Connor Cato says he was first told by court to either pay up or appear in court after driving 90 mph in a 55 mph zoneA Georgia man was left reeling after receiving a $1.4m speeding ticket, but city officials say the figure was just a placeholder, not the actual fine.Connor Cato tells WSAV-TV in Savannah that he received the citation after getting pulled over in September for driving 90 mph (145 kph) in a 55 mph (89 kph) zone. Continue reading...

House minority leader confirms informal' talks underway for a solution to speaker crisis in House of RepresentativesTop House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries confirmed Sunday that informal conversations have been underway" for a bipartisan solution to the leadership crisis in the US House of Representatives.The legislative chamber has been without a speaker since 5 October when Republican right-wingers voted to remove California's Kevin McCarthy from his position and Democrats did not step in with votes to secure him, effectively paralyzing the body. Continue reading...

Rightwing speakership contender says he thinks he has 217 votes needed to win as colleague Mike Johnson waits in the wingsThe rightwing congressman Jim Jordan is seeking to shore up support for his bid to succeed Kevin McCarthy as House speaker, with plans to appear on the House floor early this week to try to sway Republican members of Congress who signaled in a secret ballot vote they will not support his bid.Jordan, a staunch ally of Donald Trump, claimed in a brief interview with Politico he believes he will get the 217 votes required to secure the speakership in a vote now set to happen on Tuesday at noon. Continue reading...

National security adviser says deployment of USS Eisenhower is to send message that no group should seek to exploit the situation'Joe Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan toured the US Sunday morning shows to sell White House policy on the conflict between Israel and Hamas as Israeli forces massed on the border ahead of an expected ground incursion into Gaza amid a deepening humanitarian crisis there and fears over the conflict spreading.Responding to an Axios report that Iran warned Israel through the United Nations that it will intervene if the Israeli operation in Gaza continues, Sullivan told ABC's This Week that he could not confirm it. Continue reading...

Queer people of color are frequently overlooked in the fight for equality, but inroads into the corridors of power are being madeOn the 60th anniversary of the 1963 march on Washington this summer, a few Black queer advocates spoke passionately before the main program about the ongoing struggle for LGBTQ+ rights. As some of them got up to speak, the crowd was still noticeably small.Hope Giselle, a speaker who is Black and trans, said she felt the event's programming echoed the historical marginalization and erasure of Black queer activists in the civil rights movement. Continue reading...

Protester shouted let Gaza live' and ceasefire now' during Human Rights Campaign annual dinner in WashingtonJoe Biden was interrupted during the keynote speech on Saturday night at the Human Rights Campaign annual dinner in Washington by a pro-Palestinian activist who yelled let Gaza live" and ceasefire now".The US president briefly paused in response to the protester, saying he could not hear what they were saying before he continued with his remarks. Continue reading...

Rightwing attorney general holds off crowded field and will replace Democrat John Bel Edwards, who has served two termsAttorney General Jeff Landry, a rightwing Republican backed by Donald Trump, has won the Louisiana governor's race, holding off a crowded field of candidates.The win is a major victory for the Republican party as they reclaim the governor's mansion for the first time in eight years. Landry will replace current governor John Bel Edwards, who was unable to seek re-election due to consecutive term limits. Continue reading...

Residents of this conservative yet rapidly changing inland California city watch the chaos in Washington with patience and resolveFor two decades, Julie and Jared Vawter have been among the Republicans whose votes for Kevin McCarthy sent him from his conservative inland California hometown of Bakersfield to Sacramento and then Washington DC, where he rose through the GOP's ranks in the House of Representatives and, this year, was elected speaker.That climb came to an abrupt end last week, when a small group of rightwing Republicans revolted against McCarthy and, with the help of Democrats, made him the first speaker removed from the post in the chamber's 234-year history. Continue reading...

Area residents thought their land was safe after Trump's wall plans were foiled, only to discover Biden's plans to build moreNayda Alvarez and her family love to spend time outdoors on their sprawling property along the Rio Grande in south Texas, fishing the river and barbecuing.Under the previous administration, Alvarez fought against plans for Donald Trump's wall" along the US-Mexico border designed to prevent migrants crossing into the US without permission, especially as the steel barrier would have sliced through her property, effectively ending her family's deep ties to the land. Continue reading...

Settlement over withheld virus data that critics say cost thousands of lives comes at pivotal time for Republican governor and his teetering campaignA courtroom settlement over withheld Covid-19 data that critics say cost thousands of lives has deflated Ron DeSantis's campaign trail persona as a courageous freedom warrior who kept his state open during a deadly peak of the pandemic.It comes at a pivotal time for the Florida governor, whose teetering run for the Republican presidential nomination is mired in financial difficulties and collapsing poll numbers in early primary states. Continue reading...

Laying siege to a civilian population isn't the same thing as targeting a terrorist organisationThey too have casualties, they too have captives and they have mothers who weep ... Let's make real peace". Not a liberal peacenik speaking from the safety of London or Washington but Yaakov Argamani, whose daughter Noa was taken hostage by Hamas at a music festival near Re'im on Israel's border with Gaza.I hope I never have to face the torment that now engulfs Yaakov Argamani. But if I do find myself in as dark a place as that, I hope to possess even just a strand of his humanity and moral clarity.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

A new book tells how the lives of 15 young men were shaped by the brutal realities of life at the US Military Academy, the shock of the 9/11 attacks and the lure of a whole new sportAt the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, they call the class of 1915 the class the stars fell on", because 59 of its 164 graduates made brigadier general or higher. Among them were Omar Bradley, first chair of the joint chiefs of staff, and Dwight D Eisenhower, supreme commander of Allied forces in the second world war and 34th president.The Class of 2002 might yet challenge 1915. As the bicentennial class, they were always marked for attention. Though they entered West Point in 1998, 25 years after the last major war, their final year began with 9/11. In an instant, they knew they would become the first cadets to graduate in wartime since Vietnam. Continue reading...

Don't try arguing with this skydiving, Channel-swimming generation. They're a jump aheadI was fascinated to read about retired Chicagoan telephone operator Dorothy Hoffner, who died in her sleep a week after a record-breaking skydive. What's the most impressive number in this story? The 31,500 feet Hoffner dove from, or the fact that she was going to be 105 years old in December?To me, it's that this was her second skydive; she took her first when she was a sprightly 100 years old. The latest dive was reportedly spurred by her desire to lead the jump, rather than be pushed out". Old people are off the rails these days. Continue reading...

There was no pause for pity as false narratives justifying murder took hold before the blood had driedAn old man sits amid the destruction on what's left of a wall and lets the tears stream from his eyes. He seems not to have the strength to dry them. Maybe he means never to dry them. A woman clutches her head, not knowing which way to turn. She has lost her children. There is no one near to help her find them. She won't find them. I don't know that for sure but my fears for her authorise me to say it. We are in a world emptied of good fortune, never mind God, where children aren't found and husbands and wives don't come back.I turn off the television. My wife is out with friends. Alone, at my weakest, I let my own tears flow. They are a Jew's tears but they are all I have.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

My heart is broken. But that so many white people finally saw and acknowledged our country's racism, is one of the few positives to emerge from this damaging processI'm not ashamed to say that I shed a tear when the referendum result was called.My heart is broken, and I'm profoundly disappointed and saddened. Continue reading...

Housing, workplace and some benefit reforms on the chopping block as centre-right National-led coalition forms governmentThe most common and cutting critique of Jacinda Ardern's Labour government was that it couldn't get anything done.Transport was the best cudgel for this attack. Ardern came to power promising a light rail line in Auckland that six years later nobody has started to build. Tens of millions were spent on planning a bridge across the city's harbour that ended up scrapped.Henry Cooke is a freelance journalist covering New Zealand politics Continue reading...

Leaders of the Tohono O'odham Nation say they may request congressional inquiry into Arizona state attorney's decisionNative American tribal leaders in Arizona are protesting a US attorney's decision not to prosecute federal border agents who shot dead an unarmed tribe member on their reservation in May.Raymond Mattia was killed when the agents responded to a call for help by tribal police of the Tohono O'odham Nation after they received reports of shots fired in the Menagers Dam community near the US-Mexico border. Continue reading...

At event in Iowa, governor conflates Palestinian civilians with Hamas, the terrorist group that attacked Israel a week agoRepublican presidential candidate and Florida governor Ron DeSantis has rejected accepting Palestinian refugees from Gaza to the US, speaking at a campaign rally in the US midwest on Saturday.We cannot accept people from Gaza into this country as refugees," he said. If you look how they behave ... not all of them are Hamas but they are all antisemitic, none of them believe in Israel's right to exist." Continue reading...

Director Christopher Wray cautioned police vigilance and encouraged police chiefs to continue sharing informationFBI director Christopher Wray has reiterated part of an FBI statement that the US domestic security agency does not have specific and credible intelligence indicating a threat to the United States stemming from the Hamas attacks in Israel".Speaking from prepared remarks at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in San Diego, Wray acknowledged an increase in domestic threats due to the heightened environment", calling for increased vigilance and requesting that police continue to share intelligence. Continue reading...

Growing up in the Palestinian enclave leaves the young numbed to the violence of their daily livesTwo decades ago the mother of nine-year-old Abdul Rahman Jadallah described to me how she twice lost her child. Once to a worship of death and then to death itself.Living in southern Gaza, the Palestinian boy had come to accept destruction and killing as normal, and to admire the men attacking Israel and what he saw as the heroic circumstances of their deaths. Continue reading...

The real losers of this election will be beneficiaries, low-income families, public servants and young people wanting to buy their first homeIt should have been a close vote, given last week's polls. But it seems money talks and sizeable donations to the National party, coupled with a mood for change, means we saw a very defeated Labour party on election night in New Zealand.Labour's poor showing was largely due to running a very meek and mild campaign until near the very end, and running scared of its own record in government. Chris Hipkins, the toppled prime minister, seems to have refused to run on Labour's legacy in combating Covid until the last minutes of the campaign - presumably because he did not want to be overshadowed by the legacy of his predecessor, Jacinda Ardern.Lamia Imam is a political commentator and a former Labour party staffer Continue reading...

I was held in a dark cell for two years for my journalism. The charges would help explain how the regime has avoided human rights responsibilityOn Friday, 22 September, as Washington geared up for the weekend, a storm erupted. The US attorney general released a 39-page indictment accusing Senator Bob Menendez, his wife Nadine, and three others of involvement in a bribery scheme. The charges allege that they allowed Egyptian officials to gain illegitimate access to key figures in US foreign policy. On Thursday, federal prosecutors in New York accused Menendez of conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government".Menendez is accused of using his influence as the Senate foreign relations committee chairman to favor Egypt, facilitating US military aid and advocating for issues like the Ethiopian Renaissance dam. He's also accused of pressuring officials to ignore anti-competitive practices by the firm ISEG Halal, the sole company authorized by Egypt to review American beef exporters, and of providing sensitive information about employees at the US embassy in Cairo that could endanger their lives. Continue reading...

With protests escalating and police departments on alert, assaults and harassment have been reportedJewish and Muslim Americans in cities all around the country are worried that escalating tensions between Israel and Palestine, which some are calling isolating and scary", will exacerbate hate crimes and harassment in the United States.For many Arab Americans in New York City, Bay Ridge was always a place of safety. The south Brooklyn neighborhood is 3 sq miles of Arabic bodega signs, halal grocers and a growing community of Palestinian, Yemeni, Syrian and Egyptian families. Continue reading...

The chaos in the House may have devastating outcomes for the people of Ukraine, some experts warnAs he excoriated Kevin McCarthy over his leadership of the House Republican conference last week, hard-right congressman Matt Gaetz accused the then speaker of cutting a secret side deal" with Joe Biden to provide additional funding to Ukraine amid its ongoing war against Russia.It is becoming increasingly clear who the speaker of the House already works for, and it's not the Republican conference," Gaetz, who represents a solidly Republican district in Florida, said in a floor speech at the time. Continue reading...

Israel and Gaza explode, Ukraine asks for more help and other predicaments demand US attention while Republicans quarrel among themselvesThe US's closest ally in the Middle East is reeling from what many call its 9/11" and now a humanitarian disaster looms in Gaza. Winter is approaching in Ukraine, which needs urgent supplies to maintain its counteroffensive against Russia. From China's expansive ambitions, to coups in Africa, to the climate crisis, the world is crying out for leadership.But on Capitol Hill in Washington, Republicans can't find one. Friday marked the 10th day of paralysis as the party struggles to elect a speaker of the House of Representatives to replace the ousted Kevin McCarthy. This after majority leader Steve Scalise won a closed-door vote but abandoned his run because he lacked enough support to win on the House floor. Continue reading...

I will not move. I will be killed in my house with my family,' one mother told me. Look to history and the omens are grim

I went to Kfar Aza kibbutz when it was an oasis of tranquillity. We stand with Israel as it defends itself, and hope for peaceKishinev. Babi Yar. Munich. The sites of Jewish massacres throughout history. Now there is another place that will for ever be associated with the slaughter of innocent Jews: Kfar Aza.Kibbutz Kfar Aza was home to about 800 people and was established in 1951 by Jewish refugees from Morocco and Egypt (where I was born and from which my family escaped in 1949). Like so many kibbutzim, its founders were idealists, living communally on a model with socialist foundations. Its name - literally meaning Gaza Village" - reflects its location, just over three miles from the city of Gaza.Margaret Hodge is MP for Barking and the parliamentary chair of the Jewish Labour MovementDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

The peaceful, largely youthful demonstration saw marchers waving Palestinian flags and wearing keffiyehsCries of free Palestine" rang out in New York City on Friday, as thousands of protesters took to the streets to denounce Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip.Calling for an end to Israeli occupation" and for the liberation" of the Palestinian territories, protesters took up multiple blocks in a city that serves as a crossroads for religions and nationalities spanning the world. Continue reading...

Party still faces issue of how to reunite their fractious majority and prove to skeptical US public that they are capable of governingThe US House of Representatives will remain leaderless into a third week as Republicans continue to confront a familiar conundrum: how to unite their fractious majority and prove to a skeptical US public that they are a party capable of governing, not just funneling rightwing outrage and culture war rhetoric.More than a week after a cadre of discontented Republicans deposed their own speaker, Kevin McCarthy, the conference is still deeply divided over who should replace him with no one candidate seemingly able to garner enough support to end the squabbling. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed. House remains without speaker as Jordan only has a backing of 152 Republican membersGeorgia's Republican representative Austin Scott criticized certain Republicans whom he said like to go on the TV and are not necessarily negotiating for anything other than TV time."Speaking to CNN following yesterday's closed-door meetings, Scott, who is not supporting Jim Jordan, added, It makes us look like a bunch of idiots." Continue reading...

The Midway Market & Liquor in Frazier Park will get a cut for selling the winning ticket of the second-largest Powerball drawing everJanea Herrera, a clerk at a southern California convenience store, first thought it was a joke when she was told that a winning lottery ticket was sold at the store. And it wasn't just any ticket. It was the winning ticket for the $1.765bn Powerball, which someone had bought at the Midway Market & Liquor in Frazier Park, a small town north of Los Angeles.After 30 years of selling those tickets, we need a winner. I'm just happy for my customers," Nidal Khalil, the store's co-owner told the LA Times on Thursday. Khalil, 54, co-owns the shop with his brother and said they received congratulatory calls from across the state as well as from Syria, where they are from. Continue reading...

At least 22 Americans have died and 14 are missing - and officials are scrambling to determine whether the latter are still aliveAs US officials work to determine the whereabouts of 14 US citizens unaccounted for since last Saturday's deadly Hamas assault on Israel, US families of the dead or missing are describing their loss.At least 22 Americans are known to have died in last Saturday's attacks, and officials have said they are working to determine whether those missing have been killed or taken hostage. Continue reading...

Antoinette Frank, the only woman on Louisiana's death row, was convicted in the 1995 death of a fellow officer and two othersA New Orleans ex-police officer awaiting execution for the murders of a fellow officer and two other people during a 1995 restaurant robbery lost a chance at clemency Friday during a meeting of Louisiana's pardon board.Antoinette Frank's bid for a clemency hearing failed on a 2-2 vote after emotional testimony. Continue reading...

Congressman, endorsed by Trump and McCarthy, defeated surprise candidate Austin Scott, who had barely campaignedRepublicans in the US House of Representatives scrambled to find a new speaker on Friday as Congressman Jim Jordan won an internal vote but with a margin that suggests the disarray is far from over.Jordan, endorsed by former president Donald Trump and ex-speaker Kevin McCarthy, defeated a surprise candidate, Austin Scott of Georgia, who had barely campaigned. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Ashley Caswell, one of a growing number of jailed pregnant women in Etowah county, is suing officials after she was denied careIn March 2021, sheriffs in Etowah county, Alabama, arrested Ashley Caswell on accusations that she'd tested positive for methamphetamine while pregnant and was endangering" her fetus.Caswell, who was two months pregnant at the time, became one of a growing number of women imprisoned in the county in the name of protecting their unborn children". Continue reading...

Knox had been found guilty of defamation for wrongly accusing Patrick Lumumba of murdering Meredith KercherItaly's top court has ordered a retrial after Amanda Knox appealed for the dropping of the slander conviction she received for wrongly accusing a bar owner of murdering the British student Meredith Kercher.Knox, an American who, along with her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, spent four years in prison after initially being convicted of the murder, made the request on the basis of a ruling by the European court of human rights in 2019 that found that her defence rights had been violated during police questioning in 2007. Continue reading...

Former president praises Biden for standing with Israel and says Netanyahu has got to do what he's got to do' after Hamas attacksThe US must support Israel no ands, ifs or buts", the former US president George W Bush said as he advocated for tough action in response to violence by Hamas which many observers have likened to the 9/11 attacks on US soil, after which Bush led his country and much of the Middle East into 20 years of war that cost millions of lives.In an interview with the historian Mark Updegrove, reported by Axios, the 43rd president, now 77, was asked for his thoughts on the attacks that have killed more than 1,100, prompting Israeli air strikes that have killed more than 1,500 in Gaza amid expectations of a ground invasion, with more than 100 Israeli hostages taken. Continue reading...

The autoworker union president, Shawn Fain, says the stand-up' strike will intensify unless the big three car companies pony up'United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain threatened to escalate the union's strike actions on Friday as talks with the US's biggest auto manufacturers appeared to have stalled.The strike is in its fourth week and Fain has been updating members on progress and new strike actions each Friday. Fain said Ford, Stellantis and General Motors have used that timetable to hold back negotiations until late in the week. From now on, strikes can be called at any time, he said. Continue reading...

Israel was already deeply rightwing. But after this horror, even hardcore leftwingers, full of rage, will slide towards the right Continue reading...

The toppling of prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq and ensuing rule of the shah directly led to the 1979 Islamic RevolutionThe CIA has for the first time acknowledged that the 1953 coup it backed in Iran that overthrew its prime minister and cemented the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was undemocratic.The admission came in a new podcast revealing details about one of the most famed CIA operations of all times - the effort to spirit six American diplomats out of Iran under the guise of a Hollywood movie production. Continue reading...