Florida man Nathan Hart, 49, acquitted of illegal voting but found guilty of false registration in closely watched caseA Florida man on Tuesday was acquitted on charges of illegally voting but convicted of lying on his voter registration application in a closely watched voter fraud case.The split verdict in Hillsborough county was the first time a Florida jury weighed in on a case of one of the 19 people Ron DeSantis announced were being charged with voter fraud in August. Nearly all of the 19 have said they did not know they were ineligible to vote and believed they could do so because they received a voter registration card from the state. Continue reading...
Lawsuit accuses the officer, whose actions were caught on tape while working as a school guard, of an illegal chokeholdA white Wisconsin police officer, working as a school security guard while off duty, is facing a lawsuit from the family of a 12-year-old Black girl after he held his knee on her neck for more than 20 seconds while breaking up a fight at school.The lawsuit accuses the officer, whose actions were caught on tape, of using an illegal chokehold. Continue reading...
Legal team says Andrea Reeb’s position as elected state politician prohibits her from holding authority in judicial capacityDefense attorneys for actor Alec Baldwin are seeking to disqualify the special prosecutor in the criminal case against him stemming from the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on a New Mexico film set.In a motion filed on Tuesday in a district court in Santa Fe, Baldwin’s legal team said Andrea Reeb’s position as a state politician prohibits her under state law from holding any authority in a judicial capacity. Continue reading...
I have reached the age my father was when I first heard him described as ‘old’. What can I say? Except it’s better than the alternativeOf all the things to find triggering, T-shirts are a funny one. I mean the T-shirts bearing daft or clever – clever-dick? – slogans, maxims, aphorisms, puns and so on. You know the kind of thing: I might be wrong (but it’s highly unlikely); Football is my second favourite F word; Right wing. Left wing. Chicken wing. Etc. You see, I had a beautiful, troubled friend, my age, from Birmingham, who died too young. He had countless T-shirts of this kind, but his were always really good – annoyingly so. I said they made him look a smartarse. He said he didn’t mind because he was a bit of a smartarse. Now, whenever I see a T-shirt like that, I ask myself if it’s good enough for Guy to have worn. I’ve heard it said that people can have trouble recalling the faces of loved ones they have lost. I don’t have that problem with Guy; I see his face most days. But for some reason I can’t remember what was on any of his T-shirts. Odd that.Today, I find myself doubly triggered by a T-shirt, an ad for which popped up on my social media. This one brings another loved one into the picture – my dad. It reads: “It’s weird being the same age as old people.” Ain’t that the truth? This garment would have made it to Guy’s wardrobe, no question.Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Activists disappointed with lack of focus on abortion rights in first address since reversal of Roe v Wade in June last yearJoe Biden is facing criticism for making only a late, brief mention of abortion rights in his first State of the Union address since the reversal of Roe v Wade by a conservative-led supreme court last year removed the federal right to the procedure in the US.During Tuesday’s State of the Union speech, Biden used the word abortion exactly once, making remarks about statewide abortions bans almost an hour into the speech. Continue reading...
Vice-president plays down concerns about Biden’s age as expectation builds that he will run again next yearKamala Harris talked up a “bold and vibrant” Joe Biden when asked on Wednesday morning about his age in relation to his fitness to be president – as expectation builds that the 80-year-old will run for the White House again in 2024.The US vice-president attacked Republican “theatrics” during the president’s strong performance at his state of the union speech on Tuesday night. Biden has yet to declare if he will run for a second term – or whether Harris will be his companion on the ticket again if he does – but his speech appeared to strengthen the chances of that, as did her upbeat interview. Continue reading...
Surveillance balloons have appeared over US soil before – the president’s reaction is a sign of how boxed in he is by RepublicansThe gigantic spy balloon that flew from China to the US lies punctured, shot down by an F-22 jet. Similarly in tatters is any optimism that Beijing and Washington might be able to salvage their relationship – and the alarming high stakes of global economic and geopolitical turmoil will be shared by the rest of the world, if their febrile bilateral tie is to unravel.The incident left Chinese diplomats red-faced and US politicians fuming, and has led to a war of words across the Pacific, reports of previous sightings of Chinese balloons above US soil and the postponing of a highly anticipated visit to China by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken. Continue reading...
by Lauren Gambino and Joan E Greve in Washington on (#68M5K)
President also calls on Republicans to help him ‘finish the job’ of rebuilding the economy and restoring faith in democracyJoe Biden called on Republicans to help him “finish the job” of rebuilding the economy and restoring faith in American democracy in his second State of the Union address on Tuesday night, as he delivered urgent calls to action on police reform, gun control and the climate crisis.Speaking to a divided Congress for the first time, a relentlessly optimistic Biden made the case that the nation was stronger and more stable than when he assumed office two years ago. Continue reading...
The Australian rugby league convert will play in one of the world’s most-watched sporting events after earning his place in Philadelphia and the leagueNearly five years into his NFL odyssey, Jordan Mailata is still full of surprises. The rugby-league convert from Bankstown in Sydney’s south-west, along with two Philadelphia Eagles teammates, were the stars of a seven-track Christmas charity album in December. The 6ft 8in, 165kg Australian had already appeared last March in the US version of The Masked Singer, but the beautiful, crisp falsetto he delivered on a version of White Christmas stunned listeners.Now Mailata, 25, has moved onto a bigger stage: Super Bowl LVII in Arizona, where he will help the favoured Eagles in their bid to beat the Kansas City Chiefs. The left tackle said he used to skip school back home to watch the big game on Mondays, but the football was secondary. When asked who he enjoyed watching, he smiled and said: “Queen Bee: Beyonce.” Continue reading...
It’s not often that athletes are still active, let alone still dominant, while receiving their flowers. Let us now praise the NBA’s newly minted scoring kingThere are numerous factors that make it difficult to appreciate that which is special in real time. For starters, valuing the finite nature of anything brings into sharper focus the fleetingness of our own existence, and for obvious reasons, that’s something we’d generally rather not dwell upon. Beyond that, life passes by at a frenetic pace, and most days are spent just trying to weather the storm. Most special, resonant, or important people or events, for that reason, are more easily appreciated in retrospect: the rose-colored glass of the rear-view mirror highlighting everything that was once muddled by the chaos of life.But it’s a worthy exercise in mindfulness to take stock of that which is here now. Such an opportunity arises this week after LeBron James broke a record on Tuesday night that was long believed to be unbreakable: passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the league’s all-time leading scorer. Continue reading...
Short of murder, there is nothing a friend could do that would make me say, ‘I feel like you’re a little toxic. Goodbye.’I lost a friend today, physically. She didn’t die. Worse, she moved to LA. I’m having a hard time with the idea of not seeing her every week, of not being in the same city, of no longer knowing that she is close by.I asked another friend if this was normal, this sad heaviness I’m carrying around just because a friend of mine is moving away. “I’ll still see her sometimes, when she’s back in New York,” I explained miserably, “and we’re going to talk on FaceTime and all of that.” This friend said maybe I was sad because when a friend does something, like moving across the country, it makes you question your own choices in life. Absolutely not, I said to myself, realizing at once that it was not that deep. The reason I was crying on the subway platform, that public/private tunnel of tears, was because my friend is leaving. Continue reading...
No experienced supervisors attended the scene of Nichols’s deadly arrest and Memphis’s police department is hundreds of officers short of its target strengthBeyond the beating, kicking, cursing and pepper-spraying, the video of Tyre Nichols’s deadly arrest at the hands of young Memphis police officers is just as notable for what’s missing – any experienced supervisors showing up to stop them.That points to a dangerous confluence of trends that Memphis’s police chief acknowledged have dogged the department as the city became one of the nation’s murder hotspots: a chronic shortage of officers, especially supervisors, increasing numbers of police quitting and a struggle to bring in qualified recruits. Continue reading...
Migrants from Africa and Haiti reportedly cannot utilize app to accept their photos, which is now required to apply for asylumThe US government’s new mobile app for migrants to apply for asylum at the US-Mexico border is blocking many Black people from being able to file their claims because of facial recognition bias in the tech, immigration advocates say.Non-profits that assist Black asylum seekers are finding that the app, CBP One, is failing to register many people with darker skin tones, effectively barring them from their right to request entry into the US. Continue reading...
The Republican senator Mitt Romney appeared to confront congressman George Santos before Joe Biden was due to deliver his State of Union address on Tuesday. Though his remarks were not audible, Romney clearly told Santos that he 'ought to be embarrassed' several times. Later Romney told reporters that Santos did not 'belong here [in Congress]' and called him a 'sick puppy'
The Trans Teen Survival Guide was motivated by my own struggles. Removing it from libraries is part of the historic erasure of books about identityI check Twitter and nearly spit out my coffee. I’m tagged in a post by the Florida Freedom To Read Project, stating that a number of library books have been taken off the shelves, including mine.I stare at a photograph of a trolley full of banned books, rounded up in one day, in one library, and locate the black spine of the Trans Teen Survival Guide – a book that I wrote with my partner, Owl. It is sitting next to a book called This Book Is Anti-Racist, and I think to myself that you can’t get much more explicit than that in your agenda to ban books that are meant to support people.Fox Fisher is an author, artist and co-director of My Genderation films Continue reading...
The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback’s appetite for the big play used to be a weakness. But now he has eliminated even that blemishThe Philadelphia Eagles will try to do the impossible on Sunday: expose a flaw in the seemingly flawless.Even the greatest usually have some shortcomings in their game that the opposition can expose. Tom Brady was slow. Brett Favre was reckless – in more ways than one. Drew Brees was small. John Elway was accurate, but not always precise. Continue reading...
When the rains came last autumn, I was among the millions made homeless in Sindh province. Here is why – months later – I am still helping to patch up ruined lives
Why I’m not hopeful that the Republican-led House investigation will stay grounded in realityYou can’t get Americans to agree on much these days – not on gas stoves, not on Chinese spy balloons, not on the books allowed in school libraries.But one thing they apparently can bond over is whether the Republicans in the House of Representatives are likely to spend the next two years responsibly serving as the loyal opposition to President Biden and the Democrats who control the Senate. Continue reading...
Joe Biden gave a forceful defence of his presidency in his second State of the Union address, delivered at the midpoint of his first term and just weeks after the Republicans retook control of the House. Some key moments included being heckled while accusing some Republicans of wanting to do away with popular government healthcare and retirement programs, announcing he would sign and executive order to aid in for police reform, a call to ban assault rifles, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the countries relationship with China.
Joe Salmon, 17, was ice fishing when he saw a Jeep driven by Thomas Lee, 83, drop through the ice under a highway bridgeA 17-year-old, three-sport athlete from Iowa has earned acclaim as a hero after jumping into an icy lake to save a man in his 80s and a dog who were trapped in a car that had fallen in the water over the weekend – a dramatic rescue caught on camera by a drone.The teen, Joe Salmon, was ice fishing with his mother and watching snowmobile races on East Okoboji Lake when he saw a Jeep driven by 83-year-old Thomas Lee drop through the ice under a highway bridge at about 3pm on Saturday, the local sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post. Continue reading...
The president touted many of his greatest achievements. But there are some areas he still needs to work onIt was President Biden’s first address to Congress since Republicans won control of the House, and unofficially, it was the start of his 2024 re-election campaign. Biden faced a newly adversarial audience at his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, a group of empowered Republicans clustered on the right side of the House chamber, each one eager to perform outrage for the cameras.The speech, a strictly choreographed bit of political theater, was as much a competition of affective performance between the president and his Republican rivals as it was a set of policy proposals. Mostly, Biden won. The Republicans heckled and booed. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the QAnon conspiracist from Florida, bellowed at Biden in a big, fluffy fur coat, like Cruella De Vil; Kevin McCarthy, newly elected speaker after a long and humiliating Republican leadership contest, sulked pointedly in a chair behind the president. But Biden countered their flustered outrage with a cool, almost irreverent indifference.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
The president hailed successes and even got the GOP cheering for entitlement programs in what looked like an unofficial re-election campaign launchNo cascade of lies. No speaker of the House of Representatives ripping up the speech of a recently impeached president. Almost no face masks or Covid restrictions or sad empty seats in the public gallery.Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in Washington was basically normal. If someone had built a time machine in 2010 and travelled forward to 2023, they would have felt in pretty familiar territory. It’s been quite a while since you could say that. Continue reading...
by Joan E Greve in Washington and Martin Pengelly in on (#68MTS)
Speech covered China, abortion and the border while challenging Republicans on threats to Medicare and social securityIn his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Joe Biden presented a bullish picture of the achievements of his administration and Democrats in Congress since he entered the White House in 2021.The US president also took the battle to Republicans on some issues in what was a widely praised performance as the 2024 race for the White House starts to appear on the horizon. Continue reading...
Republican extremist appears to reference Chinese surveillance dirigible by parading halls of Congress with white balloonMarjorie Taylor Greene appeared to tee up a State of the Union stunt on Tuesday, patrolling the halls of Congress with a large white balloon in reference to Republican criticism of Joe Biden over his handling of a flight over US territory by a Chinese surveillance dirigible.“Just an innocent white balloon everybody,” the Georgia extremist said, hours before Biden’s address to Congress, attempting to keep aloft the balloon saga which ended when it was shot down off the Carolinas on Saturday. Continue reading...
Agreement with Equality and Human Rights Commission commits firm to number of measures to protect workersMcDonald’s has signed a legally binding pledge with the equality watchdog amid concerns over how it has handled sexual harassment complaints made by UK staff.The move came after allegations by workers at the fast-food chain’s US restaurants of sexual harassment in the workplace over several years and the company’s failure to deal with the issue. Continue reading...
Air force report details balloon while Pentagon officials say China had sent three over the US during Trump’s time in officeA Chinese spy balloon “drifted past Hawaii and across Florida” as it “circumnavigated the globe” in 2019, four years before the American military shot down another one this past weekend, according to a US air force intelligence report reviewed by CNN.China “launched and controlled” the high-altitude balloon, which was “capable of operating at “65,000ft to 328,000ft and for months at a time”, in 2019, according to the report seen by CNN. The report did not make clear when the US became aware of the 2019 balloon. Continue reading...
Move follows weeks of outrage amid revelations the Republican New York lawmaker fabricated large portions of his résuméDozens of George Santos’s constituents traveled from their New York district to the Capitol on Tuesday to call for the congressman to resign. The move follows weeks of outrage at the revelations that the Republican lawmaker fabricated large portions of his résumé in his successful quest for office.“On behalf of Concerned Citizens of NY-03, why are we here? Why did we come to Washington? We are here because Speaker McCarthy apparently cannot hear us when we speak from Long Island, so we had to come to Washington to make sure he hears us,” said Jody Kass Finkel, coordinator of the pressure group created in the past weeks with the sole goal of getting Santos “removed from squatting in our seat in the House of Representatives”. Continue reading...
Close relatives of Black people killed by police invited to Biden’s address by more than a dozen members of CongressFamilies of Black people killed by police in recent years, including George Floyd’s brother and Michael Brown’s father, will attend the State of the Union address on Tuesday night alongside lawmakers advocating for urgent police reform. The push in Congress comes after the recent beating death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police.The release of video footage, along with the charging of several Memphis police officers involved in Nichols’s death and the firing of several employees from the Memphis police and fire departments, reignited national outcry over police brutality and calls for reforms. This includes renewed efforts to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which was introduced after the murder of George Floyd in 2020. It was passed twice by the US House before failing to clear the Senate in 2021. Continue reading...
Harry Whittington spent week in intensive care after being inadvertently shot by then vice-president on quail-hunting tripA Texas attorney who was inadvertently shot by US vice-president Dick Cheney during a 2006 hunting trip – and then apologized to him for the attention the accident drew – has died.Harry Whittington was 95. Continue reading...
Jerome Powell says disinflationary process ‘has a long way to go' as Biden is set to tout economic record at State of Union addressThe Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, has said that more interest rates rise will be needed to cool inflation and the red-hot US jobs market.“We think we are going to need to do further rate increases,” Powell said on Tuesday at the Economic Club of Washington. “The labor market is extraordinarily strong.” Continue reading...
Officials released and burned chemicals from wreckage of derailed train in East Palestine near Pennsylvania borderIt is unclear when evacuated residents might be able to return home to the area where officials released and burned toxic chemicals from the wreckage of a derailed train, the Ohio governor, Mike DeWine, said on Tuesday.Residents near the site in East Palestine, close to the Pennsylvania state line, were ordered to leave because of the risk of death or serious injury from toxic fumes. Flames and black smoke billowed into the sky on Monday evening when crews released and burned vinyl chloride from five derailed tanker cars that were in danger of exploding. Continue reading...
Boy at center of Clinton-era US-Cuba feud called ‘most worthy of Cuban youth’ by government newspaperWhen he was six, his terrified face – photographed during a raid by armed immigration officers on his family’s Miami home – became one of the most memorable images of cold war tensions between the US and Cuba.Now 29, and more than two decades after he was forcibly deported from Florida to his homeland at the direction of the US supreme court, Elián González is poised to become one of Cuba’s most senior lawmakers. Continue reading...
Charging documents accuse Davion Irvin, 24, of taking monkeys from enclosure and say he intended to return to zooA man arrested on charges related to mysterious incidents at the Dallas zoo planned to return to the zoo and steal more animals if released from jail, according to arrest warrant records.The documents, obtained by the Dallas Morning News, revealed how 24-year-old Davion Irvin allegedly broke into the zoo and kidnapped two monkeys after breaking their enclosure. The emperor tamarin monkeys – Bella and Finn – were later found alive in a vacant house in nearby Lancaster on 1 February. Continue reading...
Prize is fifth-largest in Powerball history and the ninth-largest US lottery win everSomeone in Washington state has just won the fifth-largest jackpot in Powerball history – $754.6m – and the ninth-largest US lottery prize ever, according to officials.The Powerball player holding the single ticket which matched all of the winning numbers in Monday night’s drawing hasn’t been publicly identified. But that person can choose to receive the full prize through an annuity over 29 years or opt for a lump sum of $407.2m in cash paid immediately. Continue reading...
Lawsuit notice offers new details of student who wounded Abby Zwerner, including choking a teacher until she couldn’t breatheA lawyer for a Virginia teacher shot and wounded by a six-year-old in her class last month said the child had exhibited previous violent tendencies and once choked another educator until she could not breathe.An attorney for the teacher who was shot, Abby Zwerner, made the claims in a notice to the Newport News school district stating the teacher’s intention to sue over the attack on 6 January at Richneck elementary school.The Associated Press contributed reporting. Continue reading...
The Washington defensive end on the physical costs of the NFL, the joy of sacks and why he is a fan of flag footballEfe Obada knows the joy of sacks, the most disruptive play in American football. He has tackled Jalen Hurts, quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles who play the Kansas City Chiefs in Sunday’s Super Bowl. He has brought down Tom Brady, the recently retired seven-time winner of the National Football League’s greatest prize. They are victims to make any player proud.For Obada, the Nigeria-born Washington Commanders defensive end raised in foster care in London after being abandoned on the streets aged 10 by a woman his mother paid to move him and his sister from the Netherlands, they also chart a remarkable rise. But Obada, now a veteran of five NFL seasons, is frank about the costs of this most brutal, but tactically intricate of sports. Continue reading...
Styles’ clumsy Grammy remarks surely don’t deserve all the vitriol they have attractedHarry Edward Styles is a middle-class white man with a nice face and an enormous bank account. “People like him” are not usually considered an oppressed minority. And yet the 29-year-old pop star has been widely accused of claiming to be a member of an underclass during the Grammy awards on Sunday night. “This doesn’t happen to people like me very often,” Styles said as he scooped up best pop vocal album and album of the year. Cue confusion and uproar as people pointed out that white men win awards rather often. Meanwhile, a black woman hasn’t won album of the year since Lauryn Hill in 1999.Brace yourself, because this article is about to go in one direction you may have thought I would never head. I am going to defend a rich white man! Continue reading...
World Health Organization official warns that number killed could quadruple. Plus, efforts to save the pink river dolphinGood morning.Dozens of powerful aftershocks continued to jolt southern Turkey and northern Syria on Tuesday, a day after an earthquake struck the region killing more than 5,000 people and destroying thousands of buildings, as difficult conditions and freezing temperatures hampered rescue efforts.‘There is a family I know under the rubble’. Amid freezing rain and an unprecedented disaster, survivors dig in the rubble and listen for screams in the hope of reaching trapped loved ones.Earthquakes add to suffering in war-torn Syria. The 7.8-magnitude quake that struck the region in the early hours of Monday, and the strong second shock hours later, is adding to already intolerable suffering for people who mostly survive thanks to aid. Continue reading...
by Reverend William Barber and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgr on (#68KTE)
The hierarchy of racial terror has never been enforced only by white people. Nor has it harmed only Black peopleOn Wednesday 1 February, family and friends of Tyre Nichols, along with Vice-President Kamala Harris and other representatives from the White House, gathered at the Mississippi Boulevard Christian church in Memphis, Tennessee to grieve the brutal murder of a young Black man. Such public grief on the first day of Black History Month echoes the moans of millions of Black Americans who have mourned the incomprehensible violence of the Middle Passage and auction blocks, slave patrols and lynch mobs, Klan assaults and police beatings. God only knows the name of every person who has been brutalized by the racial caste system that America’s plantation economy created.But in this moment we must mourn and cry another pain. The men who killed Tyre Nichols were Black, as he was. This is not a case of individual racists, but another example of a policing system rabid with brutality and death. This kind of death is not new, and a true remembering of Black history must address this too. This most recent atrocity that the world witnessed in the video from Memphis is a symptom of a deeper social sickness that must be confronted before we as a nation can be whole.The Rev William Barber is president of Repairers of the Breach and founding director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale UniversityJonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is assistant director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale University Continue reading...
Salaam, who was falsely accused at age 15 of gang rape and incarcerated for seven years, is hoping to use his experience to create a positive changeDr Yusef Salaam was in his family home in Harlem, gearing up for the next fight of his life: a daring run for political office.“It’s been a long time coming,” said Salaam, whose story of false accusations and wrongful imprisonment as one of the Central Park Five has become a watchword for everything wrong with America’s justice system. Continue reading...
Employees say they want to improve both working conditions and patient care but ‘the companies are not doing anything’For 29 years, Guadalupe Tellez, a registered nurse, has worked in the kidney dialysis industry and currently works for the Fresenius Kidney Care in the city of Ventura one of several dialysis clinics where workers are currently pushing to unionize in California.“We want to improve our wages, benefits and patient care overall. There’s a lot of issues in dialysis that need improvement and it’s been years and years and years, and it seems like the companies are not doing anything to improve any of it,” said Tellez. Continue reading...
A new survey says Britons are quick to lose patience with a date who is rude. That’s to their credit – but sometimes a connection is worth waiting forFifty-one minutes. It’s too long for a meeting, close to perfect for an album, and a solid result for a 10km run – but a date? You can only hope that it’s not a personal best.A new study suggests that 51 minutes is all the average person can manage of a date that has started to go downhill. The survey of 2,000 adults (carried out by the breakdown provider Britannia Rescue – used to facilitating hasty getaways, I suppose) found that a fifth had departed a date midway through, with commonly used exit strategies including sudden headaches and getting a friend to fake an emergency.Elle Hunt is a freelance journalist Continue reading...
Dallas Goedert and Travis Kelce will be important parts of Sunday’s Super Bowl. They also embody the changing nature of their positionWhen it comes to staffing the tight end position, NFL teams definitely have a type. A standout player combines ox-like strength with deer-like speed and hops. He excels at blocking and catching. He seems like the kind of guy who would judge another man by his calf size, or babble on about his crypto killing when he’s not swilling beer upside down from a keg. With his shirt off. You know the type: A real bro.This weekend’s Super Bowl pits two of the league’s best tight ends against each other. On one side there’s Philadelphia’s Dallas Goedert – a labradoodle of a man with charisma and retrieving knack for days. On the other, there’s Kansas City’s Travis Kelce, a probable Hall of Fame who is the standard-bearer in stats and swagger. It’s no surprise that either man could be the x-factor in this matchup, nor is it a coincidence that either man could reasonably be described as a bro. Continue reading...
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