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Does turning away Europeans with valid paperwork really make British borders safe and secure'? It's hard to imagineFour years after the UK officially left the European Union, you can still be taken aback reading about Brexit's self-defeating, if sometimes unintended, consequences. A Spanish woman was detained at Luton airport and denied re-entry after a Christmas visit to Spain, even though she had been living and working in the UK with her family for years. A French woman, married to a British citizen, had to give up her job after an apparent paperwork mix-up.Trapped in the grey area of backlog and conflicting rules, like tens of thousands of EU citizens after Brexit, these cases are a recurring tale in post-Brexit Europe. Asked by the Guardian about the plight of the Spanish woman, the Home Office response parroted generic lines: Border Force's number one priority is to keep our borders safe and secure, and we will never compromise on this," a spokesperson said.Maria Ramirez is a journalist and deputy managing editor of elDiario.es, a news outlet in Spain Continue reading...

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Former Elle columnist says I'm here to get my reputation back' as judge warns ex-president he could be kicked out of courtE Jean Carroll took the witness stand on Wednesday morning in her defamation trial against Donald Trump, marking the first time she has confronted the ex-president in a courtroom. Carroll's testimony so incensed Trump that he had numerous outbursts, prompting the judge to warn that he could be kicked out of court.I'm here because Donald Trump assaulted me, and when I wrote about it, he said it never happened," Carroll testified. He lied, and it shattered my reputation." Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. For more on the trial, you can read our latest:

Like an angry child the ex-president could not contain himself as he listened from feet away to the columnist's testimony

Heather Mack, 28, pleaded guilty to helping boyfriend kill Sheila Wiese-Mack in 2014 to gain access to $1.5m trust fundAn American woman who pleaded guilty to helping kill her own mother and stuffing the body in a suitcase during a luxury vacation in Bali has been sentenced to 26 years in prison.Judge Matthew Kennelly gave Mack credit for the approximately two years she spent in custody in Chicago awaiting trial since her return to the US in 2021. Mack's attorney Michael Leonard said her formal sentence will be about 23 years total. Continue reading...

Gavin Newsom says outright ban is not the answer', ending advocates' hopes for law banning tackle football for under-12sCalifornia's governor said he will not sign a proposed ban on tackle football for children under 12, ending advocates' short-lived hopes of having the bill become law this year.I will not sign legislation that bans youth tackle football," Newsom said in a statement late on Tuesday. I am deeply concerned about the health and safety of our young athletes, but an outright ban is not the answer." Continue reading...

Nikki Haley follows at 34% and Ron DeSantis is at 5%, as Florida governor's campaign switches focus to South Carolina

Extreme' Republican-backed bans have caused untold suffering' for women, senators say, and vow to restore federal abortion rightsSenate Democrats underscored their commitment to abortion rights in a press conference on Wednesday, ahead of the 51st anniversary of Roe v Wade. The now-overturned supreme court case provided American women with a constitutional right to abortion for nearly 50 years.Experts at the briefing described Republican-backed abortion bans across the country as cruel", extreme" and causing untold suffering" for American women, thousands of whom are forced to travel across state lines for abortions or be forced to remain pregnant. Continue reading...

Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Doug Burgum among party members embracing former competitor for presidential nominationDonald Trump's runaway victory in the Iowa caucuses has triggered a new slew of endorsements from prominent Republicans, among them at least four former rivals for the party's presidential nomination whom he has previously insulted.The Texas senator Ted Cruz became the latest to jump onboard on Tuesday night, tweeting he was proud" to back the former president to save our country from the Democrats' destructive agenda". Continue reading...

Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate concedes country has faced challenges' over dealing with race

The way we approach public safety is nonsensical - crime ebbs and flows, yet spending on law enforcement only ever goes upReports on 2023 in the United States are in, and a banner one is this: crime plummeted last year.According to the New York Times, citing FBI data, Detroit recorded its lowest murder figures in roughly half a century; homicides and shootings in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and most other major cities dropped precipitously; and car thefts were the only serious" criminal category that didn't see notable drop-offs over the course of the calendar year. In Minneapolis - which, after the police murder of George Floyd, became the epicenter in 2020 of the largest wave against racial injustice since the civil rights movement - homicides reportedly fell by 9% last year, gun violence by roughly a quarter, and carjackings by half. Continue reading...

Body of San Francisco woman, 27, recovered near site of crash involving single-engine plane believed to be carrying four peopleA plane that crashed into ocean south of San Francisco on Sunday was a light aircraft that can be built from a kit, authorities have said.Officials also said on Tuesday that they had identified a body that was found in the water near where the Cozy Mark IV plane crashed as a 27-year-old San Francisco resident. Continue reading...

Sinking time and money into mindfulness apps and resilience training ignores the real problem: workplace stressBosses want you to be well - but they may be making you ill. To help improve employee health, companies are doing everything from helping workers to stop smoking, offering diet plans and health food, and introducing yoga and exercise sessions, to installing bicycle-powered desks, giving employees apps that track their movements and sleep, providing therapists, taking employees on outdoor adventures and much more.Companies around the world spent $61.2bn on wellness interventions in 2021. That amount is projected to grow to $94.6bn in 2026. The problem is that most workplace wellbeing interventions cost money and take up time, but have little or no impact on employee wellbeing. In some cases, they may actually undermine workplace wellbeing. It turns out the most effective way to improve employee mental health is by reducing stress, rather than adding new ways to cope with it.Andre Spicer is professor of organisational behaviour at the Bayes Business School at City, University of London. He is the author of the book Business Bullshit Continue reading...

Victims had got out of minivan that lost control and another vehicle in Lackawanna county before being struckFive people were struck and killed by a tractor trailer on Interstate 81 in snowy north-eastern Pennsylvania after they had left their vehicles following another crash, state police said on Wednesday.A minivan had lost control and hit a median on the northbound interstate in Lackawanna county at about 5.30pm on Tuesday. Four people got out of the van as well as a person who had been following them in a separate car, police said. All were hit by the passing tractor trailer. Continue reading...

New discussions with president's son's attorneys could lead to him testifying in the near futureEfforts by House Republicans to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress appear to be in suspension following new discussions with his attorneys that could lead to the president's son testifying in the near future.The development follows Biden's surprise appearance at a congressional oversight committee meeting last week during which the Republicans complained he was refusing to make himself available in defiance of their subpoena for closed-door testimony. Continue reading...

Novak Djokovic and Stefanos Tsitsipas were both made to work hard for their wins, while Aryna Sabalenka also progressed on day fourBrenda Fruhvirtova 2-2 Aryna Sabalenka* (*denotes next server)Sabalenka can't return serve but she then smashes a volley to level 15-15. Fruhvirtova plays another unreturnable serve, it is becoming a real asset in this match, and Sabalenka's return is then long. Continue reading...

Two months ago, the defending NFC champions were the toast of football with the inside track on a repeat Super Bowl appearance. Then came the wildest in-season unravelling in NFL historyIt's long been said the NFL stands for Not For Long. Change comes quickly in a copycat league where winning strategies are examined, analyzed and imitated and constant innovation is central to continued success. But even by that standard, it's difficult to recall a more rapid fall from grace than what's gone down with the Philadelphia Eagles over the past two months.The Eagles were the envy of the league as recently as seven weeks ago, a winning machine fronted by an energetic young coach, ascendant franchise quarterback and one of football's most talented rosters from top to bottom. After romping to last year's NFC championship and coming up three points short of winning the Super Bowl, they'd raced out to the NFL's best record at Thanksgiving and appeared on course for a return trip to the sport's biggest stage. Continue reading...

Every year these houseplants delight us with their fiery foliage - and every year they sadden us when they lose it. Binning them is not the solutionHow heartless is the human spirit each January. Christmas trees, shedding needles like tears, are left out in the cold for disposal. Less visible, but no less callous, is the discarding of poinsettias. Redder than Santa's outfit, they radiate great cheeriness over Christmas before dreary January douses their flames. Into the bin the poor things go, not even honoured with a public chipping as a send-off. How callous we are.But not me: I have stuck with the poinsettia I bought not before last Christmas, nor the one before that, but the one before that; Christmas 2021. Throughout 2022, I cared for it with great diligence - feeding, watering, chatting, fondling and so on. I vaguely assumed it would reward my loyalty with a blazing return to glory come Christmas. But nothing. At this point, a lesser man would surely have dumped it, but not me. This underperforming poinsettia and I were in it for the long term. Continue reading...

When even some of the rich are warming to taxes on wealth, why is the Labour party still reluctant to propose them?

Federal regulators say quirky signs such as Hocus pocus, drive with focus' can distract drivers and will be phased out by 2026Use Yah Blinkah". Don't drive star-spangled hammered". Hocus pocus, drive with focus".Thanks to federal regulators, the slogans will no longer appear on highway signs across the United States as of 2026. Continue reading...

Pakistan says attacks killed two children in unprovoked violation' of its airspace, adding to instability sparked by Israel-Gaza war. Plus, the parents suing US social media firms after their children's death

The result of the Iowa caucuses was an easy tale foretold. But Trump's triumph over his legal troubles is far from certainDonald Trump's most dangerous race is not with other Republican candidates, but against the law. In his political match, he faces no serious contest. His victory in the Iowa caucuses results was crushing. But in his legal trials, he is on the run. For Trump, the legal is the political.The calendars overlap. His overarching strategy is not so much calculated to defeat his feeble Republican opponents but to delay his trials by any gambit necessary. The delays give him space to depict himself as a martyr, taking the slings and arrows for his believers, who are his hope to rescue him.Sidney Blumenthal is a Guardian US columnist. He is a former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, has published three books of a projected five-volume political life of Abraham Lincoln: A Self-Made Man, Wrestling With His Angel and All the Powers of Earth Continue reading...

My dad was completely flooded in on his boat, with just a ukulele and three potatoes to tide him over. A bad situation, certainly - but still a better bet, perhaps, than those of us living in bricks and mortarMy dad lives on a boat. Despite the earrings, tattoos, missing teeth and bare feet, he is not a pirate - just a man with an expensive divorce and a public sector job, living in one of the most unaffordable cities in the UK.This month, his mooring in Oxford was hit by the kind of flood described as once in 100 years". Except the same thing happened 10 years ago. And three years before that. All along the same stretch of water. Continue reading...

Church leaders in 2016 crafted a palatable Trump - in return, he gave them institutional power and a supreme court that overturned RoeIowa Republicans showed up 15 January in force for Donald Trump, voting overwhelmingly in the nation's first primary for the former president, whose grip on his party has only deepened as he weathers numerous lawsuits and 91 felony charges relating to his business dealings and involvement in attempts to overthrow the 2020 election. The Iowa caucuses confirmed polls that have consistently shown Trump carrying a comfortable lead ahead of the remaining Republican challengers.Before the caucuses, Florida governor Ron DeSantis repeatedly reminded voters and the press that he had toured all of Iowa's 99 counties. Trump won 98 of them. With the exception of college graduates and voters under thirty, who for the most part caucused for DeSantis or former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, most other demographic groups reported strong support for Trump this year. Continue reading...

Represented by Teamsters, 5,000 workers at Anheuser-Busch's breweries prepare to strike after 99% voters favor authorizationWorkers who make Bud Light and other top-selling beers are threatening to strike in demand of significant wage increases, job security and improvements to retirement and benefits in the first big union contract battle of 2024.Five thousand workers, represented by the Teamsters at 12 Anheuser-Busch breweries in the US, are threatening to strike after voting 99% in favor of a strike authorization last month. Their current union contract is set to expire on 29 February. Continue reading...

The US was the first country to introduce substitutions and the backpass law. Here are five other innovations worthy of consideration for a wider rolloutSoccer in the US has continually experimented over the years, trying to find a balance between the game experienced around the world and serving up a uniquely Americanized product to its domestic audience, with rules echoing those found in the nation's major sports leagues.Some changes were revolutionary and stuck around - a rudimentary form of the backpass rule was an innovation of the North American Soccer League in the 1980s, for example, long before it was adopted throughout the game in 1992; likewise the use of substitutes, which was pioneered by the American Soccer League in the 1920s more than three decades before the idea was written into the laws of the game internationally. Continue reading...

The wife of San Francisco fullback Kyle Juszczyk was the designer of the puffy winter coat worn by Taylor Swift that went viral over the weekendFor one night at least, San Francisco 49ers All-Pro fullback Kyle Juszczyk was not the biggest star in his family.All it took was pop superstar-turned-Chiefs fan Taylor Swift wearing a puffy winter coat designed by Juszczyk's wife, Kristin, that looked like the jersey of Swift's boyfriend, tight end Travis Kelce, to a playoff game in frigid Kansas City on Saturday night. Continue reading...

Senator's bid to make US military support conditional on whether Israel is violating human rights in Gaza fails by 72 votes to 11US senators have defeated a measure, introduced by Bernie Sanders, that would have made military aid to Israel conditional on whether the Israeli government is violating human rights and international accords in its devastating war in Gaza.A majority of senators struck down the proposal on Tuesday evening, with 72 voting to kill the measure, and 11 supporting it. Although Sanders' effort was easily defeated, it was a notable test that reflected growing unease among Democrats over US support for Israel. Continue reading...

Anderson Aldrich plans to plead guilty to federal charges with an agreement that would allow him to avoid the death penaltyThe shooter, who killed five people and endangered the lives of over 40 others at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs, plans to plead guilty to new federal charges for hate crimes and firearm violations under an agreement that would allow the defendant to avoid the death penalty, according to court documents made public Tuesday.Anderson Aldrich, 23, made a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to 50 hate crime charges and 24 firearm violations, the documents show. Aldrich would get multiple life sentences in addition to a 190-year sentence under the plea agreement, which needs a judge's approval. Continue reading...

ABC forced to cancel after Nikki Haley says she will not take part unless Trump, who has not participated so far, does the sameABC News has cancelled the next Republican presidential debate after Nikki Haley said she would not appear on stage unless Donald Trump takes part.Trump has refused to participate in any of the Republican primary debates so far, making Ron DeSantis the only candidate committed to Thursday's event in New Hampshire. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. You can follow latest updates on the Senate vote hereNikki Haley has said in a new campaign advert attacking Donald Trump and Joe Biden that she is the better choice" for America, as the former South Carolina governor tries to regain momentum after narrowly losing to Ron DeSantis in the Iowa caucuses.Haley puts herself forward as the better choice than Biden and Trump, whom the narrator in the ad suggests are the two most-disliked politicians in America". Continue reading...

Lawyer for magazine columnist says Trump emboldened his followers to threaten and smear her after she accused him of rapeDonald Trump used his platform while he was US president to try to wreck E Jean Carroll's name after she accused him of rape, her lawyer argued in a New York court on Tuesday, adding that Trump had also emboldened hardline followers to hurl smears and threats at her.He had the biggest microphone on the planet ... He used it to tear her reputation to shreds - to defame her," Shawn Crowley, one of Carroll's attorneys, said during opening statements in the former Elle columnist's second defamation trial against Trump, which opened in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday afternoon. Continue reading...

Biden received 1,648 fewer votes than he should have and Trump was awarded 2,327 too many, county director of elections saysAs Donald Trump continues to pursue the lie that his 2020 presidential election defeat was the result of electoral fraud, elections officials in Virginia have admitted some results there were improperly reported - resulting in an artificially inflated total for Trump while votes were actually taken away from Joe Biden.Eric Olsen, director of elections for Prince William county, said: Election results were improperly reported by the previous administration during the 2020 election. Continue reading...

Trump had an overwhelming victory and is leading polls in other states, it's not clear where DeSantis can regain momentumMinutes after his second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses was confirmed, Ron DeSantis came onstage in a hotel ballroom to declare that everything was going according to plan in his campaign to win the Republican presidential nomination.They threw everything but the kitchen sink at us," the Florida governor told a crowd of supporters who had made liberal use of a nearby cash bar on Monday evening, in the hours they waited for him to speak in West Des Moines. Continue reading...

Woman accuses James Dolan of orchestrating Los Angeles meeting in which Weinstein, she says, perpetrated vicious' assaultThe owner of the New York Knicks basketball team pressured a massage therapist into sex and then set her up for a vicious" assault by the convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein, a lawsuit filed in California on Tuesday alleged.James Dolan - a friend and former business associate of the disgraced Hollywood producer Weinstein - trafficked the woman, Kellye Croft, then aged 27, for purposes of sex induced by force, fraud, or coercion", according to federal court papers filed in California. Continue reading...

The flying wing has trashed the dreams of thousands of Wales rugby fans and the odds are stacked him making it in American footballSo you're 22 years old. You have always enjoyed watching American football and you have just had an offer to head to Florida to gauge your potential to make it in the megabucks NFL. No guarantees but there is an awful lot of cash on offer if you can crack the code. Do you say: Yes, please"? Or do you say: No, awfully sorry, we're playing Castres in the Challenge Cup on Friday"?Place yourself in the fastmoving boots of Louis ReesZammit and, in deepest darkest January, you can see immediately why the ultimate American dream might appeal: if I'm good enough, sweet; if not, at least I gave it a go in my athletic prime. As LRZ made clear in his hastily written farewell note, this sort of life-changing opportunity does not come around every day. Continue reading...

At least 60 targets in Houthi areas of Yemen were hit but the rebels say attacks will continue until Israel stops its Gaza warThe two-month campaign by Houthi rebels against commercial ships in the Red Sea has caused severe disruption to global shipping.The US and UK have responded with a series of strikes against Houthi targets aimed at stopping further attacks and protecting trade through the crucial shipping route. Continue reading...

Ruling marks victory for Biden government and its effort to preserve lower cost airline tickets for American consumersA federal judge has blocked JetBlue Airways' $3.8bn takeover of the budget carrier Spirit Airlines, agreeing with the US Department of Justice that the deal would knock competition and limit the availability of low-priced tickets.William Young, a US district judge in Boston, concluded that passengers who rely on Spirit's cheaper fares would likely be harmed" by the acquisition. His ruling - a victory for the Biden administration - raises questions over other planned deals in the airline sector. Continue reading...

Appeal from Indiana school hoped court would not require allowing trans students to use bathrooms of their choosingThe US supreme court has decided it will not hear a case centering on the debate over bathrooms for transgender students.The decision came on Tuesday despite an appeal from Indiana's metropolitan school district of Martinsville.The Associated Press contributed to this report Continue reading...

A cult of personality has ensured that believers are blinded to the means employed by the former president to take powerBefore voters in Iowa kicked off the US presidential election cycle on Monday, Donald Trump shared a bizarre campaign video on his Truth Social platform that declared him to be God's chosen emissary on Earth, sent to deliver prosperity to America. It seemed unlikely that evangelicals in a rural state would buy into such narcissism. Sadly, Mr Trump has blinded believers to the means and fixed their gaze on the ends. Despite being charged with 91 felonies in four criminal cases, he won an unprecedented majority of Republican caucus-goers.The rest of the Republican electorate doesn't always follow Iowa's lead. This, however, is a small comfort. In 2016, Mr Trump lost out to Ted Cruz in the state before winning his party's nomination with a mendacious, racist, misogynistic campaign that encouraged violence and dealt in the politics of personal insult. Hisspell in office did not mellow him. His 2024 campaign picked up where his last one ended - by brazenly attempting to use his efforts to overturn the2020 election result as a rallying cry.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...

Donald Trump leads a big field of Republican hopefuls seeking to best Joe Biden or one of his long-shot challengers in the 2024 electionThe 2024 election promises to be historic as a long slate of Republican candidates seek to unseat the sitting president, Joe Biden. After the pandemic changed the way Americans campaigned and voted four years ago, and three years after thousands of rioters waged violent protest at the nation's Capitol to upend the last election's results, the US will face new obstacles in carrying out the democratic process.Here is the list of candidates in the primary elections. The first caucus was held on 15 January in Iowa. The next primary will take place on 23 January in New Hampshire. Continue reading...

Trump is gliding to the nomination - and promising a lot of troubling things to his votersThere were no surprises out of Iowa. Donald Trump had led the state's polls by about 30 points and current tallies suggest that he's won by about that much.The voters who braved the bitter cold to officially kick off the Republican primary were, plainly, exactly the ones the former president needed and wanted - ABC's entrance polls registered immigration and the economy as their top issues and additionally found that 63% of caucus-goers would consider Trump fit for the presidency even if he were convicted of a crime. All of this was predictable; all of it suggests that the time and energy the candidates and the media alike have spent hyping up this first contest - and perhaps this primary campaign as a whole - have been mostly wasted.Osita Nwanevu is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Trump's victory in Iowa intensifies skepticism that any of his opponents will be able to overtake him in the Republican primaryDonald Trump will continue on to the New Hampshire primaries more confident than ever about capturing the Republican nomination after the former president secured a 30-point win in the Iowa caucuses on Monday.Trump won 51% of the vote in Iowa, giving him the largest margin of victory in the history of the state's Republican caucuses, further securing his position as the Republican frontrunner who will face President Joe Biden in November. Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, secured a distant second-place finish with 21% of the vote, while Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador, trailed in third place with 19%. The entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who came in fourth, dropped out of the race following his disappointing performance, as did the former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson. Continue reading...

Sewing is an anti-consumerist act, self-sufficient, creative and thrifty. It means I don't contribute to sweated labour, and I don't have to know my dress sizeBeing able to sew is radical, liberating and canny, which is why I've taught my six-year-old to fix his own socks.This may sound like the overzealous justification of someone who as a schoolgirl took more interest in making her own trousers than in how to create a spreadsheet, but I truly believe that the skill of sewing opens the door to a lifetime of self-sufficiency, creativity and thrift. Being able to sew my own clothes means I haven't had to go into a high street clothes shop for well over a year; I haven't had to stare at my naked, quaking flesh in a changing room mirror; I haven't contributed to the sweated labour of the global south or the environmental devastation wreaked by the fashion industry.Nell Frizzell is the author of Holding the Baby: Milk, Sweat and Tears from the Frontline of Motherhood Continue reading...