US news | The Guardian

Workers are now entering their third week on strike to demand better conditionsSince 5 July, hundreds of striking workers at a Frito-Lay plant in Topeka, Kansas, have drawn attention to the Dickensian conditions workers have been subjected to in order to produce some of the biggest brand name chips in the United States, including Fritos, Cheetos, Doritos, Lay’s, Ruffles, Funyuns and Tostitos.Workers have publicly aired a list of grievances ranging from stagnant wages, high turnover rates and a lack of hazard pay during the pandemic to 84-hour workweeks, warehouses in triple-digit heat with no air conditioning, months on end without a day off, and so-called “suicide shifts” where workers are only off the clock for eight hours before having to come back in. Continue reading...

Any reform after the assassination of Jovenel Moïse will depend on the US re-evaluating its interests in the countryThe assassination of Jovenel Moïse, Haiti’s president, marks another point in the years-long power struggle that pitted his loyalists against activists and working-class families, exhausted by years of social strife and gang violence. On Saturday, his wife Martine Moïse, injured in the attack, returned home to the Caribbean state to face speculation about her own political career. Meanwhile, the authorities still search for the motive for her husband’s killing.At least 20 people have now been arrested in connection with the murder, including Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a Haitian-American self-proclaimed pastor who lives in South Florida, and who allegedly issued the order for the assassination. According to reporting by the Washington Post, Sanon had ambitions to become president of his homeland. He had vowed to transform the country into a “free and open society” with an ambitious $83bn redevelopment plan for Haiti. His defenders say, however, a plot to kill Moïse was never part of the masterplan. Continue reading...

My access to doctors is tied to my husband – and his access is tied to his employer. Land of the free indeedIt was around the second dose of fentanyl going into my IV bag that I stopped trying to control how much all of this was going to cost. I had been arguing with every decision the caregivers at the emergency room were making – “Is this Cat scan actually necessary or is there another diagnostic tool?” “Is there a cheaper version of this drug you’re giving me?” – and reminding them repeatedly that I was uninsured, but either the opioids in my bloodstream, or the exhaustion of trying to rest in a room next to a woman who, given the sounds she was making, was clearly transforming into a werewolf, forced me to surrender.Related: Why is a 108-year-old resorting to GoFundMe to pay for home care? | Ross Barkan Continue reading...

A hundred athletes are picked each year for the 135-mile race. This time the climate was especially brutalIn the Badwater Basin at the bottom of California’s Death Valley, the air feels like a giant hair dryer and the pavement can melt the soles of your shoes.Yet on Monday night, 100 of the world’s top endurance runners set off on what has become known as “the world’s toughest foot race”, carving 135 miles of terrain through one of the planet’s most extreme climates at the most intense time of year. Continue reading...

At least nine states have considered ‘emergency power limitation’ legislation proposed by conservative organization AlecRepublican lawmakers across more than a dozen states are working to limit the powers of local health departments in ways experts say is likely to lead to “preventable tragedies” during disease outbreaks, including the Covid-19 pandemic.The attempts to limit the emergency powers of public health agencies comes alongside harassment of individual public health workers, renewed concern about the spread of the highly transmissible Covid-19 Delta variant, and a flagging US vaccination campaign. Continue reading...

Federal judge decision puts thousands of lives on hold as many people can’t work or access student loans or scholarshipsFor Kimberly, an undocumented 20-year-old in Missouri, last week’s decision by a Texas judge to not allow immigrants to file new applications for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca), a program that shielded them against deportation and provided work permits and other benefits, could have immediate impacts.Kimberly, who came to the US when she was five, was in the process of applying for Daca. The Guardian is not using her full name. For her, like many others, Daca has been a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs – and one that keeps putting their lives on hold. Continue reading...

Olympians are likely to test boundaries with protests and demonstrations as the Games become increasingly politicalAs the Rio Olympics dominated the sports world’s gaze five years ago, an NFL quarterback began a series of protests against racism that rippled across America and the world and will leave an indelible mark on this year’s Games.Colin Kaepernick last made an NFL appearance in the 2016 season, but the legacy of his activism was evident even before the opening ceremony in Tokyo. Players from several women’s football teams, including the US and Britain, took a knee before their games on Wednesday at the start of the first Olympics since the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Continue reading...

If past statements are anything to go by the president, a proud former full-back, will be watching the MLR playoffsBefore the final round of the regular Major League Rugby season, it was both surprising and superb to see the prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, wish the Toronto Arrows well.Related: 'It's in my blood': how rugby managed to unite America's elite Continue reading...

The US is at another 'pivotal moment' in the pandemic as the Delta variant drives a big rise in new cases, said CDC director, Rochelle Walensky, who warned 'we are not out of the woods yet'. She added: 'The Delta variant is more aggressive and much more transmissible than previously circulating strains,' she said. 'It is one of the most infectious respiratory viruses that we know of and that I have seen in my 20-year career.'

Spears is trapped in a state of legal adolescence, but since her plea for freedom to a Californian court, her tone has become more hopefulAmid the bleak horrors of endless lockdown there is presently one certain source of joy. It’s Britney Spears’ Instagram account.Inspirational quotes, cute selfies and objects of material desire are a consistent theme across many accounts on the platform, especially among the “30-something western white girl” demographic the pop star Spears inhabits. Continue reading...

Director William Burns has initiated a taskforce to investigate the syndrome and tripled the size of the medical team involvedAbout 100 CIA officers and family members are among about 200 US officials and kin sickened by “Havana syndrome”, the CIA director, William Burns, said on Thursday, referring to the mysterious set of ailments that include migraines and dizziness.Burns, tapped by Joe Biden as the first career diplomat to serve as CIA chief, said in a National Public Radio interview that he had bolstered his agency’s efforts to determine the cause of the syndrome and what is responsible. Continue reading...

California’s DFEH files suit after investigation reveals discrimination against womenThe video game company behind World of Warcraft and Candy Crush is being sued over allegations of its “frat boy culture” and treatment toward its female employees.California’s department of fair employment and housing (DFEH) filed suit against Activision Blizzard Inc in California’s superior court after a two-year investigation into the company revealed discrimination against women generally and pregnant employees, sexual harassment, retaliation and unequal pay. Continue reading...

Tamarack fire spreads from California to Nevada while weather aids firefighters in OregonA northern California wildfire crossed into Nevada, prompting new evacuations, but better weather has been helping crews battling the nation’s largest blaze in southern Oregon.Meanwhile, the major California utility provider PG&E has announced a multibillion-dollar effort to bury 10,000 miles (16,000km) of its power lines, after its electrical equipment was once again blamed for igniting a separate, fast-growing fire in the state’s north-east. Continue reading...

Group of senators say letter from Chris Wray shows the FBI gathered more than 4,500 tips without any apparent further actionA group of US Democratic senators on Thursday said that newly released materials show the FBI failed to fully investigate sexual misconduct allegations against the US supreme court Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he was nominated to the court in 2018.Related: FBI failed to fully investigate Brett Kavanaugh sexual misconduct allegations, Democrats say – live Continue reading...

At least 99% of those in US who died of Covid in the last six months had not been vaccinated, says CDC director Dr Rochelle WalenskyWhat the US government is calling “the pandemic of the unvaccinated” is playing out in painful ways as some realize too late that they wish they had had the shot, while others hold out even as they suffer in hospital amid a national surge of new Covid-19 infections, primarily caused by the Delta variant.At least 99% of those in the US who died of coronavirus in the last six months had not been vaccinated, Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has said. Continue reading...

Larry Summers and others have been sounding the alarm over inflation. But are fears overblown?Larry Summers says he’s worried about the US economy. Even more than he was worried when he started to sound the alarm in February. The well-known economist and former US treasury secretary said last week that “the focus of concern right now should be on overheating”.He’s not talking about climate but about the economy growing too fast and running into persistent high inflation like we had in the 1970s, along with other possible crises. On the same day that he issued the above warning, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for June was 5.4% above its level one year earlier. Press reports noted that this was the biggest one-year jump since 2008. Continue reading...

The partisan election stunt in Maricopa county has inspired copycats across the US but some on the right are pushing backHappy Thursday.By all accounts, the election “audit” in Arizona is a failure – months past its initial deadline, potentially in violation of federal law and riddled with mistakes. Continue reading...

The country’s hi-tech surveillance industry is part of its identity – which is why its dark side often goes unexaminedAfter extraordinary revelations that the Israeli company NSO Group’s mercenary cyber-surveillance tool, Pegasus, was allegedly used to target political dissidents, human rights activists, journalists and politicians around the world, Israel should be asking itself a few questions. Does its groundbreaking hi-tech industry have a dark side? Do the actors involved in exporting lucrative surveillance products – including the defence ministry, which must approve such sales, or perhaps the top levels of the previous government – bear responsibility?While top Israeli officials are taking the revelations seriously, Israelis appear neither shamed nor shaken. The day after the NSO story broke, there was an announcement from another company that would eclipse talk of the rogue use of surveillance spyware. Ben & Jerry’s announced that it would cease the sale of its products in the “occupied Palestinian territories”. By midweek one had to squint to find NSO in the Israeli media, as the ice cream incident was dominating headlines. Persecution of human rights defenders, sabotaging freedom of the press, surveillance of political opposition and possible links to grisly murder all took second place, while a non-violent political protest by a single private company, set to begin a year and a half from now (when Ben and Jerry’s licensing deal runs out), overshadowed everything. Continue reading...

1,500lb animal that escaped from Long Island farm is pursued with horses, lassos, tranquilizer gun – and a cowIt’s the oldest trick in the book – but will it turn out to be BS?Rescuers in New York have brought in a cow to try to lure back a bull that ran away from a farm earlier this week where it was awaiting slaughter. Continue reading...

Sport by sport, event by event, our team assess who will be picking up the Olympic medals Team USA will claim in TokyoThese Olympics are more unpredictable than usual due to the absence of many qualifying events over the last year, but the United States should lead the pack in both most overall medals and total golds. BG Continue reading...

The minority leader accuses Nancy Pelosi of ‘playing politics’ after she rejected two of his choices for the investigation

The deaths of 69 young Labour activists failed to prompt a reckoning with the far-right ideas that motivated Anders BreivikAny visitor to the island of Utøya, some 38 kilometres from Oslo, is immediately struck by the smallness of it. It measures no more than 26 acres. It was here that, 10 years ago this month, Anders Behring Breivik massacred 69 people attending a Norwegian Labour party youth camp. As one walks along the island’s tiny, winding paths, it is not difficult to imagine the sheer horror of it all, as teenagers, full of life, joy and laughter, suddenly realised that the shots being fired in the distance were not firecrackers, that the visitor dressed in a fake police uniform was a murderer, and that the island had all too few places in which to hide.As Norway approaches the 10-year anniversary, and as far-right and anti-Muslim violence remains a feature of our political culture across the world, it is worth looking back at the lessons learned and those missed from this dark chapter in my country’s history. Continue reading...

Bereaved families’ stories are being used to criticize the movement to defund police: ‘It compounds the trauma’William Gude spends his days trying to hold the police accountable. As the creator and outspoken monitor behind @filmthepolicela, a Twitter account that’s attracted thousands of followers, he regularly critiques the LAPD by filming and tweeting about their activity – from traffic stops to confrontations with protestors.But one night in June, his tweets got personal. That night he told his followers that his son, Marcelis William-Gude, had been shot. After hitting send, Gude drove to the hospital where a doctor told him that his 22-year-old son died after being shot multiple times in South Los Angeles. Continue reading...

Americans thrown out of work by the pandemic faced months-long backlogs in receiving benefits, if they arrived at allUnemployed workers are pushing for reforms and changes to America’s unemployment insurance system after millions of workers experienced severe problems in receiving benefits throughout the pandemic.Workers across America faced long delays in receiving unemployment benefits as state systems were quickly overwhelmed with the mass influx of applications that caused months-long backlogs. Meanwhile, workers who made errors on their applications, had missing records or had their claims flagged had their benefits stopped – and often had difficulty restarting them once problems were resolved. Continue reading...

Recent graduates compete with last year’s grads who remain jobless, and with those rethinking their career prioritiesMarie Roberts, a 2021 graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, can feel the pressure of entering a competitive job market as the coronavirus pandemic in America appears to be waning.After more than a year of remote learning, social distancing and economic chaos, she knew she wasn’t the only one now polishing her résumé and writing multiple cover letters to start her career. Continue reading...

The days when a Ryan Lochte night out or athlete bed-hopping made headlines appear numbered in a much changed Olympic villageIt’s that time again. Time to embrace our inner Olympic judge. Time to contemplate the mating habits of the Great American Athlete.The game began in earnest a few days ago as the first pictures from inside the athletes’ village dorms whipped around the web – and this time there was no getting past the bed. Not only did the mattress appear to be the furthest thing from “Olympic” size. (Technically, that’s a queen). Not only did the bed look for all the world to be sitting on the box in which it was shipped. No, it also seemed like the kind of thing that could barely hold the weight of one sleeping person, let alone two in the mood for a late night. Continue reading...

This week’s roundup also features the most spectacular knockout ever, 20 minutes of Maradona and plenty more1) The Olympics have both already started and start again on Friday. This is the second time Tokyo has hosted the event, the first being in 1964. Here’s the official film of those Games; here’s an explanation of its global and cultural impact; here are its top 10 moments; here’s Lynn “The Leap” Davies winning long-jump gold; here’s Ann Packer taking 800m gold; here’s Mary Rand winning gold, silver and bronze in the long jump, pentathlon and relay, here’s a feature on her, and here she is returning to her hometown of Wells; and here’s the BBC’s theme tune.2) It was a hard few hours, but football is finally back after its summer break with a succession of thrilling pre-season friendlies. As such, here’s Eric Cantona getting sent-off playing for Manchester United against Rangers in the summer of 1994; a pre-season ruckus between Newcastle Jets and Wellington Phoenix from 2011; and David Batty taking it to Sampdoria, Roberto Mancini in particular, in 1992. Continue reading...

House speaker said she would veto two appointed by minority leader because they could threaten integrity of investigationThe House speaker, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, announced on Wednesday that she would veto the two top Republicans appointed by the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, to the new select committee investigating the Capitol attack, saying the Trump-allied congressmen could threaten the integrity of the investigation.But the move triggered McCarthy to pull all five of the Republicans he had chosen off the committee if Pelosi wouldn’t seat the whole cohort – and threaten to set up their own investigation into the 6 January Capitol attack. Continue reading...

Group of US states attorneys general unveil settlement including three largest US drug distributors and Johnson & JohnsonA group of US state attorneys general unveiled on Wednesday a landmark $26bn settlement with large drug companies for allegedly fueling the deadly nationwide opioid epidemic, but some states were cool on the agreement.Under the settlement proposal, the three largest US drug distributors, McKesson Corp, Cardinal Health Inc and AmerisourceBergen Corp, are expected to pay a combined $21bn, while drugmaker Johnson & Johnson (J&J), which manufactures opioids, would pay $5bn. Continue reading...

Law, which was set to take effect on Friday, was approved by Republican-led legislature and signed by Asa HutchinsonA federal judge on Tuesday blocked a law passed in Arkansas that would ban nearly all abortions.The law, which was set to take effect on Friday, had been approved by Arkansas’s Republican-led legislature and signed by the state’s Republican governor, Asa Hutchinson. Continue reading...

The pyrotechnic device sparked the destructive El Dorado fire, which destroyed five homes and killed one firefighterA California couple has been criminally charged for their role in igniting last year’s destructive El Dorado wildfire after they used a pyrotechnic device during a gender-reveal party.The blaze torched close to 23,000 acres (9,300 hectares), destroyed five homes and 15 other buildings, and claimed the life of a firefighter, Charlie Morton. Continue reading...

Jeffrey Burill steps down after Catholic media outlet obtains cellphone data that revealed he was a user of gay dating appThe top administrator of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops resigned after cellphone data revealed that he was a frequent user of Grindr, the queer dating app, and regularly visited gay bars.In a statement released on Tuesday, the organization announced that Monsignor Jeffrey Burill had resigned as its general secretary after the group learned of “impending media reports alleging possible improper behavior”. Continue reading...

Despite anger over a decision to deepfake the voice of the much-loved star in a new documentary it’s a haunting and difficult film that deserves to be seenAnthony Bourdain was a singularly beloved cultural figure. His death by suicide in 2018 at 61 while filming an episode of his CNN travel series Parts Unknown remains, for many, one of the most tragic and baffling public losses of the past few years. Given the intense connection to the chef turned TV personality felt by his fans, and the shock of his death, Roadrunner: A Film about Anthony Bourdain, a bracing, graceful new documentary on Bourdain that features his inner circle, was going to be met sensitively.Related: Anthony Bourdain documentary sparks backlash for using AI to fake voice Continue reading...

The Bootleg fire in Oregon, now roughly the size of Los Angeles, is so intense that it has created its own weather system, causing winds that have further fanned its flames. It has been burning for two weeks and barely a third of its perimeter has been contained. The Dixie fire in California exploded in size to roughly 94 sq miles (243 sq km) on Tuesday, and is only 15% contained. It broke out on 13 July

The US were comfortably outplayed by their opponents in their campaign opener. But they have come back from adversity before at the GamesNorway 2-0 USA. That was the score of the US women’s soccer team opener the last time the Olympics were played in Asia. The distance from Qinhuangdao, site of that 2008 game, to the final in Beijing seemed vast, and not just because the buses were so slow.The result was no fluke. The US women by that point were a faint echo of their past selves. Without a professional league, the sport in the United States was in the doldrums. It seemed at the time that women’s soccer had used up its Warholian 15 minutes of fame. Continue reading...

In the era of the much-maligned superteam, the Greek star has the extraordinary skills to show a hometown hero can still win the game’s biggest prizesLaughing and smiling and dancing and hugging and I love you mans and chest bumps and tears and roars to the sky and arms raised in triumph, the Milwaukee Bucks, powered by the excellence of Giannis Antetokounmpo are NBA champions.On a night where no other Buck was able to score more than 17 points, Giannis produced a masterpiece against the Phoenix Suns. Fifty points. Fourteen rebounds. Five (!) blocks. Seventeen-of-19 from the line. Hellacious defense. Violent attacks to the rim. He was everywhere and did everything for his team. As close-out performances go, it ranks among the finest in NBA finals history. Continue reading...

Smoke from wildfires in the west caused hazy skies as air quality index surged to 157 in Manhattan, well above threshold of 100New York City air quality was among the worst in the world as cities across the eastern US were shrouded in smoke from wildfires raging several thousand miles away on the country’s west coast.State officials in New York advised vulnerable people, such as those with asthma and heart disease, to avoid strenuous outdoor activity as air pollution soared to eclipse Lima in Peru and Kolkata in India to be ranked as the worst in the world on Tuesday. Continue reading...

A cluster of midwestern and southern states have emerged as new hotspots for Covid

Public health officials say life expectancy fell by a year a half, with Covid responsible for much of the declineUS life expectancy fell by a year and a half in 2020, the largest one-year decline since the second world war, public health officials said Wednesday. The decrease for both Black Americans and Hispanic Americans was even worse: three years.Related: Are we being kept safe from ‘forever chemicals’ injected into fracking sites? | David Bond Continue reading...

New York officials have told vulnerable people to stay indoors because of sooty air pollution from wildfires in western US states that have drifted across the country. Residents of New York City, 2,000 miles away from the blazes, witnessed a fiery sunrise on Tuesday. The Bootleg fire in Oregon has become so large and hot it is creating its own weather system, causing winds that have further fanned its flames

A bombshell exposé revealed that oil and gas firms are injecting PFAS chemicals into fracking sites, threatening groundwaterNot willing to rest their laurels on the theft of the future, the fossil fuel industry is now salting the earth with forever chemicals.In a bombshell exposé from Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) and the New York Times last week it was revealed that per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) were readily used at fracking sites across the US. Continue reading...

If our budget passes, it would be one of the most important pieces of legislation since the New Deal. But we must fight for itNow is the time.At a time when the gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing wider, when two people now own more wealth than the bottom 40% and when some of the wealthiest people and biggest businesses in the world pay nothing in federal income taxes, the billionaire class and large profitable corporations must finally start paying their fair share of taxes. Continue reading...

The Delta variant has become America’s dominant Covid strain, with midwestern and southern states emerging as virus hotspots. Plus, why men cause more emissions than womenGood morning.The highly contagious Delta variant of Covid-19 is galloping across America and accounts for 83% of all sequenced cases in the US, a top federal health official said on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Inspired by Spears’ case, the Free Act would bring protection and oversight to a ‘broken system’Britney Spears’ fight to end her conservatorship has inspired a new bipartisan proposal in the US House of Representatives.The Freedom and Right to Emancipate from Exploitation (Free) Act would allow a person bound by a conservatorship to petition to replace their court-appointed private conservator with a public conservator, family member or private agent without having to prove abuse. Continue reading...

By using a narrow definition of heat-related injuries federal and state agencies miss thousands of othersUS government agencies are likely significantly undercounting the number of workplace injuries caused by extreme heat, according to new research.Federal and state labor departments keep track of heat-related injuries, which include things like dehydration and heat strokes. But if a worker falls from a ladder because of heat-induced dizziness, it’s typically not categorized as a heat-related injury. New research published this week shows that when those injuries are taken into account, the actual toll of heat on US workers is orders of magnitude higher than official counts. Continue reading...