Governor declares disaster in 11 counties as experts warn of fires in parts of Oklahoma, Kansas and NebraskaFire crews in Texas made progress on Saturday against a massive complex of wildfires that killed a deputy sheriff and burned at least 50 homes, officials said.“Progress has been made but fire activity has picked up with rising temperatures and lower humidity,” said Matt Ford, spokesperson for Texas A&M Forest Services. He said about 25% of the flames were contained, up from about 4% late on Friday as the fire burned thick brush and grass fields. Continue reading...

Officer resigns from school security guard job after officials release footage of fight and girl’s father calls for criminal chargesSchool officials in Kenosha, Wisconsin released surveillance footage that showed an off-duty police officer putting his knee on a 12-year-old girl’s neck to restrain her amid a lunchtime fight.The Kenosha Unified School District released redacted footage of the 4 March fight on Friday. Continue reading...

Tim Kaine believes basketball star’s detention is to make her ‘part of this chess game’A senior Democratic senator has said he believes Russia wants to use the WNBA star Brittney Griner, who has been held in Moscow for more than a month on accusations she smuggled drugs into the country, as a “negotiating chip” regarding the war in Ukraine.“I think there’s no doubt that her detention, and then this continuation of the imprisonment, is all to try to make her a hostage and a part of this chess game,” Tim Kaine, of Virginia, told Full Court Press in an interview scheduled to air in full on Sunday. Continue reading...

Jimmy Hill, 68, was killed in a Russian attack on Chernihiv as his partner, Irina Teslenko, received treatmentJimmy Hill, the American who was killed in Ukraine this week, refused to postpone a trip to the country to bring medical treatment to his longtime partner, Irina Teslenko, who has progressive multiple sclerosis, his family said on Saturday.Hill, 68, was killed in a Russian attack on the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, as Teslenko received treatment. Hill’s family say Teslenko and her mother are trying to leave the city but would need an ambulance and it is unclear if that can happen. Continue reading...

Most collaborators in the west are at least coming up with excuses after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That’s not the case in BritainAcross the west, institutions that collaborated with Vladimir Putin’s Russia are having a moment of revelation. Lawyers who persecuted investigative journalists and a financial service industry that feasted on oligarchical loot are shocked beyond measure by the invasion of Ukraine.They happily overlooked the levelling of Grozny, the war crimes in Aleppo, the missile attacks on civilian flights, the invasion of Crimea, the destructions of Russian democracy, the endemic corruption, the endless lying, and the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, Sergei and Yulia Skripal and Alexei Navalny. Only now they realise that the Kremlin may not be a reputable business partner after all. Continue reading...

Lamonte McIntyre spent two decades in prison for a double murder he did not commit and says a former detective framed himA Kansas man who spent 23 years in prison for a double murder he did not commit is seeking $93m in damages from the county where he was convicted and a former detective he says framed him.Lamonte McIntyre, 45, and his mother allege in a lawsuit filed in 2018 that the unified government of Wyandotte county and Kansas City, Kansas is responsible for the actions of former police detective Roger Golubski and other officers involved in his prosecution. Continue reading...

US district judge issues ruling in two longstanding lawsuits involving former Kentucky clerk and two same-sex couplesA federal judge has ruled that a former Kentucky clerk violated the constitutional rights of two same-sex couples after she wouldn’t issue them marriage licenses – a refusal that sparked international attention and briefly landed her in jail in 2015.The US district judge, David Bunning, issued the ruling on Friday in two longstanding lawsuits involving Kim Davis, the former clerk of Rowan county, and two same-sex couples. A jury trial will still need to decide on any damages. Continue reading...

Schlumberger also halts business in response to US sanctions over Russia’s invasion of UkraineTwo giant US oil field services companies, Halliburton and Schlumberger, have said they are suspending operations in Russia, in response to US sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine.Halliburton said on Friday it had suspended future business in Russia in compliance with sanctions that prohibit transactions and work, including for certain state-owned Russian customers. Continue reading...

We are socially conditioned to think of brilliance and genius as male traits, but the bar is also a lot lower for menElon Musk may not be a diplomat but, as everyone knows, he is a genius. And, true to form, the man has come up with a genius way to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. (The United Nations, I hope you’re listening!) Here we go … he wants to fight Vladimir Putin. Just him and Putin, man-to-man, battling it out.Arwa Mahdawi’s new book, Strong Female Lead, is available for order Continue reading...

Unidentified gunman kills 20-year-old vocalist minutes after he was released on bond following arrest in Opa-locka, FloridaTributes have been paid to Baby Cino, an aspiring rapper from Miami, who was shot and killed in a daylight ambush minutes after leaving a city jail on Wednesday.The 20-year-old vocalist, whose real name was Timothy Starks, was arrested by Miami-Dade officers at 2am in Opa-locka, Florida on Tuesday after they pulled him over for driving with an obscured number plate. On searching his car, police found a fully loaded Glock 32 pistol. Continue reading...

National Review says candidate for governor in Georgia and self-confessed superfan does not deserve fictional titleThe Georgia gubernatorial candidate and voting rights campaigner Stacey Abrams has been made president – of United Earth.The honour, which a leading conservative website said Abrams did not deserve, was bestowed by the Paramount+ TV series Star Trek: Discovery, in its season four finale. Continue reading...

Matthew Muller guilty of rape and false imprisonment in intricate attack which authorities first dismissed – to their cost – as stagedA man who sexually assaulted a northern California woman who was kidnapped from her home in what police initially thought was a hoax was sentenced on Friday to 31 years in state prison.Matthew Muller, already serving a 40-year sentence for federal crimes, was sentenced in Solano county superior court after pleading no contest to two counts of forcible rape of Denise Huskins, who was dragged from her Vallejo home in 2015, the county district attorney’s office said. Continue reading...

People knew the news was grave before the second world war. They feel that now. In both eras, we have developed strategies to get byArmed conflict, especially when fought against a more powerful enemy, produces the loftiest national rhetoric. It keeps our spirits up, and we tend to remember the best bits. In his speech to the Westminster parliament last week, Volodymyr Zelenskiy echoed Churchill’s “We shall fight on the beaches” passage from his post-Dunkirk oration, but the Ukrainian president might just as appositely have referenced one of Britain’s most hostile critics.“These are the times that try men’s souls,” the English radical and American patriot Thomas Paine wrote in 1776, when the American revolutionary war was only a year old and its outcome far from certain. “The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country,” Paine continued, “but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered: yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”Ian Jack is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

As UFC returns to London, Paddy Pimblett and Molly McCann talk wrong-un Tory biscuits, Chattin’ Pony and why there is no one like them in the game

While hundreds of companies have paused operations, three Koch subsidiaries are still operating in the countryPressure is mounting on Koch Industries, the conglomerate run by the rightwing billionaire Charles Koch, to pull out of Russia after it was revealed it was continuing to do business in Russia through three wholly-owned subsidiaries.Hundreds of companies including Coca-Cola, KPMG, McDonald’s, Netflix and Starbucks have paused operations in Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. But, as news site Popular Information revealed last week, three Koch subsidiaries are still operating in the country. Continue reading...

Spate of killings in recent weeks has underscored the dangers faced by those who live on the streetsThe Covid-19 pandemic has been brutally tough on America’s homeless.Already difficult patterns of living, often just survival, were abruptly disrupted as the city emptied and shut down during spikes. Shelters and food pantries no longer functioned in a predictable fashion. Stores and 24-hour subways closed and the homeless were often and conveniently blamed for a wave of robbery and violence. Continue reading...

Four militia group members are on trial for an alleged plot to abduct Gretchen Whitmer but did informants and agents egg on big-talking good ole boys?Four members of the Wolverine Watchmen, a Michigan group that the government accuses of plotting to kidnap and kill Governor Gretchen Whitmer, are – depending on whom you believe – members of a dangerous paramilitary or a group of big-talking good ole boys full of hot air.Adam Fox, Brandon Caserta, Barry Croft Jr and Daniel Harris were charged in October 2020 with conspiring to abduct Whitmer from her northern Michigan vacation house. Their motive, say prosecutors in Grand Rapids, was anger over the Democrat’s Covid-19 restrictions and their plan has become a symbol of rising far-right violence and the threat it represents to US democracy. Continue reading...

Republican known for brusque style said he’d had more than 75 bills signed by a president and he was happy every time he could help a constituentDon Young, a blunt-speaking Republican and the longest-serving member of Congress, has died. He was 88.His office announced Young’s death in a statement on Friday night. Continue reading...

Health authorities listed three fatal and nine non-fatal incidents this month in individuals who had intended to only use cocaineSan Francisco’s health authorities have issued a warning about fentanyl-laced cocaine after several overdoses occurred this month.On Thursday, the San Francisco department of public health issued a health alert that reported three fatal and nine non-fatal fentanyl overdoses among individuals who reportedly intended to only use cocaine. Continue reading...

Proposal is part of Gavin Newsom’s pledge to preserve one-third of the state’s land and coastal waters by 2030Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday proposed giving California’s Indigenous nations $100m so they can purchase and preserve their ancestral lands.The proposal is part of his pledge to make sure nearly one-third of California’s land and coastal waters are preserved by 2030. But rather than have the government do all of that, Newsom said Indigenous leaders should have a say in what lands get preserved. Continue reading...

Ukraine wants more guns and fighter planes from the west: given the defining event of my mother’s life, I understand whyEvery time I look at the pictures of Mariupol or Kharkiv, I see a corner of Whitechapel in east London. I reacted the same way to images of Aleppo and, before that, Falluja and, before that, Grozny, because buildings crushed to rubble have a sad habit of looking the same. It brings back a memory – or rather something fainter: an inherited memory, one that was passed to me.Its origin is 27 March 1945; the 77th anniversary is a little over a week away. Early that morning, at 7.21am, a V2 rocket landed on Hughes Mansions, a block of flats on Vallance Road in the East End. It killed 134 people, more or less instantly. Among them were two sisters, Rivvi and Feige (pronounced fay-ghee). Feige Hocherman was 33 and she left behind two children, a son not yet 11 and a daughter aged eight and a quarter. The little girl was my mother, Sara.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist. To listen to Jonathan’s podcast Politics Weekly America, search “Politics Weekly America” on Apple, Spotify, Acast or wherever you get your podcasts Continue reading...

Michael Davis to spend a year in jail but acquitted of manslaughter over death of Hunter Brittain, 17, during June traffic stopA former Arkansas deputy was convicted on Friday of negligent homicide and sentenced to a year in jail for shooting an unarmed teenager whose death last year drew the attention of national civil rights leaders.Jurors acquitted Michael Davis of manslaughter while finding him guilty of the misdemeanor charge in the death of 17-year-old Hunter Brittain during a June traffic stop outside Cabot, a city of about 26,000 people roughly 30 miles north-east of Little Rock. Continue reading...

Leaders spoke for nearly two hours but Biden did not make any direct requests to Xi to persuade Putin to end the attackJoe Biden spoke for nearly two hours with Xi Jinping as the US sought to dissuade China from backing Russia’s war on Ukraine.A White House account of the call on Friday said that the US president “described the implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia as it conducts brutal attacks against Ukrainian cities and civilians”. Continue reading...

Natural Black hairstyles are often considered ‘unprofessional’ and school children face detention over dress code violationsThe US House of Representatives on Friday passed a bill banning race-based discrimination on hair, specifically textures or styles associated with a particular race or national origin such as dreadlocks, afros and braids.The bill is known as the Crown Act, standing for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair. It was co-sponsored by the progressive Democratic representatives Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, among others, who cited research showing that Black students were significantly more likely to face school detention, often for dress code violations based on their hair. Continue reading...

Gusty conditions were expected to complicate containment efforts and ‘support wildfire activity’ in the Eastland Complex fireLow humidity and gusty winds fueled multiple wildfires on Friday in Texas, burning homes and other buildings and prompting hundreds to evacuate .Fueled by strong winds through dangerously dry brush and grass fields, the wildfires merged to form what fire officials call a “complex” that was burning near Eastland, about 120 miles (195 km) west of Dallas. As of Friday morning, fires in the area had burned roughly 52,700 acres (21,300 hectares), according to Texas A&M forest service, including the 45,383-acre (18,365-hectare) Eastland Complex fire that was only 4% contained. Continue reading...

The US must prepare now for the next surge or variant, whether it’s BA.2 or a different one, experts sayCases and deaths from Covid-19 have fallen in the US, but warning signs and rises in other countries are prompting experts to take future and existing variants of the virus seriously – and they are warning that America has not yet reached the endemic phase.It’s important to prepare now for the next surge or variant, whether that’s BA.2 or a different one, experts say. Continue reading...

North Carolina authorities are investigating claims Mark Meadows did not reside, visit or own the address he is registered atMark Meadows, who served as former President Donald Trump’s final chief of staff and has echoed his false claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, is being investigated in North Carolina over his voter registration, state authorities said.North Carolina’s state bureau of investigation was assigned to lead the inquiry after a district attorney referred the matter to the state department of justice special prosecutions section, a department spokeswoman, Nazneen Ahmed, said in an email. Continue reading...

To keep out the virus, the city shut up shop – and shut down protests. But low vaccination rates mean it has now stormed our defencesThe streets are quiet. The beaches are inaccessible. Theatres, museums, schools, gyms and libraries are shut. Hong Kong is going round in circles, closing down and opening up just a little bit, in an endless loop that has everybody feeling claustrophobic. For more than two years, the city’s success in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic relied not on vaccinations, but almost entirely on keeping the virus out, and making it hard for people to get together in large groups. Now the virus has breached the defences – and we’re paying the price.At the beginning of the pandemic, Hong Kong’s biggest political upheaval in decades was still under way, with daily protests, at times violent, and countless arrests. The health crisis allowed for the imposition of emergency measures that kept the virus at bay – along with crowds of people. For most of the past two years, no more than four people could meet up in public; now that number is two. It has been difficult to disentangle the measures taken to prevent illness from those taken to prevent political protests – and this mix has bred a toxic mistrust. Continue reading...

Parent company RBI cannot do it directly because of complicated legal contract with main partner

Monthly payments became a lifeline for many families, and their lapse had a devastating effect, but the policy seems to have no path forward in the SenateIf the negotiations over Democrats’ Build Back Better Act had gone differently, tens of millions of American families would have received checks on Tuesday. Instead, for the third month in a row, the monthly payments from the expanded child tax credit were not distributed.The monthly checks, which were approved last year as part of Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief package, had become a lifeline for many families struggling to financially recover from the pandemic. But the payments came to an end in December, after Democrats failed to pass their Build Back Better Act, which would have extended the policy. Continue reading...

Leaders of China and US will hold first phone call since invasion of Ukraine. Plus, carcinogenic chemical found in 27% of US personal care products

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori’s return home is a step forward, but UK-Iran tensions are far from resolved

Lieutenant governor Janice McGeachin is building a coalition including white nationalist and far-right militia backing, in what she tells supporters is ‘the fight of our lives’As the far right in America seeks to increase its political influence, including by seeking elected office, one figure is emerging as potentially its most powerful figure: Idaho’s lieutenant governor, Janice McGeachin.McGeachin is running for governor of the state and building a coalition including white nationalist and far-right militia backing, in what she tells her supporters is “the fight of our lives”. Continue reading...

The idea that the American way of life is under threat from a variety of ‘others’ is wildly overblown but widely believedEvery evening, Fox News tells a story about America.It’s a story about how traditional American values are being undermined by radical leftists – how marginalized populations actually account for a huge portion of the country, and that they want to take America from white Christians. These radicals are atheists, Muslims, Jews. They are people of color, vegans, coastal city dwellers and, of course, Democrats. Continue reading...

Independent lab found the chemical in more than a quarter of items it tested – sometimes at levels considered ‘life threatening’Independent testing has found hundreds of popular personal care items in the US to be contaminated with benzene, a highly carcinogenic chemical, prompting several big brands to voluntarily recall dozens of products in recent months.The lab, Valisure, last year detected benzene in hand sanitizers, sunscreens, deodorant, dry shampoos, conditioners, antiperspirants, deodorants, body sprays and anti-fungal treatments. The contamination has been most frequently detected in aerosol or spray products, some at levels the Food and Drug Administration characterized as “life-threatening”. Continue reading...

The actor formed an ownership group that includes athletes and Hollywood stars to found a different type of team. The club has already sold 14,000 season ticketsThere are few better places to hold a preseason training camp than at Malibu’s Pepperdine University, whose football pitch seems to hover over the shimmering Pacific Ocean. It makes a memorable opening scene for Angel City FC.A typical American expansion team’s start is often rocky: Fighting for decent players, for fans, for attention, for a shred of dignity following lopsided defeats. But Angel City FC, who debut in the National Women’s Soccer League this year, are far from typical. Although they don’t play their first match until Saturday in the NWSL Challenge Cup, things already look quite different around here. Continue reading...

Leaders will hold first phone call since the invasion of Ukraine on Friday, amid speculation that Beijing could provide financial or military support to Moscow

Joe Biden labelled Vladimir Putin 'a murderous dictator,' and 'a pure thug' during an address for St Patrick's day. Biden said Putin was paying the price for his aggression, while detailing his planned call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The call comes at western countries look to put pressure on China not to support Russia following its invasion of Ukraine

Tennessee national guard says officers ‘safe and accounted for’ after Russian media falsely identified them as slain mercenariesThree current and former members of the Tennessee national guard, who were falsely identified in a Russian media report as mercenaries killed in Ukraine, are in fact alive and well, the Tennessee national guard said on Thursday.Joe Biden ordered the withdrawal of US troops from Ukraine prior to Russia’s invasion of the country as part of a broader effort to avoid a direct confrontation with the nuclear-armed adversary. Continue reading...

U2 singer’s poem, read at the annual Friends of Ireland lunch, encompasses Irish mythology and the Russia-Ukraine warNancy Pelosi, the House speaker and one of the most powerful Democrats in the country, has marked St Patrick’s Day by reading aloud a poem by Bono that encompassed both Irish mythology and the crisis in Ukraine.Pelosi was attending the annual Friends of Ireland lunch in Washington DC on Thursday, when she said she had been sent some verse.Oh, St Patrick he drove out the snakes