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Nobody should expect to go to a huge concert and expect privacy, but the incident is a jarring reminder of the reach of the surveillance state and the internet's insatiable appetite for public shamingI'm not a curtain-twitcher, OK? I'm just a little bit nosy and happen to procrastinate by staring out of the window. Inspiration rarely strikes during these procrastination sessions - but I have absorbed an awful lot of information about my neighbours. Guess what," I'll say to my wife. I think the flight attendant who always puts his trash out when it's not trash day broke up with his boyfriend because I haven't seen him around lately." My wife, meanwhile, never has any idea what I'm talking about and usually tells me to mind my own business.I'm starting to think she has a point. In fact, we should all work a little harder at minding our own business. Because I'm not the only nosy parker out there, am I? Judging by the global obsession with the Coldplay couple, we're all far too invested in other people's lives. Continue reading...

The Trump administration has reportedly withheld $140m from a CDC effort geared at preventing overdose deathsPublic health officials across the country working to prevent overdose deaths may have just a month to prepare for up to $140m in funding cuts for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that the Trump administration has reportedly withheld.US overdose deaths began to decline for the first time in 2023 after climbing for over two decades. Continue reading...

As Harvard's feud with Trump escalated, so did tensions over an education and Palestine' issue of a prestigious journal. Scholars blame the Palestine exception' to academic freedomIn March 2024, six months into Israel's war in Gaza, education in the territory was decimated. Schools were closed - most had been turned into shelters - and all 12 of the strip's universities were partially or fully destroyed.Against that backdrop, a prestigious American education journal decided to dedicate a special issue to education and Palestine". The Harvard Educational Review (HER) put out a call for submissions, asking academics around the world for ideas for articles grappling with the education of Palestinians, education about Palestine and Palestinians, and related debates in schools and colleges in the US. Continue reading...

Trump axes key infrastructure funding while more than 18,000 Ohio properties face flood risk as ageing dam bucklesMore than 18,000 properties that sit downstream of a series of a century-old Ohio dam are at risk of flooding over the next three decades, according to climate data, as the Trump administration continues to roll back investments that would aid in keeping the waters at bay.In a part of the US that's largely flat, the view from above the Huffman dam in south-west Ohio is rare. Continue reading...

Democrats need to win back the working class in 2028. Our research shows what does and doesn't workTo win in 2028, Democrats need to win back a lot of working-class voters, including a lot of blue-collar Donald Trump voters. Doing so requires dispensing with some long-held myths that have captured the minds of Democratic party strategists. The first is that persuading working-class Trump supporters is a waste of time. They are - so the story goes - so totally absorbed in Magaland that there is no winning them back. Why bother? On the flip side, some liberals insist that some of these voters are winnable, if only Democrats can make themselves more like Trump by embracing tax cuts and tough talk. A third notion, favored by progressives, says that if liberals just crank the progressive economic message up to eleven, blue-collar voters will come running home.The truth is, none of these strategies are particularly useful. Because none of them take working-class interests, values and attitudes seriously enough. Fortunately, new research from the Center for Working-Class Politics (CWCP) can help shed light on what working-class voters actually want. And it can offer the Democrats a path out of the wilderness.Dustin Guastella is director of operations for Teamsters Local 623 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a research associate at the Center for Working-Class Politics Continue reading...

Despite their skills, careers and vast amount of knowledge, I often fail to see their adult selves fully formedI am spending a lot of time at my late mother's house, sorting things out, wondering why she had so much asafoetida and thinking about the past. Every time I'm there, my sister asks me to water the garden, and I never do. Then she says: Please, just do the window boxes, otherwise the plants will die," and I still don't. I may come and take the potted plants away, or you could take some, if you want to kill them in your own house?", she says, and still I ignore her, because I don't know anything about gardening. So it follows that, being my sibling, she doesn't either. No amount of evidence to the contrary - her own, frankly magnificent garden - can convince me otherwise.This is a two-way street. She is a fashion designer and exquisite draughtsperson - which I, also, after many decades, have yet to wrap my head around - but she can't drive, and if ever she is a passenger when I'm driving, she is on red alert, pointing out things - mainly other cars, pedestrians, trees - as if, without her intervention, I would plough straight into them. Our brother is a skilled decorator and, when he uses words such as primer" and dust sheet", I can't help looking at him as if a cat is talking. He is a photographer by profession, and, even if we point the same phone at the same object, he creates images that are unfathomably deeper and more pleasing than mine. I look on this not so much as a knowledge base he has that I don't, and more like an act of hocus-pocus. My other brother is a maths teacher, my other sister is a physicist, and I cannot describe how fanciful I find it that they may really be doing these jobs. Obviously, I have to pretend to believe it. I don't even know whether you get wired in childhood to think all knowledge is equally distributed because otherwise it isn't fair, or that every fine difference in skillset is just a question of whoever is younger catching up. But no amount of adulthood can overturn it. Continue reading...

Ruling in university's favor would reverse funding freezes that became cuts as Trump administration escalated fightHarvard University appeared in federal court on Monday to make the case that the Trump administration illegally cut $2.6bn from the storied college - a major test of the administration's efforts to reshape higher education institutions by threatening their financial viability.US district judge Allison Burroughs heard arguments from Harvard and the Department of Justice. The cuts, imposed earlier this year, have halted major research efforts and Harvard argues they are a politically motivated attempt to pressure the school into adopting federal policies on student conduct, admissions, antisemitism and diversity. Continue reading...

UK company to fund new drug manufacturing facility in Virginia and expand R&D facilities around US

Readers lose out when English-speaking gatekeepers decide what books are sold and whose stories get toldI attended an American writers' conference in Texas, just before the world plunged into Covid-19 lockdowns. Between panels and networking, I spent my time wandering around the book fair, leafing through titles and peppering publishers with questions.How many translated works are in your catalogues? How do you discover authors from outside the US? And how do you evaluate the quality of writing in languages you don't speak?"Ana Schnabl is a Slovenian novelist, editor and critic Continue reading...

This blog has now closed. You can read more of our US politics coverage hereDonald Trump's libel lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch has been assigned to Darrin P Gayles, a US district judge for the southern district of Florida.Trump's lawsuit on Friday, which also targets Dow Jones and News Corp, was filed in the southern district of Florida federal court in Miami. Continue reading...

Trump's border tsar vows to flood the zone' with Ice officers, 700 marines redeployed and president's megabill estimated to pile $3.4tn on to national debt. Key US politics stories from Monday 21 JulyThe Trump administration is targeting US sanctuary cities in the next phase of its deportation drive, after an off-duty law enforcement officer was allegedly shot in New York City by an undocumented person with a criminal record.Tom Homan, Donald Trump's hardline border tsar, vowed to flood the zone" with Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (Ice) agents, saying: Every sanctuary city is unsafe. Sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals and President Trump's not going to tolerate it." Continue reading...

As president sues paper over alleged letter, Karoline Leavitt cites fake and defamatory conduct' for kicking out reporterA Wall Street Journal reporter was kicked out of Donald Trump's press pool for his upcoming weekend trip to Scotland. The removal marked increased retaliation after the newspaper published an article alleging the US president sent Jeffrey Epstein a 50th birthday letter that included a drawing of a naked woman. The US president promptly sued the paper for $10bn.As the appeals court confirmed, the Wall Street Journal or any other news outlet are not guaranteed special access to cover President Trump in the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One, and in his private workspaces," said White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, in a statement. Thirteen diverse outlets will participate in the press pool to cover the President's trip to Scotland. Due to the Wall Street Journal's fake and defamatory conduct, they will not be one of the thirteen outlets on board. Every news organization in the entire world wishes to cover President Trump, and the White House has taken significant steps to include as many voices as possible." Continue reading...

Federal judge rejects justice department recommendation that Brett Hankison be give no prison timeA federal judge on Monday sentenced an ex-Kentucky police officer to nearly three years in prison for using excessive force during the 2020 deadly raid on Breonna Taylor's home, declining a justice department recommendation that he be given no prison time.Brett Hankison, who fired 10 shots during the raid but didn't hit anyone, was the only officer on the scene charged in the Black woman's death. He is the first person sentenced to prison in the case that rocked the city of Louisville and spawned weeks of street protests over police brutality five years ago. Continue reading...

About 200,000 pages of surveillance records released despite objection from slain civil rights leader's familyThe Trump administration has released records of the FBI's surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr, despite opposition from the slain Nobel laureate's family and the civil rights group that he led until his 1968 assassination.The release involves an estimated 200,000 pages of records that had been under a court-imposed seal since 1977, when the FBI first gathered the records and turned them over to the National Archives and Records Administration. Continue reading...

We're collectively trying to decide through digital telepathy what makes it OK to ruin someone's life. That is an impossible taskBy now we've all seen the video: a couple locked in an intimate embrace at a Coldplay concert. Within milliseconds, the woman turns her face and the man ducks. The crowd gasps. Chris Martin quips: Either they're having an affair or they're very shy."Within 24 hours, the internet had done what it does best: turned sleuth. The names of the pair were quickly revealed. LinkedIns found. Both were senior executives at a New York data firm, he, the CEO; she, the head of HR. Both married. With children.Miski Omar is a writer and director based in Sydney Continue reading...

Trump adviser and white nationalist's America First Legal requests enforcement actions against medical schoolA legal group founded by Trump adviser and white nationalist Stephen Miller has requested the justice department investigate illegal DEI practices" at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.In a letter to the justice department's civil rights division, America First Legal asked assistant attorney general Harmeet K Dhillon to investigate and issue enforcement actions against the prestigious medical university for embracing a discriminatory DEI regime as a core institutional mandate". Continue reading...

Billionaire heiress of the burger chain is moving her family to Tennessee - with plans to open 35 locations in the stateFollow the money is an age-old adage for reporters and businesses alike. The CEO of the internationally-renowned burger joint In-N-Out, however, is taking a different approach - moving her family from California, where the chain boasts 276 locations, to Tennessee, where it has zero.Billionaire heiress and CEO Lynsi Snyder, granddaughter of In-N-Out's founders, publicly announced the relocation during a family-and-faith studded conversation on Allie Beth Stuckey's podcast Relatable. Interview sponsors included an online academy that promises to keep children safe from socialist indoctrination, as well as an anti-abortion diaper company. Continue reading...

Congressional Budget Office report estimates bill will leave 10m more Americans without health insurance by 2034Donald Trump's new tax bill will add $3.4tn to the national debt over the next decade, according to new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released Monday.Major cuts to Medicaid and the national food stamps program are estimated to save the country $1.1tn - only a chunk of the $4.5tn in lost revenue that will come from the bill's tax cuts. Continue reading...

In three-hour Channel 5 talk, ex-president's son says fuck him' of actor over op-ed calling on Joe Biden to step downHunter Biden has given a profanity-laced, three-hour interview to the US outlet Channel 5 that is remarkable for its no-holds attack on actor George Clooney, denial that he was the source of cocaine found in the White House and thoughts on why his father bombed in his debate with Donald Trump before dropping out of his presidential re-election run.Fuck him!" the younger Biden said of Clooney, whose remarkable New York Times opinion piece last July called on the Democratic party for which the actor is a financial donor to find a new presidential nominee. Continue reading...

Federal Reserve video says project is modernization' of two buildings that have not had major renovations since 1930sThe US Federal Reserve is pushing back against claims from the White House that it is undergoing extravagant renovations with a video tour showing the central bank's ongoing construction.The video, posted on the Fed's website, includes captions explaining that the project is a complete overhaul and modernization" of two buildings that have not had major renovations since the 1930s. Continue reading...

The president launched a broadside at Washington's NFL team as well as the Cleveland Guardians. But the teams and their fans have largely moved onHaven't the fans of the Washington Commanders and Cleveland Guardians suffered enough?For decades, each team had to endure the twin indignities of on-field futility and off-field scorn. Until last year, when they enjoyed a resurgence under rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels, the Washington NFL team had won exactly only one playoff game in the 21st century. Cleveland's baseball team have been competitive this century, but they once went 41 years between playoff appearances (from 1954 to 1995) and came out on the losing end in the whose drought will end?" World Series of 2016, in which the Chicago Cubs won the championship for the first time in 108 years at the expense of Cleveland, whose epoch without a World Series win now stands at 77 years. Continue reading...

The New York mayoral candidate has piqued the interest of South Asian Americans and Muslims - not only because of his identity, but his platform, tooZohran Mamdani's victory in New York City's Democratic primary for mayor has a group of Pakistani American aunties and uncles so excited that they are wondering if they should have given their own children more freedom in choosing their careers. What if we let our kids become politicians, and not just doctors and engineers?" a member of the grassroots political organizing group, DRUM Beats, asked at a small celebration held at an Islamic school last month in south Brooklyn.DRUM Beats, which represents New York City's working class South Asian and Indo-Caribbean populations, was one of the first grassroots groups to endorse Mamdani, when he launched his campaign in October - long before he became a household name. More than 300 volunteers, who spoke near a dozen languages, knocked on at least 10,000 doors to support him. DRUM Beats says these efforts helped increase voter turnout by almost 90% among Indo Caribbean and South Asians in some neighborhoods. Continue reading...

The driver, identified as Fernando Ramirez, 29, allegedly drove his car into a crowd on a sidewalk, injuring 36 peopleAuthorities released new details in last week's Los Angeles nightclub crash, revealing the man suspected of driving his car on a sidewalk, injuring 36 people, has a lengthy criminal history that includes felony battery.The driver, identified by police as 29-year-old Fernando Ramirez, allegedly drove his Nissan Versa into a line of people - mostly women - waiting to enter the Vermont Hollywood event venue around 2am on Saturday, and struck several food carts. Continue reading...

Billionaire and ex-New York City mayor says if Americans die unnecessarily, Senate Republicans will pay at ballot boxBillionaire, former New York City mayor and philanthropist Michael Bloomberg is calling on Senate Republicans to oust Robert F Kennedy Jr from his post as Trump's health secretary.Kennedy was arguably the nation's most prominent conspiracy theorist and vaccine skeptic when he was confirmed by the Senate, and he has spent much of his tenure throwing vaccine policy into upheaval amid an historic measles outbreak. Continue reading...

Late NFL star's brother, Richard Tillman, reportedly charged with arson after crash causes building to go up in flamesPolice are investigating a car that crashed into a post office in San Jose, California, early on Sunday, causing the building to go up in flames, authorities said. Police reportedly took Richard Tillman - brother of NFL star turned army enlistee Pat Tillman - into custody as a suspect.The crash happened shortly before 3am at the office located in a strip mall south of downtown, according to the San Jose police department. No injuries were reported. Continue reading...

Maria Farmer accused Epstein and Maxwell of sexual crimes in 1996, and identified Trump as worthy of attentionAn artist who first accused Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell of sexual assault almost three decades ago has told the New York Times that she had urged law enforcement officials back then to investigate powerful people in their orbit - including Donald Trump.The artist, Maria Farmer, was among the first women to report Epstein and his partner Maxwell of sexual crimes back in 1996 when, according to a new interview with the Times, she also identified Trump among others close to Epstein as worthy of attention. Continue reading...

Tracking data showed SkyWest flight on descent before making sharp right turn while also showing B-52 in the areaThe pilot of a commercial airliner has said he needed to make an aggressive maneuver" to avoid colliding with a US air force B-52 bomber as it landed in Minot, North Dakota, on Friday.The SkyWest airlines pilot said he had been cleared to land on a trip from Minneapolis-St Paul (MSP) to Minot when he spotted the vast nuclear-capable bomber on his right side and was told to go around. Continue reading...

Brian Hooker seems to not have alerted authorities of his illness after leaving west TexasOne of the most prominent anti-vaccine activists in the US says he caught measles in west Texas and traveled back home - but he seems not to have alerted local authorities of his illness, which means the highly transmissible virus may have spread onward.Measles is a threat to people who are unvaccinated or immune-compromised. In anti-vaccine communities, it may quickly find a foothold and spread largely under the radar before ballooning into an outbreak. Continue reading...

Bird strikes cause fatal crashes and cost airlines money. Experts have tactics for chasing away these errant fowlMy tone wavered between enthusiasm and concern. Is that a great black-backed gull," I asked.It was a cold December morning, and I was cruising along the interior roads of Boston's Logan international airport in a white pickup truck. At the wheel was Jeff Turner, who, among other duties, oversees efforts to control wildlife at the airport, including making sure that errant gulls and other birds don't stray into flight paths and cause an accident. He glanced toward the harbor and confirmed that a lone great black-backed was indeed mixed in with a few herring gulls. Continue reading...

The US vice-president has chosen to holiday among the Chipping Norton set, which includes Boris Johnson and Jeremy Clarkson, in a country he says has gone to the dogs. It feels like he is trolling the UK ...You have to let politicians go on holiday, I guess. You have to accept the existence of world leaders with whose views you disagree, especially now that it's almost all of them. So why does it feel like a particular provocation for JD Vance to be planning a trip to the Cotswolds? His itinerary isn't yet known, but its bare bones are that, sometime in August, the Vances will visit London, Oxfordshire and Scotland.For a recap on what, exactly, is wrong with the US vice-president, there is nothing more evocative than February's press conference with Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Of course, many of Vance's more extreme views - calling Democratic politicians a bunch of childless cat ladies with miserable lives", claiming that staying in an abusive relationship was preferable to getting divorced, and saying that abortion should be banned - were already well known, from a combination of his voting record and his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. But Republicans say a lot of things, particularly while seeking election. You may have been able to infer Vance's drive to dominate and control others, but it wasn't until that exchange with the Ukrainian president that you could witness it. Continue reading...

Day of rallies across US hears demands for more united, organized and aggressive party opposing Republicans

Keith McAllister had approached machine after wife called for help, and was sucked in by device's magnetic forceA man who wore a large weight-training chain around his neck and approached his wife while a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine scanned her knee at a clinic in New York died after the device forcefully pulled him, according to police and media reports.Keith McAllister, 61, was killed at the Nassau Open MRI clinic in Westbury, Long Island, after he accompanied his wife, Adrienne Jones-McAllister, there on 16 July. Continue reading...

Democrats are livid over the governor's plan to redraw districts at a time when Texas officials are supposed to be focused on recovery from the floodsA plan for Texas to redraw its congressional districts and gain five additional Republican seats barrels through flimsy legal arguments and political norms like a rough-stock rodeo bronco through a broken chute.But the fiddly process of drawing the maps to Republicans' advantage for 2026 may require more finesse than cowboy politics can produce. Continue reading...

Israeli forces open fire on Palestinians in one of bloodiest incidents involving aid seekers. Plus, Ellen DeGeneres confirms she moved to the UK because of Donald Trump

No-frills carrier's gate bag bonus' of 1.50 a passenger capped at 80 a month for staff members but ceiling could rise

There is no way around the fact that in 2024, those Americans didn't hear anything worth voting for. Will it be different next time around?Since Bernie Sanders's first presidential campaign, the electoral theory of the American left has rested upon the idea that a sizable bloc of Americans - alienated from the traditional politics of left and right - have withdrawn from politics entirely. They stand closer to the Democrats on many issues, but, seeing little by way of material benefit from the party's soaring rhetoric of defending democracy", they have opted out of the political process. And, as the theory goes, a bold, populist candidate - someone like Sanders himself - could bring this silent constituency back into the fold.If that logic once explained how Sanders might have won, it might now explain why Kamala Harris lost. And, as new troves of post-election data surface, the debate over whether Democrats might have avoided last year's defeat by mobilizing non-voters has become one of the party's hottest factional disputes. Continue reading...

About 3,000 workers have left the agency through firings and buyouts in a move Democrats and staff call unlawful'Workers at the US state department say firings, resignation buyouts, a proposed budget cut of 48%, and reorganization under the Trump administration has left staff with low morale and will likely have long-term impacts.Foreign programs and services aimed towards LGBTQ+ communities, maternal and reproductive health, and minority groups have been removed or cut in place of far-right ideological policies being pursued by a 26-year-old senior adviser and Trump appointee at the agency. Continue reading...

The league's best players believe they are not being given a fair deal when it comes to compensation. But sports accounting is a tricky affairNapheesa Collier was in record-breaking form on Saturday night as she set a new high for a WNBA All-Star Game, with 36 points. But much of the attention was focused on what happened before the game when players warmed up with shirts bearing the message Pay us what you owe us."The move came after players and the league failed to reach a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement. Do they have a point though? Evaluating athlete pay is notoriously tricky because sports accounting always includes a certain amount of voodoo. Continue reading...

Our award-winning photographer has been at Royal Portrush for the Open. Here are some of his best shots as Scottie Scheffler claimed a fourth major triumph with a dominant four-shot victory, completing a third leg of the career grand slam Continue reading...

Incident in which migrants were shackled with hands tied of one succession of alleged abuses at jails in FloridaMigrants at a Miami immigration jail were shackled with their hands tied behind their backs and made to kneel to eat food from styrofoam plates like dogs", according to a report published on Monday into conditions at three overcrowded south Florida facilities.The incident at the downtown federal detention center is one of a succession of alleged abuses at Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (Ice) operated jails in the state since January, chronicled by advocacy groups Human Rights Watch, Americans for Immigrant Justice, and Sanctuary of the South from interviews with detainees. Continue reading...

Larson, who survived Normandy landings, gained 1.2 million followers on social media platform by sharing second world war storiesD-day veteran ''Papa Jake'' Larson, who survived German gunfire on Normandy's beaches in 1944 and then garnered 1.2 million followers on TikTok late in life by sharing stories to commemorate the second world war and his fallen comrades, has died aged 102.An animated speaker who charmed strangers young and old with his quick smile and generous hugs, the self-described country boy from Minnesota was cracking jokes til the end,'' his granddaughter wrote in announcing his death. Continue reading...

Donald Trump calls on Commanders and Guardians to revert to names that were abandoned due to being racially insensitive - key US politics stories from Sunday 20 July at a glanceDonald Trump has weighed into a new fight - this time with two sports teams. The president wants Washington's football franchise the Commanders and Cleveland baseball team the Guardians to revert to their former names, which were abandoned in recent years due to being racially insensitive to Native Americans.Trump said on Sunday on Truth Social that: The Washington Whatever's' should IMMEDIATELY change their name back to the Washington Redskins Football Team .... Likewise, the Cleveland Indians, one of the six original baseball teams, with a storied past." Continue reading...

A four-shot margin of victory at the Open led Xander Schauffele to say the world No 1 is taking the throne of dominance' that American legend once hadNo sooner had the Claret Jug been lifted high above Scottie Scheffler's head than the scramble for superlatives began. With every word and exaltation there was also a sense that golf's Overton window had shifted, with his peers daring to voice opinions previously beyond the pale.It was Xander Schauffele who perhaps said it best, as Scheffler was slowwalking up the 18th, as if trying to savour every second of a first Open Championship victory. Continue reading...

Search and rescue operation under way after group went over Dillon Falls on the Deschutes RiverOne person has died while two others remain missing after six people were swept down a waterfall in Oregon over the weekend.On Saturday, the Deschutes county sheriff's office announced a multi-agency search and rescue operation after the group went over Dillon Falls on the Deschutes River west of Bend on Saturday afternoon. Continue reading...

Scottie Scheffler won the title but it was the Northern Irishman who had the unequivocal backing of the crowd at Royal PortrushThe loyalist bands were out in force in Portrush on Saturday evening, for a two-hour parade that shut down all the traffic in and out of town. The R&A did its best to funnel the paying spectators in the other direction as they walked off the course, but there were still plenty of bewildered golf fans who got caught up in it all. I was one of them myself. While I wouldn't want to contradict the organisers' description of it as a cultural extravaganza", if I had one note to pass on it may be that these sorts of local folk traditions go over better with the tourists when they don't have sectarian overtones and aheavy police presence.On the links, there was a different side of Ireland on show. Northern Irish or from the Republic, Nationalist or Unionist, Catholic or Protestant, whatever else divides the 300,000-odd people who attended in the past week, they were all united in collective yearning to see Rory McIlroy make that next birdie. Continue reading...