Megan Rapinoe has spoken on the recent attack on the US Capitol, saying: 'This is America. We showed our true colours'. The 35-year old forward, who is back in the USWNT fold for the first time since the 2020 SheBelieves Cup nearly a year ago, opened a media teleconference on Tuesday with a six-minute exposition on the fractious state of the country in the wake of last week’s siege. She added: 'Unleashing a white supremacist mob is nothing new to America'
One system lets armed white insurrectionists attack our nation’s government. Another tear-gasses and beats people defending Black livesLast week, I was again reminded that we live under two justice systems. One lets armed white insurrectionists violently attack our nation’s seat of government. Another gasses, beats, and shoots rubber bullets at people defending Black lives. And even though I live nowhere near Washington DC, this is personal for me.The day before the attempted insurrection at the US Capitol, Rusten Sheskey got off scot-free. He is the Kenosha cop who shot my nephew, Jacob Blake, seven times in the back. The Kenosha district attorney, Michael Gravely, declined to charge Sheskey, and he faces no consequences. Jacob is now permanently paralyzed from the waist down. Continue reading...
Senior House Republican Liz Cheney says she will support the impeachment proceedings. Plus, first woman put to death on federal death row for nearly 70 years
As voter suppression became more brazen, overcoming was a core part of work that organizers did to mobilize a new electorateDeborah Scott has been registering voters for well over a decade in Georgia, but about five years ago she began to notice a problem. Georgia Stand-Up, the civic action group she leads, started getting a spike in calls from people who said they filled out a voter registration form but never received an official voter registration card. “We’re like ‘hey, what’s going on here?,’” she said.Scott’s group adjusted their voter registration strategy. After they got someone to register, they started tracking their voter registration and following up with them to ensure it went through. When there was a problem, they would help the voter follow up with local election officials. Sometimes, after that follow-up inquiry, the election officials would “miraculously” discover the registration was there all along, Scott said. Continue reading...
Fresh calls for extreme action circulate on social media forums as the FBI warns of planned protests leading up to the inaugurationA guillotine outside the state capitol in Arizona. A Democratic governor burned in effigy in Oregon. Lawmakers evacuated as pro-Trump crowds gathered at state capitols in Georgia and New Mexico. Cheers in Idaho as a crowd was told fellow citizens were “taking the capitol” and “taking out” Vice-president Mike Pence.As a mob of thousands invaded the US capitol on 6 January, Trump supporters threatened lawmakers and fellow citizens in cities across the country. Compared with the violent mob in Washington, the pro-Trump crowds elsewhere in the country were much smaller, attracting dozens to hundreds of people. But they used the same extreme rhetoric, labeling both Democratic politicians and Republicans perceived as disloyal to Trump as “traitors”. Continue reading...
The Golden State Warriors guard missed most of last season through injury but he is exactly the right kind of sick at the momentWhen news broke last Friday that Seth Curry had tested positive for the coronavirus, reactions were split. On one side, you had Philadelphia 76ers fans bemoaning the loss of a key player. On the other, you had all the doomscrollers who had scanned over that Woj bomb too quickly and assumed Steph Curry was the sick one. Boy, are we – I mean they relieved.Related: 'Not good enough': James Harden says 'crazy' Rockets situation beyond repair Continue reading...
Nancy Pelosi has accused Donald Trump of associating himself with sedition and treason in a strong statement calling for the removal of the president through impeachment after a failed call for enactment of the 25th amendment.
App stores’ top downloads feature social media platforms pitched to Trump supporters or offering encryptionFollowing the banning of Donald Trump and many prominent followers on mainstream social media platforms, and Amazon’s withdrawal of web hosting from Parler, rightwingers have fled to an archipelago of smaller “alt tech” sites and services that promise less content moderation or a refuge from the prying eyes of their political opponents and law enforcement.On Tuesday, on Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play store, apps, services, and social networking platforms that either directly pitch themselves to Trumpists as a free speech alternative, or which allow them to enjoy encrypted communications, were dominating the list of the most downloaded apps. Continue reading...
by Luke Harding and Kalyeena Makortoff on (#5CQBJ)
Bank had propped up Trump Organization for years despite being sued by president but acted after Capitol attackDeutsche Bank became the latest large company to cut ties with Donald Trump, with the firm that has propped up the Trump Organization for two decades reportedly announcing it would no longer do business with the disgraced president.The German bank’s move – reported by the New York Times – follows Wednesday’s deadly attack on the US Capitol building by a mob of Trump supporters. The number of corporations disassociating themselves from Trump is now turning into an avalanche. Continue reading...
Statement says the channel violated policies for inciting violence and that comments underneath videos would also be disabledYouTube has temporarily banned President Donald Trump’s channel from uploading new videos or livestreams after earlier content violated policies for inciting violence, the company said late on Tuesday.The channel cannot upload for a minimum of seven days – which may be extended, and earlier content had been removed, Youtube said in a statement. It did not give details about the video that prompted the move. Continue reading...
Powerful conservative joins growing number of Republicans seeking accountability for president after Capitol attackLiz Cheney, the third-highest-ranking Republican leader in the House, has said she will vote to impeach the president on Wednesday, as a growing cohort of Republicans back efforts to hold Donald Trump accountable for inciting the attack on the US Capitol last week.In a strongly worded statement released on Tuesday, Cheney, a representative from Wyoming and the daughter of the former vice-president Dick Cheney, said that Trump had “summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack”. Continue reading...
Vice-president’s refusal paves the way for the House to move forward with impeachmentThe House has voted to formally call on vice president Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and strip Donald Trump of his presidential authority after he incited a mob that led a deadly assault on the US Capitol last week. Continue reading...
Martial artist and actor says there is ‘no room for violence of any kind in our society’ after lookalike image sparks speculationChuck Norris, the Hollywood actor, martial arts legend and occasional meme, has publicly denied being at last week’s Capitol riot after images circulated online showing a man with a remarkable resemblance.“It wasn’t me and I wasn’t there. There is no room for violence of any kind in our society. I am and always will be for Law and Order,” tweeted the actor, taking a stance his law-enforcing character in Walker, Texas Ranger, might have been proud of. Continue reading...
Joint Chiefs of Staff said pro-Trump mob attack was an assault on America’s constitutional process and against the lawThe US military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the uniformed leaders of the different military branches, on Tuesday put out a rare message to service members saying the pro-Trump mob attack on the US Capitol last week was an assault on America’s constitutional process and against the law.The joint message broke nearly a week of silence by the military leaders after the assault on the Capitol that followed a rally in Washington in which Donald Trump exhorted his most loyal followers to march down Pennsylvania Avenue to the seat of Congress and fight for lawmakers there to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden in November’s election. Continue reading...
The acting US attorney for the District of Columbia, Michael Sherwin, has indicated that many amid the hundreds of pro-Trump rioters who violently invaded the US Capitol last Wednesday are suspected of a range of crimes including felony murder, sedition and conspiracy.
Secretary of state cancels trip after European officials publicly criticized Trump’s role in last week’s storming of the CapitolUS Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has cancelled a trip to Europe at the last minute after European officials were publicly critical of Donald Trump’s role in last week’s storming of the Capitol.The official reason for the cancellation of the trip, originally to Brussels and Luxembourg, was the need to coordinate with a transition team from the incoming Biden administration, but it comes after the unprecedented attack on American democracy that stunned many world leaders and US allies. Continue reading...
by Joan E Greve in Washington and Joanna Walters in N on (#5CR58)
Lawmakers warned of ‘very specific’ dangers as congressman says Republicans and Democrats have received death threatsMembers of Congress have been warned that there remain serious threats against their security on inauguration day when they plan to gather in Washington to usher Joe Biden into office as the 46th US president on 20 January.Related: Pompeo calls off trip after European condemnation of Capitol attack Continue reading...
Orange county theme park will have the capacity to vaccinate thousands daily as the first of five “super point-of-dispensing” sitesCalifornia is transforming Disneyland into a mass vaccine distribution site as the coronavirus surge overwhelms hospitals and sets a deadly new record in the state. Continue reading...
Vistry Group’s healthy results suggest a sector that’s doing very well despite the pandemicBig housebuilders were mostly agreed last autumn: their sector had rebounded from the first national lockdown but more subsidies were needed to avoid a crunching slowdown this spring.Would the chancellor like to extend his one-year stamp duty holiday on house purchases worth less than £500,000 in England and Northern Ireland? Or delay the post-March slimming of the help-to-buy scheme? If not, it was suggested, a cliff edge awaited. Continue reading...
Federal judge said in December the $28.5m bail package only strengthened confidence to keep Maxwell incarceratedGhislaine Maxwell is appealing against a judge’s order that she remain jailed in New York while awaiting trial on charges she recruited girls for Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse.Related: FBI tracked down Ghislaine Maxwell using cellphone data Continue reading...
James Kobel was commanding officer for division responsible for preventing and investigating employment and harassment claimsA New York City police officer tasked with leading its workplace anti-discrimination office has chosen to retire rather than face a 30-day suspension without pay for posting racist messages to a online platform for police officers.Deputy Inspector James Kobel had been relieved of his command in November while officials investigated the allegations he penned messages that the New York police department (NYPD) commissioner, Dermot Shea, called “abhorrent” and “utterly disgusting”. Continue reading...
Ex-officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck will stand trial alone in March due to pandemicA former Minneapolis police officer who knelt on George Floyd’s neck for several minutes will be tried separately from three other former officers accused in his death, according to scheduling orders filed on Tuesday.Derek Chauvin will stand trial alone in March due to the coronavirus pandemic while the other three former officers will be tried together in the summer, according to the orders filed in Hennepin county district court. Continue reading...
Melania Trump was inspired to see such ‘passion and enthusiasm’ around the elections and saved her ire for the ‘unwarranted personal attacks’ on her in the press. It’s typical behaviour for snowflake TrumpersMelania Trump was fiddling with furniture when the Capitol was stormed. While pro-Trump rioters were bludgeoning a police officer to death, she was reportedly overseeing a photoshoot of her rugs. As the mayhem escalated, aides asked her if she would release a statement urging calm. But, no, White House sources told CNN, the first lady was firmly focused on her photo project; it seems she hopes to release a coffee table book about all the lovely decorative objects she has collected. As for everything else going on, CNN reports, she was completely “checked out”.Well, it looks like Melania has checked back in and she wants us to know the real victim of the 6 January attack on the US Capitol was herself. On Monday she issued a bizarre statement about the riots; while she vaguely condemned the violence she also wrote how “inspiring” it was to see such “passion and enthusiasm” about the election. What was really “shameful”, however, was the way she was treated. “Surrounding these tragic events there has been salacious gossip, unwarranted personal attacks, and false misleading accusations on me – from people who are looking to be relevant and have an agenda,” she said. As usual, it’s hard to understand exactly what Melania is going on about. However, the consensus seems to be that she’s upset about the media reporting on her mid-insurrection photoshoot. Continue reading...
As Trump falls, rightwing figures such as Fraser Nelson and Douglas Murray have suddenly discovered their consciencesAs smoke billowed out of the Capitol, some of Donald Trump’s US apologists – the appeasers, the opportunistic cheerleaders, even some true believers – suddenly discovered consciences. In Britain, rightwing commentators had even less reason to embrace the man who remains US president: domestic support for him here has always been negligible. Cheerleading for Trump in Britain has always been a conscious choice, and it is all the more striking because it comes without the excuse of external pressure or cynical self-interest: indeed, it carries the price of damaging the cheerleaders’ credibility even among many Conservative voters.Those who made that choice in Britain are now attempting to walk away whistling from the crime scene, but apologism for the figurehead of the international far right – including the self-confessed Nazis who stormed the US legislature – should come with accountability. Fraser Nelson is editor of the Spectator, which presents itself as a respectable centre-right publication – its summer party is attended by senior Tory and Labour figures and BBC journalists alike – even as it publishes columns bemoaning there is “not nearly enough Islamophobia within the Tory party”. Continue reading...
From Facebook and Twitter to Reddit and Amazon, tech firms are moving to silence the president, and his QAnon supportersTwitter’s decision to suspend Donald Trump’s account on Wednesday evening has opened the floodgates for tech companies and platforms to remove the outgoing US president from their services.Twitter’s suspension was followed by Facebook, which a day later announced the move would be “indefinite”. Twitter then announced a “permanent” suspension of Trump’s account. Continue reading...
Detainees also faced retaliation for raising safety concerns over lack of basic prevention measures at facilitiesImmigrants lacked access to the most basic Covid-19 prevention measures, such as soap for hand-washing, and were retaliated against for raising safety concerns as the pandemic spread through detention facilities last year, according to a new report on the grim conditions at US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) facilities.Ice, which oversees immigration detention, created unacceptable health risks and violated constitutional and human rights during the pandemic, said researchers from Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and Harvard Medical School, who interviewed 50 former detainees for the report. Continue reading...
The underlying causes of Trump’s rise to power must be addressed, from taming social media to tackling inequalityThe assault on the US Capitol by Donald Trump’s supporters, incited by the president himself, was the predictable outcome of his four-year-long assault on democratic institutions, aided and abetted by so many in the Republican party. And no one can say that Trump had not warned us: he was not committed to a peaceful transition of power.Many who benefited as he slashed taxes for corporations and the rich, rolled back environmental regulations and appointed business-friendly judges knew they were making a pact with the devil. Either they believed they could control the extremist forces he unleashed, or they didn’t care. Continue reading...
FBI says far-right extremist groups planning armed protests in all 50 state capitals as well as in WashingtonUS officials are strengthening security measures in Washington DC and across the country as the FBI said far-right groups – many using social media – were continuing to threaten plots before Joe Biden’s inauguration as president on 21 January.As the National Park Service closed the Washington Monument, and the grounds of the US Capitol – which were stormed by a mob of pro-Trump extremists last week – were closed to visitors, with some 10,000 national guard being deployed across DC, the FBI said far-right extremist groups were planning armed protests in all 50 state capitals and in Washington, DC. Continue reading...
The ‘free speech’ app used by US Capitol rioters is an unsettling place where the far right encounters mainstream conservatives“Civil war is coming.”I saw this message on the social media platform Parler in November, about two weeks after the election was called for Joe Biden. The ominous post followed an even more harrowing message from a different user. “[O]ur people have guns too … it’s time for us to use it!!! Just like in old days.” The poster embedded a photograph of a noose. Continue reading...
Democrats have formally charged President Trump with a count of impeachment over his incitement of last week’s Capitol siege. Plus, tensions with North Korea heat upGood morning.The Democrats have launched impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump, formally charging him with “incitement of insurrection”. If the impeachment goes ahead, Trump will be the first president in history to be impeached twice. The move yesterday follows last week’s riot at the Capitol, when Trump supporters stormed the building in an attempt to stop lawmakers from ratifying Joe Biden’s election win, incited by the president. Continue reading...
Privacy advocates have sounded the alarm over the technology which is also used by federal government agenciesNew legislation proposed in California aims to put limitations on law enforcement’s use of automated license plate readers (ALPRs), a technology used to collect large amounts of data and track the real-time movement of hundreds of millions of people without a warrant. Continue reading...
Over the years, the NFL’s most successful coach has earned plenty of criticism. On Monday he scored perhaps the greatest victory of his careerLet’s start with a simple truth: Bill Belichick is a damn good football coach. Let’s take that further: after leading the New England Patriots to nine Super Bowls, and winning six, Belichick has built a very strong case to be the greatest head coach in NFL history. Here is another unavoidable truth: Belichick has also earned a staggering amount of criticism in his 46-year career. Then, on Monday he did what many thought unthinkable. Belichick, a taciturn old-school curmudgeon who seemed the very opposite of the progressive movement that has opposed Donald Trump, turned down the presidential medal of freedom after a Maga mob’s violent assault on the Capitol.On Monday night, Belichick released a statement saying that he would be passing on the honor. “Recently, I was offered the opportunity to receive the presidential medal of freedom,” the statement read, “which I was flattered by out of respect for what the honor represents and admiration for prior recipients. Subsequently, the tragic events of last week occurred and the decision has been made not to move forward with the award.” Continue reading...
Los Angeles sees a person infected every six seconds. In a predominantly Latino neighborhood, Martin Luther King Jr community hospital faces ‘a sea of illness’Husbands and wives, twin brothers in their 20s, parents and their children. Family members are turning up one after another at Martin Luther King Jr community hospital (MLKCH) in South Los Angeles. The deaths have been piling up.Patients have been arriving at MLKCH terribly sick, and at higher rates than anywhere else in the region – the impoverished Latino and Black neighborhood is one of the worst Covid hotspots in America. Inside the hospital, staff face a dire scramble to ensure they have the supplies, the healthcare workers and the physical space needed to take care of the overwhelming crush of Covid victims. Continue reading...
People with chronic illnesses are being forced to make hard decisions about delaying vital care or sacrificing basic necessities in order to pay for health insuranceThroughout the United States, Americans with chronic illnesses have been forced to navigate a healthcare system battered by the coronavirus pandemic while trying to afford medical treatment and resolve health insurance issues.That has led to many Americans making difficult decisions about delaying vital care, or sacrificing other basic necessities – such as transport costs or food – in order to pay for health insurance so that they can get the treatment they need. Continue reading...
His behaviour was unbelievably irresponsible – but no politician was better at postingOn 8 January, Twitter indefinitely suspended the account of one Donald J Trump, president of the United States. Banning Trump from Twitter is a little like banning E coli from your large intestine: even if he never comes back, the memories will be enough.Trump used the social media platform in a way that no figure in American government has ever managed before. Between last November and 6 January, when a mob of his supporters briefly overran the US Capitol and interrupted the certification of the 2020 electoral college vote, he used it to whip his followers into a frenzy. The riot was the reprehensible end to an extraordinary online career. Over the course of his presidency, Trump did for Twitter what James Dean did for the open-top sports car, making a cultural touchstone of a vehicle that ultimately destroyed him. Continue reading...
In a message on his website, the Canadian rock star said social media manipulation and Donald Trump had combined to ‘foment hatred’Neil Young has called for empathy towards those who stormed the US Capitol building in Washington DC, arguing they had been “manipulated” into doing so.In a message posted to his website, Young writes: Continue reading...
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