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DoJ told to resolve noncompliance with subpoena demanding return of documents with ex-president’s legal teamA top federal judge denied a request from the justice department to hold Donald Trump’s office in contempt of court for failing to fully comply with a subpoena demanding the return of all documents bearing classified markings, according to sources familiar with proceedings.The chief US judge for the District of Columbia Beryl Howell told the department during a closed-door hearing on Friday to resolve the matter with the Trump legal team itself because a contempt ruling would not hold, the sources said. Continue reading...

South African to support review of US high performance programmes as 2031 and 2033 World Cup host looks to rebuildThe former South Africa assistant coach Gary Gold will step down as head coach of the US Eagles, USA Rugby said on Friday, three weeks after the team failed to qualify for the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France.In a statement, Ross Young, chief executive of USA Rugby, thanked Gold “for his dedication, passion and service”. Continue reading...

J Alexander Kueng pleaded guilty of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter and will serve a three and a half year termThe former Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on George Floyd’s back while another officer kneeled on the Black man’s neck was sentenced Friday to three and a half years in prison.J Alexander Kueng pleaded guilty in October to a state count of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. In exchange, a charge of aiding and abetting murder was dropped. Kueng is already serving a federal sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights, and the state and federal sentence will be served at the same time. Continue reading...

Senator’s decision to register as independent after playing spoiler role brings Democrats’ bitterness towards lawmaker to surfaceUpon learning that the Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema was leaving their party, some Democrats’ reactions could best be summed up with two words: good riddance.The lawmaker has been a thorn in their side since the early days of Joe Biden’s presidency, snarling negotiations over the White House’s priorities and voting down reforms dear to progressives such as raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and reforming the Senate filibuster. Continue reading...

Support for public sector workers shows that most people realise the government’s in the wrong, not exhausted nursesWinter is suddenly here, and with it a chill descending. This Arctic snap brings with it the season of falls on icy pavements, breathing difficulties aggravated by the cold, cars skidding off frozen roads and drunken Christmas party casualties. The worst time of year, you might think, for the first ambulance strike since the 1980s and the first national nurses’ strike in more than a century, especially as the NHS is grappling with a rush of parents understandably panicking about an outbreak of strep A.The armed forces may be drafted in to cover, somewhat ironically given that they, too, are public sector workers who spent the pandemic building hospitals and shipping PPE in return for a less than bumper payrise. But it’s still no time to be old and frail, worrying about what might happen if you slip on the stairs, or to be a family without a car, wondering how you’d get a child to hospital in the middle of the night. Continue reading...

The Netflix series has caused establishment outrage. But I think it gives us a chance to have a long needed discussion about racismAlthough it would be hard to reach this conclusion from reading any of the thousands of articles of negative copy the couple have generated, when Prince Harry fell in love with Meghan Markle, the royal family – and Britain more broadly – was gifted manna from soft-power heaven.As well as her vast, obvious qualities (often demanded by such roles), Meghan also brought something less obvious: Blackness – a quality that could not have been more historically potent, given the circumstances. Continue reading...

Arizona senator changes party affiliation and says she will not caucus with RepublicansThe US senator Kyrsten Sinema has switched her political affiliation to independent, leaving the Democratic party just days after it won a Senate race in Georgia to secure a 51st seat in the chamber.“I have joined the growing numbers of Arizonans who reject party politics by declaring my independence from the broken partisan system in Washington. I registered as an Arizona independent,” she said in an op-ed for Arizona Central, a local media outlet. Continue reading...

It’s not just indifference. It’s an active, and deadly, cavalier attitude towards the lives of others: an example other nations followThere are two extraordinary facts about the convention on biological diversity, whose members are meeting in Montreal now to discuss the global ecological crisis. The first is that, of the world’s 198 states, 196 are party to it. The second is the identity of those that aren’t. Take a guess. North Korea? Russia? Wrong. Both ratified the convention years ago. One is the Holy See (the Vatican). The other is the United States of America.This is one of several major international treaties the US has refused to ratify. Among the others are crucial instruments such as the Rome statute on international crimes, the treaties banning cluster bombs and landmines, the convention on discrimination against women, the Basel convention on hazardous waste, the convention on the law of the sea, the nuclear test ban treaty, the employment policy convention and the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. Continue reading...

Plus a strike-breaking Wordle, and the weirdest episode of political weeping since Matt HancockWith the news full of alarm about this winter’s “tripledemic” – rising case numbers of RSV, flu and Covid, particularly among children – when my child’s fever hits 103F late on Monday, I do something I hate: drag her around the corner to urgent care, the 24-hour drop-in clinic where for $150 you can be seen immediately by a doctor who’s never seen you before and will never see you again. It’s the fast food of healthcare, right down to the décor – which consists, unnervingly, of wall-to-wall framed photos of TV doctors, as if the place is cosplaying medical help and the clinicians have all been booked from central casting. Continue reading...

NBA players and coaches celebrated the release of Brittney Griner.Russia freed the jailed US basketball star in a dramatic high-level prisoner exchange for the notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, the so-called 'Merchant of Death' who had been held in a US prison for 12 years.'We thank you for your sacrifice and your continued perseverance and patience to get through this process, and hope you enjoy reuniting with your family,' said two-time NBA MVP Steph Curry

Basketball star arrives in Texas after US releases convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout in dramatic prisoner swap. Plus, the first-ever unicorn license granted

The midterms have been an endorsement of Biden’s formula: appeal to the middle by hammering at Republicans’ extremismFor the third time in a row, Democrats have won a Senate election in Georgia. Raphael Warnock’s victory makes it clear that the party’s gains in the state in 2020 were not an anomaly. Although far from being a so-called blue state, Georgia is positioned well to remain competitive in 2024 and beyond. But in order for that to happen – and to build on their victories elsewhere – Democrats have to make the right choices.Taken as a whole, the midterms have provided a ringing endorsement of the approach to politics favored by President Joe Biden. From the first moment it looked like he would enter the 2020 Democratic primary, Biden was maligned and mocked for suggesting that the path to a Democratic victory lay through gains with independent and suburban voters. Critics argued that the country was so deeply polarized that swing voters no longer existed, and that appeals for bipartisanship would fall on deaf ears. In their view, the only viable strategy was to mobilize the Democratic base with leftwing appeals, even at the cost of losing voters in the center. Continue reading...

Biden ordered officials to focus on deporting immigrants convicted of felonies, rather than undocumented people en masse. I applaud that decisionTexas has sued the Biden administration over its order to immigration agents to prioritize undocumented immigrants convicted of felonies rather than deport all undocumented immigrants.Texas argues that federal immigration law requires the government to deport every undocumented immigrant. The Biden administration says it doesn’t have the resources to deport the country’s estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, so it must develop priorities.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...

Basketball star released as US agrees to free convicted arms dealer in dramatic prisoner swapRussia has freed the jailed US basketball star Brittney Griner in a dramatic high-level prisoner exchange for the notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, the so-called “Merchant of Death” who had been held in a US prison for 12 years.Joe Biden, who had made Griner’s release a top priority after she spent almost 10 months in jail on drug charges, said in an address from the White House he found her “in good spirits” when speaking after the swap in Abu Dhabi. Continue reading...

Video from Russian state media shows the moment released prisoners, the US basketball star Brittney Griner and the arms dealer Viktor Bout, momentarily cross paths on the tarmac of an airport in the United Arab Emirates.In the footage, Griner can be seen wearing a red coat, and Bout is holding what appears to be a brown envelope.Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medallist, was released from a Russian jail before being traded for Bout, an arms dealer who had been held in a US prison for 12 years

Activists urge a federal investigation of the Kansas City police department after a detective allegedly preyed on Black womenIt is a scandal that has shocked many beyond the borders of Kansas City, where a senior white policeman allegedly carried out a reign of terror in which he brutally abused and sexually assaulted vulnerable Black women.An appalling set of allegations against former Kansas City, Kansas police department detective Roger Golubski has lifted the lid on a scheme where he is alleged to have protected local drug dealers in the midwestern city, who then allowed him to rape women forced to work as prostitutes. Continue reading...

Several investigations have been launched around gambling patterns for UFC fights. The organization must shoulder some of the blameOn 5 November 2022, a handful of UFC oddsmakers and media members noticed suspicious gambling activity before a fight between Shayilan Nuerdanbieke and Darrick Minner in Las Vegas.In the hours leading up to the fight, Nuerdanbieke emerged as a significant betting favorite. He went on to win by technical knockout in the opening round after Minner’s knee appeared to buckle. It was later reported that Minner had hurt his left knee before the fight, and that rumors about the injury had spread among betting insiders. Continue reading...

Used in Native religious ceremonies but now adopted by A-list celebrities, the cactus is threatened by land development and over-harvestingEarlier this fall, leaders of the Native American Church of North America (Nacna) made a historic trip to Washington DC to meet with lawmakers about the need to protect peyote – and, with it, the faith of hundreds of thousands of Native people.Over the course of three days, they sat down with more than 20 lawmakers, federal officials and representatives from the Biden administration. In each meeting, they distributed photos to better illustrate the grim situation: huge swaths of land, in an area of southern Texas known as the Peyote Gardens, brutally cleared by root plowing. Continue reading...

I will ensure this country uses its power and influence to advance its interests and values

Film by her daughter, Alexandra Pelosi, captures how Nancy Pelosi fought to preserve democracy in the dramatic hours of the Capitol attackThe struggle of Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives, to preserve American democracy in the dramatic hours of the January 6 attack are captured in a new documentary film shot by her daughter.Pelosi is seen watching on TV Donald Trump’s incendiary speech to his supporters, getting rushed out of the US Capitol building and making calls to Vice-President Mike Pence and other officials from the Fort McNair military base, where congressional leaders took refuge from the mob. Continue reading...

Angel Ahearn’s grandmother fought to gain custody of the girl, but a judge placed her with her father despite allegations of abuseA Tennessee grandmother who fought for custody of her late daughter’s child but lost out to the girl’s father was left grieving and angry after the man murdered her granddaughter.Monica Dunning is holding up the shooting death of her 12-year-old granddaughter, Angel Ahearn, as devastating evidence that the US family court system is broken, the Tennessee news outlet WBIR reported. Continue reading...

The country can overcome multiple urgent challenges to achieve sustainable development for and with the peopleDevelopment is complex, but in complexity there is an opportunity for innovation if the right partnerships are formed.In Somalia, where the needs are extreme, multiple and urgent, there is no shortage of development projects, but more often than not, this dominates the global view of Somalia. However, this is not the full story. Continue reading...

Global head of News Corp among Murdoch’s guests. Plus: Toni Collette reveals split with husband after Daily Mail photosLachlan Murdoch’s week began with a deposition on Monday in the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit against Fox News and ended with the News Corp co-chair hosting an exclusive party for media and political leaders at his Bellevue Hill mansion in Sydney’s east.The whirlwind life of the media scion and his ex-model wife, Sarah, we assume is made possible by owning a private jet. Continue reading...

I know what it is like to live in a country where there is no way to voice oppositionThe case of climate protester Violet Coco, who was sentenced to 15 months in prison for briefly blocking a lane of traffic on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, is a frightening development. This was a peaceful protest, but the court refusing her bail until March is a condition usually imposed on violent criminals, according to her lawyer. A researcher from Human Rights Watch has called the sentence “outrageous”.The escalation of this case to such a completely disproportionate punishment is a part of a trend of shrinking civic space that is being mirrored in other democratic societies. In the UK, new legislation is set to give the police unprecedented powers to shut down protests and punish protesters. New laws in New South Wales that Violet was convicted under were supported by both the Liberal government and Labor opposition, both of which take donations from the fossil fuel companies. These new laws mean that peaceful climate activists face far higher jail terms than serious criminals. Continue reading...

Los Angeles county granted a girl named Madeline permission to own the mythical animal – if she can find oneA girl named Madeline, with a vivid imagination and remarkable awareness of how bureaucracy can dash dreams, got her wish when she asked Los Angeles animal control authorities for a license to own a unicorn – if she’s able to find one.The first-of-its-kind permit came with strings attached, however: the mythical creature must be provided ample exposure to sunlight, moonbeams and rainbows and have its horn polished at least once a month with a soft cloth. Continue reading...

Ray J Garcia, the retired warden of a prison nicknamed the ‘rape club’, faces lengthy prison stintThe retired warden of a federal California prison derisively nicknamed the “rape club” has been convicted of charges that he sexually abused incarcerated women under his charge.Ray J Garcia, 55, faces a lengthy stint in prison when he is eventually sentenced after a jury in Oakland’s federal courthouse on Thursday afternoon found him guilty of breaking laws that prohibit sexual contact between prison workers and inmates.The Associated Press contributed reporting Continue reading...

Trump office did not comply with subpoena issued in May demanding the return of all classified documents, a source saysThe US justice department is seeking a top federal judge to hold Donald Trump’s political office in contempt of court for not fully complying with a grand jury subpoena issued in May demanding the return of all classified documents in its possession, according to a source familiar with the matter.The department in recent weeks asked the chief US district court judge for the District of Columbia, Beryl Howell, to hold Trump’s office in contempt after prosecutors were unable to get the former president’s lawyers to designate a custodian of records to certify all records were returned. Continue reading...

Florida Democrat Maxwell Frost says he incurred debt from his campaign and was recently denied an apartment for poor creditMaxwell Frost, the Florida Democrat who made history last month as the first Gen Z congressman-elect, made waves on social media Thursday morning with a tweet in which he said he was struggling to find somewhere to live in Washington.Frost wrote: “Just applied to an apartment in DC where I told the guy that my credit was really bad. He said I’d be fine. Got denied, lost the apartment and the application fee. This ain’t meant for people who don’t already have money.” Continue reading...

Regulators voted 3-1 to stop the biggest acquisition in video game history, citing concerns over thwarting of competitionThe US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has moved to block Microsoft’s takeover of video game company Activision Blizzard, citing concerns that the deal would thwart competition by denying rivals access to popular gaming content.Microsoft, which owns the Xbox video game console system, said in January 2022 that it would buy Activision for $68.7bn, which would make it the biggest gaming industry deal in history. Activision is the maker of popular games including Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. Continue reading...

Final vote was 258 to 169, with 39 Republican members joining every House DemocratThe House gave final passage on Thursday to landmark legislation protecting same-sex marriage, in a bipartisan vote that reflects a remarkable shift in public opinion just over a quarter-century after Congress defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman.The final vote was 258 to 169, with 39 Republican members joining every House Democrat in supporting the bill. One Republican, Burgess Owens of Utah, voted present. Continue reading...

The mother of the British teenager killed by Anne Sacoolas said her sentencing was 'job done', adding that the promise to her late son was now complete.Sacoolas, a US citizen, has been handed an eight-month suspended sentence by a judge, who also disqualified her from driving for 12 months.

Critics label Biden’s decision to release Russian arms dealer ‘deeply disturbing’ – even if Brittney Griner’s freedom is excellent newsLast month, the Russian parliament mounted an unusual art exhibition with subjects ranging from the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin to a sentimental image of a kitten. They had been produced in prison by Viktor Bout, serving 25 years in America.History has shown that a sideline as an amateur artist is not much guarantee of moral integrity. Bout, known as “the merchant of death”, was the world’s most notorious arms dealer, selling weapons to rogue states, rebel groups and murderous warlords in Africa, Asia and South America. Continue reading...

Cougar dubbed P-99 gave birth to the litter over the summer in the western Santa Monica mountainsA mountain lion tracked by biologists in mountains near Los Angeles gave birth over the summer to four healthy kittens, officials said this week.The National Park Service said on Tuesday that the cougar dubbed P-99 delivered the litter in July in the western Santa Monica mountains. Continue reading...

Accused gunman in Club Q shooting that left five dead was arrested in 2021 for making bomb threat yet case was droppedA judge has ordered the unsealing of documents from the 2021 arrest of the Colorado Springs LGBTQ+ bar shooter, following a bomb threat and standoff with authorities.Judge Robin Chittum said the public interest in the case outweighed the privacy rights of the defendant, Anderson Lee Aldrich. Continue reading...

The US basketball star Brittney Griner has been released from a Russian jail and is on her way back to the US, President Joe Biden said on Thursday. The Russian foreign ministry said it had traded Griner for Viktor Bout, a notorious arms dealer who had been held in a US prison for 12 years.The swap took place at an airport in Abu Dhabi, Russian news agencies reported. Griner, 32, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was arrested on 17 February. Talks to secure her release were complicated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine on 24 February and the subsequent souring of ties between Washington and Moscow

The USA star is one of the world’s best players. Her talent led her to Russia, where she found herself in a diplomatic incidentBrittney Griner, who was released from a Russian jail in a high-profile prisoner swap on Thursday, seemed destined for basketball stardom as a high school student when an extraordinary growth spurt gave her a physical advantage. She later finessed her skills to become one of America’s top young players.Born in 1990 and raised in Houston, where her Vietnam veteran father was a sheriff’s deputy, she was bullied at school because of her appearance and looked to sport as a release, turning her unusual physique into an asset. At high school she grew to 6ft 8in – one inch below her current height – and her ability to dunk a basketball inspired a viral video and predictions that her athleticism and talent would make her an all-time great. Continue reading...

Anne Sacoolas, the killer of British teenager Harry Dunn, has been handed an eight-month suspended sentence by a judge, who also disqualified the US citizen from driving for 12 months.

Police name victim found in 1957 and never identified as Joseph Zarelli, in city’s oldest unsolved homicideNearly 66 years after the battered body of a young boy was found stuffed inside a cardboard box in Philadelphia, police in the city finally revealed the identity of the victim in their most notorious cold case.Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the Philadelphia police commissioner, Danielle Outlaw, named the victim as Joseph Augustus Zarelli, who was born on 13 January 1953. Continue reading...

Jaylen Smith, who lives at home with his parents, will be next leader of Earle, population 1,785It is not even a year since Jaylen Smith was learning the power of the youth vote as a student government leader at his high school in Arkansas. Now the pioneering teenager is about to put his knowledge into practice as the youngest elected Black mayor anywhere in the US.On Tuesday, as the Georgia Senate runoff was capturing the attention of the nation, Smith, 18, was steadily amassing the votes he needed to become the next leader of the small city of Earle, population 1,785. Continue reading...

Biden says US still unable to broker release of marine veteran Paul Whelan, accused of espionage by MoscowThe family of Paul Whelan, an American held in Russia, welcomed the release of the basketball star Brittney Griner but lamented “a disappointment for us and a catastrophe for Paul”.“It’s clear the US government has no concessions the Russian government will take for Paul Whelan,” his brother David Whelan said. Continue reading...

Before seeing the Netflix series I thought all sides were a bit silly. But the case that the duchess endured a wave of intolerance is hard to denyWhy did Harry and Meghan make their Netflix documentary? The seismic event that was “Megxit” – when the couple stepped back from royal duties, moved mainly to the US and became financially independent – was almost three years ago.The Oprah interview, in which they addressed the explicit public and private racism that made their position untenable, was transmitted in 2021. They’re out. They’ve left the firm. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to just move on? It’s a question an off-screen interviewer asks outright in Harry & Meghan. Meghan says: “Books were written about our story by people I don’t know. Doesn’t it make more sense to hear our story from us?” Harry is more indignant, and to the casual bystander, the royal not-watcher, sounds whiny: “We’ve never been allowed to tell our story.”Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Spokesperson for New York Democrat ‘confident’ undisclosed matter ‘will be dismissed’The New York Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is under investigation by the House of Representatives’ ethics committee, the leaders of the panel said.The Democratic acting chair, Susan Wild of Pennsylvania, and acting ranking member, Michael Guest, a Mississippi Republican, released a statement on Wednesday. Continue reading...

The ‘independent state legislature’ theory has rarely been put forward, and then only by blatant partisans acting in bad faithGoing into the oral arguments for Moore v Harper on Wednesday, it was easy to forget just how radical and strange it was that the US supreme court was hearing the case in the first place.Moore v Harper is a challenge by North Carolina’s Republican-controlled state legislature to a decision by the state’s Democratic-controlled supreme court, which threw out what the court called an excessively gerrymandered congressional district map that the legislature put forward, saying the map violated a state constitutional law guaranteeing free elections. Unhappy, the legislature adopted what used to be a fringe theory: that state courts don’t have much jurisdiction over election matters at all. Continue reading...

Employees at Florida’s Magic Kingdom say paychecks have not kept up even as company records $3.6bn operational profitEarl Penson has worked for 11 years as a food handler, managing and distributing deliveries for the Disney World theme park in Orlando, Florida, but makes just 50 cents more an hour than a new employee starting at Disney’s current minimum wage set at $15 an hour.He works over 40 hours a week at the so-called “Magic Kingdom”, starting work around 2am, working anywhere from eight to 10 hours or more, and takes side gigs as an electrician to make extra money. Continue reading...