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Los Angeles are getting both a brilliant pitcher and hitter in the Japanese star. They'll also reap an enormous boost in incomeCulturally, it's the biggest free agency splash in North American sports since LeBron James left Cleveland for Miami in The Decision" in 2010. Monetarily, it's much bigger than that. And competitively, it's a potential trump card in baseball's perpetual arms race between the league's highest-spending clubs.The Los Angeles Dodgers and unprecedented pitcher-designated hitter combination Shohei Ohtani have an agreement for a reported 10 years and $700m. When completed, the deal will be the largest by total and annual value in American sports history. The 29-year-old announced his decision to join the Dodgers, leaving the crosstown Los Angeles Angels, on Saturday. The club had not yet acknowledged the pact on Sunday - most likely waiting for the result of a physical exam, which is relevant because of a torn ulnar collateral ligament that will prevent Ohtani from pitching until at least the 2025 season. But the deal will settle eventually, Ohtani will move from Anaheim to Chavez Ravine. When he completes his move, one of the league's best teams will add its best and most marketable star. Continue reading...

Former congresswoman makes comments as she continues to warn of dangers that a second Trump presidency would presentUS House speaker Mike Johnson and his fellow Republicans who comprise a majority in the chamber cannot be trusted to protect the American constitution, former congresswoman Liz Cheney said Sunday.Cheney made the comments on ABC's This Week as she continued to warn of the dangers that a second Donald Trump presidency would present following the release of her book Oath and Honor: A Warning and a Memoir. In the book, she is deeply critical of Johnson, who played a key role in Trump's legal strategy to contest the election and organized an amicus brief signed by 126 US House members urging the supreme court to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden. Continue reading...

Trump's 2020 lawyer will face mother and daughter at trial who claim he destroyed their lives and caused them emotional distress by maliciously accusing them of election fraudRudy Giuliani, the politician who was once lauded as America's mayor" but descended into the rabbit hole of Donald Trump's election denial lies, will face a Washington DC jury on Monday in a landmark case which could see him saddled with millions of dollars in damages.For the first time at trial, Giuliani will be confronted in a federal district court with the consequences of the conspiracy theories he disseminated as Trump's 2020 election lawyer. He will come eye-to-eye with the mother and daughter poll workers from Georgia who claim that he destroyed their lives and caused them ongoing emotional distress by maliciously accusing them of election fraud. Continue reading...

Top aide to mayor objected to referendum measure's wording just before city official was to introduce itA back-room meeting between local power brokers in Atlanta, including a top aide to the city's mayor, led to the last-minute scuttling of an ordinance that could have helped people get to vote on whether to build a controversial police and fire department training center known as Cop City".Mounting a referendum campaign allowing voters to decide on Cop City is one of many strategies opponents to the center have adopted in a movement that has gained worldwide attention while taking on concerns ranging from police militarization to environmental racism and deforestation in an era of climate crisis. The center is planned for a 171-acre footprint in a forest south-east of Atlanta. Continue reading...

Former House speaker, who has driven out by Trump loyalists, also expressed interest in joining his cabinet should Trump win in 2024Former US House speaker Kevin McCarthy has endorsed Donald Trump in the 2024 race for the Oval Office while also expressing interest in joining his administration should he win, even though loyalists of the ex-president drove the congressman into an early exit.While serving as a House leader, McCarthy did not formally endorse Trump's campaign for a second presidency, though the California representative was generally supportive of his fellow Republican. But, four days after announcing in an opinion column in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal that he was leaving Congress at the end of December, McCarthy appeared on CBS News Sunday Morning and made clear that he backed Trump's attempts to return to power. Continue reading...

The 34-year-old was outclassed by Devin Haney in their world title fight. But by showing his humanity he looked more like a champion than everThe terrible marks of battle covered the face of Regis Prograis, the fallen champion, as he came out first for the inquisition in the basement of the Chase Center in San Francisco. An hour earlier, soon after the final bell which confirmed that his ordeal was over and he had suffered a shutout defeat to the brilliant Devin Haney who became the new WBC junior-welterweight world champion, Prograis spoke with raw honesty in the ring.That motherfucker's good, he's better than I thought he was," Prograis said of Haney, who had knocked him down in the third round and hurt him again on numerous occasions during a long and painful beating. I just couldn't get to him. I thought he was a soft puncher, but he does have power. I was down and I was like: What the fuck happened?'" Continue reading...

We all do it: waiting in queues at the shop or the bus stop or for a class to start. But is it making us miserable?It's hard not to feel personally attacked by some research (does that make me a raging narcissist? Probably). With crisps and now sitting down recently ruled empirically bad, it seems science is coming for everything I hold dear. Now, my one true love is being targeted: staring at my phone.A new study, discussed in the excellent Techno Sapiens newsletter, explored how using your phone to avoid stranger awkwardness makes you feel worse than if you didn't". For the research, 395 strangers were split into groups and asked to wait together for a (pretend) test. Half had phones, half not, and participants assessed how they felt at five-minute intervals. The researchers' theory was that non-phone people would enjoy their time more, but that the digital comfort blanket would feel better in the short term. That was wrong. Phones failed to confer any detectable benefits." Even in the first five minutes, non-phone users were happier. People may be acting against their own best interest when they use phones in social situations," the study concluded. Continue reading...

The UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, has said he would not give up seeking a ceasefire in Gaza after the US wielded its veto to block the move at the security council, leaving the UN without a clear route to stop the conflict. Speaking at a Doha Forum in Qatar, Guterres did not directly criticise the US in his address but said the council was 'paralysed by geostrategic divisions'

Academics at Columbia College in Chicago are in a fierce dispute over cuts to courses and poor working conditionsThe longest strike of adjuncts in US labor history is still ongoing, with academics at Columbia College in Chicago remaining in a fierce dispute over cuts to college courses and a host of complaints over poor working conditions.The fierce dispute began when Columbia College leadership suddenly announced plans to implement significant cuts to courses and course sections, and consolidating classes which have ballooned class sizes, citing a $20m budget shortfall. Continue reading...

IVF has helped hundreds of thousands get pregnant. But Black women in the US, saddled with the myth of hyper-fertility and biased reproductive care, often lack the assistance they needIn 1991, a Kansas state legislator proposed paying women on welfare to get Norplant, a contraceptive that when inserted in the upper arm would prevent pregnancy for five years. His proposal followed a 1990 Philadelphia Inquirer editorial that linked two news events - the federal government's approval of Norplant and a report that showed half the country's Black children were living in poverty.The editorial suggested women on welfare - presumed to be Black - should receive Norplant for free: Dare we mention them in the same breath? To do so might be considered deplorably insensitive, perhaps raising the specter of eugenics. But it would be worse to avoid drawing the logical conclusion that foolproof contraception could be invaluable in breaking the cycle of inner-city poverty." Continue reading...

Counties in swing states like Georgia overwhelmed with requests at the same time as they scramble to prepare for 2024Deb Cox has been elections director of Lowndes county in southern Georgia for more than a decade - and has never before received so many time-consuming demands for public information.Like many elections officials across the country, Cox has been inundated with Freedom of Information Act and open records requests from rightwing activists who believe the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. That's forced her and other local officials to spend an unusual amount of time and money providing polling documents to partisan groups - an additional burden as they scramble to prepare for the fraught 2024 presidential election. Continue reading...

Tyler Goodson, 32, was killed by police in Woodstock, Alabama, after public radio mega-hit brought fame - but not much elseThat fame can come with a price is a truism most associated with stars of film and screen or other arts. But the inhabitants of one small town in rural Alabama, deep in the American south, have discovered the truth of that notion via one of the most popular mediums of the internet age: the podcast.Woodstock, a speck on the map halfway between Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, was the subject of the hit 2017 podcast S-Town, which followed the often bizarre goings-on, and even more complex relationships, in a small American community where nothing was ever quite as it seemed. Continue reading...

Hungarian appearance at two-day event part of Orban's transatlantic attempt to bolster Russia's warAllies of Hungary's far-right prime minister Viktor Orban will hold a closed-door meeting with Republicans in Washington to push for an end to US military support for Ukraine, the Guardian has learned.Marton Ugrosdy, the deputy state secretary for the prime minister's political director's office, and Attila Demko, a leading pro-Orban academic, along with members of the Hungarian embassy in Washington, will on Monday begin a two-day event hosted by the conservative Heritage Foundation thinktank. Continue reading...

On the eve of a major summit, the UN high commissioner for refugees shares his vision and calls for a new global mindsetAt a time of multiple conflicts, deep geopolitical divisions and rising numbers of people forced to flee their homes, to proclaim that an international conference can find solutions for the world's refugees might seem to be stretching the definition of optimism.According to our latest estimates, there are 36.4 million refugees worldwide, out of a total displaced population (including the internally displaced) of a staggering 114 million. This global refugee population has doubled within the past seven years, a reflection of the violence and human rights abuses that seem to be afflicting more and more countries. Continue reading...

Last year Erin Matson led the UNC Tar Heels to the NCAA field hockey title as a student-athlete. Now the 23-year-old has done it again as a coach who's just barely older than her playersSleep eludes Erin Matson. It's been three weeks since the University of North Carolina's most decorated field hockey player-turned-head coach shepherded her players to an NCAA championship victory in her debut season; the 23-year-old is believed to be the youngest ever college coach to win a national title. Still, the interview requests haven't stopped rolling in, even as Matson's other coaching duties beckon her attention. Matson isn't complaining, though.Field hockey doesn't get this kind of coverage at all," says Matson, who led the UNC team to four NCAA titles over five seasons as a student-athlete. US field hockey is having a moment, and far be it from Matson to hold it back. Much like the way she plowed through her opponents on the field, Matson only knows one direction and that's forward. Continue reading...

Emergency declaration used to sell $106.5m worth of ammo for Israel's tanks as reports of fierce fighting in southern Gaza city of Khan Younis emerge

Only five years after the founder members nearly skipped town, the French manager's opportunistic, effervescent Crew SC are the MLS Cup winners for a second time in four seasonsDiego Rossi, Julian Gressel, Malte Amundsen, Rudy Camacho and Christian Ramirez played their parts. But the key transfer for the Columbus Crew, the move that turned a team that missed the playoffs in the previous two years into the 2023 MLS champions, was the capture of the head coach.Whatever the Crew paid Montreal in compensation a year ago to hire Wilfried Nancy, it was worth it. First Nancy shaped Columbus into the league's most effervescent team. Then he molded them into its biggest winners. Continue reading...

Time magazine's person of the year interview shows a woman who can't dish enough dirtIs Taylor Swift pop music's last great troublemaker? Or has it always been the done thing for the Time magazine person of the year to use their illustrious anointing to air old beef?For the magazine has indeed chosen Swift as the 2023 Time person of the year. The global music phenomenon joins the roll call of presidents, popes, peacemakers and 2022's pick, the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Swift is the first to feature for contribution to the arts, and the first woman to be honoured twice (she was part of a group of #MeToo silence breakers" in 2017). Continue reading...

The vanilla version the politician has presented in the jungle is worryingly relatable, and therein lies the rubAnt and Dec, the hosts of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, have some frustrating news for demagogues.Dec (the shorter one): I think we do a year without any politicians."Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

Trump ahead 47% to 43%, worrying some Democrats as others caution avoiding mad poll disease'Donald Trump has nudged ahead of Joe Biden in national polling for the 2024 presidential election, a survey published on Saturday revealed, a day after the US president branded his predecessor as despicable" at an event in California.The Wall Street Journal poll shows Biden with the lowest approval rating of his presidency, a finding broadly in line with other recent studies that have sparked concern in Democratic circles less than a year before voters go to the polls. Continue reading...

Elizabeth Magill has resigned her position as leader of the beleaguered collegeElizabeth Magill, the president of the University of Pennsylvania, has resigned her position as leader of the beleaguered college in the wake of a fierce debate over free speech and antisemitism.Universities across the United States have been accused of failing to protect Jewish students amid a spike of antisemitism amid fallout from Israel's intensifying war in Gaza, which faces heightened criticism for the mounting Palestinian death toll. There has also been a spike in Islamaphobia in the US. Continue reading...

On Fox News, wife of Ron DeSantis mistakenly invites moms and grandmoms' to cross state lines and illegally vote in caucusCasey DeSantis, the wife of Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis, has upset party officials in Iowa by urging her husband's supporters from around the US to descend" on the state and illegally take part in next month's caucuses.The former television news reporter, who has become the Florida governor's chief supporter on the campaign trail, made the faux-pas during an appearance with him on Fox News on Friday, in which she wrongly stated it was legal for out-of-state residents to participate. Continue reading...

Ethan Crumbley apologized before the sentencing for the 2021 high school shooting as parents still in jail on related chargesA judge sentenced a Michigan teenager to life in prison on Friday for killing four students and terrorizing others at Oxford high school in 2021, after listening to hours of gripping anguish from parents and wounded survivors.Judge Kwame Rowe rejected pleas from defense lawyers for a shorter sentence and ensured that Ethan Crumbley, 17, will not get an opportunity for parole. Continue reading...

One woman's bizarre claim about a Scholastic book featuring a single kiss is part of a coordinated assault on US free speechA moment of silence, please, for 20-year-old Lanah Burkhardt, who has suffered through a harrowing ordeal that should chill us all to the very core. The tragic tale began when Burkhardt was just 11 years old and opened up a Scholastic children's book which contained what she describes as a single kiss". Continue reading...

A new attraction at the Rockefeller Center allows visitors to stage Lunch atop a Skyscraper, at a less scary 12ft off the groundLooked at in a certain way, one of history's most famous photographs is actually rather dull.It's just a bunch of men, sitting in a line. Some of them are holding lunchboxes, one is lighting a cigarette, another is holding a glass bottle that looks like it might contain liquor. No one is planking, or giving someone bunny ears, or pulling a funny face. Continue reading...

Rosemary Hayne says she is committed to paying her debt for throwing food at an employee, a moment that was publicizedA woman sentenced to work at a fast-food restaurant after being convicted of throwing her Chipotle order at an employee of the chain eatery says she is committed to paying her debt to the justice system and hopes she can eventually progress past the highly publicized episode.In a recent interview, Rosemary Hayne said again that she was sorry for the actions that landed her in court and on a video that went viral on social media. She said she's a service industry veteran herself and believes she's never treated a customer as brusquely as she was treated on the fateful day, but she added that she would not make any excuses as she prepared to complete her unusual judicial punishment. Continue reading...

Cracks are appearing in China's monolithic regime - and its leader might decide a military adventure will strengthen his grip on powerSmart, combative, handsome, Qin Gang was fast-tracked to stardom. As a protege of Xi Jinping, China's dictator-president, the precocious wolf warrior" diplomat rose to the giddy heights of foreign minister at age 56. Then, last summer, he vanished. It was as if he had been deleted, physically and digitally, as if he had never existed. He has yet to re-materialise.Qin's mysterious disappearance sparked wild, often prurient media speculation. Beijing has still not offered an official explanation. But Chinese online reports, which significantly went uncensored, implied he was disgraced after secretly fathering a child in an affair with a well-known TV reporter. This seemed like plausible grounds for defenestration. Continue reading...

Local Republicans praised the former House speaker but unfashionable Bakersfield largely greeted his exit with a shrugFor the brief period that he stood at the pinnacle of national politics, Kevin McCarthy cast an odd sort of light on Bakersfield, his unfashionable, hardscrabble home town in southern California that might never have penetrated the national consciousness without him.The city has none of the trappings of what we think of when we think of the Golden state - no beaches, no cable cars, no redwood forests, and only an intermittent view of the Tehachapi mountains, depending on the intensity of the smog that rises from the inland oilfields and large tract farms that provide its lifeblood. The Beach Boys never immortalized Bakersfield in song - and neither, for the most part, has anyone else. Continue reading...

Exclusive: documents show FanDuel fought crackdown on ads near college campuses and deceptive' marketingOne of the United States' largest online gambling operators tried to water down rules designed to help problem gamblers and protect young and vulnerable people, according to documents seen by the Guardian.FanDuel lobbied for New York to rethink a proposed ban on gambling platforms from using certain words and phrases to attract people who are or may be" problem gamblers to their websites. Continue reading...

A sharp generational divide has been apparent as thousands have taken to the streets to call for a ceasefire and voice their disapproval of Biden's support for Israel's war in GazaSince the start of Israel's war in Gaza nearly two months ago, outraged young Americans have been at the forefront of a growing Palestinian solidarity movement.They have led protests in Washington and across the country to demand a permanent ceasefire and to voice their disapproval of Joe Biden's support for Israel's military campaign, which has killed thousands of Palestinians, mostly women and children, and plunged Gaza into a humanitarian catastrophe. Continue reading...

Right now, the rules-based global order doesn't seem to matter. Major powers have responsibilities and must take them seriously

There's no coming back from the Covid inquiry for the former prime minister. But something more sinister may be brewing in his wakeIn the wake of this week's Covid interrogation, any residual debate about Boris Johnson's career in politics is settled. He will never come back.Hugo Keith KC, counsel to the Covid inquiry, exposed the many failures of the former British prime minister with careful questioning. During the pandemic, Johnson was negligent, lazy and systematically misled the public, while repeatedly boasting about imaginary achievements. Above all, he failed to treat the pandemic seriously, missing the first five Cobra meetings. The official judgment on his record will be devastating.Peter Oborne is a journalist and the author of The Assault on Truth: Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and the Emergence of a New Moral Barbarism. He also runs a website about Boris Johnson's falsehoods https://boris-johnson-lies.com Continue reading...

Inaction and self-interest are built into climate summits. Instead, we need a voting system that can't be subverted by fossil fuel producersLet's face it: climate summits are broken. The delegates talk and talk, while Earth systems slide towards deadly tipping points. Since the climate negotiations began in 1992 more carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels has been released worldwide than in all preceding human history. This year is likely to set a new emissions record. They are talking us to oblivion.Throughout these Conference of the Parties (Cop) summits, fossil fuel lobbyists have swarmed the corridors and meeting rooms. It's like allowing weapons manufacturers to dominate a peace conference. This year, the lobbyists outnumber all but one of the national delegations. And they're not the only ones: Cop28 is also heaving with meat and livestock lobbyists and reps from other planet-trashing industries. What should be the most important summit on Earth is treated like a trade fair.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

In part three of our series exploring myths surrounding EVs, we look at range anxiety and concerns about the charging network

Ken Paxton issues threat after judge ruled this week that Cox, a pregnant woman with a lethal fetal diagnosis, can get an abortionThe Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, has threatened to prosecute any doctor who provides an abortion to Kate Cox, a woman with a non-viable pregnancy, advising hospitals to ignore a court order issued on Thursday allowing her to get the procedure.The rightwing Paxton issued the warning to three Houston-area hospitals after a Texas judge ruled this week that Cox, a pregnant woman with a lethal fetal diagnosis, may obtain an abortion under the narrow medical exceptions offered by the state bans. Continue reading...

Hollywood actor Ryan O'Neal, who starred in Peyton Place, Love Story, What's Up, Doc? and Barry Lyndon, has died at the age of 82. We look back at his career Continue reading...

Woman, who is eight weeks pregnant, wants to have abortion in Kentucky but cannot legally do so because of near-total banA pregnant woman in Kentucky filed a lawsuit on Friday demanding the right to an abortion, the second legal challenge in days to sweeping abortion bans that have taken hold in more than a dozen US states since Roe v Wade was overturned last year.The suit, filed in state court in Louisville, says Kentucky's near-total prohibition against abortion violates the plaintiff's rights to privacy and self-determination under the state constitution. Continue reading...

Death of star of Paper Moon, What's Up, Doc? and Barry Lyndon announced by his son Patrick O'NealRyan O'Neal, a leading star in the Hollywood in the 1970s known for iconic films such as Love Story and Paper Moon, has died, according to a series of emotional posts from his son. He was 82.On Friday, Patrick O'Neal shared on Instagram that his father had died with his loving team by his side supporting him and loving him as he would us". He went on to share some feelings to give you an idea of how great a man he is". Patrick described his father as my hero. Continue reading...

Judge Tanya Chutkan's order, imposed in October, has been mostly upheld by federal appeals court

Federal court rules Trump free to speak about special counsel Jack Smith but maintains other restrictionsDonald Trump may now assail the special counsel who brought the federal criminal case against him over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, in addition to being free to criticize the judge, the justice department, the Biden administration and the case as politically motivated.The former president remains barred, however, from attacking potential trial witnesses, court staff or the special counsel's staff, as well as the family members of any court staff or the special counsel's staff. Continue reading...

Leaders of three universities continue navigating calls to resign following evasive' answers in House hearingLeaders of three prestigious US universities remained under pressure on Friday as a controversy about antisemitism on campus, inflamed by their appearance at a congressional hearing earlier in the week, showed little sign of abating, with free speech advocates and billionaire college donors wading into the fray.Liz Magill, the president of the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), survived an emergency meeting of its board of trustees on Thursday amid backlash to her disastrous" comments to the hearing investigating rising campus antisemitism since the beginning of the Israel-Gaza war. Continue reading...

Court hears Eli Bartov, professor at NYU, has worked about 650 hours on New York fraud case at rate of $1,350 per hourAn accounting expert who came to Donald Trump's defense in his $250m fraud has racked up nearly $900,000 in fees for his testimony, a court heard on Friday.New York University Stern School of Business research professor Eli Bartov testified on Thursday that he had found no evidence here of concealment" in his review of the financial statements at the heart of the case. Continue reading...