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Missouri lawmakers - great defenders of children! - want to force teachers to register as sex offenders if they use a trans child's preferred pronounsDid you know that child marriage is still legal in much of the US? About 300,000 children and teenagers were legally married in the US between 2000 and 2018, according to the advocacy group Unchained at Last. At least 60,000 of those marriages occurred at an age or with a spousal age difference that should have been considered a sex crime".Did you know that, until quite recently, Missouri was a destination wedding spot" for children who wanted to tie the knot? The state has tightened its child marriage laws now - and is seeking to ban the practice - but not all lawmakers are happy about the changes. Missouri state senator Mike Moon said last year that he knows kids who have been married at age 12 (to another minor) and they're thriving"!Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Instead of telling Americans the economy is great - which many won't believe - he must tell them the truth of where the gains are goingJoe Biden is addressing the country today in his State of the Union address. Here's some free advice about what he should say about the economy - which is the issue most voters care most about.Instead of telling Americans the economy is great - which many will not believe - the president must tell them the truth: that most of the economic gains haven't been felt by average working people because the gains have been going to the top.We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace - business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.They had begun to consider the government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His newest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

I'm not ashamed of my ankles, or of my M&S underpants. But why flaunt them?Blokes wearing hats indoors - beanie hats. What's that all about? It does my, well, head in. But seriously, why? I was in a fancy restaurant yesterday morning and there a chap was, beanie on, tapping importantly on a laptop, nibbling on something or other without taking his eyes off the screen. What with this intellectual endeavour - on top of the generous, ambient warmth of the room - his brain would surely overheat. Let it breathe a bit, mate, for heaven's sake.If there is some shame or insecurity in play here, my apologies. But I pick up the pungent scent of pure affectation. The indoor hat is only a tiny click on the dial away from indoor sunglasses. Perhaps I'm just jealous, because the beanie, inside or outside, is one of several fashion choices I can never make. Apart from anything else, they tend to make me look more like Benny from Crossroads than the actual Benny from Crossroads. Continue reading...

China's foreign minister, Wang Yi, has accused the US of imposing sanctions on Chinese companies to a 'bewildering' and 'unfathomable' level. Wang said the relationship between China and the US was 'critical' but that it was its relationship with Russia that would be deepened and strengthened in the coming months. He went on to accuse the US of failing to fulfil promises and said it was 'obsessed' with suppressing China as a global power. Relations between the US and China have thawed slightly since Xi Jinping met Joe Biden in November

Arthur Agee and William Gates never fulfilled their dream of making the NBA, but the subjects of the groundbreaking 1994 doc ended up making more of an impact than many who didAmerica has long obsessed over celebrity and the quest for fame. Thirty years ago, millions of moviegoers got to see that desire up close thanks to the groundbreaking documentary Hoop Dreams, which focused on two teenage basketball players, Arthur Agee and William Gates. The pair never fulfilled their dream of making the NBA, but Agee and Gates ended up making more of an impact than many who did.I always wish that we would have made it," Gates tells the Guardian. That feeling will never go away. I wish we would have achieved the ultimate hoop dream." Continue reading...

The pressure can be overwhelming - so I gave up on green eggs and ham and found a low-effort solutionI was going to do green eggs and ham. That would be a cool costume, the competitive mother that sometimes lives inside me thought. Thankfully I silenced her, as I always do, not wanting to spend hours after returning from a trip to the theatre constructing said eggs and ham out of felt. My son is only two, but this year will be his second World Book Day costume. Last year I was even more half-arsed: he went to nursery as Peekaboo Moon. In other words, he wore a jumper with a moon on it.The tedious online discourse about World Book Day costumes rears its head every year, but to a relatively new parent the whole thing is a bit baffling. Make a costume or don't, buy a costume or don't ... who cares, as long as the child is happy? Except what I'm learning is that the World Book Day costume is, to some people, symbolic of what sort of parent you are, and the whole thing carries quite a lot of class baggage.Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Full Swing has its moments but key absences and a lack of detail mean it mirrors a muddled gameThe second series of Full Swing has its moments. The trouble is, anybody seeking deep insight into the civil war/kiss and make up/civil-war status of elite golf will be left frustrated by the latest release of the Netflix documentary. While it is easy to blame producers for this, it must be remembered the golf world is horrendously muddled. It is not that people choose not to speak with certainty, they just find themselves unable to.Onlookers are left without proper detail of precisely how and why the PGA Tour signed a framework agreement with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. Paulina Gretzky, the wife of Dustin Johnson, gushes about how much more time their family has together after the former Masters champion's leap to LIV but other key players who were castigated for the same switch - Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson, Phil Mickelson - do not appear on camera to give their sentiment as a dramatic 2023 unfolded. This felt a missed opportunity. Jon Rahm, who joined LIV late in the year, is a notable absentee. So, too, is Tiger Woods. The failure to feature the world's best female golfers in a Solheim Cup year will inevitably raise eyebrows. Continue reading...

The far-right AfD is leading the polls in former GDR regions - and longstanding bias in German media and politics is partly to blameThe Berlin Wall will be standing in 50 and even in 100 years", Erich Honecker, the leader of socialist East Germany, prophesied in January 1989. Not for the first time, he was spectacularly wrong. The wall fell just 10 months later, in November 1989. But not all barriers to German unity fell with it. Honecker's German Democratic Republic (GDR) may have been wiped off the map by subsequent events, but like an afterimage that won't fade, its contours remain etched on Germany's cultural, economic and political landscape.In 2024, the east of the country remains in sharp focus as the heartland of anti-establishment movements. Three of the five states that once formed the GDR will hold regional elections in September, the outcomes of which are anxiously anticipated ahead of the general election set for next year. The far-right party Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) is leading the polls in all three, while also being the second-strongest party nationwide. In the frantic search for answers that might help explain and combat the rise of extremism, many ask: what is wrong in the east? Continue reading...

Some IVF providers say the legislation will allow services to restart, but claim it does not address the legal status of embryosAlabama's governor, Kay Ivey, has signed into law new legislation that will shield IVF providers from the fallout of a court ruling that equated frozen embryos with children.The new law protects providers from lawsuits and criminal prosecution in the event of damage or death of an embryo" during IVF services. Continue reading...

Jim Himes says comparisons between Trump's attitude to Putin and 1930s PM's stance on Hitler give Trump way too much credit'Donald Trump is a worse appeaser in his attitude to Vladimir Putin and Russia than the 1930s British prime minister Neville Chamberlain was towards Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, a senior Democrat on the House intelligence committee said.Jim Himes of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the committee, also said Trump acted like a single-cell organism" in obstructing aid to Ukraine. Continue reading...

At least one student, a 16-year-old who was hit nine times, was critically wounded while waiting at a bus stop on WednesdayPolice say eight Philadelphia high school students waiting to board a city bus after classes Wednesday were wounded by gunshots from suspects who jumped from a car and opened fire, the fourth shooting on the transit system in as many days.The previous three shootings each involved a fatality. At least one student was critically wounded at the bus stop, a 16-year-old who was hit nine times, Kevin Bethel, the city's police commissioner, said at a news conference. The others were in stable condition. Continue reading...

Congressman and ex-Dodgers player emerge as top two contenders, boxing out progressives Katie Porter and Barbara LeeAdam Schiff, the centrist Democratic congressman, is poised to be the next US senator from California after securing enough votes to advance to the November election. He will face off with Republican Steve Garvey, a former professional baseball player, who also performed well in the non-partisan primary on Tuesday.Schiff, a pro-Israel Democrat, was quickly called a winner by the Associated Press, and Garvey secured his spot in the general election about an hour after polls closed. Continue reading...

Christian evangelical institution punished victims for violating the student code of conduct' as assailants were left unpunished'Liberty University has been hit with a $14m Department of Education federal fine for creating a culture of silence" around sexual assault, failing to support victims of violence and then failing to properly report them correctly under the law.Announcing the fine on Tuesday, the department said in a statement that the Christian evangelical institution had punished sexual assault victims for violating the student code of conduct", while their assailants were left unpunished" - a violation of federal law. Continue reading...

Residents of the US territory say a targeted ad campaign was responsible for the US president's loss in the Democratic Super Tuesday caucusIn less than 24 hours, Jason Palmer went from being a relatively unknown Baltimore businessman, to toppling a sitting president in a US primary caucus. Since then he's been featured in newspaper profiles, been interviewed on major news networks - and found himself the subject of internet memes across the world.Joe Biden's campaign team may have expected to win every Democratic contest on Super Tuesday - but if so, they didn't account for American Samoa. Of the 91 ballots cast in the territory's caucus, Palmer won 51, while Biden received 40. Continue reading...

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer for the film Rust, has been convicted for her role in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. A New Mexico jury found Gutierrez-Reed, who was responsible for ensuring that all firearms on the set were safe, guilty of involuntary manslaughter

Do I spend hundreds of dollars on a specialist or leave health issues untreated? My choices often involve weighing up which flavour of guilt I'll feelWhen I was a child, my sister and I would treat ourselves on school holidays. We'd walk to the shops and buy a cheap milk bar treat before heading to Video Ezy to rent a stack of movies. Decades later, Video Ezy and its later peers DVD Destination and Blockbuster are no longer high street staples, but this version of treat is still going strong for me. While I've matured beyond the need to rent Scream for a sixth time, a snack and film is my go-to for a night in (who can afford to go out?).Sluggish wage growth, soaring rents and increases to the cost of living mean many adults feel like they're living as they did in their broke uni student days, existing off beans and rice and putting money aside for the occasional indulgence (having a drink at the pub). But I feel more like a little kid: counting each dollar like I once did my allowance or, once I turned 14, the meagre pay from an after-school job. While budgeting and saving felt exciting as a child, it now feels impossible. If I spend $4 at the milk bar, I mainly feel guilty. Continue reading...

Campaign to leave it blank' or vote uncommitted' aims to increase pressure on Biden to stop Israel's incursion in GazaA protest movement in Georgia - a swing state that President Biden narrowly won in 2020 - is seeking to apply pressure to the incumbent over his support of Israel before the 12 March Democratic primary election.On Monday, a group of multifaith and multiracial groups called the Listen to Georgia Coalition launched the Leave It Blank campaign, which urges voters to submit a blank ballot next Tuesday. The push follows a similar grassroots effort - Listen to Michigan - in which more than 100,000 voters marked their ballots uncommitted" last month. Continue reading...

This live blog us now closed. You can read all our Super Tuesday coverage here and the latest report and analysis below

In a complex area of women's health, simplistic answers centred on hormone replacement therapy must be resistedThe recent pronounced increase in public discussion of the menopause has been a welcome shift. Like miscarriage and birth injuries, this aspect of women's life experience - and healthcare - has often been shrouded in embarrassment. In the UK, a menopause revolution" led by the Labour MP Carolyn Harris succeeded in getting the cost of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) reduced to less than 20 a year. Between 2021 and 2023 the proportion of UK women aged 45 to 64 prescribed HRT rose from 11% to about 15%.This is widely viewed as a corrective after many years during which it was underprescribed due to exaggerated fears about side-effects, including an increased risk of some cancers. Women with debilitating symptoms such as broken sleep and low mood too often went without any treatment at all. Last month the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) issued new guidance asserting that if symptoms are serious and long-lasting, they can be regarded as a disability - meaning employers must make reasonable adjustments. Meanwhile, a new series of papers in the Lancet has called for more support for the one in 10 women who experience early menopause, before they are 40. Continue reading...

Cory Martin watched show about serial killer to help plan killing of woman on whom he took out a life insurance policyFederal prosecutors have convicted a New York City man for killing and dismembering a woman in an effort to claim her life insurance.On Monday, a federal jury found Cory Martin, 36, of Rosedale, Queens, guilty of murder for hire and identity theft crimes, among others, after 26-year-old Brandy Odom was strangled in her bedroom in 2018. Continue reading...

Congressman ended long-shot bid after losing his home state of Minnesota on Super Tuesday and endorsed the presidentThe Minnesota congressman running against Joe Biden in the Democratic primary dropped out of the race on Wednesday, ending a long-shot bid to stop the US president from winning the nomination. He endorsed the president.Dean Phillips, who represents a wealthier suburban area outside Minneapolis, entered the Democratic race seemingly against his will and against the advice of most of his Democratic colleagues. The congressman, who first took office in 2019, first tried to recruit more prominent Democrats to challenge Biden, publicly saying Biden needed to let the next generation lead the party. Continue reading...

Official testified that the company will not identify who worked on the blown-out panel, and video footage of work has been erasedBoeing has refused to tell investigators who worked on the door plug that later blew off a jetliner during flight in January, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said on Wednesday.The company also has not provided documentation about a repair job that included removing and reinstalling the panel on the Boeing 737 Max 9 - or even say whether Boeing kept records - Jennifer Homendy told a Senate committee. Continue reading...

Case collapsed after emails came to light that defense lawyers said raised questions about the trial's fairnessProsecutors in New York have dropped a criminal case against three men accused of a conspiracy to sell stolen legal pads with hand-written lyrics to the Eagles' Hotel California and two other songs after emails came to light that undercut the premise of the complaint.The Manhattan assistant district attorney Aaron Ginandes told the court on Wednesday morning that they no longer wished to proceed with a prosecution that last week saw the band's co-founder Don Henley take the stand over two days to claim that the legal pads had been burgled from his Malibu home. Continue reading...

Matthew D Adams must also pay more than $3m in restitution for scheme in which he and an accomplice tried to launder fundsA Michigan man was sentenced to three years in prison on Monday for not reporting the millions of dollars in income he made from selling illicit drugs, according to the US Department of Justice.The official charges against Matthew D Adams are money laundering and obstructing the Internal Revenue Service, the US government's federal tax authority. Continue reading...

Highest-profile victory goes to Mark Robinson, a Hitler-quoting anti-abortion extremist who will now run for North Carolina governor

Proposition F would require single adults without dependents who receive welfare benefits and use illegal drugs to undergo treatmentSan Francisco voters appeared to have approved a ballot measure that would compel welfare recipients who use illegal drugs to undergo treatment or be denied cash assistance.The measure, Proposition F, would require single adults without dependents who receive local welfare benefits to be screened for illegal drug use. If they are found to be using drugs, an addiction specialist and the recipient would agree on treatment options that include residential care, a 12-step program, individual counseling and replacement medication. Continue reading...

Nikki Haley didn't endorse fellow Republican nominee, Donald Trump, as she announced the suspension of her presidential campaign on Wednesday. The decision came after she was routed on Super Tuesday, with an overwhelming majority of Republicans opting for the former president, dashing her hopes to represent the GOP later this year. Speaking at a press conference in her home state of South Carolina, Haley said: 'It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support it. And I hope he does that'

Some had grumbled it was mere politicking from Macron, yet enshrining the right to abortion felt like a rare moment of unityThere was little doubt that the French parliament would reach a majority on Monday, when it gathered in a special session to enshrine the right to abortion into its constitution. But even so, it was an electric moment. At the Palace of Versailles, big enough to host the 925 MPs and senators eligible to vote, the scene was set to the solemn drumming of the republican guard.Broadcast live on every news channel and beamed on to a giant screen at the Paris Trocadero, opposite the Eiffel Tower, French citizens watched as the national assembly's first female president, Yael Braun-Pivet, looking calm and focused, walked towards the packed chamber to declare the hearing open. Passing republican guards in full regalia, sabres drawn, forming a guard of honour, there was total silence as she made her entrance to make history, as France became the world's first country to guarantee women's rights to abortion.Agnes Poirier is a political commentator, writer and criticComments on this piece are premoderated to ensure discussion remains on topics raised by the writer. Please be aware there may be a short delay in comments appearing on the site. Continue reading...

Biden administration rescinds not sanctioned' memo that said VJ Day image depicting non-consensual act' would be withdrawnThe Department of Veteran Affairs has walked back a memo that banned the iconic VJ Day in Times Square photograph from its facilities.The VA secretary, Denis McDonough, announced the reversal of the memo on X, only hours after it began circulating online. Continue reading...

Measure allows parent to seek child support up to a year after giving birth to retroactively cover pregnancy expensesThe Republican-led Kentucky senate voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to grant the right to collect child support for fetuses, advancing a bill that garnered bipartisan support despite nationwide fallout from a controversial Alabama decision also advancing fetal personhood".The measure would allow a parent to seek child support up to a year after giving birth to retroactively cover pregnancy expenses. The legislation - Senate Bill 110 - won senate passage on a 36-2 vote with little discussion to advance to the House. Republicans have supermajorities in both chambers. Continue reading...

Pop star says on Instagram Story: If you haven't already, make a plan to vote today'

Central bank leader cautions that continued progress on inflation is not assured' in remarks prepared for House committeeThe US Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, said on Wednesday that the central bank still expects to reduce its benchmark interest rate later this year but warned continued progress on inflation is not assured".If the economy evolves broadly as expected, it will likely be appropriate to begin dialing back policy restraint at some point this year," Powell said in remarks prepared for delivery to the House financial services committee as US lawmakers prepare to face inflation-weary voters in a charged presidential election year. Continue reading...

An ill-matched narrator can ruin an otherwise rollicking book. But a good one can bring stories to life - and evoke our earliest childhood memories

Lawyers say judge erroneously excluded evidence of former president's state of mind and also call for $83m award to be cut

The growing evidence on UPFs merits sober discussion, but products marketed with a halo of health' are avoiding scrutinyIn the fevered world of diet and nutrition, the past year has been dominated by heated arguments about the evils (or not) of ultra-processed foods. These have not just been confined to the media but have, unusually, engendered equally fractious debate in academic circles. So what is the truth" about UPFs? Are they as bad for health as many claim? And how are consumers, armed with this information, meant to navigate the supermarket aisles?The processing of food, including cooking, fermentation, pickling, curing and smoking, is as ancient as humankind. These processes reduced the chances of food poisoning, increased nutritional availability and ensured that we had a predictable source of calories through seasonal changes in the availability of fresh food. They were critical to our ability as a species to survive and eventually thrive. Continue reading...

Many Democrats angry with Biden over support for Israel voted uncommitted' while Trump's rival Nikki Haley continued to draw sizable supportJoe Biden and Donald Trump swept to victory in states across the US on Super Tuesday, easily winning presidential primary elections from Maine to California as they all but solidified an unprecedented rematch in November.But the biggest night of the primary season exposed glaring weaknesses in both candidates' electoral coalitions. Continue reading...

After Real Salt Lake's blizzard-battered win over LAFC, there have been calls for the league to change the calendar. That may not be a good ideaIf former Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris had hoped to segue into a sunny semi-retirement after his move to Los Angeles, his debut for LAFC would have felt especially satisfying. The 36-year-old World Cup winner made a club-record seven saves in a victory over the Seattle Sounders beneath the California sun on the opening weekend of the 2024 MLS season.A week later, however, in his first away match since moving to the US, Lloris experienced a less comfortable time. With his goalkeeper's gloves acting more as a barrier against frostbite than a shot-stopping aid, he was forced to pluck a fluorescent orange match ball from his net three times in the first half after a sudden snowstorm and near-freezing temperatures descended upon Real Salt Lake's America First Field. Continue reading...

Coalition of advocacy groups warn that deal would further concentrate risk' in the financial system and must be stopped'Regulators have been urged to block Capital One's $35bn takeover of Discover by campaigners who say the blockbuster deal is dangerous, illegal, and must be stopped".Urging the Federal Reserve and Department of Justice to intervene, a coalition of more than a dozen advocacy groups cautioned that combining two of the largest credit card companies in the US would damage competition and further concentrate risk" in the financial system. Continue reading...

Biden and Trump are each on their way to tie up respective nominations, as down-ballot races promise retributive runoffsSuper Tuesday brought few surprises in the presidential race: Joe Biden and Donald Trump won state after state, pushing their delegate totals closer to what they each need to secure their party's nomination.Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador, did beat Trump in Vermont, her first state-level victory over the former president - and had previously won the District of Columbia - though she reportedly decided on Wednesday to drop out, with her team scheduling a press conference for the morning. Continue reading...

Former South Carolina governor, who tried to position herself as more electable than her rivals, was the last prominent Republican candidate standing opposite Donald TrumpNikki Haley will reportedly end her long-shot Republican presidential primary bid after losing 14 Super Tuesday contests to Donald Trump.The former South Carolina governor, who became Trump's UN ambassador and the first prominent woman of color to seek the Republican nomination for president, is due to deliver remarks near her South Carolina home at 10am ET on Wednesday. Continue reading...

The presumptive nominees took shots at each other, while reports said Nikki Haley is set to drop out the race. Plus, UN experts condemn Israeli massacre'

Rather than bask in his Republican primary victories, the ex-president asserted that the state of the union is bleakIf this is what he sounds like when he wins, imagine how he would react to defeat.Donald Trump swept to victory after victory on Super Tuesday, all but clinching the Republican presidential nomination, but you wouldn't have known it from his joyless victory speech. Continue reading...

Essex-based hub to pass into hands of private-equity firm after agreement on 194m debtSouthend airport is to pass into the control of the US private-equity group Carlyle after an agreement to settle a debt, in the latest takeover of a UK firm by a foreign company.The London-listed aviation group Esken, formerly Stobart Group, said it had reached a deal over the 193.75m debt that its subsidiary London Southend airport owed to Carlyle Global Infrastructure Fund (CGI). Continue reading...

The Spaniard faces a tough test in the first round against Milos Raonic, who is also keen to put dispiriting injuries behind himAs he prepared for what could very well be his final professional season this year, Rafael Nadal ensured that he took his time and he was ready for whatever was left. He wrote off the entire 2023 season after his serious hip injury at the Australian Open, only returning in time for the new year.And yet, within a couple of matches into this season, the 22-time grand slam champion's body betrayed him again. In the first week of January, Nadal limped out of the Brisbane tournament with another hip injury, missed the Australian Open and has not competed for two months. Continue reading...

Famine looks inevitable without urgent intervention. Children are being starved of food - and it is entirely preventableThe news from Gaza feels too painful to watch. Videos of immediate violence capture TV and social-media audiences: within seconds, entire hospitals are destroyed and buildings fall to the ground. We are watching death in real time. In my last piece on Gaza, I highlighted the records being set: considering its short duration, it has been the deadliest war in modern history for children, for journalists, for healthcare workers and for UN staff. But there are parts of the on-the-ground situation that are harder to convey in short clips. The thing I hear most when I speak to colleagues in humanitarian organisations is that they are worried about starvation.They say that, right now, Gaza has the highest proportion of people living with food deprivation anywhere in the world. Before 7 October, when the war started, acute malnutrition was largely nonexistent in Gaza. Since then, among children in northern Gaza it has increased to 15% - that's one in six children under the age of two - while it is 5% in Rafah in southern Gaza. Unicef has highlighted that 90% of children under five eat fewer than two food groups a day, which is defined as severe food poverty", while roughly 90% are affected by an infectious disease, including 70% with diarrhoea. A lack of nutrition and high rates of infectious disease cause a deadly cycle in children: hungry children are more likely to fall sick and have weak immune systems given their fragility, while diarrhoea causes weight and water loss in already thin children. Continue reading...