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CEOs only acted after the Capitol attack because Democrats took power. Their political dominance must be reducedThe sudden lurch from Trump to Biden is generating vertigo all over Washington, including the so-called fourth branch of government – chief executives and their army of lobbyists.Related: Chaos of Trump's last days in office reverberates with fresh 'plot' report Continue reading...

Politicians’ decisions must be based on evidence that infection rates are low enough, vaccines work and hospitals can copeThroughout the pandemic, NHS trust leaders have argued for appropriate restrictions on social contact to bring Covid-19 under control. It is they and their teams who have to deal, in a distressing and direct way, with the daily death and harm that this dreadful virus brings. They know that, until we can vaccinate our population, restrictions on social contact are the only way to prevent unnecessary deaths, reduce patient harm and give the NHS the best chance to treat all the patients it needs to.So it should be no surprise that, as discussions start on loosening the current round of restrictions, trust leaders remain deeply cautious. There can be no simple, blanket approach to decision-making here. Each phase of the pandemic has its own characteristics and dynamics. Any relaxation will need to be evidence-based and take account of significant local variations in infection rates. And trust leaders have always been clear that these must be decisions for elected politicians as only they can balance the complex and difficult trade-offs required using the evidence and advice they receive. But trust leaders believe there are a number of reasons to be very cautious at this point. Continue reading...

The 46th US president and the UK prime minister also discussed Nato, climate change and human rightsBoris Johnson has had his first call with Joe Biden since the new US president entered the White House on Wednesday. Downing Street said Johnson congratulated Biden on his inauguration and that the two leaders looked forward to “deepening the close alliance” between their nations.After the call, the prime minister tweeted: “Great to speak to President Joe Biden this evening. I look forward to deepening the longstanding alliance between our two countries as we drive a green and sustainable recovery from Covid-19.” Continue reading...

Ex-president, whose Senate trial will start in two weeks, reportedly planned to oust acting attorney general in bid to overturn election

Pennsylvania representative Jeff Pyle says he ‘had no idea’ post mocking Rachel Levine would be ‘received as poorly as it was’A Pennsylvania legislator has apologised for sharing an image mocking the appearance of the recently departed state health secretary, Dr Rachel Levine, a transgender woman nominated to serve in the Biden administration.State representative Jeff Pyle, a Republican from Armstrong and Indiana counties in western Pennsylvania, said on Facebook he “had no idea” the post mocking Levine “would be … received as poorly as it was”, and said “tens of thousands of heated emails assured me it was”. Continue reading...

When they had power they failed to use it. But their revenge is still sweet to watchTread carefully, gentlemen, some women are at their most dangerous when they feel they have nothing to lose. In the US, that’s Melania Trump, freshly released from her role as First Grifter, who sashayed off a plane in Florida wearing a flowing patterned maxi-dress and comfy flats. It doesn’t matter that the dress was Gucci, retailing at thousands of dollars, you just know Donald would have hated it. Maybe they even squabbled about it on the plane (“That dress is a loser!”), but Melania wore it anyway. During Trump’s presidency, Melania got a reputation for “speaking her truth” via her clothing and that dress screamed “I’m outta here!”, as did the nuclear-strength stink eye she shot at her husband and the assembled media as she swanned past, refusing to engage.Over here, Theresa May took another of her now-characteristic swings at Boris Johnson, with an article berating his government for “abandoning global moral leadership”. Here was May Unleashed, a different creature altogether from when she was stumbling through her own premiership on grey-faced “Brexit means Brexit” autopilot. May also criticised Trump’s role in the attack on the Capitol. That’s Trump, whose little paw she once so tenderly held when she was the first world leader to meet him in the White House in 2017. May terms this the “hand of friendship”, but, back then, it looked less like a meeting of equals and more like a video reconstruction of when Tinder goes horribly wrong for silver surfers (“Be safe out there!”). Continue reading...

After the 6 January riot, the Capitol isn’t just a hostile working environment – it’s a disaster waiting to happen Continue reading...

The former first lady Melania Trump apparently spurned the conventions of her role by leaving Donald Trump alone in front of the cameras at Palm Beach airport after the couple left the White House for the final time ahead of Joe Biden's inauguration.Trump himself paused to wave at photographers, but his wife continued walking until she was firmly offscreen, leaving her husband alone and triggering speculation about the state of her marriage to the now former president

Looking back over the past four years, there wasn’t just rightwing repression. Movements flourished – and won important battles

The region’s funeral industry is collapsing amid the pandemic. It’s taking an unfathomable toll on grieving familiesJohanna Matamoros’s father and mother died one month apart in December and January. But with Los Angeles funeral homes pushed to the brink due to the Covid-19 catastrophe, she may have to wait two to three months to bury them.“I’m not able to grieve. It is so painful,” she told the Guardian. Continue reading...

Many of Biden’s new team have worked together before, and get on well – in sharp contrast to Trump’s ‘team of rivals’At the core of the administration Joe Biden is building is a trusted circle of officials, who are bound together by many years of working together in a close-knit team in the Obama administration, by a shared faith, or, in some cases, by a tie with Biden’s late son, Beau.It is the very opposite approach to the one taken by Donald Trump, who assembled a sharp-elbowed “team of rivals” – powerful men from different walks of life, who he had never met but thought looked the part. Biden treasures familiarity and nice-guy collegiality, and warned new appointees on Wednesday that if they don’t treat each other with respect, “I will fire you on the spot.” Continue reading...

Apart from Joe Biden we had Kamala, Lady Gaga, Bernie’s mittens – and Trump suddenly seeming an irrelevanceIt started on Tuesday with nerves in the playground: why weren’t they holding it indoors? No one with sense, we agreed, had an appetite for spectacle, and our systems couldn’t take any more. Donald Trump was going, good riddance, but let’s not tempt fate; besides, on Wednesday morning we all had things to do. After a year of rolling crises, even New Yorkers were feeling meek and defeated. Let’s get this thing over with and try to move on.The most surprising thing about the inauguration this week – apart from the reminder that, when it comes to its national ceremonies, America is if anything even more camp than Britain – was the sheer, irrepressible joy of it. From the first minute to the last there was no containing this thing and nothing – not pragmatism, superstition, trauma fatigue or work – would get in the way of the feeling. “Bye bye Trump, that dummy,” said one of my daughters on Wednesday morning. And so it began. Continue reading...

The studio’s new movie Soul, starring an ‘annoying’ Tina Fey, has just updated them for a new generationIt’s always weird when a good film suddenly lets you down – like meeting someone at a party who you think might become a proper friend, and then they turn around, bend over and fart. Like, really? I expected better of you, man.For me this happened (almost literally) with Bridesmaids, a terrifically smart comedy about female friendship, aside from the scene in which all the women develop chronic – and public – diarrhoea. And it happened with Booksmart, which zings with subtle truths about dorky teenage girls, aside from the pointless running joke about a female teacher sleeping with a student. Dontcha love movies that celebrate women, but also gratuitously humiliate them? Continue reading...

Called to act after violence in Charlottesville, Cameron Webb ran for Congress. He lost, but is still headed to Washington

Carter campaigned for human rights, Bush painted … but Trump faces several criminal investigations and a mountain of debtEach US president has charted a unique course after leaving the White House, taking up vocations from philanthropy to human rights to oil painting.Donald Trump’s post-presidency appears likely to be taken up by meetings with lawyers and creditors, possible sworn depositions about tax practices or sexual assault allegations and, in some long-tail scenarios, fines, criminal charges, bankruptcy or other legal sanction. Continue reading...

Texas case offers baseless mix of allegations of electoral fraud but cites the imaginary kingdom of Gondor as evidenceDonald Trump’s diehard supporters are often accused of living in fantasyland, but one court case recently launched to try to reinstall him as president has surprised even the most hardened observers of Trumpian strangeness by citing as evidence a mythological realm from The Lord of the Rings.Related: Pittsburgh official goes viral by rebuking Ted Cruz – and looking like Jeff Daniels Continue reading...

In phone call, US and Canadian leaders discuss collaboration on vaccines and plan to meet next month

Aviation giant already staged the world’s first commercial flight using 100% biofuel in 2018Boeing says it will begin delivering commercial airplanes capable of flying on 100% biofuel by the end of the decade, calling reducing environmental damage from fossil fuels the “challenge of our lifetime.”Boeing’s goal – which requires advances to jet systems, raising fuel-blending requirements, and safety certification by global regulators – is central to a broader industry target of slashing carbon emissions in half by 2050, the US planemaker said. Continue reading...

Monty Wilkinson worked with Iris Lan in reviewing complaints about prosecutor who said he was ‘disturbed’ by Trump policyThe Biden administration’s acting attorney general, a longtime career official named Monty Wilkinson, took part in a controversial 2017 decision to remove a justice department (DoJ) lawyer in Texas who had raised concerns about migrant children who were being separated from their parents.Emails seen by the Guardian show that Wilkinson, who is expected to serve as acting attorney general until Judge Merrick Garland is formally confirmed by the Senate, worked with another longtime career official, Iris Lan, in reviewing complaints about Joshua Stern, a prosecutor who had told colleagues he was “disturbed” by the Trump administration’s separation policy. Continue reading...

The House will transmit the article against the former president on Monday, giving his legal team time to prepare their case

Actions aim to help American families and workers struggling with economic toll of Covid-19Declaring the US government had a “moral obligation” to act, Joe Biden signed a pair of executive orders meant to provide emergency relief to millions of American families grappling with the economic toll of the Covid-19 pandemic. Continue reading...

LASD, the largest sheriff’s department in the US, has faced national scrutiny over killings and misconduct scandalsThe California department of justice has launched a civil rights investigation into the embattled Los Angeles county sheriff’s department (LASD), which has faced national scrutiny over killings and misconduct scandals, to determine whether it has engaged in a pattern of unconstitutional policing. Continue reading...

Rich Fitzgerald told local TV that senator’s climate tweet was ‘outrageous’, prompting Twitter users to make comparison to actorRich Fitzgerald, the elected executive of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, has achieved viral internet fame – for rebuking the Republican senator Ted Cruz but also for looking remarkably like the Emmy-winning actor Jeff Daniels.Related: Melania Trump's photo snub prompts speculation over post-White House path Continue reading...

Two upcoming books on Amazon’s bestseller list within hours after the resounding delivery of her poem at the swearing-inAmanda Gorman’s star continued its remarkable climb Thursday following the presidential laureate’s resounding delivery of her poem during the US presidential inauguration.Within hours of Wednesday’s delivery, her soul-stirring reading of The Hill We Climb, at the swearing-in of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had landed the 22-year-old’s two upcoming books at the top of Amazon’s bestseller list. Continue reading...

Former president’s account to remain suspended until board returns a ruling, which could take up to 90 daysFacebook’s oversight board, the “supreme court” set up to have a final say on the social network’s moderation decisions, will rule on the decision to suspend Donald Trump’s account, Nick Clegg has said.The referral will see the board, which is made up of more than 30 luminaries from around the world including former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, decide whether Facebook’s policies were correctly applied, and whether those policies respect international human rights standards more broadly. Continue reading...

Former first lady walks off after touching down at Palm Beach airport this week, leaving husband to relish the spotlight aloneOne last time, the internet has run wild over viral video of first lady Melania Trump apparently spurning the conventions of her role, triggering speculation about the state of her marriage to the now former president.Related: House will send article of impeachment against Trump to Senate on Monday – live Continue reading...

Joe Biden has moved a sculpture off his desk. Cue howls of outrage – but a perplexing silence from Boris JohnsonGird your loins, foot soldiers – or maybe don’t, for these are confusing times in the Conservative culture wars. On the one hand the communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, has chosen this moment to confect some new row about statues. On the other, Boris Johnson is suddenly incredibly relaxed over whether there is or isn’t a bust of Winston Churchill within a 10-yard radius of Joe Biden’s desk.Incidentally, has a single American reporter based in London ever wondered whether there is or isn’t a bust of FDR or Eisenhower or Mickey Mouse in Downing Street? Don’t be ridiculous. Only complete irrelevances could concern themselves with such irrelevances, which is why the precise coordinates of the Churchill bust are such a perennially hot topic in UK Westminster discourse, where ways to announce your own smallness are apparently cheaper by the dozen. Continue reading...

The new president adores the British classic, even referencing it in his victory speech. Creators including Hugh Hudson, David Puttnam, Nigel Havers, Nicholas Farrell and Stephen Fry applaud his choice – and his appointmentLast November, David Puttnam received a mysterious phone call. It was a tip-off from someone in the White House transition team. “They said: ‘We just thought you’d like to know that he’s referenced it again.’”Joe Biden first cited Chariots of Fire – the stirring story of Scottish sprinting champion Eric Liddell and Jewish gold medallist Harold Abrahams that producer Puttnam ushered to Oscar glory in 1982 – as his favourite film during the vice presidential race in 2008. “Someone put personal fame and glory behind principles,” he said. “That, to me, is the mark of real heroism.” Continue reading...

In her first solo address as first lady, Jill Biden hosted her first solo event by praising the work of teachers and promising them support during the coronavirus pandemic.Biden hailed their 'heroic commitment' and explained that she was teaching a class on the morning of the inauguration of her husband, Joe Biden

Order delivers incremental win for athletes seeking to participate as their identified gender in high school and college sportsJoe Biden’s first day in office delivered an incremental victory for transgender athletes seeking to participate as their identified gender in high school and college sports.Related: Joe Biden to focus on economic recovery after Covid as 17.5m vaccine shots given in US – live Continue reading...

It was overwhelming, joyous, pastry-filled, but then there was the comedownIt’s a subdued Martin Luther King Day in the US, and we take a bus across town to visit MoMA. I haven’t been to the modern art museum in New York since before my children were born and this feels like the week for it. Everyone is jittery about the inauguration on Wednesday, about news of the Covid death count hitting 400,000 in the US and about American democracy under strain. Perhaps art will lift us. Continue reading...

I don’t cry easily, but this week I just burst into tears thinking about all we have lived through

The Democratic Minnesota congresswoman speaks about the ‘traumatizing experience’ of insurrectionists invading the Capitol on 6 JanuaryRepresentative Ilhan Omar began to fear for her life as soon as the evacuation began.Related: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez thought she 'was going to die' during Capitol attack Continue reading...

Majority of troops being sent home after Biden inauguration passes with only a handful of arrests made

Following the US Capitol riot, Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone travel to Washington DC for the week of Joe Biden’s inauguration to find a downtown area under what is essentially military occupation and a city coming to terms with the trauma of Donald Trump’s final days in office.They speak to lifelong residents in the outer suburbs as well the US congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who tells of her harrowing experience of the 6 January riot. Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton rails against criticisms of the Republican administration’s handling of the domestic terrorism threat Continue reading...

The lesson of the Obama years is that you can have appeasement or transformative progress, but not bothA full 12 years after Joe Biden was sworn in as the vice-president of hope and change, hope is in short supply and the need for change is even more acute. Progressives have a rare opportunity to enact their agenda – but they will need to play the kind of hardball they have backed away from in the past, because Biden continues to send conflicting messages. For every promise of transformational change, he signals a desire to appease a Republican party intent on destroying his presidency.The stakes could hardly be higher: one out of every thousand Americans has died from a lethal pandemic, with no end yet in sight. The economy is officially still humming along, but millions face eviction, bankruptcy and hunger. Even US democracy is under unprecedented siege by an insurrectionist movement encouraged by the outgoing president and his loyalists in Congress. Continue reading...

I don’t think Trump will ‘come back’. But Republicans are terrified of angering his base - and that will have consequences

Americans owe $1.7tn in student debt. Even before the pandemic, a million people defaulted on their loans every yearI’m on strike.This is not a typical strike. I’m not on a picket line, holding a sign while withholding my labor, showing a sense of united strength with my colleagues to win changes at work and in our lives. No, a different kind of strike. A debt strike. I’m still uniting with others to withhold something that gives someone else power. But this time, it’s my money. Continue reading...

Californians are poised for key jobs in an administration likely to use the state’s efforts as a guiding forceFollowing Joe Biden’s presidential win in November, the governor of California quickly learned he had some big job vacancies to fill. With so many top officials in the state being recruited to help Biden build his new administration, Gavin Newsom joked that he might have to start trying to convince staff members to stick around.It was already a given that Californian interests would be well represented in Congress, with Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco serving as speaker of the House and Vice-President Kamala Harris, born and raised in the Bay Area, holding the tie-breaking vote in the Senate. But Biden has also tapped several Californians for key cabinet positions. Continue reading...