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New book says Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will ‘flashed’ through Bannon’s mind and that former adviser repeatedly invoked Hitler

Barry McCarthy to replace co-founder John Foley in top role after company’s sales dropped from pandemic’s early daysPeloton, the troubled exercise equipment company, is replacing its chief executive and planning to axe 2,800 jobs as it deals with a post-pandemic sales crash.Co-founder John Foley, who has led the company for its entire 10-year existence, will step down as chief executive and become executive chair while the company will cut about 20% of corporate positions. Fired staff will receive a year’s free membership with Peloton as well as a “meaningful cash severance allotment”. Continue reading...

My friend’s father was an expert in his field, but dementia took a relentless toll – on him and his family“You are a hero.”“Not really. The strength just comes to you.” Continue reading...

Black business ownership is up more than 30% on pre-pandemic levels, with Black women making up a fastest growing groupBlack business ownership is surging in the US despite the coronavirus pandemic, research shows, with a rise in businesses owned by Black women.At the start of the pandemic, Black-owned businesses suffered. Between February and April 2020, Black business ownership dropped by more than 40%, the largest drop of any racial or ethnic group, according to a report from the House committee on small business. Continue reading...

How did this ‘grassroots’ rebellion paralyse the Canadian capital? With funding from the far right and a boost from Facebook misinformationWhat the truck is going on in Canada? No offence to Ottawa, but it’s not the most exciting place in the world. Over the past couple of weeks, however, the Canadian capital has been embroiled in drama: hundreds of truckers, ostensibly protesting against vaccine mandates, have brought the city to a standstill. Members of the so-called “Freedom Truck Convoy” have been blaring horns, desecrating war memorials and setting off fireworks. Residents are being driven to distraction. The police chief has called the situation a “siege”; the Ontario premier called it “an occupation”. On Monday, the city’s mayor, Jim Watson, declared a state of emergency.There’s a lot going on in the world right now. If you’re not Canadian, then the protest in Ottawa might not be top of your list of things to worry about. But I’m afraid you should be worried. You should certainly be paying attention. What’s unfolding in Ottawa is not a grassroots protest that has spontaneously erupted out of the frustration of local lorry drivers. Rather, it’s an astroturfed movement – one that creates an impression of widespread grassroots support where little exists – funded by a global network of highly organised far-right groups and amplified by Facebook’s misinformation machine. The drama may be centred in Canada, but what is unfolding has repercussions for us all. Continue reading...

Bipartisan commission makes 76 recommendations to confront crisis that has caused 1m overdose deaths since 1999The US urgently needs a smarter, multi-pronged strategy and cabinet-level leadership to tackle an escalating overdose epidemic which poses an unacceptable threat to national security and the economy, a bipartisan congressional commission has found.The long-awaited report by the Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking calls for a major shift in policy to combat rising fatal overdoses, with much greater focus on reducing demand through public health measures. Continue reading...

I helped get the law changed in 2019 but at great personal cost. But there is still so much work to be doneI remember the first violent message I received on Instagram. It was a veritable bingo of hate: he mocked me, told me no one would want to look at my “dirty” crotch – though his language was worse, of course. He asked if “sluts” like me, moaning until they “get what they want”, was “what our country was coming to”, before reminding me that nothing was going to change. He finished by saying he hoped I was gang-raped “senseless” by 20 men. But, he didn’t use the word “men”. He used a racist slur instead, finishing the message with five middle-finger emojis. I remember how my chest tightened and I grew hot with fear.That day had marked my first appearance on a big, mainstream television channel. I was three months into a campaign I’d launched to raise awareness about non-consensual upskirt photographs, something that I’d fallen victim to that summer at a music festival. While I waited patiently for a band to come on stage, a man had stuck his hands between my legs, up my skirt and taken photos of my crotch, sharing it with his friends around him. I heard laughter and sensed that they were looking at me. One of the guys was standing in front of me, head down, laughing at something on his phone. I looked around his back and saw he was on WhatsApp, looking at a picture of my crotch. I was standing in the middle of a crowd of tens of thousands, but somehow I managed to snatch the phone from his hands and run through the throngs of people to security.Gina Martin is a campaigner and writer. She will be part of a Guardian Live panel event to discuss tackling the online abuse of women on Wednesday 9 February, 8pm GMT. Book tickets here Continue reading...

Eric Adams admits to lapses in his veganism as he launches campaign to get New Yorkers to eat a more plant-based dietThe new mayor of New York City has caused a mix of amusement and serious consternation by comparing cheese to heroin.“Food is like a drug,” Eric Adams said. “And in fact, the studies show the same level of brain that encourages you to use drugs also addicts you to food. Continue reading...

White House had earlier indicated Lander could keep his job after he was found to have mistreated staffJoe Biden’s top science adviser, Eric Lander, resigned on Monday, hours after the White House confirmed an internal investigation found credible evidence he mistreated his staff. It was the first cabinet-level departure of the Biden administration.An internal review prompted by a workplace complaint found evidence Lander, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and science adviser to Biden, bullied staffers and treated them disrespectfully. Continue reading...

Senator says he has texted with ‘terrific’ Ronna McDaniel, RNC chair who oversaw censure of Cheney and KinzingerMitt Romney and his niece, Ronna McDaniel, exchanged texts after the Republican National Committee she chairs called Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn his election defeat and the Capitol riot “legitimate political discourse”.Romney, the Utah senator, 2012 presidential nominee and only Republican to twice vote to convict Trump at his impeachment trials, told reporters on Monday he “expressed his point of view”. Continue reading...

French president says both sides need to work quickly to avoid escalation after five-hour session at the Kremlin. Plus, Will Arnett on his weird period

The lineup’s too big to fail, and like the league’s efforts to address its race and gender problems, this too appears to be a no-win proposition“I would’ve never thought that this moment would be happening right now,” Dr Dre said in an October interview heralding his headlining slot in this year’s Super Bowl halftime show. “Everybody’s gonna leave here happy and excited about what we’re about to do.”On paper the 55-year-old Dre (real name: Andre Romelle Young) seems a perfect fit for this showcase – not just a famous Angeleno of the City of Compton but arguably the most influential maker of modern Black music besides Quincy Jones and Kanye West. Continue reading...

Protesters targeting Keir Starmer yesterday cited foul slurs hurled by the PM. It is clearer than ever that Johnson is unfit for officeWords matter. They are all you have as a politician. They are your only weapon. We wage war and we broker peace with words. We inflame or we calm. That is why it is so important to deploy them carefully and responsibly.Unfortunately, a cynic knows how to cast aspersions, make an insinuation and whisper sweet nastiness in the public ear – preferably without anyone noticing. But it’s a dangerous business. The poison you pour in the well may be intended for your enemy, but it can all too easily poison your friends and all around you too. Continue reading...

Dean Spanos made a mistake uprooting his team from San Diego, where he had a chance to make the Bolts a truly international franchiseAmid the sound and fury of the Brian Flores lawsuit, you may have forgotten that the Super Bowl kicks off on Sunday at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium. As challenging as it is to pick a winner between the Cincinnati Bengals and the hometown Rams – barely a field-goal favourite, by Vegas’ reckoning—one team has already lost: the Chargers.You remember the Chargers. They’re the other NFL team that calls Los Angeles home, the one with the cute yellow lightning bolt on the sides of their helmets. Of course for 55 years they were the San Diego Chargers, the pro sports standard bearer for a sleepy SoCal idyll famous for sun and fun (they actually started life in LA before heading south in 1961 after a single season). In San Diego, they were one of the league’s heritage teams, in that group of pioneering AFL franchises with the Raiders and the Chiefs. Among other things, the Chargers were the team where Al Davis got started in pro football and where the vertical passing game was laboratory tested and perfected. They played at Jack Murphy Stadium, an architectural marvel that played host to three Super Bowls and two World Series – handling one of each in 1998. Continue reading...

The man had bought police paraphernalia including handcuffs, badges, and an AR-15 style BB gunAt around midnight one night last week, Sgt Matthew Jacobsen of the Portland police bureau in Oregon saw a man and a woman standing next to a silver Dodge Charger on a street corner.The trunk was open and Jacobsen said he saw a tactical vest with “DEA POLICE” written across it. The sergeant also saw red and blue police lights on the rear license plate and in the front exterior on the headliner. Continue reading...

Arizona man was arrested after it was discovered he was stuffing real money into his pocket and replacing the bills with fake onesAn employee at a Home Depot in Arizona has scammed the company out of hundreds of thousands of dollars since 2018, by swapping out cash from the registers for fake $100 bills, according to a criminal complaint.Adrian Jean Pineda, who used to be in charge of counting the money in Home Depot registers in Tempe, allegedly siphoned $387,500 over four years through this scheme, the New York Times reported. Continue reading...

Joe Biden issues stark advice to Americans in Ukraine: ‘Leave’

Justices put on hold a lower court ruling that state must draw new congressional districts before the 2022 electionsAlabama does not have to redraw its congressional map for the 2022 elections, the US supreme court ruled on Monday, a win for Republicans that will leave in place a plan that has been described as a textbook example of discrimination against Black voters in the US.Monday’s supreme court ruling boosts the party’s chances to hold six of the state’s seven seats in the House of Representatives. Continue reading...

Robert Taylor won bonanza at Treasure Island casino on 8 January but walked away unaware because of slot-machine errorA tourist from Arizona won $229,000 on a Las Vegas slot machine but walked away unaware of his windfall, due to an error in the machine. It took nearly three weeks for gaming board agents to track him down and enrich him.On 8 January, Robert Taylor hit a jackpot on a slot machine at the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino on the Vegas strip. Continue reading...

Rights groups had warned systems using selfies to verify identity often misidentify Black and brown faces and increase theft risksThe United States’ Internal Revenue Service will no longer use third-party facial recognition technology on millions of Americans who use the agency’s website to pay taxes or access documents.The IRS said on Monday it would transition away from using the identity verification company ID.me in the coming weeks and develop a new authentication system that does not use facial recognition. The announcement comes hours after US lawmakers asked the IRS to “halt its plans” to use the technology. Continue reading...

Youngkin’s campaign named and posted photo of Ethan Lynne, 17, on Twitter after he criticized the RepublicanThe Virginia governor, Glenn Youngkin, was accused of creating “a culture of toxicity” in his first months in office, after campaign aides attacked a high-school student, naming and picturing the boy, for sharing a news story about the Republican official.On Saturday, Ethan Lynne, 17 and according to his Twitter biography a Democrat, posted an article which suggested Youngkin could be trying to stop work to highlight the history of enslaved people at the Virginia executive mansion. Continue reading...

Woman was walking on bridge when it started to move and a bystander tried to help her before she fell, police sayA bicyclist fell to her death when a drawbridge connecting Palm Beach to the Florida mainland began rising before she could reach the other side on Sunday. A bystander tried to pull her to safety but lost his grip, officials said.The woman was walking her bicycle toward West Palm Beach and was within 10ft of the barrier arms that halt traffic when the drawbridge started to move, police told news outlets. Continue reading...

Trump advisers said boxes of documents reclaimed by National Archives included mementos, gifts and letters from leaders

The US has ordered about 3,000 extra troops to bolster Nato’s eastern flank in Poland and Romania.

Taskforce sets recommendations ‘to promote my policy of support for worker power, worker organizing and collective bargaining’The Biden administration set out 70 recommendations to encourage union membership in the US on Monday, including making it easier for many federal employees to join unions and eliminating barriers for union organizers to talk with workers on federal property.The report, compiled by the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, reiterates Biden’s robust backing of unions. “At its core,” the report says, “it is our administration’s belief that unions benefit all of us.” Continue reading...

Reporter says 2008 Republican nominee mimed rolling dice and said ‘Fuck it’ before picking hard-right Trump precursorDeciding to pick the inexperienced and extreme Sarah Palin as his running mate – a choice many say facilitated the rise of Donald Trump, threatening US democracy itself – John McCain mimed rolling a pair of dice and said: “Fuck it. Let’s do it.”The pithy vignette is revealed in a new book, Insurgency: How Republicans Lost Their Party and Got Everything They Ever Wanted, by Jeremy W Peters, a New York Times reporter. It was reported by Axios. Continue reading...

We should very cautious about barring people from seeking office. But in the case of pro-insurrectionists, there is a very strong caseTo this day, only footsoldiers have paid a price for the riot at the Capitol last January 6th. Politicians who spurred them on, praised them afterwards, and now incite further hatred with hallucinatory talk of “political prisoners” have remained smugly immune.This could change in one case: Republican Congressman Madison Cawthorn, who was on the mall that fateful day, implored Trumpists to “fight,” and is now seeking re-election in North Carolina. His candidacy is being challenged on the basis of the 14th Amendment. Passed after the Civil War, it disqualifies from holding office anyone who has sworn allegiance to the Constitution and then engages in insurrection.Jan-Werner Mueller teaches at Princeton and is a Guardian US columnist. His most recent book is Democracy Rules Continue reading...

The battle over diversity among NFL coaches mirrors broader struggles for racial justice in the United StatesWhile former Miami Dolphin Coach Brian Flores’ lawsuits against the NFL dominate the news, his story is an old one that’s as American as football.The former coach’s allegations of league-wide racial discrimination and team interviews with minority candidates conducted in bad faith, sets the NFL’s nearly 20-year-old Rooney Rule – which was adopted in 2002 to address the virtual exclusion of minorities from leadership roles – in stark relief. The rule requires teams to interview minority candidates for coaching and other front-office jobs. However, in the nearly 20 years since the rule was conceived, the number of Black coaches increased from one in a single season to a high of eight in 2011, but today again stands at one.Pamela Newkirk is a professor of journalism at New York University and the author of Diversity Inc: The Failed Promise of a Billion-Dollar Business Continue reading...

Macron is optimistic ahead of meeting with Putin, despite the US saying Russia could invade ‘tomorrow’. Plus, meet the teens of the Banned Book Club

Cincinnati are on the way to their first Super Bowl in 33 years. Few fans give Mike Brown any credit for getting them thereAn elderly gentleman wearing a raincoat and a crumpled tan golf cap ambled across a makeshift stage at dusk on Sunday in Kansas City to accept a trophy that many fans of him have it.Twitter and Facebook did not exist the last time his Cincinnati Bengals won the AFC title and earned a trip to the Super Bowl, but 86-year-old Mike Brown has been a target for years, for running his football team on the cheap. Continue reading...

Coalition in New York City is organizing to demand better work conditions, including living wages, basic benefits and safe work environmentFor nearly three years, Kevin Zhou has worked as a delivery driver in New York City for DoorDash, UberEats, Grubhub and other food delivery apps, and often has to work 12 to 16 hour days just to make enough to make ends meet and support his family.“Sometimes in an order, you can make just $3 to $5 and it can take half an hour,” said Zhou. Continue reading...

Untreated disease, violence, exposure, overdoses and car strikes are all added hazards of living on the streetsThe number of Americans dying while homeless has surged dramatically in the past five years, an exclusive analysis by the Guardian in conjunction with an academic expert at the University of Washington has shown.An examination of 20 US urban areas found the number of deaths among people living without housing shot up by 77% in the five years ending in 2020. Continue reading...

Conservatives are pushing to ban books from school libraries. At a time of crisis, a group of Pennsylvania teenagers are fighting back“Napoleon’s use of the sheep was notable,” says Jordan Daughtry, 14. She’s clutching a copy of Animal Farm, and referring to the authoritarian Berkshire boar who seizes control of an English acreage, before bending his fellow animals to his will.The sheep, who represent the unwitting masses in George Orwell’s critique of Joseph Stalin’s totalitarian rule, are “ignorant buffoons”, Daughtry says.Kiara Daughtry, left, and Lena Cackley. Continue reading...

The former president faces 19 legal actions, from alleged financial improprieties to his role in the insurrection riotsFormer president Donald Trump is facing a total of 19 legal actions – about half of which allege improper conduct during his presidency.Most of the cases fall under three themes: financial wrongdoings that made him more money; his role in the January 6 2021 insurrection; and his alleged interference in the 2020 election. Trump has denied wrongdoing in most of these cases. He has filed motions to dismiss several of them and has filed countersuits in some cases. Continue reading...

Promising pardons for insurrectionists and calling for protests if indicted could help make a case for obstruction of justiceDonald Trump’s incendiary call at a Texas rally for his backers to ready massive protests against “radical, vicious, racist prosecutors” could constitute obstruction of justice or other crimes and backfire legally on Trump, say former federal prosecutors.Trump’s barbed attack was seen as carping against separate federal and state investigations into his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and his real estate empire. Continue reading...

Kyle Mullen, 24 from New Jersey, died in a hospital on Friday in California, while second sailor is in a hospital in stable conditionNavy officials on Sunday identified a Seal candidate who died after an intense training session known as Hell Week, and promised to investigate the episode that left a second sailor in hospital.Kyle Mullen, 24, of New Jersey, died in hospital in Coronado, California, on Friday night, the officials said, giving no cause of death. The other sailor is unidentified and remains in a naval hospital in San Diego in a stable condition. Continue reading...

Former chief of staff Marc Short joins several senior Republicans to defend the former vice-president in escalating feud with TrumpMike Pence’s former chief of staff Marc Short joined several senior Republicans in rallying to defend the former vice-president on Sunday in his escalating feud with Donald Trump over the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election.Some of Trump’s advisers on the 2020 election were like “snake oil salesmen”, Short said on Sunday. Continue reading...

Rescue comes after a boat believed to be used for human smuggling capsized with only one of 40 passengers survivingTen Cuban migrants in a sinking vessel were rescued off the Florida coast, according to the US Coast Guard.A Coast Guard boat spotted the vessel on Thursday about 40 miles (about 64km) off Key Largo, the Coast Guard said in a tweet. Continue reading...