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I can see the former PM channelling Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men. But ignore all that - this was his mess, his debacleAccording to all the people he's leaked his witness statement to, Boris Johnson will tell the Covid inquiry not to pay much attention to WhatsApp messages on the basis that we can never know the tone in which they were intended ... Dark humour is lost or morphs into mockery." Totally. Who among us can honestly say we are capable of parsing a WhatsApp message from Dominic Cummings dated 23 August 2020 that reads: I also must stress I think leaving Hancock in post is a big mistake - he is a proven liar who nobody believes or shd believe on anything, and we face going into autumn crisis with the cunt in charge of NHS still."Does it help that Cummings has appeared before the inquiry and explained that this meant he was stressing that leaving Hancock in post was a big mistake, because he was a proven liar who nobody believed or should believe on anything, and that the UK faced going into an autumn Covid crisis with the ... health secretary ... in charge of the NHS still? No. No it doesn't help. That could mean anything, right? I'm positively drowning in its subtleties here, and like many people I simply can't wait for Johnson to take the stand at the inquiry on Wednesday and Thursday so he can explain that what this message actually implied was, Boris Johnson saved lives". Continue reading...

I used to be devoted to discovering new music. Now my gig-going is mostly driven by nostalgia - and I'm not aloneI was standing in a field with my friends drinking from a flask as Interpol played, and it wasn't 2006. A man in front of us in a red Fred Perry zip-up top - I was pretty sure I'd seen it on The OC once - was dancing as if someone had put scalding hot porridge under his bare feet, but that he kind of liked it.This was my wedding song!" he shouted to my friend, as Bloc Party started. Continue reading...

Twenty-three indie' clinics closed this year, leaving over a dozen states without a brick-and-mortar clinic that provides abortionsDozens of independently owned reproductive health clinics shuttered in 2023, the year after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, according to a new report from the Abortion Care Network.The group found that 23 independently owned clinics closed this year, on top of the 42 that shuttered in 2022, leaving over a dozen states, mainly in the American south and midwest, without a single brick-and-mortar clinic that provides abortion. Continue reading...

Country has had 38 mass shootings - in which at least 203 people have died - so far this year, passing previous high of 36A series of murders over the weekend have propelled the United States to a grisly new record: the most recorded mass shootings in a year.Two attacks on Sunday occurring within a couple of hours of each other in Texas and Washington state were the year's 37th and 38th mass shootings. Authorities believe a murder-suicide was responsible for the death of five family members in Vancouver, a suburb of Portland, Oregon, just across the border in Washington, while in Dallas a 21-year-old with a previous aggravated assault charge shot five people in a house, including a toddler. Continue reading...

The strategy goes well beyond defeating an opponent: it seeks to destroy key infrastructure and the economy, with many civilian casualties

Head of UN agency said Israel is repeating horrors from past weeks'. Plus, Volodymyr Zelenskiy will address US senators

Watching this UAW is like seeing sunrays after a dark night - unions are coming not just for the few, but for everyoneImagine that you live on an island. Over time, you realize that the water around you is rising. The only way to avoid being inundated is to build a 10ft-high wall. That's a big project. It will take uncommon levels of resources and cooperation. Everyone will have to set aside their differences and work together - fast. It won't be easy. But the alternative is destruction.That sounds like a lot of work, though. And the water isn't here yet. So you build a 1ft-high wall, and keep a positive attitude. Consequently, you drown.Hamilton Nolan is a writer on labor and politics, based in New York City Continue reading...

The act is believed to have saved 99% of listed species from extinction, but rightwing lawmakers are chipping away at itImagine a cosmic rock billions of years old yet vibrant with water, light and life. Not too close to the sun and not too far away. Tilted on its axis and turning daily to render seasons, sunrises and sunsets. A place so bountiful and varied that it has nourished and inspired humanity through our entire history. This is Earth, our only home. And that stunning array of life - countless species evolved over millennia and evolving still - is what scientists today call biodiversity.That biodiversity is in trouble. Continue reading...

Whether you settle on Mathilda, Deke or Ebenezer, it's bound to be exactly the right name. My own son is living proofPeople who are expecting a baby spend an incredible amount of time talking about what to call it. This is probably a diversion away from difficult questions, such as: What if I'm bad at being a parent, and society shuns me?" or: What if this ruins our relationship, which is currently very beautiful?" As such, the naming debate is a brilliant one. The rest is way too hard.Newsflash, though: it doesn't actually matter what you call your child. The baby is bigger than the word. As soon as that is its name, that is its only possible name. For ages, you'll think your baby is the one true carrier of the name, and everyone else called Mathilda is faking it.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Former UFC star has hinted at run for political office. He has the fame, wealth and social media number to attract a followingIn response to a comment from a right-wing influencer last week, Elon Musk appeared to endorse the idea of Conor McGregor - the former UFC champion - running for political office in Ireland.Not a bad idea," Musk posted to his 164 million followers. Continue reading...

Young climate activists haven't been radicalised' - solidarity with marginalised people has always been at the heart of our messageMore than 15,000 people, of whom at least 6,000 were children. That's how many people Israel has reportedly killed in the Gaza Strip in a matter of weeks - and those numbers are still rising. Israel has bombed basic societal infrastructure and civilian targets such as hospitals, schools, shelters and refugee camps. Israel has imposed a siege, preventing food, medicine, water and fuel from reaching the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped in the occupied Gaza Strip, leading Oxfam to accuse Israel of employing starvation as a weapon of war".Dozens of United Nations experts have described the situation as a genocide in the making", hundreds of international scholars have warned of an unfolding genocide and prominent Israeli genocide expert Raz Segal has called it a textbook case of genocide". But most of the world, particularly the so-called global north, is looking the other way.This article was written by: Continue reading...

General Motors service faces $1.5m penalty over allegations it misled regulators after a driverless car ran into a pedestrianCalifornia regulators are alleging a San Francisco robotaxi service owned by General Motors covered up the severity of an accident involving one of its driverless cars, raising the specter they may add a fine to the recent suspension of its California license.The potential penalty facing GM's Cruise service could be around $1.5m, based on documents filed late last week by the California public utilities commission. Continue reading...

Suspect was charged in the fatal shootings of the three men and one suburban resident and also with residential robberyProsecutors have charged a Los Angeles man with four counts of murder in the fatal shootings of three men who were unhoused in the city and a suburban resident last month.Jerrid Joseph Powell was also charged with one count of residential robbery and one count of being a felon with a firearm, the Los Angeles county district attorney's office said in a statement. He also faces special circumstances of committing multiple murders, murder in the course of a robbery, as well as personal use of a firearm allegations, the statement said. Continue reading...

White House urges Congress to approve extra funding for war against Russia - but hard-right Republicans are holding out

Jaclyn Jackie' Elmquist disappeared on night of 30 November, and was found on Friday in a Manhattan building's trash compactorA 24-year-old woman who had gone missing before her body was found in a luxury Manhattan apartment building's trash compactor died after falling down a garbage chute, police in New York City have concluded.The police's determination comes after mystery surrounded the disappearance of Jaclyn Jackie" Elmquist, who disappeared after meeting with co-workers at a nearby restaurant on the night of 30 November. She was found on Friday in the basement trash compactor at +Art, a residential building in the city's Chelsea district. Continue reading...

Republican governor of North Dakota had launched his campaign in June touting economy, energy and national security concernsDoug Burgum, the North Dakota governor, ended his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination on Monday despite a stronger-than-expected showing fueled by a gift card-for-campaign donation gimmick that helped get him on the debate stage.Burgum, a second-term governor and wealthy software entrepreneur, was little known nationally when he launched his 2024 presidential campaign in June, touting his priorities of energy, the economy and national security, as well as his small-town roots and leadership of the sparsely populated state. Continue reading...

Executive committee rejects banning members who espouse or tolerate antisemitism' and deny Holocaust, arguing clause is vagueMembers of Texas's Republican party are free to associate with Nazi sympathizers without worries of violating internal policy after they held a vote on Saturday.In a 32-29 vote, the party's executive committee decided against excluding from their organization those known to espouse or tolerate antisemitism, pro-Nazi sympathies or Holocaust denial". A proposal to ban such individuals was included in a resolution supporting Israel as it wars with Hamas in Gaza. Continue reading...

As Israel pursues Hamas, the horrifying cost to civilians demands our attention. The ramifications don't end thereWe cannot and must not look away from what is happening in Gaza. Half its population was forced from the north by merciless bombardment; now the Israel Defense Forces' attacks upon the south have intensified and dozens of tanks have entered. Adults and children alike anticipate their deaths. More than 15,900 people in Gaza have been killed already, the vast majority of them women and children, according to Palestinian officials. Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has directed the military to act with increasing force" in its pursuit of Hamas, this time facing an even larger, denser population in even more desperate circumstances.The IDF says its concern for civilians is evinced by its evacuation orders. Given the lack of power and connectivity, even the most assiduous would struggle to keep up with complex and fast-changing instructions - and this is a hungry, exhausted, grieving and traumatised population, many of whom have already moved multiple times. In any case, there is nowhere to go: Safe places have no water, no sanitation, are often not safe anyway ... They are not safe in hospitals, they are not safe in shelters," JamesElder, a Unicef spokesperson, said on Monday.Do 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...

About 29,000 workers of the California Faculty Association are on strike as disparity between admin and professor pay increasesCalifornia State University faculty at four campuses went on strike on Monday to demand higher pay and expanded parental leave for thousands of workers at the largest public university system in the US.The California Faculty Association, which represents 29,000 workers, is staging one-day work stoppages at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; San Francisco State University; California State University, Los Angeles and California State University, Sacramento. Continue reading...

Since being expelled from Congress, Santos has joined website that offers access to celebrities available to give a personalized messageGeorge Santos wasted no time seeking a new income stream since being expelled from Congress on Friday, adding his name and availability as former congressional Icon'!" to the website Cameo, a website that offers access to thousands of celebrities for request of a personalized video message for any occasion".It was not clear early on Monday if the George Santos" on Cameo was genuine. The congressional office for New York's district three had no information, and requests for confirmation from Cameo were not returned. However, Santos himself added the link to his supposed Cameo page to his Twitter/X biography. Continue reading...

Kelsey Carpenter was jailed while mourning her loss: I don't want others to experience what was the worst experience of my life'California prosecutors have dismissed a murder charge against a woman who was facing life in prison after her newborn died in a home birth, resolving a case that sparked national outrage.Kelsey Carpenter, 34, was arrested in November 2020 for child endangerment after she gave birth at home and called 911 when her baby did not survive. Although the county coroner deemed the death an accident", and state law prohibits the prosecution of women for pregnancy losses, the San Diego district attorney, Summer Stephan, charged her with murder with malice". Continue reading...

Deputy press secretary says protest at Goldie, owned by American Israeli chef Michael Solomonov, completely unjustifiable'The White House has condemned events outside an Israeli-style falafel shop in Philadelphia that became the focus of marchers at a Flood Philly for Gaza" rally who chanted, You can't hide, we charge you with genocide" on Sunday.It was antisemitic and completely unjustifiable to target restaurants that serve Israeli food over disagreements with Israeli policy", said the deputy press secretary, Andrew Bates. Continue reading...

Attorney general alleges one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations' of US government by foreign agentThe US government charged a former diplomat who served on the national security council in the 1990s with secretly serving as an agent of Cuba's government for more than 40 years.Victor Manuel Rocha was arrested on Friday, following a long-running FBI counterintelligence investigation. The US ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002, Rocha also worked on the national security council from 1994 to 1995. He is charged with committing multiple federal crimes. Continue reading...

From Marcus Rashford moping to the Fighting Sean Dyches, we hand out honors (and dishonors) from the Premier League weekend

Keir Starmer is just the latest politician to invoke the former Tory prime minister, even though her essential message was that society was for losersAnother day, another British political wannabe making remarks about Margaret Thatcher that you can only file under: Did you ever meet Thatcher? Fine, most of us did not meet her, but did you ever meet anyone who was alive under Thatcher?"To Liz Truss and free market fundamentalists everywhere, channelling Thatcher means forging ahead against all expertise, making dumb and predictably immiserating decisions, then turning round when things go wrong and saying that it is everybody else's fault that you couldn't vandalise hard enough. Continue reading...

City have conceded more goals a game than in each of the last three seasons. Is it just one of those things, or cause for anxiety?

Former Republican congresswoman says she would prefer Democrats to win in 2024 as own party has abandoned constitutionLiz Cheney, whose opposition to Donald Trump's presidency alienated her from her fellow Republicans, has said she would prefer Democrats to win in the 2024 elections over members of her own party because she feared the US was sleepwalking into dictatorship".In an interview with CBS on Sunday, Cheney suggested a Republican congressional majority that would be subservient to another Trump White House presented a tangible threat" to American democracy. Continue reading...

Sultan Al Jaber's claim that green policies damage economic growth is wrong and highly damagingFor months Sultan Al Jaber, the president of the Cop28 climate negotiations in Dubai, has been insisting that there is no conflict with his day job, chief executive of the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) state oil company.Instead, he argued, the dual role enabled him to persuade fossil fuel companies to change. And some early successes in the talks provided some credibility to that claim.Geoffrey Lean is a specialist environment correspondent and authorCop28: Can fossil fuel companies transition to clean energy?

Government has already gone through $111bn in military aid for Ukraine and urges Congress to approve additional funding

Aircraft crashed last week off south-western Japan carrying eight American personnel on training missionUS and Japanese divers have discovered wreckage and remains of five crew members from a US air force Osprey aircraft that crashed last week off south-western Japan, the air force announced on Monday.The CV-22 Osprey carrying eight American personnel crashed last Wednesday off Yakushima island during a training mission. The body of one victim was recovered and identified earlier. Continue reading...

High-ranking members of police department using encrypted phone app to communicate about project amid public concernHigh-ranking members of Atlanta's police department have been using Signal, an encrypted phone app, to communicate about the controversial police and fire department training center known as Cop City" - to each other, to other police departments and to companies involved in building the project, the Guardian has learned.The department's move to Signal occurred some time earlier this year, after several years of public outcry about a lack of transparency regarding the project on such basic issues as cost and environmental impact. It appears the department began using the app around the same time multiple police agencies entered a forested public park where protesters were camped - about a mile from the planned Cop City" site - on 18 January, resulting in state troopers shooting and killing Manuel Paez Teran, AKA Tortuguita". Continue reading...

IDF spokesperson says troops coming face-to-face with terrorists and killing them'. Plus, how one New Yorker became a TikTok star at 97

Trump is broadcasting his plans in advance - and, if elected, he'll claim he has a mandate to accrue power and exact retributionThe best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Plenty of observers seem to think that's all one needs to know as one beholds Donald Trump's seemingly inevitable Republican nomination for president and possible second term. They assume that because it wasn't fascism the first time, it cannot be fascism the second time; Trump is expected once more to be the bumbling, blustering buffoon, supervised by adults in the room.This relaxed view ignores that, with today's pioneers of autocracy, things tend to only get really bad when they enter office the second time. The difference with Trump is not that he would leave democracy intact; the difference is that figures like far-right Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban or Polish strongman Jarosaw Kaczyski carefully hid their authoritarian plans. Trump, by contrast, is broadcasting everything in advance - and, if elected, will claim that he has a mandate to exact retribution and occupy the White House permanently.Jan-Werner Muller is a professor of politics at Princeton University. He is also a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Senate adds Black voting-age residents to sixth district in redrawn map, but cuts Lucy McBath's district out from under herLast month, US district judge Steve Jones ordered Georgia to redraw its legislative maps in a 516-page order - requiring the Republican-controlled state senate to create a new Black-majority district.The senate responded Friday afternoon with a redrawn congressional map that added hundreds of thousands of Black voting-age residents to Georgia's sixth district, currently held by Republican Rich McCormick. Continue reading...

An inveterate grammarian, Kirby is pushing Biden's support of Israel even as Biden makes amends with Arab AmericansJohn Kirby, the story goes, once used the military discipline that helped propel him to admiral rank in the US navy to launch a rhetorical war on behalf of the English language.As the navy's chief information officer, Kirby bluntly advised underlings in his department to kick their supposed addiction to technical jargon and learn a second language: English", according to a 2014 profile in Politico. Continue reading...

After I became a mother, I just couldn't listen to the demeaning tracks of artists such as Eminem, Lil Jon and Busta RhymesDuring my final year of university, I remember hanging out with friends by a lake one summer. One friend set up his new hookah pipe as a dozen of us settled on a picnic mat, preparing for a laidback evening of good conversation and music. I offered up my iPod to the friend-of-a-friend who had a portable speaker and was controlling the music. But as she scrolled through my music library, the mood soured; she looked at me aghast, berating me for my choice of un-feminist" music.One by one, she read out the titles of songs by Eamon, Busta Rhymes and other artists whose names I can no longer remember, who rapped profanities that I no longer feel comfortable typing on my keyboard, disgusted. As a woman, I shouldn't be listening to such music, she told me.

Crystal lauded alongside Dionne Warwick, Barry Gibb, Queen Latifah and Renee Fleming at annual ceremonyWhite-haired Robert De Niro, 80, looked up at white-haired Billy Crystal in the balcony. You're only 75," he said mischievously. That means you're just about six years away from being the perfect age to be elected president."Joe Biden, 81, sitting a few seats away from Crystal, grinned and jokingly wagged his finger at De Niro. The audience at the 46th annual Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday night roared, rose to its feet, turned to look at the US president and applauded and whooped for a full 30 seconds. Continue reading...

San Francisco, Philadelphia, Detroit and Dallas are well ahead of their conference opponents. They all have strong cases for making the Super BowlIt now looks like a four-team battle to see who emerges as victor in the NFC championship game after the San Francisco 49ers' 42-19 win over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. Which of the teams is most likely to make it to the Super Bowl though?1) San Francisco 49ers (9-3, 1st place NFC West) Continue reading...

Jon Rahm has been linked to a LIV Golf deal worth nine figures while Rory McIlroy just earned 12m for his popularityThe trouble with Pointless answers is that you never meet any of the 100 people surveyed for each one. Still, the quizshow probably presents as valid an insight into the attitude of the British public as anything else in these zany times.A few weeks ago, Alexander Armstrong flashed up famous faces with names relating to flowers. What happened next was rather galling for those who want golf to capture hearts and minds. Continue reading...

He's avoiding complacency, but there's little point chasing diehard Tories. Focus on offering everyone else real changeThe Labour party's relentless pursuit of Tory switchers is in danger of backfiring badly. Keir Starmer's praise of Margaret Thatcher in the Sunday Telegraph is a double danger - it wins over no wavering voters but risks losing the goodwill of a wide range of his supporters, old and new.The tactic of a foray into enemy territory" is understandable. Labour's turnaround from losing to a landslide in 2019 to being poised for its own landslide at the next election has been so fast it is in danger of causing political whiplash. But praising Thatcher, however mildly expressed and highly qualified, is a strategic misstep. Continue reading...

The focus on individual choices has left us frustrated. Now an EU-led climate club' is our best hope of systemic actionSomething flipped last summer in both the visibility of the climate crisis and in the space the media devotes to it. Apparently, all it took was for the air to turn orange and unbreathable above Wall Street and for smoke to smother holidaymakers in Greece.And yet, despite the fact that the conversation finally feels like it is approaching the level of ubiquitousness that the crisis merits, the solutions being proposed leave me deflated. And that's not merely because of the lunatic hypocrisy of holding the Cop28 in Dubai, where it will be presided over by the CEO of the world's 12th-largest fossil-fuel company.Alexander Hurst is a Guardian columnist. He is a France-based writer and an adjunct lecturer at Sciences Po, the Paris Institute of Political Studies Continue reading...

When you're hoping to be pregnant, the arrival of your period calls for a condolence card, a sunrise walk - or a good screamI am currently having my 10th unwanted period in a row. There are all sorts of reasons a period might be unwanted: you are on a long train journey; you had a period two weeks ago; you are camping; it's your wedding day, you are wearing white and Don't Stop Me Now has just come on across the dancefloor. In this case, however, I had hoped to be pregnant.When it comes to unwanted periods - particularly the ones that remind you that your womb is made like an outbuilding or a shed - I would like to see some better rituals. Better cards. Better parties. A friend could arrive at your house with a box of eggs and take you to the nearest wood or car park, where you could spend a cathartic 10 minutes throwing the eggs at a wall, or a tree trunk, or the ground, while screaming. Continue reading...

The frenzied debate about record levels' of net migration ignores the true cause of it allThe headline, now increasing in pitch, capital letters and exclamation marks, is that net migration is off the charts. It is soaring. It is at an all-time high. So high that we ask, how did it come to this? The answer is, it came to this predictably and, in fact, inevitably. The way immigration numbers are reported is a sort of classification error, one forced by the overriding, unquestioned presumption that immigration is bad, that it must come down, and that politicians are in some duel with hordes" of immigrants who are making their way into the country, managing somehow to vanquish one of the harshest immigration systems in the world.More accurate headlines might be UK skilled worker shortage intensifies", Loss of European Union research funding renders British universities increasingly dependent on overseas students", Business leaders call for expansion of shortage occupations due to post-Brexit recruitment challenges", or Funding cuts to nurse training result in staffing crisis". Because these apparently vexingly high numbers are, to a large extent, the outcome of economic and political decisions that mean we invite immigrants to fill labour gaps that policymakers either did not anticipate, or ignored warnings about. Continue reading...

Manuel Rocha, 73, who once served as ambassador to Bolivia, is accused of working to promote the Cuban government's interestsA former American diplomat who served as US ambassador to Bolivia has been arrested in a long-running FBI counterintelligence investigation, accused of secretly serving as an agent of Cuba's government, the Associated Press has learned.Manuel Rocha, 73, was arrested in Miami on Friday on a criminal complaint and more details about the case are expected to be made public at a court appearance Monday, said two people who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss an ongoing federal investigation. Continue reading...

Deal for $1.9bn, which includes $900m in Hawaiian Airlines debt, would keep both airlines' brandsAlaska Airlines said Sunday it agreed to buy Hawaiian Airlines in a $1.9bn deal, including debt, putting it on track for a potential clash with a Biden administration that has shown wariness about higher fares in the industry.The combined company would keep both airlines' brands, rooted in the nation's 49th and 50th states. Alaska will pay $18 in cash for each share of Hawaiian, whose stock closed Friday at $4.86 after losing just over half its value in the year so far. Continue reading...