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Identikit podcasts featuring men of a certain age and character - think George Osborne and Alastair Campbell - are elbowing out innovationWhen the austerity era began, the Tories were fond of telling their opponents that there was no such thing as a magic money tree". But in September last year, George Osborne thought he'd finally found one. You may have heard him talking about it.Political Currency, presented by Osborne and his former Labour opponent Ed Balls, was a cheerfully transparent attempt to take a piece of an exciting new trend in the political podcast market: the ravenous appetite of centrist commuting blokes of a certain age to listen to - be in the room with - two sensible remainer men who wish they were still in charge. Rory Stewart, whose own podcast with Alastair Campbell, The Rest Is Politics, is a fixture of the Top 5 in Apple's chart, calls it disagreeing agreeably. We can call it dadcasting. (As a 40-year-old father who lives in Hackney and literally works for the Guardian, you will not be too surprised that I enjoy several of them.)Archie Bland is the editor of the Guardian's First Edition newsletter and writes on media, culture and technology Continue reading...

The US born midfielder is the youngest-ever player to start a UWCL game. She talks about moving to the Netherlands and dealing with the pressure of being a school-age professionalWhen Lily Yohannes made her Women's Champions League debut she also became, at the age of 16, the youngest player ever to start a group stage match in the competition. She announced her entrance on the big stage by neatly threading a ball through Paris Saint-Germain's backline in the build-up to the first goal of a momentous Ajax victory.I was really excited. Playing in the Champions League was my dream as a kid," Yohannes says. It was an experience that I can't put into words." Continue reading...

This systematic and deliberate erasure of communities and culture must be recognised as a specific category of violence

In liberal democracies, populists are setting two core principles at odds - and putting freedom and human rights in dangerThe will of the people expressed in free elections and the rule of law upheld by independent courts are two of the pillars of a liberal democracy, or so we were taught at school. Yet these two core principles keep colliding in increasingly polarised societies from Washington to London, Paris to Berlin and Warsaw to Jerusalem, with populist politicians demanding that the will of the people" override the constitution, treaties or the separation of powers.It is vital for the long-term health of democracy that the judges prevail. If politicians are able to break or bend fundamental legal principles to suit the mood of the moment, the future of freedom and human rights is in danger.Paul Taylor is a senior fellow of the Friends of Europe thinktankDo 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...

Lloyd Austin says president will not tolerate attacks on US forces', but Qatar warns that reprisal attacks could undermine Israel hostage talks

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby says the US is not looking for a war with Iran or seeking to escalate tensions in the Middle East. The statement came as US defense secretary Lloyd Austin has vowed to take all necessary actions" to defend US troops after Iran-backed militants killed three US soldiers and wounded dozens more in a drone attack on a US base in Jordan. The soldiers killed in the attack were identified as specialists Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, and Sergeant William Jerome Rivers, 46

Officials say suspects were arrested in the fatal shootings and believe killings were from a dispute over an illegal marijuana tradeAuthorities say arrests have been made in the investigation surrounding six bodies found last week at a remote dirt crossroads in the southern California desert.Five suspects have been arrested in the fatal shootings, according to the San Bernardino county sheriff's department. Officials say they think the killings stemmed from a dispute over an illicit marijuana trade. Continue reading...

Former Elle columnist tells Good Morning America: If it'll cause him pain for me to give money to certain things, that's my intent'E Jean Carroll intends to spend the $83m awarded to her in her defamation trial against Donald Trump on something the former president hates", she revealed just days after the judgment.On Friday, the jury in Carroll's case decided that she should receive $18.3m in compensatory damages and $65m punitive retribution in the case pitting her against Trump. Of the $18.3m, Trump was told to pay Carroll $11m to fund a reputational repair campaign and $7.3m for the emotional harm caused by statements he made against her in 2019. Continue reading...

The Kiowa tribe member's debut House Made of Dawn is credited as the starting point for contemporary Native American literatureN Scott Momaday, a Pulitzer prize-winning storyteller, poet, educator and folklorist whose debut novel House Made of Dawn is widely credited as the starting point for contemporary Native American literature, has died. He was 89.Momaday died Wednesday at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, publisher HarperCollins announced. He had been in failing health.Something like a leaf lies here within me; / it wavers almost not at all, / and there is no light to see it by / that it withers upon a black field. / If it could ascend the thousand years into my mouth, / I would make a word of it at last, / and I would speak it into the silence of the sun. Continue reading...

Tehran-linked drug dealer, a Canadian Hells Angel member and another man charged with plotting Iranian defector's killing in the USThe US has charged an Iranian drug trafficker with intelligence ties to Tehran, a Canadian Hells Angel and another Canadian man in an alleged plot to carry out assassinations in the US.According to statements by the justice department and the Treasury on Monday, the alleged drug smuggler Naji Sharifi Zindashti, ran an assassination ring on behalf of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (Mois). Continue reading...

Police responded to fake calls targeting Republican presidential candidate, along with several other high-profile politiciansNikki Haley was targeted by a second swatting" attempt on New Year's Day - just two days after authorities responded to a similar call regarding Haley, according to Reuters.This time, the call was made by someone who said Haley's daughter had been shot and was lying in a pool of blood. The caller, who told police her name was Rose, also said she was on the phone with Haley, who was threatening to shoot herself. Continue reading...

Supreme court rules lower court must hear case arguing decades-old law barring coverage for procedure should be overturnedPennsylvania's supreme court ruled on Monday that a lower court must hear a case challenging a ban on the use of government-funded healthcare to pay for abortions, raising hopes among reproductive rights advocates for an expansion of abortion access in the state and the establishment of a constitutional right to the procedure.The case, brought by abortion providers in the state, challenged a decades-old state law barring Medicaid from covering abortions, arguing that it should be overturned because it violates the broader rights guaranteed by the state constitution's Equal Rights Amendment. Continue reading...

Former House speaker called on the FBI to investigate protesters pressuring the Biden administration to support a ceasefire in GazaSupporters of a ceasefire in Gaza condemned comments made by the former House speaker Nancy Pelosi as downright authoritarian" after the California Democrat suggested, without offering evidence, that pro-Palestinian activists may have ties to Russia and president Vladimir Putin.In an interview on Sunday, Pelosi called on the FBI to investigate protesters involved in the progressive movement pressuring the Biden administration to support a ceasefire in Gaza. Continue reading...

Murdaugh, 55, convicted of murder of wife and son in 2021, had said county clerk swayed jurors before they delivered guilty verdictA South Carolina judge on Monday denied Alex Murdaugh's bid for a new trial after his defense team accused a court clerk of tampering with a jury.Judge Jean Toal said she wasn't sure if Becky Hill, the Colleton county clerk, was telling the truth that she never spoke to jurors about the case, saying she was attracted by the siren call of celebrity". Continue reading...

Tributes poured in as Pentagon named Georgia reservists Kennedy Sanders, William Jerome Rivers and Breonna Alexsondria Moffett as victims of attack

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Tony Romeo believes sonar images may well be wreckage of plane flown by US aviator that disappeared over Pacific in 1937A modern-day ocean explorer has claimed to have possibly solved one of the great mysteries of modern aviation by publishing sonar images which he claims may show the wreckage of the the airplane flown by Amelia Earhart at the bottom of the Pacific.Earhart's plane disappeared over the Pacific in 1937 as she sought to become the first woman to fly around the world. Ever since then, mystery has surrounded the American aviator's fate amid intense speculation as to what happened to her. Continue reading...

Karl Jordan Jr, 40, and Ronald Washington, 59, are accused of murdering the musician over a drug deal in 2002Jury selection began Monday in the trial of the two men charged in the 2002 fatal shooting of Jam Master Jay, a member of the legendary hip-hop group Run-DMC.The defendants, Karl Jordan Jr, 40, and Ronald Washington, 59, are accused of murdering the musician over a drug deal. Opening statements were expected in a state courthouse in Brooklyn after the jury is selected. Continue reading...

Highly contagious virus has particularly ravaged California's Sonoma county, know as the Egg Basket of the World'Last month, Mike Weber got the news every poultry farmer fears: his chickens tested positive for avian flu.Following government rules, Weber's company, Sunrise Farms, had to slaughter its entire flock of egg-laying hens - 550,000 birds - to prevent the disease from infecting other farms in Sonoma county north of San Francisco. Continue reading...

The deaths of three US soldiers in Jordan this weekend will prompt retaliation. But what then?Earlier this month, Joe Biden was asked if the airstrikeson Yemen were working. Are they stoppingthe Houthis? No," replied the president. Arethey going to continue? Yes."There is an obvious logic to the US approach. If it - and its allies - do not show the Houthis and their Iranian backers that there is a price for attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, then there is no reason for its adversaries to halt. That is even more clearly the case when it comes to the attack that killed three US soldiers and injured dozens more in Jordan on Sunday. It has been claimed by Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose coalition of Iranian-backed militias; though Tehran denied involvement, Mr Biden blamed Iran-backed" groups and vowed to respond. Continue reading...

Monica Laso survives ordeal on Heavenly gondola in California ski resort, where temperatures fell to 23F (-5C)A snowboarder visiting a California resort survived freezing temperatures after accidentally getting stuck in a gondola overnight.Monica Laso's story, as she told it to NBC affiliate KCRA, vividly illustrated how suddenly and unexpectedly leisure trips can turn into near-death experiences. Continue reading...

Shane Pryor, 17, awaiting trial over October 2020 homicide, escaped from Children's hospital of Philadelphia last weekA teenager awaiting trial in a homicide case who escaped outside a Philadelphia hospital last week was captured on Sunday - with a handcuff key in one of his pockets, police said.The key that Shane Pryor had on him at the time of his arrest is used to get out of restraints. But there is no evidence he ever used it, said Robert Clark of the US Marshals Service, who caught Pryor, according to the local news outlet WTXF. Continue reading...

War memorials might be set in stone, but the debate to bring back conscription only serves those who shamelessly peddle the sacrifice of others as their ownEvery morning, unless someone's vomited in my path, I walk between two war memorials. One is extremely fancy and timeless: a clocktower of Portland stone, the perfectly typeset names of local residents killed between 1914 and 1919. I sometimes look reflexively for a Williams, then remember that there are always a bunch of us, none related to me: the only notable person in my lineage to die in the first world war was my grandmother's true love, in grief for whom she married my grandfather, who was a notorious prick.On the other side is a garish, funny-looking building, squat and round, with a mural in memory of Violette Szabo, the British-French spy who died at the hands of the Nazis in Ravensbruck in 1945, aged 23. There's a painting of Roger Moore, looking nothing like himself, round the other side. The theme isn't so much war heroes" as people who lived round here and were good", and the stark contrast in dignity with its neighbouring memorial is in direct inverse proportion to the dignity of the memorialised. Szabo fought fascism of her own volition and, until the final three weeks of her life, was the resistance movement's constant source of buoyancy and hope. By contrast, most of the Williams upon Wilsons upon Smiths upon Crumplers were called up to fight a war that, meh, let's just say if the political-military-industrial complex that started it had been contractually required to go over the top first, they might have found another way to resolve their differences. Continue reading...

Kevin Howell, former town manager for community of 2,870 people, was crossing pond with his son when they fell inA small town in Maine is grieving after one of its top government officials died while lifting his son out of an icy pond into which they both fell.Kevin Howell's colleagues and neighbors have since hailed the late father as a hero whose ultimate sacrifice saved the life of his four-year-old boy, Sawyer. Continue reading...

The Liverpool and Barcelona bosses announced they will walk away from the their clubs at the of the season citing exhaustion

Gambling giant hails America as its natural home' and proposes primary listing in New York as US sports betting business surgesOne of the world's largest gambling companies listed in New York on Monday, describing the stock exchange as its natural home" amid the US's online sports betting boom.Flutter Entertainment, owner of FanDuel, promptly announced that it will go a step further - and switch its primary listing from London, where it is right now, to New York - as soon as practicable". Continue reading...

Officials give details of how Kaitlin Armstrong, convicted over murder of Anna Wilson in 2022, was arrested in Costa RicaUS authorities have revealed that they captured the convicted killer of professional cyclist Anna Moriah Wilson with a clever ruse: by placing an advertisement on social media purportedly seeking a yoga instructor, which in turn lured the fugitive out of hiding.Investigators with the US Marshals Service came up with the ad idea while on an international manhunt for Kaitlin Armstrong, a former yoga instructor who had fled to Costa Rica after killing the 25-year-old Wilson in May 2022 in Austin, Texas, according to newly released information on the case reported Sunday by the CBS News show 48 Hours. Continue reading...

The US president is under immense pressure to hit back at Iranian-backed militias, but that would be a disasterThe unprecedented Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel on 7 October set a fuse burning under the entire Middle East. Now the fearsome, figurative mega-bomb to which that fuse is ultimately attached - direct conflict between the US and Iran - may be about to explode, with devastating consequences.With every day that Israel's illegal bombardment of Gaza continues, with every new estimate of the tens of thousands of Palestinian dead, a huge detonation edges closer. From the Red Sea to Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, an escalating, four-month spiral of violence, principally involving pro-Palestinian, Iran-backed militias, has been inexorably building.Simon Tisdall is a foreign affairs commentator. He has been a foreign leader writer, foreign editor and US editor for the Guardian Continue reading...

Luxury vehicles, production cuts and soaring insurance prices have sent the cost of US car ownership out of controlAt the start of the pandemic, Ceola Luna, a 45-year-old Lyft driver in Los Angeles, bought a 2005 Saturn Vue crossover, after her new Dodge Caravan (a minivan) was wrecked in a crash. The Vue wasn't nearly as nice, but it was affordable at $4,000 - including rust, engine issues, and a dashboard full of warning lights.With no other income to support herself and three children, driving was an economic lifeline for Luna. But much of what she made ended up going to car mechanics as the small SUV kept breaking down. Then last year, Lyft informed Luna that her Vue had gotten too old for the platform, leaving her jobless. So she scrambled to find a new gig as a care worker for autistic children, and then the car failed again. To save up for another mechanic appointment, Luna has been taking the bus to her clients - sapping her earnings with hours of unpaid commute time. Continue reading...

Congresswoman declined to accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza, but said large amounts of Americans' believe it's the right termAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday declined to join critics who accuse Israel of genocide in its actions in Gaza, but said American society should not toss someone out of our public discourse" for doing so.Following the International Court of Justice's order to Israel to work to prevent genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza, the Democratic Representative from New York argued on Meet the Press that large amounts of Americans" think genocide" is the right term for what is happening in Gaza. Continue reading...

Plaintiffs say redrawn Michigan maps have destroyed voting bloc but Democratic colleagues call effort Republican power grab'A lawsuit brought by Black Democrats who partnered with Republican attorneys has undone Michigan's first independently drawn legislative maps, in a development some other Democrats have labeled a GOP power grab".Republicans for decades controlled all or part of the state legislature, and developed districts that a judge in 2019 characterized as a gerrymander of historical proportions". Democrats in 2022 took control of the state government for the first time in over 40 years after a nonpartisan independent redistricting commission implemented more balanced maps. Continue reading...

Detroit Lions had a 24-7 lead at half-time of the NFC Championship Game but ultimately were not able to secure the win. The San Francisco 49ers scored 17 points in an eight-minute span of the third quarter to tie the game and then pulled away in the fourth to beat the Lions 34-31 and reach the Super Bowl. Brock Purdy's 51-yard pass that deflected off a defender's facemask into Aiyuk's hands was a key moment in helping the Niners rally.Reflecting on the game, Lions quarterback Jared Goff admitted: "It's hard to juggle those two emotions of being proud of what we've done this year and dealing with the heartache of the loss." The Lions' emotional head coach Dan Campbell added: "You feel like you get your heart ripped out."

Iran says it had nothing to do with attack near Syrian border, after US president says Washington will respond at a time and in a manner of our choosing'. Plus, psychologists on the appeal of Donald TrumpGood morning.The specter of a direct US-Iranian military conflict drew closer yesterday when Joe Biden announced that three US service personnel had been killed and more than 34 injured in a drone attack on a US service base on the border of Jordan and Syria. Biden blamed Iranian-backed militia based mainly in Iraq for the despicable" attack and vowed revenge.What happened during the attack? Four separate drone strikes had been fired at three US bases, and the US is investigating why the T-22 base's defence mechanism did not repel this one. Many of the American service personnel wounded received traumatic brain injuries. An official said the drone struck near the barracks early in the morning, which would explain the high number of casualties.What's happening in Gaza? The Gaza Strip is facing inevitable famine" because of the decision by western countries to pause funding for the UN's agency for Palestinian affairs after Israeli accusations that 12 of the group's employees took part in the Hamas attack on 7 October. Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, said yesterday that famine was imminent and now inevitable.What did Chemours do after the order? The mandate prompted Chemours to invest $100m on air emission controls, including a thermal oxidizer it bills as world-class" technology allegedly capable of destroying PFAS, which are widely considered to be impossible to eliminate on an industrial scale. Continue reading...

Liberal hawks like Michael McFaul, Max Boot and Anne Applebaum are quick to denounce Russian aggression but ignore Israeli crimesOn 7 January, Anne Applebaum, a historian and a staff writer at the Atlantic, retweeted a video of Russian missiles striking a Ukrainian hospital. Three days later, former US ambassador Michael McFaul, a Stanford professor and contributing columnist at the Washington Post, approvingly tweeted a sign demanding that Vladimir Putin be sent to the Hague. On 15 January, Post columnist Max Boot reminded readers that, according to the United Nations, Russia has killed more than 10,000 civilians in Ukraine.These expressions of outrage were entirely justified. What makes them odd is that more than three months into the war in Gaza, Applebaum has still not acknowledged on X (formerly known as Twitter), where she comments frequently, that Israel has attacked hospitals there. She has not done so despite a Washington Post investigation in December that found that Israel has conducted repeated and widespread airstrikes in proximity to hospitals", thus contributing to a public health catastrophe in which, according to the World Health Organization, only 15 of Gaza's 36 hospitals remain even partly functional. Continue reading...

Abortion is a crucial issue in this election - and a powerful motivator for voters. Yet the president is still tiptoeing around itFor years, the beltway set had a standard line of advice for Democratic candidates: stick to the economy. The idea was that white, male, blue-collar voters - those magical creatures, somewhere out there in the windswept lands of the upper midwest, who always qualify in the pundit imagination as real Americans" - would be turned off by so-called culture-war issues.These guys, we were told, didn't want to hear about civil rights or social equality: they wanted to hear about economic growth. According to this advice, Democrats could be pro-choice, pro-racial justice, or pro-LGBTQ rights, but not openly, avowedly so. They had to play their progressive social positions in a minor key.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Alleged abuse survivors at People of Praise worry Michael Coney may block group's handling of sexual abuse from becoming publicSurvivors of alleged childhood abuse inside the People of Praise, a secretive Christian sect that counts Amy Coney Barrett as a member, are voicing concerns that the supreme court justice's father, who was recently promoted to a new role, may seek to block information about the group's historic handling of sexual abuse becoming public.Barrett, a conservative justice who was appointed by former US president Donald Trump, has never publicly disclosed her participation in the coveted Christian community, which some former members have compared to a cult.For tips on this story please contact: Stephanie.Kirchgaessner@theguardian.com Continue reading...

The wealthy seem to love showing off their houses in all their World of Interiors glory. But they're playing with fireA startling discovery in the Atlantic: apparently not closing your curtains, or not even having any, is a status symbol. Americans who earn more than $150,000 are almost twice as likely to leave windows uncovered as those making $20,000 to $29,000," the article explained, quoting US Department of Energy research, and highlighting examples of the affluent curtainless (Patagonia-rocking and $28-cheeseburgers-served-in-mason-jars-eating herds" is one withering description of the uncurtained demographic).But have you ever bought curtains? They're viciously expensive. In everywhere I have ever lived, if the previous occupants have been kind enough to leave any, we've kept them for precisely this reason, regardless of style. Cerise padded satin? Giant swirls? Yes, and yes, with heartfelt thanks. Surely having and closing curtains, showing off your pricey blackout and thermal linings, is more of a statement?Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Ayat, which has faced hate since 7 October, fed a packed room of people dancing, praying and breaking challah breadOn Friday night in Brooklyn, the kitchen of the Palestinian restaurant Ayat brought out platter after platter of stewed lamb and piles of delicate rice for a line of people wrapped past the grocery next door.Everyone and their bubbie is here," a graduate student said, bumping into friends from leftist, progressive, and queer communities. Continue reading...

My wife once pointed out that my white shirts were grey. Now, the way I dress brings joy - to me and to other peopleA year or so ago, I was about to go out to a drinks party with my wife, when she said: You do realise that shirt's dead, don't you?" I was wearing a clean, ironed number, I pointed out. But my wife explained that death was a syndrome particularly likely to affect white shirts, as she took me to my wardrobe and showed me that all but one of my four white shirts had irreversibly lost their snowy glow. Look at them," she urged. They're grey. You might as well chuck them out."I was, at the time, approaching 60, and my wife's shirt critique felt particularly pertinent in that context. Mindful of the looming milestone, she had been proposing a series of prescriptions for me, including not drinking four glasses of wine every day, doing pilates and resuming learning French (which I had given up in protest against reflexive verbs). While I acknowledged that all those things might benefit me, I pointed out that they would also make me miserable. When it came to the shirts, though, and clothes generally, I saw her point.Andrew Martin's latest book is Metropolitain: An Ode to the Paris Metro Continue reading...

Detroit had a 24-7 lead at half-time of the NFC Championship Game, and still lost. But they should have no regrets about the aggression that took them that farIn the end, Dan Campbell and the Detroit Lions lost the only way they know how: playing aggressively.Detroit held a 24-7 lead over the San Francisco 49ers at half-time of the NFC Championship Game on Sunday. In less than a quarter, that lead had vanished. Even by the Lions' standards, this was a special kind of Lion-ing. Continue reading...

If you thought his first term was bad, brace for a White House that abandons Ukraine, emboldens Putin and encourages the far rightAs Donald Trump romps to the Republican nomination for the next presidential race, there is justified anxiety among the US's European allies about his return to the White House. It is all but certain that 2024 will see a rerun of Joe Biden v Trump. Europe needs to prepare for the possibility of a second Trump presidency.The last one was traumatic for Europe. This was not really for policy reasons. There were policy divisions such as Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. But transatlantic policy tensions are hardly new: there have been times - the US-led war in Iraq in 2003 for example - when the rift was deeper.Nathalie Tocci is a Guardian Europe columnist Continue reading...

Iranian backed militia took credit for attack that injured 34 troops and killed first US soldiers since start of Gaza conflictThe spectre of a direct US-Iranian military conflict drew closer on Sunday when the US president Joe Biden announced three US servicemen had been killed and more than 34 injured following a drone attack on a US service base on the border of Jordan and Syria. Biden blamed Iranian-backed militia mainly based in Iraq for the despicable" attack and vowed revenge.Responsibility for Saturday's attack on Tower 22, a military outpost on the Jordanian Syrian Iraqi borders was claimed by the Iranian backed umbrella group Islamic Resistance, and the US made no attempt to disguise its belief that Iran was ultimately responsible. Continue reading...

NYPD body camera footage shows city council member Yusef Salaam being stopped, renewing light on police transparency billNew York city council member Yusef Salaam, a member of the exonerated group of men known as the Central Park Five, says he was stopped and pulled over by police without being given an explanation.The police stop in New York City on Friday casts a renewed light on a police transparency bill, called the How Many Stops Act, that city council members are set to vote on Tuesday to override mayor Eric Adams' veto. It would require officers to publicly report on all investigative stops, including relatively low-level encounters with civilians. Continue reading...