All posts tagged: wrecking

US Supreme Court Under Roberts Takes ‘Wrecking Ball’ to Voting Rights Act

US Supreme Court Under Roberts Takes ‘Wrecking Ball’ to Voting Rights Act

Published by Sam Flores

WASHINGTON, April 30 (Reuters) – The Voting Rights Act of 1965 has often been called the crown jewel of the U.S. ⁠civil rights ⁠movement. But under a U.S. Supreme Court led for two decades by ⁠conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, experts said, that jewel has lost its luster. In a 6-3 ruling on Wednesday powered by its conservative justices, the court gutted what scholars ​said was the last remaining pillar of the landmark law enacted after the “Bloody Sunday” march in Selma, Alabama with the aim of preventing racial discrimination in voting. “The metaphor is a wrecking ball,” said Rick Hasen, an election law expert at UCLA, describing the Roberts Court’s approach ‌to the Voting Rights Act, or VRA. “There are still parts of ‌the VRA that are operative, but the two main pillars are now virtually dead letters.” Those provisions include Section 2, the subject of Wednesday’s court ruling. The decision, which blocked an electoral map that had given Louisiana a second Black-majority U.S. House of Representatives district, will ⁠make it harder for minorities …

Incredible moment drunk man goes on £8k wrecking spree in stolen bulldozer | UK | News

Incredible moment drunk man goes on £8k wrecking spree in stolen bulldozer | UK | News

Published by Sam Flores

A disgruntled garage customer has been jailed after stealing a 24-tonne bulldozer and going on an £8,000 destruction spree across Wolverhampton following a dispute over his car. Darren Coffey, 41, was under the influence of drugs and alcohol when he took the £385,000 Caterpillar machine from his employer on November 8 last year. He then drove it on a rampage lasting nearly three hours across the city, causing widespread chaos between 5.30pm and 8.15pm. Wolverhampton Crown Court heard Coffey’s dangerous run only came to an end after he smashed into a Royal Mail lorry, which police had commandeered and positioned as a roadblock in an attempt to stop him. Before that, he had torn through Wolverhampton along major routes including the A454, the city ring road, Willenhall Road and Willenhall town centre, causing disruption and damage along the way. Judge David Perry said a custodial sentence was “unavoidable”, describing how Coffey caused “untold chaos” to road users. He said Coffey reversed into oncoming traffic, at one stage collided with police vehicles, and repeatedly drove on …

College Student Blames Sports Betting For Wrecking Gen Z’s Lives

College Student Blames Sports Betting For Wrecking Gen Z’s Lives

Published by Jenni Sidey

Everyone is warned against engaging in the risky behaviors that tend to befall young adults when they’re growing up, but it’s possible that something we don’t often talk about is actually causing the greatest problem. You might not be aware of how prevalent sports betting has become, but in 2024, the industry made $13.71 billion in revenue. Thinking about sports betting may bring to mind the image of a middle-aged man sitting on his couch on a Saturday, but younger people are getting involved now, with detrimental results. A college student blamed sports betting for wrecking the lives of Gen Zers, including many of his own friends. Eli Thompson, a student at North Greenville University, wrote an essay on the dangers of getting caught up in sports betting at a young age for the Wall Street Journal. Thompson is on his school’s football team, so sports are a second language to him and his friends. Unfortunately, it seems to be getting them into trouble. William Fortunato | Pexels Thompson reported that his classmates started to …

The Wrecking of the Kennedy Center

The Wrecking of the Kennedy Center

Published by Daniella Wilson

Thirteen months was all it took to break the Kennedy Center. The news of Ric Grenell’s exit—or, his “plans to transition out of his role,” as Axios put it when breaking the story yesterday—suggests the end of a high period in which the Kennedy Center has continually pissed people off, and the beginning of one in which fewer and fewer people even notice it. One clue to this new direction can be found in Grenell’s apparent replacement. President Trump announced on Truth Social that Matt Floca, the Kennedy Center’s vice president of facilities, would lead the place. Floca began working at the organization during the Biden administration but became Trump’s go-to renovation buddy—someone Trump started to call regularly for updates about all the changes he had ordered, such as redoing the seats in the opera house, according to The New York Times. The personnel swap comes nearly three months after Trump’s handpicked board of trustees voted to add his name to the Kennedy Center, and a little more than a month since the president’s jaw-dropping …

Europe ‘failed’ on Trump, Putin’s ‘wrecking ball’ politics: MSC chair

Europe ‘failed’ on Trump, Putin’s ‘wrecking ball’ politics: MSC chair

Published by Sam Flores

US President Donald Trump holds a bilateral meeting with European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on September 23, 2025. Brendan Smialowski | Afp | Getty Images Europe is “totally on the sidelines” on the global stage as “wrecking ball” politics has become the norm, the head of the continent’s biggest security forum has said. Speaking to CNBC’s Annette Weisbach ahead of the Munich Security Conference (MSC), Wolfgang Ischinger, the organization’s chairman, said it was Europe’s “own fault” that its power on the global stage has been diminished. “Europe has failed to speak with one voice to China and about China, Europe has failed with one voice, to come up with a clear concept about the future of the Middle East, including about how to deal or not to deal with the Iranian nuclear question,” said Ischinger, who is a former German ambassador to the U.S. Earlier this week, the MSC published its 2026 report, for which Ischinger wrote the foreword. It …

Reform and Tories slam Labour for wrecking UK high streets: ‘This is how town centres die’ | Politics | News

Reform and Tories slam Labour for wrecking UK high streets: ‘This is how town centres die’ | Politics | News

Published by Sam Flores

New cash has been announced to rescue Britain’s crumbling high streets from further decay. The new support package will see £150million invested to spruce up shopfronts, open empty units and restore high streets in a bid boost community pride. The money will go to areas that have been hardest hit and are “most in need of being brought back together”. It comes as councils are empowered to block the spread of new betting shops and vape stores. Communities Secretary Steve Reed said: “Our high streets are the beating heart of Britain – where communities come together and local businesses can grow. Town centres have suffered from high streets falling into decline, and that is why we’re taking action to turn the tide with this crucial investment and more to come. “We have listened to what people are telling us and that’s why we’re giving them the power and control to breathe new life back into our high streets and restore the sense of pride communities feel, building on our transformational Pride in Place programme.” But …

Jason Momoa’s Watch Stole the Show at The Wrecking Crew Premiere

Jason Momoa’s Watch Stole the Show at The Wrecking Crew Premiere

Published by Jenni Sidey

While Jason Momoa has been spotted in the usual horological suspects—Rolex Daytona, Cartier Tank, etc.—some more unusual choices have also graced his wrist. Being a serious Leica camera fan, he’s rocked the gold ZM1, for example—a watch that doesn’t get much love from the mainstream celebrity watch-wearing community. Now, however, even that timepiece seems pedestrian next to the rare gem he strapped on for the UK premiere of his new film The Wrecking Crew. Witness Momoa in all his pink corduroy-clad glory—astride a black Harley, no less—and wearing a vintage Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, perhaps his hardest-hitting timepiece yet. The Fifty Fathoms, after all, was one of the first dive watches produced at a commercial scale in the early 1950s alongside the Rolex Submariner and the Zodiac Sea-Wolf. But that’s not all, you see. The Fifty Fathoms was also a widely-issued military watch, with variants used by France’s Marine Nationale, Germany’s Bundeswehr, the U.S. Navy, and others. In fact, it was Captain Bob Maloubier, a French veteran of the Special Operations Executive during the Second World …

The Wrecking Crew review: Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa’s action comedy has mega body count but no real peril

The Wrecking Crew review: Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa’s action comedy has mega body count but no real peril

Published by Daniella Wilson

A star rating of 3 out of 5. It’s a bad week to be a faceless goon in this ’80s-style action comedy with a mega body count but no real peril. Dave Baustisa and Jason Momoa star as estranged half-brothers James and Johnny reunited after the death of their father in an apparent hit and run. Bautista is a well-respected Navy Seal and family man living in Hawaii while Momoa is a disgraced cop and all-round wastrel living in Oklahoma, returning to Honolulu under duress. It’s not going to be an easy ride for the pair, who are being hunted by the Yakuza who are seeking a mysterious package, as well as Hawaiian gang the Syndicate, who have serious beef with Jonny and give him seven days to leave the island before they come for his head. Not that there’s much tension here – Bautista and Momoa are big lads (they look like “the Rock f***ed himself and gave birth to twins” according to one character) and in this they are virtually indestructible, swatting henchmen …

Prince Harry v Mail: Publisher accused of ‘wrecking lives’, as string of high-profile figures mentioned in court | Ents & Arts News

Prince Harry v Mail: Publisher accused of ‘wrecking lives’, as string of high-profile figures mentioned in court | Ents & Arts News

Published by Daniella Wilson

Prince Harry has personally attended the first day of his trial against Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) at the Royal Courts of Justice in Central London. He, along with co-claimants Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish, campaigner Baroness Doreen Lawrence, politician Sir Simon Hughes, and actresses Sadie Frost and Liz Hurley, all allege ANL had a practice of “clear systematic and sustained use of unlawful information gathering”. You need javascript enabled to view this content Enable javascript to share Share Celebrities arrive at court for landmark privacy trial Allegations range from tapping their phones and bugging their homes to obtaining medical records by deception. ANL strongly denies any wrongdoing. Monday saw the opening arguments from the claimants – all represented by barrister David Sherborne – who said the publisher “knew they had skeletons in their closet,” telling the court the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday were engaged in unlawful information-gathering (UIG) over “at least two decades”. He also said ANL’s denials of unlawful acts to the Leveson Inquiry in 2011 …

Ex-wife of Sinema aide accuses former Arizona senator of wrecking her marriage

Ex-wife of Sinema aide accuses former Arizona senator of wrecking her marriage

Published by Sam Flores

Former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) has been sued by the ex-wife of a former congressional aide who is accusing the onetime Arizona senator of breaking up her 14-year marriage through “intentional and malicious interference,” according to a lawsuit filed in Moore County, N.C. The plaintiff, Heather Ammel, is accusing Sinema of seducing her ex-husband, who… Source link