Endorsed by Trump, Susan Wright decries ‘immoral’ attack and heads into sixth-district runoff against another Republican

Only Republican to twice vote to impeach Trump gets hostile reception as censure motion narrowly failsMitt Romney was loudly booed at the Utah Republican party convention on Saturday – and called a “traitor” and a “communist” as he tried to speak.Related: Bush: ‘Anglo-Saxon’ ideals show pro-Trump Republicans ‘want to be extinct’ Continue reading...

In new book, Massachusetts senator reflects on why she lost the presidential nominationIn a new book, the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren suggests part of the reason for her failure in the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination lay in the party’s reluctance to nominate another woman.Related: Mitt Romney booed and called ‘traitor’ at Utah Republican convention Continue reading...

Legendary investor also warns about share-trading apps and investment Spacs while partner calls cryptocurrencies ‘disgusting’The billionaire investor Warren Buffett has warned of inflation hitting the US economy amid a “red hot” recovery from the worst of the coronavirus pandemic.Buffett said his portfolio companies were “seeing very substantial inflation” in a range of sectors amid shortages of raw materials and high savings among those who kept jobs but were barred from spending on things such as holidays during lockdowns. Continue reading...

Community and advocates in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, say police escalating peaceful protests and ‘trying to antagonize city’Perched on a ladder, Ulysses “Bones” Edwards reached for another can of spray paint, adding a few deft strokes to the mural of Andrew Brown Jr that was slowly starting to take shape on the side of the house where Brown lived in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, a stone’s throw from where he was killed by law enforcement last week.A crowd of marchers passed Edwards as he worked on Thursday. Dozens also gathered over the weekend, ahead of Brown’s funeral on Monday, with demonstrations on Saturday marking the eleventh straight day of peaceful protests in the coastal city. At least 16 people have been arrested since the city enacted a curfew earlier in the week. Continue reading...

The reckless disdain of Boris Johnson and David Cameron is evidence of the institutional elitism blighting our politicsOver the past fortnight, the news from Westminster has rather resembled a weird play about pre-revolutionary France, or Tsarist Russia circa 1916.In some parts of the country, the rate of unemployment runs at 15%. Six million people are now reckoned to be on universal credit. I was in Birmingham this week, where I heard lots of talk about the impossibility of finding work, and local businesses hanging on by their fingernails. But every time I switched on the radio, I heard a twisted soap opera about money, taste (or the lack of it) and a prime minister who is reportedly having difficulty getting by on £150,000 a year. Boris Johnson’s alleged insistence that he was minded to “let the bodies pile high in their thousands” rather than impose another lockdown suggests a Bourbon or Romanov driven to exasperation by the necessity of difficult choices. There is something similarly monarchical about the swift binning of the £2.6m Downing Street briefing room – further proof, it seems, that austerity need only worry the plebs. Continue reading...

Mitt Romney was loudly booed at the Utah Republican party convention on Saturday, and called a 'traitor' and a 'communist' as he tried to speak. 'Aren’t you embarrassed?' the Utah senator asked the crowd of 2,100 delegates at the Maverik Center in West Valley City. 'I’m a man who says what he means, and you know I was not a fan of our last president’s character issues.'

We think of payday as a rigid date, but ‘pay on the day’ is becoming more popular. Here’s how to navigate on-demand benefitsAs employers – especially small employers – are struggling to bring back workers to their jobs, a relatively new benefit is becoming more attractive: on-demand pay.Yes, that’s right: an employee gets paid on the day the work is performed. Think about it: your babysitter already gets paid right away, and so does the high-school kid who mows your lawn. So why not your employees? Continue reading...

The US president has challenged the idea that the ‘east is rising, the west declining’. Instead, he insists that America’s day is far from doneFinally, we have arrived, not at a clash of civilisations, but at the clash of civilisations. Or so President Joe Biden’s address to a joint session of Congress would have you believe. The US versus China. The west versus the east. Democracy versus autocracy. Biden’s speech last week was rich in laying down markers for Washington in the contest of the century.“They’re going to write about this point in history,” Biden told a gathering of US television news anchors before his speech, in remarks later released by the White House. “Not about any of us in here, but about whether or not democracy can function in the 21st century.” Continue reading...

The president’s decision to set up a taskforce to boost union membership is of a piece with other efforts in his first 100 daysJust over 100 days into his presidency Joe Biden is showing that he is one of the most pro-union presidents in American history, declaring the “unions built the middle class” in his address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday.Union membership has declined precipitously in the US and accounted for about 10.8% of US employees last year, just over half the rate in 1983. Unions have also suffered notable setbacks in recent years, mostly recently failing to get the votes to unionize at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama. Continue reading...

With less than one-third of Americans fully vaccinated, health authorities switch from mass vaccination clinics to outreach campaignsA decline in daily Covid-19 vaccination rates has left US public health authorities with a new problem – how to effectively shrink operations.In the campaign to immunize all American adults against the coronavirus, most of the difficulties to date have involved overwhelming demand and restricted supply. Now, with less than one-third of Americans fully vaccinated, local public health authorities described a sense of whiplash as they pivot from mass vaccination clinics to outreach campaigns, all within a couple of weeks. Continue reading...

Shooter was also killed after opening fire at random when he was unable to find his intended target at gaming venueTwo people have been shot dead at a casino in Wisconsin, police said, in the latest shooting incident to hit the United States.The suspected gunman was also shot dead by police after he opened fire on Saturday evening in the dining room of the Radisson hotel section of the Oneida casino, near Green Bay in the northern part of the state. Continue reading...

The new president is benefiting not just from bold proposals and actions but from his predecessor’s catastrophic recordBy almost any measure, Joe Biden’s first 100 days have been hugely successful. Getting millions of Americans inoculated against Covid-19 and beginning to revive the economy are central to that success.Related: In his first 100 days, how has Biden handled the four crises he outlined? Continue reading...

The 147th Kentucky Derby, won by Medina Spirit, capped a day of near-perfect weather and masked spectators milling around Churchill Downs again after not being allowed for last fall’s delayed race because of the coronavirus pandemic

Fire crew frees man after tree falls on car and portable convenience during high winds across Pennsylvania regionA man was rescued by emergency responders after a tree brought down by high winds trapped him inside a portable toilet at the Gettysburg civil war battlefield in southern Pennsylvania.The Barlow volunteer fire department said on its Facebook page it was called to Little Round Top, a key scene in the Union’s victory over the Confederacy in 1863, at Gettysburg national military park shortly before 4pm on Friday. Continue reading...

The Cambridges are proving to be experts at self-marketing. Sorry about that, HarryWhen will William and Kate admit that the Harry and Meghan hoo-ha has been great for them? As the dust storms continue to billow from the Oprah Winfrey interview, presumably the Sussexes are exactly where they want to be, generating big-bucks deals (Netflix/Spotify/“wellness”) from their £11m property in Montecito, Santa Barbara. However, hasn’t it also been rather good for the Cambridges? They appear to have morphed from a rather drab, stiff, prematurely middle-aged couple into a veritable beacon of royal decorum cum quasi-middle-class decency. There’s a palpable feeling that the media/public – leastways, the royalist media/public – is behind them like never before, applauding their every move. Sure, it was always so, but, post-Oprah, there’s been a tangible turbo-boosting of the Cambridges’ profile. Call it what it is: a pushback.Cue last week’s video celebrating their 10th anniversary. Any other couple forcing others to celebrate their decade-long tru luv would have you demanding a bucket to retch into. The snarky Brit temperament being what it is, some might even ask: “What’s with all the PDA – are you guys getting a divorce?” But this was no public display of affection, it was marketing and the Cambridges are suddenly getting very good at it. Maybe even better than You Know Who. Continue reading...

Joel Greenberg says Gaetz ‘involved in sexual activities’ with 17-year-old as Anna Eskamani decries ‘extreme’ bro cultureA Florida Democrat who released audio of a strange voicemail from Matt Gaetz has called the scandal-hit Republican congressman “one of the most extreme examples of bro culture”, adding: “We can’t hold back in calling out a hostile and dangerous culture for women and girls.”Gaetz is reportedly under investigation for matters including allegedly paying for sex with an underage girl. This week, the Daily Beast obtained a letter in which a former ally said he and Gaetz were “involved in sexual activities” with the 17-year-old. Continue reading...

State representative Mike Nearman was charged with official misconduct and criminal trespass over December 2020 incidentProsecutors have levelled two criminal charges against a Republican member of the Oregon house of representatives who let far-right rioters into the state capitol in December.Related: Oregon Republican party falsely suggests US Capitol attack was a 'false flag' Continue reading...

The tech firm’s new mobile operating system can stop apps tracking you, but is it as big a deal as everyone, especially Facebook, thinks?I’ve just downloaded v14.5, the newest version of iOS, the operating system that runs my iPhone. Among the new features it boasts are: the option to unlock the phone with an Apple Watch while wearing a mask; support for something called the AirTag; separate skintone variations for emojis of couples; and more diverse voice options for Apple’s voice assistant, Siri. None of these “features” is of much use to me. But version 14.5 does add something that deeply interests me – the ability to control which apps are allowed to track my activity across other companies’ apps and websites.Apple calls this “app-tracking transparency” (ATT) and it concerns a code known as “the identity for advertisers” or IDFA. It turns out that every iPhone comes with one of these identifiers, the object of which is to provide hucksters with aggregate data about the user’s interests. Ponder that for a moment and then reflect on the irony of a company that since 2013 has been selling such tagged devices, while at the same time bragging about its commitment to users’ privacy. Apple’s defence, of course, is that savvy users could have disabled the IDFA via the phone’s settings and privacy menus, a response that connoisseurs of evasiveness will recognise as the Jesuitical ploy used by tech companies that know most customers would rather eat raw seaweed than tamper with the factory defaults on their devices. Continue reading...

Universal pre-school, paid family leave, subsidized childcare … who could possibly object to Biden’s plans to help children?Joe Biden wants to spend big money on small children. On Wednesday the president announced an ambitious $1.8tn plan to boost family assistance programs, childhood education and student aid. If passed, the American Families Plan would overhaul the current (dire) childcare system and inject billions into universal preschool, paid family leave and subsidized childcare. It would be paid for by raising taxes on the wealthy. Continue reading...

Former president speaks as lone anti-Trump Republican seeks House seat in Texas special electionAhead of a special election on Saturday to replace a Texas congressman who died after contracting Covid-19, former president George W Bush said the ascendancy of supporters of Donald Trump suggest Republicans “want to be extinct”.Related: George W Bush on Trump’s Republicans: ‘Isolationist, protectionist, nativist’ Continue reading...

Republicans tried to paint centrist Biden as an outlandish radical. It’s a laughable charge, and Americans aren’t buying it

As the second wave devastates India, there is a Nero-vian feel to it all: a smug, inert state indifferent to the smell of burningIn India’s capital city, citizens are dying in their hospital beds because they can’t breathe. Their lungs, clotted with Covid-induced pneumonia, need oxygen to function. Overwhelmed by India’s tsunami-like second wave and undermined by the smug inertia of the state, hospitals run out of oxygen and patients choke to death in front of their horrified families.Sometimes hospitals will discharge patients on oxygen support, casually giving their relatives a day or two to find rare air. They set off on frantic odysseys around Delhi, looking for one of two sources of oxygen: a heavy cylinder that weighs 50kg or more and looks like a dented relic from the Industrial Revolution, or a concentrator which extracts oxygen from the air in the room and pipes it into the patient. Delhi is something of a seller’s market. Prices vary. The going rate for a concentrator this week is 160,000 rupees, or slightly more than £1,500. That is a month’s salary for a tenured professor in a public university. Continue reading...

Conspiracy theories and ‘indoctrination’ claims run amok as childhood education bill prompts fury among fringe voicesThere is $6m from Donald Trump’s administration sitting on the table in Idaho, and trying to pick it up has caused an extraordinary uproar.Related: Woman in Disaster Girl meme sells original photo as NFT for $500,000 Continue reading...

It wasn’t the beach, but lying in front of a fire with the whole family under canvas: I’ve definitely had worse eveningsEven if you were lucky enough to avoid getting sick with Covid, there is a general consensus that we’ve all been changed by the pandemic, and the most popular consensus around what’s changed is that, after a year of sitting inside and scrolling through Netflix, we have forgotten how to deal with each other. “I’ve lost the ability to engage with anyone who isn’t my cat,” a friend texted. “Does the vaccine also make you want to see people?” the American TV writer Gary Janetti recently asked on Instagram, and the verdict from his 900,000 followers was a resounding no.Well, I don’t feel like that. I’m desperate to see everyone again, and my conversation skills are the same as they ever were, which is to say, they aren’t going to give Noël Coward any posthumous insecurity, but my friends tolerate them. Sure, I have even less to talk about than usual (“What have I been up to? Oh, keeping busy, updating my Deliveroo app”), but I still want to throw a massive party. Last summer I thought maybe living through a pandemic would give me new depths. But, no, I just want to get completely wrecked with all my favourite people. And if the music’s loud enough, they won’t hear how boring I am these days. Win-win. Continue reading...

The president has sought bipartisan support but not at the cost of delay and dilution of his bold policiesJoe Biden started his presidential campaign with promises to be a unifying force in Washington who would help lawmakers come together to achieve bipartisan reform. But over his first 100 days in office, Biden’s message to Republicans in Congress has been closer to this: get on board or get out of my way.This willingness to go it alone if necessary appears to be a hard-won lesson from the early years of Barack Obama’s presidency, when Democrats negotiated with Republicans on major bills only to have them vote against the final proposals. Continue reading...

During the racing season, about 1,000 workers at Kentucky’s Churchill Downs groom, exercise and take care of competitors – hard and potentially dangerous workWalking among the green-roofed stables of America’s most fabled horse racing track – Louisville’s Churchill Downs in Kentucky - chaplain Joseph Del Rosario greets the men and women washing prized thoroughbreds after their morning workouts with a warm “¿Cómo estás?”Making his way past piles of hay and curious horses poking their heads out of stalls, he walks to a security gate at the edge of the track where he reads a daily devotional over the PA system twice – once in English and once in Spanish. Continue reading...

Apple, Google owner Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft raked in money in first quarterBig tech is on a roll. In every minute of the first three months of 2021, Apple, Google owner Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft sold products and services worth about $2.5m (£1.8m) combined. Profits before tax for the period came in at $88bn – more than $1bn of profit for every working day.After a year of shifting to online work and leisure across the global economy, financial results published this week by most of US tech’s biggest names were bound to be strong. But even more bullish analysts on Wall Street were surprised by how fast they raked in money in the quarter, auguring even greater profits in the years ahead. Continue reading...

The entrepreneur-turned-collector financed the Broad museum in LA, and made huge donations to Yale, Harvard and MITEli Broad, the billionaire entrepreneur turned philanthropist and art collector who played an outsized role in shaping the art and cultural scene of Los Angeles, has died at the age of 87.Broad passed away at Cedars-Sinai medical centre in Los Angeles following a long illness, said Suzi Emmerling, a spokeswoman for the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Continue reading...

Former US secretary of state says strained relationship is world’s ‘biggest problem’, as he warns of Beijing’s economic and military mightFormer US diplomat Henry Kissinger has said that US-China tensions threaten to engulf the entire world and could lead to an Armageddon-like clash between the two military and technology giants.The 97-year-old former US secretary of state, who as an adviser to president Richard Nixon crafted the 1971 unfreezing of relations between Washington and Beijing, said the mix of economic, military and technological strengths of the two superpowers carried more risks than the cold war with the Soviet Union. Continue reading...

India’s healthcare system has been overwhelmed by the latest surge, with 386,452 new cases – which may be an undercountThe US will restrict travel from India starting next week, the White House said Friday, citing a devastating rise in Covid-19 cases in the country and the emergence of potentially dangerous variants of the coronavirus.The limits, which take effect from 4 May, with bar most non-US citizens arriving from India from entering the United States. Continue reading...

Palestinian Abu Zubaydah, detained for 19 years without trial, takes US, UK and five other countries before panelA Palestinian man held in Guantánamo Bay is taking the US, the UK and five other states before a UN human rights panel for their role in the CIA rendition and detention of terrorism suspects at “black sites” around the world.The unusual case is being brought to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions (UNWGAD) by Zayn Al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn, known as Abu Zubaydah, who has been detained for 19 years without trial. Continue reading...

Defense department will cancel all construction paid for with military funds originally intended for other purposesThe US Department of Defense said on Friday it was cancelling the construction of parts of former president Donald Trump’s border wall with Mexico that were being built using military funds.All unobligated money was being returned to military, the Pentagon said. Continue reading...

Body-camera footage showing Karen Garner being pushed to the ground and handcuffed led to outpouring of angerThree Colorado police officers involved in the arrest of a 73-year-old woman with dementia who was shown being pushed to the ground and handcuffed on body-camera footage have resigned, police said on Friday.The Loveland police chief, Robert Ticer, announced the departures of officers Austin Hopp and Daria Jalali and the community services officer Tyler Blackett in connection to the arrest of Karen Garner, without providing details about how they left. A department spokesperson, Tom Hacker, later confirmed they had resigned. Continue reading...

The actor Elliot Page has revealed having top surgery as part of his transition was a 'freeing experience' and he described transitioning as 'life-saving'.Page urged officials to support healthcare for transgender people and allow them access to sports.The actor spoke to Oprah Winfrey on her new show for Apple TV+. The full interview from The Oprah Conversation is expected to be released Friday.

A petition, signed by more than 54,000 people, calls on Biden to return the garden to its ‘former glory’ as Jacqueline Kennedy designedEfforts to erase the Trump family legacy have reached the White House potting sheds and nurseries with Jill Biden being urged to restore the mansion’s garden to a state that predates ex-First Lady Melania Trump’s 2019 makeover.An online petition calling on the first lady to return the Rose Garden to its “former glory” has been signed by more than 54,000 people. The petition says Biden’s predecessor “had the cherry trees, a gift from Japan, removed as well as the rest of the foliage and replaced with a boring tribute to herself”. Continue reading...