John Eastman conceded that scheme represented violation of Electoral Count Act but urged Mike Pence to go ahead anywayInterrupting the certification of Joe Biden’s election win on 6 January last year as part of the scheme to return Donald Trump to office was known to be unlawful by at least one of the former president’s lawyers, according to an email exchange about the potential conspiracy.The former Trump lawyer John Eastman – who helped coordinate the scheme from the Trump “war room” at the Willard hotel in Washington – conceded in an email to counsel for then vice-president Mike Pence, Greg Jacob, that the plan was a violation of the Electoral Count Act. Continue reading...
On a block near the city’s Drake motel, Tamara Reynolds befriended and photographed the women whose drug problems governed their lives Continue reading...
Separating those fleeing conflict into ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ is immoral and a betrayal of European valuesHow should we regard the two faces of Europe’s refugee response? In the week when the European Union welcomed nearly two million refugees from Ukraine, do we also need to watch graphic footage of a young African being battered for climbing a European border fence? Yes, we do.As Europe rediscovers compassion for refugees, we should watch this video on loop. It shows a defenceless young man in tattered clothes gingerly descending a six-metre fence. Waiting for him at the bottom are half a dozen Spanish border police, in helmets and body armour and wielding batons. The first blow is struck before he reaches the ground. The images that follow, of a crowd of uniformed white men viciously beating a black man, are all the more disturbing because they are so familiar.Daniel Howden is managing director of Lighthouse Reports, an investigative non-profit newsroom covering migration, corruption and conflict that works with leading European media Continue reading...
P22, known as the Brad Pitt of his species, has been visiting residential neighborhoods and welcomed like a starOn Tuesday night, a quiet street in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles had a rare celebrity visitor. P22, the city’s most famous mountain lion, was spotted around 7pm on Berkeley Circle, about three and a half miles south of his home in Griffith Park. The National Park Service later confirmed his presence through a radio collar.Residents shared photos from doorbell cameras and grainy pics from inside their homes. “Ultimately, it’s pretty awesome,” one resident told the LA Times. “The whole neighborhood’s excited.” Continue reading...
Incident occurred over Gulf of Mexico as former president returned to Florida from rally in New Orleans on Saturday nightA plane carrying former US president Donald Trump was reportedly forced to make an emergency landing on Saturday night after suffering engine failure over the Gulf of Mexico.The Dassault Falcon 900 had flown about 75 miles from a New Orleans airport before turning back to the city, an unnamed source told the Reuters news agency. Continue reading...
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said Vladimir Putin will fail in his effort to subjugate Ukraine, and will instead lead Russia into a ‘strategic defeat’ that is already unfolding. Speaking at a press conference with the UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, the pair were also questioned about Ukrainian demands to establish no-fly zones over Ukraine, or at least over humanitarian corridors inside the country. Both ruled it out
Those at the top of the sport – who will scrap over a record $20m purse at Sawgrass – have never had it so goodThis has been quite the spell for those who like to number crunch around the world of professional golf. The Players Championship, taking place this weekend, carries a prize purse of $20m with $3.6m to be bestowed on the winner. By Sunday evening, three tournaments in a row played in Florida will have handed out a combined $40m on the basis of leaderboard placings. Arnold Palmer’s PGA Tour winnings totalled $1.9m.Those at the summit of this sport have never had it so good. Still, many believe the largesse associated with the PGA Tour in particular has become obscene, to the point where golfers will naturally lose all grip on reality. The theory was only endorsed as umpteen players at least flirted with Saudi Arabia and its bid for a breakaway tour. Phil Mickelson, without any apparent irony, blasted the PGA Tour for “obnoxious greed” before admitting his Saudi dealings were all about “leverage”. Continue reading...
Elena Branson, who has both US and Russian citizenship, received thousands of dollars from Moscow to run centerA woman who ran a Russia propaganda center in New York City was charged on Tuesday for acting as an unregistered foreign agent for the Russian government.Elena Branson, 61, who has both US and Russian citizenship, ran the Russian Center New York, which she founded in 2012, receiving thousands of dollars from the Russian government. Continue reading...
Being locked up only made my condition, later diagnosed as bipolar disorder, worse in every possible wayI arrived on the same day as Maria. She was shy, withdrawn and reminded me of a fragile bird as she leaned over her hot drink to keep warm. We would talk in the garden, the only place to find any peace, and fantasise about eating lasagne and drinking red wine.We were in prison. I was on remand awaiting trial. I had been arrested while suffering a psychotic episode – I would be there for six months until the hospital order arrived from the court. It felt like six years.Bryony Friars is a pseudonym. She is a student living in the north of EnglandIn the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie, and Mind on 0300 123 3393. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org. Continue reading...
Trump’s former press secretary discusses his relationship with the Russian leader in an interview with The ViewDonald Trump “admired” Vladimir Putin’s ability to kill anyone he wanted, according to his former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham.In an interview with The View on Tuesday, Grisham discussed the former US president’s relationship with the Russian president, saying: “I think [Trump] feared [Putin]. I think he was afraid of him. I think that the man intimidated him. Because Putin is a scary man, just frankly, I think he was afraid of him.” Continue reading...
Nine snakes and 43 horned lizards were concealed in the ‘man’s jacket, pants pockets and groin area’ authorities sayA man who tried to slither past US border agents in California had 52 lizards and snakes hidden in his clothing, authorities said Tuesday.
Top female players are forced to chase good-paying gigs abroad while well-paid male counterparts can enjoy home comfortsShe is without question the most dominant female basketball player of her generation, the uncommon 6ft 9in center with an 88in wingspan who dunks and blocks shots with spite. In the past decade Brittney Griner ignited Baylor’s undefeated college national championship run, helped USA Basketball to a pair of Olympic gold medals, and lifted the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury to a league title just one year after being drafted first overall. And now the Houston native’s glittering career could come to an end inside a Russian jail cell.On Saturday came word that the 31-year-old Griner had been detained at an airport near Moscow after customs agents said they caught her with a hoard of vape cartridges containing hashish oil. Even more distressing than this news breaking some three weeks after Griner had landed in Sheremetyevo from New York was the 10-year maximum prison sentence that Russia reserves for the crime she is alleged to have committed. On Sunday the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, offered oblique support for Griner, saying “we of course stand ready to provide every possible assistance.” The Texas Democratic congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee called for her immediate release. Meanwhile, a former top Pentagon official feared Griner could become a “high-profile hostage” and be used as a bargaining chip. Continue reading...
Denver picked up a new franchise quarterback in a blockbuster trade with Seattle on Tuesday. He will enter a division stacked with talentFor a while, this NFL’s offseason’s quarterback carousel barely moved. Tom Brady retired. So did Ben Roethlisberger. And despite a much-analyzed Instagram post from Aaron Rodgers that could have doubled as a retirement statement, the back-to-back MVP is staying put in Green Bay. This came after weeks of speculation that Rodgers might be headed to the very quarterback-needy Denver Broncos. Much to the dismay of Broncos fans and players, Rodgers took the sensible route on Tuesday and stayed in the city where he’s had nothing but success. And his favorite teammate is sticking around too.So all appeared to be pleasantly boring on the quarterback front until shortly after Rodgers confirmed he was staying in Wisconsin. And then Seattle dropped a BOOM louder than any produced by their storied defenses of the mid-2010s. The Seahawks traded Russell Wilson and a fourth-round pick to the Broncos for two first-round picks, two second-round picks, a fifth-round pick, plus quarterback Drew Lock, tight end Noah Fant, and defensive lineman Shelby Harris. That, folks, is what we call a blockbuster. Continue reading...
Scepticism as Russia says it will observe a ‘regime of silence’ in several Ukraine cities. Plus, Nadya Tolokonnikova on Vladimir Putin• Don’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.Russian armed forces have agreed to hold fire in areas of humanitarian corridors from 9am to 9pm local time today, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister has said.Are there any more diplomatic talks planned? The Russian foreign ministry has actually claimed that its goals in Ukraine would be better achieved through talks and that it does not plan to overthrow the country’s government. Maria Zakharova, a Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, said Russia hoped to make more significant progress in the next round of talks.Is this really a fossil-fuel war? That is what Ukraine’s top climate scientist believes. Both the invasion and the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report crystallized the human, economic and geopolitical catastrophe of fossil fuels for Dr Svitlana Krakovska.What else is happening? Here’s everything we know on day 14 of the Russian invasion.Why won’t they talk to Biden? Relations between the US and Saudi Arabia have chilled during the Biden administration over American policy in the Gulf region. Issues include the revival of the Iran nuclear deal; lack of US support for Saudi intervention in Yemen’s civil war and its refusal to add Houthis to its list of terrorist groups. Continue reading...
The lawsuit brought on behalf of the salmon says that river damming infringes on the fish’s ‘inherent right to exist’An Indigenous nation is turning to a novel legal tactic in the hopes that it can save a beleaguered salmon population: it is suing on the salmon’s behalf, alleging that dams preventing it from migrating are a violation of the fish’s “inherent rights to exist, flourish, regenerate, and evolve”.The lawsuit is part of the growing “rights of nature” movement, a legal theory that seeks to give natural entities, like rivers or plants or animals, similar legal rights to humans. Continue reading...
An average of 1,400 Texas women traveled each month between September and December 2021 for abortion servicesTexas’s highly restrictive abortion law has forced thousands of women to cross state lines to seek the procedure, according to new research by the University of Texas.Since the passing of the law, known as Senate Bill 8 (SB8) last year banning almost all abortions in the state, an average of 1,400 Texas women traveled each month between September and December 2021 and sought abortion services at 34 facilities in nearby states. Continue reading...
The Blues’ potential owner is in charge of a team that own the longest playoff drought in the NFL. And his off-the-field record isn’t great eitherOn 12 January 2000, exactly 31 years after the New York Jets won their first Super Bowl, the front page of the New York Times carried the news that the team had been bought for $635m by Robert Wood Johnson IV, whose great-grandfather had founded Johnson & Johnson.Woody Johnson was not well known then, and in a release provided by the team, he issued the kind of bland statement you’d expect from a first-time sports-team owner: “We want to emphasize that we are totally dedicated to bringing a winning and a championship team to this area.” Continue reading...
Title 42, enacted under Trump and kept in place by Biden, has led to hundreds of thousands being denied their right to asylum since the start of the pandemicWhen Henry Ruiz* and Raquel Hernandez boarded a bus heading north to America with their two young children, they knew there would be no going back.It was June 2021, and a few weeks earlier Ruiz, a 28-year-old banana farmer from central Mexico, had been abducted by a group of armed men and taken to an isolated ranch where 15 others – 13 men and two women – were being held. Continue reading...
by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Comfort Ero on (#5WXEP)
As anglophone separatists continue their conflict with the government, women’s voices must be heard to find a solutionYoung girls should never be forced to have sex to get through a security checkpoint. Female activists or rebels should not be relegated to side discussions because of their gender. And women should be able to advocate for peace without fear of reprisals. Yet in Cameroon’s conflict between English-speaking separatists and the government, this is the reality for many women and girls.Coming to grips with this reality is critical to move beyond the simplistic view that it’s only men who play an active role in the conflict. Women are involved as peace or political activists. Others have joined separatist militias or are key community influencers. But whatever side of the divide they are on, anglophone women in Cameroon have one thing in common: the government and separatists have largely ignored their concerns. Continue reading...
The US president is facing demands for America to do more for Ukraine – but he’s also determined to avoid being the US president who started a third world warIt is an impossible bind. Joe Biden faces demands for America to do more as Ukrainian civilians are terrorized and killed by Russia. But he is also determined to avoid going down in history as the US president who started a third world war.Russia has pummeled Ukraine with more than 625 missiles so far, according to the Pentagon, causing untold death and destruction and prompting an exodus of 2m refugees. Vladimir Putin is now reportedly recruiting Syrian mercenaries and preparing to level cities in a bid to break Ukrainians’ will in the face of his invasion. Continue reading...
The firm is being sued by hundreds of clients who allege it made false theft reports against them. Hertz has denied it – but could it be another Post Office scandal?About a year ago, my wife was filling in paperwork to hire a car when the woman behind the counter suddenly looked up in alarm. “I’m sorry,” she said in a stage whisper. “The computer is saying: ‘Do not rent to this woman under any circumstances.’ It seems you’re banned for life?” There was an awkward pause before she leaned forward conspiratorially and said: “What did you do?!”Good question. The short answer is nothing; my wife is innocent. What happened is this: she and I hired a car to visit her family for Thanksgiving and dropped it off in Boston at 9am. The company – which I won’t name because I don’t want it to set its lawyers on me – said we returned it at 9pm and insisted we pay them an extra $350. We said: “Hell, no,” so it referred us to debt collectors who hounded us for weeks. This could have had a terrible knock-on effect on our credit score and ability to get a mortgage, but a lawyer friend helped us get the issue dropped – except we hadn’t realised the company had banned my wife from ever using it or its many subsidiaries again. (Which we would never do by choice – however, rental car costs have gone up 43% and it was the cheapest option.) Continue reading...
Carried to power and marinated in myths about themselves, dictators always underestimate the strength of democraciesVladimir Putin bet on a short war because he did not think that Ukrainians would resist invasion. Now he is betting that Russians will tolerate a long war and that the west, amid noisy complaining, will let him finish it.In the first phase, that involves using every weapon at the Kremlin’s disposal with indiscriminate savagery until Russian tanks can roll from Kharkiv to the Polish border.Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
As the last western media journalist covering Myanmar I knew danger lurked – and there would be no James Bond to get me outOne hot morning last March I walked into Yangon’s St Mary’s Cathedral as the best man at a wedding. The European-Burmese couple had made a swift decision to tie the knot due to uncertainty about foreign marriage rules under Myanmar’s new military regime that had seized power just weeks earlier. They were also mulling plans to get out of the country as the army embarked on a shoot to kill offensive against peaceful protesters.Being a journalist chasing deadlines into the small hours, I complained about the early morning start to the wedding. “We want to wrap up the ceremony before we start to hear shooting,” the groom explained. A few pairs of slippers near the altar caught my attention – if soldiers raided the church the women could change out of their high heels and run, the bride told me. Her mother grimly added: “I don’t think I will make it [if soldiers break in], but hopefully my daughters can.” The risk was real as some religious buildings had provided cover for protesters. Continue reading...
Sherri Papini out on bond but must undergo psychiatric treatment and surrender passport, judge rulesSherri Papini, the northern California woman arrested last week for allegedly faking her own 2016 kidnapping and lying to federal agents, was released from jail on Tuesday after her family posted a $120,000 bond.Papini, 39, was seen leaving the Sacramento county jail on Tuesday afternoon, after a judge approved her release on conditions including that she undergo psychiatric treatment and surrender her passport. Continue reading...
Homemade firearms continue to proliferate despite California lawmakers’ efforts to ban themA California man who shot and killed his three daughters, a chaperone who was supervising a visit with the girls and then himself last month was armed with a ghost gun, law enforcement officials revealed.David Mora Rojas was visiting his daughters Samarah Mora Gutierrez, nine, Samantha Mora Gutierrez, 10, and Samia Mora Gutierrez, 13, at a Sacramento church on 28 February when he opened fire. Nathaniel Kong, 59, an employee of the church who was supervising Mora Rojas’s time with the children, was also killed. Continue reading...
Scotty David admits he rushed screening questionnaire and says he gave answer to sexual abuse question that was not accurateThe juror in the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell who did not disclose childhood sexual abuse during jury selection claimed on Tuesday to have been distracted by background noise, and a recent breakup, when he rushed through a screening questionnaire.Scotty David, who was juror 50, made the claims in Manhattan federal court, during a proceeding in which he was questioned about the omission by the judge in the case, Alison Nathan. David was granted immunity to testify, having previously said he would invoke his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination. Continue reading...
Fire department confirms several small fires had been contained and no injuries had been reportedSeveral brush fires were set ablaze in New York’s world-famous Central Park on Tuesday afternoon and the authorities are examining whether arson was the cause.Clouds of smoke were wafting over the park’s north woods area as the New York fire department worked to contain the flames. Continue reading...
Surgeon general says state will be first in US not to recommend Covid vaccination for healthy children, prompting condemnationHealth experts have widely denounced Florida’s decision to recommend against Covid-19 vaccinations for children, describing it as “irresponsible”, “reckless” and “dangerous”.In a pronouncement which stunned experts on Monday, Florida’s controversial surgeon general Dr Joseph Ladapo said the state would be the first to “recommend against” Covid-19 vaccination for “healthy children”.This story was amended to correct a misspelling of the name of Florida’s surgeon general, Dr Joseph Ladapo. Continue reading...
Governor DeSantis is expected to sign the proposal restricting instruction on sexual orientation and gender identityThe Republican-dominated Florida legislature passed a bill on Tuesday which would forbid instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, rejecting a wave of criticism from Democrats that it marginalizes LGBTQ+ people.The proposal, which opponents have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, now moves to the desk of the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, who is expected to sign it into law. Continue reading...
Guy Reffitt was found guilty of five felonies in the first case related to the January 6 riot go before a juryA Texas man who joined the assault on the US Capitol by Trump supporters was found guilty for his role in the attack on Tuesday, a milestone victory for federal prosecutors in the first such case to go before a jury.The defendant, Guy Reffitt, was found guilty on all five of the felony charges he faced, including bringing a gun on to the Capitol grounds and obstructing an official proceeding. Continue reading...
by Martin Pengelly in New York and Lauren Gambino in on (#5WWPJ)
Enrique Tarrio was not physically in Washington on 6 January but is charged with directing, mobilising and leading crowdEnrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys far-right nationalist group, has been arrested and charged with conspiracy over the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.Tarrio, 38, faces counts of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and obstruction of an official proceeding, and two counts each of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers and destruction of government property. Continue reading...
Joe Biden announced a ban on US imports of Russian oil on Tuesday, the latest effort to cut off foreign revenue as punishment for the invasion of Ukraine.
Ron Johnson’s statement about scrapping Affordable Care Act if GOP wins control of Congress seen as open goal for DemocratsThe Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson said Republicans should try again to repeal the Affordable Care Act if they take back power – then retreated, under fire from the Biden administration.Speaking to Breitbart News, a far-right site, on Monday, Johnson said Republicans could “actually make good on what we established as our priorities” if they won control of Congress in midterms this year and the presidency in 2024. Continue reading...
Shows like Netflix’s Inventing Anna are hits because they reflect the unreality of a world that has normalised fakeness“You’re not special,” Anna Delvey sneers at the reporter covering her story in the Netflix drama series Inventing Anna. The implication is that Delvey, a con artist and convicted felon, is special – and millions of people seem to agree. Inventing Anna has some of the highest ratings in Netflix’s history, with over 400m hours’ worth of views in February; and the real-life Delvey – who goes by her faux-heiress, conwoman name rather than her actual surname, Sorokin – has seen her number of followers on Instagram alone soar from 150,000 to over 800,000 since the series premiered.The streamer’s other top February hit was The Tinder Swindler, which attracted more than 45m views in its first week of release, and hit Netflix’s Top 10 list in 92 countries. Why two shows about con artists – one a fake German heiress and the other the fake scion of an Israeli diamond business – have so captured the world’s attention has spawned a slew of think pieces asking: why do we love – or love to hate – scammers so much? And why now, especially?Nancy Jo Sales is a writer at Vanity Fair and the author of American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers and The Bling Ring Continue reading...
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine called for a historic response. What we got was the same old, same old: from nasty to uselessOne of the things people often say when they see a colourised photo from the past is how vividly it brings history to life. The type of historical images we are more accustomed – and perhaps more inured – to seeing in monochrome are made breathtakingly new in colour, and this or that photo from the second world war is given such immediacy that it feels like something more relatable from our present.Yet for the first time yesterday, I saw the technique work in the other direction. When an image of the vast and desperate crowds at Kharkiv train station was flying around, an ITN cameraman posted the same picture but in black and white, and it instantly felt 10 times more arresting. Happening right now was a tableau straight from Europe’s dark past – thousands of tightly packed people massed on a station platform and trying to flee, vastly outnumbering the available train space. Perhaps we know best how to read this picture when we literally see it in black and white.Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
An earlier version of the bill, which was blocked in the Senate, was passed by the House in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murderThe US Senate has unanimously passed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, a bill to make lynching a federal hate crime. Such efforts had failed for more than a century.Bobby Rush, the Illinois Democrat who introduced the measure in the House, said: “Despite more than 200 attempts to outlaw this heinous form of racial terror at the federal level, it has never before been done. Today, we corrected that historic injustice. Next stop: [Joe Biden’s] desk.” Continue reading...
Russia threatens Europe’s gas supplies, and says rejecting its oil would be ‘catastrophic’ for world. Plus, tipping point for Amazon rainforest loomsGood morning.Moscow has stoked fears of an energy war by threatening to close a major gas pipeline to Germany after the US pushed its European allies to consider banning Russian oil imports over its invasion of Ukraine.What has Joe Biden said about Russian oil imports? The president held a video conference call with the leaders of France, Germany and Britain yesterday as he pushed for their support to ban Russian oil imports. The US was, however, willing to move ahead without its European allies, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.What else is happening? Here’s what we know on day 13 of the Russian invasion.About 66,000 Ukrainians have returned home to help from around the world. Here’s one man’s story about his journey from Portland to Ukraine’s frontlines.What was his involvement in 9/11? According to a Guantánamo detainee profile maintained by the Defense Department, Al-Qahtani was trained by al-Qaida and sought unsuccessfully to enter the US on 4 August 2001 to take part in the 9/11 attacks.Was he tortured? The man was subjected to brutal interrogations that the Pentagon legal official in charge of war crimes commissions said amounted to torture, including beatings, exposure to extreme temperatures and noise, sleep deprivation and extended solitary confinement. Continue reading...
MLB’s commissioner has attracted plenty of criticism after the recent lockout. But how well are his contemporaries doing their jobs?League: NBA Continue reading...
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