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Eleven people were reportedly injured and assessment of total number is ongoing, said officialsA magnitude 6.4 earthquake shook parts of northern California early Tuesday, jolting people awake, damaging buildings and roads and leaving tens of thousands without power. Two fatalities have been linked to the quake “as a result of medical emergencies occurring during and/or just following” the incident, the Humboldt county sheriff’s office reported Tuesday afternoon.Centered just south-west of the town of Ferndale in Humboldt county, a small community near the coast about 213 miles (343km) north-west of San Francisco, the quake took place in area where tremors aren’t uncommon. But locals called it the largest in recent memory. Continue reading...

Pooch returned to owners three days and three flights later after British Airways makes drastic mistakeAn American family’s pet dog got the surprise of a pooch’s lifetime when it was accidentally sent to Saudi Arabia rather than his owner’s home in Nashville, Tennessee.Five-year-old Bluebell had been adopted by her human family in London, England, but was relocating with them back to Nashville when British Airways made a rather drastic mistake and instead she was flown off to Saudi Arabia, local TV station WVLT8 reported. Continue reading...

His answers to the chairs of Commons select committees are robotic, as if from a meaningless management dashboardChristmas must be a bundle of fun round the Sunaks’. 7am: 5km run. 8.30am: breakfast of granola with manuka honey. 9am: check against delivery to make sure all presents are under the tree. 10.30am: invite family to open presents. All members are to keep a profit and loss spreadsheet to make sure the presents they have received are more valuable than the ones they have given.12pm: short Xmas lecture on the importance of winning. 12.30pm: all family members are to write a brief lessons-learned dashboard on the lecture. 2pm: lunch of organic turkey crown with no trimmings. 3pm: unfinished homework to be completed. 4-4.45pm: at leisure. No TV, console games or handheld devices. Children may read books if they want. 4.46pm: children and adults to write thank-you letters. 6.30pm: stop Alexa playing Ghost Town. Continue reading...

Jonathan Werner, 12, sold more than $56,000 in popcorn through his Boy Scouts troop and emerged as the top seller in MinnesotaA 12-year-old who sold more than $56,000 in popcorn through his Boy Scouts troop recently spent more than 20% of those earnings buying presents for children in foster care in his region of Minnesota, delivering one of the Christmas season’s most heartwarming stories.Jonathan Werner’s act of kindness became possible after he emerged as the top Boy Scouts popcorn seller in Minnesota and one of the top three in the US, the local news outlet KARE reported Monday. Continue reading...

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau orders bank to repay $2bn to consumers and a $1.7bn penaltyConsumer banking giant Wells Fargo agreed to pay $3.7bn to settle a laundry list of charges that it harmed consumers by charging illegal fees and interest on auto loans and mortgages, as well as incorrectly applied overdraft fees against savings and checking accounts.The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Tuesday ordered Wells to repay $2bn to consumers and enacted a $1.7bn penalty against the bank. It’s the largest fine to date against any bank by the CFPB and the largest fine against Wells, which has spent years trying to rehabilitate itself after a series of scandals tied to its sales practices. Continue reading...

Initial reports indicated the heart might belong to an adult male, but state investigators are asking the public for more informationWorkers making brine at a salt depot in Tennessee made a grotesque discovery last week when they found a desiccated human heart, prompting a law enforcement investigation.The organ was found in a salt mound at a department of transportation salt facility in McEwen, Tennessee, about 60 miles south-west of Nashville, state officials said. Continue reading...

House committee to make decision after January 6 panel referred Donald Trump to the justice department to face criminal chargesA Democratic-led US House of Representatives committee on Tuesday is due to decide whether to release details of Donald Trump’s tax returns, after a years-long court fight and just two weeks before their party surrenders power to Republicans.The House ways and means committee is due to examine them behind closed doors at 3pm ET, the day after the House investigation of the January 6 assault on the Capitol by Trump supporters urged the justice department to prosecute the Republican for his role in sparking the riot. Continue reading...

5,000 pages of records detail how female employees were concerned management were unlikely to address concernsA long-running sexual harassment and gender discrimination lawsuit against Nike has produced more than 5,000 pages of records, including surveys of female employees that allege sexist attitudes and behavior at the sportwear giant alongside corporate bullying and fears of retaliation.The documents, which date back to 2018, detail how female employees at the company were concerned that Nike’s management were unlikely to address their concerns. Continue reading...

Emergency housing, food and other essentials had been set up in preparation for an influx of migrants at Texas border citiesAlong the US southern border, two cities – El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez just across the waters of the Rio Grande in Mexico – were trying to prepare for a new surge of as many as 5,000 new migrants a day as pandemic-era immigration restrictions were set to expire this week, setting in motion plans for emergency housing, food and other essentials.Even with the ruling from the US Supreme Court on Monday evening that the restriction known as Title 42 would not end after all, as had been ordered by a lower court, confusion and tension were high. Continue reading...

The referral marks the first time in US history that Congress has taken such action against a former president. Plus, the rescue of nearly 4,000 beagles• Don’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.The January 6 committee has recommended criminal charges against Donald Trump, accusing the former president of fomenting an insurrection and conspiring against the government over his attempt to subvert the outcome of the 2020 election, and the bloody attack on the US Capitol.What have the committee accused Trump of? He’s accused of breaching four federal criminal statutes, including those relating to obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress, assisting an insurrection and conspiring to defraud the United States. It also said Trump may have committed seditious conspiracy.How will prosecutors pursue the House panel’s charges? The justice department may find it difficult to obtain a conviction for each charge referred by the January 6 committee, writes Hugo Lowell.What did Siebel Newsom say after? “Throughout the trial, Weinstein’s lawyers used sexism, misogyny and bullying tactics to intimidate, demean and ridicule us survivors,” she said in a statement. “This trial was a stark reminder that we as a society have work to do.” Continue reading...

The January 6 committee portrays Trump as an anomaly, but Trumpist ideology extends beyond the man who originated itIs Trump done? The Republican party leadership would certainly hope so. When the former president and would-be autocrat announced his third run for the presidency, in the days after the Republican party’s paltry and historically anomalous midterm showing, hardly any elected members of his party showed up. Since he left office, civil suits have accrued around Trump and his companies, like a river leaving silt deposits that slowly build up into muddy land. Investigations have proliferated in New York, where the state attorney general has accused Trump of various real estate frauds, and in Fulton county, Georgia, where his threatening phone calls to the state attorney general in the wake of the 2020 election have earned him a criminal inquiry.Last week, Trump teased a “MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT” on social media, briefly leading to speculation about what his plans might be, and how they could shake up American politics. Was he announcing a running mate? Was he going to throw his hat in the ring for speaker of the House? But no; instead, he was unveiling a new product: a line of wish-fulfillment greeting cards that depict him as a musclebound superhero. Even worse, the cards were digital only, selling for $99 a pop in a form that’s become the last and most embarrassing refuge of scammers: the NFT. The spectacle was almost sad – tacky and desperate and low-rent, even for him. Continue reading...

A new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Buzz Bissinger brings to light a most unusual football game on the Pacific island of Guadalcanal during the second world warOn the Pacific island of Guadalcanal, two Marine Corps regiments enjoyed a rare respite from second world war in December 1944. On Christmas Eve, the 4th and 29th regiments squared off in a football game nicknamed the Mosquito Bowl. This was no pick-up game. The teams included some of the top college football talent in the US, their rosters featuring All-Americans, captains from big-name schools and future NFL players or draftees. Tragically, of the 65 players in the game, 15 would die the following year, during the war’s deadliest battle: Okinawa. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Buzz Bissinger brings this wartime narrative back to public attention through his new book, The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II.“I think it was the last time these guys were allowed to be boys, allowed to do something they loved,” Bissinger says. “For three hours – not that long – they got away from training and combat and what might happen at Okinawa. It was joy, pure joy, then back to training.” Continue reading...

House panel concluded investigation and referred Trump to the justice department for criminal prosecution on four countsDemocrats in Congress on Monday praised the House January 6 select committee for referring former president Donald Trump to the justice department for violating at least four criminal statutes, while Republicans called the committee’s work a “political stunt”.In its last public meeting, the committee chose to refer Trump for charges on obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement, and assisting, aiding or comforting an insurrection. Though the unprecedented criminal referrals are largely symbolic as the justice department will decide whether to prosecute Trump, they will give the justice department a road map should it choose to proceed. Continue reading...

Even if the multi-billionaire owner accepts his user poll and stands down, his machinations seem likely to ruin the companySince its launch, few people have embodied the worst of Twitter like Elon Musk. The site is a magnet for the self-involved, the kind of people who think a few likes and retweets confirm that they are always right; the types who walk through life with blinkers on and a mirror fixed directly in front of them.Through relentless efforts to be seen as funny, tweeting stale memes and tired jokes, and his transparent desperation to be liked, tanking his own stock price to delight his followers, Musk’s Twitter persona was infamous. But it was also a common type on the site: someone eager to be seen as in on the joke, a lovable troll, but, crucially, someone who is also actually bad at using Twitter on a basic level. The adulation of his diehard fans sometimes masked the fact that most people don’t like these kinds of characters online. Continue reading...

By providing key systems to defend against Russia, the west risks weakening its deterrence posture towards ChinaThe Biden administration has crossed a new line in its support for Ukraine, by indicating its willingness to send Patriot air and missile defence systems to aid in the war against Russia. The system – which includes powerful missile interceptors and radar – is likely to prove highly effective for Ukraine, and marks a significant step forward in the scope and complexity of the US’s support. But the gift of such prestige systems will present longer-term challenges for Nato.Joe Biden previously ruled out sending Patriot systems to Ukraine. The shift in policy appears to have arisen from Russia’s extensive targeting of Ukraine’s civilian critical national infrastructure, which has left much of the country without power. Russia is now seeking to obtain Iranian ballistic missiles to bolster its own depleted stocks, and this, combined with ongoing domestic missile production, means these attacks may persist for a long time. Defending Ukraine from missile attacks is now a humanitarian priority.Jack Watling is a senior research fellow for land warfare at the Royal United Services Institute Continue reading...

From Messi to Morocco’s heroics, via a seven-a-side against Roy Keane, our writers and photographer share their memoriesThere is the temptation to pick a left-field choice from the 18 games I covered, but who are we kidding: the final was stunning, jaw-dropping sport and the best match of its type there has ever been. Nick Ames Continue reading...

The justice department may find it difficult to obtain a conviction for each charge referred by the January 6 committeeThe House January 6 select committee outlined criminal referrals against Donald Trump for charges that experts believe the justice department could definitely pursue should it move forward with prosecuting the former US president over his efforts to stop the congressional certification of the 2020 election.The panel voted at its final public session on Monday to recommend prosecution for Trump for four possible crimes: obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiracy to make a false statement and incitement of insurrection. Continue reading...

I don’t know how I expected this seminal conversation with my daughter to go, but I know it wasn’t like this

Four Republicans referred to House ethics committee for refusing to comply with panel’s subpoenas, including Kevin McCarthy

The referral marks the first time in US history that Congress has taken such action against a former presidentThe January 6 committee has referred Donald Trump to the justice department to face criminal charges, accusing the former president of fomenting an insurrection and conspiring against the government over his attempt to subvert the outcome of the 2020 election, and the bloody attack on the US Capitol.The committee’s referrals approved by its members on Monday are the first time in American history that Congress has recommended charges against a former president. They come after 18 months of investigation by the bipartisan House of Representatives panel tasked with understanding Trump’s plot to stop Joe Biden from taking office. Continue reading...

The evidence points to the fact that the former commander-in-chief is likely a criminal who committed a ‘crime against democracy’Whodunnit? He did it.Donald Trump – businessman, celebrity president, golfer and digital trading card star – is also a likely criminal, the congressional panel investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol concluded on Monday. Continue reading...

The January 6 committee has referred the former US president to the justice department for criminal charges, accusing Trump of fomenting an insurrection and conspiring against the government over his attempt to subvert the outcome of the 2020 election, and the bloody attack on the US Capitol. The committee’s referrals approved by its members on Monday are the first time in American history that Congress has recommended charges against a former president. It comes after more than a year of investigation by the bipartisan House of Representatives panel tasked with understanding Trump’s plot to stop Joe Biden from taking office

The committee referred Trump for possible criminal prosecution. And politically he looks like a loserThis year was bad for the 45th president. 2023 may even be worse. Criminal prosecutions may be forthcoming. Beyond that, the legacy of 6 January 2021, combined with the results of the recent midterms, left Donald Trump politically vulnerable.Stripped of the veneer of invincibility and inevitability, he looks like a loser. On Monday, the House committee on the January 6 attacks concluded that the evidence warranted referral to the justice department for possible prosecution.Lloyd Green is an attorney in New York and served in the US Department of Justice from 1990 to 1992 Continue reading...

The House committee has issued the first sections of its report and recommended criminal referrals for TrumpThe House January 6 committee has staged its final public hearing and issued the first sections of its report. According to its chairman, Bennie Thompson, it will both release “the bulk of its non-sensitive records” before the end of the year and transmit criminal referrals, for Donald Trump and others, to the Department of Justice by the end of business on Monday.Here are some key conclusions after the final session on Capitol Hill. Continue reading...

In addition to offering lucrative jobs, attorneys connected to ex-president also told them it was OK to lie to investigatorsThe House January 6 committee has discovered that lawyers connected to Donald Trump sought to influence witnesses with job offers and advice including that it was OK to lie to investigators.In an opening statement in Monday’s final hearing on Capitol Hill, Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, said: “We are concerned that these efforts may have been a strategy to prevent the committee in finding the truth.” Continue reading...

Lamor Miller-Whitehead, the ‘bling-bling bishop’ with hip-hop connections, is accused of swindling his own parishionersThe Brooklyn pastor who made headlines when he was robbed of an estimated $1m in jewelry during a church service being broadcast online in July was arrested on federal fraud charges on Monday after he allegedly swindled parishioners.US prosecutors in Manhattan charged that Lamor Miller-Whitehead, 44, solicited money from victims – including $90,000 from a retired parishioner – using threats or false promises of enriching them, but then pocketed the money for himself and sometimes spent it on luxury goods. Continue reading...

Executive summary of report released by House panel investigating January 6 details a failed self-coupIt was, all in all, a very American attempt at a coup. Or self-coup to be exact.The world watched its denouement dumbfounded on 6 January 2021 as thousands of Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the heart of US democracy, the Capitol in Washington, with cries to hang the vice-president, in an attempt to overturn an election and keep Trump in power. Continue reading...

Whether or not his poll was genuine, Musk would be wise to take a step back from the social media site

The incoming congressman’s biography is now being re-examined as opponent claims Santos was ‘running a scam against the voters’A news report on Monday questioned whether the career résumé of the incoming Republican congressman George Santos – who was elected last month to serve a typically Democrat suburban district north-east of New York City – may be largely fictional.According to an analysis by the New York Times, the biographical sketch offered by the 34-year-old, first-generation Brazilian-American, who ran as a member of a “new generation of Republican leadership” as the “full embodiment of the American dream”, may not have worked at Citigroup or Goldman Sachs, graduated from a New York college, or run a pet rescue charity, as he has claimed. Continue reading...

Appointment of former congressman and grandson of Robert Kennedy comes amid transatlantic tension over post-Brexit tradeJoe Kennedy III, the 42-year-old scion of one of America’s most famous political families, has agreed to serve as the special envoy to Northern Ireland for economic affairs, the US state department announced on Monday.The former Massachusetts congressman and grandson of US attorney general Robert F Kennedy is replacing Mick Mulvaney, a former White House chief of staff under Donald Trump, who stepped down from the role last year. Continue reading...

The MLS side is reportedly confident of landing Argentina’s World Cup hero this summer. But is signing the 35-year-old right for Inter Miami and the league?While Lionel Messi was busy completing his career odyssey in the most dramatic fashion, David Beckham watched from the stands, hopeful his Inter Miami team could land its very own unicorn.The Major League Soccer franchise is reportedly “confident” of signing Messi following the 2022-23 European season, and “close” to a deal making him the highest-paid player in MLS history. Continue reading...

The Boston mobster died in a federal prison in Missouri from an undetermined causeThe once formidable New England mob boss Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme has died in prison while serving a life sentence for the 1993 killing by strangulation of a Boston nightclub owner, according to authorities. He was 89.Salemme died on 13 December, online records from the US Bureau of Prisons show. The local news outlet WPRI first reported Salemme’s death late on Sunday, though a cause was not immediately available. Continue reading...

As the House January 6 committee is set to publish its report, here are some of the key standoutsThe House January 6 committee is set to publish its report on the attack on the Capitol that shocked both America and the world . After a year of dramatic hearings and bombshell testimony, here are some of the key winners and losers to emerge from its work. Continue reading...

Tom Baio, an incumbent member of the Mendham township committee, lost his bid by three votes to Democrat Laura SpirigA local Republican elected officeholder from New Jersey is looking to throw out the absentee ballot of his daughter who voted for his Democratic opponent, according to a recent report.On Friday, the Observer-Tribune reported that Tom Baio, an incumbent member of New Jersey’s Mendham township committee, lost his bid by three votes to Laura Spirig, his Democratic challenger during the 8 November midterm elections. Continue reading...

Business impresario Angel Gregorio is transforming shipping containers into an incubator for Black entrepreneurs and farmersWhen the Guardian first profiled Angel Gregorio, the 37-year-old was running her Washington DC gourmet seasonings business the Spice Suite while hosting pop-ups for other Black entrepreneurs inside her Takoma-area store. She saw herself as a community builder first, and an entrepreneur second. “My business is about supporting Black businesses,” she said of her shop, which sells spices sourced from around the world, along with a multitude of products made by local Black women.A year later, her business has followed an upward trajectory, with fans ranging from Kelis to Stevie Wonder. Gregorio’s business is growing in other ways too: in January, the Spice Suite will reinvent itself as part of a mini strip mall that Gregorio designed and is opening in the Langdon neighborhood of DC. Continue reading...

Agreement on biodiversity targets forced through despite objections from some African countries. Plus, the World Cup final produces one of the greatest matches in historyGood morning.After four years of negotiations, and 12 years since the last biodiversity targets were agreed in Japan, governments appeared to have signed a once-in-a-decade deal to halt the destruction of Earth’s ecosystems at the UN biodiversity summit in Canada.What does the deal include? It includes targets to protect 30% of the planet for nature by the end of the decade, reform $500bn (£410bn) of environmentally damaging subsidies, and restore 30% of the planet’s degraded terrestrial, inland water, coastal and marine ecosystems. Here are some more details.How did fans react in Argentina? There was delight in Buenos Aires that Argentina will be bringing home football’s most coveted trophy. After the game, fans flocked to the Obelisk in central Buenos Aires, the streets a carnivalesque cacophony of cheers, car horns, cumbia music and bullhorns. Continue reading...

I set a goal to read 50 books. I almost made it, and once I started it was easier than I thoughtThe digital age is changing us in ways we would never expect. If you had told me 20 years ago that I would one day stop reading books, I would have said you were crazy. I’ve always been a reader; from the time I was little, I would hide away somewhere with a book and devour it, often in one sitting. Cut to 2021, when I realized I had only read five books that year, and the previous year, only eight.I didn’t have to wonder why. I already knew it was my phone. We see our phone’s own calculation of how many hours we’ve spent on it each day, and we can’t quite believe it. What? Hours, I realized, that I used to spend reading books. So I made a New Year’s resolution for 2022: more books, less phone. I set a goal for myself of fifty books. And I almost made it.Nancy Jo Sales is a writer at Vanity Fair and the author of American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers and Nothing Personal: My Secret Life in the Dating App Inferno Continue reading...

The parole board’s refusal to free Janet Carter, 69, is part of what advocates warn is a growing humanitarian crisis across the USPrison guards stood by as Janet Carter, 69, sat in her wheelchair and tried to explain the gaps in her memory. It was May 2022 and her third time appearing before the California parole board, which would decide whether to free her after 25 years.“I can’t remember a whole lot of stuff,” she said when a commissioner asked why she couldn’t articulate what she’d learned in prison programs. Her lawyer later pointed to a doctor’s report that documented some causes: Parkinson’s disease, early dementia, a neurocognitive disorder, chemotherapy and a head injury. Continue reading...

The ‘Rat Tsar’ that the city posted a job listing for will report to Meera Joshi, who shares Eric Adams’ hatred of the verminLate last month, New York City posted a job listing for a new “director of rodent mitigation”, a title that was soon slimmed down to “Rat Tsar”, to work under the direction of the Mayor Eric Adams and his deputy mayor for operations, Meera Joshi.Taking on New York’s rat population, the listing said, would take someone who is “highly motivated and somewhat bloodthirsty” and possessed of both “stamina and stagecraft”. The new Rat Tsar, it added would need a “swashbuckling attitude, crafty humor and general aura of badassery”. Continue reading...

If there were ever a moment that made it undeniably clear the Patriots Dynasty was ancient history, New England’s jaw-dropping loss to the Raiders on Sunday may have been itSometimes when watching sports, one witnesses a play so ridiculous and inexplicable that one’s brain cannot even properly process what exactly has just happened. Case in point: the bizarre final sequence of the New England Patriots’ backbreaking 30-24 road loss to the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday. If there ever were a moment that laid bare how the Patriots Dynasty was officially in the rear-view mirror, we may have just witnessed it.Officially, the game ended with Raiders defensive end Chandler Jones picking off a lateral thrown by Patriots receiver Jakobi Meyers and rumbling into the end zone for the game-winning touchdown. In the official game stats, it went down as a fumble recovery. But none of this quite captures the chaos that rapidly unfolded in the game’s final seconds. Continue reading...

As a Ukrainian reporter, sometimes I can’t bear to find out what has happened to people I spoke to in the early days of war

Tiger is a protective father but the decision to catapult his son into public view at the PNC Championship is an interesting oneNobody who owns a yacht named Privacy is likely to pursue publicity. Tiger Woods has made the keeping of secrets an art form despite spending the majority of his life as one of the most recognisable people on earth. Hank Haney, the golf coach, once told the story of being chastised by his star client for giving a television executive a nod towards Woods’s likely schedule. Any member of the media who claims they properly know Woods is spoofing; there is deliberate, visible distance kept between the 15-times major winner and all but those within his inner sanctum. So many questions, so few answers.Against this backdrop, the profile given to 13-year-old Charlie Woods – and at his father’s own volition – is intriguing. The PNC Championship in Orlando ordinarily provides a bit of hit-and-giggle for high-profile golfing families but the now routine involvement of Team Woods raises interest levels significantly. Including to the point where it can make for uncomfortable reading or listening. This weekend, we have seen Charlie’s divot pattern assessed. Every pose and swing is likened to his iconic father. This is a child, subject to the kind of scrutiny that would be deemed unhealthy by plenty of onlookers. How does Charlie seamlessly return to the classroom having been plastered all over the Golf Channel for 72 hours? Continue reading...

The final meeting will determine if Trump will be criminally referred to the US justice departmentThe US House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol is holding a final public meeting on Monday, when it’s expected to decide whether to issue criminal referrals for former president Donald Trump and his allies.The event, which comes just before the release of the committee’s final report, marks the end of a panel which has led the inquiry into the riots since the January day when more than 2,000 rioters breached the US Capitol building. Continue reading...

Agency said it anticipates preventing a total of 6,600 from entering secure area of airports by end of year, a nearly 10% jump from 2021The Transportation Security Administration has intercepted a record number of guns at airport safety checkpoints this year, and an overwhelming majority of them were loaded.In a statement released late last week, TSA revealed that as of 16 December, its officers had intercepted 6,301 firearms. Out of those, 88% were loaded. The number marks an increase of more than 300 from the 5,972 firearms that were detected in 2021. About 86% of the firearms confiscated last year were loaded. Continue reading...

Minorities need better policing and healthcare. What they get is a discussion about the hurt feelings of the rich and famousYou probably won’t remember this, considering everything that followed, but when Harry and Meghan got married, there was a popular view in the media that their union was a watershed moment for British race relations. The wedding, we were told, cast a spell on black, white and mixed-race people alike, enchanted by the nods to Meghan’s Afro-American cultural heritage during the ceremony. “A new era dawns,” a New York Times headline read. “Modern” was a word often used to describe the pair. A modern wedding, for a modern couple, in a modern Britain.