county, a campaign of outrage has books disappearing from school shelvesWhy do you need to know how to masturbate when you still got skid marks in your underwear?" asks Tia Bess, the newly appointed national director of outreach for the conservative advocacy group Moms for Liberty.Inside a squat Pentecostal church on a country road in Clay Hill, Florida, Bess flips through a large illustrated handbook titled It's Perfectly Normal, marketed to kids ages 10 and up, intended as a primer about the onset of puberty. Continue reading...

Kenneth Chesebro - low-profile, bright, seemingly decent - is not your average Trump guy. So how did he become the architect of the election subversion scandal?One individual stands out among the 18 Donald Trump acolytes who were indicted in Georgia this week over their participation in the former president's alleged racketeering enterprise to overturn the 2020 election.He is distinct not for his chutzpah and braggadocio - those qualities are trademarked by Trump. Instead he stands out for the opposite characteristics: his demure, scholarly demeanor that has left those who have known him utterly baffled by his eruption from a left-leaning attorney working in relative obscurity into a key figure in the glaring lights of a historic criminal prosecution. Continue reading...

Students trying to attend university in the US tell of their frustration after being rejected over the immigrant intent' testYalda Azamee blinked back tears as she stared down at the American consular officer.He did not even give me a chance to explain myself; he rejected me right away. He didn't even look at my documents," she said, rushing out of the US embassy building on to the streets of Islamabad to cry. Continue reading...

The candidate is emerging as a challenger - however slight - in a race still thoroughly dominated by the former presidentVivek Ramaswamy was at the Iowa state fair, a must-visit destination for any presidential candidate, when he decided to rap.Wearing a red cap and a baggy white polo shirt, the millennial founder of a biotech company launched into a spirited rendition of Eminem's Lose Yourself, as the governor of Iowa, Kim Reynolds, edged further and further towards the edge of their shared stage. Continue reading...

When I moved to LA, I discovered my house had been the scene of a notorious 1920s crime involving a leading lady, her vaudeville star husband and an actor with matinee idol looks ...Even as a novice crime writer, I probably ought to have discovered the killing that took place in my own front room sooner than I did. After all, the coroner declared it the most brutal murder that has ever come under my notice" and the Los Angeles Times labelled my home the Hollywood House of Death".Or perhaps I have that the wrong way round, and it was living here that turned me into a crime writer. Certainly, I had no such ambitions or qualifying expertise when I moved in: my previous book was a sci-fi comedy, and the protagonist of my crime novel is not a detective but an NHS junior doctor, the job I was doing when a screenplay I wrote first landed me some writing work in Los Angeles. Continue reading...

I grew up in South Africa, and vigorously refuted parallels with Israel. But in the Netanyahu era, the charge is becoming factIsrael 2023, South Africa 1948. I've lived through it before: power grabbing, fascism and racism - the destruction of democracy. Israel is going where South Africa was 75 years ago. It's like watching the replay of a horror movie.In 1948, as a teenager in Cape Town, I followed the results of the 26 May election on a giant board on a newspaper building. The winner-takes-all electoral system produced distorted results: the Afrikaner Nationalist party, with its smaller partner, won 79 parliamentary seats against 74 for the United party and its smaller partner. Continue reading...

Vote on party lines punished Katie Rinderle for reading book to her fifth-grade class in violation of vaguely worded policyA Georgia school board voted along party lines on Thursday to fire a teacher after officials said she improperly read a book on gender fluidity to her fifth-grade class.The Cobb county school board in suburban Atlanta voted 4-3 to fire Katie Rinderle, overriding the recommendation of a panel of three retired educators. The panel found after a two-day hearing that Rinderle had violated district policies but said she should not be fired. Continue reading...

US president, Yoon Suk Yeol and Fumio Kishida meet as they agree to take trilateral defence cooperation to unprecedented levels'A standalone summit bringing together the leaders of Japan and South Korea would have been almost unthinkable just over a year ago, when the north-east Asian neighbours were embroiled in disputes over their bitter wartime legacy.Bilateral ties were at a low point before the South Korean president, Yoon Suk Yeol, took office in May 2022, due to compensation claims by Koreans over Japan's use of forced labour during its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula, and the longstanding controversy over Korean women who were coerced into working in Japanese military brothels.It is a historic event, and it sets the conditions for a more peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific, and a stronger and more secure United States of America. Continue reading...

Officials have said class will not count toward graduation credit but some schools offer course as local elective'The six Arkansas schools that planned to offer an Advanced Placement (AP) course on African American studies say they will continue to do so despite state officials saying the class will not count toward a student's graduation credit.The North Little Rock and Jacksonville North Pulaski school districts and eStem charter schools said on Thursday they would offer the course as a local elective" despite the Arkansas education department saying it is not considered a state-approved course. They join two other school districts that have said they will continue offering the class. Continue reading...

National security adviser Jake Sullivan makes comments as US, Japan and South Korea agree to new security pledgeThe United States is concerned" about the national security implications of North Korea and Russia reportedly cooperating on nuclear missile technology, the Biden administration said, as the US welcomed the leaders of Japan and South Korea to Camp David on Friday for an unprecedented trilateral summit.The US, Japan and South Korea agreed to a new security pledge committing the three countries to consult with each other in the event of a security crisis or threat in the Pacific, according to the Biden administration. Continue reading...

A Trump presidency is Giuliani's final hope - or failing that, some payment for all his legal work at leastMondayDonald Trump's legal woes grow in Georgia, as the former president faces new charges of election interference, bringing his total felony count to 91 and returning his co-defendant - former Time magazine Person of the Year (2001), Rudy Giuliani - to the headlines. Like a Jane Austen heroine who allies herself with a plainer girl to accentuate her own charms, Trump's proximity to Giuliani has the extraordinary effect of making him, temporarily at least, seem like not the worst or weirdest guy in the room. Continue reading...

Alex Crow was previously accused of acting inappropriately with students and remains under orders by archdiocese to return homeA Roman Catholic priest in Alabama who fled to Europe with a recent high school graduate whom he met through his work has drawn scrutiny from law enforcement and been told to stop presenting himself in public as a cleric.Alex Crow, an expert in the theological study of demons and exorcism, is suspected of having groomed [multiple] young girls" before going to Italy with an 18-year-old, according to an interview that local sheriff Paul Burch recently gave to Fox Nation's Nancy Grace. The teen's family has been trying to convince her to return home.In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453 or visit their website for more resources and to report child abuse or DM for help. For adult survivors of child abuse, help is available at ascasupport.org. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800; adult survivors can seek help at Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International. Continue reading...