DEA says more than 379m deadly doses of opioid with strength from one and a half to 50 times stronger than heroin were seizedThe US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has said it seized enough fentanyl in 2022 to kill every person in America.In a statement on Tuesday, the DEA said it had seized 50.6m fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills and more than 10,000lb of fentanyl powder this year – seizures that in total represent more than 379m deadly doses. Continue reading...
This should be a bipartisan issue. And while we’re at it, why are members of Congress allowed to trade stocks?Finally, at least some of Donald Trump’s tax returns will be released to the public. This is an important step forward for political transparency, but it shouldn’t be the last.On Tuesday, the House ways and means committee voted to release six years of the former president’s tax returns; the committee also revealed that, counter to standard protocol, the IRS had not audited Trump during his first two years in office – and that the IRS only began their audit once ways and means asked for the returns and audit records. Trump had repeatedly said that he was being audited during those two years, which was untrue. Continue reading...
Experts say temperatures won’t get as cold as 2021 storm, with expected minimum around 10FNervous Texans are preparing for a freezing blast of Arctic air on Thursday but it is not predicted to be a repeat of the disastrous winter storm that struck the state in 2021, crippling large parts of the state’s power infrastructure and killing scores of people.Residents have been warned to brace for extremely cold weather and to stock up on essentials like bottled water and non-perishable foods in case of power outages and food supply chain issues like those experienced during winter storm Uri in February 2021, when millions of Texans were left without power and 246 people died. Continue reading...
by Edward Helmore in New York and agencies on (#672JR)
Internal Revenue Service only began audit after prompting from Congress in 2019, House ways and means committee indicatesUS tax authorities failed to audit Donald Trump for two years while he was in the White House, Democratic lawmakers said, despite a program that makes tax review of sitting presidents compulsory.The claim, in a report issued by Democrats on the House ways and means committee voting to release six years of Trump’s tax returns, raises questions over statements made by Trump and members of his administration that he could not release his tax returns, a convention for aspiring and sitting presidents, because he was undergoing an Internal Revenue Service audit. Continue reading...
FTX founder set to be charged with eight criminal counts, including fraud, conspiracy and money-laundering offensesSam Bankman-Fried, the jailed founder of the collapsed crypto-currency exchange FTX, is expected to fly back to the US on Wednesday to face criminal charges after waiving his right to contest extradition from the Bahamas.After several days of conflicting signals from Bankman-Fried’s US and Bahamian legal teams, the disgraced crypto-king appeared in court in Nassau to inform a magistrate judge of his decision. Continue reading...
Financial Reporting Council urges ‘vigilance’ after cheating in tests underpinning professional qualifications found at top auditorsCheating in professional exams is still a “live” issue at the UK’s biggest audit firms, the accountancy watchdog warned.A string of multimillion dollar fines have already been issued to large auditing and accounting firms around the world over allegations of cheating in tests which underpin professional qualifications. Continue reading...
Jarl Rockhill also required to read Ta-Nehisi Coates, as part of plea deal for plastering a racist sticker outside refugee non-profitAn Oregon man who pleaded guilty to a hate crime was ordered to write essays about racism and the challenges faced by refugees.Jarl Rockhill, 35 and from Linn, Oregon, was ordered by a judge to write the essays as a part of a plea deal, the Oregonian reported. Continue reading...
Blast of frigid weather has already hammered Pacific north-west and could reach as far south as Florida by FridayMuch of the US was braced on Wednesday for a dangerous mix of sub-zero temperatures, howling winds and blizzard conditions expected to disrupt plans for millions of holiday travelers.The frigid weather began hammering the Pacific north-west on Tuesday and was expected to move to the northern Rockies, then grip the Plains in a deep freeze and blanket the midwest with heavy snowfall, forecasters said. The Arctic front was forecast to spread bone-chilling cold as far south as Florida by Friday. Continue reading...
Kelly Conlon was blocked because her New York firm is involved in a personal injury claim against operator of Radio City Music HallA lawyer employed by a firm involved in a personal injury claim against the operator of Radio City Music Hall said she was barred from attending the Rockettes Christmas show at the famous Manhattan venue after being picked up by facial recognition technology at the entrance.Kelly Conlon told NBC New York she and her daughter came to the city from New Jersey last month as part of a Girl Scout field trip to see the show – but she was prevented from entering. Continue reading...
The Ukrainian president has left his country for the first time since Russia invaded the country 301 days ago. Zelenskiy and other officials were filmed travelling with cars outside Przemyśl train station in Poland. Bridget Brink, the US ambassador to Ukraine, is seen shaking hands with a man in the footage. Zelenskiy is heading to the US via Poland for a meeting with Joe Biden
Great of 1970s NFL completed the ‘Immaculate Reception’, voted greatest play in league historyFranco Harris, the Hall of Fame Pittsburgh Steelers running back whose heads-up thinking created the “Immaculate Reception”, considered the most famous play in NFL history, has died. He was 72.Harris’s son, Dok Harris, said his father died overnight. No cause of death was given. Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Fort Worth, Texas on (#672GY)
Aaron Dean, 38, was convicted of manslaughter of Black woman in her own home while responding to call about open front doorA former Texas police officer who fatally shot Atatiana Jefferson through a rear window of her home in 2019 was sentenced on Tuesday to nearly 12 years in prison for manslaughter.Aaron Dean, 38, faced up to 20 years but the same jury that convicted him of manslaughter determined the sentence at 11 years, 10 months and 12 days. Continue reading...
In the wake of Clarkson’s diatribe, we urgently need to challenge the role the media plays in perpetuating misogynistic attitudesIt was 7pm. I finished the bedtime routine with my daughters, kissed them gently and shut the door. I took myself to the bathroom, sat on the toilet and within seconds burst into floods of tears. The physical memories of humiliation and sexual trauma from being raped when I was 21 flooded back – all because I had read an article written by Jeremy Clarkson in the Sun.Over the years, many have spoken about Clarkson and his bigoted, contrarian opinions. It seems that in writing an article suggesting Meghan Markle ought to meet a misogynistic fate that was depicted in Game of Thrones, and be paraded down the street while people throw excrement at her, he has tripped over his own caricature. What’s worse is that many men and even some women have praised this despicable behaviour.VV Brown is a musician and entrepreneur, and a trustee of the charity Say Something Collective.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...
Tech barons’ lip-service to democracy and pluralism was always conditional on preserving their own positions at the topOn Monday, Elon Musk polled Twitter users on whether he should step down as CEO. The answer was a resounding yes. On Tuesday, Musk announced that he will step down once he finds a replacement. Still, the damage has been done: Musk’s tenure has been a disaster for democracy.Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, he has encouraged far-right conspiracy theories, consistently articulated rightwing extremist ideas and coddled extremists who propagated them, changed or undermined content moderation in a way that allowed hate speech and far-right abuse to flourish, and constantly derided Democrats, liberals and anyone he perceives as part of “the Left” in an escalating crusade against “wokeism.” He is now banning critical voices, including those of mainstream journalists, under obviously disingenuous pretenses.Thomas Zimmer is a visiting professor at Georgetown University, focused on the history of democracy and its discontents in the United States, and a Guardian US contributing opinion writer Continue reading...
The assault on the Capitol was not a spontaneous spasm of violence. It was the culmination of a concerted effort to reject the results of a fair electionOver the course of 18 months, the intrepid patriots on the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection tirelessly researched Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election through fraud, intimidation, harassment and violence. The committee’s public hearings were an exercise in civic education, presenting the nation with a gripping, granular and truthful account of an unhinged president seeking to cling to power at all costs. Now they have gone one crucial step further. They have referred the matter to the justice department, urging that Trump be prosecuted.Let us take stock of this astonishing moment. For the first time in American history, a congressional committee has recommended that a former president be criminally prosecuted – and not just for any crimes. The chief crimes at the heart of the referral – inciting insurrection, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and obstructing an official act of Congress – involve nothing short of an elaborate effort to frustrate and upend the peaceful transfer of presidential power, the bedrock of our constitutional democracy.Lawrence Douglas is the author, most recently, of Will He Go? Trump and the Looming Election Meltdown in 2020. He is a contributing opinion writer for the Guardian US and teaches at Amherst College Continue reading...
by Melissa del Bosque in Sonoyta, Mexico on (#672FB)
As a controversial Covid-era immigration policy undergoes review, many asylees languish in limbo in MexicoUntil 2015, the small Mexican town of Sonoyta, Sonora, scarcely figured in the migration landscape of the US-Mexico border, but then migration from Central America and other parts of Latin America began to climb.In March 2020, when former US president Donald Trump implemented the public health rule Title 42, citing the pandemic as reasoning for shutting down ports of entry to asylum requests at the border, more families began to arrive in the small agricultural town of 17,000 with nowhere to go. Continue reading...
Mine workers in Alabama among those organizing gift drives and strike funds to try to spread some holiday cheerGroups of US workers have been on strike for long periods of time and they remain at loggerheads with their employers over the holiday period on issues such as pay, benefits, quality of life and staffing.Workers have been forced to ramp up organizing efforts to mitigate the effects of lost income for those on strike, to ensure families are taken care of financially and with holiday gift drives. Continue reading...
Lacks’ cells were taken from her body without her permission and used for numerous medical advancesA bronze statue of Henrietta Lacks – whose cells were taken from her body without her permission before they facilitated numerous medical advances – is taking the place of a monument to Confederate general Robert E Lee that was taken down in her Virginia home town, officials announced this week.Sculptor Larry Bechtel is designing the statue that is scheduled to be erected in Roanoke in October 2023 in a victory for supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement. At an announcement ceremony Monday, Bechtel said that he would reference a lifesize drawing of Lacks by artist Bryce Cobbs, ABC News reported. Continue reading...
Since losses in six of their first seven, the surging Detroit Lions have appeared on course for a rare playoff appearance. And if they make it, they’ll be the team that no one wants to faceThat the Detroit Lions, still only a .500 team at 7-7, have any chance at all of making the NFL playoffs is pretty dang impressive, as their coach might say. They opened with six losses in seven games. And they are still the Detroit Lions: historically the saddest of sad-sack teams.Since their most recent playoff victory, on 5 January 1992, at home against the Dallas Cowboys, the Lions have been in eight playoff games and have lost them all. They have not even appeared in the playoffs since 7 January 2017, when they lost a wild-card game at Seattle. Continue reading...
The Fight of His Life, by Chris Whipple, recounts Joe Biden’s first two years in the White HouseDonald Trump wrote a “shockingly gracious” letter to Joe Biden on leaving office, a new book says, amid the unprecedented disgrace of a second impeachment for inciting the deadly Capitol attack as part of his attempt to overturn Biden’s election victory and hold on to power.According to excerpts published by Politico on Tuesday, The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House, by Chris Whipple, captures Biden saying of Trump’s note: “That was very gracious and generous … Shockingly gracious.” Continue reading...
A modern-day blend of McCarthyism and white grievance became the focus of a rightwing crusade in 2022Having vanquished the manufactured menaces of vaccine mandates, the gay agenda and widespread election fraud, Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, used his midterm’s election victory speech to position himself as a wartime leader. Now, he was preparing his constituents for the existential battle posed by their newest imaginary adversary: wokeness. In Churchillian tones, he announced: “We fight the woke in the legislature. We fight the woke in the schools. We fight the woke in the corporations. We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die.”DeSantis was summoning the resentment that produced the racial terrorism of Reconstruction, the pro-lynching Red Summer of 1919, and the pro-segregation states’ rights movement. This time, it was called anti-woke: a modern-day mixture of McCarthyism and white grievance. Continue reading...
An estimated 50 million Americans also under windchill alerts as ‘once-in-a-generation-event’ could impact holiday travelSevere winter weather is set to affect millions across the US this week, as freezing temperatures and strong storms threaten to wreak havoc on holiday travel plans.A burst of arctic air settling over several states this week is forecast to drop temperatures to dangerous – and potentially deadly – levels just as more than 110 million Americans are expected to set out for their celebrations. Continue reading...
As a presidential candidate in 2016, Trump broke decades of precedent by refusing to release his tax forms to the publicA powerful congressional committee on Tuesday voted to publicly release Donald Trump’s tax returns in a move that is sure to ignite a political row as well as anger among some privacy experts in America.The Democratic-controlled House ways and means committee decided to release the documents, which the former US president has long tried to shield, after several hours of debate. Continue reading...
Trip to Washington is Ukrainian president’s first disclosed foreign visit since Russia invaded in FebruaryUkraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, will arrive in Washington on Wednesday where he will meet President Joe Biden at the White House and address a joint session of Congress.The trip – Zelenskiy’s first known foreign visit since Russia invaded Ukraine – will also see the Ukrainian president meet with congressional leadership and national security committee chiefs from the Republican and Democratic parties. Continue reading...
Eleven people were reportedly injured and assessment of total number is ongoing, said officialsA magnitude 6.4 earthquake shook parts of northern California early Tuesday, jolting people awake, damaging buildings and roads and leaving tens of thousands without power. Two fatalities have been linked to the quake “as a result of medical emergencies occurring during and/or just following” the incident, the Humboldt county sheriff’s office reported Tuesday afternoon.Centered just south-west of the town of Ferndale in Humboldt county, a small community near the coast about 213 miles (343km) north-west of San Francisco, the quake took place in area where tremors aren’t uncommon. But locals called it the largest in recent memory. Continue reading...
Pooch returned to owners three days and three flights later after British Airways makes drastic mistakeAn American family’s pet dog got the surprise of a pooch’s lifetime when it was accidentally sent to Saudi Arabia rather than his owner’s home in Nashville, Tennessee.Five-year-old Bluebell had been adopted by her human family in London, England, but was relocating with them back to Nashville when British Airways made a rather drastic mistake and instead she was flown off to Saudi Arabia, local TV station WVLT8 reported. Continue reading...
His answers to the chairs of Commons select committees are robotic, as if from a meaningless management dashboardChristmas must be a bundle of fun round the Sunaks’. 7am: 5km run. 8.30am: breakfast of granola with manuka honey. 9am: check against delivery to make sure all presents are under the tree. 10.30am: invite family to open presents. All members are to keep a profit and loss spreadsheet to make sure the presents they have received are more valuable than the ones they have given.12pm: short Xmas lecture on the importance of winning. 12.30pm: all family members are to write a brief lessons-learned dashboard on the lecture. 2pm: lunch of organic turkey crown with no trimmings. 3pm: unfinished homework to be completed. 4-4.45pm: at leisure. No TV, console games or handheld devices. Children may read books if they want. 4.46pm: children and adults to write thank-you letters. 6.30pm: stop Alexa playing Ghost Town. Continue reading...
Jonathan Werner, 12, sold more than $56,000 in popcorn through his Boy Scouts troop and emerged as the top seller in MinnesotaA 12-year-old who sold more than $56,000 in popcorn through his Boy Scouts troop recently spent more than 20% of those earnings buying presents for children in foster care in his region of Minnesota, delivering one of the Christmas season’s most heartwarming stories.Jonathan Werner’s act of kindness became possible after he emerged as the top Boy Scouts popcorn seller in Minnesota and one of the top three in the US, the local news outlet KARE reported Monday. Continue reading...
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau orders bank to repay $2bn to consumers and a $1.7bn penaltyConsumer banking giant Wells Fargo agreed to pay $3.7bn to settle a laundry list of charges that it harmed consumers by charging illegal fees and interest on auto loans and mortgages, as well as incorrectly applied overdraft fees against savings and checking accounts.The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Tuesday ordered Wells to repay $2bn to consumers and enacted a $1.7bn penalty against the bank. It’s the largest fine to date against any bank by the CFPB and the largest fine against Wells, which has spent years trying to rehabilitate itself after a series of scandals tied to its sales practices. Continue reading...
Initial reports indicated the heart might belong to an adult male, but state investigators are asking the public for more informationWorkers making brine at a salt depot in Tennessee made a grotesque discovery last week when they found a desiccated human heart, prompting a law enforcement investigation.The organ was found in a salt mound at a department of transportation salt facility in McEwen, Tennessee, about 60 miles south-west of Nashville, state officials said. Continue reading...
House committee to make decision after January 6 panel referred Donald Trump to the justice department to face criminal chargesA Democratic-led US House of Representatives committee on Tuesday is due to decide whether to release details of Donald Trump’s tax returns, after a years-long court fight and just two weeks before their party surrenders power to Republicans.The House ways and means committee is due to examine them behind closed doors at 3pm ET, the day after the House investigation of the January 6 assault on the Capitol by Trump supporters urged the justice department to prosecute the Republican for his role in sparking the riot. Continue reading...
5,000 pages of records detail how female employees were concerned management were unlikely to address concernsA long-running sexual harassment and gender discrimination lawsuit against Nike has produced more than 5,000 pages of records, including surveys of female employees that allege sexist attitudes and behavior at the sportwear giant alongside corporate bullying and fears of retaliation.The documents, which date back to 2018, detail how female employees at the company were concerned that Nike’s management were unlikely to address their concerns. Continue reading...
Emergency housing, food and other essentials had been set up in preparation for an influx of migrants at Texas border citiesAlong the US southern border, two cities – El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez just across the waters of the Rio Grande in Mexico – were trying to prepare for a new surge of as many as 5,000 new migrants a day as pandemic-era immigration restrictions were set to expire this week, setting in motion plans for emergency housing, food and other essentials.Even with the ruling from the US Supreme Court on Monday evening that the restriction known as Title 42 would not end after all, as had been ordered by a lower court, confusion and tension were high. Continue reading...
The referral marks the first time in US history that Congress has taken such action against a former president. Plus, the rescue of nearly 4,000 beagles• Don’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.The January 6 committee has recommended criminal charges against Donald Trump, accusing the former president of fomenting an insurrection and conspiring against the government over his attempt to subvert the outcome of the 2020 election, and the bloody attack on the US Capitol.What have the committee accused Trump of? He’s accused of breaching four federal criminal statutes, including those relating to obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress, assisting an insurrection and conspiring to defraud the United States. It also said Trump may have committed seditious conspiracy.How will prosecutors pursue the House panel’s charges? The justice department may find it difficult to obtain a conviction for each charge referred by the January 6 committee, writes Hugo Lowell.What did Siebel Newsom say after? “Throughout the trial, Weinstein’s lawyers used sexism, misogyny and bullying tactics to intimidate, demean and ridicule us survivors,” she said in a statement. “This trial was a stark reminder that we as a society have work to do.” Continue reading...
The January 6 committee portrays Trump as an anomaly, but Trumpist ideology extends beyond the man who originated itIs Trump done? The Republican party leadership would certainly hope so. When the former president and would-be autocrat announced his third run for the presidency, in the days after the Republican party’s paltry and historically anomalous midterm showing, hardly any elected members of his party showed up. Since he left office, civil suits have accrued around Trump and his companies, like a river leaving silt deposits that slowly build up into muddy land. Investigations have proliferated in New York, where the state attorney general has accused Trump of various real estate frauds, and in Fulton county, Georgia, where his threatening phone calls to the state attorney general in the wake of the 2020 election have earned him a criminal inquiry.Last week, Trump teased a “MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT” on social media, briefly leading to speculation about what his plans might be, and how they could shake up American politics. Was he announcing a running mate? Was he going to throw his hat in the ring for speaker of the House? But no; instead, he was unveiling a new product: a line of wish-fulfillment greeting cards that depict him as a musclebound superhero. Even worse, the cards were digital only, selling for $99 a pop in a form that’s become the last and most embarrassing refuge of scammers: the NFT. The spectacle was almost sad – tacky and desperate and low-rent, even for him. Continue reading...
A new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Buzz Bissinger brings to light a most unusual football game on the Pacific island of Guadalcanal during the second world warOn the Pacific island of Guadalcanal, two Marine Corps regiments enjoyed a rare respite from second world war in December 1944. On Christmas Eve, the 4th and 29th regiments squared off in a football game nicknamed the Mosquito Bowl. This was no pick-up game. The teams included some of the top college football talent in the US, their rosters featuring All-Americans, captains from big-name schools and future NFL players or draftees. Tragically, of the 65 players in the game, 15 would die the following year, during the war’s deadliest battle: Okinawa. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Buzz Bissinger brings this wartime narrative back to public attention through his new book, The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II.“I think it was the last time these guys were allowed to be boys, allowed to do something they loved,” Bissinger says. “For three hours – not that long – they got away from training and combat and what might happen at Okinawa. It was joy, pure joy, then back to training.” Continue reading...
House panel concluded investigation and referred Trump to the justice department for criminal prosecution on four countsDemocrats in Congress on Monday praised the House January 6 select committee for referring former president Donald Trump to the justice department for violating at least four criminal statutes, while Republicans called the committee’s work a “political stunt”.In its last public meeting, the committee chose to refer Trump for charges on obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement, and assisting, aiding or comforting an insurrection. Though the unprecedented criminal referrals are largely symbolic as the justice department will decide whether to prosecute Trump, they will give the justice department a road map should it choose to proceed. Continue reading...
Even if the multi-billionaire owner accepts his user poll and stands down, his machinations seem likely to ruin the companySince its launch, few people have embodied the worst of Twitter like Elon Musk. The site is a magnet for the self-involved, the kind of people who think a few likes and retweets confirm that they are always right; the types who walk through life with blinkers on and a mirror fixed directly in front of them.Through relentless efforts to be seen as funny, tweeting stale memes and tired jokes, and his transparent desperation to be liked, tanking his own stock price to delight his followers, Musk’s Twitter persona was infamous. But it was also a common type on the site: someone eager to be seen as in on the joke, a lovable troll, but, crucially, someone who is also actually bad at using Twitter on a basic level. The adulation of his diehard fans sometimes masked the fact that most people don’t like these kinds of characters online. Continue reading...
By providing key systems to defend against Russia, the west risks weakening its deterrence posture towards ChinaThe Biden administration has crossed a new line in its support for Ukraine, by indicating its willingness to send Patriot air and missile defence systems to aid in the war against Russia. The system – which includes powerful missile interceptors and radar – is likely to prove highly effective for Ukraine, and marks a significant step forward in the scope and complexity of the US’s support. But the gift of such prestige systems will present longer-term challenges for Nato.Joe Biden previously ruled out sending Patriot systems to Ukraine. The shift in policy appears to have arisen from Russia’s extensive targeting of Ukraine’s civilian critical national infrastructure, which has left much of the country without power. Russia is now seeking to obtain Iranian ballistic missiles to bolster its own depleted stocks, and this, combined with ongoing domestic missile production, means these attacks may persist for a long time. Defending Ukraine from missile attacks is now a humanitarian priority.Jack Watling is a senior research fellow for land warfare at the Royal United Services Institute Continue reading...
From Messi to Morocco’s heroics, via a seven-a-side against Roy Keane, our writers and photographer share their memoriesThere is the temptation to pick a left-field choice from the 18 games I covered, but who are we kidding: the final was stunning, jaw-dropping sport and the best match of its type there has ever been. Nick Ames Continue reading...
The justice department may find it difficult to obtain a conviction for each charge referred by the January 6 committeeThe House January 6 select committee outlined criminal referrals against Donald Trump for charges that experts believe the justice department could definitely pursue should it move forward with prosecuting the former US president over his efforts to stop the congressional certification of the 2020 election.The panel voted at its final public session on Monday to recommend prosecution for Trump for four possible crimes: obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiracy to make a false statement and incitement of insurrection. Continue reading...
US news | The Guardian