Shaundelle Brooks, whose son died in a shooting, channels grief into action' after Tennessee lawmakers failed herAfter losing her son to gun violence, Shaundelle Brooks knew she had to do something big.Brooks' son, Akilah DaSilva, was killed in a mass shooting at a Nashville Waffle House in 2018 that left four dead and two wounded. His death launched Brooks into advocacy. Continue reading...
The once outlandish predictions of Ballard, DeLillo and (yes) The Simpsons are coming true. It's time to write our own futureWriting about the assassination of President John F Kennedy for Rolling Stone in 1983, 20 years after the shooting, the novelist Don DeLillo remarked: Europeans and Middle Easterners are notoriously prone to believe in conspiracies ... Americans, for their own good reasons, tend to believe in lone gunmen." How times change. Since Donald Trump was wounded in an assassination attempt on 13 July, social media have boiled over with talk of conspiracies, false flags and complex manipulations of state and psyche for unclear ends. After Joe Biden withdrew his candidacy for president, various online conservatives argued that he was actually dead. Meanwhile, otherwise sensible observers blamed the media for creating the narrative that Biden had lost mental acuity and keeping Trump in the public eye - a kind of Rothschild conspiracy for people who took undergraduate sociology.It's fun to scoff at such people, who believe that powerful forces secretly organise the world even as we confront evidence that human intelligence is no longer sufficient to run a branch of Chipotle. In fairness to the paranoid mindset, though, a lot of events from earlier decades' fiction have been coming true lately. Consider Lisa's prophetic line from the Bart to the Future episode of The Simpsons, original airdate 19 March 2000: As you know, we've inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump." It was funny at the time. I believe it was either Karl Marx or Nelson Muntz who said that history repeats itself: first as farce, then as whatever all this is now.Dan Brooks writes essays, fiction and commentary from Missoula, Montana Continue reading...
In a DC-area hotel, Democrats and Republicans met to wargame five scenarios they say are not unrealistic'It is the afternoon of 20 January 2025 and Donald Trump is in his White House dining room, glued to the same TV where he sat transfixed as the January 6 attack on the US Capitol unfolded four years ago. This morning, he completed one of the most spectacular political comebacks in US history, reciting the oath of office at the inauguration ceremony that returned him to the most powerful job on Earth.His political resurrection has caused turmoil in the transition period, and massive anti-Trump demonstrations have erupted in several big cities. In his inaugural address, the 47th president makes clear his intention to deal with his detractors: They are rioting in the streets. We are not safe. Make our cities safe again!" he commands. Continue reading...
Trump's current running mate said some of the his supporters voted for him in 2016 for racist reasons'In newly uncovered remarks from 2017, Donald Trump's 2024 vice-presidential pick, JD Vance, said some people who voted for Trump are racist and they voted for him for racist reasons".Race definitely played a role in the 2016 election," Vance said. I think that race will always play a role in our country. It's just sort of a constant fact of American life. And definitely some people who voted for Trump are racist and they voted for him for racist reasons." Continue reading...
He may soon be one of the most powerful people in the world. So what can we learn about Donald Trump's running mate from his online footprint?Like many an elder millennial, JD Vance once had a blog. Two, actually. The lawyer turned writer turned senator turned venture capitalist turned Donald Trump's running mate launched his first blog during his 2005 deployment to Iraq. It was called The Ruminations of JD Hamel, because that was the name he was ruminating under at the time. Vance has gone by a few names. He has also gone through a hell of a lot of political opinions.His second blog, called The Hillbilly Elite, was launched in 2010, when he was a 26-year-old at Yale Law School. It was meant to help him parse his feelings about being an Appalachian white boy ... training at the world's premier center for elites". When I say feelings", I don't mean silly little girly feelings. This was serious stuff. So it's like a diary," his first entry explained, only far more masculine." Continue reading...
The president also decried the Trump immunity ruling and is proposing a constitutional amendment that explicitly applies the criminal code to presidents. Plus, the man who has ranked every Disney song
Trump, JD Vance, and their Maga allies are misogynists who want to control women. Harris could not be more of a threatWhen Joe Biden stepped down in support of Kamala Harris, he didn't just pass the torch to another generation. He passed it from old white men to America's future.Consider that women now compose a remarkable 60% of college undergraduates. And that by 2050, it's estimated that America will consist mostly of people of color - 30% more Black people than today, 60% more Latinos, and twice the number of Asian Americans. Continue reading...
Kari Lake, who refused to accept her gubernatorial race loss in 2022, is now vying for US Senate - and other key racesRepublican primaries across Arizona on Tuesday will test whether the far-right cadre focused on election denial still can win among their base, despite major losses in the 2022 primaries.The state has been gripped with fights over elections for years, with candidates like Donald Trump and Kari Lake refusing to concede their respective races. These general election losses in 2020 and 2022 ended decades-long Republican dominance, delivering the governor's office and other top spots to Democrats. Continue reading...
Taylor Knibb will follow up her appearance in the time trial with the triathlon. She will join a select group of athletes when she does soIn the early days of the Olympics, competing in multiple sports was far from unusual.At the loosely organized 1904 Olympics, at which the United States won at least 230 (sources vary due to uncertain citizenship for many competitors) of the 280 medals awarded over nearly five months as a sideshow to the St Louis World's Fair, Franz Kugler became the only man to win medals in three sports in the same Games - hitting the podium in wrestling, weightlifting and tug of war. In 1908, eight US track and field athletes - including Irish-born hammer-throwing legend Matt McGrath - entered the tug of war competition, only to withdraw in protest over the shoes worn by the Liverpool Police team, who went on to lose to their fellow law-enforcement personnel from London. A lot of events were unofficial demonstration sports," such as the 1912 baseball games featuring even more US track and field athletes.US boxer-turned-bobsledder Eddie Eagan is still the only Olympian to win gold in both Olympics in different disciplines. (Figure skater Gillis Grafstrom won gold in the Summer and Winter Olympics but in the same event - until the Winter Olympics debuted in 1924, figure skating was held in the summer.)Norway's Jacob Tullin Thams had a similarly esoteric combination, winning ski jumping gold and sailing silver.Cycling and speedskating form a more common combination. Canadian Clara Hughes earned multiple medals in each sport, while East German Christa Luding-Rothenburger will remain the only person to win Winter and Summer medals in the same year, unless the IOC makes a surprising revamp of the Olympic calendar.Bobsledding is a popular second sport for track and field athletes, but US sprinter Lauryn Williams is the only person with medals in both sports. Continue reading...
Find out who is leading the way at the Olympics, and drill down to see which events each country has won medals forSupport the GuardianAs is traditional, the table prioritises the number of gold medals won. On this basis at the 2020 Olympics, held in Tokyo in 2021, the United States led the field with 39 golds, with China second on 38 and Japan third with 27. If countries have the same number of gold medals, the order is then dictated by which has the most silvers, and finally bronze if the numbers are still identical. Continue reading...
Very little thought seems to have been given to how Steven van der Velde's presence might affect victims of sexual abuseFor weeks now, controversy has surrounded the Dutch beach volleyball player Steven van de Velde, who was sentenced to four years in prison in England in 2016 for raping a 12-year-old girl when he was 19. He has served his time and openly expressed regret for what he called the biggest mistake of my life". But is that enough for him to be allowed to represent the Netherlands at the Olympic Games, a contest in which participants are also expected to serve as role models?International media and support groups for victims of sexual violence certainly do not think so. Many condemned the decision to let Van de Velde play, and even called on the International Olympic Committee to investigate how he had been allowed to compete.Renate van der Zee is a Dutch writer and journalistInformation and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html Continue reading...
Michigan and North Carolina governors out as remaining likely running mates are white men governing swing statesTwo lawmakers seen as strong contenders in the race to become Kamala Harris's running mate have announced that they are not in the running. On Monday, Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer and North Carolina governor Roy Cooper both said that while they support the vice-president, they will be staying in their posts in their respective states.This just wasn't the right time for North Carolina and for me to potentially be on a national ticket," Cooper said in a statement posted to Twitter/X on Monday. As I've said from the beginning, she has an outstanding list of people from which to choose, and we'll all work to make sure she wins." Continue reading...
Sales have fallen 1% around the world, as consumers eat at home or choose cheaper menu optionsThey're not lovin' it. McDonald's global sales fell for the first time in nearly four years in the second quarter as inflation-weary consumers skipped eating out or chose cheaper options. The company said it expects same-store sales to be down for the next few quarters and is working on fixes like meal deals and new menu items.Consumers still recognise us as the value leader versus our key competitors, it's clear that our value leadership gap has recently shrunk," McDonald's chairman, president and CEO Chris Kempczinski said on Monday during a conference call with investors. We are working to fix that with pace." Continue reading...
Many fires ignited by weather, with climate crisis increasing lightning strikes amid blistering heat and dry conditionsFire crews made progress in the battle against major wildfires that have left a trail of damage in the western United States, but thousands of firefighters continue to tackle the flames.In northern California, the Park fire grew at ferocious speeds to become one of the largest wildfires in the state this year. In southern California, a blaze swept through the historic mining town of Havilah. And in Oregon and Idaho, authorities were assessing the damage caused by several large wildfires raging there. Continue reading...
President calls immunity principle dangerous' in Austin speech, and proposes code of conduct and term limitsJoe Biden, in a Monday address calling for sweeping reforms of the US supreme court, said the recent decision granting some immunity to presidents from criminal prosecution makes them a king before the law.Speaking in Austin at the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Biden said a president was no longer restrained by the law and that this was a fundamentally flawed [and] dangerous principle". Continue reading...
by Abené Clayton (now); Joanna Walters and Léonie C on (#6PJJV)
President cites supreme court decisions that he says eroded civil rights, including presidential immunity ruling and overturning of Roe. This blog is now closed
by Niall McVeigh (now), with John Brewin, Jonathan Ho on (#6PJDM)
Mollie O'Callaghan won an Australian battle in the pool while Team GB enjoyed their best day of the Games so farThe Matildas, arguably Australia's most popular team at the Olympics, notched their first win of the Games, a madcap 6-5 victory over Zambia. Qualification to the quarter-finals now looks probable, but not yet assured. Even so, after displaying such poor form in their opening two matches progress deep into the tournament seems unlikely.For the optimists, this remarkable comeback victory will buoy the Matildas ahead of their crunch match against the United States on Wednesday in Marseille. It is just the sort of win needed to invigorate their Olympic campaign. Next stop - an Olympic medal?Then there is a less charitable way to assess the group stage clash on Sunday night. Zambia are ranked 64in the world. They have two of the best attackers in the world, yes, but as a cohesive national team, they are far from the finished product (the untenable position of their coach does not help). This is a game the Matildas, who have finished fourth at consecutive international tournaments, should have controlled and won comfortably.The medal is Fox's fourth in the kayak event stretching back to London 2012, and her second gold after she won in the canoe in Tokyo. She improved her time from the semi-final by a barely believable six seconds, avoiding any penalties. It left her competitors having to take more risks to navigate the tricky course. Continue reading...
Josiah Anthony steps down from role at Cross Timbers church in Fort Worth, as officials decline to give detailsAfter the ex-Trump adviser Robert Morris stepped down from his role as pastor at a Texas megachurch in June following a child sexual abuse scandal, another Texas megachurch pastor has stepped down over accusations of inappropriate" behavior.Cross Timbers church in the Fort Worth suburb of Argyle announced, in a sermon on Sunday, the resignation of its lead pastor, Josiah Anthony. Continue reading...
Ron Klain says he didn't agree with pressures for Biden to drop out but is optimistic about Harris's prospectsSenior Democrats' successful efforts to push Joe Biden out of the presidential race were unfortunate, nasty and public" and did the president a disservice", Biden's former White House chief of staff said - even as the new nominee, Kamala Harris, continued to fundraise strongly, campaign vigorously and show signs of catching Donald Trump in polling.I was disappointed that people in the party called for [Biden] to leave the race, and I thought they got out of control," Ron Klain said. Continue reading...
by Bryan Armen Graham at the Place de la Concorde on (#6PJYM)
The face of Japanese skateboarding edged out USA's Jagger Eaton and Nyjah Huston in an awesome display of street skillsYuto Horigome has never been afraid to leave things late. In danger of missing the podium entirely after bottling one trick after another on a sweltering Monday afternoon, the 25-year-old face of Japanese skateboarding roared from behind in the final reel to retain his Olympic men's street title ahead of the US pair of Jagger Eaton and Nyjah Huston, who took silver and bronze respectively.Amid oppressive heat beneath a cloudless sky in the temporary La Concorde stadium, Horigome once again came up clutch when it mattered most. He completed a flawless slide down the 10-stair round rail on his fifth and final trick to slide into gold position by a tenth of a point over Eaton, a bronze medalist three years ago in Tokyo. The near-perfect score of 97.08 left the door open for both Americans, but each wiped out on his final attempt to the relief of Horigome, who became the first double Olympic champion in skateboarding's brief history as a medal sport. Continue reading...
Timelapse video from 25 July captured California's Park fire creating what appears to be a fire tornado'. The fire, burning north-east of the city of Chico, forced thousands of residents in Butte County, about 100 miles north-east of Sacramento, to evacuate their homes. The fire, which stretched over four counties, was believed to be caused by arson, after authorities say a man was seen pushing a burning car into a ravine
Court reinstates ban after lengthy legal battle in a decision pro-choice advocates call violation of human rights'Kamala Harris, the likely Democratic nominee for president, urged Americans to vote after a six-week abortion ban took effect in Iowa on Monday.This ban is going to take effect before many women even know they're pregnant," Harris said in a video posted to YouTube. What this means is that one in three women of reproductive age in America lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban." Continue reading...
Team was on the verge of giving up search for Scott Hern, who was stranded in the wilderness without food or waterAn Ohio man who went missing for two weeks in a rugged Kentucky forest was rescued just as search efforts for him were nearing their end.Scott Hern had become lost in the Red River gorge, and the Wolf county volunteer technical rescue team was on the verge of giving up searching for him when it heard him scream for help and finally found him. Continue reading...
Would-be assassin detected 30 minutes earlier than what officials previously said due to communication failureDonald Trump has agreed to participate in a victim interview with the FBI regarding his attempted assassination earlier this month, the bureau told reporters on Monday.This comes as authorities continue their investigations into the 13 July shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, where 20-year-old Thomas Matthews Crooks fired eight shots from an assault rifle which hit and injured the former president, killed a rally attendee and injured several others. Crooks was killed by government snipers moments after the shooting began. Continue reading...
by Adam Gabbatt and Lauren Gambino in Washington on (#6PJRE)
President also says presidential immunity for crimes should be removed and ethics rules for justices should be stricterJoe Biden unveiled a much-anticipated series of sweeping changes to the US
Former friend releases messages largely from 2014-2017 in which Republican VP nominee also says: I hate the police'Questions continued to mount about the political transformation of Donald Trump's running mate, JD Vance, after the release of emails from a former friend in which Vance called Trump a morally reprehensible human being" and said: I hate the police."The messages between Vance and Sofia Nelson, who sent them to the New York Times, were largely dated between 2014 and 2017. In one, Vance sent Nelson a section of Hillbilly Elegy, his bestseller about his Appalachian boyhood. Continue reading...
As soon as the Games start, it kicks in: the armchair expertise, the deep well of totally imagined knowledge, the phantom athleticism. I'm not sure this is the spirit of global togetherness the events are supposed to fosterIt was 2012 and, now I look it up, actually my birthday, and I was having a standup row with an American journalist because the Australian Anna Meares had just won gold in the women's cycling sprint event. Let me count the ways in which the Olympics had driven me mad. First, gripped by a patriotic fervour that even Kemi Badenoch would probably have found a bit much, I was enraged that Victoria Pendleton had come second. Enraged. I hated Australia, I didn't understand why American journalists were even allowed to watch the proud sportsters if they weren't going to root for the British ones.Second, I was incandescent about the injustice of an adjudication, on a rule that I'd only learned five minutes before. Pendleton had crossed a lane line, which is forbidden, yet it looked like Meares had pushed her, then the judges said Meares hadn't, then the race was redone, then Meares won, and five-minutes-ago me didn't even know you were allowed a rematch, but now I was the Ruth Bader Ginsburg of cycling tort and I wanted to put Meares in prison. Continue reading...
Flight 2477 to Boston landed in DC to conduct a deep clean' after crew and passengers began vomitingA United Airlines flight was forced to divert after a passenger fell so ill on board that it caused what one crew member reportedly called a biohazard" - and made crewmates and other passengers start vomiting.The plane, Flight 2477 heading from Houston to Boston on Sunday, ended up landing in Washington DC so it could undergo a deep clean", the New York Post reported. Continue reading...
New law limiting confinement was scheduled to take effect after 26 died in city jails in two yearsNew York City mayor Eric Adams over the weekend declared a state of emergency in local jails to prevent them from enacting a new law limiting solitary confinement in the lock-ups.The law was scheduled to take effect Sunday after at least 26 people had died in New York City jails since January 2022. Adams' emergency declaration came Saturday. Continue reading...
Make sure you don't miss a thing with our full, updating guide to the dates and times of all the events at Paris 2024Support the GuardianSearch for every event and start time at the Paris Olympics with our comprehensive live schedule. From the football pitch to the pool, via track and field and much more, use our filter tool to pinpoint the sports and disciplines you want to follow most so that you don't miss a thing. Continue reading...
by Bryan Armen Graham at Stade de France on (#6PJJX)
The American is one of the breakout athletes in Paris, thanks to an irreverent social media presence that has won her sponsors and millions of fansIlona Maher might not have the professional resume of Australia's Maddison Levi, Great Britain's Ellie Kildunne or New Zealand's Portia Woodman-Wickliffe. But the 27-year-old from Vermont is surely one of the biggest stars of the Olympic women's rugby sevens competition that kicked off Sunday at the Stade de France, at least among people under 30.One of the breakout social media personalities of the Tokyo Games three years ago, Maher has gone on to amass more than 1.4m Instagram followers with 1.6m more on TikTok, a combined reach that far outstrips more established US Olympic stars like Katie Ledecky and Noah Lyles. And those figures have only swelled in the three days since the Paris Games opened. Continue reading...
The convention celebrated Trump's vision of immigration as a disease. The GOP idea of a cure would mean I, and millions of others, would not existThe Republican party has made it clear it doesn't like pronouns. But two in particular have become the seething core of the worldview it holds: they" and them".Just hours after the former president was shot at on 13 July, Cory Mills, a Republican US representative from Florida, posted on X: First they tried to silence him. Then they tried to imprison him. Now they try to kill him." Continue reading...
It is becoming clear that much of the stakes of the November contest will revolve around questions of gender - and specifically, questions of familyIt's possible," writes Jessica Winter in the New Yorker, that if JD Vance had his way, citizenship in the United States would be conferred not solely by birthright but by marriage and children." This is no exaggeration. In a now viral 2021 clip, JD Vance said: Let's give votes to all children in this country, but let's give control over those votes to the parents of those children. When you go to the polls in this country as a parent, you should have more power - you should have more of an ability to speak your voice in our democratic republic - than people who don't have kids. Let's face the consequences and the reality: If you don't have as much of an investment in the future of this country, maybe you shouldn't get nearly the same voice."This position now represents large swaths of the Republican party, which has taken on an angry and aggressively prescriptive approach to family life.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
Campaign says it saw unprecedented grassroots support' as about 66% of total fundraising came from first-time donorsKamala Harris raised $200m in the week since she was endorsed by Joe Biden, her team said, as the vice-president appears to be drawing increased enthusiasm to her campaign.Harris for President said about 66% of the total came from first-time donors, as the campaign said it had seen unprecedented grassroots support". Continue reading...
Call me a grinch, but at no other time of year are we told quite so much how to behave, dress or eat. It's time this frankenseason was reined inI read yet another roundup of summer trends last week with narrowed eyes and my traditional wasp-chewing expression of disapproval. We are supposed, apparently, to greet this year's wet, brat, hot rat summer" with gladiator mullets, Nigella's sgroppino gelato and boat raves"; we should be monetising our feet and chopping wood. I hope you are taking notes.What gave me wasp-face (surely ripe for inclusion in a summer trend listicle, along with my other key seasonal trends, this and every year: underboob sweat, climate dread, toenail shame and excess salt consumption)? It's not the list itself I take issue with, except the inclusion of boats, which are hateful. It's the idea that July and August are so special that we need instructions to ensure we are doing them right. Continue reading...
Vice-president emphasizes bodily autonomy and affordable care as experts expect Democrats to remain on offenseKamala Harris is staking out health, and especially reproductive rights and affordable healthcare, as a central issue in her historic campaign for the US presidency, experts say.The first ad for the Harris campaign, released on Thursday, prioritized bodily autonomy, safety from gun violence, and affordable healthcare alongside issues like child poverty and the rule of law. Continue reading...
Former head of US border security says claim terribly misleading' and statistics show nine of 10 convicted traffickers are US citizensA former head of US border security has accused Donald Trump of exploiting" the pain of the opioid epidemic to wrongly vilify migrants as responsible for the surge in American deaths from fentanyl during recent years.But the Trump campaign is expected to double down on the deception now that the vice-president, Kamala Harris, whom Republicans describe as Joe Biden's border czar" and accuse of inaction over a surge of illegal immigration, is likely to be the Democratic presidential candidate in November. Continue reading...
New attack line on Trump seems to be sticking, simplifying Biden's threats to democracy warnings. Plus, US beat Germany at soccer in ParisGood morning.US Democrats have spent recent days trying out a relatively new attack line on Donald Trump: that he is weird.What are the polls saying? Harris is showing an uptick on Biden but still behind Trump. According to averages based on New York Times/Siena College polls, Trump is averaging 48% compared with Harris on 46%.What attack lines are Republicans deploying against Harris? Several Republicans on Sunday tried to portray Harris as a dangerous liberal" with far-left politics.What's been the latest trigger for escalating tensions? The diplomacy came amid growing anger in Israel over the strike on the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, which Israel seized in 1967 and annexed from Syria in 1981. On Sunday, thousands attended funeral processions for the 12 children.What has the UN said about the prospect of war? The UN's special coordinator for Lebanon, as well as the UN peacekeeping force, urged maximum restraint". Both sides, they said, must put a stop to the ongoing intensified exchanges of fire", which risks a catastrophe beyond belief". Continue reading...
The former BYU star drew comparisons with Steph Curry coming out of college but he never established himself in the NBA. Now he has a chance at goldJimmer Fredette was a comet in college. He won the National Player of the Year in 2011 and was the leading scorer in the NCAA as a senior for BYU. He wowed in the NCAA tournament, often taking on opponents one-on-five, and drew comparisons to Stephen Curry for his sharp shooting.But Fredette's pro career didn't pan out as he, and his many fans, hoped. Instead of becoming a multi-time NBA All-Star like Curry, he struggled to find his footing after being drafted 10th overall in 2011, playing for Sacramento for two-and-a-half seasons and then bouncing around the league before playing in Greece and China. But the 35-year-old has found a new calling as the face of USA's men's 3x3 basketball team. He will make his Olympic debut when the Americans begin their campaign against Germany on Tuesday. Continue reading...
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