A diverse community has come together and embraced activism in the face of a pandemic-linked upsurge in racismNatty Jumreornvong was outside Mount Sinai hospital on the Upper East Side of New York around 11am one morning in February when a man approached her.Related: 'Our community is bleeding': Asian American lawmakers say violence has reached 'crisis point' Continue reading...
Claudia Yoli Ferla, incoming executive director at Move Texas, is trying to turn first-time voters into lifetime organizersClaudia Yoli Ferla can’t vote herself.But, by registering and educating others, the 28-year-old immigrant and El Pasoan has helped thousands of fellow Texans gain access to the polls, despite the blot of voter suppression in her state. Continue reading...
by Sunnie R Clahchischiligi. Photographs by Magdalena on (#5GFBX)
Photographer Magdalena Wosinska spent about two weeks sleeping in the basement of a community center looking to show the beauty of the community in Pine RidgeWhen Monique “Muffie” Mousseau was in the fourth grade she got expelled from Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic school on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota.Her classmates didn’t like the beaded moccasins her grandmother made for her and the two braids she sported, which were held together by hand-beaded hair ties. Continue reading...
Several dozen demonstrators holding Black Lives Matter banners and signs faced off with police in riot gear in a suburb of Minneapolis after Daunte Wright, 20, was reportedly shot and killed by police. Wright was believed to have been approached by police as part of traffic stop. The individual had an outstanding warrant. As police were attempting to take the individual into custody, he reportedly tried to get back into his vehicle, at which time he was shot by a police officer. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene and a passenger in the vehicle was injured
Allowing the likes of Google and Facebook to reap the rewards of junk food ads leaves a sour taste in the mouthSometimes, in my most misanthropic moods, I’m seduced by a libertarian approach to advertising rules. You know, just let it all out there. Let them go for it. Maybe you still try to prevent outright lies, but actually maybe you don’t even bother with that. Let them tell us that a McFlurry, say, brings eternal life and see whether doing so would really elevate sales even over the medium term – when the bloated corpses of the McFlurry gorgers begin to stack up.And we’d be done with expressions such as “increases by up to” and “helps prevent” by which products’ efficacy can be almost infinitely exaggerated without a direct lie having been told. I think that might be refreshing, unless phrases by which false concepts are conveyed through an intricate lattice of literal truths turn out to be our current civilisation’s only lasting art form, with “not even a black hole can eat three Shredded Wheat” as the central masterpiece, brilliant because it is a lie made permissible only by the fact that no one is supposed to believe it. Continue reading...
by Dominic Rushe in New York and David Smith in Washi on (#5GEFW)
The GOP says the $2tn infrastructure plan is too big. Democrats say Trump cut taxes and ‘spent like a drunken sailor’The response was as uniform as it was predictable.Related: Republican ‘attacks’ on corporations over voting rights bills are a hypocritical sham Continue reading...
The disputed term is often used in fatal cases of police violence, but isn’t recognized by some major medical bodiesThroughout the first phases of the Derek Chauvin murder trial, the defense attorney Eric Nelson has made passing reference to the term “excited delirium” as he attempts to build a case for his client.Nelson referenced the phrase during opening arguments, has asked a number of witnesses about the term and may well explore it when the defense gets to present its case. Continue reading...
With Putin and Xi moving into an ever closer alliance, Joe Biden’s untested US administration may be pushed to the brinkIt may just be coincidence that Russia was piling military pressure on Ukraine last week at the same time as China noisily rattled sabres around Taiwan. Spring, to mangle Tennyson, is when a young man’s fancy turns to war – and that twisted maxim may even apply to ageing thugs such as Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.Russia and China are moving into ever closer alliance. While there is no evidence of direct collusion over Ukraine and Taiwan, presidents Putin and Xi are doubtless fully aware of each other’s actions, which have an identical, mutually reinforcing effect: putting the wind up Joe Biden’s untested US administration. Continue reading...
The interior secretary has announced the formation of a new unit to investigate the ‘epidemic’ of violenceFor 30 long years, Ana White has been searching for her sister, Andrea “Chick” White. The then 22-year-old Native mother of four, along with an eight-month-old baby, had traveled to Eureka, California, in July 1991 for a court date, after an auto accident. She was spotted hitchhiking home along a freeway near Blue Lake, in northern California. She has been missing ever since.
In the early days of his post-presidential life, Trump has crashed a wedding and welcomed maskless Mar-a-Lago guestsWhat do US presidents do once they leave the White House? Barack Obama kite-surfed with Richard Branson. Jimmy Carter returned to his peanut farm and found that it was $1m in debt. George W Bush got into painting.It’s early days, but Donald Trump’s post-presidential life has been just like his presidency: non-traditional. Aside from setting up an eyebrow-raising new website, and releasing wannabe tweets as official statements, he’s spent most of his time inside his new home at Mar-a-Lago, the giant and exclusive resort he owns in south Florida. Continue reading...
With red states set to gain seats, the GOP is ready to disadvantage Democrats and deliver the US HouseRepublicans believe they have a great chance to win control of the US House of Representatives in 2022, needing a swing of about six seats to depose Nancy Pelosi as speaker and derail Joe Biden’s agenda.Related: On the House review: John Boehner’s lament for pre-Trump Republicans Continue reading...
LSE and Resolution Foundation findings reveal lasting ethnic disadvantage; why was this not reflected in the race report?The recent Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report generated controversy, but little light, which is what failure looks like when your purpose is to shed light on the disadvantages faced by ethnic minorities. So let’s get the facts straight, labour market and living standards wise.Related: Race report: 'the government has completely missed the mark' Continue reading...
The deal between big business and government – donations in return for low taxes or none – remains absolutely unchangedFor four decades, the basic deal between big American corporations and politicians has been simple. Corporations provide campaign funds. Politicians reciprocate by lowering corporate taxes and doing whatever else corporations need to boost profits.Related: Don't expect Biden to trumpet lofty aims for his rescue plans – he's simply Mr Fix-it | Robert Reich Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Richmond, Virginia on (#5GDYW)
Lt Caron Nazario, who is Black and Latino, files suit after encounter in which officers referenced executionA second lieutenant in the US army is suing two Virginia police officers over a traffic stop last December in which the officers drew their guns, pointed them at him and used a slang term to suggest he was facing execution before pepper-spraying him and knocking him to the ground.Body camera footage shows Caron Nazario, who is Black and Latino, dressed in uniform and with his hands held in the air outside the driver’s window as he tells the armed officers he is “honestly afraid to get out” of his SUV. Continue reading...
As some players’ mentors have found out in Masters week, this grand old club will punish anyone who breaks its traditionsThe famously no-nonsense approach of Augusta National to matters of discipline has been evident once more during Masters week, with more than one player’s coach understood to have been ejected from the premises for violating the rules on mobile phone usage.In one instance, a competitor’s tutor was discovered to be filming his client from outside the ropes during the opening round and was duly asked to leave the course. It is unclear whether the coach was allowed back inside the gates, given his player has survived the 36-hole cut. Continue reading...
Trump and his allies foresaw a ticking timebomb centred on the president’s son – but it has not turned out that wayWhere’s Hunter?The rhetorical question about Joe Biden’s troubled son was posed time and again by Donald Trump during last year’s US presidential election but never caught fire in the way “Lock her up!” did against Hillary Clinton. Continue reading...
Player invited Lee Elder to play in South Africa and was praised by Nelson Mandela but admits his past is not blamelessIt has been almost 50 years since Lee Elder became the first black man to play in the Masters, and five months since Augusta National announced they were at last going to mark his achievement by inviting him to join Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player as one of the tournament’s honorary starters.So long that when the moment finally came around early on Thursday morning, Elder, who is 86, wasn’t able to get up and swing a club. Instead he sat and watched as Player and Nicklaus did. It was a poignant moment, despite the way Player’s son (and caddie) Wayne, hovered over Elder’s shoulder cradling a branded box of golf balls, like a model on the shopping channel. Continue reading...
Senate parliamentarian’s decision widens path for Democrats to enact Joe Biden’s sprawling infrastructure planA novel interpretation of an arcane parliamentary procedure has presented congressional Democrats with an unexpected – and tantalizing – new opportunity to advance some of their most ambitious legislative goals despite their slim majorities and fierce Republican opposition.Related: Biden urges Republicans to back $2tn infrastructure plan: ‘Inaction is not an option’ Continue reading...
The irreverent Ruthless attracts big-name guests and is offering a rightwing alternative to wildly popular progressive podcastsAn increasingly prominent Republican podcast is emerging as a conservative alternative to the type of political media progressives have had a monopoly on for years: the partisan, edgy-oftentimes-irreverent entertainment show that nevertheless attracts powerful newsmakers.The podcast, called Ruthless, is hosted by Josh Holmes, a former chief of staff to Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Michael Duncan, one of Holmes’s colleagues at the consulting firm they work for, and the lawyer pseudonymously known by his Twitter handle Comfortably Smug. Continue reading...
He and his wife, Carolyn Bessette, endured the cruelty of the press long before Harry and MeghanBecause I’ve been watching a lot of 90s sitcoms recently, I’ve been thinking about John F Kennedy Jr. Seinfeld, Sex And The City, Murphy Brown: his name pops up in them all. It will be 22 years this summer since he died, so a lot of people have forgotten what a big deal he was back then, especially in New York. But John-John, as his parents and the media teasingly called him, remains the closest thing America will probably ever have to a prince. When his plane crashed, only two years after the death of Princess Diana, it really did feel like the cruellest fairytale: the fairest prince and princess in all the lands would not make old bones.I have always been fascinated by Kennedy, the boy who, aged three, saluted his murdered father’s coffin, and then grew up to become America’s most gilded of youths. That surplus of handsomeness, that burdensome name, his efforts to live up to his mother’s high standards while skating around the familial whirlpool pull of politics. The media were never sure whether to sneer or swoon, so they did both, epitomised in the headline after he failed the New York bar exam twice: “The Hunk Flunks.” He had every privilege God could bestow on a man, but had to contend with the sting of his mother’s disapproval of both his career choices (acting, founding the magazine George) and his girlfriends (Daryl Hannah). He was a Shakespearean character in the body of a Ken doll. Continue reading...
The pandemic is once again causing governments to pit incompatible ideas of freedom against each otherNow that the UK’s vaccination programme is beginning to offer an escape route out of lockdown restrictions, despite some hitches, attention is focusing on so-called domestic vaccine passports. Important details remain uncertain but the idea has already been criticised as potentially “divisive and discriminatory”, as well as going against “British instinct” – presumably because Covid passports are reminiscent of compulsory ID cards, the absence of which many regard as a hallmark of British liberty. The desire for freedom is, of course, pretty universal – but there are many, and incompatible, ideas of freedom.The British philosopher Isaiah Berlin famously distinguished two from more than 200 senses of the word he claimed had been recorded by historians of ideas: “negative liberty”, or freedom from interference; and “positive liberty”, or freedom understood as self-mastery and self-determination. The former ensures that others don’t hinder your choices, while the latter aims to create conditions that give you options and make your choices truly yours and genuinely free. Continue reading...
Chief says Chauvin ‘in no way, shape or form’ followed training as key witnesses form striking bookends to weekThe trial of Derek Chauvin, 45, the white former police officer charged with murdering George Floyd in Minneapolis last May, completed its 10th day of witness testimony on Friday.The second week was very different from the first but no less dramatic. The opening days of prosecution witness testimony last week focused on the viral, harrowing bystander video and newly released footage of Floyd’s agonizing death, then on the accounts of some of the traumatized bystanders themselves. Continue reading...
Historic queer institutions across southern California that have been safe spaces for LGBTQ+ crowds for decades are in danger of closing permanentlyFour iconic Los Angeles gay bars, touting a combined history of 130 years, have permanently closed during the pandemic and many more have warned that they are on the brink of shutdown.Related: An order of queer and trans 'nuns' in San Francisco take on an unholy year Continue reading...
