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Iran-backed militia Washington blamed for attack announces it has suspended anti-US operationsJoe Biden has said he has decided how to respond to a drone strike in northern Jordan which killed three American soldiers and wounded dozens more, as the Iran-backed militia that Washington blamed for the attack said it had suspended anti-US operations.As Washington pondered its response, Kataib Hezbollah announced the suspension of all its military operations against US troops in the region, claiming the decision was intended to prevent embarrassment" to the Iraqi government. Continue reading...

Bush says allegation she used funds for security services untrue but that she is fully cooperating' with DoJ investigationThe congresswoman Cori Bush has confirmed that the US Department of Justice is investigating whether the Missouri Democrat misused campaign funds for security services, an accusation she denied as simply false".In a statement, Bush said her campaign was fully cooperating" with the investigation and said she had always complied with all applicable laws and House rules". Continue reading...

Board of elections decision decided on narrow procedural grounds and will likely be appealedThe Illinois board of elections has voted unanimously to keep Donald Trump on its primary ballot, rejecting objections brought by voters who challenged Trump's eligibility on grounds that he had aided in insurrection on January 6.The decision was made on narrow procedural grounds, and is almost certain to be appealed. It is just the latest in a mixed series of official rulings on whether Trump can appear on the ballot amid a wave of challenges to his candidacy in multiple states. Continue reading...

Scientist investigating strange noise in Tampa neighborhood says penetrating sound of black drum fish calls may be to blameA strange noise that for years has been bothering residents of Florida could actually be the sound of fish mating - loudly.Residents of a neighborhood in Tampa, Florida, have been frustrated by a mysterious bass sound in their surroundings, the Washington Post reported. Continue reading...

Woman was wounded after falling in trash bin, which was then emptied into sanitation truck, and compacted up to four timesA New Hampshire woman was critically wounded after she fell into a large trash bin and then was tossed into a garbage compacting truck.A top emergency response official in the city of Manchester said crews were greeted with a remarkably unusual scene after the woman in question fell into an apartment complex's garbage bin while taking out some trash. She stayed in the bin until a sanitation truck arrived to empty the contents of the bin. Continue reading...

Expensive, crowded and hard to get around - the Nevada resort finished bottom in a poll ranking the best cities to visitName: Las Vegas.Age: 119 years old. Continue reading...

Families who fought for children's healthcare rights say they are considering leaving the stateLast week, the Ohio legislature voted to override the Republican governor Mike DeWine's veto of HB68, a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for trans youth. The veto marks the end of a yearlong effort by LGBTQ+ activists to block HB68's passage. Starting this April, Ohio doctors are prohibited from prescribing puberty blockers or hormone therapy to any trans patient under 18.Ohio is now the 23rd state to pass restrictions on trans healthcare for minors (though courts have blocked a handful of those measures). It could also become the second state to restrict care for adults, through draft rules are currently open to comments from the public. Continue reading...

A new parliamentary report damns the music business for its sexism - and the situation is even worse for Black women

A high court ruling marks the climax of Fox's comic unravelling. Now let's focus on the figures who pull his stringsDid some randos calling him a racist" on the platform formerly known as Twitter cost Laurence Fox his acting career? No, suggests a judgment from the high court, where a judge also found the actor turned thought leader to have defamed said randos by calling them paedophiles". You can't just call any old person a paedophile, apparently - unless you're the owner of Twitter/X, of course, and you get sued in the US as opposed to the UK, like Elon Musk did by that Thai cave rescue diver a few years back. Appearing on the steps outside a Los Angeles courtroom following his favourable verdict, Musk declared: My faith in humanity is restored". These were not the words of Laurence Fox yesterday.Instead, the Reclaim party leader and Hunter Biden biopic star offered a nine-minute monologue outside the high court that had a distinctly after lunch" feel to it. What we've got, after several million quid, is a nothing burger," elucidated Fox. Laurence was wearing glasses with transition lenses, which - and like him, I'm just making a rhetorical point here - always look like a come-and-get-me plea to the beast wing at HMP Full Sutton. He was accompanied by his girlfriend, Liz Barker. Liz believes the moon landings were faked, and has previously stated she doesn't buy the whole theory of human evolution from apes. (No. I think we come from another race.")Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Human Rights Campaign recorded the introduction of 550 bills last year, with more than half targeting LGBTQ+ youthCiting what it calls the most damaging and destructive legislative session on record", the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign (HRC) on Tuesday published its annual state-by-state scorecard of policies, laws and services.The 2023 state equality index documents a broadening push towards state-sanctioned discrimination" - the elimination or restriction of rights and protections for trans and non-binary communities in Republican-controlled states, which the HRC had already declared a national emergency. Continue reading...

Police believe priceless' artwork The Schoolmistress was stolen by three men working for a then local city council memberA priceless 18th-century painting has been reunited with the original owner's son more than a half century after New Jersey mobsters stole it.Dr Francis Wood inherited the painter John Opie's The Schoolmistress but had to wait 54 years to receive it after it was stolen. Continue reading...

Blow to Joe Biden, who had hoped to benefit from lower pump prices in an election yearSaudi Arabia has cast doubt on the future of the global oil market after abandoning plans to grow its crude production capacity by 1m barrels a day.The world's biggest exporter signalled a big change in policy by ordering the state oil company, Saudi Aramco, to drop plans to expand its maximum production capacity to 13m barrels a day by 2027. Continue reading...

Former Elle writer says $83.3m defamation ruling shows Trump - who she compared to a walrus snorting - can be knocked down'

Countries such as Australia should be alert to the worst-case scenario: a war with existential risksThe environment in the Asia-Pacific is less alarming than it was a year ago. Washington and Beijing are talking again. So are Canberra and Beijing.The United States is focused, externally, on the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine war and, internally, on this year's presidential election. China is preoccupied with stabilising and energising its domestic economy. Continue reading...

When contractors hide in laybys to catch offenders, it's about more than just public decency and hygiene. It's about moneyWild weeing - outdoors, wherever the mood takes you, rather than in some tiled facility designed for the purpose - is not like wild swimming. It doesn't have disciples, people don't yammer on about it, and you won't find articles about where's best to do it and how freeing it is. It seems to be an entirely personal preference, unfreighted by cultural association. I know someone who split up with a woman because she took an adventure wee while hiking. I know someone else who wees in his garden when his toilet is closer. I personally look down on it as a sign that you drink too much water.As an inalienable right of the free, however, people do seem to be quite attached to it - as Dacorum borough council in Hertfordshire discovered when they fined two men, one of whom has a weakened prostate, for weeing in a layby near some woods. Lawyers weighing in for and against the council subsequently have been careful to distinguish between rural and urban wild weeing, the latter being more likely to class as litter, because it would leave more trace. I don't even agree with that; the trace is part of the charm. If you couldn't catch the scent of urine on the air, would you even know you were in the West End? But don't listen to me, I disapprove of water.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Advisory covers older models of Corolla, Matrix and Rav 4 whose airbag inflator could explode and potentially kill motoristsToyota said on Monday it is urging the owners of 50,000 older US vehicles to get immediate recall repairs because an airbag inflator could explode and potentially kill motorists.The Japanese automaker said the do not drive" advisory covers some 2003-04 model year Corolla, 2003-04 Corolla Matrix, and 2004-05 Rav 4s with Takata air bag inflators. Continue reading...

Yes, critics help us make sense of the millions of songs released every month - but the best writing transcends the musicLast week, it was announced that the influential and widely read music website Pitchfork was being folded into men's magazine GQ, with the loss of many jobs.The title, which started as a blog in 1996, rapidly rose to become the dominant voice in music criticism for millennials. To many of the site's millions of monthly readers this news means a great deal more than simply the decline of a large website: they see this, with some justification, as an existential threat to worthwhile music criticism itself. Continue reading...

Representative has become his most powerful ally in Congress - and her name is frequently mentioned as a potential running mateAs Donald Trump aggressively fights multiple legal and political threats, New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik has become his most powerful ally in Congress in key ways by echoing Trump's dangerous falsehoods and pushing outlandish conspiracy theories around the January 6 attack on the Capitol.To bolster Trump, Stefanik has mimicked Trump's calling convicted January 6 prisoners hostages", declined in a TV interview to say she would certify the 2024 election in advance, and filed ethics complaints against two judges overseeing cases against Trump or his allies. Continue reading...

Hamas and Islamic Jihad confirm three members killed during raid by undercover Israeli forces, some dressed as women or medical staff. Plus, shipwreck mysteriously appears on Newfoundland coastGood morning.Israeli security forces raided Ibn Sina hospital in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday and killed three Palestinians. Hamas has confirmed that one of the dead was a member, while Islamic Jihad claimed the other two.What is happening in Gaza? Hamas militants have returned to northern Gaza, where they are mobilising against Israeli forces and rebuilding a system of governance, aid officials, Gaza residents, analysts and Israeli officials say.What has the reaction been to the law? It immediately drew fire from district attorneys across the state - including Willis - who argued that it would be used to politically target progressive prosecutors. Willis flatly described the law as racist". Continue reading...

A Texas school is punishing a teenager for wearing his hair in neat locs. How is this still happening in 2024?A Texas court is set to decide next month if one of its school districts can continue to punish a Black teenager for refusing to cut his locs.Since last August, 18-year-old Darryl George has been kept out of his regular classroom at Barbers Hill high school in Mont Belvieu while he served in-school suspension and faced other disciplinary action because of his hair.Tayo Bero is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

I've flipped between denial, acceptance and moaning about the loss of this lovely and useful thing. I just hope it will be appreciated in its next homeMy bike got nicked last week, which initially presented itself as an experiment in consciousness, a magic realist problem: it had to be there, because that's where I'd left it. And yet it wasn't there. I spent a shamefully long time just staring at the place it had been. Later, I tried valiantly to insert some false memories, where I'd moved it somewhere else; then I went to look over there, where it still wasn't. I gazed around for security cameras, as if I would have a clue what I would do next if there were any. I've seen Slow Horses. All you need to do is find a camera, make a call and punch someone. But there weren't any cameras.The next morning, I returned to the area, just to do some more walking around. Maybe the thief had experienced a fit of conscience and abandoned the bike. Or had become somehow vexed by it. Maybe if I stood in the vicinity for long enough, the bike would scent me on the air and return of its own accord. Continue reading...

Rogue messes in the Venice neighborhood have been labeled with accusatory messages. No one knows who's behind themA street artist in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Venice is turning mounds of abandoned dog poop into tiny works of social commentary.For weeks, local residents say, pieces of poop on the side of the road have been marked with small white flags, each with a unique, aggrieved message for those who fail to clean up after their pets. Continue reading...

Identikit podcasts featuring men of a certain age and character - think George Osborne and Alastair Campbell - are elbowing out innovationWhen the austerity era began, the Tories were fond of telling their opponents that there was no such thing as a magic money tree". But in September last year, George Osborne thought he'd finally found one. You may have heard him talking about it.Political Currency, presented by Osborne and his former Labour opponent Ed Balls, was a cheerfully transparent attempt to take a piece of an exciting new trend in the political podcast market: the ravenous appetite of centrist commuting blokes of a certain age to listen to - be in the room with - two sensible remainer men who wish they were still in charge. Rory Stewart, whose own podcast with Alastair Campbell, The Rest Is Politics, is a fixture of the Top 5 in Apple's chart, calls it disagreeing agreeably. We can call it dadcasting. (As a 40-year-old father who lives in Hackney and literally works for the Guardian, you will not be too surprised that I enjoy several of them.)Archie Bland is the editor of the Guardian's First Edition newsletter and writes on media, culture and technology Continue reading...

The US born midfielder is the youngest-ever player to start a UWCL game. She talks about moving to the Netherlands and dealing with the pressure of being a school-age professionalWhen Lily Yohannes made her Women's Champions League debut she also became, at the age of 16, the youngest player ever to start a group stage match in the competition. She announced her entrance on the big stage by neatly threading a ball through Paris Saint-Germain's backline in the build-up to the first goal of a momentous Ajax victory.I was really excited. Playing in the Champions League was my dream as a kid," Yohannes says. It was an experience that I can't put into words." Continue reading...

This systematic and deliberate erasure of communities and culture must be recognised as a specific category of violence

In liberal democracies, populists are setting two core principles at odds - and putting freedom and human rights in dangerThe will of the people expressed in free elections and the rule of law upheld by independent courts are two of the pillars of a liberal democracy, or so we were taught at school. Yet these two core principles keep colliding in increasingly polarised societies from Washington to London, Paris to Berlin and Warsaw to Jerusalem, with populist politicians demanding that the will of the people" override the constitution, treaties or the separation of powers.It is vital for the long-term health of democracy that the judges prevail. If politicians are able to break or bend fundamental legal principles to suit the mood of the moment, the future of freedom and human rights is in danger.Paul Taylor is a senior fellow of the Friends of Europe thinktankDo 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...

Lloyd Austin says president will not tolerate attacks on US forces', but Qatar warns that reprisal attacks could undermine Israel hostage talks

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby says the US is not looking for a war with Iran or seeking to escalate tensions in the Middle East. The statement came as US defense secretary Lloyd Austin has vowed to take all necessary actions" to defend US troops after Iran-backed militants killed three US soldiers and wounded dozens more in a drone attack on a US base in Jordan. The soldiers killed in the attack were identified as specialists Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, and Sergeant William Jerome Rivers, 46

Officials say suspects were arrested in the fatal shootings and believe killings were from a dispute over an illegal marijuana tradeAuthorities say arrests have been made in the investigation surrounding six bodies found last week at a remote dirt crossroads in the southern California desert.Five suspects have been arrested in the fatal shootings, according to the San Bernardino county sheriff's department. Officials say they think the killings stemmed from a dispute over an illicit marijuana trade. Continue reading...

Former Elle columnist tells Good Morning America: If it'll cause him pain for me to give money to certain things, that's my intent'E Jean Carroll intends to spend the $83m awarded to her in her defamation trial against Donald Trump on something the former president hates", she revealed just days after the judgment.On Friday, the jury in Carroll's case decided that she should receive $18.3m in compensatory damages and $65m punitive retribution in the case pitting her against Trump. Of the $18.3m, Trump was told to pay Carroll $11m to fund a reputational repair campaign and $7.3m for the emotional harm caused by statements he made against her in 2019. Continue reading...

The Kiowa tribe member's debut House Made of Dawn is credited as the starting point for contemporary Native American literatureN Scott Momaday, a Pulitzer prize-winning storyteller, poet, educator and folklorist whose debut novel House Made of Dawn is widely credited as the starting point for contemporary Native American literature, has died. He was 89.Momaday died Wednesday at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, publisher HarperCollins announced. He had been in failing health.Something like a leaf lies here within me; / it wavers almost not at all, / and there is no light to see it by / that it withers upon a black field. / If it could ascend the thousand years into my mouth, / I would make a word of it at last, / and I would speak it into the silence of the sun. Continue reading...

Tehran-linked drug dealer, a Canadian Hells Angel member and another man charged with plotting Iranian defector's killing in the USThe US has charged an Iranian drug trafficker with intelligence ties to Tehran, a Canadian Hells Angel and another Canadian man in an alleged plot to carry out assassinations in the US.According to statements by the justice department and the Treasury on Monday, the alleged drug smuggler Naji Sharifi Zindashti, ran an assassination ring on behalf of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (Mois). Continue reading...

Police responded to fake calls targeting Republican presidential candidate, along with several other high-profile politiciansNikki Haley was targeted by a second swatting" attempt on New Year's Day - just two days after authorities responded to a similar call regarding Haley, according to Reuters.This time, the call was made by someone who said Haley's daughter had been shot and was lying in a pool of blood. The caller, who told police her name was Rose, also said she was on the phone with Haley, who was threatening to shoot herself. Continue reading...

Supreme court rules lower court must hear case arguing decades-old law barring coverage for procedure should be overturnedPennsylvania's supreme court ruled on Monday that a lower court must hear a case challenging a ban on the use of government-funded healthcare to pay for abortions, raising hopes among reproductive rights advocates for an expansion of abortion access in the state and the establishment of a constitutional right to the procedure.The case, brought by abortion providers in the state, challenged a decades-old state law barring Medicaid from covering abortions, arguing that it should be overturned because it violates the broader rights guaranteed by the state constitution's Equal Rights Amendment. Continue reading...

Former House speaker called on the FBI to investigate protesters pressuring the Biden administration to support a ceasefire in GazaSupporters of a ceasefire in Gaza condemned comments made by the former House speaker Nancy Pelosi as downright authoritarian" after the California Democrat suggested, without offering evidence, that pro-Palestinian activists may have ties to Russia and president Vladimir Putin.In an interview on Sunday, Pelosi called on the FBI to investigate protesters involved in the progressive movement pressuring the Biden administration to support a ceasefire in Gaza. Continue reading...

Murdaugh, 55, convicted of murder of wife and son in 2021, had said county clerk swayed jurors before they delivered guilty verdictA South Carolina judge on Monday denied Alex Murdaugh's bid for a new trial after his defense team accused a court clerk of tampering with a jury.Judge Jean Toal said she wasn't sure if Becky Hill, the Colleton county clerk, was telling the truth that she never spoke to jurors about the case, saying she was attracted by the siren call of celebrity". Continue reading...

Tributes poured in as Pentagon named Georgia reservists Kennedy Sanders, William Jerome Rivers and Breonna Alexsondria Moffett as victims of attack

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Tony Romeo believes sonar images may well be wreckage of plane flown by US aviator that disappeared over Pacific in 1937A modern-day ocean explorer has claimed to have possibly solved one of the great mysteries of modern aviation by publishing sonar images which he claims may show the wreckage of the the airplane flown by Amelia Earhart at the bottom of the Pacific.Earhart's plane disappeared over the Pacific in 1937 as she sought to become the first woman to fly around the world. Ever since then, mystery has surrounded the American aviator's fate amid intense speculation as to what happened to her. Continue reading...

Karl Jordan Jr, 40, and Ronald Washington, 59, are accused of murdering the musician over a drug deal in 2002Jury selection began Monday in the trial of the two men charged in the 2002 fatal shooting of Jam Master Jay, a member of the legendary hip-hop group Run-DMC.The defendants, Karl Jordan Jr, 40, and Ronald Washington, 59, are accused of murdering the musician over a drug deal. Opening statements were expected in a state courthouse in Brooklyn after the jury is selected. Continue reading...

Highly contagious virus has particularly ravaged California's Sonoma county, know as the Egg Basket of the World'Last month, Mike Weber got the news every poultry farmer fears: his chickens tested positive for avian flu.Following government rules, Weber's company, Sunrise Farms, had to slaughter its entire flock of egg-laying hens - 550,000 birds - to prevent the disease from infecting other farms in Sonoma county north of San Francisco. Continue reading...

The deaths of three US soldiers in Jordan this weekend will prompt retaliation. But what then?Earlier this month, Joe Biden was asked if the airstrikeson Yemen were working. Are they stoppingthe Houthis? No," replied the president. Arethey going to continue? Yes."There is an obvious logic to the US approach. If it - and its allies - do not show the Houthis and their Iranian backers that there is a price for attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, then there is no reason for its adversaries to halt. That is even more clearly the case when it comes to the attack that killed three US soldiers and injured dozens more in Jordan on Sunday. It has been claimed by Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose coalition of Iranian-backed militias; though Tehran denied involvement, Mr Biden blamed Iran-backed" groups and vowed to respond. Continue reading...

Monica Laso survives ordeal on Heavenly gondola in California ski resort, where temperatures fell to 23F (-5C)A snowboarder visiting a California resort survived freezing temperatures after accidentally getting stuck in a gondola overnight.Monica Laso's story, as she told it to NBC affiliate KCRA, vividly illustrated how suddenly and unexpectedly leisure trips can turn into near-death experiences. Continue reading...

Shane Pryor, 17, awaiting trial over October 2020 homicide, escaped from Children's hospital of Philadelphia last weekA teenager awaiting trial in a homicide case who escaped outside a Philadelphia hospital last week was captured on Sunday - with a handcuff key in one of his pockets, police said.The key that Shane Pryor had on him at the time of his arrest is used to get out of restraints. But there is no evidence he ever used it, said Robert Clark of the US Marshals Service, who caught Pryor, according to the local news outlet WTXF. Continue reading...

War memorials might be set in stone, but the debate to bring back conscription only serves those who shamelessly peddle the sacrifice of others as their ownEvery morning, unless someone's vomited in my path, I walk between two war memorials. One is extremely fancy and timeless: a clocktower of Portland stone, the perfectly typeset names of local residents killed between 1914 and 1919. I sometimes look reflexively for a Williams, then remember that there are always a bunch of us, none related to me: the only notable person in my lineage to die in the first world war was my grandmother's true love, in grief for whom she married my grandfather, who was a notorious prick.On the other side is a garish, funny-looking building, squat and round, with a mural in memory of Violette Szabo, the British-French spy who died at the hands of the Nazis in Ravensbruck in 1945, aged 23. There's a painting of Roger Moore, looking nothing like himself, round the other side. The theme isn't so much war heroes" as people who lived round here and were good", and the stark contrast in dignity with its neighbouring memorial is in direct inverse proportion to the dignity of the memorialised. Szabo fought fascism of her own volition and, until the final three weeks of her life, was the resistance movement's constant source of buoyancy and hope. By contrast, most of the Williams upon Wilsons upon Smiths upon Crumplers were called up to fight a war that, meh, let's just say if the political-military-industrial complex that started it had been contractually required to go over the top first, they might have found another way to resolve their differences. Continue reading...

Kevin Howell, former town manager for community of 2,870 people, was crossing pond with his son when they fell inA small town in Maine is grieving after one of its top government officials died while lifting his son out of an icy pond into which they both fell.Kevin Howell's colleagues and neighbors have since hailed the late father as a hero whose ultimate sacrifice saved the life of his four-year-old boy, Sawyer. Continue reading...

The Liverpool and Barcelona bosses announced they will walk away from the their clubs at the of the season citing exhaustion