Families often have to pay thousands of dollars to help their kids reach the elite level of youth soccer. No wonder participation is dwindlingThe popular question in the wake of the US women's early exit from the World Cup is a basic one: Has the rest of the world caught up?It's a simple question with a complicated answer. A full explanation includes fraught topics such as American exceptionalism, stubborn individualism, a lack of trust in institutions, and basic litigious behavior. Continue reading...
The fire that tore across Lahaina in Maui caught many by surprise, claiming dozens of lives and burning more than 1,000 buildings. Aerial photographs reveal the extent of the damage. Continue reading...
As the world registered the hottest month of all time in July, the south-western US city of Phoenix shattered its own 1974 heatwave record, with temperatures above 110F (43C) for 31 straight daysCarlos Barria's heat-sensitive photographs from late July reveal a Phoenix where concrete on the street registers 150F (66C), outdoor workers' bodies reach 105F (41C) and homeless people swelter, surrounded by surfaces as hot as 143F (62C).Ulises, a landscape worker from Mexico, carries bags full of leaves Continue reading...
From air-purified penthouses and private jets, a wealthy anti-green lobby feigns common cause with ordinary people'. Let's expose thatIn Britain and far beyond, anti-environmentalists have a new favourite argument. No longer able to claim the climate crisis isn't happening, they have switched from denial to class warfare. They argue that green policies and innovations from electric cars to heat pumps, low emission zones to eco-taxes and levies, are all unaffordable for working-class and many middle-class people, yet are being imposed regardless by an out-of-touch elite of politicians, bureaucrats and wealthy woke capitalists".Most of the people making these arguments in the rightwing media were never previously much troubled by the financial struggles of what they now piously call ordinary people". But shamelessly shifting position is a familiar activity for the modern right. Meanwhile the cost of living crisis has given its anti-green message more force.Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Black Twitter has seized on the clash in Montgomery, cutting to the heart of the city's troubled history in a moment of catharsisWhen a Black riverboat captain was assaulted by a group of disrespectful white pontoon cruisers, the Saturday evening confrontation at Montgomery, Alabama's Riverfront Park set off a melee that would rival any heavyweight prize fight for global attention.It started after the captain had spent 45 minutes asking the cruisers to move the pontoon they had docked in the riverboat's parking space, a request that was met with swearing and obscene gestures. When one cruiser lunged at the captain with both hands and knocked him back, the skipper dug in for a fight. Seeing him outnumbered and quickly overwhelmed, Black onlookers swarmed to his defense, kicking off an epic brawl that was caught on camera from multiple angles. Continue reading...
At Utah fundraiser, US president says China's employment and workforce issues pose a risk, because when bad folks have problems, they do bad things'Joe Biden has called China a ticking time bomb in many cases" because of its economic challenges, saying the country was in trouble because of weak growth.The US president pointed to the country's high unemployment and ageing workforce, saying: China is in trouble." Continue reading...
Google-owned Waymo and General Motors-owned Cruise can now operate around the clock in San Francisco and San Mateo countyA California commission voted on Thursday to allow two self-driving car companies to begin commercially operating their vehicles in San Francisco around the clock. The vote makes San Francisco one of the first cities in the nation with commercial driverless networks operating at all times.The controversial vote drew more than 200 public commenters and went over seven hours. Continue reading...
Survivors describe devastating scene in historic Maui town, with areas burned to the ground by wildfire that has killed at least 53Witnesses have described the horror of the Maui wildfires that have killed at least 53 people and appeared to have burned much of Lahaina - the Hawaiian kingdom's original seat of power and home to King Kamehameha's palace - to the ground.Survivors spoke of a scene of devastation in Lahaina, a historic tourist spot, and recounted close calls as the flames reduced part of the town to ruins and took the lives of at least three dozen of their neighbors. Continue reading...
Filing sets aggressive timeline with 2 January 2024 trial date but ex-president's lawyers are expected to seek delayFederal prosecutors asked the judge overseeing the criminal case against Donald Trump over his efforts to subvert the 2020 election to schedule the trial for the start of January 2024, saying there was a significant public interest in expediting the prosecution.The written filing from prosecutors in the office of the special counsel Jack Smith set an aggressive timetable that Trump's lawyers are expected to seek to substantially delay, according to a person close to the former president. Continue reading...
US has so far given Ukraine more than $113bn in aid since Russia invaded in February 2021The White House is asking Congress for an additional $24bn in Ukraine aid and other international needs" such as countering China, including $13.1bn for defense, senior administration officials revealed on Thursday.The US has so far given Ukraine more than $113bn in aid since Russia invaded in February 2021, making it Ukraine's biggest funder in its defense against Russia. Continue reading...
Footage recorded by a charter boat crew member, Dustin Johnson, shows the moment he ran along the Lahaina pier in Hawaii's Maui island, calling for individuals to leave as wildfires raged across the tourist town. Johnson recalled running along the beach 'helping people along the way' once flames engulfed the pier. At least 36 people have died from the flames as crews continued mass evacuation efforts and search for survivors. Officials warned that the death toll could rise
Gestures from Beijing should not be mistaken for a substantive shift in position. But they should not be ignored eitherStraddles are, by their nature, uncomfortable positions to maintain. So it isn't surprising that China's attempt to hold together conflicting interests on the war in Ukraine - maintaining its no limits" partnership with Russia, without damaging its relationship with western nations and its tarnished global brand too greatly - has proved awkward.Attention increased when its special envoy for Eurasian affairs, Li Hui, joined talks in Jeddah last weekend, having avoided similar talks in Copenhagen earlier this summer. European officials described China's involvement as active" and said that it appeared constructive". The verb may be as important as the adjective: China is manoeuvring around the conflict, not fundamentally repositioning itself. Continue reading...
Supreme court justice may have violated US law by not disclosing 38 vacations paid for by wealthy friends, ethics experts sayThe US supreme court justice Clarence Thomas appears to have violated US law by failing to disclose flights, yacht cruises and expensive sports tickets" bestowed by wealthy friends behind at least 38 destination vacations, ethics experts told ProPublica in its latest blockbuster report on the conservative judge and his friends.It's so obvious," Richard Painter, a White House ethics chief under George W Bush, told the nonprofit website. It all has to be reported." Continue reading...
Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager of Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, is also expected to enter a plea as wellDonald Trump and his valet pleaded not guilty on Thursday to an expanded set of charges stemming from the former president's alleged mishandling of classified documents, after special counsel Jack Smith filed a superseding indictment in the case last month.Trump's two codefendants in the case appeared in court in Ft Pierce, Florida, although the former US president himself was not in attendance as his legal team submitted a plea of not guilty.The Guardian's Hugo Lowell contributed reporting Continue reading...
Residents ask if Craig Robertson, who could barely get around' but posted threats against Biden, warranted that kind of response'A clearer picture is emerging of the 75-year-old Utah man shot dead by the FBI after they tried to serve a search warrant hours before Joe Biden arrived in the state on a re-election campaign swing.But questions are also being asked as to whether Craig Robertson was a credible threat", as the FBI claims, or as neighbors in Provo, Utah, have described to local media as a man harboring anti-government views who walked with a cane and liked to bluster and tell big stories, especially on social media. Continue reading...
Man, 44, still at large after tying sheets together and lowering himself to ground from Mount Sinai Beth Israel in ManhattanA prisoner receiving medical treatment escaped from a New York City hospital by tying sheets together, rappelling from a fifth-floor window and hailing a taxi, police said.The 44-year-old man escaped from Mount Sinai Beth Israel hospital in Manhattan shortly after 4.30pm on Wednesday and was still at large Thursday, a police spokesperson said. Continue reading...
Women should be able to swim in the sea without harassment. Marseille's anti-abuse app helps, but it shouldn't be necessaryHow often do you think about the fact that you have a body? This isn't a grand philosophical question, even though it may sound like one. I realised some years ago that I am more aware of my status as the owner of flesh and bones when I am in France.Because I grew up there, I didn't notice it straight away. It took moving to Britain and occasionally returning home to have this epiphany about my corporeal state. Again, I am not seeking to make some deep metaphysical statement here. It's just that when you're in France and you're a woman, some men like to remind you of the fact. Continue reading...
Rishi Sunak mulls whether to follow US lead in restricting funding for advanced technologiesThe British government is considering tightening rules on investment in China after the US president announced new measures aimed at limiting the dollars and expertise flowing into sensitive technologies in the country.Joe Biden signed an executive order on Wednesday that authorises the US treasury secretary to prohibit or restrict US investments in Chinese entities in three sectors: semiconductors and microelectronics; quantum information technologies; and certain artificial intelligence systems. Continue reading...
Prager University Foundation's animations cast doubt over renewable energy and liken climate activists to NazisVideos that compare climate activists to Nazis, portray solar and wind energy as environmentally ruinous and claim that current global heating is part of natural long-term cycles will be made available to young schoolchildren in Florida, after the state approved their use in its public school curriculum.Slickly-made animations by the Prager University Foundation, a conservative group that produces materials on science, history, gender and other topics widely criticized as distorting the truth, will be allowed to be shown to children in kindergarten to fifth grade after being adopted by Florida's department of education. Continue reading...
Ice Cube has joined a long list of rappers who have cuddled up with conservative pundits and politiciansScrolling through Twitter a couple of weeks ago, I came across a clip of rightwing commentator Tucker Carlson interviewing a face I never thought I'd see on his platform: Ice Cube.As in Fuck Tha Police Ice Cube.Tayo Bero is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
PragerU's cartoon videos for children downplay our country's history of slavery, racism, colonialism and police brutality. Other states may followIn July, the Florida department of education announced that it had approved the use of content by PragerU Kids for the coming school year. PragerU Kids was recently described by Time magazine as a resource for schools". But it is only a resource" because the state of Florida has deemed it so. PragerU is not an actual university. It has no accreditation. It is a conservative media company whose goal since its founding in 2009 has been to spread rightwing ideology to adults and children.And it has been incredibly successful at doing that. PragerU's latest annual report says that the company's self-described edutainment" videos racked up more than 1.2bn views in 2022, with more than 7bn since its founding. Its content has been mostly available online, particularly on Facebook and YouTube, but now it is making its way into US classrooms with the promise of fighting the so-called woke agenda". Continue reading...
Private flights pollute up to 14 times more than commercial ones - yet are taxed less. Let's change thatThe climate crisis is not in transit, it's arrived at the gate. It's in our skies, our water, and our land - with record-shattering heat waves, increasingly severe wildfires and flooding from superstorms and rising seas.We have no time for delays. Tackling this crisis and protecting frontline environmental justice communities will take all of us. And the tax-dodging ultra-wealthy need to stop fueling the problem and start supporting first-class solutions.Edward J Markey is a US senator from Massachusetts Continue reading...
Referendum shows concerns over abortion access remain a powerful force in American politicsWhen Ohio Republicans decided to rush a constitutional amendment on to the statewide ballot this year, they made a big bet.They bet that turnout would be low in an election held in the middle of the summer (it was just 8% in last year's August contest). They bet that voters in the state, which voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020, would willingly dilute their own political power, raising the threshold to pass constitutional amendments from a simple majority to 60%. And they bet that voters would embrace such an idea knowing that a constitutional amendment on the ballot this fall would protect abortion rights. Continue reading...
We want to hear from people in Maui after fires tore through the Hawaiian island overnightAt least 36 people have died in wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui, authorities said.The fires, fanned by strong winds from Hurricane Dora, destroyed businesses in the historic town of Lahaina, and left at least two dozen people injured, officials said. There have been 13 evacuations for three fires. Continue reading...
The United States have long been a team in search of a dependable goalscorer. But it appears his club team may not think he fits that billIt took less than a week for Folarin Balogun to do what no other United States player has done.In a late season clash against Angers, Balogun collected his 20th goal in Ligue 1 for Reims, where he spent the previous campaign on loan from Arsenal. Coming only five days after his mid-May announcement that he was switching international allegiance from England to the US, the goal suddenly packed historic import: it made Balogun the first American player to score 20 or more goals in one of Europe's top five leagues, an achievement the US Soccer Federation was eager to trumpet. Continue reading...
The game is growing rapidly in America. But so is an awareness from those who see it as first and foremost as a business opportunityFrom the curtains of rain at his unveiling to the flawless top-corner winner in the final minute of his debut off the bench and the video-game soccer on display in his first start in flamingo pink, Lionel Messi's beginnings in Miami have seemed providential, almost biblical. Messi is not, of course, the first aging superstar to put himself out to pasture on the gentle greens of US soccer. Pele set the precedent, and many will follow once Messi has gone. But to choose America now? In this economy? With Saudi Arabia's gushing riches within reach, and the lure of nostalgia calling him back to Barcelona? Surely that says a lot.Or perhaps it says nothing. For every charitable reading of the Messi-provided tea leaves today, an opposite and proportionately negative interpretation also seems plausible: the downpour at Messi's unveiling was proof of the idiocy of running a soccer league through the extremes of the American summer, the PlayStation skills Messi treated us to in his first MLS start was only possible thanks to Atlanta United's Commodore 64 defending, and so on. But Messi is Messi, even at 36: an argument all to himself and a divinity in any league. The arrival on these shores of a player uniquely able to shape the game to his will seems to portend the creation of a new reality for American soccer. Continue reading...
Trial of Hannah Gutierrez Reed in the 2021 shooting death of Halyna Hutchins on set of Alec Baldwin film will start in DecemberRust armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter and evidence tampering charges in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.Gutierrez Reed submitted the plea on Wednesday, having waived her right to an arraignment and preliminary hearing. New Mexico district court judge Mary Sommer has set the trial to run 6 to 15 December. Continue reading...
Homeland Security secretary urged to grant Temporary Protective Status to migrants to help alleviate strain on systemsA powerful group of labor and immigration rights organizations in New York is calling on the Biden administration to expand rights for migrants that would fast-track work permits for them and help alleviate strain on social services, as shelter systems overflow.A coalition of union and human rights advocacies has urged Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to give more people Temporary Protective Status (TPS) , a provision giving migrants the ability to live and work in the US legally for an extended period. Continue reading...
With Jacinda Ardern gone, her party's political capital has been squandered. But a turnaround is possibleIt looks like curtains for New Zealand's Labour government.The party won its best result since 1946 just three years ago, as voters rewarded Jacinda Ardern for keeping Covid-19 out and punished the opposition for its litany of scandals, giving Labour one of every two votes. Continue reading...
It was one of the longest seasons in resort's 70-year history, helped out by a colossal snowpack from an extreme weather winterAfter a historic amount of snowfall, a popular California resort is ending its second-longest ski season. The ski lifts at Mammoth Mountain, in the eastern Sierra Nevadas, have been open since early November and, up until 5 August, remained available well into summer.While it is not unusual for people to powder-surf on the Fourth of July at the resort, the sheer amount of snow the mountain saw made this season exceptional and one of the longest in the resort's 70-year history, according to NPR. Continue reading...
Agents were trying to serve warrant on Craig Deleeuw Robertson's home hours before president was expected to land in stateA Utah man accused of making threats against Joe Biden was shot and killed by FBI agents hours before the president was expected to land in the state on Wednesday, authorities said.Special agents were trying to serve a warrant on the home of Craig Deleeuw Robertson in Provo, south of Salt Lake City, when the shooting happened at 6.15am, the FBI said in a statement. Continue reading...
Trump's lawyers asked for a secure facility to be reinstalled at the same Mar-a-Lago club where he hoarded classified documentsLawyers for Donald Trump asked a federal judge on Wednesday to approve the re-establishment of an ultra-secure facility at his Mar-a-Lago club to review classified documents produced to him in discovery, an audacious request without precedent in national security cases.The request essentially would give Trump the freedom to discuss and review the same classified documents he has been charged with illegally retaining in the same location where the alleged crimes took place. Continue reading...
Social media platform delayed complying, court filing shows, prompting judge to hold Twitter in contempt and fine it $350,000The US special counsel who is investigating Donald Trump obtained a search warrant for the former president's Twitter account, and the social media platform delayed complying, a court filing on Wednesday showed.The delay in compliance prompted a federal judge to hold Twitter in contempt and fine it $350,000, the filing showed. Continue reading...
by Léonie Chao-Fong (now) and Maya Yang (earlier) on (#6DPBT)
This blog has now closed. Read our latest story hereThere has been open debate within the Democratic party over whether Senator Dianne Feinstein, 90, whose health and cognitive abilities have come into question after a two-and-a-half-month absence due to shingles and other medical complications, should resign.Questions over Feinstein's ability to effectively represent California, the most populous US state, have been a sensitive issue for Democrats going back years. As her diminishing health plays out in the public eye there is a renewed urgency to the situation. Riding out her term in absentia until retirement next year is also not a viable option, with Feinstein the tie-breaking vote on the Senate judiciary committee, which holds confirmation hearings for judicial nominees, and effectively the only person who can ensure that Joe Biden's picks for judges go through. Continue reading...
While anti-abortion activists vow to continue the fight', supporters of abortion retain hope for November electionIn a resounding victory for supporters of abortion rights, Ohio voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected Issue 1, a GOP-backed ballot measure that would have made it considerably harder to amend the state constitution.Abortion rights advocates celebrated the defeat of Issue 1, which means Ohio keeps its longstanding rule on citizen-led state constitutional amendments: a simple majority of state voters can change the constitution through a ballot measure. Continue reading...
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