US news | The Guardian

Accuser fears Laurence Hecker may not live long enough to stand judgment in criminal court as lawyer argues priest is a vegetable'A 92-year-old Roman Catholic priest from New Orleans who is charged with raping a teenager after strangling him unconscious is now in and out of consciousness" himself, according to the clergyman's defense attorney, who is seeking to postpone a trial date in the case.The assistant district attorney who is leading the prosecution of Lawrence Hecker said on Friday he was ready to roll [the defendant] in on a gurney" to keep a 25 March trial date in the case. But a lawyer for Hecker's accuser said they were growing increasingly worried that the suspected serial predator's trial would be delayed - and that he may not live long enough to ever stand judgment in a criminal court. Continue reading...

Facing rising rents and rapid development, Black small-business owners are mourning the loss of community spacesThe smell of burning incense filled the room as Asha Grant, the owner of the Salt Eaters Bookshop, greeted folks who entered to attend Black Queer Speed Dating, one of many events put on in the community space.Attendees could grab name tags and enjoy a table spread filled with assorted fruits, meats and cheeses. To a visitor, the bookshop in Inglewood, California, is beautifully curated, with a memorial painting of Latasha Harlins, a Black girl who was killed by a Korean store clerk in 1991, contributing to the onset of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The Salt Eaters Bookshop also hosts a community board filled with Black-centered events and businesses, and bright colors that catch the eye. Continue reading...

Republican hopeful frames candidacy as moral imperative but defeat in home state of South Carolina raises critical questionsNikki Haley will travel to Michigan on Sunday after suffering a decisive loss in her home state of South Carolina, marking her fourth straight defeat in the Republican presidential primary. Donald Trump continued his undefeated streak with a double-digit win in South Carolina, further cementing his hold on the Republican party and raising more questions about Haley's decision to remain in the primary.As she addressed supporters at an election night party in Charleston on Saturday, Haley deftly framed her candidacy as a moral imperative for the many voters who express dissatisfaction with a potential rematch between Trump and Joe Biden in November.Trump soundly defeats HaleyKey dates for the 2024 electionWho's running for president? Continue reading...

Gathering has effectively become The Trump Show as the fringe has moved to the center of the Republican partyA digital pinball game defending the January 6 insurrection. A panel discussion called Putting Our Heads in the Gas Stove. An eager crowd watching agent provocateur Steve Bannon interview former British prime minister Liz Truss for a tiny online audience.Every year the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, conjures a theatre of the absurd beside the Potomac River. This week something else slowly came into focus: three pillars of a Republican agenda that the party believes will provide a winning formula in the 2024 elections. Continue reading...

The right to demonstrate is vital in a democracy. But protests outside my house put me at immense riskLast week, someone didn't just wish me to feel pain now. Their hope was that in the afterlife I would experience eternal suffering. Ten out of 10 for flair. Someone once sent me an email about which of my orifices they would like to pour molten metal into - it was all of them, described in glorious detail.I have a special file of restraining orders - I felt weird putting them with my other important documents. It didn't seem fitting to file them next to my sons' birth certificates. Multiple men have served time in prison for attacks or threats of attacks on me. One remains in prison today, serving a 10-year sentence for various crimes against me and others. Continue reading...

The population is fast losing patience with a leadership that they see as fanatical and corrupt, and willing to sacrifice democracy and hostagesAfter four horrible months, the Israel-Hamas war drags on, and Israel seems more isolated than ever. Mass protests against Israel on US college campuses and UK streets in the early weeks of the war gave way to South Africa's appeal to the international court of justice accusing Israel of genocide. The US, Israel's best friend, moved from quietly pushing it to begin downscaling the war and allow more humanitarian aid to Gaza, to slapping sanctions on violent West Bank settlers and pushing a UN security council resolution for a ceasefire; even Prince William called for the fighting to stop.But little of this global pressure has moved Israelis. In a mid-January survey from Tel Aviv University, more than half of Jewish Israeli respondents thought Israel was using the right amount of force, but another 43% said that it had not used enough. In a survey last week by the Israel Democracy Institute, a majority of Jewish Israelis opposed a detailed political agreement to end the war, and two-thirds opposed humanitarian aid to Gaza. This data is sobering, though mirrored by trends among the Palestinian public, during the war, where polls show high support for Hamas and for the 7Octoberattacks. Continue reading...

The heir to the throne was suspiciously close to channelling the foreign secretary in his recent statementFor an heir to the throne wanting to secure his future perhaps the first rule should be: do not associate with David Cameron. Last week the foreign secretary had to fly to the Falklands to pose with some kids who didn't know him as the former salesman for the disgraced Lex Greensill. At least, unlike his old Chinese customers, they didn't have to pay 12,000 a time.But now Prince William has signed up for a double act. If, following a Cameron smarm-offensive, he did not actually take dictation, some of the phrasing in a royal Gaza statement vetted by the Foreign Office went well beyond usual indicators of Etonian cloning.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...

Challenging racism wherever it expresses itself is not the same as disparaging a place because it is too whiteA day out of Sunderland is a day wasted." So claimed Charlie Slater, council leader in the 1970s, and a man known as Mr Sunderland" to generations of Mackems.Actor and singer Cynthia Erivo is unlikely to agree. On a social media clip taken from an appearance on the Amber Ruffin show on NBC in the US, Erivo compared different British cities she had visited. Manchester, she told her American audience, is incredible because it feels like London". Sunderland, though ... You go to Sunderland and you're like, Where the fuck am I?'" The viral clip gets cut here. In the full interview, Erivo continues: I don't know where I am. This is not where I live." Continue reading...

Only regulation will stop fast food firms churning out products we are evolutionarily hardwired to find it difficult to resistThe 1970s was a confusing decade in which to be a smoker. People knew, of course, that smoking was bad for them: the evidence linking it to lung cancer had been incontrovertible since 1956. But despite government education programmes, hiked taxes and restrictions in selling to children, these warnings hadn't fully permeated the atmosphere.How could they? Daily life bathedthe brain in the idea that smoking was fine. Cigarettes were advertised in magazines, onbillboards and at sporting events; they dangled from the mouths of the suave or rebellious infilm and on TV; and a nicotine fug enveloped offices, bars and public transport. Could something that everyone was doing, and whichsuffused the culture, really be that shockingly dangerous? Continue reading...

Result called for Trump almost immediately after polls close as former South Carolina governor suffers stinging home-state loss

The Republican contender has exasperated her rival by not dropping out, but she believes not everyone in the party is enamored of Trump

This live blog is now closed. For the latest on the South Carolina primary, you can read our full story:

Unbound and unhinged, ex-president vilifies immigrants before devolving into bizarre riffs, including calling himself total genius'Donald Trump styled himself as a proud political dissident" and promised judgment day" for political opponents in an address that offered a chilling vision of a democracy in imminent peril.In classic carnival barker form, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination accused Joe Biden of weaponising the government against him with Stalinist show trials". He pledged to crack down on border security and deliver the biggest deportation in US history if he wins the 5 November election. Continue reading...

Voters resoundingly choose Donald Trump over the state's former governor Nikki Haley - see the results in fullSouth Carolina's Republican voters went to the polls on Saturday to choose a candidate for president, with two significant choices left: the state's former governor, Nikki Haley, and former president Donald Trump.Haley lost the New Hampshire primary last month by about 11 points, and polling suggested Trump would defeat his former ambassador to the United Nations by about 2-1 in her home state. Continue reading...

A TikTok video battle is now in place, with Generation Alpha firing salvoes that are met punch-for-punch by every online generation that isn't deadIt seems a plague of Sephora Tweens" have been raiding available stocks of Drunk Elephant skin treatments at the makeup shop before mature consumers can get them. Deprived, older women have declared intergenerational war.Yes. Another one. Continue reading...

Former governor Nikki Haley urged supporters to turn out in large numbers as Donald Trump declared he's coming like a freight train' in November

Voters in Saturday's Republican primary say Nikki Haley is the best person for the job - or that they're voting against Donald TrumpCindy Tripp, still recovering from a surgery she'd undergone earlier that week, convinced her husband to accompany her to Patriots Point on Friday night to watch Nikki Haley rally supporters one last time before the voters of South Carolina rendered their verdict in the Republican presidential primary.I'm not supposed to be here," Tripp said, laughing as the sun set over the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier, the backdrop for Haley's rally on the eve of the Republican primary. But I couldn't miss this because I'm so proud of her." Continue reading...

At CPAC and the Principles First summit, the would-be Trump VP and the January 6 witness were stars of their showsAt the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, Elise Stefanik made her case for a glittering prize: the Republican nomination for vice-president to Donald Trump. At the Principles First summit on Saturday, Cassidy Hutchinson received a prize of her own: a Profiles in Courage award.Stefanik, who is 39 and the No 3 Republican in the US House, received standing ovations from an audience ultra-loyal to Trump. Hutchinson, 28, received standing ovations too, as she appeared with Alyssa Farah Griffin and Sarah Matthews, fellow Trump White House staffers turned Trump critics, before an audience of anti-Trump conservatives. Continue reading...

As Trump addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland, Republican voters head to the polls in South Carolina, where he has a 30-point lead over Nikki HaleyA vote for Trump is your ticket back to freedom, it's your passport out of tyranny and it's your only escape from Joe Biden and his gang's fast track to hell," Donald Trump said.And in many ways, we're living in hell right now because the fact is, Joe Biden is a threat to democracy, really is a threat to democracy," Trump continued. Continue reading...

As Myfanwy Jones and her family cared for her father in his last days, she was struck by the beauty, the memory and the burrowing inDad keeps asking for a half-pint of cold milk. He doesn't talk of dying but of going home. And it's some consolation that the cabbage-y room in the aged care facility, with its hoseable floor, is a stone's throw from where Gran gave birth to Dad on their kitchen table.My two sisters and I have set up camp here, with knitting and books and herbal teas, and it reminds me of preparing for birth. The burrowing-in. The stopped clocks. Something huge coming. Continue reading...

Former White House Russia specialist spoke at the Principles First meeting, where she said ex-president idolises' Russian leaderDonald Trump would have lost his mind completely" at his summit with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki in 2018, the former White House Russia specialist Fiona Hill said, if the Russian president had simply admitted he did in fact interfere on Trump's behalf in the US election two years before.Trump, Hill said, refused to believe that Russia tried to tip the scales to his benefit. And if Putin had actually said to him at some point, No, Donald, I did try to interfere in the election,' I think he would have lost his mind completely. Continue reading...

Daqua Lameek Ritter was convicted of a hate crime for the murder of Dime Doe in 2019, and faces a maximum of life in prisonA South Carolina man was found guilty on Friday of killing a Black transgender woman in the nation's first federal trial over a hate crime based on gender identity.After deliberating for roughly four hours, jurors convicted Daqua Lameek Ritter of a hate crime for the murder of Dime Doe in 2019. Ritter was also found guilty of using a firearm in connection with the fatal shooting and obstructing justice. Continue reading...

Vice-president hopefuls slammed Democrats and tried to top each other with their Trumpian bona fidesOn Saturday, the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, will end with a straw poll. But given Donald Trump's lock on the Republican nomination, attendees will not be asked who they want for president. They will be asked to choose between 17 possible vice-presidential picks.On Friday, four such names were on the speakers' roster. Continue reading...

Republicans aren't content with just forcing women to give birth, they are intent on controlling all facets of reproductive healthcare, as we're seeing in AlabamaFriends, Romans, frozen extrauterine children, lend me your ears. Except for the extrauterine children, that is - they obviously don't have ears. Nor do they have fully formed brains, nervous systems or organs. Nevertheless, according to Alabama's supreme court - in a decision which has which paved the way for two wrongful death suits to proceed against a fertility clinic - frozen embryos are children" and should be treated as such. Continue reading...

The genre is making a comeback on our screens. But these days we don't expect a happy endingIf it were a romcom, it would be called Love on Trial, and it would star Ryan Reynolds as a slick attorney whose heart is melted by an earnest activist (Katherine Heigl). But it's a true story: on Valentine's Day this year a class-action lawsuit was filed in California against Match Group, the owner of Tinder, OkCupid and Hinge, by a group of users who believe that the apps are lying to us. The software isn't trying to find us our soulmates, it's trying to keep us single and searching, addicted to the microdose of dopamine secreted as we swipe.The lawsuit justly questions the right of tech firms to profit from loneliness, but there is a poignancy to the complaint, which seems to voice a deep frustration with the present state of love and relationships: with all the algorithms at my disposal, and all the hot singles in my area, why haven't I met the right person? Continue reading...

Funding to the country for its fight against Russia has split Republicans as Trump and Haley take different stancesWhen Donald Trump declared he would allow Russia to do whatever the hell they want" to Nato members who fail to meet funding commitments, world leaders and Democratic lawmakers reacted with shock and alarm. But Douglas Benton, a 70-year-old Republican voter from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, was quite pleased.Yes. I'm glad that Trump said we wouldn't back you up if [Russian president Vladimir] Putin decides to take your ass over. We don't care because you didn't pay up," Benton said. If everyone participated, why don't they put some money into the game and give Ukraine some money? Why does it always have to be us?" Continue reading...

My mother plaits camouflage nets for soldiers, and when we try to talk about what's happening in Ukraine we end up shouting

At the high court, lawyers posed the pivotal question: how can exposing crime and torture be worse than committing them?Which is the more serious criminal activity: extrajudicial killings, routine torture of prisoners and illegal renditions carried out by a state, or exposing those actions by publishing illegally leaked details of how, where, when and by whom they were committed?That is essentially the question that was asked this week at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. It has sometimes seemed during the proceedings that the ornate building at the end of Fleet Street, opened by Queen Victoria in 1882, had become more of a theatre than a court. Outside, vast crowds gathered, chanted, listened to speeches, halted traffic and asked passing drivers to hoot their support. Inside, some of the UK's leading barristers, watched by journalists from all over the world, spelled out the plot to packed public galleries in overflow courts. This drama started more than a decade ago, yet only now are we approaching the final act. Continue reading...

As Russia seeks to destroy our way of life, Ukrainian efforts to keep society going should never be taken for grantedA family member who works for the Kyiv ity State Administration, recently told me about a colleague. She is a single mother with a 10-year-old son. After hearing a recent explosion during one of the air raids, she fainted; her son, convinced she had died, knocked on the neighbour's door asking for help at 3am.Two months later, she quit her job at the administration's housing department, which, on top of its regular work, is now reviewing requests for financial compensation from Kyiv residents whose flats were damaged by recent missile attacks. They have two months to provide residents with decisions. They often work from 7am till 11pm, rushing home just before the curfew. Her resignation has taken a toll on the others. Continue reading...

Jason Reitman, Christopher Nolan and Steven Spielberg among those leading charge to buy the iconic Village theaterThis week, a group of A-list Hollywood directors, including JJ Abrams, Guillermo del Toro, and Gina Prince-Bythewood, took a group photo outside of one of Los Angeles' historic movie theaters.This wasn't an Oscars event. Instead, the directors were announcing they were the new caretakers of the Village Theater in Westwood". Continue reading...

Rebecca Grossman was found guilty of two felony counts and gross vehicular manslaughter for hitting Mark and Jacob IskanderRebecca Grossman, a Los Angeles socialite accused of fatally striking two young brothers crossing the street, was found guilty of murder and other charges on Friday.Prosecutors had said the 60-year-old was impaired and speeding in her Mercedes when she hit brothers Mark Iskander, 11, and Jacob Iskander, 8, at over 70mph. Grossman's defense had argued that what happened was an accident and that the boys were first struck by another car. Continue reading...

Republicans struggle to find a unified response to the state's ruling that threw into question the legal status of human embryosDonald Trump has voiced strong support" for IVF treatments, days after a ruling by the Alabama supreme court threw into question the legal status of human embryos and several providers in the state cut off access to the procedure.The former US president said that under his leadership, the Republican party will always support the creation of strong, thriving, healthy American families". Continue reading...

Arguments that led to Alabama supreme court ruling that embryos are extrauterine children' similar to Missouri senator's in 2013 caseAnti-abortion arguments made in the recent controversial Alabama supreme court decision, which led to the shut down of in vitro fertilization (IVF) in nearly half of the state's clinics, echo those made by the Republican US senator Josh Hawley.The Missouri lawmaker made similar arguments in 2013 and when he worked on the legal team arguing the Hobby Lobby" case on contraception before the US supreme court. Continue reading...

Payments come after Guardian and other media partners expose labor abuses against migrants including paying recruitment feesAmazon has paid $1.9m to hundreds of current and former workers in the wake of revelations by the Guardian and other media partners about abuses against migrants who labored at the online retail giant's warehouses in Saudi Arabia.Amazon said in a statement that it paid reimbursements to more than 700 migrant workers who had been required to pay recruitment fees and other costs to secure work at the company's distribution centers in Saudi Arabia. In announcing this action, the company said it's committed to fundamental human rights and the dignity of people connected to our business around the world". Amazon said last fall that it employed nearly 1,500 permanent and seasonal workers in Saudi Arabia. Continue reading...

Nationwide services say they will cease transporting embryos in and out of state following court decision deeming them children'Some nationwide embryo shipping services have indicated that they will stop transporting embryos to and from Alabama following the state's recent supreme court decision ruling frozen embryos are children", according to a major infertility association.In the week since the ruling, IVF clinics, auxiliary services and patients have grappled with whether they are able to legally operate. While the court's decision recognized embryos as children", it did not specify how existing embryos should be handled. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. For the latest on Alabama's IVF ruling, you can read:

Born in 1908, Ceccarelli loved to dance and died a little over two weeks after her hometown threw her a huge birthday partyEdie Ceccarelli, who was the oldest person in the US and the second oldest person on Earth, died on Thursday.Ceccarelli died a little over two weeks after her home town - the small, redwood-crested northern California town of Willits - threw her a huge birthday bash, as is their yearly tradition. Continue reading...

Alabama's supreme court ruling that frozen embryos are children' is a chilling example of the Republican party's extremismIn a case centering on wrongful-death claims for frozen embryos that were accidentally destroyed at a fertility clinic, the Alabama supreme court ruled last Friday that frozen embryos are children" under state law.As a result, several Alabama in-vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics are ceasing services, afraid to store or destroy any embryos. Continue reading...

Commission says Save America Joint Fundraising Committee evaded campaign finance laws in effort to oust Trump foeDonald Trump's legal woes continue in Wisconsin, where the state's ethics commission has recommended felony charges against Trump's Save America Joint Fundraising Committee for its alleged role in a plot to bypass campaign finance limits.Trump is already facing 91 felony charges in criminal cases across multiple states related to his political and business dealings. The newest allegations in Wisconsin were first reported on Friday by the news site WisPolitics. Continue reading...

The brutal toll of Russia's invasion is more evident than ever. Kyiv needs supportAs Ukraine wakes up to the second anniversary of Russia's invasion, exhaustion is setting in. A year ago, there was still cautious optimism about the counteroffensive. But hopes of a breakthrough were dashed and Russia's capture of the eastern city of Avdiivka last week was its biggest gain since the capture of Bakhmut last May.Ukrainians are not giving up. But this grinding war is wearing down troops at the front, civilians at home and their leaders. The mood of national unity has given way to a more complicated resolve. Those who have served on the frontlines, or who have lost loved ones there, may have mixed feelings about life going on elsewhere in the country. Volodymyr Zelenskiy's sacking of his top commander, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, highlighted tensions at the top. Continue reading...

British foreign secretary argues blockage of $61bn aid package in Congress strengthens China and undermines confidence in USDavid Cameron has said that the continued US failure to supply arms to Ukraine would undermine its own security, strengthen China and cast doubt on America's reliability as an ally around the world.The UK foreign secretary, who attended the G20 meeting in Brazil earlier in the week, admitted that the effort to rally global support for the Ukrainian cause had been damaged" by the fact that neither the US nor the UK had voted for a UN resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. But he argued the damage had been mitigated by the UK's clarification of its position. Continue reading...

The desire to avert catastrophe in Rafah has given fresh impetus to talks in Paris - and a plan that could lead to peaceBoth sides in the war between Israel and Hamas now face a fresh set of fateful choices. The decisions they take in the next two weeks are not only a matter of life and death for many thousands of Palestinians, and for the remaining 134 hostages held by Hamas. They also have the power to shape events for years, if not decades to come. The start of Ramadan, on 10 March, is the crucial deadline, and the clock is ticking.I say both sides", though that can easily get forgotten. The Israeli bombardment of Gaza has been so relentless, the destruction so intense and the death toll so high, that many stopped seeing it as a war long ago. It was striking how often in Wednesday's Commons debate on Gaza, before it descended into chaos, the shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, had to remind colleagues that they could not simply issue a demand that Israel stop, because a ceasefire, by necessity, means both sides."Jonathan Freedland 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...