US news | The Guardian

The US supreme court has opened the door for almost all law-abiding Americans to carry concealed and loaded handguns in public, after the conservative majority struck down a New York law that placed strict restrictions on firearms outside the home.The governor of New York, a Democrat, said the ruling was 'not just reckless, it’s reprehensible', a sentiment that was echoed by the vice president and the president of the United States

Ex-president told officials to declare election ‘corrupt’ and ‘leave the rest to me and Republican congressmen’Donald Trump relentlessly pressured top officials at the justice department to pursue groundless claims of voter fraud in an extraordinary but ultimately unsuccessful effort to cling to power, according to testimony the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection heard on Thursday.Three former justice department officials who served during Trump’s final weeks in office, told the committee that the then-president was “adamant” that the election was stolen despite begin told repeatedly that none of the allegations raised about the vote count were credible. Continue reading...

President ‘deeply disappointed’ by justices’ decision as bipartisan bill to strengthen gun safety appears ready to passWhen the US supreme court struck down New York state’s limits on carrying concealed handguns in public, it clouded what should have been a day celebrating a rare breakthrough on one of the most divisive issues in American politics.No wonder president Joe Biden said he was “disappointed” by the conservative-controlled court’s decision. It was, after all, a serious setback for Biden, who recently emotionally addressed the nation in the wake of a spate of mass shootings and stressed the need to curb Americans’ easy access to powerful weapons. Continue reading...

Biden says ruling ‘should trouble us all’ as conservative majority strikes down law requiring ‘proper cause’ to carry guns in publicThe US supreme court has opened the door for almost all law-abiding Americans to carry concealed and loaded handguns in public, after the conservative majority struck down a New York law that placed strict restrictions on firearms outside the home.The governor of New York, a Democrat, said the ruling was “not just reckless, it’s reprehensible”. Pointing to recent mass shootings in New York and Texas, a leading progressive group called the ruling “shameful and outrageous”. Continue reading...

Judge gives approval to settlement a day before one-year anniversary of disaster in Florida that killed 98 peopleA judge has given final approval to a settlement topping $1bn for victims of the collapse of a Florida beachfront condominium building that killed 98 people, one of the deadliest building failures in US history.The decision by Miami-Dade circuit Judge Michael Hanzman came a day before the one-year anniversary of the Champlain Towers South disaster in the Miami suburb of Surfside. The judge praised the dozens of lawyers involved for averting what could have been years of litigation with no sure outcome. Continue reading...

Accident involving Bell UH-1B ‘Huey’ used in Hollywood films took place at show where guests without pilot licenses could fly aircraftSix people died on Wednesday when a tourist helicopter used in Hollywood movies crashed in West Virginia during a vintage helicopter show where guests without pilot licenses were allowed to fly the aircraft.The Vietnam-era helicopter, which had previously appeared in movies including Baywatch, Die Hard and Outbreak, was being flown during the 7th Annual Huey Reunion, an event for historical aviation enthusiasts. Continue reading...

Two cases had managed to steer clear of each other as the justice department and House panel pursued the same groundThe US justice department’s criminal investigation into the January 6 Capitol attack collided with the parallel congressional investigation, causing federal prosecutors to seek a delay in proceedings in the seditious conspiracy case against the far-right Proud Boys group.The two January 6 inquiries had largely managed to steer clear of each other even as both the justice department and a House select committee pursued the same ground. But it all came to head on Wednesday. Continue reading...

West Virginia lawmaker Derrick Evans, 37, who filmed self-incriminating footage, pleaded guilty to committing civil disorderA West Virginia lawmaker who participated in the January 6 attack on the Capitol while livestreaming the deadly insurrection has been sentenced to three months in prison.Derrick Evans, 37, was arrested and charged shortly after the attack, in part thanks to self-incriminating video footage he shot of himself leading and egging on rioters who overwhelmed police at the Capitol. Continue reading...

Matt Hancock is wrong to say we are ‘past the pandemic’. And we won’t be until the world’s population is vaccinatedWe are at the beginning of another wave of Covid – the third in six months. Roughly one in 50 people in England are currently infected, while that figure is as high as one in 30 in Scotland. An estimated 1.4 million people in the UK – more than 2% of the population – would have tested positive last week according to the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) infection survey. Chances are you know someone who’s got the disease. Covid hospitalisations have also been rising for the past couple of weeks. On Monday there were more than 1,000 admissions in England – the first time we’ve reached that level since April.It’s possible that some of the stark 40% week-on-week rise in prevalence reported last Friday is due to large numbers of people getting together over the extended platinum jubilee weekend. However, scientists who have been monitoring the Covid situation closely have been predicting an uptick for a while now. Two new subvariants – BA.4 and BA.5 – of the Omicron variant have been increasing their share of UK infections for several weeks. Last week they finally overtook the BA.2 version of Omicron responsible for the most recent wave that the UK experienced, in March and April. Although there is no evidence that these new subvariants cause more severe disease, their rise to dominance suggests that they can, at least to some degree, evade existing immunity. Continue reading...

World No 2 Rory McIlroy has labelled the players who have joined the LIV Golf Series 'duplicitous' for the way they have handled their breakaway. This comes after fellow four-time major winner Brooks Koepka, signed up to the Saudi-backed invitational events. Only a few days ago Koepka, who will be suspended by the PGA Tour as a result of his decision, complained that questions on the topic at Brookline were throwing a 'black cloud' over the US Open. Other golfing stars have had similar apparent changes of mind, with former world No 1 Dustin Johnson stressing his full commitment to the PGA Tour in March only to perform a U-turn three months later.

Panel will cover how ex-president pushed department to further investigate debunked claims of fraud. Plus, Uvalde police chief placed on leave

Ukraine is struggling on the battlefield – and its western allies are grappling with economic and political trends that may weaken their supportWars are a series of twists and turns. Momentum can shift and quickly alter fortunes on the battlefield, and intangible elements like leadership and motivation can shred the assessments of the most seasoned military analysts. Military campaigns that look promising initially can, over time, turn into quagmire, as mistakes accumulate, terrain changes and the adversary alters its tactics. The war in Ukraine is a textbook case in point.During the war’s first two months, the Ukrainian army proved to be formidable, courageous and highly innovative against a better-armed Russian foe, which military experts had almost unanimously expected would prevail. A day after Russia’s invasion began, the US intelligence community was concerned that Russian forces would capture Kyiv in a matter of days. Vladimir Putin probably assumed a quick and relatively painless operation.Daniel R DePetris is a foreign affairs columnist for Newsweek and a fellow at Defense Priorities, a thinktank that advocates for restraint in foreign interventions.Rajan Menon is director of the Grand Strategy Program at Defense Priorities, senior research fellow at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia, and non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is the coauthor of Conflict in Ukraine: The Unwinding of the Post-Cold War Order Continue reading...

The rate of perilous hazing incidents has ticked up at colleges across the country, and in many cases schools have limited power to stop itLate on 19 October 2021, an 18-year-old University of Missouri student named Danny Santulli collapsed to the floor in the middle of a Tuesday night party – the latest victim of an apparent hazing ritual that had spiraled dangerously out of control.Surveillance footage from the “pledge father reveal” party hosted by the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity revealed how Santulli was force-fed beer through a funnel in between guzzling a 1.75 liter bottle of vodka; after two hours of drinking, he lost his balance and keeled over backward. He was barely conscious when fraternity members dropped him again, while scrambling to carry him out a door to the hospital. There, attendants found him inside a car, not breathing and in cardiac arrest; his blood-alcohol level was at a near-fatal 0.46. Continue reading...

Brooklyn has addressed the pandemic’s surge in gun violence with a strategy that would once have been a nonstarter: using police and incarceration as a last resort

John Cornyn of Texas, lead negotiator on modest bipartisan reform proposal in Senate, was booed and heckled at party conventionIn the aftermath of the Uvalde mass school shooting, the Texas senator John Cornyn is facing backlash from his own Republican party for being a lead negotiator on the bipartisan gun reform bill, the most significant legislation on gun control in America in decades.At the state’s annual Republican convention recently held in Houston, Cornyn was booed and heckled – a visible sign he is losing support from those within his own party. He dismissed the taunting crowd as a “mob”. Continue reading...

Experts warn cutting the 18 cents will take a toll on highway upkeep and cause prices to rise further when the holiday endsAmerica’s hard-pressed drivers may be about to receive a holiday. On Wednesday Joe Biden called on Congress to suspend the federal tax on gas and diesel until September as the country struggles with soaraway costs at the pump. But experts warned the tax holiday is unlikely to have a major impact on prices and will probably further harm the US’s already battered roads and bridges. If the tax cut even gets passed.Blaming Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for the surge in gas prices Biden proposed cutting the 18-cents-a-gallon federal taxes on fuel until September and called on states to cut their gas taxes too. “Together, these actions could help drop the price at the pump by up to $1 a gallon or more. It doesn’t reduce all the pain, but it will be a big help,” said Biden. Continue reading...

The 1972 legislation is far from perfect but its impact on female athletes is lasting and nearly impossible to overstateIn 1972, US lawmakers passed a seemingly simple law – widely known as Title IX – against gender discrimination in education: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”The 50th anniversary, officially 23 June, is being celebrated in countless documentaries and news stories for the effects it had on promoting gender equality in sports, particularly at college level. Indeed, it’s so embedded in US culture that a women’s sports apparel company named itself Title Nine, using sales pitches like “Busy Boobs Need Better Bras.” Continue reading...

It’s vital to avoid a false choice between peace and justice: that only helps the Kremlin. We need terms both sides might acceptWe are setting up an entirely false choice over Ukraine that, if pursued, could unnecessarily undermine European unity. Last week a poll for the European Council on Foreign Relations showed two camps in European public opinion emerging: a larger peace camp (35%) that wants to cut and run now, and a smaller justice camp (25%) that wants to push ahead until victory. In fact, if you look at the detail, there are three groups, with the biggest single group (43%) choosing both peace and justice.This divide between peace and justice is reflected in public polemic, too. At one extreme there is Henry Kissinger, arguing at Davos that Ukraine should concede territory now to secure a ceasefire and warning us to avoid humiliating Vladimir Putin. Not surprisingly, this provoked a sharp reaction from those who correctly point out that Putin shows no sign of being ready to negotiate seriously or respond to concessions. More likely, a pre-emptive cringe would not only fail to secure a lasting peace, but would also leave Putin in a position to return and grab more of Ukraine once he regroups his forces.Jonathan Powell was Tony Blair’s chief negotiator on Northern Ireland while chief of staff to the prime minister, 1997-2007, and is the chief executive and founder of Inter Mediate, a charity devoted to helping end armed conflicts Continue reading...

People have become transfixed with the idea that being well is the most impressive thing you can do – and as someone who is permanently unwell I will always be considered lesserI have spent a huge part of my 20s learning to accept that I will never be healthy, after being diagnosed with an incurable illness – Crohn’s disease – two weeks after my 19th birthday. And although being “healthy” has never been a priority for me (I’ve never stepped foot in a gym and find it impossible to eat 10 portions of fruit and veg a day) my ambivalence towards “wellness” grew as I dealt with being permanently unwell. It has also made me an anomaly among my peers.From my bed, unable to move, I watched my generation become obsessed with being their best selves. We have become utterly transfixed with the idea that wellness is the key to a successful life; that our relationships, careers, friendships and mental health will all suffer unless we pursue being “well” above all else. Continue reading...

Prosecutors make recommendation in court filing a week before Maxwell’s sentencing for sex-trafficking convictionGhislaine Maxwell should get at least 30 years’ imprisonment for sex trafficking when she is sentenced next week for her role in facilitating the abuse of teenage girls by Jeffrey Epstein, New York federal prosecutors have said in court filings.“Ghislaine Maxwell sexually exploited young girls for years. It is difficult to overstate the magnitude of her crimes and the harm she caused. Her crimes demand justice,” they said in a court filing on Wednesday. “The government urges the court to impose a sentence within the applicable guidelines range of 360 to 660 months’ imprisonment.” Continue reading...

Pete Arredondo is blamed for police waiting 77 mins before intervening as 19 children and two teachers were killedThe police chief for the Texas elementary school where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers has been placed on administrative leave amid outrage that officers did not intervene sooner to stop the shooter.Under the command of Pete Arredondo, the police chief for the Uvalde school district, officers held back for about an hour and 15 min outside the classrooms where an 18-year-old with an AR-15 had opened fire on children and teachers, according to the Texas state police. Continue reading...

Bob Dean allegedly did not leave enough food or medicines with residents, resulting in the death of fiveA Louisiana nursing home owner who sent more than 800 elderly residents to endure Hurricane Ida in a ramshackle warehouse was charged on Wednesday with neglect and other crimes.Bob Dean, 68, surrendered to the Louisiana attorney general’s office and was jailed on eight counts of cruelty to infirmed people, five counts of healthcare fraud and two counts of obstruction of justice. A statement from Louisiana’s attorney general, Jeff Landry, alleged that Dean had billed the federal Medicaid program for dates his residents were not receiving care, refused to move residents out of the warehouse and “engaged in conduct intended to intimate or obstruct public health officials and law enforcement”. Continue reading...

Biologists used male ‘scout’ snakes to find the female Burmese which was nearly 18ft long and had 122 developing eggsA team of biologists recently hauled in the heaviest Burmese python ever captured in Florida, officials said. The discovery was part of the state’s python removal program.The female python weighed in at 215 pounds (98 kg), was nearly 18ft long (5 metres) and had 122 developing eggs, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida said in a news release. Continue reading...

The ex-president pushed the department to more aggressively investigate debunked claims of fraud with threatsDonald Trump pressured top justice department officials to falsely declare that the 2020 election was corrupt and launch investigations into discredited claims of fraud as part of an effort to return him to office, the House January 6 select committee will say on Thursday.The panel investigating the Capitol attack is expected at its fifth hearing to focus on how Trump abused the power of the presidency to twist the justice department into endorsing false election claims – and potentially how the Republican congressman Scott Perry sought a pardon for his involvement. Continue reading...

Man suffered ‘significant injuries’ in incident at Lovers Point Beach in Monterey BayA swimmer was seriously injured in a shark attack on the central California coast on Wednesday, police said.The attack occurred midmorning at Lovers Point Beach in Pacific Grove, a community along the Monterey Bay coastline, about 85 miles (137km) south of San Francisco. Continue reading...

Nicholas John Roske, 26, was arrested outside supreme court justice’s home in Maryland armed with a gun and knifeA man who was arrested near Brett Kavanaugh’s home in Maryland earlier this month pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to trying to kill the supreme court justice.Nicholas John Roske, 26, of Simi Valley, California, remained in custody after his arraignment on one count of attempting to assassinate a supreme court justice. Continue reading...

It’s all change at Chelsea after Granovskaia’s exit but the club’s new co-owner, chairman and sporting director has a big taskAs recently as a week ago Marina Granovskaia was telling figures inside football that she had not decided whether to continue working for Chelsea’s new owners. Granovskaia was as active as ever in discussions with agents about potential signings and, despite the director’s long-standing ties to Roman Abramovich, there was a feeling that any announcement about her future would be unlikely until the transfer window was over.That all changed on Monday morning. First came the announcement that Bruce Buck, another associate of Abramovich, had agreed to step down as chairman. Then, in a development that caught a fair few people by surprise, it emerged that Granovskaia would indeed be the next high-profile departure. Ties with the previous regime were being cut and, though there were initially suggestions that Granovskaia would keep her job until the end of August, by the end of the day several sources were tipping her to be gone before the end of the week. Continue reading...

Workers at the Chipper Truck Cafe in Yonkers, New York, were unsure if the message was a prank – but called the cops just in caseA kidnapped woman was rescued on Sunday after sending a note asking for help through the food service app Grubhub.The New York woman sent in an order to the Chipper Truck Cafe, a restaurant in Yonkers, New York, with a note asking restaurant workers to call the police. Continue reading...

Arizona Republican’s comments come after January 6 hearing testimony that the effects of Trump’s actions were ‘horrendous’Rusty Bowers, the Arizona Republican House speaker who made national headlines describing his refusal to help Donald Trump overturn the 2020 election, has said he will vote for Trump again if he runs for president in 2024.“If he is the nominee, if he was up against [Joe] Biden, I’d vote for him again,” Bowers told the Associated Press. “Simply because what he did the first time, before Covid, was so good for the country. In my view it was great.” Continue reading...

Mayor Don McLaughlin says: ‘You can never ask a child to go back, or teacher to go back, in that school ever’The elementary school in Texas where a gunman killed 19 children and two adults will be demolished, according to the local mayor.Don McLaughlin told a council meeting in Uvalde on Tuesday that it was his “understanding” that Robb elementary school would be razed and a new school built for its nearly 600 pupils after the tragedy in May. Continue reading...

Southwest pilots picket in Dallas over stalled contract talks as American Airlines ends service to three citiesThe chaos afflicting American travel has continued as a shortage of pilots became the latest flashpoint for anger against the embattled airline industry.On Tuesday, more than 1,300 Southwest airline pilots picketed in Dallas, Texas, amid stalled contract negotiations. American Airlines, which flies to more than 350 destinations, also blamed pilot shortages for its decision to stop operations in three cities – Ithaca and Islip, both in New York, and Toledo in Ohio – after 7 September. The airline is the the only major one providing service out of Toledo. Continue reading...

The settlement also includes changes in police policies and training involving traffic stopsAuthorities in Brooklyn Center, a city in the suburbs of Minneapolis, have agreed to pay $3.2m to the family of Daunte Wright, a Black man shot dead by a police officer who said she confused her gun with her Taser.The tentative settlement also includes changes in police policies and training involving traffic stops like the one that resulted in Wright’s death, according to a statement from attorneys representing Wright’s family. Continue reading...

US biotech firm agrees £1bn deal with government for centre to combat Covid and other illnessesThe Boston-based biotech Moderna is to build the UK’s first research and manufacturing centre dedicated to the development of mRNA vaccines against new Covid variants and other respiratory illnesses, in an effort to improve readiness for future pandemics.Under a £1bn deal with the UK government, construction of the new centre – Moderna’s first facility in Britain – could begin later this year and is expected to start producing the first shots in 2025. The government has committed to buying Moderna’s vaccines for the next decade. Continue reading...

This is just the beginning, as others sports review their eligibility criteria based on contested science: much may have to be settled in courtA new policy barring most trans women from elite swimming has sent shockwaves through sport this week. Within a day, the International Rugby League announced that it would be barring trans women from international competition, and football’s governing body, Fifa, stated that it would be also be reviewing its gender eligibility regulations.Those who support the inclusion of trans athletes are in despair, and those who say they should be excluded are jubilant. But as a discrimination barrister, I know these policies don’t appear in a vacuum. Are they compliant with UK law? And could they be vulnerable to legal challenge? Both questions are key – especially when considering whether other sports will follow suit.Robin Moira White is a discrimination barrister at Old Square Chambers, London, and joint author of A Practical Guide to Transgender Law Continue reading...

Text appears to indicate campaign sought to use certificates it knew were not state-certified to obstruct Biden’s victoryThe House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack made the case at its fourth hearing on Tuesday that the Trump 2020 campaign tried to obstruct Joe Biden’s election win through a potentially illegal scheme to send fake slates of electors to Congress.The panel presented a text message sent on 4 January 2021 that appeared to indicate the Trump campaign was seeking to use fraudulent election certificates they would have known were not state-certified to obstruct the congressional certification of Biden’s win.Note: This post was updated to clarify the former US attorneys’ titles. Continue reading...

Proposal designed to make it easier for cigarette smokers to quit and prevent young people becoming regular smokersThe Biden administration plans to propose a rule to establish a maximum nicotine level in cigarettes and other finished tobacco products in an attempt to make them less addictive, the White House Budget Office said Tuesday.The rule, expected in May 2023, would be designed with the goal of making it easier for tobacco users to quit and help prevent young people from becoming regular smokers, according to a document released by the White House Budget Office. Continue reading...

The British star is, once again, our most-played artist, and no wonder. He asks little of listeners too tired to give anything anywayLast September Ed Sheeran’s Bad Habits was finally dislodged from its seat at No 1 in the UK singles chart after 11 long weeks. Its replacement? Ed Sheeran’s Shivers, which subsequently nestled at the top for a month. That’s nearly a quarter of 2021’s singles charts ruled by one man. The streaming stats for both songs are mind-boggling, with combined Spotify plays at the time of writing soaring past 2bn, while their parent album, = (Equals), hasn’t left the UK top 5 in eight months.It’s hardly surprising, then, that this week the music licensing body, PPL, announced Ed Sheeran as the most-played artist in the UK in 2021. In fact, it’s an honour he’s achieved in four out of the last five years. Not only that, but Bad Habits was 2021’s most-played song, beating hits from the likes of The Weeknd (whose Blinding Lights banger Bad Habits cribs from), Little Mix and Coldplay. People, it seems, can’t get enough – but what makes Sheeran’s success so enduring?Michael Cragg is a music writer for the Guardian and the Observer Continue reading...

Prices could drop by about $1 a gallon at the pumps if measures are adopted but experts question effectiveness of gas tax holidaysJoe Biden will call on Congress today to temporarily suspend federal gasoline and diesel taxes in an attempt to quell voter anger at the surging cost of fuel.In a speech on Wednesday afternoon, Biden is expected to ask the House to pause the federal taxes – about 18¢ a gallon for gas and 24¢ a gallon for diesel – until the end of September. Continue reading...

The January 6 hearings are damning. But Republicans don’t care and Trump’s attempted coup continues unabatedWe tragically fool ourselves if we believe that the televised hearings of the January 6 committee will change the Republican party or end Trump’s attempted coup.The Republican party is becoming ever more divorced from reality, and Trump’s attempted coup continues unabated.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...

The newly minted Hall of Famer opens up about her trials outside the ring: substance abuse, domestic violence and an attempted murder by her husband, who left her to die on their bedroom floorChristy Martin’s original story, the well-trodden narrative of the coal miner’s daughter from West Virginia who left home and stepped into the boxing ring for her professional debut in 1989, ends on the floor of her bedroom in Apopka, Florida, on 23 November 2010. She was 42 years old. At the time, she was the welterweight champion who put women’s boxing on the map, the first female to sign with the sport’s iconic promoter, Don King, the first and, to this day, only, female boxer to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated.Those bits of history were the stuff used to frame her rise, to shape her career within the narrative arc of an underdog. Stories that sung the barriers she’d broken and records she’d set. But they omitted chunks of reality. Christy was gay, and trapped in a violent marriage to her manager, Jim Martin, who was 25 years her senior. She constantly needed to get high. And on that early November evening in 2010, Jim, her then-husband, who was also her abuser and cocaine supplier, her blackmailer and confidant, stabbed her three times and shot her in the chest. There would be no more separation between who she was in public and how she survived at home. Continue reading...

Officials and poll workers subjected to violent, hateful and at times racist threats from ex-president’s supporters, January 6 committee told. Plus, could fewer arrests actually reduce crime?

If Joe Biden signed an executive order tomorrow, the government won’t pay out a dime – federal student loan debt is already included in the national debtConservatives love to talk about how expensive canceling student debt would be. In the words of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, federal student debt cancellation, even when means-tested, is “​​regressive, inflationary, expensive and would likely do more to increase the cost of higher education going forward than to reduce it”.Or as Forbes recently put it: “Canceling federal student loans will cost the federal government hundreds of billions of dollars – and it’s the general public that will eventually end up footing the bill.” The author goes on to suggest that this “cost” imposed on taxpayers could threaten vital social programs like free and reduced lunch or any future hope of universal pre-K or guaranteed parental leave. Continue reading...