by Ed Pilkington in New York and agencies on (#5GT0R)
Former senator and ambassador lost one of the most lopsided US elections in history to Ronald ReaganWalter F Mondale, the former vice-president and liberal leader who lost to Ronald Reagan in one of the most lopsided presidential elections, has died at the age of 93.A towering figure in the Democratic party who resolutely put humility and honesty before the glitz of mass communication, Mondale’s death marked something of an end of an era in US politics. He was described by a biographer as the last major American politician to resist the allure of television. Continue reading...
by Martin Pengelly in New York and agencies on (#5GRY2)
Peter Cahill says congresswoman’s comments supporting protesters could lead to appealThe judge overseeing the trial of Derek Chauvin has expressed frustrations with recent comments by the Democratic US representative Maxine Waters, in which she expressed support for protesters against police brutality, saying the remarks could lead to a verdict being appealed and overturned.Related: Daunte Wright and George Floyd: another chapter in America’s recurring tragedy Continue reading...
Medical examiner’s determination means it will be difficult for prosecutors to bring homicide charges in Brian Sicknick’s deathBrian Sicknick, a Capitol police officer injured while confronting rioters during the 6 January insurrection, suffered a stroke and died of natural causes, the Washington DC medical examiner’s office ruled Monday, a finding that lessens the chances that anyone will be charged in his death.Investigators initially believed the officer had been hit in the head with a fire extinguisher, based on statements collected early in the investigation, according to two people familiar with the case. And they later thought the 42-year-old Sicknick might have ingested a chemical substance – possibly bear spray – that could have contributed to his death. Continue reading...
Ethan Nordean and Joseph Biggs charged with conspiring to stop 2020 election certification and leading Proud Boys to CapitolA federal judge has ordered two leaders of the far-right Proud Boys group to be detained in jail pending trial for their involvement in the 6 January attack on the Capitol in Washington DC.Both were indicted in one of many Proud Boys conspiracy cases to stem from the investigation into the assault on the building that followed a pro-Donald Trump rally. Continue reading...
The Derek Chauvin murder trial heard closing arguments on Monday before the jury was expected to begin considering a verdict over the death of George Floyd that is anxiously awaited by millions of Americans. The prosecutor Steve Schleicher told jurors the key to the case lay in video footage of Chauvin pressing his knee on to Floyd’s neck, even as he pleaded for his life, right to his last words of 'I can’t breathe'. The former Minneapolis police officer’s attorney, Eric Nelson, told the jury that his client's actions followed the 'reasonable force' guidelines for police officers when considering all the factors that Chauvin had to take into account on the day of Floyd's death
No one can be sure how far might a radicalised Republican party goIn 1944, George Orwell felt that the word fascism had “lost the last vestige of meaning” so liberally had it been used. But fascism remains very much alive. Decades after Orwell’s message, one of the challenges today is to identify and name it. Whether the label could be applied to Donald Trump had divided expert opinion, until the 6 January assault on Capitol Hill by a mob whose passions had been inflamed by his speech earlier that day. This melted the resistance historians of fascism like Columbia University’s Robert Paxton felt to using the f-word. The use of violence against democratic institutions, he wrote, “crosses a red line”.If anyone wondered what American fascism might look like then they could start with the proposed congressional “America First Caucus”, which emerged this weekend from the office of extremist Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene. Carrying the torch for Trumpism, this fringe agenda conceals its racial argument behind muscular populist ones. The caucus plans were welcomed by legislators who had fanned the flames of the Capitol riot. Before being elected to Congress, Ms Greene peddled conspiracy theories, made racist statements and indicated support for the execution of Democratic leaders and FBI agents. She renounced those beliefs on the eve of being kicked off congressional committees but made no apology for having held them. Continue reading...
We all knew that eventually, money and corporate interest would mutate the game at the top level into something approaching RollerballIn my children’s novel Future Friend, which I began writing in January 2020, the future is imagined as a dystopian universe where the presence of mutant viruses infecting the air mean that no one goes out. When it was published, in the midst of lockdown, I was therefore congratulated by some for my previously unacknowledged psychic powers. A not so noticed feature of the Future Friend world, however, is that football is still played there: but only in one stadium, above the clouds, and only the super-rich can go and watch games there. So, given Sunday’s Super League news, I say, just call me Nostradavidmus.Or don’t bother. Because of course we all knew this was coming. We all knew that eventually, money and corporate interest would mutate the game at the top level, beyond what it already in so many ways has, into something approaching Rollerball. Continue reading...
by Alexandra Villarreal in Austin, Texas and agencies on (#5GRZF)
Former sheriff’s deputy Stephen Broderick was arrested without incident on Monday morningA former sheriff’s deputy in Texas was taken into custody on Monday following a manhunt after three people were fatally shot in Austin, authorities said.Related: ‘Exceptional’ North Texas football recruit among those killed in Austin shooting Continue reading...
Prosecutor said authorities believed they had done what they needed to do by seizing a pump-action shotgun in March 2020The 19-year-old man who allegedly shot dead eight people at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis last week never appeared before a judge for a hearing under a state “red flag” law which was invoked after his mother called police to say her son might commit “suicide by cop”, a prosecutor said on Monday.Related: Indianapolis shooting: gunman bought two rifles after police seized his shotgun Continue reading...
The Democratic representative Maxine Waters has come under criticism from the Republican house minority leader, after she expressed support for protesters against police brutality at a rally on Saturday in Brooklyn Center, the Minneapolis suburb where Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by police last week.Waters said she would 'continue to fight in every way that I can for justice', prompting the Republican minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, to accuse Waters of 'inciting violence in Minneapolis'
Ex-attorney general William Barr also signs deal; Barrett’s book is on how judges should not bring personal feelings into decisionsThe former attorney general William Barr and supreme court justice Amy Coney Barrett have reportedly signed book deals – with Barrett paid a reported $2m for a volume on how judges should not bring their personal feelings into the way they rule.Related: Republicans demand action against Maxine Waters after Minneapolis remarks Continue reading...
All my well-worn routines have changed – from my morning walk to my local coffee shop - and now I don’t really know who I am, or how to behaveI love reading about pandemic brain fog because it gives me an excuse for my current stupidity. It is pleasant to think that my inability to recall the dog’s name or what I did for the past hour are symptoms of a global malaise, rather than of my mental decline. That is not to say that I am not getting stupider – I definitely am – but it’s nice to pretend something else is at work.The most recent piece I read emphasised the impact of the lack of new experiences. We have “evolved to stop paying attention when nothing changes” and the sameness of pandemic days is unhelpful for “pattern separation”, one of the key processes in encoding memories. Continue reading...
by Adam Weinstein and Stephen Wertheim on (#5GS2M)
Finally, Americans appear willing to bring the troops home. Will they stay there?Last Wednesday, President Joe Biden announced he would withdraw all US ground troops from Afghanistan by September 11, the two-decade anniversary of the attacks that brought on the war. Then he visited the fallen at Arlington National Cemetery. A reporter asked him whether his decision was hard to make. “No, it wasn’t,” Biden replied. “To me, it was absolutely clear.”Biden’s clarity shone through in the reasons he gave for terminating the mission in Afghanistan. Criticizing the grandiose and ill-defined objectives pursued by his successors, Biden refused to order US soldiers to engage any longer in a mission they could not achieve. He acknowledged that war among Afghans would likely continue, but he resolved to remove Americans from combat. Continue reading...
City sent couple letter stating their fence violates ordinance as a Blue Lives Matter slogan appears on fence two blocks awayA simple suburban fence in Minnesota that has become a local attraction and a symbol of the battle for equality – but has also drawn critics – is now at the center of a row with the authorities.Ryan Weyandt and his husband, Michael Hainlin, keep bumping up against deadlines to obey a city order to paint over the vivid statement adorning their fence declaring that Black Lives Matter. Continue reading...
In 1994, the US’s annual border and immigration budget was $1.5bn. In 2020, the budget exceeded $25bn - a 16-fold increaseI’ll never forget Giovanni’s blistered feet as an EMT attended to him on the Mexico side of the US-Mexican border in Sasabe, a remote desert town. On the back of one foot, his skin had been rubbed away and the tender, reddish, underlying tissue exposed. One toenail had completely ripped off. Giovanni, who was from a small Guatemalan town near the Salvadorean border, had just spent days walking through the Arizona desert in the heat of July.When I think of the “border crisis”, I think of Giovanni’s gashed feet. Stories of death and near death, of pain and immense suffering like this, happen every single day. This displacement crisis is not temporary; it is perpetual. Continue reading...
Two men died after a Tesla vehicle believed to have been operating without anyone in the driver’s seat crashed into a tree north of Houston. The victims were reportedly found in the front passenger seat and the back seat of the 2019 Tesla Model S
President expected to unveil his plan for tackling the climate crisis this week. Plus, three dead in Texas mass shootingGood morning.Joe Biden is expected to lay out his plans for tackling the climate crisis this week, and call on the world’s other major economies to join him in slashing greenhouse gas emissions in the next decade. Continue reading...
After the third-driest year ever recorded in the state, California risks disaster just months after a devastating 2020Hillsides typically decked in colorful flowers are parched and splotched with brown. The so-called desert “superbloom” never materialized.California is facing a critically dry year. America’s most populous state only received half its average amount of rain this spring, making 2021 the third-driest year it has ever recorded. Continue reading...
Nursing home and home care workers worked long days with inadequate protection during the pandemic – now they want better pay and conditionsDuring the coronavirus pandemic, Shantonia Jackson, a certified nursing assistant at a nursing home in Cicero, Illinois, worked through Covid-19 outbreaks in which more than 250 residents tested positive for the virus, and one of her co-workers and friends passed away along with several residents.Jackson described working 16-hour days, seven days a week, as dozens of employees were often out sick or in quarantine. Caring for 70 residents at once, she still made time for those she cared for to use her cellphone to make video calls to loved ones they were no longer able to see. Adequate personal protective equipment was a constant issue and concern. At home, Jackson quarantined herself from the rest of her family, only interacting with her daughter through video calls even though they live in the same house. Continue reading...
The 41-year-old is set to break the great Gordie Howe’s record for NHL appearances. And he has done it with dedication, skill and no lack of humilityWhen a 41-year-old son of the Canadian Prairie takes his first shift for the San Jose Sharks on Monday night in Las Vegas, he will release a legend’s grasp on one of the National Hockey League’s most celebrated records.Patrick Marleau will play his 1,768th game, more than anybody else in league history. That includes Gordie Howe, the Hall of Famer whom Marleau will surpass on Monday night. The Sharks’ center took 23 years to pass Howe, who played 26 seasons in the NHL before retiring at 51. Continue reading...
by Chris Smith at DRV PNK Stadium, Fort Lauderdale on (#5GRQ3)
The former England women’s head coach made his debut in charge of Inter Miami on Sunday. But a familiar name came back to haunt himFor new Inter Miami coach Phil Neville, the holidays are over. The former England women’s coach, who midweek spoke fondly of annual family vacations on South Beach during his playing days, tasted defeat in his first game in MLS, as LA Galaxy came from behind twice to earn a late 3-2 win at DRV PNK Stadium.With all the pre-match talk of the Manchester United reunion between Neville and team owner David Beckham, it was another Old Trafford old boy, Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernández, who spoiled the party with a pair of typically predatory finishes. The visitors sealed the points thanks to substitute Sacha Kljestan’s calm finish with nine minutes left. Continue reading...
Today is 420, the day to celebrate cannabis and its culture. Growing up in Oregon it was part of our lifestyle. Now the suits have taken over but it’s not all badIn the beginning, there was weed. My dad and I would walk down the gravel road and up a path through the woods to his patch, where the plants were partially hidden by a canopy of maples. It wasn’t an ideal spot for sunlight, but it was an ideal spot for hiding. My dad would carry bags of fertilizer on foot for a mile so that our truck was never spotted in the vicinity.Related: How a small town reacted when its mayor was caught growing weed Continue reading...
The 43rd president’s tour to promote his new book hasn’t been well received for those who remember his ‘war on terror’ daysHe’s back.George W Bush, the former US president, returns to the political stage this week with a promotional book tour comprising numerous “virtual conversations” and TV and radio interviews, including a late night talk show. Continue reading...
Police say the suspect is still at large but it appears to have been an isolated domestic situationThree people were shot dead in Austin on Sunday, authorities in Texas said. No suspects were in custody.Law enforcement officials closed off roadways in the Great Hills Trail and Rain Creek Parkway area of the city for an “active shooting incident”, according to a tweet from the city’s police department. Continue reading...
In contrast, the golf-loving Trump by this point of his presidency had already recorded 19 separate visits to golf coursesDuring last year’s presidential election campaign, one of Joe Biden’s strongest arguments to voters was that he wasn’t Donald Trump.After engaging in the favorite pastime of the “former guy” with the first trip to a golf course of his presidency on Saturday, he finds that he still isn’t. Continue reading...
Outcome is expected to resonate nationwide, particularly in cities that have seen continuing demonstrations over police violenceProtests against police killings flared across the US this weekend, from Minneapolis to Chicago to Portland, as Americans wait for a verdict in the trial of the white police officer charged with murdering George Floyd last year.Closing arguments are expected in the Derek Chauvin trial on Monday. The most serious charge the former Minneapolis officer is facing in Floyd’s death is second-degree murder, but the jury might choose to find him guilty on third-degree murder or manslaughter, or acquit him altogether. Continue reading...
Recent years have been punishing for regional and national news organisations. Both are essential if democracy is to thriveJeremy Corbyn and Sir Keir Starmer both paid tribute to Eric Gordon, the founder of the Camden New Journal, who died earlier this month, aged 89. Their interest was natural enough, as MPs in neighbouring boroughs – Camden and Islington – where the CNJ’s owner, New Journal Enterprises, publishes newspapers (its third title is in Westminster). But the story of this independently owned local news organisation has a significance that stretches beyond the capital.Launched after a journalists’ strike, in 1982, Gordon’s papers are proof that local outlets that put community before profit can still survive and even thrive – albeit on a tight budget. With important local elections coming up, this lesson has rarely been more important. Continue reading...
Brandon Hole bought assault weapons he used in attack months after his shotgun was confiscated over mental health concernsA gunman who murdered eight people at a FedEx warehouse in Indianapolis legally purchased the two semi-automatic rifles he used in the attack, months after a shotgun he owned was confiscated by police over concerns around his mental health.Brandon Hole, 19, who killed himself at the conclusion of the massacre, bought the two assault weapons in July and September 2020, according to Indianapolis metropolitan police chief Randal Taylor, after the shotgun was taken from him in March following a call from his mother concerned at his mental state. Continue reading...
‘On the one hand they want to be relieved of the restrictions. On the other hand, they don’t want to get vaccinated’Republicans who refuse the Covid-19 vaccination are actively “working against” efforts to lift the very coronavirus restrictions they insist are an infringement of their civil liberties, Dr Anthony Fauci, the US government’s leading infectious disease expert, said on Sunday.Fauci’s comments came as the government announced that half of all adults in the US had received at least one Covid-19 shot, marking another milestone in the nation’s largest-ever vaccination campaign. Almost 130 million people 18 or older have received at least one dose of a vaccine, or 50.4% of the total adult population, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported. Almost 84 million adults, or about 32.5% of the population, have been fully vaccinated. Continue reading...
Singer says shootings have become normal in US and ‘guns are too easy to own’Madonna has declared gun control the “new vaccination”, arguing that regulation would save lives.The singer shared a video of herself erecting fly-posters featuring messages including “Wake up America” and “Gun control now”. Continue reading...
Nostalgia, royal navel-gazing and angst: modern Britain is in danger of repeating the mistakes of 40 years agoMidway through last week, I spent a couple of hours in Redditch, 15 or so miles south of Birmingham. My daughter plays the drums, and she wanted to see the new statue of the late John Bonham, who grew up in Redditch, joined the hugely successful hard rock group Led Zeppelin, and died a tragic death in 1980. We found the impressive memorial in the local market square – an obviously popular meeting place, sullied by a conspicuous line of vacant shops.Redditch has had a rough time of late. Even now, its Covid infection rate is among the highest in the country. Like so many places, the town has said goodbye to its branch of Marks & Spencer, and is about to lose its Debenhams department store too. In the spring sunshine, it felt pinched and forlorn. This was thrown into sharper relief by what we then listened to on the car radio: endless chatter about the death of the Duke of Edinburgh, the supposed magic and wonder of the royal family, and the arrangements for his funeral. Continue reading...
The police killings of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old shot after being pulled over, and Adam Toledo, an unarmed 13-year-old, have sparked protests in a number of cities. Crowds in Minneapolis staged their sixth night of demonstrations, and thousand marched in Chicago, where Toledo was killed, after video of him being shot with his arms raised was released. Police in Portland declared a riot on Friday night
The South African variant has been detected in two London boroughs, leading to an outbreak of community spirit and unstoppable civic responsibilityMore than 40 cases of the South African variant of coronavirus in the south London boroughs of Lambeth and Wandsworth have led to widespread surge testing in the areas – not just a few streets, but everyone who lives and works there. The neighbourhood chat boards are heaving with first-hand testimonies about the testing sites. There’s a two-hour queue, and it’s outrageous. No, there’s a five minute queue and it’s brilliant. They’re talking about two different test centres, so it’s highly likely that they’re both right, but that doesn’t stop things getting pretty heated.Within any given five streets, I’d say, you get this perfectly bifurcated split of opinion: the government is useless and everything it does is stupid; no, the government is trying its best and everything it does is brilliant. Sometimes, I try to weigh in, with some context – “All the volunteers and professionals at the testing centres are trying superhumanly hard, and any inconvenience you experience will be the fault of some random mate of Matt Hancock’s” – but it’s got to the point that I’m even annoying myself. The best tactic, if you want to bring the community together, is to charge into the thread, shouting in all caps “NEW MOBILE TEST CENTRE JUST ABOUT TO OPEN BY THE TUBE” – the same way you can always stop a supermarket brawl by putting “checkout three opening” over the public address system – indeed, it is for precisely this reason that they have them. Continue reading...
If passed, Texans over age 21 could carry a gun without training or a background check. The state would be the 14th to have such a lawThis week, the Texas House of Representatives passed a bill dubbed “Constitutional Carry” that would allow citizens over the age of 21 to carry a gun without a license, drawing outrage from many state Democrats and gun-reform advocates.Texas law currently requires citizens to obtain a license to carry in order to carry a firearm openly or concealed. If passed into law, the new bill would remove that restriction, allowing Texans to carry guns without having to pass a background check or go through training. Texas would become the 14th state to implement such a law. Continue reading...
The state governor seems determined to give the city’s famous skyline a lumpy revampAndrew Cuomo, the governor of New York state, is currently resisting calls to resign over allegations of sexual harassment. So what better way to prove that he is definitely not a phallocratic bully than to “ram through”, as one outlet puts it, a super-tall tower called Penn 15, and a vast development around it?It’s not just that its name reads like the personalised licence plate of an inadequate and not-literate male. It is also that this lumpy object will compete on the New York city skyline with the nearby Empire State Building – Penn 15 would be bulkier than its famous neighbour and almost as tall. It is part of the Penn District, a proposed “campus” that will rip up several city blocks and replace them with what, on the available evidence, looks like further big lumps swathed in bland and generic design. Continue reading...
More directors could be pushed off next week as aerospace firm tries to recover its reputation after 737 Max problems and Covid downturnTwo more top-level directors could be ousted from Boeing’s board of directors next week as family members of the victims of two fatal crashes of its 737 Max jets join shareholders to push for further high-level reforms at the aerospace giant.Related: Denver plane engine fire consistent with metal fatigue in fan blade, say investigators Continue reading...
by Oliver Laughland and Amudalat Ajasa in Minneapolis on (#5GQS5)
The latest instance of a Black man killed by a police officer added fuel to the fire already burning in MinneapolisIt was shortly after midday on Thursday at the New Salem Missionary Baptist church in Minneapolis. In front of a towering stone facade, Katie Wright stood at the pulpit, almost dwarfed by the plexiglass lectern and mass of microphones in front of her. She shuddered with grief, held by members of her family.Five days earlier, her son, Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old father of one, had been shot and killed by a single bullet fired by a white police officer in the city suburb of Brooklyn Center. Four nights of unrest had followed with hundreds of protesters clashing with police dressed in riot gear, pelting crowds with teargas and rubber bullets. Continue reading...
From climate to healthcare, fundamental challenges demand the US change with the timesAmerica is about to revive an idea that was left for dead decades ago. It’s called industrial policy and it’s at the heart of Joe Biden’s plans to restructure the US economy.Related: Republican ‘attacks’ on corporations over voting rights bills are a hypocritical sham | Robert Reich Continue reading...
by Oliver Laughland in Minneapolis and Jason Wilson i on (#5GQ6T)
Thousands marched in Chicago where 13-year-old Adam Toledo was killed while about 100 arrested in Brooklyn CenterAfter a heated week of police violence, protests erupted in several US cities on Friday, at times turning tense.In the wake of the killings of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old shot by police after being pulled over, and unarmed 13-year-old Adam Toledo, thousands took to the streets to demonstrate, sometimes into the night. Continue reading...
The Consumer Product Safety Commission said it received reports of children and a pet being pulled, pinned and entrapped under the machineSafety regulators warned people with kids and pets Saturday to immediately stop using a treadmill made by Peloton after one child died and nearly 40 others were injured.The US Consumer Product Safety Commission said it received reports of children and a pet being pulled, pinned and entrapped under the rear roller of the Tread+ treadmill, leading to fractures, scrapes and the death of one child. Continue reading...
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