US news | The Guardian

Monica Laso survives ordeal on Heavenly gondola in California ski resort, where temperatures fell to 23F (-5C)A snowboarder visiting a California resort survived freezing temperatures after accidentally getting stuck in a gondola overnight.Monica Laso's story, as she told it to NBC affiliate KCRA, vividly illustrated how suddenly and unexpectedly leisure trips can turn into near-death experiences. Continue reading...

Shane Pryor, 17, awaiting trial over October 2020 homicide, escaped from Children's hospital of Philadelphia last weekA teenager awaiting trial in a homicide case who escaped outside a Philadelphia hospital last week was captured on Sunday - with a handcuff key in one of his pockets, police said.The key that Shane Pryor had on him at the time of his arrest is used to get out of restraints. But there is no evidence he ever used it, said Robert Clark of the US Marshals Service, who caught Pryor, according to the local news outlet WTXF. Continue reading...

War memorials might be set in stone, but the debate to bring back conscription only serves those who shamelessly peddle the sacrifice of others as their ownEvery morning, unless someone's vomited in my path, I walk between two war memorials. One is extremely fancy and timeless: a clocktower of Portland stone, the perfectly typeset names of local residents killed between 1914 and 1919. I sometimes look reflexively for a Williams, then remember that there are always a bunch of us, none related to me: the only notable person in my lineage to die in the first world war was my grandmother's true love, in grief for whom she married my grandfather, who was a notorious prick.On the other side is a garish, funny-looking building, squat and round, with a mural in memory of Violette Szabo, the British-French spy who died at the hands of the Nazis in Ravensbruck in 1945, aged 23. There's a painting of Roger Moore, looking nothing like himself, round the other side. The theme isn't so much war heroes" as people who lived round here and were good", and the stark contrast in dignity with its neighbouring memorial is in direct inverse proportion to the dignity of the memorialised. Szabo fought fascism of her own volition and, until the final three weeks of her life, was the resistance movement's constant source of buoyancy and hope. By contrast, most of the Williams upon Wilsons upon Smiths upon Crumplers were called up to fight a war that, meh, let's just say if the political-military-industrial complex that started it had been contractually required to go over the top first, they might have found another way to resolve their differences. Continue reading...

Kevin Howell, former town manager for community of 2,870 people, was crossing pond with his son when they fell inA small town in Maine is grieving after one of its top government officials died while lifting his son out of an icy pond into which they both fell.Kevin Howell's colleagues and neighbors have since hailed the late father as a hero whose ultimate sacrifice saved the life of his four-year-old boy, Sawyer. Continue reading...

The Liverpool and Barcelona bosses announced they will walk away from the their clubs at the of the season citing exhaustion

Gambling giant hails America as its natural home' and proposes primary listing in New York as US sports betting business surgesOne of the world's largest gambling companies listed in New York on Monday, describing the stock exchange as its natural home" amid the US's online sports betting boom.Flutter Entertainment, owner of FanDuel, promptly announced that it will go a step further - and switch its primary listing from London, where it is right now, to New York - as soon as practicable". Continue reading...

Officials give details of how Kaitlin Armstrong, convicted over murder of Anna Wilson in 2022, was arrested in Costa RicaUS authorities have revealed that they captured the convicted killer of professional cyclist Anna Moriah Wilson with a clever ruse: by placing an advertisement on social media purportedly seeking a yoga instructor, which in turn lured the fugitive out of hiding.Investigators with the US Marshals Service came up with the ad idea while on an international manhunt for Kaitlin Armstrong, a former yoga instructor who had fled to Costa Rica after killing the 25-year-old Wilson in May 2022 in Austin, Texas, according to newly released information on the case reported Sunday by the CBS News show 48 Hours. Continue reading...

The US president is under immense pressure to hit back at Iranian-backed militias, but that would be a disasterThe unprecedented Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel on 7 October set a fuse burning under the entire Middle East. Now the fearsome, figurative mega-bomb to which that fuse is ultimately attached - direct conflict between the US and Iran - may be about to explode, with devastating consequences.With every day that Israel's illegal bombardment of Gaza continues, with every new estimate of the tens of thousands of Palestinian dead, a huge detonation edges closer. From the Red Sea to Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, an escalating, four-month spiral of violence, principally involving pro-Palestinian, Iran-backed militias, has been inexorably building.Simon Tisdall is a foreign affairs commentator. He has been a foreign leader writer, foreign editor and US editor for the Guardian Continue reading...

Luxury vehicles, production cuts and soaring insurance prices have sent the cost of US car ownership out of controlAt the start of the pandemic, Ceola Luna, a 45-year-old Lyft driver in Los Angeles, bought a 2005 Saturn Vue crossover, after her new Dodge Caravan (a minivan) was wrecked in a crash. The Vue wasn't nearly as nice, but it was affordable at $4,000 - including rust, engine issues, and a dashboard full of warning lights.With no other income to support herself and three children, driving was an economic lifeline for Luna. But much of what she made ended up going to car mechanics as the small SUV kept breaking down. Then last year, Lyft informed Luna that her Vue had gotten too old for the platform, leaving her jobless. So she scrambled to find a new gig as a care worker for autistic children, and then the car failed again. To save up for another mechanic appointment, Luna has been taking the bus to her clients - sapping her earnings with hours of unpaid commute time. Continue reading...

Congresswoman declined to accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza, but said large amounts of Americans' believe it's the right termAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday declined to join critics who accuse Israel of genocide in its actions in Gaza, but said American society should not toss someone out of our public discourse" for doing so.Following the International Court of Justice's order to Israel to work to prevent genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza, the Democratic Representative from New York argued on Meet the Press that large amounts of Americans" think genocide" is the right term for what is happening in Gaza. Continue reading...

Plaintiffs say redrawn Michigan maps have destroyed voting bloc but Democratic colleagues call effort Republican power grab'A lawsuit brought by Black Democrats who partnered with Republican attorneys has undone Michigan's first independently drawn legislative maps, in a development some other Democrats have labeled a GOP power grab".Republicans for decades controlled all or part of the state legislature, and developed districts that a judge in 2019 characterized as a gerrymander of historical proportions". Democrats in 2022 took control of the state government for the first time in over 40 years after a nonpartisan independent redistricting commission implemented more balanced maps. Continue reading...

Detroit Lions had a 24-7 lead at half-time of the NFC Championship Game but ultimately were not able to secure the win. The San Francisco 49ers scored 17 points in an eight-minute span of the third quarter to tie the game and then pulled away in the fourth to beat the Lions 34-31 and reach the Super Bowl. Brock Purdy's 51-yard pass that deflected off a defender's facemask into Aiyuk's hands was a key moment in helping the Niners rally.Reflecting on the game, Lions quarterback Jared Goff admitted: "It's hard to juggle those two emotions of being proud of what we've done this year and dealing with the heartache of the loss." The Lions' emotional head coach Dan Campbell added: "You feel like you get your heart ripped out."

Iran says it had nothing to do with attack near Syrian border, after US president says Washington will respond at a time and in a manner of our choosing'. Plus, psychologists on the appeal of Donald TrumpGood morning.The specter of a direct US-Iranian military conflict drew closer yesterday when Joe Biden announced that three US service personnel had been killed and more than 34 injured in a drone attack on a US service base on the border of Jordan and Syria. Biden blamed Iranian-backed militia based mainly in Iraq for the despicable" attack and vowed revenge.What happened during the attack? Four separate drone strikes had been fired at three US bases, and the US is investigating why the T-22 base's defence mechanism did not repel this one. Many of the American service personnel wounded received traumatic brain injuries. An official said the drone struck near the barracks early in the morning, which would explain the high number of casualties.What's happening in Gaza? The Gaza Strip is facing inevitable famine" because of the decision by western countries to pause funding for the UN's agency for Palestinian affairs after Israeli accusations that 12 of the group's employees took part in the Hamas attack on 7 October. Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, said yesterday that famine was imminent and now inevitable.What did Chemours do after the order? The mandate prompted Chemours to invest $100m on air emission controls, including a thermal oxidizer it bills as world-class" technology allegedly capable of destroying PFAS, which are widely considered to be impossible to eliminate on an industrial scale. Continue reading...

Liberal hawks like Michael McFaul, Max Boot and Anne Applebaum are quick to denounce Russian aggression but ignore Israeli crimesOn 7 January, Anne Applebaum, a historian and a staff writer at the Atlantic, retweeted a video of Russian missiles striking a Ukrainian hospital. Three days later, former US ambassador Michael McFaul, a Stanford professor and contributing columnist at the Washington Post, approvingly tweeted a sign demanding that Vladimir Putin be sent to the Hague. On 15 January, Post columnist Max Boot reminded readers that, according to the United Nations, Russia has killed more than 10,000 civilians in Ukraine.These expressions of outrage were entirely justified. What makes them odd is that more than three months into the war in Gaza, Applebaum has still not acknowledged on X (formerly known as Twitter), where she comments frequently, that Israel has attacked hospitals there. She has not done so despite a Washington Post investigation in December that found that Israel has conducted repeated and widespread airstrikes in proximity to hospitals", thus contributing to a public health catastrophe in which, according to the World Health Organization, only 15 of Gaza's 36 hospitals remain even partly functional. Continue reading...

Abortion is a crucial issue in this election - and a powerful motivator for voters. Yet the president is still tiptoeing around itFor years, the beltway set had a standard line of advice for Democratic candidates: stick to the economy. The idea was that white, male, blue-collar voters - those magical creatures, somewhere out there in the windswept lands of the upper midwest, who always qualify in the pundit imagination as real Americans" - would be turned off by so-called culture-war issues.These guys, we were told, didn't want to hear about civil rights or social equality: they wanted to hear about economic growth. According to this advice, Democrats could be pro-choice, pro-racial justice, or pro-LGBTQ rights, but not openly, avowedly so. They had to play their progressive social positions in a minor key.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Alleged abuse survivors at People of Praise worry Michael Coney may block group's handling of sexual abuse from becoming publicSurvivors of alleged childhood abuse inside the People of Praise, a secretive Christian sect that counts Amy Coney Barrett as a member, are voicing concerns that the supreme court justice's father, who was recently promoted to a new role, may seek to block information about the group's historic handling of sexual abuse becoming public.Barrett, a conservative justice who was appointed by former US president Donald Trump, has never publicly disclosed her participation in the coveted Christian community, which some former members have compared to a cult.For tips on this story please contact: Stephanie.Kirchgaessner@theguardian.com Continue reading...

The wealthy seem to love showing off their houses in all their World of Interiors glory. But they're playing with fireA startling discovery in the Atlantic: apparently not closing your curtains, or not even having any, is a status symbol. Americans who earn more than $150,000 are almost twice as likely to leave windows uncovered as those making $20,000 to $29,000," the article explained, quoting US Department of Energy research, and highlighting examples of the affluent curtainless (Patagonia-rocking and $28-cheeseburgers-served-in-mason-jars-eating herds" is one withering description of the uncurtained demographic).But have you ever bought curtains? They're viciously expensive. In everywhere I have ever lived, if the previous occupants have been kind enough to leave any, we've kept them for precisely this reason, regardless of style. Cerise padded satin? Giant swirls? Yes, and yes, with heartfelt thanks. Surely having and closing curtains, showing off your pricey blackout and thermal linings, is more of a statement?Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Ayat, which has faced hate since 7 October, fed a packed room of people dancing, praying and breaking challah breadOn Friday night in Brooklyn, the kitchen of the Palestinian restaurant Ayat brought out platter after platter of stewed lamb and piles of delicate rice for a line of people wrapped past the grocery next door.Everyone and their bubbie is here," a graduate student said, bumping into friends from leftist, progressive, and queer communities. Continue reading...

My wife once pointed out that my white shirts were grey. Now, the way I dress brings joy - to me and to other peopleA year or so ago, I was about to go out to a drinks party with my wife, when she said: You do realise that shirt's dead, don't you?" I was wearing a clean, ironed number, I pointed out. But my wife explained that death was a syndrome particularly likely to affect white shirts, as she took me to my wardrobe and showed me that all but one of my four white shirts had irreversibly lost their snowy glow. Look at them," she urged. They're grey. You might as well chuck them out."I was, at the time, approaching 60, and my wife's shirt critique felt particularly pertinent in that context. Mindful of the looming milestone, she had been proposing a series of prescriptions for me, including not drinking four glasses of wine every day, doing pilates and resuming learning French (which I had given up in protest against reflexive verbs). While I acknowledged that all those things might benefit me, I pointed out that they would also make me miserable. When it came to the shirts, though, and clothes generally, I saw her point.Andrew Martin's latest book is Metropolitain: An Ode to the Paris Metro Continue reading...

Detroit had a 24-7 lead at half-time of the NFC Championship Game, and still lost. But they should have no regrets about the aggression that took them that farIn the end, Dan Campbell and the Detroit Lions lost the only way they know how: playing aggressively.Detroit held a 24-7 lead over the San Francisco 49ers at half-time of the NFC Championship Game on Sunday. In less than a quarter, that lead had vanished. Even by the Lions' standards, this was a special kind of Lion-ing. Continue reading...

If you thought his first term was bad, brace for a White House that abandons Ukraine, emboldens Putin and encourages the far rightAs Donald Trump romps to the Republican nomination for the next presidential race, there is justified anxiety among the US's European allies about his return to the White House. It is all but certain that 2024 will see a rerun of Joe Biden v Trump. Europe needs to prepare for the possibility of a second Trump presidency.The last one was traumatic for Europe. This was not really for policy reasons. There were policy divisions such as Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. But transatlantic policy tensions are hardly new: there have been times - the US-led war in Iraq in 2003 for example - when the rift was deeper.Nathalie Tocci is a Guardian Europe columnist Continue reading...

Iranian backed militia took credit for attack that injured 34 troops and killed first US soldiers since start of Gaza conflictThe spectre of a direct US-Iranian military conflict drew closer on Sunday when the US president Joe Biden announced three US servicemen had been killed and more than 34 injured following a drone attack on a US service base on the border of Jordan and Syria. Biden blamed Iranian-backed militia mainly based in Iraq for the despicable" attack and vowed revenge.Responsibility for Saturday's attack on Tower 22, a military outpost on the Jordanian Syrian Iraqi borders was claimed by the Iranian backed umbrella group Islamic Resistance, and the US made no attempt to disguise its belief that Iran was ultimately responsible. Continue reading...

NYPD body camera footage shows city council member Yusef Salaam being stopped, renewing light on police transparency billNew York city council member Yusef Salaam, a member of the exonerated group of men known as the Central Park Five, says he was stopped and pulled over by police without being given an explanation.The police stop in New York City on Friday casts a renewed light on a police transparency bill, called the How Many Stops Act, that city council members are set to vote on Tuesday to override mayor Eric Adams' veto. It would require officers to publicly report on all investigative stops, including relatively low-level encounters with civilians. Continue reading...

GOP plans to advance two articles against Alejandro Mayorkas towards a full House vote despite lacking evidence of wrongdoingRepublicans published two articles of impeachment against homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday, and plan to formally advance them on Tuesday towards a full House vote, despite two hearings failing to produce any evidence of his wrongdoing.The politically charged move comes amid a raging battle in Washington DC over immigration, with a senior Democrat announcing Sunday that senators had reached a bipartisan agreement to tighten border security, even as Donald Trump took credit for likely sinking it. Continue reading...

To avoid the charge of complicity in genocide, the US administration must step up measures to restrain IsraelAfter more than three months of Israel's merciless assault on Gaza, Friday's judgment from the international court of justice (ICJ) has come as some vindication for the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped in the hell that the enclave has become. Fifteen out of 17 jurists, legal experts from around the world, found it plausible that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians.But this is not the first time Israel has been accused of genocide - and what happened last time is instructive. In 1982, the UN general assembly found Israel responsible for an act of genocide against the Palestinian people living in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut, Lebanon. The vote was 123 to 0. The US abstained. The three days of killings, of mostly women and children, were overseen by Ariel Sharon, a man who would later become Israel's prime minister. Though an Israeli independent commission found Sharon indirectly responsible for the massacre, no one was ever held to account. Continue reading...

The case brought by South Africa was weak, but the judgment may encourage Israel's allies to push for a change of tacticsThedecision by the international court of justice (ICJ) to issue provisional measures in the case brought by South Africa against Israel on the basis of the genocide convention came as no shock to most longtime observers of the court. Although most of the evidence presented by South Africa in support of its claims that Israel is violating the convention was merely circumstantial in nature (relying heavily on inferences drawn from the high death toll in Gaza, the dire humanitarian situation on the ground and statements by Israeli officials which could be read as eliminationist in nature), most judges were not willing to determine, at this early stage of the proceedings, that the case was implausible.In fact, only two judges (Julia Sebutinde from Uganda and Aharon Barak from Israel) were ready to accept Israel's position: that Hamas's extensive use of human shields, the harm mitigation efforts by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the causal disconnect between the aggressive statements uttered by Israeli politicians and the actual cabinet directives provided to the IDF, rendered the South African genocide case implausible. Continue reading...

Well done, all the new mothers who cram a full day's work into their child's nap time. But let's not pretend it's easyI might be particularly attuned to this stuff, but I feel I'm always reading about women - mothers - I admire powering triumphantly through the very real obstacles of early parenthood, creating and innovating in nap times, evenings and early mornings. Though time for writing is now more scarce - she mentions the in between' moments snatched in the car and the office - motherhood has made her a better writer'." That's a recent interview with the author Kiley Reid. A Vogue article on motherhood and creativity last year had several examples: I found motivation and grit I had never felt before," one interviewee announced; another wrote her first book between the hours of 4am and 6am during the first two years of her daughter's life". Caitlin Moran expands on the idea at length in How to Be a Woman: In the tiny windows of time that your child is asleep or someone else is looking after her, you find yourself becoming almost superhumanly productive. Give a new mother a sleeping child for an hour, and she can achieve 10 times more than a childless person."These women aren't boasting; they're exploring some variation on How do you do it?" or How has being a parent influenced your work?" (questions almost never asked of fathers). It's a vital corrective to the long-held assumption that a working mother is less-than, distracted and conflicted; to what Vogue called the common perception that once a woman has a baby, she will automatically have no time or energy left for writing" (or for whatever her job is).Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The president is flirting with the pro-natalist far right, even as parliament debates whether to enshrine pro-choice lawsFrance needs babies. During a press conference on 16 January, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, pledged to tackle the scourge of infertility and offered enhanced parental childbirth leave" as part of his demographic rearmament" plan to revive the country's declining birthrate.While his goals may be commendable, Macron's rhetoric sounds alarmingly close to that of authoritarian and rightwing populist leaders who have been aggressively pursuing pro-natalist policies in recent years. After all, Vladimir Putin recently urged Russian women to have eight or more children" as he seeks to reverse the decades of population decline that have only been exacerbated by heavy casualties in Ukraine.Cecile Simmons is an investigative researcher at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), focusing on dis/misinformation, online subcultures, women's rights and wellness Continue reading...

Trump's ascension to the helm of the Republican party undid progress Democrats had made in winning the trust of voters in rural areas nationwideDuring the eight years he served in the Iowa state Senate, Tod Bowman was a self-described door knocker", trekking to the front porches and patios of constituents in the rural counties he represented to appeal for votes.They would, in turn, tell Bowman, a moderate Democrat, of their concerns - that government assistance programs amounted to a handout", that too many undocumented migrants were entering the country, that Barack Obama, the president for much of Bowman's time in office, was planning to take their guns away. Occasionally, whoever opened the door would start interrogating Bowman before he even finished introducing himself. Continue reading...

Dr Art Van Zee set out in the early 2000s to tell anyone who would listen how a powerful opioid was destroying lives. Two decades later, he's still in disbeliefWhen Dr Art Van Zee finally understood the scale of the disaster looming over his corner of rural Virginia, he naively imagined the drug industry would be just as alarmed.So the longest serving doctor in the struggling former mining town of St Charles set out in the early 2000s to tell pharmaceutical executives, federal regulators, Congress and anyone else who would listen that the arrival of a powerful new opioid painkiller was destroying lives and families, and laying the ground for a much bigger catastrophe. Continue reading...

Twenty-five civil war and Reconstruction scholars support invoking 14th amendment to bar Trump from ballot over January 6Twenty-five historians of the civil war and Reconstruction filed a US supreme court brief in support of the attempt by Colorado to remove Donald Trump from the ballot under the 14th amendment, which bars insurrectionists from running for office.For historians," the group wrote, contemporary evidence from the decision-makers who sponsored, backed, and voted for the 14th amendment [ratified in 1868] is most probative. Analysis of this evidence demonstrates that decision-makers crafted section three to cover the president and to create an enduring check on insurrection, requiring no additional action from Congress." Continue reading...

Prosecutors allege Rebecca Grossman, 60, was speeding when she hit brothers Mark Iskander, 11, and Jakob Iskander, eightMore than three years ago, a Los Angeles socialite allegedly fatally struck two young boys as they were crossing the street. Now a jury will decide whether Rebecca Grossman is guilty of second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run driving.This week jurors heard opening statements in the long-awaited trial of Grossman for the deaths of brothers Mark Iskander, 11, and Jacob Iskander, eight. Continue reading...

At issue is whether potential vice-presidents, from Elise Stefanik to Tim Scott, could assume control - and whether Trump caresThe last person who occupied the job of US vice-president ended up the target of a violent mob calling for him to be hanged. Even so, as Donald Trump closes in on the Republican nomination for 2024, there is no shortage of contenders eager to be his deputy.It is safe to assume that Mike Pence, who was Trump's running mate in 2016 and 2020, will not get the job this time. His refusal to comply with his boss's demand to overturn the last election caused a permanent rift and made Pence a perceived traitor and target of the January 6 insurrectionists. Continue reading...

British politicians are deluding themselves if they think that the so-called special relationship' will protect usA spectre is haunting Europe - the spectre of Donald Trump. In London, Paris, Berlin and every other significant European capital, bar Moscow, the horror sequel no one sane wants to see is Trump - The Return: No more Mr Nice Guy".Having spent the last three years being much too nonchalant about the threat of him recapturing the White House, British politicians and their counterparts elsewhere in Europe can no longer deny to themselves that a Trump second coming is terrifyingly possible. The shock is the sharper for having been preceded by so much complacency. His defeat by Joe Biden in 2020 was greeted with a huge exhalation of relief that the United States was back under the leadership of an Atlanticist who believed in the US's traditional alliances with other democracies and didn't deny the existence of the climate crisis. Welcome back America!" whooped the mayor of Paris in a typically euphoric reaction. It didn't occur to enough people in Europe's leadership that all Biden's victory promised was a four-year breather, not a guarantee that we would never see Trumpism empowered again. Time that might have been spent preparing for that possibility by making the UK and the rest of Europe less dependent on America for the security of our continent has been woefully wasted. Continue reading...

A tribunal has attacked Open University staff for waging a campaign of harassment against herSometimes the people around you scramble reality to turn up into down, black into white and open into closed. That's how ProfJoPhoenix must have felt when she was subjected to what the courts described last week as a targeted campaign of harassment" from her colleagues that was facilitated by her employer, the Open University, in a way that shut down her academic freedom and caused a judge to find she was constructively dismissed.What put a mark on her back was her view, shared by a majority of people and enshrined in law, that whether someone is male or female is a matter of reality, not belief, and that someone's gender identity, or belief about their sex, cannot supersede their actual sex for all purposes in society. That's what paved the way for her fellow academics to miscast the harassed as harasser, and for her university's management to delude themselves that by turning a blind eye to bullying they were protecting free expression, when they were really undermining Phoenix's ability to exercise just that. Continue reading...

A new study suggests a fashionable hobby could help with hot flushes and other symptomsIn a climate that often feels hostile to middle-aged women, maybe it's a sign of progress that an only faintly convincing contribution on menopause management can become, as one did last week, a cause for national rejoicing.That's if it doesn't just confirm suspicions that, where women's health is concerned, any visionary, antique or drug-repudiating theory can still become mainstream. So long as NHS clinicians congratulate women for enduring, say, medieval-style childbirth, maybe it isn't surprising to find an appreciative audience for a new study advocating, for hot flushes and othermenopausal symptoms, cold-water swimming: therapy not strikingly advanced from the cold-bathing regime propounded by a SirJohn Floyer in 1702. Continue reading...

The verdict in the manslaughter trial over the 2016 death of Saints star Will Smith brings to a close a turbulent eight years of legal wranglingEver since the New Orleans tow-truck company owner Cardell Hayes shot the retired local pro-football champion Will Smith to death and wounded the former athlete's wife on a city street late on the night of 9 April 2016, people on all sides of the case have made it as complicated as possible in their fight for what they consider to be justice.It is a case that has gripped south-eastern Louisiana - where football players are huge celebrities - and also involved dark, if unsupported, allegations of another deep south staple: police corruption. Competing theories and narratives have vied for supremacy, with almost as many different ideas of what happened as people willing to voice them.Ramon Antonio Vargas covered the New Orleans Saints in 2013 and 2014 at the New Orleans Advocate and also covered the case of Hayes and Smith before joining the Guardian in 2022. Continue reading...

In the state that is now first on the Democratic primaries calendar, the president offers fresh assurances he would be willing to close down the US-Mexico borderFour years ago, Democrats in South Carolina - and Black Democrats in particular - effectively cleared the field for President Joe Biden's nomination, ending what might have otherwise been a rowdy primary campaign for the right to face Donald Trump.At a Democratic Party dinner Saturday in Columbia, SC, celebrating South Carolina's new status as the first Democratic primary state, Biden returned to thank them for it, one week before voters head to the polls. Continue reading...

More than 40 vehicles involved in collisions on Chesapeake Bay Bridge starting at 8am, says local transportation authoritySeveral crashes involving more than 40 vehicles occurred on Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Maryland on Saturday, injuring 13 people and forcing temporary closures.In several announcements on X throughout Saturday morning, the Maryland transportation authority said that all lanes had been closed following a multivehicle crash on westbound lanes and warned of major delays. According to the MDTA, its police dispatch received initial calls of the crash at 8am. Continue reading...

An anonymous person gave Haley's address in South Carolina after calling 911 and reporting a fake killingNewly reviewed records show that presidential hopeful Nikki Haley was the target of a swatting incident in late December when an anonymous person called 911 claiming to have killed his girlfriend at Haley's South Carolina home.Authorities responded to a call on 30 December from a person who said he had shot his girlfriend and was threatening to harm himself, giving Haley's address to the operator. It was shortly deemed a fake emergency, Reuters reported. Haley and her son were not at home during the time of the call; her husband was overseas. Continue reading...