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Born into rural Depression life and dubbed Steel Magnolia' by Washington, the former first lady was known for her soft smile and passion for politicsThe Washington chattering class, often unsure what to make of outsiders, dubbed Rosalynn Carter the steel magnolia" when she arrived as first lady.A devout Baptist and mother of four, she was diminutive and outwardly shy, with a soft smile and softer Southern accent. That was the magnolia". She also was a force behind Jimmy Carter's rise from peanut farmer to winner of the 1976 presidential election. That was the steel". Continue reading...

Matthew Antonio Zakrzewski was arrested in 2019 and charged with 34 felonies, including lewd and lascivious acts with a minorA male nanny who advertised himself as a manny" and worked for families across southern California before being convicted of sexually assaulting 16 young boys in his care has been handed a prison sentence of more than 700 years.Matthew Antonio Zakrzewski, who was also convicted of showing child sexual abuse material to a boy, received his punishment at a sentencing hearing Friday, California prosecutors said in a statement.In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453 or visit their website for more resources and to report child abuse or DM for help. For adult survivors of child abuse, help is available at ascasupport.org. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines InternationalThe Associated Press contributed reporting Continue reading...

JB Pritzker, who's of Jewish descent, says Trump is dangerous for our democracy' and dangerous for specific minority groups in USDonald Trump's rhetoric on immigration, his plans for a second presidency if he wins next year's election, and his description of political enemies as vermin" reflect the language of 1930s Germany and the Nazis' rise to power there, a senior Democrat warned on Sunday.JB Pritzker, the Illinois governor of Jewish descent who helped drive the construction of the state's Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Chicago, added his voice to a wave of condemnation over the former president's remarks. Continue reading...

State policy presumes children younger than 14 are incapable of committing crimes unless they knew its wrongfulness' at the timeA five-year-old California boy who fatally stabbed his twin brother last week won't be charged with a crime, according to authorities.The case illustrates how many US states have policies setting a minimum age for prosecution, taking into account knowledge of wrongfulness and criminal intent. In California, children who are younger than 14 are presumed to be incapable of committing crimes unless at the time of ... the act charged against them, they knew its wrongfulness", according to the state's penal code. Continue reading...

Florida governor claims he hasn't seen the message in which Musk tweeted an enthusiastic agreement with antisemitic postRon DeSantis defended Elon Musk as a guy that believes in America" on Sunday as the Florida governor refused to condemn X's billionaire owner for an antisemitic post that caused numerous key advertisers to desert the social media platform.In an interview Sunday on CNN's State of the Union, the Republican Florida governor claimed he had not seen the message on the platform that was formerly known as Twitter. The message - in which Musk said an X user who accused Jewish people of hating white people was speaking the actual truth" - was denounced by the White House on Friday as abhorrent". Continue reading...

GOP win elections on Saturday in once-bipartisan state for attorney general, secretary of state and treasurerUpon January's arrival, Republicans will control every elected statewide office in once-bipartisan Louisiana after the GOP swept runoff races Saturday for attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer.The Republican success, in a state that has had a centrist Democrat in the governor's office for the past eight years, means that political conservatives have secured all of Louisiana's statewide offices for the first time since 2015. Republicans secured the governor's mansion in October and also hold a two-third supermajority in the state house as well as the senate.The Associated Press contributed reporting Continue reading...

Mavis Christian Jr suspected of killing three women and a teenage girl during a domestic violence rampage Saturday night, police sayA suspect in Tennessee who allegedly killed four people and seriously injured a fifth victim while on a domestic violence rampage died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot while on the run, according to authorities.Officers conducting a manhunt for Mavis Christian Jr, 52, found him dead in his car early Sunday after shootings at three locations in Memphis on Saturday night that left three women and a teenage girl dead - another teen girl was critically wounded.The Associated Press contributed reporting Continue reading...

Left unchecked, work will rule your life. If we can't entirely exorcise the work demon, we should, frankly, make it harder for it to do its thingThe best advice I've ever heard about rest also feels the most impossible: put it in your diary before anything else. Schedule it in, as deliberately as you would any other activity, before work colonises your entire consciousness. Like that TikTok user who started seeing an overstuffed Outlook calendar in random places, including the boxy pattern on an upholstered train seat.Left unchecked, work will rule your life. Continue reading...

I eat my greens and I look after my gums. There's not much I won't do for the sake of my health. But this? Get lostAre you sitting down? Not because I am about to say anything shocking. Sorry - I shouldn't scare you. I bet you are sitting. So am I. Because sitting is what we mainly do, isn't it? Sitting is nice, a simple and enduring pleasure, unless it's forced upon you by illness or disability. This is a shame, because it's also killing me, you and everyone else.You know this, probably. The sitting is worse than smoking" messaging started in about 2010. It isn't worse than smoking - duh - but it is associated with higher all-cause mortality". People doing more than 12 hours per day sitting had a higher risk of [premature] death," according to one of the authors of the most recent and widely publicised research on sitting and how to counteract its ill effects, which analysed data from four large-scale studies. Continue reading...

Max Verstappen overcame a five-second penalty and a collision with George Russell to claim his 18th win of this Formula One season and continue his dominance in the sport. The world champion was penalised after forcing Charles Leclerc wide on the first corner but fought back to win. 'I had to work for it, [it was] very hectic,' the Dutchman said. 'We were struggling on the tyres, [but] once we pitted, we had a lot more pace in the car.'

As Max Verstappen wins on the Strip, we take a look at the best images from a spectacular race in Las Vegas Verstappen fights back to win as F1's gamble pays off Continue reading...

Zach Shrewsbury faces an improbable task to replace the conservative Democrat in the face of a Republican onslaught - but he won't be put offTo launch his campaign for US Senate, Zach Shrewsbury chose the site of one of America's most famous hangings.Charles Town, West Virginia, was where state authorities executed the abolitionist John Brown after he led an attack on a federal armory a few miles down the road in Harpers Ferry, a pivotal moment in the lead-up to the civil war. One hundred and sixty four years later, Shrewsbury - who decided against attempting to get a permit for the event at the site of the insurrection, which is now a national park - stood on the courthouse grounds where Brown's hanging took place to announce that he would be the only real Democrat" running to represent West Virginia in the Senate next year. Continue reading...

The house Abraham Lincoln used to escape the White House exerts unusual power, 160 years after the Gettysburg AddressWhen Joe Biden seeks release from Washington pressures, he goes to his house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Donald Trump, of course, had Mar-a-Lago in Florida and even Richard Nixon had the Western White House", in San Clemente, California. Presidents often have places to go to escape.Abraham Lincoln needed an escape more than anyone but his bolt hole was closer to home: a cottage at the Soldiers' Home, on a hill north of the White House in Washington DC itself. It's still there, a lesser-known historical site in the capital. Continue reading...

Relatives allege American contractor on island of Diego Garcia failed to get proper medical help for 33-year-old Saddam AliA major US defence contractor has failed to repatriate the body of a migrant worker who died under unexplained circumstances on the British-owned island of Diego Garcia more than a month ago, the Observer has learned.Saddam Ali died after a short illness on 18 October, on the secretive joint UK-US military base on the remote British overseas territory in the Indian Ocean. His family allege that KBR - Ali's employer - failed to get the 33-year-old Indian sufficient medical assistance, keeping him on the base, which does not have a hospital-grade facility. Continue reading...

Virginia Democrat Jennifer Wexton has been using assistive technology after diagnosis with six- to nine-year life expectancyTo keep up with an unrelenting US House schedule, Virginia congresswoman Jennifer Wexton has had to skip some of her speech and physical therapy appointments as she battles a rare, life-threatening brain disorder, she told CBS News in an interview published Saturday.It's been a difficult journey, but I'm working hard as ever to serve," Wexton, a Democrat, said in a social media post promoting the interview that explored her life since being diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) in September. The post on X, formerly known as Twitter, added: I'm sharing my experience to raise awareness of what PSP is and why it's so important to find a cure." Continue reading...

An interview with the French president's wife contrasts with the film May December about a taboo that is an abuse of powerLast week's release of Todd Haynes' film May December coincides with the publication of a rare magazine interview with Brigitte Macron. The film is based on the true story of a woman who began a relationship with her husband when she was 34 and he 12. Emmanuel Macron was 15 when he was seduced by his drama teacher Brigitte, 40. In both, we are invited to consider one of society's enduring taboos: a relationship between an older woman and an adolescent boy.The way in which these transgressive relationships are portrayed in popular culture is neither conclusive nor straightforward. Zoe Heller's Notes on a Scandal was one of the first examinations of the female teacher/male pupil relationship, after new laws in the UK made such liaisons illegal. The novel and the subsequent film captured the levels of deception and manipulation to which the teacher is prepared to go in order to possess the 15-year-old, with the boy seemingly complicit as their affair" spirals hedonistically out of control. What the audience is not shown is what happens when the authorities intervene and the relationship falls apart. Continue reading...

The world champion was made to work for victory with Charles Leclerc taking an impressive second and Sergio Perez in thirdVerstappen hasn't been shy in sharing his thoughts surrounding this race, doubling down on previous criticism that of the race that tagged it as 99% show, 1% sporting event" by tagging it as a National League" circuit in comparison to the Champions League" quality of Monaco yesterday.Anyway, Giles Richards has more. Continue reading...

Graduate salaries have fallen 16% since 2007 in Britain, but across the Atlantic youth-friendly policies are paying off, new research findsShould we envy Americans? There are the wonderful national parks, but also the widely available firearms. Purely on the economics, though, millennials on this side of the Atlantic should be green-eyed.Children of the 1980s and 1990s in the UK and US were caught out as the financial crisis scuppered the economy just as many started work: generational progress ground to a halt as millennials' pay took a step down from the levels their predecessors enjoyed at the same age. But that was 15 years ago - some of those kids" are hitting their 30s and 40s, with children and wrinkles emerging. How are they faring today? Continue reading...

California state officials seek public's help in identifying person shown in two photos posted to social mediaInvestigators on Saturday identified a person of interest" in the Los Angeles arson fire last week that closed a central freeway for days, snarling traffic as repair crews continue to work around the clock to fix it.The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire, and the state fire marshal released two photos in a crime alert notification" posted to social media and said it was seeking the public's help to identify the person. Continue reading...

The book, Famous Composers, was last borrowed in 1919 from the St Paul library; mayor assures that there will be no late feeThe book on famous composers from the St Paul public library in Minnesota must have been a really good read.It was more than a century overdue when it was finally returned recently. Continue reading...

State attorney general said that John Madore, 33, killed security officer Bradley Haas in the entrance to the psychiatric hospitalAuthorities say the gunman who was killed after shooting to death a security guard at a New Hampshire psychiatric hospital has been identified.New Hampshire's attorney general, John Formella, said on Saturday that 33-year-old John Madore entered the New Hampshire hospital on Friday afternoon and killed Bradley Haas, a state department of safety security officer who was working at the front lobby entrance of the facility. Continue reading...

The British may have left the EU, but if recent films are to go by, their language remains centre stageFrench was once the pre-eminent international language of Europe; the language of diplomacy and intellectual culture, spoken from Paris to St Petersburg, the successor to Latin, the tongue of every civilised man and woman.In 1871, the German chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, crushed France and annexed the territory of Alsace-Lorraine after the Franco-Prussian war. More than a decade later, Bismarck hosted the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, which carved up Africa into European colonies, and spoke to the other European delegates in French. Continue reading...

Shooter killed security guard, who has been identified, and was shot dead by a state police officer on security dutyAn armed individual walked into the lobby of a state psychiatric hospital in New Hampshire on Friday and shot dead a former police chief working as a security guard before a state police officer on duty at the facility shot and killed the suspect, officials said.New Hampshire state police initially had reported multiple victims" from the shooting, but no one else, including the trooper who confronted the suspect, was injured in the gun violence, which erupted at about 3.30pm ET at the New Hampshire state hospital in Concord, the state capital, according to Mark Hall, the state police colonel. Continue reading...

Twenty-five-year-old Christy Perry survived alone in the 1,200 sq mile Big Bend national park by drinking rainwaterA woman who had gone missing for more than a week while hiking in a national park in west Texas - resorting to drinking rainwater to stave off dehydration or worse - was found alive and rescued on Friday, according to federal officials.Christy Perry, 25, survived getting lost at the 1,200 sq mile (3,108 sq km) Big Bend national park, which made national news headlines in June when a teenage boy died after falling ill as he hiked in temperatures of 119F (48.3C). The boy's stepfather was then killed after he crashed his car during a frantic search for help. Continue reading...

Suspected campaign donations from the Turkish government have led to the seizure of Adams' phones. How bad could things get for the country's most powerful mayor?On 2 November, FBI agents executed a predawn raid on the home of the New York City mayor's chief fundraiser, 25-year-old Brianna Suggs - seizing phones, an iPad and documents. Agents also reportedly searched the home of a Turkish Airlines executive and a Brooklyn construction company owned by Turkish immigrants that had fundraised for the mayor, Eric Adams.Days later, agents approached Adams in the street as he was leaving a Manhattan fundraiser and asked his security guards to step aside. Then they got into an SUV with him and seized two iPhones and an iPad. They returned those devices after a few days. Continue reading...

On the eve of Sunday's Las Vegas Grand Prix, the 1980 world champion looks back on a footnote in history 42 years agoFinally then, Formula One has made it to the Strip with the Las Vegas Grand Prix being held in the early hours of Sunday morning 41 years on from the sport's last visit to the city when it did not get further than the car park at Caesars Palace. Those races in 1981 and 1982 are but a footnote in F1 history, no trace of the circuit remains, but one driver at least still has fond memories.The meetings in the 80s could not stand in greater contrast to the all-singing, all-dancing extravaganza F1 has put on through the heart of the city this weekend, including an enormous straight down Las Vegas Boulevard, the Strip, with all the landmarks, the Bellagio fountains, Caesars, the Venetian, Paris, that provide the backdrop F1 wanted for their showcase event. Continue reading...

Prosecutors said that Kaitlin Armstrong gunned down cyclist in jealous rage because Wilson dated her boyfriend months earlierA Texas jury on Friday sentenced a woman to 90 years in prison for the May 2022 shooting death of rising professional cyclist Anna Moriah Mo" Wilson in a case that sent investigators on a 43-day international search for the killer.Jurors deliberated for just over three hours before delivering the sentence for Kaitlin Armstrong, who investigators say tracked Wilson to the apartment where she was staying and shot her three times. They took only two hours on Thursday to convict her of murder. Continue reading...

What Biden calls the the most powerful nation in the history of the world' is surprisingly bad at keeping its citizens aliveWe're the United States of America, for God's sake," Joe Biden scoffed to 60 Minutes last month after he was asked if the US was capable of funding Ukraine and Israel's wars. We're the most powerful nation ... in the history of the world. The history of the world." Continue reading...

The US president's support for Israel's PM is damaging America's reputation abroad, hurting his own chances of re-election and prolonging the suffering in Gaza

Charles Chaz' Nuttycombe, 24, is impressing analysts with his accurate forecasts of consequential state legislature electionsIn the days after Democrats won control of Virginia's state legislature, Charles Chaz" Nuttycombe was focused on the results in house of delegates districts 41 and 82, both of which you've probably never heard of.Neither of the competitive races would determine which party controlled the Virginia legislature, but it was one of a handful where votes were still being counted and the results too close to call. In the lead-up to election day, Nuttycombe, a 24-year-old senior at Virginia Tech, had predicted that the Republican candidates would win both. But his final forecast in Virginia gave Democrats a 61% chance of winning control of the house of delegates and a 71% chance of holding control in the state senate. Continue reading...

Democrat Zeneta Everhart, mother of Zaire Goodman, who was wounded in the 2022 mass shooting, won 90.8% of the voteThe single mother of a victim of the 2022 Tops Friendly Market shooting was elected to Buffalo common council this month in a major election day blowout. Democrat Zeneta Everhart won 90.8% of the vote in her home community of Masten, a predominantly Black, low-income district within Buffalo, New York.After her swearing in on 1 January 2024, she will serve as one of nine council-members on the Buffalo common council representing the nine municipal districts of the city. Continue reading...

Opponents tell judge that sediment runoff from police campus violates Clean Water Act and thus project should be haltedA federal judge has to decide whether sediment runoff from the controversial Cop City" police and fire department training center near Atlanta violates the Clean Water Act and is cause for stopping the project temporarily, after hearing both sides of the argument this week.The judge may also dismiss the underlying environmental lawsuit, as defendants have asked the court. Continue reading...

Rudy Giuliani and MyPillow's Mike Lindell are among election deniers sued for defamatory statements regarding 2020 electionGroups seeking to protect US democracy from a renewed threat of subversion in the presidential race next year wield a new weapon against Donald Trump and his accomplices: the little-used law of defamation.Trump's former lawyer Rudy Giuliani, the My Pillow CEO, Mike Lindell, and conspiracy theorist Dinesh D'Souza are among the individuals named in a spate of high-profile defamation cases targeting those who tried to overturn the 2020 election. Prominent rightwing media outlets such as Fox News and Gateway Pundit are also on the hook. Continue reading...

Dubbed city of hate' after the 1963 killing, the Texas metropolis has largely moved on but the forces that brought death to Dealey Plaza are arguably more prevalent than everThe brick walls are painted white. Dozens of cardboard boxes marked Books" are stacked like a barricade on grimy floorboards. At the south-east corner window, the boxes appear to form a sniper's perch. It was here 60 years ago on Wednesday that, by official accounts, Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots heard around the world.The assassination of John F Kennedy, the 35th US president, shone an unforgiving light on Dallas, Texas, which came to be known as the city of hate". Six decades later, the city has grown beyond recognition and come a long way in grappling with that legacy. But the forces that turned Dealey Plaza into a white hot crucible are arguably more prevalent than ever. Continue reading...

Michael Lacey, Scott Spear and John Brunst, all men in their 70s, created complicated system to try to outwit US governmentThree former owners of the website Backpage, a site mainly known as a place where sex workers advertise their services, have been convicted for federal crimes including promoting prostitution and money laundering, the US Department of Justice announced on Friday.The recently convicted trio, Michael Lacey, 75, Scott Spear, 72, and John Jed" Brunst, 71, came to own Backpage in 2010. Since then, the government says, they encouraged sex work ads by creating a system for johns", or customers, to leave reviews about the sex workers they had engaged with. Website workers and an automated system filtered out words that made it obvious that sex was being offered in exchange for money. Continue reading...

New York judge temporarily lifted gag order, opening window through which Trump could vent his unrestrained feelingsBarely an hour after a gag order prohibiting Donald Trump from commenting about court staff at his civil fraud trial in New York was temporarily lifted, he was at it again - unleashing a blitzkrieg of social media outrage at a clerk who has become the lightning rod for the former president's rage.On Thursday afternoon a New York appeals court judge, David Friedman, paused a gag order that had been placed on Trump last month. The move opened a window through which Trump could vent his unrestrained feelings. Continue reading...

US House speaker to make good on promise to far-right Republicans including Matt Gaetz and Donald TrumpHouse speaker Mike Johnson said Friday he plans to publicly release thousands of hours of footage from the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, making good on a promise he made to far-right members of his party when he was campaigning for his current job.This decision will provide millions of Americans, criminal defendants, public interest organizations and the media an ability to see for themselves what happened that day, rather than having to rely upon the interpretation of a small group of government officials," Johnson said in a statement. Continue reading...

Convicted South Carolina murderer says: I agree that I wrongly took all of that money ... I am guilty'Alex Murdaugh has pleaded guilty to stealing millions of dollars from vulnerable legal clients in schemes lasting over a decade under an agreement that all but ensures more prison time for the longtime lawyer who was convicted of killing his wife and younger son in South Carolina.Murdaugh agreed to plead guilty to 22 total counts, including money laundering, breach of trust and financial fraud, in exchange for a 27-year sentence. Judge Clifton Newman said he intends to officially accept the plea deal during a sentencing hearing set for 28 November so that victims or their families may attend. Continue reading...

Former first lady, 96, who married husband in 1946, three decades before White House victory, enters hospice care at home in GeorgiaJimmy Carter's wife Rosalynn has entered hospice treatment at home, the former first lady joining the 99-year-old ex-president in end-of-life care at the couple's Georgia residence, her family said on Friday.The news came in a brief statement released by the human rights non-profit Carter Center, on behalf of Jason Carter, the grandson of the 39th president and his 96-year-old wife. Continue reading...

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Charissa Thompson, 41, tells podcast she invented conversations with NFL coaches if she failed to get quotes in timeThe Fox Sports reporter Charissa Thompson is facing a backlash after admitting to lying in her job and making up fake interviews during her sideline reporting.In an episode of Barstool Sports's Pardon My Take podcast, Thompson, 41, said she invented quotes from coaches in her NFL sideline reports for fear of losing her job. Continue reading...

Pro-ceasefire demonstrators also detained outside investment company accused of helping supply weapons to IsraelMore protests demanding a ceasefire in Gaza were under way in the US on Friday morning, with police breaking up crowds and arresting demonstrators in various locations.Such demonstrations come as recent polling shows that US public support for Israel is dropping, while the Hamas authorities in Gaza reported on Friday that more than 12,000 Palestinians, overwhelmingly civilians and mostly women and children, had now been killed since Israel declared war on Hamas in October. Continue reading...

Glass, 22, was experiencing a mental health crisis when officers responded to his call for helpSix Colorado law enforcement officers have been charged with failing to intervene during a standoff that ended with the fatal shooting of a 22-year-old man suffering a mental health crisis last year, prosecutors said on Friday.The announcement came a day after a former sergeant who had previously been charged in the killing of Christian Glass pleaded guilty to failing to intervene, a misdemeanor crime created by state lawmakers in 2020 following the killing of George Floyd. Continue reading...

Bill introduced to expel New York Republican as committee suggests federal prosecutors should bring more chargesThe embattled Republican US representative George Santos faced a fresh effort to expel him from Congress on Friday, the day after fellow lawmakers released a report that suggested federal prosecutors should bring additional criminal charges against him.The House of Representatives ethics committee chairman, Michael Guest, introduced the bill targeting the first-term lawmaker from New York, who is now known as much for being a fabulist and a criminal defendant as a politician. Continue reading...

Both those calling for a ceasefire and those opposing it are making assumptions that don't stack upKnow thine enemy - and know thine ally, too. Too many of those pushing for one outcome or another in the war between Israel and Hamas misjudge the parties involved. They make mistaken assumptions about one side or the other - or both - that lead them to draw flawed, even dangerous, conclusions. There is no monopoly on these mistaken assumptions. They can be made by those calling on western leaders to demand an immediate ceasefire - and by the very western leaders they seek to persuade.Start with those who look at the havoc wreaked in Gaza - at the many thousands killed, at the pile of rubble that was once the largest Palestinian city in the world - and decide that, whatever horrors Hamas committed on 7 October, surely it has now sustained enough of a blow; given all that Gaza has suffered, surely now Hamas will be deterred from future attacks. Such thinking fundamentally misunderstands the nature of that organisation. Because Hamas is a different kind of enemy, one that does not fit the usual theories of war. Put simply, it does not mind if its own people die.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...