Tens of thousands of students contracted coronavirus during a tumultuous fall semester and return to campus in new year looks equally challengingThough the virus is surging across the US, the majority of its colleges will be opening to students in-person in January and February after a tumultuous fall semester when tens of thousands of students contracted Covid-19. Continue reading...
Washington made the postseason with a losing record by virtue of winning the putrid NFC East. There were better teams whose seasons ended earlyAnd so the Washington Football Team, with a record of 7-9, are into the NFL playoffs as NFC East winners. It would be churlish to begrudge Washington their place in the postseason: head coach Ron Rivera has had to cope with a cancer diagnosis, quarterback Alex Smith has come back from a horrific injury that almost cost him his leg and they have a defense that looks like it could dominate the division for years to come. And yet … they’re 7-9, and benefited from the Philadelphia Eagles pulling starter Jalen Hurts in the middle of Sunday’s game, which Washington won 20-14. There are teams that will feel deserve they deserve a shot at the Super Bowl this year at Washington’s expense. Here’s a look at some of them. Continue reading...
Conversation between president and Georgia’s secretary of state laid bare Trump’s determination to cling on to powerDonald Trump has been recorded pressuring Georgia’s secretary of state to overturn US president-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state, in a tape obtained by the Washington Post.The conversation is mainly between Trump and Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, but Trump allies including Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, and attorney Cleta Mitchell were also present, as was Ryan Germany, Raffensperger’s general counsel. Here are the main points: Continue reading...
Unprecedented letter calls on voted-out president to accept Joe Biden’s election victory amid growing fears over his behaviourAll 10 former US defence secretaries still living, including two who worked for Donald Trump, have called for the president and his supporters to accept he lost the election and warned against attempts to involve the military in his increasingly desperate efforts to overturn the result.In an unprecedented joint letter published in the Washington Post, the defence secretaries addressed the worst fears of what could happen in 17 days of Trump’s administration remaining before Joe Biden’s inauguration: an attempt by Trump to foment a crises with the aim of triggering a military intervention in his last-ditch struggle to hold on power. Continue reading...
Dr Anthony Fauci has called out Donald Trump, who claimed on Twitter on Sunday morning that case numbers were being exaggerated. 'Go into the trenches,' Fauci told NBC’s Meet the Press. 'Go into the hospitals, go into the intensive care units and see what is happening. Those are real numbers, real people and real deaths.'
The unlikely site of a Trump campaign press conference – which shared a name with a nearby hotel – seized its moment with entrepreneurial elanFor many US small businesses, 2020 was not a funny – or fun – year at all. It’s hard to find any humor in a year that a pandemic caused the deaths of more than 350,000 people, destroyed jobs for more than 12 million and ruined countless restaurants and other small businesses in the fitness, arts, travel and retail industries.Related: A Christmas tree made out of whiskey bottles isn’t always a marketing campaign | Gene Marks Continue reading...
Harris says her model will be Biden’s role as veep to Obama but the president-elect’s age means speculation about an eventual elevation to the Oval Office is intenseAmerican vice-presidents occupy what can be one of the most powerful positions in all of the federal US government and yet it can also be one of the least powerful. Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris is going to soon find out where her tenure will land. Continue reading...
From Argentina to India, activists are celebrating hard-won victories over harsh regimesIn Argentina, huge crowds take to the streets to celebrate the legalisation of abortion. In India, hundreds of thousands of farmers protest against new legislation, while millions take action in support. 2020 might have been a terrible, virus-ravaged year, but it ended with glimmers of new possibilities.Argentina has become only the third South American nation, after Uruguay and Guyana, to permit elective abortion, a victory founded on decades of activism by women. In 2005, a number of groups came together to create the National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe and Free Abortion. A decade later came mass mobilisation against violence against women, a campaign that expanded to demand abortion rights, too. In 2018, parliament’s lower house approved an abortion bill but church opposition persuaded the Senate to block it. It took two more years of pressure to change the Senate’s mind. Continue reading...
The new mayor will inherit a city reeling from Covid, high unemployment, surging gun violence and an exodus of residentsOn New Year’s Day 2014, the New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio, entered office promising to end the “tale of two cities” with a progressive agenda that he said would address the economic and social inequalities that “threaten to unravel the city we love”.But seven years and a global pandemic later, campaigning to decide the Democrat’s successor is heating up, and the next mayor looks set to inherit a city where experts say those disparities are not only on the rise, but are in a state of crisis. Continue reading...
Balance of power in 100-member US Senate at stake as two radically different visions of US collide“Georgia, Georgia,” sings musician John Legend, before Barack Obama’s narration takes over. “When the moment came to reject fear and division and send a message for change, Georgia stepped up,” says the former US president, referring to Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in the state. “Now, America is counting on you again.”Related: Georgia Senate runoff elections: how they work and why they matter Continue reading...
The coronavirus and a near-catastrophic election showed Donald Trump is a symptom not a cause of what ails US societyIf America learns nothing else from these dark times, here are seven lessons it should take from 2020:Related: Ted Cruz and other Republican senators oppose certifying election results Continue reading...
by Martin Pengelly and Miranda Bryant in New York on (#5CAW8)
Republicans say they will reject presidential electors from states where Trump campaign contested results unless audit completedTed Cruz of Texas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and nine other Republican US senators or senators-elect said on Saturday they will reject presidential electors from states where Donald Trump has contested his defeat by Joe Biden, “unless and until [an] emergency 10-day audit” of such results is completed.Related: Republican plan to challenge election signals ‘cult of Trump’ will live on in Biden era Continue reading...
Two adult drivers also died when vehicle swerved into path of Ford carrying the children, authorities saidSeven children and two adult drivers were killed in a head-on collision between an SUV and a pickup truck in central California on New Year’s Day, authorities have said.The children, who were between six and 15 years old, were part of two related families travelling in a 2007 Ford F-150 pickup when it was hit by a Dodge Journey on State Route 33 between Avenal and Coalinga around 8pm on Friday, the Fresno county coroner’s office and the California highway patrol said. Continue reading...
As much as I poked fun at Dad’s obsession with the game, I didn’t want my kids making their home in some faraway land“But who is going to teach my grandsons cricket?” demanded my father. It was the same question every time he called, his lament travelling 18,000 kilometres of scratchy telephone line from his home outside Perth all the way to the United States. I’d been gone for almost 20 years, based most recently in Washington DC, and before that in Bangkok, Colombo, New York, and Baghdad too.“I’m no Dennis Lillee,” I said. And my husband, Geoff, was no Shane Warne. Born and bred in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in Canada, Geoff is also an Australian citizen. We celebrated this milestone with party pies and tomato sauce in gravy boats, followed by drinks at a pub that once served as the setting for archetypal 1970s Aussie series The Sullivans. Still, neither Geoff nor I could tell our silly mid-off from our googlies. Continue reading...
Those practices supposed to reduce egoism often encourage feelings of pious superiorityIt would appear that the mindfulness movement is overrun by preening narcissists. Who could have guessed? A Dutch study by Roos Vonk and Anouk Visser, entitled An Exploration of Spiritual Superiority: The Paradox of Self-Enhancement, is the first to measure how people feel they’re more advanced than others in terms of wisdom, self-knowledge and psychic intuition.An investigation involving around 3,700 people found that practices that are supposed to minimise the ego tend to enlarge it and that those who put extra effort into enhancing spirituality – mindfulness retreats, aura-reading, past life-regression – are the smuggest, most self-aggrandising and unbearable of all (I may be paraphrasing a tad there). Such people cling to unmeasurable and irrefutable claims about their innate superiority, such as greater insights into the human condition, deeper compassion for others and more advanced psychic abilities (they sense things, dontcha know!). Most of us will have come across people like this. Roughly 99% will wish that we hadn’t. Continue reading...
Harris leapt over defender in first quarter after Rapinoe asked him earlier this week to perform athletic manoeuvreThe US women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe was among those celebrating Alabama’s College Football Playoff victory over Notre Dame on Friday night, after running back Najee Harris appeared to answer her request to “hurdle someone for me”.Related: Megan Rapinoe: ‘Everybody has a responsibility to make the world a better place’ Continue reading...
John M Patarini says in letter to New York Times he is ‘disgusted with the president’s actions’ after Trump pardonsThe mass shooting in Baghdad for which Donald Trump pardoned four American mercenaries was “a massacre along the lines of My Lai in Vietnam”, the lead FBI investigator in the case said, pronouncing himself “disgusted with the president’s actions”.Related: 'Our blood is cheaper than water': anger in Iraq over Trump pardons Continue reading...
This is my final column, but I’m looking forward to 2021 - including a new novel by Angie Thomas and the film adaptation of DuneI remember when I first met my editors to discuss this column; we were all so excited about what 2020 would bring and what I’d write about. Then, as we all know, the year went … sideways and this column effectively became dispatches from lockdown.Obviously not having as much to talk about every week was the least of my concerns. We lost so many, and so many fell ill and are still falling ill now. We are all grieving, in so many ways. We are grieving family, we are grieving friends, and we are all grieving life as we knew it. Continue reading...
Trump went into overdrive on filling court seats, but the Democrats must win in January’s runoff or a Republican Senate will block them at every turnDuring the disastrous first presidential debate in September, Donald Trump mocked Barack Obama, and Joe Biden by extension, for leaving office with so many federal court seats unfilled.“I’ll have so many judges because President Obama and him left me 128 judges to fill,” Trump said, slightly inflating the 105 vacancies he inherited. “When you leave office, you don’t leave any judges. That’s like, you just don’t do that … If you left us 128 openings, you can’t be a good president. Continue reading...
Around 140 Republicans expected vote against counting of electoral college votes, in symbolic move to disrupt Congress and bolster TrumpMaverick super-loyalists to Donald Trump are set to make an audacious spectacle in Washington next week by voting against the formal counting of electoral college votes certifying Joe Biden’s victory.While the tactic by outliers won’t be enough to stop Biden becoming the 46th president, it will serve to disrupt Congress, bolster Trump and establish an acidic tone to political co-operation with the incoming Democratic administration. Continue reading...
Joint session will count votes cast by the electoral college in the last step of the process for certification of the new presidentUS Congress meets on 6 January to certify Joe Biden’s election victory – here’s what to expect.A joint session of the US Congress meets at 1pm on Wednesday formally to count the votes cast by the electoral college – 306 for Biden, 232 for Donald Trump – in the last step of the process for certification of the new president. Continue reading...
Lawsuit aimed at allowing vice president to reject electoral college votes is latest in a long line of cases to be thrown outA US judge has rejected a lawsuit from a Republican congressman that sought to allow vice president Mike Pence to reject electoral college votes for Joe Biden when Congress meets on Wednesday to certify his victory over president Donald Trump.The latest long-shot attempt by Trump’s Republican allies to overturn the November election result was dismissed by one of Trump’s own appointees to the federal bench, Jeremy Kernodle. Continue reading...
Mikey Wright has been filmed saving a beachgoer who was struggling against a current at a beach on Oahu’s north shore. The Australian surfer, who was in Hawaii for the Pipeline Masters event, posted footage of the rescue on Instagram with the caption: “hold my beer”. Although other beachgoers could be seen trying to help and reach the struggling swimmer, the current was too strong until Wright stepped in. Continue reading...
by Edward Helmore in New York and agency on (#5CA6B)
Republicans join Democrats to push through bill against Trump’s strong objectionsDonald Trump’s fellow Republicans in the US Senate on Friday took the atypical rebellious step of overriding his veto for the first time in his presidency.The Senate pushed through a bill on defense spending against Trump’s strong objections – just 20 days before he leaves office. Continue reading...
by Joanna Walters in New York and agency on (#5C9NP)
Biden calls for quicker distribution of Covid vaccines, while Trump points out he predicted vaccine’s arrivalThe 1 January messages from the president and president-elect were both short, simple and upbeat.“Happy New Year,” Donald Trump tweeted on Friday morning. Continue reading...
Stock exchange says companies are ‘no longer suitable for listing’, in move condemned by BeijingThe New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has said it will delist three Chinese telecommunications firms because of their alleged links to China’s military.China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom Hong Kong will be suspended from trading in early January, while delisting proceedings are initiated, according to a statement released by the stock exchange. Continue reading...
Incoming US Treasury secretary was paid for events at Goldman Sachs, Barclays and othersThe incoming US Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, has been paid at least $7m (£5.1m) for speaking engagements at government-regulated banks, consultancies and hedge funds over the past two years, according to newly disclosed documents.The former Federal Reserve chair disclosed a list of more than 50 paid speaking events for financial firms that included $67,500 from Goldman Sachs, $54,000 from an event at Barclays and $292,500 from a single speech for hedge fund Citadel. Continue reading...
The pandemic created new barriers to the ballot box and strengthened existing ones – aided by the president and his Republican alliesThe fight over access to the ballot was one of the most important stories in America in 2020.The country faced a pandemic that both offered new barriers to the ballot box and exacerbated existing ones. After election day, America faced an unprecedented effort to undermine faith in the election results as Donald Trump and Republican allies baselessly claimed fraud and brought a flurry of unsuccessful lawsuits seeking to get election results overturned. Continue reading...
His compassion for the public may be limited, but never let it be said that our leader is a man who neglects his own emotionsIt is one of the curiosities of this inside-out age that Donald Trump is loved by conspiracists, even though he is a leader – at last! – who embodies of all their worst fears. He really does hate them, he really is plotting against them, and he really is lying to them, in multiple and increasingly wicked and baroque ways.Searching for the lesser ironies native to the UK, we might alight on the puzzle that Boris Johnson is beloved of many who can’t wait to point out that “facts don’t care about your feelings” – and yet is himself incapable of serving up difficult facts without endless reference to how it’s all making him feel. Is the prime minister in the business of making new year’s resolutions? If so he might consider trying to develop a stiff upper lip this year. It looks like we’re going to need it. Continue reading...
Storylines about corruption in the political classes have proved popular with Iranians stuck at home, streaming AghazadehA woman screams for her life after being locked in a Mercedes-Benz in a junkyard. In the next scene, all that is left of her is a metal cube with blood gushing out. This isn’t a scene from the latest horror film, but the first episode of the new Iranian drama series, Aghazadeh – taken from a term used to describe children of the Iranian elite with privilege, connections and influence.During the coronavirus pandemic, many Iranians, like much of the west, are stuck at home streaming the latest hit shows. The Aghazadeh series, which was released by the Iranian version of Netflix, Namava, is one of the most-watched series to date, with about two million subscribers tuning in. Yet what makes this drama stand out is not just the display of taboo subjects – the use of drugs and depiction of illegal mixed parties with alcohol and Billie Eilish’s Bad Guy blaring in the background – but its attempt to address the Iranian public’s discontent over the blatant corruption of the political elite’s children. Continue reading...
Will Aaron Rodgers depart Green Bay after an MVP-caliber season? Will Bill Belichick leave New England before it turns ugly? There’s no shortage of meaty NFL plotlines in 2021The NFL’s general attitude towards 2020 can be summed up succinctly: What pandemic?Whereas other leagues ground to a halt, considered voiding their seasons, entered into complex bubbles or faced existential crises, the NFL thundered along, with the kind of bravado that is afforded only to the biggest and baddest and most-watched on the block. Continue reading...
The demographics of the south are changing and both Democrats and Republicans are taking note of a growing, diverse constituencyStephanie Cho remembers a time when she could walk the halls of the Georgia state capitol and see just two Asian Americans: the Republican state representative Byung J Pak and a member of his staff. Continue reading...
Local tourism officials are also hoping for a post-pandemic boom courtesy of their local heroIt is not so much a flyover state as a does-the-train-have-to-stop-here? state. Most travellers between New York and Washington do not disembark at the Joseph R Biden Jr Railroad Station in Wilmington, Delaware. Perhaps they will now take a second look.The station is where Biden launched his first, ill-fated campaign for US president in June 1987 and where, standing on a deserted platform 33 years later, proud local Democrats cast the votes that clinched his nomination at a virtual convention. Now, with Biden as president-elect, this unglamorous station, city and state are enjoying a rare moment in the sun. Continue reading...
Advocates have hope that Biden will build better policy, but they are nervous about Obama-era officials having key rolesFew people have been as closely involved with family separation and reunification as attorney Erika Pinheiro, one of the leaders of the immigration advocacy group Al Otro Lado.And though Joe Biden’s win in the presidential election puts an end to Donald Trump’s laser focus on restricting all forms of immigration, Pinheiro wants people to understand that the fight for immigrant rights in the country is far from over. Continue reading...
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