US news | The Guardian

In a new book, Lenore Anderson says the legal system doesn’t serve most victims or alleviate unaddressed traumaFor decades, the cause of victims’ rights has been one of the most powerful political movements in the US.From the 1980s to 2010s, advocates worked with law enforcement to transform the criminal justice system, passing more than 32,000 laws explicitly in the name of victims. Fueled by backlash to the civil rights era, white Americans’ fears of rising crime and hysteria around particularly shocking cases of violence, the policies exponentially grew prison populations. They also created mandatory long and indefinite sentences; locked up youth for life; expanded surveillance; and restricted the rights of defendants and incarcerated people. Continue reading...

In California’s Inland Empire, nearly 9,500 warehouses – many near schools – cloud the air with pollutionWhen Ana Carlos looks past the horse stables behind her home, over the back fence and out across the wide open field and scrub-covered hill that blooms bright orange in the springtime, she feels dread.Soon it will be paved over, transformed into a 213-acre industrial complex with three vast warehouses. Nearly 100 of Carlos’s neighbors’ homes in the tiny, once rural town of Bloomington, California, will be razed to make way for the development, as will the local elementary school.Overall, there are about 9,500 warehouses in the region with a footprint above one acre.Each day, more than 1m truck trips out of these warehouses cloud the air with 1,450lbs of toxic diesel particulate pollution and 164,000lbs of nitrogen oxide pollution, which are linked to health problems including respiratory conditions.The trucks also emit just under 100m lbs of carbon dioxide each day.Across the region, about 340 school campuses are located within 1,000ft of a warehouse property line. Continue reading...

The saxophonist was among an assembly of American jazz musicians who reached across continents to find meaning in soundThe day the music died was 24 September 2022. On that Saturday, the legendary tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, a man who blew his horn “as if he was a dragon breathing fire”, passed on, at age 81. With his death came the end of a majestic era, a time of saxophone spirituality and musical mysticism that will probably never be surpassed or even replicated. Sanders, like so many of his generation, channeled spirit into song, drawing inspiration from a panoply of sacred sources.For a while, younger hip-hop generations also found words and meaning in a similar kind of search, and the music –along with the quest – continued. Continue reading...

My snapshot of 2022 shows the Amazon burning – but what it doesn’t communicate is the painI have covered the Amazon as a journalist for almost 25 years. It started in 1998, with a trip along the Trans-Amazonian Highway. In 2017, I moved to the city of Altamira in Pará, northern Brazil; it is the centre of the deforestation, forest fires and social devastation caused by the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam. I moved here because I no longer wanted to be just a “special correspondent to the Amazon”, but so I could describe what was happening to the largest tropical forest on the planet from the inside. Despite this long experience, 2022 was the first year in which I watched the forest burn from the window of my home. I didn’t need to go to the fire, as journalists normally do. The fire had come to me.The photo I’ve chosen, taken by my husband, is from the night of 27 August. Later, Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research revealed that it was the worst August for fires in the Amazon since 2010. Fires and deforestation rose considerably under Jair Bolsonaro who, this year, was narrowly defeated in the presidential election by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, or Lula, as he is better known.Eliane Brum is one of the creators of the trilingual news platform Sumaúma and the author of Banzeiro Òkòtó: the Amazon as the Centre of the World, which is published in the UK in 2023. This article was translated by James Young

Even with the Pelicans having perched themselves at or near the top of the Western Conference all year, many don’t seem to take them seriously as contenders. It’s time for that to changeA lot has been made over the years of the raw deal offered to small-market NBA teams. The younger brothers of the league, they often get overlooked in favor of their flashier coastal franchise siblings. While I’ve always argued that a competent front office is the tried and true salve for this issue, as evidenced by Giannis Antetokoumpo’s loyalty (and delivery of a championship) to the Milwaukee Bucks, it’s verifiable that as far as national media coverage goes, smaller-name teams often don’t get their due.One such team is the New Orleans Pelicans. I mentioned in my end-of-season wrap in June that I believed the future to be decidedly bright in Louisiana. With Zion’s long-awaited return to form on the court having even exceeded expectations so far, that looks to have been a sound prediction. But even with the team having perched themselves at or near the top of the Western Conference standings all year, many don’t seem to take them seriously as contenders. While, yes, the team hasn’t historically made much noise in the postseason, and doesn’t currently boast any NBA champions on its roster, there’s more than enough reason to believe that Nola won’t have to wait long to bring a Larry O’Brien to Bourbon Street. And that’s because of one simple fact: they already have all the ingredients that go into the recipe of a champion. Continue reading...

Southwest Airlines’ cancellations over Christmas weekend led strangers to unexpected adventures and unlikely friendsBeyond the hours of anger and frustration owing to the Southwest Airlines chaos over Christmas weekend, some passengers found relief in (unexpected) company.As the airlines scrambled with its flight schedules, some of those who were stranded decided they’d much rather trust a stranger on a road trip than trust the airline company. Continue reading...

From audiobooks to podcasts and voice notes, there’s a steady generational shift in the way we understand the worldInsomniacs do it in the middle of the night. Dog owners do it while trudging round the park. Some people do it in the gym, but lately I’ve taken to doing it alone in the car, on long journeys north through the dark when I need distraction from everything circling round my head.Listening, that is; and perhaps more specifically, listening to things you might once have read instead. The growth of audiobooks, podcasts and even voice notes – those quick self-recorded clips that are steadily taking over from typed messages on WhatsApp and range, depending on the sender, from something like a brisk voicemail to a rambling internal monologue – reflects a steady generational shift away from eyes to ears as the way we take in the world, and perhaps also in how we understand it.Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Adding to his woes, prosecutor in part of Santos’ legislative district launching investigation into his ‘nothing short of stunning’ claimsRepublican congressman-elect George Santos is under fire on multiple fronts – including in a blistering interview with Tulsi Gabbard and an investigation by Long Island prosecutors – after admitting to lying about his heritage, education and professional pedigree.Late Wednesday, Santos also faced questions on social media over contradictory tweets on the timing of his mother’s death. One post on his account suggested she died in the September 11 attacks in New York, another said she died in 2016. The tweets appear to have been sent from his official Twitter account. Continue reading...

Trump adversary and top Democrat in next House oversight committee says prognosis is ‘excellent’ and will continue to legislateMaryland representative Jamie Raskin said on Wednesday that he has a type of lymphoma that’s a “serious but curable form of cancer” and he is beginning several months of treatment.Raskin, who will be the top Democrat on the House oversight and reform committee in the next Congress, said he expects to be able to work through his outpatient treatment at a Washington-area hospital. Continue reading...

To understand my Nan’s incredible longevity, you have to know more about the life she’s lived“Just because no one has lived forever before, doesn’t mean Nan won’t be the first.” That’s a joke my cousin made about my then 94-year-old grandmother. A decade later it feels more like a prophecy.Nan is 104. She’s lived on her own for more than 30 years, remains sharp between the ears and maintains her hair appointments religiously. Whenever I mention her age the reactions are the same eye-widening universal amazement – yet it still catches me off-guard. Apparently this isn’t normal. Not everyone’s grandparent has a letter from Queen Elizabeth II. Continue reading...

Research shows anti-abortion laws may have affected suicide rates among reproductive-aged women from 1974 to 2016Women with restricted access to abortion during the last 40 years may have faced a higher risk of suicide, according to new research from the University of Pennsylvania.Abortion restriction laws may have influenced suicide rates among reproductive-aged women from 1974 to 2016, according to a study released Wednesday in JAMA Psychiatry.In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 800-273-8255 and online chat is also available. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

The US and Canada have been battling with record freezing temperatures after a deadly winter storm, resulting in at least 65 deaths. Drone footage shows a row of lakefront houses completely frozen over in Ontario in Canada, where authorities declared a state of emergency after heavy snowfall. Western New York state has been hardest hit by an Arctic freeze. The national guard have been going door to door in the city of Buffalo, where in some cases residents have been trapped inside houses and without power

Wesley Brownlee, arrested in October while allegedly ‘out hunting’ for another victim, now faces seven charges for slayingsA man suspected in northern California serial killings has been charged in four additional slayings this week, bringing the total to seven deaths since April 2021, authorities said.The shootings terrorized the Central Valley city of Stockton earlier this year as police searched for a man clad in black who appeared to be “on a mission” as he hunted victims for ambush-style shootings. He was also tied to violence in Alameda county. Continue reading...

Officials fear more fatalities may be found after high winds and record snowfalls ravage western New YorkMembers of the US national guard went door-to-door in some neighborhoods of Buffalo, New York, on Wednesday to check on residents who lost power during a winter storm earlier this week that killed nearly three dozen residents of the region.As the national guard made their way from house to house, members were confronted with the bleak possibility of encountering still more victims in frigid homes and piles of melting snow, according to the Associated Press. Continue reading...

Barry Croft Jr, the co-leader of the stunning plot to abduct the governor from her vacation home, is the final defendant in the caseA Delaware trucker described as a co-leader of the conspiracy to kidnap Michigan’s governor has been sentenced to more than 19 years in prison.Barry Croft Jr was the fourth and final federal defendant to learn his fate, a day after ally Adam Fox was sentenced to 16 years in prison. The two men were convicted in August of conspiracy charges at a second trial in Grand Rapids. Continue reading...

Portions of northern California, Oregon and Washington could see an inch of rain an hour, spurring mudslides and debris flowsSeveral western US states are battling heavy rain, wind and flooding as a powerful storm system sweeps across the region.This system, called an “atmospheric river”, bore down on portions of northern California, Oregon and Washington on Tuesday. The deluge could also spur mudslides and debris flows, according to the New York Times. Continue reading...

The US can often be cruel to its citizens, but the public library is a sanctuary and a vision of what our country might one day beIf you proposed it now, at any town council or city hall meeting, you would be laughed from the room. The concept is almost unthinkably indulgent, in our austere times: an institution, open for free to anyone, that sells no products, makes no money, is funded from public coffers, and is dedicated solely to the public interest, broadly defined. And it’s for books.If the public library did not already exist as a pillar of local civic engagement in American towns and cities, there’s no way we would be able to create it. It seems like a relic of a bygone era of public optimism, a time when governments worked to value and edify their people, rather than punish and extract from them. In America, a country that can often be cruel to its citizens, the public library is a surprising kindness. It is institution that offers grace and sanctuary, and a vision of what our country might one day be. Continue reading...

Case contesting race for governor was rejected and Republican candidate ordered to pay $33,000 to cover legal costsAn Arizona judge declined a request on Tuesday to sanction Kari Lake for filing a lawsuit trying to overturn the result of the state’s gubernatorial race.Peter Thompson, a superior court judge in Maricopa county, rejected the case on Saturday, saying Lake, a Republican, had failed to prove there was intentional misconduct that cost her the race. Continue reading...

An exhibition in Amsterdam will gather most of his masterpieces in one place – with a notable English exceptionOne night, a girl was stolen from her home on Hampstead Heath. A ransom was demanded but no reward offered. Three months later she was found in St Bartholomew’s churchyard in Smithfield. She was returned home to an attic at Kenwood House, where I was then allowed to visit her. She was Vermeer’s painting The Guitar Player, and she had long fascinated me.For Vermeer obsessives, next year is to be an annus mirabilis. Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum set itself the challenge of gathering together every one of the artist’s known paintings from around the world (estimates of the total settle at about 35 – with question marks over the attribution of a handful). Some 28 works will be on display, with only nine of the requested paintings omitted, several on grounds of their fragility. The exhibition is to open in February. I have booked my place in the queue. Continue reading...

From US Open glory for Matt Fitzpatrick to Tiger’s emotional farewell to St Andrews via a Ko masterclass and LIV fireworksMatt Fitzpatrick, holding a one-stroke lead, tugs his tee shot into a bunker on the final hole at Brookline’s Country Club. Heads are in hands. Will Zalatoris lurks with intent. What followed, under intense pressure, was one of the finest recoveries in major championship history. From sand and 160 yards, Fitzpatrick’s iron shot finished within 20ft of the cup. “It was a hit-and-hope,” a beaming Fitzpatrick said later of that epic moment of sporting theatre. Continue reading...

Does the ball really ‘kick itself’? Guardian US speaks to three veterans of football’s most uniquely pressured position to climb inside the mind of an NFL kickerAfter kicking a game-winning field goal to help the Baltimore Ravens overcome the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 5 of the 2022 NFL season, Justin Tucker was asked whether he enjoys being called upon to make such high-stakes kicks.“My feelings don’t matter,” Tucker said. “What matters is seeing the ball snapped with 12 o’clock laces from Nick Moore, seeing the ball spotted cleanly from Jordan Stout, his first first career game-winning hold, and then from there I’m just a system kicker. The ball kicks itself at that point.” Continue reading...

Facebook groups are outing male misconduct. But shouldn’t dating platforms be doing much more to help protect users?It had to happen. And now it has. Women are finally rising up against the pitfalls of dating app culture, and fighting back. Since March 2022, Are We Dating the Same Guy? Facebook groups have sprung up in almost every major American city, from New York to Little Rock, as a way for women to call out bad digital dating experiences.What started as small-scale communities are now spreading internationally and have grown to include hundreds of thousands of members. “Boys, frickin’ buckle up,” one TikTok user said in July. “If you mistreat a girl, or are doing some sketchy stuff, the time is over, ‘cause you’re getting caught.”Nancy Jo Sales is a writer at Vanity Fair and the author of American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers

Who knew that a chat about drinks between actors Olivia Cooke and Emma D’Arcy could be so sexy and comforting?

A brutal war in East Africa is estimated to have claimed more than 600,000 lives. This Christmas, families like mine don’t even know if our loved ones are aliveA war is raging that has cost more than an estimated 600,000 lives. Its victims have borne witness to shocking human rights abuses and, tragically, civilians have been deliberately targeted. Tens of thousands of women have been raped. It has lasted two years and is happening today, yet the chances are you don’t even know where it is. Though it is far deadlier than the war in Ukraine, the western media have mostly ignored it.On 4 November 2020, when Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, a Nobel Peace prize winner, announced a military offensive in the disputed territory of Tigray, it was difficult to imagine how catastrophic it would become. A population of more than 6 million people, under a government blockade, has been pushed towards mass starvation – with young children dying of acute malnutrition. Tigray has become a centre of weaponised rape and an internet blackout that has added to the psychological torture faced by victims, and by families such as mine desperate to hear from our loved ones.Magdalene Abraha is a writer and publisher at Jacaranda BooksThis article was amended on 28 December 2022. The number estimated to have died in the war is at least 600,000 people. An earlier version said it was up to 600,000 livesDo 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...

Maxwell Frost places curbing gun violence at the top of his political agenda, along with addressing the housing crisisMaxwell Frost might not yet have a permanent address in Washington DC, but that hasn’t stopped the hate mail from reaching him. “I got a letter the other day,” he says. “And when I opened it, it just said: ‘Fuck you.’”Frost expected there would be a fair amount of negative reaction after he became the first member of Gen Z to be voted into Congress in last month’s midterm elections. Continue reading...

PwC, administrator of Lehman’s London arm since bank’s failure in 2008, secures three more years to finish processAdministrators will spend at least three more years winding up the London-based arm of Lehman Brothers, swelling the almost £1.1bn in fees that PwC has already raked in since the bank’s calamitous collapse in 2008.PwC has secured court approval to extend the administration process for the investment bank’s European hub to 2025, given the “complexity of unwinding the group’s affairs” after one of the biggest corporate failures in history. Continue reading...

While rest of US digs out from arctic blast, the Golden State sees welcome showers to mitigate dry days in coming new yearA major storm known as an “atmospheric river” is pummeling California with heavy rain and high winds, continuing a streak of weather whiplash that has jolted the state from unseasonal heat to downpours in a matter of days.The storm, spawned by a low pressure system off the Pacific north-west, delivered deluges across the San Francisco Bay Area as it made landfall on Monday night, prompting the National Weather Service to issue flood advisories and watches through large parts of central and northern California. The storm is forecast to soak the southern part of the state by Tuesday evening, although it will soften as it moves down the coast. Forecasters said California will experience unsettled weather through the week. Continue reading...

Erie county executive says ‘this is not the end yet’ as forecasters say 9in more snow could fall through TuesdayAs Buffalo, New York, reeled from a historic winter storm that left at least 34 dead, first responders charged with the grim task of looking for more victims battled snow drifts and sub-freezing temperatures.“We’ve had so many bodies that various hospitals are full and we’re just having to go through and determine if the individuals have died from a blizzard-related death,” Mark Poloncarz, executive of Erie county, told CNN. Continue reading...

The House ways and means committee confirmed that the former president’s tax records from 2015 to 2021 will be releasedDonald Trump’s redacted tax returns will be made public on Friday after a powerful congressional committee voted last week to release them.A spokesperson for the US House of Representatives ways and means committee confirmed the timing of the release in a statement to Reuters on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Agreement hailed as a new national standard, boosting wages and working conditions for students employed at public universitiesAcademic workers in California have ended a nearly six-week strike, described as the largest ever to hit US higher education, after approving a “landmark” agreement for higher wages on Friday.The strikes across the University of California (UC) system ground campus life to a halt, disrupting classes and exams as thousands formed picket lines and staged noisy protests to demand better pay. Continue reading...

The airline cancelled about 8,000 flights, stranding customers and leading to hours-long queues to speak with overworked staffThe US Department of Transportation will examine thousands of flight cancellations by Southwest Airlines over the holiday weekend, a massive disruption which left thousands of holiday travelers grounded, even in areas of the country not suffering from winter storms.In a tweet on Tuesday, Joe Biden said: “Thousands of flights nationwide have been canceled around the holidays. Our administration is working to ensure airlines are held accountable.” Continue reading...

Republican George Santos, elected to represent parts of Long Island and Queens, admits ‘embellishing résumé’George Santos, the New York Republican congressman-elect at the center of a storm over his apparently fabricated résumé, has admitted he lied about his job experience and college education during his successful US House campaign.Santos first ran for Congress in 2020. In November this year he was elected to represent parts of northern Long Island and north-east Queens. Continue reading...

The US has been grappling with a deadly winter storm, bringing record freezing temperatures that have left dozens dead. An arctic blast has brought in 4ft of snow over the Christmas period, with nearly another foot forecast. Footage shows extremely dangerous driving conditions, frozen lakes and neighbourhoods covered in a blanket of snow

The Republican election denier failed to overturn November’s election – and now may face a penalty for a ‘frivolous’ lawsuitThe Democratic governor-elect of Arizona, Katie Hobbs, asked a court on Monday to sanction her defeated Republican rival, Kari Lake, over her failed effort to overturn the election result.In legal filings, Hobbs also pointed to a now-deleted tweet from Lake in which the Republican suggested the judge overseeing her lawsuit had acted unethically. Continue reading...

Arthur Kaplan assigned to high-profile Sam Bankman-Fried FTX case after previous New York judge conflicted outA Manhattan federal judge known for swift decisions and a no-nonsense demeanor was assigned on Tuesday to the Sam Bankman-Fried cryptocurrency case.The case was relegated to Judge Lewis A Kaplan after the judge originally assigned recused herself because her husband worked for a law firm that did work related to FTX, Bankman-Fried’s collapsed crypto exchange. Continue reading...

Adam Fox was found guilty of conspiring to abduct Gretchen Whitmer and blow a bridge to enable an escapeThe leader of a foiled plot to kidnap the Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer, was sentenced on Tuesday to 16 years in prison.The sentence handed down to Adam Fox stemmed from his conviction at a second federal trial in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in August, for conspiring to abduct the Democrat and blow up a bridge so the kidnappers could escape. Continue reading...

The PM has a track record for being out of touch, but people with failed enterprises do end up homeless – and the problem may well get worseWhen Rishi Sunak asked Dean, a homeless man at a shelter, whether he was in business and wanted to get into the finance industry, many liberals were quick to ridicule him. Angela Rayner gleefully posted the video, calling it “excruciating”. The shadow levelling up secretary, Lisa Nandy, said: “How much more out of touch could this prime minister be?” Those of a more sympathetic disposition called the conversation “awkward”.Of course, Sunak has a well-earned reputation for not being in touch with the “common people”. In a 2001 BBC documentary, the then-21-year-old Sunak boasted of the breadth of his friendships. He said: “I have friends who are aristocrats, I have friends who are upper-class, I have friends who are, you know, working-class,” before correcting himself immediately. “Well, not working class.” Continue reading...

While only children are still outliers, the number of single-child families has almost doubled in 40 yearsIt is an age-old debate: is it good or bad being an only child? I would argue that the question is, in itself, a moot point. And while only children are no longer met with scorn, they are often still met with surprise. I know, because I am one.If you have a sibling, it may be hard to imagine life without them by your side. But as one myself, I know no different. Continue reading...

Roland Codrington, 35, accused of murdering two men three days apart in apparently random encountersA suspect was named on Monday in two seemingly isolated and random outdoor murders in New York City at the height of the holiday season.Roland Codrington, 35, is accused of murdering two men who were slashed to death in night-time killings three days apart. Continue reading...

Ex-president calls magazine reporter who likened him to Norma Desmond of Sunset Boulevard a ‘shaky and unattractive wack job’Rejecting a New York Magazine story which said his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 was all but moribund a little more than a month after he announced it, Donald Trump subjected the writer to misogynistic abuse.Olivia Nuzzi, Trump said, was “a shaky and unattractive wack job”. Continue reading...

To live for 41 years in a small cage in concrete is to be profoundly sensorily deprived. Recently my friend Jarvis Masters asked me to describe mossI have one friend whose calls I always take no matter where I am or what I’m doing. Jarvis Masters calls me collect from death row, when he can get the phone – I’ve never seen quite how this works, but the prison guards haul some kind of apparatus to the small cage in which he’s been confined for the past 30-something years and he dials out. I keep a fund topped up for these calls. The calls, which a voice reminds us may be monitored, are automatically terminated after 15 minutes. If they don’t take the phone away for someone else to use, he can call back.We laugh and joke a lot and talk about everything under the sun, but not much about daily life on death row in San Quentin state prison. That’s usually not what he wants to talk about, although, during a recent in-person visit, he told a very funny story about Charles Manson from when Manson had the cell next to him. To live for 41 years in a small cage in a concrete structure is to be profoundly sensorily deprived, and that’s made him eager for secondhand evidence of the outside world. Continue reading...

The New York state governor, Kathy Hochul, has warned that what she described as 'the blizzard of the century' is 'still a dangerous situation' for residents of the north-eastern US. 'We know the storm is coming back, we’re expecting another six to 12 inches, and in the south towns, the southern part of Erie county, a little bit south of here, they had 30 to 40 inches overnight,' Hochul said at a press conference in Buffalo in the west of the state on Monday

Without journalists, the future will be shaped by the whims and wants of the mega-rich. By supporting Guardian journalism, you can help us continue to get on their nervesThe year is 2033. Elon Musk is no longer one of the richest people in the world, having hemorrhaged away his fortune trying to make Twitter profitable. Which, alas, hasn’t worked out too well: only 420 people are left on the platform. Everyone else was banned for not laughing at Musk’s increasingly desperate jokes.Still, it’s not all doom and gloom for the car salesman and space cadet. Musk did lobby Congress to pass the landmark Protect Our Precious Billionaires Act, which turns high-net-worth individuals into a protected class. Anyone who makes fun of someone with more money than them is rounded up and thrown into a pauper’s prison by the Monetary Morality Police. Continue reading...

Indifference among politicians is still rampant, but thanks to new research and technology 2023 could be much brighterIt is two years since I first wrote about long Covid, prompted by my utter dismay and frustration at the lack of help people like me were getting.A lot has changed since then, with more clinics, more funding for research and major trials under way. But the statistics remain stark: the latest ONS data suggests 2.2 million people in the UK are living with long Covid (3.4% of the UK population), and nearly 600,000 of them (27%), like me, have had it for more than two years. Most of us have seen a significant impact on our day-to-day activities, and 17% struggle with basic daily tasks such as cooking and hanging up the washing. Continue reading...

Drone footage shows a neighbourhood in Buffalo, New York state, blanketed in thick snow amid an intense blizzard on 26 December. Emergency crews in New York were scrambling to rescue marooned residents from what authorities called the 'blizzard of the century', a relentless storm that has left 27 dead in the state and taken at least 60 lives nationwide, according to an NBC News tally. In New York state, authorities described ferocious conditions, particularly in Buffalo, with hours-long whiteouts

The doubters are plentiful, but in a season filled with improbable wins, maybe, just maybe, the stars are finally aligning for the star-crossed franchiseThe default expectation for the Minnesota Vikings is that, somehow and to varying degrees, the season will end in disappointment.That fatalism has been nurtured over several decades of playoff pratfalls. The Vikings appeared in four Super Bowls during the 1970s, lost each one and haven’t been back since. In the last 25 years, they have made it to four NFC championship games, two of which ended in humiliating blowouts and two that rank among the most heartbreaking postseason losses ever. It is a franchise congenitally disposed to choking, with a litany of agonizing miscues recognized by their shorthand: Roger Staubach’s Hail Mary; Darrin Nelson’s drop; Gary Anderson’s miss; Brett Favre’s pick; Blair Walsh’s shank. Continue reading...