Unsealing stems from Giuffre’s sexual abuse lawsuit against duke, filed in Manhattan federal court in AugustA near-dozen-year-old legal settlement between Virginia Giuffre and Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender whom she accused of sexual abuse, was released on Monday. Giuffre received $500,000 in her lawsuit against Epstein, court papers revealed.The unsealing stemmed from Giuffre’s sexual abuse lawsuit against Prince Andrew, which she filed on 9 August in Manhattan federal court. Continue reading...
Airlines say they are taking steps to reduce cancelations caused by workers affected by the pandemicWintry weather combined with the pandemic to frustrate US air travelers in the first days of the new year, contributing to a continuing “flightmare” of cancelations, confusion and airport chaos, all amid worries about the Omicron Covid surge.On Monday, as a major winter storm hit mid-Atlantic states, more than half of flights were delayed or canceled at Ronald Reagan national airport, Baltimore/Washington Thurgood Marshall international airport and Washington Dulles international airport, according to FlightAware.com’s misery map. Continue reading...
Letitia James reportedly issues subpoenas to pair as part of fraud investigation into former president’s business empireThe attorney general of New York state has subpoenaed Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump as part of its fraud inquiry into Trump’s businesses, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing a court document.The document was filed by lawyers for Trump in response to Letitia James’s decision to subpoena the former president himself. Continue reading...
Nadia Popovici spotted mole on Brian Hamilton’s neck last October and held up a message on her phone saying ‘Please go see a doctor!’When Nadia Popovici spotted a small mole on the back of Brian Hamilton’s neck last October, during an NHL game between the Vancouver Canucks and the Seattle Kraken, she was unsure if the Canucks’ assistant equipment manager was aware it was there.Gaining Hamilton’s attention, she wrote a message on her phone and pressed it against the plexiglass dividing the crowd from the ice. Continue reading...
Republicans are busy at work undermining the next election. And they don’t need Trump in the White House to do soOnly free and fair elections in which the loser abides by the result stand between each of us and life at the mercy of a despotic regime – one we had no voice in choosing and one that can freely violate all our rights. So everything is at stake in the peaceful transfer of power from a government that has lost its people’s confidence to its victorious successor. It was that peaceful transfer that Trump and his minions sought to obstruct and almost succeeded in overthrowing when Joe Biden was elected president.A year has passed since Trump’s attempted coup and his supporters’ violent storming of the United States Capitol on 6 January 2021, in a nearly successful effort to prevent Congress from certifying Trump’s decisive loss of the election to Biden. Watching the images that day of the seat of US democracy overtaken and defiled, it was impossible not to viscerally feel the grave danger that confronted the republic. In the tumultuous year since, the immediacy of that sensation has waned – and the magnitude of the stakes has receded from memory. Continue reading...
National Weather Service predicts wind gusts of up to 35mph, as many flights cancelled and businesses and schools closedA winter storm packing heavy snow blew into Washington DC on Monday, closing government offices and schools and grounding the president’s helicopter. As much as 10in of snow was forecast for the District of Columbia, northern Virginia and central Maryland through the afternoon.The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for the area until 4pm ET. Wind gusts of up to 35mph were forecast and travel was expected to be very difficult because of the hazardous conditions, the weather service said. Continue reading...
Homelessness, safe housing, police brutality and racial injustice – does Bill de Blasio’s replacement have the policies to fix them?For many New Yorkers, the inauguration of Eric Adams as the 110th mayor of New York City – and only the second Black person to serve in the position – has evoked a range of feelings, from excitement at the possibility of change to confusion and concern.Adams’ rise through city and state politics was fairly typical. In addition to serving as a New York police captain, he was the Brooklyn borough president and a state senator. But he remains an unconventional, even enigmatic figure. There are questions surrounding his home address and curiosity about his plant-based diet, but information about his actual policies remain scarce. Continue reading...
So far, increasingly militant workers are lacking something vital: a leader who can unite them all. Will that change?Throughout 2021, American workers stood up and fought back to an unusual degree. Workers went on strike at Kellogg’s, Nabisco, John Deere, Columbia University and numerous hospitals, while non-union “essential” workers – furious about how they’ve been treated – walked out at supermarkets, warehouses and fast-food restaurants. Workers have sought to unionize at Starbucks, Amazon, even the Art Institute of Chicago. And a record number of Americans have been quitting their jobs each month, more than 4 million monthly, fed up and eager for something better.Millions of workers are angry – angry that they didn’t get hazard pay for risking their lives during the pandemic, angry that they’ve been forced to work 70 or 80 hours a week, angry that they received puny raises while executive pay soared, angry that they didn’t get paid sick days when they got sick. Continue reading...
Environmental organizations and tribes have been coming together to protect the natural world, and a key part of this teamwork has been land transfersIn 2020, an environmental non-profit returned over a dozen acres in Oregon to the Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes.Two months later, a conservation group worked with the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County to return more than 1,000 acres in California to the tribal group. Continue reading...
Member of House committee investigating events of 6 January issues stark warning to her party. Plus, 100 ways to slightly improve your lifeGood morning.The fallout from the Capitol attack continues as the first anniversary on Thursday approaches. Yesterday, a Republican member of the House committee investigating the events of 6 January 2021 had a stark warning for her party – they must choose between Trump and truth.What else did Cheney say? She told ABC’s This Week there were “potential criminal statutes at issue here, but I think that there’s absolutely no question that it was a dereliction of duty”.What did Thompson say? The Democrat told NBC’s Meet the Press the committee was examining whether it could issue subpoenas to members of Congress.How does he think it will happen? The author cited eventualities centered on a Trump return to the White House in 2024, possibly including Republican-held state legislatures refusing to accept a Democratic win.Meanwhile, key Donald Trump loyalists Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn are at the forefront of a drive to expand Trumpist influence at the local level of US politics. Continue reading...
by Oliver Laughland in Grand Isle, Louisiana on (#5TKBS)
Grand Isle took the first punch from the category 4 hurricane that became one of America’s most powerful storms and the worst in the island’s historyDavid Sears spent six weeks sleeping outside on the splintered remains of his home on Grand Isle, Louisiana. The house was destroyed by Hurricane Ida at the end of August but Sears had nowhere else to go. So he returned to this barrier island, out in the gulf of Mexico, and lived on his front porch for over a month.Grand Isle, with its sweeping white sand beaches, rows of bobbing shrimp boats and 1,000 permanent residents, took the first punch from Ida, the category 4 hurricane that became one of America’s most powerful storms when it landed here in the summer. And four months later the scars have barely begun to heal. Continue reading...
Tampa Bay’s gifted wide receiver finally found a rule to break that will be judged more seriously than his many more grevious off-field sins: He quit on his team on live televisionIn a normal universe, we’d be solely focused on the final minutes of a drama-filled classic between the Buccaneers and Jets. We’d gush over Tom Brady’s game-winning drive that again ripped whatever semblance of hope remains in New York’s long-suffering fans. We’d marvel at Brady’s unmistakable precision with under two minutes, culminating in his cool-as-a-cucumber delivery on a 33-yard touchdown strike to Cyril Grayson that left not nearly enough time for Zach Wilson to respond. We’d question Robert Saleh’s decision to go for it on fourth-and-2 at the Bucs’ seven-yard line instead of kicking a field goal that would opened a seven-point lead with two minutes to spare.Instead, this game will be remembered for a different brand of dramatic: Antonio Brown adding to his endless list of disturbing antics. In the third quarter, with the Tampa Bay offense on the field mid-drive, a visibly furious Brown removed his jersey on the sideline, threw his shoulder pads down, then cascaded across the end zone, tore off his tank top, threw the tank and a glove with vigor into a sea of Jets fans, then continued shirtless into the tunnel with one final peace sign before fading to black. Continue reading...
Growing drive by hardcore Trumpists spurs election watchdogs to voice alarm about threat to American democracyKey Donald Trump loyalists Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn are at the forefront of a drive to expand Trumpist influence at the local level of US politics while forging ahead with efforts aimed at promoting baseless claims that Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory was fraudulent.The growing drive by Trump’s hardcore allies has spurred election watchdog groups to voice alarm about the threat to democracy posed by Flynn and Bannon – and other Trump acolytes – as they combine debunked claims about election fraud and calls for further 2020 election audits with planning conservative takeovers of official positions that run US elections. Continue reading...
Critics seize on Build Back Better criticisms from controversial candidate nonetheless endorsed by Donald TrumpHerschel Walker has Donald Trump’s endorsement in the race for US Senate in Georgia but the former NFL star may be struggling to counter fears from some Republicans that he could damage the party’s chances of taking back a seat lost in 2020, and with it the Senate itself.In December, the former University of Georgia and Dallas Cowboys running back admitted he does not have a college degree – having repeatedly said that he did. Continue reading...
Cancelations follow Saturday’s of more than 2,700 US flights, frustrating travelers during the holidaysWintry weather and the coronavirus pandemic frustrated US travelers as return flights from holidays were canceled or delayed in the first days of the new year.By early afternoon on Sunday, more than 2,300 US flights and more than 3,900 worldwide had been canceled, according to tracking service FlightAware. Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Superior, Colorado on (#5TJPD)
Officials pursue tips and search crews sort through debris for three missing people after flames destroy nearly 1,000 homesSearch teams looked for three missing people on Sunday in snow-covered but smoldering debris from a massive Colorado wildfire, while people who escaped the flames sorted through what was left and investigators tried to determine its cause.The flames ripped through at least 9.4 sq miles and left nearly 1,000 homes and other buildings destroyed in suburbs between Denver and Boulder. Continue reading...
Significant challenges await the newly sworn-in leader of the most populous US cityEric Adams’s first two days in office would resonate with any weary New York commuter: a subway ride featuring a brawl requiring the attendance of police, then the challenge of negotiating Manhattan traffic on a rented bike.“This is an amazing city,” the new mayor told ABC on Sunday. “You know, riding a city bike in, taking the train in, interacting with New Yorkers: generals don’t lead their troops from the back. Continue reading...
Staff from a tram company and a restaurant were stranded overnight on a tramway near Albuquerque in the US on New Year's Eve after a storm caused rapid buildup of ice on the cables, making it unsafe to travel to the base of the mountain. Rescuers brought the 21 passengers to safety, with no injuries, according to local reports Continue reading...
But government’s top medical adviser warns public not to be fooled by data suggesting variant lacks severity of earlier variantsThe US government’s top medical adviser, Dr Anthony Fauci, has joined a growing body of experts who say hospitalisation figures form a better guide to the severity of the Omicron coronavirus variant than the traditional case-count of new infections.Referring to the Omicron surge in the US as a “tsunami”, Fauci also cautioned the public not to be fooled by preliminary data suggesting the variant lacks the severity of earlier Covid-19 variants, such as Delta. Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Pompano Beach, Florida on (#5TJMP)
Newspaper says bond posted by star who had weapons-related sentence commuted by Donald TrumpThe rapper Kodak Black was arrested on a trespassing charge on Saturday in south Florida.The Broward county sheriff’s office said Black was taken into custody in his hometown of Pompano Beach early on Saturday morning, according to the South Florida SunSentinel. Continue reading...
The glamorous past of Epstein’s procurer might blind some to her shocking crimesFor years, she was described as a “socialite”, a word that conceals more than it explains. Socialites are almost always women from a wealthy if not an aristocratic background and their defining characteristic is being photographed with famous people.Ghislaine Maxwell fitted the bill, appearing in photos with everyone from Donald Trump to Elon Musk to Prince Andrew. But being a socialite is not a job and it was unclear how she financed her opulent lifestyle, especially after the death of her father, Robert. Continue reading...
Swing state races for governor and secretary of state are the most consequential midterm contestsWhen Americans go to the polls in the 2022 midterms, the most important elections won’t be for office in Washington. The most high-stakes races will be statewide contests, in some cases for long overlooked offices, that have profound consequences for the future of free and fair elections in America.The races for governor and secretary of state, the chief election official in many places, will determine which officials have control over setting election rules and the post-election certification process. Continue reading...
Our writer sat through the trial in New York and reports on the humiliation of the mwah-mwah princess, her repeated failures to end Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse and the chances of her cutting a deal with the FedsGuilty, five times over, Ghislaine Maxwell, shackled, sits in the sweat box as it crawls over Brooklyn Bridge along with the rest of the rush-hour little people she used to fly over, saying a last goodbye to the Imperial City’s billion-dollar stalagmites. The one-time Princess Mwah-Mwah is now the Demon Queen, facing 30 years, the rest of her life in prison, not some Disneyland of rightwing fantasy but a bone pit of the bad, the mad and the broken locked up until the end of age.She has a secret key that could unlock her shackles. What if she sings, tells the feds what she knows, gives up the overmighty men who, along with her one-time lover Jeffrey Epstein, abused women more child than adult back in her pomp? She could cut her jail time down to 10 years and be out in seven, thanks to good behaviour. Continue reading...
The Democrat, a former police officer, has promised to welcome business and to focus on rising crimeNew York City’s new mayor, Eric Adams, was sworn into office soon after midnight yesterday. It was a fitting time of day for a cop-turned-politico who has indicated that he plans to return some personal panache to a metropolis knocked by a pandemic, political strife and an outgoing mayor whose polling ranks beneath even Donald Trump with state voters.For the moment, Adams’s administration is, as one acquaintance put it, “in the ether”. The Democrat told the city council last week: “We must allow our city to function. We have thrown $11bn at Covid, so the day has come when we need to learn to be smarter.” Continue reading...
With the state still reeling from December’s deadly tornadoes, the wild weather caused flash flooding, power outages and property damageJust three weeks after deadly tornadoes tore a path of destruction through Kentucky, a state of emergency has again been declared after powerful storms caused flash flooding, power outages and property damage, including from a possible tornado in Hopkinsville.There were no immediate reports of injuries or deaths, but governor Andy Beshear declared the state of emergency on Saturday, with much of Kentucky and West Virginia under a flood warning. Portions of eastern Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama were under a tornado watch. Continue reading...
Uptick in Covid among under-50s coincides with surge in cases among young children and increase in pediatric hospitalizationsAs the US is seeing record numbers of daily coronavirus cases driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, public health authorities nationwide have said that teens and younger adults are helping fuel this increase.The uptick in Covid-19 among the under-50s coincides with a surge in cases among young children – and a troubling increase in pediatric hospitalizations. Continue reading...
Critics panned Don’t Look Up as ‘shrill’, but it was superb – and caught outlandish realityIn 1944, George Orwell got a letter from TS Eliot, a director at Faber, rejecting his political satire, Animal Farm. There were several reasons. First, it was not the right time. Also, said the creator of The Waste Land, “the effect is simply one of negation”. The poet took issue, too, with the wholesale disrespecting of pigs, since they were logically the “best qualified to run the farm”, being the cleverest. “What was needed (someone might argue) was not more communism but more public spirited pigs.”So, if some leading film critics watching Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up (currently most-watched on Netflix) have hankered for a less satirical kind of satire, they are in distinguished company. TS Eliot might well have agreed with these reviewers that McKay’s savaging of a society too corrupt and deluded to save itself from an urgent threat to life on Earth, in the film’s case, a comet, could have been more cheerfully done. For instance, echoing Eliot on pigs, some of the more cartoonish leads could have been made more relatable. How about humanising lead villain Peter Isherwell (Mark Rylance being mesmerising), a creepy tech billionaire who, absurdly, intends to live forever? Meanwhile, McKay’s US president, the preposterous Janie Orlean (Meryl Streep) has appointed her dreadful son chief of staff. Why can’t these grievous weirdos with their silly dialogue be more like, say, Donald Trump, Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk? Continue reading...
Instant streaming gratification will inevitably lead to bad TV – but first, pass the remote, it’s time for another Girls5evaI like to imagine Jamie Dornan – you might anticipate a full stop there, but do carry on – having the same issues as the rest of us over Christmas, craving a second to switch off and so switching the television on.Perhaps he, too, spent time staring at a hectic page on a streaming service, wondering for so long what to watch that scrolling became the activity and then it was time for bed, the evening having been filled by an endless click of the down button, interrupted only by arguments about whether The Wolf of Wall Street or Zero Dark Thirty is more festive or should we do a Girls5eva or three instead? (The answer is always yes.) Continue reading...
Case counts ‘don’t reflect what they used to’, experts argue, as data suggests Omicron is less severe but more contagiousSome US infectious disease experts and public health officials are questioning whether to continue using the number of coronavirus cases as a metric for determining which mitigation efforts are appropriate, as data suggests Omicron is less severe but much more contagious than previous variants.Those experts argue that the US has reached a stage in the pandemic where reports of dramatic surges in case counts prompt unnecessary worries and that government officials and the public should instead review death and hospitalization data when considering precautions. Continue reading...
by Melissa Jacobs, Bryan Armen Graham, Andrew Lawrenc on (#5THWA)
On the heels of a sports year that was chock full of surprises, Guardian US contributors make their bold predictions for the months to comeHere are our bold predictions for 2022 in sports. Please note the bold (or should that be bold?) in bold predictions: these are to be taken with a pinch of salt. Continue reading...
Republicans embrace the culture war battles Trump waged, as a strategy for winning back control of the House and SenateThe debate was ostensibly over a stop-gap spending bill that would avert a government shutdown. But Chip Roy, a Republican congressman from Texas, seized the opportunity to accuse Democrats of supporting “unconstitutional” vaccine mandates, critical race theory, “woke gender ideology” and open borders. A vote to fund the federal government, he warned, was a vote to allow “tyranny over the American citizen”.The speech infuriated Congressman Tim Ryan, a Democrat from Ohio. Continue reading...
by Cindy Shiner in Louisville, Colorado on (#5THT8)
The fire destroyed at least 500 structures, mostly homes, and more than 30,000 people fled or were evacuatedJust as the flakes of the season’s first winter storm began to fall in the Colorado foothills, Heather Diiorio, 67, and her husband walked hand in hand in a daze down South 68th Street in Louisville, a community often ranked as one of America’s most livable small towns. They had just gone to inspect their home after one of Colorado’s most destructive fires in history struck this week.“All I can say is we lived there 35 years and we lost everything,” said Diioro’s husband before emotion overwhelmed him. He declined to give his first name. He and his wife embraced neighbors, some of whom had also lost their homes in Thursday’s fires, and others who had not. Continue reading...
America’s Golden Girl has died at the age of 99. The much-loved actor and comedian was a constant presence on TV screens from the 1940s onwards Continue reading...
Tova Noel and Michael Thomas had allegedly falsified records, indicating they had checked on inmates every 30 minutes when they had notUS prosecutors have dropped charges against the two correctional officers on duty the night Jeffrey Epstein killed himself on their watch in August 2019 while he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.The officers, Tova Noel and Michael Thomas, had allegedly falsified government records, indicating that they had made their rounds every 30 minutes to check on inmates when they had not, and instead had fallen asleep on the job, according to an indictment.In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 800-273-8255. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org. Continue reading...
At least one first responder and six other people were injured in the fires after fires erupted Thursday outside DenverTens of thousands of residents were forced to flee in northern Colorado after fast-moving wildfires destroyed an estimated 600 homes.Over 30,000 residents across three communities outside Denver had to evacuate their homes after wind-fueled grass fires rapidly burned through multiple buildings including a hotel and Target shopping complex, along with 580 homes.Associated Press contributed to this report Continue reading...
Faced with profound human wickedness, the most basic question of all is the one we rarely askThe Ghislaine Maxwell case raises so many questions, and yet scarcely discussed is the one that perhaps matters most. Naturally, there’s huge interest in whether Maxwell, convicted this week of recruiting and grooming teenage girls for sex with her one-time boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein, will seek to reduce her sentence by naming names – opening up the pair’s notorious little black book and telling prosecutors who else among the rich and powerful abused the vulnerable minors Maxwell trafficked for sex.In Britain, much of that interest focuses on Epstein’s longtime pal, Prince Andrew, who was so close to the couple he invited them on visits to Balmoral, Sandringham and Windsor: it’s lucky the prince doesn’t sweat, because if he did, he might be drenched now. So far he has refused to answer US investigators’ questions – not for his own sake, you understand, but according to multiple reports, to save the Queen from embarrassment. Because a 61-year-old man hiding behind his 95-year-old mother would not be in the least bit mortifying.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
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