The actor Lakeith Stanfield has spoken out amid controversy over his presence in a Clubhouse room where participants made antisemitic remarks, saying: “Any kind of hate speech, I vehemently reject.”
Related: Lakeith Stanfield: ‘I don’t hold anything back’
Continue reading...The driver of a Tesla car in a fatal crash that California highway authorities said may have been operating on autopilot posted social media videos of himself riding in the vehicle without his hands on the wheel or foot on the pedal.
The 5 May crash in Fontana, a city 50 miles east of Los Angeles, is also under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). It is the 29th case involving a Tesla the federal agency has investigated.
Continue reading...Nicole Pyles from North Carolina says ruling from umpires that the beads in her braids were against the rules was ‘humiliating’
A Black high school student in North Carolina was forced to cut her hair during a softball game last month, after umpires said beads in her braids violated rules set by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFSHS).
Related: Texas police fail to earn stripes as tiger which terrorised suburb goes missing
Continue reading...Venmo accounts for Joe Biden and Dr Jill Biden were removed on Friday after BuzzFeed News said it easily found the US president on the payment app – a discovery it said raised national security questions.
Related: Venmo: how the payment app exposes our private lives
Continue reading...The CDC says people who have been vaccinated no longer have to wear face coverings in public – but not all are enthusiastic
When the CDC announced this week that people fully vaccinated against Covid-19 mostly didn’t have to wear masks indoors, many Americans saw this news as cause for celebration, feeling a sense of freedom after 15 months of itchy and cumbersome face coverings.
But in New York City, which was the US’s first coronavirus hotspot last spring, not everyone was rushing to rip off their masks, despite the official OK to do so.
Continue reading...President has held one-on-one meetings with members of both parties – but will Republicans torpedo his proposals?
Joe Biden has vowed to make every effort to work with Republicans until progress is impossible. Right now, he and conservative lawmakers see an infrastructure bill as still within the realm of possibility.
If so, it would mark a significant step forwards for Biden in passing a large part of his legislative agenda aimed at sparking the recovery of the pandemic-hit US economy. Biden’s team has consciously drawn comparisons to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s effort to lift America out of the Great Depression through government programs and big public works projects.
Continue reading...The violence in Gaza and Jerusalem has made the conclusion to the Muslim holy month a somber event for many
The sound of the call to prayer resonated through Astoria Park in Queens, New York, on an Eid that saw sunny weather and an opportunity for human connection after a year spent apart during the pandemic.
The conclusion to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan is usually marked with a celebratory breakfast, new clothes, and a chorus of “Eid Mubaraks” and “Alhamdulillahs.”
Continue reading...As Liz Cheney’s defiance turns her into one of the movement’s leaders some insist the party was their home long before Trump while others say it’s time to move on
Sixteen minutes and out. The purging of Liz Cheney from Republican leadership in the House of Representatives did not even go to a secret ballot. Instead a voice vote was all it took to confirm the party’s capitulation to Donald Trump and his “big lie” about a stolen election.
But Cheney went down swinging, vowing to reporters on Capitol Hill: “I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office,” then using a high-profile TV interview to say of would-be challengers for her seat in Wyoming: “Bring it on.”
Continue reading...Lawmakers agree to create bipartisan commission to investigate breach but questions remain over GOP support
The Republican House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, should testify before the commission to investigate the 6 January Capitol attack, the Wyoming representative Liz Cheney said on Friday, because he has “said publicly that he’s got information about the president’s state of mind that day”.
Related: ‘It’s hard to look at’: Donald Trump makes National Portrait Gallery debut
Continue reading...Enrique Tarrio received two paycheck protection program loans intended for small businesses, for ‘security systems services’
Government records show that Enrique Tarrio, chairman of the far-right Proud Boys group, received two federal government-backed paycheck protection program (PPP) loans worth a total of $15,500, the Guardian can reveal.
Tarrio, based in Miami, Florida, was approved for an initial loan of $7,750 on 30 March, and a succeeding loan for the same amount on 16 April. The loans were issued to Henry Tarrio, an anglicized form of his name which he has used on other occasions.
Continue reading...The progressive representative says the Republican extremist’s behavior has ‘raised concerns’ among Democrats
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has said the Republican extremist Marjorie Taylor Greene has a “fixation” on progressive members of Congress, and warned that Greene’s behavior has “raised concerns” among Democrats.
Greene, a Trump loyalist and a promoter of the QAnon conspiracy theory, was elected to the House in 2020, and has spent her first months in office harassing Ocasio-Cortez and other progressive Democrats.
Continue reading...Government says US missions can no longer hire local staff following law Putin signed last month
The Russian government has officially deemed the United States and the Czech Republic “unfriendly” states, and announced that US diplomatic missions could no longer employ local staff while Czech missions could employ a maximum of 19.
Moscow first announced the ban on the US hiring local staff last month as part of its retaliation for a slew of new US sanctions against Russia for interfering in the 2020 US presidential election and for involvement in the SolarWind hack of US federal agencies.
Continue reading...A Colorado man suspected in the death of his wife, who disappeared on Mother’s Day last year, is also accused of submitting a fraudulent vote on her behalf for Donald Trump in November’s presidential election, court documents show.
Related: California woman may have washed $26m lottery fortune down the drain
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Here’s a quick summary of what’s happened so far today:
A new New York Times story points out just how influential Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s logo, with its bold, slanted text, was to future progressive candidates who emulated her poster’s style. It’s now seen all over the country in races big and small and was even used by a communist candidate in France.
Gavan Fitzsimons, a business professor at Duke University, told the Times that copycat posters are likely trying to get potential voters to subconsciously associate the candidate with Ocasio-Cortez.
NEW: The iconography of @AOC — my dive into how Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s logo has formed a new graphical language for progressivism.
From KY to VA to NYC and even France, imitators abound.https://t.co/eakjRoSEZn pic.twitter.com/sw9Z6oM0hz
The winner of a $26m California Lottery prize may have literally washed the chance of a fortune down the drain.
Related: Shelter releases 1,000 feral cats on to Chicago streets to combat rat crisis
Continue reading...Members of the US Congress have responded as the deadly hostilities in Israel and Gaza entered a fifth day with no sign of abating.
Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American congresswoman who has been critical of Israeli policy towards the Palestinians, questioned the US government's 'unconditional support' of Israel and, often tearing up as she spoke, accused Israel of being an 'apartheid state'.
Earlier in the day Joe Biden said there had 'not been a significant overreaction' by Israel to the Hamas rocket attacks and Ted Deutch and Debbie Wasserman Schultz spoke in the House in support of Israel’s 'right to defend her citizens'. Meanwhile Ilhan Omar said: 'Instead of condemning blatant crimes against humanity and human rights abuses, many members of Congress have instead fallen back on a blanket statement defending Israel's airstrikes against civilians under the guise of self-defence.'
Continue reading...Incident that left at least three critically wounded is believed to be the capital city’s largest shooting
Nine people were wounded in a shooting on Thursday evening in Rhode Island’s capital in what police there believe to be the largest shooting in city history.
Of the nine, three were critically wounded in the shooting just before 7pm, the Providence police chief, Col Hugh T Clements, told reporters at the scene.
Continue reading...The corporate scientist discovered the unique adhesive that allowed notes to be easily attached to surfaces and removed
The inventor of the adhesive used on the Post-it Note has died, according to the company 3M, which produces the product, and his published obituary.
Spencer Silver was 80 and died May 8 at his home, the family’s obituary said.
Continue reading...Leaked video published by Mother Jones shows executive director of Heritage Action bragging about crafting voting restriction bills
A top official at one of America’s most influential conservative groups bragged about playing a key role in crafting voting restrictions across the country, according to leaked video published by Documented, a watchdog group, and Mother Jones on Thursday.
Continue reading...US diplomats, spies and defence officials have reported serious symptoms, some within the past few weeks
There have been more than 130 incidents of unexplained brain injury known as Havana syndrome among US diplomats, spies and defence officials, some of them within the past few weeks, it has been reported.
The New York Times said three CIA officers had reported serious symptoms since December, following overseas assignments, requiring outpatient treatment at the Walter Reed military hospital in Washington. One episode was within the past two weeks.
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