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A doctor, a nurse and a custodian at UPMC Memorial, and two other officers were shot and wounded in attackA man armed with a pistol and carrying zip ties entered a Pennsylvania hospital's intensive care unit Saturday and took staff members hostage before he was killed by police in a shootout that also left an officer dead, authorities said.Three workers at UPMC Memorial hospital, including a doctor, a nurse and a custodian, and two other officers were shot and wounded in the attack, York county district attorney Tim Barker said. A fourth staffer was injured in a fall.Guardian staff contributed reporting Continue reading...

John Feeley launches stinging critique of US president's bully-boy approach to Latin AmericaThe former US ambassador to Panama has launched a stinging critique of Donald Trump's approach towards Latin America, comparing his conduct to that of the ruthless and egotistical fictional mob boss Tony Soprano.In the first month of his presidency, the US president has shocked some observers with his aggressive focus on a region many expected him to largely ignore. Early steps have included threatening to take back" the Panama Canal, accusing Mexico's government of being in cahoots with narco-traffickers, sending an envoy to meet the Venezuelan dictator, Nicolas Maduro, and clashing with Colombia's president, Gustavo Petro, over deportation flights. Continue reading...

Scrim the tramp terrier, known for his many getaways, now has a home and an extended family to look over himCalling King Solomon.The wiry terrier named Scrim who had virtually all of New Orleans looking for him while he spent most of the previous year on the run - enduring a hurricane, a historic snowfall and other perils - landed in the middle of an adoption controversy among those who recently brought him to heel again and then wanted to keep him. Continue reading...

Emboldened and exultant, speakers put less emphasis on baiting liberals and more on spreading the Maga gospelWhat do you give the man who has everything? A ballroom full of cheering conservative activists found out this week when Elon Musk was presented with a chainsaw by Argentina's president, Javier Milei, who has used the power tool as a symbol of his push to impose fiscal discipline.Wearing sunglasses, a black Maga baseball cap and a gold necklace, Musk giddily wielded the chainsaw up and down the stage. This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy!" he declared. Members of the audience shouted: We love you!" Musk replied: I love you guys, too!" And he quipped: I am become meme." Continue reading...

For the US president's cheerleaders, the whitewashing of the deaths of ten of thousands of Ukrainians is a small price to pay for sticking it to the wokeratiWas it really only a month ago that the pole-dancer patron, fridge explorer, Brexit get-doer, model bus maker, sofa-strainer, wall-spaffer, current Daily Mail columnist and former British prime minister Boris Johnson eulogised the inauguration of Donald Trump in the Mail, recounting how, as the invisible pulse of power surged" from the battered bible into the hand of Trump: I saw the moment the world's wokerati had worked so hard to prevent."I hope Johnson is pleased with the way things have worked out. Because now the foolish wokerati have been schooled beyond Johnson's wettest dreams. It's the Trump-Putin-bin Salman party! An adjudicated sex offender and convicted fraudster, and a man who sanctioned a chemical warfare hit, killing a British citizen on British soil, have met at the luxury Saudia Arabian hotel of another man, who, according to the US, reportedly approved the murder and subsequent dismemberment of a journalist, to discuss the similarly brutal dismemberment of Ukraine, without consulting either Ukraine itself or the countries most directly affected by the legitimisation of Putin's territorial anxieties. Don't worry, Poland! Stable genius Trump has got this covered, so break out the bone saws, pop the cork on the novichok and grab the girls by the pussy! There are 1970s Italian slasher films with less gruesome plotlines. Well said, Boris Johnson! That's certainly stuck it to the wokerati!Stewart Lee tours Stewart Lee vs the Man-Wulf this year, with a Royal Festival Hall run in July. He appears in a benefit show for Just Stop Oil at Walthamstow Trades Hall, London, on 8 April Continue reading...

As the US upends decades of foreign policy, those watching the war unfold from miles away resolve to stand strongMembers of New York's large Ukrainian community expressed a mix of disillusionment, betrayal, defiance and acute uncertainty about what the future holds for Ukraine after tensions escalated this week between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.Geopolitical events in the last week have shocked Ukrainians at home and overseas as well as US lawmakers and allies, as the US president appeared to heavily favor the Russian president Vladimir Putin to dictate peace terms on the eve of the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Continue reading...

This weekend's vote will show how far xenophobia has been driving even some traditionally progressive partiesWhen I think of German democracy, I think of the Larsen B ice shelf: a vast Antarctic structure that remained stable for 10,000 years until - in just over a month, to the horror of shocked onlookers - it collapsed catastrophically.This weekend, Germany is going to the polls. The coalition led by the centre-left Social Democratic party (SPD), born in hope, has fallen apart, thanks in no small measure to the continual attempts at sabotage by the Free Democratic party (FDP), its most junior member. That last successful effort resulted in the dissolution of the government. Continue reading...

Regardless of anxiety by most parents about over-sharing, the president's aide brought one of his children to the White HouseIf the reversal of declining birthrates is genuinely a preoccupation of Elon Musk's, recent reviews suggest that the exhibition of his four-year-old son, X", may not be the most effective fertility stimulus.That there is more chance of the exact opposite, a global stampede for contraceptives, remains likely even if X can be persuaded not to pick his nose and, as the world witnessed last week, idly consume its contents beside the US president's Resolute desk. I say idly". Donald Trump, in attendance, introduced X as a high IQ individual". Behind his show of mucoid innocence, the prodigy may have been reflecting, with wry amusement at the double standards, that no woman in his father's role would get away with bringing a docile child to a presidential press conference, still less one as irksome as himself.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...

The stakes couldn't be higher and the risks couldn't be greater when the prime minister visits Washington this weekFor British prime ministers, with their ideas about the world shaped by the histories of Churchill and Roosevelt, Maggie and Ronnie, and the rest of the folklore about the transatlantic alliance, the prospect of a visit to the White House usually causes tingles of excitement. One of our senior diplomats once offered me an explanation of the allure: The red carpet is laid out, the national anthems are played, all that stuff is very seductive." This will be customarily accompanied by ritualistic words about the importance and invincibility of the special relationship".Number 10 lobbied hard to get Sir Keir Starmer across the Atlantic early in the second term of Donald Trump and, until recently, Downing Street people were telling themselves that an encounter between the two men needn't be a disaster and might even turn out to be a success. In the weeks since Trump's re-election as US president, UK policy might be summarised by the phrase Don't poke the beast". Keep the temperature cool. Ignore provocations. Attempt to trade on British heritage - golf, the royal family - with which this US president has an affinity. Put David Lammy out there to suggest that there is lots to respect about the man whom the foreign secretary used to call a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath". Softly-softly was the doctrine and they thought it was bearing fruit. Continue reading...

The UK leader has been advised to choose his words carefully at this week's crucial White House meeting Keir Starmer lays down Ukraine peace demand ahead of Trump talksWhen Keir Starmer is advised on how to handle his crucial meeting with Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday, he will be told by advisers from Downing Street and the Foreign Office to be very clear on his main points and, above all, to be brief.Trump gets bored very easily," said one well-placed Whitehall source with knowledge of the president's attention span. When he loses interest and thinks someone is being boring, he just tunes out. He doesn't like [the French president, Emmanuel] Macron partly because Macron talks too much and tries to lecture him." Continue reading...

Accepting the presidential nomination, the Arizona senator tells the Republican National Convention that Americans have been betrayedWe want Barry! We want Barry!' cheered the crowd as Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater entered the 1964 Republican National Convention in San Francisco. The band blared the crusaders' song of American politics, Glory Glory Hallelujah', writes Theodore H White in the Observer Magazine on 20 September 1964, with Goldwater's 89-year-old mother on the cover.In his speech accepting the presidential nomination, the far-right Arizona senator, with his deep tan and silvery white hair', aroused both fervour and fear... Then he swung into his theme: The Good Lord raised this mighty republic, not to stagnate in the swamplands of collectivism, not to cringe before the bully of Communism."' Continue reading...

Contemptuous and sure of himself, the US president boasted of his victories and taunted his enemiesGod save the king. Drunk on power, Donald Trump spent Saturday afternoon before adoring fans, boasting of his victories, taunting his enemies and casting himself as America's absolute monarch, supreme leader and divine emperor rolled into one.Trump's appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the National Harbor in Maryland began with country singer Lee Greenwood's God Bless the USA and raucous cheers in a crowded ballroom that included January 6 insurrectionists. Continue reading...

Ex-leader of far-right Proud Boys trails group through lobby of Washington hotel, engaging officer Michael FanoneEnrique Tarrio, the former leader of the far-right Proud Boys group who was convicted and then pardoned for his role in the January 6 insurrection, confronted a group of police officers who defended the Capitol during the attack, accusing one of them of being a coward".A video shared by Tarrio on social media on Saturday showed him following the officers, Michael Fanone, Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonell, through the lobby of a Washington hotel that was hosting the Principles First summit, a conference where one of the officers received a profile in courage" award. Continue reading...

US president's 75-minute tirade of repeated false claims ranges from voter fraud and stolen-election lies to foreign wars. This blog is now closed.Donald Trump launched into his speech by assailing the fraudsters, liars ... globalists and deep-state bureaucrats" that he said are being sent back".We're draining the swamp and restoring government by the people for the people," he said before going on to his oft-repeated claims of Washington DC being controlled by a sinister group of radical-left Marxist warmongers". Continue reading...

US president hits familiar notes about election victories, ending the war in Ukraine and border militarizationIn a campaign-style performance, Donald Trump delivered the more-than-hour-long finale at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday, hitting familiar notes about his election victories, ending the war in Ukraine, US border militarization and what he characterized as the liberation of Washington from deep-state bureaucrats".Speaking to an auditorium filled to the brim at National Harbor in Maryland, Trump went all-in on his deployment of active-duty troops to the southern border, which he characterized as responding to an invasion". He also boasted that his administration had terminated temporary protected status for Haitian immigrants and attempted to ban birthright citizenship for children of non-legal permanent residents. Continue reading...

Andrew Duarte of West York borough police department was slain Saturday at UPMC memorial hospital in YorkA police officer was killed Saturday after responding to a shooting at a central Pennsylvania hospital, officials said.The officer slain in the shooting at UPMC memorial hospital in York was identified as Andrew Duarte of the West York borough police department. He had been responding to a mutual aid call, the department posted on its Facebook page.Guardian staff contributed reporting Continue reading...

When contraception has stagnated for decades, it is hardly surprising it's fallen victim to culture wars and a wellness cultSomething is changing when it comes to contraception. Lots of people aren't using it. Last week we heard that this includes a third of young Irish people. Meanwhile, there has been a significant rise in abortions in England and Wales. Prescriptions for the contraceptive pill in England dropped from 432,600 in 2014 to 188,500 in 2021. And this month data from abortion clinics found that demand is being fuelled by women coming off the pill and using natural methods instead.When the study compared contraception used by women seeking abortions in 2018 and in 2023, it found that the proportion using smartphones to track their menstrual cycle had increased from 0.4% to 2.5%. The use of hormonal contraception among this group fell from 19% to 11%, while the group not using any form of contraception when they became pregnant increased from 50% to 70%. Continue reading...

The US president, on a Russian leash, holds talks that exclude the invaded countryYou can buy a copy of this cartoon Continue reading...

Thanks to Donald Trump, a new era of great power imperialism fuelled by authoritarianism and hyper-nationalism is unfoldingA torrent of abrupt US policy reversals, resets and revisions since Donald Trump returned to the White House last month has left America's friends and enemies struggling to keep up. Trump's desire both to upend and dominate the established international order, and in particular his undermining of the postwar transatlantic alliance, is feeding talk of a watershed moment akin to 1989, when the fall of the Berlin Wall signalled an end to the coldwar.His behaviour has strengthened a consensus, current among western politicians, diplomats and analysts, thatthe world is reaching a turning point, that the UN-led, rules-based, multilateralist system is crumbling, and that a new era of great power imperialism fuelled by authoritarianism, hyper-nationalism and left- and rightwing populism is unfolding. Continue reading...

His friendship with the president dates back to a late-night encounter in a deli. Now he is a loyal envoy brokering the Gaza ceasefire and peace talks on UkraineWith the first phase of the ceasefire nearing its end, an American property developer has emerged as a key figure in determining whether Gaza attains a more enduring peace or slips back into war.Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump's typically idiosyncratic pick as special Middle East envoy, has also found his way into the midst of talks with Russia over Ukraine's future, sitting opposite Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, instead of the official special envoy for the region, Keith Kellogg. Continue reading...

With a Putin-appeasing president at the helm, it is clear the transatlantic alliance is collapsing and European leaders must plot their own courseHow do I betray thee? Let me count the ways... Apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning for mangling her celebrated poem to reflect Donald Trump's multiple Ukraine treacheries. This most perfidious of presidents surpassed himself last week, accusing Kyiv of invading itself three years ago . You should have never started it. You could have made a deal," he fatuously griped.Candidate Trump, touting a just peace, pledged to end the war in a day. Now he praises Vladimir Putin, claims Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is a dictator" and backs a settlement on Moscow's criminal, one-sided terms. This deranged collapse into craven capitulation, this transition from American saviour to American Judas, took less than a month. It's contemptible. Continue reading...

Database, first proposed by Trump in 2020 and created by Biden administration in 2023, is now offlineDonald Trump's second presidential administration shut down a national database that tracked misconduct by federal police, a resource that policing reform advocates hailed as essential to prevent officers with misconduct records from being able to move undetected between agencies.The National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD), which stored police records documenting misconduct, is now unavailable, the Washington Post first reported. Continue reading...

FBI says Aurora Phelps met men online for dating then drugged them and stole cars and moneyA woman used online dating apps to lure at least four older men to meet her in person, drugged them with sedatives and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in a sinister" romance scheme, FBI officials in Las Vegas said on Friday.Three of the men died, authorities said, and she has been charged in one of their deaths. Continue reading...

Trump administration is seeking to oust Hampton Dellinger, head of the office of special counselThe US supreme court on Friday temporarily kept on the job the head of the federal agency that protects government whistleblowers, in its first word on the many legal fights over the agenda of Donald Trump's second presidency.The justices said in an unsigned order that Hampton Dellinger, head of the office of special counsel, could remain in his job at least until Wednesday. That's when a lower-court order temporarily protecting him expires. Continue reading...

There are three tried-and-tested strategies for getting into Donald Trump's inner circle, from adoration to misogynyThere are three tried-and-tested strategies for getting into Donald Trump's inner circle. No 1: be young, blond and so obsessed with the president that even the Secret Service think it's kinda weird. That strategy certainly seems to have worked out well for Natalie Harp, a former far-right cable host who is now an official aide to Trump. Continue reading...

President's anti-immigrant actions fuel a heartland battle between middle-ground Republicans and extremistsFrom under the floorboards of a large, white building in Maysville, Kentucky, African American slaves making the arduous, secret escape from the south would hide one final time. Freedom, across the Ohio River to the north, was in clear sight.The Underground Railroad term was thought to have first been coined in Maysville, when Tice Davids, a slave, escaped a life of cruelty in 1831 by swimming across the roiling Ohio River. For tens of thousands of people such as Davids, the river was the final barrier to freedom, separating the free state Ohio from slavery in the south. Continue reading...

Dubbed eHarmony for babies', bill would create connected databases for pregnant women and those looking to adoptA Republican lawmaker in Missouri has introduced legislation to create a registry of pregnant women who are at risk" of having an abortion - a proposal the bill's author characterized as an eHarmony for babies" that could also help match adoptive parents with babies.If passed, the bill would create two registries: one for people at risk" of abortions and one for people looking to adopt. Members of each registry could access the other, while Missouri government officials would be tasked with helping members meet each other and facilitating adoptions. The bill's goal is to reduce the number of preventable abortions in Missouri". Continue reading...

Sports betting firms claim their programs are not designed' to enable problem bettors - but advocates are skepticalFirms at the heart of the US's sports betting boom have been accused of encouraging gamblers to chase losses by rewarding high spenders with betting credits, bonuses, gifts and even trips.In letters obtained by the Guardian, gambling giants told a prominent US senator last year that their controversial VIP programs were not designed" to prompt frequent bettors to bet more. But problem gambling advocates are skeptical. Continue reading...

Colored School No 4' was built in 1850 to serve Black kids, but it's unclear what the city plans to do with it todayIn the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, a modest brick building stands as a silent witness to nearly two centuries of Black American history. Once known as Colored School No 4, this unassuming structure was designated a landmark in 2023, sparking conversations about both its past and future.The school, which served as a beacon of education for Black children in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, is now at the center of efforts to preserve and celebrate the contributions of Black Americans to New York City's cultural and historical fabric. That preservation comes at a time when diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, which seek to promote the fair treatment and full participation of all people, are under attack at all levels of government. Continue reading...

Democrat Jasmine Crockett calls it really wild' that it is foreign leaders who are speaking truth to powerThe congresswoman Jasmine Crockett has revealed she is rooting" for Canada and Mexico over Donald Trump in their attempts to stand up to him, saying it is really wild" to find herself in that position given he is the president of the US.They are really the ones that are speaking truth to power right now," the Democratic representative from Texas said on Friday on the popular Breakfast Club podcast, alluding to the political feuds Trump has engaged in with the US's two North American neighbors during the first month of his second presidency. They can see what it is and they were like, We are not messing with this crazy regime.'" Continue reading...

From adding the president's face to Mount Rushmore to pushing for him to serve a third term, party members are getting inventive in their brown-nosingIf proof were needed that Donald Trump's cult of personality has never been stronger, it comes in the inventive ways Republican members of Congress have spent his first month in office trying to lionise him. Welcome to the sycophancy stakes.On 23 January the congressman Addison McDowell of North Carolina introduced legislation to rename Washington Dulles international airport as Donald J Trump international airport. Continue reading...

After 35 US caps, three World Cups and hall of fame recognition, the former flanker is still a fighter - but now it's in the octagon, for moneyPhaidra Knight is already a pioneer, the only African American woman in the World Rugby Hall of Fame. In 2017, when she retired after three World Cups and 35 US caps, she was 43. Now she's 50 but on Saturday night in Patchogue, New York, she will claim another first: the oldest woman ever to make her pro MMA debut.All roads lead to where I am," Knight says, by phone from New York, on her way to training, with a sort of fierce zen sentiment familiar from conversations about rugby, the game she found at law school, through which she found herself, and which she came to see as a prop and a flanker as violent yet controlled, kind of a form of art". Continue reading...

Ending their decades-long ban on facial hair and bringing beards back to the Bronx had to be done to prop up New York's declining competitive advantageOne of the last vestiges of George Steinbrenner era is finally over. The in-house (that Ruth built) rule that denied New York Yankees players the right to wear beards on baseball diamonds from the 1970s on is done and dusted, not unlike like The Boss himself, who died at 80 back in 2010. It's the latest move showing that the new boss, George's son Hal, who axed the 49-year-old rule on Friday, will do everything he can to differentiate himself from the old Boss, his dad.In recent weeks I have spoken to a large number of former and current Yankees - spanning several eras - to elicit their perspectives on our longstanding facial hair and grooming policy, and I appreciate their earnest and varied feedback," Steinbrenner said in a statement. These most recent conversations are an extension of ongoing internal dialogue that dates back several years. Continue reading...

While US allies are alarmed at changing loyalties, ordinary Americans are starkly divided on the president's shift away from Ukraine and EuropeDonald Trump's shocking and mendacious attack this week on the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as a dictator" while cozying up to the Russian president and indicating that traditional US security support for Europe is waning may have alarmed US allies abroad but has prompted a more starkly divided response among Americans at home.Reflecting the country's deeply partisan attitude to the new president and his America first" foreign policy doctrine, polling suggests that Republicans are much more likely to oppose additional help for war-torn Ukraine. A Pew Research Center survey earlier this month found that 47% of Republicans but just 14% of Democrats thought the US was providing too much support to Ukraine - views that have changed dramatically since the war began three years ago, when just 7% of all American adults (9% of Republicans and 5% of Democrats) said the US was providing too much support to Ukraine. Continue reading...

Deaths on the road costs countries up to 5% of GDP. Centring transport around people, not cars, can propel developmentIf you had to guess the leading cause of death for children and young people around the world, what would you say? Malaria perhaps? Pneumonia? Suicide? They're all high up there, but no, it's road accidents.Cars have been around for more than 120 years, and we know how to prevent these tragedies. Yet road crashes still claim more than two lives every minute - killing nearly 1.2 million people every year. Continue reading...

A historic number of arrests were made, but the days of targeted murder or massive political influence are long gonePalermo has not seen anything like it for years. Helicopters in the pre-dawn sky. Carabinieri barracks across Sicily emptied, with all 1,200 officers deployed. The Cacciatori - red-bereted shock cops - brought over from the wilds of Calabria. The Carabinieri's own film units serving up a morning montage of flashing blue lights, balaclava-wearing officers with submachine guns, police dogs sniffing, cottage doors breaking, and burly, handcuffed men ushered into Alfa Romeos. And then, of course, in the press, the humiliating wiretaps of gangsters sharing their secrets. Cosa Nostra is back in the headlines, and back under the cosh.Italian law enforcement is good at this stuff. Not a single one of the 181 men and women targeted for arrest on 11 February managed to go on the lam before the crackdown. Based on the numbers alone, this raid was the biggest anti-mafia operation since the 1980s. But Sicily was a very different place back then. It teetered on the brink of becoming a narco-state, and Cosa Nostra treated the Italian institutions with contempt, murdering any prosecutor, police officer or politician who got in its way.You've got to get by on a slab of hash? Is that how far we've fallen? The guys from the old days, the ones who've tragically been sent to prison for life, would they be talking about a slab of hash? If they talked about hash, it was because a shipload was due in ... We're down in the dirt lads. We think we're doing business, but it's others who are really at it. Continue reading...

The US president is breaking every negotiating rule in the book, to the bewilderment of his allies. Europe is now at a crossroads Continue reading...

US secretary of defense had questioned whether history-making air force general CQ Brown Jr got job because of raceDonald Trump abruptly fired the air force general CQ Brown Jr as chair of the joint chiefs of staff on Friday, sidelining a history-making Black fighter pilot and respected officer as part of a campaign to purge the military of leaders who support diversity and equity in the ranks.The ouster of the second Black general to serve as chair of the joint chiefs comes three months after Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, outlined a plan for ridding the US military of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts during a podcast interview. Continue reading...

Pete Hegseth supports cuts of up to 8% of civilian workforce as Trump bids to institute massive government cutsThe Pentagon announced plans Friday to fire 5-8% of its civilian workforce, staring next week with layoffs of 5,400 probationary workers, a Department of Defense official said in a statement.The initial civilian layoffs will be followed by a Department of Defense hiring freeze to analyze the military's personnel needs in compliance with Donald Trump's political goals, Darin Selnick, the acting under-secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said in the statement. Continue reading...

Here are the key US politics stories from Friday at a glanceThe Trump administration made several moves Friday regarding US immigration policy, including the removal of the top Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) official and restoring legal aid for unaccompanied immigrant children. Meanwhile, the Senate passed a budget resolution to fund Donald Trump's mass deportation plan and US officials made more comments about Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president.Here are the biggest stories in US politics on Friday, 21 February. Continue reading...

Adam Abeldon rules that president's efforts to ban DEI programs likely violate first amendment of constitutionA federal judge in Maryland on Friday temporarily blocked Donald Trump from implementing bans on diversity, equity and inclusion programs at federal agencies and by businesses that contract with the federal government.US district judge Adam Abelson said the directives by Trump and an order urging the Department of Justice to investigate companies with DEI policies likely violate the first amendment of the US constitution. Continue reading...