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House select committee opens its first hearing with searing testimony from four officers who were attacked and beaten on 6 JanuaryGood morning.The House select committee investigating the 6 January attack opened on Tuesday with harrowing testimony from police officers who were beaten and assaulted while protecting the US Capitol. Continue reading...

Europe and the US are economically dependent on China now – and ‘change through trade’ is no longer on the cardsOn YouTube, you can watch a video clip of Volkswagen’s chief executive, Herbert Diess, denying that he knows what’s going on in Xinjiang. When the BBC correspondent helpfully spells it out – so-called reeducation camps for one million Uyghurs – Diess says: “I’m not aware of that.” Either he was being culpably ignorant about a region where Volkswagen has a factory, or he was lying.This was in the spring of 2019, and a company spokesperson soon declared that Diess was “of course aware” of the situation in Xinjiang. The case is particularly sensitive because Volkswagen was originally set up by the Nazis, and its use of forced labour during the Third Reich has been scrupulously documented by German historians. Continue reading...

We asked a panelist of experts on when we need to start changing our economies and ways of consuming and producing. Their answer: nowWe have zero years before climate and ecological breakdown, because it’s already here. We have zero years left to procrastinate. The longer we wait to act, the worse the floods, fires, droughts, famines and heatwaves will get. Continue reading...

My heart soars imagining how much anguish will be sidestepped by girls and women who pay attention to Simon Biles’ wise wordsThis week was not the first time I watched Simone Biles in action and thought “Wow, I wish I could do that!” It was, however, the first time I thought I might actually be able to. I myself am a writer, making me the natural opposite of an athlete. As I slump in front of my laptop and watch her flip and twist and fly through the air, I am dazzled. But when she tells a barrage of cameras and microphones that she is withdrawing from the women’s team final mid-competition at the Tokyo Olympic Games to focus on her mental wellbeing? I am awe-struck. I sit up immediately and listen carefully to what she says, on her social media and during press conferences, and I learn over and over that you’re allowed to step back when you need to. I see from her demeanour that it’s an extremely difficult thing to do, but that it is possible. No matter how much pressure you’re under you can simply state your needs, make your health a priority and fundamentally not feel you must do what everyone else wants you to do. Forget about the Yurchenko double pike vault, it is that move – the defensive retreat, the protective step back – that wins her all of my medals.Of course that’s a corny thing to say, and in any case I don’t have any medals except a battered one from my summer of 93 read-a-thon. Besides, Simone Biles stopped needing to win medals to prove her greatness a long time ago, although that has not stopped her from winning them. During the 2019 World Championships she won five gold medals and became the most decorated gymnast in World Championship history. She is a once in a lifetime athlete, perhaps the best there’s ever been. Even in all this week’s furore, herself and her team won silver medals, an achievement as much hers as her three team-mates. The others were extremely clear on that, with one of her teammates, Jordan Chiles stating: “But at the end of the day, we did though,” she said. “This medal was definitely for her because if it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t be here where we are right now.” Continue reading...

The street skateboarding podium may be the youngest in Olympic history, and the Games’ newest sport is all about youthOn 3 August 2016, when skateboarding was officially approved for inclusion in the 2020 Olympics, Momiji Nishiya was looking forward to her ninth birthday later that month. Five years and one pandemic postponement later, she became her sport’s first female gold medalist, winning the street event in Tokyo earlier this week. She is just 13 years old.Rayssa Leal, the Brazilian who took silver, is eight months younger. And the third woman – or in this case, girl – who collected a medal Sunday, Funa Nakayama, is a comparatively ancient 16. Continue reading...

Electronic visit verification systems make homecare more difficult, trap people with disabilities, and cost more than paper timesheets. So why are they rolling out across the country?For years, LeDanté Walker set aside what little extra cash he could find so no matter the issue with his health insurance coverage, his caregiver was always taken care of.Walker, who sustained a spinal cord injury when he was ejected from the back seat of a car in a 1997 accident, relies on a home care worker for many day-to-day functions, from moving from his bed to his wheelchair every morning, to helping him shower, get dressed, go to the bathroom and prepare meals. Continue reading...

The album, purchased by Shkreli for $2m, was bought for an undisclosed sumAn unreleased Wu-Tang Clan album that “Pharma Bro” entrepreneur Martin Shkreli forfeited after his securities fraud conviction was sold Tuesday for an undisclosed sum, though prosecutors say it was enough to fully satisfy the rest of what he owed on a $7.4m forfeiture order he faced after his 2018 sentencing.The entrepreneur once boasted that he paid $2m in 2015 at auction for Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, the 31-track double album the Wu-Tang Clan spent six years creating. Continue reading...

Simone Biles pulled out of the women’s team gymnastics to “put mental health first”, Naomi Osaka was eliminated from the women’s tennis, and GB’s gymnasts won bronze12.03am BSTAnd I guess that’s as good a place as any to call it a day. I know it’s only the UK where it’s about to strike 12, but we’ve got to change over somewhere and this is where we’re doing it. So it’s goodnight from me and good evening to Tom Lutz in New York, who’ll guide you through the next bit. Join him by clicking below, and ta-ra.Related: Tokyo 2020 Olympics: rowing medals, cycling time trial, diving and more – live!11.57pm BSTThat talk of Olympic boxing minded of this from Seoul. There were simultaneous bouts in two rings, one using a bell and one a buzzer and one of the fighters, Chun Jim Chil, forgot which was in his. Continue reading...

Federal employees will be required to get Covid vaccine or submit to regular testing, according to CNNJoe Biden says requiring all federal workers to get coronavirus vaccine is “under consideration” as the Delta variant surges.Meanwhile, CNN has reported that the president will indeed announce a vaccine requirement for all federal employees and contractors, or submit to regular testing and mitigation requirements, according to a source the network said is close to the matter. Continue reading...

Secretary of state Antony Blinken says vandalism a painful reminder that antisemitism remains an issue in the USSecretary of State Antony Blinken has confirmed that a swastika was carved into an elevator wall at the state department’s main headquarters and said an investigation was underway.In a message sent to all department employees on Tuesday, Blinken said that the vandalism was a painful reminder that antisemitism remains an issue in the US and around the world and must be combatted relentlessly. Continue reading...

Protesters shut down a press conference by Congress members Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Louis Gohmert and Paul Gosar about the arrests and investigation of the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.The far-right Republican members of Congress stood outside the US Department of Justice and said they were demanding answers on the treatment and status of the prisoners jailed in connection with the 6 January riot. Gaetz, Greene, Gohmert and Gosar have staunchly defended former president Donald Trump and his supporters.The news conference comes as police officers testified to a Democratic-led House of Representatives investigatory committee in its first session probing the incident

Revision of mask guidelines comes amid a surge in Covid cases as Delta variant becomes more prevalentThe nation’s top health agency revised its mask guidance on Tuesday and now recommends fully vaccinated Americans wear masks indoors in certain places.In a shift from its earlier guidance issued on 13 May, which said vaccinated individuals did not need to wear masks in most indoor settings, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now advises Americans to wear a mask in “public indoor settings” with “substantial and high transmission”. This comes amid a surge in Covid cases as the highly contagious Delta variant has become more prevalent. Continue reading...

Move declines to assert executive privilege for then acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen, clearing path for others to testifyFormer Trump administration officials can testify to Congress about Donald Trump’s role in the deadly January attack on the Capitol and his efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 election, the justice department (DoJ) has said in a letter obtained by the Guardian.The move by the justice department declined to assert executive privilege for Trump’s acting attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen, clearing the path for other top former officials to also testify to congressional committees investigating the Capitol attack without fear of repercussions. Continue reading...

The world was clamouring for the American to outdo her competitors as well as herself. It took exceptional bravery for her to step backShe hadn’t lost in all-round competition since Frozen pipped Iron Man 3 at the box office, has four moves (four!) named after her, attempts routines that literally break the scoring system – routines some male colleagues won’t even try. She so reliably makes gymnastics a trending topic that no less than Twitter was compelled to create a goat emoji to reflect her status as the Greatest of All Time; never mind that she is just 24 years old. Those four golds she won in her Rio Games debut? Pfft. Light work, they promised. Wait till Tokyo, and you’ll see how easily she reels in Larisa Latynina’s all-time record of nine career golds. For the five years that Simone Biles has reigned supreme over her sport, all we’ve heard is how she’s the next surest thing after death and taxes. Until, of course, she wasn’t.On Tuesday, as her American team was in the early stages of the women’s gymnastics team final, Biles huddled with a trainer after a flubbed attempt on her opening vault. When she then exited the competition floor with a USA Gymnastics doctor, the world held its collective breath. The excitement of seeing her reemerge several minutes later was quickly tempered when she slipped off her bar grips and hugged teammates Grace McCallum, Sunisa Lee and Jordan Chiles before slipping into sweatpants and a jacket and urging on her teammates. Continue reading...

From silencing opponents to spying on citizens, the world’s authoritarians are refining a strategy for perpetual ruleDemocracy depends on an equality of arms. If governments acquire political weapons unavailable to their opponents, they become harder to dislodge. They now possess so many that I begin to wonder how an efficient autocracy, once established, might ever again be overthrown.The Pegasus spyware, whose widespread use by governments the Guardian has helped reveal, is just the latest variety of asymmetric force. The ability to peer into someone’s life from a distance, to track their every movement, word and intention, grants autocrats an unprecedented power. It turns us into informants against ourselves. No one subject to this spying can now plan, however peacefully and democratically, to replace a government without those plans being known in advance and in all likelihood thwarted. Continue reading...

Simone Biles was forced to withdraw from the women’s team gymnastics final at the Tokyo Games on Tuesday, citing mental health concerns after a difficult opening vault. The four-times Olympic champion said she had been struggling mentally in recent days and after the vault, she decided she wanted to 'take a back seat' and was confident her teammates would win a medal. Biles has not yet decided if she will compete in the all around final on Thursday.

The aggression that has made the US women’s team great is lacking at Tokyo 2020. But they have come back from slow starts before and prosperedPerfection has long been the standard for the United States women’s soccer team, a burden embraced through the years. By that measure, the Americans were a shadow of themselves through the group stage of the Tokyo Olympics, losing their opener 3-0 to Sweden, and playing Australia to a dull, scoreless draw on Tuesday to advance to the knockout stage.A cliché more grounded in realism, however, is one which US players have recited at past major tournaments: the group stage is just about getting through, and the ‘second’ tournament begins in the knockouts. The Americans are at phase two now, as they always are, but their gold-medal aspirations look far less certain than they did a week ago. Continue reading...

This is why many politicians see redistricting as a way to rig the system in their favorPolitical strategists have long known that they can manipulate the electoral redistricting process.In 1991, Republican mapmaker Thomas Hofeller said: “I define redistricting as the only legalized form of vote-stealing left in the United States today.” In the following decades, he drew gerrymandered maps that gave Republicans electoral advantages across the country. Continue reading...

Former Trump press secretary criticises ‘arrogant’ medical experts but admits the benefits of the shot outweigh any potential risksThe former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders has urged people in Arkansas to “pray about it” before considering whether to get what she dubbed the “Trump vaccine” against Covid-19.Related: US will not lift travel restrictions ‘at this point’ due to spread of Delta variant Continue reading...

Department of Veterans Affairs becomes first major federal agency to require healthcare workers to receive Covid shotCalifornia and New York City announced on Monday that they would require all government employees to get the coronavirus vaccine or face weekly Covid-19 testing, and the Department of Veterans Affairs became the first major federal agency to require healthcare workers to receive the shot.Related: Fauci says health officials considering mask guidance revision for vaccinated Continue reading...

From strengthening flood defences to creating low-traffic neighbourhoods, our city is taking bold action

Who will testify, who will lead the proceedings, and why are there so few Republicans on the committee?The long-awaited investigation into the 6 January insurrection will begin on Tuesday, when a House special committee convenes to investigate the deadly attack on the US Capitol.It has been more than six months since hundreds of Donald Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in a bid to prevent Joe Biden’s confirmation as president, and two months since Senate Republicans blocked a bipartisan plan to establish an independent commission to explore the attack. Continue reading...

BMX welcomes its flashier sibling to the Ariake Urban Sports Park and the results are sure to be spectacularThirteen years after BMX racing made its Games debut in Beijing, the off-road cycling pursuit has welcomed its flashier sibling, BMX freestyle, into the Olympic fold. Both disciplines are fast and furious, but with distinctly different styles.The debutant discipline is mesmerising: freestyle riders are given 60 seconds to cause havoc across an obstacle-filled park. They pull as many tricks as they can, receiving an average score from a panel of judges based on 11 distinct criteria. In the final, each rider is given two runs – the best single score wins. The manic front-flips and back-flips make for compelling viewing. Continue reading...

House select committee will investigate circumstances around 6 January attack on US Capitol amid Republican boycottGood morning.The investigation into the 6 January attack on the US Capitol opens on Tuesday, with the special committee established by the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, convening to hear testimony from law enforcement. Continue reading...

Black women who use lye-based hair relaxers at least seven times a year for 15 or more years have a 30% increased risk of breast cancerA new study reveals what some scientists and researchers have suspected for years – that frequent and long-term use of lye-based hair relaxers may have serious health effects, including breast cancer. Published in Oxford University’s Carcinogenesis Journal, the study found that Black women who used these products at least seven times a year for 15 or more years had a roughly 30% increased risk of developing breast cancer compared with more infrequent users.The research team also analyzed survey data from Boston University’s Black Women’s Health Study, which followed more than 50,000 African American women for more than 25 years and observed their medical diagnoses and any factors that could influence their health. The results? Of the women followed from 1997 to 2017, 95% reported using lye-based relaxers, and ultimately 2,311 developed breast cancers. Continue reading...

A supreme court justice described the last round of gerrymandering as ‘dishonoring US democracy’. Another round is about to start – will this be another ‘political heist’?Ten years ago, Republicans pulled off what would later be described as “the most audacious political heist of modern times”.It wasn’t particularly complicated. Every 10 years, the US constitution requires states to redraw the maps for both congressional and state legislative seats. The constitution entrusts state lawmakers with the power to draw those districts. Looking at the political map in 2010, Republicans realized that by winning just a few state legislative seats in places like Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, they could draw maps that would be in place for the next decade, distorting them to guarantee Republican control for years to come. Continue reading...

The American swimmer is extraordinary over short distances but she has also mastered skills that make her almost unbeatable over 1500mAfter Katie Ledecky versus Ariarne Titmus, prepare for Ledecky against herself.That’s how it seems, anyway, when the American swims the 1500m freestyle: she is so superior to her rivals that only a major – and highly unlikely – technical or tactical breakdown could deny her victory. Continue reading...

A new exhibition showcases three innovative Cameroonian photographers whose images embody the ‘golden age’ of studio portraiture in west Africa

Several more were in hospital with critical injuries after high winds blew up dust and impaired visibilityAt least eight people have been killed in a 20-vehicle pileup during a sandstorm in Utah, the highway patrol said.The crashes happened on Interstate 15 near the town of Kanosh on Sunday, the agency said in a news release. Several people were reportedly taken to hospitals in critical condition. Ground and air ambulances were used to transport crash victims. Continue reading...

Lawyer now faces six months in jail following a decades-long battle against the oil companySteven Donziger, the lawyer who has spearheaded a lengthy fight against Chevron over pollution in the Amazon rainforest, has been found guilty of criminal contempt by a US federal judge in the latest twist in his decades-long legal battle with the oil company.On Monday, US district judge Loretta Preska ruled that Donziger was guilty of six contempt charges brought against him for refusing to hand over evidence in a complex legal wrangle that has pitted the lawyer directly against Chevron. Continue reading...

Gold medals for Adam Peaty, Tom Pidcock and the men’s synchronised 10m platform divers saw the day christened Magic Monday by desperate Britons12.08am BSTThe leaders are off their bikes, slipping on their trainers and starting the final athlon of the triathlon in bright sunshine. Georgia Taylor-Brown was dropped in the final half-lap of the bike ride as she cycled on one flat tyre, leaving a leading group of four composed of Jess Learmonth, Katie Zaferes, Flora Duffy and Laura Lindemann, with Taylor-Brown around 20sec behind.. Tom Lutz will take you through the remainder of the race if you click on the link that follows. This liveblog will end here. This is a dead end. There’s nothing to see here, please move along.Related: Tokyo Olympics 2020: women’s triathlon, swimming, tennis and more – live!12.03am BSTOnto the last lap, and the leading five have a 1min 13sec advantage. As they transition into the run in a few minutes, we’re going to switch to an entirely new liveblog to cover a new day (this will be particularly confusing if you’re not in the UK at the moment - we’ve got to start our days somewhere). You can find this blog here:Related: Tokyo Olympics 2020: women’s triathlon, swimming, tennis and more – live! Continue reading...

Estelle Hedaya, 54, identified a month after middle-of-the-night catastrophe ultimately claimed 98 livesThe final victim of the condo building collapse in Florida has been identified, a relative said Monday, more than a month after the middle-of-the-night catastrophe that ultimately claimed 98 lives.Estelle Hedaya, an outgoing 54-year-old with a love of travel, was the last victim identified, ending what her relatives described as a torturous four-week wait. Continue reading...

Restrictions that bar much of the world’s population from the US since 2020 will not be lifted in the short term, White House saysThe United States will not lift any existing travel restrictions “at this point” due to concerns over the highly transmissible Covid-19 Delta variant and the rising number of US coronavirus cases, the White House confirmed on Monday.The decision comes after a senior level White House meeting late on Friday. It means that the long-running travel restrictions that have barred much of the world’s population from the United States since 2020 will not be lifted in the short term. Continue reading...

Defense department promises improvements in quality of life and mental health help on army basesThe defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, has expressed concern about the alarming spike in suicides among US forces.In 2020, 385 active-duty soldiers died by suicide, marking a steep increase from the 326 cases reported by the Pentagon in 2018. Continue reading...