Joe Biden has said there will be repercussions for border patrol agents over their harsh treatment of Haitian migrants at the southern US border between Texas and Mexico, calling it an embarrassment to the nation. Images of agents on horseback corralling migrants in Del Rio as thousands tried to enter the US drew international attention. The president said he bears ultimate responsibility for the situation

Death of actor known for The Wire and Lovecraft Country was ruled an accident

Mayorkas says 8,000 of 15,000 people have returned to Mexico while 5,000 are being processed by US officials

Fawn fire scorches more than 8.5 sq miles amid hot, dry and gusty conditions as smoke from forest raises air quality concernsA fresh wildfire in northern California spread rapidly on Thursday, burning homes and prompting evacuation orders in a rural community in Shasta county.Meanwhile, two big forest blazes in the heart of California’s giant sequoia country on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada continued to grow. Smoke from those fires raised air quality concerns for the southern end of the Central Valley and flowed over greater Los Angeles, darkening skies and causing mistaken reports of mountain fires. Continue reading...

Ana Navarro and Sunny Hostin were asked to leave the set and the vice-president’s interview was conducted remotelyKamala Harris’s planned in-person appearance on The View has been delayed after two of the show’s hosts tested positive for coronavirus.Moments before the vice-president was supposed to appear on Friday, it was announced that hosts Ana Navarro and Sunny Hostin had contracted Covid. Continue reading...

The United States took a 3-1 lead in front of eager home support but thankfully cries of ‘mashed potatoes’ stayed at homeNearly 50,000 mostly star-spangled spectators descended on Kohler on Friday morning, the quiet Wisconsin hamlet of 2,100 souls along the Sheboygan River that has become the focal point of the sporting world as the United States attempts to regain the Ryder Cup on home soil.The masses arrived as early as 3.30am, an hour and a half before the gates opened, nearly all of them angling for a coveted spot on the horseshoe-shaped grandstand encircling the first tee. The cascading strains of Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline and staccato chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” that would resound throughout the Straits Course all morning long briefly came to a hush when Sergio García led off the opening foursomes match. On a chilly morning, his tee shot landed against the edge of a bunker left of the fairway to kick off the latest in a string of 2020-branded sporting events to be staged in 2021. Continue reading...

Democrat says denying rights of Haitian people to claim asylum contradicts Biden’s promises to reverse ‘Trump’s cruelty’Julián Castro, the former US presidential candidate, has become the latest prominent Democrat to attack Joe Biden for his handling of the humanitarian crisis at the southern border, lamenting his use of a contested Trump-era policy and warning that the president’s “baffling” approach could tear the Democratic coalition apart.In an interview with the Guardian, Castro said he was disappointed that the US president had remained silent about images of border patrol agents on horseback corralling Haitian migrants in Del Rio, Texas. Continue reading...

Women’s Health and Protection Act is part of strategy to push back against rush of state laws but unlikely to advance in SenateHouse Democrats voted on Friday to establish a federal right to abortion, moving swiftly to advance the measure after the supreme court declined to stop a Texas law effectively outlawing the procedure and as they await a separate ruling next year that could further erode access.The legislation, named the Women’s Health and Protection Act, is part of the party’s strategy to push back against the rush of state laws restricting abortions and to show their determination to defend reproductive rights, an issue they believe will resonate ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. Joe Biden has urged support for the measure, but Republican opposition in the Senate all but ensures the bill will not reach his desk. Continue reading...

Trump ally learned of his expulsion on the eve of the 20th anniversary of 9/11, according to PoliticoRudy Giuliani has reportedly been banned from Fox News.Related: House committee on Capitol attack subpoenas Trump’s ex-chief of staff and other top aides Continue reading...

Shelley Ross says Cuomo greeted her at a 2005 party by wrapping her in a bear hug and grabbing her buttock in front of her husbandA former executive producer at ABC has accused CNN’s star anchor Chris Cuomo of sexual harassment in an opinion piece published Friday in the aftermath of his disgraced brother’s resignation as governor of New York.Writing in the New York Times, Shelley Ross says Cuomo greeted her at a 2005 party by wrapping her in a bear hug and grabbing her buttock in front of her husband. Continue reading...

The former president’s conspiracy theories have found a sympathetic audience on the internetNo one showed up, relatively speaking, to the rally in Washington DC last weekend, an event organised in support of the 6 January “martyrs”. Riot fences went up; the national guard was on standby. The gathering, styled “Justice for J6” by organisers, was intended, they said, to draw attention to the plight of those who, after storming the Capitol building earlier this year, had been arrested but “not been charged with violence, not been accused of assaulting a police officer or destroying property”. The idea of “peacefully” tailgating on a violent insurrection is a conceptual stretch, but in any case, only about 200 demonstrators turned up. They were easily outnumbered by journalists and police.These numbers might have been more reassuring had they not been accompanied online by support from the man widely blamed for inciting them. In a statement on his website, Donald Trump – who is still banned from Twitter – referred to the 6 January rioters as “being persecuted so unfairly” for protesting at “the Rigged Presidential Election”. (The page has since been removed.) It was one of a flurry of statements made last week by the former president, now entirely unrestrained by the dignities of office, and in frank support of the people who stormed the US Capitol. “The Big Lie is the Presidential Election 2020,” he went on, before pivoting to blame the “Fake News Media” for destroying “our Country, both inside and out”. Continue reading...

Hand count of the 2.1m ballots cast in Maricopa county found that Biden actually won 360 more votes than Trump than was reportedA partisan, Republican-instigated so-called “audit” of the 2020 election result in Arizona has confirmed that Joe Biden did indeed beat Donald Trump in Maricopa county, the state’s most populous county, according to a draft report of the review.A month-long hand count of the 2.1m ballots cast in Maricopa county, which includes Phoenix, found that Biden actually won 360 more votes than Trump than was reported in the November election. Biden won Arizona’s 11 electoral votes on his way to getting more votes nationally than any presidential candidate in history during the election. Continue reading...

Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury have had 14 fights between them in the last five years. Tyson had 15 knockouts in 1985By Steven Pye for That 1980s Sports BlogYou could almost hear the sigh from boxing fans when the proposed heavyweight title fight between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury was postponed again. The hope remains that Joshua and Fury will eventually get it on and unify the division. If both win their forthcoming fights – Joshua faces Oleksandr Usyk in London on Saturday night, with Fury taking on Wilder in Las Vegas next month – then surely all paths lead (sadly) to Saudi Arabia and a multi-million pound bout to unify the division.A lot has changed in boxing in the last generation. The coronavirus pandemic has played its part but, between them, Joshua and Fury have only fought 14 times in the last five years. Mike Tyson had 15 fights in his first year as a professional, in 1985, before fighting 13 times in 1986 and clinching his first heavyweight title. Tyson had won 30 fights by the time he could legally buy a drink in the US; Joshua is 31 years old and is preparing for his 26th professional fight. Continue reading...

CDC advisory panel had only recommended boosters for elderly and some people with underlying medical conditionsThe US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has broken with advice from its own internal advisory panel to back a booster shot of the Pfizer and BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for Americans aged 65 and older, adults with underlying medical conditions and adults in high-risk working and institutional settings.The move came on Friday one day after an advisory panel to the agency did not recommend that people in high-risk jobs, such as teachers, and risky living conditions should get boosters. The panel had only recommended boosters for elderly and some people with underlying medical conditions. Continue reading...

At its height, the Del Rio encampment harbored about 14,000 migrants – but even as traffic is dwindling, the situation has deteriorated“Welcome to Texas,” says a big, green sign near the Del Rio International Bridge.Related: Haitians reportedly being released in US likely include pregnant women and families Continue reading...

The devil will be in the details, but ending investments in overseas coal shows Beijing takes the climate crisis seriously

Who sold out? Who was knocked back? Who went away? Continue reading...

National parks are a victim of their own success. They have too many tourists – and too little fundingNational parks have been called America’s best idea, and for good reason. Unlike the castles and cathedrals of Europe, they belong to everyone. They are democracy writ large, where a people otherwise fiercely devoted to capitalism say: no, not here. Here the meadow does not become a mall. Here we safeguard the beauty and sanctity of nature. Not as a potted plant or a manicured garden, but as vast, wild, largely untrammeled nature. Our original home.Mountains, canyons, glaciers, forests, rivers, bison, bears, birds and more. National parks provoke and inspire us. They give us stories, educate us, change us. “For my life to matter, for me to do the work I’m meant to do in the world,” the wildlife biologist and author Mary Beth Baptiste writes in her park-inspired memoir Altitude Adjustment, “I have to spend my days in mountains and forests like these, among people committed to their flourishing. And all they ask in return is a simple renunciation of everything I’ve ever known to be true.” Continue reading...

Mark Meadows, Steve Bannon and Dan Scavino among advisers called to testify over Capitol attack. Plus: the right to clean airGood morning.The House select committee scrutinizing the Capitol attack has subpoenaed Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows along with three of the former president’s top aides. Continue reading...

The former running back’s US senate run seems like a flight of fancy but more frivolous candidates have achieved high officeTwo weekends ago, as the new college football season dawned, Herschel Walker rendezvoused with the Fox network at the Georgia-Clemson game to discuss his heel turn from gridiron great to Georgia Republican candidate for US Senate, hitting all the familiar notes. He played the victim, (“I have the left and even the right coming at me sometimes,” he said), moaned about not recognizing his country anymore (“I see so many things I disagree with”), and vowed, “I’m going to fight” before making a case for the return of Reggie Bush’s Heisman trophy. Most delicious of all: the receiver on the other end of these underhanded bromides was none other than Clay Travis – a foundational stick-to-sports moralist. In a world where political analysis apes sports commentary and rickety old jocks seem to never run out of bombastic opinions, one could hardly imagine a more worthy kickoff for a late-career pivot into public service than a college football pregame show.To be sure the American political arena has seen its share of ex-football standouts before. Steve Largent (the hall of fame Seahawks receiver turned US representative), Alan Page (the Purple People Eater turned Minnesota supreme court associate justice) and Gerald Ford (the University of Michigan star turned president) are three of many who have straddled both worlds. The desire to see the 59-year-old Walker run dates to the early-80s, when delirious Georgia football fans waved signs that read: Walker for President. Continue reading...

Documents filed by ex-police officer raise issues about prosecution he believes supports appeal requestThe former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has filed an intent to appeal with the Minnesota state appellate court over his murder conviction for the death of George Floyd.A jury found Chauvin, who is white, guilty in April of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Floyd, a black man. The verdict was seen widely as a landmark rebuke of the disproportionate use of force by the police against black Americans. Continue reading...

The state has the highest rate of Covid in America, leaving hospitals overwhelmed and health workers burned outHealth systems in Alaska are at a breaking point, and the Republican governor, Mike Dunleavy, has activated crisis standards of care for the entire state, joining all of Idaho and part of Montana in rationing medical care.Alaska now has the highest rate of Covid in America. On Wednesday the state hit its record number of cases and hospitalizations in the entire pandemic, and the numbers continue rising as its rolling seven-day average of daily cases tops 800. Continue reading...

Gabby Petito’s case highlights the power of media attention but for Indigenous communities it also emphasizes the lack of attention given to missing and murdered Native peopleThe case of missing 22-year-old Gabby Petito came to a tragic conclusion this week when the FBI reported her body had been found in a US national park in Wyoming. And just as they had been during the frantic search for the young woman, news organizations and social media platforms across the US were buzzing with the terrible update.The saga highlighted the incredible power of media attention to showcase a missing person’s case and help it reach some type of timely resolution, no matter how dire, though the search for Petito’s killer continues. But for many in the Indigenous community, it also further emphasized the lack of attention and resources too often given to the scores of missing and murdered Native people in Wyoming and the rest of the country. Continue reading...

An arrest warrant shows unauthorized charges worth more than $1,000 were made during the time his girlfriend was missingThe boyfriend of Gabby Petito has been charged on Thursday with unauthorized use of a debit card as the search for him continued in a Florida swampland.An arrest warrant has been issued for Brian Laundrie, who was indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday for allegedly using a Capital One Bank card and someone’s personal identification number to make unauthorized withdrawals or charges worth more than $1,000 during the period in which Petito went missing. The indictment does not say who the card belonged to and the nature of the charges have not been disclosed. Continue reading...

A package of bills targeting app-based companies such as Grubhub and Doordash will also set minimum payNew York City lawmakers have passed a historic package of bills to improve labor conditions for gig economy and food delivery workers.The first of its kind legislation, which targets app-based delivery companies such as Grubhub, Uber Eats, and Doordash, will set minimum pay, allow workers to keep more of their tips, and limit how far workers can be asked to travel for deliveries. It will also guarantee workers access to bathrooms – an issue that has long plagued people in the gig economy and has been exacerbated by Covid-19 restrictions. Continue reading...

Charlie Appleby could target the Breeders’ Cup with Modern Games after the colt’s success at NewmarketCharlie Appleby sent out four Grade One winners in North America in the space of two days last weekend and could target another with Modern Games after the colt’s comfortable success in the Group Three Tattersalls Stakes at Newmarket on Thursday.Modern Games made all the running to beat Trident, the even-money favourite, two-and-a-half lengths with Harrow a length and a quarter further back in third. Continue reading...

Mark Meadows, Steve Bannon and Dan Scavino among advisers called to testify over president’s connection to 6 January eventsThe House select committee scrutinizing the Capitol attack on Thursday sent subpoenas to Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and a cadre of top Trump aides, demanding their testimony to shed light on the former president’s connection to the 6 January riot.The subpoenas and demands for depositions marked the most aggressive investigative actions the select committee has taken since it made records demands and records preservation requests that formed the groundwork of the inquiry into potential White House involvement. Continue reading...

The building is reputed – by real estate agents – to be haunted by the presence of Bathsheba Sherman, who lived there in the 1800sA purportedly haunted Rhode Island farmhouse where the spooky happenings that inspired the 2013 horror movie The Conjuring occurred hit the market on Thursday for the scary price of $1.2m.Related: The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It review – slick threequel magics up scares Continue reading...

Advocacy groups hail ‘huge victory’ as state becomes first in US to gather data on disproportionate harmCalifornia will become the first state in the US to track the violent deaths of LGBTQ+ people, a move that advocacy groups are hailing as a “huge victory” and a critical tool in understanding disproportionate rates of violence against the LGBTQ+ community.Governor Gavin Newsom, fresh off his victory in the recent recall election, signed a bill into law that will establish a three-year pilot program in as many as six counties to collect information about gender identity and sexual orientation in cases of violent deaths, which include suicides and homicides. Continue reading...

Europe captain Pádraig Harrington sends out Rahm and García first and insists his 12 players can triumph in hostile terrainWe have not yet reached the point where the American public has grown tired of the Ryder Cup and its unsatisfactory outcomes. Europe have prevailed in four out of the last five stagings of this event, which marks a blow to the confidence of an expectant sporting nation.Related: Brooks Koepka fires back at media over his US Ryder Cup team commitment Continue reading...

Daniel Foote excoriates Washington in letter addressed to Antony Blinken for deporting hundreds from a border campThe US envoy to Haiti has resigned after just two months in the role, in protest at what he called the Biden administration’s “inhumane” mass deportation of Haitian migrants and asylum seekers to what he said was a highly dangerous “collapsed state”.Daniel Foote’s angry resignation letter is a serious blow for an administration which came to office promising a more humane approach to immigration in the wake of Donald Trump’s policy of child separation. The state departmentsaid he had given a misleading account of his resignation. A senior official said that Foote had advocated sending in US troops to impose order, and that had been rejected. Continue reading...

Gavin Newsom signed two new laws to protect privacy of women who seek abortionsThe California governor signed two laws that aim to protect the privacy of abortion providers and their patients, declaring the state to be a “reproductive freedom state” and drawing a sharp contrast with Texas and its efforts to limit the procedure.One law makes it a crime to film people within 100 feet (30 meters) of an abortion clinic for the purpose of intimidation, a law abortion rights groups believe to be the first of its kind in the country. The other law makes it easier for people on their parents’ insurance plans to keep sensitive medical information secret, including abortions. Continue reading...

Alistair Wood says today’s crises are caused by the UK selling off its most valuable assets, while Gary Nethercott asks what happened to Tory ‘market solutions’Reading your report, I find myself becoming ever more despondent at the inability of the UK to influence – let alone control – its own future (Why is the UK bailing out US CO2 supplier CF Fertilisers?, 22 September).Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and other government incompetents bang on about “global Britain”, but this phrase is both meaningless and misleading. The reality is that the various current crises are caused by Britain selling its most valuable assets to the rest of the world: CF Fertilisers is American, four of the big six energy companies are foreign-owned and GlaxoSmithKline is under pressure because its main shareholder is a US investment management company. The list of foreign ownership is a long one that includes much of our manufacturing, energy and retail base. Continue reading...

US-based XPO Logistics has boomed during the pandemic but its reorganisation is causing concernThe pandemic has been a boon to XPO Logistics, the transport giant that delivers the goods for a global companies including retailers from Asos and Walmart. It reported record revenues of $5bn (£3.6bn) last quarter as it helped to ship everything from washing machines to frozen fruit around the world.To make the most of the boom, the US-based multinational has just completed the process of dividing itself in two, with the warehouse and e-commerce arm becoming a separately listed corporation called GXO Logistics. But the road ahead does not look trouble-free. Union leaders in the UK and US are sounding the alarm, pointing to the “dark legacy” of a corporate culture they fear will taint the reorganised businesses. Continue reading...

The US have one of the strongest teams ever seen but the course layout offers home comforts for Europe’s underdogsEnglish businessman and golf promoter Samuel Ryder devised the biennial matchplay contest in 1927. Originally played between Great Britain and the United States, players from continental Europe joined Irish golfers, who had always competed in the event, in 1979. Since that date Europe have won 11 of the 20 matches played, the US eight with one tied. Continue reading...

Flight attendants report having to endure racial epithets, kicking, biting and spitting from passengers in recent monthsAirline employees in the US have been facing a surge of harassment and violence in recent months, including many related to conflicts over mask-wearing mandates.In a hearing on Capitol Hill on Thursday, airline employees and aviation experts laid out the scope of the problem. Continue reading...

Coast has already heated up by 2C over the past century, thanks in part to warming Atlantic OceanThe coastal US north-east is one of the fastest warming areas in the northern hemisphere, having heated up rapidly by 2C (3.6F) already over the past century due in part to the soaring temperature of the nearby Atlantic Ocean, new research has found.The coastline that stretches from Maine down to Delaware hosts urban areas such as New York City and Boston and draws millions of tourists each year to beaches and other attractions. But the region is rapidly changing due to the climate crisis, having heated up by 2C on average since the start of the 20th century, driven largely by much warmer summers. Continue reading...

Harris county elections administrator says the restrictive voting bill is based on ‘bias and misleading reports’Happy Thursday, Continue reading...

Haitian people have been freed on a ‘very, very large scale’ in recent days rather than deported, according to US officials

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback’s accomplishments are legendary. And he somehow seems to be getting better as he agesThis is not how quarterbacks are supposed to age. Frankly, this isn’t how human beings are supposed to age. Tom Brady, at 44-years old, in his 22nd year in the NFL, is better now than he was five years ago. In fact, he’s better now than he was fifteen years ago.There is more zip on Brady’s fastball, and he’s more accurate down the field. In Tampa Bay, he’s playing with precision that had faded during his final years with the New England Patriots. Continue reading...

Once every two years this individual sport becomes a team game and there is nothing quite like it, for players or spectatorsThe German commentary of Martin Kaymer’s birdie putt on the 18th at Medinah – the one that goes six feet past – is wonderfully understated. “Ayeee.” Not whispered. Not yelled. Just spoken, encapsulating how so many of us felt as that ball kept on rolling. And then silence. And then the agonising wait for Steve Stricker to line up his par putt, line it up again and knock it in the hole.Had this entire comeback been for nothing? And why do I still get butterflies as Kaymer then stands over the ball for a par putt to retain the Ryder Cup? The camera cuts to Sergio García and Graeme McDowell trying to not let the panic show. Captain José María Olazábal is half way down the fairway on the verge of tears. Continue reading...

As the UN food systems summit takes place on Thursday, governments can do much more, writes Michael Fakhri, UN special rapporteur on the right to food

The Biden administration has condemned abuses at the border – while maintaining the policies underlying these abuses. That’s beyond cynicalYou’ve probably seen a photograph haunting the internet this week: a white-presenting man on horseback – uniformed, armed and sneering – is grabbing a shoeless Black man by the neck of his T-shirt. The Black man’s face bears an unmistakable look of horror. He struggles to remain upright while clinging dearly to some bags of food in his hands. Between the men, a long rein from the horse’s bridle arches menacingly in the air like a whip. The photograph was taken just a few days ago in Texas, but the tableau looks like something out of antebellum America.The image is profoundly upsetting, not just for what it portrays but for the history it evokes. What’s happening at the border right now puts two of our founding national myths – that we’re a land of liberty and a nation of immigrants – under scrutiny. To put it plainly, we don’t fare well under inspection. Continue reading...

From 19th-century colonists to today’s super wealthy, New Zealand has been wrongly depicted as a ‘blank slate’New Zealand has become the prime destination for the world’s wealthy elite. Their relocation could be to do with the country’s famous scenery and quality of life but it could also be that the pandemic has renewed people’s interest in New Zealand as supposedly the best place in the world to survive global societal collapse.It’s true, as a recent study observes, that New Zealand is a set of isolated islands with renewable energy resources and a temperate climate. However, there is also a long history, intertwined with the country’s colonisation, of New Zealand being seen as a blank slate or empty land, open for the taking. That false image served to justify colonial settlement in the past. It’s now being used again to prepare the ground for further settlement by the super-wealthy. Continue reading...