US Politics

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has told the UN general assembly that Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine and urged world leaders to attend a peace summit to help stop the invasion and future wars of aggression.Appearing in the assembly chamber in New York for the first time in person, the Ukrainian president used the opportunity to try to galvanise support for his country’s plight among many countries, especially in the global south, many of whom have sought to sit on the fence in the face of the full-scale Russian invasion.Zelenskiy said he would give further details of his peace plan, based on national sovereignty and territorial integrity, at a special session of the security council on Wednesday. He said all leaders “who do not tolerate any aggression” would be invited to a peace summit. He did not say when or where the meeting would be held, but he has previously expressed the hope it would happen by autumn this year.Zelenskiy, dressed in an olive green long-sleeved polo shirt, used the word “genocide” to refer to the abduction of tens of thousands of Ukrainian children by Russian occupation authorities, who the Ukrainian president said were being brainwashed into hating their homeland.“Never before has mass kidnapping and deportation become a part of the government policy. Not until now,” Zelenskiy said, adding that the Ukrainian government knew of the names of tens of thousands of abducted children and had “evidence of hundreds of thousands of others kidnapped by Russia in the occupied territories of Ukraine and later deported”.The international criminal court has issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and a top aide for their involvement in ordering the child deportations.“We are trying to get the children back home, but time goes by and what will happen to them? Those children in Russia are taught to hate Ukraine and all ties with their families are broken. And this is clearly a genocide,” Zelenskiy said, adding: “When hatred is weaponized against one nation, it never stops there.”The speech was watched from the Russian seats in the chamber by Moscow’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, who wrote in a notebook from time to time and occasionally grinned.Zelenskiy also accused Russia of weaponising food and energy, noting “there are many conventions that restrict weapons but there are no real restrictions on weaponisation”.He explained how Ukraine and its partners were trying to work around the Russian blockade of Black Sea ports, but he had bitter criticism for Ukraine’s neighbours who have periodically blocked the export of Ukrainian produce westwards for fear it would compete with domestic output and lower prices.He said “some of our friends in Europe” whose expressions of solidarity were “political theatre” were, by restricting imports from Ukraine, “helping set the stage for a Moscow actor”.He said that Russia, having long used oil and gas as a weapon, was now weaponising nuclear energy, pointing to the occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which he said Moscow had turned into a potential “dirty bomb”.The goal of the Russian military campaign, the president said, was to turn Ukraine and its people, land and resources “into a weapon against you, against the international rules-based order”. If the Russians succeeded, he warned, “many seats in the general assembly hall may become empty”.He said the Ukrainian peace blueprint, which involves a Russian withdrawal from Ukrainian territory, accountability for war crimes and restitution for damages, represented “a real chance to end aggression on the terms of the nation which was attacked”.Zelenskiy added: “While Russia is pushing the world to a final war, Ukraine is doing everything to ensure that after this Russian aggression, no one in the world will dare to attack any nation.” More

From 6h agoThe House will not vote today on a measure to keep the government open past 30 September, amid a split between the chamber’s Republican leadership and a handful of far-right lawmakers that will cause a government shutdown if it is not resolved in 12 days, Punchbowl News reports:Lawmakers had been scheduled to today vote to approve the rules of debate for the short-term funding measure, but it was unclear if it would have passed.With the US government 12 days away from shutting down, House Republicans were plagued by infighting between Kevin McCarthy and a handful of far-right lawmakers who refuse to approve a measure to keep the government open through October. In a sign of how bad the split has become, a procedural vote on the short-term funding bill expected to happen today was cancelled, and an attempt to advance a Pentagon spending bill was voted down, thanks to rightwing Republicans. But even if the House does get its ducks in a row, Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer said the short-term measure they would have voted on will not pass the chamber. It’s clear there’s lot of negotiating remaining if a government shutdown is to be avoided.Here’s what else happened today:
House Republicans will hold the first hearing of their impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden next week.
Mitch McConnell, the top Senate Republican, warned that the GOP may be blamed if the government shuts down.
A Trump supporter at the center of conspiracy theories over January 6 has now been charged for his actions during the insurrection.
Biden addressed the United Nations general assembly in New York City, and we have a live blog covering the day’s events.
Jimmy Carter’s one-term presidency may have been on Biden’s mind as he pursued a deal with Iran that led to the release of seven Americans yesterday.
As Politico reports, House Republicans aligned with Kevin McCarthy, which is most of them, had hoped that teeing up a vote on the defense spending measure would break the logjam with rightwing legislators who are holding up business in the chamber.But it didn’t work. The five GOP “no” votes, together with the Democrats’ refusal to vote for legislation they oppose, doomed the effort to begin debate on the bill:Punchbowl News reports that Republican lawmaker Mike Garcia accused the five Republicans who voted the rule down of, essentially, aiding the enemy:In a sign of how bad things have become in the House, Republican leaders just held a crucial vote to advance a Pentagon spending bill, but failed to win enough support for its passage after Democrats and a handful of GOP lawmakers opposed it.Representatives were voting on a rule to begin debate on the bill, but that failed to pass after Democrats – who appear perfectly happy watching the GOP’s slim majority slide into dysfunction – voted against it, as did a handful of Republicans.As it became clear that GOP leadership would not be getting its way today, sarcastic Democrats took to shouting “order!” in the chamber, as you can see from the clip below:There’s a new twist in the story of Ray Epps, a Donald Trump supporter who was present on January 6 and later found himself the subject of rightwing conspiracy theories that baselessly alleged he was an agent provocateur. As the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports, he himself is now in trouble with federal prosecutors:Ray Epps – a Donald Trump supporter, Oath Keepers militia member and January 6 participant who became the subject of rightwing conspiracy theories about the attack on Congress – has been charged with one criminal count related to the riot.In a court filing in US district court in Washington DC, dated Monday, federal prosecutors charged Epps with disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds.The charge can carry a sentence of up to 10 years.A former US marine from Arizona, Epps went to Washington in January 2021 to join protesters seeking to block Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in the presidential election the previous November.On the night of 5 January, he was filmed in downtown Washington, telling other Trump supporters: “Tomorrow, we need to go into the Capitol … peacefully.”The next day, as Trump told supporters to “fight like hell” in his cause, the Capitol came under attack. The attack failed and Trump’s defeat was confirmed. Nine deaths have now been linked to the riot.The notion that Epps was a federal agent, acting as a provocateur, took root early. On the night of 5 January, some around him chanted: “Fed! Fed! Fed! Fed!” In footage of the attack, after a Capitol police officer went down, Epps was seen pulling a rioter aside.Rightwing media, prominently including the then Fox News prime-time host Tucker Carlson, eagerly took up the theory that Epps was linked to federal agents.The US Capitol Police has canceled the security alert it issued following the discovery of a suspicious vehicle and package near its headquarters:The Senate’s top Republican Mitch McConnell warned against shutting down the government and said voters would likely blame the GOP if the federal government runs out of money at the start of October, according to reporters at the Capitol:With the Republican-controlled House oversight committee set to hold its first impeachment hearing of Joe Biden next week, the White House has hit back with a statement condemning the panel as a “political stunt” and calling on Republicans to instead focus on avoiding a government shutdown.“Extreme House Republicans are already telegraphing their plans to try to distract from their own chaotic inability to govern and the impacts of it on the country,” the White House’s spokesperson for oversight and investigations Ian Sams said. “Staging a political stunt hearing in the waning days before they may shut down the government reveals their true priorities: to them, baseless personal attacks on President Biden are more important than preventing a government shutdown and the pain it would inflict on American families.”Sams continued:
The President has been very clear: he is going to remain focused on the issues that matter to the American people, including preventing the devastating and harmful cuts proposed by House Republicans that are hurtling us toward a government shutdown. House Republicans should drop these silly political Washington games and actually do their job to prevent a government shutdown.
In a press conference, chair of the House Democratic caucus Pete Aguilar signaled that the party’s lawmakers were in a wait-and-see mode as the GOP squabbles among themselves ahead of an end-of-the-month government shutdown deadline:Far-right Republicans have been pushing for amendments on the continuing resolution that would prevent funds from being used for Ukraine aid and other initiatives.Here are some of the amendments being requested from Marjorie Taylor Greene, from Punchbowl News’ Mica Soellner:There doesn’t seem to be much progress on the House GOP resolution, with Republicans still working to clear a path to get the resolution passed.Florida representative Matt Gaetz told reporters this afternoon that “no” progress was being made on getting the resolution passed.From Politico’s Jordain Carney:Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene also said House GOP were “nowhere near” getting the legislation passed.From Punchbowl News’ Mica Soellner:The United States Capitol Police Headquarters was evacuated today over a suspicious package and vehicle found nearby the premises.Many busy roads near the vehicle have also been temporary closed while police investigate.A date has been set for the first hearing of the inquiry into impeaching Joe Biden, with a government shut down looming.The first hearing will be on 28 September, the Associated Press reported.It will focus on “constitutional and legal questions” around Biden’s involvement in Hunter Biden’s international businesses, a House Oversight Committee spokesperson told AP.House GOP members have insisted that Biden’s conduct as vice president point to a culture of corruption.”With the US government 12 days away from shutting down, House Republicans are plagued by infighting between Kevin McCarthy and a handful of far-right lawmakers who refuse to approve a measure to keep the government open through October. In a sign of how bad the split has become, a procedural vote on the short-term funding bill expected to happen today has been cancelled. But even if the House does get its ducks in a row, Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer said the measure they would have voted on will not pass the Senate. It’s clear there’s lot of negotiating remaining if a government shutdown is to be avoided.Here’s what else has happened today:
House Republicans will hold the first hearing of their impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden next week.
Biden addressed the United Nations general assembly in New York City, and we have a live blog covering the day’s events.
Jimmy Carter’s one-term presidency may have been on Biden’s mind as he pursued a deal with Iran that led to the release of seven Americans yesterday. More

A network of Native American ceremonial and burial mounds in southern Ohio have been added to the list of world heritage sites of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco). The move places what the organization describes as “part cathedral, part cemetery and part astronomical observatory” on the same cultural plane as the Acropolis, Machu Picchu, the Taj Mahal, Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China.The recognition of the Hopewell ceremonial earthworks was announced by Unesco’s world heritage committee during a meeting in Saudi Arabia.The US Department of the Interior had last year proposed adding the earthworks to the world heritage sites list after a lengthy campaign by Indigenous tribes – many with ancestral ties to the state – and preservationists.The Ohio history connection, a state agency, said the earthworks were exceptional for their “enormous scale, geometric precision and astronomical alignments” and described them as “masterpieces of human genius”. They encompass eight sites spread over 90 miles (145km) in southern Ohio.Two years ago, the state’s supreme court heard a challenge over access to one part of the earthworks – a set of 2,000-year-old Octagon mounds – after an earlier ruling that the Ohio history connection could reclaim the site from a local golf club.Chief Glenna Wallace, of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, said she greeted the Unesco designation for the mounds with “pure excitement and exhilaration”.“Tears came to my eyes, and exhilaration turned into reflection, knowing that the world will now see and recognize the commitment, spirituality, imaginative artistry and knowledge of complex architecture to produce magnificent earthworks,” she said in a statement.“Our ancestors were not just geniuses – they were uncommon geniuses,” she added.The Hopewell site near Newark, Ohio, is part of eight large earthen enclosures built in a central and southern area of the state between about AD1 and AD400. They are considered to be the largest set of geometric enclosures in the world.Other sites included under the new designation are the Fort Ancient earthworks in Oregonia and the Great Circle earthworks in Heath and five sites within the Hopewell Culture national historical park in Chillicothe: the Mound City group, the Hopewell mound group, the Seip earthworks, the High Bank earthworks and the Hopeton earthworks.“Inscription on the World Heritage List will call international attention to these treasures long known to Ohioans,” Megan Wood, executive director and CEO of the Ohio history connection, said in a statement to the Columbus Dispatch.The Octagon earthworks are believed to follow an 18.6-year moon cycle, with the central axis of the earthworks aligning with the northernmost rising of the moon, and other walls aligning with different moonrises.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionIn the 1970s, Ray Hively and Robert Horn, two professors at Ohio’s Earlham College, rediscovered the alignments and said the walls of the Octagon “define the most accurate astronomical alignments known in the prehistoric world”.It is believed that the earthworks were host to ceremonies that drew people from across the US, based on archaeological discoveries of raw materials brought from as far west as the Rocky Mountains.Earlier this year, Mike DeWine, the Ohio governor, called the anticipated Unesco designation “a big deal”.People, he said, “will recognize that Ohio’s people – even in ancient times – played a pivotal role in transforming what is now Ohio into a sophisticated and prominent trading center”.Audrey Azoulay, the Unesco director general, said the earthworks’ inclusion on the heritage list “will make this important part of American history known around the world”.The addition of Hopewell comes just three months after the US rejoined Unesco. Azoulay said that the US now has 25 heritage sites on the world heritage list, “which illustrates the richness and diversity of the country’s cultural and natural heritage”. More

Ray Epps – a Donald Trump supporter, Oath Keepers militia member and January 6 participant who became the subject of rightwing conspiracy theories about the attack on Congress – has been charged with one criminal count related to the riot.In a court filing in US district court in Washington DC, dated Monday, federal prosecutors charged Epps with disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds.The charge can carry a sentence of up to 10 years.A former US marine from Arizona, Epps went to Washington in January 2021 to join protesters seeking to block Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in the presidential election the previous November.On the night of 5 January, he was filmed in downtown Washington, telling other Trump supporters: “Tomorrow, we need to go into the Capitol … peacefully.”The next day, as Trump told supporters to “fight like hell” in his cause, the Capitol came under attack. The attack failed and Trump’s defeat was confirmed. Nine deaths have now been linked to the riot.The notion that Epps was a federal agent, acting as a provocateur, took root early. On the night of 5 January, some around him chanted: “Fed! Fed! Fed! Fed!” In footage of the attack, after a Capitol police officer went down, Epps was seen pulling a rioter aside.Rightwing media, prominently including the then Fox News prime-time host Tucker Carlson, eagerly took up the theory that Epps was linked to federal agents.In July, Epps filed a defamation suit against Fox News, which the rightwing network has sought to dismiss.Epps spoke to CBS in August.“I said some stupid things,” he said. “My thought process, we surround the Capitol, we get all the people there. I mean, I had problems with the election. It was my duty as an American to peacefully protest, along with anybody else that wanted to.”Of the moment involving the fallen officer, he said he told the rioter: “‘Dude, we’re not here for that. The police aren’t the enemy,’ or something like that.”He denied any links to police or federal agencies. There is no evidence he committed any acts of violence on January 6, or entered the Capitol.He told CBS that after he went to help an injured man, he “looked back at the Capitol, and there was people crawling up the Capitol walls. And it looked … terrible. I mean, I was kind of ashamed of what was going on at that point. So I started to walk out.”Asked about efforts to “paint you as this instigator”, citing his own actions and messages, Epps said: “There was an effort to make me a scapegoat.”Earlier this year, Dominic Pezzola, a member of the far-right Proud Boys group who was ultimately sentenced to 10 years in prison for his part in the riot, invoked the Epps conspiracy theory while testifying in court.Epps was charged by information, suggesting a plea deal may be likely.On Tuesday, lawyers for Epps did not immediately comment. More

Joe Biden has accused Russia of “shredding longstanding arms control agreements” but pledged that the US would “lead by example” in limiting the spread of weapons of mass destruction.In his address to the UN general assembly, Biden castigated the Putin regime for its suspension, in February this year, of the 2010 New Start treaty, the last arms control agreement between the two countries.That suspension, coupled with Russia’s withdrawal from the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty in 2007, was “irresponsible and makes the entire world less safe”, the president said.However, Biden insisted that the US “is going to continue to pursue good faith efforts to reduce the threat of weapons of mass destruction and lead by example, no matter what else is happening in the world”.The statement appeared to be a confirmation that the US would continue the policy it has pursued since Vladimir Putin’s suspension of New Start, by not going beyond the treaty’s limits of 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads, and 700 deployed delivery systems.At the time of Moscow’s suspension of the New Start treaty, Russian officials said their government would continue to observe those limits, but there have been no inspections of Russian nuclear weapons facilities since the start of the Covid pandemic, and Russia has ceased to share data that was required by the agreement.In his speech, Biden said the US also remained committed to diplomatic means to containing North Korean’s nuclear weapons programme and would “remain steadfast in our commitment that Iran must never acquire nuclear weapons”.Daryl Kimball, the head of the Arms Control Association, welcomed Biden’s statement on the New Start limits.“I’m glad that Biden said this to keep the flame going, if you think about how you don’t have much room in a UN speech,” Kimball said. “It’s a positive signal that the United States remains ready to engage in serious dialogue on nuclear weapons production and arms control despite whatever else has happened in the Russian relationship.”In his address, Biden urged the UN general assembly to uphold the UN charter in its approach to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, framing it as a matter of principle, national sovereignty and territorial integrity that was essential to all UN members.“Russia believes that the world will grow weary and allow it to brutalise Ukraine without consequence,” Biden said. “But I ask you this: if we abandon the core principles … to appease an aggressor, can any member state in this body feel confident that they are protected? If we allow Ukraine to be carved up, is the independence of any nation secure?“I respectfully suggest the answer is no,” the president added. “We must stand up to this naked aggression today to deter other would-be aggressors tomorrow.”Much of the rest of Biden’s speech was dedicated to the principles of global cooperation to take on basic issues of poverty, human rights and the climate crisis. The US and other supporters of Ukraine are well aware that many countries at the UN, especially the developing nations in the Group of 77, are becoming restive at the focus on Ukraine, when the death toll from conflict, famine and climate change is so enormous in the global south. Biden stressed that he takes these concerns seriously.“My country has to meet this critical moment to work with countries in every region, in common cause to join together with partners who share a common vision of the future of the world,” he said. “The United States seeks a more secure, more prosperous, more equitable world for all people, because we know our future is bound up with yours … No nation can meet the challenges of today alone.” More

America is in the midst of the biggest surge in labor activity in a quarter-century.The United Auto Workers (UAW), the Writers Guild of America, the actors’ union known as Sag-Aftra, Starbucks workers, Amazon workers, the Teamsters and UPS, flight attendants. The list goes on.More than 4.1m workdays were lost to stoppages last month, according to the labor department. That’s the most since 2000. And this was before the UAW struck the big three.Some worry about the effect of all this labor activism on the US economy, and view organized labor as a “special interest” demanding more than it deserves.Rubbish. Labor activism is good for the economy in the long run. And organized labor isn’t a special interest. It’s the leading edge of the American workforce.What accounts for this extraordinary moment of labor activity?Not that workers enjoy striking. Even where unions have funds to help striking workers offset lost wages, they rarely make up even half of what’s forgone. Large corporations whose operations are hobbled by strikes often lay off other workers, as the big three and their suppliers are now threatening to do.The reason workers go on strike is their expectation that the longer-term gains will be worth the sacrifices.Today’s labor market continues to be tight, despite efforts by the Fed to slow the economy and make it harder for workers to get raises. So employers (like UPS) are more inclined to give ground to avoid a prolonged strike.But something far more basic is going on here. As I travel around the country, I hear from average working people an anger and bitterness I haven’t heard for decades. It centers on several things.The first is that wages have barely increased while corporate profits are in the stratosphere.Average weekly non-supervisory wages, a measure of blue-collar earnings, were higher in 1969 (adjusted for inflation) than they are now.The American dream of upward mobility has turned into a nightmare of falling behind. Whereas 90% of American adults born in the early 1940s were earning more than their parents by the time they reached their prime earning years, this has steadily declined. Only half of adults born in the mid-1980s are now earning more than their parents by their prime earning years.Nearly one out of every five American workers is in a part-time job. Two-thirds are living paycheck to paycheck.Meanwhile, executive compensation has gone through the roof. In 1965, CEOs of America’s largest corporations were paid, on average, 20 times the pay of average workers. Today, the ratio is over 398 to 1.Not only has CEO pay exploded. So has the pay of top executives just below them. The share of corporate income devoted to compensating the five highest-paid executives of large corporations ballooned from an average of 5% in 1993 to more than 15% today.Corporate apologists claim CEOs and other top executives are worth these staggering sums because their corporations have performed so well. They compare star CEOs to star baseball players or movie stars.But most CEOs have simply ridden the stock market wave. Even if a company’s CEO had done nothing but play online solitaire, the company’s stock price would have soared.Stock buybacks have also soared – a huge subsidy to investors that further tips the scales against working people. The richest 1% of Americans owns about half the value of all shares of stock. The richest 10%, over 90%.Why don’t corporations devote more of their income to research and development, or to higher wages and benefits for average workers? In a word, greed.Small wonder that unions are more popular than they’ve been in a generation. A Gallup poll published in August found that 67% of Americans approve of unions, the fifth straight year such support has exceeded the long-term polling average of 62%.Joe Biden has pitched himself as the most pro-union president in recent history. More surprisingly, Republican politicians are trying to curry favor with union workers as well. Both parties know that much of the working class is up for grabs in 2024.American workers still have little to no countervailing power relative to large American corporations. Unionized workers now comprise only 6% of private-sector workforce – down from over a third in the 1960s.Which is why the activism of the UAW, the Writers Guild, Sag-Aftra, the Teamsters, flight attendants, Amazon warehouse workers and Starbucks workers is so important.In a very real sense, these workers are representing all American workers. If they win, they’ll energize other workers, even those who are not unionized. They’ll mobilize some to form or join unions.They’ll push non-union employers to raise wages and benefits out of a fear of becoming unionized if they don’t. They’ll galvanize other workers to stage wildcat strikes for better pay and working conditions.For far too long, America’s top executives, Wall Street traders and biggest investors have siphoned off almost all the economic gains. This is unsustainable, economically and politically.It’s not economically sustainable because the only way businesses can sell the goods and services American workers produce is if workers have enough money to buy them. If most gains continue to go to the top, the economy will become ever more susceptible to downdrafts and crashes.Today’s mainstream media emphasize the feared negative effects of the current wave of strike on the US economy, forgetting that the wave of strikes in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s helped create the largest middle class the world had ever seen – the key to America’s postwar prosperity.Stagnant wages and widening inequality are politically unsustainable because they foster anger and bitterness that’s easily channeled by demagogic politicians (re: Donald Trump and his enablers in the Republican party) into bigotry, paranoia, xenophobia and authoritarianism.The current wave of strikes isn’t bad for America. It’s good for America.Labor is not a “special interest”. It is, in a real sense, all of us.
Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His newest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com More

When D’Arcy Drollinger, a veteran of the San Francisco drag community, was named the city’s first drag laureate this year, she quickly realized she was walking right into the eye of a storm.The 54-year-old performer, who said she was initially caught off guard by the nomination, has found herself at the forefront of a long-brewing culture war. With anti-trans legislation spreading across the US and bills banning drag performance being passed in various states, her first few months in the role have been a whirlwind.“It came in at full force, and I was as ready for it as I could be,” said Drollinger, who uses “she” pronouns when in drag and “he” in daily life. “I feel very lucky to be able to be in that spotlight and be an ambassador and a beacon for all of the places that are not like San Francisco – where people don’t have the same kind of enthusiasm and support from not only audiences but city officials.”Drollinger will receive a $55,000 stipend in her 18-month role as the city’s inaugural drag laureate, described in the job listing as someone who will “embody San Francisco’s historic, diverse and inclusive drag culture, elevating the entire community on the national and international stage”. Thus far, her duties have included participating in drag events, throwing out the first pitch at a Giants game, and liaising with politicians on how to preserve LGBTQ+ culture and history.The position has brought official recognition to the art form Drollinger has dedicated her life to – one she says is often dismissed as “frivolous” or just entertainment at a time when it has become more political than ever.“Drag is an art form, but it is also a lens through which you can view all other art forms,” she said. “Drag is everything over the top – it’s larger than life. And when you look at something in a magnifying glass or under a microscope, you see things in very different ways. So I think the power of drag is being able to look at things with a different perspective.”The schedule of a drag laureate can be grueling, said Drollinger, speaking on a video call from her “drag room”, a walk-in closet of sorts filled with wigs, outfits and heels. She now spends almost every day in drag, doing three or more events, speaking with news outlets, and performing. But a few months in, she has finally been able to catch her breath.“It all happened so suddenly, but now that it has had time to sink in, I have more clarity about what I want to do” in the remainder of her 18-month tenure, she said. “With this role being brand new, there isn’t a path – I’ve got to pave it myself. I have to decide what this position could and should be in the future.”And not just for San Francisco. West Hollywood also appointed its first drag laureate in June, and other cities could be next. San Francisco’s decision to appoint a drag laureate came in part as a response to the rise of anti-LGBTQ+ crimes and legislation in recent years, said the mayor, London Breed. “While drag culture is under attack in other parts of the country, in San Francisco we embrace and elevate the amazing drag performers,” she said.The list of such attacks is seemingly endless. Drag story hours, in which drag queens read to children, have been targeted in a number of protests by white supremacists in recent years – including in the Bay Area in 2022. The American Civil Liberties Union is tracking hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ pieces of legislation in the US, including more than a dozen specifically targeting drag performers. Texas successfully passed a ban on drag performing in June, but the law was blocked temporarily before going into effect this week.Drollinger said in this cultural environment, it has “never been more dangerous to be a drag performer”. She feels her role has gone beyond a laureate – typically an artist or a figure simply recognized for significant contributions to a field – to a spokesperson for and a defender of LGBTQ+ rights at a dire crossroads. And that responsibility that can be daunting at times.“The problem is I just want to entertain people – I don’t want to spend all my time fighting,” she said. “But the reality is if more cities appointed drag laureates and recognized what we do – not only politically and economically but for the community on a social level – I think the less power these proposed laws could have.”Drollinger, who was born in San Francisco, said her interest in drag began at age four, when – inspired by Mary Poppins – she asked her mother to buy her a pair of heels and an umbrella. She started drag performances in adulthood in 2004 after she moved to New York City, and opened her own nightclub with friends in 2015, after moving back to San Francisco.That nightclub, called Oasis, has become “much more than a venue”, she said – it is a center for queer community in San Francisco. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, she launched Meals on Heels, where performers brought food, cocktails and socially distant lip-synching performances to home-bound customers. She said the drag laureate position provided official recognition to the foundational work she and many before her had done for the city.“The drag community so often are the ones taking care of our community,” she said. “We are not only the clowns and the jesters; we are the political voice. We’re here to entertain, but also to support – and that’s why I think that drag is very important.”Drollinger said to that end, she was looking forward to working with the city on the best ways to preserve and celebrate queer history, and to honor the people who had come before her. San Francisco was the site of the Compton’s Cafeteria riot – a historic act of resistance led by the transgender community that predated the Stonewall riots.She said over her decades-long career, she had never seen drag as politicized as today. In her childhood, she remembers tourists from outside the Bay Area driving to see drag shows in the North Beach area of San Francisco, or men wearing drag on television and in films like Some Like it Hot. Now, she feels the need to hire more security and use metal detectors at her nightclub.“Racism and prejudice has always existed in our culture, but after Trump and others hijacked the Republican party, it has opened the floodgates for people who were already feeling this way to be very vocal about it,” she said. “It’s not about being anti-drag, it’s about being anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-community.”She said she was working hard to make concrete changes – to protest, to speak out, and to develop programs with the city to fight anti-LGBTQ+ hate. But her biggest weapon, she said, was her sparkle.“If we just sit here and watch, we feel helpless,” she said. “We ask ourselves: what can we do? But the truth is, if we can live more authentically every day of our lives, things will change. And by authentic, I mean more fabulous – because that is what we all want. If we can be that free and that fabulous every day, we inspire everybody around us.“People might not realize it, but deep down everybody wants to be the most fabulous they can be in this life – and if everyone is just a little more fabulous, there’s that much less room for anger and hate and hostility and violence. And little by little we can create social change around us. I do believe that is possible.” More

Donald Trump has denied wrongdoing after a report on Monday said that one of the former president’s long-time assistants told federal investigators he repeatedly wrote to-do lists for her on documents from the White House marked classified.The aide, Molly Michael, told investigators that more than once she got requests or tasks from Trump written on the back of notecards that she later recognized as sensitive White House materials, ABC News reported on Monday, citing sources.The notecards had visible classification markings used to brief Trump while he was still in office about phone calls with foreign leaders or other international matters, the news outlet said.Michael became Trump’s executive assistant in the White House in 2018 and continued to work for him when he left office. She resigned last year, in the wake of Trump’s alleged refusal to comply with federal requests, ABC News said.A Trump spokesperson dismissed the report as “illegal leaks” and denied wrongdoing.Trump, currently the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has been charged along with two aides with illegally storing troves of classified documents at his personal residence and lying to federal investigators who sought to retrieve them.Trump was charged in an indictment in June with criminal counts, including violations of the Espionage Act, conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements to investigators. He has pleaded not guilty.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionTrump is also under separate indictments in Washington DC, and Georgia over his alleged efforts to reverse his 2020 election loss to US president Joe Biden and in New York over a hush money payment he paid to a porn star. He denies wrongdoing. More