Participants and organisers look back on the critical role of women, Harry Belafonte and Martin Luther King's I have a dream' speechIf that had been us that attacked the Capitol a couple of years ago, they would have shot us," says Ted Dean, 85, from Flomaton, Alabama. Think about it. They would have shot us."Dean is contrasting the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which took place peacefully 60 years ago on Monday, with the deadly insurrection by a mob of Donald Trump supporters at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. Continue reading...
Inmate #P01135809 (also known as the ex-president) is using his mugshot as a marketing opportunity and seizing control of the narrativeShamelessness can be a superpower: Donald Trump (or inmate #P01135809, as he is described in his booking record) has proved that time and time and again. He's shattered norms, flouted rules, shrugged off scandals and generally got away with doing whatever the hell he feels like. Never has anyone tested the idea that there's no such thing as bad publicity quite as much as the former president. Continue reading...
Students at Bunnell elementary school pulled from class based on race and mandated to attend presentation on improving resultsA Florida elementary school has prompted outrage for singling out its Black students to attend a special assembly identifying them, as a group, as a problem" because of standardized test performances.Black fourth- and fifth-grade students at Bunnell elementary school in Flagler county, central Florida, were pulled from class last Friday and mandated to attend the presentation on improving test scores, the Washington Post reported. Continue reading...
Inquiry into 1976 disappearance in Oklahoma and 1990 murder in Missouri have led authorities to believe killer may be involvedKerri Rawson's father - the BTK serial killer - is serving 10 life terms in prison, but Rawson does not think authorities should give up investigating whether he killed more people than they already know.The clearest indication that authorities strongly suspect more victims of Dennis Rader may await discovery, came this week when police dug the ground near a Kansas home he lived in with Rawson. Continue reading...
From securing resources to destabilising western influence, the mercenary group's activities hang in the balanceThis week, before Yevgeny Prigozhin was reportedly killed, the founder of the mercenary group Wagner had appeared bullish in a self-styled publicity video, holding a rifle and dressed in desert camouflage. He was understood to be somewhere in Africa, and stated that he was proud to be making Russia even greater on all continents, and Africa more free".Just days later, Russian state media and Wagner itself would report Prigozhin's death in a plane crash which also apparently killed Dmitry Utkin, often described as a Wagner co-founder, and other senior figures from the organisation. The immediate questions in western capitals were whether Vladimir Putin was responsible, and what the death of Prigozhin means for Wagner and for politics in Russia now. Continue reading...
From the Akbelen forest in Turkey to northern India to Brazil, rural women are standing up against the power of the corporate chainsawThis summer, as Rhodes was ravaged by wildfires and the world witnessed the destruction of precious trees and fragile ecosystems, on the opposite shore in Turkey, only miles away, ancient forests were being felled for the sake of more coal, more profit. But what the energy company hadn't reckoned with was the resistance of local women.Akbelen, in the province of Mula, is a woodland of about 730 hectares (1,800 acres) that provides a natural habitat for a diverse range of flora and fauna. It is this beautiful place that YK Energy, a private energy company, has been aiming to occupy in order to expand an open-pit lignite mine to supply a thermal power plant. The combustion of lignite (brown coal) generates moreCO emissions than hard, black coal, making it the most health-harming variety. For the last four years, villagers and environmental campaigners have been holding vigils to protect the forest. But the company has carried on. Continue reading...
The 24-year-old went into Wimbledon with no expectations but she arrives at the US Open as a grand slam champion and must learn how to win with the pressure onIn the early days of the grass season this June, Marketa Vondrousova and her doubles partner for the week, her Czech compatriot Katerina Siniakova, navigated their way to the final in Berlin. At that point, Vondrousova's record in finals, across singles and doubles alike, was not exactly ideal. Their eventual three-set defeat marked her seventh straight loss when it matters most. In the aftermath, not even her mother, Jindriska, could hide her frustration.They came for the finals and she said, like: I don't want to be second all the time,'" says Vondrousova, laughing, as she recalls the conversation with her mother. I was like: OK, it's good even to be in a final. Come on, Mum!' And she's like: Yeah, but I don't want to be second all the time.'" Continue reading...
Rightwing justices claim to rule in the Founders' image. In reality, they disregard 250 years of constitutional law, simply to punish fellow Americans who do not share their valuesThe extreme religious right's mission to roll back civil rights from abortion to public accommodations is being fueled by false facts and false history. Recent articles in the New Republic have documented the shaky factual foundation behind 303 Creative LLC v Elenis, the case in which the supreme court held that a website design business owned by an evangelical Christian, Lorie Smith, could refuse service to same-sex couples. Even more troubling, the history undergirding the majority's reasoning is misleading and dangerous to the separation of church and state.Tragically, the religious right knows it has a friendly audience in the six conservative Catholic justices on the supreme court, who have been partners in shaking the foundations of fundamental rights. The justices' new standard is whether a constitutional right is grounded in history and tradition", the latest byword for the bogus doctrine of originalism". So they need some history, and apparently any history will do. Continue reading...
Within a day of officials releasing 388 names of people unaccounted for following Maui wildfires, dozens have said they are safeWithin a day of Hawaiian authorities releasing 388 names of people unaccounted for following the deadly wildfires on Maui, more than 100 of them or their relatives came forward to say they were safe, the FBI has said.The agency is reviewing the information provided and working to remove the names from the list. Continue reading...
by Erum Salam and Oliver Laughland in New Orleans on (#6E5QT)
Nearly 1,000 people in Merryville, in Beauregard parish close to Texas border, ordered to evacuate as Tiger Island fire burns nearbyA rare uncontrollable wildfire in Louisiana has forced nearly 1,000 residents to evacuate the town of Merryville in Beauregard parish, near the state's border with Texas.Get out now!" the Beauregard parish sheriff's office wrote on social media. Continue reading...
by Guardian staff and the Associated Press on (#6E5Y5)
Authorities and neighbors seek culprit after pet bird Pete the peacock found impaled by arrowA beloved Las Vegas neighborhood peacock has been killed with a hunter's bow and arrow, and authorities are trying to find who was behind it.Animal protection services officers are investigating the death of Pete the peacock, a pet that belonged to a resident in a gated neighborhood, the local news outlet KVVU reported on Thursday. Continue reading...
Oliver Anthony responds after politicians discuss his No 1 hit on stage: I wrote that song about those people'Oliver Anthony, the writer and singer of the mega-hit Rich Men North of Richmond, hit out at Republican candidates for president who discussed his song in the debate in Milwaukee on Wednesday.It was funny seeing my song at that presidential debate. Because I wrote that song about those people, you know, so for them to have to sit there and listen to that, that cracks me up. It was funny kind of seeing the response to it," the Virginian said in a statement on Friday. Continue reading...
Trump, listed as 6ft 3in and 215lb, vows to never surrender' as campaign bids to turn mugshot shame into political weaponDonald Trump's campaign sought to turn his public disgrace into a political weapon on Friday by raising funds and creating merchandise with his glowering prison mugshot.The mugshot, a historic first for a former US president, was made public after a 20-minute booking at the decrepit prison in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, over charges that Trump ran a criminal racket to overturn the 2020 election in the state. Continue reading...
Wall-to-wall coverage of ex-president is another example of his unique ability to suck up all media oxygen, even amid the Republican debateLess than 24 hours after the first primary debate of the 2024 election season concluded, viewers of America's cable news programs could be forgiven if they forgot the event had occurred at all.Rather than focusing on the post-debate coverage and analysis typically seen during past election cycles, CNN and MSNBC turned their attention on Thursday evening to Donald Trump's arrest in Fulton county, Georgia, for charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. News of Trump's surrender and the image of the first mugshot ever taken of a former US president also dominated the homepages of the New York Times and the Washington Post. Continue reading...
Users had fun after Republican frontrunner became the first former American president to sit for a mugshotFirst came the mugshot. Then came the mugs. Then the shot glasses.Following Donald Trump's surrender at the Fulton county jail on Thursday evening, the highly anticipated mugshot of the former president spread swiftly across the internet as both ends of the political spectrum raced to commodify and meme-ify the picture. Continue reading...
Fema teams with cadaver dogs scour rubble of the town as 46 victims so far identified of death toll of 115The names of 388 people unaccounted for in the wake of the devastating wildfire in Hawaii have been released by officials on the island of Maui.The list of known people thought to be missing following the fire has been compiled by the FBI, which said on Tuesday there were about 1,000 to 1,100 people on a more tentative list of those unaccounted for. Continue reading...
Creator of pioneering document sharing technology founded Adobe in 1982 with Charles GeschkeJohn Warnock, a co-founder of Adobe who invented the PDF, has died. He was 82.Widely known for creating the pioneering technology - in full, the portable document format - that changed the way documents are shared and printed, Warnock died on 19 August, Adobe said. Continue reading...
Simone Weil's life illustrates the capacity to give up the things we feel we're owed - such as a carbon-intensive consumer-driven lifestyleNero fiddled while Rome burned. The saying takes on new meaning after the hottest July ever, devastating wildfires in Greece and Canada, and the declaration by the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, that we've left behind global warming" for global boiling".But this time our Neros - AKA governments - aren't the only ones shirking their responsibilities. What are the rest of us doing while the world burns? Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Charleston, West Virginia on (#6E5N1)
Judge says near-total abortion ban signed by governor in September 2022 takes precedence over FDA approvalsWest Virginia can restrict the sale of the abortion pill despite federal regulators' approval of it as a safe and effective medication, a federal judge has ruled.The US district court judge, Robert C Chambers, determined on Thursday that the near-total abortion ban signed by the Republican governor, Jim Justice, in September 2022 takes precedence over approvals from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Continue reading...
For Trump and his minions, the coming election is more than a rematch. It is about revengeOn Wednesday night, Donald Trump won the Republican debate without showing up. One night later, he surrendered to law enforcement at the Fulton county, Georgia, jail. In the span of 24 hours, cameras captured the essence of the current presidential contest, namely the legal status of the prior occupant of the Oval Office. Whether Trump is a free man or a convict on election day 2024 will weigh heavily upon voters and the republic.At the debate, six of the eight contenders raised their hands when asked if they would back Trump if he were convicted. With the predictable exceptions of Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson, the rest of the pack fell into line.Lloyd Green is an attorney in New York and served in the US Department of Justice from 1990 to 1992 Continue reading...
GOP-led House committee convenes on Guam as officials say Beijing working to fill perceived voids in America's assistance'Countering China and bolstering national security dominated the conversation in a Hilton hotel on Guam, 15 hours before and oceans away from the Milwaukee arena hosting the first Republican primary debate.Nine members of the GOP-led House committee on natural resources convened in the US-governed Pacific island territory for a rare field hearing - during the summer recess - on countering China's influence in the region. Continue reading...
The Digital Services Act is finally bringing social media giants to heel after 20 years of laissez-faire. Yet Westminster still dithersYou might not immediately notice it, but the world changes today. You could be forgiven for missing it: the developments are buried deep in the decision trees of your social media app menus, tucked several clicks and taps away from easy access in a thicket of terms and conditions text.The Digital Services Act (DSA), Europe's sweeping attempt to regulate big tech that was passed in October 2022, comes into force for more than a dozen of the biggest tech companies today. The new laws set clear rules on content moderation, user privacy and transparency that online platforms must now follow.Chris Stokel-Walker is a UK journalist based in Newcastle. He is the author of TikTok Boom: China's Dynamite App and the Superpower Race for Social Media Continue reading...
Erik Duran suspended over death of Eric Duprey, who was driving motorcycle on Bronx sidewalk towards group including DuranA man fleeing New York City police officers on a motorcycle died after a sergeant hurled a plastic picnic cooler at his head from close range, causing a violent crash, authorities said.The sergeant, Erik Duran, was suspended without pay just hours after the death of Eric Duprey, 30, in the University Heights section of the Bronx, police said. Continue reading...
Former vice-presidential nominee condemns prosecutors over travesty' and says we're not going to keep putting up with this'A second US civil war is going to happen" if state and federal authorities continue to prosecute Donald Trump, the former Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin said.Those who are conducting this travesty and creating this two-tier system of justice, I want to ask them what the heck, do you do want us to be in civil war? Because that's what's going to happen," Palin told Newsmax on Thursday night. Continue reading...
by Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington and Dominic on (#6E5CW)
Manhattan Institute one of eight conservative advocacy groups that filed amicus briefs urging the court to hear Moore v USAn influential thinktank closely linked to two billionaires who provided lavish travel gifts to conservative supreme court justices is behind a successful lobbying campaign to get the US high court to take on a case that could protect them and other billionaires from a possible future wealth tax.The Manhattan Institute was one of eight conservative advocacy groups that filed amicus briefs urging the supreme court to take on Moore v US, a $15,000 tax case that Democrats have warned could permanently lock in" the right of billionaires to opt out of paying fair taxes. Continue reading...
Joe Delfausse, 82, drew a crowd in the middle of a Brooklyn street by sharing his telescopeJoe Delfausse didn't intend to stop traffic on a recent Tuesday night in Brooklyn, but Saturn had other plans.The amateur astronomer, who has been a fixture in his Park Slope neighborhood for more than 20 years, regularly lugs out a telescope on clear nights and encourages passersby to take a look at the cosmos. Continue reading...
Republican candidate brands himself as an outsider' but has close links to prominent figures Leonard Leo and Peter ThielVivek Ramaswamy has described himself as an outsider", accusing rivals for the Republican presidential nomination of being bought and paid for" by donors and special interests.But the 38-year-old Ohio-based venture capitalist, whose sharp-elbowed and angry display stood out in the first Republican debate this week, has his own close ties to influential figures from both sides of the political aisle. Continue reading...
Prosecution is fourth criminal case against Trump since March, and his booking included a mugshot. Plus, the story behind a fake football schoolGood morning.Donald Trump surrendered at the Fulton county jail yesterday evening on racketeering and conspiracy charges over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state of Georgia, where he was processed as any criminal defendant and had his mugshot taken.When will the trial begin? In a clear sign of the Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis's belief that her team is ready to go to trial immediately, she asked for the trial of all 19 defendants to start on 23 October after one of the co-defendants, Trump's former lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, apparently gambled and requested a speedy trial.Will the trial harm Trump politically? It would be a mistake to assume that the mugshot and the spectacle of Trump's surrender at jail will harm Trump politically, writes Sam Levine. It is likely to entrench support more deeply from those who back Trump and believe he is being persecuted. As both a candidate and president, Trump has made the politics of grievance, the feeling of being persecuted and wronged, central to his political identity. Trump is already using his indictments to rally his supporters.What caused the plane to crash? An explosion onboard probably brought down the plane presumed to be carrying the Wagner leader, a preliminary US intelligence assessment concluded. US and western officials said it determined Prigozhin was very likely" to have been targeted and that the explosion was in line with Putin's long history of trying to silence his critics".What else is happening? Volodymyr Zelenskiy said early this morning he spoke with Joe Biden. Ukraine's president said he thanked Biden for his Ukraine Independence Day greetings and support in the conflict with Russia. Together, we prove that freedom and independence are worth fighting for," he said in a statement. The US will begin flight training for Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets in October, the Pentagon has announced. Continue reading...
A 1980s essay by Czech writer Milan Kundera on the peoples trapped between east and west is enjoying a new lease of lifeAre you a dissident?", a journalist asked Milan Kundera, when he had became exiled in France from his native Czechoslovakia in the mid-1970s. No, I am a writer," replied the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Not that he was indifferent to the plight of those who were opposing the Czech regime from inside, but he was wary of a political label being attached to a novel, and more generally to literature with a message, to art in the service of a political idea.Yet Kundera, who died last month, was a man of ideas, which he explored particularly in his essays, the most influential being A Kidnapped West: The Tragedy of Central Europe, published in Paris in 1983 and republished in English earlier this year. Central Europe, Kundera argued, belonged culturally to the West, politically to the East and geographically in the centre". The predicament of the small nations between Russia and Germany was that their existence was not self-evident" but remained closely tied to the vitality of their culture, and historically intertwined with that of the west from which they had been kidnapped" in 1945. Continue reading...
Ex-president and co-defendants didn't see the facility's dark side, where violence is prevalent and a man died covered in insectsMillions of people around the world watched on Thursday as former president Donald Trump surrendered to the Fulton County jail, and then promptly left the building on $200,000 bond. Local activists and attorneys say it's a starkly different experience from what the more than 1,500 inmates who are booked into the facility each month typically face in the overcrowded jail, which has been the subject of ongoing reports of horrific conditions and has seen a spate of recent deaths.Along with 18 co-defendants, Trump was indicted last week on racketeering charges related to his alleged efforts to overturn the Georgia presidential election results in 2020. Continue reading...
Donald Trump claimed his arrest amounted to 'election interference' and argued he had 'every right' to contest Joe Biden's victory after reporting to the Fulton county jail in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was formally arrested after his indictment on charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election result in the state. The former US president, photographed for a police mugshot, had reached an agreement to post a bond guaranteeing his release as his case moves through the court system
The lawsuit claims the electric utility failed to shut off power during high winds, resulting in downed lines that ignited blazesMaui county sued the Hawaiian Electric company on Thursday over the fires that devastated Lahaina, saying the utility negligently failed to shut off power despite exceptionally high winds and dry conditions.Witness accounts and video indicated that sparks from power lines ignited fires as utility poles snapped in the winds, which were driven by a passing hurricane. The 8 August fire killed at least 115 people and left an unknown number of others missing. Continue reading...
The Republican debate became the entrepreneur's coming-out party, with the news media boosting him along his wayHe thinks the climate crisis is a hoax, supports Vladimir Putin's aggression in Ukraine and would gladly pardon Donald Trump on day 1 of his would-be presidency. A wealthy biotech entrepreneur, the 38-year-old has never before run for public office.Despite all of this (or maybe because of it), this week's Republican debate became a national coming-out party for Vivek Ramaswamy.Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...
A caravan carrying former US President Donald Trump was seen making its way through the New Jersey hamlet of Bedminster on Thursday.Trump was making his way to be transported to Georgia where he was set to make history as the first former US president to provide a mugshot when he appeared at an Atlanta jail to face criminal charges of trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia
Gunman, who was shot by police, was reportedly targeting his estranged wife, a regular at Cook's Corner barGunfire at a popular southern California biker bar killed three people and wounded five others, and the gunman - believed to be a retired law enforcement officer - was fatally shot by deputies, authorities said.On Wednesday evening, just after seven o'clock, 911 calls began pouring in about someone shooting at Cook's Corner in rural Trabuco Canyon, a beloved longtime watering hole for motorcycle riders and enthusiasts gathering for live music, open-mic nights or just a cold beer after a long ride. Continue reading...
The Pentagon has no indication that the plane carrying Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was brought down by a surface-to-air missile, a representative has said.'We assess that information to be inaccurate,' Patrick S Ryder said of press reports that the Embraer plane was hit by surface-to-air missiles.He also said the Pentagon thought it was likely that Prigozhin was dead but did not confirm this
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