US news | The Guardian

As the Delta variant of coronavirus surges among unvaccinated communities, complex reasons lie behind the slowdown of some vaccination rates

The UK government has decided to let the virus spread among young people. Paediatricians are split over how much harm it will causeFew issues seem to provoke such a range of opinions among experts as Covid-19 and children. When the WHO-China Joint Mission first reported on the virus in February 2020, one of the nuggets of good news was that children seemed to be relatively unaffected by it. This was surprising; like other acute respiratory infections, coronaviruses usually spread among and infect younger children. China’s strong suppression of the virus meant cases remained extremely low, preventing the virus spreading into other age groups. At the time, Covid appeared to be a disease of elderly and overweight people and those with underlying health conditions.One year into the pandemic, richer countries embarked on a mass vaccination programme to protect not only older age groups but entire adult populations. The success of vaccines in weakening the link between hospitalisations and deaths is clear (although the link is not completely broken). With vaccinated adults now largely protected from the severe consequences of Covid-19, the questions for children have changed. In the UK, there has been a surge of infections among children and adolescents. These will only increase when the school year starts again in the autumn. Continue reading...

The differing treatment of a black female athlete and a white male in the run-up to the Olympics show the double standards that permeate sportIn seemingly less time than Sha’Carri Richardson’s world-stopping, 100m triumph at the US trials, the matter of her Olympic-disqualifying suspension for a positive marijuana test has transformed routine sports talk fodder into a full-blown ethical debate for a divided nation.In her defense marijuana is legal in a host of states across America, including Oregon, where Richardson went full That Girl while stamping her ticket to Tokyo. But on the flip side this is still America, the puritanical-feigning, War on Drugs-waging nation that’s been championing for marijuana’s inclusion on Wada’s banned substance list ever since Cheech & Chong started lampooning weed as the palliative of choice for the chronically lazy. Continue reading...

The Australian drew first blood but there is plenty more water to be covered in the box office Olympic series with her US rivalAfter losing to Australia’s Ariarne Titmus in the women’s 400m freestyle, American Katie Ledecky departed the press conference tent at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre with a message: “See you in a few hours.” The five-time Olympic gold medallist was speaking to the gathered media, but she might as well have been talking to Titmus. This isn’t over yet.The Ledecky v Titmus rivalry will define the Olympic swim meet. Only “rivalry” is not quite the right word. Over the past two years, ever since Titmus beat Ledecky at the 2019 world championships and the American failed to shake her opponent’s hand, the duel between them has been given much oxygen. In the pool, it is certainly box office – one of the best swimmers in history, the reigning queen of the pool, and a young prodigy eager to take the crown. Continue reading...

Across the US, in Republican-controlled states Democrats are being forced to get creative to oppose a conservative agendaWhen a group of Texas Democratic legislators fled their state this month to prevent Republicans from enacting controversial voting restrictions, the incident became somewhat of a Rorschach test for lawmakers in Washington.Related: Can Pelosi’s power play on Capitol attack panel thwart wrecking tactics? Continue reading...

Hillbilly Elegy author singles out Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Cory Booker and AOC as he praises far-right president of HungaryThe author turned Ohio Senate candidate JD Vance has blamed America’s woes on “the childless left”, singling out Vice-President Kamala Harris, transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, Senator Cory Booker and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for their own share of the blame.Related: ‘You are the worst human being’: man confronts Fox News host Tucker Carlson Continue reading...

California’s biggest fire destroys multiple homes while other blazes batter the American westAs California’s biggest wildfire destroyed multiple homes, flames racing through rugged terrain, and as numerous other blazes battered the American west, the governor of Oregon said the climate crisis was “like a hammer hitting us in the head”.Related: ‘Smoke shading’ from other fires helps fight against Oregon Bootleg blaze Continue reading...

Man pleads guilty to conspiracy after British caller sent heavily armed police to the house of Mark Herring, 60A 60-year-old man in Tennessee had a heart attack and died after being “Swatted” over control of a Twitter handle.Related: The terror of swatting: how the law is tracking down high-tech prank callers Continue reading...

Democrat Katie Hobbs says ‘this is nothing more than being a sore loser’ before ex-president repeats debunked fraud claims

Impatient customers tired of waiting for service are taking out their frustrations on the workers. That’s where owners can helpWe’ve been reading about the airline industry’s troubles with unruly passengers. Most of these problems are due to frustrations with wearing masks. But unfortunately, it’s not just the airlines that are experiencing rude customers. Small businesses around the country are also having this problem, and it has nothing to do with masks.Related: Most small business owners are middle-aged, not ‘cool kids’ the media loves Continue reading...

The retirement of big stars have some speculating whether the American era is over. But Katie Ledecky and Caeleb Dressel are still powerhousesSuccess at Olympic trials is an invitation to look ahead, but the new star of American men’s swimming sounded nostalgic when he confirmed his trip to Tokyo.Caeleb Dressel may well win gold in three individual events in Japan, but he reflected on what the US team has lost as well as what the coming days may bring. Continue reading...

It was by focusing on his silenced victims, says the dogged Miami Herald reporter, that she was able to help bring the billionaire sex offender to justice after police and prosecutors had failedThe town of Palm Beach in Florida, the crime writer Carl Hiaasen has observed, “is one of the few places left in America where you can still drive around in a Rolls-Royce convertible and not get laughed at.” It’s an unironic island, filled with the super-rich and famous, plastic surgeons and, of course, the former US president, Donald Trump, who holds court at his ostentatious Mar-a-Lago resort.A satellite of Miami, the island prides itself on its many flamboyant charity balls, but no amount of good-cause fundraising can remove the whiff of corruption that hangs heavy in the subtropical air. If money talks in most places, in Palm Beach it speaks with a confident authority that’s seldom questioned. Never has that understanding been more egregiously demonstrated than in the case of the inscrutable financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Continue reading...

State accounts for almost a quarter of new US infections as frustration grows at what experts say is governor’s mixed messagingThe week began with Florida’s high-flying governor, Ron DeSantis, in Texas, bashing Joe Biden over immigration at the southern border. But with the highly contagious Delta variant pushing new cases of Covid-19 in his home state to their highest level since January, DeSantis’s road trip was looking increasingly deaf in tone and timing.By week’s end, Florida was accounting for almost a quarter of new infections nationally, with the US surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, warning of an “alarming” rise in deaths and hospitalizations. Continue reading...

Multibillion-dollar settlements specifically exclude admission of wrongdoing over a crisis that has claimed 600,000 livesThere is growing anger among families bereaved by the US opioid epidemic at pharmaceutical companies “buying their way out of accountability” with multibillion-dollar settlements that specifically exclude any admission of wrongdoing.Related: Enough fentanyl to kill San Francisco: the new wave of the opioid crisis sweeping California Continue reading...

US president is being much tougher than expected on Beijing, but a lack of solidarity will undermine his policy’s successIt’s generally accepted in Washington that once-buoyant hopes for the emergence of a free, democratic China, initially sparked by Richard Nixon’s groundbreaking 1972 visit, have sunk without trace. President Xi Jinping’s regime is now described as a “systemic rival”, “strategic competitor” or outright “threat”. The EU, Nato, the UK, and regional allies broadly agree: the era of engagement is over.What’s lacking is agreement over what comes next. The hole where common policy and joint action should be gapes ever more dangerously amid almost daily collisions on multiple fronts with Xi’s aggressive, authoritarian one-party state. If it’s not about human rights abuses, cyberhacking, or trade, it’s Taiwan, visas, spying, maritime disputes, the Indian border, or alleged hostage-taking. Continue reading...

Both parties are beholden to an anti-democratic coalition. This is stopping real changeYou’d think Biden and the Democratic party leadership would do everything in their power to stop Republicans from undermining democracy.Related: Why are Frito-Lays workers working suicide shifts on the job? | Indigo Olivier Continue reading...

Nate Mercereau, a guitarist and songwriter, released four instrumental duets that feature the bridge’s dinFor more than a year, the Golden Gate Bridge has been making an ethereal humming sound on windy days that has aggravated neighbors, charmed fans and sparked countless jokes.Now the strange noise, which has been described as akin to both a wheezing kazoo and a ghostly chant, has inspired its own album. Continue reading...

William Darby, who was convicted of shooting dead a suicidal man in May, has now resigned from Huntsville policeAn Alabama police officer who remained on his city’s payroll for two months after being convicted of murder has resigned from the Huntsville police department.Officer William Darby left of his own accord, the city told WAAY-TV on Friday. He had been on paid leave since his 7 May conviction for shooting a suicidal man who was holding a gun to his own head. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson’s alleged comparison was inappropriate, mixes different averages and ignores rising life expectancy as we ageAccording to the BBC, on 15 October, the prime minister allegedly sent a WhatsApp message: “I must say I have been rocked by some of the data on Covid fatalities. The median age is 82 – 81 for men, 85 for women. That is above life expectancy. So get Covid and live longer.” Presumably, this was a joke, but why is the reasoning so wrong?First, more technically, the message confuses two types of averages. As children learn at school, the median means that if you lined up the women according to the age they had died of Covid-19, the woman in the middle would be 85. But life expectancy is a mean-average – you work out how long, say, 100,000 newborns are likely to live assuming that current mortality rates continue, add them up and divide by 100,000. Using data from the UK for 2017-19, life expectancy at birth is 79 for men and 83 for women, but the median age at death is slightly higher: 81 for men and 85 for women, the same as that quoted for Covid-19. Continue reading...

Richard Jessee, who was searching for gold, said: ‘There was no doubt about it: the bear was trying to get into my cabin’An Alaska gold prospector rescued from a sustained attack by a grizzly bear some compared to a famous scene in the movie The Revenant told a local newspaper: “The bear came out of nowhere.“It rolled my bike and the trailer over like it was a toy car. I was in shock and hypothermic.” Continue reading...

As the variant tears its way through the US and vaccination rates plateau in the state, hospitals are experiencing a new wave of casesNurse Matt Robinson braced himself before pushing the heavy doors to the recently reopened Covid-19 ward at Methodist University hospital in downtown Memphis, Tennessee.This hadn’t been in the script. After over a year of continuous work with Covid-19 patients throughout the pandemic, the burnout brought on by constant exposure to death and trauma, Robinson had hoped his job might return to normal. Continue reading...

Republicans sense an opportunity to inflict a political wound upon the DemocratsJoe Biden and his fellow Democrats have been eager to celebrate America’s economic rebound as pandemic-related restrictions are relaxed and more businesses reopen. But there has been one sore spot in recent economic reports that Democrats have been less enthusiastic about: inflation.Related: Republican governor says ‘time to start blaming unvaccinated’ for rise in cases Continue reading...

Head of Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee must answer charge of acting as unregistered foreign agent in New York court on MondayTom Barrack, a longtime ally of Donald Trump who chaired the former president’s inaugural committee, posted $250m bail with a $5m cash security and was released from custody in California on Friday.Related: ‘It’s chilling what is happening’: a rightwing backlash to Biden takes root in Republican states Continue reading...

Tribute was vandalized in Brooklyn but volunteers painstakingly made good the damage before transfer to New York’s Union SquareA statue of George Floyd that was defaced in Brooklyn has been cleaned – painstakingly, with toothbrushes – and is headed for display in Union Square in Manhattan.Related: George Floyd memorials vandalised in New York and New Jersey Continue reading...

The reality star’s run seems completely depressing – especially as she’s aligned with a party that wants to erode LGBTQ rightsLooks like Caitlyn Jenner needs to drum up some cash quick. When it comes to her finances, the reality TV star is no longer Keeping Up With the Kardashians – she’s trailing miserably behind her famously flush extended family. According to her tax filings the 71-year-old’s annual income has dropped from $2.5m in 2015, when she had her own reality TV show, to $555,000 in 2018 and 2019. Barely enough to pay the pool boy! Continue reading...

Some skating purists may see the Olympics as the antithesis of their values. But the sport has been awash with corporate money for decadesHe has hosted Justin Bieber at his private skate park and guest-starred opposite Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in the TV show Ballers. Now, Nyjah Huston is aiming to become an Olympic champion as skateboarding makes its debut in Tokyo.Medals are on offer in two disciplines at the Ariake Urban Sports Park. In street, competitors skate on outdoor furniture and obstacles such as handrails, benches and stairs. Park features lofty tricks in steep-sided bowls. Continue reading...

David Chipman’s nomination to lead the ATF could be in trouble – which would be a serious blow to gun control advocatesThe nomination of David Chipman to lead the principal agency that enforces federal gun laws is stalling as Republicans and the National Rifle Association (NRA) seek a major symbolic victory on the ever contentious issue of gun rights.This week Merrick Garland, the attorney general, urged the US Senate to confirm Joe Biden’s pick to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) where he will play a crucial role in the struggle against gun violence. Continue reading...

The alert I get when an opponent has made their move gives me the shot of excitement I used to get from social media notificationsLord help me, I am in the whirlwind throes of the beautiful game. Online chess. The ancient pastime enjoyed a boom late last year. And I got caught squarely in its blast. Chess.com, the internet’s leading chess platform, saw an eruption in activity, triggered by lockdown idleness and (my own personal inciting event) Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit, which landed in October 2020, and showed the world that chess is actually really cool. As long as you ignore the actual chess and focus instead on the narcotic-fuelled psychodrama of a very beautiful woman and put the kid from Love Actually in a cowboy hat, for some reason.But there was enough actual chess in the show to reawaken my old love for the game. I’d played a lot as a child, as you can probably tell from my face. I played in the school club and entered competitions. I collected sets, including a Simpsons one and a Lord Of The Rings one, allowing me to play the pieces from one board against those of the other. No, I didn’t go out much as a kid. But how could I when I was busy battling the dark forces of Sauron with an army of Barts? Continue reading...

Iconic American gymnast is reaching her peak while becoming a voice for change and Tokyo 2020 may not be her last GamesSimone Biles was widely hailed as the best gymnast in history before she had even competed on the sport’s biggest stage. Born three months short of the age cut-off for the London Games, she had already piled up three straight all-around titles and 14 overall medals at world championships, including 10 golds, when she touched down in Brazil five years ago for her Olympic debut.Somehow, the 4ft 8in, 105lb sprite from suburban Houston managed to realise the impossible expectations that preceded her, fulfilling her long-held promise with four gold medals in seven unforgettable days at the Arena Olímpica do Rio. Already a superstar in the parochial world of gymnastics, Biles became a household name overnight. Continue reading...

Firefighters have officially ended their efforts following one of the nation’s deadliest engineering failuresFirefighters have declared the end of their search for bodies at the site of a collapsed Florida condo building, concluding a month of painstaking work removing layers of dangerous debris that were once piled several stories high.The collapse on 24 June at the oceanside Champlain Towers South killed 97 people, with at least one more missing person yet to be identified. The site has been mostly swept flat and the rubble moved to a Miami warehouse. Although forensic scientists are still at work, including examining the debris at the warehouse, there are no more bodies to be found where the building once stood. Continue reading...

Police in Suffolk county have used a helicopter and night-vision equipment – but have yet to find the 1,500lb animalAn escaped bull has eluded capture for several days on Long Island despite searchers employing a helicopter and night-vision equipment along with attempts to lure the roaming animal with grain and a cow.Related: Win for Angelina Jolie as court disqualifies judge in Brad Pitt divorce case Continue reading...