US news | The Guardian

New York governor secured tests for certain people when most people could not get them in the early days of the pandemicAndrew Cuomo set up friends and family members with scarce coronavirus tests when most New Yorkers did not have access to them in the early days of the pandemic, according to multiple reports Wednesday.In March 2020, the New York governor provided tests – and in some cases repeated rounds of testing – to his brother, the CNN anchor Chris Cuomo; to a sister; to their mother; to multiple top government officials and their spouses; to state legislators and staffers; and to other friends of the administration, the Albany Times Union first reported. Continue reading...

The US president and first lady hosted members of the US women's national soccer team at the White House to recognise equal pay day, which symbolises how far into the year women must work on average to make up their pay disparity with men over the year. Earlier in the day, Megan Rapinoe testified in front of a congressional committee examining the economic harm caused by longstanding gender inequalities

As mass shootings bring fresh attention to US gun violence, figures reveal 4,000 more murders took place in 2020 than the year before. Plus: attempts to shift a ship stuck in the Suez canal enter third dayGood morning.Despite a huge drop in the number of high-profile mass shootings, there was a rise in daily gun violence in the US last year. Roughly 4,000 more murders were recorded in 2020 than 2019, which experts say is likely to make it the worst single-year increase on record. Continue reading...

There’s surprising solace in the wisdom of agony aunts – that life doesn’t always work out as we might hopeI read about five or six advice columns a week. Sometimes more. I don’t think I need this much advice (I doubt anyone does), but I have an enduring fondness for the format. I love the small window into a stranger’s life, and how those who write in tend to frame their problems in a way that is, if not unbiased (because who can truly appraise themselves objectively?), then at least not totally self-flattering. I like to read things that aren’t written by writers, and therefore not coaxed into a conventional narrative, and of course I like the replies, too.Over the past year, as contact with other people (especially acquaintances and new people) has been limited, I have found the snippets of family and relationship trouble, bad bosses, nightmare colleagues and irksome friends serve as a sort of replacement for the stories you hear when you have regular spontaneous interactions. And in a year when everyone has been through a lot, advice columns can serve as a reminder that there is always someone out there dealing with something worse. Continue reading...

Andreas Flaten says he found thousands of coins on his driveway months after leaving job at garageA 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. Continue reading...

For decades senators blocked civil rights legislation but allowed democracy to function elsewhere – now next to nothing passesPresident Obama chooses his words carefully. So last July, when he punctuated his eulogy to the civil rights legend John Lewis by calling the Senate filibuster “another relic of Jim Crow”, he wasn’t messing around.Many others (myself included) had written about the historical link between the Senate rule allowing a minority of lawmakers to kill a bill and the preservation of white supremacy. But Obama’s speech sparked a wholesale rebranding. Today, among progressive politicians and activists alike, “End the filibuster” is out. “End the Jim Crow filibuster” is in. Continue reading...

Deep job losses and benefits lags have meant an increase in homeless Americans, and shelters have struggled to keep upRick Temple and his 15-year-old son were living in a room in his work office in Bakersfield, California, before the coronavirus hit in March last year, where Temple, 51, worked as an independent contractor as a dispatcher for freight cargo. But he quickly lost his job and the room, and has relied on unemployment benefits ever since.Related: What I learned about the meaning of home from moving in to my car | AJ Gnuse Continue reading...

The Sandy Hook shooting failed to convince Congress to enact more regulations. In the wake of recent shootings, calls for reform have begunWithin hours of 10 people being gunned down at the King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado on Monday – the second such bloody rampage in seven days – the calls had begun for Congress to tighten up America’s notoriously slack firearms laws.John Hickenlooper, a Democratic US senator from Colorado who was governor of the state at the time of the Aurora cinema shooting that killed 12 people in 2012, opined that “our country has a horrific problem with gun violence. We need federal action. Now.” Continue reading...

There have been more ‘Title 42’ expulsions in the space of a few weeks than during an entire year of Trump’s administration, report saysThe Biden administration has so far deported more Haitians in a few weeks than the Trump administration did in a whole year, with the use of a highly controversial Trump-era public health order denying asylum seekers basic legal rights, according to a new report.The report, The Invisible Wall, due to be published on Thursday by a coalition of immigrant rights groups, focuses on Title 42, part of the 1944 Public Health Service Act invoked a year ago by the Trump administration as grounds for summary expulsion of migrants because of the supposed health risk they posed during the Covid pandemic. Continue reading...

Bill Belichick turned his team into a winning machine by exploiting the NFL’s market inefficiencies. But he appears to have abandoned a winning formulaBill Belichick’s response to the New England Patriots’ first losing season in two decades was always going to be bold.Maybe he would move up in the draft to grab his preferred quarterback. Perhaps he could engineer a trade for Russell Wilson, Deshaun Watson, or Matthew Stafford. But this? Handing out more than $160m in free agency in order to conjure up a competitive roster? It feels antithetical to everything Belichick has practiced and preached over the course of the Patriots’ dynastic run. Continue reading...

Companies are snapping up office space because despite Covid-induced working from home, bustling cities will be backA strange thing is happening, thanks to the pandemic. While everyone is stuck working from home, some of the country’s largest tech companies are snapping up real estate like nobody’s business.Google, for example, announced just last week that it was investing more than $7bn to open new offices and expand data centers across the country. The tech giant is opening offices and data centers in Atlanta, Pittsburgh and Cambridge, Massachusetts, as well as Portland, Oregon, Houston, Reston, Virginia, and South Haven, Mississippi. It will expand data centers and workspaces in Nevada and Nebraska, Washington state, Detroit, Chicago, Ann Arbor and Austin. Continue reading...

What’s left for a world titleholder across seven divisions to accomplish? Becoming Puerto Rico’s first four-belt champion and a pound-for-pound showdown with Katie Taylor

Plus: collectors’ items from Portugal and Spain, Hagler takes on hair rock, and Danica Patrick’s historic IndyCar moment1) This week Frank Worthington died, leaving us with a glorious rabbit hole to delve into. His masterpiece came for Bolton against Ipswich in April 1979, leaving four defenders in his wake and departing the frame with one of the all-time great quickfire swivels. Here’s Frank on a horse, picking out some niche Raul de Souza vinyl and scoring a series of stormers during his lengthy spell at Leicester. He scored two England goals, including another piece of quick thinking against Argentina in 1974. And here’s some latter-day Frank, in action for Guiseley in 1990.Good morning, #BWFC fans. On this day in day in 1979, Frank Worthington scored this stunner against @Official_ITFC... pic.twitter.com/JHrMqLgDaa Continue reading...

Eight hours each for work, leisure and sleep feels a sensible balance – yet with home working, and long-hours culture, it can seem like an unachievable goalA woman who grew up in the former Yugoslavia told me how they used to live their days by the three eights: eight hours of work, eight hours of free time and eight hours of sleep. Nice. I assume weekends were free. It’s odd how quaint this 8-8-8 notion sounds, but eight-hour working days add up to 40 hours a week, which was once standard here, wasn’t it?I suppose there are two reasons you would work for longer than that. It could be that you need to do so to put food on your table, which is fair enough – or most unfair, if you see what I mean. On the other hand, you could be doing punishing hours because your employer, or your industry, demands it, in the interests of making the company as much money as possible and, in some cases, enriching yourself along the way. Either way, it’s no good. You need non-working waking hours for your own sanity, your family’s sanity and the good of the community. Continue reading...

Ban comes after a yearslong battle by Democrats in the state, which previously had US’s second-highest number of executionsVirginia has become the 23rd US state and the first in the south to abolish the death penalty, a dramatic shift for the commonwealth which previously had the nation’s second-highest number of executions. Continue reading...

State assemblyman and advocate for criminal justice reform is expected to be confirmed by legislatureCalifornia’s governor has nominated Rob Bonta, a progressive state assemblyman known for pushing criminal justice reform, to be the state’s next attorney general.Bonta, a Democrat, would replace Xavier Becerra, who was confirmed last week as Joe Biden’s health and human services secretary. Pending likely confirmation by the state’s Democratic legislature, Bonta would hold the job through 2022, when he would have to run for election. Continue reading...

Senate confirms Levine to be the nation’s assistant secretary of health as activists hail appointment as a historic breakthrough

The prime minister was given free rein to waffle and talk over questioners in a debate over the Tory manifesto promiseHow much longer can this go on? Previous prime ministers have at least been on nodding terms with the truth, but Boris Johnson is completely without shame. Without conscience. A sociopath for whom no lie is off limits, either in his public or his private life. What counts is reality as he would like it to be.All of which makes prime minister’s questions increasingly pointless – other than as an exercise in Oxford Union am-dram – because there is no chance of Johnson ever admitting he has made a mistake or changed his mind. Today was a case in point. Keir Starmer thought he had Boris bang to rights. After all, even the defence secretary had said the government was planning to break the Tory manifesto promise not to cut the number of troops in his commons statement earlier in the week. Continue reading...

Drugmaker dismisses former research boss from role at Galvani BioelectronicsGSK has dismissed its former research boss Moncef Slaoui, who became US national vaccine chief under Donald Trump, after an independent investigation found that he sexually harassed one of its female employees.GSK said it had terminated Slaoui’s role at Galvani Bioelectronics, a joint venture majority owned by GSK, with immediate effect. Slaoui had until January led the US vaccine programme Operation Warp Speed. Continue reading...

Vice-president will collaborate with Mexico and Central America officials as White House faces criticism over border operations

Fundraiser was created to cover Xiao Zhen Xie’s medical expenses after she was punched in San FranciscoAn elderly Asian woman who received nearly $1m on GoFundMe after she fought back against someone randomly attacking her is planning to donate all of the money to her community to fight racism, her family has announced.The violent incident against Xiao Zhen Xie was one of many recent attacks against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in America. Stop AAPI Hate tracked nearly 3,800 discriminatory incidents that occured against this community from 19 March 2020 to 28 February 2021. Continue reading...

Ex-White House coronavirus adviser under Trump is now chief medical adviser of ActivePure, one of many companies in a race to capture Covid federal fundingThe former top White House coronavirus adviser under President Donald Trump, Dr Deborah Birx, has joined an air-cleaning company that built its business, in part, on technology that is now banned in California due to health hazards. Continue reading...

Megan Rapinoe has taken her fight for equal pay to Congress as she testified on Wednesday in front of a committee examining 'the economic harm caused by longstanding gender inequalities, particularly for women of colour'. Rapinoe said she did not understand why pay inequality was still a problem in US Soccer, despite the USWNT’s success. 'I feel like honestly we’ve done everything,' she said.During her testimony, Rapinoe added that she supported the rights of trans athletes. The midfielder also addressed the outcry at the NCAA tournament last week after photos showed the far inferior gym equipment provided to female players compared to their male counterparts

The 10 people killed at a Colorado grocery store ranged in age from 20 to 65, and are remembered for their kindness and being a ‘shining light’A gunman killed 10 people on Monday afternoon at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. The 10 people killed ranged in age from 20 to 65 and included shoppers, workers and a police officer.Here is what we know about those who died. Continue reading...

Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone was tearful and openly emotional before Tuesday night’s game against the Orlando Magic while talking about the 10 people killed in a grocery store by a gunman on Monday in Boulder, Colorado. Malone named each of the victims of the massacre: “Rikki Olds, Denny Stong, Neven Stanisic, Tralona Bartkowiak, Suzanne Fountain, Teri Leiker, Kevin Mahoney, Lynn Murray, Jody Waters, and police officer Eric Talley, father of seven kids". The attack took place approximately 28 miles from downtown Denver. Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr also addressed the recent violence in Boulder and Atlanta before Tuesday’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers. Kerr sat sternly in front of a black background featuring 18 names representing each of the people lost in mass shootings over the past week.

When Republicans want to make it tougher to vote than to purchase a gun, something is definitely off-kilterOn Monday, a lone gunman killed 10 at a Boulder, Colorado, supermarket. Last week, a 21-year-old man killed eight in an Atlanta massage parlor. Faced with calls for heightened background checks on gun sales, Cynthia Lummis, Wyoming’s junior senator, draped herself in the flag, and lashed out at proponents of gun control as essentially un-American.In her words, “every time that there’s an incident like this, the people who don’t want to protect the second amendment use it as an excuse to further erode second amendment rights.” To be sure, Lummis’s fealty to freedom and the constitution is selective at best, and she’s far from alone. Continue reading...

Lull in high-profile mass shootings during pandemic but data shows everyday violence has contributed to a likely record riseFor exactly a year during the pandemic, the United States did not see a single high-profile public mass shooting. But a surge in daily gun violence contributed to an estimated 4,000 additional murders throughout 2020, in what experts warn will probably be the worst single-year increase in murders on record.There were only two public shootings in 2020 that primarily targeted strangers, were not related to other crimes and killed at least four victims – one standard definition researchers use to classify “mass shootings” – according to two databases that track this kind of gun violence. That’s the lowest annual count of high-profile mass shootings in America in nearly a quarter-century, according to Jillian Peterson, the founder of the Violence Project, which tracks these mass shootings going back to 1966. Continue reading...

The thrill-seeking, globetrotting All-Pro cornerback on the rise of athlete activism, running with the bulls in Spain and how he ended up in the Anfield stands for that Liverpool-Barcelona matchYou might think the high-stakes, white-knuckle lifestyle of an NFL defensive back would generate enough adrenaline to satisfy even the most voracious thrill-seeker. Not for Josh Norman, the nine-year veteran who has been known to spend his offseasons in pursuit of the next ultimate high: whether it’s jumping out of planes, flying with the US Navy’s Blue Angels, driving stock cars at Charlotte Motor Speedway or running with the bulls in Pamplona.The 33-year-old cornerback took the long road to NFL stardom, going from a walk-on at Coastal Carolina University after receiving no scholarship offers out of high school to the All-Pro first team with the Carolina Panthers during their charmed Super Bowl season in 2015. His yen for new experiences is matched only by a dogged commitment to giving back through Starz24, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation he launched as a rookie, which to date has donated more than $3.4m to youth organizations and nonprofits. Continue reading...

The president called for a tightening of background checks and ban on assault weapons after two mass shootings in recent weeks. Plus, big banks have provided $3.8tn of financing for fossil fuel companies since the Paris climate deal

The US has slipped 11 points in a decade – below Argentina and Mongolia – according the latest report by a democracy watchdogThe US has fallen to a new low in a global ranking of political rights and civil liberties, a drop fueled by unequal treatment of minority groups, damaging influence of money in politics, and increased polarization, according to a new report by Freedom House, a democracy watchdog group.The US earned 83 out of 100 possible points this year in Freedom House’s annual rankings of freedoms around the world, an 11-point drop from its 94 ranking a decade ago. The US’s new ranking places it on par with countries like Panama, Romania and Croatia and behind countries such as Argentina and Mongolia. It lagged far behind countries like the United Kingdom (93), Chile (93), Costa Rica (91) and Slovakia (90). Continue reading...

In his first remarks on the supermarket shooting in Boulder, Colorado, that killed 10 people on Monday, Joe Biden called on Congress to move quickly to toughen the country's gun laws, asking lawmakers to close the loopholes in the background checks system and ban assault weapon and high-capacity magazines. Biden homed in on closing what is known as the Charleston loophole – a provision in federal law that gives a gun seller discretion on whether to proceed with a sale if the FBI fails to determine within three business days if a buyer is eligible to purchase a gun

The ‘coordinated onslaught’ of bills touts the big lie of voter fraud that fueled the 6 January insurrection, says the former Georgia candidate for governorThere may be no politician better suited for a moment when democracy is under attack than Stacey Abrams. A decade ago, when few saw any chance of Georgia becoming a Democratic state, Abrams pushed to invest in turning out Black, Latino and Asian American voters, who had long been overlooked by politicians campaigning in the state. Continue reading...

Doctors and families say wave of bills to ban gender-affirming care dangerously misrepresents the treatment processLawmakers in Arkansas are voting this week to restrict medical care for transgender children and punish doctors who treat them, in one of more than a dozen US states where Republicans are pushing sweeping bans on trans youth healthcare.Proponents of the healthcare bans argue that kids are too young to consent to treatments like hormone therapy and puberty blockers and that the bills aim to prevent “medical experimentation” on children. Some bills claim that trans kids “will outgrow” their identities. Continue reading...

Images of migrants packed into ‘pods’ emerge as Biden administration tries to process thousands of children and familiesJam-packed plastic “pods” doubling as makeshift border enforcement facilities within large tents. Young migrants laying side by side on cheap floor mats. The dystopian glint of silver mylar blankets.Related: Migrants held in overcrowded Texas facility, photos released by congressman show Continue reading...

Photographs of firefighters, grocery workers and hospital staff were captured as they worked through the pandemicLast March, California became the first US state to impose a stay-at-home order in a desperate attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Millions of workers across the state saw their jobs abruptly turn high-risk, or essential to allow millions of others to shelter in place.Photographer Sam Comen visited dozens of essential workers in Los Angeles, capturing their portraits and perspectives in one of America’s major Covid-19 hotspots. Some of them were first responders, others, many of them Black and Latino, performed the labor that allowed so many more to work from home. Their roles during the crisis exposed stark issues of social injustice, with many performing high-risk work with little public support. Continue reading...

Fueled by Trump’s election lies, Republicans have doubled down on a brazen effort to restrict rights – and more danger lies aheadTwenty twenty-one should have been a year to celebrate for LaTosha Brown. Continue reading...

State recorded nearly 17,000 new cases last week as numbers underscore the need for a speedier vaccine rollout, experts sayA recent jump in Michigan Covid cases and hospitalizations is alarming public health officials and raising fear that it could be an early sign of things to come across the rest of the country.Michigan recorded nearly 17,000 new cases last week, which represents a more than 300% increase from the same week last month. Its per-capita rate over the last week is the nation’s fourth highest, while its positivity rate recently hit 9% – the highest mark since mid-January. Continue reading...

If economies recover and stimulus turbocharges pent-up demand, a lot of bank credit could result from central bank moneyThe increasing risk of a return of inflation in the US and Europe is beginning to galvanise debates among economists. One key source of inflation fears is the expectation that, once the Covid-19 pandemic has been overcome by vaccines, pent-up demand will explode in an orgy of consumption.Moreover, today’s unprecedentedly large government bailout programmes will have powerful inflationary multiplier effects. Continue reading...

Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa purchased a weapon shortly after a judge lifted a previous ban on their sale in the Colorado city, according to court documentsThe suspect accused of opening fire inside a crowded Colorado supermarket was a 21-year-old man who allegedly purchased an assault weapon less than a week earlier, it has emerged.Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa bought the weapon on 16 March, six days before the attack at a King Soopers store in Boulder that killed 10 people, including a police officer, according to an arrest affidavit. It was not immediately known where the gun was purchased. Continue reading...

A tragic tail: Jensen Karp says he adored Cinnamon Toast Crunch, until he found what appeared to be dried seafood in his breakfastKids’ cereals have a long history of coming with prizes in the box – perhaps a SpongeBob Squarepants figurine or a cardboard cutout of Spider-Man. It is less appealing when the surprise inside appears to be multiple dried shrimp tails.That is what allegedly happened on Monday morning to Jensen Karp, a Los Angeles comedian, who reported his findings on Twitter with some truly alarming photographs and the words “this is not a bit”. Continue reading...

Administration also extended the enrollment period for registering for subsidized health insurance coverage until 15 AugustJoe Biden marked the 11th anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act with a trip to Ohio on Tuesday, touting his efforts to reverse many Trump-era measures aimed at weakening the landmark health reform law, and pledging that his $1.9tn Covid rescue package would build on the ACA’s promise. Continue reading...