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Amazon's Zoox will give free rides in parts of the city in attempt to counter Waymo's early lead in self-driving taxisAmazon's Zoox is launching its robotaxi service in San Francisco, offering free rides through parts of the city as it accelerates its attempt to challenge Waymo's early lead in the race to transport passengers in self-driving vehicles.The expansion, announced on Tuesday, will be confined to a few major San Francisco neighborhoods and limited to people who signed up on a waiting list to ride in Zoox's gondola-shaped robotaxis, which have no steering wheel. The San Francisco launch comes less than three months after the Amazon-owned robotaxi company launched its first ride-hailing service along the Las Vegas strip. Continue reading...

The bitcoin collapse lifts the lid on a society without opportunity, where risk is privatised and rightwingers sell illusions of freedom while ordinary punters bear lossesThe crypto crash has come again. And it is as brutal as ever. In barely six weeks, more than $1.2tn has evaporated from cryptocurrencies' market capitalisation. The sell-off has sent bitcoin back to levels last seen in April. The world's largest cryptocurrency briefly fell below $90,000 this week, shedding almost a third of its value since its October peak.The key to understanding crypto is that it has no value" in any economic sense. It generates no income, commands no productive capacity and pays no dividends. Unlike state money, it is not backed by a tax base or a fiscal authority. What props up its price is not cashflow but expectation: the hope that someone else will validate today's valuation tomorrow. When sentiment turns sour or people pull their money out, there is nothing to break cryptocurrencies' fall. Prices don't correct, they collapse. In 2023, MPs rightly said that cryptocurrency trading in the UK should be regulated as a form of gambling - a demand rejected by the then Tory government. Continue reading...

Greg Abbott's move heightens the clash with Muslim groups and usurps federal authorityTexas governor Greg Abbott declared the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) and the Muslim Brotherhood to be foreign terrorist organizations" on Tuesday, prohibiting them from acquiring property in the state and authorizing legal action to shut down affiliated entities.The move marks a massive escalation in Abbott's confrontation with Muslim organizations and communities in Texas, though states have no authority to designate foreign terrorist organizations on behalf of the US. Continue reading...

Deal requires Sackler family members who own company to contribute up to $7bn over 15 yearsA federal bankruptcy court judge on Tuesday formally approved OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma's plan to settle thousands of lawsuits over the harms of opioids.The deal approved by US bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane requires members of the Sackler family who own the company to contribute up to $7bn over 15 years. Most of the money is to go to government entities to fight the opioid crisis that has been linked to 900,000 deaths in the US since 1999. Continue reading...

Whatever her motives, the Republican congresswoman's revenge tour' against the president is proving surprisingly effectiveThere are 535 members of Congress; only a dozen or so are household names. If you want to achieve that sort of brand name recognition, there are a few tried-and-tested ways to do so. You can spend years working your way up the ranks until you're a power-broker like Nancy Pelosi. You can burst on to the scene and dramatically unseat an incumbent like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did. Or you can go the Marjorie Taylor Greene route and achieve notoriety by being utterly unhinged.Since becoming a congresswoman for Georgia in 2021, Greene has kept herself in the news by spouting conspiracy theories, fighting with colleagues, and being one of Trump's biggest cheerleaders. In recent months, however, something strange has been happening. Greene has continued to generate headlines, but largely because she has turned on her party and is part of a growing Maga civil war. Greene was the first Republican lawmaker, for example, to say that there is a genocide in Gaza and has been one of the loudest voices demanding that the Epstein files be released. She has also criticised the Maga movement for not focusing on affordability or putting America first. Now, things have escalated to the point where Greene is making Trump see red; the pair are in a full-blown feud. Continue reading...

US bankruptcy judge will decide whether plan is fair to 650 survivors and dozens of other creditorsThe archdiocese of New Orleans has begun a three-week confirmation trial that will determine whether a federal bankruptcy judge signs off on a $230m settlement meant to compensate 650 clergy abuse survivors and resolve one of the US's longest-running and costliest church bankruptcies.US bankruptcy judge Meredith Grabill will decide whether the plan - five and a half years in the making - is fair to the survivors and dozens of other creditors who have waited through repeated delays, contentious negotiations and a protracted legal fight over a 2021 state law giving survivors of decades-old child sexual abuse the right to sue. Continue reading...

You may have thought Qatar and Russia were tournament lows. You didn't account for the US president and his Fifa soulmate, Gianni InfantinoIt's very clear," claimed haunted Fifa cue-ball Gianni Infantino not so long ago, that politics should stay out of football and football should stay out of politics." But is it clear? Is it really? On Monday, the worst man in world sport was - yet again - to be found in the Oval Office, this time nodding along to Trump's declaration that games could be moved from host cities for next summer's World Cup if the US president deems there's a problem" with security or that the cities are non-compliant in some other way. In practice, that seems to mean if they're run by a Democrat/communist". Amazing that the Fifa president will gladly allow his tournaments to be held in any old violent autocracy but, for the purposes of the White House cameras at least, might need to draw the line at Boston.Honestly, the very sight of Infantino these days causes decades of writing about Fifa to flash before my eyes. How could it have happened? How could we have ended up with an even bigger horror in charge of world football's governing body than the various ones who went before? When Sepp Blatter was thrown from a moving gravy train in 2015 amid an explosive corruption scandal, it would have felt like a genuine feat of sporting excellence to have beaten his record for craven awfulness.Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnistA year in Westminster: John Crace, Marina Hyde and Pippa Crerar

After being expelled from his homeland in 1972, the academic has grappled with questions of political belonging - a major theme of his son's mayoral campaignThe night before Mahmood Mamdani was expelled from Uganda in 1972, a senior professor from the university where he had been employed as a lowly teaching assistant wandered into his family home, looking for spoils. The rest of the family had already left - for the UK, the US and Tanzania - but 26-year-old Mamdani had decided to remain until the final day of the three-month period that Idi Amin, the Ugandan president, had designated for all Asians to leave the country. Passing over the furniture and other remnants of decades of family life, the professor hit upon a carton of Johnnie Walker Red, which Mamdani invited him to take home. Continue reading...

Raleigh's mayor says border patrol and ICE are in city as state's Democratic governor criticizes federal operationsFederal authorities expanded their mass immigration sweeps to Raleigh, the capital city of North Carolina, on Tuesday, local officials said, after a weekend where more than 100 people were arrested in Charlotte.It is the city of Raleigh's understanding that the border patrol and ICE are already in Raleigh," said the mayor, Janet Cowell, to local media, though she added city authorities did not know how many agents would be involved in the surge. Continue reading...

Hip-hop mogul is serving four-year prison sentence on prostitution-related convictionsThe Los Angeles county sheriff's department said Monday it's investigating a new sexual battery allegation against hip-hop mogul Sean Diddy" Combs, who is serving a four-year prison sentence on prostitution-related convictions.A male music producer and publicist said he was asked to come to a photo shoot in 2020 at a Los Angeles warehouse, where Combs exposed himself while masturbating and told the accuser to assist, according to NBC News, citing a police report. Combs then tossed a dirty shirt at the man, the producer said. Continue reading...

UN logs 260 attacks in October alone, its highest monthly tally. Plus, protests in North Carolina's Charlotte after aggressive immigration arrests

Kingdom's de facto ruler to arrive on first White House trip since killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018Donald Trump is to welcome Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman to Washington on Tuesday, in a red-carpet visit expected to result in the sale of highly advanced US F-35 fighter jets to the Gulf monarchy.The crown prince's arrival in Washington will be his first White House visit since the 2018 killing of the Washington Post journalist and critic of the kingdom Jamal Khashoggi. The CIA later determined Khashoggi's murder was approved by the crown prince, leading to global condemnation. Continue reading...

When I was a college basketball player, some believed we were treated differently from other Black and Brown people. An event last weekend suggests otherwiseIt was 1996, my first day stepping foot on Syracuse University's campus. I saw a big student protest was taking place so, with my freshman's inquisitive mind, I ventured over to see what was going on.

Former prisoners feel disposable' after being driven to accept jobs that often pay lower wages and have no benefitsHundreds of thousands Floridian workers with criminal records are driven to accept jobs at temporary staffing agencies, often with lower wages and no benefits, according to a new report.Former prisoners described feeling disposable" after finding themselves stuck in temporary jobs, unable to obtain direct employment with companies. Continue reading...

The international community allowed all of this to happen. We must not look away or move onGenocide is a process, not an event. When genocide happens, its roots, and the conditions that allowed it, often become visible only in retrospect. If those conditions remain unchanged and there is no accountability, there's every reason to believe the violence will return, perhaps even worse, especially if it was never fully halted. This is exactly what we are seeing in the case of Gaza. Demanding accountability from Israeli leaders isn't just about the past, it's the only way to challenge a system designed to repeat such violence.A strange kind of calm has settled over Israel in the weeks since the Gaza ceasefire was declared. The sirens stopped. The hostages who survived the 7 October attack and nearly two years in captivity came home. But this calm - which has not been extended to Gaza, where more than 200 civilians have been killed since the ceasefire supposedly went into effect is built around an unclear plan by Donald Trump that does not address the root causes of the violence, and is merely a mirage. Nothing has changed in the violent political system that Palestinians and Israelis live under. The machinery behind the violence remains intact. The logic of domination still rules.Yuli Novak is executive director of the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem Continue reading...

Mark Bray has become one of the highest-profile people caught up in Donald Trump's efforts to target AntifaBaggage dropped and boarding passes in hand, Mark Bray and his family cleared security at Newark airport in early October. Their flight to Spain was meant to ferry the family of four to safety after days of mounting threats; instead, as they waited at the gate to board, they were told that someone had cancelled their reservation.It felt like I was being watched and laughed at," said Bray, a professor at Rutgers university who teaches a course on the history of antifascism and in 2017 wrote a book on Antifa. I knew it was politically motivated one way or the other." Continue reading...

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Former treasury secretary steps away to rebuild trust' after severe backlash but will continue teaching Harvard classesThe Harvard professor and economist Larry Summers said he would be stepping back from public life after documents released by the House oversight committee revealed email exchanges between Summers and the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who called himself Summers' wing man".Politico reported on Monday that Summers, a former treasury secretary, expressed deep regret for past messages with Epstein. Continue reading...

Donald Trump says we have nothing to hide' as Maga suspicions grow over files - key US politics stories from Monday 17 November at a glanceDonald Trump has told his fellow Republicans in Congress to vote for the release of files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in a sudden reversal of his earlier position.The US president's post on his Truth Social website came after the House speaker, Mike Johnson, said previously that he believed a vote on releasing justice department documents in the Epstein case should help put to rest allegations that he [Trump] has something to do with it". Continue reading...

Border Patrol is at the center of the immigration crackdown in North Carolina - what does US law say about their presence?Robert Tait and the Associated Press contributed reporting Continue reading...

Lingering thunderstorms pose risk of mudslides in areas around Los Angeles recently ravaged by wildfiresA powerful atmospheric river weather system has mostly moved through California but not before causing at least seven deaths and dousing much of the state.Among the dead was a seven-year-old girl who was swept into the ocean by waves estimated up to 20ft at a state beach on Friday. The girl's father, 39-year-old Yuji Hu, of Calgary, Alberta, was killed while trying to save his daughter. Continue reading...

Former leaders' report cautions against politicizing armed forces as national guard deployments raise tensions in USWith months of escalation between US cities and the Trump administration amid the deployment of national guard troops, former military officials released a report on Monday about the risks of politicizing the nation's armed forces.The report warns that increasing domestic military deployments, such as using national guard troops for immigration enforcement in the US, and removing senior military officers and legal advisers have made the armed forces appear to serve partisan agendas. Continue reading...

Lisa Cook's lawyer details defense against accusations she misrepresented residences to get better mortgage rateLawyers for Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor, called Trump administration allegations of mortgage fraud against her baseless" on Monday and accused the administration of cherry-picking" discrepancies to bolster their claims.After accusing Cook of misrepresenting multiple residences as her primary residence to get a better mortgage rate, Donald Trump briefly fired Cook from her role as a Fed governor and as one of 12 voting members of the Federal Reserve board that sets interest rates. The supreme court reinstated her and will in January hear arguments over Cook's removal. Continue reading...

Trump administration official confirms David Richardson will depart agency after six months in roleThe acting administrator of Fema is leaving the agency, a senior Trump administration official said on Monday.David Richardson resigned after only a brief stint leading the Federal Emergency Management Agency amid a furor over his responsiveness, especially during the catastrophic flooding in Texas during the summer that swept away a children's camp and killed more than 130 people. Continue reading...

North Carolina governor says immigration crackdown stoking fear' as officials say at least 130 people detainedAggressive arrests by federal immigration agents continued in Charlotte on Monday after a weekend sweep in which authorities said they detained a total of at least 130 people in North Carolina's largest city, as protests picked up.North Carolina's governor, Josh Stein, on Monday warned that the crackdown was simply stoking fear" and resulting in severe disruption. Continue reading...

President reverses course and calls for House vote to force release of further documents - what might they reveal?Tens of thousands of documents have been released by members of Congress related to Jeffrey Epstein, the child sexual abuser, that shed light on his communications with and about powerful people, including the president.Last week, Democratic members of Congress released three emails pertaining to Trump and Epstein, then Republican members released more than 20,000 emails. Continue reading...

US president said we'll work something out' in reference to meeting with the New York City mayor-electDonald Trump has signaled that he may soon meet with New York City's mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, telling reporters that Mamdani would like to meet with us", adding, we'll work something out" despite being political polar opposites who have shared sharp words for each other previously.He would like to come to Washington and meet, and we'll work something out," the US president said late on Sunday, referring to Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist and former state assemblymember who won the New York City mayoral election earlier this month. We want to see everything work out well for New York." Continue reading...

Suhas Subramanyam, a member of the oversight panel, had asked Mountbatten-Windsor to sit for deposition

Protesters gathered in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Sunday after federal agents arrested at least 81 people in Charlotte as part of an expanded crackdown on illegal immigration under the Trump administration.Critics have denounced the aggressive enforcement strategy, accusing ICE agents of racial profiling and targeting people indiscriminately in heavily-policed neighbourhoods

Rapper to give address on Tuesday after supporting Trump's post condemning Nigerian governmentThe US-based Trinidadian rapper Nicki Minaj will work alongside the White House to highlight claims of Christian persecution in Nigeria.Minaj is expected to deliver a speech at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Tuesday, according to a Time journalist who first posted about the collaboration on Sunday, adding that it was arranged by Alex Bruesewitz, an adviser to Donald Trump. Continue reading...

The so-called Judgment Day will generate millions of dollars and attract huge ratings, but leave boxing a little more brokenThe unsurprising confirmation of a colossal global showdown" between Jake Paul and Anthony Joshua arrived on Monday morning with a dull thud. That grand description of an eight-round scrap between a former YouTuber and a former world heavyweight champion was supplied by Paul's company, Most Valuable Promotions, which also announced that the contest will be screened live on Netflix on 19 December and called Judgment Day.Boxing operates in a netherworld that appears to have sunk far beyond any fear of judgment, while Paul has always had delusions of grandeur as a novice pro. But even boxing may have to consider its own culpability should Paul be badly hurt and end up in hospital after this fully sanctioned bout with regulation 10oz gloves is held in Miami. Continue reading...

Donald Trump's trade wars and Chinese competition constitute formidable headwinds. But old economic orthodoxies are not the answerLast March, following angst-ridden months as Europe came to terms with Donald Trump's return to the White House, financial markets in Paris, Milan and Berlin were gripped by a surge of optimism. The cause was a historic deal brokered by Friedrich Merz, then Germany's chancellor-elect, which loosened constitutional spending constraints in the EU's powerhouse nation. Here at last, it was hoped, was the fiscal kickstart required to end a prolonged period of economic stagnation, and mitigate geopolitical headwinds blowing from the US and China.Six months into Mr Merz's premiership, the angst is back and there are the first murmurings of rebellion. Thechancellor's plan included whatever it takes" levels of defence spending, designed to prepare Germany for a changed era in which the US was no longer a dependable ally, and a huge 500bn investment in infrastructure and the green transition. But last week, the chancellor's team of economic advisers downgraded growth forecasts for 2026 to below 1%. And ahead of what wouldconstitute a fourth year of near-flatlining, businessconfidencehasslumped.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Enrollment fell 17%, the largest drop in a decade aside from the pandemic, amid Trump's immigration crackdownThe number of international students enrolling in US colleges and universities plunged this year as the Trump administration's aggressive immigration crackdown on higher education began to bite, data released on Monday reveals.New international student enrollment fell 17% in the current academic year, the largest drop in more than a decade aside from the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a fall snapshot published by the Institute of International Education (IIE). Continue reading...

US president says he backs efforts to release documents related to late sex offender because we have nothing to hide'

Judge ruled DoJ engaged in profound investigative missteps' on way to indicting the former FBI directorA US judge on Monday found evidence of government misconduct" in how a prosecutor aligned with Donald Trump secured criminal charges against former FBI director James Comey and ordered that grand jury materials be turned over to Comey's defense team.Last week, prosecutors were ordered to produce a trove of materials from the investigation, with the court saying it was concerned that the US justice department's position on Comey had been to indict first and investigate later". Continue reading...

President attempts to save face politically after pressuring Republicans to back off their pushes to release files

Trump administration's claim it has authority to meter' applications may turn on definition of arriving in USThe US supreme court agreed on Monday to hear a defense by the Trump administration of the government's authority to limit the processing of asylum claims at ports of entry along the US-Mexico border.The court took up the administration's appeal of a lower court's determination that the metering" policy, under which US immigration officials could stop asylum seekers at the border and decline to process their claims, violated federal law. Continue reading...

Experts believe decision is designed to pressure Venezuela's leader into stepping down with threat of military force

Epstein paints Trump as someone he knew intimately. But the documents also reveal how many powerful men confided in himBefore he died, Jeffrey Epstein made it clear that Donald Trump knew about the girls".Trump has denied any knowledge of or involvement in Epstein's longstanding child sex-trafficking operation. But in newly released emails that members of Congress disclosed to the media amid the end of this fall's government shutdown, the dead child sex trafficker and financier can be seen corresponding on many occasions about Donald Trump, his former close friend and associate, throughout the last few years of his life, as Trump's rise to prominence in national politics beginning in 2015 drew renewed attention to his relationship with Epstein.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

The US president says he backs lawmakers' efforts to release the files before an expected House vote this week. Plus: is there a dark side to gratitude?

The military has been recast in a partisan, performative mold - all according to the president's logic of impunityOf all the reasons Americans have been losing sleep recently - hunger, canceled flights, Democrats betraying them - the most ominous has to do with an institution usually absent from discussions about the fate of our democracy: the military. No need to be starry-eyed about US imperialism and what has long been criticized as an ever-expanding national security state"; one can still appreciate that it is a good thing if generals do not take sides in politics - just ask anyone from the many countries around the world where they do. But a pattern is becoming clear: Donald Trump is purging the higher ranks based on his prejudices and demands for loyalty; the military is being turned into a partisan instrument and a political prop; more dangerous still, the president is instilling the logic of impunity that has come to characterize his entire approach to governance.Figures deemed too close to Trump critics, such as Gen Mark Milley, have seen promotions delayed or canceled; those targeted by far-right influencers might face professional backlash. Trump used Maga-fied soldiers as background to a Fort Bragg speech, violating longstanding norms against instrumentalizing state institutions for partisan purposes. Every violation becomes a test of who will be loyal: critics - the potentially disloyal - will identify themselves. Continue reading...

Thriving business districts in North Carolina city now at a standstill' after at least 81 were arrested over the weekendMany communities in Charlotte, North Carolina, were reeling after federal Customs and Border Protection teams descended on the city at the weekend and arrested at least 81 people - while normally-thriving immigrant enclaves and business districts came to a standstill.Federal agents were deployed in what the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), calls Operation Charlotte's Web, sparking protests. Continue reading...

The Seahawks quarterback has looked like an MVP this season. But his old failings returned in Los Angeles on SundayThe biggest game of Week 11 was undoubtedly the matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and the Seattle Seahawks. Both teams came in with 7-2 records, and were seemingly evenly matched on both sides of the ball, with dynamic offenses and stingy defenses. In the end, it was a defensive battle that the Rams won, 21-19, by the skin of their teeth.Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold, who had played at a near-MVP level this season for the most part, did absolutely nothing to help his team - and plenty to hurt them. Darnold matched his career high with four interceptions, completing 29 of 44 passes for 279 yards, no touchdowns, those picks, and a passer rating of 45.5. Continue reading...

Strike comes as navy's most advanced aircraft carrier arrives in Caribbean Sea and president says US may open talks with Venezuelan leaderThe United States conducted another attack on an alleged drug trafficking boat in the eastern Pacific on Saturday, killing three people aboard, the Pentagon said on Sunday.Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics," the US Southern Command announced in a post on social media. Continue reading...