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Biden urges Congress to pass bill which includes measures to temporarily close border if over 5,000 undocumented people cross a dayUS senators on Sunday evening released the details of a highly anticipated $118bn package that pairs federal enforcement policy on the US-Mexico border with wartime aid for Ukraine, Israel and others, launching a long-shot effort to push the bill past sceptical, hard right House Republicans - whom Democrats accuse of politicizing immigration while being in thrall to Donald Trump.The proposal is the best chance for Joe Biden to bolster dwindling US wartime aid for Ukraine - a major foreign policy goal that is shared by both the Senate's top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, and top Republican, Mitch McConnell. The Senate was expected this week to hold a key test vote on the legislation, but it faces a wall of opposition from conservatives. Continue reading...

Mayor Abdullah Hammoud increases law enforcement near places of worship after piece calls Michigan city the jihad capital' of USThe mayor of Dearborn has ordered more police officers onto the streets, ramping up law enforcement presence across places of worship and major infrastructure points this weekend following an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal that called the Michigan city the jihad capital" of the US.And on Sunday Joe Biden weighed in, denouncing anti-Arab hate and, without referring specifically to the newspaper, saying it shouldn't happen to the residents of Dearborn - or any American town." Continue reading...

Republican candidate attacks Trump for being more concerned with himself than with country ahead of South Carolina primaryNikki Haley pressed her case on Sunday to become the Republican presidential nominee by launching a sharp attack on her rival Donald Trump as a candidate who is set to spend more time in court than on the campaign trail this year and is intent on ranting about his own supposed victimhood rather than fighting for the American people.With less than three weeks to go before the Republican primary in her home state of South Carolina, which many observers see as the former governor and UN ambassador's last stand, Haley attacked Trump for being more concerned with himself than with the future of the country. She told CNN's State of the Union Sunday morning TV show that his multiple court cases, in which he faces 91 charges across four criminal cases, amounted to a real issue". Continue reading...

As Florida's governor returns after his failed presidential bid, some wonder if he's thinking about 2028 - or about his legacyTwo weeks have passed since Ron DeSantis crashed out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination, but many in Florida are questioning if the rightwing governor is still auditioning.On his return to Tallahassee following his national humiliation there was no period of quiet contemplation, or pause to refocus on his day job. Instead, DeSantis got straight down to business, little of it having immediate consequence to Florida or its voters. Continue reading...

Hundreds of migrants die during southern border crossings each year. Volunteers are hiking for miles to support themAt the southernmost edge of California, just a mile or two from the sprawling US-Mexico border wall, the terrain is perpetually hostile.Sheer desert mountains give way to narrow canyons of rock and sand. With few trails or paths in some areas, each step means navigating loose boulders and thorny vegetation; rattlesnakes and tarantulas can lurk just out of sight. In the summer months, temperatures can exceed 120F (49C), some of the hottest on Earth. This time of year, temperatures can plunge below freezing, with searing winds and the occasional snowfall. Continue reading...

It's easy to get lost in the idea that the traditional housewife role is a soothing existence of baking bread and Agas. The reality is so much darkerI've been dipping pruriently into a kerfuffle that kicked off in the ruddy-cheeked and sourdough-scented world of the tradwife lifestyle influencer recently. Its brightest star, Hannah Neeleman of Ballerina Farm, has just prepared for and then competed in a beauty pageant, two weeks after giving birth to her eighth child.Even some fans of this corner of social media - where stay-at-home mothers document their lives as helpmeets to strong, outdoorsy gents, exalting labour-intensive domestic chores, child-rearing and churning your own butter - have found this a touch, well, much. At odds with Neeleman's shots of folksy simplicity; a harmful and unrealistic example for other new mothers, that kind of thing. But most think it's so inspiring!"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...

Bones had been used to provide disproven scientific justification for white supremacy before being housed in the Penn MuseumThe remains of 19 Black Philadelphians have finally been laid to rest, almost 200 years after they were stolen and corralled into the Morton Cranial Collection, the world's largest 19th-century assemblage of human skulls. The individuals' bones had been used to provide pseudo-scientific justification for white supremacy in the lead-up to the American civil war.The Penn Museum, the branch of the University of Pennsylvania which has housed the remains since 1966, staged an interfaith service on Saturday to commemorate their restitution to hallowed ground. Continue reading...

Immigration is key issue in special election as Tom Suozzi takes on Mazi Pilip in New York race that could be bellwether for NovemberGeorge Santos, an overcoat draped around his shoulders like a villain's cape, finally left Washington in December, expelled from Congress as he faced more than 20 fraud charges, and after his almost entirely fabricated backstory fell apart.To hell with this place," Santos declared as he exited. Continue reading...

Nikki Haley is competing in the just the primary, but only the caucuses award delegates for the Republican presidential nominationWhen Nevada Republicans started receiving their mail-in ballots for the state's 6 February primary, Nikki Haley's name was on them, but a key person was missing: Donald Trump. It's not an accident.Instead of appearing on the primary ballot in the key swing state, Trump is participating in the separate Republican caucuses to take place two days after the primary, on 8 February. Haley isn't participating in those caucuses. The bizarre set-up means that Nevada Republicans will be asked to vote in a primary on 6 February and then in caucuses two days later to choose their party's nominee. Only the caucuses will determine how Nevada's 26 delegates are awarded at the Republican national convention. Continue reading...

As big tech celebrates AI, it's time to demand accountability for the harms tech has caused before they wreak further havocWhen Facebook first launched as a college-based social network 20 years ago this week, there was little indication that it would become what it is today. The company, now rebranded as Meta, controls the critical infrastructure of our information and communications systems and access to the public sphere, and is central to the digital economy.Who would have predicted that a company that started as a way to connect college students would be blamed for deteriorating mental health, genocidal violence and the rise of anti-democratic populism around the world?Courtney C Radsch is the director of the center for journalism and liberty at Open Markets Institute and the author of Cyberactivism and Citizen Journalism in Egypt: Digital Dissidence and Political Change Continue reading...

Danny Chauvin, 76, the honey-do dude' of Mississippi, fixes doors and unclogs drains to protect his mental health after his wife diedA retired US military veteran is coping with grief from his wife's death and post-traumatic stress from fighting in the Vietnam war by providing daily handyman services to people in his community - for free.Danny Chauvin is the so-called honey-do dude" of Waveland, Mississippi, according to a CBS Evening News profile of him published Friday. He told the news program that one of his favorite parts of his marriage to his wife had been the small, mostly repair and building tasks she would ask him to complete around the house, which Americans colloquially refer to as honey-do" jobs. Continue reading...

President derided Trump after easily winning first primary contest for Democratic presidential nominationPresident Joe Biden won his first official primary election in a season that has become increasingly predictable with each contest.Biden and the Democratic National Committee had successfully lobbied to thwart tradition and designate South Carolina the first contest for the party's presidential nomination instead of Iowa and New Hampshire. On Saturday, Biden handily won more than 95% of the vote in the state that had launched his campaign in 2020. Long-shot candidates Dean Phillips, a congressman from Minnesota, and Marianne Williamson, a self-help author, trailed far behind. Continue reading...

In alienating vital allies over Gaza, Netanyahu is delighting those hoping for his country's collapseIt is widely predicted that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's fractious, rightwing ruling coalition will not survive acceptance of an extended Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal with Hamas, as tentatively proposed by Arab mediators last week.Far-right politicians such as the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, are vowing to collapse the government rather than condone what they claim would be a victory for terrorism after the 7 October atrocities. Opponents fervently hope they carry out their threat. Continue reading...

The president's decisive victory in the first Democratic primary belies a difficult campaign ahead with various strikes against himSurprise! Joe Biden won the Democratic presidential primary in South Carolina with a high-90s percentage that would make even Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong-un blush.But despite the low energy and low turnout, there was a wider narrative on Saturday about representation, the changing face of the US and a rebuke to the white identity politics of Donald Trump. Continue reading...

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The president easily swept past his opponents Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson to gain the state's nod for the nominationPresident Joe Biden has again won the South Carolina presidential primary, his first formal primary win of the election season.Amid low voter turnout, the Associated Press projected that Biden also won all 55 of the state's Democratic delegates. Another seven delegates are pledged by party leaders and elected officials, such as South Carolina's lone Democratic congressman, Jim Clyburn. Neither Dean Phillips, the congressman from Minnesota, nor author Marianne Williamson received at least 15% of the statewide vote or 15% of the vote in any congressional district, the threshold necessary to win delegates. Continue reading...

Joint operation to further disable militias follows attacks on US and international interests amid war in GazaThe United States and Britain struck at least 30 Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday in another wave of assaults meant to further disable Iran-backed groups that have attacked US and international interests in response to the Israel-Hamas war.Ships and fighter jets on Saturday launched strikes against the Houthis. It followed an air assault in Iraq and Syria on Friday targeting other Iran-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in retaliation for the drone strike that killed three US troops - William Jerome Rivers, Kennedy Ladon Sanders and Breonna Alexsondria Moffett - in Jordan last weekend. Continue reading...

Follow live as the state's Democratic voters choose their preferred candidate for the US electionsThe South Carolina Democratic primary took place on 3 February, and was chosen by the Democratic National Committee as the first election contest in the 2024 election year. Joe Biden is the clear frontrunner in the primary and hopes to recapture the enthusiasm that launched his campaign in 2020.The polls closed at 7pm. Continue reading...

The crucial task of ensuring a fair vote falls to a work crew that must be well prepared, even when few people show upTwo old men sat in the dark on a bench outside Dunston elementary school in North Charleston, South Carolina, waiting for a long day to start that would be quieter than they deserved.Few were expecting strong turnout for the Democratic primary in South Carolina on Saturday. In pre-election polls, Biden had more than 90% support. The nomination race has no drama. But people still have to vote. And the temperamental apparatus of elections has to prepare for that vote, even when it's not cast. Continue reading...

Speaker Mike Johnson is pushing for the package without addressing aid to Ukraine or security for the US-Mexico borderThe US House of Representatives plans to vote next week to advance $17.6bn in military aid to Israel without any accompanying spending cuts or assistance for Ukraine, according to Mike Johnson, the chamber's speaker.Johnson announced to his fellow House Republicans on Saturday that the vote would take place, while also criticizing a parallel move in the US Senate to pair funding for Israel in its military strikes in Gaza with aid for Ukraine as it fends off Russia's invasion. The Senate measure also aims to attach a raft of tough border and asylum measures favored by rightwingers to aid for Israel. Continue reading...

All three people on board, including the pilot, a flight nurse and a paramedic, were killed on 20 January in western OklahomaA dead goose was found in part of the flight control system of a medical helicopter that crashed in western Oklahoma, killing all three people on board, according to a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).While it highlights the goose's presence on board, the report stops short of specifying a suspected cause of the deadly crash. The report notes that other geese were found in the debris field left by the wreck. Continue reading...

After Biden urges turnout on X, voters cast ballots to stop Trump' and share thoughts on 2024 presidential electionAs predicted, South Carolina's Democratic primary Saturday is proving to be a low-key affair - but that hasn't stopped Joe Biden from trying to boost turnout.The president posted a video on the social media platform X in which he said simply: South Carolina, go vote today!" Biden also made a stop at his 2024 campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, alongside vice-president Kamala Harris. Continue reading...

From earliest recollections through to later life, moments of holidays by the ocean with family and friends have become memories to hold

Federal court documents filed Friday show Demetrio Trujillo, 42, said he was hired by Solomon Pena, who was arrested in 2023A New Mexico man has said he was hired by a failed Republican candidate for political office to carry out drive-by shootings targeting the homes of Democrats who would not abide by false election-rigging claims.Demetrio Trujillo, 42, indicated in federal court documents filed Friday that he had been hired for the spate of attacks by Solomon Pena, whose run for a seat in the New Mexico state legislature in November 2022 ended in defeat. Trujillo pleaded guilty to charges of election interference, criminal conspiracy and firearms-related offenses, and he could face several years in prison as he awaits a sentencing hearing that wasn't immediately scheduled, the US attorney's office in Albuquerque said in a statement. Continue reading...

Vice-president's trip to the state signals she is vital to the campaign because of her ability to galvanise Black voters and her abortion rights messagingJoe Biden's closing argument on Friday to South Carolina, the state that rescued his White House dreams four years ago, was not made by Joe Biden. Instead it was Kamala Harris who strode out under a brilliant blue sky to the thunderous cadence of South Carolina State University's drumline.It was because South Carolina's voters showed up in the middle of a historic pandemic that Biden became president, she told a modest but enthusiastic crowd in Orangeburg, and I am the first woman and first Black woman to be vice-president of the United States". Continue reading...

Initial earthquake followed by at least eight smaller ones as residents across state reported feeling shakingA 5.1 magnitude earthquake shook an area near Oklahoma's capital late Friday night, followed by smaller quakes during the next several hours, the US Geological Survey (USGS) reported.The agency said the earthquake struck at 11.24pm and was centered 8kms (5 miles) north-west of Prague, Oklahoma, about 57 miles(92km) east of Oklahoma City. Continue reading...

The billionaire is bankrolling a pro-drugs version of the Olympics, but does he care about the whole women-having-rights thing? NahHave you ever dreamed up a completely deranged business idea but lacked the cash to execute it? Peter Thiel, the secretive tech billionaire who co-founded Paypal, doesn't have that problem. He, along with a group of other venture capitalists, is currently deploying part of his vast fortune to help bankroll a pro-drugs version of the Olympics called the Enhanced Games. It's exactly what it sounds like: a sporting competition in which participants are encouraged to take as many performance-enhancing substances as they can get their steroid-enlarged hands on. All in the name of science and innovation, naturally. Continue reading...

During a routine day at the Port of Houston, four marine inspectors heard barking from amid 10,000 containersIt was just another routine day of inspecting shipping containers at the Port of Houston for US Coast Guard officer Ryan McMahon when he and his team thought they heard barking coming from inside one of the thousands of containers that surrounded them.Oh, it's scratching, dude," one of the inspectors said on a video they recorded Wednesday morning as the team looked up at the container, stacked about 25ft (8 metres) in the air. Continue reading...

From San Diego to Capitola, historic piers have taken a beating, and cities plan their rebuilds - strategicallyMore storms, rising seas and huge waves are taking their toll on California's iconic piers that have dotted the Pacific coast since the Gold Rush, posing the biggest threat yet to the beach landmarks that have become a quintessential part of the landscape.At least a half-dozen public piers are closed after being damaged repeatedly by storms, with multiple atmospheric river storms hitting the state over the past year. Repair costs have climbed into the millions of dollars. Continue reading...

Discontent in the community, especially in swing states such as Michigan, Arizona and Georgia, will hamper the president's re-election bidLast week, Muslim and Arab American leaders in Michigan refused an invitation to attend a listening session with Joe Biden's campaign. It was too late, they said, for the president to win their support after ignoring their communities' pleas for a ceasefire in Gaza for the past four months. Their dissatisfaction with the president could be detrimental to his success in crucial swing states, which he desperately needs to win in order to be reelected.The session was the first time that a delegation was sent to Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit where more than half of the 109,976 residents are of Middle Eastern or North African descent. Still, the Dearborn mayor Abdullah Hammoud, along with some 15 other leaders, declined the meeting, citing the US-backed Israel-Gaza war in which more than 25,000 Palestinans - most of them women and children - have been killed. Continue reading...

Prior authorization requires permission to be sought before prescribing critical drugs, which could cost lives, doctors sayIn the midst of the worst overdose epidemic in US history, addiction medicine specialists say a bureaucratic hurdle is adding to the difficulty of getting people in treatment: an insurance industry tactic called prior authorization".Loathed by doctors of all stripes, prior authorization requires healthcare providers to seek permission from insurance companies before they prescribe a treatment. Doctors in addiction medicine said the requirement is both unnecessarily burdensome and could cost lives. Continue reading...

The hip-hop pioneer was shot in a New York studio in 2002 but now a key witness is revealing what he says really happenedWho killed Jam Master Jay has been one of rap's most enduring mysteries. But this week a Brooklyn court heard from a witness who was in the New York recording studio when the Run-DMC hip-hop pioneer - born Jason Mizell - was gunned down in 2002.Across the courtroom, studio gofer Uriel Tony" Rincon dramatically pointed to the rap star's godson Karl Jordan Jr, also known as Little D, and told jurors: He kind of walked directly to Jay and gave, like, half a handshake, with an arm. And at the same time, that's when I hear a couple of shots." Continue reading...

The sanctions do not target Israeli officials who enable violence in the West Bank, nor affect the more urgent crisis in GazaPresident Joe Biden's executive order allowing financial and travel sanctions on Israelis involved in settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank is a rare and positive step to address Israeli persecution of Palestinians. The Biden administration's rhetoric reveals growing frustration with the increasingly hard line of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his far-right government. The sanctions, coming on top of similar travel bans issued in December and imposed as Biden was about to visit the electoral swing-state Michigan, which has a large Arab American population, add some bite to the administration's words.But the West Bank violence, devastating as it is to its immediate victims, is a sideshow when compared with the extraordinary violence being unleashed against the people of Gaza. And even in the West Bank, the focus of the sanctions is limited. They can be understood as a shot across the bow - a warning that the Biden administration is willing to act - but their modest character and evasion of the Gaza debacle leave considerable room for more decisive action. Continue reading...

Born next to a frontier, I criss-cross the continent all the time. Our borderless network is a privilege we can't take for grantedI'm a French writer based nominally in Italy, but Europe is my homeland. My mobile-phone provider makes me pay dearly for this fact. In any given year, I spend nearly nine months on the road, travelling the length and breadth of the continent: doing research, speaking at conferences, or just because I want to. Contrary to the spirit of the age, my life is mobile and cosmopolitan.In 2023, I visited 18 European countries; five more than I did the year before. I'm a European citizen of no fixed abode, a hybrid supranational nomad, a kind of Homo europaeus, as Friedrich Nietzsche imagined in Human, All Too Human. Like Charles Baudelaire's flaneur, I take great pleasure in choosing a life of change, escape and endless movement across the European continent. Continue reading...

State holds party's first official primary under new schedule, with president polling at 70%Joe Biden aims to build on recent momentum on Saturday, when South Carolina officially launches the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.The US president received a boost last month when he won an unsanctioned primary election in New Hampshire without even appearing on the ballot. A grassroots write-in campaign ensured that he brushed aside his challengers Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson. Continue reading...

Through an Auschwitz commandant's family life, Jonathan Glazer's chilling new film reminds us of the banality of evilIn a letter to his former student Hannah Arendt about the Nazi war crimes trials, written in October 1946, philosopher Karl Jaspers told her that he was uneasy with her view that the very boundaries of crime had been exploded by the Holocaust: that line of thinking might offer a streak of satanic greatness" to the Nazis, a hint of myth and legend". It seems to me that we have to see these things in their total banality, in their prosaic triviality, because that's what truly characterises them," he wrote. Bacteria can cause epidemics that wipe out nations, but they remain merely bacteria." His letter had an obvious influence on Arendt, and on the way terrible human actions have been considered ever since. Everyone knows her phrase the banality of evil". It is, in its way, a cliche.It is also easily misunderstood. Banal" could be interpreted as exculpatory - as if ordinary activities such as filling out forms, organising logistics and attending to bureaucracy might somehow imply a lesser degree of guilt, even when attached to industrial-scale murder. Lyndsey Stonebridge, in her new book on the philosopher We Are Free to Change the World, defends Arendt's thinking on the trial of Adolf Eichmann, one of the chief planners of the Holocaust. Arendt did think that Eichmann was banal. She also believed it was important to understand that Nazism had corrupted everyone it touched." That is, the crimes of the Holocaust were committed not just against individuals' bodies, but against everybody's morality; the mass murder of the 1940s could only have come about through a disabling of moral choices". Continue reading...

The tennis great is entitled to be prickly about what is written about him - but social media pile-ons do him no favoursIn an Edinburgh park, shortly before shooting an unsuspecting dog in the backside with an air rifle, Sick Boy imparts his philosophy to Renton. At one point you've got it. Then you lose it and it's gone for ever. All walks of life. George Best, for example. Had it, lost it. Or David Bowie, Lou Reed. Charlie Nicholas, David Niven, Malcolm McLaren, Elvis Presley."So, we all get old, we cannae hack it any more and that's it? That's your theory?" Continue reading...

The carefully planned raids were the largest yet against Iran's proxies and are likely to continue until threats to US personnel are neutralised

US forces attack at least 85 targets across Iraq and Syria; US has no plan to bomb Iran, which would be a huge escalation, officials say

The actor, whose credits include Rocky and Predator, has died at 76. His family released a statement through his agent to announce that he died 'peacefully in his sleep' on 1 February

Judge Tanya Chutkan orders delay in former president's trial, which was due to start in Washington on 4 MarchA US judge has formally postponed Donald Trump's trial on federal charges that the former president sought to overturn the 2020 election results.The trial was due to start on 4 March in Washington before the delay ordered from the federal judge Tanya Chutkan. Continue reading...

Roberta Kaplan says ex-president directed See you next Tuesday' remark at her after deposition in unrelated case at Mar-a-LagoE Jean Carroll's attorney says Donald Trump used a coded expression to call her the C-word during a deposition before she helped the magazine columnist win an $83.3m verdict in her defamation case against the former president.Roberta Kaplan shared the anecdote during an appearance Friday on the George Conway Explains It All podcast, saying it happened while Trump was deposed at his Mar-a-Lago resort as part of an unrelated, since-dismissed case in which he faced accusations of collaborating with a fraudulent marketing company. Continue reading...

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Tagging stretches across a large portion of a $1bn unfinished project across from venue of Grammy awards on SundayLos Angeles police arrested two people this week in connection with a spate of graffiti on nearly 30 floors of an unoccupied and unfinished downtown skyscraper.The tagging stretches across a large portion of a tower in the $1bn Oceanwide Plaza, a stalled mixed-use retail and residential project that has sat unfinished since 2019. The site is located just across from the Crypto.com Arena, where this year's Grammy awards will be held on Sunday. Continue reading...

Fulton country district attorney says she should not be disqualified from the case amid conflict of interest claims

William Jerome Rivers, Kennedy Sanders and Breonna Moffett were all from Georgia, and were honored at Dover air force base

Her murder by two other children was motivated in part by her transgender identity. As a society, we have questions to answerBrianna Ghey's father, Peter Spooner, had no wish for his daughter's killers to be named in the media. He wanted them forgotten about and locked up", he said. They're nothing." Frances Crook, former head of the Howard League for Penal Reform, commented on X (formerly Twitter): As soon as the children who killed Brianna Ghey are named they will be the entire prurient focus of the media. The victim is passed over," and that was borne out: immediately after the names dropped, images of the killers were all over social and mainstream media, described as the faces of evil".Explaining her decision to lift the reporting ban, Mrs Justice Amanda Yip said last year that the shock generated by Brianna's murder and the circumstances of it has spread well beyond the local community, across the nation and indeed internationally". She accepted that to name the killers would cause distress for their families, but said the purpose of an anonymity order was not to protect the relatives of the convicted. But exactly what is the point of anonymity orders for under-18s? Why did a government review of the youth justice system recommend lifelong anonymity for children in 2016 (it is currently lifted when they turn 18)? And conversely, what social purpose does it now serve to know the identities of Ghey's killers? What conversation does it start, and what other conversations does it shut down?Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...