The American Olympic champion Dick Fosbury, who revolutionised the high jump with a technique that became known as the Fosbury Flop, has died aged 76. Fosbury shot to fame in 1968, when he won high-jump gold in Mexico City after a final that lasted more than four hours. He set what was at the time a new Olympic record of 2.24 metres, a feat that ensured his technique would become the standard. His technique involved jumping backwards and arching his back over the bar, thereby reversing and ripping up decades of high jump orthodoxy.
Hall of famer Robert Parish played more NBA games than anyone in history. He says stepping away from the league was an easy decision to makeThere are few professions in which your career will almost certainly be over by the time you’re in your late 30s. Yet, in professional basketball this is the case. The game is just too fast, too physical for someone who has lost a step. It’s tough to swap the excitement and money for a more humdrum life. Some in professional sports, including Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young, have even likened retirement to “death”.So, how do NBA players decide when it’s time to go? It’s helpful to look to the man who played the most games in league history (1,611 in the regular season and 184 more in the playoffs), Boston Celtic great and four-time NBA champion, Robert Parish. If anyone knows, it’s him. Continue reading...
Bank shares slide around world amid panic caused by SVB failure as its parent company and two top executives are sued by shareholders. Plus, what’s next for Escobar’s hippos?
Biden promised no more drilling on federal lands, ‘period, period’. This week he approved the massive Willow projectThe Willow project is an act of terrorism against the climate, and the Biden administration has just approved it. This massive oil-drilling project in the wilderness of northern Alaska goes against science and the administration’s many assurances that it cares about climate and agrees that we must make a swift transition away from fossil fuel. Like the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, Joe Biden seems to think that if we do some good things for the climate we can also do some very bad things and somehow it will all even out.To make that magical thinking more obvious and to try to smooth over broad opposition, the US federal government also just coughed up some protections against drilling in the Arctic Ocean and elsewhere in the National Petroleum Reserve (and only approved three of the five drilling sites for ConocoPhillips’ invasion of this wilderness). Of course, this is like saying, “We’re going to kill your mother but we’re sending guards to protect your grandmother.” It doesn’t make your mom less dead. With climate you’re dealing with physics and math before you’re dealing with morality. All the carbon and methane emissions count, and they need to decrease rapidly in this decade. As Bill McKibben likes to say, you can’t bargain with physics.Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. Her most recent books are Recollections of My Nonexistence and Orwell’s Roses Continue reading...
The Iraq war ushered in a style of politics where truth is, at best, an inconvenienceThis month marks the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. While, tragically, there are almost too many victims to tally from this criminal act of America’s making, the notion of truth must certainly count as primary among them.We must not forget how the George W Bush administration manipulated the facts, the media and the public after the horrific attacks of 9/11, hellbent as the administration was to go to war in Iraq. By 2.40pm on 11 September 2001, mere hours after the attacks, Donald Rumsfeld, the then secretary of defense, was already sending a memo to the joint chiefs of staff to find evidence that would justify attacking the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (as well as Osama bin Laden).Moustafa Bayoumi is the author of the award-winning books How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America and This Muslim American Life: Dispatches from the War on Terror. He is a professor of English at Brooklyn College, City University of New York Continue reading...
‘An organized group of insurrectionists’ is seeking to swing a vote with big implications for voting rights, redistricting and abortionMore than $3.9m has poured into the Wisconsin supreme court election from individuals and groups involved with promoting election disinformation and attempts to overturn the 2020 election, according to an analysis of campaign spending by the Guardian.The contributions, in support of the conservative candidate Daniel Kelly, come amid a race that has broken national campaign spending records. According to a campaign finance tracker by the Brennan Center for Justice, political ad orders for the liberal county judge Janet Protasiewicz and conservative Kelly have reached at least $20m in anticipation of the 4 April general election. Continue reading...
A look at the fortified glass ceiling that casts a shadow over one of the most exclusive clubs in the worldAs billionaire flexes go, owning a major sports franchise is hard to beat. You get to prance around in the owner’s suite and host dignitaries and celebrities who gush over your prized position, all the while watching your investment sprout revenue like a magical beanstalk. Team owners cash in on television rights (ka-ching!), ticket sales (ka-ching!), licensing fees (ka-ching!) and sponsorship deals (ka-ching!).But the most profitable moment for any sports franchise owner is when their team is up for sale. That’s when other billionaires swarm in, hoping to join one of the most exclusive clubs in the world (ka-ching-a-ding-ding!). Continue reading...
The three-time Grammy winner appeared at the White House to perform his new, pro-Ukraine song – which has a cameo from ZelenskiyWearing white cowboy hat, black suit and black tie, country singer and guitar virtuoso Brad Paisley strode on stage in the East Room of the White House before a bipartisan audience.It was a Saturday night and, fittingly, he began the 40-minute set playing his hit song American Saturday Night – but with an amended lyric. “I had to change the second line because it mentioned Russia, and I don’t do that any more,” he explained.
Proposed class-action lawsuit claims bank failed to reveal how rising interest rates made it ‘particularly susceptible’ to failureSVB Financial Group and two top executives have been sued by shareholders over the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, as global stocks continued to suffer on Tuesday despite assurances from US president Joe Biden.The bank’s shareholders accuse SVB Financial Group chief executive Greg Becker and chief financial officer Daniel Beck of concealing how rising interest rates would leave its Silicon Valley Bank unit “particularly susceptible” to a bank run. Continue reading...
Joe Biden, Rishi Sunak and Anthony Albanese unveiled details of a plan to provide Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines, a major step aimed at countering China's ambitions in the Indo-Pacific. The first of the new vessels are expected to be seaworthy by the end of 2030s, with Australia receiving theirs in the early 2040s
Anthony Albanese joined US president Joe Biden and UK prime minister Rishi Sunak to announce an Aukus agreement in San Diego that 'represents the biggest single investment in Australia's defence capability in all of our history,' Albanese said. The first Australian-built nuclear-powered submarines, fitted with vertical launch systems to fire cruise missiles, are due to enter into service in the early 2040s
Senate Republican leader fell and was injured last week, and will now receive physical therapy at inpatient rehabilitation facilityMitch McConnell was released from the hospital on Monday after the Republican leader of the Senate received treatment for a concussion, and he will continue to recover in an inpatient rehabilitation facility, a spokesman said.McConnell’s office said his doctors discovered over the weekend that he had also suffered a “minor rib fracture” after he tripped and fell at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Washington on Wednesday evening. Continue reading...
Ex-president’s remarks come after his former vice-president said that history will hold Trump accountable for the violenceDonald Trump on Monday responded to Mike Pence’s contention that history will hold him accountable for the January 6 attack on Congress, saying the deadly attack was his former vice-president’s fault.“Had he sent the votes back to the legislatures, they wouldn’t have had a problem with January 6, so in many ways you can blame him for January 6,” Trump told reporters on a flight to Iowa for a campaign appearance. Continue reading...
Since Christmas the state has faced an exceptionally wet winter after being plagued far more by drought in recent yearsCalifornians are bracing for the arrival of another “atmospheric river” storm on Monday after a weekend of heavy rainfall and flooding forced thousands to evacuate, washed out roads and knocked out power.Rains are expected to ramp up on Monday night, and “impact increasingly sensitive portions of central California that were hit hard by the rainfall on Friday and early Saturday”, according to the national weather prediction center. Continue reading...
Former vice-president took aim at transportation secretary for taking maternity leave and joked about postpartum depressionThe White House rebuked the Republican former vice-president Mike Pence on Monday, for making jokes about US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, maternity leave and postpartum depression that it said were homophobic and offensive to women.“He should apologise to women and LGBTQ+ people,” said Joe Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre. Continue reading...
Split between jurors means convicted killer of October 2017 attack gets an automatic sentence of life in prison without paroleA jury said on Monday that it could not reach a unanimous decision on whether to impose the death sentence on an Islamist extremist who killed eight people using a speeding truck on a popular New York City bicycle path.Jurors told a federal judge they were unable to agree on whether Sayfullo Saipov should live or die for the October 2017 attack. Continue reading...
Oregon athlete who invented the Fosbury Flop won historic gold medal at Mexico City games in 1968The American Olympic champion Dick Fosbury, who revolutionised the high jump with a technique that became known as the Fosbury Flop, has died. He was 76.His former agent, Ray Schulte, announced the news on Instagram on Monday. Continue reading...
Given the antipathy towards Wall Street bailouts in the 2008 crisis, Biden is at pains to stress that ‘no losses’ will be borne by taxpayersWhen is a bailout not a bailout? It’s a question many people are asking after the dramatic collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the US’s decision to rescue depositors on Sunday.Joe Biden and elected and appointed officials all insist the emergency interventions to protect deposits in Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, a second bank that failed on the weekend – or, indeed, any further bank failures – won’t come at taxpayers’ expense. Continue reading...
Hundreds of migrants tried to race across the Paso del Norte bridge to El Paso after false internet post said the border was openHundreds of people near an El Paso, Texas, border crossing who tried to enter the US from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, on Sunday were met with physical barricades erected by shield-wielding authorities, according to reports on what is the latest episode to pit US immigration officials against a group of migrants.Many of the migrants, who were largely Venezuelan, had gone to the center of the Paso del Norte international bridge to determine whether a rumor that the border had been temporarily opened to them was true, the Texas Tribune reported. Many trying to flee lives in Mexico, where they cannot legally work and are often confronted by police, had hurried through toll booths on the Mexican side of the bridge and arrived at the center. Continue reading...
Whether it’s Hollywood or any other industry, too many men need reminding that women can be good at their jobs even if you don’t fancy them‘Ladies, never let anyone tell you you are past your prime,” Michelle Yeoh told a rapt audience as she accepted her Oscar on Sunday. She made history from a number of directions with the victory – the first woman from an Asian background to win best actress in 95 years, and only the second Asian lead even to be nominated. The first was Merle Oberon in 1936, and there is no better barium meal into the bowels of Hollywood racism than Oberon’s life story. but give the place a break: only 87 years later, it’s fine not to be white.On the age point, though, Yeoh was thought to be taking a wider swipe at culture as a whole, specifically referring to the CNN television anchor Don Lemon, who said last month that Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley was “past her prime”. Challenged live on air, he clarified: “A woman is in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s.” When that didn’t wash with his co-hosts, he said that it wasn’t according to him, and to Google it.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Police used genetic genealogy analysis of evidence collected after the body was found to find the alleged killers – her parentsFor more than three decades, answers surrounding the grisly death of a baby girl known to them simply as Baby Doe eluded Mississippi authorities. The infant’s body was discovered inside a garbage bag in the south-western Mississippi community of Picayune on 17 April 1992.Authorities determined that someone had smothered Baby Doe and deemed her untimely death a homicide. Picayune police started to investigate, collecting evidence – some tying the infant to neighboring Louisiana, reportedly including local newspapers – but the case went cold. Continue reading...
Girl killed sibling in family home with semi-automatic pistol but unclear if any of five adults present will face chargesIn a case that starkly illustrates the deadly consequences that the US’s permissive gun culture has on the country’s youth, a three-year-old girl accidentally shot her four-year-old sister to death in their Texas home late on Sunday, according to authorities.First responders found the slain girl while responding to an emergency call at 7.30pm about an injured minor at an apartment in suburban Houston, the local sheriff’s office said in a statement. She was there with five adults – including her mother and stepfather – when her younger sister grabbed a loaded semi-automatic pistol and shot her, first responders learned. Continue reading...
Multiverse fantasy picks up seven awards including best picture and best actress while All Quiet on the Western Front wins four. Plus, long shadow of US invasion of Iraq still looms 20 years on
If approved in full, the Willow project would mean the construction of 219 wells and hundreds of miles of pipelinesPresident Biden faces a legacy-making – or legacy-breaking – decision in arctic Alaska with the $8bn Willow project, the largest oil and gas project currently proposed on US public lands.If Biden remembers his visionary pledge – forged in the hard truth of human-caused climate change – that the US will expand into clean energy and approve no new oil drilling on federal lands, then his decision should be straightforward. Continue reading...
Line are drawn between the extremist wing and those who distance themselves from portraying the rioters as ‘sightseers’Some Republicans have rebuked efforts by Donald Trump and Fox News host Tucker Carlson to whitewash the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, underscoring a significant split in the party over attempts to downplay the events of the day.Kevin McCarthy, the speaker of the House, turned over more than 40,000 hours of security footage from the Capitol to Carlson earlier this year. This week, Carlson aired selectively edited portions of that footage, falsely claiming the rioters were “sightseers” and “not insurrectionists”. At least 1,000 people have been arrested for their role in the January 6 attack. Five people died as a result of it. Continue reading...
Former national security adviser tells podcast ‘we didn’t feel we would get support’ from president during Russia investigationDonald Trump’s third national security adviser, John Bolton, did not brief the president on suspicions Russia might be behind mysterious “Havana syndrome” attacks on US diplomats because he did not think Trump would support him.“Since our concern was that one of the perpetrators – maybe the perpetrator – was Russia,” Bolton said, “we didn’t feel we would get support from President Trump if we said, ‘We think the Russians are coming after American personnel.’” Continue reading...
I spent 10 years burying the shame of being a failed contestant on the US version of the show. Then a 15-year-old helped me see it differentlyMy name is Emily, I’m a standup comedian and when I was 15, I was on The X Factor US. But if you’d told me back then that I’d be willingly telling you that, let alone regaling audiences – while touring a show – about the experience, I’d tell you that you were in the wrong multiverse, dumbass! Couldn’t be me!I auditioned for The X Factor with my best friend, Austin, in 2011. We went in with full confidence that we not only had the raw talent for stardom, but also the branding: who wouldn’t love a pubescent boy-girl duet with a name as brilliantly punny as AusEm?Emily Wilson is a comedian. She performs Fixed at London’s Soho Theatre from 13 to 18 March 2023. Book tickets here Continue reading...
In his new book, the scholar examines how religion shaped the history of major sports in North AmericaDoes the penalty box have religious connotations? Randall Balmer leans in that direction. A scholar of religion at Dartmouth College, he’s intrigued by the origins of the so-called sin bin.Ice hockey emerged in late 19th-century Canada, influenced by the indigenous sport of lacrosse. As the game became popular among Catholics in Canada in the 1930s, it started to incorporate the penalty box, where players received a sort of absolution through separation. Balmer explores this connection in his new book, Passion Plays: How Religion Shaped Sports in North America, which was published late last year. Continue reading...
The network is facing a $1.6bn false-claims lawsuit – and its top star’s private texts about the ex-president are causing anguishTucker Carlson was once seen as untouchable. Now the most popular TV host on American cable news is at the center of a firestorm threatening to engulf Fox News and also anger Donald Trump, whose conspiracy theory-laden political cause he has long championed and who his audience loves.Court filings attached to the $1.6bn Dominion Voting Systems defamation suit accuse Fox News of allowing its stars to broadcast false accusations about rigged voting machines in the 2020 presidential election. Continue reading...
Award winners and nominees celebrated into the night at the Governors Ball after the Oscars ceremony, while some attended the celebrity packed Vanity Fair party Continue reading...
President Saied is scapegoating his country’s small black migrant population to distract from political failings. Does this sound familiar?A little more than 10 years ago, calls for freedom and human rights in Tunisia triggered the Arab spring. Today, black migrants in the country are being attacked, spat at and evicted from their homes. The country’s racism crisis is so severe that hundreds of black migrants have been repatriated.It all happened quickly, triggered by a speech by the Tunisian president, Kais Saied, at the end of February. He urged security forces to take urgent measures against migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, who he claimed were moving to the country and creating an “unnatural” situation as part of a criminal plan designed to “change the demographic makeup” and turn Tunisia into “just another African country that doesn’t belong to the Arab and Islamic nations any more”. “Hordes of irregular migrants from sub-Saharan Africa” had come to Tunisia, he added, “with all the violence, crime and unacceptable practices that entails”. Continue reading...
Real-estate listing on Zillow showcases home with doorways shaped like caskets, where guests feel ‘a presence’Searching for a quaint home that’s off the beaten path, where no one can hear you scream? This one’s for you: a $125,000 three-bedroom for sale on the 3516 Interstate Highway near Baird, Texas, is an “established and running haunted house”.The spooky home went viral last week after Steven Dennis, a Bloomberg reporter who often chronicles the ups and downs of Zillow on Twitter, posted photos from the listing. Continue reading...
The suit could determine whether US women can access abortion drugs, but judge is trying to limit disruptions and protestsA judge in Texas overseeing a lawsuit in which a conservative group is challenging the legality of the abortion drug mifepristone scheduled the first hearing in the case for Wednesday, but directed that court officials not make the timing public until the evening before.According to sources cited by the Washington Post, Matthew Kacsmaryk, a US district court judge in Amarillo appointed by Donald Trump in 2019, ordered the hearing kept out of the court docket as a way to try to limit disruptions and protests, and also asked that lawyers arguing the case not to disclose information. Continue reading...
Senator accuses president of ‘demagoguing’ issue to fund and protect program, along with Medicare, from proposals to cutThe Republican senator John Kennedy accused Joe Biden of “demagoguing” the issue of how to fund social security and Medicare and protecting the two programs from Republican proposals to cut them, calling it a “very immature thing to do”.Speaking to Fox News Sunday, Kennedy took aim at Biden for mentioning in his State of the Union address last month that some Republicans have proposed to “sunset” social security and Medicare as part of attempts to balance the federal budget. Continue reading...
Announcement comes as Signature Bank was closed on Sunday by regulators – the second to fail in a weekUS financial regulators rolled out emergency measures Sunday night to stem potential contagion from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. The measures include ensuring that depositors with the failed bank would have access to all their money on Monday morning.Regulators announced the measure in a joint statement from the treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) chair, Martin Gruenberg. Continue reading...
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