Analysis: Glenn Youngkin’s victory comes as the president’s agenda has stalled and danger looms for the party in CongressJoe Biden exuded confidence. “We’re going to win,” the US president told reporters before departing Cop26 in Glasgow. “I think we’re going to win in Virginia.”But as Biden returns to Washington, he faces questions about why his prediction was so wrong – and whether Democrats’ loss in the most important election of the year will send his presidency into a downward spiral. Continue reading...

Youngkin stoked culture wars on education while walking political tightrope over Donald TrumpJoe Biden suffered a bitter political blow early on Wednesday when Democrats went down in a shock defeat in the election for governor of Virginia.The Democratic candidate, Terry McAuliffe, had campaigned with Biden and Barack Obama but it was not enough to prevent the Republican Glenn Youngkin pulling off an upset. Continue reading...

Child-size vaccine doses are already being distributed in US and shots may begin as early as WednesdayUS health officials have given the final signoff to Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine in children ages five to 11, with shots possibly going into young arms as soon as Wednesday.The announcement by Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), came only hours after an advisory panel unanimously decided Pfizer’s shots should be opened to the 28 million children in that age group, saying the benefits of the vaccination outweigh the risks. Continue reading...

Adams, who defeated Republican and founder of the Guardian Angels Curtis Sliwa, will become city’s second Black mayorFormer police officer Eric Adams will be the next mayor of New York City, after the Democrat defeated Curtis Sliwa in Tuesday’s election.Adams was on course to easily beat Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, with a lead of 66% to 29% after more than half of projected votes were counted. Continue reading...

Measure would have installed public safety department focused on a ‘comprehensive public health approach’Voters in Minneapolis have rejected the idea of replacing their police department with a new department of public safety, more than a year after the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer launched a national movement to defund or abolish police.Floyd’s murder in the summer of 2020 sparked outrage and international protests on police brutality and racial injustice. In Minneapolis and elsewhere, calls for major changes to law enforcement, including defunding police departments, soon followed. Continue reading...

Kenneth Cha charged with voluntary manslaughter in death of Sean MooreA San Francisco police officer has been charged with voluntary manslaughter over a fatal shooting in 2017, marking a rare homicide charge for an on-duty law enforcement officer in the California city.Kenneth Cha was charged with voluntary manslaughter and assault with a semiautomatic firearm, along with enhancements accusing him of inflicting great bodily injury, in the death of Sean Moore, an unarmed man he shot on 6 January 2017. Moore died from his injuries last year. Continue reading...

Civil rights leader, 80, was at Howard University to help students protesting against poor living conditions on campusThe Rev Jesse Jackson was taken to hospital in Washington on Monday, after falling and hitting his head while helping Howard University students protesting living conditions on campus, a spokesman said.Jackson was released on Tuesday after an overnight stay and was back at the university working with students, Jackson’s spokesman, Frank Watkins, said. Continue reading...

Glenn Youngkin and Democrat Terry McAuliffe make final pitch for governor as polls show unexpectedly close raceVirginians on Tuesday headed to the polls to elect a new governor, in a closely contested race between the Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin widely seen as a referendum on Joe Biden’s presidency.They did so as a leading Virginia polling expert warned that Youngkin may be riding a wave of “white backlash” all the way to the governor’s mansion, having successfully focused on controversy over the place of race in education. Continue reading...

Trial of Rittenhouse, 18, charged with killing two people and wounding one, begins after jury selection on MondayThe trial of Kyle Rittenhouse trial began on Tuesday in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where the 18-year-old is charged with killing two people and wounding one during unrest in the city last August.Prosecutors said that although “hundreds” of people were out on the street during protests over the shooting of a Black man by a white police officer, Rittenhouse was “the only person who killed anyone”. Continue reading...

US-led alliance includes 90 countries but China, India and Russia have not joined the methane pact

It was reasonable for the World Food Programme to ask Musk to chip in to avert global disaster. His response was less soElon Musk has six children and four companies. He is trying to put chips into our brains, build self-driving cars, save the world from an artificial intelligence apocalypse, and colonise Mars. In short, the guy has a lot going on. One would think he would barely have time to eat, let alone tweet – and, indeed, Musk has claimed that he is in meetings most of the day and the time he spends on Twitter is “like, almost nothing”. Still, the casual observer would be forgiven for thinking that the billionaire lives on Twitter. Musk seems to make headlines every other day because of his inane online activity, which largely consists of cracking juvenile jokes (including a recent sexist gag about T.I.T.S), opining on cryptocurrencies, and getting into online spats.Musk’s latest Twitter beef is with David Beasley, the director of the World Food Programme (WFP). Beasley’s crime was this: he suggested that Musk, who recently became the richest person in the history of the universe and the first person ever to be worth more than $300bn, might help the hungry. According to the WFP, 42 million people are on the brink of famine due to a combination of the climate crisis, structural poverty, conflict and the pandemic. In a recent interview with CNN, Beasley called on the 1% to “step up now, on a one-time basis” to give $6bn, which is just 0.36% the total increase in net worth of the world’s top 400 billionaires last year. Beasley then name-checked Jeff Bezos and Musk, pointing out that the latter saw a $6bn increase in his net worth in just one day last week.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The prince has secured the services of a hardball US lawyer to deal with Virginia Giuffre’s claims of sexual assaultBefore we get into it all, let me begin by saying nothing could ever make me question the immense dignity, sanctity and class of the US legal process. It’s really just the latest jewel in the royal family’s many, many crowns that the 95-year-old Queen’s son is now being represented by the guy also defending Armie Hammer over his whole cannibal-fetish-rape situation. Hammer denies all, but you probably know that.And you certainly know most of the Andrew facts. He is accused in a US civil court by former Jeffrey Epstein sex slave Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who alleges that the prince sexually assaulted her at Epstein’s mansion in Manhattan and at other locations in 2001 when she was 17.Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Brad Raffensperger urged by Trump in early January to ‘find 11,780 votes’ to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the stateThe Georgia Republican responsible for running elections considered an infamous call in which Donald Trump told him to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state a “threat” to his safety and that of his family.Biden’s victory in Georgia was a narrow but vital part of his national win. No Democratic presidential candidate had taken the state since Bill Clinton in 1992. Continue reading...

Future of policing is on the ballot in the city where Floyd’s death in May 2020 launched a nationwide reckoning on racial justiceVoters in Minneapolis will decide on Tuesday whether to replace their police department with a new Department of Public Safety, more than a year after the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer launched a national movement to defund or abolish police.The Democratic mayor, Jacob Frey, is also in a tough fight for a second term, facing opponents who attacked him in the wake of Floyd’s death. Continue reading...

Covid-19 may well have been one attempt by the Earth to protect itself. Gaia will try harder next time with something even nastierI don’t know if it is too late for humanity to avert a climate catastrophe, but I am sure there is no chance if we continue to treat global heating and the destruction of nature as separate problems.That is the wrongheaded approach of the United Nations, which is about to stage one big global conference for the climate in Glasgow, having just finished a different big global conference for biodiversity in Kunming.James Lovelock is the originator of Gaia theory and the author, most recently, of Novascene. This op-ed was told to Jonathan Watts, the Guardian’s global environment editor Continue reading...

We are resilient in the face of worsening floods and drought, but refuse to accept more failures from world leadersAs I travelled on the train to Glasgow for Cop26 a few days ago, I felt the enormous power of my people and my ancestors around me. I am a Samoan, from one of the regions most threatened by climate breakdown, despite contributing little to emissions. I am at the climate summit to represent the voices of our communities, and of those who could not travel here due to Covid-19 and continuing vaccine apartheid. I bring with me the voices of a Pacific that refuses to give up.Time is fast running out for my islands, and we will accept no more excuses or failures from world leaders. We know they’re not doing enough – the most recent scientific report by the IPCC has shown us that. Cop26 must deliver concrete solutions urgently, and we are here to force them to act.Brianna Fruean is a Samoan climate activist, student and member of the Pacific Climate Warriors delegation at Cop26 Continue reading...

Democrats are staring down an ugly reality: the unrepresentative Senate heavily disadvantages the partyThink Democrats have it tough now, trying to keep a precarious US Senate majority in tune on a trillion-dollar-plus budget reconciliation package without a single vote to spare? Just wait. These days of 50 Democratic senators may soon look like glory days.Democrats are staring down an ugly reality in the US Senate: the historical malapportionment of the upper chamber, which awards two members to every state, even though Wyoming’s population is not only 68 times smaller than California’s but smaller than 115 counties nationwide, already places the party at a disadvantage. This edge has only become more prominent due to polarization and population patterns, and will collide next with a challenging map in 2022 and an even harder one in 2024.David Daley is the author of Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn’t Count and Unrigged: How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy Continue reading...

In 2018, Ireland finally voted to legalize terminations. Before that condoms, divorce and abortion were illegal and shamefulI am a woman in America who can bear children, and this means that there are powerful people coming for me, with detailed and strategic plans to control my body. Sounds dramatic, doesn’t it? It is dramatic, more so because it’s a straight-up fact. In 2021, state legislatures enacted more abortion restrictions than in any previous year, according to an analysis by the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy body dedicated to advancing reproductive rights. Last month’s decision by the supreme court to refuse to block a Texas law all but banning abortion signals that the court could well be on the way to overturn Roe v Wade, and soon.National legalized abortion is just one part of this. Reproductive justice advocates as far back as 1994 understood that when women don’t have access to abortion it generally means that we don’t have access to a whole host of other rights: affordable contraceptives, comprehensive sex education, pre-natal care, even screening and treatment for a variety of diseases including cancer and HIV. This is an overall form of oppression, and I know what’s happening. I also fear I know what’s coming.Maeve Higgins is a comedian and the author of Maeve in America: Essays by a Girl from Somewhere Else Continue reading...

Despite appearances, the state’s cannabis industry is in disarray as legal businesses struggle to make a profitFive years after cannabis legalization, California is awash with signs of an apparently booming industry. Californians can toke on Justin Bieber-branded joints and ash their blunts in Seth Rogen’s $95 ceramics. They can sip on THC-infused seltzers, relax inside a cannabis cafe, and get edibles delivered to their doors.But behind the flashy facade, the legal weed industry remains far from the law-abiding, prosperous sector many had hoped for. In fact, it’s a mess. Continue reading...

The Rainbow Warrior has brought us to Cop26 to speak up for the sidelined citizens of the global south. We can’t be ignored

Historic declaration at Cop26 commits countries to reducing major causes of CO2 emissions. Plus, the end of the avocadoGood morning.World leaders have agreed a deal that aims to halt and reverse global deforestation over the next decade as part of a multibillion-dollar package to tackle human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.Major producers and consumers of deforestation-linked commodities including Indonesia, China and Brazil have put their name to the deforestation deal, which aims to curtail the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.The detailed US proposals on methane gases may prove to be one of the lasting successes of Cop26 in Glasgow where Biden will announce his action plan.On Monday, Biden urged other world leaders to embark upon a shift to clean energy and vowed that the US will ‘lead by example’.What else is causing the illegal market to thrive? Business owners say high taxes, the limited availability of licenses, and expensive regulatory costs have put the legal market out of reach.How do those who are licensed to sell cannabis legally stay afloat? For now, the only way legal, state-licensed businesses say they are able to stay profitable is to keep one foot in the illegal, unlicensed market. Continue reading...

David Beckham appointed his old friend as his team’s coach. The results so far have not been promisingIt took six years for David Beckham’s Inter Miami team to make it onto a football field. It’s going to take a while longer for success to follow. Under the guidance of head coach Phil Neville, the second-year expansion team is ending the season well adrift of the MLS playoffs.After leaving the England women’s team to join his old Manchester United teammate in Miami, Neville was unable to lift a goal-shy roster into the Eastern Conference’s top seven. Six straight losses – by a combined score of 16-1 – undid a promising mid-season revival that saw only one defeat in 11. Continue reading...

Mercenaries, the army and Bashir-era business interests have seized control and will sell the country’s resources to the highest bidderLast week in Sudan, two years disappeared in a flash. Two years of working to bring Sudan in from the cold after almost three decades of isolation. Two years of trying to establish a civilian government. Two years of mourning those who had died in Sudan’s revolution to oust Omar al-Bashir. And two years of tentative hope that perhaps these deaths had not been in vain. In the end, all that mattered was that it was two years during which the military grew tired of partnering with civilians in a transitional power-sharing agreement. Last week, the army seized power in a coup that erased everything the Sudanese people had gained since Bashir’s military government was toppled in 2019.That revolution had reignited hope for democratic rule, not only in Sudan, but across the Arab world. In hindsight, its short-lived nature seems inevitable. Sudan’s uprising may have removed Bashir, but behind him sat a military and security state with deep roots and complex economic interests. When it became clear that the Sudanese people were not going to tolerate another military figurehead as a replacement for Bashir, an agreement with civilian parties resulted in a transitional power-sharing arrangement that should have paved the way for elections. Continue reading...

Opposition to requirement has led to staff shortages but not the chaos unions predicted, say analystsIn Seattle, some police detectives stepped into patrol cars over the last month for the first time in more than a decade, according to Sgt Randy Huserik, who has been with the department for 28 years.The department has been short staffed since 18 October, when the city began enforcing a mandate requiring officers to get vaccinated against Covid-19. Continue reading...

The UK has built a coalition of 100 countries committed to ending the destruction of forests by the end of the decade

Rittenhouse shot three people, killing two, during protests last year in Wisconsin after a white police officer shot Jacob BlakeThe trial of Kyle Rittenhouse began on Monday with the challenge of seating jurors who had not made up their minds about the young man who shot three people, killing two, during a violent night of protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year.Rittenhouse, now 18, faces life in prison if he is convicted of first-degree homicide. He faces two homicide counts, one of attempted homicide and two of recklessly endangering safety for firing his weapon near others. He is also charged with possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18. Continue reading...

Real estate heir was hospitalized with Covid after receiving life sentence for murder of his friend Susan BermanRobert Durst was indicted on Monday for murder in the death of his first wife, Kathie McCormack Durst, who disappeared nearly four decades ago.The multimillionaire real estate heir is currently serving a life sentence in California for the murder of Susan Berman, his friend and confidante who prosecutors say helped him cover up Kathie Durst’s killing. Continue reading...

Defense team had requested word be banned during New York trial this monthProsecutors in Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking case will be permitted to use the words “victim” and “minor” in referencing accusers during her forthcoming trial in federal court in New York, it was ruled on Monday.Judge Alison Nathan’s decision permitting the use of “victim” stemmed from a challenge by Maxwell’s defense team, which had requested that the word be barred from the trial, due to begin in Manhattan this month. Continue reading...

Dave Halls, who handed Alec Baldwin gun believed to contain live bullet, makes first public comments since Halyna Hutchins diedThe assistant director who handed Alec Baldwin a gun believed to contain a live bullet made his first comments on Monday about the movie set shooting that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins last month.Dave Halls, in a statement to the New York Post, did not address the details of the incident, which occurred during filming of the desert western Rust last month near Santa Fe in New Mexico but said he was “shocked and saddened” at the death of Hutchins. Continue reading...

Mayor says thousands of firefighters have called out sick in apparent protest, with 18 of 350 units out of serviceAbout 9,000 New York City municipal workers were put on unpaid leave for refusing to comply with a Covid-19 vaccine mandate that took effect on Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said, adding that thousands of firefighters had called out sick in apparent protest.Firehouses remained open but 18 of 350 units were out of service and “many units are understaffed”, Daniel Nigro, the fire commissioner, said. Continue reading...

Minimum-wage work, food poverty, lack of healthcare: Superstore is what you’d get if Ken Loach had directed Friends. It’s one of many series bringing harsh political realities to the massesYears and years went by when no one in a novel had a job, and almost no one in a mainstream American sitcom or dramedy had money worries. Roseanne wasn’t earning enough but ever since that show was canned in 1997, people have had cute scrapes where they lost their job or their credit card – but grinding, day-to-day poverty, unable to make ends meet or imagine a future in which you would ever be able to? That wasn’t what sitcoms were about.Instead, we’d take an office (The Office), or a police precinct (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), or a family (Modern Family), or a dojo (Cobra Kai – and yes, before you ask, I do watch a lot of telly), and some people would be richer than others, and some would make bad choices, and others would get into hilarious pickles, but one convention was always observed: nobody was struggling, or if they were, it was because they were on drugs.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Far-right senator from Missouri ridiculed for his homilies on ‘manly virtues’The effort to combat toxic masculinity in the US has led men to consume more pornography and play more video games, the Missouri senator Josh Hawley claimed in a speech to a group of Republicans.Speaking at the National Conservatism Conference in Orlando, Florida, Hawley addressed the issue of “manhood”, which he said was under attack, and called for men to return to traditional masculine roles. Continue reading...

Controversy around the trainer casts a shadow over preparations for ‘world championships of racing’ in CaliforniaThe big names over the jumps are emerging week by week and Cheltenham’s November meeting is on the horizon but the international Flat season has one final flourish to come. The pulling power of Del Mar on the Pacific coast in California – “where the surf meets the turf” – has attracted a huge European team for the 2021 Breeders’ Cup meeting later this week.More detail about running plans will arrive when the draw for stall positions takes place later on Monday, but the quarantine barn at Del Mar is currently home to 40 horses from stables in Europe. They include Dermot Weld’s Tarnawa, who will attempt to become only the third dual winner of the Turf, and Audarya from James Fanshawe’s Newmarket yard, who defends her title in the Filly & Mare Turf. Continue reading...

Barclays CEO quit after inquiry into how he described relationship with Jeffrey EpsteinJes Staley, Barclays’ chief executive for the past six years, is stepping down after City regulators shared with him and the bank preliminary findings of an investigation over how he described his links to the sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.However, Staley plans to challenge the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) over their conclusions, meaning it could take much longer before the findings are released to the public. Continue reading...

Shares dive by 13% as analysts raise doubts over cybersecurity firm’s valuationShares in the cybersecurity firm Darktrace have plummeted again after an analyst note raising doubts about its valuation and as the expiry looms of a lock-up on insiders selling their stakes.The Cambridge-based firm, which had been a star performer since floating in April and joining the FTSE 100 last week, had a share price fall of more than 13% to 698p in early trading on Monday, valuing the company at £4.8bn. Continue reading...

A Mexican highway that connects with Texas ports of entry might be an alternative to California water portsAn unusual event marking what organizers called “the start of the produce season” was recently held on the US side of an international port of entry connecting Mexico with Pharr, Texas. It was a different kind of ribbon-cutting ceremony, in front of a crowd of hundreds gathered beneath a large tent leading to the bridge connecting the United States and Mexico.Local dignitaries from both sides of the border were given a fruit or vegetable imported from Mexico and asked to cut it, which they dutifully did to the delight of the crowd. Then came the free-for-all. The crowd was given bags and told to take what they wanted from a carefully staged backdrop of every type of fruit and vegetable that comes through this region. While this quaint tradition has been a mainstay of the region for years, this year may make the event more significant, asthe United States struggles with supply chain problems in the wake of the pandemic. Continue reading...

Troubling statistics show the post-election rancor that led to the US Capitol attack on 6 January is still very much in placeAlmost a third of Republicans believe violence may be necessary to “save” the US, according to a new poll.Researchers at the Public Religion Research Institute, a nonprofit, found that 30% of Republicans agreed with the statement “Because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country”. Continue reading...

The world needs to cut 28bn tonnes of emissions, current pledges only come to 4bn. Leaders cannot shy from this reality• Ed Miliband is the shadow secretary for business, energy and industryThe defining choice facing leaders in Glasgow this week at Cop26 is whether to sugar-coat reality or be honest about the climate emergency, and demand the action that will be necessary to confront it. If we are to have any chance of preventing catastrophe, we must choose truth and candour.The most important truth is the maths. For all the millions of words spilled about this summit, not enough has been done to spell out its central task. Many leaders say we need to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, but few say out loud what that means. Continue reading...

As Cop26 gets under way in Glasgow, I can’t help but reflect on the UK government’s very un-green budget