The league, fans and teammates have shown support for gay and bisexual players. So why is it so hard for us to remain doing the job we love?If Carl Nassib is not signed to a team by 8 September, the NFL, a league with 32 teams and more than 1,600 players, will once again not have a single LGBTQ+ in its ranks.I’m writing this piece well before that date because it’s a travesty and there’s still time for the situation to change. When I became the first out active NFL player to identify as bisexual in August 2019 and I found myself without a team, I would have wanted someone to advocate for me. Continue reading...
From Trump’s lack of concern about armed rioters to possible witness tampering, the revelations have been startlingThe hearings of the House January 6 committee have presented some extraordinary testimony about Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election and his supporters’ deadly assault on the US Capitol. Ahead of the primetime TV hearing on Thursday night, here are some of those pivotal moments so far. Continue reading...
As the eighth public hearing begins, know the people who helped understand Trump’s efforts to overturn the electionThe House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol has introduced Americans to a cast of characters critical to understanding then president Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn a free and fair democratic election.The committee interviewed hundreds of witnesses during its yearlong investigation into the 2021 insurrection and the events that led to it. Some appeared in person, others taped depositions that were played during the hearings. Some pled the fifth or refused to cooperate. Continue reading...
The committee will demonstrate the ex-president was ‘derelict in his duty’ to protect the US Congress as supporters mobbed buildingThe January 6 House select committee is expected to make the case at its hearing on Thursday that Donald Trump potentially violated the law when he refused entreaties to take action to stop the 2021 attack on the US Capitol by a mass of his supporters, according to two sources familiar with the matter.The panel will demonstrate that the former Republican president was “derelict in his duty” to protect the US Congress and might have also broken the federal law that prohibits obstructing an official proceeding before Congress, which had gathered to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. Continue reading...
Manchester’s Labour council let Sheikh Mansour buy up acres of public land for seemingly a fraction of its worth – how was this allowed?London is one giant pantomime this summer. Just look to the politicians and journalists, hot-breathed with excitement, horse-trading and haggling over who gets to be the Tories’ next head prefect. But if you want the truth about how power and money operate in the UK today then ditch Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, and head to Manchester. Yes, Manchester: the comeback city that traded cotton mills for skyscrapers, and is now cheered by the Financial Times and George Osborne. The metropolis that taught the world so much about industrial capitalism 200 years ago now offers another harsh lesson about its 21st-century, financialised version.Go a few minutes east of the city centre, and walk from New Islington into Ancoats. Block follows block of newly built and freshly converted flats and houses, many lining a lovely marina that glistens in the July sun. You can rent or buy these places right now, as long as you don’t mind how much some look like pile-em-high student boxes and that they all cost a packet. This is what post-industrial regeneration looks like, right? Redbrick in tooth and claw. But note something: almost 1,500 of these homes come from just one developer, and in that lies an entire sobering story.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at guardian.letters@theguardian.com Continue reading...
From their rekindled romance to their marriage, Bennifer have inspired an all-too-rare feeling of hopeI’ve sung along to more than a few J-Lo songs in my lifetime, but I don’t own any of her albums. Similarly, I think Ben Affleck’s a terrific actor and film-maker, but I haven’t seen all of his movies.These Hollywood A-listers are a couple I’m never likely to even meet, and yet over recent months the pop culture trash demon that lurks within has insisted I pore over every tabloid mention of their relationship. Continue reading...
Lawmakers agreed to two bills that will overhaul federal law and prevent presidential candidates from overturning election resultsA bipartisan group of senators reached a deal on Wednesday to reform a federal law and prevent a future presidential candidate from overturning the will of the people and the result of a valid presidential election.The lawmakers have agreed to two bills that would reform the Electoral Count Act of 1887, which governs how electoral votes are counted following a presidential election. Citing ambiguities in the law, Donald Trump and his attorneys pushed his vice-president, Mike Pence, to disrupt the counting of electoral votes that showed he lost the 2020 election, escalating calls for the 135-year-old law to be reformed. Even before the election, experts warned the law was ambiguous and could be exploited. Continue reading...
Joe Biden has unveiled a new plan to push billions of dollars to US cities and states to help them cope better with extreme heat.The US president stopped short, however, of declaring a climate emergency.Biden outlined the new actions in a speech on Wednesday at a former coal plant in Massachusetts which is now part of an offshore windfarm project.The initiatives are aimed at helping salvage the president’s tattered climate agenda
by Victoria Bekiempis in New York and agencies on (#61KT5)
Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric – Ivana’s three children with her ex-husband – gather for memorial at Catholic church in ManhattanIvana Trump, the businesswoman who helped her husband build an empire that launched him to the presidency, was celebrated at a funeral mass in New York City on Wednesday.At St Vincent Ferrer Roman Catholic Church on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Ivana’s three children with the former president Donald Trump – Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric – arrived with family members just before 1.40pm, before the gold casket was taken into the church. Continue reading...
Donna Edwards, leading contender in Maryland primary for safe seat, lost after pro-Israeli groups poured millions to block herPro-Israel groups have heralded the defeat of a leading Democratic contender for Congress after pouring millions of dollars into blocking her election, for failing to be sufficiently supportive of Israeli government policies.Donna Edwards, who was for months the favourite to win the primary for a safe seat in Maryland, lost to Glenn Ivey on Tuesday after the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) and allied groups waded into the race. Continue reading...
Documents reveal officials worked to keep secret their intention to use the data to exclude non-citizens from apportionmentDonald Trump’s administration tried to add a citizenship question to the decennial census as part of an effort to alter the way the US House’s 435 seats are divvied up among the 50 states, a new tranche of documents reveals.The documents, released by the House oversight committee on Wednesday, offer the clearest evidence to date that the Trump administration’s public justification for adding the question was made up. For years, the administration said that it needed to add a citizenship question to the decennial survey because better citizenship data was needed to enforce the Voting Rights Act (VRA). The US supreme court ultimately blocked the Trump administration from adding the question in 2019, saying the rationale “seems to have been contrived”. Continue reading...
The Ukrainian first lady, Olena Zelenska, appealed to US lawmakers on Tuesday to provide more help to her country as it struggles against a five-month-long Russian invasion she called 'Russia’s Hunger Games', saying US weapons could help assure a 'joint great victory'.'We remain completely broken when our world is destroyed by war. Tens of thousands of such worlds have been destroyed in Ukraine,” she said, through a translator, in an emotional 15-minute speech to members of the House and Senate.The wife of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, showed videos of children she said had been wounded or killed, including a three-year-old boy now learning to use prosthetic limbs
Rusty Bowers, the Arizona house speaker, testified to the House January 6 committee in JuneRusty Bowers, the Arizona house speaker who testified to the January 6 committee about how he resisted Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden in the sun belt state, has been formally censured by his own Republican party.Kelli Ward, chair of the Arizona Republican party, said on Tuesday its “executive committee formally censured Rusty Bowers tonight – he is no longer a Republican in good standing and we call on Republicans to replace him at the ballot box in the August primary”. Continue reading...
by Chris Stein in Washington and agencies on (#61M3F)
Olena Zelenska makes emotional appeal to Congress and asks for weapons to claim ‘joint great victory’ in war against RussiaThe Ukrainian first lady, Olena Zelenska, appealed to US lawmakers on Tuesday to provide more help to her country as it struggles against a five-month-long Russian invasion she called “Russia’s Hunger Games”, saying US weapons could help assure a “joint great victory”.“We remain completely broken when our world is destroyed by war. Tens of thousands of such worlds have been destroyed in Ukraine,” she said, through a translator, in an emotional 15-minute speech to members of the House and Senate. Continue reading...
Officials in Georgia investigating whether Donald Trump and others illegally tried to interfere in 2020 election in the stateA judge in New York has ordered Rudy Giuliani to appear next month before a special grand jury in Atlanta that is investigating whether Donald Trump and others illegally tried to interfere in the 2020 general election in Georgia.The New York supreme court justice, Thomas Farber, issued an order on 13 July, directing Giuliani, a Trump lawyer and former New York City mayor, to appear before the special grand jury on 9 August and any other dates ordered by the court in Atlanta. Continue reading...
House committee wants all communications from day before and day of Capitol attack but agency indicates such messages are lostThe Secret Service turned over just one text message to the House January 6 committee on Tuesday, in response to a subpoena compelling the production of all communications from the day before and the day of the US Capitol attack, according to two sources familiar with the matter.The Secret Service told the panel the single text was the only message responsive to the subpoena, the sources said, and while the agency vowed to conduct a forensic search for any other text or phone records, it indicated such messages were likely to prove irrecoverable. Continue reading...
Bear dragged Leah Davis Lokan, 65, out of her tent and killed her near Ovando last summerA 417lb grizzly bear dragged a California woman out of her tent and killed her near Ovando, Montana, last summer in a “predatory attack”, wildlife authorities reported.Officials who shot the bear several days later determined that food in and around the victim’s tent probably contributed to the attack. Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Marietta, Georgia on (#61KWW)
Cobb county school district halts distribution of new logo for East Side elementary school after condemnation on social mediaThe rollout of a new logo for an Atlanta-area elementary school was paused after parents noted similarities to a Nazi symbol, though a school district said the design was based on a US army colonel’s eagle wings.The Cobb county school district said on Tuesday it had halted distribution of the new logo for East Side elementary school in Marietta after it drew condemnation on social media. Continue reading...
James Jackson, charged with robbery and attempted murder over February 2021 shooting, mistakenly freed after clerical errorThe US Marshals Service is searching for a man who was erroneously released from custody after being arrested for shooting a dog walker who worked for the singer and actor Lady Gaga.In a statement on Monday, the federal agency announced a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest of James Howard Jackson, 19. Continue reading...
Transportation secretary calls Texas Republican Troy Nehls’ questions about Joe Biden’s mental health ‘insulting’Pete Buttigieg fended off a Republican who used a transportation hearing to ask if Joe Biden’s cabinet had discussed using the 25th amendment to remove the president from office, saying: “I’m glad to have a president who can ride a bicycle.”The transportation secretary was appearing in front of the House transportation committee on Tuesday. Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Langhorne, Pennsylvania on (#61KX2)
Instagram video shows character Rosita high-fiving white child and woman then saying ‘no’ to Black girls with arms outstretchedA Sesame Street-themed amusement park has apologized and promised more training for its employees after a video showing a costumed character waving off two six-year-old Black girls during a parade went viral online.The nine-second video, posted to Instagram on Saturday by Jodi Brown, the mother of one of the girls, showed the character Rosita high-fiving a white child and woman, then gesturing “no” and walking away from the two girls who had their arms stretched out for a hug and high-five during the parade at Sesame Place in Langhorne, outside Philadelphia. Continue reading...
It isn't often someone has the privilege of winning a 1500m World Championship, and it's quite another when your father is responsible for the announcement. As Jake Wightman narrowly made it across the finish line ahead of Jakob Ingebrigtsen, footage showed his father Geoff in commentary box holding back his feelings just long enough to share the result before he fell back into his chair and sank his head into his arms. 'It's going to be close,' Geoff said in the clip, 'but Jake Wightman wins gold!' Continue reading...
Politicians argue that canceling student debt will mainly benefit doctors and lawyers. But it is first-generation graduates of color who are struggling to make paymentsMy sister’s partner was murdered in St Louis in the summer of 2017. She was heartbroken, pregnant and facing a sheriff who was enforcing an eviction due to nonpayment of rent. Ghosts don’t send checks from the grave to pay for the living. Not for poor people anyway. There are very little inheritances, wills, and dollars under mattresses to go around.I had just graduated from Harvard Law School and was studying to take the bar exam to accomplish my childhood dream of becoming a civil rights lawyer. I was also near rock bottom. My marriage was ending and I had two kids under four. I’d been awarded the most prestigious law fellowship in the country and, with a pending income of $60,000, I was prepared to become the highest earner in my entire family. I knew that was insufficient for me, my two toddlers, my sister, a newborn nephew, Washington DC’s rising rent, and more than $100,000 of student debt.Four years after earning a bachelor’s degree, Black graduates have nearly $25,000 more student loan debt than their white peers: $52,726 on average, compared with $28,006 for the typical white bachelor’s graduate. This total debt gap is more than triple the previously documented Black–white gap in undergraduate borrowing, which is “only” about $7,400 ($23,400 versus $16,000). Black college graduates are also three times more likely to default on their debt within four years of graduation.Derecka Purnell is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
At every opportunity, Manchin has sabotaged Democrats’ agenda. What’s going on here? It’s spelled m-o-n-e-yAfter putting a final spear through the heart of what remained of Biden’s and the Democrat’s domestic agenda, West Virginia’s Democratic senator Joe Manchin now rejects any tax increases on big corporations or the wealthy – until inflation is no longer a problem.This is rich, in every sense of the word. Raising taxes on big American corporations and the wealthy would not fuel inflation. It would slow inflation by reducing demand – and do it in a way that wouldn’t hurt lower-income Americans (such as those living in, say, West Virginia).Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...
We would like to hear from you about your or your community’s experiences relating to lead exposure in the USLead is a toxic material that is not safe in any amount. Yet millions of Americans are exposed to it on a regular basis, whether from lead water pipes, lead paint, emissions from lead recycling facilities, or other types of contamination.We want to hear from people in the US: are you, your family or your community suffering from lead exposure? Continue reading...
Some of the cities enjoying population boom are among those gripped by a ferocious heatwave and seeing record temperaturesThe ferocious heatwave that is gripping much of the US south and west has highlighted an uncomfortable, ominous trend – people are continuing to flock to the cities that risk becoming unlivable due to the climate crisis.Some of the fastest-growing cities in the US are among those currently being roasted by record temperatures that are baking the more than 100 million Americans under some sort of extreme heat warning. More than a dozen wildfires are engulfing areas from Texas to California and Alaska, with electricity blackouts feared for places where the grid is coming under severe strain. Continue reading...
The LA Lakers’ Summer League team included a pair of NBA scions whose Hall of Fame fathers are inevitably casting shadows over their professional prospectsLiving in Los Angeles, California, nepotism is as ubiquitous as sun, sand and palm trees. It feels like every other day you find out someone is so-and-so’s son or so-and-so’s daughter, from the guitarist for an indie darling to the top-billed name on a movie marquee. There’s a lot of understandable resentment harbored amongst my fellow children-of-nobody-of-note when it comes to those who were born into opportunity. But I’ve always found it a sort of dark catch-22: sure, you’re sort of born on third base as the child of a famous parent (or parents), but to what end? Can you ever really figure out who you are when you’re growing up in the enormous cast of someone else’s shadow? And in true tree falls in a forest fashion, if you’re able to do so, but no one on earth sees you as anything more than someone’s kid, does your self-actualization ever make a sound?Scotty Pippen Jr and Shareef O’Neal are two such shadow-dodgers, and they just so happened to end up on the same NBA Summer League roster this month. The two hit the Las Vegas circuit to play for one of the other most ubiquitous Los Angeles institutions: the 17-time champion Lakers. Both Scotty Jr and Shareef’s dads are retired NBA supernovas: Scottie Pippen and Shaquille O’Neal, both household names, Hall of Famers and NBA champions many times over. The elder O’Neal, in an added twist, famously reached the pinnacle of his success wearing the same purple and gold of the team Shareef spent Summer League attempting to win over. Continue reading...
As mistrust and alienation from democratic institutions peaks, researchers explore how willing Americans are to commit violenceOne in five adults in the United States, equivalent to about 50 million people, believe that political violence is justified at least in some circumstances, a new mega-survey has found.A team of medical and public health scientists at the University of California, Davis enlisted the opinions of almost 9,000 people across the country to explore how far willingness to engage in political violence now goes. Continue reading...
Footage shows victim fleeing after police arrived in unmarked car and drew their gunsPolice in San Bernardino, California, fatally shot a 23-year-old man on Saturday as he was fleeing, according to surveillance footage that shows an officer firing just seconds after arriving in an unmarked vehicle.Security camera footage from a parking lot in San Bernardino, a city an hour east of Los Angeles, shows two officers driving up in an unmarked car about 8pm as Robert Adams stood in the lot. As soon as two officers exited the car, Adams turned away from them and ran. It appeared that roughly five seconds after they had stepped out of the car, one of the officers fired at Adams from a distance, seeming to hit him and causing him to collapse to the ground. Continue reading...
The measure, partly a political strategy, forced Democrats and Republicans to record their view, and garnered bipartisan supportThe US House has passed a bill protecting the right to same-sex and interracial marriages, a vote that comes amid concerns that the supreme court’s overturning of Roe v Wade could jeopardize other rights.Forty-seven House Republicans supported the legislation, called the Respect for Marriage Act, including some who have publicly apologized for their past opposition to gay marriage. But more than three-quarters of House Republicans voted against the bill, with some claiming it was a “political charade”. Continue reading...
The legislators were engaged in peaceful civil disobedience against the loss of abortion rights in front of the supreme courtSeveral prominent Democratic members of Congress were arrested on Wednesday during a protest in support of abortion rights in front of the supreme court, in the aftermath of the historic overturning of Roe v Wade last month.The politicians gathered in front of the US Capitol before marching to the court building, chanting “our bodies, our choice” and “we won’t go back”. Continue reading...
Fire put out before firefighters arrived on the scene, and there was no disruption to the power gridA transformer on one of America’s tallest dams briefly caught fire on Tuesday morning before the Hoover Dam fire brigade extinguished the flames.No one was injured in the blaze and there is no disruption to the power grid, the Bureau of Reclamation said in a statement. The blaze was extinguished within about 30 minutes before firefighters from the Boulder City fire department arrived on scene, the Nevada city reported on Facebook. Continue reading...
by Lauren Aratani in New York and Hugo Lowell and Chr on (#61JH2)
Bennie Thompson to miss hearing as ex-Trump aides Matthew Pottinger and Sarah Matthews expected to give evidenceThe chairman of the congressional committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol has contracted Covid – but Thursday’s primetime hearing will proceed, according to a tweeted statement from the chair, Mississippi congressman Bennie Thompson.A committee spokesperson, Tim Mulvey, said: “While Chairman Thompson is disappointed with his Covid diagnosis, he has instructed the select committee to proceed with Thursday evening’s hearing. Committee members and staff wish the chairman a speedy recovery.” Continue reading...
Jackson Women’s Health Organization sold by clinic’s owner given ‘dim prospects for a speedy and meaningful ruling’The Mississippi abortion clinic at the heart of the US supreme court’s decision to overturn its landmark 1973 Roe v Wade decision has dropped its effort to have the state’s high court halt a near-total ban on the procedure after its building was sold.Jackson Women’s Health Organization had asked the Mississippi state supreme court to allow it to resume some abortion services after a lower-court judge rejected its appeal to prevent a near-total ban on abortions from taking effect on 7 July. Continue reading...
The National Archives asked the agency to report in a month on whether messages were ‘improperly deleted’The US National Archives has asked the Secret Service to conduct an internal investigation over “erased” text messages from the day before and the day of the Capitol attack, according to a letter sent to the agency’s records management officer on Tuesday.The request marks the latest escalation of the matter after the watchdog for the Secret Service, the Department of Homeland Security inspector general, notified Congress he had sought the texts only to be told they no longer existed. Continue reading...
Government data show mortality among Black and Native people increased dramatically during the first year of the pandemicOverdose death rates surged among Black, American Indian and Alaska Native individuals in 2020, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Tuesday.The data, from 25 states and the District of Columbia, show the overdose death rate increased 44% for Black people and 39% for American Indian and Alaska Native people from 2019. Continue reading...
by Victoria Bekiempis in New York and agencies on (#61JPK)
Blazes have scorched over 3m acres as temperatures expected to reach 100F in much of the Plains and Mississippi ValleyMore than 100 million Americans are under either a heat warning about dangerous conditions or heat advisories amid record temperatures, as 85 major wildfires burn in 13 US states, scorching more than 3m acres.Officials said on Tuesday that 14 new large fires were reported: seven in Texas, two in Alaska and two in Washington, as well as one each in Arizona, California and Idaho. Continue reading...
US news | The Guardian