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Suspect who planted bombs outside both Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters is still at largeTwo years after explosive devices were planted outside the Democratic and Republican headquarters in Washington DC, authorities have quintupled the reward to $500,000 for information that could lead to the would-be bomber’s capture and conviction.The night before the January 6 Capitol attack, when a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the building in an effort to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s win, the suspect placed one pipe bomb in an alley outside the Republican National Committee headquarters around 8pm ET. They put the other bomb on a park bench near the Democratic National Committee headquarters, according to the FBI. Continue reading...

Campaigners hail EU move, and congressman says it gives fresh impetus to similar US plansA groundbreaking EU deal to ban the import of goods linked to deforestation has set a global benchmark and will hasten the passage of a similar law in the US, American lawmakers have said.A football pitch-sized tract of forest is lost every second somewhere around the world, mostly to agricultural expansion. From 2024, the EU will require firms working in deforestation hotspots to certify that their goods have not harmed forests after a cutoff date of 31 December 2020. Continue reading...

Proposed rules would curtail power of Office of Congressional Ethics just as several Republican members face likely inquiriesHouse Republicans are expected to curtail the power of an independent congressional ethics body just as it was weighing whether to open investigations into GOP lawmakers who defied January 6 select committee subpoenas and a new Republican who fabricated his past during his election campaign.The new House rules package that governs the Office of Congressional Ethics – which was drafted by the incoming Republican majority leadership and will almost certainly be adopted – makes two major changes to the body that would significantly undercut its ability to function. Continue reading...

Harry claims in new autobiography Spare that William ‘knocked me to the floor’ during confrontation in London in 2019. Plus, US approves world’s first vaccine for honeybees

Homelessness charities say wave of new bills unfairly targets people without housing as social-services funding is cutNumerous anti-homeless laws are being passed across the US as funding for social services is widely reduced, raising welfare concerns among advocates for the unhoused.In Missouri, a new state law that took effect on 1 January makes it a crime for any person to sleep on state property. For unhoused people, sleeping in public parks or under city highways could mean up to $750 in fines or 15 days in prison for multiple offenses. Continue reading...

Anybody familiar with the entitlement typical of American youth soccer parents probably recognizes something in the squabble that’s thrust the US men’s program into turmoilUS soccer has many forces acting against its success. The country shunned the sport after the 1930s, leaving a men’s national team withering and winless. Even after years of progress, soccer lags behind indigenous sports in a crowded marketplace.Add one more powerful force to that list. Continue reading...

The scion of that most famous political dynasty wants to bring India ‘together’ after years of dangerous divisionHow does an opposition politician seize the initiative in India, a vast and populous country with an increasingly authoritarian ruling party and state? Rahul Gandhi has an answer, and it involves a pair of trainers.Bharat Jodo Yatra, a “journey bringing India together”, is the name of a long march that Gandhi, a prominent member of the Indian National Congress party, has been leading from the country’s southernmost tropical tip to its icy north. He has covered about 1,900 miles (3,000km) so far, walking 12-15 miles every day, with hundreds of others drawn from his party, as well as civil society members and celebrities. Thousands line the route wherever the march passes to catch a glimpse of the famous politician and to show support. Since anyone is allowed to join, I decided to tag along for two days. Continue reading...

Trump-appointed judge rules that children must have parental consent for contraception, in state where most abortion is bannedTexans under the age of 18 are now legally required to seek approval from their parent or guardian in order to obtain birth control from federally funded clinics, a federal judge in the state has ruled.Title X, the federal grant program which was created in 1970 in order to provide family planning and preventive health services, was ruled a violation of state law and parental rights by federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in December 2022. Continue reading...

Republican leader Kevin McCarthy failed for the sixth time in two days to capture the speaker’s gavel. After the House adjourned for a few hours, McCarthy and his allies went into negotiations with the Republican holdouts without a clear path forward to end the standoff, then pushed back a seventh vote on the House leadership until Thursday

Republicans push back deadline of electing new speaker to noon on Thursday, after six failed votes in two daysThe House remained paralyzed on Wednesday, after Republican leader Kevin McCarthy failed for the sixth time to capture the speaker’s gavel as his critics stood firm in their opposition to his candidacy. After the House adjourned for a few hours, McCarthy and his allies went into negotiations with the Republican holdouts without a clear path forward to end the standoff, then pushed back a seventh vote on the House leadership until Thursday.The House held a total of three inconclusive votes in the speakership election on Wednesday, mirroring the three votes held a day earlier. Across all six ballots, no speaker candidate successfully captured the 218 votes expected to be needed for a victory. The stalemate marked the first time in a century that a House speaker was not chosen in the initial vote. After the sixth vote on Wednesday evening, the House moved to adjourn until at least 8pm ET, giving Republicans more time to reach a solution, then pushed back the deadline again, voting to adjourn until noon the following day. Continue reading...

Rick Singer, 62, was handed the longest sentence in the sprawling scandal that shone a spotlight on the secretive systemThe mastermind of the nationwide college admissions bribery scheme that ensnared celebrities, prominent businesspeople and other parents who used their wealth and privilege to buy their kids’ way into top-tier schools was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison Wednesday.The punishment for Rick Singer, 62, is the longest sentence handed down in the sprawling scandal that embarrassed some of the nation’s most prestigious universities and put a spotlight on the secretive admissions system already seen as rigged in favor of the rich. Continue reading...

The real excitement isn’t in which specific word comes out first; it’s in finding out you and your little one are truly on the same pageLike many new mums, I love ticking off milestones. Rolling, crawling, sucking on toes. That last one might not be a milestone, but it sure is cute! As my son approached one, however, nothing was more exciting than the prospect of his first words.My partner was equally keen. We strained our ears for any passing similarity to mama or dada, cat, car or dog – all the important nouns we thought usually made up first words. Continue reading...

The US men’s soccer team has been plunged into public turmoil over a 31-year-old incident involving Gregg Berhalter and his wifeThe US men’s soccer team was plunged into public turmoil Wednesday when the Reyna family said it notified the US Soccer Federation of a decades-old incident involving Gregg Berhalter and his wife in response to the coach’s disparagement of young star Gio Reyna.Berhalter said Tuesday his 1991 behavior in which he kicked the woman who would become his wife was “shameful” and that he was “looking forward to continuing my conversations with US Soccer about the future”. Continue reading...

Brock Peters, 18, lands plane on California road carrying cousins and weeping grandmother four months after getting pilot licenseIt was supposed to be a holiday treat: a teenage pilot taking his grandmother and two cousins on a short Monday morning flight across southern California.Then, with the family cruising 5,500ft in the air, the plane’s engine suddenly failed. Brock Peters, 18, who had received his pilot’s license just four months earlier, said he heard a “boom” from the engine and “immediately after that” he lost all his engine power. Continue reading...

The county found hundreds of additional votes during a mandatory statewide recountThe third-largest county in Arizona is blaming human error and poorly-trained staff for the hundreds of additional votes it found during a state-mandated recount, which narrowed the already close race for state attorney general.In a meeting Wednesday morning, Pinal county officials laid out various human errors and training lapses that led to a discrepancy of more than 500 votes between the canvassed results and the recounted totals. The initial count was off by 0.3% from the recounted results, the county said.Some provisional ballots were not counted correctly.Some polling electronic poll pads would not scan voters’ driver’s licenses, so some voters cast ballots without being formally checked in.Paper jams in tabulation may not have been interpreted correctly, leading to miscounts.Ballots with unclear marks weren’t adjudicated and counted in some cases.A tabulation team in one case didn’t sort through ballots that were flagged for not being processed by the machine, leading to a stack of ballots that weren’t counted. Continue reading...

Pro football typically stops for nothing, with teams playing on despite grievous injuries. On Monday, things were differentIn September 2008, the Kansas City Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard smashed helmet-first into the knee of Tom Brady as the New England Patriots quarterback heaved a long pass down the field. The collision, which did not draw a penalty, reduced Brady to a writhing heap and sidelined him for the rest of the season with a torn ACL. But most striking to the reigning league MVP was what came next. “They play the game without you,” he told Sports Illustrated. “You’re like, ‘Wow. That’s really what it’s like.’”The NFL manages its inherent brutality with constant reassurances that it’s very much on top of the situation – when a man goes down, the medical team descends to whisk him into a tent or the stadium bowels for an X-ray or painkiller jab. The next man steps in. The game goes on. Continue reading...

Dana White’s decision to physically assault his wife raises questions about whether the UFC president is fit to continue running the world’s largest mixed martial arts organizationNine years ago – in the wake of footage surfacing of former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice brutally assaulting his fiancée – UFC president Dana White took the opportunity to speak out against domestic violence.“There’s one thing that you never bounce back from and that’s putting your hands on a woman,” White told Fox Sports Live in 2014. “Been that way in the UFC since we started here. You don’t bounce back from putting your hands on a woman.” Continue reading...

We NFL players often will say we are willing to die for this game. But what happens when the price that we insist that we are eager to pay comes up for collection?There is no question that football is one of the most violent sports in the world and that players, including myself, are aware of the risk we take to play the game that we love. Even at the young age of 30, I talk to my former teammates about my surgeries, broken bones and aches from my time in the NFL, as though my battle scars are medals of honor. The pride comes from achieving my dreams of playing at the highest level and understanding that I survived something few men can fathom.The fans, the coaches and the executives will keep track of the scoreboard, statistics, wins, losses, championships, fantasy points and countless other factors. But after stepping away from the game, players often count the good days we have from the bad, the day-to-day tasks that we can no longer do versus the ones that we can, and the prescriptions we now depend on to live whole lives. It is a scary truth, one that each player faces before, during and after their career, yet we still pursue this dream to its sometimes bitter end.RK Russell played three NFL seasons for the Dallas Cowboys and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Continue reading...

These games will not end well for the country. The stakes are hugeAfter a new session begins, the first order of business for the House of Representatives is to pick a speaker. For a century this has been a mere formality, with the party in power having enough organization and respect for the country to move swiftly on to other matters. But on Tuesday the Republican party broke this streak of basic competence, failing in three separate ballots to come up with the votes to install Kevin McCarthy, the presumed frontrunner, as speaker.With the group of hard-right irreconcilables opposing McCarthy getting larger rather than smaller as the day went on, it quickly became clear that the wannabe speaker had no plan for breaking the deadlock. If he hoped that his opponents would eventually tire of symbolism and bow down to practical reality, he was mistaken – for a large group of Republican lawmakers, particularly those in the far-right Freedom Caucus, symbolism is the entire purpose of holding office. They came to Washington not to construct but to destruct, and taking down McCarthy is just the beginning.Andrew Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States and the host of the podcast America Explained Continue reading...

Business groups fear government will halve energy support after March, while commuters face more disruption on the railwayHouseholds in the UK spent £1.1bn more on groceries in December than a year earlier, taking Christmas spending to a record £12.8bn, but got fewer items in their baskets as rampant inflation hit home.Many stocked up on alcohol to enjoy while watching the men’s football World Cup, with sales of beer reaching the highest level for the year on the day of England’s quarter-final against France on 10 December.This was a big drop. Mortgage approvals fell by 11,800 in November, the biggest fall since April 2020 and are at their lowest level since June 2020. This is not the news the housing market was hoping for in the first week of the new year.Mortgage approvals are the key lead indicator for housing transactions, lower mortgage approvals today means fewer housing transactions tomorrow. A reduction in housing transactions will hurt all those businesses that are involved in the home-moving process, but the absence of forced sellers implies that house prices will not fall as far or as fast as housing transactions. Continue reading...

Colonialism was born from the greed for spices and led to today’s globalised world. I know because it’s my family’s storyIn 1603, James Lancaster arrived back in London after several years in pursuit of riches, bringing ships laden with peppercorns. He was in command of the first British East India Company fleet, an entity that was granted a royal charter by Elizabeth I in 1600, and had travelled to south Asia and back.Pepper is believed to be originally from Kerala and specifically the Western Ghats, a humid and wet stretch of mountains on the western coast of India. It was known throughout antiquity and particularly loved by the Romans, and was well established in England by the 1100s, when the Guild of Pepperers was formed in London. (This guild went on to become the Company of Grocers, which is still in existence today.) Continue reading...

Two arrested in Kissimmee after calling for assistance moving items from burglarized house and a ride to the airportSheriffs in Florida arrested two purportedly bumbling burglars after one allegedly called 911, intending to ask police for help moving belongings from a house they broke into, authorities said.The chain of events started to unfold around 1am on Saturday in Kissimmee, about 20 miles from Orlando. A Dollar General discount store was burglarized and “multiple items stolen” the Polk county sheriff’s office said, documenting the alleged incident in an arrest affidavit and a Facebook post. Continue reading...

Eric Dodge wore Make America Great Again baseball cap twice but judge found no ‘tangible disruption’ to Washington schoolA federal appeals court has ruled in favor of a former teacher in Vancouver, Washington, concluding that his wearing a hat supporting Donald Trump to school was protected speech under the first amendment.Documents from the ninth circuit court of appeals show that Eric Dodge, a science teacher, brought the Make America Great Again baseball cap to an Evergreen Public Schools building twice before the 2019-2020 school year. Continue reading...

Dharmesh Patel of Pasadena plunged over 250ft off coastal road in Tesla with two young children and adult passenger – all survivedA Tesla driver who drove off a California cliff with two young children and an adult passenger in the car was arrested on Tuesday, as authorities alleged the crash was an “intentional act”.Dharmesh Patel, of Pasadena, was arrested for attempted murder and child abuse, the California highway patrol said. Authorities said they had not determined the driving mode the Tesla was in during the crash but did not believe it was a “contributing factor in this incident”. Continue reading...

Celebrity booze sponsorship has gotten ridiculous. Plus, studies show we can’t differentiate the taste of ‘good’ or ‘bad’ alcoholI blame Gwyneth Paltrow, myself. The actor turned entrepreneur may not have been the first celebrity to launch a business empire, but the rise of Goop seems to have coincided with a craze for side hustles among the glitterati. Entertainers aren’t content with just entertaining any more – they’re all business moguls, too. Lil Nas X has a skincare line; Selena Gomez has a makeup brand; Jessica Alba has a baby product company; Kim Kardashian sells performance underwear.While skincare has become a popular celeb business, the biggest grift is probably still booze. By one calculation, there were fewer than 40 celebrity-affiliated booze brands in 2018; now there are reportedly more than 350. I won’t list them all but, to give you a taste, Graham Norton is shilling wine, the Chainsmokers (remember them?) have a Tequila brand, Jamie Foxx has a bourbon, Cameron Diaz has launched a “clean” wine brand that is vegan-friendly. (And thank God for that, eh? I’d been getting really tired of all those meaty wines.) Continue reading...

Three rounds of voting failed to elect a speaker as Kevin McCarthy faces opposition from hardline RepublicansWhat was supposed to be a day of triumph for Republicans coming into the US House majority turned into chaos on Tuesday as fighting over who should lead them ended with no speaker elected.Kevin McCarthy has led House Republicans since 2019 but he could not overcome opposition from the right following an hours-long series of votes. The opposition from 20 lawmakers stopped the House starting work and delayed the swearing-in of returning members and freshmen. Continue reading...

Food and Drug Administration finalizes rule change which follows US supreme court decision to end federal right to abortionThe US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday finalized a rule change that broadens availability of abortion pills to many more pharmacies including large chains and mail-order companies.The Biden administration partially implemented the change last year, announcing it would no longer enforce a requirement that women pick up the medicine in person. Continue reading...

Tom Suozzi, Santos’s forerunner for New York’s third district, says the Republican winner should be ‘removed by Congress’The Democrat who vacated the US House seat won by the controversial Republican George Santos said Congress was letting in “a conman”.Tom Suozzi won New York’s third district, which covers parts of Long Island and Queens, in 2016, but stepped down in 2022 in order to run for governor. Santos lost to Suozzi in 2020 but beat Robert Zimmerman for the vacant seat. Continue reading...

New York Democrat was seen speaking with rightwingers, one of whom once tweeted an anime-style video depicting him killing herDuring a succession of votes for House speaker on Tuesday, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was seen talking on the House floor with the far-right Republicans Matt Gaetz and Paul Gosar, the latter who once tweeted video depicting him slashing her in the neck with a sword.The New York Democrat, a progressive star, told MSNBC: “In chaos, anything is possible, especially in this era.” Continue reading...

House adjourned until noon today as McCarthy becomes the first nominee for speaker in 100 years to fail to win the first vote. Plus, the truth behind 10 of the biggest health beliefs

Abrams did not win the vote, but she created the conditions for increased voter turnout among key parts of Georgia’s electorateAfter a critical runoff election that helped Democrats cement their majority in the US Senate, Georgia’s status as a political battleground with national influence has become more apparent. Georgia now boasts a highly engaged electorate that continues to turn out in record numbers election after election.While various factors contribute to this, many in Georgia point to the state’s grassroots coalition, built over the last decade, that sought to register, engage and educate voters like never before. At the helm of this coalition sits former state House minority leader and two-time gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. Continue reading...

They have protested against a homophobic church and opposed prayer in classrooms. Now this minority religion is defending the right to abortionA statue of Baphomet – a pagan idol used in popular culture as a representation of the devil, with the head, horns and feet of a goat, the torso of a man and the wings of an angel – is the centrepiece of the Satanic Temple’s headquarters in Salem, Massachusetts.More than 8ft (2.4 metres) tall, jet black and altogether unnerving, Baphomet serves as a reminder of what brought the Satanic Temple to fame. In 2013, the group, which is acknowledged as a religion by the US government, responded to the installation of a Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of the Oklahoma state capitol building – seemingly a flagrant abuse of the US constitution’s separation of church and state – by demanding that its own Baphomet statue also be positioned in the grounds. According to the first amendment, which protects freedom of religion, public spaces should be open to all religions or none, it argued. Continue reading...

Young people deprived of prosperity may represent the first generation that doesn’t grow more conservative with ageSpite. When you dig down to the essence of modern rightwing politics, you’re left with little else. This wasn’t always the case. Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan offered clear, coherent visions of society, even if their worship of free markets delivered economic insecurity and stagnating living standards. While today’s Tories and Trumpified Republicans remain committed to defending privileged interests, their driving ambition now seems to be deliberately provoking fury among the progressively minded, much to the delight of their supporters. It’s this tendency that led Donald Trump to denounce Mexicans as criminals and attempt to ban Muslims from entering the US; it’s the same tendency that drove the home secretary, Suella Braverman, to declare that her “dream” and “obsession” was to see a flight transporting asylum seekers to Rwanda. Cruelty is precisely the point.But this spite has found a particular target in younger British and American people, many of whom increasingly embrace progressive social values such as anti-racism and LGBTQ+ rights (granted, this relies on a generous definition of youth as millennials – while the oldest members of Generation Z are only in their mid-20s, the most senior millennials have now reached their early 40s). These generations have become a common enemy for the right. The feeling is mutual. According to new research and survey data, millennials are defying a supposed iron law of politics, that we shift to the right as we age. No other generation in recorded political history has retained such an entrenched rejection of rightwing politics as they’ve grown older.Owen Jones is a Guardian columnistDo 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...

It tastes like sawdust that’s been drowned in sugar and soaked with baby vomit – and I’ve finally discovered whyThere are a few things that routinely keep me up at night: the futility of life, the inevitability of death, and the mystery of why the US’s chocolate is so disgusting.Readers who have had the misfortune to encounter a Hershey bar will know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s wretched stuff isn’t it? If you are in possession of a sound mind and a few functioning taste buds then I don’t see how you can possibly enjoy US chocolate. It tastes like sawdust that’s been drowned in sugar and soaked with baby vomit.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Based on our experience with nuclear contamination, continuing with ocean discharge plans is simply inconceivableOver the past 20 months, Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) members have been in dialogue with the government of Japan on its proposed plans to release over a million tonnes of contaminated nuclear wastewater into the Pacific Ocean as announced in April 2021.I was heartened by the very strong position taken by PIF Members from the outset, that Japan should hold off on any such release until we are certain about the implications of this proposal on the environment and on human health, especially recognising that the majority of our Pacific peoples are coastal peoples, and that the ocean continues to be an integral part of their subsistence living. Continue reading...

Republican Kevin McCarthy faces a humiliating series of setbacks after rightwing members of his party refuse to back his bid for speaker. McCarthy fails to gain the necessary support after three rounds of voting, becoming the first nominee for speaker in 100 years who has not won the first vote for the gavel. The House will reconvene tomorrow

Megan Hess and her mother Shirley Koch defrauded distraught families and dismembered bodies for illegal saleA former Colorado funeral home owner was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on Tuesday for defrauding relatives of the dead by dissecting 560 corpses and selling body parts without permission.Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. She operated a funeral home, Sunset Mesa, and a body parts entity, Donor Services, from the same building in Montrose, Colorado. The 20-year term was the maximum allowed under law. Continue reading...

Two members of Congress campaigned for Amber McLaughlin’s sentence to be commuted over alleged shortcomings in trialA Missouri inmate has been put to death for a 2003 killing, becoming what is believed to be the first transgender woman executed in the US.Amber McLaughlin was put to death on Tuesday night, hours after the Republican governor of Missouri, Mike Parson, declined a clemency request. McLaughlin was convicted in 2006 of killing a former girlfriend in suburban St Louis in 2003. Continue reading...

California had returned land seized from Willa and Charles Bruce in 1920 to their heirs last year as part of its reparations policyA southern California beachfront property that was taken from a Black couple through eminent domain a century ago and returned to their heirs last year will be sold back to Los Angeles county for nearly $20m, officials said on Tuesday.The sale comes as the state of California continues to consider sweeping financial reparations for the government’s treatment of Black Americans, including government confiscation of property, housing discrimination, over-policing and health disparities. Continue reading...

Leader of slim Republican majority has been negotiating to secure backing of hardliners but voting could go to multiple rounds

House adjourned until noon tomorrow as McCarthy becomes the first nominee for speaker in 100 years to fail to win the first voteIn a historic delay, the House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, was on Tuesday facing a protracted battle to secure the speaker’s gavel after failing to win the first three votes on the opening day of the new Congress.A fourth vote – and perhaps more, into the night – was avoided when the House adjourned, by voice vote, until noon on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Annual report from state board found Latino and Black residents disproportionately affected by ongoing ‘pretextual stops’California police were more than twice as likely to use force against Black residents than white residents during traffic and pedestrian stops in 2021, according to a new report on racial profiling.The annual report from a state board also found that law enforcement searched Black people at 2.2 times the rate of white people, and that Black youths ages 15 to 17 were searched at nearly six times the rate of white teenagers. Latino residents were stopped and subjected to force at 1.4 times the rate of white people, and Latino youths were searched at nearly four times the rate of white youths. Continue reading...

James was arrested on 13 April 2022 after opening fire on the subway and shooting 10 peopleThe man who fired more than 30 shots on a New York City subway train last spring pleaded guilty to terrorism charges on Tuesday. Frank James was arrested on 13 April 2022 after opening fire on the subway, shooting 10 people.James, 63 and from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, pleaded guilty to 10 counts of committing a terrorist attack or other violence against a mass transportation vehicle – one count for each gunshot victim, the Department of Justice noted – and one count of discharging a firearm in furtherance of his attack. Continue reading...

US Coast Guard found wreckage of aircraft that was transporting oil rig workers when it crashed killing all onboard on ThursdayAuthorities have found the remains of the four people who died in a helicopter crash in the Gulf of Mexico near Louisiana on Thursday, according to reports.The US Coast Guard found the helicopter – which was departing an offshore oil rig – in Gulf waters on Monday, the Louisiana news website Nola.com reported. Continue reading...