Charges filed two months after woman’s claims about Wi Spa sparked anti-trans protestsLos Angeles authorities have charged a 52-year-old with indecent exposure at a popular Korean spa that was the subject of a viral Instagram post earlier this summer.The LA police department (LAPD) announced late on Thursday that it had put out an arrest warrant for Darren Merager, who is now facing five felony counts of indecent exposure at Wi Spa in the Koreatown neighborhood. The charges, filed on Monday, come two months after a viral Instagram video from a woman who filmed herself confronting Wi Spa staff about seeing a “man” naked in front of women and girls in the women’s section of the facility. Continue reading...

Critics of Texas’ new law have been filing hundreds of fake reports to the whistleblowing website in hopes of crashing itPro-choice users on TikTok and Reddit have launched a guerrilla effort to thwart Texas’s extreme new abortion law, flooding an online tip website that encourages people to report violators of the law with false reports, Shrek memes, and porn.The law makes it illegal to help women in Texas access abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy. To help enforce it, anti-abortion group Texas Right to Life established the digital tipline where people can send anonymous information about potential violations. Continue reading...

Emma Raducanu impressed once more as she made her way into the third round at Flushing Meadows7.32pm BSTThat’s all for now. We’ll be back in a couple of hours with MBM coverage of Novak Djokovic’s second-round tie with Tallon Griekspoor. Until then!7.14pm BSTSome other results are trickling in from around the grounds. Seventh-seeded Iga Swiatek has come from behind for a 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-0 win over France’s Fiona Ferro, Maria Sakkari has won 6-4, 6-2 over Katerina Siniakova, while Russia’s Varvara Gracheva has won 6-4, 6-4 over the 24th-seeded Paula Badosa of Spain. Continue reading...

The supreme court refused to block the ban – here’s what you should know about the most restrictive US abortion lawThe vast majority of people in Texas can effectively no longer access an abortion in the state after it banned the procedure except in the earliest weeks of pregnancy often before most know they are pregnant.Related: After the Texas abortion ban, clinics in nearby states brace for demand Continue reading...

Attempts to legitimise warfare should be met with scepticism, argues Andrew Clapham. Plus letters from Prof Keith Hayward, Blaine Stothard and Margaret VandecasteeleSamuel Moyn is right to emphasise how humanising war has distracted attention from questioning whether there should be a war in the first place (How the US created a world of endless war, 31 August). We could go further and argue that the permissive interpretation of the rules that he highlights has actually led to a dehumanisation in war.The last 20 years have seen torture, multiple targeted killings by drones controlled from a safe distance, apparently self-explanatory categories such as “law-of-war detainees”, “law-of-war targets”, and the destruction of objects contributing to what has been called the “war-sustaining economy”. It is as if once one accepts one is at war, we accept that sticking a “law-of-war” label on all the killing and destruction makes it inevitable and acceptable. Continue reading...

Texas-based patients put pressure on clinics in other states – and demands on abortion fundsOriginally published by the 19th.With the vast majority of abortions now illegal in Texas, clinics in nearby states are already reporting increases in demand as patients prepare to travel hundreds of miles to safely, legally terminate a pregnancy. Continue reading...

After causing a sensation at the event in 2019, the US siblings hoping to make a similar impact against Europe this weekendThe key to European Solheim Cup success this weekend may lie in halting just one family. In 2019 the Korda sisters proved a sensation in the biennial event. Jessica and Nelly, the first siblings to be paired together in the competition, cantered to victory together in both their foursomes outings before winning their singles matches. The US fell to an agonising defeat at Gleneagles but the Kordas emerged as one of team golf’s most formidable duos. Two years on, Nelly has a major win and Olympic gold medal to her name. Catriona Matthew, Europe’s captain, rather devilishly suggested this may apply pressure to the 23-year-old – a notion that is not publicly accepted.“There’s definitely a lot of people that try to put it in my head, for sure,” Nelly said. “I’m pretty easy going. I just try to fly under the radar and do my thing, be prepared as best as possible, have fun starting Saturday and hopefully put up some points and just have fun with my teammates. Continue reading...

Justice Sotomayor wrote a blistering dissent on the US supreme court failing to block an extreme Texas abortion law. We are republishing it hereThe court’s order is stunning. Presented with an application to enjoin a flagrantly unconstitutional law engineered to prohibit women from exercising their constitutional rights and evade judicial scrutiny, a majority of justices have opted to bury their heads in the sand.Last night, the court silently acquiesced in a state’s enactment of a law that flouts nearly 50 years of federal precedents. Today, the court belatedly explains that it declined to grant relief because of procedural complexities of the state’s own invention. Because the court’s failure to act rewards tactics designed to avoid judicial review and inflicts significant harm on the applicants and on women seeking abortions in Texas, I dissent. Continue reading...

Extreme weather prompts first ever flash flood emergency warning for New York City from National Weather ServiceThe National Weather Service (NWS) issued its first ever flash flood emergency warning for New York City, as the remnants of Hurricane Ida brought heavy rain that flooded subway lines and streets in Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Jersey.At least 14 people have been killed in the flooding in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania as basement apartments suddenly filled with water. Continue reading...

Financial rewards given to those shredding the US constitution? That is the reality of the Texas law on abortionFor years, as the supreme court’s composition kept tilting right, reproductive rights have been squarely on the chopping block. Now they are on the auction block as well.Observers have speculated how today’s new ultra-right court would commence the slicing: by chipping away slowly at Roe v Wade? Or by taking the political heat and overruling it outright? Few imagined that the court would let a statute everybody concedes is flagrantly unconstitutional under the legal regime of Roe not only go into effect without being judicially reviewed but become the centerpiece of a totally unique state scheme that puts a bounty of at least $10,000 on the head of every woman who is or might be pregnant. Continue reading...

Young, angry men are falling down a rabbit hole of online radicalisation. The isolation of Covid will only make this worseRead a book, as the old saying goes, and it will set you free. But even the power of literature surely has its limits, and this week a judge in Leicester tested them. Faced with a Nazi sympathiser convicted of downloading bomb-making instructions, and white supremacist and fascist material from the internet, Judge Spencer issued a suspended two-year sentence and instructions to read Jane Austen or Charles Dickens instead. “Think about Hardy. Think about Trollope,” he added, helpfully. Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, the judge thought, might be a good place to start.It might have made more sense had he recommended Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. For Ben John, the 21-year-old former student convicted of downloading more than 67,000 extreme documents, seems to have fallen down a depressingly familiar dark rabbit hole. The judge described him as a lonely individual with few, if any, proper friends. He fits a well-worn pattern of socially awkward, angry young men retreating from the outside world into dark online subcultures, where each click leads to something more extreme. For John, it was white supremacism and fascism. For others it could be Islamist fundamentalism, or a violently misogynistic incel culture, where men who can’t get women to have sex with them vent their frustrated rage against women everywhere. Continue reading...

A rare bipartisan agreement to protect people who mistakenly vote when ineligible was frustrated at the 11th hourHello Fight to Vote readers,Texas Republicans passed a sweeping elections bill on Tuesday, a measure that imposes substantial new restrictions on access to the ballot in the state. Continue reading...

Record-breaking rainfall brought by the remnants of Storm Ida has swept through the New York area leaving parts of Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Jersey affected by rare flooding

Announcement is likely to increase criticism of three-term House member from lawmakers closely aligned with TrumpRepublican US Representative Liz Cheney will serve as vice-chairwoman of the congressional select committee investigating the deadly 6 January assault on the US Capitol, the panel announced on Thursday.Related: Capitol riot inquiry to investigate whether Trump’s White House was involved in attack Continue reading...

Storey won her 17th gold in the C4-5 cycling road race with GB’s Ben Watson and Finlay Graham won gold and silver the men’s C1-3 event, while Dan Pembroke, also of GB took F13 javelin gold2.25pm BSTOtherwise, join us again in not that many hours at all for day 10! Enjoy the rest of your day/evening/night.2.22pm BSTRighto, that’s us done for the day. But afore we go, the best of the coverage to send us on our way:Related: Ellie Simmonds ready to end career in Paralympics after freestyle fifth placeRelated: ‘A beautiful moment’: Paralympic cyclist lauded after slowing to will on another riderRelated: Imperious Sarah Storey wins historic 17th Paralympic gold medal for Great BritainRelated: Tokyo Paralympics 2020: day nine – in picturesRelated: Australian swimmers deliver more Paralympics gold as world records tumbleRelated: Australia’s Paralympians to get same medal bonus as Olympians after government recognises efforts Continue reading...

Americans didn’t always agree with the court’s conclusions, but they respected it. That’s changing nowThe US supreme court won’t block a Texas law that allows private individuals to sue to enforce a ban on abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy – before many women are even aware they’re pregnant. The law went into effect Wednesday.It’s the most restrictive abortion law in the country, imposing a huge burden on women without the means or money to travel to another state where abortions remain legal. Continue reading...

The most extreme abortion law in the US has gone into effect, with the US supreme court refusing to block it

The California attorney general announced a consent decree with the Bakersfield police. We hope that we are given resources to make sure that the police follow throughWhen we first reached out to the California department of justice (DoJ) over five years ago, Francisco Serna, a 73-year-old man with dementia, had just been killed by Bakersfield police officer Reagan Selman, capping one of the most violent years our city had ever seen.In a small Faith in the Valley Kern office, above Dagny’s coffee shop, leaders affected by the brutality of our local police force huddled over a conference call telephone for an emotional and exasperated call to the department of justice. Having whittled away all local officials even willing to meet with them, family members who lost loved ones to Bakersfield police department (BPD) violence shared their pain with department of justice officials, hopeful for a day when they would actually be heard. Continue reading...

As the rubber bullets and teargas flew during last year’s protests, an epidemic of ‘less lethal’ shootings inspired a network of survivorsMy mind raced in the seconds after I was shot.I heard the gun go off and turned my head toward the sound, just in time to watch the spinning aluminum canister slam into my brow. Everything went black. I stumbled. When I regained my balance and opened my eyes, the sight in my right eye was gone. Something in my head told me the teargas canister was the last thing I’d ever see clearly. Continue reading...

New rules means college athletes can now make money from their name and likeness. But it is not the football and basketball stars’ lives who will change the mostIn the early hours of 1 July, an Uber crossed into Manhattan, carrying a pair of 20-year-old twins who’d never before seen the bright lights of New York City. After an excruciating day of travel, they were set to arrive at their hotel around 3am Somehow, though, the twins were giddy. They laughed and chatted as they rode, talking about Times Square and a deal they had just signed.

Over the years Sister Norma Pimentel’s singular focus of ‘restoring dignity’ to people in need has evolved in TexasRecently, perhaps the two greatest public policy challenges facing south Texas, the pandemic and immigration, collided and provoked an explosion of local passion. All over a hamburger.Related: Welcome to the US southern border: same country, different planet Continue reading...

Hurricane Ida has hit New York city as the remnants of the storm brought heavy rain that flooded subway lines and streets in Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Jersey.The National Weather Service has issued its first ever flash-flood warning for New York city and video showed parts of Newark Liberty airport flooded after all flights were suspended and parking lots were closed because of the severe flooding

Four years ago the US were humiliated as they failed to make the grade for Russia 2018. Talented young players and a new coach have turned things aroundThere are two versions of the US men’s national team, depending who you ask.There’s the USMNT that exists in the consciousness of those who have paid little attention to the team since October 2017, when they failed to qualify for the World Cup. That USMNT is an embarrassment, and the image wasn’t helped when a hybrid Olympic team failed to qualify for Tokyo this year. Continue reading...

This week’s roundup also features Tex Cobb, Miami Dolphins and a man kicking off in an offy, next to Paul Ince1) The WSL gets going this week, so here’s a 1995 doc on Doncaster Belles; here’s Marieanne Spacey-Cale – England legend, Arsenal legend and Southampton head coach – taking us through a day in her life; and here’s Rachel Yankey reflecting on her career.2) A man kicks off in an offy, then notices Paul Ince standing next to him. Continue reading...

Brutal heat follows wreckage of Hurricane Ida, with many residents unaware of city’s offers of assistanceAs the sun began to set on his third day without power, Kevin Johnson took a pause from the hard labour, sweat dripping from his face in the relentless humidity.Hurricane Ida had torn through his home in the city’s Lower Ninth Ward on Sunday evening, removing the front gable that lay collapsed in the yard. It busted the windows, took part off the roof and crumpled the back door as rainwater soaked the inside. Continue reading...

The US state of Texas has enacted the strictest anti-abortion law in the country, banning all abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy – before most women know they are pregnant. The law gives private citizens the power to sue abortion providers and anyone who 'aids or abets' an abortion after six weeks. Citizens who win such lawsuits would be entitled to at least $10,000. There is concern this will spur abortion ‘bounty hunters’

Crews face hard battle amid gusting winds but officials say they have made progressFirefighters battling a ferocious wildfire in the Lake Tahoe Basin are facing critical hours as they work to prevent the flames from reaching a resort city at the southern tip of the lake.Crews gained ground on the behemoth blaze raging on the California-Nevada border, officials said on Wednesday, despite dry gusty conditions and difficult terrain. Continue reading...

US supreme court fails to act to block near-total ban that allows private citizens to sue abortion providersThe most radical abortion law in the US has gone into effect, despite legal efforts to block it.A near-total abortion ban in Texas empowers any private citizen to sue an abortion provider who violates the law, opening the floodgates to harassing and frivolous lawsuits from anti-abortion vigilantes that could eventually shutter most clinics in the state. Continue reading...

Hurricane Ida-related flooding fears force thousands to evacuate in Pennsylvania as New Jersey sees tornadoLouisiana residents still reeling from flooding and damage caused by Hurricane Ida are scrambling for food, gas, water and relief from the sweltering heat as thousands of line workers toiled to restore electricity and officials vowed to set up more sites where people could get free meals and cool off.Related: Before and after Hurricane Ida – in pictures Continue reading...

Rodeo Drive police unit sued for egregious racial profiling, stopping and arresting Black people without causeNearly all the people arrested by a Beverly Hills police taskforce over the past year were Black, according to a new lawsuit which alleges egregious racial profiling in the wealthy California city.The complaint, filed Tuesday by the prominent civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, alleges that out of 106 people arrested by a Beverly Hills police “safe streets” taskforce, 105 were Black and one was a dark-skinned Latino person. Between March 2020 and July 2021, the unit unjustly stopped and arrested Black civilians who were roller skating, scootering, driving and jaywalking a few feet outside the crosswalk, the suit said. Continue reading...

• Suspect believed to be a student at Mount Tabor high school• Victim identified as William Chavis Raynard Miller JrA shooting at a North Carolina high school on Wednesday has left one student dead and authorities have taken a suspect into custody, officials said.The police chief of Winston-Salem, Catrina Thompson, told a news conference while fighting back tears that Mount Tabor high school had gone into immediate lockdown as emergency responders, sheriff’s deputies and police officers arrived just after noon to search for the suspect, who she said was believed to be a student at the school. Continue reading...

Officials have not yet been able to determine how the family died but have closed the Savage Lundy trail through 26 SeptemberA popular national forest in California has closed trails near where a couple, their baby and the family dog were found dead last month.Pointing to “unknown hazards found in and near the Savage Lundy trail”, officials announced Sierra national forest would close trails, campgrounds and picnic sites for nearly a month. John Gerrish, 45, his wife, Ellen Chung, 30, their one-year-old daughter, Muji, and their dog were found dead on the Mariposa county hiking trail. Officials have not yet been able to determine how they died. Continue reading...

‘This is not the first threat to Roe we've seen in a state across the country. It's an extreme threat,' the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said after one of the most restrictive state abortion laws went into effect in Texas. Psaki said the Biden administration would fight to protect the constitutional right to abortion as laid out in the landmark Roe v Wade case

• Attorney general: three police and two paramedics face charges• 23-year-old died after being stopped on suburban Denver streetColorado’s attorney general said on Wednesday that a grand jury had indicted three police officers and two paramedics in the killing of Elijah McClain, a Black man who was put in a chokehold and injected with a powerful sedative two years ago in suburban Denver.The 23-year-old’s death gained more widespread attention during last year’s protests against racial injustice and police brutality following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Continue reading...