Tennessee prisoner awake and speaking after surviving state’s attempt to execute her last Wednesday

• Christa Pike is conscious and speaking after botched execution attempt, lawyers say

On September 30, Christa Pike, who was set to be the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years, survived two doses of pentobarbital, a sedatative.

Witnesses to the attempt to execute Pike described how they heard she was choking and struggling for an hour after receiving the first injection. She was then hospitalized after a second dose failed to kill her. In the hospital, she was put on a ventilator and had been in critical condition.

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• Eckert was charged by FA with misconduct

• Southampton found to have spied on three opponents

Southampton’s manager, Tonda Eckert, has been given a six-week suspended ban by the Football Association for his part in the Spygate scandal that landed the club with a four-point penalty and expulsion from last season’s Championship playoffs.

The outcome means Eckert can continue in the dugout, starting with Sunday’s derby at home to Portsmouth. The German has been fined £28,000 by the FA after admitting its charges, with his ban suspended until the end of next season.

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Sean Peers admits offence against woman who was drugged and attacked for more than two decades

A man has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting an unconscious woman, whose husband had drugged her and invited other men to abuse her.

Sean Peers, 38, had been due to stand trial alongside 11 other men, but admitted one count of assault by penetration on 15 September 2024 when he appeared at Manchester Minshull Street crown court.

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We appear to be entering a new era, in which political desperation at home leads to increasingly unhinged threats abroad

Donald Trump was in Nebraska on Monday, and though his long rally speech had elements of a performance, this was no Bruce Springsteen album. He offered another dark meditation on a world spiraling out of control, one in which the destruction of American cities is increasingly a possibility, unless Americans trust him to use the vast powers of the presidency to annihilate his foes.

The president drew fury when he suggested that Iran could launch a nuclear attack and “take out” Los Angeles or San Diego. California leaders reacted with scorn at Trump’s alarmism.

Ted Widmer, a former White House speechwriter, is the editor of American Speeches, and the recently published The Living Declaration: A Biography of America’s Founding Text, both published by the Library of America

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Chinstrap penguins on Zavodovski Island in Antarctica declined by two-thirds since 2011, likely due to climate crisis

The world’s largest penguin colony has declined by two-thirds since 2011, most likely due to the climate crisis, a new study has revealed.

Scientists warned the rapid demise of chinstrap penguins on Zavodovski, the northernmost of the South Sandwich Islands in Antarctica, increased the risk of a wider ecosystem collapse.

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Sir James Goldsmith’s links to Hilton Head, South Carolina, adds to mystery of Jane Doe 4, who claimed she was abused by Epstein in the 1980s

For Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire Goldsmith family was a gateway to elite society and he wanted to be in their circle.

The disgraced financier, who died in prison in 2019 facing sex-trafficking charges, longed for a billionaire’s lifestyle and cultivated the family’s friends, bankers, business associates and advisers.

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China blijft zijn industrie volop steunen, ondanks de kritiek uit het buitenland en hoewel er ook op de eigen markt bedrijven onder lijden. Want voor veel technologie vindt China zich nog te afhankelijk van het Westen. „We hebben een paar dingen voor elkaar gekregen, maar voor andere industrieën is de weg nog lang.”

Franse jeugd die de straat op gaat om beter onderwijs te eisen: dat geeft de burger moed. Het bijkomende geweld is echter zorgelijk en vooral contraproductief. Hopelijk is het geen voorbode voor de presidentsverkiezingen van volgend jaar.

Het Sub-Antarctische eiland Zavodovski telt niet langer de grootste pinguïnpopulatie op aarde. Een half miljoen keelbandpinguïns zijn er in 15 jaar tijd verdwenen. Door klimaatveranderingen zijn ze de hongerdood gestorven.

Jon Siegel has added a photo to the pool:

Somewhere in the Nagano countryside, we stopped by for a walk and to look at this beautiful red bridge over a small river on the temple grounds.