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Poll shows 60% of Democrats want someone else as 2024 nominee and nearly 50% of Republicans want someone other than TrumpNearly 60% of Democrats and nearly 50% of Republicans want someone other than Joe Biden or Donald Trump to be their party’s nominee for president in 2024, a new poll showed on Sunday.A key member of Biden’s cabinet, however, insisted Biden’s record in office was more important than any “generational argument” for change. Continue reading...

It’s easy to get people riled up and panicked about kids, about a changing culture and about lost innocence. That’s exactly what the right is doingYou could be forgiven for losing track of all the lurid and inventive ways that Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor with presidential ambitions, has attacked education in his state. Last year he signed the Don’t Say Gay bill, a nasty little law that bans classroom discussion of sexuality or gender identity issues – effectively forcing children and teachers alike to stay silent about their families and lives, under the threat of lawsuits. The bill caused confusion and controversy, frightening gay students and teachers, leading to preemptive compliance in some sectors and defiant disobedience in others – and, not coincidentally, drawing quite a bit of culture-war attention to DeSantis himself.Since then, the Florida governor has repeated the playbook in increasingly ambitious fashion. Last April, DeSantis signed the exhaustingly titled “Stop Woke Act,” which restricts lessons on racial inequality in public schools. The bill prohibits the teaching of material that could cause a student to “feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress,” due to US racial history – the implication being that these are not appropriate responses to an encounter with this history, or that protection from such emotions is more important than a confrontation with the facts.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

The US Coast Guard shared footage of a rescue involving a rescue swimmer saving a man from a 35ft yacht that was rolled over by a huge wave. The rescue swimmer was lowered into the water from a helicopter and swam towards the vessel, before the man was thrown into the water in the mouth of the Columbia River. Officers identified the man as Jericho Labonte, who authorities had been looking for after video had revealed Labonte involved in a bizzare incident where he left dead fish at a home featured in 1985 film, The Goonies. Labonte is also wanted in the British Columbia on criminal harassment, mischief and failure to comply cases

It is 126 years since the magnificent bronzes were stolen. When will they finally be returned to where they belong?This month marks 126 years since the British punitive expedition resulted in the theft of more than 10,000 objects from the Benin kingdom. They came to be known as the Benin bronzes, and have been at the centre of repatriation debates ever since.Though the original victims are long gone, their descendants have eagerly awaited the return of the bronzes, and still do. As one such descendant, the issue of repatriation isn’t just diplomatic, it’s personal. My great-great-grandfather, HRH Ogbidi Okojie King of Uromi, fought alongside his relative Oba Ovonramwen Nogbaisi, the ruler of the Benin kingdom. What began as a family matter more than a century ago is now an international diplomatic issue.Noah Anthony Enahoro is a freelance journalist and writer based in London Continue reading...

Derek Myers alleges he was put to work as a volunteer before controversial Republican touched him and asked him overThe embattled New York Republican congressman George Santos has been accused of sexual harassment by a former aide.Santos already faces local, state, federal and international investigations over professional and personal behaviour, campaign finance filings and a campaign résumé shown to be largely made-up. Continue reading...

President’s second address on Tuesday comes at a critical moment, as House Republicans are eager to damage his 2024 election prospectsJoe Biden’s second annual State of the Union address on Tuesday comes at a critical juncture for the president, as he contemplates a second term. ​He faces a newly empowered House Republican majority eager to damage ​his political prospects with investigations into him, his administration and his family while a special counsel investigation into his handling of classified documents brings a degree of legal uncertainty.​ Continue reading...

Footage shows a suspected Chinese spy balloon being shot down over the Carolina coast. Two US fighter jets circled the balloon before launching an air missile to destroy it. Beijing claimed it was a weather observation airship that had been blown off course, but the Pentagon claimed it had been able to manoeuvre and make deliberate turns. The US said it reached Montana, home to some of the US arsenal of nuclear ballistic missiles. Some Republicans called for the balloon to be shot down over land, despite the risk of deaths and property damage below. The Biden administration took the decision to disable it once it reached Carolina's coastline

From self-help books to Oscar campaigns, lots of people are telling us that self-promotion is good. Resist the boasters!By nature, I am not a modest man. Maybe you find that easy to believe. If so, I apologise. If not, I’m ashamed to say I think that’s good. And I’m rightly ashamed to say it because saying things that are good about yourself, I was brought up to believe, is a shameful thing to do. Not very shameful, but slightly shameful. Like a crafty piss behind a wheelie bin. Rude.I may be outwardly shy and non-confrontational but sometimes, inside, I well up with a megalomaniacal self-belief that I want to scream from the rooftops. Sometimes, as is characteristic of many professional performers, my confidence collapses and I’m inclined to tedious, consolation-seeking self-pity. But then I think up some adequate joke and my brain is immediately telling me: “There you go, Mr Amazing, you did it again!” When something I’ve done has gone well, I want everyone to know. I itch to get the knowledge of it into all of their heads. Fortunately for anyone who meets me, I understand that it is not permitted for me simply to tell them. Continue reading...

Republican Florida governor unveils plans for overhaul of state university system as he prepares for expected presidential bidAlex Obraud, a 21-year-old anthropology student in his third year at New College in Florida, did not expect to be on the frontlines of America’s culture wars simply by attending university in the state.But Florida’s rightwing Republican governor, Ron DeSantis – and likely would-be presidential candidate for 2024 – has launched a relentless campaign of attack on higher education in the state, seeking to appeal to his party’s Trumpist base by positing that the state’s colleges and universities are a bastion of liberal extremism that needs to be reformed. Continue reading...

Party’s criticism of Omar’s Israel position has greased the path for Republicans to oust her from the foreign affairs committeeThe resolution that set in motion the removal of the only African immigrant, Muslim and former resident of a refugee camp on the congressional committee overseeing US foreign policy paid scant attention to Ilhan Omar’s views on anything but a single issue: Israel.“Omar has attempted to undermine the relationship between the United States and Israel,” said the author of the resolution, Republican congressman Max Miller. “She has disqualified herself from serving on the foreign affairs committee.” Continue reading...

The director of disturbing documentary Leaving Neverland, which featured two of the singer’s young victims, says the forthcoming film about the star sends out an unacceptable messageIt has been four years since the first public screening of Leaving Neverland to a shocked, tearful American audience in a packed 266-seat venue at the 2019 Sundance film festival. The four-hour documentary, co-produced by Channel 4 and HBO, is a brutally frank and explicit account of two abusive relationships that the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, had with children: one with Wade Robson describes how the boy was just seven when the entertainer first raped him, and an earlier one with James Safechuck, who was all of 10 years old when it began. The film’s spine consists of searingly candid interviews with Robson and Safechuck and their mothers. The Guardian reported: “After the film ended, an ashen-faced crowd rose to their feet to applaud Wade and James, who arrived on stage, both visibly moved by the response.”What had motivated me – and Robson and Safechuck even more so – to embark on making Leaving Neverland was not just the opportunity to expose Jackson by having his victims speak on camera for the first time. Here was an opportunity to bring to the widest possible audience an insight into how children fall victim to any sexual abuser, the psychology of the predator and, above all, the grooming process. Maybe we could help prevent young children from falling prey to this most scarring, crippling of crimes. Of course the fact that the child molester in this case was one of the world’s most famous men meant that a lot of people would watch. Setting fire to Jackson’s reputation, already charred around the edges by multiple allegations and payments of hush money, was not the primary goal of the documentary. But it seemed like a necessary collateral impact: if you know that your idol has abused children, should that not make celebrating his personality a little more problematic, to say the least? Continue reading...

President Erdoğan’s increasingly hostile stance towards Nato and democratic principles can no longer go unpunishedThat Turkey is a “vital strategic ally” of the west is the sort of truism on which people such as Joe Biden and Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s secretary general, are raised. Yet what if the old saw no longer holds true? What if Turkey’s leader, exploiting this notion, betrays western interests in a pretence of partnership? Should not that leader be treated as a liability, a threat – even ostracised as an enemy?Geography doesn’t change. Turkey wields significant influence at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Yet the increasingly aggressive, authoritarian and schismatic policies pursued at home and abroad over two decades by its choleric sultan-president have upended long-cherished assumptions. Turkey’s reliability and usefulness as a trusted western ally is almost at an end.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

Appeals court submission exposes racial toxicity in case of Black man John Balentine, sentenced to death for 1999 triple murderIn April 1999, John Balentine, a Black man on trial for murder in Amarillo, Texas, sat before an all-white jury as they deliberated whether he should live or die.Should he be given a life sentence, in which case he would likely end his days behind prison bars? Or should they send him to death row to await execution? Continue reading...

David Balogun, who loves science and computer programming, receives diploma after taking remote classesA nine-year-old boy from Pennsylvania who loves science and computer programming has become one of the youngest ever high school graduates, and he has already started accumulating some credits toward his college degree.David Balogun recently received a diploma from Reach cyber charter school – based in his state’s capital of Harrisburg – after taking classes remotely from his family home in the Philadelphia suburb of Bensalem, the local television station WGAL reported Saturday. Continue reading...

Chinese foreign ministry accuses US of ‘overreacting’ and ‘violating international practice’ after balloon was downedA US warplane has shot down a Chinese high-altitude balloon over the Atlantic Ocean after it had crossed the entire US and caused a diplomatic rift between the two countries.The balloon, which China said is for meteorological purposes but the US insists has been spying, could be seen on television collapsing and falling from the sky. Continue reading...

Extremist Republican who makes $174,000 annually according to public records says ‘I’ve lost money since I’ve gotten here’The far-right US congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is facing backlash after complaining that her elected position’s salary is “too low”.Earlier this week, the Republican representative from Georgia appeared on journalist Glenn Greenwald’s podcast and expressed concern about her congressional salary, which according to public records is $174,000 annually. Continue reading...

Huge spree on Fernández, Mudryk, Nkunku and Madueke raises more questions about the coherence of Boehly’s plansAmortisation over a long-term deal. Heavily incentivised contracts. A couple of relatively quiet windows before Roman Abramovich was forced to sell the club. There’s been a lot written over the past few months about how Chelsea can afford a spree that will hit £620m when the Christopher Nkunku deal happens next June. But perhaps the bigger question is why? What on earth are they doing?Structure the deals as cleverly as you like, that money still has to be paid at some point. Chelsea’s spending has been of the sort you would expect from a megalomaniac billionaire taking over a club, when the point is to have fun or make a splash, when long-term planning means less than “Get me Robinho, now!” In that regard, the careful squad-building of the Saudi Public Investment Fund at Newcastle has been a huge disappointment. Continue reading...

Biden administration considers plan to bring balloon down safely over Atlantic where remnants could be recoveredThe Biden administration was on Saturday considering a plan to shoot down a large Chinese balloon suspected of conducting surveillance on the American military, according to four US officials.The aim would be to bring it down once it is above the Atlantic Ocean, where the remnants could be recovered. Continue reading...

Temperatures will be 10 to 30 degrees below average over parts of the north-east as millions under wind chill warningsAn Arctic blast has swept through numerous parts of the north-east, leaving millions of people under wind chill warnings and cities and states issuing emergency warnings.Record-breaking temperatures will be 10 to 30 degrees below average over parts of the north-east and into the coastal mid-Atlantic, the National Weather Service announced on Saturday, with wind gusts potentially reaching up to 40 to 55mph (64 to 88km/h). Continue reading...

Pablo Lyle, a telenovela star, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in October after 2019 road rage incidentA Mexican telenovela star and Netflix series actor received a five-year prison sentence Friday after punching a man to death during a road rage confrontation in Miami in 2019.Pablo Lyle’s sentence came four years after he was charged with murder in the death of a man he struck during an encounter in traffic. A jury ultimately found Lyle guilty in October of involuntary manslaughter in the killing of 63-year-old Juan Ricardo Hernández. Continue reading...

China has called for calm amid a growing diplomatic row with the US over suspected spy balloons, adding that Beijing was 'verifying' the reports. It comes after the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, indefinitely postponed a planned visit to Beijing after a large balloon was spotted in US airspace. 'China is a responsible country that has always strictly abided by international laws, and it has no intention of violating the territory and airspace of any sovereign country,' the foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said.

Of all the places to find a heartening queer love story: the apocalypse. This TV series is a major cultural milestoneLove finds many expressions, but its sole certainty is that it always ends. This inescapable reality underpins much of human culture: what is most art, music, theatre, cinema and television other than an attempt to grapple with the emotional turmoil that results?A devastating new contribution to this artistic tradition finds an unlikely home in episode three of the new HBO series The Last of Us. Unlikely, because it is based on a popular video game, set in an apocalyptic alternative universe in which most of humanity has been reduced to zombie-like cannibals. What remains of our species is confined to totalitarian quarantine zones and desperate raiding parties. This is not conventionally fertile ground for romance.Owen Jones is a Guardian columnistIn the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org.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...

Dogs lead lives of loneliness. Grey parrots die years earlier than their natural lifespans. And it is hard to fathom the boredom of pet fishAt the end of last year, the state of New York banned pet stores from selling cats, dogs, or rabbits. The state wants to encourage pet stores to work with shelters, rather than puppy mills, to get animals adopted. With any luck, other states will follow suit.In her story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, Ursula Le Guin described a society where the joy of its citizens depended upon the “abominable misery” of a single child immured in a dungeon. Le Guin asked the reader if even great happiness could justify suffering. Humanity’s relationship to animals is predicated on a similar utilitarian calculus. Like the town of Omelas, we have made a silent pact to dominate pets for our benefit, despite the cost to the pets themselves, to wild and farmed animals, and to our own morality.Troy Vettese is an environmental historian at the European University Institute and co-author of Half-Earth Socialism (Verso 2020) Continue reading...

Ideologues like Ron DeSantis aren’t angry at politics in education; they’re angry their politics don’t have a monopolyThe rightwing governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, and his administration recently blocked a proposed black studies course for advanced placement high school students, as well as announced policies that would inhibit state universities from teaching programming about racial diversity, equity and inclusion or so-called “critical race theory”. These moves follow on the heels of Florida’s “don’t say gay” legislation, last year, restricting teachers from discussing sexual orientation.DeSantis and other conservative politicians argue that they are saving America’s young from leftwing indoctrination, and that students should instead be exposed to “civic education” that extolls a patriotic vision of America. When DeSantis and his growing number of acolytes present themselves as champions of civic education, however, they are in fact undermining the whole point of civics: not to make children “patriotic” or just fill brains with facts (how many branches of government are there again?), but to enable individuals to be fearless, critical citizens.Jan-Werner Müller teaches at Princeton and is a Guardian US columnist. His most recent book is Democracy Rules Continue reading...

Immigrants express frustration as nine Republican-led states ask judge to end Obama-era program that gives temporary deportation reliefIt’s been almost 10 years since Areli Hernandez received her first US government work permit in her mailbox. Hernandez remembers staring at her own photograph and touching the scripted name on the card in disbelief, feeling that a long-sought dream had finally materialized.But earlier this week, the program that gives temporary deportation relief to Hernandez and hundreds of thousands of other immigrants known as Dreamers, allowing a chance to live and work legally in the US, came under threat once again in a federal court. Continue reading...

Solitary confinement inmates protest against brutal form of incarceration but state says it’s only aware of six striking menPrisoners in Texas who have been kept in solitary confinement in some cases for more than 20 years are sustaining a hunger strike in protest against their brutal form of incarceration in the face of threatened retaliation from state authorities.Outside advocates working with the protesting inmates say that in their latest count 22 men continue to refuse food, with two of them having been on hunger strike since the start of the action on 10 January. Continue reading...

The war is a battle with Putin’s Russia, and a life plagued by darknessUkraine has entered 2023 as if going into a dark room where it is impossible to turn on the light. It seems that there are windows, but there is darkness behind them too. We must wait for the dawn or the restoration of the power supply. While there is neither one nor the other, darkness provokes a feeling of deep fatigue.The Lviv University teacher and well-known Ukrainian poet Galina Kruk has noticed an unsettling pattern in her life – during a blackout, the power banks and batteries that feed her torches and lamps stop working about half an hour before the electricity comes back on. Then there is pitch darkness, which seems even thicker than when the lights first went out – that “early” darkness with which it was still possible to somehow cope. Continue reading...

The ex-president is daring Republican challengers to make the first move – and some are preparing to attackThe starting gun has been fired and the race for the White House is under way. But in Iowa, where the first-in-the-nation Republican caucuses are just a year off, the landscape is icy and snowy and eerily silent.There is no great mystery why: the Donald Trump effect. Continue reading...

Greg Kelley, who was exonerated in 2019, uses money from settlement to buy 1.3-acre Texas property for his motherYears before Greg Kelley was freed from a wrongful conviction, the Texas man’s mother – Rosa Kelley – sold her home to help pay his legal bills.But she once again has a home of her own after her son recently bought her one as a gesture of his gratitude for her support, which helped set the stage for his exoneration in 2019, his state’s capital’s daily newspaper, the Austin American-Statesman, reported this week. Continue reading...

Secretary of state calls the incident in US airspace a ‘clear violation of US sovereignty and international law’A second Chinese spy balloon was reportedly flying over Latin America, according to the Pentagon, in comments that came as the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, postponed a visit to China after the intrusion of a separate high-altitude Chinese balloon into US airspace.“We are seeing reports of a balloon transiting Latin America,” Pentagon spokesperson Pat Ryder said, a day after the first craft was spotted over US skies. “We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon.” Continue reading...

Protester who opposed Georgia’s planned police-training facility was first environmental activist killed by police in US historyThe environmental activist who was killed by police in Atlanta while protesting against Georgia’s planned “Cop City” was shot more than a dozen times, according to private autopsy results released by his family.Officers from multiple agencies shot and killed Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, also known as Tortuguita, on 18 January after authorities moved through the camp of activists who were in a forest to protest a planned $90m police training facility. Dozens of officers from the Atlanta police department, the Dekalb county police, the Georgia state patrol, the Georgia bureau of investigation and the FBI swept through the camp. Continue reading...

Investigation finds Preston Hemphill violated rules regarding stun gun use, and video shows him saying ‘I hope they stomp his ass’A sixth Memphis officer was fired on Friday after an internal police investigation showed he violated multiple department policies in the violent arrest of Tyre Nichols, including rules surrounding the deployment of a stun gun, officials said.Preston Hemphill had previously been suspended as he was investigated for his role in the arrest of Nichols, who died three days later. Five Memphis officers have already been fired and charged with second-degree murder in Nichols’s death. Continue reading...

Michigan boy Mason Stonehouse had jumbo shrimp, shawarma, salads, chicken pita sandwiches and chili cheese fries deliveredA Michigan man says he was left with a $1,000 bill after his six-year-old son ordered a virtual smorgasbord of food from several restaurants last weekend, leading to a string of unexpected deliveries – and maybe a starring role in an ad campaign.Keith Stonehouse said the food piled up quickly at his Detroit-area home on Saturday night after he let his son, Mason, use his cellphone to play a game before bed. He said the youngster instead used his father’s Grubhub account to order food from one restaurant after another. Continue reading...

Plus Gawker and the end (again) of an era, and Eva Green’s WhatsApp mishapsWhen one thinks of Alec Baldwin – as this week’s news cycle sadly ensures one must – humility isn’t the first quality that springs to mind. Baldwin’s persona hinges on a comedic bombast that the 64-year-old carries over from the screen into life. Even for a man who threatens photographers in the street, yells at airline stewards and rashly tweets and deletes, however, his apparent blitheness in the wake of [checks notes] shooting and killing someone accidentally on the set of his last film has been quite something to behold. Continue reading...

Reports emerge that the embattled New York congressman told donors of his role, which the lead producer deniesJust as it seemed the well of bizarre stories about George Santos might have begun to run dry, it was reported on Friday that the New York Republican congressman told potential donors he was a producer on the notoriously ill-fated Spider-Man musical.Bloomberg News said: “The lead producer, Michael Cohl, denied Santos’s involvement, saying through an assistant that [Santos] wasn’t a producer on the musical. Santos’s name also never appeared in the playbills for the show.” Continue reading...

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has postponed a planned visit to China this weekend after the intrusion of a high-altitude Chinese balloon into US airspace.China had apologised for the incident, claiming it had been a weather balloon which had been blown off course, but US officials made clear they did not believe that explanation and the Pentagon restated its assessment it was a surveillance aircraft, adding that by midday Friday it had changed course and was over the centre of the country.Blinken’s trip, due to begin on Friday night, has been put off until circumstances are more 'conducive', US officials said

Mark Pomerantz, who was on New York team investigating tax affairs, reportedly compares ex-president to John GottiNew York prosecutors building a case against Donald Trump for allegedly lying about his wealth for tax purposes had to show the former president was “not legally insane”, one of those prosecutors reportedly writes in an eagerly awaited new book.The lawyer, Mark Pomerantz, also reportedly compares Trump, the only confirmed candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, to famous figures in the world of organised crime including John Gotti, the “Teflon Don” who died in prison in 2002. Continue reading...

The suspects have been taken into custody – one after a gun battle with federal agents – and charged with six counts of murderAuthorities in California have arrested two gang members suspected in a massacre in central California last month that killed six people, including a young mother and her infant.The pair were arrested early on Friday, one after a gun battle, the Tulare county sheriff said. Continue reading...

Antony Blinken delays trip, as China claims balloon was for ‘meteorological’ purposes and was blown off course

Agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack also seeks to significantly lower sodium in meals as part of fresh nutrition standards planUS agriculture officials on Friday proposed new nutrition standards for school meals, including the first limits on added sugars, with a focus on limiting sweetened foods such as cereals, yogurt, flavored milk and breakfast pastries.The plan announced by the agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, also seeks to significantly decrease sodium, making for less salty meals served to the nation’s school kids by 2029, while making the rules for foods made with whole grains more flexible. Continue reading...

Davion Irvin, 24, charged with six counts of animal cruelty after two of zoo’s emperor tamarin monkeys found in abandoned homeAn arrest has been made in the case of the missing monkeys apparently abducted from the Dallas zoo, whose shock disappearance was the latest in a series of incidents to affect the zoo’s animal inhabitants.Davion Irvin, 24, was arrested on Thursday night and charged with six counts of animal cruelty. The move could mark a breakthrough in a mysterious case which has created headlines across the US as the zoo struggled to explain how or why it was being targeted. Continue reading...

The House Republican majority voted to remove the Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar from the foreign affairs committee on Thursday, after a heated debate. The resolution to oust Omar condemned comments she had made about Israel that had drawn accusations by Republicans and some Democrats of antisemitism. She had apologised and acknowledged that her remarks played on antisemitic tropes

‘I saw a mountaintop covered in white snow. At that point, I knew I was in trouble,’ says Kingsley Burnett, who mixed up airport codesA New York man heading off on a dream holiday to Sydney, Australia, to take a cruise got the shock of his life when he looked out of the plane window to see snow-capped mountains rather than the golden sands of Bondi Beach.“I saw a mountaintop covered in white snow. At that point, I knew I was in trouble,” Kingsley Burnett, 62, told local TV channel KTVQ after he realised he had booked and caught a flight to the tiny Montana city of Sidney rather than the Australian city. Continue reading...