US news | The Guardian

What healthy habits did I take up in 2022? I’m racking my brain, searching for scraps of self-improvement, but I’ve had a hard time finding anyIt’s humblebragging season. Around this time of year newspapers are stuffed to the brim with articles about what so-and-so achieved in 2022 and what they hope to achieve in 2023. They read a book a day! They gave up alcohol! They gave up social media! They took up wild swimming!Me? I did none of those things. Especially not wild swimming, which is a peculiarly British obsession. There’s nothing Brits love more than turning something objectively miserable into a hobby. Long muddy walks, beans on toast, swimming in freezing cold lakes: if it’s damp and vaguely masochistic, Brits are all over it.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Rebecca Scofield said a TikTok user spread baseless and false claims linking her to the November slayings of four studentsA University of Idaho professor has filed a defamation lawsuit against a self-proclaimed psychic on TikTok after the tarot card reader accused her of killing four of the school’s students, whose murders shocked the US last month.The federal lawsuit filed by the university’s history department chair Rebecca Scofield on Wednesday alleges that TikTok user Ashley Guillard spread baseless claims which falsely linked the professor to the 13 November slayings of Xana Kernodle, 20; Ethan Chapin, 20; Maddie Mogen, 21; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, in Moscow, Idaho. Continue reading...

Police say the shooting involved a married couple – an unidentified man fatally shot a woman before killing himselfPolice in Thornton, Colorado, say they found two adults dead after investigating a suspected murder-suicide at a Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall on Christmas morning.Officers in the suburb north of Denver tweeted at 10.30am Sunday that they were investigating a homicide at the gathering place but that “there [was] no active threat”. Continue reading...

Officials warn the number of deaths might rise, while a quarter of a million people in the US have no electricityThe monstrous Arctic storm that has gripped most of the continental US over the Christmas holiday continued to batter the northern city of Buffalo, New York, on Sunday, as freezing temperatures trailing across the nation created what forecasters called a “potentially life-threatening hazard”.Twenty-eight deaths attributed to the weather have been recorded across the nation, with officials warning that the number of fatalities would probably rise as “the Arctic air enveloping much of the eastern two-thirds of the US would be slow to moderate”. Continue reading...

Three buses of Central and South American migrants arrived to the vice-president’s home from TexasThree busloads of migrants were dropped off outside the Washington DC home of US vice-president Kamala Harris late on Christmas Eve, the latest episode in an escalating battle between the Joe Biden White House and the governors of southern Republican states over federal immigration policy.The Central and South American migrants, believed to be sent from Texas, were dropped off in below-freezing temperatures, with some wearing only sweatshirts and shorts. Continue reading...

The democratic magic of six strings, two hands and an electric current – a means of self-expression as perfect as it has ever beenIn the world of music, two of this year’s seemingly endless losses happened within a fortnight of each other. Both led to outpourings

These types of restrictions serve a purpose, at least for some companies of a particular size – otherwise, let workers go where they pleaseOnce upon a time a business would hire an employee and make them sign an employment agreement which would include a “non-compete” clause – a pro-business protection that serves one objective: prohibiting an employee from working for a competitor.But in a period when employers are fighting for talent, workers have the upper hand and the tide is turning. Joe Biden, for one, is not a fan of non-compete clauses. Continue reading...

It’s going to be a painful year for many business owners. But there is good news – this won’t last for everMost small businesses in the US will continue to grapple with a slower economy, inflation, supply chain challenges and labor shortages next year. But our biggest problem will be interest rates. Rates rose sharply in 2022 – in 2023 those rates are going to hurt.As recently as March, the federal funds rate, which is the rate the Federal Reserve charges banks for its money, was 0.25%. Now it’s 4.33%. During the same period of time, and because of this increase in the cost of doing business, the average prime rate at most banks has risen from 3.25% in March to 7% today. Continue reading...

The legislation aims to end the ‘puppy mill-to-pet store pipeline’ for abusive breeders of dogs, cats and rabbitsAnimal welfare advocates in New York are heralding the recent approval of a statewide law that prohibits the sale of dogs, cats and rabbits at retail pet stores to “end the puppy mill-to-pet store pipeline and stop abusive breeders” and help more stray and abandoned pets find homes.The law, which goes into effect in 2024, will not outright bar pet shops from having four-legged friends on display as retailers may charge rescue organizations rent to present ready-to-adopt companion animals. But it has been hailed as a major achievement for animal welfare by its backers. Continue reading...

Chairman of militia group and four others are charged with seditious conspiracy related to Capitol insurrectionThe January 6 committee investigating the attack on the Capitol may have issued its huge final report, but the wheels of the justice system in the US are grinding on and one of the most high-profile trials emerging from the insurrection is about to begin in earnest.Jury selection began last week with the seditious conspiracy trial against ex-Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio and four others involved in the far-right, often violent militia group. Continue reading...

When the original Santa for the majority-Black Seventh Ward died a new one stepped into his boots, inspired by his memoryFor Theron Murphy, the only thing cooler than taking pictures as a child with a Santa Claus who – like him – was Black was eventually getting the jolly guy’s blessing to carry on his spirit. Murphy, 33, was among the generations of children taken by their parents to Dennis Photofinish studio at the corner of St Bernard Avenue and North Tonti Street in New Orleans’s majority-Black Seventh Ward neighborhood to have their portrait taken with the man countless folks in the city simply knew affectionately by his preferred nickname: “Chocolate Santa”.Chocolate Santa for most of the year was school bus driver Fred Parker. But when the holidays rolled around, Parker transformed into Chocolate – or Seventh Ward – Santa, complete with the traditional red suit and hat. He sat patiently listening to wishes for toys and other Christmas miracles at the portrait studio or at the schools, daycares, hospitals, markets and malls he visited during “the most wonderful time of the year” for nearly five decades. Continue reading...

I wouldn’t have been surprised to find this delivery company was running the country – it would explain a lot

FDA regulators to change packaging labels to make clear pill will not work if person is already pregnantThe US Food and Drug Administration has announced it will change packaging labels for the emergency contraceptive Plan B, to specify that it is not an abortion pill.According to many anti-abortion activists, any form of disruption to an egg is considered an abortion. Continue reading...

America’s top health official, a cult figure for millions, has advised seven US presidents – but will he speak freely about Trump’s response to coronavirus?Dr Anthony Fauci speaks to the Guardian via Zoom a couple of hours before his leaving do, marking the end of a 54-year career at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).“That’s going to be done according to all public health guidelines,” America’s top public health official, wearing dark suit, blue shirt and blue-and-white polka dot tie, is quick to add. “People with masks and people online and people dialling in through Zoom, so it’s not going to be the classical party.” Continue reading...

More than 60% of US faces winter weather warnings, with temperatures drastically below normal in many placesA wild winter storm enveloped much of the US on Saturday, bringing blizzards, freezing rain, flooding and intense cold close to record lows. More than a dozen deaths were attributed to the storm. Holiday travel and utilities were disrupted, with around 1.4 million homes and businesses left without power by late afternoon.Forecasters said the storm, a “bomb cyclone” or “bombogenesis”, was caused by a collision of cold, dry air from the north and warm, moist air from the south. Continue reading...

Trump supporter has refused to concede to Democrat Katie Hobbs but Maricopa judge says no evidence of misconductA judge on Saturday threw out Republican Kari Lake’s challenge of her defeat in the Arizona governor’s race to the Democrat Katie Hobbs, rejecting her claim that problems with ballot printers at some polling places on election day were the result of intentional misconduct.The Maricopa county superior court judge, Peter Thompson, who was appointed by then-Republican governor Jan Brewer, said the court did not find clear and convincing evidence of the widespread misconduct Lake alleged affected the result of the 2022 election. Lake will appeal, she said. Continue reading...

Republicans rail against pandemic-era rule as 226 House members from left to far right take chance not to vote in personRashida Tlaib of Michigan, one of two Democrats to oppose the $1.7tn spending bill that averted a US government shutdown on Friday, did so by voting “present”. But Tlaib was not present at the Capitol, voting instead by proxy.Proxy voting was instituted during the Covid pandemic and is due to come to an end on 3 January, in the new Congress with Republicans controlling the House. Continue reading...

Delays and processing problems mean turmoil for arrivals from South and Central America seeking a better life in the USAfter walking around downtown for hours, two young Colombian men stood across from the El Paso Chihuahuas baseball team’s stadium, looking for a shelter that immigration officials had mentioned.A security guard who didn’t speak Spanish grasped their need and pointed towards the convention center. Continue reading...

North American Aerospace Defense Command has sought to reassure nation’s children since 1955The US military agency known for tracking Santa Claus as he delivers presents on Christmas Eve does not expect Covid-19 or the “bomb cyclone” winter storm affecting large parts of North America to affect present delivery.The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or Norad, is responsible for monitoring and defending the skies above North America. Continue reading...

Mark Woodley was sent by Iowa TV station to report on the bitterly cold conditions – and he did not like it that muchAs a huge winter storm battered the US, a short-staffed TV station in Waterloo, Iowa dispatched a sports reporter to describe the scene outside.Footage of Mark Woodley’s increasingly stressed video reports for KWWL, from a bitterly cold and snow-covered highway, duly went viral, registering 27m views by Saturday. Continue reading...

It’s always a busy time of year for couples therapists like myself, but there are ways to protect your relationship from the stressA few weeks ago, I received my first Christmas card from a carpet-cleaning company I sometimes use. A garish green and red, I opened it to read: May the Joy of Family Light Up Your Christmas, followed by the suggestion that I might like to “freshen” up my carpets for the coming seasonal guests.This card, which was selling the idea that family is the true spirit of Christmas and the source of all happiness has, of course, some truth in it. But it’s no great secret that the festive season can also place big demands on our most intimate relationships.Susanna Abse is a couples psychotherapist and author of Tell Me the Truth About Love Continue reading...

Musk’s cult-like fans haven’t entirely lost faith in their leader yet, but it’s getting a lot harder for him to keep up his imageI hate it when I have to do this but here goes: I was wrong. I was very, very wrong. Back in October, when Elon Musk’s $44bn acquisition of Twitter was finalized, I predicted that the social network would become a lot nastier but ultimately keep chugging along. I assumed Musk had a couple of brain cells and a little self-restraint; I assumed he wasn’t going to drive away Twitter’s advertisers by making erratic business decisions; I assumed he was going to be at least somewhat sensible. After all, he did have $44bn on the line. Continue reading...

In the snow and cold, I wear three pairs of socks, and I get sick easily. But the delivery apps don’t seem to care about our safetySnow doesn’t fall in Guatemala. When I was a little kid I’d see snow in movies, but never did I think I’d see it in real life.I’ve been a delivery worker in New York City since I moved here nearly 18 years ago. I was at home when I saw snow for the first time. It looked so different from how I’d imagined. I woke up early with some friends to shovel snow from people’s driveways and I earned $200. Continue reading...

Mike Lee of Utah made comment in text message to Trump aide on evening after the Capitol attackA senator who received a voice message meant for another Republican on January 6 described the caller, Rudy Giuliani, as “walking malpractice”.The piquant characterisation of the former New York mayor, then Donald Trump’s attorney and a leading proponent of his election fraud lie, was made in a text message sent by Mike Lee of Utah. Continue reading...

More than a million people in darkness and thousands of flights cancelled amid lows with wind chill of -55F (-48C)More than a million people in the US are in the dark after a “bomb cyclone” winter storm struck the country, closing highways, grounding flights and causing misery for Christmas travellers.Heavy snow, howling winds and air so frigid it instantly turned boiling water into ice took hold of much of the country, including normally temperate southern states. Continue reading...

A TV sports anchor from Iowa braved blizzard conditions on Thursday morning to report on the winter storm that has left more than 1.4m homes without power. Mark Woodley jokingly told audiences: 'I can still feel my face right now but I kind of wish I couldn't'. He said he usually reported on sports, but 'everything has been cancelled' Continue reading...

The Trump years demonstrated that the norm of presidential candidates voluntarily releasing their returns is too weakDonald Trump’s biggest worries right now might not be about Congress having released six years of his tax returns. But it is an issue where Republicans can comfortably have it both ways: please Trump’s base, as they loudly perform indignation about Democrats’ conduct, even as they cease defending a politically weakened Trump against the charges of the January 6 committee.The Republican party has all but said that they will play tit-for-tat in the new Congress – investigations, impeachments, whatever it takes to troll Democrats and distract the public with political theater, as Republicans are unlikely to make good on campaign promises. Hence it is crucial to understand what made the release of Trump’s tax returns legitimate – and why Trump cannot appeal to privacy as a trump card – and why we must also put rules in place to prevent political witch-hunts.Jan-Werner Mueller teaches at Princeton and is a Guardian US columnist. His most recent book is Democracy Rules Continue reading...

I wanted to learn a skill that would come in handy after society collapsed – perhaps I should have taken up unarmed combatThe cardigan was conceived in anxiety, so no wonder it came out looking like that. I started knitting in lockdown, because keeping my hands occupied made it harder to refresh news apps.At some point over the last year, as Covid worries began to retreat, knitting hitched itself to climate-based worries instead. I’m not saying it’s rational, but hear me out: my brain has been dabbling with “doomsday prepper” for its 2022 theme, and I reasoned with it that knitting was an essential skill for a rapidly changing world. Continue reading...

Hundreds of thousands of incarcerated people work in US prisons as part of their sentences, often without basic protections and for little to no payFor more than two decades imprisoned in California, Samual Brown worked more than a dozen different jobs and was transferred between penitentiaries throughout the state – earning less than a dollar per hour. At the beginning of the pandemic, he worked as a healthcare facility worker tasked with disinfecting areas where inmates with Covid had been held. He wanted to quit his job – he had asthma and risked his life – but was told he “had no choice”. By the time Brown was released in December 2021, he had paid just $3,000 of the more than $37,000 in restitution he owed the state.“That is tied directly into the same type of practices from slavery,” Brown, who is co-founder of the Anti-Violence Safety and Accountability Project, says. “That’s the same practice, the same energy, the same spirit that you see in this prison setting. A person can be on one plantation, and then they’ll be moved to another plantation, and you’ll never see the people who you were with ever again. They can separate you from your wife, separate you from your children, from your family. It’s the same way in the modern-day carceral setting.” Continue reading...

Despite key victories, books covering race and LGBTQ+ topics continue to attract bans in conservative statesBook bans have plagued many US schools throughout 2022, with stories focusing on LGBTQ+ and race issues being targeted by conservatives across the country, and the right aims only to step up its attempts at censorship in the new year, experts warn.States including Missouri and Utah have seen intensifying crackdowns in recent months, with some Utah school libraries now requiring permission slips for students to borrow books covering LGBTQ+ themes. Elsewhere the convincing re-elections of Republican governors in Florida and Texas, which have some of the most restrictive laws around education, mean that change is unlikely there in the short term. Continue reading...

According to transcripts, Cassidy was conflicted ahead of the hearing: ‘I felt like Trump was looking over my shoulder’“I’m about to be fucking nuked,” former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson reportedly told a January 6 committee staff member after meeting with investigators before her bombshell testimony to the committee in June. Her prediction turned out to be accurate.Within hours of Hutchinson’s surprise appearance, where she testified about a furious president who encouraged his supporters to march to the Capitol, tried to grab the steering wheel of a presidential SUV and hurled his lunch against an Oval Office wall, the backlash began. Continue reading...

People shown hiding in stores after apparent altercation between two groups amid Christmas influx at the Mall of America in MinnesotaA teenager was killed during a shooting at America’s largest mall, in the state of Minnesota, that sent frightened customers racing into a lockdown just before the holiday weekend, police said.Bloomington’s police chief, Booker Hodges, said the victim was a 19-year-old man. A bystander’s jacket was also grazed by a bullet during the shooting at the Nordstrom outlet in the Mall of America on Friday. Continue reading...

For them, and for everyone who still regards them as heroes, there is no morality in business or economics. The winnings go to the most ruthlessIf this past week presents any single lesson, it’s the social costs of greed. Capitalism is premised on greed but also on guardrails – laws and norms – that prevent greed from becoming so excessive that it threatens the system as a whole.Yet the guardrails can’t hold when avarice becomes the defining trait of an era, as it is now. Laws and norms are no match for the possibility of raking in billions if you’re sufficiently ruthless and unprincipled. Continue reading...

The House committee has done its work. The result is a riveting read, utterly damning of the former president and his followersWhether fomenting insurrection, standing accused of rape or stiffing the IRS, Donald Trump remains in the news. On Monday, the House select committee voted to issue its final report. Three days later, after releasing witness transcripts, the committee delivered the full monty. Bennie Thompson, Liz Cheney and the rest of committee name names and flash receipts. At 845 pages, the report is damning – and monumental.Trumpworld is a crime scene, a tableau lifted from Goodfellas. Joshua Green of Bloomberg nailed that in The Devil’s Bargain, his 2017 take on Trump’s winning campaign. The gang was always transgressive, fear and violence part of its repertoire. Continue reading...

Power outages leave more than 1.4 million homes and businesses in the dark, while thousands of US flights were canceledThe w​inter storm that forecasters dubbed Elliott intensified into a bomb cyclone near the Great Lakes on Friday, bringing high winds and blizzard conditions from the Northern Plains to western and upstate New York, along with life-threatening flooding, flash-freezing and travel chaos as it went.Airline cancellations topped 5,700 flights, with tens of thousands of holiday travellers grounded in airports with limited expectations of making further progress. Travel on the roads was disrupted due snowy weather or crashes and authorities in parts of Indiana, Michigan, New York and Ohio urged motorists to avoid nonessential travel. Continue reading...

Bill will be signed by president after receiving Senate approval and passing the House mostly along party linesA $1.7tn spending bill financing federal agencies through September and providing more aid to a devastated Ukraine cleared the House of Representatives on Friday as lawmakers raced to finish their work for the year and avoid a partial government shutdown.The bill passed mostly along party lines, 225-201. Having already received Senate approval, it is headed to Joe Biden’s desk for the president to sign it into law.The Associated Press contributed reporting Continue reading...

Syed, whose case was subject of the podcast Serial, has begun as a program associate with the school’s Prisons and Justice InitiativeAdnan Syed, who spent 23 years in prison before he was freed from his conviction for the 1999 murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee, has gotten a job advocating for prison reform at Georgetown University, according to the prestigious US school.Syed, whose case was the subject of the hit podcast Serial, began his role as a program associate with Georgetown’s Prisons and Justice Initiative on 12 December, school officials announced in a news release Friday. The gig is Syed’s first nine-to-five office job after the 41-year-old has spent more than half his life behind bars for a conviction by which authorities no longer stand. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian president’s top adviser, describes the significance of this week’s White House visit

Animal rights group sends letter asking town to rename its oddly monikered Roast Meat Hill RoadAnimal rights group Peta has asked a town in Connecticut to rename its oddly monikered Roast Meat Hill Road to Roast Vegan Hill Road.In a letter sent to Killingworth town official Nancy Gorski, a representative of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals offered to pay for the sign change and “hold a giveaway of tasty vegan ham sandwiches in town if you agree!” Continue reading...

Fears over US Inflation Reduction Act should be ‘wake-up’ for UK government to increase incentives, says car boss Andy PalmerFears that a major US subsidy scheme will damage the UK automotive sector should serve as a “wake-up” for Britain to increase its own state support, according to a leading UK car boss.British car industry leaders believe the UK could lose out on investment as businesses chase subsidies offered by the US Inflation Reduction Act. Andy Palmer, the chair of battery company InoBat and the former chief executive of sportscar maker Aston Martin Lagonda, said the Inflation Reduction Act should be a “wake-up for the UK government that their incentives for investment have not been enough”. Continue reading...

Meta will pay out $725m after millions of Facebook users had their personal data used without consentMeta, the Facebook owner, will pay out $725m (£600m) to plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit alleging privacy violations related to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the company has said in a court filing.The settlement will end a long-running dispute over the revelations that the political consultancy had accessed the data of tens of millions of Facebook users without their consent, and used it to target political adverts. Continue reading...

Committee says Trump’s conduct on January 6 warrants implementation of constitutional ban on him holding office againThe House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol has recommended in its final report that Donald Trump should be barred from holding office again.The former US president is again running for the White House and is seen as the leading contender for the Republican party’s 2024 nomination. However, his campaign has been a damp squib so far and his political fortunes battered by the poor performance of Trump-backed candidates in the November midterms and the emergence of rival figures within the party, notably Florida governor Ron DeSantis. Continue reading...

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Think of Trump and Johnson, gone. Think of Putin flailing, and action to save the planet. Think of us, our ingenuity, our kindness. That’s a lotThere is light in the midwinter gloom. It can take great effort to see it, when so many gathering this weekend will struggle to maintain more than a forced, say-cheese smile. We all know the reasons: rocketing energy bills, rising rents and mortgage payments, real pay going down, food bank use going up, an NHS buckling under the strain, strikes debilitating some of our most essential services, a brutal war in Europe, and a climate crisis already wreaking havoc in the here-and-now.And yet while 2022 brought plenty to weigh down the heart, it also offered some unexpected lifts to the spirit. These past 12 months showed that, despite everything, there are reasons to be hopeful.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

A deep freeze has enveloped most of the United States early on Friday, as cold air plunges south from northern Canada all the way to the Gulf coast. Combined with a massive winter storm brewing in the midwest, two-thirds of the nation is under extreme weather alerts. Wind-chill temperatures lower than -40C are expected, the point at which the celsius and fahrenheit scales intersect