Judge Alison Nathan says they face ‘a high and escalating risk that jurors and trial participants may need to quarantine’The judge in Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial on Tuesday told lawyers that deliberations could be held this weekend, warning that the surge in Covid-19 cases could derail the trial if a juror fell ill before a verdict were reached.“We now face a high and escalating risk that jurors and trial participants may need to quarantine,” Judge Alison Nathan said “thus disrupting trial, putting at risk our ability to complete this trial.” Continue reading...

The 14-year-old came to LA from Chile with her mother six months ago, excelled in school and wanted to become an engineerValentina Orellana-Peralta, 14, came to Los Angeles from her native Chile earlier this year. She dreamed of becoming an American citizen and an engineer, and looked forward to seeing LeBron James play basketball in person.But her life was cut short two days before Christmas, when a Los Angeles police officer opened fire at a man inside a department store, and in the process fatally shot the young girl. Continue reading...

Box, deposited in 1887, did not appear to hold a rare photo of Abraham Lincoln that had been hoped forMore than 130 years after a time capsule was deposited in the pedestal of a statue of the Confederate general Robert E Lee, and after one false start, conservators in Virginia were finally able to open the long sought-after box on Tuesday.The 36lb copper container, deposited in 1887, was removed on Monday after it was found sitting in water in the remains of the pedestal. Continue reading...

Suspect also died after being shot, but it was not immediately clear if police officers had shot himAt least five people were killed and several injured, including a police officer, after a series of shootings across the Denver area.Four were killed in the Monday night shooting and a fifth died from her injuries on Tuesday, police said. Continue reading...

Panel bends to wishes of the Biden White House over concerns of national security and executive privilege

The sacred Māori meeting place is a place our ancestors once walked. Even when there is no one here, I am not alone

Claim was part of push to overturn election but officials confirm four cases, all involving family members submitting votes

Paxlovid and molnupiravir were authorized by the US FDA last week, but supplies of Paxlovid are limited while molnupiravir is less effective than hopedAn effective and widely available treatment for Covid would be a significant breakthrough for managing the pandemic, but two antivirals recently authorized in the US come with some significant caveats, including low supply and use only among those at high risk for severe illness and death.Paxlovid from Pfizer and molnupiravir from Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics were authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week. The pills could be a game-changer for the most vulnerable, because they can be taken at home twice a day for five days to prevent hospitalization and death. For those considered at high risk of serious illness, Paxlovid was found to be 89% effective when taken within the first three days of symptoms and 88% effective in the first five days. Continue reading...

Shootings, and the grief and trauma that follow, are concentrated in lower-income, mostly Black and Latino communitiesWhen I ask parents, siblings and children what they want Guardian readers to know about their family member lost to gun violence, each one emphatically tells me their relative didn’t deserve what happened to them. They tell me their loved ones adored animals, loved kids – that they were just special. The people I speak with, especially parents, want the world to know their sons and daughters weren’t stereotypes.This desire for posthumous exoneration isn’t anything new, but the pleas sounded especially urgent in 2021. Continue reading...

A long-sought 1887 time capsule appears to have been found under a pedestal that once held a statue of the Confederate general Robert E Lee in Richmond, Virginia. Media reports described a capsule with dozens of artefacts, perhaps including a rare photo of Abraham Lincoln. Crews dismantling the pedestal found another time capsule earlier this month, but it did not contain the expected trove of objects. The statue was removed in September after protests against the police killing of George Floyd

Punctuation has always been controversial, but right now, amid fierce political debate, matters seem especially polarisedPunctuation is so 1990s. The comma is disappearing, the full stop has come to a full stop, and the semicolon has been repurposed as a pair of winking eyes. While the exclamation mark remains in rude health, the fate of the apostrophe seems especially bleak. Even the Apostrophe Protection Society has given up the fight, calling an end to its activities in 2019 and declaring a victory for “ignorance and laziness”. Debates over the correct use of punctuation have raged since English printers began to adopt the fancy new marks to supplement the simple virgule of medieval scribes (the ancestor of today’s forward slash), used singularly to serve a range of functions.The recent release of a large electronic corpus of written English from the past 30 years by Lancaster University allows us to track this rapid shift to a plainer prose. Short messages typed in haste dispense with old-fashioned commas and stuffy semicolons in favour of more informal dashes. Text messages now often sent as individual sentences mean the full stop has become surplus to requirement; including one is seen to signal a deliberate desire to be blunt or convey hostility, similar to adding the word “period” in speech: “That’s enough – period.”Simon Horobin is a professor in the Department of English Literature and Language at the University of Oxford Continue reading...

As the first anniversary of the Capitol attack nears, all decent Americans must commit to deprogram this Republican cult. Doing so will mean paying attention to those we left behind6 January will be the first anniversary one of the most shameful days in American history. On that date in 2021, the United States Capitol was attacked by thousands of armed loyalists to Donald Trump, some intent on killing members of Congress. About 140 officers were injured. Five people died.Even now, almost a year later, Americans remain confused and divided about the significance of what occurred. Let me offer four basic truths: Continue reading...

Long-sought-after item could contain artifacts, Confederate memorabilia and even a rare photo of Abraham LincolnCrews wrapping up the removal Monday of a giant pedestal that once held a statue of Confederate Gen Robert E Lee in Richmond found what appeared to be a second and long-sought-after time capsule, Virginia governor Ralph Northam said.The governor tweeted photos of a box being removed from the site and said conservators were studying the artifact. Continue reading...

The death of Valentina Orellana-Peralta, who was shopping with her mother for a holiday dress, raises concerns about police use of deadly forceThe Los Angeles police department has released body-camera footage and surveillance video of an incident in which an officer shot and killed a 14-year-old girl inside a department store while firing at another person.The footage from the Thursday morning incident shows that as soon as police encountered a man suspected of assault inside the store, an officer fired three bullets at him from a distance. One of the officer’s bullets struck the girl when it bounced off the floor and into the dressing room where she was with her mother, police said on Monday. Continue reading...

Former Theranos chief faces 11 criminal charges, alleging she duped investors and patients over blood-testing technologyThe jury weighing fraud charges against Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos, began their second week of deliberations on Monday morning.Holmes faces 11 criminal charges, alleging that she duped investors and patients by hailing her company’s blood-testing technology as a medical breakthrough when in fact it was prone to wild errors. Continue reading...

‘Remarkable woman’ Weddington hailed for role in 1973 case that established right to abortionTributes were paid to Sarah Weddington after the attorney who argued and won the landmark Roe v Wade case at the supreme court, establishing the right to abortion, died aged 76.Susan Hays, a former student of Weddington’s and a Democratic candidate for Texas agriculture commissioner, announced on Twitter that Weddington died on Sunday morning “after a series of health issues”. Continue reading...

Texan lawyer and Linda Coffee won landmark 1973 case, safeguarding right now under threat from US supreme court

I asked a child psychologist if I should be worried about the extent of their make-believe worldsNever confuse fantasy and “realty”.It’s a sentence that has floated, jokingly, around my family ever since my father’s colleague uttered the bungle to him years ago. We New Yorkers, of course, never confuse fantasy and realty. But in our house we happily confuse the two all the time.Sophie Brickman is a contributor to the New Yorker, the New York Times and other publications, and the author of Baby, Unplugged: One Mother’s Search for Balance, Reason, and Sanity in the Digital Age Continue reading...

The US has one of the highest maternal mortality rates among developed countries. Yet Senator Joe Manchin struggles to understand why paid family leave is importantTwenty-four hours after I gave birth to my second child, my employer called to ask when I planned to return to work.It had been a high-risk pregnancy and a complicated, precarious delivery involving a breech birth. I should have remained in the hospital for several days. But my oldest child – then just a year old – needed major surgery that couldn’t be delayed. So we brought our newborn home and rushed to prepare to leave for a hospital two hours away where our oldest child would have surgery while our newborn was at home being cared for by relatives.Bobbi Dempsey is a freelance writer specializing in topics related to poverty, a reporting fellow at the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, and an economic justice fellow at Community Change Continue reading...

Covid has forced us to find new ways to relate to each other – and that has meant creative opportunities and connections we’d otherwise have missedNearly two years ago, the dawn of Covid lockdowns forced us to contend with the prospect of solitude and self-reflection. Naturally, we rushed to find other stuff to do.Alongside the endless walks and compulsive baking, the early months of 2020 saw the blossoming of an array of tech trends: virtual gathering apps like Houseparty and Clubhouse, online events from trivia nights to Zoom weddings, livestreamed performances and art exhibitions. Continue reading...

I owe my career to Twitter, but two years reporting on the pandemic has made me realise disinformation costs livesI have a fantasy and it goes like this: a political party is formed, running on an anti-social-media platform. It campaigns on a pledge to ban social media. (“SWITCH IT OFF” is its straightforward, and elegant, slogan.)The party wins a general election and at midnight, on what comes to be known as Social Media Freedom Day, the prime minister pushes a giant button that blocks all access to social media. Crowds cheer. On the anniversary of Social Media Freedom Day – which becomes a bank holiday, of course – children burn effigies of Mark Zuckerberg and dress up as the Twitter bird.Sirin Kale is a Guardian journalist Continue reading...

Committee to request contents of the call seeking to stop Biden’s certification and may subpoena Rudy GiulianiCongressman Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack, has said the panel will open an inquiry into Donald Trump’s phone call seeking to stop Joe Biden’s certification from taking place on 6 January hours before the insurrection.The chairman said the select committee intended to scrutinize the phone call – revealed last month by the Guardian – should they prevail in their legal effort to obtain Trump White House records over the former president’s objections of executive privilege. Continue reading...

The Chiefs and Bucs could be headed for a Super Bowl rematch after clinching their divisions. But expect the chaos of a year where no team has looked invulnerable to spill into JanuaryIf the NFL was hoping to keep more teams in the playoff hunt longer by expanding the regular season from 17 weeks to 18, well, mission accomplished. Week 16’s slate of games is nearly completed, yet much remains unsettled, particularly in the still wide-open AFC. If there’s one team that’s taken advantage of their situation, it would be the Kansas City Chiefs, who are currently the only team in the conference guaranteed a playoff spot.It feels like ages ago, but it was only late October when the preseason favorites looked to be in serious trouble. After a demoralizing 27-3 loss to the Tennessee Titans, the Chiefs had stumbled from the gate with a perplexing 3-4 record. Since then, however, they have rattled off eight straight victories and look to be in great shape to make their third straight Super Bowl. Continue reading...

Baseless claims of fraud have pushed Republicans to enact restrictive voting laws – and they haven’t stopped there2021 was the year that America’s democracy came under attack from within.Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the election results, a push that culminated in the 6 January assault on the capitol, ultimately failed. But the lies the former president spread about fraud and the integrity of the 2020 results have stuck around in a dangerous way. False claims about the election have moved to the center of the Republican party. Continue reading...

Lawyer for Thomas Sibick tells judge he can be trusted to use social media to seek job and love during confinement at parents’ houseA New York man charged with assaulting a police officer during the deadly Capitol riot has asked a judge for permission to use dating websites while confined at his parents’ house.Thomas Sibick, of Buffalo, was part of a pro-Trump mob the then president urged to “fight like hell” to overturn his election defeat by Joe Biden. Continue reading...

State says snowpack now between 114% and 137% of normal across Sierra range while southern areas get much-needed rainA major Christmas storm caused whiteout conditions and closed key highways in the mountains of northern California and Nevada, with forecasters warning that travel in the Sierra Nevada could be difficult for several days.Rainstorms also continued to hit parts of southern California. The conditions were difficult but welcome developments in a parched state where the Sierra snowpack had been at dangerously low levels after weeks of dry weather. Continue reading...

Five men are charged with conspiring to kidnap Democratic Michigan governor over coronavirus restrictionsDefense attorneys want dismissed the indictment against five men accused of plotting to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, because of what they call “egregious overreaching” by federal agents and informants.The government alleges that the men were upset over coronavirus restrictions last year when they conspired to kidnap Whitmer, a Democrat then spoken about as a possible vice-president, even scouting her second home in northern Michigan. Continue reading...

Jayapal calls on president to continue work on social spending plan and to use executive actions to get around senator’s rejection

He was above everything a priest – albeit the funniest one I’ve ever knownI am lucky that in my life I knew Desmond Tutu, one of the greatest men of our time. This tiny giant, this impish little priest, had the dangerously insane courage of the gods. And it was through his God that he found the voice to unremittingly challenge oppressors and speak endlessly, eloquently for the beaten down, the trodden on, the innocent and poor of this world. And later, when the righteous justice of his rhetoric had come to pass, he – along with his great friend Nelson Mandela – proposed the national dignity that only forgiveness of the past and the vanquished can bestow.

Bullet fired at man suspected of assault went through dressing room wall and struck teenager, officers sayThe Los Angeles county coroner has identified the 14-year-old girl who was shot and killed by police on Thursday while in the dressing rooms of a department store in North Hollywood.Valentina Orellana-Peralta died after being hit by a bullet which went through the wall of the dressing room at the Burlington Coat Factory store, as police officers responded to a call about an assault. Continue reading...

Arrest of Erika Wulff Jones on domestic violence charge stemmed from ‘medication imbalance’, Infowars host saysThe wife of the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was arrested on Christmas Eve on a domestic violence charge the rightwing provocateur said stemmed from a “medication imbalance”.Sheriff’s deputies booked Erika Wulff Jones into an Austin jail around 8.45pm on Friday. Jail records showed the 43-year-old faced misdemeanor charges of assault causing bodily injury to a family member and resisting arrest, search or transport. By the afternoon of Christmas Day, she had not received a bond. Continue reading...

Jared Schmeck, 35, tells Oregonian he has ‘nothing against’ president to whom he repeated ‘Fuck Joe Biden’ rightwing memeThe caller who ended a conversation with Joe Biden with the rightwing meme “Let’s go Brandon” – which means “fuck Joe Biden” – has insisted he was joking and meant no disrespect to the president.“At the end of the day I have nothing against Mr Biden,” Jared Schmeck, 35, told the Oregonian newspaper. “But I am frustrated because I think he can be doing a better job. I mean no disrespect to him.” Continue reading...

The real story this year is the explosion of digital transactions that will spawn a new economy of entrepreneurs and create trillions in wealthWhen you read about all the stories around small businesses in 2021 a few general themes quickly appear. Inflation. Supply chain. Labor shortages. Covid. All true. All relevant. All important. But all these stories are relatively short term. Inflation will, someday, be under control again. Shipping will catch up. Labor will come and go. Covid will always be around but we’ll just live with it.The reality is that there was just one story about small businesses in 2021 that’s really going to have a long-term impact. It has received much less attention and yet it will be transformational. The small business story this year is about blockchain. Because in 2021, blockchain emerged as the next big thing for entrepreneurs. It’s real and it’s happening. And smart entrepreneurs know this. Continue reading...

Like countless other adoptees in the US, outdated laws mean I still don’t know my parent’s names, ethnicities and medical historiesAt the age of 69, I am not allowed to see my original birth certificate or know the basic facts of my origin.In some private and all closed adoptions the original birth certificate is sealed by the state of California. The only way to see it is to hire a lawyer and petition the court with a “very good reason” to unseal. When I asked a clerk in Marin County, California, he couldn’t give an example of what a good reason might be, but he did say that wanting to know my origins wasn’t one of them.Anne Rudig has contributed to the New York Times and other publications. She is at work on a memoir Continue reading...

Patrick Gaspard discusses his Haitian dissident parents, meeting Mandela and protecting democracyBarack Obama could be forgiven for considering himself a big shot. But Patrick Gaspard used to keep his ego in check.“You’re of course an extraordinary historic figure but I’m sorry, this doesn’t compare,” Gaspard would joke, “meeting Nelson Mandela will always be the top of Mount Kilimanjaro for me.” Continue reading...

Harris is navigating a position that comes with great influence but few formal responsibilities – and the stakes are even higher for her compared to past vice-presidentsEarlier this month, Kamala Harris convened the inaugural meeting of the National Space Council, an important summit that brought together cabinet secretaries and top space and military officials in the sun-drenched atrium of the US Institute of Peace. Over the course of nearly two hours, the vice-president engaged the panel in discussion with real, earthly implications for national security, the climate crisis and workforce development.But attention in Washington was diverted elsewhere. At the supreme court, the justices were weighing the future of abortion rights. Republicans in Congress were threatening a government shutdown over their opposition to Covid-19 mask mandates. And as Harris spoke, public health experts confirmed the first case of the Omicron coronavirus variant in the US. Continue reading...

As the efforts continue to clean up debris, find victims and restore power, the storm’s scale of destruction is astoundingIn Mayfield, Kentucky, storm warnings had been coming for days, then came radar observations of a rotating storm of debris to the south, and finally urgent alerts to the imminent strike of a severe tornado.In the seconds it took for the “quad-state” storm to pass over the higher elevations of the city soon after midnight on 10 December, the notional separation between the man-made and natural world was effectively obliterated – as were large sections of Mayfield Continue reading...

The never-ending pandemic forces people to do their best to balance living a decent life and making responsible choicesWhen Sean Williams, 50, caught a breakthrough case of Covid-19 in November, he felt guilty and embarrassed. His 14-year-old tested positive, too; both were “double-vaxxed” and probably caught it from his 11-year-old daughter, who got it in school two days before her scheduled first vaccination.“It’s impossible to talk about without going through this whole tortured thing about how careful you were before you got it,” says Williams, who lives with his family in New York City. “Also, this horrible feeling that you have to stutter your way through a clarification that you do believe in science, you did get vaccinated, you’re, like, not a fascist, even. It’s landmines all the way down.” Continue reading...

Droughts, wildfires, bomb cyclones: it was a year of extremes – and scientists say it’s a likely taste of what’s to comeEven before summer heatwaves sent temperatures soaring across the west, lakebeds had already begun ceding ground to the cracked, dried earth.Rings showed around reservoirs where water levels fell to historic lows, verdant hillsides took on brown hues, and trees became tinder in forests primed to burn. The conditions fueled unstoppable fires that grew large and ferocious enough to create their own weather patterns.

This year’s political pantomime served up a rich cast of characters, with The Donald providing the laughs and Xi Jinping as the baddest baddie of them all (oh yes he is!)Would Donald Trump make a good pantomime dame? His orange face, crazy talk, weird hair and baggy, saggy outfits are a natural fit for Mother Goose or Widow Twankey. Choleric, chaotic, always changeable, Trump might find cross-dressing a challenge. Then again, maybe not.The future role of America’s “very stable genius” is but one of many dramatic questions marking the end of a grim year when politics frequently descended into dark farce. World leaders too often served up political pantomime, not serious, sensible statecraft. You had to laugh, or else you’d cry. Continue reading...

The California native also helped create the popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise in a lifetime working for MattelT Mark Taylor, artist and toy designer for the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe franchise as well as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, has died of heart failure at his home in southern California. He was 80.He-Man was the muscled frontman for toy manufacturer Mattel’s Masters of the Universe franchise, which would later spawn an animated series that became a staple for children. Continue reading...