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The story of former Amazon worker Karolina Sobczak reveals much about the people who keep our society running - at huge personal costIf journalists visit Mansfield at all these days, they come for one thing: the cliches. They want the market town where 70% backed Brexit, the red wall" seat that booted out its Labour MP in 2017 for a private-school boy who called for the poor to be sterilised. They want colliery brass bands, Nigel Farage's beery grin and vox pops about stopping the boats. And they're not alone. For social scientists and thinktankers, Mansfield and its ring of former mining villages make up a petri dish of left-behind" England, of isolation and anger and impoverishment. They're part of that other England, which performs the same role in our politics as the corrections and clarifications column in a daily broadsheet, sweeping up stray mishaps and howlers so as to reassure readers that the rest is true. Yes, there are losers in the Britain of the 2020s - many, many losers - but the model works.Even as the mines closed and the factories shut, Margaret Thatcher as good as guaranteed a jobs boom was on its way. When none came, Tony Blair pledged regeneration. Just outside Mansfield, the New Labour government ploughed 38m of taxpayer money into an old coalmine to attract a buyer. After a company bought the site, the regional development agency was jubilant. It put out a press release promising the new owner would create up to 2,500 jobs - more than existed at the time when [the] colliery was operating at full capacity".In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.orgAditya Chakrabortty is a Guardian columnistDo 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...

Ryan Borgwardt pretended to drown so he could leave wife and children and flee to Europe, Green Lake authorities saidA Wisconsin man who faked his own drowning this summer so he could leave his wife and three children is living in eastern Europe and has been communicating with authorities, a sheriff said on Thursday.Ryan Borgwardt has been talking with law enforcement since 11 November after disappearing for three months, Mark Podoll, the Green Lake county sheriff, said at a news conference. Podoll later showed a video that Borgwardt had sent the sheriff's office that day. Continue reading...

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Ex-Florida attorney general is longtime Trump ally and was one of his lawyers during first impeachment trialDonald Trump announced that he would nominate for attorney general Pam Bondi, the former Florida state attorney general, hours after the former representative Matt Gaetz withdrew in the face of opposition from Senate Republicans who had balked over a series of sexual misconduct allegations.The move to name Bondi reflected Trump's determination to install a loyalist as the nation's top law enforcement official and marked another instance of Trump putting his personal lawyers in the justice department. Continue reading...

Police say man, believed to be under influence of drugs, walked into ER restroom in Upland and did not come outA patient believed to be under the influence of drugs caused chaos at a California hospital when he climbed into the ceiling of an emergency room, got stuck and had to be freed by firefighters.The Latin Times reported that the unnamed man was a walk-in patient who entered San Antonio regional hospital in Upland and was last seen on surveillance footage entering a restroom. Continue reading...

Carey Dale Grayson was killed on Thursday for 1994 murder by technique that previously caused visible signs of distressAlabama carried out its third execution this year using the controversial new method of nitrogen gas, a technique that in previous state killings caused visible signs of distress.Carey Dale Grayson was put to death on Thursday evening for the 1994 murder of a hitchhiker. The prisoner had a mask strapped to his face through which nitrogen was pumped, causing fatal oxygen deprivation. Continue reading...

After meeting with US senators on Capitol Hill, Gaetz determined that his nomination was 'becoming a distraction to the critical work' of the new Trump administration, he explained on X. 'There's a sense of relief about it of course, I think he did a pretty noble thing frankly, an honorable thing by getting out himself,' said Republican senator from North Dakota, Kevin Cramer. A lawyer who represents two women who say they were paid by Gaetz for sex also said his clients are 'relieved to have this chapter behind them'

Consultancy firm accused of helping opioid makers boost sales, which allegedly contributed to deadly epidemicMcKinsey is in the final stages of negotiating a deferred prosecution agreement to resolve a US criminal investigation into the consulting firm's work helping opioid manufacturers boost sales that allegedly contributed to a deadly addiction epidemic, people familiar with the matter said.McKinsey is in talks to pay more than $600m to resolve the longstanding US Department of Justice investigation, which also encompasses findings of civil violations, the people said. Continue reading...

The international criminal court has issued arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's former defence minister Yoav Gallant and the late Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif over alleged war crimes committed in Gaza. The US, which is not an ICC member, has previously welcomed ICC war crimes warrants against Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials for atrocities committed in Ukraine

The fall of the Florida congressman who was accused of sexual misconduct proves there is one rule for Trump and another for everyone elseWhen he ran for US president in 2016, Donald Trump boasted that he would surround myself only with the best and most serious people", adding: We want top-of-the-line professionals."Second time around, Trump appears to have quality control issues. On Thursday Matt Gaetz, his pick to be attorney general, withdrew from consideration amid allegations including sexual misconduct with a 17-year-old girl, drug use and misappropriating campaign funds. Continue reading...

Allowing Ukraine to use US Atacms missiles for deep strikes may be worth the risk if it hastens negotiationsIt seems like the war in Ukraine is on the brink of escalating to a new level. North Korean troops have joined Russia on the battlefield, Ukraine is striking deep into Russian territory with US-provided weapons, and the Kremlin is yet again making nuclear threats. These developments intensify the sense that this war could spiral out of control. Paradoxically, however, they may also help usher in its end.In October, North Korea added 11,000 troops to the battlefield on Russia's side. The Biden administration said this were an unacceptable escalation. Over the weekend, it approved Ukraine's use of US-provided missiles for long-range strikes into Russia. Russia responded with a new and more threatening nuclear doctrine that says it might use its nuclear arsenal against a non-nuclear country - a not-so-thinly veiled threat to Ukraine.Christopher S Chivvis is a senior fellow and director of the Carnegie Endowment's American statecraft program Continue reading...

In a Washington farce for the ages, the far-right Republican has withdrawn from consideration for US attorney general - how did it happen?Donald Trump decided to nominate Matt Gaetz as attorney general last Wednesday, during a flight home from Washington, where the president-elect had visited Joe Biden at the White House. The pick proved as surprising as it was controversial. Just eight days later, after a week of relentless hullabaloo, Gaetz withdrew from contention.It was a Washington farce for the ages. But how did it happen? Continue reading...

Eliza Cooney, who worked as Kennedy babysitter, speaking not to upend the confirmation ... but for the public record'

Benjamin Netanyahu and his former foreign minister have been accused of heinous crimes. This must mark a turning pointIt is not just Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant who should fear accountability for one of the gravest crimes of our age. If the international criminal court (ICC) had not issued today's arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister and his erstwhile defence minister - and indeed Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif - a global legal order already widely regarded with contempt by much of the world would not have survived.Why? Because of the scale of the alleged crime. Because of the overwhelming body of evidence, not least that accumulated by Palestinian journalists, many of whom acted as the world's eyes and ears on the killing fields of Gaza before being killed by Israel, often alongside their families. And because few crimes in modern history have been so confessed to - boasted about even - by the perpetrators, from leaders at the top to the soldiers unleashing murderous mayhem on the ground. That the evidence for war crimes and crimes against humanity has met the threshold to satisfy the ICC's chief prosecutor, an independent panel of esteemed lawyers and now three pre-trial international judges demonstrates the strength of the case - and that nobody who facilitated this historic abomination can plead ignorance. It is not just Netanyahu and Gallant who should tremble before justice: as well as other Israeli leaders and soldiers, so should the guilty men and women of western governments.Owen Jones is a Guardian columnistDo 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...

Edward Kelley created kill list' of officials who investigated his role in January 6 attack, justice department saysA Donald Trump supporter convicted for his part in the deadly January 6 attack on Congress was convicted a second time, this time for plotting to kill FBI special agents.Edward Kelley, from Tennessee, developed a kill list" of officials who investigated his participation in the January 2021 attack on the US Capitol, the US Department of Justice said, after the conviction was secured on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Critics argue it would give Trump sweeping powers to crack down arbitrarily on his political opponentsThe Republican-controlled US House on Thursday passed a bill that would give the government broad powers to punish non-profit organizations it deems support terrorism".This was the second time members voted on the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, or HR 9495. Last week, after suspending House rules to fast-track the bill, the lower chamber failed to garner the two-thirds majority required to pass. This time, after passing the House committee on rules, the bill - requiring only a simple majority to pass - survived by a vote of 219-184. Fifteen Democrats joined Republicans in supporting the measure. Continue reading...

Ocasio-Cortez accused Republican Nancy Mace of trying to make a buck and fundraise' with her anti-trans restrictions

Putin is an isolated dictator, devoid of scruple. Firing missiles into Russia will only lead to more hardship for the people of UkraineThis is how big wars start, when small ones go wrong. Nato politicians are deliberately playing with fire along the Ukrainian frontier, as UK-made missiles have been launched into Russia for the first time since the beginning of the conflict. The attack came a day after Kyiv used US-supplied long-range weapons to strike within Russia. Every military comment on British and US authorisation of missile attacks on Russia has said the same. They are too little, too late", and unlikely to affect a war that has increasingly turned to Russia's advantage.So why are the attacks happening? The answer of Britain's defence secretary, John Healey, is that he wants to continue doubling down" on Britain's support for Ukraine and give a morale boost to its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, before Donald Trump takes power in Washington. He clearly thinks the obvious risk involved in the escalation is worthwhile.Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Commerce secretary pick has substantial business links with China, raising questions of possible conflict of interest

I'm done with viral videos of men who don't know where a tampon goes. They need to grow up. PeriodI often get annoyed while looking at the internet. It's part of the deal. Usually it's easy to scroll past irritating content and not lose time over it but sometimes this is more difficult - for example when you are experiencing premenstrual syndrome.I say this because for the past few months I've noticed a few online trends that have something in common: periods and irritating me. The first is viral videos of men hooked up to a machine that simulates period pain, applied by what seems to be a merry travelling group of educators who get to make men feel bad as their job (where do I sign up?). Sometimes their partners who have painful periods or endometriosis are also hooked up - the end result is seeing a man groaning in pain and unable to stand while a woman chuckles at how tolerable it is compared with her reality. Continue reading...

Trump's Pentagon pick accused of 2017 sexual assault after Republican women's conference in CaliforniaA woman told police that she was sexually assaulted in 2017 by Pete Hegseth after he took her phone, blocked the door to a California hotel room and refused to let her leave, according to a detailed investigative report made public late on Wednesday.Hegseth, a Fox News personality and Donald Trump's nominee to be defense secretary, told police at the time that the encounter had been consensual and denied any wrongdoing, the report said. Continue reading...

A deep and searching debate on the Democratic party's approach to foreign affairs is now urgentIn domestic political terms, the foreign policy of the Biden administration has proved almost unimaginably successful - for Donald Trump, whom it enabled to run for president as the representative, however mendaciously so, of foreign policy restraint. A deep and searching debate on the Democratic party's approach to foreign affairs is now essential.Since the second world war there has only rarely been a significant difference between the Democrats and Republicans on foreign policy. The most significant divergence around the time of the backlash against the Vietnam war (initiated by a Democratic administration) and Watergate. This, however, lasted barely a decade.Anatol Lieven is director of the Eurasia programme at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and author of Climate Change and the Nation State: The Realist Case Continue reading...

The pronatalist movement in the US is gathering pace once again, rekindled by Silicon Valley personalities and hard-right conservatives who are becoming increasingly vocal about whether or not women are having enough babies. But it's not just in the US, some governments in other countries have launched marketing campaigns encouraging people to have more children, while others have offered financial incentives. But while many of these policies claim to be about halting population decline, there are other factors at play. Josh Toussaint-Strauss interrogates efforts around the world to boost birth rates, as well as the underlying political motivations, from bodily autonomy to immigration

From the early beatings, to failing to sign the QB's key weapons to long-term deals, to botching a defensive rebuild, Cinci have done most things wrongYou could be forgiven for getting a sense of deja vu watching the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Chargers last Sunday. For the second week in a row, Joe Burrow torched a defense. He hit one eye-popping throw after another. In the final accounting, he threw for 356 yards, three touchdowns and did not turn over the ball. And yet the result was the same: the Bengals lost by one score.What Burrow is doing this season is unprecedented. Never has a quarterback played at such a high level, with such a heavy workload, while being let down by almost everyone around him. Only Tony Romo in 2010 and Aaron Rodgers in 2018 have come close, but even that duo had the benefit of solid protection from their linemen. Burrow does not. Burrow is outpacing every quarterback in the league despite those around him flailing. Continue reading...

Experts warn assuming minority groups will reject a racist candidate ignores nuance, particularly on the economySince Donald Trump won the 2024 US presidential election, many have publicly speculated why people of color - with whom Trump made some gains - would vote for a racist candidate. Throughout his campaign, Trump and his supporters spouted a series of racist remarks aimed at Black and Latino people, immigrants at large, and other marginalized groups. He also promised to utilize the military to carry out mass deportations, ban sanctuary cities, and escalate attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts at the federal level.Swaths of non-white voters still supported Trump at the ballot box. And though this sort of data can vary in reliability, experts agree that Trump made inroads among some minorities despite his bigoted comments. Continue reading...

The two-time cross-country World Cup champion is widely considered the best Nordic skier in US history. This year she has bigger goalsEvery April, Jessie Diggins sits down with her longtime coach, Jason Cork, to discuss the upcoming year. After working together for the last 15 years, their trust allows for continual experimentation. We normally don't set outcome goals. It's usually about the process, testing something new," says Diggins, but last year was different."Without the Olympics or world championships overlapping the World Cup season, the two decided to call our shot", and set the sole goal of regaining the Crystal Globe, cross country's top annual honor. Soon after, Diggins relapsed with an eating disorder, nearly missing the start of the 2023-24 season. I had to put all of my goals in a closet and just take it one week at a time," she says. Continue reading...

Panel met but failed to reach decision on releasing report. Plus, Senate rejects Bernie Sanders' efforts to block arms sales to IsraelGood morning.The House ethics committee was deadlocked on releasing a report examining allegations of sexual misconduct against Matt Gaetz, the former Republican representative and Donald Trump's choice to lead the justice department, after the panel met behind closed doors on Wednesday.How did the committee split? Susan Wild, the top Democratic representative on the ethics committee, said the committee, which is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, broke along party lines and could not reach a decision.How many children in Gaza need support? According to the UN children's aid agency, Unicef, there are an estimated 2,500 children in Gaza in urgent need of medical treatment they cannot receive in the territory, where most health infrastructure has been destroyed over the past 14 months of war. It said children were being evacuated from Gaza at a rate of fewer than one a day. Continue reading...

Indian chair of Adani Group, worth about $85bn, accused of agreeing to pay bribes to obtain solar energy contractsGautam Adani, one of the world's richest men, has been indicted in New York over an alleged multibillion-dollar scheme to pay $250m in bribes and conceal it from US investors.Prosecutors charged the chair of the Indian conglomerate Adani Group and two other executives of a renewable energy company with securities fraud and conspiring to commit securities and wire fraud. Continue reading...

In an extract from his new book, Ian Kennedy explains how female players adapted equipment that was suited for their male counterpartsGrowing up in New England, Kelly Dyer was a product of the Bobby Orr explosion. On the streets outside her house, neighborhood kids emulated their hero. Dyer pieced together a set of goalie pads from garbage she found in dumpsters, her sewing kit and shoe glue. Soon, Massachusetts began building more arenas and it was on one of these rinks that Dyer first stepped on the ice.I started as a figure skater because at the time that was the only way girls could get on the ice," Dyer recalls. But my brother David, who's two years older, was a hockey player so I would get off the figure skating rink and run over to the hockey rink to watch. I always wanted to play hockey and begged for two years until my father found Assabet in Concord, the next town over. My first day of skating with Assabet was in my brother's equipment with figure skates."The following is an excerpt from the new book, Ice In Their Veins: Women's Relentless Pursuit of the Puck, by Ian Kennedy. Continue reading...

For 90% of working Icelanders, a 36-hour week means less stress, more job satisfaction and time to enjoy life beyond workI like to walk around old cemeteries and read the headstones. Here in Iceland, it has been customary to engrave people's job titles below their names and as I age I find myself wondering if mine will say Teacher". Although I love my work, I kind of hope it will not.Through the centuries, women's headstones have rarely had titles other than Housewife" or perhaps Wife of [insert husband's job title]". Although today women in Iceland have all sorts of jobs, we have yet to reach full equality. But an important step on that journey has been the shortening of the 40-hour working week to 36 hours.Maria Hjalmtysdottir is an activist and a teacher at a secondary school in Kopavogur, Iceland Continue reading...

The progress' made at Cop29 has been on carbon markets: a world of magical thinking, over-claiming and distorted truthWe now face, on all fronts, a war not just against the living planet and the common good, but against material reality. Power in the United States will soon be shared between people who believe they will ascend to sit at the right hand of God, perhaps after a cleansing apocalypse; and people who believe their consciousness will be uploaded on to machines in a great Singularity.The Christian rapture and the tech rapture are essentially the same belief. Both are examples of substance dualism": the idea that the mind or soul can exist in a realm separate from the body. This idea often drives a desire to escape from the grubby immanence of life on Earth. Once the rapture is achieved, there will be no need for a living planet.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

I personally resent being excluded from protection against monetised fear, anger and toxicity

Moves to advance three resolutions, which would have halted recent sale of $20bn in US weapons to Israel, all failedThe US Senate has blocked legislation that would have halted the sale of some US weapons to Israel, which had been introduced out of concern about the human rights catastrophe faced by Palestinians in Gaza.Senator Bernie Sanders had introduced what are called joint resolutions of disapproval, seeking to block the Biden administration's recent sale of $20bn in US weapons to Israel. Continue reading...

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Brandon Durham was killed last week after reporting home break-in and trying to wrestle knife from hands of womanThe family of Brandon Durham, a Las Vegas man shot and killed in his home by Las Vegas police after contacting 911 report to a break-in, are calling for the officer's arrest.Durham, a 43-year-old realtor and father, called police after midnight on 12 November and said people had broken into his home and were shooting. Continue reading...

Johns Hopkins doctor touted protection from natural immunity and opposed Covid vaccine mandatesDonald Trump is likely to choose the Johns Hopkins surgeon and writer Martin Makary to lead the Food and Drug Administration, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.Makary raised concerns about a number of public health issues during the Covid pandemic, touting the protection from natural immunity and opposing Covid vaccine mandates. Continue reading...

Following statement from Mike Johnson, McBride says: I'm not here to fight about bathrooms, I'm here to ... bring down costs facing families'

Panel met but failed to reach decision on releasing report into Trump's controversial pick for attorney general

Jury had convicted Hwang on criminal charges over Archegos collapse, which cost Wall Street more than $10bnThe former billionaire investor Sung Kook Bill" Hwang was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Wednesday over the collapse of Archegos Capital Management, which cost Wall Street banks more than $10bn.Hwang was sentenced by US district judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan, where a jury convicted Hwang in July on 10 criminal charges including wire fraud, securities fraud and market manipulation. Continue reading...

Members of Congress call on president to pardon or commute sentences before he leaves White HouseMore than 60 members of Congress have written to Joe Biden calling on him to use his presidential clemency powers to reunite families, address unfair sentencing policies, and begin to tackle the scourge of mass incarceration, which they said was eroding the soul of America".Biden has 61 days left before he leaves the White House in which he could pardon or commute the sentences of incarcerated Americans. The letter, signed by a number of prominent Democratic politicians and spearheaded by the progressive politician Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, urges Biden to act while he still can. Continue reading...

Jose Ibarra found guilty of murder in Riley's February death, which fueled a US debate over immigrationA Venezuelan man has been convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole in the killing of the Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, a case that fueled the national debate over US immigration during this year's presidential race.Jose Ibarra was charged with murder and other crimes in Riley's death in February, and the guilty verdict was reached on Wednesday by the Athens-Clarke county superior court Judge H Patrick Haggard. Continue reading...

Lawyers for two women who won $148m defamation judgment make request after Trump lawyer's repeated liesRudy Giuliani should be held in civil contempt for continuing to lie about two election workers to whom he already owes $148m for defaming, lawyers for the two women wrote in a court filing Wednesday.The request comes months after Giuliani agreed in court to never again accuse Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss of election fraud. Despite that agreement earlier this year, Giuliani continued to spread lies about them on his live-streamed show. Continue reading...

Vice-president-elect makes rounds as ethics committee weighs releasing report on Gaetz over sexual misconduct claims