Jacob Chansley was sentenced to three years and five months in November 2021 but it is now due to be freed 25 MayThe US Capitol attacker who infamously wore a horned headdress and was nicknamed the “QAnon Shaman” is no longer in federal prison over the deadly January 6 uprising.Jacob Chansley, 35, was sentenced to three years and five months in prison on 17 November 2021 after pleading guilty to helping a mob of Donald Trump supporters try to prevent the congressional certification of the former president’s defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Continue reading...
Court-enforceable agreement passes city council with 11-0 vote as members harshly criticize police and previous city leadersThe Minneapolis city council on Friday approved an agreement with the state to revamp policing, nearly three years after a city officer murdered George Floyd.The Minnesota department of human rights issued a blistering report last year that said the police department had engaged in a pattern of race discrimination for at least a decade. City leaders subsequently agreed to negotiate a settlement with the agency. Continue reading...
Dave Halls given six-month suspended sentence after pleading no contest to gun charge as part of agreement with prosecutorsA Santa Fe judge on Friday accepted a plea deal, bringing the first conviction for the 2021 shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during filming of the western movie Rust in New Mexico.Dave Halls, first assistant director on Rust, pleaded no contest as part of an agreement with prosecutors to the misdemeanor charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon for his role in Hutchins’ death. Continue reading...
The former president faces far more serious allegations than paying hush money to an adult film star. This is only the beginningDonald Trump has built his career on brazenness. A man without shame, he has hurtled on apparently unstoppably, through serial scandals, two impeachments, electoral rejection and an armed insurrection by his supporters. Now he is setting another grim precedent, as the first former US president in history to be charged with a criminal offence. Half a century after the first investigation into his business dealings, a New York grand jury has voted to indict him. But even if he cannot bluster or bully his way out, he will keep fighting the law, and the law may not win.That the case relates to paying hush money to the adult film actor Stormy Daniels is at once apt and disconcerting. Apt, in that its tawdriness and banality encapsulate the man. Disconcerting, in that it appears almost inconsequential beside the damage he has wrought upon the nation. He still faces multiple other civil and criminal cases: on the latter score alone, he is being investigated in relation to potential mishandling of classified documents; attempts to overturn his loss in Georgia in the 2020 election; and obstructing the transfer of power, as part of the justice department’s probe of the January 6 insurrection. Many would rather have seen charges brought against him on one of these grounds. Continue reading...
The former president’s meeting with a porn star at a golf event in Utah kicked off a scandal that has led to a criminal indictmentThe Stormy Daniels affair, which this week made Donald Trump the first US president ever to be criminally indicted, first reached the White House in February 2017.“So picture this scene,” Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, said in congressional testimony two years later. “One month into his presidency, I’m visiting President Trump in the Oval Office for the first time. Continue reading...
Speaking to George Stephanopoulos on ABC's Good Morning America, the former US president's lawyer Joe Tacopina also said Trump would not be put in handcuffs for a court date after a New York grand jury voted to indict him over a hush money payment made to the adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election campaign
Republicans line up to support ex-president as Democrats hope for more charges – and one man’s one-word judgmentFor Democrats, Donald Trump’s indictment was proof that no one, not even a former president, was above the law. For Republicans, it was the culmination of a years-long political witch-hunt designed to take down a polarizing former president as he stands again for re-election.The unprecedented move by a Manhattan grand jury triggered a wave of predictably partisan responses, reflecting a nation deeply divided over Trump and his presidency, which ended after his failed attempts to cling to power culminated in a deadly assault on the US Capitol. News on Thursday that Trump had become the first ever former US president to face criminal charges drew an audible gasp on Fox News, as broadcasters and viewers processed the extraordinary development. Continue reading...
Attorney Joe Tacopina says ‘I feel the rule of law died yesterday’ but says client will not be handcuffed for New York arraignmentDonald Trump’s lawyer insists the former president will not be put in handcuffs after a New York grand jury voted on Thursday to indict him over hush money payments made to the adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election.Speaking on ABC’s Good Morning America on Friday, a lawyer representing Trump, Joe Tacopina, said the indictment was shocking to Trump and his team. Continue reading...
Thunderstorms forecast across portions of Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee valleys with tornadoes the most noteworthy threatAn immense spring storm emerging from the western US was expected to form a 1,000-mile front of extreme weather from the Great Lakes to Texas on Friday, spawning blizzards, freezing rain, tornadoes and torrential showers, forecasters said.Severe, widespread thunderstorms were forecast for Friday afternoon into early Saturday across portions of the middle Mississippi valley and eastward to the lower Ohio and Tennessee valleys, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). Continue reading...
Lawsuit reportedly seeks damages for alleged Clean Water Act violations following crash of train carrying hazardous materialsThe US Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against freight train giant Norfolk Southern over its 3 February train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, seeking to ensure the company pays the full cost of cleanup and any long-term effects.The lawsuit filed in the US district court in Ohio on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeks penalties and injunctive relief for the unlawful discharge of pollutants under the Clean Water Act and an order addressing liability for past and future costs. Continue reading...
Gwyneth Paltrow has been found not at fault over a 2016 ski collision. The actor and wellness entrepreneur was sued by the retired optometrist Terry Sanderson for injuries he allegedly sustained in the crash. Sanders, 76, claimed Paltrow, 50, skied out of control and crashed into him, leaving him with four broken ribs and a concussion. He sought 'more than $300,000', a threshold that provides the opportunity to introduce the most evidence and depose the most witnesses allowed in civil court. Paltrow countersued for a symbolic $1 and legal fees
My decision to come out as a trans man was lifechanging. What’s so scary about the possibility of choice when it comes to gender?I’ve quit jobs, relationships, and even some religious beliefs – but by far the most important thing I ever quit was trying to be a woman.Four years ago I came out as a trans man. After 28 years of attempting to be a woman and wondering why things had never felt quite right, the mist cleared: the issue was that I’d been trying to be someone I wasn’t. And not just that, but someone I didn’t want to be – playing a role I felt compelled to adhere to by society.Jackson King is a freelance journalistDo 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 news that Donald Trump had become the first former US president to face criminal charges drew an audible gasp on Fox News, as broadcasters and viewers processed the extraordinary development. 'We have just gotten word that former president Donald Trump has been indicted,' the host begins, while a stunned gasp is audible from off-camera. 'What?' asks another incredulous voice, as the presenter explains to Fox News’s afternoon audience that Trump will be charged in relation to an alleged 'hush-money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels'
It’s time to retire the offensive, outdated idea that having only one child is somehow selfish or unfair“Aren’t you worried they’ll be lonely?” This is the question that the parents of only children are probably asked the most, and the one that is mentioned again and again when I asked for “one and done” parents to get in touch. Although “one and done” parenting is on the rise, and in some countries only children are becoming the norm, the stigma against single-child families is real. Stereotypes about only children being spoilt, obnoxious or lonely persist.What my callout on social media revealed is that there are many persuasive economic and social reasons for deciding to only have only one child, and though they can be as diverse and complex as families themselves, there are some common threads.Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist and author Continue reading...
Businessman expected to face arraignment on Tuesday with New York police warned they may face ‘unusual disorder’. Plus, Tokitae, the oldest orca in captivity, to be set free
‘Evan,’ I said out loud in my hotel room. In that moment, this news story moved out of the realm of professional dismay and into the intensely personalHis face stared out from news stories on Thursday morning, accompanied by headlines like this one in the Guardian: “Russia arrests reporter and accuses him of espionage.”Oh, that’s awful, I thought at first, reflecting that we really are involved in some kind of new cold war, and there is no end to the toll that authoritarian governments will take on journalists. The imprisonment of journalists is at a historic high worldwide; I’ve written columns about that. And I know that there are close to 20 journalists in Russian jails and that Vladimir Putin’s administration has instituted harsh consequences for what it considers “fake” news, a highly subjective judgment.Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...
Supporters of Donald Trump gathered outside his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida to show their support for the former US president after he was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury. The case is centred on a hush money payment made to the adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election. No former US president has ever been criminally indicted. The news is set to shake the race for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, in which Trump leads most polls
Child labor violations – including kids working night-shifts and with dangerous equipment – are rising in the US. Republicans want even fewer protectionsWhen I was secretary of labor 30 years ago, one major goal was to crack down on companies that employed children, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. I remember being horrified to discover that even in the early 1990s, children who should have been in school were working, often in dangerous jobs.We made progress. Child labor declined in the United States. But it was a hard slog. By law, the highest fines I could levy against companies that put children to work were relatively small. Some firms treated them as costs of business. Continue reading...
This isn’t the Trump indictment we wanted, but it might be the one we deserveStormy Daniels didn’t seem to know what she had. In 2011, when The Apprentice was still getting decent ratings and Trump had drawn attention to himself for racist claims about the birthplace of Barack Obama, Daniels – also known as Stephanie Clifford – started asking around to see who she could sell her story to. Daniels, for years a successful porn performer, had met Donald Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in 2006. According to her, he invited her to his hotel room, offered her work on his TV show and then had sex with her. The two remained friendly afterwards; Trump invited Daniels to the launch of his Trump Vodka brand the following year. It’s the kind of thing you suspect that these two people would have written off as a funny story. Instead, it’s the impetus for one of the most politically volatile prosecutions in the nation’s history: the first criminal indictment of a former president, which was issued on Thursday by a federal grand jury in New York.Stormy Daniels and the illegal, fraudulent machinations that the Trump campaign allegedly undertook to pay her off during the height of the presidential campaign in 2016 have always struck me as the most quintessential of Trump’s many scandals. Trump denies Daniels’ allegations, but in retrospect, with the hindsight of what we’ve come to learn of him, the scene she recounts is almost unbearably true to his character: the gathering of low-rent celebrities, the paltry quid pro quo offer, the golf and the sad, adolescent fantasy of sex with a porn star. The whole story drips with Trump’s defining attribute: the desperate and insatiable need to have his ego gratified. Which is why to me, at least, it seems obvious that Daniels is telling the truth. Continue reading...
Stakes are high as these judges often have the last word on major policy decisions in their states, from reproductive rights to voting policy and redistricting.While the 4 April Wisconsin race is technically non-partisan, the two candidates have not shied away from taking positions on policies that align with political parties. The Democratic party has spent heavily on liberal candidate Janet Protasiewicz, while conservative candidate Dan Kelly has the backing of Republicans and top conservative donors.The race is already the most expensive state supreme court election in US history, with over $37m in spending. The unprecedented spending and political debate begs the question of why partisan groups are permitted to get involved in the selection of supposedly nonpartisan judges, and why judges are directly elected at all? Continue reading...
Republicans are seeking to restrict women and girls’ right to travel by criminalizing friends and family who would help themIdaho Republicans are seeking to restrict women and girls’ right to travel. Less than a year ago, the state banned abortion with a trigger law that went into effect after the supreme court overturned the abortion right in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health. Now, Idaho is looking to stop young women from travelling out of state for their procedures – and to criminalize those that help them. A bill that sailed through the state’s house of representatives and advanced in the state senate last week would make it a crime to transport a minor for the purposes of obtaining an abortion without the consent of her parents. The bill creates a new felony crime, so-called “abortion trafficking”, that’s punishable by two to five years in prison.The bill would criminalize an aunt or grandmother who drives a teenage girl over the border for a legal abortion in Oregon. It would make a felon of the school friend who lends her money for a bus ticket, or the older sister who takes her to the post office to pick up a package with secretly mailed pills. The legislation also contains a provision giving the Idaho attorney general the ability to override the jurisdiction of local prosecutors on this charge – so if a local DA doesn’t want to prosecute those who help scared and desperate teenagers, the state can enforce its sadism anyway. Continue reading...
The college basketball stars meet in the NCAA Tournament Final Four on Friday. It could be just the start of years of exciting contests between the twoRivalries propel athletes into superstardom, transform leagues, and redefine mainstream culture. Joe v Max; Wilt v Bill; Ali v Frazier; Magic v Bird; and Serena v Venus were compelling rivalries in which the antagonists pushed each other to excel at the highest level on the world’s greatest stages.When the South Carolina Gamecocks and Iowa Hawkeyes face off in the NCAA Women’s Final Four on Friday night, fans will witness a battle that has the potential to become the next great sports rivalry of this generation. Continue reading...
The young quarterback has to follow two Packers Hall of Famers at one of the NFL’s most famed franchises. No pressure thenTwo years ago, Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams decided to run it back for one last year together at the Green Bay Packers under The Last Dance moniker, aping the Michael Jordan propaganda/documentary series.The tension at the heart of the Jordan doc was the idea that drives all great sports breakups: Who is responsible for winning championships? Organizations or players? Jordan-Krause, Belichick-Brady, LeBron-Riley, Keane-Ferguson. Across sports, dynastic runs have come unstuck as champions fight to claim the credit for winning.QB: Love, 24WR: Christian Watson, 23WR: Romeo Doubs, 22WR: Samori Toure, 25TE: Josiah Deguara, 26RB: Aaron Jones, 28 Continue reading...
Support for the European Union is strong – even in post-Brexit Britain. Can it come through its external battles, too?It’s springtime in Brussels and the European Union has a spring in its step. Its leaders and institutions have been galvanised by the war in Ukraine. “The war has reminded us what Europe is really about,” people kept telling me on a recent visit to the EU’s capital.There’s a popular theory that says European integration advances through crises. The truth is that sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t. You’d have to be a starry-eyed Euro-optimist, for example, to claim that European unity was really advanced by the 2015-16 refugee crisis. But in its last two big ones, the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine, we have seen the “challenge and response” mechanism that the historian Arnold Toynbee identified as one of the patterns of history. Continue reading...
Trump has followed a pattern since 2016 – the bigger the alleged crime, the louder he airs grievances and claims he’s being persecutedComedian Chris Rock gazed out at the audience at an awards ceremony in Washington earlier this month. “Are you guys really going to arrest Trump?” he asked bluntly. “This is only going to make him more popular!”Donald Trump has not yet been arrested but is now the first person to occupy the Oval Office to then be charged with a crime. It also raises the prospect of the Republican favorite for the 2024 presidential race to be running for the White House while also being criminally prosecuted – something likely to bring even more chaos to America’s already deeply fractured political landscape. Continue reading...
A new law will impose extra tax on sales of more than $5m starting 1 April – and sellers are desperate to unload before the deadlineAs the clock ticks down to the start of Los Angeles’ new “mansion tax”, the city’s real estate market is offering some deadline deals.On Instagram, two high-end realtors touted a $1m bonus to any agent who helped sell a $28m Bel Air mansion by 1 April. Another 260-acre Bel Air property which went up for auction this month (starting price $39m) offered buyers a $2m credit if they were able to close the deal by 31 March. Continue reading...
by Martin Pengelly in New York and Joan E Greve in Wa on (#6ABK9)
Ex-president is expected to appear for his arraignment on Tuesday where he will be fingerprinted, photographed and processed for arrestA grand jury has voted to indict Donald Trump in New York over a hush money payment made to the adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election.No former US president has ever been criminally indicted. The news is set to shake the race for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, in which Trump leads most polls. Continue reading...
Hollywood actor and lifestyle guru found not liable for collision with optometrist Terry Sanderson in Park City in 2016Gwyneth Paltrow, the Hollywood star and lifestyle guru, has prevailed in the dramatic court tussle over dueling ski-crash claims with the retired optometrist Terry Sanderson, who had sued the actor for liability in a collision on a Utah mountain in 2016.The verdict in the much-watched case, which to many seemed to pit one affluent lifestyle against another, came after a two-week trial that heard from dozens of witnesses attempting to assert truth to an incident that only one witness claimed to see. Continue reading...
by Victoria Bekiempis and Ramon Antonio Vargas on (#6ABM8)
Daniels has claimed she had sex with ex-president and that she received $130,000 payment in 2016 to hush up about itDonald Trump for years has faced criminal investigations on multiple fronts, ranging from alleged presidential election interference to purported financial crimes and recent scrutiny over his storage of government secrets.In the end, though, what got a grand jury to vote to indict him Thursday wasn’t election interference, spurious bookkeeping, unsecured federal documents, or even that his supporters staged the deadly January 6 Capitol attack after he was voted out of office and told them to “fight like hell”. It was the porn star and director known to fans as Stormy Daniels. Continue reading...
The fact that there is no choreographed political theater around the indictment is precisely how democracies tend to work: in a messy and piecemeal fashionSo it finally happened. Trump has been indicted. For Democrats and scattered anti-Trumpers on the right, it will probably feel not nearly as satisfying or generate as much schadenfreude as they imagined. In fact, it might seem positively anticlimactic.After all, Trump did not get indicted for his political crimes and misdemeanors. Other investigations may still catch up with him. But the fact that there is no choreographed political theater is precisely how democracies tend to work: messy, piecemeal, ensuring that there is no impunity. Continue reading...
Indictment relates to a hush-money payment made on ex-president’s behalf to the adult film star Stormy DanielsDonald Trump will be the first former US president to face criminal charges after a grand jury in New York has voted to indict him on charges related to hush money payments to an adult film star.Here is what Trump’s indictment means. Continue reading...
In getting a grand jury to charge Trump over his hush money payment to Stormy Daniels in 2016, the Democrat has carved himself a place in historyAlvin Bragg’s official biography describes him as a “son of Harlem” who became Manhattan district attorney after “a lifetime of hard work, courage and demanding justice”.In obtaining a grand jury indictment against Donald Trump over his hush money payment to Stormy Daniels in 2016, the Democrat has now carved himself a place in history, as the man behind the first vote to criminally indict a former president. Continue reading...
Jared Moskowitz, a Florida Democrat, responded angrily to Marjorie Taylor Greene, after the far-right Georgia Republican advocated that teachers be armed.Amid national grief and anger over the Nashville elementary school shooting, in which three children and three adults were killed, members of Congress clashed in Washington and people protested in Tennessee
Executive director of the San Jose Police Officers Association charged with attempt to unlawfully import valeryl fentanylThe executive director of a US police union has been charged with attempting to illegally import a fentanyl analogue, and has been accused of using the police union’s office to communicate with her suppliers and mail the drugs.Joanne Segovia, the executive director of the San Jose Police Officers Association in California, was charged with attempt to unlawfully import valeryl fentanyl, a variation of the powerful synthetic opioid, and faces up to 20 years in prison, the justice department said in a statement on Wednesday. Continue reading...
by Lauren Aratani in New York and agencies on (#6AB22)
Democrats and Republicans in Congress argue while hundreds of Nashville protesters urge lawmakers to ‘Save our children!’Amid national grief and anger over the Nashville elementary school shooting in which three children and three adults were killed, members of Congress clashed angrily in Washington while protesters demanded action in Tennessee.In Washington, while speaking to reporters on Wednesday evening, Jamaal Bowman, a Democrat from New York and a former school principal, called Republicans “gutless” for refusing to support meaningful gun control reform. Continue reading...
Wishlist of leftwing policies also calls for executive action on trains and prescription prices to bypass congressional gridlockThe Congressional Progressive Caucus has urged Joe Biden to reinforce federal oversight of large corporations, increase wages for working people and address the climate crisis.Outlining its 2023 executive action agenda on Thursday, the CPC offered Joe Biden an opportunity to deliver on a range of Democratic policy priorities, and stifle recent criticism from the left wing of his party, using the power of the executive pen. Continue reading...
It was a scourge in the 90s and 00s. Now, though, what we need is new privacy laws to regulate the excesses of social mediaNever did a stranger Magnificent Seven ride into town. It includes a royal prince, an ageing pop star, two B-movie film stars and a former Lib Dem MP. All were chosen as wounded heroes by the champions of privacy against the mighty Daily Mail. Heaven knows what this grievance-fest is costing but someone can afford it.We all know tabloid newspapers in the 1990s and 2000s could behave outrageously, notably in their coverage of celebrity. Intrusive photography and phone hacking were rife. Technology was always ahead of policing. Intrusion was called the “price of celebrity” and only the lucky escaped paying it. No one familiar with the press at the time would be surprised at the charges now levied against Associated Newspapers, which owns the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday. These include the commissioning of external investigators to tap landlines and intercept voicemails, and the blagging of medical records. The publisher strongly denies the allegations.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.
Bankman-Fried, 31, has already pleaded not guilty to eight counts over collapse of cryptocurrency exchange last yearThe FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty on Thursday to new US criminal charges, which include conspiring to violate campaign finance laws and bribe Chinese authorities.Bankman-Fried, 31, had earlier pleaded not guilty to eight counts of fraud and conspiracy for allegedly stealing billions in FTX customer funds to plug losses at his hedge fund, Alameda Research. Continue reading...
Bonuses now at pre-pandemic levels, after profits started to fall for firms as inflation rose and fears of recessions started to hitWall Street bankers might have to start counting their pennies: the average banking bonuses fell 26% last year, leaving the average bonus at “just” $176,700.After significant boosts during the pandemic, profits started to fall for Wall Street firms in 2022 as inflation rose and fears of recessions started to hit, leaving companies with less leeway for bonuses, according to a report from the New York state comptroller office released on Thursday. Bonuses are now at pre-pandemic levels, reaching a low not seen since 2019. Continue reading...
EPA officials en route to incident 100 miles west of Minneapolis in which 22 cars were derailed with four catching fireA train hauling ethanol and corn syrup derailed and caught fire in Minnesota early on Thursday and nearby residents were ordered to evacuate their homes, authorities said.The BNSF train derailed in the town of Raymond, about 100 miles west of Minneapolis, at about 1am, according to the Kandiyohi county sheriff, Eric Tollefson. Continue reading...
No injuries on ground but nine service members killed in collision about 30 miles from Fort Campbell base near Tennessee borderNine people were killed in a crash involving two US army Black Hawk helicopters conducting a night-time training exercise in Kentucky, a military spokesperson said.Nondice Thurman, a spokesperson for Fort Campbell, said on Thursday morning the deaths happened the previous night in south-western Kentucky during a routine training mission. Continue reading...
Company makes last-minute move to keep control of district as board appointed by governor in ‘don’t say gay’ feud takes overA dispute between the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, and Disney over control of the company’s Florida theme park district hinges on a clause referencing King Charles III and his descendants.The row began after DeSantis in March 2022 passed a “don’t say gay” law banning classroom teaching on sexual orientation and gender identity. The law was highly controversial, with LGBTQ+ activists saying it was discriminatory. Joe Biden denounced it as “hateful”. Continue reading...
The Republican representative Lauren Boebert raised a peculiar question in a recent US House hearing. She asked whether a revised Washington DC criminal code, which was previously overturned by Congress, had become law. While her question was met with a reminder of the previous decision of Congress, Boebert continued to express interest in whether or not the revised code would have decriminalised public urination. A dumbfounded Washington DC council member, Charles Allen, repeatedly reminded Boebert that it was still a criminal offence
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