Incidence of serious sexually transmitted disease at 27-year high and demand for preferred antibiotic is straining manufactureRecord-high rates of syphilis and an accompanying shortage of the preferred antibiotic to treat the disease will make it one of the most pressing public health concerns in 2024, an association of public health leaders said.Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection that was once rare, but has made a tragic" return in an era of reduced funding for public health. The 27-year high in cases has also strained manufacturing of the preferred antibiotic to treat syphilis, a penicillin formulation called Bicillin L-A. Continue reading...
Spotlight now falls on Crown Prince Frederik and his wife as tabloids focus on alleged past dallianceHappy new year and let's go in hard on 2024 with some seasonal thoughts from Chip Wilson, the founder of the fitness-wear empire Lululemon, who has been talking to Forbes magazine this week about his favourite subject: who should and shouldn't be wearing his yoga leggings. Continue reading...
More than 300 additional pages deepen the picture of Epstein's elite orbit while resurfacing old claims. Plus, tips to cut down plastic use in your kitchen
British police are investigating the case of a minor who was allegedly subjected to a virtual gang rape. Expect more casesThe cheerful language with which tech companies describe their platforms is often in stark contrast to the dark possibilities lurking within them. Meta, for example, describes its virtual world, the metaverse, as the next evolution in social connection and the successor to the mobile internet", a place where virtual reality lets you explore new worlds and shared experiences". But for a young girl in the UK recently, that shared experience" was an alleged gang rape perpetrated by several adult men.British police are investigating the sexual assault of the girl, identified only as being under the age of 16, in what is said to be the first investigation of its kind in the UK. The girl was reportedly wearing a virtual reality headset and playing an immersive game in the metaverse when her avatar was attacked. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Report says former president's loyalists in the House, including Mike Johnson and Jim Jordan, continue to push 2020 election liesThe attempted US coup of 6 January 2021, never ended, according to a watchdog report, since the same Donald Trump allies behind that insurrection are now leading a sham impeachment effort against Joe Biden.The report, marking three years since a mob of Trump supporters ransacked the US Capitol in a bid to overturn his election defeat, was produced by the Congressional Integrity Project and obtained by the Guardian. Continue reading...
From Covid to colds, winter viruses are rife. But even in this post-masking era, we can still be considerate of othersWhen I was starting out in my career, back in the last century, an advertising campaign for Lemsip was running on public transport. What sort of person goes to work with the flu?" asked the posters, with the take-no-prisoners answer, The person after your job. Stop snivelling and get back to work."That time now feels like ancient history - an era when even those of us with comfortable, keyboard-bound jobs couldn't work remotely even if we didn't have hard-as-nails jobseekers biting at our heels. Back then, I was one of those people who would go to work with a cold. I thought it showed grit and determination. Soon afterwards I sat next to a colleague who had cystic fibrosis, and it belatedly dawned on me that I wasn't so indispensable as to have to risk other people's health. Two decades later, the Covid-19 pandemic made sure everyone knew that. There's nothing like watching deaths from an airborne respiratory illness climb to more than a thousand a day to ram home the message about keeping your germs to yourself.Katy Guest is a Guardian Opinion deputy editor Continue reading...
Social media runs the world, celebrity culture runs social media, and NBA players are more famous than ever. All of it has given rise to privacy concerns unthinkable even a decade agoIt started with a punch. When Draymond Green laid his hands on former teammate Jordan Poole during a Golden State Warriors practice ahead of the 2022-23 season, it didn't just lead to the downfall of the Warriors dynasty. The notorious also event kicked off an era of unprecedented publicity in the NBA.After all, TMZ took advantage of the social media frenzy that followed reports of the punch by obtaining and leaking the video. Later, rapper Cam'ron and journalist Pablo Torre took turns reporting what Poole said to inspire the punch. It all served to satisfy a rabid, increasingly online fanbase hungry for ever more information. Continue reading...
The Glazers blazed a trail for US money in European soccer. Now they're innovating again with a non-sale sale' that gives them all the spoils of ownership with none of the accountabilitySo, a new era for Manchester United? Not quite: amid all the hullabaloo about a restructuring" at the club following Jim Ratcliffe's purchase of a 25% stake - all that talk of job cuts and belt tightening, squad turnover, comings and goings in the executive suite, meetings between Ratcliffe and Erik Ten Hag, a fresh energy both on and off the pitch - it's been easy to forget that commercial control of the club remains firmly in the hands of the Glazer family. Manchester United's corporate structure splits ownership into Class A and Class B shares. Real control of the club lies with the owners of the Class B shares, which are worth 10 times the voting rights of Class A shares. Ratcliffe has spent around $1.6bn for a quarter of the club's Class A and B shares. But critically, Class B shares convert to Class A once they are sold. Once the deal is approved, the entirety of the Class B holding, along with voting power and control of the board, will remain with the Glazer family. If this is the start of the Glazers' exit from their investment in Manchester United, it is a curiously sedentary departure.There's a kind of brilliance to this move, a form of dirty financial sorcery akin to the creation of the credit default swap. The Glazers' 18-year ownership of Manchester United has been a calamity for Manchester United, which has degenerated over the past decade from the powerhouse of English football into a mid-table club hanging its hopes of Europa League qualification on a late-career revival from Jonny Evans. But it's been extremely good business for the Glazers, who've repeatedly exploited their ownership to enrich themselves while running operations at a consistent loss and lumping the club with crippling levels of debt. Dividend payments since the Glazers' 2005 takeover have totaled 166 million; the bulk of them have gone to the Glazers themselves. Nothing about Ratcliffe's investment in the club will disrupt this cash flow or the corporate structure underpinning it: as the club's 2023 annual report notes, our board of directors has complete discretion regarding the declaration and payment of dividends, and the holders of our Class B ordinary shares [ie the Glazers] will be able to influence our dividend policy." Continue reading...
We're proud of our health-led drugs policy, but the rise of the global illegal drugs trade means we need international solutionsIn the Netherlands, we used to look on the international war on drugs" with a certain amount of disdain. Its solutions were prohibition, criminalisation, stiff penalties and sentences; our national drug policy, on the other hand, focused for decades on reducing the health risks for users - and was relatively successful. We are lenient on soft drugs such as cannabis, allowing for personal use under specific conditions. Hard drugs are technically illegal, but possession of small amounts (like half a gram of hard drugs or one ecstasy pill) is often not prosecuted. Police cracked down on the largest drug traffickers, who mainly operated locally. There was drug crime and even killings, but these remained traceable and largely manageable. Drug trafficking hardly affected our economy or daily life.That is no longer the case. Spurred on by globalisation and the international criminalisation of drugs, the illegal drugs trade has become more lucrative, professional and ruthlessly violent. The effects have been disastrous. In the past decade, the port of Rotterdam, the largest port in Europe, has become a global transit hub for cocaine. The Dutch authorities have increased their efforts to combat drug trafficking, but they have not turned the tide. Recent figures show a record increase in the amount of cocaine being seized, from just over 22,000kg in the first half of 2022 to 29,702kg in the first half of 2023. While this may seem encouraging at first glance, it actually illustrates the immense scale of what is happening. Our current approach in the fight against drugs is like mopping with the tap running.Femke Halsema is the mayor of Amsterdam. An international conference on further regulation of the drug market will be held in Amsterdam on 26 January 2024Do 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...
Photographer and visual storyteller Annie Grossinger has used her own pictures and archival photos to reconstruct the career of her grandfather and CIA station chief John Dougherty, who was linked to the 1954 CIA-sponsored coup in Guatemala. Her book, Serpent Tongue, offers a personal narrative about this dark period in the history of the two nations
State joins more than a dozen others in their requests, following Colorado and Maine barring former president from their ballotsVoters in Illinois have filed a petition to remove Donald Trump from the state's Republican primary ballot, echoing efforts in other states to bar the former president from returning to the White House over his role in the 6 January capitol attack.The petition, similar to those filed in more than a dozen other states, relies on the 14th amendment to the constitution. Continue reading...
More than 300 additional pages deepen the picture of Epstein's elite orbit while resurfacing old claimsA new batch of documents related to the disgraced financier Jeffery Epstein's sexual abuse were released on Thursday.The additional 19 documents, totaling around 300 pages, add to the more than 900 pages of documents already unsealed on Wednesday evening, the release of which prompted an online frenzy that crashed a website hosting the documents. Continue reading...
Lawsuit announced by Eric Adams says 17 bus companies violated state law by transporting 33,000 people to the cityNew York City has sued 17 charter bus companies that transported migrants from Texas, the mayor, Eric Adams, announced on Thursday.The lawsuit, filed in New York state court in Manhattan, says the city is seeking $708m from the firms because that was the cost it incurred to house the migrants and provide services to them over the past two years. Continue reading...
Investigators believe suspect died of self-inflicted gunshot wound, and at least one of the victims is a school administratorPolice said that a 17-year-old suspect killed a sixth grader and wounded five others in a shooting early Thursday at a high school in the small town of Perry, Iowa.The suspect was identified as Dylan Butler, a 17-year-old student at Perry high school, officials said at a news briefing on Thursday afternoon. He was found dead with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound by responding officers.Reuters and the Associated Press contributed reporting Continue reading...
by Maanvi Singh in Oakland, California on (#6HKJR)
In latest move by University of California, Berkeley, law enforcement agencies arrested protesters and erected barrierIn a midnight operation, hundreds of police officers descended on People's Park in Berkeley, California, to clear out the activists and unhoused campers occupying the area, to make way for the construction of a housing complex for students.By dawn, the park that was once the centre of the 1960s antiwar and counterculture movement was walled off with shipping containers and surrounded by police. Continue reading...
Suit is aimed at stopping a law allowing police to detain people suspected of crossing the US border without authorizationThe US Department of Justice has sued Texas and its Republican governor, Greg Abbott, to block a new and controversial state immigration law from going into effect.After threatening the state with legal action after last year's passage of SB4, a new Texas law which allows state police to arrest any person they suspect has crossed the US-Mexico border without authorization, the justice department did so on Wednesday. Immigration and border control officially falls under the purview of the federal government - not individual states. Continue reading...
Court document released Wednesday confirmed some celebrity connections but also showed late sex offender's flimsy braggadocioWhile Jeffrey Epstein counted many rich and powerful men among his associates -including Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew - a court document released on Wednesday suggests the late financier so craved proximity to celebrity that he made spurious boasts about relationships with Hollywood A-listers.Johanna Sjoberg, an accuser of the late sex offender and financier, claimed in a deposition that he liked to talk about knowing movie stars, such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Cate Blanchett, and that these statements appeared to come across as flimsy braggadocio. Continue reading...
Entrepreneur says DEI initiatives benefit companies after Musk called them just another word for racism'Elon Musk and Mark Cuban clashed late on Wednesday over the value of diversity, equity and inclusion programs within US companies following the resignation of Harvard's first Black president.Critics of Claudine Gay, who condemned tired racial stereotypes" in the campaign against her presidency, speculated she had benefited from Harvard's focus on diversity, rather than her credentials. Continue reading...
President says preserving democracy central issue of his presidency' in ad timed for release on anniversary of January 6Joe Biden's first campaign ad of the year focuses on threats to US democracy, timed for release on the anniversary of the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol.In the ad, Biden says that preserving American democracy has been the central issue of his presidency". As footage of political violence and rioting shows on screen, the president notes that there's an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs in our democracy". Continue reading...
Her resignation is merely the latest episode in the right wing's assault on education - a project that has increased in its virulence in recent yearsAny political observer who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that the resignation of Claudine Gay, the president of Harvard University who was driven from her job this week, had nothing to do with plagiarism.There are all sorts of factors that make this obvious: there is the reality that Gay's field, political science, is a data-driven discipline in which abstracts from one paper are not-infrequently copied as parts of a literature review in another, and that the borrowed phrases and summaries that account for Gay's plagiarism" are not crimes of theft but of sloppiness, with little bearing on the originality of her work.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
Campaigners call for scrutiny of gold rush' after economists estimate gambling tax surge may be roughly equal' to social costsA promised economic boom from online gambling's rapid expansion across the United States may be a mirage, according to new research.New Jersey, which led the charge for mobile sports betting's legalization, has received hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes from the sector. But economists cautioned that the cost of higher problem gambling rates could be roughly equal" to the state's takings. Continue reading...
by Richard Luscombe in Miami and agency on (#6HK9Q)
State's politically appointed surgeon general claims vaccines can contaminate human DNA but experts say comment has no meritAn assertion by Florida's politically appointed surgeon general that Covid-19 vaccines can contaminate human DNA has been dismissed as scientific nonsense" by public health experts, who say he is putting lives at risk by wanting to block distribution.Dr Joseph Ladapo, who was handpicked by the state's far-right governor and fellow vaccine-skeptic, Ron DeSantis, to be the state's top public health official, called for a halt in the distribution and use of mRNA Covid boosters, in an official bulletin published on Wednesday by the Florida health department. Continue reading...
New York progressive star among subjects of The Rebels, survey of the modern US left by Joshua GreenDonald Trump memorably compared the New York Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Eva Peron, the Argentinian first lady known as Evita. But a new book reveals that when the young Latino leftwinger burst on to the US political scene in 2018, one US labour leader made perhaps a more telling comparison - to Bruce Springsteen.I was floored," Michael Podhorzer, then political director of the AFL-CIO, told the author Joshua Green. The best comparison I can make is to the famous Jon Landau line: I've seen rock'n'roll's future and its name is Bruce Springsteen.'" Continue reading...
The New York venture Peoplehood invites you to pay to join a gather', and laugh and learn' with strangers. ShudderThe vogue in self-improvement this new year is for leaning out, that is, for giving yourself permission to relax on the understanding that some fugitive benefit will take hold to make you more competitive than those leaning in. I'm in favour of this for general reasons of lassitude, but it will be interesting to see how it plays out in the market. To wit: the team behind SoulCycle, once a phenomenally successful fitness franchise, now a dated brand with empty storefronts all over Manhattan, has launched a new business - notably, one in which no one has to do anything so basic as to sweat or hunch over a bike.Or rather, any sweat triggered by Peoplehood, a company that invites strangers to attend 60-minute discussion groups called gathers", will be for reasons of embarrassment, not exercise. Does the notion of attending a group workout for your relationships" amuse and appal you? Does the concept of a gather", with its strenuous avoidance of the gerund and vague whiff of Gilead, make you shake with laughter? Then you may want to learn more about Peoplehood (a hundred bucks says they toyed with the idea of capping the H and styling it PeopleHood), an enterprise which, on the earliest evidence, promises to offer a lot more value in this vein.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Families of children killed in massacre call out manufacturers' push to sell weapons to adolescentsParents of children massacred in the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting are stepping up their anti-gun violence campaign by exposing how the firearms industry is marketing weapons of war specifically to vulnerable adolescents.In a fresh stage in their battle to staunch the rising loss of life from mass shootings, Sandy Hook parents are pressuring gun manufacturers to stop what they say is a cynical and aggressive effort to sell military-style weapons to young and impressionable Americans. They are alarmed by a shift in tone in gun advertising in which, they say, major companies have consciously decided to boost profits by targeting kids as young as 10. Continue reading...
Folarin Balogun has yet to replicate last season's form following a summer move to Monaco. But he remains at the forefront of Gregg Berhalter's 2024 plansIn four matches at the 2022 World Cup, Gregg Berhalter started three different center forwards. Haji Wright was the only one of the three to score - a mere consolation goal in a 3-1 defeat to the Netherlands in the round of 16. The US men's national team's dearth of quality options at the No 9 position was exposed for the world to see.Folarin Balogun's decision in May to play for the US over England and Nigeria considerably changed this landscape. Widely considered one of the world's best young strikers, the Arsenal academy graduate has started the USMNT's last six matches. Berhalter is building around Balogun. Continue reading...
Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, David Copperfield and Prince Andrew among high-profile names in court documents. Plus, 20 easy, mind-expanding ways to be more creativeGood morning.Numerous court documents identifying associates of the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were made public last night.Epstein's elite circle was huge. What was the source of his $580m fortune? The documents released shed some light on the circumstances of Epstein's lifestyle, but they do not answer any of the pending questions about his financial arrangements with wealthy men, and how he came to amass such a fortune.Where can we see the unsealed court papers? Hundreds of pages of documents linked to Epstein associates were made public on Wednesday. You can read them here in full.What was behind the campaign to get her sacked? Some of the activists who campaigned most prominently against Gay made clear this week that their broader aim was opposing diversity, equity and inclusion" (DEI) programs in all US universities and attacking DEI as a movement, not just opposing the choices of one individual Harvard president. Continue reading...
The president's speech this Saturday will be about the future of democracy - yet the press seems reluctant to make that clearWhen Joe Biden talks on Saturday about US democracy on the brink, there's no doubt that it will be a campaign speech. Maybe the most important one of his life.But the speech will be more than that. It's intended as a warning and a red alert, delivered on the anniversary of the violent January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
I am eschewing dry January for something arguably more difficult - one small glass a night, with two nights off each week. What could possibly go wrong ...Big respect for all those embarking on Dry January. I won't be joining you because ... January. But I am attempting a tricky challenge of my own: mindful drinking. No, this doesn't involve sipping merlot while chanting mantras (although four days in, that doesn't sound too bad). Instead I intend to pay more attention to how much I drink and whether I'm imbibing because I'm merely thirsty, bored or, most likely, hangry".My Dry(ish) January project is simple but not easy: one small glass a night, with two nights off. As a moderate tippler, why am I bothering? In part because when I read the news that pubs will be able to serve wine in pints, I had initially scoffed. How ridiculous - who on earth would drink a pint of wine in one night?" But then I noticed a scary detail: one pint equals 568ml. Continue reading...
Mike DeWine defied his party on gender-affirming care for youths and now legislature is set to reconvene early to push law throughA legislative showdown is brewing in Ohio after Governor Mike DeWine split from his party to veto a bill that would impose substantial new restrictions on the lives of trans children.The bill, HB 68, prohibits doctors from providing gender-affirming care to trans youths. It also blocks transgender female student athletes from participating in girls' sports. Continue reading...
The Clark county district court Judge Mary Kay Holthus was attacked by a defendant during a sentencing hearing on Wednesday. Deobra Redden had pleaded guilty to attempted battery with substantial bodily harm and had asked the judge not to send him to prison but when she appeared to decline this request, Redden lunged over the bench at her. Neveda state records show he had previously served prison time on a domestic battery conviction Defendant attacks judge in Nevada Continue reading...
Mary Kay Holthus and court officials injured in incident which has led to new charges against Deobra Delone ReddenA defendant has attacked a judge during a felony battery case, dragging her to the floor and sparking a brawl involving court officials and attorneys, officials and witnesses have said.In a violent scene captured on courtroom video on Wednesday, Deobra Delone Redden jumped over a defence table and the judge's bench, knocking the Clark county district judge Mary Kay Holthus from her seat and against a wall then pulled her to the floor. She sustained some injuries but was not sent to hospital, courthouse officials said. Continue reading...
The longtime Capitals star entered the season just 72 goals shy of Wayne Gretzky's storied career mark. But a ongoing scoring slump threatens to keep the lofty milestone out of reachOn 7 December, Alex Ovechkin notched his 1,500th point of his career - an assist during a 5-4 loss to Dallas. Ovechkin is just the 16th player in NHL history, and one of only two active players, to have hit the milestone. That other player is Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby. Ovechkin and Crosby, perennial rivals since they were drafted first overall consecutively in 2004 and 2005, have tracked nearly identical points-earning paths throughout their careers, differing only in how they accumulated them. Crosby's playmaking has given him 966 assists and 567 goals. For Ovechkin, the points combo was always the reverse of Crosby's: 675 assists and 827 goals. Continue reading...
The septuagenarian coach has been mum on his future ahead of what could be his last game with the Patriots, but the all-time wins record is in tantalising reach for himBill Belichick was asked again at a news conference Wednesday morning about his future with the New England Patriots - as if he'd suddenly spill the beans and blurt out that he planned to stop coaching them, or, perhaps planned to hoof it to another NFL team in 2024.Asked if he'd talked this week about his job to the team's owner, Robert Kraft, Belichick replied, Yeah, I'm looking forward to working, getting ready for the Jets here." Continue reading...
So many citizens are angry and cynical, like Taxi Driver's Travis Bickle. I wish our leaders would ask themselves whyYou talkin' to me?" One of the most famous speeches of the past half-century is delivered with only a mirror for an audience. Alone in his cramped bedsit, clothes drying on a line in the corner, Travis Bickle dons a green army jacket and practises pulling out a pistol. And so unravels Taxi Driver, the classic film study of isolation and lethal madness. Well, I'm the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you're talkin' to?"Where does it come from, the paranoia that shrouds Bickle? From steering a yellow cab around and around New York's concrete claustrophobia. There is this kind of myth that the taxi driver was this friendly, joking kind of guy who was a character actor in movies," said the film's writer, Paul Schrader. But the reality is that it's a very lonely job, and you're trapped in a box for 60 hours a week." Continue reading...
The 2024-page document released by a US judge is littered with names, but some secrets stay hiddenIt has long been known that the disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein operated at the center of a globe-spanning network of the rich, famous and powerful but the documents released Wednesday were nonetheless shocking in revealing the sheer magnitude of his elite circle.Through the prism of a defamation lawsuit involving allegations against the Wall Street estate planner" Epstein and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, the scale of their social network came into harsh focus. Continue reading...
Stainless steel mesh beneath iconic 1.7-mile span took decades of advocacy and is already workingA long-awaited suicide prevention barrier at the Golden Gate Bridge has been completed, officials announced on Wednesday, marking the culmination of a tireless campaign by families who lost loved ones at the famous structure.Crews had been working to finish installing stainless steel nets on both sides of the bridge before a promised 2024 deadline. Continue reading...
by Martin Pengelly in Washington and Sam Levine in Ne on (#6HJQS)
Colorado supreme court issued ruling on Tuesday but in anticipation of appeal stayed it until 4 JanuaryDonald Trump appealed to the US supreme court on Wednesday to undo the Colorado ruling that removed him from the ballot in the western state under the 14th amendment to the US constitution, for inciting an insurrection.In our system of government of the people, by the people, [and] for the people,' Colorado's ruling is not and cannot be correct," Trump's lawyers wrote in their Wednesday filing. They also said the Colorado supreme court's ruling if allowed to stand, will mark the first time in the history of the United States that the judiciary has prevented voters from casting ballots for the leading major-party presidential candidate". Continue reading...
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