Biden administration suspended duties to allow time for negotiations over digital-services taxes on US tech companiesThe Biden administration announced 25% tariffs on over $2bn worth of imports from the UK and five other countries on Wednesday over their taxes on US technology companies, but immediately suspended the duties to allow time for negotiations to continue.The US trade representative, Katherine Tai, said the threatened tariffs on goods from Britain, Italy, Spain, Turkey, India and Austria had been agreed after an investigation concluded that their digital taxes discriminated against US companies. Continue reading...
Jason Miller, senior aide to former president, confirms closing of the ‘From the Desk of Donald J Trump’ online communication toolDonald Trump has discontinued the blog-type website he launched in a fanfare less than a month ago as “a beacon of freedom” and “a place to speak freely and safely”.Jason Miller, a senior aide to the former US president, confirmed the closing of the “From the Desk of Donald J Trump” online communication tool in a statement to CNBC on Wednesday, just weeks after billing the venture as “a great resource” for his boss’s musings. Continue reading...
Joe Biden has announced a national “month of action” to try to get at least 70% of Americans vaccinated against coronavirus before the Fourth of July holiday.The president said the vaccines would allow the public to enjoy "a summer of freedom" where they could safely gather with loved ones without fear of the virus
British-born socialite who has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and other charges faces up to 80 years in prisonGhislaine Maxwell will remain in a New York jail after a federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected the British socialite’s latest request for bail.The second US circuit court of appeals in Manhattan also denied Maxwell’s request for a hearing on what her lawyers called “horrific” confinement conditions at the Metropolitan detention center in Brooklyn. It did not explain its reasons. Continue reading...
The Rev William Barber urges board to create worker advisory council at company’s annual shareholder meetingSocial justice campaigner the Rev William Barber II told Walmart executives its workers “feared for their lives every day” during the Covid-19 pandemic and urged the board to create a worker advisory council at the company’s annual shareholder’s meeting on Wednesday.Shareholders at the virtual meeting voted on issues including executive compensation and on whether to create a pandemic workforce advisory council, which would give workers at the country’s largest private employer a voice in corporate decisions. Shareholders voted against creating the council, according to preliminary vote results announced in the meeting. Continue reading...
Group was rescued by their intended victims when boat exploded into a ball of flameIt could be viewed as a dramatic demonstration of the concept of karma: a group of young boaters hurling homophobic abuse towards another vessel flying gay pride flags, then needing to be rescued by their intended victims when their own boat explodes into a ball of flame.Sunday’s incident on Washington state’s Lake Moses occurred two days before the start of June, which is known as gay pride month because of demonstrations and celebrations centered on the annual pride parades in cities around the world to commemorate the Stonewall uprising for LGBTQ equal rights in New York in 1969. Continue reading...
by Joanna Walters in New York and agencies on (#5JJR3)
President marks 100th anniversary of Tulsa race massacre and condemns lawmakers for holding up action on voting billsJoe Biden used the 100th anniversary of Tulsa’s race massacre to condemn the past and current scourge of white supremacy in the US as a danger to the homeland – but also as a further spur for sweeping legislation to protect voting rights.The US president signaled his strongest push yet on the fight to vote as he has warned in recent days that American democracy is under threat, while Republican-led governments in Texas and other states pass new restrictions that make it tougher to cast ballots. Continue reading...
A sporting career at the highest level can bring wealth, fame and adoration. It does not cushion you against the pain of being humanWhen I saw the news of Naomi Osaka’s withdrawal from the French Open I thought of two people: my former teammate Michael Jordan and my 13-year-old daughter, Imani. Continue reading...
In pulling out of the French Open, the young tennis player has exposed a truth known to all players, fans and even journalists: the obligatory press conferences are pointless and often brutally boringIn the fallout from Naomi Osaka’s French Open walkout, everyone seemed to fall out with everyone else. I got a text from a TV producer. “Lol. Piers Morgan’s criticism of the tennis player not wanting to attend a press conference is rich given 99% of the TV presenters I’ve EVER worked with (usually male, including you) won’t attend debriefs and cry like babies if you dare say they didn’t have a great show. The male TV presenter is the most fragile ego in all showbiz.” And this is from a close friend, please note; imagine what I get from my enemies.He makes a fair point. A debrief, a post-show meeting for a full and frank exchange of views, is on the face of it a good idea. You look at what’s gone well, what hasn’t, and what can be learned for next time. The trouble is, straight after coming off air, the heroes and villains of the hour are rarely in the right emotional place for constructive reflection. It can often turn into an orgy of cloying self-congratulation or, more often, an exercise in arse-covering. The blame for anything that’s gone wrong is parcelled up and passed around the room and everyone endeavours not to be holding it when the music stops. And, yes, I must admit I have often inwardly cried like a baby when anyone dares to say, or even merely intimate, that I haven’t had a great show. Continue reading...
Legislators who walked out to deny passage of a restrictive voting bill have called on Democrats in Washington to get toughFor nearly five months, Democrats in state legislatures across the country have been scraping to do everything they can to stop an unprecedented onslaught of new voting restrictions from Republicans.They have given searing speeches on the floors of state legislatures. They have supported protests and even gotten arrested demonstrating against the bills. They have filed lawsuits challenging new restrictions almost immediately after they were signed into law. But despite their efforts, Democrats have not been able to stop sweeping new voting restrictions from going into place in states such as Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Iowa and Montana, where Republicans have used their legislative majorities to ram through the bills. Continue reading...
On the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre, Biden became the first sitting president to visit the siteGood morning.In an emotional speech in Tulsa yesterday, Joe Biden called on the US to be honest with its history, beginning with the acknowledgment of one of the country’s most grotesque acts of white supremacist terrorism. Continue reading...
Rev Dr William J Barber II sang 'Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around' with the three living survivors of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre at the Greenwood Cultural Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Tuesday, after Joe Biden gave a speech honouring the anniversary. Biden became the first sitting US president to visit the site where hundreds of Black Americans were massacred by a white mob in 1921, as he marked the country's legacy of racial violence
Rural northern California has been forceful in its pushback against masks, business restrictions and vaccine mandatesRural northern California is seeing a troubling rise in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations, an alarming trend that comes as residents and businesses continue to protest against safety measures and vaccinations – with one Mendocino cafe threatening to charge customers $5 for wearing a mask.While the region makes up a small proportion of the state’s population, the growth in its caseload has been considerable, and comes at a time when the state overall is enjoying some of the lowest rates of Covid in the country. After largely avoiding the worst of the pandemic, a block of far northern California counties now leads the state with nearly 40 cases per 100,000 residents over the past week, according to statistics maintained by the Los Angeles Times. Tehama county ranked the highest in the LA Times case ratings with 139 cases per 100,000 residents. Meanwhile 10 of the 21 total Covid deaths in nearby Siskiyou county have occurred since the beginning of May. Continue reading...
Joe Biden on Tuesday became the first sitting US president to visit the site in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where hundreds of Black Americans were massacred by a white mob in 1921, as he marked the country’s legacy of racial violence.Biden oversaw a moment of silence for the victims after meeting with three people who lived in the district during the massacre: Viola Fletcher, Hughes Van Ellis and Lessie Benningfield Randle.Now between the ages of 101 and 107, the survivors who met Biden asked Congress for ‘justice’ this year and are parties to a lawsuit against state and local officials seeking several remedies for the massacre, including a victim compensation fund
Mexico and Canada’s hosts are already set for the tournament. But 17 US cities are still battling for the right to host fans from around the worldThe US men’s team kicks off a busy summer of games on home soil with a Concacaf Nations League tie against Honduras in Denver on 3 June. But there’s action off the pitch, too, as the contest intensifies between cities vying to host 2026 World Cup fixtures.The hope is that international borders will open to allow Fifa to conduct in-person inspections in the summer or early autumn, with the 37-member Fifa council set to decide the winners at the end of this year after input from the three countries’ football associations. Continue reading...
A career retrospective at the Whitney shows how Bey’s work gave black subjects in New York a space to assert themselves and their presence in the world Continue reading...
The government hopes the shift will tackle a rapidly ageing population. It won’t, but it will give people more choiceA number of unsurprising things have recently happened in the country with the most famous population policies in the world. Firstly, the Chinese census in May showed that the country was ageing rapidly, its overall population growth was at its most sluggish in generations, and that its fertility rate had plunged to 1.3 children per woman – a level even lower than Japan, a country already in a state of population decline and very rapid ageing.Of course, we have known this for many years. A more notable development was the media’s reaction to the census data. China’s apparent demographic travails were narrated as an existential threat to the country’s economic and geopolitical future. This led to panicked claims by commentators inside and outside China that it was experiencing a “demographic crisis”. Then came the suggestion from a high-profile former McKinsey consultant that the solution was to “go all out on pro-birth policies” by taking a “carrot and stick” approach, which included limiting access to better education to couples bearing two children – coercive ideas that arguably show a lack of regard for human dignity. Continue reading...
The committee’s first meeting marks the beginning of a two-year process to address the harms of slavery and systemic racismA first-in-the-country taskforce to study and recommend reparations for African Americans held its inaugural meeting in California on Tuesday, launching a two-year process to address the harms of slavery and systemic racism.The meeting of the first state reparations committee in the US coincided with a visit by Joe Biden to Oklahoma, during which the president marked the centenary of the Tulsa race massacre and commemorated the hundreds of Black Americans who were killed by a white mob in a flourishing district known as the “Black Wall Street”. It also comes just over a year after the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minnesota. Continue reading...
President drew a through-line from racist violence in 1921 to recent displays of white supremacy in Charlottesville and the US CapitolJoe Biden has used the centenary of the Tulsa race massacre as a rallying cry for America to be honest about its history, insisting that great nations “come to terms with their dark sides”.On Tuesday Biden became the first sitting US president to visit the site where, on 31 May and 1 June 1921, a white mob murdered up to 300 African Americans and burned and looted homes and businesses, razing a prosperous community known as “Black Wall Street”. Continue reading...
Greg Abbott excoriated for bizarre threat after Democrats thwart 11th-hour attempt to pass bill that would have made voting harderVoting rights advocates on Tuesday excoriated Texas governor Greg Abbott’s bizarre threat to defund the state legislature after Democratic lawmakers thwarted an 11th-hour attempt to pass his priority bill that would have made it even harder for the public to cast a ballot in elections.“At the end of the day, it’s so embarrassing that our governor can’t take a setback without throwing a tantrum about it,” Emily Eby, staff attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project, told the Guardian. Continue reading...
by Richard Luscombe and Martin Pengelly on (#5JHKD)
Communications from America’s top infectious diseases expert shed light on panic and confusion in early stages of pandemicAs Anthony Fauci, the US’s leading infectious diseases official, grappled with the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic last spring, he was pulled in many directions.Donald Trump’s White House, which was downplaying the dangers, was demanding he portray the outbreak on their terms; the media was hungry for answers; and Fauci’s email inbox was constantly full with officials, the public and celebrities offering advice and seeking information about the world’s deadliest health crisis for a century. Continue reading...
A branch of the family launches website and claims they are victims of smear campaign by lawyers seeking to make profitA branch of the Sackler family has launched a website denying responsibility for the US opioid epidemic even after agreeing to pay billions of dollars to settle lawsuits over the crisis.The website, called Judge for Yourselves, claims that the family and the company it owns, Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma, are victims of a smear campaign by lawyers seeking to profit from a “strategically invented false narrative” that the firm’s high-strength prescription painkiller, OxyContin, drove an epidemic that has ultimately claimed more than 500,000 lives over the past two decades. Continue reading...
Jasmine Hartin denied bail after she was found near body of Supt Henry Jemmott in BelizeThe daughter-in-law of the former Conservative party treasurer Lord Ashcroft has been charged in Belize with manslaughter by negligence over the shooting death of a police superintendent.Jasmine Hartin was being held following the discovery of the body of Henry Jemmott, 42, near a jetty in the resort town of San Pedro early on Friday. Continue reading...
Hailey Morinico, 17, sprang into action when she saw a large bear facing off with her family dogs at her home near Los AngelesHailey Morinico didn’t hesitate when she saw a large bear facing off with her family dogs from the top of a wall in their southern California backyard.The 17-year-old ran outside and shoved the bear away, then rounded up the dogs and went back inside her house in suburban Bradbury, east of Los Angeles. Continue reading...
Lockdown seemed the ideal time to attempt to become one of those people who hits their deadlines while eating mindfully. Who knew my inner elephant could actually be tamed?
Hannity worked on ‘swamp creature’ ad that ran during Hannity’s show, according to Mike Bender’s Frankly, We Did Win This ElectionThe Fox News host Sean Hannity was criticised for appearing at a Trump rally in 2018 but according to a new book he was involved again with Trump’s campaign in 2020, helping write an ad that aired on his primetime show.Related: Push to review 2020 votes across US an effort to ‘handcuff’ democracy Continue reading...
After Texas Democrats walked out of the state capitol before the bill’s midnight deadline, the Republican governor, Greg Abbott, announced he would reconvene the legislature for a special session and include the issue on his agenda
The potential consequences of the origins of the virus are shattering – if they can be provedThere was a time when the Covid pandemic seemed to confirm so many of our assumptions. It cast down the people we regarded as villains. It raised up those we thought were heroes. It prospered people who could shift easily to working from home even as it problematized the lives of those Trump voters living in the old economy.Like all plagues, Covid often felt like the hand of God on earth, scourging the people for their sins against higher learning and visibly sorting the righteous from the unmasked wicked. “Respect science,” admonished our yard signs. And lo!, Covid came and forced us to do so, elevating our scientists to the highest seats of social authority, from where they banned assembly, commerce, and all the rest. Continue reading...
The Biden administration and the immigration agency tracks more than 96,000 immigrants, using tactics that ‘inhibit progress’Human rights groups are calling on the Biden administration and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) to put an end to a digital surveillance program that keeps tabs on nearly nearly 100,000 immigrants.A new report called Ice Digital Prisons, authored by the Latinx organizing group Mijente and immigration legal rights group Just Futures Law, highlights how Ice uses apps, GPS-tracking ankle monitors and facial recognition software to monitor people – saying these tactics “do more harm and inhibit any true progress in providing the social and economic tools for immigrants to thrive in their communities”. Continue reading...
EU forecast to reap extra €50bn per year with UK expected to gain €200m from BP aloneA proposal to be tabled by the US president, Joe Biden, at the upcoming G7 meeting for a 15% global corporate tax rate could reap the EU €50bn (£43bn) a year, and earn the UK nearly €200m extra alone from the British multinational BP, according to research.Should the tax rate be set higher at 25%, the lowest current rate within the seven largest world economies, the EU would earn nearly €170bn extra a year – more than 50% of current corporate tax revenue and 12% of total health spending in the bloc. Continue reading...
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