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Let's be clear: one can support Palestinians' right to resist and end the occupation without supporting HamasOne thing that unites Palestinians is that our journey is never easy or smooth. To be a Palestinian citizen in Israel is exceptionally challenging - especially at the moment, when people expect you to take a clear, one-sided stance. I am forced to constantly question where I truly belong, feeling nowhere and everywhere simultaneously.I was born and raised in Nazareth in a Christian family. Later, I moved to Tel Aviv, living in a diverse community with Arabs and Jews. Although I was born in Israel, I struggle to identify fully with a country that views me as a second-class citizen, publicly speaks against Arabs, oppresses Palestinians - and the list goes on.Maria Rashed 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...

Governor-elect Jeff Landry opposes minimum wage, pollution controls, protections for women, LGBTQ+ and Black peopleWhen Louisiana's attorney general, Jeff Landry, won the open gubernatorial primary on 14 October, it not only ended eight years of relatively productive bipartisan control of the state's government: it marked a hard-right shift in Louisiana's politics that could set back environmental policy and human and civil rights for decades to come.Landry's outright victory in the jungle primary - a system unique to Louisiana, in which all voters, regardless of party, vote on all candidates at the local, state and federal levels - shocked voters and pundits in the state alike. Landry was long favored to triumph, but it was expected he would be forced into a runoff. Ultimately, the state's Democratic party offered no meaningful resistance to Landry's campaign, and he cruised to a win, capturing more than 50% of the votes cast in a low-turnout race. Continue reading...

Annual report shows violent crimes dipped by 2% in 2022 but only 83% of US law enforcement agencies submitted dataAfter a spike of homicides in 2020 and 2021, the rate of violent crimes, including homicide, in the US fell last year to pre-pandemic levels, even as other types of crime increased, data released this week by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) show.But experts say these findings should be viewed with caution, since much of it is based on incomplete data from local police departments. Continue reading...

Once, Karl Wenner's Oregon land leaked pollution into a nearby lake. Now, 70 acres are home to waterfowl, turtles and endangered fishBirdsong hums over the rumble of Karl Wenner's truck as it bounces along the dusty trails that weave through his property. For almost 100 years, this farm in southern Oregon grew barley, but now, amid the sprawling fields, there lies a wetland teeming with life.Wenner installed the wetland on 70 of the farm's 400 acres to help deal with phosphorus pollution that leaked into the adjacent Upper Klamath Lake after his land flooded each winter. With support from a team of scientists and advocates, the project has become a welcome sanctuary for migrating and native birds that are disappearing from the area. Continue reading...

Jason Warnick says police do not always get the right man' after Alabama prosecutors abandon case against himA man charged with stealing a Confederate monument during a bizarre ransom scheme that threatened to turn the relic into a toilet said he had shown how police do not always get the right man" after authorities recently abandoned the national headline-making prosecution against him.If anyone out there has had their position changed on that based on my ordeal, then I suppose at least something positive came from it," Jason Warnick, a New Orleans tattoo shop owner, said in a statement to the Guardian after Alabama prosecutors recently dismissed a theft case they had filed against him. Continue reading...

The lingerie brand's feminist makeover was not only hilarious but so late to the party and hypocritical that no one bought itWhat is the appropriate response when a feminist woke" rebrand not only fails but (whisper it) deserves to fail?For those who missed it, in 2018, lingerie company Victoria's Secret jettisoned its signature uber-sexy catwalk shows with supermodel Angels" to embrace a new direction more in keeping with the post-#MeToo climate.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

The late Colombian author didn't want his final book published, but his sons' decision to do so is inspiring to writers like meShortly before he died nine years ago, the highly acclaimed Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez requested that his final novel, Until August, should not be published. However, last week his sons announced that the work would be released in March next year. The rights and wrongs of going against their father's wishes are complicated by the fact that at the time of writing this final novel, Marquez was living with dementia.Perhaps Marquez, who won the Nobel prize in literature in 1982, compared the work with his earlier novels and found it lacking because of his dementia. Critics weren't too kind about the last book he did publish while he was alive and living with dementia, but they might have been unaware of his struggles. Perhaps that's why Marquez wanted this one to remain unpublished. Dementia strips away so much from you, that maybe the thought of another failure at his craft of writing was too much to bear. Continue reading...

At least one good thing came out of the disaster of Brexit - it is serving as a bulwark against populism in EuropeA year before Boris Johnson's Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, a little-known rightwing populist party won power again in Poland - using all the tricks that would become so familiar. It accused its political opponents of being enemies of the people; it would make Poland great again by restoring traditional virtues; it would resist the EU even though it was a member; and it would be unremittingly hostile to migrants and gays. At the time, it seemed a one-shot idiosyncrasy, but the Law and Justice party soon emerged as one of the leaders in Europe's apparently irresistible drive to the right.It won a second election in 2019 and began to menace Poland's hard-won post-communist freedoms. A stooge was already president, but now more stooges took over public television, ran the central bank but, most important of all, followed up the 2017 purge of the supreme court to take even more control of the judiciary. The party was using presidential decree, backed by puppet judges, to run Poland, not only hugely restricting abortion rights - sidestepping parliament - but trying to blacklist political opponents from public office. Continue reading...

As a member of Jewish-Arab peace coalition Standing Together, Alon-Lee Green says there is an alternative to the cycle of violenceTwo weeks ago, Israel experienced an unprecedented terror attack, when Hamas gunmen crossed the Gaza security fence, massacred more than 260 civilians attending a music festival, took control of several villages and kibbutzim in the area and murdered numerous among their residents, all while firing massive barrages of rockets. Overall, Israeli official sources estimate Hamas killed about 1,400 people, mostly civilians, including children and elderly people, and abducted more than 200, who are still being held hostage in Gaza.Israel responded by declaring a war on the Gaza Strip, launching airstrikes that have killed more than 4,000 people, according to the health ministry there, mostly civilians, including children, women and elderly people. Israel's military declared that the emphasis of the airstrikes is on damage" and not accuracy". Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced, and homes destroyed, after the Israeli government urged 1.1 million people to evacuate their houses. Healthcare, electricity, water and food supplies have been cut, posing a death threat to countless civilians in the Gaza Strip, as Israel imposed a complete siege", cutting essential services and blocking humanitarian aid.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

An employee admitted he had the wrong address after he checked the permit, but the company has taken no other actionA homeowner is mulling the next step after a company mistakenly demolished a home she owned in south-west Atlanta.Susan Hodgson said in an interview Saturday with the Associated Press that she found a pile of rubble in place of what used to be her longtime family property when she returned from vacation last month. Continue reading...

Michigan police are investigating a possible motive to the death of Samantha Woll as friends showed an outpouring of supportThe president of a synagogue in Detroit was found stabbed outside her home Saturday morning, according to local newspaper reports.Samantha Woll, 40, had led the Isaac Agree Downtown synagogue since 2022. The Detroit Free Press reported that she had also worked for congresswoman Elissa Slotkin as well as the re-election campaign of Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel. Slotkin and Nessel are Democrats, and the latter quickly issued a statement lamenting Woll's slaying. Continue reading...

The voice referendum was our chance to go some way to fixing things. Instead the moral failures of our founding fathers sit on our shoulders

Leaders of US, Britain, EU and Arab states should unite in backing UN calls for a humanitarian ceasefireThe Middle East is on the verge of the abyss". That was the stark warning issued last week by Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary general, as he assessed the violent ramifications of the Hamas terrorist attack that killed more than 1,400 Israelis two weeks ago. Like numerous diplomats and politicians in the Arab world, Europe and the US, Guterres is working frantically to prevent the fire lit on 7 October from spreading beyond the besieged Palestinian enclave of Gaza, where Hamas is based, to the wider region.The success of these efforts hangs in the balance. The release of two Americans among the roughly 200 people taken hostage by Hamas is the first good news to emerge since the crisis erupted. Behind-the-scenes mediation led by Qatar to free those still held captive is continuing. But this success has not halted Israel's round-the-clock bombardment of Gaza. It's plain the remaining hostages' fate is inextricably linked to other issues, principally a predicted, large-scale Israeli ground offensive. Continue reading...

Allen Livingston's remains among those of at least 25 people found on farm belonging to suspected serial killer Herbert BaumeisterHuman remains found on an Indiana farm in 1996 were recently linked to a man who went missing three years earlier and was believed to have been murdered by the suspected serial killer Herbert Baumeister.This week, the Hamilton county coroner's office announced the identification of Allen Livingston, 27, ending a mystery that endured for nearly 30 years. Continue reading...

Arrests are the latest this week after mass protests across the country, including at the US Capitol and the White HouseNew York City police arrested more than 130 anti-war protesters after hundreds of people blocked traffic on Fifth Avenue on Friday night.A crowd of about 1,000 demonstrators called for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict and marched in the rain from Bryant Park to the Midtown Manhattan office of the New York US senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Continue reading...

Justin Amash, the first Palestinian American to serve as US Congress member, confirms several relatives killed

As if things weren't bad enough, Storm Babet sounds like it's out of a dark Scandinavian play. It's enough to have us weeping into our starched apronsSo, this is how the world ends - not with a bang but with the cold clicking of claws belonging to the 10-inch-wide mitten crabs that are terrorising the freshwater population of England. These rapidly proliferating creatures have cute fuzz-sheathed pincers that look like Victorian ladies' winter muffs, but they can pin down a prawn and rip off its shell with nary a tremor. Before the mitten crabs, the scare was about bedbugs. Before that it was evil AI and killer robots. This is all in the past three weeks.It's as if the sheer misery, violence and horror of the headlines have infected us with such despair that we're fixating on anything, big or small, that can do us harm, because it's all feeling just a little bit like the Third World War, isn't it? Continue reading...

Who doesn't love a satisfying, satiating long lunch? It's a defining mark of a civilised, sophisticated society, right? Our food writer, however, demursTwo weeks ago, during a work trip to Milan, I had a free lunchtime and found my way to a humble-looking trattoria surrounded by office blocks in an unromantic corner of the city.At 12.30pm, when I took a seat at the counter, it was all but empty. By 1pm it was heaving. Every seat was full and they were queueing out the door. It was clear from the shirt sleeves and the familiarity that this wasn't anything special. It was just colleagues from local businesses sitting down together. It was lunchtime in Milan and they were damn well going to have lunch. They were here for 12 plates of spaghetti puttanesca or orecchiette with pesto. And yes, a glass of wine while you're at it. Here in Milan, lunch mattered. Continue reading...

Danny Serafini was one of two people arrested after investigation into fatal shooting of Robert Spohr and wounding of his wifeA former professional baseball player was one of two people arrested on Friday in connection to an infamous Lake Tahoe shooting that killed a man and badly wounded his wife in 2021.After a two-year investigation, Danny Serafini, 49, and Samantha Scott, 33, were arrested separately in Nevada, hundreds of miles apart in Las Vegas and north-west of Reno. Continue reading...

The US president now owns' this war. Israel's prime minister has no exit strategy and if he gets the long conflict he wants, the US may be drawn in ever deeper

One branch of US government has ground to a halt amid death threats and screaming matches as Republicans fail to unite around a candidate for speakerDeath threats. Screaming matches behind closed doors. A futile cycle of votes that put internecine warfare on full public display. The Republican party this week sank into new depths of disarray and dysfunction - with no remedy in sight.Never before has America gone so long without a speaker of the House of Representatives and, critics say, not for a very long time has a major party appeared so broken. It has left a branch of the US government leaderless at an extraordinary moment of peril in the Middle East and Ukraine. Continue reading...

After Boebert's Beetlejuice embarrassment, Adam Frisch hopes he can wrestle the Colorado congresswoman's seat from herAdam Frisch is in his second congressional campaign, crossing and re-crossing Colorado's third US House district, a space bigger than Pennsylvania. Thirteen months out from election day, time is one thing he does not lack. But Frisch has a unique way of counting it anyway: before and after Beetlejuice.Before Beetlejuice," the Democrat says, of polling in his Republican-leaning district, we were up by two points, Trump was up five." Continue reading...

US prosecutors allege Merl Hefferman, 54, illegally cremated up to four members killed by the group at a California funeral homeFederal prosecutors say that a former Hells Angels boss disposed of the bodies of up to four of the group's members at a central California funeral home, known to the gang as the pizza oven".US prosecutors set out in gruesome detail last week how they believe members of the gang used the Yost and Webb funeral home in Fresno, California, to cremate four men. Continue reading...

In Bay Ridge, which has seen an influx of Palestinians in recent years, residents talk of one-sided' response to Israel-Hamas warOn an afternoon this week in Brooklyn's Bay Ridge, Zein Rimawi sat alone in the back of a community center he established for the neighborhood's Palestinian community. As the board chair of the Arab American Federation and founder of several local institutions, Rimawi has a reputation in the area.His desk is decorated with a tissue box covered with a knitted Palestinian flag, a bejeweled camel, and a journal with the landscape of Jerusalem on the cover. Behind him is a framed Quranic verse about refuge called Surah Al-Falaq". Continue reading...

Conferences have been abruptly cancelled, media appearances suppressed and demands made to fire critics of Israeli policiesWidespread attempts to suppress pro-Palestinian views in the US after the Hamas attack on Israel have forced the cancellation of major conferences, prompted demands for the dismissal of workers who express support for Palestinians and led to intimidation campaigns against Arab American voices critical of Israeli policies.Earlier this week, a leading US Jewish group forced the cancellation of a major Palestinian campaign organisation's national conference by alleging it was a front for Hamas, which killed more than 1,400 Israelis and abducted about 200 people in its attack from Gaza. Continue reading...

MLS has upped the playoff teams from 14 to 18 and added a best-of-three format. But what is a boon for the postseason has belittled the rest of the yearNot even the most gifted medium could divine much of a big-game aura from a match between sides in 10th and 11th place in MLS's Western Conference. Yet there is a potential playoff spot riding on the result of Sporting Kansas City v Minnesota United on Saturday.It is the last weekend of the regular season: Decision Day, in league marketing-speak. It will be Thank-A-Commish-Day in Kansas City or Minnesota should either of these mediocre teams still harbor dreams of lifting the MLS Cup at the final whistle. Continue reading...

We have seen a rapid escalation of violence from Israeli settlers, yet this seems to sit outside the consideration of world leadersSince Hamas's 7 October invasion, which killed more than 1,300 Israelis and took control of several military bases and settlements, Israel has embarked on what some human rights groups are warning will amount to a genocide. Israel has killed more than 4,000 Palestinians in Gaza, and many thousands more have been injured, according to the UN. Countless others are trapped under the rubble. Supplies of water, food, electricity and fuel have been cut off.Because of this devastation, governments and hundreds of thousands of people worldwide have called for a ceasefire in Gaza. This is desperately needed to stop the immediate bloodshed. It would not, however, end the violence that Israel subjects Palestinians to on a daily basis.Layth Hanbali is a health researcher working independently and at Birzeit University in Ramallah, PalestineDo 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...

Events in Israel have inspired renewed public questioning about our true Frenchness' - even that of beloved football starsFrance is home to Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim populations. Inevitably, what is happening in the Middle East has a particular resonance here. The grotesque images that circulated after Hamas's horrific attack on Israeli civilians on 7 October, planned and carried out in a chillingly meticulous way, sent shockwaves through France that are still reverberating.A big part of the country's public debate has been fixated, since the massacre, on avoiding the importation" of tensions connected with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After a spate of antisemitic incidents, Emmanuel Macron is rightly concerned about the fear gripping our compatriots of the Jewish faith". In a televised address to the nation, he announced a range of measures to tighten protection at Jewish schools and places of worship and culture.Rokhaya Diallo is a Guardian columnist. She is a writer, journalist, film director and activistDo 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...

The Lviv BookForum was vibrant this year, but still there is the backdrop of conflict and the need to find a place for storytellingLast year's Lviv BookForum, a literary festival in the elegant western Ukrainian city, was mostly an online affair, held in a basement lecture theatre that might double up, if needed, as a bomb shelter. By contrast, this year's edition had about 150 live events, with many available online, too.Some were so popular that audiences, many of them in their 20s and 30s, filled the aisles and crowded at the back of the main venue, a handsome 16th-century powder tower" that once formed part of the city's arsenal. Publishers were selling books at stalls in the soft autumn sunshine. There was an evening of poetry and live music in the city's marionette theatre. There was laughter, there was drinking, there were old friends to see and new ones to make. Continue reading...

Tom Gerbier was hiking the tallest mountain in the contiguous US in Sequoia national park when he fell to his deathA pilot from France who disappeared while hiking California's towering Mount Whitney was found dead after falling about 1,000ft (305 meters) off a cliff, the National Park Service said Friday.The hiker was identified as Tom Gerbier of Fontenay-sous-Bois, France, who was a pilot for Air France, the park service said in a statement. Continue reading...

Minnesota congresswoman blames dishonest smearing' for surge in violent threats in wake of Israel-Hamas conflict

This live blog is now closed. For latest reporting on Jim Jordan and the House speaker race, you can read our latest report:

Details on how Yuscil Taveras became a cooperating witness against ex-president and Walt Nauta revealed for first timeWhen the technology director at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club implicated the former US president and his valet in a scheme to erase subpoenaed security camera footage in the classified documents case, it was the culmination of weeks of talks with prosecutors about an immunity deal.The employee - identified as Trump Employee 4" in the superseding indictment but named by people familiar with the matter as Yuscil Taveras - became crucial to special counsel prosecutors over several weeks in July after he decided to cooperate with the criminal investigation. Continue reading...

US secretary of state told reporters that two released American hostages are 'safely in the hands of Israeli authorities in Israel'. Speaking in Washington DC, he said staff from the US would see the released hostages, Judith and Natalie Raanan, soon and that 'they'll receive support and assistance they need'. Blinken also pledged that the US would make every effort to free other US citizens currently being held in Gaza Continue reading...

Friday marked an escalation in House chaos as Jim Jordan lost his third vote to be House speaker and his status as nominee - how did we get here?Ever since Republicans ousted Kevin McCarthy as House speaker on 3 October, the Republican conference has been mired in chaos. Friday marked an escalation as should be of that dysfunction as Jim Jordan, the far-right congressman from Ohio, lost his third vote on the House floor to be speaker and his status as the GOP nominee.Here's a look at what transpired this week: Continue reading...

Republican colleagues vote against Ohio congressman's continued bid after his third failed attempt to corral support

The German company was accused of facilitating the disgraced financier's sex traffickingDeutsche Bank on Friday won final approval from a US judge for a $75m settlement it reached with victims of Jeffrey Epstein who had accused the German company of facilitating the late financier's sex trafficking.The US district judge Jed Rakoff, who granted preliminary approval for the deal in June, signed off on the settlement during a court hearing in Manhattan. Continue reading...

Judge Arthur Engoron avoided holding the ex-president in contempt for now, but reserved the right to do soA New York judge fined former US president Donald Trump $5,000 on Friday after a disparaging social media post about a key court staffer in his New York civil fraud case was allowed to linger on his campaign website after the judge ordered it deleted.Judge Arthur Engoron avoided holding Trump in contempt, for now, but reserved the right to do so - and possibly even put him in jail - if he continued to violate a gag order barring parties in the case from personal attacks on court staff. Continue reading...

Florida jury convicts David Tronnes for murder of Shanti Cooper-Tronnes after she refused to appear on home renovation showShanti Cooper-Tronnes abruptly walked out of a meeting with the producers of a home renovation television series that her husband coveted appearing on in 2018. She was beaten to death days later.This week, a jury in Florida found her husband, David Tronnes, guilty of murdering her because he was so enraged by her refusal to go on the show, which he believed would bail them out of costly improvements to their house. Continue reading...

Kenneth Chesebro was facing seven felony charges related to plan to falsely certify that Trump won in 2020Kenneth Chesebro, the attorney who allegedly devised the fake electors" plan to prevent Joe Biden from winning the 2020 election, has accepted a plea deal and will avoid going to trial in the Fulton county racketeering case involving Donald Trump and 17 others.The last-minute plea deal marks the second major victory in as many days for prosecutors, who can now compel him to testify against his former allies in Trump's inner circle to bolster their case. Continue reading...

Judge had awarded custody of the suspect's children to his wife on the day of the killing, authorities sayPolice are searching for a man suspected of fatally shooting a Maryland judge who had awarded custody of the suspect's children to his wife on the day of the killing, authorities said on Friday.The circuit court judge was fatally shot in the driveway of his home in Maryland on Thursday night, police have said. Continue reading...

Republicans plan to retreat once again behind closed doors to chart next steps following third vote over far-right congressman

Move follows president's prime-time address to nation but faces uncertain future with House of Representatives still paralysedThe Biden administration on Friday submitted a $106bn request to Congress for military and humanitarian aid for Israel and Ukraine and humanitarian assistance for Gaza, insisting lawmakers had an obligation to support US allies standing up to tyranny and aggression worldwide.White House officials spelled out the urgency of the request at a morning press briefing, reinforcing Joe Biden's assertion in a televised address to the nation on Thursday night from the Oval Office that there were links between the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the deadly attacks on Israel by Hamas on 7 October. Continue reading...

They crave a rage-filled reaction from Israel's prime minister. Wise heads should temper his response - and then be rid of himYou cannot think straight when you're in pain. That's truer still when the pain is combined with fury at those who caused it. There's a reason we speak of blind rage": when anger descends, we cannot see what's in front of us. And if that's true of individuals, it's truer still of nations.That was the message Joe Biden brought when he travelled to Israel this week. Drawing on his own experience of multiple bereavements, he consoled Israelis grieving for the more than 1,400 civilians killed by Hamas in the 7 October massacre and those waiting for word on the 203 hostages, including young children and the elderly, still held in Gaza. In what has become his signature style, Biden shared in their pain.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnistDo 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...

Joe Harding, a Republican who sponsored don't say gay' law, must serve four months for claiming $150,000 in relief fundsA former Florida state lawmaker who sponsored the state's divisive law nicknamed don't say gay was sentenced to prison on Thursday for fraudulently collecting Covid-19 pandemic small business government aid.The former Republican representative, Joe Harding, faced a maximum sentence of 20 years, but was sentenced to four months in federal prison. Continue reading...