It’s hard to admire gen Z without a twang of discomfort. They present qualities – strength under pressure, maturity, humility – that the middle aged should have nailed downWhen Mr Z wakes up earlier than me, which is always, it’s my habit when I stir to ask him what is going on in the world. My plan is to trick him into feeling like an all-seeing Hermes character (the god, not the delivery firm), rather than a man who married someone really lazy.When this happened on Sunday, he told me: “Everyone’s talking about Emma Raducanu.” I knew she had won the US Open already because we had had a late night. I would have known anyway; the build up to the match had a fairytale quality. She was so young and her potential victory so laden with significance – the first British woman to win a grand slam singles title since Virginia Wade, 44 years ago – that it had taken on an air of inevitability, at least to those of us who didn’t have to do anything but watch. Continue reading...
Ex-Trump strategist told financier to ‘stick to his message, which is that he is not a paedophile’, New York Times reportsJeffrey Epstein gave a series of interviews on film in 2019 in which his interviewer said the financier and convicted sex trafficker was “engaging, not threatening … [not] at all creepy … a sympathetic figure”.Related: Perversion of Justice review: how Julie K Brown brought Jeffrey Epstein down Continue reading...
The former Heat star talks Hall of Fame, the athlete as activist, and the dawn of pay-to-play in college sports“It was an unfinished piece of work, but it was still Hall of Fame-worthy and how special is that?” reflected former Miami Heat and Toronto Raptors star Chris Bosh, as he prepared to be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame last weekend.“Unfinished” is an interesting word to describe a career that yielded two NBA championships, four finals appearances as part of the Heat’s Big Three, an Olympic gold medal and 11 All Star selections in 13 seasons. However, it’s accurate. Continue reading...
House select committee investigating 6 January wants telecom and social media companies to preserve records on Mark MeadowsThe House select committee investigating the 6 January attack on the Capitol has instructed telecom and social media companies last week to preserve records of Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, according to a source familiar with the matter.The move positions the select committee on the doorstep of the Oval Office as it pursues a far-reaching inquiry into whether Trump and his White House helped plan or had advance knowledge of the insurrection perpetrated by the former president’s supporters. Continue reading...
The Australian wheelchair tennis great paid tribute to his mindset coach after completing a ‘golden grand slam’ at the US OpenFor a man blessed with so many remarkable talents, a critical element in Dylan Alcott’s historic triumph in New York on Sunday – when he became the first man to win the “golden slam” – proved relatively simple to deploy.The 30-year-old was the commander on court once again during his 7-5, 6-2 victory over Dutchman Niels Vink in the US Open quad men’s singles final at Flushing Meadows, as he completed his set of the four traditional grand slam tournaments and also an Olympic gold medal in a calendar year. Continue reading...
The quarterback’s rift with Green Bay has been well documented. And he’s enough of an oddball to spark wild storiesThe most important thing about the first game of the NFL season is to never read too much into it. This is particularly true this year, after the league added an extra game to the schedule. There’s no guarantee that anything, barring a major injury, that happens on a Sunday in early September will be relevant by the time the postseason starts. So, it’s possible that the New Orleans Saints’ Week 1 win over the Green Bay Packers will be all but forgotten by January.Still, it was a strange game. Last year, one of these two starting quarterbacks was the MVP while the other played just four games. Yet, there was Aaron Rodgers being benched after throwing two interceptions while Jameis Winston threw five touchdowns in a 38-3 romp for the Saints. Continue reading...
As a girl in the 1990s, I struggled for an education in underground schools. Afghans face a return to those dark timesWith my phone in hand, I walked up and down the fifth floor of New Broadcasting House, the BBC headquarters in London. It was mid-August and I was trying to get in touch with my sister in Afghanistan. The phone kept ringing but there was no answer – she never misses my calls, even when she’s working.On the seventh attempt, I heard the noise of the rush hour in Kabul, followed by her: “Guly”, – or “Hi hon”, as we might say in England. “Where have you been?” I asked. Continue reading...
PR experts agree the champion is a marketer’s dream – with strongly engaged online fans and talent and charisma to burnMost fledging British stars spend years trying to crack America. Emma Raducanu did it in three giddy weeks. And such was the skill and breathtaking scale of her first grand slam victory – which ended with her blitzing an ace before collapsing to the floor and rubbing her eyes, as if to make sure she was not in some impossible dream – it felt entirely natural to immediately speculate where it ranked in the pantheon of the nation’s great sporting triumphs.High, for sure. Perhaps even highest of all. Certainly for an individual. Continue reading...
by Bryan Armen Graham at Flushing Meadows on (#5PF7J)
The world No 1 has endured a fraught relationship with the New York crowds. But he won them over on Sunday as his grand slam bid fell shortIt was perhaps inevitable that Novak Djokovic’s frosty relations with the US Open crowd would at some point thaw. That he would one day receive the appreciation he has so often been denied in New York.That resolution finally came on Sunday evening in an unexpected form inside a jam-packed Arthur Ashe Stadium, after a tournament defined by the unpredictable had delivered one final curveball. Continue reading...
Asa Hutchinson calls directive ‘unprecedented assumption of federal mandate authority’ as other governors threaten to sueThe political sparring match over Joe Biden’s new vaccine mandate continued on Sunday with one Republican governor blasting the measure as “counterproductive” and the White House insisting it was necessary to end the coronavirus pandemic.Related: Northern Idaho’s anti-government streak hinders fight against Covid Continue reading...
Moderate Democrat who is the Senate swing vote says cost is too high and efforts to speed bill’s passage too hastyJoe Manchin, the moderate Democrat standing in the way of Joe Biden’s signature $3.5tn spending bill, insisted again on Sunday he would not support the package, declaring the price tag too high and White House efforts to speed its passage too hasty.Related: Al Sharpton calls on Biden to fight the filibuster: ‘If we can’t depend on you here, when can we?’ Continue reading...
Teenager’s victory came out of nowhere so it needs perspective – we cannot expect her to keep doing this in majorsSo: that happened. As Emma Raducanu emerged from Arthur Ashe Stadium clutching the US Open trophy to her chest, the blood on her knee still visible from where she had fallen, it was possible to feel a little dazed, a little concussed, to feel the edges of the night dissolving a little. In this new unreality an 18-year-old qualifier from Bromley is tennis’s newest star, a figure of adulation and idolisation well beyond the wet island for whom she has just claimed a first grand slam women’s title in 44 years.You could lose yourself in the records and the milestones: the first qualifier to win a major title in the Open era, the youngest slam winner since Maria Sharapova, the first woman to win a major at only her second attempt. You could seek out historical context. But comparing Raducanu to the 17-year-old Boris Becker winning Wimbledon in 1985 doesn’t quite work, because Becker was a top-20 player at the time. Continue reading...
Hospitals in region so packed with coronavirus patients that authorities said facilities can ration healthcareNorthern Idaho has a long and deep streak of anti-government activism that has confounded attempts to battle a Covid-19 outbreak overwhelming hospitals in the deeply conservative region.A deadly 1992 standoff with federal agents near the Canadian border helped spark an expansion of radical rightwing groups across the country and the area was for a long time the home of the Aryan Nations, whose leader envisioned a “White Homeland” in the county that is now among the worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading...
Twenty years on, readers discuss events in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the USJonathan Powell makes some good points (The lesson we failed to learn from 9/11: peace is impossible if we don’t talk to our enemies, 10 September). However, when he says: “There was no real alternative to going after the leadership of al-Qaida” and “there was no real alternative to taking on the Taliban themselves”, I beg to differ. 9/11 was a crime, not an act of war. It was not committed by, or in the name of, the Afghan people, who would go on to be slaughtered in so many thousands.Despite the recalcitrance of the Taliban, it could, and should, have been responded to using the mechanisms of international law. Weak and slow moving though they are, they do exist and can succeed eventually, as witnessed by, for example, successful prosecutions of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia. Continue reading...
Tennis star says her calmness and mental strength were instilled in her by her parentsNothing about what Emma Raducanu has achieved over the past three weeks in New York is normal. Qualifiers do not win grand slam titles; 18-year-olds do not win slams without dropping a set; teenagers do not waltz to US Open triumph on their debut.Related: ‘I don’t feel pressure’: Emma Raducanu loving life after US Open triumph Continue reading...
US Open winner credits her support team and says former British No 1 gave her belief and focusFollowing her triumph at the US Open, Emma Raducanu credited the retired British tennis player Tim Henman for giving her “belief that I could actually do it”.Henman, who has been working for Amazon Prime in the US, has often been seen offering words of comfort and support to the 18-year-old. Continue reading...
Internal investigation recommends disciplinary measures against officers but none will face criminal chargesAn internal investigation by the US Capitol police (USCP) has recommended disciplinary measures against six of its officers for their actions during the 6 January riot, although none will face criminal charges.In a statement, the USCP said its office of professional responsibility had opened 38 separate investigations following the deadly attack on the Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump seeking to overturn his election defeat. Continue reading...
The tipped wage scale allows restaurants to pay workers less than the legal minimum wage. Some unscrupulous owners nevertheless try to get away with paying even lessThis may come as a shock to some but there’s a different minimum wage for restaurant employees than for workers in most other industries. In Pennsylvania, for example, that minimum wage is just $2.83 per hour.Every statein the US has these “tipped wages”. According to minimumwage.org, the tipped wage is as little as $2.13 per hour in 19 states and as high as $10 in New York. Continue reading...
by Bryan Armen Graham at Flushing Meadows on (#5PEGX)
Fans at the Arthur Ashe Stadium were won over en masse by an 18-year-old whose US Open triumph ‘gives people hope’More than three hours had passed since Emma Raducanu uncorked a 108mph ace on match point to finish off the Canadian teenager Leylah Fernandez and win the most improbable US Open championship on record. The sun had long since disappeared over the west end of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center and nearly all of the 23,703 spectators that had packed Arthur Ashe Stadium to the corners had dispersed.Yet several dozen fans remained outside the gated media garden beneath the tournament’s main stadium court late on Saturday night hoping for even a glimpse of the sport’s newest star – the 18-year-old from Kent who became the first qualifier ever to reach a major final, let alone win one – many of them still buzzing from excitement after witnessing an achievement that defies comparison. One that in the dizzying aftermath didn’t even seem real. Continue reading...
For only the second time in the state’s history, voters will decide if Gavin Newsom should keep his jobCalifornians are just days away from the state’s gubernatorial recall election on 14 September, where for only the second time in California’s history voters will get a chance to decide if the governor should keep his job.Related: ‘I barely know what the recall is’: central California voters puzzle over crucial vote Continue reading...
The Democratic governor says Covid and western fires illuminate the stark choice voters must makeBallots were already being cast in California’s gubernatorial recall election when Gavin Newsom, visiting a pop-up clinic in Oakland, once again implored his constituents to get the Covid-19 vaccine. The week before, the governor had visited the site of the devastating Caldor fire, which had threatened the resort town of South Lake Tahoe and destroyed nearly 1,000 structures.These ongoing calamities – a once-in-a-generation health crisis and unprecedented challenges posed drought and extreme weather – were, largely, what gave rise to the recall effort. Having won his seat by a historic margin in 2018, Newsom has found himself in a peculiar position. Still broadly popular in the state, he’s fending off challenges from Republicans and rightwingers who are more out of touch with most residents than the governor at his worst. Extraordinary crises have given rise to an extraordinary recall – one that could trigger extraordinary political upheaval in one of America’s bluest states. Continue reading...
Some say it inspired BLM and the growth of the US left. Others see it as an abject failure. A decade after the occupation of New York’s Zuccotti Park, the people who were there look back“We are the 99%.” Ten years ago that unifying slogan travelled around the world. Some attribute its origin to the economist Joseph Stiglitz, who first popularised the distinction between the 1% of people with great wealth and power and the rest of us. Others say that it was the late anthropologist and anarchist David Graeber who coined the phrase. But everyone agrees that it went global when it was voiced by demonstrators who gathered in lower Manhattan’s financial district on 17 September 2011.What took place that day, and the two months to follow, would become known as Occupy Wall Street, a protest movement against economic inequality and injustice that spread to 28 other US cities, to European capitals and financial centres, including London, Paris and Berlin, as well as parts of South America and the far east. In total it’s said that there were more than 750 Occupy events around the world, featuring demonstrators ranging from a few tens in some places to many thousands in others. Continue reading...
Questions to consider before you inflict the ‘moral injury’ of a risky, nonessential tripA new season is here and, with it, seedlings of holiday escape plans to some sun-drenched beach or snowy mountain ski slope. In view of passenger data from the US and the UK, air travel is on its way toward recovering from the slump of a pre-vaccine Covid-19 pandemic – despite the rise of the Delta variant.But does that mean it’s a good idea to buy that plane ticket, even if you’re vaccinated? And if you’re comfortable assuming some degree of personal risk, is it unethical to do so? Continue reading...
The US has now spent $8 trillion over 20 years in its response to the attacks. But the true price has been more than financialSuccessive US administrations since 2001 have spent $8tn – that’s to say $8,000bn or $8 million million – on what George Bush, its progenitor, termed the “global war on terror”. Joe Biden complains that Afghanistan alone cost the US $300m a day for 20 years. These mind-boggling numbers are mere estimates. Their sheer size is hard to comprehend. In any case, it’s absurd to reckon the cost of a worldwide trauma purely in dollars and cents.So how should a phenomenon that, looked at in the round, is the most epically damaging man-made calamity of recent times be properly measured? The overall cost of the “war on terror” can be gauged in many different ways – in terms of international development, arms spending, environmental impacts, civil and human rights, the rule of law and the balance of power. Yet most striking is the cost expressed in ordinary lives lost and ruined. Continue reading...
Michael K Williams, who died last week, embodied a role of power and nuance, seldom seen on screenIt’s not often that a shotgun-wielding thief and killer comes to be seen as possessing a moral core. But then it’s not often that you have a character like Omar Little. Or an actor like Michael K Williams to bring him to life. Or a TV series like The Wire that allowed both character and actor to breathe.The death last week of Williams, possibly of a drugs overdose, has robbed us of one of the most subtle, supple actors of our time. He was outstanding in a number of roles, from Boardwalk Empire to Bessie, from The Night Of to The Road. But it was his portrayal of Omar Little that truly lives in the memory. Continue reading...
The state-owned broadcaster stepped in to serve up a deal that allowed UK viewers to watch the British tennis star for freeIn a timely, attention-grabbing move, Channel 4 secured impressive viewing figures on Saturday night after clinching an 11th-hour deal to screen Emma Raducanu’s historic match to British audiences for free.Levels of public excitement about the young British tennis player’s attempt to win a her first top tennis tournament at the age of 18 had reached the level of interest that could only be compared to football’s Euro 2020 tournament earlier this summer. But, until Channel 4 stepped in, the final of the US Open was available to watch in Britain only on the Amazon Prime Video service. Continue reading...
by Oliver Laughland with photos by Bryan Tarnowski in on (#5PEAE)
Communities in Pointe-aux-Chenes and Isle de Jean Charles grapple with question of whether to rebuild or retreatOut on the frontiers of the Louisiana coastline, amid winding bayous, battered island roads and sinking land, a swath of fresh devastation for this region’s overlooked Indigenous tribal communities.Amid the rapid depletion of their land, rising sea levels and coastal erosion, Hurricane Ida pummeled the small communities of Pointe-aux-Chenes and Isle de Jean Charles, home to a number of south-east Louisiana’s coastal tribal groups. Continue reading...
Ronald Reagan would not recognise a party that wants to intrude the power of the state everywhere, making a mockery of values it once espousedI’m old enough to remember when the Republican party stood for limited government and Ronald Reagan thundered “Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.”Today’s Republican party, while still claiming to stand for limited government, is practicing just the opposite: government intrusion everywhere. Continue reading...
Newly released file relates to logistical support provided to two of the Saudi hijackers before the 2001 attacksThe FBI has released a newly declassified 16-page document related to logistical support provided to two of the Saudi hijackers in the lead-up to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The document describes contacts the hijackers had with Saudi associates in the US but offers no evidence the Saudi government was complicit in the plot.The document, released on the 20th anniversary of the attacks, is the first investigative record to be disclosed since President Joe Biden ordered a declassification review of materials that for years have remained out of public view. Continue reading...
All the best images from Flushing Meadows where Emma Raducanu beat Layleh Fernandez 6-4, 6-3 to make history and become the first qualifier to win a grand slam Continue reading...
The 18-year-old showed tremendous composure from the start in her sensational straight sets victory to win the US OpenEmma Raducanu walked on to court for her first grand slam final with a smile, responded to the roar of the crowd with a gentle wave of her left hand, ready to go. If she was going to go down, she would go down on her terms.We need not have worried. In the most intense of arenas, in uncharted territory, the 18-year-old won her first grand slam title and the greatest thing about it all was that from the first moment to last, with only one or two moments of mild doubt, it almost seemed inevitable. Continue reading...
Biden and Harris among leaders at ceremonies in New York, at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania• Sign up to receive First Thing – our daily briefing by email10.37pm BSTOur coverage of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is coming to a close. Thank you for reading. Here is some of our coverage:9.50pm BSTTwenty years after Lower Manhattan was covered in toxic dust from the World Trade Center, health problems persist for survivors and first responders at the Twin Towers, and for residents who lived nearby.According to the Associated Press, 111,000 people are part of the World Trade Center Health Program, which provides free medical care to persons with health problems possibly tied to the dust.To date, the U.S. has spent $11.7 billion on care and compensation for those exposed to the dust -- about $4.6 billion more than it gave to the families of people killed or injured on Sept. 11, 2001. More than 40,000 people have gotten payments from a government fund for people with illnesses potentially linked to the attacks.Scientists still can’t say for certain how many people developed health problems as a result of exposure to the tons of pulverized concrete, glass, asbestos, gypsum and God knows what else that fell on Lower Manhattan when the towers fell.The largest number of people enrolled in the federal health program suffer from chronic inflammation of their sinus or nasal cavities or from reflux disease, a condition that can cause symptoms including heartburn, sore throat and a chronic cough.The reasons for this are not well understood. Doctors say it could be related to their bodies getting stuck in cycles of chronic inflammation initially triggered by irritation from the dust.Post-traumatic stress disorder has emerged as one of the most common, persistent health conditions, afflicting about 12,500 people enrolled in the health program. Nearly 19,000 enrollees have a mental health problem believed to be linked to the attacks. More than 4,000 patients have some type of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a family of potentially debilitating breathing problems.Time has helped heal some physical ailments, but not others. Many first responders who developed a chronic cough later had it fade, or disappear entirely, but others have shown little improvement. Continue reading...
Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and George W Bush join mourners in ceremonies in New York, Pennsylvania and at PentagonSome wept. Some held photos of loved ones At 8.46am, precisely two decades after a passenger plane became a new and deadly weapon here, all fell silent in remembrance.Families of the victims gathered at the 9/11 memorial plaza in New York on Saturday to mark the 20th anniversary of terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people and helped shape the 21st century. Similar ceremonies played out in Washington DC and Pennsylvania – the sites of other attacks that day. Continue reading...
Western lowland gorillas are believed to have caught the virus from a zookeeperMore than a dozen gorillas have tested positive for Covid-19 at Zoo Atlanta, probably after contracting the virus from a keeper, zoo officials said.Staff were alerted when several of the zoo’s troop of 20 western lowland gorillas began exhibiting symptoms, including runny noses, mild coughing and loss of appetite. Continue reading...
