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‘My soul yearned for justice and the jury gave me just that,’ said Virginia Giuffre of the outcome of the trialA victim of Ghislaine Maxwell who testified at her sex trafficking trial has said she feels “relieved and grateful” about the guilty verdict, while another woman who has accused Maxwell of involvement in her abuse said the former British socialite was “more evil” than Jeffrey Epstein.Maxwell was found guilty on five of six charges for her involvement in Epstein’s sexual abuse of teenage girls. Prosecutors said that Maxwell “preyed on vulnerable young girls, manipulated them and served them up to be sexually abused”. Continue reading...

Years of iffy personnel decisions in Seattle have culminated with the Seahawks’ first losing season in a decade. Now what?After a period of unprecedented, sustained success, the Seahawks have bottomed out. Now, they’re at a crossroads.Defeat to the Bears last Sunday dropped the Seahawks to 5-11 on the season. They have no shot at making the playoffs. The roster features a rotating morass of mediocrity. There are questions about the future of their franchise quarterback, head coach and chief personnel decision-maker. Continue reading...

After visits to Israel and Palestine, Tutu used his moral authority to speak out and, despite abuse, refused to back down. He wanted liberation for everyone

Missouri congresswoman says she was sent to Washington to disrupt the political order that had long stopped working for people like herselfIf the American political status quo was working, Congresswoman Cori Bush might not have slept on the steps of the US Capitol to demand an extension of a coronavirus-era eviction moratorium. She might not have testified about her decision to have an abortion, consigning the details of her experience to the official congressional record. Perhaps she might not have run for Congress at all.But as the St Louis congresswoman sees it, she was sent to Washington to disrupt a political order that had long ago stopped working for people like herself – a nurse, pastor and activist who has worked for minimum wage, once lived out of a car and raised two children as a single mother. And she says she is only just getting started. Continue reading...

In the summer, we spoke to four experts about the record-breaking heatwave that scorched the western US and Canada. As the year ends they share their hopes and fears for the futureThe American west faced an unprecedented year of climate disasters in 2021.A cold wave in February triggered temperatures 50F below average in Texas, killing at least 150 across the state and leaving millions without power and water. Heatwaves over the summer broke temperature records across different western states, killing hundreds in the northwestern US and Canada. Fires seared through large swathes of the west, razing the northern California town of Greenville and searing through groves of giant sequoia trees. Continue reading...

Customers go crazy for doughnuts from Filipino-inspired bakery Kora, founded after its owners lost jobs in the pandemicA Filipino-inspired doughnut shop in New York that started as a short-term project after its founders were made jobless by the pandemic has become so in demand that it attracted a waiting list of 10,000 customers.The Kora doughnuts – which are getting media attention – join a long list of hit baked goods in New York whose fame suddenly sees demand rocket. They include the cupcakes of the West Village’s Magnolia Bakery and the “cronut craze” of 2013, where the makers of a croissant-doughnut hybrid saw customers queuing up at dawn until they were forced to limit purchases to two each. Continue reading...

Americans face stay-at-home celebration again as some mayors scale back or cancel public events amid Covid surgeAmericans are again facing a stay-at-home New Year’s Eve as US political leaders and senior health advisers have urged people to scrap party plans and avoid larger public events as daily cases of Covid-19 break all previous records.In New York, attendance at the Times Square celebration known as the Ball Drop – in essence, tens of thousands of people watching a 12-foot geodesic sphere inlaid with Waterford crystals descend a long pole – has been capped at 15,000, down from pre-pandemic 60,000, with organizers encouraging revelers to watch it on TV or online. Continue reading...

Days of jury deliberations inside – and protests outside – culminate in thoughtful rather than celebratory statementsAt the culmination of Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial, the defendant herself was virtually expressionless as five guilty counts were returned. Outside the court in New York, people voiced surprise at the verdict, along with a sense of relief, and no small amount of exhaustion after waiting through days of jury deliberations.After the verdict, Maxwell poured water from a Fiji water bottle into a paper cup, spoke to her lawyers, looked down at her feet. But she said nothing, and did not turn to her family on front bench of the visitors gallery, offering a reserve than many have interpreted as cold-heartedness. Continue reading...

Maxwell, 60, convicted on five of the six charges she faced as US prosecutors hail verdict and say ‘justice has been done’

Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty of child sex trafficking and conspiracy after a three-week trial in Manhattan’s federal court this afternoon.

Analysis: there was no cross-examination of the prince’s friend and his accuser was not called to give evidenceFor the Duke of York, the fact he was barely mentioned in Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial will have been an undoubted relief. With Maxwell declining the stand, no opening of her “little black book” of society contacts and, crucially, no sign of his accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre, Prince Andrew was a mere footnote in the New York proceedings.Maxwell opted not to give evidence before being found guilty on five of six charges, saying there was “no need” because prosecutors had failed to prove their case, so the subject of Andrew was not raised with her via cross-examination. Continue reading...

Testimony during the case has painted a dramatic and intimate picture of Maxwell’s life at the center of Epstein’s world

The trial offered a rare look into the social circles she and Jeffrey Epstein moved in, as well as the wealth and power he wielded

Judge Alison Nathan says note to jurors states deliberations will continue ‘as needed’ until verdict reached over Covid concernsJurors in Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial resumed deliberations Wednesday morning with the heightened threat of coronavirus and potential trial disruptions should any of them fall ill looming over them.Jurors sent two notes to see more transcripts from trial testimony to help them with their discussions. Continue reading...

Cruises resumed in June after being halted for over a year because of the pandemic, and continue to sail despite the investigationThe Centers of Disease Control and Prevention is investigating or observing 86 cruise ships with reported Covid-19 outbreaks on board as the pandemic is reaching a new peak in the United States with record numbers of infections.In addition to having already investigated 48 vessels, the agency has started investigating 38 ships, which according to its update, remain “under observation”. Continue reading...

Federal judge rejects defence arguments, a development that could have potential implications for Donald TrumpA federal judge has refused to dismiss an indictment charging four alleged Proud Boys leaders with conspiracy and obstructing an official proceeding during the 6 January attack on the US Capitol – a development that could have potential implications for Donald Trump.On Tuesday, the US district judge Timothy Kelly rejected arguments by defence lawyers that Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Charles Donohoe are charged with conduct that is protected by the first amendment right to free speech. Continue reading...

Seven-day average of cases exceeded 267,000 on Tuesday, beating its January 2021 record of 251,232The United States has punched through its record for daily coronavirus cases, as the Omicron variant has surpassed Delta in distribution across much of the country amid a massive surge.The seven-day average of US cases exceeded 267,000 on Tuesday, beating its January 2021 record of 251,232, according to a New York Times database. The fast moving Omicron variant now accounts for 59% of new infections, up from 23% a week earlier. Continue reading...

Lyndon James McLeod, 47, who was killed at scene was ‘on radar of law enforcement’, say Denver policeA gunman who killed five people and injured two others in a series of shootings in Denver is believed to have targeted the victims based on previous personal and business dealings and was investigated by police twice in the last two years.Denver police said that Lyndon James McLeod, 47, who was also killed in the deadly rampage on Monday night, knew most of the victims and was “on the radar of law enforcement”. Continue reading...

A film about a comet hurtling towards Earth and no one is doing anything about it? Sounds exactly like the climate crisisThe movie Don’t Look Up is satire. But speaking as a climate scientist doing everything I can to wake people up and avoid planetary destruction, it’s also the most accurate film about society’s terrifying non-response to climate breakdown I’ve seen.The film, from director Adam McKay and writer David Sirota, tells the story of astronomy grad student Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) and her PhD adviser, Dr Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio), who discover a comet – a “planet killer” – that will impact the Earth in just over six months. The certainty of impact is 99.7%, as certain as just about anything in science. Continue reading...

Three in five pregnant Americans have no vaccine protection as experts say it is ‘one of the most important things you can do’For many people, the thin red line on a pregnancy test ushers in countless changes. You change what you eat and drink, how you exercise and socialize and sleep, and keep careful track of what medications you should and shouldn’t take.But for many Americans, there’s one choice they largely haven’t made: getting vaccinated. Continue reading...

All over the country, free and fair elections are under threat. This will be one of the most important stories we tell in 2022.

We used price controls after inflation sky-rocketed after the second world war. There’s a strong case for doing so again nowInflation is near a 40-year high. Central banks around the world just promised to intervene. However, a critical factor that is driving up prices remains largely overlooked: an explosion in profits. In 2021, US non-financial profit margins have reached levels not seen since the aftermath of the second world war. This is no coincidence. The end of the war required a sudden restructuring of production which created bottlenecks similar to those caused by the pandemic. Then and now large corporations with market power have used supply problems as an opportunity to increase prices and scoop windfall profits. The Federal Reserve has taken a hawkish turn this month. But cutting monetary stimulus will not fix supply chains. What we need instead is a serious conversation about strategic price controls – just like after the war.Today economists are divided into two camps on the inflation question: team Transitory argues we ought not to worry about inflation since it will soon go away. Team Stagflation urges for fiscal restraint and a raise in interest rates. But there is a third option: the government could target the specific prices that drive inflation instead of moving to austerity which risks a recession.Isabella Weber is an assistant professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the author of How China Escaped Shock Therapy

December in Lagos should have been the highlight of my year. But when plans were cancelled I turned to a new trait: resilienceI planned to be in Lagos this Christmas. The season is called Detty December (as in “dirty”), and it’s a whirlwind of weddings, parties and concerts that go on till the early hours of the morning. The dress code is “slay queen” – dress to slay – and there’s only one rule: enjoyment. I booked my flight months in advance to avoid the price hikes that happen close to Christmas. I readied my outfits. I packed my sunscreen. And then, as of 7 December, the UK government put Nigeria on the red list. I was scheduled to fly the day before.I sought counsel. My bolder friends encouraged me to travel because the rules might change before my return flight. My more cautious friends advised that I should only risk it if, in the event that the travel ban was not lifted, I was ready to pay £2,120 for hotel quarantine. I was not ready to pay £2,120. I postponed my trip.Chibundu Onuzo is a Nigerian novelist living in London. Continue reading...

Over the past decade, the Giants and Jets have become the NFL’s twin paragons of ineptitude. And the pathway back to respectability for either has seldom looked more dauntingProfessional football in the New York metropolitan area somehow has become even bleaker in the two-plus years that have passed since the Giants and Jets last played each other. The Jets (2-7) rallied to beat the Giants (2-8) that glum November day in the Meadowlands in the so-called Toilet Bowl, with tailgaters displaying toilet-seat lids with each team’s logo.The NFL’s two NYC-based teams are each 4-11 heading into the homestretch of the 2021 season. It is likely that both will finish the season with 13 losses, which has never happened since New York added an AFL team in 1960. In the last 10 years, only the 2016 Giants reached the playoffs (and they were promptly blown out by Green Bay in the wild-card round). More recently, they have been pro football’s biggest losers: none of the other 30 teams in the NFL have posted a worse record than the Jets (21-58) or Giants (22-57) since 2016. Continue reading...

After a close shave with high-street fashion death, I’m now a devotee of secondhand marketplacesUp to a point, I can plot my life in clothes shops. M&S and Asda as a kid; New Look and Tammy Girl as a pre-teen, then Topshop, surf shops and our local 60s den for massive corduroy flares – the full complement from my rural hometown’s offering. When I moved for university, I revelled in the terribly exotic (to me) Gap and Zara; during my 20s, London offered the untold riches of Cos, Monki and & Other Stories.After turning 30, that sense of surefire fits slipped away. I was probably too old for Topshop’s cropped-everything, plus I found its owner a bit gross. I felt jaded by Cos’s austere dental hygienist smocks. And the emerging age-appropriate uniform of mid-length floral skirt, nice jumper and heeled boots felt like a millennial update of M&S’s old Classic collection, AKA premature fashion death. Where next?Laura Snapes is the Guardian’s deputy music editor Continue reading...

The island community of Kodiak set the record on Sunday and scientists fear the population will be deluged with rain as climate warmsAn unusual winter warm spell in Alaska has brought daytime temperatures soaring past 15.5C (60F) and torrents of rain at a time of year normally associated with bitter cold and snow.At the island community of Kodiak, the air temperature at a tidal gauge hit 19.4C (67F) degrees on Sunday, the highest December reading ever recorded in Alaska, said scientist Rick Thoman of the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy. He called it “absurd.” Continue reading...

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...