Exclusive: Longtime activist who still faces the possibility of a retrial tells the Guardian she believes she’s being ‘persecuted’ for being outspokenPamela Moses, the Memphis woman who was sentenced to six years in prison for trying to register to vote, says she is grateful to be released – but believes the case against her was a “scare tactic” to discourage other people from casting a ballot.Moses was released from prison on bond on 25 February after a judge unexpectedly granted her request for a new trial, citing evidence, obtained by the Guardian, that had not been disclosed to Moses’ defense. Continue reading...
Empire actor was found guilty in December in the attack that he orchestrated and must also serve 30 months of probationActor Jussie Smollett has been sentenced to 30 months of probation, including 150 days of jail time, and ordered to pay restitution for his conviction of lying to police about a racist and homophobic attack that he orchestrated himself.Smollett, who is Black and gay, reported to police that two men wearing ski masks beat him, and hurled racial and homophobic slurs at him on a dark Chicago street and ran off. The 39 year old was also ordered to pay $120,000 in restitution to the city of Chicago and fined $25,000 by Judge James Linn of Cook county circuit court. Continue reading...
Construction workers discover body during renovation of the more than century old Henry J Kaiser Convention CenterThe mysterious discovery of a mummified body in the walls of a historic convention center in Oakland, California, has prompted an urgent search for answers, as authorities seek to untangle the person’s identity and how they came to be entombed within the building’s walls.Construction workers discovered the body on Wednesday afternoon during renovations of Henry J Kaiser Convention Center, a more-than-century old building near the city’s downtown. Little is known about the person, who authorities said appears to be a man, or how he was preserved within the wall of the convention center, which has long been vacant. Officials estimate he had been there for between three and five years based on the state of decay. Continue reading...
Roughly two dozen gave statements at bankruptcy court hearing attended by Richard, Theresa and David SacklerA virtual hearing on Thursday in US bankruptcy court gave survivors of opioid dependency and people who lost loved ones to the crisis what they have long desired – an official chance to confront members of the family behind Purdue Pharma, the US creator of the powerful but highly addictive prescription painkiller OxyContin.They blamed the billionaire Sackler family members for helping spur the epidemic that ultimately has cost about half a million American lives, through aggressive marketing of Purdue’s signature narcotic and for failing to take responsibility for their role. Continue reading...
Census also undercounted Black and Native Americans, while overcounting non-Hispanic white people and Asian AmericansThe 2020 US census undercounted America’s Latino population at more than three times the rate of the 2010 census, according to a report released on Thursday by the US Census Bureau.The census also undercounted the nation’s Black and Native American residents, while overcounting non-Hispanic white people and Asian Americans. Continue reading...
The NFL has punished a player severely for betting on games. But the league is complicit in an activity that at best warps minds and at worst ruins livesOn Monday, Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Calvin Ridley was suspended for a full season for wagering on NFL games. The league’s investigation, which found that Ridley made the bets while he was away from the team to concentrate on his mental health in November, said there was no reason to suggest Ridley had used inside information or influenced the outcome of any games. The NFL also said it was satisfied no other members of the Falcons were involved. What Ridley did is wrong. Yes, the penalty feels harsh: he will lose a year of his athletic prime and $11m in salary over what he said was $1,500 in bets. And the proportionality raises eyebrows given the lesser punishments meted out for cheating scandals, lying about Covid vaccination status, literal child abuse and unspeakable acts of gender-based violence. But you can’t bet on your own sport, much less on your own team, and the NFL clearly needed to set a precedent.Still, there’s something that feels off about making Ridley a splashy example at a time when the NFL is raking in millions of dollars in revenue from gambling, something it regarded as a corrosive element and fought tooth and nail against not that long ago. It is a dramatic pivot to go from a century’s worth of moral policing to, effectively, becoming a sportsbook with a bit of football on the side. Continue reading...
Bill aims to make gender-affirming care a felony and punishable by life in prison for anyone who helps a child travel out of stateIdaho’s house of representatives has passed a bill that would criminalize gender-affirming medical procedures for transgender youth and make it a felony punishable by life imprisonment for anyone who helps a child travel across state lines to gender-affirming healthcare.The bill, approved on Tuesday, targets medical measures that include vasectomy, hysterectomy, mastectomy, puberty-blocking medication and supraphysiological doses of testosterone or estrogen. Continue reading...
State legislature approves $3m for team of 25 to investigate voting crimes experts say are vanishingly rareFlorida has approved a measure that would create a statewide office to investigate election crimes – the first of its kind in the United States.Voter fraud is extremely rare both nationwide and in Florida. Nonetheless, the new office of election crime and security will have 25 positions to investigate election fraud and be funded with more than $3m, Daniel Perez, a Republican state representative who backed the bill, said on the floor of the Florida house this week. Continue reading...
Democrats won two major victories, but a dissenting opinion from three of the supreme court’s justices set off alarms bellsHello, and Happy Thursday,It’s no secret that the US supreme court has been hostile to voting rights recently. But two recent decisions, I think, highlight why what the court is doing is both alarming and inconsistent.A Colorado election clerk was indicted on charges she helped allow unaurthorized access to voting equipment.Florida Republicans are on the verge of creating a new office to investigate election crimes.The top election official in Texas’s largest county announced she would resign after the county experienced significant voting problems in the state’s primary.Newly released records in Wisconsin provide insight into a widely criticized review of the 2020 election. Continue reading...
Video tech was my salvation during lockdown. The important thing is to take the first step. After that, it’s like driving a carThe last thing I’d ever want to do is lecture my “elders and betters” (as my grandmother called the older generation) about their behaviour. We oldies already know how to stay happy and healthy. We’ve had our jabs, we take our exercise, we’ve given up smoking and we eat our greens. So we don’t need any young whippersnapper – or worse, elderly TV presenter – to tell us what to do. But I have learned an important lesson in the two years since Covid hit, and I thought maybe others could benefit from it too. It’s about the internet.My generation is very wary of the internet – a view I understand and, to an extent, share. Every day there are new warnings about the dangers of cyberspace: the scams and the swindlers targeting older people. Callers to the Silver Line helpline, which I founded a decade ago as a resource for older people, often say that trying to navigate this jungle with a mouse, a keyboard and a mystifying screen is a challenge that has defeated them. In a 2019 Office for National Statistics survey, less than half of over-75s said that they had recently used the internet.Esther Rantzen is a journalist and broadcaster who founded the child protection charity ChildLine and the free, confidential Silver Line helpline for older people (0800 4 70 80 90) Continue reading...
As a 22-year-old I controlled a warhead that could vaporize a metropolis. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the public is waking up again to the existential dangers of nuclear weaponsFrom 2012 to 2017, I worked as a US air force nuclear missile operator. I was 22 when I started. Each time I descended into the missile silo, I had to be ready to launch, at a moment’s notice, a nuclear weapon that could wipe a city the size of New York off the face of the earth.On the massive blast door of the launch control center, someone had painted a mural of a Domino’s pizza logo with the macabre caption, “World-wide delivery in 30 minutes or less or your next one is free.”Cole Smith is a writer and director who received an MFA in screenwriting at Columbia University after serving in the air force as a nuclear missile operator Continue reading...
House passes huge aid package as Volodymyr Zelenskiy accuses Russia of carrying out ‘genocide’ against Ukrainians. Plus, how pipeline groups are posing as Indigenous champions• Don’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.The US has moved to drastically step up its support for Ukraine, with House lawmakers passing a $13bn aid bill as Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned a Russian attack on a children’s hospital as proof that a “genocide” is being carried out.Fighting stopped a humanitarian convoy from from reaching Mariupol, along one of seven corridors to besieged cities set up by Ukraine. Russian troops are reported to have seized parts of Mariupol.How will the $13.6bn be spent? It will be split between military and humanitarian aid: $6.5bn to send troops and weapons to eastern Europe; $6.8bn for refugees and economic aid for allies.When will the bill pass? Senate approval is expected within days.Who else knew? The email exchange raises the prospect that others in the Willard, including Trump’s former attorney Rudy Giuliani and former strategist Steve Bannon, were also aware of the scheme’s unlawfulness.How significant are the emails? The exchange weakens arguments by Eastman and the rest of the team that they believed there was no wrongdoing in Pence delaying the certification beyond 6 January. Continue reading...
The map of global participation in the sanctions against Russia suggests a new non-aligned movement might be on the riseOn 2 March, as the number of Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russia’s brutal invasion reached 1 million, the United Nations security council called an emergency session of the general assembly. There, 193 nations reviewed a resolution on Russia’s “aggression against Ukraine” and voted overwhelmingly to approve it: 141 votes in favor, 35 abstentions and just five votes against. Even some of Russia’s closest allies on the continent – Serbia, for example, or Hungary – voted to condemn the invasion. “The message of the general assembly is loud and clear,” said the UN secretary-general, António Guterres.What exactly is that message? In recent days, many commentators have pointed to a global map of the UN resolution to demonstrate the unity of the west and the world in taking on the Putin government. But to make sense of the geopolitical consequences of the Russian invasion, we must look beyond the diplomatic theater of the general assembly to examine how these nations are actually engaged with the war in this phase of rapid escalation. And to do that, we should start with a very different map of the world – a map of global participation in the sanctions set against Russia by the United States and its allies.David Adler is a political economist and general coordinator of the Progressive International Continue reading...
Remaking borders by force violates international law. So why does the US recognise Israel and Morocco’s respective illegal annexations of the Golan Heights and Western Sahara?Last December, as Russian forces encircled Ukraine, the Biden administration and its allies delivered a stark warning to Vladimir Putin: “Any use of force to change borders is strictly prohibited under international law.” In January, as Russian troops massed even in even greater numbers, Secretary of State Antony Blinken added that “the inviolability of frontiers” was among the “guiding principles for international behavior.” Last month, after Russia’s parliament recognized the independence of two self-declared republics Moscow had cleaved from eastern Ukraine, Blinken called this infringement upon “Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” a “gross violation of international law.”All this is indisputably true. Remaking borders by force violates a core principle of international law. Which is why the Biden administration must do more than resist Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. It must stop violating that principle itself.Peter Beinart is professor of journalism and political science at The Newmark School of Journalism at the City University of New York. He is also editor-at-large of Jewish Currents and writes The Beinart Notebook, a weekly newsletter. Continue reading...
Drivers already hit by low wages and poor working conditions are spending more time driving to keep their wages the sameBy Tuesday afternoon, Lyft driver Elida Zabaleta had earned $100 in the five hours she spent ferrying passengers across the city of San Jose. With gas prices in California surging, she’d have to use more than half of that to cover fuel for the day, leaving her with just $45.The rising cost of gas has made a difficult job all the more difficult, Zabaleta said, forcing her to spend more time behind the wheel to earn enough to afford living in one of the country’s most expensive cities. Continue reading...
The USWNT’s battle for parity was hailed across America. But some believe elite players of both genders are taking money away from the grassrootsIn much of the soccer world, the US women’s team and players such as Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan are beloved superstars and powerful voices for equal rights.Many in the rank-and-file of US Soccer don’t share that sentiment though. In their eyes, the US national teams – particularly the women – are bleeding the federation dry while leaving precious little for grassroots associations charged with overcoming the sport’s stagnation and decline among young players. Continue reading...
With just the foxes and bats for company, running in the early morning allows me to assert my place in the cityThere is no better time to go for a run than 5am. Especially in March.Two or three mornings a week at the moment, I edge out of bed, creep down the stairs and stand fully naked in the kitchen. The curtains are closed and there’s nobody awake to see me anyway. Then I change into my running things – out of earshot of my partner and sleeping son – and, turning the front door as quietly as I can, slip out.Nell Frizzell is the author of The Panic Years Continue reading...
John Eastman conceded that scheme represented violation of Electoral Count Act but urged Mike Pence to go ahead anywayInterrupting the certification of Joe Biden’s election win on 6 January last year as part of the scheme to return Donald Trump to office was known to be unlawful by at least one of the former president’s lawyers, according to an email exchange about the potential conspiracy.The former Trump lawyer John Eastman – who helped coordinate the scheme from the Trump “war room” at the Willard hotel in Washington – conceded in an email to counsel for then vice-president Mike Pence, Greg Jacob, that the plan was a violation of the Electoral Count Act. Continue reading...
On a block near the city’s Drake motel, Tamara Reynolds befriended and photographed the women whose drug problems governed their lives Continue reading...
Separating those fleeing conflict into ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ is immoral and a betrayal of European valuesHow should we regard the two faces of Europe’s refugee response? In the week when the European Union welcomed nearly two million refugees from Ukraine, do we also need to watch graphic footage of a young African being battered for climbing a European border fence? Yes, we do.As Europe rediscovers compassion for refugees, we should watch this video on loop. It shows a defenceless young man in tattered clothes gingerly descending a six-metre fence. Waiting for him at the bottom are half a dozen Spanish border police, in helmets and body armour and wielding batons. The first blow is struck before he reaches the ground. The images that follow, of a crowd of uniformed white men viciously beating a black man, are all the more disturbing because they are so familiar.Daniel Howden is managing director of Lighthouse Reports, an investigative non-profit newsroom covering migration, corruption and conflict that works with leading European media Continue reading...
P22, known as the Brad Pitt of his species, has been visiting residential neighborhoods and welcomed like a starOn Tuesday night, a quiet street in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles had a rare celebrity visitor. P22, the city’s most famous mountain lion, was spotted around 7pm on Berkeley Circle, about three and a half miles south of his home in Griffith Park. The National Park Service later confirmed his presence through a radio collar.Residents shared photos from doorbell cameras and grainy pics from inside their homes. “Ultimately, it’s pretty awesome,” one resident told the LA Times. “The whole neighborhood’s excited.” Continue reading...
Incident occurred over Gulf of Mexico as former president returned to Florida from rally in New Orleans on Saturday nightA plane carrying former US president Donald Trump was reportedly forced to make an emergency landing on Saturday night after suffering engine failure over the Gulf of Mexico.The Dassault Falcon 900 had flown about 75 miles from a New Orleans airport before turning back to the city, an unnamed source told the Reuters news agency. Continue reading...
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said Vladimir Putin will fail in his effort to subjugate Ukraine, and will instead lead Russia into a ‘strategic defeat’ that is already unfolding. Speaking at a press conference with the UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, the pair were also questioned about Ukrainian demands to establish no-fly zones over Ukraine, or at least over humanitarian corridors inside the country. Both ruled it out
Those at the top of the sport – who will scrap over a record $20m purse at Sawgrass – have never had it so goodThis has been quite the spell for those who like to number crunch around the world of professional golf. The Players Championship, taking place this weekend, carries a prize purse of $20m with $3.6m to be bestowed on the winner. By Sunday evening, three tournaments in a row played in Florida will have handed out a combined $40m on the basis of leaderboard placings. Arnold Palmer’s PGA Tour winnings totalled $1.9m.Those at the summit of this sport have never had it so good. Still, many believe the largesse associated with the PGA Tour in particular has become obscene, to the point where golfers will naturally lose all grip on reality. The theory was only endorsed as umpteen players at least flirted with Saudi Arabia and its bid for a breakaway tour. Phil Mickelson, without any apparent irony, blasted the PGA Tour for “obnoxious greed” before admitting his Saudi dealings were all about “leverage”. Continue reading...
Elena Branson, who has both US and Russian citizenship, received thousands of dollars from Moscow to run centerA woman who ran a Russia propaganda center in New York City was charged on Tuesday for acting as an unregistered foreign agent for the Russian government.Elena Branson, 61, who has both US and Russian citizenship, ran the Russian Center New York, which she founded in 2012, receiving thousands of dollars from the Russian government. Continue reading...
Being locked up only made my condition, later diagnosed as bipolar disorder, worse in every possible wayI arrived on the same day as Maria. She was shy, withdrawn and reminded me of a fragile bird as she leaned over her hot drink to keep warm. We would talk in the garden, the only place to find any peace, and fantasise about eating lasagne and drinking red wine.We were in prison. I was on remand awaiting trial. I had been arrested while suffering a psychotic episode – I would be there for six months until the hospital order arrived from the court. It felt like six years.Bryony Friars is a pseudonym. She is a student living in the north of EnglandIn the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie, and Mind on 0300 123 3393. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org. Continue reading...
Trump’s former press secretary discusses his relationship with the Russian leader in an interview with The ViewDonald Trump “admired” Vladimir Putin’s ability to kill anyone he wanted, according to his former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham.In an interview with The View on Tuesday, Grisham discussed the former US president’s relationship with the Russian president, saying: “I think [Trump] feared [Putin]. I think he was afraid of him. I think that the man intimidated him. Because Putin is a scary man, just frankly, I think he was afraid of him.” Continue reading...
Nine snakes and 43 horned lizards were concealed in the ‘man’s jacket, pants pockets and groin area’ authorities sayA man who tried to slither past US border agents in California had 52 lizards and snakes hidden in his clothing, authorities said Tuesday.
Top female players are forced to chase good-paying gigs abroad while well-paid male counterparts can enjoy home comfortsShe is without question the most dominant female basketball player of her generation, the uncommon 6ft 9in center with an 88in wingspan who dunks and blocks shots with spite. In the past decade Brittney Griner ignited Baylor’s undefeated college national championship run, helped USA Basketball to a pair of Olympic gold medals, and lifted the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury to a league title just one year after being drafted first overall. And now the Houston native’s glittering career could come to an end inside a Russian jail cell.On Saturday came word that the 31-year-old Griner had been detained at an airport near Moscow after customs agents said they caught her with a hoard of vape cartridges containing hashish oil. Even more distressing than this news breaking some three weeks after Griner had landed in Sheremetyevo from New York was the 10-year maximum prison sentence that Russia reserves for the crime she is alleged to have committed. On Sunday the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, offered oblique support for Griner, saying “we of course stand ready to provide every possible assistance.” The Texas Democratic congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee called for her immediate release. Meanwhile, a former top Pentagon official feared Griner could become a “high-profile hostage” and be used as a bargaining chip. Continue reading...
Denver picked up a new franchise quarterback in a blockbuster trade with Seattle on Tuesday. He will enter a division stacked with talentFor a while, this NFL’s offseason’s quarterback carousel barely moved. Tom Brady retired. So did Ben Roethlisberger. And despite a much-analyzed Instagram post from Aaron Rodgers that could have doubled as a retirement statement, the back-to-back MVP is staying put in Green Bay. This came after weeks of speculation that Rodgers might be headed to the very quarterback-needy Denver Broncos. Much to the dismay of Broncos fans and players, Rodgers took the sensible route on Tuesday and stayed in the city where he’s had nothing but success. And his favorite teammate is sticking around too.So all appeared to be pleasantly boring on the quarterback front until shortly after Rodgers confirmed he was staying in Wisconsin. And then Seattle dropped a BOOM louder than any produced by their storied defenses of the mid-2010s. The Seahawks traded Russell Wilson and a fourth-round pick to the Broncos for two first-round picks, two second-round picks, a fifth-round pick, plus quarterback Drew Lock, tight end Noah Fant, and defensive lineman Shelby Harris. That, folks, is what we call a blockbuster. Continue reading...
Scepticism as Russia says it will observe a ‘regime of silence’ in several Ukraine cities. Plus, Nadya Tolokonnikova on Vladimir Putin• Don’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.Russian armed forces have agreed to hold fire in areas of humanitarian corridors from 9am to 9pm local time today, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister has said.Are there any more diplomatic talks planned? The Russian foreign ministry has actually claimed that its goals in Ukraine would be better achieved through talks and that it does not plan to overthrow the country’s government. Maria Zakharova, a Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, said Russia hoped to make more significant progress in the next round of talks.Is this really a fossil-fuel war? That is what Ukraine’s top climate scientist believes. Both the invasion and the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report crystallized the human, economic and geopolitical catastrophe of fossil fuels for Dr Svitlana Krakovska.What else is happening? Here’s everything we know on day 14 of the Russian invasion.Why won’t they talk to Biden? Relations between the US and Saudi Arabia have chilled during the Biden administration over American policy in the Gulf region. Issues include the revival of the Iran nuclear deal; lack of US support for Saudi intervention in Yemen’s civil war and its refusal to add Houthis to its list of terrorist groups. Continue reading...
The lawsuit brought on behalf of the salmon says that river damming infringes on the fish’s ‘inherent right to exist’An Indigenous nation is turning to a novel legal tactic in the hopes that it can save a beleaguered salmon population: it is suing on the salmon’s behalf, alleging that dams preventing it from migrating are a violation of the fish’s “inherent rights to exist, flourish, regenerate, and evolve”.The lawsuit is part of the growing “rights of nature” movement, a legal theory that seeks to give natural entities, like rivers or plants or animals, similar legal rights to humans. Continue reading...
An average of 1,400 Texas women traveled each month between September and December 2021 for abortion servicesTexas’s highly restrictive abortion law has forced thousands of women to cross state lines to seek the procedure, according to new research by the University of Texas.Since the passing of the law, known as Senate Bill 8 (SB8) last year banning almost all abortions in the state, an average of 1,400 Texas women traveled each month between September and December 2021 and sought abortion services at 34 facilities in nearby states. Continue reading...
The Blues’ potential owner is in charge of a team that own the longest playoff drought in the NFL. And his off-the-field record isn’t great eitherOn 12 January 2000, exactly 31 years after the New York Jets won their first Super Bowl, the front page of the New York Times carried the news that the team had been bought for $635m by Robert Wood Johnson IV, whose great-grandfather had founded Johnson & Johnson.Woody Johnson was not well known then, and in a release provided by the team, he issued the kind of bland statement you’d expect from a first-time sports-team owner: “We want to emphasize that we are totally dedicated to bringing a winning and a championship team to this area.” Continue reading...
Title 42, enacted under Trump and kept in place by Biden, has led to hundreds of thousands being denied their right to asylum since the start of the pandemicWhen Henry Ruiz* and Raquel Hernandez boarded a bus heading north to America with their two young children, they knew there would be no going back.It was June 2021, and a few weeks earlier Ruiz, a 28-year-old banana farmer from central Mexico, had been abducted by a group of armed men and taken to an isolated ranch where 15 others – 13 men and two women – were being held. Continue reading...
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As anglophone separatists continue their conflict with the government, women’s voices must be heard to find a solutionYoung girls should never be forced to have sex to get through a security checkpoint. Female activists or rebels should not be relegated to side discussions because of their gender. And women should be able to advocate for peace without fear of reprisals. Yet in Cameroon’s conflict between English-speaking separatists and the government, this is the reality for many women and girls.Coming to grips with this reality is critical to move beyond the simplistic view that it’s only men who play an active role in the conflict. Women are involved as peace or political activists. Others have joined separatist militias or are key community influencers. But whatever side of the divide they are on, anglophone women in Cameroon have one thing in common: the government and separatists have largely ignored their concerns. Continue reading...
The US president is facing demands for America to do more for Ukraine – but he’s also determined to avoid being the US president who started a third world warIt is an impossible bind. Joe Biden faces demands for America to do more as Ukrainian civilians are terrorized and killed by Russia. But he is also determined to avoid going down in history as the US president who started a third world war.Russia has pummeled Ukraine with more than 625 missiles so far, according to the Pentagon, causing untold death and destruction and prompting an exodus of 2m refugees. Vladimir Putin is now reportedly recruiting Syrian mercenaries and preparing to level cities in a bid to break Ukrainians’ will in the face of his invasion. Continue reading...
The firm is being sued by hundreds of clients who allege it made false theft reports against them. Hertz has denied it – but could it be another Post Office scandal?About a year ago, my wife was filling in paperwork to hire a car when the woman behind the counter suddenly looked up in alarm. “I’m sorry,” she said in a stage whisper. “The computer is saying: ‘Do not rent to this woman under any circumstances.’ It seems you’re banned for life?” There was an awkward pause before she leaned forward conspiratorially and said: “What did you do?!”Good question. The short answer is nothing; my wife is innocent. What happened is this: she and I hired a car to visit her family for Thanksgiving and dropped it off in Boston at 9am. The company – which I won’t name because I don’t want it to set its lawyers on me – said we returned it at 9pm and insisted we pay them an extra $350. We said: “Hell, no,” so it referred us to debt collectors who hounded us for weeks. This could have had a terrible knock-on effect on our credit score and ability to get a mortgage, but a lawyer friend helped us get the issue dropped – except we hadn’t realised the company had banned my wife from ever using it or its many subsidiaries again. (Which we would never do by choice – however, rental car costs have gone up 43% and it was the cheapest option.) Continue reading...
Carried to power and marinated in myths about themselves, dictators always underestimate the strength of democraciesVladimir Putin bet on a short war because he did not think that Ukrainians would resist invasion. Now he is betting that Russians will tolerate a long war and that the west, amid noisy complaining, will let him finish it.In the first phase, that involves using every weapon at the Kremlin’s disposal with indiscriminate savagery until Russian tanks can roll from Kharkiv to the Polish border.Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
As the last western media journalist covering Myanmar I knew danger lurked – and there would be no James Bond to get me outOne hot morning last March I walked into Yangon’s St Mary’s Cathedral as the best man at a wedding. The European-Burmese couple had made a swift decision to tie the knot due to uncertainty about foreign marriage rules under Myanmar’s new military regime that had seized power just weeks earlier. They were also mulling plans to get out of the country as the army embarked on a shoot to kill offensive against peaceful protesters.Being a journalist chasing deadlines into the small hours, I complained about the early morning start to the wedding. “We want to wrap up the ceremony before we start to hear shooting,” the groom explained. A few pairs of slippers near the altar caught my attention – if soldiers raided the church the women could change out of their high heels and run, the bride told me. Her mother grimly added: “I don’t think I will make it [if soldiers break in], but hopefully my daughters can.” The risk was real as some religious buildings had provided cover for protesters. Continue reading...
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