Sidney Holmes, who served 30 years, released after new inquiry found eyewitness identification was likely ‘misidentification’A man who served more than 30 years of a 400-year prison sentence has been freed after he was exonerated for armed robbery charges.On Monday, 57-year-old Sidney Holmes was released from prison in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after the state decided to reinvestigate a 1988 armed robbery in which Holmes was accused of being the getaway driver. Continue reading...
Adult film star was paid $130,000 in hush money to keep her alleged 2006 sexual encounter with the ex-president under wrapsThe adult film star Stormy Daniels met with investigators on Wednesday to discuss the former president’s role in a hush money payment made ahead of the 2016 election in exchange for her silence about claims of a sexual liaison.The news emerged as Michael Cohen, a former Trump attorney who orchestrated the payment, was giving a second day of testimony before a New York grand jury looking into the matter. Continue reading...
Former Los Angeles mayor takes diplomatic post after weathering doubts about his truthfulness in a sexual harassment scandalEric Garcetti, the former mayor of Los Angeles, was confirmed on Wednesday as the nation’s next ambassador to India, 20 months after he was first nominated by Joe Biden and after weathering doubts about his truthfulness in a sexual harassment scandal involving a top adviser during his time at City Hall.The 52-42 vote in a divided Senate gave the administration a long-sought victory in filling one of the country’s highest-profile diplomatic posts. Continue reading...
by Martin Pengelly in New York and Amy Hawkins, senio on (#69V0D)
US attorney says Wengui, also known as Miles Guo and Ho Wan Kwok, used stolen money to buy a $3.5m Ferrari and finance a $37m yachtGuo Wengui, a self-exiled Chinese tycoon with close links to prominent Trumpist Republicans including Steve Bannon, has been indicted on 12 counts relating to an alleged $1bn fraud.The charges announced by the US attorney for the southern district of New York on Wednesday include wire fraud, securities fraud, bank fraud and money laundering. Continue reading...
US says any recovery operation in such deep water would be difficult and unlikely to yield useful intelligenceMoscow has said it intends to recover the wreckage of a US drone brought down on Tuesday following an interception by Russian fighter jets, but US officials said the debris could be in such deep water that recovery is impossible, and would have no real intelligence value.“I don’t know if we can recover [it] or not, but we will certainly have to do that, and we will deal with it,” said Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s security council, on Wednesday. “I certainly hope for success.” Continue reading...
Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina senator, revealed the ex-president’s state of mind after 2020 loss to the Georgia grand jurySuch was Donald Trump’s troubled state of mind after the 2020 election that he would have believed aliens had stolen his ballots if anyone had told him so, a leading Republican senator said, according to a member of the special grand jury in the investigation of the former president’s attempt to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden in Georgia.According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, an unnamed juror described Senator Lindsey Graham, from South Carolina and a close Trump ally, as saying: “During that time, if somebody had told Trump that aliens came down and stole Trump ballots … Trump would’ve believed it.” Continue reading...
Stallion zebra, which was behaving ‘erratically’, shot dead by police after attacking Ronald Clifton, 72A midwestern farmer called emergency services, shouting: “Come before it gets me again!” after he was attacked by his pet zebra at a farm in Circleville, Ohio.The zebra, which bit Ronald Clifton, 72, on the arm, partially severing it, was the only stallion in a small herd of four or five mares. Continue reading...
Proposal also calls for gender neutral language at women’s college whose alumni include Hillary Clinton and Madeleine AlbrightStudents at the famed Wellesley College for women voted this week to extend admission to trans men and non-binary students, though campus administrators have said there is “no plan” to immediately change school policy.In a non-binding election on Tuesday, students at the liberal arts college in Massachusetts voted to open admission to all non-binary and transgender students, including trans men, reported Wellesley News, the college’s student newspaper. Continue reading...
I am fed up of solo flyers – usually women – having to give up their seats just because other passengers have kids in towAfter nearly a decade working as cabin crew for an international airline, I have a sixth sense for when a passenger is about to ask me a question. On a flight last month, two parents stand in the aisle before takeoff, laden with baby gear, huffing and puffing. I clock them gesturing towards a woman seated in an aisle seat, travelling alone.The man calls me over, looking exasperated. He wants to be able to sit with his partner and two young children, but his family’s seats are spread across a row, with an aisle in between them, he tells me. He wants me to ask the woman to move so the family can sit together.Meryl Love is the pseudonym of a crew member working for an international airlineDo 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...
Seven sheriff’s office employees charged with second-degree murder after man died during intake process at mental hospitalSeven Virginia sheriff’s office employees have been charged with second-degree murder in connection with the death of a 28-year-old man at a state hospital for mental health last week, a local prosecutor said.Henrico county sheriff’s office personnel took the victim, Irvo Otieno, to Central State hospital on 6 March to admit him as a patient, said Dinwiddie county commonwealth’s attorney, Ann Cabell Baskervill, late on Tuesday. Continue reading...
Rail company faces 58-count civil lawsuit over chemical-releasing derailment and ‘long string’ of other hazardous incidentsThe state of Ohio is suing the rail giant Norfolk Southern over the derailment of a freight train carrying toxic chemicals through the village of East Palestine last month, calling it one of a “long string” of derailments and hazardous material incidents involving the company.The 58-count civil lawsuit, filed in federal court, seeks to hold the rail company financially responsible for the derailment that caused the release of over 1m gallons of chemicals, calling it “recklessly endangering” to the residents of East Palestine and the state’s natural resources. Continue reading...
by Gabriel Baumgaertner, Hunter Felt, Bryan Armen Gra on (#69TNN)
Will this be Alabama’s year to cut down the nets? Who is this season’s Cinderella team? Our writers break down the bracket for the NCAA tournamentIt is. Alabama were named the tournament’s top overall seed despite losing five games, two more than fellow No 1 seed Houston. The West region is widely considered a gauntlet that could produce an unlikely Final Four side and pundits can’t even agree on a favorite Cinderella team. Get ready for it to get weird. Gabriel Baumgaertner Continue reading...
Police swarmed camp on Saturday, detained activists and confiscated property; one person arrested, for a traffic ticketA police helicopter circled so close to a house in the leafy Atlanta neighborhood called Lakewood late on Saturday night that a resident said he could “damn near see the pilot”.The resident, who asked for anonymity in order to speak with the Guardian, decided to go to a nearby friend’s house. Others were not so lucky. Several dozen other people, including members of a medical crew, were then rousted from campsites on the resident’s property during a post-dawn police raid that followed. Continue reading...
Letting our children watch TV can feel like a shameful secret. Let’s throw off the guilt and embrace the benefits of CBeebiesAs the baby turns one, I’ve been looking back at the past year – which seems somehow to have been both the longest and shortest of my life – and reflecting on what I’ve learned. I embarked upon parenthood thinking I was at least a little bit prepared in terms of what it involved, only for it to be made swiftly apparent that I am utterly clueless. In fact, one of the sharpest, most humbling lessons so far has been the dawning understanding that no one actually really knows what they are doing most of the time.I suspect that before a baby arrives we all have some ideas about the sort of parents we are going to be, only to guiltily dispense with those “principles” one by one as the child grows. This has never been more apparent to me than when thinking about screen time. How I laugh now at the sweet summer child who obnoxiously recommended the CBeebies Prom to my fellow National Childbirth Trust (NCT) mums, keen to stress that of course I turned his bouncer to face away from the screen. I’m surprised the poor baby didn’t get a crick in his neck from craning to see what was going on. Continue reading...
New York prosecutors expanded criminal inquiry of company last year and examined acceptance of $8m with suspected Russian tiesFederal prosecutors in New York involved in the criminal investigation into Donald Trump’s social media company last year started examining whether it violated money laundering statutes in connection with the acceptance of $8m with suspected Russian ties, according to sources familiar with the matter.The company – Trump Media, which owns Trump’s Truth Social platform – initially came under criminal investigation over its preparations for a potential merger with a blank check company called Digital World that was also the subject of an earlier probe by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Continue reading...
by Abené Clayton in Los Angeles and David Smith in W on (#69SAM)
Merrick Garland, the attorney general, tasked with moving the country ‘as close to universal background checks as possible’Joe Biden announced Tuesday a new slate of executive actions that are aimed at reducing gun violence and the proliferation of guns that are sold to prohibited people.The president spoke at a community center in Monterey Park, California, meeting victims’ families and community members devastated by a mass shooting that claimed 11 lives and injured nine other people in January following a large lunar new year festival in the city’s downtown. Continue reading...
The rare event is the result of the region experiencing its snowiest season in 70 years, with more storms expected to hit the stateAmid an onslaught of intense winter storms that have hit California in recent weeks and sent record snow across the Sierra Nevada, Lake Tahoe’s Emerald Bay has frozen over for the first time in decades.The bay, a treasured landmark on the lake’s south-west shore and popular destination, regularly gets icy during Tahoe’s chilly winters, but has not frozen completely in 30 years. Last week, as temperatures in the region fell below freezing, California state parks staff snowshoed in and found a thin layer of ice covering the bay. Continue reading...
Major rivers were overflowing in 16 locations in the state, including in central California where a levee on the Pajaro River failedA powerful atmospheric river pummeling California could cause even more flooding and mudslides in regions already waterlogged after weeks of back-to-back storms.The National Weather Service declared a high risk of excessive rainfall across the state, in both coastal and mountainous communities. “Lives and property are in great danger from Tuesday into Wednesday,” the agency warned. Continue reading...
by Julian Borger in Washington and Pjotr Sauer on (#69SXK)
US accuses Russia of ‘unsafe and unprofessional’ intercept of MQ-9 Reaper drone over waters west of Crimea• See all our Ukraine coverageA Russian fighter has collided with a US Reaper drone, forcing it down into the Black Sea, in what US forces called an “unsafe and unprofessional” intercept.A US European Command statement said the collision happened just after 7am on Tuesday morning, when two Russian Su-27 fighter jets flew up to the MQ-9 Reaper drone over international waters west of Crimea. The statement said the Russian pilots sought to disrupt the US aircraft before the collision. Continue reading...
The senator, a leading force in the Democratic push for gun control, warns the US is ‘headed towards a very dangerous place’A Democratic US senator at the forefront of a push to enact new gun control measures has said Republicans “don’t give a crap” about children or gun violence.Connecticut’s Chris Murphy – who has been a leading force for Democrat gun control efforts since the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting killed 26 people in his state, 20 of them children – made the comment in a wide-ranging interview with Salon that was published on Tuesday. Continue reading...
One of her biggest victories was signing a family leave bill in 1993, providing job protection for care of a newborn, sick child or parentPat Schroeder, a pioneer for women’s and family rights in Congress who confronted and angered conservatives, has died. She was 82.Schroeder’s former press secretary, Andrea Camp, said the former congresswoman suffered a stroke recently and died on Monday in Celebration, Florida. Continue reading...
State supreme court previously struck down GOP-drawn congressional map that favored RepublicansThe North Carolina supreme court heard oral arguments on Tuesday in a major gerrymandering case that could have significant implications for US voting rights.In a highly unusual move, the North Carolina court appears poised to overrule itself and get rid of congressional and state legislative districts it approved last year. The GOP-drawn map that was struck down could have produced a 11-3 advantage for Republicans in the congressional delegation. The one that replaced it was far less advantageous to the GOP and wound up producing a 7-7 split in the 2022 midterm elections. The court’s decision would likely allow Republicans to get a more advantageous map back in place. Continue reading...
Former president promotes book of correspondence with mournful claim that ‘only half’ of those included still like himQueen Elizabeth II, Diana, Princess of Wales, Richard Nixon, Oprah Winfrey, Hillary Clinton and other correspondents will be shown to have “kissed my ass”, Donald Trump said on Tuesday, promoting a forthcoming book of their letters.Letters to Trump will contain 150 missives from figures also including Kim Jong-un and Ronald Reagan. Drawn from Trump’s life before and after he ran for president, the book is due to be published next month. Continue reading...
Proposals also include financing debt forgiveness, guaranteed annual incomes for families and homes in the city for $1San Francisco lawmakers will consider a range of options on Tuesday to provide reparations to Black people for decades of racist treatment by the city government, from providing reparation tax credits to helping finance debt forgiveness for Black families.The proposals will be presented at a city meeting today, though there is no immediate timeline for action. The most prominent and controversial proposal is a “one time lump sum payment” of $5m to all eligible Black people, a number that the chair of the city’s reparations committee called “actually low when you consider the harm”. Continue reading...
Pentagon press secretary Air Force Brig Gen Pat Ryder told reporters during a press briefing that two Russian fighter jets intercepted an American drone in international airspace, dumping fuel over it and forcing the US to ground the drone. Ryder said: 'At approximately 7:03am CET, one of the Russian Su-27 aircraft struck the propeller of the MQ-9, causing US forces to have to bring the MQ-9 down in international waters'
Plans for the two countries to restore diplomatic relations are welcome, but are only a modest step forward“Perhaps the first major diplomatic example of a post-America Middle East,” wrote one analyst. He was describing Iran and Saudi Arabia’s agreement last week to resume diplomatic relations – a surprise to most observers, and something of a coup for China, which brokered it. The volatile rivalry between the two nations has been one of the great geopolitical faultlines since the Iranian revolution of 1979. Security concerns, claims to regional leadership, ethno-sectarian rivalries and other factors have all played their part. The repercussions have been profound. The tensions contributed to Iran’s all-out support for the Syrian regime, fuelled the war in Yemen, where more than 150,000 have died, and accelerated the disintegration of the state in Lebanon. Ties were cut in 2016 when Iranian protesters stormed Saudi diplomatic missions over Riyadh’s execution of a revered Shia cleric.But while last week’s announcement was welcome, it is only a beginning. Assuming the deal goes ahead – there are two months for details to be ironed out – the containment of Saudi-Iranian tensions will not necessarily lead to a deeper rapprochement, let alone end Lebanon’s woes or the complex and multifaceted conflict in Yemen. Continue reading...
Ready-to-eat packaged meals will be modified to satisfy federal nutrition regulations and will be offered to students this fallThe ready-to-eat packaged meals – known as Lunchables that are sold at grocery stores and have sustained generations of American schoolchildren are set to be served directly to students at school lunch programs beginning in the fall.But Heinz, the Pittsburgh-based company which manufactures them, first had to change their ingredients to satisfy federal nutrition regulations. Continue reading...
David Subil is accused of posing as grocery employee to steal seafood deliveries from distributor in Washington stateA crab-hungry crook in Washington state has been arrested after allegedly posing as a grocery employee to orchestrate the theft of $700,000 in crustaceans from an unsuspecting seafood distributor.Federal authorities pinched David Subil in late February after they accused him of pretending to work for Safeway grocery so he could pilfer pounds upon pounds of shellfish, according to the Seattle television news station KING. Continue reading...
by Guardian staff and the Associated Press on (#69SPV)
Jump of nearly 12% reverses previous, incomplete FBI data that appeared to show a dropThe number of US hate crimes increased again in 2021, continuing an alarming rise, according to FBI data released on Monday.A jump of nearly 12% reverses previous, incomplete FBI information that appeared to show a drop but lacked data from some of the nation’s largest cities, including New York and Los Angeles. Continue reading...
New studies confirm that having more money can improve our wellbeing. So much for the story powerful people have always tried to pushNews just in: money does buy you happiness. Duh, you might say. Anyone could have told you that; it’s hardly a Nobel-prize winning insight. Well, actually, it kinda is: in 2010, Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel prize-winning economist and psychologist, came out with the theory that there was a monetary “happiness plateau”. Once you hit an annual household income of $75,000 (£62,000), earning more money didn’t make you any happier. In 2021, the happiness researcher Matthew Killingsworth released a dissenting study, showing that happiness increased with income and there wasn’t evidence of a plateau. Now the pair have teamed up in a process known as “adversarial collaboration” and released a new study finding that they were both sort of right, but Killingsworth was more right: for most people, earning more money makes you happier.There is some nuance to this. If you are extremely unhappy, happiness apparently increases with household income up to $100,000 (£82,000), then it “abruptly” levels off: there are some problems money can’t fix. For people who are in the “middle range of emotional wellbeing”, happiness increases linearly with income. And for very happy people, happiness accelerates above $100,000. The study didn’t look at incomes above $500,000, so we don’t have any insight into whether joyriding around space is making Jeff Bezos feel truly fulfilled. Or whether Rishi Sunak’s newly heated swimming pool is warming the cockles of his heart.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
DoJ alleges pharmacy chain knowingly filled prescriptions that were ‘medically unnecessary’, including opioidsThe US government has sued Rite Aid, one of the nation’s largest pharmacy chains, for allegedly missing “red flags” when it knowingly filled unlawful drug prescriptions – including opioids and fentanyl – and ignored internal controls on its practices.In a complaint filed on Monday, the federal justice department asserted that Rite Aid “filled at least hundreds of thousands of unlawful prescriptions for controlled substances that were medically unnecessary, lacked a medically accepted indication, or were not issued in the usual course of professional practice” between 2014 and 2019. Continue reading...
President Macron is facing a titanic battle to secure his pension changes. This standoff sets the tone for future battles elsewhereIf French democracy were in a healthier state, Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform legislation would have already been scrapped by now. Broadly unpopular from the outset, his plans to raise the country’s retirement eligibility age from 62 to 64 have triggered a protest movement – historically large even by French standards – lasting nearly two months.Many in the streets view the bill as a breach of the social contract: workers in France contribute a hefty share of earnings over the course of their careers to support a relatively generous and effective retirement system. Lifting the eligibility floor amounts to a very real cut in benefits, and one that will disproportionately hurt the least well-off. If you talk to the protesters, they’ll tell you this reform is cruel and unjust. Continue reading...
President reveals he visited his Democratic predecessor, who is receiving hospice care at home in Plains, GeorgiaJimmy Carter – who entered home hospice care in February – has asked fellow Democratic president Joe Biden to eulogize him after he dies, Biden has revealed.Biden told people at a fundraiser in Rancho Santa Fe, California, on Monday that he had recently visited Carter after the 98-year-old former president’s health had “finally caught up with him”, according to multiple reports on the remarks. Continue reading...
China's foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters that the US, UK and Australia 'are walking further down the path of error and danger'. The comments were made in a press conference in response to the Aukus partners' announcement of a multibillion-dollar deal on nuclear-powered submarines. The deal, made by leaders during a meeting in San Diego, will provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines in an effort to counter the rise of China in the Indo-Pacific. The Chinese government accuse the three countries of pursuing a deal 'for the sake of their own geopolitical interests disregarding the concerns of the international communities' Continue reading...
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