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...

Blast of frigid weather has already hammered Pacific north-west and could reach as far south as Florida by FridayMuch of the US was braced on Wednesday for a dangerous mix of sub-zero temperatures, howling winds and blizzard conditions expected to disrupt plans for millions of holiday travelers.The frigid weather began hammering the Pacific north-west on Tuesday and was expected to move to the northern Rockies, then grip the Plains in a deep freeze and blanket the midwest with heavy snowfall, forecasters said. The Arctic front was forecast to spread bone-chilling cold as far south as Florida by Friday. Continue reading...

Kelly Conlon was blocked because her New York firm is involved in a personal injury claim against operator of Radio City Music HallA lawyer employed by a firm involved in a personal injury claim against the operator of Radio City Music Hall said she was barred from attending the Rockettes Christmas show at the famous Manhattan venue after being picked up by facial recognition technology at the entrance.Kelly Conlon told NBC New York she and her daughter came to the city from New Jersey last month as part of a Girl Scout field trip to see the show – but she was prevented from entering. Continue reading...

The Ukrainian president has left his country for the first time since Russia invaded the country 301 days ago. Zelenskiy and other officials were filmed travelling with cars outside Przemyśl train station in Poland. Bridget Brink, the US ambassador to Ukraine, is seen shaking hands with a man in the footage. Zelenskiy is heading to the US via Poland for a meeting with Joe Biden

Great of 1970s NFL completed the ‘Immaculate Reception’, voted greatest play in league historyFranco Harris, the Hall of Fame Pittsburgh Steelers running back whose heads-up thinking created the “Immaculate Reception”, considered the most famous play in NFL history, has died. He was 72.Harris’s son, Dok Harris, said his father died overnight. No cause of death was given. Continue reading...

Aaron Dean, 38, was convicted of manslaughter of Black woman in her own home while responding to call about open front doorA former Texas police officer who fatally shot Atatiana Jefferson through a rear window of her home in 2019 was sentenced on Tuesday to nearly 12 years in prison for manslaughter.Aaron Dean, 38, faced up to 20 years but the same jury that convicted him of manslaughter determined the sentence at 11 years, 10 months and 12 days. Continue reading...

In the wake of Clarkson’s diatribe, we urgently need to challenge the role the media plays in perpetuating misogynistic attitudesIt was 7pm. I finished the bedtime routine with my daughters, kissed them gently and shut the door. I took myself to the bathroom, sat on the toilet and within seconds burst into floods of tears. The physical memories of humiliation and sexual trauma from being raped when I was 21 flooded back – all because I had read an article written by Jeremy Clarkson in the Sun.Over the years, many have spoken about Clarkson and his bigoted, contrarian opinions. It seems that in writing an article suggesting Meghan Markle ought to meet a misogynistic fate that was depicted in Game of Thrones, and be paraded down the street while people throw excrement at her, he has tripped over his own caricature. What’s worse is that many men and even some women have praised this despicable behaviour.VV Brown is a musician and entrepreneur, and a trustee of the charity Say Something Collective.Do 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...

Tech barons’ lip-service to democracy and pluralism was always conditional on preserving their own positions at the topOn Monday, Elon Musk polled Twitter users on whether he should step down as CEO. The answer was a resounding yes. On Tuesday, Musk announced that he will step down once he finds a replacement. Still, the damage has been done: Musk’s tenure has been a disaster for democracy.Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, he has encouraged far-right conspiracy theories, consistently articulated rightwing extremist ideas and coddled extremists who propagated them, changed or undermined content moderation in a way that allowed hate speech and far-right abuse to flourish, and constantly derided Democrats, liberals and anyone he perceives as part of “the Left” in an escalating crusade against “wokeism.” He is now banning critical voices, including those of mainstream journalists, under obviously disingenuous pretenses.Thomas Zimmer is a visiting professor at Georgetown University, focused on the history of democracy and its discontents in the United States, and a Guardian US contributing opinion writer Continue reading...

The assault on the Capitol was not a spontaneous spasm of violence. It was the culmination of a concerted effort to reject the results of a fair electionOver the course of 18 months, the intrepid patriots on the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection tirelessly researched Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election through fraud, intimidation, harassment and violence. The committee’s public hearings were an exercise in civic education, presenting the nation with a gripping, granular and truthful account of an unhinged president seeking to cling to power at all costs. Now they have gone one crucial step further. They have referred the matter to the justice department, urging that Trump be prosecuted.Let us take stock of this astonishing moment. For the first time in American history, a congressional committee has recommended that a former president be criminally prosecuted – and not just for any crimes. The chief crimes at the heart of the referral – inciting insurrection, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and obstructing an official act of Congress – involve nothing short of an elaborate effort to frustrate and upend the peaceful transfer of presidential power, the bedrock of our constitutional democracy.Lawrence Douglas is the author, most recently, of Will He Go? Trump and the Looming Election Meltdown in 2020. He is a contributing opinion writer for the Guardian US and teaches at Amherst College Continue reading...

As a controversial Covid-era immigration policy undergoes review, many asylees languish in limbo in MexicoUntil 2015, the small Mexican town of Sonoyta, Sonora, scarcely figured in the migration landscape of the US-Mexico border, but then migration from Central America and other parts of Latin America began to climb.In March 2020, when former US president Donald Trump implemented the public health rule Title 42, citing the pandemic as reasoning for shutting down ports of entry to asylum requests at the border, more families began to arrive in the small agricultural town of 17,000 with nowhere to go. Continue reading...

Mine workers in Alabama among those organizing gift drives and strike funds to try to spread some holiday cheerGroups of US workers have been on strike for long periods of time and they remain at loggerheads with their employers over the holiday period on issues such as pay, benefits, quality of life and staffing.Workers have been forced to ramp up organizing efforts to mitigate the effects of lost income for those on strike, to ensure families are taken care of financially and with holiday gift drives. Continue reading...

Lacks’ cells were taken from her body without her permission and used for numerous medical advancesA bronze statue of Henrietta Lacks – whose cells were taken from her body without her permission before they facilitated numerous medical advances – is taking the place of a monument to Confederate general Robert E Lee that was taken down in her Virginia home town, officials announced this week.Sculptor Larry Bechtel is designing the statue that is scheduled to be erected in Roanoke in October 2023 in a victory for supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement. At an announcement ceremony Monday, Bechtel said that he would reference a lifesize drawing of Lacks by artist Bryce Cobbs, ABC News reported. Continue reading...

Since losses in six of their first seven, the surging Detroit Lions have appeared on course for a rare playoff appearance. And if they make it, they’ll be the team that no one wants to faceThat the Detroit Lions, still only a .500 team at 7-7, have any chance at all of making the NFL playoffs is pretty dang impressive, as their coach might say. They opened with six losses in seven games. And they are still the Detroit Lions: historically the saddest of sad-sack teams.Since their most recent playoff victory, on 5 January 1992, at home against the Dallas Cowboys, the Lions have been in eight playoff games and have lost them all. They have not even appeared in the playoffs since 7 January 2017, when they lost a wild-card game at Seattle. Continue reading...

In 1987 I was an extra in Turandot, alongside operatic legends – little did I know I’d be directing the show 35 years later

The Fight of His Life, by Chris Whipple, recounts Joe Biden’s first two years in the White HouseDonald Trump wrote a “shockingly gracious” letter to Joe Biden on leaving office, a new book says, amid the unprecedented disgrace of a second impeachment for inciting the deadly Capitol attack as part of his attempt to overturn Biden’s election victory and hold on to power.According to excerpts published by Politico on Tuesday, The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House, by Chris Whipple, captures Biden saying of Trump’s note: “That was very gracious and generous … Shockingly gracious.” Continue reading...

A modern-day blend of McCarthyism and white grievance became the focus of a rightwing crusade in 2022Having vanquished the manufactured menaces of vaccine mandates, the gay agenda and widespread election fraud, Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, used his midterm’s election victory speech to position himself as a wartime leader. Now, he was preparing his constituents for the existential battle posed by their newest imaginary adversary: wokeness. In Churchillian tones, he announced: “We fight the woke in the legislature. We fight the woke in the schools. We fight the woke in the corporations. We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die.”DeSantis was summoning the resentment that produced the racial terrorism of Reconstruction, the pro-lynching Red Summer of 1919, and the pro-segregation states’ rights movement. This time, it was called anti-woke: a modern-day mixture of McCarthyism and white grievance. Continue reading...

An estimated 50 million Americans also under windchill alerts as ‘once-in-a-generation-event’ could impact holiday travelSevere winter weather is set to affect millions across the US this week, as freezing temperatures and strong storms threaten to wreak havoc on holiday travel plans.A burst of arctic air settling over several states this week is forecast to drop temperatures to dangerous – and potentially deadly – levels just as more than 110 million Americans are expected to set out for their celebrations. Continue reading...

As a presidential candidate in 2016, Trump broke decades of precedent by refusing to release his tax forms to the publicA powerful congressional committee on Tuesday voted to publicly release Donald Trump’s tax returns in a move that is sure to ignite a political row as well as anger among some privacy experts in America.The Democratic-controlled House ways and means committee decided to release the documents, which the former US president has long tried to shield, after several hours of debate. Continue reading...

Trip to Washington is Ukrainian president’s first disclosed foreign visit since Russia invaded in FebruaryUkraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, will arrive in Washington on Wednesday where he will meet President Joe Biden at the White House and address a joint session of Congress.The trip – Zelenskiy’s first known foreign visit since Russia invaded Ukraine – will also see the Ukrainian president meet with congressional leadership and national security committee chiefs from the Republican and Democratic parties. Continue reading...

Eleven people were reportedly injured and assessment of total number is ongoing, said officialsA magnitude 6.4 earthquake shook parts of northern California early Tuesday, jolting people awake, damaging buildings and roads and leaving tens of thousands without power. Two fatalities have been linked to the quake “as a result of medical emergencies occurring during and/or just following” the incident, the Humboldt county sheriff’s office reported Tuesday afternoon.Centered just south-west of the town of Ferndale in Humboldt county, a small community near the coast about 213 miles (343km) north-west of San Francisco, the quake took place in area where tremors aren’t uncommon. But locals called it the largest in recent memory. Continue reading...

Pooch returned to owners three days and three flights later after British Airways makes drastic mistakeAn American family’s pet dog got the surprise of a pooch’s lifetime when it was accidentally sent to Saudi Arabia rather than his owner’s home in Nashville, Tennessee.Five-year-old Bluebell had been adopted by her human family in London, England, but was relocating with them back to Nashville when British Airways made a rather drastic mistake and instead she was flown off to Saudi Arabia, local TV station WVLT8 reported. Continue reading...