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In coming months, Biden will probably answer a simple question: would he still want to be president at age 86?Joe Biden has presided over legislative deals that American presidents have sought for years, struggled with unpopularity yet led the Democrats to a historically strong performance in last year’s midterm elections, all before turning 80.Now, in the coming months, Biden will probably answer a simple question: would he still want to be president at age 86? And, if so, is he prepared to take down Donald Trump – or perhaps another, possibly much younger, Republican candidate – to win a second term in 2024? Continue reading...

Rather than give up booze or go vegan for a month, I set myself three ridiculously easy tasks. I’m already feeling incredible – and disgusted with myselfHow are your resolutions going on this, the precise day (unscientifically speaking) when everyone gives in to the general bleh of the season? Perhaps you didn’t make any. The balance has been shifting for a while, but it feels like this year, anti-resolution messaging is stronger than pro. With everything being demonstrably terrible and every sign it will get worse, why bother? As TikToker @erin.monroe put it: “I don’t need 2023 to be my year, I need it to not be a soul-sucking drag through earthly purgatory.” To which, amen (and also good luck).Celebrity endorsements of not bothering are widely available. “I’ve been dogged by a feeling, as real as any of the parts of myself I ‘should’ be remodelling: I’m so fucking sick of trying,” Lena Dunham posted on Instagram. Happy Valley actor Siobhan Finneran dispatched a question about whether she was making resolutions, protesting that January was hard enough, especially with the self-employed tax deadline looming (I feel you, Siobhan). “Denying yourself a drink or some chocolate is just too much,” she said. “Enjoying finishing off the Christmas leftovers.” Continue reading...

A boy aged six is in custody after what police said was 'not an accidental shooting' of a Virginia school teacher in the abdomen during an altercation. As students were reunited with their parents under a school escort after the first recorded US school shooting of 2023, one parent said her heart stopped while wondering if the person shot was her son. Another lay the blame squarely on US gun laws and said she 'would not have chosen to come to this country' if it weren't for her husband's work commitments

President makes brief stop in El Paso, ground zero for the consequences of US system that he acknowledges is deeply brokenPresident Joe Biden on Sunday landed in Texas to visit the US-Mexico border for the first time in his nearly two years as commander-in-chief, even as lawmakers and immigrant rights advocates have widely condemned his administration’s latest hardline response to the deepening humanitarian emergency there.Biden – who is due in Mexico City this week for an international summit – made a brief pit stop in El Paso, a recent ground zero for the consequences of a US immigration system that he has readily acknowledged is deeply broken. Continue reading...

Lawsuit accuses companies behind TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube of harming young people’s mental healthSeattle’s public schools district has filed a lawsuit in the US against multiple major social media companies, accusing them of harming young people’s mental health across the country.The lawsuit which was filed on Friday with a US district court accused the social media companies behind TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube of creating a “mental health crisis among America’s youth”. Continue reading...

Some Republicans indicate they may withhold support unless details of concessions made to hard-right lawmakers are unveiledAfter five days of chaos and 15 rounds of floor votes, newly elected Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy is set to face an instant challenge on Monday as the House votes on a new rules package.A handful of establishment Republicans indicated on Sunday they may withhold their support for the rules unless more details of concessions made to ultraconservative lawmakers during a week of torrid negotiations are unveiled. Continue reading...

Rising mixed martial arts fighter Victoria Lee has passed away at age 18. Her older sister and fellow ONE Championship fighter Angela wrote on Instagram, 'She has gone too soon and our family has been completely devastated since then. We miss her. More than anything in this world. Our family will never be the same. Life will never be the same'. Lee wrote that her sister had passed on December 26th, but did not reveal a cause of death. Nicknamed "The Prodigy", Victoria Lee was unbeaten in three fights as an atomweight after following Angela and brother Christian to the ONE Championship circuit, last defeating Victoria Souza via second-round TKO in September 2021.She took a year off from fighting in 2022 to complete high school and recover from an injury, but was set to return for her fourth professional fight against India's Zeba Bano at a ONE Championship event on Saturday January 13th in Bangkok, Thailand.

Maggie Dunn, 17, and Caroline Gill, 16, died in collision as police chased suspected car thief in Louisiana townIt was a tragically high price to pay for catching a suspected car thief: two innocent teenagers dead and a police officer jailed, facing serious charges for a car crash that resulted from the pursuit.Maggie Dunn, 17, and Caroline Gill, 16, who were cheerleaders for their high school in the southern Louisiana town of Brusly, died in the collision on 31 December. They’re the latest fatalities among hundreds every year attributed to accidents involving police pursuits in the US. Continue reading...

Man fired nine shots and then helped diners recover the money at the Houston taqueria restaurant before disappearingTexas police are searching for a vigilante diner who shot dead a suspected robber carrying a fake gun in a Houston taqueria restaurant, then helped diners recover the money and disappeared.The incident, which was captured by surveillance video inside the Ranchito #4 Taqueria in south-west Houston, shows the man drawing a weapon and killing the robbery suspect by shooting him multiple times, including in the back and head. Continue reading...

At least six people have died since new year and more than 560,000 homes without power as ‘atmospheric river’ expected to hitTorrential downpours and damaging winds left hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses without power in California early on Sunday as the area braced for the next onslaught of severe weather.More than 560,000 homes were reported to be still without power in California as of 5.06am ET (10.06am GMT), according to data from PowerOutage.us. Continue reading...

Boy in custody after shooting wounds teacher in abdomen during an altercation, according to authoritiesThe apparently deliberate shooting of a Virginia school teacher by a gun-carrying six-year-old pupil has shocked many across the United States, causing outrage and horror even in a country long-used to regular school shootings that are rare elsewhere in the world.Authorities have not described the exact circumstances of the shooting nor how they believe the boy came to possess the weapon or to whom it belongs. They may struggle to define exactly what action can be taken against someone so young, who is now in custody. Continue reading...

From buccal fat to cellulite, anything innate to humans that can be made into a problem will create a market for the solutionWhen research was released last week showing the level of body image distress among young people, its focal point was social media: what was driving 75% of 12-year-olds to “dislike their bodies” and feel “embarrassed by the way they look”? Why was this rising to an astounding 80% of young people by the time they reached 18? Is Instagram wrecking mental health, or is it TikTok?Others argued that social media may be the gravity, but something more immediate had caused the crash. The rise in acute psychological distress – far higher in girls than boys – is observed in a study comparing 2021 with 2007: suicidal ideation among one in 10 girls aged 16, self-harm at almost a quarter. Lockdowns and long Covid were hypothetical factors. Among young non-binary people, the rates are even worse: 61% had self-harmed and 35% had attempted suicide. This may have its more proximal cause in the relentless campaign against them in rightwing politics and some parts of the media. Continue reading...

No wonder the super-rich are funding anti-ageing research. Getting older must look lovely when you can afford your own climate-controlled islandThe anti-ageing industry is hotting up. Not the one advertising me snail goo and sheep placenta facials (the algorithms can’t accept that I barely moisturise); the one exploring how elastic the limits of life are. A generic diabetes drug, metformin, apparently shows potential to slow ageing (researchers are hoping to secure funding for a large-scale trial). A “longevity diet” could hack cell ageing, but you’d better like your proteins “pesco-vegetarian-derived” and your fats “mostly from plant-based and pro-longevity sources”. There’s a definite buzz, but it’s all in the early stages – as one researcher put it: “It’s a great time to be a rich mouse.”Rich – that’s key. We relish tales of absurd billionaire biohacks – dodgy supplements, cryochambers and fasts so long I’d eat my own arm – as evidence that all their money can’t buy them eternal life. But now we might have to be grateful for their mad hubris: billionaire-funded private sector startups are apparently filling the gaps in longevity science, funding anti-ageing research too speculative for big pharma and too expensive for academia and government, with Jeff Bezos, Larry Page and Sergey Brin all getting involved. Continue reading...

The prince’s comments about Afghan war deaths have caused a furore, but he was a decent officer, I’m told, and much of what he says is trueAs a former soldier, I’ve followed Prince Harry’s career with a mix of ironic and genuine interest. We served at similar times and in the same war. Friends who worked alongside him in the Household Cavalry and Army Air Corps reflect that he was a decent, rather laddish officer who did his job – which is about the highest accolade available to anyone who went to Sandhurst.I’m an avowed republican and make no secret of it. I was a republican when I took the oath to the monarch required to join the military and I’ve never wavered from that first political commitment. The army was a refuge from drudgery, not an expression of my politics. What I have gleaned from Harry over the years is that The Mob – the army he was preordained to join – may have ended up as a sort of refuge for him too: in his case as a shield from the withering press scrutiny that seems to have shaped his life, rather than from cycles of precarious work and poverty. Continue reading...

Former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst, 65, freed after being found guilty of espionage in 2002One of the highest-ranking US officials ever proven to have spied for Cuba has been released from prison early after spending more than two decades behind bars.Ana Belén Montes pleaded guilty in 2002 to conspiracy to commit espionage after she was accused of using her leading position as a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) official to leak information, including the identities of some US spies, to Havana. She was sentenced to 25 years in prison at the age of 45. Continue reading...

Using a paper check is a tedious process, but it’s also tangible evidence of stability and reliabilityIn these days of electronic-everything, you’d think that most businesses wouldn’t be using paper checks any more. Consumers have certainly ditched the paper check. According to one study, only 7% of their bills are paid this way. Many of my clients haven’t received this memo.For most businesses, paper checks are still a thing. As many as one in three business-to-business transactions are paid this way and 81% of firms in the US are still using paper checks to settle at least some of their bills. Continue reading...

Boy taken into custody after wounding of teacher, whose condition is said to be showing signs of improvementThe shooting of a teacher in the city of Newport News in Virginia by a six-year-old student should be a red flag for the US, the city’s mayor has said, as the teacher’s condition showed signs of improvement.The mayor, Phillip Jones, said the condition of the teacher, identified by local media as Abby Zwerner, was “trending in a positive direction” in hospital. Continue reading...

Denny Kellington performed CPR on stricken Bills safety who collapsed after making a tackle against Cincinnati last weekAs Buffalo Bills football player Damar Hamlin reportedly progresses “remarkably” in his recovery from suffering a cardiac arrest during a game last week, a trainer who rushed to his aid after he collapsed and had a hand in resuscitating him has drawn praise as a “real hero” from supporters of the stricken athlete.The Bills’ trainer, Denny Kellington, immediately went to Hamlin when the 24-year-old safety’s heart stopped beating properly after making a tackle during the first quarter of his team’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals on 2 January. Continue reading...

House Republicans are determined to make the president’s supposedly errant son a staple of the news cycleWhen Borat – alias British actor Sacha Baron Cohen – told risque jokes about Donald Trump and antisemitism at last month’s Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, Joe Biden was not the only one laughing in a red velvet-lined balcony.Sitting behind the US president was Hunter Biden wearing black tie and broad smile that mirrored those of his father. Continue reading...

In the New York Republican’s district, some people defend the serial fibber, while others are adamant George Santos must quitIt was only after George Santos was elected to Congress that the news broke: the New York Republican had told lies during his campaign.But these weren’t just little lies, or white lies. Santos appears to have lied brazenly, with abandon, about almost everything it’s possible to lie about: his career, his education, his faith, his relationships, his finances, 9/11. Continue reading...

The deranged politics driving the US Freedom Caucus and Tory anti-Europeans can only lead to one outcome: a death spiral for bothIt is a commonplace that today’s Conservative party has become an ungovernable rabble – a group of factional sects unfit to govern, with too many in the party and among its media supporters careless of effective government as a matter of principle. What else can be said of a party that has delivered three prime ministers and home secretaries, four chancellors and health secretaries and five education secretaries in one calendar year? What is less explored is the deeper ideological source of this phenomenon.An important clue came last week with the spectacle of newly elected Republicans in the House of Representatives taking 15 votes over five days to elect candidate Kevin McCarthy as House speaker, the second most important role in the US constitution after the president. No speaker and the House cannot function – no swearing in of members, committee chairs or passing of laws. Business was frozen as McCarthy made an incredible series of concessions on House procedures and his power as speaker to the “Freedom Caucus” of ultra rightwingers to win their votes. He is now their cipher: US government is in the pocket of a minority faction who do not believe in the very principle of government. Continue reading...

Campaigners urge government to stop ‘cruel trade’ as documents show highly pathogenic agents entered the US with monkeysUS authorities are continuing to allow imports of long-tailed macaques from Cambodia, despite revelations that deadly pathogenic agents, including one deemed to be a bioterrorism risk, are entering the country with primates and recent charges of illegal trafficking of wild macaques falsely labeled as captive-bred into the US biomedical industry from Cambodia.Animal rights campaigners are urging the US government to stop the “cruel trade”, saying it’s impossible to prove provenance and that the risk of disease is significant. Continue reading...

Advocates attack president’s failure to uphold campaign pledges ahead of first visit to southern border since he took officeUnder pressure to address a surge of migrants at the US-Mexico border, Joe Biden announced a far-reaching crackdown on migrants seeking asylum last week, expanding the use of a controversial public health measure known as Title 42 to restrict people from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela from illegally entering the US, while offering those legally seeking relief a new pathway to America.Before the president’s first trip to the US-Mexico border since he took office in 2020, immigration advocates condemned the Biden administration’s decision to expand Title 42 as disheartening and a failure to uphold his campaign promises. They took some solace in the creation of a legal pathway to asylum for those in four countries, but still, for them, Biden’s actions were not enough – they leave out other migrants, and the parole program is beset by requirements that impose significant barriers to migrants without access to resources, perpetuating inequities within the US immigration system. Continue reading...

ACLU and Pen America back former Human Rights Watch chief Kenneth Roth and say decision ‘raises serious questions’Leading civil rights organisations have condemned Harvard Kennedy School’s denial of a position to the former head of Human Rights Watch over the organisation’s criticism of Israel.The American Civil Liberties Union called the refusal of a fellowship to Kenneth Roth “profoundly troubling”. PEN America, which advocates for freedom of expression, said the move “raises serous questions” about one of the US’s leading schools of government. Roth also received backing from other human rights activists. Continue reading...

An academic spat over a depiction of Muhammad reveals how the language of diversity is eviscerating its very meaningIt is a beautiful painting found in a 14th-century Persian manuscript, the “Compendium of Chronicles”, a history of Islam. It shows the Prophet Muhammad receiving his first Quranic revelations from the angel Gabriel. Christine Gruber, professor of Islamic art at Michigan University, describes it as “a masterpiece of Persian manuscript painting”.Last October, an instructor at Hamline University, Minnesota, displayed the painting during an online class on Islamic art. The instructor (who has not been named) had warned of what she was about to do in case anyone found the image offensive and did not wish to view it. No matter, a student complained to the university authorities. Continue reading...

A 28-year-old graduate student faces four counts of murder – but families of the victims await answers to the question of whyFor a student of criminology, Bryan Kohberger appears to have been remarkably indifferent to modern methods of detective work.The accused murderer of four friends at the University of Idaho, who were repeatedly stabbed in their beds with a large knife, was snared by procedures that are the nuts and bolts of police television dramas: cameras tracking his car, cellphone records placing him at the scene, and a search of DNA records collected by genealogy websites that threw up a match with Kohberger’s family. Continue reading...

His salacious revelations won’t bring an end to the monarchy. We enjoy watching the soap opera too much for thatIt’s as if royal watchers have been fed on scraps all their lives – the breaking of the colour of a pair of tights protocol here, the “body language that suggested tension” there – and the Duke of Sussex has laid before them a banquet. His book Spare, leaked to the press, serves up course after course. Hardly had we digested the first revelation - a necklace-smashing fight between royal brothers - when the next were presented. The boys “begging” their father not to marry Camilla; two tearful bust-ups between duchesses; Charles joking that Harry wasn’t his; Harry’s frostbitten penis at William’s wedding.It was William and Kate, it turns out, who encouraged him to wear that Nazi costume in 2005 – Harry had just been following orders. Then there was the lost virginity in a field to an “older woman” who “treated him like a young stallion”. “I mounted her quickly, she spanked my ass and sent me away,” he wrote. Continue reading...

Equality has spawned a masculinity crisis, goes the theory. But a glance around the world’s patriarchies proves otherwiseIs feminism ultimately to blame for the rise of Andrew Tate, the “trillionaire” guru and self-identified misogynist who once claimed women should “bear responsibility” for being sexually assaulted and who last week was arrested in Romania on charges of people trafficking? Is it western strides in equality that have pushed young men to join his 4 million followers online? Plenty of people think so.“His appeal should… be seen as a leading indicator of some of the genuine disorientation being felt by millions of boys and men,” writes the author Richard Reeves, a feeling, he says, which results from “the extraordinary successes of the women’s movement”. Boys are being overtaken by girls in education. Men longer know who they should be. Continue reading...

Quarter of school complaints involve allegations of sexual violence in report released at beginning of this monthSexual misconduct allegations mired public schools in Chicago throughout 2022, with more than 25% of the complaints involving allegations of sexual violence, according to a recent local government report.The category of sexual violence received the highest number of complaints in the school system, with the second-highest only making up a little more than 7% of the complaints. Continue reading...

Newport News superintendent George Parker urges gun control after attack that left school teacher with life-threatening injuriesThe superintendent of the public school district in Newport News, Virginia, has called for increased gun control while condemning a shooting in which a first-grade student deliberately shot his teacher.In a news conference, the superintendent George Parker said he was “disheartened” and “in shock” after the attack left a Richneck elementary school teacher with “life-threatening injuries”. Continue reading...

Bakersfield, in California’s unfashionable Central Valley, has been thrown back into focus by the sorry saga in CongressKevin McCarthy’s home town – the hardscrabble city of Bakersfield, in California’s Central Valley – has experienced plenty of bruised feelings over the past week, but not necessarily because people have felt the pain of their congressman’s tortured path to the House speakership.Many have bristled at being under a national spotlight during what even Fox News has described as a political clown show. Local Republicans appeared increasingly defensive as McCarthy fell short in vote after vote – before finally prevailing in the early hours of Saturday morning. Democrats, meanwhile, expressed growing concern that McCarthy had been taken captive by his party’s far-right wing and, especially, by apologists for the violent insurrection at the US Capitol two years ago. Continue reading...

Dennis Perkins, 47, to spend rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty to a slew of crimes including child sexual abuseA former Louisiana sheriff’s deputy has been given a 100-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to a spree of sexual abuse crimes, including child abuse.Dennis Perkins, 47, will spend the rest of his life in prison after he pleaded guilty to a slew of offenses ranging from rape, child abuse images and video voyeurism to contaminating food with a bodily substance, authorities said. Continue reading...

The former president faces the prospect of political irrelevance. But the lasting damage he has done is evident in the chaotic scenes in Congress“It’s just drama,” sighed Jaime Herrera Beutler last Wednesday as the new Republican majority in Congress repeatedly fumbled its first automatic obligation, taking 15 votes to elect a speaker. Beutler herself took no part in the posturing and play-acting. Having voted in favour of impeaching Donald Trump after the riot at the Capitol on 6 January 2021, she missed her chance for re-election when Trump pushed one of his loyalists to challenge her.The Trumpist ousted Beutler in a run-off, then lost to a Democrat in the general election: Trump had his petty revenge, for which the Republicans paid. Though he continues to whip up drama, he has lost his capacity to direct it, and so the unscripted, absurdly improvised drama reels on – in the short term comic but, as it confounds the country’s government, in the long run probably tragic. Continue reading...

I jumped at the chance to interview her, but regretted it almost at once after being reminded of a bad review I wroteWhen I heard that Fay Weldon had died, I thought of those great early-ish novels, Praxis and Puffball, and of how much I enjoyed them as a teenager. Looking at my old Coronet paperbacks, I see something I didn’t recognise at the time: her stylistic innovation. Both are written in shards, brief paragraphs that float apart from one another in white space – the same technique now used by (among other writers) the very modish Jenny Offill.Twenty years ago, I was dispatched to interview Weldon at home in Hampstead, north London. Her then husband, Nick, answered the door and immediately began a brutal interrogation. My name sounded familiar. Hadn’t I given Fay’s novel The Bulgari Connection, a book controversially sponsored by the Italian jeweller, a stinking review? Uh oh. But I wasn’t about to confess: I had a job to do. Was it definitely me he was thinking of? And was the review really a stinker? Maybe marital loyalty had made it seem worse than it was. Continue reading...

With a wafer-thin majority, and few powers, Nancy Pelosi’s successor looks set to be one of the weakest speakers in historyHe had nothing to lose but his dignity. Congressman Kevin McCarthy knew the job he had always craved was within his grasp. All he needed was the vote of a 40-year-old Florida man under investigation over sex trafficking allegations.McCarthy walked over and begged Matt Gaetz to make him speaker of the US House of Representatives. Gaetz stared, pointed a finger and refused. Fellow Republican Mike Rogers stormed towards Gaetz and had to be forcibly restrained. Continue reading...

You become a prime target for advertisers the moment you get a positive pregnancy test“Cocaine is God’s way of saying that you’re making too much money,” Robin Williams once joked. God also might have a few choice words to say about a new $3,300 self-driving stroller unveiled at the CES tech show in Las Vegas. The Ella smart stroller uses artificial intelligence to navigate and is filled with bells and whistles like a white noise machine and an automatic parking brake. It’s the Tesla of strollers, basically. Continue reading...

Jackson is suffering from its third water outage in two years, but neighbors and family lend one another a helping handThe sense of dread on Christmas Eve felt all too familiar.The faucets ran dry again. The showers produced nothing. The city of Jackson, Mississippi, plunged into its third major water outage in less than two years, crippled, leaking infrastructure withering before another bout of extreme weather. Continue reading...

Drug Enforcement Agency also concerned about telehealth startups’ ‘aggressive marketing’ leading to abuse of ADHD drugAbout four years ago, Wendy Steele, the owner of a film and television production company, started taking Adderall to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and “it’s helped me in every aspect of my life”, she said.But in recent months, in part because of an increase in the number of people who have turned to such stimulants, Steele has struggled to find the drug. Continue reading...

The farcical scenes among US Republicans have echoes in our Tory party. Both promise disruption, then deliver exactly thatThe US right has this week been staging a clown show that has had liberals in that country and beyond pulling up a chair and breaking out the popcorn. There has been a karmic pleasure in watching the Republicans who won control of the House of Representatives struggle to complete the most basic piece of business – the election of a speaker – but it’s also been instructive, and not only to Americans. For it has confirmed the dirty little secret of that strain of rightwing populist politics that revels in what it calls disruption: it always ends in bitter factional fighting, chaos and paralysis. We in Britain should know, because Brexit has gone the exact same way.Start with the karma that saw House Republicans gather two years to the day since they sought to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from one party to another: often overlooked in the anniversary recollections of 6 January 2021 is that, mere hours after rioters had stormed the US Capitol, a majority of Republican House members voted to do precisely as the rioters had demanded and overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Yet here were those same House Republicans on 6 January 2023, having prevented the smooth transfer of power from one party to another – except this time, the party they were thwarting was their own. Continue reading...

California Republican finally able to convince hard-right detractors after a week of negotiations and concessionsThe Republican leader Kevin McCarthy was elected as speaker of the US House of Representatives in a dramatic late-night vote, after quelling a days-long revolt from a bloc of far-right conservatives to finally capture the gavel on a historic 15th attempt.McCarthy’s ascension to speaker came after 14 defeats and a string of concessions to ultraconservative lawmakers that would significantly weaken his power while strengthening their influence over the party’s new House majority. After winning over most of the holdouts earlier on Friday, McCarthy withstood a surprise defeat on the 14th ballot later that evening and finally clinched the gavel on the next round with the slimmest majority, just 216 votes, in the early hours of Saturday morning. Continue reading...

Albuquerque police say houses and workplaces of state and county politicians have been hit by gunfire over the last monthNew Mexico authorities are investigating at least five shootings apparently directed at the homes and offices of local elected officials, the Albuquerque police department said on Thursday.The shootings occurred over approximately the past month and were directed at two county commissioners, two state senators and New Mexico’s new attorney general, according to KQRE News. Continue reading...

Republicans had placed their hopes in a deal with far-right detractors, but Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert thwarted that planIn a stunning setback, Republican Kevin McCarthy failed to persuade the remaining bloc of far-right holdouts in his party to back him for speaker during a late-night vote on Friday – his 14th attempt in four days – leaving the embattled leader one vote shy of clinching the gavel.Walking onto the chamber floor, McCarthy appeared confident that the vote would be his last. But the Republican’s optimism soured when it became clear that he had once again failed to reach the threshold needed to break the impasse that has paralyzed the start of the new Congress. Continue reading...

Authorities said they had arrested the boy for shooting a female teacher at Richneck elementary school in Newport NewsA six-year-old child deliberately shot a teacher at an elementary school in Virginia on Friday afternoon, according to police.Police said in a statement that they have arrested the boy accused of shooting a female teacher at Richneck elementary school in Newport News, Virginia, a city in the south-eastern part of the state. Continue reading...