Countries came together early and decisively to fix a broken global system. The same ambition is needed todayWar was still raging in Europe and Asia when delegates from 44 countries met at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire in July 1944. Three weeks of negotiations produced two new global institutions, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and a different economic mindset.Related: The Guardian view on the IMF and World Bank: back a global Green New Deal | Editorial Continue reading...

Anti-Trump Republicans get lots of media attention. That doesn’t mean they are relevant within the Republican party“Over 100 Republicans, including former officials, threaten to split” from the Republican party, the New York Times declared on Tuesday. The next day the Washington Post upped the ante, headlining that the 100 Republicans were vowing “civil war”; the columnist Jennifer Rubin proclaimed the beginning of “the stampede away from the GOP”.Sounds exciting, but what has really happened? Continue reading...

The endless rocket attacks no longer shock, but the divisions that have come violently to the surface in Israeli towns have horrified the countryIt was a week of carnage in Israel and Palestine, as Israeli airstrikes pounded Gaza and Hamas fired a near-continuous hail of rockets at Israel. More than 140 people died. But Israelis were more stunned – and horrified – to see towns inside the country erupt into violence between Jewish and Palestinian citizens.Israel has known demonstrations and violent clashes with security forces. Wartime is especially tense; in 2000, the Israeli police killed 13 Israeli Arab citizens who were demonstrating at the start of the second intifada, a wound that has never healed. But since Israel’s founding, no one could recall waves of people attacking people, property and symbols, civilians on civilians, among Israeli citizens. The violence began on Tuesday and spread through towns around the country and it has not ended. Continue reading...

A number of parties, from Trump to Netanyahu to Hamas, fanned the flames. The question now is: who can put them out?Is this Iran’s revenge? There are good reasons to suspect the sudden, extraordinarily violent reigniting of the dormant Israel-Palestine conflict was plotted and triggered in Tehran.Not so fast, say Benjamin Netanyahu’s critics. Repressive, racist policies pursued by Israel’s prime minister, egged on until recently by unscrupulous Donald Trump, are the main cause of the explosion, they insist. Continue reading...

Lawmakers faced with choice between embarrassing Trump and ignoring insurrectionHouse Democrats are poised to adopt legislation to create a 9/11-style commission to investigate the Capitol attack, in a move that will force Republicans to either embrace an inquiry that could embarrass Donald Trump – or turn a blind eye to a deadly insurrection.Related: Liz Cheney: McCarthy should testify about Trump’s views on Capitol attack Continue reading...

India and Russia show what happens when authoritarians deny reality. The Trumpists would have the US follow suitA hospital in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, is being charged under the country’s National Security Act for sounding the alarm over a lack of oxygen that resulted in Covid deaths. The hospital’s owner and manager says police have accused him of “false scaremongering”, after he stated publicly that four patients died on a single day when oxygen ran out.Related: Relief, reluctance and confusion: New Yorkers react to mask-free guidance Continue reading...

Henry McCollum and Leon Brown spent decades in jail before DNA evidence cleared them of the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girlA jury in a North Carolina federal civil rights case has awarded $75m to two, intellectually disabled half-brothers who spent decades behind bars after being wrongfully convicted in the 1983 rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl.The eight-person jury on Friday decided Henry McCollum and Leon Brown, who are both Black, should received $31m each in compensatory damages, $1m for every year spent in prison, the News & Observer reported. The jury also awarded them $13m in punitive damages. Continue reading...

Scuba divers removed about 200lb of garbage from California’s Lake Tahoe on Friday. The dive was part of a six-month effort to rid the lake of fishing rods, tyres, aluminium cans, beer bottles and other rubbish accumulating underwater.The team plans to look for rubbish along the entire 72 miles (115 km) of shoreline in what could be the largest trash cleanup in the lake’s history, said Colin West, founder of Clean up the Lake, the non-profit organising the project. The team includes 10 divers, as well as support kayaks and jet skis

Nicole Pyles from North Carolina says ruling from umpires that the beads in her braids were against the rules was ‘humiliating’A Black high school student in North Carolina was forced to cut her hair during a softball game last month, after umpires said beads in her braids violated rules set by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFSHS).Related: Texas police fail to earn stripes as tiger which terrorised suburb goes missing Continue reading...

Joel Greenberg expected to plead guilty to federal charges and could be key witness if congressman faces trialThe scandal engulfing Matt Gaetz, one of Donald Trump’s brashest supporters in Congress, deepened on Friday after an associate admitted sex trafficking involving a minor and agreed to cooperate with investigators.Related: AOC says Marjorie Taylor Greene is ‘deeply unwell’ after 2019 video surfaces Continue reading...

For progressives who were hopeful that America’s most diverse city was ready for change, the most useful question is: what the hell is our problem?The Greatest City in the World can never seem to find a halfway decent mayor. Since the turn of the century, New York has suffered through Rudy Giuliani, who “cleaned up the city” by putting all of its residents in jail; Mike Bloomberg, who stopped and frisked all the normal people to keep Wall Street safe; and now Bill de Blasio, the self-proclaimed liberal reformer who is now so cowed that he spent most of last year supporting the NYPD’s decision to run over protesters with their cars. Besides pizza slices and Biggie Smalls, nothing unites New Yorkers like their contempt for De Blasio, whose visible, mewling weakness causes him to be despised by people of all backgrounds and political affiliations.Related: How much? Mayoral hopefuls red-faced after guessing New York housing costs Continue reading...

A workforce largely composed of immigrants and women of color is fighting to organize a union after facing low wages, poor conditions and lax safety protections during the pandemicJanitors in Florida are fighting to organize a union through the Justice for Janitors campaign as the predominantly immigrant and women of color workforce have faced severely low wages, poor working conditions and lax safety protections during the pandemic.Building off union victories for janitors at the University of Miami and Nova Southeastern University in 2006, and more recent organizing wins at Miami international airport and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood international airport, workers are now fighting to organize janitors in south Florida’s lucrative commercial real estate industry. Continue reading...

President has held one-on-one meetings with members of both parties – but will Republicans torpedo his proposals?Joe Biden has vowed to make every effort to work with Republicans until progress is impossible. Right now, he and conservative lawmakers see an infrastructure bill as still within the realm of possibility.If so, it would mark a significant step forwards for Biden in passing a large part of his legislative agenda aimed at sparking the recovery of the pandemic-hit US economy. Biden’s team has consciously drawn comparisons to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s effort to lift America out of the Great Depression through government programs and big public works projects. Continue reading...

I find the idea of being legally bound to my partner unacceptably claustrophobicA lot has been said about the end of Bill and Melinda Gates’ marriage, mainly by people who have as much insider intelligence on it as I do, which is to say, none at all. But there really is only one conclusion to draw from this story: marriage doesn’t work.Look, I’m not saying that Bill Gates is the earthly representation of love incarnate. But if two people who have more homes than most people have shoes, own more farmland than any other private landowner in the US and have a private jet (no fighting about whose fault it is you missed the flight when you own the plane!) can’t make it, who can? Of course, there’s more to a successful marriage than money, such as shared experiences. Well, Bill and Melinda vaccinated the world. That seems like something you might bond over, right? “Hey honey, remember that time we eradicated polio?” That’s got to be better than reminiscing about the last holiday you took before the kids were born, like the rest of us do. Didn’t that give them a warm and fuzzy feeling inside? The answer, as we all now know, was no. Continue reading...

In two decades as an exercise rider, I saw racehorses that were pushed too hard too early for profit and prestige. Bob Baffert and others who perpetrate this abuse must be held to accountHorses running in the Kentucky Derby have only just hit their third birthday. Those magnificent creatures on which millions are wagered and stories of glory and sentiment inspired are but enslaved toddlers. No horse at two or even three years old is physically or mentally prepared for what is forced upon it by the racing industry. Even with new measures and oversight in place, young horses continue to break down, suffer injuries that will be chronic for the rest of their lives, and are medicated when they would not otherwise be if not for the damage done by the immense pressure they are under.Related: After 15 years at the racetrack, I can no longer watch a horse race | Elizabeth Banicki Continue reading...

As Liz Cheney’s defiance turns her into one of the movement’s leaders some insist the party was their home long before Trump while others say it’s time to move onSixteen minutes and out. The purging of Liz Cheney from Republican leadership in the House of Representatives did not even go to a secret ballot. Instead a voice vote was all it took to confirm the party’s capitulation to Donald Trump and his “big lie” about a stolen election.But Cheney went down swinging, vowing to reporters on Capitol Hill: “I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office,” then using a high-profile TV interview to say of would-be challengers for her seat in Wyoming: “Bring it on.” Continue reading...

Lawmakers agree to create bipartisan commission to investigate breach but questions remain over GOP supportThe Republican House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, should testify before the commission to investigate the 6 January Capitol attack, the Wyoming representative Liz Cheney said on Friday, because he has “said publicly that he’s got information about the president’s state of mind that day”.Related: ‘It’s hard to look at’: Donald Trump makes National Portrait Gallery debut Continue reading...

John Cox may have violated city law when he brought campaign mascot Tag with him to San DiegoTurns out campaigning across California with a 1,000lb bear is not a foolproof political plan.John Cox, a candidate vying to replace Gavin Newsom in the state’s gubernatorial recall vote, is under investigation for violating a San Diego city law that bans anyone, except zoos, from bringing wild animals – including lions and tigers and bears – into the area. Continue reading...

Photo of ex-president will make way for a painted portrait as gallery says Trump’s team is considering artistsA picture is worth a thousand tweets. Donald Trump gained immortality of sorts on Friday when he made his debut at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington. But he also ran into some “good trouble”.Related: Rightwingers tried to discredit Trump ‘foes’ with honey trap plot – report Continue reading...

Enrique Tarrio received two paycheck protection program loans intended for small businesses, for ‘security systems services’Government records show that Enrique Tarrio, chairman of the far-right Proud Boys group, received two federal government-backed paycheck protection program (PPP) loans worth a total of $15,500, the Guardian can reveal.Tarrio, based in Miami, Florida, was approved for an initial loan of $7,750 on 30 March, and a succeeding loan for the same amount on 16 April. The loans were issued to Henry Tarrio, an anglicized form of his name which he has used on other occasions. Continue reading...

The cycle of bloodshed will repeat, so long as the status quo remains comfortable for everyone except ordinary PalestiniansIf Groundhog Day were a horror movie, it would look like this. The deadly violence shaking the Middle East – Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, Hamas rocket attacks on Israel – seems to play out the same way, again and again, as if on some macabre repeat cycle. We saw it in 2009 and we saw it again in 2014. Each element is familiar: the lopsided death toll, Palestinian deaths outnumbering Israeli ones; the pictures of flattened buildings; the tears of the bereaved. And outside the region, the same armies of keyboard warriors, each parroting the talking points of their side, insistent that only their own pain counts, blind to the losses of the other.Related: The violence that began at Jerusalem’s ancient holy sites is driven by a distinctly modern zeal | Yair Wallach Continue reading...

Program called Cats at Work places two or three felines outside residences and businesses to deal with rodent problemAn animal shelter in Chicago has released 1,000 feral cats throughout the city to combat a rat crisis.Through a program called Cats at Work, the Tree House Humane Society, a local animal shelter, releases feral felines on to city streets. The initiative places two to three cats, all spayed, neutered and vaccinated, outside of residences and businesses to sustainably deal with Chicago’s rodent problem. Continue reading...

Efforts included ‘planned sting operation’ targeting HR McMaster and fake dating app profiles to attract FBI, says New York TimesA cohort of rightwing activists hatched a plan during Donald Trump’s administration to discredit his perceived foes – including a honey trap plot that used “female undercover operatives” – in an attempt to catch and discredit government employees criticizing the former president, the New York Times reported.Their efforts included a “planned sting operation” targeting Trump’s then national security adviser, HR McMaster, and clandestine surveillance against FBI staffers, with the goal of exposing anti-Trump opinions in the law enforcement agency, according to the newspaper. Continue reading...

Lockdown brought relief at being able to skip unwanted hugs ... until I craved connection

White House contender accused of lacking experience and feigning interest in New York politics – but can anyone stop him?The New York City mayoral vote has been dubbed the city’s “most consequential election in decades”, and on Thursday the race began to heat up, with a Democratic debate that featured sporadic potshots at Andrew Yang, the longshot presidential candidate and the frontrunner to be the city’s next mayor.Related: I’m stuck in post-pandemic limbo – but don’t make me Zoom again | Emma Brockes Continue reading...

Does the three-time NFL MVP really want out of Green Bay? Does he want to host a TV show? Is he just sulking?So, where is Aaron Rodgers going to play this season?Does he really want out of Green Bay? Does he want to host a TV show? Is he just sulking? Continue reading...

Six months after the horrific crash that ended his Formula One career, former Haas driver Romain Grosjean is making a go for it on the IndyCar circuitFor some racing drivers hand blisters are an occasional nuisance. For Romain Grosjean they have become a constant menace, ever poised to loosen his grip and send his bold move from Formula 1 to IndyCar spiraling off course. Heading into IndyCar’s season-opening test in February, the 35-year-old Franco-Swiss wasn’t confident his tender mitts could hold his No 51 Honda-powered Dale Coyne Racing machine on the 2.3-mile, 17-turn circuit at Birmingham, Alabama’s Barber Motorsports Park for long without making blood bags out of his racing gloves. So Grosjean, who races under the French flag, consulted with two close compatriots he thought might have some handy advice.Related: Romain Grosjean given Mercedes test run F1 swansong at French Grand Prix Continue reading...

Members of the US Congress have responded as the deadly hostilities in Israel and Gaza entered a fifth day with no sign of abating.Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American congresswoman who has been critical of Israeli policy towards the Palestinians, questioned the US government's 'unconditional support' of Israel and, often tearing up as she spoke, accused Israel of being an 'apartheid state'.

Biden declares ‘great day’ as CDC loosens indoor coronavirus restrictions. Plus, Friends cast announce long-awaited reunion

Workers cite exploitative practices and lack of Covid safety protections as some employers and officials claim unemployment benefits deter people from returning to workJake Galardi Marko has worked in the restaurant industry for the past 10 years, and recently took a new server position at a Cheesecake Factory in Las Vegas, Nevada, after quitting his job at the Olive Garden of two years during the pandemic due to abuse from customers over Covid-19 protections.Related: Cars, lumber and chicken: the shortages triggered by the end of lockdowns Continue reading...

A cat in Chicago has survived after jumping out of a fifth-floor window to escape an apartment fire. Chicago fire department personnel were taking a video of the exterior of the building as firefighters were extinguishing the blaze when a black cat appeared through billowing smoke at a broken window. The feline briefly tested the side of the building with its front paws, then jumped. The cat survived the leap uninjured

Election experts are watching the effort with alarm, saying officials are not using a reliable methodology – and fear it could be a model for Republicans to try elsewhereOne of the first things you see when you step outside Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the ageing arena in Phoenix, is the Crazy Times Carnival, a temporary spectacle set up in the parking lot. In the evenings, just as the sun is setting, lights from the ferris wheel, the jingle of the carousel and shrieks of joy fill the massive desert sky. Continue reading...

Feline survives daring leap from office block in video captured by Chicago Fire DepartmentA Chicago cat has survived after jumping out of a fifth-floor window to escape an apartment fire.Chicago Fire Department personnel were taking a video of the exterior of the building as firefighters were extinguishing the blaze when a black cat appeared through billowing smoke at a broken window. The feline briefly tested the side of the building with its front paws, and then jumped. Continue reading...