US news | The Guardian

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...

Analysis: the west has been hampered by the fatal ambiguity of Trump’s US policy towards Moscow

That siege was just one battle in a decades-long assault on democracy, funded by billionaire donors and corporate interests

Despite the headlines we have seen from Rolling Stone, the BBC and others, the producer was, first and foremost, a killer. We should hold him to the same standards as everyone elseIsn’t it tragic when a bit of murder mars a man’s career? Rolling Stone certainly seems to think so. “Phil Spector, the famed ‘wall of sound’ producer and architect of some of pop music’s most enduring songs, whose legacy was marred by a murder conviction, has died …” it tweeted on Sunday.As news of Spector’s death from coronavirus complications broke, Rolling Stone wasn’t alone in seemingly prioritising the producer’s legacy over the life of Lana Clarkson, the 40-year-old woman he was convicted of shooting dead in 2003. The BBC, for example, initially tweeted: “Talented but flawed Producer Phil Spector dies aged 81.” (It then deleted the tweet.) Flawed? Are you kidding? Being messy is a flaw; being a murderer is something else entirely. Continue reading...

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...