City has fully vaccinated 78% of its population, says Jenny Durkan, but San Francisco is on track to be first to reach herd immunityAfter fully vaccinating at least 70% of all residents over the age of 12 against Covid-19, Seattle has become the most vaccinated city in America, the mayor said.Jenny Durkan announced that Seattle has fully vaccinated 78% of its population, beating out San Francisco, who previously held the title, to become America’s most inoculated big city. Continue reading...
The super-rich have bought armies of lobbyists to keep their taxes minuscule and to create tax loopholes large enough to drive their Lamborghinis throughProPublica’s bombshell report on America’s super-wealthy paying little or nothing in taxes reveals not only their humongous wealth but also how they’ve parlayed that wealth into political power to shrink their taxes to almost nothing.Jeff Bezos, the richest man in America, reportedly paid no federal income taxes in 2007 and 2011. Elon Musk, the second richest, paid no taxes in 2018. Warren Buffett, often ranking number 3, paid a tax rate of 0.1% between 2014 and 2018. Continue reading...
Our investigation found people tied to Trump who fanned election conspiracies were opening their walletsHappy Thursday,Ever since Arizona Republicans began their review of 2.1m ballots from the 2020 election, a huge question has loomed over the effort: who exactly is paying for it? Continue reading...
Travelling alone gave me a sense of myself and my place in the world. After centuries of constraint, black women’s journeys have the power to dispel myths and give backSolo travel can be freeing and restorative, a chance to hit the restart button or a break to bring you back in touch with yourself. You may return home with not just a deeper understanding of a place and its people but of who you are – and I know from experience how valuable that is.At 21, I left London to roam the world alone for more than a year. I had recently lost my father and a large part of my identity, and travel was the medium with which I chose to repair myself. I swayed to samba in Rio de Janeiro, ate mouth-watering street food in Vietnam and Mexico, wandered around ancient metropolises in Morocco and lost days and a few nights in fleeting romantic encounters, divided by language but united by desire. Continue reading...
It’s different for everyone. In my case, finding an explanation for my symptoms that made sense was the keyCovid-19 affects people in a range of different ways. For some its a mild illness; to others, it’s lethal. For me, it turned into a poorly understood condition that doctors call post-Covid syndrome but most people know as long Covid. I’m a professor of infectious diseases, and one of the first people in the country to have reported on long Covid. Now, an estimated one million people in the UK say they are experiencing symptoms from the wide range that make up this condition. In the same way that the virus itself causes illness of varying severity, everyone’s experience of long Covid will be different, and personal to them.I want to share my story of how I recovered. For those still battling with long Covid, I want them to hear that recovery is possible, and to have hope. Continue reading...
Proposals making their way through the legislative process are under the radar but have bipartisan backingThree bills are working their way through Congress that can provide significant help for small businesses. Do you know what they all have in common? Welcome signs of bipartisan support for small business.Related: The ice cream owner who tried, failed – and now owes $200,000 | Gene Marks Continue reading...
Leaked documents suggest renewed inquiry into Covid-19 origins, Biden declares ‘US is back’, and one Republican’s orbit-altering solution for climate change
by J Brian Charles for The Trace in Baltimore on (#5JWS9)
It can take time to convince Roca’s clients to leave illegal money-making behind. So the organization approaches violence interruption as a long gameThis story was originally published by The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence in America. Sign up for its newsletters here.The game of cat and mouse had played out for months on the corners of West Baltimore. Jamal West would pull up in his minivan. Miayan, 18 years old at the time, would run. The 46-year-old West stands at 6’4 and is built like an NFL lineman – no match for the wiry teenager in a footrace. So West would come back in his van the next day. And when Miayan saw the van, he would flee again. Continue reading...
Throughout history, our story has been narrated by others who treat our rights as less deserving of recognitionThe silencing of the Palestinian story is nothing new. In 1950s Britain, a few years after Israel was established, even the name Palestine went out of use. When asked as a child where I came from, people would think I’d said Pakistan.I remember how frustrating it was that no one wanted to hear our story, as if we had invented it. “It’s the land of the Jews,” I was repeatedly told. “The Arabs are only squatters on it.” Israel’s stunning victory in the 1967 war compounded these attitudes, and the Zionist narrative of Israel’s moral right to exist in the Jewish people’s “ancestral land” became supreme. Constantly made to understand we were second-class human beings with no valid right to “someone else’s country” was demoralising and intimidating. Continue reading...
Giant companies that pay little tax will compete on a more level playing field. Now we have to make the new rules workA decade ago, a series of scandals rumbled through the corporate tax world, as we all learned how big companies often paid little tax. Amazon, Google and Starbucks were hauled before parliament to explain why their tax bills were so low. What was truly shocking wasn’t the way they had broken the law, but the fact that they hadn’t. The global corporate tax system was incredibly leaky. International agreements to ensure no double taxation were, and are, actually leading to double non-taxation of company profits.Large companies routinely avoid paying their fair share of taxes by “shifting” their profits to low-tax countries. This has led to a dramatic decline in the amount of tax governments collect from corporations. What’s more, profit shifting gives multinational companies a huge advantage over smaller ones: instead of competing to offer a better service, they just can keep costs low by paying less in tax. How is your local coffee shop, paying the 19% corporate tax rate on its profit, supposed to compete with the likes of Starbucks, which paid minimal tax despite large sales? Continue reading...
As the double Olympic gold medalist switches from boxing to MMA, she reflects on the poisoning of her home town’s water and the upcoming film of her lifeRight at this moment, Claressa Shields’ life is being made into a major motion picture. In 2016, after she won her second Olympic gold medal in boxing, Shields sold her story to Universal Pictures, who hired the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Moonlight, Barry Jenkins, to pen and produce it. Flint Strong was cast last year and recently re-commenced shooting after a pandemic hiatus. When people remark that her life should be a film, the 26-year-old Michigan native will soon be able to say that it already is – but to expect a sequel.On Thursday, Shields makes her mixed martial arts debut against Brittney Elkin (3-6) in the Professional Fighters League in Atlantic City live on ESPN. The 11-0 boxer has trained in MMA since December under Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn, who steered 18-time boxing champion Holly Holm to a UFC title in 2015. Shields’ debut is one of the most anticipated for MMA in years. Continue reading...
The Premier League team, like so many before them, dream of exploiting a huge market. But there is not much room in a crowded landscapeThe European Super League may have been put in the trash for now but Premier League clubs – even those who were not invited to the proposed closed playground of the world’s richest clubs – are still searching for ways to extend their commercial reach around the world.Everton, crosstown rivals to Liverpool but of little threat to the elite of English football if we are taking into account recent Premier League standings, has unveiled an international strategy to expand its fan base across North America and, by extension, its commercial opportunities. They’re the latest team – from a number of different sports and leagues – to dream of striking it rich in the biggest sports market in the world. But, as always, the question remains: how feasible is that dream? Continue reading...
The brutal clampdown in Xinjiang represents an about-face from the communist party’s original approach to cultural differencesChina’s mass detention of Uyghur Muslims – the largest of a religio-ethnic group since the second world war – is not the inevitable or predictable outcome of Chinese communist policies towards ethnic minorities. I’ve spent the past 20 years studying ethnicity in China and, when viewing the present situation in Xinjiang through the prism of history, one thing becomes clear: this is not what was “supposed” to happen.In the early 1950s the Chinese Communist party (CCP) was holding on to revolutionary victory by its fingernails. The postwar economy was in shambles, and the outbreak of the Korean war brought a nuclear hegemon to its doorstep, in the form of the United States. Not the moment most regimes would choose to enlarge their to-do lists. The CCP did, however, committing to officially recognising more minority peoples than any other Chinese regime in history. While Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalists had begrudgingly accepted the official existence of five groups in the 1930s and 40s, the Communists recognised 55 in all (plus the Han majority), many with populations under 10,000. Continue reading...
Ex-Fox News host who was forced out in 2017 following sexual harassment accusations will join former president in Florida and Texas in DecemberDonald Trump appears to have found his historical muse. The former US president will go on tour for a series of “live conversations” with Bill O’Reilly, an ex-Fox News host who has reason to understand him better than most.At least 26 women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct over four decades, ranging ranging from harassment to sexual assault and rape; he denies them all. O’Reilly was forced out of Fox in 2017 following multiple accusations of sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour. Continue reading...
Joe Biden marked his first overseas trip as US president, telling a crowd of US troops and their families at RAF Mildenhall the "the US is back and democracies of the world are standing together to tackle the toughest challenges and the issues that matter most to our future." The speech came ahead of Biden's talks with Boris Johnson, the G7 summit and a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Lloyd Austin says directive is about ensuring that dealing with the threat from Beijing remains a priorityThe US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has directed the Pentagon to sharpen its focus on China, which the United States has tagged as its top strategic rival.“Now, it is up to the department to get to work,” Austin said on Wednesday after issuing an internal directive to the Pentagon bureaucracy. Continue reading...
A bear in southern Arizona caused a brief power outage after it climbed up a power pole and became stuck. The utility company in the city of Willcox was notified a bear had become tangled in power lines, and workers quickly disabled the power. The linemen then climbed into a bucket lift to coax the animal down with a fibreglass stick, before the bear eventually went down on its own and retreated to the desert. It is the second time in a month a bear in the state has climbed a power pole Continue reading...
Texas Republican congressman Louie Gohmert asked a senior US government official if changing the moon’s orbit around the Earth, or the Earth’s orbit around the sun, might be a solution for climate change. The question was not posed to anyone from Nasa, but a senior forestry service official during a House natural resources committee hearing on Tuesday. Jennifer Eberlien, associate deputy chief of the National Forest Service, said she would have to 'follow up with you on that one, Mr Gohmert'
Biden’s initiative aims to help vaccinate the world against Covid and to restore America’s global influence and soft powerThe US has reached an agreement with Pfizer to buy 500m doses of their coronavirus vaccine to distribute to nearly 100 countries around the world, as the centrepiece of Joe Biden’s initiative to help vaccinate the world against Covid-19, according to US reports.Related: Vaccine inequality exposed by dire situation in world’s poorest nations Continue reading...
The wildfire, believed to be human-caused, has been fueled by dry, windy conditions and high temperaturesFirefighters in Arizona worked through the night battling the Telegraph fire, a wildfire that started east of Phoenix on Friday and has burned more than 80,800 acres (33,000 hectares).Officials said on Wednesday the fire was 21% contained, but straddled two counties, had forced thousands of evacuations in rural towns, and closed almost every major highway out of the area. Continue reading...
‘I’d have to follow up with you on that one,’ says forestry official Jennifer Eberlien to bizarre question from Louie GohmertThe Texas Republican congressman Louie Gohmert has asked a senior US government official if changing the moon’s orbit around the Earth, or the Earth’s orbit around the sun, might be a solution for climate change.Bizarrely, the question was not posed to anyone from Nasa or even the Pentagon. Instead it was asked of a senior forestry service official during a House natural resources committee hearing on Tuesday. Continue reading...
Vice-president’s ‘get tough’ stance on corruption overshadowed by backlash over ‘do not come’ message to migrantsKamala Harris has returned to the US from her first foreign trip and big test since becoming vice-president – and taking over the hot-potato issue of immigration – battered by criticism over her harsh “Do not come” message to desperate migrants and her testy ambivalence over visiting the US-Mexico border.Harris arrived back on US soil from a three-day trip to Guatemala and Mexico just as Joe Biden flew out to the UK on Wednesday on his first overseas venture since winning the White House. Continue reading...
by Vincent Ni China affairs correspondent on (#5JTXS)
Beijing says bill seeks to exaggerate ‘so-called China threat’ and is ‘full of cold war thinking’China has denounced a US Senate bill worth about $250bn (£175n) that aims to boost American technology and manufacturing prowess as an example of the US hyping up “the so-called China threat”, and accused Washington of attempting to hinder its development.The Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved the Innovation and Competition Act, in a rare show of unity in a chamber often filled with political division between Democrats and Republicans. Continue reading...
Birth-year categorisation simplifies the complex work of trying to understand ourselves and others around usPicture a millennial. Her tastes, like her emotional problems, are oddly specific. She likes squishy pillows because they soothe her anxiety. She likes curvy fonts for this reason, too, and baby cacti. She can’t have a real baby because she is too poor. She can’t find a partner because she is too alienated. Perhaps she has a fish. She is locked in an Oedipal battle with the boomers, her parents, who told her she would inherit the Earth but sucked it dry.Like the “teenager”, who emerged in post-depression America, in part as a marketing tool that recognised the spending power of adolescents, the “millennial” is largely a work of fiction. Rationally, ascribing similar socioeconomic circumstances to the roughly 1.8 billion people born between 1981 and 1996 makes no sense. Not all millennials are unable to afford to have a child, just as not all boomers are smugly retired (indeed, in the UK 1.9 million people over the age of 65 live in poverty, according to figures from the Department of Work and Pensions). Continue reading...
The lack of structure over the last year has made regular training and playing schedules difficult. The results can be seen in baseball treatment roomsBaseball is a grind. Among the major US professional sports, MLB has the longest season: 162 regular-season games. Last year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 season was shortened, which to many, seemed like a good thing. It would lead to an increased rest period and hopefully less injuries. It seems, however, that the opposite has come true. Already, only a few months into the 2021 season, injury listings are on the rise. Statistics have shown a 30% increase in injuries thus far. The usual suspects such as UCL elbow injuries and ACL knee injuries have popped up as expected, but the overwhelming increase has been on “strains” and “sprains”.Strains and sprains often refer to muscles and tendons. The UCL and ACL refer to ligaments. This anatomic difference can be important. Ligaments are like small ropes holding bones together. The UCL helps stabilize the inner elbow joint while throwing. The ACL stabilizes the knee joint for cutting and pivoting. Muscles, on the other hand, are meaty structures made up of fibers that can be stretched, or if pulled too far apart, torn. This can happen even at the microscopic level. Tendons are what muscles turn into so they can attach to bones and move them. These can also be stretched or torn. When muscles or tendons are stretched or partially torn, they aren’t necessarily repairable by surgery and can take a long time to heal, developing into nagging injuries that repeatedly rear their heads throughout the season or an athlete’s career. Continue reading...
State is offering free marijuana joints to adults that receive a Covid vaccine in program that will run until 12 JulyTo boost vaccination rates, Washington state is offering free marijuana joints to any adults that receive a Covid-19 vaccine.On Monday, the Washington state liquor and cannabis board announced the promotion, aptly called “Joints for Jabs”, that will run until 12 July. During the initiative’s run, state-licensed dispensaries can give age-appropriate customers, 21 and older, a pre-rolled joint when they receive their first or second dose. Continue reading...
A spate of new laws aims to suppress voters – especially Black voters – and seemingly prevent free and fair elections“Our entire democracy is now at risk.” That was the note of alarm sounded last week by a group of prominent intellectuals on both the left and the right. The source of their concern are the Republican efforts, underway across the nation, to operationalize the “big lie”: the bogus claim that a vast conspiracy of fraud cost Trump the 2020 election.Consider the audit recently ordered by the Republican-controlled state senate in Arizona of the 2.1m votes cast in Maricopa county in the 2020 presidential contest. Lest the audit confirm what has already been proven ad nauseam – that the count was accurate and free of fraud – the senate chose an obscure company called Cyber Ninjas to conduct the recount. Based out of Florida, Cyber Ninjas has no record of ever having conducted an election audit and neglected to even submit a bid for the Arizona job. But the tiny firm did have one thing going for it: its CEO, Doug Logan, a self-proclaimed “follower of Jesus Christ” and proud father of 11, was on record attacking the 2020 election as riddled with fraud. Continue reading...
Senate majority leader to embark on strategy demonstrating how Republicans have all but turned the filibuster into a weaponTop Democrats are preparing to make the case to impose new limits on the filibuster, in a move that could bring to a head six months of smoldering tensions over an expected Republican blockade of President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda.The Senate had its first filibuster of this Congress last week, when Republicans used the tactical rule to block a bipartisan House-passed measure to create a 9/11-style commission to investigate the Capitol attack perpetrated a pro-Trump mob. Continue reading...
Video shows Eric Parker saying Janice McGeachin, the lieutenant governor, told him ‘you’re going to have a friend’ in the officeIdaho’s Republican lieutenant governor and gubernatorial candidate, Janice McGeachin, attended a gathering where she was endorsed in a glowing introductory speech by a rightwing militia leader, as revealed in a video obtained by the Guardian.
Ernest C Withers’ photographs take viewers to the record stores, picket lines and proms of the American south during the 1940s, 50s and 60s Continue reading...
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calls comments ‘disappointing’ after vice-president says migrants will not find solace at US borderThe progressive New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has criticized Vice-President Kamala Harris for saying undocumented migrants from Guatemala should not come to the US.On her first foreign trip as vice-president, Harris visited Guatemala on Monday. At a press conference with Guatemala’s president, Alejandro Giammattei, the former California senator spoke about investigating corruption and human trafficking in Central America and described a future where Guatemalans could find “hope at home”. Continue reading...
US vice-president Kamala Harris has brushed off questions about her decision not to go to the US-Mexico border as part of her work to address the spike in migration. Harris, who was asked about the issue during visits to Mexico and Guatemala, said: 'I've been to the border before and I will go again, but when I'm in Guatemala dealing with root causes, I think we should have a conversation about what is going on in Guatemala', Harris said. Republican lawmakers have criticised her for not prioritising the shared frontier
Joshua Hall of Pennsylvania allegedly created fake online identities for ex-president’s brother and sonA Pennsylvania man has been charged with creating fake online identities impersonating Donald Trump’s brother and youngest son, which he used to dupe hundreds of people nationwide into donating thousands of dollars to what prosecutors have described as a phoney political organization.Joshua Hall, 22, of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, was released on $25,000 bail after appearing in Harrisburg federal court to face charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. If convicted, he could face up to 22 years in prison. Continue reading...
City still recording small number of Covid cases per day but they don’t appear to be triggering wider outbreaksSan Francisco may have become the first major American city to hit herd immunity to the coronavirus, experts say.San Francisco is still recording a small number of coronavirus cases, about 13.7 per day, said Dr George Rutherford, professor of epidemiology at University of California, San Francisco, but they don’t appear to be gaining enough of a foothold in the population to trigger wider outbreaks. Continue reading...
