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Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin's trial over the death of George Floyd has begun. Minnesota prosecutor Jerry Blackwell said that Chauvin ‘betrayed his badge’ by using ‘excessive and unreasonable force’ on Floyd: ‘He put his knees upon his neck and his back, grinding and crushing him … until the very life was squeezed out of him.’ Chauvin's defense attorney Eric Nelson said that although ‘the use of force is not attractive’, the former police officer did ‘exactly what he had been trained to do over the course of his 19-year career’. Witnesses were also called to the stand, with prosecution witness Donald Williams describing watching George Floyd 'fade away like a fish in a bag’

Measures are among dozens of anti-trans legislation across the US and conservatives have filed more proposals this year than ever beforeArkansas lawmakers have approved a ban on gender-affirming healthcare for transgender children, sending the governor a bill that has been widely criticized by medical and child welfare groups.Related: How trans children became 'a political football' for the Republican party Continue reading...

Jerry Blackwell told jury that ex-officer used excessive and unreasonable force ‘without regard for Floyd’s life’

Vill recalls the New York governor ‘manhandled’ her, grabbing her face and aggressively kissing her cheeks in front of her familySherry Vill remembers feeling embarrassed and stuck as the New York governor Andrew Cuomo “manhandled” her and came onto her in her own home, in front of her husband and son.“He towered over me,” she said during a press conference on Monday. “There was nothing I could do.” Continue reading...

President announces major expansion of nation’s vaccine program but also warns: ‘We still are in a war with this deadly virus’Up to 90% of US adults will be eligible for a Covid-19 shot by 19 April, Joe Biden said on Monday as he announced a major expansion of the nation’s vaccination program.Hours after Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned of “impending doom” in the race against the resurgence of infections, the US president delivered the counter measure. Continue reading...

New indictment also adds sex trafficking conspiracy charge as US prosecutors expand criminal caseGhislaine Maxwell, the British socialite accused of aiding in her former partner Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of minor girls, faces two more charges, a new Manhattan federal court indictment filed on Monday reveals.This indictment also identified a new accuser in the case, referred to as “minor victim-4” in court papers, and expanded the timeframe of Maxwell’s alleged participation in Epstein’s abuse by seven years – from 1994 to 2004, rather than from 1994 to 1997. Maxwell now faces a total of eight counts. Continue reading...

New role for Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law could pave the way to a political career of her own“Welcome to the family, Lara.” Continue reading...

Prosecutor says ex-officer betrayed police principles in killing of George Floyd while defense argues Chauvin followed his trainingOpening arguments got under way on Monday morning in the trial of the white former police officer Derek Chauvin, charged with the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis last May, after Chauvin kneeled on his neck during an arrest.The Minnesota prosecutor Jerry Blackwell began, saying Chauvin betrayed his police principles. He also played the entire bystander video that showed Floyd begging for his life and then passing out as he is pinned to the street by officers, including Chauvin who presses on his neck for more than nine minutes. Continue reading...

Liquidation of Bill Hwang’s Archegos Capital Management sparked a fire sale of more than $20bn assets

Family with civil rights attorney Ben Crump and campaigner Al Sharpton knelt outside as murder trial of Derek Chauvin beganMembers of George Floyd’s family along with civil rights attorney Ben Crump and campaigner Al Sharpton gathered and knelt in front of the courthouse in Minneapolis on Monday morning as the murder trial began of former police officer Derek Chauvin.“Derek Chauvin is in the courtroom but America is on trial,” Sharpton said to the crowd. Continue reading...

Price of clothing and footwear, ceramics, beauty products and furniture could be hitThe Biden administration has warned it could slap 25% tariffs on British exports to the US after the UK levied a digital services tax on major technology companies.The price of clothing and footwear, ceramics, beauty products and furniture exports to the US could rise by a quarter, according to a list published by US officials. Continue reading...

Rochelle Walensky, head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, urged public officials to spread the word about the seriousness of a fourth Covid-19 surge in the country.The Biden administration and Walensky said Americans should continue to take precautions to prevent the spread of Covid-19

Plaintiffs in lawsuit claim discrimination over having to declare themselves male or female in order to receive public assistanceNonbinary New Yorkers who currently must declare themselves male or female to receive Medicaid, food stamps and other public assistance said in lawsuit filed on Monday the state is discriminating against them by failing to provide an X gender option.The lawsuit filed against state and city agencies that run benefit programs seeks the type of nonbinary gender option allowed on New York birth certificates and promised for driver’s licenses. Continue reading...

Law passed by Republicans in control of state legislature prompts Democrats to accuse them of politicizing public health effort

Sarah Obama was known to generations of Kenyans for her social activism, largely centered on children’s and family issuesBarack Obama’s step-grandmother, known affectionately to many as Mama Sarah, has died in Kenya at the age of 99.Sarah Obama was the third wife of the former president’s paternal grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama. She died early on Monday in hospital in the western town of Kisumu after a short illness, the Daily Nation newspaper reported, saying her death was not Covid-19 related. Continue reading...

During this eternal lockdown, I’ve become invested in celebrities’ lives. I’m not proud of it, but surely I’m not alone

While working people toil, the richest have never have it so good. It’s time to fight back – our democracy depends on itThe United States cannot prosper and remain a vigorous democracy when so few have so much and so many have so little. While many of my congressional colleagues choose to ignore it, the issue of income and wealth inequality is one of the great moral, economic and political crises that we face – and it must be dealt with.The unfortunate reality is that we are moving rapidly toward an oligarchic form of society, where a handful of billionaires have enormous wealth and power while working families have been struggling in a way we have not seen since the Great Depression. This situation has been exacerbated by the pandemic. Continue reading...

Ex-president praised couple at Mar-a-Lago – after complaining about Biden’s Iran and China policy, the border and the electionDonald Trump took the microphone at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday night, to praise a couple getting married at his Florida resort. Nearly 400 words later he did so, according to video published by the website TMZ, after a rambling complaint about Joe Biden’s policy towards Iran and China, the situation at the border with Mexico and the supposed fraud he claims caused his election defeat. Continue reading...

Some in state are skipping the line to get their vaccination, even if they don’t meet the criteria, raising ethical issuesTennessee was deemed the worst place to live in the world for Covid-19 transmission this past winter. That didn’t happen by mistake; it has been a snowball of failures in leadership, lack of education, and tourism economies being left to fend for themselves.Vaccination in the south has continued that trend, as many states in the region rank last in terms of per-capita vaccinations, even though they are equally preoccupied with opening back up before the majority of populations are vaccinated and ending mask mandates regardless of recommendations from health officials – as Tennessee did two weeks ago, following Texas’s lead. Continue reading...

Billionaire Petr Kellner among five killed including guests, pilot and guides, with one survivorPetr Kellner, the Czech Republic’s richest man, was one of five people killed when their helicopter crashed on a skiing trip in Alaska.The 56-year-old was among the passengers and pilot killed on Saturday in the crash near Knik glacier north-east of Anchorage, Alaska state troopers said. One survivor was taken to hospital, they said, adding the group had been on a heliski tour. Continue reading...

Former police officer Derek Chauvin is accused of killing Floyd last year in an incident that sparked international outrage. Plus, the ship in the Suez canal has finally budgedGood morning.International attention is on Minneapolis this morning, where the trial of a former police officer accused of killing George Floyd will get under way. Floyd’s death, after officers knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest while he pleaded that he could not breathe, triggered a wave of Black Lives Matter protests across the globe. Continue reading...

Takeaway delivery firm says it will price shares towards bottom of planned rangeDeliveroo has said it will price shares for its stock market listing on Wednesday towards the bottom of its price range because of “volatile” market conditions.It comes after a week in which a number of leading fund managers said they would reject the listing – which is expected to be the biggest on the London Stock Exchange for a decade – amid concerns over workers’ rights. Continue reading...

A battery recycling plant blanketed Latino communities with chemicals – and thousands of properties remain toxicFor years, Terry Gonzalez-Cano encouraged her children to get outside and play in the dirt. “I grew up doing everything outside, and I encouraged my kids to do the same thing. We played in the backyard, we gardened,” she said. “I thought I was being a good mother by forcing them to spend time outside.”Gonzalez-Cano, 48, didn’t know that, for decades, the Exide lead battery recycling plant in the neighboring Los Angeles-area city of Vernon had blanketed blue-collar Latino communities with layer after layer of lead and cancer-causing arsenic. Continue reading...

Black sports stars have collectively achieved what they have because society presents them with few other optionsNot to toot my own horn, but growing up I was quite the athlete. When the time came to select teams for dodgeball or relay races, I was often among those picked first – myself, and many of my other Black friends. In most of the schools I attended throughout my childhood, my classmates tended to be a healthy mix of all races – but at every stop, I found that Black students consistently dominated the playground.It didn’t take long for our young, naïve minds to hypothesize – it must be in the genes, right? There were clear patterns, and the most obvious explanation for our athletic success, at least to our adolescent reasoning, was that the Black kids were simply built for it. The white kids believed it, the Black kids believed it, hell I even bought it for a while. I was young and dumb – fortunately, I have since matured. Continue reading...

Opening arguments begin in Minneapolis on Monday as ex-officer denies charges of murder and manslaughterThe murder trial of Derek Chauvin, the former police officer whose alleged killing of George Floyd last year prompted a wave of Black Lives Matter protests, gets fully under way with opening arguments in Minneapolis on Monday.Chauvin, 45, has denied charges of second- and third-degree murder and manslaughter over the death of the 46-year-old Black man after he was detained on suspicion of passing a counterfeit $20 bill last May. Continue reading...

Lee Wong, an Asian-American and former soldier, lifts his shirt to reveal scars he sustained while serving with the US military. Wong, 69, an elected official in West Chester, Ohio was speaking in a town hall meeting about the racism he has faced in his adopted homeland. Addressing the meeting, Wong stood up and lifted his singlet, showing large scars on his chest. 'Here is my proof. This is sustained in my service in the US military. Is this patriot enough?' he asked.

Georgia senator tells president ‘We have to pass voting rights no matter what’ after restrictions signed into law by state’s governorThe Georgia Democratic senator the Rev Raphael Warnock delivered a challenge to Joe Biden on Sunday to prioritize the fight against voter suppression, telling the US president: “We have to pass voting rights no matter what.” Continue reading...

Prosecutors due to set out their case in heavily fortified building for trial of ex-officer charged with murdering George FloydThe city of Minneapolis and millions across the US and around the world are bracing for Monday’s opening arguments in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the white former police officer charged with murdering George Floyd, who was Black, in the city last May.Floyd’s death regalvanized the Black Lives Matter movement and set in motion the biggest US civil rights protests since the 1960s. Continue reading...

Donovan Lynch, one of two killed in shootings on Friday night, was an offensive lineman for University of Virginia’s College at WiseA man shot and killed by a police officer at a Virginia oceanfront resort area was a college football player whose death has stunned his former teammates and head coach.Donovan Lynch, 25, of Virginia Beach, was an offensive lineman for the University of Virginia’s College at Wise during the 2017 and 2018 seasons and a 2019 graduate of the school, the Bristol Herald Courier reported. Continue reading...

USA picked up their eighth win in nine matches after a 2-1 victory over Northern Ireland at Windsor Park on Sunday.Related: 'Devastated' USA men to miss third straight Olympics after Honduras loss Continue reading...

Legislation will allow sales to adults over 21 and set up a licensing process for the delivery of cannabis productsNew York is poised the join the growing number of states that have legalized marijuana after a deal to allow sales of the drug for recreational use.State legislators reached an agreement late Saturday to legalize recreational marijuana sales in the state. Continue reading...

The Florida governor appears to have the edge in the ‘if-Trump-doesn’t-win’ primary as he claims victory over his pandemic critics“Covid’s over, baby!” So proclaims a bare-chested man, wearing face paint like the Joker, nemesis of Batman, as he stands atop a car and waves the American national flag.This was the scene last weekend in Miami, Florida, a state that moved quickly to lift lockdowns, reopen schools, shelve mask mandates and become, in the words of its governor, Ron DeSantis, an “an oasis of freedom” during the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading...

Congress’s failure to raise the federal minimum wage last month dealt a blow, but advocates are pressuring lawmakers to bring the issue backFor Terrence Wise, a McDonald’s employee from Kansas City, Missouri, the battle for a raise in the federal minimum wage is far from over.Joe Biden campaigned on a raise, the first since 2009, and the majority of Americans of both parties support an increase. And yet, last month, Congress blocked an increase from the paltry $7.25 an hour where it has been stuck since 2009. Now there are signs of new momentum for change. Continue reading...

The semi-autonomous area in Minneapolis has become a service to the community, but the city wants to see it reopenedThe sign on a barricade on a once-unassuming street in Minneapolis reads: “You’re now entering the free state of George Floyd”.A small rectangle of city blocks features murals, flowers, candles and tributes in the place where Floyd, a Black man, died under the knee of a white police officer last May, sparking the biggest US civil rights uprising since the 1960s. Continue reading...

The Florida city’s annual influx of young tourists, many African American, has been spurred by a lack of Covid restrictions but the response to rowdiness has been called heavy-handedOn Sunday, the second night of an emergency 8pm curfew in Miami Beach’s Art Deco Cultural District, a police squad came upon a large crowd of spring breakers having a good time on 8th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, a residential area just west of Ocean Drive, the city’s famous street where the annual party usually takes place.According to a police report, approximately 500 people had gathered in the streets and the sidewalks wreaking havoc. They stomped on top of cars, causing roofs to cave in and windshields to shatter. They danced, drank booze and smoked marijuana. Just the type of rowdy behavior often associated with college students decompressing from a long semester of classes. Continue reading...

Remarks, rulings and dissents show the extraordinary influence of the supreme court justice known and loved as RBGTwo and a half years ago, at a naturalization ceremony for newly minted Americans, Ruth Bader Ginsburg asked: “What is the difference between a bookkeeper in New York City’s garment district and a supreme court justice?”Related: Ruth Bader Ginsburg remembered by Lisa Beattie Frelinghuysen Continue reading...

A desire for business as normal with Beijing is coming up hard against the ugly reality of Xi’s swaggering authoritarianismMention the Boxer Rebellion nowadays, and most people in the west would look baffled. Not so the Chinese, who have longer memories.They have not forgotten the invasion launched in 1900 by the US, Britain, Germany, France and other members of the so-called Eight-Nation Alliance to suppress the anti-foreigner, anti-missionary uprising. Mass atrocities against Chinese people ensued, in the name of upholding “civilised” Christian values. Continue reading...

Kamala Harris’s husband hasn’t shied away from politics – but he shows little desire for the spotlightWith elbow bumps and masked greetings, Doug Emhoff convened a roundtable discussion on gender equity in the workplace at the headquarters of a construction company outside of St Louis on Wednesday.Seated behind a placard that with his official title, “second gentleman”, Emhoff was also the only gentleman at the event, marking Equal Pay Day. In a nod to his own barrier-breaking role as husband to Kamala Harris – the nation’s first female, first Black and first South Asian vice-president - Lyda Krewson, mayor of St Louis, said his presence at the session was a welcome sign of change. Continue reading...

There is no ‘surge’ of migrants at the border and there is no huge voter fraud problem – there is only hard-right attackRepublicans are outraged – outraged! – at the surge of migrants at the southern border. The House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, declares it a “crisis … created by the presidential policies of this new administration”. The Arizona congressman Andy Biggs claims, “we go through some periods where we have these surges, but right now is probably the most dramatic that I’ve seen at the border in my lifetime.”Related: Biden's no LBJ but he must protect voting rights. What else is the presidency for? | Robert Reich Continue reading...

Fifty years after a golden age for the spiritual groups, many have disbanded. But pockets remain throughout the stateHalf a century ago, you could barely walk down the street in California without tripping over some kind of fringe spiritual sect or cult-like group. Pretty much every famous organization, guru, and spiritual trend of that era had ties to the Golden state – from the Maharishi to the People’s Temple, the “Moonies” to the New Age.Now, with the exception of some Scientology buildings and the occasional Hare Krishna devotee, you almost never encounter fringe spiritual groups from that California golden age. Continue reading...

Texas lawmaker recounted his mission to shed light on what conservatives have dubbed an immigration crisisRepublican senator Ted Cruz has drawn criticism for taking a trip to America’s southern border as the conservative Texan politician once again became the butt of internet jokes and memes.In the style of a wildlife documentary, Cruz captured his experience with the help of professional photographers and shared his recent journey to the US-Mexico border Thursday night on social media, where he aimed to shed light on what Republicans have dubbed a crisis. Continue reading...

The 5-year-old boy was found a block from a Montgomery county school by officers who berated him and said, ‘I’d beat him so bad’A police department in Maryland has released body camera video that captured two of its officers berating a 5-year-old boy who had walked away from his elementary school, calling him a “little beast” and threatening him with a beating.The video released by the Montgomery county police department shows one of the officers repeatedly screaming at the crying child, with her face inches from his. Continue reading...