Washington Post reporter says he never made comments to James Comer published in the congressman's new bookThe Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward forcefully denied making statements attributed to him by James Comer, the Republican chair of the powerful House oversight committee, in which Woodward supposedly said Joe Biden was financially corrupt.The statements attributed to me in what is apparently his book are false," Woodward said. I made none of those statements he attributes to me. I repeat none, and not even in a paraphrased form." Continue reading...
Fire is an inextricable part of the region's identity, as the writers knew. But the way this divided city burns has been transformedTalking about fire and Los Angeles is an exercise in repetition. Southern California does have seasons, Joan Didion once noted in Blue Nights, among them the season when the fire comes".Fire in Los Angeles has a singular ability to shock, with its destruction that takes grimly familiar pathways" down the canyons and into the subdivisions. The phrase comes from the writer and activist Mike Davis's 1995 essay The Case for Letting Malibu Burn, and it is as true for the fires as for our talk of the fires. Even our reflections take on that grim familiarity: we cite Didion citing Nathanael West. We fall in with the great writers of this great city who are always so ready to judge it. Continue reading...
Countries that cherish democratic values need to take a stand against the president-elect's throwback to unabashed American expansionismWatching politicians promise one thing, then do another, is a common experience in all democratic countries. Situations in which voters do not expect a politician to keep his word, and in many instances fervently hope and pray he will not, are rarer. Donald Trump, the US president-elect, fits this latter category. When Trump threatens to subjugate Canada, a Nato ally, by force, unilaterally annex Greenland, the autonomous territory of a friendly EU state, and override Panama's sovereignty for bogus security reasons, most people assume he is not serious and his remarks carry little real significance. This response, while comforting, is a mistake.It's entirely possible that Trump, pumped with hype, hot air and testosterone in the lead-up to his 20 January inauguration, is being gratuitously disruptive. He likes to shake things up. It amuses his Make America Great Again (Maga) hyper-nationalist fanclub. It may be that this former property developer and convicted felon, who counts himself a shrewd negotiator, is deliberately raising the stakes before more reasoned discussions about security and trade. But it is also possible Trump means what he says. Continue reading...
Warren Davidson of Ohio says aid should be withheld until the state ravaged by wildfires reforms forestry managementA Republican US congressman from Ohio has called for federal disaster relief to be withheld from California unless the state reforms its forestry management practices that some blame for the rapid spread of wind-fanned fires that broke on Tuesday.Warren Davidson's remarks to Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo on Friday came as California's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, urged officials to avoid politicizing the response to the blazes which had killed people and destroyed thousands of homes. Continue reading...
In another era, the outgoing president would have made a great cold war leader. Instead, his tenure was dogged by errors, naivety and overcautionIn a week when the US bade a sad farewell to Jimmy Carter, presidential legacies came under particular scrutiny. Yet few presidents are widely remembered beyond their lifetimes, their historic" achievements even less so. In the 20th century, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D Roosevelt, John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon make the truly memorable list. Most of the rest are mere school-book names and dates.Joe Biden's standing in this unprepossessing pantheon is now being assessed, as he prepares to depart the White House on 20 January. Like his 44 predecessors, he reportedly frets about his place in history". All presidents do this. It smacks of vanity. They give valedictory lectures, endow foundations, build libraries, write memoirs. They confuse fame with continuing relevance. Continue reading...
Between Elon Musk, a free-for-all Facebook and Donald Trump, truth and decency are likely to have a hard time of it in 2025How did we get to a week in which the world's richest man could label our safeguarding minister and women's rights campaigner Jess Phillips a rape genocide apologist", and the boss of the world's biggest social platforms could abandon moderating even the most despicable content in the US?Let's go back 30 years. It's 1995, cargo pants were slung low, Oasis were riding high. We were all going to Live Forever. And then the New York supreme court ruled against a long-forgotten company called Prodigy, which hosted online message boards. An unknown user had posted a message that the brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont (which had inspired The Wolf of Wall Street) had committed fraud. Stratton Oakmont sued for defamation and a crucial question was asked: was the site that hosted the comment responsible for it, in the way a traditional publisher would be for a comment on its letters page? The court decided that, because Prodigy had moderators and content guidelines, it was responsible. Another company that didn't moderate had previously gone unpunished. Continue reading...
"This is what's left of the home that I grew up in for 31 years," Pacific Palisades resident Greg Benton said as he remembered his recent Christmas celebration with his family in his house. Thousands of Angelenos are returning to their homes to assess the damaged left by five fires which raged through multiple areas of the city. More than 144,000 people are under evacuation orders, local authorities have said
Seething residents are questioning city's preparedness, even as hurricane-force winds and climate crisis created unprecedented calamity conditionsAs a series of wildfires in the Los Angeles area grew into raging infernos, the city's mayor, Karen Bass, was halfway around the world - part of the US delegation attending the inauguration of the new president of Ghana.By the time she returned home on Wednesday, the fires had seared through thousands of acres. They destroyed more than 10,000 structures and killed at least 11. And Bass was facing a barrage of questions and criticism - both from within LA, and outside. Continue reading...
Many in Youngstown, Ohio, believe the president-elect will tackle the town's decline this time. Others are worried about his character flaws. Their concerns help explain how he returned to power - and how his second term might play outThe last time Donald Trump was president, he travelled to Youngstown, Ohio, among the most depressed of America's rust belt cities, and promised voters the impossible.The high-paying steel, railroad and car industry jobs that once made Youngstown a hard-living, hard-drinking blue collar boom town were coming back, he said. Don't move. Don't sell your house," he crowed to a rapturous crowd in 2017. We're going to fill up those factories - or rip "em down and build brand new ones." Continue reading...
At many points, it looked as if he never would be sentenced. That he was sentenced to nothing, then, is itself a small victoryWhat kind of a sentence, exactly, is an unconditional discharge"? When Judge Juan Merchan, of New York, issued the sentence on Friday, he declared that President-elect Donald Trump, convicted in his courtroom of 34 felonies, will face no jail time, no probation, and no fine for falsifying business records in order to conceal an affair he had with the adult film actress Stormy Daniels in the days leading up to the 2016 election. His punishment, that is, is that there will be no punishment at all.Trump was never likely to get jail time, which would have been unusual for any defendant faced with these charges, and over the past days Merchan had signaled that he would not impose probation, either. And maybe that's just as well - any punishment or sanction at all that he had imposed on Trump would have been likely to be appealed and suspended, at least for the duration of Trump's time in office. There was, that is, no formal mechanism really available by which the criminal justice system could punish Trump for the crimes he was convicted of. This court has determined that the only lawful sentence that permits entry of judgement of conviction without encroachment on the highest office of the land is a sentence of unconditional discharge," Merchan said, explaining his reasoning: there is no way to punish a man who is about to be the president. In a sense, the sentencing merely confirms what many of us already know: that by virtue of who he is, Trump is beyond the reach of consequence. Continue reading...
The president-elect has disparaged DEI. As Meta and Walmart drop diversity goals, here's how others may followEven before Donald Trump won the election in November, multiple companies with announced they were ending their diversity initiatives. After the election, some of the country's largest companies announced they too were sunsetting some of their corporate programs.In December, Walmart said it was rolling back its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) goals and would drop using the term altogether. McDonald's made a similar statement in January. On Friday, Meta became the latest major company to announce the end of its DEI goals, saying that the company will scrap its DEI team, its equity and inclusion training programs and requirements to have a diverse slate" of applicants when hiring. Continue reading...
by Lauren Aratani in New York and Guardian community on (#6TG6B)
As inauguration day approaches, consumers scooping up iPads, building supplies, shelf-stable foods and electric carsTablets and appliances made in China, hybrid cars built in Canada, European wine. As Donald Trump's second inauguration as president quickly approaches, Americans are stocking up on goods in anticipation of tariffs Trump plans to place on imports, according to a Guardian reader poll.Since the election, Trump has promised to immediately impose a 25% tariff on Mexican and Canadian imports, along with increasing existing tariffs on Chinese imports by 10%. On the campaign trail, Trump said he would put tariffs of 10% to 20% on all imports. Continue reading...
Returning Pacific Palisades residents were grieving not just homes turned to ash, but memories buried amid the rubbleWildfires had crept close to the Pacific Palisades before.Just in 2018, the catastrophic Woolsey fire wreaked havoc in nearby Malibu. There'd been other close calls: evacuations because of a brush fire in 2019. A blaze chewing through steep remote terrain nearby the following year. Continue reading...
Zuckerberg's appointment of the UFC supremo to Meta's board appears to be a calculated move to solidify ties with Trump through one of his most influential alliesIn the four months since Donald Trump accused Mark Zuckerberg of conspiring against him during the 2020 presidential election and threatened him with life imprisonment, the Meta CEO has gone to great lengths to curry favor with the incoming president.Shortly after Trump's victory in November, Zuckerberg traveled to Mar-a-Lago to dine with the president-elect and his transition team, even donating $1m to Trump's inauguration fund. He has also culled Meta's third party fact-checking program, lifting restrictions on topics like immigration and gender. And this week, Zuckerberg took his efforts to align with the incoming administration a step further by appointing Dana White - the CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and a close Trump ally - to Meta's board of directors. Continue reading...
The birth of a baby boy on a dangerously overcrowded refugee boat should be a wake-up call to all of usIt has become something of a cliche to compare modern photographic compositions to Renaissance paintings, but that is what I thought of when I saw the image of the baby boy born on a crowded small boat that was rescued off the coast of Lanzarote this week. Granted, Renaissance painters were notoriously bad at babies, and with his wrinkled little face and his full head of hair, this baby is as real as it gets. But composition-wise, there is something in the twist of the torsos of all those exhausted people turning towards him and his mother, the arms outstretched, hands reaching. For a photo not taken by a professional, the effect is startling.What had this new mother just gone through? To be in early labour in such circumstances, let alone the later stages, let alone delivery ... once again, I'm left astonished by the sheer physical and emotional endurance of women.Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett 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...
There is a narrow window. Public media and fair reporting must be supported: the rules must be upheldIn early 2017, Mark Zuckerberg was on what might be termed an apology tour" of the United States. In the tumultuous few months since Donald Trump won his first presidential victory, the young chief executive of Facebook was reeling from his company's part in serving US voters Russian disinformation, and widespread accusations that the social media platform had disseminated a vast spray of fake news". Fighting a rearguard action, Facebook announced changes to its algorithms, and a major initiative to include third-party factcheckers" as part of the content moderation efforts.Touring the country, Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla, stopped off in Selma, Alabama. They posed for a casual photo outside the offices of the iconic local paper, the Selma Times-Journal. Zuckerberg posted a heartfelt thank you" to journalists who work tirelessly and sometimes put their lives in danger to surface the truth. I don't always agree with everything you say, but that's how democracy is supposed to work." The choice of the Times-Journal was freighted with significance. A paper that had campaigned against the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s and reported on the Montgomery to Selma civil rights marches in the 1960s was a pointed reminder of how the local press could provide a bulwark against fascism. Continue reading...
by Cecilia Nowell, Léonie Chao-Fong, Erum Salam, Fra on (#6TF7P)
This blog is now closed. You can read our latest report hereAn update on the Hurst fire from the US forest service has increased the acreage burned to 771 and is 37% contained.477 personnel were assigned to the fire. Continue reading...
A visual guide to the damage caused by the wildfires that have devastated the cityWildfires continue to ravage parts of Los Angeles, California, with at least 11 people dead, thousands of homes, businesses, schools and churches leveled and more than 150,000 people still under evacuation orders. The Palisades fire - which continues to burn - already ranks as one of the most destructive in the city's history. The second largest blaze, the Eaton fire, to the east, has destroyed homes and lives in and around Altadena, which neighbors Pasadena, home of the Rose Bowl. Meanwhile, smaller fires rage on but are more contained. Continue reading...
by Ramon Antonio Vargas in New Orleans on (#6TG11)
Adi Levin and a fellow reservist in the Israel Defense Forces came to New Orleans as part of a six-week trip to the USTwo Israeli military members on leave were critically wounded in the New Year's Day truck attack on New Orleans' famed Bourbon Street and remain hospitalized, according to a diplomatic official from Israel.Adi Levin and a fellow reservist in the Israel Defense Forces came to New Orleans as part of a six-week trip to the US meant to finish in Florida, said Elad Shoshan, the Israeli consul in Houston.The Associated Press contributed reporting Continue reading...
It's the second time this week that the former NY mayor has been found to be contempt for defaming election workersRudy Giuliani was found in contempt of court on Friday for continuing to spread lies about two former Georgia election workers after a jury awarded the women a $148m defamation judgment.Federal judge Beryl Howell in Washington DC is the second federal judge in a matter of days to find the former New York City mayor in contempt of court. Continue reading...
US president moves to shield roughly 230,000 Salvadorans and 600,000 Venezuelans against Trump administrationThe Biden administration on Friday extended temporary humanitarian protections for about 230,000 Salvadorans and 600,000 Venezuelans living in the US, in an effort to shield those groups from an incoming Trump administration that has promised to deport them.The decision in the dying days of Joe Biden's presidency came after immigrant advocates and lawmakers urged the Department of Homeland Security to extend temporary protected status (TPS), designed to protect immigrants from being deported to countries that are engulfed in disaster or conflict. Continue reading...
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson claims case was witch hunt' to prevent president-elect's return to White HouseRepublicans in Washington launched a fierce defense of Donald Trump on Friday after the president-elect received an unconditional discharge in his New York hush-money case, while Democrats maintained a conspicuous silence on the historic conviction.The speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, characterized the case as a politically motivated and contrived witch hunt" designed specifically to prevent Trump's return to the White House. Continue reading...
Up to 9in of snow expected in Arkansas and Tennessee as climate crisis leads to more frequent extreme weather casesMore than 80 million people across southern US states were on alert on Friday as a powerful winter storm that dumped heavy snow and glazed roads with ice across much of Texas and Oklahoma lumbered eastward.Some governors have declared a state of emergency as the weather forced school closures across the region and unleashed havoc for traffic. Continue reading...
Alice Weidel's livestreamed chat with the X owner made for excruciating listening - but even talk of Hitler won't deter her supportersImagine a politician fighting a general election being granted the opportunity of a publicly livestreamed chat with one of the most powerful figures in the world, only to be heard wriggling out of it after 70 minutes. I don't know what to continue (with)," Alice Weidel said to Elon Musk, in effect shutting down the unique audience the owner of X had gifted the AfD leader on Thursday evening.Admittedly, the rambling conversation felt longer than 70 minutes. It missed moderation and while Musk and Weidel giggled a lot and agreed on almost every issue, the sense that they were boring each other became increasingly acute as they droned on about space travel and religious belief rather than the alleged decline of western civilisation. Had Adolf Hitler not been mentioned, the highly anticipated live talk would have been shocking only for being so unnewsworthy.Thomas Vorreyer is a Berlin-based journalist with a focus on East German politicsDo 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...
Takeover combines electricity generators to become largest independent US power provider, with 2.5 million customersThe US nuclear power giant Constellation Energy has agreed to buy the natural gas and geothermal firm Calpine Corporation for $16.4bn, one of the biggest takeovers in the US power industry.The acquisition would combine two of the biggest electricity generators in the US into the largest independent power provider in the country, with some 2.5 million customers. Continue reading...
Trump and Maga allies are using the fires to attack leaders like Newsom - possibly foretelling power struggles aheadIf ever a situation cried out for elevating national unity over political divisions, the dystopian scenes emanating from the Los Angeles fires surely qualified.The catastrophe that has left at least five people dead, more than 1,000 structures destroyed and forced thousands fleeing their homes would - in an ideal and less polarised America - spur humane empathy and solidarity in place of tribal partisanship. Continue reading...
Media giants had hoped to attract younger viewers who don't subscribe to cable with NBA, NFL and Fifa offeringsDisney, Fox and Warner Bros Discovery on Friday abandoned plans to launch Venu Sports, their live sports joint venture, pulling the plug on a much-heralded effort that ran into substantial legal opposition.Shares of Warner Bros Discovery were down about 2% and Fox's stock fell about 1%, while FuboTV's shares were up nearly 8% after the surprise announcement. Continue reading...
The US president and his broligarch pal are treating their oldest allies as enemies. Britain can't face down that threat aloneFlood the zone with shit. So advised Steve Bannon, onetime chief strategist for Donald Trump, who understood long ago that if you want to get away with an outrageous act, follow it with another and then another. That way, the media will be sure to move on to the newest horror, so forgetting the one before.Trump continues to live by that rule, making it hard to keep up with everything he and his circle do and say - and he's not even back in office yet. It therefore requires a conscious effort to take a step back and see what's happening. That might be easier this week than others because the most egregious outrages form a pattern, one that poses a severe and direct challenge to Britain and its neighbours.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Summer holidays are a time of memory-making. We asked Guardian writers and contributors to share some of the summer holiday photos that transport them back to a simpler time
At least 20 arrests have been made over looting, with Santa Monica declaring a curfew. Plus, the arguments for and against banning TikTokGood morning.Los Angeles officials expect the death toll from the wildfires in the county to continue to rise, as workers comb through incinerated neighborhoods with cadaver dogs.How big are the fires? The Palisades fire is 8,085 hectares and just 6% contained; Eaton is 5,540 hectares and not contained at all; Kenneth is 405 hectares and 35% contained; Hurst, 312 hectares and 37%; Lidia, 141 hectares and 60%.Why is he unlikely to be jailed or fined? In July, a US supreme court ruling granted presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts. Merchan said that in weighing all the factors and concerns about presidential immunity, a sentence of unconditional discharge appears to be the most viable solution". That means that apart from being named a convicted felon, Trump won't face any penalty. Continue reading...
Program for skilled foreign workers pits Trump and Musk against Bannon - and progressive Bernie SandersSteve Bannon, one of the architects of Trumpism, is one the most influential voices on the right. Bernie Sanders, the veteran US senator from Vermont, is among the leading figures on the progressive left. In these divided times, they have found common ground.As Donald Trump returns to the White House, a bitter row over H-1B visas - designed to bring skilled foreign workers to the US - has exposed the delicate threads that tie together his broad coalition - and that of the Democrats. Continue reading...
Sadly, the Amazon-Melania deal has much the same flavor as the rest of Trump appeasement moves - not just by Bezos but by others of his ilkThe language in a New York Times article was extremely restrained as it described Jeff Bezos's evolving stance regarding Donald Trump.The Amazon founder and the president-elect had had a rocky relationship in the past, but in recent months, Amazon and Mr. Bezos have taken steps to repair it".Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
I loved to scour apps and charity shops for cheap clothes and toys - but now I know it is another kind of overconsumptionGuess how much this was," I say to my partner mischievously, revealing with relish the latest toy I've found for our youngest son. It's wooden, Montessori in style (apparently a ball dropping through a hole teaches him object permanence), and retails at about 20 new. A quid," my partner proffers, wearily: he is savvy to this game by now. This time, though, I can go one better. Free!" I screech with glee. Free! Can you believe that? Someone was giving it away on that secondhand WhatApp group." I'm giddy with my find, drunk on the size of the bargain, but, as I add the new (to me) toy to the teetering pile of others - dolls, a tunnel, toy cars, a lunchbox - I can feel something - guilt, I think - gnawing away at me. Am I a secondhand overconsumer?I've always been a champion of secondhand shopping. I was plundering charity shops before it was cool and, in a tale that has become family folklore, once found a standard lamp in a branch of the British Heart Foundation and carried it home on the bus. In fairness, that lamp has moved house with me seven times and still stands, resplendent, in my living room. But I fear too many of my other secondhand purchases have been flash-in-the-pan dopamine hits. These purchases gather dust in our bedroom, the study, my son's toy box. Clothes I've bought from charity shops, heady with the exhilaration of them being only 5", lie crumpled and forgotten in the depths of my wardrobe before, months later, being dragged out and sold on Vinted for a couple of quid. And still I buy more, ensnared in the grip of what I've started to believe is something akin to an addiction.Chloe Hamilton is a freelance journalist Continue reading...
The weekend promises a heap of drama in the NFC as the 14-3 Vikings meet LA, while in the AFC a pair of underdogs attempt to stage heistsWhat the Chargers need to do to win: The league's stingiest defense cannot afford the complacency that allowed Tampa Bay to rain 40 points down on them in December. The Chargers' stats look good - they gave up the fewest touchdowns (31) in the regular season, including 18 on 39 red-zone drives, a league-leading efficiency mark of 46% - but would be even better without a few aberrations. Handily, the away day will not faze them considering their 6-3 record on the road this season. LA should take care of an underpowered Houston offense if they can forget about their wildcard shocker against Jacksonville two years ago. Continue reading...
Populist trolling thrives on the oxygen of publicity. It's on all of us - media and voters - to start looking awayEven more than other forms of politics, populism needs an audience. Populist politicians want to be famous personalities, to make attention-getting claims and promises, to create new national myths. Like other ambitious but less ideological entertainers, they want their act to be widely noticed, and then requested again and again. Without a receptive audience, populism can just seem cranky and simplistic - little different from fringe political movements down the ages.In Britain, the US and many other democracies from India to Argentina, populism's current dominant variant is rightwing, and much of its intended audience is the rightwing media. Conservative commentators, reporters and public intellectuals are constantly required to amplify populism's messages and help maintain the public profiles of its leading figures. With only five Reform UK MPs, Nigel Farage needs the Tory press - just as the Tory press needs him, with rightwing politics in Britain otherwise at a low ebb.Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
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