Agreement ends months of defiance from president's son, who had insisted on testifying publiclyHunter Biden has agreed to appear before House Republicans for a private deposition next month, ending months of defiance from the president's son, who had insisted on testifying publicly.The House oversight committee announced on Thursday that the two parties have come to an agreement for Hunter Biden to sit for a deposition on 28 February. Continue reading...
Mercer board of elections will not vote on disqualifying Arienne Childrey for a law requiring past names on petition paperworkA transgender candidate vying for a seat in the Republican-majority Ohio house was cleared to run on Thursday after her certification had been called into question for omitting her former name on qualifying petitions as required by a little-used state elections law.The Mercer county board of elections chose not to take up a vote on disqualifying Arienne Childrey, a Democrat from Auglaize county who is one of four trans individuals campaigning for the legislature, for not disclosing her previous name on petition paperwork. Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Atlanta, Georgia on (#6HZ5C)
Ronda Stryker and husband William Johnston announce $100m donation to the historically Black women's college in AtlantaA billionaire couple is giving $100m to Atlanta's Spelman College, which the women's school says is the largest-ever single donation to a historically Black college or university (HBCU).The donation was announced on Thursday by Ronda Stryker and her husband William Johnston. She is the billionaire granddaughter of the founder of the medical device maker Stryker Corp and he is the chairman of the money management firm Greenleaf Trust. They live in Michigan. Continue reading...
House approves bill in vote of 314 to 108 after bipartisan deal, sending legislation to Biden's deskThe House passed a short-term spending bill on Thursday, sending the legislation to Joe Biden's desk with just two days left before government funding runs out.The House approved the bill in a vote of 314 to 108, with 107 Republicans and 207 Democrats supporting the proposal. The House speaker, Republican Mike Johnson, took up the bill under suspension of the rules, so he needed two-thirds of the chamber to support the legislation to get it passed. In a potentially worrisome sign for Johnson, 106 Republicans opposed the bill as hard-right members of the conference called for steeper spending cuts. Continue reading...
Fatalities reported in at least nine states and forecasters warn of another round of snow and ice over the weekendPowerful winter storms in numerous US states left multiple people dead, damaged buildings and cut power to tens of thousands, authorities said, as forecasters warned of another round of snow and ice sweeping in for the weekend.Fatalities have been reported in at least nine states this week as one of the deadliest cold snaps of the season took hold from the Pacific north-west to the north-east and as far south as Mississippi. Continue reading...
Elections department in Yuba county says worker found powdery substance inside envelope and contacted policeAn envelope containing fentanyl was mailed to an elections office in northern California, where a worker was exposed to the drug, officials said on Wednesday.The elections department in Yuba county, a rural area about 40 miles from Sacramento, the state capital, received the package on Tuesday. It appeared to come from a verified agency" and did not initially look suspicious, a county spokesperson said. A staff member found a powdery substance inside and contacted law enforcement. Continue reading...
As Alina Habba, Trump's counsel, hammered on about the writer's commentary on social media, questioning took an absurd turnE Jean Carroll's New York defamation trial against Donald Trump resumed on Thursday with the ex-president's lawyer trying to discredit her on cross-examination with a bizarre dialectic about genitals and by intimating that she has loose morals.Did you ever post any tweets that could be considered sexually explicit?" Alina Habba, Trump's lead attorney, asked. Continue reading...
Republican Nick Wilson hurriedly redrafts proposed law to combat familial abuse that would have legalized sex between first cousinsA Kentucky state lawmaker and 2018 winner of the television competition Survivor had to hastily scrap a proposed measure that - if approved - would have unintentionally legalized sex between first cousins.After correcting the gaffe within a day, Nick Wilson - a Republican representative in Kentucky's house of representatives - expressed hope that the misstep would not doom a measure whose purpose is to combat familial abuse. Continue reading...
Comments on Truth Social prompt warning that Trump intends to wield authoritarian powers should he return to the White HouseDonald Trump provoked outrage with an all-capitals 2am post to his Truth Social platform in which he claimed full", total" and complete and total presidential immunity" over acts committed in office.The comments prompted warnings that Trump intends to wield authoritarian powers should he return to the White House and come amid widespread fears that any Trump victory in the 2024 election would pose a dire threat to American democracy. Continue reading...
Scores of media professionals have been killed in the last three months. The truth itself is under threatNo war has killed so many journalists so quickly. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says that at least83 media workers have died since 7October. Seventy-six of them were Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza, while three Lebanese citizens were also killed, and four Israelis were killed by Hamas in the 7October attacks.Even given the total number of deaths in Gaza - at least 24,600, the Palestinian authorities say - the media toll is shocking and disproportionate. On one estimate, it amounts to a tenth of all journalists there compared with a reported one in 100 of the overall population. Reporters Without Borders has warned that journalism is being eradicated in the Gaza Strip". Chillingly, the CPJ describes an apparent pattern of targeting of journalists and their families" - including at least two cases where journalists reported threats from Israeli officials and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officers before family members were killed.Do 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...
No Labels asks justice department to investigate alleged unlawful conspiracy' to stop potential bid against Republicans and DemocratsThe centrist group No Labels has filed a formal complaint with the justice department, asking it to investigate an alleged unlawful conspiracy" to shut down its effort to secure ballot access for the 2024 presidential election.No Labels has not yet decided whether it will run a third party against Joe Biden and the Republican nominee, widely expected to be Donald Trump, in November's presidential election. Critics say the effort would have the unintended consequence of hurting Biden and helping Trump. Continue reading...
Hisham Awartani and Kinnan Abdalhamid say they believe their shooter took aim at them for being Palestinian in NBC interviewTwo Palestinian college students who were shot in Vermont said they suspected they were the targets of a hate crime in their most extensive public remarks since the attack.Hisham Awartani, Tahseen Ali Ahmad and Kinnan Abdalhamid were shot on 25 November while walking near the home of Awartani's grandmother in Burlington, Vermont. Continue reading...
The New York congresswoman at the top' of the race, Trump's close ally Steve Bannon told news outletThe New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik is a killer", Donald Trump reportedly said, amid a flurry of speculation around who might be his presidential running mate for 2024, after his crushing victory in the Iowa caucuses.Citing eight unnamed sources, NBC News said Trump discussed his options for a potential vice-president in Florida late last month. Continue reading...
Conde Nast's gutting of the esteemed alternative publication and its staff is the latest example of media conglomerates prioritising capital over cultureIn late summer 2011, I was in Norway covering a music festival for NME. One night at a party in another writer's hotel room, I got talking to an American guy called Zach Kelly. Zach, it turned out, wrote for Pitchfork. As a 22-year-old music journalism freak, I could only imagine this was how it must feel to meet a member of your favourite football team. He kindly let me pin him into a corner to probe him about life there - he had started as an intern at their Chicago office - and the kind of work he did. That would have been thrill enough, meeting someone from a publication I perceived as so untouchable it was hardly worth aspiring to. Shortly after I got back to the UK, I got an email from an editor there, Mark Richardson: Zach had recommended me, and would I like to review albums for them? NME said no. But Mark persisted, and a year later, Pitchfork asked me to become their first UK member of staff, an associate editor. I said yes.I tell this story as it is one of hundreds like it: Pitchfork's editors were extraordinarily committed to investing in new critical talent, the writers and editors who were the driving force in unearthing and chronicling the defining alternative acts of the 21st century, as the website that midwestern record-store employee Ryan Schreiber founded in 1996 evolved into an authoritative, professional outlet. Arguably not since the inky heyday of NME itself had a music publication developed such a distinct reputation, thanks in part to its famous decimal-point scoring system and early take-no-prisoners reviews. Pitchfork" even became a byword for a certain kind of music and music fan: artisan before artisan culture took over everything; a little forbidding, cloistered; maybe you loved to hate it, but still clicked through half a dozen times a day. Continue reading...
Ken Paxton, Texas attorney general, rejects order for the state to end its control of Shelby Park, where people cross into the USTexas officials have refused to comply with an order from the Biden administration to allow American border patrol agents to access a part of the US-Mexico border that is now under the state's control.Texas's attorney general, Ken Paxton, rejected a request for the state to end its control of Shelby Park, a public park in Eagle Pass, Texas, where undocumented immigrants have increasingly crossed into the US via the US-Mexico border, NBC News reported. Continue reading...
David Borrero, a Miami Republican, believes students are being subliminally indoctrinated' and radicalized' in classroomsA Florida state congressman, convinced students in the state are being subliminally indoctrinated with critical race theory, Marxism and transgender ideology", has introduced a law that seeks to ban Pride flags from school and college campuses.Miami Republican David Borrero, an extremist who is simultaneously pushing a bill that would effectively ban all abortions in the state, also believes students are being radicalized and evangelized" in Florida's classrooms. Continue reading...
Report likely to revive scrutiny of officers who responded to 2022 massacre but waited over an hour to confront gunmanPolice officials who responded to the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas demonstrated no urgency" in setting up a command post and failed to treat the killings as an active shooter situation, according to a justice department report released Thursday that identifies cascading failures" in law enforcement's handling of one of the deadliest massacres at a school in American history.The justice department report, the most comprehensive federal accounting of the haphazard police response to the 24 May 2022 shooting at Robb elementary school, identifies a vast array of problems from failed communication and leadership to inadequate technology and training that federal officials say contributed to the crisis lasting far longer than it should have. Continue reading...
Huge swaths of the country have turned into news deserts', lacking credible journalism. I fear for the Baltimore SunPaul Moore vividly remembers the Baltimore Sun in its heyday, not so long ago.More than 400 newsroom staff, six foreign bureaus and a 12-person Washington bureau," Moore recalled. He was the Sun's deputy managing editor (and, for a time, its public editor) until 2009. We were a full-service newspaper, covering the country, the region and the world." And winning multiple Pulitzer Prizes for the quality of its aggressive, ambitious journalism. Continue reading...
Sign up for Trump on Trial: a free newsletter on all the latest court developmentsWant this sent directly to your inbox? Subscribe here, and we will send you a weekly update each Thursday to keep you looped in on the proceedings - as well as bonus editions on major trial days. Have any questions? Please send them our way trumpontrial@theguardian.com.On the docket: hitting the campaign trial Continue reading...
Kobe the husky has saved his Philadelphia neighbourhood after detecting a gas leak. In a video posted to social media, Kobe's owner, Chanell Bell, recounts how she noticed her four-year-old dog repeatedly digging in a hole that was in the concrete of her front yard. Bell said she thought the action was unlike him and decided to investigate further because there had been a gas leak in her home in the previous weeks. Workers remarked that something as simple as turning on a light switch could have caused the fumes to ignite and blow up Bell's whole house, making the importance of Kobe's alertness crystal clear. Kobe's heroism has since been turned into a book after thousands of fans deemed the story worthy
Kenneth Bonawitz, a member of the Proud Boys group, was described as one of the most violent rioters by prosecutorsA Florida man described by prosecutors as one of the most violent rioters who attacked the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 was sentenced on Wednesday to five years in prison, court records show.Kenneth Bonawitz, a member of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group's Miami chapter, assaulted at least six police officers as he stormed the Capitol with a mob of Donald Trump supporters. He grabbed one of the officers in a chokehold and injured another so severely that the officer had to retire, according to federal prosecutors. Continue reading...
Experts say Operation Ceasefire contributed to a significant decrease in homicides before falling off track - what happened?By the end of last year, major cities across the United States released violent crime reports that looked markedly different than those in recent years.The increase in gun violence and homicides that had devastated underserved Black and Latino communities since the pandemic was finally beginning to ebb, including in cities like Detroit and St Louis, with incident numbers seeing their first dips since 2020. Continue reading...
Communities bargain for shelter and investment in return for giant real estate projects. But what happens when the deal is done and developers stall?For more than a decade, John Fisher, the owner of the Athletics Major League Baseball team, has been threatening to move the club out of Oakland if the city didn't pony up enough public money for a new ballpark.Among his final bids were plans for a massive West Oakland redevelopment that included far more than just a stadium. It involved 1.8m sq ft of commercial space, a hotel, a performing venue and, most important for a region undergoing an immense housing crisis, 3,000 residential units. Arguments over how many of those units would be deemed affordable" kept erupting and were often cited as the major hangup keeping shovels out of the ground. It was unclear how much of this was public posturing because, ultimately, any plans to keep the Athletics in Oakland were ditched. Continue reading...
Both Fifa and the IOC have avoided statements denouncing Israel's war and the ensuing humanitarian crisis, a decision in stark contrast to their handling of Russia's invasion of UkraineAs the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli bombs in Gaza continues to rise - and amid reports that pockets of famine" have started to emerge in the territory - there seems to be few ways they can defend themselves. One method could be through something that unites the world: sport.On New Year's Eve, Jordan's Football Association (JFA) released a statement calling on the global sports community to take decisive action to stop the aggression against Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied territories."Karim Zidan writes a regular newsletter on the intersection of sports and authoritarian politics. Continue reading...
Eat food that is mostly healthy, but also eat delicious food that isn't healthy: these are the eminently sensible words of ... Arnold SchwarzeneggerIn this, the most glowering month of the year, we all need a guru, and I have found mine. He is a one-time bodybuilder, turned action movie hero, turned (soft) Republican politician and his name is Arnold Schwarzenegger.At the very end of last year Arnie took to a site which, because I'm an old nostalgic who thinks names should have more than one letter, I like to call Twitter. He said he had been told that lists go viral, so he had written one. The first piece of advice was: You should mostly eat food you know is healthy. There is no magic food." Continue reading...
If it lets an insurrectionist like Trump on the ballot, the supreme court will be putting out a welcome mat to autocracyOver the decades, several US supreme court justices have warned that the US constitution is not a suicide pact - in other words, that the constitution shouldn't be interpreted in ways that jeopardize the survival of our nation and our democracy.Right now, however, I worry that the supreme court's rightwing supermajority, in its anticipated rush to prohibit states from kicking Donald Trump off the ballot, will turn the constitution into a suicide pact. By letting an insurrectionist like Trump remain on the ballot - a man who spurned centuries of constitutional tradition by refusing to peacefully turn over the reins of power to the man who defeated him - the supreme court would be putting out a welcome mat to a candidate who has made no secret of his plans to trample all over the constitution and trash our democratic traditions. Continue reading...
by Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington on (#6HYJS)
Revealed: review of internal state department documents shows special mechanisms have been used to shield Israel from US human rights lawsTop US officials quietly reviewed more than a dozen incidents of alleged gross violations of human rights by Israeli security forces since 2020, but have gone to great lengths to preserve continued access to US weapons for the units responsible for the alleged violations, contributing - former US officials say - to the sense of impunity with which Israel has approached its war in Gaza.An estimated 24,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed by Israeli forces since Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, a death toll that has spurred condemnation of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US president Joe Biden, who has been criticized for failing to rein in Israel's indiscriminate" bombing of Gaza. Continue reading...
While it's easy to look at individual success stories as signs of progress, the industry numbers paint a very different pictureBetween history-making wins and thoroughly life-affirming speeches, Black women definitely took center stage at this year's Emmys. And after a night like that, it's whiplash-inducing for me to recall just how shabbily veteran actress Taraji P Henson and her co-stars were allegedly treated while filming the $100m Steven Spielberg-produced remake of The Color Purple.Henson, a Golden Globe winner, spoke candidly to the New York Times about how much she had to fight for on the set of the Warner Bros film - not just for herself, but for all of the members of the hugely talented ensemble cast, which included Tony-nominated actress Danielle Brooks and Grammy-winning Fantasia Barrino. Continue reading...
I miss the mornings after a blizzard, when everything is transformed. It's not a dramatic sign of climate change - but it's certainly not normalIt hadn't snowed in New York City for 701 days - a record - so when it started to come down on Tuesday, children's jaws dropped like kids seeing bananas for the first time after the second world war. Older people, if they had lived in New York for more than a few years, promptly ruined the moment by pointing out it wasn't real snow, there wasn't enough for school to be cancelled, and it was unlikely to accumulate sufficiently for sledding. Ah, the magic of adulthood.It is alarming to see the environment change in one's lifetime, and this isn't anything close to a lifetime. Even a decade ago, New Yorkers were used to the city shutting down for a week at a time when the latest massive snow storm came in. In February 2010, a total of 36in fell in the city, part of a winter of 51in of snow. In 2006, a blizzard dumped 26.9in of snow on the area, a record rivalled 10 years later when so much snow fell across the state that the governor briefly banned travel. The cold front on Tuesday, by contrast, dumped, or rather lightly dusted, Central Park with about an inch of snow, followed almost immediately by rain. By the time schools let out, grumbling parents forced to head to the park watched in amazement as their snow-deprived children screamed with joy at the grey chips of ice.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Will I take my books and my schoolbag?' my niece asked as her parents packed the essentials: blankets, documents, food. There was no way to explainIn my home town of Khan Younis, a refugee camp to the south of the Gaza Strip, my family home has finally been evacuated. The building suffered substantial damage when 36 of my relatives were killed in a bombing on 26 October. But they had clung on to the small piece of safety they felt they had there and continued to live in the home anyway. Then, on Christmas Day, the terrifying news fell from the sky written on leaflets - a directive to evacuate.In the Christian story of Jesus, his mother and father travelled the land looking for somewhere safe to stay. Everywhere they heard: There is no room at the inn." One of the places they visited on this journey was Gaza. For Palestinians, more than 2,000 years later, the question remains: Where can we go?" Continue reading...
Second fiddle to Mark Spitz and swimming with a collapsed lung, the American's Munich story eclipses the medals' worthThe press release came through last week, publicising Thursday's sale of Olympic memorabilia at the RR auction house in Boston, USA. There's an Olympic torch from Berlin 1936, a postcard signed by Jesse Owens, a wooden clog from Amsterdam '28, a media pass from Tokyo '64, and, among them all, one complete set of medals.A bronze, a silver and a gold from Munich '72: they have a 66mm diameter and are 5mm thick, an image of the goddess Nike engraved on one side, the twin gods Castor and Pollux on the other, and they weigh 175g, the last 6g the gold plating. Right now, the leading bid is $8,985 (7,090) for the three. Which is cheap given what they cost the owner. So why sell? Continue reading...
With the MLS offseason in full swing and the regular season starting up in February, there are plenty of reasons for optimism across the leagueThe offseason is a time of hope. After all, teams almost always look good on paper - and they look even better with the promise of a key transfer deal floating somewhere on the horizon.From superstars ready to shine to savvy transfer moves to front office changes, here's why your team should be hopeful ahead of the 2024 season. Continue reading...
Does turning away Europeans with valid paperwork really make British borders safe and secure'? It's hard to imagineFour years after the UK officially left the European Union, you can still be taken aback reading about Brexit's self-defeating, if sometimes unintended, consequences. A Spanish woman was detained at Luton airport and denied re-entry after a Christmas visit to Spain, even though she had been living and working in the UK with her family for years. A French woman, married to a British citizen, had to give up her job after an apparent paperwork mix-up.Trapped in the grey area of backlog and conflicting rules, like tens of thousands of EU citizens after Brexit, these cases are a recurring tale in post-Brexit Europe. Asked by the Guardian about the plight of the Spanish woman, the Home Office response parroted generic lines: Border Force's number one priority is to keep our borders safe and secure, and we will never compromise on this," a spokesperson said.Maria Ramirez is a journalist and deputy managing editor of elDiario.es, a news outlet in Spain Continue reading...
Former Elle columnist says I'm here to get my reputation back' as judge warns ex-president he could be kicked out of courtE Jean Carroll took the witness stand on Wednesday morning in her defamation trial against Donald Trump, marking the first time she has confronted the ex-president in a courtroom. Carroll's testimony so incensed Trump that he had numerous outbursts, prompting the judge to warn that he could be kicked out of court.I'm here because Donald Trump assaulted me, and when I wrote about it, he said it never happened," Carroll testified. He lied, and it shattered my reputation." Continue reading...
Heather Mack, 28, pleaded guilty to helping boyfriend kill Sheila Wiese-Mack in 2014 to gain access to $1.5m trust fundAn American woman who pleaded guilty to helping kill her own mother and stuffing the body in a suitcase during a luxury vacation in Bali has been sentenced to 26 years in prison.Judge Matthew Kennelly gave Mack credit for the approximately two years she spent in custody in Chicago awaiting trial since her return to the US in 2021. Mack's attorney Michael Leonard said her formal sentence will be about 23 years total. Continue reading...
Gavin Newsom says outright ban is not the answer', ending advocates' hopes for law banning tackle football for under-12sCalifornia's governor said he will not sign a proposed ban on tackle football for children under 12, ending advocates' short-lived hopes of having the bill become law this year.I will not sign legislation that bans youth tackle football," Newsom said in a statement late on Tuesday. I am deeply concerned about the health and safety of our young athletes, but an outright ban is not the answer." Continue reading...
Extreme' Republican-backed bans have caused untold suffering' for women, senators say, and vow to restore federal abortion rightsSenate Democrats underscored their commitment to abortion rights in a press conference on Wednesday, ahead of the 51st anniversary of Roe v Wade. The now-overturned supreme court case provided American women with a constitutional right to abortion for nearly 50 years.Experts at the briefing described Republican-backed abortion bans across the country as cruel", extreme" and causing untold suffering" for American women, thousands of whom are forced to travel across state lines for abortions or be forced to remain pregnant. Continue reading...
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