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Trump's former chief of staff gave evidence in special counsel investigation into effort to overturn 2020 election, ABC reportsDonald Trump's former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows testified to a federal grand jury about efforts by the former president to overturn the results of the 2020 election after receiving immunity from special counsel prosecutors, ABC News reported on Tuesday.The testimony that Meadows provided to prosecutors included evidence that he repeatedly told Trump in the immediate aftermath of the election that the allegations about fraud were unsubstantiated, ABC reported. Continue reading...

The woman was exploring a cave 100ft underground in an area known as Thunder Canyon Caves east of San DiegoA California hiker was rescued by helicopter from a narrow portion of a cave where she was stuck for 16 hours, according to the San Diego county sheriff's department.On 21 October, the rescued hiker, who has not been identified by law enforcement, was exploring a cave in an area known as Thunder Canyon Caves, 65 miles (105km) east of San Diego, when she tried to pass through an opening that was just 12in wide. Her friends tried to free her but were unsuccessful, so they called 911. Continue reading...

The New York fraud trial's first star witness outlines scheme designed to fool people about the size of Trump's fortuneSilence filled the courtroom in the fraud trial of Donald Trump on Tuesday in anticipation of the arrival of the case's first star witness. Trump, at his usual place at the front of the courtroom surrounded by his lawyers, didn't turn to look back at his former employee, Michael Cohen, entered to take the stand.After an eruption of camera flashes from the hallway, Cohen slowly walked to the witness stand in a grey jacket and a white shirt, no tie. But there was nothing grey about his testimony. After days of highly technical testimony from Trump's former accountants, Cohen outlined a simple scheme designed to fool people about the size of Trump's fortune. Continue reading...

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Members of STAYC wore retro kit for the Glasgow football team instead of baseball jerseys for the Texas Rangers on their US tourA K-pop's band attempt to ingratiate themselves with the local audience in Texas resulted in a fashion faux pas, with the group wearing retro Glasgow Rangers football shirts.STAYC had intended to wear the jerseys of the Texas Rangers baseball team, who this week reached the World Series, for a show in Dallas as part of their US tour. Continue reading...

House majority whip becomes third Republican to withdraw after Louisiana's Steve Scalise and Ohio's Jim JordanThe Minnesota representative Tom Emmer has abandoned his bid for speaker after it became clear he had no pathway to winning the 217 votes required to claim the gavel. He abandoned his attempt hours after getting enough votes to be the GOP nominee.Emmer is the third Republican to withdraw from the speakership race after initially getting the nod from a majority of the conference. Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio previously launched unsuccessful efforts. Continue reading...

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Minnesota congressman voted to certify 2020 election but did urge supreme court to throw out electoral votes of key states US politics - follow liveThe Minnesota congressman Tom Emmer was the third party leader to try to galvanize enough support among Republicans to be House speaker after Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio failed in their bids.But he rapidly found he was unableto muster the 217 votes he needed to get the job. Continue reading...

Tom Emmer - the third nominee in three weeks - drops out of race just hours after winning nomination

Party calls explicit Republican flyers desperate' attempt to foil Democratic challenger and distract voters from abortion banDemocrats in Virginia are defending their candidate for a competitive statehouse seat against desperate" efforts by Republicans to exploit her appearances on an adult porn website.The state's Republican party has admitted it sent out several thousand explicit" flyers to voters in House district 57 containing still images reportedly of Democrat Susanna Gibson engaged in livestreamed sex acts with her husband. Continue reading...

DMV cites unreasonable risk to public safety' from General Motors' subsidiary amid multiple investigationsCalifornia suspended Cruise's permits to operate self-driving cars on the state's public roads, effective immediately, the state's department of motor vehicles said in a statement on Tuesday. The agency said Cruise's vehicles pose a danger to the public and that the company had misrepresented key facts when dealing with safety regulators.When there is an unreasonable risk to public safety, the DMV can immediately suspend or revoke permits," the regulator said. Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors, can still operate its vehicles with safety drivers, per the DMV's statement. Google's Waymo, Cruise's main rival, maintains its permit to test its autonomous vehicles sans drivers on the streets of San Francisco. Continue reading...

Once the guy who would take a bullet' for the ex-president, the 57-year-old is now a key witness in the New York fraud trial

Scholars of genocide are criticizing the dangerous use of the Holocaust to justify Israeli mass violence against PalestiniansPresident Joe Biden began his remarks in Israel with this: Hamas committed atrocities that recall the worst ravages of Isis, unleashing pure unadulterated evil upon the world. There is no rationalizing it, no excusing it. Period. The brutality we saw would have cut deep anywhere in the world, but it cuts deeper here in Israel. October 7, which was a ... sacred Jewish holiday, became the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.It has brought to the surface painful memories and scars left by millennia of antisemitism and the genocide of the Jewish people. The world watched then, it knew, and the world did nothing.Raz Segal is an associate professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University and the endowed professor in the study of modern genocide Continue reading...

Recognising the common humanity of Israeli and Palestinian civilians can break the endless chain of attack and reprisalWhen 85-year-old Israeli Yocheved Lifshitz was released from Hamas's underground cells, she was filmed gripping the hand of a hooded fighter who had probably been part of her prison guard while saying shalom", the Hebrew word for peace. It was a startling moment of humanity in a frighteningly divided world. At a press conference, Ms Lifshitz said that she had been treated well in captivity despite a harrowing and brutal capture from her kibbutz.A peace activist, Ms Lifshitz's views surely influenced her words, as probably did the knowledge that her husband was still being held by Hamas. But in these bleak times, Ms Lifshitz offers an important lesson: that a small gesture of kindness towards a person who represents your enemy can stop time, can show in an instant that we are all human, as opposed to an impulse for revenge that reinscribes the past, setting off an endless chain of attack and reprisal.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...

Groundskeepers resort to covering course with chilli oil to discourage the herbivores, which are native to the south-westWith no respect for etiquette on the fairways, let alone a dress code, a group of scruffy porcine invaders has left a trail of devastation across a prestigious Arizona golf course hailed among the country's finest.Greenkeepers at the picturesque Seven Canyons Golf Club in Sedona have posted to social media videos of the destruction wrought by the marauding pack of javelinas, also known as collared peccaries, which has dug up large areas of the course. Continue reading...

Trump's ex-fixer takes stand at New York fraud trial as former president, in attendance in court, attacks Cohen as proven liar'

Officials say Aimenn Penny, 20, threw molotov cocktails at church in Chesterland, Ohio because it planned to host two drag showsA man allegedly connected to a white supremacist group has pleaded guilty to firebombing a church in Ohio to try to prevent it from hosting two drag shows planned for last April.According to court documents, 20-year-old Aimenn Penny had made molotov cocktails before driving to the community church of Chesterland on 25 March this year. He threw two at the church, damaging the house of worship and a sign. Continue reading...

Ruling will allow ban, first passed in 2019, to stay in place while litigation continuesAbortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy will remain illegal in Georgia, the state's supreme court ruled on Tuesday. The ruling will allow the state's six-week ban, which was first passed in 2019 and took effect after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade last year, to stay in place while litigation over the ban continues.In their challenge to a six-week ban, known as the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (Life) Act, a group of abortion rights supporters had argued that it should be struck down because it ignored the fact that, in 2019, the US still recognized the constitutional right to abortion. A lower court in Georgia agreed with that argument, but the Georgia supreme court discarded it. Continue reading...

Crashes occurred amid combination of marsh fire smoke and dense fog, killing at least seven people and injuring another 25Crews worked into Tuesday morning clearing the wreckage of more than 150 vehicles involved in a series of crashes the day before on Interstate 55 near New Orleans caused by a superfog" of marsh fire smoke and dense fog that killed at least seven people and injured another 25.Hazardous driving conditions on Tuesday morning prompted several schools in the area to close or delay. Continue reading...

Ellis pleads guilty to aiding and abetting false statements and writings, after becoming an outspoken critic of Trump recentlyJenna Ellis, the lawyer for Donald Trump who was also facing criminal charges for attempted election subversion, is taking a plea deal, pleading guilty to one count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings.In Fulton county on Tuesday, Ellis became the fourth of 19 defendants to plead guilty as part of the wide-ranging racketeering charges into Trump and allies in the 2020 election in Georgia. Last week, both Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro pleaded guilty before their trials were to start. Scott Hall, an Atlanta bail bondsman, has also pleaded guilty. Continue reading...

Lawsuit says Sarah Katz, 21, had heart condition and was not aware of stimulant content of cafe chain's powerfully caffeinated sodaThe family of a 21-year-old Ivy League student who died after consuming Panera Bread's Charged Lemonade - a powerfully caffeinated soda - is suing the food chain, claiming that it failed to appropriately warn customers about what they claim is a dangerous energy drink".According to a complaint filed on Monday in the Philadelphia court of common pleas, Sarah Katz had a heart condition and was not aware of the drink's stimulant content. The complaint said the drink's stimulant content exceeds that of cans of Red Bull and Monster energy drinks combined. Continue reading...

Retired marine Paul Whelan, held in Russia, says decision not to include him in past two swaps painted a target on my back'A retired US marine jailed in Russia nearly five years ago on espionage charges his country says are bogus has told the top American diplomat that being omitted from the White House's past two prisoner swaps with the Kremlin at best painted a target" on his back.In comments to CNN published on Tuesday, Paul Whelan said he used a phone call in August with Antony Blinken to tell the US secretary of state point blank that leaving me here the first time painted a target on my back". Continue reading...

Research suggests writing down your feelings' about winter can help with seasonal affective disorder. I'm willing to give it a goDear winter,It seems that you intend to visit us again this year. I just want to make it clear - because researchers have found that expressing feelings" about you in the form of a dear winter" letter could make me less miserable at this time of year - that I did not invite you. Continue reading...

Adam Kinzinger, another anti-Trump Republican, details exchange - and shoulder checks' from McCarthy - in new memoirWhen Liz Cheney warned fellow Republicans five days before January 6 of a dark day" to come if they indulged in the fantasy" that they could overturn Donald Trump's defeat by Joe Biden, the then House GOP leader, Kevin McCarthy, swiftly slapped her down.After Liz spoke," the former Wyoming representative's fellow anti-Trumper Adam Kinzinger writes in a new book, McCarthy immediately told everyone who was listening, I just want to be clear: Liz doesn't speak for the conference. She speaks for herself.'" Continue reading...

Lawyers say indictment over alleged plot to overturn 2020 election violates Trump's free-speech rights and is vindictive prosecutionLawyers for Donald Trump are raising new challenges to the federal election subversion case against him, telling a judge that the indictment should be dismissed because it violates the former president's free-speech rights and represents a vindictive prosecution.The motions filed late on Monday in the case charging the Republican with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost to Joe Biden are on top of a pending argument by defense attorneys that he is immune from federal prosecution for actions taken within his official role as president. Continue reading...

Republican Jeff Wilson, from Washington state, charged with possession of an unregistered firearm but calls it honest mistake'Authorities in Hong Kong arrested a politician from Washington state after he stepped off a flight from San Francisco for having a pistol in his carry-on bag.Jeff Wilson, a Republican state senator, was granted bail Monday after being charged with possession of an unregistered firearm. A court hearing in Hong Kong, which China administers, is set for 30 October. Continue reading...

French cinema risks being sacrificed on the altar of market forces. From Jules et Jim to Blue is the Warmest colour, that would be an incalculable lossIn 2018, the film-maker Paul Schrader made some controversial remarks about how the business has changed since his 1970s heyday, when he wrote Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. There are people who talk about the American cinema of the 70s as some halcyon period," Schrader said at a Bafta Screenwriters event in London. There's probably, in fact, more talented film-makers today than there was in the 70s. What there was in the 70s was better audiences." The director added, We now have audiences that don't take movies seriously, so it's hard to make a serious movie for them."Looking back just five years later, Schrader's words seem like a grim portent of an era when art films and character-driven dramas struggle to find an audience in cinemas. Though much of the blame lies with the major studios and entertainment companies, who've all but eliminated risk and originality from theatrical releases, the pandemic also got viewers hooked on streaming instead of movie-going. Continue reading...

Holocaust-denying, pro-Nazi and white nationalism content posted on Rumble, exclusive livestreamer for November debateA key broadcasting partner for the next Republican presidential debate permits and even promotes political extremism, false conspiracy theories and misogyny on its site, according to observers of media and extremism and a Guardian review of content on the online video platform Rumble.The Guardian's survey of Rumble revealed dozens of accounts posting content including Holocaust denial, pro-Nazi and pro-Hitler advocacy, white nationalism, and content from banned creators such as the white nationalist Nick Fuentes. Continue reading...

Israel is about to wade into a moral and strategic disaster. We need a ceasefire and the return of the hostagesIsrael's stated war aim is to destroy Hamas and ensure there is no return to the situation before 7 October. This will not be a replay of past wars with Hamas, Israel insists, where it degraded Hamas's capacities and bought a few years of relative quiet before everything heated up again. Yet this is exactly what is about to happen - but on a much more horrific scale. This outcome can and must be avoided for the sake of the Palestinians and to diminish Israel's capacity for self-harm in the guise of self-defense. There is an urgent need for a ceasefire.To see the disaster that lies ahead for Israel and the Palestinians, let's begin with what we know and consider how the situation may evolve. What would it take for Israel to eradicate Hamas from Gaza? According to most estimates, a bloody, grinding ground war that will last weeks if not months. Whether such an operation would even accomplish this goal is anyone's guess: Hamas is deeply entrenched in Gaza, has hundreds of miles of tunnels in which to play hide and seek, and could head south and disappear into the refugee camps. Continue reading...

US says now not the time for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas as hostages still held. Plus, smoky superfog' in Louisiana causes 158-vehicle pileupGood morning.Joe Biden has underscored the need to sustain a continuous flow of urgently needed humanitarian assistance into Gaza" in a phone call with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House has said.What's the situation like in Gaza? Concern about the plight of people in Gaza intensified. The director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, Thomas White, said shortages of shelter, food and drinking water in the south had forced some residents to return to their homes in the north.What will happen now? Republicans are due to meet at 9am ET on Tuesday to begin choosing a nominee behind closed doors through a series of secret ballots. Continue reading...

While Trump hurtles to the Republican nomination, his party's representatives in Congress feud and backstabJim Jordan's march to seize the Capitol began as a beer hall putsch but veered into Sesame Street. Vote after vote, he has missed the sagacity of the Count, the puppet Dracula who teaches children the number of the day. Former speaker Nancy Pelosi wryly remarked that the Republicans should take a lesson in mathematics and learning how to count".After the second round, Jordan threw in the towel from his stool in the corner: no mas! He endorsed instead extending the tenure and power of Patrick McHenry, the speaker pro tempore, until someone could figure something else out. But Jim Jordan the consensus builder was a short-lived phenomenon. The spirit of violence swirled around him. Continue reading...

There's no virtue in avoiding something simply because it's popular. And yes, it has taken me a year to tackle the latest Barbara KingsolverI was coming through the barriers at Gravesend railway station when the woman next to me said: Oh my God, where are you up to? Isn't it great?" At this point, I was on page 15 of Barbara Kingsolver's novel Demon Copperhead, late to the party, no real views yet, but there is nothing I like more than a random encounter, so I said: Yes, I love it."By this time, we had lingered so long that the gates had opened and closed and we had to get the train guy to help us. He had read it, too, and really loved it, which seemed to soften the irritation at two idiots who couldn't exit a station. Continue reading...

Increased militancy after pandemic sacrifices and tighter labor market contributed to impressive contract deals in last yearCall it the Great Reset. Across the US, labor unions are winning surprisingly large contract settlements as workers have reset their expectations to demand considerably more than they did just a few years ago, and that has in turn pressured many corporations to reset - and increase - the pay packages they are giving in union contracts.The result has been a wave of impressive - sometimes eye-popping - union contracts over the past year, far more generous than in recent decades. In August, 15,000 American Airlines pilots won pay increases of 46% over four years. In a huge labor confrontation last summer, 340,000 Teamster members at UPS won raises of $7.50 an hour over five years, with drivers' pay climbing to $49 an hour and part-time workers receiving a pay increase of 48% on average. Continue reading...

The league was once made up of would-bes and has-beens. Now there's a burgeoning middle class: talented players looking to kickstart stalled careersFor most of the league's existence, high-profile players in MLS have tended to fit into one of two categories: young prospects, from home or abroad, who have been developed in-house, and established stars who have moved Stateside to wind down their careers.In recent seasons, though, a look across MLS's most consistent high-performing players reveals a third class of imports - a group of mid-prime stars who have moved to North America with the aim of kickstarting stalled careers. Continue reading...

The UN is warning of a risk of genocide' against Palestinians. Future pleas of If I knew then what I know now' will not cut itIf I knew then what I know now. For many of the guilty men and women who plunged Iraq into blood and chaos, this became something of a stock phrase. When, in 2004, the then Tory leader, Michael Howard, was asked if he would still have supported the British government's motion backing the war - only 16 Conservative MPs rebelled a year earlier - he replied: If I knew then what I know now, that would have caused a difficulty. I couldn't have voted for that resolution." If I knew then what I know now, I would not have voted that way," protested Hillary Clinton during her doomed first campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. If I knew then what I knew now, I wouldn't have voted for it," said Labour's then deputy leader, Harriet Harman, a few weeks later.Prepare yourself for the revival of this phrase. As the calamity of Israel's onslaught against Gaza becomes apparent, those who cheered it on will panic about reputational damage and plead their earlier ignorance. Do not let them get away with it this time. Continue reading...

Our writers give their verdicts on the new season, which starts on Tuesday night. Can Boston or Milwaukee thwart a Denver repeat?The fact that every time Jimmy Butler's name appears in line-up graphics or his stats are displayed mid-game, it'll be accompanied by his headshot with the emo" hairstyle and facial piercings he showed up with at media day. After he did the same with his dreadlocks-and-clean-shaven look last year, his commitment to the bit is almost as impressive as his postseason heroics. RB Continue reading...

PM says defence pact has strong support among US legislators he has met during official visit

Europe's turn to the right now looks reversible, while Donald Tusk's victory leaves Viktor Orban politically isolatedIt was meant to have been Poland's Orban moment". Last August, the country's ruling nationalist Law and Justice party voted that parliamentary elections in October should be accompanied by a referendum. Citizens would be asked populist-inflected questions about selling off state assets to foreigners, increasing the retirement age and illegal immigration. The referendum was copy-pasted from a strategy successfully used by Viktor Orban to consolidate his illiberal regime in Hungary. It was not simply a cynical ploy to allow unlimited public money to be spent on the ruling party's electoral campaign, it was an effort to frame the elections as a referendum on Polish sovereignty. To oppose the referendum and to vote for the opposition meant not only that you favoured a loss of sovereignty, but that you endorsed neoliberal economic policies and economic occupation by foreign" powers such as Germany. Law and Justice was sure that it was a tactic that could not go wrong.As we know, the ploy failed. The fact that the opposition successfully boycotted the referendum held alongside general elections on 15 October (only about 40% of voters took part) reveals one of the least-discussed consequences of the national populists' long rule in Poland: the paradox that eight years of culture war against liberalism has resulted in Polish society's dramatic liberalisation.Ivan Krastev is a political scientist at the Institute of Human Sciences in Vienna and author of The Light that Failed: a Reckoning Continue reading...

The speaker hopefuls made their pitches at a closed-door forum, however factional strife has made the process difficultRepublicans, whose party infighting has stymied the US House of Representatives for three weeks, tried on Monday to find consensus on a new speaker to lead the chamber and address funding needs for Israel, Ukraine and the federal government.Nine speaker candidates, including No 3 House Republican Tom Emmer, made their pitches to fellow Republicans at a closed-door forum, and answered questions about how they would handle the job, which has become a flashpoint for factional strife between rightwing hardliners and more mainstream Republicans. Continue reading...

Prosecutors say Jareh Dalke, facing up to 22 years in prison, gave security files to FBI agent that he thought was Russian operativeA former National Security Agency (NSA) employee from Colorado pleaded guilty Monday to trying to sell classified national security information to Russia.Federal prosecutors agreed to not ask for more than about 22 years in prison for Jareh Sebastian Dalke when he is sentenced in April if he adheres to the terms of a plea deal, but the judge will ultimately decide his punishment. Continue reading...

Defendants allegedly left coins scattered across parking lot after breaking into truck and taking 10-cent pieces worth $234,500Robberies in the US are a dime a dozen, but one in particular had investigators perplexed. Now, more details about a scandal involving the theft of dimes by the million, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, have been released by federal authorities.A newly unsealed indictment charges that on the evening of 13 April, four Philadelphia men made off with $234,500 - made up of more than 2m dimes - after breaking into a tractor-trailer carrying the coins. The truck driver, who had pulled into a parking lot to sleep at the time of the heist, had picked up the dimes from the US Mint and was headed to Miami. There was $750,000 worth of dimes in the truck before the robbery - a shipment that weighed about six tons and cost a pretty penny. Continue reading...

The Democratic senator stepped down from the foreign relations committee chair after accusations of being a foreign agentBob Menendez returned to court in New York on Monday and entered a not guilty plea to a charge alleging that the US senator conspired to act as an agent of the Egyptian government when he chaired the Senate foreign relations committee.Menendez, 69, spoke up to say not guilty" when offered the chance to make his plea during his first appearance before Judge Sidney Stein at federal court in lower Manhattan. Stein is expected to preside over a trial tentatively scheduled for May. Continue reading...

Authorities have confirmed no motives and are just short' of naming one person a suspect in murder of Samantha WollDetroit police officials on Monday reiterated their belief that the killing of synagogue president Samantha Woll over the weekend does not appear to be a hate crime - but have yet to describe any theory or motivation for her murder.Right now the evidence doesn't take us there," said Detroit's police chief, James White, at a press conference on Monday. When we talk about hate crimes, there are certain tracks they take. We're confident that we don't have any indication of that at this point." Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. For the latest on the House speaker race you can read our latest report:

Alaska Airlines flight was reportedly diverted after off-duty pilot attempted to disable plane's engines and was subdued by crewAn Alaska Airlines flight bound for San Francisco was reportedly diverted to Portland, Oregon, after an off-duty pilot inside the cockpit attempted to disable the aircraft engines.Alaska Airlines flight number 2059 operated by Horizon Air from Everett, Washington, was diverted on Sunday after reporting a credible security threat, according to a Federal Aviation Administration statement. Continue reading...

A ceasefire from all sides, along with the immediate and safe return of all the hostages, is what's necessary now - this is hardly a difficult concept to graspOn the morning of 19 October, I received an email circulated by the director of veteran's affairs at the City University of New York, where I teach. Due to recent dire events overseas," the email read, there is a possibility that the Department of Defense might activate varied servicemembers by or before November 1, 2023."Is the United States about to blindly march us into yet another catastrophic war? This type of information didn't come only from my university, either. NBC News has also reported that about 2,000 US troops have been ordered to prepare to deploy to support Israel. While some get ready for war, shouldn't the rest of us be pushing for alternatives to violence, especially before we find ourselves in a global conflagration beyond anyone's control?Moustafa Bayoumi is the author of the award-winning books How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America and This Muslim American Life: Dispatches from the War on Terror. He is a professor of English at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. He is a contributing opinion writer at the Guardian US Continue reading...