Deal for almost 1,300 British pubs thought to be worth up to £1bnPunch Pubs has been bought by the private equity investor Fortress in a deal for almost 1,300 British pubs thought to be worth as much as £1bn.The company’s pub landlords employ about 20,000 people, although Punch employs only 280 people directly. Continue reading...
Move comes after Trump’s former chief of staff ceased cooperating with panel investigating Capitol attack. Plus, Nasa spacecraft ‘touches’ the sunGood morning.The House of Representatives has voted to recommend criminal contempt charges against Mark Meadows, the former chief of staff to Donald Trump, a week after he ended his cooperation with the panel investigating the Capitol insurrection.Before he stopped cooperating, what did he hand over? Meadows turned over about 9,000 documents. Text messages also revealed that Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr and three hosts on the Fox News network begged Meadows to persuade the former president to stop the insurrection.What other evidence does the panel have? The communications and other documents that Meadows turned over represent just a small sample of the huge trove of evidence the panel has gathered.Meanwhile, a judge has dismissed Trump’s latest bid to hide tax returns from the House committee.The deadly milestone comes as cases and hospitalisations are on the rise again in the US, driven by the highly contagious Delta variant, with the new variant Omicron posing a fresh threat.About 200 million Americans are vaccinated, or just over 60% of the population. That is well short of what scientists say is needed to keep the virus in check. Continue reading...
Internal documents show a Polish firm with no law enforcement experience helped LAPD collect tens of thousands of tweets related to Black Lives Matter and racial justice protestsThe Los Angeles police department worked with a Polish firm that specializes in “strategic communications” to monitor social media and collect millions of tweets last year, including thousands related to Black Lives Matter and “defund the police”, according to records reviewed by the Guardian.Internal LAPD documents, obtained by the Brennan Center for Justice through public records requests, reveal that the department conducted a one-month trial of social media monitoring software from Edge NPD, a company that typically worked in advertising and marketing, had no prior experience contracting with law enforcement and was based thousands of miles away in Warsaw, Poland. Continue reading...
Aside from a run to the AFC Championship game in the 2017 season, Shad Khan’s Jacksonville are serial losers. Their new coach has hit fresh lowsShad Khan, whose Jacksonville Jaguars have taken on water for pretty much the entire 10 years he has owned the team, invited the local media on Monday to his yacht, the Kismet, to commemorate the anniversary of his purchase of the forlorn NFL franchise.Of course, the conversation swung to his embattled first-year coach, Urban Meyer, whose team have won only two of their first 13 games this season. And the record is not the worst part. According to NFL.com, Meyer’s players and staff are furious with him, almost mutinous. Continue reading...
New York’s Metropolitan Museum has cut public ties with the Purdue Pharma opioid-crisis family. But its name is now as thought-provoking as much of the world’s artA moment of silence, so we can all appreciate how gracious the Sackler family is. Yes, the family business, Purdue Pharma, is infamous for aggressively marketing the prescription painkiller OxyContin and aiding an opioid epidemic that has killed half a million Americans. And it’s true that nobody in the family has offered an explicit apology for their role in this crisis or suffered meaningful consequences for their actions: the Sacklers are still billionaires and have even won immunity from lawsuits. But that doesn’t mean we should think badly of them. You see, the family has been terribly kind and allowed New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to remove the Sackler name from its galleries. In a statement last week, the Met praised the Sacklers for “this gracious gesture” and gushed about the family’s generous support. There was no mention of the human suffering that precipitated the removal.The Met cutting public ties with the Sacklers – the result of a long direct action campaign by the artist Nan Goldin – has been widely celebrated. There’s an expectation that other public institutions will now follow suit. But I’m not sure erasing the family name from museums is right. I was at Tate Britain last week, and seeing the Sackler name had a visceral impact on me: it was more thought-provoking than a lot of the art.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Panel on track to interview more than 300 witnesses, chair says, with more than 30,000 documents already turned overThe House select committee investigating the Capitol attack has amassed a huge trove of evidence as it seeks to connect the Trump White House to the 6 January insurrection, three months after it issued its first subpoenas to the former president’s most senior administration officials.The select committee revealed on Monday that members had reviewed thousands of documents turned over by Trump’s former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, which showed the White House played a far more substantial role in overturning the 2020 election than previously known. Continue reading...
Like humanity, wildlife knows no boundaries. Stopping people moving also carves up habitats, driving species to extinctionThis is the century in which humanitarian and environmental disasters converge. Climate breakdown has driven many millions from their homes, and is likely to evict hundreds of millions more. The famine harrowing Madagascar at the moment is the first to have been named by the UN as likely to have been caused by the climate emergency. It will not be the last. Great cities find themselves dangerously short of water as aquifers are drained. Air pollution kills 10 million a year. Synthetic chemicals in soil, air and water impose untold effects on both ecologies and people.But it also works the other way round. Humanitarian catastrophes or, to be more precise, governments’ cruel and irrational responses to them, are triggering ecological disaster. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the construction of border walls.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Move comes after senior Trump figure ceased cooperating with panel investigating Capitol attackThe US House of Representatives has approved a measure recommending criminal contempt charges against Mark Meadows, the former chief of staff to Donald Trump, a week after he ended his cooperation with the chamber’s committee investigating the Capitol insurrection.The approval marks the first time the House has voted to hold a former member in contempt since the 1830s, according to the chamber’s records. Continue reading...
Judge McFadden said in his ruling that Trump was ‘wrong on the law’ to block lawmakers’ access to tax returnsA federal judge has dismissed Donald Trump’s latest effort to hide his tax returns from a House of Representatives committee, ruling that Congress’ legislative interest outweighed any deference Trump should receive as a former president.The US district judge Trevor McFadden said in his ruling that Trump was “wrong on the law” in seeking to block the House Ways and Means Committee from obtaining his tax returns. Continue reading...
Night shift employees report managers took roll call as tornado bore down to be sure no one had left without permissionWorkers at a Kentucky candle factory have said they pleaded with managers to be allowed to leave as a deadly tornado barreled towards them last weekend – but say they were told they would be fired if they left their posts.The barrage of tornadoes that tore through Kentucky and surrounding states killed a dozen children, including a two-month-old infant, Governor Andy Beshear said on Tuesday. A total of 74 people died in Kentucky, with the oldest victim at 98 years old. Eight people have yet to be identified. More than 18,000 homes remained without power on Tuesday. Continue reading...
‘I feared for my life that night’: police broke down Anjanette Young’s door with a battering ram and pointed guns at herThe city of Chicago is expected to pay $2.9m to Anjanette Young, a Black woman whom police officers handcuffed while she was naked when they mistakenly executed a search warrant in the wrong home in 2019.The finance committee of Chicago’s city council unanimously approved the settlement for Young on Monday. The full city council will go on to consider the decision on Wednesday. Continue reading...
‘Be prepared to spend money to defend yourself because we are coming after you,’ DC delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton saysThe District of Columbia has filed a civil lawsuit seeking harsh financial penalties against far-right groups Proud Boys and Oath Keepers over their role in the 6 January insurrection at the Capitol by extremist supporters of then president Donald Trump, calling the attack “a coordinated act of domestic terrorism”.The suit, filed on Tuesday in federal court in Washington, also names dozens of the groups’ senior members, many of whom already face criminal charges for taking part in the violent attack on the Capitol building while Congress was meeting to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. Continue reading...
Ex-governor said he would write book ‘entirely on his own time’ but complaints later surfaced that he used state resourcesFormer New York governor Andrew Cuomo has been ordered to give up about $5.1m in earnings from a book deal about his response to the coronavirus pandemic, after he was found to have contravened ethics laws by using state resources to write the book.Cuomo was directed to turn over proceeds earned from American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic within 30 days under a resolution approved 12-1 by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE), according to multiple media reports. Continue reading...
Voting with the government on plan B is not just in the national interest – it will aggravate splits in Conservative ranksLeaders come and go, policies move with the times, but the challenge facing Labour is unchanged for generations: to win an election it must appeal to Conservative voters, which does not come easily to a party that struggles to imagine why anyone in their right mind would be a Tory.Boris Johnson makes that empathic leap trickier still. Those who are unmoved by the magnetism of his character find it more alienating than any disagreement over policy or ideology.Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
A powerful atmospheric river formation has led to flash flood and avalanche warnings but brings relief from dry conditionsThe most powerful storm yet this season is pummeling California, drenching the northern part of the state on Monday and dumping several feet of snow on the Sierra Nevada mountaintops before sliding south Tuesday.The deluge was a welcome relief from dry conditions, but wreaked havoc on roads, caused power outages, and raised the threats of mudslides in areas scarred by wildfires. Continue reading...
Bank originally allotted $500 for each of the ten teachers involved and has since also issued an additional $500 to those teachersThe spectacle at a South Dakota hockey match that saw teachers scrambling for dollar bills on their hands and knees, forced an apology and some cash compensation by the bank that organized the stunt.The bank originally allotted $500 for each of the ten teachers involved, which the teachers involved intended to spend on essential school supplies. They have since also issued an additional $500 to those teachers and $500 to 21 other teachers that applied to take part in the event but were not invited to participate. Continue reading...
Three of the network’s presenters urged Meadows to push Trump to act while Trump Jr said ‘He has to lead now’Donald Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr and three hosts on the Fox News network begged then White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to persuade the former president to stop the 6 January insurrection despite their public efforts to downplay it, newly released text messages show.The sense of panic that enveloped the former president’s inner circle during the attack on the US Capitol was revealed on Monday when Congresswoman Liz Cheney, vice-chair of a House select committee investigating the riot, read aloud texts sent to Meadows. Continue reading...
Man suffered first- and second-degree burns but didn’t receive medical treatment for his burns for more than six hoursA former sheriff’s deputy in Orange county, California, is accused of throwing scalding water on a mentally ill inmate who didn’t receive medical treatment for his burns for more than six hours.The county district attorney’s office announced Monday it had charged Guadalupe Ortiz, 47, with felony counts of assault or battery by a public officer and battery with serious bodily injury. Ortiz could face up to four years in prison if convicted, the DA’s office said in a statement. Continue reading...
Courts in the global north have a duty to protect citizens of developing countries from plunder by corporationsIn 1977, the Myanmar military launched a national drive to register citizens and drive out people they deemed to be “foreigners”. Since then, more than 2.5 million Rohingya people have fled the country, with 740,000 fleeing to Bangladesh in the displacement crisis of 2017 alone. It is nearly a decade since the Myanmar regime and its supporters were first denounced by the international community for carrying out a “campaign of ethnic cleansing” against the Rohingya people.Legal initiatives on behalf of Rohingya survivors issued this week allege that the campaign of clearances and genocide perpetrated on the Rohingya people was facilitated by a Goliath, Facebook. “Facebook turned away while a genocide was being perpetrated,” claims Tun Khin, the president of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK. “Putting profit before the human rights of the Rohingya people, permitting the spread of hateful anti-Rohingya propaganda which directly led to unspeakable violence.”Jason McCue is senior partner of McCue, Jury and Partners LLP and James Libson is managing partner of Mishcon de Reya LLP Continue reading...
Teachers in Germany can out-earn an entry-level doctor or web developer. In America, too many have to work second jobs to make ends meetLast week, $5,000 was dropped on the ice of a local hockey rink. It was intermission and the crowd wanted to be entertained.School teachers duked it out for the one-dollar bills to pay for classroom supplies.Ross Barkan is a writer based in New York City Continue reading...
The sole reason the ‘carried interest’ loophole survives is fierce lobbying by the private equity industryAnyone remember the “carried interest” loophole that lets hedge fund executives and private equity managers – among the wealthiest people in America – pay a tax rate no higher than most Americans? It’s a pure scam. They get the tax break even though they invest other peoples’ money rather than risk their own.Barack Obama promised to get rid of the loophole. He failed. So, remarkably, did Donald Trump. Guess what happened? Nothing. Continue reading...
Ralf Rangnick’s new assistant at Old Trafford had a disastrous reign in charge of Toronto FC. But his role in England may well complement his skillsThere has long been familiar faces among the Old Trafford coaching staff. From Ryan Giggs to Michael Carrick to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Manchester United have been keen to maintain the link between players and coaches. However, the appointment of Ralf Rangnick as interim manager hints at a different approach.Rangnick is just one of the new faces United fans will have to become familiar with and Chris Armas, announced as the club’s new assistant coach following the exit of Carrick, is another. The former USA midfielder has been out of work since leaving Toronto FC in Major League Soccer in July, and is, on the surface, a left-field choice. Few in Premier League circles had heard of him before his arrival at Old Trafford. Continue reading...
Voting rights watchdogs have warned of a web of attorneys and groups, some who pushed Donald Trump’s big lie after the 2020 electionA powerful network of conservative election lawyers and groups with links to Donald Trump have spent millions of dollars promoting new and onerous voting laws that many key battleground states such as Georgia and Texas have enacted.The moves have prompted election and voting rights watchdogs in America to warn about the suppression of non-white voters aimed at providing Republicans an edge in coming elections. Continue reading...
There has been a surge of anxiety among young people who fear they won’t ever get the chance to lose their virginity. In this sexless era, they are not aloneI didn’t think I could sympathise more with young people, or be more acutely aware of how much they have been affected by the pandemic. Then I read about the surge in virginity anxiety. Message boards and counselling services are heaving with gen-Zers who missed all those Rubicon events – the festivals, the freshers’ weeks, the parties where someone’s parents actually went out – that might have been the night.It wasn’t that the moment passed; the moment simply never happened. With so much joyless practicality, so much caution, even something as mundane as the weather could derail things. It was meant to be everyone’s hot girl/boy summer, but how are you meant to show the world your midriff when not even the sun will come out? Continue reading...
Sixty were detained as the president met with the key Democrat who has become a roadblock to his agendaDuring a crucial week for Joe Biden’s agenda that will likely feature a political showdown on his Build Back Better legislation in the Senate, voting rights activists are turning up the pressure in Washington.As the US president met with a key centrist Democrat who has acted as a roadblock to his plans – West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin - more than sixty demonstrators were arrested as they protested: singing songs and blocking traffic near the US Capitol. Continue reading...
US secretary of state opens his tour of south-east Asia with a speech pledging to defend US partners and ‘rules-based order’US secretary of state Antony Blinken has used a visit to Indo-Pacific to urge China to cease “aggressive actions” in the region, as Washington seeks to bolster alliances against Beijing.President Joe Biden’s administration is trying to reset relations and reassert its influence in Asia after the turbulence and unpredictability of the Donald Trump era. Continue reading...
Andy Beshear says over 100 Kentuckians still unaccounted for, and that number of confirmed deaths may not be known for weeksKentucky’s governor Andy Beshear broke down in tears on Monday as he announced the deaths of at least 74 people from Friday’s deadly tornadoes that swept across multiple midwest and southern states, and warned that the death toll is expected to grow.The ages of those killed ranged from a few months to 86 years, six of them younger than 18, Beshear said at an emotional press conference in Frankfort, the state capital. Continue reading...
The members were in their first term of enlistment and are believed to be the first to be removed for defying orderThe US air force has discharged 27 people for refusing to get the Covid-19 vaccine, making them what officials believe are the first service members to be removed for disobeying the mandate.The air force gave its forces until 2 November to get the vaccine and thousands have either refused or sought an exemption. The air force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said Monday that these were the first airmen to be administratively discharged for reasons involving the vaccine. Continue reading...
In a unanimous vote, the committee said Donald Trump’s former chief of staff attempted to obstruct the 6 January investigationThe House select committee investigating the Capitol attack on Monday voted to recommend the criminal prosecution for former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, punishing Donald Trump’s most senior aide for refusing to testify about the 6 January insurrection.The select committee advanced the contempt of Congress report for Meadows unanimously, sending the matter to a vote before the full House of Representatives, which is expected to approve the citation as soon as Tuesday. Continue reading...
The benefits of a single large tree can’t be replaced by a mown lawn or a seedling. With thoughtful planning we can keep themThe New Zealand parliament is about to have its third reading of an amendment bill informally known as the “housing intensification bill”. Its purpose is to relax the Resource Management Act (RMA), which currently restricts building height and intensity in cities, to meet the urgent demand for housing and address affordability.While it is clear that housing affordability needs to be addressed to meet the needs of young and low-income New Zealanders, there are pitfalls to the speed at which the legislation is rushing through the system. Yes, we do need more houses, and we do need to intensify within our cities so that we don’t further impact the rural landscape as the tentacles of our cities spread into key food production and natural ecosystem areas. Continue reading...
Federal docket entry shows hearing scheduled for Wednesday for Chauvin to change his current not guilty plea in the caseDerek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer, appears to be on the verge of pleading guilty to violating George Floyd’s civil rights, according to a notice sent out Monday by the court’s electronic filing system.The federal docket entry shows a hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday for Chauvin to change his current not guilty plea in the case. These types of notices indicate a defendant is planning to plead guilty. Continue reading...
Supreme court precedent requires upholding ban in Ocean City, Maryland, but a judge says the ban may be unconstitutionalA group of women is going all the way to the top with their challenge of a beach town ban on topless sunbathing, urging the US supreme court to rule against allowing men but not women to show all that skin.Ocean City, Maryland, passed its ordinance in 2017 after one of the plaintiffs, Chelsea Eline, contacted local police and asserted a right to go topless, the Daily Times reported. Continue reading...
Pledge draws inspiration from Texas law that allows citizens to enforce ban on abortions from about six weeks of pregnancyCalifornia governor Gavin Newsom has pledged to empower private citizens to enforce a ban on the manufacture and sale of assault weapons in the state, citing the same authority claimed by conservative lawmakers in Texas to outlaw most abortions there after only around six weeks of pregnancy.“We will work to create the ability for private citizens to sue anyone who manufactures, distributes, or sells an assault weapon or ghost gun kit or parts in California,” the governor’s office said in a statement on Sunday. Continue reading...
Leading infectious diseases official warns Omicron variant appears to be able to ‘evade’ protection of two initial dosesThe US government’s leading infectious diseases official, Anthony Fauci, has stepped up calls for Americans to get a Covid-19 booster shot, as the US hit the grim milestone of 50m positive cases – by far the highest of any nation in the world.According to the latest numbers from Johns Hopkins university the US now has some 50,025,005 cases of the virus. In terms of deaths, the figures show that the US is also now approaching 800,000 lives lost to coronavirus since the start of the pandemic. Continue reading...
Much of the evidence has come from rioters’ own words and videos, as many used social media to celebrate the violenceFor many insurrectionists who stormed the US Capitol on 6 January, self-incriminating messages, photos and videos that they broadcast on social media before, during and after the attack are influencing their criminal sentences.Earlier this month, US district judge Amy Jackson read aloud some of Russell Peterson’s posts before she sentenced the Pennsylvania man to 30 days imprisonment. Continue reading...
Move comes as lawmakers release new details about thousands of emails and texts he has handed over to the committeeThe House panel investigating the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol is set to recommend contempt charges against former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Monday as lawmakers are releasing new details about thousands of emails and texts he has handed over to the committee.In laying out the case for the contempt vote, the nine-member panel released a 51-page report late on Sunday that details its questions about the documents he has already provided – including 6,600 pages of records taken from personal email accounts and about 2,000 text messages. Continue reading...
A competition pitting 10 teachers against each other to scramble for dollar bills to fund school supplies in a city in South Dakota has been described as ‘demeaning’ and drawn comparisons with the hit Netflix series Squid Game.The local Argus Leader newspaper reported that $5,000 (£3,770) in single dollar bills was laid out on the ice skating ring during the Sioux Falls Stampede hockey game on Saturday night, and the teachers from nearby schools competed to grab as many as possible in less than five minutes
by Richard Luscombe, Samira Sadeque with agencies on (#5SZG2)
Governor Andy Beshear had originally said more than 100 people were feared dead, but later said the estimate could be wrongUS president Joe Biden declared a major federal disaster in Kentucky after a swarm of deadly tornadoes hit the state on Friday, as representatives of a candle factory destroyed by a twister said far fewer people may have died than previously feared.Biden had previously declared the storms a federal emergency and the move to designate the storms a federal disaster paves the way for additional aid, as thousands face housing, food, water and power shortages. Continue reading...
The muscly maestro team up with Scott Adkins in a gleeful film about a rickety high-rise, a criminal kingpin and a bag of money‘How do you feel about killing somebody? Because us getting out of here is pretty goddamn dependent on it.” Dolph Lundgren and Scott Adkins make a fine odd couple in this meatily satisfying action film – once it gets moving. The ageing hulk is on prime form, juggling directorial duties with a Balboan blue-collar turn in front of the camera, while Adkins, the current king of kickass B-movies, again shows his range and brings the Brit-comedy – a levity that borders on dorky, if that’s an appropriate word to describe a martial-arts matinee idol capable of caressing your jaw with a spin-kick.Adkins plays Mike Wade, an over-the-hill MMA fighter from Birmingham, England, down on his luck in Birmingham, Alabama. Cadging a job as part of a demolition crew stripping Castle Heights hospital, he finds a three-holdall stash of greenbacks in a cupboard. With the building due to be dynamited in 90 minutes, he returns solo for the money – unaware that two other interested parties are also moving in: Lundgren’s prison guard Ericson, who needs to finance his daughter’s cancer treatment, and a gang kingpin (Scott Hunter) out to secure the loot on behalf of his incarcerated brother. Continue reading...
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