Kristof is running as a Democrat to replace governor Kate Brown, who cannot run for re-election due to term limitsNicholas Kristof, the former New York Times reporter and columnist, announced Wednesday he is running for governor of Oregon, the state where he grew up.Kristof, 62, is running as a Democrat to replace governor Kate Brown, who cannot run for re-election due to term limits. Continue reading...

Nor’easter became a bomb cyclone after storm system’s pressure dropped from 1,008 millibars to 980 as 31m under a flood watchA large storm that hit the US north-east has been labeled a “bomb cyclone” – a storm that rapidly intensifies and features plunging air pressure within a 24-hour period, according to meteorologists.On Tuesday night, a nor’easter, a rainstorm that blows in from the north-east, especially New England, became a bomb cyclone after a sudden pressure drop. The storm system’s pressure, which is measured in millibars, fell from 1,008 millibars to 980 millibars, meeting the criteria for a so-called bomb cyclone. Continue reading...

Unrepentant cheaters and outdated nicknames? The Astros and Braves have attracted the ire of both fans and neutralsAs Michael Brantley came up to bat in the fifth inning an advert for a gym flashed up on electronic hoardings with the slogan ‘Home of the Judgement Free Zone’.It could easily have served as the motto of a raucous and roofed Minute Maid Park, the Astros’ safe and loving place, hermetically sealed off from the harsh verdicts of a suspicious outside world. Continue reading...

The ‘godfather of rap’ is being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this week alongside Jay Z and LL Cool J, and remains an inspiration for how he lifted up the downtroddenIn 1986, as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was being inaugurated in Cleveland, Ohio, I was touring Europe with the artist, poet, author and civil rights activist Gil Scott-Heron. At that time, you wouldn’t have readily associated someone like Gil with the term rock’n’roll. In fact, people were struggling to find any genre name that could encapsulate this urban griot’s unique and diverse repertoire. Gil would often joke that if you wanted to find his music in the record store, “look for a category that says miscellaneous”; true innovators don’t fit into established genres but create them.Nevertheless, Gil is being inducted this year, a mark of how the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has diversified and incorporated other musical forms, including hip-hop. Public Enemy were inducted in 2013 and this year Jay-Z and LL Cool J will join the ranks along with Gil. Continue reading...

Huma Abedin reveals she was assaulted by an unnamed senator. Plus, a couple have been charged over the remains of a child found in a Houston apartment

Arms contract will allow Saudi Arabia to maintain attack helicopters despite previous use against Houthis in YemenThe Biden administration’s new $500m military contract with Saudi Arabia contradicts the spirit of the White House’s public policy to bar all “offensive” weapons sales to the kingdom for use against the Houthis in Yemen, critics of the deal have alleged.The military contract will allow Saudi Arabia to maintain its fleet of attack helicopters despite their previous use in operations in Yemen. Continue reading...

As the Beijing Winter Olympics draws nearer, here’s a look at 15 athletes from Team USA worth keeping an eye onThe 26-year-old is one of the best skiers of all time and is no stranger to setbacks. After losing her father in early 2020 and struggling with a series of back injuries, Shiffrin became the first skier to win gold at five consecutive world championships earlier this year. She enters the Olympic season with 106 career World Cup medals, 69 of them gold. Her hardware collection also includes two Olympic golds and one silver. She needs only one more gold in Beijing to boast the most Olympic wins by an American alpine skier, the mark she currently shares with Ted Ligety and Andrea Mead. Continue reading...

Potential sale in Maryland halted after local activists opposed the deal as judge says: ‘Bodies of African Americans remain there’A judge has blocked the sale of a suburban apartment complex in Maryland that was previously used as a cemetery for freed Black slaves, arguing that “many bodies likely still remain on the property”.The potential $50m sale of Westwood Tower in Bethesda, Maryland, 30 minutes outside of Washington DC, to the investment firm Charger Ventures was halted after local activists opposed the deal, reported NBC and Bethesda Magazine. Continue reading...

Misinformation led to her being picked on. A clear government campaign aimed at 12 to 15-year-olds is vitalLast week my 13-year-old daughter “S” was offered the Covid vaccine at her school in England. I consented, as required, but made it clear that the final decision about whether to go ahead was hers. By this age, she is aware and responsible enough to be making decisions about her own body, with support, and crucially, clear information about what will be happening and why.We are a pro-vaccination family, although we have friends who aren’t – we have chosen to stay off the topic with them. My daughter is at an age where she seeks out a lot of information online, so I directed her to some websites to read up more widely about it, while emphasising the reasons why it was my strong preference for her to have the vaccine. S’s 15-year-old cousin was targeted outside school by anti-vaxxers a few weeks ago. When that happened, both S and her cousin were dismissive of the anti-vax arguments, and they thought gathering outside schools was totally inappropriate. These aren’t isolated incidents, sadly: this week there have been further reports of “sinister” anti-vax protests at schools in Liverpool.The writer lives in the north-west of England Continue reading...

Joe Judge’s team had a comfortable win against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. But a playoff run looks well beyond them once againThree days after he compared himself to the head of a stinking fish, New York Giants head coach Joe Judge led his team to victory on Sunday. Call him the Sturgeon General. His defense played so well that the opponent benched their quarterback (the achievement was tempered by the fact that the quarterback in question was Sam Darnold, who has recaptured the lousy form that saw him traded from the New York Jets).The 25-3 victory over the Carolina Panthers hiked the Giants’ record to 2-5 in Judge’s second year as coach. That is a slight improvement Judge’s first year in charge, when the Giants lost six of their first seven games. Because the NFC East was so horrid in 2020, the Giants rallied to go into the last night of that season with a chance to win the division title. Continue reading...

Investment in infrastructure will underpin a stronger economy, improved security and the country’s fight against corruption

From Wisconsin to New Hampshire participants in a day that became a deadly assault on Congress are seeking election to itOne of the candidates filmed himself on the Capitol steps. Another clambered over scaffolding and waved others forward towards the building. Still more were outside, milling around and protesting against the lawful election of Joe Biden.Of the thousands of diehard Trump supporters who gathered in Washington on 6 January, some are now beginning to emerge as Republican candidates for national and local office. Continue reading...

If there is to be any hope of returning to normal, we need strict vaccine and testing rules. What is the problem with that?Can someone please run over to hell and check if it has frozen over? You see, I’ve just found myself nodding along to Fox News. On Sunday, Fox News personality Neil Cavuto implored viewers to “toss the political speaking points” and get vaccinated. “Life is too short to be an ass,” he said, adding that he expected to be attacked for his views.Telling people to get vaccinated during a pandemic shouldn’t be controversial. Cavuto’s employer has worked overtime to ensure that it is. A recent analysis by a media watchdog found 60% of Fox News’ summer programming included claims undermining vaccinations. While Fox has been amplifying anti-vaxxer propaganda, however, it has also been quietly enforcing its own strict vaccination and testing policies. Nearly 90% of full-time employees at the Fox Corporation have been vaccinated, it was reported last month. The company has also said it will soon implement daily Covid testing for employees who haven’t had the jab.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

New York photographer Richard Rothman spent a decade capturing life and landscape in a Colorado town 5,000ft above sea level. To highlight its archetypal character, he identifies the place only by its initial Continue reading...

Cop26 is a chance for developed countries to take the lead in cutting emissions and making good on financial promises

Mother and her boyfriend charged after remains found along with three surviving siblings who were apparently abandonedA woman and her boyfriend have been arrested and charged over the death of a nine-year-old child whose skeletal remains were found inside a Houston apartment, along with three surviving siblings who appeared to have been abandoned.Bryan W Coulter, the 32-year-old boyfriend of the dead child’s mother, was charged on Tuesday with murder. The mother, Gloria Y Williams, 36, was charged with felony injury to a child by omission, failure to provide medical care and failure to provide adequate supervision, authorities said. Continue reading...

At rally for Democrat Terry McAuliffe, president paints tight election as referendum on his own tenureJoe Biden has framed a nail-bitingly close race for governor of Virginia as a referendum on his young presidency and an opportunity to rebuke his predecessor, Donald Trump.Seemingly liberated from the formal trappings of office by a return to the campaign trail, Biden used a rally in Arlington, Virginia, to launch an unusually scathing and sustained attack on the former president. Continue reading...

Nearly unanimous vote clears the way for possible approval for emergency use next month, making nearly 30m children eligibleIndependent advisers for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday recommended the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine for children aged five to 11 – the first vaccine available for younger children in the US.Of 18 members, 17 voted yes and one abstained. Continue reading...

Revelation of incident ‘buried’ by Abedin contained in new memoir Both/And, to be published next week

Man said he yelled at and kicked the animal as it charged him along a riverbed before it retreatedA cyclist confronted and bitten by a 500lb bear while out riding in Alaska told authorities he yelled at and kicked the animal as it ran after him, along a riverbed.The incident last Tuesday occurred in Cantwell, close to the intersection between the Jack and Nenana rivers, the Alaska department of public safety said. Continue reading...

Claudette Colvin, who refused to give way to a white person nine months before Rosa Parks, is asking a court to delete all recordsThe civil rights pioneer Claudette Colvin, who in 1955 refused to give up her bus seat for a white person in Montgomery, Alabama, is asking a court to expunge all records of her arrest, saying she was never notified that her probation was finished.“I am an old woman now,” said Colvin, 82, in a sworn statement. “Having my records expunged will mean something to my grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And it will mean something for other Black children.” Continue reading...

Whistleblower testimony about the company’s continuing failure to address problems is pushing legislators to act

The deluge extinguished smoldering fires – but the west may not get the wet winter it desperately needsOver the span of two days, dramatic scenes of dried landscapes and wildfires that have defined California’s summer were replaced with surging rivers, floods and mudflows as a historic rainstorm – deemed a category 5 atmospheric river – pummeled the state.For scientists, the storm – though shocking in its magnitude – was not a surprise. It’s been clear that the climate crisis would intensify the extremes between wet and dry seasons, but many wonder whether this weather whiplash is a preview of catastrophes to come. Continue reading...

Andrew Clyde, who claimed Capitol rioters behaved like ‘normal tourists’, also fined by House committee for failure to wear a maskA Georgia Republican who compared rules on mask-wearing against Covid-19 to the Holocaust and another who said Trump supporters who invaded the Capitol on 6 January behaved like “normal tourists” have been fined for failing to wear masks on the floor of the House.Marjorie Taylor Greene, who apologised for the Holocaust comparison in June, and Andrew Clyde, who made his claim about the rioters in May, were fined by the House ethics committee on Monday. Continue reading...

More intensive examination will be done on remains of Laundrie, who was the subject of a manhunt following the killing of his girlfriend, Gabby PetitoThe initial autopsy on the remains of Brian Laundrie did not uncover a cause of his death and a more intensive examination will be done, a family lawyer said.Laundrie was the subject of a manhunt for more than a month as investigators searched for clues in the killing of his girlfriend, Gabby Petito, during a cross-country van trip. Continue reading...

Every senate Republican and at least two senate Democrats continue to assert that Biden’s agenda is too costly. That’s nonsenseThis week, Democrats either reach an agreement on Biden’s social and climate agenda or the agenda may shrink into meaninglessness. The climate measures in particular need to be settled before Biden heads to Scotland for the UN climate summit this weekend, so other nations will see our commitment to reduce carbon emissions.On Sunday, Biden met with key Democrats to work out spending and tax provisions. Yet every senate Republican and at least two senate Democrats continue to assert that Biden’s agenda is too costly.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

Every 16 hours, a woman is fatally shot by a current or former intimate partner. Many of the offenders were legally prohibited from having gunsEditor’s note: This story was produced by the non-profit newsroom Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting. Get its investigations emailed directly to you.Paige Mitchell and Bradley Gray forged a bond over tragedy. Late one Sunday in October 2009, Mitchell’s husband borrowed a motorcycle from a neighbor on a whim, rumbled down a back road in rural Moundville, Alabama, and careened to his death. Almost exactly a year later, at almost precisely the same time of night, Gray’s wife died on the same county byway when her car crashed into a tree. Fate seemed to push Mitchell and Gray together, making their relationship hard to sever even as it descended into dysfunction. Continue reading...

Increased attention to Native needs is bringing internet, electricity and running water to Indigenous communities, reports The New HumanitarianLeaders of non-profit organizations serving Native American communities in the US say they have been inundated with unprecedented financial support over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic.Native Americans are three times as likely to have died from the virus in the US as white Americans, according to the APM Research Lab. America’s largest Indian reservation, the Navajo Nation, has lost 1,471 residents to Covid-19 so far. That figure equates to a staggering death rate of 847 per 100,000 residents – double the rate in the worst-affected US state. Continue reading...

Frances Haugen gave evidence to UK parliament calling for urgent regulation. Plus, FDA to debate authorizing Covid shots for childrenGood morning.The Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen gave evidence to parliament in the UK on Monday, calling for urgent regulation to rein in the company’s management and reduce the harm being done to society.What is Haugen doing in the UK? Haugen, a former Facebook employee who released tens of thousands of damaging documents about its inner workings, traveled to London from the US to back UK government proposals to regulate social media platforms and make them take some responsibility for content on their sites.What is the problem with Facebook? Haugen said much of the blame for the world’s increasingly polarized politics lay with the radicalizing impact of social networks, especially Facebook groups.Why is Zuckerberg being so closely scrutinized? Facebook’s ownership is structured so that Zuckerberg, as founder of the company, has a special class of share that means he alone ultimately controls the business. This gives him enormous control over the eponymous social network as well as the Facebook-owned Instagram and WhatsApp.If the committee approves the vaccine, does that mean it will go ahead? Regulators do not always follow independent committees’ advice, but they usually do.What does the president have to say? The Biden administration also sees it as an important next step in the vaccine rollout program, which has slowed considerably. Continue reading...

It’s Atlanta v Houston in the Fall Classic. Our writers pick the MVP, trends to watch and the championship winnersMLB moved the All-Star Game out of Georgia because of its voter suppression laws and now Atlanta gets to host World Series games (plus, there’s the awful Tomahawk Chop). It’s also easy to root for Astros manager Dusty Baker. The affable 72-year old, who once played with Hank Aaron, gets another crack at his first World Series ring after playoff runs with the Giants, Cubs, Reds, and Nationals. MJ Continue reading...

This is no time for climate fatalism. We need science, societies and states to be in alignment for our crucial next stepsIn the fight against global warming, the 2015 Cop21 meeting that yielded the Paris agreement has become the landmark Cop. Glasgow Cop26 must be an accelerator of action.As the French foreign minister at the time I chaired that conference, and I am often asked about the secret of the universal agreement we achieved there. My answer is that the success in Paris was made possible by a strong process of environmental diplomacy that required the alignment of three “planets”: science, societies and states.Laurent Fabius, a former prime minister of France, was chair of Cop21

Four injured in shooting at Boise’s largest mall, where police say officers exchanged gunfire with suspectA suspect is in custody after two people were killed and four injured, including a police officer, during a shooting at a shopping mall on Monday in Boise, Idaho.At a news conference, authorities said officers had exchanged gunfire with the suspect. The majority of the mall has been cleared but police were still looking for any additional victims. Continue reading...

Francis Wayne Alexander was a North Carolina man who moved to Chicago and was killed in the mid-1970sAuthorities in Illinois said on Monday they had identified another victim of John Wayne Gacy, who was convicted of killing 33 young men and boys in the 1970s.Francis Wayne Alexander, a North Carolina man who moved to Chicago, would have been 21 or 22 when Gacy killed him some time between early 1976 and early 1977, the Cook county sheriff, Tom Dart, told reporters. Continue reading...

Rain and strong winds accompanied the arrival of an atmospheric river, shattering records in several citiesA huge storm surged south in California on Monday after flooding highways, toppling trees, and causing rock slides and mud flows across northern part of the state over the weekend. The state, which has spent months mired in a devastating drought, is expected to be soaked through Tuesday.Santa Barbara county officials said the storm was expected to produce roughly 1in of rain per hour, threatening the newly charred coastal areas burned in the Alisal fire. Residents were ordered to stay in and lock their doors and windows or move to higher ground. Continue reading...

Ilhan Omar, a co-sponsor of the resolution to honor the musician who died in 2016, said he ‘changed the arc of music history’A resolution introduced on Capitol Hill on Monday seeks to award the congressional gold medal to Prince, in recognition of the late pop star’s “indelible mark on Minnesota and American culture”.Past recipients of the highest civilian honor bestowed by Congress include George Washington, the Wright Brothers, Rosa Parks, Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama. Continue reading...

Three siblings aged 15, 10 and seven discovered in Houston, telling police their brother had been dead a yearThe skeletal remains of a child and three surviving siblings who appeared to have been abandoned were found inside an apartment in the Houston area.The children’s mother and her boyfriend were located, questioned and released without charges being filed, police said on Monday. Continue reading...

The bill designed to prevent government actions being reconsidered in the courts is un-conservative and undemocratic

Shapewear company founder Sara Blakely surprised employees at a party to mark Spanx’s new $1.2bn valuationThe chief executive and founder of the shapewear company Spanx has surprised employees with two first-class plane tickets and $10,000 each.Speaking at a party last Thursday to mark the company’s new $1.2bn valuation, after the investment giant Blackstone purchased a majority stake, Sara Blakely expressed her gratitude for 21 years of success. Continue reading...

The Audubon Naturalist Society, based in the Washington DC area, seeks to distance itself from controversial 19-century ornithologistA leading US conservation group, the Audubon Naturalist Society (ANS), has announced it will change its name, due to the “pain” caused by the 19th-century ornithologist and slaveholder John James Audubon.The group, which holds wildlife sanctuaries across Washington DC, Virginia and Maryland, said that it had become clear its name did not connect to its diverse set of programmes and that some members and volunteers had objected. Continue reading...