Thirty laws limit mail and early voting, impose tougher voter ID laws and risk faulty purges, says Brennan Center analysisAt least 18 US states have enacted more than two dozen laws this year that restrict voting access, according to a new report from the Brennan Center for Justice.The report found that the 30 laws that have been passed since 1 January “make mail voting and early voting more difficult, impose harsher voter ID requirements, and make faulty voter [roll] purges more likely, among other things”. Continue reading...
Sculpture of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a slave trader and Confederate general, placed in state museumThe bust of a Ku Klux Klan leader, Confederate general and slave trader has been removed from Tennessee’s state capitol after more than four decades on display.The removal of the statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest on Friday came after the state building commission approved its relocation to the Tennessee State Museum on Thursday in a 5-2 vote. Continue reading...
by Vincent Ni, China affairs correspondent on (#5MH7E)
The ‘counter-sanctions’ are in response to Washington’s actions and are the first under China’s new anti-foreign sanction lawBarely 48 hours before the arrival in China of one of Biden’s most-trusted diplomats, Beijing has announced its decision to impose counter-sanctions on seven American citizens and entities, including former commerce secretary Wilbur Ross, in retaliation against Washington’s earlier sanctions on Chinese officials over Hong Kong crackdowns.The Biden administration announced sanctions on seven Chinese officials on 16 July and warned US businesses of the “growing risks” posed by Beijing and Hong Kong. Continue reading...
Money to be split among at least 20 ex-employees of B&B Hospitality and three Manhattan restaurantsCelebrity chef Mario Batali, his business partner and their New York City restaurant company have agreed to pay $600,000 to resolve a four-year investigation by the state attorney general’s office into allegations that Batali and other workers sexually harassed employees.The money will be split among at least 20 former employees of B&B Hospitality and their Manhattan restaurants Babbo, Lupa and the now closed Del Posto, which Batali co-owned with Joseph Bastianich until March 2019, the New York attorney general, Letitia James, announced Friday. Continue reading...
Kennedy, US ambassador to Japan under Obama, was high-profile supporter of Joe Biden’s presidential campaignJoe Biden reportedly plans to nominate Caroline Kennedy, daughter of John F Kennedy, as the US ambassador to Australia.Related: Win for Angelina Jolie as court disqualifies judge in Brad Pitt divorce case Continue reading...
Court finds John Ouderkirk did not sufficiently disclose business relationships with Pitt’s attorneysA California appeals court has disqualified a private judge being used by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt in their divorce case, handing Jolie a major victory.Related: Marijuana farmers blamed for water theft as drought grips American west Continue reading...
The WTC’s refusal to properly reward new skills is in danger of creating a world where gymnastic routines are tediously similarIn the final fleeting month before the Olympics two of the best gymnasts in the world showed for the first time similar uneven bar skills of the highest difficulty only days apart. Both Sanne Wevers and Nina Derwael performed slightly different variants of the iconic Nabieva release, in which the gymnasts launch themselves above and beyond the high bar with their legs straight before executing a half turn in the air and then catching it on the other side.But high difficulty often comes at a cost. Derwael flexed her feet and arched her hips to clear the bar, then “cheated” on her half-turn. Wevers’ variation was more difficult but her bent legs splayed out in all directions above the high bar. This is all a normal sight. As gymnasts push their limits with the toughest skills, legs cross, chests fall low on landings, twists are not fully completed and the judges mark every deduction down. Continue reading...
As Covid cases rise, vaccination lags and costs soar, most Japanese people are extremely cynical about the GamesThe Olympic Games begins in Tokyo on Friday, just as Covid-19 blights the city for the fourth time – and a year after the Games were originally scheduled to begin.Despite the latest alarming spike in coronavirus infections and hospitalisations across the city’s metropolitan area, Japan’s prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, has reiterated his resolve to go ahead with the Games, declaring at a session of the International Olympic Committee held on 20 July that “the Games can be held successfully, with the efforts and wisdom of the people”. Continue reading...
The North Carolina native has only just turned 17 but she started racing at an age when most kids can barely stay afloatJust what does a three-year-old swimming prodigy look like?Mark Curzan knows the answer to that now, though he didn’t at the time. Continue reading...
Alabama’s Kay Ivey says surge in new infections is due to a reluctance among many in state to get inoculatedThe Republican governor of Alabama has said it is “time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks” for rising cases of Covid-19, amid concern that months of misinformation over the need and efficacy of vaccines is fueling a resurgence of coronavirus infections in several states.Kay Ivey said that vaccines are “the greatest weapon we have to fight Covid” and added that a surge in new cases of the coronavirus in Alabama is due to a reluctance among many people in the state to get inoculated. Continue reading...
Alaska man injured by bear that kept returning to his isolated hut in the wildernessIt reads like the plot of a page-turning novel or a thriller or adventure film – a sequel to The Revenant, even, perhaps, the 2016 film where Leonardo DiCaprio plays an American frontiersman and fur trapper left for dead after being mauled by a bear in the early 19th century.But this was real life in 2021. A man in Alaska was rescued, injured but alive, after enduring repeated attacks by a grizzly bear that kept on returning to his isolated hut in the wilderness, from which he had no way of contacting the outside world. Continue reading...
For Milwaukee fans, the NBA championship doesn’t negate the progress that’s still needed in the city, but the win felt like a much needed reprieveJabari Thompson had never seen an event bring the city of Milwaukee together like its NBA championship has done. It’s a victory for the basketball team – its first title in 50 years – but an even bigger win for a city that has sorely needed a moment to celebrate, he said.“I feel like I was out there playing. Like I beat the Phoenix Suns, like we all did, and this win belongs to all of us,” said Thompson, 27. Continue reading...
Speaker is locked in a battle of wills with Kevin McCarthy who is determined to change the political conversation, critics sayIt was, Nancy Pelosi told reporters on Thursday, one of the darkest days in America’s history – an assault on democracy, Congress and the constitution. “The American people want to know the truth,” she said.But will the truth of the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol ever be fully told? Continue reading...
ACLU of Alaska spokesperson says some of Matthias Cicotte’s tweets ‘aimed directly at incarceration and criminal prosecution’The American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska (ACLU) has called for “an investigation and audit” of the case record of a senior Alaskan legal official revealed by the Guardian to be operating a far-right Deseret nationalist, or “DezNat”, Twitter account under the pseudonym JReubenCIark.In a statement to the Guardian in response to revelations that tweets from the account were antisemitic, racist, homophobic and advocated violence, the state ACLU spokesperson, Megan Edge, said the work of assistant attorney general Matthias Cicotte needed to be closely examined. Continue reading...
Based on your answers, we’ll help you find your top 10 Olympic sports as the Games get underway in TokyoThe Olympics are upon us and even if there are no fans at the stadiums this year due to Covid-19, there are more than 300 events to watch on TV from the comfort of your sofa. Of course, you may have minor things like a job, family or life to spend your time on which is why we’ve produced a handy quiz to narrow down the events that most suit you. Just answer the questions below to see if you should be tuning into the marathon or modern pentathlon. Continue reading...
Workers are now entering their third week on strike to demand better conditionsSince 5 July, hundreds of striking workers at a Frito-Lay plant in Topeka, Kansas, have drawn attention to the Dickensian conditions workers have been subjected to in order to produce some of the biggest brand name chips in the United States, including Fritos, Cheetos, Doritos, Lay’s, Ruffles, Funyuns and Tostitos.Workers have publicly aired a list of grievances ranging from stagnant wages, high turnover rates and a lack of hazard pay during the pandemic to 84-hour workweeks, warehouses in triple-digit heat with no air conditioning, months on end without a day off, and so-called “suicide shifts” where workers are only off the clock for eight hours before having to come back in. Continue reading...
Any reform after the assassination of Jovenel Moïse will depend on the US re-evaluating its interests in the countryThe assassination of Jovenel Moïse, Haiti’s president, marks another point in the years-long power struggle that pitted his loyalists against activists and working-class families, exhausted by years of social strife and gang violence. On Saturday, his wife Martine Moïse, injured in the attack, returned home to the Caribbean state to face speculation about her own political career. Meanwhile, the authorities still search for the motive for her husband’s killing.At least 20 people have now been arrested in connection with the murder, including Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a Haitian-American self-proclaimed pastor who lives in South Florida, and who allegedly issued the order for the assassination. According to reporting by the Washington Post, Sanon had ambitions to become president of his homeland. He had vowed to transform the country into a “free and open society” with an ambitious $83bn redevelopment plan for Haiti. His defenders say, however, a plot to kill Moïse was never part of the masterplan. Continue reading...
My access to doctors is tied to my husband – and his access is tied to his employer. Land of the free indeedIt was around the second dose of fentanyl going into my IV bag that I stopped trying to control how much all of this was going to cost. I had been arguing with every decision the caregivers at the emergency room were making – “Is this Cat scan actually necessary or is there another diagnostic tool?” “Is there a cheaper version of this drug you’re giving me?” – and reminding them repeatedly that I was uninsured, but either the opioids in my bloodstream, or the exhaustion of trying to rest in a room next to a woman who, given the sounds she was making, was clearly transforming into a werewolf, forced me to surrender.Related: Why is a 108-year-old resorting to GoFundMe to pay for home care? | Ross Barkan Continue reading...
A hundred athletes are picked each year for the 135-mile race. This time the climate was especially brutalIn the Badwater Basin at the bottom of California’s Death Valley, the air feels like a giant hair dryer and the pavement can melt the soles of your shoes.Yet on Monday night, 100 of the world’s top endurance runners set off on what has become known as “the world’s toughest foot race”, carving 135 miles of terrain through one of the planet’s most extreme climates at the most intense time of year. Continue reading...
At least nine states have considered ‘emergency power limitation’ legislation proposed by conservative organization AlecRepublican lawmakers across more than a dozen states are working to limit the powers of local health departments in ways experts say is likely to lead to “preventable tragedies” during disease outbreaks, including the Covid-19 pandemic.The attempts to limit the emergency powers of public health agencies comes alongside harassment of individual public health workers, renewed concern about the spread of the highly transmissible Covid-19 Delta variant, and a flagging US vaccination campaign. Continue reading...
Federal judge decision puts thousands of lives on hold as many people can’t work or access student loans or scholarshipsFor Kimberly, an undocumented 20-year-old in Missouri, last week’s decision by a Texas judge to not allow immigrants to file new applications for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca), a program that shielded them against deportation and provided work permits and other benefits, could have immediate impacts.Kimberly, who came to the US when she was five, was in the process of applying for Daca. The Guardian is not using her full name. For her, like many others, Daca has been a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs – and one that keeps putting their lives on hold. Continue reading...
Olympians are likely to test boundaries with protests and demonstrations as the Games become increasingly politicalAs the Rio Olympics dominated the sports world’s gaze five years ago, an NFL quarterback began a series of protests against racism that rippled across America and the world and will leave an indelible mark on this year’s Games.Colin Kaepernick last made an NFL appearance in the 2016 season, but the legacy of his activism was evident even before the opening ceremony in Tokyo. Players from several women’s football teams, including the US and Britain, took a knee before their games on Wednesday at the start of the first Olympics since the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Continue reading...
If past statements are anything to go by the president, a proud former full-back, will be watching the MLR playoffsBefore the final round of the regular Major League Rugby season, it was both surprising and superb to see the prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, wish the Toronto Arrows well.Related: 'It's in my blood': how rugby managed to unite America's elite Continue reading...
The US is at another 'pivotal moment' in the pandemic as the Delta variant drives a big rise in new cases, said CDC director, Rochelle Walensky, who warned 'we are not out of the woods yet'. She added: 'The Delta variant is more aggressive and much more transmissible than previously circulating strains,' she said. 'It is one of the most infectious respiratory viruses that we know of and that I have seen in my 20-year career.'
Spears is trapped in a state of legal adolescence, but since her plea for freedom to a Californian court, her tone has become more hopefulAmid the bleak horrors of endless lockdown there is presently one certain source of joy. It’s Britney Spears’ Instagram account.Inspirational quotes, cute selfies and objects of material desire are a consistent theme across many accounts on the platform, especially among the “30-something western white girl” demographic the pop star Spears inhabits. Continue reading...
Director William Burns has initiated a taskforce to investigate the syndrome and tripled the size of the medical team involvedAbout 100 CIA officers and family members are among about 200 US officials and kin sickened by “Havana syndrome”, the CIA director, William Burns, said on Thursday, referring to the mysterious set of ailments that include migraines and dizziness.Burns, tapped by Joe Biden as the first career diplomat to serve as CIA chief, said in a National Public Radio interview that he had bolstered his agency’s efforts to determine the cause of the syndrome and what is responsible. Continue reading...
California’s DFEH files suit after investigation reveals discrimination against womenThe video game company behind World of Warcraft and Candy Crush is being sued over allegations of its “frat boy culture” and treatment toward its female employees.California’s department of fair employment and housing (DFEH) filed suit against Activision Blizzard Inc in California’s superior court after a two-year investigation into the company revealed discrimination against women generally and pregnant employees, sexual harassment, retaliation and unequal pay. Continue reading...
Tamarack fire spreads from California to Nevada while weather aids firefighters in OregonA northern California wildfire crossed into Nevada, prompting new evacuations, but better weather has been helping crews battling the nation’s largest blaze in southern Oregon.Meanwhile, the major California utility provider PG&E has announced a multibillion-dollar effort to bury 10,000 miles (16,000km) of its power lines, after its electrical equipment was once again blamed for igniting a separate, fast-growing fire in the state’s north-east. Continue reading...
Group of senators say letter from Chris Wray shows the FBI gathered more than 4,500 tips without any apparent further actionA group of US Democratic senators on Thursday said that newly released materials show the FBI failed to fully investigate sexual misconduct allegations against the US supreme court Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he was nominated to the court in 2018.Related: FBI failed to fully investigate Brett Kavanaugh sexual misconduct allegations, Democrats say – live Continue reading...
At least 99% of those in US who died of Covid in the last six months had not been vaccinated, says CDC director Dr Rochelle WalenskyWhat the US government is calling “the pandemic of the unvaccinated” is playing out in painful ways as some realize too late that they wish they had had the shot, while others hold out even as they suffer in hospital amid a national surge of new Covid-19 infections, primarily caused by the Delta variant.At least 99% of those in the US who died of coronavirus in the last six months had not been vaccinated, Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has said. Continue reading...
Larry Summers and others have been sounding the alarm over inflation. But are fears overblown?Larry Summers says he’s worried about the US economy. Even more than he was worried when he started to sound the alarm in February. The well-known economist and former US treasury secretary said last week that “the focus of concern right now should be on overheating”.He’s not talking about climate but about the economy growing too fast and running into persistent high inflation like we had in the 1970s, along with other possible crises. On the same day that he issued the above warning, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for June was 5.4% above its level one year earlier. Press reports noted that this was the biggest one-year jump since 2008. Continue reading...
The partisan election stunt in Maricopa county has inspired copycats across the US but some on the right are pushing backHappy Thursday.By all accounts, the election “audit” in Arizona is a failure – months past its initial deadline, potentially in violation of federal law and riddled with mistakes. Continue reading...
The country’s hi-tech surveillance industry is part of its identity – which is why its dark side often goes unexaminedAfter extraordinary revelations that the Israeli company NSO Group’s mercenary cyber-surveillance tool, Pegasus, was allegedly used to target political dissidents, human rights activists, journalists and politicians around the world, Israel should be asking itself a few questions. Does its groundbreaking hi-tech industry have a dark side? Do the actors involved in exporting lucrative surveillance products – including the defence ministry, which must approve such sales, or perhaps the top levels of the previous government – bear responsibility?While top Israeli officials are taking the revelations seriously, Israelis appear neither shamed nor shaken. The day after the NSO story broke, there was an announcement from another company that would eclipse talk of the rogue use of surveillance spyware. Ben & Jerry’s announced that it would cease the sale of its products in the “occupied Palestinian territories”. By midweek one had to squint to find NSO in the Israeli media, as the ice cream incident was dominating headlines. Persecution of human rights defenders, sabotaging freedom of the press, surveillance of political opposition and possible links to grisly murder all took second place, while a non-violent political protest by a single private company, set to begin a year and a half from now (when Ben and Jerry’s licensing deal runs out), overshadowed everything. Continue reading...
1,500lb animal that escaped from Long Island farm is pursued with horses, lassos, tranquilizer gun – and a cowIt’s the oldest trick in the book – but will it turn out to be BS?Rescuers in New York have brought in a cow to try to lure back a bull that ran away from a farm earlier this week where it was awaiting slaughter. Continue reading...
by Bryan Armen Graham, Beau Dure, Andrew Lawrence and on (#5MFF9)
Sport by sport, event by event, our team assess who will be picking up the Olympic medals Team USA will claim in TokyoThese Olympics are more unpredictable than usual due to the absence of many qualifying events over the last year, but the United States should lead the pack in both most overall medals and total golds. BG Continue reading...
The deaths of 69 young Labour activists failed to prompt a reckoning with the far-right ideas that motivated Anders BreivikAny visitor to the island of Utøya, some 38 kilometres from Oslo, is immediately struck by the smallness of it. It measures no more than 26 acres. It was here that, 10 years ago this month, Anders Behring Breivik massacred 69 people attending a Norwegian Labour party youth camp. As one walks along the island’s tiny, winding paths, it is not difficult to imagine the sheer horror of it all, as teenagers, full of life, joy and laughter, suddenly realised that the shots being fired in the distance were not firecrackers, that the visitor dressed in a fake police uniform was a murderer, and that the island had all too few places in which to hide.As Norway approaches the 10-year anniversary, and as far-right and anti-Muslim violence remains a feature of our political culture across the world, it is worth looking back at the lessons learned and those missed from this dark chapter in my country’s history. Continue reading...
Bereaved families’ stories are being used to criticize the movement to defund police: ‘It compounds the trauma’William Gude spends his days trying to hold the police accountable. As the creator and outspoken monitor behind @filmthepolicela, a Twitter account that’s attracted thousands of followers, he regularly critiques the LAPD by filming and tweeting about their activity – from traffic stops to confrontations with protestors.But one night in June, his tweets got personal. That night he told his followers that his son, Marcelis William-Gude, had been shot. After hitting send, Gude drove to the hospital where a doctor told him that his 22-year-old son died after being shot multiple times in South Los Angeles. Continue reading...
Americans thrown out of work by the pandemic faced months-long backlogs in receiving benefits, if they arrived at allUnemployed workers are pushing for reforms and changes to America’s unemployment insurance system after millions of workers experienced severe problems in receiving benefits throughout the pandemic.Workers across America faced long delays in receiving unemployment benefits as state systems were quickly overwhelmed with the mass influx of applications that caused months-long backlogs. Meanwhile, workers who made errors on their applications, had missing records or had their claims flagged had their benefits stopped – and often had difficulty restarting them once problems were resolved. Continue reading...
Recent graduates compete with last year’s grads who remain jobless, and with those rethinking their career prioritiesMarie Roberts, a 2021 graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, can feel the pressure of entering a competitive job market as the coronavirus pandemic in America appears to be waning.After more than a year of remote learning, social distancing and economic chaos, she knew she wasn’t the only one now polishing her résumé and writing multiple cover letters to start her career. Continue reading...
The days when a Ryan Lochte night out or athlete bed-hopping made headlines appear numbered in a much changed Olympic villageIt’s that time again. Time to embrace our inner Olympic judge. Time to contemplate the mating habits of the Great American Athlete.The game began in earnest a few days ago as the first pictures from inside the athletes’ village dorms whipped around the web – and this time there was no getting past the bed. Not only did the mattress appear to be the furthest thing from “Olympic” size. (Technically, that’s a queen). Not only did the bed look for all the world to be sitting on the box in which it was shipped. No, it also seemed like the kind of thing that could barely hold the weight of one sleeping person, let alone two in the mood for a late night. Continue reading...
This week’s roundup also features the most spectacular knockout ever, 20 minutes of Maradona and plenty more1) The Olympics have both already started and start again on Friday. This is the second time Tokyo has hosted the event, the first being in 1964. Here’s the official film of those Games; here’s an explanation of its global and cultural impact; here are its top 10 moments; here’s Lynn “The Leap” Davies winning long-jump gold; here’s Ann Packer taking 800m gold; here’s Mary Rand winning gold, silver and bronze in the long jump, pentathlon and relay, here’s a feature on her, and here she is returning to her hometown of Wells; and here’s the BBC’s theme tune.2) It was a hard few hours, but football is finally back after its summer break with a succession of thrilling pre-season friendlies. As such, here’s Eric Cantona getting sent-off playing for Manchester United against Rangers in the summer of 1994; a pre-season ruckus between Newcastle Jets and Wellington Phoenix from 2011; and David Batty taking it to Sampdoria, Roberto Mancini in particular, in 1992. Continue reading...
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