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When even some of the rich are warming to taxes on wealth, why is the Labour party still reluctant to propose them?

Federal regulators say quirky signs such as Hocus pocus, drive with focus' can distract drivers and will be phased out by 2026Use Yah Blinkah". Don't drive star-spangled hammered". Hocus pocus, drive with focus".Thanks to federal regulators, the slogans will no longer appear on highway signs across the United States as of 2026. Continue reading...

Pakistan says attacks killed two children in unprovoked violation' of its airspace, adding to instability sparked by Israel-Gaza war. Plus, the parents suing US social media firms after their children's death

The result of the Iowa caucuses was an easy tale foretold. But Trump's triumph over his legal troubles is far from certainDonald Trump's most dangerous race is not with other Republican candidates, but against the law. In his political match, he faces no serious contest. His victory in the Iowa caucuses results was crushing. But in his legal trials, he is on the run. For Trump, the legal is the political.The calendars overlap. His overarching strategy is not so much calculated to defeat his feeble Republican opponents but to delay his trials by any gambit necessary. The delays give him space to depict himself as a martyr, taking the slings and arrows for his believers, who are his hope to rescue him.Sidney Blumenthal is a Guardian US columnist. He is a former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, has published three books of a projected five-volume political life of Abraham Lincoln: A Self-Made Man, Wrestling With His Angel and All the Powers of Earth Continue reading...

My dad was completely flooded in on his boat, with just a ukulele and three potatoes to tide him over. A bad situation, certainly - but still a better bet, perhaps, than those of us living in bricks and mortarMy dad lives on a boat. Despite the earrings, tattoos, missing teeth and bare feet, he is not a pirate - just a man with an expensive divorce and a public sector job, living in one of the most unaffordable cities in the UK.This month, his mooring in Oxford was hit by the kind of flood described as once in 100 years". Except the same thing happened 10 years ago. And three years before that. All along the same stretch of water. Continue reading...

Church leaders in 2016 crafted a palatable Trump - in return, he gave them institutional power and a supreme court that overturned RoeIowa Republicans showed up 15 January in force for Donald Trump, voting overwhelmingly in the nation's first primary for the former president, whose grip on his party has only deepened as he weathers numerous lawsuits and 91 felony charges relating to his business dealings and involvement in attempts to overthrow the 2020 election. The Iowa caucuses confirmed polls that have consistently shown Trump carrying a comfortable lead ahead of the remaining Republican challengers.Before the caucuses, Florida governor Ron DeSantis repeatedly reminded voters and the press that he had toured all of Iowa's 99 counties. Trump won 98 of them. With the exception of college graduates and voters under thirty, who for the most part caucused for DeSantis or former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, most other demographic groups reported strong support for Trump this year. Continue reading...

Represented by Teamsters, 5,000 workers at Anheuser-Busch's breweries prepare to strike after 99% voters favor authorizationWorkers who make Bud Light and other top-selling beers are threatening to strike in demand of significant wage increases, job security and improvements to retirement and benefits in the first big union contract battle of 2024.Five thousand workers, represented by the Teamsters at 12 Anheuser-Busch breweries in the US, are threatening to strike after voting 99% in favor of a strike authorization last month. Their current union contract is set to expire on 29 February. Continue reading...

The US was the first country to introduce substitutions and the backpass law. Here are five other innovations worthy of consideration for a wider rolloutSoccer in the US has continually experimented over the years, trying to find a balance between the game experienced around the world and serving up a uniquely Americanized product to its domestic audience, with rules echoing those found in the nation's major sports leagues.Some changes were revolutionary and stuck around - a rudimentary form of the backpass rule was an innovation of the North American Soccer League in the 1980s, for example, long before it was adopted throughout the game in 1992; likewise the use of substitutes, which was pioneered by the American Soccer League in the 1920s more than three decades before the idea was written into the laws of the game internationally. Continue reading...

The wife of San Francisco fullback Kyle Juszczyk was the designer of the puffy winter coat worn by Taylor Swift that went viral over the weekendFor one night at least, San Francisco 49ers All-Pro fullback Kyle Juszczyk was not the biggest star in his family.All it took was pop superstar-turned-Chiefs fan Taylor Swift wearing a puffy winter coat designed by Juszczyk's wife, Kristin, that looked like the jersey of Swift's boyfriend, tight end Travis Kelce, to a playoff game in frigid Kansas City on Saturday night. Continue reading...

Senator's bid to make US military support conditional on whether Israel is violating human rights in Gaza fails by 72 votes to 11US senators have defeated a measure, introduced by Bernie Sanders, that would have made military aid to Israel conditional on whether the Israeli government is violating human rights and international accords in its devastating war in Gaza.A majority of senators struck down the proposal on Tuesday evening, with 72 voting to kill the measure, and 11 supporting it. Although Sanders' effort was easily defeated, it was a notable test that reflected growing unease among Democrats over US support for Israel. Continue reading...

Anderson Aldrich plans to plead guilty to federal charges with an agreement that would allow him to avoid the death penaltyThe shooter, who killed five people and endangered the lives of over 40 others at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs, plans to plead guilty to new federal charges for hate crimes and firearm violations under an agreement that would allow the defendant to avoid the death penalty, according to court documents made public Tuesday.Anderson Aldrich, 23, made a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to 50 hate crime charges and 24 firearm violations, the documents show. Aldrich would get multiple life sentences in addition to a 190-year sentence under the plea agreement, which needs a judge's approval. Continue reading...

ABC forced to cancel after Nikki Haley says she will not take part unless Trump, who has not participated so far, does the sameABC News has cancelled the next Republican presidential debate after Nikki Haley said she would not appear on stage unless Donald Trump takes part.Trump has refused to participate in any of the Republican primary debates so far, making Ron DeSantis the only candidate committed to Thursday's event in New Hampshire. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. You can follow latest updates on the Senate vote hereNikki Haley has said in a new campaign advert attacking Donald Trump and Joe Biden that she is the better choice" for America, as the former South Carolina governor tries to regain momentum after narrowly losing to Ron DeSantis in the Iowa caucuses.Haley puts herself forward as the better choice than Biden and Trump, whom the narrator in the ad suggests are the two most-disliked politicians in America". Continue reading...

Lawyer for magazine columnist says Trump emboldened his followers to threaten and smear her after she accused him of rapeDonald Trump used his platform while he was US president to try to wreck E Jean Carroll's name after she accused him of rape, her lawyer argued in a New York court on Tuesday, adding that Trump had also emboldened hardline followers to hurl smears and threats at her.He had the biggest microphone on the planet ... He used it to tear her reputation to shreds - to defame her," Shawn Crowley, one of Carroll's attorneys, said during opening statements in the former Elle columnist's second defamation trial against Trump, which opened in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday afternoon. Continue reading...

Biden received 1,648 fewer votes than he should have and Trump was awarded 2,327 too many, county director of elections saysAs Donald Trump continues to pursue the lie that his 2020 presidential election defeat was the result of electoral fraud, elections officials in Virginia have admitted some results there were improperly reported - resulting in an artificially inflated total for Trump while votes were actually taken away from Joe Biden.Eric Olsen, director of elections for Prince William county, said: Election results were improperly reported by the previous administration during the 2020 election. Continue reading...

Trump had an overwhelming victory and is leading polls in other states, it's not clear where DeSantis can regain momentumMinutes after his second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses was confirmed, Ron DeSantis came onstage in a hotel ballroom to declare that everything was going according to plan in his campaign to win the Republican presidential nomination.They threw everything but the kitchen sink at us," the Florida governor told a crowd of supporters who had made liberal use of a nearby cash bar on Monday evening, in the hours they waited for him to speak in West Des Moines. Continue reading...

Woman accuses James Dolan of orchestrating Los Angeles meeting in which Weinstein, she says, perpetrated vicious' assaultThe owner of the New York Knicks basketball team pressured a massage therapist into sex and then set her up for a vicious" assault by the convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein, a lawsuit filed in California on Tuesday alleged.James Dolan - a friend and former business associate of the disgraced Hollywood producer Weinstein - trafficked the woman, Kellye Croft, then aged 27, for purposes of sex induced by force, fraud, or coercion", according to federal court papers filed in California. Continue reading...

The flying wing has trashed the dreams of thousands of Wales rugby fans and the odds are stacked him making it in American footballSo you're 22 years old. You have always enjoyed watching American football and you have just had an offer to head to Florida to gauge your potential to make it in the megabucks NFL. No guarantees but there is an awful lot of cash on offer if you can crack the code. Do you say: Yes, please"? Or do you say: No, awfully sorry, we're playing Castres in the Challenge Cup on Friday"?Place yourself in the fastmoving boots of Louis ReesZammit and, in deepest darkest January, you can see immediately why the ultimate American dream might appeal: if I'm good enough, sweet; if not, at least I gave it a go in my athletic prime. As LRZ made clear in his hastily written farewell note, this sort of life-changing opportunity does not come around every day. Continue reading...

At least 60 targets in Houthi areas of Yemen were hit but the rebels say attacks will continue until Israel stops its Gaza warThe two-month campaign by Houthi rebels against commercial ships in the Red Sea has caused severe disruption to global shipping.The US and UK have responded with a series of strikes against Houthi targets aimed at stopping further attacks and protecting trade through the crucial shipping route. Continue reading...

Ruling marks victory for Biden government and its effort to preserve lower cost airline tickets for American consumersA federal judge has blocked JetBlue Airways' $3.8bn takeover of the budget carrier Spirit Airlines, agreeing with the US Department of Justice that the deal would knock competition and limit the availability of low-priced tickets.William Young, a US district judge in Boston, concluded that passengers who rely on Spirit's cheaper fares would likely be harmed" by the acquisition. His ruling - a victory for the Biden administration - raises questions over other planned deals in the airline sector. Continue reading...

Appeal from Indiana school hoped court would not require allowing trans students to use bathrooms of their choosingThe US supreme court has decided it will not hear a case centering on the debate over bathrooms for transgender students.The decision came on Tuesday despite an appeal from Indiana's metropolitan school district of Martinsville.The Associated Press contributed to this report Continue reading...

A cult of personality has ensured that believers are blinded to the means employed by the former president to take powerBefore voters in Iowa kicked off the US presidential election cycle on Monday, Donald Trump shared a bizarre campaign video on his Truth Social platform that declared him to be God's chosen emissary on Earth, sent to deliver prosperity to America. It seemed unlikely that evangelicals in a rural state would buy into such narcissism. Sadly, Mr Trump has blinded believers to the means and fixed their gaze on the ends. Despite being charged with 91 felonies in four criminal cases, he won an unprecedented majority of Republican caucus-goers.The rest of the Republican electorate doesn't always follow Iowa's lead. This, however, is a small comfort. In 2016, Mr Trump lost out to Ted Cruz in the state before winning his party's nomination with a mendacious, racist, misogynistic campaign that encouraged violence and dealt in the politics of personal insult. Hisspell in office did not mellow him. His 2024 campaign picked up where his last one ended - by brazenly attempting to use his efforts to overturn the2020 election result as a rallying cry.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...

Donald Trump leads a big field of Republican hopefuls seeking to best Joe Biden or one of his long-shot challengers in the 2024 electionThe 2024 election promises to be historic as a long slate of Republican candidates seek to unseat the sitting president, Joe Biden. After the pandemic changed the way Americans campaigned and voted four years ago, and three years after thousands of rioters waged violent protest at the nation's Capitol to upend the last election's results, the US will face new obstacles in carrying out the democratic process.Here is the list of candidates in the primary elections. The first caucus was held on 15 January in Iowa. The next primary will take place on 23 January in New Hampshire. Continue reading...

Trump is gliding to the nomination - and promising a lot of troubling things to his votersThere were no surprises out of Iowa. Donald Trump had led the state's polls by about 30 points and current tallies suggest that he's won by about that much.The voters who braved the bitter cold to officially kick off the Republican primary were, plainly, exactly the ones the former president needed and wanted - ABC's entrance polls registered immigration and the economy as their top issues and additionally found that 63% of caucus-goers would consider Trump fit for the presidency even if he were convicted of a crime. All of this was predictable; all of it suggests that the time and energy the candidates and the media alike have spent hyping up this first contest - and perhaps this primary campaign as a whole - have been mostly wasted.Osita Nwanevu is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Trump's victory in Iowa intensifies skepticism that any of his opponents will be able to overtake him in the Republican primaryDonald Trump will continue on to the New Hampshire primaries more confident than ever about capturing the Republican nomination after the former president secured a 30-point win in the Iowa caucuses on Monday.Trump won 51% of the vote in Iowa, giving him the largest margin of victory in the history of the state's Republican caucuses, further securing his position as the Republican frontrunner who will face President Joe Biden in November. Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, secured a distant second-place finish with 21% of the vote, while Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador, trailed in third place with 19%. The entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who came in fourth, dropped out of the race following his disappointing performance, as did the former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson. Continue reading...

Sewing is an anti-consumerist act, self-sufficient, creative and thrifty. It means I don't contribute to sweated labour, and I don't have to know my dress sizeBeing able to sew is radical, liberating and canny, which is why I've taught my six-year-old to fix his own socks.This may sound like the overzealous justification of someone who as a schoolgirl took more interest in making her own trousers than in how to create a spreadsheet, but I truly believe that the skill of sewing opens the door to a lifetime of self-sufficiency, creativity and thrift. Being able to sew my own clothes means I haven't had to go into a high street clothes shop for well over a year; I haven't had to stare at my naked, quaking flesh in a changing room mirror; I haven't contributed to the sweated labour of the global south or the environmental devastation wreaked by the fashion industry.Nell Frizzell is the author of Holding the Baby: Milk, Sweat and Tears from the Frontline of Motherhood Continue reading...

Former Arkansas governor, a stalwart conservative, was willing to sharply criticize Donald TrumpThe former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, a stalwart conservative willing to sharply criticize Donald Trump, has suspended his beleaguered bid for the White House the day after the Iowa caucuses.My message of being a principled Republican with experience and telling the truth about the current front runner did not sell in Iowa," he said in a statement. I stand by the campaign I ran. I answered every question, sounded the warning to the GOP about the risks in 2024 and presented hope for our country's future." Continue reading...

Rex Heuermann was indicted for killing Maureen Brainard-Barnes, whose remains were found in marshland along Gilgo BeachThe accused Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann has been indicted on a new murder charge in the killing of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who investigators believe was the first of the Gilgo Four" to be killed, according to an indictment unsealed on Tuesday.The unsealing of the indictment came after authorities announced Heuermann would face a major development" in the investigation of the Gilgo Beach killings, which all targeted sex workers and lay unsolved for more than a decade. Continue reading...

Family members believed loved ones are followers of group founded by Rashad Jamal, a convicted child molesterSix people - including two children - who disappeared from their homes in eastern Missouri last summer are believed to be in the clutches of an eccentric online cult run by a convicted child molester, police say.Family members of those missing are also convinced their loved ones are followers of a group founded by Rashad Jamal, a rapper and self-styled new age prophet serving an 18-year sentence in Georgia after his conviction in August. Continue reading...

Kamala Harris reminds voters of Trump's role in overturning Roe v Wade as unstated core of campaign is Biden can beat him again

In dark times, these are the heroes we need: one crash-landed, the other has a Boeing 707 in his driveway. The prince is in good companyLovers of full-combat Prince Harry rows will be positively looping the loop over the latest one, which has drawn former British military chiefs out of the woodwork to fume about the prospect of the Duke of Sussex being named a living legend of aviation" this Friday in Beverly Hills. Prince Harry flew as an army helicopter co-pilot and gunner while serving in Afghanistan, but some people just will not countenance the idea that he's a millennial Douglas Bader. He is not a living legend of aviation," thundered erstwhile first sea lord and chief of the naval staff Admiral Lord West. To suggest he is, is pathetic. It makes the whole thing seem a bit of a nonsense if they're willing to pick someone like Prince Harry."Sorry, Lord West, but I don't see it. A living legends of aviation" ceremony, presented by John Travolta, who has not just a Gulfstream but a private Boeing 707 quite literally parked in his Floridian driveway? Induction into a hall of fame where fellow living legends of aviation" include Morgan Freeman (only got his pilot licence at 65) and Harrison Ford (once crash-landed his plane on a Californian golf course)? Fellow 2024 honorees including Jeff Bezos's fiancee, Lauren Sanchez? Again, I'm really going to need his lordship to elaborate on his policy position on this one. How can the whole thing" seem a bit of a nonsense"? And that's even before you consider the fact that the awards host, Travolta, famously once danced at the White House with the award recipient's mother, and retrospectively called this probably the best moment of the 80s". (A look at John's film credits for the decade will certainly confirm this.)Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The actor's suggestion in a roundtable interview is more common sense than provocation, the phrase speaking to a homophobic media that no longer calls the shotsAndrew Scott is capable of many things but giving a dull interview seems not to be among them. Last year, he was splendidly decrying the tyranny of the standing ovation in modern theatre (I strongly believe that if people don't feel like standing up, they shouldn't"). Now, in one of those cosy Hollywood Reporter roundtable discussions which proliferate during awards season, he has challenged a piece of outdated rhetoric from an era when queerness was synonymous with shame.The moment arose when the moderator Scott Feinberg singled out Scott, who stars in Andrew Haigh's All of Us Strangers as a screenwriter magically reunited with the parents who died when he was 12, and Colman Domingo, who plays Martin Luther King's advisor Bayard Rustin in the Netflix biopic Rustin, as openly gay actors playing openly gay characters who are at the centre of important films". The remark was intended as a way in to a discussion about representation, though at no point did he refer to the other performers present (Robert Downey Jr, Paul Giamatti, Mark Ruffalo and Jeffrey Wright) as openly heterosexual". Continue reading...

How a group of anti-establishment yeshiva students from the Israeli city of Tzfat took control of the Chabad-Lubavitch synagogue in Brooklyn and started diggingLast week, after underground tunnels were discovered near the Chabad-Lubavitch synagogue in Crown Heights and attempts by synagogue officials to perform repairs were prevented by a group of yeshiva students, a mini-riot broke out after police showed up to restore order. A group of rowdy yeshiva students was seen smashing down a wall at the most cherished site of the Chabad movement.The incident made headlines and primetime TV news from Reykjavic to Mumbai and beyond. Antisemitic conspiracy theories on the internet went into overdrive, alleging the tunnels were used for everything from child sexual abuse to secret animal sacrifices. Even well-meaning observers wondered: what in God's name was going on there? Continue reading...

In my darkest hour, my obstetrician used his moral compass in a way that has shaped my entire approach to patient careNearing the end of his life, a patient tells me, If you should ever need it, I hope your doctor is as good to you as you have been to me."It is an unusual benediction.Dear Ranjana,I trust you are coping okay after the very sad events of recent weeks.It must have been so hard.After all the initial good news, to walk into our scan room and be hit with all my news must have been unbelievably tough.Hopefully, we will meet again under more positive circumstances. Continue reading...

Emma Raducanu and Elena Rybakina moved into round two, likewise Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev, while Dan Evans was beaten by Lorenzo SonegoJerry Shang, though - the boy is a superstar. To last five sets against a seasoned pro like McDonald, to come back from 2-1 down, to see it out like that? Oof marone! And he'll fancy himself to win the next round too - and if he does, Carlos Alcaraz most likely awaits. Tasty!He meets the Indian qualifier, Sumit Nagal next; he got rid of Alexander Bublik, the number 31 seed. Continue reading...

Freezing rain and sleet expected to continue across portions of the south-east into Tuesday morning with wind chills below -30FDangerously cold temperatures affected much of the Rockies, Great Plains and midwest on Tuesday, with wind chills below -30F(-34.4C) in many parts of central US.More than 85,000 US homes and businesses were without power early Tuesday, the bulk of them in Oregon after widespread outages that started Saturday. Portland General Electric warned that the threat of freezing rain Tuesday could delay restoration efforts. Transportation officials urged residents to avoid travel as roads were expected to be hazardously slick with ice that could weigh down trees and power lines, causing them to fall. Continue reading...

From Kevin de Bruyne's instant impact to Chelsea's PR stunt, we hand out honours (and dishonours) from the Premier League weekendIt would have been hard to script it any better. After missing five months with a hamstring injury, Kevin De Bruyne came off the bench against Newcastle to turn a 2-1 defeat into a 3-2 victory, providing a goal and an assist. Continue reading...

Top court to hear appeal from Oregon city after appeals panel ruled city could not remove unhoused people from public spacesThe US supreme court will be reviewing an appeals court ruling that officials in cities across the west say bar them from removing unhoused people from public spaces when there are no shelter beds available.On Friday, the supreme court agreed to hear an appeal from the city of Grants Pass, in south-west Oregon, where in 2022 a three-judge ninth circuit of appeals panel ruled that the city could not enforce it's anti-camping ordinance that barred people from using any sort of shelter or bedding equipment on public property.Associated Press contributed to this report Continue reading...

Former president a step closer to Joe Biden rematch, as Ron DeSantis edges out Nikki Haley for distant second place finish. Plus, who won at the delayed 2023 Emmy awardsGood morning.Donald Trump has won an overwhelming victory in the US's first election contest of 2024, easily fending off a winnowed field of Republicans in the Iowa caucuses.How much did Trump win by? With an estimated 99% of the vote counted, Trump was on 51%, DeSantis 21.2%, and Haley 19.1%. The former president smashed the previous record margin of victory in a competitive Republican presidential race in the state, which stood at 12 percentage points.What's next? The New Hampshire primaries are next and Trump will be more confident than ever about capturing the Republican nomination following last night's success.What's happening in Gaza? The Israeli military said on Tuesday its troops killed dozens of Palestinian militants around the town of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza and also uncovered about 100 rocket launchers.What else is happening? Israel's defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said today that the country's intense military operation in southern Gaza was nearing its end. However, Gallant said Hamas would not agree to release any more hostages without continued military pressure. Continue reading...

Dean Phillips gave ex-president praise and criticism and repeated that Biden cannot defeat Trump in the election later this yearDean Phillips, the Minnesota congressman mounting a long-shot challenge to Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination, praised the Trump White House for its outreach on issues and legislation he worked on and said he had not seen any of that reach-out by the Biden White House".I don't believe that we've had a president recently that invested in the way one needs to develop ... those relationships and that work ethic," Phillips told Johanna Maska, host of the Press Advance podcast and a former aide to Barack Obama. Continue reading...

Philip Anschutz has hosted rightwing justice at resort and stands to benefit if court strips power from federal regulatory agenciesTwo days before oral arguments in a US supreme court case set to have a major impact on federal health and environmental regulation, a leading government watchdog called on Neil Gorsuch to recuse himself over close links to a billionaire oil baron who has hosted the rightwing justice at a mountain resort called Eagles Nest for weekends of dove shooting and who stands to benefit from the ruling at hand.Not only would overturning Chevron deference strip power from federal agencies, harming their ability to serve everyday Americans - but now, we know billionaire oil baron Philip Anschutz would score big from a favourable ruling by his friend on the high court," said Caroline Ciccone, president of Accountable.US. Continue reading...

Donald Trump won the US's first election contest of 2024, easily fending off a field of Republicans who failed to gain traction against the former US president. The result for Trump was called quickly, while the battle for second place took much longer, with Ron DeSantis edging out Nikki Haley in an upset. Vivek Ramaswamy led the lesser-known pack of contenders, before he dropped out of the Republican nomination race and endorsed Trump

The Miami Heat star, known as much for his breadth of interests off the court as his exploits on it, opens up about his coffee obsession, ongoing bromance with Neymar and country music dreamsJimmy Butler may just be the most fascinating character in American sports today. The Miami Heat guard is at the highest echelon of his craft, a six-time All-Star and one of the NBA's best defensive players, whose ability to dominate in the biggest moments has earned him comparisons to fellow Chicago Bulls alum Michael Jordan. But what truly sets Butler apart from his peers is the fact that his athletic success, including two NBA finals appearances in the last four years, may be the least interesting thing about him. He embodies containing multitudes", and on a Friday morning in December, over a cappuccino, Jimmy Butler doesn't want to talk about basketball.Butler, for starters, wants to talk about coffee. He lights up immediately when I bring up his three-year-old coffee company Bigface and, while listening to him excitedly recount origin trips" he's taken to places like Colombia and Peru - I wanted to learn what it really takes to make coffee, I'm talking from the ground up" - it's easy to forget the 34-year-old is one of the biggest names in professional basketball. He's eager to give recommendations for favorite coffee shops - he name-checks Forin Cafe in Philadelphia, Mammoth Espresso in New Orleans and Hex Coffee in Charlotte among his favorite to visit - and exhibits genuine exuberance when talking about Bigface, which was first conceived in the NBA's Disney World bubble during the coronavirus pandemic when Butler began charging his fellow players $20 a cup for the coffee he brewed in his hotel room. Continue reading...

Former president a step closer to Joe Biden rematch, as Ron DeSantis edges out Nikki Haley for distant second place finish

As they proclaimed his victory, the news anchors muttered it's Donald Trump's party now'. Just like they've done every night since 2016The journalists came in and issued their ritual dispatches from the bucolic midwest, describing the state in terms heavy on sentiment and light on respect. The candidates poured their money and time into the state, with Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida and one-time favorite for the nomination, betting all his hopes on the state. They persisted through an ominous blizzard and through the punishing cold of a plains winter to make it to the high school gyms and recreation centers where the caucuses took place. And they did all this, made all this effort and expense, in order to change absolutely nothing about the race.Trump won the Iowa caucuses handily; the major networks called for him almost as soon as the doors opened. There was never any question that he wouldn't, except perhaps in the mind of the most delusional DeSantis aides. Nikki Haley was in a tight race for second against DeSantis, as each pretends that they are in fact really running for president - and not, as anyone can see, for the positions of vice-president and attorney general, respectively. Perhaps because Trump's fait accompli has no plot and can't drive ratings, or perhaps because they are in denial, the networks have spent the better part of the past year pretending that there is a legitimate primary contest in the Republican party. There isn't. Continue reading...

In today's newsletter: The first real results of the 2024 presidential campaign are a hammer blow to Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning. Last night, the race for the US presidency formally started - and Donald Trump has won the first round by a landslide. With 99% of votes counted, Trump has 51% of Republican support in the Iowa caucus - a victory of unprecedented dominance for any race not involving a sitting president.Ron DeSantis got 21% of votes, a very distant second place that he tried to present as a success - while Nikki Haley finished a disappointing third with 19% but claimed she now had the momentum to challenge Trump. In truth, though, the result is so decisive that it's all but impossible to see anyone but Trump taking the nomination from here.Conservatives | Rishi Sunak is facing a Conservative meltdown over the Rwanda deportation bill after two deputy chairs said they would support rebel amendments aimed at blocking international human rights laws. Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith have defied the prime minister by backing rightwing challenges to the bill, which will be debated by parliament on Tuesday.Middle East crisis | The Houthi militia group has continued to attack commercial shipping, hitting an American-owned container ship with a ballistic missile in defiance of US and UK strikes on Yemen. While the strike caused no major damage, it will add to fears that the militia group retains the ability to threaten commercial shipping.Rail strikes | Train drivers have called a further week of rolling strikes across England from late January in their long-running dispute with operators over pay. Members of the Aslef union will strike for 24 hours at each train-operating company on the national railway on different days between Tuesday 30 January and Monday 5 February.Security | Hizb ut-Tahrir will be banned from organising in the UK following claims that the group is antisemitic, the home secretary has said. The Islamist group is already banned in several countries including Germany and Indonesia.Emmys | Beef, The Bear and the final season of Succession reigned supreme at the delayed 2023 Emmy awards. Jesse Armstrong's hit HBO drama picked up six awards, including for actors Kieran Culkin, Sarah Snook and Matthew Macfadyen and the night's biggest award for best drama series. See the red carpet fashion and a full list of winners. Continue reading...

Full results as Iowa Republicans chose their candidate for the US electionsThe Republican race for the 2024 presidential nomination began with a surprisingly large field but rapidly winnowed down. Voters flocked to the Iowa caucuses - the first contest in the process - on Monday.In a US election, Republican and Democrats hold contests in each state to decide who their nominee will be in the presidential election in November. The winner in each state gets delegates who vote at the party conventions in the summer to choose their nominee. The state elections are usually called primaries with a simple vote, but in some states the election follows a more complex, meeting-based format known as a caucus. Continue reading...