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A new generation of fans enthused by younger drivers and the Netflix series Drive to Survive has reinvigorated the sportAttracting young fans was once dismissed as an irrelevance by Formula One, but now the sport seems to have finally accepted that the kids are alright. Formula One has enjoyed an explosion in popularity in recent years, unthinkable a decade ago. Attracting a swathe of fresh fans, the boom has been driven by the grid’s young guns who are connecting with a new generation and reinvigorating the sport.Nowhere is this more evident than in the resurgence of interest in F1 in the USA, an audience it craved for decades. This weekend’s US Grand Prix is expected to be a sellout with 440,000 in attendance across three days, 10% up on 2021. Continue reading...

In 1948, the US initiated the Marshall plan to invest $13bn ($115bn in today’s dollars) in western Europe. We need a similar plan for AfricaThe continent of Africa has over 1.3 billion people – more than double the size of Europe. By 2050, that population is expected to double, giving it more than a quarter of the world’s population – many of them of young working age.And its economies are poised for more growth. The Centre for International Development projects that seven African countries will be among the 15 fastest growing over the next five years. Improving education systems and increased trade are already improving the lives of hundreds of millions of Africans. The poverty rate continues to plummet and migration is increasing as well – spurring the spread of ideas, entrepreneurship and investment. Africa has more than 60% of the globe’s arable uncultivated land. And a new trade agreement is expected to create Africa’s first continent-wide free trade area, generating economic benefits for the country.Ilhan Abdullahi Omar is an American politician serving as the US representative for Minnesota’s fifth congressional district since 2019Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at guardian.letters@theguardian.com

Congresswoman makes remark after former vice-president says there will be ‘pro-life majorities’ in House and SenateAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez had a simple message for Mike Pence on abortion, after the former vice-president predicted “pro-life majorities” in both houses of Congress after the midterm elections.“I’ve got news for you,” the Democratic New York congresswoman wrote. “Absolutely no one wants to hear what your plan is for their uterus.” Continue reading...

Magic Johnson joins in with citywide denunciations of De León and Cedillo, but council is powerless to expel themThe Los Angeles city council appears to be headed for a long and bruising power struggle, as two councilmen resist widespread calls for their resignation amid a racism scandal and state investigation.A week since the president of the city council, Nury Martinez, resigned over crude and racist remarks she made during an October 2021 meeting with other Latino leaders, two other councilmembers present at the meeting have refused to step down, despite Democratic leadership – up to President Joe Biden – calling on them to do so. Continue reading...

Organizers in the state are rushing to rally the electorate against far-right candidates as early voting gets under wayIn 2020, Alejandra Gomez saw years of activism in Arizona make national headlines.Once a Republican stronghold, the state elected a Democrat to the presidency for the first time in decades – in large part due to a grassroots movement started by young, progressive Latinx organizers like Gomez. Continue reading...

One pesticide popular with US farmers has been prominently linked to the disease: a weedkiller called paraquat

Republican contenders for secretary of state, attorney general and governor have loudly echoed Trump’s false claims of election fraudCall it Donald Trump’s election denier trifecta on this year’s ballot.In Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania, where Joe Biden beat then president Trump in 2020, several Republican candidates who have loudly echoed Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen are trying to win jobs as secretary of state, attorney general or governor in November. Continue reading...

Workers at Lowe’s and the chain’s top rival, Home Depot, push to unionize their companies’ first US stores despite challengesLowe’s, the American big box home improvement chain, is facing an effort to form the company’s first US union in New Orleans, Louisiana, where 172 workers, under the banner of Lowe’s Workers United, recently filed a petition for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).Lowe’s operates or services about 2,000 stores in the US and Canada with more than 300,000 full and part-time employees, and has aggressively opposed unionization efforts. The company has staffed union avoidance investigators, developed anti-union training videos for employees, and lost a case in 2021 at the NLRB over a company policy that prohibited employees from discussing wages. Continue reading...

Former PM dominates debate as contest to replace Liz Truss begins, only six weeks after he left office. Plus, the lettuce that outlasted Truss

The Atlantic writer and ESPN alumna who took on Trump opens up about finding her voice and why attempting to keep sports separate from politics and culture is a fool’s errandJemele Hill knew the moment she hit send to tweet about President Trump, she’d get some backlash.On 11 September 2017, in the middle of a 12-tweet debate with Twitter followers, Hill posted: “Donald Trump is a white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself w/ other white supremacists.” Continue reading...

The party has reached a stage where purity of faith is valued over sound judgment or evidenceThe bigger the crisis, the smaller it looks. If the Tories’ problems had external causes, some of them might now rise to the challenge. Or even just one, and that person could be the leader. But none can borrow stature from the magnitude of this mess when they all had a hand in making it.Liz Truss was insubstantial as a leadership candidate and got flimsier in office. The most remarkable feature of her tenure in Downing Street was how much destruction she packed into such a small time. She proved how much power a prime minister can wield, and why anyone aspiring to the job should meet some qualifying threshold of competence, responsibility, sound judgment.Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Supreme court’s overturning of Roe will make reproductive healthcare in prisons a lot worse than it already is, experts warnWhen the US supreme court decided to strip away constitutional abortion protections in June, it effectively made the situation for many pregnant incarcerated women who are seeking abortions a lot worse.Conditions for reproductive healthcare in many US prison facilities are already often abysmal. With many pregnant inmates regularly facing dire circumstances including being denied abortions or being forced to give birth while shackled, experts warn that the overturn of Roe v Wade will now result in even more severe consequences for an already marginalized community. Continue reading...

House minority leader Kevin McCarthy hinted at the measures his party would take if it reclaims majority in the lower chamberA standoff over the debt ceiling. Aid to Ukraine on the chopping block. And impeachment proceedings against homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas – or perhaps even president Joe Biden himself.With polls indicating they have a good shot of winning a majority in the House of Representatives in the 8 November midterms, top Republican lawmakers have in recent weeks offered a preview what they might do with their resurgent power, and made clear they have their sights set on key aspects of the Biden administration’s policies at home and abroad. Continue reading...

The author of a new book on the former president reflects on his tumultuous tenure, and getting inside his head“The word ‘Rosebud’ is maybe the most significant word in film, and what we all watch. The wealth, the sorrow, the unhappiness, the happiness just struck lots of different notes. Citizen Kane was really about accumulation and, at the end of the accumulation, you see what happens and it’s not necessarily all positive.”These words were spoken in 2008 by an unlikely film critic named Donald Trump. Perhaps he glimpsed himself as if in a mirror. Like Kane in Orson Welles’s masterpiece, Trump was a swaggering capitalist and media star who forayed into politics, was brought down by hubris, and now rattles around a gilded cage in Florida. Continue reading...

Photographer Phillip Buehler captured the last stages of life of a New Jersey mall in a sad and insightful set of images showing how shopping has shifted from the physical to the digital. His work is being showcased at an exhibition entitled Malls of America, now on display at Footnote in Gowanus, Brooklyn, until 18 November

The couple fled with their other five children after they were reported to local authorities and were arrested in Louisiana

The air was difficult to breathe and residents struggled with haze as numerous fires smolder in US north-westSeattle, Portland and other cities of the US north-west are experiencing some of the worst air quality in the world as numerous wildfires burn nearby, choking residents and casting an eerie haze across the skyline.In the Seattle area, home to some 4 million people, the sky was brown and the air was difficult to breathe on Thursday. When the sun peeked through it was orange, while the city’s famous Space Needle was shrouded in dense pollution. Continue reading...

The patient, who had been avoiding visits to her eye doctor due to Covid, complained about feeling something foreign in her eyeA California eye doctor has said an elderly patient who came in complaining of blurry vision ended up having 23 disposable contact lenses in her eye.“To this day, she herself does not understand how it took place,” Dr Katerina Kurteeva, a Newport Beach ophthalmologist, told a local TV news channel. “She’s still baffled by it all.” Continue reading...

Colorado representative told Tennessee members ‘there is a calling’ and that ‘it is an honor to serve in this time’Republican Colorado representative Lauren Boebert has told a group of party members that they “get to be part of ushering in the second coming of Jesus”, prompting shock and mockery online.At a dinner hosted by Knox county Republican party in Tennessee on Wednesday, Boebert addressed the guests by saying, “I want to start with two words: ‘Let’s go Brandon’” referring to a vulgar anti-Joe Biden slogan before adding, “In all seriousness, there is a calling on each and every one of you to be involved and to rise up. Continue reading...

Appeal to contend ex-Trump strategist should’ve been allowed to argue he defied Capitol attack subpoena on advice of lawyersDonald Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon is expected to ask a federal appeals court to overturn his contempt of Congress conviction, contending that he should have been allowed at trial to argue he defied a subpoena from the House January 6 select committee on the advice of his lawyers.The appeal will seek the DC circuit court to quash the conviction for which he is set on Friday to face a potential six month prison sentence and $200,000 in fines as recommended by the justice department, according to sources familiar with the matter. Continue reading...

‘Relatively small number’ of troops helping Russian forces, says John Kirby, national security council spokesperson

Complaints detail ballot drop box monitors filming, following and calling voters ‘mules’ in reference to conspiracy filmA voter in Maricopa county, Arizona, claims a group of people watching a ballot drop box photographed and followed the voter and their wife after they deposited their ballots at the box, accusing them of being “mules”.The voter filed a complaint with the Arizona secretary of state, who forwarded it to the US Department of Justice and the Arizona attorney general’s office for investigation, according to Sophia Solis, a spokesperson with the secretary of state’s office. Continue reading...

Google collected biometric data ‘from innumerable Texans’ and used faces and voices to serve commercial ends, complaint saysTexas is suing tech giant Google for allegedly collecting biometric data of millions of Texans without obtaining proper consent, the attorney general’s office said in a statement on Thursday.In its complaint, Texas says that companies operating in the state have been barred for more than a decade from collecting people’s faces, voices or other biometric data without advanced, informed consent. Continue reading...

Report by Quincy Institute says ‘current US arms policy and practice too often fuel war rather than deterring it’Despite an election pledge by Joe Biden to not “check [America’s] values at the door” when it comes to arms sales, the US has increased, not decreased, its weapons sales around the world, including to countries with repressive regimes, a new report reveals.According to the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a Washington-based thinktank, most of the sales also involve just four companies: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon and General Dynamics. The four were involved in 58% all the major offers made since the Biden administration took office. Continue reading...

Asked if he was concerned about possible negative economic spillover from Liz Truss's resignation, Joe Biden said: ‘I don’t think they’re that consequential.’ Speaking to reporters, the US president said the British prime minister had been a good partner ‘on Russia and Ukraine, and the British are going to solve their problems’.In a statement from the White House, Biden said the US and the UK remained ‘allies and enduring friends – and that fact will never change’. He thanked Truss for her partnership against Russia

The Just Stop Oil protesters shocked people when they threw tomato soup at Van Gogh paintings. But it’s not clear they succeeded in bringing attention to their causeLast week two activists from Just Stop Oil who threw tomato soup on a landscape painting by Vincent Van Gogh in the National Gallery and then glued themselves to the wall, symbolizing, um, well, ah… I’m really not quite sure.The head-scratching disconnect between the activists’ tactics and the message they were trying to convey – linking oil to the climate crisis, in case you hadn’t figured it out – has been widely discussed, and ridiculed, in the media.Stephen Duncombe, a lifelong activist, is professor of media and culture at New York University and co-founder of the Center for Artistic Activism, a non-profit organization that trains artists and activists around the world be become more affective and effective. His forthcoming book Æffect is on assessing the impact of arts and activism. Continue reading...

Nonprofit archive Mary Ferrell Foundation says repeated delay has deprived historians of ability to work on president’s death in 1963A non-profit archive sued the Biden administration on Wednesday over Biden’s decision to delay the release of government records related to the assassination of John F Kennedy.The suit was filed by the Mary Ferrell Foundation (MFF), which has a comprehensive online database of records related to the president’s 1963 assassination in Dallas by Lee Harvey Oswald. Kennedy’s death has long been the subject of intense interest, speculation and conspiracy theories. Continue reading...

Measure introduced in Congress would prohibit federal money from being used to teach children under 10 about LGBTQ issuesCongressional Republicans introduced a measure Tuesday that would prohibit federal money from being used to teach children under 10 about LGBTQ issues.The bill would prohibit the use of federal funds to teach children about “sexually-oriented material” as well as “any topic involving gender identity, gender dysphoria, transgenderism, sexual orientation, or related subjects”. The effects of such a law, if enacted, would be far-reaching since a range of institutions – schools, libraries, among them – receive public money. Continue reading...

Remember that Truss and Kwarteng only continued the madness of Osborne and Cameron. And hard years of repair lie aheadThe lexicon is lost for synonyms for mayhem, havoc, chaos and pandemonium. The front pages of all the newspapers and their websites that led the way to this abyss have used them all up. Those who backed Liz Truss, those who engineered Brexit, those forever calling for cuts to the public realm – the Mail even whooping with glee at her catastrophic, market-killing budget – “At last a true Tory budget!” – shouted as loud for her demise, without a heartbeat’s pause for shame or remorse.Truss is gone. The ideological hobgoblins she brought in and others of her fraternity turned on her. It’s not been “take back control” but out of control. Even two more years of this Tory disaster is unthinkable. Whether it’s tax cuts splurging on the rich, or the return by the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, to thumb-screw austerity, the country can’t take either option. Nor will markets be much soothed as long as the party that enabled all this and drove us over the Brexit cliff remains in charge of our weakening economy.Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Newly uncovered evidence linked investigation into 1994 New Orleans murder to disgraced officer currently on federal death rowThree Louisiana men incarcerated for over 28 years were found to have been wrongfully convicted of murder on Wednesday, after newly uncovered evidence linked the original police investigation to a notorious officer found guilty of murder conspiracy and endemic corruption in the New Orleans police department.Bernell Juluke, Kunta Gable and Leroy Nelson were found guilty of the second-degree murder of Rondell Santinac in 1996, with all three men – who were teenagers at the time of the drive-by shooting in the city’s ninth ward – maintaining their innocence since arrest. Continue reading...

‘Sometimes it just wipes me out’: the unwanted approval of men is exhausting to deal withA few years ago a friend of mine got married, and when I pulled up to the rustic wedding site, a man I didn’t know positioned himself behind my car to make dramatic hand signals. I didn’t need or ask for help, but he was giving it, and I’m sure he thought the credit for my success in parking my small car in this very easy spot was at least partly his. In a very minor and undoubtedly unwitting way, he was trying to rob me of my sense of competence to bolster his own.It’s not impaired by one clown, but I’ve had hundreds or maybe thousands of experiences like this, of unwanted, unsolicited intrusion in the form of help, advice, and granting approval (or its opposite). It all too frequently takes the form of some man saying “correct” when I or other women say something aloud or online, as if we needed their approval, as if they were the authorities in the room, as though it wasn’t true or right until it had their imprimateur. When I wrote a social media post about the phenomenon, the response was like that scene in Giant when they drill for oil and it spouts skyward. Torrents of stories from other women gushed out. Continue reading...

We fact-check each misleading assertion made by the former president in a lengthy letter to the Capitol attack committee Continue reading...

In contrast to the real estate developer with a net worth of around $5.3bn, his opponent Karen Bass raised only $6m as of SeptemberBillionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso has now poured more than $80m of his own fortune into the race to become the next mayor of Los Angeles, according to campaign records.Caruso’s spending is unprecedented in the race to lead America’s second most populous city, political experts have said, but the luxury mall developer has not yet broken the record of New York City billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who spent $102m to win his third term as mayor in 2009. Continue reading...

Latinos are a key voice in a newly drawn political district in Colorado where there is an effort to educate votersIt’s cold for an early October afternoon at Glad Tidings Assembly of God Church in Greeley, Colorado. Kids in puffy jackets are running around on the front lawn while the pastor and his volunteers grill food for the high schoolers who show up after football practice.“Last Friday we cooked up 240 hamburgers and 176 hot dogs,” Linda Gonzales says proudly. Continue reading...

Migrants will no longer be able to join their families in the US while they wait their turn in the asylum process but instead forced to languish in MexicoThe news could not have reached Remira Alarsa at a worse moment.Since leaving her home in Venezuela last month, the former teacher, her husband and nephew had trekked thousands of miles through seven countries, determined to resettle in the US – only to be robbed of their savings in Guatemala. Continue reading...

President announces release of 15m barrels of oil from strategic reserve as he fights to keep gas prices in check before midterms. Plus, why spending time with strangers can make you happyGood morning.Joe Biden has called on oil companies to pass on their massive profits to consumers as he announced the release of 15m barrels of oil from the US strategic petroleum reserve.What did he say? “My message to all companies is this: you’re sitting on record profits. And we’re giving you more certainty. You can act now to increase oil production. You should not be using your profits to buy back stock or for dividends – not while the war is raging.”Why else is Trump in the news? Trump acknowledged in 2019 that letters he wrote to Kim Jong-un and later took with him upon leaving the White House were secret, according to recordings of an interview he gave to the journalist Bob Woodward.Meanwhile, Trump signed a legal statement alleging voter fraud in the 2020 election despite knowing it was not true. He had been told the numbers underpinning the case were false before signing the document, a federal judge said yesterday. Continue reading...

Cultivating organic produce may be backbreaking, but it’s the most important thing I’ve ever doneIn July 2016, I was sitting on the rooftop of a building in central London, listening to the gentle rumble of a nearby beehive, when I realised that my life had changed entirely. I didn’t intend to quit – quitting crept up on me. After eight years of working in the media, I was on a path to becoming an organic food grower, with a temporary side hustle of city beekeeping.Not long before that point, I was just like the people in the office building below me. My work days were spent behind a desk or lugging around camera equipment, but now I am devoted to a life of nurturing the soil and growing the plants that end up on our plates.Claire Ratinon is an organic food grower and writer Continue reading...

Voters rank economy as top concern in newest polls as Republicans spend ‘tremendous amount’ in swing states with inflation messagingIf, after the 8 November midterms, Americans wake up to find their statehouses and congressional seats packed with Republicans who deny the outcome of the 2020 election, participated in the January 6 insurrection and hold extremist views on abortion, they may well have high inflation to thank.The rising cost of just about everything Americans buy has become a major liability for Democrats fighting to maintain their narrow control of Congress, and a pair of recent surveys has dashed hopes that the trend is fading – or that voters have found a bigger worry. Continue reading...

The two Los Angeles teams meet on Thursday night in the MLS playoffs. And the passion and excitement around the game is a highlight of the leagueThe fiercest derbies take decades to build. They have intangible qualities that goes beyond soccer and are wrapped up in all sorts of historical and cultural factors. The clásico, first played in 1902, has become a statement on national and regional identity, while the Old Firm derby dates back to the 19th century and is as much about religion as it is soccer. El Tráfico, however, is an exception to the rule. Despite being only four-years-old, and manufactured by Major League Soccer, it is a very real rivalry.Maybe Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who scored twice off the bench on his debut in the inaugural El Tráfico fixture, is the reason matches between Los Angeles FC and the LA Galaxy matter. He certainly helped light the rivalry’s fuse. More likely is that MLS tapped into an existing soccer community that felt unrepresented by giving LA a second franchise in 2018 and pitted it directly against an established superpower of the American game. Continue reading...

A few high-profile quarterbacks have faced struggles in the first six weeks of the season. But how much they are to blame for their teams’ shortcomings is variable2022 stat line: five touchdowns, three interceptions, 58.6 completion %, 7.3 yards per attempt, 83.4 passer rating Continue reading...

Instead of living with this delusion, leaders should examine emerging market economies and try to emulate their successInflation is at a 40-year-high. Food bills are soaring. Pensioners are so fearful of rising energy costs that they are delaying turning on their central heating. There are “eye-watering” cuts in public spending and tax increases to come. But never mind. All will be fine now that the grownups are back in charge.Jeremy Hunt was at his emollient best in his Commons debut this week. The government has learned the hard way that you dispense with orthodoxy at your peril. Abacus economics – derided by Liz Truss during her leadership bid – is vital if the UK is to take advantage of its fundamental strengths.Larry Elliott is the Guardian’s economics editor Continue reading...

Document was part of lawsuit challenging results of 2020 election in GeorgiaDonald Trump signed a legal statement alleging voter fraud in the 2020 election despite being told the numbers underpinning the case were false, a federal judge said on Wednesday.The disclosure was made by the US district judge David Carter, who ordered John Eastman, a former Trump lawyer, to provide more emails to the congressional committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. Continue reading...

The deposition allowed the writer’s lawyers to interrogate the ex-president, though details weren’t immediately disclosedDonald Trump answered questions under oath Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by E Jean Carroll, a magazine columnist who says the Republican former president raped her in the mid-1990s in a department store dressing room.The deposition gave Carroll’s lawyers a chance to interrogate Trump about the assault allegations as well as statements he made in 2019 when she told her story publicly for the first time. Continue reading...

Move is president’s attempt to mitigate concerns over the economy as midterms approach

Baptist minister Charles Southall pleads guilty to money laundering as prosecutors say he used cash to cover billsA Baptist minister renowned in Louisiana has acknowledged stealing nearly $900,000 from his church, affiliated rental properties, his congregants and a charter school.Charles Southall III, who for more than three decades led First Emanuel Baptist church in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to charges of money-laundering. Continue reading...