Trump congratulated Georgia on its recent legislative move, which critics have slammed as a major blow to Black voters’ rightsA Republican lawyer who advised Donald Trump on his campaign to overturn the 2020 election results is now playing a central role coordinating the Republican effort to tighten voting laws around the country.The moves comes as Trump himself signaled his support for new Republican-pushed legislation in Georgia which critics have slammed as being a major blow to voting rights for communities of color, especially Black voters. Joe Biden called the Georgia laws “Jim Crow in the 21st Century” and “an atrocity”. Continue reading...
Fifty-four white men have led Boston since it was incorporated as a city in 1822, but that all changed this weekEarlier this week, Kim Janey, the first woman and Black person to lead the city of Boston, became acting mayor.She was sworn in by the first Black woman to lead Massachusetts’ highest court, Kimberly Budd, and the first Black Massachusetts congresswoman, Ayanna Pressley. Continue reading...
Joe Biden’s $1.9tn plan contains a feature that will transform the way welfare is addressed in the US – and could cut child poverty in halfA few months into the pandemic the tooth fairy didn’t show up. Mary Beth Cochran was caring for her six-year-old grandson, Howie, in the small town of Canton, North Carolina, and having lost her Kmart job and with it more than half her income, she couldn’t afford food let alone a dollar under the pillow.Howie woke that morning and shouted out to his grandmother: “Memaw, my tooth’s still here, what happened?” He frantically scoured the bedding for a note or coins, then slumped to the floor and cried. Continue reading...
A Philadelphia Inquirer columnist compared the painting to Brian Kemp ‘working to continue a tradition of white supremacy’As a photo of the Georgia governor, Brian Kemp, circulated around the internet, showing the politician signing the sweeping voting restrictions bill while surrounded by other white, male politicians, some Twitter users homed in on a previously undetected detail. Continue reading...
Analysis: Timothy Hale-Cusanelli was one of dozens of former or current military members investigated or charged in connection with the insurrectionIf the moustache, trimmed narrowly in the style of Adolf Hitler, don’t give it away, then the antisemitic YouTube rants, the testimony of 34 colleagues and the neo-Nazi reading material certainly do.Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, a US army reservist, is – according to court documents – an “avowed white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer”. Continue reading...
Republicans presented trip as exposé of dire circumstances while Democrats sought to ensure children ‘treated humanely’Republicans and Democrats sent dueling delegations to the southern US border on Friday, in an attempt to frame perceptions of the Biden administration’s immigration policy amid an uptick in recent weeks in border crossings by undocumented migrants.A group of Republican senators led by Ted Cruz of Texas presented their trip as an exposé of dire circumstances, with Cruz sharing video of himself on Thursday night standing in darkness next to the Rio Grande river and falsely warning about a “flood” of human smuggling. Continue reading...
President says new law represents ‘blatant attack on the constitution’ as voting rights activists vow to keep up the fightJoe Biden lambasted a new law in Georgia that imposes sweeping new voting restrictions, calling it “un-American” and “Jim Crow in the 21st century”.He said in a statement: “Instead of celebrating the rights of all Georgians to vote or winning campaigns on the merits of their ideas, Republicans in the state instead rushed through an un-American law to deny people the right to vote. This law, like so many others being pursued by Republicans in statehouses across the country, is a blatant attack on the constitution and good conscience.” Continue reading...
State court has ruled in major decision that ‘conditioning freedom solely on whether an arrestee can afford bail is unconstitutional’California’s highest court has ruled that judges in the state will have to consider a suspect’s ability to pay when they set bail, a major decision that essentially requires that those who can’t afford bail be freed unless they are deemed too dangerous to be released awaiting trial. Continue reading...
Fox News got exercised about the president taking cues on Thursday – but there’s nothing wrong with being preparedJoe Biden’s first press conference has caused some strong reactions from the conservative side of the aisle after he was caught … reading notes.On Thursday night, Fox News dedicated considerable time covering just how long Biden took to hold his first press conference – 49 days! Continue reading...
Jama’s Howard Bauchner replaced by interim editor after ‘offensive’ remarks by deputy on podcast about structural racismThe editor-in-chief of Jama, the Journal of the American Medical Association, has been placed on leave amid controversy over comments about structural racism made on a podcast by one of his deputies.The New York Times reported that the American Medical Association told staff on Thursday Dr Howard Bauchner would be replaced by an interim editor while an investigation was carried out. Continue reading...
by Jewel Wicker in Atlanta and Joan E Greve in Washin on (#5FTZ5)
Most recent weekly average shows 7% increase in Covid infections in US from previous week, at about 57,000 cases a dayTop US government coronavirus experts warned on Friday that there is deep concern about infections rising again and although there is cause for optimism amid accelerating vaccinations “there is no case for relaxation” in the pandemic.Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said at a White House briefing that the most recent weekly average shows a 7% increase in infections in the US from the previous week, at about 57,000 cases a day. Continue reading...
Triple Five, which owns the enormous New Jersey complex, forced to sell 49% stake in two other giant malls in Minnesota and CanadaThe owner of the American Dream, the mega-mall in New Jersey once billed as the future of retail, has put up nearly half of the ownership of its two largest malls to stay in business.In March last year, just five months after it opened, American Dream was forced to shut its doors as Covid-19 surged in the US. It stayed closed until October, when some of its attractions and stores reopened. Continue reading...
The tiny Oklahoma school’s fairytale March Madness run has been overshadowed by its troubling history of LGBTQ discrimination and alleged use of conversion therapyThere may be no better example of why the NCAA men’s basketball tournament holds a nation of 330 million people in its thrall for three weeks every year than Oral Roberts University.The tiny evangelical school from Oklahoma’s second-largest city (enrollment: 3,462) delivered one of the biggest surprises in March Madness history last Friday when it toppled Ohio State University (enrollment: 61,391) in the opening round. A couple of days later, the Golden Eagles knocked off another traditional powerhouse, defeating the University of Florida to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time in nearly 50 years and becoming only the second No 15 seed in history to make it out of the first weekend. Continue reading...
He ran as a moderate but is governing as a transforming radical. That’s not a paradox – it’s a winning methodYou may not have noticed, because he is not nearly as in-your-face as his predecessor, but Joe Biden is currently teaching a lesson to left and centre-left parties around the world. True, it’s one they should have learned long ago, but still they should be paying the closest attention. Because Biden is delivering a masterclass.Related: Biden holds first press conference and pledges 200m vaccine shots in 100 days Continue reading...
In the last week, I said it getting into a cab, brushing past people and when meeting someone out of my bubbleWe stood in line, on Sunday afternoon, in the vast atrium of the Javits convention centre, 30 blocks south of my house. It’s a Fema-run site, staffed by the military, giving it an air of the inevitable third act – roll out the army! – to this interminable movie. One of my six-year-olds was with me and, catching sight of her, a young soldier bumped us to the front of the line. Ten minutes later, along with 7,500 other people at Javits that day, I had my second jab. Continue reading...
The evidence is clear: a genocide against the Uighurs is in progress. Britain must not put trade before human rightsIt came as no surprise to me that I have been included on the list of those sanctioned by the Chinese government for vocal criticisms of the human rights abuses towards Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province. China is not big on freedom of speech.In the “tit-for-tat game that is part of foreign relations, this action is of little consequence. On a personal level, I will be sad not to visit China again, as I have great admiration for many Chinese academics and human rights advocates with whom I have had contact. However, I have no assets to freeze, no investments and no secret property, and my legal work seeking to protect human rights will go on as before. Continue reading...
Delray Beach fire rescue says woman sustained superficial injuries and had been reported missing three weeks earlierA woman rescued from a storm drain in Florida says she was lost for three weeks in tunnels and survived on a can of ginger ale. She was discovered by a woman who heard her screams while driving by the drain.The 43-year-old woman who was rescued is not officially being named because of concerns for her safety and mental health. The incident occurred in Delray Beach, southern Florida, on Tuesday. Continue reading...
Multiple twisters in Alabama sprang from ‘super cell’ of storms that moved into Georgia and may continue to TennesseeBlaring tornado sirens and howling winds roared across parts of western Georgia early on Friday as severe storms pounded southern states.In Alabama at least five people died, and at least one person has died in Georgia, in twisters that wrecked homes, splintered trees and crumpled businesses. Continue reading...
Dr George Tyndall faces 35 criminal counts of alleged sexual misconduct at University of Southern CaliforniaThe University of Southern California (USC) has agreed to an $852m settlement with more than 700 women who have accused the college’s longtime campus gynecologist of sexual abuse.The victims’ lawyers and USC announced the settlement on Thursday. When combined with an earlier settlement of a separate class-action suit, the school has agreed to pay out more than $1bn for claims against Dr George Tyndall. Continue reading...
President pledges that 200m shots will be administered during his first 100 days in office. Plus, five people have been killed after tornadoes in Alabama
Exclusive: Investing in Cures Before Missiles Act would stop funding on ballistic missile and help develop a Covid vaccineCongressional Democrats are introducing legislation to transfer $1bn in funding from a controversial new intercontinental ballistic missile to the development of a universal Covid vaccine.The Investing in Cures Before Missiles (ICBM) Act, introduced in the House and Senate on Friday, would stop funding on the proposed new missile, known as the ground-based strategic deterrent (GBSD) which is projected to cost a total of $264bn over its projected lifespan, and discontinue spending on a linked warhead modification program. Continue reading...
Utility lines and trees downed in storm that hit small communities south of BirminghamAt least five people have been killed and multiple injuries reported after a string of up to seven deadly tornadoes tore through Alabama, toppling trees, demolishing homes and knocking out power to thousands.The confirmed deaths were in Calhoun county, in the eastern part of the state, where one of multiple twisters sprang from a “super cell” of storms that later moved into Georgia, said John De Block, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Birmingham. Continue reading...
Former president says rioters ‘shouldn’t have done it’ but they are now being ‘persecuted’Donald Trump has defended some of his supporters who rioted at the US Capitol on 6 January, saying they posed “zero threat” to the lawmakers who had assembled there to certify the electoral college vote that confirmed Joe Biden’s election victory.Trump complained to Fox News’s Laura Ingraham that law enforcement was “persecuting” the Capitol rioters, while “nothing happens” to leftwing protesters. Five people, including a police officer, died in the riot. Continue reading...
Outdated filibuster rules allow a small minority of the US population to hold the rest of the country hostageAs everyone from President Joe Biden to the conservative Democratic senator Joe Manchin to liberal groups now push to reform the Senate’s rules, the defense of the filibuster goes something like this: by design, our nation is a republic, not a direct democracy, and therefore we must create institutional obstacles to empower a minority of Americans to prevent the whims of the majority from being too hastily enshrined in legislation. By this logic, we must keep the Senate’s cloture rule, which requires 60 of the Senate’s 100 members to end a filibuster and move a bill to a vote.Those who make this case seem to love sounding like erudite constitutional scholars steeped in the grandeur of American history, and they purport to be pluralists worrying about minority rights. Continue reading...
Kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the US, lays off employees after local ordinance on hazard pay passed in Los AngelesKroger, the largest supermarket chain in the US which makes hundred of millions of dollars in profits, is shutting down grocery stores and laying off scores of employees in response to local hazard pay rules for essential workers even as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage.Maria Hernandez has worked at Ralphs grocery stores for 25 years before she recently found out her store would be shutting down. She’s worked through the pandemic and caught the coronavirus in May 2020. She still experiences lingering, long-term effects from it, and has dealt with panic attacks and anxiety from the stress and pressures placed on essential workers. Continue reading...
Democrats and even some Republicans are keen to posit their party as one that backs the working class in high-profile labor fightA steady stream of federal lawmakers have been trickling into Alabama to cheer on workers hoping to unionize at an Amazon Inc warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, cementing the union drive as the highest profile American labor fight in recent memory.The labor push has seen a stream of Democrats but even won the support of some Republicans who are keen to posit their party as one that backs the working class – and whose top leaders are also hostile to Amazon owner Jeff Bezos. Continue reading...
The NBA’s most notorious father gave plenty of prophecies that failed to come true. But it’s hard to argue his plans for his youngest son haven’t worked outLate last Sunday, as we the punters were still smarting from the chaos of the NCAA tournament’s opening rounds, came more distressing news from the NBA: LaMelo Ball, the Charlotte Hornets’ dazzling young point guard, was in danger of missing the rest of the season after fracturing his wrist. As upsets go this was way worse than Florida falling to 15th-seeded Oral Roberts. This was like if WandaVision wrapped its season after the third episode. No! The full picture was only just coming into focus!The third overall selection in last year’s draft, Ball was the feelgood story of this NBA season: basketball’s enfant terrible made good. Great, even. Consider: He no-look passed his way off the bench in 20 games. He became the first player in 60 years to lead all rookies in points, rebounds, assists and steals heading into the All-Star break – at the tender age of 19 to boot. Since his promotion to the starting lineup in February, Ball had been averaging 19.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 6.2 assists and 1.7 steals. That production didn’t just rate favorably among the league’s top floor generals; it had lifted Charlotte out of the Eastern Conference cellar and into postseason picture for the first time in years. Not since Muggsy Bogues was leading the fast break with Alonzo Mourning and Larry Johnson have the Hornets been this, well, buzz-worthy. Continue reading...
House agriculture committee hearing comes on the heels of $5bn being allocated to farmers of color earlier this monthFor the first time in US history, members of the House agriculture committee heard from Black farmers on the impact of systemic discrimination by the department of agriculture (USDA).Thursday’s hearing came on the heels of $5bn being allocated to socially disadvantaged farmers of color earlier this month as part of the coronavirus relief and economic stimulus package. The funding – $4bn for debt forgiveness, $1bn for other forms of support – is meant to account for generations of mistreatment of farmers of color by the USDA. Continue reading...
A US man has said 90,000 pennies covered in oil or grease were left at the end of his driveway after he pressed his former employer to pay the $915 he was owed in wages.Andreas Flaten said he left his job at A OK Walker Autoworks in Peachtree City, Georgia, in November but had difficulty getting his final payment, even turning to the Georgia department of labor to receive help.In mid-March, Flaten said as he left his house with his girlfriend he noticed the pile at the end of his driveway. He said the coins were covered with some sort of oily substance and an envelope containing his final pay slip and an explicit parting message.
Jason Miller signed secret deal to stay with DC-based Teneo after ‘resigning’ and then appeared to misrepresent employment statusA top aide to Donald Trump was secretly re-engaged by a leading political strategy firm after being forced to step down following a social media scandal, the Guardian can reveal. The company, Washington-based Teneo, wanted access to top Republicans in the then president’s inner circle, and to conceal his ongoing work.Jason Miller – who remains close to Trump, and who today serves as a senior adviser to the former president – also later appears to have misled a Florida court about this employment status, asserting in a sworn statement that he could no longer comply with a court order requiring him to pay child-support payments because of an alleged “major financial setback” and was effectively out of work. Continue reading...
Echo Park Lake site has become a battleground in the city’s worsening housing and homelessness crisis during the pandemicLos Angeles officials have moved to evict a large homeless encampment from a major city park, sending police in riot gear to face off with unhoused residents and protesters supporting them.Late Wednesday night, hundreds of demonstrators gathered at Echo Park Lake, a public park in central LA, to denounce the planned expulsion of hundreds of people who have been camping out there. Continue reading...
The fact that the president didn’t receive a single question about his handling of the pandemic shows he must be doing something rightHas the fever in American politics finally broken? After a sickness that lasted four long years, it seems the patient is on the road to recovery. Continue reading...
Push to get major corporations to oppose significant voting restrictions Republicans in the state are on the verge of approvingGeorgia activists are calling for a statewide boycott of Coca-Cola as part of an escalating effort to get major corporations to oppose significant voting restrictions Republicans in the state legislature are on the verge of approving. Continue reading...
Gun belonging to president’s son was dumped in a trash can behind a grocery store then found to be missing, Politico reportsThe US Secret Service became involved in a bizarre incident in which a gun belonging to Hunter Biden was dumped in a trash can behind a grocery store then found to be missing, the website Politico reported on Thursday.Delaware police were concerned the gun, a .38 revolver, could be found and used in a crime, the website said, adding that it was eventually found by a man searching the trash for recycling. Continue reading...
Researching the global shipping industry, I saw how modern mega-vessels offer the efficiency consumers demand, at a priceHowever grim and difficult life these days is, I’d still prefer to be sitting on dry land in lockdown than trying to do a three-point turn on the Suez canal with a 400-metre cargo ship under my control. Wouldn’t you? The grounding of the Ever Given container vessel in the Suez canal has provoked both hilarity and genuine concern. Vessels have got stuck before in the canal: at its narrowest, the “ditch in the desert”, as crew on the container vessel I travelled with in 2010 told me, is only 300 metres wide. It’s tight. That’s why ships must wait at either end to be sent through in a slow convoy. But the Ever Given is longer than the canal is wide, and it is stuck sideways. A simple shunt off the banks will not work.The blockage is costly in all sorts of ways, as well as embarrassing for the Taiwan-based Evergreen Marine, the company that operates the ship. The Suez canal was opened in 1869, after the French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps employed forced labour to improve rudimentary pre-existing canals (that had been in existence probably since the time of Pharaoh Senusret III) and created an essential thoroughfare for marine traffic, expending many lives in the process and taking 10 years. Continue reading...
We’ve been reporting on gun violence for years. The mass shooting debate is not just biased; it is actively harmful and racistWe write about gun violence in America as our full-time jobs. Between the two of us, we’ve been doing that for over a decade.We see that America’s endless gun debate does not treat shooting victims and their families equitably. It is not driven by a focus on what actually works to save lives. It rarely includes the voices of the majority of the victims or any of the people who have a track record of successfully preventing shootings. It is not just biased; it is actively harmful and racist. And it will never make us safer. Continue reading...
Over the last few months, there’s been ‘no attempt to pretend that the intention is not to restrict votes’, says Stacey AbramsHappy Thursday, Continue reading...
District judge ordered Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa to appear before him in court unless he waves his right to appear in person in writingHundreds of mourners gathered on Wednesday night at a candlelight vigil to remember the 10 people gunned down at a supermarket in a Colorado college town, while the 21-year-old man suspected of carrying out the rampage prepared for his first court appearance on Thursday morning.Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa has been jailed for investigation of murder since he was arrested inside the King Soopers supermarket in Boulder on Monday and treated at a hospital for a leg wound. He was to hear the pending charges he faces and his rights as a defendant, and he would not be asked for a plea until later in the judicial process. Continue reading...
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