US news | The Guardian

Half of Republicans want Trump to remain as head of their party while half of American voters want him banished from politics

The surge is low compared to past years, but Covid-19 has reduced housing capacity, necessitating use of a controversial influx facilityThousands of unaccompanied immigrant children are attempting to flee to the United States amid the coronavirus pandemic, propelled by devastating natural disasters, chronic violence, and severe economic hardship at home.US Customs and Border Protection encountered 5,871 kids at the south-west border without a parent or legal guardian last month, the largest influx yet since the start of the public health crisis in early 2020. Continue reading...

After a year of enforced proximity, romance is in deep hibernation for many couples. But love is everywhere, expressed in quiet acts of kindnessValentine’s Day passed untroubled by grand romantic gestures: he regrouted the shower, I picked my cuticles. Dinner was leftovers in front of sitcom reruns with the kids.Some aspects of Covid life are fascinating, like a deeply unethical mass psychology experiment. The impact on romantic relationships is one of them: have partners ever experienced so much unsolicited togetherness? What effect will it have? Pandemic years are dog years, with new couples feeling the seven-year itch and old lags plumbing fresh depths of taking each other for granted. Continue reading...

FTSE 100 posts biggest daily gain for over a month as investors buoyed up by vaccine and US economy hopesThe pound has hit its highest level against the dollar for almost three years as global markets were buoyed up by hopes for a faster economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.Sterling rose by 0.5% to hit a 33-month high against the dollar on Monday, trading above $1.39 on the global currency markets for the first time since 2018, while also rising to a nine-month high against the euro of almost €1.15. Continue reading...

A politician may have a better chance of sorting out WTO’s problems than a technocratWith Donald Trump’s departure, it was only a matter of time before Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was appointed to run the World Trade Organization. Joe Biden could have maintained Washington’s objection to the former Nigerian finance minister becoming the first woman and the first African to run the Geneva-based body, but has sensibly decided not to.Like the football manager taking over a team struggling at the bottom of the table, Okonjo-Iweala is in the happy position of taking over at the WTO when the only way is up. Of all the big multilateral economic organisations, the WTO is the toughest gig: trade is a hugely contentious issue and yet decisions in Geneva are made by consensus. The old days when trade deals were a stitch-up between the United States and the Europeans are long gone. There has not been a successfully completed round of trade liberalisation talks since 1993. The WTO’s ability to police global trade is in doubt because the US has blocked the appointment of new judges to its appeals body. Continue reading...

The Bulls legend and Bubba Wallace’s black-owned team broke barriers in a sport with a history of intolerance. But Nascar’s redemption is not completeWith one lap left in Sunday’s Daytona 500, Bubba Wallace made his move. Pinned behind 15 cars arranged in a neat row on the top groove of Daytona’s 2.5-mile oval, Wallace charged into the bottom lane behind Kevin Harvick in hope of running down race leader Joey Logano. Just when Wallace appeared to be gathering steam – disaster. Brad Keselowski, jostled by an extra-hard shove from Michael McDowell, rocketed him into Logano’s left-side rear bumper, triggering a multicar pile-up. Wallace might have snuck through if Logano’s windmilling Ford hadn’t hit his Toyota flush on the nose. In the end Wallace finished a fiery 17th while McDowell stole the checkered flag under caution. Needless to say, you can expect Michael Jordan to take this personally.Besides maybe Harry and Meghan, you would be hard pressed to name another couple people are rooting harder for than Jordan and Wallace – Nascar’s new racing royalty. Wallace is the supremely gifted Nascar driver who happens to be an anti-racism trailblazer. And Jordan is a lifelong racing fan who finally has some skin in the game after decades of fence sitting. Last September they would make their relationship official, forming a single-car operation called 23XI Racing (pronounced twenty-three eleven). Wallace signed on as a free agent, Jordan as a co-owner alongside the veteran Cup driver and longtime Jordan Brand ambassador Denny Hamlin. Together, Jordan and Wallace give Nascar folk not one but two black friends to point to the next time the sport’s grim track record of intolerance is challenged. Continue reading...

Matt Minshall says the problem is party-first politics, while Daniel Peacock writes that Congress has failed to hold the president to account. Plus letters from Pete Stockwell and Magi YoungThe deepest problem affecting the progress and development of democracy is the crippling dominance of party-first politics (Senate Republicans stand by their man and Trump wins his second acquittal, 13 February). It restricts the power of politicians to act in the best interests of their countries and their people.The clear illustration of the power of party politics has been the trial of Donald Trump. Before the trial began, and ahead of any formal evidence being heard, the base of the Republican party had already decided the outcome. Thus, the verdict of one of the most politically important trials in history was given based on party dogma and not on the evidence, nor in the interests of the country. Continue reading...

The Sussexes’ baby announcement shared on Valentine’s Day is a confident image of defiance that seems to take us inside their love – granny must find it utterly bafflingThe Duke of Sussex’s left foot steals the show. His knobbly toes shove themselves into the foreground, bulging out to rhyme with his wife’s baby bump. Misan Harriman, the Nigerian-born photographer and friend of Meghan who took the picture remotely from his home in Woking, has created an unbuttoned romantic pastoral that doesn’t so much rebel against royal portraiture as bring it to an end.Producing babies has been the primary business of royalty since time immemorial. Harry and Meghan’s new child will be eighth in line to the British throne, but the picture tells us quite flamboyantly the Sussexes are not in Britain and have no desire to be. It is a confident image of defiance. A cup of California dreamin’. The garden looks semi-tropical. Harriman’s preference for black and white gives the sun-kissed lawn a lovely silvery glow that sets the couple almost in a vision of paradise. But at the same time, their intimate casualness – those toes again – is intended to show us they are anchored to the reality that matters. Continue reading...

Families are boycotting Publix after a member of founding family donated $300,000 to the Donald Trump rally that preceded January’s deadly Capitol attackWendy Mize’s family grew up on Publix, disciples to the giant supermarket chain’s empirical marketing slogan: “Where shopping is a pleasure”. As infants, her three daughters wore diapers bought from the Publix baby club. As children, they munched on free cookies from the bakery. There were even perks for the family’s pets, who are proud members of Publix Paws.But now the decades-long love affair is over. After a member of Publix’s founding family donated $300,000 to the Donald Trump rally that preceded January’s deadly Capitol riots, Mize is pulling out of what she says has become “an abusive, dysfunctional relationship”, and joining others in a boycott of the Florida-based grocery chain that operates more than 1,200 stores across seven south-eastern states. Continue reading...

It is chilling that rather than condemn the conspiracy theorist’s espousal of antisemitic nonsense, her party supported herFor a few days last month, in a little corner of the internet where topics of Jewish interest are discussed, Jewish space lasers were trending.The discussion was prompted by speculation from the newly elected Georgia Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene based on “research” she had conducted, that wildfires in California had been caused by a project to explore “solar generators” tenuously associated with Rothschild, “an international banking firm”. Once that assertion became public, the floodgates opened and cynics, humorists and pundits – the Jewish community is blessed with an abundance of them – took ownership of this meme and began to explore every aspect of the lasers. Were they an appropriate batmitzvah gift? Did people who observe kashrut need separate lasers for dairy and for meat? Was a special one necessary for Passover? If buying in bulk, could they be obtained wholesale? Continue reading...

Like all predictions, these should be taken with a grain of salt ...At the beginning of every year, trend forecasters the world over put together expensive reports predicting what the future will bring. As a trend forecaster myself, I’ve read literally hundreds of predictions in the past few weeks made by the likes of McKinsey, WGSN and countless others so that you don’t have to. So, what do these professional speculators of the future think the next few years hold?Many of the themes are predictable: automation, artificial intelligence, climate crisis and climate-related migration, virtual reality and augmented reality, China’s rising power, cryptocurrencies, Zoom, remote work and people agitating for their rights. Continue reading...

Politicians on both sides of the aisle have made fresh calls for a commission into how the Capitol was breached. Plus, is a change of direction brewing in the GOP?Good morning.Democrats and Republicans have made fresh calls for a 9/11-style bipartisan commission to investigate how rioters were able to breach the Capitol on 6 January. After the 2001 terrorist attacks, a commission reviewed how the incidents were possible and laid out plans to prevent them being repeated. Now politicians on both sides of the aisle have called for the deadly Capitol siege to be given the same treatment. As expected, Donald Trump was acquitted at the weekend for his role in inciting the violence, with 57 senators voting to convict against 43 to acquit, meaning Democrats fell short of getting the two-thirds majority required for a conviction. Continue reading...

Pandemics are global by definition. Only travel restrictions and equal vaccine access for all countries will end this crisis

Democrats and Republicans both voice support for panel to ‘make sure it never happens again’Democratic and Republican lawmakers have issued fresh calls for a bipartisan 9/11-style commission to investigate why government officials and law enforcement failed to stop the attack on the US Capitol in January, following Donald Trump’s acquittal in his impeachment on charges that he incited the insurrection.The commission would be modeled after a panel created in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks, which reviewed what caused the atrocity and laid out recommendations on how to foresee and prevent any future incursions. Continue reading...

Greg Abbott, the governor, issued a disaster declaration for every county in the state as conditions continued to get colderTexas is experiencing one of its coldest winter in decades , with temperatures expected to drop to as low as 11F (-12C) in Houston and 9F (-13C) San Antonio under a winter storm warning.The governor, Greg Abbott, issued a disaster declaration for every county in the state on Friday, as conditions continued to get colder over the weekend. The White House also issued a federal emergency declaration for Texas, authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to provide additional support to the state. Continue reading...

Wording was in posting that also said Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields was working to attract a more diverse audienceThe Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields has apologized for a job listing which sought a new director to maintain the museum’s “traditional, core, white art audience”.The wording was in a bullet point in a six-page job description that also said the museum was working to attract a more diverse audience. Continue reading...

‘We can’t let our guard down,’ says CDC director who urged that precautions must remain in place as infections remain highAverage daily new coronavirus cases in the US have dipped below 100,000 for the first time in months, but experts cautioned on Sunday that infections remain high and precautions to slow the pandemic must remain in place.Related: Caught in a Covid romance: how the pandemic has rewritten relationships Continue reading...

‘We needed more senators with spines,’ said Stacey Plaskett after vote to convict fell short of two-thirds majority needed

Former president celebrates second impeachment acquittal as supporters and moderates prepare to contest party direction

Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz spread the big lie. Mitch McConnell fed the beast for years. Culpability spreads far and wide

The few Republicans who voted against the former president had gone happily along with him when it suited themThere was something poignant on Saturday about the lengths gone to by some media organisations in the US to try to make the result less appalling. “Most bipartisan support for conviction in history,” declared the New York Times, clutching at the pitiful seven Republicans who voted in favour of impeaching Donald Trump, well short of the 17 needed to uphold a conviction. Four years ago, at a campaign stop in Iowa, Trump famously declared: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” Here we were, a month after five people died during the storming of the Capitol, living some version of that promise.It should have helped, perhaps, that the result was anticipated before the trial even got under way. There was no suspense, no surprise; the votes needed to convict were never there. Nor, seemingly, was the appetite for investigation: both sides agreed at the 11th hour not to call witnesses and draw this thing out, a lassitude mirrored across the electorate. What was the point of even watching the proceedings, stoking one’s outrage or being moved by the closing arguments of Congressman Jamie Raskin, the lead impeachment manager, when it was apparent that Trump would get off scot-free? Better to avoid and move on. Continue reading...

The Senate Republican leader excoriated Trump – after acquitting him of inciting an insurrection. The GOP is lost

A Florida retailer has made a virtue of flouting Covid measures but imposing your politics on your business rarely ends wellHave you seen the video yet? It’s pretty shocking. No, it’s not the Weeknd’s Super Bowl performance. It’s even worse.The 15-second video, from an NBC news reporter, shows shoppers and workers inside an independent Florida supermarket going about their business … maskless. The video was taken in early February 2021 right as the state continued to record thousands of new Covid cases and scores of deaths from the virus every day. Continue reading...

The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, said on Saturday that Donald Trump was 'practically and morally responsible' for the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January – minutes after voting to acquit the former president in his impeachment trial for that very same act.The House majority leader, Nancy Pelosi, criticised McConnell’s remarks in a press conference on Saturday and said the issue of timing 'was not the reason that he voted the way he did; it was the excuse that he used'

The high court has ruled in no uncertain terms that a public interest defence isn’t about the public being interestedDo you remember that tabloid staple, the shagging footballer? The love rat who played away, scoring with a casually met blonde who duly capitalised on her encounter with a spot of what used to be fondly known as kiss’n’tell?We don’t read so much about such beasts these days. I’m guessing this is not because young footballers have become more chaste or God-fearing. It’s because newspapers have become unable to persuade judges that it is in the public interest for the striker’s marital misdemeanours to be splattered all over their front page. Continue reading...

Immediate backlash from powerful rightwingers reveal the strength of Trump’s grip on the Republican partyThe seven Republican senators who broke rank by voting to convict former president Donald Trump at his impeachment trial faced immediate hostility and criticism from fellow conservatives revealing the potentially high cost of opposing Trumpism within the party.These senators – North Carolina’s Richard Burr, Louisiana’s Bill Cassidy, Maine’s Susan Collins, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, Utah’s Mitt Romney, Nebraska’s Ben Sasse, and Pennsylvania’s Pat Toomey – brought the total number of guilty votes to 57. That was not nearly enough to secure a conviction, but easily enough to ensure instant attack from fellow Republicans and others on the right. Continue reading...

Critics say the impeachment process no longer presents a threat or deterrent to bad behavior by the most powerful figure in the landFormer president Donald Trump has repeatedly been called “Teflon Don” during his presidency – a moniker used for the late mob boss John Gotti to describe how consequences for his bad actions apparently don’t stick to him.Related: Senate Republicans stand by their man and Trump wins his second acquittal | David Smith's sketch Continue reading...

Analysts say ‘whiteness protects its own’ after only seven Republicans vote to convict Trump of inciting deadly Capitol riotThe decision by 43 Republican senators to acquit Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial has been condemned by many observers as a racist vote which upholds white supremacy.Related: Donald Trump acquitted in second impeachment trial Continue reading...

Trump never respected the constitution but the GOP did not have to follow him over the cliffThis is not even about Donald Trump any more. It’s about a Republican party that has lost its way, forgotten its core values, and kicked American democracy in the guts.It’s about justice, common sense, and honour, and how they were trampled deep into the churned-up ground of Capitol Hill by a mob of liars and dissemblers who call themselves GOP senators. Continue reading...

US leader has taken a tough line with Xi Jinping, raising concerns about trade, Taiwan, Hong Kong and alleged genocide in XinjiangChina’s Year of the Ox, which began on Friday, is a fitting metaphor for the most formidable, and potentially dangerous, geopolitical challenge facing Joe Biden and the western democracies. In Chinese mythology, the ox is large, powerful and adept on land and water. It’s determined, stubborn, and takes a lot of stopping.Biden is well aware he has a fight on his hands that, if mishandled, could swiftly turn physical. Some analysts fear war with China is inevitable, sooner or later. So he is moving fast. In a first phone call to China’s president, Xi Jinping, last week, he raised concerns about trade, Taiwan, Hong Kong and alleged genocide in Xinjiang. Continue reading...

President says the substance of the charge against Donald Trump over the January attack on US Capitol is not in dispute

In first departure from Biden administration, Ducklo says he has ‘embarrassed and disappointed’ colleaguesWhite House deputy press secretary TJ Ducklo has resigned, the day after he was suspended for issuing a sexist and profane threat to a journalist inquiring about his relationship with another reporter.In a statement on Saturday, Ducklo said he was “devastated to have embarrassed and disappointed my White House colleagues and President Biden”. Continue reading...

Senate minority leader says Trump ‘practically and morally responsible’ for Capitol riot, but votes not guilty regardlessSenate minority leader Mitch McConnell said on Saturday that Donald Trump was “practically and morally responsible” for the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January – minutes after voting to acquit the former president in his impeachment trial for that very same act.Related: Donald Trump acquitted in impeachment trial Continue reading...

Calls of ‘guilty’ and ‘not guilty’ pinged back and forth in the chamber but once McConnell said no the die was castIf the denouement of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial had been a Hollywood film, stirring music would have struck up around the time Congressman Joe Neguse explained why he thinks the floor of the US Senate is “sacred”.Related: Trump’s acquittal seals his grasp on the Republican party Continue reading...

The trial that saw a former US president impeached for a historic second time was fraught with emotional argumentAfter an emotional and dramatic week in the Senate, the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump finally came to an end on Saturday, capping days of often fraught and emotional argument.Here are five key quotes from the trial which saw a US president impeached for a historic second time, but resulted in Trump’s acquittal on charges he incited the 6 January attack on the US Capitol. Continue reading...

Utah senator plays down heated exchange with Ron Johnson and insists they discussed underwear preferencesMitt Romney suggested on Saturday that a heated argument he was seen to have with a Republican colleague in the Senate chamber was not about whether witnesses should be called in Donald Trump’s impeachment trial – but concerned the age-old question: “Boxers versus briefs”.Related: Senate votes to acquit as Trump celebrates: our movement 'has only just begun' - live Continue reading...