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Through an Auschwitz commandant's family life, Jonathan Glazer's chilling new film reminds us of the banality of evilIn a letter to his former student Hannah Arendt about the Nazi war crimes trials, written in October 1946, philosopher Karl Jaspers told her that he was uneasy with her view that the very boundaries of crime had been exploded by the Holocaust: that line of thinking might offer a streak of satanic greatness" to the Nazis, a hint of myth and legend". It seems to me that we have to see these things in their total banality, in their prosaic triviality, because that's what truly characterises them," he wrote. Bacteria can cause epidemics that wipe out nations, but they remain merely bacteria." His letter had an obvious influence on Arendt, and on the way terrible human actions have been considered ever since. Everyone knows her phrase the banality of evil". It is, in its way, a cliche.It is also easily misunderstood. Banal" could be interpreted as exculpatory - as if ordinary activities such as filling out forms, organising logistics and attending to bureaucracy might somehow imply a lesser degree of guilt, even when attached to industrial-scale murder. Lyndsey Stonebridge, in her new book on the philosopher We Are Free to Change the World, defends Arendt's thinking on the trial of Adolf Eichmann, one of the chief planners of the Holocaust. Arendt did think that Eichmann was banal. She also believed it was important to understand that Nazism had corrupted everyone it touched." That is, the crimes of the Holocaust were committed not just against individuals' bodies, but against everybody's morality; the mass murder of the 1940s could only have come about through a disabling of moral choices". Continue reading...

The tennis great is entitled to be prickly about what is written about him - but social media pile-ons do him no favoursIn an Edinburgh park, shortly before shooting an unsuspecting dog in the backside with an air rifle, Sick Boy imparts his philosophy to Renton. At one point you've got it. Then you lose it and it's gone for ever. All walks of life. George Best, for example. Had it, lost it. Or David Bowie, Lou Reed. Charlie Nicholas, David Niven, Malcolm McLaren, Elvis Presley."So, we all get old, we cannae hack it any more and that's it? That's your theory?" Continue reading...

The carefully planned raids were the largest yet against Iran's proxies and are likely to continue until threats to US personnel are neutralised

US forces attack at least 85 targets across Iraq and Syria; US has no plan to bomb Iran, which would be a huge escalation, officials say

The actor, whose credits include Rocky and Predator, has died at 76. His family released a statement through his agent to announce that he died 'peacefully in his sleep' on 1 February

Judge Tanya Chutkan orders delay in former president's trial, which was due to start in Washington on 4 MarchA US judge has formally postponed Donald Trump's trial on federal charges that the former president sought to overturn the 2020 election results.The trial was due to start on 4 March in Washington before the delay ordered from the federal judge Tanya Chutkan. Continue reading...

Roberta Kaplan says ex-president directed See you next Tuesday' remark at her after deposition in unrelated case at Mar-a-LagoE Jean Carroll's attorney says Donald Trump used a coded expression to call her the C-word during a deposition before she helped the magazine columnist win an $83.3m verdict in her defamation case against the former president.Roberta Kaplan shared the anecdote during an appearance Friday on the George Conway Explains It All podcast, saying it happened while Trump was deposed at his Mar-a-Lago resort as part of an unrelated, since-dismissed case in which he faced accusations of collaborating with a fraudulent marketing company. Continue reading...

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Tagging stretches across a large portion of a $1bn unfinished project across from venue of Grammy awards on SundayLos Angeles police arrested two people this week in connection with a spate of graffiti on nearly 30 floors of an unoccupied and unfinished downtown skyscraper.The tagging stretches across a large portion of a tower in the $1bn Oceanwide Plaza, a stalled mixed-use retail and residential project that has sat unfinished since 2019. The site is located just across from the Crypto.com Arena, where this year's Grammy awards will be held on Sunday. Continue reading...

Fulton country district attorney says she should not be disqualified from the case amid conflict of interest claims

William Jerome Rivers, Kennedy Sanders and Breonna Moffett were all from Georgia, and were honored at Dover air force base

Her murder by two other children was motivated in part by her transgender identity. As a society, we have questions to answerBrianna Ghey's father, Peter Spooner, had no wish for his daughter's killers to be named in the media. He wanted them forgotten about and locked up", he said. They're nothing." Frances Crook, former head of the Howard League for Penal Reform, commented on X (formerly Twitter): As soon as the children who killed Brianna Ghey are named they will be the entire prurient focus of the media. The victim is passed over," and that was borne out: immediately after the names dropped, images of the killers were all over social and mainstream media, described as the faces of evil".Explaining her decision to lift the reporting ban, Mrs Justice Amanda Yip said last year that the shock generated by Brianna's murder and the circumstances of it has spread well beyond the local community, across the nation and indeed internationally". She accepted that to name the killers would cause distress for their families, but said the purpose of an anonymity order was not to protect the relatives of the convicted. But exactly what is the point of anonymity orders for under-18s? Why did a government review of the youth justice system recommend lifelong anonymity for children in 2016 (it is currently lifted when they turn 18)? And conversely, what social purpose does it now serve to know the identities of Ghey's killers? What conversation does it start, and what other conversations does it shut down?Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Potential deal with Manhattan prosecutors could see Allen Weisselberg admit to lying on stand, New York Times reportsA longtime Trump Organization executive is said to be negotiating with Manhattan prosecutors over a potential guilty plea for lying on the witness stand in Donald Trump's fraud trial.Allen Weisselberg, Trump's former chief financial officer, who oversaw the company's finances, is in the early stages of working on a perjury plea with the office of Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, the New York Times reported on Thursday. Continue reading...

Some see the US president's executive order imposing sanctions on settlers who violently attack Palestinians as a bid to win supportWas Joe Biden's announcement of unprecedented US sanctions against Israeli settlers in occupied Palestine a sign of political weakness at home, or of a newly found willingness to assert American influence over Israel?The president signed the executive order imposing financial and travel sanctions on settlers who violently attack Palestinians shortly before a campaign rally in the swing state of Michigan, where the largest Arab American population in the country has rounded on Biden over his largely blanket support for Israel's assault on Gaza. Continue reading...

Long-lived member of the vulnerable species was coaxed into reproducing by her zookeeper and eventually hatched eight chicksA great, but odd, love story has come to an end.Walnut, a white-naped crane and internet celebrity, has died at the age of 42. She is survived by eight chicks, the loving staff at the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, and by Chris Crowe - a human zookeeper whom Walnut regarded as her proxy mate for nearly 20 years. Continue reading...

Conflict escalates between Trump defender Jim Jordan and Willis, whose office is charging ex-president over election interferenceThe US House judiciary committee has subpoenaed Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney, for records related to the use of federal grant money in prosecutions and the potential misuse of those funds.The subpoena escalates the conflict between Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican congressman, judiciary committee chair and ardent defender of Donald Trump, and Willis, whose office charged the former president and 18 others with 41 counts over interfering with a Georgia election and illegally attempting to undo Biden's victory in Georgia. Continue reading...

Tech CEOs who've ruined people's lives or politicians who back misery and mayhem? That's a low bar and a tough choiceDid you catch a clip of the tech CEOs in Washington this week? The Senate judiciary committee had summoned five CEOs to a hearing titled Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis. There was Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, TikTok's Shou Zi Chew, Snapchat's Evan Spiegel, Discord's Jason Citron and X's Linda Yaccarino - and a predictable vibe of Senator, I'm a parent myself ..." Listen, these moguls simply want to provide the tools to help families and friends connect with each other. Why must human misery and untold, tax-avoidant billions attend them at every turn?If you did see footage from the hearing, it was probably one of two moments of deliberately clippable news content. Ranking committee member Lindsey Graham addressed Zuckerberg with the words: I know you don't mean it to be so, but you have blood on your hands." Well, ditto, Senator. You have a product that is killing people," continued Graham, who strangely has yet to make the same point to the makers of whichever brand of AR-15 he proudly owns, or indeed to the makers of the assault rifles responsible for another record high of US school shootings last year. Firearms fatalities are the number one cause of death among US children and teenagers, a fact the tech CEOs at this hearing politely declined to mention, because no one likes a whatabouterist. And after all, the point of these things is to just get through the posturing of politicians infinitely less powerful than you, then scoot back to behaving precisely as you were before. Zuckerberg was out of there in time to report bumper results and announce Meta's first ever dividend on Thursday. At time of writing, its shares were soaring.Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The pilot of the Beechcraft Bonanza V35 had radioed airport reporting engine failure before the plane crashed into a homeA small plane crashed at a Florida mobile home park on Thursday, killing the pilot of the aircraft and two people on the ground, fire officials said.The pilot of the single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza V35 reported an engine failure shortly before the aircraft went down at about 7pm local time, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported. Continue reading...

A small plane crashed at a Florida mobile home park on Thursday, killing the pilot of the aircraft and two people on the ground, fire officials said. The pilot of the single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza V35 reported an engine failure shortly before the aircraft went down at about 7pm local time, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported

Thief stole seven of the cakes that are popular during carnival season but business has been better because of it'A New Orleans bakery has had a sweet few days after a thief stole seven of its king cakes as Mardi Gras celebrations continue in the city.A thief entered Bittersweet Confections last Wednesday and stole the cakes - and a case of vodka and cash - during a break-in, the New Orleans police department said. Continue reading...

By continuing to focus the conversation around our appearance, all the body positivity movement does is reinforce that how we look is the most important thing about usThere was a time when a woman reaching the age of 28 may have been considered to be approaching her middle years. That time was probably in the early 1900s, when the average life expectancy for women (in England) was around 50.Surely in 2024 though, a 28-year-old is still considered young, right? Wrong! According to a recent social media trend and the feral comments it has produced, the only thing more depressing than being almost 30 is looking like you're almost 30. Continue reading...

South Carolina propelled him to the White House last time around, and the president is eager for voters to back him again

In the UK and around the world, those who challenge rich corporations are being hounded and crushed with ever-more inventive penaltiesWhy are peaceful protesters treated like terrorists, while actual terrorists (especially on the far right, and especially in the US) often remain unmolested by the law? Why, in the UK, can you now potentially receive a longer sentence for public nuisance" - non-violent civil disobedience - than for rape or manslaughter? Why are ordinary criminals being released early to make space in overcrowded prisons, only for the space to be refilled with political prisoners: people trying peacefully to defend the habitable planet?There's a simple explanation. It was clearly expressed by a former analyst at the US Department of Homeland Security. You don't have a bunch of companies coming forward saying: I wish you'd do something about these rightwing extremists.'" The disproportionate policing of environmental protest, the new offences and extreme sentences, the campaigns of extrajudicial persecution by governments around the world are not, as politicians constantly assure us, designed to protect society. They're a response to corporate lobbying.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Defense minister's announcement comes despite more than 1 million civilians in city. Plus, Michael J Fox on how Parkinson's has not defeated him

Democrats will award their first delegates in the state that transformed Biden's fortunes in 2020 while Republican Nikki Haley has an uphill struggle in her home stateThe 2024 Democratic nominating contest in the 2024 presidential election officially begins in South Carolina on 3 February, with the result all but a foregone conclusion. Joe Biden is expected to secure an easy victory in the state that resurrected his foundering presidential campaign four years ago.Despite a lack of suspense, Saturday's contest will offer some clues about Biden's standing with his party's base. Here's what to know. Continue reading...

The senator is writing a book about his mental health. That's hard to celebrate while he shrugs off the suffering of millionsJohn Fetterman is a workwear icon. The Democratic senator from Pennsylvania has made a national name for himself by wearing baggy basketball shorts and a scruffy hoodie in any and every situation. And his penchant for sportswear makes sense: he needs it for all the vigorous political flip-flopping he does. While progressives helped Fetterman into power, it only took a few months in office before he started giving them the middle finger. Republicans once mocked Fetterman for his slobby presentation and his health problems (the senator had a stroke while running for office). Now, however, he's getting admiring comments from the right and hosts of Fox News are cheering him on for his hawkish pro-Israel stance and his anti-immigration comments.When he's not yelling about how we need to be softer on Israel and tougher on immigrants, Fetterman likes to talk about his mental health. Last February, the senator checked into a hospital for clinical depression and spent six weeks there as an inpatient. After he left, he wasn't shy about talking about his health problems. He gave an emotional interview on MSNBC and was on the cover of Time. Now it's been reported that he's writing a memoir about his experiences with depression. The book is going to be called Unfettered. Continue reading...

Republicans have perfected the art of gerrymandering - like in Ohio, where they're using their state legislature supermajority to override the governorIn June, 2022, Nick Zingarelli and his family packed their bags and left St Louis.His daughter had come out as transgender just two years earlier, and Missouri lawmakers were in the midst of passing a raft of anti-trans bills, including a ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Continue reading...

The startup publication blew through $50m in less than a year - money that could sustain some newsrooms for decadesThe new journalism outlet began less than a year ago to considerable fanfare. Claiming it would be unbiased and indispensable, the Messenger recruited hundreds of journalists, paid its executives lavishly and confidently forecast $100m in annual revenue this year.It would be like the good old days when the media was beloved, its founder predicted. Continue reading...

Providers working in federal programs will be required to expedite patients' prior authorizations for medications and/or surgeryA new set of rules from the Biden administration seeks to rein in private health insurance companies' use of prior authorization - a byzantine practice that requires people to seek insurance company permission before obtaining medication or having a procedure.The cost-containment strategy often delays care and forces patients, or their doctors, to navigate opaque and labyrinthine appeals. Continue reading...

Greg Abbott is using the same quasi-legal arguments once used by the Confederacy. Some of the supreme court is listeningOver the past few weeks, a quiet legal crisis has been unfolding on the US-Mexico border. Texas has seized control of part of the border and claimed the right to prevent federal authorities from exercising jurisdiction there. After the US supreme court ruled that the federal government could tear down razor wire erected by Texas authorities, the state vowed to erect more - and Governor Greg Abbott claimed that because the federal government had failed to protect his state from an invasion" of refugees, it has broken the compact between the United States and the States" and lost the right to exercise authority over the border altogether.To understand why this is so alarming, you need to see it in two historical contexts. The first is the notion of a compact" between the states. This idea holds that the constitution is not the supreme law of the land but rather a mere agreement between independently sovereign states. Those states hence retain the right to decide when certain actions by the federal government break the compact - and to reclaim their independence accordingly. Continue reading...

Deep south state escalates its fight against environmental protection with rare' use of public record lawsLouisiana's far-right government has quietly obtained hundreds of pages of communications between the Environmental Protection Agency and journalists, legal advocates and community groups focused on environmental justice. The rare use of public records law to target citizens is a new escalation in the state's battle with the EPA over its examination of alleged civil rights violations in the heavily polluted region known as Cancer Alley".Louisiana sued the EPA on 19 December, alleging that the federal agency had failed to properly respond to the state's sprawling Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, request sent by former state attorney general Jeff Landry. Continue reading...

Texas, a state under attack for its policy on women, immigrants and LGBTQ+ people, could be announced as the host of the World Cup finalFifa's newly introduced human rights strategy for World Cups is set to be tested on Sunday when the host city for the 2026 final is announced. The location of the final - the tournament is to be co-hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada - is understood to be between two venues: AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, or MetLife Stadium in New Jersey's Meadowlands.While the latter stadium is unlikely to draw much comment, a World Cup final in Texas may attract its share of criticism, particularly because the 2026 World Cup is the first time a human rights strategy was included as part of the bidding process. Continue reading...

The Ravens, Chiefs, 49ers and Lions reached this season's Championship Games for good reasons. Here's what their rivals could learn fromWhat makes an offense great? In short, the ability to effectively attack multiple parts of the field and stress defenses. Good offenses can do something so well that defenses have to adjust to stop it. Great offenses punish defenses for those adjustments. Continue reading...

Test your knowledge of football, cricket, tennis, rugby union and winter sports in this week's quiz Continue reading...

Where I saw colour and fun, they saw the reflection of something darker: a new generation of men who fear feminismTaylor Swift is many things. But she did not, at least until recently, look like the battleground on which an election could be fought.Though on reflection, maybe it makes a weird kind of sense. Like Donald Trump, whose allies are said to be threatening a remarkably silly-sounding holy war" against the singer, Swift is an unstoppable cultural phenomenon with a deep hold over the American psyche. She epitomises what many young women want to be - powerful but joyful, financially independent, patently not in need of a man but having zero trouble getting one - while he stands for all those threatened by this subversion of the patriarchal order. Continue reading...

Roads were flooded and trees toppled amid calls for people to get ready for powerful downpours, heavy snow and damaging winds

President's visit to the battleground state is met with autoworkers' endorsements - and protests over his backing of IsraelJoe Biden won a strong pledge of support on Thursday from union autoworkers crucial to his re-election bid in Michigan, while yet more protests over his backing of Israel's actions in Gaza put pressure on the trip.The president's travel to the battleground state was intended as a celebration after the United Auto Workers (UAW) union recently endorsed his re-election bid. But his visit was also met with protests amid the state's sizable Arab American community, demanding Biden seek a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war, and refusing to meet his campaign. Continue reading...

Bill passed by Republican-dominated state senate may exacerbate deadly overcrowding in Fulton county jailThe Georgia state senate passed legislation Thursday mostly outlawing bail funds for protest groups, and added dozens of offenses to the list of charges requiring cash bail to secure release.The passage of SB63 by a 30-17 vote in the Republican-dominated state senate arrives as three activists operating the Atlanta Solidarity Fund face state-level racketeering and charity fraud charges in connection with the prosecution of dozens of protesters against Cop City", an Atlanta project to build a police-training facility. Continue reading...

Joshua Schulte, who prosecutors said was responsible for agency's largest data breach, also guilty of possessing child abuse imagesA former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) software engineer who was convicted for carrying out the largest theft of classified information in the agency's history and of charges related to child abuse imagery was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Thursday.The 40-year sentence by US district judge Jesse Furman was for crimes of espionage, computer hacking, contempt of court, making false statements to the FBI, and child pornography", federal prosecutors said in a statement. The judge did not impose a life sentence as sought by prosecutors. Continue reading...

The US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, said the US has ordered a series of reprisal strikes to be launched against an Iran-backed militia. Austin added that while it signalled a dangerous moment in the Middle East, the United States would work to avoid a wider conflict. The strikes are expected to take place in Syria and possibly Iraq after three US soldiers were killed at a base in Jordan

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Top Senate Democrat gives timetable for vote on border security bill tied to Ukraine aid as Trump urges lawmakers to reject dealThe US Senate will vote next week on a bipartisan bill that would strengthen security at the US-Mexico border and also provide more aid to Ukraine and Israel, the chamber's top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, said on Thursday.We cannot simply shirk from our responsibilities just because the task is difficult," Schumer said on the Senate floor, adding that the text of the package will be released by Sunday, with the initial vote taking place no later than Wednesday. Continue reading...

Trump tries to undermine allegations against him by attacking his accusers, sowing confusion and painting himself as a martyrTime after time, with predictable regularity, never missing a beat, Donald Trump proclaims his innocence. He always denies that he has done anything wrong. The charge does not matter. He is blameless. But this is only the beginning of the pattern. Then, he attacks his accusers, or anyone involved in bringing him to account, usually of committing the identical offense of which he stands accused.But it is not enough for him to lash out. Then, he declares himself to be the victim. Whatever it is, he is falsely accused. But his self-dramatization as the wounded sufferer is only half his story: he insists that whoever has accused him is in fact the offender. He emerges triumphant, the martyr, the truth-teller, courageously unmasking the real villain. J'accuse! Continue reading...

Ex-US president took action over allegations he took part in perverted acts' and bribed Russian officialsDonald Trump's data protection claim for damages over allegations in the Steele dossier" that he took part in perverted" sex acts and gave bribes to Russian officials has been dismissed by a high court judge in London.Mrs Justice Steyn agreed with Orbis Business Intelligence, the company founded by the former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, who compiled the contentious material, that the case should not go to trial. Continue reading...

Court could weigh in on whether cities and states can shut down homeless encampments but it could also define what it means to provide shelterIn mid-January, the US supreme court agreed to reconsider the case Grants Pass v Johnson. In doing so, it could overturn a previous decision, Martin v Boise, which ruled that cities cannot punish unhoused people for violating anti-camping policies when there are no alternatives available.That has left elected officials, advocates and, not least of all, homeless people themselves wondering whether a future high court decision will give cities more power to clear homeless settlements or if cities' responsibilities to provide for unhoused residents will be clarified. Continue reading...

SB 1780 would make it defamation to accuse someone of homophobia, transphobia, racism or sexism and punishable by fineBy day two of Florida's legislative session, which started last month, lawmakers had introduced nearly 20 anti-gay or anti-trans bills. One such bill, SB 1780, would make accusing someone of being homophobic, transphobic, racist or sexist, even if the accusation is true, equivalent to defamation, and punishable by a fine of at least $35,000. If passed, the bill would severely limit and punish constitutionally protected free speech in the state.Though SB 1780 is not likely to survive past higher courts, its introduction is indicative of a wider conservative strategy to stifle criticism of racist, sexist and homophobic behavior. The bill, critics argue, is being introduced to test the waters and see how far, legally, lawmakers can go until they are able to silence detractors. Continue reading...