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Hawks in DC are calling for more US involvement in Ukraine. But that would increase the risk of direct US-Russia conflictBiden came to office aiming to focus his foreign policy on the needs of the US middle class. Ending the pandemic, rejuvenating the nation, addressing climate change and competing with China were top priorities. Russia was not. After an initial series of measures designed to punish Vladimir Putin for his chemical-weapons attack on Alexei Navalny, cyber-espionage, and meddling in US domestic politics, policymakers opted to pursue stability and predictability in the US-Russia relationship.The crisis over Ukraine now threatens to derail this aim and distract from Biden’s broader agenda. It would be tragic if, after having been through the painful process of withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Biden administration is now pulled deeper into the crisis over Ukraine.Christopher S Chivvis is the Director of the American Statecraft Program and a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Continue reading...

Living in the US, I have always seized every opportunity to insist things are better in Blighty. But now both countries look ludicrousFor years now I have been living with a chronic condition that I’ve finally been able to diagnose as Privileged Immigrant Derangement Syndrome (PIDS). Let me explain: more than a decade ago I left my native Britain to go and work in New York. I wasn’t fleeing persecution, poverty, or life in a failed state; I just wanted to live in the US. There were more opportunities, I didn’t have to navigate the suffocating class system, and, most importantly, my English accent gave me a competitive edge. Women swooned at my vowel sounds (I’m not making that up: they swooned … OK, I promise at least one woman swooned) and everyone assumed I was on tea-drinking terms with the Queen.Anyway, that’s the PI bit of PIDS. The D bit is this: when you spend extended time away from your home country, it’s easy to build up a romanticised version of it in your head. I became a cheerleader for all things British; I even bought a pair of union jack wellies, and wore them with pride whenever it rained. As my long-suffering American wife can attest, I seized every opportunity to say how much better things were in Blighty than Stateside. We had a superior healthcare system; we weren’t gun-nuts?; our infrastructure was better; our political system wasn’t as drenched with money, and was less corrupt. Even our rain was better. On and on I went about how the UK was infinitely superior to the US.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Some pieces of the puzzle are within Biden’s control and some not, experts say. Plus, the charming history of menopause

There is always an alternative to a custodial sentence. No court decision should endanger the life of an unborn childIn the past three years, two babies born inside English prisons have died. In September 2019, a woman, now known as Ms A, gave birth alone in her cell at HMP Bronzefield and the baby died. In July 2020, a baby was stillborn at HMP Styal. Prison will never be a safe place for pregnant women, so why are our courts still sending them there?Geraldine Brown, Maria Garcia de Frutos and I set about trying to answer that question. Our research into pregnancy in English prisons (there are no women’s prisons in Wales), published this week, has convinced me that imprisoning pregnant women is disproportionate, cruel and simply unnecessary.Rona Epstein is an honorary research fellow at Coventry Law School Continue reading...

The Steelers quarterback is headed to the Hall of Fame. But he was unloved outside Pittsburgh for understandable reasonsBen Roethlisberger is lucky that football legacies are not decided by finales. If Sunday night was indeed Big Ben’s last ever NFL game, as he has strongly hinted, it wasn’t exactly a mic drop. In the 42-21 beatdown by the Chiefs, Roethlisberger struggled with rollouts, and lacked the creativity and finesse of his opposing number, Patrick Mahomes.Just as no one places too much weight on Dan Marino’s 62-7 playoff loss to the Jaguars in his career finale, Roethlisberger’s clunker of an ending won’t be a significant part of his story. But in comparison to Marino – and most other quarterbacks – Roethlisberger’s legacy is complicated. Continue reading...

The family of Martin Luther King Jr has called for the passage of a law to protect voters from racial discrimination, while the vice-president, Kamala Harris, said the right to vote in the US was 'under assault'. As part of the annual MLK Day peace walk, the King family and more than 100 national and local civil rights groups strode across the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge urging the Democrats to pass the bill in the US Senate

The committee is undecided on making the near-unprecedented step as the threat of Republican retaliation loomsThe House select committee investigating the Capitol attack is weighing whether to subpoena some of Donald Trump’s top allies on Capitol Hill as it considers its options on how aggressively it should pursue testimony to move forward its inquiry into the January 6 insurrection.The Republican House minority leader Kevin McCarthy and Republican members of Congress Jim Jordan and Scott Perry may have inside knowledge about Trump’s plan to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election and whether it was coordinated with the Capitol attack. Continue reading...

Spirits at work were common in the 60s, and pints at lunchtime were normal in the 80s, but most workplaces sobered upThe time to be alive, if you wanted to drink hard liquor at work, was the 60s, but it actually is not possible to drink spirits all day without something terrible happening. Not “rude remark” terrible, not “accounting mistake” terrible, but “falling out of a window” terrible. To drink like this, you would have to be both in the 60s and in a film.Nevertheless, a couple of pints at lunchtime, even in reputable careers such as teaching, was still commonplace in the 80s. By the 90s, it had mainly been phased out – except if you were a journalist. When I got my first job on a paper in 1994, it was routine to arrive at 10am, go to lunch at 12.30pm, come back to the office at 2pm to leave your jacket on the chair (the universal camouflage of the presentee), go back to the pub, then regroup in the office at 4.30pm to collect your jacket. When the nation decided to put in charge of the country a bunch of men whose formative professional years were 80s and 90s Fleet Street, the obvious risks were that they would run the place like a newspaper column, with tiny amounts of knowledge parlayed into huge statements that, unlike a column, would turn into concrete acts, and have consequences for millions of lives. That turned out to be devastatingly true, but what, weirdly, none of us predicted was that it would also turn Downing Street into a year-round Oktoberfest.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Puzzle of Biden’s unpopularity has some pieces within his control and some not, experts say, as Covid casts a shadow over his first year in officeJoe Biden ends his first year in office at a particularly bleak moment for a US president who promised competency and normalcy.Much of his domestic agenda is stalled on Capitol Hill, impeded by members of his own party. The virus is once again raging out of control: daily infections of Covid-19 have soared to record levels, hospitalizing more Americans than at any previous point during the pandemic. The administration’s vaccine-or-testing mandate for large employers was blocked by the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority. Inflation is at a nearly 40-year high. Diplomatic talks have so far failed to pull Russia back from the brink of war with Ukraine. Continue reading...

The lawsuit alleges that the jail physician told the four men that the prescribed drugs were ‘mere vitamins, antibiotics and/or steroids’Four inmates at an Arkansas jail have filed a lawsuit against the facility and its doctor after they said they were unknowingly prescribed ivermectin to treat Covid-19 as a form of “medical experimentation” despite US health officials warning that the anti-parasitic drug should not be used for that purpose.The Arkansas’ chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of the men last week against Washington county jail, Washington county sheriff Tim Helder and jail physician Dr. Robert Karas. Last August, Helder revealed that the drug had been prescribed to patients with Covid-19. Continue reading...

Luke was targeted by adverts for ‘free bets’ to lure him back to gambling after he had quit. I’m campaigning to have this kind of marketing bannedThis time last year, my husband Luke and I had everything we wanted: each other, a lovely house and two wonderful children. Three months later, this life was shattered. On 22 April 2021, my wonderful partner took his own life.

Democracy isn’t an institution – it’s a practice that becomes stronger through use. The key to defeating Trump lies in mobilising ordinary people to articulate their real needsThe recent anniversary of the Trumpian riot at the Capitol building highlighted a growing anxiety about the state of democracy both in America and around the world.In a widely circulated article, the Canadian professor Thomas Homer-Dixon warned of a rightwing dictatorship in the US by 2030. At the same time, a Quinnipiac University poll found nearly 60% of Americans believed their democracy is “in danger of collapse”. Continue reading...

The British hostage-taker was originally welcomed and offered tea before the situation turned ‘tense and terrifying’The rabbi and congregants of the Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas have begun offering accounts of their 11-hour, partially live-streamed ordeal at the hands of British hostage-taker Malik Faisal Akram.Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker told CBS he initially welcomed the stranger, who had been staying in a Dallas homeless shelter, and made him a cup of tea. He said the man was not threatening or suspicious at first. Continue reading...

Whales still face many threats, mostly from us, so let us savour this rare congregation of them in the Antarctic PeninsulaGood news doesn’t get any more in-your-face than this. One thousand fin whales, one of the world’s biggest animals, were seen last week swimming in the same seas in which they were driven to near-extinction last century due to whaling. It’s like humans never happened.This vast assembly was spread over a five-mile-wide area between the South Orkney islands and the Antarctic Peninsula. A single whale is stupendous; imagine 1,000 of them, their misty forest of spouts, as tall as pine trees, the plosive sound of their blows, their hot breath condensing in the icy air. Their sharp dorsal fins and steel-grey bodies slide through the waves like a whale ballet, choreographed at the extreme south of our planet. Continue reading...

Martin Luther King’s family and civil rights advocates urged lawmakers to ‘protect our voting rights or be an enabler of voter suppression’Vice-president Kamala Harris on Monday warned that the right to vote in America was “under assault” and tens of millions of Americans faced potential disenfranchisement unless threatened voting rights legislation was passed by US lawmakers.The speech was given on the Martin Luther King day public holiday and comes as King’s family and other civil rights activists in America are pushing for expanded federal voting rights legislation despite political opposition from Republicans. Continue reading...

According to Anti-Defamation League, there were over 2,100 acts of assault, vandalism and harassment last yearThe hostage-taking attack on a Texas synagogue has renewed fears of increasing antisemitism in the US. The incident, which Joe Biden called “an act of terror”, comes as organizations tracking antisemitic violence say it is increasing across the US.“Assault, harassment and vandalism against Jews remain at near-historic levels in the US,” said the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in its most recent Audit of Antisemitic Incidents. According to the group, there were more than 2,100 acts of assault, vandalism and harassment last year, an increase of 12% over the previous year. Continue reading...

More than 50 million under winter weather alerts on Monday morning as Florida also sees tornados and rare snow flurriesA dangerous winter storm brought significant snowfall, strong thunderstorms and blustery winds to the north-east of the US on Monday as well as rare snow flurries and deadly tornados to Florida.More than 50 million people were under winter weather alerts on Monday morning the huge system affected a gigantic swath of the country stretched from Florida to Maine. Continue reading...

Pet was center of children’s books by second family and John Oliver’s satirical book on search for same-sex rabbit partnerMarlon Bundo, the family pet rabbit of former vice-president Mike Pence, has died, marking the end of an unlikely career as a prominent gay rights figure in the US.Charlotte Pence Bond, Pence’s daughter, announced Bundo’s death in posts on social media. “Somehow, you taught me how to always try to be kind first and never stop making an effort to get along. We had some wild times together and I’m forever grateful. Rest in sweet peace, little bunny,” she wrote. Continue reading...

UK counter-terrorism police detain teenagers in Manchester and suspect named as Briton Malik Faisal Akram. Plus, Lego sued over Queer Eye toy jacketGood morning.Two teenagers have been arrested in Manchester, north-west England, after the FBI said an armed British man travelled to Texas and took four hostages at a synagogue in what President Joe Biden called “an act of terror”.Did any of the hostages die? No. All four hostages survived the siege and were unharmed, according to local police.What about Akram? He was pronounced dead after the FBI stormed the building.Where is he from? UK security sources confirmed to the Guardian that the suspect had been a resident of Blackburn in Lancashire. This was later confirmed in a statement by Greater Manchester police.What has Djokovic said? In a statement yesterday, he said he was “extremely disappointed” with the ruling but respected it and would “cooperate with the relevant authorities in relation to my departure from the country”. Continue reading...

People are tired and overworked, and retirement may never come. Do companies like Uber Eats have to remind us of this?A potent memory from one of the more unedifying periods of my life: regularly working late enough to find myself too exhausted or disinclined to cook, completing my commute with minutes to spare before the nearest shop within any reasonable distance closed, and traipsing up and down the aisles, attempting to coax out of hiding – or else will into existence – something more appetising than a microwaveable meal. Usually, this performance ended in succumbing to the most yellow-stickered curry.Sometimes, though, I would refuse this miserable end. I would stoically scour the remaining available takeaway options across the delivery apps and drop more than is advisable on a meal. It would invariably arrive lukewarm after midnight; I’d feel too tired to stay awake, but also completely unable to sleep. Then my alarm for the following morning would sound and I would begin this sordid little ritual all over again.Tristan Cross is a Welsh writer based in London Continue reading...

Martin Luther King Jr was a walking, talking example of everything this country despises about the quest for Black liberationEvery year, on the third Monday in January, America hosts a Sadie Hawkins-style role-reversal where the entire country pretends to celebrate a man whose achievements and values they spent the previous 364 days ignoring, demonizing and trying to dismantle. Today, your favorite vote suppressors will take a brief respite from disenfranchising Black voters, denying history and increasing inequality to celebrate a real American hero.That’s right, it’s MLK Day! Continue reading...

The former criminal prosecution team investigating the Flint water crisis was building a racketeering case against state officials. Then the team was dismantled

As we mark MLK Day, there are plenty of signs the struggle for justice in the US is far from over. Athletes can make a real impact in changing the status quoLast year for Martin Luther King Jr Day, I interviewed a group of WNBA players along with Eric Garner’s daughter, Emerald. We spoke about their campaign to unseat Republican Kelly Loeffler, who had been part of the leadership group of the Atlanta Dream, from the US Senate. With the players’ help, the outside candidate Raphael Warnock beat Loeffler giving Democrats control of the Senate.That election in Georgia was an excellent example of how athletes can cause real change. But, as we mark MLK Day on Monday, there are plenty of signs the struggle is far from over. We’ve just passed the first anniversary of the 6 January riots, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol. The subsequent investigation into the riots was a chance to address the extremism that is poisoning US society. But Republicans have attempted to block the inquiry, while politicians and the rightwing media who fanned the flames have not been held accountable.Etan Thomas played in the NBA from 2000 through 2011. He is a published poet, activist and motivational speaker Continue reading...

Opponents say he leans on ‘wokeness’ and culture war issues that are irrelevant to the real needs of FloridiansThere are still almost 10 months until Florida’s voters elect their next governor, but the campaign of the Republican incumbent, Ron DeSantis, appears well under way.In a red-meat-for-the-base address at the opening of Florida’s legislature last week, themed around the concept of “freedom” but described by critics as a fanfare of authoritarianism, DeSantis gave a clear indication of the issues he believes are on voters’ minds. They include fighting the White House over Covid-19, ballot box fraud, critical race theory in schools and defunding law enforcement. Continue reading...

The US president said the 10-hour hostage standoff in a Texas synagogue, which ended with an FBI Swat team rushing into the building and the captor's death, was 'an act of terror'. Authorities identified the hostage-taker as a 44-year-old British national, Malik Faisal Akram, who was killed on Saturday night after the last hostages ran out of Congregation Beth Israel at about 9pm. Late on Sunday, police in Manchester in the UK announced that two teenagers were in custody in connection with the standoff

A botched play ended what had looked like a promising season for Dak Prescott and Co. It also extended a long title drought for America’s TeamThe thing about completing a successful Hail Mary pass is that it involves throwing an actual Hail Mary. Down six points with 14 seconds left on the clock in his team’s wildcard playoff against the San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott took the ball and ran instead of heaving it into the endzone. It was a disastrous decision that ensured the once-mighty Cowboys suffered yet another early postseason exit.The already infamous final play started on the San Francisco 41-yard line. On 2nd and 1, Prescott rushed for 17 yards before he was taken down by the San Francisco 49ers’ defense. In theory, the QB had just enough time to spike the ball and then attempt a game-winning touchdown on fourth down. Instead, after getting up, Prescott collided with the umpire as the official attempted to place the ball down, a crucial error that allowed the clock to run down. The 49ers held on for a 23-17 victory. Continue reading...

Authorities may release a decade-old 911 call with new police commissioner poised to prioritize caseShannan Gilbert’s grave in Amityville cemetery lies eight miles from where she went missing in May 2011 after visiting a client at Oak Beach, a spit of sand dotted with holiday homes on New York’s Long Island, three miles short of Gilgo Beach, where her remains were found eight months later.Gilbert’s final resting place, with a simple headstone at the back of the cemetery inscribed with her dates – 24 October 1986 – 13 December 2011 – speaks to an enduring mystery of how she, along with 10 or more other women, mostly sex workers who advertised on Craigslist, ended up dead along the same stretch of scrubby barrier marshes more than a decade ago. Continue reading...

The president has had to withstand a barrage from rightwingers – and for Republicans the formula might be workingIt seemed that Joe Biden would be bad for business in “Make America great again” world.In theory, the US president, a white man with working-class roots and moderate policy positions, was a more elusive target for Donald Trump’s increasingly extreme support base than other prominent Democrats. Continue reading...

Joe Biden decries ‘act of terror’ as UK counter-terror police detain teenagers in Manchester and suspect named as Briton Malik Faisal AkramTwo teenagers have been arrested in Manchester, north-western England, after the FBI said an armed British man travelled to Texas and took four hostages at a synagogue in what President Joe Biden called “an act of terror”.On Sunday night, UK counter-terrorism police said the pair, whose ages and genders they did not immediately confirm, been arrested in the south of the city as part of the investigation into the attack and remained in custody for questioning. Continue reading...

A large underwater volcano in Tonga has sent huge swells around the world affecting countries bordering the Pacific Ocean. The tsunami waves caused damage to boats as far away as New Zealand and large swells were seen in California and Japan but did not appear to cause any widespread damage. Two people have drowned off a beach in northern Peru, local authorities say, after unusually high waves were recorded in several coastal areas

Dangerous storm with high winds and ice sweeps through as highway patrols report hundreds of vehicle accidentsA dangerous winter storm combining high winds and ice began sweeping through parts of the US south-east on Sunday, knocking out power, felling trees and fences and coating roads with a treacherous frigid glaze.Tens of thousands of customers were without power in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. Highway patrols were reporting hundreds of vehicle accidents, and a tornado ripped through a trailer park in Florida. More than 1,200 Sunday flights at Charlotte Douglas international were cancelled more than 90% of the airport’s Sunday schedule, according to the flight tracking service flightaware.com. Continue reading...

FBI stormed building after man took four people including a rabbi captive during Shabbat serviceA man who died after taking four people hostage at a Texas synagogue has been named by the FBI as 44-year-old British national Malik Faisal Akram.Akram began a standoff with police after disrupting a religious service at the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, and taking hostages including the rabbi. He released one hostage unharmed after six hours.Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report Continue reading...

Newly elected Republican unveils sweeping conservative orders, including loosening public health mandates during the pandemicVirginia’s newly elected Republican governor has immediately passed a swath of conservative orders – ranging from attempts to alter local school curriculums to loosening public health mandates during the pandemic – after being sworn into office on Saturday.Glenn Youngkin, a former private equity CEO who has never served in public office before, became the state’s first Republican governor since 2010 after a closely watched gubernatorial election last year. Continue reading...

If the president can’t build better he won’t be back. Instead Donald Trump might returnThe US president, Joe Biden, suffered his worst day in office – so far – last Thursday. Mr Biden had begun that morning hoping to convince his party to support his push to change Senate rules to pass two voting rights bills. Even before he got a chance to make his case, Senator Kyrsten Sinema, a rightwing Democrat, rejected the president’s plan. At a stroke, two key parts of Mr Biden’s agenda – racial justice and democracy – appear stalled. On the same day, the US supreme court struck down the Biden administration’s requirement for businesses to make employees either be vaccinated against Covid-19 or test weekly and wear a mask at work. The president’s pledge to lift the threat of the pandemic won’t be redeemed any time soon.Mr Biden’s opponents paint him as a leader of drift and dwindling energy. If this view settles, then it’ll be ​​an image hard to shift. There’s little room for reassessment in politics. That is why the president must change course and have a clear-eyed view of his opponents within and without. The “moderate” wing of the Democratic party has already gutted the president’s climate plans. These Democrats, like most Republicans, depend on a donor class which wants to ​​render legislation inert that would hit corporate profits. Continue reading...

Family, friends and neighbors of the dead try to make sense of the tragedy as they gather to pay final respects to loved onesA Bronx community in New York city gathered on Sunday to pay its final respects to loved ones, a week after a fire filled a high-rise apartment building with thick, suffocating smoke that killed 17 people, including eight children.The mass funeral caps a week of prayers and mourning within a close-knit community hailing from West Africa, most with connections to The Gambia. Continue reading...

The prime minister’s successor would likely pursue a return to Thatcherism and the bleakest of Tory valuesFor proof of how dangerous Boris Johnson’s leadership has become, consider this: public health policy is now merely a subplot in the horrendous drama engulfing the Conservative party. Over the weekend, as government advisers urged caution over Covid restrictions, the prime minister’s allies suggested that the imminent lifting of England’s remaining curbs would launch his fightback. But an unnamed minister cited in the Spectator thought that binning the last rules could neatly coincide with the prime minister’s resignation. This, it was said, would give him an opportunity to claim a huge job had been done and “depart with dignity”.But as with most of what we are hearing from senior Tories, the suggestion seemed to have another meaning: his exit is imagined not just as the end of Johnson’s time at the top, but the curtain falling on a period of interventionist, big-spending government, so normal Tory service can be resumed. Continue reading...

Chair of House veterans affairs committee holding hearings on issue highlighted by veterans’ participation in US Capitol attackA top US lawmaker who heads a congressional committee investigating the targeting of veterans by extremist groups has warned that the problem is a serious one and could get bigger unless it is effectively combated.In an interview with the Guardian Mark Takano, a Democratic congressman from California, said he was concerned about the recruiting strategy being deployed by violent rightwing extremist groups, especially in America’s increasingly fraught political climate in the wake of the 6 January attack on the US Capitol. Continue reading...

The absurdities of a constitutional monarchy can wait for another day. Let’s focus on Virginia Giuffre’s lawsuit against Prince AndrewThings are not looking good for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the Queen’s second son formerly known as His Royal Highness. Last week, a judge in New York rejected his attempt to get the sexual abuse lawsuit Virginia Giuffre has filed against him thrown out. Giuffre is suing him for damages, claiming that she was forced to have sex with him three times in 2001 by the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and his sex trafficker accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, allegations that Andrew denies. The royal family responded by announcing that he has been stripped of his military honours, royal patronages and the use of his HRH title.Any praise for the monarchy for depriving him of his titles is misplaced. The royal family left it until the last possible moment to act. Andrew has brought them into far graver disrepute than Prince Harry, who lost his titles for what, by comparison, is the laughably inconsequential transgression of walking away. The raging debate about the consequences for the monarchy is a distraction from the sexual abuse allegations at stake and accountability for the men complicit in the crimes of Epstein and Maxwell. It should not take a man of Andrew’s obviously questionable character to expose the absurdities of a constitutional hereditary monarchy in a modern democracy. Continue reading...

With its breadth of opinions, the tennis locker room is society in miniatureStefanos Tsitsipas learned to listen to Covid science the hard way. Not the really hard way, of course. Not the hard way that more unfortunate vaccine-resisters have experienced, after they’ve ingested conspiracy theories about side effects and regurgitated social media promises that there’s no risk to the young and healthy. The world’s No 4-ranked tennis player didn’t, mercifully, find himself laid low by the virus or on a ventilator in hospital – he just found himself publicly rebuked by his own government.While Tsitsipas’s father-cum-coach, Apostolos, gave interviews claiming that “athletes have a strong enough immune system to deal with any challenge”, Greece’s government spokesman was pointing out that a 23-year-old tennis player, however successful in his field, had “neither the knowledge, nor the studies, nor the research work” to offer valid opinions on vaccination. The story had a happy ending, though: Tsitsipas did indeed stop spouting poorly informed conjecture and got himself jabbed. Continue reading...

How has the president fared on the four big issues he outlined at his inauguration – and the one he couldn’t ignoreOne year ago on Thursday, Joe Biden took the oath of office as the 46th president at the US Capitol in an inauguration ceremony devoid of the usual crowds due to pandemic restrictions.Biden identified four crises facing America: the coronavirus, the climate, the economy and racial justice. He could have added a fifth: a crisis of democracy in a divided nation where, just two weeks earlier, the Capitol had been overrun by insurrectionists. Continue reading...

Kyrsten Sinema receives millions from business and opposes progressive priorities. Republicans who voted to overturn an election still bag big bucks. Whose side are CEOs on?Capitalism and democracy are compatible only if democracy is in the driver’s seat.That’s why I took some comfort just after the attack on the Capitol when many big corporations solemnly pledged they’d no longer finance the campaigns of the 147 lawmakers who voted to overturn election results. Continue reading...

FBI stormed building hours after the man took four people, including a rabbi, captive during a livestreamed Shabbat serviceAll four hostages at a Texas synagogue have been released unharmed and the captor pronounced dead more than 10 hours after he disrupted a religious service and began a tense stand-off with police.The gunman had initially taken four people, including the rabbi, hostage at the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. One hostage was released unharmed six hours later. Continue reading...

Police have a man in custody in connection with the 40-year-old woman’s death at Times Square station in ManhattanA woman was pushed to her death in front of a subway train at New York’s Times Square station.The man believed responsible for the incident on Saturday morning fled the scene but turned himself in to transit police a short time later, the police commissioner, Keechant Sewell, said at a news conference with the mayor, Eric Adams, at the station. Continue reading...

Denied ballots follow trend across state after Republicans imposed new rules following Trump’s baseless fraud claimsElection officials in the Texas county that includes the state capital, Austin, have rejected about half of applications for mail-in ballots, following new voting restrictions brought in by Republicans.The voter identification rules have led to the rejection of about half of the 700 mail-in ballots requested in Travis county for primary elections in March, according to the county’s clerk. Continue reading...

Shoppers search for supplies as winter storm moves in from midwest before heading to north-eastForecasts of snow and ice as far south as Georgia have put a big part of the south-east of the US on an emergency preparedness footing. Shoppers scoured store shelves for storm supplies and crews raced to treat highways and roads as a major winter storm approached from the midwest.In Virginia, where a blizzard left thousands of motorists trapped on clogged highways earlier this month, the outgoing governor, Ralph Northam, declared a state of emergency and urged people to take the approaching storm seriously. Continue reading...