Storms have left at least eight people needing hospital treatment. Waves more than 20ft high poured over seawalls and the tops of low cliffs along the Pacific coast, flooding nearby streets and leaving many injured. In a video taken on Thursday morning, people are seen fleeing Pierpont beach - just north of Los Angeles - as a rogue wave engulfs the area
Military sexual assaults and harassment have increased almost every year since 2006, prompting Congress to pass new legislationIncidents of sexual harassment and assault have been on the rise across the US military for roughly the last 15 years. Now, a new law has been passed that will change how they are dealt with, putting independent lawyers in charge of decisions and sidelining commanders.It's the most important reform to our military justice system since the creation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice in 1950," the US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, said in a statement.Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html Continue reading...
Filipino nurses for Ohio-based company say they have been forced to pay thousands in fees after signing training contractsFilipino nurses are calling for the US's top labor watchdog to review controversial stay or pay" training repayment agreement provisions that have left them facing lawsuits and thousands of dollars in fees after they quit their jobs.Training repayment agreement provisions (Trap) are contracts employers require workers to sign before beginning a job and stipulate that if a worker leaves the job before a specified time, they owe substantial fees. Continue reading...
Police release footage in investigation of deaths of Savannah Soto, 18, and Matthew Guerra, 22, whose bodies were found on TuesdayTexas police have released surveillance footage they hope will lead to answers in the killings of an 18-year-old pregnant woman and her boyfriend. The couple were found shot in the head in a car and may have been dead for days.Police on Friday had not named a possible motive or suspects as family and friends mourned the deaths of Savanah Soto, 18, and Matthew Guerra, 22. Soto went missing before Christmas just before she had been scheduled to have an induced labor. Continue reading...
Military service defines who you are in Israeli society but dissent has a long tradition, despite the many obstaclesLast week, 18-year-old Tal Mitnick was jailed for 30 days for refusing Israel Defense Forces enlistment, becoming the first conscientious objector imprisoned since the Israel-Hamas war began. I refuse to believe that more violence will bring security. I refuse to take part in a war of revenge," Mitnick wrote in a statement.Military conscription is a unifying cornerstone in Israeli society. It is hard to completely trust the IDF figures due to a lack of transparency, but its official numbers show that 69% of men and 56% of women are conscripted for service at 18. This makes the military uniform an emblem of collective national identity, perhaps even more important than the flag, epitomised by the Israeli maxim: A nation building an army is a nation building itself." Continue reading...
Issue animated conservatives for 50 years but has tormented Republicans since the fall of Roe - and it's unclear also whether it will continue to fuel Democratic victoriesAs the 2024 election season ramps up, Republicans continue to struggle to find a winning national strategy on the flashpoint issue of abortion - where restricting the procedure has animated the conservative movement for half a century but tormented the party since the fall of Roe.The supreme court's decision to overturn Roe v Wade delivered Republicans one of their most significant policy victories in a generation. But in the year and a half since the Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization, the ruling has also become one of their biggest political vulnerabilities. Continue reading...
The Israeli prime minister has his own agenda to galvanise his coalition and strengthen himself. A wider war is a real dangerWarnings about a region-wide escalation engulfing the entire Middle East have been circulating since the first fraught days after the 7 October Hamas terrorist atrocities. The most dangerous flashpoint is generally believed to be Israel's northern border with Lebanon, where lethal clashes between the powerful Shia militia Hezbollah and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have greatly intensified in recent days.Sporadic Israeli airstrikes inside Syria, repeated limited attacks by Islamist militants on US bases in Iraq and US reprisal raids - such as that ordered by the president, Joe Biden, on Tuesday - fuel the narrative of an approaching, broader conflagration. Drone and missile attacks on Red Sea shipping by Yemen's Houthi rebels, explicitly launched in support of Hamas and the Palestinians, are adding to the angst. Continue reading...
For many, he represents the nation's cultural presence. But he is also a cause celebre for those frightened by #MeToo and progressive changeI remember the moment my Scottish flatmate showed me a clip of Gerard Depardieu in Le Camion by Marguerite Duras from 1977, proof of his youthful attractiveness. As a woman born in France in the 1980s, my recent memory pictured him as a more imposing figure, someone prone to debordements in the sense of excess - a national treasure: a symbol of a certain Rabelaisian laisser-aller, an overindulgence of man's appetites.I won't lie and say that the latest Depardieu controversy - the accusations of past rape and sexual assault - came as a shock in my parents' home north of Paris, where I am spending the quiet days between Christmas and new year.Elsa Court is a lecturer in French at the University of OxfordDo 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...
Miami and Baltimore meet with the Ravens able to clinch the No 1 seed while the Dolphins can stay in the hunt and win the AFC EastAs the regular season draws to a close, we'll take a look each Friday at a game likely to affect the playoff race, along with the teams whose fortunes are rising and falling. And, so we don't neglect the also-rans, we'll see which teams are in the hunt for next year's No 1 pick. Continue reading...
As the world's attention turns to other conflicts, the onslaught here continues. This is the story of one December day in KyivFrom early, picket lines are set up near the walls of Kyiv's city state administration. My friends and acquaintances are protesting, demanding that the capital's budget be directed not to the repaving of roads, but towards the purchase of drones and FPVs for the battlefield. People close to me are saying: I don't want new roads; I want my friends to come back alive." Continue reading...
Joe Gow says that his free speech rights were violated after the Universities of Wisconsin board of regents decided to fire himFormer University of Wisconsin-La Crosse chancellor Joe Gow has said he was fired by the school's governing board because members were uncomfortable with him and his wife producing and appearing in pornographic videos.The Universities of Wisconsin board of regents, which oversees 11 regional campuses, voted unanimously during a hastily convened closed meeting on Wednesday evening to fire Gow. Continue reading...
Escaping poverty, violence and the climate crisis are factors, but the main driver is rich societies demanding cheap labourWe seem to be living in times of unprecedented mass migration. Images of people from Africa crammed into unseaworthy boats desperately trying to cross the Mediterranean, asylum seekers crossing the Channel into Britain, and caravans" of migrants trying to reach the Mexico-US border all seem to confirm fears that global migration is spinning out of control.A toxic combination of poverty, inequality, violence, oppression, climate breakdown and population growth appear to be pushing growing numbers of people from Africa, Asia and Latin America to embark upon desperate journeys to reach the shores of the wealthy west.Hein de Haas is professor of sociology at the University of Amsterdam, and the author of How Migration Really WorksDo 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...
Decisions stem from the US constitution's insurrection clause and could have major ramifications for 2024 electionOfficials in Colorado and Maine have ruled that Donald Trump is ineligible to run for the White House again, citing his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.In Colorado, the state supreme court ruled 4-3 earlier this month to take the former president off the state's Republican presidential primary ballot; on Thursday, Maine's secretary of state kicked him off the ballot there too. Continue reading...
Far-right Colorado representative had won the third district by just 546 votes in 2022 and will move to the fourth for a fresh start'Colorado's Republican representative Lauren Boebert has announced that she will be changing congressional districts ahead of her 2024 Republican nomination bid for the House.In a Facebook video on Wednesday, the 36-year old, far-right representative announced that she would be moving from Colorado's third district to its fourth district. Continue reading...
by David Smith in Washington and agencies on (#6HESB)
Critics call decision by Steve Jones a disgrace' and say recently redrawn maps dilute voting power of minority residentsA federal judge in Georgia on Thursday upheld a Republican-drawn congressional map, a ruling branded a disgrace" by voting rights advocates who claim that the latest district lines illegally dilute the voting power of minority residents.The decision from Steve Jones set the stage for next year's elections, with Republicans now likely to maintain their 9-5 advantage among the swing state's 14 seats in the US House of Representatives. Continue reading...
Prank call to police claimed a shooting occurred at Scott's Naples home, prompting a Swat team to deploy before standing downThe Republican Florida senator Rick Scott has said that his home was swatted" on Wednesday night.While he was dining with his wife, Ann, local Naples authorities responded to what was revealed to be a prank call intentionally made to lure resources like a Swat team to a location to respond to a false threat of danger, otherwise known as a swatting call". Continue reading...
Two countries agree to enhance efforts to tackle human smuggling, poverty and violence and promote legal pathways'US and Mexican officials have hailed the success of talks held on Wednesday aimed at curbing historically high unauthorized immigration across their shared, 2,000-mile border that risks becoming a humanitarian disaster and an election year political crisis for Joe Biden.After the closed-door meeting between the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the Mexican foreign minister, Alicia Barcena, the Mexican president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, hailed what he described as important agreements". Continue reading...
Over the holidays, this column will explore next year's urgent issues. Today we look at the danger posed by the former president's bid for reelectionThe great spectre haunting 2024 is the threat of Donald Trump triumphing in November's election. A second stint in the Oval Office would have grim repercussions for the US and the world. He dominates the Republican race for the presidential candidacy, while recent polls showed him beating Joe Biden in five of the six key battleground states, and besting the president on issues including the economy and national security. The Biden administration has overseen a striking economic recovery in tough global conditions, but voters don't feel the improvement. The president's handling of the war in Gaza is alienating core supporters. He inspires littleenthusiasm.Democrats point out that there's a long way to go and that November's off-year election results point to a brighter picture. Mr Trump faces a dizzying array of legal cases, though the most significant may not move to a trial before the election. While they boost the belief of diehard admirers that he is being persecuted, some supporters say he should not stand if convicted. It's not impossible that he might run from a prison cell. Continue reading...
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley declined to say that the US civil war was caused by slavery when asked by a voter in Berlin, New Hampshire. Responding to the questioner, Haley said: 'I mean, I think it always comes down to the role of government and what the rights of the people are'
Owner of property donated it to the University of Idaho, which said that its demolition was a key step towards finding closureDemolition began on Thursday of the house where four University of Idaho students were killed last year, marking an emotional step for the victims' families and a close-knit community that was shocked and devastated by the brutal stabbings.The sounds of construction equipment pierced the early morning air as an excavator started tearing down the front part of the house. The former walls formed a large pile of crushed and smashed wood on the ground as debris was picked up and loaded into a dump truck. Continue reading...
Every tech company from Monzo to my bank is crunching my data. All the results tell us is how dull it is to reduce human experience to numbers.How was my 2023? Pretty good, thanks. I spent 60 hours at my local cinema and 51 days listening to music from 170 genres (chiefly art pop"). Plus, I made a respectable 46 transactions at M&S. How about you?December has always been a time to take stock: the highs, lows, memorable moments and best-ofs from the year just passed. But over the past half-decade or so, there has been a creeping, unmistakable shift in how we approach these informal annual reviews.Elle Hunt is a freelance journalist Continue reading...
The Rev William Barber says he was trying to use his own chair in the disabled section for a screening of The Color PurpleMovie theatre chain AMC has apologized to a North Carolina civil rights leader after he was kicked out of a screening of The Color Purple for trying to use his own chair in the disabled section.The Rev William Barber, a former president of the NAACP North Carolina chapter, who suffers from a form of arthritis known as ankylosing spondylitis and walks with two canes, said that he tried to use a special chair he brought to an AMC Cineplex in Greenville on Tuesday afternoon and was told by staff he couldn't. Continue reading...
Blanchard persuaded her boyfriend to kill her mother, who forced her to use a wheelchair and a feeding tube for yearsGypsy Rose Blanchard, the Missouri woman who persuaded an online boyfriend to kill her mother after she had forced her to pretend for years that she was suffering from leukemia, muscular dystrophy and other serious illnesses, was released on Thursday from prison on parole.Blanchard was released early in the day from the Chillicothe correctional center, said Karen Pojmann, a spokesperson for the Missouri department of corrections. Blanchard was granted parole after serving 85% of her original sentence, Pojmann said. Continue reading...
Republican presidential candidate discussed role of government in response to voter's question but walked it back on ThursdayRepublican presidential candidate Nikki Haley declined to specify that slavery was a cause of the civil war on Wednesday, wading into an area of history that continues to reverberate and in some ways define US politics nearly 160 years after it concluded.Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, where the first shots of the north-south conflict were fired by Confederate soldiers in April 1861, was asked by a New Hampshire voter about the reason for the war but didn't mention slavery in her response. Continue reading...
Judge ordered Lorna Green, now serving five years for the arson attack, to pay insurance company, building owner and clinic founderA judge has ordered a woman who set fire to Wyomings only full-service abortion clinic to pay nearly $300,000 in restitution, the full amount sought by prosecutors.Lorna Green is serving five years in prison for burning Wellspring Health Access weeks before the clinic was set to open in Casper in 2022. The fire gutted the building while it was being renovated for the new clinic and delayed its opening by almost a year. Continue reading...
When we started out, we didn't dare dream it would lead to this: expanded rainforest, a beaver release, and rewilding at BalmoralSid Rawle, the 1960s peace campaigner and infamous King of the Hippies", once remarked that if land ownership in Britain were to be divided equally, we would each get about an acre. Surprisingly, this thought experiment would just about hold true today.The UK measures 60m acres in total and is home to around 67 million of us. There is something rather beguiling about such extreme egalitarianism - impractical though it might be. One person, one vote, one acre. But there's also something about it that rather helps clarify the mind should you ever find yourself, as I have done recently, trying to reform the mind-bogglingly large amounts of land owned by the British royal family. Continue reading...
Empiricism, algorithms and smartphones are out - astrology, art and a life lived fiercely offline are inCultural upheavals can be a riddle in real time. Trends that might seem obvious in hindsight are poorly understood in the present or not fathomed at all. We live in turbulent times now, at the tail end of a pandemic that killed millions and, for a period, reordered existence as we knew it. It marked, perhaps more than any other crisis in modern times, a new era, the world of the 2010s wrenched away for good.What comes next can't be known - not with so much war and political instability, the rise of autocrats around the world, and the growing plausibility of a second Donald Trump term. Within the roil - or below it - one can hazard, at least, a hypothesis: a change is here and it should be named. A rebellion, both conscious and unconscious, has begun. It is happening both online and off-, and the off is where the youth, one day, might prefer to wage it. It echoes, in its own way, a great shift that came more than two centuries ago, out of the ashes of the Napoleonic wars. Continue reading...
President faces pressure from Republican critics and Democratic allies as he struggles to address what both sides agree is a crisisHeading into the heat of the 2024 election season, Joe Biden is weighing major changes to US immigration policy that would toughen border enforcement and address an issue that has emerged as one of the president's biggest political vulnerabilities ahead of a likely rematch against his anti-immigration rival Donald Trump.But it is also a risk for Biden, who entered the White House in 2021 promising to restore humanity and American values to our immigration system" after Trump's four-year crackdown on immigration. Continue reading...
The conversation is stuck: you're either playing the race card' or in denial'. But here's a way to break throughThe national conversation on racism seems to be stuck in an endless loop. We all know the routine: a public debate is sparked by a news story that features a case of alleged bigotry. It might be reports that an Asian cricketer was nicknamed Bomber"; or that a member of the royal family is said to have questioned a baby's skin colour. Whatever it is, the inciting incident then sets the parameters of all the discussion to follow. An array of loud and angry voices appears on media panel shows or radio phone-ins, suggesting what might or might not have occurred (no one knows for certain), and whether or not any of it is racist (everyone is certain that it either is, or it isn't).And so, instead of the nuances of racial inequality being understood, the issue is portrayed as a simple matter of people saying or doing bad things to each other, and we get a tiresome to and fro between those playing the race card" and others in denial". Many of us just tune out, while the overall issue of racism in society - a real problem in need of an urgent solution - remains unaddressed. Continue reading...
Amid soaring rents, some are turning to the UK's many vacant properties for shelter. Could this be a return to the 70s and 80s?The postcode was an exclusive area of London and the four-storey, period building was something an estate agent might describe as magnificent" and imposing". A man escorted me to a side door in near darkness. The door opened and as soon as I was in, it closed quickly behind me.The inside of the property was vast, but there was barely any furniture and the walls and high ceilings had been graffitied. The inhabitants were initially suspicious of me, but seemed friendly enough. I had imagined them to be more disorderly, but instead some were busy with cordless drills, trying to make the cold, once palatial property more habitable. Continue reading...
Former president and frontrunner for Republican 2024 presidential nomination also expected to file own appealThe Colorado Republican Party has asked the US supreme court to intervene after Colorado's top court disqualified former president Donald Trump from appearing on the state's Republican primary ballot, an attorney for the Republican group said.The appeal comes after the Colorado supreme court last week disqualified Trump because of his role in the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol by his supporters. The court barred Trump under a US constitutional provision prohibiting anyone who engaged in insurrection or rebellion" from holding public office. Continue reading...
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has said he wants US to reopen border crossings that were closed due to influx of arrivalsUS secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has met with Mexico's president, in an attempt to limit the surge of migrants reaching the US southwestern border.President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has said he is willing to help, but he wants to see progress in US relations with Cuba and Venezuela, two of the top sources of migrants, along with more development aid for the region. Continue reading...
The 14-year-old was then allegedly shot and wounded by his 15-year-old brother in retaliation; both are now in custodyA Florida woman holding her 11-month-old son in a baby carrier was fatally shot by her 14-year-old brother while trying to defuse an argument over Christmas gifts he was having with a 15-year-old brother who also was armed, authorities said.The 15-year-old brother then shot his 14-year-old brother, though not fatally, for killing their sister on Sunday in Largo, Florida, which is located in the Tampa metro area, the Pinellas county sheriff's office said in a news release. Continue reading...
The controversy over Hasan Minhaj's onstage storytelling was a sign of the shifting demands placed on standup comicsNo one gets into standup comedy expecting a routine factcheck. But that's what happened when a September profile of Hasan Minhaj in the New Yorker called out the former host of the Netflix series Patriot Act for misrepresenting his truth in two Netflix standup specials. In one, Minhaj described a white FBI informant infiltrating his mosque and an anthrax scare involving his young daughter (neither happened as Minhaj described them, the magazine found). In another, he recalled a white high school crush who jilted him on prom night for seemingly no other reason than his being of Indian descent (she denied it went down like that). The magazine said Minhaj's stories blur the lines between entertainment and opinion journalism", triggering an intense public debate about whether the comedian had stooped to claiming race-based victimhood to advance his career. Bill Maher likened Minhaj, a peer, to Jussie Smollett.In a 21-minute video rebuttal, Minhaj made a case for punching up his biography while poking holes in the New Yorker's hallowed vetting process. With everything that's happening in the world," Minhaj intoned, I'm aware even talking about this now feels so trivial. But being accused of faking racism is not trivial. It is very serious, and it demands an explanation." Continue reading...
Amid fears of authoritarianism, oldest US president likely to face off against first president to be criminally chargedThe 60th US presidential election, which will unfold in 2024, will be quite unlike any that has gone before as the US, and the rest of the world, braces for a contest amid fears of eroding democracy and the looming threat of authoritarianism.It will be a fight marked by numerous unwanted firsts as the oldest president in the country's history is likely to face the first former US president to stand trial on criminal charges. A once aspirational nation will continue its plunge into anxiety and divisions about crime, immigration, race, foreign wars and the cost of living. Continue reading...
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