by Harriet Sherwood Arts and culture correspondent on (#5V7DV)
Bonhams says late supreme court justice’s collection gives sense of who she was and how she came to beThe personal library of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the late US supreme court judge who became a liberal and feminist icon for championing women’s rights, is up for auction.Among more than 1,000 books from Ginsburg’s collection are legal textbooks from her student days, literature, feminist classics, and works by her fellow supreme court justices. Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Santa Fe, New Mexico on (#5V7DK)
Governor says school districts and preschools are seeking at least 800 substitute teachers and day care workersNew Mexico has asked national guard troops to serve as substitute teachers, as schools struggle to keep classrooms open amid surging Covid-19 infections.Michelle Lujan Grisham, the state’s Democratic governor, announced on Wednesday the unprecedented effort to reopen classrooms and shore up staffing across the state. Continue reading...
Sweeping protections for voters, already passed by House and backed by Biden, fail to clear 60-vote procedural hurdleSenate Democrats failed again to pass sweeping new voting protections on Wednesday, in what may be the most brutal blow yet to efforts to strengthen protections for voters at a perilous moment for US democracy.Just as they have done four other times in recent months, all 50 Republicans united in their opposition to the measure. They relied on the filibuster, a Senate rule that requires 60 votes to advance legislation to a final vote. Continue reading...
The NBA has owned the inside track on the sports world’s most coveted growth market, with operations worth about $5bnThe US state department has described the Uyghur human rights issue as a genocide and the largest-scale detention of an ethno-religious community since the second world war. And yet to hear one leading professional sports owner tell it, “nobody cares”.Chamath Palihapitiya, a billionaire investor in the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, used the most recent episode of his All-In podcast to weigh in, dismissing the Uyghur crisis as “a very hard, ugly truth” that’s “below my line”. When his co-host David Sacks countered that the Uyghurs were a great, if not pressing, concern, Palihapitiya dug in: “If you’re asking me do I care about a segment of a class of people in another country? Not until we can take care of ourselves will I prioritise them over us.” Continue reading...
Diplomat to clarify Biden remarks and tell Russian people US is not seeking to threaten their securityThe top US diplomat Antony Blinken will seek to clarify any confusion left by Joe Biden’s suggestion that a minor incursion by Russia into Ukraine might not be met by an allied response in a major set-piece speech in Berlin.Blinken will assert that the sovereignty of Ukraine is a sacrosanct global principle that must be protected, while also seeking to address the Russian people directly by saying the US is not seeking to imperil the security that Russian people deserve. Continue reading...
In 1924, the economist argued that aiding our allies is more effective than sanctioning our foes. That lesson should be heeded todayThe United States has come to rely on economic sanctions more than ever before. Following its retreat from Kabul in August, Washington has maintained economic pressure on the Taliban. The treasury’s freezing of $9.5bn in Afghan state assets has left that impoverished country facing starvation this winter. Two weeks ago, US officials warned Iran, already under heavy economic pressure, that it will face “snapback” sanctions unless Tehran restrains its nuclear ambitions.Most prominent of all is the sanctions threat that the Biden administration issued against Russia last month. In the face of a large Russian military buildup on the borders of Ukraine, Joe Biden announced on 8 December that Vladimir Putin will face “severe consequences, economic consequences like none he’s ever seen or ever have been seen” if he escalates into open conflict. Continue reading...
Converting waste into ‘biogas’ is a crucial part of Biden’s climate plan – but it can come with some significant costsIt’s hard to talk about meat, dairy or egg farming without talking about poop.Manure plays a big role on American factory farms, and if not properly managed it can quickly turn into a big problem. Each year in the US livestock animals produce between 1.27 and 1.37bn tons of waste – or somewhere between three and 20 times more manure than people produce in the US. Continue reading...
CEO Mark Valade’s decision came under fire after the supreme court blocked the federal vaccine-or-test mandateCarhartt, the Michigan-based workwear company, is facing a wave of conservative backlash after its CEO announced that it will keep its vaccination mandate, despite a recent supreme court decision to block a federal mandate that would require businesses with over 100 employees to get vaccinated or take weekly Covid-19 tests.In an email sent to employees last Friday, Mark Valade said that Covid-19 vaccinations remain mandatory. “We put workplace safety at the very top of our priority list and the supreme court’s recent ruling doesn’t impact that core value,” Valade wrote. Continue reading...
This season, the San Francisco 49ers’ opponents have come up against a player who can run the ball with brute strength and catch it with ballet-like graceEvery once in a while a player comes along who redefines their position.We’ve seen positionless defensive players, hybrid safety-linebacker types. We’ve seen corners who can play in the slot or happily kick out to the boundary. Over the past decade, we’ve seen the rise of the polar bears, tight ends as adept at mauling fools in the run-game as they are running down the field as their team’s finest receiver. Continue reading...
Town board expected to pass plan that would allow it to limit traffic and noise of airport used by ‘the 1%’An extraordinary battle pitting New York multimillionaires against their billionaire neighbours is expected to reach fever pitch on Thursday when local politicians in the Hamptons vote on proposals to close an airport in the super-rich enclave.The East Hampton town board is expected to vote in favour of a plan to “deactivate” the local airport that buzzes with helicopters and private jets ferrying the uber-wealthy from Manhattan to their luxury beach houses. Continue reading...
Stephanie Grisham gave more significant details than expected about what Trump was doing before 6 January, sources sayThe former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham told the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack that Donald Trump hosted secret meetings in the White House residence in days before 6 January, according to two sources familiar with the matter.The former senior Trump aide also told House investigators that the details of whether Trump actually intended to march to the Capitol after his speech at the Ellipse rally would be memorialized in documents provided to the US Secret Service, the sources said. Continue reading...
I was mourning my mother as Downing St partied. But even I can’t blame this morally bankrupt prime minister aloneOn the last Sunday before the 2019 general election, the Sunday Times cast its vote. “Mr Johnson is regarded with some suspicion by voters,” its editorial admitted. “He has an on-off relationship with the truth,” often preferred “bluster to grasp of detail”, and had a “colourful private life more typical of a French president”. Nonetheless, the paper urged its readers to put a liar, a bullshitter and a renowned moral incontinent in charge of the country. In making this argument, it was joined by the vast majority of national newspapers, and by the end of that week they got their wish.Over the past few days, those very same papers have discovered that a liar, a bullshitter and a moral incontinent runs the government. They are, naturally, horrified.Aditya Chakrabortty is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Nearly a million new Covid cases were confirmed in children in the week ending 13 January, a 69% increase from the week beforeAs the Omicron variant rips through the US, children are being infected with Covid-19 in record numbers – yet their rate of vaccination has lagged, creating a surge in hospitalizations and undermining in-person schooling.Nearly a million new Covid cases – more than 981,000 – were confirmed in children in the week ending 13 January, a 69% increase from the week before and four times higher than last winter’s peak, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. That means one in 10 Covid cases among children in the entire pandemic have happened in the past week, the organization said. Continue reading...
There’s no need to out-think things like the pandemic, we can have ‘less thoughts’ and ‘more vibes’Hey guys. I’m just gonna come out and, like, say it. This year, I’m becoming a full-blown bimbo.I know what you’re thinking, lol. You’re probably thinking that’s a really stupid thing to say. Continue reading...
Lawyers submit documents under seal seeking a new trial after a juror said he was a victim of sexual abuseGhislaine Maxwell’s legal team on Wednesday filed documents requesting a new trial following revelations that a juror may not have disclosed childhood sexual abuse during jury selection.In a letter to the court, Maxwell’s lawyers wrote that they filed her “motion for a New Trial … and accompanying exhibits under seal.” The documents were filed under seal, and their contents were not known. Continue reading...
US president Joe Biden has accused the Republicans of blocking his legislative agenda for purely political purposes, saying the party is more interested in defeating his presidency than doing things for the American people. Without mentioning his name, Biden suggested that former president Donald Trump was still in control of the Republican party, with members of Congress fearful they will be defeated in their primaries if they vote contrary to his wishes. Biden questioned what the purpose of the Republican party was during his a press briefing marking the one-year anniversary of his presidency
Court’s move leaves no legal impediment to turning National Archives documents over to congressional committeeThe US supreme court has rejected a request by Donald Trump to block the release of White House records to the congressional committee investigating the deadly January 6 attack on the Capitol, dealing a blow to the former president.The order, which casts aside Trump’s request to stop the House select committee from obtaining the records while the case makes its way through the courts, means more than 700 documents that could shed light on the attack can be transferred to Congress. Continue reading...
President touts accomplishments but acknowledges failure to foresee Trump’s grip on Republican partyJoe Biden spent decades in Washington, striving to reach the White House. When he achieved the goal a year ago on Thursday, at the age of 78, he spoke of a “winter of peril and possibility”, of cascading crises as an opportunity to think big and aim high.It turns out the Washington he knows so well has proved more foe than friend, offering more peril than possibility. The 46th US president discovered that not being Donald Trump isn’t enough to get things done or make people love him. Continue reading...
President touts coronavirus relief aid and infrastructure law but acknowledges pandemic is unfinished job• ‘I don’t believe the polls’: Biden gives testy press conferenceJoe Biden on Wednesday conceded that the unshakable threat of the Covid-19 pandemic had left many Americans demoralized, but insisted that his administration had “outperformed” expectations despite the myriad crises facing the nation during his first year in office.Speaking to reporters in the East Room of the White House for his first news conference in months, the US president said he was confident Democrats could pass “big chunks” of his sprawling domestic policy bill currently stalled in the Senate before the 2022 midterm elections. Continue reading...
Jane Hartley nomination continues practice by both parties in recent decades of appointing wealthy donors to prestigious jobJane Hartley, a businesswoman and Democratic party fundraiser, has been nominated as the next US ambassador to Britain, continuing a practice by both parties in recent decades of appointing wealthy donors to the prestigious job.Hartley, who served as ambassador to Paris in the Obama administration, is a business executive, and is married to an investment banker, with a record of large-scale fundraising for Democratic candidates. Continue reading...
Democrat Gary Chambers Jr smokes blunt in video in effort to ‘destigmatize’ use and raise awareness about racial justiceA US Senate candidate from Louisiana has shared a campaign video in which he smokes marijuana in an effort to “destigmatize” its use and raise awareness about racial justice.Gary Chambers Jr, a 37-year-old Democrat and social justice advocate from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is shown seated outdoors in a chair, taking puffs from a blunt. Continue reading...
The Grammy-winning rapper, who is from the New York borough, will fund repatriation of victims to be buried in the GambiaCardi B has offered to pay the burial costs for all 17 people killed in a fire that ripped through a New York City high-rise.New York City’s mayor, Eric Adams, announced on Wednesday that the Grammy-winning rapper had offered the financial relief for victims of the fire in the Bronx, where she grew up. Continue reading...
State health agency conducting inquiry into Raul Pino to ‘determine if any laws were broken’A health official who helped lead Florida’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic has been put on administrative leave as state officials investigate whether he tried to compel employees to get vaccinated.The state health agency is conducting an inquiry into Raul Pino, director of the Florida department of health in Orange county, to “determine if any laws were broken in this case”, the state department of health press secretary, Jeremy Redfern, said in an email. Continue reading...
by Joan E Greve in Washington and agency on (#5V6AJ)
Progressive Vermont senator believes ‘there’s a very good chance’ Democrats will face challenges over their filibuster stanceBernie Sanders has said he may consider supporting primary challengers against colleagues Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, the two Democrat holdouts in debate over whether to amend the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation.The progressive Vermont senator told reporters on Tuesday that he believes “there is a very good chance” that Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, and Sinema, a Democrat from Arizona, will face primary challenges because of their stance on the filibuster.Associated Press contributed to this report Continue reading...
by Lauren Aratani in New York and agency on (#5V5Z4)
Court filing says investigators are seeking to question Donald Trump and his two eldest childrenThe New York attorney general’s office has told a court that its investigators have uncovered evidence that Donald Trump’s company used “fraudulent or misleading” asset valuations to get loans and tax benefits.The court filing late on Tuesday said state authorities had not yet decided whether to bring a civil lawsuit in connection with the allegations, but that investigators needed to question Trump and his two eldest children as part of their inquiries. Continue reading...
Aviation watchdog says signals from 5G masts near airports could interfere with some planes’ equipmentAirlines including Emirates, Lufthansa and Air India have cancelled or changed US-bound flights owing to concerns about the deployment of 5G mobile phone technology near airports.The US aviation watchdog has said 5G signals could interfere with radio altimeters, which measure how high a plane is in the sky and are a crucial piece of equipment for pilots, particularly when landing in bad weather. Continue reading...
Without robust federal legislation, it will soon be impossible to stop America’s degeneration into a diluted pseudo-democracyIt has not been a good start to 2022 for American democracy. MLK Day came and went, and even though Democratic leaders, including President Biden, are finally pushing hard to pass federal legislation that would protect voting rights, they have so far been unable to deliver: while Republicans remain united in obstruction, Democratic senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema keep chasing the chimera of “bipartisanship”. As Democrats are likely to lose either the House or the Senate in this year’s midterm elections, it might soon become impossible to stop America’s slide into authoritarianism.I understand this may sound hyperbolic. Donald Trump was voted out, his coup attempt failed; Joe Biden is president, and Democrats have the majority in Congress. How bad could it possibly be? But since the 2020 election, Republicans have actually escalated their assault on the political system, particularly on the state and local levels. They remain united behind Trump, and they have decided that if they cannot have democracy and Republican rule, then democracy has to go.Thomas Zimmer is a historian and DAAD visiting professor at Georgetown University where he focuses on the history of democracy and its discontents in the United States Continue reading...
The Bengals won their first postseason game in 31 years last weekend. Much of their success is down to a young quarterback-coaching duoOnly one year has passed since Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown felt the need to issue a statement explaining why he was keeping head coach Zac Taylor, whose Bengals had won just six of 32 games in his first two seasons.Brown, the 86-year-old son of the late legendary Hall of Fame coach and Bengals founder Paul Brown, ended his statement with this kind-of-silly line (which should have been accompanied by the sound of a snarling tiger): “Next year, we will earn our stripes.” Continue reading...
You know that previously sensible friend who now beams every time her perfect child farts? Reader, that’s meUh oh, it has happened. I have officially turned into that person. You know who I mean: the adult who seems oblivious to the fact that their screeching infant is not the most adorable thing to crawl the face of this Earth but an out-of-control noise machine. That person is the previously sensible and self-aware friend of yours who beams every time their perfect progeny farts or grunts, and acts like it is the cutest thing they have ever seen. “What happened to you?” I used to think, when I was childfree, and hung out with friends who had procreated. “How do you not realise that your child is sort of annoying? What did parenthood do to your brain?”I do not have the scientific answers to this but I can say that parenthood has undoubtedly done a number on my own brain. I have 100% been baby-pilled. My eight month old will be screeching like a banshee and, instead of finding it irritating, I will look at her perfect little face and my heart will melt. I find myself googling things such as: if my baby screams a lot at an unusually high decibel level, does it mean that they are gifted? (The jury is out on that but my kid is obviously brilliant).Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Students join wave of protests across the country calling for better masking and testing or a return to virtual learningMore than 1,200 students in Oakland, California, have signed a petition saying they would stay home this week unless school administrators provide additional Covid protections, including more N95 masks, weekly testing and better social distancing – or a shift to virtual learning.On Tuesday, three district campuses were closed because students and teachers, in solidarity, stayed home. Continue reading...
The president has none of Trump’s hostility to the press but frustration is growing over a lack of engagement with reportersWhen Joe Biden finished delivering a televised update on the administration’s coronavirus response last week, aides began to usher the press towards the exit as reporters shouted questions. Biden declined to answer.“Folks, we’ll talk about that later,” he said. Then came a question from NBC’S Kelly O’Donnell he couldn’t ignore: “Maybe a press conference soon, Mr President? We would look forward to that.” Continue reading...
The platform, launched in a surprise decision last year, met with backlash from staff who feared it would tarnish brandAl Jazeera, the Qatar-funded media organization, has reportedly stopped creating content for its new conservative digital project in the US, Rightly.Four sources confirmed the news to Axios, which was the first to report it on Tuesday. In December, the company ended its show on the platform, which was being overseen by its editor-in-chief, Scott Norvell, a Fox News veteran. Continue reading...
Michael Todd spat into his hand twice, and audience gasped when he rubbed his hands on his brother’s faceA pastor from a megachurch in Tulsa, Oklahoma, faced a wave of criticism online over video of him rubbing spit on a worshipper’s face.During a sermon on Sunday, Michael Todd, a 34-year-old lead pastor at Transformation church, spat into his hand twice. Continue reading...
House special committee demands documents and testimony from ‘war room’ team involved in effort to overturn election resultThe US congressional committee investigating the Capitol attack has issued a blitz of subpoenas to some of Donald Trump’s top lawyers – including Rudy Giuliani – as it examines whether the former president oversaw a criminal conspiracy on 6 January 2021.The House panel subpoenaed four of Trump’s legal team on Tuesday: the former president’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and his associate Boris Epshteyn, as well as Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis, who all defended Trump’s baseless voter fraud claims as he attempted to overturn the election result. Continue reading...
The book, to be published in March, will divulge details from his tenure as attorney general for George HW Bush and TrumpWilliam Barr, Donald Trump’s second attorney general and perceived “hatchet man” until he split from the former president over his lies about election fraud, will publish his memoirs in March.HarperCollins, the publisher of One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General, promised a “vivid and forthright” read on Barr’s long career in law and conservative politics, in which he was first attorney general under George HW Bush. Continue reading...
by Kari Paul and Carly Olson and agencies on (#5V5EA)
Move follows letter from airline executives concerned about interference with plane instrumentsThe US phone carriers AT&T and Verizon agreed on Tuesday to temporarily defer turning on some wireless towers near key airport runways to mitigate a looming aviation crisis caused by new 5G technology.Both AT&T and Verizon will launch new C-Band 5G wireless service on Wednesday but agreed to delay some deployment near airports that had threatened to result in numerous flight cancellations. Continue reading...
Misuse of Autopilot, which can control steering, speed and braking, is the subject of investigations by two federal agenciesCalifornia prosecutors have filed two counts of vehicular manslaughter against the driver of a Tesla on Autopilot who ran a red light, slammed into another car and killed two people in 2019.The defendant appears to be the first person to be charged with a felony in the United States for a fatal crash involving a motorist who was using a partially automated driving system. Los Angeles county prosecutors filed the charges in October, but they came to light only last week. Continue reading...
Cell towers near unspecified number of runways will not be switched on amid claims they could affect altimetersAT&T will postpone new wireless service near some airports planned for this week after the nation’s largest airlines said the service would interfere with aircraft technology and cause huge flight disruptions.The company said on Tuesday it would delay turning on new cell towers around runways at some airports – it did not say how many – and work with federal regulators to settle a dispute over potential interference from new 5G service. Continue reading...
Florida governor wants lawmakers to allocate nearly $6m for Office of Election Crime and SecurityThe Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, has proposed the formation of a large and unprecedented state agency to investigate election crimes – in a state where there is little evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 election or otherwise.In response, one prominent state prosecutor sought to tie DeSantis to rightwing conspiracy theorists, calling his proposal “a solution in search of a problem … a $6m door prize for a QAnon pep rally”. Continue reading...
by Nadia Khomami Arts and culture correspondent on (#5V04E)
Historical document is part of an auction of the private library of antiquarian book dealer William S ReeseOne of the earliest contemporary broadside editions of the Declaration of Independence is to go on sale later this year as part of an auction of the private library of William S Reese, the most prominent antiquarian book dealer of his generation.The collection of “Bill” Reese, including printed works, historic prints, fine art and colour-plate books, will be among the most valuable sales of printed Americana in over 50 years, Christie’s said, giving it a “conservative” pre-sale estimate of $12m-$18m. Continue reading...
Pay and bonuses for each employee averaged just over $400k for 2021, up $75k on the year beforeGoldman Sachs paid its 43,900 bankers more than $17bn (£12.5bn) last year, a 33% increase on 2020 as the investment bank celebrated a more than doubling of pre-tax profits to $27bn thanks to frenzied dealmaking on both sides of the Atlantic.The pay and bonuses increase works out at about $403,000 for each employee on average, up from about $328,000 a year ago. It is the most the bank has paid out in wages and bonuses since 2007 at the height of the banking boom leading up to the financial crisis. Continue reading...
US news | The Guardian