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House of Commons calls on Keir Starmer to condemn Donald Trump's interference' in European politics

Harold Wayne Nichols, who will be killed by lethal injection, confessed to killing Karen Pulley and raping other womenTennessee is preparing to execute Harold Wayne Nichols by lethal injection on Thursday for the 1988 rape and murder of Karen Pulley, a 20-year-old student at Chattanooga State University.Nichols confessed to killing Pulley as well as raping several other women in the Chattanooga area. Although he expressed remorse at trial, he admitted that he would have continued his violent behavior had he not been arrested. He was sentenced to death in 1990. Continue reading...

The quarterback was seen as living off his father's name when he entered the NFL. But he has slowly started to prove himself at the Cleveland BrownsIt seems the goalposts are always moving on Shedeur Sanders, the Cleveland Browns' rookie quarterback who keeps throwing people off.He excelled at two colleges to establish himself as a top NFL prospect, only to wind up getting picked in the fifth round of this year's NFL draft in one of the most dramatic stock crashes in league history. He then distinguished himself in training camp, only to wind up as the back-up to the back-up. When Sanders was finally pressed into injury relief duty last month and led the Browns to just their third win of the season, the caveat was that his breakthrough had come at the expense of the even-worse Las Vegas Raiders. Last week against the struggling Tennessee Titans, Sanders became the first Browns quarterback to throw for more than 300 yards and three touchdowns and rush for another score in the same game since 1950. But for many, the bigger headline was that he lost. Again. Continue reading...

The move marks a major escalation of Trump's pressure campaign against Nicolas Maduro. Plus, how Hasan Piker became one of the biggest voices on the US leftGood morning.US forces have seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, in a major escalation of Donald Trump's four-month pressure campaign against the South American country's dictator, Nicolas Maduro, whose government called the seizure an act of international piracy".Where is Venezuela's opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, in all this? The Nobel peace prize winner greeted crowds in Oslo after secretly traveling to Norway following 11 months in hiding in Caracas. She said she backs the US oil tanker seizure, calling it a crucial step to tackle what she says is Maduro's criminal regime.Do we know who sent the letters? It remains unclear - and Lau said she was told it was unlikely police would find out who was behind them. Continue reading...

The president called immigrants such as Ilhan Omar garbage' - but this latest racist outburst may be another sign of weaknessLast week, as ICE agents descended on Minneapolis and St Paul, Minnesota's Twin Cities, and members of migrant communities there retreated into hiding, Donald Trump unleashed a wave of bigotry against the area's Somali population in a moment of vitriol that was shockingly racist even by his own very low standards. Rousing himself to animation at the tail end of a televised 2 December cabinet meeting during which he sometimes appeared to be struggling to stay awake, the president disparaged Somali immigrants, many of whom are refugees from the country's long-running civil conflict, as ungrateful and unfit for residence in the United States.I don't want 'em in our country," Trump said of ethnic Somalis, about 80,000 of whom live in the Minneapolis area. Their country's no good for a reason." The comments echoed recent posts from the president's powerful adviser Stephen Miller, who has largely taken over immigration policy. Referring to what he called the lie of mass migration" in a November 27 post on X, Miller cast doubt on the possibility of assimilation, and suggested that immigrants from troubled countries would contaminate America with a kind of genetic or ontological incapacity for democratic governance. At scale, migrants and their descendants represent the conditions, and terrors, of their broken homelands," Miller wrote.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Residents have had to adjust how they're living - staying home, carrying passports - since Trump launched his attackOn Tuesday morning, just a few stalls were open among the dozens that normally sell food, rugs, clothing and jewelry at Karmel mall, a Somali community hub in Minneapolis. Longtime Minnesotans said they had never seen the mall as quiet as it has been in recent days, almost jarringly still.The bustle was replaced by unease and fear over the Trump administration's menace toward Somalis and increased immigration agents in the city, tasked with targeting Somalis for deportation. Continue reading...

Bajun Mavalwalla, who maintains his innocence, will take case to jury even as others strike plea agreementsAn Afghanistan war veteran arrested on felony conspiracy" charges a month after he participated in a protest against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) maintains his innocence and is preparing for a jury trial, even as others arrested the same day strike plea agreements to avoid long prison terms, his father said.Bajun Mavalwalla II - a former army sergeant who survived a roadside bomb blast on a special operations mission in Afghanistan - was charged in July with conspiracy to impede or injure officers" after joining an anti-ICE protest in Spokane, Washington. Continue reading...

The president's son-in-law is once again at the center of an international business deal that will require administration approvalOn Monday, Paramount Skydance launched a $108bn takeover bid for Warner Bros Discovery, the entertainment giant that owns Hollywood movie studios, along with CNN, HBO and other media businesses. The bid is led by David Ellison, son of the tech billionaire Larry Ellison - a prominent Donald Trump supporter and Republican donor. Netflix had already prevailed over Paramount in a previous bidding competition for the purchase, but Trump announced on Sunday that he would be involved" in his administration's review of the Netflix deal. The president suggested the sale could be a problem" because Netflix is already dominant in the US streaming market.Paramount left out a significant fact in the press release announcing its offer: the bid includes funding from the private equity firm owned by Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, as well as three Arab monarchies, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which collectively have billions of dollars in ongoing ventures involving the Trump family business. Those details were buried in required paperwork filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Continue reading...

The world of soccer throws up no shortage of questions on a regular basis. In today's column, we endeavor to answer three of themLionel Messi is a MLS Cup winner. That might rank lowly on the GOAT's list of career achievements, but it was clear in the Argentine's celebrations after the 3-1 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps in Saturday's championship game just how much this meant. Even for Messi, this was more than just another trophy. This was a mission accomplished' moment. Continue reading...

Every day he broadcasts a marathon Twitch stream, airing his views to his three million subscribers. It has led to fame - and some fear - in a country ever more politically dividedHasan Piker calls it the bus driver test: You get on a bus and you have 30 seconds to explain whatever online phenomena took place to the bus driver without them looking at you and going, Get off the fucking bus.'" Most online discourse, no matter how heated, fails the test, he says - not least an incident last weekend, when someone on a Dublin street asked to take a picture with Piker, then held up a picture of his dog and shouted Free Kaya!" Never mind the bus driver; trying to explain the significance of this particular event might well take the rest of this article, but the wider point is that there is a jarring overlap, or more often disconnect, between the online and offline worlds.Piker finds himself in this in-between space more and more these days. Until fairly recently, the 34-year-old was familiar only to the very online, especially Americans in their 20s and 30s, largely thanks to his presence on the streaming channel Twitch, where he has three million subscribers. But since Donald Trump's election, Piker has become an in-demand voice in the real world" for his views on the beleaguered political left, and especially that inordinately fretted-over demographic, young men. Continue reading...

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Footage uploaded to X by US attorney general shows its forces landing on the tanker in major escalation of Trump's pressure campaign

In survey, US school principals describe climate of distress' and declines in student attendance amid crackdownsImmigrant students across the US have experienced increased bullying, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) crackdowns causing declines in attendance and a culture of fear" among immigrant students in public schools, according to a new survey of high school principals.Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles's Institute for Democracy, Education and Access (Idea) conducted a nationally representative" survey of more than 600 principals about the toll of raids and deportations, and how schools were responding. Continue reading...

Trump says Colombia's president next' as he announces major escalation in US pressure on Nicolas Maduro - key US politics stories from Wednesday, 10 December at a glanceUS forces have seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, in a major escalation of Donald Trump's four-month pressure campaign against the South American country's dictator, Nicolas Maduro.Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, posted footage of the seizure on X. The grainy, unclassified 45-second video shows US forces landing on the tanker from a helicopter. Continue reading...

Legislation includes pay increase for troops and a demand for more information about boat strikes in the CaribbeanThe US House voted 312-112 to pass a sweeping defense policy bill on Wednesday that authorizes $900bn in military programs, including a pay raise for troops and an overhaul of how the Department of Defense purchases weapons.The 3,000-page bill also includes a demand for more information about nearly two dozen lethal boat strikes in the Caribbean targeting suspected drug smugglers. A stipulation calls for the withholding of part of the travel budget of Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, unless the Pentagon releases to Congress the full, unedited video of a widely scrutinized strike in September which killed survivors of an earlier strike. Continue reading...

The 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) carries $8bn more than the funding Trump requested in MayThe US House has approved a sweeping defence bill that bolsters Europe's security, in what appears to be sharp rebuke to Donald Trump's mounting threats to downgrade Washington's ties to traditional allies and Nato.The bipartisan vote came just days after the publication of a White House national security strategy that said Europe faced civilisational erasure" and made explicit Washington's support for Europe's nationalist far-right parties - rattling EU leaders and opening up a seismic shift in transatlantic relations. Continue reading...

Bob Ferguson says he has also activated the state's national guard to respond to the floodingThe governor of Washington, Bob Ferguson, declared a statewide emergency on Wednesday in response to heavy rain in the Pacific north-west state since an atmospheric river smacked the region a day earlier with rains that triggered mudslides and washed out roads and submerged vehicles.The emergency declaration, Ferguson said, allows us to seek federal funds to cover the cost of this response, which we anticipate will be significant, and also gives us the flexibility we need to respond quickly to keep Washingtonians safe in a fast-moving situation". Continue reading...

California officials predict months-long investigation into 29 November killing of four people, including three childrenMore than a week after a mass shooting at a toddler's birthday party in Stockton, California, killed four people and injured 17 others, law enforcement has yet to make arrests or name any suspects. It may take investigators months to figure out what led to the tragedy, authorities said.As investigators parse through the aftermath of the shooting, they have found at least 50 shell casings and believe at least five firearms were used in the attack, San Joaquin sheriff Patrick Withrow told reporters during a press conference on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Transport infrastructure in the US is a hot mess - and the guy in charge thinks wellness spaces' are going to solve the problemSean Dog" Duffy is a legend in the lumberjack world: a three-time world champion in the 90ft lumberjack speed climb who is renowned for his prowess in mounting and rolling big bits of wood. Not just a lumberjack, Duffy also made waves on late-90s reality TV shows The Real World: Boston and Road Rules: All Stars. And now Duffy is parlaying his experience on Road Rules into his role as US transportation secretary.Duffy has got a lot on his big lumberjack hands: transport infrastructure in the US is, to use the technical term, a hot mess. More than a third of the country's bridges need major repair work or replacement. There has been little historical investment in railways and the country lags behind the rest of the industrialized world when it comes to high-speed trains. Meanwhile, there's a chronic air-traffic-controller shortage, which was exacerbated by the recent government shutdown when a number of controllers, fed up with the dysfunctional system, took early retirement. Continue reading...

Wealthy immigrants will be able to buy residency, and $5m platinum card' will exempt holders from some US taxesDonald Trump launched a new program that will allow wealthy foreign individuals to buy a US golden visa" for $1m, and trailed a platinum" version for $5m.A direct path to Citizenship for all qualified and vetted people. SO EXCITING! Our Great American Companies can finally keep their invaluable Talent," Trump wrote on Wednesday on social media. Continue reading...

Funds for contract signed with Daedalus Aviation will come from $170bn allocated for Trump's border policyThe Department of Homeland Security has signed a nearly $140m contract to purchase six Boeing 737 planes for deportation operations.The contract, signed with the Virginia-based firm Daedalus Aviation, was first reported by the Washington Post on Wednesday and later confirmed by DHS. Continue reading...

Car company said team detected unusual activity' inside vehicle and called to check on rider and alert 911Self-driving Waymo taxis have gone viral for negative reasons including the death of a beloved San Francisco bodega cat and pulling an illegal U-turn in front of police, who were unable to issue a ticket to a nonexistent driver.But this week, the company behind the self-driving taxis is drawing attention to the happier news that a San Francisco woman gave birth in a Waymo. Continue reading...

Divisive vote to lower rates highlights uncertainty in the Fed as economy absorbs major shakeups, including tariffsThe US Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday that it was cutting interest rates by a quarter point for the third time this year, as the embattled central bank appeared split over how best to manage the US economy.The Fed chair, Jerome Powell, has emphasized unity within the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the board of Fed leaders that sets interest rates. But the nine-to-three vote to lower rates to a range of 3.5% to 3.75% was divisive among the committee that tends to vote in unanimity. Continue reading...

Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and others to discuss peace plan as US tries to push through peace dealLeaders of the coalition of the willing" group of nations will hold a video call on Thursday as chaotic American efforts to push through a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine reach a crunch moment.Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said his officials would hand over a revised version of a peace plan to US negotiators on Wednesday before the call with leaders and officials from about 30 countries. Continue reading...

Speaking on a rightwing podcast, the billionaire said he would not go back and lead the job-cutting program againElon Musk has said the aggressive federal job-cutting program he headed early in Donald Trump's second term, known as the department of government efficiency" (Doge), was only a little bit successful" and he would not lead the project again.Musk said he wouldn't want to repeat the exercise, talking on the podcast hosted by Katie Miller, a rightwing personality with a rising profile who was a Doge adviser and who is married to Stephen Miller, Donald Trump's hardline anti-immigration deputy chief of staff. Continue reading...

Eileen Higgins's win has reset Miami's political landscape in a manner not seen in some ways in 28 years, and in others not at all

There is no rule of law if the president can deem anyone an enemy combatant and order them summarily shotThe largely supine Republicans in Congress had no apparent trouble as Donald Trump and defense secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the killing of suspected drug runners off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia. But suddenly they are up in arms because the Washington Post reported on 28 November about one incident, a double-tap strike, in which the US military finished off two survivors of an attack.Tempted as I am to accept whatever it takes to spark some minimal scrutiny of these summary executions, I hope this unexpected opening prompts broader investigation of this entire series of murders, which have now claimed 87 victims in 22 attacks. As Democrats join in, there are some indications that this expanded scrutiny may be finally beginning.Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch (1993-2022), is a visiting professor at Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs. His book, Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments, is published by Knopf and Allen Lane. Continue reading...

Newly released footage shows officers' first interaction with Luigi Mangione inside a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Mangione was arrested in December 2024 and is facing trial for the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in midtown Manhattan that month. In the video, Mangione can be heard telling officers his name is 'Mark Rosario'. Police were responding to a report from a restaurant employee who said customers believed they recognised Mangione from the news Continue reading...

Co-chairs of LNG firm, who bought stock worth almost $12m each after meeting with Trump officials, deny wrongdoingA senior Democratic senator is calling for an investigation into potential insider trading by fossil-fuel billionaires close to the Trump administration, after a Guardian investigation raised questions about an unusual share buying spree.Robert Pender and Michael Sabel, the founders and co-chairs of Venture Global, a liquefied natural gas (LNG) company headquartered in Virginia, bought more than a million shares worth almost $12m each, just days after meeting with senior Trump officials in March. Continue reading...

The FDA is reviewing RSV vaccines, which have drastically lowered infant hospitalizations, a spokesperson confirmedUS regulatory officials are re-examining the safety of RSV shots despite no published reports of safety issues - a move that could lead to the removal or limitation of shots that have dramatically lowered hospitalizations among babies.It's the latest move from US health officials under Robert F Kennedy Jr, the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and a longtime anti-vaccine activist, to limit access to shots and to undermine public trust in the safe and effective products. Continue reading...

Zines have made a resurgence as communities seek to share information on everything from ICE raids to local electionsOn a cloudy Saturday afternoon, the Los Angeles central public library bustled with nearly 100 people making zines, small, DIY magazines made out of a single piece of paper. There was folding, laughing and helping with cuts. Titles like Narcan 101," Free Palestine," and An American Zine," filled with illustrations and tips, lined a table down the hall.While this may sound like a scene from the 1980s or 1990s - when zines were popular as a countercultural form of expression - this was a workshop in modern-day Los Angeles, where immigration raids and federal threats have left residents restless and scared. Continue reading...

Ukraine's president to look at holding wartime vote. Plus, the hidden life of Matthew PerryGood morning.Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is ready to hold a wartime election within the next three months, if Ukraine's parliament and foreign allies will allow it, after Donald Trump accused him of clinging on to power.Why hasn't there been an election? Zelenskyy's five-year term expired in May last year, but the Ukrainian constitution prohibits elections during wartime, and even his political opponents have said repeatedly that the security and political considerations do not allow for holding a vote while the war continued.What else did he talk about? There were familiar rally staples such as a mocking impression of Joe Biden, as well as a repeat of a racist falsehood about the Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a Muslim woman born in Somalia: We ought to get her the hell out! She married her brother ... Therefore she's here illegally." The crowd chanted: Send her back!" Omar has called the claims about her brother ridiculous". Continue reading...

RootsAction report finds Harris courted moderates instead of working-class Democrats - and Gaza stance did not helpKamala Harris lost last year's US presidential election because she chased the wrong voters with the wrong message, ultimately demobilising the very base that she needed to win, according to an autopsy by a progressive grassroots advocacy group.The vice-president focused on courting moderate Republicans over motivating core Democratic working-class, young and progressive voters, a misstep compounded by her failure to break from Joe Biden on Gaza, says the report by RootsAction. Continue reading...

In 2010 and 2022, the US faced heightened emotions from the lead-in to the tournament itself. As hosts next year, little will changeThe draw is done. The schedule is set. For the US men's national team, all that's left, aside from playing the games, are the emotional highs and lows. After the draw, US head coach Mauricio Pochettino referenced a competitive stress" factor triggered by the World Cup. He said the friendlies against Belgium and Portugal in March are intended to simulate that stress so that it doesn't surprise his players when the spotlight of the World Cup arrives.With the margins always thin at a World Cup, earning results that mitigate that pressure could prove to be the difference between the USMNT crashing out just when they capture the undivided attention of the nation, or enduring and soaring to a best-ever finish. Continue reading...

Don't say you weren't warned: Trump's new national security strategy seeks to destroy liberal democracy as we know itOn the same day that Donald Trump received his made-to-order peace prize" from his newest pal, Fifa president Johnny" Infantino, his administration published an equally gaudy national security strategy. The relatively short document oozes Trump and Trumpism. It starts out with the typically modest claim that the president has brought our nation - and the world - back from the brink of catastrophe and disaster".Even if the strategy mostly formalises the ongoing actions and statements of Trump and his administration, it should be heeded as a warning for the world, and Europe in particular.Cas Mudde is the Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF professor of international affairs at the University of Georgia, and author of The Far Right Today Continue reading...

Trump's sometimes incoherent Politico interview featured recycled far-right tropes about European immigration - key US politics stories from Tuesday 9 December at a glanceDonald Trump has hinted he could walk away from supporting Ukraine as he doubled down on his administration's recent criticism of Europe, describing it as weak" and decaying" and claiming it was destroying itself" through immigration.In a rambling and sometimes incoherent interview with Politico, a transcript of which was released on Tuesday, the US president struggled to name any other Ukrainian cities except for Kyiv, misrepresented elements of the trajectory of the conflict, and recycled far-right tropes about European immigration that echoed the great replacement" conspiracy theory. Continue reading...

President sought to rehab image after criticism of being out of touch, but speech aimed at midterms took different turn

The US president made baseless claims during remarks on cost of living that meandered into racism and bigotryDonald Trump made a series of false and baseless claims in Pennsylvania on Tuesday during a speech that was billed as an address on affordability, but quickly became a meandering, campaign-style rally.Here are some key fact-checks and takeaways: Continue reading...

In Pennsylvania, US president attacks Ilhan Omar and Jasmine Crockett and makes multiple false claims, including that prices are way down'. This blog is now closed.A federal judge in New York has granted the justice department's request to unseal grand jury documents in the sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell -the companion and accomplice of the late sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein. It comes after the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Donald Trump signed last month.The legislation requires the Department of Justice to release the full tranche of records related to disgraced financier, in a searchable format by 19 December. Continue reading...

Trump had further said Nicolas Maduro's days are numbered' as military has targeted alleged drug boatsTwo US fighter jets circled the Gulf of Venezuela on Tuesday, in what appeared to be an escalation of the Trump administration's ongoing hostilities toward the South American country and its leftist leader, Nicolas Maduro.Venezuelans and South American media followed the flights in real time using websites like FlightRadar24, which showed a pair of F/A-18 Super Hornets flying together into the narrow Gulf of Venezuela for about 40 minutes. The jets flew just north of Maracaibo, Venezuela's most populous city. Continue reading...

In stunning upset victory, Higgins also becomes first woman in post and first non-Hispanic candidate since 90sDemocrat Eileen Higgins was elected mayor of Miami on Tuesday night in a stunning upset victory that reversed a run of recent Republican successes in Florida.The election of Higgins, 61, a former county commissioner, also added to a string of Democratic wins across the country that have served to highlight the growing level of resistance to Donald Trump in his second presidential term. Continue reading...

A cable from Marco Rubio reportedly said cutting Calibri from official communication would abolish yet another wasteful DEIA program'US diplomats have been ordered to return to using Times New Roman font in official communications, with secretary of state Marco Rubio calling the Biden administration's decision to adopt Calibri a wasteful" diversity move, according to an internal department cable seen by Reuters.The department under Rubio's predecessor Antony Blinken switched to Calibri in 2023, claiming the modern sans-serif font was more accessible for people with disabilities because it did not have the decorative angular features and was the default in Microsoft products. Continue reading...