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Campaigners urge government to stop ‘cruel trade’ as documents show highly pathogenic agents entered the US with monkeysUS authorities are continuing to allow imports of long-tailed macaques from Cambodia, despite revelations that deadly pathogenic agents, including one deemed to be a bioterrorism risk, are entering the country with primates and recent charges of illegal trafficking of wild macaques falsely labeled as captive-bred into the US biomedical industry from Cambodia.Animal rights campaigners are urging the US government to stop the “cruel trade”, saying it’s impossible to prove provenance and that the risk of disease is significant. Continue reading...

Advocates attack president’s failure to uphold campaign pledges ahead of first visit to southern border since he took officeUnder pressure to address a surge of migrants at the US-Mexico border, Joe Biden announced a far-reaching crackdown on migrants seeking asylum last week, expanding the use of a controversial public health measure known as Title 42 to restrict people from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela from illegally entering the US, while offering those legally seeking relief a new pathway to America.Before the president’s first trip to the US-Mexico border since he took office in 2020, immigration advocates condemned the Biden administration’s decision to expand Title 42 as disheartening and a failure to uphold his campaign promises. They took some solace in the creation of a legal pathway to asylum for those in four countries, but still, for them, Biden’s actions were not enough – they leave out other migrants, and the parole program is beset by requirements that impose significant barriers to migrants without access to resources, perpetuating inequities within the US immigration system. Continue reading...

ACLU and Pen America back former Human Rights Watch chief Kenneth Roth and say decision ‘raises serious questions’Leading civil rights organisations have condemned Harvard Kennedy School’s denial of a position to the former head of Human Rights Watch over the organisation’s criticism of Israel.The American Civil Liberties Union called the refusal of a fellowship to Kenneth Roth “profoundly troubling”. PEN America, which advocates for freedom of expression, said the move “raises serous questions” about one of the US’s leading schools of government. Roth also received backing from other human rights activists. Continue reading...

An academic spat over a depiction of Muhammad reveals how the language of diversity is eviscerating its very meaningIt is a beautiful painting found in a 14th-century Persian manuscript, the “Compendium of Chronicles”, a history of Islam. It shows the Prophet Muhammad receiving his first Quranic revelations from the angel Gabriel. Christine Gruber, professor of Islamic art at Michigan University, describes it as “a masterpiece of Persian manuscript painting”.Last October, an instructor at Hamline University, Minnesota, displayed the painting during an online class on Islamic art. The instructor (who has not been named) had warned of what she was about to do in case anyone found the image offensive and did not wish to view it. No matter, a student complained to the university authorities. Continue reading...

A 28-year-old graduate student faces four counts of murder – but families of the victims await answers to the question of whyFor a student of criminology, Bryan Kohberger appears to have been remarkably indifferent to modern methods of detective work.The accused murderer of four friends at the University of Idaho, who were repeatedly stabbed in their beds with a large knife, was snared by procedures that are the nuts and bolts of police television dramas: cameras tracking his car, cellphone records placing him at the scene, and a search of DNA records collected by genealogy websites that threw up a match with Kohberger’s family. Continue reading...

His salacious revelations won’t bring an end to the monarchy. We enjoy watching the soap opera too much for thatIt’s as if royal watchers have been fed on scraps all their lives – the breaking of the colour of a pair of tights protocol here, the “body language that suggested tension” there – and the Duke of Sussex has laid before them a banquet. His book Spare, leaked to the press, serves up course after course. Hardly had we digested the first revelation - a necklace-smashing fight between royal brothers - when the next were presented. The boys “begging” their father not to marry Camilla; two tearful bust-ups between duchesses; Charles joking that Harry wasn’t his; Harry’s frostbitten penis at William’s wedding.It was William and Kate, it turns out, who encouraged him to wear that Nazi costume in 2005 – Harry had just been following orders. Then there was the lost virginity in a field to an “older woman” who “treated him like a young stallion”. “I mounted her quickly, she spanked my ass and sent me away,” he wrote. Continue reading...

Equality has spawned a masculinity crisis, goes the theory. But a glance around the world’s patriarchies proves otherwiseIs feminism ultimately to blame for the rise of Andrew Tate, the “trillionaire” guru and self-identified misogynist who once claimed women should “bear responsibility” for being sexually assaulted and who last week was arrested in Romania on charges of people trafficking? Is it western strides in equality that have pushed young men to join his 4 million followers online? Plenty of people think so.“His appeal should… be seen as a leading indicator of some of the genuine disorientation being felt by millions of boys and men,” writes the author Richard Reeves, a feeling, he says, which results from “the extraordinary successes of the women’s movement”. Boys are being overtaken by girls in education. Men longer know who they should be. Continue reading...

Quarter of school complaints involve allegations of sexual violence in report released at beginning of this monthSexual misconduct allegations mired public schools in Chicago throughout 2022, with more than 25% of the complaints involving allegations of sexual violence, according to a recent local government report.The category of sexual violence received the highest number of complaints in the school system, with the second-highest only making up a little more than 7% of the complaints. Continue reading...

Newport News superintendent George Parker urges gun control after attack that left school teacher with life-threatening injuriesThe superintendent of the public school district in Newport News, Virginia, has called for increased gun control while condemning a shooting in which a first-grade student deliberately shot his teacher.In a news conference, the superintendent George Parker said he was “disheartened” and “in shock” after the attack left a Richneck elementary school teacher with “life-threatening injuries”. Continue reading...

Bakersfield, in California’s unfashionable Central Valley, has been thrown back into focus by the sorry saga in CongressKevin McCarthy’s home town – the hardscrabble city of Bakersfield, in California’s Central Valley – has experienced plenty of bruised feelings over the past week, but not necessarily because people have felt the pain of their congressman’s tortured path to the House speakership.Many have bristled at being under a national spotlight during what even Fox News has described as a political clown show. Local Republicans appeared increasingly defensive as McCarthy fell short in vote after vote – before finally prevailing in the early hours of Saturday morning. Democrats, meanwhile, expressed growing concern that McCarthy had been taken captive by his party’s far-right wing and, especially, by apologists for the violent insurrection at the US Capitol two years ago. Continue reading...

Dennis Perkins, 47, to spend rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty to a slew of crimes including child sexual abuseA former Louisiana sheriff’s deputy has been given a 100-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to a spree of sexual abuse crimes, including child abuse.Dennis Perkins, 47, will spend the rest of his life in prison after he pleaded guilty to a slew of offenses ranging from rape, child abuse images and video voyeurism to contaminating food with a bodily substance, authorities said. Continue reading...

The former president faces the prospect of political irrelevance. But the lasting damage he has done is evident in the chaotic scenes in Congress“It’s just drama,” sighed Jaime Herrera Beutler last Wednesday as the new Republican majority in Congress repeatedly fumbled its first automatic obligation, taking 15 votes to elect a speaker. Beutler herself took no part in the posturing and play-acting. Having voted in favour of impeaching Donald Trump after the riot at the Capitol on 6 January 2021, she missed her chance for re-election when Trump pushed one of his loyalists to challenge her.The Trumpist ousted Beutler in a run-off, then lost to a Democrat in the general election: Trump had his petty revenge, for which the Republicans paid. Though he continues to whip up drama, he has lost his capacity to direct it, and so the unscripted, absurdly improvised drama reels on – in the short term comic but, as it confounds the country’s government, in the long run probably tragic. Continue reading...

I jumped at the chance to interview her, but regretted it almost at once after being reminded of a bad review I wroteWhen I heard that Fay Weldon had died, I thought of those great early-ish novels, Praxis and Puffball, and of how much I enjoyed them as a teenager. Looking at my old Coronet paperbacks, I see something I didn’t recognise at the time: her stylistic innovation. Both are written in shards, brief paragraphs that float apart from one another in white space – the same technique now used by (among other writers) the very modish Jenny Offill.Twenty years ago, I was dispatched to interview Weldon at home in Hampstead, north London. Her then husband, Nick, answered the door and immediately began a brutal interrogation. My name sounded familiar. Hadn’t I given Fay’s novel The Bulgari Connection, a book controversially sponsored by the Italian jeweller, a stinking review? Uh oh. But I wasn’t about to confess: I had a job to do. Was it definitely me he was thinking of? And was the review really a stinker? Maybe marital loyalty had made it seem worse than it was. Continue reading...

With a wafer-thin majority, and few powers, Nancy Pelosi’s successor looks set to be one of the weakest speakers in historyHe had nothing to lose but his dignity. Congressman Kevin McCarthy knew the job he had always craved was within his grasp. All he needed was the vote of a 40-year-old Florida man under investigation over sex trafficking allegations.McCarthy walked over and begged Matt Gaetz to make him speaker of the US House of Representatives. Gaetz stared, pointed a finger and refused. Fellow Republican Mike Rogers stormed towards Gaetz and had to be forcibly restrained. Continue reading...

You become a prime target for advertisers the moment you get a positive pregnancy test“Cocaine is God’s way of saying that you’re making too much money,” Robin Williams once joked. God also might have a few choice words to say about a new $3,300 self-driving stroller unveiled at the CES tech show in Las Vegas. The Ella smart stroller uses artificial intelligence to navigate and is filled with bells and whistles like a white noise machine and an automatic parking brake. It’s the Tesla of strollers, basically. Continue reading...

Jackson is suffering from its third water outage in two years, but neighbors and family lend one another a helping handThe sense of dread on Christmas Eve felt all too familiar.The faucets ran dry again. The showers produced nothing. The city of Jackson, Mississippi, plunged into its third major water outage in less than two years, crippled, leaking infrastructure withering before another bout of extreme weather. Continue reading...

Drug Enforcement Agency also concerned about telehealth startups’ ‘aggressive marketing’ leading to abuse of ADHD drugAbout four years ago, Wendy Steele, the owner of a film and television production company, started taking Adderall to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and “it’s helped me in every aspect of my life”, she said.But in recent months, in part because of an increase in the number of people who have turned to such stimulants, Steele has struggled to find the drug. Continue reading...

The farcical scenes among US Republicans have echoes in our Tory party. Both promise disruption, then deliver exactly thatThe US right has this week been staging a clown show that has had liberals in that country and beyond pulling up a chair and breaking out the popcorn. There has been a karmic pleasure in watching the Republicans who won control of the House of Representatives struggle to complete the most basic piece of business – the election of a speaker – but it’s also been instructive, and not only to Americans. For it has confirmed the dirty little secret of that strain of rightwing populist politics that revels in what it calls disruption: it always ends in bitter factional fighting, chaos and paralysis. We in Britain should know, because Brexit has gone the exact same way.Start with the karma that saw House Republicans gather two years to the day since they sought to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from one party to another: often overlooked in the anniversary recollections of 6 January 2021 is that, mere hours after rioters had stormed the US Capitol, a majority of Republican House members voted to do precisely as the rioters had demanded and overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Yet here were those same House Republicans on 6 January 2023, having prevented the smooth transfer of power from one party to another – except this time, the party they were thwarting was their own. Continue reading...

California Republican finally able to convince hard-right detractors after a week of negotiations and concessionsThe Republican leader Kevin McCarthy was elected as speaker of the US House of Representatives in a dramatic late-night vote, after quelling a days-long revolt from a bloc of far-right conservatives to finally capture the gavel on a historic 15th attempt.McCarthy’s ascension to speaker came after 14 defeats and a string of concessions to ultraconservative lawmakers that would significantly weaken his power while strengthening their influence over the party’s new House majority. After winning over most of the holdouts earlier on Friday, McCarthy withstood a surprise defeat on the 14th ballot later that evening and finally clinched the gavel on the next round with the slimmest majority, just 216 votes, in the early hours of Saturday morning. Continue reading...

Albuquerque police say houses and workplaces of state and county politicians have been hit by gunfire over the last monthNew Mexico authorities are investigating at least five shootings apparently directed at the homes and offices of local elected officials, the Albuquerque police department said on Thursday.The shootings occurred over approximately the past month and were directed at two county commissioners, two state senators and New Mexico’s new attorney general, according to KQRE News. Continue reading...

Republicans had placed their hopes in a deal with far-right detractors, but Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert thwarted that planIn a stunning setback, Republican Kevin McCarthy failed to persuade the remaining bloc of far-right holdouts in his party to back him for speaker during a late-night vote on Friday – his 14th attempt in four days – leaving the embattled leader one vote shy of clinching the gavel.Walking onto the chamber floor, McCarthy appeared confident that the vote would be his last. But the Republican’s optimism soured when it became clear that he had once again failed to reach the threshold needed to break the impasse that has paralyzed the start of the new Congress. Continue reading...

Authorities said they had arrested the boy for shooting a female teacher at Richneck elementary school in Newport NewsA six-year-old child deliberately shot a teacher at an elementary school in Virginia on Friday afternoon, according to police.Police said in a statement that they have arrested the boy accused of shooting a female teacher at Richneck elementary school in Newport News, Virginia, a city in the south-eastern part of the state. Continue reading...

House party leader says he’s confident he has the votes after losing 13 straight rounds

Norman Pattis cannot practice in Connecticut after releasing medical records of Sandy Hook families during Infowars host’s trialA judge has suspended the license of a lawyer who was representing Alex Jones when the attorney appeared to have accidentally released sensitive court records surrounding the defamation lawsuits after the Sandy Hook school killings that the notorious conspiracy theorist lost.In a court order that she issued on Thursday, Connecticut judge Barbara Bellis suspended New Haven-based Norman Pattis from practicing law in the state for six months. Continue reading...

The president spoke with passion about police officers and election officials who held the line on the second anniversary of the attempted insurrectionJoe Biden has marked the second anniversary of the January 6 insurrection by awarding medals to heroes who “did not flinch” when the US Capitol came under attack and warning that democracy cannot be taken for granted.The US president on Friday awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal to 14 people, some posthumously, and spoke with passion – and flashes of humour – at a White House ceremony. Continue reading...

Fresh concerns raised over stripping away of measures put in place by Democrats after January 6 insurrectionTwo years after the January 6 insurrection, fresh fears are being raised over safety for lawmakers and staff at the US Capitol, especially as Republicans have stripped away some of the security measures installed in the wake of the deadly attack on Congress.House Republicans, who secured a narrow majority in the 2022 midterm elections, removed the metal detectors outside the House chamber ready for the first day of business of the 118th Congress on Tuesday 3 January. Continue reading...

In a speech at the White House, Joe Biden paid tribute to the law enforcement officers who defended the US Capitol against a violent mob of Donald Trump-incited insurrectionists two years ago

Hundreds of members of Congress gathered to pay tribute to five police officers whose deaths have been tied to the insurrectionSenior Democrats on Friday led a large and poignant gathering on the steps of the US Capitol in Washington to commemorate the “solemn day” on the second anniversary of the deadly January 6 insurrection by extremist supporters of Donald Trump.Hundreds of members of Congress paid tribute to five police officers whose deaths have been tied to the violent insurrection in 2021, as rioters overwhelmed law enforcement and broke into the Capitol at the urging of the then president, intent on stopping the official certification of his election defeat by Joe Biden. Continue reading...

Democrat Lucas Kunce says ‘I swear this coward is always running from something’ as he announces bid to challenge key RepublicanAnnouncing a run for US Senate in 2024, the populist Missouri Democrat Lucas Kunce released an ad focusing on how his prospective opponent, the Republican senator Josh Hawley, ran from the mob he encouraged on the day the US Capitol came under attack.“I’ve done a lot of running in my life,” Kunce said, over footage of a man in a ripped suit running on a country road, dropping a US flag pin. Continue reading...

Succession of powerful storms bring heavy rains and hurricane-strength winds, flooding streets and causing at least six deathsCalifornians used a brief lull in a series of brutal storms to survey the damage on Friday, while bracing for the next onslaught of extreme weather due to arrive this weekend.A succession of powerful storms have brought heavy rains and hurricane-strength winds over the past two days, knocking out power to thousands, battering the coastline, flooding streets, toppling trees and causing at least six deaths. Continue reading...

Immanuel Patton promised his mother while he was in kindergarten that they would get their degrees togetherA Maryland mother and son have both just graduated from the same university – almost two decades after a pledge the pair made to complete their degrees together.Immanuel Patton, 23, graduated alongside his mother, Carolyn, 63, last month from the University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) in Adelphi, on the outskirts of Baltimore. Continue reading...

ChatGPT tool will be forbidden across all devices and networks in public schools over ‘concerns about negative impacts on learning’New York City schools have banned ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot that generates human-like writing including essays, amid fears that students could use it to cheat.According to the city’s education department, the tool will be forbidden across all devices and networks in New York’s public schools. Jenna Lyle, a department spokesperson, said the decision stems from “concerns about negative impacts on student learning, and concerns regarding the safety and accuracy of contents”. Continue reading...

Election spectacle shows any speaker will face significant hurdles in trying to advance legislation, including must-pass billsThe House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, began the first week of the 118th Congress striking a defiant tone, insisting he would not abandon his quest for the speakership until he was declared the winner.“I have the record for the longest speech ever on the floor,” McCarthy said on Tuesday. “I don’t have a problem getting a record for the most votes for speaker, too.” Continue reading...

Financial chief James Kehoe admits company may have overstated purported problem, which fueled rightwing outrage over crimeA major US drugstore chain that supposedly experienced a surge in shoplifting last year – fanning the flames of conservative outrage over a purported spike in crime and disorder – said on Thursday that it might have overstated the problem.Walgreens’ chief financial officer, James Kehoe, said during an earnings call that “shrinkage” – the difference between a balance-sheet inventory and actual stock – had returned to lower levels after a brief rise. Retail shrinkage is largely due to theft, though some is also due to accidental damage or loss. Continue reading...

Hakeem Jeffries and Nancy Pelosi have led an emotional commemoration on the steps of the US Capitol building to mark the second anniversary of the January 6 Capitol riot.

The extreme Republicans blocking Kevin McCarthy are refusing to accept a loss – the core of the Trumpist playbookAutocrats around the world, after a pretty bad 2022, must be delighted: just in time for the second anniversary of the Capitol insurrection, the US is providing a spectacle of democratic dysfunction for stunned global audiences to behold. But the Republican faction holding the country hostage – the farthest right inside what de facto has become a far-right party – wants to convince us that this is simply what democracy looks like – messy and frustrating, but all happening for the sake of a better result in the end. The Groundhog Day-style procedures are dignified as – in the words of failed speaker of the House candidate Byron Donalds – a “deliberative, open process” necessary for the “constitutional republic that is America”.The fact is that the Republicans blocking Kevin McCarthy’s bid for speaker are not crazy when they suggest that good-faith debate within the same political party can be beneficial for a democratic polity. Except that their political performance art is really about a refusal to accept a loss – the very core of the Trumpist playbook. This is not what democracy looks like; this is what acting out a belief in minority rule looks like. Continue reading...

Lawsuit filed by Sandra Garza alleges ex-president’s ‘campaign of lies’ played a ‘significant role’ in the death of Brian SicknickThe partner of Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick, who died after the January 6 attack on Congress, has sued Donald Trump, alleging that the former president’s “campaign of lies and incendiary rhetoric” about the 2020 presidential election motivated the mob, and played a “significant role in the medical condition” that killed the officer.The lawsuit, filed in Washington DC federal court, names Trump and two other January 6 rioters who attacked Sicknick, and demands millions in damages. It was brought by Sicknick’s longtime partner, Sandra Garza, a day before the insurrection’s second anniversary. Continue reading...

The Biden administration made two moves to protect medication abortionThere have been so few victories for the pro-choice movement over the past year that women’s rights advocates can be forgiven for taking pleasure in two moves that the Biden administration made this week.The first, from the Department of Justice (DoJ), was a statement meant to push back against a legal absurdity that is gaining popularity on the anti-choice right: the idea that the 1873 Comstock Act, an archaic anti-obscenity law, prohibits the sending of abortion medication through the mail. The second was a move by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to allow mifepristone, one of the two drugs used in medication abortions, to be distributed at retail pharmacies, rather than exclusively from doctors.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Law enforcement killed at least 1,176 people or about 100 people a month last year, making it the deadliest for police violenceUS law enforcement killed at least 1,176 people in 2022, making it the deadliest year on record for police violence since experts first started tracking the killings, a new data analysis reveals.Police across the country killed an average of more than three people a day, or nearly 100 people every month last year according to Mapping Police Violence. The non-profit research group maintains a database of reported deaths at the hands of law enforcement, including people fatally shot, beaten, restrained and Tasered. Continue reading...

Ahead of a high-stakes presidential election next year, American democracy will face another testIn 2022, America’s democracy survived an enormous test.As a movement to sow doubt about American elections grew – fomented by Donald Trump’s false claims about the 2020 race – the 2022 election ran largely smoothly. Eligible votes were counted and the valid winners of contests were seated in office. Continue reading...

Impasse over choosing House speaker continues as Republican falls short of votes held up by his detractors. Plus, an expert’s tips for better sleepGood morning.Despite House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy entering the third day of voting for House speaker with fresh momentum for his candidacy, the 118th Congress made history again yesterday, as he failed to win for the 11th time after eight hours of voting.Who are the hardline House members voting against McCarthy? A group of about 20 hardline Republicans have brought Washington to a standstill. They include Pennsylvania’s Scott Perry, who is the chair of the caucus, Florida’s Byron Donalds, Texas Republican Chip Roy and Lauren Boebert, who has expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy theory.What did Bowers Bowers tell the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection? He said that shortly after the November 2020 election he had received a phone call personally from Trump, who asked him to take the state’s 11 electoral college votes away from Biden and hand them to him. Bowers replied: “Look, you’re asking me to do something that is counter to my oath … I will not do it.” Continue reading...

Climate disasters continue to ravage our country – more international aid is urgently needed to save millions from misery

Rusty Bowers is one of 12 people who took risks to protect US democracy who will be honored on anniversary of January 6Rusty Bowers, the former top Republican in Arizona’s house of representatives who stood up to Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and was punished for it by being unseated by his own party, is to receive America’s second-highest civilian honor on Friday.Bowers will be among 12 people who will be awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by Joe Biden at the White House at a ceremony to mark the second anniversary of the 6 January 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol. It will be the first time that the president has presented the honor, which is reserved for those who have “performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens”. Continue reading...

There’s plenty to play for as the NFL wraps up its regular season on Saturday and Sunday. Here’s a primer for the games that will decide the last remaining playoff spotsWith the final week of the NFL regular season kicking off on Saturday and continuing into Sunday, the postseason picture remains incomplete. Here’s a primer for the games that will decide the last remaining playoff berths: Continue reading...