Automaker would remotely disable the vehicle or a component of the vehicle if delinquency notice isn’t acknowledgedBehind on your car payments? Your car could soon be driving itself to the pound. Ford Motor Company has applied for a patent that would enable a computer to disable a vehicle or component of a vehicle over delinquent car payments and could lead to cars self-driving themselves to repossession lots.The patent application published last month claims to seek a solution to car owners being unwilling to have their vehicles repossessed by remotely disabling the vehicle or a component of the vehicle if a delinquency notice isn’t acknowledged over a certain period of time. Continue reading...
Axios reports Trump’s intention to attack Florida governor for disloyalty as he prepares for likely face-off in presidential primaryThe incipient Republican civil war between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis heated up on Friday, with news of how the former US president reportedly plans to attack the rightwing Florida governor in the coming 2024 presidential primary.Citing “sources and friends familiar with Trump’s thinking”, the news website Axios reported that the former president plans to attack “Ron DeSanctimonious, as he delights in branding the governor”, in areas including perceived disloyalty, support for changes to Social Security and Medicare and his response to the Covid pandemic. Continue reading...
Former US government analyst announces on Twitter diagnosis with inoperable pancreatic cancer and says he has months to liveDaniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers – which detailed secrets about US policy during the Vietnam war – and became one of the world’s most famous whistleblowers, has terminal cancer and expects to die within months, he has announced on Twitter.Ellsberg, 91, tweeted late on Thursday that doctors have diagnosed him with inoperable pancreatic cancer after he underwent a scan and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for an unrelated, “relatively minor” medical issue. Continue reading...
by Edward Helmore in Walterboro, South Carolina on (#69E0D)
Sentencing came little more than 12 hours after South Carolina attorney was found guilty of 2021 killingsAlex Murdaugh, the disgraced South Carolina attorney found guilty in the murders of his 22-year-old son Paul and his wife Maggie, has been sentenced to life in prison..Murdaugh’s sentencing in Judge Clifton Newman’s court came little more than 12 hours after the 54-year-old disbarred lawyer was found guilty on two counts of murder in the June 2021 killings, as well as two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. Continue reading...
by Edward Helmore in Walterboro, South Carolina on (#69DCS)
South Carolina lawyer, 54, to be sentenced on Friday after jury returns guilty verdict following three hours of deliberationRichard “Alex” Murdaugh has been found guilty of the murders of wife Maggie and son Paul, after a six-week televised trial that culminated with the defendant unexpectedly taking the stand to plead his innocence.The jury returned with the verdict after three hours of deliberation. Murdaugh was found guilty on two counts of murder and two weapons-related charges. Continue reading...
Our legislation will help to address the wrongs of what happened in OhioOn February 3, a freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed in the town of East Palestine, Ohio, just across the state line with Pennsylvania. A fire erupted, an evacuation order was issued, and the dangerous chemical being transported, vinyl chloride, was spilled. It’s a devastating tragedy and one that could have been prevented.One of us represents constituents in Beaver county, Pennsylvania, and the people who live, work and play just miles from the site of the Norfolk Southern derailment. The other has spent six years visiting factory towns, rural communities and working on policies to bring manufacturing and technology jobs to communities decimated by globalization. Residents are scared about their health and livelihoods. They are unsure whether the air, water and soil will be safe after this disaster. They want answers, accountability and assurance that something like this will never happen again.Congressman Chris Deluzio is a US representative from Pennsylvania’s 17th districtCongressman Rohit Khanna is US representative from California’s 17th congressional district Continue reading...
Report shows pace has slowed, however, with 70 law enforcement deaths recorded in the line of dutyCovid was the top cause of death in the line of duty for American law enforcement for the third year in a row in 2022, according to a recent report, though the pace has slowed.When the pandemic first hit, many law enforcement officers did what they could to lower the risks of catching Covid-19 – taking some reports over the phone rather than in person, trying to limit contact within departments and with the public. Continue reading...
The former Lakers guard is trying to become one of only four players to graduate to officiating in the league. He says his experience is a valuable toolFormer Los Angeles Lakers point guard Smush Parker says he was “born with a basketball.” Both of his parents were ardent players, so Parker has been around the game since he was an infant. Now, though, he’s more likely to have a whistle in his hand. Yes, the 41-year-old is looking to become just the fourth former NBA player to referee in the league. But he says it’s no easy task to master the ropes.“I never liked referees when I was a player,” says Parker, with a laugh. “I was an up-and-coming player, I wasn’t one of the stars. So, there were a lot of calls that didn’t go in my favor.” Continue reading...
A platform that can mimic humans’ writing with no commitment to the truth is a gift for those who benefit from disinformation. We need to regulate its use now
There must be outside intervention to facilitate new negotiations with the Palestinians – and international pressure to halt his excessesWe are seeing the worst violence for many years erupting in Gaza and the West Bank. I have just returned from a week in Israel, my first visit since 1994. I spent half the trip with Labour Friends of Israel, a grouping of like-minded Labour MPs, and half with the New Israel Fund, an NGO that funds organisations that promote democracy and equality for all Israelis, based on the vision of Israel’s founders. A packed itinerary enabled me to see what had changed.I have always supported the untrammelled right of Israel to exist and, like many others, have advocated for a two-state solution, ensuring a stable and secure home for Palestinians and Israelis alike.Margaret Hodge is MP for Barking and the parliamentary chair of the Jewish Labour MovementDo 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...
In some ways, Trump may be even more difficult for his Republican rivals to beat next year than he was seven years agoIt’s worth remembering that most Republican voters didn’t back Donald Trump in the race for the party’s nomination in 2016. Trump came away with something like 45% of the vote in the Republican primaries; though the field had by then shrunk to just three candidates – Trump, John Kasich, and Ted Cruz – polls showed Trump struggling to hit 50% support among Republicans as late as early April of that year.Most explanations for his victory justifiably center around his political style and the rise of the rightwing populism we’ve come to call Trumpism – though it significantly predated Trump – among a growing share of Republicans. But as a practical matter, Trump won the Republican nomination in 2016 for a very simple reason: he built and kept a large minority of incredibly loyal supporters within the party, while the majority of Republican voters, who would have preferred another candidate, split their votes among too many alternatives. Had they united behind one candidate early enough in the race, Trump may well have lost. Instead, they divided themselves into defeat.Osita Nwanevu is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
The former president has not made a weekday showing on the channel since appearing on Sean Hannity’s show in SeptemberFox News has imposed a “soft ban” on Donald Trump appearing on the channel, his inner circle is reportedly complaining, even as the broadcaster extends a warm invitation to other Republican hopefuls in next year’s presidential election.The news startup Semafor reports that the cooling of relations between the former president and his once-beloved cable news channel has gone so far that a “soft ban” or “silent ban” is now holding Trump at arm’s length. The former US president has not made a weekday showing on Fox News since he chatted with his closest friend among the network’s star hosts, Sean Hannity, in September. Continue reading...
Austin Locke was sacked days after he helped unionize workers. A monumental new labor law means he’s back on the jobAustin Locke was halfway through his shift at the New York City Starbucks where he’d worked for three years when his supervisor ordered him into the back room. The store manager and the district manager were there too, and they had a piece of paper for him: he was fired.“Are you sure want to do this?” Locke asked them repeatedly. He knew that what they were about to do was illegal. Continue reading...
CDC reports confirmed case of measles in unvaccinated and contagious individual who attended large gatheringAround 20,000 people may have been exposed to measles at a large religious event in Kentucky, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and said.In a statement to the Guardian, the CDC said it was “aware of a confirmed case of measles in an unvaccinated and contagious individual who attended a large religious gathering in Kentucky on 17 and 18 February. Continue reading...
I was in South Carolina last week: scene of the trial and home of the Murdaugh dynasty. Both tell us a lot about race and power todayThere have been bigger trials with splashier consequences, but for pure drama – and a window on the way entrenched privilege works in the US south – the events unfolding this week at the Colleton county courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, are hard to match. In the dock: the 54-year-old Alex Murdaugh, scion of a legal dynasty stretching back 100 years, who has been found guilty of murdering his wife and son. That is the matter at hand and it is lurid enough: 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh and his mother, Maggie, found shot to death in 2021 in the grounds of the family’s hunting lodge, 65 miles west of Charleston – killed by Alex, say prosecutors, to distract attention from his financial crimes.Behind the double murder, however, lies layer upon layer of further alleged criminal activity, from vast embezzlement from the family law firm, to cover-up, to the involvement of Paul in a drunken boat crash in which a 19-year-old died, and for which the 22-year-old was facing trial at the time of his murder. Three months after the killings, someone shot Alex Murdaugh in the head – an act, it is alleged, that Murdaugh commissioned himself, paying a gunman to kill him so his surviving son could collect on insurance. Meanwhile, the death of the family housekeeper in 2018 has been the subject of renewed police interest.Emma Brockes 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...
Nearly unprecedented levels of snow have buried the park, with the powder piling up to 15ft deep in some areasYosemite national park has closed indefinitely, according to officials, as the park grapples with extensive snowfall that broke a 54-year-old daily record.Nearly unprecedented snowfall across the US west has buried the park in snow up to 15ft deep in some areas. Parts of the west coast have seen record-breaking snow in recent days in what officials are calling a “once in a generation” event. Continue reading...
by Edward Helmore in Walterboro, South Carolina on (#69DA2)
Defense says in final arguments South Carolina police ‘failed miserably’ to consider alternative suspects in death of wife and sonAfter nearly six weeks of testimony, jurors in the Alex Murdaugh double murder trial heard the final arguments from opposing legal teams, as presiding judge Clifton Newman prepared to hand them the case for deliberations.In the last hours of a trial that has gripped the US with its complex blend of deep south violence, power and fraud, defense lawyer Jim Griffin told the court that investigators had “failed miserably” in their investigation of the deaths of Murdaugh’s wife Maggie and son Paul, and he accused them of “fabricating evidence”. Continue reading...
Petition for initiative that would secure constitutional right to abortion will now go to state’s ballot board for approvalReproductive rights groups in Ohio cleared a significant hurdle on Thursday in their effort to bring a ballot initiative before voters that would secure a constitutional right to abortion.The Ohio attorney general, Dave Yost, approved a petition brought by campaigners looking to bring the ballot initiative to voters in November 2023. The petition will now go to the Ohio ballot board for approval, which has 10 days to approve or reject it. Continue reading...
Tennessee lawmaker Paul Sherrell faced fierce criticism for ‘grotesque suggestion’ in southern state with history of lynchingsA Tennessee Republican lawmaker apologised after suggesting “hanging by a tree” could be added to a bill concerning methods of execution in the state.Paul Sherrell, a state representative from Sparta, made the suggestion on Tuesday, during discussion of an amendment which would allow execution by firing squad in Tennessee. Continue reading...
Bipartisan panel will look into alleged misconduct by Republican congressman who has admitted to lying about his résuméThe House ethics committee has opened an investigation into George Santos, the Republican lawmaker who admitted to lying about his résumé in his campaign to represent part of New York City’s suburbs in Congress’s lower chamber.A bipartisan statement from the committee’s GOP chair, Michael Guest, and the Democratic ranking member, Susan Wild, said the panel voted to create a subcommittee to look into alleged misconduct by Santos. Continue reading...
Justice department said ex-president could be held liable for physical and psychological harm suffered during January 6Donald Trump does not have absolute immunity from civil suits seeking damages over his alleged incitement of the January 6 Capitol attack, the US justice department said in a court filing that could have profound implications for complaints against the former president.In an amicus brief in a case brought by two US Capitol police officers and joined by 11 House Democrats, the justice department said Trump could be held liable for physical and psychological harm suffered during the attack despite his attempts to seek blanket protections. Continue reading...
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, says that during a press conference at the G20 summit in India the told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to 'end this war of aggression' in Ukraine. Blinken says he urged Russia to reverse a decision to end participation in the New Start treaty. 'No matter what else is happening in the world or in our relationship, the United States will always be ready to engage and act on strategic arms control,' he said
Those who hoped the presidential race would be an inflection point for the country have been disappointedIt is perhaps unsurprising that many Nigerians are dissatisfied with the outcome of the presidential election. The winner, Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), ran on the slogan “It’s my turn”. It seemed to epitomise the uninspiring campaign of an immensely wealthy veteran powerbroker trailed by corruption claims, which he denies. The main opposition Peoples Democratic party (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and the outsider challenger, Peter Obi of the tiny Labour party, want the results scrapped, citing problems with both voting and counting. On any account, Mr Tinubu hardly gained a ringing endorsement, with just 37% of the vote (and less than 10% of those registered to cast a ballot), while the PDP took 29% and Mr Obi 25%.Under the APC’s Muhammadu Buhari, Africa’s most populous country and largest economy, with dynamic arts and culture, and a thriving tech sector, has endured two recessions, high inflation and low growth. A botched attempt to replace banknotes worsened matters. In a global index of the commitment to reducing inequality, Nigeria ranks 159th of 161 countries. Multiple security crises include jihadist insurgencies in the north-east, deadly clashes between farmers and herders, and kidnappings by armed gangs. The state has proved both ineffective and brutal, as its bloody suppression of the mass #EndSars protests against police abuses showed. Many Nigerians are voting with their feet. Continue reading...
Bernie Sanders moves to summon chief executive Howard Schultz to Senate committee to explain repeated anti-union violationsStarbucks is under fire over the company’s response to unionization efforts as senator Bernie Sanders threatens to call its chief executive before his committee on alleged labor violations and staff petition for it to end “intimidation” of organizers.Sanders, chairman of the Senate health, education, labor and pensions (Help) committee, announced on Wednesday that the committee will be voting on whether to issue a subpoena to compel the Starbucks chief, Howard Schultz, to testify about Starbuck’s federal labor law violations, and to authorize a committee investigation into labor-law violations committed by major corporations. Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Nashville, Tennessee on (#69CYC)
Governor Bill Lee, who was pictured in drag, has vowed to sign law banning ‘male or female impersonators’ in certain locationsTennessee lawmakers advanced legislation on Thursday that would severely limit where certain drag shows can take place, a proposal the Republican governor, Bill Lee, has promised to sign into law.Tennessee is among a number of Republican-run states to have passed the most anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the past few years. No other state has acted as fast to ensure drag shows cannot take place in public or in front of children. Continue reading...
City settles lawsuit after hundreds of protesters were arrested, detained and subjected to excessive force in the BronxNew York City has agreed to pay millions of dollars to hundreds of protesters who were arrested, detained and subjected to excessive force during a protest over the murder of George Floyd in 2020.According to the lawsuit against the New York police department, the city and several high-ranking officials, an estimated 320 protesters were subjected to “kettling”, a controversial police tactic in which officers encircle protesters. Continue reading...
Former vice-president, expected to run for Republican nominee for president, says ‘different times call for different leadership’Twice given a chance to say he would support Donald Trump if he was the Republican nominee for president in 2024, Mike Pence, Trump’s former vice-president, declined to do so.“I’m very confident we’ll have better choices come 2024,” Pence told CBS on Wednesday. “And I’m confident our standard-bearer will win the day in November of that year.” Continue reading...
Tennessee court halts construction of warehouse as residents say black fungus from ‘angel’s share’ is coating neighbourhoodsAt least it makes the angels happy.Ethanol vapour released through porous whiskey barrels during the ageing of bourbon might bring a smile in the heavens – the fumes are known as the “angel’s share” – but it can mean misery for local mortals. A strain of black whiskey fungus feeds on the alcoholic gases, coating neighbourhoods around distilleries with a stubborn mouldy crust. Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Hollywood, Florida on (#69CR3)
Michael Ortiz seeks millions from Hollywood, Florida, and Henry Andrews, who also faces a misdemeanor charge for 2021 shootingA Florida man who was paralyzed when a police officer shot him after mistaking his handgun for his stun gun filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the city of Hollywood, the officer and others, saying: “My life got destroyed.”Michael Ortiz is seeking unspecified millions of dollars from Hollywood, Florida, and Henry Andrews, 50, the officer who also faces a misdemeanor charge for the 2021 shooting, one of several over the last 20 years in which officers have said they mistook their gun for their Taser. The federal civil rights lawsuit also names officers Dionte Roots and Jhonny Jimenez, who were subduing Ortiz when Andrews shot him. Continue reading...
The agency is familiar with dioxins, having researched its adverse effects, and if they test the soil in East Palestine for it, they will find itThe decision to release and burn five tanker cars of vinyl chloride and other chemicals at the site of a 38-car derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, just over three weeks ago unleashed a gigantic cloud full of particulates that enveloped surrounding neighborhoods and farms in Ohio and Pennsylvania.It is well documented that burning chlorinated chemicals like vinyl chloride will generate dioxins. “Dioxin” is the name given to a group of persistent, very toxic chemicals that share similar chemical structures. The most toxic form of dioxin is 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin or TCDD. TCDD is more commonly recognized as the toxic contaminant found in Agent Orange and at Love Canal, New York and Times Beach, Missouri, both sites of two of the most tragic environmental catastrophes in US history.Stephen Lester is a toxicologist and the science director of the Center for Health, Environment & Justice, a project of the People’s Action Institute Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Columbia, South Carolina on (#69CP1)
Former president releases video tribute for Edith Childs, South Carolina county councillor who is retiring after 24 yearsMarking the retirement of the woman credited with popularizing the chant “Fired up, ready to go!” that epitomized his campaigns, Barack Obama said her energy played a key role in lifting his spirits and his candidacy for president first time round.“It was early in my campaign, and I wasn’t doing that good,” Obama recalled in a video provided by the Obama Foundation, harking back to a 2007 campaign stop in Greenwood, South Carolina, on a dreary, rainy day. Continue reading...
More important than culture-war noise are the multiple threats to British children learning to love books of any kindBack in the days when everything took place on Zooms and Teams, I was part of a World Book Day event that was livestreamed from the set of the hit musical Matlida. The set is magical: a child’s swing with an explosion of books fire-working up behind it. Now, of course, Matilda has become a battlefield in the Roald Dahl chapter of our culture wars.It is worth noting that World Book Day has always been a battlefield. Every year teachers, carers and librarians defend the joy of reading from the forces of darkness. Almost as soon as someone suggested dressing up might be fun, predator supermarkets caught the scent of anxiety on the hurrying bodies of young parents and pounced, selling them bundles of single-use Where’s Wally costumes. But schools pushed back and now instead of parades of children dressed in expensive landfill, you’ll find schools where the pupils come dressed in their pyjamas and cosy up to listen to stories, making the day into one long dreamy sleepover. I’ve been to schools where, instead of parents or carers dressing up children, children are invited to dress wooden spoons, or their classroom door. Another where the teachers sat in their classrooms reading their favourite stories and the kids could chose which one to go and listen to. There are whole school book swaps. And “home and away” reading, where children from one class go and read to another. More ideas every year. Continue reading...
Florida’s Republican governor offers insight into his potential 2024 run with Reedy Creek choices after taking control of districtAs Ron DeSantis continued to wage his Floridian culture war this week, wresting control of a Walt Disney Company-controlled county district, he also offered an insight into the kind of people he will value should the Republican governor successfully run for president in 2024.DeSantis took control of Reedy Creek improvement district on Monday, and immediately installed five people to the district’s board, including the founder of a rightwing parent group, a Christian nationalist and a deep-pocketed Republican party donor. Continue reading...
A file known as ‘The List’ has inspired long-distance runners to join a club that has relatively few membersAt the California International Marathon in December 2022, more than 270 women finished in under three hours. Among them was Ariane Hendrix-Roach. She completed the race in a time of 2hr 35min 39sec, making her the second-fastest US-born Black female marathoner of all time – and qualifying her for the 2024 Olympic trials.Throughout the history of marathon running, the number of Black women born in the US who have ever broken three hours adds up to 28. Sub-three-hour marathoners in the US include many white, Kenyan-born, and Ethiopian-born women – but not many US-born Black women. Why? Continue reading...
Putin’s genocidal war is turning my country into a graveyard. For our sake and for its own future, Europe must defend the revolution he is trying to crushNine years ago, Maidan, the main square of my home city Kyiv, was filled with people carrying EU and Ukrainian flags. Maidan, or the Revolution of Dignity, was the last successful European democratic revolution. The protesters won. They – we – managed to overthrow a regime that was actively preparing Russia’s political annexation of Ukraine. Nine years ago, the human ocean of Maidan carried on its shoulders the coffins of activists who had been shot dead by police. The tragedy was immense but the space for mourning was limited: the annexation of Crimea began and we realised that the Kremlin had gone to war against Ukraine, against us.We learned then that achieving the impossible might be romantically beautiful in songs or movies. It came at a price, however, a price that was too high from the very beginning. But that image of Maidan filled with European flags remained a point of reference and a symbol of the change we sought. Social togetherness and community, democratisation and responsible citizenship were our goals. Continue reading...
by Presented by Michael Safi with Nina Lakhani; produ on (#69C8K)
When a train derailed in a small town in Ohio last month, it shed its toxic load, spewed smoke and set off a political firestorm that is still ragingOn the evening of 3 February, a train made up of 149 carriages and more than a mile long came off the rails in the small Ohio town of East Palestine. No one was injured but the train shed its cargo, which included toxic chemicals including vinyl chloride, a known carcinogen.The Guardian’s Nina Lakhani has been reporting from East Palestine where residents have returned to their homes after those within the disaster’s exclusion zone were forced to leave the area. She tells Michael Safi that local people are furious about the way the accident happened – and how the cleanup has been handled. Continue reading...
The president celebrated in a speech his party’s successes so far in his first term while House Democrats eye regaining the chamberJoe Biden delivered a rallying cry to fellow Democrats on Wednesday, offering a glimpse of the president’s likely re-election message as he prepares to officially announce his plans for 2024.Speaking at House Democrats’ annual issues conference in Baltimore, Maryland, Biden celebrated Democrats’ legislative accomplishments over his first two years in office but told his allies that they still have more work to do. Continue reading...
Storms push snow depths to near record levels in Sierra Nevada mountains, as brutal weather stretches across western USCalifornia saw little reprieve on Thursday as severe winter weather continues to hammer the state, setting the stage for record breaking snow accumulation across the Sierra Nevada mountains. Heavy snowfall is choking off entry and exits from tourist towns, closing popular national parks, piling snow as high as rooftops, causing dangerous travel conditions and leaving thousands without power, with more snow on the way.California’s famous Yosemite national park has been closed indefinitely, citing concerns about dangerous travel in and out of the park, while further south, Joshua Tree national park also closed down due to “inclement weather”. Photos on social media showcased popular cabins and campgrounds buried in white. Locals in Tahoe, who began referring to last month as “februburied”, are bracing for more whiteout conditions as a series of winter storms pushed snow levels this season past 12ft – the highest they have been in decades. Continue reading...
Security discovered device during screening and suspect was apprehended after he left Lehigh Valley airportA man was arrested after an explosive was found in a bag checked on to a Florida-bound flight at an eastern Pennsylvania airport, federal authorities said.Marc Muffley, 40, is charged with possessing an explosive in an airport and possessing or attempting to place an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft, according to a criminal complaint. Continue reading...
The involvement of overseas foes in ‘anomalous health incidents’ suffered by US diplomats and spies was deemed ‘very unlikely’The mysterious set of symptoms known as “Havana syndrome” was not caused by an energy weapon or foreign adversary, US intelligence has concluded.The assessment concludes a multi-year investigation into approximately 1,000 “anomalous health incidents” (AHIs) among US diplomats, spies and other employees in US embassies and missions around the world. Continue reading...
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