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People in East Palestine demand answers from Norfolk Southern railroad, which skipped meeting due to staff safety concernsThe head of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) got a first-hand look on Thursday at the toll left by a freight train derailment in Ohio, where toxic chemicals spilled or were burned off, leaving the stench of fresh paint nearly two weeks later.The EPA’s administrator, Michael Regan, walked along a creek that still reeks of chemicals and sought to reassure skeptical residents that the water was fit for drinking and the air safe to breathe around East Palestine, where just less than 5,000 people live near the Pennsylvania state line. Continue reading...

The revelation that the Wieambilla shootings were a ‘religiously motivated terror attack’ should prompt deep introspectionThe announcement yesterday that Queensland police now consider the Wieambilla attacks to be a “religiously motivated terror attack” connected to a Christian extremist ideology should constitute a seismic shift in our understanding of the terror threat in Australia.Middle-aged, middle-class Christian Australians, two of them teachers, ambushed and killed two police officers and a neighbour. This should and must and trigger debate about new directions in extremism in Australia and equally, should stimulate a wider introspection about the increase in polarisation and extremism in Australia. Continue reading...

President lost weight since last year, but still suffers from arthritis and had small lesion removed from chest during annual check-upDoctors declared Joe Biden, 80, healthy and “fit for duty” on Thursday after a physical examination that included removing a lesion from his chest and declaring him free of symptoms of long Covid after his bout last year with the virus.“The president remains fit for duty, and fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations,” White House physician Kevin O’Connor said in a summary of the health exam. Continue reading...

‘Private companies’ conclusion set to fuel criticism that downings were overreaction amid pressure over initial balloon discoveryJoe Biden has broken his silence on unknown aerial objects shot down over North America during the past week, assessing that they were “most likely” operated by private companies or research institutions rather than China.The US president’s tentative conclusion is likely to fuel criticism that his orders to take down the objects were an overreaction amid political pressure over the discovery of a suspected Chinese spy balloon that transited much of the country. Continue reading...

The partial release of the grand jury report signals the investigation already contains legitimate evidence of perjuryThe release of a portion of the Fulton county special purpose grand jury’s report marks a new step toward potential criminal charges holding Donald Trump and his allies accountable for election interference.Georgia was crucial in the 2020 presidential election, providing a key victory for Joe Biden and drawing the intense focus of Trump and his backers. Continue reading...

Pennsylvania senator suffered a stroke while campaigning last year and has experienced depression ‘off and on’ throughout lifeJohn Fetterman, the US senator from Pennsylvania, checked into hospital on Wednesday to receive treatment for clinical depression, his chief of staff said.The news came a week after the Democrat, who suffered a stroke while campaigning last year, was hospitalised after feeling light-headed. Fetterman is a rising star among Democrats. Continue reading...

Hundreds packed into a high school gym on Wednesday to demand answers in a town hall almost two weeks after a train derailment released toxic chemicals into their town, East Palestine, Ohio. Locals expressed concern about the environment and their health despite the fact that authorities said the chemical spill had been contained and posed little threat to the town's residents. Resident Kathy Dyke said: 'I honestly feel that the … police department, the fire department, all the first responders, they don't have the answers to give us because I don't think they know.'Norfolk Southern, the rail company responsible for the crash, did not attend the meeting citing safety concerns, but has offered $1.5m in aid for the area. The company faces multiple lawsuits from residents.

Sections of report looking into whether Trump committed crime in attempt to overturn election released on ThursdayMultiple witnesses who testified before a special purpose grand jury investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election may have lied and committed perjury, according to a section of the grand jury’s report released on Thursday.The report offers the first insight into the work of the special purpose grand jury, which was convened in May last year. The 23 jurors and three alternates heard from 75 witnesses during the course of its investigation. Continue reading...

Palin, who quit as Alaska governor in 2009 amid talk of a run for president, envisions DeSantis running one day ‘but not now’Ron DeSantis of Florida should stay as governor “a bit longer” and not run for president in 2024, said Sarah Palin – the former Alaska governor who was John McCain’s running mate in 2008 but resigned rather than complete her term after Republican defeat.DeSantis, 44, has not declared a run but is widely expected to do so as the only strong challenger to Donald Trump in polling regarding the forming field. Continue reading...

Washington court sees string of messages from Shane Lamond to Proud Boys’ Enrique Tarrio in weeks before deadly 2021 riotA police officer frequently provided Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio with internal information about law enforcement operations in the weeks before other members of the far-right group stormed the US Capitol, according to messages shown at the trial of Tarrio and four associates.In court in Washington DC on Wednesday, a federal prosecutor showed jurors a string of messages that Shane Lamond, a Metropolitan police lieutenant, exchanged with Tarrio in the run-up to the attack on the Capitol on 6 January 2021. Lamond, an intelligence officer, was responsible for monitoring groups like the Proud Boys. Continue reading...

Partial release gives insight into investigation examining if Trump and allies acted criminally in efforts to overturn electionThe partial release of a special grand jury report’s on Thursday could give some of the most significant insight to date into a long-running Georgia investigation examining whether Donald Trump and allies committed a crime in their efforts to overturn the presidential election. Here’s all you need to know about that hearing and what to expect next.What exactly is happening on Thursday? Continue reading...

US lawsuit claims Jes Staley received pictures of young women in seductive poses from the sex offenderJes Staley, the former boss of Barclays, has been accused of holding discussions with the late billionaire and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein about photographs of young women in sexually suggestive poses.Staley, 66, is accused in a US lawsuit of exchanging more than 1,200 emails with Epstein, including messages about “women who they referred to by the names of Disney princesses that Epstein [allegedly] procured for Staley”. It is also claimed that Epstein “emailed Staley photos of young women in seductive poses”. Continue reading...

One person killed and three wounded on Wednesday in attack at shopping mall near site of 2019 racist attackOne person was killed and three wounded on Wednesday in a shooting at a shopping mall in El Paso, Texas, close to a Walmart where 23 people were killed in a racist attack targeting Hispanic people in 2019.El Paso police said two people had been taken into custody. Details of what led to the shooting remained unclear. Continue reading...

Man in his 50s with prostate cancer maintained accent until his death despite having never been to IrelandA cancer patient in the US developed what researchers say was an “uncontrollable Irish accent” during treatment, despite never having been to Ireland nor having immediate relatives from the country.While still rare, cases of foreign accent syndrome (FAS) are more common in patients following strokes or head trauma, or who have psychiatric disorders, according to the experts from North Carolina’s Duke University and the Carolina Urologic Research Center of South Carolina. Continue reading...

Two deputies each violated multiple policies after they reported to the location of Nichols’ violent arrest, says sheriffTwo sheriff’s deputies suspended for five days for their role in the arrest of Tyre Nichols failed to keep their body cameras activated after they went to the location where Nichols had been beaten by five Memphis police officers, officials said.Shelby county sheriff’s office deputies Jeremy Watkins and Johntavious Bowers each violated multiple policies after they reported to the location of Nichols’ violent arrest on 7 January, said the sheriff, Floyd Bonner, in a statement. Continue reading...

The latest standoff has sparked international hysteria. But the more countries know about friends and enemies, the betterLong ago, in May 1960, an American U-2 spy plane took off from Pakistan to fly at high altitude across the Soviet Union as part of a mission to photograph key facilities and military sites on behalf of the CIA. The Russians saw it and shot it down. The pilot, Gary Powers, managed to descend by parachute and was arrested. In Washington, the Eisenhower administration lied about his mission, claiming the U-2 was a “weather plane” that had strayed off course after its pilot had “difficulties with his oxygen equipment” (sound familiar?).The incident caused a temporary poisoning of US-Soviet relations as the Kremlin turned it into political theatre. Moscow subjected Powers to a highly publicised criminal trial and gave him a 10-year sentence.Jonathan Steele is a former Guardian correspondent in Moscow Continue reading...

The CDC has found that youth of all genders are suffering at worrying levels, but girls are experiencing far greater levels of distressTeen girls are in a state of despair, according to the Centers for Disease Control. A new report from the agency, based on data collected by the Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted in 2021, finds that teenagers overall are in a state of desperation, with increases in debilitating sadness, violence, and suicidal ideation.The survey, which the CDC conducts once every two years, questioned 17,000 high school students from across the country, asking them to report on their own mental health and behavior. In a few respects, the news is good, pointing to the success of some public health interventions aimed at teens: kids are less likely to take drugs than they have been in previous decades, for example, and fewer of them are having unprotected sex. Continue reading...

Historic federal debt default could occur before July, cautions non-partisan agency. Plus, whatever happened to middle age?

Wage theft, security issues and health problems on the rise after AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile outsource retail stores, report findsLabor conditions and collective bargaining rights have worsened in the large US wireless carrier industry now that big telecommunications firms are increasingly outsourcing their retail sales and customer service operations from company-owned stores.The sector, dominated by AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, which together reported $337.1bn in revenue in 2022, is now plagued by wage theft, security issues, overworked staff and health and safety problems, according to a new report. Continue reading...

Post-pandemic, companies that boomed by helping us stay at home are struggling to stay afloat. Their loss is my gainThere’s a pathetic but satisfying thing that occurs when you stop using an online service you’re used to frequenting. This was Facebook a few years ago, when plummeting engagement whipped the social media platform into a frenzy of desperate invitations and prompts. It’s Fresh Direct when you fill your basket with groceries and – I can’t recommend this enough, if you’re looking for the tiny high that comes from withholding – don’t check out, triggering a bunch of wheedling automated messages, begging you to come back.This week, in my life, it’s Uber Eats. For the past couple of years I’ve ordered from them once a week and now I’ve stopped, causing the food delivery service to issue a flurry of semi-hysterical special offers. Each spam text, each begging notification, reminds me of the money I’m saving. If you like rejecting things (I like rejecting things) then this exercise will thrill you: rejection without the human cost of hurting someone’s feelings.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

As an Asian American on the new House panel on China, the California Democrat says he’s in ‘a unique position’ to offer a message of economic strengthFor Congressman Ro Khanna, the best part of Joe Biden’s State of the Union address last Tuesday came within the first 10 minutes. Touting the creation of 800,000 manufacturing jobs since he took office, the president boasted that the revitalization of America’s middle class is already under way.“For decades, the middle class has been hollowed out … Too many good-paying manufacturing jobs moved overseas. Factories closed down,” Biden said. “Now, thanks to what you’ve all done, we’re exporting American products and creating American jobs.” Continue reading...

Democratic governor Phil Murphy says his state ‘will stand on the side of teaching our full history’New Jersey has announced the expansion of Advanced Placement African American studies across its schools.In a move counter to Florida Republican governor Ron DeSantis’s decision last month to ban African American studies from the state’s high schools, New Jersey’s Democratic governor, Phil Murphy, announced the expansion of the class subject yesterday while visiting a Newark high school. Continue reading...

When any leader says ‘it’s my way or the highway’ – as he effectively has – they sign their project’s death warrantAll political projects carry within them the seeds of their own destruction. Contradictions, paradoxes and limitations are hardwired through the context and conditions of their creation. An endpoint is built in at birth. After Keir Starmer’s announcement that Jeremy Corbyn will not be allowed to stand as a Labour candidate at the next election – the leader’s latest shut-up-or-ship-out message to the party’s left – the lifeline of any incoming Labour or Labour-led government has been shortened, perhaps dramatically.This is not about support for Corbynism or leftwing ideas per se. Instead, it is to argue that in an age of increasing complexity, chaos and confusion any political project must have an agility, nimbleness and fluidity that allows it to forge ever-changing intellectual and movement alliances. Pragmatic politics is now defined by openness – not the closure of debate he has called for with a legitimate, though some would say misguided, wing of his party.Neal Lawson is director of the cross-party campaign organisation Compass Continue reading...

More than two decades after the XFL’s first incarnation imploded, the latest attempt at a spring football league kicks off this weekend. Will it manage to pull in fans?He’s starred in updates of Baywatch and Get Smart, so the Rock has some experience of questionable reboots. Now we’re about to discover whether he can score a box-office hit with the third version of the XFL.The actor, aka Dwayne Johnson, is a co-owner of the spring American football league, which kicks off on Saturday when the Dallas-area Arlington Renegades host the Vegas Vipers in Choctaw Stadium, the former home of the Texas Rangers baseball team. Continue reading...

As a UFO investigator, it’s my job to be sceptical and rigorous. Yet an air of mystery remains – and I hope it always will

Utah chief executive bullish about prospects despite men’s Eagles’ World Cup failure and an ever-shifting landscapeIn January, the Utah Warriors of Major League Rugby announced an alliance with Stade Toulousain of France.Toulouse play at Stade Ernest Wallon, a temple of the world game which holds around 20,000 fans. Champions of Europe five times and France 21 times, they field stars – including Antoine Dupont and Romaine Ntamack – who are set to shine at a home World Cup this year. Continue reading...

If a four-time major winner like Brooks Koepka is not pondering what on earth he is doing on the LIV Tour, he should beEstablishing the precise thoughts of Brooks Koepka is a knotty business. This is the individual who, prior to last year’s US Open, barked at a line of questioning relating to his potential involvement in the breakaway LIV Tour. No sooner had dust settled on Matt Fitzpatrick’s famous Brookline success than Koepka was unveiled as a LIV recruit. Koepka’s earlier podium protesting identified him as little more than a phony.Oh to be inside the mind of Koepka now. As Scottie Scheffler returned to No 1 in the world courtesy of a dominant victory at a packed Phoenix Open, focus immediately turned towards Tiger Woods’s appearance at this week’s Genesis Invitational. Koepka had followed up a share of 46th at the Saudi International with a missed cut on the Asian Tour in Oman. He was only spared broad ridicule on the basis that nobody aside from dedicated fans and cheerleaders for Saudi’s dubious stampede into golf actually knew these events were taking place. Continue reading...

Glenn Youngkin blocks bill passed in Democratic-led state senate to ban search warrants for menstrual data on tracking appsThe Republican governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, appears to have thwarted an attempt to stop law enforcement obtaining menstrual histories of women in the state.A bill passed in the Democratic-led state senate, and supported by half the chamber’s Republicans, would have banned search warrants for menstrual data stored in tracking apps on mobile phones or other electronic devices. Continue reading...

The justice department is looking into how classified documents came to be found in Joe Biden’s home and former officeThe FBI searched the University of Delaware in recent weeks for classified documents as part of its investigation into the potential mishandling of sensitive government records by Joe Biden.The search, first reported by CNN, was confirmed to the Associated Press by a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The person would not say whether anything was found. Continue reading...

The frightening prospect of greener, people-friendly streets and convenient amenities has sent the online right – and Tory MPs – into a tailspinThere’s an international socialist conspiracy afoot, and it wants to make it easier to walk to the shops. Fringe forces of the far left are plotting to take away our freedom to be stuck in traffic jams, to crawl along clogged ring roads and trawl the streets in search of a parking spot. The liberty of the rush-hour commute, the sanctity of the out-of-town shopping centre and the righteousness of the suburban food desert is under threat as never before. The name of this chilling global movement? The “15-minute city”.Westminster can often seem like a badly scripted spoof of itself, but rarely has parliament descended into parody as far as it did last week, when the Conservative MP for the South Yorkshire constituency of Don Valley, Nick Fletcher, launched a plucky tirade against the concept of convenient, walkable neighbourhoods. “Will the leader of the house please set aside time for a debate on the international socialist concept of so-called 15-minute cities and 20-minute neighbourhoods?” he asked, in an ominous tone. “Sheffield is already on this journey, and I do not want Doncaster, which also has a Labour-run socialist council, to do the same.” Continue reading...

Trump’s secretary of state makes comments on podcast to defend former administration siding more openly with IsraelMike Pompeo, the former US secretary of state, has defended Israel’s decades-long control of the Palestinian territories by claiming that the Jewish state has a biblical claim to the land and is therefore not occupying it.Pompeo told the One Decision podcast that his religious beliefs, US strategic interests and his view of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, as a “known terrorist” underpinned his support as the Trump administration’s top diplomat for the shift in US policy away from mediating a two-state solution and toward more openly siding with Israel. Continue reading...

One person in custody after shooting in Cielo Vista shopping center, near Walmart where 23 people were killed in racist attackPolice in El Paso, Texas, say one person was killed and three other people were wounded in a shooting on Wednesday in a shopping mall.One person has been taken into custody, El Paso police spokesperson Sgt Robert Gomez said. No immediate information was given about that person. Continue reading...

Historic federal debt default could occur before July, cautions non-partisan agencyThe Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Wednesday said the US treasury department will exhaust its ability to pay all its bills sometime between July and September, unless the current $31.4tn cap on borrowing is raised or suspended.In a report issued alongside its annual budget outlook, the non-partisan CBO cautioned that a historic federal debt default could occur before July if revenue flowing into the treasury in April – when most Americans typically submit annual income tax filings – lags expectations. Continue reading...

Provocative congressman, who long claimed his innocence, was focus of long-running investigation by justice departmentRepresentative Matt Gaetz, a Republican known for his strong support of former president Donald Trump and membership in the archconservative Freedom Caucus in the House, said on Wednesday that the justice department has ended a sex trafficking case with no charges against him.The lawmaker, who represents much of the Florida panhandle, issued a statement through his congressional office that the long-running investigation was over. Gaetz had insisted throughout he was innocent of any wrongdoing. Continue reading...

It’s not a failure of collective willpower that’s jeopardising our health, but a diet of bad food that’s culturally familiar, low in nutrition and super availableWestern culture bears a weight that it struggles to shift. Two recent stories perhaps expose why.The first is an investigation by Australia’s drug regulator into online influencers and platforms promoting a diabetes drug for weight-loss. Ozempic is on the pharmaceutical benefits scheme for treatment of type 2 diabetes but has been prescribed “off label” by doctors to those struggling to manage their weight. Continue reading...

In an emotionally charged sentencing hearing a man rushed at the convicted Buffalo shooter, Payton Gendron, before guards restrained him and escorted Gendron out. The incident happened as Barbara Massey Mapps, the sister of one of Gendron’s victims, was expressing her anger at him. ‘You are going to come to our city and decide you don’t like Black people. Man, you don’t know a damn thing about Black people,’ said Mapps. She added: ‘We never go to no neighbourhoods and take people out,’ before the unidentified man in a grey tracksuit shoved past her and lunged at Gendron

Comments by You actor Penn Badgley are the latest in a conservative move away from celebrating eroticism on-screenTwitter may be slowly decaying, but it still finds a way to generate a minor sex panic. The latest micro-iteration blazing through one corner of the pop culture sphere: Penn Badgley, best known for playing Dan Humphrey on Gossip Girl and as the star of Netflix’s You, said that he no longer wished to act in sex scenes, citing fidelity to his wife. According to his podcast, Badgley asked You showrunner Sera Gamble for a reduction in intimate scenes in the show’s fourth season, which premiered last week; his character, the disarmingly bookish serial killer/love addict Joe Goldberg, still has sex in the new season but less so than in prior ones, and fully clothed.Specific contractual clauses regarding intimacy on camera are not new – Julia Roberts is one of many actors who’ve said they’ll never do on-screen nudity, for example. And Badgley is certainly entitled to his own boundaries. (A new Variety story connects his reluctance to film intimate scenes to his feelings of discomfort as a child actor.) But a segment of the Twittersphere’s extension of his personal logic into an argument against sex on-screen in general, and the conflation the professional performance of intimacy with individual fidelity, feels disturbingly puritanical. Some have expressed distaste at any on-screen nudity, or asserted that most sex scenes are gratuitous, unnecessary and rife with issues of consent. Continue reading...

The American actor has died at the age of 82. In 1966, her appearances in Fantastic Voyage and One Million Years BC, wearing a fur bikini, shot her to stardom. Here we look back at her life and career.

Haley, 51, cast herself as an agent of change who could transform a nation inflicted with ‘doubt, division and self-destruction’Republican Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor and a UN ambassador under Donald Trump, formally launched her campaign for president on Wednesday, calling on Americans to reject the “stale ideas and faded names of the past” and to instead put their faith in a “new generation” of political leaders.Appearing publicly for the first time since declaring her candidacy, Haley, 51, cast herself as an agent of generational change who could transform a nation gripped by “doubt, division and self-destruction”. Continue reading...

Actors at dinner theater say company has blocked efforts to raise wages and improve safetyFrom queens to knights, actors at a southern California medieval-themed dinner theater have left the castle.The Orange County Register reported on Monday that about 50 performers and stable hands have gone on strike at Medieval Times about 30 miles south-east of Los Angeles in Buena Park, California. Continue reading...

Lewis Kaplan says Trump has missed his chance to provide DNA sample to rebut allegations first made by Carroll in 2019 bookDonald Trump missed his chance to use his DNA to try to prove he did not rape the writer E Jean Carroll, a federal judge said on Wednesday, clearing a potential roadblock to an April trial.The judge, Lewis A Kaplan, rejected the 11th-hour offer by Trump’s legal team to provide a DNA sample to rebut claims Carroll first made publicly in a 2019 book.Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html Continue reading...

Funding for the EV charging network comes from the infrastructure bill that allocates $7.5bn to the expansionThe White House is partnering with Tesla to expand electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the US, with the company opening at least 7,500 of its chargers to all electric vehicles (EVs) by the end of 2024, the White House announced on Wednesday.Tesla charging stations currently use a certain power connector that require non-Tesla EVs to use an adapter. The White House said that Tesla will work to include at least 3,500 new and existing 250 kW superchargers along highways and level 2 destination chargers at locations like hotels and restaurants across the country. Tesla is also planning to double its network of superchargers. Continue reading...

Sentencing for Payton Gendron disrupted as man in courtroom charges towards him before being restrainedA white supremacist who killed 10 Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, last year was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday after listening to relatives of his victims express their pain and rage.The sentencing hearing for Payton Gendron was disrupted when he was charged at by a man in the audience who was quickly restrained. It resumed after about 10 minutes, with more emotional testimony from people who talked about losing loved ones in the attack. Continue reading...