US news | The Guardian

Patel's non-profit Kash Foundation is linked to Maga-merchandise firms and spends much more on fundraising than it does on charitable givingThe personal foundation of Kash Patel, Donald Trump's controversial pick for FBI director, has directed donor money to a business controlled by its own vice-president, Andrew Ollis, a direct marketing entrepreneur whose business affairs are now deeply entangled with Patel's.Two websites associated with that non-profit direct visitors to an online clothing store, Based Apparel, an online Maga merchandising operation owned by Ollis and Patel. Continue reading...

As a law student, I know the struggle for Palestinian liberation will not be won in the halls of the United Nations or courts of The HagueIt has been more than a year of the ongoing onslaught in Gaza, where experts and common people across the world recognize that a genocide is taking place. We have seen the decimation of Gaza's hospitals, the use of starvation and disease as weapons of war, attacks on aid workers and the prevention of humanitarian aid, the invasion of Lebanon, Syria and West Bank cities, the arbitrary detention of 9,000 Palestinians, the use of white phosphorus, and the series of countless bombs, bombs and more bombs - all individually war crimes, and collectively, affronts to the very idea of international law and jurisprudence.Like millions around the world, I watched Sha'ban al-Dalou, a 19-year-old student, burn alive as he slept in a tent outside the al-Aqsa Martyrs' hospital in central Gaza. I've seen my people unable to do anything as flames swallowed yet another martyr, another hospital, another set of refugees in tents. I've watched Israeli occupation forces in north Gaza prepare what appeared to be a mass grave, outside Indonesian hospital, lining up Palestinian men and boys with their hands tied and eyes blindfolded.Ahmad Ibsais is a first generation Palestinian American, law student and poet who writes the newsletter State of Siege Continue reading...

Mike Johnson has an explanation for why the Republican majority is so thin - and it's misleading and cynicalMike Johnson, the House Speaker, will soon have the challenge of leading a three-seat Republican majority. He has an interesting theory about why the Republican edge will be so slender. Last week, on Fox News, he blamed Democratic gerrymandering.While it's always a delightful surprise to hear a Republican leader express concern about the evils of gerrymandering, Johnson has the facts and the math completely backwards.David Daley is the author of the new book Antidemocratic: Inside the Right's 50-Year Plot to Control American Elections as well as Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn't Count Continue reading...

Wray's resignation came after Trump said he would fire the official. Plus, scientists fear climate crisis is acceleratingGood morning.The FBI director, Christopher Wray, has announced he is leaving the top job after Donald Trump's announcement that he would fire him and replace him with loyalist Kash Patel.What has Patel said about the FBI? He's labeled the FBI as part of a deep state" and said he would shut its Washington headquarters.What is the news from Gaza? Israeli airstrikes killed at least 28 people, including seven children and a woman, in overnight and early morning attacks, Palestinian medical officials said. Continue reading...

Lawmaker called for a limited state of emergency', while 21 mayors asked governor to enact statewide actionThe mysterious reported sightings of drone clusters in the night skies over New Jersey and other parts of the US north-east has prompted frustrated outbursts from Congress members, triggering calls for a limited state of emergency to be declared over the region.Jon Bramnick, a Republican state senator in New Jersey, has demanded a ban on all drones until the mystery is solved. ABC's Action News reported that he called for a limited state of emergency ... until the public receives an explanation regarding these multiple sightings". Continue reading...

Is University of Connecticut point guard Paige Bueckers the next Caitlin Clark? There a chance this year's presumptive No 1 draft pick might be even betterIn 2013 AAU coach Gary Knox posted a photo of a smiling girl, hands clutching her backpack straps, orange headband perfectly coordinated with her orange T-shirt. Remember the name," he wrote on X. Paige Bueckers. 6th grade, think Diana Taurasi. Best 6th grade G I've ever seen."Knox wasn't wrong. Bueckers arrived on the women's college basketball scene in 2020 as the year's top recruit, when she - like Taurasi years before her - joined the University of Connecticut and immediately made an impact. Everyone wanted a piece of Bueckers, although she was just happy to finally have arrived at the school, even with the Covid-19 pandemic raging. Continue reading...

The FBI has not been able to give Congress answers about a recent spate of drone sightings above New Jersey. Dozens of drones have been spotted across New Jersey night skies in recent weeks, including near sensitive sites such as a military research facility. Robert Wheeler, the FBI assistant director of the critical incident response group, could only tell lawmakers the agency is 'actively investigating'. Texas Republican Tony Gonzales called it 'madness' that law enforcement agencies did not have more answers. 'Sometimes I feel like I'm in the The Twilight Zone', Gonzales said, referring to the 1950s sci-fi series

The immigration hardliner has echoed Trump's criticism of fake news' and has never acknowledged her defeat in race to be governor of ArizonaPresident-elect Donald Trump has picked Kari Lake as director of Voice of America, installing a staunch loyalist and immigration hardliner to head the congressionally funded broadcaster that provides independent news reporting around the world.Lake, who ran unsuccessfully for Arizona governor and a Senate seat, was a television news anchor in Phoenix for nearly three decades until she left in 2021 after making a series of controversial statements on social media, including sharing Covid-19 misinformation during the pandemic. Continue reading...

Six-time championship-winning coach will ensure team can evolve, compete and win', says UNC athletic directorSix-time Super Bowl-winning head coach Bill Belichick has agreed to a five-year deal to become the next coach at North Carolina.The school announced the hiring on Wednesday night, roughly a week after the 72-year-old Belichick's name surfaced as an unlikely candidate to replace the program's winningest all-time coach in Mack Brown. Continue reading...

More than 1,500 firefighters battle blaze as weather conditions are forecast to improve, aiding crews in effortsCrews struggled to contain a wind-driven blaze that forced more than 10,000 to evacuate the canyons of Malibu, California, on Wednesday, even as forecasters said improving weather significantly diminished high fire danger.Residents waited anxiously to see whether their properties had been spared by the Franklin fire, which erupted late on Monday and grew to more than 6 sq miles by Wednesday morning. The blaze was just 7% contained on Wednesday afternoon. Continue reading...

This live coverage is ending now, thanks for following along. Here is the full story on FBI chief Christopher Wray announcing that he will resign:

Criminal complaint charging Ryan Borgwardt details how 45-year-old pulled off disappearance to country of GeorgiaA Wisconsin man who faked his own drowning and left his wife and three children for eastern Europe willingly returned to the US after four months and was charged on Wednesday with obstructing an intense lake search for his body.The criminal complaint charging Ryan Borgwardt with misdemeanor obstruction offers a detailed account of how the 45-year-old pulled off his disappearance, including how he struggled to emerge from the water, almost didn't make it through customs on his way overseas and was living in the country of Georgia when he realized he had left too many clues behind. Continue reading...

Trump had signaled his intent to fire the veteran official and replace him with firebrand Kash PatelThe director of the FBI, Christopher Wray, announced on Wednesday that he was stepping down, after Donald Trump said he would fire him and install the firebrand loyalist Kash Patel in his place.Wray, who the president-elect himself appointed as director during his first presidency after firing Wray's predecessor James Comey in 2017, announced his decision to staff at the bureau's Washington headquarters. Continue reading...

The shamelessness of Fifa's process was fully on show in Zurich during a display of contempt for governance, democracy, love, hope and good senseWell, that's that then. In the event there were only two notes of jeopardy around Fifa's extraordinary virtual congress to announce the winning mono-bids, the vote without a vote, for the right to host the 2030 and 2034 World Cups.First, exactly how disgusting would this spectacle turn out to be in the flesh? The answer to which, perhaps unsurprisingly, was: extremely disgusting. And second, how would the process actually work? Continue reading...

It was not immediately clear where Kobayashi, who had vanished last month in Los Angeles, was foundHannah Kobayashi has been found safe, the Los Angeles police department (LAPD) said on Wednesday.Kobayashi vanished last month in Los Angeles, and her disappearance prompted a huge search and a missing persons investigation. It was not immediately clear where she was found, but police previously said she had voluntarily crossed the border into Mexico. Continue reading...

American Medical Association finds people in US are sick for an average of 12.4 years, an increase from figure in 2000Americans spend more time living with diseases than people from other countries, according to a new study.On Wednesday, the American Medical Association published its latest findings, revealing that Americans live with diseases for an average of 12.4 years. Mental and substance-use disorders, as well as musculoskeletal diseases, are main contributors to the years lived with disability in the US, per the study. Continue reading...

Louisiana artist gets five years probation and $200,000 fine after stating he possessed weapons despite being a felonA federal judge in Utah sentenced Louisiana rap artist NBA Youngboy to just under two years in prison on gun-related charges after he acknowledged having possessed weapons despite being a felon.The rapper, whose real name is Kentrell Gaulden, reached an agreement that resolved Utah state charges against him and settled two sets of federal charges against him - one carries a 23-month sentence and the other orders five years of probation and a $200,000 fine. Continue reading...

The company said it would no longer fund the venture and will prioritize Super Cruise, its driver assistance programGeneral Motors announced on Tuesday it will end robotaxi development at its money-losing Cruise business, a blow to the ambitions of the largest US automaker to advance the technology.GM said it would no longer fund work on self-driving robotaxis given the considerable time and resources that would be needed to scale the business, along with an increasingly competitive robotaxi market". Continue reading...

State's top court temporarily stops SB 99 on grounds that it will likely violate privacy rights enshrined in constitutionMontana's ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors has been temporarily blocked by the state supreme court on grounds that it is likely to violate the right to privacy enshrined in the state's constitution.The top court in Montana sided on Wednesday with an earlier district court decision blocking SB 99, the ban introduced last year by the Republican-controlled state legislature. The decision will allow under-18 transgender girls and boys to continue gender-affirming medical treatment pending a full trial. Continue reading...

President says failure may have contributed to voters blaming him for high prices even as economy improvedJoe Biden has voiced regret for not following Donald Trump's example by putting his signature on Covid-19-era economic stimulus cheques sent to Americans during a speech about his record on the economy as he prepares to leave office.Five weeks after his vice-president, Kamala Harris, lost the presidential election to Trump, the US president suggested on Tuesday that his failure to put his name on the cheques may have contributed to voters blaming his administration for high prices even when the economy was improving. Continue reading...

President Yoon Suk Yeol's alarming attempt to impose his will could hardly be worse-timed for a key Asian powerThe South Korean president's bizarre, appalling and short-lived attempt to impose martial law last week is still wreaking havoc. Police attempted to raid YoonSukYeol's office on Wednesday as they investigate him for a potential offence of insurrection. His party says he will hand power to the prime minister and party chief; others call that an unconstitutional second coup". It is a measure of the country's progress since democratisation in the 1980s that the main opposition leader, Lee Jae-myung, initially thought the president's announcement had been deep-faked, and now describes it as preposterous".Mr Yoon claimed without evidence that martial law was necessary to eradicate the threat from despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces" - meaning the opposition. Though other conservatives share his bitter conviction that the left are Pyongyang-sympathisers, most people believe the decision primarily reflected his erratic and personalised rule. A political outsider, he made his name as a top anti-corruption prosecutor, but grew angry at scrutiny of his wife's conduct as well as parliamentary obstruction of his policies. Despite his dismal approval ratings he seems to have thought that the people would back him. Within six hours, he was forced to U-turn. Continue reading...

Impasse sets up showdown over California efforts to shield residents from Trump's mass deportation plansThe sheriff of San Diego county defied a new policy limiting county cooperation with federal immigration authorities, setting up a showdown over California's efforts to shield residents from Donald Trump's mass deportation plans.On Tuesday, San Diego county supervisors voted to prohibit its sheriff's department from working with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) on the federal agency's enforcement of civil immigration laws, including those that allow for deportations. Continue reading...

Kenneth Chesebro, Michael Roman and James Troupis hit with 10 more charges over scheme to overturn 2020 electionWisconsin's justice department filed 10 additional charges on Tuesday against three Donald Trump allies who spearheaded the fake electors" scheme to help the president-elect in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.The three men, Kenneth Chesebro, Michael Roman and James Troupis, already faced felony forgery charges in June for their role in the plot. The additional charges include conspiracy to commit a crime and numerous counts of fraud. Continue reading...

Woman, 64, was separated from hiking group in Shore Acres state park and found after shouting for helpA hiker who was missing for two days has been rescued by the US Coast Guard from Shore Acres state park in Oregon after rescue crews heard her shouting for help.The 64-year-old, who was found on Sunday, had been missing since Friday evening after being separated from her hiking group, the coastguard said. Continue reading...

Joyful memes, novelty merch, gushing support: it's undeniably callous, but points to a deeply dysfunctional systemFor the almost two decades I lived in the US, my approach to medical bills was always the same. First invoice, ignore. Second invoice, ignore. Third invoice, written entirely in capital letters and in red, kick back to my insurer to buy another month of non-payment before receiving a fourth invoice, which I would also ignore. After that, the bill would go to a debt collection agency in the midwest, which would send me an extremely unfriendly letter threatening court action if I didn't pay up. I paid up. Ha! That'll show 'em.This is the rigmarole that millions of Americans go through every single time they visit a doctor for anything beyond routine maintenance. It is simultaneously a standard experience and a trigger for the most overpowering, cortisol-releasing emotions. Dragging my heels until the final notice was a pathetic gesture that achieved nothing, but it was the only mechanism I had for expressing the unadulterated rage caused by a basic fact of life in the US: that - and there's no other way to word this - you pay these fuckers enormous amounts of money each year and still they fight you on everything.Emma Brockes 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...

Since the fall of Roe in 2022, 76 clinics have shuttered and the initial surge of donations is now falling shortProviding abortions rarely paid the bills for Kwajelyn Jackson in 2024.As the executive director of Feminist Women's Health Center, an abortion clinic in Atlanta, Georgia, Jackson spent the year navigating Georgia's six-week abortion ban, dwindling financial support for abortion patients and soaring inflation. The clinic spent more money than it brought in from providing abortions, especially as Jackson strove to pay her staffers a decent wage and the clinic often subsidized the abortions of patients who could not afford to pay. Continue reading...

First minister seeks to persuade Trump of whisky's significant economic and cultural status during phone callScotland's first minister is leading efforts to persuade President-elect Donald Trump to exclude Scottish whisky from his plans to ratchet up tariffs on imports to the US.John Swinney, who leads Scotland's devolved government, lobbied Trump about whisky's significant economic and cultural status during a warm and friendly" 20-minute long telephone call the pair had on Monday. Continue reading...

I've learned to ignore distractions and focus on one thing, even if it is ensuring the little fella doesn't wee, or worse, on the carpetLast week, our family got a puppy. Not for Christmas - I'm too respectful of the Dogs Trust for that - but, in some ways, because of it. I work from home, and the December slowdown is the perfect time to do what puppies demand of you, which is to spend half your waking moments paying attention to their every twitch and snuffle, in case you miss some developmental milestone that condemns you to six more weeks of accidents on the floor.In case you have never potty-trained a small dog, here is how it (roughly) works. After they snooze, eat or play, you watch them, hawklike, for any indication that they might be about to unburden themselves. Indicator eventually noted, you hustle them outside to a specially prepared area, where you eye them, not too obviously, in the hope that they will let nature take its course. While they are in the act, you repeat whatever mini-mantra you are hoping to associate with the deed - in our case, a cheery let's go!" - then once they are done, you give them a cuddle and shower them with praise. Then you repeat that, five or 12 times a day, until they get the hang of it. Continue reading...

Purchased in 2005 by Albert Okura, Amboy now honors the Japanese American man who spent his life preserving symbols of AmericanaThis small town, like so many along Route 66, should be dead. Doomed by the rise of modern highways and the harsh Mojave Desert environment, Amboy should look like its abandoned neighboring towns. Yet, on a crisp November day, Amboy thrummed with friends and travelers swapping stories about the area's history, the family that saved it, and the road that led them there.It's the mother road," said Digger Simpson, 61, gesturing towards the legendary Route 66 that once was the nation's main artery for travel from Chicago to Santa Monica, California. It's Americana - it's mom-and-pop restaurants and gas stations," he added, reflecting on the nostalgia that drew him from Twentynine Palms to Amboy to celebrate Albert Okura, the man credited with injecting life back into the town. Continue reading...

To argue that it was sickle cell trait - a condition that disproportionately affects Black people - killed Jordan Neely is dangerous and wrongMake no mistake, Daniel Penny was acquitted this week of choking Jordan Neely to death on the New York City subway after his lawyers invoked some of the most institutionally insidious appeals to anti-Black racism around.Penny's defense lawyers and his legions of fans will say otherwise, of course. They'll point out that Penny, a 26-year-old former marine, was merely protecting himself and his fellow passengers from Neely, a 30-year-old unhoused Black man suffering from schizophrenia. And they'll argue that if race did matter in this trial, it was only Penny's race that mattered. Penny's attorneys (and the New York Post) vehemently objected when the prosecution described Penny, who is white, as the white man", as if pointing out the obvious was some underhanded masterpiece of racial guilt-tripping. Continue reading...

Corporations scramble to provide protection against threat of copycat killings following Brian Thompson's murderThe New York police department (NYPD) has warned US healthcare executives of a heightened risk to their lives after identifying an online hitlist" posted in the wake of last week's assassination of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson.Corporations have scrambled to give their senior figures added protection against the threat of copycat killings following Thompson's murder, which has been celebrated in some quarters of social media. Continue reading...

The women celebrating the destruction of jails and dungeons will now be wondering why their own oppression cannot also be dismantledThirteen years after they joined the revolutionary wave sweeping across the Middle East and north Africa, Syrians can say they have consigned the name of Bashar al-Assad to the history books alongside Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya and Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen. But as the past 13 years have shown in all those countries, liberation requires more than removing one man from the presidential palace. We women, especially, know that.Today I am thinking of Razan Zaitouneh, a Syrian revolutionary who along with three of her comrades, collectively known as the Douma Four, disappeared in rebel-held territory on 9 December 2013 - 11 years less a day before Assad was toppled. Zaitouneh's revolution targeted everyone: the Assad regime, rebel groups and Islamist militants alike.Mona Eltahawy is the author of the Feminist Giant newsletter. She wrote several articles from Syria for the Guardian in 1999-2000, including a report on the funeral of Hafez al-Assad Continue reading...

We'd like to hear from people about their own US healthcare experiences. Were you happy with your coverage? Or did you feel you were treated badly?Last week's shocking shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a street in New York, though widely condemned, also sparked an outpouring of online vitriol towards the US's profit-driven healthcare industry.Luigi Mangione, 26, has now been charged with Thompson's murder. Bullet cases left at the scene of the killing displayed the words delay" and deny", suggesting the killing may be linked to the largely privatized US healthcare industry's routine denial of payments to many Americans. Continue reading...

The music tracking site runs a reduced service these days, but still offers an alternative to AI-generated slideshows and made-up genres that's useful - and genuinely revealingLike many music fans with a conscience, I use Spotify begrudgingly. I need to listen to a vast amount of music for work; I want to listen to a vast amount of music for fun, and I would have to forgo groceries if I attempted to buy it all. Still, I resent its financial distribution model to artists: my 11.99 a month isn't divided between the musicians I actually listen to, but proportionally related to their popularity across the platform, meaning Ed Sheeran is getting significantly more of my money than Mabe Fratti. Spotify hosts music almost certainly made by fake artists or AI; playlists are prioritised over albums; there was the whole Joe Rogan thing that made Joni Mitchell and Neil Young quit the platform for a year.Perhaps counterintuitively, I have less ire for Spotify Wrapped, the packaging of a user's year in listening that Spotify revamps annually with silly little made-up genre names (pink Pilates princess strut pop?) and flattering stats about being in the top 0.5% of any given act's listeners. It unarguably puts a tidy bow on Spotify's poor artist remuneration - as well as big-tech creep - and is nothing more than a giant marketing push that its users carry out for free. But the main gripe against it this year is the company's frank use of AI - as if previous years' instalments were as lovingly curated as a handmade mix CD. In a comment piece for the New Yorker titled The hollow allure of Spotify Wrapped", critic Brady Brickner-Wood writes: If we can't trust the apps to tell us a meaningful story about our art consumption, how will anyone, including ourselves, ever discover the idiosyncratic composition of our inner lives?" Continue reading...

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's remarks came after leading rebel group named an interim prime minister, who urged calm. Plus, Luigi Mangione to plead not guilty and fight extradition

Legal records show Lawrence Hecker and Gilbert Gauthe targeted the same altar boy in 1970s before being convicted of other crimesTwo of the most inveterate abusers in the history of the US Roman Catholic church's clergy molestation scandal once converged on the same victim - before each was brought to justice years later for other crimes.An altar server and former Boy Scouts member who grew up in New Orleans endured a wide range of abusive acts by Lawrence Hecker and his fellow priest Gilbert Gauthe in the early 1970s, according to legal documents summarizing the victim's experience which were obtained by the Guardian. Continue reading...

Democrat aims to shift corporations away from maximizing shareholder value to support for workers and stakeholdersThe senator Elizabeth Warren will introduce a bill in Congress on Wednesday aimed at shifting corporations away from maximizing shareholder value" and towards giving more support to workers and other stakeholders.The Accountable Capitalism Act proposes a series of reforms to increase corporate responsibility, strengthen the voices of workers and others in corporate decisions and shift companies away from their focus on shareholders. Continue reading...

With partisan gridlock and special interests more powerful than ever, it's difficult to know how to move forwardRage, frustration and bitterness - all were on display in social media comments following the fatal shooting of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson.Despite being brazenly murdered in midtown Manhattan just before the company's annual investor conference, leaving behind a widow and two sons, many Americans struggled to find sympathy for a man they viewed as complicit in denying or deferring what they saw as needed care - rage that one prominent policy expert can understand. Continue reading...

The playbook used to propel an ultranationalist to the top of the polls in last month's election must not be repeatedMany days have passed since Romania's tumultuous election, in which a far-right independent candidate topped the polls, but in crucial regards things are not much clearer. Was this truly the will of the people, or the doing of a network of Russian agents of influence? It leaves our country mired in its biggest political crisis in 35 years, with the constitutional court having annulled the first round of presidential elections after allegations that Russia, through means unclear but broadly familiar, promoted Clin Georgescu. He didn't even make it into the top five positions of most opinion polls before the vote, but won the first round of presidential elections on 23 November with 23% of the vote. The burning issue is the need to know how and why.To his proponents, Georgescu spoke to Romanians' frustration with the traditional political parties and system. Devotees will say Georgescu was the providential leader the country had been waiting for. Continue reading...

In a viral post, the Hendrix family from Chicago lamented British bad manners. But I beg to differ - people in London are just big city polite'If you are an American hoping to ingratiate yourself with the local people while on a trip to London, I have some tips. First: smile at strangers on the train. You have to really try to hold eye contact with them; if they scuttle off at the next stop looking terrified, chase after them, asking how their day is going. Londoners love that. They also love it when you stand in the middle of the escalator, blocking their way; that is a great ice-breaker. If all else fails, loudly inform everyone that you are from the US. Everyone loves Americans!The above is a hypothetical extract from whatever guidebook the globetrotting Hendrix family - who are from Chicago - must have read before visiting the UK recently. We've travelled the world ... but we've never felt such coldness as we did in London," the aspiring influencers lamented in a viral Instagram post about British manners. In a week there, not a single smile greeted us - not on the streets, not on the trains ... For our kids, who are used to warm waves and friendly interactions, it was unsettling." (Bizarrely, the post went on to say how much nicer the French were in Paris.) They then posted another video, showing their children getting on to an escalator in London and asking whether Londoners are really mean". Continue reading...

The hiring of Leon Rose as president of basketball operations at Madison Square Garden has ushered in an unexpected period of stabilityEven by the standards of James Dolan's nightmarish reign over the New York Knicks, 2006 was a dark year. Some argue it marked the worst chapter in the storied - and often turbulent - history of the team. Just nine days before Christmas that season, Dolan's Knicks were embroiled in a brawl with the Denver Nuggets at Madison Square Garden. The sprawling melee would become the biggest on-court fight in the NBA since the Indiana Pacers-Detroit Pistons scrapped during the Malice at the Palace. That 2006 December night, basketball sank to its most primal state - disjointed men trading punches instead of passes, prioritizing violence over victory. The Garden, once Eden, had wilted into a bacchanalia of banality, with Dolan its Caligula.The degradation on display that night embodied the chaos of Dolan's reign. Statistically, under Dolan's rule there were worse seasons, like the 17-65 teams in 2014-2015 and 2018-2019. But the 2006 Knicks were an existential disaster on and off the court. After just a single season, Hall of Famer Larry Brown was fired as head coach. Their putrid 23-59 record was the worst in the Eastern Conference. The Knicks' payroll for the 2005-2006 season was $124m - an impressive $74.5m above the salary cap and $62.3m over the luxury tax. Continue reading...

The Black Knights are no longer the powerhouse they once were. But they are also free of the big money that takes away some of the purity of college sportsJeff Monken was asked before his first training camp 10 years ago at Army to list the biggest challenges facing his football program. His list had one item.Us," Monken said. Continue reading...

What does Rupert's failed attempt to hand his empire to son Lachlan tell us? They'd be happier giving their money awayRupert Murdoch has lost an epic legal battle against three of his children: he wanted to wrest control of his media empire back from them, settle it solely upon his son Lachlan in the event of his death, and thereby ... well, who knows his true motivation. Most likely to destroy, but who, and in what order, is now lost in a sealed court decision in Nevada.Everyone is calling it the Succession trial", partly because it's about succession, partly because it sounds like an episode of the TV programme Succession, and partly because it was also inspired by one: after the death of Logan Roy (who, for readers who live in a cave, is fictional), Elisabeth Murdoch's representative, Mark Devereux, penned the Succession memo", which aimed to prevent turmoil following the mogul's death. Instead, it just brought that turmoil forward, so that it could happen while he was still alive. Continue reading...

Court rejects far-right shock jock's claim of collusion' but finds that trustee should have got more money from parody site or Jones-affiliated bidderA US bankruptcy judge stopped parody news site the Onion from buying conspiracy theorist Alex Jones's Infowars website, ruling that a bankruptcy auction did not result in the best possible bids.However, the judge, Christopher Lopez, on Tuesday rejected Jones's claims that the auction was plagued by collusion". Continue reading...

The 26-year-old appears to have spondylolisthesis, a fracture or weakness in the vertebrae of the spineLuigi Mangione, the 26-year-old suspect in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, appears to have suffered from a rare back condition called spondylolisthesis, according to posts linked to him on the social media site Reddit.While not confirmed, archived Reddit posts under the username Mister_Cactus" and elements of Mangione's other social media accounts, as well as an account by a friend, seem to confirm that he suffered from a back condition that caused him chronic pain. Continue reading...

About 700 firefighters battle wind-whipped flames tearing across dry coastal hillsides and near Pepperdine UniversityMore than 1,500 firefighters are working to contain a fast-moving wildfire that has whipped through the iconic southern California community of Malibu.Fueled by strong winds gusting across the sloped terrain overlooking the Pacific, the so-called Franklin fire erupted on Monday night By Tuesday night, the fire had ballooned to more than 2,800 acres, tearing through the tinder-dry folds of Malibu Canyonas it raced rapidly downhill towards the Pacific Ocean. About 20,000 residents were under evacuation orders, including celebrities Dick Van Dyke and Cher, who live in the affluent coastal city. Continue reading...

Judge sides with FTC that merger would lead to higher prices and less bargaining leverage for union workersA US judge blocked the pending $25bn merger of US grocery chains Kroger and Albertsons on Tuesday, siding with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in a win for the Biden administration.The FTC argued at a three-week trial in Portland, Oregon, that the merger would eliminate head-to-head competition between the top two traditional grocery chains, leading to higher prices for shoppers and reduced bargaining leverage for unionized workers. Continue reading...