From The Long Goodbye to Short Cuts, Altman’s innovative movies have influenced a generation of film-makers. With the re-release of Nashville and a BFI tribute, we rank the work of one of America’s greatest directors
Continue reading...Category Archives: US News
Biden warns Russia over cyber attacks, says Putin doesn’t want cold war – video
Joe Biden warned Russian president Vladimir Putin that the US has significant cyber capability as he looked to pressure his counterpart over cyberattacks. The US leader says Putin wasn't seeking to intensify confrontation with the west after the two held "good and positive" talks. "I think that the last thing he wants now is a Cold War,” Biden said
Continue reading...South Carolina court blocks executions, saying inmates must have choice of firing squad
New law says death row prisoners must choose between electric chair and firing squad if lethal drugs aren’t available
South Carolina’s supreme court has blocked the planned executions of two inmates by electrocution, saying they cannot be put to death until they truly have the choice of the firing squad option set out in the state’s newly revised capital punishment law.
The high court on Wednesday halted this month’s scheduled executions of Brad Sigmon and Freddie Owens, writing that corrections officials need to put together a firing squad so that inmates can really choose between that or the electric chair.
Continue reading...Woman allegedly raped at New York Airbnb received secret $7m settlement – report
Airbnb taskforce that ‘cleans up only after disaster strikes’ intervened after alleged attack, reports Bloomberg Businessweek
An Australian woman who was allegedly raped at knifepoint in an Airbnb apartment in New York received a secret settlement of $7m which included restrictions on what she could say about the incident, according to a media investigation into the vacation listings giant’s “guest safety” policies .
The 29-year-old was attacked in a property near the tourist magnet and central Manhattan crossroads of Times Square early on New Year’s Day in 2016, Bloomberg Businessweek reported, prompting the swift intervention of a dedicated Airbnb crisis management “taskforce”.
Continue reading...Biden rejects Putin’s ‘ridiculous comparison’ between Capitol rioters and Alexei Navalny – video
Joe Biden has responded to Vladimir Putin comparing his jailing of political opponents such as Alexei Navalny with the charges filed against those who carried out the Capitol Hill riots. 'I think that’s a ridiculous comparison,' Biden told reporters after meeting with the Russian president in Geneva. During his own press conference after the summit, Putin used that comparison to deflect a question about why so many of his critics are either imprisoned or dead
Continue reading...Biden apologises for being ‘short’ with reporter at Putin summit press conference – video
Speaking to reporters by Air Force One in Geneva, Joe Biden has expressed regret for some sharp words to a journalist who questioned him about the success of his summit with Vladimir Putin. Frustrated by a question from CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins at the end of his press conference, he told her she was 'in the wrong business'. Biden later apologised for being 'short', adding: 'To be a good reporter, you’ve got to be negative. You’ve got to have a negative view of life ... you never ask a positive question'
Continue reading...Biden warns US will hit back if Russia continues with cyber strikes
US president hails ‘good and positive’ talks but added ‘proof of the pudding is in the eating’
The US will retaliate if Russia continues to carry out malicious cyber-attacks against American targets, Joe Biden said on Wednesday, after holding “good and positive” talks in Geneva with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.
Speaking after their first face-to-face summit, Biden said he had made clear the Kremlin had to “abide by the rules of the road” or face unspecified consequences. Putin was aware the US possessed “unrivalled” cyber capacities, Biden stressed.
Continue reading...Little left to chance in carefully-curated Geneva summit
Meeting goes as well as could be expected as Biden and Putin speak language of diplomacy – but hardly one of affection
Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin hadn’t even sat down before tensions boiled over at the 18th-century Villa La Grange, a fine Swiss manor house besieged on Wednesday by a 21st-century press pool. The two men looked cordial enough as they shook hands for the first time as leaders. But the sun-struck journalists behind them pushed and shouted, some knocked to the floor, as they fought to get in to the leaders’ only joint appearance of the day.
“The media scuffle was the most chaotic your pooler has seen at a presidential event in nine years,” wrote a US reporter from inside the melee, which erupted as the press pack tried to follow the two leaders into the villa. “Russian security yelled at journalists to get out and began pushing journalists. Journalists and White House officials screamed back that the Russian security should stop touching us.”
Continue reading...Five things we learned from the Biden-Putin summit in Geneva
Cool normality helped exorcise ghost of 2018’s disastrous Helsinki summit but what else was achieved?
1) The weird and unpredictable Trump era is over. In 2018 Donald Trump held a disastrous summit with Putin in the Finnish capital Helsinki. The then US president said he believed Putin’s assurances that Moscow did not interfere in the 2016 US election with a joint press conference that was so humiliating for America that Trump’s senior adviser Fiona Hill considered bringing it to a close by whacking a fire alarm or faking a medical emergency.
In Geneva, by contrast, cool normality was on display. Biden was well prepared for the US-Russia summit. He cut a relaxed figure, telling Putin he wanted a “predictable” relationship after a period defined by rogue Kremlin behaviour. The summit flowed along conventional diplomatic lines: a handshake, several hours of intensive talks and separate press conferences afterwards. The ghost of Helsinki was exorcised. There will be an agreed record of what was discussed, unlike in 2018 when Trump met Putin alone, without aides or even Trump’s own interpreter. We don’t know what was said.
Continue reading...Biden-Putin summit live: leaders reach second stage of tense talks
Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin will talk for four-five hours before making separate press appearances
- First session, with Antony Blinken and Sergey Lavrov, concludes
- Talks amid tensions expected to focus on regional conflicts, climate, Covid
A Russian state-owned media agency has shared a photo of Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin’s expanded bilateral meeting, which started about an hour ago.
Первые кадры с расширенных переговоров Президентов России и США Владимира Путина и Джозефа Байдена
@rian_ru pic.twitter.com/y5nwV4Uu3s
Away from Geneva, the Guardian’s Sam Levine reports on the rise in threats against election officials:
One in three election officials feel unsafe in their jobs, according to a new report released Wednesday by the Brennan Center for Justice. One in five election workers said threats to their lives were a concern related to their job.
Related: How Republicans came to embrace the big lie of a stolen election
Continue reading...Cotton plantations and non-consensual kisses: how Disney became embroiled in the culture wars
The company has been addressing its historical racism and sexism, adding disclaimers to films and altering theme park rides. But these moves have stirred contempt as well as approval
Very little ammunition is required for a culture war these days, so long as your troops are primed to mobilise at the drop of a blog. Julie Tremaine and Katie Dowd, two writers for the online newspaper SFGate, discovered this last month. Their review of the revamped Snow White ride at Disneyland was generally positive, but queried a new scene showing the prince giving Snow White the all-important “true love’s kiss”.
“A kiss he gives to her without her consent, while she’s asleep, which cannot possibly be true love if only one person knows it’s happening,” they wrote. “It’s hard to understand why the Disneyland of 2021 would choose to add a scene with such old-fashioned ideas of what a man is allowed to do to a woman.”
Matters escalated quickly and predictably. Within 24 hours, the review was reported across Twitter and conservative media. Fox News ran 13 segments on the story in one day: “Cancel culture going after Snow White”; “The woke movement taking aim at Disneyland”, etc. Senator John Kennedy was brought on to express his disdain: “We are so screwed … I don’t know where these jackaloons come up with this stuff.” The UK’s Sun chimed in: “Snow White may be CANCELED” [sic]. As did Piers Morgan in the Daily Mail: “Leave Snow White’s Prince alone, you insufferable woke brats.” Then Fox News reported on that: “Piers Morgan slams consent criticism over revamped Snow White ride.” And so forth. All of them triggered by a single paragraph in an online review.
Disney increasingly finds itself caught in the crossfire of these skirmishes. Understandably, to some extent, since it is the biggest target. Already a byword for family entertainment, Disney is now the dominant purveyor of popular culture following its gradual acquisitions of Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, Avatar, Alien, The Muppets, The Simpsons and numerous other household-name properties. But having successfully captured entertainment’s centre ground, Disney now finds itself under attack on both flanks. From one side, it is criticised for its old-fashioned and bigoted legacy; from the other, it is criticised for being too “woke”. What’s an unprecedentedly powerful media corporation to do?
Joe Biden meets Vladimir Putin at Geneva summit – video
The meeting got off to a frosty start as Putin told Biden in front of a chaotic press pool jostling to put questions to the leaders that their two countries had 'a lot' of issues that required talks at the highest level. 'I think it's always better to meet face to face,' Biden said, adding that he hoped they could find 'predictable and rational ways to disagree'
Continue reading...Putin and Biden meet for talks in Switzerland – in pictures
After shaking hands for the cameras, the US president, Joe Biden, and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, plunged into hours of face-to-face talks on Wednesday at a lush lakeside Swiss mansion. It was a highly anticipated summit at a time of heightened tensions between the two countries
Continue reading...Harvey Weinstein to be extradited to California for sexual assault charges
Judge said there was no reason to delay transfer any longer and denied lawyer’s request to keep him at a state prison in New York
Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein will be extradited to California after a New York judge’s approval, where he faces additional sexual assault charges.
The extradition order ends a legal fight, prolonged by the pandemic, the defense’s concerns about Weinstein’s failing health, and a squabble over paperwork.
Continue reading...The Delta variant is spreading. What does it mean for the US?
Covid-19 cases have fallen far below the winter peak, but the Delta variant has roughly doubled every two weeks in the US
Scientists in the United States are anxiously watching the Delta variant of Covid-19, as it spreads through an unevenly vaccinated American public and an economy that is rapidly reopening.
The Delta variant, first identified as B.1.617.2 in India, is believed to be more transmissible than both the original strain of Covid-19 and the Alpha strain, first identified in the United Kingdom.
Continue reading...States lift Covid restrictions as US passes 600,000 deaths – live
- America’s death toll from Covid-19 highest in the world
- Biden arrives in Geneva for summit with ‘worthy adversary’ Putin
- No sign of thaw between Russia and US ahead of Swiss summit
– Joan E Greve and Maanvi Singh
The chief executive of Morgan Stanley has become the latest US banking boss to call for an end to remote working, telling his New York staff that anyone who feels safe going out to a restaurant should return to the office.
James Gorman admitted that the bank would take a different approach in countries such as India or the UK – where fewer than 25% of its 5,000 London staff have been going to work in person – due to stricter Covid restrictions.
Related: Morgan Stanley boss tells US staff to be back in office in September
Continue reading...‘Pure insanity’: emails reveal Trump push to overturn election defeat
- White House chief of staff pushed debunked conspiracy claims
- House committee releases emails sent to justice department
- US politics – live coverage
Donald Trump tried to enlist top US law enforcement officials in a conspiracy-laden and doomed effort to overturn his election defeat, a campaign they described as “pure insanity”, newly released emails show.
Related: White House unveils first national strategy to fight domestic terrorism
Continue reading...Trump insists he’s writing ‘book of all books’ but big publishers unlikely to touch it
Figures at major houses said book might stoke ‘staff uprising’ and it would be ‘too hard to get a book that was factually accurate’
Donald Trump has insisted he is writing “the book of all books” – even though major figures in US publishing said on Tuesday that no big house is likely to touch a memoir by the 45th president because it might stoke “a staff uprising” and it would be “too hard to get a book that was factually accurate”.
Continue reading...The internet’s not all bad: how a tweet led my dad to his dream job at Costco
After being laid off during Covid, my dad set his heart on a job at Costco. I told Twitter about it – cue a social media explosion
Nearly a year after he’d been laid off because of Covid, my dad – a jubilant, always-smiling, 58-year-old Michigander best known for befriending everyone he meets – told me he wanted to go back to work.
Specifically, he wanted to work at Costco.
Continue reading...Biden meeting marks rare trip out of ‘bunker’ for Covid-cautious Putin
Rare sit-down talks come after Russian leader shut himself away for months to escape outbreak
For more than a year, people who have wanted to get within breathing distance of Vladimir Putin have performed a ritual, two-week quarantine in Russian hotels and sanatoriums to protect the 68-year-old president from falling ill with coronavirus.
Since March 2020, powerful business people, regional governors, his pilots and medical staff, volunteers at an economic conference, and even second world war veterans have shut themselves away to meet the Kremlin leader or even stand in his general vicinity.
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