Two men killed in Hegseth-led attack on boat suspected of carrying drugs in international waters, Pentagon saysThe US military announced the killing of another two men in a lethal kinetic strike"on a boat suspected of carrying drugs in international waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Monday.The Pentagon released video of the strike, which brings the total number of known naval attacks on suspected drug smugglers to 30 since September, and raises the death toll to at least 107 people, according to US military figures. Continue reading...
Israeli prime minister's Florida trip included announcement that he will award Trump with Israel prize - key US politics stories from 29 December at a glanceDonald Trump has warned that Hamas will have hell to pay" if it fails to disarm while offering full-throated support to Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting with the Israeli prime minister in Florida.In a bravura display of mutual admiration, Netanyahu announced that the US president would be awarded the Israel prize, the country's highest civilian honour, which since its inception in the 1950s has never before been given to a non-Israeli person. Continue reading...
Grammy-winning artist joins husband Jay-Z and artists like Taylor Swift following the success of Cowboy Carter tourBeyonce is now a billionaire, according to a report from Forbes - becoming the fifth musician to obtain the status.The Grammy award-winning artist, 44, has joined the world's wealthiest people following the success of her Cowboy Carter tour, which grossed more than $400m in ticket sales, and an additional $50m in merchandise sales. Her previous Renaissance world tour brought in about more than $579m. Continue reading...
by David Smith in Washington and Jason Burke in Jerus on (#72F0B)
Israeli prime minister said he will award Trump with Israel prize, highest civilian honor, while visiting Mar-a-LagoDonald Trump has warned that Hamas will have hell to pay" if it fails to disarm while offering full-throated support to Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting with the Israeli prime minister in Florida.In a bravura display of mutual admiration, Netanyahu announced that the US president would be awarded the Israel prize, the country's highest civilian honour, which since its inception in the 1950s has never before been given to a non-Israeli person. Continue reading...
Trump also repeated false claims about renovation costs for the Fed headquarters during a Monday press conferenceDonald Trump launched another attack against Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell on Monday, calling the central banker a fool" and once again suggesting he would like to fire him.Trump launched his latest attack on Powell during a press conference with Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, repeating false claims about the cost of a renovation of the central bank headquarters, and told reporters that he might file a lawsuit against Powell for gross incompetence". Continue reading...
by Lucy Campbell, Kirsty McEwen and Frances Mao on (#72EZ3)
This live blog is now closed.Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to tell Donald Trump on Monday that Hamas must return the remains of the last Israeli hostage left in Gaza before the next stages of the stalled ceasefire can be implemented, Israeli officials and analysts say.The trip comes amid a new push by officials in Washington to force concessions from Israel to allow progress towards a second stage of the ceasefire in Gaza, which began in October after two years of devastating war.He feels he has a number of cards to play yet and the remains of Gvili is the easiest one to play now but there are others.Netanyahu knows exactly what he wants for Christmas - more of the same. Israeli troops stay in 51% of Gaza, periodically striking Hamas ... without the shadow of withdrawal looming over him. None of this requires a denunciation of the [Trump] plan itself and Trump can very easily justify Israel's extended stay on Hamas's unwillingness to disarm. Continue reading...
Kenneth Kirsch, 65, and Michael Greenberg, 71, died after the Sunday middair collision near Hammonton airportTwo men who died after their helicopters collided midair in New Jersey over the weekend both earned their private pilot licenses over a decade ago and would often have breakfast together at a cafe near the crash site before taking to the skies from the local airport.Authorities on Monday identified the two New Jersey men as Kenneth Kirsch, 65, and Michael Greenberg, 71. Witnesses told police that the two helicopters they were piloting Sunday were flying close together just before they crashed in a farm field near the airport in Hammonton, about 35 miles (56km) south-east of Philadelphia. Continue reading...
Greene gives lengthy interview with New York Times days before stepping down as congresswoman for GeorgiaMarjorie Taylor Greene, now just days away from stepping down as a congresswoman for Georgia, has said in her latest mea culpa interview that she was just so naive" for believing that Donald Trump was a man of the people.In a lengthy interview with the New York Times that examines her break with the president after years of devotion, Greene explained that a series of minor ruptures with the president culminated in a total breach after conservative influencer Charlie Kirk was killed in September. Continue reading...
Gaza not covered in announcement and will be handled on separate track, says US state department officialThe United States on Monday pledged $2bn in assistance to tens of millions of people facing hunger and disease in more than a dozen countries next year, part of what it said was a new mechanism for the delivery of life-saving assistance following major foreign aid cuts by the Trump administration.The US slashed its aid spending this year, and leading western donors such as Germany also pared back assistance as they pivoted to increased defense spending, triggering a severe funding crunch for the UN. The billions of dollars in assistance pledged by Washington on Monday will be overseen by the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs, the state department said, under what it described as new model of assistance agreed with the UN that aims to make aid funding and delivery more efficient and increase accountability for the spending of funds. Continue reading...
Erica Fox's remains were found after nearly weeklong search, marking a rare shark-related fatality for CaliforniaCalifornia firefighters have found the body of a California triathlete on a beach north-west of Santa Cruz, almost a week after she went missing amid speculation that she was killed by a shark.The remains of Erica Fox were found on Saturday, her father and husband confirmed to local news outlets. Fox, 55, was part of a group of more than a dozen swimmers who left from Lovers Point near Monterey, California, on 21 December, but she never returned to shore. A witness driving by the area reported to authorities that they saw a shark with what appeared to be a human body in its mouth emerge from the water, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Continue reading...
Kash Patel claims $250m Covid aid fraud scheme is tip of iceberg' and blames state's Somali populationThe FBI has deployed additional personnel and investigative resources to Minnesota to dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs", director Kash Patel said on social media on Sunday.Amid the Trump administrations attacks on the state and its Somali immigration population, the FBI director said the agency had already dismantled a $250m fraud scheme that stole federal food aid meant for vulnerable children during the Covid pandemic in a case that led to 78 indictments and 57 convictions. Continue reading...
Trump alleged that US forces hit very hard' in what would mark his team's first land strike on Venezuela if confirmedDonald Trump has claimed that US forces struck a big facility" in Venezuela last week - but the president did not specify what it was, or where, and the White House has not commented further.We just knocked out - I don't know if you read or you saw - they have a big plant, or a big facility, where the ships come from. Two nights ago, we knocked that out. So we hit them very hard," Trump told Republican donor and New York supermarket owner John Catsimatidis on Friday. Continue reading...
Toxic chemicals like lead and asbestos are likely in dirt used to backfill demolished structures in city, experts sayHundreds of Detroit home demolition sites were potentially backfilled with toxic construction debris from a demolished shopping mall and other sources, creating an unfolding public health threat in the city's neighborhoods.Detroit, the nation's lowest income big city, is in the US industrial heartland. It was left with tens of thousands of empty structures as industrial plants closed and people left the city in past decades - Detroit's population dropped from nearly 2 million people around 1950 to fewer than 700,000 today. The city's demolition program is widely considered the largest ever in the US. Continue reading...
Las Vegas shut down their two stars, angered their leader and were humiliated by the Giants. Whether it's strategy or dysfunction, the result looks the sameThe Las Vegas Raiders made waves this week by putting its two, and only, stars on injured reserve ahead of the final two games that will decide the 2026 NFL draft order. Tight end Brock Bowers and edge rusher Maxx Crosby were shut down from a consequential battle for the top draft pick against the Giants and a Week 18 game against Kansas City due to nagging knee injuries. Bowers had scored four touchdowns over the past five weeks for a team that doesn't score many points. Crosby is a human wrecking ball who has amassed 28 tackles for loss this season. He's the player that causes opponents to lose sleep. Both Bowers and Crosby were recently named to the Pro Bowl despite their nagging injuries. Bowers stepped away quietly. Crosby did not.A fuming Crosby left the Raiders facility Friday. The next day he sent a message to the organization by posting videos of himself playing basketball with his young daughter. He did not appear particularly injured. Continue reading...
Filipinos make up a large percentage of the healthcare workforce, which includes undocumented peopleIn the Philippines, she spent three years providing end-of-life care for a family's grandmother. When the grandmother died, family members told the healthcare worker to arrange her own way to the United States, where they operated home healthcare facilities.In California, they promised, she would have a place to stay and a stable job. They would look after her just as she had cared for their grandmother. Continue reading...
Effects on inflation and employment have not been as bad as feared - but could still materialise with full force in 2026When Donald Trump took office last January, most economists feared what would happen if he raised tariffs. The expectation was that, as the new duties drove up prices of consumer goods and inputs - affecting households and companies, respectively - surging inflation and falling real incomes would follow. This would be a supply shock, so the US Federal Reserve could not do much to counteract it.Trump did raise tariffs to shocking levels, violating international agreements and blowing up the Republican party's oft-professed commitment to free trade. In terms of severity and disruptiveness, Trump's 2025 tariffs went far beyond the already harmful tariffs of his first term, and even beyond the infamous Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930. According to the Yale Budget Lab, the average effective tariff on US imports rose from 2% to 18%, the highest level since the 1930s, this year. Add to that the uncertainty caused by frequent and inexplicable policy changes, and large adverse effects on inflation, employment and real incomes appeared all but inevitable. Continue reading...
by Jason Berry of the National Catholic Reporter in N on (#72EZ6)
Father Patrick McCarthy was brutally murdered in 1988. The two half-brothers in prison for the killing say he sexually abused them for yearsMore than 600 alleged survivors of clergy abuse have claims against the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans in its long bankruptcy. Attorneys Frank Lamothe III and Kristi Schubert have 75 clients. Twenty-three of them are prisoners, and most of them allege abuse at two long-shuttered orphanages, Hope Haven and Madonna Manor.Two of these men had a different path to prison. Continue reading...
The challenges of drug and alcohol addiction are familiar, but violence against others is highly unusual, parents sayWhen news broke that Rob and Michele Singer Reiner had been killed and a possible suspect was their son, Nick Reiner, who had struggled with addiction and mental health issues, it brought addiction back into the public spotlight. But parents who have been affected by their children's addiction fear the conversation will focus on the exceedingly rare act of violence instead of the more widespread risks.Ron Grover and his wife, Darlene, have been glued to the news. They only knew the Reiners by their work, but they feel a connection: Grover's son also became addicted at 15 to opioids and then heroin, much like Nick Reiner, and he was in and out of rehab and jail for years. But after seven excruciating years, Grover's son got sober in July 2010. Continue reading...
The progressive party is now active in 18 states and much of its expansion happened in the past five yearsThe time has come" for the Working Families party, the progressive third party's national director said after a year of big wins and a growing hunger among voters for a home outside the two major political parties.For 26 years, we've been building this argument," Maurice Mitchell said. And the argument has met the moment." Continue reading...
I'd like to believe that the horrific darkness of this past year is a necessary prelude to a brighter and saner futureAbout a year ago, at the start of the Trump 2.0 regime, a woman was about to pass me on the sidewalk and then stopped, turned toward me and almost shouted: It's a fucking nightmare!"It has been a fucking nightmare". Continue reading...
Former House speaker on ABC News also said congressional Republicans have ceded almost all their power to TrumpDemocrats will retake the US House's majority in the 2026 midterm elections, the chamber's former speaker Nancy Pelosi has confidently predicted - and she hopes her party colleagues then seize back the congressional power that Republicans have all but ceded to Donald Trump.Asked Sunday on ABC News's This Week if she had any doubts over whether Democratic New York congressman Hakeem Jeffries would hold the speaker's gavel after the elections midway through Trump's second presidency, Pelosi said: None." Continue reading...
Some extraordinary golf was often overshadowed by the Donald, colourful fans, crazy MCs and tempers flaringI was out by the practice green late afternoon on the Monday of the Ryder Cup, and so was Bryson DeChambeau. He was on his own, signing autographs for the handful of people on the other side of the railings, and there was this one woman leaning over towards him, a bottle blonde, late middle-aged, in a tight white dress. She was only a couple of feet away from him but she was screaming in his ear like she was trying to reach someone across the far side of the golf course. We love you Bryson! Bryson! We love you! We love you for everything you've done for the Donald! We love you for everything you've done for the Donald!"It was a long, strange week, and when I think back on it now the golf is entirely overwhelmed by technicolour memories of the weird scenes around the grounds of Bethpage Black and in the surrounding town of Farmingdale. I wish I could say that the things I remember best are that approach shot Scottie Scheffler hit from 180 yards at the 10th, or the 40ft putt Rory McIlroy made on the 6th, or Jon Rahm's chip-in from the rough at the 8th. But they're not. Continue reading...
Donald Trump has said he hopes a deal to end the war in Ukraine is 'closer than ever' after a two-hour meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Florida. The US and Ukrainian presidents indicated at a joint press conference there was near agreement on a US-Ukraine security deal but Trump said a few 'thorny issues' around territory had to be resolved. Trump spoke with Russian president Vladimir Putin earlier on Sunday
Donald Trump says one or two tough' issues could lead to negotiations breaking down - key US politics stories from 28 December at a glancePresident Donald Trump says Ukraine and Russia are closer than ever before" to a peace deal, but he acknowledged negotiations could still break down and leave the war dragging on for years.After a two-hour meeting in Florida with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump conceded one or two tough" issues - over territory and how the war might end - still needed to be resolved, an indication of progress made but no breakthrough. Continue reading...
Steelers miss chance to win AFC North in defeat to Cleveland while the Patriots sealed the AFC East after thrashing the Jets and the Bills lost a nail-biter to the EaglesPanthers 0-0 Seahawks 12:51, 1st quarterAfter a Carolina punt they almost pick off Sam Darnold on their first play then the QB throws one in the dirt. On 3 & 10 the crowd get loud but Darnold hits his favourite target Jaxson Smith-Njigba for 13 yards and the 1st down. Phew.A Szmyt 50 yard field goal Continue reading...
Snowy holiday season in the upper midwest and north-east comes as a cold front is expected to hit the southA powerful winter storm was sweeping east from the Plains on Sunday, driven by what meteorologists describe as an intense cyclone that is expected to impact much of the US with a mixture of snow, ice, rain and strong winds.Part of the storm system is getting heavy snow, other parts of the storm along the cold front are getting higher winds and much colder temperatures as the front passes," said Bob Oravec, a lead forecaster at the National Weather Service (NWS) office in College Park, Maryland. They're all related to each other - different parts of the country will be receiving different effects from this storm." Continue reading...
Hammonton police responded to a report of a midair crash that engulfed one helicopter in flames on Sunday morningOne person is dead and another has been left critically injured after two helicopters crashed in a southern New Jersey town.Hammonton police chief Kevin Friel said rescuers responded to a report of an aviation crash at about 11.25am. Video from the scene shows a helicopter spinning rapidly to the ground. Police and fire crews subsequently extinguished flames that engulfed one of the helicopters. Continue reading...
by Victoria Clayton in Inglewood, California, with ph on (#72EFJ)
As the US faces challenges to public school funding, activists warn that more people should pay attention to what's happened in Inglewood, CaliforniaInglewood, California - a few miles east of Los Angeles international airport - is known as the city of champions. The NBA champion Lakers once called Inglewood's Forum - famously dubbed the fabulous Forum" by announcer Chick Hearn - home.By the mid-2000s, with the Lakers gone and another local landmark - nearby Hollywood Park racetrack - closed, the city was close to bankruptcy. Then came a series of deals - often attributed to the leadership of the mayor James Butts - that reinvigorated the city, as a new epicenter of sports and entertainment such as the new spaceship-like SoFi Stadium and the Intuit Dome. When the 2028 Olympics roll around, Inglewood is slated to host many of the events as the world watches. Continue reading...
Cody Adams, 33, charged with manslaughter after neighbor blocks away was killed as he was firing at a drink canA man in Oklahoma is facing a manslaughter charge after he allegedly shot a woman several blocks from his home while firing a gun he got himself for Christmas at an energy drink can in his back yard.As told in court documents reviewed by NBC News, the death of Sandra Phelps at the hands of Cody Wayne Adams illustrates how deadly the consequences can be when those engaging in the US's prevalent gun culture do so unsafely. Adams's back yard was not equipped to stop bullets from leaving the property and striking unsuspecting people in the surrounding area, according to authorities. Continue reading...
Kyle Tharp of the Chaotic Era newsletter talks podcasts, influencers and rage bait - and the Republican formulaDemocrats' soul-searching began even before it was clear Donald Trump would return to the White House. But their devastating losses in the 2024 election threw the party's problems into stark relief, prompting a wave of competing explanations from inflation and the border to Gaza, Joe Biden's age, Kamala Harris's clipped campaign, woke" policies, an anti-incumbent mood or, more likely, some combination of them all.One diagnosis, however, drew striking consensus: Democrats had allowed themselves to be drowned out online by the right's vast - and well-funded - digital army. Continue reading...
Michael Pham fled communist Vietnam by boat as a child. Now, as bishop of San Diego, he is putting faith into actionNearly 50 years ago, a 13-year-old boarded a tiny fishing boat from communist Vietnam with more than a hundred other people. His intended destination: anywhere but there. The boat drifted through the Pacific Ocean for three days and four nights, dodging violent storms, massive waves, even a pirating ship. For the entirety of the journey, the teenager had no food or water.He survived the voyage, later took shelter in a Malaysian refugee camp, and was eventually granted asylum in the United States. Continue reading...
Authorities say they arrested a man, 23, for kidnapping teen in a Houston suburb as she walked her dog on ChristmasA Texas father used the parental controls on his teenage daughter's cell phone to find and help rescue her after she was kidnapped at knifepoint while walking her dog on Christmas, authorities allege.The 15-year-old girl at the center of a case, which quickly gained national attention in the US over the weekend, was reportedly kidnapped in the Houston suburb of Porter. Her parents said she took her dog for a walk and had not returned by the time she was supposed to, according to a statement from the Montgomery county sheriff's office. Continue reading...
The public is looking for relief from terrorism and violence. But Donald Trump's words bolster narratives of foreign crusader' aggressionThe response of Nigerians to the airstrikes against Islamic State (IS) targets in Sokoto state, north-western Nigeria are complicated. The rationale behind them has been widely opposed, but the strikes themselves have been welcomed.The airstrikes were framed as a response to what have been described as genocidal attacks on Christians in the country. But the Nigerian authorities have consistently rejected this narrative, arguing that armed groups in the country do not discriminate based on religion, and that Christians and Muslims largely coexist peacefully. Ironically, it was Trump's redesignation of Nigeria as a country of particular concern" in November that deepened Muslim-Christian tensions. Many northerners, who are predominantly Muslim, blamed southern Nigerians for championing a narrative that ultimately resulted in US sanctions and international stigma.Onyedikachi Madueke is a security analyst at the University of Aberdeen Continue reading...
The California Democrat believes common ground does not only lie in the center - and has the successes to prove itIt was mid-December, and Ro Khanna was watching the calendar. The 19 December deadline for the justice department to comply with a new law the California representative wrote was ticking closer - and his bill was already forcing sealed documents about Jeffrey Epstein's sex-trafficking operation into full view.In the weeks leading up to the deadline, three federal judges in Florida and New York had reversed years of secrecy, releasing grand jury testimony they had previously kept sealed. And when the deadline arrived, while the justice department didn't release everything, thousands of new files, connections and photographs began to complete the picture on what Khanna calls the Epstein class ... rich and powerful men who still have buildings named after them, who still are on corporations, are still in positions of prestige, who engage in heinous conduct. Continue reading...
Released documents detail the assembly line-like process with which Jeffrey Epstein procured underage victimsBy the mid-2000s, Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuse of teen girls was routine. From 2002 to 2005 alone, the late financier victimized dozens" of underage teens by luring them into sex acts for payment under the auspices of massage work, some as young as 14, prosecutors said.Epstein leaned on a coterie of employees and associates - including British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell - to secure a steady supply of minor victims". He also enlisted his victims to recruit other girls under the false pretense of providing massages, prosecutors said. Continue reading...
After months of torture in the Salvadorian prison, the men deported from the US reunite with families in VenezuelaIn preparation for the new year, Andry Hernandez Romero, his best friend and his family are building an ano viejo: a human-sized doll made of scrap wood and rags, styled with old clothes and stuffed with fireworks.On New Year's Eve, when the clock strikes midnight, they'll set it ablaze. Continue reading...
Crisis intervention training helps police recognize substance use disorders and connect people with treatmentOverdoses have been declining nationally since the fall of 2023, and public health experts have been unable to agree as to why. The decline has been uneven across states, and West Virginia, long known as the epicenter of the opioid crisis, is also among the states that have most reduced overdose fatalities, as noted in a recent Guardian analysis.One little explored factor is the increased adoption of crisis intervention training (CIT) for law enforcement. Early research that compares jurisdictions that have CIT programs to those that do not show that this intervention is associated with a decline in overdose fatalities. Continue reading...
Take this hopeful thought into 2026: the tyrants we endure always falter, and their seismic' upheavals are usually false dawnsFor those who lived through the cold war, the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, was an unforgettable moment. The sinister watch towers with their searchlights and armed guards, the minefields in no-man's land, the notorious Checkpoint Charlie border post, and the Wall itself - all were swept aside in an extraordinary, popular lunge for freedom.Less than a month later, on 3 December 1989, at a summit in Malta, US president George HW Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev declared that after more than 40 years, the cold war was over. All agreed it was a historic turning point.Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator Continue reading...
Thomas Massie, who co-authored Epstein files act, says president attacked him for keeping commitment to help victims'. Key US politics stories from 27 December at a glanceThe Kentucky Republican congressman Thomas Massie - who was singled out by Donald Trump on Christmas as a lowlife" after co-authoring a law requiring the federal government to release all of its Jeffrey Epstein files - says the president attacked him for keeping a commitment to help victims".The congressman then successfully sought donations for his run in the 2026 midterm elections against an opponent that Trump has endorsed. Continue reading...
More than 17in of rain fell in Ventura county, with trees felled and hundreds of car crashes throughout the regionSouthern Californians are facing an epic clean-up operation after the region's wettest Christmas holiday in recent history turned areas of the state into a panorama of mud and debris.A year ago, record wildfires scorched the dry neighborhoods of Altadena and Pacific Palisades. But now, in what scientists call hydroclimate whiplash", the picture is reversed after an atmospheric river off the Pacific Ocean brought the elemental opposites of wind and rain. Continue reading...
Alondra Sotelo Garcia took over her father's business when he was deported to Mexico after three decades in the USAlondra Sotelo Garcia saw the same headlines as everybody else. Masked immigration agents making increasingly bold arrests. Community members disappearing without warning.As the middle child of immigrants, she feared for her parents. She started tracking her father's iPhone location, put in her two weeks' notice at her job, and told her father she wanted to start working at the vineyard management company he founded after decades in the wine industry. Continue reading...
Using the presidency as a branding opportunity, Trump is slapping his name on buildings, monuments and projectsIn 2011, Donald Trump published a book with the self-help guru Robert Kiyosaki titled Midas Touch. It's a typical self-empowerment manual in which the pair expound on the secrets of entrepreneurial success while drawing on their personal experiences. At one point, they write: Building a brand may be more important than building a business."That was certainly Trump's approach to business: he was the New York real estate tycoon who turned his fame into a brand that symbolized luxury and savvy strategy - even if his companies filed for bankruptcy six times. Trump spent decades trying to use his name to turn a profit: he owned an airline and a university, and slapped his moniker on vodka, steaks, neckties, board games and even bottled water. Leveraging the fame he gained from the Apprentice TV show, he expanded to licensing Trump-branded global real estate projects built by other developers. In many of these ventures, Trump collected licensing fees, rather than investing his own money, ensuring that he profited even if the businesses collapsed. Continue reading...
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