Author: The Guardian

Former U.S. Secret Service agents spoke out at a political rally on Saturday about what may have stopped their former employer from stopping the gunman before he opened fire, early in the aftermath of what authorities said was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump.Evy Poumpouras, who served in the Secret Service’s Presidential Protection Division during Barack Obama’s White House tenure, told NBC’s “Today” that people like Ben The weekend rally in the relatively exposed rural area of ​​Butler County, Pennsylvania, “is the most anxiety-provoking thing you’re going to do as an agent because you’re trying to make sure this happens.”The…

Is the Democratic party, the self-proclaimed party of liberal values and scientific data, morphing into a Maga-like cult in front of our eyes?Over the past few weeks, the calls for Joe Biden to step aside have been met not with thoughtful critiques or reasoned counter-arguments but with furious accusations of treason, disloyalty, and betrayal.Whatever happened to the importance of voicing dissent? Of speaking truth to power? Weren’t liberals supposed to be the folks who value open debate and discussion?Writing for the Guardian, 15 years ago, the cult expert Rick Ross warned us to “watch out for the tell-tale signs” of…

England’s Euro 2024 final defeat to Spain was watched by the BBC and ITV with 23.8 million viewers, the highest-rated TV broadcast of the year.The BBC’s audience peaked at 17.8 million, while ITV’s coverage – which was praised by critics in The Guardian and featured an interview with the Prime Minister – peaked at 6 million.While broadcasters will be happy with such an audience, it is still a significant drop from the 31 million viewers who watched England lose to Italy in the Euro 2020 final. There was also only a slight rise in attendance for Wednesday night’s semi-final between…

Late one night, at the end of January, my cat Misty came downstairs, tore me away from the Horror channel with a series of unusual cries, stretched his mouth wide like a yawning lion, shivered, collapsed and died. He was a fortnight shy of his ninth birthday.If I said that I loved him and that this sudden, wrongful loss floored me for days, drained the world of light and colour for weeks and still jabs at me now, I would be stating what any but the most exasperated pet owner would recognise as the bleeding obvious. But if I said…

I am disabled and was stranded on the Heathrow aerobridge floor by American Airlines after pre-booked special assistance did not arrive. Instead of helping, a staff member filmed my distress. Due to my various health conditions, I require a wheelchair to board and deplane. There were no problems at New York’s JFK Airport. But when the plane landed at Heathrow, there was no one to pick me up. I finally asked. I was told a wheelchair had arrived and wheeled me onto the aerobridge. I noticed it wasn’t there so I turned around and sat down to wait.However, the crew…

You’ve almost certainly seen the pictures by now. You’ve probably seen them a hundred times. A fist in the air, blood dripping from his ear, an American flag above him, a defiant expression on his face. Trump quickly jumping up from an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally and appearing to mouth the words: “Fight! Fight! Fight!” If you fed “all-American tough guy president” into an AI image generator, it wouldn’t spit out anything half as powerful. Obviously, there’s nothing remotely positive about a terrible act of political violence that left an innocent bystander and the shooter dead. But in…

yesYou know it’s a long rugby league season that feels like it’s starting in a parallel universe. Was Fin Baxter born when Steve Borthwick’s squad assembled for their first pre-World Cup training camp on June 12 last year? Are those distant August warm-up tests some kind of tortured fever dream? No one can accuse England of not investing heavily in the last 13 months.This is a bit difficult. At some point, we can all forget that sports are being played by humans, not robots, because we’re sitting in the stands or on the couch 12,000 miles away (not for another…

It is a photograph that seems almost impossible: moments after a bullet grazes his ear, a former US president stands with his fist raised defiantly. The sky behind him is clear blue and an American flag flies overhead, fully in frame. The expressions on the faces of each secret service agents are clear and a smear of blood runs from Donald Trump’s ear to his cheek.The photograph was taken by Evan Vucci, chief Washington photographer for the Associated Press. Vucci has been covering Trump since his candidacy eight years ago and in 2020 won a Pulitzer for a photograph of…

ODI World Cup-winning captain Pat Cummins will be rested during Australia’s white-ball tour against England. Reigning Allan Border medalist Mitch Marsh will captain the side for the five one-day matches against England after leading the team in the recent T20 World Cup.Australia will also play three T20 matches against Scotland and England in September before the 50-over series begins. Cummins’ absence is part of a “pre-planned long-term load management strategy.” Star speedster Mitchell Starc and all-rounder Glenn Maxwell will miss the T20 matches but will return for the ODI matches.This is the first tour since veteran opener David Warner officially…

Lot number 11 in Christie’s “Exceptional Sale” earlier this year lived up to its billing. This was the holy grail for the well-heeled sports fan or history buff – Olympic glory in the palm of your hand.In an auction that included a Louis XIV tapestry and what was believed to be the only painting by all four of the Beatles, the long-jump gold medal from the 1968 Summer Olympics fetched £351,000. What made its owner give it up? “I had just gotten past the idea of storing it in a bank vault,” says Bob Beamon. “I also thought, with the…