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© PL Gould/Images Press, via Getty
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© Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Trump administration labels Maduro as member of foreign terrorist organization and could impose fresh sanctions on country
Back to some domestic news and the “department of government efficiency” (Doge) has apparently been dissolved with eight months still remaining on its contract, ending a drawn-out campaign of invading federal agencies and firing thousands of federal workers.
“That doesn’t exist,” office of personnel management (OPM) director Scott Kupor told Reuters earlier this month when asked about Doge’s status, adding that it was no longer a “centralized entity”.
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© Photograph: Tajh Payne/DoD/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Tajh Payne/DoD/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Tajh Payne/DoD/AFP/Getty Images
Lord Dannatt and Lord Evans of Watford were filmed breaking rules in undercover footage recorded by Guardian
Two long-serving peers are to be suspended from the House of Lords after a parliamentary watchdog ruled that they had broken lobbying rules.
Richard Dannatt, the former head of the British army, and David Evans (Lord Evans of Watford), were filmed breaking the rules in undercover footage recorded by the Guardian.
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© Composite: Shutterstock/House of Lords
© Composite: Shutterstock/House of Lords
© Composite: Shutterstock/House of Lords
The two remaining members of the groundbreaking, politically revolutionary group talk about the state of hip-hop and the US government’s attacks on people of color
For the first time in 35 years, Billboard’s Hot 100 chart does not include a rap song among its top 40 hit records. Anyone who’s been listening to the music for at least that long can list myriad reasons why that’s now the case: all the beats sound the same, all the artists are industry plants, all the lyrics are barely intelligible etc. For hip-hop forefather Abiodun Oyewole, though, it boils down to this: “We embraced ‘party and bullshit’, my brother.”
Fifty-seven years ago, on what would have been Malcolm X’s 43rd birthday, Oyewole cliqued up with two young poets at a writers’ workshop in East Harlem’s Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park) to form what would become the Last Poets, a collective of bard revolutionaries. They outfitted themselves in African prints, performed over the beat of a congo drum and advocated for populism in their verses. The group has had many configurations over the years, but Oyewole, Jalal Mansur Nuriddin and Umar Bin Hassan abide as the standout members. The trio is all over the band’s self-titled first album – which was released in 1970 and peaked at No 29 on the Billboard 200. Their follow-up album, This Is Madness, made them ripe targets for J Edgar Hoover’s Cointelpro campaign against the emerging figures the then-FBI director deemed politically subversive. Notably, Oyewole could not contribute to that album because he had been incarcerated for an attempted robbery of a Ku Klux Klan headquarters, serving 2 1/2 years of a three-year sentence. (He was trying to raise bail for activists who had been arrested for striking back at the klan.)
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© Photograph: Gie Knaeps/Getty Images
© Photograph: Gie Knaeps/Getty Images
© Photograph: Gie Knaeps/Getty Images
Political elites in Europe’s ‘mature’ democracies warn of external threats – but at home they normalise racism and undermine the rule of law
Europe’s leaders cannot stop talking about democracy. President Emmanuel Macron says he wants to kickstart a democratic “resurgence”, and Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, has warned of an “axis” of autocratic states targeting liberal democracy in Europe. Having promised to “fight” for what she calls European “values”, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, has just announced a new “democracy shield” and a Centre for Democratic Resilience to prevent foreign interference and deal with external threats. I keep hoping for similar scrutiny of democratic backsliding within the EU – but so far it has not happened.
Foreign interference, disinformation and the creeping illiberalism of Hungary, Poland and Slovakia deserve attention. But lost in this fretting is a more inconvenient truth: within Europe’s “mature” democracies, there is a steady corrosion of the rule of law, a degradation of political discourse and the normalisation of racism, xenophobia and discrimination.
Shada Islam is a Brussels-based commentator on EU affairs. She runs New Horizons Project, a strategy, analysis and advisory company
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© Photograph: dts News Agency Germany G20/Shutterstock
© Photograph: dts News Agency Germany G20/Shutterstock
© Photograph: dts News Agency Germany G20/Shutterstock
Experts say councils face limits on cuts as Reform’s savings on IT deals, office moves and EV projects are disputed
Reform UK has ignored requests to share the evidence for its claim to have saved £331m since it took charge of 10 English councils in May, prompting questions over whether the figure is true.
The party has boasted that it had achieved £331m worth of savings at English councils it controls. Warning of a “blob” of vested interests devoted to “ripping off” taxpayers, Richard Tice, the new head of the party’s self-styled ‘Doge’ cost-cutting unit, added: “We’re going to war with these people”.
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© Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA
© Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA
© Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA
Temperatures over 35C break November records in Israel while Tropical Cyclone Fina approaches Western Australia
Exceptionally high November temperatures have roasted Israel in recent days, breaking records for late November. During the heatwave, which peaked over Friday and Saturday, temperatures soared to between 10C and 12C above average, as low-lying parts of the country widely reached between 30C and 35C and exceeded 35C more locally. Israel’s previous record for the latter third of November was 34.9C.
On Friday, temperatures reached 36.2C in Beit Dagan, near Tel Aviv, where the average November high is around 24C, while on Saturday they reached a peak of 37.3C in Eilat on the Red Sea coast, where the average is 27C. Though temperatures were less extreme at higher altitudes, they were still well above average; Jerusalem, at an altitude of more than 700m, reached around 27C, in comparison with an average November high of 19C.
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© Photograph: Raquel Frohlich/Alamy
© Photograph: Raquel Frohlich/Alamy
© Photograph: Raquel Frohlich/Alamy
Star of The Harder They Come had hits including You Can Get It If You Really Want and I Can See Clearly Now
Jimmy Cliff, the singer and actor whose mellifluous voice helped to turn reggae into a global phenomenon, has died aged 81.
A message from his wife Latifa Chambers on Instagram reads: “It’s with profound sadness that I share that my husband, Jimmy Cliff, has crossed over due to a seizure followed by pneumonia. I am thankful for his family, friends, fellow artists and coworkers who have shared his journey with him. To all his fans around the world, please know that your support was his strength throughout his whole career … Jimmy, my darling, may you rest in peace. I will follow your wishes.” Her message was also signed by their children, Lilty and Aken.
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© Photograph: Vision Addict
© Photograph: Vision Addict
© Photograph: Vision Addict
Only three fringe players will go to Canberra
Rest of squad to have extra sessions at the Gabba
To hell with the optics was the message from England on Monday after confirmation that none of the players who collapsed to the shattering two-day defeat in the first Ashes Test will change tack and travel to Canberra.
In a move that risks drawing further ire, only Jacob Bethell, Josh Tongue and Matthew Potts – all unused in Perth – will join the Lions at Manuka Oval, where Andrew Flintoff’s shadow touring party will take on a Prime Minister’s XI in a two-day floodlit fixture that starts on Saturday.
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© Photograph: Philip Brown/Getty Images
© Photograph: Philip Brown/Getty Images
© Photograph: Philip Brown/Getty Images
Amy Redford thanks fans for ‘love and support’ but takes issue with ‘AI versions of funerals, tributes and quotes from members of my family that are fabrications’
Robert Redford’s daughter Amy Redford has criticised the proliferation of artificial intelligence tributes to her father, who died in September, calling them “fabrications”.
Redford posted a statement on social media in which she thanked fans for their “overwhelming love and support”, adding: “It’s clear that he meant so much to so many, and I know that my family is humbled by the outpouring of stories and tributes from all corners of the globe.”
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© Photograph: Jane Bown/The Observer
© Photograph: Jane Bown/The Observer
© Photograph: Jane Bown/The Observer
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