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Complaint details human rights violations, including lack of food, water and shelter and denial of emergency careTheresa Cheng was volunteering with mutual aid groups at the US-Mexico border when she learned of a migrant on the US side of the wall with severe injuries. Cheng, an emergency physician, rushed to an encampment where asylum seekers wait to be processed by border patrol and pumped frantically on the chest of a 13-year-old boy bleeding on the ground while volunteers dialed 911.It took 60 minutes - nearly as much time as Cheng and another migrant did CPR on the teen - for an ambulance and emergency medical services to arrive at the scene in eastern San Diego county. The boy, whom local media identified as Dario Zamudio, had suffered traumatic injuries in a car collision on the Mexican side of the border and had been taken to the border wall to receive quicker treatment. Continue reading...

Federal 2020 election interference trial is currently set for 4 March, the day before Super TuesdayLawyers for Donald Trump on Wednesday urged the US supreme court to reject a request from the special counsel to expeditiously decide whether he was immune from prosecution over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, contending prosecutors lacked standing to bring the petition.The argument from the ex-president was that prosecutors had no basis to appeal a lower court ruling that was favorable to them, and should instead defer intervening in the case until a federal appeals court issued its own judgment first. Continue reading...

The US president, Joe Biden, said Israel and Hamas were no closer to reaching a deal that would pause fighting, allowing humanitarian aid to Gaza to be facilitated and Israeli hostages to be released.Biden was also asked for a response on the number of casualties in Gaza passing 20,000 people. 'I think it's tragic,' he said

Wolves are the first part of a plan to reintroduce the endangered species into the state after it was eradicated in the regionIn an effort to restore an endangered species, Colorado just released five gray wolves in the western part of the state.On Monday, Colorado parks and wildlife released two female and three male wolves on to remote public land. The predators were captured and brought over from Oregon, after Wyoming, Idaho and Montana refused to share their wolves citing interstate migration and financial concerns. Continue reading...

The shoes - which debuted as Lee's footwear at the 2019 Academy Awards - were found in a clothing donation bin in Portland, OregonA pair of rare Nike Air Jordan 3s made for Spike Lee have sold for more than $50,000 at Sotheby's after they were discovered earlier this year in the donation chute of a homeless charity in Portland, Oregon.On Monday, the gold shoes, one of only four to five pairs custom-made for the film director Spike Lee and his inner circle, were auctioned off at Sotheby's for $50,800. The shoes were originally discovered in April by a participant in Portland Rescue Mission's long-term shelter program who was sorting through several clothing and shoe donations. Continue reading...

President makes first public comment since Colorado ruled to remove Trump from state's 2024 ballotJoe Biden has said it is self-evident" that Donald Trump is an insurrectionist in his first public comments since Colorado's supreme court removed the former president from the state's 2024 ballot.The president was speaking before boarding Air Force One to an afternoon engagement in Milwaukee, and said he would not comment on the legal premise cited by the Colorado panel for its majority decision, or the likely intervention of the US supreme court. Continue reading...

The smokescreen generated by recent carbon-offset setbacks should not blind us to the simple truth that we must protect our intact forests and bring back those we have lostSome have recently questioned whether forests really are the climate solution they have long been held to be. This is because some emit great quantities of carbon, while the markets set up to finance them have stumbled. But there is no pathway to a livable climate without saving our intact forests, regrowing some, and finding a more straightforward way to pay for them than carbon offset projects.A 2021 study led by Brazilian scientists established that the Amazon was emitting more carbon dioxide than it was absorbing. The great carbon sink had seemingly become a smokestack. The paper mirrored a 2019 analysis of Canadian forests, which showed they had been net emitters since 2001. Continue reading...

Metropolitan Museum of Art's survey of more than 70 female designers celebrates overlooked brilliance. It is long overdue - but still won me overThere weren't many men visiting Women Dressing Women, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's new exhibit on female designers through modern history. It was as if all the ladies who attended had checked their boyfriends or husbands at the door, where they huddled together like dads outside a Forever 21 dressing room during back-to-school shopping season.We were better off for it. It felt like a screening of the Barbie movie inside the Met's Costume Institute on an early afternoon last week. I saw people of various races, ages and body types let out collective shrieks at an original Chanel little black dress. As I stood in front of a sexy, see-through, white Tory Burch gown, I nodded emphatically when a woman turned to me and said, I need that for my wedding." Nearby, one twentysomething complimented another on her Telfar loafers. When two elderly women admired a Norma Kamali parachute dress, a young mother offered to take their photo in front of it. Continue reading...

Predictably, the ex-president took to his social media site to condemn the decision - and to raise fundsThe Colorado supreme court ruling on Tuesday that bars Donald Trump from the state's presidential ballot has kicked off a firestorm among Republicans and legal scholars, and fury from Trump himself.Though the former president did not address the decision during a rally on Tuesday night in Iowa - where he went on abusive rants against immigration - he posted on his social media platform Truth Social on Wednesday. What a shame for our country!!!" Trump wrote. A sad day for America!!!" Continue reading...

Justices in the US state say the ex-president isn't fit to stand. But no matter what the courts say, he may still be a winner with votersTen days out from the end of the year, and who could have foreseen the latest Trump plot twist? On Wednesday morning, Americans woke to absorb the fallout from the previous day's news that Colorado - of all places - had ruled via its supreme court to ban Donald Trump from the ballot in the run-up to next year's presidential election. There are many sober things to say about this, but in the first instance let's give way to an unseemly squeal. How completely thrilling!Colorado leans Democrat - both its senators are blue - but it's a western state with large conservative enclaves that is not exactly Massachusetts or Vermont. The decision by the state's top justices is unprecedented in US electoral history. According to their ruling, Trump is in breach of section 3 of the 14th amendment, the so-called insurrectionist ban", in light of his behaviour during the 6 Januarystorming of the Capitol. Continue reading...

Local police chief describes horrific tragedy' after four boys aged two to 13 and a four-year-old girl die trapped in duplexFive children died in a house fire in Arizona while their father was out shopping for Christmas.Four boys - aged two, five, 11 and 13 - and a four-year-old girl were home alone in Bullhead City, Arizona, when a fire broke out just before 5pm on Saturday. Within five minutes firefighters were on the scene and reported the blaze was out at 5.03pm. But by then it was too late. Continue reading...

Driver reportedly said he was trying to avoid hitting a dog at first, then trying to avoid a parked car, before crashing into Bar:PMAn LGBTQ+ bar owner in Missouri who was jailed after police accidentally crashed a cruiser into his establishment is facing charges filed against him by prosecutors - albeit ones that were quickly reduced amid a public outcry over the case's circumstances.Nobody should have to go through this - going from being a victim to going to have to defend yourself, your family and your business," James Pence, whose husband, Chad Morris, was arrested and charged, told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday in their home town of St Louis. That's not what the police are here to do." Continue reading...

US readers shared their hopes for the homes they'd like to have, portraying an America where even modest housing dreams are out of reach for manyLisa Williams is a minimalist. After her husband passed away in 2014, she was content to move into a studio apartment in Las Vegas. But when her rent increased by 25% from 2020 to 2022, she had to downsize more than she'd ever expected.Now, Williams, 63, is a workamper", parking her 17ft trailer in national and state parks across Nevada, California and Arizona. She works as a visitor center host for 25 to 30 hours a week in exchange for an RV spot with full hookup - which can cost $800 a month or more. Williams still has to make a $210 monthly payment on her trailer, about all she can afford on her social security and pension income of $35,000 annually. Continue reading...

Once regarded as a retirement league for ageing European stars, evidence of MLS's rise can be found in the steady stream of talent heading the other wayIn the last January transfer window, 33 players left Major League Soccer for Europe. Top European clubs are increasingly looking to US soccer in search of stars who, thanks to the American season finishing in December, are primed to hit the ground running upon arrival.And after a season that drew more transatlantic attention than ever before thanks to Lionel Messi's move to Inter Miami, several MLS stars will have caught the eye of Europe's elite. Continue reading...

Judge orders Republican congressman to turn over 1,700 records from his phone for 2020 election interference investigationA federal judge ordered the top House Republican Scott Perry to turn over nearly 1,700 records from his phone to special counsel prosecutors that could inform the extent of his role in Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, including removing justice department officials.The move by the chief US district judge James Boasberg, who oversees grand jury matters in federal court in Washington DC, means prosecutors can access the majority of the records that the FBI pulled from Perry's phone. The device was seized in response to a court-approved warrant. Continue reading...

After the fire destroyed homes Lahaina couldn't afford to lose, non-profits and the government are getting creative.In September, a military jet delivered dozens of foldable steel containers, each roughly the size of a single-car garage, from Hungary to a 10-acre field in the center of the Hawaiian island of Maui.Over the following months, organizers transformed each box into a tiny home, complete with a kitchenette, bathroom and lanai - a traditional Hawaiian veranda. They installed water wells and solar systems, and built playgrounds, gardens and resource centers. Continue reading...

I work for an airline that is keen to be festive. Spare a thought for all us obliged to have fun' while serving the publicI've just received a company-wide message from the airline that I work for telling me, All cabin crew are invited to wear Christmas hats over the festive period!" The exclamation mark at the end suggests the company thinks we'll all be utterly delighted at the thought of it. I'm not: I feel weird enough in a uniform already, and adding a Santa hat is more enforced jollity than I can take.I'm not one of those cabin crew who's dreamed of doing the job since I was a kid. I just made the mistake of doing a journalism degree without having rich parents. I was a millennial with inflated expectations, and I'm paying the price, OK? I'll dress up and smile and serve you mini pretzels, with pleasure - after all, it's my job. But please don't make me wear the stupid hat as well.Meryl Love is the pseudonym of a crew member working for an international airline Continue reading...

Pilot and photographer killed as news helicopter for Philadelphia-based station 6ABC crashes in state forestA pilot and a photographer were killed in a helicopter crash on Tuesday night during an assignment for a local news station in New Jersey.The Philadelphia-based news station 6ABC reported on Wednesday morning that its news helicopter was returning from an assignment on the Jersey Shore when it went down over a state forest, about 30 miles away from the shore, at approximately 8pm on Tuesday night. Continue reading...

The fuss over Eve Gilles' gamine coiffure is bizarre in a nation that is supposed to celebrate femininity in all its formsIn December, Britain has pantomimes and France has silly beauty controversies. The latest one, which erupted on social networks last weekend, must be one of the most bizarre witnessed since the beginning of the Miss France pageant, 103 years ago.Twenty-year-old Eve Gilles, the former Miss Pas-de-Calais, was crowned Miss France last Saturday. But it wasn't just her win that dominated headlines but her short hair. Choquant, non? Critics vented their fury online that a lithe, androgynous-looking woman could take the crown as, ostensibly, France's most beautiful woman. Some denounced it as an example of diversity gone too far. Some talked about the victory of wokery. Pardon?Agnes Poirier is a political commentator, writer and critic Continue reading...

A year and a half after the supreme court struck down Roe v Wade, abortion continues to weigh heavily on voters' mindDays before Josh Cole won his toss-up race, the Democratic candidate for Virginia's house of delegates predicted that his party would perform well on election day, largely because the issue of abortion had motivated many voters to turn out at the polls.There are people who are absolutely passionate about reproductive freedom and making sure that an abortion ban doesn't come to Virginia," Cole said. Continue reading...

Four branches of the bank in New Mexico, Alaska, California and Florida have filed for union elections since NovemberWorkers at Wells Fargo, the fourth largest bank in the US, have ramped up their union organizing campaign in recent weeks in a move that marks the largest union drive at a US bank in decades.Four Wells Fargo branches have filed for union elections since November in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Bethel, Alaska, Atwater, California, and Daytona Beach, Florida. The first union elections in New Mexico and Alaska are set to be held on 21 December. Continue reading...

State's highest court declares former president ineligible for White House under US constitution's insurrection clause. Plus, how chemical exposures affect sperm health

A bipartisan coalition is growing on Capitol Hill to bring back the expanded child tax credit. America's children desperately need itLegislators are fleeing Washington, DC and heading home for the holidays. They leave behind a dysfunctional Congress with a rookie Speaker, brutal wars ongoing overseas, and a country with 11 million children living in poverty.Yes, after a brief reprieve, child poverty is once again on the rise in the United States. But Congress can put a stop to that. As members of both houses, and both parties, work together on an end-of-year tax deal, they can re-implement a simple, wildly popular measure that has already proven to dramatically reduce child poverty: the expanded Child Tax Credit.Katrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of the Nation and serves on the Council on Foreign Relations Continue reading...

No one seems to care about the incarcerated men with mental health issues who bang and scream above my headI was moved onto unit 1EE on the south compound inside New Jersey State Prison a year ago. On the floor just above me is 2EE, which is known as the crazy unit".This unit is where incarcerated men throughout the state are sent when they experience mental health difficulties. It has three cells for suicide watch, where men are stripped down and given turtle suits", thin vests that barely keep them covered. There are no pillows, blankets or sheets. A man is left with only his skin and his wits.Banging is normal in prison. We hear it all day, constantly.Kory McClary is a writer for the Prison Journalism Project, a non-profit news organization that provides incarcerated writers with tools and training. As part of a partnership, a reporter with MindSite News, a non-profit news outlet that covers mental health, investigated the death - and life - of the man who had been incarcerated above McClary. That story can be found here.This story is the product of a collaboration between the Prison Journalism Project, MindSite News and the Guardian US. Continue reading...

Musk is the world's best accidental salesman for unions, even as his Tesla workers make 30% less than UAW automakersIn case workers need any additional arguments for why labor unions are good for them, a powerful new argument comes from none other than Elon Musk. Last month at the New York Times DealBook Summit, a gathering of lords of finance and industry, Musk said: I disagree with the idea of unions ... I just don't like anything which creates a lords and peasants sort of thing."That the world's richest human dissed the idea of unions should certainly be seen as a selling point for unionizing. Musk's statement shows that he realizes that unions can be highly effective in harnessing the collective voice and power of workers, not just to limit the autonomy of power-hungry CEOs like him in managing their companies, but also to counter the capricious and often officious way he runs things. Musk is allergic to the idea of letting workers and their union have a voice in how to run - and improve - things. Continue reading...

A collaboration between a prison journalist and an investigative reporter reveals the suffering and death of a 49-year-old man serving life at a New Jersey prisonThe banging and groans from the cell above had been going on for days. Kory McClary didn't know the name of the man, but his distress was unmistakable. McClary heard him banging on his toilet and his bunk continuously with only small breaks in between. He heard him battling guards who entered the cell. He heard him screaming in pain.Then one morning, the sounds stopped. The prisoner had been moved to another cell. Two days later, McClary learned from a prison porter, the man was dead. Continue reading...

Women do twice as many festive chores as men. How can I stop stressing about his last-minute wrapping dash?I am, by my own admission, sickeningly smug about how balanced a relationship I have with my partner. Ours is what some might deem a rather millennial" alliance: we are equal breadwinners, work the same hours and divvy up the childcare. We communicate well about our feelings, our finances, our families. He doesn't babysit our son - he parents him. We even have a civil partnership because we felt marriage was too problematic, too steeped in historical gender inequality. There are no boy jobs" or girl jobs" in our household. So why, when it comes to Christmas, do I find myself doing all the bloody work?The festive merry-go-round starts in September when the annual text comes in - to me, of course - from a family member: What are you thinking for Christmas this year?" And so begins my seasonal shift as a logistics coordinator (no pay), managing the needs of different relatives, working out who we prioritised last year and who we need to consider this time. Tentative suggestions about our plans are met with shrugs and sures" from my partner as I liaise with friends and family on timings, locations and, now we have a baby to think of, festive nap schedules. (Should he nap at my mum's or yours? Pram or car? Before or after lunch?" Sure." Sure." Sure.") The list of plans - and of people to communicate them to - is seemingly endless, and seemingly my responsibility. Continue reading...

The 300-year-old music of Joseph Bologne opened the door to magic and connection, and took me to Guadeloupe this year

The rules-based world order' is no more than a myth. It's time for a major overhaul of institutions from the UN to the ICC

It is terrible though

Indigenous Americans fought through genocide and forced assimilation to use peyote in peace. Will the psychedelics boom co-opt it?On the first day of autumn, evening temperatures near Window Rock, Arizona, were brisk. Beneath the late September sky, a traditional round hogan in this remote corner of the Navajo Nation was enveloped in darkness. Ten tribal members gathered inside.After a dinner of mutton and fry bread, the group settled in a circle around a wood stove radiating with burning juniper, preparing to ingest what the Dine (Navajo) call azee - the medicine. Continue reading...

President praised the first female US supreme court justice in pointed remarks at the Washington funeralJoe Biden hailed Sandra Day O'Connor as an American pioneer" who embodied principle over politics in his eulogy at the Washington funeral of the US supreme court's first female justice.The president praised O'Connor for breaking down barriers in the legal and political worlds, transcending political divisions and weighing ordinary people in her decision-making in pointed remarks that contrasted sharply with his words about the current supreme court. Continue reading...

Democrats call on attorney general to halt state law, while Mexican president and ACLU both say they will challenge itAs a group of Texas and Hispanic Democrats demanded the US attorney general block what they called the most extreme anti-immigrant state bill in the United States", signed by the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, on Monday, the president of Mexico and the American Civil Liberties Union also vowed to fight the law.Texas, we'll see you in court," the ACLU said. Continue reading...

Noel Montalvo was in Pennsylvania prison for 20 years for murders that he blamed on his brother who died in prisonA man formerly on death row has been released from prison following dismissal of murder charges in a double slaying a quarter-century ago that he blamed on his brother, who died in prison while appealing his own death sentence in the case.Noel Montalvo, who turned 59 on Tuesday, was freed on Monday night after York county, Pennsylvania, prosecutors dismissed charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy and burglary shortly before a retrial was to begin. He pleaded guilty to an evidence tampering charge for which the judge sentenced him to a year of probation. Continue reading...

Egypt and Saudi Arabia notably absent from Operation Prosperity Guardian as more shipping companies forgo routeThe US has announced the creation of an enhanced naval protection force operating in the southern Red Sea in an attempt to ward off mounting attacks from Yemen's rebel Houthis on merchant shipping.Britain said it would be among the countries participating but notable absentees were Arab nations Egypt and Saudi Arabia while analysts speculated that shipping would continue to be disrupted and attacks continue. Continue reading...

Deadly winter storm leaves hundreds of thousands without power and deposits flooding and freezing temperatures in its wakeAt least six people were killed and hundreds of thousands were left without power as a deadly winter storm swept across the north-eastern US on Monday, depositing flooding and freezing temperatures in its wake.Two of the deaths were in Maine in separate cases involving fallen trees, authorities said. Other deaths were reported in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and New York.Associated Press contributed reporting Continue reading...

Trump's odious rhetoric about the border must be rejected. But the Biden campaign speaks from both sides of its mouthAt a campaign rally in New Hampshire last Saturday, the former president Donald Trump repeated a claim he made back in September: immigrants coming to the United States, he said, are poisoning the blood of our country". The phrase is particularly disturbing as it evokes Nazi language about blood and nation.The last time Trump uttered this poisoning the blood of our country" phrase, criticism from historians and civil libertarians was swift. This time, Joe Biden's re-election campaign saw an opportunity and pounced. Donald Trump channeled his role models as he parroted Adolf Hitler," a Biden-Harris 2024 spokesperson wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, adding that Trump is not shying away from his promise to lock up millions of people in detention camps." Continue reading...

1 March 1927 - 25 April 2023

Former mayor of Pennsylvania town of Braddock has long advocated for rights of US steel workersThe US senator John Fetterman has vowed to block the multibillion-dollar sale of US Steel to the Japanese company Nippon Steel, calling the potential deal outrageous".The former mayor of the south-west Pennsylvania town of Braddock, which is home to a major US Steel plant, Fetterman has long advocated for the rights of American steel workers and positioned himself as a pro-union Democrat. Continue reading...

Experts say lack of affordable housing in state is the main cause, worsened by expiration of pandemic programs that added shelterCalifornia continues to lead the nation in homelessness, with US data showing the state has the highest rate of unhoused people living outside in a worsening humanitarian crisis.The Department of Housing and Urban Development (Hud) released its Annual Homeless Assessment Report (Ahar) on Friday, providing a point in time" snapshot from January 2023. On a single day, 653,104 people experiencing homelessness were counted across the US, the highest number since the count began in 2007. The estimates are considered to be undercounts. Continue reading...

Even if you live far from your childhood home, wrestling a tree back through crowded city streets can bring as much joy as everWhen I was a kid, my favourite part of December was going to get a Christmas tree. Cleveland was always snowy by then, and so we usually had to scrape the ice off the car before going to a tree lot where I would wander through rows of trees - Douglas firs, balsam firs, Virginia pines, blue spruce. After a short family conference in the cold (I pushed for the tallest one possible, my mom cared about that classic Christmas tree smell" and my dad, in a way that I'm sure every dad will nod along with in agreement, kept me realistic about the price), we would agree on a tree, strap it to the roof of the car and go home to string up lights and ornaments.We would leave the tree up until early January, then when the branches were sagging and dry, we would paint their ends with peanut butter and seeds, and lay the tree out in the backyard to act as a giant bird feeder (and then, eventually, compost it).Alexander Hurst is a Guardian Europe columnist Continue reading...

The film-maker and author, who died last week aged 74, will also be remembered by those lucky enough to know her as an unforgettable phrasemakerA WhatsApp from Maggie Renzi, the producer of John Sayles's Lone Star and most of his other films: Cari has died."No need for a surname, there's only one Cari in our lives. Maggie and John sat me next to Cari Beauchamp in a pizza restaurant in Cannes around 2001. For three hours that night I listened to this expansive Californian. Continue reading...

Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss already won $148m defamation judgment against former New York City mayorTwo former Georgia election workers who won a $148m defamation judgment against Rudy Giuliani asked on Monday for a court order barring him from continuing to repeat the lies he spread about them following the 2020 election.The new lawsuit points to comments the former New York City mayor made during and after the damages trial last week, repeating the baseless conspiracy theories about Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Shaye" Moss. Continue reading...

Law gives officers sweeping powers as well as empowering local judges to order people's expulsion. Plus, is the book world turning against Goodreads?

The Catholic church made my young queer life hell. Now they accept and damn my union in one breathOn the day I celebrated the first anniversary of my wedding, Pope Francis announced his conditional approval" for Catholic priests to bless same-sex marriages - under certain circumstances - although he was keen to add that these blessings should not be seen as validation of same-sex relationships. It will be possible to bless same-sex couples but without any type of ritualisation or offering the impression of a marriage," the Church announced in a report published on Vatican News, adding that the blessing does not signify approval of the union". In the eyes of the Catholic church, it seems, queer love is still a sin.Well, you can stick your blessing, Pope Francis. It's a fig leaf, a PR exercise, a means of laundering your prejudice to make it seem like a step towards acceptance.Matt Cain is a writer who was formerly editor-in-chief of Attitude and culture editor of Channel 4 News. His latest novel, One Love, is published on 18 JanuaryDo 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...