US news | The Guardian

We business owners can't just shrug and say it's the accountant's job - it's our signature on those formsEvery year, millions of individuals and small business owners have their tax returns prepared by outside accountants. It makes sense. Taxes can be complicated so it's a good idea to have someone who knows this stuff well - a professional - to do your year-end reporting, and do it right.But let's say there's a problem with your tax return. Maybe your tax professional made a mistake. Or was negligent. Or wasn't up to date on the rules. And let's say this problem resulted in you owing more money to the IRS. Or even - if serious enough - it results in the IRS taking you to court. Who's ultimately responsible for this problem? Is it your accountant? Continue reading...

This must-see film about youthful hedonism reveals how far we haven't comeAre issues surrounding sexual consent (the relentless murk, mystery and misunderstandings) doomed to remain roughly the same, generation to generation? Every so often, a parent-/adult-frightening", youth-oriented film (Kids, Thirteen) comes along that rewires the conversation. One such film, How to Have Sex, by writer-director Molly Manning Walker, won the Un Certain Regard award at Cannes this year. To be clear: your daughters and sons (all young people) need to see this film, and so do you.At times filmed in the style of a quasi-documentary, it's about three 16-year-old British girls holidaying in Crete after taking GCSEs; one of them anxious to lose her virginity. In among the youthful hedonism (shrieking; partying; penis-shaped pools; slightly older youths; rowdy clubs featuring onstage blowjobs; copious alcohol; cheesy chips), the film tells a fundamental devastating truth: that, however much sexual consent is theorised, debated and culturally disinfected, out in the field", where it matters, where the real girls and boys are, it remains a slippery concept, and too often a non-existent one.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

Organisers of the first grand prix in Sin City for more than 40 years vow to stage an unmissable event to rival the Super BowlWhat happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, as anyone who has ever rolled the dice knows. Decidedly not, however, for Formula One, which wants nothing more than the entire world to bear witness when the sport goes racing in the heart of Sin City next weekend.When F1 hits the track in Las Vegas its intent is to be a showcase like no other. In a city that does nothing by half, this will need to be big, brash and utterly spectacular if it is to outshine the bright lights of the Strip down which the cars will race. Continue reading...

From Britain and Italy to Tunisia and Pakistan, our leaders crave being seen to be tough as a distraction from their failures at homeOn Wednesday, the UK supreme court will give its verdict on the Rwanda deportation scheme. The decision will clearly have a major impact on those who face deportation. It will have an impact, too, on the political debate about immigration, with government supporters either hailing a victory or bemoaning the treachery of the liberal elite.But, whatever the decision, it will have little bearing on the immigration crisis". The government itself has acknowledged that, even were the court to deem the scheme legal, and deportation flights to Kigali take off, Rwanda could take only small numbers" of deportees, possibly 300 a year across the four years of the trial period. Given that there were almost 46,000 people crossing the Channel on small boats last year, and that by August this year the asylum backlog stood at 175,000, the deportation scheme amounts to little more than performative policy - the desire to be seen doing something and doing something cruel - rather than a serious attempt to tackle a problem. Continue reading...

It's nearly bedtime and a restaurant row in a seaside hotel leaves everyone shakenIt was almost 3am and I was lying awake in a large white bed working out what I should have said. What I could have said, were the circumstances just slightly in my favour, half an hour earlier or 6in to the left. But honestly, I was buzzing. I was absolutely completely alive, that night in half-term, in a hotel bed, in the dark, the only sound my family snoring gently beside me.We had taken the children to the seaside for the night and were staying in a hotel down a muddy country road 10 minutes from town. It was quite obscenely idyllic - a little country house, strewn with lights. We got there at 6pm and headed straight to the restaurant in the garden. This is when children eat. If children do not eat at six, something shifts, a change occurs as if a switch has tripped. But they were thrilled to be here, on holiday, in a restaurant, and they sat on their big chairs and buttered their own bread as we ordered our food, and the waitress was charming and then the lights went out. Continue reading...

Attacking Diego Velazquez's Rokeby Venus failed to achieve votes for women in 1914, so why do it again?Who doesn't love the suffragettes? A group of women who are heroic, right, and, perhaps most advantageously for their collective reputation, no longer with us. Even the older and more exhausting ones have yet to be firmly identified, unlike so many of their successors, as Karens.In adopting the suffragettes as role models, along with their slogan, deeds not words", Just Stop Oil has, rather brilliantly, picked a group that unites in admiration left and right, old and young, and, probably uniquely, Jeremy Corbyn and the current - at the time of writing - home secretary, Suella Braverman. Corbyn once stole into parliament to erect a plaque to Emily Wilding Davison. Braverman's horror of protests has not stopped her reminding girls: Always remember the suffragettes who gave you and me the right to vote, and cherish that right." In 2018, the centenary of partial women's suffrage, Theresa May paid tribute to Emmeline Pankhurst, founder and leader of the proudly militant Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), whose supporters engaged in arson, bombings, window smashing, spitting and throwing missiles at MPs. Postal workers were burned, a full theatre ignited. Continue reading...

Attempts to oust progressive lawmakers across state continue, as police union targets council member who voted against pay raisesA California state judge dismissed efforts this past week to halt a recall vote led by a local police union who are attempting to oust a progressive city council member.The union, which is upset that the politician voted against officers' pay raises, has so far spent more than $660,000 on the vote to recall Santa Ana council member Jessie Lopez, with voting happening 14 November. Continue reading...

DJ Hayden, who played nine seasons with the Raiders, Lions, Jaguars and Commanders, was in SUV hit by speeding carA former National Football League player was among six people who were killed in a collision that occurred when a speeding driver ran a red light in downtown Houston on Saturday.Before his death in Houston during his collegiate alma mater's homecoming weekend, 33-year-old DJ Hayden had played nine seasons in the NFL after the Raiders selected him in the first round of the college draft in 2013. Continue reading...

Ex-president's attorneys request live coverage of proceedings, but a rule prevents broadcasting of federal trialsDonald Trump's attorneys have requested authorization for live, in-courtroom television coverage of his trial on charges that he conspired to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss so that the former commander-in-chief can publicly argue that the proceedings are unfair.The legal filing late on Friday, citing unsubstantiated allegations that Trump is the victim of persecution by the Biden White House, supports efforts by news organizations to provide live television coverage from inside the trial, which is scheduled to begin in March 2024. Continue reading...

The daily lives of the current crop of liberal-minded royals could prove a prime target for the right writerRestraint is probably the mark of the true artist, but still it seems odd that Peter Morgan has chosen to end The Crown, which returns this week, in the mid-00s, thereby missing out a bonanza of royal plot points. He has, after all, spent five seasons spinning gold out of the familiar and the tangential, and at times you felt the material strain ever so slightly: an entire episode on Mohamed Al-Fayed, Dodi Fayed's father; stretches that are just deer drinking from streams or Anne showjumping; and an appearance, coming up soon, of the ghost of Diana.But how rich in drama the past two decades have been! The show will end, for example, before Meghan and Harry emerge, a duo that could quite easily sustain an entire season alone. It will miss two royal weddings, phone hacking and the succession, as supervised by Liz Truss. And think what Morgan could have done with Prince Andrew's fateful Newsnight interview (I would like to watch the scene in which he decides to accept the invitation, encouraged - or not - by his aides). Continue reading...

The cryptocurrency fraudster talked a lot of venture capitalists into pouring millions of dollars into his business. Maybe they should be more careful next timeOn 22 September last year, a fascinating article appeared on the website of Sequoia Capital, one of the leading venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. (It trades under the motto: We help the daring build legendary companies.") The article in question was a breezily readable piece about a tech wunderkind who had recently flashed on to the company's radar screen. His name was Sam Bankman-Fried (henceforth known as SBF) and he was the founder of Alameda Research, a hedge fund specialising in cryptocurrency, and FTX, a spectacularly growing and profitable exchange that enabled holders of crypto assets to trade efficiently and freely.Today, that glowing tribute to this young genius is nowhere to be found on Sequoia's website. Why? Because only the other day a New York jury convicted him of fraud and conspiracy to launder money in a crushing verdict that could keep the lad in prison for decades - and perhaps also whet the appetite of US authorities for bringing the crypto sector to heel. In the end, about $8bn of FTX's investors' money was missing. The verdict has also mightily embarrassed the top-tier venture capitalists who were mesmerised by SBF's ambitious fantasies - to the point where the lead sucker, Sequoia, felt obliged on 10 November to bury the online evidence of its delusions by removing the profile from its website. Continue reading...

Investigators are reportedly still looking into ambiguous' statement made by suspect in death of Detroit Jewish leaderA suspect in the deadly stabbing of Detroit synagogue leader and leftwing political adviser Samantha Woll was released from custody on Friday without being booked with a crime after police had detained the man for three days.The man's attorneys, Allison Kriger and Mark Kriger, confirmed their client's release to the Detroit News, which nonetheless cited four law enforcement sources who said investigators were continuing to examine an ambiguous statement the suspect made to police" about Woll's 21 October killing. Continue reading...

Deadline comes after federal court ruled that state's current map disfranchises Black voters - one-third of the state's populationThe Louisiana state legislature has until the middle of January to enact a new congressional map after a federal court ruled that the state's current map illegally disfranchises Black voters.A conservative federal appeals court in New Orleans issued the deadline on Friday. According to the order, if the state legislature doesn't pass a new map by the deadline, then a lower district court should conduct a trial and develop a plan for the 2024 elections. Continue reading...

After stinging defeat in a statewide vote, GOP lawmakers seek to move jurisdiction to legislature for constitutional amendmentFour Ohio Republican state lawmakers are seeking to strip judges of their power to interpret an abortion rights amendment after voters opted to enshrine those rights in the state's constitution this week.Republican state house representatives Jennifer Gross, Bill Dean, Melanie Miller and Beth Lear said in a news release on Thursday that they will push to have Ohio's legislature - not the courts - make any decisions about the amendment passed on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Websites like Jezebel revived feminism, showing the internet might have a re-radicalizing effect. Who will carry the torch?Jezebel is dead. After 16 years, the women's news site, launched by Gawker Media under the editor Anna Holmes in 2007, shuttered for good this past week. Its most recent parent company, G/O Media, announced that the site was not sufficiently profitable and that it had not been able to find a buyer. The site's closure will mean that its robust abortion coverage will cease; so will its investigations into sexual abuse and its feminist critiques of culture and politics. The entire Jezebel staff lost their jobs.There is one way to see the closing of Jezebel as a symptom of an ailing media business. Journalism layoffs have become something of a grim ritual, with dozens of talented, hardworking and well-sourced writers taking to social media to announce their need for new work whenever the industry turns the corner on a bad quarter. Media companies stumbled at the turn of the last century, when the advent of the internet made print advertising dramatically less profitable; they never recovered. Digital media arose, but has not been able to eke out sufficient profit growth as social media evolves and fractures, and traffic becomes harder to juice. Jezebel's slow death over the past few years was exacerbated by the injection of private equity into the media industry, a medicine that has turned out to be worse than the disease. Continue reading...

Rashida Tlaib and other Democratic members of the Squad' have been targeted but also a libertarian RepublicanThe pro-Israel lobby in the US is airing attack ads and beginning to back primary opponents to challenge Congress members who are not voting for or supporting Israel's war on Gaza.Over the last 10 days, groups that support Israel have launched ads in at least seven districts targeting those who have been particularly vocal in calling attention to the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, opposing Israeli military aid or criticizing Israel's government.This article was amended on 11 November 2023 to clarify Thomas Massie's position on the Israel-Hamas conflict. Continue reading...

As with Ukraine, the Chinese president's so-called neutrality is designed to advance his nation and make the US look weak

The history of mass killings, for me, is never ending. And so are the lessons for todayThe world's attention is focused on Gaza. The range of opinions being debated in the media today varies between the claim that what we are witnessing is the start of a genocide, to the view that Israel is engaging in self-protection, reacting properly to a true existential threat. That empathy is required for the horrors now facing the Palestinian people should be obvious to all decent people, just as much as for the victims of Hamas's unspeakable savagery. But it is necessary to move beyond these reactions, to evaluate the arguments, and their consequences.It is not much of an exaggeration to say that my life has been defined by the European genocide of the Jewish people. This history, for me, is never ending. Recently, I was contacted over email by a distant relative of my mother, who sent me a list of my maternal relatives murdered at Sobibor - there were twelve people on this list, including my great-grandmother and multiple great-uncles. This past has defined my recent professional life, where I have looked theoretically at the conditions that enable mass killing.Jason Stanley is a professor of philosophy at Yale University, and the author, most recently, of How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them Continue reading...

Opinion polls show the twice impeached, quadruply indicted ex-president narrowly leading Biden - and experts say it would be a disaster for America'It is a cold day in Washington. A crowd is gathering on the National Mall for the swearing-in of the 47th president of the United States. At noon on 20 January 2025, Donald Trump places his hand on a Bible, takes the oath of office and delivers an inaugural address with a simple theme: retribution.This is the nightmare scenario for millions of Americans - and one that they are increasingly being forced to take seriously. Opinion polls show Trump running away with the Republican presidential nomination and narrowly leading Democrat Joe Biden in a hypothetical match-up. Political pundits can offer plenty of caveats but almost all agree that the race for the White House next year will be very close. Continue reading...

Upcoming membership talks must balance high political aspirations with thorny practical issues from subsidies to grainWhen the 27 EU heads of government convene in Brussels in December, they will face one of the most momentous decisions in the history of the European Union: whether to start membership negotiations with Ukraine. The European Commission's recommendation this week that talks begin means that the European Council will almost certainly give the green light, but this doesn't imply that Ukraine will be allowed to join any time soon. In fact, the war-torn country may well find itself trapped in negotiations that go nowhere.Nato's reluctance to make good on its promise of membership for Ukraine is one reason to expect protracted talks between Brussels and Kyiv. Eleven out of the 16 countries that have joined the EU since 1995 did so as Nato members - a status that helps to protect states such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania from Russian aggression. The EU's security and defence policy is too weak to match these security guarantees and its mutual defence clause, which offers aid and assistance to member states that are the victims of armed aggression, is untested.Dermot Hodson is the author of Circle of Stars: A History of the EU and the People Who Made It Continue reading...

Continue reading...

Union leaders on Friday shared details of three-year contract, on AI, wage increases and end to racist hair and makeup practicesStreaming services like Netflix will pay actors bonuses amounting to roughly $40m per year as part of the tentative labor agreement reached between the SAG-AFTRA actors union and major Hollywood studios, union leaders said on Friday after their board backed the deal.The proposed three-year contract, which the union said was valued at more than $1bn over three years, was endorsed by 86% of SAG-AFTRA's national board. Continue reading...

New York Times says raids part of corruption investigation into Democrat's successful 2021 mayoral campaignElectronic devices including at least two mobile phones belonging to New York City mayor Eric Adams were seized by the FBI as the agency escalated a corruption investigation into his victorious 2021 campaign, the New York Times reported Friday.It follows an FBI raid earlier this month on the home of Brianna Suggs, Adams's leading campaign fundraiser, in which agents reportedly confiscated two laptop computers and three cellphones. Continue reading...

Research shows increase in prejudice and hate as civil rights group condemns unprecedented surge in bigotry'Islamophobia and antisemitism are seeing sharp increases across the US after war between Israel and Hamas erupted last month.According to a new report by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair), the Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization received a total of 1,283 requests for help and reports of bias between 7 October and 4 November. Continue reading...

Joseph Emerson, facing 83 counts of attempted murder, says he hoped he would wake up' if Air Alaska plane headed towards crashThe pilot who attempted to shut fuel off to the engines of an Alaska Airlines jet last month after ingesting magic mushrooms has said that he had no intention of hurting anyone - but was trying to come out of a hallucinogenic state.I thought it would stop both engines, the plane would start to head towards a crash, and I would wake up," Joseph Emerson, 44, told the New York Times in a jailhouse interview published on Friday. Continue reading...

Michigan are one of the biggest teams in college sports. But allegations they have used underhanded tactics have rocked the programThe Big Ten, the conference in which Michigan play, and college sports' main governing body, the NCAA, claim that Michigan used a vast network" of people to tape the sidelines of future opponents, both in and out of the conference, across the last three seasons. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. You can read our latest reporting on Trump here:

North Carolina city marks 125th anniversary of the white-supremacist attack with a week of memorial eventsThe Equal Justice Initiative is a non-profit organization committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society. Guardian US has partnered with EJI to reprint this special feature, originally titled The Wilmington Massacre of 1898.In the late 1890s, Wilmington, North Carolina, a port city between the Atlantic's barrier islands and the banks of the Cape Fear River, became an island of hope for a new America. Continue reading...

Calls to censure Michelle Salzman, who said, All of them' when Democrat asked: How many [dead Palestinians] will be enough?'Outrage continues to grow over a public comment made by a Florida state Republican lawmaker calling for all Palestinians to die.The remarks came during a debate in the state legislature about calling for a ceasefire in Israel's invasion of Gaza, which has so far killed more than 10,000 Palestinians, many of whom are children. The assault came after Hamas fighters attacked Israel from Gaza, killing at least 1,400 people and taking more than 200 hostage. Continue reading...

The country's approach to the Palestinians has been shaped by the political right for a decade. It's not workingIsrael has some of the most advanced armed forces in the world, but in its war against Hamas it lacks an equally sophisticated political strategy. The humanitarian catastrophe occurring in Gaza is taking on frightening dimensions. Bread is running out. Scabies and diarrhoea rip through overcrowded shelters. Brackish water is making people sick. Even US officials now admit the civilian death toll is likely to be far higher than the 10,000 reported. It is talking, not fighting, that will end the war.The absence of a sustainable peace plan divides Israel and its allies. When Benjamin Netanyahu suggested Israeli forces could be in Gaza indefinitely, Washington made it clear it wanted no permanent reoccupation. Mr Netanyahu backed down. But he has not ruled out shrinking Gaza's territory to create a buffer zone" or forcibly displacing Palestinians. Mr Netanyahu leads the most rightwing government in Israel's history: one minister recently suggested dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza. Continue reading...

The home secretary is not alone in using the Israel-Hamas war to push her own agenda - squeezing that conflict into a shape it doesn't fitThere is a special place in hell reserved for people who exploit the pain of others - and it's becoming very crowded. It's filling up with those who look at the war between Israel and Hamas, and the grief and fear it prompts in the hearts of Jews and Muslims especially, and see not tragedy but opportunity - a chance to advance their own interests.Early to rush in was Suella Braverman, who is determined to be the hard right's candidate to succeed Rishi Sunak. Her chosen playbook is the one authored by Donald Trump and Steve Bannon, the tactic simple: pick a culture war issue that drives people apart, and crown yourself as head of one of the two warring camps. That's why she said multiculturalism had failed, that Britain faced a hurricane" of migration and that homelessness was a lifestyle choice - each one of those provocations designed to make her the standard-bearer of nationalist populism in the UK.Jonathan Freedland 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...

Sam Haskell, whose father represented Dolly Parton and George Clooney, suspected of murder of wife and her parents in LAThe 35-year-old son of a Hollywood talent agent whose clients included Dolly Parton, George Clooney and a British prince, has been taken into custody in Los Angeles after a bloody torso authorities say probably belongs to his wife was discovered in a strip-mall dumpster.Sam Haskell, who was booked on suspicion of murder on Wednesday, is also suspected of killing his wife's parents who are missing, detectives have said. Continue reading...

Democratic West Virginia senator signalled possible White House run in announcement he would not run for re-election to SenateThe West Virginia Democrat senator Joe Manchin's announcement that he will not run for re-election next year has triggered speculation that he might instead launch a bid for the White House as the candidate of No Labels, a third-party group which has attracted significant funding.Manchin has long flirted with such a bid, brushing off warnings that by running he would only help elect Donald Trump, the likely Republican candidate who is far ahead in the party's 2024 nomination race. Continue reading...

Max Hightower stripped of role over policy that students must play characters aligning with gender identity assigned to them at birthWeeks into his senior year of high school in Texas, Max Hightower earned a key male role for his campus's production of Oklahoma! the musical. But the trans teen's principal has since stripped the teen of the part, citing a new policy requiring students to only portray characters who align with the gender identity assigned to them when they were born.Hightower and his family are now appealing the administrator's decision to the school board while the play is put on hold pending a review.This article was amended on 10 November 2023 to clarify that the role Max Hightower initially got was a key male role, but not the leading role. Continue reading...

Trump said: If I happen to be president and I see somebody doing well and beating me very badly, I say go down and indict them'Donald Trump has suggested he would use the FBI and justice department to go after political rivals should he return to the White House next year in a move which will further stoke fears of what a second period of office for Trump could mean.Trump made the comments during an interview with the Spanish-language television network Univision. The host Enrique Acevedo asked him about his flood of legal problems saying: You say they've weaponized the justice department, they weaponized the FBI. Would you do the same if you're re-elected?" Continue reading...

Rico charges against 61 people have outraged civil liberties groups who see an effort to demonize legitimate protestersAt one point during the courtroom arraignment this week of 61 defendants charged with criminal conspiracy in connection with a protest movement in Atlanta, the bailiff could be heard shouting out numbers corresponding to the next batch - like a crowded delicatessen at lunch hour.The courtroom's six rows of wooden benches were packed with attorneys and defendants, with one row at the back reserved for media. It took about four hours for the Fulton county superior court judge Kimberly M Esmond Adams to go through the felony criminal charges with the defendants, all tied to opposition against a planned police and fire department training center known as Cop City". Continue reading...

There is no blank cheque in the Israel-Hamas conflict. The ICC is working to ensure justice is on the frontlines

From Florida to Alaska, workers are facing legal efforts to weaken their power by targeting union certification and duesPublic sector unions in the US have been facing significant challenges from anti-union groups and Republicans at the federal and state levels in recent years, but have also mounted significant organizing campaigns to stave off membership and funding losses.Some 33% of workers in the public sector were union members in 2022, over five times the union density of the private sector in America. At more than 7 million workers, public sector unions represent nearly half of the 14.3 million union members in the US. Continue reading...

Everything is on the table,' US official says of first face-to-face interaction between leaders in a year, on WednesdayThe US president, Joe Biden, will meet the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, face-to-face for the first time in a year on Wednesday, the White House said, in high-stakes diplomacy aimed at curbing tensions between the world's two superpowers.The closely watched interaction, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in the San Francisco Bay Area, could last hours and involve teams of officials from Beijing and Washington. Continue reading...

Donald Trump's daughter fulfils her filial role. Plus, De Niro in the dock and Fiona on the farmThe sun is bright and the air is crisp as we enter the second and final week of what, among stiff competition, may be New York's juiciest trial of the season. Not Sam Bankman-Fried, the former crypto-trader awaiting sentencing after his conviction for fraud last week, nor Donald Trump, facing his own civil fraud trial (on top of the 91 felony counts), but Robert De Niro, who is being sued by his former assistant, Graham Chase Robinson, for $12m, and who is countersuing her for $6m. Continue reading...

Offices in Georgia, Nevada, California, Oregon and Washington were all sent letters containing suspicious substancesLaw enforcement in the US is searching for the people responsible for sending letters with suspicious substances sent to election offices in at least five states, acts some election officials described as terrorism".Election offices in Georgia, Nevada, California, Oregon and Washington state all were sent the letters, four of which contained the deadly drug fentanyl, the Associated Press reported. Some of the letters were intercepted before they arrived. The FBI and United States Postal Service are investigating. Continue reading...

In response to the attack, local officials have been putting up warning signs about not feeding elk in local communitiesAn Arizona woman has died after being attacked by an elk she is suspected of feeding, becoming the first person to be killed by the species in the state's history, local wildlife officials have said.The attack happened at the end of October but the woman died this week after succumbing to her injuries in the hospital, CNN reported. Continue reading...

Democrats and abortion rights supporters show enthusiasm for ballot initiatives - but organizers are already meeting interferenceIn the days since Ohio voters overwhelmingly backed a ballot measure to enshrine abortion access in the state constitution, abortion rights supporters and Democrats across the country have become enthralled with the idea of using such measures to protect access to the procedure.Not only are ballot measures often the best chance states have of restoring or protecting abortion rights, but they have proved to be a shot in the arm for Democratic and Republican voters alike. Ballot measures in states such as Kansas and Ohio, once considered conservative strongholds, have won by overwhelming margins - and won in areas that Joe Biden lost in 2020. Continue reading...

A conspiracy theory-touting clerk and far-right supervisor were ousted in Adams Township - but new officials face issues as the 2024 elections loomIn early October, Beverly Sharp addressed a table of poll workers, elections officials and activists gathered in rural Adams Township, Michigan, with a prayer.Father, we thank you for this opportunity to meet together to discuss things, and to agree if we agree, and if we disagree, [to be] friendly," said the longtime poll worker. Continue reading...

Nine of 12 members of the commission charged with avoiding nuclear conflict have financial ties to defense contractorsNine of the 12 members of a high-level congressional committee charged with advising on the US's nuclear weapons strategy have direct financial ties to contractors that would benefit from the report's recommendations or are employed at thinktanks that receive considerable funding from weapons manufacturers, the Guardian and Responsible Statecraft can reveal.While the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States (CCSPUS) purports to recommend steps to avoid nuclear conflict, it does nothing to disclose its own potential conflicts of interest with the weapons industry in its final report or at rollout events at thinktanks in Washington. Continue reading...

Uber-feminine style is often seen as infantile or unserious. But to me it's a form of escapism, nostalgia and joyThe other day I received a parcel in the post, and when I opened it, I squealed with pure glee. Nestled in the box was a pair of pink satin shoes, flat like ballet pumps, fastened with a silver buckle. They looked like a cross between a pair of Velma-from-Scooby-Doo Mary Janes and something you'd see on a Sylvanian Families rabbit. I was delighted.Over the last couple of months, I've developed a predilection for adorning myself in the trappings of uber-femininity: tartan kilts, danceresque tights, legwarmers and fuzzy knits. On the secondhand clothing app Vinted, I now have an alert set up for the phrase bow jumper"; and there is a container on my dressing table that is overflowing with hair ribbons.Lauren O'Neill is a culture writer Continue reading...

Prime minister appears to soften statement that Israel could be responsible for Gaza's security indefinitely. Plus, what has turned a pond in Hawaii bright pink?Good morning.Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel does not seek to conquer, occupy or govern Gaza after its war against Hamas, but a credible force" would be needed to enter the Palestinian territory if necessary to prevent the emergence of militant threats.Why is Israel striking near hospitals in Gaza City? The strikes come as the Israeli military pushes deeper into dense urban neighbourhoods in its battle with Hamas militants. Israel has accused Hamas fighters of hiding in hospitals and using the al-Shifa hospital complex as its main command centre. The claim has been denied by the militant group and hospital staff, who say Israel is creating a pretext to strike it.What does this mean for the Democrats? It will make the Democrats' quest to preserve their majority in the Senate even more difficult. Manchin was one of three Democratic senators representing red states who are facing voters next year, and the party is not viewed as having a strong replacement candidate in West Virginia, a deeply Republican state. Continue reading...