US news | The Guardian

President-elect vows investment will result in 100,000 new jobs despite history of jobs plans not panning outDonald Trump claimed to have notched up the first economic success of his forthcoming second presidency on Monday by announcing a $100bn investment by the Japanese company, SoftBank, which he said would be completed during his four-year presidency.The president-elect has a history of headline-grabbing job announcements - not all of which pan out successfully. Continue reading...

The European Union's two most powerful member states are plunged into introspection, as Donald Trump prepares to enter the White HouseAfter a brief weekend hiatus, action has resumed in the real-life political boxsets playing out in the EU's two most important capitals. In the Bundestag on Monday, a vote of no confidence in Chancellor OlafScholz's battered coalition government duly paved the way for a snap election in February. Over in Paris - where the same manoeuvre collapsed MichelBarnier's short-lived government a fortnight ago - his prime ministerial replacement was putting his feet under the desk after being appointed on Friday by an increasingly desperateEmmanuel Macron.As Europe faces big decisions and dilemmas overUkraine, how to deal with Donald Trump, and thechallenge of China, this is no time for the continent's fabled Franco-German engine to temporarily conk out. But there are no easy fixes in view on either side of the Rhine. In both France and Germany, the rise of the far right and a concomitant crisis of trust in mainstream politics have pointed to adeep political malaise for some time. Continue reading...

US president-elect also threatens legal action against Biden administration over sales of unused border wall partsPresident-elect Donald Trump on Monday said in a far-ranging news conference that he would consider pardoning the embattled New York City mayor, Eric Adams. Separately he called on the Biden administration to stop selling off unused portions of border wall that were purchased but not installed during his first administration.Yeah, I would" consider pardoning Adams, Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, before saying that he was not familiar with the specifics of the charges Adams is facing. Continue reading...

Bradley Robert Dawson killed his wife, Christe Chen, two days after the newlyweds arrived at Turtle Island resortA man from Memphis, Tennessee, has been found guilty by a judge in Fiji of murdering his wife during their honeymoon in 2022, the prosecutor's office said Monday.Bradley Robert Dawson, 40, killed his wife, Christe Chen, who was 36, at the exclusive Turtle Island resort in the Yasawa archipelago two days after the newlyweds arrived in Fiji, then fled by kayak to a nearby island. Chen was discovered in the couple's room by resort staff with multiple blunt trauma wounds to her head after the couple was heard arguing and did not appear at breakfast or lunch the next day. Continue reading...

For all its supposed populism', the new administration will probably target offices that protect consumersThe Republican party has shellacked its clean-cut corporatism, in recent years, with a veneer of economic populism. See JD Vance's pseudo-criticisms of Wall Street, so gestural they could be mistaken for an interpretive dance routine, or Donald Trump's stint as a McDonald's employee," which seemed more inspired by his contempt for Kamala Harris than his affection for fry cooks.But when it comes to how the second Trump administration actually intends to govern, there have already been plenty of signals that they intend to target and weaken - if not outright destroy - the parts of government most beneficial to working people. And right now, the agency most clearly in their crosshairs is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).Katrina vanden Heuvel is the editorial director and publisher of the Nation. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has contributed to the Washington Post, New York Times and Los Angeles Times Continue reading...

Republicans' outgoing US Senate leader takes issue with foreign policy thinking in party's Maga movementMitch McConnell, the Republicans' outgoing leader in the US Senate, has called on Donald Trump to avoid an isolationist" foreign policy during his looming second presidency - and urged him to back up a surge in American hard power" by continuing to support Ukraine in its war against Russia.In a 5,000-word essay in Foreign Affairs magazine, McConnell, 82 - who retires as the GOP Senate leader at the end of this term in 2027 - takes issue with a strand of foreign policy thinking in the party's pro-Trump Make America great again" (Maga) movement, which casts China as the US's biggest threat and advocates turning away from the war in Ukraine to tackle challenges in Asia. Continue reading...

Trump defense secretary pick will give accuser opportunity to speak publicly about accusations, senator saysPete Hegseth, Donald Trump's pick for secretary of defense, is offering to release a woman from a non-disclosure agreement related to sexual misconduct allegations from 2017, Lindsey Graham revealed on Sunday.Speaking on NBC's Meet the Press, the South Carolina senator said Hegseth assured him in a private meeting that he would lift the NDA, giving the accuser an opportunity to speak publicly about her allegations. Continue reading...

Anonymous fundraiser aims to cover legal bills of man charged in Manhattan murder of Brian ThompsonAn online fundraiser created for the suspect arrested in the New York murder of Brian Thompson, the UnitedHealthcare CEO, has raised more than $120,000 for his legal defense.Luigi Mangione, 26, was arrested on 9 December in Altoona, Pennsylvania, in connection with Thompson's killing outside a Manhattan hotel five days earlier. Continue reading...

Decision leaves Anthony Odiong on course for trial on charges that could carry a maximum of life imprisonmentA hearing at which a Roman Catholic priest with ties to Texas and south-east Louisiana was tentatively scheduled to plead guilty to criminal charges of abusing his authority as a clergyman to pursue sex with spiritually vulnerable female congregants was called off, court officers said Monday.The proceeding in the state criminal courthouse of Waco, Texas, had been tenuously called as Anthony Odiong spent more than a month mulling a plea deal. Continue reading...

Party aides are confident in US vice-president's ability to bounce back, including a bid for California governorDemocratic party aides have begun to float ideas for a Kamala Harris political comeback, reportedly eyeing another run at the US's highest office even as the party continues to grapple with the electoral messages contained in the vice-president's decisive defeat in November's White House race against Donald Trump.Harris, who has reportedly not ruled out a second run for the presidency, is now reported to be considering a run for the California governorship, currently held until 2027 by Gavin Newsom. Newsom was a rumoured presidential contender during the chaotic summer that saw Joe Biden step down from a rematch with Trump - whom he defeated in the 2020 election - and then endorse Harris as his replacement. Continue reading...

Jenny Donnelly, multi-level marketer turned rising star on the Christian right, wants to fight against LGBTQ+ inclusion and abortion rightsAt a Los Angeles church in October 2023, Jenny Donnelly, a Christian entrepreneur and charismatic preacher, addressed a room full of women with a lofty idea.Why don't we send a million women into the school boards?" Continue reading...

Report shows police routinely violated residents' civil rights in Mount Vernon, north of New York CityA suburban New York police department had a practice of routinely violating residents' civil rights, including making illegal arrests and using unnecessary strip and cavity searches, according to a new US justice department report.The report on a pattern and practice of police misconduct at the department in Mount Vernon, just north of New York City, is one of 12 investigations opened by the Department of Justice into local policing agencies since 2021, including those sparked by the killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky. Continue reading...

Fox News and rightwing pundits are railing against Marxist brutality', but the suspect's beliefs were far from leftistRepublicans and rightwing commentators have done their best to tie Luigi Mangione to the political left in recent days.In the telling of Fox News pundits and key media figures, Mangione and the tens of thousands of people who have come forward with their own criticisms of the healthcare insurance industry are all Democrats: liberal wackos" and violent revolutionaries" who are committed to Marxist brutality". Continue reading...

The Israeli PM approved plan to double Israeli population in Golan Heights. Plus, South Korea's constitutional court begins reviewing presidential impeachment

Gun safety activist bidding for a DNC vice-chair post says party defends institutions when it needs to reform themDavid Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland school shooting turned gun safety and youth leadership advocate, has launched a bid for one of the Democratic National Committee's vice-chair positions, arguing the party needs to move in a bolder and more anti-establishment direction as it braces for Donald Trump's return to the White House.Hogg announced on Monday that he would seek one of the party's top leadership posts due, in part, to his frustration with a lack of accountability among prominent Democrats following Kamala Harris's loss in November's presidential race. Continue reading...

A strain now circulating in dairy cows appears to carry little risk for humans at present, but we need to develop an effective strategy before it mutatesAs usual, I'm back with cheery topics to get us through the dark, cold winter months. No, I'm not talking about the studies on how dark chocolate reduces your risk of type 2 diabetes or why eating cake for breakfast isn't as bad as we think it is. Instead, in the global health world, the main news is about avian flu, the H5N1 virus, and also the deadly outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo of a mystery illness. It's in these moments that I wonder why I didn't choose a career in baking.But trying to replicate a Mary Berry recipe would require eggs - and the United States is facing a shortage of eggs - like Britain did last year - with the main culprit being avian flu, which has either killed off or triggered the culling of hundreds of thousands of chickens. Avian flu has caused concerns recently given several step-changes in the seriousness of the potential threat: becoming endemic in wild bird populations; then its spread among domestic birds, causing a turkey lockdown in winter 2022; then reports from across the world about infections in mammals such as sea lions that feed on or live near wild birds. In the past year, a big shift has been the confirmation of mammal-to-mammal transmission among dairy cows in the US.Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh Continue reading...

Macron's fourth premier this year faces the same budgetary headache as Michel Barnier - but the parliamentary equation has changedThe latest attempt to resolve France's political and financial crisis might be dubbed back to the future".The new prime minister, Francois Bayrou, was minister of education when Emmanuel Macron was still a schoolboy. The 73-year-old centrist, whom the president reluctantly appointed on Friday after days of closed-door wrangling after the fall of Michel Barnier's short-lived government, was a vital ally and consigliere to the young Macron when he dynamited France's political system in 2017 to win the presidency at the tender age of 39. Continue reading...

A rash of embarrassing incidents at the goalline threatened to cost teams dear on Sunday as players failed to master the basics of the gameWith 3:16 left in the third quarter of the Bengals' 37-27 win over the Titans, Tennessee running back Tony Pollard fumbled, and the ball was recovered by Cincinnati safety Jordan Battle. Battle had a clear lane to the end zone and a 61-yard touchdown, but he instead decided to celebrate his touchdown before it happened, dropping the ball before he crossed the goalline. The ball went out of the end zone, which meant that the touchdown was instead a touchback, and the Titans got the ball back at their own 20-yard line.Not that the Titans were able to do anything with that additional opportunity, given their putrid passing game, but why do so many players - some of the best athletes on the planet - forget how to hold on to a ball when near the goalline? Continue reading...

With the tyrant Assad gone, it's important not to impose a negative script on what comes next. Syrians deserve support and hopeLast week, time collapsed. Bashar al-Assad's fall recalled scenes across the region from the start of the Arab spring almost 14 years ago. Suddenly history felt vivid, its memories sharpened. In fact it no longer felt like history. Scenes that it seemed we would never see again - of crowds thronging the squares; the obscene riches of despots exposed, their fortresses stormed, their iconography desecrated - unlocked a familiar, almost sickening sense of possibility. Of giddiness, of horror at what fleeing dictators had left in their wake, and of hope. Syria's long revolution - the death, torture, imprisonment and exile that Assad's crushing of it unleashed - makes its successful end bittersweet. The price was so high, which makes its spoils even more dear.The moment is also different in another way. In those 14 years, other revolutions across the region either unravelled or resulted in the retrenchment of dictatorial regimes under new management. And so that sense of untrammelled optimism that followed the fall of that first crop of dictators is tempered by some wariness of what comes next. But it can and should be a productive wariness rather than a reason for despair. Because what Syria benefits from now is an understanding of the fragility of this period. To those of us who experienced it before in other countries, it felt like a time when the momentum of revolution was unstoppable and cleansing. It had a kinetic energy that swept away the old systems to be replaced by new administrations, armed with good intentions and popular support, that would simply figure it out.Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Police say Christopher McDonnell, his brother and brother's wife had 11-hour run of random shootings that killed a manA judge in Las Vegas sentenced a Texas man to 100 years in prison for his role in a two-state shooting rampage on Thanksgiving 2020 that included the killing of a man in Nevada and a shootout with authorities in Arizona.Christopher McDonnell, 32, pleaded guilty in October to more than 20 felonies including murder, attempted murder, murder conspiracy, weapon charges and being a felon illegally in possession of a firearm. Continue reading...

A 16-year-old boy in New Mexico faces murder charges after allegedly killing his family, police sayA 16-year-old boy in New Mexico allegedly killed four members of his family and then drunkenly turned himself in Saturday, investigators said.The New Mexico state police said in a Facebook post that the teen was arrested in Belen, a small city in Valencia county, after he called authorities late at night and informed them he killed his family. Continue reading...

United and charitable groups ferry more than 100 children on flight to hangar with bubbles, snowflakes and SantaThe children's faces were pure excitement on Saturday as they stepped off a United Airlines flight after landing at the North Pole.Well, not the real North Pole, but don't tell the children that. Continue reading...

We are on it,' says US homeland security secretary as anxieties surge amid lack of official informationAlejandro Mayorkas, the US homeland security secretary, has said federal authorities know of no foreign involvement" in the apparent mass drone sightings across the nation's north-east region, though social and political anxieties nonetheless continued surging over the weekend amid a lack of official information.I want to assure the American public that we are on it," Mayorkas said. Continue reading...

Initial reports speculated that person found may be journalist, but Tice's mother said she knew it was not himThe mother of journalist Austin Tice - who was detained in Syria in 2012 - told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday that seeing another missing American, Travis Timmerman, found in Damascus recently felt almost like having a rehearsal ... of what it's going to really feel like when it is Austin walking free".Initial reports on Wednesday speculated that the American found might be Austin Tice - but Debra Tice said she knew immediately it wasn't her son. Continue reading...

Exchange offers example of senators's willingness to publicly disagree with Trump while serving as staunch allyUS senator Lindsey Graham has said officials who investigated Donald Trump supporters' deadly attack on the US Capitol in 2021 should not be imprisoned - despite what his fellow Republican has argued in advance of his second presidency.During an interview Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press, show host Kristen Welker asked Graham whether he agreed with Trump's assertion on the program seven days earlier that those involved in the investigation of the January 6 Capitol attack should go to jail". Continue reading...

As claims about practices in two flagship London schools are investigated, it's time to stop and think about what schools are really forAsk the average Westminster politician about schools policy and the response will focus on issues that never seem to go away: funding, teacher shortages, and the drive to somehow uncouple unequal educational outcomes from children's social and economic backgrounds. At the moment the stereotypical answer is likely to also touch on the crisis in provision for kids with special educational needs. But what tends to go unmentioned is a subject that seems to be suddenly gaining traction in the real world: many schools' devout belief in zero-tolerance discipline, and whether that credo might be on its way out.Across England, the same story has been building for a long time. It originated in the New Labour years with the expansion of academies, the cult of the super head" and a seemingly rational drive to push up results and standards. During Michael Gove's time as the Tory education secretary and beyond, the same ideas fused with drastic changes in the national curriculum and a belief in quietening schools using old-fashioned punishment. And soon enough, the downsides of those approaches began to surface: eye-watering numbers of kids either suspended or excluded by their school, the grim use of isolation booths and claims that the transfer of so many former council-maintained schools to multi-academy trusts (Mats) had led to a deep crisis in accountability.John Harris is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Shooter was arrested and an all clear' was given about two hours after base outside Augusta went into lockdownA US army base in Georgia was locked down on Saturday after a person was shot and killed in what authorities described as an isolated incident.The shooter was arrested and an all clear" was given about two hours after Fort Eisenhower went into lockdown, the installation's operations center said on social media. Continue reading...

It's an enduring dilemma, this becoming-a-parent thing. It's never a good time to embark on parenthood

Reaction to Brian Thompson's killing shocked pundits but a polarized US is united in contempt for health systemJust over a week ago no one knew who Luigi Mangione was. After he was revealed as the alleged assassin of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, on 4 December, he quickly became one of the most polarizing figures in American pop culture.To some, he's an anticapitalist arch villain. To others, he is a Marxist folk hero exacting revenge against the unchecked avarice of American medical insurance companies. To yet more, he's a damaged young man struggling with a variety of intense health issues, whose family and friends desperately tried to reach out to him after he disappeared in the weeks and months before the killing. Continue reading...

Largest private employer in US pledged to tackle inequities after George Floyd murder but has now dropped initiativesA year after the murder of George Floyd, Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart had a warning for corporate America. The death of Floyd triggered a wave of protest over systemic racism and was not an isolated event. We have a long history of racism, and we see unacceptable events continue."Walmart and other large US corporations made pledges to address inequities within their business, ones many feared would be dropped once the focus on Floyd's killing and its aftermath faded. We can't let that be the case," he wrote, outlining how the company was releasing its diversity metrics twice a year" and calling on companies to continue to address systemic racism and the structural inequities that are rooted in this nation's history of slavery and that persist today". Continue reading...

Self-serving meddling by Israel, Turkey and other foreign powers puts the revolution at risk. They should back off nowUnited in duplicity, if nothing else, Russia, Iran, Turkey and the US - key external players in Syria's long-running drama - all agreed. The country's sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity" must be respected and maintained, each separately declared last week after Bashar al-Assad's sudden, welcome downfall.Even Israel, recklessly bombing Syria to blazes in the Jewish state's largest ever military operation, denied it was interfering in the country's internal affairs. Such cynicism is breathtaking. Like ravening wolves, supposed friends and neighbours tug at the still twitching corpse of the deposed regime. Unchecked, they could tear Syria apart, again. Continue reading...

Former House speaker underwent surgery at a US military hospital after injury during visit with bipartisan delegationThe former US House speaker Nancy Pelosi had a hip replacement on Saturday at a US military hospital in Germany after falling while at an event in Luxembourg with other members of Congress.Pelosi, 84, is well on the mend," said Ian Krager, a spokesperson for the California Democrat. Continue reading...

James Wynn takes rare step after two trial court judges do the same, prompting conservative complaintsA US appeals court judge has taken the rare step of revoking his decision to retire from active service on the bench, depriving Donald Trump of the ability to fill a judicial vacancy.US circuit judge James Wynn, an appointee of Barack Obama on the fourth US circuit court of appeals based in Richmond, Virginia, disclosed his decision in a letter to Joe Biden on Friday. Continue reading...

Chuck Hildebrandt, 63, of Chicago says he tried to return Baseball's Zaniest Stars while in Warren for ThanksgivingFifty years later, a man who grew up in suburban Detroit tried to return a very overdue baseball book to his boyhood library.The answer: you can keep it - and no fine. Continue reading...

Chris Smith said he was looking into letting police down the drones, some of which were spotted near military basesA Republican representative from New Jersey called on federal officials on Saturday to address the many recent drone sightings in the state.For weeks, we have asked for the truth and actions to mitigate all threats to people and property," Chris Smith said at a news briefing. Now, we are demanding it." Continue reading...

Former California lawmaker accused the FBI of conspiring against Trump during Russian election interference inquiryDonald Trump on Saturday named ally Devin Nunes, a former US lawmaker who now runs Trump's Truth Social social media platform, to serve as chair of the president's intelligence advisory board.Nunes, a longtime Trump defender who led the US House of Representatives intelligence committee during part of Trump's first White House term, will remain Truth Social CEO while serving on the advisory panel, Trump said in a post on the platform. Continue reading...

In a New York Times essay, Andrew Witty also says slain healthcare CEO Brian Thompson cared about customersThe leader of the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, whose chief executive officer was shot to death outside a New York City hotel on 4 December, conceded that the US's patchwork health system does not work as well as it should".But in a guest essay published by the New York Times, UnitedHealth Group's CEO, Andrew Witty, maintained the slain Brian Thompson cared about customers and was working to make the system better. Continue reading...

Michael Conahan was convicted of accepting $2.8m for jailing more than 2,300 children, some as young as eightVictims of a former Pennsylvania judge convicted in the so-called kids-for-cash scandal are outraged by Joe Biden's decision to grant him clemency.In 2011, Michael Conahan was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison after he and another judge, Mark Ciavarella, were found guilty of accepting $2.8m in illegal payments in exchange for sending more than 2,300 children - including some as young as eight years old - to private juvenile detention centers. Continue reading...

Senate minority leader contracted the disease as a child, before the wildly successful vaccine was licensedUS Senate minority leader and polio survivor Mitch McConnell has condemned attempts to undermine the polio vaccine after reports that a lawyer affiliated with Robert F Kennedy Jr - the health secretary pick for Donald Trump's second presidency - petitioned for the Food and Drug Administration to revoke its approval of the vaccine.In a statement reported by numerous outlets on Friday, McConnell, who contracted the disease as a child in 1944 - 11 years before the licensing of the world's first polio vaccine - said: The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives and held out the promise of eradicating a terrible disease. Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed - they're dangerous." Continue reading...

The USPS was a target during his first administration, and it might now be on the chopping block due to financial lossesDonald Trump in recent weeks has expressed a keen interest in privatizing the US Postal Service (USPS) because of its financial losses, the Washington Post reported on Saturday, citing three people with knowledge of the matter.Trump, who begins his second US presidency on 20 January, has discussed his desire to privatize the USPS with Howard Lutnick, his pick for commerce secretary, at his Mar-a-Lago home, the report said. Continue reading...

Only the disgraced prince would be daft enough to invite an alleged spy for China to his 60th birthday partyHere's a festive quiz for all the family.Is Prince Andrew: Continue reading...

Trump has vowed to usurp authority of the city, which he has openly disparaged - and the feeling is generally mutualBoth a senator and a pastor, Raphael Warnock reflected on being asked to give closing remarks at an annual congressional dinner in Washington. Since we are meeting in what used to be the Trump International Hotel," he mused, perhaps it is an exorcism".That was last year, when the ghost of Donald Trump had seemingly been banished for good from the nation's capital. But like all the best horror movies, there is going to be a sequel. Next month Trump will return to a city that he has openly disparaged - the feeling is generally mutual - when he is inaugurated as the 47th US president. Continue reading...