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Dismay as president-elect picks Matt Gaetz as attorney general and Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr for key rolesFears that Donald Trump's second presidency will be more extreme than his first have intensified amid a flurry of senior nominations that opponents have criticised as going from bad to worse.Dismay over some of the president-elect's early picks escalated to outrage after the far-right Florida congressman Matt Gaetz was unveiled as his selection to be attorney general - a position Trump has previously said he views as the most important in his administration. Continue reading...

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Bynum says we believed in a vision' and victory is boost for party after longtime Democratic seat turned red in 2022Janelle Bynum will serve as Oregon's first Black member of Congress after the Democrat flipped a US House seat from the Republicans.Bynum, a state representative who was backed and supported by national Democrats, ousted Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer. The win was a boost for Democrats who won back the seat after Republicans flipped it red for the first time in roughly 25 years during the 2022 midterms. Continue reading...

Four individuals in Los Angeles were arrested and charged with insurance fraud and conspiracy after claiming that a bear had damaged their cars, when the bear in question was actually just a person dressed in a bear costume. The California insurance department detectives said the insurance companies were defrauded of $141,839

Trump's nominations, including RFK Jr, Matt Gaetz and Pete Hegseth, have left US figures stunned', and drawn comparisons with eight years agoDonald Trump has wasted no time in assembling his incoming cabinet, issuing a flurry of nominations this week that - in some cases - have further heightened fears that his return to the White House will lead to an extremist agenda.The roster of names has inevitably drawn comparisons with Trump's 2016 victory, when he was reported to have devoted relatively little attention to a transition effort. Back then, his picks were described as conventional" and the incoming cabinet was said have been broadly in line with that of a traditional Republican. Continue reading...

Contact was reportedly at Trump-allied billionaire's request and could be significant for dismal US-Iranian relationsElon Musk reportedly met with Iran's ambassador to the United Nations on Monday, a day before Donald Trump named the SpaceX founder as one of the heads of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency.The meeting was a discussion of how to defuse tensions between Iran and the United States, according to two Iranian officials who spoke with the New York Times. One of the Iranian officials said that the Tesla executive requested the meeting and that the ambassador picked the site. Continue reading...

Nominee for health secretary decried as vaccine denier and tin foil hat conspiracy theorist ... this is going to cost lives'Donald Trump's nomination of Robert F Kennedy Jr as US secretary of health and human services has prompted widespread criticisms towards Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist who has embraced a slew of other debunked health-related conspiracy theories.In a Truth Social post on Thursday, Trump claimed that Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies" and that Kennedy will restore these Agencies to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again!" Continue reading...

Investigators find prisoners at Fulton county jail, Georgia's largest, tunneling through walls and violence uncheckedConditions in the Fulton county jail in Atlanta violate the constitutional and statutory rights of people incarcerated", a long-running federal investigation concluded on Thursday.Killings, stabbings, and assaults are common in the Jail," according to a Department of Justice report. Contraband is pervasive, lethal violence goes uninvestigated - and is sometimes directly abetted by jail staff - and drug use is common, according to investigators in a 91-page report on Thursday. Continue reading...

Trump's nominee to oversee key US health agencies is a vaccine denier and experts predict the return of diseases we have controlled for decades'Robert F Kennedy Jr, the man Donald Trump has nominated to oversee key US health agencies, rose to national prominence as one of the most persistent and influential vaccine deniers in the country.Kennedy, 70, backed Trump after ending his own third-party bid for president in August. He is the son of the former attorney general and presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy and the nephew of president John F Kennedy. Continue reading...

A scion of Democratic dynasty, RFK Jr is known for embrace of anti-vaccine beliefs and other conspiracy theories

Massachusetts senator now joins Bernie Sanders in endorsing joint resolution of disapproval against Joe BidenElizabeth Warren, a leading progressive voice in the US Senate, has denounced the Biden administration's failure to punish Israel over the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza and endorsed a joint resolution of disapproval in Congress.The amount of aid reaching the territory has dropped to the lowest level in 11 months, official Israeli figures show. The White House last month gave Israel an ultimatum of 30 days to improve conditions or risk losing military support. As the deadline expired on Tuesday, international aid groups said Israel had fallen far short.

Governor Kathy Hochul unveils initiative to charge vehicles entering lower Manhattan, after halting earlier plan in JuneNew York is reviving plans to introduce the US's first-ever congestion charge for vehicle traffic, with a reduced $9 toll set to apply to cars entering the lower half of Manhattan from January.Kathy Hochul, the New York governor, in June halted a landmark plan to charge $15 for drivers entering Manhattan's traffic-clogged streets, sparking a furious backlash from transport and climate advocates. Continue reading...

Ex-House speaker's remarks come amid calls for release of ethics report into sexual misconduct claims against Gaetz

Former Democratic congresswoman, 43, has been publicly suspected of being groomed' by RussiaTulsi Gabbard's biography has some rare distinctions, including being the first Samoan and the first Hindu elected to the US Congress, where she sat between 2013 and 2021 as the Democratic representative for Hawaii.But nothing marks her out so much as being almost certainly the only prospective head of American intelligence to have been publicly suspected of being groomed" by Russia - a suggestion made by Hillary Clinton, Trump's defeated Democratic opponent when he was first elected president, in a 2019 podcast. Continue reading...

Rate in 2023 remains at 10.4% due to chronic conditions, inadequate prenatal care and racial disparitiesPremature birth rates in the US remain at a historic high, according to a new report.On Thursday, March of Dimes, a maternal health non-profit organization, released its latest findings which say that the national premature birth rate of 2023 remains at 10.4%, largely due to chronic conditions, inadequate prenatal care and racial disparities. In contrast, the premature birth rate 10 years ago was at 9.6%. Continue reading...

We'd like to hear from people in the US about their how they view planning for a family over the next four yearsWe'd like to find out more about how people view planning for a family over Donald Trump's next presidential term.Reproductive rights were a key focus in Kamala Harris's campaign but with Trump's return to the White House there is renewed concern about what this may mean for women's health and the future of the climate. Continue reading...

California and other states must mount aggressive, multipronged response to defend immigrants, advocates warnCalifornia, home to the largest immigrant population in the US, is bracing for Donald Trump's plan to enact the largest deportation operation in American history", with advocates pushing state leaders to find new and creative ways to disrupt his agenda.The Golden state led the fight against Trump's first term, shielding many non-citizen residents from removal by restricting local cooperation with federal immigration authorities. But the threat this time, immigrant rights groups say, is more extreme, and blue states across the US are facing pressure to mount an aggressive, multipronged response. Continue reading...

Jared Goff may be the Detroit Lions' most important player as they take aim at a first Super Bowl appearance, but Penei Sewell is the team's bestSaquon Barkley is leaping over defenders. Fred Warner is hitting everything in sight. Wherever you look, Lamar Jackson is slinging fire. And yet the best show going in the NFL through 10 weeks is one of the big guys up front: Lions right tackle Penei Sewell.It can be easy to miss tackles. They do a lot of their best work in the shadows. Like a good official, if you can get through a game without noticing them, without a commentator saying their name, you know they've done their primary job of keeping a quarterback upright. But Sewell has ascended to box-office status as the Lions rip their way through the league. Continue reading...

Four people charged with insurance fraud and conspiracy after analysis of videos and discovery of bear costumeFour individuals in Los Angeles were arrested on Wednesday and charged with insurance fraud after claiming that a bear had damaged their cars, when the bear in question was actually just a person dressed in a bear costume.The California department of insurance said that the suspects filed a claim in January of this year, stating that a bear entered their 2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost while it was parked at Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino mountains and caused interior damage to the vehicle. Continue reading...

The French basketball player Victor Wembanyama led his team to a 139-130 victory over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night. The 20-year-old scored 24 points in the first half and became the fourth-youngest player to score 50 points in the NBA. Wembanyama said: 'Eventually I want the rest of our performances, the rest of our games to overshadow this one.'

Company tells shareholders it expects double-digit percentage growth' in 2026 and 2027Walt Disney is trying to roll the credits on its years-long battle to reassure Wall Street and Hollywood that it can dominate a new era of entertainment.The Magic Kingdom, which rarely issues guidance on future profits, told shareholders it expects an acceleration over the coming years - with double-digit percentage growth" in adjusted earnings in 2026 and 2027. Continue reading...

Dan Goldman's initiative will reiterate two-term clause from amendment approved by US Congress in 1947

My mum and dad eventually realised I was happy being a little freak. And so is Basil

Business moguls and world leaders are desperate to weasel into Trump's good books. It's humiliating but the payday is worth itLet the humiliation Olympics begin. As Donald Trump readies himself for his revenge tour, world leaders and business moguls are falling over themselves to show the incoming president how much they admire him. Even if it means making an embarrassment of themselves in the process.While it's only natural for the rich and powerful to try to ingratiate themselves with the incoming president of the United States, the extent to which people are lining up to kiss the ring is remarkable. This isn't just diplomacy as usual: it speaks to Trump's unapologetically transactional politics. He has made it very clear that loyalty will be richly rewarded and promised to ruthlessly pursue his enemies. As a result, we appear to have entered into a golden age of brown-nosing. Continue reading...

Ice-cream brand takes legal action against parent company which it claims threatened to dismantle board

Fox News hosts are publicly bemused to see their colleagues tapped for cabinet positions. In private, they're more shockedWhen Donald Trump tapped a Fox News host this week to run the mighty US defense department, even Pete Hegseth's colleagues at the rightwing media outlet were taken aback.What the heck - can you believe it?" wondered Jesse Watters on his primetime show on Tuesday.Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...

In Berkeley, advocates, activists and unsheltered people are staging a last-ditch effort to claim safe public spaceRevolution starts small, attorney Andrea Henson told the crowd around her. It was mid-October, and press had gathered on a quiet intersection in Berkeley, California. Behind Henson was a row of tents, some painted red and black with words posing the same question: Where do we go?"What started in September as a group of tents pitched on the lawn of Berkeley's Old City Hall has since swelled to more than half a dozen protest encampments scattered across the city's public spaces. They're set up by a coalition of housed and unhoused residents demanding an end to policies that criminalize unsheltered homelessness. Continue reading...

Lawrence Hecker, 93, self-admitted serial child molester, grapples with Alzheimer's dementia and had trial delayedWith less than a month to go before his latest scheduled trial date, a self-admitted serial child molester and retired Roman Catholic priest from New Orleans remains competent to proceed with his oft-delayed rape and kidnapping case - albeit marginally as the 93-year-old grapples with Alzheimer's dementia, according to his most recent medical evaluation.A pair of doctors who evaluated Lawrence Hecker on 6 November made it a point to note that his illness is a chronic and progressive disease", suggesting additional delays beyond several already seen in the case create a risk that the clergyman declines into a state of legal incompetence preventing him from ever standing trial given his advanced age. Continue reading...

Human Rights Watch says its evidence suggests Israel has committed a war crime against civilians. Plus, Mark Zuckerberg drops a cover of Get Low with T-Pain

The lesson of this election is that Democrats must attack inequality - and not cede working-class voters to TrumpA political disaster such as what occurred last Tuesday gains significance not simply by virtue of who won or lost, but through how the election is interpreted.This is known as the Lesson of the election.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His newest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

With Trump in the Oval Office, the US supreme court will find itself having to answer questions it has sidestepped for yearsA president who intends to prosecute journalists, deport student protesters, imprison flag-burners, shut down broadcasters and throw the book at whistleblowers - to list just a few of president-elect Donald Trump's speech-suppressive ideas - is likely to collide very quickly with the first amendment.But whether the first amendment will be a real obstacle to Trump's censorial agenda is difficult to predict. Some of Trump's ideas will require the US supreme court to address free speech questions it has long avoided, while others will implicate precedents that the court may be eager to revisit. Trump has already appointed three of the court's justices and he may have the opportunity to appoint more - at a time when the very meaning of free speech is deeply contested. So, yes, Trump will run up against the first amendment, but don't take for granted that he will be thwarted by it. Continue reading...

Will there be a national abortion ban? A ban on mailed abortion medication? I talked to some expertsAt around 10pm ET on election night, with prediction needles listing rightwards, and various friends' group chats starting to become inundated by the river-of-tears-down-my-face emoji - even that early, we were collectively way beyond a single tear - I left Steve Kornacki frantically bobbing and weaving around a map of Georgia, and went to bed. Somehow, I slept through until the morning, when I awoke in Trump's America", as news organizations were calling it, and to a torrent of emails and notes from friends bemoaning, among other things, the very real possibility of a federal abortion ban.Are we still gonna have birth control?" one friend texted, in disbelief.Sophie Brickman is a contributor to the New Yorker, the New York Times and other publications, and the author of Baby, Unplugged: One Mother's Search for Balance, Reason, and Sanity in the Digital Age and the novel Plays Well With Others Continue reading...

Course set to be taught by controversial British anti-woke' media commentator Andrew DoyleNew College of Florida reinstated a course on wokeness" taught by controversial British media personality and culture warrior Andrew Doyle to its catalog, after appearing to remove it from an earlier version, amid an ongoing furore over the university's transformation into a more conservative institution.The course was also restored to an internal enrollment system but without Doyle's name attached, according to students with access to the system. The moves followed criticism of the course online and local media reports on Tuesday night. Continue reading...

In new memoir Citizen, Clinton acknowledges he has not directly apologized to Lewinsky over White House affairBill Clinton, the former US president, has written of his frustration" at being questioned about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky while acknowledging that he has never apologized to her directly.Clinton became embroiled in one of the biggest political scandals in history when it emerged in 1998 that he had a sexual relationship with the then 22-year-old Lewinsky. The president, who initially lied before apologizing, was impeached by the House of Representatives but acquitted by the Senate. Continue reading...

The quest for revenue is the defining struggle of modern football, and many fans have correctly come to see higher revenue as the surest route to on-field gloryIn the grand churn of the money machine that is modern football, it ranks as a fairly small deal. But when Liverpool recently announced they will earn more than 60m ($76.3m) a year from a new kit deal with Adidas starting next season, the reaction from the club's supporters across social media said a lot about the nature of modern fandom. Apart from the habitual grumbles about what this might mean for the design of the team's kit, fans mostly seemed to respond to the announcement in one of two ways: why doesn't the new deal bring the club into line with the 90m ($114.3m) that Manchester United receives from Adidas for a comparable arrangement? And more pressingly: what kind of squad investment can an extra few million pounds a year secure? Enough to pay Virgil," declared one user on Reddit. Does that mean we will buy a RB and a 10?" asked another.These are, of course, completely normal reactions; any other club announcing any kind of commercial win" would face similar responses from its supporters. But they highlight the extent to which we, as fans, have all become psychologically colonized by the grubby extractionism that defines the modern Premier League, applauding from the sidelines as a new content deal or shirt sponsorship or asset sale or fresh suite of unaffordable subscription packages lurches into view on the club balance sheet. That seat upgrade layer" and points-based VIP fan tier might be part of the commercial drift that's making football less affordable, carrying it ever further from the communities it claims to represent, but if they nab us a quality back-up keeper to put pressure on that number one chronically fumbling under the high ball? Well, maybe they're not so bad after all. Continue reading...

The Republican party has secured a Washington trifecta by taking control of both houses of Congress as well as the White House. Here are the results in full for every seat in every state

Despite his absurd persona and obscene wealth, would-be boxer's support of female fighters is worthy of noteJake Paul is having his hands wrapped in the locker room as his older brother, Logan, who also became rich and famous on YouTube, speaks earnestly to him. You've expanded your mind, your circle, your emotional intelligence and your capabilities," Logan tells Jake.From making silly home videos to changing the entire landscape of combat sports. Everyone in this room knows just how powerful a being you are and that's why we're all here, including Netflix. One day, if I run for president, I'd be honoured to have you as my vice-president or maybe secretary of defence. You'll be in charge of the red button. The all-powerful nuke that also happens to be at the end of your right hand." Continue reading...

The acclaimed photographer spent two decades photographing his hometown of Buffalo, New York - capturing its quiet resilience and strange beauty' Continue reading...

Donald Trump wasted no time in assembling his top team, with picks like Matt Gaetz and Tulsi Gabbard causing consternation among friends and foes alike

Travelling many miles across multiple states, I saw Republicans united in their disdain for facts - and a Democratic party far too relaxed about challenging themIn the early hours of Wednesday morning last week, I sped down an empty motorway as rain pounded the asphalt, heading towards a Republican election-night party in the outskirts of Detroit. It was one of those storms that distorts your vision, where the lines of the road blur in slicks of water and the street lights refract through cascading droplets on thewindscreen. The lonely roads and perilous weatherfelt like an apt backdrop. Donald Trump wasabout to be declared the next president of the United States.I went through the double doors and into the large, carpeted convention hall just seconds before Fox News called the race. The chatter began to dissipate as the crowd erupted, surging towards a stage at the back andwaving large, black flags that read Fix America Again". Elation and relief. Mayhem and incoherence. Lock them up! Send them back! Jesus! Jesus!" shoutedone woman. Continue reading...

GOP majority in House and Senate could give the president-elect ability to extend tax cuts and roll back Biden-era lawsWith the confirmation that Republicans have won a majority in the House of Representatives, Donald Trump and his party will now have a governing trifecta in Washington come January, giving the new president a powerful perch to enact his rightwing agenda.Even without majorities in both chambers of Congress, Trump's victory in the presidential race already gave him significant control over US foreign policy and the makeup of the federal government, both of which he is seeking to overhaul. Continue reading...

Party has won 218 seats in lower chamber after Democrats unsuccessfully campaigned on need to curtail dysfunction'Republicans have secured a majority in the US House of Representatives, extending their hold on the lower chamber and delivering a governing trifecta in Washington that could give Donald Trump sweeping power to enact his legislative agenda.The Associated Press determined on Wednesday evening that Republicans had won at least 218 seats in the 435-member House after a victory in Arizona, a call that came more than a week after polls closed across the US and as Trump made cabinet announcements that sent shockwaves through Washington. Continue reading...

Ex-defense department official said government employees had been injured and US conducted secret UFO retrievalsUS government employees have been injured by UFOs and the US government has conducted a secret UFO retrieval program, a former department of defense official told a congressional committee on Wednesday, though the hearing lacked any direct evidence to back up the startling claims.The hearing on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), which has become the more accepted term for UFO, also heard that the government has a huge amount" of secret information on UAPs, including photos, video, photos, other information". But it also learned, following a query from Colorado congresswoman Lauren Boebert, that there is no evidence of aliens having a secret underwater base" on this planet. Continue reading...

Congressman decried as person of moral turpitude' amid questions over whether Senate will confirm nominationDonald Trump's decision to nominate the far-right Republican congressman Matt Gaetz as attorney general has sent shockwaves through Washington, including the president-elect's own party.Trump on Wednesday announced Gaetz as his pick to be the nation's chief law enforcement officer in the justice department, a role that directs the government's legal positions on critical issues, including abortion, civil rights, and first amendment cases. Continue reading...