A chemical firm bought out Mossville’s Black homeowners and dismantled their community – but paid them less than neighboring white residents, new analysis findsThe company called it one of the most generous industrial buyouts in history.But Sasol, the South African chemical firm, offered significantly less money to Black homeowners than white homeowners in an attempt to entice them to relocate away from an expanding chemical complex in southwest Louisiana, according to a new analysis, published for the first time by the Guardian. Continue reading...
Britney Spears has spoken out about the realities of her new freedom after her conservatorship was lifted last week 'I’ve been in the conservatorship for 13 years. It’s a really a long time to be in a situation you don’t want to be in,' she said in a video posted to social media. 'So I’m just grateful for each day and being able to have the keys to my car, to be able to be independent and feel like a woman. Owning an ATM card, seeing cash for the first time … It’s the little things.'
Berry brings energy and focus to her directing debut, in which she plays a burned-out mixed martial arts fighter on a comeback missionHalle Berry leaves it pretty late to turn on the energy for her directing debut – until the final round, in fact. But this fight movie, in which Berry herself plays a burned-out MMA fighter struggling to make a comeback, concludes with an extended showdown in which her character gets climactically in the cage with a ferocious UFC champ called Lady Killer, played by real-life martial artist Valentina Shevchenko, in front of a packed crowd eager for an ass-kicking. Berry makes it look good; she faces off with the real deal and she herself looks like a perfectly plausible deal. You’ll forgive the cliches and sentimentality that went before … just about.Berry plays Jackie Justice, a renowned fighter who was brutally beaten in her last match, as a result of being exploited by her abusive boyfriend-slash-manager Desi (Adan Canto), and slumps into depression and alcoholism. Then her own mother (Adriane Lenox), insists that Jackie starts looking after Manny (Danny Boyd Jr), her young son from a previous relationship. Moreover, a big-time MMA manager (Shamier Anderson) contacts Jackie, looking to set her up in a new fight for cynical reasons of his own. All these things combine to inspire in Jackie a new purpose, and she approaches a trainer, Bobbi (Sheila Atim) who works with grizzled veteran Pops (Stephen McKinley Henderson) – they of course see in Jackie a glimmer of the right stuff, and the only way is up. Continue reading...
The team have the lowest attendance in the NFL, and it’s no surprise given the product on and off the fieldThe ageless Tom Brady was in town on Sunday, and it was a nice day to watch football even at a dull stadium stuck in the suburbs. The Washington Football Team were 9.5-point underdogs against Tampa Bay, but, still, only 52,128 of 82,000 tickets were sold for a game between Brady’s Bucs and the WFT, the lowest paid NFL attendance over the weekend.Brady had a bad day, and the Football Team somehow put together a 19-play, 10½-minute touchdown drive to seal a shock 29-19 victory, but the lousy turnout was not a surprise. Washington are dead last in the NFL in average home attendance this season, selling an average of 51,291 tickets to their five home games. So Sunday was actually an improvement at the gate. Continue reading...
by Gloria Oladipo and Joanna Walters in New York and on (#5S0AB)
Top infectious disease official said if more Americans get vaccines and booster shots, the disease could be downgraded to endemic statusAnthony Fauci, the top infectious diseases public official in the US, said on Tuesday that if America further ramps up vaccination rates and those already immunized take booster shots that it is feasible Covid-19 could be reduced from a pandemic emergency to endemic status next year.More than 70% of adults in the US are fully vaccinated. Fauci said if a lot more Americans take the vaccines, and if the US makes boosters available for everyone, the country could get control of the virus by spring of 2022. Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Brunswick, Georgia on (#5RZSJ)
The trial of three white men who chased the Black man before he was fatally shot see pictures of multiple shotgun woundsPhotographs from the autopsy of Ahmaud Arbery were shown to jurors on Tuesday, at the murder trial of three white men who chased the 25-year-old Black man before he was fatally shot in their neighborhood last year.Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael armed themselves and pursued Arbery in a pickup truck after spotting him running in their neighborhood. Their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan joined the chase and took cellphone video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery three times with a shotgun. Continue reading...
The British socialite is accused of sex crimes and conspiracy but questioning of jurors produced some lighter momentsWhen Ghislaine Maxwell came face-to-face with prospective jurors for her federal court sex trafficking trial in Manhattan on Tuesday morning, their candor brought moments of comedy to the staid process of jury selection – including a discussion of a famed TV police procedural and an exchange about fishing.Maxwell, 59, was arrested in July 2020 at a secretive estate in Bradford, a small town in New Hampshire. She is charged with sex crimes, conspiracy and perjury related to the actions of the financier Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019, while awaiting sex trafficking charges. Continue reading...
Henry ‘Enrique’ Tarrio is serving a five-month sentence for stealing and burning a Black Lives Matter bannerThe leader of the Proud Boys far-right group has asked a judge to free him from jail in Washington DC, complaining about poor conditions.Henry “Enrique” Tarrio is serving a five-month sentence for stealing and burning a Black Lives Matter banner from a historic Black church in the capital, after Donald Trump’s election defeat. Continue reading...
Digital minister asks for report on takeover of chip firm with ‘unique place in the global tech supply chain’The government has ordered an in-depth investigation into the takeover of the Cambridge-based chip designer Arm by its US rival Nvidia, in a move that could result in the $54bn deal being blocked.Nadine Dorries, the digital and culture secretary, has ordered the UK competition watchdog to launch a “phase 2” investigation on public interest grounds, citing competition and national security concerns. Continue reading...
A string of shortsighted, transactional agreements with the EU’s neighbours has led to refugees facing hostilityThe small fires they are building will do little to warm the refugee and migrant families attempting to cross the border between Belarus and Poland in a desperate effort to reach European soil. Freezing temperatures and the lack of humanitarian support have already resulted in at least nine deaths, while dozens of people have reported injuries, theft and abuse at the hands of the authorities.Another humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding on the European Union’s doorstep. Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Cleveland, Ohio on (#5RZM8)
Thomas Randele lived quietly in the suburbs. Now authorities say he was Theodore Conrad who walked away with a fortune in 1969Before Thomas Randele sold luxury cars and taught golf in the suburbs of Boston, before he got married and had a family, federal marshals say he was Theodore John Conrad, who pulled off one of the biggest bank robberies in Cleveland history.The suspect’s disappearance was a mystery that lasted 52 years – a few months longer than he did. Continue reading...
Two cabinet members considered invoking the 25th amendment, new book by the ABC White House correspondent saysDonald Trump’s secretary of state and treasury secretary discussed removing him from power after the deadly Capitol attack by invoking the 25th amendment, according to a new book.The amendment, added to the constitution after the assassination of John F Kennedy in 1963, provides for the removal of an incapacitated president, potentially on grounds of mental as well as physical fitness. It has never been used. Continue reading...
The jurors will determine what the case represents in the eyes of the law, but to a divided America the implications are much largerAfter the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, who as a 17-year-old fatally shot two men and wounded a third, finally closed and the jury was sent out to deliberate its verdict, a crowd of supporters stood outside the Kenosha county courthouse volleying chants in the cold November dark.“Black Lives Matter!” one group shouted. Continue reading...
An article suggesting US citizens could learn something from a Europe racked, it said, by goods shortages has caused predictable outrage on both sides. But not all is better statesideI do hope European readers are going to be able to access this article. Do you have computers where you live? What about electricity? Are there shops where you can buy newspapers? I vaguely recall seeing such things during my travels on the pale continent, but perhaps I was mistaken. A recent Bloomberg op-ed, titled Americans need to learn to live more like Europeans, suggests Europeans live deprived lives with limited access to modern conveniences – and argues that, owing to supply-chain issues, Americans may have to get used to doing the same. “Store shelves are emptying, and it can take months to find a car, refrigerator or sofa,” the article opined. “If this continues, we may need to learn to do without – and, horrors, live more like the Europeans.” The horrors, indeed!I’m not sure whether the Bloomberg headline was explicitly designed to trigger transatlantic anger and start an online culture war, but that’s exactly what it did. To be fair, it doesn’t take much to make the internet irate. You can write a light-hearted article about how you like cheese and, whoops, you’ve started a no-gouda, very bad culture war. Someone on Twitter will explain that your joke about brie was classist; someone else will say that your omission of cheddar was a violent act of erasure, and someone with a username like @DairyPatriot69 will tell you to go back to where you came from and eat whatever horrible cheese they make there. And if your article is somewhat more serious? If your article should suggest that Americans might learn a thing or two from other people? Well, the Maga crowd will track you down and denounce your opinions with all-caps inanities. Continue reading...
The Windsors has had its share of criticism for its comic portrayals, even though we always inject warmth into our scriptsFor a good couple of years, writing The Windsors – Channel 4’s satirical soap opera about the royal family – was my full-time job and it was odd to think how bound up my livelihood was with theirs. Once, when our special on Harry and Meghan’s wedding was about to go out, I found myself jogging the Mall with Buckingham Palace in my sight. What if Harry were to emerge for a similar jog, I daydreamed, and somehow we got chatting and he asked me about my job? Would he want to give me a punch up the bracket? And if so, how would I talk him out of it?Similar thoughts must have occurred to the creators of Spencer, the film about Diana, Princess of Wales, which is in cinemas now and tipped for an Oscar, not to mention The Crown, which has been in the headlines because one of the show’s contributors, Jemima Khan, demanded her name be removed from the credits because of a lack of “respect” and “compassion” for her late friend – whom she wanted to portray “accurately”.Bert Tyler-Moore is a screenwriter. The Windsors, which he wrote with George Jeffrie, is available on All 4, and The Windsors: Endgame will be touring in spring 2023 Continue reading...
America is experiencing increasingly virulent politics and violent political threats. Sometimes, it’s elected officials who foment or encourage violenceLast week, Arizona Representative Paul Gosar posted on Twitter and Instagram a photoshopped animated cartoon in which he assassinates Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacks President Joe Biden.Gosar says it “symbolizes the battle for the soul of America” when Congress takes up the president’s economic package, which he said includes immigration provisions he opposes.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...
When the girls started clamoring to sleep in a bunk bed together, it backfired spectacularlyAt two in the morning the other day, I found myself swaying slowly from side to side, cradling my preschooler and whisper-singing the Oompa Loompa song from Willy Wonka “like a lullaby”, per her barked instructions. Like most parents, I’m particularly fixated on sleep and how to optimize it. As I drew out the jig-like tune to make it as soporific as possible, the kindergartner whimpering from the top bunk and the preschooler occasionally flashing me a sadistic grin, I was pretty certain I wasn’t optimizing anything except for the likelihood that when we did eventually nod off, we’d all dream about tiny orange men.The preschooler, due to a combination of Covid and minimal square footage, happily slept the first two years of her life in a Pack ’n Play in our closet. But when the girls started clamoring to sleep in the bunk bed together, I entertained visions of pre-bed whispering that would render grownup involvement moot, and strengthen their sisterly bonds while leading to deeper sleep all around. Plus, I assumed sleeping together in piles was hardwired into us, from the days when we sought safety from roaming mastodons. So I put the bumper on the bottom bunk and figured, what’s the worst that can happen?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...
China’s president tells US counterpart that support for Taiwan independence is ‘like playing with fire’. Plus, the world’s first ‘TikTopera’Good morning.During a virtual summit China’s president told Joe Biden that China was prepared to take “decisive measures” if Taiwan made any moves towards independence that crossed Beijing’s red lines.Was the rest of the conversation tense? No: in fact, the overall cordial tone of the video conference exchange, with Xi referring to Biden at one point as “my old friend”, gave an immediate boost to financial markets in Asia.What did Biden want to achieve? One of his aims in the summit was to establish regular dialogue between US and Chinese officials on a range of issues. It was unclear how far the two leaders had gone to achieve that, however.Alex Jones was, in a rare step, defaulted by Judge Barbara Bellis for his and his companies’ failure to disclose information related to the defamation suit.The default means the judge found in favor of the parents and will hold a hearing on how much damages Jones should pay. Continue reading...
The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, disputed recent media reports that the US vice president, Kamala Harris, is struggling with her role in Joe Biden's administration. ‘She's a key partner,’ Psaki said. ‘She's a bold leader, and she is somebody who has taken on incredibly important assignments,’ including immigration and voting rights. With questions being raised about the president's willingness to seek a second term, speculation is mounting over Harris’s chances in a contest for the next Democratic nomination.‘I don't have any predictions of whether she will run, when she will run,’ Psaki added. ‘I will leave that to her, but I can tell you that there's been a lot of reports out there and they don't reflect his view or our experience with the vice president'
China president tells US counterpart that support for Taiwan independence is ‘like playing with fire’ during the most substantial discussion since Biden took officeXi Jinping warned Joe Biden in a virtual summit that China was prepared to take “decisive measures” if Taiwan makes any moves towards independence that cross Beijing’s red lines.Xi also warned the US president that any support for Taiwanese independence would be “like playing with fire”, according to a Chinese state media account of the summit, adding that “those who play with fire will get burned”. Continue reading...
President celebrates with bipartisan crowd on White House lawn but faces tougher battles ahead to pass broader packagePresident Joe Biden has signed his hard-fought $1tn infrastructure deal into law before a bipartisan, celebratory crowd on the White House lawn, declaring that the new infusion of cash for roads, bridges, ports and more is going to make life “change for the better”.The president hopes to use the infrastructure law to build back his popularity, which has taken a hit amid rising inflation and the inability to fully shake the public health and economic risks from Covid-19. Continue reading...
US president Joe Biden has told Chinese leader Xi Jinping that he hoped to have a candid conversation about human rights and security issues as the two began a meeting meant to lower tensions between the two global superpowers. Biden added that the two leaders must make sure their relations do not veer into open conflict, including by installing ‘common sense’ guardrails. Biden spoke with Xi over a video conference as the two leaders engaged in their most extensive talks since Biden became president in January. Xi said the two sides must increase communication and cooperation to solve the many challenges they face.
State party votes to reject congresswoman after she voted to impeach Donald Trump over insurrection roleThe Wyoming Republican party will no longer recognize Liz Cheney as a member of the GOP in a rebuke over her vote to impeach Donald Trump over his role in the 6 January insurrection.The vote by the state party central committee followed votes by local GOP officials in about one-third of Wyoming’s 23 counties to no longer recognize Cheney as a Republican. Continue reading...
The signing of a $1.2tn infrastructure act was a much-needed win but Washington’s deep divisions were all too apparent“Here is what I know to be true, Mr President,” Vice-President Kamala Harris said on Monday, as she addressed Joe Biden. “You are equal parts believer and builder. And because you are, we are all better off.”Biden is a believer in the ability of the American people, US democracy and Democrats and Republicans to work together and get things done. It was the theory of his candidacy for president. Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Brunswick, Georgia on (#5RYFE)
Defense claimed jurors were tainted by tears in gallery, where the reverend joined Arbery’s parentsA judge has denied mistrial requests at the trial of three white men charged with murdering Ahmaud Arbery after defense attorneys claimed jurors were tainted by weeping from the gallery where Arbery’s parents sat with the Rev Jesse Jackson.Monday morning’s testimony was interrupted by arguments in the jury’s absence over Jackson’s appearance. The judge said he found one defense lawyer’s complaints last week about Black pastors to be “reprehensible” and no group would be excluded from his courtroom. Continue reading...
Angel Gregorio’s The Spice Suite is a $1m foodie’s retail paradise and support system for Black women start-upsThe Spice Suite is a foodie’s retail paradise, nestled in the heart of the nation’s capital. It’s also, in the words of owner Angel Gregorio, “a love letter to Black food and culture”. Inside the painted brick storefront, cast iron skillets and cutting boards carved into the shape of continental Africa line the shelves alongside handcrafted blends of sumac, chili, and thyme – spices individually sourced by Gregorio from around the world. Each of her products proudly bears the stamp: “Made by a Black woman in Washington DC”.From its launch in 2015, Gregorio has approached her business as a culinary tribute to the Black diaspora. Thanks to sheer word-of-mouth from within the Black community, The Spice Suite has grown to surpass the $1m mark in annual net revenue and boasts customers like Taraji P Henson, Kelly Rowland and Stevie Wonder. Along the way, the business has also become an incubator for an entire ecosystem of Black women entrepreneurs. Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Hartford, Connecticut on (#5RYFD)
Court in Connecticut will determine amount conspiracy theorist must pay over claims that school massacre was a hoaxThe conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was found liable on Monday for damages in lawsuits brought by parents of children killed in the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, over Jones’s claim the massacre was a hoax.Twenty first-grade children, aged five and six, and six adults were killed in the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012. Continue reading...
by Martin Pengelly in New York and Alexandra Villarre on (#5RY5S)
Former congressman seeks to take on Greg Abbott, the Republican governor, following failed 2018 Senate run against Ted CruzBeto O’Rourke, a former congressman, Senate candidate and contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, will run for governor in Texas next year.O’Rourke, 49, is seeking to take on Greg Abbott, the Republican governor who is pursuing a third term. Continue reading...
New York court considers jury selection arrangements for trial of British socialite on sex trafficking charges linked to Jeffrey EpsteinLess than 24 hours before Ghislaine Maxwell will be in a courtroom with prospective jurors who will decide her fate in a Manhattan federal court sex trafficking case, the former British socialite appeared notably at ease during a proceeding on Monday morning.One woman, who identified herself as a family member to a court security officer, waved at Maxwell shortly before proceedings started. She carried a yellow legal pad and scribbled notes throughout the proceeding. Continue reading...
Investor Bill Ackman trying to win approval for a controversial penthouse overlooking Central ParkThe billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman will on Tuesday attempt to convince New York’s powerful Landmarks Preservation Commission to allow him to build a “flying saucer” penthouse on top of a historic apartment building in the Upper West Side overlooking Central Park.Ackman, a Harvard-educated activist investor who famously made $2.6bn (£2.2bn) profit in a single day betting on the financial impact of coronavirus during the early days of the pandemic, has been engaged in a years-long public relations battle with his merely millionaire neighbours to garner support for his planned Norman Foster-designed two-storey penthouse that has been described as a “temple to a titan”. Continue reading...
Arrested in New Hampshire last year, Maxwell is charged with alleged sex crimes, conspiracy and perjury related to EpsteinWhen jury selection starts in earnest on Tuesday for British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial in Manhattan federal court, many observers might think that they will finally learn the full truth about the crimes of her consort, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein – and any subsequent cover-ups.On the surface, this conjecture makes sense: Epstein killed himself in jail more than two years ago, while awaiting his own sex trafficking trial, leaving many to wonder whether there would ever be justice for victims. Continue reading...
Ezra Blount had been in a coma after suffering serious injuries in the tragedy at a Travis Scott concert on 5 NovemberA nine-year-old Dallas boy has become the youngest person to die from injuries sustained during a crowd surge at the Astroworld music festival in Houston.Ezra Blount died on Sunday at Texas children’s hospital in Houston, family attorney Ben Crump said. His death brought the toll from the crush to 10. Continue reading...
US private equity group attempts to counter concerns over $530m bid for UK mutual insurerThe US private equity group Bain Capital has insisted that LV= customers will “receive significant financial benefits” as it tried to counter growing concerns over its proposed £530m takeover of the mutual insurer.In a statement circulated on Monday morning, Bain insisted that it was “committed to the long-term growth and success” of LV=, originally known as Liverpool Victoria, by growing its customer base, reclaiming its position as one of the top three life insurers, and increasing the reach of its equity release mortgage product. Continue reading...
Hotel, which opened in 2016, lost $74m between that year and 2020 according to documents, and will likely be renamedThe Trump Organization has reportedly agreed on a $375m deal to sell its hotel near the White House in Washington DC.The Wall Street Journal first reported the long-in-the-offing deal, with CGI Merchant Group, a real estate investment firm from Miami. Continue reading...
School was operated by the federal government between 1884 and 1934 and was known for brutal punishments and hard labourResearchers say they have identified more than 100 students who died at a harsh residential school for Native Americans in Genoa, Nebraska. The search for the cemetery where many are believed to be buried continues.The Genoa US Indian School was operated by the federal government between 1884 and 1934. Brutal punishments and hard labour were commonplace for students, large numbers of whom were removed from their families and homelands against their will, prohibited from speaking tribal languages and forced to convert to Christianity in an effort to subdue or eliminate Indian culture. Continue reading...
Jen Psaki fires back after several media outlets portray a vice-president struggling to make her markJohn Nance Garner, vice-president to Franklin D Roosevelt from 1933 to 1941, famously said the office “wasn’t worth a bucket of warm piss”. Kamala Harris may now agree.The White House was moved to defend her on Sunday night, after leading US media outlets portrayed a VP struggling to make her mark. Continue reading...
The sitting justices face a once-in-a-lifetime crisis of legitimacy that could determine the future of the USCommon sense suggests that America ought to reform its ancient constitution. The country, after all, is vastly different from what it was when founded in the 1780s and 1790s. The electoral college may have made sense at the dawn of the democratic age, but now it is an embarrassment, violating the core principle that every vote in presidential contests ought to count the same as any other.Having had no experience with the mass democracy they called into being, the framers of the constitution gave little thought as to how best to keep monied interests from corrupting electoral outcomes. And they had no clue about how questions of sex and sexuality would one day convulse their republic. Constitutional amendments passed today could abolish the electoral college, curtail the influence of private (and especially dark) money on politics, and establish a right to an abortion or a broader right to privacy in matters sexual and otherwise. Continue reading...
by Dawn Neptune Adams, Maulian Dana and Adam Mazo on (#5RXZF)
The settlers whom many Americans mythologize at Thanksgiving as peace-loving Pilgrims issued government orders offering cash for dead Native American childrenFor more than 10,000 years, the Wabanaki peoples have been living in a region called the Dawnland. Captain John Smith rebranded the area “New England” in a map he made in 1614. He and the other colonial settlers renamed rivers and villages to claim the land for themselves and erase Native people from their homelands. But that wasn’t enough. Eventually colonial officials introduced a grisly incentive to hasten that erasure: bounties for dead Native Americans.Yes, the settlers whom many Americans mythologize at Thanksgiving as peace-loving pilgrims were, just a generation later, issuing official government orders putting a price on the scalps of Indigenous children, women and men.Maulian Dana is the Penobscot National Tribal ambassador. Dawn Neptune Adams is a Penobscot Nation citizen and a member of Sunlight Media Collective. Adam Mazo is a co-founder of Upstander Project. Together they are part of the filmmaking team behind the documentary film Bounty Continue reading...
Ezra Blount had been in a coma after suffering serious injuries at the music festival. Plus, the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s StoneGood morning.A nine-year-old boy from Dallas has become the youngest person to die from injuries sustained during a crowd surge at the Astroworld music festival in Houston. He is the 10th person who attended the festival to die.The others who died ranged in age from 14 to 27. About 300 people were treated at the festival site and 13 were hospitalised.A number of lawsuits have been filed including by the Blount family, who are seeking at least $1m in damages. Police are also still investigating what went wrong.Maxwell was arrested on 2 July 2020 at a secluded, luxurious estate in the small town of Bradford, New Hampshire, for alleged sex crimes, conspiracy and perjury related to Epstein.Maxwell “played a critical role in helping Epstein to identify, befriend and groom minor victims” and that “in some cases, Maxwell participated in the abuse”, according to Audrey Strauss, then the acting Manhattan US attorney. Continue reading...
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