Andy Parker says he is ‘honoring’ his daughter Alison Parker’s death by fighting for a congressional seat to regulate big techAndy Parker has never watched the video of his daughter’s murder. But anyone with an internet connection can find it, view it and share it.In the years since Alison Parker, a 24-year-old TV journalist in Roanoke, Virginia, was shot and killed during a live broadcast in 2015, her father has made it his mission to remove the footage from the social media platforms where it continues to resurface even after being taken down. Continue reading...
Olympic athletes face greater pressures because the spotlight is so much greater every four years than it is in the rest of their careersWhat price, hype?When does publicity turn into crushing expectations that can make Mikaela Shiffrin or Simone Biles develop a sudden case of the yips or withdraw from competition altogether? Continue reading...
Lawmakers including Ron Paul and Ron DeSantis say they would back disruption of a Canadian-style trucker convoyIn the wake of racial justice protests following the murder of George Floyd, a wave of Republican lawmakers supported legislation to punish protesters who blocked roads. Now some of those same Republicans are supporting similar tactics from conservative trucker convoys protesting against vaccine mandates.Last year, the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, signed an anti-rioting law that stiffened penalties for protesters who blocked roads and even gave some legal protection to drivers who ran them over. It went so far that in September a federal judge struck down the law, ruling it unconstitutional. Continue reading...
The subject of the hit documentary, who conned women out of hundreds of thousands, is trying to launch a celebrity career, a depressing but inevitable next stepWhen I first watched The Tinder Swindler last month, in anticipation for an interview with director Felicity Morris, I was, like many viewers, completely absorbed by the story.Several women meet a man on Tinder who claims to be the billionaire heir to an Israeli diamond fortune, lavishes them with attention, flies to them on actual private jets, then swindles them for hundreds of thousands of dollars? I’m a single woman in my late 20s in New York: of course I ate it up. The documentary was also much, much better than it could have been; I appreciated that Morris didn’t have much interest in probing the psychology of its swindler, Simon Leviev. Instead, she foregrounded three women’s first-person accounts of getting conned – why they believed him, why they cared for him, what such manipulation and confusion does to someone – as well as the journalists at the Norwegian paper VG who unspooled his lies for an initial exposé in 2019. Continue reading...
Both parties concluded it would be beneficial in an election-year with a Russia invasion looming largeThe Senate has given final approval to legislation averting a weekend government shutdown, sending Joe Biden a measure designed to give bipartisan bargainers more time to reach an overdue deal that would finance federal agencies until fall.Final passage on Thursday was by a bipartisan 65-27 vote, five more than the 60 votes needed. The House easily approved the legislation last week. Each party had concluded that an election-year shutdown would be politically damaging, especially during a pandemic and a confrontation with Russia over its possible invasion of Ukraine. Continue reading...
US secretary of state Antony Blinken told a United Nations security council meeting on Ukraine that those assembled found themselves in a "moment of peril for the lives and safety of millions of people" as Russian continues to deny plans to invade Ukraine. Blinken said "our information indicates clearly that [Russian] forces, including ground troops, aircraft, ships, are preparing to launch an attack against Ukraine in the coming days"
Ruling forces ex-president, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr to comply with subpoenas as Letitia James investigates Trump OrganizationDonald Trump and two of his children have been ordered by a New York judge to appear for a deposition within the next three weeks, as part of the billowing investigation over alleged fraud in the valuation of assets belonging to his family business.The ruling by Judge Arthur Engoron to force Trump and his two eldest children – Donald Jr and Ivanka – to comply with subpoenas amounts to a sharp escalation of the legal perils that are rapidly tightening around the former president. Continue reading...
Rancho Mirage’s mayor says the development is a ‘fabulous fit’, but critics question building a giant lagoon in a parched desertA 24-acre fake lagoon constructed in the middle of the California desert will be at the heart of a new Disney-branded planned community, the company announced this week.Rancho Mirage, California, a city in the Coachella Valley not far from Palm Springs, will be the site of Disney’s first “Storyliving” community, the company said in a press release. Continue reading...
Once you stop trusting the puzzle master, it’s all overThere is something very satisfying about going, in the space of a few months, from neophyte, to expert, to outraged dissenter, and enjoying that journey alongside thousands of others. I’m talking about Wordle, obviously, the five stages of which, after its invention in October last year, might usefully be delineated as indifference, confusion, enjoyment, obsession and resolution to cancel the New York Times. Here we are in February and it’s a new world, teetering for some of us on the brink of post-Wordle. I’m not quite ready to jump. But after a week of scandalous decisions by the NYT, the puzzle’s new owners, it’s only a matter of time.This is a sad outcome given the ancillary pleasures that come with the game. As in all things, I was not an early adopter, only giving in and trying a Wordle when friends with even less interest in puzzles than me got sucked in and triggered my competitive machinery. For the past five weeks, I have patiently and conscientiously done a puzzle a day, while enjoying all the benefits of my new hobby. I have made judgments about people who post their results. I have made judgments about myself, primarily how brilliant I am. During a bout of insomnia, I’ve shared my grid at 3am with someone who has sent me their middle-of-the-night results, an action I have understood, obliquely, to be both a boast and a small cry for help. I’ve texted the word “genius” to people when they’ve solved the puzzle in two and received the same validation in return. I’ve wondered if I’m rescuing myself from dementia. Continue reading...
An island nation must trade with its nearest mainland, whatever our new Brexit opportunities minister claimsA massacre is occurring. More than 35,000 healthy British pigs have been slaughtered and buried on farms since September, with an estimated 200,000 languishing in a backlog.The reason is that abattoirs lack the staff to process them, largely due to Britain’s exit from the pan-European labour market. In October, the environment department offered 800 six-month visas for foreign butchers. But it insisted they go through its laborious scheme for seasonal workers: barely 100 turned up. Whitehall also refuses to curb imports of European pork – which now makes up 60% of the UK market and rising. To the National Pig Association, Brexit means buy from Europe.Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Singer shares letter from Congressmen Charlie Crist and Eric Swalwell on Instagram, saying she was ‘immediately flattered’The singer Britney Spears has shared a letter she received from two members of the US House of Representatives inviting her to Congress to talk about her long-running legal battle over her conservatorship that ended with victory in November.“I was immediately flattered and at the time I wasn’t nearly at the healing stage I’m in now,” Spears, 41, said in the Instagram post about the letter she received in December from Congressmen Charlie Crist of Florida and Eric Swalwell of California. Continue reading...
New Jersey governor says ‘racially disparate treatment is deeply disturbing’ after officers kneel on Black youth’s back as white counterpart looks onNew Jersey’s governor, Phil Murphy, said he was “deeply disturbed” by video of a shopping mall brawl that ended with a Black teenager pinned to the ground in handcuffs with a police officer’s knee on his back, while officers let the white youth he had been trading punches with watch from a sofa.“The appearance of what is racially disparate treatment is deeply, deeply disturbing, and another reminder that progress we’ve made on relationships between law enforcement and the communities they serve … shows that our work is not done,” Murphy said after viewing the video of the weekend altercation at the mall in Bridgewater township. Continue reading...
As many as 94% of representatives may be running in safe districts, fueling polarization as candidates play to their basesHello and happy Thursday,The most fundamental concept in American government is that all politicians are accountable to the people. Constituents accept laws shaped by the people they vote for, knowing that they have the power to eventually vote them out of office if they disagree.Texas election officials are seeing a staggeringly high number of mail-in ballots rejected ahead of the state’s 1 March governor’s primary.Amy Weirich, a Tennessee prosecutor, defended a six-year prison sentence for Pamela Moses, who tried to register to vote while ineligible.A federal judge blocked a portion of a new Texas law that made it a crime for election officials to solicit mail-in ballots. Texas is appealing the ruling.Florida Republicans are considering adopting a new measure that would make it harder to vote by mail, potentially causing headaches for at least 400,000 voters in the state. Continue reading...
Move would mark a dramatic escalation in the Capitol attack inquiry. Plus, the tech billionaires trying to reverse ageingGood morning.The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack is considering subpoenaing Ivanka Trump after she appeared to refuse a request for voluntary cooperation, according to a source close to the matter.Is the panel likely to do it? The fact that committee members are discussing a subpoena suggests they believe it may be required to get her to appear at a deposition.When could it happen? The panel is not expected to take the step just yet – they want to give Trump a reasonable period of time to decide to engage voluntarily.Was racism considered in the state trial? No – prosecutors sought only to prove the men were responsible for Arbery’s death, regardless of motive.What does the defence say? They insist the deadly pursuit of Arbery was motivated by a genuine, though erroneous, suspicion that Arbery had committed crimes. Continue reading...
The staggering increase highlights the shifting dynamics and focus of the opioid crisis, long considered a white, rural issueAs the drug overdose crisis in the United States exploded during the coronavirus pandemic – killing an unprecedented 100,000 people in 12 months – Black and Indigenous Americans were increasingly likely to become the victims.Drug overdose rates in America surged by 31% in 2020, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as the pandemic left many facing lockdowns, and economic and emotional strain. But researchers at the University of California Los Angeles have found that the death rate surged most dramatically among Black and Indigenous Americans, who saw a staggering increase of 49% and 43% respectively in just one year. Continue reading...
The US roster for the SheBelieves Cup is missing many of the players who have helped the team dominate in recent years. The focus is on the futureWe’re just under 18 months from the 2023 Women’s World Cup, and when the USWNT run out to play the Czech Republic in the SheBelieves Cup on Thursday the team will look very different from the one that has dominated for the last decade.This is a roster largely devoid of the stars who have won two World Cups and an Olympic title in the last 10 years. Marquee names from Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan to Tobin Heath, Julie Ertz, and Christen Press won’t feature against New Zealand, Iceland or the Czech Republic. Just seven players from the victorious 2019 Women’s World Cup roster and four of that starting 11 are in this 23-player camp. Continue reading...
Global heating will cause ‘megafires resistant to fire suppression practices’ with 25% of land being burned by 2040A convergence of dangerous weather conditions, exacerbated by the climate crisis, has set the stage for southern California to see an increase in catastrophic wildfires over the coming decades, according to a new study.Southern California, home to 23 million people, has largely been spared the kind of extreme fire escalation experienced in the northern part of the state, but models drawn up by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, have predicted that will change. Continue reading...
The confetti has been cleared from SoFi Stadium. Here’s what we can expect in the next few months as the league looks towards the 2022 seasonThe Rodgers Saga rolls into a third offseason. Prior to the Super Bowl, ESPN reported that the Green Bay Packers were now willing to go “all in” to keep the quarterback, pushing up to the limit of the salary cap for next season and beyond. The Packers are, the report suggested, looking to mirror the latter days of the Saints’ Drew Brees era, pushing cap pain down the line in order to squeeze extra juice out of the roster now.Won defensive rookie of the year in 2014Won three Defensive Player of the Year crownsMade the 2010s all-decade teamWas named a first-team All-Pro seven times, and a Pro Bowler in all eight seasonsMissed only two games in eight years, neither of which were injury relatedForced 48 fumbles, and totaled 150 tackles for lossRegistered 98 sacks, a total that matches Von Miller.Was the decisive force in swinging a Super Bowl with a two-play sequence for the ages.If you are carving the Mt Rushmore of defensive players alone, it starts with Lawrence Taylor, Reggie White, and Donald. Feel free to argue over the fourth spot. What else is there left to achieve? Continue reading...
by Bryan Armen Graham at the Wukesong Sports Centre on (#5W7RM)
‘Captain Clutch’ Marie-Philip Poulin scores twice as a resurgent Canada side win 3-2 against their old rivalsThe imperious Canada women’s hockey team completed a buzzsaw run through the Olympic tournament with a comprehensive victory over their defining foes, seeing off the United States in Thursday afternoon’s gold medal game by a 3-2 scoreline that flattered to deceive.The latest instalment in one of world sport’s most hotly contested rivalries was largely one-way traffic for the half hour when the outcome truly hung in the balance. Marie-Philip Poulin, Canada’s longtime talisman known as “Captain Clutch”, scored twice as the defending world champions opened a three-goal lead behind an aggressive forechecking attack and a standout effort by in-form goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens, who finished with 38 saves. Continue reading...
A wave of TV shows such as Inventing Anna are sympathetic portrayals of the con artist that lies within us allWe are living in the age of the scammer. If you weren’t aware of it, just turn on your TV: there’s a rash of real-life dramas about master con artists.Netflix’s Inventing Anna – a fictionalised account of the fake heiress Anna Delvey (real name Sorokin) – is topping the streaming service’s popularity chart, while in March, Disney+ is releasing The Dropout, which dramatises the tale of health-tech fraud Elizabeth Holmes. It’s no wonder that the New Yorker’s Rachel Syme has declared a “Scam Spring”.Laura Martin is a freelance journalist Continue reading...
House select committee is considering best way to get evidence from ex-president’s daughter about his efforts to cling to powerThe House select committee investigating the Capitol attack is considering issuing a subpoena to Ivanka Trump to force her cooperation with the inquiry into Donald Trump’s efforts to return himself to power on 6 January, according to a source familiar with the matter.Any move to subpoena Ivanka Trump and, for the first time, force a member of Trump’s own family to testify against him, would mark a dramatic escalation in the 6 January inquiry that could amount to a treacherous legal and political moment for the former president. Continue reading...
As a 14-year-old Australian, I urge you to stand in solidarity with me against policymakers in France and India, where they are oppressing Muslim womenThis morning as I was intricately pinning my school hijab around my head, I was thinking of how privileged I am to be able to wear my hijab to school. But it shouldn’t be a privilege, it is my right. It shouldn’t be something that Muslim women everywhere have to continue to fight for day after day. I feel for my hijabi sisters all around the world. What would I do if I had to choose between getting an education and wearing my hijab?Recently, a young Muslim student wearing a hijab in the Indian state of Karnataka was taunted by a mob of male anti-Muslim protesters. Watching the footage, I felt disgusted and scared, seeing a young hijabi woman like myself being assaulted, while doing absolutely nothing wrong. Simply trying to get an education. Just last week, shockingly close to home, a hijabi high school student in New Zealand was filmed as other school students forcibly removed her hijab and proceeded to share the video of the taunting on social media. The hijab these women wear is demonised by many in their communities, countries, and unfortunately all around the world. This Islamophobia is devastating, but unfortunately, Muslim women being the subject of hatred and abuse is nothing new. Continue reading...
The biological non-custodial parents, who police believe abducted the six-year-old, have been arrested and chargedTwo years after she went missing, a six-year-old girl has been found alive and in good health in a makeshift room underneath a staircase in a house in New York state, according to police who said they suspected she was abducted by her biological non-custodial parents.Officers found the girl, Paislee Shultis, on Monday in a house in the town of Saugerties, two years after she went missing from Spencer, New York, about 180 miles (290 km) to the west, the Saugerties police department said in a statement on Tuesday. Continue reading...
Director Rochelle Walensky notes recent declines in Covid cases, hospital admissions and deathsThe leading US health officials said on Wednesday that the nation is moving closer to the point that Covid-19 is no longer a “constant crisis” as more cities, businesses and sports venues began lifting pandemic restrictions around the country.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Rochelle Walensky said during a White House briefing that the government is contemplating a change to its mask guidance in the coming weeks. Continue reading...
Travis McMichael described violence against Black people and made frequent racist comments, FBI analyst testifiedTwo of the three white men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery repeatedly used racial slurs in text messages and social media posts, including some violent comments by Arbery’s shooter about Black people, an FBI witness testified Wednesday in their federal hate crimes trial.Amy Vaughan, an FBI intelligence analyst, led the jury through more than two dozen conversations that Travis McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan had with others, identified only by their initials, in the months and years before the 25-year-old Black man’s killing. Continue reading...
District attorney Chesa Boudin said the charges violated constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizuresSan Francisco’s district attorney has dropped charges against a woman whose DNA collected from a rape kit was used to link her to a property crime, citing a violation of her constitutional rights.District attorney Chesa Boudin said his office learned that the city’s police were using DNA samples collected from sexual assault victims to identify possible suspects last week, and is calling for legislation to ban the practice. Continue reading...
The incident comes at a time of heightened tension between the US and Russia over UkraineRussian aircraft came close to three US navy planes in the Mediterranean Sea over the weekend, the Pentagon said on Wednesday, at a time of heightened tensions between the two countries over Russia’s military buildup along its border with Ukraine.While such interactions are not rare between the United States and Russia, it comes at a particularly delicate time and a heightened concern about any accidents or miscalculations. Continue reading...
Ryan Zinke lied to agency ethics official about his involvement with foundation to advance project in his Montana home townGovernment investigators say the former US interior secretary Ryan Zinke misused his position to advance a development project in his Montana home town and lied to an agency ethics official about his involvement.The interior department’s inspector general said in a report made public on Wednesday that Zinke continued working with a foundation on the commercial project in the community of Whitefish, Montana, even after he committed upon taking office to breaking ties with the foundation. Continue reading...
This started as a scandal about one man’s behaviour. It could end up a story about the kind of country we choose to beIf a uniformed flunkey holding aloft a vellum scroll had stood in front of Buckingham Palace and read it out for the benefit of the world’s cameras on Tuesday afternoon, the message from the official proclamation would have boiled down to this: “The royal embarrassment is over. Long live the royal embarrassment.”This week’s out of court settlement of Virginia Giuffre’s sexual assault claims against Prince Andrew is not the tidy closure of a tawdry affair. The sleazy content of the allegations and the prince’s boneheaded response to them have not merely discredited him personally – though they have done that so conclusively that only someone as obstinate as he is could think otherwise. They have also shaken the monarchy itself, and at an extremely delicate time – one that is certainly not over yet and that may continue for at least a decade. Continue reading...
Priest in Phoenix, Arizona, resigns after mistakenly using the phrase ‘we baptize you’ instead of ‘I baptize you’ for yearsThousands of baptisms at a Catholic church in Arizona have been invalidated because a priest used the wrong words in performing the ceremony.Father Andres Arango resigned from the St Gregory parish church in Phoenix earlier this month after diocese leaders discovered he had mistakenly used the phrase “we baptize you” instead of “I baptize you” for years. Continue reading...
Recall effort split Democrats as Mayor London Breed criticized school board for being distracted by ‘political agendas’San Francisco residents recalled three members of the city’s school board in the first recall vote in the city since 1983.Voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved the recall of school board president Gabriela Lopez, vice-president Faauuga Moliga and commissioner Alison Collins, according to tallies by the San Francisco department of elections. Continue reading...
President tells story of woman who called county government to have dog removed from lawn – so Biden put it on her front stepDuring a speech on Tuesday, Joe Biden jokingly reminisced about putting a dead dog on a Republican woman’s doorstep during his time serving in county government when he was in his 20s.While giving remarks at the National Association of Counties 2022 Legislative Conference in Washington, he president spoke about his time representing what he described as a mixed-income district. Continue reading...
To take Afghan money to pay grieving Americans in order to punish the Taliban is nothing less than larceny as collective punishmentLast week, the White House issued an executive order announcing the theft of some $7bn. Shocking, to be sure. But more shocking still was when that same executive order also identified the thief: the White House.In a move that can only be described as brazenly immoral and utterly unconscionable, the Biden administration has begun a process to seize the more than $7bn of assets that the Central Bank of Afghanistan has on deposit at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Since the Taliban gained control of the war-ravaged country last year, that money has been frozen in place. Now, the administration has concocted its own mega-grift, planning to spend half of the money – not their money, lest we forget – for humanitarian aid in Afghanistan, while reserving the other half of the funds – not their money – for the relatives of the September 11 victims who have brought claims against the Taliban for the 2001 terrorist attacks. Continue reading...
Ex-president had insisted that details of who visited him in the White House were protected by executive privilegeJoe Biden has delivered another blow to Donald Trump’s efforts to keep secret his actions around the time of the deadly January 6 Capitol insurrection by refusing to exert executive privilege over the former president’s White House visitor logs, according to a report published on Wednesday.The president has directed the National Archives to turn over the records within 15 days to the House committee investigating the attack by Trump supporters as a “in the light of the urgency” of the panel’s work, the New York Times says. Continue reading...
It’s easier to read from a book, or recycle stories you already know – but sometimes making up stories is betterIn my years as a journalist, I’ve had some challenging assignments: file a piece about an underground dinner for Michelin-starred chefs that ends at 3am in time for it to hit the morning pages, write an obit for an almost-dead person by calling up his nearest and dearest and asking for a few punchy quotes. But all pale in comparison with my new assignment which, like Sisyphus, I must complete nightly.“Tell me a story about a book that is broken, and then the unicorn comes for a sleepover, but she’s really big,” my preschooler barks from her bed, her face awash in the neon pink emanating from her polar bear nightlight.Sophie Brickman is a contributor to the New Yorker, the New York Times and other publications, and the author of Baby, Unplugged: One Mother’s Search for Balance, Reason, and Sanity in the Digital Age Continue reading...
The former president of US Soccer was a polarising figure when he was in office. But he has support behind him as he aims to win back his old roleImagine if, two years after resigning amid the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon had run for president again.It’s not a perfect analogy for the current state of US soccer politics, but it’s close. Two years after resigning in the wake of a legal filing that claimed female players had less ability than their male counterparts, Carlos Cordeiro is running for his old gig as president of US Soccer. Continue reading...
by Amudalat Ajasa, Tom Silverstone Katie Lamborn and on (#5W6QQ)
Carmel, Indiana, is an affluent suburb just north of Indianapolis known for low crime rates and some of the country’s best public schools. But early last year, the school board brought in diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, or DEI, which seek to combat structural racism in the education system. Since then, a battle has erupted between those who welcome the changes, and others who see it as leftwing indoctrination Continue reading...
Experts have little faith in announcement and say there are no signs of de-escalation on Ukraine’s borders. Plus, the ‘arrogance’ of Prince AndrewGood morning.A video of a handful of screeching tanks and lumbering armoured vehicles mounting a transport train in Crimea accompanied the Russian defence ministry’s trumpeted announcement that some of the forces that have been encircling Ukraine will “head for their garrisons”, writes Dan Sabbagh.What else did Biden say in his speech on Ukraine? Biden addressed the American people directly, telling them he was not going to “pretend this will be painless” and that they would feel it at the petrol pump.What’s happening today? Nato defence ministers are meeting in Brussels today. The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, will join Stoltenberg and others to consider next steps amid tensions in eastern Europe.Meanwhile, Prince Andrew is facing fresh calls to be stripped of his Duke of York title. The Queen last month stripped Andrew of his military affiliations and royal patronages in an attempt to distance the royal family from the allegations. However, he has kept his Duke of York title.Here’s how the British press reacted to the news of the settlement, which gives an indication of how people in the UK feel. Continue reading...
There is an air of desperation in attacks from those on the right and their supporters in the press. They fear if Johnson falls, the Brexit deception will crumble tooDid something change this month? Having proclaimed the Brexit referendum triumph of 2016 as the unique achievement of Boris Johnson and praised his historic success in the election three years later with the slogan “get Brexit done”, did the wreckers of the European dream slowly begin to realise that if Johnson goes, it shifts the sands from beneath their feet?I’m the president of European Movement – Andrew Adonis is chair – and between us we agreed that this link needed a public airing. Learning from the direct and simple messaging of the anti-European newspapers, we felt the phrase: “If Boris goes, Brexit goes” said it clearly enough. Adonis duly tweeted it, to the horror of the pro-Brexit press.Lord Heseltine was the deputy prime minister under John Major and a member of Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet from 1979 until 1986 Continue reading...
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