Hotel Marysville was renowned for its floating dance floor and once hosted stars such as Babe Ruth and Bing CrosbyAn almost century-old historic hotel in northern California that once hosted Babe Ruth and Bing Crosby was destroyed by a fire over the weekend.Crews responded to Hotel Marysville around 10pm on Saturday night and tried to save the long-vacant 98-year-old inn, but the flames burned away the building's internal components and left only a skeleton", Kyle Heggstrom, the Marysville fire chief, told the Sacramento Bee. Continue reading...
Lamor Whitehead accused of conning woman out of her life savings and then spending the money on luxury goodsBrooklyn's bling bishop" Lamor Whitehead, sometimes described as a mentor to New York's mayor, Eric Adams, has been sentenced to nine years in prison for defrauding a parishioner's mother out of her life savings and other scams.The Manhattan federal court judge Lorna Schofield handed down the sentence to Whitehead on Monday, three months after he was convicted of wire fraud, attempted extortion and lying to the FBI. Continue reading...
Nikhil Gupta accused of plotting to kill US resident who has advocated for sovereign Sikh state in northern IndiaAn Indian man suspected by the US of involvement in an unsuccessful plot to kill a Sikh separatist on American soil has pleaded not guilty to murder-for-hire conspiracy charges in a federal court in Manhattan.Nikhil Gupta, 52, has been accused by US federal prosecutors of plotting with an Indian government official to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a US resident who has advocated for a sovereign Sikh state in northern India. Continue reading...
Colonel Edward Thomas Ryan, who died at age 85, will be buried next to his life partner Paul CavagnaroA US military veteran who died earlier this month came out as gay in an obituary published after his death.The obituary in the Albany Times-Union tells the story of Colonel Edward Thomas Ryan, a decorated army officer who served in the Vietnam war and was also a fireman in his hometown, Rensselaer, New York. He died on 1 June at the age 85. Continue reading...
It represented a forum he could conveniently castigate when things went wrong. Now the blame can only go in one directionThere is very little drama in Netanyahu's decision, or rather bland and laconic statement that he is dissolving the war cabinet" that he himself formed on 11 October 2023. Constitutionally and in terms of affecting policy, the decision is a Seinfeld decision: it's about nothing. The constitutionally authoritative body - the one with real power - is the security cabinet. The war cabinet was a convenient and circumstantial political invention. But Netanyahu rival Benny Gantz's recent withdrawal from the government made the forum redundant in terms of policymaking, and politically explosive, since the extreme rightwing ministers now demanded to join.The dissolution of the war cabinet looks like an important development. It isn't. Had Winston Churchill dissolved his war cabinet in January 1941, eight months after he assembled it in May 1940, that would have been significant. This is not the same. Churchill's war cabinet, as Neville Chamberlain's before him in 1939, or even David Lloyd George's war cabinet during the first world war in 1917, then called the war policy committee, had clearly defined constitutional and statutory powers and authority. The war cabinet that Netanyahu formed in the panic, disarray and disorientation that ensued in the days after 7 October patently lacked those constitutional powers.Alon Pinkas served as Israel's consul general in New York from 2000 to 2004. He is now a columnist for Haaretz Continue reading...
Stocks are at near record levels. That's not enough for some corporate CEOs, who want more giant tax cutsThe Business Roundtable is an association of more than 200 CEOs of America's biggest corporations. It likes to think of itself as socially responsible.Last Wednesday, its chair, Joshua Bolten, told reporters that his group planned to drop eight figures" while putting its full weight behind protecting and strengthening tax reform".Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His newest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...
Star basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers who went on to a career in team managementJerry West, who has died aged 86, was a unique force in basketball for the better part of seven decades. A star for the Los Angeles Lakers for 14 years, not only is West still considered one of the top handful of players in National Basketball Association (NBA) history, but in his second career in management he built two separate dynastic Laker teams, turned around the struggling Memphis Grizzlies, and as a consultant played a part in the run of success of the Golden State Warriors. As if that were not enough, West was also the model for the NBA's logo, a silhouette of him dribbling the ball in his left hand, which led to his enduring nickname, The Logo".Great players often need more than one nickname to fully define them; the Los Angeles announcer Chick Hearn dubbed West Mr Clutch", after his penchant for making game-winning shots. Yet West's individual talent was often diminished by his teams' inability to clear the final hurdle. His most famous shot, a 60-footer that tied the New York Knicks at the buzzer in the 1970 NBA finals and sent the game into overtime, still wound up a Laker loss. Continue reading...
When your kids are small, you can just present them with a card and some felt tips. But when they're adolescents, everything gets much trickierIt was Father's Day morning, and my friend and I were comparing notes on whose offspring were the least prepared: if you thought children were useless, may I introduce you to adolescents? I couldn't put a card and some felt-tips in front of them," she said, they're teenagers; they're not nine." So have they made cards?" Nope." I am expressly forbidden from writing about my daughter, so let's just square her off with the statement that she is perfect in every way, and her Father's Day efforts were second to none.The rest of them, sheesh. My daughter's best friend said the problem with dads is that they don't want anything, then amended that to: they either want some speakers for 5,000 or they want a glass of water, there's nothing in between. Then it hit her that she could get her dad some chocolates. Does he like chocolate?" I asked, sceptically, because, in my experience, a lot of parents prefer to get their sugar from alcohol. Everyone likes chocolate," she said, with unbridled confidence. My son ignored all the helpful links I'd sent him - a plectrum holder in the shape of a tiny guitar; a hat - and said the true gift of Father's Day was that his dad had grown a whole person to watch the football with. I said, Oi, I half grew you and football was nowhere in my intentions" and he said: And yet, here I am, going to watch the football."Do 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 pilot program was launched in September 2022 when public transport was struggling due to Covid and rise in violent crimesIn the 18 months Gilberto Morales has spent working for the Los Angeles Metro, the 23-year-old has administered Narcan to someone overdosing twice, helped riders who had fallen off train platforms and offered an ear to people experiencing mental health crises.But most of the time, his days consist of surveying the stations in the Los Angeles transit system and helping riders reach their destinations. Continue reading...
by Hugo Lowell and David Smith in Washington on (#6NJSZ)
Sources close to ex-president say gender and race irrelevant over pick who's America first' and believes in agendaDonald Trump is looking for a fighter" as his running mate in this year's presidential election and regards factors such as their gender or race as irrelevant, according to sources close to the former US president.Conventional wisdom used to hold that Trump was likely to choose a woman or a person of color as his potential vice-president in an effort to broaden his appeal. But aides close to the presumptive Republican nominee currently say he will not take so-called identity politics into account. Continue reading...
World's nuclear states on course to spend $100bn in 2024. Plus, Benjamin Netanyahu dissolves war cabinetGood morning.Global expenditure on nuclear weapons is estimated to have risen by 13% to a record $91.4bn in 2023, according to calculations from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Ican), propelled by a sharp increase in US defense budgets.Which nuclear powers have increased spending? All nine: US, China, Russia, the UK, France, India, Israel, Pakistan, and North Korea.What does Ican say about this trend? With funding forecast to hit $100bn in 2024, Susi Snyder, one of the research's authors, argued that it could be spent instead on environmental and social programmes.What will Netanyahu do after dissolving the cabinet? Netanyahu is expected to hold consultations about the war with a small group of ministers. Continue reading...
Trump's visit to the US Capitol - where the Republicans he almost got killed three years ago fawned over him - would be funny if it weren't patheticAnyone can rat, as Winston Churchill once supposedly said. But it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to re-rat.Say what you like about Donald Trump, but there's no shortage of rodent-like ingenuity around his dealings with the sewer life that populates today's Republican party.Richard Wolffe is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
Will I ever look as elegant as Audrey Hepburn? Ask me once I've finished licking my nostrils and pinching my jowlsA brilliant author and artist recently opened my eyes to the wonderland of jaw exercise videos. Smiling women in pastel-coloured vest tops chew the air, stretch their lips and tilt their tongues towards their perfectly formed noses. Angry men in blue polo shirts push tennis balls into their chests. People in medical scrubs try to lick their nostrils. Women with perms pinch at their jowls as if they are trying to crimp a pasty. It's wild out there.Now, I worked in consumer media and advertising long enough (for more than 30 seconds) to know that pretty much anything that says it can change your face, or life, or relationship, will do nothing of the sort. In my heart, I recognise that my face is my face, a slowly collapsing combination of genetics and expressions that has changed very little since I was about three. Look at my first nursery portrait - in which I am sitting in a pink nylon jumper in front of a marble-effect backdrop - and you can see 39-year-old Nell smiling back at you. Yet the promise of a new, sharp, Hepburn-esque jawline, created from nothing morethan a five-minute routine at my desk, is so tantalising - so deeply penetrates a lifelong desire to look like someone else - that Iamstruggling to resist. Continue reading...
A dejected Rory McIlroy walked out after watching on a clubhouse TV as Bryson DeChambeau clinched the 2024 US Open title. McIlroy lost a two-shot lead down the stretch then watched on a scoring room monitor as DeChambeau made an improbable winning up-and-down at the 18th hole to claim the trophy. After DeChambeau won, McIlroy went straight to the Pinehurst car park without talking to reporters and left. The loss extended McIlroy's 10-year major title drought.
I used to remove myself from experiences in favour of chasing matches. Now I'm fulfilled by the company of real peopleSwipe. Swipe. Swipe. For a while I was swiping so much I was barely thinking. Dating apps had hijacked my fingers, brain and evenings. I'd swipe left, mindlessly and without even looking, under the table at group dinners or during TV ad breaks. I'd fanatically check my new matches at the end of each day. This is modern dating," I'd tell myself. It's a job. I have to keep on going. This is the key to my happy ending."For months, this was my normality. But unsurprisingly, the lifelong romance I was looking for never materialised. As I sat on my sofa on yet another Sunday night ready to swipe until I ran out of steam, I decided I'd finally had enough. Even if my screen was flooded with likes or messages, my forays into dating app culture had rarely ended with in-person dates. I'd spend hours agonising over a single response - I needed to be funny, cool and captivating but not give too much away. But why was I so desperate to impress a distant stranger trapped behind a screen? What was I doing all the monotonous swiping for? I decided I needed to go cold turkey and figure out why I had been sucked in so completely.Anya Ryan is a freelance journalist Continue reading...
Much of the debate around the Indiana Fever rookie is led by politicians who employ discord as a means to posture to votersWhen Caitlin Clark was on the receiving end of a hard foul from Angel Reese on Sunday, the sound and fury around the Indiana Fever rookie intensified once again. She has been the focus of a number of controversies lately.After Clark was left off the USA women's basketball Olympic team earlier this month, I raised an eyebrow myself. She's a phenomenal player and athlete and someone who should hold the lion's share of the credit for the WNBA's massive increase in popularity. But, as is often the case in sports discourse, multiple things can be true at once. Clark is also an inexperienced rookie, who, aside from a few standout performances (including Sunday's win over the Chicago Sky), has had a rocky start to her WNBA career - she leads the league in turnovers per game. And when it comes to adding her to the Olympic roster, the US selection committee would have had to alter the roles of skilled guards like Diana Taurasi and Sabrina Ionescu. Continue reading...
From troll farms to racist hate speech, nationalists' bullying tactics are having a chilling effect on political journalismEmployees at Sweden's national news channel, TV4, were last month told to avoid wearing clothing or badges that might identify their employer's logo in public. The security risk was deemed too big. The advice was made in response to increased threats against the station and its reporters after its investigative programme, Kalla Fakta (Cold Facts), alleged that the far-right Sweden Democrats - the second biggest party in Sweden - operated a vast network of anonymous social media accounts, coordinating attacks on political opponents and the media.Sweden is one of the world's strongest democracies, with very high levels of trust in its media and political institutions. But journalists covering domestic politics now have to fear for their safety. Continue reading...
World No 1 admits busy buildup cost him at Pinehurst and he may take a different approach at Royal TroonFour hours before the eventual winner, Bryson DeChambeau, went out for the final round of the US Open, Scottie Scheffler stood on the first green of a Pinehurst No2 course that had scrambled his confidence over three excruciating days, carefully lining up a 20ft chance for birdie.The world's No 1 golfer curled a putt with perfect speed and line all the way to the cup, where it defiantly came to rest on the left rim without dropping in. Scheffler stared for a moment in disbelief before stepping forward to tap in for par. Itwould have been difficult to dream up a better example for howthe two-time major champion's week has gone. Continue reading...
From ancient Greece to modern Russia, sanctions are now the go-to option for policy-makers - so why do they so rarely achieve their aims?In the year 432BCE, the Athenian empire sought to teach its smaller neighbour, Megara, a punitive lesson after various acts of defiance. Instead of going to war, which would break the peace with Sparta, Athens took the novel path of blocking the Megarians from using all the ports in the region.It was known as the Megarian decree, and it was arguably the first recorded case of economic sanctions. It was also a failure, at least when it came to fending off a conflict. The Peloponnesian war, pitting Athens against Sparta, erupted a year later, and some ancient historians believe it was triggered by the Megarian sanctions. Continue reading...
by David Tindall (earlier) and Matt Cooper (now) on (#6NJBZ)
The Texan won his second US Open title after Rory McIlroy missed two crucial short putts to extend his long wait for another majorIs our leader Bryson DeChambeau any good with a lead? Here's the tale of the tape which shows he's converted three times on the five occasions when he's had a piece of the lead. Interesting to note that Cantlay's name pops up a couple of times.2018 Memorial (outright lead), won in a playoff over Kyle Stanley and Ben An2018 Northern Trust (outright lead), won by 42018 Shriners Hospitals for Children (tied for lead), won by 1 over Patrick Cantlay2019 3M Open (tied for lead), finished T-2, 1 shot behind Matthew Wolf2021 BMW Championship (tied for lead), lost in a playoff to Patrick Cantlay Continue reading...
Cause of blaze, named Post Fire, unknown as two buildings damaged and nearby valley and lake reservoir closeA wildfire that forced the evacuation of at least 1,200 people in southern California has burned more than 16 sq miles, officials said Sunday.
Representative Ro Khanna says he will skip Netanyahu's address to Congress and that young people want war to endProgressive California Democrat Ro Khanna warned Sunday that Joe Biden is running out of time to win over young voters opposed to his administration's handling of the Israel-Gaza conflict and that he will not attend Benjamin Netanyahu's address to Congress next month.In an interview with NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, Representative Khanna said the erosion of support that the US president is seeing among young voters is a challenge for our party" and the Democrats could be running out of time" to restore support with more people dying" in the conflict. Continue reading...
Police say eight-year-old shot in head is in critical condition and shooter Michael William Nash died by suicideNine people, including two children, have been shot and wounded at a city-run water park near Detroit in what appeared to be a random attack, police have said.Two children were among the victims, including an 8-year-old who was shot in the head and is in critical condition, after a shooter opened fire at the Brooklands Plaza Splash Pad park, where families had gathered to escape the summer heat. Continue reading...
News comes as US regulators investigate separate incident after Boeing 737 Max 8 plane did a Dutch roll' in MayThe Federal Aviation Administration is investigating after a Southwest Airlines flight reportedly plunged to within 400ft" of the Pacific Ocean during a flight.A memo distributed to Southwest pilots, obtained by Bloomberg, said that the Boeing 737 Max 8 plunged at a rate of 4,000ft a minute off the coast of Hawaii, coming within hundreds of feet of the ocean before climbing to safety. Continue reading...
Network says no studio audience in Atlanta and moderators will use all tools at disposal to ensure a civilized discussion'The first US presidential debate between incumbent Joe Biden and Republican rival Donald Trump on 27 June will include two commercial breaks, no props and muted microphones except when recognized to speak, CNN said Saturday.The rules, agreed outside the Commission on Presidential Debates, are designed to reduce fractious interruptions and cross-talk that have often marred TV encounters in recent presidential election cycles. Continue reading...
Some feel limiting US-Mexico border crossings will protect the country, while others say it violates American values'Democratic mayors, governors and members of Congress from the south-west to the north-east stood beside Joe Biden at the White House, when he unveiled an executive order temporarily sealing the US-Mexico border to most asylum seekers - the most restrictive immigration policy of his presidency.We must face a simple truth," the US president said. To protect America as a land that welcomes immigrants, we must first secure the border and secure it now." Continue reading...
This forest is our home, our existence and our children's future. Politicians who can't resist selling it for oil cash will feel the strength of the Waorani peopleIn 2019 I helped lead a movement that defeated the Ecuadorian government's plans to auction half a million acres of Waorani territory in the Amazon to oil companies. We showed in court that the government had violated its legal obligation to obtain free, prior and informed consent from Indigenous communities. We won a moral and legal victory on behalf of our ancestral home in that moment - or so we thought. Now, however, Ecuador's president plans to plough through that legal judgment and recommence oil drilling on nearby Indigenous lands. He obviously hasn't reckoned with the strength and tenacity of the Waorani people.In winning that landmark legal case, we protected pristine rainforest lands, Indigenous autonomy and our planet's climate from further deforestation. We protected our homes, our children's future and the forests where I grew up playing with my siblings and pet monkeys, learning to garden and make fresh chicha, and where my people still live today. No more destroying our lives, homes and forests to pump the blood of our ancestors from beneath the soil.Do 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...
President speaks with ex-president Barack Obama during campaign event at Peacock Theater on Saturday nightSome of Hollywood's brightest stars headlined a glitzy fundraiser for President Joe Biden, helping raise what his re-election campaign said was a record $30m-plus and hoping to energize would-be supporters for a November election that they argued was among the most important in the nation's history.George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Barbra Streisand were among those who took the stage at the 7,100-seat Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Saturday night. Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel interviewed Biden and former president Barack Obama, who both stressed the need to defeat former president Donald Trump in a race that's expected to be exceedingly close. Continue reading...
Champion may be out as Nathan's of Coney Island find Joey Chestnut's deal with a plant-based rival hard to stomachCompetitive eating star Joey Jaws" Chestnut shocked the world of holiday gluttony this week, announcing through representatives that he would not compete at Nathan's Famous Fourth of July hotdog eating contest on New York's Coney Island.The move has not only upset longtime fans of competitive eating, but shone a light on a niche subset of gastronomy and the drama within it. Continue reading...
Kevin Spacey weeps over lost jobs, but victims of sexual harassment were once routinely cancelledYes, they did something wrong. But the punishment is out of proportion. They have apologised, they have promised to change. Isn't it time we forgave some of the men brought down by #MeToo?It's an important question - one that anyone interested in justice should ask. Lately, the rate of askinghas picked up pace. In an interview with Piers Morgan last week, Kevin Spacey sobbed at the treatment hehad suffered, even as he conceded that his accusers - oneor two of them - had been telling the truth. Continue reading...
The normalisation of ideas once confined to the fringes is cause for concern, not complacencyFar right? Hard right? Radical right? Or just plain right? The success in the recent EU elections of parties such as Marine Le Pen's Rassemblement National, or RN, (the rebadged Front National), and Germany's Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD), has generated a debate about whether the label far right" should be retired because, as Spectator editor Fraser Nelson argues, many parties that carry that moniker are now mainstream in a way that wasn't the case 15 years ago".Such parties are, for Nelson, better categorised as new right". Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, whose party the Brothers of Italy is descended from a fascist organisation, has shown in practice that she is centre-right, not radical". It is nonsense", Nelson insists, to call Meloni's party post-fascist'" or to suggest that the disparate new right" parties all belong to a single far-right' or radical-right lump".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...
Hitting the ground running has some very painful lessonsOne second I was running, a proud and gentle kind of lope, the next I was staring up at sunlight shivering through the leaves, my mouth somehow full of blood, and then everything was black. It was a warm morning as I set off, that bank holiday at the beginning of half-term, which meant my children were off school two times over and chattering around the kitchen table when my boyfriend heard - his whole face squints now as he describes it - the terrible thud of a body on concrete.It was comically small, the uneven paving stone that I tripped over, it was hilariously nothing - a centimetre or two maybe that the toe of my trainer must have caught on, but I flew somehow, quite high, and landed on my teeth and cheekbone. I passed out because of the shock, I think, rather than the impact, and spent some time there on the grass in a glorious faint. That was the best bit. I do recommend unconsciousness. I'm up for a light coma one day perhaps, but until then these rare moments of savage exit will have to do. The time asleep always feels longer than really it is - I was blissfully relaxed, in a theatre, in fact, watching hundreds of little children dance, until suddenly I was dragged back to life, and the path, and Mark was propping me up on his arm and saying my name too many times. Continue reading...
Gaffe came as 78-year-old Republican presidential candidate sought to bolster his support among Black and Latino voters in MichiganDonald Trump has made a point in recent months of deriding his rival Joe Biden as being cognitively impaired, mocking the 81-year-old US president for his verbal stumbles and accusing him of falling both up and down stairs.But people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Continue reading...
Former infectious disease head says big pharma tried to poach him while he was nation's Covid chiefBefore Anthony Fauci retired from his lengthy run as the US government's top infectious disease doctor, major pharmaceutical companies tried to lure him away from his post by offering him seven-figure jobs - but he turned them down because he cared about ... the health of the country" too much, he says in a new interview.Fauci's comments on his loyalty to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Niad) - which he directed for 38 years before retiring in December 2022 - come only a couple of weeks after he testified to Congress about receiving credible death threats" from far-right extremists over his efforts to slow the spread of Covid-19 at the beginning of the pandemic. Continue reading...
Two suspects in custody for deaths of Callie Brunett, 35, and her daughter Erin; second daughter found alive and brought to hospitalAuthorities investigating the abduction and death of a four-year-old Louisiana girl whose body was found in Mississippi say they uncovered evidence of possible human trafficking where the child was discovered.The evidence included cages meant for small animals, said investigators who had arrested Daniel Callihan, 36, and Victoria Cox, 32, with the killing of Erin Brunett. Continue reading...
In this speech she gave at last week's memorial service for the author, who died last year aged 73, his daughter pays tribute to the cool guy who lived in my house'Dad described himself as a father emeritus". This wouldn't have been funny if it were completely true. In fact, far from absent, Dad was homeall of the time. In high school, I described him tomy friends as less a dad-type and more a cool guy who livedin my house.Once, at the age of 14, I was caught by my mum smoking pot in my bedroom. She threw out my paraphernalia, took me around the block weeping, and cautioned me about the great history of addiction in our family. Later that night, or maybe even a few days later, Dad made his debut on the top floor of the house, the kids' floor. He poked his head around my door and said: You couldn't have cracked open a window? You bloody fool."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...
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