Man was outside a Los Angeles theater where Democratic presidential candidate was scheduled to give a speechAn armed man accused of impersonating a federal officer was arrested outside a Robert F Kennedy Jr campaign event in Los Angeles.A Los Angeles police department statement said police received a call on Friday afternoon that a man with a loaded gun and holster and wearing a US marshals service badge was outside a theater where the Democratic presidential candidate was scheduled to give a speech. Continue reading...
The White House has adopted a new, aggressive tone to negative reports about the 80-year-old president's fitness to govern but could it backfire?Joe Biden began his press conference at the JW Marriott Hotel Hanoi in Vietnam at 9.09pm local time. Good evening, everyone - it is evening, isn't it?" he said, prompting laughter. About 25 minutes later, the 80-year-old US president had another quip: I don't know about you, but I'm going to go to bed."Headline writers pounced. The Daily Beast website declared: Biden Wraps Up G20 Conference by Announcing I'm Going to Bed'". But unusually, the White House fired back. Ben LaBolt, its communications director, retorted sarcastically on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter: Presidents shall never sleep. Not even at night after days of marathon meetings overseas. Sage guidance from the Daily Beast. Next up in the series: presidents shall never eat." Continue reading...
by Bethan McKernan in Jerusalem and Julian Borger in on (#6ETPV)
US president agrees to talks at general assembly despite deep unease over policies of Israeli PM's hardline coalitionNine months after returning to office, Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is finally getting his long sought-after meeting with Joe Biden - but an awkward rapprochement at the UN general assembly is unlikely to improve the strained relationship between the two leaders.The US president is scheduled to meet Netanyahu in New York on Wednesday, the White House said on Friday. The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said the two leaders would discuss a range of bilateral and regional issues focused on the shared democratic values between the United States and Israel and a vision for a more stable and prosperous and integrated region, as well as to compare notes on effectively countering and deterring Iran". Continue reading...
The religious right is losing its grip as candidates respond to a voter majority that doesn't support a federal abortion banWhen Donald Trump recalled how his three US supreme court justices helped repeal the nationwide right to abortion, the audience rose to its feet and erupted in whistles, whoops and prolonged applause. But even as the former president basked in the religious right's moment of triumph, he went on to deliver a warning.I will say politically, it's a very tough, it's a very tough decision for some people, but very, very hard on elections. Very, very hard," Trump told a gathering of Christian conservatives in the ballroom of a Washington hotel. We had midterms and this was an issue, you know." Continue reading...
Alaska Airlines, American and United could all be disrupted as air crew demand fairer share of vast profitsMajor US airlines have recovered from Covid-19 pandemic losses and are amassing vast profits, but amid those record-setting financial performances flight attendants are threatening strikes and calling for substantial wage increases and improvements in working conditions.The sums of money are huge. American Airlines reported record quarterly revenue in the second quarter of 2023 at $14.1bn, United Airlines reported record revenue in the same quarter at $14.2bn and a threefold increase in profit, and Alaska Airlines also reported record revenue in the second quarter of 2023 at $2.8bn. Continue reading...
We no longer expect blind obedience from our children, but if we teach them to be curious about the world and tolerant of each other, then good manners will followDo as you're told! As a child growing up in the 1960s and 70s, I seemed to hear that phrase all the time; these days, it's rare to hear parents or teachers utter it. So it was no surprise to read last week that the importance we put on our children being obedient has, according to the World Values Survey, plummeted in the past 30 years. The proportion of Britons who think children should be brought up to be obedient is now 12%, down from 42% in 1990.What we value in our kids these days, is, apparently, hard work" which is up from 29% to 48% over the same period. Imagination", is up from 18% to 37%, and determination and perseverance", from 31% to 41%. But in some values, we remain roughly the same through the decades: about 85% of British adults see good manners in children as especially important - that's only slightly lower than 1990 - and as for being unselfish, 43% of us value it highly in children, second only to France where the figure is 45%. Continue reading...
Adverts, MPs and newsreaders have all been caught in the act...Whenever I read asterisked swear words in print, and surely you do this, too, I very carefully sound the word out either aloud or in my head. And the feeling it gives me, working out the word from only two letters and an assortment of shapes, is as if I have cracked a secret code or passed a test, which means the word resonates at a higher pitch than its pathetic unstarred pals. It rings like a lovely bell and the stars for letters mean it glitters. Which, I think, must be the very opposite of what was originally intended. Instead of obscuring the word, the asterisks manifest it.Sometimes you don't even need asterisks. The ASA recently investigated ads for Tesco Mobile after receiving complaints that using the words shiitake", pistachio", and fettuccine" in a context where they alluded to expletives" was offensive and inappropriate for children to see. They would make them think about swear words and then, presumably, become ungovernable and possibly go on to kill. Continue reading...
One thing they share is the belief that the purpose of politics is to make things happen - and you only get to do that by winning powerWhen his parents named him after Keir Hardie, Labour's first leader, they could not have imagined how often their son would be measured against other people who have done the job. When Sir Keir Starmer ran for the role, some were under the misapprehension he would be a beardless version of Jeremy Corbyn. They know different now. During his first two years in the role, many thought, including a lot of people who sit in today's shadow cabinet, he was fated to be another Neil Kinnock: someone who would haul the party back from the brink of oblivion, but not return it to government. And now that Labour looks like it is on the cusp of power, there's a fashion to make comparisons with Tony Blair.They are often intended as insults, especially when they come from segments of the left. Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite union, recently jibed that Sir Keir seemed intent on becoming a 1990s tribute act". Continue reading...
Walter Isaacson's biography of the Tesla, SpaceX and X owner shows insecurity and anger have driven him to extremesThe personal is political. The phrase was popularized by 1960s second-wave feminism but it sums up Elon Musk's ideological journey. Once a fundraiser and fanboy for Barack Obama", to quote his biographer, Walter Isaacson, the sometime world's richest man now plays thin-skinned, anti-woke warrior - a self-professed free-speech purist who in fact is anything but.His rebranding of Twitter to X having proved a disaster, he flirts with antisemites for fun and lost profits. He threatens the Anti-Defamation League with a multibillion-dollar lawsuit. The ADL never suggested the name X". That was a long-term fetish, now a clear own-goal. Continue reading...
Newly released surveillance video from a Denver theater appears to show Lauren Boebert vaping, singing, filming and disturbing other patrons during a Beetlejuice musical play. The US congresswoman has issued an apology after being kicked out of the performance in Denver for inappropriate behavior, an experience she has called 'difficult and humbling'
Olivia Hill, 57, a military veteran, joins the Nashville city council in historic electionA transgender woman won election to a seat on Nashville's city council, becoming the first openly transgender person to be voted into political office in Tennessee.Olivia Hill, 57, secured one of the four open at-large seats on the metro council of Nashville, a politically liberal city in an overwhelmingly conservative state. Continue reading...
Ken Paxton, impeached in May, has been found not guilty of bribery and dereliction of duty and may resume officeAfter a dramatic impeachment trial that lasted more than a week, Ken Paxton, the ultraconservative Texas attorney general, has been acquitted and will be able to resume his work in elected office.Paxton, who faced 16 articles of impeachment against him in this trial - involving bribery, dereliction of duty and disregard for official duty - and four more separately, avoided becoming Texas's highest-ranking elected official to be removed from state office. He quickly issued a statement boasting that, in his case, the truth prevailed". Continue reading...
Members of US Board on Geographic Names voted to change name of Mount Evans to Mount Blue sky at request of tribesFederal US officials renamed a Colorado mountain that was previously named after a disgraced governor of the state who led a massacre against Indigenous people.Members of the US Board on Geographic Names voted to change the name of Mount Evans to Mount Blue Sky, at the request of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. Continue reading...
Emergency workers responding to report of cardiac arrest find equipment used in production of illegal drugsA one-year-old boy died and three other children were hospitalized after emergency workers responded to a report of cardiac arrest at a daycare center in New York City on Friday, authorities said.Police said they found equipment often used in the production of illegal drugs in the home-based daycare in the Bronx. Police said they were investigating the possibility that both the dead child and the hospitalized children had been exposed to an opioid of some kind over an extended period of time, according to reports from WABC and the New York Times. Continue reading...
Congresswoman issues apology after being kicked out of performance of musical in Denver for inappropriate behaviorLauren Boebert, the US congresswoman, has issued an apology after being kicked out of a performance of the musical Beetlejuice in Denver for inappropriate behavior, an experience she has called difficult and humbling".Boebert, a Republican representative for Colorado, and a male guest accompanying her were ejected from the musical on 10 September for vaping, recording video and disturbing other patrons during the Sunday performance. Video also showed them eagerly groping each other while in their seats. Continue reading...
The fashion designer celebrated at the V&A had an extraordinary talent for reinvention and even those who knew her struggled to convey her essenceThe Chanel exhibition at the V&A, which opened last week to cries of ecstasy from the fashion crowd, is full of extraordinary clothes; the jewellery and darling little trouser suits had even me weak at the knees. But the designer herself is more of an absence than a presence. Staring at a photograph from 1928, in which she's dressed in full hunting gear and sharing a joke with Winston Churchill and several beagles, I wondered again who she really was. Coco Chanel grew up poor; as a child, she spoke in patois. By the time of this picture, however, she was having an affair with the Duke of Westminster, the richest man in Britain. The capacity of human beings to reinvent themselves never ceases to fascinate me.Back at home to write my review, I searched for her essence on my bookshelves. But even those who knew her struggle to convey the inner Chanel (the outer Chanel was easy, as long as you had an eye for boucle and buttonholes). If she was magnetic, she was also a void - or perhaps I mean a mirror. Continue reading...
Any system of government that pits a vengeful crook against a fading old-timer is not working wellUS president Joe Biden has many reasons to be grateful he is not a member of Britain's ruling Conservatives, but one in particular stands out. When a Tory prime minister is polling badly, looking jaded and in danger of becoming a liability or a joke, they don't mess about.It doesn't matter whether it's Boris Johnson, Liz Truss or even Margaret Thatcher of sainted memory. Party chiefs put their heads together, have a quiet word. And the erstwhile leader, once lauded by all, is out. Done. Dumped. Deposed. Deposited on Downing Street's rubbish heap of history. Continue reading...
We support older people financially, but we deprive them of respect at our perilAgeism is perhaps the most paradoxical prejudice: we are, barring accident, discriminating against ourselves. Members of the persecuting in-group are through the course of their lives gently conveyor-belted into the persecuted out-group, which is, when you think about it, a very strange state of affairs. If the rich inevitably became poor at a certain life stage, you might expect society to fill with vigorous socialists. But ageism persists. Why?The best explanation perhaps is that it comes down to a sort of mass delusion on the part of the young. John Steinbeck wrote of America's temporarily embarrassed millionaires", the poor who resist measures to hand them money because they believe one day they will be rich. When it comes to ageing, the fallacy runs in the other direction: the lucky believe their luck will never end. One day that will be us struggling with newfangled technology," the young say, as a joke, not really thinking it will be. I'll need that Zimmer frame one day," they say, thinking they won't. Continue reading...
Former US president makes comment in interview with NBC after being told Putin approved of his stance on Russia invasionDonald Trump enjoyed hearing that he had drawn praise from the Russian leader Vladimir Putin, the former US president and frontrunner for the 2024 Republican White House nomination has said.Told during a recorded interview with the new NBC Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker that Putin had fawned over his stance on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Trump replied: I like that he said that. Because that means what I'm saying is right." Continue reading...
Descendants of enslaved people lost a bid to limit development on an island they inhabit, ensuring the encroachment of mainlandersIn a small, wood-paneled courtroom in rural south-east Georgia, with painted portraits of McIntosh county's current and past white judges on the walls, three county commissioners dismissed a colleague's plea. At stake was the size of structures built on Sapelo Island, which is home to the last intact Gullah Geechee community in the United States. Roger Lotson, the sole Black commissioner on the otherwise all-white panel, had asked the commission to do what the residents of the remote sea island had been asking for years: maintain limits on the size of homes there to dissuade developers and non-descendants from encroaching on their land. On Tuesday night, for the third time in two weeks, Sapelo residents and their supporters packed the courtroom to make their voices heard. Three white commissioners ignored them.By a 3-2 vote, the McIntosh county commission approved a zoning ordinance change that will allow homes on the island to be as large as 3,000 square feet - double the size of the current limit, and far larger than the small homes and trailers in which most of the descendants live. The measure may open the floodgates to wealthy prospective land-buyers looking to build vacation homes on the mostly-uninhabited island. Unlike St Simons Island and Hilton Head, where the culturally Indigenous Gullah Geechee are all but forgotten amid a tourist haven of pristine golf courses and private beachfronts, Sapelo Island has so far avoided the contemporary explosion of development that has displaced Gullah communities. Black Sapelo residents, whose formerly enslaved ancestors started taking control of the land they toiled upon when Sapelo was abandoned after the US civil war, worry that Tuesday's vote may turn their island into a muted version of nearby island destinations, where mainlanders have run roughshod over the quiet, rural lifestyles that descendants had enjoyed for centuries. Continue reading...
Researchers in Poland have developed tests that can detect if a woman has taken mifepristone. It's a chilling developmentHave you ever come across a scientific study and immediately thought to yourself: why? What was the point of this work exactly? Why were resources and brainpower devoted to figuring this particular thing out? Continue reading...
As deadly disasters increase in frequency and magnitude, so does the emotional weight for those who recover the bodiesWalking through the ruins of Lahaina day after day, in between the rubble of destroyed homes and ash-covered streets, Eric Darling would try to remember his motto.Everybody comes home," the retired California firefighter would tell himself. Including me." Continue reading...
Horns blare in support of strikers outside the carmakers' plant in Wayne, Michigan, as union members attack corporate greed'Under blue skies in Wayne, Michigan, a half-hour outside Detroit, the mood was festive but defiant as hundreds of autoworkers settled in for the first weekend of picketing at the entrances to Ford's Michigan Assembly Plant.Ford's workers were among the first to go out in a series of targeted strikes that marked the beginning of the largest industrial action taken by US car workers in over a decade. Continue reading...
The Vermont senator Bernie Sanders said US motor workers were 'fighting against corporate greed' as he spoke in support of the biggest automotive industry strike in decades. Speaking to members of the United Auto Workers union at a rally in Detroit, Michigan, Sanders said it was reasonable for employees at the largest US auto companies - Ford, Stellantis and General Motors - to get a 'fair share of the record-breaking profits'. A disagreement over a new contract led to about 130,000 workers taking to the picket lines shortly after midnight on Thursday
My own recovery from the hopeless' stage of this condition shows we must never give up on patientsThe leaking of NHS documents last week describing how patients with longstanding eating disorders could be offered palliative care under new guidelines in the east of England was shocking but not unexpected. The very fact that these severe and enduring eating disorder (Seed) treatment pathways exist at all is scandalous.A running joke among service users is that the Seed treatment pathway is where you go when services have given up on you. Outpatient services seemingly don't know how to treat these patients other than to manage terminal decline. But inpatient services don't, either - the fact that palliative options are even on the table shows that.Dorothy Dunn is a freelance journalistDo 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...
Jack Smith asked judge Tanya Chutkan to restrict ex-president's statements in federal election subversion trialThe US special counsel prosecuting Donald Trump for election subversion has asked a judge to impose limited restrictions" on the former president's public statements, citing his frequent inflammatory attacks" on the court, prospective witnesses and citizens of Washington DC.In a filing on Friday, federal prosecutors requested that judge Tanya Chutkan issue a narrow" gag order that would prohibit Trump from making statements regarding the identity, testimony, or credibility of prospective witnesses" and about any party, witness, attorney, court personnel, or potential jurors that are disparaging and inflammatory, or intimidating". Continue reading...
Police chief confirmed number of missing had also dropped from 41 to 31 and that 74 of the deceased had been identifiedThe number of confirmed fatalities from the Maui wildfires is at least 97 people, a lower death toll than what officials had previously announced, Hawaii governor Josh Green said in an interview on CNN on Friday.State leaders said last month that at least 115 people had died in the 8 August blaze but on Friday said new testing showed they were counting multiple DNA samples from some of the victims. John Pelltier, the Maui police chief, said in a press conference that the number of missing people had also dropped from 41 to 31. And so far, 74 of the deceased have been positively identified. Continue reading...
Senator kicks off United Auto Workers' largest strike against US's big three carmakers amid record company profitsUS car workers striking against the nation's three biggest automakers are waging ... a fight against the outrageous level of corporate greed" seen across the country, Bernie Sanders said on Friday.The liberal US senator's remarks came on Friday afternoon during a rally with the United Auto Workers in Detroit, Michigan, kicking off the first day of the union's Stand Up" strikes against General Motors, Stellantis and Ford. Continue reading...
Protesters in Seattle joined Indian diplomats and the police commission in demanding accountabilityOutrage grew on Friday over a Seattle police officer's remark that the life of a young woman killed by a speeding patrol car had limited value". Diplomats from India are asking for an investigation following the death of the Indian graduate student, as people in Seattle protested against the officer's callous jokes caught on body-camera video.The footage released this week contains audio of Officer Daniel Auderer, vice-president of the Seattle police officers guild, joking with the rank-and-file police union's president after a different officer's speeding police car slammed into Jaahnavi Kandula at a crosswalk on 23 January. Continue reading...
Auto workers in the US have launched a historic series of strikes after their union failed to reach an agreement with the country's three largest vehicle manufacturers.The disagreement over a new contract saw workers at Ford, Stellantis and GM plants called out from the shop floor to the picket lines shortly after midnight on Friday, kicking off the most ambitious industrial labor action in decades for about 130,000 workers.Workers are pushing for at least a 40% wage increase over four years in a new contract; an end to two-tier wage systems in which new hires are paid significantly less for doing the same work; an increase to benefits for retirees and return of a defined pension
Critics say the assault, which killed 183 people during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, could have been stoppedThe Pentagon's Central Command has ordered interviews of roughly two dozen more service members who were at the Kabul airport when suicide bombers attacked during US forces' chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal, as criticism persists that the deadly assault could have been stopped.The interviews - ordered by Erik Kurilla, a general and head of US Central Command - were triggered in part by assertions by at least one service member injured in the blast who said he was never interviewed about it and that he might have been able to stop the attackers. Continue reading...
Ellis, one of 18 Trump associates charged in Georgia election subversion case, says she simply can't support him' againJenna Ellis - the Donald Trump lawyer who like the former president faces criminal charges regarding attempted election subversion in his defeat by Joe Biden in 2020 - says she will not vote for him in the future because he is a malignant narcissist" who cannot admit mistakes.I simply can't support him for elected office again," Ellis said. Why I have chosen to distance is because of that frankly malignant narcissistic tendency to simply say that he's never done anything wrong." Continue reading...
Storm Daniel hits central Greece, Russian shelling in Bakhmut, an Israeli army raid in the West Bank and a muddy Burning Man festival: the most striking images this week Continue reading...
This blog has closed. Read more on this story hereA New York state appeals court judge put the civil fraud trial involving the New York attorney general's office and Donald Trump and his company on temporary hold after a last-minute legal challenge by the former president's legal team.Justice David Friedman, a judge on the state's intermediate appellate court, ordered a potential postponement of the non-jury trial, which had been scheduled to start on 2 October. The judge granted an interim stay of the trial and ordered the full appeals court to consider the lawsuit on an expedited basis.We are confident in our case and will be ready for trial. Continue reading...
Key questions answered after UAW workers at Ford, Stellantis and General Motors walked off the jobIndustrial action billed as the biggest auto strike in generations" got under way late on Thursday night for 150,000 US autoworkers, with employees at Ford, Stellantis and General Motors walking off the job at 11.59pm after contract negotiations failed to reach a deal.It's the latest in a series of strikes called or threatened by workers in industries including shipping and logistics, TV and movie production and hotel and leisure. Given its scale, the strike could deal a significant blow to the US economy as well as the auto industry.General Motors CEO Mary Barra made $29m in 2022 - 362 times the median wage of $80,034 at the company.Ford CEO Jim Farley made $21m in 2022 - 281 times the median worker of $74,691.Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares made $24.8m in 2022 - 365 times the average worker's $67,789 wage. Continue reading...
Pilot Eugene Peltola Jr, 57, the husband of Mary Peltola, a US representative from Alaska, was the only person on boardEugene Peltola Jr, the husband of Alaska Democratic congresswoman Mary Peltola, was returning from a remote hunting camp carrying moose meat when the plane he was flying crashed, killing him, authorities said.Peltola Jr, 57, was the only person aboard the small plane when it crashed late on Tuesday. Two hunters who were at the camp in western Alaska at the time provided medical care, authorities have said. Continue reading...
United Auto Workers union unable to agree deal with Ford, GM and Stellantis, who have seen profits and executive pay soarJoe Biden on Friday spoke out in support of auto workers as they launched a historic series of strikes after their union failed to reach an agreement with the US's three largest vehicle manufacturers.No one wants a strike, but I respect workers' rights to use their options under the collective bargaining system, and [I] understand their frustrations," the US president said in a brief, unscheduled appearance at the White House. Continue reading...
Far-right conspiracy theorist spending tens of thousands on high-end restaurants while failing to pay damages from legal verdictThe rightwing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is continuing to live the high life while refusing to pay a cent of the $1.5bn damages he owes families of victims of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting he called a hoax.Court documents show that the disgraced host of the far-right conspiracy theory and hoax news website Infowars is spending tens of thousands of dollars a month on expenses" including high-end restaurants and groceries, while payments to the families are frozen following his declaration of bankruptcy last year. Continue reading...
The US president said on Friday that no one wanted the United Auto Workers' union to strike in its labour dispute with the big three US carmakers - but workers should get a share of the profits those companies are making.Biden told reporters at the White House that he understood the workers' frustration, adding: 'Record corporate profits ... should be shared by record contracts for the UAW'
Moving low-income, Black people into better' neighborhoods splits up communities and does not solve povertyFor 20 or so years, the architects of public housing have clung tightly to what became conventional wisdom in the field: move residents of low-income neighborhoods out of public housing and into economically resourced neighborhoods.As the theory goes, middle-class and wealthy communities with high-quality schools, healthcare and public facilities could work wonders" on the residents of low-income and mostly Black neighborhoods. This idea - which advocates call mixed-income housing" and includes Section 8, among other programs - depends on the idea that people with low incomes, especially those who are Black, are somehow culturally deficient. They need to be immersed in better" neighborhoods so they are no longer exposed to food deserts, street violence and a lack of employment opportunities. Continue reading...
Keir Starmer insists there's no case for rejoining. But his migration plan and other desperate Tory fixes merely seek to repair the damageIt was only an aside. Keir Starmer wasn't planning to talk about Brexit, but a subject almost as perilous for his party: migration. Still, Good Morning Britain wanted to know if his plan to strike a deal with the European Union in order to stop the small boats crossing the Channel meant he was weakening his stance on EU withdrawal. There's no case for going back to the EU," he said, no case for going into the single market or customs union, and no freedom of movement."Those words were hardly a shock. Starmer has said similar things before, though sometimes adding the gentle qualification that he could see no political case" for rejoining the EU, a formulation that hints that while restored membership might be desirable, it's not feasible. The balder declaration he deployed on Thursday insists that there's not even an argument to be made in principle for British re-entry.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist. He will host a Guardian Live event with Gordon Brown on Tuesday 26 September at 7pm BST. The event will be live in London and livestreamed - book tickets here Continue reading...
Diego Stolz died after being beaten by two middle school classmates at campus in southern California in 2019The family of a 13-year-old boy who died after being beaten by two middle school classmates at their campus in southern California has secured a $27m settlement in what the plaintiffs' attorneys are calling the largest bullying-related settlement in the history of US litigation.Felipe and Juana Salcedo received the settlement from the Moreno Valley unified school district over the September 2019 death of Diego Stolz. Continue reading...
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