Exclusive: top expert says health workers ‘have lived up to the oath they take’ but says shortages of protective gear have contributed to excess deaths
Dr Anthony Fauci thanked America’s healthcare workers who “every single day put themselves at risk” during the pandemic, even as he acknowledged that PPE shortages had contributed to the deaths of more than 3,600 of them.
Continue reading...
Prosecutors are asking Anderson about the initial 27 May processing of the Mercedes SUV, and the second search in December 2020.
Anderson, presented with photos of the Mercedes interior during the first processing, said was asked whether there was a pill there.
Prosecutors have now called McKenzie Anderson to testify, a forensic scientist with Minnesota’s criminal apprehension bureau.
Anderson has been a “crime scene team” leader with the bureau of criminal apprehension since 2016. Anderson headed the crime scene investigation in Floyd’s death. Anderson, a technician, and a photographer from her team, arrived at the scene around 1:15 am on 26 May, 2020.
SA Reyerson testimony is now complete. Onto the 2nd BCA witness in the case, McKenzie Anderson. She was the crime scene lead on death of #GeorgeFloyd investigation. Continued #DerekChauvinTrial coverage live right now on @FOX9. pic.twitter.com/s3NxFP8B23
Continue reading...Tiger Woods was driving at speeds up to 87mph (140km/h) in a 45mph zone when he was involved in a serious car crash earlier this year, Los Angeles police revealed during a press conference on Wednesday.
Los Angeles county sheriff Alex Villanueva said the speed was “unsafe for the road conditions” and Woods did not brake in the run-up to the collision, perhaps because he pressed the accelerator instead of the brake pedal in a state of panic. Villanueva said Woods will not receive a citation over the crash and blamed the incident of Woods’s excessive speed and loss of control of the vehicle.
Continue reading...Ta-Nehisi Coates’s new comic sees Red Skull mobilising young men against ‘the feminist trap’ and other Petersonian targets
In the new issue of Captain America, the superhero’s longtime nemesis Red Skull espouses his views about “10 rules for life”, “the feminist trap” and “chaos and order” – and Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson is none too pleased.
Written by the award-winning author Ta-Nehisi Coates, the Marvel comic features a version of the villain who looks to radicalise young men by telling them “what they’ve always longed to hear … That they’re secretly great. That the whole world is against them. That if they’re men, they’ll fight back. And bingo – that’s their purpose. That’s what they’ll live for. And that’s what they’ll die for.”
Continue reading...
– Joan E Greve and Maanvi Singh
Matt Gaetz, the Florida Republican congressman who is being investigated over child sex trafficking charges, and who reportedly shared nude pictures of women with colleagues, is speaking at former president Donald Trump’s resort in Doral, at a rally for a pro-Trump women’s group.
Politico reports:
Women for America First announced late Tuesday that Gaetz would be a speaker at the three-day “Save America Summit.” This is the same group that helped organize the “March for Trump” rally in Washington that took place just hours before the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol that left five people dead.
The organization praised Gaetz as one of the “few members of Congress” willing to “stand up & fight on behalf of President Trump & his America First agenda.” Women For America First says on its website that “We won’t be pushed around by bullies who tell us who we are ‘supposed’ to like. And we’re not going to keep quiet just because the Washington, D.C. power elites and mainstream media want us to!”
Related: Katie Hill: Matt Gaetz backed me but he must quit if nude-photo reports are true
Continue reading...Lawmakers overrode the governor’s veto despite criticism that the measure would harm an already vulnerable community
Arkansas has become the first state to ban gender-affirming treatments and surgery for transgender youth, after lawmakers overrode the governor’s objections to enact the ban on Tuesday.
The state’s governor, Asa Hutchinson, had vetoed the bill on Monday following pleas from pediatricians, social workers and the parents of trans youth who said the measure would harm a community already at risk for depression and suicide. The ban was opposed by several medical and child welfare groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Continue reading...Alessandro Bazzoni’s bank account was closed after he faced sanctions in a case of mistaken identity
A small business owner in Italy is preparing to sue the US Treasury after accidentally being put on a sanctions blacklist before Donald Trump left the presidency.
Alessandro Bazzoni, who owns a graphic design company in Sardinia, has been unable to trade since 19 January, when his business was slapped with sanctions as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on blacklisted Venezuelan crude oil.
Continue reading...While the richest got spectacularly richer during the pandemic, the ex-president plummeted nearly 300 places in the Forbes list
It’s been a glorious pandemic for the world’s richest people. Forbes annual billionaire poll includes a record-breaking 2,755 billionaires, with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos once again topping the list, the media company said on Tuesday.
The ranks of the super wealthy swelled as the coronavirus pandemic threatened the lives and livelihoods of millions across the planet but stock markets continued to hit new highs.
Continue reading...Surgeons in New York City have performed the first windpipe transplant in the US, giving a woman who suffered severe asthma a new trachea, the tube that transports air from the mouth to the lungs.
Doctors say such operations could help Covid-19 patients left with serious windpipe damage from breathing machines.
Continue reading...Hopes rise of lifting Trump sanctions and bringing Iran and US to compliance in two months
A broad roadmap designed to rescue the Iran nuclear deal undermined by Donald Trump has been agreed in talks in Vienna, with the aim of bringing Iran and the US back into compliance in as little as two months.
Two working groups have been set up to examine the economic sanctions on Iran that the US will need to lift to come back into compliance with UN security council resolutions, and the steps Iran will need to take to bring its nuclear programme in line with the terms set out in the 2015 deal.
Continue reading...Medaria Arradondo says on sixth day of trial that ex-officer’s treatment of George Floyd breached regulations
The Minneapolis police chief, Medaria Arradondo, told the Derek Chauvin murder trial on Monday that he “vehemently disagrees” that there was any justification for the former police officer to keep his knee on George Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes.
Arradondo said on the sixth day of the trial that Chauvin’s treatment of the 46-year-old Black man breached regulations and showed a disregard “for the sanctity of life”.
Continue reading...
The court is just coming back from a short break, but here is a stark detail from the court room.
Coronavirus risks have imposed heavy restrictions on court. Only two media “pool” reporters are allowed into the court room itself. And defendant Derek Chauvin and the family of the late George Floyd were each allocated just one seat to use in the court room.
Here is the most important clip of the day so far. After so much harrowing video footage and lingering stills of then-officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd’s neck in the first day or two of last week, the jury and public has been spared.
But the prosecution decided it needed to show one of the defining images of the whole Floyd disaster, that picture of Chauvin, hand in pocket, sunglasses on his head, looking directly into a bystander’s phone camera, while Floyd is pinned under him.
Incredibly damning testimony from the Minneapolis police chief:
Derek Chauvin's actions were "not part of policy, not part of our training, and certainly not part of our ethics or values." pic.twitter.com/gS0RpTGGP0
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Lois Beckett, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
The Guardian’s Abené Clayton reports:
The bankruptcy trial for the National Rife Association (NRA) kicked off this morning, and for the first time embattled CEO Wayne LaPierre and other NRA executives will be testifying about the organization’s finances in open court.
Good morning. Today is the first day of the @NRA’s trial in bankruptcy court. For those of you who can’t wait, here are some disturbing excerpts from Wayne LaPierre’s deposition (filed over the weekend). #nrabankruptcytrial
Continue reading...Conspiracy theorist was fighting Connecticut court sanction in defamation lawsuit brought by relatives of victims of the shooting
The US supreme court on Monday declined to hear an appeal by the Infowars host, Trump ally and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who was fighting a Connecticut court sanction in a defamation lawsuit brought by relatives of some victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting.
Related: Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones ordered to pay $100,000 in Sandy Hook case
Continue reading...The west needs to make a credible case that its opposition to China’s policies is not geopolitical manoeuvring
“Wholly counterproductive”, was how Newcastle academic Joanne Smith Finley described China’s sanctions on her, along with a series of British politicians and lawyers, as punishment for their advocacy for the Uyghurs. That was putting it mildly. But is it the case that western sanctions on China will be, by contrast, productive? Sadly, that seems unlikely.
International outrage at China’s policies of incarceration and social coercion in Xinjiang continues to grow. As someone who has been engaged with the region for two decades, I see that as much needed. But it’s crucial the energy being generated is put to good use. The gloves may be off, but what is the strategy?
Continue reading...Scientist forced to defend himself from attacks by Trump allies and says ‘I can’t be bothered with getting distracted’
Anthony Fauci has described attacks on him from Republicans as “bizarre”, after a barrage of criticism from senior GOP figures.
Related: ‘There is a solution’: a Covid survivor’s life-or-death battle for Medicare for All
Continue reading...Work crews were pumping millions of gallons of contaminated wastewater into an ecologically sensitive Florida bay on Sunday, as they tried to prevent the “imminent” collapse of a storage reservoir at an old phosphate mine.
Officials in Manatee county extended an evacuation zone overnight and warned that up to 340m gallons could engulf the area in “a 20ft wall of water” if they could not repair the breach at the Piney Point reservoir in the Tampa Bay area, north of Bradenton.
Continue reading...Donald Trump is reportedly working on a social media platform of his own, after being banned from Twitter and Facebook for inciting the Capitol riot.
Related: Dominion: will one Canadian company bring down Trump's empire of disinformation?
Continue reading...Republicans opposed to Joe Biden’s proposed $2tn infrastructure bill claimed on Sunday that it was effectively a partisan tax hike that allocated too much money to electric vehicles and other environmental initiatives.
Related: Florida faces 'imminent' pollution catastrophe from phosphate mine pond
Continue reading...As the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd headed into its second week, the Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar said residents remain “on edge” about the outcome.
Related: George Floyd's girlfriend shared his opioids pain – Derek Chauvin refused to see it
Continue reading...