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Medaria Arradondo says on sixth day of trial that ex-officer’s treatment of George Floyd breached regulations

Asa Hutchinson veto followed pleas from pediatricians, social workers and parents who said measure would harm trans youthsThe Republican governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson, has vetoed a controversial bill which would have stopped anyone under the age of 18 getting treatment involving gender reassignment surgery or medication in the southern state.Arkansas would have been the first state to take such a move. Its Republican-controlled legislature could still enact the measure, however, since it takes only a simple majority to override an Arkansas governor’s veto. Continue reading...

US treasury secretary’s comments come as Republicans and some Democrats push back on Joe Biden’s $2.3tn infrastructure billThe treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, made the case for a global minimum corporate tax rate on Monday as the Biden administration faces opposition to its plans to raise rates on US businesses.Yellen’s comments come as Republicans and some Democrats have pushed back on Joe Biden’s proposed $2.3tn infrastructure investment bill. The bill would be funded in part by raising rates on US business and closing loopholes that allow domestic and foreign corporations to take advantage of lower taxes overseas. Continue reading...

Bradford Wankhede Langenfeld tells Chauvin murder trial no evidence Floyd was killed by heart attack or drug overdose

The far-right president has given Covid-19 and the razing of the Amazon free rein. Now it looks like he plans to cling on whatever voters sayThe prospect of the rightwing extremist Jair Bolsonaro becoming Brazil’s president was always frightening. This was a man with a history of denigrating women, gay people and minorities, who praised authoritarianism and torture. The nightmare has proved even worse in reality. Not only has he used a dictatorship-era national security law to pursue critics, and overseen a surge in deforestation of the Amazon to a 12-year high, he has allowed coronavirus to rampage unchecked, attacking movement restrictions, masks and vaccines. More than 60,000 Brazilians died in March alone. “Bolsonaro has managed to turn Brazil into a gigantic hellhole,” Colombia’s former president, Ernesto Samper, tweeted recently. The spread of the more contagious P1 variant is imperilling other countries.With a poll last week showing 59% of voters rejecting him, Mr Bolsonaro appears to be preparing for an unfavourable outcome in next year’s elections. Last week he sacked the defence minister, a retired general and longstanding friend who nevertheless appears to have taken exception to Bolsonaro’s attempts to use the armed forces as a personal political tool. The commanders of the army, navy and air force were also fired – reportedly as they were poised to resign. Continue reading...

Charles Coody held off Jack Nicklaus to claim a stunning Masters win in 1971 … but never won on the PGA Tour againCharles Coody speaks with such charm that it feels impossible to depict him as a cold-blooded assassin. Yet 50 years ago this very week, that is precisely what he was. The 35th edition of the Masters saw Coody, then 33, prevail by two.There are two remarkable elements to Coody’s success. The first is that he held Jack Nicklaus at bay on day four at Augusta National. Nicklaus, who already had eight major titles to his name, was a supposedly irrepressible major force. Even more interesting is that Coody, known as an outstanding iron player, was never to win on the PGA Tour again. Continue reading...

Scientist forced to defend himself from attacks by Trump allies and says ‘I can’t be bothered with getting distracted’Anthony Fauci has described attacks on him from Republicans as “bizarre”, after a barrage of criticism from senior GOP figures.Related: ‘There is a solution’: a Covid survivor’s life-or-death battle for Medicare for All Continue reading...

Greg Murphy deleted tweet invoking 9/11 after Omar expressed grief about attack outside US Capitol on Friday

Many of us will leave lockdown a few pounds heavier than we started it, but there is no shame in finding pleasure in foodYou know how people fill online baskets with clothes they never buy? I do that now with food. I see something advertised, compile an extravagant order, then don’t follow through. In the past few weeks, I have almost ordered hand-pulled noodles, oysters and something described as a “pistachio black forest gateau” (I am still thinking about that one).It’s a new iteration of emotional eating, still apparently my main hobby and way of marking the passage of time. Friday is pizza, Saturday is jumbo Hula Hoops, Easter Sunday was fistfuls of Mini Eggs, anticipated then enjoyed with the abandon of one of the worst Roman emperors. Most evenings, my husband and I stand in the kitchen rationalising that it’s perfectly reasonable to have what he calls “a proper apéritif” (he means crisps with our drinks, but wants to sound sophisticated). Continue reading...

Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar says city ‘eagerly awaiting’ result of the murder trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin. Plus: Florida in state of emergency as reservoir threatens to burstGood morning.The trial of a former police officer over the killing of George Floyd is entering its second week, in what is widely viewed as a watershed moment for police accountability in the US. Continue reading...

Americans bought a record number of firearms last year. Gun ownership among Black Americans is up 58.2%Janice Matthews* always knew she would be a gun owner someday. She was raised in Alabama where her family members rarely left their home unarmed. Still, after more than three decades in California she wasn’t in a rush to start shopping around at gun stores. Then the pandemic hit.Matthews started hearing rumors of food shortages and noticed store shelves emptied by shoppers panic-buying everything from bullets to toilet paper. After her daughter moved out of their home, she was left with an empty nest and a lot of anxiety. Continue reading...

Bolstered by a gutsy female lead, this sexy historical drama was the perfect antidote to a life reduced to groceries shopping

There has been little public discussion of the term as the framework for understanding what happened on 6 January, experts sayDuring Donald Trump’s presidency, UC Davis law professor Carlton Larson spent a lot of time on the phone telling journalists: “It’s not treason.”Trump’s behavior towards Russia: not treason. All the FBI investigations Trump labeled as treason: also not treason. Then came the 6 January attack on the Capitol by hundreds of Trump supporters. That was treason according to the founding fathers, Larson wrote in an op-ed the next day. Continue reading...

The fortunes handed out for a spot in the league have always been based on the future worth of soccer in North America. But Covid-19 may cause some to reassess2023 was slated to be Sacramento Republic’s expansion year in Major League Soccer. After long and protracted negotiations to secure a franchise, it was provisionally announced in October 2019 that California’s capital city had been awarded a spot in the league. That may be the closest Sacramento ever gets to MLS, though, with billionaire Ron Burkle pulling out as lead investor amid the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic. The club’s entry to MLS is now on hiatus.According to commissioner Don Garber, MLS lost close to $1bn in revenue over 2020. “The losses have been dramatic,” he told reporters in December. “Clubs are going to have to manage their economics as diligently as possible.” Even more striking was that Garber, just a few months later, claimed MLS could lose close to the same figure in 2021. Continue reading...

Mariana Pineda was hospitalized with Covid-19 and pneumonia last April and can only afford treatment via GoFundMe. Now she’s using her energy to fight for healthcare programsFew things in Mariana Pineda’s body have worked properly since she was hospitalized with Covid-19 and pneumonia last April. One day she is seeing a specialist to get nodules on her thyroid biopsied, another day it is a trip to the emergency room after her hands swell and turn red, symptoms of yet another high blood pressure crisis.Related: 'I don't make enough': the financial cost of having Covid in the US Continue reading...

Progressives have hailed the president’s ambitious plans to rebuild America – and some want bolder action still

His last major was in August 2014, he is in questionable form and has a new swing coach – but McIlroy knows AugustaIf he hadn’t seen such riches he could live with being poor. Any assessment of a run for Rory McIlroy without claiming a major championship – which has now stretched to six years and eight months – comes with yearning. McIlroy at his best provides sporting masterpiece.McIlroy won two of his four majors thus far by eight shots. Albeit the margin of victory at the 2014 Open Championship was far smaller, McIlroy controlled that event from start to finish. Just weeks later at the US PGA Championship, the ease with which he recovered from a mid-round Sunday position of three shots behind highlighted fortitude to match skill. At that point, 10 August 2014, there was a legitimate sense of McIlroy dominating golf for a prolonged period. Continue reading...

Firearms remain operational for a century or more, complicating any path to reform in a country with the highest gun ownership rate per capita in the worldSix days before a man shot and killed 10 people, he legally purchased the military-style firearm he used for the crime. The incident – one of three recent mass shootings – yet again renewed a public debate about banning assault weapons in the US and seems like a potential example of a shooting in which an assault weapon ban might have been effective in reducing the death toll of the attack. But would it?When firearms are recovered by law enforcement because of their use or suspected use in a crime, the weapons are recorded in a database along with the date of their first retail sale. The amount of time between those two events is known as the “time to crime” and is published by the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). While the suspect involved in the Boulder shooting waited just six days, the national average time to crime is 8.3 years according to 2019 statistics from the ATF. Continue reading...

A leak at a waste water reservoir at the site of a defunct phosphate plant south of Tampa has forced the evacuation of hundreds of homes and threatened to flood the area and Tampa Bay with polluted water. The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, declared a state of emergency over the possible collapse of stacks of phosphogypsum waste, primarily from fertiliaer manufacturing

Omar backs MLB’s move to relocate game while Abrams says she fears families will be ‘hurt by lost events and jobs’

The two-weight world champion’s career will be remembered for glorious triumphs and uniting divided communitiesCarl Frampton’s dignified yet raw reaction after he was stopped by Jamel Herring in the sixth round of their world title fight on Saturday night showed an acceptance that the time has come for him to do all his future work on the safe side of the ropes as a ringside analyst and podcast host. Frampton announced his retirement at the end of a one-sided WBO super-featherweight world title contest in Dubai.He was close to tears and, after acknowledging that he had lost to a superior fighter on the night, the 34-year-old from Belfast spoke of his wife and two children. Frampton’s family will console him after his dream of becoming the first Irish boxer to win world titles in three separate weight categories came crashing down. Continue reading...

Just about all I can remember is that recounting the plot of whatever box set you’re watching isn’t even low-quality chat. So why do I keep doing it?It was the first day that six people could legitimately gather in a garden, and by unholy coincidence, as if the universe loved us again, also not hailing. Some friends, let’s call them A and Mr A, came round for a drink. Nothing’s happened to any of us, and we consequently have way too much to say. Words splurged out of me like I was a slot machine paying out a big win, but not in very high denominations. All 2ps and buttons. I veered wildly from the huge to the tiny, from the past to the present. Did I say my friend was in hospital? Had I mentioned the neighbour’s dog had the exact same bark as our dog? Did I ever tell them about that amazing party in Dover Street? Yes, they were there, it was their wedding.Something had flooded my circuitry: seeing them again after so long had activated the them-part of my brain, and I was telling them their own anecdotes. Mr A asked for an opinion about the big boat in the Suez canal instead, and I told him that opinions were my bread and butter and he’d have to festoon me with cash for those. He asked if it had to be money or would crisps do, and I said they’d do fine, then he threw crisps at me, only they missed by a mile. “It’s because they’re ridged,” he said. “Gah, I’m such an amateur! How can anybody predict the aerodynamics of a ridged crisp?” Continue reading...

State representative wanted to witness Governor Brian Kemp sign the new bill, but was denied entry. She wound up handcuffed and dragged out of the state capitolWhen the governor of Georgia recently signed sweeping new voting restrictions into law, Park Cannon, a 29-year-old state representative from Atlanta, was knocking on his door.Related: Georgia's Black churches are horrified by Republican voter suppression – and ready to fight Continue reading...

The co-chair of Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, now a candidate for Congress, sees good signs but says progressives must ‘keep pushing’When Joe Biden, a 78-year-old white male moderate, was sworn in as US president, it was seen as only a matter of time before progressives became restive and “Democrats in disarray” headlines were dusted off.But two months in, the party remains uncharacteristically united. Biden is being hailed as an unlikely radical, drawing comparisons with transformative presidents such as Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson – his very reputation as a steady centrist enabling him to move further and faster. Continue reading...

After Trump’s ruinous tenure, the new president is seizing a unique moment to act‘It’s bold, yes, and we can get it done.” So declared President Joe Biden launching his $2tn plan last week to overhaul US infrastructure – ranging from fixing 20,000 miles of roads to remaking bridges, ports, water systems and “the care economy”, care now defined as part of the country’s infrastructure. Also included is a vast uplift in research spending on eliminating carbon emissions and on artificial intelligence. And up to another $2tn is to follow on childcare, education and healthcare, all hot on the heels of the $1.9tn “American Rescue Plan”, passed just three weeks ago.Cumulatively, the scale is head-spinning. Historians and politicians are already comparing the ambition with Roosevelt’s New Deal or Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programme. In British terms, it’s as though an incoming Labour government pledged to spend £500bn over the next decade with a focus on left-behind Britain in all its manifestations – real commitments to levelling up, racial equity, net zero and becoming a scientific superpower. Continue reading...

To European eyes, the $2tn infrastructure plan may not be exceptional, but for America it seems revolutionaryFrom a European perspective, Joe Biden’s plans for a $2 trillion boost to spending on infrastructure is not a radical statement of intent. The money will be spread over eight years and raise the federal budget on capital projects by about 1 percentage point a year.And the US is starting from a very low base. Congress levies federal taxes that amounted to a little more than 16% as a proportion of national income (GDP) in 2019 and the total level of taxes, taking into account state and local charges, is 24.5% of GDP. By way of comparison, the UK’s share of tax levied as a percentage of GDP is around 37% and in France it is 46%. Continue reading...

Dominion has filed defamation lawsuits against several Trump allies for pushing election ‘radioactive falsehoods’ – could it triumph?When Donald Trump and his allies pushed the “big lie” of voter fraud and a stolen election, it seemed nothing could stop them spreading disinformation with impunity.Related: Trump 'money bomb' scheme raised millions from unwitting donors – report Continue reading...

The venture capitalist and author of Hillbilly Elegy hopes to take his place in a Republican party rebranding itself as the working-class partyAs a prospective conservative candidate for the US Senate from Ohio, author JD Vance can claim a rarely authentic connection to the white working-class voters who helped make Donald Trump president.In his bestselling 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, Vance told the tale of his escape from generations of poverty and addiction in the shadow of Appalachia, thanks to a fiercely loving grandmother and a stroke or two of lonesome luck. (The Netflix film adaptation was less well received than the book.) Continue reading...

Courteney Ross’s testimony showed how police departments fail in their duty to protect those who battle addiction

As ethnic militias back the popular uprising and refugees flee the country, the similarities with Syria are deeply disturbingIn August 2011, Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey’s then foreign minister, made a “mercy dash” to Damascus. He appealed in person to Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, to stop killing his people and talk to his opponents after five months of anti-regime protests.Davutoglu spoke for Turkey but also, indirectly, for the US and the west. He had conferred with Hillary Clinton, then secretary of state, before making the trip. His message: it’s not too late to call a halt; the alternative is civil war. But Assad turned him down flat. Continue reading...

Under Trump, every week was infrastructure week but nothing got done. His successor is avoiding the big sell. It’s smart politicsJoe Biden is embarking on the biggest government initiative in more than a half-century, “unlike anything we have seen or done since we built the interstate highway system and the space race decades go”, he says.Related: Biden’s $2tn infrastructure plan aims to ‘finally address climate crisis as a nation' Continue reading...

The president’s son recounts his struggles and his father’s love with honesty – yet still seems blind to glaring political realitiesRobert Hunter Biden is not a rock star. Instead, the sole surviving son of Joe Biden – senator, vice-president, president – is a lawyer by training and a princeling by happenstance. Regardless, life on the edge comes with consequences.Related: Lucky review: how Biden beat Trump – and doubters like Obama and Hillary Continue reading...

Artist’s longtime New York attorney Murray Richman said DMX had been on life support but was later breathing on his ownThe American rapper DMX was hospitalised on Saturday evening after falling ill, his New York-based lawyer Murray Richman said.“He had a heart attack. He’s quite ill,” Richman said. Continue reading...

Twenty-five years after his final-round capitulation handed the Green Jacket to Nick Faldo, the Australian prefers to focus on his role in Dustin Johnson’s 2020 Augusta winGreg Norman did not prevail at the Masters of 1996 or 2020. He was, though, integral to the narrative of both. If nothing else, this emphasises Norman’s longevity as a key figure in his sport. First, the positive story. Dustin Johnson contacted Norman to seek assistance with his putting, immediately before a run of victories that concluded at Augusta National last November. Johnson has cited spending just 90 minutes with Norman, now 66, as fundamental to his second major win.Related: Lee Elder's Masters moment will remind us how far golf still has to go on race | Ewan Murray Continue reading...

Practice that used pre-checked boxes and obscure design on fundraising emails condemned as ‘unethical and inappropriate’Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign used pre-checked boxes and obscure design on fundraising emails to wring millions of dollars out of unwitting supporters, detonating a “money bomb” which allowed the Republican to compete against Joe Biden in the last months of the race.Related: Trump and Carlson lead backlash as MLB pulls All-Star Game from Georgia Continue reading...

A second year in lockdown reminds us this is a time to appreciate othersHands up everybody who’s been thinking about the meaning of Easter. Apart from the church, and other than true Christian believers, has anybody thought of Easter at all? I had to be reminded that it was Good Friday. Even in non-pandemic times, I probably wouldn’t even remember Easter if it weren’t for school holidays and chocolate eggs appearing in shops. If you’re not devout, Easter just doesn’t cut through as a religious event.Christmas has long been scorned as a grotesque display of vapid commercialism, but even the irreligious play along with festive rituals. They go to church services, sing along misty-eyed to carols, explain to children that it isn’t all about presents. Forget all that with Easter. The crucifixion and resurrection barely register. It says it all that Jewish people have complained about the Church of England giving advice (now withdrawn) for a “symbolic” meal that sounded suspiciously like the Passover Seder ritual. Has the church given up trying to get across the message of Easter? Continue reading...