We’d like to readers from people in America on the president’s first few months, and how things have changed from Trump

City sent couple letter stating their fence violates ordinance as a Blue Lives Matter slogan appears on fence two blocks awayA simple suburban fence in Minnesota that has become a local attraction and a symbol of the battle for equality – but has also drawn critics – is now at the center of a row with the authorities.Ryan Weyandt and his husband, Michael Hainlin, keep bumping up against deadlines to obey a city order to paint over the vivid statement adorning their fence declaring that Black Lives Matter. Continue reading...

In 1994, the US’s annual border and immigration budget was $1.5bn. In 2020, the budget exceeded $25bn - a 16-fold increaseI’ll never forget Giovanni’s blistered feet as an EMT attended to him on the Mexico side of the US-Mexican border in Sasabe, a remote desert town. On the back of one foot, his skin had been rubbed away and the tender, reddish, underlying tissue exposed. One toenail had completely ripped off. Giovanni, who was from a small Guatemalan town near the Salvadorean border, had just spent days walking through the Arizona desert in the heat of July.When I think of the “border crisis”, I think of Giovanni’s gashed feet. Stories of death and near death, of pain and immense suffering like this, happen every single day. This displacement crisis is not temporary; it is perpetual. Continue reading...

Two men died after a Tesla vehicle believed to have been operating without anyone in the driver’s seat crashed into a tree north of Houston. The victims were reportedly found in the front passenger seat and the back seat of the 2019 Tesla Model S

President expected to unveil his plan for tackling the climate crisis this week. Plus, three dead in Texas mass shootingGood morning.Joe Biden is expected to lay out his plans for tackling the climate crisis this week, and call on the world’s other major economies to join him in slashing greenhouse gas emissions in the next decade. Continue reading...

After the third-driest year ever recorded in the state, California risks disaster just months after a devastating 2020Hillsides typically decked in colorful flowers are parched and splotched with brown. The so-called desert “superbloom” never materialized.California is facing a critically dry year. America’s most populous state only received half its average amount of rain this spring, making 2021 the third-driest year it has ever recorded. Continue reading...

Nursing home and home care workers worked long days with inadequate protection during the pandemic – now they want better pay and conditionsDuring the coronavirus pandemic, Shantonia Jackson, a certified nursing assistant at a nursing home in Cicero, Illinois, worked through Covid-19 outbreaks in which more than 250 residents tested positive for the virus, and one of her co-workers and friends passed away along with several residents.Jackson described working 16-hour days, seven days a week, as dozens of employees were often out sick or in quarantine. Caring for 70 residents at once, she still made time for those she cared for to use her cellphone to make video calls to loved ones they were no longer able to see. Adequate personal protective equipment was a constant issue and concern. At home, Jackson quarantined herself from the rest of her family, only interacting with her daughter through video calls even though they live in the same house. Continue reading...

The 41-year-old is set to break the great Gordie Howe’s record for NHL appearances. And he has done it with dedication, skill and no lack of humilityWhen a 41-year-old son of the Canadian Prairie takes his first shift for the San Jose Sharks on Monday night in Las Vegas, he will release a legend’s grasp on one of the National Hockey League’s most celebrated records.Patrick Marleau will play his 1,768th game, more than anybody else in league history. That includes Gordie Howe, the Hall of Famer whom Marleau will surpass on Monday night. The Sharks’ center took 23 years to pass Howe, who played 26 seasons in the NHL before retiring at 51. Continue reading...

The former England women’s head coach made his debut in charge of Inter Miami on Sunday. But a familiar name came back to haunt himFor new Inter Miami coach Phil Neville, the holidays are over. The former England women’s coach, who midweek spoke fondly of annual family vacations on South Beach during his playing days, tasted defeat in his first game in MLS, as LA Galaxy came from behind twice to earn a late 3-2 win at DRV PNK Stadium.With all the pre-match talk of the Manchester United reunion between Neville and team owner David Beckham, it was another Old Trafford old boy, Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernández, who spoiled the party with a pair of typically predatory finishes. The visitors sealed the points thanks to substitute Sacha Kljestan’s calm finish with nine minutes left. Continue reading...

Today is 420, the day to celebrate cannabis and its culture. Growing up in Oregon it was part of our lifestyle. Now the suits have taken over but it’s not all badIn the beginning, there was weed. My dad and I would walk down the gravel road and up a path through the woods to his patch, where the plants were partially hidden by a canopy of maples. It wasn’t an ideal spot for sunlight, but it was an ideal spot for hiding. My dad would carry bags of fertilizer on foot for a mile so that our truck was never spotted in the vicinity.Related: How a small town reacted when its mayor was caught growing weed Continue reading...

The 43rd president’s tour to promote his new book hasn’t been well received for those who remember his ‘war on terror’ daysHe’s back.George W Bush, the former US president, returns to the political stage this week with a promotional book tour comprising numerous “virtual conversations” and TV and radio interviews, including a late night talk show. Continue reading...

Police say the suspect is still at large but it appears to have been an isolated domestic situationThree people were shot dead in Austin on Sunday, authorities in Texas said. No suspects were in custody.Law enforcement officials closed off roadways in the Great Hills Trail and Rain Creek Parkway area of the city for an “active shooting incident”, according to a tweet from the city’s police department. Continue reading...

In contrast, the golf-loving Trump by this point of his presidency had already recorded 19 separate visits to golf coursesDuring last year’s presidential election campaign, one of Joe Biden’s strongest arguments to voters was that he wasn’t Donald Trump.After engaging in the favorite pastime of the “former guy” with the first trip to a golf course of his presidency on Saturday, he finds that he still isn’t. Continue reading...

Outcome is expected to resonate nationwide, particularly in cities that have seen continuing demonstrations over police violenceProtests against police killings flared across the US this weekend, from Minneapolis to Chicago to Portland, as Americans wait for a verdict in the trial of the white police officer charged with murdering George Floyd last year.Closing arguments are expected in the Derek Chauvin trial on Monday. The most serious charge the former Minneapolis officer is facing in Floyd’s death is second-degree murder, but the jury might choose to find him guilty on third-degree murder or manslaughter, or acquit him altogether. Continue reading...

Recent years have been punishing for regional and national news organisations. Both are essential if democracy is to thriveJeremy Corbyn and Sir Keir Starmer both paid tribute to Eric Gordon, the founder of the Camden New Journal, who died earlier this month, aged 89. Their interest was natural enough, as MPs in neighbouring boroughs – Camden and Islington – where the CNJ’s owner, New Journal Enterprises, publishes newspapers (its third title is in Westminster). But the story of this independently owned local news organisation has a significance that stretches beyond the capital.Launched after a journalists’ strike, in 1982, Gordon’s papers are proof that local outlets that put community before profit can still survive and even thrive – albeit on a tight budget. With important local elections coming up, this lesson has rarely been more important. Continue reading...

Brandon Hole bought assault weapons he used in attack months after his shotgun was confiscated over mental health concernsA gunman who murdered eight people at a FedEx warehouse in Indianapolis legally purchased the two semi-automatic rifles he used in the attack, months after a shotgun he owned was confiscated by police over concerns around his mental health.Brandon Hole, 19, who killed himself at the conclusion of the massacre, bought the two assault weapons in July and September 2020, according to Indianapolis metropolitan police chief Randal Taylor, after the shotgun was taken from him in March following a call from his mother concerned at his mental state. Continue reading...

‘On the one hand they want to be relieved of the restrictions. On the other hand, they don’t want to get vaccinated’Republicans who refuse the Covid-19 vaccination are actively “working against” efforts to lift the very coronavirus restrictions they insist are an infringement of their civil liberties, Dr Anthony Fauci, the US government’s leading infectious disease expert, said on Sunday.Fauci’s comments came as the government announced that half of all adults in the US had received at least one Covid-19 shot, marking another milestone in the nation’s largest-ever vaccination campaign. Almost 130 million people 18 or older have received at least one dose of a vaccine, or 50.4% of the total adult population, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported. Almost 84 million adults, or about 32.5% of the population, have been fully vaccinated. Continue reading...

Singer says shootings have become normal in US and ‘guns are too easy to own’Madonna has declared gun control the “new vaccination”, arguing that regulation would save lives.The singer shared a video of herself erecting fly-posters featuring messages including “Wake up America” and “Gun control now”. Continue reading...

Nostalgia, royal navel-gazing and angst: modern Britain is in danger of repeating the mistakes of 40 years agoMidway through last week, I spent a couple of hours in Redditch, 15 or so miles south of Birmingham. My daughter plays the drums, and she wanted to see the new statue of the late John Bonham, who grew up in Redditch, joined the hugely successful hard rock group Led Zeppelin, and died a tragic death in 1980. We found the impressive memorial in the local market square – an obviously popular meeting place, sullied by a conspicuous line of vacant shops.Redditch has had a rough time of late. Even now, its Covid infection rate is among the highest in the country. Like so many places, the town has said goodbye to its branch of Marks & Spencer, and is about to lose its Debenhams department store too. In the spring sunshine, it felt pinched and forlorn. This was thrown into sharper relief by what we then listened to on the car radio: endless chatter about the death of the Duke of Edinburgh, the supposed magic and wonder of the royal family, and the arrangements for his funeral. Continue reading...

The police killings of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old shot after being pulled over, and Adam Toledo, an unarmed 13-year-old, have sparked protests in a number of cities. Crowds in Minneapolis staged their sixth night of demonstrations, and thousand marched in Chicago, where Toledo was killed, after video of him being shot with his arms raised was released. Police in Portland declared a riot on Friday night

The South African variant has been detected in two London boroughs, leading to an outbreak of community spirit and unstoppable civic responsibilityMore than 40 cases of the South African variant of coronavirus in the south London boroughs of Lambeth and Wandsworth have led to widespread surge testing in the areas – not just a few streets, but everyone who lives and works there. The neighbourhood chat boards are heaving with first-hand testimonies about the testing sites. There’s a two-hour queue, and it’s outrageous. No, there’s a five minute queue and it’s brilliant. They’re talking about two different test centres, so it’s highly likely that they’re both right, but that doesn’t stop things getting pretty heated.Within any given five streets, I’d say, you get this perfectly bifurcated split of opinion: the government is useless and everything it does is stupid; no, the government is trying its best and everything it does is brilliant. Sometimes, I try to weigh in, with some context – “All the volunteers and professionals at the testing centres are trying superhumanly hard, and any inconvenience you experience will be the fault of some random mate of Matt Hancock’s” – but it’s got to the point that I’m even annoying myself. The best tactic, if you want to bring the community together, is to charge into the thread, shouting in all caps “NEW MOBILE TEST CENTRE JUST ABOUT TO OPEN BY THE TUBE” – the same way you can always stop a supermarket brawl by putting “checkout three opening” over the public address system – indeed, it is for precisely this reason that they have them. Continue reading...

If passed, Texans over age 21 could carry a gun without training or a background check. The state would be the 14th to have such a lawThis week, the Texas House of Representatives passed a bill dubbed “Constitutional Carry” that would allow citizens over the age of 21 to carry a gun without a license, drawing outrage from many state Democrats and gun-reform advocates.Texas law currently requires citizens to obtain a license to carry in order to carry a firearm openly or concealed. If passed into law, the new bill would remove that restriction, allowing Texans to carry guns without having to pass a background check or go through training. Texas would become the 14th state to implement such a law. Continue reading...

Kimberly White Smalls needed her coastal home rebuilt, but like other Black residents of New York’s Far Rockaway neighborhood, she was moved instead

The state governor seems determined to give the city’s famous skyline a lumpy revampAndrew Cuomo, the governor of New York state, is currently resisting calls to resign over allegations of sexual harassment. So what better way to prove that he is definitely not a phallocratic bully than to “ram through”, as one outlet puts it, a super-tall tower called Penn 15, and a vast development around it?It’s not just that its name reads like the personalised licence plate of an inadequate and not-literate male. It is also that this lumpy object will compete on the New York city skyline with the nearby Empire State Building – Penn 15 would be bulkier than its famous neighbour and almost as tall. It is part of the Penn District, a proposed “campus” that will rip up several city blocks and replace them with what, on the available evidence, looks like further big lumps swathed in bland and generic design. Continue reading...

More directors could be pushed off next week as aerospace firm tries to recover its reputation after 737 Max problems and Covid downturnTwo more top-level directors could be ousted from Boeing’s board of directors next week as family members of the victims of two fatal crashes of its 737 Max jets join shareholders to push for further high-level reforms at the aerospace giant.Related: Denver plane engine fire consistent with metal fatigue in fan blade, say investigators Continue reading...

The latest instance of a Black man killed by a police officer added fuel to the fire already burning in MinneapolisIt was shortly after midday on Thursday at the New Salem Missionary Baptist church in Minneapolis. In front of a towering stone facade, Katie Wright stood at the pulpit, almost dwarfed by the plexiglass lectern and mass of microphones in front of her. She shuddered with grief, held by members of her family.Five days earlier, her son, Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old father of one, had been shot and killed by a single bullet fired by a white police officer in the city suburb of Brooklyn Center. Four nights of unrest had followed with hundreds of protesters clashing with police dressed in riot gear, pelting crowds with teargas and rubber bullets. Continue reading...

From climate to healthcare, fundamental challenges demand the US change with the timesAmerica is about to revive an idea that was left for dead decades ago. It’s called industrial policy and it’s at the heart of Joe Biden’s plans to restructure the US economy.Related: Republican ‘attacks’ on corporations over voting rights bills are a hypocritical sham | Robert Reich Continue reading...

Thousands marched in Chicago where 13-year-old Adam Toledo was killed while about 100 arrested in Brooklyn CenterAfter a heated week of police violence, protests erupted in several US cities on Friday, at times turning tense.In the wake of the killings of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old shot by police after being pulled over, and unarmed 13-year-old Adam Toledo, thousands took to the streets to demonstrate, sometimes into the night. Continue reading...

The Consumer Product Safety Commission said it received reports of children and a pet being pulled, pinned and entrapped under the machineSafety regulators warned people with kids and pets Saturday to immediately stop using a treadmill made by Peloton after one child died and nearly 40 others were injured.The US Consumer Product Safety Commission said it received reports of children and a pet being pulled, pinned and entrapped under the rear roller of the Tread+ treadmill, leading to fractures, scrapes and the death of one child. Continue reading...

Michigan, which had some of the nation’s strongest health regulations, saw its second highest single-day case total on FridayWhile the United States’ Covid-19 vaccination initiative has eclipsed that of many other countries, a significant number of US cities and states remain hotspots where coronavirus continues to spread at record rates. The upticks come as more states loosen public health restrictions that have been in place to stop Covid-19’s spread.As of 16 April, the US saw an average of 70,117 cases daily, a surge of 8% from the mean 14 days ago, with hospitalizations increasing 9%, according to the New York Times. A minimum of 21 states have seen at least a 10% increase in daily positive coronavirus cases, CNN reports of recent Johns Hopkins University data. However, deaths are down 12% in this period. Continue reading...

Four were members of Indianapolis’ Sikh community – a grandmother, a mother, an aunt, a father who was picking up his first paycheckA gunman killed eight people Thursday night at a FedEx warehouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. The eight victims who died were identified by police as Matthew R Alexander, 32; Samaria Blackwell, 19; Amarjeet Johal, 66; Jaswinder Kaur, 64; Jaswinder Singh, 68; Amarjit Sekhon, 48; Karli Smith, 19; and John Weisert, 74.Four were members of Indianapolis’ Sikh community, dealing another blow to the Asian American community, as their deaths come one month after six people of Asian descent were killed in an Atlanta-area shooting spree, and amid continuing attacks and harassment against Asian Americans during the Covid-19 pandemic. Police chief Randal Taylor said that a “significant” number of employees at that FedEx facility are members of the Sikh community. It remains unclear whether Sikhs were targeted, authorities reportedly said. Continue reading...

Instagram for kids? If the billionaire catches them early, he’ll have them for lifeAs terrible ideas go, Instagram for kids is up there with lunchbox lager and power tools for toddlers. In March, Buzzfeed reported on Facebook’s plans to develop a product for those too young to sign up to Instagram officially, as the platform requires users to be at least 13.A company post cited “youth work as a priority for Instagram”, which sounds sinister even from the empire of Mark Zuckerberg, whose mission in life is seemingly to make Bond villains appear cuddly. Facebook says it will allow the company to focus on privacy and safety for children. Continue reading...

A new book records the House speaker making yet more disparaging remarks about congressional progressives Continue reading...

Some prosecutors and law enforcement observers say departments carried out mass arrests as crowd control tacticThe vast majority of citations and charges against George Floyd protesters were ultimately dropped, dismissed or otherwise not filed, according to a Guardian analysis of law enforcement records and media reports in a dozen jurisdictions around the nation.Related: After Breonna Taylor's death, activists fought to ban surprise police raids. One year later, they're winning Continue reading...

After a dramatic final week, all that is left is closing statements and jury decisionsThe prosecution took 10 days to lay out its case against Derek Chauvin. The former Minneapolis police officer’s defense to the charges of murdering George Floyd barely lasted two.The relative brevity of Chauvin’s case might reflect a confidence on the part of the defense that the evidence against him is easily picked apart or at least shaky enough to raise reasonable doubt with the jury. Continue reading...

Joe Biden and Japan’s prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, have presented a united front to counter an increasingly assertive China. The two leaders made statements at the US president’s first face-to-face White House summit since taking office. Biden said ‘we committed to working together to take on the challenges from China and on issues like the East China Sea’

Los Angeles officials have announced an effort to return the valuable Manhattan Beach property to the descendants of Willa and Charles BruceOn a recent morning, Duane Yellow Feather Shepard, 69, sat on a grassy hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean, steps away from one of southern California’s most pristine beaches.To visitors from around the world, it’s an idyllic stretch of coastline and a prime surfing spot. To Shepard, it’s the site that conceals a painful history. Continue reading...

As restrictions ease, tensions linger about what you should and shouldn’t do. So booking a babysitter felt outlandishly exciting

Alabama lawmaker’s bid to overturn a 28-year yoga ban in public schools faces backlash from conservative Christian groupsJeremy Gray, a state lawmaker in Alabama, has been practicing yoga for years, initially as a workout after college football matches and later as a means of instilling in himself the virtues of focus and patience.Now the Democrat from Opelika needs all the patience he can get as he seeks to overturn a 28-year yoga ban in Alabama public schools. The ban, believed to be the only statewide prohibition of its sort in America, is proving to be tougher to scrub from the statute books than might be expected. Continue reading...

Former state department career staff urge president to dismantle pay-for-play operations and to prioritize gender parityJoe Biden is coming under pressure from former state department career staff to match the diversity of his cabinet and senior administration positions in foreign postings – and to reform the longstanding practice in the US of rewarding political supporters with plum ambassadorial jobs.More than three months into his first term, Biden’s foreign diplomatic slate remains open, with only one top ambassador – Linda Thomas-Greenfield, to the United Nations, nominated and confirmed. Continue reading...

Actors and pop stars can be hit-and-miss as interviewees, whereas directors and music producers rarely disappoint. The same is true of writers versus editorsI am going to assume you are a Guardian reader, given that you are at this moment reading the Guardian. Whenever I meet Guardian readers, they invariably ask me about my fellow Guardian writers: what’s Tim Dowling like? (Extremely scary.) Have I ever met Polly Toynbee? (No, because she lives in a castle guarded by dragons.) Do I eat lunch with Marina Hyde? (She doesn’t eat lunch: she’s a vampire.) But I am never asked about my editors.One of the many cultural differences between British and American journalism is that in the US, even among non-journalists, there is a genuine reverence for editors: Ben Bradlee, who edited the Washington Post during Watergate; former New Yorker editor William Shawn; Robert Silvers, the late founding editor of the New York Review of Books. Continue reading...

Activists welcome support in the battle against Republican voter suppression but wonder what such words are worthDespite a wave of public statements by corporations opposing legislation that would make it harder for people to vote, election reform advocates doubt American capitalism is really coming to the rescue of American democracy.Activists are welcoming corporate involvement in the fight against bills introduced by Republicans in state legislatures across the US to erect barriers to voting that disproportionately affect people of color and other groups that often vote Democratic. Continue reading...

The America First Policy Institute calls itself ‘non-partisan’ and a ‘non-profit’ but critics regard it as a cash cow for Trump alumni with stained reputationsMalcolm X, Mark Twain, Malcolm Gladwell. Lewis Carroll, Steve Jobs. Douglas Adams, Mohandas Gandhi, Rocky Balboa – all seem unlikely sources of inspiration for a definition of Trumpism.Yet these are among the prominent figures quoted by members of a new thinktank dedicated to resurrecting former US president Donald Trump’s populist-nationalist agenda. Continue reading...

Investigators searched the home of teen shooter Brandon Scott Hole, but found no evidence of racially motivated ideologyThe former employee who shot and killed eight people at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis was interviewed by FBI agents last year, after his mother called police to say that her son might commit “suicide by cop”, the bureau has revealed.Coroners released the names of the victims late Friday, a little less than 24 hours after the latest mass shooting to rock the US. Four of them were members of Indianapolis’ Sikh community. The attack was another blow to the Asian American community, a month after six people of Asian descent were killed in a mass shooting in the Atlanta area. Continue reading...

About 1,000 gather in park a day after police released video of officers shooting 13-year-oldHundreds marched through the streets of Chicago on Friday to protest the police shooting of Adam Toledo, a day after police released of body-cam video showing the deadly shooting of the 13-year-old boy with his hands in the air.About a thousand people gathered on Friday evening in a park on Chicago’s north-west side, some holding signs that read “Stop killing kids” and “CPD can’t be reformed”. A brass band played music as the crowd chanted: “No justice, no peace.” Continue reading...

Victim has not been identified after police confronted man at Lents Park on Friday morningAn angry crowd of protesters gathered in a park in Portland on Friday after police fatally shot a man while responding to reports of a person with a gun.Videos on social media showed protesters skirmishing with police, who used Mace to keep them away from the crime scene. Continue reading...

US justice department accuses Trump ally and Republican operative of using a commercial entity to hide incomeThe US Department of Justice has sued Roger Stone, saying the close ally of former president Donald Trump owes about $2m in unpaid federal income taxes, according to a court document.The civil lawsuit, filed in federal court in Florida on Friday, alleged that Stone and his wife, Nydia, used a commercial entity to “shield their personal income from enforced collection and fund a lavish lifestyle despite owing nearly $2m in unpaid taxes, interest and penalties”. Continue reading...