Author: The Guardian

An FBI informant has been charged with lying to his handler about ties between Joe Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company.Alexander Smirnov falsely told FBI agents in June 2020 that executives associated with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Hunter and Joe Biden $5m each in 2015 and 2016, prosecutors said on Thursday.Smirnov told the FBI that a Burisma executive had claimed to have hired Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems”, prosecutors said in a statement.The allegations became a flashpoint in Congress over the summer as Republicans demanded the FBI…

A guitar bought by Paul McCartney for £30 in 1961 has been returned to the former Beatle following a global search for a uniquely shaped Höfner bass.The instrument was purchased by McCartney before he became famous and is said to be his favorite instrument. It was last seen 54 years ago when the Beatles recorded their upcoming final album, Let It Be.Last year, the search began for a missing violin-shaped bass, the German-made Höfner 500/1, and on Tuesday, Ruaidhri Guest, a student, shared a photo on social media claiming to own the elusive instrument. The guest said he inherited it,…

The White House has confirmed that it is monitoring a new Russian anti-satellite weapon which it said is being developed but not yet deployed, calling it “troubling” but not an immediate threat to anyone’s safety.The national security spokesperson, John Kirby, would not directly confirm or deny reports that the new Russian weapon was nuclear, but he did say it was “space-based” and that it violated the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits the deployment in space of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction.Kirby was briefing reporters at the White House amid a wave of speculation following cryptic comments…

loud shoutIn his spare time, Football Daily occasionally wonders if, in his spare time, Harry Kane occasionally wonders what would have happened if he had not played in a major cup final on one leg. Has he considered an alternate universe where he selflessly chose to make a cameo on the bench so that a fully fit, firing, in-form Lucas Moura could take his place against an obviously sub-par team? Liverpool? While he may not feel like he’s earned this medal, he could conceivably have received a championship medal, and his current predicament might not seem quite as discouraging. That…

Plastic producers have known for more than 30 years that recycling is not an economically or technically feasible plastic waste management solution. That has not stopped them from promoting it, according to a new report.“The companies lied,” said Richard Wiles, president of fossil-fuel accountability advocacy group the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), which published the report. “It’s time to hold them accountable for the damage they’ve caused.”Plastic, which is made from oil and gas, is notoriously difficult to recycle. Doing so requires meticulous sorting, since most of the thousands of chemically distinct varieties of plastic cannot be recycled together. That…

Dissatisfaction with air travel resurfaced Tuesday after maggots rained down on passengers on a Delta flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan.A passenger reportedly brought the rotten fish onto the plane in a carry-on bag and placed it in the overhead bin before the maggots broke free and landed on passengers seated below, The Independent reports On the body.Philip Schotte, a Dutchman who lives in Iowa, told local news channel Fox 2 that he saw at least a dozen maggots land on a woman during the flight.”I don’t really know what was going on in my head. I was trying to…

Four years after the Smyth family had abandoned all hope, the call came: “We have your Blueberry.”The beloved black cat who disappeared in November 2019 from the family home in Bangor, County Down, on Northern Ireland’s coast, turned up last week in County Galway in western Ireland.A man in the village of Moycullen noticed that a stray roaming outside the SuperValu supermarket appeared ill and took him to the local vet on 6 February.“He had cat flu,” Rachael Russell, a veterinary nurse at the clinic, said on Thursday. “He was very docile but very friendly. He was in a bit…

Hi Ugly,I’m struggling with a decades-long addiction to ChapStick. My relationship with lip balm started when I was a teen, using my mother’s ChapStick for my chapped lips. I’ve tried almost every balm out there: EOS, ChapStick, Burt’s Bees, Palmer’s Coco Butter Balm. I even dabbled in the menthol balms, much to my current self’s chagrin.Flash to current day, and I am never not within arm’s reach of a lip balm. I’ve got balm “stations” – one in my bag, one near my bed, one in my desk at work, one in my car. I’ve ensured that I will never…

AThe bike traveled around the Manchester Circuit, faster and faster, interrupted only by the occasional whistle. Jody Cundy sat in the stands wearing a T-shirt this time, despite the cold wind and sleet seeping in outside.In addition to his easy smile, Condie was a sporting star, winning three Paralympic titles and three World Pool titles in the pool before switching to track cycling. He has since won five more Paralympic gold medals (C4/5kg and mixed team sprint) and 20 world championship titles. Incredibly, Paris will be his eighth Paralympic Games.But even now, at 45, he’s still unsure whether he’ll hang…

It wasn’t without a little smugness that I used to tell friends that my partner and I almost never argued. It turns out this isn’t necessarily something to be proud of. “When couples don’t argue ever, and never show their differences to each other, or their strong feelings, they risk getting quite disconnected,” says Joanna Harrison, a couples therapist and the author of Five Arguments All Couples (Need to) Have. “They might describe themselves as being on parallel tracks, and they become out of touch with each other.”When my partner and I do have occasional disagreements, neither of us deals…