Officer was able to fire one shot that injured 15ft reptile because its midportion, not head, was around the victim’s neckA police officer in Pennsylvania fatally shot a 15ft snake in the head on Wednesday as it was coiled around a man’s neck while he was in cardiac arrest.Just after 2pm, two officers from the Upper Macungie Township police department responded to a call that a male with a snake wrapped around his neck. Continue reading...
The drivers object to a law requiring companies to hire them as employees rather than independent contractorsTruckers protesting against a California labor law effectively shut down cargo operations at the Port of Oakland, one of the busiest in the US.The protest began on Monday, when hundreds of independent big-rig truckers blocked the movement of cargo in and out of terminals at the port. On Wednesday, port officials warned that the shutdown would further exacerbate the congestion of containers. Continue reading...
High price of natural gas increases costs for other products including steel, cement and glassThe price of natural gas in the US has risen by nearly half in the past month, as drought and the war in Ukraine continue to bite and millions of Americans turn up their air conditioners in a heatwave.Natural-gas futures jumped 48% this month, including 10% on Wednesday, to $8.007 per million British thermal units (btu). The rise has come as other energy costs, including oil, have begun to drop from their June peaks. Continue reading...
President had hoped to announce plans for 100,000 extra US police officers but speech in Pennsylvania cancelledJoe Biden had been poised Thursday to unveil a $37bn proposal for fighting crime, including funding to help US police departments hire and train an additional 100,000 officers over a five-year period, according to reports, though after contracting Covid he cancelled the speech where he planned to announce it.The US president’s Safer America Plan would form part of his proposed 2023 budget and would require a green light from Congress, CNN reports. As well as the additional officers, it would reportedly include the launch of a $15bn grant initiative for states and localities to assist them in preventing violent offenses, and to “ease the burden on police officers by identifying non-violent situations that may merit a public health response or other response.” Continue reading...
Press chief says Biden, 79, who has had two boosters, is taking antiviral Paxlovid, while first lady Jill Biden has tested negative Continue reading...
by Vincent Ni China affairs correspondent on (#61N5C)
US military advises against House speaker’s reported trip as president is due to talk to Xi Jinping for first time in four monthsJoe Biden has cautioned against the reported trip to Taiwan next month by the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, saying the US military had assessed “it is not a good idea right now”.The Financial Times reported earlier this week that Pelosi would lead a delegation to Taiwan in August to show support for the democratically ruled island, which Beijing claims is a breakaway province. The trip was initially scheduled for April but was postponed due to Pelosi testing positive for Covid at the time. Continue reading...
Almost 10% of deaths were homicide while number of unsheltered people in Maricopa county has at least tripled since 2016As many as 500 homeless people died in and around Phoenix, Arizona, during the first half of 2022, with almost 10% of deaths due to homicide, according to new figures from the county medical examiner’s office.The number of unsheltered people in Maricopa county, which includes the state capital Phoenix, has at least tripled since 2016. Continue reading...
Between March 2020 and March 2022, more than 11,400 hate incidents against Asian Americans have been reportedForty years after Vincent Chin, a Chinese American man, was scapegoated and beaten to death by two white men in Detroit, angered over the loss of American jobs to Japanese companies during an economic downturn, hate incidents against Asian Americans continue to surge, a new study released Wednesday found.Between March 2020 and March 2022, more than 11,400 hate incidents against Asian Americans have been reported across the United States, a report found by Stop AAPI Hate, a national coalition that tracks such incidents and advocates for combatting hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Continue reading...
Black Americans increasingly more likely to receive long prison sentences than white Americans, thinktank analysis suggestsThe gap between Black and white Americans serving time in state prison for long prison sentences is growing, a new analysis of state data shows.Between 2005 and 2019, the share of Black Americans newly sentenced to state prison for more than 10 years grew from about 13% in 2005 to 19% in 2019. By comparison, during that same period, white Americans taken to state prison for long sentences grew from about 12% to 15%, according to a new report by the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan thinktank. Continue reading...
If the hearings end without consequences for Trump, the main takeaway will be: this is how much you can get away with in 2020s AmericaYou have to say this for America in 2022. They know how to put on a show. The January 6 hearings in Washington have made for riveting viewing. Someday the last days of Trump will be turned into a movie, and it will make a worthy successor to films about political collapse like Downfall or The Damned. The testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, a surprise witness – just like in the movies! – offered one hit scene after another: the president of the United States saying he didn’t much care whether his own vice-president was hanged; Trump lunging for the steering wheel; the ketchup dripping down the wall after he threw his lunch. The last planned public hearing is scheduled for Thursday. CNN describes the event as having “all the makings of a potential blockbuster”. But the hearings already have been a massively successful work of political spectacle; and that’s where their danger lies.The organizers of the January 6 hearings had no choice but to resort to showmanship. They clearly learned the lesson of the Mueller report. When Mueller gathered the findings of his investigation into the Trump campaign’s expectation to “benefit electorally” from Russian disinformation campaigns, he released them as a book. He may as well have put his findings in a bottle and thrown them into the sea. Americans don’t go to books to understand the world any more. They go to their screens. That’s one of the most prominent truths revealed by the Trump years: spectacle wins. The sheer capacity to gather attention is, by far, the most important force in US politics.Stephen Marche is the author, most recently, of The Next Civil War: Dispatches from the American Future Continue reading...
In last month’s Oklahoma v Castro-Huerta, the court tore up centuries of legal precedent and Native sovereigntyIn 1886, the supreme court in United States v Kagama described states as the “deadliest enemies” of Native nations. The case concerned criminal jurisdiction on Indian reservations, but it also recognized the role states, and their citizens, played in fueling Native conflict and dispossession. It was a rare occasion in which the court acknowledged it was making Indian law in the context of great violence and suffering.Paradoxically, the court found that the very nation that waged wars of extermination and invasion against Native people also declared itself their sole guardian, protecting its “wards” from the “local ill feeling” of land-hungry whites flooding Native lands in the western states. And where the US constitution was lacking in language defining federal authority over Native nations, the court had invented it, for better or for worse.Nick Estes is a citizen of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe. He is a journalist, historian and host of The Red Nation Podcast. He is the author of Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance Continue reading...
The Salt Eaters Bookshop centers culture and community in every element, quickly becoming a literary haven for its patronsAsha Grant sits on a church pew near a table covered in vintage magazines. In the months leading up to the opening of the Salt Eaters Bookshop, she sourced the pew online from a soon-to-be shuttered church and the coffee table belonged to her grandmother.Grant says she wanted the Inglewood, California, bookstore to be imbued with a sense of home and inclusion. Bright pink wallpaper with a pattern of Zora Neale Hurston adds a pop of color, and upon entering, there’s a mirror with photos of Grant’s maternal grandmother and great-aunt. A quilt draped behind the pew was a community project and allowed people to donate denim and stitch it together. Continue reading...
Republicans have maneuvered to keep both congressional and state legislative maps in place for this fall’s election despite the state supreme court striking them down seven times this yearHello, and Happy Thursday,When I called up Catherine Turcer on Tuesday, she mentioned that her daughter had just sent her a text message saying it must feel like she’s living the same day over and over again.The Trump administration sought to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census as part of an effort to change the way congressional seats are allocatedA bipartisan group of senators has introduced a bill to reform the Electoral Count Act. Continue reading...
The league, fans and teammates have shown support for gay and bisexual players. So why is it so hard for us to remain doing the job we love?If Carl Nassib is not signed to a team by 8 September, the NFL, a league with 32 teams and more than 1,600 players, will once again not have a single LGBTQ+ in its ranks.I’m writing this piece well before that date because it’s a travesty and there’s still time for the situation to change. When I became the first out active NFL player to identify as bisexual in August 2019 and I found myself without a team, I would have wanted someone to advocate for me. Continue reading...
From Trump’s lack of concern about armed rioters to possible witness tampering, the revelations have been startlingThe hearings of the House January 6 committee have presented some extraordinary testimony about Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election and his supporters’ deadly assault on the US Capitol. Ahead of the primetime TV hearing on Thursday night, here are some of those pivotal moments so far. Continue reading...
As the eighth public hearing begins, know the people who helped understand Trump’s efforts to overturn the electionThe House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol has introduced Americans to a cast of characters critical to understanding then president Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn a free and fair democratic election.The committee interviewed hundreds of witnesses during its yearlong investigation into the 2021 insurrection and the events that led to it. Some appeared in person, others taped depositions that were played during the hearings. Some pled the fifth or refused to cooperate. Continue reading...
The committee will demonstrate the ex-president was ‘derelict in his duty’ to protect the US Congress as supporters mobbed buildingThe January 6 House select committee is expected to make the case at its hearing on Thursday that Donald Trump potentially violated the law when he refused entreaties to take action to stop the 2021 attack on the US Capitol by a mass of his supporters, according to two sources familiar with the matter.The panel will demonstrate that the former Republican president was “derelict in his duty” to protect the US Congress and might have also broken the federal law that prohibits obstructing an official proceeding before Congress, which had gathered to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. Continue reading...
Manchester’s Labour council let Sheikh Mansour buy up acres of public land for seemingly a fraction of its worth – how was this allowed?London is one giant pantomime this summer. Just look to the politicians and journalists, hot-breathed with excitement, horse-trading and haggling over who gets to be the Tories’ next head prefect. But if you want the truth about how power and money operate in the UK today then ditch Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, and head to Manchester. Yes, Manchester: the comeback city that traded cotton mills for skyscrapers, and is now cheered by the Financial Times and George Osborne. The metropolis that taught the world so much about industrial capitalism 200 years ago now offers another harsh lesson about its 21st-century, financialised version.Go a few minutes east of the city centre, and walk from New Islington into Ancoats. Block follows block of newly built and freshly converted flats and houses, many lining a lovely marina that glistens in the July sun. You can rent or buy these places right now, as long as you don’t mind how much some look like pile-em-high student boxes and that they all cost a packet. This is what post-industrial regeneration looks like, right? Redbrick in tooth and claw. But note something: almost 1,500 of these homes come from just one developer, and in that lies an entire sobering story.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at guardian.letters@theguardian.com Continue reading...
From their rekindled romance to their marriage, Bennifer have inspired an all-too-rare feeling of hopeI’ve sung along to more than a few J-Lo songs in my lifetime, but I don’t own any of her albums. Similarly, I think Ben Affleck’s a terrific actor and film-maker, but I haven’t seen all of his movies.These Hollywood A-listers are a couple I’m never likely to even meet, and yet over recent months the pop culture trash demon that lurks within has insisted I pore over every tabloid mention of their relationship. Continue reading...
Lawmakers agreed to two bills that will overhaul federal law and prevent presidential candidates from overturning election resultsA bipartisan group of senators reached a deal on Wednesday to reform a federal law and prevent a future presidential candidate from overturning the will of the people and the result of a valid presidential election.The lawmakers have agreed to two bills that would reform the Electoral Count Act of 1887, which governs how electoral votes are counted following a presidential election. Citing ambiguities in the law, Donald Trump and his attorneys pushed his vice-president, Mike Pence, to disrupt the counting of electoral votes that showed he lost the 2020 election, escalating calls for the 135-year-old law to be reformed. Even before the election, experts warned the law was ambiguous and could be exploited. Continue reading...
Joe Biden has unveiled a new plan to push billions of dollars to US cities and states to help them cope better with extreme heat.The US president stopped short, however, of declaring a climate emergency.Biden outlined the new actions in a speech on Wednesday at a former coal plant in Massachusetts which is now part of an offshore windfarm project.The initiatives are aimed at helping salvage the president’s tattered climate agenda
by Victoria Bekiempis in New York and agencies on (#61KT5)
Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric – Ivana’s three children with her ex-husband – gather for memorial at Catholic church in ManhattanIvana Trump, the businesswoman who helped her husband build an empire that launched him to the presidency, was celebrated at a funeral mass in New York City on Wednesday.At St Vincent Ferrer Roman Catholic Church on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Ivana’s three children with the former president Donald Trump – Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric – arrived with family members just before 1.40pm, before the gold casket was taken into the church. Continue reading...
Donna Edwards, leading contender in Maryland primary for safe seat, lost after pro-Israeli groups poured millions to block herPro-Israel groups have heralded the defeat of a leading Democratic contender for Congress after pouring millions of dollars into blocking her election, for failing to be sufficiently supportive of Israeli government policies.Donna Edwards, who was for months the favourite to win the primary for a safe seat in Maryland, lost to Glenn Ivey on Tuesday after the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) and allied groups waded into the race. Continue reading...
Documents reveal officials worked to keep secret their intention to use the data to exclude non-citizens from apportionmentDonald Trump’s administration tried to add a citizenship question to the decennial census as part of an effort to alter the way the US House’s 435 seats are divvied up among the 50 states, a new tranche of documents reveals.The documents, released by the House oversight committee on Wednesday, offer the clearest evidence to date that the Trump administration’s public justification for adding the question was made up. For years, the administration said that it needed to add a citizenship question to the decennial survey because better citizenship data was needed to enforce the Voting Rights Act (VRA). The US supreme court ultimately blocked the Trump administration from adding the question in 2019, saying the rationale “seems to have been contrived”. Continue reading...
The Ukrainian first lady, Olena Zelenska, appealed to US lawmakers on Tuesday to provide more help to her country as it struggles against a five-month-long Russian invasion she called 'Russia’s Hunger Games', saying US weapons could help assure a 'joint great victory'.'We remain completely broken when our world is destroyed by war. Tens of thousands of such worlds have been destroyed in Ukraine,” she said, through a translator, in an emotional 15-minute speech to members of the House and Senate.The wife of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, showed videos of children she said had been wounded or killed, including a three-year-old boy now learning to use prosthetic limbs
Rusty Bowers, the Arizona house speaker, testified to the House January 6 committee in JuneRusty Bowers, the Arizona house speaker who testified to the January 6 committee about how he resisted Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden in the sun belt state, has been formally censured by his own Republican party.Kelli Ward, chair of the Arizona Republican party, said on Tuesday its “executive committee formally censured Rusty Bowers tonight – he is no longer a Republican in good standing and we call on Republicans to replace him at the ballot box in the August primary”. Continue reading...
by Chris Stein in Washington and agencies on (#61M3F)
Olena Zelenska makes emotional appeal to Congress and asks for weapons to claim ‘joint great victory’ in war against RussiaThe Ukrainian first lady, Olena Zelenska, appealed to US lawmakers on Tuesday to provide more help to her country as it struggles against a five-month-long Russian invasion she called “Russia’s Hunger Games”, saying US weapons could help assure a “joint great victory”.“We remain completely broken when our world is destroyed by war. Tens of thousands of such worlds have been destroyed in Ukraine,” she said, through a translator, in an emotional 15-minute speech to members of the House and Senate. Continue reading...
Officials in Georgia investigating whether Donald Trump and others illegally tried to interfere in 2020 election in the stateA judge in New York has ordered Rudy Giuliani to appear next month before a special grand jury in Atlanta that is investigating whether Donald Trump and others illegally tried to interfere in the 2020 general election in Georgia.The New York supreme court justice, Thomas Farber, issued an order on 13 July, directing Giuliani, a Trump lawyer and former New York City mayor, to appear before the special grand jury on 9 August and any other dates ordered by the court in Atlanta. Continue reading...
House committee wants all communications from day before and day of Capitol attack but agency indicates such messages are lostThe Secret Service turned over just one text message to the House January 6 committee on Tuesday, in response to a subpoena compelling the production of all communications from the day before and the day of the US Capitol attack, according to two sources familiar with the matter.The Secret Service told the panel the single text was the only message responsive to the subpoena, the sources said, and while the agency vowed to conduct a forensic search for any other text or phone records, it indicated such messages were likely to prove irrecoverable. Continue reading...
Bear dragged Leah Davis Lokan, 65, out of her tent and killed her near Ovando last summerA 417lb grizzly bear dragged a California woman out of her tent and killed her near Ovando, Montana, last summer in a “predatory attack”, wildlife authorities reported.Officials who shot the bear several days later determined that food in and around the victim’s tent probably contributed to the attack. Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Marietta, Georgia on (#61KWW)
Cobb county school district halts distribution of new logo for East Side elementary school after condemnation on social mediaThe rollout of a new logo for an Atlanta-area elementary school was paused after parents noted similarities to a Nazi symbol, though a school district said the design was based on a US army colonel’s eagle wings.The Cobb county school district said on Tuesday it had halted distribution of the new logo for East Side elementary school in Marietta after it drew condemnation on social media. Continue reading...
James Jackson, charged with robbery and attempted murder over February 2021 shooting, mistakenly freed after clerical errorThe US Marshals Service is searching for a man who was erroneously released from custody after being arrested for shooting a dog walker who worked for the singer and actor Lady Gaga.In a statement on Monday, the federal agency announced a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest of James Howard Jackson, 19. Continue reading...
Transportation secretary calls Texas Republican Troy Nehls’ questions about Joe Biden’s mental health ‘insulting’Pete Buttigieg fended off a Republican who used a transportation hearing to ask if Joe Biden’s cabinet had discussed using the 25th amendment to remove the president from office, saying: “I’m glad to have a president who can ride a bicycle.”The transportation secretary was appearing in front of the House transportation committee on Tuesday. Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Langhorne, Pennsylvania on (#61KX2)
Instagram video shows character Rosita high-fiving white child and woman then saying ‘no’ to Black girls with arms outstretchedA Sesame Street-themed amusement park has apologized and promised more training for its employees after a video showing a costumed character waving off two six-year-old Black girls during a parade went viral online.The nine-second video, posted to Instagram on Saturday by Jodi Brown, the mother of one of the girls, showed the character Rosita high-fiving a white child and woman, then gesturing “no” and walking away from the two girls who had their arms stretched out for a hug and high-five during the parade at Sesame Place in Langhorne, outside Philadelphia. Continue reading...
It isn't often someone has the privilege of winning a 1500m World Championship, and it's quite another when your father is responsible for the announcement. As Jake Wightman narrowly made it across the finish line ahead of Jakob Ingebrigtsen, footage showed his father Geoff in commentary box holding back his feelings just long enough to share the result before he fell back into his chair and sank his head into his arms. 'It's going to be close,' Geoff said in the clip, 'but Jake Wightman wins gold!' Continue reading...
Politicians argue that canceling student debt will mainly benefit doctors and lawyers. But it is first-generation graduates of color who are struggling to make paymentsMy sister’s partner was murdered in St Louis in the summer of 2017. She was heartbroken, pregnant and facing a sheriff who was enforcing an eviction due to nonpayment of rent. Ghosts don’t send checks from the grave to pay for the living. Not for poor people anyway. There are very little inheritances, wills, and dollars under mattresses to go around.I had just graduated from Harvard Law School and was studying to take the bar exam to accomplish my childhood dream of becoming a civil rights lawyer. I was also near rock bottom. My marriage was ending and I had two kids under four. I’d been awarded the most prestigious law fellowship in the country and, with a pending income of $60,000, I was prepared to become the highest earner in my entire family. I knew that was insufficient for me, my two toddlers, my sister, a newborn nephew, Washington DC’s rising rent, and more than $100,000 of student debt.Four years after earning a bachelor’s degree, Black graduates have nearly $25,000 more student loan debt than their white peers: $52,726 on average, compared with $28,006 for the typical white bachelor’s graduate. This total debt gap is more than triple the previously documented Black–white gap in undergraduate borrowing, which is “only” about $7,400 ($23,400 versus $16,000). Black college graduates are also three times more likely to default on their debt within four years of graduation.Derecka Purnell is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
At every opportunity, Manchin has sabotaged Democrats’ agenda. What’s going on here? It’s spelled m-o-n-e-yAfter putting a final spear through the heart of what remained of Biden’s and the Democrat’s domestic agenda, West Virginia’s Democratic senator Joe Manchin now rejects any tax increases on big corporations or the wealthy – until inflation is no longer a problem.This is rich, in every sense of the word. Raising taxes on big American corporations and the wealthy would not fuel inflation. It would slow inflation by reducing demand – and do it in a way that wouldn’t hurt lower-income Americans (such as those living in, say, West Virginia).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...
We would like to hear from you about your or your community’s experiences relating to lead exposure in the USLead is a toxic material that is not safe in any amount. Yet millions of Americans are exposed to it on a regular basis, whether from lead water pipes, lead paint, emissions from lead recycling facilities, or other types of contamination.We want to hear from people in the US: are you, your family or your community suffering from lead exposure? Continue reading...
Some of the cities enjoying population boom are among those gripped by a ferocious heatwave and seeing record temperaturesThe ferocious heatwave that is gripping much of the US south and west has highlighted an uncomfortable, ominous trend – people are continuing to flock to the cities that risk becoming unlivable due to the climate crisis.Some of the fastest-growing cities in the US are among those currently being roasted by record temperatures that are baking the more than 100 million Americans under some sort of extreme heat warning. More than a dozen wildfires are engulfing areas from Texas to California and Alaska, with electricity blackouts feared for places where the grid is coming under severe strain. Continue reading...
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