Administration reverses Trump policy but Texas secures restraining order over 100-day pause on deportationsIn mixed fortunes for Joe Biden’s efforts to roll back Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies, the government rescinded the Trump-era “zero tolerance” policy that resulted in thousands of family separations at the US-Mexico border while, in a federal court, a judge blocked the new president’s 100-day moratorium on deportations.Acting US attorney general Monty Wilkinson issued the new Department of Justice memo to federal prosecutors across the nation, saying the administration would return to its longstanding previous policy and instructing prosecutors to act on the merits of individual cases where migrants have crossed into the US unlawfully. Continue reading...
Plan to increase vaccine supplies to states and buy 200m more doses and give states more lead timeJoe Biden vowed on Tuesday to ramp up vaccination programs so that most of the US population is inoculated by the end of summer or early fall.“This will be enough vaccine to fully vaccinate 300m Americans by the end of the summer,” the US president said on Tuesday afternoon, later adding “end of summer, beginning of the fall”, in a briefing at the White House. Continue reading...
The basketball world remains in a state mourning over Bryant, his daughter Gianna and the other seven people who climbed aboard a helicopter on a Sunday morning one year agoKobe Bryant wasn’t in the bubble with the Los Angeles Lakers last October when they won the NBA championship. He wasn’t at the All-Star weekend in Chicago where half the players wore his number on their uniforms, the other half wearing his daughter’s jersey number. He wasn’t there to hear the Basketball Hall of Fame announced that his career was worthy of enshrinement.Yet his presence was so clearly felt in each of those moments. Continue reading...
Domestic policy chief Susan Rice says ‘every agency will place equity at the core’ as Biden push to undo Trump’s legacy continuesUS politics – live coverageJoe Biden signed four more executive orders on Tuesday, as he aimed to fulfill a campaign promise to increase racial equity in the US.Related: Bernie Sanders in new push for $15 minimum wage under Biden: 'For me, it's morally imperative' Continue reading...
Telfar, created by Telfar Clemens and Babak Radboy, earns Design Museum prize, capping off change-making period for US brandBlack-owned fashion label Telfar has won the Fashion Design of 2020 award from London’s Design Museum for its vegan-leather, gender neutral shopping bag, capping off a change-making period for the brand.Related: 'Come for the quips but stay for the coats': the enduring style of Fran Lebowitz Continue reading...
Ted Wheeler was having meal out with former mayor when man carrying video camera accused them of dining without masksThe mayor of Portland, Oregon, pepper-sprayed a maskless resident who confronted him about the city’s Covid-19 rules after a meal out.Ted Wheeler, the Democratic mayor since 2016, had been dining with a former mayor, Sam Adams, when the two were confronted by a man carrying a video camera on Sunday evening outside a local pub, according to a police report obtained by Oregon Live. Continue reading...
There have been blunders, and vaccine rollout has been slow, but most Germans seem happy with Angela Merkel’s responseGermany, it seems, barely noticed when it hit 50,000 deaths from Covid-19. To be fair, there has been a lot of news lately – had we arrived at this grim milestone earlier, when it didn’t have to compete with Donald Trump’s ignominious exit from the White House, the beginning of Joe Biden’s presidency, and the election of Armin Laschet to the leadership of the Christian Democratic Union, there surely would have been an avalanche of opinion pieces and memorials.Instead, it was buried. And while leaders in the UK have been scrambling and bickering, lest Britain become “a failed state”, as Gordon Brown has warned, German politicians seem more tired than anything else. The election of Laschet seems to indicate that the CDU leadership intends to try to carry Merkel’s legacy – and, with a 72% approval rating for the chancellor, the relative competence with which Germany has handled the pandemic seems to be recognised by the public. Continue reading...
by Victoria Bekiempis and agencies in New York on (#5DAJ4)
Legal team makes series of arguments to dismiss case, including that 2008 Epstein plea deal should shield client from prosecutionLawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell complained on Monday that the pool of grand jurors who indicted her was not diverse enough, according to new court documents.“The fact that Ms Maxwell herself is neither Black nor Hispanic does not deprive of her of standing to raise this challenge,” the attorneys wrote in court papers, arguing that the US constitution “entitles every defendant to object to a [pool] that is not designed to represent a fair cross section of the community, whether or not the systematically excluded groups are groups to which he himself belongs”. Continue reading...
Tavon Williams, who sustained minor injuries, told reporters: ‘I don’t think it was an accident at all’A man injured when a police officer drove his cruiser through a crowd of people in Tacoma, Washington, on Saturday evening has said he feared for his life.Related: Protest breaks out in Tacoma after police car drives through crowd Continue reading...
Trump ally, who claims lawsuit against him is ‘act of intimidation to censor the exercise of free speech’, threatened New York PostOn Monday, Rudy Giuliani called a $1.3bn lawsuit brought against him by Dominion Voting Systems “another act of intimidation by the hate-filled left wing to wipe out and censor the exercise of free speech”. But Giuliani has himself previously threatened to censor the exercise of free speech with legal action.Related: Biden to sign new executive orders on his racial equity agenda – live Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Portland, Oregon on (#5DAW8)
Five other people injured while man tried to flee on foot but neighbors surrounded himA motorist repeatedly drove into people along streets and sidewalks in Portland, Oregon, on Monday, killing an elderly woman who was dragged beneath the wheels.The man tried to flee on foot but neighbors surrounded him until police arrived and wrestled him into custody. Continue reading...
More than 10in of snow fell in parts of eastern Nebraska by Monday evening, leading to early closures of Covid testing sitesA major winter storm blanketed parts of the middle of the US with snow that was forecast into late Tuesday in some areas, disrupting traffic and closing coronavirus testing sites.“This is historic snow,” said one National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist, based near Omaha, Nebraska. Continue reading...
Leftwing senator tells Guardian the chances of raising the federal minimum are better than ever with new president in White HouseSenator Bernie Sanders says the widespread suffering caused by the pandemic-induced economic crisis has made it “morally imperative” to increase the US’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. And in an interview with the Guardian, Sanders and other lawmakers pushing for a higher minimum wage say the chances of enacting a $15 minimum are better than ever before now that President Joe Biden has called for a $15 federal minimum as part of his emergency Covid legislative package.Related: Dominion Voting Systems sues Giuliani for $1.3bn over baseless election claims Continue reading...
The party has done the same thing every time a Democrat has won the presidencyHigh among the US president Joe Biden’s many priorities is reinvigorating an economy that – judging by the latest employment numbers – appeared to be slowing as 2021 began. Even if Covid-19 abates during the course of the year, and pent-up consumer demand kicks in, the US faces immediate challenges in areas such as education, infrastructure investment, state and local finances, and especially the fight against the pandemic itself.Biden has thus announced a $1.9tn (£1.4tn) “American Rescue Plan”. Moreover, he is rare among successful US presidential candidates in having stated honestly during the campaign that his spending would continue the recent trend of record budget deficits, notwithstanding his plans also to raise taxes on the wealthy. Most economists approve of this fiscal expansion, in light of the US’s still-high unemployment, low inflation and very low interest rates. Continue reading...
Impeachment managers delivered one article of impeachment against the former president to the Senate. Plus, Biden overturns Trump’s ban on transgender people serving in the military
The cruelty the country showed towards unmarried mothers festers in the purgatorial process it uses with asylum seekersThe Irish state has done its fair share of apologising in recent years. In 1999, the then-taoiseach Bertie Ahern apologised to the victims of abuse by religious state-run institutions. Ten years and a report into institutional abuse later, his successor, Brian Cowen, apologised again.In 2013, a visibly emotional Enda Kenny beat his breast about the horrors of the Magdalene laundries, where thousands of women were incarcerated and suffered abuse. In 2019, the taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, twice donned the state’s sackcloth-and-ash, first for the sexual abuse of children in day schools and then for the lies told to more than 1,000 women in a cervical screening scandal. Continue reading...
While the influx has been a boon for some, it’s also exacerbated an unaffordable housing market and brought back painful memoriesMike McConnell was scared to go outside, even for a walk.After surviving a near-fatal sepsis infection he’d tried to adopt a healthier lifestyle, but it was proving difficult to actualize with the coronavirus surging across his home in San Diego, California. Continue reading...
Professional rugby in the city that never sleeps sounds glamorous but the reality is often less soEarlier this year, thanks to the pandemic, season three of Major League Rugby ended after just five games. Covid allowing, the US pro competition will try again in March.Related: Major League Rugby faces a pandemic – and corrosive politics Continue reading...
The former plane enthusiast, lawyer and judo brown belt owned a cafe that staged erotica nights and worked for President ObamaAvril Haines, who now oversees all 16 US intelligence agencies, is unlike any of the spies who came before her, and not just because she is the country’s first female director of national intelligence.She is also the first intelligence chief to have to make an emergency landing while trying to cross the Atlantic in a tiny plane; the first to take a year out in Japan to learn judo; and surely the first anywhere in the world to have owned a cafe-bookstore that staged frequent erotica nights. Continue reading...
Employers are alleged to be leveraging coronavirus-induced unemployment to mount an assault on collective bargainingDalroy Connell has worked as a stagehand for the Portland Trailblazers since 1995 when the basketball team began playing games at the Rose Garden Arena. When the pandemic hit the US in March 2020, public events were shut down and NBA games were briefly suspended before the season moved to a “bubble” in Orlando, Florida, and the season recommenced without fans in July 2020.Connell and his colleagues have been on unemployment ever since, but when the 2020-2021 NBA season began in December 2020, instead of bringing back several of these workers, the Portland Trailblazers replaced most of the unionized crew who work their games with non-union workers, even as their jobs running the sound and lighting equipment are required whether or not fans are in attendance. Continue reading...
With care workers, nurses and bus drivers among those most likely to die, drastic action is needed by the stateBritain’s class system determines who is wealthy, who has power, and even who lives. Before Covid-19 arrived, if you were a man in one of England’s poorest communities, you could expect to live nine years fewer than someone in one of its most affluent areas. Those living in the poorest parts of Britain have a greater chance of suffering from heart and lung disease, and their children are more than twice as likely to be obese as those in the richest parts. People condemned to poor-quality housing are more likely to have illnesses such as asthma, and with mental health disproportionately damaged by the stresses of poverty, the poorest men are up to 10 times more at risk of suicide than the richest.From the very start, the pandemic was always going to be shaped by the inequalities that define contemporary Britain. This is a virus that disproportionately inflicts the worst illness – and death – on those with underlying health conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity, which disproportionately affect the poor. While middle-class professionals have the luxury of working in Covid-compliant homes, millions of working-class Britons cannot perform their tasks remotely. Many have no option but to cram into public transport en route to workplaces which often do not enforce safe social distancing to protect them. Recent statistics from the Office for National Statistics show that care-home workers and nurses are among those most likely to die from coronavirus, alongside machine operatives, home carers, chefs, restaurant managers, nurses and bus drivers. These figures do not surprise, but they should still shock. Many of the key workers who people applauded from porches, windows and balconies during the first lockdown were cheered to their deaths. Continue reading...
Civil rights advocates worry that moves to fight far-right extremism will be used against communities of color and leftwing activistsAn expanded no fly list. New crimes put on the books. Increased use of the death penalty.These are some of the ways that politicians, pundits and law enforcement want to head off a repeat of the 6 January attack on the Capitol. But a renewed national security push aimed at addressing domestic terrorism has civil liberties groups steeling themselves, concerned that moves to combat far-right extremism will instead redound against communities of color and leftwing activists. Continue reading...
In A Woman’s Work, a striking new documentary, NFL cheerleaders reveal the underbelly of an industry that leaves them underpaid and mistreatedMaria Pinzone thought she had landed her dream job when, in 2012, she successfully auditioned for the Jills, the cheer squad for her beloved hometown NFL team, the Buffalo Bills. Pinzone had long dreamed of cheering in the NFL, but as the season went on, parts of the job began to unsettle her. The job required hours on hours of practice and dozens of community events, all unpaid. The Bills made more than $250m as an organization that year, but Pinzone had to pay $650 for her uniform, and was paid just $105 for 840 hours of work.Related: 'It's a hard and challenging sport': inside the world of competitive cheerleading Continue reading...
They are always talked of in terms of bad attitudes and wet towels. But the truth is, while their lives are painfully hard right now, they remain creative, compassionate and funnyA friend has fallen in love with Depop, the Gen Z fashion eBay, and its teen sellers. I downloaded the app on her recommendation, but I am bamboozled by the listings: a “perf lil crop top” appears to be a shirt collar and sleeves without any other shirt parts; a corset is “for dat peek-a-boo bad b lewwkkk … wear her alone and sessi or over your fav big T”. I feel 1,000 years old.“I message them questions because the listings are lacking useful info, such as what size it is, and they answer almost entirely in emojis and put kisses after everything, and I love them,” says my friend. Continue reading...
It’s not right that the world’s 10 richest people have amassed £400bn since the start of the pandemic while billions struggleComparisons are odious, but some are sensational. According to Oxfam, the wealth of the world’s 10 richest individuals has risen by £400bn since the start of the pandemic. That sum could apparently vaccinate every adult on Earth, as well as restore the income lost in 2020 to the world’s poorest people.These figures emerged on the opening day of the Davos World Economic Forum, which is taking place virtually this year. They have not, I suspect, been peer-reviewed. And since the economic relief so far expended by world governments amounts to a massive $12tn (£9.2tn), it is difficult to believe that another half-trillion would make that much difference. But it is hard to quarrel with the report’s conclusion that current economic policies have enabled “a super-rich elite to amass wealth in the middle of the worst recession since the Great Depression, while billions of people are struggling to make ends meet”. Continue reading...
Trump team rejects claims by new party’s founder that they are holding joint fundraising activitiesDonald Trump’s campaign has sought to distance him from efforts to create a “Patriot party”, an idea the former president has reportedly toyed with since his election defeat.On Monday, the former president’s campaign committee, Donald J Trump for President (DJTFP), disavowed claims by a new political action committee (PAC) called the Patriot party, that the two were part of a joint fundraising campaign. It coincided with Trump setting up the “Office of the Former President”, in Florida. Continue reading...
Resolution suggests attack was ‘designed to discredit’ Trump and supporters, and condemns Republicans who voted to impeachThe Oregon Republican party has falsely claimed in a resolution that there is “growing evidence” that the 6 January attack on the US Capitol by a pro-Trump mob was “a ‘false flag’ operation”. Continue reading...
If the trial is successful it would allow the Senate to bar the former president from holding office in the futureThe House of Representatives on Monday delivered an article of impeachment against Donald Trump to the Senate – the first time in history an American president will face a second impeachment trial. Continue reading...
The president said the outcome might have been different if Trump had had six months left in his termThe impeachment trial of Donald Trump “has to happen”, Joe Biden told CNN on Monday.While acknowledging the effect it could have on his agenda, the president said there would be “a worse effect if it didn’t happen”. Continue reading...
Plan, agreed on by top legislative leaders and the governor, would also use federal money to pay off part of some tenants’ unpaid rentCalifornia leaders have reached an agreement to extend the state’s eviction moratorium through the end of June in an effort to stave off an expected surge in housing displacement as Covid continues to spread. Continue reading...
President signs executive order to increase government purchases from manufacturers but warns of further virus deathsJoe Biden on Monday appeared to boost his goal for coronavirus vaccinations in his first 100 days in office, suggesting that the nation could soon be vaccinating 1.5 million Americans on average per day.Related: Trump article of impeachment to be delivered to Senate soon – live Continue reading...
Holden White was attacked by another teen, charged with attempted murder, last JuneA hate crime charge has been added to attempted murder in the case of a gay Louisiana teenager who was attacked by another teen he met on a dating app last year.Police initially said the evidence did not support a hate crime in the attack on Holden White, who spent days in a coma and nearly a month in the hospital and still does not have full use of both hands. White said the other teen wrapped a cord around his neck so tightly he lost consciousness and that he woke up in a bathtub where the assailant repeatedly slashed his wrists. Continue reading...
Announcement comes after months of a surge in cases and as the governor is sued for restrictions on outdoor diningCalifornia lifted its stay-at-home order statewide Monday after four-week projections showed intensive care unit capacity to be above 15% in beleaguered regions for the first time in weeks.“Today we can lay claim to starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel as it relates to case numbers,” said the California governor Gavin Newsom during a press briefing on Monday. Continue reading...
Press secretary says change to note that currently shows Andrew Jackson, who enslaved people, is back on treasury menuThe US treasury is taking steps to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill, as was planned under Barack Obama.Related: She Came to Slay: Tubman biography looks beyond Underground Railroad Continue reading...
Lauren Wolfe was let go two days after tweeting she had ‘chills’ at seeing Joe Biden’s plane land at Joint Base AndrewsA row has broken out over accusations that a New York Times journalist was fired after being targeted by rightwing critics for tweeting she had “chills” at seeing Joe Biden’s plane land at Joint Base Andrews.Lauren Wolfe, who had been working as an editor at the Times, posted the message on 19 January, as Biden arrived ahead of his inauguration as president the next day. Continue reading...
New president overturns ban ordered by Donald Trump in a tweet during his first year in officeJoe Biden on Monday reversed a Pentagon policy that largely barred transgender individuals from joining the US military, dumping a ban ordered by Donald Trump in a tweet during his first year in office.Related: Defense secretary Lloyd Austin demands US military sexual assault reports Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Norfolk, Virginia on (#5D9Q1)
Tony DeDolph is one of four charged following ‘tape job’ prank that resulted in the 2017 death of Army staff Sgt Logan MelgarA US Navy Seal has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in the hazing death of a US Army Green Beret while the men served together in Mali. The Seal’s attorney said he plans to appeal the punishment.Tony DeDolph received the sentence Saturday from a jury of fellow service members at a Navy base in Norfolk, Virginia, the Navy said in a statement Monday. He had pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and related counts on 14 January. Continue reading...
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