US news | The Guardian

Multiplying birds have become an issue in the city of Tracy, wailing loudly and unleashing poop ‘like soft serve’. Now residents want to relocate themDozens of feral peacocks and peahens are roaming the streets and leaping from the rooftops of Tracy, California. They claw at shingles and defecate on porches. Their calls, especially in mating season, echo through the community. They have no fear of pets nor people.Errant peafowl have milled around the city’s Redbridge neighborhood for years – some believe they originally came from a now-defunct nearby dairy farm – but the numbers have increased as the birds keep multiplying. Now they’re everywhere, and ruffling some residents’ feathers. Continue reading...

Lawrence Visoski testifies about pair’s relationship and tells court Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew flew on Epstein’s private planeAs the child sex-trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell entered its second day of testimony in New York City on Tuesday, the prosecution’s first witness put the British socialite in the middle of Jeffrey Epstein’s life – but also said he did not see Epstein engage in wrongdoing with minors on his private planes.The names of influential men who flew on Epstein’s planes were raised in court, among them Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew and Donald Trump.In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International Continue reading...

Lee Price pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering after obtaining relief loans and spending it on luxury itemsA Texas man was sentenced to nine years in prison after fraudulently obtaining $1.6m in Covid-19 relief loans and spending it on a Lamborghini sports car and other luxury items.In March 2020, then president Donald Trump signed a $2tn emergency relief and spending bill to alleviate economic stresses faced by individuals, businesses and healthcare facilities. The DoJ has since prosecuted more than 150 defendants in more than 95 cases for attempts to defraud the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Continue reading...

Grievance objects that curriculum on civil rights movement is ‘Anti-American’ and ‘Anti-White’The Tennessee education department declined to investigate the first complaint under a new state law that bans some teaching approaches to issues of race and bias – a complaint that included a book about the Rev Martin Luther King Jr and the March on Washington.The bill, passed in the spring, includes among its targets critical race theory, or CRT, an academic discipline that examines the ways in which racism operates in US laws and society. CRT is rarely taught below college level but Republicans across the US have exploited fears about it for electoral gain. Continue reading...

The designer, who died aged 41, was so generous with his success, making sure to nurture young black talentWhen I walked into the barbershop today, my barber and I immediately spoke about Virgil Abloh’s passing, and the shock we felt. As he faded my hair, he told me that the American designer had been one of the few whose work he followed, and that the first designer item he purchased was a pair off Abloh’s Off-White trainers. This is by no means a rare story: so many young black people identified with Abloh. In losing him, we have lost a real titan of black creativity, whose influence is felt in every corner – from streetwear kids browsing designs on London estates to the catwalks of Milan, Paris and Tokyo.You have to question why Abloh’s position as a black man at the top of the fashion industry, which draws so intensely from black history and culture, is so rare. But it’s a position that Abloh treated with humility, and a real sense of duty towards young black creatives. He set out to nurture the talent of the future himself: to ensure that the most senior positions in fashion and creativity would not be restricted to just one or two black visionaries.Jason Okundaye is a London-based writer and researcher Continue reading...

New evidence makes clearer CNN host’s involvement in scandal that engulfed Andrew Cuomo’s administrationEvidence released by New York’s attorney general on Monday stoked speculation over Chris Cuomo’s future at CNN, showing that the primetime host used media contacts to glean information about women accusing his brother, the then New York governor Andrew Cuomo, of sexual harassment – then sought to make his sibling aware of upcoming coverage.A transcript of an interview with the younger Cuomo showed that at one point the TV host texted Melissa DeRosa, his brother’s top aide, to say “I have a lead on the wedding girl”. It was a reference to Anna Ruch, a woman who accused Andrew Cuomo of attempting to kiss her at a wedding. Continue reading...

Every crisis the world faces is a crisis of leadership. The skills we need to lean into now are those considered ‘unmanly’ – empathy, collaboration and altruismIs Boris Johnson really the best Britain can do? I don’t care what your politics are. Do you honestly think that a guy who rambles on about Peppa Pig, U-turns on important decisions every five seconds and spent years refusing to disclose how many children he has is the most qualified person to lead the UK?I am not saying Keir Starmer would be much better in the top job, mind you. I am saying there are 67 million people in the UK. Surely, among them, there is someone who would make a far better leader than Johnson? Continue reading...

First African-American golfer to play in the Masters who coped with the many obstacles he faced during his career with graceIn 1933 Cliff Roberts, co-founder of the Augusta National club in Georgia, home of the US Masters golf tournament, declared that “all the golfers will be white and all the caddies will be black” for as long as he could influence the situation. He was as good as his word for the next four decades, but in the end Lee Elder forced open the doors at the 1975 Masters, where he became the first black person to play in the competition.Elder, who has died aged 87, had been a significant force in US golf in the late 1960s and early 70s, yet had waited in vain for an invite to the Masters, one of the four “majors” of golf. However, his profile reached such heights that Roberts felt he had no choice but to ring up Elder and offer him a place. Continue reading...

Sources tell Guardian Trump pressed lieutenants at Willard hotel in Washington about ways to delay certification of election resultHours before the deadly attack on the US Capitol this year, Donald Trump made several calls from the White House to top lieutenants at the Willard hotel in Washington and talked about ways to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election win from taking place on 6 January.The former president first told the lieutenants his vice-president, Mike Pence, was reluctant to go along with the plan to commandeer his largely ceremonial role at the joint session of Congress in a way that would allow Trump to retain the presidency for a second term. Continue reading...

Why did the nation let its guard down this autumn, get back on the tube and into football grounds? Because we felt it was worth itIt is incredible to think of where we were this time last year: nearly a month into a national lockdown, with the prime minister’s promise of Christmas bubbles planned for but never quite believed, and the atmospheric sense that every stranger represented a threat. We talked a lot about hugs, and stayed miles apart in the Tesco Metro. It was, in short, like living in a 1950s sci-fi dystopia, a subdued life of managed disturbance, just before something absolutely terrible happens. Now all our thoughts are on the Omicron strain, and the gear change, from complacency to deja vu, is pretty lurching.The new daily case rates this time last year were averaging nearly 16,000; this week’s daily average is around 43,000. It’s an imperfect, even daft comparison, since the vaccine was yet to be cleared, let alone administered, and we hadn’t mingled for nearly a month. Comparing hospitalisations shows a different picture: there are around 8,000 people in hospital today, it was more than double that a year ago. Continue reading...

In Arizona, immigrants who’ve experienced hardships first hand have also pioneered ways to help others healGermán Cadenas was 15 when he packed up a few clothes, his beloved magic trick cards, a treasured coin box and a portfolio of his drawings.It was 2002. Cadenas, his mother and younger brother were flying from their native Venezuela for a Christmas visit with Cadenas’ dad – who had migrated to Maricopa county, Arizona, two years before – hoping to send money to his family as Venezuela descended into chaos. Continue reading...

Former president pressed lieutenants about ways to delay certification of election result, plus vaccine is word of the yearGood morning.Sources have told the Guardian that just hours before the deadly attack on the US Capitol this year, Donald Trump made several calls from the White House to top lieutenants at the Willard hotel in Washington to discuss ways to stop or delay the certification of Joe Biden’s election win from taking place on 6 January.Why is this significant? Trump’s remarks reveal a direct line from the White House and the command center at the Willard. The conversations also show Trump’s thoughts appear to be in line with the motivations of the pro-Trump mob that carried out the Capitol attack.When did Trump make the calls? He phoned his lieutenants at the Willard sometime between the late evening on 5 January and the early hours of 6 January after becoming furious at Pence for refusing to do him a final favor.Meanwhile, the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack has recommended the criminal prosecution of Jeffrey Clark.What else is the government going to do? Biden promised to put forward a more detailed strategy on Thursday. “Not with shutdowns or lockdowns,” he said of the forthcoming plan, “but with more widespread vaccinations, boosters, testing and more.” Continue reading...

Michigan and Ohio State just played before 100,000 fans but a more important battle is being fought off the fieldFans of famed rivals Ohio State University and the University of Michigan often boast of how little they have in common. But two of America’s biggest college sports programs are bonded by one issue: a history of sexual abuse perpetuated by team doctors.On Saturday OSU and Michigan battled in front of 110,000 fans on the football field – an occasion so momentous it’s known simply as The Game. But elsewhere on the Michigan campus former athletes from both universities gathered in front of Michigan president Mark Schlissel’s house to shine a light on the sexual abuse they endured during their time at the colleges. The protest was spearheaded by Jon Vaughn, a former running back for Michigan, who went on to play four years in the NFL. Now, despite the longstanding rivalry between the universities, the men have formed a survivor solidarity group. Continue reading...

Paul Guilmoth’s intimate images of floating spider webs and icy waterfalls have one foot in the present and another in the past Continue reading...

The theme for the 2021 White House holiday season is Gifts from the Heart. According to Jill Biden’s office, about 6,000ft of ribbon, more than 300 candles and more than 10,000 ornaments were used this year to decorate. There are also 41 Christmas trees throughout the White House Continue reading...

Ex-Empire actor is accused of hiring two men to fake an attack in Chicago but new evidence could support Smollett’s defenseJussie Smollett “is a real victim” of a “real crime,” his attorney said in opening statements at the ex-Empire actor’s trial Monday, rejecting prosecutors’ allegation that he staged a homophobic and racist attack in Chicago.Defense attorney Nenye Uche said two brothers attacked Smollett in January 2019 because they didn’t like him, and that a $3,500 check the actor paid the men was for training so he could prepare for an upcoming music video, not as payment for staging a hate crime, as prosecutors allege. Uche also suggested a third attacker was involved and told jurors there is not a “shred” of physical and forensic evidence linking Smollett to the crime prosecutors allege. Continue reading...

By tackling presenteeism, we can make the most of our days at work, and treat our non-work time as a chance to do more of what we loveConsider a construction worker who hasn’t slept more than four hours a night for the past week, a software engineer who is battling a persistent cold but keeps working from their home office, and a schoolteacher who worries about their students so shows up each day despite feeling emotionally burned out.What do they have in common? Presenteeism, otherwise known as the act of working while unwell – physically, emotionally, or mentally. Continue reading...

Ilhan Omar says she ended the call after Lauren Boebert ‘doubled down on her rhetoric’Ilhan Omar said she had an “unproductive” call with Lauren Boebert on Monday regarding the Colorado rightwinger’s Islamophobic comments that she made towards the Minnesota Democrat last week.In a new statement released on Monday, Omar said she “graciously accepted a call from Rep. Lauren Boebert in the hope of receiving a direct apology for falsely claiming she met me in an elevator, suggesting I was a terrorist, and for a history of anti-Muslim hate”. Continue reading...

Maxwell ‘was involved in every detail of Epstein’s life’, federal prosecutors say in opening argumentsIn Ghislaine Maxwell’s child sex-trafficking trial, Manhattan federal prosecutors shared a simple, chilling message with jurors in their opening statement: “She knew what was going to happen to those girls.”Maxwell “preyed on vulnerable young girls, manipulated them and served them up to be sexually abused” by Jeffrey Epstein, said prosecutor Lara Pomerantz. “The defendant was trafficking kids for sex.Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html Continue reading...

President says boosters and vaccines are best protection against variant and that additional restrictions are not required

Tributes note her dedication to Miami’s Haitian community, to economic opportunity for the poor and affirmative actionCarrie Meek, who died on Sunday, was remembered as a trailblazer, a descendent of enslaved people who became one of the first Black Floridians elected to Congress since Reconstruction.The late congressman John Lewis had another way of describing her. Continue reading...

About 7,000 donors from all US states and 12 countries contributed $1.8m to a community fund and over $1m raised under GoFundMeNearly $3m has been raised for victims of the Waukesha Christmas parade incident, in which a car plowed into the crowd in the Wisconsin city earlier this month, killing six people and injuring more than 60.About 7,000 donors from all 50 US states and 12 countries have contributed $1.8m to the United for Waukesha Community Fund, organizers said. The largest donor was General Electric, giving $100,000. According to the Waukesha County Community Foundation, Kohl’s, the Walbec group and American Family Insurance Dreams Foundation each donated $50,000. Continue reading...

Time is needed for informed economic judgments on new Covid developmentAmateur virology is all the rage in the City. Analysts who would normally be more at home inputting some seasonally adjusted labour market data into a spreadsheet now find they can’t explain what is likely to happen to the economy without understanding how viruses spread.When news emerged of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 last week it was the signal for financial markets everywhere to take a tumble. That was an entirely rational response: stock markets were not prepared for a potentially dangerous new strain of the virus and the sensible thing to do was to mark down share prices. Continue reading...

US dictionary publisher says searches for the word soared from the pre-pandemic days of 2019From questions over mandates to concerns over global distribution, “vaccine” has been the clear word of the year, according to dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster.The choice of word of 2021 was a seemingly obvious one for the US publisher, which said searches for “vaccine” on its website increased by 601% compared with last year, amid a broad rollout of vaccinations for Covid-19. Continue reading...

Israel seals borders and Morocco bans flights as new variant fears rise. Plus, tributes pour in for fashion maverick Virgil AblohGood morning.Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, said on Sunday the US has “the potential to go into a fifth wave” of coronavirus infections amid rising cases and stagnating vaccination rates.How are other countries reacting to the spread of Omicron? Israel is barring entry to all foreign nationals and Morocco is suspending all incoming flights for two weeks. Many countries, including Brazil, Canada, European Union states, Iran and the UK, have placed restrictions on travel from various southern African countries.Epstein, a convicted paedophile, killed himself in a Manhattan federal jail in August 2019, while awaiting trial. Maxwell’s alleged crimes took place from 1994 to 2004, prosecutors have said.Authorities arrested the Briton, the daughter of the late press baron Robert Maxwell, on 2 July 2020 at an estate in the small New Hampshire town of Bradford.Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against her and is expected to challenge claims she groomed underage girls. Continue reading...

An intriguing new movement is experimenting with the kind of co-living that defined families for millennia. I decided to find out moreI first spoke to Prophet Walker about a year ago, when I was pregnant with our third child and fresh off a Covid-precipitated six-month stint of living with my parents. Whether it was the kindergartner getting sick, or navigating a crushing deadline with a preschooler underfoot, or juggling dinnertime while eight months pregnant and unable to reach the mac ’n’ cheese that had been smeared on the floor unless I actually lay down on the floor – at which point I’d have needed a crane to right myself – I began to feel desperate for my parents’ extra sets of hands, and wondering how on earth we’d ever made it work without them.It took a pandemic for me to put my own living practices under the spotlight. Walker had been doing so for his entire life. He is now spearheading a movement to get people to recognize the myriad benefits of ditching that very American vision of two parents, two and a half kids and a white picket fence for the communal living that defined families for millennia.Sophie Brickman is a contributor to the New Yorker, the New York Times and other publications, and the author of Baby, Unplugged: One Mother’s Search for Balance, Reason, and Sanity in the Digital Age Continue reading...

Deeply personal questions about issues such as domestic violence highlight America’s ‘controlling’ of people in povertySitting in a Ralphs parking lot overlooking the Pacific Coast Highway at 8am on a Friday, hot and sticky in an ageing wetsuit, I clicked on the link for Big:Leap, Los Angeles’ guaranteed income pilot and the largest program of its kind in the US.Applications for the program had opened that morning. Participants would be chosen by lottery and the criteria for eligibility were simple: applicants had to be over the age of 18, live in the city of Los Angeles, have one or more dependents, and be living in poverty according to the federal poverty guidelines – a somewhat outdated and controversial method of measuring poverty, but one which, in the absence of anything else, is still used widely. The project’s aim was straightforward, too: to study the effects of giving approximately 3,000 families $1,000 a month in cash with no strings attached.Blame me for causing their violent behavior.Shook, pushed, grabbed or threw me.Tried to convince my family, children or friends that I am crazy or tried to turn them against me.Used or threatened to use a knife or gun or other weapon to harm me.Made me perform sex acts that I did not want to perform. Continue reading...

Republican Greg Abbott is trying to appeal to Hispanic voters by claiming Beto O’Rourke is appropriating their cultureWithin hours of former congressman Beto O’Rourke announcing his intent to run for governor of Texas against incumbent Greg Abbott, the Republican party apparatus began tweeting about “Robert Francis O’Rourke.”It harkened back to the days the GOP referred to “Barack Hussein Obama”. But instead of suggesting to the American people that Obama might be some kind of foreigner, the recent GOP maneuver has the opposite goal: reminding voters of O’Rourke’s all-American, all Anglo pedigree. Continue reading...

Data leaks and breaches by so-called ‘ethical hackers’ – often assisted by poor security practices – have exposed inner workings of groups and the nature of the movement as a wholeThroughout 2021, websites associated with far-right extremist groups and extremist-friendly platforms and hosts have suffered from data leaks and breaches that have exposed the inner workings of far-right groups, and the nature of the movement as a whole.The data has been exfiltrated in breaches engineered by so-called “ethical hackers” – often assisted by poor security practices from website administrators – and by activists who have penetrated websites in search of data and information. Continue reading...

Los Angeles bet everything on winning now. But there are issues throughout the team – and time is running outWhen the Rams sent what was left of their future assets to the Broncos a month ago to acquire Von Miller, they registered in the grandest of NFL experiments: What would it look like if a team truly went all in? What if they stopped worrying about tomorrow?The ideal outcome was clear. Miller would redefine the Rams’ defense, allowing them to create all kinds of pressure with a four-man defensive front. Pair that with Sean McVay, Matthew Stafford and an all-singing, all-dancing offense and you have a playoff-ready juggernaut. Continue reading...

Mark Esper claims material being improperly held from ‘unvarnished’ memoir of dealings with ex-presidentThe former US defense secretary Mark Esper claims in a lawsuit against the defense department that material is being improperly withheld from him as he seeks to publish an “unvarnished and candid memoir” of his time in Donald Trump’s cabinet.The lawsuit, which was filed on Sunday in the US district court in Washington, describes the memoir, A Sacred Oath, as an account of Esper’s tenure as army secretary from 2017 to 2019 and his 18 months as defense secretary, which ended when Trump fired him in a tweet just days after the president lost his reelection bid. Continue reading...

As Roe v Wade faces a direct challenge, criminal defense attorneys, prosecutors, local judges and cops begin to lay out what it would look like to criminalize abortionIn the early 1970s, law enforcement leaders in Chicago decided the practice of illegal abortion was intolerable in their city and, in a mostly forgotten chapter of history, undertook a campaign to root out those who performed the procedure in secret.On a tip, police turned their attention to “Call Jane”, a feminist collective of young women who, since 1965, had provided safe but illegal abortions to roughly 3,000 Chicagoans per year. The collective was raided after two Catholic women told police their sister-in-law planned to have an abortion performed by the group. Continue reading...

Congressman Billy Long seeks Trump’s endorsement for ‘the guy that was with you from day one. I mean, look at this tie’Senate candidates endorsed by Donald Trump have struggled of late, from Sean Parnell’s withdrawal in Pennsylvania while denying allegations of domestic abuse to the former NFL star Herschel Walker angering party leaders with his run in Georgia.But to one candidate for the Republican nomination in Missouri, Congressman Billy Long, the former president’s endorsement still carries the ultimate weight. Continue reading...

Trump ally reportedly says conspiracy theory a ‘disinformation campaign’ created by CIA and the left, apparent recording revealsMichael Flynn, Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, appears to have called QAnon “total nonsense” and a “disinformation campaign” created by the CIA and the political left – despite his own extensive links to the conspiracy theory and seeming eagerness to serve as its hero.Flynn’s apparent statement was revealed by Lin Wood, a pro-Trump attorney and QAnon supporter once allied with the disgraced former general. Continue reading...

Fashion designer Virgil Abloh has died of cancer. He was 41. Abloh had such an enormous impact on the fashion world, it will last forever, according to fashion expert Blake Newby. ‘The reality is that you can't talk about streetwear, specifically luxury streetwear, without mentioning the name Virgil Abloh. It's impossible,’ Newby said. Abloh shot to fame when he founded his own fashion label, Off-White in 2013. 'I don't even think I have the words for the way that this has and will rock the fashion world. The fashion world is mourning today,' Newby said

The new Covid-19 variant highlights the inequity that leaves poorer countries unprotected, posing a risk to their populations – and all of usI am an epidemiologist working in global health, and have worked in the field of vaccines for nearly 15 years. While the scientific successes of Sars-CoV-2 vaccine development have been surreal, the inequity of the pandemic and access to vaccines has left me despondent.As Australia reaches almost 90% coverage for two doses of Covid-19 vaccination, it’s a success story worth celebrating. Covid-19 vaccination has already proved to be highly effective at dampening wide-scale community transmission in settings such as New South Wales, where a rapid rollout with high levels of first-dose coverage along with other public health measures helped with the bending of the curve. Continue reading...