Elected officials and human rights groups in renewed plea for end to federal executions after Bernard, 40, put to death in IndianaA wave of outrage from human rights group, activists, elected officials, and others over the execution Thursday night of federal prisoner Brandon Bernard continued to grow on Friday behind a coordinated call for the abolition of the death penalty.Related: First US Covid vaccinations expected next week as FDA emergency approval appears close – live Continue reading...
Republican and Democratic attorneys general of four US states urged the supreme court to reject a lawsuit from Texas aiming to overturn the election result. Plus, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are Time’s person of the yearGood morning.Republican and Democratic attorneys general in the states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have urged the US supreme court to reject a lawsuit filed by Texas that aims to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory. Pennsylvania’s Democratic attorney general, Josh Shapiro, said the lawsuit contained a “mass of baseless claims” that had already been widely rejected by the courts, and said it was adding to a “cacophony of ” about the election. But the lawsuit still has some support; more than 100 Republican members of the House filed an amicus brief with the court in support of the Texas lawsuit on Thursday. Continue reading...
The Village will serve a range of needs in a region grappling with a history of erasure: ‘There’s nothing like it anywhere’The Bay Area is among the most racially and ethnically diverse regions in the US, but it is only slowly grappling with its self-understanding as a home for significant populations of Native Americans. An ambitious project is hoping to help address a challenge that the region’s Native population has grappled with since the occupation of Alcatraz Island in the late 1960s and early 70s: a crisis of invisibility.The Village, a multi-year project with funding from the philanthropic investor Kat Taylor (who is married to Tom Steyer, the billionaire financier and brief Democratic presidential hopeful), is intended to become a center of Native culture and heritage. The effort is an outgrowth of the Mission District’s 57-year-old Friendship House, which describes itself as “the longest-running social-service organization in the United States run by and for American Indians”. Continue reading...
Progressives dismayed that Biden would consider a man they accuse of deepening inequality and covering up a police killingOf all the names bouncing around as prospects yet to be tapped for the incoming Biden-Harris administration, there’s one triggering intense emotion, especially in his home town.Related: Hunter Biden says US attorney’s office is investigating his tax affairs Continue reading...
Two years ago it looked like the team would be moved 1,000 miles to Texas for commercial reasons. Now the Crew are showing what supporters can achieveComebacks make for great sporting tales and in winning the Eastern Conference, and progressing to the 2020 MLS Cup final, the Columbus Crew completed a remarkable turnaround. But their comeback wasn’t from a goal or two down. No, the Crew came back from the brink of extinction. Or relocation, at least.Next season will see Austin FC join Major League Soccer as the competition’s 27th franchise and Columbus fans know the new club’s owner, Anthony Precourt, well. It was Precourt who, in his five years as Crew owner, proposed moving the Ohio club 1,200 miles south to Texas. He saw more commercial potential in Austin than in Columbus, where there has been a league club since 1995. Continue reading...
The trailblazing college football player says her background in soccer and the support of her family helped her make history this seasonAfter three consecutive years of injuries, Sarah Fuller was just hoping to piece together her first full season for Vanderbilt University women’s soccer team in 2020.On 28 November she did a bit more than that when, as a last-minute replacement due to a Covid-19 outbreak, the 21-year-old goalkeeper became the first female athlete to play in the Power 5, the highest level of college football. Fuller and her soccer team had clinched their season with a conference title just six days earlier when she took the field for the halftime kickoff for the men’s football team with a helmet bearing the words “Play like a girl”. Continue reading...
With the pandemic raging and budgets tight, the sometimes loved, sometimes loathed festive tradition is having to adaptAfter a year that has upended work life for millions of Americans, many companies are still keen to show appreciation for their employees with a holiday party.But with the pandemic still raging across the US and budgets tight, this year the sometimes loved, sometimes loathed festive tradition is getting a socially distanced online makeover. Continue reading...
Incoming president and his vice-president earn recognition, and follow in footsteps of Barack Obama and Donald TrumpJoe Biden and Kamala Harris have been named Time magazine’s person – or persons – of the year for 2020.The magazine said: “Together, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris offered restoration and renewal in a single ticket. And America bought what they were selling: after the highest turnout in a century, they racked up 81 million votes and counting, the most in presidential history, topping Trump by some 7 million votes and flipping five battleground states.” Continue reading...
‘It’s about democratic values,’ says founder of Vote Forward, which urges voters to the polls without getting politicalEach election season as campaigns ramp up get-out-the-vote efforts, socially awkward Americans face a dilemma: is it possible to help salvage democracy without having to cold-call anyone?The letter-writing organization Vote Forward offers a solution. This year, the non-profit says, it inspired more than 182,000 people to send more than 17m personalized letters encouraging others to exercise their rights. Continue reading...
Attorneys general from both parties reject baseless allegations in case filed with US supreme courtGeorgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin on Thursday urged the US supreme court to reject a lawsuit filed by Texas and backed by Donald Trump seeking to undo Joe Biden’s victory, saying the case has no factual or legal grounds and makes “bogus” claims.“What Texas is doing in this proceeding is to ask this court to reconsider a mass of baseless claims about problems with the election that have already been considered, and rejected, by this court and other courts,” Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s Democratic attorney general, wrote in a filing to the nine justices. Continue reading...
Republican attempts to undermine Biden’s victory through legal action are on their last legs – but they’ve caused lasting damageHello Fight to Vote readers,It feels like this election has lasted about 20 years, but we’re finally in the last few days. Tuesday was the “Safe Harbor” deadline, when most election disputes must be resolved. And on Monday, the electoral college will finally cast its votes, all but securing the president-elect’s position. Continue reading...
President-elect’s son, who has been targeted by Trump for unproven corruption charges, said he handled his affairs ‘legally and appropriately’President-elect Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, said on Wednesday that the US attorney’s office in Delaware had opened an investigation into his “tax affairs”.Hunter Biden, who has long been a target of Donald Trump and his allies, said he had learned about the federal investigation on Tuesday from his lawyer, who was informed of the matter by the US attorney’s office earlier that day. Continue reading...
State criticizes ‘brazen federal overreach’ after DoJ report details serious violence to which officials are ‘deliberately indifferent’The US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against Alabama over conditions in the state prisons, saying the state is failing to protect inmates from violence and excessive force at the hands of prison staff.The lawsuit alleges that conditions in the prison system – which the justice department called one of the most understaffed and violent in the country – are so poor that they violate the ban on cruel and unusual punishment and that state officials are “deliberately indifferent” to the problems. The lawsuit comes after the justice department twice released investigative reports that accused the state of violating prisoners’ rights. Continue reading...
Democracy is seriously under threat in our countries. The EU must stand up to the bullying tactics of Orbán and MorawieckiAs European leaders gather in Brussels this week municipal buildings and monuments in Warsaw and Budapest have been lit up in blue. The illuminations, organised by campaign groups and the mayors of these cities, are meant as a powerful reminder of the dark path ahead if the EU stands aside while the rule of law is extinguished in Poland and Hungary. The lights are a call for solidarity with the millions of citizens of both countries who argue that EU funding should be conditional on their governments upholding these fundamental rights.The release of €1.8tn in EU funds for rebuilding after the pandemic and the EU’s 2021-2027 budget is at stake. So far agreement has been derailed by Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Poland’s Mateusz Morawiecki because of their unwillingness to accept that membership of the EU depends on upholding democratic values. Continue reading...
The Native American congresswoman from New Mexico has worked across the aisle is backed by environmentalistsOccasionally presidents have a chance to make choices that change the way we view things – one of those opportunities comes in the next few days, when Joe Biden is expected to name the next secretary of the interior.The interior department dates back to 1849 and President Zachary Taylor. Largely forgotten now (in part because he died after 16 months in office), Taylor had first come to prominence fighting in the Black Hawk war, which led to the policy of “removing” Native Americans to the far side of the Mississippi, and then as a general in the Second Seminole war, where he fought the Battle of Lake Okeechobee. Over the years its secretaries have ranged from the corrupt (Albert Fall, of Teapot Dome fame) to the remarkable (Stewart Udall, who in the 1960s became the most persuasive champion of conservation the government ever had) to the unpleasant (James Watt, Reagan’s choice, who lost his job when he explained to a Chamber of Commerce gathering that one of his agencies boasted “a black, two Jews, and a cripple”). Continue reading...
The government’s hopes of turning India into the world’s workshop for global corporations are being strongly resistedThe scene is almost festive. Kanwar Grewal, a popular Punjabi singer, is on the stage performing in front of a spellbound audience. The show is routine for someone like him, but the setting is unusual. The makeshift stage is a table, a set of borrowed speakers and a microphone, all hurriedly assembled on a roadside kerb. He performs without special stage effects or background music; the song is a resounding call to protect the rights of farmers and protest against the new farm laws – a genre different from his familiar oeuvre of Sufi songs.This scene is neither exceptional nor limited to one artist. It has become commonplace in the past months, especially in the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana, as massive protests mount against the deregulation of the agricultural sector. The vast assembly of protesters during a relentless pandemic might seem reckless. But it is more a sign of desperation that thousands of famers and workers have camped for weeks at the borders of Delhi during a harsh winter and the risk of contagion. They show no sign of turning back. Continue reading...
The pandemic has devastated small businesses across the US, and San Francisco’s Chinatown has been particularly hard-hitIron gates and metal doors appeared to shutter the fronts of every other shop, their once-bustling entrances overflowing with brightly colored knickknacks now quiet and tightly contained. Some art stores still had ornate sculptures visible, collecting dust in the dark behind the gates. Others were completely empty, cavernous and blank.Related: Fatigued Californians are back in lockdown. Will it work? Continue reading...
Hunter Biden reveals US attorney’s office has launched investigation into his tax affairs, following months of corruption allegations from Trump. Plus, US hospitals at crisis pointGood morning.The US attorney’s office has launched an investigation into the tax affairs of Hunter Biden, son of the president-elect, Joe Biden. Hunter Biden has long been a target of Donald Trump’s, who has regularly pushed unproven claims of corruption, eventually leading to his own impeachment. Yesterday, the president tweeted a quote which said “10% of voters would have changed their vote if they knew about Hunter Biden”, while the younger Biden said he was “confident” a review would prove he had handled his tax affairs “legally and appropriately”. Continue reading...
This week’s roundup also features snooker deciders, somersault throw-ins and the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers1) RIP Paolo Rossi. The Italian football great’s death was announced on Thursday. Judging by this Fifa short film from 2018, he was also a wise man to boot. He is best remembered for leading Italy to World Cup glory in 1982, nabbing the Golden Boot and the Golden Ball (for best player) – here are his six goals from that tournament, including the hat-trick against Brazil. “Coming second is the same as coming 20th,” he says in this interview from last year at his home in Tuscany. At club level he was most associated with Juventus and Milan but was the top scorer – Capocannoniere – in Serie A in 1977-78, helping newly promoted Vicenza finish second. A legend of the game.2) Peter Alliss died last week at the age of 89. What was the legendary commentator’s secret to success? “I just waffle along, loving the game of golf,” he said in 2012. Some of Alliss’s highlights: trying to sum up Jean van de Velde’s infamous Carnoustie collapse, watching Tom Kite battle with a bank at Wentworth and covering Miguel Ángel Jiménez’s unusual warm-up. Alliss was also a fine golfer in his own right before his commentary career. He shares a host of useful tips in these delightfully retro videos, and his swing is the subject of this clip from 1968. In the booth, Alliss always enjoyed an amusing aside, whether trying out a cockney accent or offering tips to a youngster, but he could tackle the serious stuff too. In 2009 he visited Seve Ballesteros at his home in Spain for an enlightening and emotional interview. Continue reading...
The division is one of the worst in the history of the NFL, but two of its teams would pose a real threat in the postseasonThe 2020 edition of the NFC East is on track to be one of the worst divisions in NFL history.The New York Giants and Washington are tied at the top of the division at 5-7, the four teams have a combined 16-31 record, and the division as a whole has a point-differential of -209. Only the 2010 NFC West and 2014 NFC South come close to that level of collective ineptitude. Continue reading...
Disputed post accusing Democrats of cheating was retweeted within minutes by Chinese official accountThe Chinese embassy in the US has said its Twitter account was hacked after it retweeted a baseless claim by Donald Trump accusing the Democrats of cheating in the election.Late on Wednesday night in the US, Trump posted: “If somebody cheated in the election, which the Democrats did, why wouldn’t the election be immediately overturned? How can a country be run like this?” Continue reading...
I feel pride, but can’t shake my sense of failure that the World Food Programme’s media moment comes as hunger ragesI have done the usual things you do before an awards ceremony. After extensive high-level consultation, I think I now have the right suit and tie. Carefully folded in my pocket is a long list of people to praise, many far more deserving of praise than I. I am ready.Growing up in a small South Carolina town, I never imagined life would bring me to this moment and allow me to be part of the wonderful, blessed enterprise I have found in WFP, the World Food Programme. Continue reading...
Georgians from both parties describe violent and sexual threats to themselves and their families as militias make their presence knownOn 1 December Gabriel Sterling, a Republican election official in Georgia, stood on the steps of the state capitol in Atlanta and let rip on Donald Trump.“Mr President, it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia,” he said, contradicting Trump’s increasingly unhinged claim that he had won the presidential race against all evidence. Continue reading...
The populists of Budapest and Warsaw are blackmailing the EU over the rule of law. They cannot be allowed to succeed“Brexit means Brexit” – the mantra of the former British prime minister Theresa May – deserves a place in philosophy textbooks as the most meaningless sentence ever to contain the word “means”. But let’s not fool ourselves that when we finally discover if there is to be a minimal UK-EU trade deal, or no deal, we will then know what Brexit means. It will be five years at least, and probably 10, before we see a clear outline of the new relationship between the offshore islands and the continent. By then the EU may be a very different community, and the UK may not exist.In a further referendum that is likely to happen in the next few years, the Scots will decide whether they want to leave the 300-year-old union with England and rejoin the European one. If they vote for independence, despite the attendant economic difficulties, then the UK will effectively cease to be. Any British politician who wants the Scots to stick with the English must soon present a different, federal model of the British union as the alternative to independence. So the choice will be the end of the UK or a new Federal Kingdom of Britain. (Federal United Kingdom produces an unfortunate acronym.) Continue reading...
Tai, the chief trade counsel for the House ways and means committee, previously set US strategy in trade disputes with ChinaJoe Biden is set to nominate Katherine Tai to be the top US trade envoy, according to two people familiar with his plans. Continue reading...
University, which has been at forefront of Covid-19 response, took pride in founder purportedly being an abolitionistJohns Hopkins University, whose researchers have been at the forefront of the global response to Covid-19, announced on Wednesday that its founder owned slaves during the 19th century, a revelation for the Baltimore-based school that had taken pride in the man purportedly being a staunch abolitionist. Continue reading...
Austin, who would be the first African American to lead the Pentagon, faces resistance from some DemocratsJoe Biden on Wednesday formally nominated Lloyd Austin, a retired four-star army general and the former commander of the American military effort in Iraq, to be his defense secretary, casting him as uniquely qualified to lead a diverse military at a particularly challenging moment for the nation and the world. Continue reading...
Republicans in Congress cling to hope that electoral college event will prompt Trump to admit to the realities of the election resultsFirst Republicans in Congress gave Donald Trump a week to admit he lost the presidential election. Then they called for the lame duck president to have his day in court, where the Trump campaign amassed a 1-51 win-loss record in challenging Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.Next Republicans pointed to the so-called “safe harbor” deadline of 8 December, when states would certify their respective results, as the date when Trump would surely be forced to admit his loss. But that deadline came and went on Tuesday, seemingly unnoticed by the White House. Continue reading...
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have formally introduced Lloyd Austin as the nominee to become US defense secretary.The retired general, who will be the first African American to steer the Pentagon, said he appreciated 'the prevailing wisdom of civilian control' of the US military
After being elected vice-president, the Democratic senator from California is now listed below Christine Lagarde and Angela MerkelKamala Harris has become the third most powerful woman in the world by virtue of being elected as America’s next vice-president, according to the latest rankings of a popular annual power list.The Democratic senator from California was catapulted right into the No 3 spot for her debut on Forbes magazine’s world’s 100 most powerful women list. She appears just below Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who made the top spot for the 10th straight year, in the 2020 list published this week. Continue reading...
Trump will leave office having executed about a quarter of death-row prisoners, despite waning US support for capital punishmentAs Donald Trump’s presidency winds down, his administration is ratcheting up the pace of federal executions despite a surge of coronavirus cases in prisons, announcing plans for five starting Thursday and concluding just days before the 20 January inauguration of the president-elect, Joe Biden.If the five go off as planned, it will make 13 executions since July when the Republican administration resumed putting inmates to death after a 17-year hiatus and will cement Trump’s legacy as the most prolific execution president in over 130 years. Continue reading...
The president’s ‘vaccine summit’ was notable for its absentees amid revelations that he had spent $14bn on insufficient dosesDonald Trump leaves office exactly how he entered it: catastrophically clueless about how his own government and country works.You might think that after grappling with a historic pandemic for most of his final year in office, the hapless and hopeless occupant of the Oval Office would have picked up a little experience. Continue reading...
Suspensions and demand for changes prompted by widespread pattern of violence, including murder and sexual assaultThe US army has fired or suspended 14 officers and enlisted soldiers at its Fort Hood, Texas, base and ordered policy changes to address chronic failures of leadership that contributed to a widespread pattern of violence, including murder, sexual assault and harassment.In a sweeping condemnation of Fort Hood’s command hierarchy, the army secretary, Ryan McCarthy, fired three top commanders and suspended two others pending a further investigation. Continue reading...
First black mayor of New York who sought racial harmony against a background of economic upheaval and rising crimeDavid Dinkins, the first black mayor of New York City, who has died aged 93, was in many ways the right man at the wrong time. His single term as mayor of the city he called “a gorgeous mosaic”, from 1990 until 1993, was a period of chaos for New York, consumed by a then-huge deficit of $1.8bn, the flight of business and money, a soaring murder rate and the seeming constant provocation of racial and ethnic conflict. Dinkins’ political personality was that of a conciliator, cautious and dignified, which contrasted starkly with his predecessor, Ed Koch, and indeed his successor, Rudy Giuliani, both of whom were as aggressive, abrasive and assertive as the population they represented.This image had been Dinkins’ selling point in 1989 to New York’s Democratic party. But during his mayoralty, as New York’s melting pot became a crucible, Dinkins was unable to make the sort of crucial gesture that might have calmed the city, like John Lindsay’s walk through Harlem in 1968 after Martin Luther King’s assassination sparked riots in other cities. Continue reading...
In a holiday shopping season with rampant rates of Covid-19 infection, we must protect frontline workers before it’s too lateThere are few scenes more sordid than the surging wealth gains of the world’s billionaire class during an unprecedented pandemic when millions have lost their lives, health, and livelihoods.As the US heads into another wave of Covid-19 infections, the wealth of 650 American billionaires has increased by over $1tn since mid-March, the beginning of the pandemic lockdowns. Continue reading...
It’s been a hugely unpredictable environment – but businesses are investing, and optimism remains strongThere’s no question that the efforts of this country’s healthcare and frontline workers during the coronavirus pandemic has been inspirational. But one other group has also inspired me: the nation’s small business owners.Related: Watch out for the paycheck protection program's tax sting in the tail | Gene Marks Continue reading...
US news | The Guardian