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One aid organisation has said a ground offensive in Rafah would be a bloodbath'. Plus, an FBI informant is charged with lying in Hunter Biden case Don't already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.Western leaders are hoping that a round of meetings at a security conference in Munich will put overwhelming pressure on Israel not to press ahead with a ground offensive in Rafah, which aid organisations have said would have catastrophic consequences. One NGO said it would cause a bloodbath".What terms does Hamas want for a ceasefire? Hamas is no longer holding out for a permanent ceasefire but wants a six-week humanitarian pause leading to a ceasefire.What is Benjamin Netanyahu saying about the ceasefire talks? Negotiations appear to be stalling. The Israeli prime minister said on Friday: Israel will continue to oppose the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state."What has been the human cost of Israel's war on Gaza so far? The offensive has killed more than 28,500 people, displaced more than 85% of Gaza's population and reduced more than half of the territory's infrastructure to rubble. The World Food Programme says one in four people in Gaza are facing extreme hunger. Continue reading...

"I don't know if you can really script it any better," said Iowa's Caitlin Clark after she brok the NCAA women's basketball scoring record after scoring 49 points in her team's 106-89 win over Michigan. Clark, who needed eight points to break the record previously held by Kelsey Plum, reached the threshold with a three-pointer from 35 feet. The 22-year-old only needed two minutes and 12 seconds to break the record before going on to set a single-game points record for Iowa. Clark now has 3,569 points in her career and can break more records with the AIAW major-college record of 3,649 being held by Lynette Woodard.

Have you been paying attention to the big stories in football, rugby league, athletics, the NFL and synchronised swimming? Continue reading...

Willis and Nathan Wade testified on their relationship, with Trump lawyers distracting from core issue: attempt to overthrow democracyFani Willis spent Thursday morning pacing in her office.Nearby, in courtroom 5A in the Fulton county justice center, Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor, was testifying about their romantic relationship as part of a high-stakes hearing over whether or not Willis should be disqualified from handling the wide-ranging election-interference case against Donald Trump and 14 co-defendants. Continue reading...

As someone treated for bowel cancer, I think attitudes must change but also the language. Some of it is tactless, some ridiculousKing Charles has cancer. Coverage of this story in the days since the announcement has been funereal. Daily bulletins are issued. Heads of state send condolences. Pictures portray the monarch ashen-faced. The global media pitch camp outside Buckingham Palace, and wait.Will the cancer taboo never vanish? Half of Britons who have had cancer" do something called survive, and live with it". The current 10-year survival rates of skin, prostate, breast and testicular cancer are now running at 75-98%. Rates for pancreatic, brain and lung cancers remain lower, and mortality is obviously much higher for older people. But like most illnesses, if diagnosed early most cancers are now removable and/or curable. They are no longer as they once were: a death sentence. Continue reading...

Iowa's electrifying basketball savant isn't just re-writing the NCAA record books. She's front and center of a boom time that is lifting the women's game to uncharted commercial heightsCaitlin Clark, the University of Iowa basketball star, became the NCAA women's career scoring leader on Thursday night in classic Caitlin Clark fashion: pulling up from parallel to the logo at center court and launching a three-pointer that went straight through the rim. She did it barely two minutes into the game, and fittingly, her basket made the scoreline Clark 8, Michigan 6.Eventually, Clark's teammates scored a few baskets, too. Because Clark is a completist, she only kept scoring after that. She finished with a career-high 49 points, 46% of Iowa's total, in a 106-89 home victory over Michigan. It was the most points any Iowa player has ever scored in a game, breaking a record Clark set earlier this season. Continue reading...

Before the season we were high on the Bills and Trevor Lawrence. But one of us did get the Super Bowl match-up correct ...As we headed into the 2023 NFL season, Taylor dominated the headlines. Colts running back Jonathan Taylor was holding out for a contract extension, to build his own generational wealth and alter the running back market as we know it. By season's end, the most notable Taylor in the NFL was a global icon showcasing her gaga phase with Travis Kelce during Chiefs games. You never know which road the NFL will take from year-to-year but it's never boring.On-field outcomes have become a little easier to predict in the era of Patrick Mahomes. After three Super Bowls wins in five years, it's now safe to say that anyone betting against Mahomes is a fool. Yet when we glance at our Guardian NFL picks from last September, it turns out some of us writers were a little off, not only in doubting Mahomes's ability to overcome his lack of a supporting cast but on many of our predictions across the board. Then again, one of us got the lineup for the Super Bowl spot on. Let's, squeamishly, take a look (you can read the full predictions here) at how we saw the season playing out. Continue reading...

Tyson Fury is svelte compared to four other men who fought for (and in two instances, won) the world heavyweight titleTyson Fury, whose fight against Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world has now been rescheduled for 18 May, would be an anomaly under most circumstances. His thought processes are - shall we say - different. And in today's world of sculpted elite athletes, his body type runs against the norm.Fury is 6ft 9in tall and has fought at weights as high as 277lbs. The flesh around his waist jiggles when he is in combat. Usyk refers to him as greedy belly". Continue reading...

All life is there. The nourishing community utilising and sharing, and the conniving set with their rivalries and stratagemsThere was a snowstorm in New York this week, triggering the shutdown of schools, the excitement of children and, in my case, a flurry of activity on what has become a small but central drama in my life, Facebook Marketplace. There are better forums for buying and selling, and worthier ways to donate your old stuff. But for sheer theatre, it is hard to beat the personalised exchanges of a platform where you can low-key stalk the woman haggling for a 50% discount on your kid's old snowsuit, to discover she has her apartment on the market for $5m. No deal, madam!It goes without saying that the joy of the Marketplace has little to do with the money it generates. Facebook knows this, as it knows everything about us, starting with how venal we are. The thrill of the game is all, the slight but real satisfaction of offloading a clapped-out old scooter for actual cash money - as long as none of your Facebook friends see you doing it. To this end, there is a hide listing from your friends" button that you are invited to hit when you publish a listing, which ensures that no one whose eyes you've ever looked into knows you are trying to flog a used colander (strand of spaghetti still stuck to the side) for $4.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Brussels is ditching green measures as EU leaders panic over rural protests, upcoming elections and the threat of the far rightUrsula von der Leyen surrendered to angry farmers last week faster than you could shake a pitchfork or dump a tractor-load of manure outside the European parliament. The European Commission president, expected to announce her candidacy for a second term heading the EU executive next week, told lawmakers that the commission was withdrawing a bill to halve the use of chemical pesticides by 2030 and would hold more consultations instead.The proposed measure was a key plank in the commission's European Green Deal and its Farm to Fork strategy, intended to make the EU carbon-neutral by 2050, make agriculture more environmentally friendly and preserve biodiversity. Continue reading...

Azhar Ali's parroting of anti-Israel conspiracy theories is not a warning just for Labour - there's a lesson in it for everyoneWhat kind of idiot falls for a conspiracy theory? Somebody gullible, you might imagine: at best someone vulnerable or mentally unwell, and at worst someone actively malicious. But mostly, to be blunt, not perfectly normal people like you and me. We are too rational, we tell ourselves smugly, to fall for some old guff about lizard people running the world, or Bill Gates wanting to microchip everyone, or the royal family secretly bumping off Diana, Princess of Wales. We go where the evidence takes us, follow the news closely, exercise our own judgment.The bad news for those of us who like to think we're immune, however, is that, according to the kind of research we probably pride ourselves on reading, intelligent people who consider themselves open-minded and curious enough to work things out for themselves can be surprisingly vulnerable to some strains of conspiracist thinking - at least where these tap into existing fears or prejudices. Which brings us to the festering mess of the Rochdale byelection, and its broader implications for British political parties.Gaby Hinsliff 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...

Blast occurred in Wilmington neighborhood as spokesperson says the ball of flame was as high as the telephone poles'A truck's fuel tank exploded on Thursday in a Los Angeles neighborhood, sending a fireball into the air and injuring nine of the 10 firefighters responding to the blaze, including two critically, fire officials said.All nine firefighters were rushed to Harbor-UCLA medical center and were stabilized, and one of the critical patients had to be intubated and airlifted to a burn unit at Los Angeles General medical center, said Dr Molly Deane, a trauma surgeon. Continue reading...

Willis and her special prosecutor Nathan Wade took the stand during a stormy hearing about the pair's romantic relationshipOn the first day of a heated hearing, the Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis and her deputy, special prosecutor Nathan Wade, took the stand, hoping to put an end to the allegations that their past relationship threatens the criminal case against Donald Trump and his allies in their attempts to overturn the 2020 election.A defendant in the Trump case, Mike Roman, is seeking to have Willis and Wade disqualified, alleging their relationship constituted a conflict of interest. His lawyer attempted to prove Willis financially benefitted from her relationship with Wade. Continue reading...

Fulton county DA rejects accusations that relationship with Nathan Wade should lead to disqualification from election case

Hur investigated president's mishandling of classified papers after his vice-presidency and raised questions about his poor memory'House Republicans will hold a public hearing next month with special counsel Robert Hur, who investigated Joe Biden's mishandling of classified documents after his vice-presidency, as the White House counsel reportedly wrote to the attorney general attacking Hur's commentary on the US president's memory as a violation of federal policy.The House judiciary committee, chaired by rightwing Republican Jim Jordan, will hear testimony from Hur on 12 March, two unnamed people familiar with the plans told the Associated Press on Thursday. The White House declined to comment on the plans. Continue reading...

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Lawsuit accuses tech companies of creating addictive and dangerous' products that are fueling mental health crisisNew York City, its schools and public hospital system announced a lawsuit on Wednesday against the tech giants that run Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube, blaming their addictive and dangerous" social media platforms for fueling a childhood mental health crisis that is disrupting learning and draining resources.Children and adolescents are especially susceptible to harm because their brains are not fully developed, the lawsuit said. Continue reading...

The US national security spokesperson, John Kirby, has called on the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to stay out of the upcoming US election after Putin expressed his preference for incumbent Joe Biden over leading Republican nominee Donald Trump. Kirby told reporters at a press conference on Thursday: 'I think Mr Putin knows very well what this administration has been doing to counter Russia's malign influence around the world and certainly what they've been doing inside Ukraine'

From 2014 to 2021, 187 people died by suicide, there were 89 homicides and 56 deaths deemed accidental' inside prisonsInstitutional failures and policy violations by the US Bureau of Prisons (BoP) have contributed to hundreds of preventable deaths of incarcerated people in recent years, according to a federal watchdog report released on Thursday.The US justice department office of the inspector general (OIG) found that from 2014 to 2021, 187 people died by suicide inside BoP institutions, with the prisons' psychology services staff reporting that these types of deaths could be prevented if the facilities followed protocols and delivered proper resources and treatment to people in custody. The report also documented 89 homicides and 56 deaths deemed accidental" during that time period, and said the BoP consistently failed to effectively discipline staff for misconduct that contributed to the deaths. Continue reading...

Trump Media & Technology Group to merge with Digital World after SEC approval, with ex-president to hold 58% company stakeThe US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday cleared the way for blank-check acquisition company Digital World Acquisition Corp's merger with Donald Trump's media and technology company.Digital World said a registration statement for its proposed merger with Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), the operator of social media platform Truth Social, was declared effective by the SEC. Continue reading...

Republican former governor doubles down on claim he lacks burning desire' and Maryland job is not where my skill set lies'Larry Hogan, the Republican candidate for US Senate in Maryland who says he doesn't really want to be a US senator but is running anyway, is tied with or leads his possible Democratic opponents, according to a poll released on Thursday.The former governor of Maryland leads Angela Alsobrooks, a state politician, by seven points in a hypothetical matchup and ties at 42% support with the US congressman David Trone, in a poll by Emerson College, the Hill and DC News Now. Continue reading...

Granted, a $50 investment wasn't going draw in millions of clicks, but I expected more than just a few bots to show interestI run a small business. My company sells customer relationship management (CRM) software to other businesses. I'm always in search of leads and will try just about anything to find new clients that we can help. To that end, I recently wrote a book about CRM and created a landing page on my website where people - clients and prospects - can download it. How to promote my new book? Why not X?I know the X community - and its famous CEO - may not be everyone's cup of tea. But I've been a longtime active user and I'm sure there are many other Xers who would enjoy reading my book. So I decided to conduct an experiment and create a post with a link to my book's landing page and promote it on the social platform. Not a big promotion. Just 50 bucks over five days. A pittance. But, for me, what happened is a cautionary tale. Continue reading...

Baby Jameela, a western lowland gorilla, was delivered by a team of medical experts on 5 January at Fort Worth ZooA Texas zoo delivered a critically endangered baby gorilla via an emergency cesarian section, the first time in the zoo's history.Baby Jameela, a western lowland gorilla, was delivered by a team of medical experts on 5 January at the Fort Worth Zoo, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. Continue reading...

At least one person died in a shooting on Wednesday afternoon at a Super Bowl victory parade for the Kansas City Chiefs. At least 21 people were injured, including 11 children between the ages of six and 15. Police detained three people after the incident. The Kansas City police chief, Stacey Graves, said she was angry and that 'the people who come to this celebration should expect a safe environment'

Ex-president says he interposed' names as a rhetorical device to deride Haley and purposely linked Biden with Barack ObamaDonald Trump claimed high-profile campaign trail gaffes, in which he seemed to think Barack Obama was still president and mistook Nikki Haley for Nancy Pelosi, were deliberate, the result of his being sarcastic" in the first instance and choosing to interpose" names in the second.When I say Barack Hussein Obama is the president of the United States', [I am] meaning there's a lot of control there because the one guy can't put two sentences together," the former president told supporters in North Charleston, South Carolina, on Wednesday. Continue reading...

If you find yourself in this uncomfortable situation, just leave the store. Don't do what I did - slowly pace around pretending to understand

I work in mental health, but nothing could have prepared me for this feeling of mass hopelessness - frozen in place, seeing no way outI'm a doctor and psychiatrist, and before the war in Gaza, my days followed a reliable routine. I would go to work in the clinic, visit my friends and spend time with my family. I lived a normal life. Now, my family and I are refugees in Rafah, after the Israeli army ordered us to leave our home in Khan Younis. We are living in the worst conditions imaginable. We spend our days waiting. We wait in queues for two or three gallons of drinkable water, or for food or plain flour to make bread over a fire, after months without electricity.In the last few days, as we heard that Israel was preparing for a ground invasion in Rafah, we knew that there was nowhere else for us to go. Israel claims it will evacuate civilians, but how can we believe that when there seems to be no plan and we have repeatedly seen what they have done before? All we can do - all 1.4 million of us - is wait for the worst. Life feels like one eternal, never-ending day. It is filled with suffering and scenes of horror that you see so often, they begin to blend together. It is our collective new routine to hear, witness, sit with, and walk beside death. Death felt closer than ever when the Israeli military launched extensive airstrikes overnight on 12 February. Continue reading...

The competition returned with some standout performances as Man City strolled and Lazio upset Bayern MunichThe Champions League returned from its winter slumber, though not in the most spectacular style. Tuesday's matches went much as expected with Real Madrid's 1-0 win at Leipzig, albeit a narrow one, accompanied by Copenhagen being beaten 3-1 by a slick Manchester City. On Wednesday, with Paris Saint-Germain beating Real Sociedad 2-0, Lazio's 1-0 home win over Bayern Munich represented the week's shock.A selection follows of outstanding performers from the last-16 ties this week. Continue reading...

My lunch with a disability access campaigner was an eye-opener. Even booking was a problemThere are many things you can learn from a restaurant's website: what stream the trout they serve swam in, which mountain range supplies the salt, whether there's gluten-free bread. What you may not be able to establish, if you're a wheelchair user, is whether you'll be able to eat there. Courtesy of reader Jamie Hale I now know something about this. Jamie, who is a wheelchair user, advises institutions and theatres on disability access and runs the disabled-led arts organisation Criptic Arts, among other things. He emailed to request I include information in my reviews about disability access.I often get requests to include details on vegan options, meat sourcing, piped music and so on. If I covered them all there would be little space for the actual review. Instead, I mention issues where appropriate. I'm not writing a guide book. If you're concerned, check the restaurant's website for yourself. But disability access is different, Jamie said, because websites rarely display that information. I got the point and suggested we meet for lunch. I would be responsible for booking somewhere that met Jamie's needs. Continue reading...

Chaos erupted at the Super Bowl victory parade. Plus, Israel carries out strikes in southern Lebanon

Site launched by Republican to report indoctrination' a nest of outdated and inaccurate information, educators sayA website launched by Indiana Republicans as a reporting tool for perceived indoctrination of public school students has instead become a nest of outdated and inaccurate information, educators say, driving a wedge between parents and teachers.State attorney general Todd Rokita's Eyes on Education" portal, which he launched earlier this month independent of Indiana's education department, also exceeds his remit, and exists purely for his own political gain, they say. Continue reading...

How would I like to be remembered? With a playground, a bandstand and a little lakeOn Sunday evening in Abidjan, the president of Cote d'Ivoire, Alassane Ouattara, was at the, er, Alassane Ouattara stadium, to watch his country win the Africa Cup of Nations. Well done, them. As for him, well, might I suggest it's not a good look to have something named after your good self while you're still alive? If you've insisted upon it, then that's undeniably bad, but even if you've merely allowed it to happen, I'm afraid that's no good either.It wouldn't be quite so bad if it was named after a living legend of Ivorian football, say Didier Drogba or Yaya Toure. Perhaps the two of them could have shared it. But if a politician's got anything about them, this must be the hill they die on: thou shalt not name anything after me until after I'm dead and gone and only then if you think I really deserve it.Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist Continue reading...

A well-placed profanity is the perfect riposte to dated ideas of female delicacy. So hats off to sweary Olivia ColmanThe first time I attempted to use a naughty word at school, aged seven, has become family folklore. I was aching to try out a grownup term that I'd heard an older girl utter in the playground, so when my friend was standing at the classroom sink, washing her poster paint-covered brushes, I took my chance.Hey, move your bom," I loudly declared, my cheeks turning bright red as I realised the whole thing had come out wrong. I scuttled away as fast as I could, shocked by the power a single word could hold - and how shaming it could feel if not deployed just right.Claire Cohen is a journalist and the author of BFF? The Truth About Female FriendshipDo 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...

Jessica Gaertner, who filed a rape charge against a referee through Hockey Canada, is one of many calling for reform in how abuse is managed by sports organizationsOn 30 December 2022, a match official took to the ice for a hockey match in the British Columbia Hockey League. The match was overseen by BC Hockey, the provincial governing body for the sport. It wasn't the only hockey game this particular official was on the ice for that week. There was another on 3 January 2023, and again on 6 January. On 7 January he took charge of a high school game in the local area.Business as usual. What was unusual was that the official was under investigation by Hockey Canada's investigatory independent third party" (ITP) following a rape allegation and was under an interim suspension that should have prevented him from being anywhere near the ice. Continue reading...

Angry farmers, worried tourism workers and unprepared politicians - Catalonia is on the frontline of a drought-stricken futureWalking through Barcelona these days, you can't miss the signs and billboards picturing a red plastic bucket and the message Water doesn't fall from the sky" (l'aigua no cau del cel in Catalan). The ads are part of a campaign to get people to save water. Since the beginning of February, Barcelona and 200 other towns in Catalonia have been in an official drought emergency. That means more than 6 million people in the region live with restrictions. Daily water usage per inhabitant is limited. Parks are unwatered, fountains are dry and showers at swimming pools and beaches are closed. Farmers can't irrigate most of their crops and must halve their water usage for livestock or face fines.It's not just Catalonia. The European Drought Observatory's map of current droughts in Europe shows the entire Spanish Mediterranean coast in bad shape, with red areas indicating an alert similar to those in north Africa and Sicily. Catalonia may be going through the worst drought on record for the area, but the southern region of Andalucia has faced continuous drought since 2016. Last year, Spain's droughts ranked among the 10 most costly climate disasters in the world, according to a report by Christian Aid.Maria Ramirez is a journalist and deputy managing editor of elDiario.es, a news outlet in Spain Continue reading...

At least one person was killed and 21 injured, including multiple children, in a shooting at the Chiefs' Super Bowl victory parade

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Three suspects have been arrested in connection to the shooting as the Super Bowl victory celebrations were wrapping up

Fans said they were almost trampled as they tried to escape the carnage at the Super Bowl parade, while others reportedly helped tackle a suspected shooter

Mayor Quinton Lucas, who attended the parade, said it seems like almost nothing is safe' as NFL said it was deeply saddened'

Dolezal, a white woman who identified as Black for years and later changed her name to Nkechi Diallo, fired in ArizonaThe Arizona-based educator formerly known as Rachel Dolezal has been ousted from her position in a local school district due to content posted on her OnlyFans account.Dolezal, who legally changed her name to Nkechi Diallo in 2016, had been teaching at an elementary school in Arizona since August 2023, according to a report from News4 Tucson. Continue reading...

At least one person died in a shooting on Wednesday afternoon at a Super Bowl victory parade for the Kansas City Chiefs. Three people have been detained by police following the incident. Speaking after the shooting, Kansas City police chief Stacey Graves said she was 'angry ... the people who come to this celebration should expect a safe environment'

Jack Smith says the nation has a compelling interest in seeing the charges brought to trial' as ex-president presses immunity claimThe special counsel prosecuting Donald Trump on federal charges involving the former president's efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss has urged the US supreme court to reject Trump's bid to further delay trial proceedings as he presses his claim of immunity.Jack Smith's filing to the justices responded to a request by Trump's lawyers on Monday to put on hold a decision by a three-judge panel of the US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit rejecting the claim of presidential immunity from prosecution. Continue reading...

President grants deferral to about 6,000 Palestinians for next 18 months, citing worsening humanitarian conditions in GazaJoe Biden has signed an order shielding several thousand Palestinians in the United States who need protection from deportation for the next 18 months, the White House said on Wednesday, citing deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Gaza.The move grants deferred enforced departure" to an estimated 6,000 Palestinians, a Biden administration official said.Reuters contributed reporting Continue reading...

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