Top Pentagon leaders on Wednesday passionately defended the military's approach to addressing racism and said that it was important for personnel to study critical race theory, after Republican rep Matt Gaetz and others questioned them about it, saying it was lowering moral.Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said the military need not apologize for fostering open-mindedness and that he wants to 'understand white rage'.Critical race theory is a concept developed by academics and leading scholars of jurisprudence, with intellectual origins in the 1960s which were organized officially in the late 1980s. The theory states that racism is embedded both in US history and modern American law. It holds that legal institutions in the US are inherently racist.

Dozens of rescue units were on the scene of a partial building collapse in Miami after the entire back side of the 12-story building collapsed.Photos and video from the scene show the collapse affected half the block. Piles of rubble and debris surrounded the area just outside the building. One person was reportedly killed and at least 10 injured, according to the Washington Post

Feature makes debut in flagship New York shop along with interactive attraction called ‘the Brick Lab’Lego is to create “storytelling tables” at its stores for adult superfans where they can have virtual meetings with set creators and pore over early product designs and prototypes.Adult brick fans, called AFOLs (adult fan of Lego) in Legospeak, are an increasingly important demographic for the Danish toymaker, as – freed from the constraints of pocket money – they spend hundreds of pounds on kits ranging from technical builds, such as supercars and space shuttles, to ones based on TV shows such as Friends and Stranger Things. Continue reading...

The For the People Act was never going to pass on the first try. Here’s why the vote marked a step forwardThis week, the For the People Act – the most sweeping voting-rights legislation in more than 50 years – came before the United States Senate, a place known, especially to itself, as “world’s greatest deliberative body”. Yet Republican senators refused to even debate the measure. Despite having the support of every member of the Democratic majority – a group of 50 senators that represents 40 million more constituents than their Republican counterparts – the bill failed to reach the 60-vote threshold for breaking a filibuster. It didn’t even come close.Given the stakes, it’s hardly surprising that some have rushed to portray For the People Act’s failure to pass the Senate as a political setback, a strategic misstep, or a presidency-defining blunder. Continue reading...

We should celebrate the new holiday, while resisting attempts to co-opt its meaning and render it empty ceremonyOn 17 June, Joe Biden signed a bill turning Juneteenth, 19 June, into a federal holiday. Juneteenth, a celebration of the emancipation of enslaved African Americans after the formal end of the US civil war, began in Texas in 1866 and has long been observed by many Black Americans.The US government’s belated decision to establish Juneteenth as a federal holiday is a testament to the impact of the current iteration of the perpetual movement for Black American liberation. Unfortunately, it may also be another step in the process to water down symbols of liberation: treating the brutalities of racism as a crime of the past instead of an ongoing project which both major political parties have helped helm. We should celebrate Juneteenth, while resisting attempts to co-opt its meaning and render it empty ceremony. Continue reading...

My friend Karim Medhat Ennarah is among the many victims of a dictatorship reliant on western financial and political supportI can’t remember where I first met Karim Medhat Ennarah, but one thing I’m certain of is that I heard him before I saw him. Karim – a gregarious, argumentative 37-year-old with an abiding passion for ice-cream and a smile so wide it fills the room – is always brimming with ideas about the world. His curiosity brings out the same in others, with the result that noisy, animated debate tends to swarm around him wherever he moves.I’ve known Karim for well over a decade in many different guises: in his public role as a fearless human rights defender working to protect the dignity of his fellow Egyptian citizens, but also as a shisha companion, football rival and friend. Late last year, when plainclothes security forces plucked him from a Red Sea beach and carried him off to Cairo’s high-security Tora jail complex, he became something new to me: a number. Just one more political prisoner facing an unknowable fate, under a regime that, since 2013, is estimated to have arrested or charged at least 60,000 others. Continue reading...

The American opened up about overtraining syndrome and depression after stunningly missing the Olympics in her main event. Then she made the most of her last chanceGod, please, Simone Manuel thought to herself as she touched the pool wall and closed out her final heat of the US Olympic trials 50m freestyle swim race on Sunday, her last-ditch chance to stamp her ticket to Tokyo. And when she looked on high for a sign, there it was, writ large on a scoreboard inside CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska: her name at the top of the list after registering a .01sec margin of victory over two-time Olympic relay medalist Abbey Weitzeil, who swiftly drew Manuel into a congratulatory bear hug.At that point the news was still sinking in. And when it finally hit the 24-year-old Texan moments later, taking more time it seemed than even her 24.29sec swim, she rocked back under water as if newly baptized. After holding prayer hands to her face as the emotion swelled in cheeks and eyes, Manuel leaned over the lane maker and punched the water in triumph. She was back where she belonged, on the world’s biggest stage, and so soon after the gilded career she had spent practically all of her young life working toward looked for all the world to be doomed. Continue reading...

The singer told a Los Angeles court she was blocked from getting married or having a baby. Plus, John McAfee found dead and how to recover from ‘pandemic brain’

When lockdown hit, I became distracted, unfocused – and overwhelmed. But there are ways to recoverI can pinpoint the exact moment that I realized my brain was still broken from the pandemic.A few weeks ago, while riding the train, I decided to send off a few overdue email replies. Fast forward 45 minutes, and there I was: sitting cross-legged on my destination platform, email forgotten, frantically toggling between tabs. It was, by now, a grimly familiar experience of my pandemic-era cognitive performance. Continue reading...

Migrants are integral to border communities, and today’s ‘crisis’ would be dwarfed by the economic fallout if they were goneGrabbing the selfie was Sister Norma Pimentel, head of the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley and the woman I call the Mother Teresa of south Texas. For the half-dozen years that I have known Sister Norma, she has been ministering to the needs of migrants on both sides of the US-Mexico border. She’s known as the pope’s favorite nun after he once publicly declared that he loved her for her efforts with migrants.In the photo, Sister Norma is celebrating with a bus full of migrants who have lived a harrowing existence for the past several years as part of a Trump-era immigration policy called the Migrant Protection Protocols, more popularly known as the Remain in Mexico policy. It was controversial, perhaps illegal and effective as hell at tamping down the kind of bad political press that now plagues President Biden in the infancy of his administration. Continue reading...

Temperature in Furnace Creek in Death Valley, California, hits 53.2C, a new world record for JuneThe ongoing severe heatwave continues to grip the south-western states of the US, with temperatures exceeding 40C in a number of cities. Furnace Creek in Death Valley, California, recorded a maximum temperature of 53.2C (127.7F) on17 June, which is a new world record for the month and only 1.2C off the all-time global temperature record, 54.4C. The following night also broke June records for the warmest night in North America, with a low of 40.6C at Stovepipe Wells. Mexicali, in Mexico, also recorded a high of 50C on 17 June, adding to the growing list of countries that have hit 50C this year.Meanwhile in the southern hemisphere, unseasonably cold temperatures and snowfall were seen in Córdoba, Argentina, on 13 June. Snowfall here is a rare sight, with the last snowfall event in July 2007, and only a few days prior saw temperatures peaking at 27C. Continue reading...

Judiciary committee want to know if officials violated policies in issuing secret subpoenas against congressional DemocratsTop Democrats in the House are investigating whether Trump justice department officials ran an unlawful shadow operation to target political enemies of the former president to hunt down leaks of classified information, according to a source familiar with the matter.The House judiciary committee chairman, Jerry Nadler, is centering his investigation on the apparent violation of internal policies by the justice department, when it issued subpoenas against Democrats Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell in 2018. Continue reading...

Antivirus software entrepreneur John McAfee has been found dead in his cell inside a Spanish prison hours after the country’s highest court approved his extradition to the United States where he was wanted on tax charges. The 75-year-old shot to prominence after creating the antivirus software that bears his name. However McAfee's personal life and erratic behaviour also claimed as much interest as his professional achievements.

Anna Morgan-Lloyd was sentenced to three years’ probation but judge warns other defendants not to expect the same leniencyA federal judge sentenced a Capitol rioter to probation, not prison time, after she made an emotional apology to “the American people” for participating in “a savage display of violence”.Anna Morgan-Lloyd, a 49-year-old Donald Trump supporter from Indiana, was the first person to be sentenced for participating in the 6 January attack. She will spend no time in prison after pleading guilty to a single misdemeanor charge of “parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building”. Continue reading...

McAfee’s extradition to the US on tax charges had been approved hours earlierThe antivirus software entrepreneur John McAfee has been found dead in his cell in Spain from an apparent suicide, hours after the country’s highest court approved his extradition to the United States, where he was wanted on tax-related criminal charges that carry a prison sentence of up to 30 years.Catalan’s regional police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, confirmed a report in El País that McAfee, 75, had been found dead in the Brians 2 prison near Barcelona, late on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Walton is all but guaranteed to ascend to the mayoralty in solidly Democratic cityIn her lifetime, India Walton has been a 14-year-old working mother, a nurse, a union representative and a socialist community organizer.On Wednesday, she was on the cusp of yet another career change and a series of “firsts” after defeating a four-term incumbent in the Democratic primary race to become the mayor of Buffalo, New York state’s second largest city. Continue reading...

Monks at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center are clearing brush and running a sprinkler system called ‘Dharma rain’A group of firefighting monks was ready to defend a Buddhist monastery threatened by a wildfire burning in the rugged central coast mountains south of Big Sur.Seven monks at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center have been clearing brush from around the center this week and running a sprinkler system dubbed “Dharma rain,” which helps keep a layer of moisture around the buildings. Continue reading...

Report finds no evidence of dead voters or Detroit ballot dump that benefited Biden, and denounces baseless allegationsAn investigation into the Michigan election by state Republican lawmakers has concluded that there is no evidence of widespread fraud and dismissed the need for an Arizona-style forensic audit of the results.The news comes amid a broad push by many Republicans – from Donald Trump to state parties – to push unfounded lies about Joe Biden’s victory, often promoting baseless conspiracy theories and evidence-free accusations of fraud. Continue reading...

Risk of a first major public rift with Democrats’ progressive wing if a breakthrough is not found soonWhen the New York Democratic congressman Mondaire Jones, a freshman, was at the White House last week for the signing of the proclamation making Juneteenth a national holiday, he told Joe Biden their party needed him more involved in passing voting legislation on Capitol Hill.Biden “just sort of stared at me”, Jones said of the US president’s response, describing an “awkward silence” that passed between the two. Continue reading...

A presumption of innocence is never afforded to poor people accused of petty theft. Yet billionaires benefit from it every day when it comes to taxesIn the wake of ProPublica’s recent disclosure of how billionaires avoid income taxes, a narrative has been manufactured: we are told that while the moguls’ schemes to reduce tax liability may be immoral, the tactics are all “perfectly legal”, in the words of ProPublica, an idea that was then echoed by the Associated Press, the New York Times and the pundit world.This conventional wisdom – depicted as unquestionable fact throughout corporate media – is held up as don’t-hate-the-player-hate-the-game proof that we should be angry only at the tax system, but not necessarily at the oligarchs getting rich off it. In fact, the only person so far presumed to be worthy of any law enforcement scrutiny is not any of the billionaires avoiding taxes, but the whistleblowing source of the IRS leak. Continue reading...

After the traumatic birth of her daughter the 35-year-old took on both Nike and the US government before earning a shot at a record 10th Olympic medal on the trackSome mornings the car won’t start, the baby’s crying, the girl won’t eat her breakfast, the boy can’t remember where he left his shoes, and you forgot to sign the form you promised to bring in to the school last week. Some mornings the shower’s running cold, the baby’s got a temperature, the girl’s run out of clean shirts, the boy’s having a raging tantrum because someone knocked over his Lego tower, and all you want to do is crawl back to bed because the day’s just about beaten you already. Some mornings, I wonder if Allyson Felix has mornings like these.You may have missed it in all the excitement, but late last Sunday, hours after Wales’ defeat to Italy in the Euros, Max Verstappen’s victory at the French Grand Prix, Matteo Berretini had beaten Cameron Norrie in the final at Queen’s, Jon Rahm had won the US Open at Torrey Pines, and Ishant Sharma had dismissed Devon Conway in the final of the World Test Championship, an even better sports story was unfolding in front of a small crowd at Hayward’s Field in Eugene, Oregon, where Felix was settling into the starting blocks for the final of the women’s 400m at the US Olympic trials. Continue reading...

Our in-depth look at every team, the main riders to watch and the cast of characters tearing through France• Stage-by-stage guide: our lowdown on the 2021 Tour routeMainstays of the Tour since the 90s, transformed this winter with arrival of iconic car company sponsor, departure of long-time leader Romain Bardet and signing of several pricey foreign imports. Ben O’Connor has provided best value so far and Benoît Cosnefroy is one of France’s up and coming names. Continue reading...

The imbalance is more extreme than it’s been in over a century. We need to fix this structural problem before it’s too latePolicymakers and the media are paying too much attention to how quickly the US economy will emerge from the pandemic-induced recession, and not nearly enough to the nation’s deeper structural problem – the huge imbalance of wealth that could enfeeble the economy for years.Related: ‘When is this going to end?’: US factory town devastated by jobs moving overseas Continue reading...

US president’s crucial legislation suffers expected defeat thanks to Republican filibuster. Plus, the people trying to make millions with memesGood morning.Joe Biden suffered a painful blow on Tuesday as a crucial vote on his For the People Act – one of his administration’s top priorities – ended in a bruising defeat in Congress. Continue reading...

The first American to win the Champions League did so at a time when US soccer players were seen as little more than noveltiesThree years ago, the US men’s team were watching the World Cup on television instead of playing in it. But with the 2022 edition in sight, things are looking much more encouraging. Christian Pulisic’s successive victories in the Champions League and Concacaf Nations League finals are symbolic of the team’s revival. He is far from alone though. Alongside him stand the likes of Giovanni Reyna, Weston McKennie, and Sergiño Dest, all of whom play for some of the best clubs in the world. This kind of success in Europe was unprecedented just five years ago for Americans, before Pulisic established himself as a young phenomenon at Borussia Dortmund.But it wasn’t the first time we’ve seen an American lift the most coveted trophy in club soccer, nor is it the first time Dortmund have helped American soccer players break into European competition. Continue reading...

The UK has been weakened, but so too has the EU. Relations between them need not be this badFive years after the fateful referendum on 23 June 2016, what is the current balance sheet of Brexit? Answer: two weakened unions, the British and the European, and bad-tempered relations between them. Lose. Lose. Lose.The weakening of the British union is obvious. There will be another referendum on Scottish independence within the next few years. Scottish nationalists may win it with the argument that Scotland should leave the British union to rejoin the European one. A vote in Northern Ireland on Irish unification seems more likely than at any point since it was first provided for in the Belfast agreement in 1998. Boris Johnson’s government is full of rhetoric about keeping the union together but has no strategy for doing so. Continue reading...

Bank warns staff they have less than three weeks to take both Covid jabs or continue working from home

We are not angry, we are disappointed. And angry

The White House warned democracy was ‘in peril’ but while key Democrats stay committed to the filibuster, progress looks difficultAfter nearly six months of watching Republicans relentlessly make it harder to vote in the US, Democrats suffered a major blow on Tuesday after GOP senators used a legislative maneuver to halt a sweeping voting rights and ethics bill.The vote doesn’t kill the bill, but it marks one of the most significant setbacks for Democrats in Joe Biden’s presidency so far. Democrats heralded the legislation as their No 1 priority, even knowing they were unlikely to get any Republican votes for it. The bill would amount to the most significant expansion of the right to vote in a generation, requiring early voting and automatic and same-day registration, while prohibiting excessive manipulation of electoral district boundaries, a process often called gerrymandering. Continue reading...

Deb Haaland announces initiative to ‘uncover the truth’ of policies that forced Indigenous children to assimilateThe US government will investigate the troubled legacy of Native American boarding schools and work to “uncover the truth about the loss of human life and the lasting consequences” of the institutions, which over the decades forced hundreds of thousands of children from their families and communities.The US interior secretary, Deb Haaland, has directed the department to prepare a report detailing available historical records relating to the federal boarding school programs, with an emphasis on cemeteries or potential burial sites. Continue reading...

Democrats demonstrated unity in the US senate as the West Virginia senator Joe Manchin said he would vote in favor of advancing voting rights legislation known as the For the People act to the debate stage.The Republican Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, denied any voter suppression was happening despite around 400 bills introduced in more than 43 states which could restrict the right to vote. The legislation would remove hurdles to voting.In the evenly split Senate, Republican votes mean the bill will not garner the necessary 60 votes to advance.

Greg Abbott’s decision surprises lawmakers after bill passed legislature with bipartisan supportThe governor of Texas has pulled a surprise move, vetoing a bipartisan bill that would have provided greater protections for dogs against human abuse.The Republican governor, Greg Abbott, vetoed a bill on Friday that would have made unlawful restraint of a dog a criminal offense, sending animal rights activists and legislators on both sides of the aisle into a fray and spurring the hashtag #AbbottHatesDogs. Continue reading...

The rent forgiveness program would pay landlords all of what they are owed while simultaneously giving tenants a clean slateCalifornia is pursuing an ambitious plan to pay off the entirety of unpaid rent from low-income tenants who fell behind during the pandemic, in what could constitute the largest ever rent relief program in the US.The state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, is negotiating with legislators and said the $5.2bn plan would pay landlords all of what they were owed while giving renters a clean slate. Continue reading...

‘He doesn’t know that I’m his wife,’ Lisa Marshall said. So when Peter proposed again, she decided to go for itA married couple from Connecticut hosted a second wedding ceremony when the groom, who has a type of dementia, proposed to his wife again after forgetting they were already married.Despite struggling to remember his marriage due to early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, Peter Marshall, 56, has never forgotten the love he has for Lisa, 54, his wife of 12 years, whom he has recently mostly regarded as his favorite caregiver given his deteriorating memory. Continue reading...

Sam, first openly gay football player to be drafted by an NFL team, voiced his support for Nassib’s announcement

Firefighters in Arizona, California, Oregon, Utah and New Mexico are battling blazes amid dry, hot conditionsDozens of wildfires were burning in hot, dry conditions across the US west, including a blaze touched off by lightning that was moving toward northern Arizona’s largest city.The mountainous city of Flagstaff was shrouded in smoke on Monday and ash was falling from the sky as a blaze was encroaching on the city. The national forest surrounding Flagstaff announced a full closure set to begin later this week – the first time that has happened since 2006. Continue reading...

Human Rights First report records 3,300 incidents of kidnap, rape, trafficking or assault linked to Trump-era Title 42 health protocolNearly 3,300 migrants stranded in Mexico since January due to a US border policy have been kidnapped, raped, trafficked or assaulted, according to a new report by the campaigning group Human Rights First.The report documents cases of migrants and asylum seekers stuck in Mexico since Joe Biden took office on 20 January. The number of cases has jumped in recent weeks from roughly 500 such incidents logged in April to 3,300 by mid-June. Continue reading...

Just like this would-be New York councillor, many young people document every intimate aspect of their lives. Some of that footage will inevitably become publicYou have to be something of a masochist to want to get into politics – and Zack Weiner is an unapologetic masochist. Last week, the 26-year-old, who is running for a place on the city council in New York, was something of a nonentity: he had zero name recognition and his campaign had raised just over $10,000 (£7,200), most of which he had donated himself.Perhaps the most notable thing about Weiner was the fact his dad is the co-creator of the kids’ TV show Dora the Explorer. But that changed when a video of a man engaged in consensual sadomasochism was posted on Twitter by an anonymous account that claimed the man was Weiner. On Saturday, the New York Post ran a story about the video, complete with salacious screengrab. Pretty soon it made international headlines. Continue reading...

Sign of investor confidence that country’s housing market will continue to grow amid rocketing pricesInvestment firm Blackstone has struck a $6bn deal to buy a company that rents out over 17,000 single-family homes across the US, a sign of investor confidence that the country’s housing market will continue to grow amid rocketing prices and a housing crunch.Related: Migrants turned away at border under Biden face shocking abuse in Mexico Continue reading...

I’ve known this album for only 20 of its 50 years, but it has seen me from childhood to adulthood, and its genius only grows“I couldn’t look at people without weeping,” Joni Mitchell said, about the time she wrote Blue, her best-loved album, which is 50 years old today. Like every aspiring literary sad girl, I know Blue by heart, though I have loved it for only 20 of its 50 years. I haven’t been to California, either, nor did I live through the sexual revolution, or know the pain of giving up a child for adoption. Yet this album has seen me from childhood through to adulthood; its essence has fused with my own.In her essay The Joni Mitchell Problem, Meghan Daum wrote of the album’s unparalleled adulation: “The clause ‘Joni and Me’ has been written upwards of 10 million times, mostly in diaries with flowers drawn in the margins … there is nothing original about being a late 20th-century-born female who feels that every life event … was accompanied by a Joni song that was custom written for the occasion.” Continue reading...