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The minimum has been an unlivable $7.25 an hour under three presidents. Today's wage is worth less than at any point since 1956Researchers at the University of California-Riverside recently released a study showing poverty is the fourth leading cause of death nationwide. Poverty kills more people than homicide, respiratory disease, gun violence and opioid overdoses, the study showed.It's stress, it's starvation, it's disease. And it's all unnecessary.The Rev William J Barber II is founding director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity SchoolThe Rev A Kazimir Brown is executive director of Repairers of the Breach Continue reading...

When people asked me where I drew the line, I wasn't sure about insects - until a fateful encounter in my kitchen

The former world and Olympic champion sought escape in sex and drugs as he struggled with fame. A new documentary has helped him find peaceAfter decades of trying to live up to outsized expectations - and escaping the pressure through drugs, alcohol and sex - Oscar De La Hoya is questioning the life he once lived. But he is unsure at times where happiness fits in.I still ask myself that," he says. If I deserve to be happy." Continue reading...

The outraged reaction to Just Stop Oil's mild protests says far more about us than it does about the activists themselvesPlay was not disrupted." With those four words the R&A summed up its message after Just Stop Oil made their latest protest on the 17th green at the Open on Friday.A police statement had already done the heavy lifting, with its charges of conspiracy to commit criminal damage and its stern disapproval of public disorder. That left the golfing establishment to sound cool, calm and - unusually for them - like the good guys. They had, after all, triumphed. No one had been inconvenienced in the course of watching their sporting entertainment and that, by and large, has been the focus of anger at Just Stop Oil's activity this summer. Critics find it frustratingly hard to accuse them of anything else. The protesters haven't endangered players, or broken equipment; they haven't altered the course of the sporting action or brought it to an unwanted conclusion. They've shown up, made something temporarily orange, then disappeared peacefully in a police van. Continue reading...

American Jews are growing sceptical of Israeli policies towards Palestinians and want limits on aid to prevent settlement growthMike Levinson has been pushing back for 40 years and finally thinks he might be getting somewhere.There's a change and the politicians see it. I think it scares them," said Levinson, holding a sign demanding Stop Israeli settler violence" as he marched through New York on Thursday. Continue reading...

With the first caucuses six months away, the former president's campaign is still going strong despite his various legal problemsFor Asa Hutchinson, former governor of Arkansas, there were boos and chants of Trump! Trump!". For Francis Suarez, mayor of Miami, there were jeers and cries of Traitor!" And perhaps most tellingly, there was no Florida governor Ron DeSantis at all.The recent Turning Point USA conference brought thousands of young conservatives to Florida and there was no doubting the main attraction: former president Donald Trump, who made a glitzy entrance accompanied by giant stage sparklers. In a less than rigorous poll, 86% of attendees gave Trump as their first choice for president; DeSantis, who polled 19% last year, was down to 4%. Continue reading...

We switched close but stifling social networks for a capitalist safety net that offered modern life choices. Now we don't have eitherJane is a junior doctor working several extra locum shifts to make ends meet. Burnt out after the pandemic, and struggling with her physical and mental health, she would really like to take unpaid leave, but she cannot afford to do so. Last month, her landlord hiked up her rent, then served her with an eviction notice when she said she couldn't afford it. She now has to move for the fourth time in three years, and is back in a flat-hunting market where rents are higher everywhere.She feels trapped, she tells me. Trapped in her job, with her accommodation options diminishing and her time permanently constrained by balancing long work hours with the demands of looking for a home. There is no space for socialising or relaxation, only for a fleeting sleep, from which she wakes up to go back to work, to look at places to live that are almost certainly out of her reach, and to run her numbers again, hoping that an overlooked saving will magically appear.Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Tony Gonzales said governor Greg Abbott is doing everything he can' at the US-Mexico border despite justice department backlashA Texas Republican representative, Tony Gonzales, has called the current tactics used to deter migrants at the US-Mexico border not acceptable" and urged the Biden administration and Congress to focus more heavily on legal immigration.In an interview with CBS's Face The Nation on Sunday, Gonzales, whose 23rd district in Texas includes 800 miles of the US-Mexico border, said that the border crisis has been anything but humane" and called recent reports of Texas troopers allegedly pushing small children and nursing babies back into the Rio Grande not acceptable". Continue reading...

Bear tracks found at scene investigators say, as Montana sees increase in grizzly sightingsA woman has been found dead in Montana after coming into contact with a grizzly bear on a trail west of Yellowstone national park.The state's fish, wildlife and parks department said the woman was found deceased on Saturday on a trail near West Yellowstone, a Montana town nestled in the Custer Gallatin national forest just west of Yellowstone national park. Continue reading...

Head wounds, broken ribs and other injuries were reported after the second-story deck of the Briarwood country club collapsedMore than 30 people were injured when a deck collapsed at a country club overlooking Montana's largest city, police said on Sunday.The second-story patio floor of Billings' Briarwood country club broke and gave way Saturday evening. The collapse caused head wounds, broken ribs and other injuries as people landed atop each other and debris and scraps of food scattered over the grass next to the club's golf course. Continue reading...

Bus was carrying 44 people hailing from Colombia, China, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela, including 14 childrenA fifth bus of asylum seekers from Texas arrived in Los Angeles on Saturday as part of Texas governor Greg Abbott's plans to transport migrants away from Texas.On Saturday, Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass's office announced that the bus - the fifth one to arrive in the city since 14 June - arrived at around 11.30am at Union Station. Continue reading...

The world No 2 described his performance as solid' but suspect putting means major drought will enter a 10th yearNine years; 3,288 days. That's the length of time which has now elapsed since Rory McIlroy won a major championship. The omens had been good coming into Hoylake, the expectation as high as ever, but in the end a final round of 68 left him seven shots behind the winner, Brian Harman.There were moments, early in rounds three and four, where it looked as if McIlroy might make a charge. But in the end any promise sputtered out in the rain and seasoned Rory watchers will have seen this movie before. In a way it's like the Godfather 3, only inverted. Just as you think he's in, they pull him back out. The they" in this instance, however, refers not to the mob but the greens and McIlroy's be-hoodooed putter. Continue reading...

He may not capture the imagination of spectators but the new Open champion deserved his first win for six yearsBrian Harman is the champion golfer of the year. But who exactly is pleased for him? Certainly not the soaked crowd at Royal Liverpool on Sunday, who booed Harman on the first tee and didn't give the American his dues until his even wetter walk down the 18th fairway.Probably not the American television broadcasters, NBC, who set up a Waggle Counter" to poke fun at the number of Harman's practice swings, of which there were often a dozen or more. A sort of unofficial shot clock - a device more familiar in the NBA at the free-throw line - goading Harman to be quicker, more exciting and dynamic before an ad break. But no, the 36-year-old took his time, as is his right, and continued to stripe it down the middle. Continue reading...

Death of Curtis Davis comes days after US attorney for southern district of New York says jail complex has been in crisis for years'Calls for a federal government takeover of New York's notorious Rikers Island jail are likely to grow after a stabbing suspect died in his cell early on Sunday morning, the seventh inmate death this year and the 26th since New York's mayor, Eric Adams, took office in January 2022.Curtis Davis, 44, was found lifeless on the floor of his cell at about 5.10 am, according to correction department records. Davis had been held since 1 June for allegedly stabbing a 29-year-old man in the eye. Continue reading...

Filing comes weeks after Allison Mack, a high-ranking member of the group, was released from prisonA US prosecutor has asked a court to close down a third motion by former Nxivm sex cult leader Keith Raniere for a new trial, arguing that Raniere's claims that the government manipulated evidence against him were untimely and meritless".Raniere, 62, was sentenced to 120 years in prison following his 2019 conviction on charges of federal sex trafficking, racketeering and possession of child sexual abuse images. He has claimed that he is entitled to a new trial because the government manufactured child pornography and planted it on a computer hard drive to tie it to him". Continue reading...

High temperatures reduce engine performance and the lift airplane wings are able to produce, leading some airlines to warn of delaysExtreme temperatures in parts of the US and around the world are forcing airlines to reduce fuel loads, shed passengers or baggage, or wait for daytime temperatures to drop in the evenings, to fly some aircraft.High temperatures reduce the performance of engines and the lift airplanes wings are able to produce, which is leading Las Vegas-based Allegiant Airlines to warn that they will delay flights if there's a threat to passenger safety. Continue reading...

Renewed bid to pass stalled legislation as racial disparities in maternal health outcomes have persisted - and even worsenedAmerica is facing an intensified push to pass stalled federal legislation to address the US's alarming maternal mortality rates and glaring racial disparities which have led to especially soaring death rates among Black women giving birth.Maternal mortality rates in the US far outpace rates in other industrialized nations, with rates more than double those of countries such as France, Canada, the UK, Australia, Germany. Moms in the US are dying at the highest rates in the developed world. Continue reading...

An 11-acre plot in the California desert ruled over by a faux sultan is attracting thousands of citizens' looking for an escape from everyday lifeOne evening in late June, as the day's heat settled to a temperate 102F (38C), a small crowd gathered on a desolate plot of land in the far reaches of the California desert.An unrecognizable flag whipped high above a concrete square, where a weather-beaten wooden desk and phone booth had been strategically placed. A glassy security guard booth set in the dirt instructed visitors to register with border police", but inside stood only a stoic mannequin wearing a police uniform. Clouds of sand hung like fog on the horizon. Continue reading...

President to sign proclamation on Tuesday for monuments across three sites honoring Black teen who was lynched in 1955Joe Biden is expected to sign a proclamation to establish a national monument honoring Emmett Till, the Black teenager whose abduction, torture and lynching in Mississippi in 1955 after he was accused of whistling at a white woman helped to galvanize the civil rights movement.A White House spokesmen told the Associated Press that Biden will sign a proclamation on Tuesday - which falls on Till's birthday, 25 July 1941 - to create national monuments to the slain 14-year-old and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, across three sites in Illinois and Mississippi. Continue reading...

As a small-business owner, I don't ask employees to account for their hours - what's important is they're doing their jobsYou know what the worst thing about working for someone else is? It's wasting your time.Many years ago I worked at a small pharmaceutical company. I did a lot of time-wasting. I was a senior accountant and I reported to the company's chief financial officer. He was very old school. My hours were from 8am to 6pm and I was expected to always be at or near my desk during that period. My boss also worked the same hours, sometimes even longer. He stayed until the CEO left for the day, and it was expected that I would stay until he left for the day. Continue reading...

The governor of Illinois went viral with a speech about seeing idiots in one's midst. I have a few pointers of my own to offerIf you want to be successful in this world, you have to develop your own idiot detection system," the governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, recently told the Northwestern University Class of 2023. Pritzker, a billionaire and self-described cheugy dad", clearly knows a thing or two about successful commencement speeches: his talk has gone viral. While the 20-minute speech, which was organized around quotes from characters in The Office series, wasn't entirely about idiot-spotting, that section of it seemed to resonate the most.You can see why. We live in a golden age of grifters, bullshitters and scammers. We live in an age where some of the world's most powerful people threw millions of dollars at Elizabeth Holmes, without doing proper due diligence, because she came from the right background and sounded like she knew what she was talking about. A fantasist like George Santos managed to successfully fib his way into government. And Marjorie Taylor Greene has a seat in US Congress despite routinely going on unhinged rants about, inter alia, the gazpacho police". Clearly not enough people have functioning idiot detection systems.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The QAnon adjacent' film, co-opted by the right wing, has a pay it forward' scheme resulting in sold-out shows but empty theatersSound of Freedom, the religious, QAnon adjacent" child-smuggling film that has enthralled conservatives across the US, passed the $100m mark in ticket sales on Thursday.But as the movie continues to cause controversy - with its star touring conservative media to peddle conspiracy theories about unnamed persons harvesting chemicals from children's blood and anti-trafficking experts criticizing the film's entire premise - questions are also being asked about who is actually watching it and whether that many people are watching it at all. Continue reading...

Candidates for Republican nomination attack First Step Act enacted under Trump in attempt to look tough on crimeAs a Republican congressman, Ron DeSantis was a supporter of legislation that made moderate reforms to the federal prison system intended to reduce recidivism and mass incarceration - a cause that was also championed by then president Donald Trump and his deputy, Mike Pence.Five years later, DeSantis, now Florida's governor, and Pence are struggling to overtake Trump's lead among Republicans as they vie for the party's presidential nomination, and have turned against the criminal justice measure they both supported in an effort to win over conservative voters. Continue reading...

Widespread industrial action could cloud president's Bidenomics' pitch to voters but some see a chance to shine as a champion of working peopleIt became known as the winter of discontent. After the Labour government tried to freeze wages to stem inflation, Britain was convulsed by labour strikes and disruptions in public services. Rubbish piled in the streets, bodies went unburied - and a fierce political backlash swept Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives into power.Forty-five years later a summer of strikes is roiling industries from coast to coast in America. Continue reading...

Lounging by the pool is at best ill-advised, but for residents daily life has turned into an ordealI've had my fair share of messages from friends abroad recently asking if it really is as hot as they say" in Greece. Hot, I usually retort, doesn't say it all. It's mind-meltingly blistering, baking from morning to night. You struggle to sleep, you struggle to eat, you're ill-tempered and you can't even drink; a consolatory sundown cocktail is usually the kiss of death."After the emojis and exclamation marks, the response has invariably been: Well, over here it's all cloud and rain, I'll make sure to pack my factor 30+. Looking forward!" Continue reading...

Accursed, ostracised but heedless of the misery he causes, this accused war criminal is dragging his people into a moral abyssEveryone wants a piece of Russian president Vladimir Putin. Vira Chernukha, defiant amid the ruins of her village in north-east Ukraine, curses him each morning. She wants to see him spinning in his coffin, tormented, unshriven and damned for all eternity. Chernukha might be said to speak for her nation if not the entire western world.The International Criminal Court (ICC) wants to arrest Putin for war crimes, alleging mass child abductions. Mutinous Wagner mercenaries briefly wanted to topple his regime - and gravely weakened him. Heroic opposition leader Alexei Navalny just wants him to shut up. He's been forced to listen to the same Putin speech in jail each day for more than 100 days. Continue reading...

Their sportswashing seduces players and leagues - and its ultimate target: the policymakersJordan Henderson has been captain of Liverpool FC for eight years. He is a senior member of the England squad. He has been one of the most a vocal champion of LGBT rights within football. I do believe when you see something that is clearly wrong and makes another human being feel excluded you should stand shoulder to shoulder with them," he wrote two years ago in a Liverpool matchday programme about his support for gay rights.Yet, to the dismay of many of his admirers, Henderson is on the verge of a move to Al-Ettifaq, a club in Saudi Arabia, a country in which homosexuality is banned, and in which gay men have been beheaded. His decision has no doubt been made easier by a reported weekly wage of 700,000. But it has led to condemnation from LGBT organisations and to denunciations of his hypocrisy". Continue reading...

Tommy Fleetwood was the talk of the Open on Saturday but a fairytale major victory seems an increasingly unlikely resultYou could see the black cloud coming over the horizon. It wasn't rain (though there was enough of that), nor a collection of anything menacing like hornets; it was just a phalanx of monochrome waterproofs rolling irresistibly up the side of the fairway.This was Tommy Fleetwood's army, the thousands of people who flocked to Hoylake on Saturday to support the local lad, second on the leaderboard overnight, as he staged his attempt to get within touching distance of the Claret Jug. He had called for them, and they were there, now he had to play his part. Continue reading...

The 800 gold coins date back from 1840 to 1863 and may have been buried as a result of state's declaration of neutrality during warA man has dug up over 800 gold coins in a Kentucky cornfield dating back to the civil war era that is estimated to be worth millions.On 9 June, coin dealer GovMint.com uploaded a video onto YouTube of the remarkable discovery. In the video, the unidentified man can be heard identifying $1, $10 and $20 gold coins that he dug up, adding that the discovery was the most insane thing ever". Continue reading...

Northern Irishman, in Beatles shoes, had plenty of chances during round three but failed to make the most of themIt feels like Rory McIlroy has been doing this to us for practically his whole career. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and victory from defeat - like someone who gives you butterflies on a first date and then doesn't text back, leaving us tossing and turning in our sleep; sweating, ponderous, infuriated.But that is part of the charm, the contract we all unwittingly sign when following somebody like McIlroy. At last year's Open Championship at St Andrews, he held a joint four-shot lead over the rest of the field after the third round, before falling away as Cameron Smith surged to claim the Claret Jug. Last weekend at the Scottish Open, McIlroy finished birdie-birdie after two outrageous approaches on the 17th and 18th to claim the 1.2m prize from under the nose of home favourite Bob MacIntyre, with McIlroy calling the latter shot one of the best of my career". He is frustrating and thrilling in equal measure, but never boring. Continue reading...

State law provision SB 254 that went into effect on 17 May greatly hinders transgender adults from obtaining gender-affirming careOn Friday, several state and national civil rights groups filed an amended complaint to an existing Florida lawsuit, asking a federal judge to bar the state from enforcing provisions of a state law that greatly hinder transgender adults from obtaining gender-affirming care.Friday's motion comes several weeks after district judge Robert Hinkle issued an injunction barring the state from enforcing provisions of the law. He also ruled then that the plaintiffs were likely to prevail on their claim that those prohibitions are unconstitutional. But the protections issued in that initial ruling did not extend to adults. Continue reading...

Phone snubbing, or interacting with your mobile while ignoring partners and friends, is bad for relationships', scientists have just discovered. But when is it OK?I witnessed a spectacular row in a beer garden this summer. My fellow voyeurs and I guessed the couple were on a date - not their first but perhaps their second or third - and he'd checked his notifications too often for her liking. Why don't you just date your phone instead?" she snapped, standing up to leave. Hope you're happy together."I've edited out a few F-bombs but that was the gist. Sadly, she drained her drink rather than sloshing it in his face. Reader, I nearly stood up and applauded. Phubbing" - a portmanteau of phone snubbing", or deciding to interact with your mobile rather than a person - is a 21st-century epidemic. Continue reading...

Temecula Valley district had previously rejected the material due to its inclusion of gay rights activist and politician Harvey MilkA school district in southern California has decided to adopt the state's new social studies book and curriculum after previously rejecting it for its reference to LGBTQ+ figures in history.The Temecula Valley unified school district voted to accept the curriculum following a lengthy meeting on Friday at which parents, teachers and community members spoke for and against it. The decision was welcomed by Gavin Newsom, California's governor, for thwarting an attempt to whitewash history" and removed the threat of sanctions against the school district for not adopting the curriculum. Continue reading...

Opening matches at World Cups are often a practice in figuring out what works. The USWNT's 3-0 win over Vietnam to launch their three-peat bid suggests they're not yet an entirely finished productSophia Smith admitted that she was nervous - and she is never nervous. Savannah DeMelo? She had some nerves, too, after finding out less than 24 hours earlier that her first international start would take place in the United States' opening match of the 2023 World Cup.I mean, it's a World Cup," Smith said of the nerves. I feel like that just shows how much it means." Continue reading...

Timothy Spall's extraordinary performance lifts this drama, which is more interested in the victims than the killer, to a different levelIt's hard to imagine better television - more dignified, more noticing - than The Sixth Commandment, which began last week on BBC1.Mostly, I loathe true crime. To make entertainment of the horrifying acts of a Dennis Nilsen or a Jeffrey Dahmer isn't just gratuitously exploitative; it can only bring more pain to those who loved the men they killed. Continue reading...

Marjorie Taylor Greene's tawdry act in Congress may have broken federal laws - fitting for a truly bankrupt individualMarjorie Taylor Greene is a morally bankrupt attention-seeker who seems to think her job as a congresswoman entails stirring up culture wars rather than representing her constituents. She's become a household name thanks to her nonstop taxpayer-funded trolling. Continue reading...

State condemned as the bottom of the barrel on rights restoration' after change by state's division of electionsTennessee, already one of the strictest and most complicated states in the country for voting rights restoration, has enacted a new policy that makes it nearly impossible for people with felony convictions to regain their right to vote.Tennessee has one of the highest rates of disenfranchisement in the United States. More than 9% of the voting age population, or around 471,600 Tennesseans, can't vote because of a felony conviction, according to a 2022 estimate by the Sentencing Project, a criminal justice non-profit. More than 21% of Black adults are disenfranchised. Continue reading...

A spectacular 94th-minute winner sealed a dream debut for the Argentinian at Miami's sold-out home ground, where Messi Mania has reached fever pitchAs soon as I saw the free kick was given, I thought: This is the way it's meant to end,'" a teary-eyed Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham - who knows a thing or two about planting dead balls into top corners - said at full time.It unfolded just as the owner foresaw, with the absurd inevitability of his new signing's brilliance. In the 94th minute, the debutant Lionel Messi curled in a signature 25-yard strike to secure a 2-1 win over Cruz Azul in the Leagues Cup, a tournament between clubs from MLS and Liga MX. Continue reading...

The state has emerged as an example of how Democratic lawmakers can take proactive steps to bolster abortion accessWhen the US supreme court upended the federal right to abortion enshrined in Roe v Wade, the immediate task before Democrats seemed simple: keep abortion legal in as many states as possible.But over a year since Roe's demise, some leaders in the reproductive rights movements worry that Democrats have tunnel vision, focusing their messaging and resources entirely on the legal tug-of-war over abortion bans in the midwest and south. Continue reading...

The internet has become transfixed with the idea of watching Greta Gerwig's bubblegum comedy next to Christopher Nolan's dark drama but it proved to be a nightmarish combo

The crown estate no more belongs to the monarch than No 10 does to Rishi Sunak. So why such a huge handout?There have been growing calls for an end to royal secrecy in recent months, with historians, campaigners and journalists demanding greater access to the official records of the UK's head of state. That secrecy has been compared unfavourably to MI5, with the royals having an absolute exemptionfrom the Freedom of Information Act while squirrelling away thousands of official records in their archives in Windsor.There is a reason why the monarchy is more secretive than our security services: it has plenty to hide. It is not unreasonable to conclude that the institution is corrupt, if corruption is the abuse of public office for personal gain. Whether it's using tens of millions of pounds each year to cover costs such as travel or palatial homes, or lobbying the government in pursuit of their private interests or political agendas, the royals exploit their status and position week in, week out.Graham Smith is CEO of Republic and the author of Abolish the Monarchy: Why We Should and How We Will Continue reading...

Anxious Democrats say centrist No Labels group - which could back Joe Manchin - would act as spoiler against Joe BidenOn a small stage in New Hampshire this week, West Virginia senator Joe Manchin and former Republican Governor Jon Huntsman sat together extolling the virtues of bipartisanship and talking very much like running mates. They were there on behalf of the centrist political advocacy organization No Labels, which is considering fielding a third-party ticket in the 2024 presidential election, and had enlisted the two men to debut its 67-page policy manifesto.Early on in the evening, the moderator asked the question looming over the event: were Manchin and Huntsman running for president? After a smattering of applause died down, Manchin deflected, saying they were simply there to explain to you that we need options". But Manchin's refusal to announce whether he will seek re-election for the US Senate next year, and his presence at the town hall, has drawn speculation that he and No Labels may combine to upend the 2024 election. Continue reading...

Shelby White, collector and benefactor of the prestigious New York art museum, did not knowingly buy stolen antiquities, lawyer saysA major collector of antiquities and benefactor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art took a reputational hit this week as efforts by the Manhattan district attorney to return looted artifacts to their countries of origin moved into high gear.Shelby White is a Met trustee whose name, with that of her late husband, Leon Levy, hangs over the spectacular Greek and Roman Art galleries at the museum on Fifth Avenue. White also sat on a committee advising the museum on acquisitions. Continue reading...