Former president to remain in California hospital at least another night, his spokesperson said FridayThe former US president Bill Clinton’s health is improving but he will remain in a California hospital for at least another night to receive antibiotics intravenously for a urological infection that spread to his bloodstream, his spokesperson said on Friday.The 75-year-old Clinton, who served as president from 1993 to 2001, entered the University of California, Irvine, medical center on Tuesday evening after suffering from fatigue. He spoke with Joe Biden on Friday. Continue reading...
Smith plays Richard Williams, the driven father of the US sporting sisters, in this well-crafted, authorised version of their storySome differing British and American attitudes to success are on show at this year’s London film festival. The Phantom of the Open is the story of a real-life amateur Brit golfer who fought his way up to become the world’s most adorable loser. King Richard, by contrast, is the story of a real-life amateur US tennis coach who fought his way up to help his daughters become the world’s most sensational winners.Will Smith is never seen in long trousers in this film, only tennis shorts. He plays the 24/7-committed, fanatically focused and demanding Richard Williams, renowned father of Venus and Serena Williams. This is the man who, by sheer force of will, took his daughters and the rest of his family straight out of Compton and into the sunlit uplands of multimillion-dollar pro-sports triumph, along the way battling snobbery and racism. White parents on the junior circuit wrongly call his girls’ shots out and white sports agents smilingly tell Richard what he’s done with Venus and Serena is “incredible” while lowballing him with derisory offers. (In real life, Richard has had some things to say about the gamesmanship of white tennis players up against his daughters in their adult glory, but the film soft-pedals this.) Young Venus and Serena are played, respectively, with sympathy and charm by Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton; Aunjanue Ellis is their mother, Brandi, and Jon Bernthal their hyperactive coach Rick Macci, permanently exasperated by Richard’s capricious demands. Continue reading...
Former US president ‘on the mend and in good spirits’ after being administered IV antibiotics and fluidsBill Clinton was admitted two days ago to a hospital in Los Angeles for treatment of a “non-Covid infection”, a spokesman said.The former US president is suffering from a urinary tract infection that spread to his bloodstream, CNN has reported, adding on Friday that doctors and his staff said Clinton was now up and walking about. Continue reading...
The city’s Fraternal Order of Police encouraged members to ignore the city’s vaccine requirementThe Chicago mayor, Lori Lightfoot, has filed a complaint in court against Chicago’s largest police union and its president after the union issued a directive for officers to ignore a citywide mandate to report their vaccination status, the latest in a battle between government officials and first responders over vaccine mandates.In a statement issued on Friday morning, Lightfoot announced that she had instructed the city’s law department to file a complaint for injunctive relief against the Chicago chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police union and its president, John Catanzara, for actions the mayor regarded as encouraging an illegal strike. Continue reading...
The veteran Conservative’s killing is a human tragedy and a chilling assault on British democracyOne of the most common accusations to be levelled at MPs is that they are “out of touch”. It is sometimes true, but not as often as people may think. The charge is frequently a device to portray ideological difference as cultural alienation. We disagree with a politician’s opinions, and want that to indicate some moral detachment from the ordinary people they are elected to represent.In reality, most MPs are more closely connected, more palpably in touch with the electorate than their many critics appreciate. David Amess was making contact with his constituents – physically present, personally attentive, intimately available – when he was killed in his Essex constituency on Friday afternoon.Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist
Early last year, the US banned visitors from more than 30 countries, including China, the UK and most of the EUThe US will lift restrictions for international travelers who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 on 8 November, a White House official said on Friday, allowing people from dozens of countries to reunite with their families and take leisure trips to the US for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.The White House assistant press secretary Kevin Munoz said international air and land travel would be permitted for vaccinated travelers on 8 November. Continue reading...
Testimony to be videotaped on Monday and then played when the case goes to trialA New York judge has ordered Donald Trump to give testimony on Monday in a lawsuit brought by a group of demonstrators who said his security guard assaulted them during a 2015 demonstration outside Trump Tower.Justice Doris Gonzalez of the Bronx supreme court ordered the deposition to be held Monday at Trump Tower, in Manhattan. It will be videotaped and then played when the case goes to trial. Continue reading...
The Queen, Charles and William have hit out at those who are all talk on the climate crisis. One has to wonder who they meanI understand why they go out, “but it isn’t helpful to do it in a way that alienates people,” explained Prince Charles of Insulate Britain, in an interview this week in which he also revealed, somewhat alienatingly, that he’d had his Aston Martin converted to run on “surplus English white wine and whey from the cheese process”.At long last, a line to eclipse Ed Begley Jr’s from an old episode of The Simpsons, in which the actor explains that his preferred vehicle is “a go-kart, powered by my own sense of self-satisfaction”. A deeply committed environmental activist, Begley has always been able to take the piss out of himself – a pastime you sense has never been top or even bottom of Prince Charles’s to-do list. Or, in fact, of the to-do list of the many, many servants who do for him in his many, many residences.Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Gig workers report falling wages, unmanageable orders and lack of concern from the companyFor Instacart workers across the country, the popular grocery delivery app promised flexibility and a solid wage, perks that enticed thousands to join the app during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.But amid worsening working conditions including plummeting pay, safety concerns, and a punitive rating system, Instacart employees, known as shoppers, will be staging a walkout on 16 October and will continue striking until the company meets their demands for better treatment. Continue reading...
The Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, two of the nation’s busiest, create more than 100 tons a day of smog that choke local communitiesDozens of behemoth cargo ships adorned with tall stacks of brightly colored containers still dot the coastline off southern California. Part of a shipping bottleneck plaguing US ports, the ships – their diesel-fueled engines always ablaze – are also pumping out pollutants as they idle, anchored off-shore.The clogged supply chain has been described as an economic calamity as the delayed cargo caused shortages in common goods and drove consumer prices higher. But environmentalists and public health advocates are concerned it’s also turning into a climate catastrophe. Continue reading...
The idea may seem silly or gimmick – but it’s a serious solution to a serious problemThe United States is again hurtling towards default on its “national debt”. While a two-month extension has emerged, the fundamental dynamic remains – and the risk. This is not happening because there is any danger of the Treasury being unable to find buyers for treasury securities. Nor is it happening because of any presumed “burden” from interest payments. Instead, it is happening because the United States Congress has placed an arbitrary limit on how much “national debt” the US government can incur. Congress has authorized and required a certain amount of spending – but is blocking the treasury’s preferred tool for financing that spending.Given how often politicians have invoked “the deficit” and “the debt”, it’s natural for the public to think that the debt ceiling represents a deeper “lack of money”. When news outlets like CNN publish contextless headlines claiming the “US government” will “run out of money” by a certain date, this impression is reinforced. Continue reading...
The public have protocol fatigue. It’s time for politicians to find some good faith and repair the damage already causedBeing from Northern Ireland is exhausting. Being from Northern Ireland and experiencing Brexit is maddening. Two years ago Boris Johnson hailed the withdrawal agreement, which established the Northern Ireland protocol, as an “oven-ready” deal. The EU patted itself on the back. We knew better. We had an inkling of what was to come.Here we are, almost a year since the protocol was actually implemented, and we’re still talking about it. After declaring that there was no Irish Sea border, after ignoring the fact that businesses in Northern Ireland were sounding the alarm about its implications, the EU and the UK government are still trying to fix their mess.Sarah Creighton is a lawyer, writer and political commentator from Northern Ireland Continue reading...
Before Trump, only relatively fringe American conservatives had open connections to the international far right. Today, the ties have mainstreamedThis weekend Texas senator Ted Cruz spoke about how “we all face the same challenges, including a bold and global left, that seeks to tear down cherished national and religious institutions”. Nothing to see here, you might think – except that he was not addressing a local branch of the Republican party in Texas, or a conservative US media outlet. He was speaking on screen to an audience of thousands in Madrid, at a meeting of the Spanish far-right party Vox. It was one of many recent outreaches to the global far right by US rightwing figures, which seem to have increased since the ouster of Donald Trump.Is the so-called “Populist International”, so often foretold but never realized, finally taking shape? And will the US conservative movement play a leading role in it? Or is this more about domestic politics than global domination?Cas Mudde is Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF professor of international affairs at the University of Georgia, the author of The Far Right Today (2019), and host of the podcast Radikaal. He is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
But recent cases show that when media pay attention, investigations step up and more women are foundMonica Fast Horse texted her 26-year-old daughter on a Thursday evening in August to ask when she would be home. It wasn’t fear that drove her to it, it was simply what they always did: they checked in with each other.Fast Horse and her daughter Jenna Charging Crow lived together in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, along with another one of Fast Horse’s daughters and Charging Crow’s five-year-old daughter, Jenelle. Fast Horse, a member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe, helped raise her granddaughter, and Charging Crow served as primary caretaker for her mother as she dealt with the medical complications of end-stage kidney failure. Continue reading...
Firm’s venture with ex-Spice Girls manager will launch in Hollywood in 2022, in person and onlineThe educational company Pearson has partnered with Simon Fuller, the former manager of the Spice Girls who created TV shows including Pop Idol, to launch a new venture called the Academy of Pop targeting the TikTok generation of amateur performers.The first Academy of Popular Performing Arts will launch in Hollywood next year, with “small classes” of students able to participate in person, in daily lessons spanning acting, dance, music and musical theatre. The classes will also be available for students to follow live online. Continue reading...
Union leaders say a strike will start Monday if there is no deal with studios as workers describe low pay and grueling days without breaksAt the start of the pandemic, Hollywood productions abruptly shut down, leaving many workers out of work before things began to resume with Covid-19 safety protocols in place.Since then, workers in Hollywood say they have worked long schedules and endured increased workloads, including staggering work because of social distancing; wearing and distributing personal protective equipment through long work days; and regularly getting tested for Covid-19. Continue reading...
Don’t fall for Washington’s disgraceful PR ploy to retire Sean Taylor’s number in an effort to deflect attention from a widening scandal. Everyone must keep their eyes on the ballAmid an NFL firestorm in which the Washington Football Team and their toxic culture is supposed to be the centerpiece, leave it to Dan Snyder to do what his does best. While the aftershocks of Jon Gruden’s bigoted emails that disparage anyone who isn’t an old, white, Trumpian male still reverberate, the focus has rightfully shifted to Snyder. Questions are mounting, including: why were a non-employee’s emails made public, yet the remaining 650,000 emails are sealed? And what exactly is Snyder hiding?Instead of addressing the media, or better yet, resigning, Snyder pulled a “wag the dog” by announcing that the No 21 jersey worn by beloved Sean Taylor, the beloved safety who died in 2007, would be retired this weekend ahead of the team’s game against Kansas City. The announcement came Thursday with less than four days’ notice. How transparent and disrespectful to Taylor’s legacy and the Washington fanbase to hold something so important in such a hasty manner. But that’s what Snyder does; he deflects and deflects some more while remaining firmly embedded on his throne. Continue reading...
Enrollment in bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral nursing programs increased 5.6% in 2020 while nurses retire or leave over burnoutNurses around the US are getting burned out by the Covid-19 crisis and quitting, yet applications to nursing schools are rising, driven by what educators say are young people who see the global emergency as an opportunity and a challenge.Among them is University of Connecticut sophomore Brianna Monte, a 19-year-old from Mahopac, New York, who had been considering majoring in education but decided on nursing after watching nurses care for her 84-year-grandmother, who was diagnosed last year with Covid-19 and also had cancer. Continue reading...
The star center of the Philadelphia 76ers and Most Valuable Player candidate has made an unlikely journey from central Africa to the pinnacle of the NBAThe email landed in Joe Touomou’s inbox one morning in January 2011, and he knew he had to act quickly. “I’ve got to go check this guy out,” he said to himself.Touomou, a basketball coach and international scout, had been working in the United States as a sports consultant to the US state department. The email was from Didier Yanga, a close childhood friend from back home in Cameroon. It contained pictures of Yanga’s 16-year-old nephew towering above a doorway. He was 6ft 7in, the email said, and had recently taken up basketball. His name was Joel Embiid. Continue reading...
In recording obtained by NBC News, curriculum director describes ‘political mess’ after passage of state lawA Texas school district official told educators if they kept books about the Holocaust in their classrooms, they would have to also offer “opposing” viewpoints in order to comply with a new state law.In an audio clip obtained by NBC News, Gina Peddy, the executive director of curriculum and instruction for Carroll independent school district in Southlake, offered the guidance to teachers during a training on which books teachers can keep in classroom libraries. Continue reading...
Decision extends a previous order that keeps SB8 in place; the conservative court has previously sided with the stateTexas can continue banning most abortions after a federal appeals court on Thursday rejected the Biden administration’s latest attempt to undo a novel law that has become the country’s biggest curb to abortion in nearly 50 years.It pushes the Texas law closer to returning to the US supreme court, which in September allowed the state to move ahead with banning abortions once cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks. No exceptions are made in cases of rape or incest. Continue reading...
Mark A Forkner accused of giving FAA false information about flight-control system in plane that was involved in two crashesA Boeing pilot involved in testing the 737 Max jetliner was indicted on Thursday by a federal grand jury on charges of deceiving safety regulators who were evaluating the plane, which was later involved in two deadly crashes.The indictment accuses Mark A Forkner of giving the Federal Aviation Administration false and incomplete information about an automated flight-control system that played a role in the crashes, which killed 346 people. Continue reading...
The Bear served in two world wars, carried out daring Arctic rescues and was the first government ship with a Black captainThe wreck of a legendary US naval ship that served in two world wars, performed patrols in waters off Alaska for decades, and at one point was captained by the first Black man to command a government vessel has been found.A wreck thought to be the USS Bear, which sank in 1963 about 260 miles (418km) east of Boston as it was being towed to Philadelphia, where it was going to be converted into a floating restaurant, was located in 2019. Continue reading...
The real estate heir had been convicted of first-degree murder last month as prosecutors argued he shot Berman in her homeRobert Durst, the real estate heir suspected in a string of killings over nearly four decades, was sentenced to life in prison without parole for murdering his friend and confidante Susan Berman.A Los Angeles jury convicted Durst, 78, of first-degree murder last month for the 2000 killing. Prosecutors argued that Durst had shot Berman at point-blank range in her home to prevent her from telling police what she knew about the 1982 disappearance of Durst’s first wife, Kathie McCormack Durst. The verdict marked the first homicide conviction for Durst, who has been linked to the deaths of three people in three states. Continue reading...
House 6 January select committee to decide on Trump’s former strategist, who has snubbed subpoena requests, on TuesdayBennie Thompson, the chairman of the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack on Thursday announced the panel’s intention to consider a criminal contempt referral against Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon for defying a subpoena as part of its 6 January inquiry.The vow to initiate contempt of Congress proceedings against Bannon – one of Donald Trump’s top advisers – puts the select committee on the path to enforce the subpoena issued to uncover what the former president knew in advance of plans to mount an insurrection. Continue reading...
US president will raise offshore revelations with Kenyan counterpart, says White HouseThe fallout from the Pandora papers leak continues to be felt around the world as one of the leaders caught up in the scandal, Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, held talks with Joe Biden in the Oval Office.When they both made remarks before the meeting, Biden said: “And we’re also going to talk about strengthening the financial transparency and accelerating economic growth. You’ve spoken to that, Mr President; I want to talk to you about that. And the fight against climate change.” Continue reading...
After Texas passed a near-total ban, clinics in surrounding states are being inundated with people making often difficult tripsThe 33-year-old Texas woman drove alone four hours through the night to get to the Louisiana abortion clinic for a consultation. She initially planned to sleep in her car, but an advocacy group helped arrange a hotel room.Single and with three children ranging from five to 13, she worried that adding a baby now would take time, food, money and space away from her three children. Continue reading...
Pulitzer winner filed papers to form a political action committee called ‘Nick for Oregon’, enabling him to raise money and hire staffA Pulitzer prize-winning journalist has quit the New York Times after 37 years ahead of a potential run for governor of Oregon.Nicholas Kristof, 62, renowned for his coverage of human rights issues around the world, filed papers on Tuesday to form a political action committee called “Nick for Oregon”, enabling him to raise money and hire staff for a campaign. Continue reading...
Everyone should learn to exercise tolerance in the necessary debate over which words to use, and whenPerhaps this is only true of the middle-aged but the social hiatus caused by the pandemic, coupled with the acceleration of discord in a few key arenas, means that you can meet a friend with whom you’ve agreed all your life and find yourself on opposite sides of the “trans debate”. I put that in inverted commas because the phrase is both euphemistic and insulting, dressing up as an open question what is actually more existential.One side of the debate doesn’t think trans people are real; they might feel what they feel, but the rest of us don’t have to join them in that reality. If someone tried to engage me in an animal rights debate in which I was first required to prove that animals existed, I’d ask them to come back later.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Last year, the usually under-the-radar board of canvassers became a key part of Trump’s efforts to overturn the resultHello, and happy Thursday,Michigan Republicans are quietly moving to replace officials on key elections panels in the state with candidates who have embraced conspiracy theories about the last election, a move that could cause significant chaos in the counting of votes in the 2024 election and beyond. Continue reading...
Workers wage biggest private-sector strike in the US for two years, saying they were forced to do overtime consistently while company made record profitsMore than 10,000 production and warehouse workers at 14 John Deere plants in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Colorado and Georgia walked off the job at midnight, in the latest in a wave of industrial unrest in the US.The workers, represented by nine locals with the United Auto Workers (UAW), voted 99% in favor of a strike authorization in September after receiving the initial six-year contract proposal from John Deere. Continue reading...
In his dealings with those in his immediate orbit, the former Raiders head coach long ago showed us where he thinks a Black man’s place in football should beNow that Jon Gruden has been forced out in Las Vegas – and this, after an eight years-long email trail of his racist, homophobic and misogynistic exchanges were unearthed as part of an investigation into the Washington Football Team’s fratty workplace culture – it’s worth revisiting how the coach came to power in the Raiders organization for the second time in his gilded career.Six years before Gruden was lured out of ESPN’s Monday Night Football booth with a 10-year, $100m carrot, the Raiders were circling the drain; in 2014, they’d win a paltry three games on the way to tying for the NFL’s third-worst record. But over the next few seasons the team slowly rebuilt itself into a contender, winning 12 games to reach the 2016 playoffs. And there was no doubt that resurgence was a credit to the shrewd work of general manager Reggie McKenzie, the former Raiders linebacker and the first person to run football operations other than owner Al Davis. Continue reading...
The drug in question only costs $17.74 to produce. Unfortunately, this type of behaviour is widespread in US pharmaLast week, we learned that Merck is planning to charge Americans 40 times its cost for a Covid drug whose development was subsidized by the American government. The situation spotlights two sets of facts that have gone largely unmentioned in the legislative debate over whether to let Medicare negotiate for lower drug prices.Fact one: Americans are facing not merely expensive drugs but prices that are examples of outright profiteering. Continue reading...
This may not have been the first such incident Petito experienced. Half of all domestic violence victims are strangled at some point during the course of their abuseMost women who are strangled by their husbands or boyfriends don’t cooperate with law enforcement. Because strangulation, when it doesn’t kill, frequently causes traumatic brain injuries, these women sometimes can’t speak in a way that seems plausible to the police. Their testimonies aren’t always clear or consistent; they may misremember timelines, change details on repeated telling, or feel unsure about crucial bits of information. In many cases, a strangulation victim also won’t cooperate with the police because to do so would likely anger the man who strangled her. And he has already shown what he’s willing to do to enforce his will.Gabby Petito was killed by strangulation, according to the Wyoming coroner who examined her body after it was found in Grand Teton national park on 19 September. The police, along with a small army of internet sleuths who seized upon the case after news of Petito’s disappearance broke last month, are now looking for her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, who was the last to see the 22-year-old alive. He returned from the road trip they had taken together alone, driving Gabby’s van and refusing to say anything about her whereabouts. Laundrie has since fled police and disappeared into a vast nature preserve in Florida. Continue reading...
Unhoused residents fear they’ll end up back on the street after MacArthur Park closure: ‘This won’t solve the problem’Los Angeles officials are shutting down a major public park in an effort to remove homeless encampments from the area, reigniting bitter conflicts about the city’s worsening housing crisis.MacArthur Park, in the city’s Westlake neighborhood, is one of many public spaces in LA that became a popular camping spot for unhoused Angelenos during the pandemic, drawing hundreds of campers. Continue reading...
Liz Shuler leads AFL-CIO as public approval for organized labor is on the rise, young workers are flocking into unions and millions seek better conditionsFor 12 years, Liz Shuler was No 2 to Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, main union federation in the US, but after Trumka’s unexpected death in August, Shuler became the its first-ever female president at a time that organized labor in the US faces deep problems – and extraordinary opportunities.Many union members are hoping that Shuler, a well-liked, hard-working 51-year-old, will figure out how to capitalize on those opportunities. Public approval for organized labor in the US has climbed to its highest level in more than 50 years, as many young workers are flocking into unions and millions of overstressed, underpaid frontline workers are impatient to improve their lot. Continue reading...
Some in the league believed the Baltimore Ravens quarterback was about to be ‘figured out’. They may want to reconsider …If this is what figuring out Lamar Jackson looks like, can you imagine what would happen if NFL defenses were still playing catch-up?On Monday night, Jackson led the Baltimore Ravens to 22 unanswered points to seal an overtime win over the Indianapolis Colts and launch himself back into the MVP discussion. But in reality, if the award is truly about “value” – and it is supposed to be – then he should already have a monopoly on the votes. Continue reading...
Amanda Vandervort, president of a professional second division, sets out her vision at a difficult time for the sportThe appointment of the hugely experienced Amanda Vandervort as the first president of the new fully professional women’s second division in the US, the USL Super League, has been in the pipeline for a while, as have plans for the league, which launches in 2023, but the timing of the announcement of Vandervort’s position matters.Over the past fortnight the top-flight National Women’s Soccer League has been rocked by allegations of sexual coercion and abuse against Paul Riley while he was manager of North Carolina Courage, which he denies. This follows other high-profile alleged breaches of the NWSL’s anti-harassment policies, and news of the development of a league which plans to double the number of professional teams in the US is a welcome sign that the women’s game continues to go from strength to strength. Continue reading...
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