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Shock ruling from Republican-appointed appeals court prevents outside groups or citizens seeking to enforce voting rights lawA federal appeals court shocked voting rights groups on Monday with a ruling that only the US government, not outside groups or citizens, could sue to enforce the Voting Rights Act's provisions.The civil rights law, which outlaws racial discrimination as it relates to voting, has typically been enforced by lawsuits from these groups, not by the government itself. Now that the Republican-appointed eighth circuit court of appeals has made the ruling by 2-1, this private right of action" to enforce Section 2 of the law is called into question. Continue reading...

Experts like Paul Nestadt of Johns Hopkins University say stigma and misinformation get in the way - but don't have toIn 2022, the number of US gun suicides reached an all-time high: 73 people dying by gun suicide every day, or a total of nearly 27,000 deaths that year.Despite years of intense debate over gun violence in the US, this central fact still receives little attention: the majority of the country's gun deaths are suicides, not homicides. Continue reading...

Book, MTG, by far-right Georgia congresswoman and leading supporter of Trump policies will be published in US on TuesdayA new book by the far-right Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene - a leading supporter of Donald Trump's America First" policies and founder of the America First Caucus, which called for meaningful work for American workers and their families" - was printed in Canada.The information is included on the copyright page of the book, MTG, which will be published in the US on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Pearson's church once had 6,000 members, and his story was chronicled on This American Life and later became a Netflix filmThe founder of a former megachurch in Oklahoma who was branded a heretic and lost one audience - but gained a new one - after he rejected the idea of hell and supported gay rights has died, his agent said on Monday.Bishop Carlton Pearson died on Sunday night in hospice care in Tulsa due to cancer, said his agent, Will Bogle. Pearson was 70. Continue reading...

Decision affirms Minneapolis ex-police officer's conviction for second-degree murder and sentence of over 20 years in prisonThe US supreme court rejected on Monday a conviction appeal for the former Minneapolis police officer who murdered George Floyd.The decision affirms Derek Chauvin's conviction for second-degree murder and sentence of more than 20 years in prison. Continue reading...

Golfers spot suspect being pursued by Wisconsin police hide in portable toilet and push it over to incapacitate himA suspected car thief was caught in a portable toilet after bystanders saw the man hide in it and then pushed it over with him still inside.Police in Wisconsin had been pursuing a stolen car when it crashed into two other vehicles and four suspects fled on foot. But one of the suspects hid in a portable toilet, though unknowingly he had been spotted by a group of golfers on a nearby course. Continue reading...

My sympathy is for the people, not the politicians. It should not be so hard to make that clear

Rapper voices frustration over budget cuts to home town New York while Washington votes to increase funding for overseas warsThree years after supporting Joe Biden's victorious 2020 campaign, the straight-talking rap superstar Cardi B has ditched her backing of the president after public service cuts in her home town of New York.The Grammy winner, whose legal name is Belcalis Almanzar, said in an Instagram live stream she was done with Biden. Her tirade highlighted what she portrayed as contradiction between US domestic and foreign policies, saying the White House was helping Ukraine fight Russia and Israel fight Hamas while New York City mayor Eric Adams announced a 5% municipal budget cut last week. Continue reading...

Employees in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Bethel, Alaska, make rare move to organize staff in financial industryWorkers at two Wells Fargo bank branches are planning to launch unionization efforts on Monday in a rare move to organize staff at a financial services company.Employees in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Bethel, Alaska, said they would notify the National Labor Relations Board that they plan to hold elections to decide whether to unionize, the Wall Street Journal reported. Continue reading...

While the event was far from flawless, organisers can be satisfied with a race that lived up to the razzle-dazzle of Sin CityThe morning after the night before in Las Vegas might so easily have been one of guilt and remorse for Formula One. Instead, as the circuit was being dismantled and the Strip returned to what passes for normality in Sin City on Sunday, F1 could reflect on being one of the lucky few who would leave up on the weekend. At least in terms of perceived success, if not cold, hard cash.The race itself was a cracker, a contender for best of the season. Any fear of the circuit proving to be another street-based procession proved unfounded. Instead there was real racing and passing, the drivers admitting their expectations had been confounded. The upside down pig that the track resembles - turns 14, 15 and 16, where many passes were made, would be where a curly tail would protrude - had proved capable of delivering a veritable silk purse. Continue reading...

Argentina's next president has been compared to his fellow rightwing populists Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro. Milei secured 55.69% of the vote against 44.3% for his rival, the centre-left finance minister Sergio Massa. Milei has vowed to 'exterminate' inflation and take a chainsaw to the state. Before a career in politics, Milei was a media personality known for controversial outbursts. In one instance on live TV, he destroyed a pinata representing the country's central bank - an institution he vowed to abolish on the campaign trail

Over 7,000 congregations have been approved to break away since 2019, when church strengthened bans on same-sex marriageAnother 250-plus United Methodist congregations have broken with the denomination in north Georgia amid a schism over theology and the role of LGBTQ+ people in the church.The North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church voted Saturday to allow 261 congregations to break away, or disaffiliate, after theological tensions over bans on same-sex marriages and the ordination of clergy who are openly LGBTQ+. Continue reading...

Greg Abbott said Biden's border policies pose a danger to the US and credited Trump with lowering number of border crossingsDonald Trump won the endorsement of Texas governor Greg Abbott at an event near the US-Mexico border Sunday, a location meant to highlight the former Republican president's plans to crack down on immigration if he wins the 2024 White House race.Trump, the frontrunner for the GOP nomination to challenge Democratic president Joe Biden next year, traveled to Edinburg, Texas, with his fellow Republican Abbott to visit national guard soldiers, state public safety department troopers and other service members stationed there. Continue reading...

US first lady who played a significant role in supporting her husband Jimmy's political career from Georgia to the White HouseRosalynn Carter, who has died aged 96, arrived in the White House in January 1977 determined to recast the role of US first lady. From the foundation of the US, each president's spouse has had to work out how to be at the centre of national attention while avoiding actions or comments affecting the president's political interests. Many, like Pat Nixon, simply retreated into the background; Eleanor Roosevelt spent 12 years robustly carving out a totally separate career; Edith Wilson, sticking to her domestic role during Woodrow Wilson's first term, then went into history as the secret president" by continuing to run the administration after the president's disabling stroke in 1919.Rosalynn Carter, having played a significant part in her husband Jimmy's political career, from his election to the Georgia senate in 1962 to his presidential victory in 1976, arrived in Washington with the comment that it would be a shame not to take advantage of that power". Her first move was to organise an Office of the First Lady in the east wing of the White House, with a chief of staff whose rank and salary parallelled that of other White House functionaries. The new department built up a staff of 18 and spent the next four years coping with the avalanche of social and political invitations that Mrs Carter attracted. Continue reading...

State supreme court will hear challenge to district maps that have cemented Republican legislative powerThe Wisconsin supreme court will hear oral arguments on Tuesday in one of the most closely watched voting rights cases in the country this year. The challenge could ultimately lead to the court striking down districts in the state legislature, ending a cemented Republican majority, and upending politics in one of the US's most politically competitive states.The case, Clarke v Wisconsin Elections Commission, is significant because Wisconsin's state legislative maps, and especially its state assembly districts, are widely considered to be among the most gerrymandered in the US. In 2011, Republicans redrew the districts in such a way that cemented an impenetrable majority. In the state assembly, Republicans have consistently won at least 60% of the 99 seats, sometimes with less than 50% of the statewide vote. In 2022, Governor Tony Evers, a Democrat, won re-election by three points, but carried just 38 of 99 assembly districts. Continue reading...

Polluter elite' are plundering the planet to point of destruction, says Oxfam after comprehensive study of climate inequalityGood morning.The richest 1% of humanity is responsible for more carbon emissions than the poorest 66%, with dire consequences for vulnerable communities and global efforts to tackle the climate emergency, according to the most comprehensive study of global climate inequality ever undertaken.Twelve billionaires' climate emissions outpollute 2.1m homes. Who are they? The tycoons include the Amazon boss, Jeff Bezos, the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, the tech billionaires Bill Gates, Larry Page and Michael Dell, the inventor and social media company owner Elon Musk and the Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim.What is the great carbon divide? We are not equally to blame for rising temperatures, and recognising that is an important step in identifying possible solutions. Jonathan Watts explains.What has Jimmy Carter said about his wife's death? Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished," he said in a statement. She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me." Continue reading...

Biden deserves credit for pushing for the meeting despite an often heatedly anti-China political environment in the USWednesday's meeting between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping was a lot harder to pull off than the photographs of the two leaders ambling around the gardens of the Filoli mansion outside San Francisco may have made it appear. The White House has spent the last 10 months working to restore dialogue after years of mounting tension that most recently featured an errant Chinese observation balloon and possible Chinese military support for Russia's war on Ukraine. In the process of working toward the meeting, the White House faced strong domestic political headwinds.Finding a modus vivendi with China will involve deterrence and sometimes sharp competition. But dialogue is the only way to reduce misperception and unneeded economic, military and financial costs. The actual outcomes of the summit were modest, but major breakthroughs take time and if Biden and Xi had not met, the outlook for stabilizing the relationship would be bleak. Continue reading...

People should not die because of their income or where they were born. We must have the courage to stand up to the pharmaceutical industryHere is a simple moral proposition. No one in America, or anywhere in the world, should die or suffer unnecessarily because they cannot afford a prescription drug which, in many cases, costs a few cents or a few dollars to manufacture.As Chairman of the US Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (Help) I'm going to do everything I can to develop a new approach to the development and manufacturing of prescription drugs that responds to medical need, rather than short-term shareholder profit. Given the power and greed of the pharmaceutical industry this is not an easy task, but it's one that must be pursued.Bernie Sanders is a US Senator, and chairman of the health education labor and pensions committee. He represents the state of Vermont, and is the longest-serving independent in the history of Congress Continue reading...

The American Legislative Exchange Council is promoting a model resolution for state legislatures to support Israel's Gaza offensiveA powerful rightwing pressure group, the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), is engineering pledges of unconditional support for Israel's attack on Gaza by state legislatures across the US.Alec is promoting a model resolution expressing support for Israel's right to pursue without interference or condemnation the elimination of Hamas". A version has been accepted by legislatures in at least eight states, including Pennsylvania, Nebraska and North Dakota. Continue reading...

The display on York's Twinkle Way' has delighted visitors and raised more than 100,000 for charity. Even a Scrooge like me knows that life will be poorer without itChristmas in York has lost a bit of its sparkle. Residents of Twin Pike Way have decided they won't be putting on their traditional light display this year. The cul-de-sac started its display to mark the millennium and has raised more than 100,000 for charity, donated by people who came to admire the multicoloured extravaganza.Now, though, the residents are carefully coiling up their LEDs and deflating their penguins. Most of us are pensioners now, and it's also due to other problems including electricity charges ... and the cost of replacing decorations," Alan and Pamela Reed told the York Press. Continue reading...

Kyle Vogt exits as Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear appointed as interim boss of OpenAI

The Giants quarterback still has his laundry and cooking done for him. But in a league where careers can be short, staying close to home makes senseLet's be clear. The New York Giants left Washington with a 31-19 win thanks to six takeaways. The defense put on a show with punched out balls and multiple interceptions, including a game-clinching pick six by Isaiah Simmons. It was an inspired performance by a Giants team that surrendered 640 yards and 49 points to the Dallas Cowboys just a week ago, and had a good chance of ending the season with the league's worst record before Sunday's win.Waiting on the New York sideline to take advantage of the Commanders' miscues was undrafted rookie Tommy DeVito, who had started the season as the Giants' third-string quarterback. Thrust into the spotlight three weeks ago after injuries to Daniel Jones and Tyrod Taylor, DeVito played his best game as a professional on Sunday. He tossed three touchdowns, a feat not often seen by Giants quarterbacks these day - Daniel Jones last managed to do so in December 2019. DeVito, whose initials are TD, also had 246 passing yards and no interceptions. Continue reading...

The 1% aren't just the biggest climate wreckers, they also greatly influence how the world responds to the crisisWhen you talk about the climate crisis, sooner or later someone is going to say that population is the issue and fret about the sheer number of humans now living on Earth. But population per se is not the problem, because the farmer in Bangladesh or the street vendor in Brazil doesn't have nearly the impact of the venture capitalist in California or the petroleum oligarchs of Russia and the Middle East. The richest 1% of humanity is responsible for more carbon emissions than the poorest 66%. The rich are bad for the Earth, and the richer they are the bigger their adverse impact (including the impact of money invested in banks, and stocks financing fossil fuels and other forms of climate destruction).In other words, we are not all the same size. Billionaires loom large over our politics and environment in ways that are hard to understand without taking on the shocking scale of their wealth. That impact, both through their climate emissions and their manipulations of politics and public life means they are not at all like the rest of humanity. They are behemoths, and they mostly use their outsize power in ugly ways - both in how much they consume and how much they influence the world's climate response. Continue reading...

Decades after the 1967 war, Israel is still under the illusion that violence against the Palestinians will give it peace and securityFifty-six years ago, after Israel's victory in the six-day war in 1967, an intensive debate took place in the country regarding the future of the newly occupied West Bank and Gaza. The options ranged from outright annexation of the land by Israel, returning the West Bank to Jordan or the establishment of a Palestinian state.My father, Aziz Shehadeh, was a proponent of the last. As a lawyer and activist for refugee rights, he proposed a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel. Washington urged Israel then to translate its undefined position for a settlement into concrete terms. Continue reading...

Former US first lady and wife of the 39th president, Jimmy Carter, who became one of the nation's leading mental health advocates during and after her husband's tenure in the White House Continue reading...

Carter, who was diagnosed with dementia in May, was fiercely loyal ally throughout husband's long political careerRosalynn Carter, wife of the 39th president Jimmy Carter, has died at the couple's Georgia home aged 96.Carter, who became one of the nation's leading mental health advocates during and after her husband's time in the White House, was diagnosed with dementia in May. Continue reading...

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...