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Some Democrats express disappointment in Biden for setting bad precedent' but others leap to his defenceJoe Biden has been criticised by some of his own supporters for issuing a pardon to his son Hunter that he had previously sworn not to give.The president's volte face drew predictable fire from Republicans, led by the president-elect, Donald Trump, who used it to raise the case of the jailed ringleaders of the 6 January 2021 assault on the US Capitol, who he has suggested he will pardon when he returns to the White House. Continue reading...

Trump says Joe Biden's pardon of his son is a miscarriage of justice' in latest supportive reference to convicted rioters

Passenger boarded full international flight without ticket and was later removed from return flight for disruptionsA Delta Air Lines passenger who flew from New York to Paris as a stowaway is remaining in France for now after disrupting the return flight to the US that had been booked for her.The woman, identified as Svetlana Dali, boarded flight 265 - which was full - without a ticket before it departed from John F Kennedy airport in Queens, according to officials. The US's transportation security administration (TSA) said that while Dali, 57, went through property security channels, she never had a boarding pass or passport checked. Continue reading...

Ireland has, in effect, full employment, an expanded workforce and a booming economy. So why is it such a nation in flux?The best description of Ireland's political landscape after Friday's general election might be: strangely familiar. The familiar bit is easy. The two main incumbent parties, Micheal Martin's Fianna Fail and Simon Harris's Fine Gael, received almost exactly the same combined share of the vote (43%) as they did in 2020. As a result, the identical twins of Irish politics that have governed the state since it came into being just over a century ago will continue to do so.One of them, Fianna Fail, which has won the most seats this time, emerged as the dominant political machine in the 1930s and was almost permanently in charge until its vote imploded in 2011 after the bloody death of the Celtic Tiger. It is now edging back, if not towards its old ascendancy, then certainly into a comfortable seat at the centre of power. Its like-minded partner, Fine Gael, has been continually in government in one form or another since 2011, and if the incoming administration lasts a full term it will remain there until 2029.Fintan O'Toole is a columnist with the Irish Times and the author of We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland Continue reading...

Whistleblower report accuses Trump Pentagon pick of financial mismanagement, intoxication and sexist behaviorPresident-elect Donald Trump's pick for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, was reportedly forced out of two leadership roles at veteran-focused non-profits amid allegations of financial mismanagement, drunkenness and sexist behavior.A lengthy account in the New Yorker, based on interviews with whistleblowers, described Hegseth's behavior at two organizations where he held leadership positions: the Koch-backed group Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) and the AstroTurf" billionaire-backed Vets for Freedom (VFF). Continue reading...

The Spaniard is one of the greatest managers in the Premier League era but his club's aura has vanished. He still has reasons to think his job is safe though

Che Rhymefest' Smith co-wrote some of Ye's biggest hits. Now he's plunging into the vipers' pit that is Chicago city politicsChe Smith is your favorite rapper's favorite wordsmith. As Rhymefest, the Chicago native announced himself as a formidable battle rapper, verbally sparring with Eminem and other stars in the late 90s. He co-wrote some of Kanye West's biggest hits, not least the Grammy-winning Jesus Walks, while carving out his own exemplary career as a conscious emcee. He won a Golden Globe and an Oscar for Glory, the Selma film soundtrack theme he co-wrote with John Legend and Common, a fellow Chicagoan.Even as the successes piled up, Smith, 47, never stopped thinking about his humanitarian obligation to his home town of Chicago, cut down to a metonym for urban violence and rot. Continue reading...

The outgoing president's abuse of the constitution opens the door to more abuse by the next one. The rules were never meant to condone crimeThe hypocrisy is breathtaking. Yes, any father might do the same for a son. Yes, the boy is reformed, forgiven, on the mend. Only nasty people are out to jail him. Live and let live. Yet there is something monumental in the pardon granted by the outgoing US president, Joe Biden. Six months ago, he scored political points by denying he would pardon his son Hunter Biden. Now, with the election over, he has done so.The easy response is: what is new? President Gerald Ford pardoned his predecessor, Richard Nixon; Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother and other figures whose families had donated to the Democrats; Donald Trump pardoned his son-in-law's father and dodgy aides galore. No one doubts that, as president, Trump will pardon a number of outrageous figures - perhaps even the Capitol Hill rioters of 2021. We wait to see if this includes trying to pardon himself from various pending prosecutions (though he cannot extend these powers to cases brought at state level).Simon Jenkins 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...

Reacting to claims of inappropriate sexual banter with a blast against middle-class women' was wrong and will probably prove disastrousLet's discuss Gregg Wallace and his white-van-man alter ego. A man who has turned his once reliable MasterChef charm into a full-blown case study in professional implosion. Watching him navigate his downfall has been like observing a souffle collapse in slow motion: utterly predictable, yet still oddly fascinating.There are issues aplenty arising from the allegations levelled against him of inappropriate sexual banter: issues about power relationships, gender relationships, workplace culture, fame and the media. But from a PR standpoint Wallace has served up a textbook example of what not to do: a misjudged mess of ego, tone deafness and a remarkable failure to adapt to the world after #MeToo. And today, an apology hoping to nullify what he said about it all just yesterday. If this is going to plan, what plan was that?Mark Borkowski is a crisis PR consultant and author Continue reading...

Metinvest boss says there is a high degree of uncertainty over Trump's plan to negotiate with Russia

The president-elect's first term brought a wave of protest. This time, visitors to New York's Washington Square Park are struggling for energy to resistIn late 2016, soon after Donald Trump was elected to his first White House term, many women were diligently knitting pink pussy" hats to wear at a huge march where they protested against the election of a man who had recently boasted that he would grab" women.There were other protests too. And across much of non-Trump-voting America, there was a sense of activism and engagement amid the shock of a Trump victory as many ordinary Americans galvanized themselves for what turned out to be one of the most chaotic presidencies in US history. Continue reading...

Patients scramble to stockpile medication and learn how to self-manage healthcare ahead of second Trump termMany transgender people in the US are scrambling to shore up their treatments out of fear the incoming Trump administration will follow through on threats to restrict their healthcare.My goodness this subreddit has exploded ever since Emperor Trump's ascendency. Literally overnight almost a thousand newcomers," read a post just after the 5 November election in one Reddit forum dedicated to sharing advice on gender-affirming hormone therapy. Continue reading...

Campaigners say imposing fee on Mexico, Canada and China till they address drug smuggling could be effectiveAnti-opioid campaigners in the US have welcomed Donald Trump's threat to hit Mexico, China and Canada with increased trade tariffs if they do not curb the smuggling of the powerful drug driving the US opioid epidemic.Families and doctors grappling with a crisis that has claimed about 900,000 lives say the move may signal that a second Trump administration will finally get serious about tackling the flow of fentanyl into the US. But they also warn that much more needs to be done to reduce demand for opioids and to rein in the power of the pharmaceutical industry which created the epidemic. Continue reading...

The president reverses his pledge not to use his executive authority in this way, claiming that his son's prosecution was politically motivated. Plus: scientists ask whether humans are hardwired to commit bad deeds

Stop the hype! The way advertisers talk up every new mascara or pet product is ... well, revoltingThis morning, I walked past an advert for something described as the anal gland revolution. I didn't know anal glands had been calling for a revolution and, futhermore, what's going to happen once they start buying munitions?In recent years, the word revolution" has become as overused, meaningless and commodified as other natty terms such as journey", community" and identity". I did a quick search of the word revolution" in my inbox to see what else is out there and, among others, I found references to The Self Love Revolution (a midlife podcast), a break-up revolution (changing energy provider), a youth-led revolution (which turned out to be about floristry) and a revolution in chicken (essentially, salt). Continue reading...

The quarterback was on the scrapheap after a humiliating time with the Broncos. But he has been revived under Mike Tomlin in PittsburghIn a lot of universes, Russell Wilson's story is over. Sean Payton and the Broncos were down enough on him at the end of last season, that they paid the quarterback $85m to go away.On Sunday, Wilson led the Steelers to a 44-38 win over the Bengals, roasting Cincinnati's porous defense for 414 yards, the second-most passing yards in a game of his career. He finished with three touchdowns and one interception, that sole turnover coming after a botched call. Continue reading...

The Arab world is increasingly divided between those who are losing everything, and those who have everythingFor the past few months, there has been a grim new ritual whenever I meet people from some Arab countries. It's a sort of mutual commiseration and checking in. How are things with you? Where is your family? I hope you are safe, I hope they are safe. I hope you are OK. We are with you.There is a comfort to it, and also an awkwardness. Comfort because the words are earnest, the solidarity almost unbearably meaningful. Awkward because the scale of what many are enduring is too large to be captured in those words. Everything feels shot through with survivor's guilt, but also with a little bit of resolve in the knowledge that the calamities tearing apart our nations have closed the distances between us.Nesrine Malik 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...

The jailing of pro-democracy activists, omnipresent surveillance and a distrust of the police have driven people into a fearful silenceGrowing up, I had always dreamed of becoming a police officer like my uncle. In my childhood in the 1980s and 90s, the police had a positive and brave image. I remember when I was in first or second grade, struggling with English, my uncle would tutor me. After our lessons, I would stay at his house to play. Next to his bed was a punching bag, and he would teach me how to throw punches and do one-handed push-ups.My uncle would show off the muscles on his arms, telling me his dream was to become a police officer who fights crime and protects the innocent. He eventually did. And in his police uniform graduation photo, he stood tall and proud - a hero in my eyes. Continue reading...

The president and supporters argue Hunter Biden would never have been charged were it not for his name - and any father might have done the same. But this exercise of power also looks like a validation of Donald TrumpA loving act of mercy by a father who has already known much sorrow? Or a hypocritical political manoeuvre reminiscent of his great foe? Maybe both can be true.Joe Biden's announcement on Sunday that he had pardoned his son Hunter, who is facing sentencing in two criminal cases, is likely to have been the product of a Shakespearean struggle between head and heart. Continue reading...

Joe Biden has issued a full and unconditional' pardon to his son Hunter Biden, in a reversal for the presidentJoe Biden has issued a pardon for his son Hunter. Here is his statement in full:Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter. From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department's decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted. Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form. Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently. Continue reading...

In announcement, state's Democratic chair touts grassroots and new media organizing success in closely divided stateWisconsin Democratic leader Ben Wikler joined the race to lead the Democratic National Committee on Sunday, promising to take on Trump, Republican extremists, and move our country forward", as the party looks to rebuild from its losses in the November election.In a video posted on social networks, Wikler, 43, touted his state party's success in organizing to flip 14 state legislative seats and send Senator Tammy Baldwin back to Washington DC in November, and in previously campaigns to win control of the state supreme court and re-elect governor Tony Evers. Wikler, a former podcaster, Air America radio producer and headline writer for The Onion, also stressed his new media expertise. Continue reading...

Deep state' critic who has threatened to shut down agency's headquarters could face tough confirmation battleDonald Trump's plan to nominate as FBI director the deep state" conspiracy theorist Kash Patel, a virulent critic of the bureau who has threatened to fire its top echelons and shut down the agency's headquarters, is facing blowback in Congress as US senators begin to flex their muscles ahead of a contentious confirmation process.Politicians from both main parties took to the Sunday talk shows to express starkly divergent views on Patel, whom Trump announced on Saturday as his pick to lead the most powerful law enforcement agency in the US. The move is dependent on the incumbent FBI chief, Christopher Wray, who Trump himself placed in the job in 2017, either being fired or resigning. Continue reading...

Conservationists fear an expansion of drilling with North Dakota governor Trump's pick for secretary of the interior and White House energy czar'Of all Donald Trump's cabinet nominees so far, Doug Burgum has stood out for appearing to be one of the most conventional.The billionaire governor of North Dakota - like most picks to lead the Department of the Interior, the largest landowner in the US west - comes from a western state. He is not a conspiracy theorist, he hasn't been investigated for sex trafficking. Unlike the president-elect's pick to lead the Department of Energy, he is not a fracking CEO. Continue reading...

President-elect threatens retaliation if emerging economies create new currency to rival US dollarFears of a global trade war have risen after Donald Trump threatened to impose 100% tariffs on countries in the Brics group if they create a new currency to rival the US dollar.Writing on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Saturday, Trump declared that he would also act if they supported another currency to replace the dollar. Continue reading...

Feminist solidarity has weakened, but women around the world tell me their fight continuesWhat happens in America does not stay in America. The prospect of Trump's second administration is devastating for many American women, but its reverberations are also echoing for women across the globe, and bringing much more fear and uncertainty than last time around.Eight years ago, while Trump's success shocked women in Britain, it also brought rays of hope - in the shape of a resurgence of solidarity. On the day after the election in 2016, I remember going into my workplace, a charity for refugee women, feeling pretty bleak, and looking at other women's downcast faces. Then, at the end of the day, one of our colleagues had the most unexpected news. The charity's online donations had rocketed.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...

Demoralized but unbowed, the opposition ponders its next move as Trump prepares to re-enter the White HouseLA Kauffman remembers the day hundreds of thousands of women, men and children marched in the streets of Washington. If you've never been in a crowd that large, it's hard to convey how powerful the feeling is of standing together with so many people who share your goals and that feeling of community and connection," says the political organiser, activist and author.The Women's March, held the day after Donald Trump's inauguration in January 2017, was the biggest single-day protest in US history until the demonstrations that erupted after the police murder of George Floyd three years later. Both were among the most spectacular examples of the resistance" to Trump's first term as president. Continue reading...

US workers say Democrats neglected desperately needed' action toward vulnerable groups amid recession fearsSaru Jayaraman tried. As far back as January, the president of low-pay campaign group One Fair Wage recalls telling Democratic leaders in Washington DC that voters were worried about the cost of living.It just went on deaf ears," she said. One of the biggest challenges we faced was they kept wanting to talk about the economy. And we kept saying, it's not about the economy, it's about our economy: it's about my economy, my ability to pay for eggs and gas." Continue reading...

The move comes as US faces increased threats from bird flu, mpox, measles and other vaccine-preventable diseasesWhen Donald Trump nominated David Weldon, a 71-year-old doctor from Florida who has long questioned the safety of vaccines, to lead the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), anti-vaccine activists celebrated.The move comes as the US faces increased threats from bird flu and mpox as well as resurgences of whooping cough, measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases. Continue reading...

Investing more in revenue services pays dividends in returns to government coffers, new US research showsWhat do we want? More tax inspectors. When do we want them? Ideally a few years back, but now will do. Maybe not the most exciting protest song, but it does it for me.My first job in the Treasury was for a very sexy team called Revenue Service Delivery, clamping down on tax evasion and avoidance by hunting those stashing money in Swiss bank accounts or pretending to be self-employed. Continue reading...

The view in Number 10 is that work on the government's missions has been too sluggish and now needs to be driven harder and fasterWhatever you say about it, don't call it a relaunch. Sir Keir Starmer will fanfare a new Plan for Change" this Thursday and it is being bigged up by Downing Street as a momentous event, no less than the most ambitious delivery plan in a generation". His aides are wary of the dreaded r-word because many observers are going to interpret this, fairly or not, as a desperate attempt to turn the page onrecenttroubles.It is a truth now pretty much universally acknowledged within the government that it has got off to a much stickier start than it expected. In too many areas, it has hit the ground not running, but stumbling. More definition of Labour's goals was provided by the budget, but at the price of rousing a lot of extremely vocal opposition, especially from those being asked to pay more tax. The latest squall to buffet Number 10 has been the enforced resignation of Lou Haigh. She could never be described as a soulmate of the prime minister, which helps explain the clinically unsentimental way in which the transport secretary was taken out of service. Losing a relatively junior member of the cabinet will have next to no impact on Labour's eventual fate. Her fall nevertheless adds to the impression that the Starmer government is being serially surprised by embarrassing revelations and knocked about by events. Continue reading...

Although the French court case represents a watershed for women, reform of justice systems is vitalGlobally, home is the most dangerous place for women, a United Nations paper reported last week. It was referring to femicide, the killing of women by a partner or former partner, but as we've learned over the past three months during the trial of Dominique Pelicot, 72, and the 50 ordinary" men who visited Gisele Pelicot, 72, when she was drugged and comatose, to have sex with her inert body, home offers no haven for the living either.Pelicot waived her right to anonymity, allowing her ex-husband's cache of videos of the nocturnal rapes to be shown in court. The shame is theirs," she pointed out, always composed, refusing to be humiliated.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...

President-elect Donald Trump wants the author of the book Government Gangsters' to bring the FBI to heel'Donald Trump has tapped Kashyap Kash" Patel to be FBI director, nominating a loyalist and deep state" critic to lead the federal law enforcement agency that the president-elect has long slammed as corrupt.Patel, 44, has worked as a federal prosecutor and a public defender but rose to prominence in Trump circles after expressing outrage over the agency's investigation into whether Trump's campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. He has called for the FBI leadership to be fired as part of a drive to bring federal law enforcement to heel." Continue reading...

Edan Alexander, who was taken prisoner on 7 Oct, asked Donald Trump to secure his freedom in a Hamas video condemned by the White HouseThe White House has condemned a Hamas-issued propaganda video of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander urging president-elect Donald Trump and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make a deal to free remaining hostages in Gaza, calling it a cruel reminder of Hamas's terror against citizens of multiple countries, including our own".In the video, titled Soon ... Time is running out" and posted on Saturday on the Telegram channel of Hamas's military wing, the Qassam Brigades, Alexander calls on Trump to use his influence and the full power of the United States to negotiate for our freedom". Continue reading...

On the touchline or off it, the former Chelsea manager is still the biggest draw in the women's gameFootball needs great characters and, for 12 years, English women's football was all the more interesting for the presence of one of the most charismatic coaches in the sport in the form of Emma Hayes; never afraid to speak her mind, never dull and scarcely ever beaten. Perhaps the Women's Super League and the wider English game did not realise quite how much it was missing Hayes until she brought her Olympic champions to London and reminded everyone what a difference a sprinkle of personality can make inhelping to grow a sport.The match itself was rather unexciting, but the USA coach somehow made the occasion anything but. The tone was set at the start of the week when Hayes hosted a press conference in a pub in Camden. Where else? She joked about the venue smelling of fart and feet", before pouring some pints from behind the bar. It would be unfair to label the 12 current WSL managers as dull by comparison but it is undeniably true that none of them can yet grab a room's attention quite like Hayes can, guarantee as many column inches or stir up quite so much attention for a friendly fixture. Continue reading...

Prime minister becomes first G7 leader to visit president-elect amid concerns over tariff threatDonald Trump said he had a productive" meeting with Justin Trudeau after the Canadian prime minister paid a surprise trip to his Mar-a-Lago estate amid fears about Trump's promised tariffs.Trudeau became the first G7 leader to meet with Trump before his second term amid widespread fears in Canada and many other parts of the world that Trump's trade policy will cause widespread economic chaos. Continue reading...

Businessman pleaded guilty to illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering in 2005Donald Trump has nominated Charles Kushner, a businessman who is the father-in-law of Trump's daughter Ivanka, to serve as US ambassador to France, the president-elect said on Saturday.Kushner, whose job requires Senate confirmation, is the latest of Trump's picks to have close ties with the incoming president. Kushner's son, Jared Kushner, is married to Ivanka Trump, and was a close advisor to Trump during his first presidency. Continue reading...

It wasn't a classic, but an improved defensive performance from the Lionesses denied Emma Hayes's Olympic champions at Wembley2 min: Otherwise, it's a uneventful start as both teams take turns to get a feel of the ball.12 secs: Naz makes good down the right but her cross is too high for Russo in the middle. Naeher claims. What a start that could have been! Continue reading...

Cooper's whereabouts after he jumped from a plane with $200,000 stumped investigators. Has the case been solved?It is one of the biggest mysteries in US criminal history: just what happened to DB Cooper, the man who hijacked an airplane before leaping out in mid-air with $200,000 in cash?Now, more than 50 years later, the infamous crime may have been solved, after a pair of siblings came forward to claim they had found the parachute used in the hijacking, in their mother's shed, and that Cooper was their father. Continue reading...

Digital crusade by anti-woke warriors against a vapid film for teen girls should be sending a wake-up call to HollywoodThe war on woke" has a new target and her name is the Wicked Witch of the West. If you're a fan of the musical Wicked, you'll also know her as Elphaba, the moniker imagined by Gregory Maguire in his 1995 prequel to L Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. As played by Margaret Hamilton in the 1939 movie, she was the nemesis of Judy Garland's Dorothy; as played this year by the musical theatre star Cynthia Erivo, she has conservative men across Britain and America bursting their blood vessels.Since Maguire came up with his novel - an extravagant piece of fan-fiction that suggests this witch" might simply have been misunderstood - it has been reinterpreted as a stage musical and now as a movie in two parts. Wicked's target market consists of teenage girls who see themselves in this backstory for Elphaba and her college-friend-turned-rival, Glinda the Good Witch. In the 21 years since Stephen Schwartz's adaptation opened on Broadway, the show has been a cult phenomenon among young musical fans, blithely ignored by everyone else. Now the screen version has brought into mainstream conversation and the land of Oz has become a battleground in America's culture war.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...