Barack Obama has said that if Donald Trump wants to be remembered as someone who 'put country first' then he must concede the presidency to Joe Biden.Speaking on CBS, the former US president said Trump's actions are 'one more step in delegitimising democracy generally'.
The appointment of a woman with three decades’ experience to a general manager post has been hailed as a groundbreaking moment. Perhaps one day it will just be business as usual“This challenge is one I don’t take lightly,” said Kim Ng, following Friday’s announcement of her hiring as general manager for the Miami Marlins. Ng became the first female general manager in Major League Baseball, and the first East Asian American in a GM role – more than 30 years after starting out as an intern for the Chicago White Sox. Change has been slow within the front offices of America’s national pastime. Ng was already the youngest assistant general manager in MLB for the New York Yankees when she first interviewed for GM in 2005 for a vacancy with the Los Angeles Dodgers. She didn’t get the job. Ng would later interview for general manager positions with the Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres, Anaheim Angels, and San Francisco Giants. Each time the role ultimately went to a white male.Related: Kim Ng hired by Miami Marlins as first female general manager in US sports Continue reading...
The president’s campaign team has withdrawn a key part of its legal challenge to the election result in Pennsylvania. Plus: Obama won’t be in Biden’s cabinetGood morning. The Trump campaign has dropped a central claim in its legal challenge to the election result in Pennsylvania, which formed a key part of Joe Biden’s win. In the run-up to a hearing on Tuesday, the president’s legal team withdrew its claim that more than 680,000 absentee ballots were illegally processed without campaign representatives watching. However, the campaign team still hopes to block Pennsylvania, with its 20 electoral college votes, from confirming a victory for Biden. Continue reading...
The Pittsburgh Steelers head coach is yet to record a losing season in the NFL. His ability to adapt and thrive is an example to his peersNo practice, no problem.At least that’s how the Steelers made it look as they cruised to a 36-10 victory over the Bengals on Sunday. The win took the Steelers to a perfect 9-0 record for the season, and it’s time to start whispering about – if not discussing – the possibility of an unprecedented 17-0 season. And all this in a week in which Mike Tomlin’s team was forced to practice without their quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger. Continue reading...
There has been a surprising lack of volatility during the pandemic and US election, but this could changeWith alternative assets such as gold and Bitcoin thriving in the pandemic, some top economists are predicting a sharp fall in the US dollar. This could yet happen. But so far, despite inconsistent US management of the pandemic, massive deficit spending for economic catastrophe relief, and monetary easing that the Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell says has “crossed a lot of red lines”, core dollar exchange rates have been eerily calm. Even the ongoing election drama has not had much impact. Traders and journalists may be getting worked up about the greenback’s daily travails, but for those of us who study longer-term exchange-rate trends, their reactions to date amount to much ado about nothing.To be sure, the euro has appreciated by roughly 6% against the dollar so far in 2020, but that is peanuts compared with the wild gyrations that took place after the 2008 financial crisis, when the dollar fluctuated between $1.58 and $1.07 to the euro. Similarly, the yen-dollar exchange rate has hardly moved during the pandemic, but varied between ¥90 and ¥123 to the dollar in the great recession. And a broad dollar exchange-rate index against all US trading partners is currently sitting at roughly its mid-February level. Continue reading...
The US system has survived four years of a norm-busting president by the skin of its teeth – which areas need most urgent attention?On 7 November the United States pulled back from the brink of re-electing a president who has repeatedly shown disdain for democratic norms and institutions. Donald Trump has fused his own business interests with the White House, dubbed the media “enemies of the people”, embraced foreign strongmen, sidelined science and politicized the justice department, falsely cast doubt on the electoral process and is currently distinguishing himself as the first sitting president since 1800 to frustrate a peaceful transition of power. Continue reading...
Former US president Barack Obama discusses how his marriage was affected by the constant pressures that come with being US president.In an interview for Apple TV, Obama told Oprah Winfrey he and wife Michelle 'went through our rough patches in the White House ... but I tell you that the thing that I think we were good about was talking stuff through, never losing fundamental love and respect for each other, and prioritising our kids'
US institutions have a record that is far too patchy to wager the country’s democratic future onWhat started on a golden escalator five years ago ended in the parking lot of a garden design company next to a sex shop and across the street from a crematorium. The Four Seasons Total Landscaping incident – someone appeared to have booked a gardening services’ purveyor instead of the luxury Four Seasons hotel – was heavy with symbolism, and perfectly timed.The colossal joke triggered a sort of joyous breaking of a fever, as the power of the Trump administration ebbed away in front of the assembled cameras. The tension caused by the red mirage of Trump’s strong early showing during the election melted away, and all that remained was laughter. Social media rejoiced in the symbolic diminishment of Trump. Serious news channels tried and failed to cover it straight. The memes were bountiful. Continue reading...
Allegation that 682,479 mail-in and absentee ballots were illegally processed without its representatives watching has been droppedPresident Donald Trump’s campaign has withdrawn a central part of its lawsuit seeking to stop the certification of the election results in Pennsylvania, where Democrat Joe Biden beat Trump to capture the state and help win the White House.Ahead of a Tuesday hearing in the case, Trump’s campaign on Sunday dropped the allegation that 682,479 mail-in and absentee ballots were illegally processed without its representatives watching. Continue reading...
Dr Anthony Fauci, the US’s top infectious diseases official and a member of the White House taskforce, has joined the call to allow transition talks to begin amid a surge in coronavirus cases. Asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper if a normal transition would be to the benefit of public health, he replied: ‘Of course, that’s obvious. Of course it would be better if we could starting working with them.’ As the calls mount for Trump to get out of the way, the president himself has been virtually silent on the public health disaster swirling around him. According to Fauci, Trump has not attended a meeting of the coronavirus taskforce for “several months”.
Dustin Johnson finally clinched an elusive second major title with a five-stroke victory at the Masters, overcoming a shaky start to his final round to end with a tournament-record low score at Augusta National. Johnson led throughout the final round, though only by one stroke early, and did not drop a shot in the final 13 holes on his way to a four-under-par 68 and an unprecedented 20-under-par 268 total. Tiger Woods added to the achievement by placing the green jacket on Johnson’s back. ’Obviously having Tiger put it on was awesome and unbelievable, but any guy could put it on me and I'd be just fine,’ Johnson said, laughing. Australian Cameron Smith and South Korean Im Sung-jae kept Johnson honest, both shooting 69 to tie for second on 15-under, but in the end they had no answer to the champion
The former president vows to help Biden ‘in any ways that I can’ but details toll his position took on wife’s law careerBarack Obama would not take a position in Joe Biden’s cabinet if the president-elect offered it – because if he did, he fears, Michelle Obama would leave him. Continue reading...
A vaccine will start to ease our collective anxiety, but the reasons why Covid-19 hit the UK hard will not be going awayBack in June, as people in England were adjusting to the loosening of Covid-19 restrictions, and Black Lives Matter was all over the news, I interviewed a number of young people who live in east London. As the conversations went on, a fascinating question came up: if they were presented with the opportunity to rewind to a time before the pandemic, would they take it?Most of them answered with an emphatic no. “This world is crazy, and it really needs to change,” said one. “If it doesn’t, we’re all going to get hurt.” She mentioned the killing of George Floyd but also talked about injustices and inequalities she saw on her own doorstep, and the sense that since lockdown began everyone had learned things about the state of society. “This is a time to remember,” she said. All the issues this vivid, volatile period of history had brought to the surface were too important to be pushed back to the margins. Continue reading...
At least a thousand protesters travelled across the US to show their support for Donald Trump in what was called the 'Million Maga March' in Washington on Saturday.
The formidable activist, educator and originator of the phrase Me Too talks about her work to combat sexual violence in America and her hopes for a Biden/Harris administration
With housing prices and wildfires driving residents away, the moving business is booming – bringing its own set of problemsRecord numbers of residents have been leaving California in recent years, but in 2020 the growth of remote work, the lure of cheaper housing and a summer of unprecedented wildfires has accelerated the trend. As a result, the moving business in San Francisco’s Bay Area is booming, but the surge has come with its own set of problems.Moving trucks are hard to find, prices to get out of the Bay are being pushed sky-high, and the supply side of the market – with high starting costs and because movers are required to obtain state licenses – has been slow to respond. Continue reading...
Trump’s sway over his supporters means he will be an albatross around Republicans’ necks whether or not he runs in 2024For Republican leaders it was, perhaps, the worst of all possible worlds. Continue reading...
It’s always been easy to see the privilege. But no documentary can match The Crown in evoking the cost of that privilegeThe royals were always a good sign that I wasn’t at home. Other people’s houses had bits of regal memorabilia, royal weddings on the TV, copies of Majesty lying around. Mine didn’t and I grew up finding the whole monarchy business a bit absurd, even embarrassing – shouldn’t a grownup country have a more rational system for choosing its heads of state than relying on accidents of birth? The Diana circus passed me by, I skipped the 2002 golden jubilee and was irritated when the Kate-William wedding in 2011 turned Pippa Middleton’s bum into a figure of popular culture.So I don’t really know how it happened that I became obsessed with The Crown, Netflix’s dramatisation of the reign of Elizabeth II. Series four will take us through from the tail end of the 1970s, with the arrival of Margaret Thatcher, to the early 1990s. But here I am, sprawled all over a sofa that is distinctly out of keeping with the gorgeous interiors on the show, coming to the end of another riveted binge on the lives of people I once thought were barely even worth holding in contempt. Continue reading...
The final throes of the Trump presidency exposed America as the bad joke – and danger to the world – it has certainly becomeThe chaotic US election has undoubtedly been the biggest story in the world in the last two weeks. Watching it unfold from over 13,000km away in Kenya, the election itself – the long queues, the delayed and disputed vote count, impugned credibility – was disturbingly familiar. Our own elections follow a near-identical pattern. The media coverage, not so much.Gone were the condescending tone, the adjective-laden labels and the expectation of violence and malfeasance so often applied to “foreign” elections. In its place was an easy familiarity and assumption of competence. Continue reading...
Winning the White House has done little to mend the party’s fractures – and the left is on collision course with the moderatesJoe Biden’s first hours as president-elect were met by his supporters with spontaneous dance parties, champagne showers and car parades that wound through several blocks. But amid the “Biden-Harris” placards and T-shirts dotting a diverse crowd gathered in front of the White House last week, there was a creeping sense that the source of their shared jubilation had less to do with the dragon-slayer than the dragon slayed.Related: Officials condemn Trump's false claims and say election 'most secure in US history' Continue reading...
Politically and medically, the world is changing fast: but a chaotic No 10 ploughs unheedingly along the path to departureEver since the end of the second world war, British governments of both major parties have aimed, in their own way, to improve the standard of living of the people. This apology for a Tory government, headed by Boris Johnson, is the first to make it an object of economic policy to make the country poorer.But before we get into the almighty cock-up that is Brexit, let us at least welcome the good news about the victory of president-elect Joseph Biden, and the apparent breakthrough in the search for an effective vaccine to fight Covid-19. Continue reading...
Archbishops and bishops express ‘much regret’ in letter at refusal to join international peace accordThe leadership of the Church of England is calling on the UK government to stand with 50 other nations in signing a historic international treaty banning nuclear weapons.Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, and Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York, have put their names alongside those of 29 bishops to a letter published in the Observer and reproduced below saying that the UK’s support for the United Nations’ Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons would give hope to people seeking a peaceful future. Continue reading...
by Oliver Milman in New York, David Smith and Samira on (#5ACKN)
Counter-demonstrators clash with Maga groups that echo president’s baseless claims of fraudDonald Trump continued to rage against the dying light of his US presidency on Saturday, falsely claiming to be the victim of mass voter fraud and praising rightwingers and conspiracy theorists who gathered in Washington to echo his fabrication.Trump emerged from the White House to applause, cheers, waving and whistles from hundreds of supporters lining both sides of the street. They punched the air, took pictures with phones and held signs that included “Best prez ever” and “Stop the steal”. Continue reading...
Chad Wolf took office unlawfully, says federal court judge, therefore could not suspend program that shields young people from deportationA federal judge in New York has ruled that the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf, assumed his position unlawfully and has invalidated Wolf’s suspension of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) program, which shields young people from deportation.“DHS failed to follow the order of succession as it was lawfully designated,” the US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis wrote. Continue reading...
Many would not go gently, some had traveled far – most were ready to back the president’s election conspiracy claimsJerry Babb and Robert Beckner stood on a brick pedestal and looked on at a crowd of tens of thousands, gathered by the Freedom Plaza for the Million Maga March.“America is beautiful,” Babb said, a sea of Trump flags in front of him. “And America is back.” Continue reading...
From the motorcade, leaving Washington, it was clear how Trump thrives on a noisy minority’s support – and why he lostIt was a jarring few minutes of seeing the world through Donald Trump’s eyes and indulging his fantasies.Related: Trump supporters gather in Washington as president refuses to concede to Biden Continue reading...
Susan Rice is being considered for secretary of state and Michele Flournoy is reportedly top choice for defence secretaryJoe Biden is piecing together what he has promised to be a diverse cabinet, with Michele Flournoy reportedly top choice for US defence secretary and Susan Rice considered a frontrunner for secretary of state. Continue reading...
Amani Al-Khatahtbeh reportedly got into a dispute with a white man which later led to the airline contacting the policeA Muslim woman who was arrested on an American Airlines plane Saturday before its departure from New Jersey said that she was wrongfully singled out following a dispute with a white man traveling in first class.Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, an activist and blogger, described alleged details about the dispute in a Twitter thread about an hour before her apparent arrest, saying it began at a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint in Newark Liberty international airport. Continue reading...
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