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Payton Gendron’s 180-page manifesto borrowed straight from the site’s politics boards, echoing antisemitic and racist mythsJust weeks after 4chan motivated a quadruple shooting in Washington, the racist and conspiracy-oriented online message board probably inspired the killings of 10 at a grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Buffalo over the weekend.A 180-page manifesto, allegedly released by the accused along with a video of the attack, is rife with pseudo-scientific racism, antisemitic conspiracy theories and a call for others to mimic his violence. The screed is mostly plagiarized from other extremists and from the far-right 4chan. Continue reading...

The Finns have long relied on realpolitik and the Swedes on neutrality. Joining the historic military alliance could change everythingFor a long time, the Nordic countries saw themselves as sleekly humanitarian, peace-keeping powers. To an unusual degree, the national identities of Sweden and Finland are bound up with their foreign policy: Swedes identify with a centuries-old tradition of neutrality, whereas Finns point to their talent for realpolitik, making the best of their volatile geography, which includes an 830-mile border with Russia. As both countries now formally submit their applications to join the North Atlantic alliance, each of them will forgo this deviation from the European norm. Finland in particular now seems poised to adopt a more standard-issue foreign policy. But at what price?Since the end of the second world war, Finland’s political elite has nimbly navigated between Russian and western power. In a tight spot, the Finns played their hand with exceptional skill. In the postwar decades, Finland went from being the poorest state in Europe in 1945 to the economic level of the rest of western Europe – and maintained a much more equal society. Now, Finland is abandoning this careful strategy of tacking between two zones of power for a wholesale embrace of the west, as the country hurtles into the Nato alliance. Continue reading...

Voters nominated Maga-bona fide Doug Mastriano as the GOP candidate in Pennsylvania’s governor race, but were divided in North CarolinaPennsylvania Republicans on Tuesday nominated Donald Trump’s choice for governor, an election denier who was outside the Capitol on 6 January, but were divided over his candidate for Senate in a consequential round of primary contests that also saw the ousting of Madison Cawthorn, the scandal-plagued first-term congressman, in North Carolina.Voters in five states went to the polls on Tuesday to pick the candidates at the center of some of this year’s most contentious battles for control of Congress, statehouses and governor’s offices. From Oregon to North Carolina, Idaho to Kentucky and Pennsylvania, the array of nominating contests tested both Trump’s grip on the Republican party and Joe Biden’s leadership of the Democratic party. Continue reading...

The 26-year-old congressman who failed to beat back a challenge from Chuck Edwards had lost Republican supportMadison Cawthorn, the first-term congressman and pro-Donald Trump firebrand, has lost his seat in the US House after failing to beat back a challenge from state legislator Chuck Edwards in the North Carolina Republican primary.Luke Ball, a spokesperson for Cawthorn’s campaign, told the Associated Press late Tuesday that Cawthorn had conceded the race. Continue reading...

Researchers find New Zealand has become a fertile ground for extreme material amid efforts to ban alleged shooter’s ‘manifesto’Widespread horror at the killing of shoppers at a Buffalo grocery store, allegedly by a white supremacist gunman, has been felt keenly in New Zealand as it continues to reckon with the ripple effects of the 2019 Christchurch massacre of 51 Muslims at prayer.New Zealand has already moved to ban the live stream video and “manifesto” apparently published by the alleged shooter, which is said to specifically cite the mosque shootings as a source of inspiration. Mosque attack survivors are being re-traumatised by the Buffalo footage, reportedly sent to them anonymously online, and researchers are concerned material from the shooting is spreading quickly inside New Zealand. Continue reading...

Justice department says Wynn lobbied the Trump administration for China to protect his business interests in MacauThe US Department of Justice on Tuesday sued Steve Wynn, the billionaire former casino mogul and senior Republican fund raiser, to compel him to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as an agent of China.The department said Wynn, 80, had contacted then-US president Donald Trump and members of his Republican administration in 2017 to convey China’s request to cancel the visa of or otherwise remove a Chinese businessperson who had sought political asylum in the United States. Continue reading...

President attacks those who promote racist conspiracy theory ‘for power, political gain and for profit’ but says ‘evil will not win’Joe Biden has condemned those who spread white supremacist lies “for power, political gain and for profit” during a visit to Buffalo, New York, where 10 people were killed in a racist shooting last Saturday.The US president was close to tears as he recalled the victims’ lives, then became angry as he described forces of hatred that have haunted his administration. Continue reading...

After months of uncertainty, chairman says it is ‘not our expectation’ that investigators will summon former presidentThe House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol is not expecting to call Donald Trump to testify about potentially unlawful schemes to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election win, its chairman said on Tuesday.

The Al Jazeera journalist was a courageous voice and a symbol of Palestine at a time when many question our right to existSchrödinger’s cat is old hat. Let me introduce a new thought experiment: Schrödinger’s Palestinian. As a Palestinian, you are told constantly that you may think you exist, but, really, you don’t. I am Palestinian (I used to say half-Palestinian, through my father, but now I refuse to slice myself in half) and have been told this several times.My favourite example was when a colleague heard about my heritage and informed me that, “semantically speaking”, there was no such thing as a Palestinian and no such thing as Palestine. Well, there is no arguing with semantics, is there? I disappeared into a puff of air right then and there. Continue reading...

Joe Biden has condemned those who spread white supremacist lies 'for power, political gain and for profit' during a visit to Buffalo, New York, where 10 people were killed in a racist shooting last Saturday. In emotional and pointed remarks, the US president called white supremacy a poison that is 'running through our body politic, and it’s been allowed to fester and grow right in front of our eyes'. He added to applause: 'I call on all Americans to reject the lie and I condemn those who spread the lie for power, political gain, and for profit' Continue reading...

Jeremy Smith, 36, arrested on three counts of assault with a deadly weapon over Koreatown hair salon attack that left three woundedAuthorities in Dallas said on Tuesday the man suspected of opening fire in a hair salon in the city’s Koreatown and wounding three women of Asian descent harbored delusions about Asian people since having a car crash involving an Asian man two years ago.Police identified the gunman as Jeremy Smith, 36, and said he has been charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon. Smith was booked early on Tuesday is being held in Dallas county jail. Continue reading...

Suit seeks fines and damages from those casting fake ballots and prohibition from serving the futureTwo of Wisconsin’s presidential electors and a voter in the state filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to punish a group of Republicans who tried to cast fake electoral votes for Donald Trump in 2020, asking a state court to order them to pay up to $2.4m collectively in damages and bar them from ever serving as legitimate electors in a presidential election.Wisconsin was one of seven states Trump lost in 2020 where allies cast an alternative set of electoral votes as part of his effort to overturn the election. The suit, filed by Law Forward and the Georgetown Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (Icap) on behalf of the legitimate electors, is the first of its kind seeking civil punishments against the electors. Federal prosecutors and the January 6 commission are reportedly also reviewing the fake slates. Continue reading...

Former president trumpets work in progress on his false claims about electoral fraud in 2020Donald Trump says he is writing a book – which will “depress” readers – about his lie that electoral fraud caused his defeat by Joe Biden in 2020.Speaking in Austin, Texas, on Saturday, Trump said: “This is the greatest hoax, heist. This is one of the greatest crimes in the history of our country. And sadly, the prosecutors don’t want to do anything about it. Continue reading...

Conservative majority rules in favor of rightwing Texas senator but Elena Kagan warns ‘quid pro quo corruption’ the likely resultThe six conservatives who dominate the US supreme court ruled in favour of the hard-right Texas senator Ted Cruz in a case seeking to remove limits on campaign finance spending, in a ruling that one dissenting justice said would open the door to “quid pro quo corruption”.In Federal Election Commission v Ted Cruz for Senate, the Republican senator challenged limits on the use of post-election contributions to pay back loans by candidates to their own campaigns. Continue reading...

Officials say David Chou, 68, was motivated by anti-Taiwan hatred in attack on elderly congregation, killing doctor who tackled himA gunman motivated by hatred against Taiwan chained shut the doors of a California church and hid firebombs before shooting at a gathering of mostly elderly Taiwanese parishioners, killing a man who tackled him, authorities said.David Chou, 68, of Las Vegas, a US citizen who authorities say grew up in Taiwan, drove to Orange county on Saturday and the next day attended a lunch held by Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian church, which worships at Geneva Presbyterian church in the community of Laguna Woods. Continue reading...

Donation from Brian Chesky will help foundation to fund scholarships for students pursuing careers in public serviceThe co-founder and chief executive of Airbnb, Brian Chesky, has donated $100m to Barack Obama’s foundation to fund scholarships for students pursuing careers in public service, with the awards including multiple stipends for travel.Each so-called Voyager scholarship will grant $50,000 to rising college juniors to cover tuition costs over two years as well as a $10,000 grant and Airbnb credit to fund a summer academic trip designed by the student. Scholarship winners will also receive an Airbnb credit worth $2,000 a year for 10 years after their graduation, which is on top of Chesky’s donation, a foundation spokesperson said. Continue reading...

In moments like these, it would be helpful if we had a party with spine to vote forThe Democrats have no plan. On Wednesday, just over a week after Politico published a leaked draft of Justice Samuel Alito’s forthcoming majority opinion in Dobbs v Jackson, which will overrule Roe v Wade next month, the Senate did the only thing they could think to do: they voted on the Women’s Health Protection Act, a bill to codify a federal right to abortion.The bill had already been brought to a vote this past February – before the leak of the opinion, but long after it became clear that the supreme court would end the abortion right – and it had already failed. On Wednesday, it failed again, by 49 votes to 51, on party lines: only one Democrat, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, sided with the unanimous Republicans in denying women a federally recognized right to make their own decisions for their health and lives. This was no surprise: bringing the act to a vote was a mere symbolic gesture. Democratic women senators and their staff had walked to the floor for the vote chanting “My body, my decision.” But ultimately, they weren’t powerful enough to get it passed. They didn’t have the votes.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

Tops Friendly, site of attack that left 10 people dead, was vital community hub in East Buffalo: ‘It was everything to us’Tops Friendly on Jefferson Avenue in East Buffalo was more than just a grocery store. It served as community center, a place to hang out, a source of employment – and a spot for healthy sustenance unavailable at bodega stores in an area described as the oasis in a food desert.In the three days since Tops became the carefully targeted site of a mass shooting and was closed indefinitely, community groups, local advocates, western New York’s emergency food network, corporate donors, churches and even Tops staff have scrambled to fill the gap. Continue reading...

Governor Ron DeSantis signs law, citing picketing outside homes of US supreme court justices following leak of draft abortion rulingProtests outside homes are now banned in Florida after the state’s rightwing Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, signed a bill into law prohibiting such demonstrations.DeSantis, who is both an ally and potential 2024 rival to Donald Trump, is a rising star in Republican circles as he courts the party’s rightwing base and eyes a possible White House run. Continue reading...

From JD Vance to Fox news hosts, the theory is being pushed relentlessly by the Republican mainstream – with dangerous consequencesThe “great replacement theory” can be traced back at least to Theodore G Bilbo, the brazenly racist US senator who held office from 1935 to 1947. Bilbo, an antisemite who acknowledged being a member of the Ku Klux Klan during an appearance on Meet the Press, warned that at “the present rate of interbreeding and miscegenation and intermarriage between the [N-words] and the whites … there’ll be no whites, there’ll be no Blacks in this country. We’ll all be yellow [or brown]”.In 1947, Bilbo published a book Separation or Mongrelization: Take Your Choice. In the book, Bilbo argued that “great civilizations of the ages have been produce[d] by the Caucasian race” and the “mongrel not only lacks the ability to create a civilization, but he cannot maintain a culture that he finds around him”. He asserted that the nation must choose between a “White America and a mongrel America”. Continue reading...

Health workers are wrestling with the best ways to fight back against a decision they long expectedLast week, Dr Maya Bass, a family physician, was on a call with the medical director of Trust Women, one of four abortion clinics in Oklahoma. They were scrambling to figure out how to keep their doors open after the leak of a draft opinion signaling the supreme court’s intent to overturn Roe v Wade and the Oklahoma governor’s signing of SB1503 into law, banning abortions in the state after six weeks of pregnancy.“With my colleagues, there’s a lot of anger,” Bass says. “As a medical professional, it’s really hard to spend your life studying to become an expert in a certain area and then have a politician with no medical expertise and not even a uterus take away your power to offer patients safe medical care.” Continue reading...

Online posts apparently by 18-year-old suspect Payton Gendron show plans to livestream attack on Black people. Plus, who owns Einstein?Good morning.The white gunman accused of the massacre of 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket wrote as far back as November about staging a livestreamed attack on African Americans. He also practised shooting from his car and traveled hours to scout out the store in March, according to diary entries he appears to have posted online.What’s happening to Gendron? He surrendered and was arraigned on a murder charge over the weekend. He pleaded not guilty and was jailed under a suicide watch. Federal authorities are contemplating bringing hate crime charges.How about Chou? He is expected to appear in state court today and it was not immediately clear whether he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf. A federal hate crime investigation is also ongoing.Are Finland and Sweden going to join Nato? They want to but Turkey has said it will not approve their membership. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish president, said the countries should not bother sending diplomatic delegations to try to persuade them.What’s happening at the Mariupol steelworks? More than 260 Ukrainian soldiers, many of them wounded, have finally been evacuated from the besieged Azovstal steel plant, appearing to cede control of the city to Russia after 82 days of bombardment.What else is happening? Here’s what we know on day 83 of the invasion. Continue reading...

Online posts apparently by 18-year-old suspect Payton Gendron indicate previous visit to site where 10 Black people were killedThe white gunman accused of the massacre of 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket wrote as far back as November about staging a livestreamed attack on African Americans. He also practised shooting from his car and travelled hours from his home to scout out the store in March, according to detailed diary entries he appears to have posted online.The author of the diary posted hand-drawn maps of the grocery store along with tallies of the number of Black people he counted there, and recounted how a Black security guard at the supermarket confronted him that day to ask what he was up to. A Black security guard was among the dead in Saturday’s rampage. Continue reading...

This season’s playoffs have been wildly entertaining so far. And there’s more to come with just one round to go before the NBA finalsIt’s entirely possible that nothing in the upcoming conference finals will match the thrills of the second round of this postseason, which was filled with young, talented teams desperately fighting for their playoff lives. Indeed, Sunday provided us with not one but two Game 7s. It wouldn’t be surprising if both these series go the distance too. Here’s how things could shake out.Eastern Conference finals (Game 1: Boston Celtics @ Miami Heat. Tuesday, 8.30pm EST) Continue reading...

Even as Democrats have denounced the supreme court’s leaked abortion opinion, their efforts at the federal level have failed to live up to their rhetoricShortly after the draft supreme court opinion overturning Roe v Wade was leaked to the public, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, condemned conservative attacks on abortion rights and pledged that his state would be a “sanctuary” for those seeking to end a pregnancy.But Newsom also directed some of his most pointed remarks toward fellow Democrats. Continue reading...

American Israel Public Affairs Committee has disguised its efforts to undermine pro-Palestinian candidatesThe US’s most powerful pro-Israel lobby group is pouring millions of dollars into influencing Democratic congressional primary races to counter growing support for the Palestinian cause within the party, including elections today in Pennsylvania and North Carolina.The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s money is focused on blocking female candidates who, if elected, are likely to align with “the squad” of progressive members of congress who have been critical of Israel. Continue reading...

Buffalo gunman is suspected of posting a 180-page racist diatribe in which he repeatedly referenced the extremist conspiracy theoryWhy are we talking about the ‘great replacement’ theory?On Saturday, a white man armed with an AR-15-style rifle entered a supermarket in Buffalo in New York state and killed 10 people, almost all of whom were African American. The gunman is suspected of having posted a 180-page racist diatribe in which he repeatedly referenced the extremist conspiracy theory known as the “great replacement”. Continue reading...

Suspect was allegedly motivated by the theory, but network has barely mentioned gunman’s reasoning, even after Tucker Carlson pushed the concept in more than 400 of his showsAs details of the Buffalo mass shooting emerged over the weekend, much of the media focussed on the shooter’s self-stated motivation: his racist belief that white Americans are being deliberately replaced through immigration in a “great replacement” theory.Over at Fox News, however, there was barely any mention of the white gunman’s alleged reasoning for opening fire at a supermarket, killing 10 people and wounding three more, in a predominantly Black area. Continue reading...

The White House’s first Black press secretary used her opening remarks to reflect on this new chapterIt was grimly poignant that the first Black person to hold a briefing as White House press secretary should begin by naming victims of white supremacist violence. Karine Jean-Pierre, standing at the famed blue lectern, took a moment to “remember lives lost and forever changed in Buffalo” with brief and evocative biographies of the 10 victims of Saturday’s mass shooting in New York state.Evidently, whereas Joe Biden’s first press secretary, Jen Psaki, could ride a wave of optimism at the start of a new administration – and benefit by comparison to Donald Trump’s mendacious messengers – Jean-Pierre is inheriting a world of trouble. Continue reading...

The ventilated underground passage runs the length of a football field and also contains reinforced walls and electricity supplyUS authorities have discovered an underground smuggling tunnel on the California-Mexico border that runs the length of a football field and contains reinforced walls, electricity, ventilation and a rail system.Investigators discovered the tunnel, which led to a warehouse in an industrial area on US soil, last week. The tunnel is located about half a mile (0.8km) from the Otay Mesa border crossing between Tijuana and San Diego, in an area where more than a dozen others have been discovered in the past two decades. Continue reading...

David Chou, a Chinese immigrant from Las Vegas, had a grievance with the Taiwanese community, officials sayAs the US was rocked by deadly gun violence over the weekend, a shooting at an Orange county church on Sunday left southern California reeling when a gunman motivated by hate for Taiwanese people fired on congregants who managed to put a stop to the bloodshed.Authorities on Monday identified the suspect, who is accused of killing one person and wounding five others at the Geneva Presbyterian church, as David Chou of Las Vegas. The Orange county sheriff’s department booked the 68-year-old on a felony count of murder and five felony counts of attempted murder and was being held on $1m bail. Continue reading...

Johnny Depp was hallucinating and his sobriety had completely collapsed in the final months of their marriage, his ex-wife Amber Heard testified Monday in the civil lawsuit between the two. Heard was back on the stand as the trial resumed in a Virginia courtroom after a one-week hiatus. She also strongly denied an accusation from Depp that she left human fecal matter in the couple's bed after a fight. Heard said it was the couple's teacup Yorkshire terrier that messed the bed and that it had a history of bowel problems ever since it had accidentally ingested Depp's marijuana.

Michigan plant had been under investigation for safety concerns and it will take over a month to begin shipping productThe baby formula maker Abbott has reached an agreement with US health regulators to restart production at its largest domestic factory amid a nationwide formula shortage that has left shelves bare and parents scrambling.Monday’s agreement with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) amounts to a legally binding agreement between regulators and the company on steps needed to reopen the plant in Sturgis, Michigan, which had been under investigation for safety concerns. Continue reading...

Washington police uncovered the video as they executed a search warrant on his phone as part of child abuse image investigationA manager at an Arby’s fast food restaurant in Washington state has been accused of urinating into a milkshake mix that might then have been served to dozens of people.Police in Vancouver, across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon, said they uncovered footage of the 29-year-old man peeing into a bag of milkshake mix as they were executing a search warrant on his phone as part of an investigation into child sex abuse images, the Columbian newspaper reported. Continue reading...

‘We can’t sugarcoat it,’ leading civil rights attorney Ben Crump says of shooting that killed 10 peopleA day ahead of Joe Biden’s visit to Buffalo, the leading civil rights attorney Ben Crump said federal officials should define the mass shooting at a grocery store in the city on Saturday as an “act of domestic terrorism”.“We can’t sugarcoat it, we can’t try to explain it away talking about mental illness,” Crump said of the attacked allegedly perpetrated by Payton Gendron, 18, who is in custody on one charge of first-degree murder awaiting arraignment on Thursday where additional charges are likely to be filed. Continue reading...

A preliminary vote on military, humanitarian and economic aid to Kyiv is expected today, setting up a final vote on Wednesday• Scrutiny of Republicans who embrace ‘great replacement theory’ after Buffalo massacre

Fox News hosts discussed baby formula, abortion and Putin but were silent on a white shooter’s targeting of Black shoppersA white teenager and avowed racist beelines to a Black neighborhood and fatally guns down 10 supermarket patrons. But what most troubled the pure minds of the right’s leading thinkers? Baby formula, among other things.For the most prominent conservative voices, the major takeaway from last Saturday’s shooting in Buffalo, New York, was not it being one of the worst hate crimes in American history. Or an indictment of gun control legislation. Or an impetus for tighter controls around online forums that provide quarter to bigots and their unhinged plans of mass destruction. No, their major takeaway was literally anything else. Continue reading...

Up to 500 special forces advisers will train Somali forces to combat growing threat of al-Shabaab militants, says White HouseThe US will send up to 500 soldiers back on full-time deployment to Somalia, to train the country’s army to combat the increasing threat posed by al-Shabaab militants.The White House insisted that the move, deepening the US long-term military commitment in an intractable foreign conflict, did not contradict Joe Biden’s overall policy of disengaging from “forever wars”, which underlay the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Continue reading...

Violence includes Buffalo shooting that left 10 people dead, as well as two dead in Houston, one in Los Angeles and five in ChicagoAmerica on Monday was picking up the pieces from a weekend of gun violence that – outside the cost of lives – has refocused the country’s leadership on the toxic interplay of political ideology and easy access to handguns and battlefield weapons.In the most recent case, two people were killed Sunday and at least three others hospitalized after a shooting at a large Houston, Texas, flea market. In California, also on Sunday, at least one person died and five were wounded – including four listed in critical condition – after a shooting at a church with a predominantly Taiwanese congregation in Orange county, south of Los Angeles. Continue reading...

Former first lady refuses to rule out return if husband Donald Trump wins future election, claiming ‘I like Washington DC’Melania Trump has refused to rule out a second term as first lady, should her husband capture the White House again.“Never say never,” she said. Continue reading...

Eleven of the 13 victims were Black, and two were white, after an 18-year-old white man opened fire at a supermarket in New YorkAn 18-year-old white man opened fire at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket on Saturday, killing 10 people and wounding three others in what authorities have described as a “hate crime and racially motivated violent extremism”.Eleven of the 13 victims were Black, and two were white.This is a developing story and will be updated accordingly. Continue reading...

Fauci said ‘no’ when asked if he would stay on as National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases director under Trump againThe US’s top infectious disease expert has said he would resign if Donald Trump retakes the presidency in 2024.Dr Anthony Fauci bluntly said “no” when CNN’s Jim Acosta asked him during an interview on Sunday if he would want to stay on as the director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases in the event that voters gave Trump a second stint as president. Continue reading...