US news | The Guardian

Quake triggered a tsunami warning for at least 5.3 million Californians, which was later withdrawnA large earthquake struck the northern California coast on Thursday morning, rattling communities and activating emergency alerts for both shaking and tsunami risks just before 11am local time.Registered as a magnitude 7.0 and originating near the town of Ferndale in Humboldt county, the quake could be felt in San Francisco more than 260 miles (418km) away. Roughly 1.3 million people felt the quake , according to initial estimates provided by the US Geological Survey (USGS), which also reported that risks to human life remained low. Continue reading...

Mark McAfee, whose products have been repeatedly contaminated with bird flu, asked by RJK Jr to apply for jobMark McAfee, a California raw milk producer whose products have been recalled several times recently due to bird flu contamination, said he has been approached by Robert F Kennedy Jr's team to guide the upcoming administration on raw milk policy.McAfee, whose dairy products were recalled after state officials detected bird flu virus in milk samples, said that the transition team for Kennedy, the nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, asked him to apply for a position advising on raw milk policy and standards development. The idea, he told the Guardian, would be to create a raw milk ordinance", mirroring the existing federal standard milk ordinance". Continue reading...

Neely's father has accused the Marine veteran of negligence and assault and battery leading to his son's deathThe father of the victim at the center of the fatal New York City subway chokehold trial has sued the defendant as a Manhattan jury continued to deliberate the case Thursday.Jordan Neely's father, Andre Zachary, filed the suit Wednesday against Marine veteran Daniel Penny in New York supreme court. Continue reading...

Bureau of Prisons closes California facility and suspends operations at six others as rights activists call for clemencyThe US Bureau of Prisons (BoP) announced on Thursday it was permanently closing a California women's prison plagued by staff sexual misconduct scandals, and suspending operations at six other federal institutions.The shutdowns come as the federal agency is facing intensifying scrutiny surrounding guards' rampant sexual abuse of incarcerated residents, a crisis of suicides and preventable deaths across its prisons and reports of severe medical neglect. Continue reading...

Americans turn to social media to discuss dire experiences at hands of health insurance companiesIn the aftermath of the killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, while Thompson's colleagues grieve and politicians decry his murder, some online discussion has shown little sympathy for Thompson or the industry he represented.Instead, social media has been in engulfed in expressions of anger at many Americans' dire experiences at the hands of health insurance companies and outrage at the large profits that they generate. Continue reading...

Republican representative accuses agency's acting director at hearing over response to Trump assassination attemptsA hearing examining the Secret Service's response to the assassination attempts against Donald Trump went off the rails on Thursday, when a screaming match broke out between the agency's acting director, Ronald Rowe, and a Republican representative.The hearing, hosted by the House taskforce established shortly after the first assassination attempt against Trump in July, was meant to explore the steps that the Secret Service has taken to improve security measures of protectees, but Pat Fallon, a Republican of Texas, took the questioning of Rowe in a different direction. Continue reading...

Move comes as board of regents is expected to weigh other rollbacks to the university's DEI initiativesThe University of Michigan will no longer ask for diversity statements from faculty when considering hiring, promotion or tenure, the latest cut to its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.The statements, which require a declaration from potential hires on how they will maintain DEI, are solicited from university employers on a case-by-case basis. (Michigan does not have a university-wide policy.) Continue reading...

Plane giant's agreement to plead guilty to fraud after two jet crashes was called sweetheart' deal by relatives of victimsA US federal judge on Thursday rejected plane giant Boeing's agreement to plead guilty to fraud after two fatal crashes of its 737 Max passenger jets, faulting a diversity and inclusion provision in the deal regarding the selection of an independent monitor to audit the company's compliance practices.Boeing and the US justice department now have 30 days to update the court on how they plan to proceed in the case, Judge Reed C O'Connor of the northern district of Texas ordered. Continue reading...

Exhaustive' investigation finds discrimination against Black people and conduct that violates people's civil rights'The US Department of Justice said Memphis police regularly violate the Constitution" and law enforcement often punishes people who don't immediately follow directions", in a press conference Thursday morning.The conference addressed a comprehensive and exhaustive" investigation, culminating in a report released the previous day that found that the Memphis police department uses excessive force and discriminates against Black people. Continue reading...

Annual event featuring 35ft red spruce set for Thursday evening at the Ellipse park south of the White HouseJoe Biden is set to take part in the annual national Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Washington DC on Thursday evening, for the final time before leaving the White House.This year, the centerpiece of the 102-year tradition will be a 35ft red spruce from the George Washington and Jefferson national forests in Virginia. Continue reading...

Two female and three male alala released after years of preparation in ongoing effort to return species to its homeFive Hawaiian crows on Wednesday were released on Maui for the first time as part of an ongoing effort to return the species to its home, conservationists said.The Hawaiian crows, or alala, were last found on Hawaii's Big Island, but they went extinct in the wild in 2002, officials with the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance said in a statement. The birds, described as intelligent and charismatic, are the last survivors of all the Hawaiian crow species. Habitat loss, predation and disease by introduced species are threats, among other factors. Continue reading...

New York police use facial recognition as they work to identify suspect in killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO

Senior party figures consider withholding contributions to presidential library to express anger at pardon for sonSenior Democrats are reportedly considering withholding contributions to Joe Biden's future presidential library amid a mounting backlash over his decision grant a blanket pardon to his son Hunter.The threat has emerged as simmering anger among congressional Democrats - already building over the president's insistence on seeking a second term before belatedly stepping aside as the party nominee in favour of Kamala Harris - has burst into the open over Sunday's pardon, which Biden had previously vowed not to give. Continue reading...

They are trying to slowly and sneakily acclimatise us, like we are frogs boiling in water. But this frog won't be boiledUnless you've been living under a rock (or perhaps even something heavier than a rock, like Dwayne The Rock' Johnson), you would know by now that the movie musical Wicked is in theatres. As someone who wastes a lot of useful time being useless on the internet, I have been absorbing the strange press tour and countless memes along with everyone else, and I've been on the fence about actually going.I haven't seen the stage version of Wicked, but I know some references and enjoy musicals generally. I love some movie musicals (hello Hairspray), but a lot of them are not great - and if they are bad, they are punishing. If I'm going to take out a second mortgage on my avocado toast in order to pay for a movie on the big screen, I need to be sure I'm making the right choice. Continue reading...

The proposed rule change has been met with widespread derision. But MLB has two teams in temporary homes and an avalanche of pitcher injuriesThe first time I saw a mention of a baseball golden at-bat" came on Monday. A few entries flashed on X, my spam detector dismissed them immediately and I moved on in search of my next distraction. A day later, I was back wasting life away on social media and there it was again: the golden-at bat". The internet had won: I did a little research.Multiple entries described a potential rule change in Major League Baseball that would allow a team to send their preferred player to the plate, at any time, even if it wasn't his turn to hit, once a game. I resisted asking the universe the myriad questions which sprung to mind, such as, what happens if that golden" player is already on base? This was obviously a gag. Such a rule change wouldn't be a slight adjustment to how the sport is played: we're not talking about ads on uniforms or even ghost runners helping to decide extra inning slogs. A golden at-bat? That instantly transforms the game into a different code entirely, at least for me. I'm still not buying it. Continue reading...

The 2024 first-round QBs entered the league with varying degrees of expectation. Who has flown and who has struggled?Williams walked into the NFL with sky-high expectations. He was compared to Patrick Mahomes and was billed as someone who could, almost single-handedly, turn Chicago into a playoff contender. Continue reading...

As the president-elect and his allies plan a multi-pronged attack on DEI policies, companies and campuses are complying with threats even though they don't have toIn 2020, Donald Trump signed an executive order against race and sex stereotyping and scapegoating" which would have set the stage for sweeping attacks on diversity initiatives in the public sphere. In January 2021, on his first day in office, Joe Biden rescinded Trump's anti-DEI order and signed one promoting racial equity and support for underserved communities".Now Trump is returning to office, he expected to restore his directive and double down on it. The people that run diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives at public and private institutions are expecting mass crackdown. Project 2025 has labeled them woke culture warriors" and pledged to wield the full force of the federal government against their efforts to create a more equitable society. Continue reading...

In the past year, the Biden administration has extended contracts for private sector jails before Trump's plan for mass deportationsDonald Trump's plan for the mass deportation of undocumented people and a related expansion of US detention facilities is getting an unexpected head start from Joe Biden - and private prison companies are already cashing in.The Biden administration has, for the past year, been in the process of extending contracts for private sector immigration jails across the US and exploring options for expanding detention capacity, a Guardian investigation has found. Continue reading...

The leaker went to jail for a patriotic, if illegal, act. She has a lot to offer the world if she's allowed to move onIn late November, Reality Winner - who turned 33 this week - finished her lengthy punishment for sending a government document to a news organization.It's past time for her to be pardoned so that she can move on with her life and, particularly, her education. She wants to be a veterinary technician, get a good-paying job and move out of her mother's Texas house, but having a felony in one's background doesn't help with any of that.Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...

Eric Murphy and Jasmin Lawrence, the children of the comedy legends, are engaged. What better setup for their next collaboration?His dad was the Nutty Professor. Her dad was Big Momma. And now they could be teaming up for their biggest blockbuster yet - a proper showbiz wedding.Over the weekend Eric Murphy, the oldest of Eddie's 10 children, announced his engagement to Jasmin Lawrence, the first of Martin Lawrence's three kids; a slickly produced Instagram video features Eric dropping to one knee and popping the question in a candlelit room full of roses. God truly blessed us with a love that feels like destiny," read the caption. We couldn't be more excited for this chapter." Continue reading...

Authorities are looking for the suspect who shot dead Brian Thompson outside the Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan in a brazen' attack. Plus, Amnesty alleges that Israel's war amounts to genocideGood morning.New York police are searching for the suspect who shot and killed the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, one of the US's largest health insurers, on Wednesday in midtown Manhattan.Had Thompson had threats made against him? His wife, Paulette Thompson, said there had been threats", adding: Basically, I don't know, a lack of coverage? I don't know details. I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him."What else did it base the claim on? It cited the obstruction of aid and power; destroying medical infrastructure; the unprecedented speed and scale of death and destruction in Gaza; and repeated attacks on civilians. Continue reading...

If the purpose of universities is to cultivate the mind, it is nearly impossible to deny that football, by degrading the brain, is antithetical to the processIt is clearly the duty of the colleges which have permitted these monstrous evils to grow up and become intense to purge themselves of such immoralities ... Intercollegiate and interscholastic football ought to be prohibited until a reasonable game has been formulated."Those were the words of Harvard University president Charles W Eliot in 1906, a year after three college players died playing football, part of a spate of deaths that led many universities to abandon the sport and President Roosevelt to call for safety reforms in the game he loved. Sadly, Eliot's words resonate as if written today: on 29 November, Alabama A&M linebacker Medrick Burnett Jr died from a head injury he had suffered in a game the previous month. He was just twenty years old.Nathan Kalman-Lamb is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of New Brunswick. Derek Silva is Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminology at King's University College at Western University. They are co-authors of The End of College Football: On the Human Cost of an All-American Game (UNC Press, November 2024) and co-hosts (with Johanna Mellis) of The End of Sport podcast. Continue reading...

Language experts rounded up the year's winners (losers?) in the US and UK - and provided the correct pronunciationsAt the Democratic national convention, Kamala Harris's nieces explained how to pronounce Harris's name. Chappell Roan gave fans a friendly final warning" about the pronunciation of hers. And Zendaya settled the matter on video.All three helped to define 2024 - and spent the year hearing people get their names wrong: each appears on lists of the year's most mispronounced words in the US and UK, produced by the language-learning website Babbel, which reminds us that they're pronounced COM-a-la HAR-iss, CHAP-uhl ROHN and Zen-DAY-a.The Dutch Kooikerhondje (COY-ker-HUND-che), a breed of dog owned by the world's best baseball player, Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Ohtani's dog won fans after throwing" the first pitch at a game (he carried the ball from the pitcher's mound to his crouching owner at home plate).Shein, the fast-fashion site - it's SHE-in, not SHEEN or SHINE.The drug in the weight-loss medications Ozempic and Wegovy is semaglutide (sem-ah-GLOO-tide).Phryge, the mascot of the Paris Olympics and summer Paralympics, is pronounced FREE-je. It was a nod to the Phrygian cap, an emblematic accessory of the French revolutionaries.The flygskam (FLEEG-skam) - or flight-shame - movement is pushing people to cut down on flying to help the planet.Also in the word of professional sports: Joko Gvardiol (YOSH-ko GVAR-dee-ol) plays soccer (FOOT-ball) for Manchester City and Croatia.And the mispronunciation of the word espresso (es-PRESS-oh) as ex-PRESS-oh sparked outrage among some coffee fans. The word has been in the news thanks to the song by Sabrina Carpenter, who also made headlines for her relationship with Keoghan. Continue reading...

Trump's pick for director of national intelligence has long been regarded as dangerous for her Syria contacts and stance on UkraineIn 2018, a Syrian dissident codenamed Caesar was set to testify before the House foreign affairs committee about the torture and summary executions that had become a signature of Bashar al-Assad's brutal crackdown on opposition during Syria's civil war.It was not Caesar's first time in Washington: the ex-military photographer had smuggled out 55,000 photographs and other evidence of life in Assad's brutal detention facilities years earlier, and had campaigned anonymously to convince US lawmakers to pass tough sanctions on Assad's network as punishment for his reign of terror. Continue reading...

Authorities say hospitalized students are aged five and six, and man on scene was found dead of self-inflicted gunshotTwo students were injured in a school shooting in northern California, officials said on Wednesday afternoon, and the suspected shooter is dead.The injured students, five- and six-year-old boys, are in extremely critical" condition and being treated at a Sacramento-area trauma center, the Butte county sheriff, Kory Honea, told reporters on Wednesday evening. Continue reading...

Report marks end of inquiry launched after death of Tyre Nichols, who died after being beaten following traffic stopThe Memphis police department uses excessive force and discriminates against Black people, according to the findings of a US Department of Justice investigation launched after the beating death of Tyre Nichols after a traffic stop in 2023.A report released on Wednesday marked the conclusion of the investigation that began six months after Nichols was kicked, punched and hit with a police baton as five officers tried to arrest him after he fled a traffic stop. Continue reading...

Former Fox host tries to charm Republican senators amid growing questions over suitability; Atkins named amid flurry of appointments. This blog is now closed.

A look at the people who have been and still could be offered key positions when Trump takes officeDonald Trump, the former US president set to return to the White House in January for a second term, has announced a number of choices for his administration.Trump has tasked Howard Lutnick, a longtime friend and pick for commerce secretary, with recruiting officials who will deliver, rather than dilute, his agenda. During his first term, several of Trump's key appointees tried to steer Trump away from his more extreme plans. Continue reading...

A look at the people who have been and still could be offered key positions when Trump takes officeDonald Trump, the former US president set to return to the White House in January for a second term, has announced a number of choices for his administration.Trump has tasked Howard Lutnick, a longtime friend and pick for commerce secretary, with recruiting officials who will deliver, rather than dilute, his agenda. During his first term, several of Trump's key appointees tried to steer Trump away from his more extreme plans. Continue reading...

President-elect says Navarro, his former White House trade adviser, will focus on tariffsDonald Trump said he would name former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro as senior counselor for trade and manufacturing.Navarro made headlines earlier this year when, in March, he was jailed for contempt of Congress. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. You can read the latest here:

Police look for suspect who shot and killed Brian Thompson, 50, outside Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan

Lawyers argue that sitting president is immune from indictment or any criminal process, state or federal'Donald Trump's attorney in Georgia has asked the state's appellate court to dismiss election interference charges against the president-elect, arguing that a sitting president is completely immune from indictment or any criminal process, state or federal".The filing by attorney Steve Sadow before the Georgia court of appeals asks the court to dismiss Trump's appeal of a lower-court decision to allow Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis to remain as prosecutor on the case, because the Fulton county superior court no longer has jurisdiction, given Trump's electoral victory. Continue reading...

Pete Hegseth, who has been accused of drunken, irresponsible and predatory behavior, would be in charge of the world's most powerful militaryIt takes a lot to get a man's mother to declare him an abuser of women". Mothers, as a rule, are not known for their ungenerous assessments of their sons' behavior. But Penelope Hegseth, the mother of the Fox News personality Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Department of Defense, once did just that in an email to her son.I have no respect for a man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego," Hegseth's mother wrote to him. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains and embarrasses me to say that, but it's the sad, sad truth." The email - which Hegseth's mother later disavowed - appears to have come around the time of the dissolution of Hegseth's second marriage; during Hegseth's first marriage, according to a new report by Vanity Fair, he confessed to no fewer than five affairs.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

President-elect appoints David Warrington as White House counsel and moves Bill McGinley to efficiency agencyDonald Trump announced on Wednesday he was appointing David Warrington to serve as the White House counsel, abruptly changing his mind about who will be the top lawyer in the incoming administration as he moves his original pick to the new department of government efficiency.The move means Warrington, a longtime Trump lawyer who was also the Trump campaign's general counsel, will effectively be the most prominent legal adviser to Trump in the day-to-day running of the West Wing. Continue reading...

The CEO of UnitedHealthcare, one of the US's largest health insurers, was fatally shot in the chest on Wednesday in midtown Manhattan by an unidentified man. At a news conference, police said they believe Brian Thompson, 50, was killed in a brazen targeted attack". New York's police commissioner Jessica Tisch said: 'I want to be clear at this time, every indication is that this was a premeditated, pre-planned targeted attack"

Report comes amid controversy over allegations of sexual misconduct against several Trump nominees for his cabinetA new study, released amid controversy over allegations of sexual misconduct against several nominees for Donald Trump's cabinet, reveals a positive correlation between people accused of wrongdoing who use Darvo (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender") defense tactics and both sexual harassment perpetration and acceptance of rape myths.These findings suggest Darvo isn't just a response," said Dr Sarah Harsey, assistant professor of psychology at the Oregon State University-Cascades and study lead author. It reflects a broader perspective that condones victim-blaming and minimizes accountability." Continue reading...

The 50-year-old had climbed up the ranks of the health insurance giant over 20 years and lived in Minnesota

Activists among 92% of Black women who voted for Harris discuss how intersection of racism and sexism led to defeatMisogynoir, the intersection of racism and sexism, was the main reason behind Kamala Harris's loss in the 2024 general election, a panel of Black female experts argued, noting how post-election coverage has failed to contend with how white supremacy undergirded the election results.In a conversation titled Views from the 92%: Black Women Reflect on 2024 Election and Road Ahead", several academics dissected how and why the vice-president lost, particularly given Trump's problematic history. Continue reading...

Leaders cast the other as ill-prepared after Trump threatens to apply 25% taxes on goods from both countriesMexico's president has said Canadians could only wish they had the cultural riches" of her country as tensions mount between the two nations, caught in a feud over tariffs and trade exacerbated by Donald Trump.The US president-elect threatened in a social media post last week to apply devastating levies of 25% on all goods and services from both countries, and to keep them in place until such time as drugs, in particular fentanyl, and all illegal aliens stop this invasion of our country!" Continue reading...

Joe Biden's Indo-Pacific policy of pursuing detente against China at all costs meant embracing Yoon, whose anti-democratic attitude has always been clearJean Baudrillard's 1986 travel diary of his time in Reagan's America - the only remaining primitive society on earth", in his words - describes a paradox about the nature of late-century American hegemony. American power does not seem inspired by any spirit or genius of its own," wrote Baudrillard, but it is, in a sense, uncontested and incontestable." American genius" appeared to suffer from the weakening of all the forces that previously opposed it" - the incoherence of American strategic thinking, to Baudrillard, was thus a measure of its success.Today, there are American adversaries everywhere - not least in what is now called the Indo-Pacific. But no such spirit or genius" seemed to underpin the Biden administration's response to the Tuesday coup in South Korea, much less South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol's attempted overthrow of democratic rule. The Biden administration's response has been, to say the least, limp. At the time of writing, the state department has said little beyond an assurance that its alliance with South Korea is ironclad" and that the United States will stand by Korea in its time of uncertainty".Alex Bronzini-Vender is a writer living in New York Continue reading...

Since the separation of the Koreas in 1953, our elders have experienced the suspension of normal civil rights many times. But for the younger generation, this was a horrifying and instructive firstAt 10.23pm on 3 December in Seoul, I was already in bed, alternating between reading a book and watching YouTube cooking reels. That was when Yoon Suk Yeol, the president, declared emergency martial law in South Korea for the first time since 1979.In an unannounced televised address, Yoon said the imposition of martial law was aimed at eradicating pro-North Korean forces and protecting the constitutional order of freedom". Continue reading...

Those who donate $1m or raise $2m will get invites to dinners with Donald and Melania Trump as well as JD VanceTop donors to Donald Trump's inauguration committee will be rewarded with dinners alongside the president-elect and his wife Melania before and after their return to the White House, according to multiple reports.An elegant and intimate dinner with President Donald J Trump and Mrs Melania Trump" on 19 January, the night before Trump's swearing-in, has been billed as the pinnacle event", according to details sent to donors this week. Continue reading...

Report comparing 10 peer countries shows how holes in Medicare coverage lead to Americans skipping careOlder Americans spend more on healthcare than peers in 10 other developed democracies, a new Commonwealth Fund report found.The new report highlights how Medicare, the public health insurance program for people older than 65 and people who are disabled, has significant cost-sharing requirements - including co-pays, deductibles and no ceiling on out-of-pocket costs. Continue reading...

Trump's nominee for secretary of defense vows not to back down despite multiple controversies emerging since he was namedPete Hegseth, Donald Trump's embattled nominee for secretary of defense, shared an impassioned post saying he will never back down" amid a flurry of rumors that the president-elect is contemplating replacing him with Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis.I'm doing this for the warfighters, not the warmongers. The Left is afraid of disrupters and change agents. They are afraid of [Donald Trump] - and me. So they smear w/ fake, anonymous sources & BS stories. They don't want truth. Our warriors never back down, & neither will I," Hegseth wrote on X on Wednesday morning. Continue reading...