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As a cultural Christian, I share the goodwill. As a humanist I am glad to see archaic beliefs and damaging traditions losing their gripThis is the first Christmas since time immemorial that most people in this country are not Christians. The latest census found those identifying as Christian fell from 59% to 46% in a decade, with 8 million people shifting to “no religion”, which is now the second-largest English group, and the largest in Wales. The number of atheists is probably higher, as some tick the Christian box as their cultural identity, without having any religious belief. In that sense, I feel culturally Christian, so deeply imbued with its myths, paintings, hymns and parables.But as a vice-president of Humanists UK, I celebrate any decline in superstition, any rise in those who look life and death in the eye with no expectation of anything beyond this earth.Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

House committee publishes report three days after recommending criminal charges against ex-president

Panel looking into storming of Capitol accuses Donald Trump of deliberately making false claims and plotting to overturn 2020 election results

Thousands of flights cancelled as officials warn of ‘major and anomalous storm system’ bringing snow and life-threatening wind chillThousands of flights have been cancelled after US forecasters warned on Thursday of “potentially crippling impacts across central and eastern” parts of the country, producing widespread disruption to travel and utilities over the holiday season, as an arctic blast surged from west to east.At the White House, after a briefing on the potential “bomb cyclone”, Joe Biden said: “This is not like a snow day when you were a kid. This is serious stuff.” Continue reading...

So much of the media we consume comes from people who have no idea what it’s like to be working class. We’re missing outIf you’ve been on Twitter lately (and huge congrats if you haven’t), you would have seen a lot of discussion about “nepo babies”. No, a nepo baby is not the strange cousin of a Cabbage Patch Doll nor a cool slang name for “nephews”. Rather it’s a term used to describe the children of celebrities who follow in their famous parents’ footsteps. Classic nepotism, you’ve heard of it.The nepo baby spectrum also covers those who get a leg-up from family industry connections, or the children of the very rich, all of whom have doors opened for them from the time they arrive through their very first door (the vagina). There have always been nepo babies and there will always be nepo babies but that doesn’t mean it’s not frustrating. For example, while watching the new season of Amy Schumer’s sketch show last week, I noticed that one of the writers is Jerry Seinfeld’s 21-year-old daughter. As a sketch writer myself, I found this a bit annoying! But all the focus on nepo babies and famous people is obfuscating a more important and insidious problem. Continue reading...

Committee releases closed-door testimony of former White House chief of staff’s aide but full report is still delayed

State to dismantle wall following lawsuit filed by US government alleging it was illegally built on federal landsArizona will remove a wall of shipping containers along the state’s 370-mile border with Mexico following a lawsuit filed by the US government against the state that claimed that the makeshift wall is being illegally built on federal lands.According to an agreement reached late Wednesday between federal and state authorities, Arizona will dismantle the wall, along with all related equipment by the beginning of next year. Continue reading...

Bill includes $45bn in military aid to Ukraine after lawmakers reached agreement on a final series of votesThe US Senate on Thursday passed a $1.7tn government spending bill, sending it to the House to approve and send to Joe Biden for his signature, averting a partial government shutdown.The legislation provides funding through 30 September 2023, for the US military and an array of non-military programs. Continue reading...

Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump, gave some of the most dramatic testimony during live hearings last summerAhead of the release of its full report, the House January 6 committee published transcripts of witness testimony including that of Cassidy Hutchinson, a central figure in the investigation of Donald Trump’s election subversion and the Capitol attack.On Wednesday night, the committee released 34 transcripts from 1,000 interviews conducted over 18 months. Most interviewees invoked their fifth amendment right against self-incrimination. But Adam Schiff of California, a Democratic member of the committee, told CBS: “I guarantee there’ll be some very interesting new information in the report and even more so in the transcripts.” Continue reading...

The Ukrainian leader went to the US this week for hard bargaining with the Americans, as well as to be fetedPresident Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s highly choreographed visit to Washington was a significant international moment. Not long ago, Mr Zelenskiy had been adamant that his place was always on the frontline with his people. This week, however, he made a lightning trip in person, via Poland, to Washington itself, meeting President Joe Biden at the White House and delivering a primetime address to the US Congress before heading back into his suffering country less than 24 hours later.The visit was much more than a Christmas celebration of Ukraine’s defiance and of Mr Zelenskiy’s immense role in it. Instead, it was a political event with important future implications for Ukraine, the United States and Russia, and for the conflict more generally. It was clearly focused on what should happen in 2023 rather than what has happened already. Continue reading...

Jared Smith, who issued controversial ruling in January, named to new court of appeal by Florida governorFlorida’s rightwing Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, has appointed a judge who was previously ousted over a controversial ruling where he denied a teenager an abortion, citing her school grades.DeSantis appointed Jared Smith to the newly established sixth district court of appeal, an appointment which will begin on 1 January 2023. Smith previously served as a judge on the Hillsborough county court until he was ousted in August after his decision on the abortion-related case. Continue reading...

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he will be returning to Ukraine with 'good results'.

Bradley Wendt bought more than 90 machine guns and hosted public shootouts, charging participants to fire the gunsAn Iowa police chief faces fraud charges for allegedly buying and selling machine guns for personal profit, despite stating the purchases were related to department business.Bradley Wendt, 46 and the police chief of Adair, Iowa, bought more than 90 machine guns between 2018 to 2022, claiming the weapons would be used for “the official duties and responsibilities of the Adair police department”, the justice department said. Continue reading...

In Afghanistan, girls are being banned from primary school. Other Muslim nations hold the key to restoring their rights

For some LGBTQ+ shunned by relatives, friends and community are rewriting what ‘family’ meansWhat is Christmas really about? In an increasingly diverse and secular Britain, the festive period has become a celebration of family for most of us. But that focus on traditional family – the people who are supposed to offer unconditional love, no matter who you are or what you do – is precisely what makes this time of year a source of anxiety and dread for others.Parents rejecting their LGBTQ+ offspring might sound like a plotline from gritty films of the 1980s and 1990s, not something that happens in 2022, when even Hallmark is releasing its first same-sex Christmas romcom, and we’re more than 50 years on from the decriminalisation of homosexuality. But research from the anti-abuse LGBQT+ charity Galop found that family rejection is still all too common: almost three in 10 LGBTQ+ people had experienced abuse from a family member, rising to more than four in 10 trans and non-binary people. In 60% of cases, they felt their identity was the main or contributing factor.Owen Jones is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Some in the Russian president’s entourage are searching for a way out of the Ukraine conflict. They should look to the history booksSo many great crises of the past are reduced to anniversaries: they emerge for one day into the spotlight of media attention and then vanish for another year or another decade. This year’s anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis, however, feels different. Suddenly the past is catching up with us. In September, Vladimir Putin said that in the case of “a threat to territorial integrity of our country, in order to defend Russia and our people, we will certainly use all means at our disposal. This is not a bluff.” This sinister talk was interpreted by many as an indication that the Russian leader might use nuclear weapons to prevent his defeat and humiliation in Ukraine. Thus, the drama that played out 60 years ago acquired a startlingly fresh resonance.In May 1962, Nikita Khrushchev came up with an idea that he thought was brilliant: to send nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles to the island of Cuba – without the US knowing. This impetuous project, hastily implemented, resulted in the greatest incident of nuclear brinkmanship in history. In his oral recollections, edited by his son Sergei, Khrushchev elaborated his motives. He feared arrogant Americans would attempt to overthrow the Castro regime, thereby humiliating the Soviet Union, Cuba’s sponsor. The missiles were sent as a deterrent.Vladislav Zubok is professor of international history at the London School of Economics and author of Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union, which was a finalist for the 2022 Cundill history prize Continue reading...

Fears about safety of unsheltered people raised as freezing blast of weather sweeps Great Plains and Great Lakes regionsBurke Patten helps run the Night Ministry, a Chicago non-profit that annually supports 6,000 of the Windy City’s 60,000 unsheltered. As a ferocious and freezing blast of Arctic weather heads into the US he knows it could be lethal for the city’s vulnerable homeless population.“Unfortunately it’s going to be very dangerous,” said Patten who is Night Ministry’s communications manager. “It’s cold. But it’s going to get a lot worse.” Continue reading...

Ukrainian president’s first foreign trip since Russia invaded was made amid concern Republicans might oppose future funding proposals. Plus, one dog’s 1,600-mile journeyGood morning.Washington’s continued support is key to ultimate victory in Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, told a joint session of the US Congress in a defiant address in which he vowed that his country would never abandon its resistance to Russian aggression.Will the White House give more aid to Ukraine? Yesterday, the White House announced a further $1.85bn in aid including, for the first time, Patriot air defence missiles to protect Ukraine’s infrastructure.How did Congress react to his speech? It takes a lot to impress long-in-the-tooth politicians but Zelenskiy’s combination of star quality and steel core was enough. As every member rose to their feet, applauding and hollering, even he was overwhelmed for a moment. “It’s too much for me,” he said.What’s happening with Bankman-Fried? As the guilty pleas were announced Bankman-Fried was being flown to the US from the Bahamas by US law enforcement to answer to charges tied to his role in FTX’s failure. Continue reading...

Suit filed two years after a settlement over another lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and retaliation against female employeesDel Taco, the second largest Mexican fast-food chain in the US, has been hit with fresh claims of firing staff members after they made sexual harassment accusations.The restaurant operation, which has 592 locations in 15 states, is already under a three-year companywide consent decree with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from December 2020. The decree is part of a settlement over a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and retaliation against female employees. Continue reading...

Dancing brings joy and has huge health benefits, but would-be older clubbers like me too often meet suspicion and derisionChristmas represents a brief relaxation of the ban on over-45s dancing in public. There will be house parties, office parties, cleared kitchen spaces and lounge carpets, and possibly some marquees. For a few weeks only we will stand up, survey the risks, feel the music’s pull, let our guard down and allow the world to see us twist and bob. Initially, we will be cautious, our faces all raised-eyebrow self-mockery, just in case. But once we are sure it’s safe, we will be free again, free to move in ways not normally permitted to the unyoung.The ageism around clubbing is unquestioned. A recent survey into when people stop going dancing found we retreat at about 37. Walking past the queues outside clubs in London it looks more like 25 to me. The thought of standing there, at the age of 58, waiting to be scrutinised by the door team, makes my stomach scrunch imagining the humiliation of rejection.Phil Hilton is a writer, editor and podcaster Continue reading...

The simple cocktail is above all the drink of nostalgia – for a time before we felt judged, hopeless and tiredThis year, the martini was inescapable, the chosen lubricant for the age of retro pastiche – a moment governed by e-commerce aesthetes, for whom Mad Men is less a meditation on desire than a brochure for mid-century credenzas.Gen Z flocked to geriatric hotel bars resurrected by TikTok and selfied their cheese-stuffed olives. The espresso version kept ageing millennials awake past their bedtime, helping recapture the jouissance of their 20s, if only for an hour. Rivers of gin flecked with vermouth flowed from the world’s cosmopolitan centers out to its hinterlands. In April, a New York Magazine piece declared a martini “boom”, with bartenders agog at just how many their customers were pounding. A high-end beverage consultant I spoke with said private clients had been asking for “martini-only parties”. In November, the CGA cocktail tracker, which measures the most popular cocktails in the US, saw the martini soar into third place, leapfrogging the once popular Manhattan. The espresso martini also rose five places in the rankings, the biggest jump of any cocktail. Continue reading...

Let’s put our feet up and cast our eyes around the sides to the fringes of playoff contention. Which teams currently on the bubble can lock down the final postseason invites?It is the most wonderful time of the year. Snow is falling. Frost is biting. Playoff football is in the air. Let’s put our feet up and cast our eyes to the fringes of playoff contention. Continue reading...

An encounter in a New York nightclub left me squirming with inadequacy, a feeling I thought I had left behind

The true feelings of those in charge at Augusta remain hard to read but it is clear that locking out players is not good for businessThe air of mystique surrounding Augusta National ensures a captive audience even when there is precious little to say. It would have been major news had the host club of the Masters announced that LIV rebels would be banned from the 87th staging of the major. Instead, in somewhat grudging and opaque terms, the tournament chairman, Fred Ridley, confirmed LIV players already eligible for April in Georgia – 16 of them, to be precise – will not encounter roadblocks at the end of Magnolia Lane.The Masters is looking after itself. This is the same policy adopted by the R&A in respect to the Open. It will be an identical approach from the PGA of America and the United States Golf Association when it comes to the US PGA Championship and the US Open respectively. Locking out players, some of them carrying a high profile and some of them former champions, is not good for business. Cameron Smith, an LIV convert, is the holder of the Claret Jug. Television companies and sponsors would want to know why their “product” was being diminished for reasons separate to the tournament. Ridley, Martin Slumbers (his equivalent at the R&A) and the rest do not much fancy those conversations. So, instead, they tiptoe through the tulips. If this is partly understandable, it is also more than a little deflating. Continue reading...

Target of House GOP looks to Abbe Lowell, seasoned Washington attorney who represented Trump’s son-in-lawFacing imminent investigation by House Republicans, Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, has hired a high-profile Washington lawyer who represented Jared Kushner in Congress, as well as during the investigation of Russian election interference and links between Donald Trump and Moscow.“Hunter Biden has retained Abbe Lowell to help advise him and be part of his legal team to address the challenges he is facing,” another attorney for the president’s son, Kevin Morris, told news outlets on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Conservatives in the state are pushing for library systems to remove books with LGBTQ+ themes and charactersMel Manuel never expected to be an activist – they even shy away from the term.“No, no way,” they said with a laugh. “No, I’ve just been a teacher my whole life.” Continue reading...

No one knows how Zeppelin, a three-year-old German shepherd mix, made the 1,600-mile journey, but he is alive and wellA dog missing from its California home for more than a year has been found alive and well – albeit 1,600 miles away in Kansas.No one knows how Zeppelin, a three-year-old German shepherd mix, made the journey across a giant swathe of the United States, but he is alive and well and is now heading home for Christmas, NPR reported. Continue reading...

We have suffered both. Some never speak the truth because they don’t know or care about it. Others know the truth but lie anywaySometimes it falls to an old book to tell us what’s new, to a white-bearded philosopher based far from Westminster or Washington to clarify the shifts in our sharp-suited politics. So spare yourself the annual round-ups in the newspapers or the boy-scout enthusiasm of podcasters. To understand the great political shift of this year, the work you need is a piece of philosophy called ­– what else? – On Bullshit.I offer it to you this Christmas because surely no reader of mine can resist an essay that begins: “One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this.” Statements like that made it a bestseller upon re-publication in 2005 and turned its then-75-year-old author, Harry Frankfurt, from a distinguished moral philosopher at Yale and Princeton into a chatshow guest. Continue reading...

His mother, Virginia state senator Karen Berg said he killed himself after ‘difficulty finding acceptance’Henry Berg-Brousseau, a transgender rights advocate whose story helped inspire opposition to trans-restrictive legislation in Kentucky, has died. He was 24.Berg-Brousseau, of Arlington, Virginia, was the deputy press secretary for politics for the Human Rights Campaign, one of the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations. Continue reading...

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, addressed a joint meeting of the US Congress to persuade Republican lawmakers to continue to fund his country's defence against Russia.'It is a great honour for me to be at the US Congress and speak to you and all Americans. Against all doom-and-gloom scenarios, Ukraine did not fall. Ukraine is alive and kicking,' said Zelenskiy, who received a standing ovation when he walked into the chamber. 'We defeated Russia in the battle for the minds of the world'

Ukrainian president’s first foreign trip since Russia invaded was made amid concern that Republicans might oppose future funding proposalsThe Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has given a defiant address to a joint session of the US Congress in which he vowed that his country would never abandon its resistance to Russian aggression – but said that Washington’s continued support is key to ultimate victory.Zelenskiy was received with a standing ovation as he arrived to speak wearing his now trademark green military-style trousers and shirt. The Ukrainian leader was repeatedly met with long bursts of applause as he invoked US battles against Nazi Germany and President Franklin Roosevelt’s wartime commitments in a bid to keep American weapons supplies flowing for the war against Russia. Continue reading...

House committee to conclude Trump ‘provoked violence’ in criminal plot to overturn 2020 electionAn 800-page report to be released on Thursday by House investigators will conclude that Donald Trump criminally plotted to overturn his 2020 election defeat and “provoked his supporters to violence” at the Capitol with false claims of widespread voter fraud.The resulting 6 January 2021 insurrection by Trump’s followers threatened democracy with “horrific” brutality toward law enforcement and “put the lives of American lawmakers at risk”, according to the report’s executive summary. Continue reading...

Publication of report after 18-month investigation follows vote to publicly release Trump’s tax returns

As the House January 6 committee is set to publish its report, here are some of the key standoutsThe House January 6 committee is set to publish its report on the attack on the Capitol that shocked both America and the world . After a year of dramatic hearings and bombshell testimony, here are some of the key winners and losers to emerge from its work. Continue reading...

Alameda county in the San Francisco Bay Area adopts measure amid worsening homelessness catastropheA California county has become the first in the nation to pass a law banning landlords from conducting criminal background checks on applicants, a significant move meant to curb housing discrimination against formerly incarcerated people.The Alameda county board of supervisors in the San Francisco Bay Area voted Tuesday to adopt a Fair Chance housing ordinance, which would prohibit landlords in private and public housing from using criminal records when considering prospective tenants. While a few cities have passed similar measures, and at least two counties have adopted partial restrictions, Alameda is the first county in the US to broadly prohibit this practice, advocates say. Continue reading...

Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited the White House for a meeting with Joe Biden in what is Zelenskiy's first known foreign trip since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. While flying over the Atlantic, Zelenskiy tweeted that he planned to strengthen his country's 'resilience and defence capabilities'. Biden tweeted: 'I hope you’re having a good flight, Volodymyr. I’m thrilled to have you here'

DEA says more than 379m deadly doses of opioid with strength from one and a half to 50 times stronger than heroin were seizedThe US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has said it seized enough fentanyl in 2022 to kill every person in America.In a statement on Tuesday, the DEA said it had seized 50.6m fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills and more than 10,000lb of fentanyl powder this year – seizures that in total represent more than 379m deadly doses. Continue reading...

This should be a bipartisan issue. And while we’re at it, why are members of Congress allowed to trade stocks?Finally, at least some of Donald Trump’s tax returns will be released to the public. This is an important step forward for political transparency, but it shouldn’t be the last.On Tuesday, the House ways and means committee voted to release six years of the former president’s tax returns; the committee also revealed that, counter to standard protocol, the IRS had not audited Trump during his first two years in office – and that the IRS only began their audit once ways and means asked for the returns and audit records. Trump had repeatedly said that he was being audited during those two years, which was untrue. Continue reading...

Experts say temperatures won’t get as cold as 2021 storm, with expected minimum around 10FNervous Texans are preparing for a freezing blast of Arctic air on Thursday but it is not predicted to be a repeat of the disastrous winter storm that struck the state in 2021, crippling large parts of the state’s power infrastructure and killing scores of people.Residents have been warned to brace for extremely cold weather and to stock up on essentials like bottled water and non-perishable foods in case of power outages and food supply chain issues like those experienced during winter storm Uri in February 2021, when millions of Texans were left without power and 246 people died. Continue reading...

Internal Revenue Service only began audit after prompting from Congress in 2019, House ways and means committee indicatesUS tax authorities failed to audit Donald Trump for two years while he was in the White House, Democratic lawmakers said, despite a program that makes tax review of sitting presidents compulsory.The claim, in a report issued by Democrats on the House ways and means committee voting to release six years of Trump’s tax returns, raises questions over statements made by Trump and members of his administration that he could not release his tax returns, a convention for aspiring and sitting presidents, because he was undergoing an Internal Revenue Service audit. Continue reading...

FTX founder set to be charged with eight criminal counts, including fraud, conspiracy and money-laundering offensesSam Bankman-Fried, the jailed founder of the collapsed crypto-currency exchange FTX, is expected to fly back to the US on Wednesday to face criminal charges after waiving his right to contest extradition from the Bahamas.After several days of conflicting signals from Bankman-Fried’s US and Bahamian legal teams, the disgraced crypto-king appeared in court in Nassau to inform a magistrate judge of his decision. Continue reading...

Financial Reporting Council urges ‘vigilance’ after cheating in tests underpinning professional qualifications found at top auditorsCheating in professional exams is still a “live” issue at the UK’s biggest audit firms, the accountancy watchdog warned.A string of multimillion dollar fines have already been issued to large auditing and accounting firms around the world over allegations of cheating in tests which underpin professional qualifications. Continue reading...

Jarl Rockhill also required to read Ta-Nehisi Coates, as part of plea deal for plastering a racist sticker outside refugee non-profitAn Oregon man who pleaded guilty to a hate crime was ordered to write essays about racism and the challenges faced by refugees.Jarl Rockhill, 35 and from Linn, Oregon, was ordered by a judge to write the essays as a part of a plea deal, the Oregonian reported. Continue reading...