Microsoft co-founder reflects on ‘a tough year’ after end of 27-year marriage to Melinda French GatesBill Gates has responded to allegations of an extramarital affair on the first anniversary of the joint announcement that he and Melinda French Gates were getting divorced.“I certainly made mistakes and I take responsibility,” the Microsoft co-founder told Today on Tuesday morning when asked if he was ever unfaithful throughout his 27-year marriage to French Gates. Continue reading...
Fifty to 100 people arriving at camp every day as some told at US border in Tijuana they would no longer be admittedOn a dusty field on the east side of Mexico’s sprawling capital, about 500 Ukrainian refugees are waiting in large tents under a searing sun for the United States government to tell them they can come.The camp has only been open a week and 50 to 100 people are arriving every day. Some have already been to the US border in Tijuana where they were told they would no longer be admitted. Others arrived at airports in Mexico City or Cancún, anywhere they could find a ticket from Europe. Continue reading...
Having spoken to women across the business, I know abuse is rife. But speaking out is made incredibly hardThanks to a joint investigation by BBC Three and the Guardian, allegations of sexual misconduct against the DJ Tim Westwood – claims he firmly denies – are finally being heard. As I listened to the testimony of the seven women who came forward, I had a strong sense of deja vu. Last year I spoke to women across the industry for another BBC Three film, Music’s Dirty Secrets, and many stories mirrored those told by Westwood’s accusers.What I learned from making my film, and in my research for a follow-up documentary, is that across the music industry, there is a problem with sexism, misogyny and sexual misconduct. It seems those at the top are only moved to act when there’s a major scandal (and therefore serious negative publicity) brewing. Part of the problem is that proving allegations of sexual misconduct is notoriously hard, especially if those accused are powerful and extremely litigious. Yet the #MeToo movement, which led to the downfall of the film producer Harvey Weinstein and other powerful figures, seems to have bypassed the music industry entirely, even though many people I’ve spoken to believe it is even worse than Hollywood.Tamanna Rahman is a film-maker based in London Continue reading...
The US supreme court leak shows that the levers of power are pulled by those with no skin in the game, at the expense of those with an entire uterus in itAn American girl born this week will have fewer rights than an American girl born in 1973. This is the likely import of the leaked US supreme court draft opinion on abortion rights – and cause for a huge thank-you-very-much to all those guys who suggested that women marching on Washington in January 2017 were “overreacting” to the election of Donald Trump. Please make sure to tell women again when they are being overemotional – even as they sit and watch one of Trump’s justice picks scream and sob his way through his own confirmation hearings. In the meantime, resign yourself to yet another “quirk” of the looking-glass world Trump has created. Of course – OF COURSE – women’s access to abortion would end up being restricted or removed by the deliberate decisions of a man widely imagined to have personally helped to keep the Manhattan abortion sector afloat for decades.I’m kidding, of course! We have absolutely no idea whether abortion services have or haven’t ever been accessed by anyone connected with a draft-avoider who described avoiding STDs in the 80s as “my personal Vietnam”. “That’s an interesting question,” Trump replied to the New York Times when asked, during the 2016 campaign, if he’d ever been involved with a woman who had undergone a termination during their relationship. “What’s your next question?” Continue reading...
Most attendees avoided a full embrace of the theme, or an interesting subversion of it – they showed up in dresses that looked lovely and uneventfulAmid a global economic downturn and worsening inflation in America, critics had described the theme for this year’s Met Gala – Gilded Glamour and White Tie – as “out of touch”.Though one might argue it was incredibly apt; poverty was rife in late-19th century New York, even while elites on the Upper East Side continued to hold “patriarch balls”, in order to create “a circle of elite New Yorkers at the top of the city’s social hierarchy”, as Sven Beckert wrote in his 2003 book The Monied Metropolis. Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Las Vegas, New Mexico on (#5YTQ3)
Authorities encouraged by shifting winds but blaze feeding on drought-parched landscape expected to keep growingFire crews were battling on several fronts to keep the largest wildfire burning in the US from pushing into more populated areas as it fed on drought-parched landscape in northern New Mexico.Authorities were encouraged by a forecast for Tuesday of improving humidity and shifting winds. But the blaze was expected to keep growing, putting it on track to possibly be one of the largest and most destructive in state history. Continue reading...
New York passed a law to improve pay transparency, which would shrink the gender pay gap. But a group of companies are using some vile tactics to delay itAn average job description these days reads something like this. Duties: Everything from editing short films to creating pivot tables in Excel to wowing clients with interpretative dance! Hours: Every single hour in the day. Qualifications: 15 years in this field, plus a PhD. Compensation: Haha, why would we tell you that? Nah, you’re going to have to waste your time filling in a ton of paperwork and going to a bunch of interviews before we’ll let you in on that little secret. For now, all we can say is that it’s “competitive”. But not so “competitive” that we’re keen to advertise it.As anyone who has ever looked for a job knows, companies can be maddeningly cryptic about their compensation packages; it’s pretty rare to see a salary range in job postings. But that’s starting to change. There is a growing body of evidence that salary transparency is a powerful tool in closing the gender and racial pay gap, and there’s increasing pressure around the world for employers to start being more open about what they pay people. The EU, for example, is currently mulling a groundbreaking proposal that would mean large employers would have to provide salary ranges on job ads and workers would have the right to request pay data broken down by gender and job level. Continue reading...
Ron Galella, nicknamed the Godfather of US paparazzi, has died at his New Jersey home aged 91. The photographer gained notoriety for his candid shots and celebrity feuds, including with Jackie Onassis and Marlon Brando – who punched him outside a New York restaurant and broke his jaw Continue reading...
by Jonathan B Jarvis and Christy Leavitt on (#5YTG5)
According to a recent poll, 82% of American voters would support a decision by the National Park Service to stop selling and distributing single-use plastic at national parksThe writer Wallace Stegner once called the national parks “America’s best idea”, but the second half of that quote is more resonant today: “They reflect us at our best rather than our worst.” In these challenging times, we must look for decisions that reflect us at our best.National parks like the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Yellowstone and Acadia provide the closest thing we have to experiencing unbridled nature. They also represent our collective decision not to do something in special places that can harm their environment, like cutting down the forest, mining for minerals or hunting wildlife. Over time our understanding of what is the right thing not to do has grown and matured. One of those right things not to do is provide single-use plastics in our national parks.Jonathan B Jarvis served 40 years with the National Park Service and was its 18th directorChristy Leavitt is the plastics campaign director for the international ocean advocacy organization Oceana Continue reading...
Walking barefoot can boost your circulation, improve sleep quality and reduce inflammation, pain and tension, reflexologists sayThere’s an old African proverb that states: “When you leave your shoes at the doorstep, you leave your troubles behind.” And if you – like me – can’t stand the thought of people traipsing through your house with their filthy outside shoes, then you probably take this adage quite literally.Well, if you’re tired of being shamed for being a stickler about these things, then I’ve got good news for you. A group of environmental chemists who study what kinds of contaminants people are exposed to in their own homes weighed in on the great shoe debate – and it turns out we were right: wearing your outside shoes inside won’t just mess up your carpet; it is, in fact, scientifically gross.Tayo Bero is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
In an unprecedented revelation, a document written by conservative justice Samuel Alito says ‘Roe was egregiously wrong from the start’. Plus, politics front and centre at the Met GalaGood morning.The US supreme court has provisionally voted to overturn Roe v Wade, the landmark ruling that legalised abortion nationwide in America, according to a draft opinion reported on by Politico.How have campaigners reacted? The leaked opinion has been described as “horrifying and unprecedented”.Could dismantling Roe v Wade imperil other ‘core, basic human rights’? The decision could potentially affect gay rights, contraceptives and fertility treatments.What will US’s future look like if abortion becomes a crime again? As Roe v Wade faces a direct challenge, criminal defense attorneys, prosecutors, local judges and police begin to lay out what it would look like to criminalize abortion.What else is happening? The director of the United Nations World Food Programme in Germany has warned that millions of tonnes of grain is stuck in Ukraine due to sea ports being blocked by Russian military action.What else do we know? Here’s what we know on day 69 of the invasion. Continue reading...
When police shot Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the story was reported around the world, thanks in no small part to star basketball playersOn 23 August 2020 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, police officer Rusten Shesky shot Jacob Blake seven times in front of three of his children. Blake’s name, along with those of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, was invoked in protests across the United States as part of the Black Lives Matter movement, which surged in the wake of several high-profile shootings by police officers in 2020.Sheskey said he had shot Blake after he became alarmed that he had a knife in his possession. That claim becomes even more striking when you consider that Kenosha police allowed a white teenager, Kyle Rittenhouse, to walk around with an AR-15 during a protest in the wake of Blake’s shooting and later used the weapon to shoot two anti-racism demonstrators dead. I’m not saying white privilege is the reason for the different responses from the police, but I’m not sure what other explanation is plausible. Continue reading...
Flight attendants report sleeping on airport floors when employers fail to find them hotel roomsUS airlines are still experiencing staffing shortages as air travel rebounded after initial Covid-19 shutdowns in 2020 when many airline workers were encouraged to go on furlough, resign, or retire early.The phenomenon promises to disrupt travel for flyers even as Americans largely seek to return to many pre-pandemic habits, including air travel for work and tourism. Continue reading...
Protesters gathered outside the US supreme court in Washington on Monday night after a leak appeared to reveal Roe v Wade, the landmark ruling that legalised abortion nationwide, would be overturned, according to a draft opinion about a provisional vote by the court reported on by Politico.
Leaked initial draft majority opinion suggests court is poised to overturn ruling that legalised abortion across USA leaked initial draft majority opinion suggests the US supreme court is poised to overturn the Roe v Wade decision that legalised abortion nationwide, Politico has reported.The unprecedented leak stunned Washington. It holds the potential to reshape the political landscape ahead of US midterm elections in November. Here is some reaction to the report. Continue reading...
From Russia to India, it has never been more dangerous to pursue the truth. But unity and new tactics bring hopeShould we be celebrating press freedom at all today? Last year a record number of journalists were jailed worldwide. Five out of every six of us live in a country where press freedom has declined over the past five years; some 400 journalists have been killed in the same time frame. Vladimir Putin has crushed the last vestiges of independent journalism inside Russia. And from India to the Philippines to the UK, there’s been a sharp rise in coordinated, misogynist attacks against female journalists.There seem few causes for celebration, then. And yet this year, I’m daring to believe there’ll be some cautious reasons for hope.Mary Fitzgerald is director of expression at the Open Society Foundations, and former editor-in-chief of openDemocracy Continue reading...
A woman’s right to have an abortion through the first trimester of pregnancy was protected nationally in 1973 following the supreme court’s landmark ruling
There is no condition more essential to democratic citizenship than a person’s control over her own body. We can’t call ourselves a free country without itIt’s the worst possible outcome: according to a draft majority opinion published by Politico, the US supreme court has voted to overturn Roe v Wade, along with its sister decision Planned Parenthood v Casey. This momentous ruling will result in abortion becoming immediately illegal in an estimated 26 states when it is officially issued, likely sometime next month.The draft opinion, authored by Samuel Alito, the most rabidly hateful member of the court’s archconservative wing, will upend 50 years of precedent and undo a landmark ruling that has profoundly shaped legal doctrine, popular conceptions of the law, and millions of American lives. It will make women prisoners to their own bodies, and to men’s ideas of what those bodies must mean. It will make our country weaker, crueler, stupider and less vibrant. Continue reading...
All the wildest looks from fashion’s biggest night at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Guests are dressed to the theme of ‘Gilded Glamor’ for the opening night of the In America: An Anthology of Fashion exhibition at the museum’s Costume Institute
In an unprecedented revelation, a document written by Justice Samuel Alito says ‘Roe was egregiously wrong from the start’The US supreme court has provisionally voted to overturn Roe v Wade, the landmark ruling that legalised abortion nationwide in America, according to a draft opinion reported on by Politico.In what appeared to be a stunning and unprecedented leak, Politico said on Monday evening it had obtained an initial majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito and circulated in the court on 10 February. Continue reading...
Marc and Debra Tice are expected to meet with the president at the White House to speak about their son, Austin TiceJoe Biden said he was meeting Monday with the parents of American journalist Austin Tice, who was abducted in Syria 10 years ago.The meeting with Marc and Debra Tice was expected to take place at the White House. Continue reading...
Officials blamed the decline on lower birth rates, higher deaths from the pandemic and fewer people moving in from other statesCalifornia’s population has shrunk for the second year in a row, according to newly released figures.Officials blamed the decrease on declining birth rates, higher deaths from the pandemic and fewer people moving into the state from elsewhere in the US. California lost 117,552 people in 2021, putting its population at 39,185,605, the California department of finance said Monday. Continue reading...
About 1,000 firefighters battle Calf Canyon fire, largest active wildfire in US amid warning that refusal to evacuate could be fatalThe largest active wildfire in the US has forced thousands from their homes in New Mexico, as unusually fast-spreading blazes dot the drought-stricken south-west.The blaze, dubbed the Calf Canyon fire, has consumed more than 121,000 acres (49,000 hectares), or more than half the area of New York City, tearing through centuries-old settlements and vacation homes in forested mountains 30 miles (48km) north-east of Santa Fe. Continue reading...
Journalists have been chased from parliament by police and attacked by the prime minister. Now more than ever we need a free pressAt the end of April, a reporter and a cameraman stood outside the national parliament in Honiara. They were trying to film the Solomon Islands prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, as he walked in. But police arrived and chased them from the building.It prompted outrage among journalists. As they stood around discussing it afterwards, one said in Pijin: “Ma any cathedral,” meaning “as if it’s a cathedral” – a sacred place where filming is inappropriate. Everyone burst out laughing. This was a democratic country’s parliament, which journalists have a duty to cover. Continue reading...
Blow to organizers who last month pulled off the first successful effort to unionize at different facility in company’s historyAmazon warehouse workers overwhelmingly rejected a union bid on Monday, dealing a blow to organizers who last month pulled off the first successful US organizing effort in the retail giant’s history.This time around, warehouse workers cast 618 votes or about 62% against the union, giving Amazon enough support to fend off a second labor win as the tech giant continues to try and overturn its first loss. Continue reading...
Mo Brooks, Andy Biggs and Ronny Jackson receive letters as panel looks to establish extent of role in Trump’s bid to overturn electionThe House select committee investigating the US Capitol attack on Monday asked three Republican members of Congress to assist its inquiry, as it seeks to establish the extent of their roles in Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election.The panel sent letters requesting voluntary cooperation to Mo Brooks, Andy Biggs and Ronny Jackson, three congressmen who strategised ways to stop certification of Joe Biden’s election win or appeared to have connections to elements involved in the Capitol attack. Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Florence, Alabama on (#5YSJ8)
Inmate Casey Cole White and Vicky White, assistant director of corrections, are both still missing after leaving jail FridayAuthorities issued an arrest warrant on Monday for a corrections official who they say helped an inmate arrested on a murder charge escape from an Alabama jail. The search for the pair continued.The inmate, Casey Cole White, 38, disappeared on Friday after he left the Lauderdale county detention center in the city of Florence with Vicky White, the facility’s assistant director of corrections. They have not been seen since.This article was amended on 2 May 2022 to correct the headline. The inmate has been charged with murder and will go to trial next month, rather than convicted as originally stated. Continue reading...
Boudin spent more than two decades in prison for her role in a fatal 1981 armored truck robbery north of New York CityKathy Boudin, a former Weather Underground radical who spent more than two decades in prison for her role in a fatal 1981 armored truck robbery and spent the latter part of her life helping people who had been imprisoned, has died at age 78.Boudin, who lived in New York City, died of cancer on Sunday surrounded by family, including her life partner David Gilbert, who was released from prison last year for his own role in the infamous Brink’s armored truck robbery. Continue reading...
Rachel Levine says LGBTQ Americans killing themselves ‘at a rate that should shock our conscience’The US government’s highest-ranking trans official has condemned political attacks on LGBTQ+ communities and accentuated the importance of gender-affirming care for trans youth.Speaking on Saturday in Fort Worth, Texas, the US assistant secretary of health Rachel Levine addressed fellow physicians about conservative politicians’ attacks on LGBTQ+ communities. Continue reading...
Any ending must be decisive – a long-term simmering conflict would be the same as a defeat for the Ukrainian peopleFor more than two months, Vladimir Putin has been violently trying to erase the modern Ukrainian state from the map of Europe. This means Ukraine needs to win. In fact, victory is imperative if the continent wants to stand the chance of being able to live in peace and work collectively to meet global challenges.It is clear that Putin has failed to compel Kyiv to capitulate. Russia’s plans to annihilate Ukraine and annex more of its territory have cemented Ukraine’s will to fight and win this war. So we need to ask: what does victory actually look like?Orysia Lutsevych is head of Chatham House’s Ukraine Forum Continue reading...
Unanimous ruling overturns appeals court decision on city’s refusal to let Camp Constitution fly flag featuring cross at eventThe city of Boston violated the free speech rights of a Christian group by refusing to fly a flag bearing the image of a cross at city hall as part of a program that let private groups use the flagpole while holding events in the plaza below, the US supreme court ruled unanimously on Monday.The 9-0 decision overturned a lower-court ruling that the rejection of Camp Constitution and its director, Harold Shurtleff, did not violate their rights to freedom of speech under the first amendment to the US constitution. Continue reading...
The stories of those who accuse Tim Westwood of abuse show how poorly Black women have been treated. The DJ denies all allegationsSome in the music industry were unsurprised when the allegations about the DJ Tim Westwood came to light last week. There had long been stories recounted by Black women of his alleged abuse of power – rumours that circulated among friends in Black nightlife and the music industry. An investigation by the BBC and the Guardian details the accounts of multiple Black women, some teenagers at the time – of alleged predatory behaviour and groping on the part of the veteran DJ. Some claim to have been groped at his shows, while others maintain that they were enticed to a flat on the promise of professional guidance, only to be abused.In 2020, a Twitter account was created, named Surviving Tim Westwood and a hashtag of the same name started to trend. Then the account disappeared, perhaps due to Westwood’s legal team, as he has denied all the allegations. However it was also possibly indicative of a deep-seated truth: that Black women’s voices are often silenced. This is just one example of how misogynoir, the term used to describe misogyny specifically directed at Black women, may have aided and abetted Westwood in avoiding accountability until now.
Even the few Republicans in Washington who opposed the worst excesses of Trumpism have been unwilling to fight attempts to subvert democracy at the state levelIt is often said that the US is the world’s oldest democracy. While that is not necessarily incorrect, depending on the definition of “democracy,” it tends to obscure more than it illuminates about the reality of American life. If we start from the assumption that America has been a stable, consolidated democracy for two and a half centuries, the current political conflict seems utterly baffling: where is the anti-democratic radicalization of the Republican party – and so many million Americans – coming from all of a sudden?Is it really plausible to assume that the people who remain united behind Donald Trump and are now openly embracing authoritarianism were fully on board with liberal democracy until recently, before they were driven rightward by the presidency of a moderately liberal politician whose sole “radicalism” consisted of being Black? That the election of a religious elderly white man who has always been a proud centrist pushed them to finally abandon their supposedly “consolidated” democratic convictions? Continue reading...
Former president seemed to mix up JD Vance with his rival Josh Mandel in Republican Ohio Senate primary at rally on Sunday• This Will Not Pass review: Dire reading for DemocratsSpeaking at a rally two days ahead of voting in a heated Republican Senate primary in Ohio, Donald Trump appeared to forget the name of JD Vance, the candidate he has endorsed.“You know,” the former president told a crowd in Greenwood, Nebraska, on Sunday, “we’ve endorsed Dr Oz.” Continue reading...
Informal alliances between progressive parties help win seats. There’s no shame in working togetherFaced with the ongoing Partygate scandal, a porn-watching MP and a potential rout at Thursday’s local elections, the Conservative party chairman Oliver Dowden has gone on the attack. A front-page Mail on Sunday splash accused Keir Starmer and Ed Davey of making a pact to give each other a free run in seats at this week’s polls. The Tories fear a progressive alliance, and Labour and the Liberal Democrats seem to fear saying openly that they want one. What’s going on here, and what could it mean for the next general election?From Dowden’s point of view, on one level this is straight distraction: make a loud noise and hope people look at your opponents, not you. But he is also on to something. In February the Financial Times ran a well briefed story that Starmer and Davey had an informal pact to avoid competing with each other in certain seats: they stand candidates, but make minimal effort in the campaign. It worked for the Liberal Democrats in the Chesham and Amersham and North Shropshire byelections, and for Labour in Batley and Spen. Not spending money you don’t have, in seats you can’t win, makes obvious sense.Neal Lawson is director of the cross-party campaign organisation Compass Continue reading...
Sandra Castaneda’s just one of many immigrants detained by the US for their criminal records – even when the cases were dismissedSandra Castaneda spent 19 years in prison for a murder she didn’t commit.But when the California courts overturned her conviction in July 2021, the 40-year-old Los Angeles woman did not walk free. Instead, she was picked up by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents and taken to a federal detention center where she is now facing deportation to Mexico, a country she left at age nine. Continue reading...
Zelenskiy said about 100 civilians who sheltered in steelworks would arrive in Zaporizhzhia today. Plus, the tense wait for a supernovaGood morning.Ukrainian authorities are planning to evacuate more civilians from Mariupol today, after dozens were finally brought to safety following weeks trapped under heavy fire in the strategic port city’s Azovstal steel complex.How many people are still trapped in Mariupol? As many as 100,000 people are believed to be in the blockaded city, which has endured some of the most terrible suffering of the Russian invasion. These include 1,000 civilians and 2,000 Ukrainian fighters thought to be sheltering underneath the Soviet-era steelworks.Will Biden’s Ukraine aid request be approved? Joe Biden’s $33bn request to Congress for more aid for Ukraine is likely to receive swift approval from lawmakers, a senior Republican said on Sunday, as the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, made a surprise visit to the war-riven country.What else is happening? Here’s what we know on day 68 of the invasion.What did Kinzinger say? The June hearings will involve laying out “what led to January 6, the lies after the election, fundraising, the 187 minutes the president basically sat in the Oval Office [as the Capitol was attacked] … the response by [the Department of Defense],” he said. Continue reading...
Tampa Bay are back to attempt a third Stanley Cup win in a row. Can they do it, or will another team from Florida come to the fore?The NHL playoffs begin Monday evening after the first complete season since 2018-19. What stories will unfold over the coming weeks? Continue reading...
Uninvited guest surprised Naples homeowners when they opened door to garage after hearing a crashA gregarious Florida alligator seemingly could not wait for a family’s birthday party to begin, so it slipped into a garage where supplies were being stored and chugged down a slab of Diet Coke.The uninvited guest surprised Naples homeowners Karyn and Jamie Dobson when they opened the connecting door from their house after hearing a crash, WINK News reported. Continue reading...
US news | The Guardian