Kenichi Horie became the first person to make a non-stop solo crossing of the Pacific in 1962 and has made multiple crossingsAn 83-year old man is set to sail from San Francisco on Saturday and voyage alone across the Pacific Ocean to his home country, Japan.Kenichi Horie, also known as “Japan’s most famous yachtsman”, became the first person to make a non-stop solo crossing of the Pacific in 1962. On that trip, he was still a 23-year old amateur seaman. Horie set off from Osaka and sailed across the ocean for 94 days, surviving on canned food and rice before arriving in San Francisco. Continue reading...
Clinton, James Comey and others accused of orchestrating Russia conspiracy that makes Watergate ‘pale in comparison’Donald Trump has sued Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee and other people and entities tied to the investigation of Russian election interference in 2016, claiming that in a bid to rig the election they orchestrated a conspiracy which made Watergate “pale in comparison”.The suit came a day after the release of a letter from a prosecutor in New York who said he believed Trump was “guilty of numerous felony violations” in his business affairs, despite the district attorney in Manhattan choosing not to indict. Continue reading...
Joe Biden has said that Russia should be expelled from the G20 and that US and Nato would respond if Russia uses chemical weapons in Ukraine. Speaking at a press conference in Brussels following an emergency Nato summit, the US president also hinted that he might be meeting with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Panel to meet next week after former senior White House advisers Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino refused to appear for depositionsThe House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack will consider holding in criminal contempt of Congress next week two of Donald Trump’s most senior White House advisers, Dan Scavino and Peter Navarro, the panel announced on Thursday.The move to initiate contempt proceedings against the two Trump aides amounts to a biting rebuke of their refusal to cooperate with the inquiry, as the panel deploys its most punitive measures to reaffirm the consequences of noncompliance. Continue reading...
Los Angeles city council unanimously bestowed the designation to the 123-year-old site where many movie legends are buriedThe Hollywood Forever cemetery, the final resting place of stars such as Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney and Burt Reynolds, is now a historic-cultural monument.The Los Angeles city council unanimously voted this week to grant the designation to the 123-year-old cemetery, which has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1999. An architectural historian who prepared a report on the cemetery for the city found it “exemplifies significant contributions to the broad cultural, economic or social history”. Continue reading...
Jay-Z and Beyonce’s ultra-exclusive post-Oscars bash runs afoul of a worker boycott of the famed hotel, which laid off hundreds when the pandemic hitNestled at the foot of mansion-studded hills, just north of Los Angeles’ legendary Sunset Boulevard, the seven-story Chateau Marmont has been a mainstay of Hollywood socializing for nearly a century – including in recent years, the venue for Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s ultra-exclusive post-Oscars bash.But the storied Hollywood playground has become a rallying point for a growing labor movement, and this Sunday, scores of Chateau Marmont workers, alleging longstanding rights violations and discrimination by their employer, plan to protest outside the Academy Awards afterparty. That means the Carters and their star-studded guestlist will have to choose whether to cross a picket line to get in. Continue reading...
As a young Olympian I was asked to do ‘whatever it takes’ to win. Now I can see how sinister that wasShock news! The No 1 tennis player in the world has announced that there is more to her life than the number of times she wins a tennis championship. The collective state of astonishment at Ash Barty’s retirement at the age of 25 says as much about how we see athletes as it does about this extraordinary woman. How have we reached a point where it is surprising for a top athlete to have a healthy mindset? Where it stuns us that someone who has won at the highest level isn’t desperate to do it again as many times as possible? Where we ask why she is somehow unfairly depriving herself – and us – of something she owes us, as though she hasn’t yet served her time?Barty has been in tennis for 20 years (remarkable given that she has only been alive for 25 years), has won multiple grand slams including the memorable victory at her home slam in Melbourne in January. She has been world No 1 for over 100 weeks. But the questions after Melbourne focused not on this stunning victory, but how many more like it there would be in future. Sporting achievements are transient, each one diminished as the focus shifts inevitably to the next, and next, and next. But by finding lasting value in that magical scene in Melbourne, she could have found her biggest victory. When I joined the Olympic pathway some years ago, coaches asked me whether I was willing to do “whatever it takes”. In hindsight,I can see now how sinister that was. When you inevitably agree in the affirmative – the only option unless you wanted to walk out on your Olympic dream – it is like signing a pact with the devil. It means giving up defining success on your own terms or as anything less than coming first as often as possible, at any cost. Barty has made no such pact. She has explained clearly that she has nothing more to give. Why would anyone want her to keep pushing further at a point likely to lead only to mental and physical damage? Do onlookers want her to continue until she fails?Cath Bishop is an Olympic rower, former diplomat and author. She is an adviser to The True Athlete Project Continue reading...
World Rugby chief and US bid executives price bid at half-a-billion dollars and say Biden White House will express supportThe US is on course to be named in mid-May as host of the 2031 men’s Rugby World Cup and the women’s event in 2033 with a bid priced at half a billion dollars and support from the Biden White House, executives including World Rugby chief Alan Gilpin said on Thursday.“We’re not talking to anybody else about Rugby World Cup hosting in 2031 and 2033,” Gilpin said. “It doesn’t mean it’s a done deal … but it means that we strategically believe we can deliver the right outcomes with this hosting plan.” Continue reading...
Ken Paxton called district’s Pride week ‘sex education’ and claimed without parental consent it is against lawThe attorney general of Texas has declared a school district’s celebration of LGBTQ+ students “sex education” and in violation of Texas law.For the past eight years, students in the Austin Independent school district have held a district-wide Pride week as a chance to celebrate LGBTQ+ students, staff and families in the district, according to the district’s website. Continue reading...
There has been a quiet understanding that we’re on the brink of a new cold war, potentially even a hot one – which requires that we join together to surviveI’m going to go out on a limb and suggest something that would have seemed utter nonsense as late as a month ago: I’m seeing the stirrings in Washington of a new era of … I’m not sure what to call it. “Unity” is way too strong. “Bipartisanship” is premature. “De-partisanship” is too clunky.But something new seems to be happening, and Vladimir Putin is responsible. Continue reading...
TV doctor and former football star, appointed to sports and health body by Trump, are both Republican Senate candidatesThe White House has asked two Trump-appointed members of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition to resign from their posts or be fired.On Wednesday, the White House sent letters to Dr Mehmet Oz and former football star Herschel Walker – two Republican Senate candidates in Georgia and Pennsylvania, respectively – asking them to submit their resignations or face termination. Continue reading...
Claims dropped by 28,000 for week ending 19 March as at least a dozen states consider checks to ease burden of inflationThe number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week fell to its lowest level in 52 years as the US job market continues to show strength in the midst of rising costs and the pandemic.Jobless claims fell by 28,000 to 187,000 for the week ending 19 March, the lowest since September of 1969, the labor department reported on Thursday. First-time applications for jobless aid generally track the pace of layoffs. Continue reading...
The bodies have become the engines of policymaking, behind Georgia’s voting restrictions and Florida’s ‘don’t say gay’ billHello, and happy Thursday,Since late last year, I have been intensely focused on the frantic efforts by both major parties to put themselves in the best position to win US House races this fall. Continue reading...
Prince William condemns slavery, but the monarchy benefited from it. The journey to justice must include reparationsIn Jamaica, we often use the word “respect” when we greet or part ways with other people, no matter who they are or where they come from. We say this word because we mean it. We respect you as a person because we are all made in God’s image, and we seek to show appreciation for your value. The word respect does not mean that we always agree with that person; it is simply an acknowledgment of their humanity and their value.Much fuss has been made of my supposed snub of the Duchess of Cambridge because of a two-second manipulated clip taken out of context. I have nothing but respect for Catherine as a person, and I treated her with that respect and cordiality, as evidenced by many other photos and videos of our interaction. I do not have any quarrel with the duchess herself, the people of the United Kingdom or the government.Lisa Hanna is a Jamaican MP and UN Development Programme goodwill ambassador
It is vital Moscow understands that escalation will not be risk-free, and expects a proportionate responseNato leaders are meeting for an emergency summit in Brussels today to address the war in Ukraine. While there, they must discuss and agree on how to respond in the event of further escalation from Russia. In the best case, clarifying Nato’s response to further escalation will deter Vladimir Putin from taking that step. At the very least, it will prepare the allies for what may follow.Having failed to quickly oust the elected government in Kyiv, Putin now faces a choice between negotiating an end to the war, or escalating further. While talks are ongoing, Putin himself has given no indication that he’ll settle for anything less than Ukraine’s complete subjugation. Two weeks ago, CIA director William Burns told Congress that the Russian leader is “likely to double down”. He will “try to grind down the Ukrainian military with no regard for civilian casualties”.Ivo Daalder is the president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He served as US ambassador to Nato between 2009 and 2013 Continue reading...
State department says US will pursue accountability ‘using every tool available’. Plus, PFAS found in scores of food packaging wrappersGood morning.The US has formally accused Russian forces of committing war crimes in Ukraine and vowed to pursue accountability “using every tool available”.Biden has arrived in Europe for an emergency Nato summit, a G7 summit and a meeting of the European Council in Brussels. He aims to keep pressure high on Russia.A Russian reporter has died amid Russian shelling in Kyiv. Oksana Baulina, who was reporting for the independent Russian news website the Insider, was at least the fifth journalist to die since the conflict began.Seven humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians have been agreed for Thursday, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said. Many previous agreements have fallen apart. None have been agreed for Mariupol.When did Trump withdraw his endorsement? On Wednesday Trump said Brooks “made a horrible mistake recently when he went ‘woke’ and stated, referring to the 2020 Presidential Election Scam: ‘Put that behind you, put that behind you.’”Meanwhile, a man charged in 6 January attack has been granted asylum in Belarus. Charged with assaulting police, Evan Neumann said that although he had been in the building, he rejected the charges and had not hit any officers. Continue reading...
The bad faith questions, the baseless accusations, the time wasting – the nominee’s interrogators do not see her as an equalWhat should have been a historic moment for the first Black woman to be nominated to the US supreme court, has become a scene of childish political theatre, thanks to Senate Republicans. And as President Joe Biden’s nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson makes her way through the last round of questioning by the Senate judiciary committee, one thing is clear: she deserves better.As the world watches the hearings unfold, the image from day one of Brown Jackson being grilled relentlessly by a group of old white men still sticks out vividly to me. Not only is she already being held up to far more scrutiny than any white man in her position would be, but the line of questioning from across the aisle has devolved into the absolutely ridiculous.Tayo Bero is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
Some commentators belonging to the Prime Demographic find they’re unable to appreciate its non-male, non-white protagonists“Some Pixar films are made for universal audiences. Turning Red is not. The target audience for this one feels very specific and very narrow. If you are in it, this might work very well for you. I am not in it. This was exhausting.”With this tweet and the slag review it pointed to, Sean O’Connell, critic for the film site Cinema Blend, exploded the internet, launching a conversation about representation and privilege in storytelling that continues to echo weeks after Turning Red’s release. Continue reading...
Harvard’s Kathy Delaney-Smith, who is retiring from coaching after 40 years, taught me a lesson that goes far beyond wins and losses: You don’t really know a person until you let them downWinning is a meat grinder into which many college basketball coaches feed their players. That sounds terrible but I get it. For a long time, winning was my drug of choice. As a player I’d gladly sacrifice myself for a W – until the sacrifices became too real and too sad. Although I’ve won a lot of games and a few championships, 20 years after playing Division I basketball, the biggest lesson I learned comes from loss.I learned it from Kathy Delaney-Smith, the coach who doesn’t like to be called “coach”, because she thinks too many people have negative associations (see: meat grinder). This March Madness will be her last, as she’s retiring after 40 years of fighting for equity, upending Ivory Tower norms, and yes – winning. Continue reading...
Wisconsin Republicans emboldened by untouchable majority in state legislature are promoting extreme antidemocratic lawsOver the last few months, an attack on democracy has slowly escalated in Wisconsin.A group of Republicans in the state legislature, encouraged by Donald Trump, is pushing an illegal effort to undo the 2020 election. They want to rescind Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes for Joe Biden – something that is not legally possible. The GOP-controlled state assembly appointed a special counsel to review the 2020 election, who has encouraged the decertification effort, embraced conspiracy theories, and produced a 136-page report filled with misleading information. He has also suggested jailing mayors of some of the largest cities and employees of the state elections commission for opposing his investigation. And like their counterparts in many other states, Wisconsin lawmakers have advanced a series of measures that would make it harder to vote. Continue reading...
The odds are in the Americans’ favor as the final round of World Cup qualifiers kick off on Thursday in Mexico, but the familiar assurances ring hollow after 2017’s Catastrophe at CouvaIt’ll be OK in the end. Won’t it?With three rounds of Concacaf matches remaining, squeezed into only seven days, there is the potential for things to go wrong in a hurry as the US conclude their qualifying campaign for this year’s World Cup. Continue reading...
Port Freeport in Texas has obtained 95% of property in East End as part of an extensive expansion – and many former residents are upset over being displacedAt age 97, Henry Jones is preparing to move out of the house he called home for more than 70 years, a modest dwelling he built in Freeport, Texas. The exterior is a cool, teal color; the interior walls are lined with family memorabilia and intricate wooden detail. This, he says, is where the best memories of his life have taken place.The process of leaving, however, has made for some of the worst. Jones is one of the final residents of the city’s East End, a historically Black neighborhood that became encircled by industry throughout the 20th century, much of it related to Port Freeport. Like many residents in the neighborhood, Jones’s relationship to the port has evolved over time: when he was younger, he took shifts loading and unloading ships, work he says was hard but helped him provide for his growing family. Continue reading...
The last few weeks have seen a wild round of trades and signings. But which team has improved the most as we eye the 2022 campaign?The NFL has had its wildest offseason in recent memory. The quarterback carousel has been spinning. Record contracts have been inked. And it feels like just yesterday that Aaron Rodgers was getting intimate with oils. Here are the winners of the offseason so far.A quick note: these are the teams that have improved their chances the most for next season.The Colts entered the offseason with Carson Wentz, a bad quarterbackThey leave the offseason with Matt Ryan, a good quarterback, one who comfortably outperformed the surrounding tire-fire in Atlanta last season.They did so without adding any extra money to their cap, with Atlanta absorbing a $40m (!) dead cap hit.Ryan’s cap hold is lower in Indy than Wentz’s would have been.They did it all for the cost of a third-round pick … and they brought in two third-round picks by dealing Wentz to Washington. Continue reading...
Republicans pressed their attacks on a range of issues against Ketanji Brown Jackson, Joe Biden's nominee to become the first Black woman on the US supreme court. Jackson, who had remained even-tempered throughout marathon questioning during her Senate judiciary committee confirmation hearing, showed impatience over repeated questions posed by Republicans who accused her of being too lenient in sentencing in cases involving child abuse images
After two years and five jabs, I finally caught coronavirus on holiday in south Wales. But despite my fevered state, I learned something newAfter two jabs in a vaccine trial, and three Pfizers, I was sure my defences were rock solid, impregnable. Turns out they were unbreachable only in the sense that the Maginot line was unbreachable. Like Axis forces in 1940, the subvariant of the Omicron variant – or whatever they’re saying it is – found a way around the undefended flanks of my antibodies. Yes, I finally got Covid. Yes, I know, yawn. As my elder daughter said to me: “It’s so uncool to get Covid now.” I was in south Wales with her and our dog when I got my first-ever second red line. Feeling decidedly awful, I took to my bed. “You’re being very 2020 about this,” she said. Not long after, she packed her bag and buggered off to leave me to it, all alone but for the dog.Thence began 10 days of drifting between sleeping and waking states. I had a raging temperature and a cough like my late Aunt Vesna’s in Zagreb when she was smoking at least three packs a day. I woozily remembered her fondly while snatching bits of sleep between death rattles. I wouldn’t have got out of bed at all were it not for the needs of the dog, who, when requiring attention, would lick my face, or any other extremity poking out from beneath the sheets. He would lie around bored to tears until another round of vicious coughing started up, at which point he would slope off elsewhere. As I drifted back to sleep, I imagined him lying on the floor with his big paws over his ears, desolate with the tedium of it all.Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist Continue reading...
by Cheriss May and Errin Haines for the 19th on (#5XET9)
Gathered on the steps of the supreme court, 13 women describe pride and inspiration as the judge prepares to make historyFor many of the Black women who gathered on the steps of the US supreme court this week, the confirmation hearings of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson – likely to become the country’s first Black female supreme court justice – were a moment of pride, joy, inspiration and validation.Black women turned out in record numbers in the 2020 presidential election, in part galvanized by Joe Biden’s campaign pledge to nominate a Black female supreme court justice at his first opportunity. For many, his fulfilled promise is also a product of their efforts at the ballot box. Continue reading...
Solemn proceedings of confirmation hearing took a nosedive into farce with bizarre moments in Jackson’s epic inquisitionAt 2.54pm on the second day of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearings that will determine whether she takes a seat on the US supreme court, the solemn proceedings took a nosedive into farce.Ted Cruz, the Republican senator from Texas, turned theatrically to an outsized blow-up of a children’s book, Antiracist Baby by Ibram X Kendi. Pointing to a cartoon from its pages of an infant in diapers taking their first walk, he asked Jackson: “Do you agree with this book… that babies are racist?” Continue reading...
US congressman Richard Neal says peace deal must not be held ‘hostage over domestic politics’A bilateral trade deal between the US and the UK is “desirable” but will not progress while the Northern Ireland peace deal is being used for domestic political purposes, one of the most powerful American congressmen has warned.Richard Neal, the chairman of the ways and means committee, has told the Guardian: “We will not entertain a trade agreement if there is any jeopardy to the Good Friday agreement. Continue reading...
New York Times obtains letter by Mark Pomerantz condemning new district attorney’s decision not to prosecute ex-presidentA Manhattan prosecutor who investigated Donald Trump’s financial dealings wrote in a resignation letter that he believed Trump “is guilty of numerous felony violations” and blasted the new district attorney for not moving ahead with an indictment, the New York Times reported.Mark Pomerantz and Carey Dunne, two top prosecutors on the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal investigation of Trump, resigned abruptly last month, amid reports that the investigation into the former president’s finances was foundering. Continue reading...
A powerful tornado left a two-mile path of destroyed homes, uprooted power lines and overturned vehicles on the east side of New Orleans. At least one person was killed and eight injured. A dark funnel cloud touched down at around 7.30pm on Tuesday, flattening buildings and flipping vehicles
Hearings on Biden’s supreme court nominee resume with chair chiding Republicans for ‘showcasing election talking points’Ketanji Brown Jackson endured 10 more grueling hours of senators’ questioning on Wednesday, after a marathon 13-hour judiciary committee hearing with the supreme court nominee the day before.Multiple Republican senators grilled Jackson about her sentences of child abuse image offenders, accusing her of letting the defendants off too easily. Continue reading...
A package of bills signed by Jay Inslee tighten the state’s gun laws, including adding restrictions to a law prohibiting ghost gunsThe Washington governor Jay Inslee signed a package of bills Wednesday tightening the state’s gun laws, including a measure that bans the manufacture, distribution and sale of firearm magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition.Washington joins nine other states, including California and New Jersey, that restrict magazine capacity size. Continue reading...
Madeleine Albright, who fled the Nazis as a child in her native Czechoslovakia and rose to become the first female US secretary of state and, in her later years, a pop culture feminist icon, died on Wednesday at the age of 84, her family said. Colleagues across the US state department and the UN have remembered Albright as a ‘trailblazer’ whose impact is felt ‘every single day’
Evan Neumann, accused of hitting police with metal barricade, tells Belarusian state TV he has ‘mixed feelings’ about the moveA former San Francisco Bay Area resident facing federal criminal charges from the January 6 attack at the US Capitol has been granted asylum in Belarus, the former Soviet nation’s state media reported on Tuesday.Evan Neumann, 49, was charged a year ago with assaulting police, including using a metal barricade as a battering ram during the riot last year. In an interview with the Belarus 1 channel that aired last year, he acknowledged being at the building that day but rejected the charges and said he had not hit any officers. Continue reading...
Mo Brooks of Alabama appeared at the rally before the Capitol assault and is under scrutiny by January 6 committeeThe Alabama Republican congressman Mo Brooks said on Tuesday Donald Trump asked him to “rescind” the 2020 election, remove Joe Biden from the White House and reinstate Trump.The extraordinary statement came in an angry response to a withdrawn endorsement in a US Senate race. Trump was angered that Brooks was insufficiently toeing his line on calling the 2020 election a fraud. Continue reading...
US president will take part in an emergency Nato summit, G7 summit and European Council meetingJoe Biden has arrived in Europe for a four-day trip with the aim of keeping up pressure on Russia in the face of sanctions fatigue and splits over energy sanctions among US allies.It will also, to some extent, be a lap of honour for the US president’s success so far in keeping allies and partners together in confronting Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Continue reading...
Obama, Bush, Blair and others hail first female secretary of state: ‘She lived out the American dream’Tributes flooded in on Wednesday to Madeleine Albright, the first woman to hold the position of US secretary of state, who has died at the age of 84.“Madeleine Albright was a force,” said Joe Biden in a statement. “Hers were the hands that turned the tide of history.” Continue reading...
Diplomat and scholar of international relations who served as the first female US secretary of stateMadeleine Albright, who has died of cancer aged 84, was the first woman to hold the office of secretary of state of the United States. It fell to her to cope with the painful dilemmas presented for the US by the breakup of Yugoslavia and the rise of Islamic opposition in the Middle East.While she fulfilled the role in the administration of President Bill Clinton, she could not take the place that office usually confers as third in succession to the president because she was not a “natural born citizen” of the US. Like Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski, secretaries of state in the Nixon and Carter administrations, she had been a refugee from Europe. Like them also, Albright came to the job not via business or politics but through an academic background in the study of international relations. Continue reading...
Court took issue with decision to add an additional Black-majority state assembly district in the Milwaukee areaThe US supreme court threw out Wisconsin’s new state legislative maps on Wednesday, in a ruling that boosts Republicans and takes aim again at one of the last remaining provisions to protect voting discrimination.The ruling is the latest of many in recent years in which the US supreme court has been hostile to voting rights. In an unsigned ruling, the court took issue with the decision to add an additional Black-majority state assembly district in the Milwaukee area, raising the total in the map to seven. The Wisconsin supreme court picked the plan, drawn by Tony Evers, the state’s Democratic governor, earlier this month. Continue reading...
Residents of Arabi were still feeling the effects of Hurricane Ida, six months ago. And then the black, spinning tornadoes cameFor Bonnie Norris, the tornadoes that tore through New Orleans on Tuesday evening seemed to come out of nowhere. She and her boyfriend were watching television when something outside caught their attention.Norris described the tornado as a black, spinning vortex. She said the noise was deafening, like a freight train. “I just remember saying, ‘Here it comes, here it comes.’” Continue reading...
App, which refers to ‘minute by minute’, aims to compete with Apple and Google – but will it fact-check Trump’s big lie?If you can’t beat them, join them. After years joining his father in deriding the “lamestream media” as the “enemy of the people”, Donald Trump Jr has launched an app to aggregate news.Don Jr and co-founder Taylor Budowich, a spokesperson for the former president, hope that MxM News (the name refers to “minute by minute”) will compete with giants such as Apple News and Google News, the Axios website reported. Continue reading...
‘We’re a greater nuclear power,’ former president who previously praised Putin as ‘smart’ tells Fox BusinessIf Donald Trump were still president, he told Fox Business on Monday, he would threaten Russia with nuclear submarines.Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden, who is therefore dealing with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Continue reading...
Little St James, where late financier abused women and girls, and Great St James in the US Virgin Islands listed for $125mTwo Caribbean islands that once belonged to the late sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein have been put up for sale, according to a new report.Great St James and Little St James, two islands in the US Virgin Islands, were part of Epstein’s extensive global property portfolio and have been listed for $125m, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Continue reading...
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