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Final poll shows Donald Trump on target for record win over rivals Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and Vivek RamaswamyEven though snow blanketed Iowa's roads and temperatures fell into the single digits Saturday afternoon, Dennis and Monica Hinkle made the 20-minute drive from their home in Tiffin outside Iowa City to see Nikki Haley speak at a packed downtown theater.Iowa officials advised staying off the road, but driving in was no big deal. It's Iowa," Dennis Hinkle said, a testament to the conviction that many voters in the state have as they continue the tradition of being the first in the country to hold a primary election. Continue reading...

Republican contest to take place on what is expected to be coldest of any caucus day in historyDonald Trump, the former US president, has admitted to a worry" about severe winter weather hurting his support in Monday's Iowa caucuses, the first contest to decide a Republican nominee for the White House.Trump remains the overwhelming favourite. On Saturday he held a near 30-point lead over Nikki Haley in an NBC News/ Des Moines Register/ Mediacom Iowa poll, seen as the gold standard, with Ron DeSantis trailing in third and Vivek Ramaswamy in fourth. Continue reading...

US media reports congressional leaders have agreed on a continuing resolution', which extends deadlinesUS congressional leaders have agreed on a two-tranche stopgap spending bill to keep the federal government funded into March and avert a partial government shutdown starting late next week, US media reported on Saturday.Politico, CNN and Punchbowl reported that congressional leaders have agreed on what is called a continuing resolution" or CR", that would fund the government - extending two deadlines through 1 March and 8 March. The media outlets reported that House of Representatives Republicans will unveil the plan Sunday night. Continue reading...

From New Mexico to Portland, Maine, temperatures dropped and snow fell, closing campaigns, football games and roadsIcy winter weather blanketed the US on Saturday as a wave of Arctic storms threatened to break low-temperature records in the heartland, spread cold and snow from coast to coast and cast a chill over everything from football playoffs to presidential campaigns.As the three-day Martin Luther King Jr Day holiday weekend began, the weather forecast was a quilt of color-coded advisories, from an ice storm warning in Oregon to a blizzard warning in the northern plains to high wind warnings in New Mexico. Continue reading...

Kerry's office announced the news on Saturday after he had informed his staff and spoken with Biden earlier in the weekJohn Kerry, the United States' special climate envoy and former secretary of state and presidential contender, plans to leave the Biden administration later this winter and switch to helping Joe Biden campaign to be re-elected to the White House, Kerry's office said.Kerry informed his staff earlier on Saturday after speaking with Biden this week, a spokesperson for Kerry told Reuters. Continue reading...

When I had a baby I planned for my new offline, mother-self to merge with my old selves: writer and reader. How far off reality wasIn late 2021, two apparently unconnected but nonetheless major - to me - events occurred.One, a now infamous New Yorker profile of the actor Jeremy Strong was published. Two, I gave birth. Continue reading...

After second night of US-UK strikes in Yemen against Iran-backed Houthis, fears of wider regional conflict growJoe Biden said on Saturday that the United States has sent a private message to Tehran that we're confident we're well-prepared", following a second night of US and British strikes against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.Speaking to reporters on the White House lawn on Saturday morning, on his way from Washington to Camp David in Maryland, the US president declined to go into further detail and switched to answering questions about the Taiwan election. Continue reading...

In the Hague trial, both sides have largely avoided evidence contradicting their case. Yet South Africa's arguments are strongWatching lawyers for South Africa and Israel debate whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza was like observing two versions of reality that barely intersect.Each set of counsel, appearing before the international court of justice at The Hague, largely avoided the most powerful evidence contradicting their case, and the absence of a factual hearing or any questioning left it unclear how the judges will resolve the dispute. Yet I would wager that South Africa's case was strong enough that the court will impose some provisional measures on Israel in the hope of mitigating the enormous civilian harm caused by Israel's approach to fighting Hamas.Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch (1993-2022), is a visiting professor at Princeton's School for Public and International Affairs Continue reading...

At a forest facility in Oregon, the first US state to allow supervised use of the drug, students work toward becoming licensed trip facilitatorsInside a spacious and light-filled retreat in the forest outside Portland, 30 students sat gazing into each other's eyes.A heavy silence filled the room, save for the occasional creaking chair. A soft voice urged the group to envision the pain and joy their fellow students had experienced during their lives, to view them as a friend, a child, a teacher. Some broke into grins, others teared up. Continue reading...

Attempt by far right, led by ex-president and Elise Stefanik, to whitewash political violence troubles onlookers in election yearSupporters of Donald Trump have long been forced to suspend their belief in reality: expected to believe, against all evidence to the contrary, that the one-term president won the 2020 election, hasn't committed any crimes and is a successful businessman.But as another tight presidential election looms, the recent efforts by Donald Trump to reimagine the people imprisoned for their role in the January 6 insurrection as hostages", and to downplay the horrors of that day as a peaceful protest, could have serious ramifications for democracy and his own party, onlookers have warned. Continue reading...

Candidates were forced to cancel campaign events as snow closed rural highways and temperatures are expected to plummetWild and dangerous winter storm weather continued to wreak havoc on Saturday in Iowa just two days before the Republican caucuses kick off the official nominating process for the 2024 presidential election.The National Weather Service (NWS) in the state capital of Des Moines said on Saturday morning that more snow was expected, in combination with lingering gusty winds causing blowing snow and whiteout conditions at times" and warned that travel is expected to remain treacherous, so consider altering plans". Continue reading...

Fire and ash from burning cane fields has worsened health near Lake Okeechobee, US's largest sugar-growing regionPastor Steve Messam was driving to a service on Christmas morning when he looked to the sky and watched the first flakes starting to fall. Lighter at first, then thicker and more frequent, not quite a blizzard, but enough to leave a coating on the porch and parking lot of his First Church of God in South Bay, Florida.This was, however, no picturesque winter holiday scene - just a regular day during harvesting season in the nation's largest sugar-growing region. The black snow", as locals call it, is ash from burning sugarcane fields. Studies have blamed the smoke generated by the fires, sometimes dozens a day, for respiratory problems and increased mortality among the poor, mostly immigrant population of the rural area south of Lake Okeechobee known as the Glades. Continue reading...

Haskell is accused of murdering and dismembering his wife and parents-in-law in Los Angeles suburbsThe 35-year-old son of a well-known Hollywood entertainment executive pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder on Friday following allegations that he killed and dismembered his wife and parents-in-law in the home they all shared in the Los Angeles suburbs, and then attempted to dispose of their remains in ordinary black garbage bags.Sam Haskell IV, whose father, Sam Haskell III, was worldwide head of television for William Morris and represented clients including Dolly Parton, George Clooney, and Prince Edward before his retirement 20 years ago, appeared handcuffed and shirtless in court because of official concerns that he might be a suicide risk. Continue reading...

Activists fight to stop further development on historic Maryland burial site beneath an apartment complexFor 63-year-old Nanette Hunter, the fight over the Moses Macedonia African cemetery in Bethesda, Maryland, is a personal one.Hunter is a direct descendant of people interred in the Maryland cemetery, a burial site used for formerly enslaved people. The site itself is buried by an apartment complex and parking lot and is embroiled in a legal battle that could have national implications. Continue reading...

With China and Russia as its allies, the authoritarian regime is assembling a Middle Eastern coalition as Washington's influence wanesThe first of what may be many US-led air strikes on Iranian-backed Houthi Shia militants in Yemen marks another dismaying milestone on a long trail of western policy failures in the Middle East - the most pivotal and consequential of which remains the decades-old failure to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict.The fact the US, backed by Britain, was obliged to use force in response to trade-strangling Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping reflects an unpalatable reality: Washington's political leverage is waning, its diplomacy ineffectual, its authority scorned. Undaunted, the Houthis vowed attacks would continue.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

Critics condemn cruelty' of state opting out of federal problem to feed children from low-income families during summer breakMississippi is withdrawing from a federal program to feed children during their summer break from school, the governor there announced, characterizing the decision as a way to reject attempts to expand the welfare state".Governor Tate Reeves, a Republican, declined to participate in the federal program that would give electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards to low-income families to supplement food costs when academic classes are out of session, Mississippi Today reported. Continue reading...

The state has outsized influence due to its first-in-the-nation caucuses, but its position in the presidential nominating process has criticsIowans are set to brave subzero temperatures on Monday when they arrive at their caucus sites at 7pm to formally kick off the process to choose their nominee.In terms of pure numbers, the Iowa caucuses won't have much of a role in determining who the Republican nominee is. The state allocates 40 delegates in the Republican nominating contest, roughly just 1.6% of the more than 2,400 that are up for grabs. But that small total belies the outsized influence the state can have on US presidential politics. Continue reading...

As the international court considers claims of genocide, the question of intent seems moot. Just read the words of Netanyahu and his alliesIt always starts with words. Genocide is largely remembered for its depraved acts, but it is incubated in language. Words can cast dark spells on a population, stirring hatred in those who otherwise see themselves as moderate, humane, normal.This is why the genocide convention of 1948 criminalises direct and public incitement to commit genocide". Like Britain, Israel was a signatory nation and, two years later, it translated the convention into domestic law. There were four acts, it decreed, that leave the offender treated like a person guilty of genocide": one is incitement to commit genocide".Owen Jones is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Grammy nominee, born Jason DeFord, who experieneed addiction before music career, says fentanyl killing the people we love'Saying he was once part of the problem" but now wants to be a part of the solution", the country singer Jelly Roll - who overcame drug addiction and imprisonment to achieve stardom - appeared before US lawmakers and urged them to pass an anti-fentanyl law.I've attended more funerals than I care to share with y'all," the musician who was born Jason DeFord recently told the Senate banking, housing and urban affairs committee. I could sit here and cry for days about the caskets I've carried of people I love dearly, deeply in my soul. Good people, not just drug addicts. Uncles, friends, cousins, normal people." Continue reading...

Technology is no match for the human will, with all its potential for beauty, creativity and the possibility of making mistakes

He's the leftwing outsider who nearly became the Democrats' candidate for president - twice. As his position on the Israel-Gaza war threatens to upset his support, the veteran senator says he's tired but determined to fight the return of that bitter, humiliated man'Bernie Sanders sweeps into his state office in Burlington, Vermont, itching to get on with our interview. When I try to break the ice by asking the US senator how he is, he replies gruffly, Good," and motions with his outstretched hand for our conversation to begin.It's a Saturday, and Sanders is dressed in his casual weekend uniform of cream chinos, blue shirt and sweater, no tie. I'd been hoping the day would be so cold and crisp in Burlington, the idyllic college town which has been his home since 1968, that he'd be wearing the mittens captured in a cult photo of Sanders huddled against biting winds at Joe Biden's 2021 inauguration. The ones that launched a quadrillion memes and sent the US senator hurtling into the cyber stratosphere. I couldn't believe it, all I was doing was trying to keep warm!" he says, before breaking the bad news. Not only is he not wearing the mittens, I don't even know where they are." Continue reading...

At least 24 reports of adverse events related to products recalled in December but no illnesses confirmed linked to foods, FDA saysThe Quaker Oats Company has added two dozen additional types of granola bars, cereals and snack foods to a December recall over possible salmonella contamination.The company, which is owned by PepsiCo, announced the additional recall in the US and Canada on Thursday. Continue reading...

Letter accuses ex-president of intending to sow chaos' next week, while Trump ordered to pay New York Times nearly $400,000Donald Trump's legal woes continued to mount as a lawyer in an upcoming defamation case asked a judge to ensure the former president does not disrupt imminent legal proceedings - and, in a separate issue, he was ordered to pay nearly $400,000 in legal fees to the New York Times.In the first of those two cases, a lawyer for E Jean Carroll - a columnist who last year won a $5m jury award against Trump for sexual abuse - urged a judge to take strong measures to ensure Trump does not sow chaos" when a new jury considers next week if he owes even more in damages. Continue reading...

President's son switches gears and says he will speak to Congress members seeking to impeach his fatherHunter Biden offered on Friday to comply with any new subpoena and testify in private before House Republicans seeking to impeach his father over alleged but unproven corruption, an attorney for Joe Biden's son said.If you issue a new proper subpoena, now that there is a duly authorised impeachment inquiry, Mr Biden will comply for a hearing or deposition," Abbe Lowell wrote to James Comer and Jim Jordan, the Republican chairs of the oversight and judiciary committees. Continue reading...

Court agrees to consider challenge by coffee chain to judicial decision requiring it to rehire seven union activists in TennesseeThe US supreme court agreed to consider a challenge by Starbucks to a judicial decision requiring the world's largest coffee chain to rehire seven union activists in Memphis, Tennessee. A federal agency determined the workers were fired for supporting unionization.A lower court found that Starbucks - grappling with a wave of unionization across the United States - probably discouraged other employees from exercising their rights under US labor law by dismissing the workers, dubbed the Memphis Seven", in 2022. Continue reading...

Andrew Lyons and another sheriff's deputy shot at Twyman 34 times while he was inside his car in south Los AngelesA former Los Angeles sheriff's deputy who fatally shot an unarmed 24-year-old man in his car in 2019 was sentenced to 30 days in jail on Friday.Andrew Lyons, one of two deputies who fired a barrage of bullets at Ryan Twyman in a parking lot in south Los Angeles, pleaded no contest to assault with a firearm and assault under color of authority, said the district attorney, George Gascon. Continue reading...

Patrons at Zombie Burger in Des Moines can choose from the Meatball Ron, Mom-Aswamy Spaghetti and the Day One Dic-TaterA restaurant in Des Moines is gearing up for next week's Iowa Republican caucuses one burger at a time.On Friday, Zombie Burger unveiled its 2024 Iowa caucus specials that feature six items largely inspired by Republican presidential candidates including Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump. Continue reading...

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Louis Wright freed in November after DNA ruled him out as perpetrator of child sexual assault in Michigan in 1988The state of Michigan has agreed to pay $1.75m to an innocent man who spent 35 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of sexual assault.Louis Wright was released in November after authorities said DNA tests ruled him out as the perpetrator in an attack on an 11-year-old girl in Albion, a small town in south-western Michigan, in 1988. Continue reading...

The Israeli PM's alliance with the far right made this case possible, and the result could be harmful to Jews all over the worldThere was so much history and so much tragedy in that room. For two days, ending today, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague witnessed a clash between two nations, each shaped by acts that live on in the global lexicon of good and evil.In one corner, South Africa, which only a generation ago emerged from apartheid, still the universal shorthand for the wickedness of racism. In the other, Israel, established just three years after the Nazi murder of 6 million Jews and the attempt to eradicate the Jewish people from the face of the Earth. In a global courtroom, those who bore the scars of those two great crimes - apartheid and the Holocaust - squared up against each other, as one accused the other of the gravest crime of all: genocide.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnistJoin Jonathan Freedland at 8pm GMT on Tuesday 16 January for a Guardian Live online event. He will be talking to Julian Borger, whose new memoir, I Seek a Kind Person, reveals the story of his father's escape from the Nazis via an ad placed in the Guardian. Tickets available here Continue reading...

The attacks on ships in the Red Sea are only one manifestation of a regional conflict which won't easily be endedThe reality is that the war in Gaza has already spread through the region. The question is how far it extends and how intense it grows. Those involved are calculating and calibrating; they have in mind small blazes, rather than a regional conflagration. But their confidence that they can take containable risks may prove misplaced. Crises are feeding into each other, and the likelihood of missteps is rising.Thursday night's US and UK strikes on Houthi positions in Yemen were taken after diplomacy and threats failed to halt sustained attacks on commercialvessels in the Red Sea and the naval taskforce protecting them. They were not token measures - the US says it launched 60 strikes at 16locations, the UK that it hit two - but were intendedto re-establish deterrence and degrade military capability rather than destroy the Houthithreat. The US blames Iran - which supplies and enables but does not control the Houthis - for assistingthe Red Sea attacks. But neither Washington nor Tehran wants direct conflict. For Iran, it's better to allow the rest of the axis of resistance" to advance its position at minimal cost. Continue reading...

Man who was 19 when he carried out racist attack on Black customers at Tops supermarket in 2022 faces hate crimes chargesFederal prosecutors will seek the death penalty for the white supremacist who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket in May 2022.The US Department of Justice has opted to ask for capital punishment for Payton Gendron, 20, for federal hate crimes, according to a new court filing. He was 19 when he carried out a racist, murderous attack on shoppers in a majority Black area, devastating the upstate New York community. Continue reading...

Critics on left and right furious that president failed to seek congressional approval for strikes against Houthi militantsA bipartisan chorus of lawmakers assailed Joe Biden for failing to seek congressional approval before authorizing military strikes against targets in Yemen controlled by Iranian-backed Houthi militants, reigniting a long-simmering debate over who has the power to declare war in America.The US president announced on Thursday night that the US and the UK, with support from Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and Bahrain, had launched a series of air and naval strikes on more than a dozen sites in Yemen. The retaliatory action was in response to relentless Houthi attacks against commercial shipping in the Red Sea since the start of Israel's war in Gaza. Continue reading...

JPMorgan Chase posts record annual profit as earnings season gets under wayCitigroup will cut 20,000 jobs by the end of 2026 after enduring a steep loss in the last quarter as it presses ahead with a sweeping restructuring.While chief executive, Jane Fraser, hailed 2024 as a turning point" for the American banking group, Mark Mason, its chief financial officer, acknowledged that job cuts are tough on morale" as he outlined the planned reductions. Continue reading...

Ecuador's president, Daniel Noboa, has said his country is at war' with drug gangs. Armed men stormed a TV station live on air, while prison guards were being held hostage and police officers killed, in a new wave of violence. The surge of violence promoted the president to issue a decree, designating nearly two dozen gangs as terrorist groups, authorising the military to neutralise' crime factions. Noboa, who was elected in October, promised to crack down on violent crime and vowed to build new maximum security prisons. This has led to retaliations from drug gangs who have made Ecuador a transit state for cocaine from neighbouring countries. Thousands are fleeing the country as a result

Agency head says the FAA will significantly increase oversight of Boeing after last week's cabin blowout incidentThe US's top air transportation regular, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), will significantly increase oversight of Boeing, the agency said on Friday, with the head of the FAA saying they believe there are other manufacturing problems" at the company.The FAA will conduct a new audit of the Boeing 737 9 Max production line and its suppliers, the agency said in a statement, after a panel broke off an aircraft while in mid-flight, prompting a dramatic emergency landing on Friday. Continue reading...

Global Infrastructure Partners, whose portfolio includes Gatwick, sold to BlackRock in $12.5bn dealFrom the humble luggage tray to filters that mask smells at sewage plants, the sale of some of Britain's most pedestrian assets to the world's largest money manager is to bring a multimillion-dollar payday to a small clutch of little-known bankers.Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), which boasts a $100bn (79bn) collection of companies including Gatwick airport and the Suez wastewater group, has been sold to the US investment firm BlackRock in a $12.5bn deal. Continue reading...

Lawsuit claims coffee chain procured materials from farms and cooperatives that have committed violations against workersStarbucks, the coffee chain that has long portrayed itself as an ethical business and fair employer, is being sued by a US consumer group that claims its image is a deception that hides multiple instances of labor and human rights violations in the making of its products.While the coffee giant has committed to 100% ethical" sourcing, the lawsuit claims it has instead misled the public by procuring materials from farms and cooperatives that have committed various violations against workers. Continue reading...

Special counsel Jack Smith and another judge have also been victims of swatting as they oversee other cases against TrumpThe bomb threat against the judge presiding over Donald Trump's New York trial for financial fraud that caused a frenzy on the day of closing arguments turned out to be yet another high-profile swatting" incident, police said.Police responded to the swatting - which involves calling in a fake threat to prompt a heavy police response - at the home of the judge, Arthur Engoron, in Nassau county, near New York City, ahead of a dramatic day in court on Thursday. Continue reading...

James Heappey has said that overnight airstrikes on targets belonging to Houthi rebels were in self-defence. The strikes are designed to deter and prevent the Houthis from launching more attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea, which began in October in support of Hamas against Israel after the war in Gaza broke out in October. The strikes in Yemen killed at least five people and wounded six others, a Houthi military spokesperson said on Friday

South Africa has shed light on the desperate plight of Gaza with its case in The Hague. The stakes couldn't be higherThe powerful case brought by South Africa against Israel at the international court of justice under the genocide convention is a wake-up call for many western governments and media outlets that uncritically supported Israel's savage war. They should now reflect on the fact that they may have supported a genocide. South Africa's case marked the first time since 7 October 2023 that the story of Gaza and the Palestinians has been so powerfully told through official channels, piercing through propaganda and obfuscation. It is hard not to be overwhelmed.What has been remarkable about the last three months is the chilling disregard shown towards Palestinian civilian lives. Too many lazy talking points were used to enable so many in Europe and North America to look away, or worse, to justify complicity in what South Africa argues is a genocide, through their support for Israel both diplomatically and with arms supplies. Continue reading...

It shouldn't be controversial to expect equal treatment in education, employment and healthcare - whatever the size of your bodyI've been fat my whole life and in the early 2000s, I discovered fat activism. It opened my eyes to just how badly fat people are mistreated and subjected to widespread discrimination: in education, employment, and healthcare, just for starters. But many people of my liberal and progressive ilk simply haven't caught on: the kindness we preach doesn't seem to extend to people who live in larger bodies.It's not just my impression: hard data backs up how entrenched fatphobia remains in society. When it comes to race, skin tone, disability, age and sexuality, both conscious and unconscious bias against marginalised characteristics appears to be on the wane, according to research undertaken at the Harvard department of psychology. There is one notable exception: body size, which was the only form of unconscious bias that is actually increasing. And conscious bias towards larger people was found to be decreasing the most slowly of any of the categories investigated.Kate Manne is an associate professor at the Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell University. Her books include Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women and UnshrinkingDo 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...

Instead of retaliating against the Houthi militia, the US and its allies should be pressing Israel to end its invasion of Gaza and accept a ceasefireEarly on Friday, the US and Britain launched military strikes against more than a dozen targets in Yemen controlled by the Houthi militia. The strikes were in response to more than 25 attacks by the Houthis on shipping in the Red Sea since November - a campaign instigated by the militia after Israel's invasion of Gaza.Western leaders, and especially the US president, Joe Biden, insist that they want to reduce the risk of the war in Gaza spreading to other parts of the Middle East. But the US-led air and naval strikes on Yemen are the most significant expansion of the conflict since Israel launched its devastating assault on Gaza after the 7 October attacks by Hamas. Instead of avoiding a wider war, the US and its allies are escalating regional tensions and adding fuel to a conflict that has already spilled over to Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and the Red Sea. The conflagration could spiral out of control, perhaps more by accident than design. Continue reading...