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Michigan, which had some of the nation’s strongest health regulations, saw its second highest single-day case total on FridayWhile the United States’ Covid-19 vaccination initiative has eclipsed that of many other countries, a significant number of US cities and states remain hotspots where coronavirus continues to spread at record rates. The upticks come as more states loosen public health restrictions that have been in place to stop Covid-19’s spread.As of 16 April, the US saw an average of 70,117 cases daily, a surge of 8% from the mean 14 days ago, with hospitalizations increasing 9%, according to the New York Times. A minimum of 21 states have seen at least a 10% increase in daily positive coronavirus cases, CNN reports of recent Johns Hopkins University data. However, deaths are down 12% in this period. Continue reading...

Four were members of Indianapolis’ Sikh community – a grandmother, a mother, an aunt, a father who was picking up his first paycheckA gunman killed eight people Thursday night at a FedEx warehouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. The eight victims who died were identified by police as Matthew R Alexander, 32; Samaria Blackwell, 19; Amarjeet Johal, 66; Jaswinder Kaur, 64; Jaswinder Singh, 68; Amarjit Sekhon, 48; Karli Smith, 19; and John Weisert, 74.Four were members of Indianapolis’ Sikh community, dealing another blow to the Asian American community, as their deaths come one month after six people of Asian descent were killed in an Atlanta-area shooting spree, and amid continuing attacks and harassment against Asian Americans during the Covid-19 pandemic. Police chief Randal Taylor said that a “significant” number of employees at that FedEx facility are members of the Sikh community. It remains unclear whether Sikhs were targeted, authorities reportedly said. Continue reading...

Instagram for kids? If the billionaire catches them early, he’ll have them for lifeAs terrible ideas go, Instagram for kids is up there with lunchbox lager and power tools for toddlers. In March, Buzzfeed reported on Facebook’s plans to develop a product for those too young to sign up to Instagram officially, as the platform requires users to be at least 13.A company post cited “youth work as a priority for Instagram”, which sounds sinister even from the empire of Mark Zuckerberg, whose mission in life is seemingly to make Bond villains appear cuddly. Facebook says it will allow the company to focus on privacy and safety for children. Continue reading...

A new book records the House speaker making yet more disparaging remarks about congressional progressives Continue reading...

Some prosecutors and law enforcement observers say departments carried out mass arrests as crowd control tacticThe vast majority of citations and charges against George Floyd protesters were ultimately dropped, dismissed or otherwise not filed, according to a Guardian analysis of law enforcement records and media reports in a dozen jurisdictions around the nation.Related: After Breonna Taylor's death, activists fought to ban surprise police raids. One year later, they're winning Continue reading...

After a dramatic final week, all that is left is closing statements and jury decisionsThe prosecution took 10 days to lay out its case against Derek Chauvin. The former Minneapolis police officer’s defense to the charges of murdering George Floyd barely lasted two.The relative brevity of Chauvin’s case might reflect a confidence on the part of the defense that the evidence against him is easily picked apart or at least shaky enough to raise reasonable doubt with the jury. Continue reading...

Joe Biden and Japan’s prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, have presented a united front to counter an increasingly assertive China. The two leaders made statements at the US president’s first face-to-face White House summit since taking office. Biden said ‘we committed to working together to take on the challenges from China and on issues like the East China Sea’

Los Angeles officials have announced an effort to return the valuable Manhattan Beach property to the descendants of Willa and Charles BruceOn a recent morning, Duane Yellow Feather Shepard, 69, sat on a grassy hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean, steps away from one of southern California’s most pristine beaches.To visitors from around the world, it’s an idyllic stretch of coastline and a prime surfing spot. To Shepard, it’s the site that conceals a painful history. Continue reading...

As restrictions ease, tensions linger about what you should and shouldn’t do. So booking a babysitter felt outlandishly exciting

Alabama lawmaker’s bid to overturn a 28-year yoga ban in public schools faces backlash from conservative Christian groupsJeremy Gray, a state lawmaker in Alabama, has been practicing yoga for years, initially as a workout after college football matches and later as a means of instilling in himself the virtues of focus and patience.Now the Democrat from Opelika needs all the patience he can get as he seeks to overturn a 28-year yoga ban in Alabama public schools. The ban, believed to be the only statewide prohibition of its sort in America, is proving to be tougher to scrub from the statute books than might be expected. Continue reading...

Former state department career staff urge president to dismantle pay-for-play operations and to prioritize gender parityJoe Biden is coming under pressure from former state department career staff to match the diversity of his cabinet and senior administration positions in foreign postings – and to reform the longstanding practice in the US of rewarding political supporters with plum ambassadorial jobs.More than three months into his first term, Biden’s foreign diplomatic slate remains open, with only one top ambassador – Linda Thomas-Greenfield, to the United Nations, nominated and confirmed. Continue reading...

Actors and pop stars can be hit-and-miss as interviewees, whereas directors and music producers rarely disappoint. The same is true of writers versus editorsI am going to assume you are a Guardian reader, given that you are at this moment reading the Guardian. Whenever I meet Guardian readers, they invariably ask me about my fellow Guardian writers: what’s Tim Dowling like? (Extremely scary.) Have I ever met Polly Toynbee? (No, because she lives in a castle guarded by dragons.) Do I eat lunch with Marina Hyde? (She doesn’t eat lunch: she’s a vampire.) But I am never asked about my editors.One of the many cultural differences between British and American journalism is that in the US, even among non-journalists, there is a genuine reverence for editors: Ben Bradlee, who edited the Washington Post during Watergate; former New Yorker editor William Shawn; Robert Silvers, the late founding editor of the New York Review of Books. Continue reading...

Activists welcome support in the battle against Republican voter suppression but wonder what such words are worthDespite a wave of public statements by corporations opposing legislation that would make it harder for people to vote, election reform advocates doubt American capitalism is really coming to the rescue of American democracy.Activists are welcoming corporate involvement in the fight against bills introduced by Republicans in state legislatures across the US to erect barriers to voting that disproportionately affect people of color and other groups that often vote Democratic. Continue reading...

The America First Policy Institute calls itself ‘non-partisan’ and a ‘non-profit’ but critics regard it as a cash cow for Trump alumni with stained reputationsMalcolm X, Mark Twain, Malcolm Gladwell. Lewis Carroll, Steve Jobs. Douglas Adams, Mohandas Gandhi, Rocky Balboa – all seem unlikely sources of inspiration for a definition of Trumpism.Yet these are among the prominent figures quoted by members of a new thinktank dedicated to resurrecting former US president Donald Trump’s populist-nationalist agenda. Continue reading...

Investigators searched the home of teen shooter Brandon Scott Hole, but found no evidence of racially motivated ideologyThe former employee who shot and killed eight people at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis was interviewed by FBI agents last year, after his mother called police to say that her son might commit “suicide by cop”, the bureau has revealed.Coroners released the names of the victims late Friday, a little less than 24 hours after the latest mass shooting to rock the US. Four of them were members of Indianapolis’ Sikh community. The attack was another blow to the Asian American community, a month after six people of Asian descent were killed in a mass shooting in the Atlanta area. Continue reading...

About 1,000 gather in park a day after police released video of officers shooting 13-year-oldHundreds marched through the streets of Chicago on Friday to protest the police shooting of Adam Toledo, a day after police released of body-cam video showing the deadly shooting of the 13-year-old boy with his hands in the air.About a thousand people gathered on Friday evening in a park on Chicago’s north-west side, some holding signs that read “Stop killing kids” and “CPD can’t be reformed”. A brass band played music as the crowd chanted: “No justice, no peace.” Continue reading...

Victim has not been identified after police confronted man at Lents Park on Friday morningAn angry crowd of protesters gathered in a park in Portland on Friday after police fatally shot a man while responding to reports of a person with a gun.Videos on social media showed protesters skirmishing with police, who used Mace to keep them away from the crime scene. Continue reading...

US justice department accuses Trump ally and Republican operative of using a commercial entity to hide incomeThe US Department of Justice has sued Roger Stone, saying the close ally of former president Donald Trump owes about $2m in unpaid federal income taxes, according to a court document.The civil lawsuit, filed in federal court in Florida on Friday, alleged that Stone and his wife, Nydia, used a commercial entity to “shield their personal income from enforced collection and fund a lavish lifestyle despite owing nearly $2m in unpaid taxes, interest and penalties”. Continue reading...

Shares rise by more than 30 points as China reports record economic growth

President condemned by progressives and advocacy groups despite ending ban on arrivals from Somalia, Syria and YemenFacing swift blowback from fellow lawmakers and aid groups, the White House on Friday said that Joe Biden plans to lift his predecessor’s historically low cap on refugees by next month, after initially moving only to expand the eligibility criteria for resettlements. Continue reading...

Hundreds have attended protests, demanding transparency and justice in a city with a long history of racist policingChicago has repeatedly grappled with cases of police misconduct and police-involved shootings, and the fatal shooting of 13 year-old Adam Toledo by Chicago police has renewed demands for justice and accountability yet again.Eric Stillman, a Chicago police officer, shot and killed Adam following a foot pursuit by officers on 29 March. When the shooting happened, Adam was with Ruben Roman, 21, who has since been charged with several felonies in connection to that night including reckless discharge of a firearm and child endangerment. Continue reading...

University founded by Falwell’s father accuses him of concealing details of scandal involving wife Becki and pool boy from MiamiThe prominent evangelist Jerry Falwell Jr is facing a $10m lawsuit from the Christian university founded by his father, and which he served as president until resigning in the wake of a sordid extortion scandal last year.Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Virginia, claims Falwell hid “potentially damaging” details of the scandal as he negotiated a lucrative new contract for himself with the university’s trustees. Continue reading...

US defense department says images of blinking triangular object in the sky and other UFOs were taken by navy personnel in 2019Furthering the growing interest in unidentified flying objects, or what the US government refers to as unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), the Department of Defense confirmed on Thursday that recently leaked photos and videos of UFOs were legitimate and taken by navy personnel.Sue Gough, a spokesperson for the Pentagon, confirmed to CNN that images and footage of a blinking triangular object in the sky, along with other UAPs that were categorized as a “sphere”, “acorn” and “metallic blimp”, were taken by navy personnel in 2019. Continue reading...

President’s son tells podcast attacks designed to be a distraction, ‘whether it ended up in some horrible death or whatever’

Federal prosecutors said in late 2020 they would not bring charges against the two police officers involvedThe family of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was shot and killed by Cleveland police in 2014, asked the justice department (DoJ) on Friday to reopen the case into his death after it was closed in the waning weeks of the Trump administration.In late 2020, federal prosecutors said they would not bring charges against the two police officers involved, saying the quality of the video footage of the shooting was too poor for them to conclusively establish what had happened. There were no other prosecutions in the case. In December 2015, a grand jury declined to bring criminal charges against the officers. Continue reading...

Fast Recovery Act would create a council to set new standards and require corporations to be responsible for their franchisesFast-food workers are uniting across California in a series of major protests for better working conditions, and to drum up support for a bill that would give them more power to push back against abuses and labor violations.Organizers and workers kicked off a week of demonstrations in San Diego on Thursday, and will continue north with stops in Los Angeles, the Central Valley, and the Bay Area. The actions will culminate in Sacramento next week, in time for a hearing on the new bill. Continue reading...

Chí’chil Biłdagoteel - otherwise known as Oak Flat, Arizona – is regarded as sacred ancestral land by the Apache people. With the territory at risk of being sold for copper mining to a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, resident Wendsler Nosie has set up a protest movement from his tipi, alongside his daughter and granddaughter. With no support from the courts, Wendsler and the community are anxiously hoping the Biden administration will pause the land transfer. With religious freedom and environmental protection at risk, they await the call with further news

Britain’s justifications for invading were having influence and deterring terror. They are just neo-imperialist platitudesThe longest, most pointless and unsuccessful war that Britain has fought in the past 70 years – its intervention in Afghanistan – is to end in September. I doubt anyone will notice. Nations celebrate victories, not defeats.Twenty years ago the United States decided to relieve its 9/11 agony not just by blasting Osama bin Laden’s base in the Afghan mountains, but by toppling the entire Afghan regime. This was despite young Taliban moderates declaring Bin Laden an “unwelcome guest” and the regime demanding he leave. The US then decided not just to blast Kabul but invited Nato to launder its action as a matter of global security. Britain had no dog in this fight and only joined because Tony Blair liked George W Bush. Continue reading...

Multiple other people injured before suspected gunman killed himself, say policeAt least eight people have been shot dead at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis and the suspected gunman has killed himself, police say.Multiple other people were injured and went to local hospitals, a police spokesperson, Genae Cook, said at an early morning news conference on Friday. Continue reading...

At a press conference before the release of footage – which appears to show a Chicago police officer fatally shooting 13-year-old Adam Toledo last month as he raises his hands to the air – the city's mayor, Lori Lightfoot, describes the video as 'incredibly difficult to watch, particularly at the end'. She says it is understandable why residents feel an 'all-too-familiar surge of outrage and pain' but urges each resident to wait till they hear all the facts

An iron river of illegal guns flows from the US to Mexico, Central America, and across the hemisphereThe stray bullet from the gang fight struck Katery Ramos when she was 12 years old, playing on the dirt street in the poor Planeta neighbourhood of San Pedro Sula, Honduras. “I was standing up for a moment, afterwards I fell,” she told me, sitting with her mother in a scrubby field near her home.Related: Biden strikes international deal in bid to stop migrants reaching US border Continue reading...

Works like Them and Two Distant Strangers offer up different brands of Black trauma – and Black audiences are over itMainstream media is saturated with Black death and suffering. Between real-time images of Black people being killed by police and the violence that is enacted against them in subsequent protests, Black folk are exhausted. So when the two newest projects dedicated to depicting racial violence in America were first unveiled, Black audiences were, understandably, pissed. In both Netflix’s Two Distant Strangers and the Prime Video original series Them, we are subjected to the same gratuitous use of violence that is quickly becoming the norm in Black film and television.Them, a suburban race horror about a Black family that is confronted with both supernatural resistance and good ol’ 50s racism when they move into an all-white Compton neighborhood, fits right in with other civil rights-era works like The Help and Green Book, but is much more violent. Aside from the obvious and hugely problematic connections to Jordan Peele’s 2019 horror film Us, viewers will also have to contend with gruesome sexual assault, a drawn-out child murder scene, and a near-lynching that was so agonizing I had to skip through much of it. Continue reading...

At least eight people have been killed and several others injured in a mass shooting at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis. Plus, police and public officials donated to far-right activists, leak reveals

Stockton, California, a city that was the tenth most dangerous in the US, has seen a 20% drop in gun homicides with a program that saved $42mAn innovative gun violence reduction program has helped to drastically reduce firearms deaths over several years in one northern California city and has saved taxpayers millions of dollars, a new study from the University of California, Berkeley, has found.The study focuses on the successes of Advance Peace, a violence prevention program that employs formerly incarcerated residents to build relationships with the small number of people responsible for and most affected by gun violence. Continue reading...

A recent survey showed an estimated 50m Republicans believe the false claim, but experts say many Trump supporters appear to be cooling downThree months after an insurrection at the US capitol, an estimated 50 million Republicans still believe the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, according to a recent national survey. But it’s far from clear how many Americans might still be willing to take violent action in support of that belief.Early research on the continued risk of violence related to Trump’s “big lie” has produced a wide variety of findings. One political scientist at the University of Chicago estimated, based on a single national survey in March, that the current size of an ongoing “insurrectionist movement” in the US might be as large as 4% of American adults, or about 10 million people. Continue reading...

Gretchen Whitmer has so far resisted calls to re-enact strict restrictions – but experts are urging her to change her mindThe coronavirus lockdowns and restrictions that Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer, enacted in March last year were among the nation’s toughest, and the governor’s leadership is thought to have saved lives. It also drew high marks from many in the state.Related: Johnson & Johnson vaccine use will remain paused in US amid evaluation Continue reading...

The most conservative Democrat can decide whether bills are signed or left to meander in political purgatory in CongressAn increasing large number of lobbyists and outside groups in America all have a similar target: Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia.And it’s understandable why. In a Senate where Democrats hold the slimmest of majorities a vote by Manchin, the most conservative Senate Democrat, can decide whether legislation is signed into law or left to meander in political purgatory in Congress. Continue reading...

The new season kicks off this weekend. Our panel of writers deliver their verdicts on the MVP, the champions and a new team in TexasThe stage is set for the return of Josef Martínez. The Atlanta United forward has been one of the brightest stars in the league and he was sorely missed last campaign. ACL injuries aren’t quite as debilitating as they once were, so hopefully we see the Venezuelan back to his best in 2021. TR Continue reading...

At least eight people have been shot and killed at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis and the suspected gunman killed himself, police have said. Multiple other people were injured and taken to local hospitals, a police spokesperson, Genae Cook, said at an early morning news conference on Friday

Adam Toledo, a 13-year old boy shot and killed by a Chicago police officer, was not carrying a gun, his family's lawyer has said, contrary to claims made by the police department. Officials released to the public graphic body-camera footage showing an officer shooting Adam, who appeared to have his hands raised. 'Those videos speak for themselves,' said Adeena J Weiss-Ortiz, the family's lawyer. 'Adam, during his last second of life, did not have a gun in his hand'

Officers and officials also donated to fundraisers for far-right activists and fellow officers accused of shooting black AmericansA data breach at a Christian crowdfunding website has revealed that serving police officers and public officials have donated money to fundraisers for accused vigilante murderers, far-right activists, and fellow officers accused of shooting black Americans.In many of these cases, the donations were attached to their official email addresses, raising questions about the use of public resources in supporting such campaigns. Continue reading...

Interest in low-carbon living, including pledges not to fly, was high before the pandemic. After lockdown, we must not allow climate action to fall off the radarIt’s hard to remember what life was like before the pandemic hit. A year and a half ago, 2019 was drawing to a close with something like a promise. It had been the year of Greta Thunberg, Extinction Rebellion and the school climate strikes, and the momentum was with climate activism. And 2020 promised to be the year of change.Helped by Thunberg’s yacht journey across the Atlantic, the spotlight was on aviation’s role in the climate crisis. An airline ticket is about the most carbon-heavy thing consumers can buy, and for those of us fortunate enough to be able to access air travel, our flights can quickly put us among the top polluters in the world. Continue reading...

The report is full of mistakes and distorted facts. Evidence has been retrofitted to inspire outragePlenty has been said about the politics of the government’s latest report on race. Barely any attention has been paid by most of the media to its actual evidence, even from supporters delighted that it has some. “This report DOES have facts,” cooed Rod Liddle in the Sun, with the same sunny pleasure that a toddler might take from a book having words.Yet the nature of those facts has barely been scrutinised by journalists. Instead, newspapers on the right have complained about “zealots of wokedom” (the Express) and their “baseless abuse” (the Telegraph) of Tony Sewell, the commission’s chief. As Matthew Syed wrote in the Sunday Times, “shouldn’t this be on the evidence rather than the person who assembled it; shouldn’t we play the ball rather than the man?” Fair enough, although he doesn’t bother examining the evidence either. Not so much playing the ball as just being very chuffed there’s something that looks like one. Continue reading...

The bill includes harsher punishments for protesters and would make it a second-degree felony to destroy historical memorialsFlorida has approved a so-called “anti-riot” bill that gives harsher penalties to protesters, handing a victory to the state’s Republican governor and dealing a blow to civil rights groups who warn it will stifle dissent.

Chicago mayor urges calm in the city as body-cam footage of fatal shooting of Toledo is released for first timeBody camera video footage released for the first time on Thursday appears to show a Chicago police officer fatally shooting Adam Toledo, a 13-year-old, as he raised his hands into the air.The footage has ignited fresh outrage in the city where Toledo was shot last month. On Thursday, Chicago’s mayor, Lori Lightfoot, stood alongside Latino community leaders and called for calm. Continue reading...