George W Bush has called the Republican party under Donald Trump “isolationist, protectionist and … nativist” – a judgment unlikely to make the former US president new friends on the American right.
Related: George W Bush is back – but not all appreciate his new progressive image
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Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd, said earlier today that he spoke to Joe Biden about the trial.
“He knows how it is to lose a family member,” Floyd told the “Today” show. “He was just letting us know that he was praying for us and hoping that everything would come out to be okay.”
“He was just letting us know that he was praying for us and hoping that everything would come out to be OK.” -Philonise Floyd, brother of George Floyd, on his phone conversation with President Joe Biden pic.twitter.com/OUEp6Lvbhw
Joe Biden addressed the Derek Chauvin murder trial moments ago in the Oval Office, as he prepared to meet with leaders of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
The president confirmed he spoke to George Floyd’s family yesterday, as the jury began its deliberations. Biden noted he wanted to wait to contact them until after the jury was sequestered.
After phone call with George Floyd's family, President Biden says he is "praying the verdict is the right verdict," adding that he is only speaking out because the jury is sequestered. https://t.co/zstpyxCqRk pic.twitter.com/RcrACo79DU
Continue reading...American Humanist Association criticises academic for comments about identity using ‘the guise of scientific discourse’, and withdraws its 1996 honour
The American Humanist Association has withdrawn its humanist of the year award from Richard Dawkins, 25 years after he received the honour, criticising the academic and author for “demean[ing] marginalised groups” using “the guise of scientific discourse”.
The AHA honoured Dawkins, whose books include The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion, in 1996 for his “significant contributions” in communicating scientific concepts to the public. On Monday, it announced that it was withdrawing the award, referring to a tweet sent by Dawkins earlier this month, in which he compared trans people to Rachel Dolezal, the civil rights activist who posed as a black woman for years.
Continue reading...Educators use physical restraint thousands of time a year and critics say the practice is used as a routine discipline tool, especially against Black children
America is waiting on a verdict in the closely watched murder trial of Derek Chauvin in Minnesota, which has focused on the former Minneapolis police officer’s use of “prone restraint” that prosecutors say contributed to the death of George Floyd.
The manner of Floyd’s death led to a national reckoning on police brutality and racism, but it has also highlighted how the practice of restraining children remains commonplace in Minnesota schools, and in other districts across the country.
Continue reading...John Sullivan’s departure will leave both countries’ embassies without their top diplomats at key moment
Washington’s ambassador to Moscow has announced that he will return to the US for consultations, days after the Russian government recommended he leave the country during what it said was an “extremely tense situation”.
John Sullivan’s departure will leave both countries’ embassies without their top diplomats at a crucial moment, with Washington and Moscow recently announcing new sanctions, a Russian military buildup near Ukraine, and concerns about the opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s health while in detention.
Continue reading...Women have been deeply embedded in the movement for clean water and sanitation for decades, which has become even more pressing amid the pandemic
Deanna Miller Berry first learned of the scores of complaints about Denmark, South Carolina’s water supply, during her 2017 mayoral campaign.
For at least a decade, residents of the rural, predominantly Black and lower-income town “knew something was happening” and tried to sound the alarm, said Berry. “A lot of folks [were] complaining that they were starting to get sick, hair loss and skin issues.”
Continue reading...Former senator and ambassador lost one of the most lopsided US elections in history to Ronald Reagan
Walter F Mondale, the former vice-president and liberal leader who lost to Ronald Reagan in one of the most lopsided presidential elections, has died at the age of 93.
A towering figure in the Democratic party who resolutely put humility and honesty before the glitz of mass communication, Mondale’s death marked something of an end of an era in US politics. He was described by a biographer as the last major American politician to resist the allure of television.
Continue reading...Charles Mock, 40, died of scalp and facial wounds after managing to call 911 for help
A Montana backcountry guide has died after he was mauled by a large grizzly bear that was probably defending a nearby moose carcass just outside Yellowstone national park, officials said Monday.
Charles “Carl” Mock, 40, who lived in the park gateway community of West Yellowstone, died Saturday, two days after he was attacked while fishing alone in a forested area along the Madison River several miles north of West Yellowstone, said a Gallatin county sheriff’s office spokesperson, Christine Koosman.
Continue reading...Paleontologists say a mass grave in Utah shows the dinosaurs may not have always been solitary predators as previously thought
Tyrannosaur dinosaurs may not have been solitary predators as long envisioned but more like social carnivores such as wolves, new research announced on Monday has found.
Paleontologists developed the theory while studying a mass tyrannosaur death site found seven years ago in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah, one of two monuments that the Biden administration is considering restoring to their full size after former president Donald Trump shrank them.
Continue reading...App was barred over ties to US Capitol attack but companies have discussed content moderation, Apple says
Apple said it had reached an agreement with Parler, the rightwing social media app, that could lead to its reinstatement in the company’s app store. Apple kicked out Parler in January over ties to the deadly 6 January siege on the US Capitol.
In a letter to two Republican lawmakers in Congress, Apple said it has been in “substantial conversations” with Parler over how the company plans to moderate content on its network. Before its removal from the App Store, Parler was a hotbed of hate speech, Nazi imagery, calls for violence (including violence against specific people) and conspiracy theories.
Continue reading...The Derek Chauvin murder trial heard closing arguments on Monday before the jury began considering a verdict over the death of George Floyd that is anxiously awaited by millions of Americans.
Related: Daunte Wright and George Floyd: another chapter in America’s recurring tragedy
Continue reading...Manager posts critical statement on singer’s behalf after Panic on the Streets of Springfield airs
The Simpsons has earned the wrath of Morrissey after it parodied the former Smiths frontman in an episode of the show.
The singer was satirised during the episode Panic on the Streets of Springfield, which aired in the US on Sunday night. In the episode, Lisa Simpson becomes obsessed with a fictional band called the Snuffs and befriends its frontman, Quilloughby.
Continue reading...Ethan Nordean and Joseph Biggs charged with conspiring to stop 2020 election certification and leading Proud Boys to Capitol
A federal judge has ordered two leaders of the far-right Proud Boys group to be detained in jail pending trial for their involvement in the 6 January attack on the Capitol in Washington DC.
Both were indicted in one of many Proud Boys conspiracy cases to stem from the investigation into the assault on the building that followed a pro-Donald Trump rally.
Continue reading...The Derek Chauvin murder trial heard closing arguments on Monday before the jury was expected to begin considering a verdict over the death of George Floyd that is anxiously awaited by millions of Americans. The prosecutor Steve Schleicher told jurors the key to the case lay in video footage of Chauvin pressing his knee on to Floyd’s neck, even as he pleaded for his life, right to his last words of 'I can’t breathe'. The former Minneapolis police officer’s attorney, Eric Nelson, told the jury that his client's actions followed the 'reasonable force' guidelines for police officers when considering all the factors that Chauvin had to take into account on the day of Floyd's death
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Court has just reconvened this morning in the case against Derek Chauvin. Closing arguments are expected to begin soon.
Jurors will begin deliberating when closings end. The judge in Chauvin’s case, Peter Cahill, is now giving jurors instructions on the law for when they start deliberating, such as how they are to weigh evidence.
Welcome back to our live coverage of the Derek Chauvin trial. Closing arguments in the murder case against the former Minneapolis police officer are scheduled to begin at 9am local time in Minneapolis.
Chauvin, a white former Minneapolis police department officer, faces charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the 25 May 2020 death of George Floyd. During an arrest, Chauvin pressed his knee against the neck of Floyd, who was Black, for nine minutes and 29 seconds.
Two men died after a Tesla vehicle believed to have been operating without anyone in the driver’s seat crashed into a tree north of Houston. The victims were reportedly found in the front passenger seat and the back seat of the 2019 Tesla Model S
Continue reading...President will also call on major economies to join him in bold action at virtual summit of 40 world leaders
Joe Biden faces a key test of his commitment to climate action this week, when he sets out his core plans for tackling the climate crisis and calls on all of the world’s major economies to join him in bold action to slash greenhouse gas emissions in the next ten years.
The US president has made the climate emergency one of his administration’s top priorities, and stated that clean growth must be the route for the US to rebound from the coronavirus crisis.
Continue reading...Police urged residents in the vicinity to stay inside while a manhunt was under way
Three people were shot dead in Austin on Sunday, authorities in Texas said. No suspects were in custody.
Law enforcement officials closed off roadways in the Great Hills Trail and Rain Creek Parkway area of the city for an “active shooting incident”, according to a tweet from the city’s police department.
Continue reading...Outcome is expected to resonate nationwide, particularly in cities that have seen continuing demonstrations over police violence
Protests against police killings flared across the US this weekend, from Minneapolis to Chicago to Portland, as Americans wait for a verdict in the trial of the white police officer charged with murdering George Floyd last year.
Closing arguments are expected in the Derek Chauvin trial on Monday. The most serious charge the former Minneapolis officer is facing in Floyd’s death is second-degree murder, but the jury might choose to find him guilty on third-degree murder or manslaughter, or acquit him altogether.
Continue reading...Brandon Hole bought assault weapons he used in attack months after his shotgun was confiscated over mental health concerns
A gunman who murdered eight people at a FedEx warehouse in Indianapolis legally purchased the two semi-automatic rifles he used in the attack, months after a shotgun he owned was confiscated by police over concerns around his mental health.
Brandon Hole, 19, who killed himself at the conclusion of the massacre, bought the two assault weapons in July and September 2020, according to Indianapolis metropolitan police chief Randal Taylor, after the shotgun was taken from him in March following a call from his mother concerned at his mental state.
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