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As UFC returns to London, Paddy Pimblett and Molly McCann talk wrong-un Tory biscuits, Chattin’ Pony and why there is no one like them in the game

While hundreds of companies have paused operations, three Koch subsidiaries are still operating in the countryPressure is mounting on Koch Industries, the conglomerate run by the rightwing billionaire Charles Koch, to pull out of Russia after it was revealed it was continuing to do business in Russia through three wholly-owned subsidiaries.Hundreds of companies including Coca-Cola, KPMG, McDonald’s, Netflix and Starbucks have paused operations in Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. But, as news site Popular Information revealed last week, three Koch subsidiaries are still operating in the country. Continue reading...

Spate of killings in recent weeks has underscored the dangers faced by those who live on the streetsThe Covid-19 pandemic has been brutally tough on America’s homeless.Already difficult patterns of living, often just survival, were abruptly disrupted as the city emptied and shut down during spikes. Shelters and food pantries no longer functioned in a predictable fashion. Stores and 24-hour subways closed and the homeless were often and conveniently blamed for a wave of robbery and violence. Continue reading...

Four militia group members are on trial for an alleged plot to abduct Gretchen Whitmer but did informants and agents egg on big-talking good ole boys?Four members of the Wolverine Watchmen, a Michigan group that the government accuses of plotting to kidnap and kill Governor Gretchen Whitmer, are – depending on whom you believe – members of a dangerous paramilitary or a group of big-talking good ole boys full of hot air.Adam Fox, Brandon Caserta, Barry Croft Jr and Daniel Harris were charged in October 2020 with conspiring to abduct Whitmer from her northern Michigan vacation house. Their motive, say prosecutors in Grand Rapids, was anger over the Democrat’s Covid-19 restrictions and their plan has become a symbol of rising far-right violence and the threat it represents to US democracy. Continue reading...

Republican known for brusque style said he’d had more than 75 bills signed by a president and he was happy every time he could help a constituentDon Young, a blunt-speaking Republican and the longest-serving member of Congress, has died. He was 88.His office announced Young’s death in a statement on Friday night. Continue reading...

Health authorities listed three fatal and nine non-fatal incidents this month in individuals who had intended to only use cocaineSan Francisco’s health authorities have issued a warning about fentanyl-laced cocaine after several overdoses occurred this month.On Thursday, the San Francisco department of public health issued a health alert that reported three fatal and nine non-fatal fentanyl overdoses among individuals who reportedly intended to only use cocaine. Continue reading...

Proposal is part of Gavin Newsom’s pledge to preserve one-third of the state’s land and coastal waters by 2030Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday proposed giving California’s Indigenous nations $100m so they can purchase and preserve their ancestral lands.The proposal is part of his pledge to make sure nearly one-third of California’s land and coastal waters are preserved by 2030. But rather than have the government do all of that, Newsom said Indigenous leaders should have a say in what lands get preserved. Continue reading...

Ukraine wants more guns and fighter planes from the west: given the defining event of my mother’s life, I understand whyEvery time I look at the pictures of Mariupol or Kharkiv, I see a corner of Whitechapel in east London. I reacted the same way to images of Aleppo and, before that, Falluja and, before that, Grozny, because buildings crushed to rubble have a sad habit of looking the same. It brings back a memory – or rather something fainter: an inherited memory, one that was passed to me.Its origin is 27 March 1945; the 77th anniversary is a little over a week away. Early that morning, at 7.21am, a V2 rocket landed on Hughes Mansions, a block of flats on Vallance Road in the East End. It killed 134 people, more or less instantly. Among them were two sisters, Rivvi and Feige (pronounced fay-ghee). Feige Hocherman was 33 and she left behind two children, a son not yet 11 and a daughter aged eight and a quarter. The little girl was my mother, Sara.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist. To listen to Jonathan’s podcast Politics Weekly America, search “Politics Weekly America” on Apple, Spotify, Acast or wherever you get your podcasts Continue reading...

Michael Davis to spend a year in jail but acquitted of manslaughter over death of Hunter Brittain, 17, during June traffic stopA former Arkansas deputy was convicted on Friday of negligent homicide and sentenced to a year in jail for shooting an unarmed teenager whose death last year drew the attention of national civil rights leaders.Jurors acquitted Michael Davis of manslaughter while finding him guilty of the misdemeanor charge in the death of 17-year-old Hunter Brittain during a June traffic stop outside Cabot, a city of about 26,000 people roughly 30 miles north-east of Little Rock. Continue reading...

Leaders spoke for nearly two hours but Biden did not make any direct requests to Xi to persuade Putin to end the attackJoe Biden spoke for nearly two hours with Xi Jinping as the US sought to dissuade China from backing Russia’s war on Ukraine.A White House account of the call on Friday said that the US president “described the implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia as it conducts brutal attacks against Ukrainian cities and civilians”. Continue reading...

Natural Black hairstyles are often considered ‘unprofessional’ and school children face detention over dress code violationsThe US House of Representatives on Friday passed a bill banning race-based discrimination on hair, specifically textures or styles associated with a particular race or national origin such as dreadlocks, afros and braids.The bill is known as the Crown Act, standing for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair. It was co-sponsored by the progressive Democratic representatives Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, among others, who cited research showing that Black students were significantly more likely to face school detention, often for dress code violations based on their hair. Continue reading...

Gusty conditions were expected to complicate containment efforts and ‘support wildfire activity’ in the Eastland Complex fireLow humidity and gusty winds fueled multiple wildfires on Friday in Texas, burning homes and other buildings and prompting hundreds to evacuate .Fueled by strong winds through dangerously dry brush and grass fields, the wildfires merged to form what fire officials call a “complex” that was burning near Eastland, about 120 miles (195 km) west of Dallas. As of Friday morning, fires in the area had burned roughly 52,700 acres (21,300 hectares), according to Texas A&M forest service, including the 45,383-acre (18,365-hectare) Eastland Complex fire that was only 4% contained. Continue reading...

The US must prepare now for the next surge or variant, whether it’s BA.2 or a different one, experts sayCases and deaths from Covid-19 have fallen in the US, but warning signs and rises in other countries are prompting experts to take future and existing variants of the virus seriously – and they are warning that America has not yet reached the endemic phase.It’s important to prepare now for the next surge or variant, whether that’s BA.2 or a different one, experts say. Continue reading...

North Carolina authorities are investigating claims Mark Meadows did not reside, visit or own the address he is registered atMark Meadows, who served as former President Donald Trump’s final chief of staff and has echoed his false claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, is being investigated in North Carolina over his voter registration, state authorities said.North Carolina’s state bureau of investigation was assigned to lead the inquiry after a district attorney referred the matter to the state department of justice special prosecutions section, a department spokeswoman, Nazneen Ahmed, said in an email. Continue reading...

To keep out the virus, the city shut up shop – and shut down protests. But low vaccination rates mean it has now stormed our defencesThe streets are quiet. The beaches are inaccessible. Theatres, museums, schools, gyms and libraries are shut. Hong Kong is going round in circles, closing down and opening up just a little bit, in an endless loop that has everybody feeling claustrophobic. For more than two years, the city’s success in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic relied not on vaccinations, but almost entirely on keeping the virus out, and making it hard for people to get together in large groups. Now the virus has breached the defences – and we’re paying the price.At the beginning of the pandemic, Hong Kong’s biggest political upheaval in decades was still under way, with daily protests, at times violent, and countless arrests. The health crisis allowed for the imposition of emergency measures that kept the virus at bay – along with crowds of people. For most of the past two years, no more than four people could meet up in public; now that number is two. It has been difficult to disentangle the measures taken to prevent illness from those taken to prevent political protests – and this mix has bred a toxic mistrust. Continue reading...

Parent company RBI cannot do it directly because of complicated legal contract with main partner

Monthly payments became a lifeline for many families, and their lapse had a devastating effect, but the policy seems to have no path forward in the SenateIf the negotiations over Democrats’ Build Back Better Act had gone differently, tens of millions of American families would have received checks on Tuesday. Instead, for the third month in a row, the monthly payments from the expanded child tax credit were not distributed.The monthly checks, which were approved last year as part of Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief package, had become a lifeline for many families struggling to financially recover from the pandemic. But the payments came to an end in December, after Democrats failed to pass their Build Back Better Act, which would have extended the policy. Continue reading...

Leaders of China and US will hold first phone call since invasion of Ukraine. Plus, carcinogenic chemical found in 27% of US personal care products

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori’s return home is a step forward, but UK-Iran tensions are far from resolved

Lieutenant governor Janice McGeachin is building a coalition including white nationalist and far-right militia backing, in what she tells supporters is ‘the fight of our lives’As the far right in America seeks to increase its political influence, including by seeking elected office, one figure is emerging as potentially its most powerful figure: Idaho’s lieutenant governor, Janice McGeachin.McGeachin is running for governor of the state and building a coalition including white nationalist and far-right militia backing, in what she tells her supporters is “the fight of our lives”. Continue reading...

The idea that the American way of life is under threat from a variety of ‘others’ is wildly overblown but widely believedEvery evening, Fox News tells a story about America.It’s a story about how traditional American values are being undermined by radical leftists – how marginalized populations actually account for a huge portion of the country, and that they want to take America from white Christians. These radicals are atheists, Muslims, Jews. They are people of color, vegans, coastal city dwellers and, of course, Democrats. Continue reading...

Independent lab found the chemical in more than a quarter of items it tested – sometimes at levels considered ‘life threatening’Independent testing has found hundreds of popular personal care items in the US to be contaminated with benzene, a highly carcinogenic chemical, prompting several big brands to voluntarily recall dozens of products in recent months.The lab, Valisure, last year detected benzene in hand sanitizers, sunscreens, deodorant, dry shampoos, conditioners, antiperspirants, deodorants, body sprays and anti-fungal treatments. The contamination has been most frequently detected in aerosol or spray products, some at levels the Food and Drug Administration characterized as “life-threatening”. Continue reading...

The actor formed an ownership group that includes athletes and Hollywood stars to found a different type of team. The club has already sold 14,000 season ticketsThere are few better places to hold a preseason training camp than at Malibu’s Pepperdine University, whose football pitch seems to hover over the shimmering Pacific Ocean. It makes a memorable opening scene for Angel City FC.A typical American expansion team’s start is often rocky: Fighting for decent players, for fans, for attention, for a shred of dignity following lopsided defeats. But Angel City FC, who debut in the National Women’s Soccer League this year, are far from typical. Although they don’t play their first match until Saturday in the NWSL Challenge Cup, things already look quite different around here. Continue reading...

Leaders will hold first phone call since the invasion of Ukraine on Friday, amid speculation that Beijing could provide financial or military support to Moscow

Joe Biden labelled Vladimir Putin 'a murderous dictator,' and 'a pure thug' during an address for St Patrick's day. Biden said Putin was paying the price for his aggression, while detailing his planned call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The call comes at western countries look to put pressure on China not to support Russia following its invasion of Ukraine

Tennessee national guard says officers ‘safe and accounted for’ after Russian media falsely identified them as slain mercenariesThree current and former members of the Tennessee national guard, who were falsely identified in a Russian media report as mercenaries killed in Ukraine, are in fact alive and well, the Tennessee national guard said on Thursday.Joe Biden ordered the withdrawal of US troops from Ukraine prior to Russia’s invasion of the country as part of a broader effort to avoid a direct confrontation with the nuclear-armed adversary. Continue reading...

U2 singer’s poem, read at the annual Friends of Ireland lunch, encompasses Irish mythology and the Russia-Ukraine warNancy Pelosi, the House speaker and one of the most powerful Democrats in the country, has marked St Patrick’s Day by reading aloud a poem by Bono that encompassed both Irish mythology and the crisis in Ukraine.Pelosi was attending the annual Friends of Ireland lunch in Washington DC on Thursday, when she said she had been sent some verse.Oh, St Patrick he drove out the snakes

Congressional Progressive Caucus urges president to bypass legislative logjam and give Democrats record to campaign onThe leftwing Congressional Progressive Caucus unveiled its highly anticipated list of suggested executive orders on Thursday, outlining a strategy for Joe Biden to advance Democrats’ policy priorities in the US while much of his legislative agenda has stalled on Capitol Hill.The move reflects pressure from the left of the Democratic party to try to keep Biden pushing an ambitious program of action, despite setbacks and as November’s midterm elections are widely expected to favor a resurgent Republican party. Continue reading...

Former California governor, 74, calls on Putin to stop attack on Ukraine and says ‘this is not the Russian people’s war’Former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday told the Russian people that they are being fed misinformation about their country’s assault on Ukraine and appealed to President Vladimir Putin to stop the attack.The Hollywood star said in the nine-minute video on Twitter that the Kremlin was intentionally lying to Russians by saying the invasion was intended to “denazify” Ukraine. Russia describes its actions as a “special operation”. Continue reading...

Louis Sojo claims that his captain racially harassed him and said he was ‘not a real cop’ after he paid for an alleged shoplifter’s foodA New York police officer who made headlines after buying food for an alleged shoplifter is now suing the department and his captain over racial harassment and slurs following his good deed.In July 2019, Louis Sojo and a few other officers were asked to confront a woman who was suspected of shoplifting at a Whole Foods grocery store in New York City. Sojo found food containers in the woman’s bag, filled with food from the store’s hot food bar. Continue reading...

Newly released clip from two years ago shows Edward Bronstein being forced to a mat with at least five officers holding him downA southern California man died nearly two years ago as he screamed “I can’t breathe” while multiple officers restrained him as they tried to take a blood sample, according to records and a video.Edward Bronstein, 38, was taken into custody by California highway patrol (CHP) officers on 31 March 2020 following a traffic stop. Bronstein died less than two months before George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis as he, too, repeatedly told officers “I can’t breathe.” Continue reading...

We have to prepare for floods and fires together, otherwise many Australians will get left behind

America and Europe’s response to the war is already unprecedented in military, economic and political terms – what should they do now?The United States and its allies need to strike a balance between making Putin’s appalling invasion in Ukraine as costly as possible, while avoiding uncontrolled escalation that could lead to a much broader and more dangerous war. So far, the White House has managed to walk this tightrope, but it’s almost certain to grow harder the longer the war goes on, as Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s impassioned address to the US Congress on Wednesday demonstrated.Naturally, for the Ukrainian president, the more involved Nato gets, the better. Ukraine’s chances of repelling the Russian invaders on the battlefield may be slim, but with luck and the world’s support, there’s still hope that he will survive long enough that Putin has no alternative but to negotiate an end to war that leaves Ukraine’s sovereignty intact. Right now, this seems like the best of any realistic outcome.Christopher S Chivvis is a senior fellow and director of the Carnegie Endowment’s American statecraft program Continue reading...

Rate decreased from 14.2% in 2018 to less than 5.6% in 2021 thanks to child tax credit and funding for food, among other expansionsThe child poverty rate in the US has improved dramatically because of expansions of the social safety net during the Covid-19 pandemic, but experts are warning that allowing such measures to expire may reverse these historic gains.While the pandemic put pressure on the wellbeing of millions of children, new measures greatly improved child welfare. The child poverty rate decreased from 14.2% in 2018 to less than 5.6% in 2021, and the rate of severe poverty was cut nearly in half, according to projections. Continue reading...

There are often no words for what we endure. Yet after the pandemic, more people are trying to find a language of lossWidow is an awful word. It conjures up such drab and lonely images; and besides, it defines a woman by what she has lost and what she no longer is. But at least there is a word for having lost your husband. For the other heart-stopping losses that come to many in midlife, and some even earlier – the death of your parents, or of a sibling, or a child, or perhaps a best friend – there isn’t even a word. Yet these are life stages in their own right too, and deserving of closer understanding. For some reason, which may or may not be connected to the raw and unpeeled state of our emotions after a pandemic, a small window now seems to be opening on to an underexplored world.The writer Clover Stroud’s The Red of My Blood, a memoir about trying to make sense of the death of her 46-year-old sister, Nell, from cancer, was published recently to a chorus of recognition and relief from some bereaved readers. After the funeral and the flurry of condolence letters, and the awkwardness of people just not knowing what to stay, there is still the long haul ahead of reconstructing a good life without someone who used to be central to it. And that’s what this book is about. Clover is a working mother of five: she might be dazed with grief but there is still pasta to be cooked, school runs to be done. In the spaces in between, however, she is constantly puzzling over the seeming impossibility of Nell being gone. How can she simply stop existing? The book revolves around Clover’s constant search for her sister, looking for her in photographs and in places they went as children and in the last things she touched when she was still alive. When you lose someone you love, they are suddenly everywhere but nowhere. Decades on, I still remember that irrational lurch of recognition at the face in the crowd that surely has to be them – except, of course, when you get closer it isn’t, and can’t ever be again.Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Exclusive: first experience based on hit film franchise will open next month at Gardaland in ItalyThe $2bn Hollywood film franchise Jumanji is coming to the real world in a global deal to open themed attractions, rides, hotel rooms and retail outlets across Europe and North America.The deal struck between Sony Pictures Entertainment and UK-headquartered Merlin Entertainments will involve the development of Jumanji-themed “lands” at theme parks to bring to life the films that have starred Robin Williams, Kirsten Dunst, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Karen Gillan. Continue reading...

The 9/11 Tribute Museum is closing its doors permanently after running up too much debt during the pandemicThe 9/11 Tribute Museum in New York will be shuttering its doors permanently after running up too much debt during the Covid-19 pandemic.The museum is the smaller and far well less known of the two museums built in honor of the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the US. Continue reading...

Moses was freed last month after being sentenced to six years in prison for trying to register to vote. Our talk was revelatoryHello, and happy Thursday,Last week, I spoke on the phone with Pamela Moses, the Black Lives Matter activist who was sentenced to six years in prison for trying to register to vote. It was the first interview Moses has given since being released, and I found it revelatory. Continue reading...

Officials confirmed the monetary settlement with families of those wounded or killed in the 2018 high school shooting in FloridaFederal officials have confirmed that the US Department of Justice has reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with the families of most of those killed or wounded in the 2018 Florida high school massacre, over the FBI’s failure to stop the gunman even though it had received information he intended to attack.Attorneys for 16 of the 17 killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland and some of those wounded previously announced in November that they had reached a monetary settlement with the government over the FBI’s failure to investigate a tip it received about a month before the massacre. The 17th family chose not to sue. Continue reading...

Biden calls Putin a ‘war criminal’ amid attacks on Kyiv. Plus, 13% of mail ballots rejected in Texas primary