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Judge orders Oklahoma zoo featured in hit Netflix series to surrender cats and their mothers for violating animal welfare lawsA federal judge in Oklahoma has ordered the new owners of an Oklahoma zoo featured in Netflix’s Tiger King documentary to turn over all the lion and tiger cubs in their possession, along with the animals’ mothers, to the federal government.Related: 'It's pretty messed up': Americans’ deadly love for tigers Continue reading...

Figure arrived with stunning speed as southern and central California grapple with brutal outbreaksCalifornia has become the first state to record more than 3m coronavirus infections, as it grapples with an unprecedented surge of cases that has left hospitals overwhelmed.That remarkable figure, which comes from Johns Hopkins University, was not entirely unexpected for the nation’s most populous state – but the speed at which it arrived has been stunning. Continue reading...

The US president-elect’s nominee for treasury secretary has told lawmakers that "the smartest thing we can do is act big" on the next coronavirus relief package, adding that the benefits outweigh the costs of a higher debt burden.In testimony at her virtual confirmation hearing, Janet Yellen said her task as treasury chief would be twofold: to help Americans endure the final months of the coronavirus pandemic, and to rebuild the US economy “so that it creates more prosperity for more people and ensures that American workers can compete in an increasingly competitive global economy”

One in every eight households owes water debt, survey shows, with Black and Latino neighborhoods more likely to be in arrearsThe magnitude of America’s water affordability crisis has been laid bare by shocking new data from California where debt owed on water bills has hit $1bn and one in every eight households is currently in arrears. Continue reading...

But sources say neither Rudy Giuliani, Steve Bannon or president himself are on the list

Our ruling class is expert in maintaining a myth of continuity, and absorbing supporters from the ranks of the aggrievedJacob Rees-Mogg’s star has waned since his glory days leading backbench rebellions against Theresa May. He is on TV less, playing to smaller crowds. I caught him the other week on the BBC Parliament channel telling the Commons that fish unable to reach EU markets were “better and happier” because Brexit makes them more British.Watching his performance, I recalled the perennially startling fact about Rees-Mogg: he is younger than Kylie Minogue (also Noel Gallagher and Damon Albarn, but Minogue is the more arresting comparator for some reason).

More than 500 book industry professionals have added their names to a call for publishers not to sign up veterans of the departing president’s government

The treasury secretary nominee says that despite debt implications, benefits of big spending outweigh the risksJanet Yellen, US president-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for treasury secretary, told lawmakers on Tuesday that “the smartest thing we can do is act big” on the next coronavirus relief package, adding that the benefits outweigh the costs of a higher debt burden.In testimony at her virtual confirmation hearing, Yellen said her task as treasury chief would be twofold: first to help Americans endure the final months of the coronavirus pandemic, and second to rebuild the US economy “so that it creates more prosperity for more people and ensures that American workers can compete in an increasingly competitive global economy”. Continue reading...

Sascha Engel says Europeans must look to their own crises before pointing the finger at the US, while Carolyn Kirton recalls Boris Johnson fawning over Donald TrumpRegarding Joe Biden’s inauguration, I believe it is necessary for Europeans to keep three things in mind as we watch this momentous event. First, we would do well not to forget that the outgoing president is not an aberration in American politics, both contemporary and historical. Not only can a direct line be drawn from Karl Rove’s public denial of President Obama’s 2012 victory in Ohio, or indeed from the Fox network to the Parler app, but Donald Trump also stands before us as the latest iteration of former presidents such as Andrew Jackson, Herbert Hoover, and Ronald Reagan. The essence of his movement is deeply ingrained, and remains so.Second, even under a Biden presidency, US interests will diverge from those of Europe. There is no reason to doubt Biden’s commitment to multilateral approaches. But what shape these approaches will take, and just how much they will reflect Europe’s policies, cannot yet be said. “Pivoting to Asia”, as Obama had put it, does seem to remain an American priority. Continue reading...

Incoming Treasury secretary’s speech boosts markets with call on Republicans to back Joe Biden’s $1.9tn stimulus planJanet Yellen, the economist picked by Joe Biden to run the US Treasury, has said America needs to “act big” to revive its flagging economy and protect itself against long-term scarring with a major stimulus package.The former chairman of the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, underlined the new administration’s determination to press ahead with plans to boost government spending when she told a Senate committee that the benefits of action by Washington outweighed the costs. Continue reading...

Analysis: The convergent crises call for a united response, the president-elect argues, but Republicans say that means forgetting Trump’s alleged role in insurrectionWhen Joe Biden takes the oath of office on Wednesday, the new president will appeal for national unity from the steps of the US Capitol, where two weeks ago a mob, incited by Donald Trump, stormed the building in a violent attempt to prevent this very moment.Though their efforts failed, the bloody insurrection exposed the fragility of America’s commitment to a peaceful transfer of power, underscored by Trump’s absence at his successor’s inauguration ceremony. Continue reading...

Donald Trump is expected to pardon more than 100 people, following in the footsteps of White House predecessors

For four years the outrages piled up so high they were hard to keep track of but the coronavirus pandemic proved to be one crisis he couldn’t bluster awayIn a cold, sombre, damp Washington four years ago this Wednesday, Donald Trump took the oath of office as the 45th president of the United States and delivered an inaugural address now remembered for two words: American carnage. Continue reading...

Physical transfer of brief case containing nuclear attack plans has become part of inauguration ritualIt is a responsibility that has passed to every president since John F Kennedy – the custody of the so called “nuclear football” – the hardened brief case that is handed over on the day of the inauguration of new presidents by their predecessor.The question being asked, given Trump’s almost unprecedented decision not to meet Joe Biden or attend his swearing in, is what will happen to the nuclear football? Continue reading...

Former press secretary, who now works for Newsmax, applies for membership of White House Correspondents’ AssociationFour years after he kicked off the Trump presidency by lying angrily about the size of the inauguration crowd, former press secretary Sean Spicer has applied to join the White House press corps.Related: ‘The Capitol riot was our Chernobyl’: James Comey on Trump, the ‘pee tape’ and Clinton’s emails Continue reading...

European safety agency follows US and Brazil in saying it will allow aircraft to returnThe Boeing 737 Max could return to European skies by summer once approval for the plane to fly again is granted in the EU next week.It would mark a critical step in its return to service, after the 737 Max was grounded worldwide following crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia caused by a faulty sensor, which repeatedly triggered a system that pushed the nose down. A total of 346 people died in the two accidents. Continue reading...

Trump is to host his exit ceremony shortly before Biden’s inauguration and issue dozens of pardons. Plus: Comey says the GOP needs to be ‘burned down or changed’Good morning.Today is Donald Trump’s last full day as president, marking the beginning of the end of a turbulent, divisive and at times violent period in US history. But, as expected, he will not be going quietly. The 45th president is planning his departure ceremony just hours before Joe Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday. Trump reportedly wants a lavish military parade and huge crowds of supporters and political backers – but whether or not he can have any of that is yet to be seen. Continue reading...

The freshman congresswoman talks about what it was like to be in the Capitol during the attack, getting booed for denouncing white supremacy, and the Republicans who mistook her for Breonna TaylorThe first two weeks of Cori Bush’s freshman week in Congress couldn’t have been more turbulent. Three days after the Missouri representative was sworn in, the Capitol was stormed by white supremacists looking to overturn the election. She gave her first criticisms of the Biden administration, saw her Twitter following grow by 185,000 and, last but not least, voted to impeach the president. And she did all of it without a paycheck, as one of the very few representatives that was neither a millionaire nor a career politician before joining the House of Representatives.The Guardian caught up with her to discuss her first fortnight in the House. Continue reading...

My father, the Islamic scholar Salman Alodah, is among the many prisoners of conscience languishing in Saudi jailsThe apparent end to the Saudi-led blockade of Qatar and a reconciliation among the states involved prompts the question: when will the Saudi government release the citizens who were caught up in the conflict and imprisoned during the three and a half-year crisis?In a breakthrough, it was announced on 4 January that Saudi Arabia had opened its land border with Qatar, paving the way for an easing of tensions that had led to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain severing diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar in mid-2017. On 5 January, the annual GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) summit took place in Saudi Arabia’s north-western Al-Ula province. And for the first time since the blockade on Qatar was imposed, the Qatari emir attended. Continue reading...

The swimmer won gold medals for his country in Athens and Beijing. And then his patriotism took an ugly turnKlete Keller was somebody, a two-time Olympic gold medallist who swam in three Games. Then he was nobody, aimless, penniless and reduced to sleeping in his car. Now he is “Person 1” in court documents, identified by the FBI as a participant in the storming of the US Capitol and charged with federal crimes.Amid the militia gear and Maga paraphernalia on display during the 6 January riot at the heart of American government, footage shows a bearded man in the Rotunda who stands out for his height and his clothes. He wears an officially-branded jacket with a United States Olympic Team patch and USA on the left sleeve and the back. Continue reading...

The US first lady thanked Americans on Monday for the 'greatest honour of my life' in a recorded video she posted on Twitter.Melania Trump said: 'The past four years have been unforgettable, as Donald and I conclude our time in the White House. I think of all of the people I have taken home in my heart and their incredible stories of love, patriotism and determination'

Much of the Trump-Russia story is still unknown, but the relationship left the US estranged from its allies and facing deepening domestic strifeWhen historians look back at Donald Trump’s presidency they are likely to pick out two defining themes. One is the coronavirus pandemic. It dominated his last year in office, and saw the president become the virus’s most celebrated victim cum White House super-spreader.The other is Russia, a subject that consumed American public life for four long years. The question first came up when Trump was a long-shot candidate for president. In a Republican party that had once regarded Vladimir Putin as a cold-eyed KGB killer, why was Trump’s behaviour towards Russia’s leader so ingratiating? Continue reading...

President has been warned against self-pardon, according to White House officialsDonald Trump is expected to issue more than 100 presidential pardons on Tuesday, during his final hours in the White House, but appears to have been dissuaded from pardoning himself or members of his family.White House officials say Trump has privately debated with aides whether he should take the extraordinary step of pardoning himself. Some administration insiders have reportedly warned against it, arguing that it would make Trump look guilty. Continue reading...

The president’s daughter did encourage her father to push through a bill on paid parental leave, but her successes are outweighed by the administration’s damaging policiesIvanka Trump has wound up her time in the White House in the most fitting way possible: with a scandal about a $3,000-a-month toilet. Members of the Secret Service, it was recently reported, were banned from using any of the bathrooms in Jared Kushner and Ivanka’s Washington DC mansion and, instead, had to rent an apartment to relieve themselves in (although Jared and Ivanka have denied this). Talk about flushing taxpayers’ money down the drain.One imagines Ivanka did not plan to spend her final days in DC dealing with the fallout from a violent insurrection and battling embarrassing leaks about her loos. When she appointed herself special adviser to the president, Ivanka was a handbag and shoe saleswoman bursting with ambition. She was going to empower women everywhere! Little girls around the world would read about Saint Ivanka for decades to come. She would be a role mogul: her branded bags would fly off the shelves. Continue reading...

Supply delays underline there was no legal or economic justification for central planningA storm is raging over the EU’s failure to have ordered more of the approved Covid-19 vaccines ahead of time. Stéphane Bancel, the chief executive of the US pharmaceutical company Moderna, which gained approval for its vaccine shortly after Pfizer/BioNTech, claims that the EU has relied too much on “vaccines from its own laboratories”.Did the European commission prioritise supporting its own pharmaceutical industry over protecting human lives? In fact, matters are not as simple as that. Contrary to what Bancel wants us to believe, the EU has actually ordered too little of its own vaccine. After all, the vaccine that is being administered most widely across the west was developed by a German company, BioNTech, and thus comes from the EU (though it was tested and partly produced in partnership with Pfizer in the US and with Fosun Pharma in China). Continue reading...

Survey finds more Europeans than not say US cannot be trusted after four years of TrumpA majority of Europeans believe America’s political system is broken, that China will be the world’s leading power within a decade, and that Joe Biden will be unable to halt his country’s decline on the world stage, according to a report.While many welcomed Biden’s victory in November’s US election, more Europeans than not feel that after four years of Donald Trump the US cannot be trusted, according to the study by the European Council on Foreign Relations. Continue reading...

Riley June Williams was arrested on Monday over Capitol breach after FBI received a tipoff from woman’s former partnerFederal authorities have arrested a woman whose former romantic partner says she took a laptop from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office during the riot at the US Capitol.Riley June Williams was arrested on Monday, according to a justice department official. It is not yet known when her initial court appearance will be. Continue reading...

The former FBI director was sickened and angered by the attack incited by the president. But has he come to terms with his part in getting him elected?As an investigator turned author, James Comey has developed a forensic eye for detail. The colour of the curtains in the Oval Office. The length of Donald Trump’s tie. Something about the US president that the camera often misses.“Donald Trump conveys a menace, a meanness in private that is not evident in most public views of him,” says Comey, a former director of the FBI, from his home in McLean, Virginia, a suburb of Washington DC. Continue reading...

A new video released by the New Yorker shows pro-Trump intruders inside the US Senate chamber following the storming of the Capitol on 6 January, with some photographing documents and facing off with police. At one point, the insurgents have a disagreement about sitting in the chair reserved for the president of the Senate, vice president Mike Pence. One rioter says: 'I love you guys, we're brothers, but we can't be disrespectful.' One intruder is seen searching through a binder on the desk of senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who has challenged the election results and voted to overturn Biden's electoral college victory. 'I think Cruz would want us to do this,' the rioter is heard saying.

Financial consultant Paul Pierrilus came to the US with his parents, who are both US citizens, when he was fiveUS Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) is to carry out a final deportation flight of the Trump era on Tuesday, with a plane bound for Haiti whose passengers include a man who is not a Haitian citizen, and who has never been there.Paul Pierrilus, a 40-year-old financial consultant from Rockland County, New York, was born in the French Caribbean territory of Saint Martin, according to a birth certificate supplied by his family, who said he came to the US with his parents when he was five. His sister and parents are US citizens. Continue reading...

Minister and daughter of Martin Luther King Jr warns against violence both physical and spoken amid pandemic, racism and insurrectionSpeakers at the annual Martin Luther King Jr holiday celebration in Atlanta called on Monday for renewed dedication to nonviolence following a turbulent year that saw a deadly pandemic, protests over systemic racism and a divisive election capped by an insurrection on the US Capitol.“This King holiday has not only come at a time of great peril and physical violence, it has also come during a time of violence in our speech – what we say and how we say it,” said the Rev Bernice King, the civil rights leader’s daughter. Continue reading...

The tightest security measures in recent memory are in place in Washington, two days ahead of the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the US.25,000 National Guard soldiers from across the east coast are stationed in the city. The streets around the Capitol remain eerily empty as all but the most determined protesters have stayed away after the pro-Trump riot at the Capitol on 6 January.The FBI has vetted all troops who are guarding the event because of fears of an insider attack at the inauguration. Continue reading...

Outgoing president has issued invites for event taking place in Maryland at 8am on Wednesday

President proposed garden amid protests against police brutality that fueled the removal of statues tied to historic injusticeHeading out of office in a blur of insurrection, mass deaths due to a pandemic, scandal and lies, Donald Trump on Monday issued an executive order directing the building of a National Garden of American Heroes, “to reflect the awesome splendour of our country’s timeless exceptionalism”.Related: Trump issues order to demand new US federal buildings be 'beautiful' Continue reading...

FBI says person claiming to be Riley June Williams’ former partner allegedly saw a video of her removing computer during Capitol riotFederal authorities are looking for a woman whose former romantic partner says she took a laptop from the office of the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, during the riot at the US Capitol earlier this month.The FBI said in an arrest warrant on Sunday, however, that Riley June Williams has not been charged with theft but only with illegally entering the Capitol and with disorderly conduct. Continue reading...

Environmental regulators alter rules as 2,700 bodies are stored at hospitals and coroner’s officeAir quality regulators have lifted the limits on the number of cremations that can be performed in Los Angeles county, citing a death rate that is more than double the pre-pandemic norm and an unmanageable backlog of dead bodies.More than 2,700 bodies were being stored at local hospitals and the county coroner’s office as of Friday 15 January, the South Coast air quality management district said on Sunday in explaining its decision to enact an executive order suspending limits on cremations. Continue reading...

The organizations, said to have received more than $850,000 through the paycheck protection program, have spread Covid misinformation

A Texas real estate agent who was part of the pro-Trump mob that attacked the US Capitol has said she was just following the orders of Donald Trump, even as she faced federal charges for her part in the insurrection.

Real estate agent Jenna Ryan says ‘I listen to my president, who told me to go to the Capitol’ and says she has ‘no guilt in my heart’A Texas real estate agent who was part of the pro-Trump mob that attacked the US Capitol said on Monday she was just following the orders of Donald Trump even as she faced federal charges for her part in the insurrection.Related: GitHub apologizes for firing employee who warned of Capitol attack Nazi link Continue reading...

From horse racing to fishing to road haulage, British industry is in chaos. No wonder leavers are turning on each otherBrexit has beached the fishing boats at Hastings. The two-man crew of Paul Joy’s boat Kaya have left for shore jobs, after the price of the huss they land fell to just 2p a kilo. Exports to the European Union are Brexit-blighted, with fishers across Britain poleaxed by new costs and regulations, their catches rotting before they reach EU markets. It’s costing them millions already.For the past two years Joy, a passionate Brexiter, has consistently told me he believes his industry would be shafted in any trade deal. “Betrayed, sacrificed,” he says, outraged at the government’s failure to secure British fishing rights for 12 miles around the coast, and now crippled by the export costs. So when foreign secretary Dominic Raab has the effrontery to tell the BBC’s Andrew Marr that this is “a great deal for the fishing industry”, he must know it’s not true. Continue reading...

Spector, who has died aged 81, created a culture of cruelty that was seen by the music industry as a symptom of genius. It’s a scenario that has played out again and againThe list of abuses Phil Spector doled out to his ex-wife Ronnie Spector is horrifying. He threatened to display her dead body in a glass-lidded gold coffin if she ever left him; he wouldn’t let her wear shoes in the house in case she ran away, and he put barbed wire and guard dogs around his mansion to make sure that she couldn’t. On the rare occasion he allowed her out alone, she had to drive alongside a life-sized dummy of Spector, cigarette in its mouth. Thanks more to luck than mercy, she escaped barefoot through a broken window. Continue reading...