Pair were held for al-Qaida involvement but never charged – their release leaves 32 people detained in prison campThe US has transferred two brothers from its Guantánamo Bay detention centre to Pakistan, bringing the total number of people held at Guantánamo down to 32, according to the Pentagon.Abdul Rabbani and Mohammed Rabbani were arrested in 2002. Abdul Rabbani was an al-Qaida facilitator while Mohammed Rabbani was a financial and travel facilitator for prominent al-Qaida leaders, according to the Pentagon’s website. Continue reading...
Firefighter killed in Michigan by power line, while 13 million people under winter weather advisories across the countryNearly a million people across the US were without power on Thursday afternoon as a powerful winter storm brought bitter cold, stirred up gusty winds and pounded several states with blizzard conditions from coast to coast.Michigan bore the brunt of power outages on Thursday with more than 820,000 homes and businesses left cold into the evening, as the state faced one of the worst ice storms seen in decades. DTE, one of the largest power providers in the state, reported “extreme amounts of damage” to power infrastructure after ice roughly three-quarters of an inch thick accumulated in some areas. Continue reading...
At issue is whether a protection afforded by the constitution applies to ‘informal’ fact-finding by members of CongressA federal appeals court appeared skeptical on Thursday of the justice department’s interpretation of US Congress members’ immunity from criminal investigations and whether it allowed federal prosecutors to access House Republican Scott Perry’s phone contents in the January 6 investigation.The department seized Perry’s phone in the criminal investigation last year and was granted access to its contents by a lower court, until Perry appealed the decision on the grounds that the speech or debate clause protections barred prosecutors from seeing his messages. Continue reading...
Why is the Biden administration rolling out policies that are so unpopular with members of his own party?Who exactly does Joe Biden think he is, Donald Trump? The question probably sounds ludicrous on its face. Trump is a known bully. But folksy Uncle Joe – with his big, toothpaste smile – is supposed to care about the little guy and do the right thing. On immigration, for example, candidate Joe took a stand in 2019 in direct opposition to his opponent, whom he accused of waging “an unrelenting assault on our values and our history as a nation of immigrants”. That same year, Biden also said that if people are coming to the country “because they’re actually seeking asylum, they should have a chance to make their case”.So why is Biden now laying down yet another set of rules to the asylum system on the nation’s southern border that looks ominously like Trump’s? Continue reading...
Compulsion motion against former vice-president marks pre-emptive move to rebut executive privilege arguments, sources sayThe special counsel investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election issued a motion to compel testimony from Mike Pence in recent days – after the Trump legal team sought to block his appearance on executive privilege grounds, sources familiar with the matter said.The compulsion motion against Pence marks a pre-emptive move by the special counsel to rebut the executive privilege arguments before Pence had even made an appearance before the federal grand jury in Washington DC pursuant to a subpoena issued last month, the sources said. Continue reading...
Disgraced R&B singer will only have to serve an extra year after completing current New York sentenceA federal judge on Thursday handed the singer R Kelly a 20-year prison sentence for his convictions on child sexual abuse images and enticement of minors for sex charges, but said he would serve nearly all of the sentence simultaneously with a 30-year sentence imposed last year on racketeering charges.Harry Leinenweber also ordered that Kelly serve one year in prison following his New York sentence. Continue reading...
Police arrest Carlos Medina after David O’Connell was fatally shot on Saturday at home in Hacienda HeightsProsecutors have charged a man with killing a Catholic bishop in a crime that stunned religious and immigrant communities in Los Angeles.Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell, 69, was fatally shot multiple times on Saturday in the bedroom of his home in Hacienda Heights, an unincorporated community about 20 miles (30km) east of downtown Los Angeles. Continue reading...
Whatever the TV host claims the footage from Kevin McCarthy shows will be worth taking with a generous pinch of saltIn the two years since the US Capitol attack, Tucker Carlson has described the violent assault on American democracy connected to the deaths of nine people as “vandalism” and a “forgettably minor” outbreak of “mob violence”.The Fox News host has said the attack on Congress by supporters of Donald Trump, which has prompted more than 900 arrests, was a “false flag” operation, part of alleged persecution of conservatives by shady government forces. Carlson even devoted much of a conspiracy-laden TV series to undermining the severity of the attack. Continue reading...
by Nina Lakhani in East Palestine, Oliver Milman and on (#6958X)
Investigators into East Palestine incident say engineer put on brakes but train derailed and became engulfed in huge fireballThe crew of the freight train carrying dangerous chemicals that derailed in Ohio earlier this month received a warning about an overheating wheel bearing and tried to slow the train before it came off the tracks, according to an interim report released on Thursday by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).The wheel bearing was heating up for several miles before reaching 253F hotter than the air temperature, investigators found, a dangerous level requiring a train to stop to prevent disaster. Continue reading...
Republican House speaker says he promised to release footage of deadly attack as Democrats denounce release to Tucker CarlsonTop Democrats in Washington cried foul after Kevin McCarthy, the new Republican House speaker, released more than 40,000 hours of surveillance footage from the January 6 US Capitol attack to Tucker Carlson, the far-right Fox News host who has consistently downplayed the deadly riot.The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, told colleagues McCarthy’s decision “poses grave security risks” and “needlessly expos[es] the Capitol complex to one of the worst … risks since 9/11”. Continue reading...
US president puts forward choice to oversee new focus on climate crisis after resignation of Trump appointee David MalpassJoe Biden has nominated a former boss of Mastercard with decades of experience on Wall Street to lead the World Bank and oversee a shake-up at the development organisation to shift its focus to the climate crisis.
by Sam Levine in New York and agencies on (#6954R)
Bankman-Fried was previously charged with eight counts including fraud and money laundering in FTX collapse caseSam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, facilitated hundreds of illegal political donations totaling tens of millions of dollars, court documents unsealed on Thursday have alleged.The accusations were contained in a superseding indictment that contained four new charges. Continue reading...
Conservative dog-whistling about how white people in red states are pariahs was a tactic that helped Trump win a presidential electionAs residents of East Palestine, Ohio struggle to pick up the pieces after a freight train carrying hazardous chemicals was derailed there nearly two weeks ago, rightwing media has seized on this moment to launch baseless conspiracies about why the government’s response has been so poor.According to them, the Biden administration has abandoned East Palestine because the people living there are white, poor and working class.Tayo Bero is a Guardian US contributing writer. Continue reading...
Dylan Lyons, a reporter for Spectrum News 13, died in a shooting on Wednesday that also took the life of a nine-year-old girlA Florida journalist killed near Orlando on Wednesday was identified as 24-year-old Dylan Lyons.Lyons, a reporter for Spectrum News 13, was fatally shot on Wednesday afternoon while at the scene of a murder. Officials said Keith Melvin Moses, 19, shot Lyons and a colleague before walking into a nearby home and shooting a woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The girl died. Continue reading...
I masquerade as an ‘on time’ person to keep jobs and pay rent, but it’s not what’s in my heartMy grade one does not like being late. It sets her in a state of panic that renders her in slow motion. It’s like watching someone try to run from an axe murderer when their legs aren’t working. “I’m late, I’m late, I’m late,” she’ll mutter helplessly; the White Rabbit’s much slower aunt, her lunchbox somehow the wrong shape for her bag. My prep is also late to the car, though they do not appear trapped in a mind maze of worry. They simply do not want to go to school. They will sit in shoeless protest in the bedroom, hallway and driveway to illustrate the point.I am a late person, or at least not an early person. I get dates wrong and oversleep and consequently miss the train. I masquerade as an “on time” person to keep jobs and pay rent, but it’s not what’s in my heart. Continue reading...
Anti-Defamation League says all extremist killings last year linked to rightwing extremism and a high number to white supremacyThe number of US mass killings linked to extremism over the past decade was at least three times higher than the total from any other 10-year period since the 1970s, according to the Anti-Defamation League.The ADL report also found that all extremist killings identified in 2022 were linked to rightwing extremism, with an especially high number linked to white supremacy. Continue reading...
Officials say DNA evidence led them to killer of Rita Curran, in case that baffled investigators and was formerly linked to Ted BundyIn 1971, Rita Curran, a 24-year-old schoolteacher, was found strangled to death in her apartment in Vermont. The college town of Burlington, where Curran taught second grade, was devastated. Police interviewed Curran’s neighbors, investigated hundreds of tips and collected evidence including a single cigarette butt found near her arm, but were unable to name her killer.Curran’s murder, unsolved for more than five decades, became one of Vermont’s most notorious cold cases. That changed this week, when police detectives announced the identity of her murderer – a male neighbor, police say, who later became a Buddhist monk and countercultural guru before dying of an overdose in 1986. Continue reading...
Former president, under investigation for his election subversion attempts, criticizes jury foreperson for ‘doing a media tour’Donald Trump responded to interviews given by the foreperson of the Georgia grand jury which investigated his election subversion attempts by ridiculing the woman and claiming to be the victim of his political enemies.“This Georgia case is ridiculous,” the former president wrote on his Truth Social platform, claiming “a strictly political continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time”. Continue reading...
Due to a technicality in the benefit system, I am not eligible for the means-tested support for ‘the most vulnerable’ householdsI have a severe, life-limiting form of muscular dystrophy; my condition is progressive. My parents’ home where I live contains lots of medical equipment that keeps me alive and in the community, saving the NHS hundreds of pounds per night and keeping a bed free for those in need. Needless to say, all of this equipment requires energy – and this costs a lot of money right now.Keeping me out of hospital entails ensuring that lots of medical equipment is continually charged. I use two ventilators, two ventilator batteries, one power-chair battery, one gastrostomy feed-pump, two suction pumps, one electric bed, one electric hoist, one cough-assist machine, one microphone amplifier and monitors to check my breathing when no one is in the room. I also need three hot water bottles night and day, to keep me warm in my power-chair and in my bed. That’s the baseline; additionally, when I’m ill or tired, I have to use an oxygen concentrator, a nebuliser and Sats machines. I wouldn’t be able to survive without the above equipment.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...
Constitutional provision could prevent special counsel from obtaining information about conversations with TrumpMike Pence is expected to fight his grand jury subpoena as part of the January 6 criminal investigation with the “speech or debate” protection – a move that could prevent the special counsel from obtaining his testimony about key conversations with Donald Trump and members of Congress.The special counsel overseeing the Trump investigations recently issued a subpoena to Pence – a key witness with unique insight into a number of conversations with the former president and the efforts to stop the congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election. Continue reading...
Last year, 3 million were displaced in the US. Millions more will follow – and neither they, the government or the housing market are readyOver the past decade, the US has experienced a succession of monumental climate disasters. Hurricanes have obliterated parts of the Gulf Coast, dumping more than 50in of rain in some places. Wildfires have denuded the California wilderness and destroyed thousands of homes. A once-in-a-millennium drought has dried up rivers and forced farmers to stop planting crops. Many of these disasters have no precedent in living memory, and they have dominated the headlines as Americans process the power of a changing climate.But the disasters themselves are only half the story. The real story of climate change begins only once the skies clear and the fire burns out, and it has received far less attention in the mainstream media. Continue reading...
The far-right congressman is invoking a constitutional clause that allows him to block access to his phoneScott Perry, the far-right House Freedom Caucus chairman, is in a legal battle with the justice department for his work with Donald Trump allies to overturn the 2020 election results.Perry, a congressman from Pennsylvania whose belated vote and those of caucus allies helped elect Kevin McCarthy as speaker, has been waging a legal fight for months to block the Department of Justice (DoJ) from accessing his cellphone, which was seized last August as part of the DoJ’s sprawling January 6 inquiry and Trump’s efforts to thwart Joe Biden’s election with false fraud claims. A federal appeals court in DC is slated to hear arguments about accessing Perry’s phone on Thursday. Continue reading...
Advocates insist the proposed laws will not affect first amendment protected speechChief election officials in several states want to make it illegal for someone to knowingly spread false information about an election, a move that raises questions around first amendment protected speech.The Democratic secretaries of state for Michigan and Minnesota told the Guardian they’re supporting legislation that would criminalize people who spread misinformation about an election. Michigan’s secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson, said the law would prevent people from tweeting that Election Day is on a Wednesday or saying that voting machines are insecure, when they know that information to be false. Continue reading...
Police say Alabama star Brandon Miller supplied the gun that was used in the murder of young mother Jamea Harris. That he’s still in the lineup lays bare the power of athletic privilegeBy all accounts Jamea Jonae Harris was a star in her own right. Just 23, she already seemed to have it all: brains, beauty, happiness, humility and a five-year-old son who was her entire world. She booked off a weekend in January to spend with her cousin, a student at the University of Alabama. With her boyfriend, Harris made the hour drive from her Birmingham home to the college town of Tuscaloosa. After a Saturday night spent clubbing with friends, Harris headed for home in a black Jeep with her boyfriend and cousin, stopping for a late-night bite at a greasy spoon in the shadow of Bama’s football stadium. It was just their bad luck.According to Harris’s mother and cousin, the trio were waiting on their food when two men approached, desperate for Harris’s attention. The more they refused to take no for an answer, the more the tension rose. Attuned to the vibe shift, Harris’s boyfriend proposed they just forget the food and leave. But Harris and her companions were reportedly blocked in by two cars and fired upon by one of the men who had approached her. Harris’s boyfriend shot back with his own firearm and hit the gunman twice, then tried to steer the group to safety. Continue reading...
A journalist and a young girl were fatally shot in central Florida on Wednesday afternoon near the scene of a fatal shooting from earlier in the day, authorities said. Police detained Keith Melvin Moses, 19, who they believe is responsible for both shootings. Another journalist covering the second shooting called it 'every reporter's worst nightmare'
The five-time MLS champions were once seen as a model for success in US soccer. But they have been overtaken in their own citySaturday could be a historic day for Major League Soccer: the 2023 season curtain-raiser between Los Angeles FC and the LA Galaxy at the Rose Bowl is expected to break the league’s all-time single-match attendance record. As of 10 days ago, a reported 70,000 tickets had been sold – the current record stands at 74,479.Yet some Galaxy fans are boycotting the game in protest at the club’s leadership. In particular, LA Galaxy president Chris Klein and technical director Jovan Kirovski are being targeted for their role in a prolonged period of underachievement. Continue reading...
For years I have been recognised off the telly, and it has been easy to meet new people. But a memorable party reminded me of why it pays to work at the art of conversationI enjoy having conversations like, you know, face-to-face, in person. Or just on the phone will do. Weird, I know. I’m assuming analogue chit-chat is dying out, as the rise of AI means we’ll have to get used to talking to computers. Already, many of the face-to-face conversations we are having were initiated via them. For example, I had a young male colleague, a good-looking and confident rascal. Even though, as far as I could see, he was enjoying conspicuous success with his Tinder dating, he bemoaned the march of technology. He said he’d often approach a woman in a bar, only to be told that she was waiting for a Tinder date. “The game’s over,” he said sadly. Tellingly, in relating this, it strikes me that approaching somebody unbidden to talk to them might now come across as dodgier than meeting a stranger you’ve found on the internet.Whether you’re dating or not, the knack of starting conversations is at least as important – and challenging – as the art of conversation itself. The talking is the easy bit. It helps no end, of course, if you’re interested in other people, in which case you’ll generally bring yourself and others pleasure by asking them about themselves. If you’re more interested in yourself than anyone else, then that can be straightforward, too – just rattle on about your own brilliance and either turn a blind eye to any yawning or glazing over, or move on to your next victim. This is all set out nicely in Dale Carnegie’s famous/infamous book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. “Show interest in others” being his key point. I read it as a teenager and it made a huge impression on me – so much so that I gave it to a close friend of mine to read. His critique was exactly as follows: “This is all very well if you’re interested in other people, but I’m not really.” So that was that.Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Hundreds of thousands lose power and thousands of flights canceled as weather takes toll across northern and western statesA brutal winter storm closed interstate highways from Arizona to Wyoming on Wednesday, trapped drivers in cars, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people and prompted the first blizzard warning in southern California in decades – and the worst won’t be over for several days.Meanwhile, pockets of the south-east will be cooking, with record-breaking warmth expected to stretch into the mid-Atlantic spiking temperatures more than 40F warmer than normal and creating weather that feels more “like June than February”, according to the National Weather Service. Continue reading...
Police say man involved in earlier killing returned to scene and fired on news van before walking to nearby home and shooting girlA central Florida television journalist and a young girl were fatally shot on Wednesday afternoon near the scene of a fatal shooting from earlier in the day, authorities said.The Orange county sheriff, John Mina, said during a news conference on Wednesday evening that the police had detained Keith Melvin Moses, 19, who they believe is responsible for both shootings in the Orlando-area neighborhood. Continue reading...
Special counsel looking into Trump’s efforts to overturn 2020 election subpoenas former president’s daughter and son-in-lawFormer US president Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka Trump have been subpoenaed by the special counsel Jack Smith to testify before a federal grand jury regarding the January 6 attack on the Capitol, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing sources.Merrick Garland, the attorney general, appointed Smith in November last year to take over two investigations involving Trump, who is running for president in 2024. Continue reading...
Hearing under way to determine whether 22-year-old accused of Club Q shooting should be charged with hate crimeThe 22-year-old accused of carrying out the deadly mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs in November posted to a neo-Nazi website and used gay and racial slurs while gaming online, a police detective testified on Wednesday.Among the things Anderson Lee Aldrich posted was an image of a rifle scope trained on a gay pride parade and a shooting training video. Aldrich, who identifies as nonbinary and uses the pronouns they and them, also used a bigoted slur when referring to someone who was gay, Detective Rebecca Joines testified at the start of a three-day hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to warrant a hate crime charge against Aldrich in the 19 November attack. Continue reading...
‘You’re the frontlines of our collective defense,’ Biden tells Bucharest Nine group of eastern European countries on last day of tripJoe Biden on Wednesday night condemned as a “big mistake” Russian president Vladimir Putin’s decision to suspend his country’s participation in the last remaining US-Russia nuclear arms control treaty.The comment came as the US president closed out his wartime visit to Europe, working to shore up partnerships with allies on Nato’s perilous eastern flank – even as Putin was drawing closer to China for help as his invasion of Ukraine neared the year mark. Continue reading...
Republican Mark Brnovich’s successor releases reports that debunked claims of fraud in Maricopa county in 2020 electionThe former attorney general of Arizona, Mark Brnovich, failed to release documents that showed his office’s investigation into the 2020 election did not find evidence of widespread fraud in the state’s most populous county.The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that Brnovich would not turn over public records that detailed his investigators’ findings. His successor, the Democratic attorney general Kris Mayes, released the records, which showed several reports that debunked rampant claims of election problems in Maricopa county. Continue reading...
FDA says consumers are not confused if plant-based beverages use the term, after dairy producers call for crackdown on labelingSoy, oat, almond and other drinks that bill themselves as milk can keep using the term, according to draft federal rules released on Wednesday.Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials issued guidance that says plant-based beverages do not pretend to be from dairy animals – and that US consumers aren’t confused by the difference. Continue reading...
Expectations are low for quick progress as Republican lawmakers push for steep spending cuts in exchange for a dealThe US could face an unprecedented default on its obligations as soon as early June if Congress does not act to lift the debt limit, a Washington thinktank said on Wednesday.The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), which forecasts the approximate “X-date” when the government will no longer be able to meet its financial obligations on time, said the US will reach its statutory debt limit as soon as the summer or early fall of 2023. Continue reading...
Vladimir Putin is suffocating dissent, but a brave minority keep the flame of truth alive, and they need western supportAlthough official Russian channels still insist on referring to a “special military operation” in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin is preparing his country for a protracted war. In a long speech earlier this week, the Russian president portrayed the conflict as an existential geopolitical struggle in which the main adversary and initial aggressor was Nato.This reheated cold war rhetoric predates the invasion of Ukraine. It is the central plank of Mr Putin’s self-image as national saviour, restoring glory to a people whose homeland – defined by the borders of the old Soviet Union – has been dismembered by the west. Continue reading...
Without being able to consider lived experience, the court came to the only judgment it couldShamima Begum was a 15-year-old girl when she last set foot in Britain, in 2015. If the judgment of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) stands, Ms Begum will probably never return. Siac, the tribunal that hears immigration cases involving national security issues, upheld the right of the home secretary – Sajid Javid in 2019 – to strip her of UK citizenship because her presence was not “conducive to the public good”.Many people will think this is a good thing. But Ms Begum makes a strong case that she was lured as a child to be a bride for Islamic State fighters in Syria. She went on to have three children, all of whom died. She lives now in limbo, stateless and detained in a Syrian camp. Her argument that she was not just groomed but trafficked ought to be taken seriously – not least after MPs found that systemic failures by UK public bodies enabled such a trade. Continue reading...
Liberal Janet Protasiewicz and conservative Daniel Kelly advance to final vote in state supreme court electionWisconsin voters on Tuesday chose one liberal and one conservative candidate to face off in a race to determine control of the state supreme court in what is likely the most important election of 2023.Janet Protasiewicz, a liberal Milwaukee circuit court judge, will be on the ballot against Daniel Kelly, a conservative former supreme court justice, in the state’s 4 April general election. Protasiewicz, who received 46% of the statewide vote, and Kelly, who received 24% of the statewide vote, advanced from a four-member field that included Everett Mitchell, a liberal judge in Dane county, and Jennifer Dorow, a conservative judge in Waukesha county. Continue reading...
A year on from Russia’s invasion, there is no shortage of pontification. What’s required now is statecraftCut to the chase and give them the planes, demanded Boris Johnson during Monday’s Commons exchanges on Ukraine. Send them the fighter jets, insisted Liz Truss a few moments later during the same debate, as the two ex-prime ministers vied to flaunt the leadership qualities they lacked when they were actually in power.If only the Ukraine war were as easily resolved as we armchair experts like to think. But it is not – and it won’t be when the fighting resumes soon either. The anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s invasion this week has provided a platform for a lot of well intentioned pontification. It’s often spot on, as Joe Biden’s was in Kyiv and Warsaw this week. Good for morale, undoubtedly. Not so good for objectivity, however, or for statecraft. Continue reading...
Proposal prompted comparisons to Trump’s policies to limit asylum for migrants, which Biden had pledged to reverseDemocrats and immigration advocates harshly criticized Joe Biden over a new proposal that could stop migrants claiming asylum when they arrive at the US-Mexico border. One advocate said the move would cause “unnecessary human suffering”.The pushback came after the Biden administration unveiled a proposal that would deny asylum to migrants who arrive without first seeking it in one of the countries they passed through. Continue reading...
One of Malcolm X’s daughters says new details show federal and state agencies covered up crucial evidenceThe family of Malcolm X has filed notice that they plan to sue the FBI, New York police and other agencies over his death.The civil rights leader was 39 when he was assassinated on 21 February 1965, at an auditorium in the Washington Heights neighbourhood. Continue reading...
Democrats condemn House speaker’s move and warn Capitol security could be endangered if Fox News host airs footageThousands of hours of surveillance footage from the January 6 attack on the US Capitol are being made available to the Fox News host Tucker Carlson, a stunning level of access granted by the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, that Democrats condemned as a “grave” breach of security.The hard-right host said his team was spending the week at the Capitol, preparing to reveal their findings. Continue reading...
Consoling email sent to students after a mass shooting at Michigan State University was written using an AI chatbotOfficials at Vanderbilt University apologized for using an AI chatbot to write a consoling email to students after a mass shooting at Michigan State University.The message went out last week from the office of equity, diversity and inclusion in the Peabody College of Education and Human Development, reported the Vanderbilt Hustler, the student newspaper. Continue reading...
Foreperson Emily Kohrs gives insight into process usually cloaked in secrecy, after portions of grand jury report released last weekAsked if the grand jury she led recommended indicting Donald Trump over his election subversion in Georgia, the foreperson of the jury said: “You’re not going to be shocked. It’s not rocket science.”She also said sitting on the jury was “a big freaking deal”. Continue reading...
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