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Termination of Christopher Krebs comes amid removals of high-level officials seen as insufficiently loyal to the presidentDonald Trump has fired the director of the federal agency that vouched for the reliability of the 2020 election and pushed back on the president’s baseless claims of voter fraud.Trump fired Christopher Krebs, who served as the director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa), in a tweet on Tuesday, saying Krebs “has been terminated” and that his recent statement defending the security of the election was “highly inaccurate”. Continue reading...

The president refuses to acknowledge Biden’s win, but experts say there is no constitutional path forward for him to remain in the White HouseJoe Biden won the presidential election, a fact that Donald Trump and other Republicans refuse to acknowledge.There are worries the president and other Republicans will make every effort to stay in power. “There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration,” Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, said last week. William Barr, the attorney general, has also authorized federal prosecutors to begin to investigate election irregularities, a move that prompted the head of the justice department’s election crimes unit to step down from his position and move to another role. On Tuesday, Trump fired Christopher Krebs, the director of the federal agency that vouched for the reliability of the 2020 election and had pushed back on the president’s baseless claims of voter fraud. Continue reading...

Over 100 California-based photographers came together to document their home state, from the properties of tech billionaires to festivals for ‘blessed’ cats Continue reading...

When Jill Biden, 69, heads to the White House in January, she will be the first to continue her career while in the roleJill Biden has gone to great lengths to keep her status as a political spouse under the radar from her students, to whom she is known simply as “Dr B”. Continue reading...

Like the deranged King George III, the QAnon lionheart has lost America“He went mad and lost America”. A conventional summary of King George III, the tragic figure who took on the colonies, sending in his troops to “dominate” the streets and crush resistance. Alas, the war of independence didn’t end well, for George anyway. Defeated, bipolar, suffering frequent manic episodes, he retreated to Windsor Castle having nevertheless amassed an impressive library and a reputation for cultured intelligence.A couple of centuries and 45 presidents later, Old King Trump sits barricaded in the White House doing nothing much. His face puckered into that trademark rosebud of petulance. Barking at underlings. Pretending HE won because a lot of Democrat votes were from dead people and very illegal. His sulky-toddler folded arms, like that time he refused to say a single kind word when fellow Republican and war hero John McCain died. There’s something almost majestic about Trump’s utter contempt for the office of president. Continue reading...

The chief executive officers of Twitter and Facebook appear before a US Senate hearing to testify about allegations of anti-conservative bias and their handling of the 2020 election. Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg face questioning for the second time in as many months, with Republican lawmakers alleging – without evidence – censorship of conservative views

Supreme court justices ruled observers were not blocked from the counting and also reversed a decision allowing observers within 6ftPhiladelphia election officials did not improperly block Donald Trump’s campaign from observing the counting of mail-in ballots, the Pennsylvania supreme court ruled on Tuesday, a major blow to the president’s already flailing legal efforts. Continue reading...

The outgoing president reportedly asked for options on bombing Iran as administration eyes last chance to achieve objectivesFears that Donald Trump might try to wreak havoc on the world stage in his final, desperate, weeks in office appear to have been well-founded, after he reportedly asked for options on bombing Iran. Continue reading...

Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg were subpoenaed to the Senate hearing to ‘review the companies’ handling of the 2020 election’The chief executive officers of Twitter and Facebook took the stand on Tuesday to testify, again, about allegations of anti-conservative bias on their platforms.Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey were subpoenaed in October to appear at Tuesday’s hearing with the Senate judiciary committee in order to “review the companies’ handling of the 2020 election”. Continue reading...

President-elect and Kamala Harris promised to build White House team that ‘looks like America’, to reflect shifting demographicsJoe Biden, the US president-elect, made another sharp break from Donald Trump on Tuesday by naming a White House senior staff that “looks like America”, including several women and people of colour.Related: Trump Pennsylvania court hearing due as Biden sharpens criticism of concession refusal – live updates Continue reading...

Georgia’s secretary of state says Republican senator indicated state should find ways to exclude legal, mail-in ballots in recountDemocrats and political observers were quick to condemn the Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, after it was reported that he pressured Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to exclude ballots in the state’s presidential recount.Related: Trump Pennsylvania court hearing due as Biden announces more staff appointments – live Continue reading...

As our maps and charts show, Trump not only lost to Joe Biden – he lost to other Republicans on the ballotAfter four years of Donald Trump’s presidency, many voters who typically vote Republican turned against him.For example, in Winnebago county, Wisconsin, about 72% of voters cast their ballot for the Republican House candidate – either Glenn Grothman or Mike Gallagher, depending on where they live. But just 52% cast their vote for Trump. Continue reading...

Live streams of the count aren’t a new phenomenon – but after Trump’s baseless vote fraud claims, some are wondering if this method of transparency is too vulnerableAt a vote-counting center in Montgomery county, Maryland, a man sat in a room with other election workers, wearing a grey hat and dark purple rubber gloves. He unfolded a ballot, looked around and leaned forward to mark it. The man appeared on a Yahoo Finance livestream of the center. The video went viral, one version ending up on YouTube, where the narrator said they found it on 4chan.“Do you notice that, folks?” said the narrator. “How he looks around to see if anyone is watching him – as if he’s about to commit a crime?” Continue reading...

Doctors and nurses say order puts lives in danger, amid a Covid surge and a statewide shortage of healthcare workers

The prime minister’s remarks about Scottish devolution are those of a man who is his own disloyal backbencherI see Boris Johnson continues to be a thorn in the prime minister’s side. It has been his political role for more than a decade, so maybe we shouldn’t be surprised at Johnson’s continued failure to act in the government’s interest. Sabotage is his middle name. Sorry – de Sabotage.The departure of the spudhead spads last Friday was supposed to reset the current government. Unfortunately, however, the problem of Boris Johnson remains. Or to put it another way: despite the expulsion of Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain, the call is still coming from inside the house. The past couple of days have been an object lesson in how difficult it is for a government to get things back on an even keel when you have a character like Boris Johnson saying cosmically inept things in public. I mean, are needless firefights cheaper by the dozen? We have to ask after Boris Johnson told a Zoom call of 67 northern MPs on Monday that devolution has been “a disaster north of the border” and was “Tony Blair’s biggest mistake” (inaccurate, but we move on). Continue reading...

In an interview marking the launch of his memoir A Promised Land, Barack Obama tells Oprah Winfrey that the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will help lead the US back to the 'competent, caring government we so badly need'.He lamented the standard of governance over the past four years, saying Biden and Harris will 'level set' and show that the presidency will not label journalists 'enemies of the state' or 'routinely lie'

In interview about new memoir, Obama says ‘I am sympathetic to a certain strain of conservatism’ and lauds ‘gracious’ George BushIn an interview with the Atlantic to mark publication of his memoir A Promised Land, Barack Obama ponders Joe Biden’s chances of working with Republicans in Congress, comes close to admitting to being a never-Trump conservative himself – and compares America under Trump to Central Asia under Genghis Khan.“If we were going to have a rightwing populist in this country,” Obama says, “I would have expected somebody a little more appealing.” Continue reading...

A slew of famous media defectors who jumped onto the platform recently raises the question of whether Substack can address media’s woesI started a Substack two weeks ago and it’s going better than I thought it would. Friends texted me: “Congratulations on the launch.” To which, I responded: “Heh, thanks it’s a blog.” Another pinged: “You joined the movement!” The best reaction was an encouraging tweet from fellow Substacker, Michelle Lhooq: “Let us all welcome [Sean] to the Substack stripper pole, where writers dance for our readers loose change and tell ourselves we’re the future of media hehe.”Related: Macron accuses English-language media of 'legitimising' violence in France Continue reading...

Outgoing president reported to have looked at military options against Tehran and its allies

Republican senator asked Georgia’s secretary of state about discounting legal ballots after Trump’s narrow loss in the state. Plus, the president considered striking IranGood morning. Georgia’s secretary of state has said that the Republican senator Lindsey Graham asked him if it was possible to throw out legal ballots, following Donald Trump’s narrow defeat in the state.In an explosive interview with the Washington Post, Brad Raffensperger said he was “stunned” by the question, in which Graham appeared to suggest that he find a way to reject legally cast absentee ballots. “It sure looked like he was wanting to go down that road,” he said. Graham, who is chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, confirmed the conversation to reporters on Capitol Hill but said accusations he had pressured Raffensperger to throw out ballots was “ridiculous”. Continue reading...

LGBTQ+ immigrants say officials have failed to address discrimination, and that an inadequate response to Covid is compounding their miseryIt was August, and Katalina stood sobbing in the middle of the cell at the La Palma immigration detention center. She tried not to touch anything – she had seen guards escort out a man who was coughing and trembling just minutes before. Continue reading...

An investigation alleges that despite accusers reporting assaults, officials often ignored the reports and denied accusers’ requests for protectionA new investigation details how administrators at Louisiana State University (LSU) ignored several allegations of sexual assault against prominent student athletes. Continue reading...

Biden wins election, while Georgia recounts, and Trump refuses to formally concede Continue reading...

US players are winning more respect on the pitch, but Apple TV’s recent comedy shows the ridicule reserved for their coaching counterparts is still alive and wellThe joke is a familiar one. A tired one. “AFC Richmond is gonna give you everything we got, win or lose,” the fictional, American soccer caricature Ted Lasso explains in the first episode of the Apple TV+ series of the same name, at which point he is reminded by a reporter that this is a sport with draws. “Right, y’all do ties here,” he responds, the punchline presumably being Americans know nothing about the sport.There are countless moments like this throughout the show based on a character first portrayed by Jason Sudeikis in a series of promos for NBC Sports’ Premier League coverage. The notion of American ignorance towards soccer is the comedic crux of the whole thing. It’s what draws the majority of the laughs. Continue reading...

Some Republicans worry that claims of election fraud could backfire in Georgia and could even depress Republican turnoutDonald Trump’s refusal to admit defeat in the 2020 presidential election won’t stop president-elect Joe Biden from taking office in January. But it is having a lasting and divisive impact on the American electorate and that might be exactly what Republicans have in mind as they gear up for a Democratic White House.Biden has easily surpassed the 270 electoral vote threshold needed to win the the presidency and he has won millions more raw votes than Trump. Continue reading...

It seems the only way to get on to a government race body is to deny racism even exists – especially if you’re a person of colourJoe Biden and Kamala Harris’s election victory may be a signal that Americans are ready to leave Donald Trump’s inflammatory “race war” politics behind, but it’s clear that in the UK, disunity and culture wars are still driving forces behind Boris Johnson’s government.Last week a damning parliamentary report spoke of the shameful state of racism and human rights for Black people in the UK. Yet on the very same day the equalities minister, Liz Truss, appointed a supporter of the Home Office’s “hostile environment” to Britain’s race equality watchdog. David Goodhart, who denies that racism and Islamophobia are significant problems in the UK, was chosen as one of four new commissioners on the Equality and Human Rights Commission. He also believes white self-interest is not the same as racism, and that white people who want to reduce immigration to maintain population share have a legitimate group interest. Continue reading...

How Republicans applied old school racism to new demographics, and lost

‘The idea the president is still playing golf and not doing anything about it is beyond my comprehension. You’d think he’d at least want to go off on a positive note’, US president-elect, Joe Biden, said after a meeting with CEOs and labor leaders. ‘I find this more embarrassing for the country than debilitating for my ability to get started’, he said. Biden warned that if outgoing president Donald Trump continues blocking a US transition of power as the coronavirus pandemic worsens, 'more people may die'.

Brad Raffensperger says the Republican senator asked if he had the authority to toss out all mail-in ballots in certain countiesGeorgia’s secretary of state Brad Raffensperger has said that Senator Lindsey Graham asked whether it was possible to invalidate legally cast ballots after Donald Trump was narrowly defeated in the state.In an interview with the Washington Post, Raffensperger said that his fellow Republican, the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, questioned him about the state’s signature-matching law and asked whether political bias might have played a role in counties where poll workers accepted higher rates of mismatched signatures. According to Raffensperger, Graham then asked whether he had the authority to toss out all mail-in ballots in these counties. Continue reading...

President-elect warns ‘we are going into a very dark winter’ as president tries to take credit for Moderna’s Covid vaccine

Rolls-Royce, Whitbread and IAG end day as top risers in London, up by 10%

It’s time to start a critical self-assessment of our analyses and commentary of the past years. What held up and what didn’t?A March on Rome it was not. The “Million Maga March” attracted an estimated 5-10,000 people, far less than the roughly 30,000 fascists that marched from Naples to Rome in 1922, and it came nowhere near the “million” it had promised – despite the usual number-boosting from Trumpists. While Mussolini was able to use his march to grab power, this march will not help Trump cling on to power. In fact, Trump was so invested in the march, that his convoy sped past the protesters so that Trump could spend another day at his golf club in Virginia.The Million Maga March is a good reminder of how problematic comparisons with historical fascism are. As soon as Trump became a serious contender for the US presidency, in early 2016, articles and books on the death of democracy/liberalism and the rise of fascism exploded. Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century became a #1 New York Times bestseller and the self-help book for anxious liberals. In 2016, users of the term “fascism” (for Trump) were criticized as fearmongers. Four years later, those not using the term were seen as cowards and enablers. Continue reading...

The Last Week Tonight host debunks Trump’s baseless claims of fraud and warns agains the damage of humoring the presidentJohn Oliver tore into Donald Trump’s “pathetic, dangerous” refusal to acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory on Last Week Tonight, after two weeks of the president’s attempts to delegitimize the results of the election with baseless claims of voter fraud, backed by most congressional Republicans. The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, for example, said Trump is “100% within his rights” to challenge the election result, and chastised Democrats on the Senate floor for “any lectures about how the president should immediately, cheerfully accept preliminary election results from the same characters who just spent four years refusing to accept the validity of the last election”.“First, no one expected Trump to immediately, cheerfully accept the results,” Oliver countered. “He’s incapable of cheerfully accepting anything apart from blowjobs, Nazi endorsements and the opportunity to scream inside a stranger’s truck,” to harken back to a photo-op from two years or what feels like two decades ago. Continue reading...

Having grown up close to Augusta, the new champion’s childhood ambitions always ended with him in a Green JacketThere is no prospect of Dustin Johnson emulating the approach of Bernhard Langer, who turned heads by making a Masters cut at the age of 63 at the weekend. Johnson, the latest member of the exclusive Green Jacket club, is planning an abbreviated career.“I feel really good about everything that I’m doing,” said the 36-year-old world No 1. “I feel really confident in my game. My goal is to play for about – I don’t know, it keeps getting shorter – but eight, nine, maybe 10 years. Then I’ll hang out with my kids and Paulina [Gretzky, Johnson’s partner]. Until then, I’m going to work my butt off to be as good as I can be.” Continue reading...

Trump is urging his supporters to turn to One America News Network as his romance with Fox News soursFor some time now, and particularly since his election loss, the romance between Donald Trump and Fox News has appeared to be souring. The president has depicted Fox News’s actions on election night, and in the days since, as unforgivable acts of betrayal – and is now urging his supporters to turn to One America News Network (OANN), a far-right media outlet .Related: Loyal Trump outlets cry betrayal after Fox News calls election for Biden Continue reading...

John Marriott says Biden must succeed where Blair failed, Richard Yoell points out that Obama was cursed with a hostile and belligerent Senate, Philip Stenning is appalled by the idea of ‘tub-thumping left populism’, and Adam Hart argues that Covid-19 has forced neoliberal regimes to re-evaluateGeorge Monbiot (The US was lucky to get Trump – Biden may pave the way for a more competent autocrat, 11 November) is probably right about Barack Obama paving the way for Donald Trump, because the former failed to tackle big business. I would go even further and say that Tony Blair, another “breath of fresh air” at the time with his Tory-lite policies, more or less paved the way for our Trump – in the form of Brexit.Both politicians had a clear electoral mandate to bring about fundamental changes to their societies: in Blair’s case, to change our parliamentary institutions, as, when it came to corralling business, the UK was very much, and still is, a bit-part player. In the end, his successor handed over a poisoned chalice to the Tory/Lib Dem coalition to attempt to clean up the mess and, after its failure, to face the consequences. Joe Biden, besides confronting neoliberalism, needs to do to his country’s political system what Blair failed to do to his.

Pioneering nonprofit recognised for work to reduce racial inequalities – and to send talent into the US college gameA programme which uses rugby to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in Memphis, Tennessee, was named on Monday as a winner in the Beyond Sport Collective Impact Awards.Related: 'Rugby saved my life': Memphis inner-city project tackles social change Continue reading...