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The midfielder looks liberated when he steps on to the field for his country. How he handles expectation will be crucial to his team’s chances at this World CupIn America, the French actor Isabelle Huppert once said, Europe disappears: “They have everything. They don’t need anything. Deep down to them we are a sort of elegant Third World.” The history of American sport reads as one iteration of this blazing autonomy: from the development of baseball as a derivative of regional English games like stoolball and tut-ball to the evolution of rugby union into American football and the creation of basketball from the manipulation of a soccer ball indoors, the US has specialized in fashioning its own kind of sporting modernity out of Europe’s raw cultural materials, often consigning these older sports to the scrapheap of national memory.But globalization – the great success story of American free-market economics – and the unstoppable rise of football have, in recent decades, forced the US to confront a discomfiting reality: in the world’s most popular sport, the global hegemon remains a middleweight at best. The country that has everything now finds that it doesn’t: emerging (almost) every four years from a middling confederation into the glare of the World Cup, the spotlight deflected for once towards other countries, the America that wants for nothing – so confident, so culturally self-reliant – now finds itself in need. It needs to prove that it has footballing muscle equal to its muscle in every other domain. It needs to show that it belongs. And it needs, perhaps more than anything, to convince the world that it can produce a player in the men’s game equal to Haaland, Neymar, Salah, or Mbappé. Continue reading...

The writer was no stranger to self-mythologising. But the prices fetched at her estate sale were more about glamour seeking substanceJoan Didion is a figure mythologised in near-messianic terms. Her intelligence, originality, craft, humour, candour and style formed a singular, fascinating essence. That essence is what gives value to the items auctioned in her estate sale this week. The sale, at Stair Galleries in New York, offered (very wealthy) members of the public the opportunity to buy her sunglasses (a Celine tortoiseshell pair sold for $27,000), blank notebooks ($9,000), several typewriters (one sold for $6,000), hurricane lamps (a group sold for just over $4,000), her writing desk ($60,000), a stack of her favourite books ($26,000) and various paintings.What each item of the sale offered most of all, though, was a sense of proximity to a beloved but elusive figure, who, despite her liberal use of personal anecdotes and disclosures, always maintained a sense of distance in her writing. A woman described by her friend the writer Susanna Moore, as “both enchanting and reproachful”.Rachel Connolly is a London-based journalist from Belfast Continue reading...

Eight years before America hosts the finals, players including props who conceded key penalties against Chile and Portugal remain young and full of promiseIn Dubai on Friday night, at a frenetic last-minute ruck, the US prop Jack Iscaro conceded the penalty Portugal kicked for a 16-16 draw, enough to secure a place at the Rugby World Cup in France and condemn the Eagles to watch from home.The Americans were in the final qualification tournament because in Colorado in July they lost a similarly tight game to Chile. Then, a last-minute penalty that might’ve saved the game was reversed, because the prop Chance Wenglewski made an illegal clear-out. Continue reading...

Republicans are now soul searching over how they lost a very winnable Senate and bracing for two tumultuous years in the House – and many blame TrumpMike Lindell was full of passionate intensity. Wandering the white and gold ballroom of the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, the mustachioed pillow-maker predicted that Donald Trump’s candidacy for the White House would clear the Republican field.“After he announces today, I think [Florida governor] Ron DeSantis will end up just endorsing him,” Lindell, a rabid Trump cheerleader and conspiracy theorist, told the Guardian early on Tuesday evening. “I can’t imagine anybody wasting the time, effort and money of the people. We need to unite our country and there’s only man who can do that and he’ll be up on that stage. Period.” Continue reading...

Merrick Garland names Jack Smith, a veteran prosecutor, as special counsel to decide whether to bring charges against Trump

Jurors hear closing arguments in seditious conspiracy trial of founder Stewart Rhodes and four associates of far-right groupFor weeks leading up to 6 January 2021, the Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and four associates of the far-right group discussed using violence to overturn the 2020 presidential election’s outcome, and when rioters started storming the US Capitol they saw an opportunity to do it, a federal prosecutor told jurors on Friday as the seditious conspiracy case wound toward a close.Prosecutor Kathryn Rakoczy said in her closing argument to jurors after nearly two months of testimony in the high-stakes case that Rhodes’s own words show he was preparing to lead a rebellion to keep Democrat Joe Biden out of the White House. Rhodes and his co-defendants repeatedly called for “violent overthrow” of the US government and sprang into action that day, she said. Continue reading...

Jack Smith will oversee investigations into Trump – but why did the attorney general take this step against the ex-president?On Friday, when announcing the appointment of Jack Smith as special counsel overseeing investigations of Donald Trump’s alleged election subversion and retention of White House records, the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, said the selection would ensure “independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters”.So why did Garland take this step against the former president? Continue reading...

Man named to lead investigations into ex-president is experienced prosecutor most recently at international criminal courtJack Smith is the man the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, appointed on Friday to be an independent special counsel overseeing parallel justice department investigations into Donald Trump’s hoarding of top secret documents and involvement in the 6 January 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol, and he has been a criminal prosecutor for almost 30 years.Smith has previously served as the chief of public integrity for the US justice department and dealt in particular with cases involving corruption, bringing cases against prominent Republicans and Democrats. In 2015 he was appointed first assistant US attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee. He is a registered independent, not aligned with either of the two dominant political parties in the US. Continue reading...

Nicholas Joseph Gutierrez was arrested after the Wednesday incident, but has been freed while the case is being investigatedA 22-year-old southern California driver who plowed into a group of Los Angeles county sheriff’s department recruits on a run, injuring dozens, has been released from custody as authorities investigate the incident.Nicholas Joseph Gutierrez had been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder of a peace officer after the Wednesday morning crash, which the sheriff said investigators think was a “deliberate act”. The Diamond Bar resident was released late on Thursday. Continue reading...

US attorney general Merrick Garland has named Jack Smith as special counsel who has the job of determining whether Donald Trump will face charges as part of any Department of Justice investigations. The politically explosive move comes just days after the former US president announced he was running for the White House again.

A look back at the career of Nancy Pelosi, 82, who is stepping down as the Speaker of the House of Representatives Continue reading...

Miracle Moore dialed 911 and followed emergency dispatcher’s instructions – and now wants to be a doctorA 10-year-old girl aptly named Miracle has earned plaudits as a hero from government officials in her home town after she helped her mother give birth to her baby sister at home with little more than some coaching from a 911 operator.Miracle Moore dialed up emergency help after her mom went into labor three weeks early at their home in Jennings, Missouri, north of St Louis, on 22 October. There wasn’t time to get her mother – Viola Fair – to a hospital, so the emergency response dispatcher who received Miracle’s call explained the protocols her mother should follow to birth her baby as safely as possible, according to media reports in and around Jennings. Continue reading...

New York Democrat, 52, is favorite to succeed Nancy Pelosi after declaring candidacy for House minority leaderHakeem Jeffries of New York was on course on Friday to be the first Black party leader in Congress, declaring his candidacy for House minority leader after securing key endorsements to succeed Nancy Pelosi, the current speaker who announced her withdrawal from leadership on Thursday.Democrats will cede control of the House in January, after midterm elections in which Republicans performed less well than expected but still took the lower chamber. Continue reading...

THe US House of Representatives speaker, Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to hold that influential post, has announced she will be stepping down as the Democratic leader in the chamber after Republicans secured a narrow majority after the midterm elections. It marks the end of a historic leadership career highlighted by her ability to hold a fractious caucus together and challenge the world's most powerful men – including the former president Donald Trump. Here is a look back at her long and defiant career Continue reading...

Breaking Republican strangleholds over state capitols gives Democrats an advantage in the fight for voting, abortion and LGBTQ+ rightsWhile Democrats staved off a red wave in Washington during the midterm elections, the party’s most significant victories came far away from the US Capitol. They were in state legislatures across the country with consequences that will be felt for years to come.Over the last decade, Republicans have quietly amassed power in state capitols, investing in races for state legislatures that can be decided by just a few hundred votes. It’s an investment that has paid off wildly. Since state legislatures draw electoral districts in many places, Republicans have used that advantage to entrench their power, drawing district lines that further guaranteed their majorities. They have also used those majorities to pass measures that make it harder to vote, strip LGBTQ+ protections, loosen gun laws and restrict access to abortion. Continue reading...

Twitter’s billionaire owner may think his tactics will leave him with committed employees. The evidence suggests otherwiseIf you passed by the Twitter headquarters in San Francisco on Thursday, you would have seen a stream of insults projected on to the side of the building: “Elon Musk: mediocre manchild, pressurised privilege, petty racist, megalomaniac …” Inside, employees had received a message asking them to sign a pledge to work “long hours at high intensity” or leave their jobs. This came on the back of large-scale layoffs and an all-company email sent at 2.30am declaring “there is a good chance Twitter will not survive the upcoming economic downturn”.Musk’s uncouth approach to managing people is long documented. Take allegations made about his behaviour at Tesla, where he reportedly yelled at one engineer “You’re a fucking idiot! … Get the fuck out and don’t come back!”, according to Wired. Other colleagues told the magazine that he would publicly humiliate and demote people, and that staff were discouraged from walking too near his desk as he was prone to “unpredictable rages”. “He was shouting that I didn’t know what I was doing, that I was an idiot, that he’s never worked with someone so incompetent,” one former employee told the magazine about her sacking.André Spicer is professor of organisational behaviour at the Bayes Business School at City, University of London. He is the author of the book Business Bullshit Continue reading...

Last kick of the game gives Os Lobos a 16-16 draw, enough to book place in Pool C with Australia, Wales, Fiji and GeorgiaTo Portugal, the deserved and considerable glory of a second-ever place at the Rugby World Cup. Os Lobos reached France in 2007. In 2023 they will join Australia, Wales, Fiji and Georgia in Pool C.To the USA, the not-quite unknown ignominy of missing the finals, thanks to this dramatic draw in Dubai. The host country in 2031 have played at every finals bar 1995 but the Eagles will not be at the big show this time. Continue reading...

Prison staff were unable to find a suitable vein to inject Kenneth Eugene Smith before the midnight deadlineAlabama’s execution of a man convicted in the 1988 murder-for-hire slaying of a preacher’s wife was called off on Thursday just before the midnight deadline because state officials could not find a suitable vein to inject the lethal drugs.Alabama department of corrections commissioner John Hamm said prison staff tried for about an hour to get the two required intravenous lines connected to Kenneth Eugene Smith, 57. Continue reading...

Legislation that limits what universities can teach about racism and sexism violates first and 14th amendment, judge rulesA federal judge in Florida halted part of a state law that limits what colleges and universities can teach students about racism and sexism, calling it “positively dystopian”.Issuing a temporary injunction on the law on Thursday, US district court judge Mark Walker said it violates first amendment rights to free speech, and 14th amendment rights to due process on campuses. Continue reading...

Lake-effect snow, caused by frigid air picking up moisture from warmer lakes, prompts driving ban and state of emergencyA dangerous lake-effect snowstorm has paralyzed parts of western and northern New York state, with more than 1ft of snow already on the ground on Friday morning in places and a driving ban keeping people off the roads in the Buffalo area.The worst snowfall was expected in Buffalo, where the National Weather Service said up to 4ft might fall in some spots through Sunday, with periods of near-zero visibility. Continue reading...

The electoral support at the state and local levels for more climate action comes as world leaders meet at Cop27While the economy and abortion rights drove momentum behind the midterm election this year, voters in cities and states across the US also turned out to pass a number of climate ballot initiatives .Among the measures passed were a historic multibillion-dollar investment into environmental improvement projects in New York state, including up to $1.5bn in funding for climate change mitigation. This election also saw a $50m green bond act pass in Rhode Island, and in Colorado, the city of Boulder approved a climate tax as well as a ballot measure that will allow the city to borrow against that tax to fund climate projects. Continue reading...

After six hostile years, Britain is realising that, even after Brexit, it can’t turn its back on its European neighboursThe soap opera of British politics in recent months may have eclipsed something more consequential for the UK in the long run than the revolving doors in Downing Street. The relationship between the UK and the rest of Europe is slowly and quietly changing.It is too early to speak of a turning point, but there is at least a chance that we will look back on 2022 as the year when Britons and other Europeans finally escaped a downward spiral that has, since the Brexit referendum, poisoned not just the relationship between the UK and the EU, but bilateral relationships between the UK and many EU countries. Things might not be getting better, but they have at least, for now, stopped getting worse. In the sad world of UK-EU relations, this is progress.Helene von Bismarck is a German historian and author who specialises in the UK’s interactions with the world Continue reading...

The social media firm is struggling to retain workers after Musk demanded they sign a pledge committing to being ‘extremely hardcore’. Plus, lab-grown meat officially safe to eat in the US

To Republicans, Pelosi has long taken on a kind of mythic malice. But progressives, too, were not enamored of herAs the new House Republican majority stumbles into power, with all the chaotic, embittered bumbling of a rich man’s son who can only seem to fail upwards, another, peculiar kind of political transition is taking place: Nancy Pelosi, 82, is leaving the House speakership, almost certainly for the last time.Perhaps no individual has come to symbolize the Democrats more to the people who do not like the party. To Republicans, Pelosi has long taken on a kind of mythic malice. To the Fox-watching white male, Pelosi symbolizes liberal elitism, a vague but totalizing specter of corruption, and that particular kind of liberal decadence that can be evoked by the name of the city that makes up nearly all of her longtime congressional district: San Francisco. She’s a woman in power, and she’s long been supportive of gay rights, and she opposed the Iraq war. She’s been a reliable opponent of conservatives’ favorite culture war crusades: she supports gun control and opposes Confederate statues. In an association facilitated by misogyny, her very face is a shorthand for liberal extremism, a visual code that denotes secularism, taxation and frightening new pronouns. Continue reading...

Seven US voters offer their take on the recent elections that produced mixed results, and Trump’s 2024 announcementAs America digests the final results of the midterm elections, seven US voters share their reactions to a Democratic-controlled Senate, the Republican win of the House and Donald Trump’s announcement that he will run for president again. Continue reading...

Sean Maloney, head of the influential Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, lost by less than 1% – and redistricting may have been part of itJack Dunnigan stood behind the counter of Pickwick Bookshop, a venerable store he owns, with its homey smell of nobly ageing paper, in the picturesque, liberal riverside town of Nyack about 30 miles north of downtown New York City, and sighed.“I had a feeling he was going to,” Dunnigan said of the local Democratic congressman and national party stalwart Sean Maloney’s loss to his Republican challenger, Mike Lawler, in the midterm elections. Continue reading...

Our writers give their verdicts on Gregg Berhalter’s men, including key players, strengths and weaknesses and where the journey will endThe Cleveland Guardians. A very young group bursting with promise that’s probably still a few years away. A mostly empty trophy case, too, despite occasional blips of success over the years. BAG Continue reading...

Millions of workers in the US work throughout the night, and the impacts can be profound on their healthRoger Reinhardt works third shift at a beer production facility in Michigan from 10pm-8am, four days a week. He initially started working nights because it was the only shift available when he started working but he has continued doing it for the extra pay.But is not not easy. Continue reading...

Focusing on activists detracts from what we should be angry about – failure to tackle the most urgent problems of our ageDisruptive political activism, from strikes to boycotts to road occupations, always makes enemies. That’s part of the point: confrontations and controversies mean publicity. More ambitiously, stunts and provocations by activists are also meant to remind the public that the status quo itself is built on disruptions. Even supposedly cautious governments are constantly altering the distribution of power and wealth, and the environment itself.Four years since the founding of Extinction Rebellion, known by its highly committed members as XR, climate activists in Britain and many other countries are still launching waves of protests: blocking roads, throwing food over famous artworks, gluing themselves to surfaces in public places and spray-painting banks that invest in fossil fuels. New groups have appeared with XR-style tactics and goals: Just Stop Oil, Insulate Britain, Animal Rebellion, Youth Climate Swarm. A steady stream of activists from teenagers to pensioners are prepared to face arrest and imprisonment in order to press governments, businesses and voters to change their behaviour. Continue reading...

Four-member panel focused on whether they have uncovered sufficient evidence that Trump violated civil and criminal statutesThe House January 6 select committee has created a subcommittee to examine the scope of potential criminal referrals it might make to the justice department over the Capitol attack as well as what materials to share with federal prosecutors, its chairman and other members said on Thursday.The special subcommittee – led by Congressman Jamie Raskin, overseeing a four-person group that also involves Liz Cheney, Adam Schiff and Zoe Lofgren – has been chiefly focused on whether they have uncovered sufficient evidence that former US president Donald Trump violated civil and criminal statutes. Continue reading...

Nicholas Joseph Gutierrez, 22, veered onto the wrong side of the road in his SUV, injuring more than two dozen cadetsAuthorities have arrested a 22-year-old driver on suspicion of attempted murder for allegedly plowing his vehicle into Los Angeles county sheriff’s academy recruits on a training run, injuring more than two dozen people.The Los Angeles county sheriff’s department said in a statement on Thursday that Nicholas Joseph Gutierrez was arrested on Wednesday for investigation of attempted murder on a peace officer. Continue reading...

Strike was launched to protest against Starbucks’ failure to bargain with unionized stores and failure to adequately staff storesWorkers at over 100 unionized Starbucks stores around the US walked off the job on Thursday, coinciding with Starbucks’ Red Cup Day, a promotional day where customers receive a free red reusable holiday Starbucks cup when they order a holiday seasonal beverage.The strike was launched to protest against Starbucks’ failure to bargain with unionized stores and failure to adequately staff stores, especially on one of Starbucks’ busiest days where no pay differential is offered to workers. About 2,000 workers at 112 stores participated in the strikes in 25 states. Continue reading...

Outgoing speaker, 82, who has led House Democrats for two decades, makes announcement after Republicans win controlNancy Pelosi, a giant of American politics and the first woman to lead the House of Representatives, is stepping down from leadership to make way for a new generation, she said on Thursday.The 82-year-old, an ally of Joe Biden who led congressional Democrats for two decades, made the announcement after Republicans regained a majority in the chamber. Continue reading...

Experts say the amount spent on the failed campaign would not have been enough to build adequate affordable homesThroughout billionaire Rick Caruso’s unsuccessful campaign to become mayor of Los Angeles, critics had one question: why was the real estate developer spending $100m on a race focused on homelessness, rather than simply using his wealth to build desperately needed affordable housing?Caruso, the developer of some of Los Angeles’ most popular luxury malls, has an estimated net worth of $5.3bn. He made ending visible street homelessness the center of his mayoral campaign. Continue reading...

Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, announces that she will step down as the Democratic House leader. Pelosi says she will continue 'as a member of the House – speaking for the people of San Francisco, serving the great state of California and defending our constitution,' but adds that she will 'not seek re-election to Democratic leadership in the next Congress'. Republicans won back control of the House in the midterm elections, scraping a victory that many had expected to be a red wave of wins but instead turned into more of a trickle Continue reading...

Expect a slew of investigations into everything from the Afghanistan withdrawal to immigration at the southern borderJoe Biden needs to lawyer up. He’s about to see an onslaught of investigations into him, his appointees and their conduct that will now be launched by Republican-controlled congressional committees. It’s not impossible that a Republican-controlled congress could even try to push for his impeachment.The Republicans squeaked out a bare majority in the House of Representatives this week, with a final tally of 218 Republican seats to 211 Democratic ones. The Republicans performance was abysmal compared to the predictions, with anger over abortion bans and Republican antipathy toward democracy driving voters into the Democratic tent. But the huge structural advantages of being the opposition party in a midterm election, along with some help from gerrymandered redistricting plans blessed by the Republican-majority US supreme court, pushed the Republicans over the top. Now, they are poised to use their new investigatory power in Congress to launch a slew of inquiries into the Biden administration, over matters ranging from the grave to the absurdly trivial.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Republican candidate posts video on Twitter vowing to ‘fight on’ claiming tens of thousands of voters disenfranchisedKari Lake, the Republican candidate for Arizona governor, declined to concede her race on Thursday, instead vowing to “fight on” in a new video posted on Twitter.The Associated Press has projected Lake will lose the race to Katie Hobbs, a Democrat. But Lake, who made election denialism a centerpiece of her campaign, has declined to recognize her opponent as the winner. Continue reading...

Lawyer for Petito’s parents said whatever money is received will go to the Gabby Petito FoundationThe families of Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie have reached a $3m settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit filed after authorities concluded he strangled her during a cross-country trip in August 2021.The settlement was signed on Thursday by a Sarasota county circuit judge, Hunter W Carroll. A lawyer for Petito’s parents said whatever money is received will go to the Gabby Petito Foundation, dedicated to locating missing people and curbing domestic violence. Continue reading...

Former first lady said she decided to straighten her hair as Americans were ‘just getting adjusted’ to a Black first familyMichelle Obama said that Americans “weren’t ready” for her natural hair during Barack Obama’s tenure at the White House.The former first lady was speaking at the Warner Theatre in Washington DC on Tuesday to promote her new book, The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times, with the former talkshow host Ellen DeGeneres. Continue reading...

Donald Trump has announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, probably sparking another period of tumult in US politics and especially his own political party. His third candidacy comes as he faces intensifying legal troubles, including investigations by the justice department into the removal of hundreds of classified documents from the White House to his Florida estate and into his role in the January 6 attack. But could they derail his bid? The Guardian US politics correspondent Hugo Lowell explains what Trump is facing and whether he still stands a chance

Republican Senate candidate for Georgia rehashes plot of late-night movie and considers merits of both creaturesIn a campaign speech on Wednesday, the Republican candidate for US Senate in Georgia, Herschel Walker, told supporters: “I don’t want to be a vampire any more. I want to be a werewolf.”The remark was the latest controversial or outright bizarre intervention from the former football star who like other candidates endorsed by Donald Trump struggled to overcome his Democratic opponent in the midterm elections. Continue reading...

Attacking art works that are safely encased in glass does nothing to further the activists’ cause – if anything it makes a case for climate complacencyAs an art historian, my job is to look askance at words such as “masterpiece”, and to question the canon of “great art”. In my spare time, I have also sprayed chalk paint on civic structures in protest at the lack of action on climate. So at first I expected to view the latest attacks on art as shocking but justifiable. After all, do these attacks not also reveal the fragility of what we hold dear? Do they not make us think about what we want to save for the next generation? Yet the answer to these questions, I decided, is mostly no. Instead, these attacks feel part of a helpless careering towards climate chaos.As splash after splash of acidic liquid hits the glass casings of art works by Van Gogh, Monet, Klimt, and now Emily Carr, everyone around the world who sees the photographs and footage is going through the same mental process: an astonished intake of breath, followed by the realisation that everything is actually fine. The art work is safe behind glass, tightly sealed by expert conservators. What looks dangerous is a mere spectacle, not a reality. Continue reading...

As long as you can guarantee I won’t be stuck with them indefinitely, then saddle up, buckarooHere’s a pitch for new parents I’m working on: please let me hang out with your baby. Wait, come back!It’s not easy to phrase this without sounding like the kind of person someone might one day do an investigative podcast about, but it’s my strong belief that new parents should be forced to let their friends, and specifically me, look after their children. Continue reading...

It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism, out next year, will argue the world needs to ‘recognise that economic rights are human rights’Former presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders is to publish a book outlining “a vision of what would be possible if the political revolution took place”.It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism will be published by Penguin Random House in February 2023. Continue reading...

Jarrett Hobbs, 41, from North Carolina, shown on video being repeatedly punched in head and neck in Camden county jailAttorneys for a Georgia jail detainee shown on security footage being punched by guards repeatedly in the head and neck have called for the deputies to be fired and arrested, insisting the videos show the violence was unjustified.“There is no way in hell that anybody should be beaten the way this man was beaten,” Harry Daniels, an attorney, told reporters. “I don’t care what he did. I don’t care if he knocked the damn door down. You don’t beat a person like that.” Continue reading...

Both law schools say US News & World Report’s annual rankings are in conflict with commitments to diversity and affordabilityYale and Harvard law schools both said on Wednesday they will no longer participate in US News & World Report’s annual ranking of law schools, the biggest shake-up to the closely watched list in years.Yale, which has captured the No 1 spot every year since US News began ranking law schools in 1990, was first to announce the decision. Hours later, the Harvard Law dean, John Manning, informed students it would do the same. The school is ranked No 4. Continue reading...