Treasury secretary urges Congress to ‘act forcefully’ on relief and says she plans talks with regulators about GameStop affairTreasury secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday warned of “tough months ahead” before the US economy gets to the other side if the coronavirus-related crisis.She also said that she and financial market regulators needed to “understand deeply” what happened in the trading frenzy involving GameStop and other retail stocks in recent days before taking any action. Continue reading...

If white Americans took the time to learn white people’s role in US history, then equality and justice would be more attainableLast week, I was talking to one of my closest Black friends. Why is it, I wondered with frustration, that Black people must constantly educate white people about racism? He replied: “The problem isn’t that white people have trouble grasping racism, the problem is that they know very little about themselves. Everyone else in America knows more about them than they do.” I had yet to fully grasp the truth of that realization – until now.This past summer, I found myself explaining white history to my white peers in ways that they could never do. They had little understanding of how systemic racism works, despite benefiting from it; had no idea that white slave owners regularly raped young Black boys or cut off the toes and feet of runaways. Their understanding of the full horrors of slavery is shallow. They could not tell you what Malcom X was known for, while simultaneously singing the praises of Martin Luther King Jr. And few of them were familiar with the term Jim Crow, yet also had ancestors who lived through that same era. Continue reading...

Patricia Lockwood and Lauren Oyler’s books examine the effect of grief on our real and online presencesThese days, when I log on to Twitter, I increasingly find myself at a loss for words. I’m a writer and I’ve never been one to fear the tyranny of the white page. But that little blank box at the top of my news feed, the one that asks: “What’s happening?” – it gives me writer’s block. In other forms, the words are pouring out of me because what isn’t happening at the moment? But online, I’m paralysed. What is the point? I think. What is the fucking point?This month, two novels confronting that question are released: Fake Accounts, by the critic Lauren Oyler, and No One Is Talking About This, by the writer and poet Patricia Lockwood. Both women are of broadly the same age as me, meaning they can also remember life before the internet. “If we value authenticity it’s because we’ve been bombarded since our impressionable preteen years with fakery but at the same time are uniquely able to recognise, because of the unspoiled period that stretched from our birth to the moment our parents had the screeching dial-up installed, the ways in which we casually commit fakery ourselves,” Oyler’s protagonist says. Continue reading...

It is long past time for policymakers to fight corporate concentration. Fortunately, there is good reason to think they will soon do soThis week, Amazon announced that Jeff Bezos will no longer be chief executive of the corporation but will instead take the position of “executive chairman”. Andy Jassy, who runs the highly profitable Amazon Web Services cloud computing division, will take the title.Related: What will Amazon founder Jeff Bezos do next? Continue reading...

House Republicans met amid calls for punishment of Liz Cheney and Marjorie Taylor Greene, but decide not to take action. Plus, Canada brands the Proud Boys a terrorist organisation

This Sunday’s Super Bowl has been shaped by black coordinators. But the top jobs are usually offered to young, white coachesThere was no saucer-eyed staring, no hemming and hawing, no fevered talk about biting off anyone’s kneecaps. But then again Eric Bieniemy has always looked at ease in the spotlight for a man who never seeks it. Beaming in from Kansas City for his Super Bowl media day news conference earlier this week, the Chiefs offensive coordinator was the usual vision of cool, by turns relating his overarching strategies and philosophies on the game with an intense but understated passion that would make any listener want to run through a wall for him – whether they play football or not. Really, he looked for all the world like NFL head coach material. That he isn’t one yet is a travesty.After a hiring cycle that saw black coaches left on the sideline, this was supposed to be a crowning season for Bieniemy, the NFL’s hottest assistant for three seasons running now. But this year eight head coaching vacancies came and went with the 51-year-old New Orleans native getting a few interviews, but no offers. Not that he’s bitter or even disappointed. Continue reading...

Instead of discreetly returning to private life the ex-president is focused on punishing Republicans he feels betrayed himEvery former American president picks up hobbies after leaving office (books, painting, skinny dipping, boxing). For the early days of Donald Trump’s post-presidency he has picked something a little different: revenge.It’s early and presidents usually intentionally recede from public view dramatically after leaving office. But Trump appears uninterested in following that practice. Continue reading...

One in every 475 Native Americans has died since the pandemic began: ‘Families have been decimated’Covid is killing Native Americans at a faster rate than any other community in the United States, shocking new figures reveal.American Indians and Alaskan Natives are dying at almost twice the rate of white Americans, according to analysis by APM Research Lab shared exclusively with the Guardian. Continue reading...

Some areas had more than 300mm of rain in three days and one person killed in floodsWhen you think of California, you usually conjure up images of a pleasant, comfortable climate. However, last Thursday, it was anything but comfortable. A storm system brought flooding to parts of the Golden State, with some areas having in excess of 300mm of rain in three days. As a result, Highway 1 along the Pacific coast was washed away in places, with one person killed in floods. In the Sierra Nevada mountains, this fell as snow, bringing depths of 2 metres at some ski resorts. A 14-year-old boy was rescued after being buried in snow that fell off the roof of his home.On the other side of the US, severe thunderstorms have brought some of the first tornadoes of the year to Florida. A tornado touched down in the state capital of Tallahassee, flipping a light aircraft at the city’s airport, as well as causing damage to a hangar. Fortunately, no injuries or fatalities were reported. Continue reading...

Doctors at New York University’s Langone Health have successfully completed the world’s first face and double hand transplant. Twenty-two-year-old Joe DiMeo underwent the 23-hour procedure two years after he suffered third-degree burns to 80% of his body in a car accident. The procedure is a world first and has allowed Joe to dress and feed himself as well as use weights as part of his recovery

Republicans met to consider fate of two prominent congresswoman in a divided partyHouse Republicans faced a reckoning on Wednesday as leaders in the US House of Representatives confronted calls to punish two prominent congresswomen who represent clashing visions for a party struggling to chart a path forward since Donald Trump left the White House.Related: House to vote on removing rightwing extremist Marjorie Taylor Greene from committees – live Continue reading...

Bipartisan nomination praises protesters’ ‘bravery and determination that have inspired the world’US lawmakers have nominated Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement for the Nobel peace prize, calling the campaigners a global inspiration in the face of a crackdown by Beijing.In a letter to the Nobel committee released on Wednesday, nine lawmakers across party lines cited the estimate that more than two million people took to the streets on 16 June 2019. Continue reading...

Prosecutors say teen, who fatally shot two people at a protest against police violence, failed to inform the court that he movedProsecutors are seeking a new arrest warrant for Kyle Rittenhouse – the Illinois teen charged with shooting three people, killing two of them, during a protest over police brutality in Wisconsin – after he apparently violated his bail conditions. Continue reading...

While the Netflix comedy was rewarded, Michaela Coel’s bold series was snubbed, an oversight that symbolises a larger issueEarly Wednesday morning, as I was trying to decide whether to do a Yoga with Adrienne video or eat the leftover whipped cream, my mother called to tell me the news. “Emily in Paris just got nominated for a Golden Globe!” she said.“What? For which category?” I said. I’m a writer on the show. I tried to avoid reading its criticism, but I don’t live under a rock. It never occurred to me that our show would be nominated. Continue reading...

Lawsuit had claimed university discriminates against Asian American and white applicantsThe Biden administration announced on Wednesday it had dropped a discrimination lawsuit against Yale University, which alleged that the institution was illegally discriminating against Asian American and white applicants.While a judge must still sign off on the decision, justice department officials noted in the two-sentence filing in the US district court in Connecticut that it would voluntarily dismiss the action that had been filed by Donald Trump’s administration in October. Continue reading...

Joe DiMeo underwent a 23-hour surgery in August after suffering third-degree burns over 80% of his body in a 2018 car accidentDoctors at New York University’s Langone Health have completed the very first successful face and double hand transplant, a historic first.“We’ve succeeded in a tremendous undertaking that shows we can continue to take on new challenges and advance the field of transplantation,” Dr Eduardo D Rodriguez, who has led at least four face transplant surgeries, told NBC’s The Today Show. Continue reading...

Biden’s coronavirus czar points out that vaccinations are ramping up as Anthony Fauci supports double-maskingThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) asserted on Wednesday that US schools can safely reopen even if teachers have not received the coronavirus vaccine, while the top US infections expert supported the idea of wearing two face masks.As some teachers’ unions balk at resuming in-person instruction before teachers are inoculated, the CDC director, Rochelle Walensky, said: “Vaccination of teachers is not a prerequisite for safe reopening of schools.” Continue reading...

The Amazon founder gains time for other projects, such as space and newspapers, while still making the big decisionsJeff Bezos is stepping aside at Amazon – sort of. In fact, he is merely dropping one of his three job titles at thee online retailer. He will no longer be chief executive but will still be executive chairman. And, since he didn’t mention his status as “president” (whatever that involves), one assumes Bezos is keeping that bauble.This “transition”, including the promotion of its web services boss Andy Jassy to be chief executive from the autumn, has been greeted as a very big deal. Let’s see. Its significance depends on how Bezos plays things. He gets formal leave to spend more time on other interests – everything from the Washington Post to rockets – but he was probably doing so informally anyway. Real change at Amazon may be hard to detect. Continue reading...

Schumer says $618bn Republican offer too small and warns crisis could drag on for years unless large-scale relief is passedJoe Biden and his new treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, are encouraging Democrats in Congress to go big and bold on the Covid-19 relief package and have effectively panned a Republican alternative that is less than a third the size of the president’s $1.9tn rescue plan.Related: Republicans clash over futures of Marjorie Taylor Greene and Liz Cheney – live Continue reading...

Confrontations between basketball players and the crowd can turn ugly. The NBA needs to clamp down on such incidents for everyone’s benefitWhen it comes to the case of Courtside Karen, LeBron James is obviously taking on Michele Obama’s philosophy: when they go low, we go high.But first a quick recap. The Lakers star was confronted by a fan, Juliana Carlos, during his team’s victory over the Hawks in Atlanta on Monday night (some NBA teams are allowing spectators back into arenas in a limited capacity). Her husband had been heckling James and that ended with Carlos pulling down her facemask – during a pandemic, mind you – and verbally abusing James before being escorted out by security, along with three others in her party. She then took to social media to tell James that: “I will [expletive] you up”. There were many more words in the video, mainly beginning with F. She also appeared to think she was entitled to abuse James because she had “courtside seats that I … paid for”. Continue reading...

Two officers have been placed on administrative leave and another suspended after video footage emergedThe mother of a nine-year-old girl has accused police of “excessive use of force” after her daughter was handcuffed and pepper-sprayed in Rochester, New York.Two were placed on administrative leave and another suspended on Tuesday, after police released video footage of the incident, which showed the nine-year-old being pepper-sprayed as she sat in the back of a squad car. Continue reading...

There are no clear-cut heroes or villains, only some investors who will weather losses betterIn the last week of January, the price of stock in GameStop – an ailing brick-and-mortar video game retailer – soared 323% for the week and 1,700% for the month. Nothing happened within the company to drive the increase; its fundamentals remain unchanged. It was a speculative bubble – but with a twist.With any bubble, investors who get in and out at the right moment make a lot of money, while those who get in too late or stay too long suffer large losses. Participating in a speculative bubble is thus like playing roulette in a casino, with the financial services companies (such as Charles Schwab) and retail investment platforms (such as Robinhood) acting as the “house”. Continue reading...

President and first lady attend memorial for Brian Sicknick, who died following injuries in the Capitol riot, days before start of trialJoe Biden paid his respects at the US Capitol on Tuesday night to the police officer killed by the violent mob of Donald Trump supporters who staged the insurrection at the Capitol on 6 January.The remains of Brian Sicknick, 42, are lying in honor in the Capitol’s towering central rotunda where rioters had rampaged on the day. A ceremony was held for Sicknick on Wednesday morning, with Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader, honoring the officer. Continue reading...

Biden tells People magazine in first White House interview ‘we have such an incredible opportunity as a country now’Joe Biden has described his swearing-in as president as “one of the most consequential inaugurations in a long, long time” in his first White House interview.The new president marked two weeks in office on Wednesday and speaking to People magazine, Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden, discussed a range of topics, including their marriage, faith and the scale of the challenges he will face. Continue reading...

Officials apologize for test malfunction after message asking citizens to keep an eye out for film villain was sent three timesThe Texas public safety department raised a few eyebrows in the Lone Star state by reportedly sending out an emergency alert asking its citizens to keep an eye out for Chucky – the evil possessed doll from the horror movie series Child’s Play – whom it said was a suspect in a kidnapping.The message went out over the state’s Amber Alert system, which is blasted to people’s mobile phones, usually to help find a missing child. It was sent three times. Continue reading...

At Trump’s impeachment trial, Republicans have one more chance to turn their backs on the extremists. Will they take it?In 2001, nine days after terrorists attacked the United States and its federal government, a Republican president stood before Congress with the overwhelming support of a terrified nation, as he presented a stark choice to the world.Related: Impeachment trial: Trump lawyers claim 'fight like hell' speech didn't incite riot Continue reading...

Prosecutors present memo accusing Trump of building a ‘powder keg’ while Trump’s team denied he incited violence. Plus, how a California prison transfer led to dozens of deaths

Civil rights lawyers Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke are poised for key roles in the Biden administrationOn her last day at the justice department in 2017, Vanita Gupta considered taking a picture as she left the agency’s headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue. But she decided against it. Gupta, the outgoing head of the department’s civil rights division, once described as the “crown jewel” of the agency, didn’t really want to remember the moment, she told a reporter who was shadowing her for the day.Jeff Sessions, then the incoming attorney general, was poised to unwind much of the painstaking progress Gupta, 46, and her colleagues had spent the last four years building. It was no secret that Sessions opposed the kind of court agreements the justice department used to fix unconstitutional policing policies across the country (“dangerous” and an “exercise of raw power” in Sessions’ eyes). Nor were there any illusions that Sessions would try very hard to enforce the Voting Rights Act, already on its last legs after the supreme court gutted a key provision in 2013 (Sessions described the landmark civil rights law as “intrusive”). Continue reading...

Native American progressive Democrat has been working for years to address crisis levels of homelessness in SeattleColleen Echohawk, a Native American woman and key advocate in Seattle’s homelessness crisis, is running for mayor of the Pacific Northwest city and laying the groundwork for it to potentially elect its first indigenous mayor.Echohawk, an enrolled member of the Kithehaki Band of the Pawnee Nation and a member of the Upper Athabascan people of Mentasta Lake, is a progressive Democrat, but one, she said, “with strong roots in pragmatism”. Continue reading...

Tom Brady is a ruthless and brilliant winner. But his opposing number in Sunday’s Super Bowl is on track to redefine the sportHere is a list of all the quarterbacks who have led their teams to back-to-back Super Bowl wins within their first three years as an NFL starter:Tom Brady. Continue reading...

Like Uber, Airbnb or WeWork, the Robinhood brokerage app offers only an illusion of democracyThe GameStop saga, for all the havoc it has caused to the global markets, is not just a tale of idealistic individual investors humiliating a bunch of arrogant hedge funds – even if the tides turned on Tuesday, with a plunge in GameStop’s shares. For one, it feels like an unannounced sequel to the 6 January riots on Capitol Hill: both have featured a horde of angry, foul-mouthed social media addicts laying siege to the most sacred institutions of the deeply despised establishment.However, while the Washington rioters were universally condemned, those leading the virtual crusade on Wall Street have fared much better. Having defended the stocks of musty, struggling companies against greedy hedge funds, they have garnered some sympathy across the political aisle. Continue reading...

New research on image-generating algorithms has raised alarming evidence of bias. It’s time to tackle the problem of discrimination being baked into tech, before it is too late

Sale of bullion rose 258% as investors raced for safe havens and online activists launched a buying frenzyThe United States Mint was unable to meet surging demand for its gold and silver bullion coins in 2020 and through January, due partly to pandemic-driven demand and plant capacity issues, it said.Sales of US gold bullion coins rose 258% last year while silver coin demand was up 28%, the Mint said on Tuesday. Heavy buying has continued in 2021, it said, squeezing supplies, which had already been tight as the coronavirus affected production. Continue reading...

Ice condemned as ‘rogue agency’ after rights groups allege torture by agents and man deported to Haiti who had never been thereUS Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has been denounced as a “rogue agency” after new allegations of assaults on asylum seekers emerged, and deportations of African and Caribbean migrants continued in defiance of the Biden administration’s orders.Joe Biden unveiled his immigration agenda on Tuesday, and his homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was confirmed by the Senate, but the continued deportations suggested the Biden White House still does not have full control of Ice, which faces multiple allegations of human rights abuses and allegations that it has disproportionately targeted black migrants. Continue reading...

President decries Trump administration that ‘literally ripped children from the arms of their families’ as he signs executive ordersJoe Biden plans to create a taskforce to reunify families separated at the US-Mexico border by the Trump administration, as part of a new series of immigration executive actions signed at an Oval Office ceremony on Tuesday.Biden condemned Donald Trump’s immigration policies as a “stain on the reputation” of the US. Continue reading...

Covid crisis report from office of the inspector general finds concerns of healthcare staff over May transfer were ignoredA hastily executed transfer of nearly 200 people in California’s prison system set off a public health disaster that endangered the lives of thousands of prisoners and staff and led to dozens of deaths, according to a new report from the state’s office of the inspector general (OIG).The report published on Monday, the third in a series examining the Covid-19 catastrophe in California state prisons, details the circumstances of a May 2020 transfer of 189 people from the California Institute for Men (CIM) in Chino, California, to San Quentin state prison in the Bay Area and Corcoran state prison in the Central Valley. Continue reading...

Trump’s lawyers issue argument after House of Representatives’ memo says ‘Trump’s responsibility for the events of 6 January is unmistakable’

After one of his staff members tested positive, the former presidential candidate said he would quarantineAndrew Yang, the tech entrepreneur and former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination now running to be mayor of New York City, has tested positive for Covid-19.Yang, who recently said he would quarantine after a staffer tested positive, tweeted: “After testing negative as recently as this weekend, I have taken a positive Covid rapid test. I’m quarantining and adhering to public health guidelines until I can get back out on the campaign trail. Continue reading...

The opposition leader is mobilising young Russians not in thrall to superpower nostalgia, and making the Kremlin look smallThe sum of €700 (£618) is not large in the context of Russian corruption, but it is a lot to spend on a toilet brush. Then again, sprawling presidential estates have a lot of toilets, which must be cleaned to a standard delivered only by Italian designer brushes.Details like that are what make Alexei Navalny’s recent film about Vladimir Putin’s personal fortune so potent. The anti-corruption campaigner’s documentary has been viewed more than 100m times. Thanks to aerial drone footage and digital reconstructions based on leaked architectural plans, ordinary Russians have had a guided tour of what Navalny describes, without exaggeration, as a modern-day Versailles. They see what has become of money that might otherwise have been spent easing the burden of economic stagnation and the pandemic. Continue reading...

Reddit-inspired surge in stocks such as struggling video games store and AMC dive as hedge funds close positionsShares in GameStop plunged by 65% in early trading on Wall Street as the trading mania sparked by small investors, that sent its stock surging and cost hedge funds billions of dollars, lost momentum.The struggling Texas-based video game store chain has been the focal point of a battle by small traders, using forums such as Reddit, to punish Wall Street hedge funds that have bet on certain stocks falling in value. GameStop shares hit a high of $482 last Thursday but slumped to $80 shortly after the market opened. They recovered to $117 by mid-session, down 48% on their opening price. Continue reading...

With a baby on the way, my partner and I need a bigger place. But despite all the talk of coronavirus ‘killing’ the city, ordinary homes have never been less affordableHello? I would like to speak to the manager of the pandemic please. I was promised cheap real estate, goddammit. I was told Covid had killed cities and nobody wanted to live in them any more. I was told urban property prices would plummet. Well, it sure seems like someone forgot to tell house prices. Last time I checked – and I check multiple times a day – major cities are still majorly unaffordable.To be fair, prices have fallen in New York’s ultra-luxury market. But do I care if an apartment that once cost $20m now costs $17m? No – this information is irrelevant to my lifestyle. Rents have also dropped from extremely exorbitant to just exorbitant. But every time I Google “house prices”, I am greeted with headlines such as “house prices hit record highs”. The price of an average house in London, for example, is almost 10% higher than this time last year and has just topped £500,000 for the first time. Continue reading...

The congresswoman knows impunity for those who incited the Capitol attack just allows them to do the same, or worse, againAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez uses social media with a fluency that is still uncommon in politicians. She is at ease online; neither thoughtless nor noticeably self-conscious. She regularly answers questions from voters on Instagram Live while cooking dinner; she peppers her language with millennial slang. AOC is a savvy media figure, but the effects of the live broadcasts are to make her seem less like a polished public persona and more like a plausible person, someone you could imagine speaking to in real life. She is in proximity to power but does not appear to have decided that her power comes at the cost of her personality. This part of her – her humanity and frankness, her familiarity and sympathy – make her seem to achieve, on the broadcasts, something that is impossible for politicians, and especially impossible for female ones: she is in power, but she also reminds you of people you know.Related: The Squad shouldn’t have to feel terrified of their colleagues in Congress | Arwa Mahdawi Continue reading...

Stunt was reportedly an attempt to raise awareness for breast cancer as six culprits were arrestedThe Hollywood sign in Los Angeles was altered to read “Hollyboob”, in an apparent bid to raise breast cancer awareness.Stunned residents were surprised to wake up on Monday to see that a tarpaulin featuring the letter B had been placed over the W in the famous sign, and a crossed line added to the D. Continue reading...