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Executives from Reddit, Melvin Capital and Citadel speak in first public hearing on investigation

Vlad Tenev accused of creating ‘smokescreen’ to deflect blame before House financial services committeeThe chief executive of the Robinhood app has defended the decision to halt trading in GameStop shares at a congressional hearing on Thursday, calling allegations that the company acted to help hedge funds that were hemorrhaging money “absolutely false”. The comments triggered accusations the company was creating a “smokescreen” to deflect blame.Related: GameStop hearing live: Robinhood CEO and others in trading saga testify before Congress Continue reading...

Residents struggle with lack of power, food and water while White House says storms prove ‘climate change is real’As Texas struggled on Thursday with a disastrous lack of power, food and water following the deadly storm that brought Arctic temperatures to the southern US, the state’s Republican leadership stood battered by a growing outcry over mismanagement of the power grid and a painfully slow emergency response.Related: Texas storm: political tensions boil over as vast power outages continue – live Continue reading...

After so many tournaments, winning has actually become more difficult for someone who was once almost unbeatableA few hours after Serena Williams walked out of Rod Laver Arena, beaten in the late stages of a grand slam tournament once more, the Eurosport team had converged in front of the cameras to discuss the day’s play. There stood Barbara Schett, last active 15 years ago, who played against Williams three times, and via video link, Williams’s former rival Justine Henin, who retired in Melbourne 10 years ago. Henin is a year younger than Williams, now a mother of two, and when she was asked if she saw herself competing like Williams again, her response was simple: “No way, no chance.”While Williams competes against players such as Naomi Osaka, it is easy to forget that her real contemporaries are women such as Schett and Henin. They are almost all long retired, living full lives, enjoying the fruits of their on-court labour in peace. Meanwhile, Williams has just competed in her 77th grand slam tournament, which puts her second on the all-time list to her sister, Venus, who played in her 88th last week. Continue reading...

After mocking Austin’s mayor as a hypocrite for his own Mexico trip, Cruz takes heat for leaving as millions suffer from storm“Complete and utter hyprocites,” tweeted Senator Ted Cruz back in December, when Steve Adler, mayor of Austin, was caught directing residents to stay at home to stop the spread of the coronavirus while at his holiday home in Cabo, Mexico.But Cruz is now eating a slice of humble pie – after being caught hopping on a flight to Mexico just days after telling Texans to stay home during a storm that has left millions of Texans without heating, hot water or power. Cruz was pictured on a flight to Cancun while millions in his state are without power, and adults and children have died while trying to keep warm. Continue reading...

Carson Wentz is headed to the Colts after Philadelphia opted to cut bait on their $128m franchise quarterback, a decision which went from unthinkable to inevitable in six dizzying monthsFor all that was made of their snakebitten history in the run-up to their first Super Bowl championship, the Philadelphia Eagles have been among the NFL’s steadiest ships in the 27 years since film producer Jeffrey Lurie bought the team for a then-record $185m.At the time, the Eagles had won their division on only nine occasions in 61 years. Under Lurie’s ownership, they have reached the playoffs more often than any NFC team besides the Packers, the club which Lurie made the organizational paradigm when he handpicked a little-known Green Bay assistant coach named Andy Reid to lead them into the 21st century. Even if they only have one Lombardi trophy to show for it, the Eagles under Lurie transformed themselves into one of those select clubs that’s managed to mitigate if not defy the NFL’s built-in gravity and are never down for long. Continue reading...

Shelters have less capacity or remain closed by health authorities as some migrants hope for friendlier reception from USIn the first Mexican shelter reached by migrants after trekking through the Guatemalan jungle, about 150 migrants are sleeping in its dormitories and another 150 lie on thin mattresses spread across the floor of its chapel.Only six weeks into the year, the shelter known as “The 72” has hosted nearly 1,500 migrants, compared to 3,000 all of last year. It has halved its dormitory space due to the pandemic. That wasn’t a problem last year because few migrants arrived, but this year it’s been overwhelmed. Continue reading...

FBI and federal prosecutors investigating how New York governor’s Covid taskforce handled data on deaths in care homesFederal prosecutors in Brooklyn and the FBI have started investigating how Andrew Cuomo’s coronavirus taskforce handled data on deaths in care homes and similar facilities, multiple reports revealed, as pressure mounted on Thursday on the New York governor.The preliminary federal investigation is looking into whether state officials manipulated figures on care home deaths – which were recently revealed to be nearly double than what authorities first disclosed, as first reported by the Times Union of Albany. Continue reading...

Proposed legislation would allow eligible immigrants to apply for temporary legal status and right to workThe Biden administration and congressional Democrats will formally unveil legislation in the House on Thursday that would dramatically reshape the nation’s immigration laws and create a pathway to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States.After two decades of failing to advance meaningful immigration reform, Joe Biden and his allies on Capitol Hill are reviving the effort, which the new president has signaled will be a top domestic priority. Continue reading...

Martin Luther King Jr and Lyndon B Johnson’s telegrams underscore just how significantly Selma had changed the calculus around pushing voting rights legislationHappy Thursday, Continue reading...

Cameron Williams says he was following Tennessee library instruction to remove ‘old, damaged or untruthful books’A Tennessee librarian has lost his job after allegedly burning copies of books by Donald Trump and rightwing commentator Ann Coulter.The Chattanooga public library dismissed Cameron Dequintez Williams after he allegedly posted videos of himself in his backyard in December pouring lighter fluid over Coulter’s How to Talk to Liberals (If You Must) and Trump’s Crippled America. Continue reading...

Rather than waiting for the adults in the room to relieve our debt burden, students are taking matters into their own handsAt the start of the spring 2021 semester, students at Columbia University said enough is enough. With the highest tuition in the country, the university is contributing, in no small part, to the ballooning $1.7tn student debt crisis which now affects more than 45 million Americans and leaves graduates, on average, entering the world $30,000 in the red.Coming across the strike you may have been led to believe that some students at Columbia, who have been engaged in distanced learning since mid-March, feel they are being overcharged for virtual classes and decided to do something about it. That would be a glaring oversight. Continue reading...

There are reasons of fairness and equality to increase the federal minimum to $15. But it’s also good for businessA longtime client of mine, a lifelong Republican, an ardent supporter of Donald Trump, said something very unusual to me the other day. He said: “I support a national $15-an-hour minimum wage.”Related: A mask-free supermarket has made news – but it's publicity you can live without | Gene Marks Continue reading...

Millions of residents have been left without electricity and heat in Texas amid bitter temperatures and heavy snow. Plus, Biden set to announce plans to overhaul US immigration

Amid demands for Cuomo to resign, the governor and his aides are frantically trying to cover up the facts of what happenedThe biggest political scandal in America right now is playing out in New York, where Governor Andrew Cuomo is in a lot of trouble – and rightly so. The Democratic governor did not merely wildly mismanage his state’s response to the Covid emergency, while netting himself a lucrative book deal and an Emmy. He did something worse.In the middle of a public health emergency, he used his office to help one of his largest political donors shield itself from legal consequences as 15,000 nursing home residents died from Covid-19 – and then he and his administration underreported that death toll, helping the same donor. Continue reading...

Millions of doses have been administered, but many Americans have struggled to get inoculated quickly

Poor infrastructure makes LA one of the most difficult US cities to bike in. Cyclists hope the pandemic will change that

Analysis: The president stressed a willingness to work with Republicans – but some say his outreach has its limitsJoe Biden and his team have promised to extend the bipartisan olive branch like no previous administration in a move that on the surface appears to match the new president’s long political history of seeking support from Republicans.Since taking office, the Biden administration has stressed a willingness to work with Republicans on its major initiatives like a Covid relief bill. Behind the scenes, it has initiated a broad push to reach out to as many congressional offices as possible, getting in contact with both former and current Republican lawmakers and their staffs, and hosting a high-visibility meeting between almost a dozen Republican senators and Biden himself. Continue reading...

The UFC does not want to be held accountable for its flaws. And undermining journalists is an important way of achieving that goalAs 2020 came to a close, UFC president Dana White released an incendiary video targeting journalists who criticized his decision to hold fights during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.The video, which has since been mysteriously removed by the UFC, was little more than a propaganda showpiece – a montage of journalists’ faces with “WRONG” emblazoned over them, out-of-context headlines and quotes, as well as snippets of White saying things like “I don’t give a fuck” while orchestral music played in the background. Instead of celebrating the promotion’s profitable year, White instead published an attack video for the sole purpose of discrediting journalists and making them the target of hate and ridicule. Continue reading...

The bright future of younger generations is being perpetually postponed by ageing authoritarian politicians

After millions lost power in a winter storm, residents condemn leadership: ‘They don’t want to do anything for anyone’Krystal Foreman’s ceiling started to crack and sag on Tuesday while inches of water, presumably from a burst pipe, cascaded down her walls and covered her floor. As Foreman’s home flooded, her heating broke, causing the indoor temperature to drop to match the frigid conditions outside.Foreman called her complex’s emergency maintenance line five, six, maybe seven times, but no one answered. So she and her one-year-old son waited for four hours and she weighed the risks of icy roads, a deadly virus and her ravaged home. “Do I want to risk exposing us to Covid, or do I want to just wait for the ceiling to cave in?” she said. Continue reading...

Performers are trying to find ways to adapt to the pandemic as the future of New York’s art spaces remains uncertainSurrounded by snow and ice, against the backdrop of the Manhattan skyline and the East River, members of a dance troupe launched into their ballet exercises using a hand rail as a makeshift barre. Continue reading...

Thousands of 'cold-stunned' sea turtles have been rescued from frigid waters in Texas as the state battles severe winter weather. As icy and freezing conditions have left many in the state without power, residents in the resort town of South Padre Island have been rescuing sea turtles and taking them indoors to a convention centre to escape from the cold waters in the Gulf of Mexico

Rain and ice cause multiple-vehicle pile-ups on roads in Dallas and Austin, with several left deadA winter storm in the US has brought deadly weather conditions to areas of the country not usually associated with the cold. Freezing rain in Texas caused chaos on interstates, with a huge crash involving more than 130 vehicles on the I-35 in Dallas, resulting in the deaths of six people. Nearby Austin also succumbed to the icy conditions, with more than 20 vehicles involved in a pile-up.Meanwhile, in Turkey, a thunderstorm spawned a violent tornado at a coastal tourist resort last Thursday. The twister hit the town of Çeşme, causing 16 injuries, one of them serious. Cars were flipped over, a crane was toppled onto a construction site for holiday villas, and at least four boats were capsized. Continue reading...

Vaccination sites close or see shipments delayed, heightening frustrations as thousands of shots are canceledDevastating winter storms sweeping the US have injected confusion and frustration into the nation’s Covid-19 vaccination drive, snarling deliveries and forcing the cancellation of thousands of shots around the country.Across a large swath of the US, including deep south states such as Georgia and Alabama, the snowy, slippery weather either led to the closing of vaccination sites outright or held up the necessary shipments, with delays expected to continue for days. Continue reading...

At least 20 people have died across the country as water pipes burst and lines wrap around grocery storesAnger over Texas’s power grid failing in the face of a record winter freeze is mounting, as millions of residents remained shivering, with no assurances that their electricity and heat – out for 36 hours or longer in many homes – would return.“I know people are angry and frustrated,” said Houston’s mayor, Sylvester Turner, who woke up to more than 1 million people still without power in his city on Wednesday. “So am I.” Continue reading...

Rush Limbaugh, the conservative US radio host whose nastily personal and bigoted riffs on the daily news won millions of devoted fans and altered the landscape of American media and politics, has died. At the height of his influence in the mid-1990s, Limbaugh commanded a daily radio audience of millions, known as 'dittoheads', who tuned in to hear him dissect the sins of the Bill Clinton administration and wage battle against the 'commie libs' he accused of plotting to destroy the country. Limbaugh, 70, had been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer a year ago.

A convention center has come to aid these latest victims of severe winter weather: ‘We had trailers full yesterday that had 80, 100, 50’Residents, some of whom lack heat or basic amenities in their own homes due to the unusually chilly weather, have been rescuing cold-stunned sea turtles and taking them to a convention center in a south Texas resort town.“Every 15 minutes or less there’s another truck or SUV that pulls up,” said Ed Caum, executive director of the South Padre Island Convention and Visitors Bureau, to the Associated Press on Wednesday. Continue reading...

House hearing marks first time major figures have all been forced to publicly reckon with trading sagaFrenzied trading in the shares of GameStop and other companies will be the subject of what is expected to be a fiery hearing in Congress on Thursday, when US politicians get their first chance to quiz executives from the trading app Robinhood, Reddit and other players in the saga.The House financial services committee will hold a hearing at noon in a first step to untangling the furore surrounding trading in GameStop, AMC cinemas and other companies whose share values soared to astronomical levels as small investors piled into the stocks. Continue reading...

Former Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in New Jersey, once a hotspot during a decade of excess, reduced to rubbleThe fall of a leader with authoritarian instincts is usually symbolised by toppled statues and looted palaces. For Donald Trump, perhaps inevitably, it was the demolition of a failed casino.On Wednesday the former Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, was reduced to rubble in 20 seconds by 3,000 sticks of dynamite. It had fallen into such disrepair that chunks of the building had been tumbling to ground. Continue reading...

The new US administration has signalled it expects the desert kingdom to ‘change its approach’ in a break with Trump policyThe Biden administration has said it expects Saudi Arabia to “change its approach” to the US and signalled that it wants to minimise any direct contact between the president and the country’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.The stance marks an abrupt change compared with the Trump administration, which showered the young heir with attention and praise. It comes as intelligence officials are preparing to release – possibly as early as next week – a declassified report to Congress that will describe its assessment of the crown prince’s alleged culpability in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the US-based Washington Post journalist who was killed by Saudi officials in 2018. Continue reading...

Host won millions of devoted fans with bigoted riffs and personal attacks, and altered the landscape of US media and politics

Whether market realities can explain why USWNT general manager Kate Markgraf earned less than her men’s counterpart, US Soccer has done little to earn the benefit of the doubtWhen the US Soccer Federation confirmed it had hired its first-ever general manager of women’s programming, the announcement was an odd one.Former player Kate Markgraf was selected for the role, which was hailed as a step forward for the US women’s national team program. Indeed, her hiring had been expected after US Soccer revealed plans to recruit a women’s GM more than a year earlier. But siphoning away some of her spotlight was a surprise announcement that came at the same time: Earnie Stewart, who became the federation’s first men’s GM about a year earlier, had been promoted to sporting director and would immediately become Markgraf’s boss. Continue reading...

Atlantic City authorities have demolished Donald Trump's former casino and hotel complex after it fell into disrepair. It was closed to the public in 2014. Trump, who opened the building on the oceanfront boardwalk in 1984, lost control of it in a 2009 bankruptcy Continue reading...

Colorado City mayor Tom Boyd ranted on Facebook that he was ‘sick and tired of people looking for a damn handout’A Texas mayor has resigned after telling residents of his city to “Get off your ass and take care of your own family!” in the face of a devastating once-in-a-generation winter storm that has killed more than 20 people across the country and left millions without power in the state.Related: Anger mounts over Texas power blackouts as cold maintains its grip Continue reading...

Vice-president also touts speed with which government is sending Covid-19 vaccines to states, a 57% increase since the inaugurationKamala Harris has sent a message to residents of Texas and other states hit by power outages and prolonged winter conditions that help is on the way.“I just want to mention all of those folks in Texas and the mid-Atlantic,” the vice-president said in a live interview on Wednesday morning on NBC’s Today show, her first national network interview since taking office. Continue reading...

US firm to spend $1bn converting plant in Cologne to become its first electric vehicle facility in EuropeFord has pledged that all of its cars on sale in Europe will be electric by 2030, in the latest move by the world’s biggest auto manufacturers to set out plans to move away from polluting internal combustion engines before looming bans on fossil-fuel vehicles across the world.The US car giant said on Wednesday that it was going “all in” on electric vehicles and would invest $1bn (£720m) converting a vehicle assembly plant in Cologne, Germany, to become its first electric vehicle facility in Europe. It said the first all-electric cars would start rolling off the production line there in 2023. Continue reading...

Joe Biden said that enough vaccine doses to inoculate every American would be available by late July. Plus: ferocious winter weather has killed 21 people and left millions without power

Raising the wage is a moral issue. How is it legal to pay a full-time employee working 40 hours a week less than $15,000 a year?The minimum wage is a moral issue masquerading as an economic one. Stone-cold capitalism does not demand a minimum wage, any more than it demands child labor laws or workplace safety. Rather, we demand a minimum wage, due to the belief that there must be a floor on human dignity. The public debate on the issue should always happen on those terms, lest we allow it to slide into the insincere wasteland of “What’s best for small business,” where all ideas good for working people go to die.America’s federal minimum wage today sits at $7.25 an hour, unchanged since 2009. In that time we have been through an economic crash, a slow, decade-long recovery and another economic crash, and after all of that it is still legal to pay a full-time employee working 40 hours a week for 50 weeks less than $15,000 a year. Our nation’s billionaires have gained more than a trillion dollars in wealth in the past year, but there are full-time workers who have lived with the same poverty wage since before Barack Obama had any grey hair. Anyone who is not actively trying to raise the minimum wage is asserting that this sickening juxtaposition is OK. It’s not. Continue reading...

The state has the largest homeless population in the US and Covid-19 has exposed how precarious the safety net isThis project was made in partnership with Family Promise, a national nonprofit dedicated to helping homeless and low-income families.The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated a kind of homelessness that is often invisible – individuals and families living in their cars, motels, crowded shelters, or even doubled up with relatives or friends.It is a reality faced by millions of people across America, but especially acutely in California, which has the country’s largest homeless population. Continue reading...

As we commemorate Black History Month, my mind goes back to the NBA players whose beliefs and principles cost them their careersI recently interviewed former NBA player Matt Barnes for my show The Rematch, where he discussed meeting with Joe Biden before November’s presidential election. Barnes and a coalition of prominent Black influencers including billionaire businessman Robert F Smith, CNN’s Van Jones, Charlamagne tha God and film director Deon Taylor pushed Biden on subjects such as the 1994 Crime Bill, making sure he and Kamala Harris would be held accountable for their policies around race and social justice moving forward. Continue reading...

Staff at St James parish hospital have struggled to handle the surge of Covid patients – and despite the arrival of vaccines, problems persistThe “heroes work here” sign in front of St James parish hospital is long gone, along with open intensive care unit beds in the state of Louisiana.Staffers at the rural hospital spent hours each day in January calling larger hospitals in search of the elusive beds for Covid-19 patients. They leveraged personal connections and begged nurses elsewhere to take patients they know are beyond their hospital’s care level. Continue reading...