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US readers shared their hopes for the homes they'd like to have, portraying an America where even modest housing dreams are out of reach for manyLisa Williams is a minimalist. After her husband passed away in 2014, she was content to move into a studio apartment in Las Vegas. But when her rent increased by 25% from 2020 to 2022, she had to downsize more than she'd ever expected.Now, Williams, 63, is a workamper", parking her 17ft trailer in national and state parks across Nevada, California and Arizona. She works as a visitor center host for 25 to 30 hours a week in exchange for an RV spot with full hookup - which can cost $800 a month or more. Williams still has to make a $210 monthly payment on her trailer, about all she can afford on her social security and pension income of $35,000 annually. Continue reading...

Once regarded as a retirement league for ageing European stars, evidence of MLS's rise can be found in the steady stream of talent heading the other wayIn the last January transfer window, 33 players left Major League Soccer for Europe. Top European clubs are increasingly looking to US soccer in search of stars who, thanks to the American season finishing in December, are primed to hit the ground running upon arrival.And after a season that drew more transatlantic attention than ever before thanks to Lionel Messi's move to Inter Miami, several MLS stars will have caught the eye of Europe's elite. Continue reading...

Judge orders Republican congressman to turn over 1,700 records from his phone for 2020 election interference investigationA federal judge ordered the top House Republican Scott Perry to turn over nearly 1,700 records from his phone to special counsel prosecutors that could inform the extent of his role in Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, including removing justice department officials.The move by the chief US district judge James Boasberg, who oversees grand jury matters in federal court in Washington DC, means prosecutors can access the majority of the records that the FBI pulled from Perry's phone. The device was seized in response to a court-approved warrant. Continue reading...

After the fire destroyed homes Lahaina couldn't afford to lose, non-profits and the government are getting creative.In September, a military jet delivered dozens of foldable steel containers, each roughly the size of a single-car garage, from Hungary to a 10-acre field in the center of the Hawaiian island of Maui.Over the following months, organizers transformed each box into a tiny home, complete with a kitchenette, bathroom and lanai - a traditional Hawaiian veranda. They installed water wells and solar systems, and built playgrounds, gardens and resource centers. Continue reading...

I work for an airline that is keen to be festive. Spare a thought for all us obliged to have fun' while serving the publicI've just received a company-wide message from the airline that I work for telling me, All cabin crew are invited to wear Christmas hats over the festive period!" The exclamation mark at the end suggests the company thinks we'll all be utterly delighted at the thought of it. I'm not: I feel weird enough in a uniform already, and adding a Santa hat is more enforced jollity than I can take.I'm not one of those cabin crew who's dreamed of doing the job since I was a kid. I just made the mistake of doing a journalism degree without having rich parents. I was a millennial with inflated expectations, and I'm paying the price, OK? I'll dress up and smile and serve you mini pretzels, with pleasure - after all, it's my job. But please don't make me wear the stupid hat as well.Meryl Love is the pseudonym of a crew member working for an international airline Continue reading...

Pilot and photographer killed as news helicopter for Philadelphia-based station 6ABC crashes in state forestA pilot and a photographer were killed in a helicopter crash on Tuesday night during an assignment for a local news station in New Jersey.The Philadelphia-based news station 6ABC reported on Wednesday morning that its news helicopter was returning from an assignment on the Jersey Shore when it went down over a state forest, about 30 miles away from the shore, at approximately 8pm on Tuesday night. Continue reading...

The fuss over Eve Gilles' gamine coiffure is bizarre in a nation that is supposed to celebrate femininity in all its formsIn December, Britain has pantomimes and France has silly beauty controversies. The latest one, which erupted on social networks last weekend, must be one of the most bizarre witnessed since the beginning of the Miss France pageant, 103 years ago.Twenty-year-old Eve Gilles, the former Miss Pas-de-Calais, was crowned Miss France last Saturday. But it wasn't just her win that dominated headlines but her short hair. Choquant, non? Critics vented their fury online that a lithe, androgynous-looking woman could take the crown as, ostensibly, France's most beautiful woman. Some denounced it as an example of diversity gone too far. Some talked about the victory of wokery. Pardon?Agnes Poirier is a political commentator, writer and critic Continue reading...

A year and a half after the supreme court struck down Roe v Wade, abortion continues to weigh heavily on voters' mindDays before Josh Cole won his toss-up race, the Democratic candidate for Virginia's house of delegates predicted that his party would perform well on election day, largely because the issue of abortion had motivated many voters to turn out at the polls.There are people who are absolutely passionate about reproductive freedom and making sure that an abortion ban doesn't come to Virginia," Cole said. Continue reading...

Four branches of the bank in New Mexico, Alaska, California and Florida have filed for union elections since NovemberWorkers at Wells Fargo, the fourth largest bank in the US, have ramped up their union organizing campaign in recent weeks in a move that marks the largest union drive at a US bank in decades.Four Wells Fargo branches have filed for union elections since November in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Bethel, Alaska, Atwater, California, and Daytona Beach, Florida. The first union elections in New Mexico and Alaska are set to be held on 21 December. Continue reading...

State's highest court declares former president ineligible for White House under US constitution's insurrection clause. Plus, how chemical exposures affect sperm health

A bipartisan coalition is growing on Capitol Hill to bring back the expanded child tax credit. America's children desperately need itLegislators are fleeing Washington, DC and heading home for the holidays. They leave behind a dysfunctional Congress with a rookie Speaker, brutal wars ongoing overseas, and a country with 11 million children living in poverty.Yes, after a brief reprieve, child poverty is once again on the rise in the United States. But Congress can put a stop to that. As members of both houses, and both parties, work together on an end-of-year tax deal, they can re-implement a simple, wildly popular measure that has already proven to dramatically reduce child poverty: the expanded Child Tax Credit.Katrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of the Nation and serves on the Council on Foreign Relations Continue reading...

No one seems to care about the incarcerated men with mental health issues who bang and scream above my headI was moved onto unit 1EE on the south compound inside New Jersey State Prison a year ago. On the floor just above me is 2EE, which is known as the crazy unit".This unit is where incarcerated men throughout the state are sent when they experience mental health difficulties. It has three cells for suicide watch, where men are stripped down and given turtle suits", thin vests that barely keep them covered. There are no pillows, blankets or sheets. A man is left with only his skin and his wits.Banging is normal in prison. We hear it all day, constantly.Kory McClary is a writer for the Prison Journalism Project, a non-profit news organization that provides incarcerated writers with tools and training. As part of a partnership, a reporter with MindSite News, a non-profit news outlet that covers mental health, investigated the death - and life - of the man who had been incarcerated above McClary. That story can be found here.This story is the product of a collaboration between the Prison Journalism Project, MindSite News and the Guardian US. Continue reading...

Musk is the world's best accidental salesman for unions, even as his Tesla workers make 30% less than UAW automakersIn case workers need any additional arguments for why labor unions are good for them, a powerful new argument comes from none other than Elon Musk. Last month at the New York Times DealBook Summit, a gathering of lords of finance and industry, Musk said: I disagree with the idea of unions ... I just don't like anything which creates a lords and peasants sort of thing."That the world's richest human dissed the idea of unions should certainly be seen as a selling point for unionizing. Musk's statement shows that he realizes that unions can be highly effective in harnessing the collective voice and power of workers, not just to limit the autonomy of power-hungry CEOs like him in managing their companies, but also to counter the capricious and often officious way he runs things. Musk is allergic to the idea of letting workers and their union have a voice in how to run - and improve - things. Continue reading...

A collaboration between a prison journalist and an investigative reporter reveals the suffering and death of a 49-year-old man serving life at a New Jersey prisonThe banging and groans from the cell above had been going on for days. Kory McClary didn't know the name of the man, but his distress was unmistakable. McClary heard him banging on his toilet and his bunk continuously with only small breaks in between. He heard him battling guards who entered the cell. He heard him screaming in pain.Then one morning, the sounds stopped. The prisoner had been moved to another cell. Two days later, McClary learned from a prison porter, the man was dead. Continue reading...

Women do twice as many festive chores as men. How can I stop stressing about his last-minute wrapping dash?I am, by my own admission, sickeningly smug about how balanced a relationship I have with my partner. Ours is what some might deem a rather millennial" alliance: we are equal breadwinners, work the same hours and divvy up the childcare. We communicate well about our feelings, our finances, our families. He doesn't babysit our son - he parents him. We even have a civil partnership because we felt marriage was too problematic, too steeped in historical gender inequality. There are no boy jobs" or girl jobs" in our household. So why, when it comes to Christmas, do I find myself doing all the bloody work?The festive merry-go-round starts in September when the annual text comes in - to me, of course - from a family member: What are you thinking for Christmas this year?" And so begins my seasonal shift as a logistics coordinator (no pay), managing the needs of different relatives, working out who we prioritised last year and who we need to consider this time. Tentative suggestions about our plans are met with shrugs and sures" from my partner as I liaise with friends and family on timings, locations and, now we have a baby to think of, festive nap schedules. (Should he nap at my mum's or yours? Pram or car? Before or after lunch?" Sure." Sure." Sure.") The list of plans - and of people to communicate them to - is seemingly endless, and seemingly my responsibility. Continue reading...

The 300-year-old music of Joseph Bologne opened the door to magic and connection, and took me to Guadeloupe this year

The rules-based world order' is no more than a myth. It's time for a major overhaul of institutions from the UN to the ICC

It is terrible though

Indigenous Americans fought through genocide and forced assimilation to use peyote in peace. Will the psychedelics boom co-opt it?On the first day of autumn, evening temperatures near Window Rock, Arizona, were brisk. Beneath the late September sky, a traditional round hogan in this remote corner of the Navajo Nation was enveloped in darkness. Ten tribal members gathered inside.After a dinner of mutton and fry bread, the group settled in a circle around a wood stove radiating with burning juniper, preparing to ingest what the Dine (Navajo) call azee - the medicine. Continue reading...

President praised the first female US supreme court justice in pointed remarks at the Washington funeralJoe Biden hailed Sandra Day O'Connor as an American pioneer" who embodied principle over politics in his eulogy at the Washington funeral of the US supreme court's first female justice.The president praised O'Connor for breaking down barriers in the legal and political worlds, transcending political divisions and weighing ordinary people in her decision-making in pointed remarks that contrasted sharply with his words about the current supreme court. Continue reading...

Democrats call on attorney general to halt state law, while Mexican president and ACLU both say they will challenge itAs a group of Texas and Hispanic Democrats demanded the US attorney general block what they called the most extreme anti-immigrant state bill in the United States", signed by the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, on Monday, the president of Mexico and the American Civil Liberties Union also vowed to fight the law.Texas, we'll see you in court," the ACLU said. Continue reading...

Noel Montalvo was in Pennsylvania prison for 20 years for murders that he blamed on his brother who died in prisonA man formerly on death row has been released from prison following dismissal of murder charges in a double slaying a quarter-century ago that he blamed on his brother, who died in prison while appealing his own death sentence in the case.Noel Montalvo, who turned 59 on Tuesday, was freed on Monday night after York county, Pennsylvania, prosecutors dismissed charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy and burglary shortly before a retrial was to begin. He pleaded guilty to an evidence tampering charge for which the judge sentenced him to a year of probation. Continue reading...

Egypt and Saudi Arabia notably absent from Operation Prosperity Guardian as more shipping companies forgo routeThe US has announced the creation of an enhanced naval protection force operating in the southern Red Sea in an attempt to ward off mounting attacks from Yemen's rebel Houthis on merchant shipping.Britain said it would be among the countries participating but notable absentees were Arab nations Egypt and Saudi Arabia while analysts speculated that shipping would continue to be disrupted and attacks continue. Continue reading...

Deadly winter storm leaves hundreds of thousands without power and deposits flooding and freezing temperatures in its wakeAt least six people were killed and hundreds of thousands were left without power as a deadly winter storm swept across the north-eastern US on Monday, depositing flooding and freezing temperatures in its wake.Two of the deaths were in Maine in separate cases involving fallen trees, authorities said. Other deaths were reported in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and New York.Associated Press contributed reporting Continue reading...

Trump's odious rhetoric about the border must be rejected. But the Biden campaign speaks from both sides of its mouthAt a campaign rally in New Hampshire last Saturday, the former president Donald Trump repeated a claim he made back in September: immigrants coming to the United States, he said, are poisoning the blood of our country". The phrase is particularly disturbing as it evokes Nazi language about blood and nation.The last time Trump uttered this poisoning the blood of our country" phrase, criticism from historians and civil libertarians was swift. This time, Joe Biden's re-election campaign saw an opportunity and pounced. Donald Trump channeled his role models as he parroted Adolf Hitler," a Biden-Harris 2024 spokesperson wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, adding that Trump is not shying away from his promise to lock up millions of people in detention camps." Continue reading...

1 March 1927 - 25 April 2023

Former mayor of Pennsylvania town of Braddock has long advocated for rights of US steel workersThe US senator John Fetterman has vowed to block the multibillion-dollar sale of US Steel to the Japanese company Nippon Steel, calling the potential deal outrageous".The former mayor of the south-west Pennsylvania town of Braddock, which is home to a major US Steel plant, Fetterman has long advocated for the rights of American steel workers and positioned himself as a pro-union Democrat. Continue reading...

Experts say lack of affordable housing in state is the main cause, worsened by expiration of pandemic programs that added shelterCalifornia continues to lead the nation in homelessness, with US data showing the state has the highest rate of unhoused people living outside in a worsening humanitarian crisis.The Department of Housing and Urban Development (Hud) released its Annual Homeless Assessment Report (Ahar) on Friday, providing a point in time" snapshot from January 2023. On a single day, 653,104 people experiencing homelessness were counted across the US, the highest number since the count began in 2007. The estimates are considered to be undercounts. Continue reading...

Even if you live far from your childhood home, wrestling a tree back through crowded city streets can bring as much joy as everWhen I was a kid, my favourite part of December was going to get a Christmas tree. Cleveland was always snowy by then, and so we usually had to scrape the ice off the car before going to a tree lot where I would wander through rows of trees - Douglas firs, balsam firs, Virginia pines, blue spruce. After a short family conference in the cold (I pushed for the tallest one possible, my mom cared about that classic Christmas tree smell" and my dad, in a way that I'm sure every dad will nod along with in agreement, kept me realistic about the price), we would agree on a tree, strap it to the roof of the car and go home to string up lights and ornaments.We would leave the tree up until early January, then when the branches were sagging and dry, we would paint their ends with peanut butter and seeds, and lay the tree out in the backyard to act as a giant bird feeder (and then, eventually, compost it).Alexander Hurst is a Guardian Europe columnist Continue reading...

The film-maker and author, who died last week aged 74, will also be remembered by those lucky enough to know her as an unforgettable phrasemakerA WhatsApp from Maggie Renzi, the producer of John Sayles's Lone Star and most of his other films: Cari has died."No need for a surname, there's only one Cari in our lives. Maggie and John sat me next to Cari Beauchamp in a pizza restaurant in Cannes around 2001. For three hours that night I listened to this expansive Californian. Continue reading...

Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss already won $148m defamation judgment against former New York City mayorTwo former Georgia election workers who won a $148m defamation judgment against Rudy Giuliani asked on Monday for a court order barring him from continuing to repeat the lies he spread about them following the 2020 election.The new lawsuit points to comments the former New York City mayor made during and after the damages trial last week, repeating the baseless conspiracy theories about Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Shaye" Moss. Continue reading...

Law gives officers sweeping powers as well as empowering local judges to order people's expulsion. Plus, is the book world turning against Goodreads?

The Catholic church made my young queer life hell. Now they accept and damn my union in one breathOn the day I celebrated the first anniversary of my wedding, Pope Francis announced his conditional approval" for Catholic priests to bless same-sex marriages - under certain circumstances - although he was keen to add that these blessings should not be seen as validation of same-sex relationships. It will be possible to bless same-sex couples but without any type of ritualisation or offering the impression of a marriage," the Church announced in a report published on Vatican News, adding that the blessing does not signify approval of the union". In the eyes of the Catholic church, it seems, queer love is still a sin.Well, you can stick your blessing, Pope Francis. It's a fig leaf, a PR exercise, a means of laundering your prejudice to make it seem like a step towards acceptance.Matt Cain is a writer who was formerly editor-in-chief of Attitude and culture editor of Channel 4 News. His latest novel, One Love, is published on 18 JanuaryDo 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...

Many Black Americans feel Democrats take their vote for granted, but Biden's team has a strategy to address concernsEntering the 2024 campaign season, Joe Biden faces a slew of challenges, including economic uncertainties, foreign policy tensions and healthcare reform. Most notable, however, comes from the critical engine that delivered 2020 key victories in swing states: the African American voting bloc.Recent polls show a historic low of 37% in Biden's overall approval ratings, while others highlight underlying factors, such as the alarming decline in Black voter support, from 86% in January 2021 to 60% now, the lowest of his presidency. Continue reading...

Bipartisan bill would require hospitals, diagnostic laboratories, surgical centers and pharmacy managers to publicly post pricesA bipartisan healthcare reform bill passed by the House could make it easier for Americans to find out the cost of a doctor's appointment or procedure before a patient receives it - a task that currently ranges in difficulty from Herculean to impossible.The bill would require hospitals, diagnostic laboratories, imaging services, surgical centers and pharmacy benefit managers to publicly post prices. That, supporters said, could bring down the cost of healthcare as consumers" shop around. Continue reading...

Attempt to assassinate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, an American Sikh, was foiled by undercover law enforcement agentsAn American Sikh who was the target of an alleged assassination plot arranged by an Indian government official has said he is still getting hundreds of threats a day, even as India has claimed it is investigating the murder-for-hire conspiracy.Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a New York-based lawyer, said the threats on social media and other forums have continued unabated since the Department of Justice alleged that an unnamed Indian government official with ties to intelligence - known as CC-1 in a US indictment - arranged to kill the Sikh activist on US soil. CC-1 also appears to have played a role in the murder of another activist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in Canada last June. Continue reading...

Biden has a chance to show that the world's biggest exporter of oil and gas is actually going to change its ways. It's not clear if he'll take itMore than 200 nations pledged last week in Dubai that they would be transitioning away from from fossil fuels". Some cheered and some scoffed; we'll soon know if the world's biggest producer of oil and gas - the United States - meant what it signed, or if it was just more (literal) hot air.That's because the US Department of Energy (DoE) must decide whether to stop rubber-stamping the single biggest fossil-fuel expansion on earth, the buildout of natural gas exports from the Gulf of Mexico. So far they have granted every export license anyone has requested, and as a result the US has become the biggest gas exporter on planet earth. If they keep it up, the veteran energy analyst Jeremy Symons says that before long US liquefied natural gas exports will produce more greenhouse gases than everything that happens on the continent of Europe.Roishetta Ozane is the founder of the Vessel Project, a Louisiana environmental justice groupBill McKibben is the founder of Third Act, which organizes people over 60 for action on climate and democracy Continue reading...

State party chair Yolanda Bejarano says Biden's agenda of job creation and lowering family's costs is a winner and recent polling does not capture where voters will be come election dayFew states will have more influence over the country's political future than Arizona. Once a ruby-red Republican stronghold, it is now a south-western battleground and the stakes couldn't be higher for Arizonans - or Americans.In 2020, Joe Biden carried Arizona by just over 10,000 votes, becoming the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state in nearly a quarter-century. Two years later, Democrats won statewide races for governor, secretary of state and attorney general and re-elected the Democratic senator Mark Kelly to a full six-year term. Continue reading...

The defending NFC champions looked on course for a return trip to the Super Bowl after a 10-1 start. But a three-game slide has dropped them from the ranks of serious contendersSo much of the December NFL narrative is devoted to teams scrambling to qualify for the playoffs, but the end of the regular season is also a terrific chance for the diminishing handful of Super Bowl contenders to sharpen their tools, to separate themselves from the pack.One of those contenders, the Philadelphia Eagles, had lost their previous two games but could have scored a get-right victory Monday in Seattle against the Seahawks. All they needed to do was prevent Seattle, down by four points, from driving 92 yards in less than two minutes. Continue reading...

The Hungarian leader wants to deprive Kyiv of funding and to halt expansion plans, but officials are already mapping out a workaroundThe European Union is never quite as bad or quite as good as it looks. Last week's summit on expansion was an example of the 27-nation union at its best - and its worst. A formula was found to enable agreement to open membership negotiations with Ukraine as it struggles to prevent Russia seizing more of its territory.That agreement, which Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orban, had vowed to block, produced triumphant headlines that made the union look fleetingly as if it were finally grasping its historic responsibility to extend the European area of freedom and prosperity right up to Russia's borders.Paul Taylor is a senior fellow of the Friends of Europe thinktank Continue reading...

Parent volunteers and students claimed polychlorinated biphenyls leaked from the firm's light fixtures made them sickA jury in Washington state on Monday ordered Bayer's Monsanto to pay $857m to former students and parent volunteers of a school north-east of Seattle who claimed that chemicals known as PCBs made by the company leaked from light fixtures and made them sick, according to an attorney for the plaintiffs.The jury found the company liable for selling polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) used in the Sky Valley Education Center in Monroe, Washington. The verdict included $73m in compensatory damages, and $784m in punitive damages, according to Henry Jones, an attorney at the law firm Friedman Rubin, who represents the plaintiffs. Continue reading...

Law gives police sweeping new powers as well as empowering local judges to order migrants' expulsionThe Texas governor, Greg Abbott, on Monday signed a bill giving all police in the state sweeping new powers to arrest migrants deemed to have entered the US illegally as well as empowering local judges to order their expulsion back across the US-Mexico border.The hard-right Republican's actions represent a brazen challenge to the federal government's authority over the enforcement of US immigration law. Continue reading...

Restraining order issued after a group filed a lawsuit and a letter that was signed by more than 40 Republican congressmenA Confederate memorial was blocked on Monday from being removed from Arlington National Cemetery in northern Virginia, with a court order setting back the push to remove symbols that commemorate the Confederacy from military-related facilities.A federal judge on Monday issued a temporary restraining order barring removal of a memorial to Confederate soldiers at the nation's foremost military cemetery. A group called Defend Arlington, affiliated with a group called Save Southern Heritage Florida, filed a lawsuit Sunday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, seeking the restraining order. A hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday.The Associated Press contributed reporting Continue reading...

Trump's ex-White House chief of staff had tried to transfer his 2020 election interference case to federal courtA federal appeals court on Monday rejected former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows' request to transfer his 2020 election interference case in Georgia to federal court, ruling he was not entitled to the privilege because he was not currently a federal official.The court also ruled that Meadows would not have qualified for such a transfer because the conduct he was charged with did not relate to his official duties as Trump's final chief of staff, instead counting as campaign activities. Continue reading...