Media mogul turns to ‘DeFuture’ Ron DeSantis after ex-president’s poor showing in midterm electionsRupert Murdoch has reportedly warned Donald Trump his media empire will not back any attempt to return to the White House, as former supporters turn to the youthful Florida governor Ron DeSantis.After the Republican party’s disappointing performance in the US midterm elections, in particular the poor showing by candidates backed by Trump, Murdoch’s rightwing media empire appears to be seeking a clean break from the former president’s damaged reputation and perceived waning political power. Continue reading...
US president says trajectory of missile suggests it was not launched by Russian forces waging war in Ukraine but will await results of investigationJoe Biden has said the missile that landed in Poland, killing two people, was unlikely to have been fired from Russia due to its trajectory.The US president was speaking at the G20 meeting in Bali, Indonesia, after convening an emergency meeting of western leaders to discuss the explosion on Nato territory that has the potential to take the war in Ukraine into a new even more dangerous dimension. Continue reading...
Donald Trump has announced his 2024 presidential bid at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. 'In order to make America great and glorious again, I tonight am announcing my candidacy for president of the United States,' Trump said. The former president has been teasing the announcement since before the midterm elections and it comes as he faces intense scrutiny from within his own party. After a number of far-right, Trump-endorsed candidates lost their elections, advisers had urged the ex-president to delay announcing a 2024 candidacy. Trump is facing a deluge of legal troubles and investigations
The former president is running again but the GOP midterm meltdown has changed the primary landscapeDonald Trump’s announcement of a third White House run does not only pose serious questions for the country he divided against itself during his defeat of Hillary Clinton, his four chaotic years in power, his rancorous defeat by Joe Biden and his incitement of the January 6 insurrection.Trump’s entrance into the race for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 poses existential questions for the Republican party itself. Since last week’s midterm elections failed to produce an expected “red wave”, leaving the Senate in Democratic hands and the House barely under GOP control, the primary landscape has shifted. Continue reading...
The ex-president is entering the race bogged down with legal baggage that could derail his campaignDonald Trump has announced his third run for president, a move likely to be as norm-shattering as his successful 2016 campaign.But a new twist is the sheer size and scale of the legal jeopardy that now surrounds him. Federal and state authorities are investigating Trump’s personal, political and financial conduct, and that of his business empire. Continue reading...
Migrants held in Georgia were unwillingly subjected to ‘excessive, invasive and often unnecessary’ gynecological proceduresA US Senate investigation into allegations that unwanted medical procedures were performed on detained female immigrants in Georgia has uncovered “a catastrophic failure by the federal government” to protect the detainees.A Senate hearing on Tuesday by the bipartisan permanent subcommittee on investigations (PSI), chaired by Georgia senator Jon Ossoff, announced its findings on conditions and practices at the Irwin county detention center (ICDC). Continue reading...
Washington woman visited White House in 2016 aged 106, and danced with president and first lady in clip that went viralVirginia McLaurin, a Washington woman who was 106 when in 2016 she visited and danced with Barack and Michelle Obama in the White House, has died. She was 113 years old.A family statement on McLaurin’s Facebook page said: “With heavy hearts we share that Ms Virginia McLaurin passed away this morning [Monday]. She had been under hospice care for a few days. Continue reading...
State law limits early voting after state holidays, including Thanksgiving and another formerly honoring Confederate generalRaphael Warnock’s campaign sued Georgia on Tuesday after the state said it would not offer Saturday early voting for the closely watched runoff in which Warnock is seeking re-election to the US Senate.The suit challenges the state’s interpretation of a law that would prohibit early voting on the Saturday following Thanksgiving. The day after Thanksgiving is also a state holiday in Georgia, originally to commemorate Robert E Lee, the Confederate civil war general. In 2015, state officials dropped Lee’s name and started recognizing the day simply as a “state holiday”. Continue reading...
Judge rules state’s ban on terminations once ‘detectable human heartbeat’ present violated US constitution at time it was enactedA judge overturned Georgia’s ban on abortion starting around six weeks into a pregnancy, ruling on Tuesday that it violated the US constitution and US supreme court precedent when it was enacted.The ruling by Judge Robert McBurney of Fulton county superior court applies statewide. The ban had been in effect since July. Continue reading...
by Antonio Voce, Seán Clarke, Niels de Hoog and Anna on (#65VS1)
Full live results of the Congressional midterms, seat by seat. The House of Representatives remains undecided, but Democrats have retained control of the Senate
Relief as Republicans election deniers running to take over elections beaten in almost every statewide raceRepublicans who rejected and sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election results lost nearly every statewide race in which they sought to take control over how elections are run, a result hailed as a significant victory for free and fair elections in the US.Voters rejected election deniers who sought to become the top election official in Arizona, Nevada and Michigan – all key battleground states – as well as Minnesota and New Mexico. In Pennsylvania, Doug Mastriano, a state senator who has been among the most prominent spreaders of election misinformation, lost his bid to be the state’s top election official. Kari Lake, a Republican who built her campaign around election denialism, also is projected to lose her bid for governor in Arizona. Continue reading...
Panel chair Bennie Thompson says contempt of Congress referral ‘could be an option’ after former president skips interviewThe special US House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack is weighing whether to issue a contempt of Congress referral for Donald Trump after the former president skipped a closed-door deposition with the panel that was scheduled for Monday.The committee’s Democratic chair, Bennie Thompson, said that the contempt of Congress referral targeting Trump “could be an option” – though the Mississippi congressman added that the panel would have to first address a lawsuit filed against it by Trump’s lawyers on Friday. The suit challenged the subpoena ordering Trump to appear at the deposition as a violation of executive privilege. Continue reading...
The Amazon founder says giving money away ‘is really hard’. Luckily, poor people do far more of it than he doesHow bracing to wake up yesterday and read that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had donated $100m to Dolly Parton’s charitable endeavours, at his own “Courage and Civility” event. (Sarcastic airquotes: my own.) The many, many news reports about this act suggested it was a truly incredible sum from the second richest man in the world, who – according to recent estimates – gets richer by about $205m a day.Anyway, once I’d peeled myself off the ceiling, I got busy on the government’s tax calculator. If you’re on the median average UK salary – and you pay your taxes – your take-home pay is £72 a day. Looked at one way, then, Jeff’s benevolence would be the equivalent of donating £34.56 to charity. Have YOU ever donated thirty-four quid to charity? Do you pay your taxes? If so, you’re actually being more generous than Jeff Bezos, who, famously, avoids almost all of his. And yet, where’s YOUR splashy news write-up in all the fine news outlets of the world? Where’s YOUR fawning TV interview? Why does no one refer to YOU as a “philanthropist”?Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnistA year in Westminster with John Crace, Marina Hyde and Armando Iannucci
Retail giant is latest major chain to settle lawsuits with state and local governments across the US over toll of opioids sold at its pharmaciesRetail giant Walmart on Tuesday become the latest major player in the drug industry to announce a plan to settle lawsuits filed by state and local governments over the toll of powerful prescription opioids sold at its pharmacies with state and local governments across the US.The $3.1bn proposal follows similar announcements on 2 November from the two largest US pharmacy chains, CVS Health and Walgreen Co, which each said they would pay about $5bn. Continue reading...
We might one day look back on this midterm – and on Biden’s first two years – and discern in them a new beginningLast week was amazing for Joe Biden. The Red Wave fizzled. The Democrats kept the Senate. Even if the House slips from the Democrats’ grasp, as it is expected to, Biden will be credited with engineering the strongest midterm showing by an incumbent president’s party since 2002, and the most impressive such performance by a sitting Democratic president since JFK in 1962. Women’s anger at the supreme court’s Dobbs decision hammered the Republicans in key states. Many of Trump’s highest-flying, election-denying candidates fell to earth, damaging the ex-president’s aura of invincibility. Fights and recriminations have now broken out everywhere in Republican ranks.And there’s more from last week to bring a smile to Biden’s face: inflation moderated, the Dow rocketed skyward, and Ukrainians pushed the Russians out of Kherson, a big win not just for Ukraine but for Biden’s European foreign policy. And, oh yes, in America, young people – the country’s future – came out in relatively large numbers and, in critical contests, broke for the Democrats in a big way.Gary Gerstle is Mellon professor of American history emeritus at Cambridge and a Guardian US columnist. His most recent book is The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era (2022) Continue reading...
by Felix Sitthivong in Aberdeen, Washington, and Sam on (#65VAQ)
Clifford Farrar collapsed after seeking care last year. His death exposes the health crisis in Washington state prisonsOn a cold December day in 2021, the echoes of an emergency code cut through the bustling sounds of the Stafford Creek corrections center in Aberdeen, Washington.The alarm could mean there had been a scuffle at the poker table, an officer was having a bad day, or a new lockdown due to yet another Covid outbreak was being imposed. Continue reading...
After almost a week of counting, Republicans look set to retake the house with a narrow margin. Plus, media groups urge world leaders to impose climate tax on fossil fuel firms
by Bekah McNeel for the Trace and the Guardian, with on (#65V8Q)
Prior to the shooting, the city grappled with police corruption, entrenched gun culture and the lasting wounds of segregation. Now the illusion of ‘Uvalde Strong’ has ruptured as families demand changeThis story was originally published by The Trace, a non-profit newsroom covering gun violence in America. Sign up for its newsletters here.It took most of the summer for the Uvalde school district to fire Pete Arredondo, the chief of the district police department whose blunders were largely blamed for the high number of casualties at the horrific mass shooting at Robb elementary school. The families of the victims acknowledged that it was the first real response to community demands for accountability, but parents, grandparents and siblings have not stopped organizing to oust – by protest or by election – those who were in charge on 24 May. Now, they’re fighting to change gun laws in Texas, a state that prohibits its agencies from enforcing any gun control legislation passed since January 2021. Continue reading...
Just three of Gregg Berhalter’s roster for Qatar have Latino roots. But many inside the game believe the coach should be given the benefit of the doubtSpanish-speaking soccer fans of a certain age have grown up listening to broadcasters refer to the US men’s national team as “el equipo de todos” – everyone’s team, representing the diverse cultural backgrounds that make up America. But the 26-player US squad for this year’s World Cup, which kicks off on 20 November, has just three players representing the Latinos and Latinas who provide a considerable share of the game’s supporters in the US.Forward Jesus Ferreira moved from Colombia to Texas when he was 10, midfielder Cristian Roldan’s parents are from El Salvador and Honduras, and Gio Reyna’s grandfather is Argentinian. Luca de la Torre, whose father is Spanish, provides another Hispanic presence, but he isn’t Latino. And one would have to stretch the definition of Latino to count Kellyn Acosta, whose paternal step-grandfather is Mexican. Ricardo Pepi, the Mexican American striker who settled a heated battle over his services by choosing the US over his family’s native country, was left out. Continue reading...
County leaders say they fear ex-president is even more divisive than he was two years ago and is therefore unelectableTerri Burl was an early member of Women for Trump. As chair of her local Republican party branch in northern Wisconsin, she twice campaigned vigorously for his election in the key swing state. By the time Trump left office, Burl rated him the greatest president since Ronald Reagan. Maybe even better.But now Burl has had enough. Continue reading...
Former US first lady rules out possibility of running for president herself in futureMichelle Obama has said Donald Trump’s rise to power in the 2016 US election “still hurts” but she and her husband had “laid a marker in the sand” with his presidency.The former first lady said “leadership matters” but ruled out the possibility of running for president herself in future. Continue reading...
Height confers obvious advantages in basketball. But super tall players are often more susceptible to injury and smaller stars have thrived at the topWhen word began to circulate, there was great hope. What could this 7ft 7in giant from Sudan named Manute Bol do in the NBA? Could his defense and shot blocking make memories of the greatest defenders like Bill Russell vanish? In his book, Manute: The Center of Two Worlds, author Leigh Montville describes the efforts to bring Bol from Africa to the United States to find out what he was capable of. In the end, though, Bol didn’t have a legendary career. Yes, he was a fan favorite, known, strangely, as much for games in which he hit multiple three-pointers as he was for his blocked shots. But while Bol led the NBA in blocks twice, he averaged just 2.6 points and 4.2 rebounds per games across his career. Even his teammate, the much smaller Charles Barkley, would deride and prank Bol, not worried about retribution.But Bol’s career – like that of many super-tall, super-short and even rather heavy players – raises a question. In a sport that is regularly defined by height, does size really matter in the NBA? This subject comes into focus again today with the frenzy over the potential of the 7ft 4in French prospect Victor Wembanyama, who plays as fluidly as All-Stars like the 6ft 8in Jayson Tatum and who can defend as well as giants like the 7ft 1in three-time NBA defensive player of the year Rudy Gobert. Continue reading...
After almost a week of counting, Republicans look set to retake the house with a narrow marginRepublicans were on the brink of taking control of the US House of Representatives after a flurry of races were called for them on Monday.The party had expected an overwhelming victory in the lower chamber of Congress due to high inflation and dissatisfaction with the Biden administration. But there was unexpectedly strong support for the Democrats, who have controlled the House since 2019. Continue reading...
Delivery workers grapple with danger after dozens injured in blazes that can spread quickly and suddenlyNew York City delivery workers have to deal with an array of threats: speeding cars, volatile weather, armed robbers and app algorithms that can “deactivate” them if they don’t rush to customers quickly enough. Lately, workers have added another to the list – their electric bikes bursting into flames.The powerful lithium ion batteries used in small electric vehicles are responsible for a growing epidemic of fires. This year, there have been about 200 fires and six deaths, according to the New York City fire department. This month, an e-bike fire inside a Manhattan high-rise apartment became an inferno that injured nearly 40 people and forced firefighters to evacuate residents using ropes. Continue reading...
Sources say Trump will deliver the address from Mar-a-Lago Tuesday even though his candidates fared poorly in the midtermsDonald Trump is expected to announce his 2024 presidential campaign on Tuesday night as planned, according to multiple sources close to the former US president, inserting himself into the center of national politics as he attempts to box out potential rivals seeking the Republican nomination.Trump will deliver at 9pm ET a speech from the ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago resort, where he recently hosted a subdued midterm elections watch party, and detail several policy goals that aides hope could become central themes of the presidential campaign. Continue reading...
Victory for Democrat over Trump-endorsed opponent is seen as a boost to voting rightsThe Democratic candidate for governor in Arizona, Katie Hobbs, has defeated her far-right, Trump-endorsed opponent, staving off a major threat to voting rights in the state.Hobbs, who is Arizona’s outgoing secretary of state, defeated Kari Lake, a former TV anchor who denies the 2020 election results. Lake has refused to say if she would accept defeat this time around but tweeted “Arizonans know BS when they see it” after Monday’s result emerged. The Associated Press projected Hobbs as the winner on Monday evening with more than 95% of votes reported. Continue reading...
Complaint on behalf of six detained people who have not yet seen a judge targets largest jail system in USLos Angeles residents jailed because they can’t afford to pay bail have filed a class-action lawsuit challenging the system that often keeps low-income people behind bars before they’ve been charged.The complaint was filed on Monday on behalf of six people in LA jails who were recently arrested but have not yet seen a judge, been arraigned or assigned a public defender. Continue reading...
Former first lady writes on love, knitting and being tall in The Light We CarryAlmost four years after her memoir, Becoming, Michelle Obama is once again giving readers insight into her life. In The Light We Carry, Obama shares practical tips and wisdom about everything from overcoming fear to how exactly you can “go high”.Peppered among the advice – from Obama herself and vicariously from family members, friends and colleagues – are stories about her life. Continue reading...
In The Light We Carry, the follow-up to her bestseller Becoming, the former first lady reveals her ‘fearful mind’ and experience of depression during the pandemicMichelle Obama “hates” how she looks, “all the time and no matter what”, she has revealed in her new book.The Light We Carry, the former First Lady’s second memoir, builds on her 2018 title Becoming, and aims to be a “toolkit to live boldly”. In the new book, which was extracted in the Guardian’s Saturday magazine, Obama discusses ways to overcome one’s “fearful mind”, which she likens to “a life partner you didn’t choose”. Continue reading...
Shooter killed three football players and wounded two others on Sunday night in a parking garage on campusA suspected shooter who killed three students and wounded two at a Virginia university was behind bars on Monday night.Christopher Jones Jr, 22, was taken into custody in suburban Richmond, the state capital after the student and former football player killed at least three students at the University of Virginia (UVA), said UVA police chief Tim Longo. Continue reading...
Trump lawyer not charged after grand jury investigation in New York that led to seizure of phones by FBIProsecutors in New York do not plan to bring criminal charges against Rudy Giuliani in connection with an investigation into his interactions with Ukrainian figures, they revealed in a letter to a judge on Monday.They said they made the decision after a review of evidence resulting from raids on his residence and law office in April 2021. Continue reading...
Alabama congressman Mo Brooks, a once-zealous Trump ally, comments after party fails to retake Congress in midtermsAlabama congressman and once-zealous Trump supporter, Mo Brooks, has a remarkable new stance on the political future of his former hero. “It would be a bad mistake for the Republicans to have Donald Trump as their nominee in 2024,” he said.The stark judgment from Brooks was indicative of the deepening and brutal blame game among Republicans which continued on Monday, nearly a week after the party failed to retake Congress in the midterm elections and a day before Trump’s expected announcement of a new presidential campaign. Continue reading...
President at G20 says ‘I don’t think we’re going to make it’ after Republicans triumph in key races and stand on brink of majorityJoe Biden on Monday expressed doubts that Democrats can maintain their majority in the US House of Representatives after Republicans won key races over the weekend.“I think we’re going to get very close in the House, but I don’t think we’re going to make it,” Biden said at a press conference, dedicated to his meeting with China’s Xi Jinping at the G20 summit, in response to a question about abortion legislation following the midterms. Before the midterms, Biden said that the first piece of legislation Democrats would pass if they kept control of both congressional chambers would codify abortion rights established in Roe v Wade. Continue reading...
Grand jury indicted Mason Herring on two felony counts earlier this month, including assaulting a pregnant personA Texas man faces criminal charges for allegedly trying to end his wife’s pregnancy without her knowledge by slipping medication used to induce an abortion into her drinks.Earlier this month, a grand jury indicted the man, a 38-year-old attorney from Houston named Mason Herring, on two felony counts, including assaulting a pregnant person. The second charge Herring faces is “assault – forced induced to have an abortion”, according to court records. Continue reading...
Whether you voted Democratic, Republican or neither, we’d like to hear from voters in the US as the final votes are talliedDemocrats have retained control of the Senate, while the Republican party looks likely to narrowly gain the balance of power in the House of Representatives.As the votes from the US midterm elections are tallied, we would like to hear from voters about their reaction to the results announced so far. Continue reading...
by Antonio Voce, Seán Clarke, Niels de Hoog and Anna on (#65T80)
Full live results of the Congressional midterms, seat by seat. The House of Representatives remains undecided, but Democrats have retained control of the Senate
FTX was supposed to be the future – a safe, reliable and innovative way to trade digital currency. Instead it has unleashed a financial meltdownFTX seemed to be a shining example of a cryptocurrency exchange that was doing everything right. Run by Sam Bankman-Fried – a multibillionaire, believed by many to be a once-in-a-generation genius, who rubbed shoulders with congresspeople and called for “thoughtful regulatory leadership” – FTX and its sister companies were bringing crypto to the mainstream. They spent millions on a Super Bowl ad comparing crypto to the invention of the wheel and the lightbulb, urging customers not to “miss out” on “the next big thing” and touting FTX as “a safe and easy way to get into crypto.” During the crypto downturn this past year, Bankman-Fried was compared to JP Morgan for the seemingly endless pile of cash he had to offer floundering crypto firms as he swooped in as a savior.In the span of one week, his empire came crashing down.Molly White is a researcher, software engineer, and the creator of the website Web3 is Going Just Great Continue reading...
Police say suspect, ‘armed and dangerous’ and believed to be former football player, still at large after Sunday evening incidentThree people have been killed and two others wounded in a shooting at a parking garage at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, according to the college president, and police searched on Monday for a student who was suspected of carrying out the deadly violence.The shooting happened about 10.30pm Sunday, the university’s president, Jim Ryan, said in a letter to the school’s community which was posted on social media. The letter said the suspected killer was Christopher Jones Jr, who used to play for the University of Virginia’s football team. Continue reading...
In memoir, former vice-president protests loyalty but hits out over Charlottesville, Russia, both impeachments and moreIn his new book, Donald Trump’s vice-president, Mike Pence, protests his loyalty to his former boss but also levels criticisms that will acquire new potency as Trump prepares to announce another presidential run and the Republican party debates whether to stay loyal after disappointment in last week’s midterm elections.According to Pence, Trump mishandled his response to a march staged by neo-Nazis in Charlottesville in August 2017, a costly error that Pence says could have been avoided had Pence called Trump before a fateful press conference in which Trump failed to condemn “the racists and antisemites in Charlottesville by name”. Continue reading...
Chris Magnus had been asked to resign by Biden’s homeland security chief amid a surge in migrant crossingsThough he had said he did not intend to quit, the leader of the US agency in charge of patrolling the nation’s borders resigned over the weekend, according to the Joe Biden White House.Chris Magnus had been asked to step down by Biden’s homeland security chief, Alejandro Mayorkas, amid a surge in migrant crossings at the US border with Mexico. Magnus – who was told he would be fired if he didn’t leave on his own – responded by publicly stating that he had “no plans to resign” as the commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Continue reading...
The killing of Mahsa Amini has galvanised a new generation to reject oppression – I hope that they achieve what we couldn’tI held my first photo exhibition in late 2017, a few months after returning from Mosul, Iraq, where I had documented the operation to liberate the city from Islamic State. From the first moments of the event, I felt gloomy as my family cast concerned looks at me while the press took pictures of my hair freely protruding from my scarf and clothes – a deliberate rebellion on my part against Iran’s conservative traditions and beliefs.I suddenly experienced a flashback to all the ways in which I had been oppressed as a woman during my life. When I turned six, they pulled me out of my games with the boys in the neighbourhood. When I turned seven, they covered my head with the ugliest scarf in the world, which looked like a burlap sack, and sent me to school where, even though it was staffed solely by women, no one was allowed to remove the scarf. Continue reading...
House control still undecided as Republicans lead and attention pivots to Florida, where Trump is expected to announce 2024 run. Plus, why we need to be a lot less hesitant about being kindGood morning.While the balance of power in the US House of Representatives remains unresolved, Democrats are celebrating the projection that they have won control of the Senate, marking a significant victory for Joe Biden, as Republicans backed by his presidential predecessor, Donald Trump, underperformed in key battleground states.Have the US midterms finally loosened Trump’s grip on the Republican party? Some in the party are ready to declare it so. Referring to Governor Ron DeSantis’s victory in Florida, David Urban, a longtime Trump ally, told the Washington Post: “It is clear the center of gravity of the Republican party is in the state of Florida, and I don’t mean Mar-a-Lago.”What does the future of the Democrat party look like? From the first openly lesbian governors in the US and first Black governor of Maryland, to the first Generation Z member of Congress, as well as battle-hardened young politicians in critical swing states such as Michigan and Pennsylvania, a new slate of Democratic leaders is coming into view after Tuesday’s elections.Kherson fell quickly. Will Ukraine’s progress east of the Dnipro River be as straightforward? Ukraine’s success in Kherson – and make no mistake, forcing Russia out with minimal civilian casualties is a major achievement – was a victory achieved by smashing the Russian supply chain. But critical also was favourable geography – the isolated position of Kherson on the west of the Dnipro. Russia has more advantages to the east, which will make it harder.What else is happening in Ukraine? Here’s what we know on day 264 of the invasion. Continue reading...
After years of tempest and tumult, most of us want a competent government that acts reasonably and carefullyDemocrats will retain control of the US Senate, and maybe even the House.There was no red wave. But there was no blue wave, either.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is 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 new 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...
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