Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
College towns across the United States have reimposed shutdowns after a spike in campus cases of coronavirus caused by students partying in large numbers on their return for the new academic year.
Despite waves of schools and businesses around the country being cleared to reopen, Columbia, Missouri joined cities in Alabama, Utah and Iowa in reimposing restrictions to deal with a surge of infections.
The FBI has launched an investigation after a noose was found in the team garage of Bubba Wallace, Nascar’s only black full-time driver. The noose was discovered at Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway as Nascar prepared for a race, which was subsequently delayed by bad weather, on Sunday.
“Regardless of whether federal charges can be brought, this type of action has no place in our society,” Jay Town, the US attorney for Alabama’s southern district, said on Monday. He added that his office, along with the FBI and the justice department’s civil rights division, were involved in the investigation.
Sessions protests loyalty to Trump despite fierce abuse
President endorses opponent in Alabama Senate election
Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions’ playground fight continued into Sunday. In an interview with Sinclair TV, Trump said Sessions had not been “mentally qualified” to be his first attorney general.
More than two dozen tornadoes reported in four states
Louisiana sheriff reports ‘extreme flooding’ seen rarely ‘if ever’
At least six people were killed after severe storms tore through a number of southern states late on Wednesday, adding to weeks of extreme weather that had already killed more than two dozen people and destroyed hundreds of homes.
Twister destroyed buildings in Monroe, Louisiana, while local media said at least two tornadoes touched down in central Texas
A tornado strike destroyed homes and left a trail of devastation across parts of Louisiana on Sunday, as forecasters warned that a powerful Easter storm could affect more than a dozen states and millions of people before the early hours of Monday.
The storm provided a dilemma for public safety officials trying to find the balance between wanting people to stay in lockdown for the coronavirus pandemic and wanting them to leave their homes for shelter if conditions worsened.
Last weekend, at two churches in New Orleans, two pastors read from separate passages of the Bible as they buried four members of the same family. Each had died within days of each other after contracting the novel coronavirus.
Fifty-five years ago this month, protesters in Alabama demanded voting rights for African Americans. Four participants ask if the US has really changed
It was one of the most celebrated events of civil rights movement: a march of thousands, met with violence and teargas, that was supposed to cement the right to vote for millions of African Americans who had been denied it by the white majority.
On Sunday, the last generation of living civil rights leaders and some of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates are gathering in the small town of Selma, Alabama, to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery marches. The Guardian has tracked down four activists who appeared in archival photographs to find out what happened beyond the camera lens, and whether the promise of Selma has been realized.
Unwitting boost to Alabama Democrat pushing back on restrictive abortion laws by objecting to her vasectomy proposal on Twitter
Ted Cruz, the Republican Texas senator, has given an unwitting boost to an Alabama lawmaker’s attempt to push back on restrictive abortion laws in her state, by tweeting about her proposal to force men to have vasectomies when they reach the age of 50.
Democratic representative Rolanda Hollis introduced the measure to the state House last week, intending it as protest against a law passed by the Alabama legislature last year to outlaw abortion in almost every case unless the life of the mother was at risk.
Blaze that began in early hours Monday destroys at least 35 boats and cuts off escape routes
A huge fire killed at least eight people and destroyed dozens of boats in an Alabama marina early on Monday, with witnesses describing a terrifying, fast-moving blaze and fire officials warning the death toll could rise.
Tommy Jones, a Jackson county park marina resident who survived but lost his brother in the cold water, said the fire was spread rapidly by the wind. He watched helplessly as a small boat containing a woman and her children was engulfed in flames.
Hoda Muthana, 25, and son left in limbo in Syria after federal judge sided with Trump administration
A judge sided with the Trump administration on Thursday in ruling that an Alabama woman who joined the Islamic State group was not a US citizen, leaving the 25-year-old and her son in limbo in Syria.
Hoda Muthana, an American-born woman who left Alabama to join Isis in 2014, has said she “deeply regrets” joining the terrorist group and wants to return to the US with her young son.
Protest balloon was knifed during Donald Trump’s visit to college football game
A towering Baby Trump protest balloon was knifed and deflated by someone unhappy with its appearance during Donald Trump’s Saturday trip to Alabama, organisers said.
The incident occurred during the president’s visit to watch a University of Alabama football game. The balloon, which is more than 6.1 metres (20 feet) tall, was set up in a nearby park.
One might think the best color to describe Alabama would be red-brown, like its dirt, or loamy black like its best soil. Or white like its fences. Or any of the three, like its people. But blue is right. Blue skies, blue denim, blue faded scraps for quilts, the robin’s egg blue paint in portraits and on walls, muted and resilient. Blue is the hue of a fire so hot that its color has to turn cool.
Photographer Andrew Moore captures his view of the deep south state and its complicated legacy
Neil Jacobs said a statement criticizing the Alabama office that disagreed with Trump was meant to clarify ‘technical aspects’
The head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) appeared close to tears on Tuesday, as he both defended the administration and thanked a local weather office that contradicted Donald Trump’s claims about Hurricane Dorian threatening Alabama.
Neil Jacobs, the acting administrator, told a meteorology group a Noaa statement that criticized the Birmingham-area forecast office after it disagreed with the president was meant to clarify “technical aspects” about Dorian’s potential impact.
Alvin Kennard was imprisoned in 1983 with a disproportionately harsh sentence under the ‘three strikes law’
A man from Alabama who was sentenced to life without parole after stealing $50.75 from a bakery in his 20s is to be released after more than three decades in prison.
Alvin Kennard, who was convicted of first degree robbery following the bakery incident, was 22 when he was first imprisoned in 1983.
Moore was accused of pursuing relationships with women as young as 14 when he was in his 30s during his failed 2017 Senate bid
Disgraced Alabama Republican Roy Moore has announced he is running for US Senate again in 2020 after failing to win the seat two years ago amid sexual misconduct accusations.
Moore is defying his party with his return to the political stage, and faces a crowded Republican primary field as he aims for an eventual rematch against the Democratic senator Doug Jones, who won against him in the 2017 special election to fill the seat previously held by former US attorney general Jeff Sessions.
Alabama is one of 15 states to recently pass an abortion ban. Although none of the bans are currently in effect, the aim is to place pressure on Roe v Wade, the court decision that enshrined a woman’s legal right to an abortion. The Guardian’s US health reporter, Jessica Glenza, discusses her meeting with Janet Porter, the religious extremist who inspired the anti-abortion laws. And: Serena Daniari on trans women finding their voices
Janet Porter believes life begins at conception and has spent the last 10 years lobbying on the fringes of the US abortion debate. Many on the left and right despise her, but in Donald Trump’s US, she has just had one of the biggest victories of her life. Porter successfully lobbied Ohio’s legislature to pass one of the strictest abortion bans in the world in April – the “heartbeat bill” would make the procedure illegal about six weeks into pregnancy. Alabama followed in May with an even more restrictive version, outlawing abortion at any stage of pregnancy, with no exceptions for those resulting from rape or incest. Six-week bans have been introduced in 15 states, although none are currently in effect.
Jessica Glenza, the Guardian’s US health reporter, tells Anushka Asthana about her meeting with Porter. With the recent appointment of two Trump-nominated supreme court justices anda growing number of anti-abortion federal judges, the ultimate aim of anti-abortion activists and lawmakers is to mount a challenge to Roe v Wade, the 1973 court decision that legalised abortion in the US.
Arsenal defender says ban also an issue for men, and garners support from Ian Wright
Héctor Bellerín, the Arsenal and Spain defender, has challenged fellow football professionals to speak out against the abortion bill passed this week in Alabama, in the US, which would make it a crime to perform a termination at any stage of pregnancy, even in cases of rape and incest.
Bellerín, 24, tweeted: “I wanted to see if anyone from our industry would speak out about the abortion bill, but I guess people are too scared. This isn’t just an issue for women, it’s one for every human being. We fight for equality and this is something men should fight for and not hide away from.”
The White House has criticized House Democrats’ investigation into obstruction of justice by the president as serving “political theater.” In turn, the lawmaker in charge of those investigations called the White House position “preposterous” in an interview.
The letter was sent by White House council Pat Cipollone, in response to a March request by Congressional investigators for documents. In a 12-page letter, Cipollone asked the committee to narrow its “sweeping” request and provide a legislative reason why the documents should be released, according to Reuters.
The White House will not participate in the committee’s ‘investigation’ that brushes aside the conclusions of the Department of Justice after a two-year-long effort in favor of political theater pre-ordained to reach a preconceived and false result,” Cipollone’s 12-page letter said.
The documents requested relate to everything from the contents of Trump’s meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin to his communications with former White House counsel Donald McGahn, the firing of former White House national security advisor Michael Flynn and former FBI director James Comey, and possible pardons for Trump associates who pleaded guilty to crimes stemming from the probe.
The committee also seeks documents aimed at probing whether Trump has used the White House to enrich himself in violation of the Constitution’s emoluments clause.
Jameela Jamil, formerly a presenter on BBC Radio 1 and now one of the stars of the sitcom The Good Place, opened up about an abortion she had when she was young.
Jamila called it the “best decision I have ever made.”
I had an abortion when I was young, and it was the best decision I have ever made. Both for me, and for the baby I didn’t want, and wasn’t ready for, emotionally, psychologically and financially. So many children will end up in foster homes. So many lives ruined. So very cruel.
Alabama has passed a near-total ban on abortion, making it a crime to terminate pregnancy at any stage. The abortion ban is the strictest in the US and allows an exception only when the pregnant woman’s health is at serious risk. The bill was passed by 25 votes to six and also contains no exception for rape or incest. If the procedure was to take place the doctor could be punished with 10 to 99 years in prison; the woman who had the abortion would not face criminal charges