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The Green Bay Packers quarterback offers a reconciliation of sorts for the rival camps of a sport torn between conservatives and progressivesIn late July, as NFL players across the country were dragging their battered bodies back to pre-season camp, the Green Bay Packers posted a slow-motion video of Aaron Rodgers on social media. “Let’s do this,” the caption read, while the quarterback, dressed in a wife beater tucked into a pair of relaxed fit denim jeans, hair swept back, facial scruff untamed, strode purposefully across a parking lot. The clip was, of course, a tribute to Nicolas Cage’s performance in 1997 action classic Con Air. A few weeks later, Rodgers revealed that he had been sent a bust of Cage’s head. The bust now sits in Rodgers’s locker, next to his shoulder pads, calmly looking on as the NFL’s reigning MVP goes about the torrid business of trying to turn himself into a figure of cross-cultural significance.Is Rodgers America’s most interesting athlete, or its most annoying? For much of the 38-year-old’s career in the NFL – now entering its 18th season – the question did not even present itself. Quarterbacks are the focal point of every football team, usually the only players with the star power to transcend the sport. But even as he rose to prominence around a decade ago, leading the Packers to the Super Bowl in 2011 and nabbing two league MVP awards in 2011 and 2014, Rodgers remained an extremely talented but mostly unremarkable fixture of the American sporting scene. If he was seen as anything away from the field, it was as something of a social activist. He went on the record with his support for The Enough Project, a nonprofit raising awareness about the use of conflict minerals in cellphone batteries. He traveled to India with the Starkey Hearing Foundation to fit hearing aids on deaf children, taking a detour to see the Dalai Lama. And in 2015, after a fan broke a minute’s silence at a Packers game held out of respect for victims of the Paris terrorist attacks with the cry “Muslims suck!”, Rodgers used his post-game press conference to eloquently admonish the fan: “It’s that kind of prejudicial ideology that I think puts us in the position that we’re in today, as a world,” he said. Continue reading...

Analysis of ‘amicus briefs’ shows how closely Clarence Thomas’s wife was entwined with rightwing effort to reverse 1973 rulingGinni Thomas, the self-styled “culture warrior” and extreme rightwing activist, has links to more than half of the anti-abortion groups and individuals who lobbied her husband Clarence Thomas and his fellow US supreme court justices ahead of their historic decision to eradicate a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy.A new analysis of the written legal arguments, or “amicus briefs”, used to lobby the justices as they deliberated over abortion underlines the extent to which Clarence Thomas’s wife was intertwined with this vast pressure campaign. Continue reading...

Gabriel Debenedetti, author of book on Biden’s relationship with Obama, reports call on night of 2018 midtermsOn the night of the 2018 midterm elections, as a wave of anti-Trump sentiment swept Democrats to take control of the House, top Republican Mitt Romney urged Joe Biden to run for president.“You have to run,” said Romney, the Republican presidential nominee Biden and Barack Obama defeated in 2012, speaking to the former vice-president by phone. Continue reading...

Those who don’t die from the floods risk death by starvation – yet you’ve probably heard little about the devastationToday, Pakistan, the world’s fifth-most-populous country, is fighting for its survival. This summer, erratic monsoon rains battered the country from north to south – Sindh, the southernmost province, received 464% more rain over the last few weeks than the thirty-year average for the period.At the same time, Pakistan’s glaciers are melting at a rate never seen before. These two consequences of the climate crisis have combined to create a monstrous super-flood that has ravaged the country. Continue reading...

A record heatwave added stress to the electrical grid and made firefighting difficult. Now a hurricane could bring flash floodsA collision of extreme weather events is bearing down on California as wildfires threaten communities, a record-setting heatwave is adding stress to the electrical grid, and moisture from a hurricane is expected to bring thunderstorms and flash floods.Hurricane Kay, swirling off the coast of Mexico, is on its way north, bringing with it the chance of strong winds, severe rainstorms, and possibly dry lightning that could increase risks for new fire starts. It also could bring some welcome relief to the week of brutally hot weather. Continue reading...

Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, had granted a request for an independent figure to review records from Mar-a-LagoThe US justice department has demanded that a federal judge restore its access to documents seized from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort that carried classification markings, saying that if not, it would appeal to a higher court.The demands came in a three-page notice of appeal filed by the justice department on Thursday in the case involving Trump’s request for a so-called special master, and paves the way for the government to submit a detailed appeals brief to the US court of appeals for the 11th circuit. Continue reading...

'So that [the Queen's death] has been confirmed?' the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said on hearing the news of the death of Queen Elizabeth. Jean-Pierre was discussing the Inflation Reduction Act when journalists interrupted to confirm the Queen's death. Queen Elizabeth, Britain's longest-reigning monarch and the nation's figurehead for seven decades, has died aged 96, Buckingham Palace said on Thursday. 'I don't want to get ahead of what the president is going to say. I want him to, for you all to hear from him first'

Number marks 4% increase since last count, in January 2020, but is believed to be an undercountLos Angeles has experienced a 4% increase in its homeless population during the pandemic, with 69,144 unhoused people counted across the county this year, according to government data released on Thursday.The Los Angeles homeless services authority (Lahsa), which conducted the count in February 2022 after skipping a year during the pandemic, said the growth of the unhoused population had slowed in the last two years, in part due to pandemic programs and funding. The previous count, conducted in January 2020, showed a 13% jump from 2019. Continue reading...

Condolences and prayers poured in from across the country to honor the longest-serving British monarchCondolences and prayers for Queen Elizabeth II poured in from across the United States following her death on Thursday.Joe Biden, the US president, said the Queen was “more than a monarch. She defined an era”. In his tribute, posted to the White House website, Biden called her “a stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy who deepened the bedrock alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States”:In a world of constant change, she was a steadying presence and a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons, including many who have never known their country without her. An enduring admiration for Queen Elizabeth II united people across the Commonwealth. The seven decades of her history-making reign bore witness to an age of unprecedented human advancement and the forward march of human dignity.She was the first British monarch to whom people all around the world could feel a personal and immediate connection – whether they heard her on the radio as a young princess speaking to the children of the United Kingdom, or gathered around their televisions for her coronation, or watched her final Christmas speech or her platinum jubilee on their phones. And she, in turn, dedicated her whole life to their service.Queen Elizabeth II was a stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy who deepened the bedrock alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States. She helped make our relationship special.We first met the Queen in 1982, traveling to the UK as part of a senate delegation. And we were honored that she extended her hospitality to us in June 2021 during our first overseas trip as president and first lady, where she charmed us with her wit, moved us with her kindness and generously shared with us her wisdom.All told, she met 14 American presidents. She helped Americans commemorate both the anniversary of the founding of Jamestown and the bicentennial of our independence. And she stood in solidarity with the United States during our darkest days after 9/11, when she poignantly reminded us that ‘Grief is the price we pay for love.’ Continue reading...

Former Trump adviser surrendered to authorities in Manhattan in connection with fundraising scheme for US-Mexico border wallTop former Trump strategist Steve Bannon has been charged in New York with money laundering, conspiracy and scheme to defraud in connection with his role in a fundraising effort to privately underwrite the construction of the US-Mexico border wall, according to the indictment unsealed on Thursday.The indictment includes two counts of money laundering in the second degree and conspiracy in the fourth degree. Bannon surrendered himself to the Manhattan district attorney’s office after being told in recent days that charges were imminent, sources familiar with the matter said. Continue reading...

Her majesty was a source of stability as the country underwent epochal changes at home and in the worldNews of Queen Elizabeth’s death was not wholly unexpected. She lived to the great age of 96. After enjoying markedly good health for so long, the oldest monarch in British history had recently appeared more fragile. She had understandably become a more private woman since the death of Prince Philip last year and had been less publicly visible, undertaking lighter duties. All of us knew that this moment was approaching.It arrives nevertheless as a national shock, but also as a shared moment of reflection, and as the start of a new and unwritten chapter for the British monarchy and the country itself. The Queen’s death brings personal loss for those close to her, and she had also been a constant presence in millions of lives. The longest monarchical reign in British history, stretching more than 70 years, is over. But the record book is less important than the widely shared sense of what has now slipped away, never to return. Continue reading...

She was an emblem of the nation for so long that millions of Britons measured their lives against hers and her familyThe grief is genuine. The admiration for the woman who has been an emblem of a nation for so many decades is deeply sincere. There will be appreciation for the great care she took in such a fractious age not to take a side, express a view or add to the rifts that sharply divide the country. Every nation needs a figurehead; and, however perverse the sheer randomness of being born into that role, she did it with remarkable skill and dignity.How fitting that she should die just after performing her final and most important constitutional role, appointing a prime minister (her 15th). How glad many will be that she lived to see the last hurrah of her platinum jubilee. There’s no tragedy in the death of 96-year-old who kept going to the very last. Isn’t that the way we all wish to go?Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Texas and Arizona leaders have sent thousands of refugees to the US capital to register anger over Biden’s border policyThe mayor of Washington DC declared a 15-day public emergency on Thursday over the buses of migrants and refugees being sent to the city by the Republican governors from the border states of Arizona and Texas.Muriel Bowser announced plans to create an office of migrant affairs to coordinate the “humanitarian crisis” instigated by Republicans, and which appears to be aimed at embarrassing Joe Biden’s administration in the run-up to the midterms. Continue reading...

The 19-year-old paired his athleticism and shotmaking to outlast Jannik Sinner and fill several highlight reelsAs Carlos Alcaraz sat down in the early hours of Thursday morning, time was running out and he knew it. In his short career, the 19-year-old has established a reputation for taking defeats with perspective and a smile on his face, but this time he had nothing. He had generated enough chances to win in straight sets and he had mostly played incredibly well, but never when it really mattered. He found himself down 4-3 in the fourth set to Jannik Sinner, two games from defeat.His composure momentarily gone, Alcaraz spent the entire change of ends ranting towards his distinguished coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, about the one weakness that had handcuffed him all night: “Where do I serve to? I don’t know how to serve,” he shouted. Ferrero did not respond. Continue reading...

Ex-mayor derailed ‘train wreck’ dinner with clients and colleagues, then was later considered for secretary of stateAt a law firm dinner in New York in May 2016, an “unhinged” Rudy Giuliani, then Donald Trump’s suggested pick to head a commission on “radical Islamic terrorism”, behaved in a drunken and Islamophobic manner, horrifying clients and attorneys alike.According to a new book by Geoffrey Berman, a former US attorney for the southern district of New York (SDNY), at one point Giuliani turned to a Jewish man “wearing a yarmulke [who] had ordered a kosher meal” and, under the impression the man was a Muslim, said: “I’m sorry to have tell you this, but the founder of your religion is a murderer.” Continue reading...

The teenager’s quarter-final ended at 2.50am on Thursday. Does the timetable at Flushing Meadows need to change?In yet another late-night epic that concluded just short of 3am on Thursday, Carlos Alcaraz advanced to the semi-finals of the US Open with a thrilling five-set comeback victory over another young star, Jannik Sinner. It was a match full of abrupt momentum shifts, remarkable shot-making, stellar sportsmanship and an extraordinary high level of energy that those in attendance were lucky to be part of.But for many millions of American tennis fans watching on the east coast – and west coast for that matter – the riveting conclusion came too late for their tired eyes. With a return to school and work for many, after enjoying the last fleeting days of summer, it was too tough an ask of fans to stay up well past midnight yet again. And that’s not to mention those who stayed to watch in the stadium, some of whom had to navigate New York’s public transport system in the early hours of the morning, which is never an enticing prospect. Continue reading...

Judge will allow the youth organization to exit Chapter 11 and settle decades of claims by more than 80,000 menThe Boy Scouts of America secured approval of a $2.46bn reorganization plan from a bankruptcy judge on Thursday that will allow the youth organization to exit Chapter 11 and settle decades of claims by more than 80,000 men who say they were abused as children by troop leaders.US bankruptcy judge Laurie Selber Silverstein in Wilmington, Delaware, signed off on the restructuring proposal after the Boy Scouts made changes to address her previous ruling that had rejected portions of the settlement. Continue reading...

Florida district voted 8-1 against a measure that would have seen 12th-graders learning about key supreme court LGBTQ decisionsThe Miami-Dade school board overwhelming decided against recognizing October as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer History month, which included a measure to teach 12th-graders about two supreme court cases affecting the LGBTQ community.Parents, teachers and students spoke for more than three hours on Wednesday, with one group citing indoctrination of students and the other speaking about how Nazis ostracized gays and lesbians with a pink triangle. The board then voted 8-1 against the measure, which was proffered by board member Lucia Baez Geller. Continue reading...

Suspect Ezekiel Kelly held after four killed and three injured in multiple shootingFour people were killed and three wounded after a 19-year-old man went on a shooting spree in Memphis, Tennessee, on Wednesday.The alleged gunman, Ezekiel Kelly, was apprehended after a frantic manhunt that effectively shut down the city, and the teenager is expected to face multiple felony charges when he appears in court. Continue reading...

Investigation into Killian Ryan uncovers violent and racist remarks on social media and ties to white supremacist groupsA former paratrooper who enlisted in the army to become more proficient at killing Black people was given top security clearance despite ties to white supremacist organizations and Nazi ideology.Killian Ryan was arrested on 26 August and charged with making a false statement on his army application for the secret security clearance, and then discharged on the same day for multiple drink-driving violations. Continue reading...

SKKY Partners venture with Carlyle veteran Jay Sammons will focus on consumer items, media and luxuryKim Kardashian has ventured into the world of finance, launching her own private equity firm with the help of a former partner from the US powerhouse the Carlyle Group.The billionaire reality TV star, business owner and celebrity influencer announced the move on Twitter, saying the firm, SKKY Partners, would aim to make minority investments or take controlling stakes in “high-growth, market-leading consumer and media companies”. Continue reading...

Former intelligence chiefs say national security officials are ‘shaking their heads at what damage might have been done’. Plus, the rise of LGBTQ ‘shotgun’ weddings

The party has embraced a precise brand of anti-government rhetoric, with the agency the latest target – and it’s drawing on an old playbookAmong the many subplots roiling Washington DC is a surge in Republican concern about a provision of the Inflation Reduction Act that would invest $80bn in the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to modernize outdated technology and increase enforcement of tax laws. Citing this investment, Senator Ted Cruz warned of a coming “shadow army of 87,000 IRS agents”.The preference to pay lower taxes is as American as apple pie and has been a centerpiece of modern Republicanism. Demonizing the IRS is not. In fact, mainstream Republicans have historically maintained a commitment to cutting taxes without promoting hysterical fears about the enforcers of tax laws. When champions of tax cuts have talked of “starving the beast”, even they have been clear that the beast is big government. The IRS is just the messenger.Ruth Braunstein is associate professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut and the author of Prophets and Patriots: Faith in Democracy Across the Political Divide. She is currently working on a book called My Tax Dollars Continue reading...

Failure of the $1.1bn bid by Aqua for the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority is a major victory for campaignersA community in Pennsylvania has stopped the privatisation of its public water and sewer system, scuppering a corporate takeover that residents feared would have led to higher bills.A $1.1bn bid by Aqua for the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority (BCWSA) system would have been the largest sewer privatisation deal in American history. The company’s bid for the water service has already failed, but now the county commissioners have shut the door completely after siding with residents who opposed privatisation. Continue reading...

The term suggests a norm where people do more work than they’re paid for. And guess who’s most likely to do that?When Kim Kardashian said it seems like no one wants to work any more, she hit a raw nerve. That’s because people are working. And for the last several years we’ve had to work through a deadly pandemic, a bad economy, the decimation of our civil liberties and the slow collapse of democracy.What is happening is that tired, overworked, burnt-out working-class people are taking back their agency and refusing jobs and working conditions that are unsuitable for us.Tayo Bero is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Public health experts say Title 42 is counterproductive, forcing people into unsafe and unsanitary conditionsFeet away from a landfill and the largest migrant shelter in Reynosa, in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, sits a woeful campsite thatched from blankets, tarps and tree trunks.Inside, a family of four wait in the heat and danger of the border city, right across the river from Texas, for their chance to enter the US legally and claim asylum under international law. Continue reading...

Sports is a male-dominated space, just like comedy. I know Serena’s dad told her the same thing my dad told me: ‘Hey, you’re good, but you’ve got to be better than everybody else’What people don’t understand about strong Black women is that we were raised strong. We have a different experience. The one thing I remember my father always telling me was: ‘Hey, you’re good, but you’ve got to be better than everybody else.’ That’s what Serena Williams represents to me. What sets her apart is her endurance to keep going and keep going no matter what the obstacle is to reach that higher standard. To be undeniable.It’s just harder for us. We all know this. Racism is the dumbest thing I’ve ever had to deal with. The fact that she’s dealt with that and still made it to No 1 and never used it as an excuse is something else. We know her as a Black phenomenon, but she just wanted to go into her field like all of us want to go into our fields, as actresses or comics or tennis players. We don’t want to be the first Black this, the first Black that – it’s great when it happens, we’re not scared to be first either – but what stands out is how hard she had to fight just to get a seat at the table. Continue reading...

The season kicks off on Thursday night. Will Josh Allen lead his team to glory? Is Tom Brady set for one last shot at glory? And which new stars will shine?The AFC West. Every team in this division improved except arguably the Kansas City Chiefs, who will always be fine with Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid. Every team is a legitimate division contender … and every team strongly dislikes the other three. Get ready for some entertaining, well-played battles and look out for three playoff teams to emerge from the division. MJ Continue reading...

When the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, Justice Clarence Thomas suggested they might revisit same-sex marriage. Some LGBT couples are not waiting to find outOn a late June day in 2015, recent high school graduate Kaliyah Halsey and their mother were shopping for dormitory supplies when Kaliyah’s mother looked at her phone. “She was like, ‘Oh my God. Gay marriage is now legal in all 50 states. I’m so happy for you!’” recalls Kaliyah, now 25. “We were, like, crying in the middle of Kohl’s.”Four years later, while training for a new job at Wells Fargo, Kaliyah met Britney Halsey (née Justus). “She came in and I was just in awe,” Kaliyah recalls. The two began a friendship. A few months later, on 16 December 2019, Kaliyah asked Britney to be their girlfriend at the top of Rockefeller Center. On the same date in 2021, the two got engaged. They set their wedding date for 16 December 2023. “That way we could have our dream wedding,” says Kaliyah. The couple began saving up for a huge gathering of friends and family in Nashville, where they moved last year from their home of Roanoke, Virginia. Continue reading...

In memoir, Geoffrey Berman recounts clashes before a botched firing he insists was politically motivatedDonald Trump’s second attorney general, William Barr, is stupid, a liar, a bully and a thug, according to a hard-hitting new book by Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney for the southern district of New York whose firing Barr engineered in hugely controversial fashion in summer 2020.“Several hours after Barr and I met,” Berman writes, “on a Friday night, [Barr] issued a press release saying that I was stepping down. That was a lie. Continue reading...

Housing, train fares, geography and childcare costs will determine if hybrid working weathers the winterAfter two years of global crisis, the genie is well and truly out of the bottle when it comes to work: employees in the UK no longer want the 9-to-5, bookended by an exhausting and expensive commute.Anecdotally, that might seem obvious. But having documented the changes to organisational life through the Covid-19 pandemic as part of the Work after Lockdown project (funded by the Economic and Social Research Council), what is significant about these findings is that this mindset shift appears to be permanent. Figures show nearly 40% of working adults in Great Britain are now working across multiple locations in a hybrid working model. However, as the energy crisis threatens to bite, there are warnings that this winter’s looming energy crisis could kill off our new working “culture”. So, which one is it?Jane Parry is an associate professor of work and employment and director of the Centre for Research on Work and Organisations at Southampton Business School, University of Southampton Continue reading...

The Euphoria actor wants to keep things apolitical – but treating politics as abstract has always been a privilegeJennifer Lawrence says she “can’t fuck with people who aren’t political”. In a cover interview with Vogue, the actor revealed that she no longer has any patience for people who are passive about politics because things are now “too dire … Politics are killing people.”Politics have been killing people for a very long time, of course. Military spending decisions kill people. Austerity, and a lack of social welfare spending, kills people. Climate crisis and gun control policies, or a lack thereof, kill people. Treating politics as something abstract, something that doesn’t significantly impact your day-to-day life, has always been a privilege. Continue reading...

UK-based cinema chain, second-biggest in the world, hit by lockdowns, audience slump and debt from Regal theatres takeoverBritain’s Cineworld, the world’s second-biggest cinema chain, has filed for bankruptcy protection in the US as it seeks to restructure after facing low audience numbers.The group operates 751 movie theatres including more than 500 in the United States, more than 100 in Britain and Ireland, and others across Europe and Israel. It owns the Picturehouse chain in Britain and Regal cinemas in the US. Continue reading...

Robert Telles, Clark county’s public administrator, had been the focus of several investigative stories by GermanFour days after the investigative journalist Jeff German was found dead outside his Las Vegas home, police have arrested a local official who had been the focus of German’s reporting, on suspicion of murder, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.Robert Telles, an elected official who serves as the Clark county public administrator, was was wheeled out of his home on a stretcher and put into an ambulance about 6pm, just hours after officials had searched Telles’s home, according to the Review Journal. Continue reading...

Records broken in Sacramento and Reno, while California close to ordering rolling blackouts to ease strain on power gridA brutal heatwave enveloping the US west smashed records on Tuesday, as high temperatures and historic energy use strained California’s grid to the brink of its capacity and spurred fire behavior across the state.Western states are struggling through one of the hottest and longest September heatwaves on record. Continue reading...

Report appears to confirm security officials’ worst fears about the nature of the material Trump refused to hand back

Former first lady and former president speak in poetry at unveiling ceremony of official paintings at White House in first visit together since leaving officeEven after all these years, she admitted, Michelle Obama still feels a bit odd and awkward inside the White House. “Growing up on Euclid Avenue [on Chicago’s south side],” the former first lady reflected, “I never could have imagined that any of this would be part of my story.”Yet from Wednesday her face will adorn the walls of America’s most famous address for as long as it still stands and presidents still call it home. In their first visit as a couple to the White House since leaving office in 2017, she and ex-president Barack Obama unveiled their official portraits at a ceremony in the East Room. Continue reading...

Frances Tiafoe got the better of Andrey Rublev to delight the New York crowd after Aryna Sabalenka powered past Karolina PliskovaFirst set: *Pliskova 1-5 Sabalenka (*denotes next server) Sabalenka has suffered issues with her serve in the past, but when it’s firing – as it certainly is so far today – it’s hard to stop. She powers through this service hold, and the first set is in sight.First set: Pliskova 1-4 Sabalenka* (*denotes next server) A ten-shot rally ends with Sabalenka blasting an 85mph winner into the corner. Pliskova finds some welcome serve accuracy – a pair of aces get her on the board in this set. Continue reading...

City officials ‘taking this matter very seriously’ as detection comes amid water access problems in Jackson, Mississippi and New YorkE coli has been detected in multiple locations across Baltimore in recent days, city officials have announced.Residents have been urged to boil tap water for at least a minute after E coli samples were detected in West Baltimore over the weekend. Since then, over 1,500 people in the city of around 600,000 have been affected by the advisory, including multiple schools. Continue reading...