Lewis Kaplan says former president must post acceptable bond during expected appeal against verdict in defamation caseA federal judge on Thursday denied Donald Trump's request to delay enforcement of the writer E. Jean Carroll's $83.3 m verdict in her recent defamation case.The decision by US district judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan adds to pressure on Trump to line up an acceptable bond during his expected appeal. Continue reading...
Korbein Schultz was paid about $42,000 to provide person he believed lived in Hong Kong with information, DoJ release saysA US army intelligence analyst was arrested on Thursday and charged with conspiring to sell sensitive defense information to China.Federal prosecutors charged Korbein Schultz with conspiracy to disclose national defense information, exporting defense articles and technical data without a license, and bribery of a public official, the US justice department said in a press release. Continue reading...
US government has been mailing free at-home Covid tests on and off since January 2022 to curb spread of virusThe US government will stop accepting orders for free at-home Covid-19 tests on Friday, 8 March.Each household can still place an order until Friday for rapid coronavirus tests via the US Postal Service (USPS), according to the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), a division of the US Department of Health and Human Services. Continue reading...
Orbis, founded by former MI6 spy Christopher Steele, compiled allegedly damaging intelligence on Trump in 2016Former US president Donald Trump has been ordered to pay a six-figure legal bill to a company founded by a former British spy whom Trump unsuccessfully sued for making what his lawyer called shocking and scandalous" false claims that harmed his reputation.A London judge, who threw out the case against Orbis Business Intelligence last month saying it was bound to fail", ordered Trump to pay legal fees of 300,000 ($382,000), according to court documents released Thursday. Continue reading...
Miami-Dade commission serves eviction papers to owners following scathing federal reports into care of marine mammalsOne of Florida's largest aquatic theme parks has been ordered to close by next month following several high-profile animal deaths and a series of scathing federal reports into the care of its marine mammals.The Miami-Dade commission on Thursday served eviction papers on the Dolphin Company, owners of the troubled Miami Seaquarium, demanding it to vacate its county-owned site in Key Biscayne by 21 April. Continue reading...
Brain tissue analysis showed degeneration in the nerve fibers that allow for communication between different areas of the brainRobert Card, an army reservist who shot and killed 18 people in Maine last year, had evidence of traumatic brain injuries, according to researchers who analyzed his brain tissue.There was degeneration in the nerve fibers that allow for communication between different areas of the brain, inflammation and small blood vessel injury, according to Dr Ann McKee of Boston University's Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) center.The Associated Press contributed reporting Continue reading...
With gangs threatening civil war, widespread violence and no elected officials, the country faces an unprecedented crisis. Its people must be heardAlmost as frightening as the threats from a Haitian crime lord of a civil war that will lead to genocide" on Wednesday was the silence from the country's leaders. Jimmy Cherizier, widely known as Barbecue, is behind the week-long uprising by gangs that has freed 4,000 prisoners and besieged airports and police stations. The gangs are demanding the resignation of the unelected and unpopular prime minister, ArielHenry, who arrived in Puerto Rico on Tuesday having been unable to return home from a foreign trip. But while ordinary citizens reel from the violence, he has yet to comment. The finance minister declared a state of emergency via a press release.Even before the gangs banded together last week, a country used to suffering and turmoil was struggling with an unprecedented crisis that began with the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021. More than 4,780 people were murdered in 2023 - double the homicide rate in 2022 - while 2,490 were kidnapped. This year, 1,193 have already been killed. Vigilantism emerged last year, with angry civilians lynching suspected gang members. Tens of thousands of residents have been displaced, and the UN has called the effect on food supplies cataclysmic". Continue reading...
Xavier Becerra says US must provide federal protections for reproductive rights if it hopes to avoid further restrictionsThe health and human services secretary, Xavier Becerra, said the US must provide federal protections for reproductive rights if Americans hope to avoid further restrictions on in vitro fertilization, contraception and abortion in an exclusive interview with the Guardian.Becerra's comments come in the wake of an Alabama supreme court decision that gave embryos the rights of extrauterine children" and forced three of the state's largest fertility clinics to stop services for fear of litigation and prosecution. The fallout from the decision prompted the Alabama legislature to hastily sign new legislation that will give IVF providers with immunity from civil and criminal suits, which the governor signed into law on Wednesday night. Continue reading...
Daniel Rodimer, a former pro-wrestler, suspected in killing of Christopher Tapp in Las VegasA former pro wrestler who won a prominent endorsement from Donald Trump while unsuccessfully running for Congress in Nevada surrendered to authorities on Wednesday on an arrest warrant for murder.Daniel Rodimer, 45, was booked in connection with the slaying of 47-year-old Christopher Tapp, who was reportedly beaten to death in Resorts World Las Vegas on 29 October. Continue reading...
Within Trump's wild exaggerations are grains of truth. Liberals have never dealt with them - and that's why he might win againDonald Trump is certain to be the Republican candidate in this year's election for US president. He is also currently favourite to win. To most readers of the Guardian, I am sure this prospect is appalling, as it is to most Britons. The nation to which they gave birth and language, that has been their friend and protector down the ages, seems to be going mad.Britons who know the US are amazed that, however reluctantly, enough of its voters might again choose Trump to rule over them after the experience of 2017 to 2021. Who are these Americans? How can they be so blind to his faults, with the law hounding him, gossip ridiculing him and commentators pouring scorn and derision on his every word?Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Casting your opponents as dangerous extremists is the oldest trick in the book - and this time it's supporters of Palestine in the government's sightsBritain's latest descent into authoritarianism fits a depressingly familiar pattern. This is how it tends to work: a subversive group is identified by political elites and presented as a danger to the nation, often being additionally labelled as allies or dupes of hostile foreign enemies. An air of national emergency is contrived, with exaggerated, distorted, or simply invented evidence used to justify claims of an imminent threat. The ensuing repressive measures are supposedly to defend the security of both individual citizens and the nation alike.This is what was really going on when Rishi Sunak spoke of mob rule" and warned of the forces here at home trying to tear us apart" during his sinister prime ministerial address last Friday. It should be seen, too, as the rationale behind proposals by rightwing former Labour MP John Woodcock - appointed by the Tories as a peer, Lord Walney, and advisor on political violence after he endorsed Boris Johnson in the last election - to ban politicians from engaging with movements protesting against mass slaughter in Gaza or the climate emergency.Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Juror says they found Hannah Gutierrez-Reed guilty of involuntary manslaughter because she did not follow proceduresA juror in the manslaughter trial for the Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed said the decision to convict her was easy because she did not follow firearm safety procedures, leading to the fatal shooting on the film's set in 2021.Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, 26, was found guilty on Wednesday of involuntary manslaughter in the deadly shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in 2021 when a gun held by the actor Alec Baldwin discharged. Continue reading...
Speaker of the House urges respect for set-piece speech which has previously been marked by Republican heckling of presidentMike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the US House, reportedly pleaded with his party to show decorum" on Thursday, when Joe Biden comes to the chamber to deliver his State of the Union address.Decorum is the order of the day," Johnson said, according to an unnamed Republican who attended a closed-door event on Capitol Hill on Wednesday and was quoted by the Hill. Continue reading...
Real political struggle has been largely suspended for the sake of defeating Trump and his threat to constitutional democracyYou would hardly know from the 2024 cycle that primaries are supposed to be political contests. Each party's primaries, if they can be called that, were long exercises in foregone conclusions. And so the primary process, which for nearly 60 years has been a popular contest in which each party's internal factions jockeyed for position, worked to shape the party identity, and ultimately made their case to voters did not come to pass this year. Functionally, there were two incumbents. And functionally, neither party's primary offered a meaningful opportunity for the expression of internal dissent.This did not change on Super Tuesday. Biden and Trump racked up delegates; the votes that were cast in the presidential contest were cast mostly in full awareness of their futility, the result already decided. There is one option labeled R", and one option labeled D". More than once throughout the campaign, I've imagined America's political party leaders as cruel lunch ladies, slopping greyish gruel on to trays for an unappetized America. You'll eat it and you'll like it."Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
The latest slate of knockout games featured breakouts from new stars and a throwback performance from an old handThe first tranche of the last-16 second legs did not thrill but there were plenty of outstanding individual displays. This selection comes in a 3-4-3 formation.Goalkeeper: Real Madrid did not have it easy against RB Leipzig. Not at all. Rather like the first leg, in fact. As so often down the years in the competition, Madrid's back line lead the way. Andriy Lunin continued his breakout season, making save after save, narrowing angles and organising his defenders, as Leipzig attacked in waves. Leipzig's Benjamin eko, who had multiple chances in Madrid, will probably never forget Lunin, who won their personal duel, including one, dominant, smothering early save that set the tone. Continue reading...
The quarterback wanted to change the way he was perceived by leaving the Seahawks for the Broncos. Instead, he was part of one of the NFL's worst tradesYou could feel bad for Russell Wilson if the mess he found himself in wasn't so predictable.He rocked up in Denver in 2022 determined to make a mark. To plot his own course away from the pesky Seattle Seahawks and Pete Carroll. To overthrow Patrick Mahomes at the top of the AFC West. To take multiple Super Bowl titles. To win on his own terms and cement himself as a future Hall of Famer. He pushed through a trade to the Broncos so that he could get more of everything. More control of an offense. More control over the building, including a sparkling new office and his own training staff. More money. And, most importantly, more credit.$124m guaranteed11 wins in 30 starts13 defeats by 10 or more pointsZero playoff appearancesTwo first-round picks, two second-round picks and three players traded awayInnumerable shots of frustrated coaches and teammatesWilson's flaws exposedAn organization further away from contending today than when Wilson walked through the door Continue reading...
The Democrat was a House manager during Trump's second impeachment and on the panel investigating the 6 January riotThe Republican party under Donald Trump has become a cult of authoritarian personality in league with autocrats and kleptocrats and dictators", the prominent Democrat Jamie Raskin said, as the former US president saw off Nikki Haley, his last rival for the presidential nomination, and finally won the support of Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the US Senate.Raskin was a House manager in Trump's second impeachment, for inciting the attack on Congress on 6 January 2021. After Senate Republicans ensured Trump escaped conviction, Raskin sat on the House committee that investigated January 6. Continue reading...
Wealthy Huntington Beach - nicknamed Angrytown, USA' - has clashed with state over series of measuresEarly election results suggest voters in Huntington Beach, California - the wealthy, majority-white surf town south of Los Angeles - may approve ballot measures to require voter ID in local elections, and to amend the city charter to ensure that Pride flags cannot be flown on city property.California's attorney general warned last year that the voter ID measure conflicts with state law and would only serve to suppress voter participation without providing any discernible local benefit" and that the city risked state enforcement action if it moved forward with the policy. Continue reading...
A document buried in the National Archives reveals how the security service abused its power to help the government winMI5 has always carefully guarded its secrets. In her memoir, the ironically titled Open Secret, the former head of the security service Stella Rimington assessed the role of MI5 during the 1984-85 miners' strike: We limited our investigations to the activities of those who were using the strike for subversive purposes. The reports we issued to Whitehall during that time were most carefully scrutinised to ensure they referred only to matters properly within our remit."This was the official version of events. Yet buried in the National Archives at Kew is a secret document that casts new light on Rimington's account of MI5's role during an industrial dispute that represented the most serious challenge to Margaret Thatcher's premiership. At a moment in which we are commemorating the 40th anniversary of the miners' strikes, it is very much worth looking at this document closely.Mark Hollingsworth is a freelance journalist and the author of books including Defending the Realm, Londongrad: From Russia with Cash and Agents of Influence: How the KGB Subverted Western Democracies. Continue reading...
Conservative moderate' Steve Garvey has a Cameo profile, baseball metaphors, and a decades-old dream of a life in politicsSteve Garvey, the aging Republican Major League Baseball star, has talked about becoming a US senator for more than 40 years.That dream was derailed for decades by what Garvey called his midlife disaster". Now, at age 75, the former first baseman is finally in the running - headed for a November face-off with Democratic congressman Adam Schiff to fill Dianne Feinstein's Senate seat. Continue reading...
Missouri lawmakers - great defenders of children! - want to force teachers to register as sex offenders if they use a trans child's preferred pronounsDid you know that child marriage is still legal in much of the US? About 300,000 children and teenagers were legally married in the US between 2000 and 2018, according to the advocacy group Unchained at Last. At least 60,000 of those marriages occurred at an age or with a spousal age difference that should have been considered a sex crime".Did you know that, until quite recently, Missouri was a destination wedding spot" for children who wanted to tie the knot? The state has tightened its child marriage laws now - and is seeking to ban the practice - but not all lawmakers are happy about the changes. Missouri state senator Mike Moon said last year that he knows kids who have been married at age 12 (to another minor) and they're thriving"!Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
Instead of telling Americans the economy is great - which many won't believe - he must tell them the truth of where the gains are goingJoe Biden is addressing the country today in his State of the Union address. Here's some free advice about what he should say about the economy - which is the issue most voters care most about.Instead of telling Americans the economy is great - which many will not believe - the president must tell them the truth: that most of the economic gains haven't been felt by average working people because the gains have been going to the top.We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace - business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.They had begun to consider the government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob.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...
I'm not ashamed of my ankles, or of my M&S underpants. But why flaunt them?Blokes wearing hats indoors - beanie hats. What's that all about? It does my, well, head in. But seriously, why? I was in a fancy restaurant yesterday morning and there a chap was, beanie on, tapping importantly on a laptop, nibbling on something or other without taking his eyes off the screen. What with this intellectual endeavour - on top of the generous, ambient warmth of the room - his brain would surely overheat. Let it breathe a bit, mate, for heaven's sake.If there is some shame or insecurity in play here, my apologies. But I pick up the pungent scent of pure affectation. The indoor hat is only a tiny click on the dial away from indoor sunglasses. Perhaps I'm just jealous, because the beanie, inside or outside, is one of several fashion choices I can never make. Apart from anything else, they tend to make me look more like Benny from Crossroads than the actual Benny from Crossroads. Continue reading...
China's foreign minister, Wang Yi, has accused the US of imposing sanctions on Chinese companies to a 'bewildering' and 'unfathomable' level. Wang said the relationship between China and the US was 'critical' but that it was its relationship with Russia that would be deepened and strengthened in the coming months. He went on to accuse the US of failing to fulfil promises and said it was 'obsessed' with suppressing China as a global power. Relations between the US and China have thawed slightly since Xi Jinping met Joe Biden in November
Arthur Agee and William Gates never fulfilled their dream of making the NBA, but the subjects of the groundbreaking 1994 doc ended up making more of an impact than many who didAmerica has long obsessed over celebrity and the quest for fame. Thirty years ago, millions of moviegoers got to see that desire up close thanks to the groundbreaking documentary Hoop Dreams, which focused on two teenage basketball players, Arthur Agee and William Gates. The pair never fulfilled their dream of making the NBA, but Agee and Gates ended up making more of an impact than many who did.I always wish that we would have made it," Gates tells the Guardian. That feeling will never go away. I wish we would have achieved the ultimate hoop dream." Continue reading...
The pressure can be overwhelming - so I gave up on green eggs and ham and found a low-effort solutionI was going to do green eggs and ham. That would be a cool costume, the competitive mother that sometimes lives inside me thought. Thankfully I silenced her, as I always do, not wanting to spend hours after returning from a trip to the theatre constructing said eggs and ham out of felt. My son is only two, but this year will be his second World Book Day costume. Last year I was even more half-arsed: he went to nursery as Peekaboo Moon. In other words, he wore a jumper with a moon on it.The tedious online discourse about World Book Day costumes rears its head every year, but to a relatively new parent the whole thing is a bit baffling. Make a costume or don't, buy a costume or don't ... who cares, as long as the child is happy? Except what I'm learning is that the World Book Day costume is, to some people, symbolic of what sort of parent you are, and the whole thing carries quite a lot of class baggage.Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Full Swing has its moments but key absences and a lack of detail mean it mirrors a muddled gameThe second series of Full Swing has its moments. The trouble is, anybody seeking deep insight into the civil war/kiss and make up/civil-war status of elite golf will be left frustrated by the latest release of the Netflix documentary. While it is easy to blame producers for this, it must be remembered the golf world is horrendously muddled. It is not that people choose not to speak with certainty, they just find themselves unable to.Onlookers are left without proper detail of precisely how and why the PGA Tour signed a framework agreement with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. Paulina Gretzky, the wife of Dustin Johnson, gushes about how much more time their family has together after the former Masters champion's leap to LIV but other key players who were castigated for the same switch - Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson, Phil Mickelson - do not appear on camera to give their sentiment as a dramatic 2023 unfolded. This felt a missed opportunity. Jon Rahm, who joined LIV late in the year, is a notable absentee. So, too, is Tiger Woods. The failure to feature the world's best female golfers in a Solheim Cup year will inevitably raise eyebrows. Continue reading...
The far-right AfD is leading the polls in former GDR regions - and longstanding bias in German media and politics is partly to blameThe Berlin Wall will be standing in 50 and even in 100 years", Erich Honecker, the leader of socialist East Germany, prophesied in January 1989. Not for the first time, he was spectacularly wrong. The wall fell just 10 months later, in November 1989. But not all barriers to German unity fell with it. Honecker's German Democratic Republic (GDR) may have been wiped off the map by subsequent events, but like an afterimage that won't fade, its contours remain etched on Germany's cultural, economic and political landscape.In 2024, the east of the country remains in sharp focus as the heartland of anti-establishment movements. Three of the five states that once formed the GDR will hold regional elections in September, the outcomes of which are anxiously anticipated ahead of the general election set for next year. The far-right party Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) is leading the polls in all three, while also being the second-strongest party nationwide. In the frantic search for answers that might help explain and combat the rise of extremism, many ask: what is wrong in the east? Continue reading...
Some IVF providers say the legislation will allow services to restart, but claim it does not address the legal status of embryosAlabama's governor, Kay Ivey, has signed into law new legislation that will shield IVF providers from the fallout of a court ruling that equated frozen embryos with children.The new law protects providers from lawsuits and criminal prosecution in the event of damage or death of an embryo" during IVF services. Continue reading...
Jim Himes says comparisons between Trump's attitude to Putin and 1930s PM's stance on Hitler give Trump way too much credit'Donald Trump is a worse appeaser in his attitude to Vladimir Putin and Russia than the 1930s British prime minister Neville Chamberlain was towards Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, a senior Democrat on the House intelligence committee said.Jim Himes of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the committee, also said Trump acted like a single-cell organism" in obstructing aid to Ukraine. Continue reading...
At least one student, a 16-year-old who was hit nine times, was critically wounded while waiting at a bus stop on WednesdayPolice say eight Philadelphia high school students waiting to board a city bus after classes Wednesday were wounded by gunshots from suspects who jumped from a car and opened fire, the fourth shooting on the transit system in as many days.The previous three shootings each involved a fatality. At least one student was critically wounded at the bus stop, a 16-year-old who was hit nine times, Kevin Bethel, the city's police commissioner, said at a news conference. The others were in stable condition. Continue reading...
by Lois Beckett and Sam Levin in Los Angeles on (#6K4C6)
Congressman and ex-Dodgers player emerge as top two contenders, boxing out progressives Katie Porter and Barbara LeeAdam Schiff, the centrist Democratic congressman, is poised to be the next US senator from California after securing enough votes to advance to the November election. He will face off with Republican Steve Garvey, a former professional baseball player, who also performed well in the non-partisan primary on Tuesday.Schiff, a pro-Israel Democrat, was quickly called a winner by the Associated Press, and Garvey secured his spot in the general election about an hour after polls closed. Continue reading...
Christian evangelical institution punished victims for violating the student code of conduct' as assailants were left unpunished'Liberty University has been hit with a $14m Department of Education federal fine for creating a culture of silence" around sexual assault, failing to support victims of violence and then failing to properly report them correctly under the law.Announcing the fine on Tuesday, the department said in a statement that the Christian evangelical institution had punished sexual assault victims for violating the student code of conduct", while their assailants were left unpunished" - a violation of federal law. Continue reading...
by Joyetter Feagaimaali’i in American Samoa on (#6K593)
Residents of the US territory say a targeted ad campaign was responsible for the US president's loss in the Democratic Super Tuesday caucusIn less than 24 hours, Jason Palmer went from being a relatively unknown Baltimore businessman, to toppling a sitting president in a US primary caucus. Since then he's been featured in newspaper profiles, been interviewed on major news networks - and found himself the subject of internet memes across the world.Joe Biden's campaign team may have expected to win every Democratic contest on Super Tuesday - but if so, they didn't account for American Samoa. Of the 91 ballots cast in the territory's caucus, Palmer won 51, while Biden received 40. Continue reading...
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer for the film Rust, has been convicted for her role in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. A New Mexico jury found Gutierrez-Reed, who was responsible for ensuring that all firearms on the set were safe, guilty of involuntary manslaughter
Do I spend hundreds of dollars on a specialist or leave health issues untreated? My choices often involve weighing up which flavour of guilt I'll feelWhen I was a child, my sister and I would treat ourselves on school holidays. We'd walk to the shops and buy a cheap milk bar treat before heading to Video Ezy to rent a stack of movies. Decades later, Video Ezy and its later peers DVD Destination and Blockbuster are no longer high street staples, but this version of treat is still going strong for me. While I've matured beyond the need to rent Scream for a sixth time, a snack and film is my go-to for a night in (who can afford to go out?).Sluggish wage growth, soaring rents and increases to the cost of living mean many adults feel like they're living as they did in their broke uni student days, existing off beans and rice and putting money aside for the occasional indulgence (having a drink at the pub). But I feel more like a little kid: counting each dollar like I once did my allowance or, once I turned 14, the meagre pay from an after-school job. While budgeting and saving felt exciting as a child, it now feels impossible. If I spend $4 at the milk bar, I mainly feel guilty. Continue reading...
Campaign to leave it blank' or vote uncommitted' aims to increase pressure on Biden to stop Israel's incursion in GazaA protest movement in Georgia - a swing state that President Biden narrowly won in 2020 - is seeking to apply pressure to the incumbent over his support of Israel before the 12 March Democratic primary election.On Monday, a group of multifaith and multiracial groups called the Listen to Georgia Coalition launched the Leave It Blank campaign, which urges voters to submit a blank ballot next Tuesday. The push follows a similar grassroots effort - Listen to Michigan - in which more than 100,000 voters marked their ballots uncommitted" last month. Continue reading...
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