‘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...
Few anticipated what happened once the war began: the Ukrainians put up a tough resistance, even as the balance of power favored Russia“War, as the American Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman observed, “is hell.” The one that Russia launched against Ukraine on February 24 certainly fits his description.Cities have come under siege – consider the horrific plight of Mariupol – a hospital and a shopping mall have been struck, as have apartment buildings, in Kyiv as well as Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city. The number of refugees and internally displaced Ukrainians already exceeds 10 million, more than a fifth of the country’s population.Rajan Menon is the director of the grand strategy program at Defense Priorities, senior research fellow at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University, and Anne and Bernard Spitzer emeritus at Powell School, City College of New York Continue reading...
In an advertisement for Arby’s, the rapper takes aim at the Filet-O-Fish with the explosive Spicy Fish DissFor years Arby’s has bragged: “We have the meats.” Now the menu includes a spicy beef with McDonald’s.On Monday, the hot deli chain released an advertisement for its crispy fish sandwich. Undergirding the EDM-tinged backing beat is the rap song Spicy Fish Diss – a single-verse Scud missile that takes direct aim at McDonald’s pescatarian mainstay, the Filet-O-Fish. And it doesn’t waste any of its 75-second runtime beating around the bush. “Filet-O-Fish is shit,” it crows, “and you should be disgusted.” Continue reading...
by Sam Levin in Los Angeles with photographs by Jane on (#5XDKV)
Revealed: county data and interviews with displaced residents of Echo Park Lake suggest that many ended up back on the streets in worse conditionsOn 24 March last year, hundreds of police officers descended on Los Angeles’ Echo Park Lake to evict the community of unhoused residents that had swelled there during the pandemic.After police arrested protesters opposing the evictions and cleared the encampment at the popular city park, the local councilman pushing for the sweep said his office had found “housing solutions” for roughly 200 of the displaced residents, calling it the “single largest housing event in the history of the city”. Continue reading...
As health authorities brace for another coronavirus wave, the US is still deeply divided over its pandemic future – even as most states relax restrictionsIn Mississippi and Massachusetts, two pharmacists working in very different parts of America have seen a sharp drop in demand for Covid-19 vaccines in recent months. Their best guesses for why they’ve seen such slowdowns diverge considerably.Saad Dinno, co-owner and pharmacist at four drugstores in the suburbs of Boston, wagers that most people in his community are up to date on their vaccinations. As he speaks from Acton Pharmacy, in the Massachusetts town of the same name, his bet is a fairly safe one – 95% of the people in this county have had at least one shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Continue reading...
While the 30-year-old’s self-determined streak might have cost him a lucrative NBA career, he has a decent shot at being elected to CongressIt appears the US has entered the age of the jock politician. First ex-Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville wins a US Senate seat in Alabama. Then Heisman trophy winner Herschel Walker kicks off his own Senate run in Georgia. And now former NBA player Royce White jumps into the fray as the Republican challenger to Ilhan Omar in Minnesota’s 5th congressional district.After going public with his candidacy from the steps of Minneapolis’ Federal Reserve, White, 30, published a 3,500-word open letter rallying Black voters away from the leftist “plantation” and their “globalist” agenda while heading off opposition research into his legacy of legal trouble, his personal debts and unpaid child support allegations, and his overall mental fitness. He made sure to address the letter to “Democrats”, dismissing Omar and her ilk as bought and paid for while promoting himself as a populist. In between he invoked God, raged against Big Tech and its overlords and, well, came off more than just a little unfocused. “You motherfuckers don’t own me,” he wrote, hitting back at the tech bros. “You don’t own my mind. I will die for the rights and freedoms that this nation’s constitution affords me before I see myself, my family or my countrymen returned to chains. Your arrogance and petulance insults me to my core.” Continue reading...
Grant Llera worked to find an old yearbook picture of the man who was working at the World Trade Center when it fellFor years, two tiles showing oak tree leaves stood above the names of two individuals in New York’s 9/11 museum’s “In Memoriam” exhibit whose photos could not be found. The rest of the exhibit features pictures of the 2,977 killed during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.Now, after more than a decade of searching, a photograph of one of those two victims – a cafeteria worker at the World Trade Center – has finally been located and installed. Continue reading...
Aipac defends move by saying that support for the Jewish state overrides other issues as it faces a storm of criticismThe US’s most powerful pro-Israel lobby group has been accused of putting support for Israel before American democracy after it declared its backing for the election campaigns of three dozen Republican members of Congress who tried to block President Biden’s presidential victory.But the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) has defended the move by saying that support for the Jewish state overrides other issues and that it is “no moment for the pro-Israel movement to become selective about its friends”. Continue reading...
Tornadoes have caused damage and destruction through New Orleans and Texas, leaving a trail of destruction and killing at least two people. Powerful weather systems also pummelled parts of Louisiana and Alabama. At least two tornados ripped through central Texas, leaving a path of destruction in its wake, and injuring dozens.
The 35-year-old petitioned last month to end legal arrangement that has given her mother control of her estate and personal affairsA judge terminated Amanda Bynes’ conservatorship on Tuesday, ending the legal arrangement that has given the former actor’s mother control of her estate and personal affairs for nearly a decade.The 35-year-old filed a petition last month, with support from her mother and psychiatrist, to end the conservatorship she was placed under in 2013 after she was forcibly hospitalized on a psychiatric hold. Continue reading...
Spencer Cox is second Republican governor to overrule lawmakers who have taken on youth sports as part of political debateThe Utah governor, Spencer Cox, vetoed a ban on transgender students playing girls’ sports on Tuesday, becoming the second Republican governor to overrule state lawmakers who have taken on youth sports as part of a political debate over how Americans view gender and sexuality.Cox joins the Indiana governor. Eric Holcomb, who vetoed a statewide ban on Monday. Holcomb said Indiana’s legislature had not demonstrated that transgender kids had undermined fairness in sports. Continue reading...
Judge issues apology to George and Melvin DeJesus, wrongfully convicted of 1995 murder of Margaret Midkiff in MichiganTwo Michigan brothers who were wrongfully convicted in the murder of a family friend walked free Tuesday and were reunited with their family after 25 years behind bars.George and Melvin DeJesus were convicted in the 1995 killing of Margaret Midkiff. Oakland county circuit Judge Martha Anderson set aside their convictions early Tuesday. Continue reading...
Facing senators' questions for the first time, Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson was asked by Senator Dianne Feinstein if she agreed with statements that Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett made about abortion law precedent during their confirmation hearings. President Joe Biden's nominee said that she agreed and added that 'Roe and Casey', two landmark Supreme Court decisions legalising abortion, are 'settled law' that has been reaffirmed by the court and 'relied upon'. Jackson is making history as the first Black woman nominated for the court, which once upheld racial segregation in America and for 233 years has been filled mainly with white men.
Psaki, who will no longer travel to Europe with Biden, says she met with him this week but he has since tested negativeJen Psaki, the White House press secretary, has tested positive for Covid-19 and will not travel to Europe with Joe Biden for meetings in Brussels and Poland this week.In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, Psaki said she had met twice with Biden, 79, on Monday but he had tested negative the following day. Continue reading...
Judge declares Couy Griffin guilty of one of the two offenses, bolstering a key theory from lawyers in hundreds of related casesA New Mexico county commissioner who founded a group called Cowboys for Trump was found guilty by a judge on Tuesday of breaching the US Capitol during the January 6 riot, a second consecutive win at trial for the US Department of Justice.Following a two-day non-jury trial, the US district judge Trevor McFadden said the defendant, Couy Griffin, was guilty of one of the two misdemeanor offenses. Continue reading...
A dispute over whether Abrams can be declared the nominee has prevented her from legally raising fundsStacey Abrams has filed a lawsuit seeking to immediately begin fundraising for her campaign for governor under a state law that prevents her gubernatorial leadership committee from doing so.Abrams is requesting to take advantage of a new kind of fundraising committee created by Georgia lawmakers last year, which her opponent, the Republican governor, Brian Kemp, has already been able to make use of. Called a leadership committee, it allows certain people and groups to accept unlimited contributions. Giving to direct candidate committees, on the other hand, is limited to $7,600 apiece for the primary and general elections and $4,500 for any runoff election. Continue reading...
Tornadoes ripped through parts of Texas and Oklahoma on Monday causing injuries and widespread damage near Austin and Dallas. In Texas, tornadoes were reported along the Interstate 35 corridor, particularly in the Austin suburbs of Round Rock and Elgin, and north-west of Dallas-Fort Worth
Scott, who was formerly married to Jeff Bezos, is part of group of billionaires promising to donate more than half their wealthMacKenzie Scott has donated $436m to Habitat for Humanity International and 84 of its US affiliates, the largest publicly disclosed donation from the billionaire philanthropist since she promised in 2019 to give away most of her wealth.“We could not be more excited to get the gift at a time when, in some ways, the state of housing affordability is the worst that it has been in modern times,” said Jonathan Reckford, chief executive of Habitat for Humanity International. Continue reading...
Her Facebook posts since the Ukraine invasion have stunned me. Unfriending her made me sad – but I had to do itOn the first day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, while doomscrolling on social media, I noticed a Facebook post by a Russian friend of mine in Moscow, expressing the hope that “all the fascists will be exterminated in my homeland”. She was referring to Vladimir Putin’s claim that Russia’s “special military operation” aimed to “denazify” Ukraine.I was stunned that this was her take on the Ukraine war. We had been friends for more than 30 years, and during my time as a foreign correspondent in Moscow in the Soviet era, she had been my sounding board and guide. I remember the evenings spent with her and her husband, quaffing Soviet champagne and mocking the nightly TV news, Vremya, with its state-controlled version of events. How could she now be so uncritical of Putin’s state-run media?Anne Penketh is a journalist and author Continue reading...
‘Why do we have to choose someone who attacked Joe?’ first lady reportedly said, according to This Will Not PassThe first lady, Jill Biden, complained about her husband’s choice of Kamala Harris as running mate and now vice-president, according to a new book, asking: “There are millions of people in the United States. Why … do we have to choose the one who attacked Joe?”The quote is contained in This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future, by the New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns, which is due to be published on 3 May. Continue reading...
Ministers have squandered a chance to make real change for the millions facing policing, housing, health and education inequalitiesEvery so often it pays to look in the mirror. Who are we as a country? What do we look like? And then perhaps to look at the mirror itself. Is the reflection a true one?
I caught myself drifting off as my boy was wanging on about dinosaurs. I must have had the same effect on my parentsI read a book called You’re Not Listening, by Kate Murphy, which was designed to make the reader a better listener. It worked. I now listen my socks off. I listen to my girlfriend, I listen to my mum and, yeah, I even listen to my child – and he’s six.You know when you catch yourself doing something you remember your own parents doing? Mine was a “mmhmm” sort of noise. I made it when my son was wanging on about the height of a spinosaurus’s crest, or something. “Mmhmm.” Out it came. The noise. From me. And I thought: I did that to pretend I’m listening, but I’m not. In that moment, I realised my parents hadn’t really listened to anything I had said until I was about 32. Continue reading...
With his football career on hold, the World Cup winner is focused on showing athletes they can pursue a career in businessAlthough Blaise Matuidi’s time in MLS with Inter Miami did not provide the desired results on the pitch, his spell in Florida has helped inspire his next step. Matuidi has had an interest in business for a number of years, investing in various tech startups, including alongside the NBA star LeBron James.“When I see athletes here in the United States, I think they have something different to European athletes and the difference is that they know about business. They are experts in their own field but they are also very focused in making other things in life, especially business,” says the Frenchman. Continue reading...
Republican Eric Holcomb suggests legislation addresses a non-existent problem and ‘falls short’ of providing a consistent policyThe governor of Indiana governor on Monday vetoed a bill banning transgender females from girls school sports.Opponents of the bill argued it was a bigoted response to a problem that does not exist, with the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana saying it planned a lawsuit against what it called “hateful legislation”. Continue reading...
US president says Russian leader’s ‘back is against the wall’ and warns of severe consequences of any such attack. Plus, the backlash against book banningGood morning.Russia’s false accusation that Ukraine has biological and chemical weapons is a “clear sign” that a desperate Vladimir Putin is considering using them himself, Joe Biden has said.What is going on with the peace negotiations? The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has called for talks with his Russian counterpart as the key to ending the war. He said direct discussions “in any format” were needed.Is Russia targeting journalists? A reporter describes life under siege in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol and why it is so important to break the silence. “The Russians were hunting us down. They had a list of names, including ours, and they were closing in,” said Mstyslav Chernov.What else is happening? Here’s what we know on day 27 of the invasion.The Missouri Republican Josh Hawley is wrong to attack Jackson, and should be ignored in confirmation hearings this week, the Senate judiciary chair said.The Texas senator Ted Cruz complained that the supreme court confirmation hearings have become increasingly angry and confrontational. His comments came the day after he was filmed becoming confrontational at an airport in Montana. Continue reading...
A new Guardian US series reports on a seemingly intractable crisis, and hears from those living on the edge in America’s richest stateWhen California shut down in March 2020, advocates for unhoused people thought the state might finally be forced to solve its homelessness crisis. To slow the spread of Covid, they hoped, officials would have to provide people living outside with stable and private shelter and housing.But in the two years since, California’s humanitarian catastrophe has worsened: deaths of people on the streets are rising; college students are living in their cars; more elderly residents are becoming unhoused; encampment communities are growing at beaches, parks, highway underpasses, lots and sidewalks. Continue reading...
Several unfair labor practice charges filed with the NLRB as a Seattle Amazon Fresh grocery store resists efforts to unionizeLas week, 26-year-old Kaylyn Richards received an automated email informing her that she was terminated from her job at an Amazon Fresh grocery retail store in Seattle.Earlier that week, Richards had spoken with one of her managers about clerical problems she was having with the attendance time clock, as she was erroneously docked attendance points, though she noted she had never missed shifts or used paid time off if doing so. A manager reassured her the clerical errors made clocking in and out through the app would be resolved. Continue reading...
Scores of American players make their livings in Russia and Ukraine. But the war forced them to make tough decisions about their futuresAs is often the case in times of war, Jordan Swing and Troy Barnies struggled with who to believe at the start of February as Russian troops gathered on the border of Ukraine, where they both played professional basketball. On one hand, Joe Biden had urged American citizens to leave Ukraine within 48 hours. On the other hand, their teams had said they should stay where they were. Swing, a former standout at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, said his team went as far as threatening him with fines should he leave.“My Ukrainian team [MBC Mykolaiv] initially told us not to worry,” Barnies recalls. “Our team’s management and teammates didn’t talk much about it. We were hearing reports that Russian troops were surrounding the country. But our team’s management, and some teammates, told us that it was no big deal. They said Russia is always bullying countries and Ukraine is one of them.” Continue reading...
Will Smith’s underdog movie about Serena and Venus Williams’ dad is his best performance to date and is as much a story about parenting as sporting achievementLet’s be honest, King Richard is nowhere near being a favourite for best picture. Some would even suggest an unpretentious sports biopic like this doesn’t even belong at the awards top table. But isn’t that what they said about Venus and Serena Williams? King Richard is an underdog movie about underdogs, and if the notion of the lowly outsider overcoming daunting odds sounds too Hollywood to swallow, well tough: this actually happened.Richard Williams’ story is absurdly improbable, on the face of it: a working-class Black man from Compton, Los Angeles, who decides he is going to coach his two daughters to become world-beating tennis players before they are even born, and writes an 85-page plan for how to achieve it. Needless to say, the pro tennis world laughs in his face. “You’re asking me to believe you have the next two Mozarts living in your house.” But of course, Williams does achieve his goal, and if the conclusion of this story is not exactly a cliffhanger, King Richard at least departs from the standard “everything depends on the big game” sports-movie formula, and gets into the psychology of this unique family. Continue reading...
Russian accusations that Kyiv has biological and chemical weapons are false and illustrate that Russian president Vladimir Putin is considering using them himself in his war against Ukraine, US president Joe Biden has said, without citing evidence. ‘They are also suggesting that Ukraine has biological and chemical weapons in Ukraine. That's a clear sign he's considering using both of those,’ Biden said at a Business Roundtable event
Ketanji Brown Jackson, US president Joe Biden's nominee to become the first Black woman on the US supreme court, has stressed her patriotism in her opening statement during her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing. Jackson said she was blessed to be 'born in this great nation.' The 51-year-old judge pledged independence if confirmed by the Senate to the nation's top judicial body and embraced a limited role for jurists. 'My parents taught me that, unlike the many barriers that they had had to face growing up, my path was clearer, such that if I worked hard and believed in myself, in America I could do anything or be anything I wanted to be,' Jackson said
He had entered the stormwater system intentionally and became stuck for two days before being rescued uninjured, but dehydratedA man who was trapped 15ft (4.5m) underground for two days in a San Francisco Bay area storm pipe the width of a large pizza was rescued in an effort that lasted hours and involved at least 50 firefighters, police officers and rescue personnel, officials said Monday.Officials freed the man from the 16in (40cm) pipe around 9.30pm on Sunday, said Steve Hill, spokesperson for the Contra Costa county fire protection district. Continue reading...
Lawyers for Donald, Donald Jr. and Ivanka claim that Arthur Engoron’s ruling ‘failed to properly weigh constitutional and ethical concerns’ they’d raisedDonald Trump and his two eldest children continued their fight to overturn a decision requiring the former president to answer questions under oath as part of an investigation into his business practices, filing fresh paperwork on Monday that accused a New York judge of abusing his discretion in issuing the decision.In papers filed in a state appeals court, lawyers for the former president said that Manhattan judge Arthur Engoron failed to properly weigh constitutional and ethical concerns that they’d raised about the investigation brought by the New York attorney general, Letitia James.
The Pentagon has accused Russian forces of committing war crimes in Ukraine, saying the Kremlin had carried out indiscriminate attacks as part of an intentional strategy in the conflict. 'We certainly see clear evidence that Russian forces are committing war crimes and we are helping with the collecting of evidence of that,' Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told a news briefing. 'But there's investigative processes that are going to go on, and we're going to let that happen. We're going to contribute to that investigative process'
• Three-time winner removed from list of competitors• Mickelson has not played since FebruaryPhil Mickelson is to miss the Masters for the first time in 28 years after being removed from the list of competitors for next month’s tournament.The three-time winner has been listed as a “past champion not playing” on the tournament website. Mickelson is currently taking a break from golf following the fallout from his explosive comments about the PGA Tour and a potential Saudi-backed rival circuit. Continue reading...
Nominee talked of ‘historic chance’ to be the first Black woman on supreme court – but first she had to listen to a lot of white menHistory was made Monday, as the first Black woman ever nominated to the US supreme court testified to the Senate judiciary committee. But before Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson could speak at her confirmation hearing, she first had to listen to a lot of white men.The Senate confirmation hearings for Jackson started Monday, giving the judge and every member of the judiciary committee the opportunity to deliver remarks about her nomination. Continue reading...
Chevron says it will bring trained workers to the plant in Richmond and continue operations as normalHundreds of Chevron workers in California went on strike Monday after the company and the United Steelworkers union failed to reach a contract agreement.More than 500 workers at a refinery producing gasoline, diesel and jet fuel and lubricating oils in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Richmond began striking at 12.01am, the union said in an email. Workers recently voted down a contract offer from Chevron, and the company refused to return to the bargaining table. Continue reading...
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