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Person was reported as having turned over picture of storage room where majority of classified documents were locatedFederal prosecutors have gained the cooperation of a person who worked at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, the New York Times reported, as they seek a more complete picture of whether the former US president took steps to remove classified documents from a storage room in response to a subpoena for their return.The identity of the cooperating witness and the extent of the information divulged remains unknown, but the person was reported as having turned over a picture of the storage room where the vast majority of the classified documents at the property had been located. Continue reading...

In a case that raises interesting questions about the dividing line between inspiration and plagiarism, the singer-songwriter took a stand for artistic freedom and won• Ed Sheeran cleared of infringing copyright in Marvin Gaye lawsuitIt’s easy to supply a punchline to Ed Sheeran’s threat to quit music entirely if he lost his latest copyright court case. So easy, in fact, that on Thursday morning, listeners to Boom Radio – one of those stations aimed at listeners deemed too old for BBC Radio 2, which is big on adverts for retirement homes and not typically a hotbed of biting satire and snark – could have heard their breakfast show DJ doing precisely that, willing on Sheeran’s loss.It’s also easy to look askance at the aw-shucks tone of Sheeran’s response to his victory in the trial. “I’m just a guy with a guitar who loves writing music for people to enjoy,” he said. While is true it’s also a slightly reductive view of a notoriously driven and competitive artist who has sold 150m records in 12 years, had a vast influence over modern pop and demonstrated an impressively ability to assimilate musical trends from grime to Afrobeats into his immediately recognisable sound. Continue reading...

It’s everything he had hoped for, just the wrong era. Still, one makes the best of these thingsAre you all set for the coronation? Whether you plan to pay the “people’s homage” – swearing aloud the newly proposed oath of allegiance to the king while watching it at home – is, of course, a private matter between you and your television set. This morning, Charles’s friend Jonathan Dimbleby suggested that this faintly controversial innovation was some ghastly evangelical idea of the archbishop of Canterbury’s (I paraphrase), and that Charles himself would find it “abhorrent”. Which feels fairly definitive.Even if the archbish hasn’t made a bish, it must be said that the full-spectrum reverence of the run-up to the coronation can leave one always on the point of collapsing into giggles. I hugely enjoyed a Spectator article this week about the spoon used to anoint the sovereign with holy oil, which was described as a “very special one” (agreed), “one of the most beautiful examples of that humble genus” (OK), and “doubtless the world’s most important spoon” (sorry, I’ve gone). Continue reading...

Agreement designed to curb increase of people arriving into US marks dramatic precedent for two countries, experts sayAn agreement between the United States and Mexico designed to curb the surge of migrants arriving at the US doorstep marks a dramatic new precedent in relations between the two countries, analysts said, warning that the deal could further overwhelm border cities already struggling to cope.Under the agreement announced in a joint statement Tuesday, Mexico will continue accepting migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua who are turned away from the US. Continue reading...

Shares in US regional banks pummelled this week amid fears of more collapses in sector

Carol Martin corroborates E Jean Carroll’s account of aftermath of alleged rape, and judge keeps door open to Trump appearance. Plus, why aren’t there better menstrual products?

Much of the talk has been about Neely’s mental health – in large part so we don’t have to talk about our larger societal healthJordan Neely was choked to death in the middle of the day on a New York City subway car on Monday, and since then people from New York City’s leaders to media commentators have put the focus on the 30-year-old Black man’s mental health. The New York governor Kathy Hochul stated that “some of the factors” in Neely’s death were “people who are homeless in our subways, many of them in the throes of mental health episodes”. Mayor Eric Adams spoke about “serious mental health issues in play here”. John Macari, a retired New York police lieutenant and podcaster told Fox News: “You have people commuting on a train who have to deal with mentally ill people who are a danger to themselves and others.”But Jordan Neely didn’t kill himself. He was killed, and not by his medical history. A 24-year-old white ex-marine put him in a chokehold for “some 15 minutes,” according to Juan Alberto Vazquez, a witness at the scene, and the medical examiner has ruled Neely’s death a homicide. So instead of focusing on Neely’s past, maybe we should be asking what kind of state of mind does it take to strangle a man to death in public. Continue reading...

Stanley Kurtz’s crusade against ‘woke civics’ in schools has shaped Republican bills across the USWhen two US senators – a Texas Republican and a Delaware Democrat – introduced a bill in June 2022 to expand grants for civics education, most observers saw it as something of an olive branch between the parties.But despite initial momentum, three now-familiar letters stopped the bill in its tracks: CRT. Continue reading...

Experts say union upsurge for journalists and graduate students is pleasing but blue-collar workers require assistance tooUnion supporters have had plenty to applaud with regard to organizing college- educated workers, notching up dozens of unionization victories involving graduate students, adjunct professors, journalists, nurses and workers at museums, non-profits and video-game companies.But some labor supporters who laud these victories are warning that something is awry, that there isn’t nearly enough unionization of non-college-educated, lower-paid workers, whether factory workers or fast-food workers. Continue reading...

As Eastwind Books of Berkeley shutters in California, local residents mourn the loss of a communityThe author Hua Hsu remembers going to Eastwind Books of Berkeley as a kid. His parents would drive 50 miles north from their home in Cupertino to the small shop near the Berkeley campus. There, his parents, Taiwanese immigrants, would buy books and newspapers from Asia that they couldn’t find elsewhere in the Bay Area.Later, when Hsu – now a staff writer at the New Yorker and author of the National Book Critics Circle award-winning memoir Stay True – was in college at the University of California, Berkeley, he developed his own relationship with the store, mostly as a place where ethnic studies and Asian American studies professors had students buy their books for class. Continue reading...

Conglomerates want to turn us into gig workers or replace us with AI scabs. Writers across the world are uniting to fight backI and 12,000 of my fellow Writers Guild of America colleagues went on strike this week against the conglomerates that make and control much of the “content” consumed by global audiences. Late night comedy-variety shows have gone dark; untold numbers of productions have been disrupted and are in the process of shutting down; studio gates and corporate offices are being besieged by thousands of picketers.Our last strike, back in 2007, caused more than $3bn of economic damage in Los Angeles alone. This strike could be even more costly. Continue reading...

If Mark Robinson wins gubernatorial race in 2024 there would be no one to hold back a wave of rightwing bills in the stateTo Mark Robinson, gay and transgender people are “filth”, homosexuality is an abominable sin, and the transgender movement is “demonic” and “full of the spirit of the antichrist”.Muslim Americans, meanwhile, are invaders, and Robinson is not afraid to dabble in antisemitism: in his mind an international cabal of Jewish financiers make up a modern-day “four horsemen of the apocalypse”, who rule the banks in “every single country”. Continue reading...

Secretariat’s Triple Crown records remain unbeaten to this day. Fifty years on, jockey Ron Turcotte reflects on a ‘generous, kind and gentle’ legendEven in 2023, the name Secretariat is recognizable to millions of Americans otherwise unversed in horse racing. Tributes to the most famous racehorse of the 1970s are everywhere. More than 250 streets in the US are named after Secretariat (more than any human athlete), he was one of ESPN’s top 50 North American athletes of the 20th century, and, somewhat confusingly, he even served as the basis for a character in Netflix’s hit animated sitcom BoJack Horseman.This weekend’s Kentucky Derby marks the 50th anniversary of Secretariat’s victory at Churchill Downs, which was itself the first step in the horse’s signature achievement – winning the 1973 Triple Crown. Continue reading...

In the aftermath of the sprinter’s death at the age of just 32, her USA teammate remembers a talented athlete who did things her own wayThe post-race glory photo-op is a time honored tradition, an occasion for athletes to get their hit of global adulation in case their compatriot fans forget to tune in to the medal ceremony. Tori Bowie never looked more resplendent than she was in a snapshot of USA’s 4x100m women’s team after their remarkable triumph at the 2016 Olympics.Interlocked with Allyson Felix, English Gardner and Tianna Bartoletta in a postcard for #blackgirlmagic, Bowie served a little bit of everything on that hot and sticky evening at João Havelange Stadium on the penultimate night of the Games. She flexed serious power with those washboard abs and flashed pops of color with her fuchsia headband – a silken cousin to the bonnets many Black women use to preserve their locks. But instead of wearing it to bed, Bowie wore hers on the world’s biggest stage. Gardner says that was typical of Bowie: “never what the world asked for, always unapologetically her”. Continue reading...

Blume’s groundbreaking books shepherded me and millions of others through the trials of adolescence – and they’re still as relevant as everIt is a truth universally acknowledged that being a teenage girl sucks. Struggling with a changing body, navigating the schoolyard hierarchies, feeling disconnected from your parents, being sexualised in ways you are both ready and not ready for – like most of my peers, I went through the wringer between the ages of 12 and 18.When I look at my six-year-old daughter now, I worry about what she’ll have to face in the hormone trenches – but I’m comforted that, like me, she’ll have Judy Blume. Continue reading...

Neely, 30, whose subway death was ruled a homicide by New York’s medical examiner, remembered as kind and lovingJordan Neely had a fan club.The 30-year-old Michael Jackson impersonator had amassed a following within New York City and beyond, with thousands online admiring the young man’s aptitude for dance and creating a Facebook group to share his performances. Continue reading...

Despite gestures towards inclusivity, the ceremony remains rooted in outdated religious and feudal idealsAt the heart of the coronation of Charles III on Saturday is a very deliberate national deception about religion. In some ways, the deception hides in plain sight, not attracting attention. Pre-coronation speculation has focused instead on more trivial things – Camilla, Harry, Meghan – or on monarchy’s general popularity in the post-Elizabeth era. But when you watch and listen to the coronation itself, the religious deception will be hard to miss – and harder to believe.Many will instinctively want to be generous about the coronation and will not want to spoil the party. In that spirit, they might call this weekend’s ritual a historical pretence that pleases many and does no particular harm. If they were being stronger-minded, as they ought to be about an event that inevitably says so much about this country to itself and the world, they could instead call the ritual what it is: a lie at the heart of the British state.Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

All hail the nature arbitrary of privilege that’s hereditary

Arizona high court found no evidence of the failed gubernatorial candidate’s claim of 35,000 fraudulent votes in electionLawyers for Kari Lake, the failed Republican gubernatorial candidate, were sanctioned $2,000 on Thursday by the Arizona supreme court in their unsuccessful challenge of her defeat in the governor’s race last year to Democrat Katie Hobbs.In an order, the state’s highest court said Lake’s attorney made “false factual statements” that more than 35,000 ballots had been improperly added to the total ballot count, imposing 10 days to submit payment. Continue reading...

Carol Martin corroborates E Jean Carroll’s account of aftermath of alleged rape, and judge keeps door open to Trump appearanceThe last witness in E Jean Carroll’s civil lawsuit accusing Donald Trump of rape and defamation gave evidence on Thursday, ending the evidentiary stage of the trial which is expected to go to the jury in New York early next week.After both sides rested their cases, the judge, Lewis Kaplan, kept the door open to a late appearance in court by the former US president when he set a deadline of 5pm New York time on Sunday for Trump to submit a request to reopen the hearing. The judge did not say if he would grant it. Continue reading...

Police say former student has been detained in wake of stabbings that have left Davis on edgeA 21-year-old former student has been arrested after a spate of stabbings, two fatal, in the California college town of Davis, authorities have said.Carlos Dominguez was arrested in connection with three stabbings after being detained on Wednesday, according to police chief Darren Pytel. Police found Dominguez after receiving calls from 15 residents who say they saw a man who matched the description of the attacker walking near a park where one of the victims had been killed days earlier. Continue reading...

Former leader Enrique Tarrio among four members of US far-right group convicted after trial lasting nearly four monthsFour members of the Proud Boys extremist group, including its former leader Enrique Tarrio, were on Thursday convicted of seditious conspiracy for their roles in planning and leading the January 6 Capitol attack, in a desperate effort to keep Donald Trump in power after his 2020 election defeat.The verdicts handed down in federal court in Washington marked a major victory for the US justice department in the last of its seditious conspiracy cases related to the January 6 attack. Prosecutors previously secured convictions against members of the Oath Keepers, another far-right group. Continue reading...

Video follows leak of Carlson making coarse comments about a woman and Fox News viewers, and other disparaging remarksIn the latest leaked behind-the-scenes video of Tucker Carlson, the now fired rightwing Fox News host makes insinuating comments about a makeup artist, about what women do in the bathroom and if they ever have pillow fights.The footage was published on Thursday by the progressive watchdog Media Matters for America. Continue reading...

Viktor Orbán, addressing European CPAC summit, attacks liberalism as a ‘virus’ and says his country is model for worldThe Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán has called for Donald Trump’s return to office, claiming their shared brand of hard-right populism is on the rise around the world, in a speech to US Republicans and their European allies in Budapest.Orbán was addressing the second annual meeting of the US Conservative Political Action Coalition (CPAC) in the Hungarian capital, aimed at cementing radical rightwing ties across the Atlantic. He said that conservatives have “occupied big European sanctuaries”, which he listed as Budapest, Warsaw, Rome and Jerusalem. He added that Vienna “is also not hopeless” . Continue reading...

Republican proposal mocked as ‘Default on America Act’ at hearing drawing attention to potential cuts to key programsSenate Democrats held a hearing on Thursday to lambaste House Republicans’ proposal to raise the US government’s borrowing limit in exchange for spending cuts, as economists testified that a federal default would bring disastrous and decades-long consequences.The hearing came a week after House Republicans narrowly passed the Limit, Save, Grow Act to raise the debt ceiling until May 2024. The legislation, championed by the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, would also roll back federal discretionary spending to 2022 levels and cap annual increases at 1%. Continue reading...

‘In the richest country in the history of the world, nobody should be forced to work for starvation wages,’ Vermont senator saysBernie Sanders on Thursday announced a proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to $17 an hour, saying the potent inflation Americans have faced over the past two years makes it necessary for the government to institute higher wages for workers.Sanders intends to next month formally introduce legislation raising the minimum wage over a five-year period to a level $2 higher than the $15 an hour Joe Biden and many Democrats have pushed for in recent years. But there is no sign of Republicans wavering in their opposition to the proposal. Continue reading...

Regional lenders such as PacWest and Western Alliance are not seen as systemically important and more consolidation is ahead

Ex-president claims trial is political attempt to derail his White House bid, while deposition shown again in court on ThursdayDonald Trump has launched a fresh broadside against his civil trial for rape and defamation, calling the case a disgrace.The former president said on Thursday he would probably attend the trial in New York but called it a political attack built on false claims by the accuser, the writer E Jean Carroll. Continue reading...

Machines have already taken over the drudge work. Now they’re coming for the fun stuff. This may focus mindsIf there’s one thing Hollywood screenwriters know how to deliver, it’s a snappy one-liner.“Pay your writers, or we’ll spoil Succession,” read one of the placards paraded outside movie studios in Los Angeles this week, as thousands of film and television writers went on strike. “Pencils down, middle fingers up,” said another. Closer to the bone, however, was a placard reading: “Wrote ChatGPT This.” For the plot twist is that this strike isn’t just over money. The Writers Guild of America also wants to establish some ground rules preventing studios from using artificial intelligence to generate scripts in ways that cut humans out of their own creative process.Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnistDo 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...

Medical examiner confirmed on Wednesday that 30-year-old Black man died from compression to the neckPressure was mounting on police, prosecutors and the New York mayor, Eric Adams, on Thursday as protesters, advocates and even Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized the lack of action over the death of Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old Black man and Michael Jackson impersonator who was placed in a chokehold by another subway rider.Adams has heightened police presence in subway stations in an attempt to curtail crime, while endorsing involuntarily hospitalizing people experiencing homelessness with mental illness and using police to remove people suffering from mental illness from subway stations. Continue reading...

Supreme court justice did not declare Republican Harlan Crow’s support for schooling of boy Thomas raised ‘as a son’The Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow paid for the great-nephew of Clarence Thomas, who the conservative supreme court justice raised “as a son”, to attend a private boarding school in Georgia.“Harlan picked up the tab,” a former school administrator said. Continue reading...

In the race to create the new Instagram, rivals morph into each other, losing what makes them special in the first placeTechnology writers are sadly (some gleefully) announcing the latest admission to the social media morgue: the formerly ascendant photo-sharing app BeReal.The app had been a huge success, jumping from 1m to 20m users in just seven months. Central to its success was its positioning as the anti-Instagram, a platform trading on authenticity that offered a glimpse of our friends’ “real” (read: mundane) lives. But its active daily users more than halved between October 2022 and March 2023, down from 20m to 6m. Its expected demise not only forces us to ask how “authentic” a photo-sharing app can ever be, but whether we actually want the authenticity it sells. Continue reading...

Crowds of people gathered in the Broadway-Lafayette subway station in New York on Wednesday to protest after the death of an unhoused Black man who was apparently having a mental health episode on a train. According to police officials, Jordan Neely had been harassing passengers on the subway and making threats when he was placed in a minutes-long headlock by a former US marine. By the time the train pulled into Broadway-Lafayette, Neely was no longer conscious. Footage shared on social media showed Neely on the ground with a man's arm around his neck. A second man held his arms and a third held down his shoulder. Neely's death has led to outrage over the treatment of homeless people and the mental health crisis in New York City. The man who placed him in the headlock was released without charge while a police investigation continues

The stadium that’s prompted the Athletics’ move to Las Vegas was just as outdated and unfashionable as advertised. Naturally, I loved itOakland-Alameda County Coliseum, the fifth-oldest stadium in Major League Baseball and the home of the A’s since 1968, has been called baseball’s last dive bar. A brutalist concrete doughnut short on grandeur and long on character, seated next to a Bart station at the center of an industrial waste land, no one could ever mistake it for the sport’s revered old cathedrals such as Boston’s Fenway Park, Chicago’s Wrigley Field or Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.When I paid the princely sum of $2 for a ticket to a recent Wednesday afternoon game against the Cubs, the stadium was just as cavernous, threadbare, outdated and unfashionable as advertised, managing to combine all the regrettable features of the dozen-plus cookie-cutter multipurpose stadiums that popped up throughout the US in the 1960s and 70s. Schoolkids in loosely assembled groups scampered excitedly through the aisles and about the large swathes of empty outfield seats. The trough-style urinals in the men’s rooms were leaky and rusted and the stained-concrete concourses stank of stale beer. All in all, the last place you’d take someone you were trying to impress. Naturally, I loved it. Continue reading...

Ukraine downs 18 drones, two of which are found to carry pro-Russian slogans, as Ukrainian residents prepare for curfew after night of heavy shelling. Plus, the dazzling, troubling history of California superbloom tourismGood morning.There’s been another night of substantial Russian missile attacks and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities, which has become something of a pattern in the last week or so after a period of relative calm. In the aftermath of Russia’s claims that Ukraine targeted the Kremlin with its own drones and tried to assassinate Vladimir Putin, Moscow launched a wave of kamikaze drones mainly targeting Kyiv and Odesa.What has Volodymyr Zelenskiy said about the Kremlin attack? He has denied Russian claims that Ukraine was involved in a drone attack on the Kremlin that Russia says was intended to kill Vladimir Putin. Zelenskiy said on Wednesday: “We don’t attack Putin or Moscow, we fight on our territory and defend our towns and cities. We leave it to the tribunal.”What else is happening? Zelenskiy will have a meeting at the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague during a visit to the Netherlands today, the court has said, Reuters reports.What did Sandy Senn say? “We told them: ‘Don’t take us down this path again for the third time in six months – you will regret it.’ And so we made them regret it,” said the state senator of the male Republican senators continuously pushing abortion restrictions in her state – including in an earlier attempt this year to make abortion a crime punishable by the death penalty. Abortions remain legal until 22 weeks in the state, which has become a safe haven for abortion in a region with increasingly limited options. Continue reading...

American workers are more productive than ever, but aren’t feeling the benefit. Let’s learn from Europe and reduce our hoursIn 1938, as a result of a massive grassroots effort by the trade union movement, the Fair Labor Standards Act was enacted by Congress to reduce the work week to 40 hours. Back then, the American people were sick and tired of working 80, 90, 100 hours a week with very little time for rest, relaxation or quality time with their families. They demanded change and they won a huge victory. That’s the good news.The bad news is that despite an explosion in technology, major increases in worker productivity, and transformational changes in the workplace and American society, the Fair Labor Standards Act has not been reformed in 80 years. The result: millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages, with the average worker making nearly $50 a week less than he or she did 50 years ago, after adjusting for inflation. Further, family life is suffering, as parents don’t have adequate time for their kids, life expectancy for working people is in decline, and increased stress is a major factor in the mental health crisis we are now experiencing. Continue reading...

The US justice department has acted appallingly in the Assange case. If he can be prosecuted, so can journalists everywhereLet’s help the Biden administration celebrate this week’s World Press Freedom Day by asking it about the one case officials don’t want to talk about: the US justice department’s dangerous prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.Now, I know Assange is a polarizing individual who millions of Americans, especially liberals, have incredibly strong and negative feelings about. I’m not here to change your mind about Assange the person, but if you care about press freedom, it’s important you change your mind about Assange the legal case. Continue reading...

Human Rights Watch follows lead of Pentagon, FBI and CIA to insert its messages into popular film and TV cultureHuman Rights Watch (HRW) has decided to take on Hollywood to improve the visibility and awareness of humanitarian issues in popular culture.As part of the move, the advocacy group has signed up with a talent agent firm, Activist Artists Management (AAM), to provide “scripted and unscripted content in film and television”, an HRW statement said. Continue reading...

What we long suspected is now scientific fact: there’s a magic chemical connection between mood, strength and longevityExercise, in whatever form, and for however long, just makes life feel better. I feel it myself after a walk up Arthur’s Seat here in Edinburgh, a jog around the Meadows, or a sweaty hot yoga session in Leith. The physical benefits of movement such as lowered blood pressure, reduced risk of diabetes and cancer, and healthy ageing, are well-known, and we’re beginning to understand more about the mental health benefits as well.One of the most interesting health research projects of the past decade or so has looked at how exactly exercise makes us feel good. Research shows that there appears to be a clear scientific reason, that we can see at a cellular level. When muscles contract, they secrete chemicals into the bloodstream. Among these chemicals are myokines, which have been referred to as “hope molecules”. These small proteins travel to the brain, cross the blood-brain barrier, and act as an antidepressant. They do this by improving our mood, our ability to learn, our capacity for locomotor activity, and protect the brain from the negative effects of ageing. This has been referred to as “muscle-brain cross-talk”.Comments on this piece are premoderated to ensure discussion remains on topics raised by the writer. Please be aware there may be a short delay in comments appearing on the site. Continue reading...

Company still has defamation lawsuits pending against two news firms and several persons it has accused of spreading liesWhen Dominion settled its closely-watched $787.5m defamation lawsuit against Fox last month, its lawyers made it clear that the company would continue to pursue legal action against those who spread false claims about the company and the 2020 election.The company still has major defamation cases pending against Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Patrick Byrne and Mike Lindell – all allies of Donald Trump who were some of the most prominent figures that spread election lies involving the voting machine company on television and elsewhere after the 2020 election. Continue reading...

The USA forward on aiming for a third successive World Cup title, motherhood and why England are one of the biggest threats to the defending championsThe US have won the Women’s World Cup twice in a row – wresting it from Japan in 2015 before beating the Netherlands in the 2019 final. Should they prove victorious in Sydney on 20 August, they will be the first men’s or women’s team to win three consecutive World Cups.But the road is treacherous. The word “unconvincing” floats perniciously around their preparations, at a time when women’s football has never been more competitive. Europe in particular is stronger than ever before. Continue reading...

This very British circus is low down the US news agenda, but still they are enjoying it. It will be a good day for Charles lookalikesOne of the more startling aspects of living abroad is adjusting to the reduced importance of things considered very important back home. I remember the moment I realised that little below the level of a change in prime minister or an act of terrorism would make the news list in the US. It was like the first time you see one of those maps produced by countries that aren’t Britain and in which Britain isn’t at the centre of the universe. (The Australian one really blew my mind on this front.)In the US, nobody cares who Suella Braverman is – to be fair, a sentiment shared by a great number of Britons at home – or who’s in and out at the BBC. I once heard an American publishing executive refer to Britain as a “small foreign market”, triggering a similar out-of-body experience, plus some apparently unshiftable residual jingoism. As they say, how very dare you.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The inquiry into the death of Manuel Paez Terán has been marred by contradictory information released by officialsAttorneys for the family of Manuel Paez Terán found out last week about the results of a test to determine if there was gunpowder residue on the slain environmental activist’s hands from a local reporter calling for comment.Civil rights attorney Jeff Filipovits said he was “totally caught off guard” by the call, especially since the Dekalb county medical examiner’s office – the agency that released the results to the media – had told him and his team two weeks earlier that those same results weren’t yet available, and wouldn’t be for some time. Continue reading...

Peace is simply not possible in my garden. If I snooze, I lose. The green tide just keeps coming and I can never beat it backTelevision gardeners are a serene species. A snip here, a bit of potting there, their spades breaking earth rich and dark as they murmur wise and loving words. The soundtrack is as soft and gentle as the songs of the birds a-chirping their gratitude from the bushes and trees. All is well in the gardens of the television gardeners.Cut to any gardening show I might present. There would be no birdsong for a soundtrack, only heavy metal, as brutal as the sound of my spade hitting another unmovable rock. When Lemmy got Motörhead together he said its music would be, “loud, fast, city, raucous, arrogant, paranoid, speed-freak rock’n’roll. It will be so loud that if we move in next door to you, your lawn will die.” Yes, Motörhead’s sound will be just the ticket for my gardening show. Not for me the standard vibe of working with nature. It’ll be man v nature, a battle with only one winner, which won’t be me.Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Our reform committee is flawed, excluding many on the anti-monarchist side, but a republic is getting closer“Enough is enough.” Those were the words of Rastafari Ras Iyah V, former chair of the Nyabinghi administrative council, after the death of Queen Elizabeth.Why had Jamaica declared a 12-day period of mourning for someone who was such a reminder of British exploitation of African ancestors? Continue reading...