Billy Chemirmir, 50, was convicted of two murders and accused of killing nearly two dozen womenA man who Texas authorities say smothered at least two dozen elderly women in a two-year killing spree, while stealing possibly millions of dollars worth of jewelry and other valuables, was himself murdered on Tuesday morning by a prison cellmate, according to the state's criminal justice department.Billy Chemirmir, 50, worked as an in-home caregiver and posed as a maintenance worker to gain access to luxury independent living communities in and around Dallas. He would gain access to the apartments of seniors then force a pillow over their face, smothering them to death before raiding the apartment of its valuables to pawn or sell online. Continue reading...
The network of ceremonial mounds join the Acropolis, Machu Picchu, the Taj Mahal, Stonehenge and the Great Wall of ChinaA network of Native American ceremonial and burial mounds in southern Ohio have been added to the list of world heritage sites of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco). The move places what the organization describes as part cathedral, part cemetery and part astronomical observatory" on the same cultural plane as the Acropolis, Machu Picchu, the Taj Mahal, Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China.The recognition of the Hopewell ceremonial earthworks was announced by Unesco's world heritage committee during a meeting in Saudi Arabia. Continue reading...
Can we really be surprised when rich and powerful men are accused of sexual abuse?There's nothing new but the details about what the Times journalists uncovered about Russell Brand in their investigative report published this weekend. We've been through this so many times, the story finally uncovered of a rich or powerful or celebrated man being accused of sexual abuse for years or decades. Russell Brand says all of his relationships were absolutely always consensual.That's the first piece of the familiar story - that they got away with it for years because one of the forms inequality takes is inequality of voice -the voice with which you say what's happened, the voice that's listened to and believed and respected, the voice that determines what happens.Rebecca Solnit's most recent books are Orwell's Roses and the climate anthology Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility, co-edited with Thelma Young Lutunatabua Continue reading...
Whatever the truth about the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the row shows that building relationships with New Delhi won't be easyCanada made waves when it recently announced an inquiry into potential foreign election interference. Its tanking relations with China have been watched closely, not least for how they reflect upon other western countries' dealings with Beijing. Russia's activities were also under scrutiny. Fewer people noticed that ministers also cited the potential role of the Indian government.The decision looks like a ripple in a millpond following Justin Trudeau's extraordinary statement that Canada is pursuing credible allegations" of a potential link between New Delhi and the murder of a Canadian national, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in British Columbia this June. Nijjar had campaigned for an independent Sikh nation - known as Khalistan - to be created from Punjab state. Indian authorities had accused him of terrorism, and issued a bounty for his arrest. Canada's spy agency had reportedly warned him of threats. Continue reading...
The US president, Joe Biden, addressed the UN general assembly on Tuesday, outlining his views on key issues from competition with China, the climate crisis, the war in Ukraine and abuses of minority groups
Joe Biden said Russia was seeking to 'brutalise' Ukraine 'without consequence', during a speech at the UN general assembly on Tuesday. Biden held Russia solely accountable for the conflict, saying: 'Russia alone stands in the way of peace because Russia's price for peace is Ukraine's capitulation, Ukraine's territory'
Auto workers, writers, actors, Starbucks workers, Amazon workers, UPS drivers, flight attendants - labor isn't a special interest'. It's all of usAmerica is in the midst of the biggest surge in labor activity in a quarter-century.The United Auto Workers (UAW), the Writers Guild of America, the actors' union known as Sag-Aftra, Starbucks workers, Amazon workers, the Teamsters and UPS, flight attendants. The list goes on.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a 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 newest 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...
Department of Homeland Security's decision reversal makes Guatemalan native Andres Domingo no longer eligible for a visaOne day after this story was published by the Guardian, Andres Domingo's lawyer, Kenia Garcia, received a notification from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rescinding the substantiated conclusion from its investigation into the Guatemalan native's multiple sexual assault allegations at Krome detention center.Reviewed by the Guardian, the report's reversal means Domingo can no longer qualify for a U-visa. The U nonimmigrant status allows victims of sex crimes or any crime that leads to mental and psychological suffering or abuse to remain in the US. Continue reading...
Where you are born in the UK and the wealth of your family are the key factors that determine life outcomes, new figures revealEvery parent wants their child to reach their full potential and flourish: my mum called me Faiza because it means winner" in Arabic in the hope that success would be inevitable. It's an emotion that runs deep, and one that politicians across the spectrum are keen to tap into, for ever promising to build an aspirational" or truly meritocratic" society where any individual can make it as long as they work hard enough.Equality of opportunity is a phrase commonly used by our politicians, even for those too scared to talk about equality more generally. Yet for decades we've been moving in the wrong direction. A recent report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) found that where you are born in the UK, and the income and wealth of your family, now matter more than ever in defining life outcomes, with social mobility at its worst in more than 50 years.Faiza Shaheen is a visiting professor in practice at the London School of Economics, the Labour party parliamentary candidate for Chingford and Woodford Green, and the author of Know Your Place
The Australian politicians pushing for Assange's release represents a rare crack in the wall of bipartisan support for the sacrosanct allianceThis week, a delegation of Australian politicians will venture across the Pacific to campaign for the immediate release of Julian Assange. The group, which takes in representatives from the Nationals, Liberals, Greens and independents, will meet with their congressional counterparts and other administration officials to plead Assange's case.They go armed with a letter signed by more than 60 Australian federal representatives, warning that Assange's extradition to the United States - pursued by both Trump and Biden - would cause outcry" in Australia. Continue reading...
Former New York mayor-turned Trump attorney reportedly facing financial problems as he defends against multiple legal threatsThe New York mayor-turned-Donald Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani has been sued by his own lawyer, who seeks more than $1.3m in outstanding fees.This action simply seeks payment of an outstanding bill for legal services rendered by plaintiffs in the amount of $1,360,196.10," said a lawsuit filed in New York state supreme court on Monday by Robert J Costello, of Davidoff Hutcher & Citron. Continue reading...
The failure to free US hostages seized at the US embassy in Tehran over 40 years ago consigned one Democratic president to a single termFor all the widespread fear of a second Donald Trump presidency, the Biden White House could be forgiven for being more preoccupied by the spectre of Jimmy Carter and the baleful images of his last year in office.Carter was the last Democratic president to serve only a first term, brought low by the searing drama of the Tehran embassy siege, when Iranian revolutionaries had overrun the US diplomatic compound and held 52 American personnel captive for more than a year, heaping international humiliation on a military superpower when the cold war was still at its height. Continue reading...
Five former prisoners land in Virginia after controversial deal which involved exchange of five Iranians and unfreezing of $6bnAmericans detained for years in Iran arrived home on Tuesday, tearfully hugged their loved ones and declared Freedom!" after being let go as part of a politically risky deal that saw Joe Biden agree to the release of nearly $6bn in frozen Iranian assets.The prisoners landed at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, with clapping and cheers heard in the pre-dawn hours. Siamak Namazi, the first off the jet, paused for a moment, closed his eyes and took a deep breath before leaving the plane. Loved ones, some holding small American flags, enveloped them in hugs and exchanged greetings in English and Farsi, the main language of Iran. Continue reading...
Unnamed child probably contracted water-borne Naegleria fowleri organism while playing at splash padA child in Arkansas has died after becoming infected with a rare, brain-eating amoeba while playing at a splash pad.The child, whose name was not immediately released, appears to have contracted Naegleria fowleri from a country club splash pad in the state capital of Little Rock, Arkansas health officials and the county coroner said in a news release. Continue reading...
Several thousand dollars' worth of synthetic opioid discovered in Bronx apartment where three other young children also sickenedA package containing several thousand dollars' worth of fentanyl was discovered inside the New York City daycare center where a one-year-old child died from a toxic opioid exposure last week, authorities said.The owner of the daycare center, however, maintained she had no knowledge of the presence of the highly potent drug, which sickened three other young children, including an eight-month-old girl who tested positive for fentanyl. Continue reading...
Community gathered in Seattle to protest an officer's callous remarks after a speeding police cruiser killed the 23-year-oldSeattle police are facing outrage and investigation for its officer's reaction to the death of a young woman struck by a patrol car.A rally held on Saturday in honor of Jaahnavi Kandula, a 23-year-old student from India, brought together local Seattle residents and south Asian community members. Continue reading...
Her decision to continue her talkshow amid the writers' strike received such a backlash that she reversed it. But the holes in her apology' had already been laid bareGal Gadot must be giddy with relief. For the past few years, the Wonder Woman actor has held the No 1 spot in the category of most cringeworthy and ill-advised celebrity home video ever made. You will know the one: the star-studded rendition of John Lennon's Imagine that she posted online at the start of the pandemic to try to cheer us up. Because nothing is more uplifting than hearing a celebrity trill imagine no possessions" from their multimillion-dollar mansion while the world as you know it crumbles.Now, however, Gadot has been knocked off the top spot in the Hall of Cringe by Drew Barrymore. On Friday, the actor and producer posted a weepy Instagram video justifying her decision to resume filming The Drew Barrymore Show, even though the writers' and actors' strikes aren't over. Continue reading...
Pennsylvania senator known for wearing hoodies and shorts will now be able to do so to vote, angering rightwingersIn a spat over coverage of the relaxation of the US Senate dress code, the Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman, who will now be allowed to wear his signature hoodies and shorts in the chamber, told the data analyst Nate Silver: I dress like you predict."Silver, who rose to fame to run the polling site FiveThirtyEight.com but whose predictions for recent elections have proved controversial, had tweeted: Starting a new political party for people who don't give a shit either about how John Fetterman dresses or what Lauren Boebert does in a theatre." Continue reading...
The row over claims of ghostwriting at the Daily Mail has sparked debate about how toxic policies are pursued and narratives createdIt is a sad aspect of public life that a quick route to success and notoriety for minorities in the UK is to express the most reactionary opinions imaginable. Witness Kwasi Kwarteng randomly and needlessly blurting out slavery apologia on Piers Morgan's show, or the careers so far of Priti Patel and Suella Braverman. They will have their own views as individuals, but at the same time powerful people and institutions are aware of how useful it is to have their own prejudices mirrored, rendered acceptable, laundered perhaps by a minority voice, with the effect that it ostensibly shields them from criticism.That regrettable effect is particularly concerning when a doubt is raised as to whether the views, as presented to the public, are a true reflection of honestly held opinion or a distortion designed perhaps to further advance the toxic culture wars.Nels Abbey is an author and broadcaster. His new book, The Hip-Hop MBA: Lessons in Cut-Throat Capitalism from the Moguls of Rap, is out next yearDo 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...
The NFL hall of famer's overpowering charisma has entrenched the once ailing Colorado at the heart of sports and culture in the USBulletin board material is not something you should give Deion Sanders, whose habit of taking the scoring attempts against him and returning them with interest is what made him perhaps the best two-way player in NFL history. Now the coach at the University of Colorado, Sanders makes a spectacular show of making footstools from the legion of critics who considered him too green and too dumb for such a dynamic leadership post.But Jay Norvell couldn't hold his tongue. Before his Colorado State team faced Colorado last Saturday, Norvell attacked Sanders for wearing gold chains, sunglasses and cowboy hats in interviews - a look Norvell considered unprofessional. I sat down with ESPN [this week]," Norvell said on his weekly podcast. I took my hat off, and I took my glasses off. And I said: When I talk to grownups, I take my hat and glasses off.' That's what my mother taught me.'" Continue reading...
From the start, his Rolling Stone magazine was a bastion of white male privilegeOne of my older brothers subscribed to Rolling Stone magazine in its early years, and while I saw women and musicians of color gracing its cover from time to time, they certainly seemed like a rarity.Clapton, the Stones, Clapton, the Stones," was the way a friend of mine recently characterized the magazine covers, for decades, after its start in 1967, when co-founder Jann Wenner was calling the editorial shots at what quickly became rock'n'roll's bible. I would only add: The Beatles, the Who, and, inevitably, a bare-chested Jim Morrison.Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...
The Seattle police officer's comments are a grim reminder that US policing is about endowing the criminal legal system with authority to determine how much each of us is worthThis January, Jaahnavi Kandula, a 23-year-old graduate student from India, was tragically killed when a Seattle police officer struck her with his police SUV while responding to an emergency call. A police investigation of the incident later determined that the officer, Kevin Dave, was driving at a top speed of 74mph and was not using his siren continuously, while barreling down Seattle's streets, but only chirping" his siren at intersections. At the moment when he hit Kandula, the investigation concluded, Dave was hurtling at a speed of 63mph; Kandula was thrown approximately 138ft" by the impact. His speed, the report established, was the main reason for the collision. Kandula was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.As terrible as the wrenching loss of this young woman is, the Seattle police department has made it worse. Officer Daniel Auderer, the vice-president of the Seattle police officers' guild (the police union), was dispatched as part of his regular duties to see if Officer Dave had been impaired at the time of the incident. After completing a routine assessment of Dave at a local precinct, Auderer drove off in his police cruiser and called Mike Sloan, the union president, on the phone. Two minutes of the call, from Auderer's side only (we don't hear Sloan), were accidentally recorded by Auderer's body camera before he turned it off. Just this week, that recording has come to light. Continue reading...
City leaders largely agree the memorial should go, but there is little consensus on how to remove itPolitical leaders in Los Angeles don't mince their words about Donald Trump - they have called the former president a madman, a fascist, and a clear and present danger to the stability of the country". Yet when it comes to taking the small, symbolic step of erasing Trump's most visible presence in the City of Angels, his star on the celebrity-studded Hollywood Walk of Fame, they have been strangely reluctant to turn their words into concrete action.All indications are that the city leadership would like to see Trump's star gone - ideally before next year's presidential election. Political aides and others in and around city government say as much in background briefings and off-the-record conversations. Continue reading...
Apparently, the closed ecoystem of the workplace makes ordinary folk seem unbelievably beautiful. That's not how I remember itNew York magazine has introduced me to the concept of the office 10: the person who would be middlingly attractive in a normal scenario, but in the closed-circuit environment of the workplace is unbelievably beautiful. It's a feature of the self-contained, temporary social ecosystem" that makes you adjust your settings. Only those people exist; since you sort them accordingly, one of them must be the most beautiful person in your world.If you factor in the boredom of work and the huge proportion of it that is meaningless, the office 10 becomes its raison d'etre, the person who can propel you out of bed on the off-chance that they might go to Pret at the same time as you, or might think similarly about Liz Truss. Be real: you are probably their office 10 as well. It's a closed ecosystem, remember? Continue reading...
Siamak Namazi was held in Iran's notorious Evin prison for nearly eight years before the $6bn prisoner swap on Monday. Plus, New York City's $52bn plan to save itself from the seaGood morning.An American citizen freed in an exchange deal after being imprisoned for nearly eight years in Iran has urged the US government to launch a gamechanging global endeavour" to end the Islamic regime's longstanding practice of holding foreign nationals hostage.What did Namazi say? Over the past 44 years, the Iranian regime has mastered the nasty game of caging innocent Americans and other foreign nationals, and commercialising their freedom," he said after flying from Tehran to Doha, calling Evin prison a dystopian United Nations of hostages".What has India said? India's ministry of external affairs said it rejected statements by Trudeau and his foreign minister, adding that allegations of India's involvement in any act of violence in Canada were absurd and motivated". The ministry added: We are a democratic polity with a strong commitment to rule of law." Continue reading...
Austen Macmillan rescued his registered behavior technician, Jason Piquette, from a pool and performed chest compressionsAt first, Christina Macmillan wasn't crazy about her 12-year-old son Austen watching Stranger Things, the fictional Netflix show pitting a group of children against aliens and demons. But she's changed her mind after her son used a CPR technique that he saw on a scene from the series to save his registered behavior technician's life this past Labor Day.I was a little hesitant about him watching it," Macmillan told the Guardian, citing the show's science fiction-horror premise. But I'm definitely glad that I let him." Continue reading...
The system is failing women, with often devastating impacts on our families, mental or reproductive health. But those who have been inside can change it for the better - if we are allowedWhen I started my jail sentence in Bogota, Colombia, it was 2008 and I was 31 with a four-year-old daughter. I was imprisoned for nine years and three months. I don't tell people the reason I went to prison. Not for me, but for all the free women who face so many problems because of the time they spent in jail. My crime doesn't make me the person I am.Most women in Colombia commit crime out of a need to provide for their families. They are judged and punished without society or the justice system taking the circumstances surrounding the crime into account. Continue reading...
Keeping a statue to William Beckford on display reeks of moral failure. It belongs in a museum, alongside clear details of his crimes against humanityThe statue of the 18th-century plantation owner William Beckford, which stands in Guildhall in London, will be recontextualised rather than permanently removed, says the City of London Corporation. A plaque will be placed alongside the statue explaining its connection to the transatlantic chattel slave trade. To me - a descendant of the people he enslaved - the decision feels like a moral failure.Last year, I was involved in some of the discussions with the Ironmonger's Company and other stakeholders in the statue. It became apparent that after the decision in 2021 that the figure would remain in the Great Hall, there was not as much resistance as I would have expected. But as a Jamaican-British man and a descendant of those whom Beckford exploited and murdered, I believe that leaving the statue in a prestigious place, even with a note of explanation, is morally reprehensible. Or, in the words of my Jamaican grandparents, it is devilish". The decision, which I am sure was the culmination of serious deliberations, underplays the radical evil of slavery's racial capitalism and its continuing destructive consequences for people racialised as Black. Continue reading...
Lowriding is the Mexican-American subculture of cruising as close to the asphalt as possible. Photographer Owen Harvey went along for the ride Continue reading...
Community rallies to save colossal 150-year-old tree after Maui wildfires badly singed it last monthA colossal, beloved 150-year-old banyan tree at the centre of Lahaina town that was scorched when deadly wildfires ravaged Maui, Hawaii, last month is showing viridescent signs of new growth.The tree, which has been described as the heartbeat of Lahaina Town" was badly singed, but still standing last month after fires killed at least 97 people and reduced much of the historic town to ash. Continue reading...
The new claims made me think about the media's treatment of the woman he so famously humiliated on Radio 2. I hope we all know better nowContemplating the notion of crossing the line, Russell Brand once remarked: As I always say, there is no line. People draw that line in afterwards to fuck you up." Anyway: here we all are in the afterwards.Back in the day, though, a lot of people were thrilled to be on what they thought was Russell's side of the line. For a certain type of mournfully uncool man on the left, Russell Brand was quite the excitement. You only had to watch their little faces in his presence - lit up at being fleetingly indulged by the kind of guy who would probably have bullied them at school. He was a sports columnist at the Guardian (often also writing opinion columns), he guest-edited the New Statesman, while the apogee of this particular stage of Brand's inevitable journey toward alt-right-frotting wingnut was surely the ludicrously feverish speculation over whether he'd endorse Labour in the 2015 general election. Keen to be awarded his royal warrant, the then Labour leader, Ed Miliband, traipsed to Brand's London flat during the final stages of the campaign, for a filmed interview where committed non-voter Russell inquired rhetorically: Since suffrage, since the right to vote, what has meaningfully occurred?" Nothing much, he reckoned. Somehow, this disqualifyingly moronic assumption did not deter his political acolytes. Continue reading...
Recovery team worked to secure the debris field of a Marine Corps F-35 fighter jet after pilot ejected and parachuted to safetyAuthorities found a debris field Monday from a Marine Corps F-35 stealth fighter jet that crashed in South Carolina after the pilot ejected and parachuted to safety.The debris field was located in rural Williamsburg county, according to the Marine Corps' Joint Base Charleston. The field is about two hours north-east of the base, and residents were being asked to avoid the area while the recovery team worked to secure it. Continue reading...
Trump denies wrongdoing after ex-assistant reported he wrote tasks for her on back of sensitive materials during presidencyDonald Trump has denied wrongdoing after a report on Monday said that one of the former president's long-time assistants told federal investigators he repeatedly wrote to-do lists for her on documents from the White House marked classified.The aide, Molly Michael, told investigators that more than once she got requests or tasks from Trump written on the back of notecards that she later recognized as sensitive White House materials, ABC News reported on Monday, citing sources. Continue reading...
Tim Ballard, whose work was dramatized in Sound of Freedom, has left the Operation Underground Railroad organizationThe anti-child slavery activist Tim Ballard, whose work was dramatized in the movie Sound of Freedom, resigned from the Operation Underground Railroad (Our) organization he founded amid allegations he sexually harassed colleagues, it was reported on Monday.Ballard, a former adviser to the Trump administration on child sexual trafficking, who is reported to be exploring a run for a US senate seat in Utah, resigned abruptly from the group in June for then-unknown reasons. Continue reading...
Todd Rokita claims Indiana University Health wrongly said doctor had not violated patient privacy laws in public commentsIndiana's attorney general, Todd Rokita, is suing the largest hospital system in the state, alleging the mishandling of a case involving a 10-year-old rape victim who got an abortion through one of its doctors - a case that made headlines across the country in the days after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade.In a lawsuit filed on Friday, Rokita alleged that Indiana University Health wrongly said that Dr Caitlin Bernard, who talked about the 10-year-old's case to journalists, had not violated patient privacy laws. Indiana University Health had told media outlets that, after reviewing Bernard's case, it had determined that she had been in compliance with privacy laws", according to the lawsuit. However, the Indiana Medical Licensing Board later found that Bernard had broken patient privacy laws. (The board also concluded that she was fit to practice medicine.) Continue reading...
Kevin Cataneo Salazar arrested in killing of Ryan Clinkunbroomer, who was shot as he sat in his patrol car at a red lightAuthorities have arrested a 29-year-old man in the investigation of the fatal shooting of a Los Angeles county sheriff's deputy after a manhunt to find the perpetrator behind the ambush killing this weekend.Thirty-six hours after the killing of Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer, law enforcement arrested Kevin Cataneo Salazar at a home in Palmdale, about 60 miles north-east of Los Angeles, following an hours-long standoff early Monday morning. Continue reading...
Representative Jennifer Wexton, diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, to step down after finishing out current termDemocratic congresswoman Jennifer Wexton said on Monday that she will finish out her term but not seek re-election for the northern Virginia-based seat that she has held since beating a Republican incumbent in 2018.Wexton, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease earlier this year, said in a statement that her doctor had modified my diagnosis to supra-nuclear Palsy". She described it as a kind of Parkinson's on steroids'". Continue reading...
Trump has portrayed the president as too old and too mentally fogged to occupy the Oval Office, but his tactics rebounded on FridayDonald Trump has long attacked Joe Biden, his likely opponent at the polls next year, as Sleepy Joe", portraying the 80-year-old president as too old and too mentally fogged to occupy the Oval Office. As recently as Friday, the former president attacked his successor for being unfit to deal with Russia and the threat of nuclear war.But Trump's tactics rebounded when he said Biden threatened to lead the US into world war two" - and suggested that he, Trump, thought he had beaten Barack Obama for the presidency back in 2016. Continue reading...
New allegations about the star's behaviour are disturbing. So is the way he was indulgedUntil the Times and Sunday Times published reports on Russell Brand over the weekend, and Dispatches broadcast a film of their joint investigation, it was not widely known that the star is an alleged rapist and sexual abuser. The testimony of Alice" (a pseudonym), who was 16 when Mr Brand, then aged 30, allegedly initiated a sexual relationship with her in London, shocked millions of people. She described him choking her with his penis and forcing her to swallow his saliva.Another woman, Nadia", alleged that she was raped by Mr Brand in 2012 and has evidence of records from a rape crisis centre. She saved text messages that reveal him apologising, and her reply of when a girl says NO it means no". A third woman, Phoebe", recalled running from his house in bare feet, terrified by what she alleges were his attempts to initiate sex while naked and wearing a glazed expression.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...
by Martin Pengelly in Washington and agencies on (#6EVJ7)
President's son is facing criminal charges over gun possession and is expected to be indicted on tax mattersHunter Biden sued the US Internal Revenue Service on Monday, alleging the agency violated his privacy rights as it investigated his tax affairs.The business career of the US president's son is at the centre of Republican attempts to impeach Joe Biden over unsubstantiated allegations of corruption. Continue reading...
He lacks the late Queen's aura of inevitability, nobility and self-abnegation - and so the jeering at sports events is only getting louderAt the Scotland versus England friendly last week, God Save the King was booed by half the crowd - the Scottish half. In a way, this is surprising, because it is, of course, the national anthem of the UK, so they were technically booing their own song. Yet it is also entirely unsurprising - so much so, in fact, that commentators dredging up outrage at the boos had to find secondary sources, such as: Why does the Scottish first minister appear to be smirking during the booing?"Even before the passing of the Queen, it was far from unheard of for Scotland supporters to boo the national anthem. It happened right after the independence referendum, the message at that time being: Like all referendums on constitutional matters, this ballot has opened up cracks in society - irreconcilable differences in its branching futures, if you like - that will not quietly go away." Scottish fans once booed Liechtenstein's national anthem, Oben am Jungen Rhein. Really easy mistake to make, as the tunes are identical - except they must have known they were playing Liechtenstein, right? So perhaps the message was less complicated; not so much: The yoke of this union is a heavy one to bear and we decline to celebrate it in song," more: We do not like this tune. It is not even a real tune. How on earth two nations (well, five) chose it is beyond us." Continue reading...
The Labour leader says he wants to foster a closer' trading relationship with the EU. I recommend a return to the customs unionKeir Starmer should not be frightened. This week he admitted in Montreal that Britain's Brexit agreement was not a good deal" and that he wanted a closer" trading relationship with the EU. What does he mean? He mentioned security and research, ties that Rishi Sunak has already initiated. Yet he shudders with fear at any accusation that he might favour returning to Europe's customs union or single market, let alone to the EU itself. He quails at the thought of what a Brexit voter in a red wall" seat might say. Each week his apologists explain this as paranoia over losing his 20-point poll lead. They promise he is a radical at heart. That is what they all say.The Labour party bears its share of the blame for the failure of Theresa May's search for a soft Brexit. There were a number of attempts to piece together a Commons coalition behind staying in the customs union or single market. Yet Labour MPs, who overwhelmingly favoured softer versions of Brexit, retreated into a militant Commons polarisation. Why should they help May just because it was in the nation's interest? They duly allowed the Tory right to enforce its hard" definition of Brexit as a total divorce from Europe's economic zone. In their study of this chaotic period, The Parliamentary Battle Over Brexit, political scientists Meg Russell and Lisa James graphically describe the ignorance of most Labour MPs in what they thought they were voting for. They just obeyed their whips. It was a dreadful chapter in parliament's history.Simon Jenkins 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...
The comedian moved effortlessly from mainstream fame to the embrace of the populist right. Both enabled an undisguised misogynistRussell Brand has always invited outrage. It was what he did, his shtick and his selling point: a willingness to cross the line that - when sweetened by his undeniable charisma, and by enough long words to make the crude sex gags sound more intellectual - earned him a fortune over the years.But could that willingness to shock, to transgress in plain sight, have functioned also as a kind of shield? What could he be accused of to which he hadn't already titillatingly half-confessed, in that gleeful way that meant you never knew if he was serious or not, but which somehow made the audience complicit anyway? When he described in his insufferably titled memoir My Booky Wook being asked to write a list in rehab of the women he'd wronged over the years, and feeling like Saddam Hussein trying to pick out individual Kurds", his candour somehow disarmed the obvious questions about what exactly he had done to all those nameless women. Continue reading...
US news | The Guardian