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A side that once looked resilient has collapsed into historic futility, with Wolves now facing the grim task of avoiding the worst season English league football has ever seenSaturday's defeat at home to Brentford means Wolves have taken just two points for 17 games. No side in the entire history of English league football, in any division, has ever made a worse start than that. To reach 11 points, the record low for a Premier League season set by Derby County in 2007-08, would require a significant improvement.How can this have happened? Wolves finished 16th last season, recovering after a dismal start. When Vitor Pereira took over on 19 December last year, they were second bottom on nine points from 16 games. They picked up 23 points from the final 22 games of the season and effectively ended any prospect of relegation with a run of six successive victories in the spring. How can a team go from averaging near enough a point a game to a 10th of that? The drop-off is extraordinary.This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he'll answer the best in a future edition. Continue reading...

Tenures end for mission chiefs in at least 29 countries, including 15 in Africa, as US reshapes its diplomatic postureThe Trump administration is recalling nearly 30 career diplomats from ambassadorial and other senior embassy posts as it moves to reshape the US diplomatic posture abroad with personnel deemed fully supportive of Donald Trump's America first" priorities.The chiefs of mission in at least 29 countries were informed last week that their tenures would end in January, according to two state department officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal personnel moves. Continue reading...

The Guardian US reviewed figures from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection since Trump's inaugurationDonald Trump campaigned on a platform of mass deportation. Since he took office, his administration has reshaped immigration enforcement across the country. The Guardian US, using data published every two weeks by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is tracking the number of people the administration has arrested, detained and deported. Continue reading...

WBD had urged shareholders to reject $108.4bn hostile takeover bid from Paramount, which is controlled by the Ellisons, following $82.7bn Netflix dealThe tech billionaire Larry Ellison has agreed to provide a personal guarantee of more than $40bn for Paramount Skydance's fight to gain control of Warner Bros Discovery, amid an extraordinary corporate battle over the entertainment giant.WBD urged shareholders to reject a $108.4bn hostile takeover bid from Paramount - which is controlled by the Ellisons - last week, having agreed to sell its storied movie studios, HBO cable network and streaming service to Netflix in a $82.7bn deal earlier this month. Continue reading...

Some US citizens, grappling with issues from LGBTQ+ rights to the economy, are looking to the countries their families once left behindDaniel Kamali was born and raised in New York City, where he spent his summers riding his bike around Brighton Beach before pedaling home to his Brooklyn Jewish" mother and his smooth talker" father. He went out for Cub Scouts and soccer before realizing, during his time studying at MIT, that he loved sailing most of all. Now 48, he is a professional tenor with the opera, performing in and around New York.Kamali never considered that he might want to be anything but American - why would he? His life was shaped by the freedoms and opportunities that his father, Ivan Kamali, risked everything for. Continue reading...

Once loose, erratic and reliably unreliable, Jacksonville have hardened into something far more serious, with Trevor Lawrence's control and confidence turning a hot streak into a genuine AFC threatSeven weeks ago, the Jaguars were still that team: loose, entertaining, unreliable. The kind that could light up a quarter and then spend the next three undoing it. Now, they're a wagon.After beating the Broncos on Sunday, the Jaguars have ripped off six straight wins. They've won 11 regular-season games for the first time since 2007. And with two winnable games to close the season, they have a solid path to the No 1 seed, with the AFC potentially running through Jacksonville. Continue reading...

The documents are disturbing. But they seem largely to reflect information that has already been made publicAfter months of public outcry and pressure from within the Maga coalition, Donald Trump's justice department released what it called The Epstein Files, with the Trump world's typical fanfare. A media frenzy ensued. But the files" that were released by Pam Bondi's Department of Justice left many observers frustrated and confused. The release was partial and heavily redacted; much of the information had already been made public. Media figures were incensed, and members of Congress pledged to push the Trump administration for more. The episode left Washington watchers frustrated. It fueled speculation that Trump, who had long opposed the release of the documents, had something to hide.That was on 27 February, when a group of 15 rightwing media figures who had taken a special interest in the Epstein case were summoned to the White House and given white binders labeled The Epstein Files." The release was meant to allay pressure from the president's conspiracy-minded base and neutralize the Epstein issue, which has dogged Trump since the financier sex offender and former close friend of the president died in prison during his first term in 2019. But those who received the binders said that there was little new information in them. The episode only further inflamed tensions and increased the salience of the Epstein issue. Continue reading...

Online activity shows the Base, headed by alleged Russian asset Rinaldo Nazzaro, sees US and Ukraine as key centersAmid high-profile arrests in its Spanish cell, the American-born and designated neo-Nazi terrorist group the Base - once a major preoccupation of FBI counter-terrorism efforts - has all but faded from US headlines. But a flurry of online activities shows the group is still active stateside and considers the US an operational nerve center.Headed by Rinaldo Nazzaro, an ex-Pentagon contractor turned alleged Russian intelligence asset, the Base has been busy of late pursuing European expansion: besides its heavily armed members in Spain, its Ukrainian wing is linked to multiple acts of terrorism inside of the country and claimed the high-profile July assassination of an intelligence officer in Kyiv. Continue reading...

LA medical examiner reports Ransone, who played Chester Ziggy' Sobotka in the HBO crime drama, died by suicideJames Ransone, the American actor best known for his work in 12 episodes of The Wire, has died in Los Angeles.Information from the Los Angeles medical examiner indicated Ransone, 46, died on Friday by suicide. Continue reading...

Medetomidine has extreme and fast-acting withdrawal symptoms - and the detox centers that help patients are struggling with how best to copeThe staff at harm reduction hub Sunshine House in the middle of Kensington, a neighborhood in north-east Philadelphia home to the most notorious open drug scene in the US, often reverse at least one overdose per day.But the mutating illegal drug supply is regularly conjuring new drugs with novel sets of potentially deadly risks. For the past 18 months, there has been a new drug in circulation, the veterinary sedative medetomidine, also known as rhino tranq". It has perhaps the most extreme and fast-acting withdrawal symptoms of all known street drugs. Continue reading...

DoJ has nearly $90m appropriated by Congress to support victims, but organizations say funding has been cutMore than 100 organizations that support victims of human trafficking have lost funding since October, leaving thousands of survivors at risk, a Guardian investigation has found.Anti-trafficking advocates say the US Department of Justice's failure to spend nearly $90m appropriated by Congress is impeding law-enforcement investigations and exposing survivors to homelessness and the risk of deportation, jail time or re-exploitation. Continue reading...

Documents allege Epstein's accomplice and ex-girlfriend normalized' his grooming and directed' girls on what to do. Plus, was 2025 the year that business retreated from net zero?

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Identical twins Nick and Nathan Roberts prioritize kindness and civility, and say we never argue about politics'A pair of identical Indiana twins whose life on opposite ends of the US's political divide recently propelled them to internet virality say it has been key for them to prioritize kindness and civility whenever they engage in conversations about politics.Nick Roberts is an elected Democratic politician, and his brother Nathan Roberts is a Republican support of Donald Trump. Their relationship generated significant public commentary when Nick posted a social media video imploring his followers not to confuse him with Nathan, who runs Save Heritage Indiana, a nonprofit organization that it says is dedicated to opposing illegal immigration in the state. Continue reading...

Whiskey brand, owned by Japanese drinks group Suntory, to close main distillery amid tariff uncertaintyThe maker of Jim Beam bourbon whiskey will halt production at its main site in Kentucky for all of 2026.The company said in a statement it would close its distillery in Clermont until it took the opportunity to invest in site enhancements". Continue reading...

Documents allege Epstein's accomplice and ex-girlfriend normalized' his grooming and directed' girls on what to doA document among the tranche of newly released Jeffrey Epstein files casts fresh light on psychological tricks that his ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell deployed in her effort to lure vulnerable teen girls into his abusive orbit.She doted. She joked. She even seemed to listen. Continue reading...

Beach Sprints are shaking up this most strait-laced of sports and may be heading to a coastal town near youAt a point when most rowers are pounding away on rivers in the wind and rain through the dark winter months, a new breed are honing their skills in brighter climes surrounded by sun, sand and waves, all the while dreaming of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.Out of 17 sports that proposed an extra discipline to the International Olympic Committee, rowing came out on top with its Beach Sprints format added to the LA 2028 programme. While many may have noticed the addition of five new sports in baseball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse and squash, a mini-revolution is happening on the water within a sport that will no longer have a lightweight category but will have five coastal rowing events in 2028. Continue reading...

His interference in the region has been aided by the collapse of the leftist forces that once pushed back against US imperialismFor the past generation, Latin America has been a place of unstable stability. Marked on the surface by protests, political pendulum swings and spectacular scandals, most of the region has, since the democratisation of the 1980s and 1990s, remained firmly democratic and free of war between states. Though scarred by the violence of armed groups and increasingly powerful criminal organisations, it has, by and large, lived up to its self-assumed moniker of a zone of peace".Which is why this year has felt so jarring. Throughout 2025, the first year of Donald Trump's second term, analysts have obsessively parsed potential US military incursions into a hemisphere once defined by its unified defence of national sovereignty. But the fixation on whether Washington's escalating pressure on Nicolas Maduro presages a physical military invasion of Venezuela has distracted from the real story: the larger shift towards direct intervention has already happened, and it has faced remarkably little resistance. More than 100 people have been killed in US maritime strikes that experts characterise as extrajudicial executions, and the loudest objections have come not from Latin American presidents or regional organisations, but from the US Congress.Jordana Timerman is a journalist based in Buenos Aires. She compiles the Latin America Daily Briefing and is part of the Ideas Letter's editorial team Continue reading...

Official indicates vessel is subject to sanctions after Trump's blockade' on sanctioned tankers in and out of VenezuelaUS Coast Guard officials said on Sunday they were tracking an oil tanker in international waters close to Venezuela, multiple unnamed US officials have told US media, marking the second such action over the weekend - and the third within the past week.What officials described as an active pursuit" in the Caribbean Sea took place a day after the coast guard seized another vessel off the coast of Venezuela, as Washington ramps up its pressure campaign targeting the South American nation's vital oil sector. Continue reading...

Todd Blanche says removal of images has nothing to do' with the president, and removal of 16 photos came at request of victim advocacy groups - key US politics stories from Sunday 21 December at a glanceDeputy US attorney general Todd Blanche said on Sunday that removing photos from the Jeffrey Epstein files release, including one of Donald Trump, had nothing to do" with the president, as the justice department restored an image it had removed a day earlier that included within it a photo of Trump.The US justice department said on Sunday it restored the image after concluding that the photograph posed no risk of public exposure to victims of the late convicted sex offender. Its unexplained removal on Saturday triggered a chorus of accusations from Democrats of political interference in favor of the president, a former friend of Epstein. Continue reading...

Steelers just hold on to beat the Lions while Broncos fall flat in 34-20 defeat to the JaguarsJ Cook rush for 44 yardsWell they were off to a slow start. The running back quickens matters with a mazy run through to the left then back across the field to avoid two free defenders. They just can't quite bring him down and Cook levels it up.D Prescott to R Flournoy for five yards Continue reading...

Steve Witkoff says representatives share goals to stop killing, support Ukraine and end war with RussiaA White House envoy said on Sunday he held productive and constructive" talks in Florida with Ukrainian and European representatives to end the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine.Posting on social media, Steve Witkoff said the talks aimed at aligning on a shared strategic approach between Ukraine, the US and Europe. Continue reading...

Vilma Palacios, 22, tells local outlet I want my freedom back' as she may be forced to return to HondurasA recent graduate of the LSU Health New Orleans School of Nursing has been held in an ICE processing center in Basile, Louisiana, for the past six months following her arrest by immigration agents over the summer.Vilma Palacios had just recently accepted a position at Touro Infirmary when ICE agents arrested her and transferred her to the processing center in Basile. Her detention comes amid a broader immigration crackdown under the Trump administration, including cases involving individuals with no criminal records who are seeking legal residency. Continue reading...

Department says image was flagged by prosecutors before determining it posed no risk to survivors of late sex offenderThe US justice department said on Sunday it had restored an image it had removed a day earlier from the public release of investigative files related to Jeffrey Epstein after concluding that the photograph, which included within it a photo of Donald Trump, posed no risk of public exposure to victims of the late convicted sex offender.The justice department said the image had been flagged by federal prosecutors in New York for potentially exposing victims of Epstein. Its unexplained removal on Saturday triggered a chorus of accusations from Democrats about evident political interference in favor of the president, a former friend of Epstein. Continue reading...

Lawmakers threatening legal action face major obstacle: those with legal power in this case are the ones accused of failing to follow the lawAfter Donald Trump's justice department failed on Friday to release all documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as required by law, multiple Congress members didn't only voice outrage - they threatened legal action as well.Several attorneys told the Guardian that those making the legal threats do have tools with which to try to follow through. But there's a major obstacle: those with legal authority in this case are the ones accused of failing to follow the law. Continue reading...

Timothy Loehmann's firing is fourth known time in seven years that he left a department following public backlashThe former Cleveland officer who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014 was fired from his post as a ranger at a West Virginia resort community, the fourth known time in seven years that he left a small department following public backlash.Timothy Loehmann was fired on Friday from his position at the Snowshoe Resort Community District (SRCD). The district's board announced Loehmann's firing in a statement following their emergency meeting. Continue reading...

Thien Ho considers his book The People vs the Golden State Killer part of a trilogy' after two books by different authorsBefore Joseph DeAngelo, a 74-year-old navy veteran and former police officer, admitted responsibility for his brutal crimes in court, prosecutor Thien Ho had a request for the judge overseeing the proceedings. He wanted the world to see the killer's face.It was 2020, the first year of the pandemic, and social distancing and masking requirements were in full swing. But Ho asked that DeAngelo - the man known as the Golden State Killer, who had covered his face during a more than 10-year reign of terror across California - be required to wear a clear face shield as he pleaded guilty. Continue reading...

A video posted on the X account of the US homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, shows aerial footage of a helicopter approaching a vessel at sea. She wrote: 'In a pre-dawn action early this morning on Dec 20, the US Coast Guard with the support of the Department of War apprehended an oil tanker that was last docked in Venezuela.' It follows the seizure of another oil tanker off Venezuela's coast on 10 December. Both vessels were heading to Asia

Schab was a 21-year-old navy musician aboard USS Dobbin when Japan carried out surprise attack in 1941A second world war veteran who was among the last survivors of the 1941 Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor died on Saturday.Ira Ike" Schab, who served in the US navy at the time of the bombing, was 105, according to a statement from the USS Arizona Memorial, which pays tribute to military members who were killed at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.The Associated Press contributed reporting Continue reading...

Robert F Kennedy Jr is pushing a plan to block medical treatments, the latest move against bodily autonomyOn Thursday, when Robert F Kennedy Jr announced an effort to block medical treatments for transgender youth, he used the term sex-rejecting procedures" in place of gender-affirming care".And where transgender advocates and healthcare providers view puberty blockers, hormones and (in rare cases) surgical interventions as suicide prevention measures, the health secretary claimed that these procedures" will do the opposite: rob children of their futures."Judith Levine is a Brooklyn-based journalist, essayist and author of five books. Her Substack is Today in Fascism Continue reading...

Since just 3% of Americans use platform Trump owns, public may be unaware of his mental state and performanceWhen Donald Trump has something to say, he takes to Truth Social.Trump has used the platform to announce policies on everything from the economy to travel bans, making declarations that are key for Americans seeking information about his government. Continue reading...

Trump's movement has used the Christian faith to fuel oppression. Here's how we are standing against itDonald Trump wants us to believe that the war on Christianity" is spreading across the globe. The US president recently sounded the alarm on the mass slaughter" of Christians in Nigeria while threatening a US invasion of the African nation. We shouldn't be surprised. This falls right in line with Trump's ongoing attempts to project Maga Christianity on to the global stage and crack down on religious freedom.Maga Christianity represents a self-serving, commercialized version of the Christian faith - putting power over service and empathy - and it is everywhere in our federal government. In February, Trump announced a taskforce led by Pam Bondi with the goal of rooting out anti-Christian" bias. In September, Trump announced his plans to protect prayer in schools. Later that month, he issued a memorandum identifying anti-Christianity as a potential driver of terrorism. These are not just one-off incidents. This is a national effort to push the Maga Christianity agenda on Americans, and we're already seeing the consequences.Doug Pagitt is executive director of Vote Common Good. The Rev Lori Walke is the senior minister at Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ in Oklahoma City Continue reading...

Maria Farmer, whose sister Annie was abused by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, says Epstein stole' nude imagesWhile Donald Trump's justice department did not deliver on a legal requirement to disclose all Jeffrey Epstein-related files by Friday, one document in an otherwise underwhelming disclosure lifted the veil on authorities' inaction - and its dire consequences for dozens of teen girls.That document is an FBI report from Maria Farmer, a painter who worked for Epstein around 1996. Continue reading...

As Congress cuts healthcare access to pay for tax cuts and poor Americans die earlier, billionaires invest in anti-ageingThere's a weird disconnect to the public debate about health in the United States. In January, millions of Americans may drop their health insurance as premiums skyrocket following the Trump administration's decision to end federal subsidies that helped some 20 million people afford insurance on the Obamacare marketplaces.Earlier this year, Republicans in Congress agreed to cut more than $850bn from the 10-year budgets of Medicaid, the health insurance program for low-income people, and the Chip health insurance program for children, in order to pay for some tax cuts. Given the US's budgetary rules, that cut means an additional $500bn in funding for Medicare is at risk. Continue reading...

Britain's Anthony Joshua knocked out Jake Paul in the sixth round of their money-spinning heavyweight fight on a surreal Friday night in Miami, where boxing's oldest realities converged with a new, attention-driven world

Justice department hit with legal threats after authorities release limited, heavily redacted trove of files in apparent violation of Epstein Transparency Act. Key US politics stories from 20 December 2025Donald Trump's justice department was hit with legal threats and scathing outrage after authorities released a limited, heavily redacted trove of Jeffrey Epstein files in an apparent violation of the law mandating the near-complete disclosure of these documents by Friday.The justice department's document dump this afternoon does not comply with [Republican] Thomas Massie and my Epstein Transparency Act," Ro Khanna, the California Democratic congressman who co-authored the law requiring full disclosure of all Epstein files by 19 December, said in a video statement. Continue reading...

Agency hit with legal threats and scathing outrage after Friday release includes limited, heavily redacted trove. This blog is now closed.

Angel Urena said ex-president, pictured in some photos released by justice department, cut ties with Epstein in 2005A spokesperson for Bill Clinton accused the White House late on Friday of using him as a scapegoat after pictures of the former president with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as with a young woman in a pool, were included as part of congressionally ordered release of government files.The White House hasn't been hiding these files for months only to dump them late on a Friday to protect Bill Clinton," the spokesperson said in a statement on X. Continue reading...

Vessel does not appear to be on list of US-sanctioned vessels, which would represent escalation in blockadeUS forces on Saturday apprehended a second merchant vessel carrying oil off the coast of Venezuela in international waters in the midst of an American blockade against the country's oil, according to the US homeland security department.The stoppage follows the seizure by US forces of another oil tanker off Venezuela's coast on 10 December. Both vessels were headed to Asia. Continue reading...

Lawyers also attempting to throw out two federal charges, saying US attorney general has ties to UnitedHealth GroupLawyers for Luigi Mangione are attempting to avoid the death penalty and throw out two federal charges in the justice department's case against him, arguing that attorney general Pam Bondi is biased because she used to work at a lobbying firm that represents UnitedHealth Group.In court documents filed on Friday, Mangione's lawyers said that Bondi has a profound conflict of interest" because her former employer, Ballard Partners, a DC-based lobbying firm founded by the Trump donor Brian Ballard, counts UnitedHealth Group as one of its clients. Continue reading...

Suspect killed himself after allegedly killing an MIT professor and two Brown University studentsAn autopsy report on the suspect in the mass shooting at Brown University and the killing of an MIT professor in Massachusetts has shown that he died by suicide two days before he was found in a storage locker on Thursday.The New Hampshire attorney general's report estimates that Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, a Portuguese national who had been living in the US, died on 16 December, the same day that his fellow countryman, MIT nuclear physics professor Nuno Loureiro died at a hospital in Massachusetts. Continue reading...

Republicans such as Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene slam redactions, but others express satisfactionConservative reaction to the partial release of documents in the Jeffrey Epstein case has been mixed, with Trump administration supporters highlighting the prominent presence of Bill Clinton and other Democrats in photographs, with others lamenting how the heavy redaction casts Donald Trump and Republicans in a bad light.Administration officials defended the redactions with fervent hyperbole. Never in American history has a President or the Department of Justice been this transparent with the American people about such a sensitive law enforcement matter," said Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, who released a six-page letter describing the redaction process. Continue reading...

Public exhibition, featuring billboard-sized portraits projected onto buildings, calls attention to Trump administration's attacks on civil libertiesEach evening, drivers on the busy 101 freeway in downtown Los Angeles pass billboard-size portraits of Angelenos that flash across the side of a building with a simple message next to their faces: Am I Next?Three Los Angeles institutions have teamed up to launch a response to federal immigration raids in the nation's second-largest city, projecting illuminated images of everyday LA residents in support of the thousands of community members who have been detained this year. Continue reading...

Company settles allegations it failed to honor shelf prices in multiple states, and customers anywhere in US may be eligible for repaymentsDollar General, the retail giant that promises convenience, quality brands and low prices", has agreed to pay at least $15m to settle claims that it overcharged customers at many of its 20,000 US stores.The settlement resolves lawsuits in multiple states alleging that shoppers at the dollar-store chain often see one price on the shelf but pay a higher price at the register. Customers anywhere in the US may be eligible for repayments. Continue reading...

Released images illustrate relationships Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell forged with significant figures