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Critics say the QAnon conspiracy theorist, in the position less than a year, failed to deliver on funding promisesA group of Michigan Republicans voted on Saturday to remove Kristina Karamo as state party chair after months of infighting and slow fundraising raised concerns her leadership would hurt the party's chances in the key swing state in 2024.Karamo, a former community college instructor and election-denying activist who was elevated to her post in February, has indicated she would not respect Saturday's vote, setting the stage for a potentially messy court battle over party leadership. Continue reading...

Duke of York must answer to claims in new documents while facing all the trappings of the law', says victims' lawyerPrince Andrew must testify under oath about his role in the Jeffrey Epstein abuse scandal so that he faces the threat of prison if he lies, a lawyer for several of Epstein's victims has said.Amid growing calls for a police investigation into allegations of sexual assault against the royal, Spencer Kuvin, a Florida-based attorney, told the Observer that the Duke of York needs to answer for what is now coming out" and should give his account with all the trappings of the law" so that he is legally obliged to tell the truth. Continue reading...

Joshua Powell, one of five defendants in lawsuit including former CEO Wayne LaPierre, has agreed to pay $100,000A former chief of staff to Wayne LaPierre - who resigned as the National Rifle Association's chief executive on Friday - has agreed to a $100,000 settlement in connection with a civil lawsuit filed by the New York attorney general's office.As part of the settlement announced on Saturday, Joshua Powell - one of five defendants in the lawsuit against the NRA, a gun-rights organization - admitted to wrongdoing in failing to fulfill his fiduciary responsibilities and misusing charitable funds. Continue reading...

Randy Roedema, found guilty of criminally negligent homicide, is the first official to be sentenced in the 23-year-old's killingA former Colorado police officer convicted in the 2019 killing of Elijah McClain was sentenced to 14 months in county jail on Friday.Randy Roedema, an ex-Aurora police department (APD) officer, was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault in October. He is the first official to face jail time for the killing of McClain, a 23-year-old whose death led to years of protests and calls for reforms. Continue reading...

Press secretary acknowledged Lloyd Austin was admitted five days ago after minor elective procedureThe US defense secretary Lloyd Austin has been hospitalized since Monday due to complications after a minor elective medical procedure, his press secretary said, in the first official acknowledgement that Austin had been admitted five days earlier to Walter Reed national military medical center.Air Force Maj Gen Pat Ryder said Friday that Austin was recovering well", but it was not clear when the secretary would be released from the hospital. Continue reading...

After Claudine Gay was ousted amid accusations of plagiarism, Neri Oxman was accused of copying from Wikipedia in dissertationThe wife of Bill Ackman, the hedge fund billionaire who accused Claudine Gay of being a plagiarist and led calls for her resignation as Harvard president, is now facing allegations of plagiarism herself.Neri Oxman, a prominent former professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has apologized after Business Insider identified multiple instances in which she lifted passages from other scholars' work without proper attribution in her 2010 dissertation. She also pledged to review the primary sources and request the necessary corrections. Continue reading...

Former president made the comment 36 hours after one student was killed and seven people wounded during the first day of schoolDonald Trump told an audience at a campaign event on Friday in Iowa to get over" a deadly shooting at a high school in the state a day earlier.After offering sympathy and emotional support for the victims of the shooting in Perry, Iowa, and their families, Trump said at the event in Sioux Center: It's just horrible - so surprising to see it here. But we have to get over it. We have to move forward." Continue reading...

Conservationists are energized by rightwing attacks on African American studies to preserve once prosperous WeeksvilleConservationists in New York are ramping up research and preservation efforts of a historic Black community that had all but disappeared, illuminating what some experts say is an antidote" to ongoing rightwing efforts to keep African American studies out of classrooms.Weeksville, New York, located in present-day Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant, had been a center of Black excellence since its founding by a dock worker named James Weeks in 1827. A copy of the New York Times from 1855 advertised beautiful building lots at Weeksville" for between $130 and $200 cash under the heading For Sale To Colored People." It was a thriving community of free Black people who escaped slavery in the south. Continue reading...

The Republican governor and ex-Trump press chief seems to be popular with voters in her state. Does a national run beckon?Shortly after taking office in January, Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders launched a powerful salvo in the so-called war on woke being waged by Republicans.Sanders, 41, signed an executive order targeting critical race theory, an academic field that probes how racism affects US society and laws. The move aligned with countrywide Republican opposition to the discipline. Continue reading...

Assassinations, atrocities and invasions, along with uncertain US leadership, presage a year of rising violenceAssassination is a two-edged sword. Last week's targeted killing in Beirut of Hamas's deputy leader is but the latest of many covert attacks on individuals in Iran and the Arab sphere attributed to agents of Israel. Do prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials in Jerusalem ever consider the possibility they may be paid back in kind?Hamas may not have the expertise and reach, although a booby-trap bomb requires no particular skill. But Iran does and maybe Hezbollah, too. Israel's assassination in December of a top Iranian general in Syria, plus last week's atrocity in southern Iran - claimed by Islamic State terrorists but officially blamed on Israel - could goad Tehran's more rabid hardliners into seeking an eye for an eye. Continue reading...

Folger library in Washington has single biggest collection of world's 235 surviving copies - until now kept hidden in a vaultWashington is a shining city on a hill, swamp of corruption or tourist destination with some great museums, depending on your point of view. It is seldom thought of as a place of pilgrimage for fans of a certain Elizabethan playwright from Stratford-upon-Avon.Yet the American capital is about to become a vital stop for devotees of William Shakespeare the world over. In June, the Folger Shakespeare Library on Capitol Hill will unveil a permanent display of its 82 copies of the First Folio, the single biggest collection of the world's 235 surviving copies. Continue reading...

An education department official resigned this week, and 17 staffers sent an anonymous letter calling for a ceasefireDissent inside the Biden administration over the president's Gaza policy is growing, with a public resignation this week of a Department of Education official, and a letter signed by more than a dozen Biden campaign staffers calling for a ceasefire and the conditioning of aid to Israel.It's pretty extraordinary levels of dissent," said Josh Paul, a career official working on arms sales at the state department who resigned in protest in October, of the mounting signs of discontent. I am hearing in recent weeks from people who are thinking more seriously about resigning." Continue reading...

North Carolina representative Patrick Henry argues for increase from $174,000 salary, but voted against increasing minimum wageA retiring US House Republican who has previously opposed proposals to raise the federal minimum wage has advocated for an increase to the $174,000 salaries collected by rank and file Congress members, saying that would motivate credible people to run for office".Most of us don't have wealth," North Carolina's Patrick McHenry said to the Dispatch in an interview. Continue reading...

The ex-Apprentice host projected an image of success but the outcome of the case could be a death blow to his companiesTwo decades ago, when Donald Trump introduced himself to the American public from the back of a limousine going through New York City, he told a simple story of triumph disguised as a confession.About 13 years ago, I was seriously in trouble. I was billions of dollars in debt," he said in the opening scene of his reality TV show, The Apprentice, which premiered in January 2004. But I fought back, and I won - big league." Continue reading...

EmPower Solar suspended 40% of its workforce but says action is unrelated to recent successful election of workers to join UAWA New York-based solar panel business has been accused of being a poster child" of union busting after furloughing 40% of its workforce for more than a year, days after a victorious union election.Installers and technicians at EmPower Solar, in Bethpage - concerned about poor working conditions and issues they faced on the job - reached out to the United Auto Workers after the gains it won during the stand up" strikes at the big three automakers. Continue reading...

The US Capitol attack was a shameful event in US history, yet Americans remain confused and divided about what occurredThree years ago this week, the United States Capitol was attacked by thousands of armed loyalists of Donald Trump, some intent on killing members of Congress.Roughly 140 police officers were injured in the attack. Four people died. Capitol police officer Brian D Sicknick, who participated in the response, passed away the following day. Another Capitol police officer and a Washington DC police officer who also responded to the attack have since died by suicide.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...

The ex-president has said he would pardon those convicted of violence, obstructing Congress and seditious conspiracyIn the three years to the day since the insurrection at the US Capitol, great strides have been made in shoring up American democracy: hundreds of rioters have been prosecuted, legislation has been passed to bolster electoral safeguards and Donald Trump has been charged over his efforts to subvert the 2020 election.But as the country marks the third anniversary of one of its darkest days in modern times, a pall hangs in the air. It comes from Trump himself and his promise, growing steadily louder as the 2024 presidential election approaches, that if he wins he will pardon those convicted of acts of violence, obstructing Congress and seditious conspiracy on 6 January 2021. Continue reading...

An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 had to make an emergency landing shortly after taking off from Portland, Oregon, on Friday after a window and a chunk of fuselage blew out in mid-air shortly after takeoff. Footage circulating online shows a gaping hole in the side of the plane next to passenger seats. The airline said the plane, carrying 174 passengers and six crew members, landed safely

The Atlas Network's dark-money junktanks are behind neoliberal policies around the world. And you may find its leaders on a resignation honours list near youThere are elements of fascism, elements borrowed from the Chinese state and elements that reflect Argentina's history of dictatorship. But most of the programme for government announced by Javier Milei, the demagogic new Argentinian president, feels eerily familiar, here in the northern hemisphere.A crash programme of massive cuts; demolishing public services; privatising public assets; centralising political power; sacking civil servants; sweeping away constraints on corporations and oligarchs; destroying regulations that protect workers, vulnerable people and the living world; supporting landlords against tenants; criminalising peaceful protest; restricting the right to strike. Anything ring a bell? Continue reading...

The morals we hold as a society are laid hideously bare in this latest trove of unsealed documentsAs newly unsealed documents linked to a case against the convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell reveal names of high-profile associates of Jeffrey Epstein, many are quick to reiterate that their place on the long-awaited list does not mean they have done anything illegal. This is absolutely true - and as a court correspondent, it is incredibly important to stress the legal implications, or more accurately lack thereof, of this new information.With the exception of allegations made under oath by Johanna Sjoberg against Prince Andrew that, if proven, would amount to criminal conduct, most of those named on the list are not accused of any legal wrongdoing. But that doesn't mean we should not ask questions about the moral, rather than strictly legal, implications of their conduct. I mean this in two senses - both the personal moral implications for those named and the morals we hold as a society, which are laid hideously bare in these documents.Lucia Osborne-Crowley is a journalist and author of The Lasting Harm, a work of investigative reporting about the Epstein caseDo 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...

Known for extreme rightwing rhetoric, LaPierre resigned Friday amid civil corruption chargesFor three decades, Wayne LaPierre has been the face of gun rights in the US. Lean and bespectacled, known for his expensive suits, he was an unlikely spokesperson for American machismo. But the National Rifle Association leader's willingness to defend Americans' access to guns, no matter the cost, made him a powerful rightwing figure, whose relentless, paranoid rhetoric made him an important precursor, and then ally, of Donald Trump.Today, LaPierre is facing a reckoning: he is expected to testify in a civil corruption case in Manhattan that will scrutinize allegations that he and other senior executives misused NRA donors' funds, squandering millions of dollars on lavish personal trips and expenses, and treating the NRA as his own personal piggy bank". Continue reading...

Latest documents bring renewed attention to Prince Andrew and claims the royal spent weeks' at Epstein's Palm Beach homeNew batches of documents related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuse were released on Friday afternoon, bringing renewed attention to his longtime friendship with Prince Andrew and prior claims that the royal spent weeks" at the late financier's Palm Beach home.Juan Alessi, Epstein's former house manager, said he routinely saw famous faces around the south Florida house - including the Duke of York. Alessi also said he saw Andrew's wife, Sarah Ferguson. Continue reading...

In address near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, US president tore into Donald Trump like never before, including calling him a loser'This time it's personal. On Friday Joe Biden tore into his predecessor Donald Trump as never before. He brimmed with anger, disdain and contempt. He apparently had to stop himself from swearing. So much for when they go low, we go high" - and plenty of Democrats will be just fine with that.If Biden was seeking to jolt his half-conscious 2024 re-election campaign into life, this may have done the trick. The palpable loathing of Trump took a good 10 or 20 years off him. Keep hating like this and he might do a Benjamin Button all the way to election day. Continue reading...

Biden administration had argued hospitals receiving Medicare funds are required to provide emergency care, including abortionThe US supreme court on Friday allowed Idaho to enforce its strict abortion ban, even in medical emergencies, while a legal fight continues.The justices said they would hear arguments in April and put on hold a lower court ruling that had blocked the Idaho law in hospital emergencies, based on a lawsuit filed by the Biden administration. Continue reading...

Colorado ruling said Trump should be removed under 14th amendment to US constitution for inciting an insurrectionThe US supreme court will hear Donald Trump's appeal of the Colorado ruling that he should be removed from the state ballot under the 14th amendment to the US constitution, for inciting an insurrection.The court issued a brief order on Friday, setting up a dramatic moment in American history. Continue reading...

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On eve of January 6 anniversary, US president condemns likely rival and warns voters democracy is on the ballot' in NovemberA day before the third anniversary of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, Joe Biden delivered a pointed speech to warn voters against re-electing Donald Trump, criticizing the likely Republican presidential nominee as a fundamental threat to democracy in an attempt to shape the dynamics of the 2024 election.Today we're here to answer the most important of questions: is democracy still America's sacred cause?" Biden said. Today, I make this sacred pledge to you: the defense, protection and preservation of American democracy will remain, as it has been, the central cause of my presidency. Continue reading...

Trump lawyer has faith' in US supreme court justice appointed by the former president, though the court hasn't said if it will weigh inBrett Kavanaugh, the US supreme court justice, will step up" for Donald Trump and help defeat attempts to remove the former president from the ballots in Colorado and Maine for inciting an insurrection, a Trump lawyer said.I think it should be a slam dunk in the supreme court," Alina Habba told Fox News on Thursday night. I have faith in them. Continue reading...

New England could see snow while heavy rainfall along the Gulf coast and snowfall and rain in the Rockies are predictedForecasters warn that a storm system could prompt intense rainfall and possible tornadoes next week in the southern US, as cities across the country are bracing for intense weather leading into the weekend.The powerful storm system is expected to bring heavy rainfall and high winds to the Gulf coast and south-eastern regions as early as Monday and continue into Tuesday, the Weather Channel reported. Continue reading...

LaPierre, 74, has cited health concerns but resignation comes days before he faces civil trial over alleged misuse of NRA fundsThe longtime chief executive of the National Rifle Association, Wayne LaPierre, is stepping down at the end of the month, the gun rights organization has announced, days before a civil trial in New York is set to explore allegations he used the group as his personal piggy bank".The NRA issued a short statement from LaPierre via X, formerly known as Twitter, in which he said: I've been a card-carrying member of this organization for most of my adult life, and I will never stop supporting the NRA and its fight to defend second amendment freedom. My passion for our cause burns as deeply as ever." Continue reading...

Letitia James said in court filing Friday that increase from original ask of $250m due to evidence presented at civil trialFormer US president Donald Trump and his business associates should pay $370m for decades of financial fraud, the New York attorney general has argued.In a court filing, state lawyers also asked the judge overseeing Trump's civil fraud trial to permanently ban Trump from participating in New York's real estate industry, or from serving as a director or officer at a corporation or legal entity in the state. Continue reading...

Crash occurred Friday on highway in southern Adirondacks, New York state police sayMultiple people were injured when a tour bus carrying passengers rolled over on Friday on a highway in the southern Adirondacks, New York state police said.The crash occurred just before 1pm on the Adirondack Northway, north of Lake George Village, according to state police. A video posted from a car traveling in the other direction shows a bus resting on its side by the roadway. Continue reading...

Kristina Karamo, an election-denying activist, won the position last year and is facing a likely vote to fire her at a special meetingMichigan Republicans are on the verge of ousting their party's conspiracy theory-touting chair after a tenure marred by financial collapse and internal feuds that have at times turned into physical altercations.Kristina Karamo, the Michigan Republican party chair, an election-denying activist who won a hard-fought race for the position last year, is facing a likely vote to fire her at a special meeting convened by concerned party leaders on Saturday. Continue reading...

Democrat Vanessa Joy struck off candidacy list because state law says candidates must provide name changes within past five yearsDespite receiving enough signatures to appear on the ballot, a transgender woman has been disqualified from an Ohio state house race because she omitted her previous name, raising concern that other transgender candidates nationwide may face similar barriers.Vanessa Joy of was one of four transgender candidates running for state office in Ohio, largely in response to proposed restrictions of the rights of LGBTQ+ people. She was running as a Democrat in house district 50 - a heavily Republican district in Stark county, Ohio - against Republican candidate Matthew Kishman. Joy legally changed her name and birth certificate in 2022, which she says she provided to the Stark county board of elections for the 19 March primary race. Continue reading...

Midwinter is for hibernation and the chance to make different kinds of connectionsDisconnect from the internet for at least two hours a day and treat your own thoughts like a garden through which you are strolling," was the advice offered by the novelist Ian McEwan to younger writers after being made a Companion of Honour in December. The capacity to be curious about mental processes - while simultaneously experiencing them - is an important one for an author seeking to describe the human condition. But anyone who values self-awareness will be used to noticing how their mind works and wondering why.Only connect" was the maxim of another famous novelist, EM Forster. Forster used the characters in his novels to put flesh on his arguments against the emotionally repressive code of the time. But McEwan's recommendation to disconnect should not be understood as a repudiation of Forster's humanism. He was not warning writers off paying attention to other people's minds and ideas - but drawing attention to the need to spend time with our own. In a world of permanent connection, in which attention has been commodified, switching off and away from the outside world is arguably harder than ever before. Continue reading...

Municipalities and non-profits are establishing secure lots to address the rising number of people who live in cars or RVsStarting in October 2021, about 40 motorhomes or recreational vehicles (RVs) parked in a lot on Grayson Street in Berkeley, California, as part of the city's first attempt at a safe parking lot".According to Google Maps photos, the space had been mostly unused since 2008. But a local non-profit, the Dorothy Day House, created the Safe Parking and Respite Kickstart (Spark) program to help alleviate the crisis of unsheltered and encampment homeless" in one of the nation's most expensive housing markets. Continue reading...

Measure to enshrine abortion rights in constitution seems to have enough signatures to head to vote in state that has a 15-week banA Florida ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution seems to have enough signatures to head to voters come November - if advocates can defeat Republican efforts to stop it.As of Friday, totals from the Florida division of elections show that the campaign behind the measure, Floridians Protecting Freedom, had collected more than 910,00 verified signatures in support of the measure - roughly 20,000 more than the threshold needed to get it on the ballot in Florida. Those totals are unofficial and not finalized. Continue reading...

Polls suggest the former president has a serious chance of regaining the White House. The damage would affect us allIt is not a prediction, but it is a possibility - and a growing one. Barring a major upset, Donald Trump is on course to be the Republican nominee for US president. If he wins that contest, which begins in earnest in Iowa on 15 January, then polling in the handful of must-win, battleground states suggests he has a better than even chance of beating Joe Biden in November. Of course, much can change between now and then: once voters' minds are concentrated on the looming prospect of a Trump return, many might recoil. All the same, Americans need to prepare themselves now for a second Trump presidency - and so does the rest of the world.A good first step will be shedding any illusions that the sequel would simply be a repeat of the original. Trump 2.0 will be more focused and more capable than the initial iteration. In January 2017, he was a novice, new to Washington, new to political office and clueless as to the machinery of government. He relied on appointees who could, and often did, thwart his crazier, darker impulses - even if that meant swiping key documents from his desk before he had a chance to see or sign them. Continue reading...

State will be first to import drugs under federal program that Florida governor says could save consumers $150m in first yearA public health policy that won rare backing from both the Biden and Trump administrations looks ready to open a flow of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada to Florida, ending a decades-long block on the importation of certain pharmaceuticals to the US.The federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted the state approval under a drugs importation program that seeks to lower the cost of medicines for US consumers without imposing additional risks to their health or safety. Continue reading...

Zoo says heartbreaking' decision to euthanize 53-year-old Shaunzi was made after she was unable to stand upA 53-year-old Asian elephant has been euthanized at the Los Angeles zoo after she was unable to stand up, the zoo announced on Thursday.Shaunzi, one of two female elephants at the zoo, was discovered unable to stand on Tuesday night after she went down in the yard of her exhibit space. Continue reading...

We have a country to save - and that means no more drama,' top Republican rival for 2024 nomination tells Iowa audienceThe re-election of Donald Trump would bring four more years of chaos" the US won't survive", the former president's closest challenger for the Republican nomination, Nikki Haley, told an Iowa audience, turning her fire on the frontrunner as the first vote of the 2024 primary looms.The former South Carolina governor has caught up with Ron DeSantis, the hard-right governor of Florida, in the battle for second place in Republican presidential polling. The gap between Haley and Trump is also closing, particularly in New Hampshire, the second state to vote when it holds its primary on 23 January. Continue reading...

Buffalo fly south to Miami in an eagerly anticipated regular-season finale with the AFC East championship and No 2 seed on the lineAs the regular season draws to a close, we'll take a look each Friday at a game likely to affect the playoff race, along with the teams whose fortunes are rising and falling. And, so we don't neglect the also-rans, we'll see which teams are in the hunt for next year's No 1 pick. Continue reading...

Michael Jackson and David Copperfield also among well-known people mentioned in released court recordsA torrent of court records relating to the sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein were released this week after the US district court for the southern district of New York ordered the unsealing of defendant and plaintiff files.It began on Wednesday with nearly 1,000 pages filed as part of a 2015 lawsuit against Epstein's close friend Ghislaine Maxwell by one of his victims, Virginia Giuffre. The disclosures will continue on a rolling basis until completed. Highly anticipated were the names of Epstein's associates who had previously been anonymised using variations of J Doe. These included the former US president Bill Clinton, the late pop star Michael Jackson, the magician David Copperfield, and Prince Andrew. Continue reading...