Liverpool winning the Premier League, the death of Kobe Bryant, Lewis Hamilton’s black power salute, the dejection of Lionel Messi, the agility of Ewa Pajor, Rafael Nadal’s triumph in Paris, teeming crowds at the Cheltenham Festival as the coronavirus spreads: the photographs that tell the story of sport in 2020.In memory of our friend Daffydd Bynon
From the pandemic, to the death of George Floyd, to America’s presidential elections, 2020 has been a year of distress – with moments of hope and endurance. These were some of the images that stood out Continue reading...
Joe Biden received his first injected dose of the Covid-19 vaccine live on television on Monday in an effort to boost confidence in its safety ahead of its wide distribution next year. 'I'm doing this to demonstrate that people should be prepared when it's available to take the vaccine. There's nothing to worry about,' the US president-elect said. His wife, Jill Biden, who got the injection earlier in the day, stood by.
Long-expected executive order disparages architectural modernism but critics say Trump’s decree ‘mostly symbolic’Donald Trump decreed on Monday that all new US federal buildings should be “beautiful”, in a long-expected executive order which excoriated architectural modernism but stopped short of demanding that all such projects should be in the classical style.Related: William Barr: no plans to name special counsel to investigate vote fraud claims Continue reading...
Newspaper publishes series on how it ignored Black residents’ concerns and successes and fueled segregationThe Kansas City Star’s top editor has apologized for past decades of racist coverage and the newspaper has posted a series of stories examining how it ignored the concerns and achievements of Black residents and helped keep Kansas City segregated.The newspaper said a detailed examination of its past coverage and that of its longtime sister newspaper, the Kansas City Times, documented how they often wrote about Black residents only as criminals or people living in crime-plagued neighborhoods and ignored segregation in Kansas City, Missouri, and its public schools. Continue reading...
The Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island erupts late on Sunday, shooting a steam cloud into the atmosphere for about an hour. The eruption happened in Halema’uma’u crater, the US Geological Survey said. Kilauea is in the Hawaii Volcanoes national park
Powell reportedly pitched plan to seize voting machines, after Friday meeting at which Trump weighed special counsel roleThe lawyer and conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell was back at the White House on Sunday night, reportedly to pitch Donald Trump on a plan to seize voting machines as the US president continues to dispute the result of November’s election, which he lost.Related: Romney decries martial law discussion in Trump's White House Continue reading...
Johns played key role in the desegregation of the public school system when, at 16, she led classmates in protest at poor conditionsA statue of the civil rights activist Barbara Johns, who played a key role in the desegregation of the public school system, will be installed in the US Capitol, officials said on Monday, replacing one of Robert E Lee, a leader of the pro-slavery Confederacy.Related: Conspiracy-theorist lawyer Sidney Powell spotted again at White House Continue reading...
New lava flow interacts with pool of water inside crater, leading to short-lived but fairly vigorous eruptionThe Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island erupted late on Sunday and shot a steam cloud into the atmosphere that lasted about an hour.The eruption happened in Halema’uma’u crater, the US Geological Survey said. Kilauea is in the Hawaii Volcanoes national park. Continue reading...
Reporter Christie Smythe calls the ‘Pharma Bro’ her life partner, saying relationship developed while he serves prison sentenceThe internet was set ablaze on Sunday night by a viral interview in which a former reporter for Bloomberg News described how she upended her “perfect little Brooklyn life” by falling in love with Martin Shkreli, a maverick hedge funder who rose to infamy before being sentenced to seven years in prison for fraud.Related: Martin Shkreli pays price for arrogance – and 'egregious multitude of lies' Continue reading...
A state-by-state look at the turnout data reflects a messy national picture with chaotic regulations and poor record-keepingThis article is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan reporting project covering local election integrity and voting access.Americans shattered records for voting by mail in many states in the 2020 presidential election, a phenomenon that tested existing election laws, new pandemic-related regulations, postal service capacity, voter education efforts and voters’ own resolve. Continue reading...
The owners of my local restaurant are like my family - and I’m anxious and sad that their business may shutterWhen I heard Andrew Cuomo on the radio recently, talking about shutting down indoor dining in New York City restaurants again, I turned up the volume. I follow the hospitality industry news as if it affects me personally; in a sense, it does. My friends own a restaurant in my neighborhood, Sake Bar Satsko on East 7th Street. Since it opened in 2004, Satsko’s, as it’s also known, has become like another room of my house – the room where all the fun stuff happens. And now, with this latest round of restrictions, it might have to close forever.Much has been written about how important restaurants are to the culture of New York City – they’re “a thread in the fabric that might unravel if you yanked us from the weave”, wrote Gabrielle Hamilton in April, on shuttering her iconic cafe, Prune – so I won’t go into all that. We know that New York won’t be New York without its abundance of lively and delicious restaurants, thousands of which are estimated to have closed permanently since Covid-19 struck. The real question is why the government has done so little to assist this vital industry, which employs more than 300,000 New Yorkers – many of them recent immigrants, musicians, writers, artists and actors, all of whom help make up the city’s special sauce. Continue reading...
Top congressional leaders have agreed a last-hour $900bn coronavirus aid package, following late-night discussions on Sunday. Plus, Mitt Romney calls Trump’s election disputes ‘nutty’ and ‘embarrassing’Good morning.Congress has agreed on a $900bn coronavirus aid package, after weeks of negotiations ran into late-night talks on Sunday. The House was forced to grant a temporary funding extension to avoid a government shutdown, as lawmakers ran out of time to pass the aid package before the midnight Sunday deadline. The Republican Senate leader, Mitch McConnell, last night promised “help is on the way”, while the Democratic Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, said the package should have enough support to pass both chambers of Congress. Continue reading...
Obscene wealth, financial speculation, cavalier indifference – yet Republicans Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue claim their Democratic challengers are out of touch
The apparent meeting of Jupiter and Saturn in the skies – known as the ‘great conjunction’ – marks the birth of a new astrological epochOn December 21st, the planets Jupiter and Saturn – which are actually more than 400m miles apart – will appear to come together in the night sky, forming what is called a “Great Conjunction”. This is one in a series of meetings the planets make roughly every 20 years, due to Jupiter’s orbit of less than 12 years around the sun lining up with Saturn’s, which is 29.5 years long. On the night of the conjunction, the planets will seem as if they’re separated by about one fifth of the diameter of the typical full moon, appearing to touch or form a single brilliant heavenly body. Besides its visual dazzle, this event has special significance through an astrological lens: it marks the official shift from a 200 year period during which Jupiter and Saturn made conjunctions primarily in Earth signs into a 200 year period of conjunctions in Air signs, marking the advent of a new epoch in a larger 800 year macro-cycle.Thinkers have used Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions to track history for thousands of years – Johannes Kepler’s early 17th-century trigon diagrams are famous ephemera from the beginning of our current macro-cycle. Jupiter and Saturn are the slowest and furthest away of the planets available to the naked human eye, and function as the short hands of the astrological clock, sketching the broad strokes of an era. In astrological terms, Jupiter signifies expansion, growth, and coherence – but can also lead to cancerous hypertrophy. Saturn represents the opposite principle, of limitation, structure, and containment, often considered the cruel taskmaster of the zodiac. Together they are like life and death, warp and weft, and their conjunctions signal key moments in the formation of collective reality. Continue reading...
The college player was more accustomed to her role as a soccer goalkeeper at Vanderbilt – until the men’s football team came callingSarah Fuller must have felt that her fame had peaked when her performance in goal helped the Vanderbilt women’s soccer team to a Southeastern Conference title earlier this year. Little did she know she was about to find fame in the other football.When Covid-19 tore through the men’s football team, they were left without a recognised kicker. The Commodores quickly did a talent search around the college’s athletic department and became familiar with Fuller, who could kick a ball 60 yards by the time she was in high school and, at 6ft 1in, was unlikely to be intimated by the very large human beings who play football. Continue reading...
The Patriots’ 20-year run of dominance may never be matched, but the ahead-of-schedule Dolphins have confirmed a new day has indeed arrived in the AFC EastDing-dong, the Pats are dead! The Pats are dead, the Pats are dead. Ding-dong, the wicked Pats are deaaad!OK, maybe the official end of the New England Patriots’ remarkable dynasty wasn’t quite so dramatic, but for a brief moment Sunday, anyone observing football for the past 19 years had to wonder if there was a sliver of Belichickian magic left. The Patriots marched to the locker room at the half up 6-0 over the Miami Dolphins thanks to a cocktail of clunky play by the hosts and sheer luck. A Cam Newton fumble, recovered by Xavien Howard and returned for 86 yards and a score that was reversed because it had touched a Dolphins defender. A 52-yard field goal missed by Dolphins kicker Jason Saunders. Would the Pats somehow pull off this elimination game with Newton channelling his 2015 self and all the bounces going Bill Belichick’s way? Not exactly. Continue reading...
Shamrock Jack’s Irish Pub in New York has a tree made out of 800 Jameson bottles. It’s a testament to ingenuity, dedication – and honoring their employeesSome are wishing for a white Christmas. But others prefer it to be green.The owners of the Shamrock Jack’s Irish Pub prefer it to be green. Green as in the color of Jameson Irish whiskey bottles. Don’t believe me? If you happen to be in Irondequoit, New York (which is just outside of Rochester) anytime between now and the New Year, go ahead and visit the pub. Outside you’ll see a big green Christmas tree. And it’s made entirely out of Jameson whiskey bottles. Eight hundred of them, as a matter of fact. Continue reading...
The actor, who passed away tragically earlier this year, brought depth and empathy to the characters he playedChadwick Boseman was more than just an actor. When he died in August at the young age of 43, it felt like the world had lost not only one of the most outstanding cinematic talents of his era, but also a brother, and a friend. An emotional tribute from Black Panther co-star Lupita Nyong’o gave us a glimpse into just what it was that made Boseman so lovable, his spirit so much larger than life. “You got the sense that he was fully present and also somehow fully aware of things in the distant future,” she wrote. “He was absorbent. Agile. He set the bar high by working with a generosity of spirit, creating an ego-free environment by sheer example, and he always had a warm gaze and a strong embrace to share.”Related: Chadwick Boseman remembered by Ruth E Carter Continue reading...
The outgoing US president has his eyes on a Saudi Arabia-Israel accord – no matter who gets hurtPeace deals that entrench injustice, punish the weak and are propelled by greed, blackmail and weapons sales have precious little to do with peace – and are unlikely to endure. Yet the Middle East has witnessed a recent spate of such dodgy deals. All concern Israel and all were hastily cobbled together by the White House. As his curtailed presidency grinds to an unlamented close, Donald Trump appears engaged in a frantic foreign policy fire sale.Peace is always a welcome prospect – but never at any price. Trump’s horse-trading on Israel’s behalf has made a cruel mockery of Palestinian rights. By agreeing to normalise relations with Israel, the UAE and Bahrain broke with the 2002 Arab peace plan that makes recognition conditional on the creation of a viable, independent Palestinian state. The deal was sweetened with offers of advanced US weapons and money-spinning business and trade opportunities. Continue reading...
The two maintained a strong working relationship in the Senate – but now it will face a new test when Biden is sworn as presidentWhen they were both in the Senate, Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, maintained a strong working relationship that survived some of the most partisan legislative fights in decades.That relationship will now face a new test when Biden is sworn in as president of the United States and McConnell will be the highest-ranking Republican in the country. Continue reading...
The one thing that upsets everyone is big earnings gaps between people working in the same sectorAs a society, we’ve become much more worried about inequality. But what determines whether individuals see levels of inequality as fair? We think what matters is people’s politics: a “lefty” will think big gaps between top and bottom unjustified, the right believe the rich are simply being rewarded for hard work. But new research, combining information on what people think with data on what they earn, shows that our social status also matters a lot.Generally, we have a fairly accurate view of where we sit in the income pecking order, although we assume others are more like us than they are. The rich think everyone is better off than the reality, while the poor underestimate top incomes. Continue reading...
A new study confirms tax cuts for the rich do not benefit the rest. Recovery from the pandemic is a chance to change courseHow should the huge financial costs of the pandemic be paid for, as well as the other deferred needs of society after this annus horribilis?Related: Jeff Bezos became even richer thanks to Covid-19. But he still won't protect Amazon workers | Robert Reich Continue reading...
The president-elect’s ability to fix the crisis hinges on whether or not Democrats win the Georgia runoffs – but there are a few areas where he could act unilaterallyWhen Joe Biden is inaugurated next month, he will inherit an America where democracy is in crisis.The 2020 election exposed the urgent need to protect the right to vote in America. Throughout the year, voters waited hours in line to cast their ballots, some until the early hours of the morning. Democrats and voting rights groups brought an explosion of lawsuits seeking to ease restrictions around mail-in voting as Republicans around the country refused to budge. Continue reading...
Rudy Giuliani and other advisers opposed president’s suggestion, according to New York TimesDonald Trump pushed to have the lawyer and “kraken” conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell named as a special counsel to investigate supposed electoral fraud, the New York Times reported on Saturday.Related: Trump downplays government hack after Pompeo blames it on Russia Continue reading...
Anthony Fauci told children he had visited Santa Claus at the north pole and personally gave him the vaccine so he could deliver presents this year.The US infectious disease expert responded to video messages sent in to CNN on Saturday from children who were concerned they would not receive their presents due to spread of Covid-19 Continue reading...
Rebuilding something like the New Deal coalition may require winning back socially moderate and conservative voters“If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined,” lamented King Pyrrhus of Epirus, whose costly triumph in 279 BC inspired the phrase “Pyrrhic victory”. In 2020, the Democratic party learned what King Pyrrhus was talking about. They recaptured the White House and narrowly held on to the House of Representatives. And if the Democrats win both Senate runoffs in Georgia, they may yet capture the Senate. But Republicans increased their share of the House, making it easier for them to recapture it in 2022, and they control a majority of state legislatures whose redistricting plans for the US Congress can help the Republican party.Perhaps the greatest blow has been to the progressive interpretation of American politics. Most progressives have understood Trumpism as the last gasp of a dwindling, reactionary white male population. The future of the Democrats, it was said, lay with women and minorities. And yet in 2020 white men shifted more toward Biden than white women did. Black and brown Americans still voted mostly for Democrats, but there were significant shifts toward the Republicans among black and Hispanic voters and all of the Republicans who took contested seats from the Democrats were minority group members or women. Continue reading...
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