Revealed: emails show group of employees who called for stronger climate action by the company were told they risked dismissal
Amazon has threatened to fire employees for speaking publicly about the company’s role in the climate crisis, tech workers at the retail giant have revealed.
Related: Trump campaign credits impeachment for helping to fundraise $46m – live
Continue reading...Key Democrats and election analysts say more needs to be done to ensure safe elections free from ‘foreign malicious actors’
Potential electronic voting equipment failures and cyber attacks from Russia and other countries pose persistent threats to the 2020 elections, election security analysts and key Democrats warn.
Related: Embassy protesters in Iraq deal symbolic blow to US prestige
Continue reading...Drivers in Washington state were forced to see in the new year while trapped under a 15ft-high (4.5m) sea of tumbleweeds. Police closed state route 240 near Richland at around 6.30pm on New Year's Eve after the desiccated but mobile plants buried a number of vehicles in their path. It took snow ploughs 10 hours to clear the weeds
Continue reading...A three-year-old boy was shot and wounded in Phoenix and a 61-year-old woman was shot and killed in Houston as people celebrated the New Year, authorities said.
Related: Headless torso found in cave identified as murderer who escaped jail in 1916
Continue reading...Up to 3,000 soldiers to be sent in as pro-Iran militants leave US embassy in Iraqi capital
Iranian-backed militants have ended a day-long siege of the American embassy in Baghdad following an order from their militia organisation, but the struggle between the US and Iran for influence in Iraq looked set to intensify further in 2020.
The US defence secretary, Mark Esper, announced that 750 airborne troops would be deployed to the region immediately, with more to follow in the next few days. Up to 3,000 soldiers are reportedly being prepared to move out to the Middle East, adding to the 14,000 sent there since May in an effort to counter Iran.
Continue reading...Biden is too gaffe-prone; Sanders and Warren are too far left; Buttigieg, too young. But which one is capable of beating Trump?
Democrats overwhelmingly agree that their top priority in 2020 is to remove Donald Trump from office. But which of the many Democrats running for president is best suited to the task remains a source of deep anxiety and division less than five weeks before the Iowa caucuses.
After more than a year of campaigning, the Democratic presidential primary enters the final sprint before voting begins on 3 February in Iowa in a familiar but fluid state: Joe Biden in the lead, trailed by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren with Pete Buttigieg also showing signs of strength in the early states.
Continue reading...Trump says he trusts leader to refrain from testing, despite Kim’s criticism of Washington’s ‘gangster-like demands’
Kim Jong-un has signalled that North Korea will lift its moratoriums on nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests in a move likely to anger Donald Trump.
The North Korean leader told a four-day meeting of party officials in Pyongyang that the test ban, which Kim agreed to in talks with the US president, was no longer needed, state media said on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Mobbing of US embassy after US strikes on state-sanctioned militia show America’s plan of maximum pressure only added to chaos
The mobbing of a US embassy has historically served as an emblem of America in decline, so the scenes around the embattled mission in Baghdad are a fitting end to the decade.
Related: Trump accuses Iran over storming of US embassy compound in Baghdad
Continue reading...Washington humiliated as hundreds storm American compound chanting slogans in support of pro-Iranian militias
Protesters in Iraq have dealt a symbolic blow to US prestige after they stormed the American embassy compound in Baghdad, trapping diplomats inside while chanting “death to America” and slogans in support of pro-Iranian militias.
In a humiliating day for Washington, hundreds of supporters of Iraqi Shia militia, many wearing military fatigues, besieged the US compound, at one point breaching the main gate and smashing their way into several reception rooms. They lit fires, battered down doors, and threw bricks at bulletproof glass.
Continue reading...2020 will be an epic year for America – and robust, fact-based reporting is more critical than ever. Help us raise $1.5m to fund our journalism in 2020
As the year comes to a close, we’re asking for your continued support. Without your help we would not have been able to pursue the Guardian’s unique, independent journalism in 2019.
Related: The Trump 2020 impact report: from environment to the courts, 10 ways Trump has changed America
Continue reading...FTSE 100 records best performance since the referendum year, jumping 12%
Global stock markets have posted their best year since the aftermath of the financial crisis a decade ago, as investors shrugged off trade tensions and warnings of slowing growth in major economies.
The MSCI World Index, which tracks stocks across the developed world, jumped by almost 24% during 2019 – the strongest performance since 2009. A surge in US technology giants and a strong recovery in eurozone and Asian stocks drove the rally.
Continue reading...Prospect of agreement lifts stock markets but experts question impact on long-running tensions
Donald Trump has said he will sign the first phase of a long-awaited trade deal with China on 15 January, in a move that de-escalates the tariff war between the world’s two biggest economies.
In a tweet on Tuesday, the US president said “high-level representatives of China” would attend an official ceremony at the White House, adding he would also be travelling to Beijing for talks on the second phase of the deal.
Continue reading...Ex-Army intelligence analyst jailed over refusal to testify against WikiLeaks reportedly subjected to ‘severe measures of coercion’
A top United Nations official has accused the US government of using torture against Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst currently jailed in the US over her refusal to testify against WikiLeaks.
Nils Melzer, UN special rapporteur on torture, made the charge in a letter sent in November but only released on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Donald Trump has accused Iran of orchestrating an attack on the US embassy in Baghdad after dozens of Iraqi Shia militia supporters broke into its compound. Video from the scene shows protesters climbing over the wall of the embassy and setting fires
Continue reading...Lawsuit filed in Florida says teen was approached in 2003 when she was ‘a vulnerable child without adequate parental support’
A woman who says she was 14 when she had a sexual encounter with the financier Jeffrey Epstein at his mansion sued his estate in Florida court on Monday for coercion, inflicting emotional distress and battery.
The lawsuit filed in Palm Beach county asks for an undisclosed amount of money. The lawsuit doesn’t give the woman’s name and only refers to her as “JJ Doe”.
Continue reading...Archives show British PM was warned France may have made secret deal with Bosnian Serbs
Days before the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995, John Major was warned France had possibly brokered a secret deal with the Bosnian Serbs to halt airstrikes in return for the release of western military hostages.
This claim, detailed in a secret Foreign Office note to the prime minister, is among documents available to read at the National Archives in Kew fromTuesday that expose the depth of Anglo-French distrust during the Balkans conflict.
Continue reading...Security duo shot and killed gunman in Texas, prompting gun-rights groups to urge states to pass laws expanding firearms access
Every time the US suffers another mass shooting, gun rights activists make an argument that goes something like this: if a good guy with a gun had been there, this terrible tragedy could have been prevented.
Related: Texas shooting: two dead and one injured at Fort Worth church
Continue reading...Stabbings in Monsey, Rockland county, are latest antisemitic incident in region
Jewish groups and political leaders have issued calls for increased protection in New York after a string of attacks during Hanukah left members of the region’s Jewish community on edge.
On Saturday night, an attacker stabbed five people during Hanukah festivities at a rabbi’s home in Monsey, Rockland county, about 30 miles north of New York City, in what Governor Andrew Cuomo called “an act of domestic terrorism”. The attack was the latest in a string of antisemitic incidents in the region.
Continue reading...Tens of thousands of teachers walked off the job in Los Angeles, American women gathered for their third annual march in Washington, Iowans protested abortion bans, Texans declared Donald Trump ‘not welcome’ in El Paso and students in New York City rallied around Greta Thunberg in calling for action on climate change
Continue reading...Offensive on Kata’ib Hezbollah sites comes after rocket attack on Iraqi military base blamed on militia group
The US military has carried out what the Pentagon described as “defensive strikes” in Iraq and Syria against the Kata’ib Hezbollah militia group, two days after a US civilian contractor was killed in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base.
The Pentagon said it targeted three locations of the Iranian-backed Shia Muslim militia group in Iraq and two in Syria. The sites included weapons storage facilities and command and control locations Kata’ib Hezbollah had used to plan and execute attacks on coalition forces.
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