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Republican candidate suffers embarrassing defeat with Trump not on ballot as Joe Biden seals easy win. Plus, what happens to the dogs nobody wants?

The press is covering the 2024 campaign as if climate isn't on the ballot, but 56% of US voters are concerned' or alarmed' about the crisisFact one: more voters face national elections in 2024 than ever before in recorded history - about 4 billion people, nearly half the human population.Fact two: last year was the hottest in recorded history - and scientists warn that oil, gas and coal burning must be rapidly phased out if we are to preserve a livable planet.Mark Hertsgaard is executive director and co-founder of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration committed to more and better coverage of the climate story, and the Nation magazine's environment correspondentKyle Pope is executive director of strategic initiatives and co-founder of Covering Climate Now, and a former editor and publisher of the Columbia Journalism ReviewThis article is published here as part of the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now Continue reading...

High-stakes case on whether 14th amendment prohibits Trump from holding office because of his actions on January 6 2021The US supreme court will hear oral argument on Thursday in one of the most high-stakes cases in American politics this century, thrusting a beleaguered court to the center of the 2024 election.The court is considering whether Donald Trump is eligible to run for president. The novel legal question at the heart of the case, Donald J Trump v Norma Anderson et al, is whether the 14th amendment to the constitution prohibits Trump from holding office because of his conduct on 6 January 2021. Section 3 of the amendment says that any member of Congress or officer of the United States who takes an oath to protect the constitution and then subsequently engages in insurrection cannot hold office. That ban, the amendment says, can only be overridden by a two-thirds vote of each house of Congress. Continue reading...

Exclusive: RNC reported $8m in cash to spend, less than half of what it had in 2016, as it starts preparing for the 2024 election

Americans will stake $23bn on Sunday's game as the NFL strengthens its ties with the gambling industry. Many are worried about the human costsFor the first time, this year's Super Bowl will take place in Las Vegas. And NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is aware that a gambling mecca and pro sports teams could be a dangerous mixture: he issued a memo in the run-up to Sunday's game, reminding team personnel they should not even walk into a sportsbook, let alone place a bet on the game.For the general public it's a very different story. The clash between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers is expected to be the biggest single-game betting event in US history. The American Gaming Association (AGA) expects 26% of US adults will bet on the game for a combined total of $23bn. That's no surprise given the magnitude of the occasion and the explosive growth of the sector since a 2018 US supreme court ruling cleared the path for regulated sports gambling beyond Nevada. Continue reading...

The quarterback and Travis Kelce are Kansas City's stars, but it has been the team's defense, led by their cornerback, that has guided them to Sunday's gameIn this year's divisional round, Patrick Mahomes was posed a question he had never fielded in the playoffs before: can you win on the road? A trip to upstate New York to face the surging Buffalo Bills was a huge test for the Kansas City machine. This was unknown territory against a supreme foe in Josh Allen, a quarterback desperate to turn the tables on his rival after two bitter postseason defeats from seasons past. This was Buffalo's time, they had the superior offense flowing through Allen while Mahomes finally appeared fallible. Despite his struggles, KC's superstar remained the franchise's face but this season the keys had been loaned to a new trustee, a defender so reliable that a single glance from him in a receiver's direction can make a quarterback think twice.Under the spotlight, the script totally flipped as Mahomes matched Allen step for step in a thrilling offensive tug of war. After all their stratospheric production, Kansas City's defense were failing to hold up their end of the bargain. The Bills had a 24-20 final quarter lead, a shot at redemption. But Mahomes knew his defenders could stifle the Bills as he issued a rallying cry: Y'all shut it down and we'll win this football game. We'll go to the AFC Championship Game." Continue reading...

As we prepare to join Nato, it's time we stopped flattering ourselves and our history. We've never been morally superiorThe civil defence minister recently issued Swedes with the warning that there could be war in Sweden". The reactions were swift and loud: many people said they felt scared, others protested about the needlessly alarmist tone. The military commander-in-chief, who backed up the warning, was accused of being a warmonger. Deep down, most of us Swedes are still convinced that nothing bad can happen to us and that our neutrality, a synonym for our goodness, will protect us.Sweden formally applied to join Nato in 2022 and has been stuck in the US-led alliance's waiting room first by the political grandstanding of Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdoan, and now by Viktor Orban, who is holding up ratification as part of another poker game within the EU. But as Sweden prepares to abandon its cherished neutrality to join the alliance, it is time we stopped flattering ourselves and our history. We have never been a neutral country.Gunnar Ardelius is a Swedish author Continue reading...

Haley suffers embarrassing result with Trump not on ballot and contesting delegate-selecting caucuses on Thursday instead

Election day off to a quiet start with no major candidates in the state and with voters slow to trickle into polling sitesPolls have closed in Nevada, which is holding its first presidential primary contest in the US west, has been damp - and oddly quiet.None of the major candidates are in the state, and voters have been slow to trickle into polling sites. Only about 12,000 people had opted to vote at polling stations on election day. About 151,000 people voted early, the majority of them by mail. Continue reading...

Assistance package worth $17.6bn, seen as ploy to block broader Senate-backed measure, fails to win two-thirds majorityThe US House of Representatives rejected a Republican-led bill on Tuesday that would provide $17.6bn to Israel, as Democrats said they wanted a vote instead on a broader measure that would also provide assistance to Ukraine, international humanitarian funding and new money for border security.The vote was 250 to 180, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed for passage. Continue reading...

Democrats denounced effort to remove Alejandro Mayorkas as partisan stunt to boost electoral prospects of Donald TrumpHouse Republicans on Tuesday narrowly failed to impeach the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, a stinging - but possibly only temporary - setback for the majority's deeply partisan effort to punish a cabinet official in a presidential election year.In a vote of 216-214, four Republicans joined all Democrats in opposing the two articles of impeachment against the secretary. When the gavel came down, Democrats burst into applause, having assailed the impeachment case against Mayorkas as a bunch of garbage" designed to boost Donald Trump's electoral prospects in the November election. Continue reading...

Most of southern California remains under flood watches after storm battered northern part of state, killing three peopleThe powerful atmospheric river that brought record amounts of rain to California and led to nearly 400 mudslides in recent days began to ease on Tuesday, but forecasters said the risk for floods and landslides remained.The intense weather left a trail of destruction as it made its way across the state, with violent winds and rain causing downed trees and destructive mudslides that damaged homes and buried vehicles. At least three people were killed by falling trees. Continue reading...

Judge asks lawyers for details of potential agreement between ex-Trump executive and district attorney

People who lost loved ones say Jennifer Crumbley's involuntary manslaughter conviction means a step towards accountabilityThe father of one of four victims of Michigan's Oxford high school shooting welcomed Tuesday's conviction of the killer's mother on involuntary manslaughter charges, and said it meant people could no longer look the other way" over their own accountability for loved ones' actions.Craig Shilling, who lost his 17-year-old son Justin in the November 2021 shooting, spoke to reporters after a jury handed down guilty verdicts on Jennifer Crumbley, 45. Crumbley faces up to 15 years in prison on each count after she failed to inform authorities her son Ethan had access to firearms before opening fire, killing four students and wounding six people, including a teacher. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. For more on Biden's address, you can read our full story:

Former Fox host was spotted in the Russian capital, where he says he was to interview Putin about Ukraine war for X/Twitter showFar-right pundit and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson confirmed on Tuesday he was in Moscow to interview Vladimir Putin, and said he will air his conversation with Russia's president to counter what he described as pro-Ukraine fawning pep sessions" by western media covering the war.Speculation had been growing for days that Carlson, who was dumped by Fox last year for getting too big for his boots", had traveled to the Russian capital to meet Putin, whose reasons for invading Ukraine he says have a right to be heard by the American public. Continue reading...

Co-founder pushed out in 2019 has been trying to meet co-working company for months to negotiate deal, lawyers sayFive years after his infamous ousting from the co-working company he founded, Adam Neumann is trying to buy back WeWork.Lawyers representing Neumann's new venture, Flow Global, sent a letter to WeWork advisers on Monday revealing he has been trying to meet with the company for months to negotiate a deal to buy back the company or provide it with debt financing. Continue reading...

Tens of millions of Americans estimated to bet record $23.1bn on game as concern mounts over gambling addiction ratesAn estimated 67.8 million Americans will bet a record $23.1bn on this weekend's Super Bowl, according to an industry survey, as a nationwide gambling boom continues.Super Bowl LVIII is widely expected to be the biggest sports betting event in United States history. It will take place in Las Vegas amid mounting concern over rising gambling addiction rates. Continue reading...

President Joe Biden accused Republicans of caving in to Donald Trump's wishes and opposing a bill to tighten immigration policy that the party had demanded. The $118bn package would pair federal enforcement policy on the US-Mexico border with wartime aid for Ukraine, Israel and others, overhauling the asylum system with tougher enforcement and giving presidents new powers to expel migrants if border authorities deem themselves overwhelmed by the number of people requesting asylum. In his speech at the White House, Biden said the bill would help the country, but because it would not aid Trump's bid for presidency, it wold not make it to the Senate floor to be discussed

Experts issue warning over bipartisan measure's $400m in funding for tools that would hyper-amplify what's already happening'

State attorney general says source of calls identified and issued cease-and-desist orders as well as subpoenas to two companiesUS authorities issued cease-and-desist orders on Tuesday against two Texas companies they believe were connected to robocalls that used artificial intelligence to mimic Joe Biden's voice and discourage people from voting in New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary last month.During a news conference to discuss the investigation, officials described the calls as the clearest and possibly first known attempt to use AI to interfere with an election in the US. Continue reading...

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell praised Taylor Swift's impact on the NFL and her ability to bring new audiences to the game. 'Taylor is obviously a dynamo, everything she touches, there are people following. And so we count ourselves fortunate and we welcome it', Goodell said at his Super Bowl news conference. Since Swift began dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce she has appeared at many of his games, bringing attention to the NFL Continue reading...

Repetition has blunted the art museum protests so much that the pumpkin soup assault on the Mona Lisa felt pathetic. More effective tactics are neededHow many of the 38 environmental protests staged in museums in 2022 can you remember? How many of the more recent ones only generated widespread outrage? Did any of them lead to tangible change? The protesters' cause is serious, the threat is very real, the message is important and urgent. But is it not getting through to the public?Sixty years ago, Andy Warhol's Brillo Boxes and multiplied Marilyn Monroe screen-prints exposed modern repetition as an ideal of mindlessness - an inescapable capitalist pattern ingrained in the oversaturated modes of production and consumption that distract and overwhelm while nurturing an irreducible sense of modern apathy. How many times is too many? Repetition is a complex phenomenon: it can deepen or hollow out experiences depending on how it is deployed. Repeated ad libitum anything shocking quickly becomes commonplace. Aware of the risk, good artists try not to repeat themselves; instead they strive to constantly reinvent. From Friedrich Nietzsche to Soren Kierkegaard, Jean Baudrillard, Walter Benjamin, Mark Fisher, Frantz Fanon, Robert Hughes, and Amia Srinivasan, modern thinkers have dwelled extensively on the all-pervasive pacifying powers of unwitting repetitiveness. The shock of the new quickly melts into the air. Continue reading...

Oral contraception involves taking a cocktail of hormones, and hoping for the best. If only there was more research in this areaI have been bleeding for three weeks. Yep, you read that right. I'm not dying, but I am navigating the vagaries of stopping the contraceptive pill and then swiftly starting it again.I was first put on desogestrel, AKA the mini-pill, more than a decade ago, during my first long-term relationship. In the years since, I thought I had become a bit of an expert about it. I knew, for example, that it mostly stopped my periods, unless I forgot to take it a couple of times or didn't take it at the same time every day. I knew it could be helpful for those suffering endometriosis and was suitable for people with high blood pressure. I knew that it came under lots of different brand names in lots of different packaging, and that for some reason the name brands", such as Cerazette, seemed to suit my body better than generic" pills, even though doctors say they are no different.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...

No wonder Sunak today seeks to extricate himself. None of the world leaders I have interviewed would have behaved this wayFor Piers Morgan the most important thing in a Piers Morgan interview is the fact that Piers Morgan is doing it. He is the TV equivalent of the Bette Midler character in the movie Beaches. She finally stops talking about herself and says: But enough about me. Let's talk about you. What do you think of me?"That's comedy. Piers Morgan is real life, or what passes for real life in sections of the British media. But what is bizarre is that the prime minister of the United Kingdom - the prime minister! - willingly plays along as the foil to Piers Morgan on an obscure television channel for which Morgan is likely to be paid more in pounds than there are viewers.Gavin Esler is the author most recently of Britain Is Better Than ThisDo 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...

Court rejects Trump's claim he can't be criminally prosecuted in case because it involved actions he took while presidentA federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected Donald Trump's claim that he is immune from criminal prosecution on charges that he plotted to overturn the 2020 election results because it involved actions he took while president, declining to endorse such an expansive interpretation of executive power.The decision by a three-judge panel at the US court of appeals for the DC circuit took particular issue with Trump's position that he could only be prosecuted if he had been convicted in a Senate impeachment trial first. Continue reading...

Ex-president has refused to participate in any of the Republican primary debates but is pushing for one with current presidentJoe Biden has dismissed calls from his White House predecessor Donald Trump to immediately" schedule a presidential debate.Trump skipped every debate this primary season. He continues to refuse to debate his former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, a long-shot contender for the GOP's nomination. Continue reading...

Political agitator James O'Keefe and organization he once led had spread false claims of fraud at post office during 2020 electionThe far-right political agitator James O'Keefe and the Project Veritas organization he once led have admitted that they had no evidence" backing up widely spread claims of voter fraud at a Pennsylvania post office during the 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden.O'Keefe and Project Veritas made that admission Monday after settling a lawsuit filed against them by Robert Weisenbach, the postmaster of Erie, Pennsylvania, in state court, concluding one of the more prominent legal battles spurred by Republican lies that Donald Trump was defrauded out of another term in the White House. Continue reading...

From Tariq Lamptey's impact to Newcastle's defensive woes, we hand out honors (and dishonors) from the Premier League weekendDid anyone remind Liverpool to wake up for the top-of-the-table match at the Emirates? Cameras caught Darwin Nunez on the substitutes bench yawning 26 minutes into the game, which just about summed up Liverpool's performance in their 3-1 defeat to Arsenal.Passes per defensive action, 9.89, 49th percentileShots conceded, 11.92, 59th percentileClear shots conceded, 1.62, 90th percentilexG per shot conceded, 0.09. 89th percentilePasses per defensive action, 9.01, 70th percentileClear shots conceded, 3.30, 4th percentilexG per shot conceded, 0.12, 1st percentileShots conceded, 17.00, 3rd percentile Continue reading...

Denver suburb of Aurora agrees to pay Brittney Gilliam and family after police mistakenly believed she was driving stolen car in 2020The four Black girls lay facedown in a parking lot, crying no" and mommy" as a police officer who had pointed her gun at them then bent down to handcuff two of their wrists. The youngest wore a pink tiara as she held on to her teenage cousin's hand.The six-year-old Lovely watched as her mother, Brittney Gilliam, was led to a patrol car in handcuffs after she shouted in frustration at the police, who mistakenly believed the car Gilliam was driving was stolen. Continue reading...

We'd like to hear from California and Arizona residents and tourists how they have been affected by the storm and flooding this weekA deadly, atmospheric-river fuelled storm caused chaos across California on Monday, battering the state with record amounts of rain, destructive mudslides, and violent winds that left at least three people dead from falling trees.Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for eight counties in southern California in response to the recent storms, covering Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. Continue reading...

Parade honors Edie Ceccarelli, who says the secret to her longevity is a little red wine and minding her own businessIn the small, northern California town of Willits, the birthday of Edie Ceccarelli - the oldest person in the US - has become a bit of a holiday.Well into her 100s, she would throw herself huge birthday parties at a local events hall, or at a senior center - and invite the whole town. But for the past few years, the town has taken over, organizing a parade in her honor. Continue reading...

Nearly 38 million people under flood alerts as officials warn dangers still lurk in the waters. Plus, the research challenging the idea that money buys happiness'

As long as Biden remains unwilling to rein in Israel's attacks on Gaza, the US's conflict with Iranian-backed militias will escalateSince Friday, the US military has launched dozens of airstrikes on targets in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Joe Biden's administration portrayed the wave of attacks as a response to a drone strike that killed three US troops at a military base in Jordan on 28 January, and to ongoing attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea by Yemen's Houthi militia. If you harm an American, we will respond," the US president said on Friday, adding that there will more retaliation to come.Biden, the president who withdrew the last US troops and ended America's 20-year war in Afghanistan, could now become the same leader who started a new regional war in the Middle East that entangles the US in a conflict with Iran and its allied militias in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. Continue reading...

An increasing number of women are being prosecuted for procuring abortions and face the possibility of life imprisonment. Why are we being so polite about this outrage?When it emerged last year that six women had been prosecuted in Great Britain for procuring abortions, that was a little more than a blip: it was twice as many women, in a single year, as had been taken to court in the previous 160 years combined. Behind those cases, of course, there's an unknown number of women who were investigated but cleared, so their phones were seized, they were prevented from contact with their children, they were questioned under caution with the possibility of life imprisonment when they'd just had a miscarriage. All these women lived, if not their worst, then surely their most medieval, nightmare, and some are living it as we speak.The natural question was: what the hell was going on? Had the police lost their minds? (When the Guardian asked one force about its actions last year, it chose to lie about them, which surprised me.) Was the director of public prosecutions anti-abortion? (Max Hill KC declined to comment.) Had medics suffered some kind of group amnesia around patient confidentiality? (The police generally become involved only when they're alerted by a doctor or midwife.) All that is still possible, but when I spoke to the campaign organisation Doctors for Choice, it exhibited the kind of pragmatism you look for in a doctor. Never mind the finger-pointing - change the law. Abortion should not be in the criminal code at all. Life imprisonment is the harshest penalty for illegal abortion in the world, which gives England and Wales the dubious distinction of being more severe than Syria, Poland, Texas and South Sudan.Zoe Williams 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...

Bifurcated format is confusing to voters and renders results difficult to understand - here's how it worksThe first presidential election contest in the western US will feature a bifurcated primary and caucuses format that's both confusing to voters and renders results difficult to understand.Nevada's primary for Democrats and (some) Republicans is on 6 February, while its caucuses for (other) Republicans is on 8 February. Continue reading...

1990 had Rome, 2006 had Berlin, 2014 had Rio and 2026 will have East Rutherford. So how did Fifa decide on the venue?The World Cup final is being held in New Jersey? As in the industrial hellscape at the start of the Sopranos? And the Jersey Shore? The kind of place where guys eat sloppy steaks? Well technically, yes. But this is really a New York City final: MetLife stadium is only seven miles from Manhattan, and sits very close to the New York/New Jersey border. That the biggest match in world football will take place in (OK, very near) the biggest city in the United States makes sense [Disclaimer: New Jersey also has friendly people, beautiful countryside, charming small towns and stunning coastline].And because it's the World Cup final and it's in the richest country in the world, no doubt MetLife is a breathtaking venue. Well, the stench that sometimes wafts in from the nearby Meadowlands marshes is breathtaking. But, aside from that, the stadium itself is ... fine? There's nothing offensive about the MetLife - it's not falling down or anything and it seats plenty of people - around 82,000 or so. But it doesn't have the history of the Azteca, the venue for the tournament's opening match, or the space-age feel of Los Angeles' SoFi Stadium, which will host two of the United States' group-stage games. Continue reading...

MLS's glamor franchise embarked on a preseason tour around the globe. It has devolved into a series of defeats, disappointments and disgruntled fansInter Miami were not far into their 23,000-mile, three-week preseason globetrotting tour when they started to hit bumps in the road. The star-studded roadshow featuring headliner Lionel Messi and his newest support act, Luis Suarez, was supposed to take the world by storm, from El Salvador to Saudi Arabia to Hong Kong, but the exercise has backfired. Several defeats and no-shows from the stars left spectators disgruntled, reputations diminished, and the team, as well as fans back home, unsure of how much they will get from their ageing legends once the MLS season starts.As the tour reaches its last leg in Japan against Vissel Kobe on Wednesday, before returning to Miami for a game against Newells Old Boys, it will have witnessed boos for David Beckham, a Cristiano Ronaldo dropout, a 6-0 defeat and an almost surreal statement from the Hong Kong government expressing its deep disappointment" at Messi's absence. Continue reading...

In an era where the passing game rules, the San Francisco 49ers have chosen to run much of their offense through their wildly talented all-purpose backWhen the San Francisco 49ers traded for Carolina Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey in the middle of the 2022 season, they were going against the grain. Conventional wisdom had been working against running backs for a decade or longer, as team after team in the NFL realized that they could find effective tailbacks without using premium draft picks or gaudy free agent contracts to get them. Running backs, the league has come to know, are a relatively fungible group.But McCaffrey was a different beast, so the 49ers gave up a small ransom to get him: four draft picks over two years: a second-, third-, fourth-, and fifth-rounder. McCaffrey played well down the stretch in 2022, but then the Niners pushed their chips in even further before this season: They restructured McCaffrey's already huge contract to create about $9m in space under the salary cap this year. The bill will be due later, and it will be massive, but the 49ers knew they had a precious window to take their best shot at a Super Bowl. They had a useful quarterback, Brock Purdy, on a cheap rookie contract. They had a Hall of Fame left tackle, Trent Williams, still playing well at 35. And they had two of the best defensive players in the NFL, Nick Bosa and Fred Warner, in their primes. Continue reading...

In the 1950s European nations tried and failed to build a defence community. They should try againOn 6 June, Europe will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the D-day landings that began the liberation of western Europe in 1944. However, there's another round anniversary this summer that won't be celebrated, because it marks a big failure. On 30 August 1954, a vote in the French national assembly killed the project of a European Defence Community (EDC). Instead, European integration proceeded around the economic community that remains the core of the EU to this day, and European security was built around the US-led Nato. But as the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, advances from the east and the US presidential contender Donald Trump threatens to withdraw from the west, it's time to revisit the idea of Europe defending itself.Historical circumstances were obviously very different 70 years ago, but there are some interesting echoes. Then as now, a key driver for the European defence initiative was an aggressive Russia. Then as now, another driver was the desire of the US to focus more on threats involving China in Asia - in that case, the Korean war, which began in 1950. (The EDC treaty was signed in 1952, while the war was still going on.) Then as now, a central issue was the military role to be played by the Federal Republic of Germany. France's then prime minister, Pierre Mendes France, summed up the reasons his parliament rejected the EDC with perfect French clarity: too much integration and too little England". Might there also be a lesson there?Timothy Garton Ash is a historian, political writer and 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...

Republicans, rightwing figures and foreign politicians have seized upon the video despite proof the lawmaker was misquotedA week after a mistranslated clip of Ilhan Omar sparked outrage online, some far-right House Republicans are still following through with calls for the progressive lawmaker to be censured. And the repercussions of the misinformation extend beyond the country.The Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, has gone furthest in her response to the clip, calling Omar a foreign agent in our government". Greene, a leading supporter of Donald Trump, who also attempted to censure the Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib in November, called Omar a terrorist sympathizer" on X last week, adding: Somalian first. Muslim second. She never mentions America." Continue reading...

A few years ago, Germany seemed like it had all the answers. But in 2024, we find ourselves in a land of bleak absurdityGermany doesn't have a reputation as a funny country, but its dark humour is currently shaming the best recent efforts of both Britain and the US. Not that there is a sudden bumper crop of talented comedians in Germany, but who needs them when reality itself is already so bleakly cartoonish? A few years ago, Germany seemed like it had all the answers: a robust economy and a stable and broad-based coalition against the far right. Now, the economy is faltering as the combined effects of mismanagement collide with a bureaucratic culture that makes investment and innovation difficult. Striking rail workers and protesting farmers have brought chaos to the cities. The only thing collapsing faster than the German economy is the country's status as a moral example, which hit an all-time high with the refugee crisis of 2015-16 and has now tumbled like a vaudeville star on a banana peel.Jewish critics of Israel being arrested by Berlin police for allegedly antisemitic speech? It's a joke worthy of Franz Kafka, who would also certainly have got a kick out of the enormous disparity between the treatment of protests in support of a ceasefire in Gaza and the farmers' protests and their cavalcades of tractors.Peter Kuras is a writer and translator based in BerlinDo 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...

An atmospheric river storm has battered California with record amounts of rain, destructive mudslides, and violent winds. The intense weather caused flooding and triggered mud and debris flows in the Hollywood Hills and the Santa Monica mountains. Nearly 38 million people are under flood alerts across the state and into Arizona, including about 10 million people in Los Angeles county. "This has been a tough day for our city," said Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass.

Nearly 38 million people under flood alerts across state and into Arizona as officials warn dangers still lurk in the waters

Administration backs broader bill providing funds to Ukraine, Israel and US border as it tells Congress to reject this political ploy'Joe Biden's administration said on Monday he would veto a standalone bill backed by House of Representatives Republicans that would provide aid to Israel, as it backs a broader bill providing assistance to Ukraine and Israel and providing new funds for border security.The Administration strongly encourages both chambers of the Congress to reject this political ploy and instead quickly send the bipartisan Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act to the President's desk," the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement. Continue reading...

Vote comes amid protests against the methodology the council adopted for signature matching on referendum petitionsThe Atlanta city council adopted new rules on Monday that would allow the referendum process for the public to vote on the Cop City" project to move forward. The vote came amid protests against the methodology the council adopted for signature matching on referendum petitions, which critics say gives the city a way to block a public vote on the controversial project.Three people calling for the signature matching element of the ordinance to be removed were escorted from the council chambers ahead of the 10-5 vote adopting the ordinance. Continue reading...

California is being drenched by a giant atmospheric river-fuelled storm that has caused record levels of rain, dangerous flooding and violent winds that knocked out power to hundreds of thousands.Nearly 38 million people are under flood alerts across the state and into Arizona, including about 10 million people in Los Angeles county. At least two people have died because of the storm, both struck by felled trees that toppled on to or around their homes