Vote gets lawmakers about halfway home in wrapping up their appropriations work for the 2024 budget yearThe US government has narrowly avoided a partial shutdown after senators approved a $460bn package of spending bills before a midnight deadline that would have shuttered many key federal agencies.The Senate approved the six funding bills, which passed the House on Wednesday in a bipartisan vote of 339-85, on Friday evening, a vote that gets lawmakers about halfway home in wrapping up their appropriations work for the 2024 budget year. Continue reading...
Ralph Hendry, 66, and Kathleen Brandel, 71, had been cruising the eastern Caribbean when their catamaran was hijackedThree men who had escaped from prison have been charged with capital murder in connection with the deaths of an American couple who disappeared in the Caribbean in February after their catamaran was hijacked.The Royal Grenada Police Force announced Friday that Trevon Robertson, 23; Atiba Stanislaus, 25; and Ron Mitchell, 30, were re-arrested on two counts of capital murder in the slayings of Ralph Hendry and Kathleen Brandel. Continue reading...
Thirty-three people attempting to cross the border into San Diego died in the Pacific Ocean from 2020 to 2023, study showsThirty-three people attempting to cross the US border drowned in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego after the Trump administration nearly doubled the height of the walls along the southern border, a staggering increase from previous years.The number of drownings rose by 3,200% from 2020 to 2023, compared to 2016 to 2019, when just one person drowned, according to a study published this week. By 2019 the Trump administration had elevated the barriers around San Diego from 17ft to 30ft. Continue reading...
District attorney will face Christian Wise Smith in May while McAfee, a conservative, faces two liberal attorneysThe embattled Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, and F Judge Scott McAfee have drawn re-election opponents for the 12 May primary ballot as qualification closes for Georgia's 2024 election cycle. Willis will also face a Republican in November.Christian Wise Smith is challenging Willis in the Democratic primary. Smith is an attorney from Sandy Springs, Georgia. and a former prosecutor who came in third in the 2020 race behind Willis and the previous Fulton county district attorney, Paul Howard. Continue reading...
Michael Whatley of North Carolina has been voted the Republican National Committee chair, with Lara Trump as co-chairThe Republican National Committee voted on Friday to install Donald Trump's handpicked leadership team, completing his takeover of the national party as the former president closes in on a third straight presidential nomination.Michael Whatley, a North Carolina Republican who has echoed Trump's false claims of voter fraud, was elected as the party's national chair in a vote Friday morning in Houston. Continue reading...
The sled-dog race across ice and snow has been roiled by a penalty award after a musher's encounter with an angry mooseThis year's Iditarod sled-dog race in Alaska has gotten off to a bumpy start.Mushers and their 16-dog teams, who train year-round to race across a 1,000-mile stretch of ice and snow, try to prepare for all eventualities during the treacherous journey across Alaska. But they weren't quite prepared for the twists and turns of this year's race. Continue reading...
Comments captured on hot mic after State of the Union address point to US president's growing frustration with Israeli leaderJoe Biden's growing frustration with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, continued to mount, with the Democratic US president captured on a hot mic saying that he and the Israeli leader will need to have a come to Jesus meeting".The comments by Biden came as he spoke with the Colorado Democratic senator Michael Bennet, on the floor of the House chamber in Washington following Thursday night's State of the Union address. Continue reading...
In the week of International Women's Day, raise a glass to the unpaid contributors who are putting so many unsung lives on the mapThe dictionary definition of heroism does not usually extend to people who work away anonymously, and for no money, for the reputational benefit of others. But this is what growing numbers of largely female researchers have been doing, in an attempt to rebalance the historical record on Wikipedia in favour of women. In a relatively rare instance of one breaking cover, the British archaeologist and curator LucyMoore, who has just finished a project to add a woman from every country in the world, has called for more volunteers to roll up their sleeves and contribute.The challenge is a large one. As of this month, according to the site itself, just under 20% of nearly 2m biographies on Wikipedia are of women, though this is a marked improvement on the 15.5% reported in an academic paper 10 years ago. That paper led to the creation of Women in Red, which now involves hundreds of volunteers around the world. Their project is to turn red links" - marking a mention of someone for whom a page does not exist - into blue ones that lead to entries documenting their lives. Continue reading...
Biden's use of the word to describe people who are undocumented is one his own administration ordered agencies to stop usingJoe Biden's seemingly off-the-cuff use of illegal" to describe people who are undocumented during his State of the Union address drew disappointed reaction from experts who have long argued the term is inaccurate and outdated.Responding to heckling from conservative congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who demanded Biden mention the name of Laken Riley - a Georgia nursing student who was allegedly killed by a person who is undocumented - Biden held up a button of Riley's face and said she was an innocent, young woman who was killed by an illegal". Continue reading...
Rightwing economist Stephen Moore says no question' US has strongest economy in world - and that's important to cheer'The US economy is the strongest in the world and Joe Biden was right to say so in his State of the Union address, a rightwing Republican economist allied to Donald Trump and a co-author of a plan to reshape the federal government said on Friday morning.Let me just say one thing positive about where we are right now," Stephen Moore told Fox Business. Continue reading...
With Trump surging, democracy is in peril: that's the message Biden needs to couple with the spirit he showed in CongressThe president of the United States delivered his annual address to Congress on Thursday night - except what Americans and an increasingly nervous world wanted to assess was less the state of the union than the state of Joe Biden. I don't mean politically, I mean physically.In the week that confirmed the November election will be a rematch of the 2020 contest - the current president against the former one - Biden needed to prove he was not the doddering, even senile figure of Donald Trump's rhetoric and a thousand social media memes. In 68 combative minutes, he cleared that bar. He ad-libbed, he took on Republican hecklers and, often at high volume, jabbed at his opponent. The result: a performance that pundits described as feisty" and scrappy", free of senior moments, and which prompted even Fox News to muse that Biden seemed jacked-up" - which, from the network that likes to depict the president as a walking corpse, was a compliment.Jonathan Freedland 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...
Have the new vegans had enough of being called soy boys'? I suspect the reason is far simplerIt would be easy to assume that the rise of vegan diets and products is now inevitable. More than 700,000 people signed up to the official Veganuary campaign in 2023, more than four times as many as in 2018. Vegans used to be seen as humourless, sanctimonious and moralistic, but a new generation has changed the diet's image, bringing a fun, vibrant, health-conscious slant to a vegan lifestyle that eschews some of the stricter elements, and appeals to young, climate-conscious consumers. Terms and trends such as flexitarian", pescatarian", meatless Monday" and Veganuary" have become popularised, as consumers abstain from meat in more relaxed and less all-consuming ways.Influencers such as the broadcaster Fearne Cotton and reality TV star Lucy Watson share easy vegan recipes and lifestyle content, and impress upon their audiences that moving to a vegan diet is relatively simple, focusing less on why the diet is the right ethical choice. As a result, what once seemed extreme and out of reach for many is now far easier to absorb into an existing lifestyle.Dr Jennifer Yule is a lecturer in marketing at the University of Edinburgh Business School, who researches consumer behaviour in the health and wellbeing domain Continue reading...
His remarks were designed to demonstrate Biden's vitality. They succeededLike a budget, a State of the Union speech is a moral document: it reflects a president's values and priorities, distilling his own view of his administration for the American people. On Thursday night, Joe Biden made his moral case for re-election: he views America as a besieged but worthy global leader, one whose tradition of democracy deserves to be defended and rebuilt. Referring to his opponent Donald Trump only as my predecessor", Biden repeatedly contrasted his own vision of a more equitable and prosperous nation with the Republican agenda. The point was to offer Americans an optimistic and inclusive vision - and to remind them of the cynicism, sadism and depravity of the Trump worldview, which threatens to undermine women's freedoms, make interracial democracy impossible, and use the machinery of government for little else but to further Republicans own self regard and greed.The 90-minute speech was raucous, strident and insistently optimistic; it appeared designed to demonstrate Biden's vitality, and to launch in earnest a presidential campaign that has previously been somewhat tepid and sluggish. I'm here to wake up the Congress," Biden said as he began, declaring the nation to be in an unprecedented moment". Maybe he was there to wake up his own campaign, too. Continue reading...
There's a certain sense of freedom in the knowledge that some things won't last for everWhat will be left of us online after we're gone? For me, I hope it's a collection of hot selfies, sassy tweets, and maybe even some writing that made people think (or at least, angry in the comments). But the reality is that so much of the trails we leave online aren't up to us.Perhaps that's why digital ephemerality - material existing online only briefly - is so alluring. In a digital ecosystem that relentlessly creates, extracts, stores and monetises our data, it's no wonder that the notion of temporary content is appealing. There's a certain sense of freedom in the knowledge that things won't last for ever. Continue reading...
This is the media mogul's second proposal in 12 months. Us mortals can only speculate about his mesmerising dating secretsAt last, some happy news. Rupert Murdoch is engaged - and for the second time in less than a year. I know! Despite being 93 next Monday, he's getting engaged even more frequently than serial sex killers serving life sentences. Those betrothals, of course, tend to happen entirely by letter, but as far as we know, Murdoch's latest love match is a real-world union. His fiancee is Elena Zhukova, 67, a retired biologist who also previously served as mother-in-law to Roman Abramovich. In the absence of an official engagement photo, just sub in that image from Alien 3 where the slavering alien corners Ripley in the infirmary. And please remember - the Fox News chairman emeritus's lifelong commitment to irreverent stories about people's private lives means the above is precisely how he wants his latest chapter to be covered.As mentioned, this is Murdoch's second proposal inside 12 months, his previous engagement enduring just a fortnight. Hand on heart, I was surprised he couldn't make it work with that last one, a former dental hygienist/evangelical prison chaplain he met in one of his gardens, who had successfully dismissed a case of financial elder abuse" brought by one of her previous stepchildren. She seemed so perfect. Back at the time they announced their intention to wed (not hugely long after Rupert reportedly told Jerry Hall via email that he was divorcing her), he gibbered out some hilarious interview to his own New York Post, in which he claimed: I dreaded falling in love - but I knew this would be my last."Marina Hyde 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...
Abortion and reproductive rights took centre stage at the 2024 State of the Union, as Joe Biden sought to overcome concerns about his re-election chances by emphasising an issue that has energised voters since the overturning of Roe v Wade.The president has largely pinned his re-election hopes on the passions stirred by threats to abortion rights. The demise of Roe v Wade, which was overturned with the help of three justices appointed by Trump, has led more than a dozen states to enact near-total abortion bans
Trump's drive to have trials held post-election hinges on hopes of winning presidency, and then telling DoJ to kill the federal chargesClaims by Donald Trump and his lawyers that holding any of the four criminal trials he now faces before the US election in November would be election interference" lack a solid legal basis and are brazen ploys to delay trials until post election, former justice department officials say.As he campaigns to return to the White House, Trump is facing unprecedented legal and political perils: trials are pending in four federal and state jurisdictions, where he's been charged with 91 felony counts including 17 about conspiring with allies to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in 2020. Continue reading...
Officials have deployed thousands of armed police and national guard troops into the system. Critics fear a new era of profilingIt's a common fear in New York City: the random subway attack, when a commuter gets assaulted, mugged or pushed on to the track. The prospect is terrifying. It's also, statistically speaking, probably not going to happen to you, especially in 2024.Though more transit workers are being attacked on the job nationwide (not just in New York), NYPD data shows that major felonies in the subway system were lower last year than in 2022. In January 2024, transit crime increased 46% year-over-year, then dipped in February. Continue reading...
Minnesota United have made a bright start, FC Cincinnati are chasing an encore and the New York Red Bulls are this season's must-watch teamIn the first few weeks of every new MLS season, there's a race to gather as much information as possible. Offseason expectations are reformed. New opinions arise. Hot takes are scrubbed from the digital archives.Welcome to the first edition of the Guardian's 2024 MLS power rankings, where we'll be doing plenty of scrubbing ourselves throughout the year. Continue reading...
A United Airlines flight headed for Japan landed safely at Los Angeles International airport after losing a tyre mid-air following takeoff from San Francisco. United said it was arranging for a new aircraft to continue the trip for the 249 people who were onboard the Boeing B777-200. The tyre landed in the airport's staff carpark, smashing a window and damaging at least one car Continue reading...
The technology giant has paid billions to show matches on its streaming service, and critical analysis isn't part of the packageIt is a truism that referees are doing a good job if you don't notice them. It also appears to be the official policy of MLS.Salient plotlines as the 2024 campaign unfurls are the first full season of Lionel Messi in Miami, the controversial withdrawal of most MLS clubs from the US Open Cup and the use of replacement referees because of a labor dispute. Continue reading...
Emma Raducanu moved into the second round of Indian Wells with a composed performance and no significant problems, confidently closing out a 6-2, 6-3 win over the qualifier Rebeka Masarova. A much tougher battle against Dayana Yastremska, the 30th seed, awaits Raducanu on Saturday
Forget Barbie and pink cupcakes. Radical change is what we should fight for on International Women's DayIn 1932, 75-year-old socialist Clara Zetkin stood in Germany's Reichstag and, despite being so unsteady that she had to be carried into the building on a stretcher, managed to give a rousing speech lasting more than 40 minutes. The fight of the labouring masses," she declared, is the fight for their full liberation." She wasn't a fan of feminism (dismissing it as bourgeois), but it was Zetkin's dream that women everywhere, especially the most deprived and marginalised, might one day be free of all forms of oppression. The Nazis took power in Germany shortly after. Zetkin fled to Russia and died there.On the day I went to see Zetkin's former home north of Berlin in Brandenburg, now a museum, there were no other visitors. Despite her iconic status in her own time, she has been largely lost to history. Her bravery is remembered usually as a footnote to the fact that she helped found what we now know as International Women's Day.Angela Saini is a science writer, teaches at MIT and is the author of The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule Continue reading...
The US president covered everything from abortion rights to Donald Trump, from Russia's invasion of Ukraine to Israel's war in Gaza, as well as the size of a Snickers barJoe Biden made a forceful State of the Union address on Thursday, criticising former president Donald Trump over the January 6 insurrection, vowing to stand up to Vladimir Putin, urging Israel to play its part in the delivery of aid to Gaza, backing reproductive freedom and taking on rightwing antagonist Marjorie Taylor Greene on immigration.Here are some key takeaways from the speech. Continue reading...
The president brought the fight, jousting with Republican hecklers as he attacked Trump without mentioning his nameWould it be a withered old man or a human dynamo? Would it be a rambling, gaffe-prone politician or an inspiring leader touched with fire? Would it be Geriatric Joe or Dark Brandon?Within the first few minutes of Thursday's State of the Union address in Washington, millions of Americans had their answer. Joe Biden, 81, had brought the fight. Continue reading...
Alabama lawmaker gave the Republicans' formal response to Joe Biden's State of the Union address, criticizing the president on issues such as immigration and the state of the US economy Continue reading...
The president needed to appeal to voters as he and Donald Trump are neck and neck in the presidential contestJoe Biden confirmed a new US mission to deliver aid to Gaza and repeatedly took aim at Donald Trump in his State of the Union address on Thursday, offering a pointed preview of the general election in November.Biden's most significant announcement came toward the end of his roughly hour-long speech, when he confirmed that the US military would establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the coast of Gaza" capable of receiving large shipments of water, food and medicine. Biden pledged the mission will not involve deploying American troops on the ground and would facilitate a significant infusion of supplies into Gaza. Continue reading...
US president makes last State of the Union address of this presidential term, with much at stake as he heads into re-election fight against TrumpFor some reason, expelled former Republican congressman George Santos has returned to watch the State of the Union from the House floor:Axios reports he wanted to hang out with the lawmakers who voted to remove him from office last year for being a big-time liar: Continue reading...
During his final State of the Union address of his presidential term before the US elections in November, Joe Biden tackled what he called threats to freedom and democracy, which were 'under attack both at home and overseas'.
Britt, 42, third youngest serving senator, spoke on the heels of her state's supreme court ruling that frozen embryos are children'Republicans chose first-term Alabama senator Katie Britt, the youngest Republican woman ever to serve in the Senate, to deliver the rebuttal to Joe Biden's State of the Union address on Thursday.The 42-year-old presented a counterpoint to the oldest sitting president at her kitchen table in Alabama after his speech. Continue reading...
Disgraced ex-congressman chummed about with Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz, and then tweeted his candidacy for New York seatDisgraced ex-congressman and noted fabulist George Santos announced yet another run for Congress during a surprise appearance at Joe Biden's State of the Union address on Thursday.Despite currently facing federal criminal charges, Santos wrote on X during the speech that he's looking to face off against his former colleague Representative Nick LaLota: Tonight, I want to announce that I will be returning to the arena of politics and challenging Nick for the battle over #NY1. I look forward to debating him on the issues and on his weak record as a Republican. The fight for our majority is imperative for the survival of the country." Continue reading...
Biden sought to capitalize on the passions stirred by GOP threats to reproductive freedom, while avoiding the word abortion'Abortion and reproductive rights took center stage at the 2024 State of the Union, as President Joe Biden sought to overcome concerns about his re-election chances by emphasizing an issue that has energized voters again and again since the overturning of Roe v Wade.My predecessor took office determined to see Roe v Wade overturned and he brags about it," said Biden, referring to former president Donald Trump, his presumptive rival for the presidency. Look at the chaos that has resulted." Continue reading...
Families outraged by city inquiry that said officers who waited outside as shooting took place showed level-headed thinking'An investigation Uvalde city leaders ordered into the Robb elementary school shooting put no blame on local police officers and defended their actions Thursday, despite acknowledging a series of rippling failures during the fumbled response to the 2022 classroom attack that left 19 children and two teachers dead.Several family members of victims walked out in anger midway though a presentation that portrayed Uvalde police department officers of acting swiftly and appropriately, in contrast to scathing and sweeping state and federal past reports that faulted police at every level. Continue reading...
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...
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