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Security has been ramped up in Washington ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday, with the FBI vetting all 25,000 National Guard troops stationed there. Plus, Trump attacks environmental protections for a final timeGood morning.Joe Biden will be inaugurated as president on Wednesday, following a bitter and contested election that culminated in a siege on the Capitol earlier this month. In the wake of the violence, Washington has been forced to introduce security measures at a level not seen since the civil war, with thousands of troops and armoured cars guarding “green” and “red” zones, and a security fence still in place around the Capitol building. The FBI is vetting all 25,000 National Guard troops arriving in Washington for the inauguration amid concerns there could be an insider attack, with commanders warned to look out for problems in their ranks and guard members trained to identify potential threats among their peers. Continue reading...

Trump has accelerated a deliberate strategy by Republicans to weaken faith in elections by making it harder to voteWhen an American president is inaugurated, it’s supposed to mark the height of American democracy and power. The elaborate ceremony is designed to convey the peaceful transfer of power and that no matter how bitter the election, the nation is moving on.Related: Trump official admits family separation policy 'should never have been implemented' Continue reading...

Two future hall of fame quarterbacks faced off in the Superdome this weekend. One of them, as he always has, simply refused to lie downThe first time Tom Brady and Drews Brees met on a football field was 2 October 1999. TLC’s Unpretty was hogging the top spot on the Billboard 100. Y2K was hot on the mind.It was fitting, then, that the first and likely only playoff meeting between the two, now with a combined age of 85, delivered the most old-school matchup of the weekend. The game was billed as Tom Brady v Drew Brees, two future hall of fame quarterbacks at the end of their respective runs. Instead, we were treated to a classic bout of January football, all run games and defense and turnovers. Continue reading...

Jeffrey Yass, Club for Growth donor, told associate he did not foresee senator’s role in attempt to overturn US democracy

Australian prime minister laments ‘things that were said’ to encourage Capitol Hill mob but says it’s not for him to lecture anybodyThe Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, has suggested comments by Donald Trump that encouraged an insurrectionist mob to storm the US Capitol were “incredibly disappointing” and led to a “terrible” outcome.In his first media outing since returning from a week’s holiday, Morrison distanced himself from the outgoing US president, noting the two weren’t friends before he became prime minister. Continue reading...

Rare printing error – or creative addition by bored employee – makes 2004 banknote a collector’s item, auctioneer saysOfficially, it is classified as “an obstructed printing error with retained obstruction”. In reality, it appears to be a simple slip-up.A $20 banknote which had a sticker from a bunch of bananas attached to it before it was overprinted with security numbering is now up for auction at a Texas dealer, the rare error elevating its worth to $57,500, almost 3,000 times its face value. Continue reading...

One year ago, Americans could have hardly imagined a pandemic that would kill one person every 30 seconds Continue reading...

FBI conducting vast security sweep as Sunday’s protests see law enforcement and media outnumber members of ‘Boogaloo Bois’The FBI is vetting all 25,000 National Guard troops arriving in Washington DC for president-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration amid fears of an insider attack, as heavily fortified state capitals across the US saw only small-scale protests by far-right groups on Sunday.Commanders have been warned to be on the lookout for problems within their ranks, and Guard members are being trained to identify potential insider threats, army secretary Ryan McCarthy told the Associated Press. Continue reading...

Nathan Chen and Bradie Tennell reasserted their places at the summit of American figure skating at the US Figure Skating Championships in Las Vegas Continue reading...

The 6-metre-high orange inflatable became a symbol of British protest against the outgoing US presidentThe the Donald Trump baby blimp, a 6-metre-high inflatable caricature that became a symbol of UK protest against the US president, has secured its place in history at a leading museum.The helium-filled balloon, paid for through crowdfunding, depicts the outgoing president as a snarling orange baby wearing a nappy, with its tiny hands clutching a smartphone. It first took to the skies above Parliament Square during protests over Trump’s first presidential visit to the UK in 2018. Continue reading...

Rebekah Jones, who clashed publicly with Ron DeSantis in a dispute over data manipulation, said she would turn herself inRebekah Jones, the founder of Florida’s coronavirus database who has clashed publicly with Governor Ron DeSantis in a dispute over data manipulation, said she would surrender on Sunday after a warrant was issued for her arrest.Related: ‘He just cries and cries': families grapple with US deportations amid pandemic Continue reading...

Presence of military garrison in city on a scale not seen since the civil war a reminder that endemic racism remains a greater menace to national security than any external threat

Record producer influential in 60s pop as the creator of the ‘wall of sound’ who in 2009 was jailed for the murder of Lana Clarkson

Producer who revolutionised music in 1960s with his ‘wall of sound’ dies while serving sentence

Not only was the UK complicit in the president’s rise, but it has its own mobs and culture wars to answer forThe writer Alistair Cooke once observed: “As always, the British especially shudder at the latest American vulgarity, and then they embrace it with enthusiasm two years later.” That is a kind way of saying that the British are always a few years behind the Americans, emulating them and then pretending that we came up with whatever it is we are mimicking, or coming up with a uniquely British version of it.For example, Britain’s allegedly evidence-based involvement in the Iraq war was largely – as President George W Bush wrote in an internal memo months before military action – a matter of it following the US’s lead. So much of the special relationship between the two countries hinges on this keeping up of appearances, where the British political classes – who like to maintain their nation is the superior of the two, the original superpower – can admire and obey while holding on to the fiction that the UK is a more restrained country, less prone to the excesses of the other. Continue reading...

John Kiriakou, who was jailed in 2012 for identity leak, said his pursuit of a pardon came up in a meeting with Giuliani last year

Economically, 2020 was a terrible year for the UK, but the real damage will not be easy to assessNext month it will be official. Figures will provide the first estimate of how much the UK economy shrank by in 2020. Depending on what happened when lockdown restrictions were temporarily eased in December, the likelihood is that there was a fall of about 10%.That will be the signal for all sorts of comparisons. Germany, which has already released data, contracted by 5% last year. Numbers for the US are not yet out but will probably show the world’s biggest economy suffered a 4%-5% drop in gross domestic product. China grew by about 2%. Continue reading...

The majority of more than 140,000 tips sent to the FBI about the attack have come from friends and family of those involved

The three-term senator’s reputation as a right-leaning Democrat means his oppositon or support can slow down legislation or open a path to it becoming lawThere’s a meme going around concerning Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia. It shows a futuristic city of gleaming skyscrapers and flying cars and an accompanying caption that reads something like: “West Virginia after Manchin has used all the leverage he has in the next Congress.”Related: Josh Hawley fanned the flames for diehard Trump voters. Will his gambit pay off? Continue reading...

On one side is the Trumpist base, on the other establishment conservatives – and experts are frankly not sure what lies aheadThe presidency of Donald Trump may be ending with both a bang and a whimper: one insurrection, two impeachments and no more characters on Twitter. But the legacy he leaves to American politics – and especially the Republican party – will not end neatly with the inauguration of his successor.Related: Trump saw the economy was his ticket to a second term – then Covid struck Continue reading...

The born-and-raised New Yorker seems ready to leave the city in which he made his name – and few will mourn his departureWhen Donald Trump leaves the White House on 20 January, reports indicate that he will not return to his home town of New York City but rather, reside at his Mar-a-Lago home in south Florida. Indeed, Trump formally changed his residency to the so-called Sunshine State in fall 2019.Related: Washington and state capitols brace for violence from armed Trump supporters Continue reading...

Off-duty officers, firefighters and corrections workers from agencies around the US took part in the Capitol riotThe alleged complicity of some police officers in the attack on the US Capitol has led to fresh questions about how law enforcement and other public agencies around the US have approached a surging far-right street protest movement during the life of the Trump administration. Continue reading...

Fashion brand reported to be dressing the president-elect, a move that would subtly signal a distancing from the Trump eraJoe Biden is being dressed by the fashion brand Ralph Lauren for his presidential inauguration on 20 January, according to Women’s Wear Daily, in a move that has prompted a round of speculation about his meaning and motives at a time of crisis in the US.Related: Ashley Biden on athleisure and why her father would make a fantastic president Continue reading...

Angered by maskless soirees and flouting of local rules, some Floridians will not welcome their Mar-a-Lago neighbour

The president ‘shut down’ the internet as he won the election. You don’t stay in power for 40 years by taking risksDays before Uganda’s presidential election – voting took place last Thursday – the incumbent, 76-year-old Yoweri Museveni, ordered that social media be switched off. People found their way around that by using virtual private networks, bouncing back online with memes mocking the idea that anyone would think it possible to bar people from being on social media in this day and age. Then, the evening before elections, the internet in Uganda was totally shut down.The election that saw Museveni win with nearly 60% was shrouded in darkness. It is strange to move from social media’s infinite flow of information to nothingness. Instead, just silence apart from the news the government wants you to hear. Media houses that dare not to toe the government’s straight line risk being stopped from covering elections or even shut down. Continue reading...

The US is riven with stark inequalities, rising white supremacist terror and large numbers who believe the election was stolen. The new administration faces a truly daunting challengeIn another age, Joe Biden’s promise to heal the nation might have been regarded as the kind of blandishment expected from any new leader taking power after the divisive cut and thrust of an American election.Related: Biden must find words for a wounded nation in inauguration like no other Continue reading...

In El Salvador, violence and murders fell after rivals agreed a non-compete deal, but extortion rates soaredEconomists generally like competition. It helps consumers get a better price if sellers know they could go elsewhere. But economists aren’t usually talking about armed violence or organised crime. So those of you not regularly involved with the mafia should have lots to learn from new research examining competition between El Salvador’s criminal gangs.El Salvador is a dangerous place. The murder rate was 103 per 100,000 people in 2015, in large part due to two competing gangs: Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18. But in 2016 they agreed a non-aggression pact, ending competition for territory. As a result, murders fell by almost half. Beyond the violence, the other big cost of gangs is economic, via the extortion payments they rely on, estimated at more than $700m (£515m) a year, or 3% of El Salvador’s GDP. Continue reading...

Peter Turchin, an entomologist-turned-historian, offers insight into the battle between elitesPeter Turchin is not the first entomologist to cross over to human behaviour: during a lecture in 1975, famed biologist E O Wilson had a pitcher of water tipped on him for extrapolating the study of ant social structures to our own.It’s a reaction that Turchin, an expert-on-pine-beetles-turned-data-scientist and modeller, has yet to experience. But his studies at the University of Connecticut into how human societies evolve have lately gained wider currency; in particular, an analysis that interprets worsening social unrest in the 2020s as an intra-elite battle for wealth and status. Continue reading...

This Republican party traffics in conspiracy and thuggery – the new president must be bold on healthcare, equality and more

A new biography suggests Joe Biden has picked a VP who will not shrink from tackling the toxic legacy of Trump

Implications for public record and legal proceedings after administration seized or destroyed papers, notes and other informationThe public will not see Donald Trump’s White House records for years, but there is growing concern the collection will never be complete – leaving a hole in the history of one of America’s most tumultuous presidencies.Trump has been cavalier about the law requiring that records be preserved. He has a habit of ripping up documents before tossing them out, forcing White House workers to spend hours taping them back together. Continue reading...

Jenna Ryan, a Texas real estate broker who took a private jet to Washington to join the attack on the US Capitol, pleaded with Donald Trump to pardon her after she was arrested by federal authorities. Ryan said she thought she was following what her president ‘asked us to do’ and that she had been 'displaying my patriotism' in travelling to Washington DC, where she filmed herself entering the Capitol building. 'I'm facing a prison sentence,' she told CBS 11 News at her home in Dallas. 'I do not deserve that'

Complaint could stop top NRA executives from discharging a substantial portion of the organisation’s debts

The F-word is one we are rightly wary of using, but how else to describe the disgraced president?Assurances that “fascism couldn’t happen here” are always appealing in Anglo-Saxon countries that think themselves immune because “it” never did. The US and UK did not experience rule by Nazism or communism in the 20th century and the ignorance our lucky histories fostered has weakened our defences in the 21st.Even after all that has happened in Washington, apparently serious voices insist we cannot compare Donald Trump to any variety of fascist. Conservatives habitually say that liberals call everything they don’t like fascist, forgetting that the moral of Aesop’s fable was that the boy who cried wolf was right in the end. They used to chortle about “Trump derangement syndrome” that spreads in stages like cancer until sufferers “cannot distinguish fantasy from reality”. They have bitten their tongues now that the reality of Trumpism is deranged mobs trying to overthrow democracy. Continue reading...

Millennials, meanwhile, will continue to struggle as they to wait for their liberating jabsThe “wrong kind” of older, or middle-aged, people are supposed to be receiving the Covid vaccine by the end of March. Not the truly elderly, the vulnerable shielders, but the other lot – taking us to the 32m total who are fiftysomething and above. All those boomers/generation Xers, unleashed back on to streets and into shops, waving their Covid-secure passes, perhaps to book themselves some well-earned YOLO hols.Meanwhile, younger generations may feel left behind in more ways than one. And there’s the looming problem: the vaccine is the great liberator, but it rather depends what you’re getting liberated into, especially if you’ve no money or prospects. Could it give youth yet another reason to resent their elders for their perceived easier ride? Continue reading...