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It’s clear to me, as a victim of press intrusion, that the only way to truly root out wrongdoing is to forge ahead with the second part of the Leveson inquiryI suspect that as you are reading this, your mobile phone is somewhere close by. If it is, scroll through your messages and read or listen to the content.Now read or listen to them again through the lens of a tabloid journalist – out of context – looking for a story, looking for clues as to your whereabouts, activities, associations, relationships, private thoughts, feelings, opinions, arguments, arrangements. Has someone implicated you in something? What story could they possibly be writing? What could be misconstrued, misinterpreted, manipulated. Continue reading...

James Brennand, 25, charged with aggravated assault after shooting of Erik Cantu, 17, at McDonald’s in San AntonioA now-former San Antonio police officer was charged on Tuesday with two counts of aggravated assault by a peace officer for shooting and gravely wounding a teen eating a hamburger in his car in a McDonald’s parking lot. The teen had begun driving away when the officer opened fire.James Brennand, 25, was charged in the 2 October shooting of Erik Cantu, 17, according to a police statement. He turned himself in to police on Tuesday night and remained in custody, said the police chief, William McManus. Continue reading...

Three of the USA team talk about what must happen after the Sally Yates report revealed ‘systemic’ abuse in the NWSLWelcome to Moving the Goalposts, the Guardian’s free women’s football newsletter. Here’s an extract from this week’s edition. To receive the full version once a week, just pop your email in below:This past week, the US Women’s National Team took on a challenging international window amid the fallout of Sally Yates’s 172-page report investigating “abusive behavior and sexual misconduct” in the NWSL. Released on 3 October, the report detailed abuse of various nature, at multiple clubs, and illustrated issues more pervasive than even the athletes involved had realised. Continue reading...

Richard Trahant was fined $400,000 for violating confidentiality rules around a bankruptcy filing by the local archdioceseA New Orleans attorney who represents victims of clerical sexual abuse faces a $400,000 fine after alerting a local Catholic high school that a priest who worked there once admitted to fondling and kissing a teen girl he met at another church institution.The lawyer, Richard Trahant, said he would appeal against the hefty sanction handed to him on Tuesday, which stemmed from a federal judge’s ruling that his alert violated confidentiality rules governing a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by the local archdiocese. Continue reading...

Calls for sustained efforts to help people experiencing ‘prolonged suffering’. Plus, Saudi Arabia to face consequences

In their vicious efforts to extinguish Ukraine, the Russians have reached an unprecedented state of weakness and cluelessness

After Roe v Wade, women in anti-abortion states can’t access life-saving medication for everything from chronic pain to lupus to ulcersMaybe the pharmacist at the Tucson, Arizona, Walgreens was acting out of religious conviction. Maybe they were afraid that they could get arrested. We may never know. What we do know is that on 26 September, two days after Arizona’s abortion ban went into effect, Emma Thompson, a 14-year-old girl with rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis, was denied her prescription for methotrexate.Thompson had been on methotrexate for some time; this was a longstanding prescription that she was getting refilled. The drug, a potent anti-inflammatory drug, is used to treat a wide array of issues, from autoimmune disorders, like Thompson’s, to arthritis and cancer. It’s estimated that 60% of all rheumatoid arthritis patients are prescribed the drug, and for Thompson, it was working well. After a childhood spent in and out of hospitals, enduring years of debilitating pain, her doctors had finally found a medication and a dosage that seemed to be working for her. Her symptoms abated enough that she was able to attend school. “It’s her first year and she’s in high school and it feels like a dream,” said Thompson’s mother, Kaitlin Preble. “She’s not in a wheelchair, she has a social life and friends for the first time, and a life all young people should have.” Continue reading...

The congressman won a swing upstate New York district with a progressive platform – and says Democrats can use his playbookWhen Democrat Pat Ryan got elected to New York’s 19th – a largely rural district in upstate New York that swung for Trump in 2016 and only narrowly elected Biden in 2020 – people were surprised.His contender in the August special election, Marc Molinaro, was a well-known local politician who entered the political arena when he was just 18, becoming the mayor of Tivoli, which is in the district, at 19. Molinaro was the favorite to win: leading in the polls, by as much as 10 points, right up to the moment Ryan claimed victory. Continue reading...

Older people disparage them for lacking resilience, but it takes grit to challenge a destructive status quo at workSteven Bartlett, the entrepreneur and superstar podcaster, ruffled a few younger feathers recently when he described Gen Z as “the least resilient generation I have ever seen”. He added: “I just fear that when I’m hiring people in that generation, I almost need to go an extra length just to check they can cope with a high-intensity culture where demands might come on a Saturday – because the world doesn’t just stop on a Saturday and Sunday.”His initial take is not a unique one. For many of their older fellow citizens, Gen Z are a source of irritation and disappointment. They’re too sensitive. They’re too easily offended. And they lack the inner toughness required to deal with the challenges and inevitable setbacks of everyday work and life.Bruce Daisley is the former vice-president of Twitter Europe and author of The Joy of Work and Fortitude: Unlocking the Secrets of Inner Strength Continue reading...

The former Auburn football coach earned a small fortune thanks to Black athletes. As a US senator he has shown them little but contemptTommy Tuberville wasn’t the best available football coach in Alabama when Republicans tapped him for a US Senate run in 2020. He wasn’t, in fact, even the best available former Auburn coach. What he was was a silver fox with name recognition who had pledged allegiance to Donald Trump and to toe the party line. A useful idiot, in other words.After trouncing former US attorney general Jeff Sessions in the Republican primary and winning election to the Senate by double digits, Tuberville has proven as much a far-right team player as advertised; not surprisingly, he believed the Big Lie and was one of the dozen Republican senators who were prepared to vote against certifying Joe Biden as US president. And yet the 68-year-old really didn’t distinguish himself in his new career as a Trump surrogate until this month. Continue reading...

Allegations of abuse have plagued ice hockey in Canada for some time but there seems to have been little urgency about addressing the issue until now“Our board frankly does not share the view that senior leadership should be replaced on the basis of what we consider to be substantial misinformation and unduly cynical attacks,” then-interim Hockey Canada board chair Andrea Skinner told parliamentarians last Tuesday – just days before her own resignation, and exactly a week before the organization’s CEO and entire board of directors stepped down. “I appreciate that others disagree with us, but our positions are based on the information that we have and understanding that Hockey Canada has an excellent reputation.”What new information arose between Skinner’s statement and the mass resignations a week later? In the wake of Skinner’s testimony, multiple corporate sponsors, including Nike, Bauer, and Tim Horton’s walked away from Hockey Canada’s men’s program. Multiple provincial hockey governing bodies did, too. And the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, suggested that perhaps the federal government, from which Hockey Canada receives significant annual funding to oversee the sport at a minor level across Canada, ought to simply create a new body to do the job. All that was indeed technically new. Continue reading...

Three-belt world champion fought back from a tortured childhood and hopes to avenge her only defeat on Saturday“I’m never going to allow any of the kids in my family to go through what I went through,” Claressa Shields says quietly as she turns her intense gaze on me. The 27-year-old American, who fights Savannah Marshall in a riveting bout which headlines the historic all-women boxing card at the O Arena on Saturday night, has already told me about her harrowing past. She grew up in abject poverty in Flint, Michigan, in an area which remains one of the most deprived in America, and she was raped systematically from the age of five.Shields pauses and then, with blazing eyes, continues to remember everything she endured. “I know what it was like. I know how it can make you very, very angry. I don’t want those kids to have the anger I had because I was very, very mad growing up. If I hadn’t have found boxing, who knows where I’d be at, with the anger I had inside of me.” Continue reading...

I of course don’t know what happened between Jolie and Brad Pitt, but the social media vigilantes have clearly decided they doHollywood certainly loves its remakes. Earlier this year, all eyes were on the messy and misogynistic Johnny Depp/Amber Heard defamation trial; Depp won and Heard was publicly torn apart. Now the long-running legal battle between Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt has escalated and it looks, depressingly, as if Jolie is going to get the Heard treatment.Here’s where things stand: Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt six years ago but the divorce hasn’t yet been finalised because the actors are still arguing over custody of their children and assets (they have a lot of both). Pitt has accused Jolie of selling a stake in their winery, Château Miraval, in an underhand manner to a Russian oligarch. Somehow the invasion of Ukraine got dragged into all this, with Pitt arguing that the Russian ties hurt the winery’s brand.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnistDo 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 Continue reading...

Moves by Opec+ to reduce production seen as siding with Putin over the US just as midterms loomJoe Biden said there “will be consequences” for Saudi Arabia after its decision last week to side with Vladimir Putin and cut oil production.“There’s going to be some consequences for what they’ve done, with Russia,” the US president said in an interview on CNN. “I’m not going to get into what I’d consider and what I have in mind. But there will be – there will be consequences.” Continue reading...

Igor Danchenko, who played a vital role in creating the Steele dossier, has been indicted on five counts of lying to the FBIA Russian analyst who played a major role in the creation of a flawed dossier about Donald Trump fabricated one of his own sources and concealed the identity of another when interviewed by the FBI, prosecutors said Tuesday.The allegations were aired during opening statements in the trial of Igor Danchenko, who is indicted on five counts of making false statements to the FBI. Continue reading...

Unconscious children rushed to hospital but are now stable, weeks before new CO detector law goes into effect in AllentownA malfunctioning heater sent a dangerously high level of carbon monoxide into a Pennsylvania daycare center early on Tuesday, sickening dozens of children – some of whom were unconscious as they were rushed to the hospital – and several adults.More than 30 people were hospitalized. All were listed in stable condition. Continue reading...

There is much Australia, along with the rest of the world, can doBorn in Australia, some of my earliest childhood memories comprise of attending rallies that my parents – who fled Iran as political refugees in 1985 – organised, where we’d shout “down with the dictator”. Fast forward to 2022, the same chants continue, albeit on the dangerous streets of Iran.What started as a mass uprising condemning the killing under police custody of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian Mahsa Amini for a dress code violation has now amalgamated into widespread calls for a complete regime change in Tehran. With 60% of Iran’s population aged below 30, the current uprisings demonstrates the significance of Iran’s generation Z, defying all rules and restrictions under an oppressive regime. They can no longer be suppressed by religious clerics and are bravely rebelling against the regime. Continue reading...

Court filing addresses ex-president’s bid to return 103 documents with classification markings to special master for reviewThe US justice department has asked the US supreme court to reject Donald Trump’s attempt to re-include 103 documents with classification markings in the special master review that is examining whether materials the FBI seized from his Mar-a-Lago resort are protected by privilege.The justice department argued in a 34-page brief that the supreme court should reject the former president’s motion and keep the 103 documents out of the special master’s purview since Trump did not show he was being irreparably harmed and that his arguments about jurisdiction lacked merit. Continue reading...

White House calls recording of council members in a meeting last year ‘unacceptable’ and ‘appalling’Joe Biden has called for the resignation of three Los Angeles city council members who were caught on tape making racist comments in a meeting last year.The profanity-laced recordings, which emerged on Sunday, document three Latino city council members and a labor leader discussing the city’s redrawing of council district boundaries amid the redistricting process, as well as the need to re-elect Latino members and protect economic interests within Latino districts. Continue reading...

City leaders voted on Tuesday to expand Detroit’s contract with ShotSpotter, after weeks of divisive debateThe city of Detroit is moving forward with a $7m expansion of its contract with ShotSpotter, after weeks of debate on its work with the controversial surveillance company.The Detroit city council voted five to four on Tuesday to expand the geographic footprint of ShotSpotter in the city throughout the next four years. Continue reading...

‘In light of the Opec decision, I think that’s where he is,’ says John Kirby, spokesman for Biden’s national security council

Participant used a 3D printer to make firearm parts in bulk that he then exchanged for gift cardsThe attorney general of New York has changed the rules of a state gun buyback program, after a participant exploited the system by using a 3D printer to make firearm parts in bulk that he then exchanged for $21,000 in gift cards.The seller, who identified himself by a pseudonym, said he traveled from West Virginia to a gun buyback on 27 August in Utica, New York, to take advantage of a loophole in the program – and to demonstrate that buybacks are futile in an era of printable weapons. Continue reading...

The state’s wildlife agency is offering a reward of $51,000 for tips leading to conviction in the case to help protect the animalsSix endangered wolves found dead in north-east Washington this year were poisoned, officials announced on Monday, and a reward is being offered for tips leading to a conviction in the case.Washington state’s department of fish and wildlife said the agency had been investigating wolf deaths within the territory of the Wedge pack in Stevens county since authorities there discovered four dead wolves on 18 February. Continue reading...

The Russian president is making civilians suffer for the successes of Ukraine’s counteroffensiveThe missiles that have rained down on Ukrainian cities far from the frontline since Monday morning, striking playgrounds and other civilian targets, are retaliation for the blast at the Kerch bridge between Russia and Crimea. But it is Vladimir Putin’s rage at the broader success of the Ukrainian counteroffensive that has shifted the war from a grinding military stalemate into a more dangerous phase. The Russian president has realised that he is losing on the ground; that major democracies will not easily be bullied out of supporting Kyiv; and consequently that he can no longer count on Ukraine’s eventual capitulation. His response – annexation and mobilisation – has only increased the pressure on him, creating higher expectations among hawkish domestic elites of how far he will go, and alienating broader political support. The first deaths of mobilised soldiers were reported this week.While Russia cannot sustain this rate of attack – 80 missiles on Monday alone – the civilian deaths and damage to water and power facilities will continue. Though the assault has so far stiffened resistance, rather than sapping morale, the approach of winter and the deterioration of infrastructure will take their toll on civilians. Ukraine will have to choose between deploying air defence systems to protect cities, or employing them in its counteroffensive. Continue reading...

Former Hawaii congresswoman and 2020 presidential hopeful says party is dominated by those espousing ‘cowardly wokeness’The former congresswoman and 2020 presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard has announced her departure from the Democratic party, calling it an “elitist cabal of warmongers”.In a video announcement posted to Twitter, she said: “I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic party that is under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers who are driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue and stoking anti-white racism.” Continue reading...

Voters in five states will dramatically shape abortion policies for millions of women this NovemberWhen the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade in June, it put the matter of regulating abortion entirely in the hands of the states. This November, voters will weigh in on ballot initiatives that will decide the future of abortion in five of those states: California, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana and Vermont.Reproductive rights proponents are hoping to replicate their historic win in Kansas, where a reliably conservative state successfully defeated an anti-abortion ballot initiative in August.[A]n individual’s right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty and dignity to determine one’s own life course and shall not be denied or infringed unless justified by a compelling state interest achieved by the least restrictive means Continue reading...

Relatives describe grief and commitment to continue fighting for justice at school board hearingThe superintendent for the Uvalde school district in Texas retired on Monday after a school board hearing at which relatives of some of the 19 children and two teachers shot to death at one of the district’s campuses in May again demanded accountability for the botched response to the massacre.Hal Harrell, the retiring superintendent, said in a Facebook post by his wife that the decision to retire “has not been made lightly”, according to CNN. The post was no longer on Facebook as of Tuesday morning. Continue reading...

Syed, 41, who spent more than 20 years in prison, had conviction for 1999 murder of girlfriend overturned in SeptemberProsecutors in Baltimore have dismissed all charges against Adnan Syed, who was released from prison last month after the overturning of his murder conviction in the case that was at the center of the famed podcast Serial.Syed can still be retried depending on what the Baltimore state’s attorney, Marilyn Mosby, decides, according to CBS, because there is no time limit to prosecute murder cases. Continue reading...

Katmai national park, which runs Fat Bear Week, forced to discount votes after irregularities in semi-finals discoveredA contest to determine the fattest bear in southern Alaska has been rocked by scandal, after organizers said a ballot box had been “stuffed” in favor of a brown bear called Holly.Katmai national park, which runs Fat Bear Week, a knockout-style online competition that allows people to vote on which brown bears have gained the most weight between summer and fall, said it had discovered irregularities in voting over the weekend. Continue reading...

The recent disorder in Leicester echoes the ‘communalist’ politics that now dominates India thanks to the ruling BJP

Control of the Senate could hang on results in a handful of states while votes for governor and secretary of state could affect the conduct of future electionsHobbs is currently secretary of state in what used to be a Republican stronghold. Lake is a former TV news anchor who relishes sparring with the media and promoting Donald Trump’s false claim that the 2020 election was stolen. Victory for Lake – who has appeared with figures linked to QAnon on the campaign trail – would be a major boost for the former president and ominous for 2024. Continue reading...

In several states Republican candidates who dispute the 2020 election results are running for positions that would give them control over electionsThere are several races on the ballot this fall that will have profound consequences for American democracy. In several states, Republican candidates who doubt the election 2020 election results, or in some cases actively worked to overturn them, are running for positions in which they would have tremendous influence over how votes are cast and counted. If these candidates win, there is deep concern they could use their offices to spread baseless information about election fraud and try to prevent the rightful winners of elections from being seated.Here’s a look at some of the key candidates who pose a threat to US democracy: Continue reading...

Influential Democratic senator threatens to freeze weapons sales to the kingdom. Plus, Ukraine demands more western missiles

The state is only one of several where more and more people believe there is widespread voter fraud – and their efforts are gaining resourcesAlmost a year to the day after thousands of insurrectionists stormed the US Capitol, Jim Womack braved a winter storm to travel to Virginia, bound for a conference on “election integrity”.The conference aimed to teach people how to legally challenge election administration – giving a veneer of legitimacy to a mission built on conspiratorial beliefs about the 2020 election. Continue reading...

Ireichō, a sacred book of names, lists all 125,284 people of Japanese descent who were held in camps across the US and is on display at an LA museumKanji Sahara was eight when his family was uprooted from their home in Los Angeles. It was 1942 and the family, along with thousands of other people of Japanese descent, was forcibly sent to live in barracks and horse stables – and eventually, War Relocation Authority camps, where they stayed until the end of the second world war. He would later recall standing behind a fence, watching people across the street go about their day, wondering why life was normal for them but not for him.Sahara is now 88, and last month, he was among hundreds of people who visited the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles’s Little Tokyo for the installation ceremony of a new exhibit dedicated to those who suffered a similar fate. Continue reading...

England is finally protecting the beavers that could save our failing rivers – if they’re permitted to be released into the wildOn Saturday 1 October, something remarkable happened. The Eurasian beaver was officially recognised as both a “native” and a “protected” species under the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017. In England, that means it is now illegal to deliberately kill, injure, or capture the world’s second largest rodent, or disturb their dams, lodges or burrows without a licence.Essentially, the change is legislative wordplay, yet anyone with half an ear to the ground is heaving a sigh of relief. Instead of being classed as “no longer normally present” on the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, beavers are now “native”, placing them alongside the barn owl and the corncrake. Beavers in England join their Scottish cousins in the filing cabinet of animals under special protection – populations of which have been classified as European Protected Species (EPS) since 2019.Sophie Pavelle is the communications coordinator for Beaver Trust. She is also an ambassador for the Wildlife Trusts, sits on the RSPB England advisory committee and is the author of Forget Me Not: Finding the forgotten species of climate-change Britain Continue reading...

The league offers fame, glory and money. But just getting there is beyond the reach of even some of the most talented playersThe NBA is one of the most exclusive sports leagues in North America. With 30 teams and 450 players, the NBA employs about half the number of players the NHL, MLB and MLS do, and roughly one-quarter of the NFL’s total. It’s harder to get into than Studio 54 in the 1970s. In June, the league held its annual draft, welcoming in just 60 rookies. It was a sleek affair incorporating expensive suits, paparazzi and celebratory champagne, for those of-age. But those festivities were merely an endpoint to a much deeper story. To make the league requires lifelong effort and sweat-soaked sacrifice.With the league’s 76th season set to begin on 19 October, it’s important to remember just how difficult it is to develop the skills to play in even a single NBA game. We caught up with three standouts – current collegiate star Zion Cruz, former Mississippi high school stalwart Brian Adams and two-time NBA champion Earl Cureton – to find out exactly how difficult the path is at different stages of a player’s journey. Continue reading...

The Fashion Workers Act would curb abuses ranging from enforced financial dependency to sex traffickingKaja Sokola was a shy teen from Wroclaw, Poland, when she received news that changed her life: modeling agents saw her photo during an open casting call, and they wanted her to walk at a show in Warsaw.Sokola had done one or two walks in a dress or skirt, but the show was mostly underwear. She was 14. Continue reading...

In Mississippi, poverty is high and water problems blight the state. But Republicans seem adamantly against spending to help their constituentsIn his four decades as mayor of Glendora, a Mississippi Delta town surrounded by creeks, fields and not much else, Johnnie B Thomas has gotten used to bad news.He’s seen the town’s main drag grow desolate as its few businesses closed down, and the sole clinic follow suit. He’s watched storms drop trees on to houses – including his own, mortally wounding his wife. He pleaded for help as the seemingly unstoppable force that was Covid infected and killed his neighbors, a younger brother among them. Continue reading...

Jaheim McMillan, 15, was taken off life support after Gulfport police shot him in the head on Thursday at the Family Dollar shopA Black teenager in Mississippi was taken off life support days after Gulfport police shot him in the head outside a discount store, and his relatives are questioning officers’ actions.Jaheim McMillan, 15, was shot on Thursday. The Harrison county coroner, Brian Switzer, confirmed to the Sun Herald that the Gulfport High School freshman died on Saturday after he was taken off life support at USA University Hospital in Mobile, Alabama. An autopsy was scheduled for Tuesday, Switzer said. Continue reading...

The third-largest maintenance workers’ union opposed the deal, saying concerns over paid time off remained unaddressedThe US’s third-largest railroad union rejected a deal with employers Monday, renewing the possibility of a strike that could cripple the economy. Both sides will return to the bargaining table before that happens.Over half of track maintenance workers represented by the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division who voted opposed the five-year contract, which contained 24% raises and $5,000 in bonuses. Union President Tony Cardwell said the railroads didn’t do enough to address the lack of paid time off – particularly sick time – and working conditions after the major railroads eliminated nearly one-third of their jobs over the past six years. Continue reading...

Republican Jim Marchant leads coalition of top state election-official candidates determined to return Trump to White HouseThe head of a US coalition of election deniers standing for secretary of state positions in key battleground states has made the most explicit threat yet that they will use their powers, should they win in November, to subvert democracy and force a return of Donald Trump to the White House.Jim Marchant, who is running in the midterms as the Republican candidate for secretary of state in Nevada, has vowed publicly that he and his fellow coalition members will strive to make Trump president again. Speaking at a Make America Great Again rally in Minden, Nevada, on Saturday night, he repeated the lie that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from Trump. Continue reading...

Strong remarks by chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee indicate possible sea change in US policyThe congressional backlash against Saudi Arabia escalated sharply on Monday as a powerful Democratic senator threatened to freeze weapons sales and security cooperation with the kingdom after its decision to support Russia over the interests of the US.Washington’s anger with its Saudi allies has intensified since last week’s Opec+ decision to cut oil production by 2m barrels, which was seen as a slight to the Biden administration weeks ahead of critical midterm elections, and an important boost to Russia. Continue reading...

His live radio shows brought together white, Black and Latino audiences who danced to rock’n’roll at drive-in eateriesArt Laboe, the pioneering DJ credited with helping end segregation in southern California, has died. He was 97.Laboe died on Friday night after catching pneumonia, said Joanna Morones, a spokesperson for Laboe’s production company, Dart Entertainment. Continue reading...