Senate leader and assembly speaker weigh in but Cuomo says quitting over sexual harassment claims would be ‘anti-democratic’

Oprah Winfrey interview has been the subject of furious bidding wars and syndicated to 70 countries

Organizers and residents oppose metal shredder operating in Latino neighborhood already suffering from pollutionOn the 30th and last day of their hunger strike, activists from Chicago’s Southeast Side held a vigil.Mourning the health of the hunger strikers who have gone without food for a month, demonstrators clad in funeral attire carried a fake casket on Thursday through Logan Square, the North Side neighborhood where Mayor Lori Lightfoot lives. Southeast Side organizers and residents are demanding the city stop a metal shredder from operating in a Latino neighborhood already overburdened by pollution. Continue reading...

I cannot stand the toxic atmosphere of glee around the link between coronavirus and obesityIt is not news that there is a connection between Covid mortality rates and a country’s obesity level. It may have been confirmed for the first time last week by the World Obesity Forum, but this has been a word-of-mouth truism since the start. Someone always knew a man whose brother-in-law worked in intensive care and said only obese people suffered seriously. “I weigh myself every morning, to check that I am still just overweight,” said a friend with one of these brothers-in-law.Then Boris Johnson set this in stone, whining to his cabinet: “It’s all right for you thinnies.” It is not a word, is it, “thinnie”? Nor is “gloomster”. Sometimes, I think that is the summit of the prime minister’s arrogance – that he finds the English language incomplete without the interjection of his baby words. At other times, I think his arrogance is more like the mountain in a Japanese etching: there is no “top”, there is only “more” and “cloud”. Continue reading...

Joe Biden has hailed the passage of the American Rescue plan by an exhausted Senate. Lawmakers narrowly approved the bill on Saturday as the US president and his Democratic allies notched a victory they called crucial for hoisting the country out of the pandemic and economic doldrums

Manhattan Beach used eminent domain in 1924 to force Willa and Charles Bruce, the city’s first Black landowners, off the propertyLos Angeles county officials may return a beachfront property that was seized from a Black family nearly a century ago.Related: Three Alabama professors on leave over racially insensitive Halloween pictures Continue reading...

Fifty-six years ago, my great-aunt, Amelia Boynton, was beaten senseless while marching. Let’s honor her by protecting voting today

In the first US city to go into lockdown, marginalized communities were devastated by the pandemic. But some see opportunity aheadNearly a year ago, the San Francisco Bay Area imposed the country’s first lockdown, an early response that set the tone throughout the pandemic. As a result, San Francisco has had some of the lowest case and death rates in the country.But today, the city is reckoning with a more complicated loss – the businesses that closed and never reopened, the residents who fled, the loss of of cultural institutions that served as safe spaces for marginalized communities. Continue reading...

In an interview with the Guardian, the House majority whip calls for a way around the legislative roadblockOne of the most powerful Democrats in Washington has issued a frank warning to members of his own party, saying they need to find a way to pass major voting rights legislation or they will lose control of Congress.The comments from Jim Clyburn, the House majority whip, came days after the House of Representatives approved a sweeping voting rights bill that would enact some of the most dramatic expansions of the right to vote since the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Even though Democrats also control the US Senate, the bill is unlikely to pass the chamber because of a procedural rule, the filibuster, that requires 60 votes to advance legislation. Continue reading...

Trump has gone and so for now has Rick Wilson, but Covid is still with us and the Daily Beast pod is as hard-hitting as everMolly Jong-Fast has known great success as a writer but over the last year on The New Abnormal, her podcast on politics in the time of Covid, she has become both half of a crackling double act and an interviewer with a habit of making news.Related: Biden's no LBJ but he must protect voting rights. What else is the presidency for? Continue reading...

Research reveals that financial support of infected workers benefits everyone, but the government won’t budgeWe need people who have – or might have – the coronavirus to stay at home to protect others’ lives. The government’s job is to protect their livelihoods so they’re able to do so. That’s why decent sick pay is so essential in a pandemic.Unfortunately, the UK came into this crisis firmly at the bottom of the international statutory sick pay league table; 2 million low earners don’t qualify at all. Even those qualifying only get £96 a week, just a quarter of their earnings on average. The government recognised, but didn’t solve these problems, by ensuring people get sick pay more quickly as well as if they need to isolate but aren’t ill. A new £500 track-and-trace support payment was also introduced, but only one in eight workers qualify. Continue reading...

Republicans want to go back to Jim Crow. Democrats want to protect Black and brown voters. The filibuster simply has to goIn 1963, when the newly sworn in Lyndon Baines Johnson was advised against using his limited political capital on the controversial issue of civil and voting rights for Black Americans, he responded: “Well, what the hell’s the presidency for?”Related: Lucky review: how Biden beat Trump – and doubters like Obama and Hillary Continue reading...

Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes deliver a clear-eyed account of an election which could not cure a country’s woundsSeven million votes more was almost not enough. Had 45,000 gone the other way in Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin, Donald Trump would still be president. Calls to defund the police nearly cost Joe Biden victory and led to a more than a dozen-seat loss for House Democrats.Related: Key Biden aide said pandemic was 'best thing that ever happened to him', book says Continue reading...

The legacies of the toxic conflict are global, pernicious and ongoingTen years after it began, Syria’s horrific civil war has faded from the headlines. Reluctant to get involved, US and European politicians, and the western public, mostly look the other way. Russia plays a pivotal role, but on the wrong side. Interventionist regional states such as Turkey, Israel, and Iran prioritise selfish, short-term interests. The result is stalemate – a semi-chilled conflict characterised by sporadic violence, profound pain and strategic indifference.Yet this epic failure to halt the war continues to have far-reaching, negative consequences for international security, democratic values and the rule of law, as well as for Syria’s citizens. Whether the issue is human suffering, refugees, war crimes, chemical weapons or Islamist terrorism, the war’s multiple, toxic legacies are global, pernicious – and ongoing. Continue reading...

New York Democrats have called for the governor to resign over sexual harassment allegations, but no national figures have joined the chorusFlannery Amdahl’s memories of working for Andrew Cuomo are sharply at odds with the rock-star status the New York governor enjoyed last year. Continue reading...

Party bodies have used former president’s name while fundraising for Republicans who voted for his impeachmentDonald Trump has told the Republican National Committee and other party bodies to stop using his name and likeness in fundraising efforts, it was reported on Saturday. Continue reading...

The highly dysfunctional family has plenty to fear from the Sussexes’ television interviewMaybe it’s modern, maybe it’s reckless self-harm, maybe it’s the pervasive influence of RuPaul. Whatever explains Buckingham Palace’s new line in taunting abdicators – basically, missing you already, bitches – it must have seemed like a promotional miracle to the makers of the imminent Oprah-Sussexes interview.Related: For Meghan Markle, leaving Britain must seem more and more like the right choice | Afua Hirsch Continue reading...

The president is planning a multi-trillion effort to fix America’s infrastructure and kickstart the economy. But can he get Republicans on board?Joe Biden came to power promising a New Deal-like economic agenda that would not only combat the Covid-19 pandemic, which has now claimed more than half a million lives in the US and caused unemployment not seen since the Great Depression, but also confront the deep-rooted disparities it has exposed.Related: Senate passes $1.9tn coronavirus relief bill, overcoming Republican opposition Continue reading...

Ruling from Minnesota court of appeals could delay Derek Chauvin’s trial, which is due to start MondayThe Minnesota court of appeals has ordered a judge to reconsider adding third-degree murder to charges against the former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is accused of killing George Floyd last year. Continue reading...

The Olympic pole vault silver medalist talks about creating her own competitive opportunities amid the pandemic and the challenges of staying motivated for Tokyo 2021Like everyone else, Sandi Morris was left no choice but to shelve her plans when the coronavirus pandemic took hold and the Tokyo Olympics were postponed.The Olympic pole vault silver medalist and American indoor record holder was forced to get creative over the past year as the sport halted to a standstill. With her training facilities at the University of Arkansas shut down for nine months, Morris moved back to her parents’ house in South Carolina and constructed a homemade pole-vault setup with 120ft runway in the neighborhood. With no competitions on the horizon and no prize or appearance money coming in, she held a virtual garage sale of old meet-worn gear and memorabilia to help make ends meet. For every problem, a solution. Continue reading...

Biased algorithms influence what faces we’re shown on social media, and entrench our opinions about what is attractive Continue reading...

Carlson says conspiracy theory believers – many of whom took part in Capitol attack – are ‘gentle people waving American flags’Followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory are “gentle people waving American flags”, Fox News host Tucker Carlson claimed on Friday night – two months since many joined a mob that stormed the US Capitol seeking to overturn Donald Trump’s election defeat, a riot in which five people died.Related: Biden urged to 'go big' on New Deal-like economic plan – but can he bridge left-right gap? Continue reading...

Biden’s $1.9tn relief package struggles through Senate but majority leaders vows passage ‘however long it takes’A fiery speech and last-ditch effort by Bernie Sanders to secure a place for a federal minimum wage hike in the $1.9tn coronavirus relief package appeared as good as doomed on Friday, following a day that saw the flagship legislation hit grinding delays in the Senate.Senate leaders and moderate Democratic senator Joe Manchin struck a deal late on Friday over emergency jobless benefits, breaking a nine-hour logjam. Continue reading...

Poet, acclaimed for her performance at Joe Biden’s inauguration, tweeted ‘this is the reality of black girls’Amanda Gorman, the poet who won acclaim for her performance at Joe Biden’s inauguration, has told of being followed home and accosted by a security guard who allegedly claimed she looked suspicious.She said the incident, on Friday night, was emblematic of “the reality of black girls” in the US, in which “one day you’re called an icon” but the next day considered a threat. Continue reading...

Real cancel culture has existed throughout US history, and much of what we witness now is meaningless by comparisonOn Tuesday, the estate of Dr Seuss decided that it will cease publishing six books by the beloved children’s author which contain offensive depictions of non-white characters. A week earlier, Hasbro, the manufacturer of Mr Potato Head, announced that the toy will henceforth be known by the non-gendered moniker Potato Head.An army of defenders has now risen to protect the sanctity of Mr Potato Head and Dr Seuss. Social media and conservative news outlets have been consumed with memes and hot takes declaring the dangerous overreach of “cancel culture”, which they define as the process of punishing a person or product deemed offensive by some vague set of modern moral standards. Continue reading...

It’s hard to know how serious the threat was, but either way House Democrats’ decision was terrible for US democracy

A year to the day after the pandemic sent me back home from university, George Floyd’s killer goes on trial. It has been 12 months of upheaval, unrest and inspirationAt 9.52pm on 8 March 2020, my university sent out an email telling students that we would start our spring break a week early because of a potential Covid-19 case on campus.What they couldn’t tell us right then is that over the course of the two weeks, I’d fly home to Minnesota, fly back to campus in New York to move out and fly back home to finish classes in my family home. Continue reading...

Experts say ‘effect on turnout and on partisan outcomes is very muted’ and undermines Trump claim that mail-in voting cost himMail-in voting did not significantly increase turnout nor did it benefit Democrats in the 2020 election, a new study has found, undermining the talking point, advanced by Donald Trump and others, that mail-in ballots cost him the election.Related: Fight to vote: This is how Georgia Republicans are attacking democracy Continue reading...

I’ve defended people in this profoundly discriminatory judicial system. It needs dismantling – and the UK can helpThe overwhelming majority of Palestinians in the West Bank were born into, and have spent their entire lives under, an Israeli military occupation that violates their right to self-determination. A new report by the UK charity War on Want exposes how a core part of what sustains that occupation is a military judicial system characterised by violations of international law.The report – Judge, Jury and Occupier – is a deep dive into the diverse ways in which Palestinians’ rights are being violated – from arrest, through interrogation, conviction and jail time. It reflects the experiences of Palestinian lawyers and human rights groups. The prisoners’ rights organisation I lead, Addameer, was proud to contribute evidence. Continue reading...

Letitia James has been making big legal waves, from investigating the Trumps to Cuomo’s nursing home scandal, generating a torrent of national attentionThe two men were born a decade apart in Queens, New York, one the heir to a real estate fortune and the other to a political dynasty. Donald Trump went on to be president, and Andrew Cuomo became governor, like his father.Over the course of their long and controversial careers, both men have seemed untouchable. But thanks to the recent work of one lifelong public servant, who was born into a big family in Brooklyn without legacy money or power, each man is suddenly facing a moment of unaccustomed accountability. Continue reading...

Reopening marks a significant moment after a Covid-induced closure but experts and cinemagoers remain wary over safetyLike all cinemas in New York, the Angelika in Soho has lain dormant for almost an entire year. But just before 10am on Friday, with an unceremonious creak, the shutters raised to welcome its first customers since the city was ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic.Related: US experts warn new Covid variants and states reopening may lead to fourth wave Continue reading...

A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Colombia to the Sahara Continue reading...

The sun is drying the dew off on the ivy. I can hear birds singing and children playing. It’s too earlyA year ago, I was contending that as someone who had always worked from home I’d been in training for a global pandemic for 30 years: I’ll do your lockdown standing on my head – bring it.That was a couple of lockdowns ago, but it’s only recently that something has arrived to upset my mental equilibrium: hope. After months safely cloaked in the armour of despair, hope has suddenly left me unpeeled and paranoid: in my dreams, dark forces range against me, and the police are often involved. Continue reading...