US news | The Guardian

As a country we refuse to pursue policy reforms that might have saved the beloved actor and the many thousands of others who are dying of overdosesI cried the night Michael K Williams joined the over 100,000 Americans who died of an overdose in 2021. When I heard that Williams, the actor best known for his role as Omar, the queer, gun-toting rogue in The Wire, had suffered an accidental overdose in his apartment, I felt a deep sense of dread. The knowledge that another Black man not too dissimilar from myself had passed before his time mingled in my mind with my bitter memory of the moment when I learned that my best friend, Joseph Rodriguez, had overdosed at the age of 19.I am grateful, I suppose, that by the time Joe had died, in 2009, the public narrative around drug users had begun to evolve. Young suburban white kids had started dying, and the country quickly shifted to protect its most prized possessions. Teens were sent to rehab, and drug dealers, like those who allegedly sold Williams his final dose, were rounded up and blamed for what is clearly a broader societal issue.Akin Olla is a contributing opinion writer at the Guardian Continue reading...

As allegations of sexual misconduct mount, many questions how effectively sporting organizations can investigate themselvesFifa has confirmed its ethics committee is in the early stages of an investigation into multiple allegations of sexual abuse around the world that are understood to include incidents tied to the Vancouver Whitecaps women’s team and its former coach Hubert Busby Jr.Busby was suspended from his role as head coach of the Jamaica women’s national team late last year after the Guardian reported allegations by a former player that Busby attempted to solicit sex from her while she was being recruited to join the Whitecaps in 2010. Busby has denied the allegations but the Jamaica Football Federation requested Fifa investigate his time in charge of the Whitecaps women’s program. Continue reading...

The receiver has often been portrayed as a selfish blowhard. But he is popular with his teammates and has been a crucial part of the Rams’ postseason runMidway through Odell Beckham Jr’s 50-minute virtual news conference on Monday, amid the usual battery of pre-Super Bowl questions, a disembodied voice chimed in that the 29-year-old Los Angeles Rams receiver initially struggled to place. “I ain’t got no questions, man. But I just wanna start by sayin’, dawg, you’re deserving of this moment,” said the voice, ultimately revealed as that of Jarvis Landry – Beckham’s teammate in Cleveland and at LSU. “You put countless hours to get where you are today. I witnessed it all first-hand. You have scars to show for where you are today. This is a dream that you are actually turning into reality.”Beckham, playing against type, absorbed the adulation with a bashful smile. Continue reading...

As part of a calculated assault on democracy, QAnon steered far-right candidates toward secretary of state contestsQAnon, the extremist conspiracy movement whose followers believe Donald Trump is waging war against the “deep state”, appears to have instigated a nationwide effort to take control of the US election process in critical battleground states ahead of America’s 2024 presidential election.In recent months concern has risen over the coordinated efforts of at least 15 candidates – committed to Trump’s “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen from him – who are now running to serve as chief election officials in key swing states. Continue reading...

More than 70 stores in at least 20 states have now filed for union elections since the December wins in Buffalo, New YorkA union organizing drive among workers at corporate run Starbucks stores, the largest coffeehouse chain in the world, has surged in recent weeks throughout the US, organizers and workers say.The development comes in the wake of union election victories at two of three stores in the Buffalo, New York, area that held union votes with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in December. Continue reading...

Harassment often goes unreported, meaning metrics don’t always convey experiences – especially for women and people of colorAround 9.30am on 15 January of this year, Michelle Go was waiting for a train at Times Square subway station. Go, 40, a senior manager at Deloitte, was on her way to work. As she was checking her phone, a man shoved her from behind as a train roared into the station. She was hit by the incoming train and killed.Go’s murder prompted shock and outrage. She was of Asian descent, at a time when anti-Asian hate crimes have been surging across New York City, including in the subways. The chief suspect in her killing, Martial Simon, has two violent felonies on his record and a warrant out for allegedly violating his parole. He reportedly had a history of severe mental illness, including schizophrenia, and had cycled between hospitals and jails over the years; the New York Times reported he was unhoused. Although police said there was no indication that Go’s death was an anti-Asian hate crime, prosecutors said they were examining “every piece of evidence to determine if defendant’s actions were motivated by racial bias”. Continue reading...

Larry Thomas, the actor behind the Seinfeld character, gives his take on the viral gaffe: ‘You can’t write this shit’The extremist congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who previously alerted the US to the dangers of space lasers, issued a new warning to the American people on Thursday: the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, has unleashed “gazpacho police” to spy on Greene’s colleagues in Congress.It is, of course, possible that a clandestine network bent on the regulation of cold soup operates deep under the Capitol cafeteria. But Greene was presumably confusing “gazpacho” with the Gestapo, the Nazi secret police. Continue reading...

Authorities work on alternative travel routes as protest hits auto production and injunction sought to remove Ambassador Bridge demonstratorsThe US government has urged Canada to use federal powers to ease the growing economic disruption caused by the blockade of the vital Ambassador Bridge by protesters opposed to coronavirus mandates.The closure of North America’s busiest international land border crossing, a vital supply route for Detroit’s carmakers, has halted some auto output and left officials scrambling to limit economic damage. Continue reading...

Daughters of Denyse Holt from Illinois grew concerned after she failed to send them a text containing her daily Wordle scoreThe wildly popular online puzzle Wordle has been credited with keeping people across the world sane amid the ravages of the pandemic. But now it has been hailed as a potential life saver, by providing the clue that helped rescue an 80-year-old woman from a 20-hour home invasion hostage ordeal.Denyse Holt, a retired teacher, found herself locked in her basement in her home in Illinois after being woken up by a naked, knife-wielding intruder in the middle of the night. Continue reading...

American Foreign Service Association chief Eric Rubin says syndrome, which remains a mystery, has affected recruitmentThe spread of Havana syndrome has “dramatically hurt” morale in the US diplomatic corps and affected recruitment, according to the head of the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA).Eric Rubin, whose association represents nearly 17,000 current and former diplomats and foreign aid workers, said it was getting harder to find young people to work abroad, because of concerns about Havana syndrome – and about whether the government would look after them if they got sick. Continue reading...

State data showed procedures went from 5,400 to 2,200 in the month after the near-total ban was enacted in SeptemberAbortions performed by registered providers in Texas fell by 60% in the first month after the state passed the most restrictive abortion law in the US in decades, according to new figures.Nearly 2,200 abortions were reported by Texas providers in September after a new law took effect that bans the procedure once cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy and when many do not know they are pregnant. The law is without exception in cases of rape or incest. Continue reading...

Veep writer Georgia Pritchett reveals US president’s Irish mother wrote poems calling for God to ‘rain blood’ on the EnglishJoe Biden once revealed his mother so disliked England that she chose to sleep on the floor rather than in a bed in which the Queen of England had previously slept, according to an autobiography written by a comedian.Georgia Pritchett claims the US leader made the revelation when they met in the White House during his period as vice-president. Pritchett met him because she was conducting research for the hit comedy Veep, on which she had been a co-executive producer and joint writer. They were also making a film tie-in of the show. Continue reading...

Legislation guarantees that people who experience sexual harassment at work can seek recourse in the courtsCongress on Thursday gave final approval to legislation guaranteeing that people who experience sexual harassment at work can seek recourse in the courts, a milestone for the #MeToo movement that prompted a national reckoning on the way sexual misconduct claims are handled.The measure, which is expected to be signed by Joe Biden, bars employment contracts from forcing people to settle sexual assault or harassment cases through arbitration rather than in court, a process that often benefits employers and keeps misconduct allegations from becoming public. Continue reading...

A 20-year suspect called in bomb threat so Canadian police would waste their time chasing it, but called a village in OhioA man who wanted to join the protests in Canada’s capital over mask mandates called in a bomb threat so police would waste their time chasing it, authorities said, but he called the wrong Ottawa — a village in Ohio.The man, a 20-year-old from Akron, Ohio, called the Putnam county sheriff’s office twice Monday, said sheriff’s Capt Brad Brubaker. Continue reading...

Announcement follows revelations that governor was informed within hours of Greene’s death that he died in ‘violent’ struggleLouisiana’s Republican-controlled state legislature has announced a far-reaching bipartisan inquiry into the in-custody death of Ronald Greene, a Black motorist who was killed following a violent arrest at the hands Louisiana state troopers in 2019.The announcement follows revelations earlier this month that the Louisiana governor, John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, was informed within hours of Greene’s death that Greene, who was unarmed, had died during a “violent, lengthy struggle” but made little public comment on the incident for two years. Continue reading...

Homeland security says convoy inspired by Canadian protest could affect event in LA and State of the Union address in WashingtonA planned American “freedom convoy” of truckers opposed to vaccine mandates, inspired by protests in Canada, could involve a blockade of the Super Bowl in Los Angeles this weekend that “could severely disrupt transportation, federal government, and law enforcement”, according to reports.The Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin to US law enforcement agencies warning of a convoy “potentially impacting Super Bowl LVI” on 13 February, and the 1 March State of the Union address in Washington, where the mooted convoy is likely to arrive, CBS reported. Continue reading...

Crates of beer and 20 guests including Carrie and Lulu? All the chancellor’s doing – honest guv!This letter is a formal legal document, the equivalent to being interviewed by the police under caution. As such, it is incumbent on the respondent to give full and accurate answers at all times. Failure to do so may result in further criminal proceedings being taken against you.Name: Rishi Sunak. Continue reading...

I resolve to step out of my echo chamber and listen to back-to-back Joe Rogan Experience podcast episodes on Spotify. Will he mess with my subconscious?When I think of Joe Rogan, a range of unpalatable things spring to mind: supplements, MMA, Jordan Peterson, pro wrestling, cannabis … and now vaccine misinformation. Rogan is also the most successful podcaster on Earth with around 11 million listeners per episode.What is his appeal? Continue reading...

Netflix’s documentary confirms some realities that in more optimistic moments one might have thought out of dateThe first surprise of The Tinder Swindler, Netflix’s hit film and the only documentary to have topped its global most-watched list, is that anyone is still using Tinder.The “swindler” of the title is preposterous in every way, but he chose his victims well: women in their early 30s blinded to the absurdity of a “billionaire’s son” using that dusty old dating app, which has no door policy. The second thing to say about this engrossing film is that any online dating scam that results in a woman merely being defrauded of her savings, rather than robbed of her life, practically qualifies as comedy.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Ice-cream maker is best to avoid subjects where it lacks ‘expertise or credibility’, says parent company CEOThe chief executive of Ben & Jerry’s parent company, Unilever, has criticised the ice-cream maker’s controversial tweet about the Ukraine crisis, saying it should stay away from issues where it does not have “expertise or credibility”.The ice-cream company, which drew fire with a decision to stop selling its products in occupied Palestinian territories last year, caused a social media storm on Friday by calling on Biden to not send more troops to Europe, saying he risked “fanning the flames of war”. Continue reading...

Scotus reversed an earlier ruling which held the maps should be redrawn to accurately represent the state’s Black populationHello and Happy Thursday,A few days ago, the US supreme court made a decision in a significant voting rights case that I find unusual and alarming. Continue reading...

By upholding Alabama’s gerrymandered districts, the supreme court is laying the groundwork for ending voting rights and political power for Black peopleTuesday’s US supreme court decision, Merrill v Milligan, which upheld Alabama’s racially gerrymandered congressional map, is reminiscent of the holding in the supreme court’s 1857 Dred Scott decision: “That a Black man (woman) had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” Even though the two cases addressed two different situations, the overall disregard of the rights of Black people in America by the highest court in the country is the same.And just as the Dred Scott decision laid the groundwork for similar rulings that led to the continuation of white political power at the expense of Black political power, so too does the Miller case lay the groundwork for ending voting rights and political power for Black people in this country and a path towards white political power at all levels of government.April England-Albright is an attorney and the Black Voters Matter Fund (BVMF) legal director. Cliff Albright and LaTosha Brown are BVMF cofounders Continue reading...

Panel asks National Archives to turn over communications about missing and destroyed records relevant to Capitol attackThe House oversight committee on Thursday opened an investigation into potential violations of the Presidential Records Act by Donald Trump, after he retained and destroyed records relevant to the 6 January insurrection.The panel asked the National Archives to turn over communications between the former president and the agency about missing and destroyed records, as well as a description of materials in boxes of records retrieved from Trump’s residence in Mar-a-Lago last month. Continue reading...

The leaked document says unions would not ‘improve anything’. Plus, a third of Americans have detectable levels of toxic weedkillerGood morning.Target is instructing store managers to prevent the retailer’s workers from unionizing, leaked training documents reveal.How does the training characterize unions? As “a business that makes money from the dues and fees paid by its members” – but then goes on to say they’re formed when workers join and express the wish to be represented collectively.The leak comes as other US chains including Amazon and Starbucks fight unionization.Why is the move significant? It suggests the panel is close to investigating potential culpability for Trump.When did Navarro discuss 6 January? He has spoken about the events of that day in his book In Trump Time, on his podcast and with reporters. This means he should be free to speak to the panel without legal impediment.Why is he of special interest? Navarro was an influential advisor to Trump while also being in regular contact with the political operatives behind the scheme to stop the certification of Biden’s victory. Continue reading...

Loved by artists from Prince to Butthole Surfers, Davis created a fearlessly sexual, futurist sound that sowed the seed of rebellion• Betty Davis, raw funk pioneer, dies at 77In 1974, a year before the release of Nasty Gal, the third studio album by funk and fashion trailblazer Betty Davis, the New York Times predicted that her radical, raunchy music would eventually be appreciated, if only people would let themselves catch up with her: “Miss Davis is trying to tell us something real and basic about our irrational needs, and western civilisation puts its highest premiums on conformity and rationality and rarely recognises the Bessies or the Bettys until they’re gone.”Rather than conform, Davis, who has died aged 77, let the landmark discography she recorded in the 1970s speak for her, along with the sultry, futurist stage persona she created in a powerfully tall afro, cosmic leotards, sequinned hot pants and silver thigh-high boots. “I made three albums of hard funk,” Davis said in the 2017 documentary They Say I’m Different. “I put everything there.” And then, for decades, she vanished from the public eye. Continue reading...

The share of students returning for a second year of college fell in 2020 to the lowest level since 2012, and uncertainty about the virus could deepen the dropout crisisCollege took a back seat the moment Izzy B called the suicide hotline.Izzy, 18, had spent her senior year of high school online. Then she’d gone straight to online summer school at a local community college near Denver. When in-person classes there started this past fall, she was glad to be back in the classroom and finally experiencing some real college life. Continue reading...

Schools across the US scramble to fill vacancies created by a teacher shortage and Covid-related absencesHenry Leckenby, 54, recalls a feeling of scarcity when he first started working as a substitute teacher. Each morning, he jumped on the computer first thing to see which assignments were open that day.Now, he has his pick of jobs he wants to take and schools he wants to work in. Continue reading...

Former Senator David Perdue, now running for Georgia governor, repeats false election fraud claims on campaign trailA Republican candidate for governor in Georgia has said he would not let “any of the left” run elections in his state, adding repeatedly that it would happen “over my dead body” and underscoring the violent tone that has come to shape discourse around democracy in America.Former Senator David Perdue railed against his Democratic opponent, Stacey Abrams, in a video of a speech given 4 February in Fayette county. Abrams, a voting rights activist, would be the first Black governor in the state’s history if elected. Continue reading...

New leaked training guidelines prompt managers to look for warning signs of worker and labor union organizingLeaked training documents from Target, one of the largest retailers in the US, reveal how the company is directing management at stores to prevent workers from organizing unions.At the end of January 2022, Target emailed store management new training guidelines on labor relations to complete, prompting managers to look for warning signs of worker and labor union organizing within their stores and coordinate with corporate human resources to quell union organizing campaigns. Continue reading...

State takes legal action over allegations of widespread discrimination and harassment of black staff at plant near San FranciscoThe state of California is suing Tesla over allegations of operating a “racially segregated workplace” at its factory near San Francisco.California’s department of fair employment and housing (DFEH) said it had filed a lawsuit alleging widespread discrimination and harassment of black employees following complaints from hundreds of Tesla workers at its main factory in Fremont. Continue reading...

A Human Rights Watch report found Cameroonian asylum-seekers forcibly flown back home suffered imprisonment, torture and rapeCameroonian asylum-seekers deported by the Trump administration suffered imprisonment, torture and rape on their return, and many were forced in to hiding or fleeing the country once more, according to a new report.In the last months of the Trump administration, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agency stepped up its deportations of African migrants, especially Cameroonians. Over 80 of them were flown to Cameroon in October and November 2020 alone, amid allegations of abuse, in which Ice detainees said they had been forced to sign or fingerprint documents believed to be waivers agreeing to their deportation. Continue reading...

Cincinnati had been predictably underwhelming for years before a young quarterback with swagger and ability turned things aroundThere is something remarkable about Joe Burrow. Call it an aura, call it swagger, call it what you want. In the abstract, talk of an ‘it factor’ feels like a whole lot of blathering to explain the unexplainable: His Cincinnati team playing above their understood talent level. And then you watch the games, and you see it: Tough to identify; impossible to ignore.Burrow has rejuvenated a sorry Cincinnati franchise who, up until the quarterback’s arrival in 2020, had laid their claim to fame as being the cheapest, most stable presence in the league. They rarely hit rock bottom, lows were always accompanied by flashes that the good times were around the corner: The heady days of the Carson Palmer-Chad Johnson era; five-straight trips to the playoffs (and five-straight losses) behind Marvin Lewis, Andy Dalton, and a stacked roster. Continue reading...

The lifting of mandates is coming at a time when the CDC says a vast majority of the country is still seeing high Covid transmissionSeveral US states, many of them governed by Democrats, began rolling back mask mandates this week, a move public health experts warn could set back progress battling Covid.On Wednesday, Massachusetts, Illinois, New York and Rhode Island joined California, Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey and Oregon in lifting mask mandates for some public places. Continue reading...

Trump programme to ‘counter Chinese national security threats’ continues to spread fear among academics with links to ChinaIt was sometime before 7am on 21 May 2015 when Xiaoxing Xi, a physics professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, was woken by people pounding on his front door. Still not fully dressed, he opened the door to be confronted by about 12 armed FBI agents.The agents burst into Xi’s house, running about, shouting “FBI, FBI”. They pointed their guns at his wife and two daughters and ordered them to walk out of their bedrooms with their hands raised. Xi was handcuffed and arrested in front of his family. Continue reading...

Marjorie Taylor Greene appears to confuse Hitler’s secret police with popular Spanish cold tomato soupThe extremist Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene triggered a wave of viral jokes on Wednesday after ranting about the “gazpacho police” patrolling the Capitol building in Washington DC.Greene was apparently mixing up the famously cold Spanish soup gazpacho with the Gestapo – the brutal Nazi-era secret police in Germany. Continue reading...

Authorities say Kelly Turner spent years fabricating her seven-year-old’s illnesses to gain sympathy from charitiesA Colorado mother who fatally abused her seven-year-old daughter and lied about her health to receive handouts from charities worth at least $100,000 has been sentenced to 16 years in prison.A judge issued the sentence to Kelly Turner on Wednesday after she pleaded guilty last month to child abuse, charitable fraud and theft. Continue reading...

Move to pursue Peter Navarro suggests the select committee is edging ever closer to examining potential culpability for TrumpThe House select committee investigating the Capitol attack on Wednesday subpoenaed Donald Trump’s former White House senior adviser Peter Navarro, escalating its inquiry into the former president’s efforts to return himself to office and the January 6 insurrection.The move to pursue Navarro, who helped finalize the scheme to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election win with political operatives at the Willard hotel in Washington DC, suggests the panel is edging ever closer to examining potential culpability for Trump. Continue reading...

Temperatures 15-20F above normal expected in southern California from Wednesday through SundayAn unusual winter heatwave is expected across California this week with record temperatures in the forecast for multiple cities from the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles.In southern California, where temperatures are predicted to be 15 to 20 degrees above normal from Wednesday morning through Sunday, the National Weather Service upgraded a heat watch to a heat advisory. Continue reading...

Denis Cilley had given up her pet, Ashes, for dead but a microchip confirmed she had somehow made her way 1,500 miles awayA Maine family that long ago gave up on a lost family cat is being reunited – more than six years and 1,500 miles later.Denise Cilley, of Chesterville, said she was shocked to get a voicemail last week announcing her cat, Ashes, had been located in Florida. Continue reading...

Kaleb Franks admitted conspiring to abduct Gretchen Whitmer, leaving four alleged co-conspirators still facing trialA man charged in an alleged plot to kidnap the Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer, pleaded guilty on Wednesday, a second key conviction for the government a month before four others face trial.Kaleb Franks joined Ty Garbin as the second person to admit guilt in a plot to abduct the Democratic governor before FBI agents arrested them in October 2020. The plea gives prosecutors another important witness for the 8 March trial. Continue reading...