Putting the arms industry before conscience has allowed a humanitarian disaster to continue, but change could be comingIn a speech at the US state department last week, President Biden turned the war in Yemen from a forgotten crisis to front-page news. Since March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition, militarily and diplomatically backed by the US and UK in particular, has been involved in the conflict, which grew out of a failed political transition following the 2011 revolution.The war has killed more than 100,000 people, destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure, subjected large swathes of the population to famine and generated the worst cholera outbreak since modern records began. All parties to the war have likely committed violations of international law. Continue reading...

Rolling live coverage of business, economics and financial markets as US electric carmaker promises to accept payments in cryptocurrency

Tampa Bay harried and hassled the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback throughout Sunday’s Super Bowl. By the end of the game he looked stunnedWith less than 14 minutes left in Super Bowl LV, the Kansas City Chiefs were down three scores and facing fourth-and-nine from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 11-yard-line. There was no question that the Chiefs would forge ahead, but also no question that they would eventually hit pay dirt. These are the Chiefs, after all, and if they’ve proved anything during their repeat championship runs it’s that there is no scenario too bleak for them to escape as long as pro football’s Houdini is on their side.Related: No 7 and counting: the neverending, nagging brilliance of Tom Brady Continue reading...

Facebook, Twitter, Fox News – by blurring the truth, all pose a risk to democracy itself. But the US and EU can counter them together

Former president withdrew almost three years ago as Blinken says pullout ‘did nothing to encourage meaningful change’The US announced plans Monday to re-engage with the United Nations human rights council (UNHRC), from which Donald Trump withdrew almost three years ago, as the Biden administration reverses another move away from multilateral organizations and agreements.Announcing the new approach from Washington, the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the pullout in June 2018 “did nothing to encourage meaningful change, but instead created a vacuum of US leadership, which countries with authoritarian agendas have used to their advantage”. Continue reading...

Bill de Blasio ordered audit after 10 women, some of them employees, accused Victor Rivera of sexual assault or harassmentThe mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, has ordered an independent audit of the city’s non-profit shelter providers after a report described multiple sexual abuse accusations against the top executive of one of the largest providers.De Blasio also ordered the Bronx Parent Housing Network to hire an independent investigator to examine multiple sexual misconduct allegations against its chief executive, Victor Rivera. Continue reading...

Voting has begun on the first real union election at an Amazon warehouse in the US. And the stakes couldn’t be higherThough Amazon is a sprawling international conglomerate, with more than a million employees and significant operations in areas ranging from technology to retail to food, it is possible to understand its essence by grasping a few key facts. Its boss is one of the richest men in the world. It exercises unparalleled influence over the consumer economy. And it has a long and well-documented history of abusing virtually every category of human it employs, from office workers to warehouse workers to customer service agents. Most recently, the company agreed to pay a $62m fine for stealing tips from its delivery drivers, an awful crime that nevertheless constituted a fairly average week in the annals of Amazon workplace horror stories.Likewise, the labor movement in America has a rich history stretching back more than a century, but you can understand its key purpose like so: it exists to make working people as powerful in our economy as companies are. Without strong unions, the imbalance of power between employers and employees is so hopeless that it can produce a society where a tiny handful of super-rich people get ever richer, even while wages stagnate for everyone else and labor rights are constantly eroded, making the “American Dream” of upward mobility a cruel joke. In other words – what we have now. Continue reading...

Senior Republican Liz Cheney suggests authorities might examine Trump’s role in the Capitol insurrection during their criminal investigation. Plus, protests against the Myanmar coup are mounting

Adult film star tells Cohen’s podcast that film about sexual harassment uncovered details of liaison with ex-presidentStormy Daniels has said she could not remember key details of the sexual liaison she claims to have had with Donald Trump, until seeing a film about Roger Ailes’ sexual harassment of women at Fox News prompted her to remember.“I went to see that movie Bombshell,” she said, “and suddenly it just came back.” Continue reading...

In northern California, home to a large Punjabi population, residents join backlash against laws ‘shoved down people’s throats’Sukhcharan Singh grows walnuts in Yuba City, California, about 40 miles north of Sacramento. Like many Sikh farmers in this small Central Valley city, Singh’s thoughts are occupied by the ongoing protests in India.“I lose sleep over this. When I was there, it was a poor country, yes, but it was a good country,” said Singh, 68, flipping through notes he has taken on the latest news out of India. “Last night I finally slept at 11.30.” Continue reading...

Tampa Bay Buccaneers stormed to a 31-9 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in what was Tom Brady's seventh Super Bowl title. It was not to be for Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs as they looked to win back-to-back Lombardi trophies but 43-year-old Brady was the star, once again, throwing three touchdown passes, to earn his fifth MVP award. The victory marked a historic moment for the Bucs as they became the first team to play in a Super Bowl at their home venue

Senate trial begins on Tuesday for ex-president charged with ‘incitement of insurrection’ over Capitol riotDonald Trump’s unprecedented second impeachment trial begins on Tuesday 9 February in the Senate. He is the first US president to be impeached twice, and it is the first time an impeachment trial has been held against a former president. The trial will hear allegations that he committed “high crimes and misdemeanors” before leaving office. Continue reading...

Migrants have shared their experiences at privately-run US Immigation and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention centers during the Covid-19 pandemic.Alonzo and Javier were held at La Palma Correctional Center; they alleged the treatment many received was ‘inhumane’. At Eloy Detention Center, Carmen claimed medical staff would only tell them to ‘drink water’ regardless of symptoms. José, who was held at Central Arizona Florence Correctional Complex and La Palma, said for months he was barely able to go outside. Alejandro, who was also held at Central Arizona Florence, said at times there were up to 64 people living in his tank.

Tom Brady threw three touchdowns as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers thumped the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9 to win the Super Bowl on Sunday, giving the 43-year-old quarterback a record-extending seventh championship ring. Brady's age-defying performance, which earned him the Most Valuable Player award, brought the curtain down on what was perhaps the most challenging season the NFL has had to navigate caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The quarterback risked becoming an NFL afterthought when he left New England for Tampa Bay. So naturally he won another Super BowlSeven. You almost have to roll it over in your mind a couple of times before it even starts to make sense.Related: Super Bowl LV: Buccaneers beat Chiefs for Tom Brady's magnificent seventh Continue reading...

Houses are being decorated as floats because the pandemic has resulted in the cancellation of the customary parades during the carnival season

Secretary of state to Ronald Reagan who worked with Mikhail Gorbachev to help end the cold warMany politicians and diplomats from the 1980s lay claim to a pivotal role in ending the cold war, but the former US secretary of state George Shultz, who has died aged 100, had a better claim than most. And he was not shy in letting people know, as he did at length in his 1,184-page account of his years at the state department, Turmoil and Triumph (1993).When he became secretary of state in 1982 – a job he was to hold for seven years – relations between the US and the Soviet Union were at a dangerous low. The administration of US president Ronald Reagan was packed with anti-Soviet hardliners. Reagan himself in 1983 dubbed the Soviet Union “the evil empire”. Continue reading...

Survivors were able to dig themselves out of the snow and call 911 after skiers unintentionally triggered the avalancheFour skiers have been killed and four others were rescued near Salt Lake City, Utah, in the deadliest snowslide in the United States in seven years, authorities said.Two groups of skiers, one of five and the other of three, were in Millcreek Canyon just east of Utah’s capital city when the avalanche was triggered on Saturday, a spokeswoman for the Unified Police Department of Salt Lake City said. Continue reading...

Shultz spent most of the 1980s trying to improve relations with the Soviet Union and forging a course for peace in the Middle EastRonald Reagan’s longtime secretary of state, George P Shultz, who spent most of the 1980s trying to improve relations with the Soviet Union and forging a course for peace in the Middle East, has died. He was 100.A titan of American academia, business and diplomacy, Shultz died Saturday at his home on the campus of Stanford University, according to the Hoover Institution, a thinktank where he was a distinguished fellow. Continue reading...

Republican pointed to former president’s tweet attacking vice-president Mike Pence after Capitol insurrection beganLiz Cheney, the third most senior Republican in the House of Representatives, has raised the possibility of Donald Trump being criminally investigated for provoking violence during the 6 January US Capitol insurrection, pointing to a tweet attacking his own vice-president, Mike Pence, that was posted after the assault had begun.Related: Liz Cheney censured by Wyoming Republican party for voting to impeach Trump Continue reading...

US tennis player who won five Grand Slam titles and went on to become a successful Davis Cup captainTony Trabert, who has died aged 90, was an all-American athlete in every sense of the term, projecting a personality as powerful as his physique. He reaped the rewards of both during a long and highly successful career.Although he went on to become a winning Davis Cup captain and long-time commentator for CBS television, Trabert will go into the record books as having enjoyed, in 1955, one of the most successful years in the history of tennis. Continue reading...

President has said he will seek to revive the nuclear deal, but insists that Iran must first reverse its nuclear stepsJoe Biden has said the United States will not lift its economic sanctions on Iran in order to get Tehran back to the negotiating table to discuss how to revive the Iran nuclear deal.Asked if the United States will lift sanctions first to get Iran back to the negotiating table, Biden replied: “no” in an interview with CBS News, which was recorded on Friday but released on Sunday ahead of the Super Bowl. Continue reading...

We’re not asking for charity, but fairness – instead of the hoarding and protectionism currently in play

David Schoen’s request to postpone trial Friday sundown until Sunday presents managers with a scheduling dilemmaDonald Trump’s impeachment trial that opens on Tuesday could take longer than expected after a leading member of his defense team requested that the proceedings are suspended during the Sabbath so that he can meet his obligations as an observant Jew.David Schoen, 62, has written to senior figures of both main parties in the US Senate asking for an agreement that the trial is postponed from 5.24pm on Friday until Sunday so that he can observe the Sabbath. In the letter, reported by the New York Times, the lawyer apologises for any inconvenience, adding that “the practices and prohibitions are mandatory for me … so I have no choice.” Continue reading...

Boxer who sprung a huge surprise by beating Muhammad Ali before blowing a fortune on drink and drugsLeon Spinks, who has died aged 67 of cancer, was a classic rags-to-riches boxer who shocked the world in 1978 by becoming world heavyweight champion when he defeated the ageing champion Muhammad Ali in only his eighth fight as a professional. Sadly, Spinks was also a classic example of a star who frittered away a fortune on booze, drugs and partying.Related: Leon Spinks, former world heavyweight champion who upset Ali, dies aged 67 Continue reading...

‘The trust has been broken’ a nurse says as Gavin Newsom sees his job rating plunge and a recall movement gain steamCalifornia’s coronavirus death toll is continuing to climb. Its vaccination rates remain low. And some of its residents are losing faith in their governor.California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has found himself in an increasingly precarious political position: a Republican-led recall movement is garnering support from far-right groups as well as mainstream Republicans and some Silicon Valley bigwigs. And while the effort is unlikely to succeed in unseating him, even long-term allies are publicly questioning his leadership through this latest, most deadly phase of the crisis. Continue reading...

A remarkable BBC documentary reveals the startling reality of meeting the presidentFor the former prime minister Theresa May, one of the most pressing matters she confronted during her encounter with Donald Trump a few days after his inauguration went beyond mere diplomacy.May had travelled to Washington in 2017 with the intention of persuading the new US president to make a supportive statement about Nato. Little did she expect that she would be calling her husband, Philip, to warn him that images of the US president of holding her hand as they walked through the White House would soon be flashing around the world. Continue reading...

When the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers meet in the Super Bowl, all eyes will be on the quarterbacksSuper Bowls, while contested between teams of 53 players, are by their nature consumed through and largely defined by the quarterback matchups that become their shorthand. By extension, not all NFL title games are created equal. The headline billing of a Montana v Marino or Bradshaw v Staubach has always brought more juice to the table than, say, Kerry Collins v Trent Dilfer or Brad Johnson v Rich Gannon.Which is exactly why Sunday night’s showdown between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the Vince Lombardi Trophy feels more loaded with meaning than most other years as the interminable two-week wait to kick-off winds down. Continue reading...

In some ways the trial will be a replay of last year’s – but Trump is the first to be tried by the Senate after leaving office, and it will likely be ‘dramatic’It might be tempting to call it the trial of the century but it is just as likely to invoke a sense of deja vu. This week Donald Trump faces an impeachment trial in the US Senate. Yes, another one.Trump stands accused of inciting an insurrection when he urged supporters to “fight” his election defeat before they stormed the US Capitol in Washington on 6 January, clashed with police and left five people dead. Continue reading...

A new book on the old president is titillating but scattershot, a compendium of wild stories and salacious accusationsCraig Unger’s new book has already made headlines, in this newspaper and elsewhere, because of a charge from an ex-KGB colonel, Yuri Shvets, that Donald Trump has been a KGB asset for 40 years.Related: ‘The perfect target’: Russia cultivated Trump as asset for 40 years – ex-KGB spy Continue reading...

The attempt to pry the party away from Trump’s influence fizzled but support in Congress is greater than it may appearThe Republican rebellion failed: Donald Trump won.“I was disappointed over the last few weeks to see what seemed like the Republican party waking up,” the Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger observed on NBC’s Meet the Press last week, “and then kind of falling asleep again”. Continue reading...

As vice-president, he abased himself and his office. In reward, Donald Trump sent a mob to kill him. Now, as another impeachment trial looms, he is cast out from Republican ranksAfter Donald Trump had exhausted all of his claims of voter fraud and could contrive no more conspiracy theories that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, and after his revolving menagerie of legal mouthpieces had all of their motions tossed out of every venue up to the supreme court, and after his reliable enabler, Attorney General William Barr, informed him his accusations were false and he had reached the end of the line, and resigned, Trump came as a last resort to rest his slipping hold on power on his most unwavering defender and ceaseless flatterer, who had never let him down: his vice-president, Mike Pence.Related: To be Trump, or not: what Shakespeare tells us about the last five years Continue reading...

One of the nation’s two major political parties has abandoned democracy and reality. We must now move a vast swath of America back into a fact-based pro-democracy societyNext week’s Senate trial is unlikely to convict Donald Trump of inciting sedition against the United States. At least 17 Republican senators are needed for conviction, but only five have signaled they’ll go along.Why won’t Republican senators convict him? After all, it’s an open and shut case. As summarized in the brief submitted by House impeachment managers, Trump spent months before the election telling his followers that the only way he could lose was through “a dangerous, wide-ranging conspiracy against them that threatened America itself”. Continue reading...

From the coup in Myanmar to the autocratic regimes in China and Russia, western values are under increasing threatBlame Joe Biden for not stepping in more quickly, or Donald Trump for encouraging authoritarian rulers. Blame Barack Obama for lifting sanctions. Easier still, blame China for propping up a military junta and putting profit before people.The International Court of Justice warned of ongoing genocide, but nobody was saved. UN security council members argued endlessly about what to do. The finger of blame also points at Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel heroine turned sellout. Continue reading...

Don’t miss out on these provisions of the bill passed in December in addition to the paycheck protection programWhile a lot of attention has been given to the recent renewal of the paycheck protection program, there are two tax credits included in last December’s Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act that may actually be more valuable for many small businesses. Why?Related: Entrepreneurs are great, but it’s mom and dad who gave them their start Continue reading...

Cheney, the third ranking member of the House Republican leadership, was censured in a vote Saturday by her state’s Republican partyLiz Cheney, the third-highest-ranking Republican leader in the House, was censured by the Wyoming Republican party on Saturday for voting to impeach Donald Trump for his role in the 6 January riot at the US Capitol.The overwhelming censure vote was the latest blowback for Cheney for joining nine Republican representatives and all Democrats in the US House in the 13 January impeachment vote. Continue reading...

New York City expects 4-9in of snow on Sunday as CDC head expresses fears of Covid spread with Super Bowl partiesThe north-eastern United States is bracing for its second major snowstorm in a week, as intense snowfall in western New York forced delays in coronavirus vaccinations on Saturday at at least one location, with more vaccination site closures expected.After a historic snowfall of more than 17in last Tuesday, New York City is now expecting an additional 4-9in of snow on Sunday. Local news outlets from Georgia to Washington DC to Boston were reporting coming winter storm conditions, with the National Weather Service warning of “heavy snow” in the north-east. Continue reading...

Podcast will be produced with Young America’s Foundation, group that has stoked ‘free speech’ controversies at US college campusesFormer vice-president Mike Pence will launch a “video podcast” with a conservative group known for bringing inflammatory anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim speakers to college campuses, as part of his effort to “share the good news of conservatism” with young Americans.Pence’s pivot to podcasting comes a month after he refused Donald Trump’s repeated public demands to reject the actual results of the 2020 presidential election and name Trump himself the winner, prompting a mob to storm the US capitol, some of them shouting: “Hang Mike Pence.” Continue reading...

For too long, the music industry has passed off misogyny, and worse, as rock ‘n’ roll excess, just part of the backdropWhen are we all going to learn that rock stars do not live by different rules where abuse is concerned?Actress Evan Rachel Wood has accused Marilyn Manson (real name Brian Warner) of abuse when they were in a relationship. She claims that he groomed her as a teenager – they began dating when she was 19 and he was 37 – and he manipulated her into submission. Wood previously accused an unnamed person of sexual, emotional and physical abuse, including rape and torture, leaving her with PTSD. Other women have come forward and made similar accusations. Continue reading...

I May Destroy You should be up for an award but perhaps this year’s perplexing nominations reflect our troubled timesEvery time I react passionately to the nominations for any awards ceremony, I have to recognise that I am playing along with the game. I can talk about the Oscars or the Emmys or the Baftas as some sort of monolith, able to point a single benevolent finger at the chosen ones, but they are essentially surveys of big groups of people with different interests and tastes (it may be, though, that it is their similarities that are the problem). Sometimes, they highlight the very best of any given year and are a useful guide to what to watch; more often, they offer a hodgepodge of picks based on politics and fashion. A quick look at the best picture winner at the Oscars, for example, shows that often the winner has not been the film that stood the test of time.Crash beat Brokeback Mountain. Dances with Wolves beat Goodfellas. Forrest Gump beat The Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction.However, the Golden Globes have lost it completely by managing to not nominate I May Destroy You for anything at all. Michaela Coel’s brilliant television series, about sex, assault, relationships, identity and so much more, is a masterpiece and that is not hyperbole. To omit it from one category would have been careless and a little weird. To omit it entirely seems pointed and that is shameful. Coel has made a series that will stand the test of time and she deserves to be recognised for it. Continue reading...

We are all in thrall to the corporate giants that control digital technology. Only by seeing that can we hope to change themHypocrisy,” wrote Somerset Maugham, “is the most difficult and nerve-racking vice that any man can pursue; it needs an unceasing vigilance and a rare detachment of spirit. It cannot, like adultery or gluttony, be practised at spare moments; it is a whole-time job.” It is indeed, which is why many corporate leaders sometimes seem to struggle to find time for their day jobs – being chief executives.Here for example is Mark Zuckerberg the other day on a regular call with stock market analysts. “Our goal,” he declared, “is to give every individual entrepreneur and small business access to the same kinds of tools that historically only the big companies have had access to. One of the things I’m most proud of is that we build the tools so we can offer these same capabilities to small businesses, often for free. So when you hear people say that we hold a lot of data, that’s because hundreds of millions of businesses that would have otherwise had to do this individually and would have had no easy way of doing so are now using our services to help them reach customers. When you hear people say that we’re connecting data from lots of sources, that’s to help small businesses reach customers more efficiently.” Continue reading...

Expect the former first daughter’s approach to criminal justice to be as vacuous and self-serving as it was to women’s rights Continue reading...

Democrats Kirsten Gillibrand and Rosa DeLauro first introduced the Family Act in 2013, but it has failed to gain sufficient supportSenator Kirsten Gillibrand has said US Congress is in a “unique moment” and “better poised than ever” to pass a paid family and medical leave bill that would make the benefit permanently accessible to all American workers for the first time, as she and congresswoman Rosa DeLauro reintroduced the legislation on Friday.Currently, the US is the only industrialised nation in the world not to have a national paid family and medical leave policy. Continue reading...

Trump is out of office, but his spirit lives on. The rage and resentment of his base will define the party for a long time

Will Tampa Bay become the first team to win a championship in their own home stadium? Or will the reigning champions retain their title?Be the Chiefs. That may sound flippant, but no team gives more credit to the ‘flip the switch’ theory than this season’s Chiefs. When they’re fully engaged, when they’re at their full Chiefs-ness, there’s not much any other team in the league can do to stop them. There are flaws on defense, but at some point, Patrick Mahomes will have the ball. Even with an excellent defense, Tampa will have a hard time slowing down the Mahomes-Hill-Kelce triumvirate. OC Continue reading...