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Marion McKeone

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US debt drama goes down to the wire as threat of default looms

Efforts to reach a deal hampered by the battle over spending cuts versus tax increases and accusations that Republicans have taken control of the narrative

Marion McKeone: US conservatives hit Target where it hurts in row over Pride merch

The latest attack on a corporation which defends LGBTQ rights has come from a group that backs Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign

Letter From America

Marion McKeone: America’s having a masculinity crisis – or so say its GOP men

Josh Hawley, whose new book is entitled Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs, is only the latest in a line of Republican men crowing about how the Democrats want to turn the country into a godless, genderless state

Marion McKeone: Disney row threatens to turn DeSantis’s tilt at White House into Mickey Mouse affair

The spat between Disney and Florida has become a war and Disney’s abandoned plans to open a $1 billion Apple-style campus in Florida seems calculated to scuttle DeSantis’s Republican candidacy campaign launch

Letter From America

America’s usually sunny disposition has become cloudy and thunderous

The United States is bogged down in a swamp of ennui, even if the causes vary depending on individual political and cultural perspectives

Marion McKeone: Media plays into Trump’s hands as he closes in on another run at the White House

Despite last week’s Town Hall performance, and the myriad lawsuits against him, it seems likely the former president will again be the Republican contender in 2024

Letter From America

The US is slowly slaughtering the wild icons of the American West

Rather than being brutally culled or shipped to slaughterhouses, America’s magnificent mustangs could become educational resources and tourist attractions

US debt stand-off could cause a backlash against Biden

Democrats are seeking ways to get around a potential Republican-triggered default that could lead to a global recession and the loss of eight million US jobs

Marion McKeone: Studios’ showdown with writers leaves Hollywood a ghost town

It’s a tense wait to see who will blink first in the week-old strike of 11,500 members of the Writers Guild of America against a brutal squeeze on pay and conditions by studios and streaming giants

Letter From America

Marion McKeone: Trump rape trial casts spotlight on former president’s misogyny

A civil lawsuit filed by former Elle columnist E Jean Carroll has heard evidence of a pattern of misbehaviour towards women

Marion McKeone: Dropping of charges against Alec Baldwin no surprise to entertainment-law insiders

The criminal investigation against the actor, charged with involuntary manslaughter after a prop gun in his hands went off, has been plagued by missteps from the outset

Blood on their hands: Rise in mass shootings doesn’t stop NRA ratcheting up rhetoric at annual meet

Marion McKeone reports from Indianapolis, where the National Rifle Association’s annual meet witnessed arguably the most menacing anti-government messaging ever to emerge from the powerful US lobbying group despite 648 mass shootings last year and 160 so far this year

Letter From America

Marion McKeone: All that’s great about America distilled into one person – Willie Nelson

The legendary singer-songwriter, who celebrates his 90th birthday this weekend with a two-day concert at the Hollywood bowl, has always gone his own way – an icon of tolerance, collaboration and the right to live life on your own terms

US intelligence chiefs ‘furious’ over latest leak

Jack Teixeira, who is charged with releasing the top-secret documents, is being hailed as a hero by some elements on the US far right

US abortion restrictions could prove to be election albatross for Republicans

Unintended consequences following the overturning of Roe V Wade are causing a worrying dip in the GOP’s poll ratings

Marion McKeone: Potcom boom slow to hit but legal cannabis trade in US will be worth $100bn by 2030

Think Christmas Day meets Black Friday as concerts, rallies and discount deals are planed for 4/20 day in the US next week, while stoners complain their counter-culture day of pot-infused community activism has gone mainstream

Letter From America

Marion McKeone: The unknown cost to American democracy of 20 years of gifts to a Supreme Court judge

US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has had his holidays underwritten by a billionaire for the last two decades and it’s one more sign of the erosion of the country’s institutions – the tent poles of democracy

Trump circus comes to town in a deafening cacophony of heliopters, skirmishes, drums and traded insults

Amid the noise and the mayhem, the former US president was finger-printed in a vast seventeen-storey courthouse in Lower Manhattan which had been cleared of everyone except those directly related to Trump’s arraignment

Marion McKeone: Even if convicted, Trump is unlikely to serve any prison time at all

The former US president’s indictment has boosted his support in the GOP, but his 34 felony charges and possible other criminal issues are starting to make him problematic for voters

Letter From America

Marion McKeone: The Irish architect and the audacious $500m Bel Air mansion with 42 bathrooms

The Los Angeles dream home known as The One was fast becoming a white elephant. It finally sold for €125m but it needs another $20m to finish it. However, the property designed by an Irishman is strangely beautiful