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From baggage handlers to wheelchair attendants, jobs – often outsourced – offer low pay, few benefits and vary wildly by cityLarry Allen has worked in various jobs at Dallas Fort Worth international airport for over 40 years.Before the pandemic, Allen worked as a baggage handler, making just over $2 an hour and relying on tips to get by. When Covid-19 hit the US, Allen was told not to come back into work and wasn’t recalled until one year later, when he took a position as a wheelchair agent. Continue reading...

Panel appears to believe militias coordinated to physically stop certification of Joe Biden’s election victory on 6 January last yearThe House select committee investigating January 6 appears to believe the Capitol attack included a coordinated assault perpetrated by the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys militia groups that sought to physically stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory.The panel’s working theory – which has not been previously reported though the justice department has indicted some militia group leaders – crystallized this week after obtaining evidence of the coordination in testimony and non-public video, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Continue reading...

Members of the Patriotic Millionaires say the income gap in the US has become a disaster – and it’s time to ‘take that money back’The sound system played Pink Floyd’s Money as the Patriotic Millionaires assembled in the boutique Eaton hotel in Washington DC last week. After compulsory Covid tests there was a lot of well-heeled hugging and laughter among a crowd that looked like extras from Succession as they sat down at tables stacked with M&Ms stamped with “tax the rich”.This was the first time since the pandemic that the Patriotic Millionaires had assembled together in person. The group, founded in 2010, is made up of high net worth individuals who believe – counterintuitively these days – that the really rich should pay more taxes. And after a dozen often frustrating years some of them now believe change is coming. Continue reading...

Congressional Black Caucus hails ‘historic pick’ of Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman in the court’s historyThe confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the US supreme court marked a moment in American history many in public life waited over decades for – and one some thought they would never see happen.When the day arrived, it inspired an outbreak of euphoria for many Black Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Continue reading...

With perhaps three decades of service on the supreme court ahead, KBJ’s perspective and influence could be profoundWhen Ketanji Brown Jackson takes her place on the supreme court this summer, following her confirmation by the Senate on Thursday, it will bring to an end a painful period for US progressives, who were forced to watch Donald Trump appoint three rightwing justices under extremely contentious circumstances.But if left-leaning Americans think that the supreme court will be dramatically recalibrated by the appointment of KBJ – as she has become affectionately known, in an echo of RBG, the late justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg – they should think again. Continue reading...

One Ukraine journalist tells why she and her colleagues across the country are determined to bear witness to unfolding horrors

Im Sung-jae finished at five under par, one shot clear of Cam Smith and four clear of Tiger Woods on his return to AugustaMigliozzi is joined at the top by the ever-entertaining Harry Higgs. The 30-year-old from Dallas is playing in his first Masters, having finished tied for fourth at Kiawah in last year’s PGA, and is very much part of the Barnes-Daly-Jimenez everyman tradition, as anyone who remembers him getting the old puppies out at the Phoenix Open a couple of months ago will attest. Having opened with bogey, he’s seized the day much as he embraces life, with birdies at 2, 3 and now 4. The young Australian Min Woo Lee, current Scottish Open champion, makes it three with a long birdie rake across 5.-2: Migliozzi (6), MW Lee (5), Higgs (4)

Takeshi Ebisawa accused of planning to purchase surface-to-air missiles for rebel groups in Myanmar and distribute drugs in USUS authorities have arrested a leader of a Japanese crime syndicate on charges of plotting to distribute drugs in the United States and purchase weapons including US-made surface-to-air missiles.Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said Takeshi Ebisawa, who they described as a leader in a network of Japanese crime families known as yakuza, and a co-conspirator agreed to buy the missiles for rebel groups in Myanmar during conversations with an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent. Continue reading...

Golf’s greatest showman shows he is ready to compete against all odds after a solid if mostly unspectacular startThere were about 50,000 people at Augusta National for the start of the Masters: fans, media, members, stewards, caddies, cooks, camera crew and all the other support staff, and on Thursday morning almost every last one of them was asking the same sort of question. Plenty had come along to the 1st tee at 11am to find out the answer, too. The dogged ones had staked a front-row spot first thing that morning. Everyone else was craning their necks and popping up on their tiptoes, jockeying to try to find a line of sight that would allow them to catch a flash of Tiger Woods in his shocking pink shirt.Could Woods still do it? Even Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player were going back and forth after the opening ceremony. Nicklaus wasn’t sure. “Feeling competitive is different than feeling like you can win,” he said after he’d hit the ceremonial tee shot. “I mean, I’m sure Tiger will be very competitive this week. But I don’t know whether he can win or not. He hasn’t played any competition for a long time.” It’s 508 days, to be exact. Continue reading...

Joe Biden’s nominee is confirmed by Senate in 53-47 vote

Joe Biden speaks of ‘historic moment for our nation’ as Democrats give standing ovation after judge’s ascent to supreme courtPoliticians and activists kept coming back to one word on Thursday after the confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the US supreme court: joy.After two grim years of a deadly pandemic and a democracy in peril, Jackson’s ascent as the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest court was lauded as a much-needed ray of hope. Continue reading...

The US senate confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the supreme court on Thursday, shattering a historic barrier by making her the first Black female justice and giving President Joe Biden a bipartisan endorsement for his effort to diversify the court. Jackson, a 51-year-old appeals court judge with nine years experience on the federal bench, was confirmed 53-47, mostly along party lines but with three Republican votes.

Jackson confirmed 53 votes to 47, and will become first Black woman to serve in court’s more than 200-year historyKetanji Brown Jackson, a liberal appeals court judge, was confirmed to the supreme court on Thursday, overcoming a rancorous Senate approval process and earning bipartisan approval to become the first Black woman to serve as a justice on the high court in its more than 200-year history.After weeks of private meetings and days of public testimony, marked by intense sparring over judicial philosophy and personal reflections on race in America, Jackson earned narrow – but notable – bipartisan support to become the 116th justice of the supreme court. The vote was 53 to 47, with all Democrats in favor. They were joined by three moderate Republicans, senators Mitt Romney of Utah, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, who defied deep opposition within their party to support Joe Biden’s nominee. Their support was a welcome result for the White House, which had been intent on securing a bipartisan confirmation. Continue reading...

Attorney general Letitia James requests calls for fines until Trump complies with order to turn over files related to his businessesNew York’s attorney general on Thursday asked a state judge to hold Donald Trump in contempt of court for not turning over documents she subpoenaed for her civil investigation into the former US president’s business practices.In a court filing, attorney general Letitia James said Trump failed to abide by his earlier agreement to comply “in full” with her subpoena for documents and information by 31 March. Continue reading...

Ketani Brown Jackson becomes the first Black female justice on US’s highest legal body after her confirmation passes 53-47Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the US supreme court has passed the Senate and she will now become the first Black female justice on America’s highest legal body after being nominated by Joe Biden earlier this year.Jackson’s nomination has been widely praised by women of color, especially after she sustained grueling confirmation hearings at the hands of some top Republicans who seemed dedicated to political points-scoring and whose criticisms often seemed like racist dog-whistling. Continue reading...

The QAnon-tinged questioning at the hearings for the supreme court justice displayed a party in thrall to conspiracy theoriesJudge Ketanji Brown Jackson reached a historic milestone on Thursday, becoming the first Black woman ever appointed to the US supreme court. But before Jackson could be confirmed, she first had to navigate a brutal opposition campaign from far-right critics who challenged her credentials and outlandishly accused her of supporting child abuse.The bareknuckle tactics used by some Republicans to discredit Jackson underscored just how far to the right the party has drifted and may foreshadow a new, disturbing “normal” for American politics. Continue reading...

Democrat, who attended event with Joe Biden a day earlier, is fully vaccinated, boosted and asymptomatic, spokesperson saysThe House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has tested positive for Covid-19, a day after appearing unmasked at a White House event with Joe Biden.Pelosi received a positive test result for Covid-19 and is asymptomatic, her spokesperson, Drew Hammill, said on Thursday in a tweet. He said she had tested negative earlier in the week. Continue reading...

Republican Greg Abbott’s botched new policy is in response to Biden’s decision to rescind hardline Trump-era immigration policyPlans announced by Texas governor Greg Abbott that attempt to send undocumented migrants away from the southern border on buses to Washington were met with bipartisan criticism on Wednesday.Abbott, a Republican, told reporters that the state would respond to the Biden administration’s decision to rescind a hardline Trump-era immigration policy by placing state troopers in riot gear at the border and then putting migrants on buses bound for DC. Continue reading...

US hasn’t always been a happy hunting ground, but the sport’s growing popularity gives cause for confidenceFormula One returns to Australia this weekend after a two-year absence since the sport’s blase attitude toward the oncoming pandemic left it reeling when the meeting in Melbourne fell apart. Mismanagement and hubris had brought F1 low but, finally back at Albert Park, it could not be in ruder health.F1’s insistence on pushing on with holding the race was wildly over-ambitious, up to and including allowing fans to turn up at the gates, only not to be admitted as the event was called off with Covid cases among the teams. That weekend was a nadir for F1’s owners and the FIA. But the recovery has been nothing short of remarkable. As other sports floundered, F1 put on 17 races in 2020 and 22 in 2021, including one of the great championship fights. Continue reading...

Past nine months have seen censorship effort ‘unparalleled in its intensity’, with books on race and LGBTQ issues singled outMore than 1,500 book bans have been instituted in US school districts in the last nine months, a study has found, part of a rightwing censorship effort described as “unparalleled in its intensity”.PEN America, a non-profit organization that works to protect freedom of expression in the US, scrutinized efforts to ban certain books from school libraries for its “Banned in the USA” report. The organization found that 1,145 books were targeted by rightwing politicians and activists, including the work of the Nobel prize laureate Toni Morrison. Continue reading...

Ex-president also rejects suggestions he used ‘burner phones’ on day of the assault in Washington Post interviewDonald Trump has said he regrets not marching on the US Capitol building with his supporters on the day of the January 6 insurrection and again rejected suggestions he used “burner phones” on the day of the assault.In a defiant interview with the Washington Post the former president said he had pressed to march with his supporters on January 6, but was blocked from doing so by Secret Service agents. “Secret Service said I couldn’t go. I would have gone there in a minute,” Trump told the Post, later bragging about the size of the “tremendous crowd” at the “Save America” rally that day. Continue reading...

Attendees were canvassed relentlessly to become poll workers – part of a strategy to undermine the state’s election machineryHello, and happy Thursday,Last Saturday, I spent the day at Donald Trump’s rally in Washington, Michigan, a suburb about 45 minutes north of Detroit.A federal judge didn’t just strike down several new voting restrictions in Florida last week, but went even further and said the state had to pre-clear certain voting changes with his court for the next 10 years. Florida is appealing.Trump allies are pushing to have jurisdictions count ballots by hand, something experts warn is prone to error and could be a “recipe for some chaos”.Ohio officials are again making the case to the state supreme court for why they shouldn’t be held in contempt for ignoring previous orders to make the state’s legislative districts less distorted in favor of Republicans.Texas rejected nearly 25,000 mail-in ballots in its 1 March primary, meaning the state had a staggeringly high 12.38% rejection rate.Several Republican-led states have made it illegal to receive outside funding for elections, which will make it harder for local election offices to serve voters. Continue reading...

LaQuedra Edwards was jostled by ‘some rude person’ as she was making her purchase in a supermarketA woman accidentally bought the wrong lottery ticket after an unknown stranger bumped into her as she made a purchase from an automatic machine – only to discover she had hit the jackpot and scooped a whopping $10m prize.California TV station KABC reported that LaQuedra Edwards was at a Vons supermarket in the city of Tarzana when she put $40 into a vending machine. Continue reading...

The FDA has dropped a requirement for the abortion drug mifepristone to be picked up in person – but some Republicans states are clamping downOn Tuesday, Oklahoma became the latest state to pass a bill to make performing an abortion a felony, punishable, in this case, by 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine. The bill is expected to be signed into law by the governor, creating an even larger group of people – about 7.7 million between Texas and Oklahoma – who will have to leave their home state if they want an abortion.Republican legislators are passing restrictions and bans on abortion, in expectation of a supreme court decision in a crucial abortion rights case expected in June. Until then, abortion remains legal, albeit severely restricted in some cases, across the US. Continue reading...

Harrison Dillard took gold at the London Games in 1948 and this weekend, nearly 75 years on, that medal is up for saleHarrison Dillard should never have won the 1948 Olympic 100 metres gold medal on a blazing July day at Wembley Stadium. He shouldn’t have been in the final. This weekend, that gold medal is up for sale.He entered the event at the American trials to sharpen his speed work for the high hurdles, his specialist event. Back then, the 25-year-old Clevelander was the greatest sprint hurdler the world had seen and had racked up 82 consecutive wins before the trials and held the world record of 13.6sec in the 120-yard hurdles. He was deemed unbeatable. Then catastrophe struck. Continue reading...

For as long as I’ve been an MP, I’ve been an unpaid carer. It’s never been more urgent to fix this broken system – yet the Tories do nothingIt was 3am in the early hours of a Monday morning. I awoke to a phone call from my brother gasping for breath and struggling with chest pains in another room of my house. I rushed to his side and called an ambulance that took him to hospital. The next few hours were spent anxiously waiting to hear from doctors, who would eventually refer him to a specialised care unit. This was just one of several emergencies where, as his carer, I found myself navigating the complexities of his chronic conditions while watching the gradual demise of his health.Bleary eyed and sleep deprived, I left home later that morning and began the three-hour commute from my constituency in Bolton to my office in the House of Commons. Continue reading...

Passage of the bill would probably spell the difference between the US meeting its climate goals and blowing right past themOn April 23, the day after Earth Day, a big tent coalition – climate activists, union workers, civil rights leaders, and increasingly desperate young people – will be gathering outside the White House. If you live on the eastern seaboard and are free that Saturday, you should sign up and join them. Here’s why:Tucked beneath the headlines on Covid and Ukraine, the most important climate legislation in US history – and thus, arguably, in world history – is still stuck in congressional purgatory. You’d be forgiven if you weren’t fully aware. It is not trending on Twitter. Joe Biden has mostly stopped talking about it. The enormous moral stakes have been brutally ablated by a broken, farcical and, above all, extremely boring legislative kludge known as budget reconciliation. The months-long saga has turned Biden’s original “Build Back Better” plan into the juridical equivalent of a Warhol soup can – a ubiquitous token evacuated of any original meaning.Daniel Sherrell is the author of Warmth: Coming of Age at the End of Our World (Penguin Books) and a climate activist Continue reading...

The Sports Bra in Oregon seeks to address the glaring gender imbalance in sports coverage by focusing solely on women’s gamesBy 11am on opening day at Portland’s The Sports Bra, billed as the world’s first sports bar showing only women’s sports, a bustling queue had already filled the sidewalk. While members of the Pride Cheerleading Association shook pompoms in the parking lot, dozens of women – fans and athletes alike – waited to grab a seat and reach a milestone together.“I actually got emotional and cried when I walked in,” said Leslie Melin, who sat at the bar with a signature cocktail. “I’m so proud to be here.” Continue reading...

Records reveal that some cities gave more stimulus money to law enforcement than to health, housing and food initiativesBig cities in California spent large portions of their federal Covid relief money on police departments, a review of public records has revealed, with several cities prioritizing police funding by a wide margin.As part of the American Rescue Plan Act (Arpa), the Biden administration’s signature stimulus package, the US government sent funds to cities to help them fight coronavirus and support local recovery efforts. The money, officials said, could be used to fund a range of services, including public health and housing initiatives, healthcare workers’ salaries, infrastructure investments and aid for small businesses.San Francisco received $312m in Arpa funds for fiscal year 2020 and allocated 49% ($153m) to police, 13% ($41m) to the sheriff’s department, and the remainder to the fire department, according to the city controller. San Francisco also gave roughly 22% ($38.5m) of its Cares funds to law enforcement.Los Angeles spent roughly 50% of its first round of Arpa relief funds on the LAPD, according to a public records request by the controller candidate Kenneth Mejia, and first reported in local news site LA Taco.Fresno spent $36.6m of its Cares funds on the police, making up 67% of Cares spending on city salaries, and roughly 40% of all of Fresno’s Cares funds.San Jose allocated roughly $27.8m of its Cares and Arpa funds to police salaries and the police dispatch department, representing about 12% of its relief money.Long Beach allocated the majority of its $135.8 million Arpa funds to police, though a spokesperson said a detailed breakdown of funds was not available.Oakland allocated $5m (13.5%) of its Cares funds to police salaries; Sacramento allocated $2.2m (2.5%) of Cares funds to police; and San Diego spent roughly $60.1m (64%) of its Cares funds on police in fiscal year 2020, and $52.6m (33%) in fiscal year 2021. Continue reading...

Researchers find ‘zero evidence’ that living in a home with a handgun offers protection against homicide, with women at particular riskMost American gun owners say they own firearms to protect themselves and their loved ones, but a study published this week suggests people who live with handgun owners are shot to death at a higher rate than those who don’t have such weapons at home.“We found zero evidence of any kind of protective effects” from living in a home with a handgun, said David Studdert, a Stanford University researcher who was the lead author of the Annals of Internal Medicine study. Continue reading...

Ukraine says western sanctions are ‘not enough’ amid warnings of fresh offensive. Plus, House votes two Trump advisers in contempt of CongressHello and good morning,Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said yesterday that new sanctions by the west against Russia did not go far enough and would be seen by invading forces as a “permission to attack”, as fears of an assault on the east of the country intensify.What sanctions does Zelenskiy want? He called for the west to reject Russian oil and completely block the country’s banks from the international finance system.What’s the latest on a potential Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine? The Kremlin has said it intends to seize the entire self-proclaimed republic in Donetsk, with Putin reportedly keen to declare victory by 9 May, the annual second world war commemoration.How is Ukraine responding to the fresh offensive threat? Ukraine urged civilians to leave the east of the country while they still could. Meanwhile, the Pentagon said a “small number” of Ukrainian soldiers were being trained in the US to operate Switchblade drones.What is the international community doing? The UN general assembly will vote today on whether to suspend Russia from the UN premier human rights body after discoveries of potential Russian war crimes. Nato foreign ministers also meet today in Brussels for talks on providing support to bring an end to the war.What punishment could the advisers face if convicted? Up to a year in federal prison, $100,000 in fines – or both.Why won’t Navarro and Scavino testify? It means the select committee can’t extract information from them about Trump’s unlawful scheme to have then vice-president Mike Pence stop the election certification.What happens next? The contempt citations now head to the justice department and the US attorney for the District of Columbia, Matthew Graves, who is required by law to weigh a prosecution. Continue reading...

Media complacency has allowed for a thriving disinformation industry that threatens Kenya’s democratic discourseThis August, tens of millions of Africans will turn their attention to Kenya’s general election. Kenya’s recent history features hotly contested, sometimes violent elections in which candidates and their allies have used tribal politics to turn people against one another. Yet as this election approaches, one of the biggest dangers comes much further from home: US and Chinese tech platforms.Before unpacking the dangerous role that tech platforms are playing in Kenya, it’s important to understand the high stakes. For many Kenyans, this is the mother of all elections. The country’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta of the Jubilee party, has overseen an economy battered by inflation and debt, bruised by corruption and struggling to get on its feet due to the harm inflicted by Covid. Fighting to be the next president are Kenyatta’s deputy, William Ruto, and the leader of the opposition, Raila Odinga, of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM). The last time Kenyatta and Ruto were on opposing sides of an election, in 2007 and 2008, the country was plagued by violence, and they ended up on trial in the international criminal court (ICC). (Kenyatta’s charges were dropped in December 2014, and the court terminated Ruto’s case due to weak evidence.)Odanga Madung is a Mozilla fellow, journalist and data scientist based in Nairobi, Kenya Continue reading...

The Dodgers are as dangerous ever but will the Blue Jays emerge from the stacked AL East. Our team of writers have their sayMLB will announce a new rule for next season which will allow managers a limited number of infield shifts a game. So it becomes a strategy of when to seek the defensive advantage. Should managers wait until the ninth inning? Keep their infield moves for certain players? Sounds like fun to me! DL Continue reading...

The Los Angeles Lakers’ season is effectively over and their shadow general manager has played his part in their downfallTwo years ago the world may have been upside down, but all was right in Laker Nation. After a decade of futility the Purple and Gold were on top of the NBA, champions once again. As the confetti fell inside a largely empty arena inside the NBA bubble, the best player on the planet had made good on his promise to put the franchise “back in the position where it belongs.” Given the Lakers’ habit of hanging around the NBA finals once they finally break back in, it did indeed seem as if LeBron James & Co were only just getting warmed up. But it turns out that the heat radiating from the afterglow of that victory may well have been the earliest sign of the meltdown to come.On Tuesday, five days before the NBA regular season’s closing curtain, the LeBron-era Lakers hit their nadir. They went to Phoenix with James sidelined through injury and fell to the Suns, 121-110, their seventh defeat in a row. To add insult to injury, the Suns loss ruled the Lakers out of the playoff’s play-in round, a lifeline James once bemoaned quite emphatically. The self-styled GOAT was even roasted at the Oscars, with co-host Regina Hall arguably landing the night’s third-most provocative joke. Continue reading...

The 11th and 15th have been changed to offer balance between risk and reward but the 13th remains toothlessYou don’t need to prove you have been vaccinated to get into the Masters this year, don’t need to show a negative test or wear a face covering. “Feels like a normal Masters again,” said Rory McIlroy. And he’s right, around about here it’s almost like the past two years never happened.Almost. There is one big little difference. They’re all out of Georgia peach ice cream sandwiches at the concession stands. Serious business this. The sandwiches were the outstanding achievement of the last Augusta National chairman, Billy Payne, and all the justification needed to explain his induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Continue reading...

The government is trying to wish away problems such as flooding by doing nothing. It’s incompetence by designWe have a new term for doing nothing: “learning to live with”. Learning to live with Covid means abandoning testing, isolation and wearing masks in public places. Living with it, dying from it, what’s the difference? The same applies to climate breakdown. It’s not just that countries like the UK have failed to play their part in preventing this catastrophe. They have also failed to prepare for it.While our primary effort should still be to decarbonise our economies, to prevent even worse impacts, we also need to brace ourselves for the heating that’s now unavoidable. But, as the government’s climate change committee points out, adaptation in the UK is “under-resourced, underfunded and often ignored”. The head of the committee has spoken of a “wilful reluctance” to include adaptation in policymaking.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist. He will discuss Regenesis at a Guardian Live event on Monday 30 May. Book tickets in-person or online here Continue reading...

Approval of contempt resolution over months-long defiance of subpoenas sets pair on path towards criminal prosecution by DoJThe House voted on Wednesday to hold two of Donald Trump’s top advisers – Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino – in criminal contempt of Congress for their months-long refusal to comply with subpoenas issued by the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack.The approval of the contempt resolution, by a vote of 220 to 203, sets the two Trump aides on the path toward criminal prosecution by the justice department as the panel escalates its inquiry into whether Trump oversaw a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election. Continue reading...

Three people have been arrested since the early Sunday violence unfolded but the motive is still unknownPolice have said at least five people fired weapons in a weekend shooting in Sacramento, California, that killed six people and injured a dozen others and prompted calls for lawmakers to address the scourge of gun violence in the US.Officials said on Wednesday that while the motive was still unknown, investigators think “ gang violence is at the center of this tragedy” and that “gangs and gang violence are inseparable from the events that drove these shootings”. Continue reading...

Activists say companies like Lyft and Uber ‘try to protect their bottom line by offloading risk’ on to workersOn a Sunday afternoon in August 2021, the Lyft driver Isabella Lewis was shot in the head by a passenger she had just picked up and left for dead as the man sped off in what appeared to be a fatal carjacking.Lyft released a statement to the press at the time saying it was “heartbroken by this incident” – but Allyssa Lewis, Isabella’s sister, said her family had never received direct communication from the company, nor any financial compensation. Continue reading...

Suit alleges Mike Lindell and his media platform targeted Eric Coomer as part of his ‘efforts to undermine faith in US democracy’The CEO of bedding company MyPillow, Mike Lindell, has been sued for defamation by a former employee of Dominion Voting Systems.Eric Coomer, the former employee of the voting machines company that became embroiled in Donald Trump’s false claims that he was denied victory at the 2020 election because of widespread voter fraud, has filed a court complaint against Lindell, Insider reported. Continue reading...

Visitors to the Chicago zoo showing the 415lb Amare pictures and videos through the glass wall has made him dismissive to other male gorillasA teenage gorilla in a Chicago zoo has been getting too much screen time, according to zoo officials.Amare, a 415-pound gorilla at Chicago’s Lincoln Park zoo, has been staring a little too frequently at the screens of cellphones from visitors who show him pictures and videos through the glass wall – including selfies, family photos, pet videos and even footage of Amare himself. Continue reading...

Measure would let people sue weapons traffickers but faces skepticism from Democrats and gun policy groupsStung by a deadly mass shooting on Sunday mere blocks from the state capitol, California lawmakers on Tuesday advanced an innovative yet untested approach to gun control that would empower private citizens to sue those who traffic in illegal weapons.California already has some of the country’s strictest firearms rules, but it has struggled to curb the spread of stolen or homemade and increasingly prevalent “ghost” guns. Continue reading...

Nearly 37 million borrowers have been affected by the pause, with a delay of $195bn of payments since start of pandemicJoe Biden announced the pause on federal student loan collections in the US will be extended until 31 August.The pause on federal student loans first started at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 under the Trump administration. This is the seventh time the pause has seen an extension since then. Continue reading...

The lives of Augusta and Woods are perfectly choreographed – the rest of us guess where the mirage begins and endsAt Amen Corner, you hear the songs without ever seeing the birds. When an 89-year-old Sam Snead cracked a patron on the head with a sliced ceremonial tee shot in 2002, Augusta media outlets were discreet in their coverage.On testing by a bold journalist in 1996, it was discovered the immaculate blue ponds at Augusta National are produced with the assistance of food dye. Fred Ridley, the club chairman, was asked on Wednesday to mark the 10th anniversary of women being afforded membership by confirming some numbers. “No thanks,” was the essence of his reply. Illusion everywhere. Continue reading...