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Trump’s former White House press secretary, now the state’s governor, issues executive order targeting gender-neutral termIn one of her first acts as governor of Arkansas, the former Trump White House press secretary Sarah Sanders banned the use of the word “Latinx” in state documents.The executive order was one of seven signed by Sanders, who last November easily beat the Democrat Chris Jones to succeed her father, Mike Huckabee, and become the first woman to govern the state. Continue reading...

UFC president, Dana White, apologised and said there were 'no excuses' after he was caught on camera slapping his wife while they vacationed in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.'There's no defence for this, and people should not be defending me over this thing, no matter what. All the criticism I have received this week is 100% warranted and will receive in the future,' he said. 'It's something I'm going to have to deal with and live with for the rest of my life.' Continue reading...

Last week, under its Biden-appointed chair, the Federal Trade Commission proposed a new rule banning non-compete agreements – and it’s a big dealHave you ever been forced to sign a non-compete agreement when you started a job?About 30 million Americans are trapped by contracts that say if they leave their current job, they can’t take a job with a rival company or start a new business of their own.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

Announcement drew criticism from environmentalists as Gavin Newsom proposes cutting $6bn from ‘unprecedented’ climate fundFacing a budget shortfall, California’s governor Gavin Newsom proposed billions of dollars in cuts to climate spending – slashing subsidies for electric vehicles, funding for clean energy, wildfire prevention and programs to help low income residents cope with extreme weather.The Democratic governor’s announcement, which came amidst a week of torrential rains, deadly winds and flooding, drew sharp criticism from environmentalists. Facing a potential $22.5bn budget deficit, Newsom has suggested pulling back $3bn to address inflation and $750m to pay down unemployment insurance debt. But the bulk of his spending cuts slash programs for climate crisis and transportation. Continue reading...

Another set of materials discovered at a separate location, as White House addresses first discovery at Biden’s institute. Plus, why are DVD menus trending on social media?

Newly obtained body-camera videoshows the moment heavily armedFlorida police officers descend on the homes of two different men accused of illegally voting and arrested one of them at gunpoint as part of Ron DeSantis’s crackdown on voter fraud.Both men were in their underwear, unarmed, and placed in handcuffs as police arrested them in front of their Miami-Dade county homes on 18 August.A spokesman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), the agency that oversaw the arrests said: “Arrest warrant planning and tactics are dictated by a number of factors, to include the subject’s criminal history and other officer and public safety concerns."The 19 arrests were part of the first wave brought by the office of election crimes and security, a new state agency focused on investigating voter fraud. Hours after Miller and Wood were arrested, DeSantis held a press conference saying those accused of voter fraud would “pay the price”.The voter fraud charges against both Wood and Miller were separately dismissed.

In August, armed officers descended on homes of two men accused of illegally votingHeavily armed Florida police officers descended on the homes of two men accused of illegally voting and arrested one of them at gunpoint as part of Ron DeSantis’s crackdown on voter fraud, new body-camera footage obtained by the Guardian can reveal.Both men were in their underwear, unarmed, and placed in handcuffs as police arrested them in front of their Miami-Dade county homes on 18 August. Continue reading...

Emma Thompson’s sadistic Agatha Trunchbull follows in the tradition of the Brothers Grimm, Stephen King and M3gan – but graphic scenes of abuse should not be seen as entertainmentThere’s no denying that Emma Thompson’s latest transformation into the sadistic Agatha Trunchbull in Netflix’s new Matilda the Musical film is an act of brilliance, both from the Oscar-winner herself and an army of makeup artists. But explicit scenes of Miss Trunchbull’s violent behaviour are likely to prove to be a traumatic experience for both children and survivors of child abuse alike.Matilda author Roald Dahl is well known for his focus on cruelty to children, from child-killing witches to body disfigurement for naughty children in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Matilda itself contains graphic lines such as: “The Trunchbull simply grabbed me by one ear and rushed me to the Chokey at the double and threw me inside and locked the door … I was sliced and cut all over when I came out.” Continue reading...

The question is whether the quarterback has the drive to overhaul his game, be it with a new team or a new roster in Green BayYou can be forgiven for a sense of deja vu. With the end of the NFL’s regular season comes the return of the league’s most tiresome soap opera: what does Aaron Rodgers want to do?After two years of will-he-won’t-he – will he force a trade away from the Green Bay Packers? Will he retire? – Rodgers shuttered all speculation last offseason when he signed a three-year, fully guaranteed, $150m contract, making him the most expensive quarterback in the league and, it was assumed, a Packer for life. Continue reading...

Watching Harry do the rounds of US chat shows, I felt a sense of pity for the man who will never be more than a sideshow hereIt is ill-advised to form judgments based on the behaviour of a talkshow audience, a group whose sympathies – stoked by hours of anticipation and the sunken cost of a day off work – would rally for any guest above the level of a pot plant. Still, after a week of intense media coverage in the US, Prince Harry stepping out before a studio audience on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Tuesday night was the first sight we had of him interacting with something approximating the American public.For days, American news outlets had speculated that the rollout around Spare was becoming overblown. But that night in New York, the audience heaved to its feet and gave the 38-year-old “husband, father, military veteran and activist”, per Colbert’s introduction, a warm standing ovation. Harry smiled sheepishly. It was, for British observers, deeply, unsettlingly odd. Continue reading...

‘He needed help and was killed,’ says Patrisse Cullors, as police are seen repeatedly using stun gun on him after traffic accidentA cousin of Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors was killed by Los Angeles police after he got in a traffic accident and officers who showed up repeatedly Tased and restrained him in the middle of the street, according to body-camera footage and his family’s account.Footage from the 3 January encounter released on Wednesday showed that Keenan Anderson, a 31-year-old high school teacher and father, was begging for help as multiple officers held him down, and at one point said, “They’re trying to George Floyd me.” One officer had his elbow on Anderson’s neck while he was lying down before another Tased him for roughly 30 seconds straight before pausing and Tasing him again for five more seconds. Continue reading...

Another set of materials discovered at a separate location, as White House addresses first discovery at Biden’s instituteJoe Biden was facing fresh scrutiny over his handling of government secrets on Wednesday after a second batch of classified materials was reportedly found at a location linked to him.The White House was already on the defensive after revelations that classified documents were discovered last November in an office used by Biden after he served as US vice-president. On Tuesday he said he was “surprised to learn” of their existence. Continue reading...

Bills not expected to advance in Senate but underscore Republican majority’s legislative priorities ahead of 2024 electionThe Republican-led House on Wednesday pressed ahead with a pair of anti-abortion measures, despite warning signs that the issue had galvanized the opposition in the wake of the supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade last year.Voting mostly along party lines, Republicans first approved a bill that would compel doctors to provide care for an infant who survives an attempted abortion – an occurrence that is exceedingly rare. Continue reading...

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar leads joint statement focused on Sunday’s riots in Brasília and January 6 insurrection

House to vote on medical protections for ‘babies that survive an attempted abortion’ and ‘attacks on pro-life’ groups and churches

Newest round of storms expected to produce torrential downpours and gale force winds along the northern coastCalifornia is facing a new round of brutal storms that will bring torrential downpours and gale force winds in the north as the state scrambles to clean up and repair widespread damage amid a break in the weather.The state has been ravaged by a relentless string of storms that have killed at least 17 people – a number the governor warned was likely to grow. The bout of extreme weather has closed highways, knocked out trees and infrastructure and cut power to thousands of people. More than half of California’s 58 counties have been declared disaster areas. Continue reading...

From weather disruptions to computer problems to crew shortages, customers are once again caught in travel limboAfter an $8bn makeover, New York’s new LaGuardia airport complex is finally an airport the city can be proud of. Unfortunately the same can not be said for the industry it serves.For the second time in almost two weeks, thousands of flights were canceled across the US on Wednesday – this time because of what appears to be a snafu with an antiquated computer system. Passengers have had enough. Continue reading...

Chair of Nassau county committee says Santos ran ‘a campaign of deceit, lies and fabrication’ to win third districtThe Republican George Santos said on Wednesday he would not resign from Congress less than a week after being sworn in, despite calls to do so from the chairman of his district committee and a fellow New York representative, amid continuing scrutiny of Santos’s mostly made-up résumé and growing calls for campaign finance investigations.In a tweet, Santos said: “I was elected to serve the people of the New York third district not the party and politicians, I remain committed to doing that and regret to hear that local officials refuse to work with my office to deliver results to keep our community safe and lower the cost of living. Continue reading...

Years of devastating dryness have depleted reservoirs and hurt farms. The deluge may offer a little helpThe series of storms that have struck California have poured water on a state mired in a years-long drought. Experts say the precipitation will help relieve the drought somewhat. Exactly how much isn’t clear yet and some areas of the state will benefit more than others.It will take more than a few storms to fill the biggest reservoirs. Plus, the climate crisis is making California drier and hotter. Officials see less water in the state’s future, and these storms won’t fix that long-term problem. Continue reading...

Some passengers called 911 fearing they were being held hostage, prompting conductor to announce ‘we’re not holding you hostage’Hundreds of Amtrak passengers in South Carolina were stranded on a train for more than a day, prompting several to call the police out of fear they were being held hostage.The train, which departed from Washington DC, was delayed for more than 29 hours after being rerouted due to a derailed CSX freight train, reported ABC News. Continue reading...

Allegation about ex-Barclays boss is made in US Virgin Islands lawsuit against JP MorganJes Staley, the former boss of Barclays, has been accused of having such a “profound friendship” with Jeffrey Epstein that it could “even suggest that Staley may have been involved in Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation”, according to documents filed in a US court.Staley, who resigned as chief executive of Barclays in November 2021 after a preliminary investigation by the UK regulators into his relationship with Epstein, is now accused of regularly visiting Epstein on his private Caribbean island and continuing to “corresponded with Epstein while Epstein was incarcerated”. Continue reading...

If princes squabbling about jurisdiction over a continent’s people and wildlife seems crazy here, imagine how it seems thereDetty December is an annual pilgrimage in which the African diaspora descend on African cities (principally Lagos and Accra) for fun, festivity, culture, business connections and the odd bit of unspeakable debauchery. Pool and beachside parties run from the evening until the sun comes up the next day. Flush the Band Aid poverty porn out of your head: every December, at least, Accra and Lagos are the new Ibiza and Ayia Napa.As the sun was setting on last year’s Detty December, with a festival attended by 50,000 people (including the likes of Dave Chappelle) and headlined by Erykah Badu, the sun was rising on Prince Harry’s publicity run for his wildly revealing and score-settling new book, Spare.Nels Abbey is a writer, broadcaster and former banker. He is the author of the satirical book Think Like a White ManDo 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...

Police say Blake, student at Brookland middle school, killed early on Saturday following ‘interaction’ with unnamed manThe fatal shooting of a 13-year-old Black middle-school pupil in Washington DC has prompted outcry among community members as police begin to release more details.Karon Blake, a student at Brookland middle school in the north-east of the city, was shot in the early hours of Saturday by a man who, police said, opened fire after he “heard noises” outside his home and “observed someone that appeared to be tampering with vehicles”. Continue reading...

Thousands of flights delayed because of problem with system that alerts pilots about hazards or changes at airportsDomestic flights across the US were temporarily grounded on Wednesday morning, after an IT failure in a critical aviation safety system.The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that the system that alerts pilots and airlines about any hazards was not functioning. The breakdown led to more than 4,600 flights being delayed within, into, or out of the US, the flight tracking website FlightAware showed. It was not immediately clear if the outage was a factor. Continue reading...

Higher sea surface temperatures are supercharging extreme weather. Plus, Prince Harry’s frozen todgerGood morning.The world’s oceans were the hottest ever recorded in 2022, demonstrating the profound and pervasive changes that human-caused emissions have made to the planet’s climate.What has caused this rise? The international team of scientists that produced the ocean heat analysis concluded: “The Earth’s energy and water cycles have been profoundly altered due to the emission of greenhouse gases by human activities, driving pervasive changes in Earth’s climate system.”Why is this so significant? John Abraham, a professor of thermal sciences at the University of St Thomas in Minnesota who was part of the study team, said: “If you want to measure global warming, you want to measure where the warming goes, and over 90% goes into the oceans. Measuring the oceans is the most accurate way of determining how out of balance our planet is.”What are the referrals for? The specific referrals to the DoJ differ somewhat for the four lawyers. All of them were referred for allegedly conspiring to defraud the United States. Except for Giuliani, the other three were referred for allegedly conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding, a reference to Congress certifying Biden’s win on January 6. Continue reading...

America’s unique draft system brings big advantages for clubs with early picks, but it is not without its critics or downsidesWelcome to Moving the Goalposts, the Guardian’s free women’s football newsletter. Here’s an extract from this week’s edition. To receive the full version once a week, just pop your email in below:US sports culture is full of unique peculiarities and there are few traditions more American than the draft. This Thursday evening in Philadelphia, the National Women’s Soccer League hosts its 2023 edition. Continue reading...

Instead of seeing this as an opportunity to course-correct the copious funding allocated to the Pentagon, the White House came out swingingMany say that Washington is more divided than ever, but political quarrels in the nation’s capital and beyond are easily cast aside to unify against even the mere suggestion that perhaps the defense department’s budget might be a bit too high.That’s what happened when reports emerged late last week that Representative Kevin McCarthy had secured a deal with rogue Republicans to become the next House speaker. In exchange for their votes, the Freedom Caucus – a group of more rightwing House GOP lawmakers – received assurances that the federal budget will freeze at FY2022 levels, which could effectively mean a cut to the Pentagon budget by anywhere from $75bn to $100bn.Ben Armbruster is the managing editor of ResponsibleStatecraft.org, the news and analysis publishing platform of the Quincy Institute Continue reading...

Legislatively, the Republican party seems primed to play the role of hostage-taker rather than lawmakerThe Republican party didn’t exactly start 2023 hot out of the gate.Despite a new House majority, the Republican members of Congress spent their first few days in office in an embarrassing protracted squabble over the speakership. Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, who has spent the last few years assisting members of the extremist conspiracy-mongering Trumpian Republican radicals in their rise to power, found himself predictably on the receiving end of the extremist conspiracy-mongers, who wanted one of their own in charge as well as a series of rule changes. After largely capitulating to his party’s lunatic fringe, McCarthy squeaked through on the 15th vote. Continue reading...

The possibility of the Biden administration regulating gas stoves due to new safety fears has the right wing fired upAfter Joe Biden’s administration announced it was considering regulating – or banning – gas stoves, Richard Trumka of the US consumer product safety commission (CPSC) offered some words of clarity: “To be clear, CPSC isn’t coming for anyone’s gas stoves,” he tweeted.“You will have to pry my gas stove from my cold dead hands,” replied Matt Walsh, the rightwing political podcaster and Daily Wire columnist. Continue reading...

More than 38,000 signatures collected for proposal that would decriminalize abortion in city despite statewide banCampaigners in San Antonio, Texas, on Tuesday delivered more than 38,000 signatures to the city clerk’s office, petitioning for a May vote that would decriminalize abortion in the city.Abortion in Texas has been banned since August 2022, following the supreme court decision to overturn Roe v Wade last summer. Continue reading...

A generation was born and came of age since the prison opened. Four US presidents have served. Yet 35 men remain thereThe US prison at Guantánamo Bay opened 21 years ago this Wednesday. For 21 years, the extrajudicial detention facility has held a total of 779 men between eight known camps. In two decades, Guantánamo grew from a small, makeshift camp of chainlink cages into a maximum-security facility of cement bunker-like structures that costs close to $540m a year to operate.Twenty-one years is a long time – a generation was born and came of age in that time. Four American presidents have served. The World Trade Center was rebuilt.Mansoor Adayfi is an artist, advocate, and former Guantánamo prisoner, released in 2016 after being detained without charge or trial for more than 15 years. He is the author of the memoir Don’t Forget Us Here: Lost and Found at Guantánamo Continue reading...

From Jennifer Coolidge to Colin Farrell, Eddie Murphy to Michelle Yeoh, some of the entertainment industry’s biggest names were on hand to collect their awards Continue reading...

The former president’s retention of papers at Mar-a-Lago appears to satisfy more criteria for prosecution than the find at Biden’s instituteDonald Trump’s retention of documents marked classified at his Mar-a-Lago resort has aggravating factors that might support his criminal prosecution unlike the discovery of some documents also marked classified stored at Joe Biden’s former institute from his time as vice-president, legal experts said.The US justice department has clear criteria for prosecuting people who intentionally mishandle highly-sensitive government documents, and the facts of the Trump documents case appear to satisfy more elements than in the Biden documents case. Continue reading...

House panel refers John Eastman, Jeff Clark, Rudy Giuliani and Kenneth Chesebro to DoJ for offering Trump bogus legal coverFour lawyers who gave Donald Trump erroneous legal advice that aided his drive to overturn the 2020 US election now face heightened prospects of criminal charges after a House panel released an exhaustive report on the January 6 insurrection, and referred the lawyers for possible prosecution to the justice department, say ex-federal prosecutors.John Eastman, Jeff Clark, Rudy Giuliani and Kenneth Chesebro played overlapping roles, offering Trump bogus legal cover that included promoting a fake electors ploy to replace electors Joe Biden won with ones for Trump, in an effort to block Congress from certifying Biden on 6 January. Continue reading...

The expansion of family owned fast food company, founded in 1948, has been met with great enthusiasmIn-N-Out Burger, the famous California fast food chain, is expanding eastward as far as Tennessee, a move Tennessee’s governor called “life-changing”.The family-owned burger company will open an “eastern territory office” in Tennessee, as well as several Nashville-area restaurants, by 2026, according to state officials, and In-N-Out’s owner said further eastward expansion was in the works. Continue reading...

Floods and mudslides forced thousands of people to evacuate as more than 100,000 homes and businesses left without power

Fatalities call attention to the grave risks posed by extreme weather to those living outside in SacramentoCalifornia’s devastating winter storms have killed at least two unhoused people, deaths that call attention to the grave risks extreme weather poses to more than 116,000 people living outdoors in the state.Both deaths occurred in Sacramento, which endured winds of 60mph (96.5km/h) over the weekend and saw thousands of people lose power. Rebekah Rohde, 40, died after a falling tree crashed into her tent along the American River on Saturday. Steven Sorensen, 61, died on Sunday when a tree fell on his tent next to a light rail station. Continue reading...

Weisselberg, 75, pleaded guilty to 15 tax crimes and agreed to testify against Trump Organization after being arrested in 2021After testimony that helped convict Donald Trump’s company of tax fraud, Allen Weisselberg, a longtime senior executive, was given five months in jail for accepting $1.7m in perks without paying tax.Weisselberg, 75, was promised the sentence in August when he agreed to plead guilty to 15 tax crimes and testify against the Trump Organization, where he has worked since the mid-1980s and was chief financial officer at the time of his arrest. Continue reading...

Anthime Gionet, 35, given two months in prison after live-streaming his participation in deadly January 6 riotAnthime Gionet, a far-right social media personality known to followers as Baked Alaska, was sentenced on Tuesday to two months in prison for his participation in the US Capitol attack – participation he live-streamed.In court in Washington DC, the US district judge Trevor McFadden told Gionet, 35: “You did everything you could to publicise your misconduct. You were there encouraging and participating fully in what was going on.” Continue reading...

House Republicans prepare to use new majority to launch investigations into BidenRepublican leader of the House intelligence committee Mike Turner has asked top security official Avril Haines to asses what damage the secret documents found at Joe Biden’s former office may have done to US national security.In a letter sent today to Haines, who serves as director of national intelligence, Turner asked for “an immediate review and damage assessment following numerous reports that then Vice-President Biden removed, and then retained highly classified information at an undisclosed and unsecure non-government office in Washington, D.C., for a period of at least six years.” Continue reading...

Documents found in boxes at UPenn’s Biden Center for Diplomacy in Washington six days before November midtermsSome of the classified documents from Joe Biden’s time as vice-president that were found last year in a private office included US intelligence memos and briefing materials concerning Ukraine, Iran and the UK, CNN reported, citing a source familiar with the matter.The documents were found in boxes stored at the University of Pennsylvania’s Biden Center for Diplomacy in Washington, where he was an honorary professor until 2019. They were found when his personal lawyers were closing out the office space just before the midterm elections. Continue reading...

Democratic congresswoman announces candidacy for seat held by Feinstein, 89, who has not yet said if she will retireDemocratic representative Katie Porter, the progressive former law professor known for her sharp questioning of witnesses and her use of a whiteboard during hearings, said she will seek the California Senate seat currently held by Dianne Feinstein.Feinstein, a fellow Democrat, is the oldest member of the chamber, and has not yet said if she will retire. Continue reading...

A relentless parade of atmospheric rivers is battering the whole state – and more storms are expected this week Continue reading...