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Ex-president praised couple at Mar-a-Lago – after complaining about Biden’s Iran and China policy, the border and the electionDonald Trump took the microphone at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday night, to praise a couple getting married at his Florida resort. Nearly 400 words later he did so, according to video published by the website TMZ, after a rambling complaint about Joe Biden’s policy towards Iran and China, the situation at the border with Mexico and the supposed fraud he claims caused his election defeat. Continue reading...

Some in state are skipping the line to get their vaccination, even if they don’t meet the criteria, raising ethical issuesTennessee was deemed the worst place to live in the world for Covid-19 transmission this past winter. That didn’t happen by mistake; it has been a snowball of failures in leadership, lack of education, and tourism economies being left to fend for themselves.Vaccination in the south has continued that trend, as many states in the region rank last in terms of per-capita vaccinations, even though they are equally preoccupied with opening back up before the majority of populations are vaccinated and ending mask mandates regardless of recommendations from health officials – as Tennessee did two weeks ago, following Texas’s lead. Continue reading...

Billionaire Petr Kellner among five killed including guests, pilot and guides, with one survivorPetr Kellner, the Czech Republic’s richest man, was one of five people killed when their helicopter crashed on a skiing trip in Alaska.The 56-year-old was among the passengers and pilot killed on Saturday in the crash near Knik glacier north-east of Anchorage, Alaska state troopers said. One survivor was taken to hospital, they said, adding the group had been on a heliski tour. Continue reading...

Former police officer Derek Chauvin is accused of killing Floyd last year in an incident that sparked international outrage. Plus, the ship in the Suez canal has finally budgedGood morning.International attention is on Minneapolis this morning, where the trial of a former police officer accused of killing George Floyd will get under way. Floyd’s death, after officers knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest while he pleaded that he could not breathe, triggered a wave of Black Lives Matter protests across the globe. Continue reading...

Takeaway delivery firm says it will price shares towards bottom of planned rangeDeliveroo has said it will price shares for its stock market listing on Wednesday towards the bottom of its price range because of “volatile” market conditions.It comes after a week in which a number of leading fund managers said they would reject the listing – which is expected to be the biggest on the London Stock Exchange for a decade – amid concerns over workers’ rights. Continue reading...

A battery recycling plant blanketed Latino communities with chemicals – and thousands of properties remain toxicFor years, Terry Gonzalez-Cano encouraged her children to get outside and play in the dirt. “I grew up doing everything outside, and I encouraged my kids to do the same thing. We played in the backyard, we gardened,” she said. “I thought I was being a good mother by forcing them to spend time outside.”Gonzalez-Cano, 48, didn’t know that, for decades, the Exide lead battery recycling plant in the neighboring Los Angeles-area city of Vernon had blanketed blue-collar Latino communities with layer after layer of lead and cancer-causing arsenic. Continue reading...

Black sports stars have collectively achieved what they have because society presents them with few other optionsNot to toot my own horn, but growing up I was quite the athlete. When the time came to select teams for dodgeball or relay races, I was often among those picked first – myself, and many of my other Black friends. In most of the schools I attended throughout my childhood, my classmates tended to be a healthy mix of all races – but at every stop, I found that Black students consistently dominated the playground.It didn’t take long for our young, naïve minds to hypothesize – it must be in the genes, right? There were clear patterns, and the most obvious explanation for our athletic success, at least to our adolescent reasoning, was that the Black kids were simply built for it. The white kids believed it, the Black kids believed it, hell I even bought it for a while. I was young and dumb – fortunately, I have since matured. Continue reading...

Opening arguments begin in Minneapolis on Monday as ex-officer denies charges of murder and manslaughterThe murder trial of Derek Chauvin, the former police officer whose alleged killing of George Floyd last year prompted a wave of Black Lives Matter protests, gets fully under way with opening arguments in Minneapolis on Monday.Chauvin, 45, has denied charges of second- and third-degree murder and manslaughter over the death of the 46-year-old Black man after he was detained on suspicion of passing a counterfeit $20 bill last May. Continue reading...

Lee Wong, an Asian-American and former soldier, lifts his shirt to reveal scars he sustained while serving with the US military. Wong, 69, an elected official in West Chester, Ohio was speaking in a town hall meeting about the racism he has faced in his adopted homeland. Addressing the meeting, Wong stood up and lifted his singlet, showing large scars on his chest. 'Here is my proof. This is sustained in my service in the US military. Is this patriot enough?' he asked.

Georgia senator tells president ‘We have to pass voting rights no matter what’ after restrictions signed into law by state’s governorThe Georgia Democratic senator the Rev Raphael Warnock delivered a challenge to Joe Biden on Sunday to prioritize the fight against voter suppression, telling the US president: “We have to pass voting rights no matter what.” Continue reading...

Prosecutors due to set out their case in heavily fortified building for trial of ex-officer charged with murdering George FloydThe city of Minneapolis and millions across the US and around the world are bracing for Monday’s opening arguments in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the white former police officer charged with murdering George Floyd, who was Black, in the city last May.Floyd’s death regalvanized the Black Lives Matter movement and set in motion the biggest US civil rights protests since the 1960s. Continue reading...

Donovan Lynch, one of two killed in shootings on Friday night, was an offensive lineman for University of Virginia’s College at WiseA man shot and killed by a police officer at a Virginia oceanfront resort area was a college football player whose death has stunned his former teammates and head coach.Donovan Lynch, 25, of Virginia Beach, was an offensive lineman for the University of Virginia’s College at Wise during the 2017 and 2018 seasons and a 2019 graduate of the school, the Bristol Herald Courier reported. Continue reading...

USA picked up their eighth win in nine matches after a 2-1 victory over Northern Ireland at Windsor Park on Sunday.Related: 'Devastated' USA men to miss third straight Olympics after Honduras loss Continue reading...

Legislation will allow sales to adults over 21 and set up a licensing process for the delivery of cannabis productsNew York is poised the join the growing number of states that have legalized marijuana after a deal to allow sales of the drug for recreational use.State legislators reached an agreement late Saturday to legalize recreational marijuana sales in the state. Continue reading...

The Florida governor appears to have the edge in the ‘if-Trump-doesn’t-win’ primary as he claims victory over his pandemic critics“Covid’s over, baby!” So proclaims a bare-chested man, wearing face paint like the Joker, nemesis of Batman, as he stands atop a car and waves the American national flag.This was the scene last weekend in Miami, Florida, a state that moved quickly to lift lockdowns, reopen schools, shelve mask mandates and become, in the words of its governor, Ron DeSantis, an “an oasis of freedom” during the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading...

Congress’s failure to raise the federal minimum wage last month dealt a blow, but advocates are pressuring lawmakers to bring the issue backFor Terrence Wise, a McDonald’s employee from Kansas City, Missouri, the battle for a raise in the federal minimum wage is far from over.Joe Biden campaigned on a raise, the first since 2009, and the majority of Americans of both parties support an increase. And yet, last month, Congress blocked an increase from the paltry $7.25 an hour where it has been stuck since 2009. Now there are signs of new momentum for change. Continue reading...

The semi-autonomous area in Minneapolis has become a service to the community, but the city wants to see it reopenedThe sign on a barricade on a once-unassuming street in Minneapolis reads: “You’re now entering the free state of George Floyd”.A small rectangle of city blocks features murals, flowers, candles and tributes in the place where Floyd, a Black man, died under the knee of a white police officer last May, sparking the biggest US civil rights uprising since the 1960s. Continue reading...

The Florida city’s annual influx of young tourists, many African American, has been spurred by a lack of Covid restrictions but the response to rowdiness has been called heavy-handedOn Sunday, the second night of an emergency 8pm curfew in Miami Beach’s Art Deco Cultural District, a police squad came upon a large crowd of spring breakers having a good time on 8th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, a residential area just west of Ocean Drive, the city’s famous street where the annual party usually takes place.According to a police report, approximately 500 people had gathered in the streets and the sidewalks wreaking havoc. They stomped on top of cars, causing roofs to cave in and windshields to shatter. They danced, drank booze and smoked marijuana. Just the type of rowdy behavior often associated with college students decompressing from a long semester of classes. Continue reading...

Remarks, rulings and dissents show the extraordinary influence of the supreme court justice known and loved as RBGTwo and a half years ago, at a naturalization ceremony for newly minted Americans, Ruth Bader Ginsburg asked: “What is the difference between a bookkeeper in New York City’s garment district and a supreme court justice?”Related: Ruth Bader Ginsburg remembered by Lisa Beattie Frelinghuysen Continue reading...

A desire for business as normal with Beijing is coming up hard against the ugly reality of Xi’s swaggering authoritarianismMention the Boxer Rebellion nowadays, and most people in the west would look baffled. Not so the Chinese, who have longer memories.They have not forgotten the invasion launched in 1900 by the US, Britain, Germany, France and other members of the so-called Eight-Nation Alliance to suppress the anti-foreigner, anti-missionary uprising. Mass atrocities against Chinese people ensued, in the name of upholding “civilised” Christian values. Continue reading...

Kamala Harris’s husband hasn’t shied away from politics – but he shows little desire for the spotlightWith elbow bumps and masked greetings, Doug Emhoff convened a roundtable discussion on gender equity in the workplace at the headquarters of a construction company outside of St Louis on Wednesday.Seated behind a placard that with his official title, “second gentleman”, Emhoff was also the only gentleman at the event, marking Equal Pay Day. In a nod to his own barrier-breaking role as husband to Kamala Harris – the nation’s first female, first Black and first South Asian vice-president - Lyda Krewson, mayor of St Louis, said his presence at the session was a welcome sign of change. Continue reading...

There is no ‘surge’ of migrants at the border and there is no huge voter fraud problem – there is only hard-right attackRepublicans are outraged – outraged! – at the surge of migrants at the southern border. The House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, declares it a “crisis … created by the presidential policies of this new administration”. The Arizona congressman Andy Biggs claims, “we go through some periods where we have these surges, but right now is probably the most dramatic that I’ve seen at the border in my lifetime.”Related: Biden's no LBJ but he must protect voting rights. What else is the presidency for? | Robert Reich Continue reading...

Fifty years after a golden age for the spiritual groups, many have disbanded. But pockets remain throughout the stateHalf a century ago, you could barely walk down the street in California without tripping over some kind of fringe spiritual sect or cult-like group. Pretty much every famous organization, guru, and spiritual trend of that era had ties to the Golden state – from the Maharishi to the People’s Temple, the “Moonies” to the New Age.Now, with the exception of some Scientology buildings and the occasional Hare Krishna devotee, you almost never encounter fringe spiritual groups from that California golden age. Continue reading...

Texas lawmaker recounted his mission to shed light on what conservatives have dubbed an immigration crisisRepublican senator Ted Cruz has drawn criticism for taking a trip to America’s southern border as the conservative Texan politician once again became the butt of internet jokes and memes.In the style of a wildlife documentary, Cruz captured his experience with the help of professional photographers and shared his recent journey to the US-Mexico border Thursday night on social media, where he aimed to shed light on what Republicans have dubbed a crisis. Continue reading...

The 5-year-old boy was found a block from a Montgomery county school by officers who berated him and said, ‘I’d beat him so bad’A police department in Maryland has released body camera video that captured two of its officers berating a 5-year-old boy who had walked away from his elementary school, calling him a “little beast” and threatening him with a beating.The video released by the Montgomery county police department shows one of the officers repeatedly screaming at the crying child, with her face inches from his. Continue reading...

Trump congratulated Georgia on its recent legislative move, which critics have slammed as a major blow to Black voters’ rightsA Republican lawyer who advised Donald Trump on his campaign to overturn the 2020 election results is now playing a central role coordinating the Republican effort to tighten voting laws around the country.The moves comes as Trump himself signaled his support for new Republican-pushed legislation in Georgia which critics have slammed as being a major blow to voting rights for communities of color, especially Black voters. Joe Biden called the Georgia laws “Jim Crow in the 21st Century” and “an atrocity”. Continue reading...

Fifty-four white men have led Boston since it was incorporated as a city in 1822, but that all changed this weekEarlier this week, Kim Janey, the first woman and Black person to lead the city of Boston, became acting mayor.She was sworn in by the first Black woman to lead Massachusetts’ highest court, Kimberly Budd, and the first Black Massachusetts congresswoman, Ayanna Pressley. Continue reading...

Coverage on recent struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Cardiff Bay to Thailand Continue reading...

Joe Biden’s $1.9tn plan contains a feature that will transform the way welfare is addressed in the US – and could cut child poverty in halfA few months into the pandemic the tooth fairy didn’t show up. Mary Beth Cochran was caring for her six-year-old grandson, Howie, in the small town of Canton, North Carolina, and having lost her Kmart job and with it more than half her income, she couldn’t afford food let alone a dollar under the pillow.Howie woke that morning and shouted out to his grandmother: “Memaw, my tooth’s still here, what happened?” He frantically scoured the bedding for a note or coins, then slumped to the floor and cried. Continue reading...

A Philadelphia Inquirer columnist compared the painting to Brian Kemp ‘working to continue a tradition of white supremacy’As a photo of the Georgia governor, Brian Kemp, circulated around the internet, showing the politician signing the sweeping voting restrictions bill while surrounded by other white, male politicians, some Twitter users homed in on a previously undetected detail. Continue reading...

Analysis: Timothy Hale-Cusanelli was one of dozens of former or current military members investigated or charged in connection with the insurrectionIf the moustache, trimmed narrowly in the style of Adolf Hitler, don’t give it away, then the antisemitic YouTube rants, the testimony of 34 colleagues and the neo-Nazi reading material certainly do.Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, a US army reservist, is – according to court documents – an “avowed white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer”. Continue reading...

Republicans presented trip as exposé of dire circumstances while Democrats sought to ensure children ‘treated humanely’Republicans and Democrats sent dueling delegations to the southern US border on Friday, in an attempt to frame perceptions of the Biden administration’s immigration policy amid an uptick in recent weeks in border crossings by undocumented migrants.A group of Republican senators led by Ted Cruz of Texas presented their trip as an exposé of dire circumstances, with Cruz sharing video of himself on Thursday night standing in darkness next to the Rio Grande river and falsely warning about a “flood” of human smuggling. Continue reading...

President says new law represents ‘blatant attack on the constitution’ as voting rights activists vow to keep up the fightJoe Biden lambasted a new law in Georgia that imposes sweeping new voting restrictions, calling it “un-American” and “Jim Crow in the 21st century”.He said in a statement: “Instead of celebrating the rights of all Georgians to vote or winning campaigns on the merits of their ideas, Republicans in the state instead rushed through an un-American law to deny people the right to vote. This law, like so many others being pursued by Republicans in statehouses across the country, is a blatant attack on the constitution and good conscience.” Continue reading...

State court has ruled in major decision that ‘conditioning freedom solely on whether an arrestee can afford bail is unconstitutional’California’s highest court has ruled that judges in the state will have to consider a suspect’s ability to pay when they set bail, a major decision that essentially requires that those who can’t afford bail be freed unless they are deemed too dangerous to be released awaiting trial. Continue reading...

Fox News got exercised about the president taking cues on Thursday – but there’s nothing wrong with being preparedJoe Biden’s first press conference has caused some strong reactions from the conservative side of the aisle after he was caught … reading notes.On Thursday night, Fox News dedicated considerable time covering just how long Biden took to hold his first press conference – 49 days! Continue reading...

Jama’s Howard Bauchner replaced by interim editor after ‘offensive’ remarks by deputy on podcast about structural racismThe editor-in-chief of Jama, the Journal of the American Medical Association, has been placed on leave amid controversy over comments about structural racism made on a podcast by one of his deputies.The New York Times reported that the American Medical Association told staff on Thursday Dr Howard Bauchner would be replaced by an interim editor while an investigation was carried out. Continue reading...

Most recent weekly average shows 7% increase in Covid infections in US from previous week, at about 57,000 cases a dayTop US government coronavirus experts warned on Friday that there is deep concern about infections rising again and although there is cause for optimism amid accelerating vaccinations “there is no case for relaxation” in the pandemic.Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said at a White House briefing that the most recent weekly average shows a 7% increase in infections in the US from the previous week, at about 57,000 cases a day. Continue reading...

Triple Five, which owns the enormous New Jersey complex, forced to sell 49% stake in two other giant malls in Minnesota and CanadaThe owner of the American Dream, the mega-mall in New Jersey once billed as the future of retail, has put up nearly half of the ownership of its two largest malls to stay in business.In March last year, just five months after it opened, American Dream was forced to shut its doors as Covid-19 surged in the US. It stayed closed until October, when some of its attractions and stores reopened. Continue reading...

The tiny Oklahoma school’s fairytale March Madness run has been overshadowed by its troubling history of LGBTQ discrimination and alleged use of conversion therapyThere may be no better example of why the NCAA men’s basketball tournament holds a nation of 330 million people in its thrall for three weeks every year than Oral Roberts University.The tiny evangelical school from Oklahoma’s second-largest city (enrollment: 3,462) delivered one of the biggest surprises in March Madness history last Friday when it toppled Ohio State University (enrollment: 61,391) in the opening round. A couple of days later, the Golden Eagles knocked off another traditional powerhouse, defeating the University of Florida to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time in nearly 50 years and becoming only the second No 15 seed in history to make it out of the first weekend. Continue reading...

He ran as a moderate but is governing as a transforming radical. That’s not a paradox – it’s a winning methodYou may not have noticed, because he is not nearly as in-your-face as his predecessor, but Joe Biden is currently teaching a lesson to left and centre-left parties around the world. True, it’s one they should have learned long ago, but still they should be paying the closest attention. Because Biden is delivering a masterclass.Related: Biden holds first press conference and pledges 200m vaccine shots in 100 days Continue reading...