US news | The Guardian

A variety of factors, from Russia’s invasion to the pandemic, are causing higher bills – and Americans should expect to see higher prices until the end of the year

Owning and operating a car is getting more expensive in the US – but the largely ineffective public transport means many have little choice but to use carsAt the Lehigh Valley Mall, on the outskirts of Allentown, Pennsylvania, Tony Saba is already feeling the impact of the rising cost of gas.“The price is going up to hell,” he said. “I cannot move like before. My car is in my garage. I can’t move it because I have no money.” Continue reading...

Can the New York governor accused of sexual harassment as well as a Covid cover-up succeed in his comeback campaign?Last summer, the three-term New York governor Andrew Cuomo was considered, in political terms, dead and buried after one of the most spectacular falls from grace in modern US politics.A year earlier, he’d been an empathetic pandemic hero, offering New Yorkers a measure of confidence in the state’s response to the early waves of Covid-19 while the US president, Donald Trump, floundered or blustered his way through daily briefings as the terrifying death toll mounted. Continue reading...

Joe Biden, whose son Beau’s cancer may have been connected to exposure, has advocated for a better responseJoe Biden visited Texas last week. But it was no ordinary campaigning trip to a state Democrats hungrily eye as a target to flip from red to blue.Instead the US president was speaking about an issue with personal resonance: burn pits. That is the catch-all term used to describe how American soldiers in foreign wars were exposed to toxic chemicals from incinerated military waste that years later causes debilitating disease and death to thousands of veterans. Continue reading...

Toby Price’s termination for sharing the humorous children’s book has sparked criticism and a wave of supportAn elementary school administrator in Mississippi has said he was fired for reading I Need a New Butt!, a humorous children’s book about bottoms, to a class of second-graders.The incident has spurred criticism from free speech advocates, who claim the termination could have a chilling effect at a time of conservative-fueled pushes for book bans in schools across the US. Continue reading...

The Democratic gubernatorial candidate compared his Republican opponent to the Russian president Vladimir Putin

The woman told police she attacked the man in retaliation for the US drone strike that killed senior Revolutionary Guards leader Qassem SuleimaniA woman allegedly stabbed a man she had met on a dating website in retaliation for the 2020 death of an Iranian military leader killed in an American drone strike, police say.Nika Nikoubin, 21, has been charged with attempted murder, battery with a deadly weapon and burglary, KLAS-TV reported. Continue reading...

New York police said the man’s membership had been revoked for previous incidents of disorderly conductA man stabbed two people inside the Museum of Modern Art in New York on Saturday afternoon after he was denied entrance for previous incidents of disorderly conduct, authorities said.Police said the two people who were stabbed were museum employees. Both were in stable condition at Bellevue hospital. Continue reading...

Powerful late-winter storm comes with predicted snowfall up to about 13in and potential to cause travel issues and outagesA powerful late-winter storm combining rivers of moisture and frigid temperatures – a phenomenon known to some as a “bomb cyclone” – was expected to dump snow from the US deep south all the way to the Canadian border over the weekend, forecasters said.With forecast snowfall ranging from about 4in in northern Alabama and Mississippi to about 13in in northern Maine, forecasters expected travel problems and power outages across much of the eastern US.The Associated Press contributed to this report Continue reading...

Six men and a woman were taken to hospitals on Thursday in an incident that highlights a two-year trend in suspected opioid overdosesPolice have made an arrest in connection with fentanyl overdoses that involved five cadets from the US Military Academy at a Florida vacation home during spring break this week.Wilton Manors police said six men and a woman overdosed on fentanyl-laced cocaine and were taken to hospitals on Thursday. Authorities said late on Friday they had made an arrest, but did not offer specifics. Continue reading...

He’s now won more games than anyone in NBA history, but the Air Force veteran’s most important legacy will be speaking out on injustice, racism, police brutality to a red-state audienceWith San Antonio’s 104-102 victory over the Utah Jazz on Saturday night, longtime Spurs coach Gregg Popovich recorded his 1,336th regular-season win to pass Don Nelson for the most in NBA history.Popovich coached Tim Duncan for almost two decades, never missing the playoffs during a span that included five NBA championships. Under his leadership, the Spurs organization became the league standard for professionalism, respectability and doing things the “right way”, a reputation that rubbed off on San Antonio greats like David Robinson, Manu Ginobli, Kawhi Leonard, Tony Parker, Avery Johnson, Sean Elliott, LaMarcus Aldridge, Patty Mills, DeMar DeRozan, Rudy Gay and countless others. Continue reading...

Entertainment giant suspends political donations as CEO apologises for silence and governor hits back with ‘communist’ barbThe Republican governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, claimed the Walt Disney Company was too cozy with communist China, as the chief executive of the tourism and entertainment criticized a state bill that bars teachers from instructing early grades on LGBTQ+ issues.DeSantis, who has not yet signed the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill, also reportedly criticized Disney as “woke”, after the company’s leader opposed the legislation. Continue reading...

The court is set to rule this year on divisive issues including abortion, gun control, the climate crisis and voting rights

The reauthorization of the Violence Against Women act gives authorities new powers to crack down on domestic abusers with illegal gunsEditor’s note: This story was produced by the non-profit newsroom Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting. Get email alerts on its investigations.State and local prosecutors and law enforcement across the US will have sweeping new powers to crack down on domestic abusers with illegal guns under a bipartisan deal approved by Congress. Continue reading...

Member of House January 6 committee admits regret that he voted against former president’s first impeachment

Sheriff’s deputies destroyed the animal after finding ‘two unconscious victims’ and ‘a camel still on the looseA camel killed two men after escaping a petting zoo in Tennessee, a county sheriff said.Officials from the Obion county sheriff’s office said the fatal incident unfolded around 5.44pm on Thursday, when they “received a call of a loose camel near Shirley Farms on South Bluff Road in Obion … attacking people”. Continue reading...

Like Gigi Hadid, my dad is a Palestinian refugee, and I’ve been harassed for suggesting Palestinians deserve human rightsWhat starts with “P” ends with “E” and is too terrifying a word for many people to so much as mention? “Palestine”, of course! Simply uttering the P-word in a vaguely sympathetic way can be enough to elicit bad faith accusations of antisemitism. The topic has become so loaded that some people seemingly prefer to pretend Palestine and Palestinians don’t exist and just ignore the issue altogether. Nothing makes liberals abandon their progressive values, or their courage, like someone mentioning Palestine. Continue reading...

16-year-old was killed during an argument outside a care home in the Ohio capital in April 2021The Columbus police officer who shot and killed 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant has been cleared of criminal wrongdoing, Ohio prosecutors said on Friday.Ma’Khia was killed in April 2021 by officer Nicholas Reardon as she swung a knife at a young woman, seconds after pushing another woman to the ground. Bryant was Black. Reardon is white. Continue reading...

Candidates for secretary of state are raising huge sums after Trump’s lies shook 2020 electionLast year, Brad Raffensperger was attracting national headlines for taking a stand against Donald Trump and his lies about the 2020 election.In a phone call that was quickly made public, Trump demanded that Raffensperger, Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, “find” enough votes to deprive Joe Biden of a victory in the battleground state. Raffensperger refused to do so and won widespread praise for his courage. Continue reading...

Critics say party has seized on price hikes to exploit war in Ukraine for its own benefit – ‘an unconscionable act of political cowardice’In a Washington riven by discord, it can seem like a throwback to a gentler time.“I’m proud to stand with my Republican and Democrat colleagues” to send help to Ukraine, Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the US House of Representatives’ foreign affairs committee, said this week. Continue reading...

The star of Free Solo is back with a new series featuring terrifying climbs – this time using virtual realityThe great promise of virtual reality lies in its potential to replicate otherwise unattainable experiences. And few in the physical world can match the experiences of Alex Honnold, the American rock climber who has distinguished himself with ropeless ascents up some of the world’s most fearsome cliffs.No one had ever completed a “free-solo” climb of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park before Honnold famously did so in 2017, a feat that was the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary. Continue reading...

US could be turning the corner on the pandemic, but not if you are one of the many people who has lost loved ones or is suffering post-coronavirus symptoms known as long CovidPamela Swan Addison keeps hearing the same phrases over and over. People are tired. They are tired of wearing masks, tired of getting vaccinations, tired of their lives being disrupted. Addison is tired too. But she’s tired of different things. She’s tired of listening to people complain about masks and vaccinations and disrupted lives when she knows her life will never be the same again.She’s tired of the inevitable question people ask her whenever they discover her husband Martin died of Covid early in the pandemic aged 44: did he have an underlying health condition? He didn’t, as it happens, but why do they have to be so insensitive? Continue reading...

A roundup of the coverage of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from International Women’s Day in Istanbul to ‘kill the bill’ protests in Cambridge Continue reading...

The pep-talk project has been overwhelmed with calls from people in need of a lift in difficult timesLast month, a group of California elementary school students launched a free hotline featuring on-demand inspiration and advice for anxious souls. With joy in short supply these days, the tiny school’s project has since gone viral, receiving thousands of calls hourly.Dial 707-998-8410 and you’ll hear a cheerful voice listing your options: “If you’re feeling mad, frustrated or nervous, press one. If you need words of encouragement and life advice, press two. If you need a pep talk from kindergarteners, press three. If you need to hear kids laughing with delight, press four.”“If you’re nervous, go get your wallet and spend it on ice cream and shoes.”“If you’re frustrated, you can always go to your bedroom, punch a pillow or cry on it and just go scream outside.”“If you’re mad or frustrated, you can do what you want to do best or you can do flips on the trampoline.”“If you’re sad or angry, go get a cookie, a smoothie or an ice cream.”“You are OK.”“Don’t give up – power through.”“The world is a better place with you in it.”“Choose weird.”“If you’re feeling up high and unbalanced, think of groundhogs.” Continue reading...

Body discovered after patrol officers investigated report of missing homeowner in upscale neighborhoodTwo men have been arrested in southern California on murder charges after the body of a homeowner in Hawaii was found encased in concrete in a bathtub, according to authorities.On Wednesday, US marshals and Los Angeles police arrested Juan Tejedor Baron, 23, in Anaheim, California, after they found him hiding in a crawl space under a bench on a Greyhound bus which was headed for Mexico. Continue reading...

The halt follows an ACLU lawsuit that accused Greg Abbott of trampling ‘on the constitutional rights of transgender children’A Texas judge has temporarily blocked the state from investigating parents who provide their transgender children with gender-affirming medical treatments, following a hearing in which one state inspector said they were told to pursue parents even when they did not think abuse had occurred.The temporary halt, issued by a district court judge on Friday, follows a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union against the state’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, who the organization accused of trampling “on the constitutional rights of transgender children, their parents, and professionals who provide vital care to transgender children”. Continue reading...

The US has accused Russia of using a UN security council meeting for ‘spreading disinformation’ as part of a potential false-flag operation by Moscow for the use of chemical or biological agents in Ukraine. The Russian ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, was presenting the Kremlin’s allegations that Ukraine and the US had a plot to spread biological weapons with migratory birds, bats and insects – a claim made without any evidence

The oft-photographed country music institution, which has been in Nashville since 1947, will close in the springThe downtown Nashville, Tennessee, record store that was opened by Opry legend Ernest Tubb in 1947 and has been a landmark in country music for decades will close as the building is being put up for sale.The owners of the Ernest Tubb Record Shop said in a statement on Friday they were heartbroken that the store, which has been in its current location on Broadway since 1951, will close in the spring. The building and store is owned by the Honky Tonk Circus, LLC, and the David McCormick Company, Inc. Continue reading...

Jordan Mollenhour is backed by Tennessee’s Republican governor despite his company having supplied ammo to mass shootersThe owner of a US company that has sold ammunition online to numerous mass shooters has prompted outcry as he pursues a permanent position on Tennessee’s education board.Jordan Mollenhour, who was backed by the state’s Republican governor, was confirmed by the state’s Republican-led senate on Thursday morning by 26-6. He is the owner of Lucky Gunners, an online Knoxville-based ammunition company that he co-founded in 2009. Continue reading...

A court found the Met was wrong to threaten us with arrest. The force may appeal, but it should really redouble efforts to tackle misogyny and violenceAs one of the founders of Reclaim These Streets, I rarely get to talk about good news. As a group of campaigners concerned with women’s safety, in the past year we have organised too many vigils for women who were killed by men and should still be with us. We have supported grieving communities such as those in Kidbrooke, where Sabina Nessa lived, and Plymouth, where an incel gunman shot seven people. And we’ve watched as violence against women and girls slips down a political agenda that thinks a centuries-old problem such as misogyny can be fixed with a few streetlights.But this week, finally, we have a win. We beat the Metropolitan police in the high court. Our victory spells out, in no uncertain terms, that the police were wrong to block our attempt to organise a vigil in March 2021 for Sarah Everard on Clapham Common. At every stage, the ruling shows, the police’s interpretation of the law and their decisions were legally wrong.Anna Birley is a founder of Reclaim These Streets and a local Labour & Co-operative councillor in Lambeth Continue reading...

New York judge accuses ex-president of ‘bad faith’ in tactics that would have further delayed defamation lawsuitDonald Trump cannot countersue the US writer E Jean Carroll, who says he raped her in the mid-1990s, a federal judge ruled on Friday. The former president had argued that her defamation lawsuit against him violated a New York state law intended to protect free speech.US district judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan said a ruling for the one-term Republican would needlessly cause further delays for Carroll’s lawsuit, which began in November 2019. Continue reading...

Marie Yovanovitch, who was fired by Trump in 2019, reveals details of then president’s Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian counterpartAt an Oval Office meeting with the then Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, in 2017, Donald Trump asked his national security adviser if US troops were in Donbas, territory claimed by Russian-backed separatists, which Vladimir Putin last month used as pretext for a full and bloody invasion.Describing the meeting in a new book, the then US ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, writes: “An affirmative answer to that question would have meant that the United States was in a shooting war with Russia.” Continue reading...

I’m battling cancer as well as voting restrictions, but I have many more bridges to cross. This is my diary of the Selma to Montgomery marchAs a longtime activist and co-founder of Black Voters Matter, and because I lived in Selma, Alabama, for about 10 years, I’ve participated in many Bloody Sunday and Selma to Montgomery commemorations. But this time, it feels a little different.This is the first time after the renewed battle for federal voting rights legislation, which we have fought for throughout 2021 starting with our fight against Georgia’s voter suppression bill early in the year, and continuing with similar efforts in Florida as well as Texas, where activists and legislators successfully delayed a voter suppression bill for six months. Continue reading...

Legislators introduce bill that would ban discussions of gender identity and sexual orientation in private schoolsGeorgia lawmakers are trying to pass a bill that would ban discussions of gender identity and sexual orientation in private schools, introducing the measure the same day the Florida senate passed its so-called “don’t say gay” bill.Under Georgia’s new bill, the Common Humanity in Private Education Act, no private school classroom would be able to “promote, compel, or encourage classroom discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels or in a manner that is not appropriate for the age and developmental stage of the student,” reported NBC. Continue reading...

The newest home for the thinking fan’s pundit’s longform, nuanced takes on sports and culture is Game Theory, a new late-night show on HBO which debuts on SundayWas getting into bed with the gambling industry just part of a plan by NFL owners to recoup millions in talent wages? Asking for Calvin Ridley, who’s having an especially rough week.On Monday the league sidelined the star Atlanta Falcons receiver for the 2022 season after an internal investigation revealed Ridley had bet on games during a five-day stretch late last November. In the wake of the news Ridley admitted to betting $1,500. He was slated to make $11m this fall. Continue reading...

We deplore Russia’s aggression. However, it strains credulity to think that a US war with Russia would make the American people safer or more prosperousWe, the undersigned, urge the Biden administration to continue to reject calls to impose a dangerous no-fly zone over all or part of Ukraine. A no-fly zone would commit the US and Nato forces to shoot down any Russian aircraft that enter. It would be naive to think that merely declaring a no-fly zone would convince the Russian military to comply voluntarily. In short, a no-fly zone would mean going to war with Russia.We deplore Russia’s aggression, admire the bravery of Ukrainians, mourn the loss of innocent life, and wish for a speedy end to the conflict. However, it strains credulity to think that a US war with Russia would make the American people safer or more prosperous. To the contrary, going to war with Russia, a nuclear peer of the United States, would expose Americans to vast and unnecessary risks. A war that expands beyond Ukraine’s borders could also inflict damage across Europe and weaken America’s Nato allies. We call upon the administration to avoid such a gambit and continue to use appropriate diplomatic means and economic pressure to end the conflict. Continue reading...

I’ve seen the menu for the Oscars afterparty and it does not look promising. Will someone please get these poor actors some carbs?This is a perilous time for the Oscars. Last year’s ceremony – held in a train station, don’t forget – was watched by just a tiny dribble of viewers. This year, the lack of a televised Golden Globes has hobbled awards season, and anticipation is at an all-time low. The Academy’s plan to lure viewers by handing out a bunch of awards off-screen has been widely criticised by the film-making community. Simply put, things are getting desperate.But we’ve all thrown parties without knowing whether anyone will actually turn up, and the Oscars are currently doing the most sensible thing possible: they’re focusing on the catering. Continue reading...

The US south has long been the epicenter of racism. But the cancer has taken root in every corner of AmericaIn 1974, the great southern journalist John Egerton wrote a prescient book entitled The Americanization of Dixie: The Southernization of America.In a series of connected but self-contained essays, he made the point that something fundamental was changing – both in his native south, and in the country as a whole. But even Egerton seemed not to be sure exactly how things would unfold.The South and the nation are not exchanging strengths as much as they are exchanging sins; more often than not, they are sharing and spreading the worst in each other, while the best languishes and withers.I’ve been the product of an emerging South. I see the clear advantages of throwing off the millstone of racial prejudice. I think it’s a process that’s compatible with the moral and ethical standards of our nation – the heritage of our country, as envisioned by our forefathers. I also see that we have a special responsibility here. When we are meek, or quiescent, or silent on the subject of civil rights at home or human rights abroad, there is no other voice on Earth that can replace the lost voice, the absent voice, of the United States. This is what the persecutors want, and this is what the persecuted fear. Continue reading...

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reverberates in Brighton Beach, home to one of the world’s largest concentrations of immigrants from the former Soviet UnionFor years, the sign for Taste of Russia, a grocery store in Brooklyn’s Russian-speaking immigrant community of Brighton Beach, featured the distinctive domes of St Basil’s cathedral in Red Square. But soon after Russian troops invaded Ukraine on 24 February, the owners of the shop took the sign down. In the window, they hung a large blue and yellow Ukrainian flag.“We felt that it was divisive,” said co-owner Elena Rakhman, citing feedback from longtime customers who told her they no longer felt comfortable shopping in a store named after Russia. Several of her employees are from Ukraine and have family members there. Continue reading...

Workers are calling for the National Labor Relations Board to ban captive audience meetings and make organizing easierAmerican workers attempting to form unions in their workplaces are pushing the National Labor Relations Board to expand organizing rights – from reinstating the Joy Silk doctrine that makes unionization easier, to banning captive audience meetings held by employers to discourage organizing efforts.Their efforts could transform how unions organize workers in the US, especially amid opposition from employers. Continue reading...

Zelenskiy calls Russia a ‘terrorist state’ as bombs hit cities further west. Plus, the chefs cooking in solidarity with UkraineGood morning.Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has accused Russia of being a “terrorist state”after its tanks prevented a delivery of food, water and medicine to the besieged city of Mariupol, and he said Moscow was capable of chemical weapons attacks.What else is happening? Here’s everything we know on day 16 of the Russian invasion.What happens if Russia cannot pay its debts after western sanctions? While Russia would have had enough foreign currency to cover debt payments, having amassed $630bn in reserves, the US, UK and EU freezing the assets of its central bank have made much of this sum inaccessible. This means it could default.Meanwhile, Russia’s past has raised fears of a large-scale cyberwar targeting Ukraine and its allies, including the US.What has the House panel said? The filing by the House panel stated that it had “a good-faith basis for concluding that the president and members of his campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States”. Continue reading...

Making his first appearance in Philly since demanding a trade last summer, Ben Simmons watched as the Nets dismantled the Sixers with shocking ease in a potential playoff previewIt was the type of night that only the NBA in all its soap-operatic, meme-friendly, hyper-petty splendor can deliver. Ben Simmons’ first appearance in Philadelphia since demanding a trade from the 76ers over the summer was always going to be extra in all the messiest ways, but Thursday night’s wildly entertaining homecoming somehow managed to exceed the weeks of mounting hype that preceded it.And not because the game itself was in any way competitive, for it certainly was not. The sellout crowd of 21,408 rollicking fans who came to release more than nine months of pent-up frustration wound up booing their own team in the fourth quarter as the visiting Brooklyn Nets led by as many as 32 points in a wire-to-wire 129-100 beatdown of the hometown Sixers. Continue reading...

Some ex-prosecutors call on DoJ to accelerate investigation after House panel’s allegations Trump broke laws to overturn electionThe likelihood of a criminal investigation and charges against Donald Trump are rising due to allegations by a House panel of a “criminal conspiracy” involving his aggressive drive to overturn the 2020 election results, coupled with a justice department (DoJ) inquiry of a “false electors” scheme Trump loyalists devised to block Joe Biden’s election.Former federal prosecutors say evidence is mounting of criminal conduct by Trump that may yield charges against the ex- president for obstructing an official proceeding of Congress on 6 January or defrauding the US government, stemming from his weeks-long drive with top allies to thwart Biden’s election by pushing false claims of fraud. Continue reading...

The Latvian is on the verge of returning to the Top 10 after a fine run of form, but her love for front-foot tennis remains intactEven in an era of professional tennis filled with athletes who can obliterate any ball off their groundstrokes from any part of the court, Jelena Ostapenko is unique. Her strength doesn’t simply lie in her power but the natural timing that allows her to change the direction of any speeding ball, the precision of her early, flat shots and, most importantly, her unrelenting belief that she must be in control of every point of every match. When in full flow and absurdly aiming for every line, she will find them.The clearest example of Ostapenko’s talents came in the biggest, most tense moment of her career, when aged 20 she marched into the 2017 French Open final before trailing Simona Halep 0-3 and facing three separate break points in the third set. With her back to the wall, Ostapenko swung and swung until she changed her own destiny, reeling off the final six games to win her first grand slam title. Continue reading...