US news | The Guardian

Our government is effectively forcing people to choose between heat in their apartment and the risk of deportationIf you had to choose between having running water at home or risking your home being raided by the authorities, which would you choose? The correct answer is: this shouldn’t even be a question.But it’s become one. The startling truth is that signing up for even basic utilities in this country has turned into a gamble for many people, particularly undocumented immigrants. Last week, the Washington Post revealed that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has paid tens of millions of dollars since 2017 for access to a private database that contains more than “400m names, addresses and service records from more than 80 utility companies covering all the staples of modern life, including water, gas and electricity, and phone, internet and cable TV”. The information has been mined by Ice, the Post reported, for immigration surveillance and enforcement operations. Continue reading...

Neera Tanden withdraws bid for Office of Management and Budget job after criticism of her past tweets. Plus, teachers will be prioritised for a Covid vaccineGood morning.One of Joe Biden’s cabinet picks, Neera Tanden, has withdrawn her nomination amid a backlash over controversial past tweets. Tanden, who was nominated to head the Office of Management and Budget, faced opposition from Democratic and Republican senators after tweets surfaced in which she attacked members of both parties. After Joe Manchin, a conservative Democratic senator, announced he would oppose her nomination, she fell short of the number of lawmakers needed to confirm her in the Senate. This marks the first failure for Biden in getting Senate approval for his cabinet; so far, 11 of 23 have been confirmed. Continue reading...

Getting rid of the virus completely now seems an impossible project. But there are powerful arguments in its favour

I’ve struggled trying to hold what I know – that she would never intentionally hurt anyone – in tension with what I know just as deeply: this system of policing will always hurt Black peopleIn 2012, when Frank Ocean told me (yes, me, specifically) to “imagine being thrown off of a cliff” in the Tumblr note he published before dropping the transformative Channel Orange, the same Tumblr note in which he admitted publicly for the first time that he had been in love with another man, I cried, and then I did, too. I admitted for the first time publicly – or at least for the first time to my parents – that I was queer in a three-page email.The fall from that cliff was glorious for many beautiful moments – until I smashed head-first into the ground. Until my mother wrote back, three days after receiving my email, to tell me that all three pages were unacceptable and this was not what she raised me to be and – Kṛṣṇa help her! – my body, now lying mangled on the jagged rocks at the bottom of this hill I wanted to die on, was enveloped in sin. Continue reading...

Analysis: Membership list of American Patriots Three Percent also shows widespread network of people from variety of occupationsA Guardian investigation of a website leak from the American Patriots Three Percent shows the anti-government militia group have recruited a network across the United States that includes current and former military members, police and border patrol agents. Continue reading...

System has been used as a point of comparison as Boris Johnson seeks to create a charity to refurbish his Downing Street flatJackie Kennedy first visited the White House as a girl. “All I remember is shuffling through,” she told Life magazine. “There wasn’t even a booklet you could buy.” When she became first lady, she set about transforming it from bland and boring into a mansion worthy of a president – but someone would have to pay.In 1961, Jackie Kennedy founded the White House Historical Association (WHHA) to protect, preserve and guarantee public access to America’s most famous address. Three years later, President Lyndon B Johnson created the committee for the preservation of the White House, a group of experts who work to maintain the “museum quality” of its public spaces. Continue reading...

From tender pictures exploring disability to a Congo odyssey, these previously unpublished photographers were all acclaimed at the ICP/GOST First Photo Book award Continue reading...

Millions in precarious jobs are betting scant savings on worthless stocks and cryptocurrencies via share-dealing appsThe US economy’s K-shaped recovery is under way. Those with stable full-time jobs, benefits, and a financial cushion are faring well as stock markets climb to new highs. Those who are unemployed or partially employed in low-value-added blue-collar and service jobs – the new “precariat” – are saddled with debt, have little financial wealth, and face diminishing economic prospects.These trends indicate a growing disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street. The new stock market highs mean nothing to most people. The bottom 50% of the wealth distribution holds just 0.7% of total equity market assets, whereas the top 10% commands 87.2%, and the top 1% holds 51.8%. The 50 richest people have as much wealth as the 165 million people at the bottom. Continue reading...

Advocates who lived through the riots are now fighting to defund the police and dismantle unions that thwart accountabilityThirty years after the savage assault on Rodney King, the Los Angeles police department is facing a reckoning over its failure to curb brutality, racial profiling and officer misconduct since the historic uprising.For some in LA, Wednesday’s anniversary of the 1991 attack is a painful reminder of the ways the racist and deadly law enforcement practices of the 1990s remain alive today. Continue reading...

The US president said the country was on track to have enough vaccines for every adult in the country by the end of May. ‘When we came into office, the prior administration had contracted for not nearly enough vaccine to cover adults in America. We rectified that’

Move follows charity’s allegations of poor working practices in its UK supply chainUS authorities have launched an investigation into allegations of forced labour in Boohoo’s UK supply chain, which could lead to the online fashion seller’s goods being impounded at ports.The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) body is understood to have found sufficient grounds for the investigation late last month after Liberty Shared, a charity which campaigns against modern slavery, sent it a petition on 1 February outlining problems with Boohoo factories in Leicester. If the CBP finds evidence goods have been made with forced labour it can instruct ports not to release them. Continue reading...

Country music legend Dolly Parton has been inoculated with the Covid-19 vaccine that she helped to fund. Parton broke into song while getting the Moderna jab, adapting one of her best-known songs.To the tune of Jolene, she sang: 'Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, I’m begging of you, please don’t hesitate.Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, because once you’re dead, then that’s a bit too late.'

Mohammed bin Salman is stained by the murder of a journalist and a devastating war. The US response remains limited – and the UK’s is worseOn 2 October 2018, the journalist Jamal Khashoggi walked into Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul. Within minutes he was murdered and his body dismembered; his remains have never been found. While the last of Riyadh’s many stories portrayed it as a “rogue operation”, the CIA swiftly concluded that the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, approved his killing. But Donald Trump, an admirer of the brash young prince, declared otherwise and declined to act.Joe Biden, then a presidential candidate, vowed that he would make Saudi Arabia “pay the price, and make them in fact the pariah that they are”. Now in a position to act on his pledge, he appears to have changed his mind. On Friday, Washington declassified an intelligence assessment on the killing, as promised; the president is also to snub the crown prince, dealing only with King Salman. But while the US declines to say whether Prince Mohammed is included in the “Khashoggi ban” that it has imposed on visas for 76 Saudi officials, the clear message is business as usual, with only minor changes. Continue reading...

Seven government officials and 13 companies sanctioned as Biden administration says more punitive measures to be issued soonThe US has announced sanctions on seven Russian government officials and 13 Russian and European companies in response to the poisoning of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny, which a US intelligence assessment confirmed to be the work of the FSB.Related: US refuses to say whether crown prince one of 76 Saudis hit by visa ban Continue reading...

Organization to create $300m victims’ fund to deal with legal claims made by more than 85,000 former scoutsThe Boy Scouts of America has said it will establish a victims’ fund of at least $300m, to deal with payments arising from lawsuits over sexual abuse and funded in part by selling its portfolio of Norman Rockwell paintings.More than 85,000 former scouts have made legal claims against the 111-year-old organization about alleged sexual abuse by leaders, according to reports. Continue reading...

Christopher Wray says ‘that attack, that siege, was criminal behavior, plain and simple … and has no place is our democracy’

FBI director Christopher Wray has said the bureau views the Capitol insurrection as a clear act of domestic terrorism. Speaking during a Senate hearing on the 6 January riots, Wray said: ‘That attack, that siege, was criminal behaviour, plain and simple, and it’s behaviour that we, the FBI, view as domestic terrorism’

Prosecutor says ‘horrible conduct’ does not violate law but urges state to change legislation to protect citizens from such incidentsA prosecutor has declined to file charges against a man who displayed a Ku Klux Klan flag in his window in suburban Detroit, next to the home of a Black family.Such “horrible conduct” doesn’t violate Michigan law, Wayne county prosecutor Kym Worthy said on Tuesday, adding that an ethnic intimidation charge would require physical contact, property damage or threats of such activity. Continue reading...

The director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Rochelle Walensky, warned that a recent increase in coronavirus cases indicated a fourth surge could occur before a majority of the US had been vaccinated.According to Johns Hopkins University, the US has recorded more than 28.5m Covid-19 cases and nearly 513,000 deaths. Daily case numbers fell steeply after a peak in January but have started to increase again, boosted by the spread of new variants

Anchor says of course CNN will cover story of New York governor who has been accused by three women of sexual harassment

The federation says the right things about fighting racism but those intentions have not been enough so farThe US Soccer Federation is not what it thinks it is.The federation was queued up to give itself a pat on the back Saturday after its Annual General Meeting, where it shared slick videos about new efforts to promote diversity and inclusion. The highlight was going to be the repeal of a controversial policy that forced US players to stand during the national anthem. Continue reading...

Monday’s announcement confirmed my worst fears – not even those in the most desperate crises are safe from aid cutsThree weeks ago, foreign office minister James Cleverly told me that in the face of drastic cuts to the UK’s aid budget, Yemen would remain a UK priority country and the government would use the full force of its diplomatic efforts to bring about peace.On Monday, those words rang hollow when he announced the UK was slashing humanitarian aid to Yemen by more than 50% compared with last year. As a consequence, an already devastated country now faces the worst famine in decades and the prospect of lasting peace seems further away than ever. Continue reading...

Biden has the power to pass a $15 wage, raise corporate taxes and investigate firms accused of spying on workers. He must use it

State legislators are trying to make it more difficult for citizens to take action when their own representatives won’tThey walked through Michigan college football games dressed as gerrymandered districts. They crisscrossed Idaho in a decades-old RV dubbed the Medicaid Express. In Florida, they united black and white, left and right, Trump-loving “deplorables” and radical criminal justice reformers into a mighty moral movement to end an ugly vestige of Jim Crow.Related: The Guardian view on the return of Donald Trump: plotting a hostile takeover | Editorial Continue reading...

Drone warfare abroad is bad enough. Let’s not apply the same kinds of technologies to domestic policingThe New York police department has acquired a robotic police dog, known as Digidog, and has deployed it on the streets of Brooklyn, Queens and, most recently, the Bronx. At a time that activists in New York, and beyond, are calling for the defunding of police departments – for the sake of funding more vital services that address the root causes of crime and poverty – the NYPD’s decision to pour money into a robot dog seems tone-deaf if not an outright provocation.Related: Louisiana police trooper kicked and dragged Black man who died in custody, records show Continue reading...

Cuomo casts himself as merely clumsy – but the allegations seem to be an extension of bullying behavior designed to exert power and controlOn Saturday, a second former staffer accused the New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, of sexual harassment. Charlotte Bennett was 24 when she began working for the governor in the entry-level position of briefer, which required her to have close daily contact with Cuomo. In a series of interviews with the New York Times, Bennett described a pattern of overtures from the governor that progressed from overly familiar, to inappropriate, to aggressively suggestive. He asked her whether she practiced monogamy and if she ever slept with older men (Cuomo is 63). After learning in 2020 that Bennett’s 25th birthday was coming up, Cuomo offered that he was open to sexual relationships with women over the age of 22. The implications were not ambiguous. “I understand that the governor wanted to sleep with me, and felt horribly uncomfortable and scared,” Bennett told the Times. “And was wondering how to get out of it and assumed it was the end of my job.”Related: New York attorney general seeks to investigate Cuomo sexual harassment claims Continue reading...

The CDC director warned the US could face a fourth Covid wave before the vaccine rollout is completed. Plus, Andrew Cuomo, the New York governor, faces growing calls to resignGood morning.The US could experience a “fourth surge” of coronavirus before the majority of the country was vaccinated, the director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), warned yesterday. Continue reading...

Delays, backlogs of claims and errors have left workers without any unemployment benefits while out of work due to CovidBefore the pandemic hit Stephanie Gaither worked as a driver for Uber and Lyft in Indianapolis, Indiana, making around $600 to $900 weekly. Now she is facing eviction and has her utilities shut off.Like millions of other Americans who have seen their work dry up as the virus has spread, Gaither has fallen through the huge holes in the US’s unemployment benefits system. Her unemployment benefits expired in December 2020 and she has waited several weeks without any benefits while caring for her children who are currently learning remotely. Continue reading...

President has chance to mitigate some of Trump’s judicial efforts as vacancies ariseDonald Trump’s historic shakeup of the roster of US federal judges will not soon be reversed, despite his exit from the White House. Continue reading...

The New York governor is under investigation over nursing home deaths from Covid and sexual harassment claimsIn a year, the New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, has gone from revered national voice of reason on the Covid-19 pandemic and potential presidential material, to facing demands for his resignation and even calls for his impeachment.He faces a federal inquiry into his administration’s alleged undercount of coronavirus nursing home deaths, accusations of bullying and, most recently, an external investigation led by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, following sexual harassment allegations by two women. Continue reading...

Unlike other officials, the then president and first lady did not receive their shots on TVDonald and Melania Trump received the coronavirus vaccine before leaving the White House, according to multiple news reports on Monday.Citing unnamed advisers, the New York Times, CNN and other outlets reported that while other officials, including Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the former vice-president Mike Pence, chose to get their shots publicly to encourage confidence in the vaccines, the Trumps opted to quietly get vaccinated in January. There was no detail on which shot they received or how many doses they had been given. Continue reading...

State department ‘not in a position to detail the identity’ of those on list as US under heavy criticism for failure to sanction Saudi heirThe US state department has refused to say whether Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is one of the Saudi officials subject to US visa restrictions under the new “Khashoggi ban”.The ban is named after the Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, whose murder and dismemberment in 2018 was approved by the crown prince, according to a US intelligence assessment declassified on Friday. Continue reading...

The biggest compliment you can pay the veteran Milan striker is that sometimes he is almost as good as he says he isZlatan Ibrahimovic believes you should stick to what you’re good at, which is presumably why he’s been talking about himself again. The Milan striker is probably unique among elite modern footballers in that despite his considerable body of work on the pitch, the most memorable episodes of his career have emanated largely from his own mouth. Perhaps the warmest compliment you can pay Ibrahimovic as a footballer is that there are times when he is genuinely almost as good as he says he is.Related: 'I will never shut up': LeBron James responds to Ibrahimovic criticism Continue reading...

FTSE gains more than 100 points after concerns over bond sell-off ease

Nationally, the former president is a vote loser. The trouble for Republicans is his grip over the party rank and fileIn the United States, the Republican party has been unmistakably corrupted by power. Its leadership did not call out Donald Trump for his “high crimes and misdemeanors”, his savage politics, his cruelty, his lies and his conspiracy theories. Voters had to wait until Senate Republicans had refused to convict Mr Trump of impeachable crimes before their leader, Mitch McConnell, would speak truth to power. By then, the question was not whether there was a war over the soul of the party but whether Republicans had a soul worth fighting for.At the weekend Mr Trump revealed that there would be payback for Mr McConnell and other Republican lawmakers for their “disloyalty”. In a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Mr Trump flirted with running again in 2024 and took swipes at the Biden White House. But he reserved his punches for his own side – targeting “Republicans In Name Only” who voted to impeach him and criticised his incitement of the mob that stormed Capitol Hill in January. Continue reading...

At least 90 security officers died of Covid-19 last year. But many still lack access to PPE, and none receive hazard payThey have been spat on, accosted by Covid-19 deniers and assaulted for merely enforcing state rules.When the Covid-19 pandemic closed down California’s offices, malls and event spaces last year, nearly 200,000 security officers stayed behind as the rest of the state sheltered in place. They kept shut down venues safe while enforcing a panoply of rules at the few that stayed open. Then came the protests, and the election lies – turning an already fraught situation even more tense. Continue reading...

Ben Bonnema says he was dismissed after writing a letter to company’s CEO calling for a series of safety measures for workersA former Trader Joe’s employee said he was fired by the grocery store for requesting better coronavirus protection for workers.

Biden resorted to the longstanding US foreign policy that looks the other way as America’s autocratic allies commit atrocities at home and abroadOn Friday, Joe Biden’s administration confirmed what the world knew: that Saudi Arabia’s ruthless crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, approved the assassination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Biden followed through on a campaign promise to release a summary report of the US intelligence community’s findings on the murder, and he undid two years of stonewalling by Donald Trump.But Biden failed to keep a more important promise: to hold Khashoggi’s killers accountable. Worried about disrupting the US-Saudi relationship, Biden decided not to impose sanctions on the crown prince. By giving the prince a pass, Biden skirted true justice for the murdered journalist and other dissidents who have suffered at Prince Mohammed’s hands. And, in turn, the reckless prince is unlikely to be dissuaded from more repression and crimes. Continue reading...