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Broward county state attorney announces plan that could benefit up to 2,600 people convicted in 1988-1990Between 1988 and 1990, the Broward county sheriff's office (BSO) in Florida manufactured and sold crack cocaine as part of a controversial sting operation to arrest people for purchasing the illegal drug. Many of those who are arrested for purchasing the BSO-made drugs were given lengthy prison sentences. The Florida supreme court declared the operation unlawful in 1993, but many people still have criminal charges or convictions on their records.Now, the Broward county state attorney, Harold F Pryor, seeks to bring justice to those affected by the operation. Last week Pryor, the first Black state attorney in Broward and the first Black man to be elected state attorney in Florida, announced plans to vacate as many as 2,600 convictions linked to the drug sting operation. Continue reading...

With inequality and insecurity growing, young men are vulnerable, but in Luton the community is showing them a real alternativeI was 12 years old when the far-right English Defence League (EDL) marched through my town of Luton. Teachers at my all-boys, majority Muslim state comprehensive told us to stay indoors. We were overwhelmingly working-class, the children of taxi drivers and factory workers for whom racist violence was a regular occurrence.Many of us aligned with people organising the counter-demonstrations against the EDL and soon found other common ground. Alongside antifascism, the activists were vocal on foreign policy issues such as Iraq and Palestine, as well as the domestic issue of austerity.Taj Ali is a journalist and historian. He is currently writing a book on the history of British South Asian political activismDo 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...

Company threatens to tear down RenCen if taxpayers don't contribute $250m in subsidies for renovationGeneral Motors is threatening to tear down Detroit's tallest skyscraper currently housing the automaker's headquarters if taxpayers don't contribute $250m in subsidies for a renovation, a move that critics labeled extortion" and has generated public outrage.The riverfront building, called the RenCen, is the centerpiece of the skyline in the world's auto capital. Development observers and the public have also panned the renovation plan in part because it calls for demolishing two of five office towers GM owns in the RenCen complex - they say the automaker could instead convert it to apartments, or find other uses. Continue reading...

Police were called after Luigi Mangione, 26, was recognized in a McDonald's in Pennsylvania. Plus, how April Balascio put her serial killer father behind bars

Ex-DoJ prosecutors fear loyalists Kash Patel and Pam Bondi will pursue Trump's calls for revenge on deep state' foesBy tapping two combative ultra-loyalists to run the FBI and the justice department, Donald Trump has sparked fears they will pursue the president-elect's calls for revenge" against his political foes and sack officials who Trump demonizes as deep state" opponents, say ex-DoJ prosecutors.Kash Patel and Pam Bondi, who Trump has nominated to run the FBI and DoJ, respectively, have been unswerving loyalists to Trump for years, promoting Trump's false claims that his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden was due to fraud. Continue reading...

I asked my doctor for a shot to protect my premature daughter against RSV. Then we realized we didn't qualify for insuranceSince Thursday morning, United Healthcare hasn't left my thoughts - but not for the reason you might think.

The rebrand forces Jaguar's audience to break every habit they had' concerning the once-cool carmaker, experts sayJames Bond. Washington state. Corporate America. Boy scouts. Delta airlines. The Hasbro toy company. College campuses. Emojis. Pizza Hut, Nike, Lego, M&Ms. Bud Light.This is a small selection of the things that Republicans and the rightwing commentariat has branded woke. And in the past couple of weeks, the car company Jaguar has found itself added to that list. Continue reading...

Construction rental group has been listed in London since 1986 but makes nearly all its profits in the US

Several first-grade students wet themselves at Bartlett elementary in Texas due to educator's punishmentA Texas school teacher is reportedly no longer employed" at the local district where she had been working after she prohibited her first-grade class from using the bathroom as punishment - causing several students to urinate on themselves.According to a social media post from a school parent who later spoke to local news outlets, the teacher at Bartlett elementary sent a message to families on Wednesday explaining that her students had lost their privilege to use the restroom during class because they lost their restroom badge while being in the hallway". Continue reading...

Kansas City are 12-1 this season and most of those victories have been by a fine margin. But to dismiss the Super Bowl champions as merely fortunate is unfairThe Kansas City Chiefs have been living a charmed life all season. Coming into Sunday night's game against the Los Angeles Chargers, the two-time defending Super Bowl champions had already set an NFL record with victories in 14 straight one-score games. And their point differential of +54 was the worst of any 11-1 team in pro football history.Sunday night was more of the same. The Chiefs got out to a 13-0 lead, and it seemed for a split second that, for once, they would win a game comfortably. Then, the Chargers came back, and there were three lead changes in the fourth quarter - all on field goals. The game-winner was entirely typical for the Chiefs this season: a 31-yard attempt by backup kicker Matthew Wright, who is in for the injured Harrison Butker. Wright's attempt hooked left, and looked for all the world that it would keep hooking left, leaving Andy Reid's team on the wrong end of a 17-16 score. Continue reading...

CPAC jamboree draws big names from Trump world as Milei positions Buenos Aires as international conservative hubAt the entrance to the office of Argentina's minister of deregulation a biography of the world's most fascinating and controversial innovator" sits on a side table, promising an astonishingly intimate portrait of a rule-breaking visionary".The book's subject is not the minister's boss, the wild-haired, wild-thinking president, Javier Milei. It is the Donald Trump-supporting tech billionaire Elon Musk. Continue reading...

As I spoke to locals, the mood was one of relief - but there are countless tales of loved ones who are not here to help celebrateIn the end, there was no great battle for Damascus, no gruelling siege of the kind we have become accustomed to in Syria's brutal 13-year civil war. It was just an army that melted away and a fleeing president that brought the more than 50-year-long Baathist dictatorship to an end.As Syrians continue to gather to celebrate around Umayyad Square, a new dawn in the country has begun. Further challenges are to come, but for the time being, Syrians can breathe easier. I am a Damascus-based journalist who has been speaking to people on the ground in Syria's freed capital city as they grapple with their new reality. Continue reading...

With Iran suddenly weakened, some will demand regime change in Tehran. Europe's new chief diplomat should pursue nuclear deceleration insteadThe fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria is a momentous event, bringing to an end one of the most brutal dictatorships of the past half-century. But it does not automatically usher in reconciliation and democracy. To be clear: the Middle East was and remains on an escalation path, while Russia's determination to annihilate Ukraine as an independent country is unlikely to be affected by its humiliation in Syria.Within Syria, violence, sectarianism and division are more likely scenarios than peace and stability, especially in the Kurdish-populated north, on which Turkish coercion is likely to increase.Nathalie Tocci is a Guardian Europe columnist Continue reading...

Luigi Mangione, 26, suspected of shooting Brian Thompson, was charged following arraignment in Pennsylvania on gun and forgery charges

The Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, condemned those supporting Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the killing of Brian Thompson, who was the UnitedHealthCare CEO. 'In America, we do not kill people in cold blood to resolve policy differences or express a viewpoint,' said Shapiro

Google removing one-star and disparaging reviews of the Pennsylvania location after police arrested suspectGoogle on Monday removed derogatory reviews about McDonald's after the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealth executive Brian Thompson was arrested at its restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where police say a customer alerted a local employee about him.The negative comments aimed at McDonald's were the latest in what is known as review bombing," where an establishment is hit with a litany of bad reviews based on a political view or an occurrence unrelated to its actual business. Continue reading...

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Brian Thompson's killing in broad daylight was shocking and also sparked a torrent of outrage over US healthcare

Shooter of Brian Thompson, the UnitedHealthcare CEO, was in possession of one made with a 3D printer when arrestedA person of interest has been identified in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Police say they found a ghost gun" made with a 3D printer on the man, who has been charged in Pennsylvania with weapons, forgery and other crimes. The use of this type of firearm - whether made with a printer or bought online as a kit and assembled at home - has grown increasingly common in the past decade in part because they don't have serial numbers and can't be traced by authorities.Here's how they've gone from a pastime of gun enthusiasts and tinkerers to an increasing part of US gun violence - and the subject of a major supreme court case. Continue reading...

Federal indictment, more than five years in the making, claims attorneys and firms collected millions of dollarsIn a blockbuster federal indictment more than five years in the making, two New Orleans-based law firms and their attorneys who specialize in car accident claims have been charged with several others for their roles in staging wrecks, faking injuries and collecting millions of dollars in lawsuit settlements.Among those indicted on Monday is a television stuntwoman-turned-attorney named Vanessa Motta, who in May had two clients criminally charged with helping orchestrate the 2020 shooting death of another client of hers. The slain client of Motta - who was indicted along with her namesake firm - had been cooperating in the federal investigation that produced Monday's indictment. Continue reading...

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Former US marine was abducted in August 2012 while reporting on uprising against Bashar al-AssadThe White House is declaring the recovery of the American journalist Austin Tice a top priority" in the wake of Syrian rebels running the autocratic head of state out of the country, according to national security adviser Jake Sullivan.Sullivan told ABC's Good Morning America on Monday that the US government was actively seeking information about Tice's whereabouts, communicating through Turkish intermediaries and with contacts on the ground in Syria about the journalist who has been missing for over 12 years. Continue reading...

Luigi Mangione, 26, was arrested as a person of interest over the murder of Brian Thompson in New York City. Police said they found a gun with a suppressor, a handwritten manifesto and fake IDs on him. Mangione was eating at a McDonald's in Pennsylvania when an employee recognised him, police said Continue reading...

The president-elect has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, but several key choices have direct links to itOn the campaign trail, Donald Trump repeatedly disavowed Project 2025, saying he had nothing to do" with the blueprint for a conservative presidency and didn't know the people behind it. But as he starts to assemble his cabinet and White House staff, it seems likely he'll get to know the people involved very well soon.Trump's attempts to disavow the project before winning re-election seemed improbable, given that it was written by various members of his first administration and aligned on policy goals with his own proposed second term agenda. Continue reading...

Pope encourages prayers for people with death sentences as pressure grows for Biden to act before Trump takes officePope Francis has called for commutations for people on death row in the US, as religious leaders, civil rights groups and current and former prosecutors urge Joe Biden to take executive action on capital punishment.In his Sunday prayer, Pope Francis, who has been a vocal death penalty opponent, said: It comes to my heart to ask all of you to pray for the prisoners in the United States who are on death row. Let's pray that their sentence would be commuted [or] changed." Continue reading...

The social media-driven success of a pro-Putin candidate confirmed the extent to which Russia's hybrid warfare tactics are now a threatFamously, 2024 has been the biggest election year in history, featuring polls in 72 countries affecting 3.7billion people. In Romania, sadly, it is now destined to be remembered as a year in which democracy was derailed rather than celebrated.The unprecedented move by the country's constitutional court last week to annul the results of the first round of the presidential election, amid allegations of Russian interference, is a landmark moment in the increasingly embattled arena of eastern European politics. The decision followed an astonishing surge to first place by a far-right admirer of Vladimir Putin, who had been polling in low single digits until the eve of the election. According to declassified intelligence reports, Clin Georgescu benefited from a vote that was manipulated by various illicit means, including cyber-attacks and a Russian-funded TikTok campaign. Analysts found that about 25,000 pro-Georgescu TikTok accounts became active only two weeks before the first-round vote. Continue reading...

Some journalists underestimated the threat of the brutal president, while his first lady was glamorised in a Vogue featureAs Bashar al-Assad is ousted as Syria's brutal president, his wife Asma and children having fled to Russia shortly before, the scenes are too astonishing to settle. We can't call it a finished revolution, but we can call Assad's a finished regime and mark the end of the Syrian civil war: 13 years of heinous bloodshed; 580,000 people killed - more than 230,000 of them civilians, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, which attributes about 90% of those non-combatant deaths to Assad's forces.He never looked the type, foreign correspondents say. Adrian Blomfield in the Telegraph calls Assad awkward and gangly, his mannerisms unassuming". John Simpson found him meek and anxious to please". And who could forget how un-bloodthirsty, how incongruous, Asma al-Assad looked? Neat and understated, like a wife in a miniseries. Continue reading...

Former Marine was charged with second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the death of Jordan NeelyA Manhattan jury has acquitted Daniel Penny in the subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely at the end of a weeks-long trial.Penny, a 26-year-old former Marine, was charged in the death of Neely, an unhoused man, which occurred on a New York City subway train last year. Penny held Neely in a lethal chokehold. Continue reading...

President-elect boosts discredited claims peddled by his health secretary pick Kennedy in NBC interviewDonald Trump has said Robert F Kennedy Jr, his nominee for health secretary, may investigate a supposed link between vaccines and autism - despite a consensus among the medical establishment debunking any such connection.In a wide-ranging interview with NBC, the US president-elect claimed an investigation was justified by the increasing prevalence of autism diagnoses among American children over the past 25 years. Continue reading...

FBI investigation under way as residents across US north-east report mysterious aircraft sightings for weeksA spate of mysterious drone sightings have been reported in New York and Philadelphia as the FBI continues investigating similar sightings across New Jersey over the past month.Since mid-November, local residents in several counties in New Jersey have reported seeing clusters of drones - and in recent days, additional drone sightings have been reported in parts of Pennsylvania and New York's Staten Island. Continue reading...

Enzo Maresca's team started the season in chaos and uncertainty. But that was the case the last time they claimed the league crown

Kremlin confirms Assad is in Moscow as people celebrate fall in Damascus. Plus, Jay-Z and Sean Diddy' Combs accused of raping girl, 13, in US lawsuit

President-elect said former Republican representative should go to jail' for role on January 6 committee

It helps me to think of myself as my child's support animal. It doesn't berate or problem solve. It just shows up and sits with the child through their big feelings

New York mayor embroiled in legal troubles raises concerns over his apparent ties to Republican president-electEric Adams was elected New York mayor as a centrist-sounding Democrat. A Black former cop who talked tough-on-crime but fit fairly squarely in the overwhelmingly Democratic politics of the city.But Adams was also always famed for his eccentricities and foibles - scandals over the true extent of his veganism, whether or not he might actually live in New Jersey, and some of the tall tales he would recount from his past. Continue reading...

Florida governor swiftly scheduled primaries to fill posts from Trump picks while Democratic district waited monthsFlorida governor Ron DeSantis has been accused of hypocrisy over his rush to fill Republican House seats vacated by Donald Trump's cabinet picks, as he had previously kept voters in a Democrat-held district waiting for more than nine months.Critics say his scheduling of 28 January primaries in solid Republican districts held by former congressman Matt Gaetz, who resigned during his ill-fated nomination for attorney general, and Mike Waltz, Trump's pick for national security adviser, is a hasty political move designed purely to bolster speaker Mike Johnson's fragile House majority as soon as possible. Continue reading...

The outfielder has reportedly agreed the largest contract in sports history with the Mets. It is a deal that will change baseball and the balance of power in New YorkJuan Soto agreed to a reported 15-year, $765m contract with the New York Mets on Sunday night, the largest contract in the history of professional sports by total value. But as well as the brain-frying amounts of cash involved, it also represents a shift in the dynamics of baseball.The obvious thing to say is that $765m is an obscene amount of money, which it is. But baseball salaries were obscene long before Soto's deal was agreed. The 26-year-old got $65m more than the Los Angeles Dodgers committed to Shohei Ohtani last winter, albeit over a contract that is five years longer. Soto's contract, various reports on Sunday indicated, does not include the kind of deferred payments that comprised almost all of Ohtani's pay from the Dodgers. Soto's contract is a generational haul and could upend the balance of power in an already strong National League East. Continue reading...

Biden is a lame duck, free to do what he wishes. He could start by saving a few - or a few thousand - livesPresident Joe Biden seems intent on demolishing his legacy.For months, the Democrats begged him to drop out of the presidential race. He defied them until the 11th hour. Kamala Harris lost.Judith Levine is a Brooklyn journalist and essayist, a contributing writer to the Intercept and the author of five books Continue reading...

Far from being friendly, like love', duck' and hen', the term is faux-matey with an edge of covert aggressionIt's word of the year" time, so I was hoping to offer you mine, but I appear to have only learned one new expression in 2024: zwizz de cachalot, sperm whale penis, in French-Canadian slang. It came from a TikTok of a woman explaining that the kraken legend might be attributable to sightings of cachalot zwizzes". I'm living evidence of why brain rot" triumphed as this year's Oxford University Press choice.So, instead, I have chosen a word for lexical banishment: buddy. I'll refund that back on to your card, buddy," a car rental operative said to my husband last weekend. My husband didn't notice, or mind, but I found myself stiffening into full flared nostril, Countess of Grantham outrage. How dare you, sir. My spouse is not your buddy'!" (Obviously I didn't actually say anything.) Continue reading...

I'm horrified by the assassination of Brian Thompson. I'm also horrified that we let people die without medical careAssassinations are despicable. I don't much care if the targets are politicians or mafia bosses. It's the method I despise. For those who are old enough to remember the killing of Patrice Lumumba, then JFK, then Malcolm X, then MLK, then RFK, every assassination is (I hate this word) a trigger. Assassinations are destabilizing. The shooting of Archduke Franz Ferdinand set off the first world war. Targeted violence has always been a sign - an augury - that the social order is breaking down. I would have preferred to see Osama bin Laden brought to justice so that we might have understood his methods and motives. I know that trials can be rigged, corrupted, biased, but so far the courtroom is the best place we have in which to decide between guilt and innocence - and to assign an appropriate punishment. Assassination is a death sentence without benefit of judge or jury.All of which is to say that I was deeply horrified by the assassination of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, in cold blood, in broad daylight, in front of the Hilton hotel, in Manhattan.Francine Prose is a former president of PEN American Center and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Continue reading...

New powers to force landlords to let empty shops is a good step - and there are other ways to revitalise these community spacesIf you have been reading anything about high streets recently, the chances are at least some of it included the reporting of another closure or collapse: M&S and Boots shutting stores, banks closing branches, pubs withdrawing. The list is long, and perhaps we would be less concerned if we were all confident that one ailing business would be replaced with another, more dynamic one. But for many of our high streets, that is not the case.Against that gloomy backdrop, a report published at the end of November by the House of Lords' built environment committee makes for refreshing reading, opening with evidence of an optimistic and flourishing future" for our high streets.Holly Lewis is a co-founding partner at the research, urbanism and architecture practice We Made That, and town architect for the London Borough of Hackney Continue reading...

Congressperson shares sympathy in UnitedHealthcare CEO's death but says outpouring ... has not surprised me'Progressive congressperson Ro Khanna has sympathy for murdered UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson - yet at the same time is not surprised that the killing reignited a national dialogue about inequities in the US healthcare system, he said in an interview Sunday.It was horrific," the California Democrat said on ABC This Week with respect to the slaying of Thompson, whose survivors include his widow and two sons ages 16 and 19. I mean, this is a father we're talking about - of two children, and ... there is no justification for violence. Continue reading...

The Giants have some promising players but it's hard to believe that the team's current ownership will appoint the right staff to halt fans' miseryA $1 ticket for an NFL game - or nearly any professional sporting event for that matter - sounds like a phenomenal deal. But most bargains come with a catch and Sunday's was no exception: you had to watch the New York Giants play football.Still, mere pennies to be part of the sights and sounds of an NFL game may be worth it, even if a Giants loss is predetermined. The Giants did indeed lose on Sunday, 14-11 to New Orleans, but the fine print neglected to mention the suffering that would come with watching the team's latest botch job. Continue reading...

There will be perilous days to come and the future is uncertain, but around the world we Syrians are celebratingIt happened so fast. In the evening, about 9:30pm UK time (30 minutes after midnight in Homs), I spotted the first video indicating that my home city was finally free from Bashar al-Assad and his forces. Then a friend shared a link of a man livestreaming from the New Clock Tower Square in Homs. I heard the zaghroutas of women; the chants of men: There is no for ever. There is no for ever. Long live Syria and down with Assad." People started gathering in the square, bringing the memory of the early days of the revolution in 2011, when the people of Homs were inspired by their brothers and sisters in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, but innocent civilians were massacred by the Syrian regime.Now 2011 and 2024 were meeting each other. Two dates that have left in between them mass destruction of cities, and the displacement of more than half of the Syrian population from their homes. Continue reading...

The daily insults and humiliations women are subjected to here are part of a continuum of violence. When will politicians act?What is the thing I do 360 times a year - in other words, almost every day? It's not that easy to say. I probably cook, if warming up leftovers counts. I put my kid to bed, when I'm not doing any work events that collide with bedtime. Almost every day I have the urge to pick up a book, and almost every day I fail. I do my skincare routine, if it's not one of those depressing days when I refuse to look in the mirror. I buy myself a pack of cigarettes. I call my friends. I laugh. I feel bad for not having quit smoking long ago. I take a walk.But most definitely, I'll be humiliated by a cisgender man shouting a slur at me on the bus, belittling my work, touching me without consent or making inappropriate remarks about my body - and I'll choose to keep quiet about it. Peace of mind over a demand for basic decency.Fatma Aydemir is a Berlin-based author, novelist, playwright and a Guardian Europe 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...

Fifa's approval of the Gulf state's proposals for the 2034 football tournament, despite the kingdom's appalling humanitarian record, has been slammed by campaigners

The 40-year-old defended Trump in the New York case which saw him become the first former US president convicted of felony crimesPresident-elect Donald Trump has announced that he is appointing one of his defense attorneys in the New York hush money case as counselor to the president.Alina Habba, 40, defended Trump earlier this year, also serving as his legal spokesperson. Habba has been spending time with the president-elect since the election at his Florida club Mar-a-Lago. Continue reading...