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Hakeem Jeffries and Nancy Pelosi have led an emotional commemoration on the steps of the US Capitol building to mark the second anniversary of the January 6 Capitol riot.

The extreme Republicans blocking Kevin McCarthy are refusing to accept a loss – the core of the Trumpist playbookAutocrats around the world, after a pretty bad 2022, must be delighted: just in time for the second anniversary of the Capitol insurrection, the US is providing a spectacle of democratic dysfunction for stunned global audiences to behold. But the Republican faction holding the country hostage – the farthest right inside what de facto has become a far-right party – wants to convince us that this is simply what democracy looks like – messy and frustrating, but all happening for the sake of a better result in the end. The Groundhog Day-style procedures are dignified as – in the words of failed speaker of the House candidate Byron Donalds – a “deliberative, open process” necessary for the “constitutional republic that is America”.The fact is that the Republicans blocking Kevin McCarthy’s bid for speaker are not crazy when they suggest that good-faith debate within the same political party can be beneficial for a democratic polity. Except that their political performance art is really about a refusal to accept a loss – the very core of the Trumpist playbook. This is not what democracy looks like; this is what acting out a belief in minority rule looks like. Continue reading...

Lawsuit filed by Sandra Garza alleges ex-president’s ‘campaign of lies’ played a ‘significant role’ in the death of Brian SicknickThe partner of Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick, who died after the January 6 attack on Congress, has sued Donald Trump, alleging that the former president’s “campaign of lies and incendiary rhetoric” about the 2020 presidential election motivated the mob, and played a “significant role in the medical condition” that killed the officer.The lawsuit, filed in Washington DC federal court, names Trump and two other January 6 rioters who attacked Sicknick, and demands millions in damages. It was brought by Sicknick’s longtime partner, Sandra Garza, a day before the insurrection’s second anniversary. Continue reading...

The Biden administration made two moves to protect medication abortionThere have been so few victories for the pro-choice movement over the past year that women’s rights advocates can be forgiven for taking pleasure in two moves that the Biden administration made this week.The first, from the Department of Justice (DoJ), was a statement meant to push back against a legal absurdity that is gaining popularity on the anti-choice right: the idea that the 1873 Comstock Act, an archaic anti-obscenity law, prohibits the sending of abortion medication through the mail. The second was a move by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to allow mifepristone, one of the two drugs used in medication abortions, to be distributed at retail pharmacies, rather than exclusively from doctors.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Law enforcement killed at least 1,176 people or about 100 people a month last year, making it the deadliest for police violenceUS law enforcement killed at least 1,176 people in 2022, making it the deadliest year on record for police violence since experts first started tracking the killings, a new data analysis reveals.Police across the country killed an average of more than three people a day, or nearly 100 people every month last year according to Mapping Police Violence. The non-profit research group maintains a database of reported deaths at the hands of law enforcement, including people fatally shot, beaten, restrained and Tasered. Continue reading...

Ahead of a high-stakes presidential election next year, American democracy will face another testIn 2022, America’s democracy survived an enormous test.As a movement to sow doubt about American elections grew – fomented by Donald Trump’s false claims about the 2020 race – the 2022 election ran largely smoothly. Eligible votes were counted and the valid winners of contests were seated in office. Continue reading...

Impasse over choosing House speaker continues as Republican falls short of votes held up by his detractors. Plus, an expert’s tips for better sleepGood morning.Despite House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy entering the third day of voting for House speaker with fresh momentum for his candidacy, the 118th Congress made history again yesterday, as he failed to win for the 11th time after eight hours of voting.Who are the hardline House members voting against McCarthy? A group of about 20 hardline Republicans have brought Washington to a standstill. They include Pennsylvania’s Scott Perry, who is the chair of the caucus, Florida’s Byron Donalds, Texas Republican Chip Roy and Lauren Boebert, who has expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy theory.What did Bowers Bowers tell the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection? He said that shortly after the November 2020 election he had received a phone call personally from Trump, who asked him to take the state’s 11 electoral college votes away from Biden and hand them to him. Bowers replied: “Look, you’re asking me to do something that is counter to my oath … I will not do it.” Continue reading...

Climate disasters continue to ravage our country – more international aid is urgently needed to save millions from misery

Rusty Bowers is one of 12 people who took risks to protect US democracy who will be honored on anniversary of January 6Rusty Bowers, the former top Republican in Arizona’s house of representatives who stood up to Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and was punished for it by being unseated by his own party, is to receive America’s second-highest civilian honor on Friday.Bowers will be among 12 people who will be awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by Joe Biden at the White House at a ceremony to mark the second anniversary of the 6 January 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol. It will be the first time that the president has presented the honor, which is reserved for those who have “performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens”. Continue reading...

There’s plenty to play for as the NFL wraps up its regular season on Saturday and Sunday. Here’s a primer for the games that will decide the last remaining playoff spotsWith the final week of the NFL regular season kicking off on Saturday and continuing into Sunday, the postseason picture remains incomplete. Here’s a primer for the games that will decide the last remaining playoff berths: Continue reading...

Mexican authorities have captured Ovidio Guzmán, a son of the incarcerated drugs kingpin Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán, prompting a furious response from cartel gunmen in the northern city of Culiacán.

Buffalo Bills player remains in intensive care after cardiac arrest during game but is communicating and showing good signs of recovery, say doctorsBuffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin is awake and able to communicate with his medical team after the NFL safety suffered cardiac arrest on the field during a Monday night game in Cincinnati, his doctors say.Two physicians caring for the 24-year-old told reporters on Thursday he was “demonstrating signs of good neurological recovery” and was able to communicate in writing. Continue reading...

After more than eight hours and five votes, would-be speaker Kevin McCarthy lost his 11th speakership ballot. This is the most drawn-out speakership vote since 1859. With McCarthy's supporters and foes locked in stalemate, feelings of boredom and desperation seemed increasingly evident with no quick end in sight

The impasse over choosing a House speaker continued as Republican fell short of votes held up by his detractorsThe 118th Congress made history again on Thursday, as House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy failed to win the speakership for the 11th time after eight hours of voting. The protracted stalemate marks the first time since 1859 that the House has required more than nine ballots to determine a new speaker.McCarthy entered the third day of voting with fresh momentum for his candidacy, amid reports that he had made significant concessions to his roughly 20 detractors within the Republican conference. Continue reading...

Meet the most prominent ultraconservative GOP members blocking the California representative’s bid for the gavelA group of about 20 hardline Republican have brought Washington to a standstill by torpedoing party favourite Kevin McCarthy’s bid to become speaker of the US House of Representatives across successive rounds of voting this week.The House cannot perform any of its vital functions – including overseeing national security, investigating government misconduct and passing legislation – until its presiding officer is in place. Continue reading...

Police not looking for anyone else after finding family, including five children, dead at homeA Utah man fatally shot his five children, his mother-in-law and his wife and then killed himself two weeks after the woman had filed for divorce, according to authorities and public records.Police also revealed during a Thursday news conference that officers investigated the 42-year-old man and his family a “couple of years prior”, suggesting possible earlier problems inside the household. Enoch police chief Jackson Ames did not elaborate. Continue reading...

If you return to the same spot often enough, you’ll get to know the regularsThe movie adaptation of Tim Winton’s novel Blueback is out this week. It focuses on a friendship with a big friendly fish – the blue groper; and the powerful response to humans threatening the animal. As with My Octopus Teacher, it’s a highly emotive story, and seen by most people as unusual or unique. Because humans only befriend domestic animals such as cats and dogs. Or do they?Let’s start with the blue groper. This is a charismatic Australian native, with many interesting characteristics. They are protogynous hermaphrodites, starting life as juveniles with the potential to be male or female; and always starting as green-coloured females. The dominant male has a harem and, if he dies, the largest female will become male and adopt the striking blue hue which gives the fish its name. These fish can live up to 70 years and are the state emblem of New South Wales. Continue reading...

Officials order evacuations in high-risk coastal area in latest in rapid series of ‘atmospheric rivers’ to hit stateIt has been a deadly and destructive start to the year in California, as a series of severe storms slammed the state this week, toppling trees, submerging streets and sending water cascading into homes and businesses.The latest storm hit hard on Thursday – a powerful “atmospheric river” that brought with it hurricane-force winds and torrents of rain. At least two deaths have been reported in connection with the latest storm, including a child whose home was hit by a falling tree in Sonoma county. By Thursday morning, more than 163,500 people were without power, with little reprieve in sight. Continue reading...

Ex-secretary of state will assume position on 1 February, working alongside the School of International and Public Affairs deanFormer US secretary of state Hillary Clinton will join Columbia University as a global affairs professor at its School of International and Public Affairs (Sipa), it was announced on Thursday.The university president’s Lee Bollinger announced the new position for Clinton, who was secretary of state for Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013. Continue reading...

State department says it will stop writing the word Turkey and use preferred spelling of Türkiye in public communicationsThe US state department has said it will largely stop writing the word Turkey and instead call the country Türkiye, agreeing to a request by the Turkish government, which resents the inadvertent association with poultry.In a statement announcing measures to disrupt financiers of the Islamic State group, the state department wrote of joint action between “the United States and Türkiye”, written with an umlaut over the u. Continue reading...

State plans to pay $15,000 to those sterilized against their will in 1930s eugenics movement and more recently in state prisonsAbout 600 people alive today can’t have children because California’s government sterilized them either against their will or without their knowledge, and now the state is trying to find them so it can pay them at least $15,000 each in reparations.But after a year of searching, the state has approved just 51 people for payments out of 310 applications. There is one year left to look before the $4.5m program shuts down and the challenges remain steep. State officials have denied 103 people, closed three incomplete applications and are processing 153 others – but they say it is difficult to verify the applications as many records have been lost or destroyed. Continue reading...

Joe Biden has announced new border enforcement moves, expanding the parole process for Venezuelans to Nicaraguans, Haitians and Cubans, and imposing fresh penalties on people who attempt to cross the border unlawfully, increasing use of expedited removal.

The former policeman – who sustained injuries during the US Capitol attack – says January 6 was a ‘wake-up call’Nearly two years after American democracy was nearly derailed by the January 6 insurrection, a survivor of the attack gathered with Democratic lawmakers outside the US Capitol to warn that the Republican party’s paralysis of Congress is a sign that political violence is as much a threat as ever.“The events of that day felt like a wake-up call for me – and many others – that political violence is real. The worst part is that our elected leaders allow this to happen. And yet, this week people who encouraged and even attended the insurrection are now taking their places as leaders in the new House majority,” said Michael Fanone, a former Washington DC police officer who sustained grievous injuries while battling supporters of Donald Trump. Continue reading...

Authorities tested family’s household trash for DNA and found match on knife sheath, court documents showThe suspect accused of murdering four University of Idaho students in their beds was linked to the slayings after authorities tested his family’s household trash for DNA and found a match on a knife sheath at the scene, according to court documents released on Thursday.The newly disclosed filing also portrays a chilling account of survival, with one roommate telling police that the mask-clad killer walked past her as he left. Continue reading...

The vacancy will make Michigan’s Senate seat one of the most competitive in the nation, as Republicans vie for more controlMichigan senator Debbie Stabenow, a member of the Democratic leadership, announced on Thursday that she would not seek re-election in 2024, setting the stage for a fierce contest to claim an open seat in a critical midwestern battleground state.Stabenow, 72, is the first Senate Democrat to announce her retirement ahead of 2024, when the party will try to defend its razor-thin majority by fending off challenges to incumbents in several states that former president Donald Trump won. Continue reading...

Decision means state’s ban with exceptions for rape and incest will be immediately and permanently struck downThe South Carolina supreme court has ruled that the state’s six-week ban on abortion is unconstitutional, under the right to privacy.The 3-2 decision will mean the state’s six-week abortion ban with exceptions for rape and incest will be immediately and permanently struck down. Abortion will remain legal in South Carolina up until 22 weeks of pregnancy. Continue reading...

Firefighters describe struggling through butter ‘three inches thick’ on steps as they battled blaze at factoryA fire that broke out a Wisconsin dairy plant on Monday night sent a river of melted butter flowing across the factory floor and into nearby storm drains, where it clogged a historic water artery.The conflagration erupted at an Associated Milk Producers facility in Portage around 9pm local time, firefighters said on Wednesday. Nobody was injured. Continue reading...

Workers face stagnant wages and short staffing despite the airline enjoying soaring profits coming out of the pandemicWorkers at Delta Air Lines are currently holding union organizing drives, citing tough working conditions in the US airline industry in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and stagnant wages despite the airline making hefty profits.The unions are in the process of collecting a majority of union authorization cards to merit a union election with the National Mediation Board, announcing a joint collective effort several weeks ago. Continue reading...

The personal is political when resentment is baked into a monarchy whose instinct is to protect the heir at all costsWhen my younger sister was very small, I once pushed her down the stairs. Fortunately, she was still small enough to bounce. But it was the beginning, not the end, of the fighting. We pinched and slapped in the back of the car on long interminable journeys, over a fraction of an inch invasion into each other’s elbow space. We scrapped over toys and games and who got the biggest share of pudding; then over clothes and boys and who was most popular at school (all right, it was her). We fought like all siblings fight and I can’t even remember now what most of it was about, but deep down it was probably the thing most sibling fights are really about, namely who is the most loved. Luckily in our family it was never obvious who was the favourite, which may help explain why these days we love each other to death; why the older we get, the closer we have become, through the years of bringing up our own children and now into the years of looking after our parents. But as I said, we were lucky. Prince William and Prince Harry have been less so, which may explain why – according to the latter’s new book, Spare, a grimly revealing title if ever there was one – three years ago the brothers came to blows even as full-grown men.The fight was ostensibly about Harry’s wife, Meghan, and he writes angrily about his older brother calling her “difficult”, “rude” and “abrasive”, echoing the whispers beginning to circulate about her in parts of the press. But it seemingly escalated violently after Harry accused William of acting like an heir: the chosen one, around whom everything else seemingly revolves. There isn’t a sibling alive who won’t, on some level, recognise that feeling. But the twist in this case is that resentment is inexorably baked into a hereditary monarchy from birth. Its strength but also its weakness is that it exercises power through a family, with all the primordial and potentially destructive emotions that entails.Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

In exchange for backing a relatively moderate Republican such as Fred Upton or David Joyce as speaker, Democrats should demand they get equal seats on committeesOn Thursday, Republicans began their third day supposedly in control of the House of Representatives but without a speaker – which means the House cannot function.Over the past two days the Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California lost six votes for the top job, because the extreme Maga right wing won’t support him.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

Kevin McCarthy had hoped to grasp the speaker’s gavel, but a deadlock by ultraconservatives placed it beyond his reach“Well, it’s Groundhog Day – again,” said Congresswoman Kat Cammack of Florida, nominating the Republican leader Kevin McCarthy for speaker of the House on the sixth ballot.But as he had five times before, McCarthy suffered yet another humiliating defeat at the hands of 20 hard-right Republican holdouts determined to block his rise. Continue reading...

Closely allied to Guncles, the CGA is progressive, fun, cosmopolitan. She has all the streaming servicesI’m not sure how it happened but there has been a huge explosion in the number of babies around me. One minute my friends and I were all at the pub having too many beers for a Thursday evening and the next a flock of storks descended upon us. Everywhere I turn there is a friend announcing pregnancy, or a friend bedridden with pregnancy vomiting, or me, a regular person, vomiting when someone posts one of those 3D ultrasounds of their baby (sorry, they’re haunting and I’m scared), or a baby’s first birthday or a brand new baby to visit. It’s babies galore and I could not be happier. Not only are children cute but with each infant brought into my life I can more deeply inhabit the life role I have been granted. I am a Childless Gay Aunt.Let me run you through what I mean – I am gay, I am childless and I am an aunt. It’s important to note here that when I talk about being an aunt, I don’t just mean children I am related to by blood. Being queer and building community means forming special bonds with your friends (even the straight ones), establishing friendships that are like family, reinforcing the love, care and support that you choose to give, and hopefully seeing it last the coming decades. Continue reading...

Suspect who planted bombs outside both Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters is still at largeTwo years after explosive devices were planted outside the Democratic and Republican headquarters in Washington DC, authorities have quintupled the reward to $500,000 for information that could lead to the would-be bomber’s capture and conviction.The night before the January 6 Capitol attack, when a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the building in an effort to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s win, the suspect placed one pipe bomb in an alley outside the Republican National Committee headquarters around 8pm ET. They put the other bomb on a park bench near the Democratic National Committee headquarters, according to the FBI. Continue reading...

Campaigners hail EU move, and congressman says it gives fresh impetus to similar US plansA groundbreaking EU deal to ban the import of goods linked to deforestation has set a global benchmark and will hasten the passage of a similar law in the US, American lawmakers have said.A football pitch-sized tract of forest is lost every second somewhere around the world, mostly to agricultural expansion. From 2024, the EU will require firms working in deforestation hotspots to certify that their goods have not harmed forests after a cutoff date of 31 December 2020. Continue reading...

Proposed rules would curtail power of Office of Congressional Ethics just as several Republican members face likely inquiriesHouse Republicans are expected to curtail the power of an independent congressional ethics body just as it was weighing whether to open investigations into GOP lawmakers who defied January 6 select committee subpoenas and a new Republican who fabricated his past during his election campaign.The new House rules package that governs the Office of Congressional Ethics – which was drafted by the incoming Republican majority leadership and will almost certainly be adopted – makes two major changes to the body that would significantly undercut its ability to function. Continue reading...

Harry claims in new autobiography Spare that William ‘knocked me to the floor’ during confrontation in London in 2019. Plus, US approves world’s first vaccine for honeybees

Homelessness charities say wave of new bills unfairly targets people without housing as social-services funding is cutNumerous anti-homeless laws are being passed across the US as funding for social services is widely reduced, raising welfare concerns among advocates for the unhoused.In Missouri, a new state law that took effect on 1 January makes it a crime for any person to sleep on state property. For unhoused people, sleeping in public parks or under city highways could mean up to $750 in fines or 15 days in prison for multiple offenses. Continue reading...

Anybody familiar with the entitlement typical of American youth soccer parents probably recognizes something in the squabble that’s thrust the US men’s program into turmoilUS soccer has many forces acting against its success. The country shunned the sport after the 1930s, leaving a men’s national team withering and winless. Even after years of progress, soccer lags behind indigenous sports in a crowded marketplace.Add one more powerful force to that list. Continue reading...

The scion of that most famous political dynasty wants to bring India ‘together’ after years of dangerous divisionHow does an opposition politician seize the initiative in India, a vast and populous country with an increasingly authoritarian ruling party and state? Rahul Gandhi has an answer, and it involves a pair of trainers.Bharat Jodo Yatra, a “journey bringing India together”, is the name of a long march that Gandhi, a prominent member of the Indian National Congress party, has been leading from the country’s southernmost tropical tip to its icy north. He has covered about 1,900 miles (3,000km) so far, walking 12-15 miles every day, with hundreds of others drawn from his party, as well as civil society members and celebrities. Thousands line the route wherever the march passes to catch a glimpse of the famous politician and to show support. Since anyone is allowed to join, I decided to tag along for two days. Continue reading...

Trump-appointed judge rules that children must have parental consent for contraception, in state where most abortion is bannedTexans under the age of 18 are now legally required to seek approval from their parent or guardian in order to obtain birth control from federally funded clinics, a federal judge in the state has ruled.Title X, the federal grant program which was created in 1970 in order to provide family planning and preventive health services, was ruled a violation of state law and parental rights by federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in December 2022. Continue reading...

Republican leader Kevin McCarthy failed for the sixth time in two days to capture the speaker’s gavel. After the House adjourned for a few hours, McCarthy and his allies went into negotiations with the Republican holdouts without a clear path forward to end the standoff, then pushed back a seventh vote on the House leadership until Thursday

Republicans push back deadline of electing new speaker to noon on Thursday, after six failed votes in two daysThe House remained paralyzed on Wednesday, after Republican leader Kevin McCarthy failed for the sixth time to capture the speaker’s gavel as his critics stood firm in their opposition to his candidacy. After the House adjourned for a few hours, McCarthy and his allies went into negotiations with the Republican holdouts without a clear path forward to end the standoff, then pushed back a seventh vote on the House leadership until Thursday.The House held a total of three inconclusive votes in the speakership election on Wednesday, mirroring the three votes held a day earlier. Across all six ballots, no speaker candidate successfully captured the 218 votes expected to be needed for a victory. The stalemate marked the first time in a century that a House speaker was not chosen in the initial vote. After the sixth vote on Wednesday evening, the House moved to adjourn until at least 8pm ET, giving Republicans more time to reach a solution, then pushed back the deadline again, voting to adjourn until noon the following day. Continue reading...

Rick Singer, 62, was handed the longest sentence in the sprawling scandal that shone a spotlight on the secretive systemThe mastermind of the nationwide college admissions bribery scheme that ensnared celebrities, prominent businesspeople and other parents who used their wealth and privilege to buy their kids’ way into top-tier schools was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison Wednesday.The punishment for Rick Singer, 62, is the longest sentence handed down in the sprawling scandal that embarrassed some of the nation’s most prestigious universities and put a spotlight on the secretive admissions system already seen as rigged in favor of the rich. Continue reading...

The real excitement isn’t in which specific word comes out first; it’s in finding out you and your little one are truly on the same pageLike many new mums, I love ticking off milestones. Rolling, crawling, sucking on toes. That last one might not be a milestone, but it sure is cute! As my son approached one, however, nothing was more exciting than the prospect of his first words.My partner was equally keen. We strained our ears for any passing similarity to mama or dada, cat, car or dog – all the important nouns we thought usually made up first words. Continue reading...

The US men’s soccer team has been plunged into public turmoil over a 31-year-old incident involving Gregg Berhalter and his wifeThe US men’s soccer team was plunged into public turmoil Wednesday when the Reyna family said it notified the US Soccer Federation of a decades-old incident involving Gregg Berhalter and his wife in response to the coach’s disparagement of young star Gio Reyna.Berhalter said Tuesday his 1991 behavior in which he kicked the woman who would become his wife was “shameful” and that he was “looking forward to continuing my conversations with US Soccer about the future”. Continue reading...