Defense secretary Lloyd Austin acknowledges hesitancy and says ‘we have to work to hard to dispel rumors and provide facts’Reluctance to be vaccinated for Covid-19 is now rife in the US military, with about a third of troops on active duty or in the national guard refusing to be administered the vaccine.Related: How to avoid 'Zoom fatigue' during the Covid pandemic Continue reading...
Bungled response will have consequence for finances, health and homes – and less privileged Texans will feel the pinchLast week, Malori Elsner’s family was struggling through power outages in their poorly insulated rental home near Houston, Texas, burning cardboard in the fireplace to stay warm during a deadly Arctic blast.But even as they endured the cold, their electric bill skyrocketed – Texas’s deregulated grid had gone haywire, and Elsner sat there, helpless, “knowing that I’m leeching money, but not having a choice because it’s eight degrees outside.” Continue reading...
A Senate official has ruled that the plan for a $15 minimum cannot be passed with only a simple majority but the fight is far from overIt was a major plank of the Democratic plan to “build back better” – raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour as a way of boosting the economy during the pandemic and tackling poverty and income inequality. But on Thursday the much-vaunted plan hit a roadblock in the US Senate, which has knocked the proposal sideways.Related: 'We need $15': US minimum wage ruling a personal blow for millions of workers Continue reading...
Figures were provided as part of lawsuit brought by ACLU which in 2018 ended family separations under Trump policyThe parents of 112 children separated at the US-Mexico border by Donald Trump’s administration have been contacted since January, lawyers told a court on Friday, as the judge expressed optimism about reunification efforts now being the responsibility of Joe Biden’s administration.The new figures were provided as part of a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) which in 2018 ended family separations under Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy about unlawful border crossings and ordered the government to reunite families. On Friday, the government’s position in the case was represented publicly for the first time by Biden’s administration instead of Trump’s. Continue reading...
Officials warn against ‘pathogen porn’ amid limited data, but researchers say they are simply stating the factsReports of a new variant of coronavirus in New York City have circulated this week, causing a rift between health experts and city officials who questioned how concerned people should be when data is limited.Two separate studies in pre-print stages, meaning they have not been peer-reviewed, were released this week pointing to a coronavirus variant, named B.1.526, spotted in parts of New York City starting in November. Continue reading...
As I grew up, the majority of black women I saw on TV were fair skinned. Those who looked like me were never cast as the leadI’ve been building a profile as a writer and broadcaster long enough to know that there will be public storms. Some creep up on you, others you sense brewing, and some have been lingering in the background for a lifetime.A couple of weeks ago, I posted on social media about having “lost out” on hosting a documentary to a lighter-skinned black woman. The subject of the documentary was maternal mortality in the UK, and the harrowing fact that black women are five times more likely to die in childbirth than white women. This is something I have campaigned on for several years, wrote about in my book I Am Not Your Baby Mother and experienced first-hand when I almost died a few days after the birth of my first child in 2013. Continue reading...
Conservative gathering in Florida has seven sessions this year focused on voter fraud and election-related issuesRepublicans have continued to embrace the myth of a stolen election the annual rightwing conclave of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), underscoring how the party continues to sustain the baseless idea months after Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 race and the deadly assault on the Capitol.This year’s gathering of some of the party’s most fervent supporters has a staggering seven sessions focused on voter fraud and election-related issues. Several have inflammatory titles. “Other culprits, why judges and media refuse to look at the evidence,” was the name of one panel discussion on Friday. “The left pulled the strings, covered it up, and even admits it,” was another. “Failed states (GA, PA, NV, oh my!)” is the title of another scheduled for this weekend. Continue reading...
Swedish company has begun work on US flotation as plant-based foods enter mainstream“Here comes the post milk generation” is the slogan emblazoned on the side of the electric trucks of the alt-milk brand Oatly. We will soon find out if that’s true as the Swedish oatmilk juggernaut heads towards a mega US stock exchange listing.The Swedish company said this week it had begun work on a flotation in New York which some analysts think could value the fast-growing business at as much as $10bn (£7.1bn). Continue reading...
by Daniel Strauss in Washington and agencies on (#5EPNS)
Relief bill represents Biden first big legislative win but wage hike proposal to be removed from Senate versionThe US House of Representatives has passed Joe Biden’s $1.9tn coronavirus aid bill in his first major legislative victory.Related: Criticism builds over Biden's failure to lift Trump sanctions on ICC prosecutors Continue reading...
Dogs were dropped off at a police station in Los Angeles, while dog walker shot in the attack is recoveringTwo French bulldogs belonging to Lady Gaga that were stolen at gunpoint earlier this week have been recovered unharmed, police in Los Angeles have said.A woman brought the dogs to the LAPD’s Olympic community police station on Friday evening, said Jonathan Tippett, commanding officer of the robbery-homicide division. Continue reading...
The president visited an emergency operations centre and a food bank as the Texas senator railed against the ‘hard left’ at the conservative CPAC eventAmerica’s political divide was on display on Friday as Joe Biden flew to Texas to comfort victims of a deadly winter storm while Ted Cruz, a senator from the beleaguered state, basked in Florida sunshine and joked about his recent holiday in Mexico.The US president, who made empathy the core of his election campaign, and the first lady, Jill Biden, travelled to Houston for his first trip to a major disaster site since taking office on 20 January. Continue reading...
Vaccine, along with those from Pfizer and Moderna, should provide US with more than enough supply to vaccinate every personThe battle against Covid-19 took a major step forward on Friday as the US moved closer to distributing its first one-shot Covid-19 vaccine, after an independent expert advisory panel recommended drug regulators authorize the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for emergency use.The authorization would be a significant boost to the Biden administration’s vaccination plans, making Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine the third available to the public. Janssen, Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine subsidiary, told a congressional hearing this week that it expects to deliver 20m doses by March and a total of 100m doses before the end of June. Continue reading...
Biden may inadvertently achieve what Trump couldn’t: destroying the Iran deal, Obama’s main foreign policy achievement“Diplomacy is back!” President Joe Biden declared at the Munich Security Conference last week. But so is bombing Syria, apparently. Biden has only been president a bit more than a month, but he has already ordered his first bombing campaign. (It took Trump four months to do the same.) The target was facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran-backed militia in retaliation for rocket attacks against US troops in Iraq earlier this month.Presumably, Biden wanted to signal to Iran that it would pay a heavy price if it ordered attacks against US troops in order to pressure Washington to return to the Iran nuclear deal. But by bombing Syria for this reason, Biden proved how failing to rejoin the nuclear agreement endangers US national security – Iran’s nuclear program continues to advance while the US and Iran glide closer to a military confrontation. Continue reading...
UK FTSE was down 2.5%, its biggest one-day fall in percentage terms since the end of OctoberGlobal stock markets ended February deep in the red, as fears of higher inflation prompted a sell-off in government bonds and spread anxiety across financial markets.The UK’s FTSE 100 index fell 168 points to 6,483, a 2.5% drop – the biggest one-day fall in percentage terms since the end of October. Continue reading...
Photographer Tasha Hall creates what she calls ‘farmily’ portraits – featuring families and their animals. Hall, from British Columbia in Canada, says she got the idea after wanting to include all her furry friends in a family portrait. She now travels the world capturing other families with their livestock and pets Continue reading...
Workers have criticized setback and are pushing elected officials to figure out a way to still pass a $15 federal minimum wageBill Thompson, 50, has worked in food service in Independence, Missouri, for over 30 years. He currently works at Burger King, making $10.30 an hour. With his current wages, he avoids seeking medical care because of the costs, and explained his family has struggled to afford basic necessities.He’s one of many low-wage workers around the US who have been organizing and fighting for a $15 minimum wage at the federal level and at local and state levels since the Fight for $15 and a Union movement began in 2012. Continue reading...
In alarming testimony to a House subcommittee, the acting chief of Capitol police, Yogananda Pittman, said threats were circulating that directly targeted Joe Biden's first formal speech to a joint session of Congress – the date of which has not yet been announced.Militia groups involved in the 6 January insurrection want to stage another attack aiming to 'blow up' the complex and kill lawmakers, Pittman has warned
Calvin Tyler, who left Morgan State University, a historically Black college, in 1963, worked his way up to become a UPS board memberA man who dropped out of college because he couldn’t afford tuition costs and became a UPS driver has pledged $20m in scholarships to his former university nearly 60 years on.Related: Democrats' $15 minimum wage rise under threat after Senate parliamentarian ruling – live Continue reading...
Trump targeted officials for launching war crimes investigations, as reports say Israel is lobbying to keep sanctions in placeThe Biden administration is facing growing criticism for failing to lift US sanctions imposed last year on war crimes prosecutors at the international criminal court, at the same time as Israel is lobbying to keep the punitive measures in place.Related: Democrats' $15 minimum wage rise under threat after Senate parliamentarian ruling – live Continue reading...
Acting chief of US Capitol police says threats are circulating targeting the president’s first formal speech to CongressMilitia groups involved in the 6 January insurrection want to stage another attack around Joe Biden’s upcoming address to Congress, aiming to “blow up” the complex and kill lawmakers, the acting chief of the US Capitol police has warned.In alarming testimony to a House subcommittee, Yogananda Pittman said that threats were circulating that directly targeted the president’s first formal speech to a joint session of Congress. A date for the event has not yet been announced. Continue reading...
Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled provision in $1.9tn Covid stimulus bill did not qualify for budget reconciliationThe progressive Democrat Ilhan Omar has called for the firing of the government official who effectively blocked the party’s plans to raise the minimum wage.Democratic plans to include a gradual raise to $15 in Joe Biden’s $1.9tn coronavirus stimulus bill were effectively ended on Thursday when the Senate parliamentarian ruled it should not be part of the package. Continue reading...
Senate minority leader, who called Trump ‘morally responsible’ for Capitol attack, says it ‘should be a wide-open race’Less than a month after excoriating Donald Trump in a blistering floor speech, the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, said Thursday that he would “absolutely” support the former president again if he secured the Republican nomination in 2024.Related: We're suing to hold Trump accountable for 'treasonous acts', NAACP chief says Continue reading...
Strikes against Iran-backed fighters were retaliation for attack on US-led forces in Iraq, says PentagonJoe Biden has carried out his first military action as president, with airstrikes targeting Iranian-backed fighters in Syria, in what the Pentagon said was retaliation for a rocket attack in Iraq earlier this month that killed one civilian contractor and wounded a US service member and other coalition troops.The overnight strikes killed 22 people after hitting three trucks loaded with munitions near the border town of Abu Kamal, a war monitor said on Friday. Border posts used by Iranian militia groups were also destroyed, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Continue reading...
In defense of an awful nominee and a corrupt DC culture, Republicans engage in hypocrisy while Democrats trample the causes they purport to care aboutWhen sifting through the wreckage to try to make sense of this epoch, future anthropologists should dust off whatever records will be preserved about Neera Tanden’s star-crossed nomination to an obscure-but-powerful White House office.The whole episode is a museum-ready diorama in miniature illustrating so many things that died in the transition from democracy to oligarchy. And in this affair, all the politicians, pundits, news outlets and Democratic party apparatchiks involved are very blatantly telling on themselves. Continue reading...
Thousands of Washington state residents have found vaccine appointments with help from a Facebook groupNicole D’Abreau had spent weeks searching for a Covid-19 vaccine slot for her 62-year-old, diabetic mother when she launched a desperate attempt. Continue reading...
Prince Harry reveals Archie's Christmas present from the Queen in a television appearance on The Late Late Show.While touring Los Angeles on an open-air bus, the Duke of Sussex gives an interview to James Corden and opens up on why he withdrew from royal duties Continue reading...
President spoke to King Salman ahead of publication of intelligence report expected to implicate crown prince in murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Plus, House passes a landmark LGBTQ+ rights bill
Around the anniversary of his death, we spoke to his daughter about the women who were vital to the making of civil rights leaderSince he was assassinated inside the Audubon Ballroom 56 years ago on Sunday, Malcolm X, the “black shining prince” has been immortalised, demonised and revered around the world.Like his contemporary Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X was a vehement critic of institutional racism, imperialism and capitalism. But his militant stance and radical ideas often meant he was compared unfavorably to King, shelved as a violent revolutionary. Continue reading...
Senators Mitt Romney and Tom Cotton set $10-an-hour target while Josh Hawley promotes tax credit schemeRepublican lawmakers have been vocal about their opposition to Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief bill, particularly to Democrats’ inclusion of a provision that would raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $15 an hour.Related: US minimum wage activists face their toughest foe: Democrat Joe Manchin Continue reading...
Derrick Johnson accuses president of ‘operating under a white supremacist doctrine’ in suit filed using 1871 Ku Klux Klan ActCivil rights group the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has argued thats its suing of Donald Trump using the Ku Klux Klan Act – a historic law enacted to combat white supremacy – is in order to hold the former president accountable to Black voters that his Republican administration sought to invalidate.The lawsuit alleges Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani sought to undermine the will of American voters by orchestrating a “series of events that unfolded [with] the Save America rally and the storming of the Capitol” on 6 January in events that shocked the world. Continue reading...
US Soccer has apologized for a 2017 policy that banned kneeling for the anthem. But the issue won’t officially be settled until Saturday, when it’s put to a vote at the annual general meetingIt wasn’t long after the death of George Floyd that the decision-makers at the US Soccer Federation realized they needed to make some changes – and one change was immediately obvious.Years earlier, the federation had issued an edict requiring national team players to stand during the national anthem. It was targeted at Megan Rapinoe, who had been kneeling to protest systemic racism, and the federation framed its new policy as minimizing distractions and showing respect for the flag. Continue reading...
Before Jackie Robinson dared to cross baseball’s color line in the spring of 1947, there was Moses Fleetwood Walker – the pioneer that time always forgetsSecond-degree murder was the charge that they gave him, and his win probability did not look good. For one thing this was the 90s – the 1890s – and he was Black in Syracuse, New York. For another the man he killed was white. It hardly mattered that this man – some yob named Patrick “Curly” Murray, a cousin of the local alderman – came looking for trouble with a group of white men outside a bar, and struck first with a rock. A knife to the stomach had extinguished Murray in the prime of life, and the job of apportioning blame had fallen to an all-white jury. Surely, they’d throw the book at Moses Fleetwood Walker. But as luck would have it, he was a helluva catcher.Related: MLB corrects 'clear error' and reclassifies Negro Leagues as a major league Continue reading...
February was the peak of my pandemic depression – and then came the ‘Arctic blast’As for so many, February was the peak of my pandemic depression. It nearly marked the first anniversary of the Covid lockdown, and the demise of my social life. But quarantining in San Antonio, Texas, brought an entirely new set of challenges.My breaking point was around midnight last Tuesday, during the “Arctic blast” which, prior to last week, sounded like a refreshing juice-box flavor for children. Our house was 40F (4C). My father was outside boiling water on the grill so we could have a hot drink to get us through the night. My only link to the outside world was a horrendous internet connection, so I couldn’t even doom-scroll my way out of this frozen hellscape. Continue reading...
Epidemiologist Shanna Swan says low counts and changes to sexual development could endanger human speciesFalling sperm counts and changes to sexual development are “threatening human survival” and leading to a fertility crisis, a leading epidemiologist has warned.
The landmark Equality Act comes amid unprecedented attacks on trans rights and could be derailed by GOP senatorsThe US House of Representatives voted to pass a landmark bill that would establish federal anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people, setting up a tough battle in the Senate to turn the proposal into law. Continue reading...
by Joan E Greve in Washington and agencies on (#5ENXY)
President says 50m effort in 37 days is ‘weeks ahead of schedule’ and ‘the more people get vaccinated, the faster we’ll beat this’Joe Biden said on Thursday that 50 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered across the US since he took office last month, outpacing his administration’s goal to distribute 100m shots in his first 100 days in office.The moment came days after the US reached the devastating milestone of 500,000 coronavirus deaths – far more than any other country in the world – and before a meeting with America’s governors on plans to speed vaccine distribution even further. Continue reading...
by Julian Borger and Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washi on (#5ENTZ)
White House says president ‘affirmed the importance the United States places on universal human rights and the rule of law’Joe Biden has spoken with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman for the first time as president, ahead of the publication of a US intelligence report expected to implicate the Saudi crown prince in the 2018 murder of dissident and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.A White House account of the call did not mention the report, but did say, in another context, that Biden “affirmed the importance the United States places on universal human rights and the rule of law” and that the two discussed working on “mutual issues of concern”. Continue reading...
by Joan E Greve in Washington and agencies on (#5ENW6)
Key bill, which amends 1964 Civil Rights Act, passes 224-216 but faces uncertain future in evenly divided SenateThe House has passed the landmark Equality Act, taking LGBTQ+ Americans one step closer to winning legal protection from discrimination.Related: Biden warns Americans 'this is not the time to relax' as vaccinations ramp up – live Continue reading...
Investors debate why stock favoured by home-based investors soared once moreGameStop shares have surged again, opening 180% higher on Thursday after more than doubling on Wednesday, as the trading mania that engulfed the videogame retailer last month returned.The stock opened at nearly $170 on Thursday morning, up from a closing price of nearly $92 on Wednesday, before settling back to $147 in afternoon trading. Continue reading...
